The 2023 NBA season has come to an end and the Denver Nuggets were the last team standing. With the Larry O’Brien Trophy being paraded through the streets of Colorado, we’ve taken a look at some of the best and worst moments of the last eight months.
The 2023 NBA season has finally come to an end and the Denver Nuggets were the last team standing.
With the Larry O’Brien Trophy being paraded through the streets of Colorado, we’ve taken a look at some of the best and worst moments of the last eight months, and a few other categories too…
The best overperformers
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The Miami Heat slogged through a disappointing regular season, eked into the play-in tournament and barely survived an elimination game against the Chicago Bulls.
Yet, when all evidence suggested a first-round exit, Jimmy Butler orchestrated a mammoth upset of the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks.
He followed that triumph by ousting the resurgent New York Knicks and then, in the Eastern Conference Finals, completed what he couldn’t do last year: defeat the Boston Celtics.
In doing so, the Heat became the first number eight seed since 1999 to reach the Finals, and they did it by beating three teams that everybody thought would tear them apart.
If that’s not a perfect description of a team that overperformed, here’s another one.
Just like Miami, the Sacramento Kings defied the odds and battled their way to becoming a top-seven team for the first time since 2003.
At the time, they led the league in points per game, had the best road record in the Western Conference, and possessed a compelling frontcourt duo that made light work of opposition defences as they secured the third seed.
And that’s all without mentioning their head coach Mike Brown, who unanimously won Coach of the Year.
Considering that all 100 voters from a panel of reporters and broadcasters had the 53-year-old atop their ballot, that might tell you a little about why they deserve to be in this category.
The biggest underperformers
Champions last year, barely squeezing into the postseason conversation 12 months later, could there be a better fit for this category than the Golden State Warriors?
Sure, four titles in, and things getting a little more complicated is a given. But combine a pre-season bust-up between Draymond Green and Jordan Poole with one of the league’s worst road records, and what you get is a dynasty tottering on the precipice of extinction having been eliminated by the LA Lakers in the second round.
The Dallas Mavericks have come close to that dismay this season too. It all started promisingly, with the mercurial Luka Doncic matching Wilt Chamberlain’s record for consecutive 30+ point performances in the season’s first eight games. Soon, Kyrie Irving joined the team, and the pair were ferocious together.
But not even their combined forces could stop the team from totalling. Eventually, the Mavericks decided to throw in the towel and rest all their stars, which the league took one look at, adjudged as “conduct detrimental to the league,” and dished out a £585,000 ($750,000) fine.
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The most surprising storylines
We can’t talk enough about Sacramento in this piece; they should be getting all the flowers.
But let’s turn our focus to Brooklyn. Losing your best two attackers can usually derail a franchise, but the Nets have done well to steady the ship with Mikal Bridges at the helm.
The 26-year-old is a superstar in the making, and his team have enough trade flexibility to build around him and significantly improve the roster.
Let’s move on to the more surprising – and slightly controversial – storyline: Joel Embiid winning the MVP award.
Hear us out. The Philadelphia 76ers know they have a worthy contender for the prize. But surely Nikola Jokic was the outstanding candidate?
That much seems apparent from the breakdown of results.
Indeed, Jokic finished with 15 first-place votes, 52 second-place votes, and 32 third-place votes, totalling to 99 out of 100. While he was nowhere near matching Embiid’s scores, it does mean that one voter did not vote for the Serbian international at all.
Maybe that voter favoured another player on the list over Jokic? Well, no. He didn’t even get so much of a sniff at fourth or fifth place.
The mystery man unveiled himself soon after as ESPN’s Mark Jackson, who quickly apologised, but the damage had been done.
The most disappointing storylines
The Ja Morant saga obviously stands out here, with the Memphis Grizzlies’ star handed a 25-game suspension for his involvement in two gun-related incidents this season.
As far as on-court storylines are concerned, the Portland Trail Blazers deserve to be exposed for suspiciously shutting down Damian Lillard when it became apparent they wouldn’t be able to make a late dash for the final play-in spot.
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Sure, unlike the Mavericks, they seemed to escape punishment. But it’s pretty disheartening that they couldn’t resurrect their season, despite having a stellar point guard and a slew of solid rotation players.
Lillard feels differently about the decision. He stated: “I wouldn’t say it’s my decision at all. I think maybe the team protecting me from myself”.
Or maybe, they’re protecting their future lottery odds? Portland knew their positioning could give them a better chance of securing a top-three pick.
Best moments to look back on
There are good moments, and then there are really good moments. Leading the charts of best moments this season are the Kings and their double overtime 176-175 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.
Sacramento delivered on every level, with Malik Monk topping the scoring with 45 points, while team-mate De’Aaron Fox lit the beam with 42 points.
Not far behind is LeBron James, who shattered Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time points record of 38,387 in February against the Oklahoma City Thunder in front of fans, friends, and celebrities.
The audience included: Denzel Washington, Jay-Z, Bad Bunny, LL Cool J, Usher, Andy Garcia, and countless others. Dozens of basketball greats, including Laker’s heroes James Worthy, Bob McAdoo, and Dwyane Wade, also turned out.
Other notable mentions for this category involve:
- Jokic and the Nuggets parading their first championship title through the streets of Denver.The Heat’s monstrous Game Seven performance against the Celtics that kept their season ticking along.
Most controversial moments
Soap opera-style drama is very much in demand. Fortunately, there’s been no shortage this season.
Cast your minds back to January when referee Eric Lewis officiated an electric thriller between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics.
What followed could only be described as some of the most contentious moments of the season.
Lewis missed a very obvious foul from Tatum on James in the dying moments of the game, and the Lakers talisman could do nothing but lament on the floor of the court as his team were denied a crucial win.
Team-mate Patrick Beverley was so incensed on behalf of James that he jogged off the court, grabbed a camera, and brought it back to show Lewis where he’d gone wrong.
Of course, he got a technical for his efforts, but that’s not the end of this story. Months later, Lewis would be under investigation for allegedly creating a burner account on Twitter, which he used to defend himself and other officials from online criticism.
There was also a separate issue of whether he and his family were Celtics fans, which only compounds the problem.
If that wasn’t saucy enough for you, here are some more disputed moments to reflect on.
Who can forget the Warriors’ Green and his various scuffles this season? It began with a spat with team-mate Poole, who Green punched square in the face after a disagreement during a warm-up. The Dubs quickly swept it under the carpet, knowing a suspension would not suit their ambitions.
Green would be under scrutiny again months later in the playoffs when he was believed to have stamped on the chest of Kings’ Domantas Sabonis.
Green and Poole weren’t the only team-mates embroiled in a bust-up this season. Minnesota Timberwolves’ Rudy Gobert and Kyle Anderson had to be separated in the stands after fisting up over a minor dispute.
Most ill-timed injuries
It can take a long time for a team to appear strong enough to make a deep play-off run, and it can take just one injury to derail a franchise’s season.
Take New Orleans Pelican’s Zion Williamson. Williamson sat out the entire 21/22 season with a broken foot and was gearing back for his big return this campaign – except, it didn’t turn out that way.
He barely played throughout the first half of the season, missed the All-Star Game, and then was shut down as it became clear more surgery would be needed. His team struggled to cope in his absence and ultimately missed their chance at a spot in the play-in tournament.
Not far behind him is the Heat’s Tyler Herro. Herro sustained a broken hand in the very first game of the postseason against the Milwaukee Bucks and never quite recovered in time to help his team fashion a comeback for the ages in the Finals.
He did feature in the crucial Game Five that Miami almost won against the Nuggets, but in reality the Finals came too soon for the 23-year-old.
Some other noteworthy mentions are James’ ankle pop, Kevin Durant re-injuring himself in the first on-screen warm-up from his previous injury return, and Jayson Tatum slicing his hand after reinforcing the importance of watering plants to his online followers (don’t ask us how).
