There is only one Russell Westbrook

PLUS: More reactions to Sunday's Game 1s plus the NBA makes an outrageous decision about Miles Bridges.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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The Math Doesn’t Make Any Sense

The NBA announced Friday afternoon leading into the first weekend of the playoffs — aka the time in which you drop news that you want everyone to ignore — that Miles Bridges had been suspended 30 games after pleading no contest to a felony domestic violence charge, a term that completely obfuscates and undersells what Miles Bridges did to Mychelle Johnson according to the medical reports that were released last summer. Except because Bridges was not under contract last season — he was a restricted free agent when he was arrested on domestic violence charges — the NBA has decided that 20 games has been “served.” So if Bridges signs a contract for next season, he will miss 10 games. After pleading guilty to felony domestic violence.

Ten games. Some may point out that he missed a whole season without pay, and the current league precedent is not to suspend players accused of things like this for entire seasons. Tough. What happened contractually to Bridges should not matter when it comes to the consequences the NBA hands down. He plead guilty to assaulting a woman in the presence of their children. Ten games of official NBA sanction is bulls—t. Creating a ratio of missed games while not under contract to suspension games — like, what the hell are you doing? If the NBA believes what Bridges did warrants a 30-game suspension after the plea (in which Bridges avoided jail time), then he should be suspended 30 games. Playing math games with the season he missed is, again, bulls—t.

Here’s Katie Heindl with an excellent piece on the horrifying things this says about how much the NBA cares about women.

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Scores

Lakers 128, Grizzlies 112 (LAL lead 1-0) — Whew. What a game for, uh, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura.

You have Hachimura posting up a Grizzly (!) to draw help (!!) so he can set up Reaves for a triple (!!!). You have Reaves going baseline and wrapping a behind-the-back pass (!) to Rui for an open triple (!!). Both of these plays were in the fourth quarter.

Here’s something: Anthony Davis and LeBron James were the Lakers’ third and fourth leading scorers respectively … and L.A. won walking away on the road. Also, Davis and James played quite good games overall. They combined for 15 steals and blocks.

The biggest effect of the game other than the result is that Ja Morant left in the fourth quarter after hurting his hand on a charge call as he was flying to the rim.

The Grizzlies were already behind and it didn’t cost Memphis the game. But if Ja misses time … that will definitely have an impact on the series.

Jaren Jackson Jr. was incredible and stayed out of foul trouble. Desmond Bane and Dillon Brooks went 5/19 from deep. Memphis can play much, much better. But will they? That’s the question.