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Just a reminder that if someone is talking about the MVP award, but will only go so far as to say a player belongs in the “MVP conversation,” then they don’t actually believe that player should win the award. They just think that player should probably end up in the top five on the ballot somewhere. Otherwise, they’d call them the MVP.
About last night
Pistons continue to own the Knicks
For the third time this season, the Detroit Pistons demolished the New York Knicks. The Pistons beat them by 31 points on Jan. 5 and 38 on Feb. 6. Last night, the Pistons did it again, winning 126-111 in Madison Square Garden.
It may sound like New York made progress by “only” losing by 15 points, but I’ll remind you that Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart are both still suspended for their part in Wrecked’em at the Spectrum. The Pistons did this with Paul Reed and Tolu Smith as their two big men.
Cade Cunningham was brilliant in his destruction of the Knicks’ defense. He had 42 points (17-of-34 from the field, 5-of-11 from deep), 13 assists and eight rebounds. The Knicks had the best defense in the NBA for the previous 12 games, but Cunningham reminded them of all the defensive issues they’ve had with Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson on the floor together. Towns had 19 of his 21 points in the second half, and Brunson had 33 on the night. But it never felt like the Knicks had a chance.
The Pistons (42-14) were plus-84 in their three games against New York. The Knicks (35-21) have been one of the Eastern Conference favorites mentioned ahead of the Pistons all season long. If you believe the season series is indicative of a future playoff result, then New York had better hope someone takes care of Detroit early.
The Knicks need to get ’90s tough, Ian O’Connor writes. Elsewhere:
Clippers 115, Nuggets 114: Jamal Murray missed a game-tying free throw with 0.9 seconds left after being fouled on a game-tying 3-point attempt. Nikola Jokić had 22 points, 17 rebounds and six assists, but he was just 9-of-22 from the field and had six turnovers. Bennedict Mathurin put up 38 off the bench on 12-of-22 from the field and 11-of-13 from the free-throw line for the Clippers (27-28). Derrick Jones Jr. added 22 points.
Rockets 105, Hornets 101: Kevin Durant may not have a burner account, but his jumper was burning against Charlotte. He put up 35 points on 14-of-20 from the field and scored Houston’s final 10 points.
Celtics 121, Warriors 110: Jaylen Brown had 23 points, 15 rebounds and 13 assists as the Celtics (36-19) cruised. The Warriors (29-27) didn’t have Steph Curry, but they won the fourth quarter 37-19 to make this final score look better. Kristaps Porziņģis had 12 points in 17 minutes off the bench in his Warriors debut.
Hawks 117, 76ers 107: The Sixers were missing Joel Embiid and Paul George, but Jalen Johnson didn’t care. He scored on everybody available, as he dropped 32 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and three steals. Atlanta (27-30) moved ahead of Charlotte for ninth.
Spurs 121, Suns 94: No Dillon Brooks (suspension). Devin Booker only played nine minutes (hip injury). And the Spurs (39-16) rolled to an easy victory behind 17 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks from Victor Wembanyama.
Magic 131, Kings 94: Seven different Magic players hit at least three 3-pointers as Orlando made 27 3s. That helped usher in Sacramento’s franchise record 15th straight loss.
The last 24
🏀 Big issue? Darryn Peterson is one of the top prospects in the draft. But he won’t finish games, and it’s an issue — at least for Kansas.
🏴 Euro steps? John Hollinger has some radical fixes for tanking. Including one adopted from … Scottish soccer?
😱 This is shocking! You’re never going to believe this about Anthony Davis and Trae Young. They’re not close to playing for the Wizards.
🏠 Home again. Mike Conley had a wild ride at the trade deadline. But he never actually went anywhere and is back as a mentor for the Timberwolves.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
Tanking fixes
Are the NBA’s ideas actually any good?
Sick of tanking talk? So is the NBA! Adam Silver spoke to general managers on Thursday about making changes ahead of the 2026-27 season to curb tanking. This doesn’t appear to be just some different ways of changing the odds in the hopes that more teams won’t just start tanking. Some of these ideas being reported might actually work? Or at least you can’t laugh them out of the room immediately?
According to Sam Amick, here are some of the possible ideas:
Lottery odds being allocated based on two-year records.
Flattened and/or frozen by the trade deadline or another in-season date.
Extending the lottery to include the eight Play-In Tournament teams.
Limitations on first-round pick protections.
Teams not being allowed to pick in the top four a year after making the conference finals.
Teams being prohibited from selecting in the top four in consecutive years.
Teams being prohibited from selecting in the top four after consecutive bottom-three finishes.
Let’s eliminate the bad ideas first, or the ones that may not get much runway when everybody is trying to figure out what might actually work. Having lottery odds flattened or frozen by the trade deadline or another in-season date doesn’t actually help this issue. It just means teams will tank at a different part of the season. Every time something like this is suggested, I wince and shake my head.
Teams not being allowed to pick in the top four a year after making the conference finals? What is this even about? Is this just in case a future pick the Thunder own hits in the top four? Or is this about the Pacers this season? This doesn’t seem to be an actual issue. I also have questions about lottery odds being allocated on two-year records. So teams will tank for two years instead of one? Or am I reading that incorrectly?
I do like extending the odds to include all eight Play-In teams. I still love Eric Koreen’s idea of including first-round playoff losers. I’m not sure how much pick protections being limited solves anything, but maybe it’ll help some with teams trying to lose to get into the top eight currently. Prohibiting consecutive years of being in the top four could actually help, but I wonder if teams will then just try to win enough to be right outside that threshold. At least they’re trying.
Ishbia’s rant
Does mercurial Suns owner have a point?
A day after Mark Cuban made some asinine post about tanking being good because the real issue is making sure families have a good time at the games (???), Suns owner Mat Ishbia had his own post railing against tanking. He was responding to an article by Tom Haberstroh that was ranking some of the different styles in which teams are currently tanking.
Ishbia called tanking “ridiculous” and said it’s “losing behavior done by losers.” He questioned the integrity of it all, called for leadership to make sure this practice is ended and even went as far as to say it’s worse than any prop bet scandal (even though that’s a federal crime?).
Two different group chats threw out replies to this tweet that I found hilarious.
Friend 1: “Leave it to an insurance billionaire to tell me how it’s wrong to profit off of failures.’
Friend 2: “He’s been on the right side of too many things lately. I’m shorting him for sure. Can’t wait for the next disaster.”
Ishbia has been … let’s say … a bit chaotic since he took over the Suns in 2023. And he’s provided us with some incredible content. At the same time, this is the exact mindset you want a team owner to express if you’re the league office right now. The Association is catching a lot of scrutiny about the tanking situation.
It’s also worth noting that this could also largely be performative by Ishbia. Yes, the Suns have built a surprisingly competitive and winning team this season after getting rid of Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal last summer. They also don’t have control of their draft picks for the next six years, so it wouldn’t do them any good to tank in the first place. Let’s not forget to mention that Cuban was advocating for tanking at the same time the Mavericks have lost nine straight and are hoping to add top talent next to Cooper Flagg.
My biggest issue with tanking is not the practice itself. Under the current rules, it’s incentivized for you to lose games to try to get the best lottery odds possible. My issue is charging fans full-price tickets and pretending this is acceptable. I’d care a lot less about tanking if the teams would charge full price in these tanking games but then give fans 50 percent of the money spent as a credit for next year’s games, when hopefully the team has improved.
Regardless, we’re going to see quite a few owners and executives speak on one side of this or the other. The tanking teams will feel picked on. The non-tanking teams will take the high road. And apparently, my friends will wait for Ishbia to be chaotic again.
