Welcome to the B-Ball Brunch. Enjoy reading about my NBA musings about last night during your brunch hours.
L.A. versus L.A. is fine but do divisions even matter anymore?
(PHOTO CREDIT: Harry How/Getty Images.)
This has nothing to do with anything that happened last night.
I guess because it’s tradition but other than that, I kind of wonder why NBA divisions still exist.
I don’t really see or hear any roars about abolishing divisions but I also don’t really see or hear any shouts about this structure being good to have around. In a lot of ways, when I see people talk about how each team is so good in their division, I just kind of roll my eyes. Because we hardly hear people brag about their favorite squad being the best in the division. It’s about the team winning the championship or maybe being the best in the conference. We make a big deal out of teams making the Finals or even the Conference Finals but hearing someone talk about “winning the division” is so weird to me. Friends of mine who used to write for this site are Clippers fans and they never bragged and said, “YEAH. THE CLIPPERS WERE 2013 AND 2014 PACIFIC DIVISION CHAMPIONS.” And if they did say that, I would get sassy like my two nieces and roll my eyes at them.
It was definitely a bigger deal when each conference only had two divisions each. The division winners were guaranteed the top two seeds in the conference. Okay. Cool. It did confuse me a bit in the 1991-92 season when the #3 seed Cleveland Cavaliers had the home court advantage over Atlantic Division Champion Boston Celtics. The Cavs had the better record at 57-25 while the Celtics went 51-31. 13-year-old Rey-Rey wondered why not just give the better seedings to the better records?
I thought it became more confusing when the NBA decided to realign the divisions for the 2004-05 season and make the league a six-division structure. The Charlotte Bobcats were added and it gave the league 30 teams. The Northwest Division was added to the West and the Southeast rounded out the East. I was just like, “Sure?”
That also meant fixing the playoff seedings. All the division winners would get the top three seeds in each conference. This muddied the waters in the 2006 playoffs. The not-so-great Northwest division was led by Denver at 44 wins. Somehow, the Dallas Mavericks were the fourth seed at 60-22. The sixth-seeded Clippers (at 47-35) then, uh, “upset” the Nuggets. By the way, the Clippers had the home court advantage for having a better record. Everyone knew this was ridiculous.
So for next season, the second-best team in the conference was guaranteed, well, the second seed. Division winners were then guaranteed a top four seed, which was still ridiculous to me because if Denver repeated the same thing, it would still look bad. And it DID happen with the Southeast Division Champs Miami Heat (44-38) getting swept by the fifth-seeded Chicago Bulls (49-33). Somehow, this kept going until the 2015-16 season when divisions in playoff seedings were relegated to tiebreaker purposes in which the division winner is made as the second tiebreaker after head-to-head record between the tied teams. From then on, the eight best records in each conference make the postseason. (There is talk about having the best 16 records in the entire league make the playoffs instead but that’s for another day.)
Why do we still need divisions? Well, because they’re the rivals, right? Those teams face each other the most, correct? Let’s break it down.
*Team faces other teams from their division (four teams) four times each. (16 games total)
*Team also faces six teams four times each from their conference that are NOT from their division. (24 games total)
*They face the remaining four conference teams three times each. (12 games total)
*Finally, they face all 15 teams from the opposite conference twice. (30 games)
Let’s do math. 16 + 24 + 12 + 30 = 82! Yay!
So teams already face six OTHER teams outside of their division four times each. Then why even have the divisions? They already don’t matter as much in playoff seedings (you can find another tiebreaker).
Rivalries?
I mean, the rivalries that have mattered over the years are between legendary teams like Lakers vs Celtics and player rivalries because we all like to compare stars ad nauseum (Magic vs Bird, Kobe vs LeBron, Westbrook vs Steph, LeBron vs Steph, LeBron vs Durant, Luka vs Trae).
I’m not going to throw a tantrum if they keep it the way it is. But I guess I wrote this much about it that I feel strongly enough that they should drop the divisions. I just don’t think it’s needed at this point. Teams are going to face 10 teams in their conference four times, anyway. Just guarantee that they face those teams closest to them geographically and it should be fine.
Also, it’s just horrific if y’all think Oklahoma City is in the Northwest.
Bullet Passes
I was going to write about load management again but it’s a tired topic, honestly. And I said “again” because I already DID write about it. The same people that are clamoring for a shorter season are the same ones complaining about Kawhi Leonard resting. It’s hypocritical.
The ones that are way younger (R.J. Barrett) don’t have as strong a case for rest as the ones that have been through the wars at 28-30 years old. I also do feel it’s needless to play 40 minutes a game, though.
Speaking of Kawhi, his Clippers lost to the Milwaukee Bucks. The Clippers resting Kawhi made perfect sense because they’re on a back-to-back and WE ALWAYS talk about how back-to-backs SUCK. (I mean, we never get back-to-back games in the playoffs.)
And speaking OF the Bucks, they are now 6-2, with losses to the surprising Heat in overtime and the somewhat quiet Celtics. But no one is surprised because Milwaukee is slated as a top dog in the East.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is having RIDICULOUS numbers so far: averages of 29.0 points, 14.3 boards, 7.6 dimes, 1.6 blocks, AND 1.3 steals after 8 games. He’s having trouble shooting away from the paint, though, because he is shooting under 64 percent at the line and under 27 percent at 3. Still, his physical dominance is overwhelming every team.
I didn’t even think about this until I saw this video but the defender putting their foot under the shooter is now a flagrant foul. Ya know, what Zaza Pachulia did to Kawhi Leonard.
(VIDEO CREDIT: Whoever the hell named their channel, Basketball Channel.)
You know what? THIS IS LONG OVERDUE.
First of all, it’s an extremely dangerous play that can take out a player for weeks or even months. And yeah, I get that they’re trying to defend a play but they can also be conscious about a player’s safety. It’s just terrible technique to suddenly have your foot on a player’s landing spot.
I’m no professional basketball player but I DID play basketball. When I rushed to defend my friend’s jumper, my foot got on his landing spot. He did land on my foot but he didn’t sprain his ankle. However, he was PISSED and berated me about how I should never ever do that in basketball again. This happened when I was 18. I played pick-up ball for maybe a decade more on a regular basis and I never hurt someone like that again.
(Ironically, my regular playing days stopped after I LANDED on someone’s foot. But that was during a rebound scrum; it was a freak accident.)
I will also never forget one person from Twitter. Kevin Garnett stuck his foot out and it didn’t give Channing Frye much space to land (in addition to punching Frye in the groin area!). I discussed this play on Twitter and then this Celtics fan claimed that he puts his foot under the shooter when he plays and would gladly keep doing it.
I never talked to that creature again.
Again, it’s an EXTREMELY DIRTY PLAY that HURTS PEOPLE. NOTHING GOOD comes out of that. Honestly, there is NO debating this.
I’m glad this is being taken care of. Sure, basketball is competitive. But don’t hurt people.
The Warriors tried to keep up with their old rivals (THEY’RE NOT IN THE SAME DIVISION), the Houston Rockets, but they were crushed by James Harden‘s 24 first-half points (36 total). It’s kind of funny how it became easy to root for the Dubs as they were such a juggernaut the last five years. Underdog stories do that.
While on the subject of rivalries, I still love that Robin Lopez despises mascots.
So let’s check out this final play between the Magic and the Mavericks.
The end of Magic/Mavericks. pic.twitter.com/6jyggmI6He
— 𝐑𝐞𝐲-𝐑𝐞𝐲 🤞🏾✌🏾 (@TheNoLookPass) November 7, 2019
If your team is down by one, why go for a three? I suppose it doesn’t matter as long as it goes in. And it was a decent play (for the wrong player but, again, it doesn’t matter if it goes in). Maybe I’m old but maybe try to take it to the rim and have someone set up for a closer shot or cut to the rim? I’ll shut up now.
Just kidding. I’m not. Because I have to show y’all that this FINALLY came true.
BONE-WOOD-MAKER TRIO IS IN #LeaguePassAlert (@JoannePistonFan) pic.twitter.com/gjELk25POs
— 𝐑𝐞𝐲-𝐑𝐞𝐲 🤞🏾✌🏾 (@TheNoLookPass) November 7, 2019
It’s kind of hard to see but #18 is Jordan BONE, #35 is Christian WOOD, and #7 is Thon MAKER.
I am extremely mature.
Watch This Play
The last back-to-back slam dunk champion shows that he’s STILL the show. Zach LaVine is a tornado.
(VIDEO CREDIT: House of Highlights.)
I really do hope he can do the contest one more time.
Rey-Rey is on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
TNLP on FaceBook.