The NBA returns and nothing makes sense again

Yoooo. It’s Friday! And if you live in the Northeast, it will be “warm” today, so cancel all your afternoon meetings because happy hour is coming early.

Here’s what we got for today:

🏀 NBA returns from all-star break

🏀 Women’s College Basketball Blowouts

⚾️ MLB players LOVE to complain

🏈 Off-season news + Matt Araiza finally gets his chance

🏒 Hockey news

We’ve got lots to cover, so we will add a little commentary around all topics today and get a little more straight to the point. Or maybe we won’t…whatever!

Let’s get this Friday started.

NBA Return From All-Star Break

🏀 The Indiana Pacers might have had the best all-star break. There is no travel for anything with the all-star weekend being in their hometown, which means extra rest. It sure looked like the Pacers got their rest as they flew out to a 72-43 lead at the end of the first half. Although the Pacers played the Pistons, a 129-115 win is still a great way to return from a break.

🏀 The New York Knicks have continued on their winning path and defeated the 76ers on the road last night, 110-96. In a similar vein to the Pacers, the Knicks started fast and had a 23-point lead at the half.

🏀 I’m not sure how the NBA playoffs will shake out yet, but if we get a meeting between the Suns and Mavericks, it’s going to be a great series. These two met last night for the 3rd time this season, and it’s always a double-digit win by whoever wins. The Mavs are 2-1 in the series after winning 123-113 last night. Devin Booker scored 35, and KD scored 23 for the Suns, but Luka Doncic had the home crowd buzzing as he had 41 points, 9 rebounds, and 11 assists. Do you know what helps the Mavs win? Kyrie Irving being on the court and playing well. Kyrie dropped 29 and was 5-8 from 3.

🏀 The Celtics stars showed out last night in Chicago, grabbing a 129-112 road win. Jayson Tatum scored 25, Derrick White dropped 28, and Jaylen Brown helped out with a 21-point game.

🏀 I hope James Harden and Co. didn’t have too much fun over the all-star break. The Clippers lost to the OKC Thunder 129-107 last night in Oklahoma City. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 for the Thunder. The leading scorer for the Clippers was Kawhi Leonard, with 20.

🏀 Mr. Triple Double picked right back up where he left. Yes, we’re talking about Nikola Jokic. The Nuggets beat the Wizards 130-110 in Denver last night. Jokic scored 21 points, had 19 rebounds, and 15 assists for another triple-double. Yes, the Wizards are still terrible.

🏀 The other LA team didn’t fare so well, either. The Golden State Warriors took advantage of playing against a LeBron-less Lakers squad and beat up LA 128-110. Steph Curry was the leader of the pack last night with 32 points and was 6 of 13 from 3. Something to continue to keep an eye on is the free throw attempts for GS; even on a night that they won by a healthy margin, they had 2/3 of the attempts that the Lakers did.

🏀 The San Antonio Spurs traveled to Sacramento to take on the Kings. Rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama had 19 points for the Spurs, and Devin Vassell scored a team-high 32. It wasn’t enough, as the Spurs fell short 127-122 against a Kings team that got a triple-double from Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox scored 28 points.

Women’s College Basketball Blowouts

👀We don’t talk about the women’s game nearly as much as the men’s, but don’t blame me. Blame the NCAA or ESPN or someone else. I need to mention this game between #1 South Carolina and Alabama last night. South Carolina defeated Bama 72-44. At the half, it was 33-11. I wonder what’s going through the players’ heads for Alabama when they’ve only scored 11 points in 20 minutes of play. Alabama didn’t score until 5 minutes, and 43 seconds came off the game clock in the first quarter. It gets better! Alabama finished the first quarter with 6 points. They didn’t score in the second quarter until 1:49 was left on the clock. They ran up and down the court for 8 minutes with nothing to show. This was practically a conditioning practice for Alabama. #RollTide 😆 

🔒️ The #14 Indiana Hoosiers locked up Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and threw away the key. Well, not really, but the Hoosiers did upset the #4 team in the country 86-69, and while the Hoosiers should be excited, this might be a perfect loss for Iowa. Caitlin Clark finished with 24 points for Iowa, but it was definitely an off-shooting night for her and the rest of the squad. It was a little above average shooting night for the Hoosiers, and mix those two, and you get an upset. This could be the fire that Iowa needs, and Caitlin Clark might go on a post-season tear…again.

MLB = Major League Babies

We all know baseball guys love to complain. Coaches and players love to whine about the unwritten rules(just write them down by now!), changes to the game like mound visits and pitch clocks, and now the newest thing is the uniforms!

Okay, they might have a point with the uniforms. Nike designed the 2024 uniforms, and Fanatics is manufacturing them. Whatever design or material they chose is not working. Players have been talking about how cheap the jerseys look and feel, and they seem like something you’d find at T.J. Maxx as a knockoff. The newest problem has made its way to social media, and can you guess what it is? THE PANTS ARE SEE-THROUGH 👀 .

👉️ You can literally see the Nike sign on the compression shorts!

At least Tim Robinson can clear the air for all of us. Is this what the MLB was thinking when they discussed the design with Nike?

Off-season news + Matt Araiza finally gets his chance

🏈 The NFL franchise tag window is open. There haven’t been any players tagged yet, but some big names might be big franchise tag targets already. Saquon Barkley from the NY Giants and Chris Jones from the Chiefs are probably the biggest. We’ll keep you up to date on any tags that occur.

🏈Speaking of the Chiefs, they just signed Matt Araiza to the team as their Punter. You might remember the name because the Bills drafted Araiza in the 2022 draft, but he never played a regular-season down because of a sexual assault accusation. If you’ve never dug into the story, it’s pretty wild. A female was sexually assaulted at an off-campus party at San Diego State University, and Araiza was named in a lawsuit for the assault. Most reports conclude Araiza wasn’t even at the party when the event happened, and there seems to be a video record of it, too, and Araiza isn’t seen in the video. Obviously, sexual assault is a big freaking no-no, but you don’t want to see a young kid have his life ruined if he had nothing to do with the events. Good for Matt Araiza and the Chiefs because that dude can boot the ball.

Hockey Stats and Scores

🏒 The NY Rangers pushed their win streak to 9 in a row with a 5-1 win over the NJ Devils in Newark last night. Alexis Lafreniere had two goals for New York

🏒 The Toronto Maple Leafs have won 6 in a row and grabbed a 7-3 win in Vegas last night. Max Domi scored 2 for the Leafs, and Auston Matthews “only” scored 1 goal last night.

🏒 The Seattle Kraken had a big win over the Western Conference-leading Vancouver Canucks. The Kraken won 5-2 in Seattle and got two goals from Jordan Eberle.

What’s On TV Tonight and Tomorrow

Friday Night

NHL

🏒 Buffalo Sabres @ Columbus Blue Jackets, 7 pm ET on NHL Network

NBA

🏀 Cleveland Cavaliers @ Philadelphia 76ers, 7:30 pm ET on ESPN

🏀 Milwaukee Bucks @ Minnesota Timberwolves, 10 pm ET on ESPN

Saturday

NHL

🏒 St. Louis Blues @ Detroit Red Wings, Noon ET on ABC

🏒 NY Rangers @ Philadelphia Flyers, 3 pm ET on ABC

🏒 Toronto Maple Leafs @ Colorada Avalanche, 7 pm ET on NHL Network

NBA

🏀 Boston Celtics @ New York Knicks, 8:30 pm ET on ABC

College Basketball

🏀 #2 Houston @ #11 Baylor, Noon ET on CBS

🏀 Washington @ #4 Arizona, 2 pm ET on CBS

🏀 West Virginia @ #6 Iowa State, 2 pm ET on ESPN2

🏀 #8 Duke @ Wake Forest, 2 pm ET on ESPN

🏀 #10 UNC @ Virginia, 4 pm ET on ESPN

🏀 #13 Alabama @ #17 Kentucky, 4 pm ET on CBS

🏀 Texas @ #9 Kansas, 6 pm ET on ESPN

🏀 Villanova @ #1 UConn, 8 pm ET on FOX

🏀 Texas A&M @ #5 Tennesse, 8 pm ET on ESPN

That’s enough to take you into the weekend. We’ll be back on Sunday to talk about some more stats and scores, and we will chat about the final round at the Mexico Championship on the PGA Tour!

Enjoy those happy hours!

-The Daily Breakroom