Russell Westbrook had himself a dunk party

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

DON’T HURT THEM, RUSS: Russell Westbrook with hammer after hammer on the unguarded rims of Denver. The second is my favorite. I’ll name it BLAMMO.

GOT EM: Paul George hits Brandon Knight with that banana peel spin move.

JUUUST A LITTLE BIT SHORT: Markieff Morris gets rejected by the rim. The rim don’t love you no more, Kieff.

SCORES ...

MIL 91, MIA 79
MIN 99, NOP 114
OKC 110, DEN 104
IND 97, PHX 94

THE CHAMPAGNE SETTLES: Zito Madu wrote about how Steph Curry wound Cleveland up and then crushed them. I wrote about why panicking over the Cavaliers’ obliteration isn’t useful.

YEP: J.J. Redick has been lights out.

WHOA: This college basketball seasons has seen No. 1 upset more frequently than at any points in the past 67 years.

GREAT MOMENTS IN SUBTWEETING: Rudy Gobert subtweets an unnamed player putting up what are perceived to be empty stats. Hassan Whiteside happens to be putting up literal empty stats in the fourth quarter of a blowout. Evan Fournier hacks together a translation of Whiteside’s last name (blancoté isn’t a French word, but blanc means white and coté means side) and adds some lulz and we have a great moment in really rude subtweeting.

MORE LIKE KHRIS UPPERTON: Nice piece on the growth of Khris Middleton.

HUZZAH: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is cleared for practice! Charlotte is going to need a boost to make that playoff run.

GET YOUR POPCORN: The Westbrook-Rocky The Mountain Lion feud is heating up.

EXCELLENT: Westbrook and Cameron Payne talk about their pregame routine.

CASH MONEY: Nate Duncan looks at a few free agents set to cash in as free agents.

IT’S THAT TIME: Zach Lowe’s All-Star rosters. The SB Nation NBA crew will have theirs out on Thursday.

TONIGHT: ESPN’s doubleheader features Warriors-Bulls and Hawks-Blazers. Celtics-Raptors and Pistons-Rockets look to be nice options, too, for you League Passers.

AN ANNIVERSARY: Wednesday is the two-year anniversary of the first Good Morning It’s Basketball. Thanks to everyone who subscribes, reads, submits links and says nice things. This is quite fun and I’m blessed to be able to share my mornings with y’all.

Happy Wednesday. See you next time.