Around the NBA: Week 21 (3/11 - 3/17)

[wpmiller42]

Nationally televised games this week (all times ET)
Monday, March 11
Golden State Warriors @ San Antonio Spurs 8:00 PM NBATV
Boston Celtics @ Portland Trailblazers 10:30 PM NBATV

Tuesday, March 12
Philadelphia 76ers @ NY Knicks 7:30 PM TNT
Minnesota Timberwolves @ LA Clippers 10:00 PM TNT

Wednesday, March 13
Denver Nuggets @ Miami Heat 7:30 PM ESPN
LA Lakers @ Sacramento Kings 10:00 PM ESPN

Thursday, March 14
Phoenix Suns @ Boston Celtics 7:30 PM TNT
Dallas Mavericks @ OKC Thunder 10:00 PM TNT

Friday, March 15
Phoenix Suns @ Charlotte Hornets 7:00 PM NBATV
Atlanta Hawks @ Utah Jazz 9:30 PM NBATV

Saturday, March 16
Golden State Warriors @ LA Lakers 8:30 PM ABC

Sunday, March 17
Phoenix Suns @ Milwaukee Bucks 1:00 PM ABC
Denver Nuggets @ Dallas Mavericks 3:30 PM ABC
Brooklyn Nets @ San Antonio Spurs 7:00 PM NBATV
Atlanta Hawks @ LA Clippers 9:30 PM NBATV

Around the League News:

The Wait and Weight for Bronny James

Who’s the best basketball player in the world?

Six reasons to watch the NBA's dregs

Digging into three versions of the double screen

General Managers and Coaches Think the NBA Changed Its Rules Midseason

NBA Players Who Are Left In The League From Each Draft Class

[Superbone]

Love the purple and orange touch!

[ShelC]

Good news here.

[bajanguy008]

I refused to watch the replay of it so glad to hear that

[wpmiller42]

That's great. I saw the play live and thought for sure he had done some major damage. Glad to hear it's not so bad.

[Superbone]

The Wolves came back from 22 down in the first half to win by 18 over the Clippers in LA. Talk about a turnaround. These Wolves are pretty good and Ant Man just gets better and better. Too bad we didn’t get a top pick like that. SMH.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Kawhi having to leave the game (and arena) had a lot to do with that collapse. The Clippers aren't anything special without him or Harden.

[Superbone]

Kawhi having to leave the game (and arena) had a lot to do with that collapse. The Clippers aren't anything special without him or Harden.

I actually wasn’t aware of that. What happened?

ETA:

Did a little research.

[ShelC]

Might be the highest I've seen someone jump?

[Mori Chu]

Good article on Ant and the rest of the Wolves' season. I have never really bought into this Wolves team (I thought of them as a regular-season-only phenomenon) but we shall see.

[Mori Chu]

Here are the Western standings as of today:

1 Thunder
2 Nuggets
3 Wolves
4 Clips
5 Pelicans
6 Suns
7 Kings
8 Mavs
9 Lakers
10 Warriors

We are currently the #6 seed, 1.5 games back of the #5 Pelicans, and 0.5 games up on the #7 seed Kings. What seed do you guys think would be best for us to get? In theory, the higher the better, but when I look at the standings, I feel like the top-4 teams each have strengths and weaknesses against us. I kind of want to play the Nuggets; am I crazy? I really don't want to play OKC, I think they're scary good. And I also don't want to play the Clips if they're healthy. So if the standings stayed the way they are now, I actually wouldn't want that 5 seed since it'd put us in a Suns/Clips 1st round matchup. I'd prefer to stay at #6 to stay out of the play-in tournament I suppose.

https://www.espn.com/nba/standings

[ShelC]

Wolves without KAT are probably everyone's preferred team to play. The Pels still feel dangerous because of Ingram and Zion, plus Valancuinas up front. But if we could get the 4 seed and homecourt against the Pels I'd take it. Or stay at 6 and take on the Wolves. The Kings are dangerous because I think they'd just try to outscore us and I don't know that we have the offense to keep up or the consistent defense to slow them down.

[Split T]

Think the current standings are about as good as it gets…Wolves round 1 and Nuggets round 2. Clips/Thunder winner in round 3. I’d prefer Thunder to Nuggets, but I’m also not actually that scared of the Nuggets. Think we actually match up well with them compared to other teams.

The Thunder are good but they are so small. They’ve also never been in the playoffs and I’m not sure how they’d respond. SGA is obviously a great player, but how much does he benefit from a regular season whistle? He’s never been in the playoffs(at least in his current form. He went his first two years but wasn’t the primary initiator).

I’m not thinking about the Kings…the likelihood of that matchup is low. Well unless it’s in the play-in. I’m not too worried about them.

[Mori Chu]

I thought SGA's stunt the other day where he intentionally fouled at the end of the game, down 10+ points, so he could get the ball back and run down the court to make a meaningless basket so that he had 30 points to keep his streak of scoring 30+ alive, was really bush league.

[Cap]

What streak? He scored 23 on Sunday.

[Superbone]

Might be the highest I've seen someone jump?

► Show Spoiler

Yeah, but he was stepping on a guy.

[Superbone]

I thought SGA's stunt the other day where he intentionally fouled at the end of the game, down 10+ points, so he could get the ball back and run down the court to make a meaningless basket so that he had 30 points to keep his streak of scoring 30+ alive, was really bush league.

Streak or not it's bush league.

[Cap]

It’s not even about keeping a streak alive, he’s just racking up as many 30-pt games as he can:



Yeah, pretty BL.

[wpmiller42]

It’s not even about keeping a streak alive, he’s just racking up as many 30-pt games as he can:



Yeah, pretty BL.

Meh, it's corny, but to me, guys should take it personal and play defense so that he doesn't get it. Or get a reputation for being an empty stats kind of guy. But if no one is going to play defense and no one is going to publicly call him out, then whatever.

[Bucktastic365]

Might be the highest I've seen someone jump?

Lol, I could only dream.
I relate to Greyson because I'm "that guy".

I was fairly athletic; in an under the basket way, but I had to rely on my smarts over raw athleticism.
I couldn't even imagine what I could do with that leap