As we are left to wonder what would have been for a fall OSU football season, the NBA’s bubble was bursting with delight.  Contenders and apparent pretenders struggled and butted heads while the next supernova set his trail to greatness ablaze with the red hot suns burning bright upon him.  Hell yeah! The excitement was enough for me to put out a bubble recap with a playoff preview still to come.  Here’s some takeaways from the NBA’s whatever season.

San Antonio is missing their first playoffs in 23 seasons.  An NBA record tying 22 year streak came to an end on the next to last day of the bubble.  The last time the Spurs missed the playoffs, Greg Popovich was their interim coach and they ended up winning the lottery and drafted a guy named Tim Duncan.  Perhaps you’ve heard?

This is what I said back in a 2015 Pencilstorm NBA Preview about the Phoenix Suns:  “The Suns are going to need some young players like T.J. Warren to step up if they want to improve this year.” T.J. did step up in Phoenix , averaging 18 points a game on 42% from 3 in 2019 but he was traded the next year along with the 32nd pick for the infamous “cash considerations”.  Well he was considered CASH in the bubble.  “Buckets” Warren set the bubble scoring record (short-lived) with 53 points out of nowhere in his first game of the restart.  My man has been straight buckets since N.C. State and will be considering some nice cash in the future after averaging 31 ppg the last two weeks.

The reason 22 teams made up the NBA’s restart was cause of awkward finagling the NBA approved to make sure they could get the New Orleans Pelicans and notably Zion Williamson a chance to have a first round matchup with LeBron.  The NBA would have marketing gold for the next 15 years, a forever pass the torch moment.  And it backfired remarkably.  The Pelicans, granted the easiest remaining schedule as well, went 2-6 and quickly found themselves out of contention.  A questionable minutes restriction on Zion (a good idea executed terribly) mired them in controversy right out of the gate.  And as New Orleans faced a storm, the clouds parted for the surprise team of the bubble.

Ladies and gentleman, rising from the ashes of all the fire references I’ve made so far, your Phoenix Suns!!! The Suns are the first and almost positively the only team that will ever go undefeated in the Bubble.  They are the new 1972 Miami Dolphins! The 8-0 Suns led by the young baller Devin Booker really showed the rest of the NBA that maybe this Phoenix iteration could get them back closer to the Steve Nash and Amar’e glory days.  Unfortunately the Suns perfect effort was not enough as the best game of the NBA season did not bounce their way.  

The bubble bounced the way of one man the most these two weeks.  A tremendous tribute to Mamba mentality by someone who could be its heir apparent.  Damian Lillard is the Bat Man.  He’s the Bad Man.  And he was the Best Man during the end of the NBA’s regular season carrying his team into the Play In game with 51, 61 (new bubble record), and 42 points in his last 3 games, all wins.  Lillard is the type of athlete you dream of being on your team.  And he’s become a top tier superstar in the NBA, the kind linked to the Lakers as soon as any blogger finds a way.

It all came down to the next to last day of the season.  Portland had the 8th seed and after victories by Memphis and Phoenix needed to win to be in.  They faced a depleted Brooklyn Nets team and the outcome looked promising for them.  But Brooklyn under interim coach Jacque Vaughn, that icon of 90’s Kansas basketball, wasn’t trying to back down.  And the game was excellent!  The Nets fought hard and kept clawing back and by the end of the game, they had the Blazers on the ropes and Portland fans as nervous as Nancies could get.  It really felt like playoff basketball and after big play after big play it came down to the last seconds.

Special shout out to two Ohio natives that the game’s last seconds centered on.  There was Canton native C.J. McCollum, the Robin for the Blazers, who had been playing with a FRACTURED back since the first game of the bubble.  Guess that ruins your next excuse to miss work.  He ended up guarding the Nets’ best player of the night, Columbus’ own Caris LeVert, on the last play.  The cousin to famed musical legends (LeVert, The O’Jays), LeVert shined Thursday night with 37 points and put the Eastern Conference on notice for next year when Brookyn returns two bums named Kyrie and KD.  LeVert’s heroics were not enough though as his buzzer beating attempt clanged off the rim and Portland finally got the shot they came for.

So Saturday Portland will play the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA’s first ever Play In game.  As the 8th seed, Portland needs to win once to qualify for the playoffs as the last team in the West.  As the 9th seed, Memphis needs to win twice (if they win Saturday, game 2 is on Sunday) to make the playoffs after a surprising year.  The Grizzlies have rookie sensation Ja Morant and some really nice young pieces in Dillon Brooks and Brandon Clarke but they lost arguably their most dominant player in Jaren Jackson Jr. to a meniscus tear in the first week of the restart.  It is not likely that Memphis will win but Portland’s recent history indicates the Blazers may still leave it to the last minute just to play with their fans’ emotions.

What is likely however is that the NBA may have found a way to deter tanking.  This game should have playoff intensity (another advantage for the Blazers as the Grizzlies don’t have much experience there) but furthermore, the NBA can set a rule in the future that if teams are within a couple games of the 8th seed, that there’ll be a play in tournament.  More playoff level games and also an incentive for teams to try and get close to the 8th seed as opposed to better lottery odds.  That’s a win for fans as well as team culture and people who hate losers. See you in a couple days for a playoff preview!  Prediction:  Blazers - 113, Grizzlies - 107