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We don’t have any games tonight! Both Game 6s in the East and West will be tomorrow. What should we do with our night off from the NBA? Celebrate the birthdays of Pooh Richardson, Voshon Leonard and Eddie House? Maybe! Or we can celebrate the Sacramento Kings, on this date in 1998, trading Mitch Richmond and Otis Thorpe for Chris Webber. It brought about the start of one of the best and most entertaining teams that never won a title.
About last night
Cavs win on the road. Is Detroit done?
The Cleveland Cavaliers were having one of the weirdest postseasons we’ve ever seen. They were 6-0 at home and 0-5 on the road. They looked like the team they were supposed to be at home. On the road? They were entirely unserious. I said as such in this very newsletter a few games ago.
Little did I know, the unserious call was coming from inside Little Caesars Arena. Because the Cavs finally broke through their winless streak on the road, thanks to 30 points, eight rebounds and six assists from James Harden.
It wasn’t the prettiest 30-8-6 game we’ve seen from him. He was only 8-of-21 from the field and 3-of-10 from deep with six turnovers. But he had three blocks, went 11-of-14 from the free-throw line and managed to lead the Cavs to a 117-113 overtime win against the Detroit Pistons. The Cavs now hold a 3-2 lead in the series and head back home, where they remain undefeated in the postseason.
Evan Mobley had his best game of the series with 19 points, eight boards and eight assists. Max Strus knocked down six 3-pointers on his way to 20 points off the bench. And they survived a subpar Donovan Mitchell night (21 points on 18 shots). Mostly, this was about how the Pistons continue to avoid being the 60-win team we saw all season long.
Cade Cunningham had 39 points on 13-of-27 from the field and 6-of-10 from deep. That, plus nine assists, would lead you to believe his Pistons won the game. But he had six more turnovers, bringing his total to 69 turnovers in 12 games. With the Cavs up three in the final moments of overtime, Harden missed a free throw and got his own rebound because Cunningham fell asleep on the rebound. These things just can’t happen.
Even worse is the continued demise of Jalen Duren. He had nine points, five boards and four assists in 25 minutes, but the Pistons were markedly better with Paul Reed in the game. So much so that Duren did not play down the stretch and was benched for the entire overtime.
After the loss, this was a string of texts from a friend of mine who is a Pistons fan:
“He’s unplayable.”
“I really don’t understand it.”
“Detroit’s second-best player tonight was either Paul Reed or Daniss Jenkins.”
“This team won 60 games!”
“What a disaster.”
It’s hard to argue with the frustration, even if I’m trying to be my most rational and pragmatic self. This is a disaster.
The Pistons now have to do “the impossible” and beat the Cavs at Rocket Arena. They have to either bench Duren or get him hypnosis to remind him of the player he was literally a month ago. Neither of these teams is serious, but maybe the Cavs are just a touch more serious than we anticipated.
The last 24
👑 Hang up the crown? LeBron James has mostly won his battle with Father Time. He should declare victory and retire now, Candace Buckner writes.
👀 Secret weapon. The Spurs have a force behind the scenes that’s helping their playoff push. It’s Gregg Popovich!
🏀 Bad evaluation? Jay King doesn’t believe the Pacers failed with taking a risk on the Ivica Zubac trade. They failed instead with player evaluation.
🧙 No apologies. The Wizards tanked hard and ended up with the No. 1 pick. Owner Ted Leonis says, “We lived up to those rules.”
🏀 Confidence, baby. BYU’s AJ Dybantsa made his case for being the No. 1 pick — as a player and a product. “I fill seats.”
🔊 “NBA Daily.” Watch and listen to a recap of last night’s game and a report from the NBA Draft Combine.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
Sixers need fixers
How does Philly get better after Daryl Morey firing?
The Philadelphia 76ers have fired president of basketball operations Daryl Morey and kept Nick Nurse as their coach. In Morey’s six seasons running the team, the Sixers were 270-212 in the regular season and 28-26 in the playoffs. They were good. They weren’t good enough, and they’ve now gone 25 years without making the Eastern Conference finals, let alone competing for a championship.
The Sixers found their next era with Tyrese Maxey’s rise to stardom and VJ Edgecombe’s rookie campaign. This backcourt is exactly what they want their identity to be in the future. However, they have big money committed to Joel Embiid and Paul George. That impedes how they can build around this backcourt, but it also provides those guards with excellent players alongside them … sometimes.
George hasn’t even played half the games in his two years with Philly. He played 41 two seasons ago and 37 this season (25 of those missed games this season came because of a 25-game suspension for violating the league’s drug policy). We know the deal with Embiid by now. He’s never played 70 games in a season. He’s missed 46.6 percent of his career games, including playoffs. As you can see in this salary table from Spotrac, there is a lot of money tied up in the next two to three years with this group.
The Sixers have Quentin Grimes as an unrestricted free agent. Kelly Oubre Jr. ($8.3 million) and Andre Drummond ($5 million) have player options this summer. Oubre and Drummond can definitely make more money than that. But remember, Philly made the Jared McCain trade to get under the luxury tax, so we have no idea how much it’s willing to spend to fill out this roster or keep its free agents. =
Just with those four players in the salary table above, the Sixers are right at the projected $165 million salary cap in 2026-27. Whoever is taking over this front office will need to get creative with how they work within the margins to fill those big spots. Ironically, that’s where Morey was supposed to be at his best. The team may be stuck until Embiid’s contract is off the roster, unless his knee issue has truly been figured out. I won’t hold my breath there.
What’s next for Morey? In the early days of Twitter, NBA pundits and fans would go on and on about how Morey was the smartest GM in the league. And maybe he was for a short time, as he helped usher in the use of analytics. At least in terms of how it’s accepted or applied. But now that everybody has analytics departments, it’s safe to wonder if his methods just don’t provide clear advantages anymore.
There are still plenty of organizations that could really use his vision for resetting a roster and acquiring a decent amount of assets. I’m not sure that he needs to be on board after that reset and restock happens. Over the last few years, I’ve floated that Morey can’t lead championship organizations, because he’s too focused on ref audits and why it isn’t his team’s fault it fell short, rather than preaching a level of accountability necessary for title realizations. Maybe that’s off, but it’s how I view it. Let him reset an organization, and then find the next step.
Ref ratings
After further review, the players say …
The players’ union did something completely new. You may be familiar with the anonymous player poll we’ve done here at The Athletic over the years — and the controversy it caused when Tyrese Haliburton was named the NBA’s most overrated player before his run to the finals last season. Well, the NBPA did an anonymous player poll to rank the league’s referees.
Players rank the officials on a 1-to-5 scale and grouped them into three different tiers. Tier 1 includes the elite and top-performing referees. Tier 2 includes solid performers. And Tier 3 includes refs who need improvement, according to these players.
The NBPA wants only Tier 1 and Tier 2 refs to officiate the playoffs. They also want only Tier 1 refs to officiate the NBA Finals. Here are the ranking results:
Some takeaways:
I’m shocked to see Tony Brothers in Tier 1. So often it feels like he’s unwilling to correct calls during replay reviews. And he recently had a blowup with Timberwolves coach Chris Finch during a playoff game. His ability to communicate seems strained from the outside looking in.
Scott Foster did not make the elite tier of referees. For any fans at home, that isn’t a surprise. I’m just not sure you can expect him to handle this news well, given how he officiates.
I’m stunned that players felt so highly about James Williams. I think he tends to get a lot of calls incorrect, but he does appear to be a good communicator with players about calls. That probably goes a long way.
John Goble falling down to Tier 3 is perfect. He’s been a referee for 16 seasons, but he feels like one of the worst veteran referees. His communication with players is under scrutiny quite often. And you’ll probably remember his recent spat with Austin Reaves during the Lakers-Thunder series.
I think Bill Kennedy is probably the best official we have right now, and I’m glad to see the players have him in Tier 1.
While consistency and quality of calls are likely a big factor, most of the time players (and coaches) just want to be able to communicate with referees to find out why something was called or what they’re doing wrong or why things are unfolding the way they are. The better the communicator, the better the relationship.
Meanwhile, players constantly whining about calls after every whistle has to put a strain on some of this communication. But that’s the job. It’s interesting to see who the players accept and who they think needs work
