Last Night In The NBA: Never Seen Before Endings, Surprise Blowouts, Late Night Drama And Much More!
Good morning everybody happy Friday and welcome back to another edition of Last Night In The NBA where we bring you up to speed on everything that went down from the night before in the Association. It was another wild day of basketball on Thursday, with some never before seen endings, shocking blowouts, controversial endings, the whole nine. Seeing as how there’s no chance you want to start working this morning, why not kill some time with some basketball highlights? If you missed the action yesterday that’s OK, here’s what happened
New York Knicks (10-34) 100 vs Washington Wizards (19-26) 101
We got started with a little afternoon action with these two teams playing over in London, and while the matchup may not have excited you, the ending sure was something few of us have ever seen. I know I’ve never seen a game end on a goaltend like this
Some might ask how the Knicks might be so stupid, but I won’t. This was smart in my opinion. The hell kind of business do they have winning this game and making their lottery odds worse? In my mind this was a heads up play that may have saved them from not getting Zion and really that’s all that matters here. Any other year that’s just another example of the Knicks being the Knicks and losing in classic Knicks fashion. Now it’s a savvy move that I respect. Throw in a pretty nice performance from Emmanuel Mudiay who had 25 and Luke Kornet who had 16
and Knicks fans are probably happy this morning. Good for them.
For WSH, I guess they haven’t really figured out their season is pretty much over, and for some reason they still try really hard. It’s cute. Bradley Beal has really carried the load for this team since John Wall went down, he finished with 26/9/4
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and then Otto Porter Jr had a nice double double off the bench with 20/11
Looking at the standings this team is 2.5 games out of the final playoff spot, and with the deadline quickly approaching they’re going to have to make a tough call. Do you try and add somehow and make that push? Or do you fully embrace the suck, be a seller at the deadline and get some pieces for next season. Given the contracts on their books, they are sort of stuck in my opinion.
Sacramento Kings (23-22) 95 vs Charlotte Hornets (21-23) 114
On the surface you may be under the impression that the Kings are much better than CHA because of how the media has been hyping SAC up, but the thing is the Hornets are a different team at home. They have a handful of quality wins over quality opponents, a 15-8 record and last night was a great example of why if I was a CHA fan I would be so frustrated. This team isn’t bad, they’re just really bad on the road.
They finished with 7 players in double figures, their bench went nuts for 60 points and really once they dropped a cool 43 in the second quarter it was mostly a cake walk for them
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I think we’ve seen enough to say that Miles Bridges deserves like 30 minutes a night. I need more minutes available for him so he can dunk more like he did in this game and really has all season. CHA has now won 2 in a row and has built a little bit of a cushion in that 8 spot, now 1.5 games over DET and 2 games over ORL. Sadly though they are the only team in the top 10 who is below .500 over their last 10 at 4-6.
For SAC, I feel like it’s been a while since they’ve been blown out like this, so I’ll give them a pass. Sometimes it’s just not your night, and with 44/33% splits with 17 TOs I’m not exactly sure what they thought was going to happen. Buddy Hield carried most of the offensive load with 24 points and 6 3PM
and things were so bad we had fans offering players a beer to cheer them up
sadly Harry Giles is like 15 years old so that didn’t really work out. Not the best start to their road trip, and they did fall out of the top 8 which is bad for them and good for me personally, but at these they had their moments
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Philadelphia 76ers (30-16) 120 vs Indiana Pacers (29-15) 96
This was supposed to be a big time matchup between two of the better teams in the East, and for a half it was. The Pacers are a good team at home who has been playing well, and PHI has been on an offensive tear lately so it was interesting to see how this would shake out. Well, once the Sixers got their footing after halftime, things got a little out of hand.
They got their offensive explosion in the second half, scored 66 points, ended the night with 52/52% splits, 18 3PM and 38 assists on 46 baskets. It’s pretty damn hard to have a better offensive showing than that, and to do it against a good defensive IND team on the road is impressive as hell. This is all with Simmons being fairly human with just 11/8/8 on 5-10 shooting. It was clear that Embiid was fighting though some pain and he still couldn’t be stopped, and really what this game showed me is that if the Sixers are going to want to be for real, they have to add more shooting. When they shoot the ball like this, they are too tough. Their achilles heel is really shooting like this isn’t all that consistent for them. But they definitely have the star power and the defense to be really good.
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For IND, they could have used some of that shooting. They had just 3 players in double figures, ended the night with just 40/31% splits, and did not break 50 points in the second half. That was pretty surprising given how this team plays at home, but if this is going to be the start of a little slide for them Celtics fans certainly won’t complain.
Thad Young led the way with 27 points
but Oladipo had a rough one going just 6-20. Could we see this be a 4/5 matchup when we get to the Spring? I’d sign up for that.
Phoenix Suns (11-35) 109 vs Toronto Raptors (34-13) 111
I know I shouldn’t be mad at the Suns for losing this game, it’s what they do. But at the same time I am mad at them for blowing this game. Kawhi didn’t play, and they had em! Needed TOR to drop this one even though deep down I knew they would pull some shit out. This is what that looked like
What great defense said no one ever. We knew someone was going to have to pick up the slack with no Kawhi, and I would say Siakam who finished with 10/12/5, and then fucking Serge Ibaka who is having such a ridiculous season led the way with 22/6 on 11-19 shooting
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Kyle Lowry didn’t do much with his 4-15 (2-10) performance, and they only shot 7-28 from deep, the key was after they sort of blew things in the 3rd, they came out strong in the fourth, dropped 34 points, made big defensive stops down the stretch, and ultimately pulled it out. So annoying.
For PHX, as it usually is, this was the Devin Booker and DeAndre Ayton show
which honestly is the real reason anyone should watch this PHX team, but last night there were also a few performances that impressed me. We had rookie Mikal Bridges with a clutch 15/5/4 on 5-8 shooting
and honestly had they not been idiots and turned the ball over 17 times, maybe given Booker a few more possessions instead of TJ Warren driving and falling into like 10 raptors and turning it over late, maybe they pull this one out. With the Knicks and Bulls both losing maybe this was the best outcome for them, but I don’t care about them I care about TOR coming back down to earth.
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Chicago Bulls (10-35) 105 vs Denver Nuggets (30-14) 135
Speaking of the Bulls, this is now their 9th loss in a row, they’re 1-9 over their last 10, and that’s how you tank baby. Currently 1 game behind CLE for the worst record, we won’t spend too much time on them. Instead, just watch Baby Dirk do Baby Dirk things because he finished with 27
For DEN, this is how you handle a bad team. Just completely destroy them right from the jump. They never had a quarter under 28 points, dropped 74 in the second half, shot 52/50% with 20 3PM and just 7 TOs, and maybe they should have used some of this skill against GS. Just a thought.
These are obviously the games DEN needs to clean up on while GS is on their current tear, and they now move to a very solid 19-4 at home. They now have a stretch of CLE/UTA/PHX/PHI/MEM/NO, so there is definitely a window there for them to go on a little bit of a run. Having Gary Harris back is big for them, and frankly I just want to see what this team looks like healthy for a sustained period of time. Feel like they’ve always had important players hurt at all times this season.
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Los Angeles Lakers (25-21) 138 vs Oklahoma City Thunder (26-18) 128
This was one of the better games of the night if you stayed up for it. It gave us everything, from Michael Beasley being as as fuck
to a pretty controversial ending. You see Westbrook was granted 3 FTs on this play
only to have the officials come out and say this should not have been a shooting foul. That’s tough. Luckily the Lakers pulled it out in OT behind their young kids
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So Ball was let off the hook to some degree, he just should have made the foul earlier. Live and ya learn. It was an important win for LAL as it got them back into the top 8, they’ve won 2 in a row and should be getting LeBron back fairly soon.
For OKC, tough loss no doubt. Shooting 39/40% never helps, Westbrook went a brutal 7-30, and even PG13 wasn’t all that efficient with 9-19
It was pretty wild to see them give up 122 points in regulation at home, given they are one of the best defensive teams in the NBA, and even more shocking that they made 22 3PM and still lost. How often do you see that? This is now their second loss in a row, has them tied with POR for that 3 spot, and is a tough 4-6 over their last 10. Given how well everyone else around them is playing, and how tight the West is, they need to figure their shit out and do it quick. A bad week can have you all the way at like 7th before you know it. For me that starts on the defensive end. Westbrook is who he is offensively, but they have to be able to rely on their elite level defense to combat his inefficient play at times. Last night, that didn’t happen and they paid the price.
And that’s it! You’re now all caught up on everything that went down last night in the NBA. We’re back tonight with 7 more games, and as you know feel free to go out tonight and drink your face off, I’ll be here in the morning to help with your hangover. Have a great Friday!