No major stars moved at the NBA trade deadline on Thursday, with Serge Ibaka, DeMarcus Cousins, and multiple Plumlees having already been traded by then. The Paul George rumors were hot and heavy, but Indiana kept him. (Sam Amick reports he’s hell-bent on joining his hometown Lakers in free agency in 2018.)
What if the Kings actually won the Buddy Hield trade?
Good morning. We have that and more in Friday’s NBA newsletter.
Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
We did get our first look at some of the teams that made major trades over All-Star Break, though, including the Pelicans and Kings. New Orleans had Cousins and Anthony Davis teamed up and scaring the hell out of everyone ... but losing by 30 to Lou Williams and the Rockets.
Meanwhile, as the dark clouds parted over Sacramento, the Kings got a career night from Willie Cauley-Stein and beat the Nuggets. Sacramento is now just a half-game behind Denver for the No. 8 seed in the West, as well as being a game above the 10th-worst record in the NBA.
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Scores Galore ...
POR 112, ORL 103
CHA 108, DET 114 (OT)
HOU 129, NOP 99
NYK 104, CLE 119
LAC 113, GSW 123
DEN 100, SAC 116
... And Plenty More
Someone took the awkward sneaker Twitter videos from All-Star and turned them into an amazing ‘90s sitcom intro. (Via r/nba)
The Clippers may never beat the Warriors again. L.A. had a great first half, opening up a 16-point lead just before halftime and going into the break up 12. Then the Warriors dropped a 50-point third quarter on them. Fifty points. In a quarter. (The record for most points in a quarter is 58, if you’re curious.)
The Knicks are so bad, they made noted angelmouth Charles Barkley swear on live television.
Back to the trade deadline. We graded every move that happened. After a day of rumors, Whitney Medworth writes that the Pacers have already failed Paul George. Matt Ellentuck wrote that the Sixers’ mistake with Nerlens Noel is that they held onto him too long.
I wrote that it’s totally fine that the Celtics didn’t make a big move. On the Drive & Kick podcast, Paul Flannery and John Gonzalez declare the Mavericks the biggest winners at the deadline. Kristian Winfield writes that Jrue Holiday is the key to making the Davis-Cousins partnership work. Andrew Bogut was shipped to Philly and will be bought out; it turns out that, thanks to a loophole, he could re-sign with the Warriors.
In my opinion, the Raptors won the deadline. Serge Ibaka isn’t the player he once was and P.J. Tucker isn’t any flavor of LeBron-stopper (there is but one of those, and his name is Kawhi, and even he can’t really stop LeBron but mitigate him). But Toronto addressed a key weakness forcefully without giving up much in way of assets.
Draymond Green kicked again. He made up for it with this hilarious trash-talk toward Paul Pierce. (You know The Truth clapped back later on.)
On that note, the Draymond karate basketball game is top-notch.
Cameron Payne got traded to the Bulls. R.I.P. Cam Payne-Russell Westbrook dance-offs.
There’s nothing weirder than Jahlil Okafor remaining with the Sixers.
This is a nasty open-court block by LeBron James. Not quite a chasedown. More like a joust. Courtney Lee lost.
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