People LOVE Power Rankings in sports. It’s pretty stupid. So, of course, I have MY Stupid Power Rankings. I take 10 things from the NBA (or not) in the past week and rank them accordingly. You don’t like them? Make your own rankings!
So here are the happenings of Week 8 of this current regular season!
(PHOTO CREDIT: Nelson Chenault/USA Today.)
1) Milwaukee Bucks Have Won 18 Straight
No, they didn’t win 18 straight games IN A WEEK. But this winning streak MUST be acknowledged because, apparently, mainstream media can’t seem to grasp how fantastic this is.
Only 12 other teams have won 18 straight games within a season. The Bucks look unstoppable right now. I know people love to say that the regular season doesn’t matter but this doesn’t make the streak any less impressive.
I hope both the Bucks and the Lakers (shoutout to them for winning 14 straight road games) win on Tuesday so we can see a game that has something on the line in their Thursday showdown.
(VIDEO CREDIT: Bleacher Report.)
2) The Kawhi Ring Ceremony
This was short and sweet.
They presented Kawhi Leonard with his championship ring. Kawhi is entrenched in Raptors lore forever as he did what was seemingly impossible: help bring the Toronto Raptors an NBA championship. And the Raptors and their fans figure he would only be a one-year rental so both parties made the best of last season. Boy, did they.
It was cool to see them review the season. What was even cooler was the reenactment of Kawhi’s iconic shot, which will be replayed in NBA highlight packages forever. Even though Kawhi was pretty much a mercenary for the Raptors, he gave it all he had while the Raptors took care of him. The Raptors’ fan base understood he wanted to get closer to home so their relationship with Kawhi was never frayed.
Kyle Lowry handing Kawhi the ring was a perfect finishing touch for this ceremony.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Lynne Sladky/AP.)
3) Bam Bam Triple-Doubles
Bam Adebayo has never had triple-doubles in his NBA career before six days ago. And then in that crazy OT game against Atlanta, he went for 30-11-11.
In another crazy overtime game (this time against Dallas), Bam had 18-11-10. He had two triple-doubles in a span of four days. Kind of cool for someone who never achieved that feat.
That same Hawks/Heat game saw Kendrick Nunn (yeah, I know), Duncan Robinson, and Adebayo reach career-highs in scoring (36, 34, and 30, respectively). I would’ve ranked this high, too, in my stupid rankings but I’m only covering 10 items, guys.
(VIDEO CREDIT: NBA.)
4) Clutch Royalty
In a mild upset against Houston, Nemanja Bjelica somehow got open and drained a ballsy three to win the game.
In their next game, Bogdan Bogdanovic got open against the Thunder and drained the go-ahead three to swipe a victory.
Gotta love those cardiac Kings.
(VIDEO CREDIT: Bleacher Report.)
5) Ja Takes a Soul
YOU try dunking on Aron Baynes. My gosh.
(VIDEO CREDIT: NBA BandWagon Fan.)
6) Jamal Murray Serves Dinner to Himself
Sometimes, when you’re trapped, you got to do all the work by yourself. In a way, I’m kind of amazed this backboard self-oop doesn’t happen more often.
(VIDEO CREDIT: ClutchPoints.)
7) Kevin Knox Scores… For The Other Team
Luckily, the Knicks won (against the Kings team that had been involved in too many close games) but, man, they always somehow mess up, don’t they?
Knox might want to bat it away from the basket next time.
(From Jimmy Butler’s Instagram.)
8) Trae Young Said It Was Over
Trae Young signaled it was over after the Hawks went up by six with 59 seconds left. Back-to-back threes by the Heat later and they were in OT.
The Heat would go on to score the first 16 points in the extra period. Of course, Miami would win the game. Trae Young went to Twitter and…
(From Trae Young’s Twitter account.)
Yup. Not over until it’s over.
(VIDEO CREDIT: NBA BandWagon Fan.)
9) Draymond Green Alley-Oop To…
Speaking of alley-oops, this attempt by Draymond Green failed miserably. Who was he passing this to?
Quite a difference going from five-time NBA Finals teammates to what they are now. Ouch.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Reaves/Getty Images.)
10) Dion Waiters Got Suspended AGAIN
Waiters was suspended for the opening game for “conduct detrimental to the team.”
Then there was the 10-game suspension for the, uh, gummy in a place incident.
And now he’s gone for another 6 games. Why did this happen?
From Five Reasons Sports Network:
According to three sources, it was inspired by an Instagram post of Waiters hanging out on a boat during a time when the team was made to believe he was unavailable because he was sick. Waiters’ Instagram account (@Waiters3), with more than 350,000 followers, is now private, and no such photo is currently still posted as a regular picture post or Instagram story. But apparently the Heat saw something that troubled them.
According to one source, on its own, this infraction may not have warranted such a lengthy suspension, but it’s due to the cumulative effect of all of Waiters’ distractions, cutting against the team’s valued “Culture” during what has been a less tolerance approach to the season. (Heat president Pat Riley acknowledged after the 2018-19 season that he had “let the culture slip” and would not again). Hassan Whiteside, with his tendency to be mopey and me-oriented, was sent to Portland in a trade that netted team-first center Meyers Leonard. Another veteran, James Johnson, has had his own problems getting back in the mix after being sent away from the team during training camp because he didn’t meet the Heat’s conditioning-related goals for him.
At least, if you’re going to LIE, THINK about how you’re going to go about it before recklessly posting photos!
I do hope Dion gets it together but I just can’t see how he can last long with the Heat. Then again, I thought he was done after the 10-game exile.
P.S. Get well soon to former NBA commissioner David Stern, who had emergency surgery after a brain hemmorhage.
P.P.S. Not as severe but Luka Doncic got a moderate ankle sprain. Hope he’s not out too long.
Rey-Rey is on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
TNLP on FaceBook.