Good morning, we finally had an NBA playoffs night without drama
Plus lots of links on Mark Jackson’s dismissal.
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
WELPVILLE: It was bound to happen -- a boring night in the NBA playoffs. The Heat destroyed the Nets 107-86. The Spurs dominated the Blazers 116-92. Oh well. Let’s hope Thursday is a little more competitive.
TONIGHT: The home teams in the other two series try to avoid going down 0-2.
Wizards at Pacers, 7 p.m. ET, TNT | Wiz lead 1-0
Clippers at Thunder, 9:30 p.m. ET, TNT | Clips lead 1-0
MVP OF OUR HEARTS: Kevin Durant’s MVP acceptance speech was fricking fantastic. Here are the voting results. Talk about uniformity: there was only one ballot on which Durant and LeBron weren’t No. 1 and No. 2 in some order. (That ballot had Durant 1, Blake Griffin No. 2 and LeBron No. 3.)
HAND DOWN, MAN DOWN: Mark Jackson was unceremoniously canned in Oakland. Then the floodgates opened on why. Tim Kawakami has been covering this like a blanket -- his timeline is replete with rumors about what went wrong.
Nate Parham of Golden State of Mind talks about the risk involved for the Warriors. Jackson himself talked about it, too.
Here’s a short list of candidates for what I feel is the most attractive job available. The related question is whether Jackson heads back to ESPN for a year, or whether he gets involved in one of the other five job openings.
FLANNERY ALERT: When Paul Flannery writes about KG and Pierce, you read it.
THIS IS KEVIN HART’S CALLING: He impersonates every member of the Inside the NBA crew.
JIMMY ALERT: Travis Hale of Pounding The Rock just interviewed Jimmy Goldstein. Jimmy reveals he attended both the Lillard Game and Clips-Warriors Game 7 this weekend. Damn, man. Save some for the rest of us!
HOW THE NBA WILL FIGHT STERLING: There are other contracts he’s signed that have been violated.
WHAT MADE DAMIAN LILLARD: Cool profile of Lillard in the context of his college coach, Phil Beckner.
WE ARE ONE: Good take on why the “We Are One” corporate push from the NBA is, well, pretty hollow, from Colin McGowan.
DROUGHTS: Neat visualization on playoff success and the lack thereof from The Unbiased Fan (via Moore).
WHAT SEASON SERIES MEAN: 538 on the relevance of regular season matchup results in the playoffs. Short version: each head-to-head game tells us about as much as two non head-to-head matchups.
Happy Wednesday. See you next time.
