Weekly Zags in the Pros Update

While leagues overseas are well into their respective postseasons, the NBA just wrapped up its regular season this weekend, a few weeks later than usual. Four of the five current NBA Zags will be in action in the Association’s inaugural play-in tournament, with the Wizards, Pacers, and Grizzlies taking part.

Domantas Sabonis: Domas finished the regular season with 20.3 points, 12.3 rebounds, and 6.7 assists per game, all career highs. He finished with nine triple-doubles, including a 16 point, 13 rebound, and career high 15 assist performance in a win over the Sixers last week. Sabonis also finished with 48 double-doubles, good for 7th best in the entire NBA. He and the 9th seeded Pacers will host the 10th seed Charlotte Hornets in the Eastern Conference play-in. Tipoff is scheduled for Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. PT.

Rui Hachimura: Rui had his 11th 20-point game of the season last week against Atlanta, finishing with 20 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists in that game. He finished the season with career highs of 13.8 points and 5.5 rebounds per game, as well as 1.4 assists per game. The Wizards will go into the postseason as the Eastern Conference’s 8th seed, taking on the 7th seed Celtics in the first round of the play-in tournament. That game is scheduled for Tuesday at 6 p.m. PT.

Brandon Clarke: Clarke had two solid games in the Grizzlies’ final week of regular season play, with 14 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals & 12 points and 5 rebounds in wins over Atlanta and Sacramento, respectively. He finished the year with 10.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 0.9 blocks per game

Killian Tillie: Tillie had the best game of his young career in Memphis’ Friday win over the Kings. He played just shy of 38 minutes, racking up 16 points and 6 rebounds while shooting 3-6 on three-pointers. Tillie played 18 games in his rookie season, finishing with 3.2 points and 1.3 rebounds per game and shooting 30.3% from beyond the arc.

Clarke and Tillie will be in action as 9th seed Memphis hosts 10th seed San Antonio on Wednesday in the Western Conference play-in, tipoff at 4:30 p.m. PT.

Kelly Olynyk: Olynyk is the lone former Zag in the NBA that will not be partaking in the postseason, but he finished up his regular season with a bang nonetheless. He had a streak of five straight 20-point games broken up on the last day of the season, averaging 23 points per game in that stretch. In the penultimate game of the season, Olynyk fell one rebound shy of a triple-double, ending up with 20 points, 9 rebounds, and 11 assists. He finished the season with 13.5 points, 7 rebounds, and 2.9 assists per game, including 19 points per game following his trade to Houston.

Geno Crandall: Crandall continues to rack up postseason awards, being named British Basketball League MVP and subsequently named to the league’s first team. This comes after British basketball writers named him England’s player of the year. The news was not all sweet for Crandall, however, as his Leicester Riders fell to eventual BBL champs Newcastle in the league semifinals. Crandall averaged 15.5 points and 8 assists in the two-game series.

Nigel Williams-Goss: Williams-Goss lit up the first round of the VTB league playoffs, going for 50 total points in Lokomotiv Kuban’s two-game sweep of Khimki. He had 20 points, 11 assists and a pair of steals in the opening game and followed that with a 30 point, 7 assist, 5 rebound performance in game two. Lokomotiv will be taking on Unics in the best-of-five semifinals starting tomorrow.

Kevin Pangos: On the other side of the VTB League bracket, Zenit is up 1-0 in the semifinals against CSKA Moscow. Pangos led the way with 23 points and 7 assists in the opener. The team advanced after sweeping the opening round against Parma, where Pangos averaged 14 points and 10.5 assists in two games.

Kyle Wiltjer: Wiltjer and Turk Telekom have split the first two games of the Turkish Super League quarterfinals against Pinar Karsiyaka, with game three taking place today. Wiltjer led the way in his team’s game one victory with 30 points and 5 rebounds, including going 4-8 on three pointers and 13-22 overall from the field.

Austin Daye: Daye is averaging 8 points, 3 rebounds, and 3.3 assists in the Italian Serie A quarterfinals for Venezia, who are up 2-1 in the best-of-5 series. Daye finished the regular season with 11.1 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game.

*All stats as of May 17*