All James Harden does is win
Good morning. An incredible game between the Warriors and Clippers ends up with a James Harden triumph in the Bay Area. Golden State heads back to the play-in. Plus: a lot of NBA randos played a lot of minutes on Sunday! Let's basketball.
Here's how the West bracket shook out.
WEST PLAY-IN
Grizzlies (8) at Warriors (7) – winner is No. 7 seed
Mavericks (10) at Kings (9) – winner faces loser of Grizz/Dubs for No. 8 seed
Thunder (1) vs. No. 8 seed
Nuggets (4) vs. Clippers (5)
Rockets (2) vs. Warriors or Grizzlies (7)
Lakers (3) vs. Timberwolves (6)
As a reminder, here's the East bracket.
EAST PLAY-IN
Hawks (8) at Magic (7) – winner is No. 7 seed
Heat (10) at Bulls (9) – winner faces loser of Hawks/Magic for No. 8 seed
EAST PLAYOFFS
Cavaliers (1) vs. No. 8 seed
Pacers (4) vs. Bucks (5)
Celtics (2) vs. Hawks or Magic (7)
Knicks (3) vs. Pistons (6)
The three non-Thunder series in the West's first round should be absolutely electric: all six teams are very good at minimum, with the potential inclusion of the Grizzlies being the least hopeful club there. But if the Grizzlies are in that mix, then they'll face Houston, and those games have been absolute wars this season (plus you have emotional returns for Dillon Brooks and Steven Adams). If the Warriors end up as the No. 8 seed, all four series will be incredibly intriguing.
The East is really nice, too: Bucks vs. Pacers is going to be a full-on war with Giannis Antetokounmpo healthy this year, and the Pistons are going to do everything they can to stress out the superior Knicks. The Cavaliers and Celtics will be doing everything they can to make quick work with their opponents, and probably will succeed in that. But the players from the play-in teams could make it interesting: Paolo Banchero helped push Cleveland to the limit last year, and you have some potential revenge games from Caris LeVert and Georges Niang, plus Jaylen Brown's knee is hovering like a question mark above Boston's future. Odds are Cleveland and Boston will advance in a non-dramatic four or five games, but stranger things have happened this week. It's the playoffs!
But first, the play-in. The 7-8 games are on Tuesday, the 9-10 games are on Wednesday and the finales are Friday.
Scores
For all the games that had no stakes whatsoever, I'm just going to list the player with the most field goal attempts.
Pistons 133, Bucks 140 | Box Score | Pat Connaugton. (He scored 43!)
Giannis and Malik Beasley are cool again.
Bulls 122, Sixers 102 | Box Score | Lonnie Walker IV.
Wizards 119, Heat 118 | Box Score | Jaime Jaquez Jr. (He scored 41!)
Bub Carrington with an absolutely incredible game-winning buzzer beater.
"Good for the Wizards. Good for them!" That's wild from a play-by-play broadcaster representing a 37-45 team.
Pacers 126, Cavaliers 118 | Box Score | Jaylon Tyson. (This game went to double overtime.)
Knicks 113, Nets 95 | Box Score | Precious Achiuwa.
Hornets 86, Celtics 93 | Box Score | Payton Pritchard, of course.
Magic 105, Hawks 117 | Box Score | Keaton Wallace.
Suns 98, Kings 109 | Box Score | The Suns' disaster season mercifully ends. The Kings' disaster-ish season has at least one more game before being mercifully over. Maybe two games. Maybe six! No more than six, though.
Lakers 81, Blazers 109 | Box Score | Dalano Banton.
Clippers 124, Warriors 119 | Box Score | An instant classic. Kawhi Leonard and Steph Curry dueled in the fourth quarter, Draymond Green may have locked up the Defensive Player of the Year award (not my candidate, but narratives are important) defending Kawhi on the final possession of regulation, and then James Harden took over in overtime. Also, Draymond missed a bunny to tie the game in the final minute of OT as he was foul-baiting.
The Warriors desperately wanted this one, they had an excellent crowd, Steph was on fire late and ... no. The Clippers just said, "No, we're not doing this." Helluva team.
Those losses to the Nuggets without Jokic and Murray and that loss this week on a Harrison Barnes buzzer beater are haunting the Warriors. That said, assuming they win on Tuesday, this could work out alright in the end.
Steve Kerr knows how to coach Buddy Hield: you troll him about not passing, then hug him.
DNP-CD for Jonathan Kuminga. Monitoring.
Raptors 118, Spurs 125 | Box Score | Scottie Barnes. (Shout out to Chris Paul playing 82 games in his 20th season.)
Thunder 115, Pelicans 100 | Box Score | Branden Carlson.
Jazz 105, Timberwolves 116 | Box Score | The NBA rescinded Anthony Edwards' technical foul that would have cost him the season finale. Utah actually stuck around for quite a while, too. But Ant had the final word.
Mavericks 97, Grizzlies 132 | Box Score | The Mavericks rested Anthony Davis, basically punting on the opportunity to host a play-in game. My best guess here is a well-deserved lack of faith that the Suns would beat the Kings.
One criticism of this season is that there hasn't been nearly enough Yuki Kawamura.
Nuggets 126, Rockets 111 | Box Score | Houston actually played its normal rotation for 2.5 quarters until Denver opened up a big lead. The Nuggets were resilient as hell this week: three big wins after the loss of Michael Malone to claim home court in the first round. Kudos to them.
Links
A quick Not-So-Black Monday check-in:
- Chauncey Billups signed an extension as the Blazers head coach.
- Nick Nurse will be back for the Sixers (says Daryl Morey, who claims he will also be back).
- Willie Green has no idea if he'll be back, but rumors are flying that David Griffin will be dismissed, so Green's going to remain uncertain for a while longer.
Other than Green, Mike Budenholzer is the only other non-postseason coach who would seem to be at risk. In the play-in, it's Sacramento and Memphis that should have competitive openings (one of those two teams will likely make the playoffs, of course). The Nuggets' job will be competitive unless Denver goes deep and David Adelman is seen as a cheap long-term solution for the Kroenkes. The only other playoff coaches that feel like they are on breakable ice: Tom Thibodeau and Chris Finch. But there are stunner coaching changes every year, so stay tuned.
Paul Flannery on the undeniable accomplishments of Jayson Tatum.
Lex Pryor on how far spite can carry Luka Doncic.
Vince Goodwill on the NBA's work to make the 82nd game relevant.
Tim MacMahon and Ramona Shelburne go inside the Nuggets' final week convulsion.
A bunch of awesome charts from Owen Phillips at The F5.
Dan Favale grades every team's regular season.
Kelly Dwyer on the troubled Southeast Division.
Tyler Parker's League Pass Awards.
Michael Pina's awards ballot. I often disagree but it's always well-reasoned.
Alright, that's Monday. Back at it Tuesday.
