The only thing the Nuggets are defending are the unwritten rules

Plus: LeBron hits a clutch shot to ruin Houston, the Knicks and Celtics strike back, Detroit's in grave danger and Dylan Harper invoked the spirit of Manu.

Familiar Territory

Celtics 108, Sixers 100 (BOS leads 2-1)

The Sixers are pretty good without Joel Embiid, but not quite as good as the Celtics all full(-ish) strength. So it goes. V.J. Edgecombe is a very good player, especially for a rookie. But he is a rookie, so it goes. Jayson Tatum isn't 100% the same player he was before the injury, but he's still Jayson Tatum. So it goes.

Hit me, Eric Collins.

Tatum played 42 minutes. 25-5-7 with 1 turnover for him. Jaylen Brown had 25, too. Philly won the possession game by limiting turnovers and winning the boards, but they couldn't overcome shaky shooting or Tatum's clutch shots. Boston leads 2-1.

The Once and Forever King

Lakers 112, Rockets 108 (OT) (LAL leads 3-0)

It's hard to put into words how miraculous it feels to see LeBron James still be able to be the best player on the floor at age 41, with this many games under his belt. I don't really follow the NFL but Tom Brady winning a Super Bowl past age 40 feels relevant. The only difference is that you can't really protect an NBA player in the way you can protect a quarterback.

Anyways, this is LeBron sending this game to overtime with the Lakers still missing Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic after committing two late turnovers that appeared to cinch up the game for Houston. Ian Eagle and Stan Van Gundy are basically calling the game over with the Rockets up six with 30 seconds remaining. They forgot what team they were counting on.

HE ALMOST WON IT AT THE BUZZER. L.A. prevailed in overtime, canceling a great performance from Alperen Sengun without Kevin Durant on the bench again. It's remarkable that Houston might not win a single game this postseason after taking the Warriors to seven last year and adding Kevin Durant.

LeBron is the story of the series, though. Remarkable performance.

And then a relatable post-game comment. And then a relatable attempt to climb out of a chair.

A New Challenger Has Entered The Arena

Spurs 120, Blazers 108 (SAS leads 2-1)

Victor Wembanyama did not play in Game 3 due to still being in the concussion protocol. The Blazers, playing their first home playoff game with this core, looked pretty comfortable. That is until Dylan Harper went nuts on 'em.

Season-high 27 for the No. 2 pick, 22 in the second half. He and Stephon Castle damn near outscored the Blazers themselves in the second half (43-36).

Luke Kornet did a great job defensively standing in for Wembanyama. Scoot Henderson was hot from deep again (5/10) and Deni Avdija got to the line a bunch (16 FTAs), but the latter was ice cold from the floor (3/15) and Jrue Holiday's offensive explosion (29 on 18 FGAs) wasn't enough. The mild panic circulating after San Antonio's Game 2 collapse felt weird to me: the Spurs were quite good without Victor all season, especially in his second absence once Harper got more comfortable. And Portland has been good but not great basically all season.

It also stands that the second round is looking a lot less daunting for the Spurs with the collapse of the Nuggets and the Timberwolves' injury woes. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. San Antonio still needs two more wins to think about that. No word on Wembanyama's availability for Game 4 yet.

Never Trust An 8-Seed From Florida

Pistons 105, Magic 113 (ORL leads 2-1)

Hey uh what the hell is going on here?

Calling that Paolo Banchero three a "dagger" feels improper. It's more like a throwing knife that ricochets off of a water pipe and hits its target in the stomach. But the victim is dead all the same.

The Pistons were down 17 in the fourth and walked it down to take a lead at 105-104. During that 26-8 run, Cade Cunningham scored or assisted on 22 of Detroit's points. Classic alpha stuff. But everything went into the comeback, and when Orlando steadied the ship, they, the Magic, had the game.

Detroit can still take the series, but Game 4 is now loaded with immeasurable pressure.

Jalen Duren is averaging 9-8 on 42% eFG this series. It's not good enough.

OKC May Never Lose A First-Round Game Again

Thunder 121, Suns 109 (OKC leads 3-0)

It sucks that Jalen Williams is week-to-week with an injury to his other hamstring. (Can we get Jalen Williams on a deadlift program, please?) But consider me flummoxed that this has caused much worry about the Thunder over the next two rounds. We all remember when the Thunder were on pace for 73 wins with minimal access to Jalen Williams' talents a few months ago, right?

We all remember that the league's best defense and this dude are enough to win 80% of your games, right?

I really didn't think Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was going to miss all night until I actually saw the shots rim out. He totally destroyed the crowd's hope early and consistently. Sucked the energy right out of them. He is inevitable.

He's also establishing a solid case as the new Best Player Alive. Assuming he wins MVP and Nikola Jokic finishes either a distant second or third, and assuming Jokic doesn't come back to win WCF or Finals MVP, Shai will almost assuredly take the lead in my Consensus BPA metric this summer. The discourse is a different kettle of fried catfish, but it's hard to watch him do stuff like this with such ease while his rival struggles and think the conversation isn't going to shift dramatically.

Anyways, what a treat to watch when he's really going, which seems like all the time. Since the latest reboot, the Thunder are 11-0 in the first round with an average margin of +18 per game.

The Ca-Caw See Saw

Knicks 114, Hawks 98 (Series tied 2-2)

Through the first quarter of Game 4, the Knicks were shooting better, playing harder, defending more cleanly and looked like the much better team. And the Hawks were still in range, which was worrisome.

But the Knicks kept it all up, and Atlanta could never really mount a run to close the gap. Heady work from New York to keep the plates spinning while the time ticked away. O.G. Anunoby seems to almost always be there when you need him, and while the same cannot generally be said about Karl-Anthony Towns, when he's on he is on.

Jonathan Kuminga, whose been a key ingredient of Atlanta's success in this series, was a total disaster in his first stint. Counting on him feels so dangerous. Something worth watching: Mikal Bridges only played 19 minutes, less than all other starters plus Deuce McBride and Jordan Clarkson. Also worth watching: Jose Alvardo is trying to get the Hawks to fight him for some reason. Did someone tell Jose Alvardo it's his job to get the tempers flaring because it might spark some fight in the Knicks? It kinda feels like someone told Alvarado that, even if it was Alvarado himself who gave the instructions.

Ayo That's Amazing

Nuggets 96, Timberwolves 112 (MIN leads 3-1)

This game started in demoralizing fashion: Donte DiVincenzo went down with a torn Achilles less than 90 seconds in. He's obviously done for the year and likely most or all of next season, too. He'd been so spicy and important in this series and for Minnesota overall, and it's heartbreaking to see him go out like this.

Then the Wolves lost Anthony Edwards to an impact knee injury late in the first half; he was ruled out of the game and there's been no word on severity, though it did not exactly look like something that just needed a night of ice.

With all that in place, and with the Nuggets up 54-50 at halftime, it appeared this series was going to start anew in Denver in Game 5 with a tie. And then Ayo Dosunmu unleashed his hidden superpowers.

A slight self-correction: Dosunmu was on fire in the first half, too – basically as soon as DiVincenzo went out, Ayo did everything to fill in on both ends. A tremendous luxury to have him on the bench, ready to take the reps. Edwards' absence plus relatively quiet offensive nights from Jaden McDaniels, Julius Randle and Bones Hyland turned Ayo into a No. 1 scorer. Denver's defenders couldn't do much with him.

On the other end, Denver couldn't do anything with Minnesota's defense. Rudy Gobert and friends held Nikola Jokic to 8/22 shooting. He's still putting up gaudy numbers – he's averaging 25-15-8 for the series – but the efficiency is atrocious (41% eFG for the series with a 14% turnover rate). Gobert has been incredible. Randle and Naz Reid are getting into him, too. Jokic is consistently looking for the refs to bail him out, and there has been a good bit of uncalled contact, but Jokic just can't adjust because the three aren't falling.

They aren't falling for any of the Nuggets: Denver shot 6/28 from deep. They are shooting 28.5% from three for the series. That's just brutal. But it can't be an excuse: Minnesota is beating their asses all over the floor.

Speaking of ass-beatings, provocateur McDaniels decided to be kind of a jerk and score a lay-up with the game decided with just seconds left and no Nuggets within 60 feet. That forced the Nuggets to come down the floor and inbound the ball. Rude stuff.

Instead of being annoyed and going down to check in the ball, Jokic made a bee line toward McDaniels to give him a deeply-held opinion on what he thought about that. Chaos ensued.

Here's my take: we have a lot of unwritten rules in society. You don't necessarily have to follow them when it comes to someone you hate. And the Nuggets and Timberwolves hate each other. It's okay for McDaniels to be annoying as hell but putting the ball in. It's okay for Jokic to be annoyed as hell about that insult. It's okay for Jokic to confront McDaniels about it – he didn't punch, club or shove McDaniels in the back. He just tried to intimidate him. That was McDaniels' takeaway, at least.

Strong recommend to watch Mike Conley's post-game interview about passing the ball to McDaniels there. Mike Conley is a legend in three NBA cities and the heart of every basketball writer.

Jokic was defiant and said he didn't regret running up on McDaniels. I wrote back in 2021 on Jokic's then-burgeoning reputation as a hothead; Markieff Morris missed months of action after that incident (something that still flies under the radar when we talk about Jokic) and after that Jokic had the Mat Ishbia shove incident. And now this. He didn't actually do anything to McDaniels except get in his face, but he might have gotten Aaron Gordon suspended for Game 5. I suspect the NBA will be light on the punishment overall, but they typically don't go easy on the "leaving the bench" rules, and while a few Timberwolf reserves (including Rudy Gobert) were on the court during the nonsense, the incident happened on their bench. Gordon made his way all the way down the floor to pull Jokic out. But then, David Adelman seemed to indicate that Gordon might not play in Game 5 due to injury anyways, so it might be moot.

This is all pretty tame in the end, both key players did unnecessary things of their volition and neither regrets it, and it's all just more fuel for the raging wildfire that is this rivalry. Minnesota, down key bodies, has three chances to win one more game. Can they do it?

Schedule

Here's what Sunday's lineup of Games 4 looks like. All times Eastern.

Cavaliers at Raptors, 1, ESPN (CLE leads 2-1)
Spurs at Blazers, 3:30, ESPN (SAS leads 2-1)
Celtics at Sixers, 7, NBC/Peacock (BOS leads 2-1)
Lakers at Rockets, 9:30, NBC/Peacock (LAL leads 3-0)

Be excellent to each other.