Welcome to The Lab, FiveThirtyEight’s basketball podcast. The Los Angeles Clippers announced Tuesday that All-Star forward Blake Griffin has sprained his MCL and could be out for two months. On this week’s show (Nov. 30, 2017), Neil, Chris and Kyle break down how this could affect the once-promising team and whether there’s any hope for the rest of the Clippers’ season. On Monday, the Memphis Grizzlies fired head coach David Fizdale after the team lost eight straight games. The news took the league by surprise, with many players and coaches speaking out against the firing. We take a look at why Fizdale was fired now and which other coaches might be in trouble. Plus, a small-sample-size segment on the Portland Trail Blazers.
Here are links to what we discussed this week:
- Keep an eye on our 2017-18 NBA predictions, updated after every game.
- Over at The Ringer, Kevin O’Connor asked, “Where do the Grizzlies go from here?”
- Kyle took a look at the NBA’s best defenders.