Bucks erase 26-point deficit
In a game which featured the narrative of Damian Lillard’s first game against his former team, where he spent the first ten years of his career, the Milwaukee Bucks didn’t come into the matchup with their full forces. Khris Middleton’s absence due to an achilles injury meant that rookie Andre Jackson Jr, would earn his third career start. Jackson was drafted early in the second round of this year’s NBA Draft, and has made quite a good impression upon head coach Adrian Griffin, though it isn’t reflected in the box scores, the rookie has been getting solid minutes through the first few games of the season.
The game didn’t start great for the Bucks, conceding a five-point lead at the end of the opening 12 minutes, with the team’s star guard struggling to get the ball in the basket. The second quarter was even worse for the 2021 Champions, as now their former MVP was the one having difficulties offensively, while everything seemed to fall for the Portland Trail Blazers.
As the Milwaukee Bucks returned to the court in the second half, the lead was shortly extended to 26 points, favoring the Blazers. That moment officially marked the beginning of the turning point for the Bucks, as they started to steadily reduce the lead halfway through the quarter. Right at the final moments of the game, following a monstrous fourth quarter from both Milwaukee stars, who scored 20 of the team’s 33 points in the final 12 minutes, the comeback was finally completed with a tip-in from Antetokounmpo with 20 seconds left on the game clock.
The final score ended up 108-104 for the Bucks, as the Blazers fell to a 4-12 record on the season, despite a brilliant first half effort from Jerami Grant, Malcolm Brogdon and the rookie Scoot Henderson, who were in double-digit scoring at the half.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Watch the <a href=”https://twitter.com/Bucks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@Bucks</a> erase a 26 POINT second-half deficit in one of the WILDEST comebacks of the season 🤯<br><br>Giannis: 33 PTS, 16 REB, 6 AST<br>Dame: 31 PTS, 5 REB, 4 AST <a href=”https://t.co/4CiGu0eCBD”>pic.twitter.com/4CiGu0eCBD</a></p>— NBA (@NBA) <a href=”https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1728923825365213544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>November 26, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
Are the Orlando Magic legit?
We briefly mentioned the Orlando Magic’s amazing start to the season in last week’s storylines article, but this week they deserve a lot more praise. Through 17 games, the Magic have a 12-5 record on the season, which gives them the second seed in the Eastern Conference, just behind the leaders (that will be mentioned right after), the Boston Celtics, whom they beat during their last In-Season Tournament game, in an impressive fashion, showcasing everything that’s exciting about this roster in Orlando.
They currently rank as the second-best defense in the NBA, but only a very small margin behind the Minnesota Timberwolves, so we can expect this ranking to change over the next couple of days between the two teams. This new defensive scheme is quite unorthodox if you take a deeper look into it, as they don’t have any notorious one-on-one defenders, though Jalen Suggs is strongly shaping up to become one over the coming years of his career, and Jonathan Isaac is still looking for a solid role after missing so many games during the last few seasons.
However, what they have is a very lengthy group of players, which allows them to be near the top rankings in opponent turnover rate, opponent field goal percentage and defensive rebounding, while also being one of the best teams at contesting shots and preventing other teams from taking shots.
We could go on and on about the Magic’s historical defense, but some people claim that defense doesn’t win games, and so far this season, the Orlando franchise is proving everyone wrong, even with the 11th worst offense in the entire league. Can they keep this impressive form for the remaining 65 games of the season?
Boston and Minnesota on top
As things stand, both the Boston Celtics and the Minnesota Timberwolves occupy the top spot of their respective conferences, both with an advantage of one singular win from the second place. The Celtics have been in that same position since the very first game of the year, as they were the last team to suffer their first loss, and then just kept on building their advantage from there.
Things are more interesting regarding the Timberwolves, as they had a very bad beginning to the year, losing two of their first three games, both of those losses coming in an embarrassing manner. They’ve picked up since then and only lost twice since those two humbling defeats, leading the league in defensive rating, as previously mentioned, and having an above average offense to go along with it.
Basketball Reference now indicates a 60.6% chance for the Boston Celtics to lock-in a playoff spot, while the Wolves’ likeliness is a little bit lower at 57.8%. Though the Celtics are already a proven team that’s had successive successful playoff campaigns, the Timberwolves are slowly gaining their reputation around the league, but they still have a lot to prove against the top teams in each conference.
Big streak in Detroit
Things haven’t been easy for the Pistons so far this season, as they’re taking their time adjusting to the managerial change, bringing in elite coach Monty Williams, as well as still developing their very bright young core, it’s clear to see that winning isn’t their top priority at the moment.
During Monday’s matchup against the Washington Wizards, the Eastern Conference’s two bottom teams, one group was bound to attain their third win of the season. Despite a valiant effort from guard Cade Cunningham, who contributed 26 points, seven assists and five rebounds, Kyle Kuzma managed to lead the Wizards to victory with his near triple-double of 32 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists.
This loss was the 14th consecutive for the Pistons, who haven’t managed to win since their third game of the season, against the Chicago Bulls. Since then, things really haven’t been pretty in Detroit, besides the exciting young talent in Cunningham, Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson, who have been the only positive aspects of this Pistons roster so far in the season.
What’s happening in Los Angeles?
Just last night, the Los Angeles Lakers got completely blown out by the Philadelphia 76ers, with a 44-point deficit. This was LeBron James’ biggest loss of his long career, as he just recently broke the record for most minutes played in NBA history. The game (and week) was an overall nightmare for the Lakers, as they won only one of their three games, falling to the eighth seed of the conference.
However, the Lakers aren’t the only team struggling in Los Angeles, with the Clippers having their fair share of problems as well. In that same night as the Lakers’ loss, the Clippers got one of their own, as they faced off against the defending champions, the Denver Nuggets. Although they are one of the best teams in the league and this loss seems pretty justified, the Nuggets were missing their MVP, Nikola Jokić, and Jamal Murray, leaving former Clippers players Reggie Jackson and DeAndre Jordan to reincarnate that deadly Shaq and Kobe duo from the early 2000s Lakers dynasty, with the two combining for 56 points.
After the offseason, the Lakers looked to definitely be a contender, as they reinforced every aspect they were lacking during their conference finals trip during the season prior, but things have taken time to adjust, and though it’s still early to count them out of the championship talks, they have a lot of things to figure out.
For the Clippers, they took their time to incorporate James Harden into the lineup, and even with things getting a lot better since, there are still a lot of aspects they have to correct if they want to make noise during the post-season.