On Tuesday November 29th, 2016, the NBA saw six ball games played--and all six wins went to the lower-ranked team in the matchup. For those who don't follow basketball, that is not something that happens often. A few of these upsets happening would be nothing out of the ordinary--the Utah Jazz beat the Houston Rockets, okay; the New Orleans Pelicans beat the Los Angeles Lakers, the Pelicans have been playing well for the past few games.
But from there, things start to get crazy.
Three of the league's best teams--the reigning Cleveland Cavaliers, the ever-present San Antonio Spurs, and the powerful Los Angeles Clipper--all lost to much lower-ranked teams--the Milwaukee Bucks, the Orlando Magic, and the Brooklyn Nets respectively. Two of those teams aren't even in the playoff picture currently. According the an amalgamation of analyses from ESPN known as the Basketball Power Index (BPI), the chance of these three teams losing on the same night was 0.3%. That's a one in three hundred chance.
Pretty impressive, huh?
The least surprising of these wins was the Milwaukee Bucks (seeding fifth in the east) beating the Cleveland Cavaliers (seeded first in the east). Milwaukee's frontrunner Giannis Antetokounmpo saw incredible productivity through 34 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, an five steals. It's simply hard to lose when a young star has a night like that.
Much more surprising was the San Antonio Spurs dropping to the sluggish Orlando Magic, and at home in San Antonio no less! Referring back to the BPI, this was the game that was least likely to go to underdog. The Spurs have been a constant force in the league for the past several years in a row, and are no different this season behind superstar Kawhi Leonard and highly accoladed coach Greg Popovich. Yet they lost their fourth home game of this season to a team from the weaker Eastern Conference who isn't even in a playoff spot. And unlike the Bucks, the Magic don't have any one player to thank for the victory: the entire team played solid ball, scoring fairly evenly and playing pretty remarkable defense. Being more of a fluke than the Cleveland-Milwaukee game just made this game even more crazy and entertaining to watch.
And last but not least, the night was closed out by the Brooklyn Nets (who have a record better than only two other teams) triumphing over the Los Angeles Clippers in a dramatic double-overtime victory. Sure, Blake Griffin didn't play for the Clips, which definitely didn't help their game, but you have to give credit to Brooklyn here. Sean Kilpatrick led the team with a career-high 38 points alongside Brook Lopez's 27, 12 of which came from three-pointers (meaning Lopez hit four three-pointers in that game; before this season, he had hit three in his entire career).
By the end of the night, the world was shocked at how well the underdogs had fought to create what is now being called the "Day of Upsets." In all likelihood, it could be years before an upset of this level happens again, so it's fun to look back and realize just how crazy all of this coming together really is.
