What more must Jokic do to beat the Wolves?
Good morning. The Nuggets and Timberwolves played an instant classic in the Mile High City. Stephen Curry went nuts. We are witnessing all-time legends do amazing things, sometimes on the same night. But you know, the 2001 Lakers would beaten all their asses, right Shaq? Let's basketball.
Scores
Suns 123, Bucks 133 | Box Score | Great night for good people of Wisconsin, including Ryan Rollins, who is not strictly of Wisconsin, having grown up in Michigan and gone to college in Ohio and bounced away the NBA. He might have a home in Wisconsin now, though.
Devin Booker put up 39 – big day for Bookers, what's Booker T up to these days? – but Giannis damn near matched it with 37 and the Suns, as we all know, are not very good.
Sixers 91, Knicks 105 | Box Score | I haven't mentioned O.G. Anunoby in a while but he's been on a heater. It takes a village without Jalen Brunson, who is so central to the Knicks' excellent offense. Mikal Bridges and Anunoby have taken turns taking on bigger roles, and it's working. Good omen for those tough playoff series to come.
If the Knicks were in the West ... they might be a popular pick to make the conference finals. I suspect few if any analysts will pick them to beat the Celtics, if it comes to that.
Blazers 127, Hawks 113 | Box Score | Atlanta hasn't been .500 since January 23. It must feel so weird, like there's a ceiling just below .500 now. The garbage ceiling. Break on through, Hawks!
Deni Avdija with a triple-double. Starter on a good team, at minimum. Potential top-5 third banana.
The Hawks had a terrible Fan Contest Goes Wrong moment where a fan racing to hit lay-ups appears to have slipped and tore up one or more cruciate ligaments. The moment was made worse by the in-arena MC being completely unprepared for something like that and chiding the other contestant (wearing a Bagman jersey, thank you Atlanta) for continuing on while, uh, carrying on and trying briefly to approach the injured contestant. They don't teach you this in In-Arena MC School! Prayers up for James.
Warriors 134, Grizzlies 125 | Box Score | Golden State jumped out early behind a Stephen Curry barrage (it happens), but Memphis fought back and turned this into a barnburner. Ja Morant came uncorked with 36, but Steph hit 12 threes. You're almost never beating the Warriors when Steph is doing this.
People had mentioned that rookie Jaylen Wells did a good job on Curry last time, and Steph took that personally.
Warriors win the tiebreaker and catch Memphis in the win column with 44. Big, big win.
Raptors 118, Bulls 137 | Box Score | Toronto is officially eliminated from postseason contention, if you were concerned that the Raptors making the play-in tournament was still a possibility.
Magic 116, Spurs 105 | Box Score
Timberwolves 140, Nuggets 139 | Box Score | Instant 2OT classic. No Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., Naz Reid or Donte DiVincenzo. But Nikola Jokic showed up. Anthony Edwards showed up (in the fourth quarter and OTs). Julius Randle showed up. Aaron Gordon showed up. Nickeil Alexander-Walker showed up. Some 34 lead changes and ties, pure playoff intensity. Incredible game. The full-game highlights could have been 30 minutes long.
Yes, Russell Westbrook straight up lost the game for Denver at the end. As a Westbrook partisan, it gives me no pleasure to acknowledge this. He went for a transition lay-up with a 1-point lead and the shot clock off – had he merely slowed down, Minnesota would have fouled and he could have extended the lead from the line – and then he fouled NAW on a three at the buzzer. Woof.
Jokic, a great teammate, stood by Westbrook afterward in the press conference as you'd expect. Michael Malone defended him, too. Look, you don't get Westbrook's relentless energy and helter skelter attitude – often a good thing! – without some miscues. Part of the package. It bit Denver here. On to the next.
One post-game thing to file away: Edwards insisting that NAW join him for the post-game spot with Stephanie Ready on TNT. It feels to me like Edwards is concerned the Wolves might not invest in keeping NAW this summer.
That's some great leadership.
The Shaq Problem, Revisited
A couple hours before Nuggets-Wolves, to uh hype up the fans I guess, Adam Lefkoe asked Shaq how a theoretical match-up between 2001 Shaq and Current Jokic would go, and Shaq said this.
Shaq's going to be Shaq. Why would Lefkoe go down this ridiculous path, though? Lefkoe knows exactly what Shaq is going to say – although "Slavian chicken" is a new one, the dude's been the MVP three times and Serbia has been one of the international basketball powerhouses since the Yugoslav break-up.
Jokic is incredible to watch, and the NBA should be encouraging more people to watch him, and this dude – who, yes, was unstoppable in 2001 – is busy acting like he doesn't compare to his peak self. Grow up, bud!
The irony is that Shaq is trying to protect his legacy, which honestly does need some protecting given that Peak Shaq is underrated in terms of impact (in part due to Kobe triumphalism and the issue of big men disrespect). Shaq would do much better to protect his legacy by boosting the reputations of other big men, and making the case that Jokic is an all-time great because it's hard to score like this and control the paint on defense and rebound like crazy.
On Good Discourse
Zach Lowe made his triumphant podcast return on Bill Simmons' podcast on Tuesday. Two hours and somehow not enough!
I know that on a Venn diagram the entire GMIB reader base likely fits snugly within the Zach Lowe fanbase circle. Hence the breathless Zach Lowe updates this week.
Playoff Race Update
Here are your updated playoff race tables.
First, the good Western Conference race.
If the Grizzlies, Warriors, Timberwolves and Clippers all finish with equal records, with such high stakes in play ... wow, that's going to be a heckuva last day of the season.
And the bad Western Conference race.
Phoenix is totally running out of time here.
And the Eastern race, where Milwaukee made up a game in the win column.
Schedule
All times Eastern. Important games get asterisks. Every game includes at least one team with playoff positioning at stake, except the best game (Cavs-Knicks).
Knicks at Cavaliers, 7, ESPN* – this doesn't matter in the standings, but a win here could be huge for New York's confidence
Hornets at Pacers, 7*
Kings at Wizards, 7* – I'm terrified
Heat at Celtics, 7:30*
Jazz at Rockets, 8*
Hawks at Mavericks, 8:30*
Spurs at Nuggets, 9* – a back-to-back after double OT? yikes
Pistons at Thunder, 9:30, ESPN*
Pelicans at Clippers, 10:30*
Be excellent to each other.
