NBA Cup — Day 9 (12:02 am)

 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 12. Trae Young was more than happy to play villain last night, capping the evening by shooting imaginary dice on the Knicks logo. The Hawks will move on to Vegas, where they will match up against the Bucks in the Cup semifinals. The Bucks lost in last year's semis and have a lot to prove, so the Hawks will have to come into that matchup, 1 with high intensity, and 2 with a game plan to attempt to slow down the Greek Freak.

On the western side of things, the matchup between the Rockets and Warriors was decided by one point. With just a few seconds left, Air-Podz found himself with the ball and got his game-winning attempt blocked. While the Warriors did, in the words of David Kelly and Tari Eason, “come out to play,” they ended up falling just short of Vegas. The Warriors had beaten the Rockets 17 times in a row, with that streak beginning all the way back with the James Harden-led Rockets. The Rockets snapped their streak and punched their ticket to Vegas to face the Thunder.In last night’s actual play, no significant scorer for the Warriors truly emerged, and the Rockets' grueling defense kept balls out of the cup for the Warriors. For Houston, Alperen Sengun had 26, 11, and 5 on 10-of-18 shooting. They’ll need another big performance from him if the Rockets expect to compete with the Thunder.

The Hawks made it to the ECF in 2021 but have been on a downward spiral since. People are beginning to question if a team can truly be considered a championship contender with Trae Young at the helm. A Cup championship could also be defining for guys such as Jalen Johnson and Zaccharie Risacher. Johnson is in the running for MIP, and Risacher has an opportunity to prove why he was the number one overall pick in a draft that had no clear top dog. The Rockets are seen as a team with an abundance of young talent. This playoff-like atmosphere is an opportunity for players to separate themselves as ones the Rockets’ front office will want to keep around.

That’s going to cap your Cup recap—you’ll hear from me again Sunday.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Two Stand out Players so far this season

  Hello, I’m Carlos Andres Segrera, and this is the NBA from the mind of a high schooler. Today we will be discussing a couple of players that have caught my attention thus far, as well as look over some notes from this weekend.  Grouped with two drafts containing generational prospects Zion Williamson and Victor Wembanyama, the 2022 draft didn’t have the flashy headlines that 2020 and ‘23 had, but Paolo Banchero the 2022 first overall pick has been the best of the three so far this season, and it should be no surprise that we’re talking about Paolo today.  During my fantasy draft this year, I had Paolo at the top of my list for the third round and just before my pick, one of my friends (who will remain unnamed) snatched Paolo up from me, leaving me with Scottie Barnes who has had a lackluster  start to the season. Barnes flirted with a triple double last night with 5 steals to go alongside his 21-12 and 9, but headed to the locker room after taking a Jokic Elbow ...
Read more

Nuggets V Mavericks: what did this matchup reveal about two title contenders?

  Hello, I’m Carlos Andres Segrera, and this is the NBA from the mind of a high schooler. Today I wanted to give myself a bit of a challenge: To focus solely on one game. Now I didn’t just pick the Heat game from last night, knowing I could talk about the Heat for hours. I wanted to place myself in unfamiliar territory without forcing myself to talk about two irrelevant teams. So, today we will be breaking down last night’s matchup between the Mavericks and the Nuggets, where the Nuggets ended up winning 122-120.  Knowing I wanted to dedicate an entire post to this game, I ended up watching it three times. The first time was live, casually with my family; the second time was the morning after, where I took some notes; and the third and final time I muted the game and did the broadcast myself as a way to practice.  The Nuggets started off the season slow and there were a lot of questions about the legitimacy of their finals contention. Currently they are on the longest w...
Read more

NBA Cup — Day 1

  Hello, I’m Carlos Andres Segrera, and this is the NBA from the mind of a high schooler. In writing my blogs so far, I’ve been all over the place, writing about whatever I wanted. But I’ve decided to start a series of sorts. Every Wednesday and Saturday—the day after the NBA Cup matchups—I will be doing a recap of the evening’s events. Last night was the start of group play for the newly named “NBA Cup,” and there was no lack of drama on those boldly painted courts. Many people, including Vegas, predicted the first game of the night to be heavily one-sided, but the Trae Young-less Hawks ended up squeaking out a win by one point against the defending champ Celtics, 117-116. This win wasn’t handed to the Hawks, though (unlike other games last night); they needed career nights from both Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson to get it done. Daniels had a career-high 28 points paired with 7 assists while putting on a defensive clinic with 6 steals. Johnson recorded his second career tripl...
Read more