One Night After Joel Embiid's Waved Off 4th-Quarter Buzzer Beater, Paul George's Winning Shot Came After The Horn And The Clippers Lost In OT
As Jordie mentioned in his blog from Sunday, the 76ers need to get a new home-court clock operator. No but really, it's nuts that something like this happened again in the span of about 24 hours. Poor Paul George. He would've knocked off the West's best team had he released that desperation heave less than a second earlier.
Considering LA was down by 13 after the first quarter in Denver, it was a fine job by PG13 and Co. to fight back and get this matchup to overtime. Just couldn't close the deal as Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets went on a 14-4 run to easily win. George had hit two clutch free throws to tie it up before the Clippers got that final-possession stop and came thisclose to victory on his beyond half court prayer.
What's really cool is we're getting to the point in the NBA season where it's starting to feel like a playoff-style intensity is in the air. For instance, Load Management Kawhi Leonard was full-go last night, and hung 33 points on the Nuggets, shooting an efficient 12-of-19 from the field.
If he continues to be in this type of form come the postseason, the Clippers have the depth, star power and a proven, multiple-time champion in Kawhi to lead the way. They're a hell of a value play at +1000 to win it all at Barstool Sportsbook right now, in case you want to hedge against some of the top favorites.
Hard to shrug off what the Celtics have done all season long, including that big win over the Sixers. Then you have the Bucks, who are on a freaking 14-game winning streak. Not sure if it's due to a smaller market or the lack of fanfare the NBA's regular season tends to get, but damn, Giannis is arguably the best player in the sport and yet Milwaukee's insane run isn't something that's grabbing headlines.
Ended last night's pro-Lakers, pro-LeBron (GASP!) blog with a tweet from El Pres that was sort of cheeky. It's only fair to end this one with a better take that applies not only to Joel Embiid, but even more so to Paul George given his career trajectory, the infamous "Playoff P" moniker and so on...
Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok
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