Sometimes, obviously good things work as planned

There was no reason to overthink the Sixers. They put some awesome pieces together, and lo! they are awesome.

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa; Hokusai; 1831

There was no reason to overthink the Sixers. They put some awesome pieces together, and lo! they are awesome.

Good morning. Thanks for the excused absence on Wednesday. Just a wee bit exhausted and overstimulated at the same time. This is Free Newsletter, uh, Thursday. Let's basketball.

Scores

Hawks 120, Wizards 105 – Washington's near the bottom of the league in three-point frequency, relying a lot more on points off free throws and in the paint. The Wizards didn't draw many fouls in this game and had a minus -39 point margin from beyond the arc. It's going to be hard to win games where that's the case. They might need another shooter or Trae Young to bump up his trigger a little more.

Sixers 112, Pistons 106 – Jaylen Brown took the keys (30 points on 21 scoring attempts) and LeBron James again edged his first Philly triple-double (13-10-8). Detroit did storm back from down 18 in the fourth, but the Sixers held on. At this point, having beaten the Pistons, Celtics and Knicks (twice), it's pretty fair to call Philadelphia the best team in the East and frankly, the entire league.

Meanwhile, I quite enjoyed this Reddit post titled "LeBron is on the verge of discovering dark matter."

Bucks 102, Celtics 109 – Behind Tyler Herro, Milwaukee fought back to take a late lead after being down 22 near halftime. Solid recovery and victory for Boston, who had Jayson Tatum out with rest and lost Payton Pritchard to a scratched eye. Speaking of which, read Paul Flannery on Pritchard's non-breakout.

Kyle Kuzma has started all eight games for the Bucks this season. He is averaging 9 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists in 26 minutes on 51% True Shooting, and is not playing good defense. When does Taylor Jenkins give him the Gary Trent Jr. treatment?

Hornets 104, Nets 114 – Charlotte's not looking so good as Coby White fits back in. Kon Knueppel made his season debut, played six minutes and exited. Seems like a bad sign. Brandon Miller went 2/15 from the floor and the Hornets couldn't generate turnovers or juice in the paint. Meanwhile, Zach Lowe wrote about evaluating Miller: is he more like Jayson Tatum or Brandon Ingram? A perilous question!

Bulls 105, Knicks 135 – Jalen Brunson had 22 in the first quarter and the Knicks had 84 in the first half. New York called off the dogs pretty early in the third quarter, or this could have turned into a historic night.

Cavaliers 116, Thunder 124 – Like I've said, OKC is having a season from hell, but that doesn't mean they aren't going to bring hell down upon their opponents in the meantime. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander just stomped Cleveland – no minor opponent – twice in a row.

Jazz 113, Pelicans 120 (OT) – Pretty wild finish in Louisiana.

Just a reminder to everyone keeping score at home (no one) that I had New Orleans in the play-in. Utah has been addled by injury, sure, but the Pelicans seem better than Jazz. Zion Williamson is playing really well, New Orleans is getting bench production (Derik Queen with 20 in this game) and Herb Jones, bless that man Herb Jones: 37 minutes, all of 4 points, team-high +23 on the game. Play Herb Jones and good things broadly happen.

Keyonte George is the best player on the Utah Jazz. They traded for Jaren Jackson Jr. too early – they should have waited to see where they landed in the lottery before making a big move, because it might be the case that had they not pulled in JJJ they would have drafted Cam Boozer over Darryn Peterson. Key and Cam would have been an incredible battery. This is all theoretical and nebulous, of course. But it's worth thinking about.

Pacers 107, Grizzlies 103 – The shine is officially coming off of Memphis. Nineteen turnovers and 23% deep shooting for the Grizz, while the Pacers made due despite Ivica Zubac going 0/5 with a -22 in 19 minutes in his return to action.

Timberwolves 117, Rockets 107 – LaMelo Ball and Jonathan Kuminga takeover in the fourth quarter. What in the holy heavens ...

We know Anthony Edwards and Kevin Durant have some respectful spice between them. Add some more for these two teams, in the event they should meet in the playoffs.

Raptors 109, Nuggets 128 – Spectacular offensive performance for the Nuggets behind the maestro Nikola Jokic.

Blazers 132, Suns 119 – I told you about the Suns. Play Hard only works for so long, especially with more teams in a competitive spirit. Play Hard didn't slow Portland down at all, because Portland plays hard too and has more than one great scorer. You know, Damian Lillard, Deni Avdija ... Donovan Clingan.

The Trail Blazers are No. 1 in the Western Conference right now. No. 3 offense in the league and No. 8 defense. Again, I think they are one solid rotation wing and a stable, healthy Ja Morant from being very, very interesting in the top-6 race in the West.

Mavericks 111, Spurs 112 – San Antonio, playing on a beautiful ABA tribute court on national TV, shot 14% on threes and still outlasted a very frisky Dallas team because Victor Wembanyama decided to celebrate the theatrical release of Godzilla Minus Zero a couple days early. 52-24-2-2-8 and a +24 in a 1-point game.

It's always wonderful to see promised gods actually deliver. LeBron, Durant, Wembanyama are all good examples of this. They were all tremendously hyped, and the hype was completely right.

Lakers 116, Kings 103 – Another 40-point game for Luka Doncic. He controlled the game, even as Sacramento kept it close for a while.

Heat 117, Clippers 116 (OT) – We have six 1-win teams in the NBA right now, and L.A. is the best of the bunch. They've had a tough stretch of competition and some close losses, including this one, where they got a big game from Darius Garland and shot well overall. But Miami is simply more talented, kept it close and handed it to one of the greatest shooters of all time with the game on the line. Take it away, Klay Thompson.

I love that Klay, who has hit plenty of huge shots in his career and has four rings, still gets excited about regular season game-winners. He's a proud guy who has been written off by teams and media, and he's still got something for the game. Big vibe piece for a team potentially in need of it.