On Friday night, the Golden State Warriors became the first team to advance to the NBA Cup finals. Please contain your excitement. While the tournament, formerly known as the In-Season Tournament, received a lot of criticism, it actually added some legitimate glitz and atmosphere to the regular November NBA games. Courts are strange. A foul on Joe Mazzula extended the game and the Celtics looked to extend their lead. Anyone who hates soccer will have to begrudgingly understand the rules of a soccer tournament to see if their team has a chance to advance. Do you have it? Are some adjustments possible? of course. But overall, it is hard to say that this effort has not been successful.
That being said, Saturday was much more eventful than Friday night’s generally boring NBA Cup game. As you can see, some strange things have happened over the past few days, both good and bad. Let’s take a moment to understand your situation.
Here are the NBA winners and losers this weekend.
Professional athletes play at such a high level of intensity and competitiveness that it’s no surprise that emotions spill out from time to time. But what Fred VanVleet did in the Rockets’ loss to the Trail Blazers on Saturday night clearly crossed the line. Not only did VanVleet call all three umpires “b—-” on his way off the floor (coincidentally, it wasn’t that long ago that he heard Kelly Oubre Jr. do it). , placing his finger dangerously close to referee John Conley’s eyeball. Oh yeah, FVV has been ejected. Did I mention that?
our brad botkin We uncovered the reason behind VanVleet’s outburst.and the referee’s response. VanVleet was fined $50,000 by the league on Monday.
Winner: LaMelo’s right arm muscles
Say what you want about LaMelo Ball, but this guy can do some things. Ball had a big night Saturday night in the Hornets’ loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, scoring a career-high 50 points, including an outrageous 40 in the second half.
While 50 is a cool number, Ball has one more number to keep in mind. That’s 384.
That’s 40 more shots than second-place finisher Giannis Antetokounmpo, who also played in 16 games this season. For those of you who suck at math like me, that’s an average of 24 shots per game, with Ball hitting 38 of them and the NBA’s single-game total this season to earn 50 burgers on Saturday. (Reference) De’Aaron Fox scored 60 points on 35 shots last week).
The last time a player had 24 field goal attempts per game over a season was James Harden in 2018-19, when he averaged six more points than Ball on essentially the same number of shots (History Mania If so, I’ll point it out) With the 1947-1948 Chicago Stags, old Max Zaslovsky averaged just 21 points on 24 shots per game (yes, we know). Here are five recent NBA players who averaged at least 24 shot attempts per season.
NBA players average 24 shots per game
lamelo ball
2024-25
24.0
30.2
james harden
2018-19
24.5
36.1
russell westbrook
2016-17
24.0
31.6
kobe bryant
2005-06
27.2
35.4
Allen Iverson
2005-06
24.2
33.0
Ball is shooting 43 percent from the field this season, the eighth-worst mark in the league among players taking 15 or more shots per game, but it doesn’t look like he’s going to slow down anytime soon.
Get some ice for that right-hand man, young man. I’m in training.
Loser: Trevor Booker
Of course everyone is like that. squirt Nikola Jokic’s 3/4 court volleyball spikes “almost went in” (they didn’t). Kudos to this man for putting together something truly creative that should be impossible according to all known laws of physics.
It’s pretty cool. Now, let’s go back together to 2015. “Uptown Funk” was the No. 1 song on the charts, “Fast and Furious 7” made $350 million at the domestic box office, and the Utah Jazz came close to basketball at $0.20. Only a few seconds left on the shot clock. The Oklahoma City Thunder defenseman was just waiting for the ball to touch someone’s hand and a violation to be called. Trevor Booker had other ideas.
The journeyman forward, who finished playing eight seasons in the NBA, ran to his position, received the bounce pass, and seamlessly sent a two-handed flick over his head and into the net. The best part was that even though he later said, “I had never done it in a game or in practice,” he returned to his defense as if it was no big deal. can’t believe it.
So while Jokic’s attempt was great, Booker is the loser this weekend since no one seems to remember that Booker actually finished the job.
Winner: Self-promotion
I haven’t seen anyone named McCain campaign so hard since the 2008 presidential election (and I’ll be watching). 76ers first-year sensation Jared McCain took a short break Friday from his blowout of the Brooklyn Nets and declared to the crowd and the world, “I’m Rookie of the Year.” .
Who wore it better, McCain or Austin Reeves?
You have to love confidence. And for now, McCain is right. He leads all rookies with 16.6 points per game on very efficient shooting splits of 46/40/94. However, there is still a lot of season left. On Sunday, he scored 18 points, ending a seven-game 20-point streak. Oh, and in the game before he started that streak he scored…18 points. So why not say he scored at least 18 points in nine straight games? The streaks are alive, baby!
Zion is not a loser in a sense, but why doesn’t this loser come back from injury? He loses in this particular situation because he is in danger of missing a significant portion of next season and starting a frustrating career. Not close to returning Due to hamstring problems. When this player is healthy, he’s one of the most dynamic basketball players we’ve ever seen, but he’s only eclipsed the 60-game mark twice in six seasons, and the entire 2021-22 season. Including missed games, he has played fewer than 29 games three times. .
It looks like Williamson could be out until mid-December…which could mean Christmas…which could mean 2025. The Pelicans have been hit harder than any other team due to injuries this season (at one point they were injured) 7 top players absent And they recently signed Elfrid Payton off the scrap heap), but Williamson’s absence doesn’t just impact the franchise and Zion himself. It’s also painful for the fans who will once again miss out on his unique talent.
Winner: Weird NBA History
Blazers rookie Donovan Clingan had a great night Saturday, grabbing a career-high 19 rebounds in just 25 minutes. The story would have ended there if there hadn’t been another important person in one of the columns of the stat sheet. Clingan scored 0 points in the game. First player since 2012 Get at least 19 rebounds in a game without scoring.
The 7-foot-2 UConn product completely dominated the glass as a fill-in starter for Deandre Ayton and probably would have added to his board totals even more if not for some moderate foul trouble and a late knee injury. Probably. Is he the eighth player in history to accomplish this feat? Marcus Camby (twice) and Dennis Rodman (seven times!) are the only players to have done it more than once, but Clingan knows how to clean glass. , there is no doubt that there is a chance to join them with limited offensive power. At this stage of his career.
