You may remember in December when Joel Embiid and Russell Westbrook sparked a beef we never knew we needed. Embiid waved goodbye to Steven Adams when he fouled out; after the Thunder won, Westbrook waved goodbye to Embiid. You know, when you put it this way, it sounds kind of pleasant. IT WASN’T. In the postgame, Embiid also made fun of Westbrook in the postgame for shooting 10-of-33.
Russell Westbrook vs. Joel Embiid reaches new levels of petty
We have that and more in Monday’s NBA newsletter.
The Sixers visited the Thunder on Sunday, allowing a little renewal of this beef. AND OH DID WE GET IT.
Embiid absolutely smashed on Westbrook early in the game and stared him down running back up the court. He later Instagrammed the poster moment, setting the location as “Crime Scene Investigation.” Yikes.
Meanwhile, as Westbrook was letting the clock run down at the end of another Thunder win, he stared down Embiid on the bench. Just silently staring. (Phenomenal camera work there.) After the buzzer, he wordlessly walked through the Sixers’ mob to the locker rooms, dapping no one.
It’s really a shame these two teams are done playing. The good news, though, is that Embiid and Westbrook are on opposing teams at All-Star. Forget about fat bonuses for the winning team. Just let these dudes get after it!
(Oklahoma City has won eight straight, by the way, and is just two games out of the No. 3 seed.)
Scores Galore ...
MIL 110, CHI 96
PHX 102, HOU 113
LAC 112, NOP 103
DET 104, CLE 121
LAL 111, TOR 123
PHI 112, OKC 122
SAC 98, SAS 113
... And So Much More
DeMarcus Cousins ruptured his Achilles on Friday night, knocking him out for the season. Here’s what this means for Cousins and the Pelicans. (It’s quite bad.) I wrote about how sad the injury is given where he and Pelicans found themselves before it happened. Here’s David Fisher on how to plot a course forward for New Orleans.
As if it weren’t sad enough, this happened right as SLAM put Boogie and Anthony Davis on one of the more incredible covers of the past few years.
Meanwhile, Paul George will replace Cousins on Team LeBron at All-Star. Don’t worry, Lou Williams: You can be a star without being an All-Star.
Andre Roberson is out for the season too after a knee injury. This could really spell trouble for the Thunder given Roberson’s impact on the team’s defense.
We now know in which order the All-Star starters were picked.
Friday was a banner night in Believeland. You had Kevin Love bending over to hand Isaiah Thomas a rebound, as if Isaiah were a small child and the ball were a blankie. (The other interpretation: a mock bowing as if Isaiah were a royal and Love were bestowing a gift — the ball — upon him.)
This comes amid news that Isaiah was leading the critiques of his former AAU teammate Love in that explosive meeting last week. Later this weekend, Isaiah had a very tense, weird media scrum conversation about his shot selection and Cavalier player critiques of such.
Just for giggles, Love also threw his warm-ups on Jeff Green’s face. Everyone laughed about that one, though.
If you missed Warriors vs. Celtics on ABC’s Saturday showcase, you missed a legendary Kyrie Irving performance and Steph Curry popping for an effortless 49 in a potential finals preview.
The NBA released its plan to fix player-official relations. More or less, it boils down to...meetings.
A strong critique of the NBA’s proposal to take a cut off bets to supporting legalized gambling. Via REDEF.
Vince Carter, 41 years old, is dunking on Father Time.
Fascinating New York Times story on Robert Bobroczkyi, a 195-pound, 7’7 Romanian 17-year-old trying to build a body that can perhaps compete in the NBA someday. (Yes, he’s 7’7 at 17. Kristaps Porzingis was 6’9 at that age.)
Whitney Medworth’s B-Sides talk about Kevin Durant making fun of himself and more.
Add another name to Enes Kanter’s long list of beefs: Devin Booker.
Is Chandler Parsons’ career over? Or is Memphis just being weird and resting him out of an abundance of caution in a lost season? By the way, Mike Conley isn’t coming back this season. His injury was originally supposed to keep him out just a couple of weeks!
LaVar Ball took over as head coach of his sons’ Lithuanian team for a day. Here’s what happened.
Be excellent to each other.
Giannis’ game is so complete he doesn’t need a jump shot
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