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Early January is supposed to be a time when local NBA broadcasts pepper you with demands to vote for players on your favorite team to make the All-Star Game. That’s what we’re used to at this time when perusing League Pass. Instead, now we have local broadcasts openly clamoring for end-of-season award conversations about their teams’ players. It’s not even the halfway point of the season! That can wait! We’re losing recipes!
Suns’ Scapegoat?
Durant has strong feelings about Phoenix
As we mentioned yesterday, Kevin Durant beat the Suns on Monday with a 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left. The Rockets held on for the win, and KD got to celebrate. He was asked whether the game-winner and the victory felt different than a typical moment like that, which Durant has accomplished so often. He said it definitely did and then expounded on his exit from Phoenix last summer.
“A place that I didn’t want to leave. My first time — I don’t want to sound too dramatic, but I will — to be kicked out of a place.”
I’m not sure if I fully buy that KD didn’t want to leave Phoenix, where he played for two seasons. He seemed to enjoy being there, but it also wasn’t even close to working out on the basketball court, as the Suns lost in the first round of the 2024 playoffs and went 36-46 last season. Many factors played into that, but ultimately, Durant found his way to Houston once it was clear he was getting traded. But this is where the emotions come into it and probably why he feels he was kicked out of there.
For the first time in his career, he didn’t leave on his own accord. He left Oklahoma City for Golden State in free agency when the Thunder were praying he’d stay. He left the Warriors for Brooklyn when they were hoping he’d stick around, Achilles rupture and all. After James Harden forced his way out of Brooklyn and Kyrie Irving was traded to Dallas, Durant helped orchestrate a move to Phoenix. But the Suns wanted to reset, and maybe KD wanted to stick it out with Devin Booker. He continued:
“It feels good to play against a team that booted you out of the building and scapegoated you for all the problems they had,” the 15-time All-Star said. “And it hurt because I put all my effort and love and care towards the Suns and the Phoenix area and Arizona in general. But that’s just the business, that’s the name of the game. So, when you play against a (former) team, yeah, you got a chip on your shoulder.”
I don’t live in Phoenix, I don’t follow much of the sports talk, if any, that happens locally there and I’m shockingly not as online as Durant is at any given moment. So I can’t say he wasn’t scapegoated by the organization and possibly the media there. I do know that nationally, the majority of the Suns’ issues were attributed to owner Mat Ishbia’s leadership and Bradley Beal’s lack of impact and injuries. Durant’s injuries last season, when they went 3-17 without him, were certainly big.
It boils down to KD feeling a certain way about his Phoenix tenure and exit. The thing about KD is, he reminds us that he (and all players) is very human. There’s something refreshing about that. He also gets a lot of dismissal and vitriol thrown his way for his decision in 2016 to join the 73-win Warriors. Some people will never take him as seriously for that. Regardless, he’s one of the greatest to ever play, and his quotes are almost always noteworthy
The last 24
🤯 Look at the names! John Hollinger wrote about unintended awards consequences with the 65-game rule. The list of ineligible players is unreal.
🏀 Like father, like son? Dominique Wilkins’ son, Jacob, is a freshman at the University of Georgia who dunks like his dad. But their story is more interesting than that, our Mirin Fader writes.
💯 Top 100! Sam Vecenie has his big board of prospects for the 2026 Draft. AJ over Boozer?
🤝 AD on the move? Will Dallas trade Anthony Davis before the Feb. 5 deadline? Sam Amick and Christian Clark have all the latest intel.
🦅 Go birds? Nick Sirianni studied a basketball coach to learn to celebrate joy amid scrutiny. He learned from Steve Kerr.
🏀 Not quite yet. Rick Carlisle has needed one win to reach 1,000 career victories. He’s been stuck there for a month now.
🧪 Chemistry growing. LeBron James says he needs to adjust his game to Luka Dončic, and the two Lakers superstars seem to be learning how to play together.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass
Makes no sense
Three things that make you go hmmm
Three things that I either saw, looked up or heard on a broadcast — and am now stealing for our own content — blew my mind last night. I’d like to share those things and invite you to steal them for your own group chats and basketball discussions. It’s like a thievery pay-it-forward, but with basketball stuff instead of good deeds.
Stolen stat: Norman Powell should never be left wide open
During the Timberwolves’ local broadcast last night, fill-in TV and regular radio play-by-play announcer Alan Horton dropped this stat about Heat guard Norman Powell that seemed too ridiculous to be true. Powell is having an All-Star caliber season for the second straight year. Part of that has been how deadly he is as a shooter, knocking down 42.3 percent of his 3-pointers. Why is he so successful from deep? It’s wide-open shooting.
Tyrese Maxey? 45.9 percent on wide-open 3-pointers. Collin Gillespie? 46.1 percent on wide-open 3s. Steph Curry? A preposterous 52.1 percent on wide-open 3s. What’s Powell shooting on them? 64.6 percent! He’s 31-of-48 on those attempts this season.
Looked up: OKC’s offense is gross
The Thunder are just 6-6 in their last 12 games and are looking incredibly mortal. That may not seem like a big deal, but they were 24-1 to begin the season, and so many of us thought they’d break the single-season wins record of 73. Instead, they’re now on pace for a measly 68. Why this sudden downturn over the last 12 games? Their offense stinks!
In their first 25 games, the Thunder had an offensive rating of 120.5, which was fifth-best in the NBA. Since then, the Thunder are down to 113.7, good for 19th and just a hair above the Wizards (113.6). Why? This team can’t shoot anymore, and it really doesn’t share the ball. Oklahoma City has the second-lowest assist percentage at 55.1 (previously 60.5). And its 3-point shooting went from 38.1 to 33.0 percent. Right corner 3-pointers went from 41.3 percent to a paltry 29.1 percent. Open 3-pointers went from 39.0 to 31.3 percent.
Saw it: Wemby is limber
“He’s not supposed to be able to do this.” That’s a thing we regularly say about Victor Wembanyama, and yet the San Antonio Spurs star keeps wowing us. We saw this clip of him during the broadcast doing a jumping front kick to try to knock four stuck basketballs out of the net/rim during warmups.
Someone his size is not supposed to be able to do this! Go watch Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in “Game of Death” from 1978. Yes, he was impressive in his martial arts, but his kicks look nothing like this! He could barely get his leg in the air half the time. Wemby is just casually doing this?
About last night
Wolves are good against good teams again
I’ll remind you that the Timberwolves lost their first seven games to teams that were .500 or better. Minnesota was just beating up on bad teams and giving away games to the good squads. The Wolves have turned things around, and they furthered that trend last night by demolishing the Heat 122-94 at Target Center.
Minnesota has now won seven of its last nine against teams with a .500-or-better record, and that includes two wins over Miami in the last week. The Wolves shut down the Heat in the second half, limiting them to 40 total points on 28.6 percent from the field. That is some smothering defense!
Minnesota forced 18 turnovers for 21 points and held the Heat to five second-chance points on 11 offensive boards while Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels continued their incredible defensive seasons. Anthony Edwards had 26 points in 29 minutes. The Wolves are now a half-game away from being the No. 3 seed in the West and a game and a half from being the No. 2 seed. It might be time to take them seriously in the West again.
Cavs 120, Pacers 116: The Cavaliers (21-17) needed a big fourth-quarter comeback, but they managed to avoid an embarrassing loss to a reeling Pacers squad. Darius Garland had 14 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter, and the Donovan Mitchell-less Cavs handed Indiana (6-31) their 13th straight loss. That’s a franchise record for the Pacers.
Wizards 120, Magic 112: With Jalen Suggs out, CJ McCollum’s life became a lot easier. He led the Wizards (10-25) with 27 points and Alex Sarr had 23 points and five blocks. This continues Washington’s good stretch of basketball over the last couple weeks, as it has now won five of its last seven games. The Magic (20-17) got 62 points from their bench, which couldn’t make up for just 29 combined points from Paolo Banchero and Desmond Bane.
Grizzlies 106, Spurs 105: As you saw from the kick above, Wemby is back in action after missing two games with a knee hyperextension. He came off the bench to score 30 points in 21 minutes, but it wasn’t enough. Santi Aldama blocked De’Aaron Fox’s game-winning shot. Jaren Jackson Jr. and Cam Spencer both led the Grizzlies (16-20) with 21. San Antonio (25-11) has lost four of its six.
Lakers 111, Pelicans 103: How do you survive Trey Murphy III going for 42 points? You have Luka and LeBron each score 30. That’s tough to do if you don’t employ those two, but it’s a good strategy to have. Deandre Ayton even had 18 and 11 for the Lakers (23-11).
Mavs 100, Kings 98: Dallas (14-23) outscored the Kings 54-40 in the second half to steal the road victory over Sacramento (8-29). Davis had 19 points and 16 boards. Cooper Flagg had 20 points, and Brandon Williams scored 14 of his 18, including the go-ahead 3, in the second half.
