20 Second Timeout is the place to find the best analysis and commentary about the NBA.
Tuesday, November 05, 2024
NBA Suspends Joel Embiid For Three Games
In Joel Embiid, Marcus Hayes, and How to Deal with Irresponsible Media Members, I discussed the locker room incident during which Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid threatened and then pushed Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes, and I stated that unless Commissioner Adam Silver "fancies the idea of NBA players teeing off on every media member who
they dislike he must suspend Embiid without pay for multiple games."
Embiid missed the first six games of this season due to injury and the Philadelphia 76ers have not indicated when he will be cleared to play, so the suspension will go into effect after Embiid is added to the active roster.
Daryl Morey was not an awful general manager in Houston, but an objective analysis of his record proves that he was not great, either. He took the reins in Philadelphia's front office in 2020, and during his tenure the 76ers lost in the second round for three straight years before falling in the first round last season. This season, the 76ers are 1-5 and Embiid has been suspended for more games than he has played. Throughout his career, Morey and his supporters have asserted that his use of "advanced basketball statistics" provides him a tangible advantage over his competitors; the reality is that the objective numbers--wins, losses, championships--prove that Morey has demonstrated no such advantage.
Joel Embiid, Marcus Hayes, and How to Deal with Irresponsible Media Members
Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes recently criticized Joel Embiid for missing so many games throughout his career--a factual and valid criticism--but Hayes veered from factual and valid to irrelevant and irresponsible when he asserted that Embiid's lack of professionalism dishonors Embiid's young son and the memory of Embiid's deceased brother.
Embiid played in just 39 of 82 regular season games last season, he has never played in more than 68 games in a season, and he has missed all five of the Philadelphia 76ers' games this season--but he was in the locker room after Philadelphia's 124-117 loss to Memphis on Saturday night, and he told Hayes, "The next time you bring up my dead brother and my son again, you are
going to see what I'm going to do to you and I'm going to have to...live with the consequences." Embiid and Hayes exchanged words, Embiid did not accept Hayes' apology, and then Embiid pushed Hayes on the shoulder/neck area. A 76ers' security official urged media members in the locker room to not report what Embiid had done, but Embiid declared, "They can do whatever they want. I don't give a ----."
The NBA is investigating Embiid's conduct, and the NBA will presumably consider not only that Embiid made physical contact with a media member but also that Embiid repeatedly stated that he does not care about the consequences of his actions. Embiid dared the NBA to punish him. When David Stern was the NBA's Commissioner, he would have accepted that dare, and levied discipline commensurate with the severity of Embiid's actions combined with Embiid's lack of remorse. It will be interesting to see how current NBA Commissioner Adam Silver handles this situation. One could joke that the appropriate discipline would be to force Embiid to play in games right now and to play in back to back games, but this situation is no laughing matter, and unless Silver fancies the idea of NBA players teeing off on every media member who they dislike he must suspend Embiid without pay for multiple games. It may be fun to joke about Kevin Durant punching Stephen A. Smith or LeBron James punching Skip Bayless, but if those things actually happened then the NBA would rapidly descend into a sideshow instead of being a professional sports league.
The fact that Embiid's actions are way out of bounds in no way justifies what Hayes wrote. Bringing up Embiid's deceased brother and Embiid's young son was not only cruel and heartless but it was also irrelevant: the issue that Hayes supposedly cared about is Embiid's professionalism, and that issue can and should be discussed without ever bringing up Embiid's family. Embiid has rarely if ever been in tip top physical condition during his NBA career, and it can reasonably be argued that this lack of professionalism--and not "luck," which is how Embiid explained his large number of missed games--explains why Embiid has been so injury-prone. If Hayes had stuck to discussing Embiid's history of missing games, not being in shape, and playing poorly in the playoffs then Hayes could have produced a timely, relevant column--but, instead, Hayes went for the cheap shot, the clicks, and the attention.
In short, Hayes showed that he is unprofessional, and lacks the judgment that should be a requirement for a columnist.
Unfortunately, Hayes is far from an exception. I have documented many examples of writers and TV commentators who often demonstrate their lack of professionalism.
Amin Elhassan and Zack Harper think that it is amusing to mock Bob Cousy and Russell Westbrook. It is fair to say that Cousy and Westbrook will be remembered as significant figures in basketball history long after Elhassan and Harper will be forgotten. A little humility, a bit of knowledge about basketball history, and a modicum of respect for sustained greatness are three traits that Elhassan and Harper lack.
Before parlaying his friendship with LeBron James into an opportunity to become coach of the Lakers despite having no coaching experience at the college or pro levels, J.J. Redick worked as a media member who repeatedly demonstrated his ignorance about basketball history, culminating in his disrespectful comments about Bob Cousy.
Stephen A. Smith and Kendrick Perkins regularly spout hot takes that are cold as ice and disconnected from reality. The problem is not just that many of their evaluations and predictions are wrong--no one is always right about evaluations and predictions--but rather that their evaluations and predictions have no logical basis. What qualifies them to be paid so much to pontificate about the NBA? The answer is that they are not hired to be journalists but--like Termine--to be entertainers, and their bosses apparently think that they are entertaining.
It is problematic that so many of the most prominent media members who receive credentials to cover the NBA do not even pretend to be qualified journalists. When Stern was the NBA's Commissioner, he would call out media members who did not have their facts straight and who acted in an unprofessional manner; this was not about censoring opinions, but rather about insisting that media members should be held to a professional standard.
Hayes is just the latest example of a media member who has been
blessed with an NBA credential despite lacking the judgment and
professionalism that should be a prerequisite for receiving such a
privilege.
One might argue that the public is receiving the media
coverage that it wants and deserves, but I would argue that media
outlets have a professional obligation to hold themselves to a high
standard regardless of what the public wants or expects. Contrary to
what Termine explicitly states and what many of his colleagues implicitly
accept as reality, it is possible
to be entertaining while also being informative and professional.
Jalen Rose was one of the few prominent commentators who would challenge Stephen A. Smith, Kendrick Perkins, Skip Bayless, and others when they made foolish and unprofessional comments--and we see where Rose's candor landed him: out of work.
It's your move, Commissioner Silver. Will you discipline Embiid sufficiently such that no NBA player will ever again make aggressive physical contact with a media member? Will you take a more active role in oversight of who receives NBA media credentials, and the ways that credentialed media members often sully the league's image and its proud history? Or will you attempt to sweep this Embiid/Hayes situation under the rug?
Raveling posted the conversation in 11 parts on YouTube. Here are the links, plus notes about each part:
Part 1:
Raveling concluded his introduction by declaring that Brown is regarded by acclamation as the greatest clinician in basketball history.
Brown recalled that when he was an assistant coach for Larry Costello with the Milwaukee Bucks, Costello had 11 different sets just to get the ball to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. "It was a mind-blowing experience" for Brown to learn Costello's offensive philosophies. Brown said that he developed the concise way of speaking that is a trademark of his broadcasting style from his experiences teaching at the Five-Star Basketball Camp when he made a conscious effort to be mindful that a coach/teacher must be aware of the attention spans of players/students.
Part 2:
Brown reminisced about his playing career at Niagara, and about his interactions with Larry Costello and Frank Layden, who later became successful NBA head coaches. Brown said, "I owe everything to Larry Costello," who hired Brown to be an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks, thus giving Brown his first opportunity to coach in the professional ranks.Layden was Brown's teammate/roommate at Niagara, and later served as one of Brown's assistant coaches with the Atlanta Hawks.
Part 3:
Brown recalled becoming a high school basketball coach, and realizing that his future would be in basketball, not baseball. Brown also discussed playing basketball for the Army's team, and playing basketball in the Eastern Basketball League, which at that time was stacked with NBA-caliber players who had been banned from the NBA because of their actual or presumed associations with point shaving/fixing games.
Part 4:
Brown discussed his experience coaching baseball, basketball, and football at the high school level.He said that coaching high school sports for about $17,000 a year was the happiest time of his life--but it is evident that he also wanted to make his mark at higher levels, and so he took a pay cut to $7000 a year to take his first college job at William & Mary before going to Duke as an assistant coach to Vic Bubas.
Brown talked with reverence about Al LoBalbo, who mentored him and many other coaches. Brown described LoBalbo as "the ultimate clinician," the progenitor of the "Ball-You-Man" defensive concept utilized by Bobby Knight and many other Hall of Fame coaches, and the biggest single influence on his life other than his father. Brown said that one great piece of advice that LoBalbo gave him was to never use a whistle as a coach, but to command attention and respect with his voice alone.
Part 5:
Brown talked about his experiences working at Five-Star Basketball Camp, and some of the greatest players from that camp who made it to the NBA--and some of the greatest players from that camp who got sidetracked and did not make it to the NBA. Brown recalled that he used to tell the campers that the coaches are not impressed by how great they may think that they are, because the coaches have already seen Moses Malone, Isiah Thomas, Michael Jordan, and many other future Hall of Famers, plus other highly talented players who went the wrong way due to drugs, alcohol, or having a bad attitude. Brown told the campers that they have to choose which way they are going in life.
Brown said that when he coached high school basketball he insisted that his players participate in other sports as well, for two reasons: 1) He wanted them to benefit from the wisdom of the other coaches; 2) he felt that playing multiple sports provided the maximum opportunity for players to earn college scholarships and thus get a free education. Brown cited a specific example of one of his high school basketball players who ended up getting a football scholarship after first balking at the notion of playing any sport other than basketball. Brown added that his personal experience was that baseball was his first love, and if he had been limited to just playing baseball then he would have never had the career in basketball that he had.
Part 6:
Brown talked about serving as an assistant coach along with Chuck Daly on Vic Bubas' coaching staff at Duke. Raveling noted that this is perhaps the only time that one college coaching staff had two future Hall of Famers serving as assistant coaches. Brown called Bubas "the most organized man that I've ever met in my lifetime." Brown said that Daly's mantra was "Shooting makes up for a multitude of sins." At that time, Duke struggled to recruit the elite athletes, and thus focused on recruiting players who were great shooters.
Brown noted that after working alongside Daly he made a point each time he coached a team to have one player who was a pure shooter who could not run, jump, or play defense, because it is possible to "hide" one such player but it is not possible to "hide" two of them on the court at the same time.
Brown did not receive any college head coaching offers during his time at Duke, and he was seriously considering going back to New Jersey to coach high school sports before he received a call from Larry Costello, who hired Brown to be an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks at $20,000 for the first year and $22,000 for the second year. What impressed Brown the most about coaching in the NBA was how hard the team's two best players worked: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson set a high standard of professionalism that everyone else then followed. Brown also praised Bob Dandridge as "one of the greatest small forwards to play the game at both ends of the floor." Brown said that after his tenure in Milwaukee, every time he became a head coach the first thing he did was gather his players around, tell them how hard Abdul-Jabbar and Robertson worked, and emphasize that the players can either do things the right way by working hard or else they can leave: "We will never fine you. You will always fine yourself for your lack of professionalism. I've been with two of the greatest ever. They worked, and you're going to work." Brown said that a coach has to set the tone early, and make the expectations clear.
Part 7:
Brown described taking his first head coaching job in the professional ranks, signing a three year deal with the ABA's Kentucky Colonels in 1974 for $45,000 the first year, $50,000 the second year, and $55,000 the third year. He said that his 1974-75 Kentucky team--featuring Hall of Famers Artis Gilmore, Dan Issel, and Louie Dampier--was by far the best team he ever coached. The 1975 Colonels won the ABA championship, storming through the playoffs with a 12-3 record.
Part 8:
After the Colonels were not part of the 1976 ABA-NBA merger, Brown became coach of the Atlanta Hawks. The legendary Ted Turner bought the team. Turner also owned the fledgling TBS network, and the Atlanta Braves. The Hawks had suffered three straight losing seasons, and they went 31-51 in Brown's first year with the team. Turner met with Brown after the season, told Brown that the payroll for the players would be cut from $1,400,000 to $800,000, and the team would be the worst team in the league for the next two years so that they could get the number one overall draft pick twice (this was before the NBA instituted the Draft Lottery). Brown described how Turner told him all of this while pacing back and forth in his gigantic office tossing a pen in the air that he kept dropping instead of catching! After Turner finished outlining his plan, he asked Brown, "What do you think?"
Brown replied, "How about if we try winning?" A stunned Turner asks Brown how the team would win on an $800,000 budget if the team lost on a $1,400,000 budget. Brown said that he needed to have total control of which players they brought into camp, and that the team would use a variety of full court presses based on the game situation. Brown led the Hawks to the playoffs with a 41-41 record, and in the next two seasons the Hawks went 46-36 and 50-32, winning the 1980 Central Division title. During that period Brown and his scouts scoured the country for overlooked players, and found gems such as Charlie Criss, a 29 year old 5-8 guard who had been playing in the CBA (the successor to the Eastern League, Brown's old stomping grounds) and with the Washington Generals.
Brown said that Turner did not know anything about basketball, but he gave Turner credit for not interfering with the way that he picked the players and coached the team.
Part 9:
Brown shared more memories about coaching the Hawks under Ted Turner, including the time when Turner offered Brown the opportunity to be the Atlanta Braves' manager! Brown thought that the idea was ludicrous, but he asked Turner what Turner planned to pay him to coach the Hawks and manage the Braves at the same time. Turner exclaimed that he would not pay Brown anything extra because if Brown did this he would be in the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Baseball Hall of Fame. At that point, Brown told Turner that they could not talk about this any more.
Part 10:
Brown coached the Hawks until 1981. Next, he became a color commentator for USA Network, which broadcast NBA doubleheaders (much like TNT has been doing for the past several decades). Brown then spent five years coaching the New York Knicks before enjoying a long career as a broadcaster first with CBS and then with TNT. Brown's New York teams were injury-riddled, but they reached the playoffs in 1983 (losing to the eventual champion Philadelphia 76ers) and 1984 (losing to the eventual champion Boston Celtics).
After TNT went under different management and reduced Brown's broadcasting role, Brown accepted an offer from Jerry West to return to NBA coaching in 2002 at the age of 69. Brown spent three seasons coaching the Memphis Grizzlies. Brown led Memphis to a 50-32 record in 2003-04, earning his second NBA Coach of the Year award (he won his first in 1978 with the Hawks).
Part 11:
Brown talked about being inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Brown said that he was "shocked" and felt humbled when he was first told that he would be honored. During the months after the April announcement until the enshinement ceremony, Brown reflected on his life and all the people who had helped him along the way, and tried to figure out how to include all of that into his speech. Here is Brown's Hall of Fame enshrinement speech:
Raveling concluded by asking Brown how he wants to be remembered. Here is Brown's reply:
"I always wanted to be referred to as a teacher. I wanted to be a person that you would think of as being organized and never cheated--whether it was 55 minutes of business law in the classroom, or whether it was a two hour practice, an hour and a half practice, a three hour practice, that we never cheated you in your time. I wanted them to always think that even though you might not like the approach, but that we tried to get them to reach their potential. If they would just think of me in that light, I would be very happy because basketball has taken me and my wife around the world. Basketball changed me from being a corner guy hanging out to having a major future. And then, through the clinics, and in the world clinics, and then when Jack Ramsay and I and Calvin Murphy and [Bill] Walton went to 25 countries for the NBA, we had a chance to affect a lot of FIBA national basketball teams...As we both know, it's no different than any other business that you're in: you've got to prepare, you never underestimate the audience, you never underestimate their IQ and how much they want. So you never talk down. You talk to them. What you're hoping for is for them to raise their game IQ-wise by your mistakes, by mistakes that you've made. And don't be afraid to tell them about your mistakes...I know a lot of people say Hubie's so intense, but that's why I go always back to those two guys, my Dad and Al LoBalbo." Brown paused for a moment and became teary-eyed before concluding, "They forced you to pursue excellence, and to never cheat the people that you're responsible for. That's what you're hoping for."
Victor Wembanyama Notches His Second Career 5x5 Game
Bouncing back from perhaps the worst game in his young NBA career--six points, eight rebounds, three blocked shots, two assists, four turnovers, and 1-5 field goal shooting in San Antonio's 105-93 Wednesday night loss to Oklahoma City--Victor Wembanyama had 25 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, five steals, and five blocked shots as San Antonio cruised to a 106-88 win versus the Utah Jazz on Thursday night. This is Wembanyama's second game with at least five points, at least five rebounds, at least five assists, at least five steals, and at least five blocked shots. I wrote about the exclusive 5x5 Club the first time that Wembanyama accomplished this feat, and I first referenced the 5x5 Club in my 2007 article about Pro Basketball's Greatest Ball Hawks.
As I noted in both of my previous articles mentioning the 5x5 Club, the NBA has only officially tracked steals and blocked shots since the 1973-74 season, and the ABA only started officially tracking steals and blocked shots in the 1972-73 season, so we do not know how many steals and blocked shots great players such as Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell amassed, nor do we know how many 5x5 games those players may have had.
Here is the updated list of known 5x5 games courtesy of Stathead via The Sporting News:
Player
Year
PTS
REB
AST
STL
BLK
George Johnson
1978
15
18
5
5
7
George Gervin
1979
21
5
6
5
5
Julius Erving
1979
28
7
10
5
5
Hakeem Olajuwon
1987
38
17
6
7
12
Hakeem Olajuwon
1990
29
18
9
5
11
Hakeem Olajuwon
1992
19
13
6
5
5
David Robinson
1992
29
9
5
5
10
Derrick Coleman
1993
21
10
7
5
5
Hakeem Olajuwon
1993
33
13
5
5
5
Hakeem Olajuwon
1993
24
19
6
5
5
Hakeem Olajuwon
1993
34
10
5
5
8
Vlade Divac
1995
19
12
8
5
5
Jamaal Tinsley
2001
12
9
15
6
5
Andrei Kirilenko
2003
19
5
7
8
5
Andrei Kirilenko
2003
10
12
6
6
5
Marcus Camby
2004
8
11
5
5
8
Andrei Kirilenko
2006
14
8
9
6
7
Nicolas Batum
2012
11
5
10
5
5
Draymond Green
2015
24
11
8
5
5
Anthony Davis
2018
12
16
6
5
5
Jusuf Nurkić
2019
24
23
7
5
5
Victor Wembanyama
2024
27
10
8
5
5
Victor Wembanyama
2024
25
9
7
5
5
Wembanyama already ranks third on the list of known 5x5 performers behind only Hakeem Olajuwon (six) and Andrei Kirilenko (three); these are the only three players known to have each authored more than one such game.
Edwards Outduels Irving, but Mavericks Tame Timberwolves
Anthony Edwards and Kyrie Irving had a spectacular scoring showdown on Tuesday night, and when the dust cleared Edwards won the individual battle 37-35 but Irving's Dallas Mavericks beat Edwards' Minnesota Timberwolves, 120-114. The Mavericks improved to 3-1, while the Timberwolves dropped to 2-2. This was the first meeting this season between last season's Western Conference Finals combatants. The Mavericks dominated the 2024 Western Conference Finals 4-1, and the result of this game was not different even though the margin was much closer.
Irving shot 13-23 from the field (including 6-8 from beyond the arc) while contributing five assists and four rebounds. He had just one turnover. Irving is an excellent player who had a great game, but the way that TNT's Stan Van Gundy consistently gushes about Irving is bizarre. Contrary to Van Gundy's assertion, Irving is not the best guard in the NBA, and Irving is not even the best guard on his own team: Luka Doncic is the best guard in Dallas and the NBA right now, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander not far behind. Jalen Brunson is better than Irving, as are Anthony Edwards and Devin Booker, to name just three players who deservedly received more All-NBA Team votes than Irving did last season. Irving made the All-NBA Team just three times in his first 13 seasons, he has never been selected to the All-NBA First Team, and he earned Second Team honors just once--five years ago. Irving has turned out to be a good fit as Doncic's sidekick, but there is a perplexing tendency for some commentators to sound like raving fan boys when they compare Irving to other players.
Doncic filled up the boxscore (24 points, game-high eight assists, eight rebounds), but he shot just 10-27 from the field (including 1-8 on three pointers). P.J. Washington is a solid third option (17 points, eight rebounds), Daniel Gafford chipped in 14 points on 6-6 field goal shooting, and Dereck Lively II only scored four points, but he had a game-high tying nine rebounds. Klay Thompson had a quiet game (seven points and one assist in 30 minutes).
Edwards shot 12-20 from the field (including 7-13 from three point
range), but he shot just 6-12 from the free throw line. He had six
rebounds, three assists, and a game-high tying five turnovers. Julius
Randle--acquired from the Knicks with Donte DiVincenzo in an offseason
trade for Karl-Anthony Towns--added 20 points, seven rebounds, and a
team-high seven assists. Randle has scored at least 20 points in three
straight games after notching just 16 points in his Minnesota season
opener. Naz Reid scored 14 points off of the bench, and he grabbed a
game-high tying nine rebounds, but he also had a game-high tying five
turnovers.
Edwards scored 24 first quarter points on 8-10 field goal shooting (including 6-8 from three point range), setting a career-high for any quarter and breaking the Target Center record for points in any quarter. Edwards is now tied with Chauncey Billups for the second highest scoring quarter in franchise history, trailing only Karl-Anthony Towns (32 points in the third quarter of his 60 point game versus the San Antonio Spurs on March 14, 2022). Edwards is a wondrous scorer who has both a smooth shooting stroke and the athletic ability to acrobatically finish in the paint. Instead of comparing him to Michael Jordan, we should just appreciate him for how great he is in his own right.
Fueled by Edwards' scoring explosion, the Timberwolves led 34-26 at the end of the first stanza--but Edwards scored zero points on 0-1 field goal shooting in the second quarter as the Mavericks outscored the Timberwolves 35-25 to lead 61-59 at intermission. Irving sizzled in the third quarter with 16 points on 6-10 field goal shooting, and the Mavericks won the third quarter 32-23 to push their advantage to 93-82 heading into the final stanza. Irving and the Mavericks cooled off in the final 12 minutes, but they held on to claim the win.
The Mavericks' one-two punch of Doncic and Irving is extremely difficult to match up with, particularly with some combination of Thompson, Washington, or Gafford providing supplemental scoring; the Mavericks look like a better team this season both on paper and in terms of the eye test, and that is saying a lot considering their strong 2024 playoff run. In contrast, the Timberwolves have their work cut out for them to repeat their 2024 playoff performance. The Timberwolves physically overpowered teams last season--at least until they ran into the Mavericks in the playoffs--but without Towns they are smaller and they are more reliant on 2024 Sixth Man of the Year Reid to provide scoring and rebounding; it is too soon to say that the trade made the Timberwolves worse, but I am not convinced that the trade made them better.
Thunder Dominate Nuggets as Both Teams Misfire From Beyond the Arc
The Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets tied for the best record in the Western Conference last season (57-25) with the Thunder obtaining the number one seed based on the head to head tiebreaker--but in the season debut for both teams on Thursday night the Thunder dominated the Nuggets in a sloppy game during which the teams combined to shoot 15-75 (.200) from three point range. Both teams hardly lit up the scoreboard from inside the arc, either, with the Thunder shooting 43-101 (.426) overall (including 8-36 from three point range) and the Nuggets shooting 35-99 (.354) overall (including (7-39 from three point range). This is not the vaunted "pace and space" loved by "stat gurus"; this steady stream of airballs and bricks is the type of sloppy basketball decried by traditionalists who argue that NBA teams shoot too many three pointers at the cost of abandoning higher percentage shots closer to the hoop.
The Nuggets jumped out to a 19-10 lead by the 5:47 mark of the first quarter before being outscored 92-68 the rest of the way as the Thunder rolled to a 102-87 win. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored a game-high 28 points on 11-24 field goal shooting while dishing for a team-high eight assists and snaring seven rebounds. Chet Holmgren dominated the paint with 25 points, a game-high 14 rebounds, and a game-high four blocked shots; he is so skinny that he looks like a stiff wind might sweep him away, but he plays with energy, force, and speed to counteract the strength advantage that many big men have over him. Aaron Wiggins contributed 15 points off of the bench on 7-9 field goal shooting.
Each of Denver's five starters scored between 12 and 16 points, with Nikola Jokic and Christian Braun leading the way with 16 points each. Jokic shot 6-13 from the field while logging a game-high 13 assists, and a team-high 12 rebounds. The Nuggets need more than 12 points on 4-14 shooting from Jamal Murray. The Thunder's bench outscored the Nuggets' bench, 25-16. Even without the injured Isaiah Hartenstein and Jaylin Williams, the Thunder have a deep roster.
Both teams can shoot and play a lot better than they did in this game.
It has become fashionable to write off the Nuggets as lacking the
necessary depth to compete in the Western Conference, and this game will
only add fuel to that criticism, but one should be cautious about making sweeping conclusions one game into an 82 game season.
The Nuggets signed former MVP and future Hall of Famer Russell Westbrook to anchor their bench. Westbrook had six points, five rebounds, five assists, and two blocked shots in his Denver debut, but he shot just 2-10 from the field and had a game-worst -24 plus/minus number. Westbrook played his usual high energy style, but six of his 10 field goal attempts were from three point range, and that is not optimal for him or the team; Westbrook is at his best when he attacks the hoop to create high percentage scoring opportunities for himself and his teammates, something that he did several times during this game in between the missed three pointers. I believe that Westbrook will provide a spark for the Nuggets' off of the bench, and that by the end of the season his signing will be considered one of the league's best offseason moves. He will fit in perfectly with the Nuggets, a team that takes a professional approach and is focused on winning/teamwork above everything else.
Mavericks Overcome Sluggish Start to Defeat Spurs, 120-109
The Dallas Mavericks fell behind 6-0 and still trailed 49-47 at halftime before outscoring the San Antonio Spurs 40-31 in the third quarter to cruise to a 120-109 season-opening win. The Spurs outshot the Mavericks from the field .453 to .412 and they outrebounded the Mavericks 52-50, but the Spurs committed 19 turnovers and they gave up 19 three point field goals.
Luka Doncic scored a game-high 28 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and passed for a game-high tying eight assists, but he shot just 9-25 from the field and looked a bit rusty after missing the preseason due to injury. Klay Thompson scored 22 points in his regular season debut for Dallas, shooting 6-10 from three point range while also accumulating seven rebounds and three steals. Thompson's reliable elite three point shooting is just what the Mavericks need to complement Doncic's all-around brilliance. Kyrie Irving added 15 points on 6-17 field goal shooting, and Dereck Lively II provided 15 points, a game-high 11 rebounds, and six assists off of the bench.
Julian Champagnie and Jeremy Sochan led the Spurs with 18 points each, while Harrison Barnes chipped in 17 points. Big things are expected out of Victor Wembanyama after he won the 2024 Rookie of the Year award, but in this game he shot just 5-18 from the field to score an inefficient 17 points. Wembanyama did not have a great floor game, either, finishing with nine
rebounds, one assist, one blocked shot, and four turnovers. A player with his size and skills should be able to score efficiently on a consistent basis, but his shot selection and shooting touch are both very much works in progress. Last season, Wembanyama shot .400 or worse from the field in 23 games.
Even though Doncic and Irving did not score as efficiently as they usually do, the Mavericks won easily after their sluggish start, and the Mavericks look like they are picking up where they left off after their playoff run to the 2024 NBA Finals.
In contrast, the Spurs do not have much to show for their years of tanking to obtain Wembanyama's draft rights: Wembanyama is talented but raw and he has yet to demonstrate that he can have an impact in the win column; the Spurs went 22-60 the year before they drafted Wembanyama, and they went 22-60 in Wembanyama's rookie season. They acquired veteran point guard Chris Paul in the offseason to provide leadership and get the ball to Wembanyama in prime scoring position, but Paul is 39 years old and will be out of the league before Wembanyama reaches his peak. Tonight, Paul had three points on 1-6 field goal shooting, a game-high tying eight assists, and seven rebounds. Paul (-21) and Wembanyama (-20) had the two worst plus/minus numbers in the game. Almost a year to the day after the Mavericks spoiled Wembanyama's debut game, the Spurs still look like a team that is closer to returning to the NBA Draft Lottery than qualifying for the playoffs.
The Phoenix Suns built a 14 point first half lead, fell behind by 10 points with just 6:13 remaining in the fourth quarter, and then rallied to beat the L.A. Clippers 116-113 in overtime, spoiling the Clippers' home opener in Steve Ballmer's new arena. Kevin Durant led Phoenix with 25 points while also posting a team-high seven turnovers. Bradley Beal scored 24 points on 8-12 field goal shooting, and poured in seven of the Suns' 13 overtime points. Devin Booker had a quiet game (15 points, six assists) by his lofty standards. Tyus Jones did an excellent job in his debut as the team's starting point guard, finishing with 11 points, a game-high tying eight assists, and no turnovers. The Suns squandered many late leads last season due to poor execution down the stretch, so slotting Jones in as the starting point guard is meant to solve that problem, and if this game is any indication then that plan will work out well.
This game was a microcosm of James Harden's career: he filled up the boxscore with empty calories, and he disappeared when it mattered the most. Harden's game-high 29 points, game-high 12 rebounds, and game-high tying eight assists will make every "stat guru" drool, but it is worth noting not only that Harden had a -4 plus/minus number but also when and how he accumulated his numbers, because the great Bill Russell used to emphasize during his time as a CBS commentator the importance of when a player puts up his numbers. Harden was a no-show in the first half with four points on 2-11 field goal shooting as the Suns built a 47-39 halftime lead, forcing the Clippers to expend energy playing from behind. Then, he erupted for 16 points on 5-9 field goal shooting in the third quarter as the Clippers outscored the Suns 35-25 to take a 74-72 lead heading into the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter with the game up for grabs, Harden had eight points on 3-7 field goal shooting with a team-worst -7 plus/minus number.
The Clippers led 99-90 with 3:52 remaining in the fourth quarter, and then Harden did his thing: he missed a 30 foot three pointer, he missed a floater, he turned the ball over, he missed a layup, and he fouled Durant on a three point play that gave the Suns the lead for the first time in the fourth quarter. Harden then tied the game with a stepback jumper and gave the Clippers a brief lead by hitting a pair of free throws before Durant's fadeaway knotted the score at 103 with 21.2 seconds remaining. Harden missed a floater that could have won the game, and in overtime he did not score a point or deliver an assist. Harden once said that he is not a system player but he is "The system" and that is true if he means that he is "The system" for falling behind early, squandering late leads, disappearing in overtime, and putting up "concert tour" field goal percentages in playoff games.
Unfortunately for the Clippers, their hopes will ride or die with Harden, because two-time NBA Finals MVP (2014, 2019) Kawhi Leonard is out indefinitely with a knee injury. It is becoming increasingly evident that the issue with Leonard is not so much that he is intentionally engaging in load management but that rather he just cannot stay healthy.
In contrast, the Suns have a much sounder foundation, as they are relying on two-time NBA champion/NBA Finals MVP Durant, supported by Booker and Beal, who are excellent as the second and third options respectively. The Suns replaced Frank Vogel, who is an excellent coach, with Mike Budenholzer, who led the Milwaukee Bucks to the 2021 NBA title.
Antetokounmpo and Lillard Shine as Bucks Defeat Injury-Riddled 76ers
Damian Lillard scored a game-high 30 points and Giannis Antetokounmpo added 25 points as the Milwaukee Bucks ruined the Philadelphia 76ers' home opener, 124-109. Lillard also had nine rebounds and six assists, while Antetokounmpo led both teams in rebounding (14) and assists (seven). The Bucks shot 43-80 (.538) from the field while holding the 76ers to 41-98 (.418) field goal shooting. Tyrese Maxey led the 76ers with 25 points, but he shot just 10-31 from the field. Kelly Oubre Jr. added 21 points, while Andre Drummond had 10 points and a team-high 13 rebounds. Drummond, a four-time NBA rebounding champion (2016, 2018-20), ranks first among active players (and 14th all-time) with a 12.4 rpg career average, and he started in place of the perpetually injured Joel Embiid.
During TNT's pregame show on NBA Opening Night, Shaquille O'Neal said of Embiid, "In order to win a championship you have to give yourself to the game." Embiid missed every game in the first two seasons of his NBA career, he has never played more than 68 games in a season, and he has played 66 games or less in seven of the last eight seasons. Wrapping Embiid in amber to preserve him for the playoffs not only cheats the fans who purchase tickets to see him to play in regular season games but it prevents the 76ers from developing the chemistry and continuity that is required to win a championship.
Paul George, the 76ers' biggest offseason acquisition, missed this game
due to a bone bruise in his left knee that he suffered during the
preseason. He will be reevaluated later this week. George is not as injury-prone as Embiid, but he played 56 games or less in each of the four seasons prior to last season, when he played in 74 games after the NBA enacted the Player Participation Policy.
Khris Middleton did not play for Milwaukee as he recovers from offseason
procedures on both of his ankles. He was durable during the first
portion of his career through 2021 when he helped the Bucks win the NBA title, but in the past three years he has been dogged by injuries.
The Bucks and 76ers both lost in the first round of the playoffs last season. Embiid has never led the 76ers past the second round of the playoffs, while the Bucks have not advanced past the second round since their 2021 championship season. Both teams talk about winning the 2025 NBA title, but talk is cheap and it remains to be seen if these teams will do what is necessary to win a championship; for the 76ers, that means taking the regular season seriously, and for the Bucks that means committing to playing elite defense, which has been a problem ever since the Bucks fired Coach Mike Budenholzer and swapped defensive stalwart Jrue Holiday for defensive sieve Damian Lillard.
"A work of art contains its verification in itself: artificial, strained concepts do not withstand the test of being turned into images; they fall to pieces, turn out to be sickly and pale, convince no one. Works which draw on truth and present it to us in live and concentrated form grip us, compellingly involve us, and no one ever, not even ages hence, will come forth to refute them."--Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Nobel Lecture)
"The most 'popular,' the most 'successful' writers among us (for a brief period, at least) are, 99 times out of a hundred, persons of mere effrontery--in a word, busy-bodies, toadies, quacks."--Edgar Allan Poe
"In chess what counts is what you know, not whom you know. It's the way life is supposed to be, democratic and just."--Grandmaster Larry Evans
"It's not nuclear physics. You always remember that. But if you write about sports long enough, you're constantly coming back to the point that something buoys people; something makes you feel better for having been there. Something of value is at work there...Something is hallowed here. I think that something is excellence."--Tom Callahan
