Last Night In The NBA: A Night Of Monster Performances

Good morning everybody happy Wednesday and welcome back to another edition of Last Night In The NBA where we bring you up to speed on everything that happened from the night before in the Association. Chances are you’re a little tired today, maybe a little hung over from some World Series drinking, and while we only have three games to talk about today, they were all awesome so at least you’ll be able to kill your morning with some quality basketball highlights. Last night was a night filled with monster performances from some guys you would expect, and dare I say one of them was the best performance of a certain player’s career. Interested? Keep reading because here’s what happened.

Philadelphia 76ers (2-2) 132 vs Detroit Pistons (3-0) 133 F/OT

When we learned Ben Simmons would be missing this game due to his back injury, I don’t think many thought the Sixers were going to pull this game out. Especially given how well the Pistons have played to start their season. Well, in reality they were up to the task and gave us one of the more exciting games of the young season thus far, mostly because Joel Embiid and JJ Redick played out of their minds

Did you know JJ Redick makes only $12.5M this year? What a bargain if you ask me considering he’s nearly won the Sixers 2 of their first 4 games by himself. Just like he usually does, Joel Embiid owned the Embiid/Drummond matchup, flopped to get him ejected, and after the game wasn’t really shy about the fact that he owns beachfront property in his brain

But there was also the play of Markelle Fultz that should have Sixers fans feeling OK despite the loss. The truth is, he wasn’t all that bad!

His 13/6 on 6-9 shooting (nice), in just 21 minutes was a good, he even had that nice block from behind like he used to do at Washington. My question is, where the hell was he down the stretch of the game and in OT? He didn’t play a single second, instead losing out to TJ McConnell. What the hell is that? On a night where Fultz probably has his best game of the season you don’t give him the opportunity to close this game out? That was weird and I don’t care how much Brett Brown loves TJ. This was your #1 pick, who is healthy!! Let us see him in that situation, we’ve waited a long time.

Now for DET, there were multiple strong performances, especially from the guard positions. Both Reggie Jackson and Ish Smith tormented the PHI backcourt to the tune of a combined 44 points on 16-26 shooting.

Despite getting tossed, Andre Drummon still had 14/16, and as a team DET shot 47/36% while turning it over just 8 times. That’s impressive.

More impressive though, was Blake Griffin’s 50 burger

Some might say this was one of his best performances of his career, and I could see it. I mean he looks healthy as shit and we all know that a healthy Blake Griffin plays at a sneaky MVP level. The back and forth in OT was thrilling, and his perfect execution of the game winner coming out of an ATO was awesome. Here it is one more time

Just a complete mental mistake from every Sixers involved. Brutal misread by Amir Johnson, Embiid was caught trying to help a pass that never happened, and then fouling Blake at the rim while still letting him get the shot up is just bad basketball. The Pistons now stay undefeated in the East, and while I remind you all that the had a similar hot start last year, they are healthy and have a new coach and they are playing like a team that could finish top 4.

Los Angeles Clippers (2-2) 109 vs New Orleans Pelicans (3-0) 116

Are the Pelicans for real? It sure as hell looks like it. I suppose it helps when you’re getting a nice 34/13 with 5 blocks on 11-21 shooting from Anthony Davis

I mean I just don’t know how you guard that. Seriously, what are you supposed to do? A 7fter with that type of handle and that type of offensive arsenal, there really is no defense designed to stop him. When AD wants to eat, he eats. But look, he didn’t do it alone, you had first year Pelican Elfrid Payton coming up huge with his 20/6/6

and then while the team will most likely be forced to choose between Julius Randle and Nikola Mirotic at the end of the season, they can just enjoy their production now, and together they had a nice 36 poitns

I would say really, in looking at this roster, the only thing they are truly missing is a legit wing player. But what we know is this offense is fucking legit, I mean the Pelicans shot 43/25% and still had 116 points. I guess taking 40 FTA helps in that regard. This game was pretty close until their 3rd quarter run, and from there the Clippers just didn’t have enough to come back.

For LAC, Tobias and Gallo combined for nearly half their points with 50

And don’t look now but a healthy Gallo is now averaging 21.5/7.0/1.8 on 46/43% splits with 2.5 3PM a year. Pretty nice season he’s having I would say. The problem was outside of these two, no Clipper really showed up. I guess you could say Lou Williams who had 17 off the bench, but guys like Avery Bradley were 1-8, SGA was 3-8, and hell Boban only played 1 minute because the Pelicans kept putting him in screens and he couldn’t stay with anyone.

Surprisingly this was the first road game for the Clippers, and I don’t think any Clips fan is complaining about a 2-2 start.

Sacramento Kings (1-3) 112 vs Denver Nuggets (4-0) 126

Are the Nuggets the best team in the NBA? OK that’s crazy, but what a start for this team. I know it’s the Baby Kings, and I know their streak of holding opponents under 100 is over, but still, 4-0 is 4-0 and they look great doing it

A total of 8 players in double figures, 51.1/36.7% splits with 11 3PM, and they started this game with 33, 35, 37 point quarters. I know the Kings aren’t exactly defensive wizards, but that doesn’t mean that when this offense gets rolling they aren’t fun as hell to watch. Especially playing at the Pepsi Center which is becoming a tough place for teams to play. How far can they stay undefeated? Well they go LAL/NO/CHI/CLE/UTA/BOS next, so it may be coming to an end soon but don’t let that distract you from the point that the Nuggets are FOR REAL.

For SAC, at this point you know you won’t win many games, especially against the good teams, so you’re looking for anything to hang your hat on and get excited about. Last night, that was Marvin Bagley III

The Kings bench actually played prettu well, with four guys in double figures who went a combined 28-50 from the floor. Sure it was a blowout early, but they kept fighting to make the final score somewhat respectable. Good for them!

And that’s it! You’re now all caught up on everything that went down from the night before in the NBA. We’re back tonight with 11 total games, so a full slate, which I know you won’t care about because Game 2 of the World Series is on. That’s fine, just check back in the morning and I’ll bring you up to speed on what you missed.