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Congratulations to “Oppenheimer”! Great movie. “Poor Things” is, however, the best film of last year.
Sotck exchange
Have fun with post-weekend trends!
It was a big few days in the NBA, which significantly affected how we even approached the Monday morning NBA stock check. Massive winning streaks are achieved, so no one has one longer than four. Embarrassing losing streaks are gone, with the longest active one being three in a row. Let’s go ahead and give you what you need to know about the league:
Luka Doncic. The Mavs star has six straight 30-point triple-doubles – six in a row! He is the first player in NBA history to do this. Dallas is just 3-3 in this stretch, but Doncić averages 36.3 points, 11.5 assists and 11.0 rebounds. And the match before the start of this sequence? He had 45 points, 14 assists and nine rebounds. It’s just absurd.
OKC Thunder. They are on fire again and sole holders of first place in the West. They are one game ahead Denver and 1.5 games ahead of Minnesota. THE Thunder have won 10 of their last 12 matches. Seven of those matches were blowout victories. With the Wolves’ injuries, OKC could take home-court advantage with 18 games remaining.
Irony. THE Wizards were on a 16-game losing streak while everyone was looking at the potential of snapping a 27-game losing streak into a matchup against Detroit in a few weeks. So what happened to that? THE Hornets spoiled our fun. Charlotte barely scored 100 points in a 12-point loss to the NBA’s worst defense. In fact, the Wizards are now on a two-game winning streak because Miami embarrassed themselves yesterday with a home defeat against Washington. We can’t have anything fun.
Injured players are becoming more and more common in the NBA. Alperen Şengün fell with a potentially gruesome leg injury Sunday in Sacramento. Steph Curry rolled his ankle and I will run out of time. The Knicks are still very hurt. Victor Wembanyama some games are missing (ankle). Scottie Barnes is outside. Bénédict Mathurin is out for the season. Donovan Mitchell And Evan Mobley are injured – same for Trae Young. Karl-Anthony Towns and Joel Embiid are out. These are big names!
NOLA Pelicans. There’s not enough discussion about how good fifth place is Pelicans are. I know everyone is waiting to see if they will be healthy for the playoffs, but Willie Green is doing an incredible job with them. They are top eight in offense and defense and have the longest winning streak in the NBA (four). They have won 13 of their last 17 games.
Utah Jazz. Did you know that the Jazz owe the Thunder their first round pick if they are outside the top 10? Did you know that Utah is currently 11th without any lottery miracles? Hey, look at this! The Jazz have lost 10 of their last 12! What a coincidence!
$100,000 fine
Rudy Gobert on a very delicate NBA subject
During the weekend, NBA fined Minnesota Timberwolves big man Rudy Gobert $100,000 for making an inappropriate gesture and criticizing officials after the Wolves’ overtime loss to Cleveland on Friday night. Gobert was hit by a technical problem in the final minute of the fourth quarter, allowing Cleveland to tie the game while down by one. Why technology? After a fairly obvious foul was called on Gobert, he started rubbing his fingers on each hand. Either he was celebrating Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito (
), making sure he still had feeling in his fingers, or Gobert hinting that the refs were about to call this match for gambling reasons. But that couldn’t be that, RIGHT? Here’s what Gobert had to say after the game:
“My reaction, which I believe is the truth – that’s what I truly believe – even if it’s the truth, it wasn’t the time for me to react that way. I should not have done that. I cost my team the game and obviously they were eager to give me some tech. It was bad. It was an immature reaction.
Uh what? Rudy probably didn’t mean to imply that his action was “the truth.” He continued when asked to clarify what he was referring to:
“I think it hurts our game. I know betting and everything else is getting bigger and bigger, but that shouldn’t be the case.
Oh. All right. Um… it’s uncomfortable. I’m curious how many players around the league think the game is truly seeping into the name of the game, because that’s an extremely serious accusation for someone to imply and then double and triple down on in interviews. ‘post-match. And Gobert is not the right messengermainly because he publicly complains/complains about bias towards small markets and thinks the league is flat out helping big markets win against small markets.
Whoever the messenger is, Adam Silver and the league office must be furious that this is being said out loud. The league embraced sports gambling. We find it everywhere in sports reports, conversations and league broadcasts. Silver’s next comments on this will be intriguing.
Gold statuettes
How about a little discussion about the Oscars?
Yes, this is a basketball newsletter, but we don’t limit ourselves to just one thing, especially not something as culturally relevant as Sunday’s Oscars. Here are my little thoughts on the movie’s popcorn what happened last night:
- Congratulations to Christopher Nolan: Thanks to “Oppenheimer”, he is 2 out of 8 to win an Oscar for his films, which makes him the Jerry West of directors.
- “Poor things”: This was my favorite movie of last year, it wasn’t called “John Wick 4.” Emma Stone for Best Actress was well deserved, although Lily Gladstone had an extremely strong case.
- Appearance of John Cena: He “chilled out” while crossing the stage, only to present himself “naked” for best costume. We even had a joke about how wrestling in a jort was worse than naked.
- Mark Ruffalo was robbed! Congratulations to Robert Downey Jr. for winning Best Supporting Actor, but Ruffalo in “Poor Things” was Best Supporting Actor.
- Jimmy Kimmel is a very solid host: I understand if he’s not your cup of tea, but he’s always good for a few moments.
- Bravo to the publicists! They had a big night after Da’Vine Joy Randolph won Best Supporting Actress for her incredible role in “The Holdovers” and shouted out to her publicist.
And above all, Nicolas Cage was present during the presentation of the best actor. He is still the king of everything.
Bouncing passes
Tony Jones says Nikola Jokic East the MVP by a wide margin.
Is it necessary that Bulls choose between Zach LaVine and Coby White?
THE kings to have had a Jekyll-and-Hyde season so far.
Screenplay (all times Eastern)
- Main screen: Warriors–Spurs (8 p.m. NBA TV). Sure, this game is missing Wemby and Curry, but the Warriors desperately need revenge from last game.
- Second screen: Mavs-Bulls (8 p.m.). Doncic is on fire. DeMar DeRozan there were also flames. Watch these guys fight.
- League Pass Game of the Night: Suns-Cavs (7:30 p.m.). The Cavs are missing a few starters, but they need this victory to become the No. 2 seed again. Full program here.
(Top photo: Stephen Maturen / Getty Images )
