Category: Sports News

The Celtics did not shoot the ball well but that did not prevent them from blowing out the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night in a 97-81 win that was headlined by their defense, 22 offensive rebounds and a really big Derrick White game for their 3rd straight win of the road trip.

Jaylen Brown joined Jayson Tatum on the injury report, so the Celtics started Derrick White, Ron Harper Jr., Baylor Scheierman, Sam Hauser and Neemias Queta. The Suns had a lengthy injury report: Devin Booker, Dillon Brooks, Jordan Goodwin, Haywood Highsmith and Cole Anthony; they started Collin Gillespie, Jalen Green, Royce O’Neale, Ryan Dunn and Mark Williams.

It was a very slow start from three for the Celtics as they started 2/10 from beyond the arc and a 10-0 Phoenix run put the Suns up 15-10. Ron Harper Jr. had 3 rebounds but started the game 1/6 from the field.

Joe Mazulla made mass substitutions at the first time out putting Payton Pricthard, Nikola Vucevic, Jordan Walsh and Hugo Gonzalez in with Sam Hauser.

Not a very good quarter for the Celtics: they got 9 offensive rebounds but shot just 9/28 from the field and 3/15 from three. They trailed the Suns, 26-21. Derrick White led the team with 5 points while Nikola Vucevic had 4 points off of the bench.

The Celtics struggled to get their offense going in the first half, but then a Derrick White three and Neemias Queta dunk lead to a Suns timeout. Phoenix still led 41-37 but the Celtics needed some life on offense and those baskets were signs that it was possible.

The Celtics led the Suns at the end of the half, 50-46. It was not a pretty offensive half for Boston: 50 points on 38% from the field and 25% from three but their offensive rebounds and defense got the job done through 24 minutes. Derrick White led the team with 18 points while Neemias Queta had 10 points and 5 rebounds.

The Celtics took it to the Suns in the third quarter. Sam Hauser got going from three, hitting 3 threes in the period and scoring 13 points. Baylor Scheierman had 6 rebounds and was a +19 in the quarter. However, it was the Celtics defense that dominated the quarter. Boston outscored the Suns 30-11 in the 3rd, as Phoenix shot 18% from the field and 11% from three — dominant stuff from Boston’s defense. Sure, Phoenix missed some good looks, but Boston was dominant on the defensive end. The Celtics also out rebounded the Suns 21-6 in the quarter.

It was a Ron Harper Jr. block that was the play off the quarter, however.

GET THAT 🤬 OUTTA HERE pic.twitter.com/xQHVL5Q0Ae

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) February 25, 2026

The Celtics led 80-57 at the end of three quarters. Derrick White led the team with 18 points while Hauser had 16 and Neemias Queta had 14.

The 4th quarter saw a different start as the Suns fought back into the game scoring the first 7 points of the period and forcing Mazzulla to call a timeout not even 2 minutes in.

Boston was able to regain control of the game, thanks to a pair if Derrick White baskets and big three pointers from Harper Jr. and Baylor Scheierman. An 8-2 run put the Celts back up 22 points.

Scheierman had a double-double in the game with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

It was a dominant 2nd half from the Celtics as they blew out the Suns.

Derrick White was unbelievable in the game with 22 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists. Meanwhile, Neemias Queta finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds. The Celtics won, 97-81.

Boston shot 40% from the field and 28% from three while the Suns shot 37% from the field and 33% from three. The Celtics next game is Wednesday night at 10 EST in Denver against the Nuggets.

The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the New York Knicks 109-94. Let’s see who won and lost the night.

WINNER – Packing the Paint

Have you heard the term “open for a reason”? Well, after tonight, Josh Hart is certainly familiar.

The Cavs approached this game with a straightforward defensive game plan. Jarrett Allen matched up with Hart and chose to pack the paint rather than honor him as a three-point shooter. The results benefited Cleveland as they were able to crowd New York’s drives, while Hart only managed to shoot 2-8 from downtown.

Cleveland deployed a similar tactic whenever Jose Alverado was in the game. Alverado shot 1-4.

At times, I thought the Cavs were maybe being too lax about covering Hart. Surely he’s a good enough shooter to warrant some sort of closeout. But the Cavs bet against him tonight, and Hart wasn’t able to make them regret it.

Having more bodies in the paint is self-explanatory, especially against a Knicks team that has previously crushed Cleveland on the glass. Being able to stay home minimizes the damage that can be done through offensive rebounds. It also relieves pressure to scramble on the perimeter and forces the opponent into taking lower-quality shots.

Of course, it all becomes easier when your opponent is missing shots. New York finished the night shooting 10-37 (27%) from downtown overall.

LOSER – The James Harden Whistle

So… what’s going on?

Harden is historically known for having one of the best whistles the game has ever seen. Has that good fortune with the officials been canceled out by playing for a small-market team such as the Cavs?

Harden attempted zero free throws tonight for just the fifth time since 2021. It wasn’t for a lack of trying.

There was a point in this game where Harden got slammed on a drive to the basket. When he got back to his feet, Harden gave the officials a look of pure bilwederment and betrayal. This type of stuff hasn’t happened before.

Harden’s free-throw rate has plummeted since joining the Cavs. Part of that, I assume, is because he hasn’t been attempting field goals at nearly the same volume. He’s instead been playing the role of playmaker as he gets initiated with his new team.

But at a certain point… You begin to wonder.

WINNER – The Backcourt

Listen, it’s not always going to be perfect. The Cavs’ starting backcourt didn’t score efficiently or post an assist-to-turnover rate that will make you blush. But, they got the job done — and that means something when considering what this team looked like three months ago.

A big reason why Cleveland acquired James Harden was his availability. For all the great things that Darius Garland brought to the floor, his issue recently has simply been being on the floor. That’s why even an 8-18 shooting night from Harden can still feel like a massive win. Because even when things aren’t going exactly to plan — Harden can elevate the offense through his playmaking and… well, availability.

Pair that with Mitchell, who also had a tough shooting night (5-18) but made timely shots. The two guards combined for 43 points and kept relentless pressure on New York’s defense to contain them. That pressure creates gravity, and that gravity makes it so that other players, such as Jarrett Allen, can find the gaps and attack.

Sometimes, high volume is better than no volume. Efficiency is great, but it can also be overrated. The Cavs guards did what they needed to tonight.

With an injury report more impressive than their starting five, the Warriors couldn’t overcome a sloppy start to their road trip against the lowly Pelicans. 

The Warriors threw the ball just about everywhere — off their shoes, into opponents’ hands, out of bounds, off every inch of iron — except the bottom of the net in a 113-109 loss to the second-worst team in the Western Conference. 

Without Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, Al Horford or Kristaps Porzingis, Golden State fell behind 31-19 by the end of the first quarter and didn’t hold a lead until midway through the third. 

“With the injuries we have, we have to play well to win. I don’t think we played well tonight,” said coach Steve Kerr, whose team committed 21 turnovers leading to 18 points.

It was almost the second consecutive game Golden State’s reserves completed a second-half comeback after they used a 33-18 fourth quarter to beat Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets on Sunday.

“The game was right there for us,” Kerr said. “We just couldn’t execute well enough.”

They fell behind by as many as 14 points and scored their third-fewest points in any half this season (trailing 46-39 at intermission) before a split-action assist from Draymond Green to Brandin Podziemski gave them their first lead, 61-59, midway through the third quarter. 

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Green, who missed Golden State’s 129-118 win over Denver on Sunday, returned and helped set up a fair share of open shots, but the Warriors failed to convert many of them. 

Golden State came back to take an 86-85 lead with 7:39 to go, but the Pelicans answered with a 15-3 run following a failed coach’s challenge by Steve Kerr that would have overturned a basket by Zion Williamson that instead turned into a three-point play. 

Williamson led the Pelicans with 26 points — 10 in the fourth quarter. 

What it means 

The Warriors fell to 11-17 on the road with another game in Memphis looming Wednesday. Golden State is the only team among the top eight in the Western Conference with a losing record away from home (next-worst: Suns, 14-14). 

Turning point 

As soon as the Warriors’ charter flight left San Francisco, apparently. 

Whatever momentum the team’s reserves built with their come-from-behind win over one of the West’s top teams was absent from the opening tip inside the Smoothie King Center on Tuesday. 

“We did not execute very well offensively,” Kerr said. “Spacing was bad. Transition we had probably three potential lay-ups in the first half. We didn’t cut, we didn’t run to the rim. We didn’t get to the corners. We just looked a little disjointed. I thought their pressure early took us out of some stuff.”

They missed 16 of their first 21 shots from the field (23.8%) and didn’t get to the foul line until New Orleans was called for a three-second violation with 46 seconds left in the quarter. 

MVP 

Jonathan Kuminga | The best basketball played by anyone associated with the Warriors on Tuesday night wasn’t anyone in uniform in New Orleans. Jonathan Kuminga made an electric debut with the Hawks against the Wizards, scoring 27 points in 24 minutes on 9-of-12 shooting.

Stat of the game 

21-for-95 (22.1%) | Despite the Warriors’ struggles offensively, the game never got away from them. On the other end of the floor, the Pelicans were having just as much trouble scoring the basketball. 

New Orleans made only 10 of its 40 shots from beyond the perimeter, but the Warriors were even worse, converting 11 of 45 attempts (23.3%). 

Up next 

The Warriors head to Memphis, where they will play the second half of their 11th back-to-back of the season. They are 5-5 in the second game of back-to-backs this season, falling to 6-5 in the first half with their loss to the Pelicans. 

Already without Curry (knee), Butler (knee) and Porzingis (illness), Golden State is also expected to be without De’Anthony Melton (knee), who has yet to be medically cleared to play games on consecutive days. Horford (toe) sat in New Orleans with the expectation of playing against the Grizzlies after scoring 22 points with six 3-pointers in their win against Denver. 

The Phoenix Suns started the evening promising, jumping out to a 26-21 lead after the opening quarter. It looked like just maybe this group was starting to figure it out… until it was clear they weren’t. Boston dominated in the second half, and the Suns’ offensive struggles continued.

They have now scored just 158 points combined in their last two games.

The third quarter was unacceptable. Phoenix mustered just 11 points and was outscored by 19 in that quarter, which dug them a hole too deep to get out of. They went on a 14-0 run to make it somewhat competitive late in the game, but Boston applied another knockout punch to create distance and unleash the third string.

We could sit here and talk about injuries, but Boston is dealing with a couple of their own. No Jaylen Brown or Jayson Tatum, yet the Celtics were a well-oiled machine. Phoenix will need to figure this out quickly because none of Devin Booker, Dillon Brooks, or Jordan Goodwin is coming to save the day anytime soon.

Some credit is due to Boston, but the Suns just didn’t do anything well tonight.

Game Flow

First Half

The game started with each team trading threes: one from Derrick White and then a corner hit from Jalen Green. Sam Hauser drained a

Boston jumped ahead to a 10-5 advantage, getting easy looks early from deep and from crashing the glass. Phoenix went on a 7-0 run to take a 12-10 lead.

Phoenix’s offense picked up a bit as Jalen Green and Collin Gillespie started to get in a rhythm. Even Ryan Dunn got in on the scoring action!

The defense followed suit. After allowing 10 points in the opening 3 minutes, they held Boston to just 11 points the rest of the quarter.

Phoenix led 26-21 after the opening quarter. Jalen Green and Ryan Dunn led the way with 7 points each.

We got some early Rasheer Fleming minutes! He didn’t do much in his first stint, but he was playing aggressive point-of-attack defense. Oso continued to show his ability to be feisty and mix it up a bit, which is a welcome sight for Suns fans.

The tempo was in favor of Phoenix for the first six minutes or so, but Boston went on a 7-0 run to cut the Suns’ lead down to four, 41-37, leading to a Jordan Ott timeout.

Boston stormed back to take a 44-41 lead after a Derrick White triple extended their run to 14-0. The offense fell flat. Grayson Allen hit three free throws after a failed challenge attempt by Joe Mazulla to even the game back up at 44.

Boston finished strong to take a 50-44 lead into the half, led by 18 points from Derrick White. Royce O’Neale, Grayson Allen, and Jalen Green all had 9 points to pace the Suns in the opening 24 minutes.

Second Half

The Suns opened up the third quarter a bit flat, carrying over from the end of the 2nd quarter. Boston’s suffocating defense seemed to squeeze the life out of them and built their lead back up to 11, their largest at the time.

Boston’s defense continued to stifle the shorthanded Suns, and Sam Hauser got hot, propelling the Celtics’ lead to 19. It quickly turned into another one of those nights. There wasn’t a lot to highlight in the 3rd quarter unless you are a Celtics fan.

Boston won the third quarter 30 to 11 to take an 80-57 lead into the 4th. Yes, 11 points were scored in total by the Suns in the third. Eleven.

Phoenix opened the 4th on a 9-0 run, showing a bit of life after a disastrous third to cut the lead down to 14. It was a 14-0 run dating back to the end of the third.

Derrick White and company decided to turn it up a notch as soon as it became a game again, and they were able to take a convincing lead and slam the door shut on the Suns.

Then we had garbage time… the rookies got some run. And that was all she wrote.

Up Next

The Suns will host the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night at the Morg.

For Lon Rosen, becoming the Lakers’ president of business operations is a full-circle moment.

Rosen started his career with the Lakers as an intern while in college before becoming a front office executive in the 1980s, eventually becoming an agent and business executive – including being the Dodgers’ executive vice president and chief marketing officer since 2012.

“Being able to sort of return to really where I started, it’s a really exciting thing for me,” Rosen told a handful of beat reporters on Tuesday night. “And I like the challenge, and I’m really looking forward to it. There’s really great people working with me, which is what makes things enjoyable.”

Rosen added: “For me, it’s a challenge. It’s something new, but it is sort of like returning home. But because I still have my connection with the Dodgers, it’s a fun thing.”

“I’ve spoken to others that do this type of work. Luckily there’s a great team that works here at the Lakers that I’ve met for the last two days. And I have a really great team that works for the Dodgers and we all just fit together,” he added.

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In a wide-ranging conversation, Rosen addressed a variety of topics.

He confirmed the plan for president of basketball operations/general manager Rob Pelinka to continue to lead the franchise’s basketball operations, along with input from special advisers Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi,

Pelinka told reporters earlier in the month he and franchise governor Jeanie Buss will lead front office expansion.

“Rob’s empowered to do what he does,” Rosen said. “And he’s talked about it and I can talk about it; Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi, they have involvement helping Rob a bit. It gives you a deeper bench, and I think Rob appreciates that. And it is unique. But they have a skill set that they can transfer some of it here. And that’s really how we look at it. 

“I have a really good relationship with Rob. I’ve known Rob Pelinka from when he was representing Kobe [Bryant]. I met him many many years ago.” 

Friedman, Zaidi and Rosen are among the Dodgers connections added to the legendary NBA franchise since Mark Walter, who’s also the majority owner of the Dodgers, bought majority ownership of the team from the Buss family in the fall. 

Lakers icon Magic Johnson won’t rejoin the franchise in an official role. Johnson was the team’s president of basketball operations from February 2017-April 2019 before he abruptly resigned. 

“He’s always gonna have some type of involvement with all the teams, but he is not gonna have day-to-day involvement,”  Rosen said. “It’s gonna be no different since he left the Lakers. Obviously he’s a huge fan of the Lakers, but he’s not gonna be, ‘Hey Rob go sign this player. Do that.’ He’ll always be involved with all the teams that he’s involved in, but no, he’s not gonna have day-to-day involvement at all. He is a super Laker fan and he’ll continue to be a super Laker fan. It’s not bad to have that.”

Rosen also had a message for fans after the recent increased season ticket prices for next season – which included a 3% “admin fee”.

“We hope they renew,” Rosen said. “And obviously it reflects on what the market is now and the demand for tickets. You can look at how tickets sell and what the prices are. You look at the primary and secondary market and you can see where their demand is.”

Rosen said he’ll spend a “majority” of his time working for the Lakers, but will still provide “some services” to the Dodgders. 

“We’re gonna look at best practices for both teams,” Rosen said. “I haven’t gotten into the weeds of how the Lakers operate, but I have a sense of how they operate and they operate very well. There’s things that we do at the Dodgers that we do really really well. 

“Both organizations are gonna learn from each other. I don’t know where it’s all gonna fall. People say, the Dodgers are, the, this gold standard. And you know what, we do a really nice job there. And the job here is, I’ve been to a lot of games here. I know their business model is very successful, so I just gotta make sure I don’t mess it up.”

ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta Hawks forward Jalen Johnson left the game against the Washington Wizards with a left hip flexor injury Tuesday night.

Johnson was injured in the first quarter and ruled out after being evaluated by the training staff.

“There was enough there not to send him back in the game,” coach Quin Snyder said.

Johnson, who earned his first All-Star Game berth this season, will be re-evaluated before the Hawks face the Wizards again Thursday to complete back-to-back games in Atlanta. It’s not known if he will miss any additional playing time.

Johnson finished with five points, three rebounds and two steals in about 5 1/2 minutes against the Wizards. He came into the night averaging 23.4 points, 10.8 rebounds and 8.1 assists.

His absence cleared the way for Jonathan Kuminga to score a season-high 27 points in his Hawks debut. He was acquired from Golden State at the trade deadline.

The Hawks beat the Wizards 119-98.

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

CLEVELAND — Brick by brick, the Knicks were dismantled by the Cavs.

An atrocious shooting night ended Tuesday with a 109-94 loss for the Knicks, who folded easily to their fellow Finals contender and left Rocket Arena tied for third in the East.

The third quarter was the breaking point. Or better yet, the bricking point. It was horrendous.

The Knicks managed just 11 points in those 12 nasty minutes, shooting a combined (shield your eyes, children) 3-for-24 overall, 1-for-12 from beyond the arc and 4-for-8 from the foul line.

It was their lowest-scoring quarter of the season and looked the part.

“No matter what we did, we either turned the ball over or we had a tough shot,” coach Mike Brown said after arriving late to his postgame news conference. “So we made some play calls tonight. But we didn’t generate anything from the calls that we made.”

So they entered the fourth quarter down 18 and couldn’t recover, not against a stout Cavaliers defense and without the help of competent shooting. Brown finally waved the white flag with 2:42 remaining, emptying his bench and sending the starters on a walk of shame.

Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, Jalen Brunson, Landry Shamet and OG Anunoby combined to miss 42 of their 61 attempts. Bridges was aggressively misfiring at 6-for-17 on the evening. Brunson was worse at 6-for-19.

Karl-Anthony Towns was perfect but only took five shots, with four of those in the first quarter. It furthered KAT’s head-scratching trend of alternating strong performances with disappearing acts. Anunoby (five points, 2-for-9 from the field) has struggled since returning from a toe injury.

Brown’s attempt to give an opportunity to Jeremy Sochan was also a miscalculation, with the newcomer appearing utterly lost in his two first-half minutes. Mohamed Diawara got the call in the second half and also tossed up bricks.

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST NBA STANDINGS AND KNICKS STATS

“We just didn’t play well enough,” Hart said. “We didn’t execute offensively.”

It was an all-around dud. The Cavs responded with a balanced but not especially potent attack. They shot just 42.5 percent as a team, but it didn’t matter against the Brickerbockers. Mitchell Robinson, who has owned the Cavs frontcourt since the 2023 playoffs, was the lone positive for the Knicks with 15 rebounds, including eight offensive.

The Knicks (36-22) are now even with the Cavs (36-22) and two games behind the No. 2 Celtics, who beat the Suns on Tuesday night.

But the Cavs are surging. They revamped at the trade deadline, acquiring James Harden for the talented but habitually unavailable Darius Garland. They also brought in bench pieces Dennis Schroder and Keon Ellis.

It’s all been positive for Cleveland, which has won 13 of 15 after Tuesday’s blowout. Kenny Atkinson just missed out on guiding Harden in Brooklyn before he was unceremoniously dumped by GM Sean Marks and owner Joe Tsai. Now he’s excited for the chance in Cleveland.

“His composure, calmness,” Atkinson said of Harden, who scored 20 points Tuesday. “He’s just got a command of the game. That settles everybody down. It’s huge. He knows where the ball’s got to go. He knows the end-of-game stuff. Sharp, sharp player.”

The Knicks understood the difficulties of defending Harden and Donovan Mitchell, perhaps the best offensive backcourt in the NBA.

But defending wasn’t the problem Tuesday for the Knicks. It was the bricklaying.

“Ugly game,” Brown said.

The New Orleans Pelicans stepped in front of their home crowd at 17-42, a team so bad they make late-stage tank commanders nervous. And the Golden State Warriors, because this is who they are a lotta nights without their firepower, made it close down the stretch but ultimately faltered.

Final score: 113-109 Pelicans. Here’s the crime scene: the Warriors got outscored 31-19 in the first quarter and spent the next three quarters playing catch-up basketball against a team vying for a high draft pick in the lottery . Golden State won the second quarter, won the third, won the fourth but alas, still lost the game. Missing their stars Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Kristaps Porzingis doesn’t seem to be like a good enough reason to lose this game considering they just knocked off the Nuggets Sunday with similar injury woes.

They almost did bail themselves out, which marks the resilience this team has possessed all season with or without their stars.

De’Anthony Melton was the best player on the floor for the Dubs, dropping 28 points on 8-of-21 shooting while going 9-of-11 from the free throw line, keeping Golden State’s pulse going when it had no business still beating. Moses Moody added 24 on 7-of-13 with a +13 that screamed “this man is figuring it out”. Brandin Podziemski hauled down 15 rebounds — 5 offensive — looking like the second coming of Westbrook. And Draymond Green orchestrated 6 assists with his usual controlled chaos. These guys fought. Credit where it’s due.

But the team shot 11-of-45 from three, which cost them on a night when their feisty opponents only made 10 threes of their own. If the Dubs knock down their usual clip beyond the arc tonight they probably pull away pretty easily.

On the other hand the Pelicans forced enough turnovers (all 20 of them) to the tune of being gifted 18 points off of Golden State’s mistakes. That’s how you get a lottery team jump started in their home arena.

Zion Williamson scored 26 on 11-of-21 shooting while the Warriors defense wrestled against his physicality Saddiq Bey added 18. Jordan Poole, playing against his former team with something to prove, dropped 12-6-3 off the bench. Of course he did.

This is a team that’s 30-28, scratching for playoff positioning, as they await the return of at least a couple of their best players. One broken quarter against one of the league’s worst teams decided everything tonight. Tough.

2025-26 Sixers Bell Ringer standings:
Tyrese Maxey – 21
Joel Embiid – 9
VJ Edgecombe – 8
Paul George – 6
Dominick Barlow – 2
Andre Drummond – 2
Jared McCain :’( – 2
Kelly Oubre Jr. – 2
MarJon Beauchamp – 1
Adem Bona – 1
Justin Edwards – 1
Quentin Grimes – 1
Trendon Watford – 1
15th roster spot – 1

We won’t be planning a parade for a win against an Indiana Pacers team with a starting five worth of talent on the sidelines, but it sure was nice to see the Philadelphia 76ers just suit up and handle their business. The Sixers jumped out in front with a scorching hot second quarter that saw them rack up 45 points in the frame. They avoided the usual third quarter bugaboo, actually extending the lead coming out of halftime, and were able to limit everyone’s minutes as they mostly coasted in the fourth quarter of the 135-114 win. It was a blistering offensive performance, as their 57.6 percent shooting from the floor was the team’s best mark in two years (h/t Erin Grugan). Philadelphia has now won two straight games as they’ll head back home to face Miami on Thursday. Let’s talk Bell Ringer first.

Tyrese Maxey: 32 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 2 turnovers

Maxey was on a clear triple-double pace on the evening before getting to take the rare fourth quarter off. It’ll pay off later in the week that Tyrese got to keep a little extra tread on the tires. Tonight, he was dynamite offensively, and not because he had some terrific outside shooting night (just 2-of-8 from three). Instead, it was Tyrese’s ability to carve into the paint and weave his way in and around and under defenders, finishing with a bunch of dazzling lay-ins and creative passes to teammates, and drawing fouls. His body control and shooting touch while sprinting faster than everyone else on the court is simply marvelous. Maxey also had a play where he backed the defender down repeatedly and then canned a turnaround jumper, years of putting in the work in the weight room on display. A more competitive game and we’re likely looking at a 40-point triple-double from Tyrese, just an outstanding evening.

Joel Embiid: 27 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 block, 4 turnover

After missing the past five games, Joel made his return to action and looked like he hadn’t missed a beat. Offensively, the gravity he creates for others is night and day from when he’s unavailable. Embiid had a couple nice assists where the double team came and he found Kelly Oubre Jr and Trendon Watford open for buckets. Joel knocked down a couple jumpers himself, but a lot of his work tonight actually came as a roll man, adeptly finishing through some traffic around the hoop. Defensively, Embiid looked in fine form, spryly getting around the court to rotate and challenge shots. Overall, it was about as good as we could have hoped to see from the big man in his return, who can sometimes tend to fall on the sluggish side after a layoff.

VJ Edgecombe: 23 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 1 turnover

With Embiid back and Tyrese cooking, Edgecombe was able to have a highly efficient night, shooting 9-of-13 from the field. He wasn’t some wallflower though, attacking across all three levels. VJ nailed a couple spot-up threes, had a handful of hard drives at the hoop to finish through contact, and also showed off that advanced middie game with a pull-up and a fadeaway jumper. Really, everything just looked smooth and unforced for him tonight; he picked his spots and otherwise filled in all the gaps doing the little things elsewhere. It was the ideal “play off the stars” kind of game from the rookie.

“You can’t curate your circumstances,” said Mark Daigneault before the Oklahoma City Thunder played the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night, and that stuck with me. It’s true in every aspect of life, as he went on to mention, but seems especially true in sports. Especially true in basketball, and even more so in the final months of the season. You can build a great roster, create great plays, have great team chemistry — but so much of that goes out the door in the final stretch of the season.

You can’t pick and choose what players will be available to you by the time March rolls around. Sometimes, the players you have are dealing with minutes restrictions or lingering injury issues (see: Jakob Poeltl). The schedule doesn’t stop for you, though. You need to adapt to it.

Now, when you’re dealing with the circumstances at hand, and your opponent is as well, but theirs are worse (see: SGA still out), then maybe you should take advantage of that. The Raptors did not tonight.

Toronto’s performance against OKC is a huge reason why I am of the belief that people overreact when this team loses. I know that sounds weird, but listen (read?). This current iteration of the Toronto Raptors isn’t built to win a championship — I’ve said this before. They are having a good growth year, sure. RJ Barrett said exactly that after the game tonight, to think back to where they were last season at this time. How much better they are, but also hhow mucht hey still have to learn.

He’s right, and games like this are proving what this roster is lacking. Poeltl, of course, is a big hole in this roster as his injury is managed, and he doesn’t play both games on back-to-backs. They also lack the offensive punch needed to compete with the best NBA teams.

Once a team like OKC shuts down the Raptors’ best offensive player (Ingram), there isn’t much Toronto can do to recover. Scottie Barnes, of course, helps. Other than that, the Raptors’ offence tonight lacked the accuracy needed to overcome the Thunder. OKC’s defence was too suffocating, the Raptors weren’t shooting well enough, and they weren’t defending with 100% intensity 100% of the time. That’s important when playing the reigning champions.

What was great about their performance, though, was the urgency they played with in the fourth quarter. Too little too late? Maybe. Better than just rolling over, though. Barrett even compared it to how they lost to the Pistons a few weeks ago — that tonight they at least put up a fight. What you can’t do after coming back like that is let OKC go on a 9-0 run, though. Lesson learned.

The other bit of news, as we head into the second night of a back-to-back tomorrow, is that Scottie Barnes tweaked his quad in the final minutes of tonight’s game. The team says he has a quad contusion and is questionable for tomorrow’s game against San Antonio.