Basketball is good

We have that and more in Monday’s NBA newsletter.

We had two second round Game 7s on Sunday, and they both lived up to the hype. Unscripted events, living up to the hype? Basketball is magic!

In the first game, the Blazers won a rock fight with the Nuggets thanks to an extraordinary, legend-making performance from C.J. McCollum and some clutch play from ... Evan Turner? Evan Turner! How’s this for a sentence: the Blazers were crushed when they lost Rodney Hood late in a Game 7 with a trip to the West finals on the line, but Evan Turner saved the day. What a time to be alive. Kudos to the Nuggets for an amazing season: they deserved to make the Western Conference finals, as well, and fell just short.

In the second game, a rock fight between the Raptors and Sixers was settled at the buzzer by this incredible Kawhi Leonard shot.

Like, nothing more needs to be said. That was some shot. Like the Nuggets, the Sixers deserved to be in the Eastern Conference finals and fell just painfully short. Run it back.

The West finals tip off Tuesday in Oakland while the East finals will get underway in Milwaukee on Wednesday. Should be good series. Basketball! What a fun sport!

Scores

Blazers 100, Nuggets 96
Portland wins series 4-3

Sixers 90, Raptors 92
Toronto wins series 4-3

Schedule

West Finals Game 1: 9 ET Tuesday on ESPN (following NBA Draft lottery)

East Finals Game 1: 8:30 ET Wednesday on TNT

Links

Paul Flannery’s Sunday Shootaround focuses on Khris Middleton, the type of co-star every superstar needs. That series should be quite good.

In a pretty weird twist, Frank Vogel will be the next head coach of the Lakers with Jason Kidd on staff as an assistant. I can’t see how that could possibly go wrong. Vogel was last seen getting fired by the Magic after two disappointing seasons.

REWINDER on the most iconic J.R. Smith moment in history.

Kristian Winfield argues that the Rockets’ title window is closing.

I herald the potential return of the most fun version of the Warriors imaginable.

Howard Beck tries to crack Kawhi’s code.

I’ve called Jackie MacMullan the best basketball writer ever in this very newsletter. The New Yorker’s Louisa Thomas did a long Q&A with her, and it lives up to the hype. Speaking of Jackie Mac, here she is on the art of the Jokic-Murray pick-and-roll.

Paolo Uggetti’s winners and losers from Sunday.

Kawhi’s shot erased the Raptors’ playoff demons, from Vince to the Game 1 curse.

Be excellent to each other.