"A source with knowledge of the Hornets' thinking said this week that they are not expected to pursue the 40-year-old, but Paul is said to be open-minded about destinations now to go somewhere he can assemble a final chapter with a far happier ending than his second stint as a Clipper featured." Paul is eligible to be traded on Monday, Dec. 15 and reportedly his agent is working with the Clippers to find him a new team. However, league sources told NBC Sports that even teams with some interest in bringing Paul in as a backup would rather wait until the Clippers release him and then sign him as a free agent.
In his 21st NBA season, Paul played a limited role off the bench for the Clippers, which is part of the challenge with his voice in the locker room.
"When you are in your prime, everyone is going to follow you. But when you are the 10th man of the team... you have to kind of follow suit."
Brian Scalabrine and Tracy McGrady discuss Chris Paul and the Clippers parting ways. pic.twitter.com/avcb9Pup6w
The bruised and battered Warriors quickly are getting healthy, and Draymond Green‘s return could be right around the corner.
Green will miss his third consecutive game when the Warriors host the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night at Chase Center, but coach Steve Kerr indicated that the star forward could play against the Trail Blazers on Sunday in the Pacific Northwest.
“He should be in Portland,” Kerr told reporters before Friday’s game. “Whether he plays or not, we’ll see. It will have been about 10 days between games. He’s been working, he’s been training. The injury has healed. So, he’s ready to go. It’s just a question of whether [director of sports medicine and performance] Rick [Celebrini] feels comfortable putting him out there. So, he’ll meet us in Portland and we’ll assess him there.”
Green sustained a right midfoot sprain in the Warriors’ loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Dec. 4 and missed their next two games — both wins — against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday and Chicago Bulls on Sunday.
But in an odd scheduling quirk, the Warriors had four days off between Sunday’s game against the Bulls and Friday’s game against the Timberwolves.
As Kerr mentioned, Green’s foot injury has healed, but the 35-year-old is away from the team for personal reasons.
The Warriors practiced on Wednesday and Thursday, and Green was excused on both days. He also was excused from Friday’s game.
In 20 games this season, Green is averaging 8.0 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.5 assists in 28.2 minutes.
While Green attends to the personal matter, his longtime running mate, Steph Curry, returns to the lineup on Friday night after missing the last five games due to a quad contusion.
Barring another unforeseen injury, veteran center Al Horford (right sciatic nerve) would be the only player on the Warriors’ injury report if Green returns Sunday.
In short order, Kerr could have a fully healthy roster at his disposal.
Tyrese Maxey won’t play the full 82 games for the 2025-26 Sixers.
The Sixers ruled Maxey out Friday night for their matchup with the Pacers because of an illness. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said pregame that the sixth-year guard hadn’t been able to participate in the team’s activities during their mini-break the past several days.
Maxey was the only Sixer to play in all of the team’s first 23 games. He entered Friday averaging an NBA-high 39.9 minutes and ranked third in points per game with 31.5. Maxey’s also posted 7.2 assists, 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 0.9 blocks per contest.
“He’s handled it great,” Paul George said Wednesday of Maxey’s giant minutes load. “He comes in, he gets his work in, he takes care of his body, he does his recovery stuff.
“And just mentally, he’s in a great place. So you don’t really have to worry about him. He’s going to do what he has to do. I call him a warrior, man. He’s a warrior, so he’s going to figure it out.”
The other Sixers sidelined vs. Indiana were Kelly Oubre Jr. (left knee LCL sprain), Trendon Watford (left adductor strain) and Hunter Sallis (right shoulder sprain).
As of an hour before tip-off, Joel Embiid was listed as probable with a “left knee injury recovery” designation.
I have Stage 4 glioblastoma, one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer. It came on incredibly fast...
What makes glioblastoma so dangerous is that it grows within a very finite, contained space -- the skull -- and it's very aggressive and can expand. What makes it so difficult to treat in my case is that it's surrounded by the brain and is encroaching upon the frontal lobe -- which is what makes you, "you."
Collins describes how he and his husband, Brunson Green, were packing to head to the US Open tennis tournament in August when the symptoms came on quickly, most noticeable to others when he could not focus enough to finish packing for the trip. Not long after, his "mental clarity, short-term memory and comprehension disappeared," turning him into someone who was not really himself. Fortunately, with aggressive treatments of a new drug and radiation therapy, Collins has "come out of the fog" and is more himself again.
Collins also talks about fighting the disease, and he is currently in Singapore receiving specialized treatment (which he details in the must-read story).
We aren't going to sit back and let this cancer kill me without giving it a hell of a fight. We're going to try to hit it first, in ways it's never been hit: with radiation and chemotherapy and immunotherapy that's still being studied but offers the most promising frontier of cancer treatment for this type of cancer.
Collins, 46, and his twin brother Jarron Collins both went from dominating the Southern California high-school basketball scene to attending Stanford together. There, Collins helped lead the Cardinal to the Elite Eight one season and the Final Four the next.
Collins was selected by the Houston Rockets with the No. 18 pick in the 2001 NBA Draft, then was traded on draft night, along with Richard Jefferson, to the New Jersey Nets. Collins quickly became a key part of the Nets and was the starting center on the Jason Kidd-led 2003 team that reached the NBA Finals. Collins was a physical, rock-solid defensive center who played 13 NBA seasons for the Nets, Grizzlies, Timberwolves, Hawks, Celtics, and Wizards.
After retiring from playing, Collins became an ambassador for the league, serving in that role at a number of events.
The Kings are headed toward a full-on rebuild, which might include parting ways with several of their big-name stars.
One of the players includes sharpshooting guard Zach LaVine, who is in his first full season with Sacramento since being shipped to California’s capital from the Chicago Bulls at last year’s trade deadline.
Now, LaVine could be bracing to pack his bags once again.
The Milwaukee Bucks, who have shown interest in LaVine in the past, have done “recent due diligence” on the 30-year-old guard, The Athletic’s Sam Amick reported in a column Friday, citing sources.
LaVine currently is sidelined with an injury, missing Thursday’s game with a thumb injury. HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto first reported back in November that the Bucks had “conducted background due diligence on LaVine.”
LaVine has a $47.5 million cap hit this season, with a player option worth just under $49 million for 2026-27, which makes it “nearly impossible to move him” without attaching draft assets in return, Amick noted.
In 22 games with the Kings this season, LaVine is averaging 20.6 points on 48.6-percent shooting from the field and 38.9 percent from 3-point range, with 3.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists.
One more game, one more day. That’s the thinking that consumed Steph Curry’s mind as he looked to return from a strained left hamstring against the Minnesota Timberwolves last season in the second round of the NBA playoffs. His wishful hope fell short.
Without him, the Warriors lost four straight games after holding the Timberwolves off in Game 1 after Curry left in the second quarter. No extra days together, no more games. No more Curry, no more season.
“Everything was kind of aligned for Game 6,” Curry said at his exit interview press conference when the Warriors returned home.
A wrinkle in the schedule with the Golden State Valkyries’ own playoff run would have given Curry just enough time to recover to try and keep the Warriors’ season alive. The Warriors would have gone three days without playing between Game 5 and Game 6, but that never became reality.
Now, as the Warriors and Timberwolves are set for their first game against each other this season on Friday night at Chase Center since that second-round playoff matchup, another schedule twist gave Curry ample recovery to return from a quad contusion against the team he so badly wanted to keep competing against seven months ago. Since the Warriors didn’t make it to the next round of this season’s NBA Cup, they finally were given a stretch without any games after a previous jam-packed stretch.
The Warriors last played Sunday, giving them a four-day stretch without games. Friday quickly became circled as a return date for Curry, and the Warriors kept him home from their recent three-game road trip so he could stay back and rehab at their facilities. They took Monday and Tuesday off before Curry returned to practice Wednesday and Thursday.
“I’m feeling great, had a good rehab week,” Curry said Thursday.
Watching from the bench for two games and back at home for three, Curry saw how the Warriors went 3-2 without him. He took note of the good and bad. Curry couldn’t ignore the emergence of new Bay Area cult hero Pat Spencer, as well as some major shifts to coach Steve Kerr’s rotations.
How the Warriors responded to Curry’s absence put them one game over .500 with a 13-12 record. The hardest part of their schedule where the start of the season was full of road games and back-to-backs is over. A new test is here, beginning Friday night, where the Warriors have nine more games in 2025 to enter the new year consistently establishing the identity they want to lean on.
“Nobody’s happy with our record. Nobody’s feeling like we’re a day away from being the best team in the league,” Curry said. “But we also know the journey ahead is right there for us.”
Curry will be back on the court, but another who would love revenge from last season’s playoff exit will not. Draymond Green missed the Warriors’ last two practices because of an excused personal reason and won’t play against the Timberwolves. The defensive ace was honest and critical at the end of last season with how Timberwolves forward Julius Randle played against him, averaging 25.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game in the five-game series.
Signing veteran center Al Horford also was supposed to be a resolution to the Timberwolves’ size advantage on the Warriors, but he too won’t be playing against them Friday night. Horford, 39, continues to be hampered by right sciatic nerve irritation and has played in only two of the last nine games.
Outside of Spencer’s shining star, the Warriors added more reinforcements in the two weeks they were without Curry. The Warriors believe they would have been a different team last season if De’Anthony Melton had stayed healthy instead of playing only six games due to requiring ACL surgery. He made his return last Thursday, one year to the date of his surgery.
Curry’s brother, Seth, was signed shortly after Steph’s injury. A handful of other role players contributed to the Warriors’ successful road trip without their superstar. But one with star aspirations who opened eyes against the Timberwolves in last season’s playoffs now appears out of the rotation.
Jonathan Kuminga was a healthy DNP-CD (Did Not Play, Coach’s Decision) against the Chicago Bulls in the Warriors’ blowout win to end the road trip. Kerr said he and Kuminga talked before Wednesday’s practice and the coach is happy with how he responded.
“He had a great practice today. We had a talk before practice and he did the things that I asked him to do and I was thrilled about that,” Kerr said.
Kuminga received two DNPs in the first round against the Houston Rockets, didn’t dress for another game and was also inactive for one after becoming an afterthought in the last month of the regular season. But in the final four games against the Timberwolves, Kuminga averaged 24.3 points on 55.4 percent shooting with a 38.9 3-point percentage.
Warriors owner Joe Lacob, sources say, referred back to Kuminga’s performances against the Timberwolves on multiple occasions throughout the offseason when discussing the former No. 7 overall pick’s future with the franchise and holding onto him, for the time being.
As always, though, everything starts and ends with the health of No. 30.
“At the end of practice today he hit me with like a triple combo and made a rainbow three, if that tells you anything,” Trayce Jackson-Davis said Thursday.
These two teams are on a path of avoiding the play-in tournament already, even with four months remaining in the regular season. A clear top five in the Western Conference of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers has already come to light. The Timberwolves enter Friday as the No. 6 seed, two and a half games ahead of the No. 8 seed Warriors.
So much has changed and so much remains the same since the Warriors’ disappointing end to last season against the Timberwolves. Between Curry’s return, the unknown of Kuminga and all the other moving parts of this roster, the irony of the first Warriors-Timberwolves game this season is hard to miss.
With 57 games remaining on the schedule, the Warriors have plenty of time to rise or fall this season. As they sit in eighth place in the Western Conference, they remain confident in their ability to finish in the top six, thereby avoiding the play-in tournament.
That confidence has not, however, translated into success. The Warriors’ longest win streak is three games, and they’ll be out to tie that Friday night when they face the Minnesota Timberwolves at Chase Center.
Golden State has yet to win more than five games over any 10-game stretch, and its 13-12 record stands as proof that it has not found a rhythm.
There is plenty of time, however, to recover and climb the standings. Here are five factors that could decide whether the Warriors’ dreams make a deep postseason run:
Keeping Curry, Butler and Green healthy and productive
Golden State projects as no better than a play-in tournament team without Stephen Curry. Jimmy Butler III provides a necessary change of pace contrast that is highly effective under certain circumstances. Now that the defense seems to realize intensity is an essential component, it should get even better the moment Draymond Green returns.
Maintain recent defensive awareness and intensity.
Golden State’s defense during its road trip shifted from mostly good to borderline excellence, with a (99.0 rating that ranks second in the NBA over that short span. Despite the absence of Green, the energy was palpable, with Pat Spencer and De’Anthony Melton baring fangs. If the Warriors, currently second in defensive rating, remain at that level the offense will benefit.
Reaching a positive resolution to the ongoing Kuminga saga
The Warriors tried to move Jonathan Kuminga last summer, and he embraced having a fresh start. Didn’t happen. He signed a handsome contract during training camp, but the investment isn’t looking good. Unfortunately, a trade is the only conclusion for such incompatibility.
The availability of Horford and Melton
Though neither owns star status and both will have their minutes monitored, the availability of Al Horford and Melton is imperative. Horford has appeared in 13 of 25 games, slightly more than 50 percent. If he can push it to around 80 percent over the rest of the season – and be fresh for the playoffs – the Warriors will take it. As for Melton, we saw Golden State dip when he went down last season. He’s Curry’s best sidekick since prime Klay Thompson, and the quiet key to any rise in the standings.
“He’s a guy that understands what this level is all about, and he has a way of making the game very simple,” Curry said Thursday. “He’s a good shooter, can knock them down when he’s open. He can put the ball on the floor, play pick-and-roll, create on the backside. And, obviously, defensively, we know what he does, disrupting the ball. Just a prototypical like NBA two guard that can do a little bit of everything.”
A semblance of consistency from the role players
Green and Butler have been trying to coax the youngsters toward proficiency, and there it was on the road trip. Quinten Post and Spencer provided a boost. Buddy Hield’s missing shot made an appearance. Brandin Podziemski showed signs of recovering from his early-season slumber. Moses Moody, Trayce Jackson-Davis and Will Richard contributed. Gary Payton II continues to search for his best self.
It’s unreasonable to expect the entire crew to be consistently outstanding, but if any two or three can bring something to every game, it’s a win for the Warriors.
Six months had passed since Smith had slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars. Now Smith was participating in a series of celebrity talks to the Lakers, an innovation brought in by general manager Rob Pelinka. According to the book, James asked Smith question after question until a scheduled half-hour visit had ballooned to nearly twice that amount, with fellow Laker Russell Westbrook growing visibly frustrated, frowning in a team photo with Smith.
“You get to see the personal, intra-office dynamics that impact the game that you don’t always think about,” Weitzman says of the scene.
He notes that those who’ve read the excerpt “seem to be cheering on Westbrook” and “latching on to the idea that it was LeBron’s fault, LeBron was a phony.” He points out that Westbrook has played for multiple NBA teams, and in LA, he was “awful on the court, hardheaded, no willingness to adjust his game.”
As for James: “He is the defining, not just basketball player … but athlete of my generation,” says the 37-year-old Weitzman. And, the author adds, “It seemed like the ‘merger’ between LeBron and the Lakers was fertile ground for the sort of reporting and storytelling” that’s fueled by what Weitzman calls behind the scenes drama.
Weitzman is no stranger to dissecting NBA franchises. It’s what he did in his previous book, about the Philadelphia 76ers, Tanking to the Top. With the Lakers, though, the spotlight was more intense. There was the team’s location in America’s entertainment epicenter. There was a legacy of championships won by stars from Magic Johnson to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Kobe Bryant to Shaquille O’Neal, the last two coached by the legendary Phil Jackson. (Last season brought another addition to the pantheon – Luka Dončić – but we’ll get to him later.) There was the role of the Buss family, especially the late longtime team owner Jerry Buss and his daughter, Jeanie, who succeeded him in the executive office. Then there was what Weitzman called the “merger” between the Lakers and James, who brought a star power all his own – as well as the increasingly powerful agency that represented him: Klutch Sports Group, run by James’ friend Rich Paul.
How rare is James’s status in the NBA? The book notes his estimated billion-dollar-plus worth while still on an NBA roster, and his dream of someday owning a franchise. Weitzman tracks the impact of James’ comments to the media – including some much-scrutinized remarks at a press conference after the Lakers’ 2023 playoff exit: “I’ve got a lot to think about, to be honest. Just for me personally going forward with the game of basketball, I’ve got a lot to think about.”
Neither James nor team ownership would talk with Weitzman for the book. He filled in the gaps by reading the news coverage from as far back as 15 years ago, supplementing this by watching documentaries, listening to podcasts and speaking with whoever would talk to him, a list that grew to almost 300. Keep an eye out for the footnotes while reading the book. Weitzman describes them as “like someone winking at the reader.”
On page 54, you’ll find not one but two footnotes relating to Daenerys Targaryen. Why? Bryant is quoted urging Jeanie Buss to emulate the Game of Thrones character in early 2017. That’s when, according to the book, she won a George RR Martin-esque power struggle for control of the team. The next year, James came to LA for four years and $154m.
“The Lakers were in a dark period,” Weitzman says. “They certainly needed LeBron. LeBron saved Jeanie Buss’ legacy by coming there.” He adds that unlike past stars such as Magic, Kobe or Shaq, LeBron came to the Lakers as “a fully formed icon, which they had not had before.”
There were significant if not immediate benefits: A championship in James’ second season with the Lakers, 2019-20 – a season that ended amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests. It was also a season that saw the death of Bryant and his daughter Gianna in a helicopter crash. Coach Frank Vogel kept the team focused as it played before empty stands in the NBA bubble. It was title No 17 for the Lakers, tying them with the Boston Celtics for the all-time league mark.
Would there be an encore? Pelinka tried to add more talent around James, and in 2021 he brought in Westbrook. Yet the 2021-22 team couldn’t even qualify for the playoffs to defend its title, and Vogel lost his job.
Darvin Ham succeeded Vogel as coach. James continued to dazzle on the court, yet the team struggled around him. The book finds a perfect microcosm: On 7 February 2023, James broke the all-time NBA scoring record, surpassing Abdul-Jabbar, in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. There were cheers for James after he set the mark late in the third quarter, and a salute from commissioner Adam Silver. However, as the book points out, it was the Thunder who won the game. The Lakers stood at 25-30, in danger of missing the playoffs once more.
Cue more plot twists. The Lakers traded away Westbrook, and saw their fortunes surge. They made the playoffs, going all the way to the West finals, which Denver swept. It was an encouraging first season for Ham, yet the following season the Nuggets ousted the Lakers again, this time in the first round of the playoffs. The hated Celtics won the title that season, moving them ahead of LA for that record 18th banner.
Parting ways with Ham, the Lakers flirted with UConn coach Dan Hurley before he ultimately turned LA down. The Lakers hired player-turned-podcaster JJ Redick and made a unique decision in the draft: They selected James’ son Bronny at No 54, setting up a rare father-son pairing in the lineup. Then, earlier this year, Pelinka made a league-shattering move, dealing Anthony Davis for Mavericks superstar Dončić, who is already one his way to replacing James as the face of the Lakers.
By that point, Weitzman thought he was finished with the manuscript, which initially ended with Bronny joining James on the Lakers. As they say in Hollywood, get me a rewrite.
“I live in New York. The Lakers were playing the Knicks that night at Madison Square Garden,” Weitzman recalls of the Dončić trade. “I was at the game, then I was driving my way home, saw the tweet – oh my God.”
The book wraps up in where-are-they-now style, giving readers updates on the cast. Among them: The Buss family has sold its majority stake to Mark Walter, the owner of the cross-town LA Dodgers, with Jeanie Buss remaining as governor and keeping 15% ownership.
“I’m curious to see where this goes,” Weitzman says. “Is she going to stay or go? I’m dubious whether she actually can stay … Usually, people who pay the money want to be in charge.”
As for James?
“Playing into his 40s, it’s something unparalleled,” Weitzman marvels. “In the major professional American sports, the four major sports, Tom Brady is the only comparison. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
SAN FRANCISCO – There is no betting line, as far as we know, on whether this season’s Warriors can assemble their puzzle pieces, outgrow their inconsistencies and rumble into mid-April as a legitimate NBA championship threat.
If there were such a line, the action would be heavy. Because, 25 games into their NBA season, the Warriors remain among the league’s most perplexing squads.
The next 20 games, beginning Friday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves, should offer a measure of clarity.
Of the Warriors’ next 20 games, 14 are at Chase Center, including an eight-game homestand in mid-January. This is a platinum opportunity to build the kind of momentum that thus far has been elusive.
After closing a three-game road trip with consecutive wins – without Stephen Curry, without full availability of Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler III – the league’s road-weariest team has allowed itself two full days of recovery, followed by two practices that were considered productive and helpful.
Curry, who missed the last three games, practiced both days and is set to return Friday. Butler practiced and is itching for wins. De’Anthony Melton made his season debut on the road and looked like a significant in-season acquisition.
The road trip, according to Curry, offered a glimpse of what’s needed to escape that mediocrity that comes fighting to stay above .500.
“Just playing good basketball, making simple plays, getting organized offensively, that’s what I saw the last three games,” Curry said, including a one-point loss at Philadelphia. “Even after those two rough first quarters we had in Philly and Cleveland, it was getting the ball moving, trying to create advantages, where guys were attacking closeouts, taking advantage of spacing. It seemed like we were just a little bit more organized, even though they weren’t necessarily play calls. It was, if you’re open, shoot it. If you have a driving angle, take it. Get off it. The ball just had energy.
“I know when I’m out there, I try to create the same type of actions. And then you just want guys playing with confidence. And that was what it ended up being like in Chicago.”
The Warriors were exceptional in Chicago, earning their first tip-to-buzzer triumph of the season. The Bulls, however, are in a skid, having lost their last seven games.
Which is why it’s prudent for the Warriors to be cautious when looking ahead. They have alternated between being very good and downright dreadful. They are sitting at 13-12 because they’ve offset some quality wins (at Lakers, Nuggets, at Spurs twice) with perplexing losses (at Pacers, at Kings, Blazers home and away).
And that road trip went through the Eastern Conference, which is appreciably weaker than the West.
The Next 20 begins with four games against Western Conference teams, two of which – the Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns – are above Golden State in the standings. Anything less than 3-1 would have to be profoundly unsatisfying and would pause, if not halt, momentum.
When Zach Edey has been on the court this season, the Memphis Grizzlies have outscored their opponents by 17.7 points per 100 possessions. When Edey is off the court, the Grizzlies get outscored by 8.2 per 100 — that's a 25.9 points per 100 swing with him on the court.
Which is why this is such bad news in Memphis: Edey will be out at least a month due to a stress reaction in his left ankle, the team announced Thursday. This is the same ankle on which Edey had offseason surgery, which caused him to miss the first 13 games of the season.
Edey's agent, Mark Bartelstein, told ESPN’s Shams Charania, "This is a management plan to optimize Zach's long-term health in consultation with the Grizzlies and medical experts. Following this step, the short- and long-term prognosis for Zach is excellent."
This is a rough blow for a Memphis team that had gone 7-2 in its last nine and started to string together some wins, and is expected to get Ja Morant back soon from the calf strain that sidelined him.
With Edey out, expect Jock Landale to become the starting five for a while, with Jaren Jackson Jr. spending more time at center as well.
In the same announcement, the Grizzlies said that wing John Konchar will have surgery to repair a UCL tear in his left thumb. The team did not provide a timeline for his return, but this injury usually keeps players out at least a month.
In the first 20 games of the 2025-26 season, we've seen a substantial increase in calf injuries (excluding contusions caused by blunt force), according to leading injury expert Jeff Stotts of InStreetClothes.com. This time last season, there were 18 calf injuries at the 20-game mark. This season, it's up to 25 incidents, representing an increase of nearly 40%.
More significant, however, is the elongated recovery timeline of these injuries. Per Stotts' data, the number of games lost due to calf injuries, through 20 games played, skyrocketed from 36 to 108. A tripling of last season's total.
"John Hollinger's premise that the NBA Cup has led to a denser schedule resulting in more player injuries is simply not supported by the data. Hollinger wonders if 'the league turned the early-season travel dial a little too high' and posits that teams are facing 'an unnaturally heavy schedule cycle.' The reality is the NBA played roughly the same number of games through 42 days this season (308) as last season (307).
"Further, those numbers are consistent with pre-Cup years (308 games in 2022 and 313 games in 2021). The Cup has objectively not led to a denser league-wide schedule in the early part of the season.
"Hollinger additionally claims the NBA is seeing an 'uptick in early-season soft-tissue injuries' and that 'the league keeps getting worse at keeping those stars healthy.' Through the season's first six weeks, the number of injuries forcing star players to miss games is the lowest in the past six seasons, down more than 25 percent year-over-year. While several star players have not played this season due to injuries sustained last season, the suggestion that any increase in games missed this season is related to the schedule's first six weeks is patently misleading."
Hollinger's response summed up the general reaction to the NBA's statement: Why did the league release this in the first place?
The NBA's point that injuries to stars from last season — specifically, Achilles injuries to Jayson Tatum, Damian Lillard and Tyrese Haliburton — are part of the number problem is correct. However, the league statement does not address the facts noted at the start of this piece, that calf injuries — and soft-tissue injuries in general — are up. And because of what everyone saw with Tatum and Haliburton, teams are far more cautious about bringing back players from calf and other injuries.
Injuries are always part of the NBA season. Now, due to improved science and teams being risk-averse considering the nine-figure investments in their biggest stars, teams are willing to keep players out longer and make sure they are fully healed before a player returns. It's what's best for the players and the teams, but it means seeing less of some stars.
SACRAMENTO – Playing the Denver Nuggets at even strength is a tough enough battle in itself. Doing it without three of your best players only magnified the disparity on the court.
The Kings found that out the very hard way Thursday night at Golden 1 Center, extending their own miseries that have been lingering for the better part of five weeks.
Backed by another mercurial effort from three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić, Denver took control of this one early, led by as many as 37 points and steamrolled the Kings 136-105.
Jokic had 36 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists.
Maxime Raynaud had 15 points and nine boards. Malik Monk added 18 points and five assists while DeMar DeRozan scored 11 and passed Vince Carter for 23rd place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.
The Kings fell to 6-19. They were 9-10 at this point last season, about a month before firing coach Mike Brown.
Not even a career milestone for DeRozan was enough to erase the stain from this one.
The short-handed Kings dug themselves a huge hole in the second quarter and spent the rest of the evening trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to climb out.
Jokic had 16 points in the first quarter and was in full triple-double mode as the teams went into halftime with Denver leading 77-54.
The Kings committed five turnovers and scored only 17 points in the third quarter.
Here are the takeaways from the Kings’ latest loss:
Max meets the Joker
With Sabonis nursing his injury, the Kings have been in scramble mode for inside help. The situation got a little worse when Drew Eubanks suffered a left thumb injury and was pulled after playing fewer than four minutes.
Raynaud, whose playing time has incrementally been increasing the past few weeks, was forced to shoulder an even heavier workload as a result and did decent enough against one of the NBA’s best players.
While Jokic did what Jokic always does, Raynaud got a passing grade against the Joker while making his third consecutive start for the Kings. The rookie shot 7-of-13 and made his only 3-point attempt.
Precious Achiuwa also got some time going against Jokic but it was primarily Raynaud who spent the night matching up against the Nuggets’ 7-foot star.
It was another step in Raynaud’s learning curve, who two weeks ago went head-to-head and held his own against Memphis Grizzlies’ 7-foot-3 center Zach Edey.
Deebo passes Vinsanity
On a night when Kings fans didn’t have much to cheer for, DeRozan gave the Golden 1 Center crowd a memorable moment when he slipped past former Kings player and Hall of Famer Vince Carter into 23rd place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list
The milestone moment came about two minutes into the second period when DeRozan was fouled by Denver’s Cam Johnson and made a pair of free throws.
DeRozan now has 25,734 points in his career. Carter had 25,728 points. He played in 54 games during his only season with Sacramento in 2017-18.
Next up on the list is a familiar face, one that DeRozan likely will be chasing for a long while. Stephen Curry is No. 22 on the list with 25,832, and the two-time scoring champ hasn’t shown many signs of slowing down.
Devin Carter sighting
The Kings’ first-round draft pick a year ago played in an NBA game for the first time in nearly a month and one night after playing for Sacramento’s G League team in nearby Stockton.
Carter, the 13th overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, scored 15 points in 21 minutes against the Nuggets.
A night earlier, Carter scored 14 points in 30 minutes for the Stockton Kings. He had been sent there to get some playing time because he wasn’t getting much run in Sacramento and had 10 DNPs and two inactives during a 12-game stretch.
Asked about how he’d spent the Sixers’ mini-break created by the NBA Cup’s knockout rounds, VJ Edgecombe started on a candid note.
“To be honest, rest,” he said.
The rookie was certainly not alone, although the Sixers also tried to be productive since their last game, a tight loss Sunday to the Lakers.
Head coach Nick Nurse said the team looked in depth at both sides of the ball, as well as “a pretty heavy dose of special teams, late-game situations.” Overall, Nurse is pleased with the state of the 13-10 Sixers.
“I’m generally super encouraged,” he said after practice Thursday. “I think the team is playing pretty good basketball. We’re in most games. We’re giving ourselves a chance to win. I think we’re doing a lot of great things late in games. … It feels like we’re heading in the right direction and that’s what you want. It’s a steady climb for that all year long, and it feels like that’s what’s happening now.”
While many of their offensive numbers have tailed off after a 5-1 start, the Sixers have fared well defensively the last month.
Since Nov. 11, the team has the seventh-best defensive rating in the NBA outside of garbage time, according to Cleaning the Glass. Paul George’s presence has helped.
“We can take it a little further,” George said Wednesday. “I think we’re a little ways away from where we need to be, but I think we’re getting there. We’re making steps to be a better defensive team. Kelly (Oubre Jr.) obviously brings a lot. He’s still one of the best on-ball defenders, one of the best help-side defenders … and just that tenacity he plays with on the defensive end to get after it.
“We’re going to get a lot once he comes back, and then it’ll allow us to be more versatile with myself, with K.O., with (Dominick) Barlow, Quentin (Grimes) … the four of us taking the bulk of the defensive matchups. We’ll be really good, but I like where we’re at. It’s a good thing to have areas to improve when you’re going in the right direction.”
Both Oubre (left knee LCL sprain) and Trendon Watford (left adductor strain) remain sidelined.
“They’re on the court doing some individual stuff, but not on the court with the team,” Nurse said.
The Sixers also listed Tyrese Maxey (illness) and Joel Embiid (left knee injury recovery) as probable for their game Friday night vs. the 6-18 Pacers.
The hope is that the Sixers return as a refocused, refreshed, slightly healthier team.
Not everyone was a fan of the time off, though.
“I don’t enjoy it,” Andre Drummond said with a smile. “It feels like a mini-All-Star break. Once you have a routine going, it’s hard to break that when you have almost a week off. Difficult, but I guess we’ve got to win more games so we can be in the Cup.”
What gap year? The Boston Celtics are 15-9 and the No. 3 seed in a tight Eastern Conference behind the MVP-ballot play of Jaylen Brown this season.
Now it looks more and more like the Celtics could have Jayson Tatum back from his torn Achilles in time for a playoff push. Tatum posted a video on Wednesday of his return to playing one-on-one.
Jayson Tatum dropped nearly 3 minutes of workout film
While the Celtics will want to protect Tatum from himself, a return this season appears increasingly likely, with coach Joe Mazzulla saying the timeline is ultimately up to Tatum. Here is what Mazzulla said after Wednesday's practice, via NBC Sports Boston.
"It's all up to him," Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said... "At the end of the day, his health is the most important thing, his process is the most important thing.
"You trust him, trust the team that's around him ... and then you just kind of go from there. So it kind of just all starts (with) where him and his team think he's at."
In an Eastern Conference where no team has run away and hid (although the Knicks are starting to look like they could), why not Boston? The Celtics, with Tatum back and strong play from Brown and Derrick White — with Neemias Queta holding down the paint and Jordan Walsh emerging on the wing — would be as big a threat as anyone in the conference.
What gap year? The Boston Celtics are 15-9 and the No. 3 seed in a tight Eastern Conference behind the MVP-ballot play of Jaylen Brown this season.
Now it looks more and more like the Celtics could have Jayson Tatum back from his torn Achilles in time for a playoff push. Just seven months after he tore his Achilles, Tatum posted a video on Wednesday of his return to playing one-on-one.
Jayson Tatum dropped nearly 3 minutes of workout film
While the Celtics will want to protect Tatum from himself, a return this season appears increasingly likely, with coach Joe Mazzulla saying the timeline is ultimately up to Tatum. Here is what Mazzulla said after Wednesday's practice, via NBC Sports Boston.
"It's all up to him," Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said... "At the end of the day, his health is the most important thing, his process is the most important thing.
"You trust him, trust the team that's around him ... and then you just kind of go from there. So it kind of just all starts (with) where him and his team think he's at."
In an Eastern Conference where no team has run away and hid (although the Knicks are starting to look like they could), why not Boston? The Celtics, with Tatum back and strong play from Brown and Derrick White — with Neemias Queta holding down the paint and Jordan Walsh emerging on the wing — would be as big a threat as anyone in the conference.
