Basketball Monk

Game 1 is complete. 131–80. Two teams with very different trajectories. OKC is on a mission. Memphis is looking for their passports and their tickets to Cancun. A 51-point win. Largest margin of victory in Game 1 playoff in league history. Yowzers.

SGA had a very low output game and was a +28 for the game. What?!

Memphis shot 34% from the field and 18% percent from three. No player scored more than 17 points.

That’s not going to win you many professional basketball games.

Memphis played two days ago, and two days before that. OKC was rested. Their last game was 7 days ago. Was it Memphis’s fatigue or OKC’s relentlessness? Either way, tough to see this going more than 5 games. My pick was OKC in a sweep. Game 2 is Tuesday night.

Luka Dončić for Anthony Davis.

A person who is actively collecting an annual salary of seven figures, has been around the game for more than a decade, and is tasked with leading the basketball operations of a professional basketball team, thought, no, they knew that trading Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis was a good basketball decision.

Customarily I would follow with something like, “Let’s let that sink in for a moment.” It’s been two weeks and “it” still has not sunk in, for anyone. Check r/NBA, check r/DallasMavericks, check ESPN, check B/R, listen to all the Pods, everyone, and I mean everyone remains dumbfounded. But not the Mavs brass apparently.