This Week In Basketball can only bid farewell to Round 1 of the NBA Playoffs with more topics and pictures than we've ever stuffed into one TWIB compilation
I continue to test out a new format with one of my go-to column presentations. Feedback is welcome in the comments section below ...
It finally happened for yours truly ...
A Sunday at home with no NBA game to attend!
I still wasn't able to get this edition of This Week In Basketball out as early as I hoped. Had to first publish an around-the-league compilation of NBA notes Sunday found below in case you missed it:
Sunday also delivered the formal completion of Round 1 in these playoffs and put a Cleveland-over-Orlando Game 7 bow on a Cinco de Mayo weekend that belonged to Minnesota's Anthony Edwards and Cleveland's Donovan Mitchell.
I, for one, am just fine with a Round 2 that doesn't include Golden State, Phoenix, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Miami or either of the L.A. teams ... or the various thirtysomething stars that play for all those teams. I understand that the casual fan might be thrown by the fact that we won't see Stephen Curry or Kevin Durant or Giannis Antetokounmpo or Joel Embiid or Jimmy Butler or LeBron James until next season. Yet I suspect that most of the members of our community here — after obviously prioritizing all of your team-specific rooting interests — aren't sitting at home and throwing things at the TV or saying that the rest of the playoffs are ruined because we're going to see some new faces.
Just think: If any team still playing besides Denver wins it all, we will have our sixth different NBA champion in six seasons. That hasn't happened in the NBA since the 1970s.
And I love it because, even though I generally resist change, I do love playoff surprises.
Onto all the standout experiences of the week we just completed …
Stories of the Week (published here)
Monday: Lamenting the injury plague that refuses to leave the 2023-24 NBA playoffs alone.
Tuesday: Around-the-league notes and Intel after the Suns and Lakers were two of the first teams bounced in the opening round of the playoffs.
Wednesday: Tales from an incurable radio romantic after the station carrying my weekly basketball show in Dallas abruptly switched formats.
Saturday: A community thread inviting everyone who reads The Stein Line to make their second-round playoff predictions.
Sunday: More around-the-league Intel because we've entered the portion of the calendar that demands multiple notes compilation postings every week.
Games of the Week (that I attended)
Wednesday: Mavericks 123, Clippers 93
Friday: Mavericks 114, Clippers 101
Podcasts of the Week (that I co-hosted)
Monday alongside Turner Sports' Chris Haynes:
Friday solo essay edition of #thisleague UNCUT:
Radio Vantage Point of the Week
To console myself in the wake of the first Saturday without an edition of The Saturday Stein Line since (wow) last June ... here's a look at the Section 111 press-row setup that greeted me at Crypto.com Arena when I covered Dallas' Game 5 road win over the Clippers as the radio analyst alongside longtime Mavericks play-by-play voice Chuck Cooperstein.
Regret of the Week
Friday night was Conundrum Time for local basketball fans in the greater DFW area.
Caitlin Clark's WNBA debut with the Indiana Fever was scheduled for 7 PM Central time Friday night for an exhibition game against the Dallas Wings at the College Park Center in Arlington. The Mavericks were scheduled to play host to the Clippers in an eventual series-clinching Game 6 at home at 8:30 PM CT.
There was no way to attend both.
I haven't seen Clark play in person and likely won't have another chance until Indiana's scheduled July 17 return to town during the regular season. I nonetheless reluctantly missed out on Clark's 21-point pro debut that featured 5 3-pointers.
If only this could have been a doubleheader at the American Airlines Center ...
Phone Notification of the Week
Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch is one of the greatest sports books ever written and is held in such high regard here at Stein Line HQ that I couldn't wait to quote my favorite line from the book in a diary I wrote for ESPN in May 2013 when the network stunningly took me off NBA playoffs coverage for a weekend to cover the FA Cup final in England. (PS — It was legitimately their idea!)
Manchester City's stunning 1-0 defeat to soon-to-be relegated Wigan was the sort of despair-snatched-from-the-jaws-of-glory moment that I needed to borrow from Hornby's wisdom to explain properly:
So you can imagine my pride and glee last week when, without even knowing that
had his own Substack, this notification blipped onto my phone:
I was then relieved to discover that Sir Nick has only been on the platform for a week. Would have felt far dumber had I somehow missed this for ages.
Meal of the Week
The actual order from my first post-Passover meal didn't last long enough for pictures.
I did get a shot of where it took place, though.
Coffee(s) of the Week
Why does a cappuccino taste so much better in ceramic compared to a to-go cup?
This one was beautifully brewed at (yes it is indeed called) Nice Coffee in downtown L.A.
Pet Peeve of the Week
It drives me absolutely mad that Coca-Cola, without fail, insists on advertising its nectar in glass bottles without making glass bottles actually easy to purchase.
The above mega-poster hangs in L.A. Live not far from where that controversial Dallas to Cancun billboard was spotted last week while the Mavericks were in town to play Game 5.
Sale Rack of the Week
Nice surprise I found at a Macy's on a morning L.A. stroll:
A kids' rack featuring a Luka Dončić jersey? Totally expected.
The same rack featuring a Larry Johnson Charlotte Hornets jersey with a Mike Bibby Vancouver Grizzlies jersey right behind it? Upset of the Week.
Quote of the Week
"Ask the other 29 GMs — 26 of them would trade their whole team for our whole team and our draft picks and everything as is. The house is not on fire. We're in great position. It's not hard to fix."
— Suns owner Mat Ishbia … firing back at media critics who assert that team-building restrictions on Phoenix as a Second Apron Tax Team will make roster alterations difficult in the extreme in the wake of a first-round sweep inflicted by Minnesota.
Video is included here so you guys know I didn't make any of this up:
Incredulous Question of the Week
Wait a minute …
There really was a Tom Brady roast on the same weekend that Birmingham City, which counts Brady as a minority owner, were relegated to the third tier of English football?
Relegation is way, way worse than even a vicious nationally televised roast.
Final Word(s) of the Week
As I've mentioned often previously, I loved loved LOVED This Week In Baseball in my youth and have frequently compiled what I refer to as TWIB Notes on this Substack to pay homage to the great Mel Allen and that life-changing show which debuted in 1977. Now my goal is to make it more of a full-on roundup every Sunday (or in this case on Mondays when playoff work and/or travel intervenes) of what I wrote, said, did, saw and maybe even ate, bought, etc., in a given week … with categories that I suspect will evolve as I get a better handle on what this piece should look like. Your feedback is welcome and appreciated in the comments section below.
(Editor’s note: For the third successive week I indeed slapped two banners on this file, one at the top and one at the bottom, because this story qualifies both as a This Week In Basketball compilation and a dose of Monday Musings. Maybe TWIB makes more sense on Mondays rather than Sundays. I shall ponder.)
"If only this could have been a doubleheader at the American Airlines Center"...Silver and Engelbert definitely need to make this happen in the future!
Big Hornby fan. As you might imagine, being an Arsenal fan, I was quite excited to read Fever Pitch when I found out about it (I had just picked up High Fidelity, but bought Fever Pitch as well a soon as a read about the subject matter). I agree.. a fantastic read.
And cheers to you for breaking Passover at Tommy's Burger. With chili or wihtout? :D