One more day
Good morning. The East playoff and play-in brackets are completely settled. The West is ... not. Plus: Isiah Thomas makes a fool out of himself (again), Giannis hurts his friend's feelings and more. Let's basketball.
Scores
Hawks 124, Sixers 110 | Box Score | Nine offensive rebounds for Mouhamed Gueye, who might be the most anonymous starter among all 20 postseason teams. Caris LeVert, pure hooper, with 31 in 15 shots off the bench.
Magic 129, Pacers 115 | Box Score | The Pacers sat four starters, giving up the chase for No. 3. Here's a brand new sentence, though: Johnny Furphy yams on Goga Bitadze.
Bucks 125, Pistons 119 | Box Score | This is absolutely hilarious. With the Bucks in control, Giannis Antetokounmpo blocks former teammate Malik Beasley's three-pointer and then shimmies right over him ... and then tries to laugh about with Beasley. Beasley is not amused.
Even your friends don't want to be shown up in moments of frustration.
We do have a rivalry brewing here: Jalen Duren stuck Kevin Porter Jr. with hard screen after getting dunked on and KPJ fouled Duren in the aftermath, setting off a staredown. Maybe Detroit just has beef with every other team?
Cavaliers 108, Knicks 102 | Box Score | Cleveland rested Donovan Mitchell and De'Andre Hunter but otherwise played to win with a +14 fourth quarter. The Pacers' simultaneous loss clinched No. 3 for New York, but it kind of seemed like Cleveland wanted to knock the Knicks down into No. 4 for a potential second-round series. Hmm! New York finishes 0-8 vs. Cleveland and Boston on the season.
Hornets 94, Celtics 130 | Box Score | Boston's top six other than Jaylen Brown got some run. Jayson Tatum even played 32 minutes. Meanwhile, Brown received an injection in his sore knee this week and sat out the final three games, apparently at the urging of Kristaps Porzingis, despite an outside chance at third team All NBA being on the table. Hmm.
Heat 153, Pelicans 104 | Box Score | We love checking out the lead tracker when there's a huge blow-out. It's fun to try to determine exactly when the losing squad gave up completely and when the winning squad took the foot off the gas.
Looks like my heart rate chart watching Sacramento Kings basketball.
Wizards 89, Bulls 119 | Box Score | I don't really want to admit this out loud but I think the Bulls are going to have another interesting offseason and I'm kind of eager to see how a full year of the youth movement goes, assuming Nikola Vucevic moves on?
Raptors 102, Mavericks 124 | Box Score | Light work for Anthony Davis. He's in a special tier of players who can truly look like an MVP against certain opponents consistently.
Grizzlies 109, Nuggets 117 | Box Score | Jamal Murray is back! Michael Malone's hope was well-placed! Really heartening effort in the Fired Coach Derby from the Nuggets overall, as they trailed much of the game but found a way (that way largely being Nikola Jokic) to get the crucial victory. The Nuggets become the fourth team this season to win a game while making five or fewer threes.
Denver is 2-0 under David Adelman. Memphis is 3-5 under Tuomas Iisalo.
Nets 91, Timberwolves 117 | Box Score | Minnesota handles business in the first night of their closing run against bad teams. Rudy Gobert tied his career high with 35 points. What does Rudy Gobert scoring 35 points look like? Well,
Gobert's been excellent since returning from injury. Monitoring.
There was something bad from the win: Anthony Edwards picked up his 18th tech, so he gets another automatic suspension for the finale. That's going to be a big deal if Minnesota loses to the Jazz.
Thunder 145, Jazz 111 | Box Score | We have reached the point where Jaylin Williams is among the players passing it off the glass to himself.
Clippers 101, Kings 100 | Box Score | Close, slow game. Kings mounted a late comeback attempt that fell short. Kawhi Leonard with an easy 28. L.A. ends up 4-0 this season against Sacramento.
Warriors 103, Blazers 86 | Box Score | Very much a "mission accomplished" game for Golden State as none of the Warriors had to play 30 minutes.
Spurs 98, Suns 117 | Box Score | Phoenix will not end the season on a double-digit losing streak!
Rockets 109, Lakers 140 | Box Score | So, Luka Doncic has gotten really comfortable all of a sudden. The opening play in this reel is just mind-blowing. NBA Jam stuff.
Are You Kidding Me?
Isiah Thomas is on NBA TV ripping LeBron for warming up hours before a game with no fans in the build wearing sweats and no shirt on account of a lack of professionalism.
Isiah Thomas has zero room to talk about professionalism after getting run out of the league on sexual harassment and hostile work environment charges and then lying about what a jury actually decided so he could keep getting jobs. To hell with anything Isiah Thomas has to say about professionalism. Why is he on NBA TV in the first place? There are plenty of retired Hall of Fame players around who weren't in the center of major scandals while running a franchise into the ground.
The substance of the critique is idiotic. The source of the critique makes it worse. And it's all on the NBA's own network!
Schedule
Here's Sunday's schedule. No games on Saturday since all 30 teams play both Friday and Sunday. All times Eastern. We'll get into the stakes after the schedule.
1 PM Games
Magic at Hawks
Hornets at Celtics
Knicks at Nets
Pacers at Cavaliers
Wizards at Heat
Bulls at Sixers
Pistons at Bucks, ESPN
3:30 PM Games
Nuggets at Rockets
Mavericks at Grizzlies
Jazz at Timberwolves
Thunder at Pelicans
Raptors at Spurs
Clippers at Warriors, ESPN
Lakers at Blazers
Suns at Kings
The Playoff Seeding Stakes
After Friday's results, the Eastern Conference seeding is completely set. So none of the Sunday early games matter.
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 West is not yet settled. Let's run it down.
NO. 1: Thunder locked in
NO. 2: Rockets locked in
NO. 3: Lakers locked in
The Nuggets, Clippers, Warriors and Timberwolves all control their own destiny with the remaining three playoff spots. Yes, that's four teams for three spots. But the Clippers and Warriors play against each other. The loser of that game will need Denver or Minnesota to lose to preserve a shot at the top six. If Denver and Minnesota win, the loser of Clips-Warriors goes to the play-in.
Memphis is definitely in the play-in; they need a win and a Wolves loss to get home court in that first play-in game. If any team other than Minnesota lands in the play-in with Memphis, the Grizzlies will start on the road.
Sacramento needs a win or Dallas loss to have home court in the lower play-in game. If the Kings lose and Mavericks win, that game will be in Dallas.
Houston could tank their game against Denver – they are resting most starters anyways, and a loss here guarantees the Rockets won't face the Nuggets in Round 1. Might be wise. Might not be wise.
Outside of Clips-Warriors, the only team in the top-6 mix with a motivated opponent is Memphis, as the Mavericks will assuredly want that play-in game at home. But all these games involving those teams need to be monitored because wild stuff happens the final weekend of the season.
We'll be back Monday with a recap. Be excellent to each other.
