Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Corner of a Café-Concert; Edouard Manet; 1879

Scores

Mavericks 120, Timberwolves 114 — How they went out against the Mavericks in the West finals after taking care of the Nuggets must haunt the Wolves, and especially Anthony Edwards. He went to war with the demons in the first quarter on Tuesday.

But Minnesota couldn’t build much of a lead, and the Mavericks are good, even when Luka Doncic isn’t scoring particularly efficiently. Kyrie Irving stepped up on the offensive end.

And then Luka — after missing his first seven threes of the night — hit the mother of all daggers.

He is on the short list of the nastiest shotmakers in the league. Let’s not forget this nasty pass, too.

Nuggets 144, Nets 139 — Yes, Denver went to overtime against the Nets a night after going to overtime against the Raptors. Yes, that’s a generally bad sign for the team. However, the Nuggets won both games, and it was a road back-to-back that included a trip through customs. The wins will help preserve seeding power down the line. And perhaps the fact that the Nuggets almost lost both will spur Calvin Booth to consider the flaws of the roster or Michael Malone to deepen the rotation.

Nikola Jokic didn’t score 40 this time. He switched into point center mode and finished with 29-18-16, including the tying shot to send it to overtime.

Denver’s defense was terribly shaky, giving up 61% effective shooting to a team that should finish bottom five in offense. If you’re on Cam Thomas watch: he went 8/22 for 26 points and did not get the final shot of regulation, which was a Dennis Schroder drive and kick to Dorian Finney-Smith.

Russell Westbrook with an efficient 22 off the bench, if you’re keeping score.

Kings 113, Jazz 96 — Lauri Markkanen left early with back spasms. Worth monitoring for All-Star and Jazz tank purposes. Sacramento has actually played quite well in all four of its games with some bad stretches costing them two wins. If you put Domantas Sabonis up against a non-elite center, the dude is going to put up numbers. He had 28 on 18 shots against Walker Kessler in this one. That’s a huge plus given Sacramento isn’t consistently hitting threes (or taking enough, probably) this season.

Maybe the most important development for the Kings early on: Kevin Huerter looks good.

Pelicans 106, Warriors 124 — The Pels built a 20-point lead in San Francisco with Stephen Curry out … and totally melted. The Warriors — again, without Curry — scored 77 points in 48 possessions in the second half for an offensive efficiency of 160, which I’m not sure is legal.

Buddy Hield has returned to his honeymoon suite. In the second half: 25 points on 11 shooting possessions. Yes, 25 points on 11 shooting possessions. When the dude is hot he is hot.

(Hield in the first half: 3 points on 1/8 shooting. When he’s cold, he’s cold.)

The teams play again in the same spot (hopefully with different uniforms) on Wednesday.

Jonathan Kuminga came off the bench as Steve Kerr looked to shake things up a little. Kuminga was good and no reports broke overnight about Kuminga losing confidence in Kerr, so I think we’re good for now!

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Links

John Schuhmann’s Power Rankings. A weekly must-read. NBA TV should just do a half-hour studio show every week with someone (maybe even John!) just reading them on camera.

The NBA fined the Sixers $100,000 for violating the Player Participation Policy, apparently because they were saying “Joel Embiid is fine!” and then he didn’t play in the first week of action. I don’t think this is explicitly about encouraging players to suit up. A minimal fine paid by a team isn’t moving the needle. That does make me curious (or perhaps skeptical) of what it’s really about.

Marc Stein on what injuries have already cost us this season. And here’s Marc’s jam-packed This Week In Basketball.

Joe Mazzulla argues that the NBA should allow low-scale fighting again. I disagree. Most NBA players are probably terrible fighters and I don’t want a star or a key player missing time due to a fight-related injury. Interpersonal violence is bad! Sorry to be a buzzkill.

Fred Katz on Chris Paul’s basketball academy in San Antonio.

Jared Dubin’s excellent Three Things I Noticed column on the Thunder’s motion, Dalton Knecht’s role and Anthony Black’s improvement.

Kelly Dwyer on the four best teams (so far).

Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic trawled legal documents to discover what the broadcast schedule will look like under the new media rights deal. Amazon will air 60 regular season games per year on Thursdays (after the NFL season ends) and Fridays (all season), plus all of the NBA Cup elimination and championship rounds, the play-in tournament and some playoffs. NBC is taking Mondays (on Peacock) and Tuesdays (regionalized games on NBC proper) and a bunch of playoff action. ESPN is keeping Wednesdays plus weekends and lots of playoffs.

Front Office Sports reports that Amazon and NBC are bidding over Blake Griffin to serve in a Charles Barkely-like role for them.

Tom Haberstroh on the Knicks’ contender status.

Interesting piece from Marc Campbell on how a team’s payroll tells the real story of opportunity and priority for young players.

David Thorpe at TrueHoop on early concerns about Tyrese Haliburton and Jamal Murray.

Shaqtin’ a Fool has no mercy on Ben Simmons or the D-Wade statue.

Rudy Gay announces his retirement with a lovely essay.

Lindsay Gibbs on the WNBA labor negotiations to come.

I like Scott Hines’ strategies for protecting kids from the true dangers of Halloween.

The always hilarious Josh Gondelman with hilarious pep talks for people in obscure Halloween costumes and the D-Wade statue.

I will say, in basically every instance of an obscure costume, I love your ingenuity. You got your face all wet and put on a red t-shirt with no pants to attend a party as “Pooh Deng?” Beautiful. Tremendous stuff. You showed up in a dress and heels, holding a Skinny Girl Margarita in one hand and a fishing rod in the other because you’re a Reel Housewife of New York? Good bit. I’d never suggest otherwise. And who am I to argue if you want to dress exactly like Donnie Wahlberg in that one scene at the beginning of The Sixth Sense?

A few years ago, at the MCU peak, I wanted to attempt Jeff Bridges’ depiction of Obadiah Stane. I even developed an impeccable impersonation of the famous line. Some of us, however, lack the courage to follow through with our dreams. Maybe next year.

Schedule

All times Eastern.

Raptors at Hornets, 7
Lakers at Cavaliers, 7
Celtics at Pacers, 7, ESPN
Pistons at Sixers, 7
Hawks at Wizards, 7
Knicks at Heat, 7:30
Magic at Bulls, 8
Nets at Grizzlies, 8
Spurs at Thunder, 9:30, ESPN
Pelicans at Warriors, 10
Blazers at Clippers, 10:30

Be excellent to each other.