NBA

If you're reading this, there's an astronomically high chance you're aware Victor Wembanyama recorded 38 points and 10 rebounds in a win over the Suns last night.

If he had reached 40, he would have been the fourth player ever to do so in the first five games of their rookie season. And if you're superstitious, you might find it a good thing he didn't, considering the company he'd be in.

Alex Groza, in his fourth game as an NBA player, scored 41 points for the Indianapolis Olympians in an 83-79 win over the New York Knicks. And he did it in front of the largest crowd the Knicks had ever hosted at the time.

In the offseason following his second season in the league, Groza was arrested for conspiracy and bribery, the highest-profile by far of 30 former college stars—some who, like him, were by then in the NBA—involved in a mafia-run match fixing scandal. Though he avoided prison time as part of a plea deal, Alex Groza was barred from the NBA for life. A part-owner of his team, he was also forced to sell his shares upon threat of the league dissolving the franchise if he didn't.

John Drew, in his third game as an NBA player, scored 41 points and snagged 18 rebounds for the Atlanta Hawks in a 125-92 dismantling of the 76ers.

In the middle of his eleventh NBA season, while trying to catch on with Washington after being waived by the Jazz a month earlier, Drew received a lifetime ban from the NBA (with the possibility of reinstatement after two years) for his third drug offense according to league policy. He did not ever apply for reinstatement.

If you're guessing the other player to have done this is Wilt Chamberlain, you'd be correct. He scored 40+ in two of his first three NBA games. 43 points and 28 rebounds in his debut; 41 points and 40 rebounds two games later.

Sources:

“San Antonio Spurs vs Phoenix Suns Nov 2, 2023 Box Scores.” The Official Site of the NBA for the Latest NBA Scores, Stats & News., www.nba.com/game/sas-vs-phx-0022300131/box-score. Accessed 3 Nov. 2023.

Angelopoulos, Angelo. “Groza Shows Pros a New Pivot Style.” The Indianapolis News. November 23, 1949.

"Three Ex-U.K. Stars Admit Bribes." Associated Press. October 20, 1951.

Simmons, Darrell. “Meet Drew... and the Hawks.” The Atlanta Journal. October 23, 1974.

Hemphill, Lex. “'Strike Three, You're Out,' Determines NBA in John Drew Case.” The Salt Lake Tribune. January 22, 1986.

Kieran, Chris. "Stilt's 43 Lifts Philly, 118-109, Over Knicks." Daily News (New York, NY). October 25, 1959.

Webster, John. "Chamberlain Scored 41 in Warrior Win." The Philadelphia Inquirer. November 5, 1959.

We can't have him on the floor.
Thanks for all the memories, have fun playing in china.

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

Pretty solid night for me. Swapping onto the magic gave me a nice chance. That fultz news was so unexpected. Also all the pels value nuked besides the one bum i decided to play in hawkins :X.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Yd_YnDzzEw&feature=youtu.be

If discord is something you are interested in, Will have a link below where i have in-depth content going over each slate, player pools for cash and gpps, cores for cash and gpps and much more.

https://www.patreon.com/shookdfs

Edit: rj out. like hart and donte for value a llot

Edit: lost the comment but forgot to filter giddeys rates for last year. last year with SGA on the court giddey is 1.1 that im seeing. SGA off 1.2. so slight increase

Edit: love is not starting. im off him. highsmith is starting and is a fair value

Edit: cason wallace starting. im still ok with joe off the bench. im not paying that price for cason

The NBA In-Season tournament starts today. The tournament has two distinct parts: the group stage and the bracket stage. There are 3 groups of 5 teams per conference that were selected before the season started. The group stage is round robin format - every team in each group plays every other team in the group once. The winners of each group advance to the bracket stage. Since there are only 3 groups per conference, a wildcard team (the “best of the rest”) is promoted to the final bracket slot in each conference. The bracket is single elimination and plays out like any other bracket tournament. All games count toward the regular season except the final East vs West championship game on Dec 9th.

Where you might be confused:

• How do they fit this in with the regular season? - This season has 82 games per team as usual but with only 80 games already set in stone (date and opponent decided). The group stage games are woven into the first ~20 games of the schedule and the last ~60 games after Dec. 9th are set and not affected by the tournament. Every team currently has 2 games where the opponent is TBD (Example schedule). If you’re in the bracket tournament, you play the bracket opponents. If you didn’t qualify or get knocked out, you’ll play “make-up” games against other teams not in the tourny. Every team will play two games over the course of the tournament that count toward the regular season so that every team has 82 at the end.

• What do the winners get? - Every player in the bracket tournament gets a flat cash bonus depending on how far their team goes. The bracket champ gets 500k per player and runner up gets 250k per player. There are smaller bonuses for the other bracket finishes. There’s also a trophy and some individual honors.

• When is the tournament? - Group play starts tonight! Group stage games happen on “tournament nights” and are played on unique courts - they should be hard to miss. Every Friday from today to December is a tournament night. After next Tuesday, every Tuesday will also be a tournament night. Then from Dec. 4th through the 9th the bracket stage plays out.

That’s it, best of luck to all the contenders!

LeBron James after his first 5 games: 16.8 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 6.6 APG, 1.8 SPG, 0.6 BPG on 43.6 FG%

Kevin Durant after his first 5 games: 22.6 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 2.4 APG, 1.0 SPG, 0.6 BPG on 40.8 FG%

Wemby's a monster.

Source: https://www.nba.com/stats/player/1641705

https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1720413174321561797

I haven't seen anyone on Reddit mention this yet, so I thought it would be a good reminder. Every game today counts for regular season standings, but is also a part of the In-Season Tournament group stage.

Context:

• Streaks of 5 or more days in a row

• Odds -200 or less

• Looking at this in the morning, so there is a chance they don't play or the line is impacted by injury. Make sure to do your own research

Todays 11/03 Trends

Happy Hunting

-The Beard

As a Mavs fan, I am sending my best wishes for Spurs fans of having such a great guys.

We just noticed that NBA will turn into the necessity of having big men again to stop Victor in the years to come to win a championship.

We have seen how he abused the small-ball team and welcome to the new trend of necessity of having excellent Rim Protectors again!

Run, don’t walk Wolves fans! Literally JUST back in stock - custom only so it costs more, but they are available.

https://www.nbastore.com.au/en/minnesota-timberwolves/minnesota-timberwolves-nike-hardwood-classic-edition-swingman-jersey-custom-unisex/t-25146306+p-01697098243864+z-9-391546781

Spurs rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama’s 38 points tonight at Suns is the most in a game by a player within his first five career NBA games since Larry Kenon in 1976. Kenon previously played in the ABA before coming to the NBA. @ESPNStatsInfo

https://x.com/marcjspears/status/1720304469899096306?s=46&t=BPOCzlMnie9QX3i9mnMaQw

https://twitter.com/NBAPR/status/1720525228130832724

Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant will be a special guest on tonight's episode of #NBAHooperVision for an NBA In-Season Tournament matchup between the Golden State Warriors and Oklahoma City Thunder. Watch tonight at 8 p.m. ET

couldn't include it in the title bc of auto-mod, but it will be hosted on the NBA mobile app

Metta World Peace also tweeted this last night following Wemby's performance vs KD and the Suns:

Wem is winning 10 titles potentially. He might win MVP this year. Definitely 1st team all defense and 1st team all nba. Potentially the 1st player to be most improved as a rookie

Growing up I was always a Denver fan, but usually knew the most about the Broncos. This led to me knowing more about the NFL as a whole than the NBA. However with the Nuggets success these last few years (and the Broncos being bad), I have found I am paying WAY more attention to the NBA as a whole. A few years ago I probably would not have spent much time watching teams in the Eastern Conference, outside of the playoffs, but this season I am just really stoked for NBA basketball.