The Warriors’ famous “We Believe” slogan was stolen by the Denver Nuggets during the 2025 NBA playoffs, and former Golden State star Baron Davisisn’t happy about it.
“I mean, that’s just so original. So original and unoriginal,” Davis sarcastically said on Monday’s edition of the “Draymond Green Show” podcast. “Man, come on, Denver. Call me, I’ll give you a slogan. This ain’t going to work. Somebody should be fired.
“This don’t work in Denver, you got to come up with something for Denver. You got to come up with something for Denver.”
The Nuggets rolled out a rally towel donning the motto for Game 1 of their 2025 Western Conference first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers at their home Ball Arena.
Davis and the 2006-07 “We Believe” Warriors made NBA history when they became the first No. 8 seed to defeat a No. 1 seed (Dallas Mavericks) in a first-round playoff series. And Davis and Green each agreed that just because the iconic Golden State team is decades old, it doesn’t give Denver an excuse to rip off the Warriors.
So, what exactly are the fourth-seeded Nuggets believing in their matchup with the fifth-seeded Clippers? The world may never know. After all, Dub Nation still uses the mantra.
“I say that too about the Warriors,” Davis told Green. “That’s like a Warriors mantra. We still believe. That’s what would replace the ‘We Believe.’”
Lakers guard Austin Reaves scores after driving past Minnesota's Mike Conley, left, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker during the Lakers' 117-95 loss in Game 1 of the first round of the NBA playoffs on Saturday. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Austin Reaves was tired Monday, the Lakers having just wrapped up a really hard practice.
In the first minutes of Game 1 Saturday evening, he was tired too.
As Reaves walked off the court for the first time, his chest heaved as he grabbed for air and he slumped to grab his shorts, telltale signs that he’d given a lot of effort in his first shift.
But giving effort and playing hard, at least internally in the Lakers’ dictionary, have two different definitions. And in what became a theme in the Lakers’ series-opening loss to the Timberwolves, the Lakers figured out ways to do the one and not enough of the other.
It’s why it might sound simplistic when JJ Redick said the Lakers' biggest adjustments start with them “playing harder and being organized,” but one without the other won’t lead them to the kinds of results they need Tuesday.
Asked what it looks like when the Lakers are “playing hard,” Reaves said it’s about more than flying around the court with no greater purpose other than to sweat. It’s energy, sure, but it’s focused, intentional and tough.
“Just think it's the how connected we are when everybody's giving it everything they have on every possession. You're more locked into every detail on both ends of the floor. And that's what the playoffs is about, winning on small details. Unfortunately we didn't do it the first game.”
Asked about potential adjustments, Redick said he would share only one.
“Not giving away our adjustments — got to play harder,” Redick said.
Lakers guard Luka Doncic shoots over Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert in Game 1 on Saturday. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The Lakers didn’t spend a lot of time wondering why in Game 1 of a playoff game, at home even, they didn’t play hard enough, but a look at their season shows some of the ways it could’ve been predicted.
When the team was faced with a long break while games were postponed because of the Los Angeles area wildfires, they managed just 102 points in a loss to the Spurs. After the seven-day All-Star break, the Lakers scored 97 points against Charlotte. And after he missed two weeks, LeBron James’ return to the Lakers was spoiled by a complete defensive no-show where the team allowed 146 points.
And an optimist would point out the Lakers won 12 of 14 after the loss to the Spurs and then won eight-straight after losing to the Hornets. And while James’ ramp-up after his injury return included a clunker in Orlando and a buzzer-beater in Chicago, the team quickly found its footing in good wins against Houston and in Memphis and Oklahoma City.
The other part of the equation, organization, means more than the Lakers’ point guard calling plays, Redick said.
“No, it’s just all of the normal stuff that we try to do and when we do it, we’re really good,” he said. “Being organized is screening. Being organized is getting to the proper spacing. Being organized is getting the corners filled after makes and misses. That’s being organized.”
In Game 1, the Lakers played a lot more like the team that lost to the Spurs, the Hornets and the Bulls than the one that performed its best in big games. And they looked that way because the Lakers didn’t “play hard” in the right ways. Because when they are, you can tell.
"We're communicating, giving second and third efforts. Teams getting one shot at the rim, you know, not two,” Dorian Finney-Smith said. “I wouldn't say we wasn't playing hard because our first shot defense was good, you know, we just wasn't getting those loose balls. They were first to the ball. And that don't mean it wasn't playing hard. It just means they was just a little bit more into it. And we got to do the same."
Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison says he miscalculated the depth of love his club’s fans had for Luka Doncic before the trade that sent the young superstar to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis.
Despite the persistent catcalls from fans for him to be fired in the 2 1/2 months since the deal, Harrison still believes it was the right move for building a championship contender in Dallas.
“I did know that Luka was important to the fan base,” Harrison said Monday during his season-ending news conference, six days after a session with a smaller group of reporters that the club called to try to move on from the exhaustively discussed Doncic trade. “I didn’t quite know it to what level.”
As he has said before, Harrison expected plenty of blowback from the trade, but thought it would have eased sooner if Davis had been able play with Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, P.J. Washington and Dereck Lively II for most of the rest of the season.
Instead, those five haven’t played together yet, and the star combo of Davis and Irving shared less than three quarters together before Davis injured a groin in his Dallas debut. Irving tore the ACL in his left knee while Davis was out.
“We feel that’s a championship-caliber team and we would have been winning at a high level and that would have quieted some of the outrage,” Harrison said as part of the same answer about the fans’ love for Doncic. “And so unfortunately we weren’t able to do that, so it just continued to go on and on.”
The Mavericks almost didn’t have enough players to meet the NBA’s minimum requirement for several games while Davis was sidelined. Once he returned, the Mavs steadied themselves and qualified for the final spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament at No. 10.
Dallas won at Sacramento for a shot at the eighth seed in the playoffs before losing at Memphis.
Harrison said he believed the Mavs would get a good player in the first round of the draft, where they are currently slated to pick 11th. He also didn’t rule out changes in free agency.
But when asked what Dallas needed to become a contender again, Harrison said, “Really, we just need to get healthy. I think the team we’re bringing back is a championship-caliber. We fully expect to have Kyrie back with us next year when he gets healed from his injury. And we believe we’ll be competing for a championship.”
After Harrison said repeatedly last week that “defense wins championships” while defending the trade, Doncic was asked by ESPN his reaction to the session, saying it was “sad” what Harrison was saying and he wanted to move on.
Harrison, who said last week he still hasn’t spoken to the five-time All-NBA player who led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals last season, was asked about that exchange and said, “I feel the same way he does. I’ve actually never spoken ill of Luka, and I’m just ready to move on with this team that we have.”
Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison says he miscalculated the depth of love his club’s fans had for Luka Doncic before the trade that sent the young superstar to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis.
Despite the persistent catcalls from fans for him to be fired in the 2 1/2 months since the deal, Harrison still believes it was the right move for building a championship contender in Dallas.
“I did know that Luka was important to the fan base,” Harrison said Monday during his season-ending news conference, six days after a session with a smaller group of reporters that the club called to try to move on from the exhaustively discussed Doncic trade. “I didn’t quite know it to what level.”
As he has said before, Harrison expected plenty of blowback from the trade, but thought it would have eased sooner if Davis had been able play with Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, P.J. Washington and Dereck Lively II for most of the rest of the season.
Instead, those five haven’t played together yet, and the star combo of Davis and Irving shared less than three quarters together before Davis injured a groin in his Dallas debut. Irving tore the ACL in his left knee while Davis was out.
“We feel that’s a championship-caliber team and we would have been winning at a high level and that would have quieted some of the outrage,” Harrison said as part of the same answer about the fans’ love for Doncic. “And so unfortunately we weren’t able to do that, so it just continued to go on and on.”
The Mavericks almost didn’t have enough players to meet the NBA’s minimum requirement for several games while Davis was sidelined. Once he returned, the Mavs steadied themselves and qualified for the final spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament at No. 10.
Dallas won at Sacramento for a shot at the eighth seed in the playoffs before losing at Memphis.
Harrison said he believed the Mavs would get a good player in the first round of the draft, where they are currently slated to pick 11th. He also didn’t rule out changes in free agency.
But when asked what Dallas needed to become a contender again, Harrison said, “Really, we just need to get healthy. I think the team we’re bringing back is a championship-caliber. We fully expect to have Kyrie back with us next year when he gets healed from his injury. And we believe we’ll be competing for a championship.”
After Harrison said repeatedly last week that “defense wins championships” while defending the trade, Doncic was asked by ESPN his reaction to the session, saying it was “sad” what Harrison was saying and he wanted to move on.
Harrison, who said last week he still hasn’t spoken to the five-time All-NBA player who led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals last season, was asked about that exchange and said, “I feel the same way he does. I’ve actually never spoken ill of Luka, and I’m just ready to move on with this team that we have.”
The Warriors’ trade for six-time NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler from the Miami Heat on Feb. 5 officially is complete.
The league announced the final moving part on Monday after settling several tiebreakers through random drawings. As a result, Golden State will send the No. 20 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft to Miami and receives pick No. 41 in return.
The Heat get the No. 20 pick from the Warriors in the Jimmy Butler trade
In sum, the Warriors acquired Jimmy Butler and the No. 40 selection from the Heat in exchange for Andrew Wiggins, Dennis Schröder, Kyle Anderson, Lindy Waters III and pick No. 20. Wiggins, Anderson and the 20th pick went to Miami, while Schröder and Waters landed with the Detroit Pistons.
The Warriors were desperate for a spark, and Butler delivered. Golden State has won 24 of 31 total games with Butler in a Warriors uniform and currently has a 1-0 series lead over the Houston Rockets in the 2025 Western Conference first-round playoffs. Many analysts and fans consider the Butler-era Warriors to be contenders for the franchise’s fifth NBA championship in 11 seasons.
The Heat, meanwhile, survived the NBA play-in tournament but are candidates to be swept by the East’s leading Cleveland Cavaliers. Perhaps Dub Nation can find solace regarding Wiggins, a Bay Area fan favorite, as he is averaging a solid 19.0 points on 45.8-percent shooting in his new Miami threads.
Coach Steve Kerr felt a throwback vibe in his Warriors’ 95-85 Game 1 win over the Houston Rockets in the 2025 Western Conference first-round playoffs on Sunday night at Toyota Center.
“They’re not a typical modern NBA team, in terms of spreading you out, playing fast, shooting a million threes, they’re kind of old school,” Kerr told reporters postgame (h/t ClutchPoints’ Rexwell Villas). “In many ways, they’re in the image of their coach. Ime [Udoka] was a grinder as a player. He was tough and physical, and that’s what Houston is.”
Led by Udoka, the Rockets aren’t the same 3-point-shooting team they were during the bulk of their James Harden era. Houston shot just 6-for-29 on triples in Game 1 and 34-for-87 from the field overall, even collecting 22 offensive rebounds to Golden State’s six because of its poor shooting. The Rockets entered the game shooting the 10th-fewest triples per game (35.8) during the regular season.
The Warriors weren’t perfect, but were better on Sunday, making 12 of 32 triples. However, they shot a fair 36-for-76 overall and defended their tails off, even handling the stints when the Rockets went to an old-school, two-center approach.
“In this series, you can see they know where their advantage lies, and it’s playing [Steven] Adams a lot,” Kerr added. “Sometimes playing him with [Alperen] Sengun. Having everybody crash. So, it felt like 1997 out there to me. Completely different NBA game than we’re used to. We’ve got to be ready for that. This is what this series is going to be.”
The Warriors have won four NBA championships during the Steph Curry era, largely because of how he transformed basketball with his 3-point prowess. But in this series? Golden State must continue to lean into what Kerr considers old-school hoops.
The Warriors likely will take 95 points per game if it means Houston can’t reach 90, as all that matters is winning.
ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins put a lot of stock in the Warriors after their 95-85 Game 1 win over the Houston Rockets in the 2025 Western Conference first-round playoffs on Sunday at Toyota Center.
“They can make a legit run to the NBA finals,” Perkins said on Monday night’s edition of “SportsCenter.” “I don’t have them picked, but with Jimmy Butler, he’s a Swiss Army Knife; he’ll cut you everywhere but loose. And it’s not just from him scoring, it’s from him going for the rebounds, getting the assists, getting the steals, and all of a sudden, he’s added more life, more joy to Steph Curry and this Warriors organization. All of a sudden, we’ve seen the Steph we’ve grown to love.
“This team continues to play at this pace, especially what they’re doing defensively with the combination of Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green, this team definitely can make a run to the Finals. I’m not putting them over [the Oklahoma City Thunder], but they are legit title contenders.”
After one game, Perkins can see Golden State giving Oklahoma City a run for its money. It’s not an outlandish take, either.
The Warriors were rejuvenated by Butler’s arrival and since have won 24 of the 31 games he has played in thus far, including Sunday’s playoff victory. Curry got his experienced running mate and, as Perkins highlighted, Green got another key defender to help lead Golden State’s defense, which has been elite since Butler’s arrival.
Golden State’s defense led the NBA with a 109.3 defensive rating after hosting NBA All-Star Weekend. The Warriors limiting the second-seeded Rockets to 85 points shouldn’t have surprised anyone who has been paying attention.
The Warriors still have 15 wins to go before earning their fifth NBA championship in 11 seasons. But Golden State looks like a real contender after its Game 1 victory, and Perkins is paying attention.
The Atlanta Hawks finished 40-42 this season, the No. 8 seed in the East, but never made it out of the Play-In Tournament after losses to Orlando and Miami (the second straight year they lost in the play-in). It's a franchise at a crossroads, deciding whether to continue building around Trae Young or pivot.
Landry Fields will not be making those decisions. On Monday, the Hawks let Fields go and announced that Onsi Saleh has been promoted to general manager, while the franchise searches for a new head of basketball operations.
We have announced that we will begin the search for a President of Basketball Operations and have hired Sportsology Group, a leading provider of strategic advisory and operational support in the sports industry, to direct the process.
"Every offseason we evaluate how we operate and ways we can improve our organization. As we enter this pivotal offseason, we have several complex decisions ahead of us, and we are committed to providing the human and financial resources needed to ensure that we navigate these decisions with a high level of precision and foresight. Adding an accomplished, senior-level leader to provide strategic direction and structure as well as partnering with Onsi and our talented front office is a top priority," Principal Owner Tony Ressler said in a statement announcing Fields firing.
Philadelphia 76ers executive Elton Brand will be among those considered for the top basketball spot in Atlanta, reports Marc Stein. It's an interesting job, but one where owner Ressler — through his son Nick, who is officially the Vice President of Strategic Planning and the alternate governor — is believed to have a heavy hand in personnel and player decisions, according to league sources.
Atlanta is at a crossroads. Trae Young, 26, is extension eligible off the $46 million he is set to make next season (Young has a player option for the 2026-27 season). Do the Hawks want to continue with him as their franchise tentpole? Young is a high-level offensive player (averaging 24.2 points and 11.6 assists per game last season) who is a liability on the defensive end, which has limited the Hawks' ceiling (despite their 2021 run to the Eastern Conference Finals). There are other quality young players on the roster in Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels and Zaccharie Risacher. Should they be the foundation of what comes next? Should the Hawks try to trade Young?
Those are questions for the next head of basketball operations in Atlanta, and the search is on for that person.
Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison says he miscalculated the depth of love his club’s fans had for Luka Doncic before the trade that sent the young superstar to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis.
Despite the persistent catcalls from fans for him to be fired in the 2 1/2 months since the deal, Harrison still believes it was the right move for building a championship contender in Dallas.
“I did know that Luka was important to the fan base,” Harrison said Monday during his season-ending news conference, six days after a session with a smaller group of reporters that the club called to try to move on from the exhaustively discussed Doncic trade. “I didn’t quite know it to what level.”
As he has said before, Harrison expected plenty of blowback from the trade, but thought it would have eased sooner if Davis had been able play with Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, P.J. Washington and Dereck Lively II for most of the rest of the season.
Instead, those five haven’t played together yet, and the star combo of Davis and Irving shared less than three quarters together before Davis injured a groin in his Dallas debut. Irving tore the ACL in his left knee while Davis was out.
“We feel that’s a championship-caliber team and we would have been winning at a high level and that would have quieted some of the outrage,” Harrison said as part of the same answer about the fans’ love for Doncic. “And so unfortunately we weren’t able to do that, so it just continued to go on and on.”
The Mavericks almost didn’t have enough players to meet the NBA’s minimum requirement for several games while Davis was sidelined. Once he returned, the Mavs steadied themselves and qualified for the final spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament at No. 10.
Dallas won at Sacramento for a shot at the eighth seed in the playoffs before losing at Memphis.
Harrison said he believed the Mavs would get a good player in the first round of the draft, where they are currently slated to pick 11th. He also didn’t rule out changes in free agency.
But when asked what Dallas needed to become a contender again, Harrison said, “Really, we just need to get healthy. I think the team we’re bringing back is a championship-caliber. We fully expect to have Kyrie back with us next year when he gets healed from his injury. And we believe we’ll be competing for a championship.”
After Harrison said repeatedly last week that “defense wins championships” while defending the trade, Doncic was asked by ESPN his reaction to the session, saying it was “sad” what Harrison was saying and he wanted to move on.
Harrison, who said last week he still hasn’t spoken to the five-time All-NBA player who led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals last season, was asked about that exchange and said, “I feel the same way he does. I’ve actually never spoken ill of Luka, and I’m just ready to move on with this team that we have.”
Flagg entered the college season as the top prospect on most draft boards and only solidified that standing with a season where he averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.4 blocks per game. He won the Naismith National Player of the Year award and the Wooden Award, plus was voted the National Player of the Year by the Associated Press, National Association of Basketball Coaches and U.S. Basketball Writers Association. He became the first freshman in NCAA history to lead his team in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks, leading Duke to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.
Heading into the season, NBA scouts questioned how good he would be at creating his own shot — he has answered that emphatically.
COOPER FLAGG JUST WENT COAST-TO-COAST AND POSTERIZED THE DEFENDER
Flagg admitted he thought about returning to Duke during the season, even telling The Athletic," S***, I want to come back next year." However, for a future No. 1 pick, the injury risk and the money left on the table — it could cost him as much as $75 million over the course of his NBA career — made choosing the NBA draft the only option.
There are a lot of teams heading into next month's NBA Draft Lottery now hoping for the ping pong balls to bounce their way so they can land a franchise cornerstone player in Flagg.
Duke star Cooper Flagg is headed to the NBA as the favorite to be the No. 1 overall draft pick. The program announced Flagg's move in a social media post Monday following a lone college season that saw the 18-year-old become only the fourth freshman named as The Associated Press national player of the year while leading the Blue Devils to the Final Four. Flagg had reclassified to get to Duke a year early, and his decision was expected all year, even as he generally declined to spell out plans about his professional future as the season pushed into March or mentioned how much fun he had playing in college.
Jayson Tatum will have to wait at least another year for his first NBA MVP award.
The league announced the three finalists for the award on Sunday: Oklahoma City guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, and Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo. Tatum will likely finish fourth in MVP voting for the second time in three years.
Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic have been co-favorites to win the award throughout the 2024-25 season. Choosing Antetokounmpo over Tatum is where NBC Sports Boston’s Celtics analysts Chris Forsberg and Eddie House take issue.
“I thought by the end of the season, the people that vote for these awards would recognize that if we sit here and keep saying, ‘We’re gonna vote for SGA (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) because (of) the team’s success,’ so we’re not rewarding Tatum for the success of the Celtics? So I thought they’d recognize that and put him ahead of Giannis,” Forsberg said on Sunday’s Celtics Postgame Live.
“Giannis had a great season. I get the numbers are probably pretty glitzy and he had to carry a heavier load without Damian Lillard out there. And yet, you can’t tell me that Jayson Tatum doesn’t more positively impact winning this season for a 60-win team. I think it’s just ridiculous that he’s not in the top three. If he needs any motivation, he finds it at every turn because people just don’t give him the respect he deserves.”
House, befuddled by the continued dismissal of Tatum’s impact, believes the six-time All-Star will use his latest MVP finalist snub as fuel for another deep postseason run.
“Most disrespected superstar in the league,” he said of Tatum. “Most disrespected All-NBA First-Team player in the league. Was it three straight years he’s been All-NBA? He’s disrespected.
“And that’s OK, because sometimes that’s fuel for the fire and for the greater good of what the Boston Celtics are doing. I think it’s turning him into a monster, and eventually, he’s gonna get that MVP. So thank you, everybody.”
Tatum averaged 26.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 6.0 assists over 72 regular-season games. The 27-year-old tallied 17 points and 14 rebounds in Sunday’s Game 1 win over the Orlando Magic.
C’s fans were given a scare in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game when Tatum went down with a wrist injury. However, it appears it won’t keep him out for Game 2, as X-rays came back clean.
Game 2 at TD Garden is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Coverage begins on NBC Sports Boston with Celtics Pregame Live at 6 p.m.
