Friday, March 1st, 2019

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Written while listening to MC Ren's Keep It Real

The Magic are playing well, but are they playoff material?

Orlando quietly closed out an awesome month last night with a 103-96 win over the Warriors.The Magic won eight of 11 games in February, including seven of their last nine, and, as Tom Ziller pointed out on this morning’s Good Morning It’s Basketball, they’ve been doing it with defense: Steve Clifford’s forgotten franchise had the best defensive month of any team in the league, allowing 100 points per 100 possessions, 4.4 less than the second-place Pacers.The Magic are a team on an uptick, currently in possession of the eighth-spot in the Eastern Conference. But they’re also 29-34, a supreme indictment on how bad the East has been this season outside of Milwaukee, Toronto, Indiana, Philadelphia and Boston.  Right now, the Magic are .001 percentage points above the Charlotte Hornets, the season-long heirs to the eighth-seed. The Hornets are 28-33. The Pistons are in seventh-place with a 29-31 record. The Nets, in sixth, are flirting with a below .500 record at 32-31.The worst team record-wise to ever make the playoffs in the eight-team format was Chicago in 1985-86, at 30-52, which was actually a good thing, because Michael Jordan had his famous 63-point performance against the Celtics in that first round.It is safe to assume no team will make the playoffs with 30 wins in 2018-19, but we might be looking at the type of season the East produced in 2003-04, when the Bucks (41-41), Knicks (39-43) and Celtics (36-46) filled out seeds No. 6-8. Those three had six combined coaches and one combined playoff win.Meanwhile, the Clippers, at 34-29, have current control of the eighth-seed in the West, three games ahead of the Lakers.Folks, be prepared to watch a sub .500 wanderer in the first round this year, and not LeBron James -- if that doesn’t drive change toward a conference-less playoff picture, nothing will.[Read: Would a LeBron-less playoffs be bad (or good) for the NBA?]

James Harden, Wilt and M.J. walk into a bar…

James Harden scored 28 points on Monday against the Hawks, ending his 30-point streak at 32 games.He started a new one with 30 points against the Hornets on Wednesday, and nearly scored enough for two more games on Thursday, dropping 58 against the Heat last night.He now has six 50-point games this year. No one else has more than one.For the season, Harden is up to 36.6 points per game. He’s also played 58 games. This is no longer an unsustainable fluke, and, if the current number holds, it will only have been bested by two people in NBA history:

1. Wilt Chamberlain, 50.36, 1961-62

2. Wilt Chamberlain, 44.84, 1962-63

3. Wilt Chamberlain, 38.39, 1960-61

4. Wilt Chamberlain, 37.60, 1959-60

5. Michael Jordan, 37.09, 1986-87

6. Wilt Chamberlain, 36.85, 1963-64

7. James Harden, 36.59, 2018-19

A sad reality in Minnesota

Karl-Anthony Towns, who was almost critically injured in an auto accident last week, went off last night, putting up 23 points and eight rebounds in the first quarter alone, finishing with 42 points and 17 rebounds for the night. Yet the Timberwolves lost, 122-115, to the Oladipo-less but surging Pacers, who have won nine of 12 games.The Timberwolves, after a decade-and-a-half out of the playoffs, are again in no-man’s land, in 11th place in the West with a 29-33 record -- too dysfunctional for the playoffs and too talented to tank.From a young team with a high ceiling three years ago to a mediocre roster with Andrew Wiggins on a max-contract, Minnesota has settled into its rightful spot as an aggressively average team.Via Basketball Reference:PTS/G: 112.4 (12th of 30)Opp PTS/G: 112.4 (20th of 30)SRS: 0.13 (15th of 30)Pace: 100.1 (15th of 30)Off Rtg: 111.6 (11th of 30)Def Rtg: 111.6 (20th of 30)Expected W-L: 31-31 (15th of 30)Average does you no good but, outside of Karl-Anthony Towns, tanking hasn’t worked either. And Kevin Garnett isn’t walking through that door. And, if all that wasn’t enough, after making the playoffs for the first time since 2003-04 last season, the Wolves have just a five percent chance of doing the same this year, according to FiveThirtyEight.If only they played in the East. Then they’d be happy.

 Dwyane Wade gets the last laugh 

Wade’s last-second miracle shot in front of a packed crowd to beat the Warriors, 126-125, on Wednesday night.

  Quick Hits

• Trae Young’s February: 12 games, 23.3 points, 9.3 assists, 43.7 percent from deep, 7.3 3s attempted per game.

• LeBron had his own slightly less impressive one-footed clutch 3-pointer on Wednesday night while Anthony Davis watched from the Pelicans’ bench.

• Inside the NBA update: The guys made Jason Terry cry last night.

• 42-year-old Vince Carter still has his hops.

• OKC’s Markieff Morris hit a shot several feet inside the arc last night and Marv Albert proceeded to call it a 3.

• Wade with the cheeky basket against the Rockets.

• Evan Turner had a great take on Isaiah Thomas having his third child.

• Ja Rule, noted false advertiser, thinks KAT plays for the Kings.

 Concrete Reads 

• The NBA needs to stop embarrassing the Pelicans [Sports Illustrated]

• The five most interesting players and teams of the NBA’s third quarter [The Ringer]

• Proceed with caution before burying Kyrie Irving and the Celtics [Sports Illustrated]

• Chris Clemons, Division I’s leading scorer, makes Campbell a must-see [Raleigh News & Observer]

  Podcast Pick

Kyrie’s February vs. LeBron’s February [Sports Illustrated]

Best weekend games

Tonight, 3/1, ESPN

Saturday, 3/2, ABC

Sunday, 3/3, ABC