Are the 8-0 Cavaliers the best in the East? Plus, Caitlin Clark merchandise does numbers
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Hey, it's Election Day.
About Last Night
All 30 teams played ... two remain undefeated
With the NBA now routinely observing Election Day, all 30 teams were thrown into action last night before the country prepared to vote. I did my best to watch as much basketball as possible, but even I can't get through 15 games in one night. It's simply too much to ask! I do have an idea, though. Let's review most of the games by breaking them into three categories: Nail-biters for the competitive games, Welcome Back for timely returns and literally everything else that happened.
Unfortunately, that means some games won't get shine because I simply know the box score and a few key moments. Jazz – Bulls ? Sorry, you didn't make the cut, but we're happy Utah finally won its first game. Celtics – Hawks , Thunder – Magic , Wolves- Hornets and Blazers – Pelicans all get ignored this morning because they were blowouts. My apologies! But here is all the rest from last night's Gamesmageddon!
NAIL-BITERS!
Cavaliers 116 (8-0), Bucks 114 (1-6): There was a moment, with a couple minutes left, when it looked like a Bucks team without Giannis Antetokounmpo might put an end to the Cavaliers' perfect start to the season. Instead, Cleveland is a league best 8-0 as the Bucks fall to 1-6, tied for the NBA's worst record. Darius Garland had a season-high 39 points to out-duel Damian Lillard (36).
Nets 106 (4-4), Grizzlies 104 (4-4): The Nets continue to win behind the strong play of Dennis Schröder and Cam Johnson. They overcame 25 points from both Zach Edey and Ja Morant . Not to take away from Brooklyn, but Ja's two spinning layups stole the show.
Kings 111 (4-3), Heat 110 (3-3): The Heat were controlling this game before De'Aaron Fox took over, scoring 16 of his 28 in the third quarter. Then, Sacramento just had to out-execute Miami down the stretch, which culminated in Domantas Sabonis' game-winning, nine-foot floater after an offensive rebound with 0.7 seconds left.
Nuggets 121 (4-3), Raptors 119 (2-6): RJ Barrett had a game-winning 3-pointer go halfway down and then out as the Nuggets survived the Raptors for the second time in a week. Russell Westbrook had 21-6-6 in the start as Nikola Jokić finished with a ho-hum 28-14-13.
WELCOME BACK!
Suns 118 (6-1), 76ers 116 (1-5): Paul George made his Sixers debut and struggled with 15 points on 14 shots to go with five boards, four dimes and six turnovers. Tyrese Maxey had 32 for the Sixers, as his life seemed a lot easier. As my friend Ian said, though: Paul George still isn't Kevin Durant . The latter scored 15 of his 35 points in the fourth.
Warriors 125 (6-1), Wizards 112 (2-4): Steph Curry returned after missing three games to drop 24 points on the Wizards as the Warriors (6-1) kept winning. It's worth pointing out the three Wizards rookies (Alexandre Sarr, Bub Carrington and Kyshawn George ) look pretty good.
Pistons 115 (3-5), Lakers 102 (4-3): Cade Cunningham had a triple-double (17-11-11), Jaden Ivey added a team-high 26 points and the Pistons lit up the Lakers' defense in the third quarter. The Lakers don't look amazing on this road trip.
Rockets 109 (4-3), Knicks 97 (3-3): Alperen Şengün (25-14-5) was a monster, and Jalen Green was clutch to put this one out of reach. Houston's defense was very impressive against these Knicks, who still haven't found their rhythm yet.
Pacers 134 (3-4), Mavericks 127 (4-3): We saw two great offenses duke it out in this one, with the Pacers getting the road win. But the fireworks continued after the game, as Luka Dončić had some thoughts on Bennedict Mathurin waiting a while to talk trash .
Clippers 113 (3-4), Spurs 104 (3-4): The Spurs were up 40-14 after one quarter. Victor Wembanyama had 24 points, 13 rebounds, nine blocks, three assists and three steals. And yet the Clippers stormed back to complete the comeback for their first win at the new Intuit Dome.
The Last 24
It's Election Day! Here's stuff to distract you!
This Duke team is wild! Cooper Flagg and them boys demolished Maine, as Duke starts the season off right. Plant your Flagg!
Joel Embiid and the 76ers are under unique pressure. Sam Amick explains more here .
Get well soon, Pop. Spurs legend Gregg Popovich is ill and not coaching on the team's current road trip. Speedy recovery.
Arbitration SZN in Minnesota! Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore against Glen Taylor for ownership of the Wolves. Who will win
Jayson Tatum devastated by Lakers. He was on Jeff Teague's podcast and talked about his draft process. !
Did you vote? If so, congratulations on participating in our country's democracy! If not, there's still time, but today is the day! Polling Place Locator.
Caitlin Clark Craze!
Her memorabilia is currently surging
Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark is an economy by herself. That was the case when she starred at Iowa for four years. She's already becoming an economy in the WNBA , as she's helped bring ratings and interest to an all-time high. It's turned from a steady and encouraging progression for the league to an outright mutation in eyeballs on the women's pro game. She's commanding incredible direct deposits for her sponsorship, and anything with her name on it seems to be going crazy.
Remember those Wilson basketballs that she had released? Tens of thousands sold out in 40 minutes . Clark is one of the biggest sports figures in the United States right now and becoming a global icon as well.
That brings us to ripping packs! My social media algorithms have been constantly throwing me videos of people opening up card packs. Baseball, football, basketball! That, too, is an economy as the collectibles world has continued to rise and boom. A friend of mine works for We The Hobby, a company that is constantly streaming, opening up packs of cards and discussing these collectibles .
Last month, my friend informed me that on one of their streams, they opened a pack that featured this card.
Looks like a dope card! It's apparently an Obsidian 2024 Select WNBA Black Colorblast Caitlin Clark card. Why is that significant? What does that even mean? One of these sold a few days ago for $5,150! What?! That's an amount of money for a card that blows my mind, especially considering Clark just entered the WNBA this year.
My friend told me there are listings for these cards now in the $10,000 range, the Clark cards are up 300 percent since the summer and some of the rare stuff is expected to go in those five-digit ranges already.
Yesterday, I watched a guy open a 1983 Topps baseball card pack and end up with a Tony Gwynn rookie card. Google tells me that is apparently in the $4,000-to-$6,000 range for listings. You're telling me Clark's rare cards are Tony Gwynn levels of value? It makes me wonder where the Clark stuff will go from here. Maybe The Bounce should rip some packs.
Rank 'Em!
Top three, middle three, bottom three
It's Tuesday! You know what that means! The Bounce is listing the three best teams in the league. And the three worst teams in the league. That's not all, though. We do things a little different around here, meaning we will also give you the 14th-, 15th- and 16th-best teams in the league – also known as the middle three teams. This coincides with Law Murray's Weekly Power Rankings , but these are our rankings for each trio.
Top three: Thunder (7-0), Celtics (7-1), Cavaliers (8-0)
I fully believe the Thunder are the best team in the NBA. We see their world-class defense, and their offense hasn't even started really clicking yet. OKC's 3-point shooting has also been abysmal. And yet they're still up at the top. I am putting the Celtics over the Cavs despite the latter leading by a game early on. Cleveland's offense is off to a great start, and Evan Mobley looks great. The Celtics are still the defending champs and the scariest in the East, though.
Middle three: Pacers (3-4), Lakers (4-3), Nets (4-4)
The Pacers are off to a weird start, but they do have wins over the Celtics and Mavericks in the first two weeks. Remember that otherworldly offense from last season? Where is that? As for the Lakers, they're just 1-3 on this five-game road trip so far. Losing to Phoenix and Cleveland is fine. They got handled by the Pistons, though. And, don't look now, but the Nets are fun! Their big win over Memphis put them right there in the middle.
Bottom three: Bucks (1-6), Wizards (2-4), Jazz (1-6)
The Wizards are 2-0 against Atlanta and remain the Wizards against everybody else. The Jazz finally got a win to stop their horrendous start. Those make sense. The Bucks? They shouldn't be here . I just don't know what I'm supposed to do at this point. Doc Rivers' seat is getting hot. It has to be. No offense to Khris Middleton , but he can't mean this much to a team with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard. This is absurd.
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(Top photo: Patrick McDermott / )
