Enjoy Basketball: Smart is spectacular, NBA all-rookie team controversy

Hello my basketball bretheren,

I've spent a quite frankly embarrassing amount of time 'scouting' second round prospects this week so I'm glad to be able to come back to the surface and just write about what's going on around the basketball world. There's a lot of interesting stuff to cover, including a close NBA award race, so let's not waste any more time.

Celtics huge first half, Smarts brilliance, bury Heat in game two win

After a disastrous third quarter two nights ago that defined their game one loss, the Boston Celtics held strong against a Miami run to put the pivotal game two victory all but to rest.

One thing we've learned this series, Boston knows how to come out strong in enemy territory. An eight point lead at halftime in game one was impressive enough, but the Celtics more than tripled that performance in game two, heading into the half with a more than comfortable 70-45 lead. 

Miami threatened to make the game competitive again in the third, cutting the lead to 17 with just under four minutes left. But this time around the Celtics slammed the door shut, outscoring the Heat by eight over the final three minutes of Q3 action.

It was a real team effort tonight for Boston, but the game MVP has to go to Marcus Smart. The current DPOY was all over the court, coming within a rebound of his third career triple-double to go along with three steals and one magnificent floater.

Jimmy Butler did his thing as always in the playoffs, but the help just wasn't there tonight, simple as that. Gabe Vincent had another great game in the starting lineup in relief of the injured Kyle Lowry but the rest of the Heat roster combined to shoot under 38% from the field. 

This series goes to Boston completely up for grabs, and it has the feeling of one that just might go the distance. 

Also, R.I.P. Max Strus's ankles

Number to remember: 13.47

The average margin of victory in this years NBA playoffs so far, the largest since 2017. Ironically enough, the most competitive series was one of the 4-0 sweeps. Nets-Celtics had the lowest average win margin of any series this year at just 4.5 points.

All-Rookie Teams Announced, Herb Jones fans devastated

Team 'That boy nice' got a huge win on Wednesday in the immortal Hooper's vs Basketball Players debate, as Jalen Green beat Herb Jones out for the last spot on the NBA All-Rookie 1st Team.

Green surged back into the conversation after a monster run following the all-star break, during which he averaged over 22 points per game on a sizzling 59% true shooting. Jones may have been the backbone of an unexpectedly stout Pelicans defense, who made some surprising noise in their first round series versus Phoenix, but his lack of counting stats and subdued offensive game eventually did him in.

The rest of the first team picks went about as expected. ROTY frontrunners Scottie Barnes, Cade Cunningham and Evan Mobley were all unanimous selections while Orlando's Franz Wagner got 83 first team votes of his own after an underrated first season. 

Herb Jones and OKC's Josh Giddey (who also received a good chunk of first team votes) headlined the All-Rookie 2nd Team. Alongside them, Chicago's Ayo Dosunmu, Denver's Bones Hyland, and Indiana Chris Duarte. Ill give my own honorable mentions to Jonathan Kuminga and Alperen Şengün

For the Houston fans out there, lets end off this section with a sick Jalen Green highlight mix courtesy of @arxanii! 

Could the NBA have a new In-Season Tournament?

According to Shams, the NBA is discussing the possibility of a new in-season tournament that could start as early as next year. While nothing is known about the format or potential reward as of now, we might be able to look at our neighbors across the pond for some thoughts.

English Football (soccer) has played in-season tournaments alongside their regular season for over a century to great success. Their main in-season competition, the FA cup, gives every team in the English Football League, down to the lowliest Sunday League sides, a chance to go on a miracle run. It'll never happen, but I think it would be fun to do a similar thing for basketball. Give a ton of random pickup teams at the park a chance to make history, if England can do it than so can we. 

NBA Scouting World Descends on Chicago Combine

Yep its draft season again. Where we all read a handful of mock drafts, watch a few highlight tapes and pretend to be professional NBA scouts for a few weeks. Luckily, with the Combine in Chicago, I got to have that experience in person this year and make some poorly calculated talent assessments with my own eyes.

A number of players caught the eye over the first two days of workouts and scrimmages. Jalen Williams, a junior guard out of Santa Clara, made perhaps the biggest impression. Williams had the highest positive difference between his wingspan and his height of anyone in the draft at 9.75 in. He showed off a really fluid shooting strike and an impeccable ability to create separation off the dribble. Christian Koloko out of Arizona also turned a lot of heads with his impressive performance in the three point drills and his smooth form. Finally the NC State duo Terquavion Smith and Dereon Seabron showed off their game in the Thursday scrimmages, combining to score 31 points.

 1 Trade Every NBA Team in the 2022 Conference Finals Wishes It Could Make Now -- Greg Schwartz (Bleacher Report)

Jordan Poole’s cat-like tendencies can be traced to when Warriors guard was a young pup -- Marcus Thompson II (The Athletic)

‘I Fit Right In’: How the Heat Found a Gem in Max Strus -- Rohan Nadkarni (Sports Illustrated)

Marcus Smart is More Than Just His Defense -- Robert O'Connell (FiveThirtyEight)

Dallas Mavericks @ Golden State Warriors - 9:00 p.m. EST

I thought the Mavericks had figured out how to play on the road following their dismemberment of the Phoenix Suns earlier this week but its clear there is still some work to be done after game one. It all starts with Luka Doncic. His quiet 20 points on Wednesday just aren't going to cut it if Dallas wants to make their first NBA finals in over a decade. But even if Luka goes off, the players around him just haven't performed consistently on the road these playoffs outside of game seven in Phoenix. Because of that, I think the Warriors take a commanding 2-0 series lead. 

That's all for me today, I'm off to go find the next Giannis by watching random clips from the Montenegrin second division. Until next time.

-Spencer Poole

PS: Invest in David Roddy stocks, he's my draft sleeper this year.

Last Trivia Answer: The answer to Wednesdays question 'Which five active players are in the top ten all time in playoff points per game?' is Luka Doncic, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Donovan Mitchell and Keljin Blevins, oh, wait, I mean Anthony Davis. 

Trivia Question: Luka Doncic is putting on a spectacular scoring show for the third straight postseason. But all the way back in his first playoff appearance in 2020, the Slovenian superstar became the third youngest player ever to score 40+ points in a playoff game. Which NBA legend is first on that list?