Feel better, Ja Morant. You too, Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The stars watched their teammates get big series-tying wins on Wednesday night.
Memphis topped the Los Angeles Lakers without Morant, Milwaukee defeated the Miami Heat without Antetokounmpo, and those series are all knotted at a game apiece now. And Denver went up 2-0, wasting a big lead and then rallying to top Minnesota.
Meanwhile, Golden State prepared Wednesday for what it’ll take to play without the suspended Draymond Green against Sacramento, with the Kings looking for their first 3-0 lead in any series since 1951 — yes, the 1951 NBA Finals, when they were the Rochester Royals.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The series begin to shift locations now as the run of Game 3’s begin Thursday — Philadelphia at Brooklyn, Sacramento at Golden State and Phoenix at the Los Angeles Clippers.
Philadelphia and Sacramento hold 2-0 leads. The Suns-Clippers series is tied 1-1.
There’s three more Game 3’s on Friday; Boston takes a 2-0 lead to Atlanta, Denver takes a 2-0 lead to Minnesota, and Cleveland and New York play having split their first two meetings.
WHO WINS THE AWARDS?
We started finding out those answers on Monday, the first of four days of award-handing-out from the league office this week.
— Monday: Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr. won defensive player of the year, with Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez finishing second and Cleveland’s Evan Mobley placing third.
— Tuesday: De’Aaron Fox of Sacramento was revealed as the inaugural winner of the new Clutch Player award. Miami’s Jimmy Butler was second and Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan was third.
— Wednesday: Sacramento’s Mike Brown got all the first-place votes, making him the first unanimous Coach of the Year. Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault was second and Boston’s Joe Mazzulla was third.
— Thursday: Sixth Man of the Year will be revealed, with Boston’s Malcolm Brogdon, Milwaukee’s Bobby Portis Jr. and New York’s Immanuel Quickley the finalists.
INSIDE THE COACH VOTE
Not much to decipher when one coach gets all the first-place votes. Daigneault appeared on 68 of the 100 ballots, Mazzulla on 41 ballots.
In all, 14 coaches got at least one vote.
Here’s the odd part: There were nine coaches who got votes last year, and only three of those coaches got votes this year.
Cleveland’s J.B. Bickerstaff, Memphis’ Taylor Jenkins, and the Clippers’ Tyronn Lue.
point) this year and tied for 12th.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Philadelphia will try to take a 3-0 lead over Brooklyn on Thursday. If Philadelphia finishes off a sweep of that series, the 76ers will have gone 8-0 against the Nets this season.
