Welcome to the NBA Hangover. We jot down NBA stuff mostly from last night that we want to talk about. Check it out.
You try to stop a freight train like Giannis.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Morry Gash/AP.)
In interconference games last night, the East went 2-1 against the West. The lone West win was bottomfeeder Golden State getting by a team that MIGHT be trying to be a bottomfeeder in Chicago. But the two other games should’ve definitely caught eyes. Boston made Denver bow down to them and Milwaukee absolutely smashed the Clippers. Those are four of the top teams in the league and the East teams handily won those match-ups.
If you want to go a little deeper, the East is up by the slimmest of margins in interconference games against the West. A team from the East has beaten a team from the West 59 times while a West team has defeated an East team 58 times this season. Why am I saying these things?
Because it seems like the Eastern Conference is on par with the Western Conference this season. PARITY IN MY NBA?!
Here’s something a little shocking: the Denver and Clippers losses vaulted the Dallas Mavericks to the #2 spot in the West. The Mavs have caught a bit of fire and are at 15-6 at the moment.
That would make them tied for #4 in the East. The Raptors are also 15-6. Boston Celtics are at 16-5 and Miami Heat are at 16-6.
The West have six teams above .500. The East are at seven with an eighth team (Orlando) AT .500. And of course, the bottom teams don’t have much of a gap with the Warriors bringing up the rear in the West at 5-19 while the hopeless Knicks are at 4-18.
I think it’s safe to say that the Western Conference has gotten a bit weaker if Denver is struggling to legitimize themselves. One can argue that the only true powerhouses of the West are both L.A. teams and we saw the Clippers get TROUNCED by the Bucks. Houston might have a chance to get back on that tier. Dallas still has a lot to prove before they could be considered elite. We thought Utah would get up there but they’re only two games above .500. Portland, a West finalist last year, is trying to make up ground from their bad start. And we all know what happened to the Warriors.
Giannis Antetokounmpo has taken his game to another level that it doesn’t seem to matter that the Bucks haven’t had a consistent second option (Khris Middleton has been hurt). Boston, Miami, and Philadelphia (who are struggling a bit and they’re 15-7) are still undefeated on their home courts. Indiana is forgotten a bit but they’re solid at 14-8. The East has become very top-heavy after it was previously thought that it would be a two-team race between the Sixers and the Bucks. My thinking right now is that I don’t think #2 West Dallas is better than #5 East team Philly. While I think the Bucks are still a tier above the rest of the East, there are more good teams in the East than the West as of right now.
This is the parity that we had clamored for DECADES. We knew what we were talking about when we felt that the NBA COULD be wide open this season.
Bullet Passes
The silver lining about the Nuggets losing? Nikola Jokic finally had an offensive explosion. He went for 30 points to go along with 10 boards.
Andre Drummond finally had another 20-20 game (going for 25 points and 22 boards i in a win against the Pacers). I said “finally” because he had four of those games in the first two weeks of the season. So yeah, this is his fifth 20-20 game of the year.
Jimmy Butler is not known for triple-doubles but he got his second such game in four nights (28-11-11 in a win against the Wizards). He’s got six total triple-doubles in his career and his first trip-dub was at the end of the 2015-16 season.
Chris Paul, who looks like the type that would ask for the manager when something is wrong, caused the Wolves to get a delay of game. That resulted in a HUGE technical foul shot for Oklahoma City as the Wolves clung to a two-point lead. You can’t see it in this video but the entering Jordan Hill apparently had his jersey untucked (which I suppose has always been a rule but we remember Kyrie Irving gets his jersey untucked quite a bit). We shall talk about this more on the bottom of this article.
The Spurs have won three of four to bring their record to 9-14. They’re still not threatening anybody. Yet. Nice clutch shot by DeJounte Murray, though.
The Sacramento Kings DID have multiple chances to steal the win from the Spurs but…
(VIDEO CREDIT: VL.)
Yeah. That didn’t go so well.
The Lakers and the Blazers game was notable for a few things. It really showed how much of a powerhouse the Lakers are. With these teams going against each other, we got LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony playing on an NBA court in 2019.
I may or may not be singing “Friends Forever” from Saved By The Bell.
And unfortunately, Rodney Hood tore his ACL. He’s likely out for the season and we’ll have more on a separate entry down the line. Please take care, Mr. Hood.
Watch This Play
So remember the whole “delay of game” thing that Chris Paul orchestrated due to Jordan Bell’s untucked jersey? Well, he knew that the Wolves already had a delay of game violation beforehand. A second one would make it a technical foul. So that’s what happened. Call Chris Paul a snitch or a rat all you want but players do what they can to save the game. The reliable Danilo Gallinari sank the free throw to cut the deficit to 121-120 with the clock staring at the Thunder players’ faces at 1.1 seconds.
Karl-Anthony Towns made the free throw even though it looked like he was trying to miss on purpose. Then Steven Adams decided he was Patrick Mahomes (hey, a current NFL player reference!)…
(VIDEO CREDIT: NBA.)
Bucket by Dennis Schroder and it was OT in OKC. The Thunder would go on to complete the thievery and win the game.
Smart basketball by Chris Paul. I bet he can get free meals with those conversational skills.
Rey-Rey is on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
TNLP on FaceBook.