brawl between teammates – Corriere.it

The last act of regular season from the NBA issued the verdicts that were missing (only in the West; in fact everything was already decided in the East), proposed records and curiosities, gratified Simon
Fontecchio of an excellent performance in Los Angeles against LeBron James and the Lakers (the Utah Jazz eventually gave up, but the blue forward scored 20 points), but first of all he experienced the unfortunate episode that took place in Minnesota Timberwolves-New Orleans Pelicans. Do you remember the punch thrown in a Golden State Warriors practice, in the preseason, by Draymond Green to Jordan Poole? Well, that episode had a repeat and again — has it become a fad? — a player has beat one of his teammates.

It was in the second quarter of a playoff game that should have defined the play-in positions of the T’Wolves and Pelicans. During a time out Kyle Anderson and Rudy Gobert (center also of France and European and Olympic vice-champion) are set to discuss animatedly challenging each other even with grim looks. At a certain point Gobert lunged at Anderson and landed a punch full in the sternum.

The tumult broke out, with the other Minnesota players who reacted — and it was not clear whether they wanted to calm tempers or rather avenge Anderson — resulting in a half fight. Gobert, who is also known to be a hothead and a Gascon (when he played in Utah he mocked the anti-Covid measures, but he was the first to find positive in the NBA, also infecting then team-mate Donovan Mitchell), he was however first sent to the locker room and then forced by the managers to stop disturbing and to go home. “Unacceptable behavior” was the curse brought upon him, harbinger of a certain and heavy fine but also – it cannot be excluded – of a sale at the end of the season. In the end Minnesota, long at a disadvantage in a balanced challenge, managed to impose itself in a comeback. But he paid another price to the nervousness that suddenly broke out: returning to the locker room at half-time, Jaden McDaniels, fine defender, punched into a tunnel wall and broke his right hand. The T’Wolves won’t have a big man in the play-in against the Lakers and that’s not good news.

Playoffs and Play-ins: Tuesday Lakers-Timberwolves

And here we are at the verdicts. With the new formula of playoffs and play-insonly the the first six teams of each Conference are admitted directly to the final draw. To the East are, in the order of qualification, Milwaukee, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, New York and Brooklyn; in the West, Denver, Memphis, Sacramento, Phoenix, Los Angeles Clippers,
Golden State (defending champion)
. The playoffs will begin Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 with the quarterfinals of each Conference. Come on play-off play-into which the teams ranked from seventh to tenth are admitted, the seventh and eighth of each group will exit instead. Miami-Atlanta will be played on Tuesday 11th while the Los Angeles Lakers — who with a positive season finale patched up a year that was in any case below expectations, also characterized by the overturning of the starting lineup — will deal precisely with Minnesota. Whoever wins these games will enter the board as seventh (one in the East and one in the West). The losers will get another chance to be eighth anyway. In fact, on Wednesday 12 the worst ranked teams will play: Toronto against Chicago and New Orleans against Oklahoma City. Whoever loses will have finished, whoever wins will play off, on April 14th, with the losers of the matches on the 11th.

Excellent Fontecchio in front of LeBron

We were talking about Simone Fontecchio, who concluded his first NBA season in the best possible way. On one of the most “glamorous” pitches in the league and on live national TV, the blue winger scored 20 points (with 4 triples), grabbed 9 rebounds (a new personal best) and served two assists in 31′ played. Above all, he is one of those who kept the Jazz in the running until the end before the Lakers, pushed by LeBron James (36 points) couldn’t find a way to resolve. The quotations of Fontecchio, at the end of a year that had difficult moments, are clearly growing.

Records and curiosities

And now the records and curiosities of the last round of a season that gave unexpected results, starting with rejection of Luka Doncic’s Dallas (who may ask to leave the team). The Golden State, dominating in Portland (157-101), won the first quarter 55-27: it is the new points record in the quarter. Thompson, Curry and Poole went on to become the most prolific trio in triples in a season (788) and the first guards to average over 20ppg together. Finally, on the day when Udonis Haslem ended his twenty-year career with 24 pointsthere is the particular record of Mikal bridges. Transferred under construction to Brooklyn from Phoenix, he played in all 82 games of the year. Actually, 83, one more due to the calendar disparity among the formations in which he played. Bridges has thus led to 392 consecutive matches played. The streak is still open: no one like him.