Mon, Dec 23rd, 2019

The allure of a Wendy’s Frosty — the Raptors’ comeback — the NCAA remains bad

Monday, December 23rd, 2019

  • Wendy’s is partly to blame for Isaiah Thomas’s suspension

  • Ja Morant almost claimed another victim on Friday

  • Tacko Fall is the MVP, in the eyes of Celtics fans

  • We’re tired of the NCAA

Tonight's must-watch games

Tap the box to set a reminder

 1. The Lead: Three things from this weekend    

1. Isaiah Thomas simply is not here for the bullshit

We could try and describe to you what happened between a fan and Isaiah Thomas during the fourth quarter of the Wizards’ away loss to the 76ers on Saturday, but Isaiah can do it so, so much better.You can watch the confrontation here. You can hear his explanation here, and you can read the transcript here: 

“A fan has both of his middle fingers up and says fuck you three times, so then the timeout goes and I go into the stands and confront him. I say, ‘don’t be disrespectful.’ That calm. I’m a man before anything. Be a fan. His response was, ‘I’m sorry, I just wanted a frosty.’ Because if he missed two free throws, I guess the fans get a frosty. So, that’s what happened and I walked back.”

Anyways, Isaiah clearly broke a rule by going into the stands and talking to a fan (thanks,

), so the NBA suspended him without pay for two games. His response,

:

Bullshit!

2. The Mavs blew an epic lead on Sunday

The Mavericks were winning by 30 points in the third quarter last night and entered the fourth up by 23, and somehow lost to the host Raptors, 110-107.The meltdown ended up tying a franchise record; they lost a game in 2002 they were once up, 85-55.Kyle Lowry led the comeback, dropping 20 points in the fourth, and Chris Boucher capped it with a thunderous dunk with 25 seconds left. If you have five minutes to spare, you can watch every bucket of the comeback here.

 

3. Malcolm Brogdon has a right to be salty

Malcolm Brogdon returned to Milwaukee last night for the first time as a Pacer, and had this to say about leaving the Bucks in free agency: 

"I would've loved to play for this team, if they had wanted me. If they had valued me the way the Pacers value me. That's all I gotta say."

The Bucks are rolling right now, so this isn’t much of a talking point, but Brogdon is playing like

this season, having signed a four-year, $85 million contract with Indiana this summer.

The decision to let him walk could have been avoided, had ownership decided to shell out and go into the tax, or had they held off on signing Eric Bledsoe to a $70 million midseason extension last year.

In the 2019 playoffs, Bledsoe shrank, shooting 23.6 percent from 3, while Brogdon was either the team’s second- or third-best player.

Missing him for the 2020 playoffs and beyond could go down as a footnote to a what-if in a few years. 

 2. Ja Morant, Kevin Love; Vince Carter, Frédéric Weis 

Ja Morant was a few inches away from completing this insane dunk over Kevin Love, the Cavaliers, the city of Cleveland, the state of Ohio, and the restless soul of Ted Stepian on Friday night. The near-miss was probably the most exciting thing that's happened in Cleveland since LeBron left; it even drew admiration from Love, who is transitioning nicely into stress-free semi-retirement.After the game, he tweeted:  

"Ja almost ended my professional career with this dunk...that kid is something special"

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 3. The NCAA is stupid, pt. 1,980,365  

Of the five top picks in ESPN’s 2019 NBA Mock Draft*, three are teenagers who have opted not to play college basketball: 

  • LaMelo Ball, for reasons we’d rather bathe with a toaster than explain, is playing for the Illawarra Hawks of Australia's NBL

  • RJ Hampton is playing for the New Zealand Breakers of the same league 

  • James Wiseman just announced on Thursday that he’d forgo his season at Memphis and simply prepare for the NBA Draft

The first two are worrisome for the NCAA, mostly because both Ball and Hampton saw no use in the college basketball system, opting for money in a pro league elsewhere.The Wiseman case, though, is especially stupid because Wiseman actually wanted to play.To review:

  • In late-2018, Wiseman committed to play for Memphis and head coach Penny Hardaway for his presumed one season before entering the NBA Draft 

  • This past November, Wiseman was suspended 12 games for the revelation that he accepted $11,500 from Hardaway, at the time his AAU coach, while moving to Memphis in 2017

  • As part of his punishment, the NCAA also ruled Wiseman must pay $11,500 to a charity of his choice, which is so backward it belongs in your high school friend’s pyramid scheme

The appeal process has since stretched the course of a month and a half, and the only thing that’s become increasingly clear is how unneeded all this is for Wiseman, who -- no thanks to the NCAA -- will be a millionaire by June.So, on Thursday, he announced via Instagram that he had withdrawn from Memphis, the plan being to hire an agent and kick the can until the draft.The whole situation created losers across the board, none more obvious than the NCAA, which lost out on the country’s best high school prospect in 2018 because of rules that were antiquated even 50 years ago.[READ: Plenty of blame to go around in James Wiseman saga]* You better believe we’ve got that ESPN+ hook up if you need it

 4. By the numbers  

Zero handshakes 

Watch Russell Westbrook (and most of the Rockets) completely and hilariously ignore a crowd of kids looking for high-fives before a game on Saturday.

  10 3s, 1 2-pointer

Entering last night, the Lakers’ Jared Dudley was the only player in the league, minimum 10 games, who hadn’t made a 2-pointer this season. His 10 field goals were all 3s. Mercifully, he made a 2-point shot in garbage time last night, and

in that category. 

  55-22

The Mavericks were outscored by the Raptors over the last 14 minutes of last night's comeback by a 55-22 margin.

  7.9 net rating

After last night's 113-93 win over the Hornets, the Celtics are 20-7 and have

, third in the league behind only Milwaukee (13) and Dallas (8.1). The Lakers, having dropped three in a row, are fourth, at 7.1. 

  27-4

Through 31 games, the Bucks are now 27-4, with a per-game point differential of 13.48, the highest in league history. 

The 2015-16 Warriors through 31 games:

29-2

The 1995-96 Bulls through 31 games:

28-3

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  • Tacko Fall's weekend: Brad Stevens acted as his hype man on Friday. The Garden crowd chantedMVP for him on Sunday.  

  • Giannis’s kindness made a girl cry last night/is single-handedly saving pro basketball in Milwaukee. 

  • A premeditated, Christmas-themed stat dump happened on Saturday. Zach LaVine to Lauri Markkanen: “That’s a gift from me to you.”

  • James Harden had Paul George in give-up mode during Houston’s 122-117 win on Thursday.

  • Luka is closing in on a deal with Jordan Brand.

  • Can the Rockets convince Russ to play like Draymond Green? [The Ringer]

  • How do you make sense of the Sixers? [The Ringer]