This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for rocking with us today.
How about the Nuggets beatdown, huh? Never thought I’d see the day the defending champions got put in a blender like that. There’s losing and then there’s losing.
That was bad. Denver had absolutely nothing for the Wolves in Game 2. To drop the first two games at home is disastrous for the Nuggets. And to lose the game when Minnesota’s best defender was absent? That’s a tough pill to swallow.
This isn’t surprising if you’ve been paying attention to the playoffs.
On one side, Minnesota has been a buzzsaw through the postseason. The team has now won six straight games after sweeping Phoenix and winning two straight at Denver. The Wolves have been the best team in the playoffs so far. Denver has been solid, but not quite as good as Minnesota.
Let’s get nerdy for a second. Coming out of the first round, Minnesota’s point differential against Denver was +13.9. Denver’s was only +3.7 after it struggled against the Lakers in a five-game series that was really more competitive than it should’ve been.
That’s a simple metric — it’s just how many points per 100 possessions each of these teams outscored their opponents by, on average, in the first round. But you can see the difference between these two teams through that metric. Minnesota played a better team in the first round and handled them accordingly. Denver struggled (relatively speaking) with a No. 7 seed.
You can also see the difference on the court. The Wolves are lengthy, fast and athletic. The Nuggets look a step slow out there. TNT’s broadcast noted how often it looked like there were seven Timberwolves out there on the court. They were right. Minnesota completely engulfed Denver.
Minnesota’s got Denver flustered in a way we haven’t seen in almost two years. Jamal Murray is out here crying for calls and throwing heatpacks on the court. Nikola Jokic is getting cooked defensively and hasn’t put up any fight defending the rim.
Obviously, the Nuggets are the defending champions. Because of that, we’ll always afford them more grace even when it may not necessarily be warranted. Even now, I’m hesitant to bury this team after it lost its first two home games. Nikola Jokic is the best player in the world. If anyone can figure it out, he can.
But in the words of Kendrick Lamar: This Timberwolves team is really like that. This ain’t gonna be easy.
Unanimous is crazy
We knew Victor Wembanyama was probably going to win Rookie of the Year. He did and he deserved it. But to win it unanimously? That was shocking.
All 99 first-place votes for ROY went to Wemby this year.
Victor Wembanyama received all 99 first-place votes from a media panel, making him the first unanimous NBA Rookie of the Year since Karl-Anthony Towns in the 2015-16 season. pic.twitter.com/cWcjdXRrUD
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 6, 2024
He’s the first rookie since Karl-Anthony Towns in 2015-16 to win the award unanimously and one of six players to accomplish this. The other five are:
- Towns (2015-16)
- Damian Lillard (2012-13)
- Blake Griffin (2010-11)
- David Robinson (1989-90)
- Ralph Sampson (1983-84)
That’s already an impressive feat. But to do that in a year when Chet Holmgren and Brandon Miller exist with their own legitimate cases for ROY adds another wrinkle to this. It’ll also add more drama to the growing Wembanyama-Holmgren rivalry.
Congrats to Wemby. That target on his back is getting even bigger. Luckily for us, though, he’s nice enough to handle it.
What’s up with the umpires, man?
I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me. But does it feel like there have been so many egregiously bad calls made by umpires in Major League Baseball this year already?
I get that it’s never going to be perfect. We’ll always have complaints. But it’s been terrible this year. The Juan Soto strikeout. The C.B. Bucknor post-rain delay disaster.
Now, we’ve got a debacle with Harrison Bader being incorrectly called out on a tag after a replay review. Charles Curtis explains here:
“How was Harrison Bader called out on this slide into third in the New York Mets’ victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night?
And what’s more: how did the replay NOT overturn the call that Bader was safe despite the bang-bang tag on the play?
I have no good answers for this. What I do know is that the call was that Bader was out despite the fact that it looked like he slid in before the tag was applied and that Mets announcers had the same reaction I did when watching this whole thing unfold.”
Here’s the play in question.
Harrison Bader was ruled out upon review on this play
Am I biased or is he incredibly safe? pic.twitter.com/3OiClIYnAf
— jack (@Jolly_Olive) May 7, 2024
Bader is clearly safe here. It’s one thing to make the initial out call. But to have seen the video we’re seeing here and still determine he’s out? Nah, man. That’s malpractice.
I don’t know if this is a shadow-operation by the umpires to get robots in the game, but they’re making a pretty good case this year.
Quick hits: Knicks games just can’t be normal … The best of the Met Gala … and more
— Cory Woodroof has more on the Knicks game that ended with an offensive foul and a New York W. This is so wild, man.
— Here’s Caroline Darney with the best fits from the Met Gala, including an Angel Reese appearance!
— Anthony Edwards doesn’t like MJ comparisons but if he keeps playing like this he’ll keep getting them. Here’s more from Bryan Kalbrosky.
— Charles Barkley thinks the Nuggets are getting swept. Whew boy. Prince Grimes has more.
— Kendrick Lamar’s new diss to Drake is an MLB walk-up song now. Charles Curtis has more.
— Here’s Christian D’Andrea with an early NFL Rookie Power Ranking.
That’s a wrap, folks. See you tomorrow! Peace.
-Sykes ✌️
