NBA Playoffs Overview
The 2024 NBA play-in tournament began April 16 and concluded April 19, with the Philadelphia 76ers and Miami Heat advancing in the Eastern Conference and the New Orleans Pelicans and Los Angeles Lakers making it out in the Western Conference. This eliminated the Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings, and Golden State Warriors from playoff contention. The play-in tournament included the No. 7 through No. 10 seed teams in each respective conference, with the format of the tournament favoring the higher seeds, giving them an easier route to advancing. With that being said, there were no surprises this year, as the No. 7 and No. 8 seed teams were the two teams to advance on both sides.
Now, midway through the first round, the games have been filled with down-to-the-wire endings and strong individual performances. Jamal Murray hit a game-winning buzzer beater to advance the Denver Nuggets to 2–0 against the Lakers. The New York Knicks had a late-game comeback with a clutch three-pointer from Donte DiVincenzo to hold off the 76ers to also advance to 2–0. Anthony Edwards had an impactful Game 1 performance for the Minnesota Timberwolves, scoring 33 points and helping his team secure the win against the Phoenix Suns. In the NBA Playoffs, the impact of home-court advantage is tremendous, making the Indiana Pacers’ Game 2 win on Milwaukee Bucks’ court and the Dallas Mavericks’ Game 2 win on the Los Angeles Clippers’ floor that much more meaningful. With that being said, anything can happen in the NBA Playoffs, and there is much more basketball to be played.
Jontay Porter Permanently Banned from the NBA
Sports betting is becoming increasingly popular in recent years, and has become a huge market for major sports leagues. While watching an NBA game, you will constantly see advertisements about FanDuel and DraftKings, with offers to get people into sports betting. As with all forms of gambling, there will always be people who try to rig it in hopes of winning large amounts of money, and strict rules and regulations are put in place to keep betting “fair.” In this most recent betting scandal, many are left confused as to why this person would so blatantly disregard the most obvious rule on sports betting: you can’t bet on yourself.
Jontay Porter played for the Toronto Raptors and is the brother of well-known NBA player Michael Porter Jr., who plays for the Denver Nuggets. However, this recent controversy has brought Jontay’s name to the spotlight for once, but not for good reason. The first part of this story starts with a trending video on social media of Jontay being visibly frustrated after making a three-pointer in a game, which is very odd. After this, people on the internet got to work and found more clips of him displaying body language in situations that were unusual during NBA games. Many began to suspect that he was betting on these games, as this is something that has happened before with other players and refs. The NBA conducted an official investigation, and after releasing what was found a few days ago, many were shocked.
It wasn’t just one or two games: Jontay bet on at least 13 NBA games between January and March of this year. Additionally, he had been giving other NBA bettors confidential information about his health for games before they happened, allowing these bettors to place bets that were guaranteed to win. For example, on March 20, Jontay left the game after playing just three minutes with an unknown illness, which we now know was planned. This was uncovered after sportsbooks observed a spike in betting on Jontay to underperform, with one bettor putting $80,000 on him in that game, which would have won them $1.1 million. Seeing this type of money on a lesser-known NBA player sparked the investigation in which all of this was uncovered. The money was not awarded to the bettors, and Jontay was hit with a lifetime ban from the NBA. Many speculate as to why Jontay would perform such risky activity, knowing that he would likely get caught. Even more bewildering is doing so while money was clearly not an issue, with Jontay having made over $2.7 million in the NBA up until this point. His brother, Michael, refused to get into any specifics when asked about the matter by reporters.
Scottie Scheffler’s Historic Run
Scottie Scheffler is shaking the world of golf, as he is on an unprecedented run that is the best since Tiger Woods. He has won four of his last five tournaments, with these being perhaps the most prestigious five tournaments there are. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Players Championship, Masters, RBC Heritage, and tied for second in the Houston Open, all back to back. In this stretch, Scheffler is 76 strokes below par, which is unbelievable. At one point at the RBC Heritage, Scheffler exceeded 50 holes without making anything worse than a 4. Additionally, just in this stretch, Scheffler has made $16.3 million dollars, which would be the third-highest amount of money earned in an entire PGA Tour season. He has been extremely impressive these last couple of months, but his whole career has been impressive as a whole. Becoming a professional golfer in 2018, it has taken Scheffler just 119 PGA Tour events to reach 10 official victories, which puts him third of all time in total events to reach 10 wins. This season, he has shot 39 consecutive rounds at par or better. This has given him a scoring average this season of 67.50, which if he holds for the rest of the season, he will beat Tiger’s best season.
Scheffler is the favorite to win the 2024 PGA Championship, and current odds have him being the first ever to achieve a Grand Slam in this singular season. All eyes are on Scheffler as he is set to continue his groundbreaking play.
