Giannis Antetokounmpo conquered New York

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

ALL HAIL GIANNIS: Your boy Giannis Antetokounmpo almost dunked from the free throw line and then stuck a game-winning fadeaway in New York’s craw on Wednesday. LEGEND. Someone’s gonna start a church based on Giannis as a deity any day now.

BEARD > TRIPLE-DOUBLES: I wrote our first MVP Power Rankings of the year, and put James Harden ahead of Russell Westbrook due to scoring efficiency. I’d also like to formally apologize for including DeMarcus Cousins, who had an absolutely awful game as the Kings lost to Miami on Wednesday.

WHOA: Kevin Durant with candid comments about his relationship with the media, now and then. This is something you know is ricocheting around the OKC Thunder beat: “That’s the protocol they had in OKC. You had to respect it. They wanted to control the story. They wanted to control the narrative around our team, and I understood that, because there’s a lot of bulls--- that can seep into a young team and affect a young team.”

BIG GAME HUNTERS: Ben Golliver on what is causing the spike in 50-point games.

HOW A PAUL MILLSAP TRADE COULD SHAKE UP THE LEAGUE.

SCORES GALORE ...

Thunder 112, Hornets 123
Hawks 111, Magic 92
Bucks 105, Knicks 104
Bulls 106, Cavaliers 94
Grizzlies 106, Clippers 115
Blazers 117, Warriors 125
Heat 107, Kings 102

OOF: Russell Westbrook accidentally nailed a ref in the dome.

SPEAKING OF REFS ... The refs’ union responded to my piece earlier this week defending the L2M reports. I appreciate the conversation, but their response doesn’t actually prove their claim that L2Ms fail to improve transparency. They obviously do! Hate them all you want, but you can’t credibly claim that they don’t provide transparency on good or bad calls/non-calls in the last two minutes of close games.

OH BOY: Andrew Keh on Frank Ntilikina, an 18-year-old French point guard you are absolutely going to hear about this summer.

WELP: Chris Haynes reports that Festus Ezeli tried to give a second-straight “play harder” speech after a recent Blazers loss, but C.J. McCollum cut him off. Frustrated players don’t like to be lectured by guys in street clothes, I suppose.

NEEDS: Kristian Winfield writes that Toronto needs a better power forward before meeting the Cavaliers.

COMMITMENT: Andrew Bogut might actually have an advent calendar counting down the days until he’s out of Dallas.

A PERFECT EXAMPLE: A couple weeks ago I pushed back against the push from sportswriters who claimed they should not vote for awards (All-Star, MVP, etc.) because those awards impact the salaries of the players they cover. Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post has a column from that perspective. It’s a total cop-out. The idea that writers aren’t impacting those they write about (and don’t write about) every day is a complete and total cop-out.

THIS IS WHY YOUR WINS LOW: Justise Winslow expected to miss the rest of the season with a torn labrum. Best wishes for a speedy recovery. (The tank is on.)

NEXT UP: TNT’s early game is worth setting aside time for: Thunder vs. Rockets at 8 p.m ET. The late game is Lakers-Blazers (10:30), which should be a nice offense-heavy affair, too. Jazz-Raptors (7:30) is the best League Pass option.

Be excellent to each other.