Category: NBA

LeBron Log No. 2: Sixers firsts, Philly kicks and a night at center originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

LeBron James has played more NBA seasons than some of his teammates have been alive. Philadelphia still managed to give him a week full of firsts.

Over six days, James made his first regular-season start as a Sixer, scored his first points, played his first regular-season home game, recorded his first double-double with the team, sat out for the first time, started at center and experienced his first loss.

Not every first deserves a plaque. Together, they made for a busy opening chapter.

Welcome to the second edition of the LeBron Log.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

James’ first assist as a Sixer also produced Jaylen Brown’s first points with the team.

With 8:58 remaining in the first quarter against the Knicks, James found Brown cutting to the basket for a layup. Joel Embiid returned the favor later in the quarter, finding James inside for his first Philadelphia points.

Brown assisted James’ first Sixers dunk early in the third quarter. James finished the alley-oop to tie the game at 58 and helped Philadelphia turn a four-point halftime deficit into a seven-point lead entering the fourth.

James finished his debut with 14 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, one steal and one block. More importantly, the Sixers left Madison Square Garden with a 106-100 win after watching the Knicks raise their championship banner.

Two nights later, James’ first shot in his first regular-season home game became his first three-pointer as a Sixer. VJ Edgecombe found him on the left wing for a 27-footer that gave Philadelphia an early lead over Cleveland.

The evening became far more memorable from there.

James recorded his first Sixers double-double with 17 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and three steals. Philadelphia erased a 29-point deficit for the largest comeback win of James’ career and the franchise’s largest in the play-by-play era, which dates to 1996-97.

He also received his first complete introduction to the Philadelphia crowd. The Sixers were booed into halftime and cheered off the floor after their 114-106 win.

“We got the boos,” James said. “That was amazing, and we deserved it.”

His daughter Zhuri celebrated her 12th birthday courtside, while his mother was also in attendance.

It was quite a first night at home.

ONE RED, ONE BLUE

James began his Sixers career at Madison Square Garden wearing a purple-blue Nike LeBron 24 player-exclusive with iridescent branding.

The inspiration behind the colorway has not been revealed. House of Heat reported that the shoe could be tied to one of the five themes behind the LeBron 24 line: wonder, family, fear, luck or discovery.

For his home debut, James went with something unmistakably Philadelphia.

He wore a red Nike LeBron 24 on his left foot and a blue one on his right. The mismatched “Philly” edition featured a textured knit upper, metallic lace hardware and James’ crown logo on the tongue.

Only 76 pairs were released, a nod to his new team. They were made available through James’ Welcome to Philly pop-up, which ran from Oct. 20 through Oct. 22 at 901 Market East.

James did not have to choose between the Sixers’ two primary colors. He wore one of each.

CENTER, FOR NOW

James sat out Saturday’s win over Milwaukee as the Sixers managed the lower-back pain and sciatica that has followed him since last season.

He returned Sunday to find a very different assignment waiting for him.

Embiid was unavailable for the second half of the back-to-back. Jabari Walker, Dominick Barlow and Tacko Fall were also sidelined, leaving the Sixers short on frontcourt options against Detroit.

For only the 15th time in his career, James started at center. It was his first start at the position since the 2021-22 season.

James won the opening tip against former Sixer Paul Reed and scored 18 points on 8-for-15 shooting. He added five assists and two rebounds in Philadelphia’s 106-93 loss.

Do not expect the experiment to become permanent.

“Well, s—, we got an MVP over there,” James said. “I’m not here to have a sustainable role at the five.”

The Sixers were outrebounded 54-37 and surrendered 24 second-chance points. When James was asked how the team could improve on the glass, he borrowed an answer from former Lakers teammate Taurean Prince.

Prince happened to be sitting on Detroit’s bench Sunday. His blunt explanation of rebounding after Baylor’s 2016 NCAA Tournament loss to Yale remains one of college basketball’s great press-conference clips.

“In the great words of Taurean Prince, who I saw tonight on the bench, a good friend of mine, the ball goes up into the air, and then you go grab the ball,” James said.

Adem Bona did much of the traditional work at the position. He grabbed 13 rebounds, including five on the offensive end, in a season-high 25 minutes.

“I thought he was amazing tonight,” James said. “His energy, his effort.”

James can play center when the Sixers need him there. He also made it clear that he did not come to Philadelphia to take Embiid’s job.

“HE CAN BUY ME A NEW NOSE”

James and Edgecombe connected for the former’s first home basket. Their next notable connection did not work out as well.

During the third quarter against Cleveland, the two went after a missed Jarrett Allen free throw. James inadvertently caught Edgecombe across the face with his elbow, leaving the 21-year-old guard with a bloody nose.

Edgecombe remained in the game with cotton in his nostril and helped the Sixers finish their comeback.

After the game, he was able to joke about the friendly fire.

“It’s nothing bad,” Edgecombe said. “But if it was, he can buy me a new nose.”

Three games into James’ Sixers career, the partnership has already produced points, a comeback win and a potential medical bill.

With the Mavericks floating around .500 and Cooper Flagg establishing his place as one of the league’s young superstars, I find myself quoting the first John Wick movie as the Mavericks head home to face the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday.

It’s been a tumultuous 20 months to be a Dallas Mavericks fan. We’ve gone through the worst trade in league history, seen a GM get fired, switched out head coaches, traded away most of the roster that led the team to the 2024 NBA Finals, and control just one first round pick in the next five NBA Drafts.

Yet, after Monday’s 113-109 win in Miami, I’m feeling like Keanu Reaves.

“People keep asking if I’m back and I haven’t really had an answer, but now yeah, I’m thinking I’m back.”

Dallas now sits at 2-2, having beaten Indiana and Miami on the road, while suffering losses to San Antonio and Houston. Heading into the year, I would’ve prayed for a 1-3 start and if you had told me Flagg would’ve been out for a game and a half and Kyrie Irving would be sitting the second night of a back-to-back, I’d have braced for 0-4.

But there’s just something about this Mavericks team.

“Our guys simply made big, big plays and big shots at the end,” first-year head coach Dusty May said in his postgame comments on Monday. “It’s a lot of fun when your two superstars are as unselfish as [Flagg and Irving] are, and they show as much grace as they bring along these younger players. It’s been fun to be a part of and see it so far. Obviously a long way to go, but this is a very, very good win for our team.”

After a disappointing season-opening loss, Dallas has shown bright spots in three straight games and kept a game against the defending Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs close for three and a half quarters without its two best players — Flagg and Irving. They’ve earned two road wins over key Eastern Conference opponents that hope to make deep runs after disappointing 2025 campaigns.

Flagg has been exceptional. His per game stats won’t tell the entire story since he missed half of one of his three games following a controversial foul by Pacers guard Aaron Nesmith that forced him to miss a game and a half, but even with that caveat, the 19-year-old is averaging 25 points per game on 57% shooting. He has 11 steals and five blocks in three games and his playmaking has taken another leap, averaging over six and a half assists a night.

While Flagg’s ascension will get most of the attention — and he’s owed that respect — it’s the rest of the team that gives me hope that Dallas could defy expectations this year and maybe even make it to the playoffs.

Walter Clayton Jr., who was signed the day of the Mavericks’ first game in Houston, has been a perfect fit for this team. He scored 15 points in 17 minutes in Dallas’ win over Miami and was a team-best +22 in those minutes. He’s giving Flagg and the Mavericks an outlet when drives to the basket stall or when someone loses their dribble and has to reset.

Zaccharie Risacher has also made an impact. While his shot may not be falling, his defensive impact cannot be ignored. He led the league in stocks (steals + blocks per game) going into Monday’s game, only to be passed by Flagg and a couple others during the night’s action, and Risacher’s block of Davion Mitchell’s layup sealed the win Monday. He’s not the No. 1 overall pick Atlanta wanted two years ago, but Dallas doesn’t need him to be that and he’s filling into his role beautifully and helping Dallas stay competitive.

P.J. Washington is as steady as ever, averaging over 15 points and seven boards a night while bringing the defensive toughness that helped this team reach the Finals two years ago. Daniel Gafford is ready to go to war every night and his physical play in Monday’s game energized Dallas in moments where they may have folded last season.

It’s not a perfect team, and there are still moments that make me want to tear my hair out — like a 30-17 fourth quarter against the Spurs or a 38-12 second quarter against the Rockets or having to come back from a double-digit deficit twice in one game because Dallas’ concentration lulled after the first comeback — but this is a young team and they’re going to make some dumb mistakes. They’re going to have lapses, and some games are going to get ugly because of them.

But the signs of life this team has shown in the first week of the season have me hopeful. Hopeful that we might just have something cooking in Big D for the first time in three seasons, and that the pain of the last two seasons can be forgotten with a young team that never gives up.

I can’t tell you how many games Dallas will win this year, but I can promise you this: it’s gonna be a lot of fun to watch.

Monday, October 26th was a disastrous day for Utah Jazz big men. Before gametime, Jaxson Hayes was ruled out due to right shoulder soreness. In the first quarter, Lauri Markkanen suffered a nasty wrist injury on his shooting hand, and he staggered back towards the locker room. Not too long after that, Jaren Jackson Jr. sustained a right knee injury after Ty Jerome stumbled into his leg – if the tweet found below correctly reads coach Hardy’s lips, this could keep Trip out for a long time.

So, with 4 separate 7 footers now riding the bench with injury (Nurkic was looking classy as usual), where does the coaching staff turn for big man production? Surely, surely this would be the time for Kyle Filipowski, 3 year Jazzman with thousands of prime developmental minutes under his belt, to step up and show that all of the priority placed on his improvement since the 2024 draft was wisely spent. This would be that magical moment where Flip proves to all that his stats were not empty and his skills not gimmicky. In the face of necessity, Filipowski stands ready.

Instead, this quickly became the Mo Bamba game. And it was fun! He blocked shots, ran the court hard, and climbed Mount Edey in a way I’ve never before seen. Our defense was struggling, so I get it – Hardy wanted an anchor down low, and Bamba fits that archetype better than Filipowski does. However, Bamba was not the only bench big to get the call-up in the second half; Tony Bradley also reacquainted himself with Jazz fans, to the tune of one of the worst 5 minute stretches of basketball I can remember.

Ultimately, in a game where the Jazz were lacking some serious size in the frontcourt, Kyle Filipowski only played 8 minutes. Last season, he started half of the season’s games, and played nearly half of the 48 minutes of each game. And he showed us something! He was a really solid defensive rebounder, and his passing from the top-of-the-key was the perfect fit for Hardy’s offense. Of the bench youngsters at the end of last season (Collier, Flip, Cody, and Brice), Filipowski was the one that I was most confident would be a winning NBA player in our first non-tanking season (even if I preferred Brice in the long run). He needed to be able to eat minutes for our bench lineups to make sense.

Throughout the first 4 games, however, we have not been so lucky. Filipowski has flashed nothing so far. The rim protection has not taken the leap that many were (perhaps irrationally) hoping, and it seems that some added weight over the offseason has prevented Flip from playing any meaningful minutes at the power forward spot. On offense, he has been completely invisible. He is shooting 1 for 6 from the field across 3 games (DNP against the Lakers), with zero assists and zero offensive rebounds. On both ends of the court, he has been floating, and it seems that Hardy has noticed and cut his playing time accordingly.

Now, I want to give Filipowski the benefit of the doubt and offer an alternative theory. While training during the Summer, Flip suffered a herniated disk in his back which kept him out of most of the Jazz’s preseason contests. Could this disappointment be attributed to rust or justifiably poor conditioning? Has his flexibility been hampered by the remaining effects of his injury? Will Flip be playing more minutes, more effectively in a few weeks when he is completely recovered? I do not know the answer to any of these questions, but the uncertain nature of his injury leaves room for Filipowski to be an unfortunate victim of circumstance.

The insult to this injury is just how well an actualized Filipowski would fit with this team. The Jazz are currently lacking playmaking, especially in the frontcourt with Jusuf Nurkic out. If we could go back to a dribble hand off, top of the key offense, we’d take some of the pressure off of Isaiah Collier which has led to him being one of the worst watches in the league so far. Flip has been able to function this way his entire basketball career up until this season, and he chose the wrong time to lose this superpower. Additionally, one of the lineups I was most looking forward to were the JJJ+Flip combos – their strengths and weaknesses complement each other in a way that I thought would unlock the funkiness of Kyle’s game. However, if Flip has meaningfully lost aggression/flexibility/touch, then even that synergy with Jaren isn’t enough to get him consistently onto the court. In an ideal world, that doesn’t seem to me to be too unrealistic, this very well could’ve been the best year of Filipowski’s career.

So, what should we be looking for as we track Flip’s journey back up to his old production? First, he needs to understand his role in Hardy’s offense. Currently, it seems that no one really understands their role in Hardy’s offense, so this may come in time. But, even if confusion persists and Flip doesn’t become a top-of-the-key playmaking hub, he still must find ways to make his presence felt on offense. Crashing the glass, setting hard screens, quick decision making: every scheme requires these things, and even if Hardy’s isn’t quite getting implemented right now, Flip would certainly be a much more beneficial offensive player if he solidified the little things. Additionally, picking up his defensive rebounding would be a huge sign of life for the young big man. He’s snagged 2 rebounds in 3 games, and for a team lacking consistent boardmen, this is unacceptable. Flip is not only a good rebounder, but he’s a good passer too – some of our offensive struggles in the first few games could be mitigated with more semi-transition attempts, which may be borne with some solid outlet passing. These are not big changes that Flip needs to make, but they provide a base level of value, even if the shot isn’t falling.

Jaren may be out for a long time, and who knows how long Lauri will be sitting on the bench next to him. Hayes will come back soon, and Nurkic won’t be too far behind, but as long as 7 footers are healing up, there is a hole that Filipowski can fill. More than ever, this team needs Kyle to prove that the last two years weren’t flukes, or the product of tanking teams, because if he doesn’t, Tony Bradley might just end up bear-hugging opposing defenders again, for no discernible reason. The Utah Jazz need Kyle Filipowski to play well, and as Kyle nears second contract negotiation time, he may very well need that too, if his goal is to stick around the league for more than a cup of coffee.

How have you felt watching Filipowski thus far? Sound off below!

A team needs to have standards.

That was the idea running through my mind when I heard that Kevin Porter Jr. was waived by the Milwaukee Bucks earlier this week. In the last, disastrous season for Cream City, Porter averaged more than 17 points and seven assists, with more than two steals per night. While his efficiency wasn’t fantastic, his production was undeniable, and under usual circumstances, he would have been an ideal acquisition for a number of teams, including the Toronto Raptors.

But with KPJ, circumstances are far from normal.

Serious legal problems

The guard’s documented history of violence has already sent him out of the league in a previous stint. As early as 2022, there were already “ongoing concerns about volatility,” said Nate, over at our sister site, Brew Hoop. He continued to describe Porter Jr.’s legal troubles that resulted in felony charges as a result of accused domestic abuse.

The circumstances of the case are murky, as his partner at the time, Kysre Gondrezick, is alleged by police to have told the authorities that she had been struck in the face multiple times to the point of bleeding, as well as been a victim of strangulation by Porter Jr. An ABC report pointed to a Manhattan Assistant District Attorney alleging a pattern of abuse in the relationship.

However, Gondrezick had come out and denied that any such attack had taken place in an interview with the New York Post. Porter Jr. ended up accepting a plea deal where he accepted responsibility for misdemeanour assault and harassment.

The circumstances resulted in Porter Jr. being traded and waived, before eventually making his way back into the league, ending up on the Los Angeles Clippers and eventually the Milwaukee Bucks. The PG was waived by a team that had a number of other standout guards, namely, recent acquisition Tyler Herro, and Ryan Rollins.

Bucks coach Taylor Jenkins called the waiver a “very difficult decision” made to support other guards on the team, but spoke positively about Porter Jr, in a clip shared by journalist Cameron Ezeir.

However, there was been very little discussion about where exactly a player of his calibre might end up since his departure from the team, which, as aforementioned, would be unusual without being coupled to the point guard’s apparent history of disgraceful personal conduct.

Why the Toronto fit wouldn’t work

Some Toronto Raptors fans have been clamouring for a change at point guard, displeased with Immanuel Quickley in the role. However, it should be undoubtedly clear based on two waivers thus far, that regardless of what he does on the hardwood, Kevin Porter Jr. should not be on any Toronto fan’s wishlist for the roster.

The Raptors’ strength is in large part based on locker room cohesion, and an absence of tension. The Raps are not in the business of managing problem players, and someone like Kevin Porter Jr. has demonstrated himself to be exactly that, even in his earliest days on the Cleveland Cavaliers. Porter Jr. could be a massive disruptor of chemistry, and after his very public legal battle, has demonstrated himself unfit to play for any team, let alone the Toronto Raptors.

Fans and front office alike will be testing the waters this year for new additions to the Raptors as they make a playoff push, but regardless of how dire the circumstances get, Kevin Porter Jr. is not the answer to anyone’s problems.

As you watch the Phoenix Suns play basketball against an Oklahoma City Thunder team that is severely undermanned, a situation that became even worse when Alex Caruso went down with an ankle injury in the first half, your natural inclination is to ask who’s to blame. Which player isn’t playing up to expectations? Is it the Miles Bridges trade and the impact it’s had on both ends of the floor? Is it Devin Booker failing to elevate his game to the level Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was playing at on the opposing side before he got into foul trouble? Is it the bench? Is it the injuries?

Surely, somebody has to be to blame. Somebody has to be the reason this team is struggling against a Thunder squad that’s quite literally limping through the game. But why does it always have to be someone? Why do we feel the need to point a finger at an individual and declare, “Yeah, that’s the reason why!” Because it gives us the justification to follow it up with, “Yeah, that’s the guy who needs to go!”?

In the case of the Phoenix Suns, it’s a collective issue. I don’t think there’s one sole culprit responsible for the poor basketball we’ve witnessed through the first three games of the season. While continuity exists in theory, connectivity is clearly missing at this extremely early stage of the season, and we witnessed it again Monday night in Oklahoma City.

The offensive sets aren’t crisp, and their execution leaves plenty to be desired. But defensively, the Suns collectively have a real problem. They allowed players like Ajay Mitchell to attack the lane at will, converting layup after layup. And don’t get me wrong, Mitchell is a skilled player. With the injuries Oklahoma City is dealing with, he could very well be someone who takes a significant leap this season. But Phoenix’s inability to contain his drives was troublesome.

Combine that with another night of ineffective rebounding (they lost that battle 48-38), and you have a team that seemingly can’t get out of its own way. Whenever the offense sputters, the defense can’t prevent the opposition from going on runs. Teams can knife into the lane for easy points while taking chances from beyond the arc, knowing that even if those shots don’t fall, there’s a good chance they’ll get another opportunity courtesy of an offensive rebound.

That’s why you can’t point the finger at one person. The problems we’re seeing aren’t isolated. They’re interconnected. Poor communication leads to defensive breakdowns. Defensive breakdowns expose rebounding deficiencies. Those extra possessions put additional pressure on an offense that’s still trying to figure itself out. And suddenly, everybody looks worse than they actually are. Three games into the season, the Suns don’t need a scapegoat. They need accountability across the roster, better execution, and a collective understanding of what winning basketball requires. Because pointing fingers won’t fix what five guys have to solve together.

Bright Side Baller Standings

There are some nights when you know early on that Devin Booker is going to take over a basketball game. Against the Warriors, that was evident from the jump. Booker poured in 43 points, the most ever scored by a Phoenix Suns player in a home opener. Another record for a guy who seems determined to rewrite the franchise record books one page at a time.

Naturally, he dominated the Bright Side Baller voting, earning 85% of the total vote. A landslide victory, and deservedly so. Shoutout to the three people who still thought Mariah Carey was better.

Bright Side Baller Nominees

Game 3 against the Thunder. Here are your nominees:

Jalen Green
20 points (8-of-13, 1-of-3 3PT), 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover, -10 +/-

Dillon Brooks
19 points (4-of-14, 3-of-10 3PT), 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, 1 block, 0 turnovers, -12 +/-

Miles Bridges
17 points (7-of-17, 2-of-10 3PT), 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers, -17 +/-

Jordan Goodwin
12 points (4-of-9, 4-of-8 3PT), 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 0 turnovers, -10 +/-

Khaman Maluach
12 points (5-of-10, 0-of-1 3PT), 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 4 turnovers, -2 +/-

Luke Kennard
9 points (3-of-5, 3-of-5 3PT), 1 rebound, 2 assists, 0 turnovers, -6 +/-

Hear ye, hear ye! Cast ye votes here, ye!

Sometimes life immitates art — so they say.

I recently finished NBC/Peacock’s Crystal Lake series. Great watch. The premiere season follows Pamela Voorhees as she grieves the supposed loss of her son whose body was never found after he drowned at summer camp. Without spoiling too much, Pam, progressively pushes boundaries of what she’ll do to bring the boy home, or to at least avenge the loss.

It reminds me a lot of what we’re seeing with Jaylen Brown.

It’s a sad spiral to watch. A largely sympathetic character repeatedly does what they can to fumble away the benefit of the doubt.

All over someone named Ja(y)son, nonetheless.

You’d have to be living under the rock to have missed this past weekend’s exchange of words between the two former Celtics teammates and NBA champions.

In short, Jayson Tatum posted a summer docuseries episode where he claimed to have known nothing of the eventual blockbuster that sent Brown to the rival Philadelphia 76ers. Brown called “cap” (or BS) publicly in an Instagram comment.

Tatum addressed the not-so-subtle jab after Boston’s win over the New York Knicks on Friday. He insisted there was no beef. A day later, Brown agreed, but said there might be some “lamb chops and gravy” and that Tatum should “stay ready at all times.”

Then, NBC Sports Boston’s Brian Scalabrine went on his Starting Lineup show on Sirius XM and shared details from the final months of No. 7’s time with the Cs, saying that Brown had a list of demands he wanted the organization to meet and if they didn’t, he wanted to be traded.

Brown’s camp refuted the report and Scal walked back some of what he said during Monday’s pregame show.

Nonetheless, the damage was already done and you’ll never guess how the fanbase reacted.

Those who were already only tolerating Brown while he was still wearing the green and white pounced on the opportunity to smear him and took their repsective victory laps online. I’m not going to link a bunch of tweets here, but trust me, it’s not hard to find it.

The speed in which a large majority of the fanbase has turned its back on JB is dissappointing. He’s undeniably one of the great players in the franchise’s storied history and will likely be the last to ever wear No. 7 (unless this gets brutally ugly).

It’s been less than four months since the trade and his status in the Celtics community has already plummetted. But regardless of how you feel about it, Brown won an NBA Finals MVP here. He played an undeniable role in one of the winningest eras in franchise history (in terms of winning percentage). Plus, JB embedded himself in the Boston community with his 7uice Foundation.

He also, at least partly, did this to himself.

I’m not trying to pick sides here, and frankly probably still land pro-Jaylen, but I also dont’ think Scal is just making things up. He might’ve misspoke and inadvertently suggested that there was a trade request, but there has to be some truth mixed in there.

Is that truth justified?

Maybe. It depends what the alleged demands were. If Brown wanted the organization to favor him over Tatum, really in any way but specifically in some sort of “me or him” scenario, then he was out of bounds.

We’ll probably never know what they were, but it’s safe to assume it wasn’t something small.

Then, of course, the Twitch stream following Boston’s playoff elimination didn’t sit well with anyone. Brown reitterated that he was proud of his teammates (as he should’ve been with the low expectations publicly put on the group ahead of the season), and that the 2025-26 season was his favorite of his 10-year career.

Mind you, the Celtics won a title two years ago in which he was Finals MVP.

So now, we’re looking at a formerly beloved player now playing for a rival team and a fanbase that is willing to go to war for Tatum, who still wears the uniform and is the undisputed face of the franchise. The unstoppable force will meet the immovable object on Jan. 21, when Brown makes his regular-season return to TD Garden.

When the NBA released its schedule back in August, fans circled that date imagining a celebration of a tremendous 10 years. Now it’s tough to know what to expect. For all we know, Brown’s name might be met with 18,000+ boos when it’s called along with the rest of Phildelphia’s starters.

The worst part is that it’s tough to even say what’s appropriate at this point. Brown hasn’t been shy about the bitterness he feels towards both the Celtics and Tatum. That bitterness, though, comes from one of two places: ego or betrayal (it’s probably a mix of both).

Regardless, a nasty reunion is going to be a bad look for everyone involved. Of course, JB will look foolish or egotistical for burning bridges in Boston. The fans would come across as ungrateful — not the best message for any future potential Celtics.

Who knows what the story will be by then, though. We’re still three-ish months away. There’s plenty of time for more drama and back-and-forth. For now it just feels icky.

After a few false starts, the Bucks finally got their first regular-season win last night, beating the Indiana Pacers 110-102. The team had been building toward a win, but minor mistakes were costing them dearly. However, in this game, they put those lessons to good use and stayed in it long enough to outlast the weary Pacers, who were down two starters (Ivica Zubac and Andrew Nembhard) and on the second night of a back-to-back. Read our full summary of the game here.

Player Grades

Ryan Rollins

31 minutes, 19 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 turnover, 4 PF, 7/14 FG, 3/7 3P, +10

Rollins keeps building. I loved that he never took a backwards step to the trash-talking Haliburton. Rollins had a great first half, going 4/7 and 3/4 from deep. He tailed off a bit in the second half but made key plays late to seal the Bucks’ win.

Grade: C+

Tyler Herro

32 minutes, 23 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 turnovers, 7/14 FG, 3/6 3P, +1

Back to regular programming for Herro, who started slow but built as the game went on, culminating in an 11-point third quarter (when the team desperately needed it). He seemed to make a point of rebounding and kickstarting the transition offence himself. Obviously, as long as Herro is aggressive, he’ll draw attention and open up shooters, but racking up those stats while only committing two turnovers was maybe the most impressive part. That said, Herro did space out a few times off the ball on some really basic actions; a simple flare screen for Aaron Nesmith had him lost.

Grade: A-

Jaime Jaquez Jr.

24 minutes, 8 points, 6 rebounds, 4/13 FG, 0/4 3P , -1

This was Jaquez’s first bad game of the year, a real come-down-to-earth performance. Nothing seemed to be working for him, and I’m not sure there’s much more to it. Jaquez wasn’t detrimental to the team or anything; it just wasn’t his night.

Grade: D

Kyle Kuzma

29 minutes, 17 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 turnovers, 6/10 FG, 4/6 3P, 0

Man, this was a funny game for Kuzma because, I’d say, 90% of his output was positive; he obviously made key threes to keep the team in it (plus hit the dagger at the end), and his shooting overall was very efficient. Plus, Kuz impacted in other areas of the game while keeping his turnovers to a minimum. However, there were still those 2-4 plays we seem to see every game from Kuzma that make you want to pull your hair out. Namely, him apparently being unable to throw a simple kick-ahead pass to a teammate streaking in for the layup. Or, better yet, when he ran into Jaime Jaquez as Jaquez tried to finish off Turner’s lob late in the game.

Grade: B+

Myles Turner

28 minutes, 6 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks, 3 turnovers, 2/7 FG, 0/3 3P, +14

Without troubling the scoreboard much—which does need to change—Turner was impactful. Obviously, everyone will point to those back-to-back blocks in the fourth quarter, but he also had two key blocks in the first half. Turner was also huge on the boards, with three of his nine rebounds being offensive. I thought he played a good game that the stat sheet won’t fully reflect. Don’t get me wrong, Turner still had a few iffy plays, and I’d like him to let it fly more than he has been, but it was still a really solid outing for the big man.

Grade: B

Kel’el Ware

19 minutes, 16 points, 14 rebounds, 3 turnovers, 7/13 FG, 0/4 3P, -5

First off, what a funny stat line for Ware: shot 13 times in just 19 minutes, LOL. Jokes aside, another great game for the big man, who, like Turner, made a major impact as a rebounder (five of his 14 rebounds of the offensive variety). Overall, he’s just looked much more engaged in the last two games, which has been great to see. I also want to mention that Ware is giving the Bucks a legit vertical spacer like they haven’t had in a few years (maybe Giannis, but even he wasn’t really a consistent lob threat, per se). Like, you can legit throw it up anywhere near the rim, and Ware will cram that sucker in. Oh, and he shoots threes. Just. Needs. To. Put. It. All. Together.

Grade: B

Kasparas Jakucionis

21 minutes, 7 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 turnovers, 2/4 FG, 1/3 3P, -1

I sound like a broken record, but Jakucionis just comes in and plays solid on both ends. KJ has got great chemistry with Kel’el Ware in particular, and his ability to pass with both hands opens up so many angles. I mean, that left-handed wraparound pass to Ware was sick (see Bonus Bucks Bits).

Grade: B

Brayden Burries

16 minutes, 4 points, 2/5 FG, 0/2 3P, +6

Burries couldn’t find much offensive rhythm, but I thought he had some great defensive possessions guarding Haliburton in the pick-and-roll. More specifically, Haliburton likes to put his man “in jail” on pick-and-rolls, meaning he comes off the screen and then slows down to keep his man on his back (“in jail”). What Burries did well was pushing back, changing angles, etc., so Haliburton couldn’t get comfortable.

Grade: C

AJ Green

20 minutes, 3 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1/6 FG, 1/6 3P, +5

This wasn’t Green’s night from a shooting perspective, but he made some nice playmaking reads, most notably his dime to Ament in open court for the dunk. Green let the numbers advantage tell him who was open, then zipped it inside to the rookie.

Grade: C-

Nate Ament

13 minutes, 7 points, 3 rebounds, 1 PF, 3/8 FG, 1/2 3P, +12

It was a rough first stint for Ament—who looked frazzled and rushed—and when Jenkins went to Ousmane Dieng for what would have been Ament’s second-quarter minutes, I wasn’t sure he’d get back on. However, Jenkins did go back to Ament in the second half and he looked considerably more comfortable, making better reads and running the floor hard; you could almost see the weight come off his shoulders as that first field goal went down. Crucially, Ament got only one foul and had some really solid possessions guarding Pascal Siakam. As I’ve said previously, Ament has all the tools to be a solid wing defender; he just needs to figure out how to use them.

Grade: C+

Taylor Jenkins

Jenkins finally got the team to play closer to a four-quarter effort last night, and it resulted in a great win. I thought the decision to close with Turner was smart, even though his offensive contributions were limited, because they needed a sturdier presence inside. Additionally, I liked Jenkins’ choice to close with a three-guard front of Herro, Rollins, and Jakucionis, which gave them more ball-handling to attack the pressing Pacers defence. Finally, he has clearly been working behind the scenes to get his guys to limit turnovers, and it paid off against Indiana, with the team throwing it away only 11 times—we’ll see if that continues. Great game.

Grade: B+

Limited minutes: Ousmane Dieng

DNP-CD: Caris LeVert, Bogoljub Markovic, Jericho Sims, Gary Trent Jr.

Inactive: Kam Jones, Cormac Ryan, Pete Nance

What We Learnt

Jenkins has talked a lot about defensive intensity—which has become a bit of a buzz term, frankly—but the fourth quarter showed exactly what he wanted. The way the Bucks guarded the ball, talked, and helped the helper was great to see. Now that they know what it looks like, hopefully they can recreate that moving forward.

Bonus Bucks Bits

• “We’ve been close,” Jenkins said. “Great execution down the stretch—timely shots, timely blocks, timely rebounds… We talked about owning the pace and owning the paint. I thought we did that in spurts in the first half, and did it way more in the second half. Still more to clean up, but really proud of the group.”
• Check out the postgame celebration:

• Once again, the Bucks won the paint battle (50-48); they also won bench points (37-32).
• Milwaukee had seven offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter.
• It was great to see Nate and Brayden get a long stretch on the court from late in the third to the middle of the fourth. Both stayed in the game and contributed to the decisive 17-4 run during that span.
• Minor note on Nate Ament: less is more at this stage of his career. Not sure whether it was because he wanted to get his first basket out of the way, but he was very focused on getting his own in the first half. In the second half, everything flowed more easily because, by and large, Ament let the game come to him.
• As Terrapin Revisited noted in the Rapid Recap comments, Fiserv did look pretty empty. I hope that was mostly because the Brewers were playing.
• The aforementioned wraparound pass from Jakucionis:

Up Next

The Bucks are back at home on Wednesday to host the Houston Rockets. Watch at 7:00 p.m. CDT on MY24.

INDIANAPOLIS — The needle drop hit in the Indiana Pacers’ starting lineup announcement, and the chorus of the “Welcome Back, Kotter” theme song played just long enough for the fans at Gainbridge Fieldhouse to fill their lungs with air for what was coming next. The audio flipped again to 50 Cent’s “Many Men,” and Tyrese Haliburton ran out for the home fans for the first time since he tore his Achilles in June 2025, though you couldn’t hear his name over the deafening sound of 17,000 people screaming in unison.

Unfortunately for the home crowd, that was the last time they really got to roar. By the second quarter, the only noise coming from the fans was boos condemning the Pacers for a totally flat performance in a game that was so eagerly anticipated for so long.

The Dallas Mavericks routed Indiana from the start, dropping 44 first quarter points on their way to a 37-point first half lead. The Pacers would rally back a bit in the second half after 19-year-old Dallas star Cooper Flagg exited the game with a shoulder injury, but this was a premium example of a game not being as close as the 16-point final margin would indicate.

“It was one of the best crowds I’ve ever seen here,” head coach Rick Carlisle said after the loss to Dallas. “But a great crowd doesn’t guarantee you anything if you don’t compete the way you need to compete.”

The Pacers needed a big fourth quarter comeback to win their opener against an uninspiring New Orleans Pelicans game a few days earlier. A few days later, the Pacers fully looked like the blitzkrieg offense we expected as they trounced the Nets in Brooklyn. On Monday night, Indiana gave the Milwaukee Bucks their first win of the season in the most jarring result of the new year so far.

“That’s what the NBA is,” Haliburton said after the game. “It’s not all fairytales, sunshine, and rainbows.”

Indiana’s roster remains similar to the one that went to the 2025 NBA Finals, but every year is different, and it leaves this team with new questions to answer from the last time it was whole. That’s especially the case in an Eastern Conference is significantly improved. The idea that the Pacers were going to hit the ground running this season was probably always unrealistic. It’s important to remember that they started 10-15 back in 2024-25 before eventually finding some special chemistry on the way to the Finals.

The challenge for the Pacers right now is using the regular season as a lab to figure out their most existential questions without losing too much ground in an ultra-competitive East. Like every team this early in the season, they have a few things that need deeper exploration.

How Ivica Zubac changes the dynamic

The biggest change from the team Haliburton left to the one he rejoined is the substitution at center. The Pacers let Myles Turner walk because they didn’t want to pay him. That looks like a wise move, but it also forced the team to put its best assets on the table to fill its void at center. Indiana shocked the league by trading for Ivica Zubac at last season’s trade deadline during a lost year, sending out two first-round picks to get him. One of those was top-4 protected for 2026 when Indiana entered the lottery tied for the best odds. When the pick fell to No. 5 and conveyed to the Clippers, it felt like a double loss for a team that just endured a 19-win season without Haliburton.

Ultimately, centers don’t come cheap, and the Pacers had to pay to play in the big man market. Zubac’s skill set is so much different than Turner’s in ways that are both obvious and less intuitive, and Indiana will spend this season tinkering with the best ways to leverage his talent within their system.

Everyone will notice the spacing component. Turner took 8.7 three-point attempts per 100 possessions during his last season in Indiana. Zubac is a total non-shooter who hasn’t attempted a three-pointer the last three seasons. While Turner would pop after setting his screens, Zubac is going to roll, and it takes away some of what made the 2025 Pacers special while giving him a new element with some real benefits.

Zubac is going to play with a lot more power than Turner ever did. His ability to add a component of smashmouth basketball will be welcomed for a team that felt built on finesse even at their best. While the offensive adjustment with Zubac is readily apparent, the defensive end will require some tinkering, too.

Zubac often played in a deeper drop with the Clippers. He was so good at walling off the paint in these coverages that he earned my (fake) vote for 2025 NBA Defensive Player of the Year. The Pacers want their bigs playing more at the level of the screen, which requires Zubac to get up to the touch on ball handlers to see if he can make plays with his hands before retreating back. The Pacers just don’t have the point of attack defenders to viably run a deep drop right now, and it’s going to require an adjustment period from everyone involved.

The reality is that Zubac didn’t look quite as nimble last season with the Clippers before the trade. Now he’s already suffered an ankle sprain against Brooklyn that should keep him out of the lineup in the short-term and could linger beyond that. How the Pacers integrate Zubac is the biggest question they need to answer in their 82-game season, and it’s likely to remain a work in progress for now.

Rick Carlisle is still searching for the right lineup combinations

Carlisle played 11 guys in the first half against Dallas. He played 12 players in the first half against Brooklyn, including a starting lineup switch that subbed out Jarace Walker for Aaron Nesmith. Nesmith was nursing a hamstring injury during the preseason, and his return to the lineup will go a long way toward answering some of Indiana’s biggest questions.

“It’s hard to run when you’re taking the ball under the net the whole game,” Haliburton said after the Dallas loss.

The Pacers can probably bank on a top-5 offense with Haliburton back. How they fix the defense is a much more pressing issue. Through three games, Indiana ranks No. 19 in defensive efficiency, which feels about right despite the small sample. Indiana needs Nesmith and Andrew Nembhard to get after it defensively the same way they were during the 2025 Finals run. They also need to figure out what the bench rotation looks like beyond Obi Toppin as their sixth man, and likely Kelly Oubre — the team’s only real free agent addition this summer — as their seventh man.

T.J. McConnell hasn’t played yet as he recovers from a hamstring strain, and Ben Sheppard is also out with a meniscus tear. Jalen Slawson was firmly on my too good for Summer League list, but his opportunities to add some downhill force and defensive playmaking will still be limited by his two-way contract. Quenton Jackson adds some similar elements as perhaps the most athletic player on the team on a standard contract, and Indiana would benefit from adding his quickness and defensive havoc if it can get around his shooting concerns. Jay Huff was impressive last season filling the center void on a bad team, but Carlisle doesn’t appear to really trust him yet. Every time it feels like Walker could take another step forward as a former lottery pick, he stagnates at both ends of the floor.

The Pacers should be able to count on their top-7, which is more than some teams can say. McConnell’s return will be big, but he took a noticeable step back last season and may be experiencing some age-related decline at 34 years old. Can anyone else on this roster help force more takeaways to get the offense out running? I’m not sure. If Jackson, Walker, Huff, or even Slawson can make it a viable 8- or 9-man rotation come playoff time, Carlisle should be pleased.

It’s still too early to say where the Pacers fit in in the East

Some will tell you the Pacers were a legitimate Finals threat coming into the season with Haliburton back. Others saw the defensive questions and wondered how this team would matchup against the Knicks, Celtics, and Raptors. I suppose I fall more on the latter end, putting the Pacers at No. 8 for Eastern Conference regular season predictions, and ranking them No. 13 in my league-wide championship picture entering the season.

The great thing about the East this season is that it really feels like every game matters with 10 teams realistically dreaming of making a Finals run. It’s just important to remember that 82 games is a long, long, long season. Don’t forget that a year ago, the Chicago Bulls started 5-0 before sputtering so much that they blew the team up at the deadline. The Pacers are 2-2 with the easiest schedule in the NBA so far.

The path for Indiana to get back to greatness starts with Haliburton leading this group to a top-5 offense while managing to get the defense into the top half of the league. This was a good-not-great team in 2024-25 before finding an unforeseen level of excellence in the playoffs, which is the exact same thing the Knicks did one year later on their way to a championship. Haliburton is back, but questions remain.

Watch starstruck Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg ask NBA legends for advice originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Through four games, Yaxel Lendeborg has been everything the Warriors could have asked for and more.

The 24-year-old rookie leads the team in minutes and rebounds per game, while ranking second in points and assists per game.

On Monday, Lendeborg led Golden State to its first win of the season in a 134-114 blowout against the Denver Nuggets.

His team-high 31 points set a new personal bar in his short NBA career, and he added 12 rebounds and six assists on the night.

After the game, Lendeborg was interviewed by a trio of NBA legends enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame: Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter and Carmelo Anthony.

While talking to the former NBA stars, Lendeborg was keen to ask for advice on how to improve his game.

“Lean on your vets, bro,” McGrady said. “You got two great Hall of Fame vets that (are) very intellectual in the game of basketball. So I would say lean on them as much as possible, man. Every day, just ask questions. You can never ask a dumb question, bro. Just lean on them two guys, and you’ll get a lot of information.”

Carter, who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2024, told Lendeborg to use his age to his advantage.

“Utilize your youth,” Carter said. “You have a motor. Continue to play with joy, and ask those questions. Like you said, you don’t get comfortable in the game without asking questions. When you get the answers to the questions, you go out there; it’s easier to take the test, meaning play the game.”

Anthony emphasized leaning on the Warriors’ experienced vets to make an immediate impact.

“Get ahead of the film game,” Anthony said. “Stay in the film. Watch that film. Be a student of film and you have two guys on your team, in Draymond (Green) and Steph (Curry), who’ve been through this for so long, and they’ve been winning … so now you have an opportunity to just learn the in-between game and little nuances of the game that’s going to help you and help the Warriors.”

Lendeborg is one of only six players in the NBA to average at least 20 points (21.8), nine rebounds (9.3) and four assists per game (4.5), in company with three former MVPs and two All-Stars.

The Michigan alumnus also leads the Warriors with 7.8 free-throw attempts per game, an area where Golden State struggled last season, ranking 27th in the NBA as a team.

Before letting Lendeborg go, McGrady invoked a message from legendary San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.

“He always said he wants to see some nasty,” McGrady said. “You’re coming in the league with that nasty. I love it. Do not lose that edge, bro.”

If the Warriors are to stay afloat until Jimmy Butler returns, they sure hope Lendeborg’s “nasty” will carry through the entirety of his rookie season.

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BOSTON — Payton Pritchard was glad the Celtics beat the New York Knicks for their first win of the season on Friday night. But he couldn’t stop thinking about his own lackluster performance — 4 points on 1-for-5 shooting in 30 minutes off the bench.

He wasn’t as aggressive as usual, and he didn’t attack the paint as decisively. It didn’t matter; thanks in large part to a masterful 36-point performance from Jayson Tatum, the Celtics came out on top.

Still, it didn’t feel great to know he didn’t play his best.

“But it’s a long season,” he said. “I try to give myself forgiveness of it, even though it ate away at me.”

On Monday night, in a 134-99 win against the Chicago Bulls, Pritchard bounced back, exploding for 28 points on 10-16 shooting. He did most of the damage in a 39-point Celtics third quarter, shooting 7-for-8 from the field, including 5-for-5 from three.

“It just feels good to catch the rhythm again, and just bounce back from the other night,” he said.

In Year 7, however, Pritchard doesn’t get rattled after a lackluster start to the year. Pritchard signed a 2-year, $44.2 million extension right before the season started, and he now knows he routinely recovers from slow starts.

Still, Payton Pritchard early-season struggles are an interesting phenomenon

In 22 career October games, Payton Pritchard has shot 38.7% from the field and 31% from three. It’s his least efficient month of the season, by far, and he’s not exactly sure why.

“I really couldn’t put my finger on it, but I think you could look at the last couple of years— like, I just have games where it’s very non-aggressive, just out of rhythm,” he said.

The difference between Pritchard’s efficiency in October and the rest of the year is stark; the 28-year-old shoots at least 44% from the field and 38% from three every other month. November typically brings a dramatic bounceback; after struggling to start the year, Pritchard has shot 45.3% from the field and 40.3% from three over 66 career November games.

At the start of the year, it looked like he could get off to a strong start; he poured in 17 points on 4-for-9 shooting in the opener against the Detroit Pistons.

But Pritchard’s individual performance against the Knicks nonetheless left a sour taste.

“We got the W, but I want to perform better and be better for our team,” he said. “So, tonight was me coming out with just an aggressive mindset — just kind of play free and just attack the paint.”

So why does it happen? Why does it seem like sometimes, the 6’1 guard just fades into the background?

Pritchard attributes nights when he creates fewer offensive advantages to his own approach — not to anything his teammates or opposing defenses are doing.

“It’s 100% my aggression,” Pritchard said. “And it’s not about just taking shots to me. Like, I’m fine with any amount of shots. It’s about, like: how do I attack, and am I touching the paint? Am I pushing the pace? Stuff like that — controllables.”

Sometimes, like on Friday, when Pritchard reviews the tape, he feels underwhelmed by his own approach. He’s eager to fix it immediately.

“When I don’t do it, I feel very disappointed in myself, and I feel like I’m hurting the team in that area,” he said. “So, I feel like it’s the main thing I can bring to the team — a sense of pace and attacking the paint and kicking out and just making plays.”

After a career season, opposing teams are no doubt paying extra attention to Pritchard’s offense. He acknowledged he might face extra defensive pressure on the heels of a career-best 17-points-per-game season, but wouldn’t concede that’s a justifiable reason for his early-season struggles.

“Honestly, that shouldn’t affect me,” Pritchard said. “You have reads for any way they defend you, and if it’s gonna be ball pressure, I don’t mind dribbling on any type of pressure. So, if they’re gonna pick me up, I should be able to attack the paint, make a play.”

On Monday, however, his October struggles appeared to be in the rearview.

“He’s another guy that impacts winning in different ways,” Joe Mazzulla said. “Tonight, you saw the scoreboard, which is obviously something that’s really important for us. But he’s been making plays defensively, his assists, his ability to make plays on both ends of the floor. So even if he’s not scoring, he still impacts winning at a high level. When he does what he does tonight, it makes us a better team.”

One Possession: “Coldest white boy” gets red-hot in Celtics' win originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

NBA Games don’t typically boil down to just one possession. But one possession can often tell the story of a game. This is “One Possession,” a recurring series where we highlight one notable sequence from every Celtics game during the 2026-27 season.

Payton Pritchard’s third-quarter outburst had TD Garden rocking on Monday night, but our favorite part was when our NBC Sports Boston cameras cut to the crowd and there, amid all the green-clad Celtics revelers, was a Bulls fans in a Zach LaVine jersey clapping his hands in appreciation, too.

Allen Iverson proved you don’t need to be a Celtics fan to marvel at how Pritchard can take over a game. And the “coldest white boy” certainly got red hot as part of a 19-point third-quarter outburst in Monday’s 134-99 thrashing of the Bulls.

Pritchard’s night crescendoed in the final two minutes of the third quarter. Neemias Queta and Sam Hauser fought to keep a possession alive and Pritchard walked into a 30-foot straightaway 3-pointer that put Boston up 98-73 with 1:48 to play in the frame.

The NBA’s tracking gave Pritchard a 37.6 percent expected field goal percentage on the deep attempt. We’re thinking that there’s only a select few like Pritchard and Steph Curry that can be pegged to shoot better than league average on a 30-foot bomb with a defender rushing out to contest.

But Pritchard sent the Garden into full delirium the next trip down. Everyone in the building knew the heat check was coming and Pritchard put Buddy Hield in the blender before stepping back on a 26-foot triple. The expected field goal percentage dipped to 31.7 percent on that attempt but it felt like 100 percent chance of going in with how hot Pritchard was at that point.

Pritchard finished 10-of-16 shooting overall, while connecting on 7 of 10 3-pointers. His expected field goal percentage overall pegged him at 40.5 percent, but he finished at 62.5 percent. It’s even more jarring when you look at expected effective field goal percentage, which jumped 32.7 percent from 51.7 expected to 84.4 percent actual.

Pritchard, fresh off inking a 2-year, $44.2 million extension before the start of the regular season, continued a familiar trend of being a little slow out of the gates to start the new campaign. Pritchard was quiet against two of the more physical teams in the league in Detroit and New York but got himself activated against the Bulls. 

Therein lies the challenge for Pritchard this season. While he’s most certainly left his imprint on the biggest stages, especially all those buzzer-beating heaves during Boston’s 2024 title run, he needs to be a more consistent presence against the best teams in the league. The departure of Jaylen Brown insists that Boston’s supporting cast elevate in those moments, and everyone from Pritchard to Paul George to Derrick White need to be secondary scoring options if the NBA’s best teams put much of their energy into slowing Jayson Tatum.

Pritchard, who averaged just two drives per game in Boston’s first two outings of the season, was much more aggressive against Chicago. Good things happen when he touches the paint. Three of Pritchard’s four assists on the night led to 3-pointers, and his 11 assist points generated were second on the team behind only Tatum (14 points generated on 6 total assists).

Boston’s bench unit can be a differentiator for the team throughout the season. Pritchard was a plus-22 in his 21 minutes on Monday. Hauser (team-best plus-36), Hugo Gonzalez (plus-34), and Queta (plus-32) were all super impactful in their floor time as well.

And even opposing fanbases clearly appreciate how Pritchard can impact winning.

The Wizards couldn’t keep Moussa Diabate from getting offensive rebounds or Brandon Miller from scoring from everywhere, so they lost to the Hornets in Charlotte despite solid games from Anthony Davis and Trae Young.

Diabate grabbed eight offensive boards in the first half and finished with 11 for the game — a new career high. After a few bad possessions early with Bilal Coulibaly on him, Miller torched the Wizards from all over the floor — at-rim, mid-range, and threes. He finished with 39 points — a new career high.

As for the Wizards, Davis was pretty good, notching 29 points and 10 rebounds on solid efficiency. He had trouble containing Diabate, and communicated effectively on defense.

Young was crafty and effective for the most part, though he turned down a few threes he’d normally take. His passing threat was significant — looking at a teammate had Charlotte defenders jumping out of his way and leaving him open for layups.

One highly annoying development: going for a rebound, Justin Champagnie landed on Naz Reid’s foot, and suffered what appeared to be a significant ankle or foot injury.

From the notebook

• It’s only four games, but I’m not sold on the Wizards shot selection.
• One play annoyed me — Davis turned down an open three with a late closeout. Instead of side-stepping into a truly wide open three (which is a fundamental in today’s game), Davis took a dribble and stepped in for a long two, which he missed.
• I have no data to back this up, but my impression from watching Bub Carrington for two full seasons and the start of his third is that he’s terrible at throwing lobs. He tried one to Coulibaly in the fourth quarter that would have been a simple turnover with any other teammate. Coulibaly skied to deflect the pass off the backboard, grabbed the carom, and threw it off a Charlotte player while falling out of bounds.
• The coaching staff’s decision to start doubling Miller in the final minutes of the game, helped stall Charlotte’s offensive attack and get Washington back in the game. The Hornets countered with Reid hitting an open three, and then countering by bring Grayson Allen one pass away. The Wizards couldn’t help off Allen (a superb three-point shooter), and Miller immediately scored.

Four Factors

Below are the four factors that decide wins and losses in basketball — shooting (efg), rebounding (offensive rebounds), ball handling (turnovers), fouling (free throws made).

The four factors are measured by:

• eFG% (effective field goal percentage, which accounts for the three-point shot)
• OREB% (offensive rebound percentage)
• TOV% (turnover percentage — turnovers divided by possessions)
• FTM/FGA (free throws made divided by field goal attempts)

Stats & Metrics

PPA is my overall production metric, which credits players for things they do that help a team win (scoring, rebounding, playmaking, defending) and dings them for things that hurt (missed shots, turnovers, bad defense, fouls).

PPA is a per possession metric designed for larger data sets. In small sample sizes, the numbers can get weird. In PPA, 100 is average, higher is better and replacement level is 45. For a single game, replacement level isn’t much use, and I reiterate the caution about small samples sometimes producing weird results.

POSS is the number of possessions each player was on the floor in this game.

ORTG = offensive rating, which is points produced per individual possessions x 100. League average so far this season is listed in the Four Factors table above. Points produced is not the same as points scored. It includes the value of assists and offensive rebounds, as well as sharing credit when receiving an assist.

USG = offensive usage rate. Average is 20%. Median so far this season is 17.7%.

ORTG and USG are versions of stats created by former Wizards assistant coach Dean Oliver and modified by me. ORTG is an efficiency measure that accounts for the value of shooting, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers. USG includes shooting from the floor and free throw line, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers.

+PTS = “Plus Points” is a measure of the points gained or lost by each player based on their efficiency in this game compared to league average efficiency on the same number of possessions. A player with an offensive rating (points produced per possession x 100) of 100 who uses 20 possessions would produce 20 points. If the league average efficiency is 115, the league — on average — would produced 23.0 points in the same 20 possessions. So, the player in this hypothetical would have a +PTS score of -3.0.

Players are sorted by total production in the game.

The Spurs are always out and about giving back to the community, and the latest example comes from Devin Vassell, who visited Harlandale High School yesterday to donate shoes to both the boys and girls basketball teams, specifically A’ja Wilsons for the girls and Devin Booker’s for the boys. He also included a $10,000 donation.

The kiddos were certainly excited to see one of their favorite Spurs! Afterwards, Vassell said, “The fans are amazing. The biggest thing is to be able to give back to them. It’s not just playing on the court and winning games. It’s them being able to see that we’re people just like them.”

Welcome to the Thread. Join in the conversation, start your own discussion, and share your thoughts. This is the Spurs community, your Spurs community. Thanks for being here.

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Pick your idiom. The Celtics took the Bulls by their horns. Boston was a bull in Chicago’s china shop. Jayson Tatum and Payton Pritchard bull-ied their visitors. Regardless, Boston enjoyed their first Gino Time win against Chicago on Monday night in a 134-99 running of the Bulls.

Why the Celtics won

Let’s be honest. Chicago is a rebuilding team trying to establish an identity under new head coach Tiago Splitter. With players like triple-double machine Josh Giddey and pogosticks rookie Caleb Wilson and Matas Buzelis, they want to fly up and down the court and get up a ton of shots. The Bulls press. The Bulls play zone defense and disrupt passing lanes. The more possessions, the more opportunities to see what they have with the sixth youngest roster.

Heading in last night’s game, the Bulls were first in pace and fourth in the league at three-point attempts at 41.3 a night at a 22.6% clip (worst in the NBA). Those are the telltale signs of a team in flux.

The Celtics, however, are the OG volume three-point shooting team and the rest of the league has now started to catch up.

Both teams got up the same number of triples in the blowout: 44. But as the 134-99 score suggests, the Celtics went old school with their possession maxxing. They grabbed more offensive rebounds (19-14) and turned 24 turnovers into a whopping 39 points, but it was Boston’s 27-point edge behind the arc that made the difference.

Nobody emulated that more than Payton Pritchard, the “coldest white boy,” against the Bulls. He scored 19 of 28 in the third quarter that included hitting 5-of-5 from three.

Numbers game: +34

Through the first two games of the season, Hugo Gonzalez only played fourteen minutes against the Pistons and Knicks, a disappointment development after, well, an offseason of promising development.

“I think he’s played well even in those two games, whether it’s two-and-a-half minutes or three minutes, he’s had a couple of offensive rebounds and done things that impacted winning,” Joe Mazzulla said of the young 20-year-old in this young season. “Tonight was louder. Tonight was the best version of him getting better, but those guys have a hard job, bringing it everyday. A lot of what they’re great at doesn’t show up on a score sheet, but tonight you did.”

After missing his only two shots and being a -17 to start, Gonzalez joined the rotation in a big way against the Bulls, posting 13 points, 5 rebounds, and two assists in nearly 24 minutes of play for a +34 on the night.

At halftime, Gonzalez told NBC Sports Boston’s Abby Chin that “everybody is ready. Everybody is meeting the challenge of the game.” That certainly applied to the second-year Spaniard who led his rookie class in plus-minus for the year.

Gonzalez was doing everything that has made him a fan favorite in his short time with the Celtics. Whether it’s grabbing offensive rebounds for an easy putback or driving the entire length of the floor for an and-1 layup, Hugo definitely made a case to Mazzulla for more minutes.

Must C’s

In a game muddled by 28 fouls apiece and 60 total free throws, there was little flow to the game, especially for two teams looking to ramp up activity on both sides of the ball.

But how’s that for a little flow? The Celtics outscored the Bulls 17-9 in fast break points that included that Derek White strip steal and coast-to-coast drive for a layup on the other end. Boston is a hair behind the Lakers for points off turnovers (26.3) and 4th at limiting them (15.3) — that’s an 11-point margin. Last season, it was only +1.2.

Who said what

“I don’t like it. He knows I don’t like it, but he’s got a little swagger with that. I also tried it the other day and it didn’t fit…that’s not for me. I’m not from Nebraska.” — Hugo Gonzalez on Baylor Scheierman’s headband

We’ll see Chicago again on Friday when the Bulls return for our first NBA Cup game. Tonight, the Celtics complete their first back-to-back hosting the visiting Brooklyn Nets at 7:30 pm EST. No word yet if it’s a headband night.

Like most Duke fans, we’re guessing, we’ve been excited to see how Cameron Boozer’s rookie season turns out.

Well, so far, so good.

Memphis is currently 4-0, which is even more impressive when you consider they’ve had to replace Ja Morant, and that Zach Edey is still on restricted minutes due to his ankle issue.

Somewhat surprisingly, Ty Jerome has emerged as an offensive force. In his first four games, he’s scored 45, 28, 31, and 15 points Monday night against the Utah Jazz.

This from a guy starting his eighth season and whose career scoring average is 9.7 points. Kind of wild.

But Boozer is a big part of the Grizzlies’ success. He’s being lauded by a lot of players as being advanced beyond his years, including Jerome. It’s probably not a coincidence that Jerome’s playing at an insane level. A journeyman guard, Jerome was leading the league in scoring at 34.7 points per game going into Monday night (his average is down to 29.8 now).

Boozer probably is making a lot of that possible since he’s drawing a lot of attention from defenses.

Against Utah, he finished with 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists. Most importantly, he finished with a win.

Again.

Among those who are impressed with Boozer is Golden State’s Draymond Green, who said this:

“So very impressed with Cam Boozer to start the season, but also just to go up against him for the first time, very strong, you know, doesn’t back down from a challenge. He talks out there on the floor. Like, I was very, very, very impressed with Cam Boozer. And so it’ll be interesting to see, you know, watch his progress as the season goes on to see how his career starts to play out, but I’m very impressed with Cam Boozer. Just, like I said, the thing that stood out most is he moves extremely well. He can handle the ball like he... that piece was shocking to me.”

“I thought he’d be a 20-10 guy anyway. I didn’t think it’d be like this though, like this type of 20-10, where it’s threes, it’s off the bounce, it’s off the post, offensive boards. Like I didn’t know it’d be all that. And so, yeah, very impressed with young Cam Boozer.”

• ‘That Piece Was Shocking to Me’: Draymond Green Did Not Have Answers for 19-Year-Old Rookie Who Gave Warriors an Embarrassing Loss
• ‘I had no clue’… Draymond Green shocked by how good Cam Boozer is after playing the Memphis Grizzlies
• Grizzlies’ Cameron Boozer is doing things as a rookie that haven’t been seen since Shaq, Elgin Baylor

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