Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Jrue, the Finesser — Playoff picture — Mavs’ two-point quarter

April 06, 2021

Tuesday, April 6th, 2021

  The Opening Tip

  • Jrue Holiday is great at separating billionaires from their money.

  • Baylor is the new national champ.

  • The playoffpicture with 20 or so games left.

Tonight's best matchups

 1. No one has turned less tangible success into more money than Jrue Holiday       

Jrue Holiday signed a massive, nearly Chris Paul- and Steph Curry-level extension with the Bucks on Sunday, which could be worth up to $160 million.Here’s the absolute floor of what the 30-year-old guard will make over the next for years: 

  • 2021-22: $30.1 million

  • 2022-23: $32.4 million

  • 2023-24: $34.6 million

  • 2024-25: $36.9 million 

And here is every honor ever bestowed upon him in his 12-year NBA career, graciously formatted line-by-line to make the collection look more robust: 

  • One All-Star Game in 2013. 

  • An All-Defensive first-team in 2018.

  • An All-Defensive second-team in 2019. 

  • The 2019-20 Teammate of the Year award. 

That’s it. Two defensive teams, one All-Star Game (in the East, eight years ago) and a … we’re just gonna say it … participation award.

  • Despite playing with Anthony Davis for six seasons, he’s reached the second round of the playoffs only twice -- once in Philly and once in New Orleans -- and never further.

  • He’s never made an All-NBA team, as in, not once in 11 years have the voters considered him a top-15 NBA player.

  • His career PER -- which, to be fair, doesn’t account enough for defense, which is his best characteristic -- is 17, that of a slightly above average player.

  • He’s eighth in his 2009 draft class in win shares (47.4), behind the retired Darren Collison, Jeff Teague and Taj Gibson.

  • He’s a career 35.7 percent shooter from 3, with a 34.1 percent mark from 2016-20.

And yet, by the time his most recent extension ends, Holiday will have made more than $284 million, AKA, a quarter of a billion dollars.If you’re making $284 million per All-Star appearance, you get to add one more accomplishment to your resume: 

  • All-Finesse first-team, 16 years running, from 2009 to 2025. 

 Keep getting those checks, Jrue.

 2. Daily GIF: Big 12 > West Coast Conference     

Baylor ruined Gonzaga’s perfect season last night in the NCAA Men’s National Championship, with a start-to-finish 86-70 victory.It was the Bears’ first championship -- they hadn’t even made a title game since 1948 -- while Gonzaga, which entered the game 31-0 with a chance to finish as the undefeated champs for the first time since Indiana in 1976, will have to try again next season.

 3. Trivia time  

With his 16 assists on Sunday against the Magic, Nikola Jokic now owns the most 10-plus assist games by a center in NBA history, with 81.Whose record did he break?Answer at the bottom.

 4. The East and West playoff picture entering tonight’s games 

The East: 

  1. Nets, 35-16

  2. 76ers, 34-16

  3. Bucks, 32-17

  4. Hawks, 26-24

  5. Heat, 26-24

  6. Hornets, 25-24

  7. Celtics, 25-25

  8. Knicks, 25-26

  9. Pacers, 22-26

  10. Bull, 20-28

The West: 

  1. Jazz, 38-12

  2. Suns, 35-14

  3. Clippers, 33-18

  4. Nuggets, 31-18

  5. Lakers, 31-19

  6. Trail Blazers, 30-19

  7. Mavericks, 28-21

  8. Grizzlies, 24-23

  9. Spurs, 24-24

  10. Warriors, 23-27 

Three things:

  1. Look at that dropoff from three to four in the East. It’s almost like a team with two All-Stars and a max-player point guard which reached the Conference Finals last year should be there instead of the Hawks. 

  2. Without Anthony Davis or LeBron, the Lakers have lost 6-of-9. Neither star is nearing a return, which means L.A. could conceivably end up in the play-in tournament, which would make Adam Silver, the league, and its TV partners very happy. 

  3. If, theoretically, the current West standings did hold, we could be looking at Jazz vs. Dallas or Jazz vs. Golden State in the first round. 

: Have Aaron Gordon and the Nuggets unlocked each other’s potential?]

 5. 04/06/1997: The Mavericks score two points in an entire quarter  

On this day 24 years ago, the Mavericks scored two points in the third quarter against the Lakers.GIF’d above is 50 percent of Dallas’s points for the quarter, a free-throw by Derek Harper 10 minutes and nine seconds into the third. That's two. As in, 2. It was the first time in NBA history a team had scored so little in one quarter. It's since been matched once by the Warriors in 2004, who also scored two points in 12 minutes, this time in the fourth quarter. By the numbers:

  • The Lakers, starting in the second quarter, went on a 26-0 run before Harper’s free-throws. 

  • L.A. entered the quarter trailing by four and ended it winning by 17. 

  • The Mavs didn’t make a field goal the entire quarter. They finished 0-for-15. 

  • Dallas ended up only losing by seven, 87-80.

Here’s the box score, and here’s the entire quarter.

 6.  Quick hits 

  • Gary Trent Jr. sunk the Wizards with a buzzer-beater last night.

  • Here’s Boban and Tobias Harris’ new Goldfish commercial.

  • This person is an NBA player, not a hipster walking around Williamsburg.

  • Julius Randle’s son was completely heartbroken yesterday after another close loss by the Knicks to the Nets. 

  • Giannis, when asked by a stranger what he does for a living: “Bitcoin”

  • We don’t have the energy to break down the Paul Pierce-ESPN situation, but here you go.

 7.  Reads and podcast pick 

  • The NBA’s best 25 under 25 [ESPN]

  • The Almost Ainge All-Star Team [The Ringer]

  • Lonzo Ball has taken a leap this season. Will it be enough to keep him in New Orleans? [FiveThirtyEight]

  • What’s wrong with the Warriors and what’s right with the Nuggets [The Lowe Post]