May 16, 2023; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (15) controls the ball in the second quarter against the Los Angeles Lakers during game one of the Western Conference Finals for the 2023 NBA playoffs at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
One former Los Angeles Lakers great recently gave Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic the ultimate compliment.
Jokic played like a true MVP in Game 1 of his Western Conference first-round playoff series to lead the Nuggets to a 114-103 win over the Lakers at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo. Jokic tallied 32 points to go along with 12 rebounds and 7 assists on 15/23 shooting during Saturday’s win.
After the game, Hall-of-Famer James Worthy appeared on the Spectrum SportsNet postgame show. Worthy compared Jokic to two players that Lakers fans have probably heard of.
“To me, [Jokic] is Magic Johnson and Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] on the floor at the same time,” said Worthy. “He’s a guard. He makes great decisions. Hell of a passer. And then when he wants to be Kareem, he goes down and dominates. He’s a special player that does a lot of things.”
Worthy is one of the few people on earth who have the standing to make such a lofty comparison. The North Carolina alum played seven years alongside both Magic and Kareem. Worthy also won three championships as the third star behind the two all-time greats.
Jokic on Sunday was named as one of the three finalists for the 2023-24 NBA MVP award. Jokic, who’s widely considered the favorite to win the award, could potentially have three MVP trophies at season’s end.
Jokic would join just eight players — including Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar — who have won at least three NBA MVP awards.
Milwaukee Bucks point guard Damian Lillard was scorching hot in more ways than one during his team’s Game 1 matchup Sunday against the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Lillard got heated with Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard midway through the third quarter at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wis.
Nembhard and Lillard got tangled up just as the Bucks called timeout while leading 75-56. The Bucks star took exception to the Pacers defender getting too close and gave Nembhard a light shove. The two exchanged words and had to be separated.
Perhaps Nembhard was trying to get under the 7-time All-Star’s skin after Lillard had a legendary first half against Indiana’s defense. It was worth a shot given that nothing the Pacers were doing defensively had worked so far.
Lillard erupted for 35 points in the first half on 11/19 shooting from the field to go along with 6 three-pointers. The Bucks guard basically had a full game’s worth of buckets in the opening two quarters.
Lillard nearly outscored the Pacers by himself in the first quarter, when he scored 19 points to Indiana’s 21.
Fans on social media went absolutely nuts reacting to Lillard’s playoff heroics.
Lillard came in knowing he had to carry a heavier burden than normal given Giannis Antetokounmpo’s injury status.
The 33-year-old would likely need similar performances to ensure wins for Milwaukee. But given Lillard’s recent sobering comments about his situation with the Bucks, Dame Time sounds more than up for the challenge.
It was no Giannis Antetokounmpo, no problem for Damian Lillard and the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday.
The Bucks star Lillard went full Human Torch during the first half of his team’s series opener against the Indiana Pacers. Lillard detonated for 19 points in the first quarter on three triples. He then added another 16 points on three more triples in the second quarter to finish with a smoldering 35 at the half.
Though no other Bucks player entered halftime with more than eight points scored, Lillard’s carry job was more than enough as Milwaukee took a 69-42 lead into the break (leading by as many as 30 at one point).
The superhuman first half by Lillard had the Internet losing its collective mind. Here is a sampling of the public’s reaction.
That was exactly what the Bucks envisioned when they swung the blockbuster trade for Lillard in the summer. While Lillard’s regular season was very up-and-down for a number of reasons, he is a cold-blooded playoff perfomer who always seems to show up when the lights are the brightest.
There is also probably a revenge factor in play here for Lillard against the Pacers. You may recall several months ago when an Indiana star mocked Lillard by doing Lillard’s signature celebration.
Mar 16, 2022; Brooklyn, New York, USA; Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd coaches against the Brooklyn Nets during the fourth quarter at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Jason Kidd must really not like coaching in Game 1s.
Kidd’s Dallas Mavericks suffered an embarrassing loss in Sunday’s first-round series opener against the LA Clippers. They came out lifeless in the first two quarters, entering halftime down 56-30. While Dallas closed the gap a bit in the second half, they still never got the game back into single digits and wound up losing 109-97.
After the loss, a wild statistic about Kidd’s tenure as Mavs head coach went viral. The defeat dropped the team to 0-4 in Game 1s during the Kidd era.
The other three losses all came during the 2022 postseason, so the good news is that the Mavs actually came back to win the series two of those times. But they will have to do better than simply relying on history to overcome the Clippers this year.
Dallas’ lack of a pulse offensively outside of the star duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving played a major role in Sunday’s loss, especially their abhorrent second quarter where the Mavs made just two total field goals and scored eight points overall. But Kidd did not do himself any favors either by failing to manage his timeouts properly when the Clippers were pulling away and by relying on big minutes from reserves like Maxi Kleber and Tim Hardaway Jr. (neither of whom appear to be particularly playable in this series).
Sunday will ultimately go down as a major missed opportunity for the Mavs since the Clippers were without Kawhi Leonard, who seems likely to return at some point this series. Kidd will have to make the right adjustments from here and avoid falling back to his old bad habits that Mavs fans are used to.
Michael Jordan is not necessarily known for his public displays of emotion, but that certainly was not the case Sunday after one of his drivers scored a win at the Geico 500.
Jordan was in attendance for Sunday’s race at Talladega and got to see one of his drivers, Tyler Reddick, win the race. While it is not 23XI Racing’s first win, or even Reddick’s first for the team, it was the first one Jordan has actually been in attendance to see.
Make no mistake: Jordan was very much invested, and he went nuts when Reddick got the win.
Jordan even showed up in victory lane, where he celebrated with Reddick’s young son, not to mention the driver himself. He even gave a live interview to FOX, where he jokingly took a shot at co-owner Denny Hamlin.
“Denny (Hamlin) keeps saying I was bad luck when I come to the track, and today we proved him wrong. Actually, he did a good job by wrecking so we could get up front,” Jordan said. “I’m very happy to be here to see it. Everybody tells me when we win, we have a good celebration, but this is the first time I’ve been here.
“This, to me, is like an NBA playoff game. I am so ecstatic, obviously for the fans who support the sport itself. We’ve been working hard trying to get ourselves up to where we can compete against all the top guys in this sport, but we’ve done a heck of a job just to be where we are. For us to win a big race like this, it means so much to me. … I am all in. I love it. It replaces a lot of the competitiveness that I had in basketball, but this is even worse, because I have no control, so I live vicariously through the drivers and crew chiefs and everybody.”
Jordan and Hamlin formed 23XI Racing in 2020, and the team debuted in the next year’s Daytona 500. Sunday’s win at Talladega marked the team’s sixth since its founding.
We have seen how Jordan reacts when things are not going well for his team. Now we know what he looks like when they win, and there is no doubt he is totally invested in how they perform.
One game into the playoffs, Washington Capitals enforcer Tom Wilson is already being accused of dirty play.
The Capitals lost 4-1 to the New York Rangers in Sunday’s Game 1, but Wilson was very much in the middle of the action. Two incidents gained particular attention on social media, the first coming late in the second period when Wilson threw a big hit on New York’s Mika Zibanejad, even though the puck appeared to be heading well away from them.
Wilson was also accused of slashing Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin in the lower back. Video was not clear, however, and it looked like Wilson’s stick may have hit the crossbar instead.
Regardless, the Rangers will be well aware of Wilson’s habits. Remember, three years ago, the Rangers were so furious at a perceived indiscretion by Wilson going unpunished that they called for the NHL’s head of player safety to be fired in a public statement. They probably will not go this far here, but they will make sure the league office knows what Wilson is up to in this series.
Apr 22, 2023; Los Angeles, California, USA; The Los Angeles Lakers logo at center court during game three of the 2023 NBA playoffs at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Los Angeles Lakers fans got riled up Sunday over the latest announcement by the NBA.
Early on Sunday evening, the league revealed this season’s finalists for all of the major NBA awards. Three finalists each were officially named for seven total awards — Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Clutch Player of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Most Improved Player, and Coach of the Year.
You can take a look at the full list of finalists below.
But there was one particular snub that Lakers fans were livid about — Anthony Davis not being named as a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year. Davis lost out to Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert, Miami’s Bam Adebayo, and San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama.
Many Lakers fans and even some Lakers media members expressed anger on X over the Davis snub.
Davis certainly had a strong case for being selected as one of the three best defenders in the NBA this season. He appeared in 76 games (which is quite remarkable by his standards) and averaged a stout 1.2 steals and 2.3 blocks per game. Davis also posted an excellent 56.4 defensive field goal percentage on shots inside six feet and a 47.3 defensive field goal percentage on all shot attempts overall (per NBA.com tracking data).
Gobert, the anchor of an NBA-best Timberwolves defense, was probably a shoo-in choice and should be considered as the frontrunner to ultimately win DPOY. But Lakers fans will argue that Davis was much more impactful than Wembanyama, a rookie on a 22-win team, and Adebayo, a first-time finalist in a defensive scheme based more around switches and zone play rather than funneling ball-handlers into a lone rim protector.
In any case, Davis still has yet to win Defensive Player of the Year in 12 career seasons. If a high-impact, 76-game campaign wasn’t enough to even earn him a finalist spot, Davis will probably never end up winning it. But at least Davis already ended up getting one NBA honor that some think he did not deserve.
Jan 21, 2019; Morgantown, WV, USA; Baylor Bears head coach Scott Drew smiles after beating the West Virginia Mountaineers at WVU Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports
The Baylor Bears are getting a big boost via the transfer portal, as a key member of Duke’s 2023-24 team is joining their squad.
Guard Jeremy Roach has committed to Baylor, via Grant Grubbs of On3. The senior is entering his final season of eligibility.
A two-time team captain, Roach will bring plenty of experience to the Baylor backcourt. He averaged 14 points per game last season in 35 games and shot 42.9% from three-point range for the Blue Devils. He figures to slot in as a starter for a Baylor team looking to improve on last year’s 24-11 campaign.
Roach is hardly alone in his decision to leave Duke. Pretty much the entire Blue Devils roster has opted to do the same, leaving coach Jon Scheyer in a difficult spot as he tries to build an almost entirely new squad.
The Seattle Mariners found an innovative new way to get their 11th loss of the season.
Seattle fell on Sunday to the lowly Colorado Rockies in a grind-it-out extra-inning affair. The game entered the tenth inning scoreless, but the Mariners pushed their ghost runner across the plate on a JP Crawford RBI single to lead off the frame. Unfortunately, the good vibes for Crawford did not last.
In the bottom of the tenth inning, the Rockies tied it at 1-1 after two singles brought home their own ghost runner. Then with the winning run at third base, Colorado’s Ryan McMahon hit a groundball that Crawford, who was playing in at the time, flubbed. The misplay allowed the Rockies to win the game 2-1.
Crawford, an ex-Gold Glove winner, is usually pretty sure-handed at short. Had he made the play as well, he likely would have had a good shot at the runner coming home since it was 37-year-old Charlie Blackmon.
Granted, some fans saw it as karmic justice after Colorado’s Jacob Stallings was robbed of a walk-off home run in bottom of the ninth inning by a fan interference call.
Fortunately for Seattle, they were set for an immediate redemption chance as the game on Sunday was the first of a double-header against Colorado. Plus, Crawford was not charged with an error on the play as the McMahon grounder ultimately got scored as an infield single. But the Mariners are now back below .500 (10-11) and cannot afford to be losing games as bizarrely as they already have been lately.
Erik Jones appeared to avoid major injury Sunday despite going into the wall at high speed during Sunday’s Geico 500 at Talladega.
Jones went into the wall hard with about 33 laps to go in Sunday’s race after being tapped by Bubba Wallace. The force of the collision made it particularly scary, and it did not help that Jones could be heard complaining about his back on the team radio.
Jones was able to climb out of the car on his own, though it took some time. He was quickly released from the infield care center and admitted that his back was sore, but he said he was “fine.”
“I’m a little sore, but it’ll be alright,” Jones said. “It was a hard hit. At the end of the day, if you’re going to be dumb, you gotta be tough.”
Many fans were amazed that Jones was able to walk away largely unscathed, especially considering the state of his car.
Jones wound up finishing 35th, as he was obviously unable to complete the race. His best finish of the 2024 season thus far came at Daytona, where he finished eighth.
