Say the line, Pitbull!

IT'S GOING DOWN.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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The Final Two

Bulls 91, Heat 112 — Losing by 21 against a Heat team without Jimmy Butler is wild.

Full control throughout with stifling defense and enough offense from Tyler Herro and Jaime Jaquez Jr. Since debuting the new core of DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic (and, in fairness, Lonzo Ball) in 2021, the Bulls are 125-131 (.488) with one playoff game win (zero at home). And yet … the team is much, much better than they were in the years before they signed DeRozan and traded for Vucevic. Barring the easy opportunity to be straight-up good, being average is far more interesting and lucrative than being mediocre, right?

We’ll see how the front office feels about that this summer with DeRozan hitting free agency.

Kings 98, Pelicans 105 — When the threes don’t fall for Sacramento, their offense is doomed. Sacramento shot 27% from deep, owing in part to excellent defense from New Orleans. And while the Kings’ defense has legitimately improved since last season, losing Kevin Huerter and Malik Monk just wasn’t something the team as presently constructed was capable of overcoming. Bummer. We’ll see if the front office makes structural changes this summer or runs back a good-not-great team again.

Congratulations to the Pelicans. I really wish Zion Williamson were healthy for this, because a) they need him to compete in the NBA playoffs and b) he looked so incredible in the first play-in game before going down. Heckuva bounceback game for Brandon Ingram in Z’s absence in any case. Eager to see if Jonas Valanciunas and Larry Nance Jr. have big series in their quivers.

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The Full Bracket

EAST
Celtics (1) vs. Heat (8)
Cavaliers (4) vs. Magic (5)

Knicks (2) vs. Sixers (7)
Bucks (3) vs. Pacers (6)

WEST
Thunder (1) vs. Pelicans (8)
Clippers (4) vs. Mavericks (5)

Nuggets (2) vs. Lakers (7)
Timberwolves (3) vs. Suns (6)

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What’s Going On

We’ll laugh, we’ll cry. We’ll have our minds blown by a young player showing up for the moment ahead of schedule. We’ll whisper about where other star-caliber players have gone. We’ll gasp in amazement or grimace in sadness at the exploits of the elder statesmen of the game.

Here are my predictions for how this plays out.