Good Morning It’s Basketball - Not all are built for The Cup
You’re on the free list for Good Morning It’s Basketball, which means you get access to one (1) full newsletter issue per week, including today’s edition below. Did you know there are five newsletter issues published each week? And you can receive them all (plus access to the official GMIB Discord) for just $5/month or $50/year? It’s true! Not all are built for The CupJoe Mazzulla, the Kings and others were forged for The Cup, forged by The Cup. Some were not.Good morning. Let’s basketball. The group stage of the inaugural NBA Cup lived up to every expectation in its thrilling conclusion on Tuesday night. We learned so much about what it takes to win at this level when the stakes are this … weird. We learned what men are willing to do in opposition to the unwritten rules, against their principles and personal code. All for The Cup. And $500,000. Here is a brief list of those who were made for The Cup. Joe Mazzulla So in the fourth quarter, up 32 points, Joe Mazzulla calls for the team to intentionally foul Andre Drummond. Billy Donovan looks as angry as Billy Donovan ever looks at a non-ref and talks to Mazzulla. Drummond misses both. The Bulls broadcast team spends a bunch of time encouraging the league to change the tiebreaker system because of the potential for bad blood and embarrassment. After the game, Joe Mazz explained how the Celtics approached the weird situation. Basically, he had the Celtics staffer monitoring the needed point differential update him in the fourth quarter that the Knicks and Nets scores made it so Boston needed to push their lead higher. That’s what Mazzulla is communicating to Donovan, who thinks a 23-point margin gets Boston through. Mazzulla actually avails himself really well here given that he downplayed the tournament earlier in the day and his star, Jayson Tatum, has been complaining about the Magic running the score up in their win over the Celtics. In any case, the Nets won their game by 12 and the Celtics ended up winning by 27, which was enough to claim East C and a bid to the knockouts. The Magic and Nets were eliminated as a result. That 27-point win would not have been enough to win the wild card if the Nets had lost their game. They needed to embarrass the Bulls. And they did. The Beam Team Regardless, the Warriors jumped on the Kings immediately. Golden State briefly went up double digits in the first quarter, and had a 24-point lead just before halftime. The Wolves won their game narrowly to give the Kings a little cushion. But also, the Kings desperately want to beat the Warriors. Did you know that 11 of the Kings’ last 25 regular season and playoff games have come against the Warriors? Almost half of its past two dozen real games have been against one of the most annoying and good teams in the league! That’s really wrong. Familiarity breeds contempt. Trust me on that. In any case, the Kings stormed back late in the third and into the fourth. Steve Kerr made some wild rotational decisions — resting Steph Curry at the six-minute mark, pulling a red-hot Moses Moody. The refs were sending the Kings to the line at every opportunity. (This felt weird, not gonna lie.) Draymond Green, in his not-so-triumphant return, picked up an extremely soft technical that might have been a make-up call for a totally egregious flop that went uncalled a few possessions earlier. Kerr made an atrocious challenge decision on a Curry kick-out offensive foul to burn his last timeout with three minutes left. Sasha Vezenkov was nailing threes. Trey Lyles was blocking shots. It was madness. And though it became clear that the Kings were at minimum going to lose by less than 12 unless the game went to overtime and the Warriors blew out Sacramento there, the game took on new meaning. And it ended with Malik Monk making one of the toughest game-winners of the season. The Kings go 4-0 in the Group of Death and claim a home game in the quarterfinals. Light the Beam. The Knicks New York will face the Bucks in the quarterfinals. Evan Mobley The margin wasn’t enough — only beating the Pistons by eight early in the tournament stung them — but Cleveland did really well in the inaugural NBA Cup. One of the three best teams not advancing in my book. What about those who are not made for The Cup? The Warriors And forget about The Cup for a second: this is an abysmal loss given the state of the team, what should have been a boost in getting Green back, big games from Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins, continued struggles from Domantas Sabonis when defended by Kevon Looney and Green, no Keegan Murray, an inefficient shooting night from De’Aaron Fox, short travel — sure, you lost Chris Paul early and GP2 late. But all that and a 24-point lead and you choke it up to fall to 8-10 on the season, effectively tied for 10th place? Brutal. Houston Rockets Your result: 41-9-9 for Luka Doncic (zero turnovers), 27-5 with zero turnovers for Kyrie Irving, a whopping two steals as a team, an 8/29 performance from behind the arc, an L and an elimination. Pelicans advance. Zach LaVine Jason Kidd That was a question about something the Mavericks are doing well. Toughen up that skin, bud! Sheesh. Jimmy Butler’s ankle The BracketHere’s The Cup bracket with the eight surviving team. Games are Monday and Tuesday. EAST WEST Winners in each conference will face off in the semifinals in Las Vegas on Thursday, December 7. Conference winners have a showdown on in a primetime game on Saturday, December 9 on ABC. Can you hear it? The crowd of people demanding a Pacers-Kings final dubbed the Haliburton-Sabonis Debate Singularity? One interesting wrinkle: for the semifinals games on TNT, ESPN’s NBA crew will join on the studio side and the broadcast booth. Stephen A. Smith and Michael Wilbon will join the Inside the NBA crew for pre- and post-game coverage, though it sounds like they’ll all be split between two studios. Meanwhile, Doc Rivers will call a game with Kevin Harlan and Candace Parker while Reggie Miller will join a broadcast with Mike Breen and Doris Burke. It’s really too bad ESPN laid off Jeff Van Gundy because this would have been a great opportunity to have the brothers call a game together. Assessing Proposed Fixes for the Tiebreaker SituationFans and analysts have been throwing around potential solutions for the tiebreaker situation to avoid coaches and veterans from getting hurt feelings over getting their asses kicked. I think scoring margin remains fine, and in fact I look forward to teams getting religion on running up the score earlier in the group stage next season. But if it’s untenable to continue, here are the options I’ve seen: More group stage games ❌ Use the standings as the tiebreaker ✔️ Coin flips ❌ Adam Silver’s whims ❌ Expanded knockout round ✔️
This extends the scoring margin importance across more games and gives 2-2 teams (like the Rockets) a small chance of advancing. Seems good! The only other tweak I’d make to the NBA Cup at this stage is that I think the winner of the championship game — the only game in this that doesn’t count in the standings — should get a win added to their regular season total, but a loss in that game should not count. Then winning The Cup becomes a de facto first tiebreaker at the end of the regular season. I think that’s an appropriate incentive that doesn’t mess with the bracket or late-season rest decisions (as an automatic top-6 seed would). What else should change about the NBA Cup? Cubes Out(-ish)The great Marc Stein reports that Mark Cuban has agreed to sell a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks to Miriam Adelson, whose family owns Las Vegas Sands, which helped develop a number of luxury resorts on The Strip and now owns a bunch of luxury resorts in Singapore and Macau. But Stein reports that Cuban will retain some shares in the club and, importantly, direct control of basketball operations. That’s a weird but not unprecedented situation. It’s mostly weird because Cuban is extremely divisive within the Mavericks fandom for his level of meddling. Stein points out smartly that Cuban has been openly talking about building a new arena in the middle of a casino and resort, assuming Texas legalizes gambling, for which there is an ongoing effort led in part by … Las Vegas Sands. So partnering with Las Vegas Sands and the Adelson family in ownership of the Mavericks makes sense along those lines. Others have pointed out that liquidating a portion of something so close to Cuban’s heart the same week he reportedly quit his role on Shark Tank is an indication that he plans to run for President, something he has professed real interest in doing in the past. Ironically, the Adelson family — particularly Miriam’s late husband Sheldon Adelson — is one of the biggest donors to conservative causes in the nation. Cuban is a professed libertarian who has spent a lot of time mocking Donald Trump. One presumes that a presidential run would be as a third-party candidate. Fun fact: Cuban bought the Mavericks from Ross Perot. Time is a flat circle. Stay tuned. ScheduleSeven games, including a League Pass Cup (🏆) banger. All times Eastern. Lakers at Pistons, 7 Be excellent to each other. You're currently a free subscriber to Good Morning It's Basketball. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. |
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A player spit out turkey and it wasn't the weirdest thing to happen on an NBA court on Wednesday
Thursday, November 23, 2023
PLUS: Celtics vs. Bucks was almost exactly what everyone has been saying it'd be, Scott Foster vs. Chris Paul: Infinity War and we look ahead to Day 6 of the NBA Cup.
You don't get the Cup
Wednesday, November 22, 2023
Sparks of intrigue in the ramp-up of the NBA season are good, actually.
Sixers in ascent
Tuesday, November 14, 2023
A superstar turn for Tyrese Maxey allows patience.
Bask in the Timberwolves' rare light
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
Be it a new dawn for Minnesota basketball or a meteor briefly streaking across the sky, present available joy should override future worries.
As consequential and pernicious of an NBA weekend as you will ever find in November
Monday, November 6, 2023
The NBA Cup tips off with only minor brain and eye injuries for viewers, plus LaMelo wins a game on defense and the Grizzlies finally grab a victory.
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