February 29, 2024 NBA Games

Milwaukee Bucks 111 (39-21) @ Charlotte Hornets 99 (15-44)

The Hornets have actually been playing well after the trade deadline with their new players. Tre Mann and Vasilije Micic have been some bright spots on their team and Brandon Miller has grown tremendously in rookie season. Today, the Bucks defense showed up and they also were hitting their shots. The Bucks are starting to pick it up, after a lot of drama. For the season, they were giving up 117 points per game, but in the last 8 games they've only been allowing about 100, which is the best in the NBA during that period

Utah Jazz 107 (27-33) @ Orlando Magic 115 (34-26)

Both these teams don't shoot the three that well and are reliant on their production closer to the rim. Today, the Magic won that matchup with 56 points in the paint compared to the Jazz's 30. Paolo also having a good season and came up with a clutch assist to Suggs who hit a three to basically ice the game.

Atlanta Hawks 97 (26-33) @ Brooklyn Nets 124 (23-36)

The Nets came out with a strong start and led the entire way. The story of this game was that both teams don't guard the three point shot well, they're both in the bottom 6 of the league in guarding the shot with their opponents having a high field goal percentage from that distance. The Nets shot 48% from the three today while the Hawks shot 29% with the Nets also attempting 18 more threes.

Golden State Warriors 110 (31-27) @ New York Knicks 99 (35-35)

Kuminga has been playing well since he has entered the starting lineup and that continued today too with him scoring 25 points, but of course Steph does what Steph does and scored 8 three's today. For the Knicks, Josh Hart came up big with 18 rebounds and only rested for 50 seconds of game time, which is insane. Quietly though, the Knicks are starting to slip down the Eastern Conference standings after a pretty good season, they've lost 8 of their last 11 games. They have had some key injuries to Julius Randle and OG Anunoby, but still a rough stretch of games for the Knicks.

Oklahoma City Thunder 118 (41-18) @ San Antonio Spurs 132 (12-48)

Great game for Wemby today who became the first player in NBA history to record 25+ points, 10+ rebounds, 5+ assists, 5+ blocks, and 5+ three pointers made. A good overall game for the team though who scored 10 more threes than the Thunder, had 8 more rebounds, and 19 more assists. The Vassell and Wemby pick and roll was working well too, giving Vassell some room to operate who ended up having a good passing game ending with 9 assists. A kinda weird stat: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander now has 12 games with exactly 31 points, and he's averaging 31 points for the season. This is basically showing how weirdly consistent he has been this season.

Houston Rockets 105 (25-34) @ Phoenix Suns 110 (35-24)

Devin Booker scored 20 points in the first quarter opening up a 33-17 lead at the end of the first quarter for the Suns. I've noticed that Booker loves the first quarter and I feel like he does a lot of his damage then and in the third quarter, looks like he's been averaging about 8-9 points in each of those quarters in the past few seasons which would account for about 60% of his total points for the game coming in those quarters. The Rockets, tried to catch up after that first quarter, led by Jalen Green who finished with 34 points, but it wasn't enough tonight.

Miami Heat 97 (33-26) @ Denver Nuggets 103 (41-19)

The question from this game will be the health of Jamal Murray who rolled his ankle. There's a big drop-off in production from him to the other guards and the team is on another level when he's in the game with Jokic. This was a kinda fun rematch of last year's NBA Finals. Both of these teams are slightly above average three-point shooters

Washington Wizards (9-50) @ Los Angeles Lakers (33-28)

Lakers won, but in overtime, against a team that only has 9 wins this season. It took Jordan Poole's season high in points to keep the Wizards in the game, but just as yesterday Lebron's endgame is what got them the win. A dominant performance from Anthony Davis though who scored 40 points on 14 made shots, with 11 of those shots in the paint.

Photo from USA Today