Good morning. Sorry about the Tuesday absence. Real Life stuff. Now that I’m off Twitter I need to find a good away to alert the readership in those instances when a newsletter isn’t coming due to tech or personal issues. Or maybe just assume it’s a tech or personal issue unless the skies fill with a purple haze and the crows circle Madison Square Garden, in which case you’ll know I have been called forth to serve the Basketball Gods more directly?

Let’s basketball.

The Ancient of Days; William Blake; 1794

Celtics 112, Pacers 122 — At The Singularity, only Tyrese Haliburton will represent Man.

Game tied at 105 with about a buck thirty left. Haliburton gets a pull-up three with the foul. Next possession, baseline out of bounds assist to Buddy Hield for the three. Next possession, Haliburton hits a streaking Aaron Nesmith perfectly in stride for a fast break dagger dunk.

All of that to cap off a triple-double — the first in his career — in the biggest game of his career.

They beat the best team in the East, and the championship favorite, to earn a midseason trip to Las Vegas. He finished the job against the best defensive backcourt in the NBA. Haliburton is the top contender for the inaugural NBA Cup MVP. He’s already guaranteed a spot on the All-Tournament Team, in my estimation. He is ascendant, and he’s carrying a basketball crazed state with him.

This was a landmark moment in the modern and future NBA. The court, the crowd, the energy, the opponent, the performance. We’ll remember it.

Pelicans 127, Kings 117 — The NBA Cup is a meaningless bauble meant to distract fans from the fact that any given regular season game has no inherent stakes and is thus not worth watching for anything but pure entertainment or time-sucking purposes.

Just kidding! I’m not doing that thing where I demean the fun of the In-Season Tournament just because my team lost. I’m not a Nuggets fan, after all.

The Pelicans have been a sleeping giant since the beginning of last season, when they strutted off to an 18-8 start to claim the No. 1 spot in the West around this time of the year. Zion Williamson ended up missing the last 45 games of the season, and the Pelicans — while still a perfectly cromulent NBA team — fell back to Earth. They ended up barely over .500 and in the play-in. The Thunder took them out in the 9-10 game.

Zion’s back this season, and not exactly playing at his (briefly) familiar All-NBA level but still causing problems for opponents. The Kings, for example, have no fricking clue what to do with him. Harrison Barnes is surprisingly stout against any number of opposing forwards, but Zion confounds him completely. The power and positioning on the floor is just so anachronistic. I don’t blame Barnes or any other forward of having trouble with him!

Meanwhile, the Kings had a tremendously bad stretch in the late first quarter as New Orleans erased a 15-point deficit more quickly than Sacramento had built it. Then the Pelicans dominated the second quarter to take the crowd mostly out of it. Herb Jones was a demon on De’Aaron Fox. (Tyrese Haliburton vs. Herb Jones in the title game?) The game felt in statis from that point on.

The Pelicans a) are really good but inconsistent and b) have the Kings’ number. Brandon Ingram has scored more than he did on Monday, but this might have been one of his most impressive performances overall. It never felt like he was going to miss a tough shot.

The shotmaking from BI and C.J. McCollum, the floor-stretching and imposing length from Jones and Trey Murphy III, the consistent presence and power of Jonas Valanciunas, that damn pest Jose Alvarado — this is a really nice roster. Deep, quirky, flawed and really nice. The limits are a defense that features Zion and McCollum and the top-end ceilings of Ingram and Zion. Those guys are just young enough that they could be overcome. This tournament performance could be just the right launchpad to make that happen.

Knicks 122, Bucks 146 — I fully understand skepticism about Milwaukee’s defense. But the offense is so powerful and, once the team gets its bearings, relentless that I don’t know how anyone could think this isn’t a serious title contender. The Bucks shot 60% from the floor and 60% from three against one of the toughest opponents in the league in a high-stakes game. They never looked bothered despite giving up a ton of scores on the other end. Julius Randle had 41; the Bucks didn’t sweat.

They just know they can get 2 or 3 points whenever they need it. They can go get 10 points in two minutes whenever they need it. That’s a powerful fallback when the defense isn’t working. (And the defense is not working. Did you hear me? Julius Randle had 41.)

The rest of the regular season (including Thursday’s semis against Indiana) I’m eager to see how teams try to slow Milwaukee. The recipe I’d try is pretty obvious: wall off the paint, trap Damian Lillard, make Brook Lopez, Khris Middleton, Malik Beasley, A.J. Green, Bobby Portis and whoever else Adrian Griffin decides to play beat you when you help off. (Those players shot 15/26 from three against the Knicks. LOL.)

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Suns 103, Lakers 106 — You know the NBA Cup knockout round means something because WE NOW HAVE A CONSPIRACY AFOOT.

Lakers up two, 11.2 seconds left, the Suns need a steal or intentional foul. LeBron checks it into Austin Reaves, who is hounded by Devin Booker then trapped by Kevin Durant. Reaves loses the ball and … the officials grant the Lakers a timeout.

On initial review, it is conclusive that the Suns got jobbed here.

The Suns still need to score (Grayson Allen is in position to grab the loose ball but Anthony Davis is there) and stop the Lakers on the other end, and Phoenix is out of timeouts. There’s a non-zero chance that the Last Two Minute report, when it arrives in a few hours, will show that Booker got away with a foul on Reaves leading to the loose ball.

There’s also the fact that there are stitched together clips showing a less cut-and-dry situation.

I don’t believe in NBA conspiracy theories because I don’t believe anyone who works in the NBA has a small enough ego or big enough paycheck to keep secrets like that. But this is an egregious mistake.

And the sad part is it will overshadow a helluva duel between two stars: Reaves (20 points, +17 in 26 minutes) and Grayson Allen (21 points).

Oh whoops, I meant LeBron and KD. 31 each for the legends.

LeBron felt destined to reach the semifinals in Vegas, although I’d been hopeful the Suns could pick up some hardware en route to a deep playoff run. Alas. The Lakers are a good team with a massive on-court presence, and every game they play in Vegas will feel like a home game. LeBron is still a top-10 player despite turning 39 this month. We say it every day and it still doesn’t feel real. We’re more than a decade past the first LeBron vs. KD Best Player in the World debates, and while neither of them are quite that anymore, they are pretty fricking close. Amazing.

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The final four: Pacers vs. Bucks and Pelicans vs. Lakers. Good collection of teams. If you’re keeping track, the Nos. 7, 10, 11 and 13 best possible championship games are on the table. I am, however, considering rewriting that post and moving all games involving Tyrese Haliburton to the top of the list.

Schedule

We have 11 games featuring all the teams that didn’t have the moxie to make the knockout rounds of the NBA Cup. Can we adopt an official name for the Wednesday of the In-Season Tournament elimination round? Losers’ Bracket Day? All times Eastern.

Magic at Cavaliers, 7
Grizzlies at Pistons, 7
Sixers at Wizards, 7
Heat at Raptors, 7:30
Nets at Hawks, 7:30
Spurs at Timberwolves, 7:30, ESPN
Hornets at Bulls, 8
Thunder at Rockets, 8
Jazz at Mavericks, 8:30
Blazers at Warriors, 10
Nuggets at Clippers, 10, ESPN

Links

The Athletic’s ace reporter Sam Amick gets James Harden to say out loud why he called Daryl Morey a liar.

So you mention the financial part, and I was hoping you could clarify one aspect of that situation. Were you actually told by the Sixers that you had that deal coming?

A max?

Yeah.

Yeah.

That was said by Daryl?

Yes. Yes.

The whole Q&A is well worth reading. Harden says his agent met with Ime Udoka at some point to talk play style and whatnot. That’s tampering, love. I’m not sure Harden comes off great in any of this. To be clear, the Sixers don’t come off great either. It’s all just so … messy.

Victor Wembanyama spends team flights reading giant fantasy novels.

Kelly Dwyer on the staying power of the In-Season Tournament. Charlotte Wilder on why it works, even when your favorite team loses.

Jared Greenberg informs Giannis Antetokounmpo that teams that win tournament games get money; Giannis offers commentary on the nature of capitalism.

Tom Haberstroh makes the case that LeBron has had four consecutive Hall of Fame careers.

Lots of juicy notes in Marc Stein’s latest roundup. The most essential NBA Substack, in my estimation. My own included!

Here’s a good check-in on what’s going on around the 2024 NBA Draft from NBA Big Board.

Zach Lowe’s vital ESPN+ around-the-league column on Boston, Moses Moody and more.

Tim Bontemps on Orlando’s awful start last season sparking their boom this year.

And Finally

I cannot wait for the sports gambling bubble to burst. I cannot stand the live reads and graphics showing individual player odds and in-game line movement. It’s not just that I personally don’t gamble. I’m not a nanny state person in that respect — if others want to gamble, I’m fine with it. But it’s so thoroughly taken over the live game watching experience that it takes me out of the experience.

It is a bubble, and it will burst. But not soon enough.

OK, And One More

That was a morose capper to the newsletter. Let’s try again.

Be excellent to each other.