close
close

first Drop

Com TW NOw News 2024

    • Steph Curry said, “Night, night” to Klay Thompson. Plus Joel Embiid’s season debut!
    news

    Steph Curry said, “Night, night” to Klay Thompson. Plus Joel Embiid’s season debut!

    Vaseline Posted on

    The Bounce NewsletterR :basketball: | This is The Athletics daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce straight to your inbox.

    If you don’t have NBA Cup bracket fever, it’s time to check your heart rate!

    Joel Embiid is back

    Takeaways from his season debut

    Ever since the Clippers announced that Paul George would be moving and he signed with the 76ers, we’ve been curious to see what this Sixers team looks like in the East. Can they make a deep run for the first time in Joel Embiid’s career? Can George solve their problems? Will Philly finally be a title contender? Embiid had picked up a technical foul and a three-game suspension before even taking the field. But last night he finally made his season debut for the 2024/25 campaignwhich tipped the second annual NBA Cup against the Knicks.

    As you might expect for Embiid — and most big men coming back from major injuries — it was a mixed bag. The 2023 MVP had eight points, four assists and two rebounds in the first half, but didn’t make his first three-pointer until 8:59 remained in the third quarter. He looked slow on both ends of the floor and had a matchup problem early on, with Karl-Anthony Towns using his reach to pull Embiid away from the rim on defense.

    Embiid finished with 13 points on 2-of-11 shooting to go with five assists and three rebounds in the Knicks’ 111-99 win. He went 1 of 5 from deep and made just two shots in the paint. The 2-8 Sixers were minus-7 with him on the floor in 26 minutes, but were plus-1 through the first three quarters while he played. The Knicks pulled away with a dominant fourth-place finish behind 10 of Jalen Brunson’s 18 points, seven of Towns’ 21 and eight of OG Anunoby’s 24. What does this all mean?

    It takes a while: The Sixers were without Tyrese Maxey, so we still haven’t seen the debut of their new big three. Embiid will also need some time to get into shape, but Philly was better with him on the floor for most of the game.

    This team needs Embiid on the floor, because obviously: It’s not just that the Sixers have built team after team the concept that Embiid is the central figure dominating games – it’s their reality. The 76ers are 439-439 (.500 winning percentage, including playoffs) since drafting the 30-year-old in 2014, but they are 317-176 (.643 winning percentage) with Embiid as a player. That means they are 122-236 (.341 winning percentage) without him.

    Assuming Embiid doesn’t play in tonight’s back-to-back against 12-0 Cleveland, his next game will likely be Friday in Orlando (6-6).

    The last 24

    Cavaliers are going 13-0 tonight

    📺 Honey, is KFC still open? Cavaliers (12-0) at 76ers (2-8) as the Cavs look to extend their undefeated streak. 7:30 PM ET on League Pass.

    📺 League Pass nerd! Clippers (6-5) at Rockets (7-4) as both teams had a lot of fun to start the season. 8:00 PM ET.

    📺 Don’t miss this match tonight. Suns (9-2) at Kings (6-5) as Kevin Durant is still out, but the Suns will look to extend their best record in the West. 10pm ET on League Pass.

    🏀 Cooper Flagg dropped 26 on Kentucky! He also turned it over on consecutive possessions when Duke lost. This was a fun one.

    🏀 Warriors take off. In Law Murray’s Power Rankings, Golden State (9-2) is near the top. Who is number 1?

    🩼 Hollinger is worried. You could make a Dream Team out of the current group of injured players after Chet Holmgren’s pelvic fracture. Forbid injuries.

    😱 Does the deer fear or deer in fear? Sam Amick and Eric Nehm discuss the Bucks’ 3-8 start. Can it be repaired??

    🏀 Ausar Thompson is back! The Pistons’ second-year wing has been cleared to play after dealing with a blood clot issue. He hasn’t played since March 9.

    Splash reunion

    Klay’s Bay Area return is paying off

    We heard a lot of “It’s just another game” and “We all want to win” comments leading up to Klay Thompson’s return to Chase Center last night. But from the moment the Warriors’ PA announcer last left Thompson introducing the Mavericks’ starting lineup, everyone knew there was extra juice. The tribute to him all evening was phenomenal, first class organizational stuff.

    When it came to the basketball on the floor, the entertainment didn’t stop. It grew. It shone. It was exactly the show everyone in the building was hoping for. Thompson was great. He had 22 points on 7-for-17 shooting from the field and went 6-for-12 from deep. We know he’s very comfortable with those rims and sightlines. He delivered eight of his points in the fourth quarter as the Mavs (5-6) pushed the Warriors (9-2) to show them they are still the kings of the West.

    The crunch-time basketball was exceptional. We saw three ties and seven lead changes in the final 10:09 of the game. The Mavericks went up 112-105 with 4:33 left and led 114-108 with 3:29 left. Then Steph Curry decided to put everyone to bed. The 36-year-old went on a 12-3 run to close out the match as the Warriors won 120-117. Dallas couldn’t do anything about it, and Luka Dončić couldn’t match him and missed the tie-breaking attempt. After the match, Thompson talked about what it’s like facing Curry:

    “It hurts to be on the other side of one of his fits. The guy got hot at the end and made some ridiculous shots. On the other hand, it sucks.”

    Basketball gods, I’m not asking much of you: You have to make it a playoff series in the West. The deeper into the playoffs, the better. This is what the NBA – and the Emirates NBA Cup, which we’ll talk about more below – is all about. 🙏

    In the meantime, this would be an appropriate time to review this excerpt on Curry from our upcoming book, “The Basketball 100.” Where does he check in?

    NBA Cup return

    The group game stage is unpredictable

    The second annual NBA Cup is here and the first night did not disappoint. As a reminder, we will be providing a recap of the seasonal tournament every Tuesday and Friday through December 3. Because of the special courts, you know it’s NBA Cup games. In case you missed it, here’s what you need to know from the first night of group play:

    How are the courts doing? Impact! They’re certainly not as bad as the ones we were exposed to last season. That said, the bar was super low. Some of these blue courses really push the boundaries of how your eyes can adapt.

    Give me the gray courts all day long. No more blue jobs. And Boston: I don’t know what Tetris snapshot you were trying to recreate, but I don’t need it either.

    Do they feel like playing different games? I think the special courses obviously make them feel like they’re different games. We also had some pretty incredible upsets where some of the best teams in the league were defeated by… how do I put this nicely… fewer plow? Was that fun enough? Is that because of the arbitrariness of the NBA? Or parity? Or because these guys know a trip to Vegas is on the line? Here are the rest of the results:

    The NBA Cup is unpredictable

    Hawks 117, Celtics 116: Angry number 1 of the evening! No Trae Young, no Bogdan Bogdanović, no De’Andre Hunter? No problem. The Hawks went into Boston playing on that green court, and Jalen Johnson’s triple-double (18-13-10) helped clinch the victory. Dyson Daniels had 28 points and six steals. We’ve had 15 games of five steals or more by a player this season…Daniels has four.

    Pistons 123, Heat 121 in OT: An absolutely absurd finish in Detroit! Tyler Herro hit three three-pointers in the final 82 seconds of regulation and came back from down nine to force overtime. Then, in overtime, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra completely blew it. Yes Spo! The Pistons executed a perfect inbound lob to Jalen Duren to tie the game at 121 with one second left. Spo then called a timeout. One problem: The Heat ran out of timeouts. Malik Beasley hit two free throws to ice the game as Miami lost its chance to win. The Heat wasted 40 points from Herro. The MVP of the game was producer going Jalen Rose, who shocked the crowd as Spo called extra timeout.

    Blazers 122, Wolves 108: Four of the Blazers’ double-digit scorers came off the bench, including Robert Williams III, who added 19 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, three steals and three blocks in 25 minutes. The Wolves turned it over 21 times.

    The other NBA Cup results

    Suns 120, Jazz 112: No Kevin Durant, no problem in Salt Lake City for the Suns. Devin Booker had 31, Bradley Beal had 24 and the Suns cruised to another road win. The Suns are tied with the Thunder and Warriors for the best record in the West at 9-2.

    Magic 114, Hornets 89: The Magic were really good without Paolo Banchero. They completely shut down a high-powered Hornets offense that got 35 points from LaMelo Ball. Franz Wagner replied with 32 points.

    Bokken 99, Raptors 85: The Bucks survived 32 points from Gradey Dick and the absence of Damian Lillard (concussion protocol) to earn that huge win in group play. Giannis Antetokounmpo had 23 points, seven assists and four blocks.

    🏆AN EVENING INSIDE🏆

    The #EmiratesNBACup is off to a flying start! pic.twitter.com/GqiyKcVEPa

    — NBA (@NBA) November 13, 2024

    📫 Do you love the bounce? Also check out The Athletic’s other newsletters.

    (Top photo: Noah Graham/Getty Images )

    Vaseline
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like