After a week of rest and recreation, it’s time to get back into the flow of school and methodical habits like reading my the Good, the Bad, and the Petty article. So here ya go:
Good
ICE TRAE YOUNG GANG. All aboard the bandwagon of this rookie sensation. Everyone seemingly counted Trae Young as a bust after the Hawks traded their pick, which would turn into Luka Doncic, in exchange for Young and a future first. Trae is proving these haters wrong with every 35 foot bomb from the logo and icy crossover on the other teams best defender. He is putting up monster numbers alongside Hawks bigman John Collins. In the past two weeks he averaged around 23 points per game and shot the three ball at a 43% clip in the month of February. He’s been balling with a few monster outbursts of 35 plus points. He also got tossed in a game against the Bulls which I’ll talk about later.
James Harden and Giannis are so much better than everyone else this season it isn’t even fair. Poor Paul George is having what will likely be the best season of his career only to not win the MVP award in the end. Sad.
Bad
The Lakers. LeBron James injured his hip in the Christmas Day game against the Warriors and that essentially ended the playoff aspirations of the Lakers for this season. They went on a gross 5 game losing streak right when they needed to make that last push. The Lakers missing the postseason will mark the first time since LeBron’s rookie season that he will miss the playoffs. They also lost their second best player Brandon Ingram in a scary blood clot situation in his shoulders. They shut down point guard Lonzo Ball for the season recently as well to mend his injured ankle. They stunk all year and Lebron’s extended absence really sealed their fate.
Petty
Speaking of Trae Young, after scoring nearly 50 on the Chicago Bulls a few nights prior, his great scoring form continued in the first half of Sunday’s rematch. He had close to twenty points before being unfairly ejected from the game. Bulls point guard Kris Dunn was so fed up with Trae dropping 35 foot tater shots on his head that he started talking a ton of trash. Ice Trae responded by dropping another logo shot from outer space all over Kris’s 40-year-old head and staring him down into oblivion. I love this part of the NBA. I love the trash talk, the stare downs, and the Shawn Kemp poster-and-points. The NBA is trying really hard to take all of that out. Trae Young was given his second technical of the night after simply staring at a man he just tater shot and I have major beef with that.