Dwight Howard likes to be noticed.
So while he sits on the sidelines for the next month recovering from a knee injury, we can expect a series of… interesting suits. Let’s go with interesting. I will admit that I couldn’t begin to pull that kind of suit off, so more power to him. But man…
Is it just me, or does that look like some corporate logo just repeated in a pattern over and over?
It might go down as the shot of the playoffs. The Denver Nuggets had battled back from 16 points down to take the lead behind a brilliant performance from Nikola Jokic, who had the team’s final 11 points. Throw in a Jamal Murray block and the Nuggets were up one with 2.1 seconds left.
Then Anthony Davis happened.
The Lakers won the game (going up 2-0 in the series) and the NBA world took to Twitter to react — including a lot of NBA players.
And he’s not lying 🤷🏽♂️… “like that”
— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) September 21, 2020
@AntDavis23 just shut us all up. Wow! That was Big. He is playing like the future MVP of this league
— DWade (@DwyaneWade) September 21, 2020
Wow!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/KMuYyZu1ip
— Donovan Mitchell (@spidadmitchell) September 21, 2020
He’s like that🤯💯
— Trae Young (@TheTraeYoung) September 21, 2020
Lakers in 3
— Kevin Love (@kevinlove) September 21, 2020
OH MY GOD
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) September 21, 2020
Dude a cheat code!
— elfrid payton (@elfrid) September 21, 2020
Sheesh AD . That’s tough
— CJ McCollum (@CJMcCollum) September 21, 2020
AD should have Gotten more love in #MVP conversation. “He’s Special.”#Lakers
— Caron Butler (@realtuffjuice) September 21, 2020
😳 wow @AntDavis23
— Tristan Thompson (@RealTristan13) September 21, 2020
That's the series..
— 🏁 Jamal Crawford (@JCrossover) September 21, 2020
And there were four.
The NBA is down to the conference finals — and the bubble has provided us with upsets galore. There are some unexpected teams in the NBA’s Final Four, but of course LeBron James is still there. The Lakers are the heavy favorites at this point.
Here are a few notes on the NBA playoffs schedule 2020:
• The NBA is continuing to push the pace with games every other day — except in the East, when ESPN wants a break not to clash with the NFL, and to let the West catch up. The fast pace of games will return with the NBA Finals.
• Families for the players, and with the final four now the coaches, are in the bubble.
• The NBA has released an NBA Finals schedule to teams and their target is still a Sept. 30 Game 1. If either conference finals goes seven games that date will need to be pushed back.
Here is the NBA playoffs schedule 2020 (all times are Eastern):
Game 1: Heat 117, Celtics 114, OT
Game 2: Heat 106, Celtics 101
Game 3: Celtics 117, Heat 106 (Miami leads series 2-1)
Game 4: Sept. 23, 8:30 p.m. (ESPN)
Game 5: Sept. 25, 8:30 p.m. (ESPN)*
Game 6: Sept. 27, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)*
Game 7: TBD (ESPN)*
*If necessary
Game 1: Lakers 126, Nuggets 114
Game 2: Lakers 105, Nuggets 103 (Lakers lead series 2-0)
Game 3: Sept. 22, 9 p.m. (TNT)
Game 4: Sept. 24, 9 p.m. (TNT)
Game 5: Sept. 26, 9 p.m. (TNT)*
Game 6: Sept. 28, TBD (TNT)*
Game 7: Sept. 30, TBD (TNT)*
*If necessary
Eastern Conference
No. 3 Boston beat No. 2 Toronto 4-3
No. 5 Miami beat No. 1 Milwaukee 4-1
Western Conference
No. 1 Los Angeles Lakers beat Houston 4-1
No. 3 Denver beat No. 2 Los Angeles Clippers 4-3
No. 1 Los Angeles Lakers beat No. 8 Portland 4-1
No. 2 L.A. Clippers beat No. 7 Dallas 4-2
No. 3 Denver beat No. 6 Utah 4-3
No. 4 Houston beat No. 5 Oklahoma City 4-3
No. 1 Milwaukee beat No. 8 Orlando 4-1
No. 2 Toronto beat No. 7 Brooklyn 4-0
No. 3 Boston beat No. 6 Philadelphia 4-0
No. 5 Miami beat No. 4 Indiana 4-0
It looked like Nikola Jokic, the All-NBA Second Team center, was going to be the star of the game — he scored Denver’s last 11 points and had them up with 2.7 seconds to go.
Then Anthony Davis — the All-NBA First Team center — drained this game-winner, a three over Jokic at the buzzer to win the game.
AD WINS IT AT THE BUZZER 🚨 pic.twitter.com/pcAe63xESj
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) September 21, 2020
This is why the Lakers got Anthony Davis (and gave up a lot to get him).
That shot gave the Lakers the 105-103 win to put them up 2-0 in the series. Game 3 is Tuesday night.
Davis carried the Lakers at the end of the game, hitting a couple of clutch threes, and finished with 31 points and nine rebounds. He has been the best Laker in this series, with 68 points and 19 rebounds through two games.
For the Lakers, it was a dramatic win in a game where they were sloppy with 23 turnovers, and where their defense came apart for stretches of the game. Good teams win ugly games, that’s how the Lakers have to view it.
Denver supporters may want to spin this as “look how much better we played” — and they did, slowing the pace down (97 possessions, via NBA.com) and getting inside more, taking advantage of switches — but the reality is the Lakers are only going to have bad outings once or twice a series and the Nuggets needed to take advantage. They didn’t, and this loss stings.
“This is the Western Conference Finals. No moral victories, no silver linings,” Nuggets coach Mike Malone said postgame.
Davis’ good look to win the game came on the kind of defensive breakdown Denver has at times that other teams have not exploited these playoffs. Mason Plumlee was inserted for his size and defense, and he was on Davis, who simply runs across the top of the arc. Plumlee doesn’t stick with him, instead running over by LeBron James, who is just hanging out at the elbow (but Denver fears), and acts like there should be a switch. Torrey Craig can’t switch, if he does that LeBron has a free lane to the rim and an easy two. If it was an X-out style switch then Plumlee needed to trail Davis all the way to Jokic, he didn’t, leaving Jokic a ridiculously long closeout. Jokic read the play and got there to contest, but Davis had gotten a clean look.
Jokic had 30 points and nine rebounds for Denver, taking over the game when it mattered most and looking like an elite playoff performer. Jamal Murray had 25 points on 8-of-19 shooting and (as The Athletic’s John Hollinger noted on Twitter) was +16 in 44:14 minutes, meaning Denver was -18 in the 3:46 he was on the bench getting some rest. Denver got 15 points from Michael Porter Jr. and good minutes out of P.J. Dozier (although his five missed free throws in six attempts came back to bite the team).
Los Angeles got 26 points and 11 boards from LeBron and 11 points each from Danny Green and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
The Lakers came out flat in this game except for LeBron, who had the team’s first 12 points. It looked like a close game until the Lakers went on an 18-3 run in the second quarter, with 8-0 of that coming with LeBron on the bench. The highlight of that was an Alex Caruso dunk that had the Lakers bench up and yelling.
Bron is here for THE CARUSHOW 😤 pic.twitter.com/957MOVRJsV
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) September 21, 2020
Los Angeles stretched the lead out to as many as 16, but the Nuggets never quit.
Anthony Davis had to shut the door on them.
Alex Caruso has sneaky hops. Fans relate to him because he doesn’t look like an NBA player — he doesn’t really give off the vibe of one when you see him hanging out in the Lakers’ locker room either — but watch him on the court and he is more athletic than people realize. Alex Caruso can sky and throw down a dunk.
Bron is here for THE CARUSHOW 😤 pic.twitter.com/957MOVRJsV
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) September 21, 2020
The best part of this? The reaction of LeBron James and the Lakers bench.
The Alex Caruso dunk was part of an 8-0 Laker run right as LeBron went to get some rest. Denver had done a good job early being right with the Lakers by controlling the pace and limiting the Lakers in transition. That fell apart in the second quarter, fueled by Denver’s seven second-quarter turnovers (13 for the half), which allowed the Lakers to get out and run.
And Caruso to dunk, firing up the team.