Good morning. Let’s basketball.
The Warriors are extremely rude, beat the Grizzlies by 50
Good morning. Yeah ... yikes. That and more in Tuesday’s NBA newsletter.
ABOUT LAST NIGHT ... So the Warriors beat the Grizzlies by 50 points. Fifty. Yeah. Stephen Curry was doing his thing. We’re just going to leave that on a line of its own.
The Rockets also picked up their first win, and over the Thunder! Despite Russell Westbrook’s continued wizardry. The Timberwolves finally lost (to Portland) on a night that the Twin Cities honored Flip Saunders with a touching pregame tribute. Nerlens Noel got caught Shaqtin. LeBron had an enormous alley-oop finish. Tim Duncan set a record for most wins with one club. But maybe my favorite moment of Monday night was D.J. Augustin literally taking six steps before releasing a layup ... and not getting called for a travel by the in-position referee who does see a goaltending call.
WELL, THAT’S WEIRD: Someone threw a half-eaten pickle on the court during Nets-Bucks. It was quite an ordeal.
UNBEATEN: We’re down to four unbeaten teams: The Warriors (who are winning by an average of 25 points per game), Clippers, Pistons and Raptors.
WELL-BEATEN: We now have seven winless teams left: The Nets, Hornets, Pacers, Magic, Sixers, Lakers and Pelicans. Any bets on who will be last to win? Lakers, Nets (who look quite bad) and Sixers are all good guesses.
EXTENSION TIME! Midnight was the early extension deadline for a certain set of young players (mostly 2012 first-rounders). The only last-minute deals went to Terrence Ross (three years, $33 million) and Jeremy Lamb (three years, $21 million). Lots of restricted free agents on deck ...
WELCOME TO THE MACHINE: Paul Flannery on how LaMarcus Aldridge is already finding his place inside the Spurs’ highly efficient machinery.
THE LAKERS IN RUIN: Sitting at a particularly ugly 0-3, the Lakers are in ruin with no salvation but suffering.
KAREEM ALERT: HBO will premiere its big Kareem Abdul-Jabbar doc Kareem: Minority of One at 10 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Howard Beck has a Q&A with KAJ.
HIS OWN WORST ENEMY: Kevin Ding on the problem with Kobe Bryant right now. Also enjoyed Dan Devine’s riff on Kobe’s self-deprecation.
MORNING TIP: David Aldridge’s weekly text party leads with the Cavaliers’ mission of winning while injured.
TONIGHT: Other than the Kareem doc, we have Hawks-Heat on NBA TV at 7:30 p.m. ET and Nuggets-Lakers at 10:30 p.m. ET. The best League Pass pairing is probably Raptors-Mavericks (8:30 p.m. ET), Pistons-Pacers (7:30 p.m. ET) or Kings-Angry Grizz (10 p.m. ET).
Happy Tuesday. See you next time.
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