Don’t look now, but former Kentucky Wildcats are dominating the NBA playoffs
Update: Devin Booker scored 38 points in Suns win over Clippers on Tuesday night.
Well, of course John Calipari was sitting front and center at Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia on Monday night taking in Game 2 of the 76ers-Nets series.
The Kentucky basketball coach didn’t want to miss out on the fun.
After all, Calipari’s former pupils — 15 in all — are all over the first round of these NBA playoffs, scoring buckets, grabbing headlines, leading their teams to victories while shining in prime time.
Why right there in the City of Brotherly Love, with Calipari cheering him on, former Cat guard Tyrese Maxey scored 33 points to lead the host Sixers to a 96-84 victory over Brooklyn and a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.
After watching the ever-smiling Maxey nail six three-pointers and continually beat Brooklyn off the bounce, Calipari watched his former star autograph a basketball for a young Sixers fan who appeared to disbelieve her good fortune. It was the play of the night.
Then, way over on the left coast, De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk, the two top scorers on Kentucky’s 2016-17 team, have led the upstart Sacramento Kings to a 2-0 series lead over the defending world champion Golden State Warriors.
Fox scored 24 points to go with nine assists and four steals. Monk scored 18 points in a Sacramento win that left the Warriors’ Draymond Green stamping mad. That followed Fox’s 38 points and Monk’s 32 in the Kings’ thrilling 126-123 victory over Golden State in the Western Conference series opener on Saturday night.
Wait, there’s more.
Sunday night, Jamal Murray scored 24 points to lead the Denver Nuggets to a 109-80 blowout win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 of their Western Conference series. Remember, this is the same Murray who led the 2015-16 Cats in scoring and missed Denver’s 2021-22 season after tearing his ACL.
Earlier Sunday, former UK center Bam Adebayo scored 22 points and grabbed nine rebounds to help the No. 8 seed Miami Heat to a 130-117 victory over the No. 1 seed Milwaukee Bucks, in Milwaukee no less, to open their Eastern Conference series.
Sunday afternoon, a fellow named Anthony Davis — you remember him — scored 22 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and swatted seven shots as the No. 7 seed Los Angeles Lakers spoiled No. 2 seed Memphis Grizzlies’ home playoff opener 128-112 in Game 1 of their Western Conference series.
Saturday afternoon, Julius Randle scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as the New York Knicks knocked off the host Cleveland Cavaliers 1-0 in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference series. It was the Knicks’ first Game 1 road win since 1999. And Randle, who led the Cats to the 2014 NCAA Tournament finals, had missed the final five games of the Knicks’ regular season with a sprained ankle.
Additional ex-Cats have made impacts. Trey Lyles was fantastic off the bench in Sacramento’s Game 1 win. An underrated piece of UK’s 38-1 team in 2014-15, Lyles scored 16 points in 18 minutes for the Kings. After two seasons as a Cat (2018-19 and 2019-20), the Knicks’ Immanuel Quickley is a finalist for NBA Sixth Man of the Year honors after averaging 14.9 points per game. And the once-lost Lakers are 19-7 since inserting Jarred Vanderbilt in the starting lineup.
And don’t blame Phoenix’s 115-110 Game 1 loss to the visiting Los Angeles Clippers on Devin Booker. The ex-Cat sharpshooter made 10 of 19 shots on the way to 26 points for the Suns, the No. 4 seed in the West.
And, despite losing to Denver, Minnesota would not even be in the playoffs if not for Karl-Anthony Towns’ 28 points and 11 rebounds in the Timberwolves’ 120-95 trouncing of the Oklahoma City Thunder in a do-or-die Western Conference play-in game.
One negative note: Ex-UK guard Tyler Herro is out four to six weeks after breaking fingers on his right hand in Miami’s win over Milwaukee.
That’s the one downer on what has been a terrific start to these NBA playoffs for Calipari and his guys who once wore blue.
Or as Kenny Beecham told Stephen A. Smith on ESPN: “The Kentucky boys are a little bit different.”
This story was originally published April 18, 2023 at 11:32 AM.
