Devin Booker, Luka Doncic, Lakers, Blazers among early winners in NBA bubble; Grizzlies taking a beating

Utah Jazz is 1-2 in the NBA bubble and struggling to produce any kind of constant offense without Bojan Bogdanovic, who is out for the season after having wrist surgery. Donovan Mitchell is shooting under 40 percent from the field in Orlando, and Utah Jazz’s defense has not looked almost dominant enough to offset their offending restrictions with truly just one legitimate shot creator. Anthony Davis laid an egg in the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss to Toronto, but in their two wins versus the Clippers and Jazz, he has combined for 76 points.

The Los Angeles Lakers have clinched the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference and LeBron James is not even balancing 20 points in the NBA bubble. Dion Waiters looked excellent. Kyle Kuzma is playing terrific defense and making shots. A lot to be positive about for the purple and gold. Harden went for 49 points on 14-of-20 shooting vs. the Mavs, and when he was doubled and tripled Westbrook used the open area to assault the rim.

Dallas put up 149 points on Houston Rockets, but the defense has actually truly settled in the last 2 games. Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins are back and play great, especially Nurkic. Carmelo Anthony has actually been lights out making enormous shots in beast scenarios. Booker has opted for 27, 30, and 35 points in Phoenix’s three bubble NBA games. Orlando Magic lost Jonathan Isaac to a torn ACL.

The Orlando Magic are going to get into the playoffs and with Isaac, they in fact might have taken a couple of games off Toronto.

The Orlando Magic are 2-1 in the NBA bubble, but the loss of Isaac is simply a blow to the gut. He might extremely well miss out on the majority of, if not all of, next season, too. He was establishing into one of the best defensive gamers in the league, and this puts the brakes on everything. The Miami Heat defeated Boston on Tuesday, without Jimmy Butler, and are now within 1.5 games of the Celtics for the No. 3 seed.

Butler is still preventing jump shots like they are a crowd full of people without masks, however he is doing his thing getting to the free-throw line, scoring at the rim and getting everybody included. There has been a great deal of talks the Miami Heat and Celtics both desiring the No. 3 seed because it would keep them on the opposite side of the bracket from Milwaukee. Now they have gone 3-0 in Orlando and are just three games back of No. 8 Memphis.

The most positive development for Philly in the NBA bubble is that they are stuck in the No. 6 seed, which right now would pit them against the Celtics in round one. The Sixers are 3-1 vs. Boston this season. However when the very best thing to occur to you in Orlando is that you have not improved your seed, you are an NBA bubble loser. T.J. Warren went for 53 points in Indiana’s NBA bubble opener vs. Philly, and he followed that up with 34 against the Wizards and 32 against the Magic.

The Pacers are 3-0 in the NBA bubble, and Warren is balancing, crunches numbers, 39.6 points on 65 percent shooting, including 61 percent from 3-point variety.

Warren can really score. He is balancing 19.5 points per game this season on 39 percent 3-point shooting, that makes him among the league’s real deals at less than $11 million this season. The Portland Trail Blazers are 2-1 in the NBA bubble and are fresh off a big win over Houston on Tuesday night. If the seeding games were to send right now, Portland Trail Blazers would get its shot at the postseason with a play-in series vs. Memphis.

They have three difficult games meeting Denver, the Clippers, and Philly, however they control their own fate. The Memphis Grizzlies have begun 0-3 in the NBA bubble and, even worse, they have now lost Jaren Jackson Jr. to a torn meniscus, just squashing news for a budding star and a franchise that has as much to be positive about as any young team in the league. The great news is Memphis Grizzlies is still in belongings of the No. 8 seed, but their margin for error has diminished to practically zero if they wish to get into the postseason.

Now Phoenix Suns have gone 3-0 in Orlando and are just three games back of No. 8 Memphis. They are just one game back of No. 9 Portland in the loss column. San Antonio and New Orleans are still in front of the Suns, too, however that No. 9 seed and the capacity of a play-in series for the final playoff spot is actually within reach. From where Phoenix Suns started, that is huge, and the way they are playing undoubtedly bodes well for next year and beyond.

With 34 points, 20 rebounds, and 12 assists, Luka Doncic became the youngest player in NBA history, by almost 2 years, to post a 30-20-10 line.

The Mavericks have actually gone 1-2 in the NBA bubble, but Doncic continues to be the hope that they can pull a shocker in the playoffs. They are quite much locked into the No. 7 seed, which will likely imply a first-round matchup with either the Clippers or the Nuggets. If it is Denver, the Mavs will definitely seem like they can win that series. The Philadelphia 76ers squeaked out a win over San Antonio on a last-second Shake Milton 3-pointer off a somewhat damaged play, but what does it say that the Sixers required a last-second Shake Milton 3-pointer to beat the Spurs?

That is not a knock on the Spurs, but we continue to desire the Sixers, based upon skill, into the company of the real competitors, and they simply do not dip into that level regularly. Philly lost its NBA bubble opener to the Pacers regardless of Joel Embiid putting up 41 points and 21 boards. The Sixers were plus-21 when he was on the court, but they were minus-27 when he was off.

Al Horford was expected to keep the Sixers afloat when Embiid goes to the bench, however the usual stories continue to play out with this group. Almost one week into the NBA bubble and this has been absolutely nothing short of remarkable. Absolutely nothing about these NBA games seem like they are being played in a dead arena. And the Covid infection is still at bay.

Incredible job, Adam Silver.

And this is to state nothing of the level of play. Playing with energy and rhythm. These are still technically regular-season NBA games and yet they have a March Madness feel like every game seriously matters. With the NBA testing more than 1,000 individuals daily, inconclusive Covid-19 tests are bound to occur. The NBA has procedures for that situation and upgraded them in a memo provided to teams on Monday.

If a player tests clinically inconclusive, he will enter quarantine. The player will undergo a second test, and need the retest to come back negative. The player will go through one more test (FDA-approved quick test) around eight hours before the his next game. If that test is negative, the player will be permitted to leave quarantine and take part in the next game.

If the player returns another inconclusive test, he will be managed according to existing protocols for a positive test. Jimmy Butler played in Monday’s game against the Toronto Raptors, implying he most likely tested inconclusive, went into quarantine and returned two negative tests to be qualified to play. Starting with Monday’s NBA games, all jerseys will include the player’s last name underneath the number in addition to any message he select to have on the back of his jersey.

If the NBA player decided on no message, just his last name will appear on the jersey.

Milwaukee Buck’s Mike Budenholzer and Oklahoma City Thunder’s Billy Donovan were called NBA co-coaches of the year by their fellow coaches, the National Basketball Coaches Association announced Monday. Budenholzer led the Bucks to a 53-12 record before Covid-19 suspended the season, and the Bucks were on rate to win 66, 67 games. The Bucks were seventh in offensive performance (112.2 points per 100 ownerships), initially in defensive performance (101.8 points permitted per 100 possessions) and led the league in net ranking (plus-10.4).

While the Bucks were essentially the very same in offensive performance last season, they enhanced their defensive performance by three points. Thunder was 40-24 prior to the season was suspended, and Donovan did it after losing Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers and Russell Westbrook to the Houston Rockets in offseason trades. In what looked like a restoring year for the Thunder, Donovan guaranteed the Thunder remained a competitive playoff group.

Toronto’s Nick Nurse who did a wonderful task keeping the Raptors among the very best team in the league, particularly defensively after Kawhi Leonard left for the Clippers. Nurse ended up one vote shy of a three-way tie for first place. The Lakers can be the first huge playoff piece to form today. With a win, the Lakers will clinch the No. 1 seed in the West.

The seeding race remains tight.

Simply 1.5 games different the third-place Nuggets and sixth-place Thunder. The Spurs are silently 2-0 in the have and reboot moved into ninth, 2 games behind the Grizzlies. Memphis and New Orleans have both started off 0-2. The Pelicans are 3.5 games behind the eighth-place Grizzlies, and a third straight loss could completely squash any playoff hopes.

In spite of losing Sunday, Milwaukee is still in line for the front runner in the East. Miami is two games behind Boston for 3rd, however the Heat are likewise attempting to hold back Indiana and potentially Philadelphia. Only three games separate the Heat in 4th place and the Sixers in sixth. Indiana and Washington likewise tipped off at 4 p.m. ET. Memphis and New Orleans get underway at 6:30 p.m. ET on ESPN in a game the Pelicans need to win after dropping their first two of the restart.

Through the first weekend of seeding games inside the bubble school in Orlando, Florida, and the NBA is well and really back. The weekend concluded with four down-to-the-wire surfaces Sunday that saw a few of the game’s biggest stars make substantial plays in clutch scenarios. With 6 games Monday beginning in the early afternoon, fans can ideally eagerly anticipate another day of NCAA tournament-like action from the pros.

In Monday’s very first game, Toronto continued its strong play with a 107-103 victory versus Miami.

Fred VanVleet led the Raptors with a career-high 36 points, going 7-for-12 on 3-pointers and 13-for-13 from the nasty line. Denver and Oklahoma City followed at 4 p.m. ET on NBATV in a game that figures to have huge seeding implications in the Western Conference. San Antonio and Philadelphia tip off at 8 p.m. ET. The Lakers and Jazz complete the slate at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Playoff areas and seeding are on the line as the race starts to take shape for the last stretch. Thunder point player Dennis Schroder has left the NBA bubble for the birth of his second child prior to tip-off against the Nuggets. Gamers can leave the NBA bubble for excused absences. Gamers who leave for excused absences must quarantine for four days upon going back to the Disney complex as long as they evaluate negative for covid each day they were off campus.

A leading Sixth Man of the Year candidate, Schroder is averaging 18.9 points per game off the Thunder bench and shooting a career-high 46.9% from the field. WNBA players are wearing “Vote Warnock” shirts to games this week to support Raphael Warnock, who is challenging Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler for her U.S. Senate seat. Last month, Loeffler wrote a letter to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert objecting to the league’s promotion of Black Lives Matter which is painted on the courts at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, where the league is holding its restart and advocating instead for teams to add American flags to jerseys.

The league’s executive committee began exploring the shirt idea as a response to Loeffler’s statements, because for effective change to happen, there has to be policy changes.

And so if the league’s executive committee is going to want justice reform, part of that is making sure that it has officials in office that understand that. The Dream and other WNBA players have made a coordinated effort not to discuss Loeffler or her statements in recent weeks, and instead focused on how they could best support a candidate they felt better represented their political views. When all this stuff started happening with Loeffler, the players did not want to feel like they were pawns.

WNBA players can only control so much about what the league does, and so for them, they wanted it to be bigger than that. That is the theme of this season. So players wanted to make sure they could still keep the focus on their social justice movement, and Warnock is somebody who supports everything that they support and just happens to be running in that seat.

So it just worked out really well. Seattle Storm guard Sue Bird initially came up with the idea. Participation in the campaign to support Warnock is voluntary and that all WNBA players have discussed the idea over Zoom calls while at IMG Academy, where the season resumed in late July. This was a situation where given what was said in regards to the owner of Atlanta and how Loeffler came out against a lot of what the women in the league stand for, Bird thinks it was emotionally tough for a lot of the women in the league to hear that.

But very quickly WNBA players started to realize that this was only happening for Loeffler’s political gain.

This was something that Loeffler wanted. And the more noise WNBA players made, whether it was a tweet saying to get Loeffler out, that was just playing into her hands. Voting is important. And the league has always encouraged people to use their voices and to get out and vote. So, it is a great way for players to get the word out about Warnock, and hopefully put him in the Senate.

Loeffler feared the WNBA’s public support for the Black Lives Matter movement could drive some fans away. She thinks a lot of people feel that they may not have a place, and may feel excluded from this sport and other sports that make them feel like American values are not at the core of what WNBA is doing here. She also contended that there is a difference between saying “Black lives matter” and the organization Black Lives Matter.

Loeffler agrees the life of every African American is important, there is no room for racism in this country, and we have to root it out where it exists. She thinks is very important to make the distinction between Black Lives Matter’s aim and where the people are as a country at this moment. The Black Lives Matter political organization advocates things like defunding and abolishing the police, abolishing the military, emptying the prisons, destroying the nuclear family, it promotes violence and anti-Semitism.

To Loeffler, this is not what the league stands for.

Warnock released a statement through his campaign Tuesday saying he was honored and humbled by the overwhelming support from the WNBA players. This movement gives him the opportunity to fight for what he believes in, and he stands by all athletes promoting social justice on and off the court. He disagrees with Loeffler and those like her who seek to silence and dismiss others when they speak up for justice have planted themselves on the wrong side of history.

Warnock believes now is a moment of generational, transformative change, and there is no place in that movement for bigotry. He celebrates the courage and resolve of the WNBA players standing for justice, and he is proud to stand with them. Later Tuesday, Loeffler followed up with a statement of her own, saying this is just more proof that the out-of-control cancel culture wants to shut out anyone who disagrees with them.

Loeffler thinks it is clear that the league is more concerned with playing politics than basketball, and she stands by what she wrote in June. Following the Dream’s 81-74 loss to the Phoenix Mercury on Tuesday night, the players’ decision was a primary talking point. Chennedy Carter decided to wear it because Warnock is for Black Lives Matter. Warnock supports the league and the movement, and Carter supports him.

Carter is voting for Warnock.

Forward Betnijah Laney concurred that Warnock is somebody that also supports the Black Lives Matter, the movements that the WNBA is standing behind this year, so this is somebody that she is supporting as well. Also on Tuesday, the Seattle Storm defeated the Connecticut Sun 87-74. After the game, several members of the Storm spoke about the process.

The WNBA players are trying to first educate themselves, and then educate everyone else. They had an opportunity to be on two separate Zooms with Warnock and see what he stands for and what he is fighting for. Breanna Stewart believes Warnock is someone who is fighting to create change and fighting to be on the right side of things. Sami Whitcomb is very concerned with leadership in this country and people that she wants to be representing her and the morals that she represent.

Whitcomb thinks Loeffler does not represent her voice, Warnock does. So she is putting her support behind Warnock because of the person that he is and the type of legislation that he stands for. Jordin Canada added that this “is bigger than basketball”, to have someone in Canada’s league that does not represent or support African Americans, who are 80% of the league, is disheartening and sickening.

Former Dream player Layshia Clarendon, who has written and spoken out about Loeffler’s comments, was also heavily involved in the planning of the WNBA players’ campaign.

Clarendon, who now plays for the New York Liberty, wants people in office who support the same values and morals as she does. It is important for her to support voting and the overall campaign to flip the Senate.