Welcome to the Basketball Hangover. I write about what’s happening in the NBA daily, even when COVID has ravaged the league.
Stephen Curry claimed his second scoring title on Sunday.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Randy Vazquez/ Bay Area News Group.)
Well, the regular season is FINALLY over. It felt like it took forever but maybe because it was compounded by the fact that the Finals from 2020 and the 2020-21 regular season only had a two-month gap. So it felt like we had an extended season. Either way, here are the final standings.
The East:
The West:
I’m going to be all over the place so let’s put this in bullet form instead…
Bullet Passes
Stephen Curry got hot late in the season and ended up getting his second scoring title, beating out Bradley Beal, 32.0 to 31.3. Curry averaged 36.9 points after he came back from injury on March 31st. Ridiculous. He punctuated the scoring title by scoring 46 points and he really tried by putting up a whopping 36 shots (22 attempts from 3 is a career-high).
I just love that the New York Knicks ended up getting 4th in the East when it was pretty much the same team from last season. I will riot if Julius Randle doesn’t win Most Improved Player but we won’t even find out about awards until July. I don’t like the award shows but if you gotta make money…
Kyrie Irving is the 9th player in NBA history to finish with a 50-40-90 season. He finished shooting .506 from the field, .402 from three, and .922 from the line.
There was a three-way tie between Dallas, Portland, and the Lakers, who are all positioned 5-7. But Mavs get 5 because they were the division winners. Blazers won the head-to-head match-up against the Lakers so they get 6. That leaves the Lakers in the play-in game against the Warriors.
And that pretty much makes the play-in a permanent fixture in the league. They have LeBron vs Steph in a play-in game. No matter what happens from here on out, they are not taking that out. They got extremely lucky with that one.
And I don’t like it. But I don’t run the league.
The Wizards got off to a 3-12 start. Heck, they were even 17-32 at one point. But they finished with a 17-6 flourish to claim the eighth spot.
The Hawks themselves finished 27-11 after the coaching change from Lloyd Pierce to Nate McMillan. Well, at least, the promise to make the playoffs was fulfilled?
Anyway, I’ll have a preview/results comparison soon to see how I did on my predictions. Spoiler: I didn’t do so well with the Knicks.
NBA Scoreboard
May 16, 2021
Watch This Play
The Nets are going to let you know that they’re going to be the next Flying Death Machine.
Truly saving the best for last.
🎥 Your @MaimondiesMC Play of the Game pic.twitter.com/GKbPwcALmB
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) May 17, 2021
What showoffs these guys are. They saved the best for last.
Let’s get ready for the play-in.
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.