The regular season of the basketball league NBA ended with a round of matches that culminated in the Western Conference’s struggles for playoff spots. At the same time, as is typical for the league, we saw the American “show mood”, records and incidents outside the game.
The Finnish regular season climax was not seen, because Lauri Markkanen did not play when the Finn’s Utah lost to the Los Angeles Lakers 117–128. Lebron James and by Anthony Davis The star-studded Lakers finally managed to finish seventh in the conference and qualify for the playoffs at the end of a season that started disastrously.
In the qualifiers, the team will face Minnesota, which made the biggest noise in the final round. A center playing with a giant contract Rudy Gobert hit his teammate Kyle Anderson in the middle of overtime. The players got into a verbal altercation that ended with Gobert punching. After the incident, the club sent Gobert home from the game against New Orleans, says American website ESPN (you will switch to another service).
Watch a video of the incident tweeted by basketball website Bleacher Report below.
Minnesota, which has been one of the most unsuccessful organizations in the series throughout its existence, received more bad news in the match. The core player of the team Jaden McDaniels broke his arm when he punched the wall of the players’ tunnel in frustration midway through the first quarter. According to ESPN, McDaniels, who made his breakthrough in the league this season, will be sidelined for the rest of the season.
Watch a video of McDaniels’ situation tweeted by basketball website Bleacher Report below.
After all that, Minnesota won the game 113–108, despite still being down by 14 points in the third quarter. With the win, the team moved past New Orleans to eighth place and thus got an easier route to the playoff qualifying tournament. New Orleans will face the young surprise team Oklahoma City in the first round of the qualifiers.
The reigning champion advanced to the playoffs
The reigning league champion Golden State Warriors finished the season strong with three wins, the last of which secured the club’s sixth place. The team was the last team in the Western Conference to go directly to the playoffs. In a 157-101 victory over Portland, the Warriors made history by scoring 55 points in the opening quarter, a new NBA record for points scored in one quarter.
At the same time, the team’s margin of victory was the largest in this season’s regular season, and the back man About Klay Thompson became the only player to hit at least 300 three-pointers in a season.
In the Eastern Conference, the regular season rankings of the top ten teams had been decided before the final round, so the matches saw a lot of rest. Brooklyn star player Mikal Bridges however, made a quick four-second visit to the field in the Philadelphia game to extend his streak. He has now played in 392 consecutive NBA games.
Bridges, who moved to Brooklyn in the middle of the season, appeared in 83 games during the regular season.
Miami saw the end of the club legend’s playing career, when the three-time NBA champion Udonis Haslem ended his playing career. The 42-year-old Haslem scored 24 points and as many as three three-pointers in a 123–110 victory over Orlando. Haslem played his entire 20-year NBA career in Miami, whose coaching team he has also been part of for years.
See the NBA tables via this link (Text TV).
A season full of exciting events
For Finns, the NBA regular season is remembered for Lauri Markkanen’s rise to star player. Getting into the all-star game and becoming the 12 best scorer in the entire series are unprecedented things in Finnish sports.
In the league colored by superstars, however, there were enough events besides Markkanen’s peak season. Among other things, the NBA regular season will be remembered for these events.
1) Wild point production
The NBA currently has a historic number of skilled and versatile power forwards. In the regular season, players scored at least 40 points in one match a record 203 times. The previous record was 142 from the 1961–1962 season.
The brightest performances are the rear men Damian Lillard and Donovan Mitchell scored 71 points each. Lillard scored at least 40 points in no less than 15 games. An illustrative example of point production is that with Markkanen’s average points per match of 25.6, ten years ago he would have been the sixth best point man in the entire regular season.
Joel Embiid scored 33.1 points per game and was this season’s point king in average per game.
2) Lebron James’ record
38-year-old Lebron James became the all-time leading scorer in the NBA regular season on February 7. He surpassed the legendary at the time By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar factory 38,387 points. James has now scored a total of 38,652 points in the NBA regular season.
This season, James is seeking his fifth NBA championship in his 20-year career.
3) Out-of-field upheavals
During the season, we also saw unfortunate off-field commotions again. In October, a back-up star Kyrie Irving shared a tweet on his Twitter account to his almost five million followers. The tweet contained a link to a low-budget film that has been condemned for, for example, anti-Semitic content and Holocaust denial.
The incident garnered a lot of media attention and Irving was eventually suspended for eight games, fined and other obligations.
In March, another back man And Morant showed off his Instagram account in a live video while in a nightclub. The NBA suspended the player for eight games. During the season, it was also revealed how Morant had hit a teenage boy while they were playing yard games together. It is still unclear whether there will be further consequences for Morant.
Morant has still had a great season. He was leading Memphis to second place in the Western Conference.
Playoff qualifier: Both conferences play their own tournament. This is how the tournaments are implemented:
Match 1) In the regular season of the conference, the seventh-placed team meets the eighth-placed team. The winner of this match will advance to the playoffs as the seventh team.
Match 2) In the regular season, the ninth-placed team meets the tenth-placed team. The season of the loser of this match ends.
Match 3) The loser of Match 1 will face the winner of Match 2. The winner of this match advances to the playoffs as the eighth team in their conference.
In the West, in match 1, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves will meet. Game 2 will feature the New Orleans Pelicans and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
In the East, the Miami Heat and the Atlanta Hawks will meet in match 1. Game 2 will feature the Toronto Raptors and the Chicago Bulls.
Playoff pairings, West (home advantage with first mentioned)
Denver Nuggets – Game 3 winner
Phoenix Suns – Los Angeles Clippers
Sacramento Kings – Golden State Warriors
Memphis Grizzlies – Game 1 winner
Playoff pairings, East (home advantage with first mentioned)
Milwaukee Bucks – Game 3 winner
Cleveland Cavaliers – New York Knicks
Philadelphia 76ers – Brooklyn Nets
Boston Celtics – Game 1 winner