Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Good Neighbours; John William Waterhouse; 1885

Is It A Choke Job If An All-NBA Player Proverbially Chokes You Out?

Our second Game 7 of the postseason finished much like the first: a blowout victory sparked by a brilliant individual performance. This time, it was Jayson Tatum going for 51, helping create separation in the third quarter en route to a 24-point win for the Celtics.

Tatum went 9/16 in the paint, 6/10 from deep and 11/14 from the line. An MVP caliber performance, truth be told. And Boston’s defense was super impressive. Really, it’s a wonder it took Joe Mazzulla so long to put Robert Williams III back in the starting lineup, but Boston’s defense has been incredibly impressive in those two games.

The Sixers trailed by just three at halftime, but then were limited to all of 10 points in third quarter. The Celtics had a pretty good offensive quarter (33 points) and walked out of the period with a blowout. Here’s Philly’s shot plot from the third. Just brutal.

They went 4/6 on corner threes in the first half and 0/6 in the third quarter. The math can be unkind.

What a run for the Celtics: this is their fifth conference finals visit in seven years. That encompasses all of Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s careers. They are the most successful team of the 2020s to date … with the notable asterisk that they don’t yet have a championship in this era. It’s a heck of an asterisk, but this could very well be the year.

Over on the Philadelphia side, it’s a deeply disappointing failure to get to the conference finals or beyond. The Sixers have now lost in the second round in five of the past six seasons, including three straight under Doc Rivers. They were excellent in the regular season all three of Rivers’ seasons … and exited early in the playoffs. The expectation is that Daryl Morey will replace him this summer. There are suddenly a bunch of decorated head coaches available. That doesn’t bode well for Rivers staying, but that also means there are a bunch of openings where he might fit back in.

The biggest question is whether James Harden is serious about returning to Houston as has been murmured since All-Star Weekend, or whether he and the Sixers can find a middle-ground contract to allow him to stay for a few more years without penning the franchise into having no help around the current core. This truly looked like Philadelphia’s best chance, and the failure will not reflect well on any of the main characters, including Joel Embiid, who was just 5/18 in Game 7 with four turnovers.

That one is going to follow him until he reverses it. He can ask Harden about how this works. Harden had late-game heroics twice in this series, but that 3/11 in Game 7 will be the takeaway here. Embiid has an MVP now, but the lackluster playoff finishes are stacking up, valid excuses or not, and the discourse will not shy away from that.

The Coaching Carousel Hits Terminal Speed

I struggle to ever be shocked about NBA coach firings. But Monty Williams being sent packing by the Suns really dropped my jaw. From Woj:

New Suns owner Mat Ishbia made the decision to dismiss Williams immediately after Thursday night's Game 6 loss to the Denver Nuggets and had general manager James Jones called him on Saturday night and deliver the news, sources said.

Ishbia is a billionaire and I am not so I’m not in a credible business position to tell him how to operate. But from a moral perspective, this is what we call “effed up.” Making rash decisions in the heat of passion is usually a bad idea, and then making someone else communicate your decision is weak. Bring him in, talk to him, tell him why you’re cutting bait.

Williams had the pre-Durant Suns two games from the franchise’s first ever championship two years ago, built a regular season wins machine last season and adjusted on the fly to have the Suns in competitive position despite bad injuries and a team-transforming late trade. He did it all with a 66-year-old point guard trapped in a 38-year-old point guard’s body and a 4-year-old center trapped in 24-year-old center’s body.

In the four years before Williams, the Suns went a combined 87-241, a win percentage of .265. In Williams’ four years, the Suns have gone 194-115, a .627 win percentage. He led them to the Finals coming out of a 10-year playoff drought. And yes, his sour relationship with Ayton is a problem. And yes, losing consecutive blowouts in elimination games is a problem. But for a new majority owner to step in for a couple of months, assess the situation, and immediately decide to fire this coach after a painful loss … that’s a big red flag for the Ishbia regime, in my opinion. Were I James Jones, I wouldn’t feel terribly secure here.

Ja Isn’t Surrounded By The Wrong People … He Is The Wrong People

This weekend brought a new video of Ja Morant waving a firearm around on Instagram Live.

This one wasn’t on Morant’s own IG, but that of his friend Davonte Pack, who was in the driver’s seat in the video. He and Morant were rapping along to a song. Pack does on upward pointed finger gun on camera in response to one of the lyrics, then pans to Morant, who flashes what appears to be an upward pointed real gun. The Zapruders of Twitter isolated the frames and showed pretty conclusively that Morant was again using a firearm as a karaoke prop.

Pack immediately pivots the camera away from Ja, apparently realizing that showing Morant waving a gun on Live again is a Bad Idea. In related news, Park is Morant’s friend who was banned from FedEx Forum this season after getting into a confrontation with members of the Indiana Pacers. The dude who was banned from the Grizzlies’ arena by the Grizzlies is trying to save Morant from himself. That’s where we’re at with this.

All this stuff about Morant surrounding himself with the wrong people … nope, this is further evidence that Morant himself is the wrong people. Just awful decision-making here.

The team has suspended Morant from all basketball activities pending an NBA investigation. I’m not entirely sure what the NBA would be investigating since this is clearly not at an NBA facility and Morant’s season has been done for a couple of weeks now. Is this simply conduct detrimental to the league? Open carry is increasingly legal in the United States, so it’s not clear Morant broke any laws here either, depending on where the video was shot. The Grizzlies have their own code of conduct and can make a disciplinary decision, but NBA teams prefer to have the league office mete out any justice to avoid awkward conversations.

In any case, this is clearly bad for Ja Morant, bad for the Grizzlies and bad for the NBA. Let’s hope it simply stops getting worse and that Morant seeks and accepts real help with whatever is leading him to make these terrible decisions.

Final Four

Here’s the NBA final four for 2022-23.

Nuggets vs. Lakers
Celtics vs. Heat

Who ya got?

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I think it’s gonna turn midnight for Miami here in the Eastern Conference Finals, but I’m not fully convinced the Nuggets will beat the Lakers if only because Anthony Davis is playing better than ever and he and LeBron are getting some rest here. Nikola Jokic is incredible, though, and his supporting cast has the capacity for excellence. Should be a good series.

Schedule

No games on Monday. WCF start on Tuesday. ECF on Wednesday.

The draft lottery is also on Tuesday. That’s what we’ll be talking about on Tuesday morning for subscribers only.

Be excellent to each other.