Tuesday, Feb 23, 2021

Portland’s ticking clock — Edwards’ poster — Real Magic vs. Burner Magic

February 23, 2021

Tuesday, Feb 23rd, 2021

  The Opening Tip

  • Anthony Edwards submitted a dunk of the decade candidate on Friday. 

  • We have a new game show.

  • OTD 29 years ago, Ice Cube’s most iconic song was released.

Tonight's best matchups

 1. What is Portland waiting for?  

The actuality that Damian Lillard is a thriving superstar for the Portland Trail Blazers is an excessively unlikely thing to have happened. 

  • Lillard was the 214th ranked player in high school class. He went to Weber State (Utah), which hadn’t produced an NBA player before him since the early 1970s. The pick Portland drafted him with (No. 6, 2012) was originally Brooklyn’s. The Nets traded it to the Blazers for Gerald Wallace, because they thought it was “a three-player draft.” 

A dozen things had to go right for all this to happen, and a dozen things did. And now Lillard is a perennial top 10 player who is loyal almost to a fault. He’s scored 82 points in 52 “clutch” minutes this season, and he has a mediocre roster without CJ McCollum at 18-12 and fifth in the West.He’s also 30, and has played with one All-Star in his career -- LaMarcus Aldridge, who left the Trail Blazers in free agency six years ago. Since Aldridge left for San Antonio in 2015, Lillard’s contemporary, Steph Curry, has played with three recurrent All-Stars, all of whom will make the Hall of Fame some day, including an all-timer in Kevin Durant.

So … what is Portland waiting for?

With Lillard and McCollum as the main guys, the Blazers have had a quasi-competitive core that’s been swept from the postseason three times, reached the second round twice, made the WCFs once, and lost in the first round three times.

They could either waste Lillard's backend prime hoping he buoys an average roster to the Finals, or they could make a Harden-Brooklyn-esque trade for someone like Bradley Beal and rest easy in 10 years knowing they at least went for it with their unlikely superstar still at his peak.

[READ: Damian Lillard deserves more respect in the MVP race]

 2. Daily GIF: Our favorite Yuta Watanabe fan page isn’t gonna like this    

Anthony Edwards’ dunk over our beloved Yuta Watanabe happened on Friday, but a play like that transcends tardiness. It is clearly on the short list of the best in-game dunks in NBA history.We know what you’re thinking: How did the Raptors-Yuta Japanese fanpage respond to their guy being destroyed at the rim?They took it in stride (translation as always is slightly off): 

Yuta Watanabe, a victim of Anthony Edwards' historic dunk, temporarily ranked number one in the trend in Canada 😢On the other hand, a voice of sympathy that evaluated the dedication from local fans also said, "Yuta Watanabe is not suitable for this treatment.”  I still love Yuta

We do too.

 3. Trivia time  

During the 1986-87 season, a Nuggets point guard led the league in triple-doubles with 16.Who was it?Hint: Two-time All-Star. Not Alex English.

 4. Who tweeted it: Magic Johnson or a Magic Johnson parody account? 

Game rules: We will present six tweets, all of which come either from Magic Johnson’s real account (@MagicJohnson) or a parody Twitter account for Magic Johnson (@MagicsBurner). You must decipher which account tweeted which tweet. Answers will be at the bottom.Tweet No. 1:  

“The Lakers really miss Anthony Davis and Dennis Schröder because they affect the game on both ends of the court.”

Tweet No. 2:  

“Steph was able to make the contested three because he’s a great shooter!”

Tweet No. 3:  

“Ben (Simmons) is finding ways to score without a jump shot!”

Tweet No. 4:  

“Bojan Bogdanovic is averaging 16 points and 42% from the 3 point line, Bam Adebayo is averaging 20 PPG and 9 RPG, and Andre Drummond is leading the league in rebounds with 14 per game AND 18.5 PPG!”

Tweet No. 5:  

“Dunk contests are a great way to showcase the league’s best dunkers!”

Tweet No. 6:  

“With the Packers having home field advantage in the playoffs they will be tough to beat because of the cold weather and the snow!”

Six right = Magic whisperer.Five right = Magic whisperer in training.Four right = Solid.Three right = More study time needed.Two right = Magic novice.One right = Do you have any feel for the nuances of fake Twitter accounts?Zero right = You clearly spend zero time on Twitter, and must therefore be doing something right in life.

 5. 02/23/1992: Ice Cube had the booze, his lady had the chronic, and the Lakers beat the Supersonics  

On this day 29 years ago, Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day” was released as a single. (H/T to ESPN Daily.)The classic includes two iconic basketball lyrics: 

  1. Called up the homies and I'm askin' y'all / "Which park are y'all playin' basketball?" / Get me on the court and I'm trouble / Last week, fucked around and got a triple-double / Freakin' ****** every way, like MJ / I can't believe today was a good day

  2. It's ironic, I had the booze, she had the chronic / The Lakers beat the Supersonics

Three things:

  1. Is Ice Cube one of those guys who counts stats during pickup basketball? 

  2. What’s ironic about him having beer, her having weed, and the Lakers beating the Supersonics? 

  3. The Lakers did play the Supersonics three days prior to the song’s release, but lost, 105-103.

 6.  Quick hits 

  • The Wizards came back from down 17 last night to beat the Lakers, who have now lost 4-of-5 while Washington has won five in a row. 

  • Here’s an assist of the year candidate from Aleksej Pokuševski. 

  • The Jazz set a franchise mark with 28 made 3-pointers in a win over the Hornets last night. Utah is now 25-6. 

  • Here’s LaMelo Ball being a dick to Mike Conley. Here’s LaMelo Ball being humbled by Rudy Gobert. 

  • This transition recovery by Luguentz Dort is a good visual example of the importance of great defense. 

 7.  Off the press