I hope you all had a pleasant weekend — over in the NBA it was nothing less than action packed. Let’s jump right into it.
The Charlotte Hornets started off a back-to-back weekend first playing the Indiana Pacers and then facing the Milwaukee Bucks; and they won both. Lamelo Ball had a huge couple of games, first scoring 16 points against Indiana and then a career high 27 points against the Bucks.
It would continue to be a sad weekend for Indiana as they played the Philadelphia 76er’s on Sunday; and although they started the game with a commanding lead they blew it, getting outscored 37-15 in the fourth quarter against a 76er’s who were missing their star Joel Embiid.
The Washington Wizards had a roller coaster weekend. Starting it off against the Atlanta Hawks with the loss 116-100 handed to them by Trae Young as he dropped 41 points and 5 three-pointers. But the big story for Washington was when they faced the Brooklyn Nets — who are missing James Harden — on Sunday night, and although the Nets started off with a huge lead, the Wizards who have the worst record in the league, climbed back into it with Russel Westbrook scoring 41 points and Bradley Beal having 37 points. With 12 seconds left to the game and Brooklyn up by 5, the Wizards hit a three-pointer, got the steal, and hit another three to take the lead and win the game.
The Cleveland Cavaliers had a rough few days as they played a couple of evenly matched teams. First they played the New York Knicks and with RJ Barret continuing his consistent play the Knicks won 102-81. The Cavs then went on to play the Minnesota Timberwolves and even with the Timberwolves missing Karl Anthony Towns, the Cavs lost this game 109-104.
The Raptors played a pair, the first on Friday night against the Sacramento Kings where the Kings showed their depth having 3 starters with 20+ points, 3 bench players in double digit scoring and good ball movement with 31 team assists to overcome a top contender out of the East. The Raptors went on to play Orlando, but this time they were able to come away with W, with the help of 15 assists from Kyle Lowry and 30 points from Paskal Siamkam.
The Milwaukee Bucks had a slow weekend. Before their loss by the hand of Charlotte, they faced the young buck down in New Orleans, and boy did the Pelicans have a good night. Four of their starters had 20+ points and Lonzo Ball, who is rumored to be on the trading block, dropped 27 and handed the L to Giannis Antetokounmpo who had 38 points on the night.
The Pelicans were brought back down to earth only 24 hours later with a loss to a Houston Rockets team that is only picking up steam. I predicted that Houston did not lose in the Harden trade because they picked up not only an All-Star in Victor Oladipo but they gained depth in the back court which seems to be were they are out performing their opponents.
When the Orlando Magic played the Raptors on Sunday, it was not the first L of the weekend. Friday night they played the Los Angels Clippers, and lets just say if you can’t beat Toronto then you definitely won’t beat LA. They were blown out by 26 points, 116-90.
The Clippers went on to have a perfect weekend with a win on Sunday against the Knicks with Kawhi Leonard having 27 points and every starter for the Clips in double digit scoring.
Before Philadelphia played Indiana for the W, they faced the Timberwolves on Friday night, and with Joel Embiid in the line-up, he dropped 37 points and 11 rebounds to take a commanding win over Minnesota.
Friday Night saw the Brooklyn Nets heading the Oklahoma City Thunder and with James Harden still in the line-up, but Kevin Durant sitting out. Harden proceeded to blow their former team out of the water, winning 147-125.
While Luka Donćic is in the running for MVP, his team, the Dallas Mavericks, are not appearing to be Championship contenders. The Mavs played back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday; and although Luka dropped over 25 points both night, they lost both. First to the Utah Jazz continuing their 11-game winning streak while Utah was missing Donovan Mitchell. Second they lost to the Phoenix Suns where Chris Paul dropped 29 points and 12 assists to seal the deal.
Damian Lillard might be the best Point Guard in NBA history. If you think this is an over-exaggeration then you have not been watching this season and especially last night’s game. When the Trail-Blazers faced the Bulls Saturday night, Lillard dropped 44 points on 57% shooting, including knocking down the buzzer beater to win the game for Portland.
The San Antonio Spurs had some ups and downs this weekend, first playing the Denver Nuggets on Friday night and winning after DeMar DeRozan dropped 30 points for the ball game to help the Spurs capture the win. The next night, however, not only did the Spurs lose to the Memphis Grizzlies who are having a solid season so far, the Grizzlies held Derozan to only 5 points which is attributed to the Memphis defense.
This was not the last game for Denver. They faced the Utah Jazz in a playoff rematch. Utah came into the game on an 11 game winning streak, and Denver came in looking to end it. The Nuggets jumped out to an early 20-point lead and held onto it through most of the game, until late in 4th quarter when Utah was able to bring it back but not enough to overcome the deficit, and Nikola Jokić’s 47-point night, tying his career high.
The Golden State Warriors have been playing at high level this season even with the noticeable absence of Klay Thomson, but the warriors are managing having picked other crucial players like Kelly Oubre Jr, and Andrew Wiggins. They made easy work of the Detroit Piston on Saturday night at they blew them out 118-91
Franchise rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics matched up for an epic night where everyone was firing on all cylinders. Jason Tatum dropped 30 points on an incredible 66% shooting and Jaylen Brown had 28 points on 68% shooting. But it was not enough. The Lakers as a team outperformed the Celtics and Anthony Davis, who has been in a slump ever since they played Chicago, shook it off as he dropped 27 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to help the Lakers over the hump and get back in the win column.
Jimmy Butler is BACK!!! That’s right Jimmy “Buckets” has been absent due to contracting Covid-19, but he is back. In his debut he dropped 30 points 7 rebounds and 8 assists to help his Heat team take the W over Sacramento on Saturday. But even more than that it was a statement. It showed that the Miami Heat were not a fluke to get to the finals last year, they deserved it and with Jimmy back on the floor, this team is one that makes all the Eastern contenders take notice.
This has been the Weekend Edition of Briefly In Depth
Check back in Wednesday for the Mid-Week Report
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