The Bulls are not a mirage

GOOD MORNING. Let's basketball.

Scores

Bucks 100, Raptors 128 – The rare second round knockout punch from Toronto in this one. The Raps are fifth in three point percentage and 25th in three point frequency. Something to think about.

Magic 112, Hawks 127 – What the hell, Desmond Bane? Don't you do this on John Tesh's NBA on NBC.

Disastrous defensive performance for Orlando. The Hawks could end up with an above-average defense while Trae Young recovers, but their offense shouldn't be putting up 127 in 101 possessions. And it's not as if one Hawk got hot – just about every Hawk was hot.

Sixers 111, Bulls 113 – Tyrese Maxey went bonkers, as is his wont, and the Sixers went up by 24 on the Bulls in the first half. They still led by 22 in the third. Then all hell broke loose, culminating with Nikola Vucevic giving Chicago its first lead with 3.2 seconds left.

Philadelphia actually got Quentin Grimes a fantastic look at an answer at the buzzer there, which was rare in the fourth quarter, where the Sixers shot 4/22 in letting the Bulls come back. It pains me to report that Joel Embiid was atrocious in the second half.

Wild game. The Bulls actually look good. It was not a mirage late last season. Josh Giddey is playing at an All-NBA level. It was not a mirage!

Hornets 112, Pelicans 116 – New Orleans is on the board! It only took a home game against a team starting three rookies (the 4th, 33rd and 34th picks) and missing their two best players. The Pels still nearly lost – they trailed almost the entire second half. In any case, congratulations to Willie Green for keeping his job another night. And congratulations to Karlo Matkovic for getting the most improbable NBA app push notification of the season for this dunk.

We love to hear joy in Antonio Daniels' voice. Speaking of which: Derik Queen was freaking awesome down the stretch. With Zion Williamson out 7-10 days, this would be a great time for Queen to prove Joe Dumars and Troy Weaver right.

Suns 107, Warriors 118 – Golden State survives losing Jimmy Butler during the game; Steph Curry is nicked up so he'll sit the back-to-back on Wednesday. This is the concern with the Warriors: great when they are all out there, heavily flawed when either of the veteran stars are missing. But they got the job done against a piping hot Devin Booker on Tuesday.

Thunder 126, Clippers 107 – Since the two double-OT games to start the season, OKC has won its next six by an average of 16.5 points. The median league offensive rating this season is 115. OKC has not allowed an opponent offensive rating above 111 once this season. An absolutely suffocating defense and the best scorer alive. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has scored 20+ in 80 straight games. The only person with longer streaks in NBA history: Wilt Chamberlain.

Links

Pablo Torre reports that 11 Aspiration investors have sued Steve Ballmer, alleging that they were defrauded by the alleged salary cap circumvention scheme Baller and Aspiration founder Joe Sanberg allegedly set up to get Kawhi Leonard paid $48 million for thinking about maybe planting a tree someday. Allegedly. This is some rich folk who lost money in a scam trying to leverage public outrage and journalism to recoup some money – don't get that twisted – but if we get discovery out of it ...

John Schuhmann's Power Rankings. I think the Thunder are going to go wire to wire.

Dan Devine on the Thunder, doing it again.

Steph Curry joined Steve Nash and LeBron on Mind the Game. It's all good but Nash's story of how a preseason game against Steph's pre-juggernaut Warriors convinced him to retire is incredible.

Speaking of Steph, here's Joe Viray on the continued brilliance of the Curry-Draymond two-man game.

Paul Flannery asks what's wrong with Derrick White.

Keith Smith with some surprise stats of the first few weeks.

Tom Haberstroh on the Rockets.

Schedule

Heavy Wednesday. All times Eastern.

Sixers at Cavaliers, 7
Jazz at Pistons, 7
Nets at Pacers, 7
Wizards at Celtics, 7:30
Timberwolves at Knicks, 7:30, ESPN
Rockets at Grizzlies, 8
Pelicans at Mavericks, 8:30
Heat at Nuggets, 9
Spurs at Lakers, 10, ESPN
Thunder at Blazers, 10
Warriors at Kings, 10

Good things are possible. Be excellent to each other.