Kevin Durant decides beefing with Russell Westbrook is a bad idea

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

WE HAVE A TRADE. It’s not an important one (Ersan Ilyasova and a protected pick for Jerami Grant), mind you. But it is a trade.

IT’S THE OSCARS BUT FOR BASKETBALL: The NBA announced that instead of announcing the various league awards throughout the playoffs, it will hold a big awards show after the NBA Finals and before the NBA Draft. This sounds fun, except for the fact that the award winners are all going to leak ahead of time anyway and also the fact that award shows are the worst.

YOUR DAILY EMBIID: The Sixers are now introducing our protagonist as Joel “The Process” Embiid.

THE FLIP LEGACY: Zach Harper on how Karl-Anthony Towns is now protecting the legacy of the late Flip Saunders.

CAN’T PUT MY FINGER ON IT: The Warriors are 3-1. Say, doesn’t that remind you of something?

THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN BEING MAD ... is being mad and trying to act like you’re not mad. An example: the Warriors react to the anti-Warriors decorations at LeBron’s Halloween party.

O RLY? Kevin Durant says he has no beef with Russell Westbrook. TRANSLATION! Kevin Durant realizes he’s in a beef with Russell Westbrook and desperately does not want to be in a beef with Russell Westbrook.

THIS IS MY SURPRISED FACE: The Sixers went into Tuesday having lost their last 39 October and November games. (In other words, they didn’t win until December in the 2014-15 or 2015-16 seasons.) So of course they lost Tuesday’s winnable game against the Magic in gut-wrenching, strange fashion.

CHILLMATIC: Paul Flannery and I implore everyone to calm down about what’s happened so far this season. Give like AT LEAST 12 more hours before freaking out.

SCORES GALORE ...

Rockets 120, Cavaliers 128
Magic 103, Sixers 101
Lakers 108, Pacers 115
Kings 96, Heat 108 (OT)
Knicks 89, Pistons 102
Bucks 117, Pelicans 113
Grizzlies 80, Wolves 116
Jazz 106, Spurs 91
Warriors 127, Blazers 104

IMPRESSIVE: Boogie Cousins had zero fouls entering the fourth quarter against Miami. Boogie Cousins fouled out in the fourth quarter against Miami.

THE ETERNAL DUNK CONTEST: Aaron Gordon drops another 50 in his eternal dunk contest against Zach LaVine.

SUGAR: Ray Allen officially retires at age 41. The prettiest jumper in the sport. Never forget that the dude could dunk. Erik Spoelstra reflects on a one-of-a-kind player.

ZITO TIME I: Zito Madu on the quality of Damian Lillard’s rap record and how it speaks to where NBA stars are in the rap game right now.

ZITO TIME II: Zito Madu joins Limited Upside to discuss the 74 MVP candidates.

THIS IS A BAD SHOT, JOAKIM NOAH.

SHEESH: DeMar DeRozan is so mad about being ranked No. 46 by Sports Illustrated before the season that he appears to be in permanent supersaiyan mode.

FOREVER THE KNICKS: Scott Cacciola on Charles Oakley’s estrangement from the Knicks. Alex Wong on their weird win-now mentality.

AND FINALLY: Metta World Peace hits a free throw, yells “I love basketball!” Us too, Metta. Us too.

Happy Wednesday. See you next time.