NBA Clutch Encounters — 2/19/2021

The night Yuta Watanabe was murdered on live television. Can’t believe the NBA kept playing. Smh.

Warriors vs Magic

Big swings in this one. At one point GS was down 17, at another up 13.

Picking this up as Golden State leading 114–113. My goodness Orlando has no talent out there except for Vucevic. I have no idea who some of these people are. Terrence Ross plays a two-man game with Vucevic. Draymond thinks they’re switching, Oubre does not and that means the only competent player on the Magic is left open. Awesome.

Vucevic drives and kicks to an open Chuma Okeke for a corner 3. Magic lead 116–114.

Warriors run the offense through Wiggins, and not Steph. He goes against Vucevic in the paint and tries a floater. Goes as well as you might think.

Magic run a screen for Terrence Ross. Draymond is a bit slow to play up on Ross — this might be because he didn’t want to switch too easily and have Damion Lee guard Vucevic.

Regardless, Ross nails the 3. 119–114.

After a time-out and the Warriors can’t even inbound the ball. Good play by Ross. Magic actually run a play Golden State is famous for. Vucevic screening for Ross off the ball. Ross takes a 3 and misses. Guess it doesn’t work as well when Curry isn’t involved.

Green plays it well. Ross probably could have sent it to an open Vucevic. Magic get the long rebound and the Warriors are in serious trouble. They missed another 3 with Vucevic getting open on a pick-and-pop.

Surely the Warriors will make them pay! Steph turned it over on the pick-and-roll with Draymond. He was doubled and couldn’t get it over Carter-Williams. Green fouls MCW on the other side. 121–114.

Warriors run the same play the Magic did with Ross/Vucevic. Wiggins inbounds to Green and sets a screen for Curry.

They’ve run this play for I don’t know how many years. Still teams get confused by it. Fournier doesn’t play up on Curry and leaves him open for a 3. 121–117.

Fournier gets a switch on Draymond. Can’t do anything and just throws it up to Vucevic. Misses a fadeaway with time running down.

Warriors are still down 4. Curry fakes the 3, drives, nothing there, retreats, pump-fakes and gets open for a 3. 121–120. What a play.

But the extra move means the Warriors have to foul. They foul Vucevic and he hits both. 123–120.

Steph basically brought the Warriors back single-handedly. And so he tries to tie the game by himself. Then he runs into this.

Curry makes the correct play and resets with Draymond. He doesn’t quite get open, though, so he puts the ball back on the floor. NOTE HE IS STILL BEING DOUBLE-TEAMED LOOK AT THIS.

Throws up the 3 anyways because who the hell else is going to shoot? Misses. Magic win 124–120.

Raptors vs Timberwolves

Well, this is the game where a man was killed on live television and the game kept going. Sad to see.

We start with the game at 81–77???? What is this? 2003?

Siakam drives and kicks to Stanley Johnson who was standing out of bounds. I know see why the score was what it was.

Wolves very badly trying to get the ball to Towns — who had Stanley Johnson covering him — but the Raptors deny really well. Minnesota then tries a two-man game with Rubio and Towns. Still nothing. Rubio then has to drive, falls, lost the ball. Ugly.

Norm Powell just goes in transition because God knows no one is scoring in the half-court and throws in a layup. Not ugly.

Towns “sets” a screen on Powell the other way, who flops like he got elbowed in the face by Misawa. Edwards is left open for 3. Misses. 81–79.

Raptors get an open 3 for Stanley Johnson on a pick-and-pop with VanVleet. He also misses. 81–79, still.

Raptors blow a coverage on a pick-and-roll with Rubio/Towns.

This leaves Beasley wide open for 3. And then Siakam FROM THE CLOUDS comes in and blocks the shot. What a play.

Raptors find Pascal hanging out in the dunker spot the other way. 81–81. GOOD PLAY.

Again Minnesota tries a two-man game with Rubio and Towns. Towns is wide open for 3 as the Raptors double Rubio (?!). Towns misses.

VanVleet pulls up in transition. Nope.

Towns commits an illegal screen. Gotta say this isn’t the prettiest game ever played.

Raptors run a nice little off-ball screen for Terence Davis. Anthony Edwards plays this horribly and leaves Davis wide open for 3.

BAD PLAY! 84–81.

Minnesota runs ANOTHER BAD PLAY! Rubio gets it to Beasley on what I can only assume was supposed to be a dribble hand-off. Beasley is very much Not Open.

He can do several things from here. Pass it to Rubio. Try to split the double team. Realize he can’t run a game with Towns and call a timeout. Instead he shoots. Now granted, VanVleet had left him by that point, but he was still Not Open. Barely hits the rim, and that’ll do it! Raptors win 86–81.

Jazz vs Clippers

We start with the Clippers leading 107–94. I am unsure how they almost blew this, but here we are.

Leonard fouls Bogdanovic (his fifth). Hits 1 FT. 107–95.

Leonard then drives and loses the ball. Tough sequence for him.

Donovan Mitchell makes a great play. Gets the ball in the corner, drives and kicks to Bogdanovic instead of Mike Conley. Paul George was cheating towards the corner.

107–98. By the way, can the Jazz announcers stop calling him Bogey?

Clippers with a REALLY ugly possession. George/Batum “run” a pick-and-roll. Then George tries to drive past his man. Nothing so he sends it out to Marcus Morris who does his best Michael Jordan impression. Nothing. Good defense from Mitchell to force this, but in no universe should that be happening.

Mitchell crosses Paul George over and draws a foul at the rim. Taking over on both ends. 107–100.

Finally the Clippers get the ball to Leonard. Kawhi clears out, goes against Royce O’Neale, crosses over, spins, and throws up a tough hook shot. Actually did get some separation, but it’s great defense from the Jazz, and he can’t hit.

Shoutout to Gobert for the help here. Shoutout to the Jazz not getting the rebound when Kawhi was 1-on-everyone.

This time Kawhi blows right by O’Neale and kicks to Marcus Morris. No dice. Kawhi gets the offensive rebound AGAIN. And that seals the game. So I guess this game wasn’t all that close in the end. Jazz were down by too much not to be perfect. They almost were, if it’s any consolation. Mitchell hit some crazy shots after the Jazz ran out of possessions — worth checking out if you haven’t seen it.