by Ryan Mercier
Welcome to the party. Grab a beer and take in some extremely meaningful musings of a Tuesday night in NBA hoops.
Nuggets/Celtics (4th quarter only)
MVP candidate Nikola Jokic scored 43 points. That’s good. He only scored four of those in the 4th quarter. That’s bad. Add in an excellent game from the Celtics’ Jaylen Brown and the Nuggets’ Michael Porter Jr. pulling off a Roy Hibbert (0 points) and you get a 112-99 final score for Boston.
- Over 9 minute mark: Jayson Tatum made an excellent feed to Time Lord (Robert Williams) and followed it up with a steal
- Denver’s offense looked clunky all 4th quarter, even Jokic missed a gimme with under three minutes left
- Jaylen Brown hit some dagger 3s (5-for-10 from 3 all game)
- Nuggets crunch-time lineup: Jokic, Jamal Murray (good) and JaMychal Green, Facundo Campazzo, Zeke Nnaji (…not as good)
- Campazzo, though, is relentless and showed he will never stop trying. Ever.
- R.J. Hampton came in during garbage time and looked springy. While he has little production to show so far, the Nuggets may have done it again.
Pelicans/Grizzlies
Zion Williamson reminded everyone in the NBA that he is a block of solid metal who can move at lightning speed and power to the rim any time he wants. Ja Morant also had a nice night in this matchup between the No. 1 and No. 2 overall picks in last year’s draft but the Pelicans dominated the second half in a 144-113 win.
- Zion, again, was an absolute monster throwing down roughy 87 shots at the rim. One sequence (with a couple plays in between): Zion nails a three, gets a shot to go with Dillon Brooks having just poked the ball away, and then gets a steal right after. Unbelievable.
- More Zion: In the 3rd quarter, the Grizzlies called timeout. Afterwards, Williamson scored inside AGAIN. Memphis head coach Taylor Jenkins was absolutely furious and called timeout not even a minute after the previous one. Jenkins was upset with his defense but Zion is the true cause of this and future anger from other coaches.
- Jersey talk: Memphis, what are those? The throwback uniforms are flawless. The primary home and road jerseys are the new wave of being extremely dull. The combo of the two worn tonight, meh. Grade: D+
- “Slow Mo” Kyle Anderson is a marvel to be witnessed. Seriously, for anyone who has never focused on the 7th-year rotation player, do it. It is strange and delightful to watch him move at bizarrely slow speeds with success.
- Trivia! Which Hernangomez played for the Pelicans on Tuesday night? Are you sure?
- The Grizz went ice cold in the 3rd quarter and were outscored 38-23. Side note, maybe a little too much Dillon Brooks? No stats to back this up but watching tonight I got the feeling Dillon Brooks is a big fan of the Dillon Brooks Show.
- The award for Best Dunk with the Game Completely Out of Hand Halfway Through the 4th Quarter Immediately Followed by Giving Up an Easy Layup with No Defensive Resistance goes to: Ja Morant!
- No one knows Memphis like The Ringer’s Chris Vernon and he told us the Pelicans dominating the Grizzlies is nothing new.
Struggling Actor Sports 