Category: NBA

Herald Celtics rally for gutsy win over Raptors to close out 4-0 road trip

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Who: Phoenix Suns (4-6) vs. Charlotte Hornets (4-7)

When: 7:00 pm Arizona Time

Where: Mortgage Matchup Center — Phoenix, Arizona

Watch: Arizona’s Family 3TV, Arizona’s Family Sports, NBATV

Listen: KMVP 98.7

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The Phoenix Suns will see some familiar faces for the first time since being traded, as Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale make their returns to the valley after being traded to the Charlotte Hornets for Miles Bridges this summer. It will also be Miles Bridges’ first time playing against his former team as well. The trash talk and the competitive juices will be flowing with the familiarity between the two teams, especially if Allen commits a hard foul, which we’ve seen a time or two, or plenty from when he was in Phoenix.

The Hornets caught the injury bug early this season, as franchise cornerstones Brandon Miller and Kon Kneuppel are both out with injuries, so this is another opportunity for the Suns to take advantage of a team not at full strength. With the Suns’ bench coming off its best performance of the season against the Clippers, this is another game where the Suns’ depth can make this game ugly.

This is a game where the Suns should come out and take care of business and play their bench in the fourth quarter, as they did against the Clippers on Tuesday. But it is the NBA, so anything can happen.

Tale of the Tape

Probable Starters

Injury Report

Suns

• Mark Williams — OUT (Shoulder)

Hornets

• Brandon Miller — OUT (Right Hip Strain)
• Kon Knueppel — OUT (Left Hamstring Strain)
• Dennis Schroder — OUT (Left Hamstring Strain)
• Moussa Diabate — PROBABLE (Right Quadriceps Tendinopathy)
• Grant Williams — PROBABLE (Right Hamstring Strain)
• Hannes Steinbach — OUT (G-League – Two-Way)
• Kylan Boswell — OUT (G-League – Two-Way)
• Michael Ajayi — OUT (G-League – Two-Way)

What to Watch For

The Phoenix Suns have improved defensively since the beginning of the season, but the numbers are slow to catch up. They are still 28th in defensive rating, but this should be a game where the defense can take another step forward by playing against the worst offense in the NBA in efficiency and scoring. The Hornets snapped their six-game losing streak on Monday with a win at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers, where Grayson Allen and Naz Reid combined to score 52 points, and the Hornets shot 23-for-46 from the 3-point line in the win. Those two and Coby White will be the key players for the Suns to stop in order to win.

As for the Suns’ offense, Devin Booker has found the sweet spot in the last five games and is leading a league-average Suns offense against a pedestrian Hornets defense. The Suns are sixth in the NBA in 3-point percentage and assists this season, despite the up-and-downs this offense has with ball movement and shooting. Watch for Booker and Dillon Brooks to set the tone early against a beaten-up Hornets team and put them away early so they can rest up for the Luka Doncic-led Los Angeles Lakers rolling into town on Sunday.

Key to a Suns Win

The Hornets are No. 1 in the NBA this season in 3-point attempts and lead the NBA in offensive rebounds per game. Two areas where the Suns have graded out poorly on the defensive side of the floor this year. If the Suns have to defend the three-point line and rebound the ball effectively, they will score in transition off of long misses and completely shut down this Hornets team. However, if the Hornets get hot from 3 and dominate the offensive glass, the Suns are going to be in a four-quarter battle.

Prediction

The Phoenix Suns will pull away late in the third quarter and cruise to an easy win.

Suns 125, Hornets 99

The Houston Rockets are making their case as one of the NBA’s strongest teams early in the 2026-27 season despite losing back-to-back games for the first time last week, receiving praise in the latest power rankings from ESPN and The Athletic.


Houston dropped three spots to No. 5 overall in The Athletic’s power rankings from No. 1 the week prior. The Rockets also had the second-best offensive rating and the 10th-best defensive rating, which added up to a plus-9.2 net rating per 100 possessions. Their six wins against clubs with winning records were the most in the league at the time. However, a glaring weakness and possible concern is that Fred VanVleet is shooting just over 40% on field goals, which is a problem for one of your starters to be shooting so poorly. On the positive side, Fred has seemed to help solve a lot of the turnover issues from last season, as he has a 4.6 assist-to-turnover ratio.


ESPN dropped Houston down to 7th from first, but praised Houston’s young core, calling them “the driving force behind the successful start,”. However, Houston has Kevin Durant to thank as well, since Kevin Durant gives Houston a veteran scoring option, while Alperen Şengün and Amen Thompson have continued to strengthen the Rockets’ balanced roster. Marcus Smart’s arrival has also provided the team with another reliable option in the backcourt. However, just like The Athletic, ESPN noted, Houston is not without its problems, as their old habits of blowing leads returned last Wednesday versus Minnesota, as they blew a fourth-quarter lead, and then, to make matters worse, they suffered a loss of 102-99 versus Phoenix after overcoming a 19-point deficit.

Now, factoring in the Rockets’ performance on Monday, with Durant and Sengun both scoring over 20 points, but most importantly ending the losing streak, and the win over Golden State on Wednesday, Houston could climb even higher in the rankings. Personally, I think that this is a top-five to top-three team currently if everything continues to go to plan, but only time will tell.

The Rockets look to continue their stride in the next game versus the Utah Jazz on November 13, followed by a trip to the nation’s capital to take on AJ Dybantsa and the Washington Wizards, but for now, let us know what you think about the Rockets’ spot in the power rankings, and as always, be sure to check back at The Dream Shake for all things Houston Rockets coverage.

Years ago, Sandro Mamukelashvili began his career as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks, where he spent his first 1.5 NBA seasons after they drafted him 54th overall in 2021. But in March of 2023, they waived him before he joined the San Antonio Spurs for 2.5 years then ultimately established himself with the Toronto Raptors in 2025-26.

He parlayed that breakout campaign into a four-year, $52 million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers this past summer and has been absolutely sensational to begin the season. On Wednesday against the Bucks, he authored one of his best games thus far with 23 points (9-of-15 shooting, 5-of-8 from deep), three rebounds, two assists and one steal. In the win, Los Angeles outscored Milwaukee by 21 points during his 26 minutes.

Following the victory — the Lakers’ seventh in a row — Mamukelashvili didn’t pass up the opportunity to point out what Milwaukee lost when it parted ways with him years ago.

“I’m happy we got this dub,” he said postgame. “Even though I got drafted here, it’s always great to come back and beat the team that waived you.”

“It’s always great to come back and beat the team that waived you.” 👀

Mamu joins @roquitheus after dropping 23 points against the Bucks. pic.twitter.com/ecVpqw469G

— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) November 12, 2026

Mamukelashvili has been among the league’s top reserves this season, elevating the Lakers’ offense with his shooting, passing, driving and transition ball-handling. They deploy him in a variety of lineups, where he spends time at both power forward and center. According to databallr, they’re scoring 128.1 points per 100 possessions when he’s on the floor.

Regardless of whether he’s sharing the court with Walker Kessler, the Lakers are thriving in his minutes, which allows them to slot him among the starters or help anchor bench-heavy units — the result of his size and wide-ranging offensive skill-set.

Los Angeles gets a few days off before concluding its road trip Sunday evening against the Phoenix Suns at 7 p.m., when it aims for an eighth straight win. Averaging 23 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.0 steals over his past two outings, Mamukelashvili will hope to stay in a groove himself and keep helping the 11-2 Lakers stack victories.

You can follow Jackson on Twitter at @jackfrank_jjf.

It’s still unclear how long that Steph Curry’s oblique abdominal tear will keep him off the court, though it will be two weeks at a minimum. But however long it is, the absence of their star will likely prevent the Warriors from competing for commissioner Adam Silver’s most treasured piece of basketball hardware: The Emirates NBA Cup.

I mention the sponsor out of the deep and abiding respect we hold for all of the NBA sponsors, and particularly Commissioner Silver’s good friends in the United Arab Emirates. The Cup has taken the basketball world by storm since it began in 2023, delighting fans and gamblers alike with its focus on point differential, and reminding a nation to check the color settings on their televisions thanks to the garish special courts.

Our personal favorite is the Los Angeles Lakers “Forum Blue and Urine” design, which showcases Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves on a court that makes it look like the Crypto.com Arena itself is severely dehydrated.

HOW DID LUKA SINK IT FROM 3/4 COURT TO BEAT THE 1H BUZZER LAST NIGHT?? 🤯

Bruce Springsteen was all of us watching this one!

The @Lakers pick up their first win in @emirates NBA Cup Group Play! pic.twitter.com/XRnQdJbB8l

— NBA (@NBA) November 7, 2026

The Warriors are 1-0 in Cup play, but Curry’s injury means he’ll miss Friday’s showdown with the San Antonio Spurs, who lost to the New York Knicks in last year’s Cup final, the most significant Finals loss to the Knicks they’d suffer all season. Yes, Charles Bassey is prepared to go toe-to-toe with Victor Wembanyama, having proved his mettle against Marcus Smart, but it may be tough for the rest of the team to match the firepower of the Spurs and Harrison “The Black Falcon” Barnes.

It’s hard to imagine Curry will be back to face the Sacramento Kings or the Portland Trail Blazers in two Cup games bracketing Thanksgiving, when families will gather together and express their gratitude for the mid-season tournament. It’s not impossible that the Warriors could be 3-1 after that, but 2-2 is a more likely record, which wouldn’t get the Dubs the wild-card spot. Even if they did get in, Curry would only be three weeks past his injury for the knockout rounds Dec. 4 and 5, and the Cup Final, held in glamorous Indianapolis, Indiana, is just one month away.

This is the gamble the Warriors made when they assembled a veteran roster this year in hopes they could make a serious Cup run. Sure, they could try to trade Kristaps Porzingis for immediate help, but are teams really going to help a possible Cup opponent this close to the knockout round? Yaxel Lendeborg has been a revelation as a rookie, but he’s never had to prove himself under the Emirates NBA Cup spotlight.

The Knicks became the first team to win the double last season, taking home the NBA Cup and the Larry O’Brien trophy as NBA champions. The Warriors had a chance to be the first NBA team to win the “treble” — that is, Summer League, Emirates NBA Cup, and NBA titles. (As much as Adam Silver would like there to be, there’s still no Champions League for the NBA)

Sure, Curry has five months to get ready for the regular NBA playoffs, with Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody also set to return. But for the hardcore Emirates-heads out there, it’s looking like another lost NBA Cup season for the Warriors.

Things have been a bit rough in Toronto as of late, with the Raptors suffering a spate of injuries to key players. They will again play without both Scottie Barnes and Kawhi Leonard, as they did in Wednesday night’s loss to the Boston Celtics. The date of Barnes’s return is still TBD (Kawhi will undoubtedly be out for a while longer).

They’ve won just two of their last six and will be looking to hold down the fort on the second night of a back-to-back, all while missing some key players. The Raps will need young players like Ja’Kobe Walter and Collin Murray-Boyles to step up, especially if Barnes is still out. Can Toronto do enough on their own home court to keep their record from dipping below .500?

Know thy enemy

Unfortunately for Toronto, Philadelphia 76ers are off to a great start, but they’ve been a bit of an odd team so far. For all of their offensive talent — a starting lineup featuring LeBron James, Jaylen Brown, Joel Embiid, and Tyrese Maxey (not to mention Anfernee Simons off the bench) is absolutely bonkers — they’re just 21st in the NBA in offensive efficiency so far this year.

They don’t really shoot (or make) threes, partly a result of swapping Paul George for a more downhill player in Brown, and they don’t generate extra opportunities by crashing the offensive glass. They’re also surprisingly low in assists, especially considering the playmaking gifts of James and, to a lesser extent, Embiid, owed no doubt to some issues with spacing, a coach not exactly known for offensive ingenuity, and a lineup that’s still largely unaccustomed to playing together.

It also doesn’t help that Embiid is….well, if not cooked, then certainly in the process of being marinated. His recent injuries seem to have sapped him of his mobility and, while his skill is beyond question, you don’t really ever want to see a 7-footer hitting just 37% of his shots from the field (nor a ghastly 12.1% from three), albeit in a small sample size.

They’re also a bit thin aside from having a few useful perimeter players off the bench; their only actual backup centre is Adem Bona, who is shooting a whole percentage point better than Embiid from the field. Needless to say, they could use a boost on the interior. It’s great news for the Raptors, who are a bit lacking in interior size themselves, and who aren’t an especially good defensive rebounding team (23rd in the league in defensive rebound rate).

The Sixers have been a pretty solid defensive team though, with the seventh-best defensive rating in the league, and, while Embiid may not be able to switch onto guards anymore, he’s still a smart defender who can be an obstacle in the paint. His declining lateral quickness is less of a disadvantage of a team like Toronto that doesn’t space the floor exceptionally well.

On the last episode

These Sixers are very different from last year’s team and this will be the first time they face off against the Bron-and-Brown version of Philly. That being said, the two teams split the season series last year, 2-2, with both squads winning once at home and once on the road.

Key matchup(s)

LeBron and Embiid vs various ligaments might be the true matchup of the game. Both players are listed as questionable on the NBA’s official injury report, as is Adem Bona. If neither of them play, Toronto won’t exactly be facing a murderer’s row of big men on Thursday night, with the Sixers almost certainly having to call players up from the G League or play some very funky small-ball lineups to get by. Maybe we’ll get 30 minutes of Tacko Fall. Who knows!

Joel Embiid, LeBron James participate in shootaround; Adem Bona seeing a specialist https://t.co/HGBjeXingQ

— Liberty Ballers (@Liberty_Ballers) November 12, 2026

Besides that, the Raptors will likely need RJ Barrett to outduel Brown, and Immanuel Quickley, who struggled to score against Boston, to keep pace with Maxey. It’s not quite the marquee matchup fans hoped for after both teams’ major offseason moves, but it could be a fun one nonetheless.

Yaxel Lendeborg caught the eye of a two-time NBA champion.

The Warriors lost to the Rockets, 115-108, Wednesday, but Kevin Durant was more than impressed by Golden State’s new golden boy.

“He’s a problem,” Durant said of Lendeborg.

“A matchup problem; being that tall and being able to have that skill too, man, I’m excited to see his career unfold and grateful that I got to play against him tonight.”

Durant’s respect extended beyond the postgame praise. Luca Evans of the San Francisco Chronicle posted on social media that a signed Durant jersey was waiting at Lendeborg’s locker after the game. Lendeborg was still on the court postgame, so reporters didn’t get to see him discover it in the locker room.

The Warriors rookie has taken the league by storm with his superb play. Against the Clippers, Lendeborg scored a career-high 37 points to kick off November.

Lendeborg also lifted the Warriors to a win against the Nuggets in October, tallying 31 points, 12 rebounds and six assists.

Ahead of the season, there was a dim outlook on Golden State given the aging core and the front office’s quiet offseason. But the selection of Lendeborg with the No. 11 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft has paid dividends.

Lendeborg’s responsibility on the floor has only increased given the extended absence of Curry due to an oblique tear.

Durant’s praise — and the signed jersey — suggest the rookie has earned the respect of one of the game’s greats. The rest of the NBA has been put on notice.

This offseason, the Los Angeles Lakers invested a sizable amount in Sandro Mamukelashvili by inking him to a four-year, $52 million deal. Through three weeks, that’s been a remarkable move as Mamukelashvili’s absolutely thriving with the Lakers and providing critical, versatile minutes off the bench.

The Georgian big man is averaging 10.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game while shooting 41.2% from deep and 57.7% on 2-pointers. Los Angeles entrusts him with varying roles, whether it’s spacing the floor, operating as a playmaking hub, driving closeouts or toggling between power forward and small-ball center. It’s evident the organization, whether it be players or coaches, have the utmost confidence in him.

Now, the goal is to make sure Mamukelashvili himself embraces that autonomy and is unburdened by any fear of mistakes whenever he’s on the floor.

“I want him to understand how much his teammates, his coaches, myself, we believe in him. The focus on the next play, I think, is big for him,” head coach JJ Redick told reporters following Wednesday’s win, when Mamukelashvili recorded 23 points, three rebounds, two assists and one steal. “Being able to move on after a missed shot, a defensive mistake, whatever it may be, just move on to the next play and focus on that. But I think the big thing for him is understanding that he has a lot of freedom.”

Mamukelashvili said he feels the unbridled support rippling from coaches and teammates and is optimistic he’ll soon echo that credence in him. But he admitted achieving it is easier said than done.

“I hope I’ll start believing in myself as much as they do,” he told reporters Wednesday.

Sandro Mamukelashvili with a very open answer on why he hasn’t been able to just blindly accept the Lakers’ trust in him based on how the start to his career went: “I hope I’ll get better. I hope I’ll start believing in myself as much as they do. …” pic.twitter.com/uzuIAjYvLQ

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) November 12, 2026

Mamukelashvili’s finest two games of the season may have come Wednesday in Milwaukee and Monday against the Atlanta Hawks. During those two outings, he’s scored a season-high 23 points each time and averaged 5.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.0 steals. As he continues to grow more comfortable in his new environment, performances similar to those could become the norm — much to the Lakers’ benefit.

“He’s just getting more confident as he plays more. He’s an extremely, extremely talented offensive player,” Walker Kessler said Wednesday. “We all believe in every shot he shoots and every play he makes. … We believe in his offensive game and he’s getting more confident and he’s really, really helping us.”

You can follow Jackson on Twitter at @jackfrank_jjf.

If Steph Curry is leading with his full government name, know that he means business. In a 90-second video released on Wednesday, from the Instagram account of “Wardell Curry”, he put the internet trolls who have been attacking his wife for years on notice. “Usually the noise doesn’t bother me, doesn’t bother Ayesha,” the four-time NBA champion and Paris Olympic knockout artist said. “But when you’re trying to step on the accomplishments of my wife, and feel the need to have to jump in and give an opinion on something that you really don’t know about, [it] kind of speaks to the bigger conversation on how you view women in this world and what they’re allowed and what they’re not allowed to do.”

Posterity will remember this as the NBA’s Oscar slap moment, but without the unnecessary violence. A bizarre turn in the parasocial compact when the restless fanboys pressured a superstar into publicly defending his wife. On this occasion, Curry had to defend his wife for the heinous crime of being the leading lady in a Christmas romcom: a Hallmark knockoff called Second Chance Holiday in which Ayesha Curry plays a dating expert with bad holiday luck and shares a kiss with a man who is not Wardell Stephen Curry II – her husband of 15 years and father to their four children. That apparently was a bridge too far for some of Curry’s former NBA peers.

Related: Yaxel Lendeborg is the NBA’s most entertaining rookie – and he’s not holding back

On a recent episode of his We Said What We Said podcast, former NBA mainstay Gilbert Arenas reserved an entire segment to take exception to Ayesha turning down the role of basketball tradwife. “She doesn’t act like the other superstars’ wives,” Arenas said. “You know Jordan’s wife. Cookie, that’s Magic’s wife. Savannah [James], right. We don’t want to hear from you. We just want to know you’re there. You’re fine. You’re taking the pictures, but we don’t want to know you.” Arenas went even further, calling Ayesha “the only blemish” in the Curry family as Nick Young, who played alongside Curry on Golden State’s 2018 championship team, nodded along. Arenas should consider himself lucky that Steph responded in a strongly worded social media statement instead of going the Javaris Crittenton route and pulling a gun on Arenas in the locker room.

Sports gossips have been making a game of picking apart Steph and Ayesha’s relationship since he shot to stardom at Davidson College. They seem to forget that while Steph was stealing hearts as the NCAA Tournament’s baby-faced bracket buster, Ayesha was carving out a solid career in Los Angeles as a working actor, with guest spots on Disney’s Hannah Montana and on CBS’s Gary Unmarried opposite comedian Jay Mohr – who is now the other half of LA Lakers president Jeanie Buss, incidentally.

The critics blanched when Ayesha joined the 2010s culinary craze with a blog and a YouTube channel, in which she shared dangerous, subversive recipes such as “Stephen’s five-ingredient game-day pasta”. When the hustle mushroomed into a full-blown lifestyle brand – with signature kitchenware and cookbooks, a Food Network show and a landmark CoverGirl deal – the gossips filleted Ayesha for daring to upstage her more famous husband, the real Chef Curry.

No matter what Ayesha did, it seemed, there was no winning over sports fans steeped in the manosphere’s retrograde views of women. They didn’t approve of her sharing bikini photos online or her body language in snaps with Drake or her candor about the struggle to hold on to her sense of identity and autonomy after marriage and motherhood. The point was driven home yet again when ex-NFL players Emmanuel Acho and LeSean McCoy, perhaps misunderstanding the concept of acting, debated the Curry kiss on their macho podcast – with Acho suggesting that Ayesha, through her words and actions, keeps telegraphing to the world that “she’s not that into Steph Curry”.

Intimacy work has become a wedge issue in Hollywood, with a number of prominent actors saying they will no longer participate in kissing or sex scenes – forcing some directors to get creative. But the Curry speculators aren’t arguing about the mechanics of making movies – a point Steph himself hastened to rebut in his video statement. They say this stuff as if they know the Currys. They don’t. They say this stuff as if they’re also still with their teen sweethearts. They’re not – and Acho especially is one to talk. They say this stuff as if audiences might also interpret Ayesha’s on-screen kiss as an act of adultery. They won’t. They’ll just let the 78 minutes wash over them as they fold laundry or scroll through their phones.

No matter what Ayesha did, it seemed, there was no winning over fans steeped in the manosphere’s views of women

These manosphere brains insist on typecasting Ayesha while giving other prominent athlete spouses plenty of runway. The recent marriage of Coco Jones, the Grammy-winning singer and star of the Fresh Prince update Bel-Air, and Donovan Mitchell, engine of the Cleveland Cavaliers, is treated as an equal pairing. The same goes for Major League ace Paul Skenes and his gymnast-influencer girlfriend, Livvy Dunne. When Travis Kelce started dating Taylor Swift, the talk was all about how he, the Kansas City Chiefs and the NFL stood to benefit. And when Kim K and her sisters take up with high-profile athletes, the manosphere brains roll their eyes, chalk it up to the game and blame any poor performances that might result on the Kardashian curse.

But when it comes to Ayesha, there is no room for self-reflection, growth or individuality. She is, and will always be, an NBA wife in the eyes of many. Her tiresome critics would much rather see her on the sideline managing the kids than see Steph gathering them up to bask in the afterglow of his biggest moments. Weirdly, the tradcasting doesn’t stop with Ayesha. Steph Curry’s mother has been dealing with the same gender policing since she divorced his father, a former NBA player, in 2021 and remarried last month. That all this outrage is building at a time when gender roles in sports have become a culture-war battleground shouldn’t be lost on anyone.

Ultimately, though, the relentless snooping into the Curry marriage reveals a deeper insecurity about Steph. Here’s a God-fearing, wholesome family man who speaks up for female empowerment and walks the talk when he’s not burying clutch threes – and he’s still getting the job done for the Warriors at age 38.

Curry has spent his career making doubters rue the day they said he was too small for pro ball, and that same bracing self-belief has helped him thrive away from the court as a venture capitalist, Hollywood producer and Bay Area philanthropist. Through 18 NBA seasons, he has remained free of scandal, extramarital or otherwise – no mean feat for an NBA superstar, much less a Silicon Valley giant. And that just makes the sports and celebrity hounds who are only following along for the potential of a Will Smith – or Tiger Woods – like train wreck push harder in their relentless pursuit of dirt.

But for dedicated knuckle-draggers like Arenas and his cohort, who still don’t see an alpha male when they behold Curry, it isn’t just that he could be with pretty much anyone else, given his wealth and fame. It’s that he chooses Ayesha and that there still isn’t a rift between them to be found, even after all these years of trying.

The armchair analysis of the Currys’ marriage isn’t likely to stop anytime soon. But it’s a stargazing exercise in the end, with vast distances between the picture in view and the elusive reality. The constant churn of speculation only serves to show the willful ignorance at play, particularly when it comes to the difference between an on-camera kiss – again, Ayesha was acting – and an act of infidelity. With his forceful social media defense, Steph didn’t just offer a reminder of what true manhood looks like. He delivered a message that should sound awfully familiar to Ayesha’s haters – and give them pause: Keep my wife’s name out your mouth.

As a former teacher, conferences were always a bit of a mixed bag. On the hard side were the additional four hours of work tacked on top of a school day and the social anxiety of having the first in-depth conversations with parents, never fully knowing what kind of energy they would bring to the conversation. However, whether a student was struggling or thriving, the majority of the time, the conversations were very beneficial in getting everyone on the same page.

Each conversation really came down to the three main points:

1. Something the student is doing well
2. An area of improvement
3. The question of “Is there anything I can be doing as a teacher to better support them?”

In our season-long grading project, this is the first opportunity to track progress and get a look at how the categories, statistical ranges, and grade direction are shaping up. These stats reflect the first 11 games of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ season, so the sample size is small, but large enough to begin to get a sense of the good, the bad, and to see if there are better ways to capture what each player is doing on the floor in their role.

Buckle up, it’s conference time.

A few reminders as always:

1. These grades are roles-based, so the stats I’m looking at for each player are different and meant to highlight their team role.

2. Roles on the team can change as the roster and playing time changes—I will alter or add statistical categories throughout the season as needed. Especially in a preseason article, the expectation is that some of these initial stats will change as we get to know the team better.

3. The grade ranges and their correlation to stats are educated speculation based on previous career averages, team role, and minutes expectation. Like the categories themselves, if there is a range that is clearly missing the eye test, expect some tweaks as the season goes along.

LaMelo Ball:B (86%)

First off, the fact that you are well on your way to a perfect attendance award is remarkable. While the season is long and nobody is going to count any chickens before they hatch, going 11/11 in games played deserves an immediate gold star. Well done!

You know what else deserves a gold star? The team offense. Despite losing the team’s most important offensive cog, you’ve helped hold things together and guide the squad to the seventh-best offensive rating in the league, a number that, wherever it ends up after thirty-ish games, will probably be the floor of the season.

Now let’s talk about rebounding. Honestly, it turns out this may just be a bad stat to track for you on this team. The team is rebounding fantastically to start the season as other players have stepped up. I mean, if you are an English major, who cares about your math scores, right? So maybe we need to focus on something else going forward…

Ah, yes. There it is. Four turnovers a game. 5.2 turnovers per 36 minutes, which would be the second-worst in the NBA for rotation players. That number is getting alarmingly close to being one that could soft-launch a bakery. Let’s clean that up a bit and bring it closer to your career average of 3.2 going forward, okay?

Anthony Edwards:Incomplete

*Sigh* There isn’t much that can be said with just a four-game sample size of numbers, so I’ll just use this space to opine for a moment. 

This Wolves team is the most excited I’ve been about a group since the 23-24 squad had their meteoric rise and won over our hearts and minds with defensive grit and intensity. This season’s squad is flashing that kind of defensive performance too… but only with an offensive ceiling to mirror it, assuming a healthy Anthony Edwards. 

Teams that have both a top-five offense and defense often play a lot of basketball deep into the month of May and beyond. Get healthy soon, Ant!

Jaden McDaniels:A (97%)

Don’t tell the other students, but you continue to be my favorite. Efficient shooting from deep and midrange, and being a key component of the number one defense in the league? Night in and night out, this team knows exactly what it is going to get out of you and, quite frankly, it’s phenomenal.

Sometimes you have a conference that is short and sweet because nothing about the student’s effort and production needs to be changed. Keep doing what you are doing, and we’ll do everything we can to get you your first All-Star trip!

Jonathan Kuminga: B+ (88%)

Welcome to Minnesota, Mr. Kuminga! Much like Jaden McDaniels, your work on the defensive end has been astounding. It is a wholly un-Wolves-like experience to go into matchups with the variety of power forwards there are in the league and feel as though you have a matchup for them. Raising your defensive EPM to an 86th percentile defender is JUST what the doctor ordered for this roster.

Here’s the curious thing – you are shooting 40% from deep and yet have a near career low in true shooting percentage? Let me check the numbers here… ah okay. There it is. 52.5% from the free throw line. Have you been spending too much time with Mr. Gobert outside of class? As a career 70% shooter from the line, let’s clean that up a bit and you’ll see your grade in the “A” range in no time!

Rudy Gobert: C+ (77%)

Let’s talk about the good first – you are the anchor of the number one defense in the league through 11 games. For everything else that we are going to talk about, that’s the most important thing, and it’s the reason that you are on this team. You are one of the greatest defenders to ever play the game, and once again, anchoring a top defense in the league is truly a special career achievement. 

It is really important that you understand how much we all appreciate your defense before anything else is said, okay?

But my God, has the goatee grown so thick that it is affecting your peripheral vision and ability to hit a layup? A non-rookie season career-low of 50% from the floor? Just 1.7 dunks per game despite having one of the best passing point guards in the league? This was supposed to be an apex offensive Gobert season!

I should note that your turnover numbers are at a non-rookie season career low… which is something… but that something may be YOUR INABILITY TO CATCH A PASS, INCREASING EVERYONE’S TURNOVERS AROUND YOU!! If the league tracked fumbled passes, you’d be having A WILT CHAMBERLAIN-ESQUE RUN!!!

Okay, I just had to get that out of my system. It had been brewing for a while, and conferences are a time for honest feedback, right? Plus, my therapist told me I should let it out so I’d stop mumbling “catch the damn ball, Rudy” in my sleep. Please re-read the first paragraph to know what is most important, and then let’s just be better on the offensive end, okay?

Ayo Dosunmo:A- (92%)

An “A-” grade that mostly reflects the slow-cooking EPM metrics. If you were to keep consistently playing the kind of basketball you are, that EPM will be in the green in no time!

That points-per-shot-attempt number continues to be elite, and if this NBA season plays out similarly to previous ones, it would be a 95th percentile number, which is remarkable considering the increased offensive load and defensive focus. That PIE number (player impact estimate) would put you inside the top forty players in the league – quite the value for a player making $19 million this season.

Since the Anthony Edwards injury, no one has upped their usage more and with that, you’ve been the team’s leading scorer over the past seven games, averaging 21.6 points per game. Turns out the “As You Wish” bench superstar is just a fantastic basketball player.

Joan Beringer:B+ (87%)

A B+ grade in your role to start the year because you are doing EXACTLY what is needed. Incremental steps of improvement to earn minutes, flashing an elite skill (offensive rebounding), and utilizing hustle to minimize mistakes and earn the coaching staff’s trust.

Would I like to see a few more blocks per game? Sure, but it is clear that part of your game is being intentionally restrained to help you stay out of foul trouble as you keep getting your feet wet. Like a good stew, we’re just going to keep letting you cook in a limited role that will pay dividends later in the season.

TJ Shannon:B (84%)

Before we begin, I need to ask you a question. Have you been turning in your “finishing at the rim” homework? Because the numbers here tell me that we’re actually on pace to finish worse than last season’s 52.9%, which was an area of improvement we had marked over the summer.

You’re thriving within the concept of team defense (a huge jump from the preseason’s -1.1 mark!), and you are getting to the rim and drawing fouls at more than twice the level of any time in your career. Talk about excelling in your role!

The only thing that is missing is a bit more of that deft touch around the basket to complement your elite downhill first step. Far be it from me to try to activate a healthy inter-team competition, but here’s where the rest of the roster stands when finishing within 5ft of the basket:

Maybe everyone on the team should be spending more time with Trey Lyles. Speaking of…

Trey Lyles:A- (90%)

I’ll be honest with you, Mr. Lyles – when you transferred here, the only real sense of your skill set I had was a player who could space the floor with shooting and not much else. It is a testament to how wrong I am that the shooting really hasn’t come around yet, and you are being a player who is consistently driving winning.

The defensive rating and defensive EPM (1.1) are really encouraging. In fact, that EPM number is fourth on the team, only behind Gobert, McDaniels, and Kuminga! 

Know what else has been surprising? Your ability as a rebounder and, dare I even say it, a dunker?! Like most Timberwolves fans, these first 11 games have invoked a lot of “I was not familiar with your game” utterances. Start hitting those threes, and you could be hunting the ever-elusive A+ grade.

Bones Hyland:C (73%)

Let’s talk about the scoring. That 25.1 points per thirty-six minutes is astounding. It would put you within the top twenty-five of the league on a list that includes mostly current NBA All-Stars. That you are doing it from more than just beyond the arc is the other really encouraging thing! This Wolves team needs a flamethrower scorer while Anthony Edwards is out, and you’ve stepped up to be just that.

I cannot explain the pace number being so low, but I am keeping it for now as a stand-in for the rest of your game. Despite the scoring inferno, you are the only rotation player to have a negative net rating (-10.1), a 15-point swing from the next closest rotation player. Because of this, your EPM numbers have dropped more than anyone else on the team, which means there is probably quite a bit lacking on the defensive end. An elite offensive game with a bad defensive game will land you comfortably in that “C” range.

Jaylen Clark:A (94%)

I really don’t want to jinx this, so I’m just going to whisper it between us, okay?

… Did you know that you are shooting 38% from deep this season on over two attempts per game? If this were to be maintained, when partnered with your defensive splash/hustle plays, it may turn out that there is a real and consistent role in the rotation for you. A player who has a limited role, steps into it, and goes beyond to earn more minutes? That is a role-based “A” if I’ve ever seen one!

A video of Jaylen Clark doing a Jaylen Clark thing is a perfect way to close out these first conferences because it encapsulates so much of what we’ve loved about this team so far. I’ll be back in ten games with the finalized first-quarter report cards!

Update, 6:30 p.m.: Joel Embiid has been upgraded to available.

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Update, 1 p.m.: LeBron James has officially been ruled out with low back/sciatica management.

The Toronto Raptors have ruled out Scottie Barnes (left groin strain) and Trayce Jackson-Davis (illness). Kawhi Leonard remains out with a left knee injury.

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As the Philadelphia 76ers gear up for tonight’s home game against the Toronto Raptors, we received a good sign on the availability of two of their stars. Joel Embiid and LeBron James both participated in morning shootaround after being placed on the injury report as questionable yesterday evening. Embiid even spoke to reporters, but could not provide any further information about whether he will suit up tonight.

Joel Embiid spoke to reporters after shootaround this morning. “I have no idea,” he said when asked if he would play tonight.

— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) November 12, 2026

Nevertheless, you’d rather see the two of them out there than not. The Sixers could certainly use their two largest starters against Toronto, particularly with the handful of absences already in the frontcourt.

On that note, Dominick Barlow also participated in shootaround, but there is still no timeline for his return. Barlow has yet to make his season debut due to back soreness, but does appear to be getting closer. On the less optimistic side of things, though, backup center Adem Bona was said to have seen a specialist and will be out at least a week before being re-evaluated. He last played on Nov. 4 in Detroit, sitting out recent games due to a cervical spine sprain. Without Bona, the Sixers have been playing small in the minutes when Embiid sits. Nick Nurse has not opted to utilize two-way contract big man Tacko Fall, who has only appeared in three minutes of garbage time this season.

We’ll await word closer to game time on the availability of Embiid and James. Either way, expect plenty of minutes for Dean Wade and Jabari Walker. Stay tuned.

The Golden State Warriors were already without one star. Now they’ll be without their Most Valuable Player candidate, Stephen Curry, for the short-term future, too.

The Warriors announced Thursday, Nov. 12 that an MRI confirmed Curry suffered an oblique abdominal tear and added that he would be reevaluated in two weeks. The injury took place Wednesday, Nov. 11 in an eventual 115-108 loss against the Houston Rockets.

Curry walked off the floor midway through the first quarter, clearly grimacing and favoring his right side.

The sequence took place just 5:35 into the game. Curry had scored 3 points on 1-of-3 shooting by that point. He did not return to the floor for the rest of the first quarter, and he was not back at the bench area to start the second period.

ANALYSIS: What does Curry injury mean for Warriors? Can they weather the storm?

The Warriors announced minutes into the second quarter that Curry would not return for the rest of the game with right abdominal soreness.

After the game, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said that Curry said he “tweaked something in his abdominal area,” which Curry told Kerr he had never done before. Kerr added that “concern is high” though he reiterated that he had no idea of the extent of the injury.

During the game, Curry did have a collision with Rockets forward Amen Thompson earlier in the game, when Curry had driven to the hoop on an attempted layup. Then, Curry had been fighting off a screen against Rockets center Alperen Şengün. As soon as that sequence ended, Curry once again grabbed his side.

Finally, just moments before he left the game, Curry curled around a screen and put up a 3-point shot. As soon as he landed and stepped backwards, he grabbed at his right side, near his hip.

Curry had been in the midst of a renaissance and had been elevating the play of the Warriors, who entered Wednesday night 8-3, which was tied for the third best record in the Western Conference.

Prior to suffering the injury, Curry was averaging 30.6 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game in nine appearances. He was converting 3-pointers at a blistering 45.7%, which would mark a career-high. His scoring total entering Wednesday night had ranked second in the NBA, behind only Luka Dončić’s historic 39.3 points per game, for all players with at least five games played.

The Warriors were already without Jimmy Butler, who has missed the start of the season as he rehabs the torn anterior cruciate ligament he suffered in January 2026.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Warriors reveal Stephen Curry injury diagnosis after MRI on abdomen