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We have four episodes to go (counting the reunion), but season six of “Love Is Blind” is the best season ever.
NBA Stock Market
Post-weekend trends and analysis!
Now that All-Star Weekend is long gone, the NBA is back in full swing with big weekend slates. It’s a perfect time to do what we do every Monday! Let’s check trends!
📈 The Bucks (37-21, third in East) are doing well! See? We’re not just here to pick on Doc Rivers! The Bucks have won four of their last six games, including wins over Denver, Minnesota and Philadelphia. Giannis Antetokounmpo is averaging 28.7 points, 12.0 rebounds and seven assists while making 68.1 percent of his shots during this stretch.
📈 The Celtics. Yes, East-leading Boston has been trending upward all season long. The Celtics have won eight straight games, hold a 7.5-game lead over the second-place Cavaliers and are on pace to win 65 games, which would be the fourth-most in team history. This team has the highest margin of victory in franchise history, even higher than the 2008 champs (66-16) and 1986 champs (67-15). Could it be the most dominant Celtics team ever?
📉 The Wizards. The opposite of Boston. Washington, 9-48, has 11 straight losses and sits just a half game ahead of Detroit for the NBA’s worst record. They just benched big-money acquisition Jordan Poole. Oh, and promising rookie Bilal Coulibaly left last game with a pelvis injury.
📉 The Hawks making the Play-In. Trae Young will miss the next four weeks following finger surgery. The Hawks (25-32) are 10th in the East, 3.5 games ahead of Brooklyn and four ahead of Toronto. We might see Atlanta completely fall apart, but I just don’t know if Brooklyn or Toronto are capable of catching up.
📈 OKC. Don’t look now, but the Thunder have moved to an even tie with the Wolves for the top spot in the West (both 40-17). Minnesota retains the No. 1 seed due to division and conference tiebreakers, but the Thunder have won five straight games.
📈 Big round numbers. LeBron James is 74 points away from hitting 40,000 regular-season points for his career. Each LeBron point continues to set history.
📉 Players keeping their cool. We had a bizarre scuffle this weekend between the Pelicans and the Heat. It started with Kevin Love wrapping up Zion Williamson to prevent a bucket. Naji Marshall and Jimmy Butler got into it, and Marshall briefly attempted to choke Jimmy. Then, Thomas Bryant and Jose Alvarado got into it, with a fan even getting involved. Butler, Marshall and Nikola Jović were suspended one game each. Alvarado and Bryant were suspended three each. We’ll get into more basketball beef after catching up with Shams.
The Latest From Shams
Catching up with Ignite duo
With the trade deadline and All-Star Weekend behind us, attention is turning toward this summer’s NBA Draft.
Once again, G League Ignite is expected to produce a few selections in June. Two of those players are likely to be Matas Buzelis and Ron Holland; my colleague Sam Vecenie has both in the top 10 of his latest mock draft.
To learn a little more about the duo, check out my recent Stadium sitdown with Buzelis and Holland, where we discussed their decisions to go pro, past and present players they look up to in the NBA and much more.
Beef Court
The People v. Unwritten Rules
We had two incidents over the last few days in which an unwritten rule was violated. That rule? Do not try to score when the game has been decided because it will make the losers very, very mad.
In a very special edition of Beef Court, let’s look at some evidence and see if the unwritten rules should be upheld.
Exhibit A: The Hornets-Warriors scolding. Lester Quinones of the Warriors scored a transition bucket with 12 seconds left in Golden State’s win over the Charlotte Hornets. The problem? It made the score 97-84, and the Hornets had conceded despite the difference in game and shot clocks. Miles Bridges got in Quinones’ face. Grant Williams came barreling in to rub foreheads. Williams and Quinones were ejected.
Exhibit B: The Wolves-Nets altercation. With four seconds left on the shot clock and 23.1 seconds remaining in the game, Mike Conley made a 3-pointer to put the Wolves up 101-86 instead of letting the shot clock expire. Immediately, Dennis Schroder pushed him and started yelling. Four technical fouls were given out, but nobody was ejected.
Verdict: We’re siding with the people on this one. Unwritten rules are generally outdated, dumb and for those who are a little too sensitive about the loss in progress. Play to the buzzer or suffer an uglier final score. 🧑⚖️
Historic Rookies
Wemby and Chet don’t make sense
At this point in the season, the performances by rookies Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren have been almost too good to be true. Both big men have both been transcendent. They’re by far the two favorites for the 2024 Rookie of the Year award, with Wembanyama leading the BetMGM odds at -650 to win and Holmgren at +500. Next on the board is Brandon Miller at +15000.
Over the weekend, the duo walked into even more history.
- In back-to-back five-point losses for Wemby and his Spurs, the French Stretch Armstrong had consecutive five-blocks-and-five-steals games, marking only the second time in NBA history. The other? Michael Jordan in 1987. After Wemby was informed, he wondered whether MJ did it in wins or losses — because the Spurs rookie isn’t satisfied with production during Ls. (Jordan’s team did, in fact, win those games.)
- In that second game, he put up the elusive 5×5 game (at least five points, five rebounds, five assists, five steals and five blocks). It marked the 22nd such instance among in NBA history, making Wemby just the 15th player (and first rookie) to do so. (Jusuf Nurkić (2019) had the most recent previous 5×5.)
Meanwhile, Holmgren hit five 3-pointers on Sunday to give him 100 made threes on the season. He’s the first rookie to ever register 100 blocks and 100 made 3-pointers in a season. Wemby (82 3s) should join Holmgren later this season.
Bounce Passes
Screen Game (All times Eastern)
- Main Screen: Heat-Kings (10 p.m. NBA TV). Sacramento is on a back-to-back, but Miami will be without Butler.
- Second Screen: Raptors–Pacers (7 p.m. NBA TV). Toronto’s been good this week, and Indiana can always put up 150.
- League Pass Game of the Night: Pistons-Knicks (7:30 p.m.). It was this or Nets-Grizzlies. Always pick the Knicks instead. Full schedule here.
(Top photo: Steven Ryan/Getty Images )
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