Young People Learning Valuable Lessons

Two First Round-clinching victories from the old guard reinforced that experience beats talent in the NBA Playoffs.

[Ed. note: This article was originally published at raymondsimms.com, a temporary personal blog I ran during the 2022-23 basketball season. It was ported over to Crucial Baskets on April 20, 2024.]

I was out on the town when Grizzlies-Lakers was happening, but I periodically checked the score on my phone. I found myself gasping each time it updated, as it seemed the Lakers lead continued to grow.

It was surprising to see the Lakers win by that many not from a talent standpoint, but because of the lack of recourse from the Grizzlies. That game was important for them too: a victory on Friday would have set up a crucial Game 7 at a sure-to-be-loud Grind House. Alas, the Grizz got their doors blown off almost instantly.

A team built around the youthful bravado of Ja Morant, Dillon Brooks, and Desmond Bane — while also being racked by injuries to their frontcourt — were punched in the month by a team led by the second-greatest NBA player of all-time. The Grizzlies poked the bear, and the bear mauled them.

Sacramento got that Game 7 in front of their home crowd, though. And I was able to sit down and watch this live. Golden 1 Center did start off raucous, a few cowbells ringing throughout the crowd. The Warriors were looking sluggish in the first half, but the young Kings, armed with more athleticism, didn’t put their foot on the gas enough.

Then came the third quarter: Kevon Looney decided to grab every rebound in NBA history and Stephen Curry caught fire, delivering gut-punch threes with a swagger similar to MJ when he would make up a slight in his head and then prove that fake-doubter wrong. Golden 1 Center wasn’t as loud by the end of the third quarter.

LeBron James and Stephen Curry, two titans of the current NBA, were faced with mortality of their legacies this weekend. However, neither were ready to write that epilogue, and their respective performances in these close-out games made certain that no one else would write it, either.

Now these two will have yet another postseason clash. Their fifth all-time, but their first intra-conference face-off. I know for some people in this cynical world, it can be hard to accept greatness happening in real-time. Even if it takes the form of four consecutive Finals matchups. So James and Curry were kind enough to bring it directly to us at least one more time.