Welcome to the Basketball Hangover. We jot down NBA and WNBA stuff mostly from last night that we want to talk about. Check it out.
Blazers are in a fight for the all-important 9th seed. Yup. 9th seed.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Mike Ehrmann/AP.)
So let’s remind y’all on what’s going to go on inside this NBA bubble. We all know the playoffs in its entirety will take place in there. But we also know that NOT all NBA teams were invited into the bubble. The 16 current playoff teams are in and so are teams that were within 6 games of each conference’s 8th seed.
As such, only one outside team from the East got an invite. That would be the Washington Wizards. In the West, it’s more of a fight. Five teams were invited and those would be the Portland TrailBlazers, San Antonio Spurs, Sacramento Kings, Phoenix Suns, and New Orleans Pelicans.
Each team plays 8 “seeding” games. If the 9th seed is within 4 games by the end of this “season”, there will be a “play-in” series. But the 8th seed has the advantage here. The 9th seed must defeat the 8th seed TWICE while the 8th seed only needs to win ONE GAME. So that makes it interesting.
As of now, the Spurs are within two games of #8 Memphis. That means that the other four teams would be eliminated from the bubble and we have the play-in series. The winner of that play-in series gets to play the #1 seed (which is currently the Lakers). Then we proceed to the playoffs as normal. Of course, there’s nothing normal about this as there is no such thing as home court advantage, no matter how many virtual fans take over the screens in Disney.
We’ll, at least, crown a champion should everything go right. And of course, we’re all hoping for the best in this pandemic. So far, so good.
Bullet Passes
We did see quite a great game between the Blazers and the Celtics. Damian Lillard reminded us that Dame Time is one of the most electrifying things in the NBA today. The Blazers’ comeback did fall short after being down 24 but you’re never out of the game when Dame is doing his thing.
In the meantime, Jayson Tatum recovered from his 5-point dumping and scored 34 against Rip City. And Jaylen Brown scored 16 of his 30 in the 4th quarter.
I do worry a bit about the Grizz. They’re 0-2 in the bubble games. And good grief, when are we ever going to get rid of the San Antonio Spurs? Imagine if they faced each other in the play-in series and the Spurs come out of top. Woof.
The Rockets tied a league record of 61 3-pointers attempted. While they could get crushed on the boards every single game, this small ball game they play might work out for the Rockets. If only because they have stars in James Harden and Russell Westbrook.
The Bucks, in the meantime, couldn’t close out the Rockets. It’s obviously easy to overreact to one game but they’re going to be okay. Everyone is still adjusting, anyway, after four months off.
Poor Ricky Rubio. No way he could stop 25-foot Boban Marjanovic:
Boban incoming! 🔨 pic.twitter.com/WSuhc2DmVo
— NBA TV (@NBATV) August 3, 2020
Dallas, however, is also 0-2 in bubble games. They’re not going anywhere in terms of seedings (#7) but it’d be nice to get some momentum going.
This makes me feel ancient.
Gary Trent Blazers. pic.twitter.com/22oCxHEER1
— 𝘙𝘦𝘺-𝘙𝘦𝘺 🤞🏾✌🏾 (@TheNoLookPass) August 2, 2020
To spell it out for you further, that is Gary Trent on the left playing for the Blazers in the 90s. And on the right is Gary Trent Jr. playing for the Blazers today.
Get off my lawn.
It’s crazy that both DeWanna Bonner and Alyssa Thomas average 37 minutes per game. It’s even crazier for Alyssa Thomas because both her LABRUMS ARE TORN.
The even worse part is that the Connecticut Sun are 0-4. Remember that the WNBA season will only be 22 games long. Each game is super important.
It’s good to see Kia Nurse back in the New York Liberty line-up. Unfortunately, Sabrina Ionescu will be out indefinitely. I really hope to see her back this season (her being out for a month has been mentioned and that is more than half the campaign).
Like the Sun, the Liberty are also 0-4.
Former Liberty guard Bria Hartley is enjoying a career year with her new team, the Phoenix Mercury. Much has been made about the new trio of Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner, and Skylar Diggins-Smith (who celebrated a birthday on Sunday!) but it’s actually Hartley (who doesn’t even start) leading the team in scoring (19.8 points per).
Yay! Teaira McCowan started! The Fever did win but it was Kelsey Mitchell (23 points) and Candice Dupree (21 points) that did most of the damage against the 2-2 Atlanta Dream.
With the Las Vegas win over Dallas, half the teams in the WNBA are at 2-2. I mentioned the two teams that haven’t won yet (Sun, Liberty). The four remaining teams (Lynx, Sky, Storm, Mystics) are 3-1.
Orlando Magic defensive ace Jonathan Isaac cannot get a break. He initially injured his knee on January 1st and was supposed to be out for 8-10 weeks. Obviously, we’re in August now so he was healthy enough to go into the bubble.
Then he tore his ACL in their game against Sacramento. Just awful news. We wish Isaac a speedy recovery.
NBA Scoreboard
WAS 110 (24-42) v BRK 118 (31-35)
POR 124 (30-38) v BOS 128 (44-22)
SA 108 (29-36) v MEM 106 (32-35)
SAC 116 (28-38) v ORL 132 (32-35)
MIL 116 (54-13) v HOU 120 (42-24)
DAL 115 (40-29) v PHX 117 (28-39)
Double U Scoreboard
PHX 96 (2-2) v NY 67 (0-4)
ATL 77 (2-2) v IND 93 (2-2)
DAL 70 (2-2) v LV 79 (2-2)
Watch This Play
We knew Markelle Fultz needed to get his shot back on track but geez.
Markelle Fultz!!!!!!! SHEESH! pic.twitter.com/csh3FOUd6B
— KÏŁŁÄ ČÄM (@FTBeard1) August 2, 2020
What a shot.
Hope everyone in the bubble and wubble stays safe!
Rey-Rey is on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
TNLP on FaceBook.