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Milwaukee big man Myles Turner spoke out about “fake beefs” this week on a podcast while laughing about when the Bucks and Indiana Pacers got into it over a game ball two years ago. He also praised Tyrese Haliburton as a teammate. On whose podcast did he say all this? You guessed it. Thanasis Antetokounmpo’s.
About last night
The Spurs had never started 5-0 — until now
George Gervin didn’t do it. David Robinson didn’t do it. Tim Duncan didn’t do it. Duncan and Robinson didn’t accomplish it together. Not even the Duncan-Tony Parker-Manu Ginobili-Kawhi Leonard San Antonio Spurs started their season 5-0. The best start San Antonio ever had was 4-0 — until last night. I called it Spurstory, and my group chat hated it.
Victor Wembanyama put up 27 points, 18 rebounds, six assists and five blocks to help the Spurs take down the Miami Heat (3-2) 107-101. They controlled much of the game until Miami went on a 19-3 run to take a one-point lead in the fourth quarter. But Devin Vassell and Wemby hit back-to-back 3-pointers to regain control.
The Spurs are too young to be doing any of this, right? Maybe Wemby is that good (he is). He’s averaging 30.2 points, 14.6 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 4.8 blocks while putting up 56.2/31.2/79.1 shooting splits. The Spurs have the second-best defense in the league so far. They have the eighth-best offense and the second-best net rating, outscoring opponents by 13.3 points per 100 possessions.
The Spurs are plus-22.7 points per 100 possessions with Wemby on the floor and plus-0.1 with him on the bench. He’s dominating everything.
They play sound defense and don’t gamble for steals. Very Thunder-esque. They rebound better than most teams, and they rule the free-throw line. These things are all very tough for young teams to do. Wemby changes everything.
Thunder 127, Wizards 108: The Thunder are 6-0 for the second time in franchise history after taking care of business against Washington (1-4). Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 31 points and seven assists and Isaiah Joe had 20 points off the bench in his season debut. CJ McCollum led the Wizards with 19 points and Bilal Coulibaly had 16 in his season debut, but it wasn’t enough. The Thunder’s other 6-0 start came last season when they went 7-0 to begin their championship run.
Bucks 120, Warriors 110: Eric Nehm has been right about this Bucks situation. I didn’t see it coming, but Ryan Rollins is a player. I don’t know if he’s fully the solution at point guard, but he’s having an amazing start. He dropped a career-high 32 points on 13-of-21 shooting and had eight assists too. The Bucks (4-1) beat a healthy Warriors team (4-2) without Giannis Antetokounmpo (knee). The Warriors got 27 from Steph Curry, 24 from Jonathan Kuminga and 23 points with 11 rebounds from Jimmy Butler. And it wasn’t enough against Rollins.
Magic 123, Hornets 107: The Magic (2-4) figured out the cure to their offensive and defensive issues: play the Hornets (2-3). The Magic mostly had good stretches of offense in this game, racking up 29 assists on 45 buckets. They shot 51.7 percent from the field and 42.1 percent from deep. Paolo Banchero had 20 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. Anthony Black had 20 in the start, and Tristan da Silva had 19 off the bench. LaMelo Ball needed 19 shots to score 17 points, but he did have 13 assists.
The Last 24
Is the second apron ruining the NBA?
🏀 Second-apron casualties. We’ve been saying the second apron is bad for the league. Now players are opening up about it. “What we’re finding is that that second apron is sort of functioning like a hard cap.”
🏀 Celebrating pioneers. Earl Lloyd, Chuck Cooper, and Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton can’t be forgotten. They helped integrate the NBA.
🙏 Prayers for Topić. Thunder point guard Nikola Topić has been diagnosed with testicular cancer. Thankfully, it’s an encouraging prognosis.
🏀 He’s back! John Wall was a massive Wizards star for a long time. Now he’s joining their broadcast.
🤝 Negotiations extended. The WNBA and its players are working on a new CBA. Their agreement now expires in a month.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
NBA Cup returns
Everything you need to know about the tournament
Remember that In-Season Tournament thing from a couple of years ago? Remember how the name was changed to the NBA Cup? Well, the third NBA Cup is starting tonight, and we’re going to have these group-play games for roughly the next month. Every Friday will be NBA Cup action until Nov. 28, and we’ll also have a couple of NBA Cup nights on Nov. 25 and 26 too.
We have three groups of five teams in each conference. You play against every team in your group once.
- The best record wins the group.
- If you tie, head-to-head will determine the winner.
- Three group winners in each conference advance to the single-elimination bracket, along with one wild card team in each conference.
- Wild card is based on record, then point differential, then total points scored, then 2024-25 regular-season record.
- If all of those tiebreakers don’t solve it, the NBA does a random draw.
I have an NBA Cup Primer on The Athletic if you want to dive deeper, but let’s also give a quick preview here in The Bounce. All odds provided by BetMGM as of October 30.
East Group A
Teams: Cleveland, Indiana, Atlanta, Toronto, Washington
Odds to win the group: +105 Cavs, +200 Hawks, +600 Pacers, +800 Raptors, +2500 Wizards
Thing to watch: The Pacers and Hawks are injured (assuming Trae Young misses some time with this knee injury). The Cavs have never advanced to the single-elimination round. They almost have to now.
Prediction: No need to get cute. Give me the Cavs winning the group.
East Group B
Teams: Boston, Detroit, Orlando, Philadelphia, Brooklyn
Odds to win the group: +210 Magic, +275 Pistons, +275 76ers, +375 Celtics, +2800 Nets
Thing to watch: This is the group of death in the East — and the Nets. Philly is off to an undefeated start. Detroit and Orlando have the highest expectations. And Boston is lurking. Boston and Orlando have both made it to the quarterfinals before. I don’t think we’re getting a wild card from this group. It’s too good to blow out the rest of the teams for a high point differential.
Prediction: Give me the Pistons to win the group.
East Group C
Teams: New York, Milwaukee, Chicago, Miami, Charlotte
Odds to win the group: -210 Knicks, +360 Bucks, +600 Heat, +750 Bulls, +1200 Hornets
Thing to watch: The Bucks won it all last year, but the Knicks are heavily favored now. Miami and Chicago have been really good to begin this season. This is a sneaky good group to focus on.
Prediction: Bucks win the group and the Knicks win the wild card.
West Group A
Teams: Oklahoma City, Minnesota, Sacramento, Phoenix, Utah
Odds to win the group: -185 Thunder, +310 Wolves, +850 Kings, +1200 Suns, +3000 Jazz
Thing to watch: OKC made it to the Cup final last year but lost to Milwaukee. If Anthony Edwards’ hamstring is OK soon, the Wolves can make some noise in the group. The rest should be chum for OKC and a healthy Minnesota.
Prediction: Yeah, give me the Thunder. Who else? But Minnesota can get the wild card if Ant is back soon.
West Group B
Teams: Lakers, Clippers, Memphis, Dallas, New Orleans
Odds to win the group: +200 Clippers, +250 Lakers, +400 Mavs, +500 Grizzlies, +1000 Pelicans
Thing to watch: Looks like Luka Dončić will be back, so the Lakers’ chances just got a lot better. If they can get LeBron James healthy, maybe they can run it back like when they won it all in 2023. The Clippers are the best overall team in this group, but Dallas and Memphis should be tough.
Prediction: I’ll take the Lakers to win the group. Clippers win the wild card if Minnesota can’t.
West Group C
Teams: Houston, Denver, Golden State, San Antonio, Portland
Odds to win the group: +160 Nuggets, +250 Rockets, +350 Warriors, +550 Spurs, +1700 Blazers
Thing to watch: The group of death in the West! With how San Antonio has started, this thing just got very congested. Denver has never advanced to the single-elimination portion. The Rockets made it to the semifinals last year. The Warriors made the quarterfinals.
Prediction: Nikola Jokić can’t be denied a third time. Denver wins the group.
NBA Cup courts!
Will this year’s designs hurt our eyes?
As you just read, the NBA Cup is back! You know what that means: distinctive NBA Cup court designs. The NBA’s rationale behind these courts looking so different from the usual ones is pretty smart, in theory. The NBA wants you to see these games on a broadcast and immediately know the NBA Cup is happening.
In 2023, the first attempt at that was pretty atrocious. The courts had a dominant color on the outside thirds, then a different colored airstrip down the middle of the floor. They also had the NBA Cup trophy in the paint and in the middle of the floor. There were so many attacks on the rods and cones of our eyes looking at bright red courts, bright blue courts and accosting yellow and orange courts. It was like letting an 11-year-old choose the designs.
In 2024, the league did away with the landing strips on the floors. It kept the big bold colors, but the courts were more uniform throughout the hardwood. They had these concentric circles in the middle of the floor.And they had images (logos or sometimes skylines or sometimes nonsense) superimposed on the floor. It was an improvement, but there were still a lot of bad color choices.
This year, the circles are gone, the airstrips are nowhere to be found and it feels like we’re getting closer to some pretty solid-to-good court designs. There’s still work to be done, but it’s night and day for some teams versus how they used to look.
I wanted to highlight two teams’ court designs: one for an immense improvement and one for a horrific devolution. Let’s start with the positive. The transformation of the Bucks’ NBA Cup court has been what the kids are calling a glow-up. It went from a gross cream-and-lime-green color combination to a blue abomination to now a really good green motif.
That’s a tremendous improvement! On the other hand, their neighbors in the Midwest (but not the Western Conference!) have only gotten worse over the last three NBA Cup court iterations. Check out what the Minnesota Timberwolves have put out each year.
I don’t know if I liked the 2023 court with those shades of blue. I know I hate the bright green looks they’ve adopted. Even removing the dumb circles hasn’t really helped it much. It looks like if you put some turtles on the court, they’d mutate within minutes and you could teach them how to be ninjas when they’re teenagers.
Minnesota doesn’t have the worst court. Any of the orange and yellow courts will dominate that conversation. I just don’t know why the Wolves want to make their court look ill. Check out the new courts, though!