Last Night In The NBA: Hulk Tributes, Tunnel Fights, Postgame Shit Talking And Much More!
Good morning everybody happy Wednesday 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. The schedule was fairly light on Tuesday night with only 4 games, but make no mistake there was certainly no lack of drama. Things are getting a little testy as we quickly approach the All Star Break, and last night was the latest example. We had guys challenging each other to tunnel fights. some quality postgame shit talking, it almost makes you forget that there was actually some pretty entertaining basketball being played. If you were busy or for whatever reason couldn’t watch, here’s what happened.
Sacramento Kings (24-24) 105 vs Toronto Raptors (36-13) 120
We knew the Kings were heading into a brutal part of their schedule, and so far have lost 3 of the last 4. There’s no shame in losing on the road to TOR though, they are virtually unbeatable in that building, even on night like last night where Kawhi didn’t play. It’s a shame they wasted their good start in which they got off to a 34-29 lead, but things went cold for the next two quarters where they didn’t break 22 points, and by the time they got to the fourth and tried to make one last run it was simply too late. A team that’s now 10-14 on the road this season, they now find themselves 1.5 games out of that final playoff spot.
But it wasn’t all bad! For example Marvin Bagley III made his first career start and I thought he looked pretty damn good
Maybe that’s the Bagley the Kings envisioned when they took him this summer, and at this point of their season why not give him some extended looks? He showed a little bit of everything in his 38 minutes, and I would go so far as to say he wasn’t even that big of a defensive liability.
Bogdan Bogdanovic, a guy who not only has a money name but is actually pretty good also turned in a performance Kings dans should be happy with
To me he’s one of the most underrated players in the league, mostly because I don’t think a ton of people watch Kings basketball but this kid is as legit as they come. The problem was mostly the Kings guards sort of let them down with both Buddy Hield and Yogi Ferrell combining to go just 9/27. It was a little shocking to see De’Aaron Fox get the night off given the opponent, something tells me he may have made a difference.
For TOR, this is a great example of why this team is such a wagon. They are without their best player and still drop 120, that is pretty ridiculous. This is where their depth becomes such a strength, they can insert Fred VanVleet into the starting lineup and he puts up 19/7/7
it gives them more touches to give to Pascal Siakam who is having a breakout year and has shown time and time again that he can at times carry the load offensively. Remember it was him that had the game winner against PHX, and then he had another 18 on 8-14 shooting in this one
As the Raptors continue to try and keep pace with MIL atop the East standings this was an important win for them as it’s their 3rd in a row and they find themselves 8-2 over their last 10. All I can say is if you have to walk into that arena you better pray because at 21-4 on the season it’s essentially a guaranteed loss.
Portland Trail Blazers (29-20) 114 vs Oklahoma City Thunder (29-18) 123
Of all the games played last night, this one may have been the most important. You see both of these teams reside in the Northwest division. You have the 3rd and 4th seeds separated by just 1 game. That means the H2H matchup between these two is extremely important for both sides to win because chances are they are going to be very close in the standings come the Spring. The Thunder had already beaten the Blazers in their own building in the first meeting, and now with a 2-0 lead and the next meeting once again in OKC, POR is definitely feeling the pressure. That sets the stage, so how about the actual basketball. Well, just like he does every goddamn night Russell Westbrook had yet another triple double
He did it on 9-20 shooting which isn’t terrible by his standards, and if that wasn’t hard enough for the Blazers to stop, just wait until you add a cool 36/8/4/5 on 10-21 from Paul George
When these two are cooking the Thunder are so tough to beat, even more so when they finish with 50/47% splits and just 10 TOs. Giving up 114 at home is a little concerning for a team with the ones of the league’s top defenses, but as owners of the second longest active winning streak in the West I’m not sure they care. So while they were dominant on the floor, the story kept going once everyone got to the locker room
I get that Westbrook is a maniac, but picking a fight with Jursuf Nurkic is not wise. They call him the Bosnian Beast for a reason. That is a fight that would not end well for Westbrook not just because Nurkic is a monster but because you know he rolls with some goons that don’t give a fuck. Shit’s done different over there and while I respect Westbrook for never biting his tongue, unless he’s going to have Steven Adams there with him, he shouldn’t want that smoke.
As you can see, Nurk couldn’t keep to himself
Now here’s my problem with this. It’s a good dig sure, I mean we all know Westbrook is having the worst shooting year of his career, but it doesn’t really work on a night where he pretty much destroyed you and didn’t shoot all that poorly. I give this a 6.5/10. Good dig sure, bad timing.
For POR, they’re now behind the 8 ball when it comes to this H2H matchup, and in my opinion it’s because they only had 3 players actually show up
Nurkic also had 22/15 on 9-17 but other than that only 1 Blazer had more than 4 points. You can’t win on the road in OKC going 10-36 from three and turning it over 19 times, that day 1 stuff. Given that POR is 9-13 on the road this season, if I had to point to one area that mau keep them out of a top 3 seed it’s that. They have to figure out how to win on the road especially in this conference.
Los Angeles Clippers (25-22) 98 vs Dallas Mavericks (21-26) 106
If there’s one thing we know about the Mavs, it’s that they are a completely different team at home. I’m talking 17-6 with wins over a handful of legit quality opponents. So with the Clippers in town, and Dennis Smith Jr back in the lineup after missing the last handful of games, I was interested to see how they would respond despite having the 3rd worst record in the West and basically lottery bound. Coming off his first career triple double, LUka once again did not disappoint
We saw him go a little crazy at the end of the half with his best Hulk impression after a rough first half
and personally I see that as a positive. The Mavs were winning when this happened and you could see he was still clearly frustrated. That’s a player who gets it in my mind, one that wants to be great one day. Hopefully they auction off that jersey for charity or something because I’m sure Mavs fans would pay a pretty penny for it.
But other than Luka, it was also a great return for DSJ
That whole situation was always a little weird to me, it never made sense why they would give up on their young PG so early into his career, and now that the beef is apparently squashed it was good to see him back on the floor and doing what he does best. I still think these two can work playing next to each other as long as DSJ continues to have a consistent jumpshot and is OK playing off the ball. As the game wound down though, it was neither of these two who put the icing on the cake. That came from Harrison Barnes and this dagger three
He finished with 20 points, and the Mavs used a 14-3 fourth quarter run to put this game away. Why they can’t do this on the road is anyone’s guess, but that’s a good Clippers team they just beat there’s no question about that.
For LAC, tough to win when you shoot just 36/27% and can’t break 100. That’s a tale as old as time. Missing Gallo hurts for sure, as does watching Tobias Harris finish just 1-9. For a teeam hanging onto their playoff spot by the skin of their teeth, this is a game they couldn’t really afford to drop. Not with LeBron about to come back and save the Lakers.
Normally I’d have some highlights for you, but everyone played like shit so there really isn’t anything to show. Maybe next time score more than 42 points in a half. Just a thought.
Minnesota Timberwolves (23-24) 118 vs Phoenix Suns (11-38) 91
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When you saw this game on the schedule, I wouldn’t blame you if you decided not to watch. Both of these teams stink, they are both headed for the lottery, there really isn’t a reason this matchup would warrant your attention. But that’s then beauty of the NBA because it was this game that gave us probably the most entertainment of the entire night. We could talk about how Josh Jackson played great off the PHX bench and dropped 27
We could talk about how Dragan Bender actually showed he had a pulse
But neither of those things are why this game was fun. The real draw was the tunnel fight!
THIS is why the NBA rules. Yeah it was mostly a hold me back affair like we often see in this league, but given the history of tunnel fights we’ve seen over the last few years this was great. My problem is I’m not sure Devin Booker wins that fight. I respect his desire to throw down, but he has to remember he’s the franchise player. His hands are too valuable to break trying to beat the shit out of Dieng. That’s what the scrubs are for in my opinion. Remember that TMZ video of that fight in the apartment building where Booker just sort of sat there? I’m not sure he’s the fighting type, so how much of this was an act and how much of it was real? We’ll never know but it was damn funny watching him drag that security guard. You knew that guy hated his life the minute Booker started to run to the tunnel. That guy is just trying to show up, watch the crowd and get a paycheck, not try and stop this super strong athletic pissed off NBA player from making a gigantic mistake. I feel for that guy.
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Dieng was asked about the incident and this is what he had to say
Yeah that doesn’t sound like a guy who was afraid of Devin Booker. He knows he wins that fight 10/10 times.
For MIN, I guess they did win and actually played well, so here’s what that looked like
Not having Ayton in the lineup was a problem as KAT basically did whatever he wanted, and this was one of those absolute beatdowns where MIN had 20 OREB and took 103 FGA. Those are insane numbers. Now they are just 2 games back of the final playoff spot so maybe this can be something to give them some momentum moving forward, but like a lot of these bottom of the West teams their 7-16 road record might be the thing that holds them back.
And that’s it! You’re now all caught up on everything that went down last night in the NBA. We’re back tonight with 10 more games so pretty much a full slate. If you can’t watch them all that’s fine, just check back in the morning and I’ll bring you up to speed on what you missed!