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Hey, Enjoyers. Our thoughts are with Woj today. 🧡

Today’s Lineup

🎉 Happy birthday to Giannis Antetokounmpo and Enjoyers Harshith and Manuel! 🎉

Game Recaps

Cavs overcome insane Jokic statline in 126-114 home win

Nikola Jokic (27 PTS, 20 REB, 11 AST) posted the first 25-20-10 game since Giannis back in March, but if we’ve learned anything in 2024 it’s that the Cavaliers know how to win.

It’s not even that the Cavs eked out a close win after being dominated by the Joker for 40 minutes—they didn’t surrender the lead after going up 13-10 four minutes into the game and led by as many as 18 in the fourth quarter. Donovan Mitchell led the way with 28 PTS and 6 AST, but Darius Garland (24 PTS, 4 AST) and Caris LeVert (21 PTS, 6 AST, 5-6 3PT) were massive for Cleveland as well. That’s 20 wins for the Cavs!

Hawks win five straight with 119-104 W over Milwaukee

After slow start, the Hawks are beginning to look like a legitimate playoff team in the East.

In their latest win, a fifteen-point victory over the Bucks, Atlanta stuck to and benefitted from a formula that seems to be working—if big wings like De’Andre Hunter (20 PTS) and Jalen Johnson (23 PTS) score the ball efficiently and Dyson Daniels (9 PTS, 3 STL) keeps grabbing cookies, Trae Young (17 PTS, 7 AST) doesn’t have to do anything other than pass the ball well for this team to win. 31 from Giannis and 25 from Dame just wasn’t enough to overcome the well-oiled Atlanta machine.

Elsewhere around the NBA…

• A 39-bomb from Nikola Vucevic and a triple-double for Ayo Dosunmu (27 PTS, 11 AST, 10 REB) led the Bulls over San Antonio 139-124 last night, even despite a standout night from Keldon Johnson (28 PTS).

• The Knicks benefitted from great nights by Karl-Anthony Towns (27 PTS, 16 REB), OG Anunoby (25 PTS), and Jalen Brunson (24 PTS) on Wednesday as they took down Charlotte 125-101.

• Franz Wagner’s 35 PTS led the Magic over Philly 106-102 despite a late push from Jared McCain (24 PTS, 7 REB) and the Sixers in the fourth.

• The two-headed monster of Andrew Wiggins (23 PTS, 9 REB) and Jonathan Kuminga (33 PTS, 6 REB) powered the Warriors over Houston late last night—Golden State took the 99-93 W as Alperen Sengun (16 PTS, 8 REB, 5 AST) led Houston on offense.

• The Pelicans stunned the Suns in a back-and-forth affair that ended 126-124 in favor of New Orleans, all behind 29 PTS from Brandon Ingram and 25 PTS from CJ McCollum.

• The Heat hit 24 threes in their huge 134-93 win over the Lakers—Tyler Herro (31 PTS) hit nine, Haywood Highsmith (14 PTS) had four, and even old man Kevin Love (10 PTS) got involved with two of his own!

• Julius Randle (20 PTS) and the Timberwolves beat the Clippers 108-80, but believe it or not, this game wasn’t as close as the final score makes it seem. Minnesota was up by as many as 41 points in the third quarter…

Top Five Friday

The NBA Cup bracket is set, and we’re here to rank our top five contenders for the throne! The first round starts next week, so let’s get right to it:

1. New York Knicks (4-0)

The Knicks were one of the few teams to be undefeated in group play, and a lot of that is due to the play of new addition Karl-Anthony Towns. He and Jalen Brunson, who are collaboratively averaging 50 points per game, just led the Knicks to a HUGE win against the fellow-knockout-round-participant Orlando Magic.

2. Golden State Warriors (3-1)

The Warriors are the third seed on their side of the bracket, so why are they ranked this high above every other West team? Golden State has looked especially impressive against the rest of the Western Conference’s top tier, so if/when a second-round matchup against Oklahoma City or Dallas comes about, that’s when the Warriors really could kick things into gear.

3. Oklahoma City Thunder (3-1)

Okay, enough with the funny business. The Thunder are the first seed in the West, both in this tournament but also in the regular season in general. The Mavs, OKC’s first round opponent, have already beaten the Thunder this season—a two-point loss on Nov. 17—but we think SGA and company will be able to pull through.

4. Milwaukee Bucks (4-0)

The Bucks got hot at just the right time, as the winning streak that helped cool fans down after a slow start to the regular season also propelled the squad into the NBA Cup knockout round. Their regular season record against the Eastern Conference teams in this bracket isn’t great (0-2), but this current Bucks team is different than the one who played earlier in the season.

5. Houston Rockets (3-1)

There’s a lot of good teams in this bracket, so this shouldn’t be taken as disrespect to the Rockets in the slightest. Houston has been a lot of fun to watch this season, as their young core seems to finally have taken the jump from play-in to playoff. This Rockets-Warriors first round game is about to be a movie…

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Three in the Key

Signing Off

It’s weeks like these that make us grateful to have a community of Enjoyers to experience the NBA with. Rest up and recharge this weekend—we’ll see you on Monday!

Austin Zeglis