NBA 25-26 - And so it begins..

[KoryMac5]

Are the Jazz trying to get better with the Jaren Jackson trade? It's so confusing, because the Jazz have been in tank mode for so long and essentially making their fans angry when they win.

Jazz were up on Orlando by double digits going into the 4th quarter… they then benched their starters and proceeded to lose. I can foresee the happening again and again rest of the year.

[Kingspoint]

Franz Wagner is close to returning to ORL. He's missed something like 24 of the last 26 games. I think he's their best player.

Speaking of injuries, here are the top-five teams as of Feb. 5th as far as most player games missed this season:

POR 292
OKC 282
MEM 280
IND 260
DAL 245

While it was great to get Scoot back Friday, he missed the 2nd of a back-to-back Saturday, along with Shaedon Sharpe, who injured his calf on Friday. POR had a very good Starting 5 miss Saturday's game:

PG Scoot Henderson
SG Shaedon Sharpe
SF Kris Murray
PF Deni Avdija
C Robert Williams III

6th Man Damian Lillard (who is going to be one of the 8 3-pt Shooting participants).
7th Man Matisse Thybulle (Most likely release if POR decides to convert a 2-way contract).

Their win Saturday moved POR to 7-4 on the 2nd of back-to-backs.

It's scary that OKC has put this season together while having all of these missed games.

[Kingspoint]

POR Assists the last 3 games...

31
30
35

A far cry from their 2nd to last average of 22 going into these games. Now with multiple people able to handle the ball in Jrue, Scoot, Deni, Blake Wesley, the shooters are getting open looks.

Toumani was 8-9 from "3" last night before missing his final attempt (up by 25 at the time), while the Blazers the last two games set a franchise record for 3-pointers made in a two-game span getting 21 and 22 the last two games. It's not like PHI is a bad team. They had won 6 of 7 and was 15-9 on the road after having just won at PHO/GSW/LAC and barely losing @LAL by 4 before POR blew them out by 27 points in the 3rd Quarter alone. It was amazing because it was the first time that many of these players ever played together for POR. Every game will continue to be difficult, especially back-to-backs as it has to be determined who sits and who plays. Also, Sidy Cissoko just played in his 49th game, so he's only got one left (maybe none), while Caleb Love has only a few left. Thybulle is going to have to be released, so POR can keep at least one of those two players. Can't justify Thybulle on the team. They are going to lose one of those two players, though. They just lost their 2nd G-League player yesterday.

[Boston Red]

Jazz were up on Orlando by double digits going into the 4th quarter… they then benched their starters and proceeded to lose. I can foresee the happening again and again rest of the year.

People started talking about it, so they figured they'd better win in Miami a couple of nights later!

[Kingspoint]

Nice win by IND vs NYK.

[Boston Red]

Jarren Jackson,. Jr. needs to have incredibly minor, but seeason ending, knee surgery. Tough luck for the Jazz!

[Kingspoint]

Back on Nov 14th, POR played one of its best games of the season at home. MIN still beat them.

Last night POR played poorly in MIN. That was because MIN made them do so.

When MIN wants to be, they are better than every team in the NBA (back-to-back Western Conference Finals' appearances) except OKC. They should be the #2 Seed right now, but they run into motivational issues throughout the season. They know how good they are, but don't grasp the concept of consistency. If they don't start listening to Chris Finch, they are going to head downhill instead of reaching the NBA Finals, which is where they belong.

[plantmanky]

OK so 2 quarters into this new NBA all star game format and:


1. They product still is very bad, more lazy play, but its not any lazier than a normal NBA game you watch.
2. Players at least look like they want to be there and are having fun playing, and its somewhat competitive.



The camera view sucks, its like they are showing the video from the floor, audio isnt very good either.

[Kingspoint]

With less than 30 games to play before the playoffs begin, the tanking teams have already begun, so it's going to be difficult for anyone to gain too much in the standings as most teams should finish the season winning 7 of 10 the rest of the way as the lottery teams have given up.

This isn't a "power ranking" as power rankings always just list the teams in order of their current spot in the standings, which to me, makes them ridiculous.

This is how I see the teams right now heading into the playoffs from best to worst. There's always a Top-7 in the NBA, not 8, not 6, but 7.

Here is that Top-7 and it's West-heavy because, once again, it's by far the better conference (it's why Harden wanted to go to the Eastern Conference):

1. OKC (more player time missed than any team in the NBA other than POR...they'll get healthier and stronger)
2. MIN (Edwards wins the MVP of the crappy all-star game...he needs to take the regular season more seriously)
3. DEN (the best depth they've had in a couple of years with Adelman just finishing 12 months on the job here)
4. NYK (DET doesn't have the experience and the Knicks are the league's best Defensive team right now)
5. DET (too young and inexperienced to make a Conference Finals, even in the East...they are susceptible at every round, but I still have them getting to the Finals as other clubs in the East have too many issues)
6. SAS (I don't think they are this good, but they are the darling child of the NBA and the NBA wants them to go deep in the playoffs every year...the calls they have gotten from the beginning of the season are a joke...only the Lakers get as much favoritism from the refs...almost...Fox is outstanding)
7. BOS (Jaylen Brown can get them through the 1st Round and possibly the 2nd Round. Can Tatum get back in by May?)


The next tier...

8. PHO (they won the Durant trade. Brooks has already been player-of-the-month. They've done this mostly without Green. They had a 31-1/2 win expectation. Booker is having the best season of his career. They can play good Defense and they can shoot extremely well.
9. PHI (they are ready to make the Conference Finals. They have great depth and a great attitude. For once, they are all in it together...it's not Embiid and a bunch of guys standing around watching him play.)
10. HOU (Durant and the improvement of others doesn't come close to overcoming the losses of VanVleet, Green, Brooks and Adams.)
11. TOR (very balanced and can win on the road..East isn't strong, so they, too, can get to the Conference Finals)
12. CLE (thought they were better with Garland than they will be with Harden. Their Defense took a big hit here.)
13. ORL (they have to win their 1st Round series or they'll be questions asked again about Banchero)
14. POR (more player time lost than any team in the NBA and they are just beginning to get some players back...they dominated Golden State when they had Jimmy Butler and were missing players. GSW has no Butler while POR has better players...POR will also be better than MIA when the playoffs begin...LAL have no Defense...CHA is giving hope...for next season...the LAC have 30 games to figure out what they are...ATL has to wait until next season...MIL---Yuck!...they aren't tanking for a lottery pick, but it's in their best interest to do so...they don't have to try very hard...CHI???...POR's biggest issue is that they are going to have to make the playoffs from the 9th seed, though they could catch GSW for the 8th Seed in the play-in and play at the 7th seed of whoever falls to that spot...I don't think it will be PHO)

[Kingspoint]

...and ORL gets about the worst news it can possibly get...

Franz Wagner is out "indefinitely" as the ankle issue that sidelined him for 25 of the past 29 games is not healthy.

[Kingspoint]

POR gives up 157 points at home to DEN on Fri.

They fly to PHO for a game on Sunday and hold the Suns to 80 fewer points, 77 total, with the Suns never scoring more than 20 points in any quarter.

DEN scored more than 40 in each of the first three Quarters.

Suns were without their top-two scorers, but so were Portland. Looks like both clubs will be without them for a while.

[WVRed]

Bam Adebayo with a 70burger tonight for Miami.

Safe to say hes the King of the Court on Draftkings tonight.

Sent from my SM-S936U using Tapatalk

[texasdave]

Bam Adebayo finishes the night with 83 points, second-most points in NBA history to Wilt's 100-point effort.

Adebayo set a league record by going to the line 43 times!!! He also took 43 shots from the field. His most amazing stat for the night has to be his 5 turnovers. When did he have time to pass the ball?

[mr_luck07]

Make that an 80 burger. Not a statline I expected to see.

[Boston Red]

NBA regular season is so broken.