A Historically Wild Weekend of Basketball

We’re a little less than two weeks away from Selection Sunday, which is when the NCAA Tournament bracket gets unveiled, and we gear up for March Madness.

But if this past weekend is any indication, the madness has already begun — and the NBA is leading the way.

The chaos started on Friday night when Russell Westbrook made his debut for the Los Angeles Clippers. His new team was taking on the Sacramento Kings.

And hot dog, there were some POINTS SCORED in this game.

After two overtimes, the Kings walked away with a 176-175 victory. It’s the second-highest total (351) in NBA history.

Let’s see some stats!

The teams combined for 44 made three-pointers and each shot at least 58.6% from the field.

Fourteen players scored in double-figures, with three (Malik Monk, Kawhi Leonard, and De’Aaron Fox) each scoring at least 42.

Here’s Fox, who might be the coolest player in the NBA, hitting the game-winning shot.

On Saturday, the chaos headed to the NCAA.

First, Arizona State, who hadn’t won a game on the road versus a ranked Arizona since 1995, looked like they were going to come up just a wee bit short of victory.

Instead, Desmond Cambridge Jr. did this.

I made a shot like this in high school once, but there were a couple of key differences (besides it being high school vs. college):

• The team we were playing was not a top-ten-ranked team.
• They were not our biggest rival.
• We still lost the game by 11 points.

EVEN WITH ALL THAT, the feeling of briefly quieting the crowd was quite wonderful. Cambridge made that happen and then some.

I also enjoyed his post-game quote:

“I did not think that shot was going in. I just wanted to have a nice miss and everyone in the crowd go, ‘Ohhh!’ Once it went in, I literally could only scream because I couldn’t make sense of it.”

That’s why they call it (the week before) March Madness, baby!

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL. Less than an hour later, basically across the country, the Miami Hurricanes had watched all of a 25-point second-half lead disappear against the Florida State Seminoles. Eek.

The final sequence of this game was pretty darn wild.

A few thoughts on this:

• What is more trash on this possession: Florida State’s defense against the inbound pass or Miami’s Jordan Miller celebrating making the shot even though 4.9 seconds are still left on the clock?
• Miami was in the driver’s seat for winning their conference if they had not blown their lead. Instead, they are now on the wrong end of the largest comeback in ACC history.
• This game ended around 6 p.m. — isn’t that too early to say goodnight? I guess when you’re 9-20 like the Seminoles (now 9-21 after losing to UNC on Monday), you don’t get a lot of practice celebrating wins.
• Two in-state rivals defeated their ranked opponents with buzzer-beaters on the road within an hour of each other.

So, yes, that’s wild and all. But let’s jump to SUNDAY (and back to the NBA).

First, the Dallas Mavericks got up by 27 points against the Los Angeles Lakers. Then, they decided to empathize with what Miami had gone through the other day and promptly blew that lead.

Anthony Davis and co. got back into the game thanks to some stellar defense and timely buckets, which is usually how comebacks go, but maybe the Lakers have found a nifty formula that works.

Then again, LeBron James is probably out for several weeks with a foot injury. Usually, having LeBron James on the court for your team is better than not having him.

And that’s only like the fourth-biggest storyline from Sunday!

Nikola Jokic had a 40-point triple-double, which is the third time he’s done that this season alone.

Trae Young made a bonkers game-winner.

Then, Damian Lillard, fresh off his Three-Point Contest win at All-Star Weekend, made a whopping THIRTEEN three-pointers en route to 71 points.

Lillard did it all in 39 minutes, too, which is the highest-scoring output for someone who played less than 40 minutes.

Let’s just watch all of this greatness below. I can’t wait for more madness.