The Celtics didn’t have Jayson Tatum on Wednesday due to an ankle injury. It didn’t matter, as they blew out the Suns, 132-102, for their seventh straight victory.
Boston is rounding into playoff form at just the right time. The Celtics have won 14 of their last 15 road games with their only loss coming against the Pistons on Feb. 27.
Another encouraging sign, according to Brian Robb of MassLive.com, is that Jaylen Brown looks healthy, In his second game back after missing three with a knee injury, Brown had 24 points in 29 minutes.
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- The Sixers are desperately trying to retain a top-six selection so that they don’t have to forward their first-round pick to the Thunder. That made Wednesday’s 119-114 loss to the woeful Wizards a key one, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes. The Sixers have lost six straight and 23 of their last 27 games. They remain tied with the Nets for the league’s fifth-worst record with nine games remaining. Philadelphia has a home back-to-back against Miami and Toronto this weekend.
- While Sixers coach Nick Nurse believes Tyrese Maxey will play again this season, Pompey argues that there’s no reason to bring him back under the current circumstances. Maxey hasn’t played since March 3 due to back and finger injuries.
- The Knicks‘ point guard depth took another hit on Wednesday. Cameron Payne, who started with Jalen Brunson (ankle) and Miles McBride (groin) sidelined, rolled his ankle in the first half against the Clippers and did not return. Rookie Tyler Kolek played 19 scoreless minutes with seven assists but was exploited defensively, ESPN’s Chris Herring notes. “They kept coming at us with that high two-man game, and I’ve got to be better about defending that,” Kolek said.
- Mitchell Robinson is hopeful he can play in both ends of a back-to-back before the end of the regular season. He has not yet been cleared by the Knicks medical staff to play in back-to-back games. Robinson didn’t play in Tuesday’s win over Dallas, then logged 13 minutes against the Clippers. Robinson told SNY’s Ian Begley that he’ll “probably” be cleared soon.
The Sixers don’t exactly have a lot of choice in regards to “tanking” right now.
Meanwhile Ben Simmins lacing up for the playoffs…
If not for the Wizards, the Sixers would be the worst run NBA franchise in a past 15 years.
From the ignorant and colossally bad GM Sam Hinkie, to the even worse Colangelo fools and their burner account, to the ridiculously overrated Daryl Morey (who I am convinced knows nothing about basketball) they have tried every get rich quick scheme ever suggested and failed miserably in the process.
Meanwhile, the Celtics drafted players, developed players, paid their players, made insanely good trades and FA pick-ups to have a 2nd shot at a title.
Knicks took their draft capital and got some of the best young talent in the league to challenge for the east.
Bucks traded for Dame and developed their core of players.
Even the Pistons are doing better and are going to the playoffs.
Sixers need to fire Morey, get rid of Nurse and start new. Keep Maxey, McCain and Grimes…Trade everyone else and start over.
Yes, trade Embiid now. Get something for him in the off season.
Sixer fan, let me put it gently for you…You are never winning with Joel Embiid.
I am sorry, but its true. He is not a winner, he is just good at basketball.
“Bucks traded for Dame” was an awful move. And it is to be seen if the Knicks trades this summer made them any better. You somehow forgot to mention the Heat, whose front office is not precisely under suspicion and are currently going through misery. The Sixers made a bold move with George and it didn’t pan out. Plus Embiid didn’t recover from his last injury. Sometimes s**t happens. Now they got a really good rookie and Grimes was a really nice catch. So was Yabusele. It all comes to Embiid health, but next year the Sixers can still be a very good team.
Knicks are third best team in the East. With no bench. What’s to see. Year 5 of rebuild. Done deal.
wtf all my posts got deleted? Is it because I mentioned it’s been 52 years since the last Knicks title ?
You can count. Now try watching live ball.
The season is 82gms. Then the playoffs The draft Free Agency. Yet for you its about 4 games.
Sounds like ED to me.
You sound so salty I guess 52 years of failure will do that to you. You’re right there are 82 games in an NBA season so for the Knicks to not win a title in 52 years they must have lost lots of those games. Knicks have a decent squad this year but pump the brakes on the parades. They are the 3rd best team in the east and probably 6th best team in the NBA (thunder, cavs, Boston, Houston, Denver, Knicks)
You sound as ignorant as Davey J and his Butler for Greek freak takes
Well, last year they were the second best team in the East. Let’s see how far they get in the PO.
2nd in the inferior conference WOW
Morey acquired James Harden in his prime for Kevin Martin+. Morey has forgotten more about basketball than you even know. There’s a reason he’s running an NBA team while you’re commenting on an nba board.
Then you suggest the 76ers trade the 2nd best center in basketball. Maybe you should try football, it’s clear basketball isn’t your sport
Sizers should be fined a first round pick for this.
I believe the floodgates on tanking were irrevocably opened when San Antonio (the league’s favorite son) felt the need to publicly brag about how they secured Wemby through a multi-year tanking plan. Since then it seems teams are not only not hiding it, but advertising it. They want credit for it. Why not, Silver’s effectively blessed it, and its would certainly be problematic for Silver to dish out any real punishment to any other team at this point. Add in that there are now so many tanking teams that they’re a potential voting constituency, which Silver needs to placate.
The Un-Commissioner is thus limited to punishing definitive violations of his silly star participation requirement, which is only peripherally related to tanking, hard to prove and carries only slap on the wrist penalties in any event. Trying to characterize his attempts here as doing something about tanking is just another green light for teams to join the tankathon. With 30 teams and enough available talent for maybe 15-20 this will get worse before it gets better.
What team tanked and won though? How has it worked out for Philly? Even San Antonio with Wemby was below .500. Where is Dallas after tanking last year? How do jazz fans feel right now?
Seems like something that kind of takes care of itself. Lot of good teams to root for i don’t care how Philly spins their wheels they weren’t very good when they weren’t tanking anyway.
Few have won big, so far. But until recently only a few teams have engaged it, and mostly selectively. Nevertheless, SAS won 5 titles with Duncan (whom they secured in the first instance of obvious shameless tanking) and OKC came close with Durant, RW and Harden.
DAL tanked two seasons ago for all of 3 games, and they got Lively (plus another 1st) out it, and made the Finals last season. I’m a NYK fan, but have very little problem with what DAL did, because it was 3 games, it’s not like they embarrassed the league and the sport with years of dumbing down their roster for draft position.
The bigger issue is tanking ain’t what it was. It’s exploded in recent years. It’s no long a team here or there for a year or two, it’s a third of the league, with some intending 5+ years of contributing nothing (other than deliberate losing) to the league’s content. Obviously, none of these teams are declining their full share of the league’s TV revenue. Their punishment for gaming the league and embarrassing the sport has been to be given a near exclusive on the picks at the top of the draft, which is where you find most of the precious little impact talent that enters the NBA each year. You know something’s a good deal when it garners more and more customers each year. Tanking is now a growth industry.
Growth of what? A lottery pick is not a guarantee. And sure they get their league money but it can’t feell good when no one is showing up for games and buying hot dogs or beer.
It’s a competition. There will be winners and losers. Nobody wants perfect parity anyway. People want david and Goliath. It makes for a better story which is why people watch to begin with.
He’s right about the spurs. They tanked at the end of David Robinson’s career for Tim Duncan
Great. You found one example from 25 years ago lol
The village troll is talking to me. 🤮
@Lil – Growth in that more and more teams are tanking. A lottery pick is not a guarantee, but 6 straight (like San Antonio is going for) is pretty close. In the end, the problem is not about the tankers doing great or not, but the non-tankers being (essentially) shut out of the next generation of elite talent (all in favor of teams embarrassing the sport). It should be competition to WIN, not lose. I don’t see how evenly distributing among 30 teams the young talent entering the league creates David and Goliath, unless it’s on the merits, and in that even there will be plenty of Goliath v Goliath matchups, the ones that make the sport.
I get what you are saying but I don’t buy it. How can more teams be tanking? There’s only 30 teams. And the play in tournament incentivizes teams to compete for those spots, so a team like the bulls has more to play for at this point in the season.
And drafting players is not the only way to build a roster. Lakers didn’t tank and they just got freaking Luka. If anything these small market teams should focus on building a winning culture and attracting talent. Look at Washington. How many years have they tanked now? Are they any closer to a title?
What you are saying makes some sense in theory but in practice I’m not seeing it.
As of now Sixers are sixth worst. To make sure they finish worst 6. They should be shooting for 4th. With their luck. The Ping pongs will push them to 7th. I just don’t get how Morey has a job.
I was telling on here Kolek is not ready defensively. Thibs needs to help him. He is a D genius, right. Hart can play some PG. Team is too lackadaisical. No sense of urgency. Not a fan of KAT demeanor. Need to see real leadership. Get pissed off to win. Not at refs or shots not falling. Knicks need everyone without Brunson. I always think about Jimmy B when I see Towns like this. Freak the stats. We need Ws. ………
TJ TJ TJ TJ TJ …….. where is TJ.