The NBA from a high schooler

  Hello, I’m Carlos Andres Segrera, and this is the NBA from the mind of a high schooler. OKC is the youngest team in the league, and the Bucks are one of the oldest. Right in the middle of a very stressful midterms week was the NBA Cup final. My time management skills were put to the test, but I think I pulled off studying and watching 2 and a half hours of basketball. Of course, we won’t know until grades drop, but I’ve got high hopes. I can promise you that this will be a great blog. The NBA Cup finals between the Bucks and the Thunder was last night, and while the game wasn’t as close as one would’ve wanted, I still feel it revealed a lot about these two teams and the league as a whole. The Bucks scored over 16 points less than their season average, they still won by 16. The final score of the NBA Cup final was 97 to 81 in favor of Milwaukee. This was a defensively oriented game that had neither team shoot over 42% from the field. The game was very close in the first half, cl...

  Hello, I’m Carlos Andres Segrera, and this is the NBA from the mind of a high schooler.  After fully wearing out my media credentials at the AutoNation Orange Bowl Basketball Classic and missing Bucks-Hawks, I came home and locked in for Thunder-Rockets, where OKC came out victorious. I ended up rewatching the Bucks' victory, which solidified my confidence that this NBA Cup Finals matchup will be absolutely thrilling. The first few minutes of the Bucks-Hawks game pretty much summed up the entire contest. The Bucks scored 7 straight points, which were followed up by 7 straight Hawks points. The game was back and forth the entire time, but it was one man who was the difference maker for the Bucks—the same man who either scored or assisted every single one of those first seven points. His name? Giannis Antetokounmpo. Thanks to Giannis’ 32 points, 14 rebounds, 9 assists, and 4 steals, the Bucks came out on top, 110 to 102.Trae Young fought to keep Atlanta in the game, dropping...

  Hello, I’m Carlos Andres Segrera, and this is the NBA from the mind of a high schooler. After an action-packed night of Cup play on Tuesday, we, NBA fans, were gifted with more of the same the next night. Last night, the Hawks took on the Knicks on Trae Young’s home floor, and the Rockets faced the Warriors at home. There has been a known rivalry between the Knicks and Hawks since the 2021 playoffs, where the origin of the "F Trae Young" chants stems from, and there definitely wasn't a lack of those in MSG last night. It was an inefficient night for both teams; Josh Hart and De’Andre Hunter were the only non-bigs who were able to remain efficient. Trae Young had 22 and 1 on not the best percentages, but his efforts were enough to bring the Hawks to victory, 108 to 100. Jalen Johnson, who, while following the night’s inefficiency trend, dropped 21 and 15. It was once again second-chance points that gave the Hawks the edge, outclassing the Knicks in that category, 22 to...

  Hello, I’m Carlos Andres Segrera, and this is the NBA from the mind of a high schooler. Now that Thanksgiving break has come to an end, these next two Cup blogs are going to be hectic to write, but we get it done. Last night was the first 2 (of 4) quarterfinal matchups. The Bucks took on the Magic, and the Thunder matched up with the Mavericks. These two games were the 1-4 matchups, so they were supposed to have the least amount of drama but ended up turning into two hard-fought matches. I’m not sure if I’m the only person who does this, but I’ve noticed that NBA games typically start 7-16 minutes after the posted start time (especially Heat games, which run on Cuban timing), so I give myself a buffer for when I need to actually sit down and get ready for the game. Last night, the 7 PM Bucks-Magic game actually started at 7 PM, so I missed the first 5 minutes of the 1st. The Magic were without their two stars, Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, but were able to stay in this game ...

  Hello, I’m Carlos Andres Segrera, and this is the NBA from the mind of a high schooler. Now that group play has come to an end, we will be looking at what the future holds in the quarterfinals. Many of the games last night were insignificant when it came to Cup seeding, so to quickly recap: The 76ers beat the Hornets 110 to 104, making the Hornets one of four teams to go 0-4 in group play. The Cavs beat the Wizards 118 to 87, extending the Wizards' losing streak to 15 (watch out, 2023-24 Pistons!). The Raptors beat the Pacers 122 to 111, and Scottie Barnes continues his hot streak post-injury, dropping 35. The Nuggets beat the Warriors, who already clinched. The Kings beat the Rockets, who clinched, pushing the Kings to 1-3 and keeping them out of that 0-4 group. The Clippers beat the Trailblazers, putting the Clippers at a +16 point differential, higher than several teams who moved on to the quarters. To the games that had some stakes: The Bucks and Pistons both went into T...