The Magic were without Franz Wagner. Then again, the Rockets didn't have Sengun. Regardless, like others have said, it's good to see them play hard to the very end. Also, that first loss against the Magic to begin the season left a sour taste in my mouth. It's nice to see how far the team has come since then.
Nice to see Jabari have a better game than Banchero and it wasn't close, he totally outplayed him. Then on the other end we have Cam who lost his cool. I don't care about if and how he hit Ingles or what Ingles did, Cam first pushed Ingles in the back and then Wagner right after. It was clear he had no intention to cool off or just wanted to be thrown out. Reminds me a bit of Mad Max who couldn't take it when he had a bad game. He's still only 19 years old, but if we want to be in the play-off picture next year, all these things matter. Von Wafer's career was cut short because he was a hot head and Ime is not the coach that's going to put up with this next year if we're in the play-off picture.
Can't wait until the league expands. Should solve the East/West imbalance, at least for now. Here's what I anticipate happening: Minnesota moves to the East to join its Upper Midwest neighbors Milwaukee and Chicago, becoming one of the top seeds there and leaving 14 teams in the West, 16 in the East Las Vegas and Seattle are added as new expansion teams. They go into the Western Conference for obvious reasons, bringing us up to 16 teams. As with most expansion teams, they suck and are bottom feeders for a half-decade or more while they build into respectable franchises. Voila, conferences should be (mostly) balanced.
Good win, the Magic were really playing hard out there. Jalen Suggs is gonna be one of the better perimeter defenders in this league for a long time. You could tell Jabari had some extra motivation tonight because of Paolo. I wish he approached every game like that.
The Rockets have a worse record against the EC right now than WC. Their 17 losses to EC teams is reason they are not in the play in. It is worse than the Jazz and then same as Memphis and SAS. Their record against WC teams is the Suns WC record. And with 2 more should-be wins against WC teams on the schedule, it will be even more stark.
No was Seattle should get another team right now. Give it to St.Louis or Kansas City. Why on earth neither has had a franchise in forever is beyond me.
