Welcome to the Basketball Hangover. I write about what’s happening in the NBA daily, even when COVID has ravaged the league.
The Lakers got a big win against the Nuggets after a tumutltuous stretch.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Mark J. Terrill/AP.)
So the Lakers were 1-6 in their last 7 contests going into their game against Denver. Worse yet, they were going in without Dennis Schröder and he may not be available for the rest of the regular season due to the dreaded term of health and safety protocols.
Denver was beat up, too, as they didn’t have Jamal Murray, Will Barton and Monte Morris. And it was definitely a slugfest between these two Western Conference heavyweights.
In the end, it was the Lakers that came away with the clutch win. The defense was in display for L.A. and it was capped off by an Anthony Davis block on Facundo Campazzo in the waning seconds.
Even though (in a strange admission) that Frank Vogel says the team is a little shook, I think the team will be just fine IF everyone gets healthy. I still think the Lakers are the favorites SHOULD everyone be healthy but, obviously, this has been a really weird (and frankly, risky) season. But the Lakers are still the top defensive team in the league. It’s just a matter of getting everyone healthy and getting everyone in their perfect roles. We know Davis’s reluctance to play the small ball center. We know it’s a little bit crowded with Andre Drummond and Marc Gasol (who played a big game against Denver). But LeBron James makes a huge difference here, of course.
I know a lot of Lakers fans wear their emotions on their sleeves. They acted like the sky was falling before the Nuggets game. And some of them still think so. But even though the team had a lot of turnover, some of the core has been through the wars. Heck, Gasol came from a championship Raptors team so he knows what it takes to get there. I think they’ll be fine.
I mean, if healthy, who are we to doubt LeBron James? Nevertheless, this was still a HUGE win for the Lakers as they try to avoid the play-in series.
Bullet Passes
Temporarily, the Lakers are in 5th. Also, what was huge was that the Blazers lost against the Hawks as Rip City had their 4-game win streak snapped.
The Hawks are doing their best to avoid the play-in as well; they’re only 1.5 games ahead of #7 Boston. But New York had a huge win against Houston and THEY’RE 1.5 games ahead of the Hawks for the 4th seed.
No ammo was spared in this Pacers/Wizards game. 154-141 in favor of the Wiz.
Russell Westbrook went for 14-21-24. This was only the third time a 20-rebound, 20-assist game has happened in the NBA. Wilt Chamberlain (of course) had the first game. Russ himself had the second when he went for that famous 20-20-21 game in honor of Nipsey Hussle.
Domantas Sabonis gets a shoutout for having a 32-20-8 game in a loss.
Utah got the #1 seed back from Phoenix after defeating San Antonio. The next 10 or so days are going to be interesting as teams jockey for playoff position.
Well, so this happened…
Reminiscent of the NFL on Nickelodeon, ESPN and Marvel did a little crossover called Marvel: Arena of Heroes. So the graphics were plastered all over the game and they even had something called Hero Points, which is a metric to add up all the key stats (points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks) and that penalizes for every missed shot and turnover.
Draymond Green was the first Marvel: Arena of Heroes champion with 48 hero points.
I’ll let you know when Basketball Reference adds the Hero Points metric to their site.
So what’s next? Are we going to get an NBA/video game mash-up? What about Mario Brothers?
I can just imagine the commentary of this crossover.
RYAN RUOCCO: “Did you see Russell Westbrook? He jumped so high in the air and got all those coins on the way to that slam!”
RICHARD JEFFERSON: “It’s like he got the Starman at midcourt!”
I can’t decide whether to be amused or pained.
NBA Scoreboard
May 3, 2021
Watch This Play
Coby White misses the three but Javonte Green cleans it up.
Javonte Green cleaning up!@NBCSChicago | @2Xtremebounce pic.twitter.com/05SZMG4Il6
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) May 4, 2021
Nice alert play there by Green. The Bulls haven’t been great as of late but at least, they’ve had some highlight plays.
Everyone, please take care of yourselves during this pandemic. And that goes for everyone involved with the NBA as well.
You can find Rey-Rey on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
You can also check out Rey-Rey’s podcast, Rey-Rey Is Fundamental, for more basketball content and, really, whatever else.
R.I.P. Nala.