Two games left in the NBAs regular season, and the Lakers are officially going to make the play-in tournament. If they win a game in the play-in, then they’ll make the playoffs. It’s all very confusing, strangely exciting, and oddly depressing. Almost every team (10 out of 15 in each conference) make the play-in, which creates a situation where either one of two things is happening:
1) You have extremely bad teams competing in between McDonalds and Ford commercials, who will surely lose as soon as they get to the playoffs.
2) Good teams don’t take the regular season seriously, rest their players all year, ruin children’s lives, and we all get giddy anyway when the real competition arrives in the playoffs because it’s hard not to be excited when great players finally care about playing basketball.
“Basketball and Feelings,” a new weekly Substack that explores what it’s like to be alive through the rim of NBA basketball, is back again.
Hope you enjoy this week’s medley on Damontis (sic) Sabonis, a great player on a fantastic team who played almost 82 games this year. What’s he thinking!
After watching Domontis (sic) Sabonis shred the pelicans in person this week in New Orleans, my love for this guy (and the Sacramento kings offense) has skyrocketed to nuclear levels. Not since the Golden State Warriors flying-V, switch-heavy, beautiful-game creativity has it been so delightful to watch a team play basketball. Sabonis is the key to all of it. Watch him run point-center and I dare you not to fall in love with him. The amount of possibilities he is analyzing while he cups the ball at the free-throw line is stunning. Watch his footwork. If the pass isn’t there, he can dance his way to the hoop as gracefully as a pirouette by New York’s greatest ballerina. Then dunk it with two guys hanging off of his back. But all of that is nothing honestly compared to his passing. His passing is divine. It’s nirvana. The beautiful thing about it is that he has the personnel around him to capitalize off of his genius. Whether it’s sharp shooting rookie Keegan Murray, or newby All-Star De’Aaron Fox, criss-crossing the court for open threes or fade-aways, the Sacramento Kings, a team who hasn’t made the playoffs since the founding of America, are here. Don’t be surprised if they make some serious noise in the playoffs this year. All credit to Coach Mike Brown who clearly learned a hell of a lot from Steve Kerr and the Warriors, and transferred it into the mind and body of Damontis Sabonis, a Ferrari meets Dodge Ram monster truck who can quarterback your offense from the free throw line!!!! Like a modern day John Stockton in the body of an Ox.
One other thing, have you ever tried to make someone smile who really doesn’t like to smile? It’s hard to do, and next time I need to do it, I’m going to do it like this guy does it in Magic Mike XXL. The only thing you need to know before you watch this clip is that the male strippers have *dared* him to try and make the girl in the gas station smile.
Lastly, props to the artist who made this. Apparently he’s a die-hard Clippers fan who makes a doodle for every Clippers game.
Till next time,
AL