Last Night In The NBA: Joel Is A Monster, Westbrook Trolls, Locker Room Fights And Much More!

Good morning everybody and welcome back to another edition of Last Night In The NBA where we bring you up to speed on everything that went down from the night before in the Association. Hopefully 2019 is starting off on the right foot for both your and your favorite basketball team, and we had a near full slate with 10 games on the schedule Wednesday night. This was one of the first nights in a while we didn’t really have any surprise outcomes, but we did have some big time performances, postgame fights, and much more. If you weren’t able to catch all the action that’s OK, just keep reading. Here’s what happened.

Dallas Mavericks (18-19) 122 vs Charlotte Hornets (18-19) 84

The Mavs won a road game!! You may not think that’s a big deal, but for a team that was 2-16 away from home heading into this game, it sure as hell was. It was also a homecoming for Dennis Smith Jr, so it’s only natural he responded by playing well

The Mavs got off to a great start in that first quater where tbey dropped 42 points, and in fact they led by 20 points for the final 27 minutes of this ballgame. That’s what we in the biz call a wire to wire win folks. Luka did Luka things and pretty much dominated his three quarters

and it was good to see this team finally play well on the road. They made 18 3PM and turned it over just 10 times which is always a winning combination, and for a team that has been pretty up and down over the last few weeks, perhaps this could be the game that gives them some momentum on the road. They have BOS/PHI/LAL up next, so we’re about to find out.

For CHA, a little shocking because this performance came at home where they always seem to play good teams close. Last night they probably had their worst shooting night of the season at just 35/18%, their starting backcourt went a combined 7-27, and no player had more than 11 points. For a team desperately trying to hang on to one of the lower seeds in the East, this wasn’t great

Now 4-6 over their last 10, the Hornets are definitely feeling the heat from teams like BKN/ORL that are both just 1.0 games back.

Miami Heat (18-18) 117 vs Cleveland Cavaliers (8-30) 92

You know who didn’t have a poor shooting night? The Heat. They were pretty impressive, finishing with 51/51% splits, 16 3PM, and had 7 players in double figures. Josh Richardson led the way with 24/5 on 9-16 shooting

and while it looked like CLE was maybe going to keepn= this close, the Heat opened the game up with a 36 point second quarter which helped them build a 15 point lead, and from there they coasted. The second unit was great for MIA, with three guys in double figures and a combined 54 points which is fairly outrageous.

It was also the return of Dion Waiters, who has missed like 80+ games with injury, and it’s always fun when Waiters Island is back

The Heat are now 7-3 over their last 10 and firmly in the 6th spot.

For CLE, Patrick McCaw make his Cavs debut and had 2 points in 18 minutes,

and what’s crazy is they only had 22 rebounds as a team this entire game. That’s how you know MIA basically never missed. In all honesty nobody really showed out for CLE so let’s just keep this moving.

Minnesota Timberwolves (17-21) 102 vs Boston Celtics (22-15) 115

We’ll be talking about the Celts in their usual blog, so let’s spend some time appreciating the play of both KAT and Andrew Wiggins, as they were really the only ones to show up for MIN in this game

it’s quickly becoming a lost season in MIN as this loss brings them to 4 games under.500, 4-6 in their last 10 and a full 4 games back from the final playoff spot. Their defense remains a problem, and if not for a 39 point third quarter this would have looked either worse. They were short handed so that’s a small factor, but even still the Wolves are spiraling right now.

Atlanta Hawks (11-26) 98 vs Washington Wizards (15-23) 114

For some reason, the Wizards are doing that thing where they win games without John Wall again. That’s only doing more harm than good at this point, but credit Bradley Beal for still playing hard

They also got a very nice 21/6/6 on 7-13 shooting from Jeff Green

We almost had a classic Wizards collapse, but thankfully the Hawks were the Hawks in the fourth and this turned into a blowout. This was only a 4 point game heading into the fourth quarter, so it was nice to see the Wizards not run out of gas late like they usually do.

For ATL, I mean nobody thought you would win this game even with all the chaos in WSH, they’re 5-16 on the road and right in the middle of a tanking battle. But hey, both John Collins and Alex Len showed some life so there’s that

They have some work to do to get back in close with CHI/NYK/CLE/PHX, as their 11 wins are the most of any in that group.

New Orleans Pelicans (17-22) 121 vs Brooklyn Nets (18-21) 126

At this point, each NO loss has to feel like 10 losses with all the AD shit flying around. Here was a night where you played well, scored 120 points, shot 53% from the field, had four players with at least 20 points, and it still wasn’t enough

You had Anthony Davis out here breaking franchise records, being an absolute freak, and yet the Pelicans couldn’t pull off the comeback. This team is now 7-9 against the East, and it makes you weep for Anthony Davis and the Pelicans fanbase because no chance he volunteers to stay with this bullshit. Their defense is getting worse not better, and they now have the 2nd worst record in the entire West. Now 3-7 over their last 10, they are 4.5 games out of the final playoff spot. What a disaster this is turning into. They made one last push in that fourth quarter, but they needed stops, and that is not something the Pelicans have bene able to get for a while now.

For BKN, it’s the opposite. Good on them for holding on at home, they got great performances from Russell and Joe Harris

As a team they finished with 50/51% splits, 16 3PM and 7 players in double figures. They’re now 7-3 over their last 10 and are banging on the door of the 7/8 seed and if they have another good week who knows, maybe even the 6th seed. Despite not giving him that extension and basically telling him they were moving on, you have to give credit to how well D’Angelo Russell has responded. He’s playing the best basketball of his career, and probably earning himself a good amount of money this summer.

Orlando Magic (17-20) 112 vs Chicago Bulls (10-28) 84

Well someone had to win this game. The Magic, for whatever reason haven’t embraced the tank yet, so I’m not surprised it was them. Another solid showing from Vucevic and his 22/12 on 10-15 combined with a strong all around effort from Aaron Gordon

this was a complete performance from ORL. They also had Mo Bamba blocking everything that came his way which was cool

and they shot a ridiculous 57% for the game which isn’t very Magic like. Despite being 3 games under .500 they too are in competition for that final playoff spot in the East, which for sure says a lot about the conference but whatever. Things are about to get dark in ORL once they trade Vucevic, so enjoy the wins now I say.

Detroit Pistons (17-19) 101 vs Memphis Grizzlies (18-19) 94

Sometimes you have to just give the ball to Blake and get the hell out of the way

Not a bad performance from DET, they shot decent, played good defense, only turned it over 7 times, and had balanced scoring. For a team that was 5-11 on the road heading in and played a pretty good team at home, I think it’s OK to say it was a bit surprising how this turned out. DET is just 4-6 over their last 10 and has a -2.2 point differential so really they should be much worse. Things were rough for them until the third where they held MEM to just 12 points, and from there that gave them just enough space to hold on.

For MEM, the good news is Jaren Jackson Jr rules

The bad news is MEM has llst 3 in a row, is 2-8 over their last 10, and they had a fight postgame

Two pretty random players, but a fight nonetheless. Things are starting to unravel for this team, and that’s really a shame given the talent they have on this roster. They now sit 2.5 games back of the final playoff spot, and it’s definitely not looking great for them.

Philadelphia 76ers (25-14) 132 vs Phoenix Suns (9-30) 127

No Jimmy Butler no problem for the Sixers I mean jesus. Pick a name and they were dominant, but we’ll start with Joel Embiid who pretty much made DeAndre Ayton rethink his entire decision to even play this sport

then you add in the work of Simmons

and JJ Redick

and this was a good old fashioned beatdown. Now it is a little concerning that they were once up 30 and won by 5, but whatever. You have this sort of offensive outburt missing one of your best players, I’m impressed. The defense is still a gigantic issue and one will that will be the demise of the Sixers if they don’t get their shit together, but not having Butler does play some role in that.

For PHX, you know the formula, it’s watch Devin Booker and Ayton and that’s about it

Credit to the Suns for staying in it and clawing their way back, they had 78 points in the second half which is pretty damn impressive. Booker made some history as the only player in Suns history with 30+ points in 4 straight games so that’s cool, and really this loss was important given all the other tanking teams around them, so no harm no foul in my opinion.

Oklahoma City Thunder (24-13) 107 vs Los Angeles Lakers (21-17) 100

This OKC team is scary man. Especially with how well Paul George is playing at this moment

While he was awesome, the story of the night was clearly Westbrook. How many other players in the league can have an AWFUL shooting night, go 3-20 from the field, and still have the balls to troll a legit pyscho like Lance?

Only Westbrook. As a team the Thunder couldn’t really make shit, they finished with just 38/22% splits, but they did enough in the fourth quarter, aka give it to George, to score their second highest total of the night and ultimately run away with this thing. They are comfortably 3rd in the West just 1.0 game sback of GS, are 7-3 in their last 10 and are an absolute wagon defensively in the halfcourt. What a turnaround from their slow start.

For LAL, yeah, they clearly need LeBron. That’s not really news, but this is the reality that many Celtics fans also had to live with. Maybe the young pieces aren’t as good as the fanbase wants them to be. At least not, we can just trade one or two of these for AD type good.

They are something like 1-3 without LeBron in the lineup and all of the sudden they’ve dropped to the 8th spot. Welcome to the West.

And that’s it! You’re now caught up on everything that went down last night in the NBA. We’re back tonight with just 3 games but they are all good with TOR/SA, DEN/SAC, and HOU/GS. As always if you can’t watch just check back in the morning and I’ll fill you in on what you missed.