Thank you, Warriors

Shout out to the Golden State Warriors, who have had the grace and kindness to look completely mortal when facing a couple of key teams this season. The Rockets peeled two of three off the Warriors this regular season, and the Thunder blasted Golden State on Tuesday at Oracle. Houston and OKC, seen as the Warriors’ top threats in the West due to talent matchups, are a combined 4-1 against Golden State this season.

This courtesy — making us believe that the Warriors are actually beatable in the playoffs despite ripping through 16-1 last postseason — is quite lovely, and we should shower Golden State with praise for sharing it. With the Cavaliers in an institutional death spiral and Kawhi Leonard on the shelf for an indeterminate time, we need these little hopes that the playoffs won’t be a boring bloodbath. By showing weakness against the teams of James Harden and Russell Westbrook, the Warriors are allowing us to fathom a world in which they don’t stomp everyone into the dirt this spring.

Looking unstoppable is so 2017. Being gracious enough to fail in order to pique the basketball fandom’s interest is what’s really cool. Thanks, Warriors.

(We still know in our hearts you’re going to destroy everything come April. Wink wink.)

CLE 98, ORL 116
BOS 91, TOR 111
MEM 82, ATL 108
HOU 123, BKN 113
MIL 103, NYK 89
WAS 102, PHI 115
OKC 125, GSW 105
PHX 93, LAL 112

Terrible, terrible news: Kristaps Porzingis has torn his ACL. Here’s Matt Ellentuck on what it means for the Unicorn, the Knicks, and all of us.

To set the scene for the Cavaliers, a big Jason Lloyd piece detailing how fractured the LeBron-Dan Gilbert relationship has become came out in the afternoon. In the evening, Cleveland blew a 21-point lead to the Magic (!) for yet another loss. Then after the game, LeBron had to answer questions about whether he would waive his no-trade clause in advance of Thursday’s trade deadline. (He won’t.) Unbelievable.

Ty Lue left in the middle of that game, having been ill. If Kevin Love’s treatment is any example, Isaiah Thomas will yell at the coach at an upcoming team meeting.

Also unbelievable: This danged Giannis Antetokounmpo dunk on poor Tim Hardaway Jr., who soon after left the game with an injury. I credit for Hardaway for waiting even a little bit before leaving the game. I would have disappeared immediately.

Paul Flannery lists out seven teams to keep a close watch on heading into the deadline. Here’s our big rumor tracker, as well.

In lieu of getting traded, it now appears Lou Williams could get an extension with the Clippers. Lou is 31 years old, which makes this a little weird for a team that seems poised to rebuild.

On the peril of long-term sneaker endorsements, or the Derrick Rose story.

Sometimes, Russell Westbrook is just rude to the media. Sometimes, he is absolutely hilarious and shows the absurdity of all of this.

My only fear in writing about whether the Celtics were ready to take over the East this week was that the Raptors would paste them on Tuesday, because the Raptors are freaking good. Welp, that happened.

The dreams and nightmares of Chandler Parsons.

The NBA fined Magic Johnson $50,000 for basically saying Giannis Antetokounmpo is awesome, which everyone acknowledges. He even said Giannis was going to bring Milwaukee a championship, which is like the opposite of tampering, right? The Bucks loved what Magic said so much they memed it for Instagram! Sheesh.

Speaking of Magic, Woj and Momo report the Lakers are shifting their free agent focus to 2019 in lieu of 2018. I think this is a mistake: There’s minimal competition in terms of cap space in 2018 and Paul George is an extraordinary prize. Plus, LeBron has never looked more ready to throw it all away and go somewhere warm (again). It’s in the 80s in L.A. this week!

Be excellent to each other.