The Eve of All Star Weekend

Enjoyers, gather round! If you wish to read this newsletter, answer these questions three: Will the Milwaukee Bucks ever lose? Will Mikal Bridges ever miss? And will YOU be the next Three Point Contest replacement? Hopefully you only answered “no” to the first two—we have faith in your jumpshot!

Today’s Lineup

Wizardry🧙‍♂️: Bradley Beal does his best Harry Potter impression…

Shooters shoot🏀: The 5 most efficient 3PT shooters…but none of them are in the 3PT Contest?

Brooklyn Bridges🌉: Mikal drops 45 points and makes us speculate about his ceiling

With the Dunk Contest one day away, test your knowledge:

Thursday’s Theatrics

Wizards wow Wolves 114-106 in comeback W

Bradley Beal and the Wizards (28-30) looked like magicians straight out of Hogwarts Legacy tonight. Beal’s 35 points fueled Washington’s 20-point comeback, which was capped off by a NASTY Kyle Kuzma fading three. With this win over the Timberwolves (31-30), the Wizards have won 10 of their last 14 games!

Minnesota poured in 36 points in the first quarter, and the Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert pick-and-roll combo worked to perfection, just like in Utah. But the T-Wolves mustered just 19 points in the final period—total muggle behavior.

Clippers scorch Suns 116-107

With Kevin Durant yet to make his debut in the purple and orange, the Clippers (33-28) handled the Suns (32-28). Paul George was great for LA with 26 points, but Terance Mann was game-changing with 26 of his own! The Eric Gordon addition seems to be working on both sides of the ball, as he locked up Devin Booker down the stretch. Guess EG is just happy to finally be playing competitive basketball again!

The good news for Phoenix? Firstly, Josh Okogie (24 points), and new addition Terrence Ross (16 points) looked solid, which is a good sign for the Suns’ somewhat lackluster bench. Secondly, Chris Paul passed Michael Jordan for third all-time in steals! He needs 160 more to pass Jason Kidd for second, which is fathomable, but no one is catching John Stockton. Dom Toretto would have to do 50 more Fast & Furious heist movies to reach those steal numbers… actually, he might get there.

Bucks beat Bulls 112-100, Giannis injured

Giannis Antetokounmpo left with a wrist injury early in the second quarter, but not before becoming the Bucks’ all-time assist leader at just 28 years old! DPOY candidate Brook Lopez stepped up in Giannis’ absence and scored a season-high 33 points to lead Milwaukee (41-17) to a comfortable victory over Chicago (26-33).

There is a chance Giannis misses the All-Star Game, but thankfully his injury doesn’t look too serious. The same optimism can’t be said of the Bulls, who find themselves on a six game losing streak. Hopefully Chicago uses the break to regroup and right the ship before the home stretch of the season.

Wednesday Night Notes

Having barely broken in his Nets threads, Mikal Bridges scored a career-high 45 points in a win over the Heat. While we’re used to seeing the iron man used as an elite off-ball threat, Bridges created his own shot and earned tough buckets over intense defense, showing off a totally new aspect to his game. In the remaining 30 or so games of the season, we’d love to see Mikal attacking more off the dribble!

In triple-double news, Nikola Jokic’s 14/13/10 performance helped Denver beat the Mavericks, despite 37 points from Luka, and LaMelo Ball put up a 28/12/10 game to elevate the tanking Hornets over the tanking Spurs.

Big men dominated on Wednesday too, as Joel Embiid’s 29 points elevated the 76ers past the Cavaliers while defensive machine Jaren Jackson Jr led the Grizzlies past the Jazz with 26 points, nine rebounds, five steals, and four blocks. Give this man the DPOY!

If you Love something, set it free

After nine seasons with the franchise, Kevin Love is being bought out by the Cavaliers. He sits at second place in three-pointers made in franchise history, as well as sixth in rebounds and ninth in points. And of course, alongside Kyrie Irving and LeBron James, he helped bring Cleveland their first ring with his shooting, rebounding, and iconic outlet passes:

But enough about the past. Love could offer veteran leadership, rebounding and shooting to a mid-level team looking to make a playoff push. The Knicks? The Heat? THE TIMBERWOLVES??? We can only dream…

Top Five Friday

Even though we’ll see eight of the NBA’s best shooters in Saturday's Three Point Contest, none of the eight participants are actually top five in three point percentage. Might there have been some other deserving players outside the chosen field? Absolutely. Today, we give you the top five three-point shooters by percentage (min. 150 attempts).

1. Malcolm Brogdon (45.4% on 222 att.)

   The Celtics’ guard has given it his all as a sixth man for the East’s first-seeded team. He can make plays, control the pace, and (clearly) shoot the lights out!

2. Isaiah Joe (45.2% on 230 att.)

   We wrote a whole Twitter thread on Joe; he’s the most slept-on shooter of the entire 2023 season!

3. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (45.0% on 242 att.)

   KCP is the perfect role player to play next to Jokic. He defends, moves well off-ball, and you can’t leave him open behind the line for a second!

4. Damion Lee (43.7% on 222 att.)

   The third Splash Brother (by marriage) also has the shooting gene—he’s been automatic for Phoenix this year.

5. Desmond Bane (42.7 on 248 att.)

   We’ve been knowing Bane was like that! He takes the most pull-up threes on this list and buries them all day.

Frozen Moments

• D’Angelo Russell looked really, really good in a Lakers win 👀 

• Cam Johnson hit this layup while looking in the opposite direction

• This hilarious Twitter exchange between Josh Hart, Jalen Brunson, and Evan Fournier has us dying! 😆 

Good Reads

Kawhi Leonard Is Back—and the NBA Should Be Petrified - Michael Pina (The Ringer)

Keep the Dunk Contest Weird - Katie Heindl (New York Times)

5 NBA Teams That Could Look Completely Different Next Season - Zach Buckley (Bleacher Report)

What We’re Enjoying

Avengers Assemble: Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania just dropped! We can’t wait to see what the deal is with Kang the Conqueror and the quantum realm 🤔

Signing Off

It’s All-Star Weekend, folks! Go Enjoy™️ the dunks, shooting, skills, and stardom of the league we all love! They’re the best in the world at our game!

Peace,

-Conor Geelan

Trivia Answer: Evan Mobley leads the NBA in dunks with 153, though Giannis might’ve passed him tonight if he didn’t get injured! Fellow Cavalier Jarrett Allen is also top four, so we guess Cleveland is Dunk City, USA!

Before you go…