Friday night’s NBA action featured an unusual sight: many of the league’s biggest stars watching from the sidelines as teams approached the final weekend of regular season play.
The matchup between Oklahoma City and Denver could have showcased two recent MVP winners – Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, this year’s reigning champion, and three-time winner Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets. Instead, both players remained on the bench alongside their fellow starters.
This pattern repeated across the league, with an extraordinary 168 players sidelined Friday evening due to various injuries, illnesses, or rest decisions. The Memphis Grizzlies alone held out 14 team members.
Friday marked game 81 for every NBA franchise – their penultimate contest before Sunday’s season finale. With Saturday serving as a league-wide rest day, teams made strategic choices about player availability.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault explained his team’s approach to reporters before tipoff: “If we didn’t clinch (the No. 1 overall seed) coming into tonight, everybody would be playing. We’ve earned the right through 80 games to manage their bodies and stuff like that.”
Oklahoma City had already secured the top playoff position, making player health their main concern heading into the postseason.
Denver faced different circumstances, still competing for seeding position. Jokic remains one game short of eligibility requirements for major awards, making a Sunday appearance likely for the star center.
“We’re all aware of that,” Nuggets coach David Adelman confirmed to media members.
San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama provided Friday’s most interesting eligibility storyline. Needing exactly 20 minutes to reach the 65-game threshold for award consideration, the rookie was initially pulled after hitting that mark precisely. However, he convinced coaches to return him to action for additional development time.
Wembanyama concluded with an impressive 40 points, 13 rebounds, and five assists across 26 minutes of play.
“If I had 65 (games) before, I for sure wouldn’t have played,” Wembanyama stated.
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson added: “We need as much on-the-job training, on-the-court experience together as we can. That’s what we’re trying to do without overdoing it.”
Boston provided Friday’s offensive highlight, connecting on 29 three-point shots to match the NBA record. This marked just the fourth instance in league history of a team achieving this feat, and the second occurrence this week following Memphis’s performance Monday against Cleveland.
“Hopefully, we didn’t use them all up in one game,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla commented.
Golden State took a different approach, using Friday to prepare for their upcoming play-in tournament appearance. The Warriors started Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Kristaps Porzingis together for the first time this season.
“We’ll just take a look at that tonight,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr explained. “We have a season full of data and film on some of the combinations. But some of decisions we have to make, there’s no data. It’s just kind of a hunch so we have give some of that a look tonight.”
Atlanta secured the 11th guaranteed playoff berth by defeating Cleveland, who rested star guard Donovan Mitchell.
“It feels great,” Hawks guard CJ McCollum said following their clinching performance. “The guys did a great job of rallying together.”
Friday’s results finalized several playoff positioning matters: Boston claimed the Eastern Conference’s second seed behind top-ranked Detroit. New York locked up third place in the East, while Cleveland’s loss guaranteed them fourth position. Atlanta confirmed their playoff spot as either the fifth or sixth seed.
Charlotte will participate in the play-in tournament after falling to Detroit. Orlando secured no worse than the 7-versus-8 play-in matchup in the East, while Miami locked into the 9-versus-10 play-in game.
