Summertime March Madness
March is usually my favorite month of the year. My birthday is that month, the NBA playoffs are slowly approaching, and of course it’s time for the March Madness tournament. I’m obsessed with making brackets and then losing my mind when the three seed loses to the 14 seed.
Unfortunately, the tournament ended up getting cancelled this year, along with every other sport in the world. Not only did it hurt a lot of college players’ chances at making the league because of a great tournament run (Carsen Edwards, Donte DiVincenzo, etc.), but it also killed the dreams of degenerates everywhere who love to bet on the tournament.
There’s the ups, the downs, the breakout stars, and most importantly - the upsets. It’s a rush that can’t be replaced, or so I thought. Once the NBA finally came back, I was more excited than ever. Oh man did the reality outperform my expectations.
First off there’s the teams that underperform. Teams like Virginia losing to the 16 seed or even a two seed losing to the 15 seed. That team in the bubble has been the Lakers. They’re 2-4 since being in Orlando, and one of those was when they just barely squeaked by the Los Angeles Clippers on re-opening night.
The Lakers have just been super underwhelming, especially for a team that’s supposed to not only be competing for a championship, but be one of the favorites. Coming into the season, some people were questioning who would be able to make threes for the Lakers outside of Danny Green. They managed to secure the number one seed and shoot decently well, but ever since being in the bubble the shooting struggles have been real.
They have had the worst drop off in shooting percentage from the regular season to the bubble out of every team competing. Not even Green, the team’s resident sharpshooter, has been able to consistently make shots. JR Smith and Dion Waiters are solid enough shooters, but neither have been great. In fact, I would argue that Kyle Kuzma has been the most consistent shooter, and that’s not a great statistic to think about.
LeBron James has come out and said that there have been some off court issues, but nothing has been reported elaborating on that story. I know that they’ve been having a Madden 20 tournament, though. Imagine the reason the Lakers have been struggling is because behind the scenes Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and JR Smith are just getting trashed on in Madden. That would be the most LA thing I’ve ever heard.
Outside of the underwhelming teams, another staple of March Madness is that one player who just takes his game to another level in crunch time. Carsen Edwards balled out for Purdue last year, Jimmer Fredette has the whole country saying “Jimmer” instead of “Kobe” for a summer, and it only took one game for Donte DiVincenzo to make himself a first round selection. Well in the bubble, that player has been TJ Warren.
The guy is essentially averaging 35 points on 60% shooting from the field and 55% shooting from deep. Those are some league MVP type numbers. He’s led the Pacers to a 4-2 record in the bubble, and although he just got clamped up by Jimmy Butler, he’s still by far the best player on the Pacers in the bubble.
He’s been a complete scoring machine for a team who lost one of their leading scorers in Domantas Sabonis coming into Orlando. He’s kept the Pacers a legitimate threat to any team that goes up against them. Whether he can keep up this production into future seasons is another question, but for right now he’s a scary, scary man.
Last, but not least, who doesn’t love a good Cinderella story? Whether it’s UMBC upsetting Virginia as the 16 seed, Loyola Chicago making it to the final four, or Kemba Walker leading UCONN to a national championship, the underdog is always fun to root for. Well the Phoenix Suns have provided that for us in Orlando.
The Suns are currently 6-0 in the bubble and pretty much look unbeatable. They’re getting production from places no one could have imagined, and are even doing all this without one of their key pieces in Kelly Oubre Jr. Guys like Cameron Payne and Jevon Carter have been balling out and are helping put the whole world on notice.
Coming into the bubble if you had told me that the Phoenix Suns would be the only unbeaten team after six games, I would have laughed in your face. Honestly, I didn’t even know they were invited to the bubble until about a week after it was announced. I pretty much thought of them as the Wizards of the west. I was more wrong then I could have ever imagined.
I think the league not only needs to test Devin Booker for PEDs, but also give him some morphine to deal with the back pain of carrying a dead franchise for five years. I’m just glad he’s finally getting some recognition. Even I said he wasn’t a top five shooting guard a month or two ago. I now know how stupid I was, and can clearly see how incredible Booker truly is. Now all I can think about is a Blazers vs. Suns play-in series - now that would be some must watch TV.
Anyways, I just wanted to thank the NBA for giving us the March Madness thrills nobody got to experience in March. Now I just can’t wait for the playoffs. Bring on more madness.
