Good morning. Let’s basketball.
Kristaps Porzingis’ buzzer-beater was too pretty to be legal
Good morning. We have that, fallout from DeAndre Jordan’s visit to Dallas and more.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL PREVIEW TIME! This goes out to all the Sixers, Lakers, Kings, Celtics (via the Nets) and Pelicans fans out there. You might want to give special attention to the Top 100 College Players list. Here are 68 things to know about the season to come.
KEEP THEIR HEADS RINGING: In what became the Mavericks’ Super Bowl, Dallas edged DeAndre Jordan and the visiting Clippers thanks to heroics from (who else?) Dirk Nowitzki. That building was loud. They booed DeAndre lustily and cheered wildly when he missed free throws. They can lose the rest of their games and Mark Cuban might still consider this season a success.
MORE ABOUT LAST NIGHT: The Hornets and Knicks played a barn-burner that culminated with an incredible Kristaps Porzingis game-winning three ... that was an eyelash too late, giving Charlotte the win. The Magic had a buzzer-beating game-winner that did count as Nikola Vucevic sunk the Lakers with a turnaround 20-footer. WHY NOT? Bucks-Nuggets also came down to the endtimes as Denver won on a Kenneth Faried putback with five seconds left. The Kings recovered from an, uh, interesting 48 hours with a big win over Detroit as DeMarcus Cousins completely dominated Andre Drummond and Rajon Rondo had a second straight triple-double.
Toronto easily sent the Sixers to 0-8. The Pacers beat the Celtics in Boston to move to 5-4. The Hawks beat the Pelicans again. The Nets *finally* won, beating, uh, Houston on the back of Bojan Bogdanovic. The Spurs handled the Blazers in LaMarcus Aldridge's first return to Portland. (He was not booed out of the building.) The Warriors smoked Memphis to go to 9-0.
ABOUT THE KINGS: Early Wednesday I wrote that, at 1-7 with drama mounting, the Kings need to consider life after DeMarcus Cousins. Then reports surfaced regarding Cousins screaming at George Karl in the locker room, a rejected request to suspend Cousins from Karl and a very odd team meeting led by GM Vlade Divac in which he asked players whether he should can Karl. This is all very, very strange. Sam Amick has the best recap of what happened. Then Boogie dropped 33 in a win while looking like he wanted to personally scream at each individual in the building. Good times. (For what it’s worth, Cousins publicly apologized for his outburst.)
YIKESVILLE: Jeff Van Gundy criticizes Dallas fans for booing DeAndre while they cheer Greg Hardy. I am opposed to telling fans when they ought to boo or cheer, but I am impressed JVG broached the topic on ESPN in prime time.
WELCOME TO SACRAMENTO: Snubbed (intentionally or not) by DeMarcus Cousins, Kosta Koufos is forced to give himself a high five. (Boogie also apologized for this. Boogie is handing out apologies like candy.)
SWEET: Steph Curry is hitting 35-footers again. This dude is even hitting heaves shot when he’s blatantly flopping in an attempt to draw a foul 30 feet from the basket!
TOO MUCH MONTA: Monta Ellis still has one of the most brutal crossovers in the game. Ask Amir Johnson.
RELEVANT TWITTER EMOJI JOKES! The Mavs’ Twitter did some sweet joke recall in rubbing it in the Clippers’ face.
COURTING LAMARCUS: Woj on the five days of LaMarcus Aldridge’s free agency this summer.
TWILIGHT OF THE JUMBOTRON: Very interesting Mary Pilon piece on how the ubiquity of smartphones may make the beloved and expensive Jumbotron irrelevant.
TONIGHT: A light night of action as the Jazz and Heat battle on League Pass (7:30 p.m. ET) while TNT gives us Warriors-Wolves (8 p.m. ET) followed by Clippers-Suns (10:30 p.m. ET).
Happy Thursday. See you next time.
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