Last Night In The NBA: Who Says Preseason Basketball Can't Be Exciting
Hello everybody and welcome back to another edition of Last Night In The NBA where we catch you up on everything that went down from the night before in the Association. Now with the ALDS, College Football, and the fight, I feel like myself and maybe like 10 other people actually watched some basketball last night. That’s fine, everyone can choose to live however they want. However for those that didn’t, let’s just say you missed some exciting basketball. It’s true, that can exist even in the preseason. And because I care about you, I’m here to fill you in on what you missed. Let’s get started
Boston Celtics (1-3) 102 vs Cleveland Cavaliers (2-0) 113
I’ll have much more to talk about in the Celts blog that will be out in a little bit, but jesus christ is it possible to be so talented yet look so poor once you actually have to play? Don’t really care that the games don’t count, if you have no problems with how the Celtics have looked so far this preseason, you’re lying. I don’t care if guys like Kyrie and Hayward sat. The Cavs were missing their best players too. It’s OK to not make excuses and be frustrated by poor basketball. No one will yell at you.
However, for CLE fans, things are great! You’re 2-0 so far, Collin Sexton looks good
Ante Zizic looks like the best overall player from the Kyrie trade (20/5)
and to be honest this team just looks like they enjoy the freedom of not having to deal with LeBron. Sure they may not win many games because of that, but there is something to be said about starting fresh. I feel like this Cavs team will be better this time around than the first time James left, and there are certainly bigger disasters in the East. Could they mess around and semi-compete for the 8th spot in the East? Why not, they’ll only have to live around like 37ish wins to do it.
Indiana Pacers (1-1) 104 vs Memphis Grizzlies (2-1) 109 F/OT
Some out there may despise preseason OT basketball, but I am here for it. As I’ve explained before, I’ve waited a long time for basketball to be back in my life and I need all I can get. As you can expect both sides sat the majority of their top end talent, but that doesn’t mean things didn’t get exciting. As a Pacer fan I’m sure you love the performance of Aaron Holiday, your new rookie PG that gives the Pacers some of the best guard depth in the East
I mean those blocks were ridiculous. You pair that with the very solid 17/14/4 from Sabonis
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and the Pacers are cooking with some great young talent. Still confuses me why people are still sleeping on them a little this year after what we saw last season in addition to what they added. I’ve seen them talked about as a 5/6 seed and I’m sorry they should be in the 3/4/5 conversation.
I also thought Cory Joseph did a good job in his spot start, nothing too flashy, just solid point guard play. I’m telling you IND is deep at this position folks
For MEM, a nice bounce back performance from JJJ who struggled a little bit in their last outing, he had 18/6 on 6-11 shooting
I thought it was interesting he didn’t get the start with Gasol getting the night off, but MEM went small and he still played 24 minutes so there’s not much to complain about.
But obviously, the story here was the play of Yuta Watanabe. He had just 11 points, but they were a loud 11
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He was the man in OT, and for being just the 2nd Japanese NBA player it wouldn’t shock me if he sticks around somewhere. I’m telling you all now, bet the over on whatever you can get the MEM win total at. I feel a nice bounce back year for them now that everyone is healthy.
Los Angeles Clippers (3-0) vs Los Angeles Lakers (1-3) 87
Who’s the real King of LA?!?! Sure as shit looks like the Clippers!
6 players in double figures, 18/8 for Tobias Harris, 19 points for Lou Williams off the bench, even some lock down defense in the fourth quarter. Who are these guys! They did’t even shoot all that well, just 41/28% splits and they did also have 20 TOs, but they hung in there and when it got to winning time they put on the clamps. Credit to them.
For the LAL, OK so LeBron didn’t play so basically that’s why LAC won, but who cares. It’s clear how much they need him, as they shot just 38/16% without him to go along with 20 TOs themselves.
I think this is why people are hesitant to put the Lakers as a playoff team. Without LeBron, their talent isn’t quite there yet. It’s promising, and has potential, but this was a chance for Brandon Ingram to show he took a leap, and his 3-10 performance wasn’t all that great. Also, watching Rondo pass like this made me vomit. I have no idea how I am going to handle this season with him. A player I love so much doing all the things I love for the team I despise the most. Life can be funny sometimes.
And that’s it! You’re now all caught up on everything that happened last night in the NBA. We’re back with four more games today with some dedcent matchups. We have ATL/OKC, HOU/SA, MIL/MIN, and UTA/POR. As always enjoy your Sunday filled with football and baseball, just make sure to check back tomorrow morning so I can bring you up to speed on what you missed!