Good morning. Let’s basketball.
Kyle Lowry is back, and Damian Lillard never left
Good morning. We have that and more in Sunday’s NBA newsletter.
PASSING THE TEST: Doubt that Tyronn Lue could unify the Cavaliers and take them to a high level rained on Cleveland back in January. That’s not happening any more. Paul Flannery’s Sunday Shootaround focuses on Lue’s performance to date and the Cavaliers’ excellence more generally as they attempt to go 8-0 for the postseason on Sunday. Plus, Flanns looks at the intriguing second-tier free agents still playing in the postseason, the best quotes of the week (several about coaching carousel decisions) and more. Check it out.
DAME GAME: We were bound for a Damian Lillard explosion against his hometown team, the Warriors, and we got it. Lillard lit up Golden State a couple times in the regular season and he did it again on Saturday to the tune of 40 points and 10 assists. Portland wins 120-108 despite a monster game from Draymond Green (37-9-8). Golden State leads 2-1, and Steph Curry is looking good for Game 4 on Monday.
KYLE LOWRY IS BACK: After a dreadful start to the playoffs, KLOE perked up late in Game 2 of this series. He went nuts in Game 3 in Miami, scoring 29 in the second half and 33 for the game as the Raptors stole on in South Beach, 95-91. Dwyane Wade had 38, but there wasn’t enough scoring from other Heatians. Bad news for both teams: Hassan Whiteside and Jonas Valanciunas both got hurt, and appear to be day-to-day at this point. The worst news: DNP-CD for Justise Winslow.
JOERGER GONE: Dave Joerger was fired by the Grizzlies early Saturday. Memphis GM Chris Wallace did a weird Q&A with an unnamed Grizzlies employee for their website. I wrote about how Joerger seems to have engineered his own dismissal by trying to get a job in Sacramento for double the pay and quadruple the security. And also, as Sam Amick notes, Joerger’s wife is an avid horse barrel racer. We have horses AND barrels in Northern California! That said, it appears the Kings might be sticking to their process and not throwing it all away to snap up Joerger.
ON THE AIR TODAY ...
Cavaliers at Hawks, 3:30 p.m. ET, ABC, CLE leads 3-0
Spurs at Thunder, 8 p.m., TNT, SAS leads 2-1
OY OY OY: If you enjoy watching people dunk on Andrew Bogut, this Al-Farouq Aminu jam should do the trick.
THROWBACK THROWDOWN: Dwyane Wade missed a jumper but smashed a put-back dunk. That’s 50 percent shooting right there.
RIPPLE EFFECT: Ken Berger on what the late firings of Joerger and Frank Vogel are doing to the league’s coaching searches.
ON MJ’S GREATEST SACRIFICE: Corbin Smith is unbelievably wrong about the excellence of Space Jam, but he sees through his hate to make a strong point about the incredible sacrifice Michael Jordan makes at halftime of the Tune Squad’s game against the Mon*Stars.
Happy Sunday. Shout out to all the moms, who legitimately have the most important jobs in the world.
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