BBNBA: Julius Randle booed; Trey Lyles dominates
The NBA Playoff race is crackin’ down the stretch of the regular season. Miami re-took their lead in the East while Julius Randle was booed in his own home arena. Check it out.
Heat usurp one-seed from Boston
Four days ago the Miami Heat underwent their longest losing streak of the season (four games) to fall out of the top of the East standings. Boston took over after playing the best basketball of any team in the past few months. Things have changed quickly, though. Miami smashed Sacramento and defeated the Celtics in Boston last night and is back in control of the conference heading into the final five games of the season.
Bam Adebayo was Miami’s best player in the win Wednesday, nearly racking up a triple-double with 17 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists to go along with his typically superb defense. If not for a few long stints of missed games, he’d be a clear favorite for Defensive Player of the Year. Even despite missing 25 games so far, Bam is the betting favorite to win the award at +115, just ahead of Utah’s Rudy Gobert, who’s going for his third straight DPOY nod.
Meanwhile, Tyler Herro didn’t have his best scoring night — just 12 points. But he did haul in 10 rebounds and swish this buzzer-beater over two Celtics defenders.
With the victory, Miami is in first place by a full game over two-seed Milwaukee, with fewer games remaining than most of the other Eastern Conference teams. They have games against Chicago, Charlotte and Toronto coming over the next week — all teams competing for playoff position in the East. It won’t be a cake walk, but if Miami can take two of those three, I’d feel good about their chances to retain the one-seed — and more importantly, avoid facing likely seven-seed Brooklyn in round one.
Lyles goes for 24 in Houston win
No De’Aaron Fox, no problem for Sacramento against the worst team in the NBA. Trey Lyles matched his best scoring night in a Kings jersey with 24 points, including four made threes and 10 made free throws, to help spark a comeback win on the road vs. the Rockets.
With Wednesday’s outburst, Lyles is officially having a career year. 10.5 points and 6.0 rebounds a game while shooting 32.8% from three. Frankly, not the type of production that’s going to earn eight figures a year, but the type of rotational contribution that will keep Lyles employed for at least another year. He has a team-option for $2.6 million in 2023 that I’d think the Kings will exercise.
Randle booed by his own fans
Shame on New York Knick fans, who booed Julius Randle as he was introduced at the Knicks home game vs. Charlotte.
Top 10
- 1Breaking
Second CFP Top 25
Newest CFP rankings are out
- 2New
Updated CFP Bracket
12-Team playoff bracket after 2nd CFP Top 25
- 3Trending
Diego Pavia
Court denies Vandy QB temporary restraining order against the NCAA
- 4
Nico Iamaleava
Tennessee QB dealing with concussion ahead of Georgia game
- 5
Governor slams LSU
Live tiger defended, LSU Tigers ripped
Sure, Randle’s play in 2022 is far inferior to his 2021 campaign. Let’s not forget, though, that the only reason New York Knicks basketball was remotely relevant in 2021 was because of Julius Randle. He posted career-highs across the board and transformed into a legitimate top-five MVP candidate for dragging a roster that stinks into the playoffs. Not just into the play-in games, either. On the back of Randle, the Knicks locked down a top-four seed in the East and hosted a playoff series for the first time since 2013.
Randle is almost solely to thank for Knicks ticket-holders experiencing playoff basketball at The Garden last spring. This season hasn’t gone completely to plan (the East got better, an already bad Knicks roster got even worse and lost its backcourt along with most of the impactful defenders from ’21) but to boo Randle as if this demise is all his fault is ridiculous.
Perhaps that’s why the Knicks strike out every year in free agency. You think Kyrie Irving or Kevin Durant or Giannis ever want to deal with that sort of snobbery? Booing former All-NBA players, give me a break. Knicks fans deserve what they get.
Isaiah Jackson’s head about to explode?
Normally, I don’t reserve an entire headline for a player’s injury, but Isaiah Jackson’s recent string of absences perplexes me. He’s missed a week’s worth of games with the reason listed as “headache.” Now I’ve seen all sorts of injuries explaining missed games, but never simply “headache.”
After doing some digging, it appears Jackson sustained a concussion on March 16th. A week later, he was cleared to play, but exited his first game back citing a headache on the 23rd. Here we are on the final day of the month and Jackson has missed a week due to headaches, now two weeks after the initial concussion.
Indiana is rolling out G-Leaguers on a nightly basis lately so perhaps Jackson just calls it a season with this headache issue. It’s just rare for a player to be cleared from concussion protocol and weeks later be dealing with consistent head soreness. I’m worried for our guy. Hopefully he gets back to full health soon. Head injuries are no joke.
Statistics
| Player | Result | Points | FG(3PA) | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | Turnovers | Minutes | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trey Lyles (SAC) | 121-118 W @ HOU | 24 | 5-12 (4-6) | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 36 | +9 |
| Keldon Johnson (SAS) | 112-111 L vs. MEM | 23 | 9-21 (2-8) | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 37 | -12 |
| Devin Booker (PHO) | 107-103 W @ GSW | 22 | 5-21 (2-8) | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37 | +3 |
| Julius Randle (NYK) | 125-114 L vs. CHA | 21 | 7-16 (4-10) | 5 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 35 | -4 |
| Bam Adebayo (MIA) | 106-98 W @ BOS | 17 | 5-10 (0-0) | 12 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 33 | +12 |
| Kevin Knox (ATL) | 136-118 W @ OKC | 17 | 6-10 (3-6) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 18 | +2 |
| Immanuel Quickley (NYK) | 125-114 L vs. CHA | 16 | 6-12 (1-6) | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 23 | -8 |
| Karl-Anthony Towns (MIN) | 125-102 L @ TOR | 16 | 7-13 (0-1) | 10 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 32 | -13 |
| Tyler Herro (MIA) | 106-98 W @ BOS | 12 | 5-14 (2-6) | 10 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 32 | +1 |
| DeMarcus Cousins (DEN) | 125-118 W @ IND | 11 | 5-6 (1-1) | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 12 | -4 |
| PJ Washington (CHA) | 125-114 W @ NYK | 11 | 5-8 (1-3) | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 33 | +9 |
| Jarred Vanderbilt (MIN) | 125-102 L @ TOR | 10 | 4-8 (0-0) | 7 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 21 | -9 |
| Brandon Knight (DAL) | 120-112 W @ CLE | 2 | 1-4 (0-3) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | -8 |
| De’Aaron Fox (SAC) | 121-118 W @ HOU | DNP – Hand | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Isaiah Jackson (IND) | 125-118 L vs. DEN | DNP – Headache | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Today in the NBA
7:00 p.m. 76ers (Maxey) @ Pistons (Diallo)
7:30 p.m. (TNT) Bucks @ Nets
7:30 p.m. Cavaliers (Rondo*) @ Hawks
8:00 p.m. Clippers (Boston) @ Bulls
10:00 p.m. (TNT) Lakers (Monk, Gabriel, Davis*) @ Jazz
* — Inactive
Discuss This Article
Comments have moved.
Join the conversation and talk about this article and all things Kentucky Sports in the new KSR Message Board.
KSBoard