Three Negatives from the NBA Orlando Bubble

For the most part, this has been a better than expected restart to the NBA season. Thankfully, there have been no positive coronavirus tests by any of the players or staff in Orlando. There has been some good and bad, as can be expected, but it’s been overall a positive experience and basketball fans are glad that the league has returned.

Let’s take a look at some not so magical happenings in Disney. Note that some of these things occurred prior to the bubble but make a huge impact on play and results.

1 – The Injury Bug and Its Victims

When someone gets hurt, it’s never fun and sports injuries are no different. You never want to see a player from your team go down, especially long term. However, there will be some lengthy absences for notable players. This includes players that will miss for one reason or another due to Covid-19.

Spencer Dinwiddie, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Justise Winslow, DeAndre Jordan and Bojan Bogdanovic were all set to be out before play began in Orlando. Since the first tipoff, several other players are now sidelined including Domantas Sabonis, Jonathan Isaac, Ben Simmons and Russell Westbrook.

Hopefully they can all make a full recovery but it sounds like other than Russ all these guys will miss the entire postseason.

2 – The Phoenix Suns Went 8-0 and Didn’t Make the Playoffs

There were a lot of questions when the bubble was announced as to why the Suns were even invited. It was almost assured that they wouldn’t even have a chance at making the postseason. The Memphis Grizzlies would have had to lose most of their games while they pretty much had to win all of them.

Well, Memphis went 2-6 and Phoenix went a jaw dropping 8-0, proving the world wrong.

In the end though, it sadly wasn’t enough as it came down to the last game for each team and the Suns needed just one of the Grizzlies or Portland TrailBlazers to lose their last game. Ja Morant led his team to his second victory in Orlando earlier in the day and Damian Lillard guided his squad to beat the Brooklyn Nets by one point later in the evening, ending the Disney magic for the Suns.

Now, don’t get me wrong, records are records and rules are rules. It just doesn’t seem right, at all, that the Suns won all their games and didn't make it, while the Grizzlies lost six of eight and got a chance to play their way into the final spot.

3 – Bad Play by Several Solid Players

I’ll let the statistics speak for me on this:

Lonzo Ball only made 18 of his 59 shots (30.5%) and 9 of his 32 three-pointers (28.1%) for 7.1 points per game as well as rumors that he had “checked out” on his team.

Zion Williamson scored efficiently but only pulled down 7.3 boards per 36 minutes and didn’t have a single steal or block in 103 minutes amidst more “conditioning” questions.

P.J. Tucker only made 15 of his 52 shots (28.8%) for 5.5 points and 4.4 rebounds per game.

Danny Green only made 38.8 percent of his field goal attempts and only 25 percent of his long distance shots for a mere 6.6 points per game when the Lakers needed him to step up with Avery Bradley out.

Eric Bledsoe shot 35.7 percent overall, averaging just 9.2 points.

A slimmed down Nikola Jokic that averaged 9.7 rebounds and 0.6 blocks per game prior to the restart only grabbed 6.0 boards per game and recorded only ONE block in 235 minutes.

Paul Millsap has definitely shown his age as his numbers have fallen and he’s lost a good chunk of money in the upcoming free agency period, putting up only 8.9 points, 4.7 rebounds and 0.3 blocks per game.

Serge Ibaka has been in a funk, going 4-for-16 from deep for 8.8 points per game.

Kendrick Nunn has made only 31.3 percent of his shots and 20.7 percent of his treys for 10.8 points per game and had only 10 assists compared to 13 turnovers.

Now, hopefully for their team’s playoff chances, all of these guys will step up at least back to their normal play. If not, it’s going to get even uglier.