The Bulgarian Brothers – A College Hoops 2K8 & NBA 2K20 Dynasty

[studbucket]

Re: Introduction

A lot of activity. What team is favored in the nba? Anyone running away with it?

It's only been 2 weeks (in game time) since this update, so while I can't load the game up now, I'll supplement with a few things from memory.

The Bucks are dominating the league and easily have the best record. The Celtics are having a good season and are second in the East.

The Lakers and Warriors are battling for first place out West, with the Lakers truly having a good season for the first time in 4 years. It's gotta be close to LeBron and AD's last hurrah there, but adding Paul George seems to have paid off in season 2.

Across both conferences a lot of teams (most of whom were involved in trades above) were severely under-performing. There are no excuses for Denver, Dallas, Memphis, New Orleans, and Toronto to be doing so poorly.

The Nets were greatly struggling early on, but have gone on a run, have a winning record, and are in the playoff picture out East. KD will be healthy soon and Juan King should help them.

In the West, there are so many good teams that are beating each other up in the middle of the playoff pack: Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Houston, Portland, and Minnesota are examples of that.

Portland was winning the West early on, but has dropped to 6th or so.

Which brother is better positioned to win their conference?

Dinko. He's been in the lead for weeks now (and has been up by as much as 2 weeks). He's also had a few more blowout wins and had better injury luck than Oggy. Stetson is certainly in the race, but has a better conference and less margin for error.

But, it would be awesome if both brothers managed to win in the same year.

[HarkTheSound]

Re: The Bulgarian Brothers – A College Hoops 2K8 & NBA 2K20 Dynasty

Always found it interesting how good Andre Drummond is sometimes in some of the older 2Ks, including your file. I think he would have had a hell of a career if he played in the 90s NBA, and he posted some gaudy stats early in his career, but the game just ended up passing him by. The trio of Luka, Kristaps, and Drummond should be interesting to watch.

[studbucket]

Re: The Bulgarian Brothers – A College Hoops 2K8 & NBA 2K20 Dynasty

Always found it interesting how good Andre Drummond is sometimes in some of the older 2Ks, including your file. I think he would have had a hell of a career if he played in the 90s NBA, and he posted some gaudy stats early in his career, but the game just ended up passing him by. The trio of Luka, Kristaps, and Drummond should be interesting to watch.

Totally, he's much better here than in real life. One small thing that has helped is the "random MyLeague events" spreadsheet gave him a boost to his passing and some other skills that help him be a bit more modern.

I think that he, Kristaps, and Luka should be a formidable trio. The Mavs have made the finals twice (and lost twice to the Bucks) in the last 4 seasons, so we know they are on the verge of something great, but may end up being more like the late 80s and early 90s Trail Blazers than the champions they want to be. They also have Brunson, Seth Curry, and some other role players around them to help out.

[RolePlayer]

Re: The Bulgarian Brothers – A College Hoops 2K8 & NBA 2K20 Dynasty

As everyone said that was a tough game for Dinko. Although I'm less worried about it than you are. I think Vern Quick and Bobby Valdez both being off won't be a common thing and this game was more of an anomaly. The sloppy play and bad passes of course will have to get cleaned up.

On the other side, Oggy had a great game, especially with missing Lennox Evertsen. Winning an important game over a potential contender for the conference title with a lot of star power. Especially when it was such a dominant performance for the Hatters. That has to build some confidence.

The Andre Drummond trade feels like an extremely Mark Cuban Dallas move. I'm interested to see if it'll pan out.

[studbucket]

Re: The Bulgarian Brothers – A College Hoops 2K8 & NBA 2K20 Dynasty

As everyone said that was a tough game for Dinko. Although I'm less worried about it than you are. I think Vern Quick and Bobby Valdez both being off won't be a common thing and this game was more of an anomaly. The sloppy play and bad passes of course will have to get cleaned up.

I think you're likely correct, though as a coach you are probably more critical and Dinko is gonna want more consistent effort from the rest of the roster.

On the other side, Oggy had a great game, especially with missing Lennox Evertsen. Winning an important game over a potential contender for the conference title with a lot of star power. Especially when it was such a dominant performance for the Hatters. That has to build some confidence.

Yeah, that was huge. Evertsen is such an all-star, to play so well without him is huge. Next post will be up soon, but Jerimie Scott has really emerged in Evertsen's absence.

The Andre Drummond trade feels like an extremely Mark Cuban Dallas move. I'm interested to see if it'll pan out.

100%. Totally a Cuban move. May or may not make sense, but he's gonna do something big because this team shouldn't be on the outside looking in of the playoffs.

[studbucket]

January 22, 2024 Stetson at North Florida [Atlantic Sun]

Earlier this week, Stetson won a nailbiter at home over Gardner-Webb, 74-73. They held off a strong Bulldog comeback and were led once again by Jerimie Scott who had his second straight game with 30+ points. Some things have been a bit shaky without Evertsen, but they’ll take every win they can get as they sit at 5-1 in the conference.

With Belmont winning earlier today, Stetson is just a half game behind and can pull even with a win over the Ospreys of North Florida. If they lose tonight, they will fall back to a tie for second place with Lipscomb.

North Florida is 1-5 in conference play and is just 1 spot from the cellar. Strangely enough their only conference win is over first place Belmont, which Oggy is thankful for. The Ospreys are led by Michael Rost (C, 78 ovr) who is a player that Oggy heavily recruited but lost out on. Unfortunately for Rost, he’s not surrounded by much. He leads the team with 11.5 ppg and 10.1 rpg and their second leader scorer is fellow big man Juan Sweetney (C, 67 ovr). Freddie Walker (PG, 68 ovr) is a solid player, but it completely falls off after that and there is almost no shooting talent on this team.

It should be an easy win for the Hatters, but nothing comes easy in the Atlantic Sun and his team will need to focus today and take care of business.

As the game tipped off at UNF Arena, Oggy found himself staring at Michael Rost. What could have been if Rost had chose to join the Hatters. He was grateful for his team, but Rost would be unstoppable under his tutelage. As it was, Oggy was afraid of Rost.

He was right to be concerned. Stetson kept things close early on, but they were unable to stop the Ospreys when they got the ball inside as Rost led them to a quick 9-8 lead. After the two teams traded a few threes Oggy called a timeout. The game was 15-15 but he knew that was a bad sign. This was a team they needed to beat and should beat. He instructed his team to do something that may have been counter-intuitive: attack the rim. Work the ball to the paint and try to get the big guys (Sweetney and Rost) tired and in foul trouble.

The strategy worked to perfection. Just halfway into the first half both Sweetney and Rost had 2 fouls and were on the bench. Stetson quickly grabbed a 20-16 lead, but that was just the beginning. Marko “Spicy K” Nevill was not the only Hatters’ guard who could showboat a bit, Arnaud Dahi showed he had some moves of his own and threw a beautiful behind-the-head pass for an alley oop. The bench exploded and the run was on.

Inspired by Marko Nevill, Arnaud Dahi brought the flair and excellent passing to this game

The Hatters added in a number of steals, solid play, and more flair (including an And-1 oop) to pull ahead 32-16; that’s a 17-1 run coming out of the timeout!

After Arnaud Dahi hits a three as time runs out on the first half, the home fans can only look in disappointment at the scoreboard as they find themselves down 40-26. Stetson only has 2 turnovers in the first half and Jerimie Scott, Arnaud Dahi, and Ray Rowe all had 10+ points. The point guard combo of Nevill and Dahi had combined for 9 assists in the first half. However, the lead should have been bigger as the Hatters were an abysmal 4-13 from the charity stripe.

Rost and Sweetney were a combined 4-5 shooting, but only played 6 minutes each due to foul trouble.

Arnaud Dahi was full of confidence as the second half kicked off.

It seemed like Rost and Sweetney were demotivated in the second half and their impact was much more muted even without the Hatters attacking and getting them into foul trouble. The Hatters were quickly up 52-32 and coasted to an 80-58 victory.

After the game, the sideline report had a quick conversation with Oggy, who was asked about how he handled North Florida’s size. Coach Dragomirov said “honestly, we couldn’t handle Rost, he was too much. So we let him handle himself and get him out of the game and then we took over from there. He’s a great player, but he can’t be great when he’s not on the floor. “

Ray Row had 20 points and 4 rebounds and frontcourt partner Jerimie Scott had 13 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Arnaud Dahi had a well-rounded 13 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals.

UNF only had 6 bench points, which is awful given how much their bench played. Michael Rost rebounded in the second half to finish with 17 points but only 2 rebounds.

Around the NCAA

• St. Francis had 2 more games this week and won them both (in very different ways). This puts them at 8-1 in the conference and are still 2 games up on second place. However with 9 games left they can’t afford to be complacent.
  • They kicked off the week with a HUUUGE win over Fake Francis (NY): 124-65. The 59 point win is the largest victory of his career and was a showcase for the Red Flash. Fake Francis had 35 fouls and 24 turnovers while the Red Flash had 28 assists and saw 6 players score double digit points. Bobby Valdez led the way once again off the bench with 21 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists.
  • The following game was another too-close-for-comfort game against Robert Morris as they won 67-63. There were no stars or standouts in this game, but Vern Quick finally seems to be recovered from the nagging hand injury and led the team with 15 points on 5-8 shooting.
  
  
• #3 Marquette lost to #11 Villanova for their 4^th loss in their last 7 games. Many people are heavily criticizing the polls for having them so high when they are 3-4 in the Big East.
• #4 Florida State has 12 straight wins, including 2 wins this week over #7 Boston College and #25 Maryland.
• #22 Clemson defeated #5 North Carolina 75-68. Starting center Antawn Hazel (78 ovr) had 15 rebounds and 4 players scored 11+ points for the Tigers. UNC only had 8 turnovers but they held Warren Mayes (PF, 88 ovr) to only 13 points; Mayes is scoring 21 ppg this year. They also forced starting SF Kerry Sarchet (84 ovr) to foul out.
• Continuing a theme, the Washington Huskies had their 15 game win streak broken by bitter Rivals Washington State 79-75 in Pullman. They fall to #6 in the polls in the loss despite Darius Lovelace’s (C, 86 ovr) 31 points and 9 rebounds. The Cougars were led by Lester Campbell (C, 79 ovr) and his 25 points. NBA hopeful Randy Vignale (SG, 88 ovr) had 14 points in the win.

[HarkTheSound]

Re: The Bulgarian Brothers – A College Hoops 2K8 & NBA 2K20 Dynasty

Love the Dahi highlight reel -- he had some slick passes and some of those finishes off his feeds were fun to watch.

[RolePlayer]

Re: The Bulgarian Brothers – A College Hoops 2K8 & NBA 2K20 Dynasty

Dahi busting out his inner Jason Williams on that pass. Jerimie Scott did really step up like you said with Evertson gone. I had forgotten about Michael Rost, it's fun to play what could've been with him. Although Ray Rowe was playing almost well enough to forget about him. Good win for the Hatters, making a serious run for the conference title.

[kibaxx7]

Re: The Bulgarian Brothers – A College Hoops 2K8 & NBA 2K20 Dynasty

Nice to see Dahi balling out! Great game by Rowe too.

[studbucket]

Re: The Bulgarian Brothers – A College Hoops 2K8 & NBA 2K20 Dynasty

Love the Dahi highlight reel -- he had some slick passes and some of those finishes off his feeds were fun to watch.

Yeah, that was possibly his best game as a Hatter - he did well and had fun.

Nice to see Dahi balling out! Great game by Rowe too.

Rowe seems to be the team's best PnR finisher, even though Scott gets more buckets. Rowe+Nevill on the PnR is pretty tough to stop.

Dahi busting out his inner Jason Williams on that pass. Jerimie Scott did really step up like you said with Evertson gone. I had forgotten about Michael Rost, it's fun to play what could've been with him. Although Ray Rowe was playing almost well enough to forget about him. Good win for the Hatters, making a serious run for the conference title.

Rost was the #9 center and #144 overall recruit in the country. He easily would have been the best recruit either brother would have gotten. Unsure why he chose UNF, but the team has not been good since he's been there. He would be thriving at the 5 if he would have chosen Stetson.

[studbucket]

Player Spotlight: Trevor Merchant

As I play games, I will take time to periodically spotlight some of the fictional players in my NBA. Today we are learning about Detroit Pistons superstar Trevor Merchant.

College Career and NBA Draft
Trevor Merchant spent his college career in Starkville, Mississippi playing point guard for the Bulldogs. While he was an exceptional and well-rounded player, he struggled to see team success. In his final season he managed to average 12 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists per game but the Bulldogs missed out on the dance and instead played in the NIT. In the consolation tournament, Merchant led the Bulldogs to the semifinals and managed to score 22 points per game despite having a sprained knee. Throughout the entire campaign it was clear that Merchant would be one of the top picks in the draft. As the draft neared, it became an obvious two-horse-race for the first overall pick between Merchant and Kansas shooting guard Ernesto Parkinson. With the Knicks, Bulls, and Kings as the likely top 3 teams, it was hard to tell which player would go first.

However, on lottery night it all went sideways. The Pistons jumped from #4 to #2 and the Brooklyn Nets grabbed the #1 overall pick due to protections they kept on the pick. Since the Nets already had Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, they went for the clear positional need and grabbed Parkinson to be a 3^rd scorer. This proved to be a wise decision as Parkinson helped the Nets win a title just 2 years later.

This left Merchant as the obvious choice for the Pistons at #2. While he doesn’t have a title yet, Merchant has easily been the best player from this draft and is one of the premier young players in the entire league.


Player Overview

Trevor Merchant has been a force to be reckoned with from the moment he entered the league. The Pistons were 29-53 prior to him arriving and had no real hope for the future. In his first season, he only saw the Pistons win 3 more games, but he won Rookie of the Year and averaged a 24, 9, and 4.5 – remarkable numbers for a rookie. By his second season, he had made the Second All-NBA team and was scoring over 28 points per game. His numbers have stayed largely flat since then, but in his third season he led Detroit to 50 wins and the third seed in the East as well as a First-team All-NBA selection. He started that third season on fire, averaging 36 points per game in the first month of the season and scoring 57 and 49 points in 2 of those games.

Now in his fourth season, he has a talented team around him as he’s supported by Marvin Bagley III (C, 85 ovr), Andrew Wiggins (SF, 84 ovr), and Kevin Huerter (SG, 81 ovr). The Pistons are slightly underperforming in a very competitive Eastern conference as they sit in 6^th place at 24-20. While Milwaukee is running away with the conference, they are not far behind Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and Chicago for the 3-5 spots.

Merchant’s game is very similar to the man he forced out of Detroit: Derrick Rose. He’s high-flying, extremely quick, unafraid of taking it to the rim or taking a deep three, and will crash the boards in a way that’s reminiscent of Russell Westbrook. While he’ll never be an elite three point shooter, he’s good enough to keep the defense honest (36% for his career) and he has the vision to punish teams who commit too many defenders to playing help defense on his drives. Ja Morant seemed like the heir apparent to the Rose/Westbrook “uber athletic and exciting point guard” but Merchant has surpassed Morant in skill and highlights and should be considered one of the best point guards in the league for the rest of the decade. Here are a few gifs showcasing his athleticism.

Merchant is at his best when he’s flying toward the rim.

Trevor Merchant has been dunking on opponents all career long, literally and metaphorically.

NBA Stats

Season	Team	GP	GS	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	TOPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	PER
2020-21	DET	75	75	23.8	8.9	4.5	1.8	0.1	2.9	.457	.326	.785	N/A
2021-22	DET	76	75	28.1	8.6	4.4	1.2	0.0	2.9	.493	.368	.781	N/A
2022-23	DET	78	78	28.3	8.6	5.3	1.2	0.1	3.4	.497	.390	.770	24.7
2023-24	DET	43	41	27.3	7.6	5.4	1.7	0.0	3.8	.478	.372	.839	22.4
Total		272	269	26.8	8.5	4.8	1.4	0.1	3.2	.482	.364	.786	N/A

[studbucket]

February 2, 2024 St. Francis vs Sacred Heart [NEC]

The Red Flash are coming off a lighter week, only having played Fairleigh Dickinson last week in a game that turned out to be more of a scrimmage than any real competition. St. Francis won 92-42 and no FDU player managed to score more than 8 points while 6 of Dinko’s boys scored 12+ points, with the star being Floyd Akindele and his 12 point, 11 rebound double-double.

The dominant win puts SFU at 9-1 in the conference a half game ahead of Long Island (9-2). The Red Flash have been fantastic this year and are 15-6 overall and Dinko is looking to rival his 2021-22 season where he led the Red Flash to a 23-12 record. Tonight’s home game against Sacred Heart will determine if St. Francis can keep hold of first place or if they will drop into a tie.

The Pioneers are 4-7, sitting third from the bottom in the conference and have not had a great season as they continue their slow downward trajectory. Since winning the NEC regular season title in 2020, they’ve finished fourth, sixth, and seventh since then and have only won a single NEC tournament game in those four years. Head coach Anthony Latina is likely feeling the hot seat as he has seen his team get worse and worse over the last 5 years.

It was already going to be a tough game for Sacred Heart, but it’s gotten even harder as they are missing starting big man Martin Harvey (C, 72 ovr) as he’s out for another week with a back injury. With Harvey out, the Pioneers have a huge height problem. Backup center Lamar Collum (51 ovr) is a huge step down and arguably not ready for D1 basketball. This means the Pioneers will likely have to rely heavily on freshman Leslie Larranaga (SF, 69 ovr) and sophomore Robin Timmer (SG, 65 ovr) if they want to have any chance in this game.

The game started a bit slow in DeGol Arena, but then the Red Flash woke up and found themselves up 16-5 before coach Latina finally called a timeout. Sacred Heart’s offense was awful and it didn’t get any better. With just 7 minutes left in the first half, the Pioneers had only scored 8 points.

They managed to score 14 more points in that half, but went into halftime down 44-22 and shooting only 20%. Dinko had already put in the backups and the fans were just hoping for some highlight plays in the second half. Unfortunately, much of the second half was a low-energy and lackadaisical affair and the fans were treated to Dinko loudly blowing up on his players from the bench during a timeout.

The talk seemed to work as the Red Flash regained control of the game and coasted to a 77-47 victory. The Red Flash have 8 straight wins with an average margin of victory of 26.3 points. The Red Flash look like giants in the NEC and nearly impossible to stop.

After the game, Dinko was stopped as he neared the tunnel and asked “Coach, another big victory as your team has won 8 straight and looks like the class of the conference. What’s been the difference this year that has resulted in so many lopsided wins?”

Dinko responded “It’s really been a fantastic season. I can’t say it’s because we are clearly more talented than teams in the past – think about Mo Payne’s last year. I think it’s more about truly being well-rounded and having depth. We’ve had a number of games where our leading scorer has been someone off the bench, and our length can really give other teams problems.”

Chris Thompson had 23 points and 7 rebounds on 11-12 shooting and was very solid and consistent today.

Around the NCAA

• Stetson played 3 games in the last few weeks, all of them wins. Oggy’s boys are sitting at 9-1, first place in the Atlantic Sun, and a game ahead of Belmont and Lipscomb. Their 17-7 record overall isn’t too shabby either.
  • 79-71 win vs Belmont. This helped Stetson take a lead in the conference and gives them a tiebreaker advantage. Despite 4 of Belmont’s starters scoring 12+ points, the Hatters overcame a 7 point halftime deficit and scored 52 second half points to win. Brendon Pocius led the team with a very solid 22 and 13 double-double. Marko Nevill had 7p, 5r, and 6a, while Arnaud Dahi added a well-rounded 3p, 3r, 7a, and 2s. Lennox Evertsen came off the bench to score 11 in a smaller performance.
  • 75-60 win over Mercer. Pocius had another big game: 23p, 6r, 3a, 2s. Lennox Evertsen came back and had his first start in a month, which was rough as he had 3 points on 0-5 shooting.
  • 77-76 win at Eastern Tennessee State. This was a tight game all the way through. Dane Matheus (C, 69 ovr) had huge game with 29 and 11. Stetson overcame that via 18p, 10r, 3a from Pocius and 15 points (on 4-14 shooting) from Lennox Evertsen.
• The top 2 teams in the Pac 10, and the country, faced off as UCLA took on Washington. It wasn’t even a game as the Bruins won 86-55 behind Fab Pratt (SG, 88 ovr) had 20 points and 7 rebounds while UW big man Darius Lovelace (C, 86 ovr) was held to only 17 points.
• Duke vaulted up to #5 in the polls with a huge 101-89 win over surging Florida State. Marcello Barber (PF, 91 ovr) outdueled Spencer brown (SG, 82 ovr) 28-26 to lead the Blue Devils.
• North Carolina moved up to #2 in the polls after beating Maryland 82-78. Warren Mayes (PF, 88 ovr) led all scorers with 28 points.

[JoshNormanMane]

Re: The Bulgarian Brothers – A College Hoops 2K8 & NBA 2K20 Dynasty

Trevor Merchant seems like a problem, ideally this is what I'd imagine the career arc of real life D-Rose to look like had he not gotten hurt.

It's cool that you've kept your 2k20 universe at the same pace of where we are in real life.

Also, did you create the guys in your CH universe or are they CPU generated? I've never played the game so I'm not too familiar with how good their system is.

[studbucket]

Re: The Bulgarian Brothers – A College Hoops 2K8 & NBA 2K20 Dynasty

Trevor Merchant seems like a problem, ideally this is what I'd imagine the career arc of real life D-Rose to look like had he not gotten hurt.

Absolutely. That's how I think of it too.

It's cool that you've kept your 2k20 universe at the same pace of where we are in real life.

I wish I hadn't It mostly got really slowed down by my wife's health issues and getting busy with family stuff (playing other games together, youth sports, etc).

Also, did you create the guys in your CH universe or are they CPU generated? I've never played the game so I'm not too familiar with how good their system is.

They are almost all auto-generated by CHoops. I can create a few recruits a year, but I make them mostly for flavor. The system is pretty good, with just 1 major flaw: all the best recruits are guards.

[studbucket]

Around the NBA – early February update

Posting this as its own separate update as the previous post would have been very long with this added to the bottom.

• The Warriors won by 44 over the Pelicans with Steph Curry (PG, 96 ovr), Jarrett Pressley (PG, 81 ovr), and Jimmy Butler (SF, 86 ovr) combining for 31 assists and DeAndre Ayton (C, 91 ovr) had 25 points, 20 rebounds, 4 steals, and 4 blocks. The Warriors have won 8 of their last 10 and are in command of the Western Conference.
• Bol (C, 84 ovr), Beal (SG, 91 ovr), Murray (PG, 86 ovr) and Jokic (C, 90 ovr) combined for 101 points as the Nuggets beat the Pacers 137-122. Ever since trading for Zubac (C, ) the Nuggets have been playing more consistent, higher quality basketball.
• Trevor Merchant (PG, 88 ovr) had 41 points and Marvin Bagley III (C, 85 ovr) had 31 rebounds as the Pistons defeated the now-tanking Cavaliers 114-99.
• The Wizards managed to beat the Bucks despite missing R.J. Barrett (SG, 84 ovr) due to injury, but then got Barrett back and had him drop 40 points to help them beat the Pistons, followed by wins over the Celtics, Thunder, and Grizzlies. They are still outside the playoff picture but have proven to be quite dangerous.
• Brandon Ingram (SF, 85 ovr) dropped 49 points (and only had 2 rebounds and 2 assists lol) but the Knicks lost to the Trail Blazers in OT as only 2 other New York players scored in double digits. Malcom Brogdon (PG, 87 ovr) led the Trail Blazers with 31 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists.
• The Miami Heat took the Brooklyn Nets into two overtimes, but lost 136-141. Even with Kevin Durant missing half the season so far, the Nets are doing quite well and seeing unlikely scorers step up like Jace Tarpley (SF, 79 ovr) and Nickeil Alexander-Walker (SG, 81 ovr).
• R.J. Barrett won the Eastern Conference January Player of the Month award despite missing a few games. The Wizards went 9-7 this month and Barrett averaged 34 points per game in the games he played in (excluding the game he left after a few minutes with an injury).
• Zion Williamson (PF, 94 ovr) is also injured, but was averaging 30 points and 16 rebounds before his brief trip to the injured list. This gave him Western Conference Player of the Month for January.
• Jameer Trammell (SF, 81 ovr) of the Magic and Sherman Turner (PF, 79 ovr) of the Clippers won the Rookie of the Month awards. Trammell is finally starting to look like the player that fans expected of the #1 overall pick out of Kansas State while Turner’s great January is a result over the opportunity given to him via the Zubac trade. “Big Oklahoma” is giving the Clipper fans something to cheer for in what has been an otherwise miserable season.
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SG, 85 ovr) will miss most of the rest of the season for the Heat as he tore his left meniscus.
• The Timberwolves will be missing D’Angelo Russell (PG, 86 ovr) for 4-6 weeks due to some right knee tendonitis.
• The Chicago Bulls won 7 of 8 games, including big wins over Boston and twice over Phoenix, but then have lost 3 straight games.
• The Celtics have dropped from second to fourth in the East, squandering their comfortable buffer as they’ve gone 3-7 in their last 10 with losses to bad teams like the Spurs and Wizards.
• The Lakers and Timberwolves are hot on the heels of Golden State for the top seed in the West. LA had 8 straight wins at one point in January while the T-Wolves are winners of 5 straight and 7 of their last 8.
• The Phoenix Suns are barely hanging on for their playoff lives as they weather a stretch that saw them go 2-11 in December and January before managing to go 4-2 in the games before the All-Star break.