Page 38 - Basketball Reference News Today

Matisse Thybulle has the makings of a historic NBA defender Share this story Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images We knew the Sixers had something to build upon with Matisse Thybulle after witnessing his rookie season, which was largely labeled a success. Thybulle not only managed to make his way into the Sixers’ rotation, but he also became a huge part of it. It isn’t often in the NBA that you see mid-to late-first-round draft picks becoming positive rotation players during their rookie yea...

NBA MVP candidates for the 2020-2021 season, ranked If we had an NBA MVP ballot, this is how we would vote. A clear front-runner has emerged in the 2020-2021 NBA MVP race, but rarely have the other four spots on the ballot felt so difficult to fill out. The season has been compromised from the very start by a global pandemic and a condensed schedule meant to squeeze as many games as possible into an abbreviated window. Add in the shortest offseason in league history — just 71 days for the Los...

+1200 To help illustrate how betting odds handicappers are evaluating the NBAs landscape of contenders, looking at another model, this one from the statistical website FiveThirtyEight, has the Sixers in a much more dominant position. Their model gives Philly a 22% chance of making and winning the NBA Finals, second only to the Clippers with 23%. They also award Philly with the highest percentage by far of likeliness to make the Finals at 43%, with their most likely opponent being the Clippers a...

Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images In the wake of back-to-back losses against the Minnesota Timberwolves, more bad news cascaded the organization as Mike Conley was ruled out ahead of Monday night’s action against the Sacramento Kings after reaggravating a prior injury to his hamstring. Needless to say most in Jazz land began preparing for the worst. Now while a relatively low risk and anticlimactic bout with the Kings won’t (and shouldn’t) send the fanbase careening to the oppo...

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images The Utah Jazz have solidified themselves as one of the NBA’s juggernauts. Boasting the NBA’s best record and sporting 3 active All-Stars tends to get people excited, even outside of Utah. While the race for the #1 seed is heating up and perpetually increasing Jazz fans’ blood pressure with unfortunate losses to the league’s bottom feeders, the Jazz are still heavy favorites to finish with home court advantage throughout the playoffs. Projected f...

Jevon Carter is playing more — and the Suns are better for it Share this story Hoo, hoo, hoo. Did someone let the dogs out? In the land of the Valley, the answer that question is of course, an unequivocal, resounding yes. The culprit behind that answer — the man who’s let his “bulldog” run free more than ever as of recent, is Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams. His ever-steady, clamp-heavy, always-ready bulldog: Jevon Carter. And Carter’s unwavering doggedness has the Suns pl...

Making Damian Lillard’s Case as a Top 5 Shooter in NBA History Share this story Where on earth is Damian Lillard? For as long as teams have battled this decade’s Portland Trail Blazers, that’s become the pivotal question, an inquiry capable of determining a game, if not a full-on playoff series. Whether he’s 94-feet away from the basket, or right under it, the premise remains clear: always have eyes on Damian Lillard. Which, in great irony, provokes a thought: sports outlets across the ...

May We Never Take Joel Embiid for Granted Share this story Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images This is not a painstaking clap-back against the mainstream media and prospective voters who seem to have all but penciled in Nikola Jokic as this year’s MVP. I care not to spend a thousand words pounding the table for Joel Embiid’s candidacy, his defense, his gargantuan impact on the court. I won’t be delving into how we ought to actually define “valuable” in present-day baske...

Nikola Jokic, James Harden Front Runners to Win MVP Award In Basketball References MVP Tracker, Nikola Jokic and James Harden are the front-runners. Author: Apr 20, 2021 Harden has already won an MVP, while Jokic has yet to win one. Other players that appear on the list are Kyrie Irving, LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Rudy Gobert, Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler, Luka Donicic and Damian Lillard. On the season, the center from Serbia is averaging an outstanding 26.1 points, 11.0 rebounds and ...

(8) Knicks – 28-27 (9.5 GB) (9) Pacers – 25-28 (11.5 GB) (10) Bulls – 22-31 (14.5 GB) (11) Raptors – 21-34 (16.5 GB) (12) Wizards – 20-33 (16.5 GB) (13) Cavaliers – 19-34 (15) Pistons – 16-38 The bolded section feels especially susceptible to change over the next couple of weeks, and the Bulls are stationed not-so-comfortably in the thick of things. They have already partially failed to take advantage of their “easier” stretch of the second-half schedule, adding a three-game l...