Last week, the Charlotte Hornets had quite the week. It began out nice but then turned out to be the complete opposite. They also dealt Terry Rozier, with the trade deadline approaching and the team nothing near competitive right now.
They were not the only team in the NBA playing basketball or making headlines. Let’s see what else has been going on.
MIAMI HEAT ARE IN A TAILSPIN RIGHT NOW
Terry Rozier must have had a fleeting notion in the back of his mind about whether he is the problem. The Heat has won all three games in which Rozier has appeared, including blowout losses to the Celtics and Knicks. To be fair, they lost three games in a row prior to Rozier’s entrance, so it’s not like their awful play coincided with Rozier’s addition to the roster. However, leaving a sinking ship like the Hornets to land on a Heat squad that has been taking on water must be tough. They’ll most likely turn it around soon, but it’s still fascinating to observe.
NBA players are dropping incredible point totals.
We saw Karl-Anthony Towns shoot 62 on the Hornets, lose the game, and not even have the top scoring night in the NBA that night because Joel Embiid shot 70 against the Spurs. such wasn’t the only time such sequence of events occurred that week. Devin Booker performed his best KAT impression on Friday, scoring 62 points, yet losing the game and not having the night’s highest scoring effort. That award went to Luka Doncic, who scored 73 points against the team that officially drafted him and traded him on draft night. It just took him 33 shots to get 73 points.
Imagine scoring 70 points but not having the finest scoring night of the week. Wow, what a week. It has also sparked some debate on the Internet, with some questioning whether a rare occurrence should be addressed. Well done, Internet.
Teams at both ends of the Eastern Conference are getting new coaches.
The Milwaukee Bucks fired Mike Budenholzer past offseason, allegedly due to the team’s poor postseason performance. He was succeeded by Adrian Griffin, who was almost immediately scrutinized. They invited Doc Rivers to be a “consultant” in December, then dismissed Griffin the following month to make Rivers the team’s next head coach. And if there was ever a player who could turn around a team’s postseason struggles, it was Doc Rivers. You know, the guy who has led four teams to blow 3-1 series leads in the playoffs, as well as a couple of 3-2 series leads. Surely, this will benefit Milwaukee.
On the other end of the Eastern Conference standings, the Wizards kindly asked Wes Unseld Jr. to step down as head coach and instead take on a front-office job. Brian Keefe, the team’s assistant coach, will take over for the remainder of the season. There may be a lesson for the Hornets in there.
WE HAVE ALL STARTERS.
The NBA announced the starters for the next All-Star Game, which will return to the original East vs. West format.
The Eastern Conference
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Joel Embiid.
Jayson Tatum
Tyrese Haliburton.
Damian Lillard
The Western Conference
LeBron James
Kevin Durant
Nikola Jokic
Luka Doncic,
Shai Gilgeous Alexander
Adam Silver will be around for a long time.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski, Adam Silver is close to signing a contract with the NBA that will keep him as commissioner until the end of the decade. I don’t think there will be any complaints about this because Silver appears to be the only professional sports league commissioner who is liked by owners, players, and fans. Woj also states in his report that expansion is on the agenda for the next phase of his contract. The NBA appears to be expanding to 32 teams.
