Wednesday, August 5th, 2020

  The Opening Tip

• The 8th seed in the West has many suitors

• The Lakers’ No. 1 seed has been a surprisingly long time coming

• The Nets pulled off an all-time gambling upset yesterday

• There is a tomato that looks exactly like Larry Bird

Today's must-watch games

1. The Lead: The race for the last playoff spot in the West is the bubble’s best storyline  

The NBA rigged the bubble format in order to try and force the square-shaped Pelicans (mostly just Zion Williamson) into the circle-shaped 8th seed.That hasn’t worked so far (New Orleans is 1-2), mostly because the Pelicans have been what we thought they were: Not very good.Plenty of other teams in the West have jumpstarted themselves into a position for the 8th seed, though. (Reminder: Whoever finishes in the 8th spot will play the 9th seed in a play-in series, as long as the 9th seed is within four games, which will happen in the West.)Here’s a breakdown of the standings, and all the eligible candidates for the final playoff spot, as of Wednesday morning (Grizzlies-Jazz will have tipped by the time you start reading this):No. 8 -- Memphis (32-36, 0-3 in the bubble)The Grizzlies lost two heartbreakers to start, then lost a crucial game to the Pelicans on Monday. And, as if all that crap wasn’t enough, Jaren Jackson Jr., their second-best player, is out for the year with a torn meniscus. Saying things are going well for Memphis is like saying Pitbull has a lot of respect in the hip hop community.No. 9 -- Portland (31-38, 2-1 in the bubble, 1.5 games back of Memphis)Brad Stevens, after nearly blowing a 24-point lead to the Blazers on Sunday, put Portland's situation well: “ We're not playing the 9th seed Trail Blazers from earlier in the season, we're playing the Western Conference finalists from last year.”Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum are playing well, and Jusuf Nurkić, back from his broken leg, is averaging 22-12-4 in three bubble games.No. 10 -- San Antonio (29-37, 2-1 in the bubble, 2 games back)With LaMarcus Aldridge not around to shackle them down, the Spurs have unleashed a new small and quick lineup that's been playing to good results. More on that here.No. 11 -- New Orleans (29-38, 1-2 in the bubble, 2.5 games back)New Orleans will be fun to watch over the next few years. But watching them botch Zion’s minutes while playing JV defense in the short term is conversely unenjoyable.No. 12 -- Phoenix (29-39, 3-0 in the bubble, 3 games back)Thanks to the buzzer-beater below, the Suns are the last undefeated team in the bubble. To make the playoffs for the first time since 2010, though, they’d have to make up 1.5 games and jump three teams in only five games.No. 13 -- Sacramento (28-39, 0-3 in the bubble, 3.5 games back)Who’s the scapegoat now?

2. Devin Booker, FTW 

Devin Booker on Tuesday recorded the NBA’s first-ever August buzzer-beater, and he did so over two of the best defenders in the league. A rare tip o’ the cap to the man whose team might finally break 30 wins.

3. The Lakers and their fans actually deserve this season  

The Lakers locked up the West’s No. 1 seed on Tuesday night with a win over the Jazz, making them the first team in NBA history to do so after missing the postseason over the previous six years.Usually Lakers fans are the most spoiled demographic in sports. But -- as counter-intuitive as this sounds -- it feels like they actually … kind of … deserve this?Besides the fact that their two best players are on the team because…

• One simply liked the idea of moving to LA.

• The other created the “most toxic environment” Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry had ever seen in order to eventually force a trade ... 

… the team and its fans have had a rough go of it since the 2010 NBA Finals. Of course, Kobe Bryant’s death looms as the real-life tragedy here, but the Lakers hadn’t made the playoffs in six years (their previous longest streak was two) and have trotted out some truly laughable players and teams this decade.Including: 

1. 2012 second-rounder Robert Sacre, who couldn’t cut it in a Japanese dunk contest.

2. 2013 second-rounder Ryan Kelly, who was everything Duke personified except being good at basketball. 

3. Undrafted Marcelo Huertas, who played 76 NBA games but has a three-minute long blooper reel.

They also had to deal with the D’Angelo Russell-Nick Young-Iggy Azalea triangle; signed Luol Deng to a four-year, $72 million deal in 2016 (he played 57 games in LA); signed Timofey Mosgov to a four-year, $64 million deal the same year (he made it 54 games in LA); ushered in the Fighting LaVar Balls; witnessed Magic Johnson tweet his way into a paper bag before suddenly resigning as GM; watched LeBron fail once to trade his entire team, then actually do it; and so on.We just laid out the nuclear bomb that was the Lakers’ 2010s pretty well, but Kyle Kuzma -- the last one left from the Before Times -- did it pretty well, too: “Real laker fans remember the losing seasons. Here ya go #1.”

 4. We wouldn’t be showing you this photo if the following tomato didn’t look exactly like Larry Bird  

The backstory: Some English guy named Paul (of course his name’s Paul) found it while gardening and, thankfully, was in sync enough with the NBA to know what he possessed.OK, but why is it wearing a top hat? Not sure, but it feels like something English Larry Tomato would wear, right?PS: Doesn’t this make you wonder about all the other vegetables that people might have disregarded, for ignorance of who they bore resemblance to? Has a potato in Indonesia that looks like, say, Paul Rudd been ignored and unceremoniously eaten?

5. By the numbers

  119 points

Through three bubble games, Indiana’s T.J. Warren has 119 points, by far the most in the league. His outburst includes the 53-point night he had against the 76ers, a game that also included a Shake Milton-on-Joel Embiid macro-aggression.

  19-point underdogs

The Nets beat the Bucks yesterday, 119-116, despite not having Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie, DeAndre Jordan, Caris LeVert, Joe Harris, Jarrett Allen or Taurean Prince. As such, they entered the game 19-point underdogs, meaning their victory was the largest betting upset since 1993. It also might force a couple of Twitter dummies to get Nets tattoos.

  34-20-12

Luka Dončić registered 34 points, 20 rebounds and 12 assists yesterday in a win over the Kings. Dončić's statline was the first 30-20-10 triple-double in Mavs’ history. He also became the youngest player in NBA history to clear such numbers.

 6.  Quick hits 

• Carmelo Anthony hit a dagger yesterday to help the Trail Blazers beat the Rockets.

• ICYMI, here’s Brooklyn’s Justin Anderson dunking all over Giannis. 

• Lou Williams, on going to a strip club while out of the bubble: “In hindsight I think, as far as public safety issue goes, I probably could have made a better quality decision.”

 7.  Off the press 

• The 76ers could be a first-round out … or a Finals contender [The Ringer]

• How the NBA built its bubble courts [GQ]