SI:AM | A Terrible Call Against the Knicks, Victor Wembanyama’s Triple Double and More NBA Notes
Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Aren’t the days immediately after the Super Bowl supposed to feel like baseball season is right around the corner? Not when you wake up with six inches of snow on the ground.
In today’s SI:AM:
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Around the NBA
With the Super Bowl in the rearview, let’s pay closer attention to other sports—like the NBA. There were 10 games in the league last night, but I want to focus on three of them.
How is this a foul?
The New York Knicks have been on a cold streak since I wrote about them two weeks ago. After picking up their ninth straight win on Feb. 1 against the Indiana Pacers, the Knicks have now lost four of their last five.
Last night’s 105–103 loss to the Houston Rockets was brutal. After trailing 57–43, the Knicks clawed their way back to tie the game at 103 on Jalen Brunson’s step-back jumper with eight seconds left. At the end of a chaotic final play, Rockets guard Aaron Holiday threw up a desperation shot at the buzzer. Brunson contested the shot and was called for a foul despite barely making contact with Holiday. You can watch the play here. New Yorkers get bumped harder every day just getting off the subway.
The call sent Holiday to the line for three free throws. He hit the first two and then missed the third on purpose, preventing the Knicks from having a chance at a final shot with 0.3 seconds on the clock.
Crew chief Ed Malloy admitted after the game that Brunson should not have been called for a foul.
“After seeing it during postgame review, the offensive player was able to return to a normal playing position on the floor,” he told a pool reporter. “The contact which occurred after the release of the ball therefore is incidental and marginal to the shot attempt and should not have been called.”
Wemby’s big night
The San Antonio Spurs still stink (they’re in last place in the West), but they picked up a convincing 122–99 win over the Toronto Raptors last night thanks to a monster game from Victor Wembanyama.
Wemby finished with 27 points (on 10-of-14 shooting), 14 rebounds, 10 blocks and five assists in just 29 minutes. He’s the first player since Clint Capela in 2021 to record a triple double with at least 10 blocks and just the fifth player in the last 30 years to have at least 25 points and 10 blocks in a triple double.
The Spurs continue to struggle this season. At 11–43, only the Detroit Pistons and Washington Wizards have worse records. But Wembanyama has lived up to the hype during his rookie season. He’s averaging 20.4 points and 10.1 rebounds per game, both of which are best among rookies this season. He ranks 13th among all NBA players in rebounds per game and leads the league with 3.2 blocks per game.
Sixers stop the Cavs’ streak
The Cleveland Cavaliers entered last night’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers having won nine in a row and 17 of their last 18. The Sixers, meanwhile, entered having lost eight of their last 10 and are without superstar Joel Embiid for the foreseeable future as he recovers from knee surgery.
But Philadelphia came away with a hard-fought 123–121 victory after Paul Reed blocked Donovan Mitchell’s layup attempt in the final seconds. Reed is playing a bigger role in Embiid’s absence since the injury leaves the Sixers short on options at center. Their only healthy true big men are Reed and Mo Bamba. Bamba was used only sparingly before Embiid’s injury but has seen more minutes of late. He had a solid seven points and eight rebounds in 19 minutes last night.
It was Philadelphia’s marquee trade deadline acquisition who really shined, though. The biggest question for the Sixers after Embiid went down was where the team would turn to replace his offensive production. Trading James Harden at the start of the season left Embiid and Tyrese Maxey as the only two serious scoring threats, so the Sixers went out at the deadline and got Buddy Hield from the Pacers in a three-team deal that also included the Spurs. Hield is a great shooter (he ranks 15th among active players with a .401 career three-point percentage) and has scored at least 20 points in all three games he’s played with the Sixers. Last night was his best game yet, putting up 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting with eight assists. Hield will help keep the Sixers afloat while Embiid is sidelined, and once the reigning MVP is able to return, Philadelphia will have another scoring threat who can help the team make a run in the playoffs.
The best of Sports Illustrated
Gabrielle Herzig/Sports Illustrated
- Matt Verderame already knows who he wants to see in the Super Bowl next year.
- Alex Miceli is sick of the debauchery at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
- Pat Forde looks at why three of the biggest names in men’s college basketball—Kentucky, Indiana and USC—are facing a crisis right now.
- Bob Harig was on hand as Tiger Woods unveiled his new clothing brand, Sun Day Red.
- CBS says more than 200 million people watched at least part of the Super Bowl.
- The Kansas men’s basketball team suffered its worst loss against an unranked opponent since 1950.
- UCLA has named a new head football coach after Chip Kelly left for the offensive coordinator job at Ohio State.
The top five...
… things I saw last night:
5. Draymond Green’s halfcourt buzzer beater.
4. Jack Hughes’s goal that he banked off the goalie’s mask.
3. Paul George dropping Anthony Edwards to the floor with some nasty ballhandling.
2. Wembanyama’s ferocious dunk and no-look assist on consecutive plays.
1. 32 points for USC star freshman JuJu Watkins. It was her ninth 30-point game this season.
SIQ
Which U.S. Vice President injured three spectators with errant tee shots during a pro-am golf tournament on this day in 1971?
- Nelson Rockefeller
- Spiro Agnew
- Hubert Humphrey
- Alben W. Barkley
Yesterday’s SIQ: Former NBA center Scot Pollard, who turned 49 on Feb. 12, also starred on what reality show?
- Survivor
- Big Brother
- The Apprentice
- The Bachelor
Answer: Survivor. He appeared on Season 32 of the show, filmed in Cambodia, and finished in eighth place.
The reason I bring Pollard up is that he is currently in a Tennessee hospital awaiting a heart transplant. He was admitted to the intensive care unit at Vanderbilt University Medical Center last Tuesday and will remain there until a matching donor heart becomes available. His heart trouble is the result of a genetic condition that was triggered by contracting a virus in 2021. His father, a former University of Utah basketball player, had the same condition. His father died at age 54.
At 6' 11", Pollard’s size makes it difficult to find a heart suitable for a transplant. Though the former Pacer lives in Indiana, his doctors advised him that he would have a better chance of success if he was at Vanderbilt, which performed 128 heart transplants last year. Pollard told the Associated Press last week that doctors are confident the wait will be “weeks not months.”
