This Week In 🏀 can only say chapeau in response to the Bucks' resurgence ... AND celebrate the house-turned-arcade arrival of (gasp) our very own Pop-A-Shot
Don't worry. The usual Monday Musings indeed lead off our latest TWIB compilation
Some pressing NBA musings on a Monday:
🏀 The first NBA Cup final — Lakers vs. Pacers — served up a textbook Glamour Franchise vs. Small-Market Underdogs showdown. Tuesday night's 2024 Cup final in Las Vegas — Oklahoma City vs. Milwaukee — features two of the league's hottest teams and two presumed title contenders ... if we're ready to put the Bucks back in that conversation.
🏀 I'm getting there. The Bucks, granted, are only up to 11th in offensive efficiency and 13th in defensive efficiency, falling just shy of the top-10 status in two crucial team statistical categories that is widely believed to be a requirement to stamp one's contender status. But Giannis Antetokounmpo is in rarefied air at the minute playing on a Nikola Jokić level, Khris Middleton is finally back from double ankle surgery and the Leastern Conference landscape is even more inviting than expected once we start scanning the landscape below Cleveland and Boston. Orlando has lost its two best players (Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner) to oblique injuries, Indiana is down from No. 2 to No. 15 in offensive efficiency and Philadelphia legit rivals New Orleans for injury woe.
🏀 What a difference a year makes. Did you read Saturday's note about Bobby Portis praising Doc Rivers profusely for his role in the Bucks' turnaround? It was at last year's NBA Cup Final Four in Las Vegas, remember, that my close pal Chris Haynes broke the news about Portis challenging then-coach Adrian Griffin and teammates in the locker room in the wake of Milwaukee's semifinal loss to Indiana. It was the first loud hint of the trouble that would soon follow; Griffin was stunningly fired by the Bucks just over a month later … and with a 30-13 record.
🏀 Thursday marks Karl-Anthony Towns' maiden return to Minneapolis as a visitor when the Timberwolves play host to the Knicks. Towns has been fantastic offensively (and as a rebounder) as a Knick and the Wolves have quietly gone 6-1 since Anthony Edwards publicly called his team out as "soft as hell." Cinema!
🏀 This is not officially on your NBA calendar but mark Jan. 10 down as The Empathy Bowl: Pelicans at Sixers. Matching the two teams that best know each other's pain.
🏀 We certainly would have italicized chapeau in the headline, since it's a word from another language, if we had that capability on this platform. Headlines on Substack, to our knowledge, do not allow for italicizing.
PS — We can also pass along that there were hugely happy holiday scenes all weekend at Stein Line HQ.
Why?
Because the home office now sports its own customized Pop-A-Shot Pro Dual two-hoop fun station!
With official The Stein Line branding.
First the Jake Fischer news a week before Thanksgiving. Now we've been outfitted with our own Pop-A-Shot arcade setup.
Yup: This is a Superstack!
Onto the rest of the standout stuff, NBA and otherwise, from The Week That Was both leaguewide and in my sphere.
