Tonight’s Must-Watch Games

The Opening Tip

• CNN Sports is not having a moment

• Relatively speaking, we’re in a golden age of 70-point games

• Tristian Thompson’s return to the NBA suddenly makes more sense

1. Adrian Griffin was way out of his element

The Bucks fired Adrian Griffin yesterday after a 43-game run as head coach, which was good record-wise but bad in every other way. 

• The front office was basically surveilling Griffin at practice, according to B/R, and Doc Rivers was serving ‘as an informal consultant’ to the rookie coach, according to The Athletic. 

And those post-firing leaks are not to mention Terry Stotts saying ‘yeah, no thanks’ before the season even started and Bobby Portis screaming at Griffin after the IST loss.

We don’t have many thoughts on Griffin, except that, according to our analytics department, he lapped the league in constantly looking really fucking confused.

• Look here, here, here, here, here, and here; it’s Getty after Getty of a man with no means to a grasp. 

What got him fired was probably all the stuff mentioned above, but his RCF could not have helped.

As for who’s taking over … it appears to officially be Doc Rivers, first (accidentally?) reported by ‘CNN Sports.’

[READ: ‘CNN Sports’ breaking Doc-Bucks scoop confounds everyone]

2. Daily GIF: One-shoe Westbrook

Russell Westbrook from 3 with a full arsenal of shoes, career: 1260/4129, or 30.5 percent

Russell Westbrook from 3 with one shoe, career: 1/1, or 100 percent

[WATCH: Russ loses his shoe]

3. Trivia

4. 70-plus-point games by decade

Outside of the 1960s, when Wilt Chamberlain had six 70-point games, the 2020s are shaping up to be the golden age of the 70-point milestone. 

Including Joel Embiid’s 70-point Monday night, we’ve now had three 70-pointers in a 387-day span, which matches the No. of 70-point games from April 10, 1978 through January 1, 2023, or 16,339 days.

Quick hits

• You know how Tristan Thompson worked his way back onto an NBA roster this season? He was on roids. 

• Listen to the pro-Knicks crowd in Brooklyn last night. 

• Tyrese Haliburton: NBA All-Star or 1940s paperboy?

• For a second we thought there was a Serbian Frank Kaminsky imposter, but it turns out Frank Kaminsky just plays in Serbia now. 

• Folks, we had courtside furries last night. 

• People just be out here saying stuff: Candace Parker edition. 

• Wolves-Hornets on Monday night, where KAT dropped 62 but was benched late in a loss, had 10(!) missed calls in the final two minutes.

Reads & Pods

• Karl-Anthony Towns’ big night turned into a big bummer [Defector]

• Terry Rozier makes Miami even scarier [The Ringer]

That's the buzzer.
Thanks for reading the 351st edition of The Grip.