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The Atlanta Hawks absolutely cannot be stopped.

They finished the month of March with a record of 13-2, and going back to the All-Star break, the Hawks have rocketed up the standings with a mark of 18-3 since February 11th.

When the team has this level of success, individual accolades tend to follow.

On Thursday, the announcements came down, and two Hawks were honored with monthly awards. First, Jalen Johnson was named Eastern Conference Player of the Month:

Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Dončić and Atlanta Hawks forward Jalen Johnson have been named the Kia NBA Western and Eastern Conference Players of the Month, respectively, for games played in March. pic.twitter.com/Cq5NUmN2V6

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 2, 2026

He averaged a bonkers 22 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists per game while playing in 13 of the 15 games last month. It’s his first career Player of the Month award, something he can pair with a Player of the Week award he won earlier this season.

The orchestrater of the players also earned recognition from his peers. Head coach Quin Snyder was tapped as the Eastern Conference Coach of the Month:

Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault and Atlanta Hawks head coach Quin Snyder have been named the NBA Western and Eastern Conference Coaches of the Month, respectively, for games played in March. pic.twitter.com/rEnfuIhJxD

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 2, 2026

The award is Snyder’s fifth of his career — the other four happening in the Western Conference during his eight-year stint with the Utah Jazz. The award comes after Snyder picked up his 500th career win around a week ago.

With only a handful of games left in the regular season, it seems a good time to update where Wemby is in blocks. Keep in mind that this list is “all-time” and the accumulation here took players their entire career. He’s already a 2x Block Champ and a shoo-in for his third straight. Additionally, Wemby was just named the Defensive Player of the Month for the third month in a row. He also seems to be a lock for Defensive player of the Year, and by Kendrick Perkins estimation the first to receive the honor unanimously.

Let’s start with this. After Wednesday night’s game against the Golden State Warriors, Wemby had a total of 617 career blocks, ranking him 225th all time.

Here’s a sample set:

The next active player on the list is Daniel Gafford who currently has 649 career blocks (and still going). Everyone else from the 224th to 210th has retired.

In the near future Wemby will pass James Worthy (624), Tom Chambers (627), Spencer Haywood (629), DeSagana Diop (630), Mickey Johnson (632), Andre Iguodala (633), Danny Green (634), Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Clifford Ray (638), Nazr Mohammed (639), Kobe Bryant (640), John Henson and Dominique Wilkins (642), Jim Chones (643), and Carmelo Anthony (644).

For reference (and comparison):

Kobe Bryant played 20 seasons.

Andre Iguodala and Carmelo Anthony played 19 each.

Nazr Mohammed had 18 seasons

Tom Chambers played 16 seasons.

Danny Green and Dominique Wilkins played 15 seasons apiece.

Spencer Haywood played 13 seasons, his first with the ABA.

James Worthy, DeSagana Diop, Mickey Johnson, and Shareef Abdur-Rahim each played 12 seasons.

Jim Chones and Clifford Ray each had 10 years in the league.

John Henson managed to get his blocks all within 8 seasons.

By comparison, Wemby is just wrapping up his third season, and has missed over a half-season worth of games thus far.

He’s more advanced than anyone could have anticipated. And he shows no signs of slowing down.

To be honest, his numbers should be greater, but so many players refuse to shoot when he is in the vicinity. His presence detours so many shot opportunities.

Spurs kept Wemby in street clothes last night against the Los Angeles Clippers, but he’s expected to be back in action on Saturday as the Silver & Black face the Denver Nuggets.

Go Spurs Go!

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Jaylen opens up about left hand narrative, improved court vision and more originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Jaylen Brown is in his 10th NBA season — and he keeps getting better.

The Boston Celtics star is averaging career highs across the board in points (28.8), rebounds (7.0), and assists (5.3) per game while improving his shooting percentage (47.6 percent) despite a higher volume of shots. With Jayson Tatum sidelined until early March, Brown has thrived in a lead role for Boston, emerging as a legitimate MVP candidate while helping the C’s maintain a top-two seed in the Eastern Conference.

Brown has dispelled plenty of narratives this season; he’s been consistently strong driving to the basket with his left hand despite that part of his game previously being viewed as a weakness, and he ranks second on the Celtics in assists after being viewed as a more ball-dominant player earlier in his career.

Brown recently sat down with NBC Sports Boston analyst and ex-Celtics champion Brian Scalabrine to watch film from his dominant 2025-26 season to date. Brown discussed the criticism around his left hand, his growth as a playmaker and much more. Here are two notable soundbites:

Brown opens about left hand issues

“I think there was some truth to it,” Brown told Scalabrine about the narrative that he struggled on drives with his left hand. “… I had a major surgery on my left wrist, and then I actually reinjured it again in 2023. So in 2021, I had a major surgery where I tore all the ligaments on my left hand.

“Basketball, the game is ruthless. If the team knows that you had an injury, they’re gonna try to force you to that. And then I had a loose body again in 2023 where I had a chip in my wrist that had to get fixed. So, I think that was a real criticism or critique of my game is that I struggled going left, but a lot of it was due to injury.

“As I’ve gotten more healthy, I’ve done stem cells and stuff like that in my wrist that’s helped improve the flexibility and the motion. I’ve been able to get back to being more progressive with my left hand. But at one point, I barely could dribble the ball with my left hand at times, you know what I mean? So, I was out there playing with one hand behind my back.”

Brown describes how the game has slowed down for him

“I think I’ve definitely been more patient,” Brown told Scalabrine. “I’ve slowed down in certain areas where you still see me use my athleticism and explosion in certain areas, but then you’ll notice I’ll get real slow, almost like I’m going at a casual pace. Because the slower you go, the easier it is to read everything. The faster you go, the harder those reads are.

“If you slow down where you’re going two miles per hour, you can see the stop signs, you can see the dog, you can see the mailman putting stuff in the mail. You see everything when you slow down. When you’re going too fast, you’re driving full speed, you’re not seeing nothing. Everything is a blur.

“… I know certain spots on the floor where, no matter who’s guarding me, I have a good chance of getting a good shot up. So, I’m just identifying those spaces, and then as the flow of our offense goes, I’ve always got my eye on where those spaces are. … When I get there is when I try to slow down and focus on my footwork.”

Watch the full interview in the video player above, or on YouTube below.

An Achilles injury is one ofAn Achilles injury is one of the most devastating injuries an athlete can suffer. Knee injuries used to be nearly as bad, but arthroscopic surgery has really changed that. ACL injuries still require major rehab, but it’s become fairly manageable. Achilles injuries are still a very difficult thing to overcome, one of the most devastating injuries an athlete can suffer. Knee injuries used to be nearly as bad, but arthroscopic surgery has really changed that. ACL injuries still require major rehab, but it’s become fairly manageable. Achilles injuries are still a very difficult thing to overcome.

So when former Blue Devil Jayson Tatum collapsed in a heap last year during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Knicks, his future was at best cloudy. He was expected to miss all of this season and come back next year, if things go well.

For that matter, the Boston Celtics were also expected to suffer this season. However, both have exceeded expectations.

The Celtics are currently 51-25, good for second place in the East, behind only Trajan Langdon’s Detroit Pistons (the Pistons are 4.5 games ahead at 56-21). Most of that was without Tatum, who returned to action on March 6th, less than 10 months after his injury. That’s almost miraculous.

And remarkably, on April 1st, Tatum got his first triple-double after coming back, racking up 25 points, 18 rebounds, and 11 assists against Miami on April 1st.

It’s a bit under the radar somehow, but what Tatum is doing may be the most amazing story in the NBA this spring.

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This race, unexpectedly, has become a lot closer.

Although it feels like a two-man battle at this point, with no team having more than six games left in the 2025-26 NBA regular season, these players are quickly running out of chances to elevate their arguments for Most Valuable Player.

Thursday, April 2 was an interesting night, too, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Luka Dončić of the Los Angeles Lakers facing off, while phenom big Victor Wembanyama's San Antonio Spurs played the Los Angeles Clippers.

Here’s this week’s USA TODAY Sports NBA MVP rankings:

USA TODAY Sports NBA MVP rankings

5. Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics

He has simply not let up. He dropped 43 in a rout Wednesday, April 1 against the Heat and has scored at least 29 points in his last seven games, and is averaging 33.6 over that stretch. More importantly, he has been the biggest reason for the Celtics to be a real threat in the East, despite missing Jayson Tatum (Achilles rehab) for most of the season. Brown has led Boston to a decently comfortable hold on the No. 2 seed in the East, and, even though Tatum is returning to form, Brown is looking poised to have a massive postseason.

4. Nikola Jokić, Denver Nuggets

He has notched triple-doubles in five of his last six games, as the Nuggets are peaking at the right time. Denver has won seven consecutive games and 10 of its last 12, and Jokić has been as consistent and dependable as always. He leads the NBA in rebounding (13.0) and is the only player averaging a triple-double (adding 27.7 points and 10.8 assists). He’s having a monster season, so it’s kind of absurd to rank him fourth. It’s just a testament to the players above him on this list, and the seasons they are having.

3. Luka Dončić, Los Angeles Lakers

In 17 games in March, Dončić scored 600 points, becoming just the 10th player in NBA history to put down that output in any single month. The Lakers, crucially, went 15-2 over that stretch and have been impressive, with recent victories over the Timberwolves, Nuggets, Rockets (twice) and Cavaliers. Thursday’s blowout loss against the Thunder was a letdown, as Dončić struggled from deep, going just 1-of-7 from 3-point range. But the bigger problem was a left hamstring injury that sidelined him and may jeopardize his eligibility for individual awards. Thursday night was his 64th game, leaving him one shy of the minimum.

2. Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs

This has actually gotten really close. Wembanyama missed Thursday night’s game against the Clippers with a right ankle injury management designation, but his play as of late has closed the lead the top player on this list has held for much of the back half of the regular season. No player impacts the game on both sides more than Wembanyama, who has dropped 41 points in each of his last two games. As if that wasn’t enough, he swatted away 3 shots in each and collected 10 rebounds Monday, March 30 in a win over the Bulls and hauled in 18 Wednesday against the Warriors. San Antonio has won the last 15 games that Wembanyama has played in.

1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder

He remains the most consistent force in the NBA and Thursday’s beatdown of the Lakers was proof of how dangerous he can be. Gilgeous-Alexander had scored a smooth 21 points by halftime, as Oklahoma City had opened a massive, 31-point lead on the Lakers. Before that, SGA dopped 47 points in an overtime victory against the Pistons, and he has extended his consecutive 20-point streak to a ridiculous 137 games. Still, he’ll need to close strong because Wembanyama is making a late charge.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NBA MVP rankings after Luka Doncic injury

The Cleveland Cavaliers did enough to escape with a 118-111 win over an undermanned Golden State Warriors team.

Max Strus’s timely shotmaking saved the Cavs. He poured in 24 points on 6-10 shooting from deep. That included scoring eight in the fourth quarter and burying two threes in the closing minutes to put the game away.

The Cavs have so much offensive firepower in the starting five of Strus, James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen. Strus can get lost in the shuffle with his off-ball movement and the attention the dynamic guards demand. The Cavs were able to find Strus enough late and ultimately secured the victory because of it.

This is a much more well-rounded offensive attack when they’re able to get this level of contributions from a proven playoff performer like Strus. He’s rounding into form at the right time as he’s combined to go 17-28 (60.7%) from three over his last three outings.

Overall, the late-game offensive execution since the Harden trade has been impressive. It was again here as the Cavs generated quality looks seemingly every time down the court.

The Cavaliers are doing this without any one player dominating the ball. Harden was orchestrating the offense late once again, but he wasn’t controlling possessions. Every member of the starting five scored four or more points in the final frame, with each scoring critical baskets to help put the game away.

More importantly, this five-man group has good playmakers for their position at every spot. When they create advantages — as Harden is known for doing — everyone on the court can capitalize on it by finding the open man.

This pass from Mobley is a great example of that. The Warriors showed help defense on Harden at the top of the arc. He found the open man in Mobley. And when the defense rotated over to prevent a shot at the rim, Mobley located Strus alone in the corner.

The ball is always faster than the man. Even if the defense does make the right play initially, if you’re moving the ball as efficiently as the Cavs have been in the clutch, you’re eventually going to find a crack in the armor.

The best offenses are often the most well-rounded and diverse. The Cavs have shown over the last several weeks that they can dissect opposing defense in a variety of ways, and did so again here.

Free-throw shooting is a concern for the bigs. Mobley’s struggles at the line have been well documented over the last month. He didn’t get many chances to prove himself at the charity stripe here, but he missed both opportunities he had.

Allen did a good job of aggressively attacking the defense, which led to him taking 12 free throws. The only problem was that he made just six of them.

There’s not much to really dive into with missed free throws. They aren’t fun to talk about, and there typically isn’t an easy fix for them. If they were, LeBron James would’ve figured it out a decade and a half ago.

That said, the margins in the playoffs will be incredibly thin. The Cavs don’t have the luxury of leaving points at the line, and they also can’t have their bigs hesitant to attack because they don’t want to take free throws.

Injuries have held the Cavs back all season, and still are.

Even though Cleveland had their four best players on the court together — which has been a rare sighting this season — you can still see that they aren’t close to being whole considering who’s still out of the lineup.

The Cavs were without Dean Wade (ankle) and Jaylon Tyson (toe). And while neither would be considered among the best five players on the team, the lineups that head coach Kenny Atkinson has been forced to use without those two forwards have been rough.

The four guard lineups simply don’t work. Point of attack defense is an issue when the team is fully healthy. Combine that with two players being asked to guard up a position as well, and there are too many holes to clean up for whichever lone big is on the floor.

Additionally, your defense is always just one switch away from a terrible mismatch. The Warriors used this to their advantage as they consistently forced smaller guards onto Kristaps Porzingis and then allowed him to work from there in the high post.

These groupings with four players that are 6’5” or under need to be potent offensively to make up for their shortcomings on the other end. And to their credit, they have been solid. But there’s a difference between spreading the floor out because you have wings and bigs who can create space and doing so with guards.

For one, these four guard lineups don’t have the multiple big screen setters you need to make Atkinson’s motion offense work. And while the Cavs do a lot of guard screening actions already, that is more of a changeup than a fastball.

Despite how much the NBA has changed over the last decade, positions still matter. Or at the very least, having size and a variety of skills does.

Right now, the Cavs don’t have any better options than to continue running these small lineups.

Nae’Qwan Tomlin hasn’t been able to replicate his early-season success much over the past several weeks. Teams know that he isn’t a threat to beat them with his outside shot, which makes it more difficult for him to get to the basket, and in turn cramps the spacing.

Thomas Bryant is the other forward who has shown that he deserves minutes, but he’s a center. That makes it difficult to play him alongside Jarrett Allen.

Atkinson hasn’t been willing to look outside of those options for minutes. Larry Nance Jr. hasn’t played consistent rotation minutes since the beginning of the season. There’s an argument that one of the three two-way players who are forwards should get an opportunity, but since none are eligible for the playoffs on their current deals, it’s not worth seriously exploring.

Getting Wade and/or Tyson back will help. These lineups will have much more size and versatility on both sides of the floor. That will drastically improve how this all looks.

At the same time, how incoherent these lineups are underscores the fragility of the current roster construction.

There are no perfect teams in this new parity era (except the Oklahoma City Thunder). Everyone has holes (again, except OKC). And with the speed of the game, you can’t just play six or seven guys in the playoffs and expect to get by. True contenders need to and can comfortably trot out nine at a minimum.

Health will play a significant role in determining the eventual champion. Not being able to cover up for multiple rotation players isn’t necessarily alarming on its own. At the same time, nothing about what we’ve seen this past week would make you believe the Cavs can compensate for missing either or both Wade and Tyson. That’s a scary place to be and isn’t ideal for the most expensive roster in the league.

The NBA has narrowed down their list of anti-tanking measures to three options.

I think that, unfortunately, this list is too short, and it leaves too many good ideas off the table. Below are some of the ideas that didn’t make the cut…

The Wheel

Proposed by Mike Zarren, the wheel assigns draft picks without regard to record. Instead, the rank order of the picks changes from year to year.

Pros: There’s no point in tanking anymore.

Cons: It will take 32 years to figure out if it works.

The Drop-Dead Date

The lottery seeding is fixed at a certain arbitrary point in time—the All-Star break is often suggested—after this point, further losses don’t improve your odds of getting a top pick.

Pros: It doesn’t matter if you lose games after the drop-dead date.

Cons: It doesn’t matter if you win games after the drop-dead date either.

The Lottery Tournament

Teams will compete to get the most favorable odds in the lottery in a tournament—or the draft order will be fixed by the results of the tournament.

Pros: There’s more basketball to watch and, importantly for the league these days, more basketball to bet on. After expansion, there will be as many teams in the lottery tournament as in the postseason, and this way even players on bad teams can get the chance to play an extended schedule with even more chances to get hurt. Oh wait.

Cons: Does anyone want to see Sacramento hang a banner when they win the lottery tournament?

The Really Complicated Rule System

Under this system, the two-year record of a team is taken into consideration, and a floor will be set, such that no team that wins less than 25 games gets credit for a greater number of losses, and this will be used to determine the odds for a drawing that will assign the first four spots in the draft. The 22 teams in the league with the worst cumulative two-year records will be entered in the drawing.

Pros: It’s complicated!

Cons: The league is actually considering this one.

The Pig in a Poke

The league doesn’t reveal the lottery selection method until the end of the season. Odds could be weighted to favor really bad teams, or they could be even across the board. This takes away a lot of the incentive behind planning to be bad.

Pros: I kind of like this idea.

Cons: Nobody else seems to.

The Big Tumbler Full of Envelopes

A bit of a throwback to the good old days when lottery odds were even across the board, and the drawing was done with plenty of spectacle, instead of taking place in a locked room.

Pros: It’s a great way to get Patrick Ewing, if you’re the Knicks.

Cons: It’s a great way to not get Patrick Ewing, if you’re not the Knicks.

The Trial By Combat

This option would consist of a physical competition that would probably, but not necessarily, be relatively safe. Say an arm-wrestling contest. Teams would nominate a different champion every year who would compete on their behalf. The catch is that the champion has to be employed in a responsible position in the front office, and not with some hokey title like “Assistant General Manager in charge of Arm Wrestling.”

Pros: Who wouldn’t want to watch this?

Cons: I’m not really seeing any

The Hunger Games

It’s sort of like Trial By Combat, but this time the champions for each team are drawn by lot from the team’s fanbase. Of course, fans could also volunteer as tribute, Katniss style, but regardless, the actual competition would be suitably rigorous. Different contests would include “Sitting quietly at the bar while the game is on, after having had a few drinks,” “Ignoring Nick Wright,” “Watching a movie with your significant other while the game is on,” and other feats of endurance designed to test every fan’s stamina.

Pros: Who wouldn’t want to represent the Boston Celtics and bring home the top draft pick?

Cons: The movies and books weren’t that great.

The Softball League

Who doesn’t like corporate sponsored softball leagues? Well, why not have one every summer to set the order for the following season’s draft? Sure, this seems like a variation of the two previous options, but it deserves special mention because this would be an actual slow-pitch league, not just a tournament. The only ringers teams could bring in would be guys from the team roster. So maybe save a fourteenth or fifteenth spot for a real slugger?

Pros: Joe Mazzulla coaching a softball team.

Cons: I didn’t come up with this idea, Bill Sy did.

The Fantasy Basketball League

This league would run concurrently with the regular season. GMs from various teams would draft for a fantasy league at the start of each season. Importantly, they can draft players from any team in the league. Maximum chaos will occur when a team GM drafts a player that’s truly hated by that team’s fanbase. Can you imagine what would happen if Brad Stevens drafted Lebron James?

Pros: Knowing that SGA’s grifting is good for your draft position.

Cons: Feeling good about that grifting.

The Ouija Board

Pretty much what the name suggests. Designated league representatives would consult a Ouija board to determine the draft order.

Pros: It’s completely impartial

Cons: Or is it?

The Vote

Each team would vote on which team should get the top pick. The catch, obviously, is that no team can vote for itself. Teams can’t trade votes, or agree to support each other in different years.

Pros: Complete and utter chaos

Cons: None—except for the chaos.

The Roulette Wheel

The league might as well go all-in on gambling and set the draft order this way as well. I mean, it’s already called a lottery… But why not just put team reps around a roulette wheel and whoever’s luckiest over the course of, oh, say, an hour, gets the top pick.

Pros: It’s gambling, so it’s got to be good

Cons: What if all this gambling isn’t good?

The Carnival Midway

When the draft rolls around, the players eligible for it are awarded as prizes for winning various games on a carnival midway. Want Keaton Wagler? You’d best be prepared to peg five tin ducks with a suspiciously inaccurate BB gun.

Pros: This rectifies the longstanding shortage of cotton candy and funnel cake at the NBA draft

Cons: The Kings might get mixed up and end up drafting an oversized teddy bear by mistake.

The High School Essay Contest

General managers from each team would be required to submit an essay to the league saying why they should get the top pick that year. The team with the best essay would get the top pick.

Pros: It’s better than the current system, which is “my team deserves the top pick because we are terrible.”

Cons: There’s a risk that some GMs are illiterate.