The NBA season is heating up. All the load management is coming to an end as every game becomes even more important. Yeah that means you too Kawhi.
With every team having about 20 games left in the season, I decided to educate y’all nerds on the top 5 things to watch in this home stretch.
5. Dame! Shoutout to the big homie YH for writing up a nice piece on Dame Dollar the other day. Dame has been on a tear in 2023. A hot streak which included a 71 point game, but I don’t think he’s done. Expect another monster game from him before the season is over. I’m talking 60 points against someone like San Antonio.
4. The Suns. Kevin Durant is set to make his Phoenix debut on Wednesday against the Charlotte Hornets or New Orleans Bobcats. Whatever their name is. "Been lookin forward to getting this opportunity to play again," Durant told reporters on Tuesday. "It's been a long time. I was having fun out there before I got injured. So I'm looking forward to going out there and picking up where I left off." Sounds like some spankings are about to be handed out for the rest of the season.
3. The conference seedings. The top of the East seems to be all but locked up with Boston, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Cleveland in that order. However, the west is wild! Only 4 games separate the 4 seed and the 13 seed. Insane. You can easily go from home court in round one to not making the play-in tournament.
2. The MVP race. Nikola Jokić is in the driver seat for his third consecutive most valuable player award and I’m about to throw his ass in the back seat. He’s a dog and very deserving of the award as his team is first in the west and he’s averaging a triple double. But that’s enough. Only three players in NBA history have won three straight MVPs: Bill Russell (1960-63), Wilt Chamberlain (1965-68) and Larry Bird (1983-86). So you mean to tell me, Michael Jordan, Lebron James, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Tim Duncan, haven’t done that before, and now Jokić will? Absolutely not. The thing is my beef isn’t really with him winning this year. I don’t think he should have won one of the previous trophies. Where are all the people who diminish the triple double and say players like Westbrook chase stats? Where are all the guys that say this doesn’t matter, he needs to get to the finals and win? Crickets. If I had a vote, I’d give the nod to Embiid or Giannis because defense matters in my house.
The Lakers. The NBA is better when certain franchises are relevant. One of those clubs are the Lakers of course. However, it’s hard to be relevant when you miss the playoffs. Following the successful trade deadline LA had, they were poised to make a run for a playoff spot. (I feel a but coming) BUT Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James is hurt! Damn it. He injured the foot Sunday against Dallas. You can hear James say “I heard a pop”. Now I must say…I thought he was just being dramatic. But unfortunately I was wrong. In fact, there’s no telling when he’ll be back. The all-time leading scorer, will be re-evaluated after a few weeks and at that time, the hope is to gather a better understanding of what direction to go in which would keep him sidelined additional time, league sources say. Welp, back to these adult films I go.
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