2023/24 NBA REGULAR SEASON THREAD "THANKING FOR WEMBANYAMA"

just flipped to the last 6 seconds of jazz-bulls because it was a 1 point game and john collins and a bulls assistant coach started a brawl, nice

which was probably the 100th percentile outcome of deciding to turn on jazz bulls

dame took the one legged 3pt floater (miss)

Bucks playing defense like they're trying to throw the game

offense is clicking though

TJD > giannis

if draymond is hitting back to back threes it might not be your night

looks like shai pulled his hammy

maybe just a stinger actually

TJD > giannis

TJD BLOCKS GIANNIS TWICE THEN THROWS DOWN THE LOB 🤯 pic.twitter.com/C0Zlgve40y

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 7, 2024

The Orlando Magic are 37-26, 4th in the East, and 13-3 over their past 16 games with one of the 5 easiest remaining schedules.

They have the NBA's 5th-youngest roster. Their 3 best players are 21, 22 and 22.

— Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) March 7, 2024

magic and heat storming up the east standings injured knicks and sixers plummeting

big game tonight game of the year the nba championship game celtics vs nuggets in denver colorado

both teams coming off close losses after having nice winning streaks

KAT injured :(

dang rip wolves that sucks

Just in: Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns has been diagnosed with a torn meniscus in his left knee and is out indefinitely, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. pic.twitter.com/JlPe73PnN9

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 7, 2024

maybe its one of those minor ones you can get worked on and comeback in not that long, tho theres not that much season left

fuuuuuuck

why cant we have nice things

sorry, ums, I know the feeling :(

bad year for meniscuses

breaking tonights game has been moved

https://i.imgur.com/Ab9cUVe.png

damn that’s rough re: KAT

hoping its the good kind of meniscus injury

can't necessarily say this is bad for the wolves... it's the removal of an important variable and we'll see how the calculation plays out now. i'd lean towards it being bad esp for the regular season because they may get to squeezing blood from a stone territory on offense, it's just a lot of pressure on ant now to get a good shot on basically every possession. on the other hand, they do have naz reid & the hit to their depth will matter less in the playoffs if the absence stretches out that long, and we've seen KAT's play in the postseason and we can't exactly say that the removal of *that* is an unambiguously bad thing, at least based on what we've seen.

also think this year especially feels like one where match ups matter a lot more than seeding. like if you look at the west standings now, the wolves may be in danger of dropping down to the 4 seed. but that would mean playing new orleans in round 1 as opposed to, potentially, the suns, mavs, dubs or lakers. your second round match up is still the same, you just lose home court. maybe i'm overrating the danger of seeing one of those latter 4 teams, new orleans may be better. and home court does matter, esp prob for an inexperienced team like the t wolves. we'll see how it shakes out

for whatever reason New Orleans has been a bad matchup for us this year

interesting, duly noted

we split 2/2 but the two wins the Pelicans were really shorthanded, iirc Zion and CJ didn't play in either game we won, I think Valencunis was out for at least one, and they were wins that looks a lot better in the box score than if you actually watched

Suns fourth quarters are something else.

Worst quarters by teams with winning records since 1996-97 (as far back as https://t.co/m3A3JkEOxE has data): pic.twitter.com/Wa7FxDsuQ9

— Nate Duncan (@NateDuncanNBA) March 7, 2024

for whatever reason New Orleans has been a bad matchup for us this year

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, March 7, 2024 12:28 PM (fifty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

its cause zion loves rudy

oh right i forgot about zion going crazy in those games lol

upon reflection were need wolves-pelicans first round

so many good matchup possibilities in the first round

For reference, in 2018 then Timberwolf Jimmy Butler had surgery on a partially torn meniscus in late February with 19 games left and was back to play the final 3 games of the season. This comes with the caveat that every injury is different. These Wolves have 20 games left.

— Chris Hine (@ChristopherHine) March 7, 2024

As a Thunder fan, it's quite plausible that we could finish #1 after the regular season and then get swept by the Lakers (bad matchup) in the first round.

nah

lakers might get a couple games but history is on your side

im a very big heat fan tonight #HeatCulture

the creed we live by

https://i.imgur.com/cKJIvY9.png

buying a culture jersey if they win

everyones pumped for the big game

A lot of Celtics front office personnel in the house for shoot around here in Denver including Brad Stevens and Jeff Van Gundy

— Brian Robb (@BrianTRobb) March 7, 2024

is jaylen playing tonight

one interesting thing about their last game, in boston which denver won by two, was the celtics mostly played their normal regular season rotation with zinger guarding joker while denver went with more of a playoff pattern with gordon at backup center and starters playing big mins, wonder if the c's will break out some fancier stuff this time around, like you gotta think if they met in the finals theyd be starting two bigs with horf on joker and maybe tillman would get a shot at him too, zinger is an obvious non starter (ha) there, hes just not close to strong enough to tussle with joker

idk first im hearing about it would be too bad if he didnt xp

Jaylen Brown said at shootaround he isn't sure about the origin of his back injury that has him questionable for tonight's game. He says he will see how it feels pregame before making a decision on playing.

— Brian Robb (@BrianTRobb) March 7, 2024

maybe he injured it shooting too many threes haha

You can't base a strategy around a players overall 3PT % (which are largely contested 3s) and expect the same result when the shots are wide open. https://t.co/8LVymPkUYr

— Haralabos Voulgaris (@haralabob) March 5, 2024

Jaylen Brown has made over 40% of his uncontested 3s over the last 3 seasons. https://t.co/y6L4H2SebI

— Kirk Goldsberry (@kirkgoldsberry) March 5, 2024

yikes at the offensive on/off for kat :(

- The Wolves offense with KAT on the floor is 118.8 (equivalent of No. 7 Denver) and 111.1 with him off the floor this season (equivalent of No. 25 Washington)

- The Wolves defense with KAT on the floor is 109.7 (still better than No. 2 Boston's 111.4) and 105.3 with him off the floor this season (Wolves No. 1 D is 108.3 overall)

yeah they just dont have enough firepower without him, theyre currently the 18th ranked offense via dunks and threes, subtract the number 2 option and its not great

not that any team has a great chance without their second option