Good morning. Let’s basketball.
Good morning. Anthony Davis almost had a quadruple-double.
That and more in Monday’s NBA newsletter. SUBSCRIBE!
THE GRIZZLIES’ TIME IS NOW: Paul Flannery’s Sunday Shootaround focuses on the Memphis Grizzlies, who freely talk about how it’s time to get over the hump and make the Finals. The core has been together a while, everyone’s been healthy (for the most part) and they won’t be fighting from a lower seed. Can they do it? Plus, all the Shootaround features you know and love. Check it out.
CONGRATULATIONS! The Rockets beat the Clippers to give them a cushion in the race for No. 4 and to earn a tie in the season series. Their reward: the L.A. loss moved the Defending Champion San Antonio Spurs into the No. 5 slot. We’re a step closer to seeing Kawhi Leonard on James Harden for multiple games.
#RACEFOR8: The more important move in the West: a Thunder win over Chicago and a heartbreaking double-overtime Pelicans loss to the, uh, Nuggets has OKC in the No. 8 slot. Remember: New Orleans owns the tiebreak (our guide has the answers) so OKC needs to be at least one game better when the season ends.
IN THE EAST ... We have quite a mess in the 4-5 slots. The Bulls have a one-game lead in the standings, they and Wizards split their season series and Chicago’s up only a half-game in the in-conference standings. This is the most likely series for which home court advantage will be decided by a sudden death bake-off.
SPEAKING OF ROCKETS-CLIPPERS ... It was just as floppy as you’d imagine. Chris Paul even flopped the wrong direction defending James Harden! Harden later got body-slammed by Matt Barnes for the trouble. Blake Griffin returned to action, but got called for a charge on a critical play.
WASTED: We mentioned that the Pelicans had a crushing little loss. We didn’t mention Anthony Davis’ monster line: 36-14-7-9. Holy God Almighty.
MORE SCORES: Catch recaps from the other games at our NBA Scores hub.
BLOCK OF THE YEAR CANDIDATE: Kenneth Faried sends David Lee back to the bench.
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO: The 76ers, who ruin everything, have put a t-shirt gun on a Roomba or something. A remote control t-shirt gun if you will. This is unwise.
NOURISH THE INDIVIDUAL: Scott Cacciola with a really nice piece on the Hawks’ priorities.
OUTTAKES FROM LARRY LEGEND’S 60: It turns out that Larry Bird’s trash talk game when he scored 60 was outrageously good. This is my surprised face.
WELL THERE YOU GO: It turns out that basing draft picks even in part on facial coding analysis -- reading someone’s face for character attributes -- is as distinctly WOO as it sounds. Comprehensive teardown. The Bucks are on notice.
BRACKET MADNESS! Here’s our gorgeous bracket. Here’s our full March Madness coverage.. We’ll have a GMIB bracket group Tuesday-ish. Stay tuned.
Happy Monday. See you next time.
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