Is this some kind of Jok?

The Denver Nuggets, three games from the postseason and two years removed from the franchise's first NBA championship, fired coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth on Tuesday. This comes a little more than a week after another West postseason contender, the Memphis Grizzlies, fired their head coach Taylor Jenkins. If Memphis was a shocker due to the timing, Denver is an absolute stunner given the shorter runway to the playoffs and the recent title.

The word popping up in reports and reporters' podcasts is that Booth and Malone have been in a cold war for a while now, which has been rumored and pretty obvious based on Booth's comments about replacing veterans with young players and uh, Malone's hesitance to play several of the young players. But unless things were too toxic to function – like open arguments and quarreling that was negatively impacting the performance of the players – the timing is wild.

First of all, what's the point of firing a GM when playoff rosters are already set? There's just about nothing for the GM to do at this point but coordinate information and provide guidance to the coaching staff. This has never seemed like a program where the GM has any role in dictating line-ups, rotations or plays. If it were, Malone would likely have been exiled long ago. So it's weird to fire a GM now and deny them the opportunity, however slight, to experience and relish the playoff run, to wind down the season upon elimination.

The most sensible theory here is that Josh Kroenke, the team's owner, wanted to fire Malone as the team has slid in performance and intensity in recent months, but didn't want Booth to "win" the interpersonal battle with Malone. And so, you make them both lose to teach everyone else in the organization (and perhaps the Kroenke's other organizations) a lesson: infighting will not be tolerated. (Or, it will only be tolerated for so long.) There's an argument that both Booth and Malone have failed; Booth in maintaining an elite supporting cast around the best player in the world, Malone in getting a passable defensive performance out of this roster.

Just as with Jenkins, there seems to be very little surface-level upside to losing Malone now. Readers know I'm no Malone apologist; I think he was unfairly and foolishly booted from Sacramento, and any coach who leads a team to a championship is worth respect given what a difficult task that is. Malone is also very traditional and inserts himself in needless drama with other teams, and I think he's been disrespectful to other great players in his defense of Jokic over the years. But he's a very capable coach, and he ought to have earned the respect for a proper offseason firing, not an early April exile.

The big difference between Memphis and Denver is that Jenkins was replaced by a coach he didn't bring on, Finnish rising star Tuomas Iisalo, who the front office recruited to be Jenkins' lead assistant after reworking the staff last summer. That was an ominous sign for Jenkins, and eventually the doom struck with the season winding down and Memphis sliding. Malone is being replaced by his longtime assistant David Adelman, who will make his interim head coach debut in Sacramento, where his dad Rick remains a coaching legend. The Grizzlies fired a coach and gave the players a relatively new voice. The Nuggets fired a coach and gave the players an echo. That's an interesting wrinkle that somehow makes it seem less likely to be effective. How differently can Adelman really coach the team given his allegiance to and history under Malone?

In any case, these NBA decision-makers are out of control. What's the next level here? Is Vivek Ranadive going to fire his front office before tip-off of the play-in game? Is Nico Harrison going to waive-and-stretch a player who eats some junk food at halftime of a game? Is Chris Finch going to get canned during a timeout? Where's the logical end to this petulant behavior from the people in charge?

Scores

Hawks 112, Magic 119 | Box Score | Orlando gets a bit closer to clinching the No. 7 seed (and hitting .500). The Magic shot 40% or better from three for just the 12th time this season. By contrast, the Wolves have shot 40%+ 35 times. Orlando is No. 30 in this niche statistic, trailing the Sixers by four games.

Anywho, these play again on Sunday with the Magic currently leading the season series 2-1. Orlando has clinched the tiebreaker as a result – they are 12-3 against the Southeast Division with one game (the aforementioned rematch with the Hawks) remaining, Atlanta is just 9-6. So to overcome Orlando, the Hawks need to win out and hope one of the Pacers and Celtics care enough to beat the Magic. Atlanta faces the Sixers and Nets before the Magic rematch. Doable.

Wizards 98, Pacers 104 | Box Score | Narrow escape by Pascal Siakam and the Pacers – the Wizards had the lead for basically the entire first three quarters and Indiana never led by more than six. Shout out to the 17-win Wizards for playing hard down the stretch of the season.

Bub Carrington, woooo.

Bulls 113, Cavaliers 135 | Box Score | Donovan Mitchell sat with an ankle sprain, and it sounds like he might not play until the playoffs begin since Cleveland clinched the No. 1 seed with this victory. That'd give Mitchell 12 or 13 days off before Game 1.

Grizzlies 124, Hornets 100 | Box Score | Horribly scary incident in which Jaylen Wells got knocked out of the sky on a fast break by K.J. Simpson, who was immediately apologetic and concerned (and ejected). Wells, who has started 74 games as a rookie, was removed on a stretcher and taken to a local hospital for scans and treatment. He has a broken wrist and posted a selfie.

I hope there's no lasting physical or mental trauma from this. Really, really scary moment.

In other news, Ja Morant, having been fined for gun-related celebrations, debuted a new one.

Celtics 119, Knicks 117 | Box Score | This game featured what may be the greatest ad read in NBA history.

The Celtics played all five starters. The Knicks did, too, and gave each of them (including Jalen Brunson) 38-plus minutes. I'm not exactly sure why both teams, with little to play for in standings, went all-in, but I'm sure glad they did!

C's down three, seconds remaining, Jayson Tatum works on O.G. Anunoby. Smooth.

I hope this eventual series is awesome. These teams are awesome.

Pelicans 114, Nets 119 | Box Score | Philadelphia weeps.

Lakers 120, Thunder 136 | Box Score | Both teams played their dudes, which is awesome. L.A. up one midway through the fourth, Luka Doncic (sitting on a tech) apparently talks trash to a courtside fan, the referee in the vicinity decides to ring Luka up, Doncic is ejected.

OKC goes on a 26-8 run from there to take us to garbage time. Brutal.

Luka often deserves technical fouls, so long as the refs and league are going to (try to) deter players yellin' at officials. But the misinterpretation here leading to an ejection is outrageous. From the pool report:

QUESTION: Why was Luka Dončić assessed his second technical foul by Orr? Was it the official’s judgment that he was speaking to him or to a fan?

BROTHERS:  He looked directly at an official and used vulgar language. 

You see a fan standing directly behind J.T. Orr stand up during the play and go back and forth with Luka. The fan is also celebrating Luka's ejection after the tech is called. Just a totally foolish main character moment for Orr.

Timberwolves 103, Bucks 110 | Box Score | Holy smokes. This is nutty. The Wolves are up 95-71 with 10 minutes remaining. Closing in on some early garbage time. And then the Bucks go on a 34-3 run led by, uh, Kevin Porter Jr. and Giannis.

Incredible loss for the Wolves. They seemed fine in the post-game. But damn.

The Bucks stay narrowly alive for No. 4 and maintain a solid grip on No. 5. Looking like Indiana-Milwaukee in the first round.

Warriors 133, Suns 95 | Box Score | The Suns are an absolute embarrassment. Fans must be longing for the days of Dragan Bender and Marquese Chriss and Brandon Knight and Eric Bledsoe.

Spurs 117, Clippers 122 | Box Score | Kawhi Leonard took the night off with a big game against Houston looming. The Spurs continue to play hard. Four players have multiple 20-20 games this season: Nikola Jokic has five and Ivica Zubac, Domantas Sabonis and Karl-Anthony Towns each have four.

Chris Paul is sitting on 79 games played. He's played all 82 once and 80 twice. Incredible durability considering he turns 40 next month.

Playoff Picture

Update on the 3-8 in the West.

Again: Minnesota's loss to the Bucks could really haunt them. Landing behind two teams that fired their coaches within the final 10 games of the season wouldn't exactly be a great sign for Chris Finch!

The Kings clinched a play-in spot with Phoenix's loss. The Suns' last gasp is to go 3-0 and see the Mavericks go 0-3. Stranger things have happened. But Phoenix is riding a 7-game losing streak, so ...

The Pacers are one win or Bucks loss from clinching No. 4 in the East. The Bucks need to beat the Pelicans and take one of two games from the Pistons in the weekend home-and-home to clinch No. 5. One win over Detroit and a Knicks win over the Pistons would also do the trick.

The Magic are very likely hosting a play-in game with a shot at facing the Celtics in Round 1. Their opponent is totally up in the air. The Hawks are 50-50 to be in that game at this point, and the Bulls and Heat have shots to slide in. As mentioned above, Atlanta has the Nets, Sixers and Magic remaining. Chicago has the Heat, Wizards and Sixers. Miami has the Bulls, Pelicans and Wizards. This race is so sad! I'd still pick any of these teams over the Kings or Mavericks in single elimination.

Scores

All times Eastern. Games with postseason stakes get asterisks.

Celtics at Magic, 7*
Sixers at Wizards, 7
Hornets at Raptors, 7:30
Lakers at Mavericks, 7:30, ESPN – Luka's return to Dallas, gonna be a weird one!
Heat at Bulls, 8*
Blazers at Jazz, 9
Spurs at Warriors, 10*
Thunder at Suns, 10 – I refuse to give this an asterisk
Nuggets at Kings, 10, ESPN*
Rockets at Clippers, 10:30**

Introducing Hoopology

My friend Paul Flannery has a new newsletter on the Celtics and NBA called Hoopology. I used to edit Paul's Sunday Shootaround column at SB Nation, a real treat and honor in my career. That Flanns is bringing back his smart and unique thoughts on the league is tremendous for those of you in the market for more smart and unique thoughts on the league. It's the closest thing to picking up a '90s era sports page without a time machine.

We'll have something special from Paul in this very newsletter soon. Also, I have five 1-month subs to Hoopology to give away. This will go to the five most convincing comments on the best trade in Celtics history. It's harder than you think!

That's all for today. Be excellent to each other.