westernconference Archives

Heat can’t get past Nuggets on guts alone

June 2, 2023

Nikola Jokic had his way with Miami, recording a triple-double

For once a Miami Heat 2023 playoff game played out the way that was expected. The Denver Nuggets are bigger, more talented, and won Game 1 of the NBA Finals by a double-digit margin — 104-93.

In an assessment relying on the eyeball test, statistics, or both, the conclusion would be that the Heat have no chance in this series. The Nuggets’ postseason net rating is more than double that of the Heat. During the regular season, the Nuggets won nine more games than their Finals opponent. While the Heat crawled into the playoffs after losing their first play-in game on their home floor, the Nuggets wrapped up the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference so early that Nikola Jokić did not play in four of the final six games of the regular season.

By any analysis, this series should be considered a mismatch, except for the fact that somehow Heat have shoved their way into the NBA Finals as a No. 8 seed. They rolled through an Eastern Conference that was considered by those who cover the NBA to be the strongest of the two. A first since at least the turn of the millennium. The Heat’s unexpected run looked like it was on the verge of collapse in Game 1, but somehow they fought back and avoided being demolished on national broadcast television.

The Heat trailed by 24 points with 40 seconds remaining in the third quarter. By the 9:29 mark of the fourth, the Heat had cut the lead to 10 points after going on a 14-0 run. While the Heat did not win, playing Game 1 at altitude with only two days rest after playing all seven games of a conference-finals series, slicing that far into a 20-plus point lead is further proof of their resilience. After all of the upsets that the Heat have pulled off in 2023, even though this is the first Game 1 that they have lost this postseason, why shouldn’t they think of Thursday night as a positive?

Denver is healthy, unlike Milwaukee and Boston

The Nuggets are the only healthy team that the Heat have faced in a seven-game series this postseason besides the New York Knicks. Tom Thibodeau’s Knicks are a hardscrabble bunch, but also struggle mightily to convert from the field. The Milwaukee Bucks were playing with a hobbled Giannis Antetokounmpo, and against the Boston Celtics Jaylen Brown and Malcolm Brogdon were both dealing with upper body injuries that hampered their scoring ability. In Game 7, Jayson Tatum turned his ankle on the Celtics’ first possession.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope left the court at the end of the third quarter of Game 1, but was able to return in the fourth to finish the game. Not only are the Nuggets loaded with talent 1-6 in their lineup, but they are also largely healthy. They are certainly healthier than the Heat with Jimmy Butler perpetually dealing with knee problems, Tyler Herro having missed all but a few moments of the postseason with a broken hand, and the ankle that Gabe Vincent turned in Game 4 against the Celtics.

Herro might be ready for Game 2 on Sunday, but he hasn’t played in an NBA basketball game since April 16. The Heat might finally be outmanned. Even if they were completely healthy the Nuggets would still have an advantage when it comes to top-end talent. All that the Heat can rely on in this series is the guile and grit that has been a part of “Heat Culture” since Pat Riley arrived from New York.

The Heat played with that culture force in the fourth quarter of Game 1, and the result was a mildly competitive finish. However, can sheer will keep them alive in a series against a vastly superior team?

The Nuggets are clicking on all cylinders and after one game have no significant injuries to any player in their rotation. If the Nuggets’ health of their rotation players remains, only variance will be able to hinder their shooting percentages.

In no way will the Heat allow the 2023 NBA Finals to be an easy ride for the Nuggets, but if there was ever a postseason series in which their basketball talent discrepancy will be made plain, this is the one.

Carolina Hurricanes and Dallas Stars haven’t thrown in the towel yet, unlike their NBA counterparts

May 23, 2023

The Stars are at least putting up a fight

We could be breaking out the brooms for all four NHL and NBA conference finals. The Denver Nuggets finished off the LeBron-LeLakers and the Miami Heat will eventually put the Celtics out of their misery on the hardcourt side of things.

Neither series of the conference final NBA bubble rematches has been close. That’s in huge contrast to the final four on ice. All four Stanley Cup semifinals of sorts have gone to a fourth period. It’s been even, with Vegas and Florida finding the back of the net twice a piece and two wins away from the finals. For large portions of each series, the teams down 0-2, Dallas and Carolina, have had the better of play and can feel hard-done that they didn’t take either of the first pair of contests against their current foe. While all hope should be lost for the Celtics, the Hurricanes and Stars shouldn’t be counted on for a tee time in a week or so just yet.

Sergei Bobrovsky has been the difference maker for Florida

In the case of Florida-Carolina, the difference maker is Sergei Bobrovsky. Without the Panthers’ goaltender standing on his head, both games in Raleigh are won by the home team. Carolina has the better roster on paper. There’s a physical defense, tenacious offense, and a solid goaltender in Antti Raanta. All of it has been negated by Bobrovsky. Matthew Tkachuk might’ve scored both game-winners of the Eastern Conference Finals thus far, but he’s been mostly quiet in regulation since the end of the series win over Boston. Outside of the Game 1 marathon between Carolina and Florida, a total of four minutes, 36 seconds of overtime has been played in NHL conference finals, with Tkachuk’s Game 2 winner taking the longest — 1:51 into Saturday’s overtime. The sudden-death nature of the NHL’s overtime has allowed the balance to tip ever so slightly in the Golden Knights and Panthers’ directions, while on the ice, it’s nearly even between all teams. In The Association, nothing has been close to even.

It’ll never happen, but the figurative towel being thrown in for Los Angeles or Boston basically already happened in both series in the Game 2 fourth-quarter effort for the Nuggets and whatever Game 3 was for Boston. In a Western Conference where lower seeds were filled with the longer-tenured stars, the ol’ No. 1 seed will walk to the NBA Finals. The best team since the Play-In Tournament in the East has been the Heat, despite barely making it into the postseason. Any tag as the No. 8 seed categorically misrepresents how Miami has played over the last month. Both Joe Mazzulla and Darvin Ham gave motivational press conference quotes about their teams having enough fight to win four in a row. Who actually believed that claptrap? What from those seven losses between the Lakers or Celtics actually inspires any kind of faith in consecutive victories?

Contrast that fight with how Dallas and Carolina have displayed. In Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, the Stars had the crowd in Vegas essentially silent for 50 minutes. And Game 1 was the same for Carolina, with that fan base engaged for seven full periods. Winning four of five at this stage of the postseason is tough, but not impossible. Only four teams in NHL history have come back from a 3-0 hole, making Monday’s game in Sunrise critical for the Hurricanes and Tuesday’s contest a must-win on home ice for the Stars. At least Carolina and Dallas have a chance to advance, unlike the Lakers and Celtics.

The NBA Playoffs have earlier start times from here on out — God is good

May 16, 2023

In 2015, I was in Los Angeles for the annual Online News Association Conference. It meant that as a Michigan native, I was up at 9:00 am PST to watch the Wolverines obliterate BYU 31-0 in a college football game that had a noon kickoff on East Coast time. That was also the day that I understood the craziness of time zones and start times for sporting events. Eight years later, the NBA has heard the cries of everyone who lives in Eastern and Central Time.

When the NBA conference finals start tonight — first with the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets, followed by the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics on Wednesday — it will be a sign that Adam Silver understands how tired basketball fans have been every morning for the past few weeks, as start times for the rest of the postseason will be earlier.

Tuesday night’s ESPN broadcast of the Lakers/Nuggets game in Denver will start at 8:30 p.m. EST/7:30 p.m. CST, while Wednesday night’s TNT’s Heat/Celtics game will air at the same time.

This means that the Western Conference finals will begin at 6:30 p.m. when the games are in Denver and 5:30 pm when they’re played in L.A. If you live out there it might be smart to find a good happy hour spot after work where you can catch the games.

It’s also been announced that the NBA Finals will follow the same pattern, with the caveat that Game 2 and Game 7 — if necessary — will begin at 8:00 p.m. EST instead of 8:30 p.m. because they will be played on Sundays.

The NBA listens to its fans

“Our fans told us that earlier starts for Finals games are simply better for them,” Gregg Winik, NBA president, Content and Executive Producer wrote in a statement. “We’re excited to work with ABC to present the 2023 NBA Finals at a more optimal viewing time.”

“We’re proud to work closely with our NBA partners to deliver the NBA Finals on ABC for the 21st consecutive season,” said Julie Sobieski, ESPN senior vice president, Programming & Acquisitions in the same press release. “Our best-in-class coverage team is ready to showcase all of the action and excitement, now at earlier start times for fans.”

Is this an example of East Coast bias? Probably. But, it’s also good business, as the league is capitalizing on an exciting postseason that’s given it a much-needed ratings boost.

According to SportsMediaWatch, back in February, one of the league’s marquee events — the 2023 NBA All-Star Game — only averaged a combined 2.2 rating and 4.59 million viewers across TNT and TBS, making it the least-watched edition of the game. The report went on to say that the NFL Pro Bowl and MLB All-Star Game brought in bigger crowds. It was the last thing the league needed after not being able to crack the most-watched broadcast list of 2022. The highest-rated matchup from last season was Game 6 of the NBA Finals, which came in at 108th.

NBA playoff ratings are up

Things have started to turn around. According to the league, Game 7 of the Warriors/Kings series averaged 9.8 million viewers, making it the most-watched first-round NBA playoff game in 24 years. It was also ABC’s largest audience for a non-NBA Finals postseason game ever. The Warriors are always good for ratings. And last Thursday’s Game 6 between the Sixers and Celtics averaged 6.20 million viewers and was the most-watched game of the playoffs that did not involve the Warriors, according to Sports Media Watch.

And on Monday, the league announced that the Lakers and Warriors gave us the most-watched conference semifinals in almost 30 years.

Earlier start times allow for more sleep and can increase ratings. Now the NBA is praying for the next domino to fall in their favor — a Lakers/Celtics Finals matchup, which would be the 13th time Los Angeles and Boston were the last two teams, and time zones, standing.

Jonathan Marchessault’s natural hat trick cements Golden Knights as Stanley Cup favorites

May 15, 2023

Jonathan Marchessault (left) scores his second goal of the second period against the Edmonton Oilers in Game Six of the Second Round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Edmonton Oilers’ potential to turn back the clock officially stopped on Sunday night. Despite having two of the top five players in the league, a deep playoff run wasn’t in the cards, again. Three straight uninterrupted goals came in the second period off the stick of Jonathan Marchessault in the Golden Knights’ series-ending victory over the Oilers, sending Edmonton home before the Western Conference Finals. The final score was 5-2 in Canada, a 3-goal difference, with Marchessault scoring the game-tier, game-winner, and the final non-empty-net goal of the series.

What’s a natural hat trick?

The natural hat trick is a rare feat, no doubt, as only 8 percent of NHL games feature one player scoring three goals. And only a handful of those are scored without another player for either team finding the back of the net. And with the competitiveness of the playoffs, it’s even more rare, with the most recent before Sunday coming last season, when Evander Kane pulled it off against Calgary. Before that, it was Sidney Crosby against Philadelphia in 2018. The last one in any NHL game belonged to the Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov in March.

I made the prediction a dozen days ago that the victor between Vegas and Edmonton would lift the Stanley Cup. And I feel even more confident in that selection now that the series is over. Florida isn’t winning it. Carolina will likely be the league’s runner-up. And whoever comes out of Game 7 between Dallas and Seattle doesn’t have the depth to keep up with the Golden Knights. Vegas has only been playing in the NHL since 2017 and have made the playoffs five of six seasons in the franchise’s history. This is also the Golden Knight’s fourth time being one of the final four teams standing since its inception. Vegas rode the NHL’s bizarre expansion rules to take a solid player from every other NHL team to bolster their original campaign, the team’s only trip to the Stanley Cup Finals. And that trip was in its first season, where the Golden Knights got blitzed by the Capitals in five.

Golden Knights’ route to the Cup

Last year was Vegas’ only season ending in 82 games. That disappointment gave way to a re-tool of the roster and coaching staff. The Golden Knights couldn’t rely on the expansion draft’s momentum to win any longer, rules that were changed for the Kraken, which makes Seattle’s postseason run this year more impressive in their sophomore campaign. The new blood is so evenly spread that Edmonton and Winnipeg played glorified games of pick your poison. And there was too much arsenic in their Tim Horton’s. Marchessault’s natural hat trick was just the finishing touch. His first two goals were tap-ins on back-to-back shifts. Before the second period ended, a 4-on-3 wrist shot from the left faceoff circle beat Oilers’ goaltender Stuart Skinner clean.

Vegas still has the aura of the new kids on the block for the NHL and yet will face the actual neophytes or a team that’s been to a Stanley Cup Final more recently than it is in the Western Conference Finals. And I’m not looking past the Kraken or Stars, but what has either team shown in the postseason thus far that can hang with what the Golden Knights have displayed? The answer is simple: nothing. And for the first time since the maiden voyage, Vegas should head back to the Stanley Cup Finals, which will make all the difference.

The Stanley Cup will be lifted by the Oilers-Golden Knights victor

May 3, 2023

The winner of this series will win it all

Among a final eight that feels like a changing of the guard in hockey more than most years, with old standbys proving their age by exiting the ice until the fall, the duo of the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the Edmonton Oilers stand out like a sore thumb. Not necessarily because they don’t also represent the new guard of the NHL, but because a franchise that started six seasons ago is now an old head, combined with a team that hasn’t been consistently relevant in the NHL for three decades, just after Wayne Gretzky was traded away. And now, the Oilers star power, combined with an amazing start to the franchise in Sin City makes their Western Conference semifinal the can’t-miss series of the round. And I’ll take it a step further.

Winner takes all

Whoever emerges victorious from the best-of-7 series is winning the Stanley Cup. You can count out every team from the Eastern Conference, as great as they are, because New Jersey, Toronto, and Florida don’t have the deep-round experience. And Carolina, the only team that could be considered an old head from the East, will fall on its face eventually. In the other Western Conference semifinal are Dallas and Seattle, which both don’t have the depth to keep up with the rest of the remaining teams. So, the only logical choices left are the Golden Knights and Oilers. Let me tell you why.

Vegas, baby!

The Golden Knights didn’t have a player finish the regular season with more than 66 points. That’s typically a sign of an awful team with no stars and a dreadful offense. Combine that with winning the Pacific Division and being the only team to advance to the conference semifinals in less than six games and the concoction is a mystery. Yet with Jack Eichel, Jonathan Marchessault, and Chandler Stephenson, Vegas is loaded and has been for much of its existence. Stephenson has been involved with Vegas since its opening season when he was on the Capitals, who defeated the Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final to end the latter’s inaugural season. He’s the young, up-and-comer that made sense for Washington to get rid of in re-tooling for another run at the Cup. Stephenson has turned into the exact kind of player that makes the Capitals’ front office look dumb for not choosing someone else to throw overboard.

Excellence in Edmonton

Now onto the anthesis in the team with the most top-level star power in the NHL, the Oilers. Four players had more than 82 points on the team. The fifth-highest-point getters on Edmonton — Darnell Nurse, and Tyson Barrie — both had 43 points. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Zach Hyman will as a quartet decide the series one way or another. If the Golden Knights can’t stop them, have fun at the Bellagio. If Vegas can slow them down at all, there’s a chance for it to advance despite plenty of momentum behind how Edmonton looked to close out its first-round series against the Kings. Either way, the combination the Oilers or Golden Knights present to the other six will be too much. Congratulations to Las Vegas for winning its first Stanley Cup in franchise history or it’ll be a return to the mountaintop for one of the franchises that brought hockey to a greater audience.

James Harden actually rose to the occasion with Joel Embiid out

May 2, 2023

James Harden scored 45 points against Boston

James Harden deserved to take a bow on Monday night, even if he decided to wait until he put back on his enormous pants to do so. In a game in which the Philadelphia 76ers were undermanned with their MVP candidate dealing an injury more serious than what was first made public knowledge, Harden was the best player on the court.

The Boston Celtics are arguably the best team in the NBA — and they are certainly one of the deepest. With Embiid out and the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed Milwaukee Bucks eliminated, the red carpet had been laid for the Celtics to walk to the 2023 NBA Finals.

Still, they somehow ended up in a first-half 1985 Denver Nuggets-style shootout with the 76ers. The halftime score was 66-63. The Celtics shot 71.6 percent from the field, and the 76ers went 55.3 percent while converting on three more 3-point attempts. At halftime, the Celtics had attempted the only two free throws of the game to that point.

Boston held the lead at the end of the first half, but for the rest of the game, the scoring regressed back to the mean. Both the 76ers and Celtics were not able to shoot even 46 percent from the field in the second half.

James Harden actually showed up instead of disappearing

What allowed the 76ers to pull out this narrow Game 1 victory was veteran dominance from Harden in the second half. The 76ers had to fight for a lead that went back and forth, but it was his excellence that allowed them to be the team that dragged the advantage over the finish line.

This notorious NBA playoff underachiever was the only player in the game to shoot better than 50 percent from the field in the second half while attempting at least 10 shots. Harden not only went 8-of-16 from the field but also shot 44.4 percent from the 3-point line. Then at the end of the game, when the Celtics held the lead for nearly all of the final five minutes, Harden hit the most important shot of his NBA career.

Harden buried a 3-pointer in Al Horford’s face with eight seconds remaining. That shot gave the 76ers a two-point lead, and gave Harden 45 points for the game. A total that is tied for the most points he has scored in a playoff game, and his team needed every single point.

As hot as the 76ers began the game, in the first half they were clawing with their fingernails to keep pace with the Celtics. Jaylen Brown had missed only one shot, and Tatum was 11-15. This game had all of the makings of a loss in which the hurt would increase the closer that the 76ers kept the margin. It is highly unlikely that they could duplicate their Game 1 first-half effort on Wednesday.

Harden hadn’t scored that many points since 2015

Harden once scored 45 points in the playoffs against the Golden State Warriors in the only game that the Houston Rockets won in the 2015 Western Conference Finals. However, the Rockets had no chance at winning that series and were lucky to even be in it. Harden’s last superstar playoff effort was during the Rockets’ semifinal series against the San Antonio Spurs in 2017. With the series tied 2-2, he scored 43 points. However, he also played a large part in the Rockets losing that game by turning the ball over on consecutive possessions when they held the lead with less than two minutes remaining in the game.

Combine that with the Rockets losing to the Warriors in 2018 in Game 7 when no one could make a basket, again in 2019 after Kevin Durant got hurt, and Harden providing little resistance for the 76ers in the 2022 playoffs when Embiid was battling through injury, it’s reasonable for Nick Friedell to laugh at the thought of Harden leading his team to the Eastern Conference Finals.

If Embiid does not return for this series the Celtics are going to win. The 76ers do not have enough talent without him to hold off one of the deepest teams in the league. That being said, what Harden’s spectacular play did was give the 76ers several more days of life to wait and see if Embiid can return once the series shifts back to Philadelphia.

When Harden is one day inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, those who watched him will not spend much time reminiscing on his playoff performances. As we all laugh about the fouls he drew, complain about how much he slowed down the game, and marvel at his one-on-one dominance on the perimeter, we will also remember Game 1 in Boston. The night in 2023 he needed to perform like an NBA legend to give his team a chance at victory in the series, and he absolutely rose to the occasion.

James Harden actually rose to the occasion with Joel Embiid out

May 2, 2023

James Harden actually showed up instead of disappearing

Harden hadn’t scored that many points since 2015

When David beats Goliath in the playoffs

April 27, 2023

The Miami Heat became the NBA’s sixth No. 8 seed to topple their conference’s top seed in the playoffs after beating Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks.

Behind masterful performances from Jimmy Butler and Co., Miami — who won the series four games to one — advances to play the New York Knicks, winners of their first playoff series in a decade. Those teams have met in the playoffs before, including one of the 8-over-1 upsets we’ll explore below.

As our Sam Fels pointed out in The Mourning After, Milwaukee — the 2021 champs — choked this series away.

“…I know a deer caught in headlights look when I see one, and Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer spent all of Game 5 with that look on his face. That’s when he didn’t have both hands wrapped around his throat.”

Jimmy Buckets came to play, dropping 56 points in Game 4 with Victor Oladipo and Tyler Herro out.

As our DJ Dunson noted, “In the pantheon of postseason performances, Butler’s 56 points against the Milwaukee Bucks was a spiritual awakening. Butler came stomping into Game 4 in his Black Air Force 1s and left everything ounce of energy he had left on the floor.”

Derrick Rose tore his ACL near the end of Game 1 and his, as well as the Bulls’, future changed.

Golden State became the first team to pull off the 8 over 1 upset in a seven-game series. Dallas lost in the 2006 finals, won 67 games the next season, and still came up short against the “We Believe” Warriors, which featured Baron Davis, Monta Ellis, Al Harrington, and Stephen Jackson, amongst others.

For a franchise with such a proud tradition, the Knicks haven’t been able to win a title since 1973.

They knocked on the door in 1994, and put together a run during the lockout-shortened ‘98-99 postseason.

This was the third straight year these teams met in the postseason.

Allan Houston (pictured) was the Game 5 hero, sinking a bucket in the waning seconds. Despite being the only No. 8 seed to advance to the finals, New York lost in a gentleman’s sweep to the Spurs.

Not in my house, no, no, no. Dikembe Mutombo and the were the first-ever eight seed to knock off the No. 1 squad. In 94, that was the Seattle Supersonics (Editor’s note: BRING THEM BACK!) led by Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, and Detlef Schrempf.

The Nuggets overcame an 0-2 deficit to advance before falling short — 4-3 — to Karl Malone, John Stockton and the Utah Jazz.

Clippers and Timberwolves fans should’ve been wearing cups

April 26, 2023

The NBA playoffs have turned into Yambag Yahtzee

The NBA Western Conference playoffs have been competitive to a point. The games themselves are good yet it looks like we’re only going to get one, maybe two Game 6s. The Los Angeles Clippers and Minnesota Timberwolves got bounced Tuesday, and as valiant as they fought — injuries or self-inflicted wounds be damned — it quickly became apparent that their 2023 playoff run was going to be short-lived. While that was telegraphed, what each organization does next is not.

If you’re unfortunate enough to be a fan of either of these two franchises, first, I’m sorry. And, second, woo boy, do you have some offseason-ing to do. Los Angeles can’t justify running back this roster as is, and the only way Minnesota can is because they have nothing to do after digging themselves a massive hole trading for Rudy Gobert.

If you empathize with LeBron James, Nick Claxton, or Royce O’Neale after getting their junk tenderized last week, you should send Wolves and Clippers supporters a bottle of bubbles, with the other Zalinsky promise — “Tough break, get drunk on us. Use the bucket to ice down your marbles, Yours, Z.”

However, times are tough, and my bank account can’t exactly finance get-well packages to both fan bases, so let’s look at who’s more deserving of some Mumms.

Ideally, the Clippers’ new arena is outfitted with Bacta tanks

News dropped Wednesday that Kawhi Leonard tore his meniscus, which would’ve been nice to know anytime within the past week. He joined Paul George in street clothes for the last three games of the Phoenix series, and Steve Balmer looked like he wanted to fire the entire team when they got down 20 in the second half on Tuesday.

The medical staff, and organization, have enabled a culture of load management, but no matter how stringent the regimen, Leonard and George’s knees and calves pop like tulips in late March and early April. All of the team’s aging role players are squarely in the grizzled veteran stages of their careers, and they have a shit load of contracts still on the books.

The good is those pieces are movable, the bad is they own one of their next four draft picks after this year, and the ugly is Leonard and George are set to make $90 million combined next year. A rebuilding team is going to want picks, and a contender isn’t going to part with their star for 10 cents on the dollar, so L.A.’s only real option is reconfiguring a bunch of fringe guys around the same flawed stars.

That’s rough, and I don’t expect a lot of patience from Balmer because he’s debuting 1,160 new toilets and urinals in Inglewood in 2024, and the crap jokes will overfloweth if he runs out a shit product.

Anthony Edwards isn’t Carl, not looking for a golden parachute

While the Clippers’ comeback was falling short, Karl-Anthony Towns committed four fouls in the final five minutes of Game 5, fouling out for the second time in as many games, and for the 11 millionth time in 16 career playoff appearances. Rudy Gobert also fouled out, and Anthony Edwards missed a game-tying three off the back iron as time expired.

The budding star then sprinted to the locker room, and got slammed by Nuggets fans for the “disrespect.” Edwards started the season being called out for his immature eating habits, and didn’t display much growth during his handshake-less exit to the showers or at the postgame media availability.

KAT joined Ant in the presser, but I don’t know if the guard heard the glowing things Towns said about him as he had his face buried in his arms on the table, hood up, with headphones on top of that. It was weird how much KAT went out of his way to praise Edwards, and maybe that’s because the 21-year-old shooting guard is eligible for his max rookie extension this summer.

We all assume nobody would be dumb enough to pass up that kind of money, yet you’d equally question Edwards’ mental capacity if he signed up for an extended future next to Towns and Gobert at those salaries.

Minnesota also has shit for picks, and even fewer quality role players than Los Angeles to dangle as trade bait. Nobody wants Gobert, and the only way you’re moving Towns is if he fetches a star of his caliber or better in return. Seeing as few of those names are out there right now, I don’t know what the Wolves do other than pray Edwards signs the extension and desperately try to move Gobert.

If Edwards does return, Alex Rodriguez and the rest of Minnesota’s ownership group will be allotting more than $100 million of their cap to three players, two of which don’t fit together and get played or play themselves out of playoff games.

So, yeah, I don’t know who’s more deserving of pity because, for the first time in NBA history, you can’t go wrong picking either the Wolves or Clippers.

Misfortune has once again befallen the Clippers

April 20, 2023

The poor Los Angeles Clippers have no luck. In 2019, they acquired what appeared to be the perfect tandem in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. The Clippers are currently the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference and tied 1-1 with the Phoenix Suns in a first-round playoff series. On Thursday night at home, they will be without both George and Leonard.

ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk reported that Leonard will be out for Game 3 with a sprained knee. It is the same knee in which Leonard suffered a torn ACL during the 2021 playoffs. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that Leonard’s current injury is not related to the previous one.

George has been out of the lineup since late March after suffering a knee injury. There is no definitive timetable for his return, but he is expected to remain in street clothes for the entire first round.

The Clippers are stymied by injury again

In 2019, the Clippers were one of several teams who went all in to attempt to build a championship roster on the fly. They traded likely 2022-23 NBA All First-Team guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and five unprotected first-round draft picks to the Oklahoma City Thunder for George. The Clippers signed Leonard shortly afterwards. The Los Angeles Lakers traded away starters and picks to acquire Anthony Davis. The Brooklyn Nets signed Kevin Durant.

So far the moves have only paid off for the Lakers, who won the muted bubble championship of 2020 — and have produced more drama than winning since. Durant currently plays for the Suns, and the Clippers are stuck. The only postseason in which George and Leonard have been healthy the entire time was the Clippers 2020 choke job in the bubble. Fast forward to

2023, in a home playoff game that they desperately need to win, neither player is on the floor.

Even if Leonard can play again in this series, there is a good chance that this knee issue will not be a one game occurrence. The Clippers still don’t know when/if George will return, and they don’t have a first round draft pick until 2027.

They followed the wave in 2019, and had better hope that at some point either this season or next that George and Leonard can get out of the water and back on their surfboards. If not, that new Intuit Dome will be mighty quiet for the foreseeable future.