Play-in Tourney Night Two

Hello. Welcome back to the NBA play-in tournament night two. We have a thread tonight to talk hoops.

Last night, undrafted second-year forward Oshae Brissett stepped up with Caris LeVert out due to COVID 19 protocols and scored 23 points for the Indiana Pacers in a blowout 144-117 win over the Charlotte Bobcats.

Rookie LaMelo Ball was -35 and struggled mightly (4-14 shooting) in 27 minutes. The Hornets went 12 for 40 from deep, but mostly it was the dominance of All-Star Domantas Sabonis, who played marvelously through a quad injury to the tune of 27 points, 21 rebounds, and 9 assists. He carved them up and his teammates were scorching hot from the field with a final 55.2/45.7/80 shooting splits. Yikes, Charlotte defense!

Since this is a Wolves site, you might remember Sabonis’ utterly dominant performance back in February at Target Center in which he registered his highest Game Score (37.8) of the season—a beastly 36/16/10/4 stocks triple-double.

The Pacers move on to face the Washington Wizards, losers of the 7/8 seed game. Russell Westbrook and Brad Beal both had off shooting nights and Boston moves on to the playoffs thanks to Jayson Tatum’s 50 points (32 in the second half). It should be noted that Westbrook’s pre-game outfit was magnificent. This is a style blog as well. What will he wear for Thursday’s survive and advance finale against the Pacers?

Here’s the bracket for a quick refresher:

via NBA.com

There are two games on the slate tonight.

Game 3 (West 9/10): Memphis vs. San Antonio; 7:30 ET, ESPN

Game 4 (West 7/8): Los Angeles Lakers vs. Golden State; 10 ET, ESPN

I’ll take Ja Morant’s Grizzlies over the Popovich’s and LeBron+AD over the Curry’s.

A handful of former Wolves are in the mix tonight, including Andrew Wiggins, Tyus Jones, Gorgui Dieng, and Keita Bates-Diop. Tre Jones is also a friend of the program. Personally, I’m curious to see what version of Wiggins shows up vs. the Lakers. If Curry can rip 50 and Wiggins has one of those every now and then types of showings where he absolutely crushes it, the Warriors could definitely steal this one.

Chat here about that and more! See you all in the comments.

Side note: How sweet is Ja Morant? He’s one of the coolest players to watch in the league. If you need a pick me up, go watch his neverending reel of bodacious highlights.