The Dallas Mavericks got shelled on Friday night, losing their first home game since March 1st, 138-105. But if you want to know more about what happened from a sequential point of view, click this recap here. Otherwise, scroll on down and see the numbers by which the Dallas Mavericks died.

61.5%: Cleveland’s field goal and free throw %

Oh brother, Dallas, are you going to stop anyone? The Cavs went nuts both inside and outside the arc, which has me wondering what the defensive point of emphasis was in this game. The Mavericks aren’t a great defensive team but they aren’t this bad either. The Cavs shooting nearly 50% from outside the arc was obnoxious to watch and what I thought was the main reason Dallas lost this game.

At least until I got to the next stat.

72: Points surrendered in the paint by Dallas

At some point these last 10 games, the Mavericks have gone from being a team that scores in the paint and rules there, to being a team that invites their opponent to score there instead. The Cavs shot 75% inside the paint! Just no paint or rim protection to speak of anymore for this team. Since these two teams play again Sunday, we have to hope they find some pride otherwise that game is going to be a beatdown as well!

4: Dallas Mavericks steals

I mainly want to talk about this stat so I can tell you the Cavs had 12 in comparison. Live ball turnovers killed the Mavericks tonight and the sloppy defense from Dallas didn’t force any. It’s hard to say what kind of defense Dallas is running lately because it sucks, but you can see this by the other datapoints I mentioned. Dallas needs better on ball defense, better help coverage, and way better three point defense.

The NBA, whether they wish to admit it or not, has an officiating problem. The problem is deep, it’s structural, and the NBA is either oblivious to it, or worse, they consider it to be a feature instead of a bug.

It’s a problem that Jaylen Brown has been highlighting for quite some time now, and it’s worth a deeper dive.

To start with, officiating in the NBA is incredibly difficult. This is a fast-paced game with a lot of close contact, all of which has to be judged as incidental or illegal in, literally, a split second of time.

There are fouls that are blindingly obvious, ones which we can see from a thousand miles away through bird’s eye views of the court on our television screens, and then there are fouls that literally occur in only a few tenths of a second, real time, and officials have to identify those fouls without the benefit of slow-motion replay.

That this is a difficult task that is done well by many officials is a positive reflection on those officials who approach their job with a professional disposition and a deep-seated desire to get things right.

Unfortunately for them, it’s probably harder to get things right in the NBA than in any other major professional sport here in the states.

The fastest paced game among the top four professional leagues has the fewest number of officials, both in absolute terms and as a ratio to participating players.

I believe this is directly, although not entirely, responsible for the plague of flopping. Players learn at a very early age that they need to exaggerate the effect of contact to catch the attention of officials who are trying to monitor the actions of multiple players. From there it’s a short step to outright faking contact. Mind you, the NBA does have a flopping penalty, but they’ve apparently put it in a box out in the garage and have forgotten about it. Jaylen Brown called it foul baiting after Thurdsay’s game against the Thunder during a postgame press conference that might net him another $35,000 hit to his wallet.

Lack of an extra official, I believe, is also responsible for wildly inconsistent treatment of off-ball fouls like illegal screens. Performing an illegal screen becomes very much about making sure that you’re in an official’s blind spot before you step into a defender or move sideways to keep him out of the way. In Thursday night’s game against the Thunder, there were a pair of illegal screens called that were done out in wide open space and were so obviously illegal that it was impossible for them not to be called, unless you happen to watch the game more closely and see screens like that being set in traffic all the time. An extra official means more eyes on the court, and closer attention to off-ball action.

Then there’s the star system.

Rasheed Wallace tells a story about an NBA official who approached him after a game and asked him for autographs for his kids.

In CONCACAF, the federation that administers soccer in the Americas, requesting autographs is a violation of policy and will land you a suspension. Think about that… As corrupt as CONCACAF has been, they still recognize that officials seeking autographs is a problem.

But here you have an official requesting autographs for his kids, who showed up to a Lakers game wearing Kobe jerseys.

Of course, nobody is saying that officials’ kids can’t have favorite teams and favorite players, but it’s a really bad look when you bring your kids to the game wearing jerseys for one of the teams that’s playing in it—or at least it’s a bad look when you subsequently take those kids out to meet the players.

NBA officials have a job to do out there on the court, and in order to do it fairly, they need to avoid giving even the appearance of being star-struck.

Yes, great players are great, in part, because they are harder to stop by legal means, and this undoubtedly leads to more fouls being called on their defenders, but this should only happen when these are calls that would be made regardless of who’s holding the ball.

This is another thing that Jaylen Brown has an issue with, and it’s hard to argue with him.

There is a double standard in what my dad called ‘ticky-tack’ fouls, and I think that it’s reflective of a measure of unprofessionalism within the NBA officiating body as a whole.

Essentially, I think that star players tend to draw more attention from officials than non-star players.

I don’t think it’s intentional. These guys are stars. When they touch the ball, the whole dang arena pays attention.

Officials, unless trained otherwise, can hardly be immune to the electricity that comes onto the court when a special player starts to do special things. They can hardly avoid being caught up in the moment—unless they’re trained to focus on the job at hand. And I don’t think they are adequately prepared for that responsibility.

Finally, you’ve got the NBA’s ‘celebrity’ refs. Guys whose reputation precedes them, and who are, if we’re being honest with ourselves, a definite problem because they deviate from accepted officiating standards.

The best officials are the officials that are invisible. You should never have cause to remember the name of a game official. They should be competent, professional, and anonymous.

But that’s not how the NBA does it. In the NBA, you have guys who are known to call things tight, who are known to ‘let players play’ and so on and so forth. Refs are known to have feuds with certain players and coaches, and the NBA is apparently fine with all of this.

They’re also fine with star system officiating and inconsistent application of rules.

How do we know this?

Because every minute of every game is subject to review by the NBA’s officiating staff, and officials are graded based on their performance. Do your job well and you’ll get playoff assignments and maybe even a chance to appear on the big stage—yet the playoffs are often filled with celebrity refs and questionable officiating.

The only possible conclusion is that the NBA is fine with a game that is understaffed by officials who are evidently star-struck at times. They’re fine with celebrity refs who are know for their deviations from standard officiating practices, and they’re fine with inconsistent rule enforcement.

Much as I admire Jaylen Brown for being willing to take it on the chin—or in the wallet—and consistently make noise about bad officiating, I’m afraid he’s going to be waiting a long time for real change to occur.

And he might want to choose better methods for expressing his disappointment in the officiating during games.

But he’s right. There is a problem with officiating in the NBA.

The Milwaukee Bucks front up today against the Atlanta Hawks in what will likely be their final chance to beat a side right above them in the standings (and thus gain a full game on that opponent). Analysts like Zach Lowe have wondered whether Giannis will get shut down soon if they don’t stack wins over the next week or so. But let’s be honest: if they aren’t dead already, a loss today will all but ensure it. The series currently stands at one game apiece (with this game being the series decider).

Where We’re At

Well, the Bucks have lost seven of their last eight games, and the vibe around the team is… not great. Most recently, they’ve lost to the Magic, Suns, and Heat. Giannis’ return has not resulted in improved performance; they are 1-4 with him in the lineup. That said, it’s not like Doc isn’t trying things; he went to a Porter-Dieng-Kuzma-Antetokounmpo-Turner starting lineup against Miami. But ultimately, none of the changes have been all that fruitful.

The Hawks, on the other hand, are flying, winning eight straight (though most of those games have come against tanking and/or injured teams). But hey, all you can do is play who’s in front of you, and the Hawks own the NBA’s top net rating of 17.4 during that span (the second-highest is 13.5). In particular, they are leaning on defence, ranking at the top of the league in that time.

Injury Report

For the Bucks, Giannis (calf injury management) is questionable, though it seems likely that this designation is because they intend to play him in the second half of the back-to-back against Indy; I’m going to assume he plays today for the sake of this preview. Also questionable are Ousmane Dieng (illness) and Kevin Porter Jr. (knee).

For the Hawks, Jonathan Kuminga (knee) is out.

Player to Watch

Nickeil Alexander-Walker had 23 points on 9/14 shooting in the last game, including 5/9 from three. No longer is he the three-and-D player he once was; this is a primary option who can really go. The Bucks need to be ready.

How To Watch

FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin at 2:00 p.m. CDT.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Authorities were searching for a man who shot and killed two people in a drug store parking lot near the TPC Sawgrass, leading The Players Championship to delay opening gates for the third round Saturday morning.

St. Johns County Sheriff Rob Hardwick said the suspect, whom he identified as Christian Barrios, shot two people multiple times about 10:30 p.m. Friday in the parking lot of Walgreens in a domestic violence situation. The store is located about a mile away from the course.

He said canine units pursued Barrios onto TPC Sawgrass property. Hardwick said Barrios, who turned 32 on Saturday, at one point picked up a PGA Tour radio and later dropped it. He then stole a black BMW, and Nassau County authorities in the far northeastern tip of Florida pursued the car and forced a crash into the woods.

The suspect fled on foot and was still at large.

The PGA cited “operational considerations” in deciding not to open the gates until 9 a.m. The first round bean at 8:15 a.m. and was not delayed. Hospitality areas were delayed opening until 11 a.m.

Hardwick said Barrios had a long criminal history and knew the victims, both of whom were shot multiple times and taken to the hospital where they died.

___

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

The Houston Rockets were without Alperen Sengun, but Kevin Durant hit a jumper with seven seconds left, then two free throws a few seconds later to close the game out and give the Rockets a 107-105 victory that somehow has them in third place in the jam-packed Western Conference.

Durant went for 32 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists while turning the ball over just once. He was 13-for-24 from the field and also added a steal and a block.

Amen Thompson pitched in 23 points, 12 rebounds, and 8 assists on a near triple double, while Reed Sheppard had 18 points on 5-for-11 shooting from three and Jabari Smith jr. had 16 points on 3-for-10 from downtown to round out the Rockets in double figures.

The Pelicans turned the ball over twice in the final 13 seconds, for an offensive execution that might actually be worse than the Rockets, and blew a slim lead despite Dejounte Murray’s 35 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. They also got 21 from Zion Williamson, though they were the two who turned the ball over down the stretch for the Pels.

The Western Conference is now super bunched up, with just a half game seperating the third through the sixth seed, and just 2.5 games if you stretch it to the seventh seed. The Rockets stand at 41-25 on the year, which has them on pace for 51 wins, or one worse than last season. They will return to action on Monday with a massive game against the fourth-seeded L.A. Lakers. They will then play the Lakers again on Wednesday. Both games are at home, so it will be a chance for the Rockets to make at least a little bit of space in the west standings. Monday’s game is airing on NBC/Peacock, while the Wednesday game is on ESPN, so that should tell you how big they are.

Welcome to Inside the Suns, your weekly deep down analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team. Each week the Fantable — a round table of Bright Siders — give their takes on the Suns’ latest issues and news.

Fantable Questions of the Week

Q1: This offseason, the Suns will have the option to go forward in either of two directions. They can shed some salary to stay under the luxury tax level or keep the team largely intact, which probably pushes them over the 1st tax apron. Which option do you think is likely the best one for the team?

GuarGuar: I think we will probably try to go under the first apron, but I really don’t want to split this group up. They are a really good team when healthy and can compete with anyone. I’d love to see what another year of continuity could accomplish. Ishbia is an owner willing to spend, so I can see us keeping almost everyone this offseason.

Diamondhacks: I let Mat Ishbia navigate NBA aprons. Perhaps more central to how the Suns best position themselves for sustained excellence may be Ott and Gregory’s demonstrated ability to identify and assimilate surprisingly useful contributors, at least so far, at reasonable cost.

This ability dovetails with my generic belief that standing pat, primarily to “hold onto” older players deemed mission critical, is most often a suboptimal long-term strategy.

Ashton: What a great team. Right, Suns fans?

You really do not want to mess with the gears that turn into what almost every national pundit describes as a “surprising Suns team”. I know I am surprised. That should be enough to support going into the luxury tax. Our very own Rod Argent had a comment that nothing really prohibits the Suns from going into this area.

But, in Brian Gregory we trust, and if he can continue to find talent in a pool of scrubs, then let’s avoid the luxury repeater tax and the first apron. This season has been defined, on an almost weekly basis, of the next upcoming players by commentators and writers alike. You pick a player favorite on recent bias. And then another favorite emerges.

I hate to say it all, but to accomplish these goals, some bait must be cut for the betterment of the Sun’s organization. So, my contrarian view is to stay under the luxury tax and first round and try to find the next NBA potential player hungry enough to stay and play the position.

OldAz: I probably have some of my facts wrong on this one, and Rod will mock me terribly as this is in his wheelhouse, but here goes. As I understand it, the 1st Apron should be about $210 million next season, and the Suns currently have 12 players under contract for about $161.5 million and another $23.2 million in dead cap money.

The three players from this year’s team NOT already signed for next season are Gillespie, Williams, and Goodwin. My best guess on those contracts would be about $14 million for Gillespie, $12-15 million for Williams, and $4-5 million for Goodwin, which would put them about $5-10 million over the 1st tax to keep it all together. However, as Fleming develops, Brooks gets healthy, and Dunn finds his footing, I think there is a path to basically doing both by trading Royce O’Neale (and his $10M salary) and taking back as little in salary as possible.

Getting under the tax for a second year would be huge, as it would completely reset any potential repeater penalties for the next few seasons. Unless my numbers are off (likely) and until we see more of how Green fits in with this current group, this would be my strategy going into the off-season.

Rod: Staying under the 1st tax apron won’t be a big problem next year, but staying under the luxury tax line could be. Contrary to what some may believe, the luxury tax line and the 1st tax apron are not the same thing. The luxury tax line is at $201.7 million, the 1st TA starts at $210.3 million. The combined salary for 11 players under contract next year, plus the dead money on the cap sheet, leaves the Suns only about $16.7 million under the luxury tax line. That would cover re-signing Collin Gillespie to the max amount he can be paid, but there wouldn’t be enough left after that to sign a single player to a vet minimum contract without going over the luxury tax line.

Basically, the Suns can’t avoid paying luxury taxes next year without moving some contracts to clear some room on their cap sheet. They can certainly do that, but the question is whether they can do that without the team taking a step (or two) backwards quality-wise. While that might be possible, taking a step forward while cutting salaries would likely be difficult without some of the younger guys on the roster taking big leaps in their level of play.

I could see the Suns dipping their toes into the 1st tax apron waters to start next season, but not diving in headfirst. If they decide that they could lose too much by staying below it, they could cross that line to begin the season and then make some moves to drop back below it before the trade deadline if things don’t pan out. Where teams start the season regarding the tax line and the TAs doesn’t matter nearly as much as where they finish. If they finish it below the tax line, it still counts as a season under it and the repeater tax penalties are wiped from their slate. To me, this would seem to be the best option for them this offseason.

Q2: How much of a factor do you think Mark Williams’ injury will play in his possible return to the Suns after this season and the size of his future contract offer(s)?

GuarGuar: Mark’s got a long injury history. I mean, we spent the whole summer just trying to get his body ready to play basketball. He didn’t practice most of training camp. He looked pretty durable so far, but this recent injury, hopefully, is just a little speed bump and doesn’t linger. I can’t see us giving him a contract with many years on it; that would be pretty risky. I can see a short amount of years, but a high annual salary average for those years.

Diamondhacks: Both Mark’s performance and financial projections likely hinge on the nature of the injury. Better if it’s a one-off, perceived as something he can put behind him. Worse if it’s deemed chronic or pre-existing.

Ashton: Again, I am so impressed that he lasted this long off the injury list (Lakers, you all need better medical evaluators). This should be enough to justify increased interest and a pay bump by other interested NBA teams. The Suns should let him walk or try to trade him for a late first in 2026) as per Q1 requirement. MW did his job with the Suns organization with the opportunity that he had. Like Sam Darnold in the NFL (Seattle), a player can come to the Valley as a reclamation project in the NBA and prove themselves worthy. Not so sure about the Cards organization, though.

The Suns will have to rely on Oso and KM (please stop with the Man Man references), and they are doing quite well with that duo. Fleming is blowing up to be someone who can man (man) the PF position beside Brooks (unless he blows his career up in smoke).

And with the 47th pick, the Suns need to take a serious look at Tobe Awaka, 100 miles down south. This guy powers through everything in the front court for the offensive rebound and is smart enough to pass the ball out or just go up again to draw the foul.

Enjoy the March Madness, all! Remember, these players are the foundation of what the NBA is built upon.

OldAz: The center position has been marginalized in the modern NBA unless you are someone like Jokic or Wemby. However, the center position is also one that is prone to injury while still being able to draw massive contracts (Anthony Davis? Joel Embiid?). I actually think this season really helps him in this case, because he has played more games and been effective. This is assuming he comes back healthy and contributes in the playoffs, however.

What works against him the most is that he is still young and has yet to establish how dominant he can be at the position. Average starting centers are making $15 million -$20 million in the NBA, and center-needy teams would love to add someone like Williams, who hustles and plays the way Williams can. Heck, every time DA has a bad game in LA, their fans go back to lamenting that they could have had Williams, whose motor runs so much hotter. I suspect that Williams will get a deal somewhere between $12-$15 million per year on this next contract, and if he can replicate the number of games played from this season throughout that contract while also building on his skill set, then he could be in line for a Miles Turner-type deal the next time around. However, I don’t see any team going over that this time around simply because of his injury history.

Rod: As a restricted free agent, it’s definitely going to have other teams leery of giving him an offer sheet…or at least offer him a big one. Depending on how he finishes this season, I could even see him back with the Suns next year playing for the QO ($8.8 mil) before becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2027-28. While that would be bad for him, it might be the best thing for the Suns considering how Khaman has progressed. I’d like to keep him on the team but I think Khaman and Oso are the Suns’ long-term tag team at center and wouldn’t risk a high salary contract on Williams with the admittedly limited info I have on his present injury.

Q3: In the long run, who do you believe will develop into the better player overall, Ryan Dunn or Rasheer Fleming?

GuarGuar: Fleming is better right now, and I think he will continue to be the better of the two. Fleming’s a better athlete, scorer, shooter, and rebounder than Dunn. They are neck and neck on defense, and I’ve seen more improvement from Fleming in this single season than Dunn has in his year and a half so far. Dunn’s offensive limitations will hold him back as long as he has them. My bet is on Sheer to be the better player going forward 100%.

Diamondhacks: Ryan Dunn can continue to improve, but after 2500 NBA minutes, he still looks like he’s mostly trying to fit in and not screw up too much. Rasheer Fleming, at 350 mins, is starting to call for the ball. And his mates are looking for him. I believe it’s less a cocky thing than a mutual learned confidence that he can knock down a shot, take his man to the paint, or even rifle a one-handed dime on the run to an open teammate at the arc. Not all the time, certainly, or even most of the time. But my early general impression is that, for such an inexperienced player, his teammates already like sharing the court with him.

Ashton: I stated last week that “Sheer” was my most overlooked player on Inside the Suns. So, I must stand by that statement, even if I was the only one out of the Fantable to make that statement. Look, I make statements that age like milk, but in this case, this is more like fine cheese or wine. Fleming is the easy answer. Dunn is maybe Done.

Again, I am looking forward to hungry NBA players who want to make a name for themselves in a very competitive market. I just do not see Dunn there with recency bias or as a long-term solution.

OldAz: This is still way too early to tell. Fleming is such a physical specimen that it is tempting to just go with him, but in reality, NBA history is littered with freakish talent that only ever showed out in spurts or had some other issue derail an otherwise promising career.

Dunn, on the other hand, is suffering through a rougher sophomore season and is struggling to find his footing on a team that could use a bigger wing at either forward position. Additionally, while the Suns are certainly leaning into better practices when it comes to developing young players, Dunn was not drafted by the current leadership and has not found the same level of success as Oso this year.

Who ends up being the better player long term will entirely depend on their desire and continued effort over the next 5+ years. Growth is not linear, and it takes perseverance and a strong mental makeup to overcome the struggles that will inevitably come. For now, if I had to bet, it would probably be on Fleming, but only because his size puts him at such an advantage to get playing time on the current “7 dwarfs” roster construction the Suns have and because his outside shot has found a whole lot more consistency compared to Dunn’s (so far).

Rod: The sample size for Fleming is still pretty small, but he already just looks more comfortable on an NBA court than Dunn, who is in his second year and has over 6 times the total game time minutes of Rasheer. This isn’t meant to be a knock on Dunn. Dunn is a good player and should have a good NBA career, but he often seems to be playing outside his comfort zone when on offense. I don’t see that in Rasheer. In fact, he seems more and more comfortable on an NBA court the more he plays, and he’s largely effective on both ends of the court. Neither one may ever approach the “star” level of play in the NBA, but at this moment, I believe Rasheer has the higher ceiling.

As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!

Quotes of the Week

“I ain’t gonna lie, I’m just playing right now…staying in the moment.” – Rasheer Fleming

“We went again with no true 5, really opens up the floor for him (Jalen Green), specifically. That’s been the solution the last two nights (vs Bucks and Pacers). Doesn’t mean it will be tomorrow night.” – Jordan Ott

“His energy is on 24/7.” – Jordan Ott on Jordan Goodwin

“That’s two buckets getters doing what they do best.” – Ryan Dunn on Booker and Green combining for 79 points vs the Pacers

“You never can anticipate everything that’s going to happen in the game, but once situations come up that we haven’t covered or come up yet this season, we try to address it right then and there. Talk through it. Those lines of communication are growing. We need to speed it up. Practice time is limited this time of the year.” – Jordan Ott

Suns Trivia/History

Random Suns stats (from Stat Defender/Twitter):

Phoenix Suns — 14.3 Offensive Rebounds Per Game Post All-Star Break – Tied for 2nd best in the NBA
Phoenix Suns — 18.2 Fouls committed Per Game Post All-Star Break – Tied for 5th fewest in the NBA
Phoenix Suns — 19.1 Points Scored Per Game Off Turnovers Post All-Star Break – 9th best in the NBA
Phoenix Suns — 1.08 Points Per Possession Given Up In Transition For The Regular Season – Tied for 2nd fewest in the NBA
5th Best EFG% On ISOs For The 2025-26 NBA Regular Season – Devin Booker (53.8% EFG%)

In Thursday’s game against the Pacers, Devin Booker’s 43 pts and Jaylen Green’s 36 pts marked the first time a Suns duo scored 40+ and 35+ in the same regular season game since Amare Stoudemire (41 pts) and Steve Nash (36 pts) did it on 3/31/08 against Denver in a 132-117 Suns win.

On March 15, 2009, on the second night of a back-to-back, the SSOL Phoenix Suns scored the most fast-break points ever in a game (56) during a 154-130 win on the road against the Golden State Warriors. This game is also tied for the 4th-highest scoring output by the Suns in team history. The game it is tied with was played almost exactly 20 years earlier on March 23, 1989 and was also on the second night of a back-to-back on the road at Golden State. The Suns won that one 154-124.

On March 19, 1969, NBA Commissioner Walter Kennedy flipped a coin, Phoenix called ‘heads,’ and it turned up ‘tails. Thus, Milwaukee chose first in the NBA Draft, eventually selecting Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) while Phoenix picked Neal Walk with the 2nd pick.

On March 22, 2000, the Suns lost Jason Kidd for the remainder of the regular season after he broke his ankle during a 114-93 win over Sacramento at America West Arena. The following day, the Suns announced that Kevin Johnson was coming out of retirement to help his former team in its time of need. Johnson, 34, whose career average of 9.2 apg ranks fourth in NBA history, had not played since the 1997-98 season.

This Eeek’s Game Schedule

Monday, March 16 – Suns @ Boston Celtics (4:30 pm)
Tuesday, March 17 – Suns @ Minnesota Timberwolves (5:00 pm)
Thursday, March 19 – Suns @ San Antonio Spurs (5:00 pm)

This Week’s Valley Suns Game Schedule

Saturday, March 14 – Valley Suns @ Windy City Bulls (5:00 pm)
Tuesday, March 17 – Valley Suns vs Stockton Kings (7:00 pm) ESPN+
Thursday, March 19 – Valley Suns @ San Diego Clippers (4:00 pm)

Important Future Dates

March 28 – NBA G League Regular Season ends
March 31 – 2026 NBA G League Playoffs begin
April 12 – Regular season ends (All 30 teams play)
April 13 – Rosters set for NBA Playoffs 2026 (3 p.m. ET)
April 14-17 – SoFi NBA Play-In Tournament
April 18 – NBA Playoffs begin

Jaylen Brown and moving goal posts

Jaylen Brown has spent a fair bit of time this season talking about the rules of the game, or more specifically, the enforcement of them.

I think he’s got a point.

But I also think that getting yourself tossed from a game because you lose your cool in a major way is a bad way of going about it. At the same time, let’s take a look at why Jaylen was tossed…

The pool report from the officials after the game in San Antonio says that he was ejected for using profanity, being aggressive, and pointing.

This is sort of the problem with NBA rules in general.

In the NBA you are permitted incidental contact with opponents.

But what is incidental contact? Sure, it’s defined in the rule book, but what about the application of that definition?

That varies from official to official.

According to the rules, contact stops being ‘incidental’ when it interferes with an offensive player’s “speed, quickness, balance and/or rhythm”—a definition that seems to perfectly match the play that set Brown off—yet it wasn’t called. And why wasn’t it called? Not because the contact was incidental, but because the official thought it was. There’s a judgment call there, and that judgment call varies from official to official, and even from moment to moment.

In the same context, players swear at officials all the time. They point when addressing officials all the time, and sometimes they get aggressive when expressing their grievances.

So what is the definition of ‘too much’ profanity, or aggression, or pointing? When do these things stop being ‘incidental’, so to speak?

That also varies from official to official.

All Brown is asking for, and it seems perfectly reasonable to me, is for more consistency among officials.

In doing this, Jaylen is doing what he’s always done. He’s making his own path, and he’s being clear about what he wants to see and what he thinks about the games that are played around the game itself. He’s not afraid, as Bill Sy put it, to say the quiet part out loud.

His insistence on forging his own path, defining himself and setting his own priorities has probably come with a cost.

Where the conventional path for a player of his talent would have been to try to force his way into a situation where he could put his individual skills on display, Jaylen Brown stuck with Boston, following advice given to him by Tracy McGrady, as revealed on the Cousins podcast earlier this week. Had Jaylen done what so many players before him have done, he might’ve ended up someplace where his skills would put him in the MVP conversation. After all, there aren’t that many guys who can put up 30 points a night while guarding the other team’s best player.

But that’s not the lot that Brown chose for himself. He didn’t follow conventions, and that’s put him on the outside looking in when it comes to conventional awards.

Brown is a smart guy, and I think he was smart enough to have been something of an outsider as a teen. He probably knows what it’s like to find yourself out of the in-crowd, and I think he’s absolutely correct that the MVP conversation is very much about a group of players that are ‘in’ and a group of players that are ‘out,’ and Brown, as an outsider, is probably incapable of doing anything that will get him ‘in’ the MVP conversation.

Brown is having a season that should net him serious MVP consideration, but it’s not going to happen.

As Brown expressed it on the Cousins podcast, the MVP trendsetters keep moving the goal posts on him, and I think that’s a fair assessment. He’s just not “MVP material,” in their view, and he never will be, whatever the heck that means. Even with some fans, I get the sense that he’ll never be good enough for them.

Brown’s always been something of a square peg, and honestly, more power to him for that. I don’t think he likes the hoopla that surrounds the game, and he clearly has been sacrificing his offensive game for years to win with Tatum. He’s not your ordinary everyday superstar, and the Celtics are that much better because he isn’t. I’m sure he’ll retire with multiple rings, and eventually view this year’s MVP snub as being of no greater concern than losing a high school popularity contest.

An unfinished symphony

One of the more impressive things, at least initially, about Beethoven’s Ninth is that he wrote the symphony after he was completely deaf.

But you see, the thing is, most composers right up until the advent of modern notation software, were more or less deaf when they wrote their orchestral works. They had to imagine how the instruments would sound together without actually hearing the piece as a whole, and often the first time the composer heard the piece performed in its entirety and in earnest was at its premiere.

The Celtics have been kind of like that orchestral work-in-progress this season. We’ve had to use our imaginations to fill in the gaps. Even with Tatum back, the team is still missing Vucevic.

This week, the C’s faced two tough tests—road matchups against San Antonio and Oklahoma City.

They essentially turned into rehearsals. As Grant Burfeind called them, these were information gathering performances. Data points were collected as the Celtics, minus key players in both games, fought valiantly to keep things close (especially close against the Thunder), but eventually dropped each matchup.

Yet, even as the C’s collected data points, the Spurs and Thunder were denied those opportunities, as the Celtics were less than full strength. The Spurs haven’t really seen how the Celtics matchup with Pritchard, Brown and Tatum in the lineup, and the Thunder don’t know how the Celtics will matchup against them either. That might not be important this year, but then again it might be.

The bottom line is that the Celtics are still very much an unfinished symphony—whether it eventually turns out to be a masterpiece remains to be seen.

Putting some records in perspective

Boston’s game against the Thunder was also noteworthy as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander broke Wilt Chamberlain’s record for consecutive games scoring 20 or more points.

I’m not going to say that SGA’s accomplishment is trivial. It plainly is not. Other stars before him have not come close to that number. After SGA, Wilt holds the next two records at 126 and 92 consecutive games. Fourth place, held by Oscar Robertson is 79 games. SGA just set a record that is 48 games longer than any other player besides Wilt.

But…

Those Wilt records need some context. First off, SGA set his record over the course of 127 consecutive games played. Wilt set his record over 126 games, period. He didn’t miss a single game during the course of setting that record. Wilt also holds the record for most consecutive 30 point games (65), the top three spots for most consecutive games with 40 or more points (14), the top four spots for most consecutive games with 50 or more points (7), and he is the only player to record multiple 60 point games in a row (4).

Additionally, Wilt’s 126 game 20 point streak was ended when he was ejected in his 127^th game. He came back and immediately started another streak. This one was 92 games in length.

Wilt was a one man demolition squad in his prime.

Mind you, the game was easier back then. Most centers had come up under the instruction that leaving your feet to defend was a mortal sin, so it was relatively easy for a guy who was already taller than practically the whole rest of the league to shoot over the top of guys who were scared to death to defend him by jumping.

But the game was also harder. There was a level of physicality that would not be fathomable to players today. There were fewer teams too. This actually makes things harder not easier, because the best of college basketball’s talent was crammed into just eight teams when Chamberlain was in his prime. He also played every single game in three consecutive seasons. This during an era when transport was mostly by train, which isn’t as bad as it seems—unless you’re trying to sleep in a bunk that’s designed for a much much shorter person—and a time when sports medicine was little more than good intentions and an Ace bandage.

It was a period that suited Chamberlian to a T.

Of course, Chamberlain came up in the news on Wednesday night as well, when Bam Adebayo tallied 83 points against the hapless Washington Wizards

It’s too bad Wilt’s not here, because he would’ve been impressed by Adebayo’s free throw attempts in that 83 point game. Bam was sent to the line 43 times—an astonishing 26 of the Wizards’ 34 personal fouls were committed against Bam. The number of fouls called was also significantly higher than the Wizards’ season average, which is only 21.3 per game.

Was Bam getting a friendly whistle? Or was he just benefiting from the confusion of a bad defense trying to stop him at all costs?

In any event, the Miami Heat took to fouling Wizard players intentionally in order to prolong the game and give Adebayo more chances to score.

I’m not going to say that this cheapens the accomplishment of scoring 83 points, except that it kind of does.

I don’t think there should be an asterisk next to Adebayo’s name, but I think a bit of context for future fans is in order—a note that even though Bam got to second place within the rules of the game, those rules were bent a bit to give him as many chances to score as possible.