Good morning. Let’s basketball.
The Warriors now have 70 wins
Good morning. We have that and more in Friday’s NBA newsletter.
70: Golden State whooped the Spurs in Oakland to pick up win No. 70 and keep the dream of 73 alive. They’ll need to beat Memphis twice and become the first team to win in San Antonio this season to get there.
ON SAGER: Zito Madu writes that even in his darkest hour, Craig Sager makes us smile. He’s right.
GOODBYE, ROCKETS: A home loss to lowly Phoenix in which they gave up 124 points to a team led by Mirza Teletovic doesn’t exactly eliminate Houston from postseason consideration, but it should. On the other hand, Houston’s Andrew Goudelock executed a really nice butt pass, so there’s that.
SAM HELL: Would you believe the basketball world is still focused on Sam Hinkie’s resignation? Woj explains how and why the Sixers imported the Colangelos. Prada and Epstein talk about how Hinkie made the Sixers entertaining despite being awful. Jesus Gomez calls out the strangest parts of Hinkie’s letter. (Both Abraham Lincoln quotes had, uh, issues.) And finally (not finally), I wrote about how Hinkie acts as if he’s the smartest man in the room despite no results-based evidence to support that theory.
One thing worth discussing in brief is this idea pushed by Andy Glockner and supported by much of NBA Analytics Twitter and Hinkie's Volunteer Army is that just because Hinkie's decisions failed doesn't mean they were bad decisions. Glockner suggests that, for example, the Joel Embiid pick was a good decision because the reward was worth the risk. That presumes Hinkie judged both the risk and reward accurately. Is there any evidence that is the case? Or are we just deferring to Hinkie's decision journal on that one? I understand the idea of trusting the process and the impact of luck and chance on results. But to claim Hinkie definitely made the right decisions is as illogical as claiming he made the wrong decisions. We don't know, and given the variables involved in problems like the NBA Draft, we cannot ever know. So, in the end, we rely on results. And we can look at the standings and the roster to know that, to date, Hinkie flunked that test.
OK, no more Hinkie. For now. Promise.
SCORES GALORE ...
TOR 87, ATL 95
CHI 98, MIA 106
PHX 124, HOU 115
MIN 105, SAC 97
SAS 101, GSW 112
BACK TO THE FUTURE: Lee Jenkins on Kemba Walker, back on top five years after UConn.
ON THE AIR TONIGHT: A solo, important NBA TV game marks Friday (Grizzlies-Mavericks at 8:30 p.m. ET). On Saturday, the Warriors play the Grizzlies on ESPN at 8 ET while ABC carries Cavaliers-Bulls at 8:30. Sunday features three games on NBA TV: Hornets-Wizards at noon ET, Mavs-Clippers at 3:30 and the final epic regular season battle between the Warriors and Spurs at 7. Enjoy.
Happy Friday. See you next time.
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