Good morning. Crazy stuff happened in the NBA on Friday, so this is a special Saturday edition of the newsletter. Let’s basketball.
Tyronn Lue stepped over David Blatt in Cleveland
Good morning. We have that and more in a special Saturday NBA newsletter.
MEJRI WORLD: The big news of Friday is obviously that Mavericks rookie Salah Mejri earned blocks on both Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Even better was his postgame quote about it: he told the media that he’d previously blocked each of those dudes’ shots in a USA-Tunisia international game in the past, “so that was not something new for them.” YOW!
OH WAIT, THAT’S NOT IT: An NBA player hit Chris Paul in the face. There are going to be a lot of people pleased to watch that.
NO, I’M TALKING ABOUT: Stephen Curry nailing two half-court shots in one game. (Only one counted, but still.)
OHHHH, I KNOW THE BIG NEWS: The Cavaliers fired David Blatt on Friday and gave Tyronn Lue a multi-year contract. Cleveland is 30-11 and are the reigning East champs. No coach has ever been fired midseason with a better record. But the knives came out after it went down. There are reports that Blatt called phantom fouls during practice to curry favor with his stars. The GM used a nice turn of rhetoric to subtly call into question Blatt’s muted expectations for how good the team should be. And of course there are lots of reports that LeBron never respected Blatt, leading to all of this.
SCORES, WHILE WE’RE HERE ...
ORL 116, CHA 120 (OT)
CHI 101, BOS 110
UTA 108, BKN 86
LAC 116, NYK 88
MIA 81, TOR 101
MIL 98, HOU 102
OKC 109, DAL 106
IND 110, GSW 122
SAS 108, LAL 95
REMINDER: The first NBA on ABC Saturday night showcase is upon us. And oh look, the Cavaliers play the Bulls at 8:30 p.m. ET! BLATT WAS AN INSIDE JOB.
See you next time.
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SB Nation presents: David Blatt fired by Cavaliers
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