The Milwaukee Bucks announced Tuesday that Damian Lillard will be out indefinitely to treat deep ...

The Milwaukee Bucks announced Tuesday that Damian Lillard will be out indefinitely to treat deep vein thrombosis in his right calf. He's the second All-Star this season to be sidelined due to a blood clot after San Antonio Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama was shut down in February when the same issue was discovered in his right shoulder.Because this can be a career- and even life-threatening condition, concern should first and foremost center on Lillard himself. He's taking blood-thinning medication, and the answer to when he can safely return to the court depends on several factors, including the severity of the clot and its likelihood of recurrence. The biggest risk with clots is that they can dislodge and travel to the lungs, causing a blood-flow blockage known as a pulmonary embolism. That's what effectively ended the careers of Chris Bosh and Mirza Teletovic.I spoke to a hematologist at the University of Toronto for a story about this issue a few years ago, and he laid out an important distinction between clots that are deemed to be "provoked" and those that are "unprovoked," with no clear trigger. The latter type is much more concerning, he explained, as that's when the issue would be considered likely to recur. In that case, the at-risk patient might even need to be prescribed a blood thinner permanently.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>In this case, a source told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6229321/2025/03/25/bucks-damian-lillard-blood-clot/">The Athletic's Eric Nehm and Sam Amick</a> there's a lot of optimism that Lillard can make it back this season, which suggests he's dealing with an isolated or "provoked" clot. That's great news, but expecting him to return within a month (which would be sometime during the first round of the playoffs) is still a significant departure from the recovery timetables we've seen in recent cases involving players such as Wembanyama, Ausar Thompson, and Brandon Ingram.The hematologist I spoke to said it typically takes at least three months to fully treat deep vein thrombosis, and the biggest risk to an athlete playing a contact sport while taking blood thinners isn't the clot itself but the possibility of significant bleeding if they were to, say, take a hit to the head. Lillard and the Bucks may be hoping that he can quickly scale down to a lower blood-thinning dose or less aggressive regimen that reduces his level of risk. In any case, an NBA fitness-to-play panel will need to clear him before he can begin participating in game action, so it won't be up to him or even the team's medical staff to determine when he can return.In terms of the on-court implications, if Lillard can't return in time for the postseason, Milwaukee is almost certainly doomed to a third straight first-round exit, despite the continuing otherworldly play of Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Bucks have already slipped to sixth in the East, making them likely to open the playoffs on the road against either the Knicks or Pacers.And it's not as though they were playing like world-beaters when Lillard was healthy. They're just 32-26 with him in the lineup, and they've outscored opponents by less than a point per 100 possessions with him on the floor. Still, he's their best offensive guard by several country miles, and the way he complements Antetokounmpo on that end still gives Milwaukee a very high ceiling when he's available. The team teased its potential at various points this season, with that duo plus ageless defensive anchor Brook Lopez providing glimpses to dream on.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/755365/cropped_GettyImages-2068299030.jpg?ts=1743084107" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/755365/w220xh124_GettyImages-2068299030.jpg?ts=1743084107 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/755365/w320xh180_GettyImages-2068299030.jpg?ts=1743084107 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/755365/w640xh360_GettyImages-2068299030.jpg?ts=1743084107 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/755365/w768xh432_GettyImages-2068299030.jpg?ts=1743084107 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/755365/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2068299030.jpg?ts=1743084107 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Andrew D. Bernstein / NBA / Getty</figcaption></figure>Milwaukee traded Khris Middleton for Kyle Kuzma at this year's deadline, ditching an aging franchise icon in favor of a younger, cheaper, bigger, more durable wing with a higher defensive ceiling. But Middleton is a vastly superior ball-handler, shooter, and playmaker to Kuzma, and while the Bucks might've been sunk without Lillard regardless, I'd feel better about their chances of surviving a first-round series if they hadn't made that move. They're now relying on the likes of Ryan Rollins and Kevin Porter Jr. as primary off-the-dribble creators in Lillard's absence.The Bucks have been surprisingly stout defensively this year, ranking 10th in points allowed per possession. But it's hard to see how they'll score enough to win high-leverage games without their starting point guard, even though Rollins and Porter have acquitted themselves reasonably well so far.Lillard had a down year by his standards in his first Bucks campaign but bounced back this season. He put up similar counting stats (24.9 points, 7.1 assists) while bumping his true shooting from 59% to 62%. He shot dramatically better on threes, floaters, and long pull-up middies, and he averaged 1.07 points per possession as a <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/ball-handler?SeasonYear=2024-25">pick-and-roll ball-handler</a> (92nd percentile leaguewide) compared to 0.99 points per possession in his first season in Milwaukee. He and Antetokounmpo looked way more comfortable and dangerous running a two-man game together after <a href="https://www.thescore.com/news/2757879">a choppy start</a> to their partnership last season.His untimely ailment is another blow to a Bucks team that's been snakebit every spring since winning the title in 2021. The following season, they lost Middleton to a knee injury in the first round and then fell to a formidable Celtics team without him in the second. In 2023, Antetokounmpo injured his back in the first quarter of their first playoff game and didn't return until Game 4. By that point, the eighth-seeded Heat were well on their way to an upset so seismic that Milwaukee's still feeling the reverberations.Last year, after the Bucks made sweeping changes and emptied their war chest in response to that upset, Antetokounmpo suffered a calf strain in the last week of the regular season and didn't suit up for the first round against the Pacers. Lillard was cooking in that series ... before he aggravated an Achilles injury in Game 3, missed Games 4 and 5, and returned in time to get eliminated in Game 6. After this, another win-now season is at risk of being swept into the dustbin.The front office has expended all its resources in an effort to maximize the remainder of Antetokounmpo's prime; the Bucks don't control any of their own first- or second-round picks between now and 2031. Lillard is 34, and even if he can make it back in time for the postseason, there's no telling how he'll look when he's thrown directly into that crucible after an extended absence. Lopez turns 37 in less than a week, and he'll be a free agent this summer. Milwaukee has no way to replace him, but re-signing him will lock the team into a geriatric core with no upward mobility.Antetokounmpo is as good as ever offensively, and he's still a great (if slightly diminished) defender. But how far can he realistically carry this version of the Bucks in the future? When his three-year, $186-million extension kicks in next season, he and Lillard alone will take up approximately 82% of the salary cap. The Middleton trade got Milwaukee under the second luxury-tax apron, but the front office still has minimal wiggle room to augment the roster around its core duo (or trio, if Lopez returns).For all those reasons, the Bucks had as much riding on the 2024-25 campaign as any team in the NBA. To have arrived at a point where they feel like a long shot to win a single playoff series isn't quite a <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3233078" href="https://thescore.com/news/3233078">Mavericks</a>- or <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3246566" href="https://thescore.com/news/3246566">Suns</a>-level disaster, but it isn't far off.In short: Get well soon, Dame. Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

https://rich-content.thescore.com/content_cards/30753363/related

Another star has a blood clot, and another Bucks season hangs in the balance

The courteous thing for the Phoenix Suns brass to do would be to send the biggest fruit basket it...

The courteous thing for the Phoenix Suns brass to do would be to send the biggest fruit basket it can find to Nico Harrison and Co. in Dallas. Because if not for the <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3233078" href="https://thescore.com/news/3233078">spectacular self-combustion</a> of this Mavericks' season, we'd all be talking a lot more about the catastrophe unfolding in The Valley. To summarize: The Suns are as all-in as a team can possibly be, having put together by far the most expensive roster in the league and relinquished control of all their own first-round draft picks from now until 2032. Yet they sit 33-37, tied with Dallas for 10th in the Western Conference, with one of the league's hardest remaining schedules. Their play-in hopes are kept alive only by the grace of an equally calamitous outfit.Unlike those Mavs, though, the Suns can't even point to crushing injury luck as an excuse for their sorry state. Sure, they've had occasional bumps and bruises, but they've been one of the 10 healthiest teams this season by <a href="https://www.spotrac.com/nba/injured/_/year/2024/view/team">total man games lost,</a> with the top nine guys in their rotation missing just 76 games combined. They also were swept out of the first round last spring with all three of their max players in uniform. They aren't snakebitten, they're just not very good.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>Plus, their best player is 36. And did I mention they don't control their own first-round pick in any of the next seven drafts?How did a team fronted by Kevin Durant and Devin Booker get this depressing? That's a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer still performing at a top-15 level, and a two-time All-NBAer who should be smack dab in the middle of his prime at 28. The team's formula for success was supposed to be this: pair an overwhelming offense with a defense barely good enough to let that offense carry the day 50-odd times a season. Instead, Phoenix has been appalling defensively, and just good enough offensively to keep it in play-in territory.It's been a steady march in a straight line to this hopeless place for the Suns, who came up two wins shy of a championship less than four years ago and won a franchise-record 64 games the following season.The year after that, Mat Ishbia bought the team from disgraced former owner Robert Sarver. He took control right before the trade deadline, amid a midseason malaise brought on by injuries to Booker and a creaky-looking Chris Paul. Three days later, at Ishbia's insistence, the front office fired nearly every arrow in its quiver to acquire Durant. It then doubled down by trading Paul and its scant remaining draft assets for Bradley Beal the ensuing offseason.Phoenix also dealt former No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton that summer in a trade that brought back Jusuf Nurkic and Grayson Allen (though sending out 52nd overall pick Toumani Camara in the same deal wound up stinging way more). On the sidelines, Monty Williams was relieved of his coaching duties, and Frank Vogel lasted all of one season as his replacement. Mike Budenholzer was brought in this year, and the ice already <a href="https://x.com/DarthVoita/status/1895585662818218365?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1895585662818218365%7Ctwgr%5Eb76cf54b3a76921ce70748a999fabc86c69a4e6b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.si.com%2Fnba%2Fsuns%2Fnews%2Finsider-phoenix-suns-head-coach-mike-budenholzer-hard-deal-with">appears to have grown thin</a> beneath his feet.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773502/cropped_GettyImages-2200694157.jpg?ts=1742481633" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773502/w220xh124_GettyImages-2200694157.jpg?ts=1742481633 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773502/w320xh180_GettyImages-2200694157.jpg?ts=1742481633 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773502/w640xh360_GettyImages-2200694157.jpg?ts=1742481633 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773502/w768xh432_GettyImages-2200694157.jpg?ts=1742481633 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773502/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2200694157.jpg?ts=1742481633 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Geoff Stellfox / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>This is what it looks like when a team gets stuck in a death spiral, throwing good money after bad, compounding desperate moves with even more desperate moves. The Suns' attempts to squirm out of the quicksand has only served to pull them down faster. It's admittedly a bit disingenuous to lambaste them now, with the benefit of hindsight, for moves I was at least able to rationalize at the time they were made.The Durant trade is what set Phoenix down this path to ruin, but that felt like a worthwhile gamble because it lifted the short-term ceiling as high as it could conceivably go for a team that was otherwise petering out. I <a href="https://www.thescore.com/nba/news/2666566">saw the justification</a> for the Beal trade in the context of trying to maximize Durant's twilight years. And I believed, despite the defensive question marks and the financial constraints his untradeable contract imposed, that his ability to get to the rim and be a high-level tertiary creator could correct multiple deficiencies and make Phoenix's offense unstoppable. Oops.While acknowledging that the Suns deserved blame for letting the Ayton relationship fray to the point he had to be dumped at the nadir of his value, I thought they got a solid return for him given the circumstances - theoretically shoring up their rebounding, shooting, and connective playmaking with Nurkic and Allen. I thought Royce O'Neale could be a game-changing role player for them, and I thought they did pretty well to fill out the back end of their roster with only minimum deals to offer, bringing in the likes of Eric Gordon, Bol Bol, Jordan Goodwin, and Keita Bates-Diop. Yikes.Heck, even after writing Phoenix off following last year's playoff whimper against Minnesota, I managed to <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3096324" href="https://thescore.com/news/3096324">talk myself into</a> Tyus Jones addressing the team's turnover woes and lack of offensive structure, Mason Plumlee bolstering the paper-thin big-man rotation, and Budenholzer bringing schematic tweaks that would make the whole equal to the sum of its parts. Wrong, wrong, and wrong.Lucky for me, all I've had to suffer for those freezing cold takes is a bruised ego and maybe a hit to my analytical credibility. Not so lucky for Phoenix's front office, which has taken nothing but Ls ever since Luka Doncic ripped that 64-win team's heart out in a second-round series that feels like it happened 800 years ago.Durant, Booker, and Beal just never clicked. All three of them have great off-ball skill sets that allow plenty of room for co-stars, but their ability to accommodate others failed to translate into synergy or symbiosis between them, perhaps because none proved to be good enough lead playmakers. They've also all individually played below their previous standards this season. Age could explain that for Durant, yet he's still easily been the best of the bunch.Booker's come around recently, but he shot the ball poorly until about mid-January and he's taken a clear step back defensively. Beal's scored efficiently but his offensive decision-making has been highly erratic, his defense even more so. All three have negative on-court net ratings, and they've been <a href="https://www.pbpstats.com/wowy-combos/nba?TeamId=1610612756&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;SeasonType=Regular%2BSeason&amp;PlayerIds=201142,203078,1626164">disastrous as a trio</a>.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/774320/cropped_GettyImages-2203676571.jpg?ts=1742481690" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/774320/w220xh124_GettyImages-2203676571.jpg?ts=1742481690 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/774320/w320xh180_GettyImages-2203676571.jpg?ts=1742481690 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/774320/w640xh360_GettyImages-2203676571.jpg?ts=1742481690 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/774320/w768xh432_GettyImages-2203676571.jpg?ts=1742481690 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/774320/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2203676571.jpg?ts=1742481690 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Glenn James / NBA / Getty</figcaption></figure>The Suns are small and punchless around them, despite rookie Ryan Dunn establishing himself as their best wing defender. (Dunn's hot early-season shooting regressed to the point that he temporarily found himself out of the rotation.) They've somehow gotten even worse at taking care of the ball despite the Jones addition, falling from 25th to 28th in turnover rate. Couple that with terrible rebounding, and the Suns are getting about five fewer shooting possessions per game than their opponents. That's how a team that ranks third in true shooting percentage winds up underwater.The coup de grace from the front office came before this year's deadline, when they traded their unprotected 2031 first-rounder for heavily protected firsts in 2025, 2027, and 2029, in the hopes of using those picks to get Jimmy Butler. But that plan was immediately and predictably foiled by Beal exercising his no-trade clause, so they pivoted to shopping Durant instead. It seems inevitable now that a Durant trade will happen in the offseason, as the Suns try to duck the second apron and restock their barren asset cupboard. It's equally inevitable they'll get back a fraction of what they gave up to acquire him.Meanwhile, after the Ayton trade paid dividends last season - when Allen led the league in 3-point percentage and Nurkic posted the team's best individual net rating - Nurkic was so bad this year that Phoenix ultimately had to expend another first-rounder just to turn him into Cody Martin. Even setting the Ayton situation aside, it's crazy to think how much better the Suns' short- and long-term outlook would be if they had Camara in the fold.After the playoff debacle last spring, Ishbia <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5465560/2024/05/01/suns-mat-ishbia-frank-vogel/">proudly proclaimed</a> that 26 other teams would trade places with his Suns if given the chance. Inject him with a dose of truth serum today and he'd probably make the inverse claim: the Suns would jump at the chance to trade places with 26 other teams.The only way out of this mess is through. They're going to have to trade Durant for whatever they can get, ride out what's left of Beal's contract (which will mercifully end with a $57-million player option in 2026-27), and hope they can retool around Booker quickly enough to re-emerge while he's still in his prime. More likely, though, they'll eventually have to trade him, too. Preferably to the Rockets to reacquire their own 2027 and 2029 first-rounders, so they can bottom out and rebuild properly.I'd love to be able to offer a dash of optimism or anything resembling a viable alternative, but it's hard to see how anything besides pain awaits this franchise for the foreseeable future. To quote George Costanza, one of the great philosophers of our time: If you're bleak, you're bleak.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

https://rich-content.thescore.com/content_cards/30671814/related

The Suns are a disaster of epic proportions

It feels like we've been waiting all season for the Minnesota Timberwolves to arrive. The team th...

It feels like we've been waiting all season for the Minnesota Timberwolves to arrive. The team that bludgeoned the league with one of the best defenses of the pace-and-space era last season - that obliterated the Suns and slayed the defending champion Nuggets in the playoffs - was nowhere to be seen for the first three months of 2024-25.They got off to <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3137179" href="https://thescore.com/news/3137179">a rocky start</a>, which wasn't totally unexpected considering they'd just traded Karl-Anthony Towns, their longest-tenured player and arguably the <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/2920240" href="https://thescore.com/news/2920240">most important pillar of their identity</a>, for a skilled but stylistically different power forward in Julius Randle. It felt like they'd figure things out in time - their implied talent and point differential have long painted them as a better team than their record suggests. But the malaise persisted for a troublingly long time, and Randle's complicated free agency loomed on the horizon.One game, Randle would look like he'd figured out how to fit between Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert; the next, he'd look like a square peg wedged awkwardly in a round hole. Most games, Mike Conley appeared fully cooked. The defense wasn't playing with nearly the same connectivity or force as it did the year prior. Edwards <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5954565/2024/11/28/anthony-edwards-timberwolves-slow-start/">spoke</a> of individual agendas and called the team "soft as hell" and said it lacked any identity. Head coach Chris Finch bemoaned the absence of consistency night-to-night.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>Then Donte DiVincenzo, the 3-and-D guard Minnesota acquired from New York alongside Randle, suffered a toe injury just as he was getting his season on track. Randle himself went down with a groin strain a couple of weeks later. And that was when the team came upon two diverging roads.It might be too pat to call those injuries blessings in disguise, and it's not like the Wolves set the world on fire while the Knicks imports were out; they were 11-8 without DiVincenzo, and 5-8 without Randle. But progress was made in several key areas, and that stretch is when it felt like the pieces started to snap into place.With Naz Reid filling in frictionlessly at the starting four spot (as Naz Reid does), Jaden McDaniels took the extra touches that came his way and spun them into a web of newfound confidence. After an uneven and tentative start to the season, he emerged as a more fluid and sure-footed attacker and in-between scorer. He's averaged 17.9 points, eight rebounds, and three assists on 60.4% true shooting and 19% usage across 21 games since the start of February, up from 10.5, 5.2, and 1.6 on 55.2% true shooting and 14.5% usage before then.At the same time, Conley started to look ... if not quite like his younger self, then at least like a less creaky version of his old self. Edwards continued to carry the offense while putting together one of the greatest 3-point shooting seasons of all time - a story that hasn't gotten nearly enough attention.Opportunity was also seized by the team's trio of rookies. Point guard Rob Dillingham showed some smooth on-ball flourishes, wiry guard Jaylen Clark wowed with his defensive playmaking ability, and beefy wing Terrence Shannon Jr. made loud plays at both ends of the floor. Their contributions seemed to galvanize the rest of the team, especially when all three played big roles in the Wolves' signature win of the season: a massive fourth-quarter comeback and overtime win in Oklahoma City three weeks ago.DiVincenzo returned a game later and immediately put together his best two-way stretch of basketball with Minnesota. He's flying around on defense, shooting 48% from deep on eight attempts per game, and owns the best raw plus-minus in the league (+123) in 10 games since coming back.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/775211/cropped_GettyImages-2187685234.jpg?ts=1741969130" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/775211/w220xh124_GettyImages-2187685234.jpg?ts=1741969130 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/775211/w320xh180_GettyImages-2187685234.jpg?ts=1741969130 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/775211/w640xh360_GettyImages-2187685234.jpg?ts=1741969130 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/775211/w768xh432_GettyImages-2187685234.jpg?ts=1741969130 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/775211/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2187685234.jpg?ts=1741969130 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Juan Ocampo / NBA / Getty</figcaption></figure>Randle looked like a different player when he got healthy, too. It was as if he used his five weeks off to figure out how he could better operate within the flow of Minnesota's offense. He still has some catch-and-hold moments, but his shoot/pass/drive decisions generally are coming way faster, and the ball is sticking way less.<figure class="article-segment--embed"><iframe title="Randle's recovery" aria-label="Table" id="datawrapper-chart-kKXzb" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/kKXzb/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="305" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}();
</script></figure>He's also been more dialed in defensively - head on a swivel, busting it back in transition, making max-effort closeouts - for a unit that's finally starting to resemble last year's bear trap. These factors are a big part of the reason the Wolves have won all eight games with Randle back in the lineup.His first four games back came with Gobert on the shelf, and the smaller Randle-Reid frontcourt - which struggled early in the season - steamrolled opponents. Things have looked even better since Randle and Gobert reunited, with that tandem playing to a plus-45 across 60 minutes in the last four games, including a dominant showing in a 20-point beatdown of the Nuggets last Wednesday.The Wolves feel like they're hitting their stride at the right time. They're fully healthy at last, looking nastier and more connected than they've been all year. They're one of four teams (the others being OKC, Cleveland, and Boston) to rank in the top 10 on both sides of the ball. At 40-29 and owners of the longest active win streak in the league, they're in a virtual tie for the Western Conference's last guaranteed playoff spot and just 3.5 games back of a top-four seed, with a very soft closing schedule.None of that means they're going to get back to where they were last spring, or that history will ultimately look favorably on the Towns trade. The West playoffs are shaping up to be a bloodbath. The Lakers and Warriors <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3238844" href="https://thescore.com/news/3238844">revived themselves</a> with blockbuster trades. The Grizzlies and Rockets are young, hungry, and extremely deep. The Nuggets haven't had an answer for Minnesota recently, but they still have championship experience and the world's best player.All those teams will likely be brawling to decide which one gets to take its best swing at the Thunder, who are merely having one of the best regular seasons in NBA history. But there's no reason to think the team that poses the stiffest test can't be the one that recently flummoxed OKC with a pressure zone while erasing a 24-point fourth-quarter deficit.However that royal rumble shakes out, it's nice to see Minnesota officially throwing its hat in the ring. After keeping us waiting all season, the Wolves are finally showing their teeth. Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

https://rich-content.thescore.com/content_cards/30641020/related

How the Timberwolves got their teeth back

Every season, conversations about breakout players and Most Improved Player candidates focus on o...

Every season, conversations about breakout players and Most Improved Player candidates focus on offensive growth, with the less glamorous end of the floor almost always getting short shrift. This column aims to rectify that by looking at the players who've made the biggest defensive leaps. The candidates can range from All-Stars to role players. They can be guys who improved their defense from bad to average, average to good, or good to great. <a href="https://www.thescore.com/nba/news/2833452">Last year's list</a> featured the likes of Scottie Barnes, Alperen Sengun, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Goga Bitadze.Here are the most improved defenders of the 2024-25 season. (Stats updated through March 12.) <div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div><h3>Dyson Daniels, Hawks </h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/752125/cropped_GettyImages-2180785471.jpg?ts=1732736691" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/752125/w220xh124_GettyImages-2180785471.jpg?ts=1732736691 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/752125/w320xh180_GettyImages-2180785471.jpg?ts=1732736691 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/752125/w640xh360_GettyImages-2180785471.jpg?ts=1732736691 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/752125/w768xh432_GettyImages-2180785471.jpg?ts=1732736691 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/752125/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2180785471.jpg?ts=1732736691 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Zach Beeker / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>I waffled on whether to put Daniels on this list because I didn't want to undersell the defense he displayed before this year. In his first two NBA seasons with the Pelicans, Daniels established himself as an on-ball hellhound who could dodge screens more artfully than any 6-foot-8 human should be able to, while regularly containing drives and blowing up dribble-handoffs with his active hands and 6-foot-11 wingspan. The issue was his offense, which was so uneven that he could only showcase his defensive aptitude for about 20 minutes a game. In that sense, his offensive growth this year has been an equally important development.Ultimately, though, I couldn't ignore the extent to which the 21-year-old has leveled up as a defensive playmaker in his first season with the Hawks. His on-ball work has been more impressive than ever, particularly his ability to pressure the ball the length of the court and routinely pick his own man's pocket without gambling himself out of position. He's also been more disruptive as a team defender, using his length to swipe at unsuspecting ball-handlers around the nail or blow up entry passes with blind-side assaults on the post.That's manifested in him averaging a ridiculous 6.0 deflections per game, which is 1.9 more than any other player <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/hustle?CF=G*GE*40&amp;dir=D&amp;sort=DEFLECTIONS">this season</a>, and 1.8 more than any other player in NBA.com's entire 10-year hustle-stat tracking database. He's also averaging 3.0 steals a night; if he can carry it through the final 17 games of the season, he'll be only the 15th qualified player in NBA history to crack that threshold, and the first since Nate McMillan in 1993-94.Daniels is <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3229783" href="https://thescore.com/news/3229783">the rare guard</a> to seriously challenge for Defensive Player of the Year (he's currently second in odds behind Evan Mobley), and he's the single biggest reason the Hawks have jumped from 27th to 19th in defensive efficiency. <h3>Jalen Williams, Thunder </h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/637448/cropped_GettyImages-1960414833.jpg?ts=1741887186" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/637448/w220xh124_GettyImages-1960414833.jpg?ts=1741887186 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/637448/w320xh180_GettyImages-1960414833.jpg?ts=1741887186 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/637448/w640xh360_GettyImages-1960414833.jpg?ts=1741887186 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/637448/w768xh432_GettyImages-1960414833.jpg?ts=1741887186 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/637448/w1080xh607_GettyImages-1960414833.jpg?ts=1741887186 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Joshua Gateley / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>Like Daniels, Williams was an already strong defender who's elevated himself into elite-of-the-elite territory as a third-year player this season. There's plenty of credit to go around in OKC's high-pressure, help-heavy, turnover-forcing defensive machine. Between Lu Dort, Alex Caruso, Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein, Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, there are perimeter stoppers, rim-protectors, and event creators up and down the roster. But no Thunder player has made a bigger or more consequential jump in checking all three of the aforementioned boxes than Williams.Though he stands at just 6-foot-5, Williams can credibly guard five positions because he's built like a tank and has a 7-foot-2 wingspan. Opponents trying to isolate against him have shot 8-for-36 with eight turnovers this season, per <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/isolation?CF=PLAYER_NAME*E*jalen%20williams&amp;PerMode=Totals&amp;TypeGrouping=defensive">NBA Advanced Stats</a>. Among 79 players who've defended at least 50 such possessions this season, no one's allowed fewer <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/isolation?CF=POSS*GE*50&amp;PerMode=Totals&amp;TypeGrouping=defensive&amp;dir=A&amp;sort=PPP">points per isolation</a>. He has the foot speed and great hands to corral point guards, and his strength development has allowed him to stand up any wing in the league and just about any big man as well.That bore out early this season when both Hartenstein and Holmgren were injured and Williams was thrust into duty as OKC's starting center. He succeeded in that role not only because he could hold his ground against 7-footers, but because he's become arguably the league's best rim-protecting guard. Opponents are shooting 55.8% at the basket when Williams is in the vicinity, the <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defensive-impact?CF=DEF_RIM_FGA*GE*100&amp;PerMode=Totals&amp;PlayerPosition=G&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;dir=A&amp;sort=DEF_RIM_FG_PCT">lowest mark for any guard</a> who's contested at least 100 such shots this season. Whether he's playing the five and anchoring the back line by himself, or simply providing cover for one of the Thunder's traditional centers, he's fully leveraging his physical tools thanks to refined instincts and timing.When Williams recently <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu81OiNRkJA&amp;t=3828s">advocated</a> for the creation of a perimeter-specific DPOY award, he tried to lay out the distinction in defensive responsibilities for guards and bigs. "I've never had to block shots, and a big's never had ..." he started, then caught himself. "Well, actually I have, so maybe not a good example."That moment of self-recognition captured the reality of what the 23-year-old has turned himself into: a defender who can do it all. <h3>P.J. Washington, Mavericks </h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/631893/cropped_GettyImages-2155355429.jpg?ts=1741887269" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/631893/w220xh124_GettyImages-2155355429.jpg?ts=1741887269 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/631893/w320xh180_GettyImages-2155355429.jpg?ts=1741887269 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/631893/w640xh360_GettyImages-2155355429.jpg?ts=1741887269 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/631893/w768xh432_GettyImages-2155355429.jpg?ts=1741887269 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/631893/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2155355429.jpg?ts=1741887269 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Stephen Maturen / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>I'm stretching the parameters for this one a bit, because Washington's turnaround dates back to last year's trade deadline. But Mavs fans haven't had much to feel good about recently, and this is a much-needed nod of recognition to a guy whose defensive leap played an instrumental role in the team's Finals run a season ago. Washington's improvement has continued into 2024-25, even as the foundation around him has crumbled. Given how quickly his defense perked up after moving from Charlotte to Dallas, this also might be the first such selection based purely on effort. Washington showed flashes of defensive acumen across his five years as a Hornet, but his engagement level on that end ranged from unenthusiastic to apathetic, especially in more recent seasons. Since becoming a Maverick, he's been tasked with guarding top opposing wing threats virtually every night - even more so this season with Klay Thompson replacing Derrick Jones Jr. in the starting lineup - and he's truly risen to that challenge. Dallas has allowed 6.3 fewer points per 100 possessions with him on the floor this season, a 91st-percentile differential, per <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/4583/onoff#tab-team_efficiency">Cleaning the Glass</a>.He's been excellent on the ball - handsy and physical but also balanced and disciplined - which has allowed him to actualize the potential the Hornets long saw in him as a switch defender. Perhaps more importantly, he's been making pinpoint back-side rotations and serving as a genuine deterrent at the rim. Before the trade last year, opponents shot 67.2% against him inside the restricted area. That number was higher than 62% in each of his seasons in Charlotte. In 76 games with Dallas, it's 56.4%. It's a shame those strides are currently being wasted on a cursed team, but if and when the Mavs get healthy, Washington will form a monstrous defensive frontcourt with Anthony Davis and Dereck Lively II. <h3>Detroit Pistons</h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/775046/cropped_GettyImages-2196399181.jpg?ts=1741887430" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/775046/w220xh124_GettyImages-2196399181.jpg?ts=1741887430 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/775046/w320xh180_GettyImages-2196399181.jpg?ts=1741887430 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/775046/w640xh360_GettyImages-2196399181.jpg?ts=1741887430 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/775046/w768xh432_GettyImages-2196399181.jpg?ts=1741887430 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/775046/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2196399181.jpg?ts=1741887430 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Chris Schwegler / NBA / Getty</figcaption></figure>When a team goes from allowing the fifth-most points per possession to the ninth fewest in the span of a year, it's impossible to assign credit to any one specific place.The Pistons' defense rapidly improved in every conceivable area, and nearly all of that growth happened internally. Sure, they added important vets in the offseason, but it's not like Tobias Harris, Malik Beasley, or Tim Hardaway Jr. have a history of transforming defenses for the better (though Harris has been very good this year). Detroit's instead been propelled by a collective leap forward from all its young players, starting in the middle with Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart. Duren has a preposterous 7-foot-5 wingspan and explosive vertical athleticism, but didn't have the defensive impact to match until this season. He can still be overly jumpy and his footwork still needs some refinement, but his positioning and spatial awareness have improved immensely, especially in drop coverage. Court sense has never been an issue for Stewart, who's always defended well in space whether dropping or switching. Where he's improved most is as a pure rim-protector. He stands just 6-foot-8 and doesn't have Duren's leaping ability, but he has comparable length and better timing. He's nearly tripled his block rate this season, and is holding opponents to 45.5% shooting at the rim, lower than any qualified player <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defensive-impact?CF=DEF_RIM_FGA*GE*4&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;dir=A&amp;sort=DEF_RIM_FG_PCT">contesting at least four such shots per game</a>. The Pistons are also much stronger on the perimeter. Ausar Thompson is a quick-twitch athletic marvel who, much like his twin brother (see below), went from being a very good rookie defender to the most important cog in a top-10 unit as a sophomore. He manages to be in multiple places at once, seemingly teleporting from strong side to weak side, from paint to 3-point line and back again. His per-minute steal rate is almost on par with Daniels', which is the biggest reason Detroit's jumped from 27th to eighth in opponent turnover rate.Cade Cunningham's offensive leap has deservedly received most of the attention, but his defensive growth has been a big story, too: he's gotten a way better feel for how to use his size on that end of the floor, both on the ball and in the gaps. Jaden Ivey also showed improvement before suffering a season-ending leg injury. Marcus Sasser earned more opportunity after Ivey went down and impressed with his friskiness at the point of attack.On top of all that individual development, the Pistons are also nailing the team- and scheme-oriented stuff that requires attentiveness and connectivity from everyone, like communicating off-ball switches, helping the helper, and gang rebounding. New coach J.B. Bickerstaff and his assistants deserve a ton of credit for their attention to detail and getting the necessary defensive buy-in. It's the jet fuel powering the NBA's most unexpected rise this season.<h3>Honorable mentions: Amen Thompson, Rockets; Toumani Camara, Blazers</h3>Barely missing the cut are the two best non-Wemby sophomore defenders in the league. Both are ridiculously versatile forward-sized guys who, while plenty capable of guarding on the wing and protecting the paint, are mostly deployed as condor-like predators at the point of attack.They're only down here because of how spectacular they were as rookies. But I still gave strong consideration to the continued strides both made in establishing themselves as All-Defense-caliber guys - and the Western Conference's Defensive Players of the Month in January and February, respectively.Others receiving consideration: Andrew Nembhard, Tyrese Maxey, Santi Aldama, Jake LaRavia, Jaxson Hayes, Malik Monk

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The most improved defenders in the NBA

For basketball fans of a certain age, there was a particular thrill to watching the Paris Olympic...

For basketball fans of a certain age, there was a particular thrill to watching the Paris Olympics and seeing LeBron James and Steph Curry - the two great lions of this NBA generation at 39 and 36 years old, respectively - lead Team USA to gold. But those feelings of awe and inspiration soon turned to vexation as the NBA season began, and their storied NBA teams continued to stagnate and creep toward irrelevance.At the start of February, Curry's Golden State Warriors were 24-24, outside the play-in picture in a deep Western Conference. LeBron's Los Angeles Lakers were a more respectable 27-19 but with a bottom-10 defense and a negative scoring margin that suggested they were much worse than their record. The two teams clearly needed dramatic shakeups if they were going to make something meaningful out of their all-time greats' precious twilight years. Fortunately for them, a set of unique circumstances presented opportunities for both to do exactly that.Within the week, Luka Doncic was a Laker, and Jimmy Butler was a Warrior. Even with neither guy playing up to his standard, the Lakers have gone 13-4 to surge to third in the West, while the Warriors have gone 12-2 to jump into a top-six playoff spot. Notably, here are James' and Curry's stats before and after the trades:<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div><figure class="article-segment--embed"><iframe title="LeBron-Curry post-trade" aria-label="Table" id="datawrapper-chart-fmwrU" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/fmwrU/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="472" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}();
</script></figure>"Acquire Hall-of-Fame talent and prosper" may seem like a self-evident concept. But as the Phoenix Suns can attest, things don't always work out that way. Here's a look at how Doncic and Butler have changed the course of their new teams' seasons, in large part by reinvigorating those clubs' aging legends.<h3>Luka in L.A. </h3>The Lakers are 9-4 with Doncic in the lineup and 4-0 without him since the trade, suggesting the mere act of acquiring a top-five player just entering his prime brought a psychological lift. Doncic hasn't even fully hit his stride yet, shooting 47% from 2-point range and 32% from deep as a Laker (compared to 56% and 35% for his career). He's still playing his way back into game shape after a seven-week injury layoff.Before James suffered a groin injury that will sideline him for a week or two, we got to glimpse what even a rusty version of Doncic could do for L.A. and James specifically. Tellingly, in the pregame huddle before Doncic's Lakers debut, LeBron gave him the exact opposite advice he gave Kevin Love in Cleveland. He told his new teammate to be himself on the court and, rather than try to fit in, to "fit the f--k out."It's easy to understand why. Doncic significantly reduced the burden of creation on James' shoulders and allowed him to lean into his resilient play-finishing abilities. James can now capitalize on the gravity and passing ability of the best creator he's ever played with. In the 11 contests together, Doncic has tossed James 28 assists. On a per-game basis, that would rank them as the top assist combo in the league for the season.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773721/cropped_GettyImages-2202470056.jpg?ts=1741712657" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773721/w220xh124_GettyImages-2202470056.jpg?ts=1741712657 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773721/w320xh180_GettyImages-2202470056.jpg?ts=1741712657 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773721/w640xh360_GettyImages-2202470056.jpg?ts=1741712657 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773721/w768xh432_GettyImages-2202470056.jpg?ts=1741712657 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773721/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2202470056.jpg?ts=1741712657 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Adam Pantozzi / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>Doncic's hit-ahead passing, coupled with James still being a freight train in the open floor at age 40, is a huge part of that successful connection. With both on the court, the Lakers are by far the best transition team in the league when accounting for volume and efficiency. In those minutes, they're scoring 1.43 points per transition possession and adding an estimated 5.3 points per 100 via transition play (the Grizzlies lead the league overall at 4.2), according to <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/4432/lineups?on=1785#tab-context_trans_offense">Cleaning the Glass</a>.Those profitable open-court chances are coming mostly off live rebounds. Doncic creates a feedback loop with his unique ability to grab defensive boards (like few other guards in the league can) and kickstart the break the other way. It's helped mask the fact that L.A. ranks 21st in first-shot half-court efficiency since he debuted.That pedestrian half-court scoring doesn't feel like a long-term concern. Again, Doncic is still getting his legs under him. Before the trade, head coach JJ Redick's offense got a lot of mileage out of three-man elbow actions involving James, Anthony Davis, and Austin Reaves. Those plays are even more dynamic with Doncic's improvisational genius replacing the more mechanical Davis. Utilizing a trio of shooting, driving, and playmaking threats as potent as Doncic, James, and Reaves can create all kinds of problems for opposing defenses.For now, though, the Lakers are primarily being powered by what they're doing on the defensive end of the floor. When I wrote about <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3207817" href="https://thescore.com/news/3207817">their end of the lopsided trade</a>, I suggested that adding Doncic could elevate and elongate the tail end of LeBron's career. I also considered it unlikely that the Lakers would seriously compete for a title this season because of their troubling lack of big men and a defense I expected to struggle. They ranked 21st in defensive efficiency before trading their five-time All-Defensive anchor for a guy who's historically been a defensive liability.Instead, L.A. has produced the league's top-ranked defense since the trade. Jarred Vanderbilt's return a couple of weeks prior to the Davis-for-Doncic exchange, along with the Lakers' acquisition of Dorian Finney-Smith at the end of December, played a significant role in the team's defense trending up before the blockbuster deal. However, since Doncic first suited up for them, the Lakers have also surrendered 3.5 fewer points per 100 possessions with him on the floor compared to when he's on the bench, despite opponents shooting a higher percentage from 3-point range with him out there.It's not that Doncic has magically morphed into an all-world defender. He still gets targeted in ball-screen action and is liable to get cooked by quick guards when he switches. But his size and smarts are legitimate assets in a team defense context, at least when he commits to making timely help rotations and keeping his hands high. There's a lot to be said for being 6-foot-7 and 240 pounds and simply being in the way.And this is another area where we can point to the way Doncic's presence has elevated James, even if it's harder to quantify. Whether due to the decreased offensive responsibility, the energizing nature of the trade, or some combination of the two, James was playing his best defense in at least a couple of years before his injury; pressuring the ball, prowling on the weak side, and blowing stuff up at the rim. With Jaxson Hayes and Trey Jemison being the team's only true centers, James' rejuvenated activity level allowed those small-ball lineups to flourish.That injury is a blow that Doncic's presence will soften greatly. The Lakers have outscored opponents by 16 points per 100 with him on the floor and James on the bench, per <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/team/14/lineups?on=4432&amp;off=1785#tab-four_factors">Cleaning the Glass</a>. When they're both healthy, the ability to have at least one of them on the court at all times is basically a cheat code.Add it all up, and the trade has turned the Lakers from an aimless team with a second-round ceiling and a hazy future to one with a real chance to deliver LeBron his fifth ring before all's said and done.<h3>Butler in The Bay </h3>At 35, Butler isn't a transformative force on the level of a 26-year-old Doncic. But he's transformed the Warriors all the same while unlocking a near-peak version of Curry that we weren't sure still existed. Even against a softish schedule, the eye test and statistical indicators surrounding this new partnership have been extremely encouraging.Since the Warriors acquired Butler four days after the Doncic trade, they have the league's third-ranked defense and fifth-ranked offense, good for a plus-11.7 net rating that puts them behind only the Cleveland Cavaliers in that span. They've won 12 of 13 games with Butler in the lineup despite the fact that he's put up relatively pedestrian counting stats (roughly 18-6-6), shot 5-for-25 from 3-point range, and had bouts of extreme passivity in those 13 contests.Being a star who can thrive offensively without dominating the ball always <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3211401" href="https://thescore.com/news/3211401">made Butler an intuitive fit</a> with head coach Steve Kerr's offense. It's the combination of things Butler can do when he has the ball - namely, run pick-and-rolls, drive toward the basket, draw fouls, and pass - that set him apart from everyone else orbiting Curry in that system. Butler has injected a much-needed dose of rim frequency and free-throw generation into a team that ranked 26th and 28th in those departments before the trade. (They're up to 13th and seventh since Butler debuted.)<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/774678/cropped_GettyImages-2203505269.jpg?ts=1741712799" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/774678/w220xh124_GettyImages-2203505269.jpg?ts=1741712799 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/774678/w320xh180_GettyImages-2203505269.jpg?ts=1741712799 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/774678/w640xh360_GettyImages-2203505269.jpg?ts=1741712799 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/774678/w768xh432_GettyImages-2203505269.jpg?ts=1741712799 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/774678/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2203505269.jpg?ts=1741712799 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Noah Graham / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>Having to take Butler seriously as a scoring threat means more defensive attention has to be paid to him when he's playing off Curry. His gravity inside the arc makes it more dangerous for defenses to send multiple bodies at Curry beyond it. That should help explain why Curry has an effective field-goal percentage of 60.4% <a href="https://www.pbpstats.com/on-off/nba/player?Season=2024-25&amp;SeasonType=Regular%2BSeason&amp;TeamId=1610612744&amp;PlayerId=202710">when playing next to Butler</a> compared to 56.8% when playing without him and why he's had his three highest-scoring games of the season since the trade.Butler is an amplifier; he isn't the type of star who takes possessions away from co-stars. In Golden State, he's doing the exact opposite. His pristine ball protection has benefited a team that's had turnover issues throughout the entire Kerr era. The Warriors have the league's 10th-lowest turnover rate since Butler debuted, and he's coughing it up just 1.4 times a game. He's also adding possessions with his rugged work on the offensive glass, where he's pulling down more offensive boards (2.5 per contest) than any Warrior besides Kevon Looney. More possessions means more opportunities for Curry to do stuff like <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&amp;CFPARAMS=&amp;GameEventID=327&amp;GameID=0022400901&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;flag=1&amp;title=Curry%2038%27%203PT%20Turnaround%20Jump%20Shot%20(16%20PTS)%20(Butler%20III%203%20AST)">this</a>.And Butler's ability to prevent the Warriors from drowning when Curry hits the bench takes some pressure off the soon-to-be 37-year-old's on-court minutes. The Warriors scored just 103.6 points per 100 with Curry on the bench before the trade. That didn't dissuade Kerr from keeping his aging star on a tight 32-minute-a-game program, but he's probably sleeping better now that his team's scoring at an elite clip during the other 16 minutes, posting a 122.5 offensive rating with <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/team/10/lineups?on=526&amp;off=787#tab-four_factors">Butler on and Curry off.</a>Meanwhile, a defense that was already excellent has gotten even better. Thanks to Butler's physicality and smarts, he remains one of the best team defenders in the game. He and Draymond Green form a two-man weak-side wrecking crew, and the Warriors are forcing an ungodly rate of turnovers with both of them on the floor prowling passing lanes and bull-rushing opponents with aggressive back-side help. It's helped cover Curry's vulnerabilities at the point of attack and the lack of a rim-protecting center on the roster.Butler has done all that for the Warriors while still easing into his niche in their ecosystem and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6128121/2025/02/11/warriors-2-0-in-jimmy-butler-era/">playing his way back into game shape</a>. The prospect of him dialing things up for the stretch run and playoffs should have fans feeling optimistic about this team's chances of winning at least one round this spring.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

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How Doncic and Butler are reviving two sleeping giants

A few weeks ago, Jalen Williams - the Oklahoma City Thunder's do-it-all guard/wing/occasional sma...

A few weeks ago, Jalen Williams - the Oklahoma City Thunder's do-it-all guard/wing/occasional small-ball center - made a bold proposal. "I think there should be two Defensive Players of the Year," Williams said on the "Young Man and the Three" podcast. "It's just a big every year. I feel like it does a disservice to guards that are constantly in it. Everybody that's gotten it is deserving, but defense is very different for certain players. (It should be) a big and a guard. They do two different things."Although positional responsibilities are starting to bleed together in today's NBA, where just about everyone at every position can do a little bit of everything, Williams is right that guards and bigs serve very distinct defensive functions. Comparing them is an apples-to-oranges exercise.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>It's also true that neither can succeed independently of the other. Bigs protect the most valuable real estate on the court, but they rely on guards to chase around increasingly dangerous ball-handlers and shooters, and funnel the action toward them."Maybe I'm biased," Celtics stalwart Jrue Holiday told me. "But I do think that, while guards don't necessarily protect the rim in terms of blocking shots, bigs also don't know how to fight over a screen or chase around a pindown." If there's an argument over whether one of those things is more important than the other, it's seemingly been long settled in the minds of award voters; Marcus Smart is the only guard to have won DPOY in the last 29 years. And last season, when the All-Defensive teams became position-less for the first time, four of the five first-team selections were centers. (Though, in fairness, four of the five second-team spots went to guards.)Victor Wembanyama was the runaway DPOY favorite this year before his season was cut short due to a blood clot. Now that he's out of contention, the heavy front-runners are big men Jaren Jackson Jr. and Evan Mobley. However deserving those guys might be, point-of-attack defenders around the league clearly feel their contributions aren't being fully appreciated.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773261/cropped_GettyImages-2194583642.jpg?ts=1741031815" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773261/w220xh124_GettyImages-2194583642.jpg?ts=1741031815 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773261/w320xh180_GettyImages-2194583642.jpg?ts=1741031815 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773261/w640xh360_GettyImages-2194583642.jpg?ts=1741031815 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773261/w768xh432_GettyImages-2194583642.jpg?ts=1741031815 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773261/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2194583642.jpg?ts=1741031815 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Zach Beeker / NBA / Getty</figcaption></figure>"It makes no sense, when the guard is the one picking up 94 feet, the guard is the one getting over a screen before doing his work, closing out and contesting before the ball even gets to a big," said Smart, who started the season in Memphis and is now playing in Washington. "We do a lot more than we get credit for. So, nothing against the bigs, they do a good job, we need them. But us guards, we're down there working in the trenches."Though more and more action is <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/2883055" href="https://thescore.com/news/2883055">being run through centers</a> and jumbo wings, guards remain the primary offensive engines in the NBA. Even the most skilled bigs can't handle the ball or shoot off the dribble or on the move the way the best guards can. This season, guards listed at 6-foot-6 or under account for 12 of the top 15 qualified players in 3-point attempts per 100 possessions, 13 of the league's 15 highest-volume drivers, and 31 of the 40 most frequent ball-handlers, according to <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/touches?PerMode=PerGame&amp;dir=D&amp;sort=TIME_OF_POSS">NBA Advanced Stats</a>. Someone has to contain all that action."That's the guy who's running the team," Magic point guard Jalen Suggs said of the guys he was regularly bottling up before back and knee injuries derailed his season. "Some teams have their wings handle that, but when you're able to lock down a guard with another guard, it makes it really tough for the offense to get in a flow."Bigs are, of course, no less crucial to containing those guys with ball-screen coverage, back-line help, and rim deterrence. But without adequate resistance in front of them, they wind up stretched too thin trying to guard two players at once. "Having that dominant big protecting the rim helps your defense a ton because you can kind of funnel things into him," Suggs said. "But if you can't guard the perimeter, it don't even matter where he's at."Here's an explanation from Davion Mitchell, who was almost singlehandedly holding the point-of-attack dam for the Raptors before being traded to Miami at the deadline:"Nine times out of 10, if I'm guarding a guard, I'm on his hip where he can't jump as high to even go up for the layup," Mitchell said. "Like, if I'm guarding someone like Ja Morant, he can jump over literally anyone, but if I'm close to his body to where he can't jump as high, and he misses the layup, I feel like that's just me, no matter what (the big does), because he can't get to his athleticism. It's just little things like that that people don't always see."<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773259/cropped_GettyImages-2197295743.jpg?ts=1741031441" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773259/w220xh124_GettyImages-2197295743.jpg?ts=1741031441 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773259/w320xh180_GettyImages-2197295743.jpg?ts=1741031441 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773259/w640xh360_GettyImages-2197295743.jpg?ts=1741031441 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773259/w768xh432_GettyImages-2197295743.jpg?ts=1741031441 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773259/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2197295743.jpg?ts=1741031441 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Cole Burston / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>While it may not have risen to the importance of big-man defense, guard defense today comes with a wider array of responsibilities and more weight than ever. So many of the defensive trends currently shaping the league put the impetus on guards. Pick-up points are higher on the floor than they've been in years, up to and including full-court pressure. There's an increased focus on getting into the ball and forcing turnovers.The ability to dodge screens has also never been more valuable given the sheer number and variety of screens being set on and off the ball. Guards who can stay connected and provide serious rear-view pressure allow their teams to play those screening actions with minimal supplemental help, keeping others home on shooters and cutters. But navigating that minefield requires a ton of awareness and preparation. "There's so many different ways you can do it," Suggs explained. "You can do it literally by sheer force, like hitting the big so many times as they come up to screen that they're not sprinting into (the screens) as much, and not setting them as steady. That kind of gives you some grace and a bit more room to move around. You can apply so much pressure on the ball that you kind of push the guard away from any any attacking or scoring position. You can slide under. It really just depends on the night, which technique you decide to use. "That makes it fun, because there's so many different styles of guards in the league, whether it's big, small, fast- or slow-paced, very physical or very twitchy. It's just so many styles that you have to guard while you're a perimeter defender. So with screen navigation, it's just about mixing it up and really just finding any way to get through." Conversely, the inability to fight through screens has a cascading effect that complicates everything a defense wants to accomplish. It might mean the big has to play higher up than he's comfortable with. It might force emergency switches. It will often pull a third defender into the action on the back side. It's also likely to lead to more fouls.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773260/cropped_GettyImages-2184197067.jpg?ts=1741031568" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773260/w220xh124_GettyImages-2184197067.jpg?ts=1741031568 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773260/w320xh180_GettyImages-2184197067.jpg?ts=1741031568 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773260/w640xh360_GettyImages-2184197067.jpg?ts=1741031568 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773260/w768xh432_GettyImages-2184197067.jpg?ts=1741031568 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773260/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2184197067.jpg?ts=1741031568 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Stacy Revere / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>Consider Milwaukee with and without Holiday. During his three seasons there, the Bucks finished first, second, and second in opponent free-throw attempt rate. In the two seasons since they traded him for Damian Lillard, they've ranked 13th and 12th. That personnel shift greatly impacted their deep-drop scheme and their defense as a whole. Brook Lopez finished runner-up in DPOY voting in Holiday's last year there but didn't come close to making an All-Defensive team last season (and likely won't this season, either). Sometimes, the best interior defense is good perimeter defense."A lot of the time, when you have a good guard defending, the offense isn't getting into the paint until about 8-10 seconds on the shot clock, and they gotta force a shot," Smart said. "Now the big's coming over to block it. They got 24 seconds, and we took 15 off for you.""Us limiting guys from getting to the rim is rim-protecting in itself," Suggs said.There are loads of other ways guard defenders can contribute to their teams' holistic rim-protecting efforts. They can stymie drivers' progress by digging from the wing and forcing them to pick up their dribble early. They can make the nail a no-fly zone on middle pick-and-rolls to protect their dropping bigs. Wiry guards like Holiday, who can survive major height mismatches, allow the defense to switch liberally and erase the north-south dimension of opponent pick-and-rolls. Others like Suggs excel at veer switching and blowing up pocket passes to roll men. More than anything, guards can make their interior presence felt with how they rotate as low men behind the play. Done right, they can set themselves up to take charges, strip the ball, force kickouts, or - in the case of guys like Suggs, Williams, and the Celtics' Derrick White - contest and block shots."I think that there's multiple ways to guard the rim," Holiday said. "You can take charges, you can go vertical ... it's not all about blocks. But I think defense, especially for me and Derrick, is something that we hang our hats on, just knowing that it's what's going to help us win. So obviously I do my best to hold down the back line, whether it's getting steals or baiting people into turnovers. And I know Derrick's been, for the last few years now, blocking shots like crazy."<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773468/cropped_GettyImages-2147125359.jpg?ts=1741146412" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773468/w220xh124_GettyImages-2147125359.jpg?ts=1741146412 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773468/w320xh180_GettyImages-2147125359.jpg?ts=1741146412 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773468/w640xh360_GettyImages-2147125359.jpg?ts=1741146412 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773468/w768xh432_GettyImages-2147125359.jpg?ts=1741146412 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773468/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2147125359.jpg?ts=1741146412 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Rich Storry / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>Plenty of elite defenses are largely being powered by guards, including Williams' historically great Thunder, Suggs' second-ranked Magic, and Holiday and White's fifth-ranked Celtics. You could include the third-ranked Clippers, depending on how you measure Kris Dunn's impact versus Ivica Zubac's. Other teams like the Hawks, Pacers, and Kings, who aren't good defensively, have been rescued from being truly bad by guards like Dyson Daniels, Andrew Nembhard, and Keon Ellis. All of those guys have to cover for shaky defensive backcourt mates, whereas Suggs, Holiday, and Williams have the benefit of being flanked by other elite defensive guards. "It's really nice playing with (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope) because, for as much as I love to defend, it's tiring," Suggs said. "So to get to take a step back sometimes and watch a defender like that hound guys and really shut them down, watching him kill possessions by himself just because guys aren't able to get the ball inside the 3-point line, I think shit like that is dope."Everybody plays a part, but being able to defend on the perimeter, I think, is one of the very important things we can do to win games on any given night."None of that necessarily means there actually have to be two DPOYs. But when giving defensive bigs their deserved flowers, we should remember to save a few bouquets for the guys who allow those bigs to flourish."Shout out to the bigs," Mitchell said. "Rudy Gobert ... Wemby ... those bigs are really good defenders. But I think we should show more love to guards."Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

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We don't need 2 DPOY awards, but don't take guard defense for granted

Nine months ago, the Dallas Mavericks were on top of the world.   They'd punched their ticket to ...

Nine months ago, the Dallas Mavericks were on top of the world. They'd punched their ticket to the NBA Finals for the first time in 13 years, having vanquished three 50-plus-win teams in the process. Luka Doncic had just ripped the Minnesota Timberwolves' hearts out in the conference finals - a series in which he averaged an efficient 32-10-8, hit a cold-blooded bomb in Game 2, and sucked the life out of Target Center with a closeout performance for the ages in Game 5. He'd firmly established himself, at the tender age of 25, as one of the great playoff performers of his generation.At the same time, Kyrie Irving reminded the world he was a perfect second option. All the front office's recent roster moves - from the Irving acquisition to the mini-tank that allowed Dallas to draft center Dereck Lively II to the deadline deals that brought in P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford - had paid off beautifully. The team had mortgaged a huge chunk of its long-term future to build that team around Doncic, surrendering control of all its first-round picks between 2027 and 2030. But that couldn't take the shine off a roster that was set up to contend for the foreseeable future.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>The Mavericks' fall from that lofty peak to the pit of despair in which they now reside is one of the most stunning descents in recent NBA history - a nosedive precipitated by both their own decisions and disastrous events outside their control. The latest is Irving's torn ACL, which will sideline him not only for the remainder of this season but for much of next season as well. With that, Dallas' already flickering hopes of competing for anything meaningful in the next two years were effectively extinguished.This season started out well enough for the Mavs. After a humbling loss to the Boston Celtics in the Finals, they'd had a solid summer in which they added Klay Thompson, Quentin Grimes, and Naji Marshall, positioning themselves to make another deep run. Heading into their Christmas Day showdown against the Timberwolves, they were 19-10, just a game out of second place in the West, with top-10 rankings on both sides of the ball. And then everything started to go sideways.Doncic strained his calf in that Christmas game, which turned out to be his last appearance as a Maverick. In the six weeks between then and the <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3207654" href="https://thescore.com/news/3207654">galaxy-brained trade</a> that <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3207817" href="https://thescore.com/news/3207817">gifted Doncic to the Lakers</a>, the Mavs also lost Lively to a severe ankle injury. The sophomore was balling out before hitting the shelf: In his last game before the injury, he racked up a career-high eight assists. The game before that, he'd put up a season-high 21 points and tied a career high with 16 rebounds. Dallas performed 9.5 points per 100 possessions better with Lively on the floor than on the bench. He's still yet to return.In leaks to the media following the wildly unpopular Doncic move, Mavs general manager Nico Harrison indicated that he and other members of the organization had concerns about Doncic's durability. Why those same decision-makers saw fit to trade him for Anthony Davis - an undeniably brilliant but objectively worse player who's six years older and has a much spottier injury history - was left to the imagination. In any case, Davis was tremendous for three quarters in his Mavericks debut ... before leaving the game with a groin injury. Four weeks later, he too remains on the shelf without a timetable for his return.One game after Davis' injury, it was Gafford's turn. He suffered an MCL sprain that very likely ended his season and left Dallas with zero ambulant big men. Irving did an admirable job keeping the Mavs afloat, helping them scrape out a few wins with the likes of Moses Brown and Kessler Edwards starting at center.Those wins kept Dallas in the play-in mix and within spitting distance of a top-six seed. On top of Irving's excellence, Washington was playing some of the best ball of his career. Dante Exum returned from a season-long injury absence and looked no worse for wear. Max Christie, the young wing who arrived with Davis in the Doncic deal, was surging at both ends of the floor, making up for the fact that the Mavs also traded Grimes for Caleb Martin for no good reason. (Martin has been sidelined with a hip injury for two months and has yet to suit up for Dallas.) In other words, there were enough encouraging signs to convince you that if Davis and Lively could make it back, this team might still be heard from in the spring.So much for that.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773408/cropped_GettyImages-2203155528.jpg?ts=1741120819" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773408/w220xh124_GettyImages-2203155528.jpg?ts=1741120819 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773408/w320xh180_GettyImages-2203155528.jpg?ts=1741120819 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773408/w640xh360_GettyImages-2203155528.jpg?ts=1741120819 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773408/w768xh432_GettyImages-2203155528.jpg?ts=1741120819 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/773408/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2203155528.jpg?ts=1741120819 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Sam Hodde / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>Whatever qualms you may have had with Harrison's cockamamie "defense wins championships" rationale, there was no doubt that Davis and Lively would make for a suffocating frontcourt pairing and the team's size would pose all kinds of problems for opponents with Washington sliding down to the three. Irving, while better suited as a second option, is a gifted enough creator to keep a team's offense at least respectable as its lead guard. A healthy Mavs team would've been fun to watch during the stretch run.That's the most galling part about this whole saga (well, other than the part where a franchise traded a 25-year-old megastar who made five All-NBA first teams in his first six seasons and just led the club to the freaking Finals): The roster left standing was still very good, but we never got to see it.Dallas is now bereft of bigs and guards. (Jaden Hardy sprained his ankle in the same game as Irving.) At 32-30, in 10th place in the West, this team will either be one-and-done in the play-in or scrabbling for double-digit lottery seeding. Next season's outlook doesn't figure to be much rosier. By the time Irving is fully healthy and back up to speed, he'll be a 34-year-old pending free agent. Davis will be an injury-prone 33-year-old big man with two years and $120 million left on his contract. And the Mavs will be staring at a draft-pick desert spanning about half a decade. But hey, at least they won't have to pay Doncic's supermax!How did things come to this? Surely even the most dispirited, pessimistic Dallas fan following the Doncic trade couldn't have imagined it blowing up in the team's face so quickly and spectacularly. It's amazing how every aspect of the organization's plan backfired. Doncic not durable? Well, he'll probably play more games for the Lakers this season than Dallas gets post-trade from Irving, Davis, Lively, and Gafford combined. Defense wins championships? Would you look at that - the Lakers have the best defensive rating in the league since the trade. Heck, Grimes just dropped 44 points for the Sixers! It's enough to make you believe in the wrath of the basketball gods.Even if you don't buy into that kind of karmic retribution, how can you not feel the weight of the psychic baggage on this franchise's back right now? How are the Mavs and their fans supposed to recover and move forward? It's barely been a month since the trade, so they're still about nine torturous decades shy of rivaling <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_Bambino">the sports world's greatest hex</a>. But considering the way things have spiraled in the immediate aftermath, it's hard not to wonder if we're witnessing the dawn of basketball's version of the Curse of the Bambino.Let's revisit this in the year 2109.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 25: Kyrie Irving #11 of the Dallas Mavericks and Luka Doncic #77 of the Los Angeles Lakers hug before the game on February 25, 2025 at Crypto.Com Arena in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 NBAE

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Did the Mavericks curse themselves?

NBA basketball mutates constantly, like just about everything in the world. Stylistic revolutions...

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NBA coaches on how evolution takes shape, and what comes next 

It was February 2015, and the Atlanta Hawks had just wrapped up one of the most remarkable months...

<figure class="article-segment--embed">It was February 2015, and the Atlanta Hawks had just wrapped up one of the most remarkable months in NBA history.</figure>The Hawks were already red-hot entering the new year, having won 16 of their last 18 games of 2014. That run had left them just a half-game out of first place in the Eastern Conference, with a 23-8 record that they'd compiled without any superstars on the roster. They were powered by a starting lineup of Jeff Teague, Kyle Korver, DeMarre Carroll, Paul Millsap, and Al Horford, who had three career All-Star appearances between them at the time (all courtesy of Horford and Millsap).With coach Mike Budenholzer at the helm, they ambushed opponents with an aggressive, ultra-connected defense that forced gobs of turnovers. They tied opponents in knots at the other end with a free-flowing, equal-opportunity offense predicated on ball and player movement. But while some intrigue burbled around the team, few observers took the Hawks seriously as contenders at the time. Prevailing sentiment suggested they were a fun team that was bound to cool off.Then they went out and won all 17 games they played in January, a slate that included 10 playoff opponents, two extended road trips, and four sets of back-to-backs. When it was over, every team in the NBA, including the eventual champion Warriors, was looking up at Atlanta in the overall standings. <div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>"When January hits, I feel like that's usually the most challenging month of the season," says Horford, the lone member of that starting five who's still playing in the league. "We started that month and it was a very tough schedule, but our whole mindset was like, 'Let's just take it a game at a time, see how it goes.' And then midway through the month, we're like, 'Oh, man, we still haven't lost a game!' We just found ourselves in a great groove.""We was playing so free and so together," Carroll remembers. "We could be up by 20 in the first quarter, or we could be down by 10. We always knew, just because we had that much confidence and that much continuity, that we wasn't gonna lose. And give credit to our coaching staff, they really made us feel that. They even walked around with that type of swag."When it came time to decide who should be named Eastern Conference Player of the Month, the voting committee - made up of people in the communications and basketball operations departments at the league office - felt compelled to reward someone from the team that hadn't lost during the calendar month in question. But with such a balanced group, singling out an individual for recognition proved challenging."When we sat down that week, it was amazing to us," recalls Tim Frank, the senior vice president of league operations communications since 2001. "They went undefeated, and when we looked at the statistics for each of their guys, I think the lowest scoring average was like 15-something and the highest was like 18-something. And our thought was, you can't really tell the monthly story appropriately without the team that went undefeated. But there wasn't one player that really stood out as having monster numbers."<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769834/cropped_GettyImages-462052854.jpg?ts=1739215734" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769834/w220xh124_GettyImages-462052854.jpg?ts=1739215734 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769834/w320xh180_GettyImages-462052854.jpg?ts=1739215734 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769834/w640xh360_GettyImages-462052854.jpg?ts=1739215734 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769834/w768xh432_GettyImages-462052854.jpg?ts=1739215734 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769834/w1080xh607_GettyImages-462052854.jpg?ts=1739215734 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>Though the spread in the starters' stats wasn't quite as small as Frank remembers, he wasn't far off. Millsap led the Hawks that month with 18.3 points per game, Horford averaged 17.1 while anchoring the back line of the defense, Teague scored 16.6 while leading the team in assists (8.5) and steals (1.8), Korver averaged 13.4 and shot 57% from three while leading the team in individual net rating (plus-22.2), and Carroll averaged 12.3 on 64% true shooting while taking on the toughest defensive wing assignment every night."We just looked at it and our general view was, we should recognize them all, right?" Frank says. "When we first raised it on the call, everybody kind of laughed originally. But ultimately I think we all came to feel it was 100% the right thing to do."When we called the Hawks, they were like, 'That is so cool!' I don't even think they had thought that was a possibility."Last Tuesday marked the 10-year anniversary of that Player(s) of the Month announcement, which was the first and only such award any of the five received. A decade later, in the wake of an exhausting and chaotic transaction cycle featuring all manner of star-centric machinations, there's something refreshing about revisiting that particular month for that particular team, which was honored in a way that hadn't happened before and hasn't happened since."You always worry about setting precedents and stuff, but we're 10 years later now, and I don't remember us having any similar conversation since then," Frank says. "We've talked about doing it for two players from the same team or something like that, but this was truly unique. And we thought the Hawks at that time were really unique.""I just remember being very surprised about it," Horford says. "I mean, that's supposed to be an individual award. But it was so fitting for our group because individually, we could care less about that award. We were just focused on winning games and enjoying playing basketball."Korver, now the Hawks' assistant general manager, says: "We were just continuing to do the things that we'd been talking about internally for two years, and all of a sudden, we just weren't losing games. It was just, you show up every day, believing individually we're probably not good enough, but if I play to make the person next to me better and he does the same for me, we've got a chance to win. That's every single day and every single game with that mentality."In a league where everyone's just trying to stuff their roster with as much talent as they possibly can and then let the pieces figure it out, this wasn't that approach. And it was a beautiful thing. We'd be playing against teams, and I remember guys on the other team at the end of the game being like, 'Man, I love how you guys play.' And that means you're doing something, you know? So that's really what I remember about that month. It was just an affirmation of what we were trying to build." <figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769830/cropped_GettyImages-462428258.jpg?ts=1739215493" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769830/w220xh124_GettyImages-462428258.jpg?ts=1739215493 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769830/w320xh180_GettyImages-462428258.jpg?ts=1739215493 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769830/w640xh360_GettyImages-462428258.jpg?ts=1739215493 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769830/w768xh432_GettyImages-462428258.jpg?ts=1739215493 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769830/w1080xh607_GettyImages-462428258.jpg?ts=1739215493 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Sam Forencich / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>The particular alchemy that makes a team greater than the sum of its parts is more art than science. You can do your best to match up complementary skill sets and avoid redundant ones, but that doesn't guarantee a harmony of style, personality, or intent. Countless teams have tried to maximize their talent the way those Hawks did, but you can count on one hand the number that have come close. Every team is its own unique organism, and sometimes, for reasons that aren't totally explicable, a group of players just clicks."Between Jeff and Al and Paul and DeMarre, we were playing with winks and nods," Korver says. "We didn't have to talk to communicate. We're like, glancing at each other and knowing what the other person's thinking, what we're going to do the next time down the court. Three of us are making eye contact and reading each other's minds, you know? We just felt like we were super in sync. And that's what helped me. Because I've never been a person to just create his own shots. I'm always at my best when I'm with a group that's playing connected basketball.""The biggest thing was trust," Carroll says. "Trust in the next person to do his job. That's how you build confidence, and that's when everything jells: When I know if I get beat, Al is going to be behind me to protect the rim, and Al, when he's guarding a post-up guy who goes baseline on him, he knows his help's gonna be there. Trust in making that extra pass, knowing everybody's gonna get an equal amount. I think that's the biggest key we had.""It's really a credit to Coach Bud," Horford says. "He really got us to buy into playing with one another, looking to play the right way, playing with pace. I think it was about Bud challenging us, and us kind of running with it."One of the unwritten rules of sports is that you aren't supposed to think too much about the magnitude of what you're doing while you're doing it. Like a pitcher in the middle of a perfect game, there's a sense that drawing too much attention to a magic moment will break the spell that created it. Those Hawks were always wary of buying into their own hype. To hear Korver tell it, they lived their hot streak like it was governed by the laws of cartoon gravity: They could walk on air as long as they kept their eyes straight ahead, but the instant they looked down, they'd fall."There was always an appropriate fear of, if we break off of this model, we're not good enough to keep winning," Korver says. "I think we were humble enough as a group to understand who we really were and that we needed everyone around us. So, we were always holding, 'Man, we're winning, this is so much fun,' with, 'We know there's other teams that are more talented than we are.' We were holding both of those things at the same time."As sensible as that approach might've been, it meant the Hawks couldn't fully absorb how special that January - and their collective award - was at the time."We acknowledged it, we thought it was cool, but honestly, we just kind of kept it moving," Horford says. "I feel like everybody around us made a big deal out of it, and it was a good feeling, but at the same time, we were just kind of focusing on the next thing.""I don't think we really celebrated it," Korver says. "We probably should have celebrated it more."<figure class="article-segment--embed"><iframe title="The perfect month" aria-label="Table" id="datawrapper-chart-7KJeH" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/7KJeH/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="728" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}();
</script></figure>A decade later, that team's imprint still lingers. Almost any time another NBA team takes off unexpectedly, thriving on the strength of continuity, synergy, and fit, people invoke the 2014-15 Hawks. One such team is this year's Cleveland Cavaliers, for whom Carroll serves as an assistant coach."It looks like a mirror image sometimes, right?" Carroll says. "This team, I think, shoots a bit better - probably a lot better - than we did. But overall, as far as the confidence and continuity, I definitely feel that (similarity)."Of course, because of the way that campaign concluded for Atlanta - a choppy last month of the regular season, two grind-it-out series wins over middling teams, and then a sweep by LeBron James' Cavaliers in the East finals - the comparison always feels a bit backhanded. Referencing those Hawks has become a kind of shorthand for the possibilities and limitations of a team devoid of both ego and top-10 talent.Still, whatever people might say about how it ended, few teams have gone on the kind of run the Hawks did that winter. For a long while, nobody in the league could touch them. And that will always be worth remembering and celebrating, especially by those who were part of it."People play this game for lots of different reasons," Korver says. "What's always driven my desire to play and be part of the game is, I just think it's so fun when you're giving everything you have, preparing every single day, putting your full self out there, and it's connected to other people who are doing the same. And to me, in all my basketball years, that was the purest basketball that I've ever been a part of."It was never about one person. And I think when that happens in sports, everyone sees it, everyone notices it, everybody wants it. It's really hard to do. And I just think, in a world where the individual is celebrated so much now ... being part of a great team that was recognized and celebrated that way, it's really meaningful for me that that's part of my basketball story."<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769835/cropped_GettyImages-461004062.jpg?ts=1739215847" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769835/w220xh124_GettyImages-461004062.jpg?ts=1739215847 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769835/w320xh180_GettyImages-461004062.jpg?ts=1739215847 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769835/w640xh360_GettyImages-461004062.jpg?ts=1739215847 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769835/w768xh432_GettyImages-461004062.jpg?ts=1739215847 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769835/w1080xh607_GettyImages-461004062.jpg?ts=1739215847 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Sam Forencich / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>The impact of those Hawks also continues to resonate with the people who made the decision to reward the team in unprecedented fashion."On our calls occasionally it'll still come up," Frank says. "We remember that moment because I think for all of us it was pretty cool too. And at the time I think everybody was curious … if anybody would rip us for it. But it wound up being almost overwhelmingly supported. I mean, even from the media, I don't remember any negativity on it. So, we definitely thought we had done a good thing."And for the two guys who now work in the league in different capacities, the memories of that team still shape the way they approach their respective roles."I wish we could've won, but at the end of the day, man, I think just being around that team and having that experience has helped me a lot, even on the coaching side," Carroll says. "Coaching these guys, I'm always telling them, 'You don't get these opportunities too often. You gotta take advantage.'""That is my North Star now," Korver says. "Working in the NBA on this side of the game, obviously you need to have talent, and you never want to just try to copy something else, it never works. But just like, trying to create an environment that reflects a lot of the values and the mindset that that group had, when I felt it and experienced it on a deep level … that's my North Star, for sure."Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

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How the 2015 Hawks' starting 5 won Player of the Month

The days leading up to the 2025 NBA trade deadline were some of the wildest we've ever seen. Belo...

The days leading up to the 2025 NBA trade deadline were some of the wildest we've ever seen. Below, read our analysis on all of the biggest pre-deadline moves, followed by our big-picture takeaways from Feb. 6:<ul>
<li><a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3207654" href="https://thescore.com/news/3207654">Mavs trading Doncic is a move of historically baffling proportions</a></li>
<li><a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3207817" href="https://thescore.com/news/3207817">Mavs gift Lakers the lifeline to end all lifelines</a></li>
<li><a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3211401" href="https://thescore.com/news/3211401">Betting on Butler is a gamble. The Warriors had no choice</a></li>
<li><a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3208499" href="https://thescore.com/news/3208499">Breaking down a blockbuster between Spurs, Kings, Bulls</a></li>
<li><a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3211068" href="https://thescore.com/news/3211068">Trying to make sense of Raptors' move for Brandon Ingram</a></li>
</ul><h3>Trade season is alive and well</h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/514032/cropped_GettyImages-1236324259.jpg?ts=1738879453" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/514032/w220xh124_GettyImages-1236324259.jpg?ts=1738879453 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/514032/w320xh180_GettyImages-1236324259.jpg?ts=1738879453 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/514032/w640xh360_GettyImages-1236324259.jpg?ts=1738879453 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/514032/w768xh432_GettyImages-1236324259.jpg?ts=1738879453 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/514032/w1080xh607_GettyImages-1236324259.jpg?ts=1738879453 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Glenn James / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>The rumor mill was slow in the lead-up to this year's deadline. The Jimmy Butler saga dragged on drearily, and apart from him, it seemed like Cam Johnson would be the biggest name to change teams. There were fears among NBA slop enthusiasts that the market was and would continue to be frozen by the restrictions on tax-apron teams codified in the new CBA.Then the Mavericks traded Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis, and the floodgates opened. De'Aaron Fox and Zach LaVine were moved in a three-team deal, the Heat finally bit the bullet and shipped Butler off to Golden State, the Raptors jumped at the chance to acquire Brandon Ingram, and the Bucks said goodbye to Khris Middleton. That's 28 combined All-Star appearances and 16 All-NBA appearances changing hands. <div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>Though that flurry of activity happened in the days and hours before deadline day itself, leaving only smaller marginal moves for Thursday, this has undeniably been one of the nuttiest transaction cycles in NBA history. Amazingly, in the end, Johnson didn't even end up being one of the players moved.Every deadline is different, shaped by its own unique circumstances. We may never see another one quite like this. But at the very least, it seems safe to say that reports of trade season's demise were greatly exaggerated. - Joe Wolfond<h3>Lakers fill their big-man vacancy ... health permitting</h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/767570/cropped_GettyImages-2195752637.jpg?ts=1738879484" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/767570/w220xh124_GettyImages-2195752637.jpg?ts=1738879484 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/767570/w320xh180_GettyImages-2195752637.jpg?ts=1738879484 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/767570/w640xh360_GettyImages-2195752637.jpg?ts=1738879484 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/767570/w768xh432_GettyImages-2195752637.jpg?ts=1738879484 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/767570/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2195752637.jpg?ts=1738879484 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Kent Smith / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>The franchise-altering <a href="https://thescore.com/news/3207654">trade</a> for Luka Doncic landed the Lakers yet another era-defining superstar, but it left a short-term void in the frontcourt that they didn't have to fill immediately. They did anyway (after reportedly consulting with Doncic).Mark Williams is exactly the kind of athletic, rim-running big man who should thrive in a two-man game with Doncic. The 23-year-old is averaging 15.6 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.2 blocks in 25 minutes this season, and his already solid interior efficiency should only improve when he starts catching lobs and passes from Doncic and LeBron James. The new-look lineup will be light on shooting but still offensively overwhelming with that trio, Austin Reaves, and Rui Hachimura.There's a downside to this deal, though. For one, Williams is an inconsistent rim-protector at best, and that'll be a problem with Doncic and Reaves in front of him. Further, the Lakers also have no depth left in the short term, they moved the last first-round pick they could trade outright at the moment (2031), and they parted with their best young player (non-Doncic division) in rookie Dalton Knecht. That's a lot to surrender for a young center who's missed more games (127) than he's appeared in (85) through the first two and a half years of his career. The Lakers are obviously the biggest overall winner of trade season with their future now tethered to Doncic, but their actual deadline-day deal has some major boom-or-bust potential.For what it's worth, the last remaining first-round draft capital the Lakers can trade before this year's draft (at which point 2032 picks become moveable) are pick swaps in 2026 and 2028. - Joseph Casciaro<h3>Suns' outlook gets grimmer</h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769250/cropped_GettyImages-2183191964.jpg?ts=1738879575" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769250/w220xh124_GettyImages-2183191964.jpg?ts=1738879575 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769250/w320xh180_GettyImages-2183191964.jpg?ts=1738879575 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769250/w640xh360_GettyImages-2183191964.jpg?ts=1738879575 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769250/w768xh432_GettyImages-2183191964.jpg?ts=1738879575 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769250/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2183191964.jpg?ts=1738879575 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Chris Coduto / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>The Suns reportedly left no stone unturned in their quest to shake things up. The league's most expensive team went from hoping Bradley Beal would waive his no-trade clause to facilitate a deal for Jimmy Butler, to the possibility of replacing Kevin Durant with Butler, to even coming close to sending KD back to The Bay. All this after Phoenix traded its unprotected 2031 first-round draft pick for three protected first-rounders in an effort to land Butler (or another star).In the end, the Suns didn't trade one of those picks to get starrier or better, but rather sent a first-rounder (the least favorable 2026 pick between Phoenix, Washington, Orlando, and Memphis) to Charlotte to get off of disgruntled and little-used center Jusuf Nurkic. If you're keeping track at home, that means the only draft capital this aging .500 team currently clinging to the West's final play-in berth has over the next seven years is a collection of pick swaps in which they'll always receive the worst pick.As a second-apron team in tax hell, the Suns were already as all-in as a franchise could get, without the short-term success to show for it. That they turned their one remaining real draft pick into three lesser picks only to do nothing with them is another devastating blow to a recklessly assembled team now dying a slow death. - Casciaro<h3>Cavs complete their starting 5</h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769044/cropped_GettyImages-2196857305.jpg?ts=1738879619" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769044/w220xh124_GettyImages-2196857305.jpg?ts=1738879619 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769044/w320xh180_GettyImages-2196857305.jpg?ts=1738879619 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769044/w640xh360_GettyImages-2196857305.jpg?ts=1738879619 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769044/w768xh432_GettyImages-2196857305.jpg?ts=1738879619 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769044/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2196857305.jpg?ts=1738879619 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Jason Miller / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>Ever since trading for Donovan Mitchell two and a half years ago, the Cavaliers have been looking for a way to effectively bridge their explosive but small backcourt with their gigantic non-shooting frontcourt. The starting small forward in between that quartet has been at various points Isaac Okoro, Caris LeVert, Max Strus, and, most effectively, Dean Wade. In acquiring De'Andre Hunter from the Hawks - with LeVert and reserve forward Georges Niang going the other way - Cleveland may have finally found a more permanent solution.Hunter's a 6-foot-8 wing in the 3-and-D mold who's enjoying by far the <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3157801" href="https://thescore.com/news/3157801">best season of his career</a> at age 27. He's the league's top bench scorer, averaging 19 points a game (nearly 24 per 36 minutes) while shooting 39.3% from 3-point range on huge volume. He's evolved into a much more streamlined decision-maker this season, shooting and attacking with conviction and force off the catch. He's nowhere near the ball-handler or playmaker LeVert is, but on a Cavs team rife with on-ball creation, his offensive skills and play style probably represent a cleaner fit.His reputation as a defender outpaces reality - LeVert is friskier at the point of attack and more consistently engaged as a helper - but Hunter's size makes him a better matchup for the big wings of the world. Though he isn't quite the movement shooter Strus is, or the defender Wade is, he kind of blends the things those two bring to the table. And unlike LeVert, who's a pending free agent, Hunter's under contract for two more years (at a reasonable $48 million) after this one.The Cavs have a five-game cushion atop the Eastern Conference. Pushing for an upgrade at a position of need by dealing a bundle of draft assets - three second-rounders and two secondary first-round swaps - along with two rotation players signals a strong belief in what they're capable of this season. When you consider that none of the other legitimate contenders (not Boston, OKC, New York, Memphis, Houston, or Denver) made additions at the deadline, this feels like a pretty big win for Cleveland. - Wolfond<h3>Bucks degrade themselves for tax relief</h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/568142/cropped_GettyImages-1249663655.jpg?ts=1738879674" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/568142/w220xh124_GettyImages-1249663655.jpg?ts=1738879674 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/568142/w320xh180_GettyImages-1249663655.jpg?ts=1738879674 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/568142/w640xh360_GettyImages-1249663655.jpg?ts=1738879674 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/568142/w768xh432_GettyImages-1249663655.jpg?ts=1738879674 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/568142/w1080xh607_GettyImages-1249663655.jpg?ts=1738879674 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Brian Sevald / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>It was always a possibility Milwaukee would look to trade Khris Middleton this season, given his injury issues and physical decline, and given the pressure the team's under to win now. But to trade the franchise icon - who remains an effective player, in spite of his limitations - for Kyle Kuzma, of all people? And to throw in AJ Johnson (their 20-year-old first-round pick in last year's draft) and a 2028 pick swap to boot? Not ideal. The Bucks also got Patrick Baldwin Jr. in the trade but subsequently rerouted him to San Antonio.Even with Middleton's diminished athleticism and deteriorating defense, he brought real value to Milwaukee this season with his shooting and playmaking. He still had amazing two-man synergy with Giannis Antetokounmpo, and still put up 63% true shooting (58% from 2-point range, 41% from deep) while averaging 23 minutes off the bench. The Bucks performed 5.3 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor. He obviously isn't the player he once was, but he also underwhelmed on a tight playing-time leash last regular season, and that didn't stop him from averaging 24.7 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 4.7 assists on 48/36/90 shooting across 38.3 minutes a game against the Pacers in the playoffs. He dragged that series to six hard-fought games, with Antetokounmpo out and Damian Lillard badly hobbled. Kuzma, meanwhile, is one of the least efficient big-minute players in the league this year, posting 49% true shooting. That will probably improve significantly when he plays next to Antetokounmpo and Lillard, but Kuzma's always been a poor shooter and below-average playmaker. When he's engaged, he can be a better defender than Middleton is at this stage, but still tops out around average on that end of the floor.The primary impetus for the deal was to shed salary. Kuzma's on a declining deal that will pay him about $13 million less than Middleton can make by picking up his player option next season. And for this season, the move gets Milwaukee below the second luxury-tax apron. The hope was that doing so would do more than just save ownership some scratch; it allowed the Bucks to aggregate salaries in subsequent trades, which they couldn't do as a second-apron team.Unfortunately, the only subsequent trade that materialized was one that sent out MarJon Beauchamp (whose fourth-year option Milwaukee declined) in exchange for Clippers guard Kevin Porter Jr. - a ball-stopping gunner who's been even less efficient than Kuzma this season and is still under investigation by the NBA for domestic assault. There are seven qualified players this season with usage rates above 20% and true shooting percentages below 50%, and the Bucks traded for two of them.They weren't especially likely to make a deep run this year regardless, but what they did at the deadline effectively punted whatever possibility remained. - Wolfond<h3>Raptors zag again</h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769165/cropped_GettyImages-2054044223.jpg?ts=1738824017" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769165/w220xh124_GettyImages-2054044223.jpg?ts=1738824017 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769165/w320xh180_GettyImages-2054044223.jpg?ts=1738824017 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769165/w640xh360_GettyImages-2054044223.jpg?ts=1738824017 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769165/w768xh432_GettyImages-2054044223.jpg?ts=1738824017 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/769165/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2054044223.jpg?ts=1738824017 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Mark Blinch / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>The joke's on us for assuming this was finally the year we had a good read on Toronto's deadline intentions. For the third straight year, a Raptors team sitting outside the postseason picture acted as 11th-hour buyers rather than sellers. Most perplexing of all, this year's team publicly admitted to rebuilding and prioritizing the process over the results. So, what gives?The simple answer is that <a href="https://thescore.com/news/3211068">buying low</a> on a player of Brandon Ingram's upside doesn't have to jeopardize Toronto's 2025 lottery odds. The Raptors own the league's fifth-worst record, Ingram is currently sidelined by a left ankle sprain, and the team did move three rotation players (Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk, and Davion Mitchell) who all played key roles in the Raptors' recent surge. If they can keep Ingram from helping them win games over the final two months of this season, and can then retain the 27-year-old on a bargain contract going forward, it's a completely defensible bet on a one-time All-Star who may not have been available to Toronto as a free agent. However, if Ingram drives down those lottery odds and gets the kind of money he reportedly wants, I don't understand the logic.<figure class="article-segment--table"><div class="table-responsive"><table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Total outgoing</th>
<th>Total incoming</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Bruce Brown</td>
<td>Brandon Ingram</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Kelly Olynyk</td>
<td>P.J. Tucker</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Davion Mitchell</td>
<td>2026 2nd-rd pick (via LAL)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2026 1st-rd pick (via IND)</td>
<td>James Wiseman (waived)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2031 2nd-rd pick</td>
<td>Cash</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table></div></figure>In totality, the Raptors moved two expiring contracts, got out of Olynyk's $13.4-million cap hit for next season, traded a 2026 first-rounder they originally acquired in last year's Pascal Siakam trade, and swapped second-rounders while taking a flier on Ingram without taking on any long-term salary. That's not bad business at all. But it's not what we expected, and carries more risk than feels appropriate for a 16-35 team. - Casciaro

https://rich-content.thescore.com/content_cards/30142317/related

6 big-picture NBA takeaways from deadline day

After many months of trying, the Golden State Warriors finally landed a star to pair with Steph C...

After many months of trying, the Golden State Warriors finally landed a star to pair with Steph Curry. It cost them Andrew Wiggins, a few other less significant pieces (Dennis Schroder, Kyle Anderson, Lindy Waters III), their first-round pick this year (unless it lands in the top 10), and $112 million in additional guaranteed money, but it was a move they had to make in order to give Curry a couple more honest kicks at the can as he approaches his 37th birthday.The big question with Jimmy Butler, of course, is whether his diminished production this season was the result of him quiet quitting (and then very loud quitting) on the Miami Heat, or the result of his waning abilities at age 35. Golden State obviously decided it was worth ponying up and giving him a two-year extension to find out. Butler's long track record of turning up the dial when he wants to, which tends to be when the stakes are highest, suggests it's a smart bet.Even at his age, Butler remains a rugged and wily defender who roves in the gaps, plunders passing lanes, and generally creates chaos. He should be a great fit in Golden State's aggressive, adaptable scheme, which is designed to do just that. He and Draymond Green should be able to wreak all kinds of havoc at that end of the floor with their combined physicality, intuition, and unpredictability.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>On the offensive end, Butler will be a much-needed pressure release who can take some of the creation load off Curry's shoulders as a secondary ball-handler. He can play the role of screener or handler in what should be a killer pick-and-roll combo with Curry. He remains a potent iso scorer capable of conjuring buckets out of thin air when the moment demands it, and Golden State has sorely lacked that ingredient over the last couple years. He'll help keep the offense afloat when Curry's on the bench. To this point in the season, the Warriors have scored just 103.6 points per 100 possessions in those situations, 12.3 fewer than with Curry on the floor.Butler is also an elite off-ball player despite his complete lack of 3-point gravity. That's because of his ability and willingness to cut, screen, slip, roll, seal, and connect the dots as a passer on the move. Those attributes meld beautifully with the Warriors' read-and-react motion offense. Even without a 3-point shot (he's taken just 36 in 25 games this year), Butler's put up a 64% true-shooting mark thanks to his interior scoring punch and ability to generate free throws. And he takes immaculate care of the basketball, which will be a nice bonus for a team that's long had a penchant for turning it over.In Miami, Butler gained plenty of experience working within an offense that flows out of delay and split action, and the Warriors should lean into his strengths as a post operator who can be equally effective as a scorer or playmaker with his back to the basket. His limitations as an outside shooter might make it tough to play him, Green, and a center at the same time, but in the highest-leverage moments, the Warriors will probably roll with Green at center anyway. Butler is an ideal wing to fill out those smaller lineups. Where Jonathan Kuminga fits into the equation now is another variable to ponder. The Warriors have constantly tinkered with his role, trying to figure out the best way to utilize the talented but still raw 22-year-old. The addition of Butler figures to complicate that role even further. Kuminga, Green, and Wiggins were dynamite in their shared minutes the last two seasons, but sustaining that with Butler in Wiggins' place (putting three non-spacers on the court at once) will be a challenge.That leaves head coach Steve Kerr with some tricky decisions to make when it comes to structuring his closing lineups. And it'll leave Golden State's front office with a tricky valuation process when it comes time to negotiate Kuminga's next contract as he hits restricted free agency this summer.But those are the kinds of problems you look to solve after you get a player like Butler in the door. Put simply, the Warriors needed an injection of talent that could meaningfully raise their ceiling, and a locked-in Butler provides exactly that. Wiggins is a good, low-maintenance role player having a strong bounce-back season at both ends of the court; Butler was the best player on a Finals team less than two years ago. Unless the player we saw during that run (or even last season) is gone for good, he'll be the best player Curry's played with since Kevin Durant skipped town. And he'll give Golden State a genuine chance to compete before the Curry window closes completely.While the literal and figurative costs of the deal aren't insignificant, the fact that the Warriors worked out a short-term extension that puts Butler on the same contract timeline as Curry and Green (all expiring after 2026-27), only surrendered one protected first-round pick, and kept all their important prospects (Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody, Trayce Jackson-Davis), mitigates a lot of the risk. It also leaves open the possibility of other moves, either at this deadline or in the offseason.Massive contracts for Butler and Curry, along with Green's $26-million-a-year deal and a potentially big new number for Kuminga, will induce some luxury-tax headaches for a team that might still not be good enough to contend. But again, this is basically a two-season runway after which Golden State can reset completely.The Warriors are 25-25, but they're also just three games out of a top-six seed in the West. For a team that wasn't going anywhere anyway and has an imperative to squeeze every last drop out of its legendary franchise icon's twilight, the upside of this trade vastly outweighs the downside.

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Betting on Butler is a gamble. The Warriors had no choice

With the basketball world still reeling from one of the most shocking trades in NBA history, the ...

With the basketball world still reeling from one of the most <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3207654" href="https://thescore.com/news/3207654">shocking trades</a> in NBA history, the San Antonio Spurs, Sacramento Kings, and Chicago Bulls came together to complete another star-studded deal that would typically be the headliner.Here's how each club made out in this three-team blockbuster.Spurs receive: De'Aaron Fox, Jordan McLaughlin<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>Kings receive: Zach LaVine; Sidy Cissoko; 2025 protected 1st-round pick (via Hornets, likely converts to two 2nd-rounders in 2026 and 2027); 2025 2nd-round pick (via Bulls); 2027 1st-round pick (via Spurs); 2028 2nd-round pick (via Nuggets); 2028 2nd-round pick; 2031 1st-round pick (via Timberwolves)Bulls receive: Tre Jones, Kevin Huerter, Zach Collins, 2025 1st-round pick<h3>Spurs hit the accelerator </h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768622/cropped_GettyImages-2187779822.jpg?ts=1738596387" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768622/w220xh124_GettyImages-2187779822.jpg?ts=1738596387 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768622/w320xh180_GettyImages-2187779822.jpg?ts=1738596387 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768622/w640xh360_GettyImages-2187779822.jpg?ts=1738596387 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768622/w768xh432_GettyImages-2187779822.jpg?ts=1738596387 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768622/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2187779822.jpg?ts=1738596387 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Ezra Shaw / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>With Victor Wembanyama making the kind of second-year leap that only someone with his stride length could manifest, San Antonio's rebuild is ahead of schedule. The Spurs are playing nearly .500 ball and butting into the Western Conference play-in conversation after going 22-60 last season. It makes sense for them to hit the gas.Fox is one of the fastest and most dynamic point guards in the game, and he's squarely in his prime at 27. He instantly becomes by far the best teammate Wembanyama has had. The fact that San Antonio was able to acquire him while sending out just one of its own picks and without dipping into its cache of young talent (Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, and Jeremy Sochan are all still there) feels like a coup. The 2031 Timberwolves pick is the one asset it might eventually hurt to have spent, but it's not too difficult to stomach considering the caliber and age of the player coming back.The only risk for the Spurs in this deal is its potential opportunity cost: not because they could've gotten someone better with the package they traded, but because extending Fox (or re-signing him in 2026) on a max or near-max deal will likely close off certain avenues to acquire a star who moves the needle more. As good as he is, Fox's limitations - he's an inconsistent shooter and a so-so playmaker by point guard standards - make it less than ideal for him to remain Wemby's best co-star through the big man's rookie-extension years.Fortunately, because the acquisition cost was so reasonable, the Spurs still have plenty of good assets to trade in the future. And in the meantime, Fox is going to help a ton. It's scary to consider how productive Wembanyama has been offensively despite the roster's extreme limitations. The Spurs just haven't really had anyone capable of peeling defensive attention away from him; they're light on supplemental scoring threats of any kind, but they're especially light on dribble-drive threats.Although Chris Paul has been a godsend in many ways, it's been a problem that defenses feel so comfortable switching Paul-Wembanyama pick-and-rolls, and that Paul can no longer do much damage against the front end of those switches. It should be much less of an issue with Fox handling the ball in those situations. His burst will open up all kinds of new possibilities for Wemby in both the open floor and the half court, and it's going to be extremely fun to watch their two-man game evolve this season and further into the future.One way or another, this trade signals that San Antonio is ready to get serious, and that's an exciting prospect for all of us. - Joe Wolfond<h3>Kings stay focused on the present</h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/566919/cropped_GettyImages-1474942754.jpg?ts=1738596455" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/566919/w220xh124_GettyImages-1474942754.jpg?ts=1738596455 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/566919/w320xh180_GettyImages-1474942754.jpg?ts=1738596455 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/566919/w640xh360_GettyImages-1474942754.jpg?ts=1738596455 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/566919/w768xh432_GettyImages-1474942754.jpg?ts=1738596455 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/566919/w1080xh607_GettyImages-1474942754.jpg?ts=1738596455 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>It puts a team in a seriously tough spot when a star who's close to free agency reportedly indicates they won't sign an extension and has a particular trade destination in mind. That makes 28 other teams reluctant to put their best stuff on the table because they doubt they'll be able to re-sign him, while the player's preferred team isn't motivated to include its best assets because it ostensibly has the option of just waiting and signing him as a free agent.Under those circumstances, Sacramento did pretty well here, nabbing a very good player and a handful of picks of varying quality in exchange for the last season-and-a-half of Fox's contract. LaVine has long been on the Kings' radar, dating back to when they signed him to a four-year, $78-million offer sheet (how quaint do those numbers sound now?) that Chicago matched in the summer of 2018. He reunites with his former Bulls teammate DeMar DeRozan, and the Kings add a big jolt of shooting and slashing to an offense that hasn't been able to fully recapture its 2022-23 magic.Fox was a major engine of Sacramento's uptempo attack, but LaVine won't hinder it; he's arriving from one of the league's fastest teams. More pertinently, a guy who's shooting 44.6% from deep on 7.3 attempts per game should be a welcome addition for a team that ranks 22nd in 3-point attempt rate and 24th in 3-point percentage. LaVine is also an excellent inside-the-arc scorer, shooting 56% from 2-point range on the season. The Kings rank 29th in the league in rim frequency, and while we tend to associate Fox with explosive downhill burst, his diet has hewed more toward the mid-range in recent years. Just 23% of his shots have come at the basket this season compared to 36% for LaVine.Whether it was a targeted strategy or simply a function of their poor negotiating position, getting LaVine but none of the Spurs' intriguing young players shows that the Kings' goal is being as competent as possible for the next two-to-three years before likely resetting their competitive cycle. That's understandable considering incompetence was the franchise norm for nearly two decades, but it also makes the trade return feel a little underwhelming.As the only long-term assets Sacramento is getting in the deal, the pick outlay is unspectacular, although acceptable under the circumstances. The 2025 lottery-protected "first-rounder" from Charlotte is actually two future seconds - that's what the pick will convert to when the Hornets inevitably miss the playoffs. At the moment, the Spurs' 2027 pick feels very likely to land in the 20s. The jewel of the package is the unprotected 2031 first from the Wolves, but it's hard to get too excited about a pick that far away. At least the Kings were able to shed Kevin Huerter's contract in the process.Between LaVine, DeRozan, Malik Monk, and Keon Ellis, Sacramento is guard-heavy without actually having a true point guard. But those guys should have enough ball-handling and playmaking ability between them (especially Monk and DeRozan) to collectively run the offense, especially considering so much of the action flows through center Domantas Sabonis. The hope is that LaVine fully buys into an off-guard role so as not to siphon too many on-ball touches from those other two guards; both of them are vastly superior playmakers (especially Monk), and LaVine's off-ball gravity (as both a spot-up and movement shooter) will be hugely important. It'll be fun to watch him work the handoff game with Sabonis, which has been significantly less effective this year thanks to Huerter's falloff and Keegan Murray's weirdly terrible shooting season.How all these pieces are going to fit defensively is another matter. The Kings have done well to maintain a league-average defensive rating to this point by dint of effort and connectivity. But even with Sabonis doing solid work at the level, Murray holding his own on the wing, and Monk making genuine improvements, the whole thing feels like it's being held together by Scotch tape (or, more literally, by Ellis).Fox isn't an exceptional defender, but he can dial it up at the point of attack in a way LaVine can't. Starting him, Monk, and DeRozan together alongside an undersized frontcourt feels like a recipe for flammability. Their lack of size and defensive force at the forward positions remains a huge problem. It just feels like this trade can't be judged on that basis because there probably wasn't an option to address said problem in a meaningful way. - Wolfond<h3>Bulls sell low ... again</h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761192/cropped_GettyImages-2189136476.jpg?ts=1738596505" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761192/w220xh124_GettyImages-2189136476.jpg?ts=1738596505 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761192/w320xh180_GettyImages-2189136476.jpg?ts=1738596505 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761192/w640xh360_GettyImages-2189136476.jpg?ts=1738596505 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761192/w768xh432_GettyImages-2189136476.jpg?ts=1738596505 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761192/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2189136476.jpg?ts=1738596505 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Jeff Haynes / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>There are a couple ways to look at this deal for the Bulls. First and foremost, this is an underwhelming return that continues a pattern of asset mismanagement for Chicago. Arturas Karnisovas' front office overpaid to construct a mediocre and ill-fitting trio of second-tier All-Stars, moving Wendell Carter Jr. and the pick that became Franz Wagner (among other assets) to pair Nikola Vucevic with LaVine, and then players and picks (including Chicago's 2025 first-rounder) to add DeRozan.Despite getting the green light to rebuild if he saw fit, Karnisovas clung to what was ultimately a play-in-caliber core. When the Bulls finally started deconstructing things, it was too late. Chicago traded Alex Caruso for Josh Giddey in the offseason after reports had Caruso commanding multiple draft picks last season, then moved DeRozan in a sign-and-trade that brought back a couple of second-rounders. Now the best asset the Bulls got for LaVine is ... the return of their own 2025 first-rounder. LaVine's inflated salary coupled with the new CBA's harsher tax penalties and apron restrictions were always going to make a trade difficult, but we're still talking about a guy averaging 24 points on 51-45-80 shooting.<figure class="article-segment--embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The Bulls have traded DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, &amp; Alex Caruso for ... - Josh Giddey - Kevin Huerter - Zach Collins - Tre Jones - Chris Duarte - Two Second-Round Picks - Rights to their OWN 2025 first-round pick Not a single additional first-rounder was acquired. Unbelievable.— Elias Schuster (@Schuster_Elias) <a href="https://twitter.com/Schuster_Elias/status/1886233626460803544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 3, 2025</a>
</blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></figure>Once you get past all that, the slightly less depressing side of this deal for Chicago is that the Bulls look ready to initiate that long-delayed rebuild.Jones is a solid young point guard on an expiring contract, but Collins and Huerter will combine to earn roughly $36.1 million next season, so it's not like the Bulls prioritized a clean cap sheet this summer. It's also possible none of the three incoming players figure into the Bulls' long-term plans. They clearly wanted their own pick back, which they would've kept if it landed in the top 10 but then would've been top-eight protected in 2026 and 2027. That's an important piece of the puzzle if you're staring at the bottom third of the standings for the next couple years - and the Bulls might finally be doing that by design rather than by accident. It's a start? - Joseph Casciaro

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Breaking down a blockbuster between Spurs, Kings, Bulls

Sometimes, it's good to be the Lakers.   Just when you think they're stuck, just when it seems as...

Sometimes, it's good to be the Lakers. Just when you think they're stuck, just when it seems as if their magic has run out and they have no moves left, another gift falls from the heavens and lands right in their lap. This time, that gift is Luka Doncic, the 25-year-old megastar well on his way to being an all-time great with an already legendary playoff resume and five All-NBA first-team appearances to his name.Here are a few players who didn’t make that many first teams in their entire careers: Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, David Robinson, Moses Malone, and Steph Curry. Oh, and also Anthony Davis, the 31-year-old big man for whom Doncic was traded. Also going to Dallas in the deal: third-year reserve wing Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick. I mean, sure. <div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>It's hard to overstate what a colossal bailout this is for Los Angeles. Davis is still a fantastic player, but he was a walking injury risk even during his prime years. The team as previously constructed wasn't going anywhere meaningful. The supporting cast around the star duo of Davis and LeBron James simply wasn't good enough, and the Lakers looked poised to spend the last vestiges of James' career mired in play-in-caliber mediocrity. There was no obvious pivot; transitioning to a Davis-centric era as he entered his mid-30s promised little beyond a continued shuffle toward middling irrelevance.Now, all of a sudden, the team's present and future have snapped into focus with stunning clarity.The Lakers probably aren't going to seriously contend for a championship this season, though you can't put anything past Doncic and James in a playoff setting. Doncic is on the shelf with a calf strain that's expected to keep him sidelined for at least another couple of weeks. Once he returns, it's going to take some time for him and James to figure out how to play together. Even if they get on the same page right away, the Lakers will be hamstrung by their complete lack of big-man depth and their porous defense that ranked 21st before they traded one of the league's 10 best defenders for someone whose effort on that end ranges from disinterested to apathetic.But in the big picture, they just added a guy they can build around well into the future, a guy who can seamlessly bridge the LeBron era to the era of Lakers basketball after he hangs it up. As good as Davis was as James' running mate, as much as he's shown himself capable of taking on a greater offensive workload this season, he couldn't ease James' playmaking burden to nearly the extent that Doncic can.We're talking about one of the greatest creators in the history of the game. Doncic last season averaged 33.9 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 9.8 assists on 62% true shooting, then led the Mavericks to the Finals by ripping the hearts out of three straight 50-plus-win opponents. This has the potential to extend the twilight of James' career. And further into the future, other players will sign up to play alongside Doncic for the league's preeminent glamour franchise, the same way Davis forced his way there after James signed with a directionless Lakers team that had missed the playoffs five years running.The move isn't totally without risk for the Lakers. They could struggle to break into the exclusive group of inner-circle contenders this season and next, which might lead Doncic to seek employment elsewhere when he becomes a free agent in the summer of 2026. The Spurs, for example, could carve out max cap space that offseason. Even with L.A. holding his Bird rights, it's possible Doncic would deem teaming up with Victor Wembanyama a more appealing option than sticking it out with a 41-year-old James before leading the team into an uncertain future.That scenario just doesn't feel especially likely. Superstars don’t tend to leave the Lakers. They'll always represent a desirable destination for other stars with wandering eyes, especially with Doncic there as a lodestar. It's far more likely L.A. just landed a guy who’ll be the next in an interminable line of iconic Faces of the Franchise, someone who can keep it in the title conversation for the next decade.This all feels like yet another life preserver for a franchise that always seems to get thrown one at the very moment you think it might finally dip underwater. Each time something like this happens, it adds to the sense that no matter what the Lakers do, no matter how badly they mismanage their roster or their draft picks or their balance sheet, things will always work out for them in the end.Why the Mavericks decided to toss them that lifeline is <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3207654" href="https://thescore.com/news/3207654">a question</a> that will probably be dissected for decades to come. But for now, as we sift through the rubble of this earthshaking NBA event, just one constant is left standing amid the ruins, the one certainty that remains in this wildly uncertain league: Sometimes, it's good to be the Lakers.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

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Mavs gift Lakers the lifeline to end all lifelines 

The Denver Nuggets lost in Chicago on Monday night in a game that was notable not only for the re...

The Denver Nuggets lost in Chicago on Monday night in a game that was notable not only for the result (a surprising one, considering the two teams have been moving in opposite directions for the past few weeks), but for how it happened: the Bulls drained 24 threes in the win, while the Nuggets knocked down only six.The 54-point disparity from beyond the arc was tied for the second-largest such gap in a game this season, matching what the Celtics did to the Knicks on opening night and coming in just behind Miami's 57-point long-range drubbing of the Lakers on Dec. 4. For all that, the Nuggets lost the game by only eight points, thanks to an 84-38 edge in paint scoring. They scored 121 in all and put up a 114.2 offensive rating, numbers good enough to win on most nights. It was what Chicago's offense did, far more than Denver's lack of 3-point shooting, that cost the Nuggets the game. If the Bulls' long-range shooting had simply been in line with their season average, it would've been a seven-point Denver win. That was kind of a microcosm of the Nuggets' season so far. They haven't exactly looked like world-beaters, but their offense isn't the reason for that, despite the consternation over their lack of treys.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>Since the start of December, they rank second in the NBA in offensive rating (120.9) behind only the Cleveland Cavaliers. They've scored seven more points per 100 possessions than the average team during that span, which means they've been scoring at the level of a top-20 all-time offense for the last two months. In fact, when taking the whole season into account and adjusting for league average, this year's Nuggets are more potent offensively than any of their teams in the Nikola Jokic era. All the while, they've continued to rank dead last in the league in 3-point frequency. Their 30.9% attempt rate is down from their league-low 32.3% last season, and would've been a bottom-10 mark as far back as six years ago.Anyone who understands modern basketball knows that shooting a lot of threes isn't just about the threes themselves; it's about forcing the defense to account for as many players as possible on the perimeter, thus opening up the middle of the floor for drives, cuts, and easy 2-point scores. That's reflected in the fact the league's risen from 48% to 54% on twos and from 60% to 66% at the rim in the last 10 years.But what if you don't need to shoot a ton of threes or command a lot of perimeter attention to feast around the basket? What if you employ a magician who can not only create space inside the arc with his unique gravity, but also thread the ball through the eye of a needle, or feather it over the defense to a precise location of his choosing, and conjure a close-range shot for himself or a teammate out of thin air? Denver leads the league in rim frequency and, contrary to most other teams that shoot there a lot (often out of necessity because they can't score effectively from further away), is also a great interior finishing team. The Nuggets rank 10th in field-goal percentage within four feet of the basket (67.3%), per Cleaning the Glass. The other top-five teams in rim frequency rank 23rd, 24th, 27th, and 29th.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768095/GettyImages-2177603916.jpg?ts=1738268403" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768095/GettyImages-2177603916.jpg?ts=1738268403 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768095/GettyImages-2177603916.jpg?ts=1738268403 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768095/GettyImages-2177603916.jpg?ts=1738268403 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768095/GettyImages-2177603916.jpg?ts=1738268403 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768095/GettyImages-2177603916.jpg?ts=1738268403 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption">Jamie Schwaberow / Getty Images </figcaption></figure>The obvious difference is that those teams don't have Jokic. But you don't need me to tell you why the best player in the world allows his team to score in ways other teams can't. What I'm here to say is that surrounding Jokic with great slashers and interior finishers can be just as effective as surrounding him with great shooters. Ideally, Denver would have a bunch of guys who could do both. But those players aren't easy to find, and there's no disputing the pieces currently orbiting Jokic are complementing his singular skills in their own fashion.It's worth noting that there are a handful of good to great shooters on the team, Jokic among them. The Nuggets rank fourth in the league in 3-point accuracy, in part because of how selective they are about who takes them. Apart from sophomore reserve Julian Strawther, none are high-volume long-range gunners.Jamal Murray's 3-point rate ranks in the 19th percentile among guards, per Cleaning the Glass. Michael Porter Jr. leads the team's regulars by far in that respect, and he's still only in the 57th percentile among forwards. Jokic leads the league in 3-point success percentage and has nudged his frequency up slightly to compensate for his teammates, but threes still only account for 19% of his shots.What the Nuggets do a lot is cut. They have an abundance of athletes with noses for the rim and strong finishing capabilities, whether dashing at full speed or prowling furtively in the dunker spot. Between Russell Westbrook, Christian Braun, Aaron Gordon, Peyton Watson, and Porter (underrated in this department), Jokic has plenty of targets to reward.The Nuggets lead the league in cutting frequency and rank third in cutting efficiency, a combination that has them scoring 16.2 points per game directly <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/cut?SeasonYear=2024-25&amp;dir=D&amp;sort=PTS">from cuts.</a> That's nearly three more than any other team this season, and the most for any team apart from the Kevin Durant-era Warriors since NBA.com began tracking the stat 10 years ago.That doesn't even account for all the cuts that don't lead directly to scores, but instead lead to kickouts or laydowns or skip passes that burn defensive reactions. Another reason the Nuggets rank so highly in 3-point success percentage is that in their system, cuts create open threes more than the other way around.<figure class="article-segment--video"><video poster="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768190/preview.png?ts=1738329706" loop="" muted="" autoplay="" playsinline="" controls="" onclick="if(/android 2.[0-3]/.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())) { var sources = this.getElementsByTagName('source'); for(var i = 0, total = sources.length; i &lt; total; i++) { this.removeChild(sources[0]);}; this.outerHTML = this.innerHTML; }"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768190/animation.mp4?ts=1738329706" type="video/mp4"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768190/animation.webm?ts=1738329706" type="video/webm"> <div>Your browser does not support the video tag.</div> </source></source></video><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Altitude</figcaption></figure>Westbrook in particular deserves praise for reinventing himself to best complement Jokic and the Nuggets. He's always been a naturally gifted cutter, but he's tapped into those skills too infrequently until recently. "If only Russ could activate his dormant off-ball ability," we said, season after season, as he continued to either stand idly cramping his team's spacing or leech on-ball possessions from co-star creators ranging from Durant to Paul George to James Harden to LeBron James. Jokic reportedly pushed hard for Denver to add Westbrook, in what felt like an "I can fix him" project. This has turned out to be the rare instance where that worked.Westbrook's cutting like never before, resulting in a devastating two-man game with Jokic. Denver has a 128 offensive rating with both of them on the floor. More predictably, Westbrook's also juiced the pace for what was previously one of the slowest teams in the league, creating more rim shots in the process. The Nuggets have jumped from 29th to seventh in points added via transition, per Cleaning the Glass. Westbrook's own passing ability has also been a big asset for Denver's interior attack; he ranks seventh in the league in rim assists, five spots behind Jokic.One of the important ways he accesses that ability in the half court is by setting ball screens for Jokic. When the defense inevitably puts two on the ball to avoid either switching or getting burned by Jokic's jump shot, Westbrook can roll into a 4-on-3. <figure class="article-segment--video"><video poster="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768192/preview.png?ts=1738330336" loop muted autoplay playsinline controls onclick="if(/android 2.[0-3]/.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())) { var sources = this.getElementsByTagName('source'); for(var i = 0, total = sources.length; i &lt; total; i++) { this.removeChild(sources[0]);}; this.outerHTML = this.innerHTML; }"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768192/animation.mp4?ts=1738330336" type="video/mp4"></source> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768192/animation.webm?ts=1738330336" type="video/webm"></source> <div>Your browser does not support the video tag.</div> </video><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Altitude</figcaption></figure>
Slot cuts are a big part of Denver's offensive design, putting the weak-side zone defender in an impossible situation after a helper shades toward Jokic on the strong side. Braun is particularly on point with his timing on those cuts, and the team will sometimes have both weak-side guys cut at the same time to avoid having a non-spacer like Watson go ignored in the corner: <figure class="article-segment--video"><video poster="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768194/preview.png?ts=1738330158" loop="" muted="" autoplay="" playsinline="" controls="" onclick="if(/android 2.[0-3]/.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())) { var sources = this.getElementsByTagName('source'); for(var i = 0, total = sources.length; i &lt; total; i++) { this.removeChild(sources[0]);}; this.outerHTML = this.innerHTML; }"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768194/animation.mp4?ts=1738330158" type="video/mp4"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/768194/animation.webm?ts=1738330158" type="video/webm"> <div>Your browser does not support the video tag.</div> </source></source></video><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Altitude</figcaption></figure>All told, the Nuggets' 2-point and 3-point attempts both average roughly 1.14 points per shot. So, it's fair to wonder whether shooting more threes would really improve their offense, at least in its current iteration. Especially considering how much more likely interior attempts are to induce shooting fouls, and the fact the Nuggets also thrive on the strength of their fifth-ranked free-throw attempt rate.Would it be better if more of Denver's players were shooting threats? Of course. Having more ways to stress opposing defenses is always preferable. It would help avoid a situation where, say, Braun sets a flare screen for Gordon (career 32% 3-point shooter on low volume) <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&amp;CFPARAMS=&amp;GameEventID=250&amp;GameID=0022400371&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;flag=1&amp;title=MISS%20Gordon%2024%27%203PT%20Jump%20Shot">to try a movement triple</a>. But while a certain quantity of outside shooting is clearly imperative for keeping pace in this day and age, everything is about balance. For all the hullabaloo over league-wide 3-point volume spiking this season after five years of stability, offensive rating is down from 115.6 to 113.9, per Cleaning the Glass. (Though offense usually ticks up as the season goes along, the average was actually 116.3 at this time last year.) Much has been made of the Celtics cranking their 3-point volume even higher than it was when they led the league en route to the title last year. Less has been made of the fact they're scoring 3.1 fewer points per 100 possessions than they did a season ago.The rest of the league seemingly started jacking up more threes to "catch up" to Boston, but there's zero correlation between where teams rank in 3-point attempt rate and where they rank in offensive efficiency this season:<figure class="article-segment--embed"><iframe title="3PAr vs. ORtg" aria-label="Scatter Plot" id="datawrapper-chart-2Seuc" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/2Seuc/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="369" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}();
</script></figure>This isn't to say shooting a lot of threes is bad, but it would appear that past a certain point, the returns start to diminish.All teams have to play in a way that optimizes their personnel, and for some that means shooting more threes than others. No other team could do what Denver currently does with so little shooting on the roster, but many can thrive on the lower end of the volume spectrum. The Knicks, for example, have an offense that ranks as the 10th-best all time relative to league average, despite sitting 23rd in 3-point attempt rate.So, while there are reasons to doubt the Nuggets' championship prospects, those reasons should largely be confined to the defensive side of the ball. At the offensive end, they're rolling, and they're doing so in a way that feels more stable than most because they're less vulnerable to the whims of jump-shooting variance. It's possible this limitation will ultimately contribute to their undoing in the playoffs. For now, it's more fun to indulge the idea that maybe, just maybe, we're seeing a team score efficiently because of - not in spite of - its resistance to 3-point proliferation.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

https://rich-content.thescore.com/content_cards/30056058/related

Why the Nuggets don't need to shoot a ton of 3s to have an elite offense

Acommon misconception about today's NBA is that as teams and players have mastered the art of eff...

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How guards and centers are adapting to cross-matching defense

You wouldn't know it from the way people talk about the New York Knicks' defense - or, frankly, f...

You wouldn't know it from the way people talk about the New York Knicks' defense - or, frankly, from how it looks on some nights - but they rank sixth in the NBA in points allowed per 100 possessions since the start of December.That's pretty impressive work from a team that starts limited defenders at both the one and the five, and it's a far cry from how the Knicks performed on that end of the court for the first six weeks of the season, after which they ranked 23rd.Their true talent level on defense probably lies between those extremes, which is illustrated by the fact that their run of success has merely pulled them up to league average. Still, it's notable when a team that's this good offensively proves capable of defending at a borderline top-five level for an extended stretch (even if that coincided with a pretty soft schedule). For the record, New York's 119.4 offensive rating is 7.3 points per 100 possessions better than league average, making it (for now) one of the 20 best relative offenses in NBA history, per Basketball Reference.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>It's a little reminiscent of what happened a couple years ago with the Denver Nuggets, a similarly fearsome offensive team - also built around a dominant guard-big pairing - that managed a <a href="https://www.thescore.com/nba/news/2544182">similar defensive turnaround</a> after a disastrous start. They too had to scheme around a center who was limited as a rim-protector and defender in space. They figured it out - albeit using different tactics than New York is using - and their improvements turned out to be sustainable, as they romped to the title with the league's fourth-ranked playoff defense. (Last year's West-winning Mavericks are another example, though their turnaround was powered by a couple of key midseason transactions.)That's not to say these Knicks will win the 2025 championship. For as extraordinary as he's been in his first year in New York, Karl-Anthony Towns is not Nikola Jokic. And maybe more to the point, the Knicks are playing in a conference that's a lot tougher (at least at the top) than the one Denver ripped through. Those Nuggets never had to contend with a team remotely comparable to this year's Cavaliers or Celtics. Or this year's Thunder, for that matter, which might be a consideration if New York can somehow overcome those daunting East foes.But just because the Knicks aren't favorites to win the title or even their own conference doesn't mean they don't deserve to be taken seriously as contenders. That might feel like an obvious statement about a team that's on pace to win 52 games and ranks fifth in the league with a plus-6.5 net rating halfway through the season, but it wouldn't be the case without their recent run of high-level defensive play. So let's examine where and how they've improved, and what those improvements mean in the big picture.When a team makes a sudden defensive shift in one direction or another, it's helpful to start by looking at their opponent shooting to gauge how much variance may be involved. In this case, the answer is some, but not a lot. Knicks opponents have shot 37% from 3-point range since the start of December, which is the 10th-highest mark allowed over that stretch. On long mid-rangers, however, opponents have shot just 29.5%, which is the lowest in the league by a mile. If their opponents had shot exactly league average from both those zones, the Knicks' defense would rank 10th during this period rather than sixth - still a considerable improvement from where they started the season.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765707/cropped_GettyImages-2182655945.jpg?ts=1737043296" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765707/w220xh124_GettyImages-2182655945.jpg?ts=1737043296 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765707/w320xh180_GettyImages-2182655945.jpg?ts=1737043296 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765707/w640xh360_GettyImages-2182655945.jpg?ts=1737043296 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765707/w768xh432_GettyImages-2182655945.jpg?ts=1737043296 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765707/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2182655945.jpg?ts=1737043296 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Scott Cunningham / NBA / Getty</figcaption></figure>They've made their biggest gains on the interior, and that starts with the man in the middle. Towns has been one of the five best offensive players in basketball this year, but after spending two seasons starting at power forward next to Rudy Gobert in Minnesota, his move back to playing the five full time posed some defensive problems for his new team. Namely, opponents shot 76.7% against him <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defensive-impact?CF=PLAYER_NAME*E*towns&amp;DateFrom=&amp;DateTo=11/30/2024">at the rim</a> through November. For reference, the highest percentage allowed by a qualified big man in the 12 years that NBA.com has tracked those numbers is 70.3%, conceded by Nemanja Bjelica in 2019-20. So, yeah, really bad.Since the start of December, though, that's come down to 61.1% - not great by any means, but passable enough that it won't sink a defense by itself. It's almost identical to Rockets center Alperen Sengun's season-long mark (61.6%), for example, and Sengun mans the five for the league's third-ranked defense. And New York's 107.1 defensive rating with Towns on court since Dec. 1 (down from 115.9 beforehand) is right in line with Houston's overall mark.The fact that Towns is no longer tissue paper on the back line is particularly important given the way New York has shifted its priority toward taking away threes in recent weeks, accepting an uptick in opponent rim shots as a consequence. After allowing the league's fourth-highest rate of 3-point attempts through November, they've allowed the third-lowest 3-point rate since, per <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/league/shots?season=2024&amp;seasontype=regseason&amp;start=12/1/2024&amp;end=10/15/2025#tab-defense_shooting_frequency">Cleaning the Glass</a>. In short, they're funneling more guys toward Towns at the rim, and he's doing a much better job of turning them away.The Knicks have experimented with up-to-touch and hard-hedging pick-and-roll coverages, but they've mostly deployed Towns in a deep drop. That's a bit of a departure from his last few years with the Timberwolves, who regularly brought him up higher on the floor to try to mitigate his limitations around the rim. Towns hasn't done a great job of containing the ball when he's played those more aggressive coverages this season, but maybe we'll see more of it when Mitchell Robinson gets back and the two bigs play together. We've seen it work on the rare occasions when Towns and Precious Achiuwa share the court.In the meantime, the Knicks have increased their emphasis on stunting aggressively from one pass away against middle pick-and-rolls to protect the Towns drop:<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765705/cropped_Screenshot_2025-01-16_at_12.16.08_AM.jpg?ts=1737042962" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765705/w220xh124_Screenshot_2025-01-16_at_12.16.08_AM.jpg?ts=1737042962 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765705/w320xh180_Screenshot_2025-01-16_at_12.16.08_AM.jpg?ts=1737042962 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765705/w640xh360_Screenshot_2025-01-16_at_12.16.08_AM.jpg?ts=1737042962 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765705/w768xh432_Screenshot_2025-01-16_at_12.16.08_AM.jpg?ts=1737042962 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765705/w1080xh607_Screenshot_2025-01-16_at_12.16.08_AM.jpg?ts=1737042962 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> TNT</figcaption></figure>Their conservatism means they don't force a lot of turnovers, but they don't allow many second chances either - and that's largely thanks to Towns, who's hauling in a league-leading 10.9 defensive boards per game. New York has a 73.8% defensive rebound rate with him on the floor (which would rank first in the league) and 70% with him on the bench (which would rank 23rd).The Knicks' early-season defensive wobbles weren't Towns' fault alone. They also had a lot to do with New York's other big offseason acquisition, a wing for whom they shelled out five first-round draft picks in part because of his defensive reputation. Mikal Bridges' reworked, funky-looking jumper attracted a lot of scrutiny at the start of the campaign, overshadowing his more worrisome decline on defense. He struggled badly with screen navigation and overall dribble contaimment, which were supposed to be his calling cards.Those struggles exacerbated Towns' limitations. Not only was the big man often left in tough one-on-two situations as a result, but he was also often forced into undesirable switches due to Bridges' inability or unwillingness to fight through screens.That's still happening more often than the Knicks would like like, but while Bridges still hasn't come close to the standard he set during his Suns days (and may never do so again), his on-ball defense has improved dramatically in recent weeks, especially his efforts in rear-view pursuit. Compare his passivity and the way he capitulated on screens against Tyrese Haliburton back in November ...<figure class="article-segment--video"><video poster="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765727/preview.png?ts=1737047047" loop="" muted="" autoplay="" playsinline="" controls="" onclick="if(/android 2.[0-3]/.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())) { var sources = this.getElementsByTagName('source'); for(var i = 0, total = sources.length; i &lt; total; i++) { this.removeChild(sources[0]);}; this.outerHTML = this.innerHTML; }"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765727/animation.mp4?ts=1737047047" type="video/mp4"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765727/animation.webm?ts=1737047047" type="video/webm"> <div>Your browser does not support the video tag.</div> </source></source></video><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> FanDuel Sports Network</figcaption></figure>... to the way he pressed up, got skinny, and worked to stay in contact with Damian Lillard and Cade Cunningham this past week:<figure class="article-segment--video"><video poster="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765766/preview.png?ts=1737056590" loop muted autoplay playsinline controls onclick="if(/android 2.[0-3]/.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())) { var sources = this.getElementsByTagName('source'); for(var i = 0, total = sources.length; i &lt; total; i++) { this.removeChild(sources[0]);}; this.outerHTML = this.innerHTML; }"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765766/animation.mp4?ts=1737056590" type="video/mp4"></source> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765766/animation.webm?ts=1737056590" type="video/webm"></source> <div>Your browser does not support the video tag.</div> </video><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> MSG</figcaption></figure>Again, there are still some ugly possessions, and this recent version of Bridges still isn't the defender the Knicks probably thought they were getting. But simply not being a liability has gone a long way: His on-court defensive rating was 117.6 through November, and it's down to 108.8 since then.Early in the season, stalwart stopper OG Anunoby was stretched thin trying to handle his own assignments while also covering for Towns, Jalen Brunson, and Bridges.<figure class="article-segment--embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
OG Anunoby is such a damn good defender <a href="https://t.co/3jK4X85oNW">pic.twitter.com/3jK4X85oNW</a>— Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) <a href="https://twitter.com/jackfrank_jjf/status/1856761073661059340?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2024</a>
</blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></figure>Anunoby is still carrying an immense defensive workload, but he doesn't have to put out quite as many fires as he did back in October and November. He and the perpetually rock-solid Josh Hart are responsible for most of the team's event creation, averaging 4.3 stocks (steals plus blocks) and 5.9 deflections per game between them. They can both overhelp at times in pursuit of defensive playmaking opportunities, but the benefits of their activity level outweigh the downsides.Brunson is inherently limited at that end of the floor, but at least he has one defensive superpower: drawing offensive fouls. He's drawn 32 of them this season, which is 23 more than any other Knick and ranks second in the league behind only Toumani Camara.The Knicks have also gotten solid defensive contributions from their bench. That may be surprising considering that two of the three reserves who actually play real rotation minutes are 6-foot-2 and 6-foot-3, but Miles McBride and Cameron Payne have been genuine positives on that end - McBride with his feistiness at the point of attack, Payne with heady rotations and active hands digging down on drives. Achiuwa's return at the start of December relegated Jericho Sims to mop-up duty, and while Sims has excelled as a rim-protector (45.3% allowed at the basket), Achiuwa is a much more versatile defender.Whether the Knicks can sustain this defensive level as their schedule gets tougher is an open question. Ugly recent losses to the Bulls, Pistons, Thunder, and shorthanded Magic revealed fissures that hearken back to their early-season woes. The starters' trademark Tom Thibodeau minutes load may be catching up to them. They still don't have a great solution for Brunson getting hunted in crunch time (which was how the Pistons pulled away down the stretch of Monday night's game). Rim-protection will remain a concern until Robinson returns.But these Knicks weren't built to be elite defensively; they were built to be good enough on that end to let their overpowering offense carry the day, and over the last six weeks, that's exactly what we've seen. Doubts are warranted, but that's been a formula for major success in the recent past.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

https://rich-content.thescore.com/content_cards/29853690/related

Knicks' quietly improved defense makes them look like contenders

It's not like we needed further proof the ascendent Cleveland Cavaliers are a force to be reckone...

It's not like we needed further proof the ascendent Cleveland Cavaliers are a force to be reckoned with. They <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3129495" href="https://thescore.com/news/3129495">proved as much</a> over the first 35 games of the season, going 31-4 with a plus-11.5 net rating and establishing themselves as one of the best offensive teams in NBA history.But Wednesday night's showdown against the equally impressive Oklahoma City Thunder - who were riding a 15-game win streak (in non-NBA Cup games) and coming off back-to-back victories over the two other Eastern Conference contenders in the Knicks and Celtics - was a measuring-stick game all the same. And the Cavs used that opportunity to demonstrate how much they've grown.Putting up a 127.7 offensive rating in a game in 2025 typically isn't news, but there's nothing typical about doing it against OKC. The Thunder came into the game allowing only 102.7 points per 100 possessions. Despite being without their best defender in Chet Holmgren since game 10, they own the best defensive rating relative to league average since the 1963-64 Celtics, per Basketball Reference.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>The Cavs, for their part, own the second-best era-adjusted offense of all time, behind only the 2003-04 Mavericks. But that alone guaranteed nothing against the Thunder. To wit, the Celtics and Knicks came into their own clashes with OKC this week as the fourth- and fifth-best relative offenses in history, and after those two games, the Thunder's defensive rating improved. Without Holmgren or Alex Caruso, they held New York's offense 13.1 points per 100 possessions below its season average, then lopped 25.6 points per 100 off Boston's average.No such luck against the rip-roaring Cavs, who produced the second-highest offensive rating against OKC this season and by far the highest in any game where the Thunder had one of their centers available. And that was despite Cleveland's best offensive player, Donovan Mitchell, scoring only 11 points on 3-for-16 shooting.The Cavs' leading scorers were Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, the two non-shooting bigs who so many people said couldn't function side-by-side in today's NBA, let alone dominate a historically elite defense. They combined for 46 points on 17-for-24 shooting, and Cleveland had a 134.1 offensive rating in their shared minutes. They combined for 21 rebounds, including nine on the offensive glass. Perhaps most importantly, they combined for 13 assists, with four being high-lows delivered to one another. Their short-roll playmaking was essential to countering OKC's aggressive pick-and-roll coverages, which frequently put two on the ball and pre-rotated low tags behind the play. Those coverages were a big part of the reason Mitchell and Darius Garland had underwhelming scoring nights, but it didn't matter because Allen and Mobley tore them apart on the back side. (As an aside: this was a game when you could really feel how much the Thunder missed Holmgren, and it would've been an ideal matchup for them to give their own two-big look a lot of run.) On top of making quick decisions and slick on-the-move passes in 4-on-3 scenarios, both bigs demonstrated their vastly improved ability to forcefully finish those plays over and around and through tagging defenders. <figure class="article-segment--embed"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yoNugHsCH3A?si=g_GhUvp54U0mFbWa" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></figure>On the rare occasions the Thunder relented and allowed Isaiah Hartenstein to switch onto the ball, they struggled to keep Mobley and especially Allen off the offensive glass. The two of them helped generate a five-shot possession in crunch time that ultimately proved to be the backbreaker for OKC. The possession started at the 2:03 mark of the fourth quarter, with the Cavs up two. It ended at the 1:07 mark with the Cavs up five, after Mobley drove right at Hartenstein's chest and finished a wrong-foot floater over him. It's hard not to compare how Allen and Mobley look now to how they looked back in their first-round series against the Knicks in 2023, the lowest moment for this iteration of the Cavs. New York defended Cleveland's pick-and-rolls very similarly to how OKC did, and the Cavs averaged 0.49 points on possessions finished by roll men in the series, with Mobley shooting 0-for-10 with two turnovers on that play type. He and Allen threw wayward lobs, flung up awkward hooks and floaters, or record-scratched and let advantages disappear. Less than two years later, they combined to shoot 15-for-17 inside the restricted area and dish seven short-roll assists in a high-profile game against the league's second-best rim defense (after their own).Of course, Mitchell and Garland deserve immense credit for creating a lot of those opportunities. While Mobley did a lot of his own creation (like the aforementioned iso bucket on Hartenstein, and a wicked bully drive on Jalen Williams a few minutes earlier that drew help and opened up a skip pass for a Dean Wade three), it was largely Cleveland's guards bending the Thunder defense out of shape. They did that with the latent threat of their pull-up threes, but also with their relentless dribble penetration, their sharp and proactive passing, and the incredible pace with which they ran the offense, both in transition and in the half court. Against a ball-pressuring defense designed to generate takeaways, they combined for three turnovers.Plaudits are also owed to Kenny Atkinson and his staff, who had their team extremely well prepared for what awaited them. They drew up brilliant play designs, layering their actions with scripted screens and cuts to turn OKC's help principles against them in a way no team's been able to do this season.The very first play of the game provided a glimpse of what was to come. The Cavs started out with a Garland-Wade pick-and-roll to get Cason Wallace switched off Garland, then immediately flowed into a Garland-Allen pick-and-roll while Wade cut through to the weak-side corner and Mobley lifted from corner to slot. Garland pocket pass, Allen kickout, Wade three. Things carried on in similar fashion, with multiple ball screens initiating Cavs possessions and baseline cuts often ending them. They frequently ran a high-horns action with ball screens on either side for Garland and Mitchell, confusing OKC's low help responsibilities. They found success starting Mobley in the weak-side corner and then having him cut behind the tag when Garland and Allen ran side pick-and-rolls. They used flare screens, hammer screens, and stampede cuts that made it almost impossible for the Thunder to help and recover. They created 33 rim shots and 14 corner threes, both numbers representing 100th-percentile volume.It was just one game, much is still to be determined, and no meaningful hardware is won in the winter (with apologies to the Bucks). But this contest was still illustrative of an important reality, especially on the heels of a game in which the Thunder suffocated the Celtics' offense with its five-out spacing and big-wing initiation: Despite the rush to mint that Boston blueprint as the ideal way to build a modern winner, and despite all the doubts about how successful a team led by two small guards and two non-spacing bigs can be, these Cavs keep showing that their own team build can stand up to any challenge.If nothing else, they should be convincing people to keep more of an open mind about the different paths to championship contention.

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How Cavs' historic offense cracked Thunder's historic defense

To cap our Eras project, we select and celebrate the immense achievements of the 25 most signific...

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The 25 greatest athletes of the last 25 years

When Brook Lopez arrived in the summer of 2018, he helped transform the Milwaukee Bucks and prove...

When Brook Lopez arrived in the summer of 2018, he helped transform the Milwaukee Bucks and proved to be the perfect frontcourt companion for Giannis Antetokounmpo. At one end of the floor, the two formed the bedrock of the best defenses in basketball, a pair of gigantic watchdogs prowling the paint and safeguarding the rim in their own unique ways. At the other end, Lopez's newfound role as a stretch-five opened up the court for Antetokounmpo's devastating rim runs.The Bucks strayed from their longstanding defensive identity last season following their offseason trade of Jrue Holiday for Damian Lillard, slipping to 19th after several years of top-five finishes. They looked old, slow, and disorganized. And the first three weeks of this season brought more of the same; the Bucks lost eight of their first 10 games while running the league's eighth-worst defense.That start feels like a distant memory now that the Bucks have won 13 of their last 16 games and leapt up to 13th in defensive efficiency. The most recent of those wins didn't even register in the standings, but it was easily the most impressive of the bunch - a 97-81 beatdown of the West-leading Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Cup final, with Khris Middleton in street clothes. And while contributions came from all over the roster - Lillard was awesome, Andre Jackson Jr. hounded Shai Gilgeous-Alexander up and down the floor, Gary Trent Jr. and AJ Green made timely shots and battled on defense - the standout performances came from the frontcourt tandem that's been bludgeoning opponents for the last seven seasons.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>With Chet Holmgren on the shelf, the Thunder didn't have the size to match up with Lopez and Antetokounmpo. They stuck center Isaiah Hartenstein on Lopez and used a rotating cast of wings - mostly Jalen Williams, Lu Dort, and Alex Caruso - to check Giannis. The Bucks responded by initiating a lot of their offense through him in the post. He went right through those smaller defenders for layups or free throws, and when the Thunder doubled him, he took advantage with some very sharp passing.Antetokounmpo finished with 10 assists, and that doesn't account for the hockey assists he picked up with post skips to the weak side, like the <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&amp;CFPARAMS=&amp;GameEventID=589&amp;GameID=0062400001&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;flag=1&amp;title=Lillard%2027%27%203PT%20Pullup%20Jump%20Shot%20(23%20PTS)%20(Trent%20Jr.%201%20AST)">one that got Lillard a dagger three</a> off a Trent swing in the fourth quarter. OKC built a wall against him in transition, but he did a great job countering that, too, including tossing a <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&amp;CFPARAMS=&amp;GameEventID=92&amp;GameID=0062400001&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;flag=1&amp;title=Portis%2027%27%203PT%20Jump%20Shot%20(3%20PTS)%20(Antetokounmpo%201%20AST)">slick live-dribble feed</a> to Bobby Portis for a trail three in the first. The Thunder basically had no answer for Giannis at either end, and watching them struggle to come up with one was a strange sensation because they usually have an answer for everything. You could see how the threat of his interior scoring sowed panic and threw OKC's defense out of its usually crisp help-and-rotate patterns. Here, for example, Gilgeous-Alexander and Hartenstein saw the post mismatch and decided to help at the same time, leading to an accidental triple-team that gifted Lopez an easy score:<figure class="article-segment--video"><video poster="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761298/preview.png?ts=1734546435" loop="" muted="" autoplay="" playsinline="" controls="" onclick="if(/android 2.[0-3]/.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())) { var sources = this.getElementsByTagName('source'); for(var i = 0, total = sources.length; i &lt; total; i++) { this.removeChild(sources[0]);}; this.outerHTML = this.innerHTML; }"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761298/animation.mp4?ts=1734546435" type="video/mp4"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761298/animation.webm?ts=1734546435" type="video/webm"> <div>Your browser does not support the video tag.</div> </source></source></video><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> ESPN</figcaption></figure>That was one of two layups Lopez got by throwing the post entry to Giannis and cutting from the top, and Giannis got <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&amp;CFPARAMS=&amp;GameEventID=297&amp;GameID=0062400001&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;flag=1&amp;title=Antetokounmpo%202%27%20Alley%20Oop%20Layup%20(14%20PTS)%20(Lopez%201%20AST)">a lob finish of his own</a> when the two ran a similar action with roles reversed on the other side of the floor. Whether it was Blind Pig, 4-5 pick-and-roll, or basic high-low passing, their big-to-big synergy was on point. Lopez also shot 3-for-6 from long range and buried a pair of deep triples in quick succession to effectively put the game out of reach with Antetokounmpo on the bench to start the fourth.It was at the defensive end, though, that the two of them truly took over. The Thunder being completely unable to hit a three was the biggest hindrance to their offense, but they were also forced to rely on jump-shooting because they couldn't get anything at the rim with Antetokounmpo and Lopez patrolling the back line. They attempted just 18 shots in the restricted area (compared to 34 non-rim 2-pointers) and made just 10 of them.They also only got up 32 threes (compared to their season average of 40) because Milwaukee's perimeter defenders could press up and guide OKC's ball-handlers into the bear trap waiting for them inside. On a mid-range-heavy diet, Gilgeous-Alexander finished with just 21 points and two assists on 29 total used possessions. Williams finished with 18 and three on 23 possessions. The Thunder scored 31 points in the second half.At 36 years old, playing alongside an all-time great defender, and playing against one of the best defensive teams in NBA history, Lopez still managed to be the most impactful defender on the floor. When he wasn't <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&amp;CFPARAMS=&amp;GameEventID=496&amp;GameID=0062400001&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;flag=1&amp;title=Gilgeous-Alexander%20Bad%20Pass%20Turnover%20(P2.T8)">swallowing up drivers</a> in his typical deep-drop coverage, he was mixing things up with hard shows and even the occasional switch, proving plenty capable of hanging with OKC's guards:<figure class="article-segment--embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Milwaukee having Brook Lopez switch pick and roll in the second half. One of my favorite subplots of this season is Brook switching, seeing the drive and immediately spinning to get to the rim. <a href="https://t.co/9vIUDCCEyB">pic.twitter.com/9vIUDCCEyB</a>— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) <a href="https://twitter.com/stevejones20/status/1869220405824872863?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2024</a>
</blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></figure>This play was subtler, but it was an incredible on-the-fly read from Lopez. He anticipated Gilgeous-Alexander's back cut against the top lock and swooped down to cut him off, forcing a mid-range miss on a play that probably creates a layup attempt nine times out of 10:<figure class="article-segment--video"><video poster="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761299/preview.png?ts=1734546414" loop="" muted="" autoplay="" playsinline="" controls="" onclick="if(/android 2.[0-3]/.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())) { var sources = this.getElementsByTagName('source'); for(var i = 0, total = sources.length; i &lt; total; i++) { this.removeChild(sources[0]);}; this.outerHTML = this.innerHTML; }"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761299/animation.mp4?ts=1734546414" type="video/mp4"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761299/animation.webm?ts=1734546414" type="video/webm"> <div>Your browser does not support the video tag.</div> </source></source></video><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> ESPN</figcaption></figure>Most of the Thunder's pick-and-rolls were guard-guard actions designed to attack Trent or Lillard, but the Bucks survived those because of <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&amp;CFPARAMS=&amp;GameEventID=500&amp;GameID=0062400001&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;flag=1&amp;title=Wallace%20Bad%20Pass%20Turnover%20(P1.T9)">the help they got from their bigs</a> on the back side.Giannis spent the game guarding Caruso and Dort, and that allowed him to roam to his heart's content, mucking up drives and rim-rolls at every turn: <figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761293/cropped_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.38.12_PM.jpg?ts=1734545702" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761293/w220xh124_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.38.12_PM.jpg?ts=1734545702 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761293/w320xh180_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.38.12_PM.jpg?ts=1734545702 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761293/w640xh360_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.38.12_PM.jpg?ts=1734545702 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761293/w768xh432_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.38.12_PM.jpg?ts=1734545702 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761293/w1080xh607_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.38.12_PM.jpg?ts=1734545702 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> ESPN</figcaption></figure><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761294/cropped_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.37.10_PM.jpg?ts=1734545713" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761294/w220xh124_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.37.10_PM.jpg?ts=1734545713 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761294/w320xh180_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.37.10_PM.jpg?ts=1734545713 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761294/w640xh360_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.37.10_PM.jpg?ts=1734545713 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761294/w768xh432_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.37.10_PM.jpg?ts=1734545713 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761294/w1080xh607_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.37.10_PM.jpg?ts=1734545713 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> ESPN</figcaption></figure>He also spent the game making second-effort plays like <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&amp;CFPARAMS=&amp;GameEventID=473&amp;GameID=0062400001&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;flag=1&amp;title=MISS%20K.%20Williams%201%27%20Layup">this</a>. And this: <figure class="article-segment--embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Giannis SWAT. ❌ He's doing it all right now as the Bucks take a 13-point lead into the 4th... 🏆 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EmiratesNBACup?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EmiratesNBACup</a> Championship 📺 MIL/OKC on ABC <a href="https://t.co/2uAOfN0sd6">pic.twitter.com/2uAOfN0sd6</a>— NBA (@NBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1869223581214978201?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2024</a>
</blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></figure>Sheesh. He tacked on a couple more emphatic blocks for fun late in the fourth, as Milwaukee comfortably closed things out and won the second annual Cup. Giannis finished with a 26-point, 19-rebound triple-double that included five stocks. And he served notice (if his play over the last month hadn't already) that Nikola Jokic has company in the early MVP race.The victory, eye-opening as it might've been, doesn't erase the many genuine concerns about the Bucks' ability to meaningfully contend for the real prize this season. But when you see what their starting frontcourt is still capable of, and what they just did to a team that has a strong claim to being the best in the NBA, it's hard not to feel a tinge of optimism. If the two of them can keep playing (and especially defending) at this level, anything feels possible. Even for this aging, oft-shambolic team that's liable to leak oil on the perimeter.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

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The Bucks' frontcourt lets them keep dreaming

The Milwaukee Bucks, Atlanta Hawks, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Houston Rockets are in Las Vegas r...

The Milwaukee Bucks, Atlanta Hawks, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Houston Rockets are in Las Vegas ready to duke it out for the second annual NBA Cup. With the semifinals set to tip off Saturday night, here's one interesting player to keep an eye on for each remaining team.<h3>Middleton makes the Bucks make sense </h3>Khris Middleton has looked a bit rusty as a scorer since returning from double ankle surgery and making his season debut last week. He's on a minutes restriction that's kept him to 21 per night, he doesn't fully have his legs under his jumper, and he's been tentative as a driver, with just two of his 20 field-goal attempts coming at the rim. He's hit just five of those 20 shots and is averaging 7.3 points in his three games back after going scoreless in Milwaukee's win over Orlando in the Cup quarterfinals.And yet, it's hard to overstate how much Middleton's steady hand has helped connect the dots and smooth things out for a Bucks team that often looked shambolic without him. Just having another capable ball-handler and passer who can pilot the offense has been a huge boon, both with and without Damian Lillard on the floor. Having him as a co-creator will be all the more important with Lillard presumably being shadowed by Dyson Daniels in the semis. <div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/626698/cropped_GettyImages-2150115501.jpg?ts=1734042264" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/626698/w220xh124_GettyImages-2150115501.jpg?ts=1734042264 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/626698/w320xh180_GettyImages-2150115501.jpg?ts=1734042264 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/626698/w640xh360_GettyImages-2150115501.jpg?ts=1734042264 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/626698/w768xh432_GettyImages-2150115501.jpg?ts=1734042264 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/626698/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2150115501.jpg?ts=1734042264 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Ron Hoskins / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>For now, Middleton is coming off the bench and basically serving as the team's backup point guard. In that role, he's averaging 6.3 assists per game, or 10.9 per 36 minutes. Even with his aforementioned scoring struggles, Milwaukee has won his minutes by 19.1 points per 100 possessions, with a 128.8 offensive rating. Part of that can be attributed to how tightly Doc Rivers has tethered him to Giannis Antetokounmpo; of Middleton's 63 minutes, 61 have come with Antetokounmpo on the court. As such, 13 of his 19 assists have gone to Antetokounmpo, mostly out of the pick-and-roll.While Lillard and Antetokounmpo have refined their chemistry over time, Giannis' two-man game with Middleton has always been more effective. Reuniting the pair has allowed Antetokounmpo to relinquish some of his onerous initiating responsibilities and lean much further into play-finishing. When he plays without Middleton, 62% of his 2-point field goals are unassisted. When Middleton's on the floor with him, that proportion of self-created twos shrinks all the way down to 23%.At 33 years old and after multiple lower-body surgeries, Middleton obviously isn't the on-ball defender he once was. But he's still a smart team defender who helps on that end simply by being in the right place at the right time (something that can't always be said for Gary Trent Jr. or Taurean Prince). On two separate occasions in Tuesday's quarterfinal, he forced turnovers on back-to-back possessions with heady off-ball plays.In the first half, he picked off an Anthony Black skip pass while playing the weak-side zone and followed it up by sliding over to draw a charge on a cutting Wendell Carter Jr. In the second half, he stunted from the slot and stripped Black coming off a corner dribble-handoff, then on the next possession dug down for a steal on a driving Moe Wagner while playing on the bottom end of a 2-3 zone. He followed up both of those second-half steals by setting Antetokounmpo up for dunks at the other end.His scoring will come around eventually. For now, it's just great to see him back on the court, contributing in myriad other ways. <h3>Hartenstein fills in the blanks for OKC </h3>All the reasons the Thunder saw fit to shell out a big free-agent contract to Isaiah Hartenstein have been on display since the big man returned from a hand fracture three weeks ago, and they were there for everyone to see in the team's quarterfinal win over the Dallas Mavericks. The Thunder lost to the Mavericks in the second round this past spring after getting beat up on the glass and generally overwhelmed physically. On Tuesday night, it was the exact opposite. While Hartenstein wasn't the sole reason for that, he certainly had a lot to do with OKC turning the tables on Dallas, which included winning the offensive rebounding battle 17-7.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750257/cropped_GettyImages-2177954475.jpg?ts=1734042185" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750257/w220xh124_GettyImages-2177954475.jpg?ts=1734042185 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750257/w320xh180_GettyImages-2177954475.jpg?ts=1734042185 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750257/w640xh360_GettyImages-2177954475.jpg?ts=1734042185 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750257/w768xh432_GettyImages-2177954475.jpg?ts=1734042185 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750257/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2177954475.jpg?ts=1734042185 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Bart Young / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>Hartenstein, whose proficiency as a rebounder was a huge part of why he was acquired, hauled in five of those 17 O-boards, on top of all the pointy-elbowed work he did to limit second chances on the defensive end. Before he returned to the lineup, the Thunder ranked dead last in the NBA in overall rebound rate (46.3%). Their rebound rate with him on the floor (52.4%) would rank second. That's going to be pretty important in the semifinals against the Rockets, who happen to lead the league in that category.Hartenstein also showcased his defensive coverage versatility and rim-protecting chops, holding the Mavs to 1-for-5 shooting at the basket while also containing Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving on the perimeter with hard shows in ball-screen action. Blitzing Doncic is a dangerous tactic, but Hartenstein's mobility and back-line deterrence made it pay off. For the season, the Thunder's opponent rim frequency dips by 8.1 percentage points, per <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/4469/onoff#tab-opp_shooting_freq">Cleaning the Glass</a>. Among players challenging at least five rim shots per game, only six guys have allowed a lower percentage on those shots than Hartenstein (50.9%), and one of them is Chet Holmgren.At the offensive end, second-chance generation is just one way Hartenstein helps the Thunder. They take advantage of his passing chops by running a ton of Delay action through him at the top of the floor, which throws a different wrench at defenses after being largely absent from OKC's toolkit last season. He leads the team by a mile in frontcourt touches per game, averaging about 12 more than Holmgren was getting before his injury. And to the earlier point about their physicality shift, he brings a screening presence the Thunder previously lacked. For all his gifts, Holmgren has a hard time making solid contact without getting dislodged due to his slender frame and is often more interested in slipping than truly connecting.There's more than one way to create space as a big man. Holmgren does it by drawing opposing centers out of the paint with his jump-shooting ability; Hartenstein does it by laying lumber and wiping on-ball defenders out of the picture. The latter has proved just as beneficial as the former for lead guards Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams - especially for Williams, who's a bit more reliant on screens to create good shots for himself. Gilgeous-Alexander's true shooting percentage jumps from 61% to 63.4% with Hartenstein on the floor, while Williams' spikes from 58.8% to 60.6%.On top of making life easier for others, Hartenstein is an effective - if unconventional - pick-and-roll finisher. He has, without exaggeration, one of the five most accurate push shots in the league. He's taken 48% of his shots from floater range this season, the highest frequency for any qualified player, and made 52% of them. He's developed crackling two-man chemistry with Williams, whose tempo and patience help guide him not only into those short-roll floaters but into the occasional lob dunk. The two of them linked up for three alley-oops against the Rockets the last time the two teams played.Hartenstein's matchup with Houston's offensive fulcrum, Alperen Sengun, will be fascinating to watch at both ends and will have a lot to say about which team advances to the Cup final.<h3>Hunter leveling up for the Hawks </h3>Atlanta is the most surprising entry in the Cup's Final Four, and there's excitement building over a team that looks and feels different from its past iterations.A lot of that excitement centers on the Hawks' more novel components, from the outrageous defense being played by trade import Dyson Daniels, to the continuing evolution of young playmaking forward Jalen Johnson, to the encouraging two-way flashes shown by No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher. Quietly, though, one of the most important developments for the team this season involves one of its longtime holdovers: a post-hype wing who's finally fulfilling his potential while transitioning to a sixth-man role in his age-27 campaign.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758567/cropped_GettyImages-2187450894.jpg?ts=1734042098" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758567/w220xh124_GettyImages-2187450894.jpg?ts=1734042098 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758567/w320xh180_GettyImages-2187450894.jpg?ts=1734042098 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758567/w640xh360_GettyImages-2187450894.jpg?ts=1734042098 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758567/w768xh432_GettyImages-2187450894.jpg?ts=1734042098 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758567/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2187450894.jpg?ts=1734042098 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Scott Cunningham / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>De'Andre Hunter was once an intriguing two-way prospect in his own right, but as injuries piled up, his growth stagnated. Over five mildly disappointing campaigns, his defense waxed and waned, his jumper came and went, and more than anything, his offensive decision-making lagged behind. He did make some strides in that department last season, but this year represents a quantum leap by comparison. This is a considerably more assured, more decisive, more forceful version of Hunter than we've ever seen.It obviously helps that he's shooting 45% from deep, and it's fair to wonder how different things will look when that inevitably regresses. But it feels just as important that Hunter is letting those threes fly - or attacking the closeouts he's garnering - with conviction and without hesitation. Gone are the record-scratches and meandering dribbles to nowhere. In their place are stampede cuts and straight-line drives. His handle also looks more fluid on the rare occasions that he moves horizontally with the ball. The upshot is that he's not only taking a higher rate of threes than ever, he also has by far the highest free-throw rate of his career. He's almost entirely excised long mid-rangers from his diet; they account for just 6% of his field-goal attempts this season, less than half his previous career-low frequency. Pull-up jumpers in general make up just 23% of his shots, the lowest proportion of his career and down from over 30% each of the last two years. And he's shooting 71% at the rim, besting his career high of 64%.Add it all up, and Hunter is the NBA's leading bench scorer at 19.6 points per game (25.4 per 36 minutes) on 63.8% true shooting. He's still a maddeningly inconsistent defender, especially off the ball, and he's never going to be any kind of playmaker. But he appears to have settled into his ideal offensive role, and the Hawks are scoring 7.2 more points per 100 possessions with him on the floor. He's scored 20 or more points in seven of his last eight games, and against a Bucks team that's extremely light on perimeter defense, he should be poised to make it eight of nine.<h3>Brooks binds Houston's defense</h3>There are <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3152008" href="https://thescore.com/news/3152008">lots of reasons</a> the Rockets currently rate as the second-best defensive team in the NBA: their creative head coach, their army of young octopus-armed chaos agents, and their 6-foot veteran point guard. But Dillon Brooks, whose arrival last season kickstarted the transformation of what was then the league's second-worst defense, is still the glue that binds the structure together.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758470/cropped_GettyImages-2187778921.jpg?ts=1734066229" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758470/w220xh124_GettyImages-2187778921.jpg?ts=1734066229 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758470/w320xh180_GettyImages-2187778921.jpg?ts=1734066229 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758470/w640xh360_GettyImages-2187778921.jpg?ts=1734066229 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758470/w768xh432_GettyImages-2187778921.jpg?ts=1734066229 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758470/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2187778921.jpg?ts=1734066229 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Alex Slitz / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>"We're only as good as our one-on-one defense," Ime Udoka told <a href="https://www.theringer.com/2024/11/25/nba/houston-rockets-defense-ime-udoka">The Ringer's Michael Pina</a>, and for as dynamic and disruptive as Amen Thompson and Tari Eason are, the Rockets have no better one-on-one irritant than Brooks, whether he's manning up a point guard or a center. They allow 9.8 fewer points per 100 possessions with him on the floor, the largest differential on the team. Brooks isn't an event creator the way Thompson, Eason, or even Fred VanVleet is. He's more of an event preventer. His impact lies in the things that don't happen, the plays that don't materialize because of his ball denial and ability to stay stapled to ball-handlers' hips. He doesn't get many steals, but he'll still force turnovers by drawing moving-screen violations because he's adept at evading stationary picks.As such, the task of trying to corral the tornado that is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will largely fall to him in the semis. He did an admirable job of it in the teams' last meeting, which Houston won, despite SGA shaking loose for 32 points.Brooks has also been by far the most accurate 3-point shooter (38.1%) on one of the league's worst 3-point shooting teams. Against a Thunder defense that swarms the middle and concedes a ton of threes, the Rockets will rely on him to make them pay for their aggressive help. So, in short, he'll be central to what transpires at both ends of the floor.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

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