Good morning. Let’s basketball.
Good morning. Is the NBA ready for John Calipari?
That and more in Thursday’s NBA newsletter. SUBSCRIBE!
COACH CAL ON LINE 1: There is a rumor out of New Jersey that John Calipari is itching to get back into the NBA, and that now -- after a possible 40-0 season and another national championship at Kentucky -- might be the time to do it. But he can’t possibly want to take over the Brooklyn Nets, can he? Our Satchel Price looks at the rumor from all angles. It’d be mad interesting if the Pelicans (Anthony Davis, Tyreke Evans) or Wizards (John Wall) got involved in the Calipari Sweepstakes.
LAST NIGHT IN 58 SECONDS: There were a lot of impactful games on Wednesday! In one of the few nailbiters, the Pacers ended their 6-game losing streak because the Wizards decided not to defend a familiar George Hill drive to the hoop.
The Nets edged the Hornets in a critizzzzzzzzzz sorry fell asleep for a second.
The Bulls trumped the Raptors in a game which featured a very powerful bricked doink* and some Joakim Noah trickery. The Raptors still clinched a playoff spot because of the losses by the Hornets and Celtics.
“Doink” is the official term for a missed dunk, if you didn’t know.
YES, THAT’S RIGHT the Celtics lost a critical game to Miami.
Dwight Howard is back but the Rockets are still All Beard Everything as James Harden led the way past the Pelicans.
Like the Pels, the Thunder and Suns also lost. (The Spurs CRUSHED OKC so thoroughly that Tim Duncan even hit a three. The Kings beat the Suns in Phoenix. FOUR-GAME WIN STREAK BABY.)
The Cavs absolutely crushed the Grizzlies and won 14 of their final 15 games against the West. [scared emoji]
The Clippers beat the Knicks easily. The Wolves and Lakers mercilessly subjected fans to overtime. The Sixers beat the Nuggets. Portland got a nice come-from-behind over the Jazz despite Rudy Gobert being totally unfair. The Hawks smoked the Magic.
That’s it. That’s all the basketball we have for you from Wednesday. Nights with 13 games are both heavens and hells.
PLAYOFF CHASE: Both brackets hold, but the Southwest title race is getting MIGHTY interesting. Houston is 1.5 games behind Memphis but needs to come pretty close to sweeping its four remaining divisional games to win a tiebreaker. (The teams split their season series. Memphis is 8-6 in-division, and Houston is 6-6.)
BRIGHT FUTURE: Zach Lowe on the Suns’ long-term outlook.
THE MOST POPULAR THROWBACKS BY STATE: It turns out Kobe Bryant throwbacks (?!) are really popular in Ohio and Tennessee.
O CANADA: The delayed ferry that changed the course of Steve Nash, Jay Triano and Canadian basketball.
BEST NEWS: Former SBNation.com writer/host Bomani Jones is getting a nightly hour-long show on ESPN Radio. One of my greatest professional honors was to edit Bomani a few times. This is so well-deserved and is going to be such a great listen. Salute.
Happy Thursday. Enjoy the Sweet 16. See you next time.
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