If you missed the end of Blazers vs. Thunder late, late Tuesday night, you’re going to wake up to claims that Damian Lillard hit the greatest shot in NBA history, you’re going to decline to take such claims seriously, you’re going to watch the shot in question and read all the documentary evidence about the shot, and you’re going to come around to the fact that this shot is absolutely in the conversation for the greatest shot in NBA history.
It’s always Dame Time somewhere
We have that and more in Wednesday’s NBA newsletter.
Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images
I mean, just watch the daggun thing.
GOOD f’n LORD.
That’s right, Damian Lillard (50 points, 17-32 shooting) sent the Thunder out of the playoffs with a 37-foot bomb at the buzzer after Portland trailed by as many as 15 midway through the fourth quarter of the most stressful game of a very stressful series. Then he immediately waved goodbye to the Thunder, probably specifically Russell Westbrook, with whom he’s been beefing all season and series.
Lillard will be on second-team All-NBA, and he might finish fifth or so in MVP voting. So you can’t really say anyone is sleeping on him. He’s not underrated, exactly. But no praise for his skill, style, cool, courage is enough. All hail King Dame, ruler of the Pacific Northwest and now Oklahoma City.
Scores
Magic 96, Raptors 115
Toronto wins series 4-1
Nets 100, Sixers 122
Philadelphia wins series 4-1
Spurs 90, Nuggets 108
Denver leads series 3-2
Thunder 115, Blazers 118
Portland wins series 4-1
Schedule
Here’s the Wednesday schedule:
Jazz at Rockets, 8 ET, TNT
Houston leads series 3-1
Clippers at Warriors, 10:30 ET, TNT
Golden State leads series 3-1
The East semifinal series — both of which are now set (Bucks-Celtics and Raptors-Sixers) -- will start Saturday or Sunday depending on what happens in the West series the next couple of days.
Links
The Raptors left no doubt they were moving on in Game 5, burying the Magic from the tip. Heckuva team. The Sixers did the same thing to the Nets after losing Game 1 just like Toronto. I’m ready for this series. Let’s go. Like right now.
Hey, at least we got some bonus pointless beef in Sixers-Nets!
Michael Pina on the Sixers’ self-imposed moment of truth. Joel Embiid spent the postgame saying he thinks Philly can win it all! This isn’t necessary, guys.
The Nuggets have bounced back well after going down 2-1, winning two straight to get to one victory away from the second round after a drubbing of the Spurs Tuesday. We’re watching Jamal Murray grow up before our eyes.
So Paul George got in his feelings a little bit in the postgame (Understandable! His MVP-caliber season is over.) and declared that Dame’s 37-foot stepback to win the game was a “bad shot.” Which, he has a point! You miss that and we’re throwing darts at Dame all night instead of genuflecting. But George probably wasn’t the guy to make that point, and the immediate aftermath of the game probably wasn’t the time. And Dame took one last shot just to get his point across, this time on Twitter.
Injured Jusuf Nurkic decided to show up to the Blazers game in the fourth quarter for an inspiring sideline cameo.
Jonathan Tjarks on the difficulty of building around Westbrook.
Kelli Tennant, a former sports broadcaster who has accused Luke Walton of sexual assault, held a press conference detailing the allegations and calling out the NBA’s culture of exploitation and abuse.
Devin Booker is 22 and has already had more NBA head coaches than a number of legends. Some morning heat on how screwed up the Suns are to fire Igor Kokoskov. (By the way, apologies for misspelling Igor’s last name all over Tuesday emailed version of the newsletter.)
Bad news from amid the ecstasy: Enes Kanter has a separated shoulder.
Seerat Sohi on the Nets being able to sell team culture to free agents.
And finally, here’s a nightmare sentence for you, Lakers fans: Jason Kidd interviewed for the open Lakers head coach position with general manager Rob Pelinka and advisor to the franchisee Kurt Rambis.
Be excellent to each other.
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