Last Night In The NBA: Some Teams Have Reason To Smile

Happy Friday everybody and welcome to another edition of Last Night In The NBA where we catch you up on everything that happened from the night before in the Association. It’s the end of the week and there’s little to no chance you want to get anything done today, so why not talk about the four games we had last night. Despite the low number of games, all were exciting and there are some real playoff implications as we move forward. Games are starting to really matter and this is when the league is at its best because the players are actually trying. Sounds like a fun night right? Well if you missed anything, here’s what happened

Lakers (27-34) 131 vs Heat (32-30) 16-13 113

Make it 4 in a row now for the Lakers! Is it possible that they are able to make up the 6 game difference with 21 games left? Probably not, but if they keep playing like this I don’t think you can completely throw it out the window. Give it like a 5% chance. One thing you can bank is that LAL pick is not going to drop into the high lottery, and I give the Lakers a lot of credit for having a much better season than anyone could have predicted. They’ve already passed their win total of last year and last night they snagged their first win in MIA in the last 10 years. So you feel good right now if your a Lakers fan and I get why, I mean look up and down the roster and everyone played great.

From Isaiah’s 29/6 on 11-20 (6-11) shooting

he’s definitely looking quicker in terms of his first step, and once he starts to feel that confidence as a playmaker, there comes his outside shot. I’m happy for him despite playing for perhaps the worst franchise of all time. Even if the Lakers don’t keep him, a healthy Isaiah who is dropping 29/6 on teams is better for the overall league. But it was more than Isaiah, Randle continued his strong play with 25/6 on 8-13

and the more he plays like this the tougher spot the Lakers are going to be in. Despite how great Randle has been playing, are the Lakers willing to mess up with their cap situation to match any offer he gets? Probably not because instead of keeping and developing their own young talent, they’d rather just roll the dice on Lebron and someone else.

When it came to their young rookies, they also showed out

Despite it being against some of the worst teams in the league, the 124, 113, 123, and 131 points during this streak is pretty impressive. Despite all the shade Isaiah got when he first arrived, the Lakers are 4-2 in games he’s played (not counting NO when he and Rondo got tossed early).

For MIA, a tough loss at home no doubt, and really the story of their last 10 games where they are 3-7. It’s going to be hard to beat any team in the league when you give up 59/55% shooting and 16 made threes and defense has really been the thorn in the Heat’s side this season. They wake up this morning and find themselves in the 8 seed with the worst point differential of any current playoff team in the East, and just a 2.5 lead over DET for that final spot. Things are rough.

The good news is at least another former Cav in Wade is pulling stuff out of his asshole

I’m not sure MIA fans care that they are losing as long as they get to see Wade play well. From the game winner the other night to another solid 25 last night with a ridiculous shake on Lonzo, the Cavs bench sure could have used something like that last night.

I do also think Bam has had a more than solid rookie year for this team, and a guy that will most likely outperform his draft selection when it’s all said and done

This is no something you can say about Justise Winslow, although he did play well last night too

Sixers (33-27) 108 vs Cavaliers (36-25) 97

Now this was an entertaining game. A potential first round matchup, I’m not sure the Cavs want that. Given the talent on the Sixers, it’s sneaky a bad matchup for them. They may own the season series right now 2-1, but outside of the first game, the two that have followed have been close. The Sixers did a great job last night of keeping things balanced, getting great nights from their basketball aliens

and Simmons vs Lebron is always must watch

This was a win the Sixers very much needed after dropping their last two in a row on the road, and they find themselves currently in the 6 spot with a 0.5 game lead over MIL, but just 2 games behind WSH for as high as fourth. Things are very fluid still so anytime you can walk into the Q where the Cavs were 21-9 and get a road win is pretty important.

This was a complete wire to wire win for PHI which was impressive, as the Cavs were only able to tie it 3 times last night. There was never a lead change which just goes to show how consistent the effort from PHI was. Good win.

For CLE, this now brings them to 2-3 after the break, with those two wins being MEM and a prayer win against BKN. Not exactly the same team we saw head into the break that was declared world beaters. Obviously Lebron was Lebron and dropped 30/9/8 on 50% shooting but that’s not really news. He’s been doing it all year.

The news is their newly acquired pieces are turning back into what they always were, and that has CLE is a bit of a pickle. Hill/Hood/Nance/Clarkson all combined to go just 16-38 for a total of 41 points. Take away Larry Nance’s night and it’s even uglier.

Here’s how they look in all games as Cavs, including the ones before the break

Hill: 11/2.4/2.6 with 37/26% splits

Clarkson: 13.6/2.9/2.3 on 51/37% splits

Hood: 11.1/3.0/1.6 on 44/38% splits

Nance Jr: 9.4/6.4/1.7 on 60/0% splits

Aside from Hill., not terrible right? Well when you look at things post break it tells a different story. They’ve all regressed a little bit from that hot start and they are dropping games at home that they simply should not be dropping. I know Cavs fans are going to be defensive reading this, that’s usually how it works so allow me to say this. As long as they have Lebron none of this truly matters, but we can no longer ignore the fact that they may not even have home court in the first round, and they are an average at best team on the road.

Also quickly, on the move from Lebron last night

If you think this was anything more than luck you’re crazy. He purposely went behind his back, but there’s no chance he intentionally went in between the legs of TT. Thompson was clearly trying to create space so that Lebron COULD go behind his back, and it just lucked out that way. If Lebron was a normal person, that’s what he would have said. That he saw the play but got a little lucky how it turned out. Is that what he did? Of fucking course not

It’s OK to admit when you get a little lucky Lebron, literally everybody does it. I will say this too, things are starting to get a little weird when it comes to Lebron/Philly. You’re going to tell me that’s NOT the Liberty Bell?

Kings (19-43) 116 vs Nets (20-43) 111

If you’re a Cavs fan that was said about getting your dick kicked in by the Sixers, at least you went to bed a little happy that De’Aaron Fox helped your lottery odds.

That floater at the buzzer was big time and part of me thinks Fox doesn’t get a lot of the same shine of other rookies because of how shitty his team is, but make no mistake the kid is going to be really really good. He also had some help from some other guys like WCS and Bogdanovic

to help secure their 9th home win. Man imagine having 9 wins at home and it’s March 2nd? Those poor SAC fan(s).

For BKN, late game execution plagued them once again, and it’s fitting that a team that can’t win on the road (8-22) somehow lost to a team that couldn’t win at home (9-20). I love these tanking matchups because BKN definitely doesn’t care since they don’t own their pick, and SAC for some reason thinks winning is a good idea right now. Two franchises so fucking stupid they can’t even get this right. Having said that, good nights from Carroll, Allen, and Crabbe

Trail Blazers (36-26) 108 vs Timberwolves (38-27) 99

I hope you stayed up to watch this game because not only was it a great game, there are heavy playoff implications with it. As is the case with most POR games, this was about Dame Lillard basically carrying his team up the West playoff seedings

Here’s why this game was so important for POR. This win not brought them even with MIN in the season series. As the current 4 seed now, they remain 0.5 games behind MIN for that top 3 seed. The next tie breaker is division record (if they are in the same division) which these two teams are. As of now MIN has a 9-3 vs 6-6 lead in that department. If that were to be tied it would go to conference record which MIN also owns. So basically, if POR wants to jump MIN it’s looking like they need to pass them in record, which beating them last night helps achieve.

Things get more complicated when you add teams like OKC to the mix who are also in the same division, but right now POR is playing some of the better basketball in the conference and it would not shock me if they took ownership of that 3 seed outright. That would be quite a rise.

For MIN, they’re 5-5 over their last 10 and will be fighting off teams for the rest of the season. They need to be careful as to not drop too far, like out of the top 4 seeds for example because you get this team on the road and they flat out stink. I’m talking 13-20 level stink.

I don’t want MIN fans to worry though, they are nice people. So instead just ignore the potential slide and playoff doom and put your attention to KAT’s night last night because it was awesome

Granted he took 19 shots which in no way sits well with his coaching staff, but the man was possessed last night. Wiggins was alright as well, and has been fairly consistent since Butler went down in terms of points and percentages so that’s encouraging. Here’s also to hoping Taj Gibson’s injury isn’t anything serious because they will for sure need him down the stretch.

And that’s it! You’re now all caught up on everything that happened last night in the NBA.  We’re back tonight with 10 games in total including CHA/PHI, TOR/WSH, IND/MIL, and MIN/UTA so it should be a pretty fun night of hoops. Feel free to go out to the bar and have fun, I’ll tell ya all about it on Saturday.