Highlights

Breakfast Special: The Raptors Missed the Surrender Memo

- by Fox Doucette

After a 120-102 Toronto win in a game that the Milwaukee Bucks did not play particularly poorly in, and after the Eastern Conference Finals got evened at two games apiece, and after we all collectively realized that the Bucks don’t have nearly the kind of playoff experience you need to show out and dominate at this level quite yet—not to say they’re going to lose the series, only that they look like they’re “a year away”—we have got ourselves a series. Granted, it’s a series where the home team has so far won all four games, but when the Raptors …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: Another Portland Four-Game Exit

- by Fox Doucette

The Portland Trail Blazers have been swept out of another NBA playoff series, although this time you have to give them credit for facing their demise in the Western Conference Finals rather than the first or second round. And speaking of sweeps, how about Rodney Hood getting swept out of the playoffs three times in three years on three different teams, all at the hands of the Golden State Warriors? Bonus points to Portland for blowing double-digit leads in all four games, including three in a row where they led by at least 15 and still lost. Golden State made …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: Scott Foster’s Rigged Game 3 Adventure

- by Fox Doucette

I risk sounding like yet another angry NBA casual when I complain about the officiating, but even in double overtime, 60 fouls, Kyle Lowry, Norman Powell, and Giannis Antetokounmpo all watching Game of Thrones on their tablets while their teammates play a basketball game that completely screwed up the East Coast’s HBO viewing (even the second most-popular sports league in America knew better than to try and mess with the biggest TV finale since Seinfeld)… …well, let’s just say Scott Foster should never, ever be allowed to officiate a playoff game again, because the only thing more puzzling than the …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: Damian Lillard on a Milk Carton

- by Fox Doucette

Damian Lillard‘s production has fallen off a cliff ever since he tried to choke away the second round of the playoffs for the Portland Trail Blazers more or less by himself in Game 7 of the Denver Nuggets series. He was 3-of-17 in that game, and in the first three games of the Western Conference Finals against the Golden State Warriors, he has shot 4-of-12, 6-of-16, and 5-of-18, a grand total of 15-of-46 (32.6 percent.) At least he was plus-8 in the Nuggets game, as CJ McCollum bailed him out. In this series, Lillard is a combined minus-42 even as …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: Massive Milwaukee Mismatch

- by Fox Doucette

The Milwaukee Bucks played like absolute garbage in Game 1 and beat the Toronto Raptors anyway. The Bucks played more like the team that won 60 games in the regular season in Game 2 and stomped the Raptors 125-103. People sometimes forget that this Bucks team was tops in the entire league in Defensive Rating in the regular season, and with the exception of Kawhi Leonard, who had 31 points on 10-of-18 shooting, the Raptors could not solve the Bucks’ defense. Raptors not named Kawhi shot 27-of-69 (39.1 percent) and the squad shot just 42.5 percent overall. Milwaukee, during the …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: Ig-Whoa-Dala

- by Fox Doucette

Andre Iguodala just pulled off the most clutch defensive play in the NBA playoffs since…I dunno, 2016 and “The Block”? Sure, Iguodala’s game-sealing steal from Damian Lillard to seal the Golden State Warriors’ 114-111 win over the Portland Trail Blazers and put them up 2-0 in the Western Conference Finals didn’t have nearly the stakes of LeBron James‘ classic defensive play in Game 7 of a Finals that was the greatest moment in Cleveland sports history, but it still made the difference between a series that isn’t expected to be competitive going chalk and “could the Blazers win this thing” …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: Kyle Lowry’s Fourth-Quarter Heroics

- by Fox Doucette

How about Kyle Lowry in Game 1 of the Bucks-Raptors Eastern Conference Finals? The veteran put the team on his back and scored all of Toronto’s field goals in the fourth quarter of an ultimately futile but valiantly fought 108-100 loss. Yep, all of Toronto’s field goals. All five of them. The Raptors were up seven heading into the fourth, but Milwaukee outscored them 32-17 in the final frame, Lowry shooting 5-of-7 and his teammates shooting 0-of-15. Pascal Siakam did, however, hit a sweet buzzer beater to end the third quarter and at the very least put a nice final …

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Editorial

Is Zion Williamson Already Better Than LeBron James?

- by Fox Doucette

Tuesday morning, an interesting question came over the wire on Twitter. Who is the BEST FORWARD currently in the NBA that Zion will instantly be better than once he gets drafted. — Justin Grant (@ThePackageJG) May 14, 2019 “Who’s the best forward that Zion Williamson will already be better than when he gets drafted?” And I thought about it for a minute. Because Zion is, of course, so obvious a lock for Rookie of the Year that they might as well just engrave the trophy now and hope he doesn’t blow out his ACL like Blake Griffin. And then I …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: Curry Sibling “Rivalry”

- by Fox Doucette

When I was a kid, to call what my brother and I had “sibling rivalry” was to give it more credit than it deserved. It was more like he was the Pittsburgh Steelers and I was the Cleveland Browns. He was a high-achiever. I was the kid with the grades like the bra cup sizes on “Baywatch” and the drug problem. Which brings us to the following: 12-of-23 from the field, 9-of-15 from three, 36 points for Stephen Curry, 1-of-7 from the field, 1-of-4 from three, three points for Seth Curry. The Golden State Warriors beat the Portland Trail Blazers …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: Kawhi Leonard’s Driveway Heroics

- by Fox Doucette

Every kid who has ever picked up a basketball has, in the driveway, counted down “3! 2! 1!” then launched a shot that beats the buzzer, leading the kid to yell “And the Celtics win the championship!” or whatever other team the kid’s growing up rooting for. But until Sunday, there had never been an actual Game 7 walk-off buzzer-beater to close out a series in NBA history. The only time it ever happened in a winner-take-all game—Michael Jordan‘s “The Shot” over Craig Ehlo in the first round in 1989—that was Game 5 of a best-of-five series. Every other example …

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