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.
Obviously, with the pandemic, everyone is playing at a neutral court for the rest of the season.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images.)
The Eastern Conference Playoffs are set. The 4-5 seedings can be flip-flopped between the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers but we’ve got the match-ups ready to go.
Bucks (1) vs Magic (8)
Heat (4) vs Pacers (5) (seedings can still switch)
Raptors (2) vs Nets (7)
Celtics (3) vs Sixers (6)
Funny enough, the seedings can switch between Miami and Indiana depends on a game between… Miami and Indiana. But does it really matter at this point?
I don’t know how you can have a home court advantage in these playoffs. We’ve seen the virtual fans on the wall but that doesn’t seem to work. In a supposed Sixers home game, the Suns starting line-up was introduced by the players’ families. So it’s anybody’s guess how you can make it a home court advantage. Is the NBA going to pop in more crowd noise for playoff games? A lot more boos for the road team?
One thing that I did not agree on with the NBA is letting in family and friends. It’s putting a lot more people at risk. Once again, whatever I say isn’t going to matter so all we can do is hope for the best. Having friends and families attend games can work as a home court advantage only if the friends and families of the designated home team are the only ones allowed. Because it would just be even if everyone was allowed to attend.
So I don’t know. The only advantage the higher-seeded teams have is having an easier road to the title, per se. They go against the teams that haven’t done as well in the regular season. But none of that matters in the later rounds. Maybe the NBA will do something to help with home court advantage. In the meantime, everything just seems… neutral.
Bullet Passes
The Seattle Storm buried the Atlanta Dream with 18 three-pointers. That ties the record for most threes in a game by a team, which the Washington Mystics set last year. And they didn’t even need a big game from Breanna Stewart, who only finished with 7 points.
DeWanna Bonner was clutch against the Wings as the Sun picked up their third win of the season. 3-6 is quite a hole for them to dig out of. We’re almost halfway through the WNBA regular season. Already?
The Phoenix Mercury got the deficit down to five points before the Sky went on a 7-0 run. Courtney Vandersloot is normally an ace passer but her two lay-ups to put the lead back to double digits was key for the Sky to go to 6-3.
Stanley Johnson! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!
Stanley Johnson gets it to go and the Raptors take the lead with 4.9 seconds left! pic.twitter.com/z1DNEtGW3r
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 13, 2020
The Rockets on Wednesday to the Pacers but the more important news is that Russell Westbrook has a strained quad that will keep him out for the first round of the postseason. Uh-oh.
A 13-0 run by the Clippers put things out of reach in an important seeding game. The Clips clinched the #2 seed. But still, even if the Clips went down to #3, we’d still see an all-L.A. conference finals.
It’s wacky how we have to watch four games on Thursday to see who gets to do the play-in games. I’m excited.
NBA Scoreboard
IND 108 (44-28) v HOU 104 (44-27)
TOR 125 (52-19) v PHI 121 (42-30)
MIA 115 (44-28) v OKC 116 (44-27)
LAC 124 (48-23) v DEN 111 (46-26)
Double U Scoreboard
DAL 66 (3-6) v CON 70 (3-6)
PHX 71 (5-4) v CHI 89 (6-3)
ATL 63 (2-7) v SEA 100 (8-1)
Watch This Play
Oklahoma City Thunder were down 22 in the fourth quarter and the comeback was completed by Mike Muscala with this clutch three.
Mike Muscala. CLUTCH. pic.twitter.com/vrecHtEqK4
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 13, 2020
Pretty ballsy there, Mike.
Everyone in the Wubble and the Bubble, please take care!
Rey-Rey is on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
TNLP on FaceBook.