Kylie climbed the ladder Luka's lob helped the Mavs move into the playoffs on Thursday.
Lineup 🏀
What's in today's issue?
Nuggets make Knicks cool: MPJ and Joker total 61 to end New York's winning streak at 4.
Mavs stand up: Dallas beats Utah, loses to Sacramento to get out of play-in
Magic, the Rockets remain hot: Orlando has won five straight games and moves into fourth place in the East.Houston wins 7 straight games
30 vs. everyone: SGA needs 30+ points in next 2 games (@TOR, @MIL) to become 4th team to score 30+ points vs. all teams
Balance the load: Cleveland has worked its way up and down the roster to finish third in the East.
But first… ⏰
Last night's score and today's highlights
cavs vs wolves (May 8, ET, NBA TV): The No. 3 seeds from each conference will square off for the first time in two weeks. Will overtime be necessary this time around, like Cleveland's victory on March 8?
Sixers vs. Lakers (10:30 ET, NBA TV): A matchup between two teams looking to get out of the play-ins in the final three weeks of the season.
1. Nuggets, Bucks beat New York team by score
Nikola Jokic had 30 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists in the win against the Knicks.
Denver makes New York cooler. Michael Porter Jr. (31 points) and Nikola Jokic (30 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists) combined for 61 points as Denver won 113-100, ending New York's winning streak at 4 and defeating the Nuggets. This pushed them to 13th place, the highest in the league. -2 since All-Star. | Summary
- Jokic's horse shot: I would appreciate it if you could recreate this.Tap to watch Jokic use the top of the backboard to knock down an and-1 fadeaway jumper against Isaiah Hartenstein
- 3 MPJ: Porter Jr. hit three threes, passing Dale Ellis (192 in 1996-97) for the most 3-pointers in a season in Nuggets history (193, still standing).
- Playoff Race (DEN) ↔️): Denver remains in second place in the West Division, effectively tied with first-place OKC (0.006 winning percentage difference) and 1.5 games behind third-place Minnesota.
- Playoff Race (NYK) ⬇️): New York's loss and Orlando's win set up two replacement spots in the East Division, and the Knicks dropped from fourth to fifth place by a half-game difference.
Lillard, Antetokounmpo will lead the Bucks: Damian Lillard (30 points, 12 rebounds) had his third straight game with 30 or more points, but it was his 14 points and 2 points in the fourth quarter that helped the Bucks defeat the Nets 115-108. It was a clutch steal. Giannis Antetokounmpo (21 points, 9 rebs, 5 asts, 2 blacks) made a strong return after missing two games. | Summary
- dam 🤝 splash bros Lillard hit at least 200 triples in his ninth season, tying him with Stephen Curry (11) and Klay Thompson (9) for the most in league history.
- Playoff Race (MIL) ↔️): Milwaukee maintains 2nd place in the East Division, increasing the gap to 1.5 games over Cleveland, which is chirping.
2. MAVS stays hot and crawls out of play-ins
Mavs move up the standings: Luka Doncic (34pts, 9reb, 8ast, 4stl) led the Mavs to their third straight win (seventh in their last eight games) with a 113-97 victory over Utah. Daniel Gafford added 24 points at the deadline, his highest score since joining the Mavs. | Summary
- First half Luke: Doncic scored 20 or more points in a first half in his 30th game this season, one shy of James Harden's 31 points in 2018-19, the most since records began in 1997-98.
- Playoff Race (DAL) ⬆️): With the win and the loss to Sacramento, Dallas moved from seventh to sixth place in the West.Mavs and Suns tied 41-29, but Dallas wins tiebreaker
The sun burns: Devin Booker (30 points, 6 threes), Eric Gordon (21 points, four threes) and Kevin Durant (19 points, two threes) combined for 70 points for Phoenix, a season-high 22 points. He hit 12 threes and won 128-115. Hawks. | Summary
- KD 2K: Durant made a three early in the second quarter, becoming the 16th player to make 2,000 career threes.
- Playoff Race (PHX) ⬆️): The Dallas win and Sacramento loss moved Phoenix into seventh place in the West.Suns and Mavs tied 41-29, but Dallas wins tiebreaker
- Play-in race (ATL) ↔️): Atlanta remains 10th in the East, 3.5 games behind No. 9 Chicago and 4.5 games behind No. 11 Brooklyn.
Wizards trail by 5 games in a row: Kyle Kuzma (31 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists) returned from a two-game absence and led the Wizards to a 109-102 victory over the Kings. Deni Avdija added 17 points for Washington, and De'Aaron Fox led the Kings with 25 points and six steals. | Summary
- Sabonis 1 apart: Domantas Sabonis' 52nd consecutive double-double (14 points, 14 revs) puts him just shy of Kevin Love's longest streak of the 2000s, 53 games, set in 2010-11.
- Playoff Race (SAC) ⬇️): With the losses and wins to Dallas and Phoenix, the Kings dropped from sixth to eighth in the West, a half-game behind the Mavs and Suns and three games behind the ninth-place Lakers.
3. Summary: Magic, Rockets extend winning streak
New Orleans has no answer for Paolo Banchero, who recorded the second triple-double of his career in Orlando's five-game winning streak.
Magic moves into 4th place in the East with 5 consecutive wins: Led by Paolo Banchero's second career triple-double (20 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists) and Jalen Suggs' 22 points, the Magic defeated the Pelicans 121-106 in the No. 5 battle. | Summary
- Playoff Race (ORL) ⬆️): With Orlando's win and New York's loss, the Magic move the Knicks from fifth to fourth in the East, 0.5 games behind New York.
- Playoff Race (NOP) ↔️): New Orleans remains in fifth place in the West, 1.5 games behind the fourth-place Clippers and just 1.5 games behind Dallas and Phoenix.
Rocket stays hot: Jalen Green scored 26 points, Jock Landale added 17 points and 12 rebounds off the bench, and the Rockets beat the Bulls 127-117, extending their winning streak to seven. | Summary
- Green if 3: Green is the second-youngest player in NBA history (age 22 years, 41 days) to reach 500 career 3-pointers (behind Anthony Edwards).
- DeRozan, Brooks ejected: With 6:02 left in the third quarter, there was a foul on DeMar DeRozan on Green, followed by a scrum between DeRozan and Dillon Brooks, and both were ejected.
- Play-in Race (CHI) ↔️): Chicago remains ninth in the East, 4.5 games behind Philadelphia and Miami and 3.5 games behind 10th place Atlanta.
- Play-in race (HOU) ↔️): Houston remains 11th in the West, within 2.5 games of 10th place Golden State.
4. SGA Score 30 VS. Everyone
Learn about Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's approach to getting buckets and hear from opponents and teammates why he's so difficult to guard.
Aiming to play in 50 games, the highest in the league 30+ Points Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been an equal opportunity scorer, scoring 30+ points on almost every team he has played this season.
Checklist: 27 teams have been eliminated, leaving two more.
Two exceptions: Toronto Raptors and Milwaukee Bucks.
- Toronto: Shai scored 23 points in OKC's first game against the Raptors on February 4th, and will have his last chance tonight (7th ET, NBA App) in his hometown of Toronto.
- Milwaukee: Shai and Sander have yet to play against the Bucks this season. Their first meeting will take place on Sunday (7ET, NBA TV) with another person on April 12th
Shai joined us on Wednesday Players who played in 50 games in the past 35 years include Michael Jordan (1989-90 and 1990-91), Tracy McGrady (2002-03), Kobe Bryant (2005-06), and James Harden ( 2018-19). At least 30 points.
Shai can join by Sunday. Larry Bird (1984-85), Jordan (1986-87), and Harden (2018-19) are the only players in the NBA to score 30 or more points against every team in a single season (the league has a minimum of 20 points). team).
Thunder is locked in a three-team battle Shy will need every point he can get as the No. 1 seed in the West is just two wins away from his first 50-win season since 2015-16.
5. CAVS shares the load
The Cavaliers overcame their injury problems and emerged as one of the best teams in the East. Are they ready to pass the playoff test?
Cleveland’s two leading scorers – Donovan Mitchell (27.4 of 49) and Darius Garland (18.7 of 45) rank eighth and ninth, respectively, in Cleveland's 69 games played so far this season.
Next man up: Even with two of their star players battling injuries, the Cavs maintain their top-three spot in the East thanks to a concerted effort up and down the roster.
Everyone involved: Over the past three months, the Cavs rank second in assist percentage, with 69.5% of their buckets coming from passes.
How much rock did they share? Ten different Cavs have led the team in scoring this season (and all but one have led the team at least twice).
There are no other teams The top five companies in both conferences did it. Indy (13 players) is the only team in the playoff picture.
Cleveland's top game scorers this season
- 32x: donovan mitchell
- 9x: Jarrett Allen & Darius Garland
- 5x: Caris Levert
- 4x: max strass
- 3 times: Sam Merrill
- 2 times: Evan Mobley, Georges Niang, Dean Wade
- 1x: craig porter jr.
During one week, The Cavs had games against Max Strus (February 27th vs. Dallas) and Dean Wade (March 5th vs. Boston), and both players hit 3-point shots in the fourth quarter, leading the Cavs to an impossible come-from-behind victory. . .
Various players have led the attack, but All season long, the Cavs' main strength has been their defense, which ranks fourth overall on the season (111.0) but has improved even more over the past three months (109.3, second in the NBA).
Jarrett Allen's presence It's on both ends. He already has a career-high 34 double-doubles, and defensively he improves opponents' field goal percentage from near the basket (-7.5% within 6 feet) to the 3-point line (-3.3%). It's lower than expected.
Mitchell (broken nose) Strauss (knee), Wade (knee), and Mobley (ankle) are all ruled out for tonight's game against Minnesota (8th ET, NBA TV), making it a no-brainer for the Cavs in this No. 3 clash. would be a different approach by the committee.
