A trial trip for Sacramento and coach Luke Walton has been marred by injuries, late arrivals for players recovering from the coronavirus and Richaun Holmes’s was ordered back to quarantine for an additional 10 days after being outside a campus outside the Yacht Club ran without permission meet a driver for food delivery. Winning is, of course, the best antidote: While the Kings started 1-4 and were eliminated before ending their game Sunday against Houston, San Antonio opened on a surprising 4-2 despite playing without three injured starters, including the seven-time All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge. The Spurs’ win over New Orleans Sunday eliminated the Pelicans from the playoffs and essentially ended their award-winning rookie Zion Williamson’s first pro season.
“We can not worry about our setup,” said Rudy Gay of the Spurs. “We are here, we decided to come and we will fight, no matter where we stay.”
A screw is required, as there’s a strong chance that just one of the “Yacht Club Six,” all but Phoenix were scheduled to play Sunday, will advance to the new NBA playoff round . The format requires a maximum of four additional play-in games, but only if the West or East Node Seed now ends its regular season on Friday within four No 8 Seed games.
Washington was the only nonplayoff team from the East invited to restart the NBA, but the Wizards were quickly relegated from playoff consideration to a 0-5 start (before losing again to Oklahoma City on Sunday) without their top three players: Bradley Beal, John Wall and Davis Bertans. In the West, Memphis’ 0-4 completed the bubble shortly after, hoping that two Yacht Club teams could advance to the play-offs – but it now seems likely that the eight-seeded Grizzlies, whose loss to Sunday in Toronto in game guaranteed -in round in the West, the whole side will slide to 10.
Yet, even if the worst is over for the Grizzlies and they have overcome the injuries suffered by Jaren Jackson Jr. (knee) and Justise Winslow (hip) to hang on to the eighth seed, this race to not move Memphis has been widely accused as the most exciting aspect of Bubble Ball to date. That’s mostly because of the Suns’ unforeseen 5-0 start and the potential flashed by the 4-2 Trail Blazers, as well as the corresponding misery that the disappointing (and soon to leave) Pelicans and Kings.
Damian Lillard’s 11 3-pointers in a win over Denver on Thursday improved the Blazers’ growing reputation as a possible first-round opponent to place the Lakers, who have the West No. 1 seed , and, like other top teams, have prioritized rest for their stars as much as rhythm as they approach the playoffs. Lillard followed that outburst in problematic fashion, with two late missed free throws in a devastating loss to the Kawhi Leonard-less Clippers, then reconciled with 51 points Sunday in a must-win game against short-handed Philadelphia.
Just this first-of-its-kind opportunity, with the frontcourt duo of Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins back from injury, is the reason the Blazers’ CJ McCollum insisted he would not ignore the alleged inferiority of the Yacht Club complained in comparison to the Gran Destino and Grand Floridian.
