Everything important that happened in the NBA this weekend

And also another sick Collin Sexton highlight.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

---

Instead of dropping Scores for the whole weekend, let’s approach this another way. Let’s look at what happened in the NBA for each team this weekend, starting with the East and going in order of the standings.

East

1. Celtics: Boston responded to that weird two-game losing streak to the Hawks by beating the Pelicans by a dozen. This was definitely a game in which New Orleans could have used Brandon Ingram.

Boston is at 58 wins with eight games to go. I think it might be rest time. No core player sat out for this one.

2. Bucks: Milwaukee did what Boston cannot: beat Atlanta. Giannis Antetokounmpo is going to finish second or third in MVP voting despite literally getting a coach he reportedly advocated for fired this season. That’s how good he is.

He and Bogdan Bogdanovic brought their flamethrowers Saturday night.

The Bucks have a 2.5-game cushion for No. 2 with eight games to go. Very likely they end up there.

3. Cavaliers: Cleveland continued being shaky this latest spell without Donovan Mitchell. They just barely beat the Sixers on Friday on a go-ahead corner three by Evan Mobley (!):

Then the Nuggets absolutely shredded them on Sunday. The Cavs are tied with the Knicks in the loss column, one of ahead of No. 5 Orlando. There is a small but non-zero chance Cleveland slips as far as No. 6.

4. Knicks: Really, really tough weekend for America’s Team, the New York Knickerbockers. On Friday, they wasted a 61-point game from Jalen Brunson …

Stay tuned to find out why that effort was wasted.

On Sunday night, the Knicks had the Thunder and Brunson again had it cooking. And Brunson hit what should have been the game-winner … except Shai Gilgeous-Alexander one-upped him. Let’s pick it up with 12 seconds to go.

Brutal set of losses for New York. As I mentioned, they are tied with Cleveland at 30 losses, one better than the Magic. The Knicks have the tiebreaker over the Cavs but not Orlando. This week: at Heat, vs. Kings, at Bulls, at Bucks.

5. Magic: Down three to the Clippers with five seconds left, I did not love this shot from Orlando.