This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Good morning, Winners! Thanks so much for reading the Morning Win today. We appreciate you.
What a night of NBA hoops, am I right? We got two pretty fun games — one came down to the wire in Golden State with the Suns coming out on top. The other between the Lakers and Nuggets never really felt in doubt despite getting pretty close at times.
The Nuggets are a well-oiled machine. Nikola Jokic is the best player in the league. There’s no one I’d rather have in the clutch — he makes every correct play. Denver had a 152.4 offensive rating in the fourth quarter behind his brilliance. He finished with 29 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists and the hilarious part is I’m not sure he picked up a basketball this summer before training camp. The dude is unflappable.
None of that was surprising, though. The biggest shock to me was LeBron James being on a minutes restriction.
James had a solid night finishing with 21 points, eight rebounds and six assists in just 29 minutes. But that’s the thing — he only played 29 minutes. He’s averaged 38 minutes a night for his career.
We’re here, folks. Darvin Ham says this is going to be a thing this season, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
“It’s easy with him to get caught up in the emotion of the game and you tend to forget you want to play these long stretches, but in order for him to be as effective as possible, we have to be mindful of the minute output and how long his stretches are.”
This strategy is sound in theory. Remember when LeBron James went off against the Nuggets in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals last year only to run out of gas in the end? This is supposed to prevent that.
But in practice? If this is going to work long-term, Anthony Davis has to be the Lakers’ best player. He went scoreless in the second half.
AD had ZERO points in the 2nd half 😳 pic.twitter.com/IRKdL6begH
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) October 25, 2023
That’s a bad sign for LA. Luckily for them, though, every team isn’t as nice as the Nuggets. We’ll see how this works for the rest of the year.
The Diamondbacks did it
Two years ago, the Arizona Diamondbacks were one of the worst teams we’ve ever seen in baseball. The team lost 110 games in a single season.
Imagine telling someone in 2021 that the D-Backs would be in the World Series in 2023.
Heck, honestly? Imagine telling someone that in August. It wasn’t a guarantee that this team would even make the playoffs after that stretch from July to August when Arizona could only muster up three wins. But here they are. Arizona is headed to the World Series for the first time since 2001.
This big hug between Torey Lovullo and Jeff Banister says it all, man.
The final out. 🥹 pic.twitter.com/devifNrQ8h
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) October 25, 2023
What a moment for this squad. What a time to be alive. I guess Chris Russo really has to retire now. Good luck in the World Series, Diamondbacks fans.
Shoutout Travis Dermott
The NHL’s senseless and silly Pride tape ban is over now thanks to the efforts of Arizona Coyotes defenseman Travis Dermott.
The NHL barred players from wearing or using “cause messaging” gear to show support for causes they believe in. The ban was general, but its intention was targeted. The league didn’t want players using Pride Tape to support LGBTQ+ causes. It was essentially an NHL “Don’t say Gay” policy.
That’s over now all thanks to Dermott. Our Mary Clarke wrote a brilliant column on his change-leading defiance.
“Dermott made waves Saturday evening after wearing Pride Tape on the ice during the Coyotes game against the Anaheim Ducks in clear defiance of the NHL’s ban. While stars like Connor McDavid were outspoken against the NHL’s decision to ban Pride Tape, it was a 26-year-old middle-pairing defenseman who became the loudest voice on the issue by actually standing up and resisting the mandate.
The Coyotes defenseman also spoke to The Athletic about his decision before the ban was lifted and doubled down on his feelings in support of the LGBTQ+ community.
‘But, yeah, I’m still here. The fight’s not over,’ Dermott said. ‘We’re going to continue to talk about this. And if the league doesn’t want it to be on league time then we’ll find other ways.’,”
REQUIRED READING: Check out the rest of Mary’s brilliant piece and the reaction from around the league here.
Quick hits: NFL trade deadline deals … Shaq’s Nikola Jokic bromance … and more
— Cory Woodruff has five NFL trade deadline deals we’d love to see for you here.
— Shaq telling Nikola Jokic that he loves him in Serbian is going to easily be one of my favorite moments of this NBA season. Bryan Kalbrosky has more here.
— Christian D’Andrea has his weekly quarterback rankings ready to go for Week 8. Patrick Mahomes is coming for your favorite QB, folks.
— Speaking of the trade deadline, here’s Christian again with 15 of the best deals we’ve seen over the years.
— Here’s Blake Schuster with the Heisman tracker on the College Football front and *checks notes* J.J. McCarthy is at the top? What a time.
—Bryce Harper wore the wrong jersey to the Phillies final game smh. Never bring the 76ers vibes to the table. Meghan Hall has more here.
Thanks so much for reading, folks! Happy Wednesday. Take it easy.
-Sykes ✌️