NBA Weekly Recap: April 10

Story posted April 10, 2022 in CommRadio, Sports by Patrick Lepre

With the NBA regular season coming to an end this week, here are the biggest stories around the league.

MVP Race Down to the Wire

The MVP award is surely going to fall in either Joel Embiid or Nikola Jokić's hands. Embiid, on one hand, has been nearly unstoppable, winning his first career scoring title. The 76ers star is averaging 30.6 points, 11.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game.

Jokić has been doing it on his own in Denver, with players like Michael Porter Jr. and Jamaal Murray being out the entire season. Despite this, Jokić is the first player ever to rack up 2000 points, 1000 rebounds and 500 assists in a single season. Jokic is averaging 27.1 points, 13.8 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game.

It's safe to say that both players are more than deserving of the award.

NBA Play-In

With the regular season just about wrapped up, the Play-In Tournament will soon be upon us.

As it stands currently, the two biggest games so far would be the Clippers and Timberwolves squaring off, featuring the return of Paul George and a Timberwolves team that has had a great turnaround this season.

The other biggest game of the play-in will be the Brooklyn Nets vs the Cleveland Cavaliers. With Kyrie Irving finally able to play and Kevin Durant back from injury, the Nets want a shot at the playoffs. However, a young and feisty Cavalier team that, up until the back end of this season, was having a great year and can still give Brooklyn problems.

Lakers Failure

The Lakers failure was officially confirmed this week as they were eliminated from play-in contention with a loss to the Phoenix Suns. An absolutely horrid season for this historic franchise has come to an end. Between the Russell Westbrook struggles, the injury bug and just not being a team that fit right, this season was bound to go this direction.

The Lakers again were unable to recreate the magic they had in Orlando during the 2020 bubble. Despite this, Lebron James still put up an unreal stat line at the age of 37 with 30.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game.

L.A. will still have question marks across the entire organization in the offseason and it’ll be interesting to see what it can manage to pull off considering the lack of resources with players and picks.

Ja Morant Returns

Despite missing 24 games this season, the Grizzlies managed to go 20-4 without star point guard Ja Morant. However, Morant’s impact is still missed when not in the lineup. The third-year player has averaged 27.4 points, 5.7 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game this season.

Memphis finds itself as a two-seed in the West entering the playoffs, and will gladly welcome Morant back to the lineup.

Phoenix Suns Break Franchise Record

It’s no doubt Phoenix is having arguably its greatest season in franchise history so far. The Suns earned a franchise record 63 wins, even with preseason doubters calling last season’s NBA Finals run a fluke. It’s safe to say the Suns are for real and are one of the better teams the NBA has seen in the past few years.

Patrick Lepre is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email pjl5466@psu.edu.

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