Category: Basketball

Why Kendrick Perkins believes Jonathan Kuminga can fix ‘broken' Warriors originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga has not played in eight of Golden State’s last nine games. 

NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins believes reversing that trend can fix the Warriors. 

“The Warriors are broken!!!!” Perkins wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, shortly after the Warriors’ 141-127 overtime loss to the Toronto Raptors on Sunday. 

“One day Steve Kerr is going to realize that you need size and athleticism “Kuminga” to compete against the good teams in the League.” 

Kuminga started the first 12 games of the season before coach Steve Kerr made changes to the starting lineup following a blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in November. The 23-year-old forward exited the following game due to a knee injury, causing him to miss the next seven games. 

Kuminga then struggled to find his footing after his return, averaging just 7.8 points in his next four games played. He has been mostly absent from the rotation since. 

“It’s tough because he’s not really a short-minute player,” Kerr told reporters after the Warriors’ 120-107 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Monday. “I played a bunch of guys eight, 10 minutes. JK is a guy who needs rhythm – he’s not like a Gui [Santos] who’s going to come in or Pat [Spencer] and just fly around and play with great energy for four minutes and come out – he needs some rhythm.”  

“So, he always has to stay ready and there’s a pathway there. But right now, it’s not there, but things change quickly in the NBA.” 

In Kuminga’s 18 games played, the Warriors are 9-9 with a +0.3 net rating. In the 15 games without the young forward, the Warriors are 8-7 with a +3.3 net rating. 

In his last appearance, Kuminga scored two points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field while also grabbing four rebounds against the Phoenix Suns on Dec. 13. He logged 9:31 of playing time. 

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Nuggets center Nikola Jokic out at least 4 weeks with hyperextended left knee originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Nikola Jokic is only going to miss a few weeks, which is surely cause for the Denver Nuggets to take a giant sigh of relief.

The Nuggets’ superstar center has been diagnosed with a hyperextended left knee, the team said Tuesday, adding that the three-time MVP will be re-evaluated in four weeks.

It’s an obvious blow to the already short-handed Nuggets — but is not a season-ending issue nor one that would require surgical repair. If Jokic misses a month, that means he would be sidelined for about 16 games but could be playing again before February’s NBA All-Star Game.

The 6-foot-11 Jokic — considered by many to be the best player in the world right now — got hurt with about three seconds left in the first half of Denver’s 147-123 loss in Miami on Monday night.

Jokic entered Tuesday ranked fifth in the NBA in scoring this season at 29.6 points per game, plus leads the league with averages of 12.2 rebounds and 11 assists per contest. The only other player in NBA history to average at least 12 rebounds and 11 assists over a full season was Oscar Robertson for the Cincinnati Royals in 1961-62.

“Obviously, it’s part of the game,” Nuggets guard Jamal Murray said Monday night after the game — speaking before the team got the word on the severity of Jokic’s injury. “But we never want to see it happen. … Next man up. We’ve got to focus on what’s in here.”

Denver has five games left on a seven-game road trip, one that resumes Wednesday when the Nuggets visit the Toronto Raptors.

Jokic was alone under the basket and appeared to step forward to help Denver’s Spencer Jones defend a drive by Miami’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. as time was about to expire in the second quarter. While backtracking, Jones stepped on Jokic’s left foot and it seemed the center’s knee buckled a bit.

Jokic collapsed to the court, grabbing at the knee. He was helped to his feet, then made his way to the locker room under his own power but with a pronounced limp.

Denver has been playing without three would-be starters in Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun and Cam Johnson. Even after dropping four of their last six games the Nuggets are still currently No. 3 in the Western Conference at 22-10, with Jokic having played in all 32 of those games.

That’s about to change, obviously. Denver is 13-23 over the last five seasons when Jokic isn’t in the lineup, and any slippage in the coming weeks would be damaging to the Nuggets’ playoff positioning. The Nuggets entered Tuesday only three games ahead of Phoenix, which is currently seventh in the conference.

“You just have to stay with it as a team and as a group,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said Monday night. “And honestly, you have to stay with it as a team and a group because that’s how you best support your teammates that are out — by honoring them when you play. So, we’ll move on from there. This is part of the NBA.”

The injury interrupts what might be Jokic’s best season of his career. Not only is he leading the league in rebounds and assists, but he’s shooting a career-best 43.5% from 3-point range and tops the NBA with a true shooting percentage — a formula that accounts for 3-pointers and free throws — of just over 71%.

“It’s like a quest for efficiency and consistency, and I think that’s whether he admits it or not, he sees it as a craft,” Adelman said before Monday’s game, a couple of hours before the injury happened. “He’s trying to look at it as something, ‘What can I get better over the year at?’ And I think it’s been really impressive to watch him over these years, not be satisfied with it, and attack new journeys.”

My New Year’s wish for Cleveland sports fans for 2026 is quite simple: Something, anything, more hopeful and exciting than what we just witnessed.

When I began reviewing the year for the top 10 moments of 2025, it was difficult to even find 10 items. The Cavs collapsed in the second round of the playoffs, the Guardians were eliminated quickly from the playoffs after a dismal summer and a thrilling September, and the Browns are forever double-dipping in the punch bowl.

Here it is. The 10 most, uh, impactful moments in 2025 Cleveland sports. Some are heartfelt, some leave a sting. Hopefully, better days lie ahead.

10. Bernie Kosar’s life-saving transplant

In the overall scheme of things, this could rank No. 1. But since it’s more of a medical miracle than a sports story, we’ll begin with uplifting Kosar news. The Cleveland football legend was fighting for his life, enduring multiple surgeries a day to try and stop internal bleeding, when a liver donor emerged in November. The family of Bryce Dunlap, a 21-year-old Browns fan, donated the liver to Kosar after Bryce died from a tragic medical emergency. Kosar is still battling additional health problems, but the new liver is giving him a fighting chance.

9. Cleveland awarded W team

WNBA basketball is returning to one of its original colonies — with a much larger fan base this time and wildly more popular. The Cleveland Rockers were a dud when they debuted in 1997. The team was barely drawing 7,000 fans when it folded in 2003. This time, it will likely look much different. The league is exploding in popularity, and the rebranded Rockers will be owned by Dan Gilbert. The Cavs are one of the best in the NBA at in-game entertainment. The Rockers will surely enjoy the same feel when they return as an expansion team in 2028.

8. Browns get their dome

It was a long, sometimes ugly battle, but Jimmy and Dee Haslam finally got approval for their long-coveted dome stadium. The total price tag is expected to be around $2.4 billion and should open in 2029. Haslam navigated legal battles with both city and county officials, but ultimately is getting what he wanted because Jimmy always gets what Jimmy wants — besides a winner. Now the question is whether anyone can afford to go, and will the product be worth watching in four years?

7. Atkinson, Vogt named coach/manager of the year

Kenny Atkinson was named the NBA’s Coach of the Year in his first season and Steven Vogt was named MLB’s Manager of the Year. Vogt is now 2-for-2. He has managed a team twice in his life and was voted the best in the league at doing it both times. Quite impressive. The Cavs started on a 15-0 tear and won 64 games in their first season under Atkinson, although the second season hasn’t gone quite as well. Vogt navigated the Guardians through devastating gambling accusations over the summer and resuscitated a team that appeared dead in July. They rallied to win the division, which leads us to …

6. Guardians’ September rally

The Guardians were 15 1/2 games out of first place in July and remained 11 games behind Detroit in September. The Tigers’ collapse, coupled with the Guardians’ incredible tear of going 17-2 over three weeks in September, completed the unlikely comeback. It was all for naught since the Tigers won the Wild Card Series anyway, but the Guardians at least got their first look at George Valera and Chase DeLauter, two outfielders who will hopefully help this franchise for years to come.

Our top moment of the 2025?

Making history as we erased a 15.5 game deficit to take the AL Central.#GuardsBall | #12DaysOfGuardspic.twitter.com/0rFnVsiin1

— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) December 24, 2025

5. Garrett chases sack record

Myles Garrett was about the only thing to get excited about with the Browns this season. It was an eventful year for Garrett, which began with his trade demand and his press tour during the Super Bowl. Garrett turned that into a massive $160 million extension and then responded with a career year in pursuing the single-season sack record shared by Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, Garrett is the Browns’ Maserati that is fun to drive while their house is in foreclosure. If he breaks the mark next week in the season finale, it will come with a distinction. Strahan set the record during a 16-game season. Watt needed 17 to tie it. Garrett will also need 17 games. He has all but wrapped up another Defensive Player of the Year award. That will have to be his consolation prize.

4. Tom Hamilton inducted into Hall of Fame

One of the very best humans and broadcasters in professional sports finally had his day when Hamilton was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame last July as the Ford C. Frick winner after four other attempts as a finalist. Hamilton’s “Swing and a drive!” calls are legendary, as is his warmth and personality. Hammy is one of the best. Period. At life and in his chosen field. His election was richly deserved.

3. Cavs lose to Pacers

The Cavaliers’ remarkable 64-win regular season came crashing down quickly in the postseason. A stunning second-round exit in five games to the Indiana Pacers derailed what was expected to be a potential Finals run for the No. 1 seed in the East. Injuries certainly played a role, but the hangover still seems evident. This isn’t the same team as last season. Sure, there have been more injuries, but something looks broken right now. The Cavs have 3 1/2 months to get it fixed before we really begin keeping score.

THE DAGGER FROM TURNER 🔥

THE WAVE FROM HALIBURTON 👋

THE PACERS ELIMINATE THE CAVS‼️ pic.twitter.com/NMf2QA0WTE

— ESPN (@espn) May 14, 2025

2. Guardians’ gambling scandal

Major League Baseball, the Guardians and the sports world at large were stunned when a pair of Cleveland pitchers were taken off the field over gambling allegations. Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase were ultimately charged in federal court for throwing fraudulent pitches, triggering a larger conversation around micro bets. Baseball responded with cap wagers on micro bets. I maintain that the only solution is to ban them entirely.

1. Browns draft Shedeur Sanders

The Browns rocked the draft when they selected Sanders in the fifth round, No. 144. Haslam has since acknowledged that when they left the team facility following the second night of the draft, taking Sanders was not in their plans. All of that changed by the next morning, and he was a Brown by that night. Sanders leads the team in passing yards and has been a constant source of headlines since his arrival. Sometimes his play has matched the attention. Mostly, it has not.

Thank you all for reading along this year. Have a safe and Happy New Year, and we’ll talk again in 2026.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Guardians, WNBA, NFL

2025 The Athletic Media Company

December to remember: Digging deeper on Jaylen Brown's dominant month originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Jaylen Brown has a chance Tuesday night in Utah to shuffle past Larry Bird and become the first player in Boston Celtics history to score 30+ points in 10 straight games.

Brown’s impact in December goes beyond his scoring production, however. It’s how he’s generating his points while helping Boston entrench itself near the top of the East standings.

Brown is averaging an NBA-best 32.7 points per game in the month of December. Most notably, his 3-point percentage has crept up to 43.2 percent over the past nine games. That’s up 8.4 percent over his first 20 games of the season. His true shooting percentage has climbed to 64.3 percent over the past nine games, up from 57.8 percent in his first 20 games. 

Brown got good news and bad news on Monday. He was named the NBA’s Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the second time this month. But when the NBA’s All-Star balloting came out, he slotted a surprising sixth in the East.

Brown promptly dubbed the voting a “PR contest” on social media. But even the biggest online troll would have trouble punching holes in Brown’s play this season, particularly as opposing defenses load up against him while 1) Jayson Tatum rehabs and 2) Derrick White and Payton Pritchard navigate some efficiency woes.

To hammer that home: The stat-tracking savants at BBall Index peg Brown in the 95th percentile for matchup difficulty, suggesting opposing teams routinely put their best defenders on Brown.

And yet few have been able to help keep him south of 30 points. 

Let’s dive deeper into how Brown is piling up his points and impacting winning this month: 

Cloud 9.0

Brown is averaging nine free throw attempts per game in December, jumping up more than two attempts per game from the start of the season (6.8 attempts over first 20 games).

Only five players in the NBA are averaging more than 9.0 free throw attempts per game this season: Luka Doncic, Deni Avdija, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Zion Williamson, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Brown is knocking on the door to the top 10 in free throw attempts overall, now averaging 7.5 per game this season.

Even more encouraging: He’s shooting 80.2 percent at the stripe over his last nine games. And part of the reason he’s getting to the free throw line so consistently … 

Stuck in drive

Brown is averaging 19.1 drives per game in the month of December, per NBA tracking data. Only Avdija is averaging more (21.4). Brown is one spot ahead of reigning MVP Gilgeous-Alexander this month, and is scoring with MVP-like efficiency on his treks.

Brown is shooting 62.8 percent off drives in December, while generating points on 76.7 percent of all drives. For the season, Brown ranks third in the NBA at 17.3 drives per game while shooting 58 percent on all shot attempts off those drives.

Foul magnet

To further emphasize Brown’s ability to draw whistles: He’s drawn non-shooting fouls on 3.5 percent of Boston’s plays this season, which ranks in the 99th percentile among all wings, per Cleaning the Glass data.

Only Kevin Durant gets fouled on the floor more often.

Brown is drawing 7.2 fouls per 75 possessions overall, which ranks in the 98th percentile (ninth out of 504 players) per BBall Index tracking. 

Mid-range maestro

Brown continues to thrive in the midrange, making 51 percent of his shots there over the last nine games (58 of 113). He’s on pace to shoot a career best in the mid-range.

Perhaps most notable, though, is that Brown is shooting 78 percent at the rim (28 of 36) over his last nine games, a notable bump up from his 70 percent clip (64 of 91) at the rim over his first 20 games.

Pull-up a chair

Brown is tied for third in the NBA in points off pull-up attempts in December. Only Doncic (14.3) and Gilgeous-Alexander (13.6) create more off the dribble.

Brown is tied with Jalen Brunson at 13.2 pull-up points per game this month. That number is up for Brown after averaging 10.6 pull-up points per game over his first 20 games. 

There are some areas that Brown could tighten up. His turnovers have climbed a bit in December, though he’s handling the ball more often this month. His defensive rebound percentage has dipped at a time when Boston is playing smaller and could use him to be even more active on the glass. He has sometimes sacrificed his pursuit of rebounds in an effort to box out opposing bigs. 

Ultimately, we’re nitpicking here considering how impactful Brown has been. The Celtics own the best offensive rating in the NBA in December, scoring 124 points per 100 possessions. Boston’s +11.1 net rating is tops in the East by three points, and second in the NBA behind only the Thunder (+11.2) in that span.

Brown is a huge reason for that consistent offensive output.

Warriors' Draymond Green provides updated list of NBA championship contenders originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

As the NBA season turns the corner into 2026, Warriors forward Draymond Green has additions and subtractions to his list of serious title contenders. 

Previously, he listed five Western Conference teams as his contenders: the Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors. 

The Warriors, as Green explains on a new episode of his podcast, “The Draymond Green Show,” released Monday, have fallen off his list of serious contenders. But he remains optimistic. 

“We’re 16-15. Can’t say you’re a real contender at 16-15,” Green said of the Warriors record at the time, which now is 17-16. “However, I think it’s starting to come together for us. And I think for us, the one thing that stands out is that we have a great defense.” 

After Golden State’s 120-107 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Monday, the Warriors have a 109.7 defensive rating. That’s the fifth-best in the NBA, and third-best in the Western Conference. 

Green points to the Warriors’ offensive struggles as the reason for their middling record. 

“What has struggled is our offense, and now our offense is starting to turn the corner. Great defense, top two defense in the league, you can contend with that,” Green explained “And so, we’re not a serious contender right now– because of the record, we’re not even a playoff team right now. But, down the line, I think the Warriors are returning to your list of serious contenders.” 

The Warriors are in the middle of a good stretch right now, winning four of their last five games. They have averaged 122.4 points per game during that stretch – much better than their season-average of 115.1 points per game. 

As for the rest of his previous list, Green removed the Clippers because of their abysmal 10-21 start to the season, while the Nuggets and Thunders remain strong contenders, with the Lakers dropping slightly. 

“The Lakers, they’re a fringe. If they can’t figure out the defensive end, you can’t contend,” Green said. “But, if they can figure out the defensive end, we know they have the offensive firepower…” 

“… Right now, they’re on the fringe but not quite a real contender.” 

He made one addition from the Western Conference – the San Antonio Spurs who currently are 23-9 and have notched three wins against the defending-champion Thunder in this month alone. 

In the Eastern Conference, Green has high praise for the Detroit Pistons. 

“They got a serious-contender record, and they’re putting it together,” Green said. “And like I said before, they lost a series they should have won last year. So, I think you have to put them in that category out of the East.” 

Green also mentions the New York Knicks as one of the best teams in the East, but more of a fringe contender. 

It’s still early into the season, but the dog days of January might give Green and the NBA a clearer picture sooner rather than later. 

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Three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic suffered a "gut-wrenching" knee injury as the Denver Nuggets lost 147-123 at the Miami Heat.

Jokic was hurt late in the first half in an accidental coming together with team-mate Spencer Jones.

Jones stepped on the foot of Jokic who immediately collapsed to the ground clutching his knee.

The 30-year-old has had a scan and will be re-assessed in four weeks' time.

"Immediately, he knew something was wrong," said Nuggets head coach David Adelman.

"This is part of the NBA. Anyone who gets hurt, it's gut-wrenching, especially somebody as special as he is.

"We'll move on as a team. Obviously, right now, I'm more concerned just about him as a person and the disappointment of going through something like that."

Jokic, who leads the NBA season in rebounds and assists, had 21 points and eight assists in the game before suffering the injury.