Last Night In The NBA: Yes, There Was Actually NBA Basketball Yesterday And Important Things Happened

Good morning everybody happy lazy Sunday and welcome back to another edition of Last Night In The NBA where we bring you up to speed with everything that happened from the night before in the Association. Chances are you’re a little hung over today, and given the fact that yesterday was mostly all about the NCAA tournament, you may have not even known that there was actually some NBA basketball on the docket. In fact there were two games, both of which actually had a good amount of importance as we sprint towards the finish line of the 2018-19 season. If you missed any of the action that’s OK, here’s what happened

Brooklyn Nets (40-40) 133 vs Milwaukee Bucks (59-21) 128

The Bucks are in an interesting spot. Not in terms of their playoff seeding or anything like that, but when it comes to Giannis. He sat this game out due to injury which is obviously the smart play, but with nothing to play for the rest of the way, do they consider shutting him down for the last few games as well? Is there anything that he could do over their final games that could influence the MVP discussion? Or is it more important that he be 10000000% healthy as he attempts to win the first playoff series of his career? Quite the pickle because he’s been open about how he doesn’t want to sit, but you have to think that health is most important. Now let this game be an example of just how terrifying the Bucks can be, because even without their best player they still came out and dropped 128 points in regulation

They still managed to make 16 3PM, their second unit was nails with a total 48 points and they finished with 55/47% splits. The one area of concern you may want to point out is all the points they gave up at home, but not having a guy that’s basically the DPOY probably has something to do with that. Chances are this team will still get to the rare air of 60 wins, so I wouldn’t worry too much about this one.

For BKN, massive win though. Massive. This was a team on a little bit of a slide as of late dropping four of their last 5, and them, the Pistons, and the Magic are in the middle of one big time battle for playoff positioning. I can imagine everyone wants to avoid MIL/TOR, and this win now has the Nets sitting pretty in the 6 seed, tied with ORL and just 0.5 ahead of the Pistons. With the Pacers and the Heat on deck, this was a game they really needed to snag if they want to stay in their current spot and face a Sixers team they have some level of success against. To do it they relied on their backcourt who came up huge with 49 points

but then also some clutch play from Jared Dudley of all people really helped push them over the top

It always helps to make 19 3PM and only turn the ball over 10 times as well, and this gives you an idea of what this team can do offensively on any given night and why you have to take the feisty Nets seriously. A total of 8 players in double figures, they have shooting at every level, they can go big they can go small, and if they continue to get All NBA level production from D’Angelo Russell it changes everything for them.

They just have the feel of a team that could take a first round series to like 6 games or something.

Philadelphia 76ers (50-30) 116 vs Chicago Bulls (22-58) 96

The Sixers had been struggling as of late, dropping something like 5 of their last 7, but nothing cures your woes quite like playing the Bulls. It’s why nobody should think they are going to fall out of the 3 seed (unless they do it on purpose) to snag the easier first round matchup, this one went pretty much exactly as you think. Jimmy Butler once again got the night off but he wasn’t exactly needed as the Sixers still shot 52% from the field, had 6 players in double figures and still won by 20 despite going just 9-27 from deep. That’s the beauty of the tanking Bulls, you don’t even have to play well and you can coast to victory

This secured back to back 50 win seasons for PHI, and now the pressure is on for them to actually ya know, make a deep postseason run. Something we’ve yet to see them do, but now they’re “all in” and have the talent to do it.

For CHI, the bad news is they can’t get into the top 3 in the tanking standings at this point. That’s good considering it’s not a top heavy draft or anything. At the end of the day having 22 wins at this point of the year is just too many, even though they did their best to make up ground over the last 10 or so games, they didn’t know the tanking forces they were up against. Another brutal showing for the starters yesterday with nobody notching double figures, the story of the night for CHI was the play of JaKarr Simpson who I won’t pretend to know, but I know he went out and dropped an impressive 29/8

As you can expect, that’s about it for the Bulls. Maybe they get some lottery luck and find themselves in the top 3 anyway, but I wouldn’t count on it.

And that’s it! You’re now all caught up on everything that happened yesterday in the NBA. Hopefully these highlights helped your hangover a little bit, and we’re back today with 14 (!!!!) games today to help scratch that basketball itch. Have a great Sunday everybody!