Every Monday, we catch you up on the happenings in the NBA. This week, the big story is the NBA Cup group play coming to an end. That means elimination game matchups start next week, and we have some closing thoughts on teams that choked and failed to get there. We also have the Oklahoma City Thunder refusing to lose, and we’re trying to figure out when this win streak might end.
But we start with the extended version of the NBA Stock Report, a Monday staple in The Bounce. That’s our free NBA newsletter that you can sign up for and receive every day in your inbox. Let’s rewind!
NBA Stock Report extended
📈 Orlando Magic (12-8). After the Magic dropped to 4-6 with a frustrating loss to Boston that had people wondering if Jamahl Mosley would retain his job (Hi, I’m people), most of us were left scratching our heads about why this thing wasn’t working. Adding Desmond Bane (at a heavy price) and Tyus Jones (at a discount) seemed like it would cure so many of the Magic’s offensive ailments. Instead, this offense was just as constipated as it had always been. Two games later, Paolo Banchero injured his groin. Then the Magic rallied.
They’ve won eight of their last 10 with Banchero not playing in six and a half of those victories. During this 10-game stretch, Orlando has gone from 20th to fourth in offensive rating (from 113.9 to 120.7) and from 16th to fifth in defensive rating (114.3 to 110.6). The Magic’s turnover rate has plummeted as they have beaten the New York Knicks (twice), Portland Trail Blazers, Golden State Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons. They won their NBA Cup group. And they still don’t have their best player back.
📉 Milwaukee Bucks (9-12). Thankfully for the Bucks, the Brooklyn Nets exist. That bumbling group of rookies helped Milwaukee end its seven-game losing streak, but the last eight games have been incredibly rough for a team that initially looked promising. Granted, most of that streak happened without Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was dealing with a left adductor strain. Milwaukee lost to the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers before Giannis missed the next five games. And the schedule was pretty tough in that stretch, including games against the 76ers, Pistons, Blazers, Heat and Knicks.
The Bucks are plus-9.5 points per 100 possessions with Giannis on the floor this season, which is incredible. They’re a putrid minus-11.5 per 100 with him on the bench. The offensive production drops 20.1 points per 100 possessions without him. Even putting a band-aid over an offensive wound that needs stitches would be progress when he’s not on the floor.
📈 Los Angeles Lakers (15-4). The Lakers have won seven straight and sit in second in the West. They’re taking advantage of a soft schedule during this stretch — the New Orleans Pelicans (twice), Bucks (without Giannis), Utah Jazz (twice), LA Clippers (we’ll get to them next) and Dallas Mavericks — but they’re taking out the teams in front of them. Six of those wins were double-digit victories, and this team is still adjusting to having LeBron James, Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves sharing the floor.
Dončić and Reaves are combining for 64.7 points on 51.9 percent shooting from the field and 40.6 percent from deep during this stretch. Reaves’ scoring increase has allowed LeBron to fit into the action rather than forcing it. Deandre Ayton has been a solid safety valve on offense, and Rui Hachimura is shooting well (37.9 percent from deep). The Lakers’ schedule gets a lot tougher to finish out the calendar year, but I’m not sure you could’ve asked for a better start after LeBron missed so much time.
📉 LA Clippers (5-15). The Clippers have completely fallen off a cliff. After everything was so encouraging last season and the defense carried them through so much, this team is an absolute mess. Remember when the Clippers started 3-2? They’re 2-13 since then! Their offense was bad last year, but manageable. That’s pretty much the same this season, as they are 20th in offensive rating. But the defense? Only the Sacramento Kings, Nets, Washington Wizards and Jazz are worse. How is that possible for Ty Lue’s squad?
The Clippers have one quality win this season, against Portland. They beat Phoenix, but that was before the Suns got their act together. The other wins came against New Orleans (only won by two), Dallas (needed double overtime) and the Charlotte Hornets. LA is not even good when James Harden, Kawhi Leonard and Ivica Zubac are on the floor together (minus-4.3 per 100 possessions).
Cooper Flagg is heating up. (Kiyoshi Mio / Imagn Images)
📈 Cooper Flagg. The No. 1 pick and uber-hyped prospect hasn’t exactly set the world on fire to begin his career. He’s shown flashes of what could be, but we’re not seeing the franchise-changing superstar we were promised. However! Things have definitely picked up for the power forward asked to play point guard because Jason Kidd can’t stand the idea of playing D’Angelo Russell instead. Flagg just became the youngest player in NBA history to score 35 points in a game. It capped a 10-game stretch in which Flagg averaged 19.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.5 steals and just 2.0 turnovers while putting up 51.3/23.7/71.1 shooting splits.
He really can’t shoot 3-pointers at the NBA level yet, but everything else looks really good as of late. He’s still struggling to consistently create his own shot. That won’t improve until his handle and balance do. But when he catches the ball on the move, there isn’t much you can do to stop him from getting to his spots.
📉 Dallas Mavericks (6-15). While things look a lot better for Flagg, his team is struggling. A lot. They’re 5-6 against teams with a losing record. They’re 1-9 against teams with a non-losing record, with nine straight losses. They’re the worst offensive team in the NBA. To put in perspective just how bad they are offensively, think of what the Wizards looked like on offense last season. They scored 105.8 points per 100 possessions. This Mavs team is a tick better at 106.0 per 100 possessions. The defense isn’t nearly as bad (20th), but it’s not good. A lot of that is because Anthony Davis has missed 15 games. But … that should be somewhat expected? This team desperately needs Kyrie Irving.
📈 San Antonio Spurs (13-6). Don’t look now, but the Spurs have won five of their last seven. Why is that significant? They haven’t had Victor Wembanyama. Stephon Castle has missed five of those games. And rookie Dylan Harper missed four of those games. Harper recently came back for the last two after missing 10 straight games. The keys have been De’Aaron Fox and Devin Vassell lighting up their opponents. Their offense can’t be stopped during this stretch. And they’ll get a chance to add an NBA Cup to their history of victories. Maybe Wemby will be back by then?
📉 Streaks. Obviously, let’s throw out the Thunder’s 12-game winning streak because they’re just on a different level than everybody else … maybe in history? But we had a bunch of streaks abruptly end over the weekend. The Pistons tied a franchise record with 13 straight victories before having it snapped by the Celtics. The Toronto Raptors were riding a nine-game win streak before the Hornets kept them from double digits. And then the Wizards ended a 14-game losing streak by hammering the Atlanta Hawks.
The Big Story: NBA Cup advances to elimination games
Friday night brought the conclusion of 2025 NBA Cup group play. Elimination games will begin on Dec. 9 in the East and Dec. 10 in the West. The winners of those games will head to Las Vegas on Dec. 13 for the semi-finals, and the Cup championship will happen on Dec. 16. Here is what’s ahead:
East matchup: Heat at Magic, Dec. 9. The battle for Florida! Both teams have been looking to remake themselves this season. Orlando was the slowest team in the NBA last season, but has increased its pace by roughly 4.5 possessions per game to move up to 14th. The Heat went from the 27th-fastest team in the league last season to the fastest team. Their pace of play has increased by an unfathomable nine possessions. Both teams will look to get out and run, but both still have strong defenses to mix it up.
East matchup: Knicks at Raptors, Dec. 9. The Raptors have surprised everybody by going perfect in the NBA Cup. Either Cleveland or Atlanta was supposed to win that group. Toronto’s offense and defense have been excellent, and now it will go against a dangerous Knicks team. New York is missing OG Anunoby, but he could be back by this game. Toronto is missing RJ Barrett, but he could be back by this game as well. You may remember they were traded for each other. The winner of this game officially wins that trade.
West matchup: Suns at Thunder, Dec. 10. Both of these teams come from Group A, so this showdown was a little confusing to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams. But both of these teams have been on fire lately. Both also play extremely aggressive perimeter defense. And considering Dillon Brooks will be trying to get in the heads of OKC, and we’ll get SGA against Devin Booker, there’s plenty to watch for.
West matchup: Spurs at Lakers, Dec. 10. If the basketball gods truly love us, we’ll get a fully healthy Spurs against a fully healthy Lakers. Both teams have a lot of firepower and versatility on the perimeter. But we want LeBron and Wembanyama in the mix. The Lakers would love to get a chance to secure their second Cup title.
Here are some final thoughts about group play in the third iteration of the NBA Cup.
• The Cavaliers (2-2) completely choked away any chance at the wild card by losing to the Hawks (2-2). They needed a 17-point win, then lost by seven. Seems like they’re in postseason form already.
• The Bucks (2-2) finally lost their first-ever group play games. Losing to Miami (with no Giannis) and New York (with Giannis) ended a streak of 10 straight group play victories.
• Detroit (2-2) went from 13 straight wins and on top of the East to dropping two group play games, losing any chance of advancing to the elimination round and … remaining on top of the East.
• If the Minnesota Timberwolves (2-2) hadn’t blown an eight-point lead in the final 69 seconds to the Suns (3-1), they would have secured the West wild card.
• The Memphis Grizzlies (3-1) were extremely close to going 4-0 in their group and taking it from the Lakers. They got lit up by Dončić in their first group play game and lost by five points in that matchup.
• I’m pretty sure all of us outside of San Antonio (3-1) had either the Denver Nuggets (2-2) or Houston Rockets (2-2) winning that group. Incredible effort by a Spurs team missing Wemby for a good chunk of that.
• The Kings and Pelicans were the only teams to go winless in group play.
The Week Ahead: When will the Thunder lose again?
Jalen Williams is back for a Thunder team that has run off 12 straight victories. He had 11 points, eight assists and four rebounds in Friday’s win over Phoenix, although he shot just 3-of-12 from the field. He missed a lot of shots in the paint he’d normally make, so he’s probably just getting his timing back and legs under him. Williams’ return adds an All-NBA player to a team that’s historically dominating everybody. And he adds an All-Defensive player to the best defense in the league. As a friend mentioned to me over the weekend, the Thunder are so good that they should have to forfeit all of the future first-round picks they own from other franchises.
The Thunder’s 12-game win streak ties their second-longest in franchise history (they don’t get to count the Seattle Supersonics days). They won 12 straight in 2012 when Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka were roaming around the prairie. Their longest win streak happened last season when they won 15 games in a row. This week, they have a good opportunity to tie that franchise record. The Thunder are in San Francisco to take on the Warriors on Tuesday night. Golden State just struggled to beat the Pelicans, thanks to Steph Curry being out about a week with a quad injury, and it can’t really score without him. Not a great recipe for success against the best defense in the world.
After that, the Thunder are at home against Dallas. As discussed above, the Mavs have the worst offense in the NBA. Assuming Davis plays, maybe they can mitigate the matchup against a Thunder team missing Isaiah Hartenstein (calf strain). But the Thunder’s perimeter defense should swarm a team unwilling to play DLo at point guard. That would leave them in Salt Lake City on Sunday to tie their franchise record against the Jazz. This entire situation sets up the Thunder perfectly.
When will it end, though? It’s really difficult to figure out how this team loses to anybody. A potential 16th straight win would come at home against Phoenix on Dec. 10 in the NBA Cup. The Suns just played them extremely well on Friday night. If OKC wins that, it would play the winner of the Lakers and Spurs to see who plays for the NBA Cup. After the Cup, the Thunder have a home game against the Clippers, and then go to Minnesota. Then they’re at home against Memphis before a home-and-home against San Antonio.
If they win all those games, we’re looking at 22 straight victories. Obviously, we’re getting ahead of ourselves by projecting that far out, but this Thunder team is so dominant that they open up these conversations. The funny thing about this entire streak? If they win all these games but lose the NBA Cup championship, the winning streak still technically exists, because the Cup championship game doesn’t count for or against the real record. But I don’t know why you’d assume they will lose anything at this point.
