Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Study for The Card Players; Paul Cezanne; 1890-92

Jontay Porter is a basketball player for the Toronto Raptors. He’s the younger brother of Nuggets wing Michael Porter Jr. Like his brother, he played for Brandon Roy in high school, at Missouri in college and suffered some gnarly injuries that affected his draft stock. Unlike his brother, he went undrafted. He’s been on the fringe of the NBA ever since, with just 54 minutes over 11 appearances before this season. He’s on a two-way contract with the Raptors, and as they’ve dipped into a rebuild, Porter has gotten some run, with 26 appearances and five starts.

On the side, Porter appears to be involved in a day trading concern and is a crypto guy. And, according to a report from ESPN, he’s at the center of an investigation into some highly questionable prop betting.

In the game on Jan. 26 against the LA Clippers, there was increased betting interest on the under for Porter props, which for the night were set at around 5.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists. There was also an over/under for Porter's made 3-pointers, which was 0.5.

That evening, Porter played just four minutes before leaving the game because of what the Raptors said was an aggravation of an eye injury he had suffered four days earlier against the Memphis Grizzlies. Porter did not score against the Clippers but had three rebounds and one assist, and he did not attempt a 3, meaning the under hit on all of the props.

The next day, as part of a daily report to users on betting results, DraftKings Sportsbook stated that the under on Porter's 3-pointers was the biggest money winner for bettors of any NBA player props from games that evening.

Something similar happened last week: there was a lot of action on Porter’s individual unders ahead of Raptors-Kings, Porter only played three minutes due to illness, the unders hit, flags were raised.

The ESPN report is careful and doesn’t come out and say what is implied here. The implied worst-case scenario here for a hypothetical situation in which this occurred — which isn’t anywhere close to confirmed — is that a player would work with associates to place prop bets on the under for individual performance, then find a way out of the game early to ensure they aren’t hit. It would be a situation in which a player essentially bets against themself and then makes sure the bet pays off by pulling themself from the game.

This is the gamble easiest to pay off for an NBA player. Betting on yourself to surpass a mark — like, scoring 8+ points — is subject to the whims of your coach and point guard, and could look obvious if you start gunning in garbage time. Betting against yourself just requires an absence of action, whether by declining shots or telling your coach you can’t play.

And how would you get caught? Well, here’s one way that could hypothetically happen. From the ESPN story:

At least one other U.S. sportsbook detected unusual betting interest on the Porter props in the games in question. A sportsbook industry source told ESPN that multiple betting accounts attempted to bet large amounts, upward of $10,000 and $20,000, on Porter unders in the January game against the Clippers. Betting limits on NBA player props vary by sportsbook and customer but are typically around $1,000 to $2,000.

I like to think the Integrity Offices at the sportsbooks have a Rube Goldberg machine that physically raises a red flag when someone tries to bet $20,000 the under on points scored for a two-way player for the Toronto Raptors.

In any case, Tom Haberstroh watched the tape of Porter’s appearances in the two games in question; the first one is particularly odd with how Porter appears to try to avoid a rebound at the end of the quarter — fringe NBA players are usually stat-padding — and shows no appearance of re-injuring his eye.

As I wrote last week as MLB’s Shohei Ohtani scandal spun up, this isn’t going to end well.

The question is what happens when a scandal inevitably hits the NBA again. Will the league continue to push growth of sports betting, as is its capitalistic imperative? One presumes that a study will hit in the next couple of years showing an enormous uptick in gambling addicition. Will the NBA still be lowering the barrier to entry at that point? Something truly dangerous will happen at some point. What’s the league’s response going to be?

The reckoning will come. Who will it take down when it arrives?

If the implied allegations are found to have merit, what happens to Porter here will be a footnote, a trivia answer. The question is whether the NBA will continue to press ahead on its revenue-hungry quest to commoditize every bit of the basketball experience. And the answer is OF COURSE IT WILL.

Scores

Hornets 92, Cavaliers 115 — I generally think of Cleveland as a likable team. And then I’m reminded they employ Marcus Morris and (Kings legend) Tristan Thompson. This is so unnecessary! (Both employing those guys and this flagrant foul.)

Here’s what Morris said after the game:

Morris, who signed a 10-day contract with the Cavs on March 18, said he was sending a message to his new teammates and the rest of the league.

"There's been a lot of grueling games and I was just wanted to toughen us up," Morris said. "Step in front of it like, listen this is what's going to be expected moving forward, not just for today. Set the precedent going into the playoffs. We're not about to have anybody coming in here and doing what they want to do.

"I wanted to play the game, I didn't want to get thrown out, but I definitely wanted to put a little lick on him. I was happy the way we responded."

With all due respect: this is some bulls—t. This is basketball, dude.

Nets 96, Raptors 88 — Still a bit flummoxed as to why Bruce Brown remained a Raptor at the trade deadline.

Pistons 99, Knicks 124 — Donte DiVincenzo: greatest free agent signing of all-time?

This was a 29-point game going into the fourth, so let’s see if Josh Hart and Deuce McBride avoided playing 40 minutes …

Incredible. McBride played nine minutes of the fourth quarter. How tightly rolled is Tom Thibodeau’s toothpaste tube?

Share

Celtics 118, Hawks 120 — Both of these things are true:

1. Boston, on pace for 65 wins, losing to the mediocre Hawks does not mean anything in the grand scheme of anything. Shooting variability happens.

2. Boston, on pace for 65 wins, giving up a 30-point lead to the mediocre Hawks is objectively hilarious for all those who aren’t Celtic partisans.

Do I have to learn how to pronounce Vit Krejci’s name? What’s Trae Young got in his cup?

My money’s on a nice lavender chamomille tea.

De’Andre Hunter, what are you doing taking this shot?! Oh. It went in. Nevermind, bud!

Suns 102, Spurs 104 — Phoenix’s powerful offense only scoring 102 in 99 possessions against the league’s No. 22 defense missing its All-Defense candidate Victor Wembanyama?

The Suns losing on a Jeremy Sochan game-winning three?

The Celtics’ goofy loss to a far inferior team doesn’t matter because of what Boston has accomplished. These Suns haven’t accomplished anything. This is bad.

Blazers 92, Rockets 110 — Portland’s rotation: five rookies, three second-year players, a third-year player and a true “veteran” in Moses Brown, playing in what is technically his fifth NBA season, with a total of 146 games in that career.

Houston is now a half-game behind the Warriors for No. 10.

Wizards 107, Bulls 105 — The Wizards are on a rampage! Three straight wins for D.C.’s finest. Meanwhile, the Bulls had a chance to hit .500 … but instead have lost three straight. They are at risk of slipping by the Hawks for No. 9, which means the Bulls might not even get a home postseason game.

I’m going to say it: Alex Caruso appears to have flopped a little here, got mad the flop didn’t work and took it out on Jordan Poole. Is Caruso dirty?

Mavericks 115, Jazz 105 — On February 6, the Jazz were 26-26. They had just defeated the Bucks and the Thunder. They were in the No. 10 slot, a game and a half ahead of the Warriors.

The Jazz are 3-17 since then. Woof.

Grizzlies 103, Nuggets 128

Sixers 96, Kings 108 — Domantas Sabonis breaks the modern (post-Wilt) record for most consecutive double-doubles with his 54th straight.

He has 25 triple-doubles this season. Despite their continued penchant for losing to bad teams every once in a while, the Kings are top-10 in both offense and defense since the All-Star break. In fact, I kind of trust their defense more than their offense at this point!

Pacers 133, Clippers 116 — I don’t trust anything about the Clippers at this point. What a far cry from their world-beating run they are now. Are they playing possum? Did the magic not last? The Pacers’ starters blew the Clippers’ top five off the floor.

And with that: the Pelicans are currently the No. 4 seed by virtue of a tiebreaker over the Clips. And here’s this: for all the talk about the Clips being de-motivated because the difference between No. 4 and 5 is largely meaningless, L.A. is only two games out of the play-in. And the Kings and Mavericks are coming.

Schedule

We have some great potential games here. All times Eastern.

Warriors at Heat, 7:30
Lakers at Bucks, 7:30, TNT
Thunder at Pelicans, 8
Mavericks at Kings, 10, TNT

Links

Brilliant Henry Abbott piece in TrueHoop on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s slow growth into an MVP candidate. The cherry tree analogy is so damn good.

An update on Knickerbocker health.

Howard Beck on the unfair quest to find the next Michael Jordan and how that quest relates to Anthony Edwards (who is the new Dwyane Wade).

Jared Dubin uses some different metrics to look at the major 3-team seeding races.

Marc Stein’s Monday Musings on the Porter scandal.

The only comment I have on this right now is: sheesh.

Alright, that’s it for Tuesday. It’s Tuesday, right? OK. Back at it on Wednesday. Be excellent to each other.