Category: NBA

The Boston Celtics traveled to Milwaukee to take on the Bucks in their second meeting of the season. The first quarter was close, but Boston outplayed the Bucks through the final 3 quarters to comfortably win the game, 117-97. Paul George led Boston with 27 points on the night, Jayson Tatum had 21 points as the Boston Celtics move to 8 wins on the season.
Mike Conley started his 1,143rd game in the NBA alongside Derrick White in the backcourt, with Jayson Tatum, Paul George, and Neemias Queta in the frontcourt. Milwaukee started Tyler Hierro, rookie Brandon Burries, Kyle Kuzma, Jaime Jacquez Jr., and Myles Turner in their fifth home game at Fiserv Forum.

Milwaukee came out of gates rolling; they went 8 of 11 from the field to start the game. Boston was ice cold at the other end, going just 2 of 10. Kyle Kuzma outscored Boston by himself with 14 points in just 5 minutes of play shooting the lights out with 4 triples to start the game. Boston was down early, 6-17, before Joe Mazzulla eventually called a timeout.

Kuzma eventually cooled off, bricking a pair of threes as Boston had seemingly weathered the early storm. Jayson Tatum had 9 points to start the game, with 3 triples of his in the first seven minutes. Jordan Walsh, Payton Pritchard, Mitchell Robinson, and Sam Hauser checked into the game with Jayson Tatum, the only starter for either team to play the first 12 minutes.

Boston cut the Bucks lead to just 7 points at the 2-minute mark, the C’s making inroads on the scoreboard as Kuzma and Hierro went to the bench in the first quarter.

Boston kept getting stops to end the quarter and eventually cut the Bucks lead to just 2 points, 25-27. A stunning comeback considering the early hole they dug themselves to start the game. Tatum led the way for Boston with 16 points in 12 minutes of play. Boston only had four scorers after the first quarter; Paul George and Mitchell Robinson had 4 points each, and Queta made 1 of 2 free throws.

Luka Garza and Baylor Scheierman got into the game to start the second quarter and raised the defensive intensity for Boston with a pair of hustle plays. Paul George drained a fadeaway three-pointer to give Boston their first lead of the game, 28-27. PG scored all 8 points to start the second quarter before Bucks’ head coach, Taylor Jenkins, called a timeout.

Baylor Scheierman had a two-hand dunk in front of the visitor’s bench, which had the Celtics’ players up off their seats. Derrick White had 5 quick points for Boston as the C’s went on a 17-7 run to start of the second quarter. Jayson Tatum had a long 7-minute spell on the bench and returned to the game with Boston up by 10 points, 44-34, with 4 and a half minutes to go in the half.

The second quarter was all Paul George for Boston; he poured in 16 points in the 2nd quarter, heading to the bench after a solid 10 minutes of play. Boston were in complete control at halftime with a 13-point lead, 58-45.

Boston opened up the third quarter where they left off, they hit seven straight points in the first 2 minutes of play. Queta hit a tip layup, followed that up with a fadeaway jumper, Boston up by 20 points, 65-45. The Boston lead swelled to 23 points at one point before Kyle Kuzma and Ryan Rollins had back-to-back 3-pointers for Milwaukee to cut it back to 16.

Mitchell Robinson provided some great minutes to close out the third for Boston, he had a tip in basket and a lob dunk for his 12th point of the night, Boston in cruise control to close out the third quarter.

Payton Pritchard went supernova to start the 4th quarter, he hit 3 triples in a row for Boston as they were looking to close it out on the road before a big game in Philly on Tuesday night. Boston connected on 6 three-pointers midway through the fourth quarter, they had a 109-86 lead with 5 minutes left in the game.

The final minutes saw the stay ready crew take the floor for Boston, with Baylor Scheierman, Hugo Gonzalez, Luka Garza, Jordan Walsh and Ron Harper Jr. The game was never in doubt after halftime for Boston, a clinical win on the road to a struggling team.

Boston next travel to Philly to take on Jaylen Brown, LeBron James and the 76ers, at 8pm EST.

This time, the Net took a far more direct route to a loss.

Continuing their first legitimate road trip of the season, Brooklyn sure looked like weary travelers tonight in Dallas. They also played this one as the second half of a back-to-back, and that likely didn’t help either.

In that prior game, the Nets let a contest they had complete command over slip away in its final moments. Rookie Mikel Brown Jr. kept his team in the driver’s seat for as long as he could, dropping 13 points in the fourth quarter.

Held out for back injury management, the Nets were without him tonight, and any sense of control over whatsoever. It was in a lot of ways the worst loss of the season and that’s saying something. Br00klyn is now 2-8.

Danny Wolf got the start once again for Egor Dëmin, who’s also still out with a bone bruise in his right leg. But even with a seven-footer technically in their backcourt, Dallas looked like the bigger team early on. In the game’s first few minutes, the Nets missed an abundance of attempts around the rim and even saw three of their shots get rejected. The Mavs nearly doubled Brooklyn up on the glass as well, out-rebounding them in the first 13-7. However, they did triple them in paint scoring, adding 18 points inside to Brooklyn’s six.

Those statistical discrepancies would only swell as the game went on. By the end of it, the Nets were out-rebounded 46-30 and lost in the paint 64-40. The score was ugly too, but I’ll save that score for later.

Keon Ellis also returned to the rotation in the first after not logging any minutes yesterday vs Atlanta. Still expected to be a spark plug kind of player for the Nets this year, Ellis’ reappearance didn’t give the Nets much juice, but nobody else outside of Michael Porter Jr. could either.

Brooklyn began the game 4-of-14 from the field. Kyrie Irving alone had the same amount of field goals as them through the 3:21 mark of the first, adding nine points on 4-of-7 shooting in the opening period. But after Porter Jr. got free in transition for a few triples, everything else started to fall for him. He scored 11 points in the period’s final 2:51 and 15 in the quarter, just beating out Cooper Flagg, who had 14. That kept us out of blowout territory, with the Nets down 33-26 entering the second.

No, that’s what the second quarter was for. The Mavericks started it with an extended 21-6 run in the period’s first five minutes, quickly hurling the Nets into a 22-point hole. After a turnaround jumper from Kyrie with 4:06 to go in the quarter, it got as deep as 26 points.

“We were not connected, and we made a lot of mistakes,” Fernández said. “And then a team like this, when they’re in a rhythm with the players that they have, it’s when you can get hurt. And I think they made some tough ones, and we also allowed some.”

Were than any positives? Nolan Traoré continued to look like a confident, true point guard, navigating around the Dallas defense, directing traffic, and picking the right shooting spots. Turnovers, which were a major problem in the fumbled game vs the Hawks, also weren’t as abundant. The Nets even won that battle in the first half, forcing Dallas into 12 and only committing eight themselves.

Still, Brooklyn posted .385/.287 splits going into the break, while the Mavericks shot .619/.400, and no silver linings or improvements around the margins could cover that up. The Mavs led at half 66-46. By that point, Flagg had 20 points, seven assists, and four rebounds on just 10 shots. Brooklyn’s only man in double figures was Porter Jr., who had 16 points with seven boards on 3-of-7 downtown shooting.

If you expected the Nets to take that first-half embarrassment personally and respond accordingly, you were mistaken. By the 4:20 mark of the third, Dallas had gotten up by 30.

Things got borderline humiliating when Noah Clowney fouled out of the game with 2:23 to go in the third after shoving Morez Johnson Jr. in the chest away from the ball. They got into it earlier in the quarter too, where officials tagged Johnson Jr. with a technical foul after he knocked down Clowney on a box out. This time, however, Clowney took the guilty charge. He picked up the six fouls to disqualify himself in just eight minutes or burn.

“That’s something that he’s got to figure out,” Fernández said. “He put us on the bonus right away and in one minute, and that’s tough. And I think that it comes from a good place because I know he’s extremely competitive guy. But then doing the war on your own, it’s just tough at times.

“You got to choose the right way to do it, and channel all that energy and sometimes frustration the right way. I think the one person that you know is helping him and will help him is Juwan [Howard] because he’s been there. I know that the intentions are great. It’s just, keep doing what’s best for the group. A nd we need Noah Clowney. L ike that first half against Charlotte, we don’t win that game without him, so we need the best version of himself because we know how good he is.”

PJ Washington waves as Noah Clowney fouled out of tonight’s contest with the 4th quarter still remaining. pic.twitter.com/OoLPvAbYEK

— Abby Jones (@_abigaiiiil) November 9, 2026

And, at the same time, the Mavericks kept inflating the lead, just having fun out there. With two seconds left to go in the third period, Naji Marshal connected with Kyrie with a beautiful cross-court dime to set him up and-one…

THE DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY?! 🤯 https://t.co/f5gFx33fc7pic.twitter.com/d0P3DzTS77

— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) November 9, 2026

Dallas also opened the fourth with a Cooper Flagg three after Wolf went under a screen for him, which extended their lead to a game-high 32 points. Flagg might’ve had a career night had the Nets been more competitive and gave Dusty May any reason to keep him in, but the star sophomore didn’t play past the 8:28 mark of the fourth. He still finished with 25 points, five rebounds, and a career-high 12 assists while shooting 8-of-13 from the field and 3-of-5 from deep. Irving finished with 21 points, four assists, and three rebounds while shooting 9-15 from the field and 2-7 from three.

Around that point, Drake Powell and Josh Minott came in, giving us something fresh to watch, even if necessarily not fun.

Minott did hit two “Chris-Paul-hits-a-huge-three-to cut-the-lead-to-down…” shots on back-to-back possessions on near the quarter’s midpoint. Leveraging the defense’s newfound awareness of his shooting, he attacked a closeout and got up for a jam a few minutes later as well. He finished the game with 10 points, two steals, and two rebounds while shooting 4-of-10 from the field and 2-of-8 from deep.

Powell got through the defense for a rushed, but made floater that came back down and in after bouncing high off the back iron, but produced little outside of that.

With Brooklyn still down 25+, Dallas gave Jett Howard, son of Nets assistant coach Juwan Howard, some run as well. In front of his pops, he added five points and grabbed a rebound in three minutes of play.

That was cool. Everything else that happened on the court tonight was not. The Nets ended up losing by a whopping 37 points, where nobody on the team put up more than 20 points. Porter Jr. got up to 19 with nine rebounds while shooting 9-of-19 from the field and 4-of-11 from three. Randle contributed 13 points, four assists and four rebounds while shooting 5-of-10 from the field. He also had three turnovers and was a -33. Traoré got to 14 points and two dimes, shooting 6-15 from the field and 2-of-6 from deep.

Final: Dallas Mavericks 130, Brooklyn Nets 93

Next Up

Brooklyn’s road trip continues with a Wednesday evening game in New Orleans vs the Pelicans. The Pels are 4-5 at the time of writing. The Nets split their series against them last year. This one tips off at 8:00 p.m. EST.

• Boxscore: Dallas Mavericks 130, Brooklyn Nets 93 – NBA.com
• Game Highlights: Dallas Mavericks 130, Brooklyn Nets 93 (Video) – NBA.com
• Jordi Fernández Postgame Press Conference vs. Dallas Mavericks (Video) – YES Network
• Julius Randle on takeaways from road loss in Dallas (Video) – YES Network
• Moe Wagner on loss to Mavericks (Video) – YES Network
• Cooper Flagg has 25 points, career-best 12 assists as Mavericks beat Nets 130-93 – AP
• Nets routed by Mavericks in sluggish performance – Brian Lewis – New York Post
• Cooper Flagg dismantles Nets as Mavericks hand Brooklyn embarrassing 37-point loss ($) – C.J. Holmes – New York Daily News

The Dallas Mavericks (6-4) made quick work of the hapless Brooklyn Nets (2-8) on Sunday at American Airlines Center, scoring a 130-93 win behind 25 points and 12 assists from Cooper Flagg. Kyrie Irving added 21, and Daniel Gafford had 18 points and three blocked shots in the win as well.

Michael Porter Jr. led the Nets with 19 points and nine rebounds in the loss. The 37-point margin of victory against Brooklyn was the largest for the Mavs since Oct. 22, 2022, when they beat the Memphis Grizzlies 137-96.

Flagg scored eight quick points in the game’s first five minutes, and when he went to the bench midway through the opening quarter, Irving took over from there. Flagg’s finger roll in secondary transition just 4:16 into the proceedings put Dallas ahead 13-5, then Irving scored on back-to-back possessions, including a finger roll of his own in traffic with 5:13 left that put the Mavs up 17-11.

Walter Clayton Jr.’s hit Dallas’ second 3-pointer of the game two possessions later, on an assist from Morez Johnson Jr., to make it 22-12 and force Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez into a timeout. Irving knocked down a little teardrop after a whirling dervish drive to the bucket to give him nine points in the quarter and extend the Mavericks’ lead to 26-13 with just over three minutes left in the frame. After Michael Porter Jr. hit two straight contested 3-balls to bring Brooklyn back to within six, Flagg converted a beautiful spinning 3-point play with two minutes left in the first, and Dallas was back up 30-21.

Despite another driving dunk being called off for an offensive foul on the play, Flagg finished with 14 points in the first, and Dallas led 33-26 after one.

Dallas opened up a huge lead in the second quarter as Flagg’s run of brilliance continued. You had to wonder when Mavericks head coach Dusty May would look to start resting Flagg and other key contributors as the lead swelled to 19 just four minutes into the second. The Mavs were on the front end of a back-to-back set with a game against the Indiana Pacers looming on Monday.

Flagg found Naji Marshall alone in the corner for his fourth assist of the first half to make it a 22-point lead on a baseline 3-pointer with seven minutes left before the break. All of a sudden, the Mavs were on a 15-2 lead and the Nets hadn’t scored in over three minutes. The Mavericks led 66-46 at the break.

Naji to Kyrie!! SPECTACULAR!!! pic.twitter.com/lQaFPVhoTr

— MavsHighlights (@MavsHighlights) November 9, 2026

Despite a somewhat sloppy third quarter, the Mavs outscored the Nets 34-25 in the period to cement the blowout as Brooklyn began to fold. Marshall found Irving with a pinpoint lead pass in transition with two seconds left in the third for a three-point play up ahead that made it 100-71 going into the fourth.

Dallas coasted home for the 130-93 win, resting Flagg, Irving and Gafford for most of the fourth. Santi Aldama showed progress in his second game of the season, too, finishing with 12 points off the bench.

With a vengeance

Flagg announced his presence with authority in that first quarter, nailing his first 3-pointer of the contest on the Mavs’ last possession of the frame, then using one dribble to get into the lane and rising up for a vicious slam over Noah Clowney on Dallas’ first possession of the second. Danny Wolf drew the initial defensive assignment on Flagg for Brooklyn, and the young man simply had no hope of containing the combustible force that Flagg is morphing into before our very eyes.

After assisting on two straight Daniel Gafford three-point plays early in the second, Flagg got the ball along the perimeter late in the shot clock with Wolf sagging off one step too many to avoid another blow-by. Flagg stepped back for his second 3-ball as the shot clock expired to put the Mavericks up 47-32 with 9:22 left in the first half. Flagg had already collected 20 points to that point on 7-of-8 shooting.

After exploding for 14 points in the first, Flagg added six more in the second quarter, but dished seven dimes in the frame as he sucked the helpless Brooklyn defense into his gravitational vortex and adjusted to what the game presented him. He doled out five more dimes in the third, before nailing his third 3-ball of the game early in the fourth to extend the Mavs’ lead to 103-71.

Cooper's PB&J is BACK!! pic.twitter.com/w8Dap996ii

— MavsHighlights (@MavsHighlights) November 9, 2026

Flagg made three of his five 3-point attempts on the night before going to the bench for some rest with 8:20 left to play.

Overcoming turnovers

Despite the domination on the scoreboard, the Mavericks turned the ball over 12 times in the first half, including two rare palming violations. Flagg was called for palming late in the first quarter, and Santi Aldama, in just his second game with the team, was called for another along the perimeter while trying to fight through a screen late in the second.

Aldama scored his first bucket of the game a possession after being called for his palming violation, on a fading jumper over Wolf with 1:30 left in the half, to extend Dallas’ lead to 23, up 63-40. Flagg found Aldama open along the right wing for a 3-pointer with about a minute left in the second to make it 66-44.

The Mavs dominated the Nets in the paint (64-40) and off the bench (58-31) in the win to overcome a little bit of uncharacteristic carelessness on offense. Dallas finished with 20 turnovers in the win.

Gafford game

beautiful passing and Gaff dunk! pic.twitter.com/gL05Af5bzu

— MavsHighlights (@MavsHighlights) November 9, 2026

Despite getting out to an awkward start on offense in the first quarter, Gafford turned in another quality performance on the interior for the Mavericks in the win. He was consistently on the receiving end of open looks as the Brooklyn defense sent multiple defenders at Flagg and Irving. He scored 11 points in the first seven minutes of the third quarter as Flagg kept feeding open teammates. And that was on top of the three blocked shots and the three offensive rebounds Gafford accounted for through the game’s first three quarters.

Of Flagg’s 12 assists in the second and third quarters, five of them went to Gafford in close to the basket. Gafford cashed in seven of his eight field goal attempts on an incredibly efficient night despite three early fouls. He cut toward an empty lane with 5:17 left in the third and Flagg found him for his 12th assist of the contest to extend the Dallas lead to 90-62.

“[Flagg is] a phenomenal player,” Gafford said in his televised postgame interview. “Everybody is paying attention to him, and that leaves me with open shots. He keeps saying he’s going to get me the ball, and that’s what he’s doing.”

Gafford, Flagg and Irving combined to shoot 24-of-36 from the floor in the win.

The Thunder and the Kings completed an early-season trade that surprised most observers. Oklahoma City acquired second-year player Nique Clifford from Sacramento in exchange for two second-round picks, as first reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania.

The trade is strange from the Kings’ side, and we’ll get to it. As far as the Spurs are concerned, however, the biggest impact comes from the Thunder once again getting cost-controlled, young talent for middling draft assets to bolster their depth in the present and the near future. Let’s start there.

Clifford won’t likely make a big difference this year, but the trade puts OKC in a better overall position

First things first: Clifford is not Jared McCain. All they have in common is that they were both second-year players whose previous teams gave up on them, and they were both traded to Oklahoma City for two second-rounders. The main difference between the two is that McCain was so impressive to start his first season in Philadelphia that he was the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year for a while, before getting hurt. Clifford, who entered the league at 23 years of age, had an acceptable but unimpressive first season for a horrible Kings team. The McCain trade was a bigger deal than this one at the time, and McCain’s impact will likely be bigger than Clifford’s in the future.

With that out of the way, it’s still a good move for Oklahoma City, as they needed depth at the wing after losing Jalen Williams and likely Cason Wallace for the rest of the season. Clifford is 6’5 with a 6’8 wingspan, a jack-of-all-trades player who can fill in the gaps in lineups. He’s someone who, in theory, can contribute in many different ways, which is always helpful for good teams that already have elite scorers and creators in place and can use guys who won’t demand too many touches. There’s a really good chance he thrives as a secondary or tertiary creator in Oklahoma City while providing solid defense. Considering what it took to get him, he’s not a bad stopgap.

The real impact this trade could have, however, is on the future affordability of an increasingly expensive Thunder roster. Clifford is almost certainly not good enough to give OKC even half of the production of either of their starting wings who are out with injury, but he could be a solid depth piece going forward. He’s in the second year of a very cheap rookie deal, so Sam Presti could get almost three years of production out of him on a cost-controlled contract, which means that when everyone returns, the Thunder could have both top talent and depth, which is becoming increasingly hard to do in the apron era.

By essentially re-drafting guys using second-round picks, OKC is building a pipeline of young talent to replace their own misses in talent evaluation and veterans who become too expensive.

That’s bad news for every Western Conference team, including the Spurs.

The new lottery rules might be behind the Kings’ decision to make the trade

Both analysts and people on social media are mocking the Kings for trading a first-rounder to OKC to select Clifford in the 2025 draft only to, just after a season and change, trade him to the Thunder for two seconds. It’s a funny sequence of events from a poorly run franchise, so the jokes are understandable, but, in reality, it isn’t as bad as it might seem at first glance.

First, the first-round pick the Kings traded to get Clifford was the Spurs’ 2027 pick that they got in the De’Aaron Fox trade. The pick will likely be in the late 20s. Moving that asset for a pick of similar value (Clifford was selected 24th overall) was not necessarily a terrible idea by the Kings at the time, since they clearly liked Nique then. And cutting your losses if you think you made a mistake drafting someone is better than falling for the sunk-cost fallacy and holding on even after you’ve concluded the player just isn’t good. Sacramento actually had to send out a second-round pick to shed former lottery pick Devin Carter Jr.’s salary, so they were probably trying to avoid doing the same with Clifford, who was out of the rotation.

But there might be an explanation for the trade that doesn’t involve Sacramento thinking Clifford is a bust: the new lottery rules put the Kings in a bad position, and the move was a way to salvage something.

Starting next draft, the teams with the bottom three records will be in the relegation zone and will actually get worse odds of getting the top pick than a non-playoff team with a better record. The entire point of the change was to make sure coaches didn’t just sit their veterans with fake injuries to tank as hard as they could while trotting out lineups featuring players who didn’t belong in the NBA. It’s entirely possible that the Kings felt like they needed to put guys on the floor who could lift them to at least the fourth-worst record, and thought Clifford was not one of them. Not yet, at least. At that point, trading him before he loses all value after being buried on the bench makes sense.

The Kings’ reputation is so bad that explaining the move this way might seem too charitable, especially since even while playing their veterans, they are 1-8 and are a likely bottom-three team. Whether this specific move by this specific franchise is smart remains to be seen, but it wouldn’t be shocking to see more mediocre-to-bad teams with young players that need developmental minutes that just aren’t there moving on quickly while trying to get some value back.

If that’s the case, contenders should be on the lookout for re-drafting opportunities, and Brian Wright should be ready to pounce if someone he likes becomes available.

Who needs Luka Doncic when you have the US equivalent from Newark, Arkansas, Austin Reaves? The Los Angeles Lakers guard scored a game-high 43 as his MVP-level teammate rested with a back injury, propelling LA past the Detroit Pistons 121-116.

Honestly, the game had no reason to be as close as it was in the end. The Lakers led 40-14 one basket into the second quarter courtesy of insane shotmaking (hitting 72% from the floor) and an insane amount of Pistons miscues, including having more turnovers (eight) than made baskets (six).

But the Pistons, being the Pistons, weren’t about to give up. While Detroit pulled within one point early in the fourth quarter, the Lakers led wire to wire. So while it was only marginally competitive from Detroit’s point of view, it was certainly an instructive game. Here are some of the things I learned:

1. Kevin Huerter

Kevin Huerter is going to be a critical component of the Pistons’ rotation this season. In a game where Detroit’s entire backcourt didn’t really show up to play (both Cade Cunningham and Duncan Robinson were largely no-shows until some fourth-quarter scoring), Huerter was by far the biggest bright spot for the Pistons.

It also happened to be his best game in a Detroit uniform. Huerter hit four three-pointers, scored 24 points overall, and added five rebounds, five assists, five blocks(?!) and two steals. Ever since the Pistons traded for him at the deadline last season, it was clear Huerter makes winning plays, and you were hoping he’d be able to combine that with rediscovering his 3-point shooting stroke from earlier in his career. The early returns indicate the shot might be back, as well as everything that goes with it. After tonight, he’s hitting 40% from deep this season.

2. John Collins and Paul Reed

Detroit’s starting front court simply does not work, and it will never work. For as long as Jalen Duren remains sidelined or off the floor this season, this is going to be a significant issue for the Pistons. Duren is ramping back up from a hamstring injury and will be out two more weeks. Detroit has been, and will continue to be able to weather that storm. But it ain’t pretty, and any additional time off from Duren will have me significantly worried.

Most will want to pin the blame on the newcomer John Collins, and he has certainly played worse than Reed, but I think it’s the combination that brings out the worst in both players. Each is the kind of big man that relies on the gravity from teammates that allows them to use their athleticism to create the chaos that makes them effective. With both of them on the floor, it’s two bouncy balls pinging around the floor with no semblance of a plan on how to actually get the ball to the rim. The defense is also bad, and the rebounding is even worse. It’s an ugly situation, and it was exacerbated tonight by both men getting out-physicaled by the behemoth seven-footer Walker Kessler. Kessler, the Lakers’ big offseason addition, had 12 points and 16 rebounds, including seven on the offensive end. The Lakers also dominated the Pistons in the paint, 58-46.

Again, the lion’s share of the blame goes to Collins. He’s been quite bad all season, and it’s getting less clear by the day how he’s going to turn it around and be a positive force for the Pistons. I don’t think he’s ever met a 50-50 ball he couldn’t surrender to the opposition. But the pathway to him playing well lies with sharing the floor with Duren. Get well soon, JD.

3. Austin Reaves

The Pistons were correct in trying to give Austin Reaves the bag this offseason. Detroit reportedly was ready to give the wing a max contract this offseason as the second scorer and potential missing piece in a Detroit Pistons title run. Once the Lakers believed the pending RFA had a max offer on the table, they quickly moved to get an agreement to sign him on the eve of free agency so he’d never hit the market.

Reaves was insane tonight. The degree of difficulty on his shots begged belief. He was able to create space, get balanced, and score at all three levels. It was a sight to behold, and he was by far the best player on the floor for either team tonight.

4. Daniss Jenkins

Daniss has that dog in him, especially under two scenarios: 1. There is an impending buzzer. 2. He feels like his team is getting punked. Jenkins was truly the other hero of the game behind Huerter. He hit yet another buzzer-beater tonight, and he scored a career-high 31 points. When the Pistons were down huge, Jenkins got that look in his eye, as if to say, “This is not going to happen.”

From there, Jenkins started firing away from deep, and he was hitting. In the end, he canned eight three-pointers. He was also the ONLY Pistons player to go to the free-throw line more than once in the game. Really, Jenkins is like a better version of Marcus Sasser. He’s got scoring in his blood, and he’s more of an off-guard than a point guard, despite being stuck in a point guard’s body. He’s got three inches on Sasser and better floor vision, so he’s better overall and can cosplay as a point guard better than Sass, but Jenkins works best in this Pistons lineup when he’s not running the offense.

4. The refs.

The referees love the Lakers. Nothing else needs to be said.

DETROIT — The Lakers’ minutes without Luka Dončić on the floor have been a problem they’ve yet to figure out during the first three weeks of the season.

But with the superstar guard sidelined for Sunday’s road game against the Pistons, that’s all the Lakers had available for them to kick off their road trip.

And while it got shaky at the end, the Lakers found enough answers against the league’s best defense to leave Little Caesars Arena with a victory, beating the Pistons 121-116 to improve to 9-2 on the season.

The beginning of those answers started with star guard Austin Reaves, who had his best game of the season with his backcourt co-star watching from the bench. 

Reaves scored 43 points on 14-for-27 shooting for his highest-scoring and first 40-point showing of the season.

After having a brief midgame confrontation with a courtside fan, he scored 13 points in the third quarter to keep the Lakers afloat while the Pistons came back from being down 26 points in the second quarter and 13 points at halftime. 

The Lakers got out to a 38-14 lead after forcing the Pistons to turn the ball over eight times, scoring 17 points directly off those giveaways. 

Quentin Grimes, who started in place of Dončić, also got off to an explosive start, scoring 10 points of his scoring total (12 points) in the first. 

The Pistons took advantage of Reaves being on the bench, going on a 7-0 run when the Lakers star guard subbed out with 2:30 left in the third to cut their deficit to 84-81 before Collin Sexton (17 points) made a lauyup and a pair of free throws to give the Lakers an 88-81 lead going into the fourth.

The Lakers didn’t let go from there, pulling off the wire-to-wire win despite the Pistons cutting their deficit to one midway through the fourth. 

Reaves, Sexton, Walker Kessler (12 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocked shots) and Ziaire Williams (17 points) all made big plays late to help the Lakers secure the win.

The Lakers will play the Hawks in Atlanta Monday night to close out their back-to-back set.

The Lakers’ star guard banked in a fadeaway three-pointer. He nailed a clutch step-back with 44.5 seconds left. He trash-talked with fans.

Luka Doncic?

No, Austin Reaves.

Reaves embodied Doncic in almost every way Sunday, leading the Lakers to a 121-116 win over the Detroit Pistons as Doncic sat out with low back tightness. The Lakers replaced the guard averaging a league-high 40.1 points with Reaves’ season-high 43 points, four assists and five rebounds.

The Lakers (9-2) needed every bit of Reaves’ magic. Their 26-point second-quarter lead nearly evaporated under an avalanche of second-half turnovers and 53 combined points from Detroit bench guards Daniss Jenkins and Kevin Huerter.

Fresh off a max contract extension, Reaves has had a quiet, yet ruthlessly efficient start to the year in Doncic’s shadow. Doncic is getting most valuable player chants each time he steps to the free throw line. Reaves, averaging 25.3 points per game on 50.8% shooting from the field and 41.3% from three, has at times looked clumsy while getting comfortable with new teammates in the minutes without Doncic.

Read more:Luka Doncic's historic run jump-starts early MVP conversation

He looked comfortable in the starring role again Sunday. Reaves hit a seemingly impossible baseline fadeaway in the first quarter, flinging the ball almost over the backboard. When two fans sitting opposite the Lakers bench started chirping at Reaves, he bent down, put his hands on his knees during a stoppage of play and talked directly at them for several seconds.

Doncic, dressed in black pants and a gray jacket, took it all in from the sideline.

“Sometimes when they’re playing together, AR kind of has to take a secondary role,” said center Walker Kessler, who had 12 points and 16 rebounds, including a clutch put-back, three-point play that put the Lakers up by eight with 2:15 remaining. “But I mean, as you can see now, he’s very capable. He’s a heck of a playmaker, heck of a scorer and a competitor.”

On the front side of a back-to-back, Doncic missed his second game of the season with low back tightness, although Lakers coach JJ Redick said he didn’t anticipate it to affect Doncic significantly throughout the season.

The Slovenian superstar is averaging a league-high 40.1 points per game, but Doncic was doing more than just scoring at rates not seen since Wilt Chamberlain. His estimated on/off of 37.7 — the difference between the Lakers’ net rating when he was on the court compared to off — was the second-highest in the league, following only Victor Wembanyama’s 41.5. In addition to having the highest scoring average through nine games since Chamberlain, Doncic is the team’s second-leading rebounder at 7.8 per game and is second with 1.7 steals.

But the Lakers already showed they could compete without Doncic this season. They dominated the Clippers on Oct. 28 when he was sidelined, also with back tightness.

Just as they did against the Clippers, the Lakers needed contributions from everyone. Ziaire Williams hit four three-pointers and finished with 17 points. Collin Sexton, serving as the Lakers’ second ball-handler, had 17 points on five-of-10 shooting.

Jarred Vanderbilt’s energetic six rebounds, two assists and one block in less than six minutes during the first quarter helped lift the Lakers to a 26-point lead early in the second.

The Pistons, playing without All-NBA center Jalen Duren (hamstring), didn’t get their first points from star point guard Cade Cunningham until early in the third quarter. Instead, Jenkins nearly mounted the comeback on his own.

Jenkins, a familiar Lakers foe who scored 30 points in Detroit’s win over the Lakers here last year, scored 22 points of his career-high 31 in the first half, cutting the Lakers’ 26-point lead to 13 by halftime. He drained a three-pointer at the buzzer that injected life into the antsy home crowd. The Lakers, who have benefited from two halftime buzzer-beating heaves from Doncic this season, know what it’s like to be on the other side of that momentum swing.

Read more:Swanson: Luka Doncic can lead Lakers to a title, but only if his teammates pull their weight

Pistons fans banging inflatable thunder sticks erupted in the third quarter as Detroit ripped off an 11-0 run to close the lead to three with 1:03 remaining in the quarter. The Lakers, playing with Sexton as their primary ball-handler during the stretch, had four turnovers during the drought, including a shot clock violation after a timeout.

Reaves rested from the sideline during the slide, but Redick stayed committed to the pre-determined rotation matrix to ensure star players get their necessary breaks.

“If you start just overreacting in-game and saying ‘I gotta get this guy back in, I gotta get this guy back in,’ it’s just chaos,” Redick said. “And we’re trying to create consistency for our players.”

Redick called Reaves “Mr. Consistency” earlier this season. He had 13 points in the third quarter, including five straight on difficult fadeway jumpers that pushed the lead to 17 with 6:41 to go in the third. After his step-back three from the wing kissed off the glass and rattled through the rim, Reaves shrugged.

“It was 100% lucky,” Reaves said.

Reaves shot Doncic’s shots then talked Doncic’s talk. After hitting the dagger shot to put the Lakers up by eight with 44.5 seconds left, Reaves turned and waved goodbye directly to the two fans sitting courtside.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Spurs put together two of their finest wins during SEGABAGA road victories over Sacramento and Portland. When the NBA schedule came out, my sister and I reviewed which game that we’d want to go to, saw the airfare prices to and from Austin and San Antonio…. and concluded Sacramento made the most sense for both of us.

Some observations from an excellent night in the Golden Center:

Kings’ rookie guardDarius Acuff

The best comp that I could come up with was slightly slower and less athletic Allen Iverson with Jamal Murray’s shooting range on offense. However, he and the rest of his teammates seemed lost on most defensive possessions, which resulted in quite a few paint points for San Antonio.

(Lack of) Crowd Control

Not only were there wide swaths of the lower bowl that had empty seats, but there was entire rows in the second level that lacked humans, too. Though the Kings did themselves no favors by falling and staying behind by nearly 20 points most of the game, the ambience itself lacked the fervor of past seasons.

Things I saw in-person that I haven’t noticed on the good ole television:

• Luke Kornet seems 15-20 pounds heavier than last season.
• Domantas Sabonis tried a lot of his bull-in-a-china-shop physicality on Wembanyama in the paint – something that worked well in earlier seasons – but found it no longer works for him beyond occasionally.
• Dylan Harper (see highlights below) looked like the best guard out there.
• Wembanyama suffered his infamous face-plant during game 2 of the first-round series and turned his ankle rather gruesomely on Sabonis’ closeout tonight – so maybe I shouldn’t be going to these games in-person anymore.
• I’m sad I didn’t get video evidence of Jordan McLaughlin’s dunk attempt in the second half. It was impressive!
• Chik-Fil-A rewarded its fans with a free appetizer if a Spur missed two free throws in a row, and this might have been the biggest win tonight in Sacramento…. with the exception that fans had to claim their victory a) in the app and b) before 10 AM the next morning. I’ll take breakfast tacos anytime.
• What started as a bad omen but ultimately was a big nothing-burger: the Spurs’ rim was being repaired for over 20 minutes right after Wembanyama finished his pre-game prep, affecting the tip-off by roughly 15 minutes or so. Right before the repairs took place, I was impressed with Wembanyama’s (mostly) in-motion routine instead of just practicing stand-still jumpers:

Pregame wemby fullcourt pic.twitter.com/7ADKrE7TyZ

— Gary Q from San Jose (@pattythrills) November 9, 2026

Highlights:

The audacity AND accuracy of Stephon Castle’s re-direction here to Vassell in the first period will likely put this in the season-ending highglight rankings:

Q1 castle assist pic.twitter.com/QoKowQyVXB

— Gary Q from San Jose (@pattythrills) November 7, 2026

Speaking of Devin, this literally was a logo jumper late in the first quarter:

Q1 devin bailout pic.twitter.com/MzQqyXh86I

— Gary Q from San Jose (@pattythrills) November 7, 2026

There were shades of young Tony Parker on this and-1 by Harper.

Q1 Dylan and1 pic.twitter.com/lV993LwzBm

— Gary Q from San Jose (@pattythrills) November 7, 2026

About $90 million of salary failed to box out Wembanyama on this follow slam.

Q2 atrocious kings d pic.twitter.com/D3KNJEWZSl

— Gary Q from San Jose (@pattythrills) November 7, 2026

Castle – for my more mature audience – is like a latter generation Dominique Wilkins with these two-footed lob jams on anybody and everybody

Q3 vic to steph lob pic.twitter.com/z2XpSqdaY4

— Gary Q from San Jose (@pattythrills) November 7, 2026

These simple two-man motions with Victor and a guard and shooters on the other side are good enough to win a lot of regular season games while keeping both the big man and his teammates happy. Devin’s shotmaking ability late in the shotclock is exquisite.

Q4 Devin vic 2man pic.twitter.com/icsMWFHVzx

— Gary Q from San Jose (@pattythrills) November 7, 2026

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On a personal note, this was the first chance to watch the Spurs in-person with my sister and her two kids since my dad passed. During the last Spurs game here in Sacramento on March 17, my dad suffered his last major fall hurriedly trying to get into his TV room to watch the game. My Kings rep Gavin was kind enough to gift us post-game free throws, and Shirley credited my dad for willing her free throw into the net.

My attempt felt like a ham-fisted Shaq free throw coming out of my hands, but it also founds its way home:

I made my ft's tonight @poundingtherockpic.twitter.com/mcuS1dRfBO

— Gary Q from San Jose (@pattythrills) November 7, 2026

Closure.

The Lakers controlled most of Sunday afternoon’s game against the Pistons, including withstanding a furious rally in the second half to pick up a big road win, 121-116.

The purple and gold were without Luka Dončić for the contest as he was ruled out on Sunday morning with lower back tightness. Still, the team set the tone from the start and jumped out to a big lead in the first.

Detroit steadily chipped away at the lead before flying back into the contest in the fourth quarter with a big run with Austin Reaves on the bench. From there, it was a tight affair to the final buzzer.

LA finished with 16 turnovers but scored 23 points off Detroit’s 13 turnovers. They also outscored the Pistons 58-46 in the paint with many of those points from Detroit coming in garbage time.

LA got off to a solid start with Matisse Thybulle stealing the ball, leading to Austin Reaves converting a layup. Thybulle was also left wide open under the basket for an easy two points. Los Angeles continued their strong start, going on an 8-0 scoring run that featured two triples from Quentin Grimes. 

Grimes and Austin Reaves combined for 14 points. 

The Lakers built a 14-point lead. Detroit was shooting 26% from the field. LA scored 14 points off the Pistons’ seven turnovers. 

What a start. Lakers defense suffocating.

— Raj C. (@RajChipalu) November 8, 2026

An incredible quarter ended with Los Angeles getting help from each player who checked in. Sandro Mamukelashvili had five points and Ziaire Williams had eight off the bench. Grimes was in double figures with 10. 

Jarred Vanderbilt grabbed six rebounds and dished two dimes. The purple and gold were up by 24 at the end of the first.

Go ahead Q 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/kqX6XvhzSh

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) November 8, 2026

Detroit woke up offensively to start the second period. Daniss Jenkins and Kevin Huerter combined for nine points, slowly chipping away at LA’s lead. The Pistons had taken over the momentum, shooting 42% from the field, while the Lakers sh-ot 21%. 

Los Angeles’ 26-point lead dwindled to 12. 

Williams was a bright spot for LA. With Luka Dončić out, he and Grimes were stepping up with 11 points each. Los Angeles’ suffocating defense from the first quarter had evaporated as they continued to leave Jenkins open for triples.

It was a Jenkins takeover as he ended the quarter with 22 points and was 6-7 from behind the arc. The Lakers weathered the storm enough to lead by 12 at halftime. 

Can't double off of Jenkins in that guard to guard screen with Cade.

— Raj C. (@RajChipalu) November 9, 2026

Momentum reversed again with LA starting the third period, building on their lead once more on the shoulders of Reaves. Reaves scored 13 points, pushing his total to an insane 32.

Huerter tried to keep the Pistons in it with back-to-back buckets. Cade Cunningham also saw the ball go in the basket, scoring four points.

It was all Reaves, though. He helped put the Lakers up by 17 with 6:30 left in the quarter. Detroit responded with Jenkins and Duncan Robinson each draining triples. The Pistons were outscoring LA 25-23 in the quarter.

Austin Reaves is carrying the Lakers’ offense against the league’s best defense with some stellar shotmaking and mismatch-hunting. He’s up to a season-high 32 points on 12-for-19 shooting.

— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) November 9, 2026

Things took an absolute turn for the worse for the purple and gold as they fell apart and allowed Detroit to go on an 11-0 scoring run.

Collin Sexton restored some order for LA, scoring four in a row to put them up by seven at the end of the third. 

The final frame was all Pistons early as they tied the game on the shoulders of Jenkins, who continued to shoot ridiculous from behind the arc. He was 8-13 from three and had 28 points.

For Los Angeles, Sexton was feeling it, scoring four points, helping put the Lakers back up. It was a three-point game with 6:59 left.

Crunch time became a back-and-forth affair as the teams traded baskets. Detroit made it a one-point game, but Williams responded by draining a triple. Jake LaRavia further extended the lead with a pair of free throws.

Robinson then made it a three-point game with 3:16 left.

The Lakers answered the call with Reaves, Kessler and Williams taking over the scoring duties, combining for 10 points, including a massive three from Reaves in the final minute.

AUSTIN REAVES WITH A DAGGER THREE TO DETROIT pic.twitter.com/gxox4lrK4v

— Italo Santana (@BulletClubIta) November 9, 2026

Sexton had seemingly put the game away with free throws, but fouled Jenkins on the other end from behind the arc. Jenkins made all three free throws to make it a four-point game with 26 seconds left.

Sexton rectified the situation with two free throws. Detroit played the foul game and fouled Reaves, who then iced the win with a pair of free throws. 

Key Player Stats

Reaves finished with 41 points, five rebounds and four assists. Kessler ended with 12 points, 16 rebounds, four assists and three blocks.

Grimes pitched in with 12 points and four assists. Williams had a stellar showing off the bench with 17 points. Vanderbilt did the dirty work with 10 rebounds and three dimes. 

Mamu logged seven points. Sexton scored 17 points. 

The Lakers’ next game will be against the Atlanta Hawks on Monday at 4:00 PM PT.

You can follow Karin on Twitter at @KarinAbcarians.

DETROIT — With Luka Dončić sidelined, Austin Reaves was in the midst of having his best game of the season Sunday against the Pistons.

And he filled in for Dončić in more ways than one, exchanging words with a courtside fan amidst his explosive scoring performance. 

The Lakers star guard walked up to a male fan toward the end of the first half sitting on the baseline opposite of the Lakers’ bench, which was closest to the basket the Lakers opened the game shooting at.

Reaves bent over in the fan’s face and the two exchanged words during the stoppage of play while the Lakers were up 60-45 with just over eight seconds left in the second quarter.

It wasn’t clear why Reaves confronted the fan, or what was said during the exchange, before the game ended.

Austin Reaves confronts a courtside fan during the Lakers-Pistons game pic.twitter.com/oJdfFZSsgL

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) November 9, 2026

But clearly the fan said something the former Oklahoma product didn’t appreciate. 

The exchange may have lit fire under Reaves. 

Already having 19 points at halftime, he scored another 13 points in the third quarter to help the Lakers take a 88-81 lead going into the fourth.

His 32 points entering the final quarter was a season-high and his first 30-point game of the season.

The Washington Wizards face off against the Detroit Pistons tomorrow. Let’s get to it.

Game info

When: Monday, Nov. 9, 7 p.m. ET

Where: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit

How to watch: Monumental Sports Network

How to listen: The Team 980 AM, 106.7-2 FM

Injury Report

Wizards: Reece Beekman, Tristan Vukcevic, Justin Champagnie and Jamir Watkins are out. Anthony Davis is day-to-day.

Pistons: Jalen Duren is out. Isaiah Joe is day-to-day.

Pregame notes

The Wizards will play the Pistons for the second time in the 2026-27 season tomorrow. Okay, I’ll clarify. The Wizards will play the Pistons for their first regular season game tomorrow on the road, but it isn’t their first match if you include preseason games.

Washington defeated Detroit 114-108 on Oct. 10 at home though … preseason is preseason. Though the Wizards are starting out better than the last couple seasons, they are now on a three game losing streak and this is not the time for them to fall further behind.

The Pistons are 6-2 as of the time of this writing, and will have a winning record regardless of what happens with their game against the Los Angeles Lakers. At least Washington will have the benefit of not being on a back-to-back. Detroit will. We’ll see what happens.

MILWAUKEE — Mike Conley will get his first start of the season when the Celtics face the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday night. Conley, who has mostly been out of the rotation, played a season-high 11 minutes on Friday night against the Charlotte Hornets.

In his 20th NBA season, Conley is averaging career-lows across the board; he’s tallying just 3 points and 0.3 assists in 7 minutes per game across three appearances. But, on Sunday night, he’ll get a rare opportunity to see more extended minutes.

Conley, who has been a starter in the NBA for the majority of his career, told CelticsBlog before the season that he knew mentorship would be one of his important responsibilities while his on-court minutes vary.

“It’s part of the job at this stage of my career,” he said. “I understand it. I understand there’s going to be a lot of times where I don’t play. There’s going to be some times where I’m needed. There are other times where I’m just needed to be the voice for a big stretch of the season. Being comfortable with that, and being able to own that, is my role and my job.”

And, while Conley hasn’t played much so far, he has been a crucial voice in the locker room, particularly to Payton Pritchard, who has routinely asked him questions throughout the season.

“As somebody that’s looked up to Mike, [I ask him] how he thinks of the game and how he was able to create his shots and create shots for his teammates and maybe handle playing the point guard position, momentum swings,” Pritchard said. “He’s been in a lot of great environments, great playoff series. How was he able to kill in those moments and dominate the game?”

The Celtics’ starting lineup has changed quite a bit this season

The Celtics’ most popular starting lineup this season has been Derrick White, Jordan Walsh, Paul George, Jayson Tatum, and Neemias Queta. That group started Friday night in a 119-80 win over the Charlotte Hornets.

But Joe Mazzulla has tinkered with the starting lineup quite a bit; Hugo Gonzalez started 3 games in place of Walsh, while Sam Hauser and Baylor Scheierman have each gotten one start this season. Mitchell Robinson started the first five games of the season before Queta established himself as the team’s starting center.

The three guys who have mostly found themselves out of the regular rotation are Conley, Chris Cenac Jr., and Ron Harper Jr. Cenac Jr. is currently with the Maine Celtics, and Conley will get his first start of the season.

Bell Ringer Standings:
Tyrese Maxey – 3.5
VJ Edgecombe – 2
Jaylen Brown – 1.5
Joel Embiid – 1
LeBron James – 1
Anfernee Simons – 1

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The bad news is the Sixers’ defense looked like that of a veteran team closing a road trip with a Sunday afternoon game.

The good news is the offense was balanced and had bright spots in a 127-121 win over the Bulls in Chicago Sunday. The Sixers still hold the best record in the NBA at 9-2 and are 5-1 on the road to start the season.

The Bulls shot 52.3% from the field and were down one possession at multiple times late, but Jaylen Brown and the Sixers seemed to come away with big buckets and big stops when they desperately needed them.

Next up, the Sixers welcome Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics to town Tuesday night. No word if there will be any lamb chops and gravy served at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

Let’s get to Bell Ringer.

Tyrese Maxey: 27 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds

Nick Nurse mixed up the way he staggered his starters Sunday, opting to give Maxey an extended look with the second unit. There were nice moments, but some struggles as well. Playing Maxey more with Joel Embiid seemed to help both players. Embiid didn’t have his most efficient night, but he was much better than he was in Cleveland.

It felt like an easy 27 points for Maxey, who seemed to take nothing but threes and shots at the rim. He tried to send Josh Giddey into the shadow realm with a dunk, but was fouled. He hit a big triple down the stretch off a ridiculous LeBron pass.

And, of course, he was a blur in transition.

VJMAXX steal & score pic.twitter.com/Hj9VUJhcdA

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) November 8, 2026

Jaylen Brown: 29 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal

Brown was excellent throughout this game. The way he attacks downhill with physicality has to be such a welcome sight for Sixers fans. His ability to make tough fallaways in the paint is elite. The footwork on this play is an example of what the ability to make those short fadeaways opens up.

got it to fall. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/aqu0i7eHDt

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) November 8, 2026

This was another game where Brown simply made winning plays down the stretch. He made a couple big threes as the Sixers were leaking oil midway through the fourth. He also made four free throws and turned Giddey over in the final minute.

And two more stats: Brown had just one turnover and was a +8. Take that, nerds.

LeBron James: 22 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal

Coming off his worst game as a Sixer against the Cavs, James didn’t get off to a great start with a couple early turnovers. His second stint started with him settling for a midrange jumper while being guarded by Giddey.

From there, James stopped messing around.

RIM ROCKIN' pic.twitter.com/k8QKI4PHG7

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) November 8, 2026

LeBron was much more aggressive getting downhill, either finding teammates or finishing at the rim. It’s crazy that at 41 he can still take over games for extended stretches.

I know he’s played for a million years, but passes like this are still stunning.

Tyrese Maxey‼️ pic.twitter.com/dDL3QtBviX

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) November 8, 2026

Jabari Walker: 9 points, 11 rebounds

An honorable mention here for Walker who’s done a commendable job filling in for Adem Bona at the five. While there were sleepy moments throughout the day for the Sixers, Walker did what he always does — hustled, crashed the glass and brought energy.

He’s been popping up here as an honorable mention on what feels like a nightly basis. At this point, he should be in a competition for backup five minutes when Bona is healthy.

right to the h🏀🏀p pic.twitter.com/8QIoTRfBx2

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) November 8, 2026

There was a time not so long ago when the Brooklyn Nets were among the teams hoping to land Cooper Flagg. I even spotted one optimist on the Long Island Rail Road wearing DIY jerseys celebrating that very possibility after the 2024 NBA Draft.

That pipe dream turned into a miracle for the Dallas Mavericks, a team that contended for a play-in spot, fell into the lottery, then landed the No.1 overall pick after having a 1.8% chance at it. There’s no denying Brooklyn’s disappointment when the pick fell the No.8, but Egor Dëmin has seen his own success early in his career for fans to at least feel good.

Sunday will be a stark reminder of where the Nets are. They’re 2-7, they’ve dropped 118 games in the prior two years, and Houston is holding their pick. Rebuilding is one thing, compounding it with avoidable self-inflicted wounds is another. This is a young team and it’s a long season, but you play to win the game.

They played on Saturday night and lost a game that they should’ve won. Point blank. Nolan Traore has been playing like a star and it continued with 19 points against Atlanta, but Jordi Fernandez benched him the entire fourth quarter.

“Mikel had those five straight points, and I just let him roll,” Fernandez said after the game. “Because you cannot just keep taking them in and out. I think that when I was about to sub Nolan in, Mikel made two or three threes and a mid-range pull-up. So I thought that was the right thing to do. Was it right? I don’t know. Obviously, Nolan did very well. They scored 18 and 19. So that’s a very good contribution from your two point guards.”

Perhaps the strangest part in it all? They’re only one game out from a play-in spot. Mikel Brown Jr. is sitting this one out (back-to-back) alongside Egor Dëmin (bone bruise).

On the other side, Cooper Flagg, Kyrie Irving and the 5-4 Mavericks are coming off a 112-100 win over the Utah Jazz in NBA Cup play Friday night.

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Game Information

• Who: Brooklyn Nets at Dallas Mavericks
• When: 7:30 p.m. ET
• Where: American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX
• TV: YES Network
• Streaming: DAZN, NBA League Pass
• Radio: WFAN

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Nets vs. Mavericks Injury Report

Brooklyn Nets

• OUT: Egor Dëmin (right bone bruise)
• OUT: Mikel Brown Jr. (back-to-back)

Dallas Mavericks

• OUT: Tarik Biberovic (right heel bursitis)
• OUT: Dereck Lively II (right foot surgery)
• OUT: Sergio de Larrea (right knee sprain)

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Preview

“If they want to win, they’ll need to slow down an old friend. Kyrie Irving is back after missing last year with an ACL tear. He’s averaging 21 points a night and the shooting splits are quality enough, but HOW he’s getting his buckets are a bit different than what we’re used to. His field goal attempts inside of three feet are at the lowest mark of his career and his three point rate is at the highest of his career. Chances are that’ll change the further he gets away from the injury, but it’s certainly something to keep an eye on. Either way, Irving remains a magnetic scorer and a blast to watch when his game is on.” – Brian Fleurantin

Read more here

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💬Discussion

Share your thoughts and react, but please be respectful. NetsDaily prides itself on being a safe space for Nets and basketball fans alike to have healthy conversation. Reach out to Anthony Puccio or Net Income with any issues.

The Dallas Mavericks (5-4) host the Brooklyn Nets (2-7) for an early Sunday game in the American Airlines Arena. The Mavericks last played on Friday night, pushing past the Utah Jazz in the second half to win decisively. Brooklyn is playing on the second night of a road back-to-back, losing to the Atlanta Hawks. Here are the main things you need to know:

• WHO: Dallas Mavericks vs Brooklyn Nets
• WHAT: Pride Night at AAC
• WHERE: American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas
• WHEN: 6:30 pm CST
• HOW: KFAA

It’s a shockingly clean injury report for the Mavericks. As of this writing, Tarik is still out with the heel bursitis and Sergio De Larrea is out with his knee sprain. Obviously Dereck Lively is out too. Everyone else is playing. I expected Kyrie Irving to miss this one.

It’s not official yet, but the Nets are likely to be without Mikel Brown Jr. and Egor Demin. The former is pretty disappointing as that was a player man Mavs fans were hoping to see in a Dallas uniform.

This is a trap game. Dallas needs to come focused and ready to play despite their opponent’s record. Here’s hoping they put this one away early.

Since you’re here checking out this post, it’s for one of two reasons.

• Injury report news
• Discussion and comment thread

If you’re part of the former, please consider signing up for an account. You get way fewer ads, and you can comment! If you’re part of the latter group: GO GET THE APP. I’m serious. The app has some real-time features specifically for game threads like this one and you can comment and get notified really, really easily. It’s part of what’s keeping this whole series of sites going. So go do it for us and in doing so, you’ll see why the experience is simply better.

Consider joining me on Pod Maverick live after the game on YouTube; I will be going live tonight, and I need y’all to join and participate!