{"id":1869787,"date":"2026-04-07T14:30:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1869787"},"modified":"2026-04-07T14:30:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:30:34","slug":"the-bounce-ugly-championships-still-count-plus-the-bulls-clean-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1869787","title":{"rendered":"The Bounce: Ugly championships still count. Plus, the Bulls clean house"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Bounce Newslette<\/b>r<\/strong>\u00a0\":basketball:\"<\/span>\u00a0| This is The Athletic\u2019s<\/em> daily NBA newsletter.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfb6\ud83c\udfb6 The ball is tipped. And there you are. You\u2019re running for your life. You\u2019re a shooting star. And all the years. No one knows. Just how hard you worked. But now it shows. In one shining moment, it\u2019s all on the line. One shining moment, there frozen in time! \ud83c\udfb6\ud83c\udfb6<\/p>\n

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About last night<\/h3>\n

Hail to the Victors<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was an ugly, defensive-minded, missed shot-riddled men\u2019s national championship game, but I\u2019m not sure Michigan coach Dusty May would have had it any other way. The Wolverines beat the Connecticut Huskies 69-63<\/a> to win their first national title since Glen Rice, Loy Vaught, Terry Mills and Rumeal Robinson topped Seton Hall in 1989. Michigan held UConn to 32 percent from the field, and even though the box score says the Wolverines had six blocks, it felt like a lot more.<\/p>\n

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UConn tried to make another big comeback like we saw against Duke in the Elite Eight, but it just couldn\u2019t bury enough shots. It wasn\u2019t all that pretty for the Wolverines on offense, either, as they made just 38 percent of their shots. But they were clutch at the line, going 25-of-28. Elliot Cadeau led everybody with 19 points and was named Most Outstanding Player. Time to start obsessing over the transfer portal! What a season!<\/p>\n

And from the NBA\u2019s night of games!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Knicks 108, Hawks 105: <\/strong>The Hawks did a great job bottling up Jalen Brunson \u2026 for 42 minutes. He had 13 points with six minutes left. Then he turned it up<\/a> and finished with 30 to lead the Knicks to the victory. Brunson also had 13 assists to go with his late scoring barrage. Karl-Anthony Towns had a big game with 21 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. Nickeil Alexander-Walker had 32 points (including this spectacular bucket<\/a>), but it wasn\u2019t enough. CJ McCollum hit a shot beyond half court that would have tied it, but he got it off just after the buzzer.<\/p>\n

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Magic 123, Pistons 107: <\/strong>The Magic badly needed this win, and Paolo Banchero got it for them. He had 31 points, Desmond Bane had 25 and Jalen Suggs put up 12 points and 12 assists to light up a great Pistons defense. Orlando (43-36) has the same record as Charlotte and Philadelphia but is the ninth seed in the East because of tiebreakers.<\/p>\n

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Spurs 115, 76ers 102: <\/strong>Victor Wembanyama left the game with a rib contusion after 16 minutes but only needs to play (20 minutes or more) in two of the final three games to be award eligible, thanks to the NBA Cup final<\/a>. Joel Embiid had 34 points, but Stephon Castle\u2019s 19 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds were enough to make up for Wemby\u2019s exit. Wemby had 17 points and three blocks in his time on the court.<\/p>\n

Nuggets 137, Blazers 132 (OT): <\/strong>The Nuggets were down 17 in the fourth quarter and stormed back to force overtime. That\u2019s when Jamal Murray took over to score seven of his 20 points. Nikola Joki\u0107 had 35 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists, six turnovers and five steals. Denver (51-28) moved to third place in the West.<\/p>\n

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{“endpoint”:”https:\/\/api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com\/graphql”}<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s head to the Dunk Tank!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Cavs 142, Grizzlies 126: <\/strong>No Donovan Mitchell. No James Harden. No problem. Evan Mobley had 24, and Dennis Schr\u00f6der put up 22 points and 11 assists. Tank score for Memphis is 8\/10.<\/p>\n

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The last 24<\/h3>\n

\ud83d\udcc8 Power Rankings! <\/strong>Law Murray checks in on some first-week predictions. Plus, the Nuggets are contenders again<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc0 Surprising hire! <\/strong>Many thought Billy Donovan would be at the top of North Carolina\u2019s coaching list. The Tar Heels just hired former Nuggets coach Michael Malone<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd1d Another one gone. <\/strong>The Chicago Sky can\u2019t keep any stars. They just traded Angel Reese to Atlanta<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc0 Technically clean.<\/strong> Mike Conley has never been called for a technical foul in 1,224 career games. He explains why in this first-person piece<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc0 Wait \u2019til next year. <\/strong>Now that the men\u2019s college hoops season is over, it\u2019s time for CJ Moore\u2019s early Top 25 for 2026-27<\/a>. <\/strong>The transfer portal makes this impossible, of course, but it\u2019s still fun!<\/p>\n

Stream the NBA on Fubo (<\/em>try it for free!<\/a>)<\/em>\u00a0and catch out-of-market games on\u00a0<\/em>League Pass<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Chicago Fire\u2019d<\/h3>\n

Bulls dismiss front office. What\u2019s next?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Around the same time Malone took the UNC job yesterday, the Bulls announced they were cleaning house in their front office<\/a>. The franchise fired vice president of basketball operations Art\u016bras Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley. Karnisovas and Eversley were hired in 2020. During their time, the Bulls went 224-254, had just one winning season and made the playoffs once.<\/p>\n

This was the statement from Bulls CEO Michael Reinsdorf about the firings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not had the success our fans deserve, and it\u2019s my responsibility to go in a new direction. This move is about positioning our team for sustained success moving ahead.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve long contended this is an ownership problem as much as it\u2019s anything else in Chicago. Other than having the greatest player of all time from 1984 to 1998 and then a brief period with a healthy Derrick Rose, this organization has been mediocre at best. It\u2019s one of the least inspiring franchises year after year. So an overhaul was needed with the front office, but it won\u2019t truly make a difference unless ownership gets out of the way.<\/p>\n

The Bulls have set themselves up for a solid reset. The only long-term money they have dedicated is Josh Giddey ($75 million over the next three years) and Patrick Williams ($54 million over the next three, but the last one is a player option). So this roster has a lot of flexibility moving forward. Chicago just needs the right eye to win in the margins and on big swings with acquiring talent.<\/p>\n

Between Giddey, Matas Buzelis and maybe Noa Essengue, there\u2019s a nucleus for a potential youth movement\/rebuild. But the Bulls don\u2019t have a definite cornerstone to build around. There\u2019s a decent chance to grab one of those guys in the upcoming draft. They\u2019re currently slotted for ninth before any lottery movement. That gives them a 20.3 percent chance at a top-four pick.<\/p>\n

It sounds like the team wants to keep Billy Donovan as the coach regardless of the front-office hires. So as long as he doesn\u2019t try to bolt for somewhere else and they can get everything lined up, the Bulls are in a position to build something meaningful. They just need ownership to hire the right people and get out of the way<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Yesterday\u2019s decision was the easy part<\/a>, Jon Greenberg writes.<\/p>\n

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Leaders check-in<\/h3>\n

Should totals matter more than averages?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve dipped our toes into this before, but I\u2019m always curious about weighing averages against total numbers in NBA statistics. The NBA is the only professional sport that goes off averages as a measurement of being a leader. Baseball is all about total, raw numbers when it comes to home runs, runs batted in, runs scored, strikeouts, walks and so much more. Of course, it has batting averages and OPS and other measurables, but those are similar to shooting percentage and true shooting percentage in basketball.<\/p>\n

The NFL will occasionally mention how many yards per game a player is running for or throwing for, but for the most part it deals in total yardage with its main offensive categories. Nobody is ever saying, \u201cthis edge rusher is averaging 1.4 sacks per game this season.\u201d NFL numbers probably resemble NBA numbers the most, since you\u2019re often dealing with stats in the thousands.<\/p>\n

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We have less than a week left in the regular season, so I wanted to check in on the statistical races and leaders. I also wonder how different it would look based on totals versus averages. I\u2019m writing this before I even look up the leaders, so there\u2019s a decent chance this becomes a completely pointless exercise. I will leave this section in, regardless.<\/p>\n

Scoring title:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  • Scoring average leaders: <\/strong>1. Luka Don\u010di\u0107 (33.5), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (31.4), 3. Anthony Edwards (28.9), 4. Jaylen Brown (28.7), 5. Tyrese Maxey (28.6)<\/li>\n
  • Total points leader: <\/strong>1. Don\u010di\u0107 (2,143), 2. SGA (2,072), 3. Brown (1,980), 4. Kevin Durant (1,940), 5.\u00a0 Mitchell (1,921)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    SGA will absolutely surpass the injured Don\u010di\u0107 in total points, but Luka will be considered the scoring champ because the NBA goes by average.<\/p>\n

    Rebounding title:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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    • Rebounding average leaders: <\/strong>1. Joki\u0107 (12.9), Karl-Anthony Towns (11.9), 3. Donovan Clingan (11.6), 4. Victor Wembanyama (11.5), 5. Rudy Gobert (11.5)<\/li>\n
    • Total rebounds leader: <\/strong>1. Towns (867), 2. Gobert (860), 3. Clingan (858), 4. Joki\u0107 (812), 5. Wembanyama (723)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Joki\u0107 missed a month in the middle of the season, so he\u2019s not close to the leader in total rebounds. But he\u2019s leading in average! Towns might be the actual rebounding king this year considering he\u2019s second in average and first in total.<\/p>\n

      Assists title:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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      • Assists average leaders: <\/strong>1. Joki\u0107 (10.9), Cade Cunningham (9.9), 3. Giddey (9.1), 4. Don\u010di\u0107 (8.3), 5. Harden (8.1)<\/li>\n
      • Total assists leader: <\/strong>1. Joki\u0107 (686), 2. Cunningham (603), 3. Jalen Johnson (558), 4. Harden (548), 5. Don\u010di\u0107 (530), 5. Murray (530)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Joki\u0107 has the legitimate claim to both tallies here. Nobody is catching him in either. It makes him the first player to lead the league in rebounding and assists averages. Only one player has ever led in total rebounds and total assists in the same season. That was Wilt Chamberlain in 1968.<\/p>\n

        Blocks title:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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        • Blocks average leaders: <\/strong>1. Wembanyama (3.1), Chet Holmgren (1.9), 3. Jay Huff (1.8), 4. Mobley (1.7), 5. Clingan (1.7)<\/li>\n
        • Total blocks leader: <\/strong>1. Wembanyama (195), 2. Huff (140), 3. Holmgren (125), 4. Clingan (124), 5. Gobert (122)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Wemby is running away with this, as you\u2019d expect him to until he retires. Look at Huff\u2019s shot-blocking this season, though! Not bad for a guy who plays 20.8 minutes per game.<\/p>\n

          Steals title:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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          • Steals average leaders: <\/strong>1. Ausar Thompson (2.0), Cason Wallace (2.0), 3. Dyson Daniels (2.0), 4. Kawhi Leonard (1.9), 5. Maxey (1.9)<\/li>\n
          • Total steals leader: <\/strong>1. Wallace (147), 2. Daniels (145), 3. Ausar (140), 4. Dunn (127), 4. Maxey (127)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            This one is neck-and-neck. Wallace and Daniels are most likely the guys fighting to be the steals king for the rest of this season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            The Bounce Newsletter\u00a0\u00a0| This is The Athletic\u2019s daily NBA newsletter.\u00a0Sign up here\u00a0to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox. \ud83c\udfb6\ud83c\udfb6 The ball is tipped. And there you are. You\u2019re running for your life. You\u2019re a shooting star. And all the years. No one knows. Just how hard you worked. But now it shows. In one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1869787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1869787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1869787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1869787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1869787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1869787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1869787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}