Canary Islands & Dimming Stars

I missed the one NBA playoff game last night, but I still have basketball thoughts from Wednesday.

[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.]

Gran Canaria 71, Turk Telekom Ankara 67

Congratulations to Gran Canaria on winning the EuroCup and earning a spot in the EuroLeague. I caught the latter three-fourths of the game. Gran Canaria was up 22 when I tuned in.

However, Turk Telekom clawed back from the deficit, which was apparently customary for them this season, and got the game to within one or two points. I’m glad the game became more entertaining instead of Gran Canaria just blowing Turk Telekom’s doors off.

The fourth quarter was a grinder, as no one could buy a bucket. The partial for the period ended up 12-10, Turk Telekom, with GranCa doing just enough to hold off the visitors and get the win.

With the W, Gran Canaria is the fourth Spanish team guaranteed entry into the 2023-24 EuroLeague, a spot held this season by Valencia. These two will swap spots next year, most likely. It will be interesting to see if Valencia makes a run of their own at the cup next year.

Boston Celtics 121, Philadelphia 76ers 87

I sat this game out, but I definitely want to speak on the result. Joel Embiid was cleared for this game, and instead of bolstering a Philly gameplan that out-worked a listless Celtics team in Game 1, he and James Harden come out and play putridly, conceding control of the series.

Embiid is still nursing his injury, so I want to give him credit for that, but it comes down to either needing to sit down and heal so that your team can play at their best, or giving much more than 4-of-9.

Harden on the other hand was disappointing. How does one go from 45 points to 2-of-14 shooting? James has carried himself all year as if he is a new guy that doesn’t fold in the post-season. It’s cool to say that in the summer, or to bemoan the criticism you get for your play-style after a big night. But you gotta win four games in a series, the excellence has to be consistent. Otherwise, yeah, this just the same old unserious James Harden.

I was wondering if Daryl Morey had finally fortified the roster enough to account for the inconsistencies from Embiid and Harden. Wednesday night shows that if the answer is still “yes”, it’s not an unequivocal one.