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Over the weekend, James Harden passed Carmelo Anthony for 10th on the all-time scoring list. It’s surprising and not surprising at the same time. Harden is second all-time in 3-pointers made. He’s fifth all-time in free throws made. The fact that he was a sixth man his first three years makes his scoring accomplishments even more impressive.
NBA Stock Report
Are the Knicks and Celtics totally back?
Every Monday, we bust out the calculator and blazer and start pointing at someone off in the distance about a buy or sell opportunity! I’ll be honest. I don’t really know what happens on the New York Stock Exchange floor. Most of my familiarity with it is from the movie “Trading Places.” Still, we’re reading the NBA Stock Market every Monday! Let’s dive in!
📈 New York Knicks (16-7). The Knicks have won seven of their last eight despite some injuries. During this stretch, OG Anunoby, Mitchell Robinson and Karl-Anthony Towns have missed time. The Knicks also have had a soft schedule, as they’ve beaten up on the Brooklyn Nets, Charlotte Hornets (twice), Milwaukee Bucks and Utah Jazz. They also have two very good wins against the Toronto Raptors and Orlando Magic. New York is up to second in the East and is virtually unbeatable at home (13-1). Its offense has been out of this world.
📉 Chicago Bulls (9-14). The Bulls are spiraling, and there’s not much they can do about it. They just got housed by the Golden State Warriors and have now dropped seven straight. It was one thing when they lost four straight road games to begin this streak. Then they dropped three at home. We’re talking losses to the Nets, Pelicans, Hornets, Pacers and a Warriors team that was missing Steph Curry and Draymond Green. The Bulls can’t stop anybody, and they can’t score enough. Aside from cool stat lines for Josh Giddey, there isn’t any substance in what Chicago is trying to do. It’s a stark contrast from the first two weeks of the season.
📈 Boston Celtics (15-9). The Celtics beat the Raptors on Sunday to run their winning streak to five. They’ve also won 10 of their last 12 and look a lot like the Celtics we’re used to seeing. They have had the No. 1 offense in basketball for nearly the last month, putting up a ridiculous 128.9 points per 100 possessions. Just to put that into context, their offensive rating was 122.2 when they won the championship in 2024.
📉 Cleveland Cavaliers (14-11). I mean no offense when I say this, but Jarrett Allen and Max Strus can’t be this important to this team’s success. The Cavs are nowhere close to what we saw a year ago and have lost five out of their last seven. Their offense and defense have been middle-of-the-road during this bad stretch, so it’s not like they’ve fallen off a cliff. But they’re 0-5 in their last five clutch games, and their defense is getting demolished in tight games.
📈 Jalen Johnson. This Atlanta Hawks forward is playing out of his mind. If he’s not a first-time All-Star this season, then something is very wrong with the selection process. Over his last 14 games, Johnson is averaging 25.0 points, 11.6 rebounds, 9.6 assists and 1.7 steals with 51.3/44.9/79.8 shooting splits, and the Hawks are 9-5. Atlanta has outscored opponents by 9.2 points per 100 possessions with Johnson on the court. When he’s on the bench? They’re getting smoked by 16.2 points per 100 possessions. He’s having the type of impact you’d hope Trae Young would have, and it should raise some questions for the Hawks’ front office about the makeup of their team.
📉 Miami Heat (14-10). After winning six straight, the Heat have lost four of their last five. Maybe the most concerning one was the latest, a 16-point home loss to the Sacramento Kings. We’ve seen some slippage on both ends of the floor for the Heat. In their first 18 games, they had an offensive rating of 116.0 (12th) and a defensive rating of 110.6 (fourth). During their last seven games (3-4), their offense is down to 112.2 (21st) and their defense is 113.5 (12th). Some of this could be the reintegration of Tyler Herro into the lineup. This team needs to find a way to score when Norman Powell isn’t in the game. Its offense has dropped over 20 points per 100 possessions in the last few games when he hits the bench.
The last 24
A bad break for Orlando
🏀 Bad news. Franz Wagner appeared to suffer a pretty serious injury on Sunday. We’ll update as more info comes out.
🐺 Big improvement. Kawhi Leonard taught a big lesson to Jaden McDaniels. And he’s thriving because of it.
🗣️ Oh my! Steve Kerr is pretty confident in Pat Spencer. Why? Apparently, he is that, um, well, let him say it.
🏀 Turn up the Heat. How did Miami suddenly become the fastest-paced team in the NBA? Our CJ Moore and Fred Katz have the inside story.
👑 King stay the King. LeBron James reminded us all of what he’s still capable of, at least on some nights, with a huge game against the Sixers.
🎧 Tuning in. Today’s “NBA Daily” previews the NBA Cup elimination games.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
Report cards!
How the East grades out after one quarter
We’re one quarter of the way through the season, and that means it’s time to give out some grades. We love being judgmental here. Today, we’re going to tackle the Eastern Conference, which feels as wide open as it’s ever been. We think certain teams are good, but we don’t know if we believe in them long-term this season.
We’ll handle the Western Conference on Tuesday. For now, here are the teams in order of standings, their grades and something the teacher (me) wants to see improvement on. (And check out Law Murray’s grades for all teams in his latest NBA power rankings.)
Biggest East surprise: The Raptors. Nobody outside of Toronto felt strongly about this team, other than criticizing the payroll.
Biggest East disappointment: The Cavaliers. Maybe it’s the Magic for some, but if I recall correctly, didn’t this Cavs team win 60-plus games last year? Where did that team go?
Biggest East storyline: Giannis Antetokounmpo might finally want out of Milwaukee. Aside from Nico Harrison taking over the Lakers and trading Luka Dončić away, I can’t imagine a bigger storyline than if Giannis wants to get traded.
Favorite to win the East: I’ll be a coward and say it’s the Knicks. I do like the way they’re playing, and I like the makeup of the roster, for the most part. But I wish I was brave enough to say the Pistons.
Dodgeball!
Watch Desmond Bane pelt OG Anunoby
You often see guys throw the ball off an opponent when they’re trying to save possession as they’re headed out of bounds. You rarely see a player in bounds just decide to chuck the ball off an opponent for the heck of it. (Unless Chris Dudley just got severely dunked by Shaquille O’Neal.) On Sunday, Desmond Bane decided to win a game of dodgeball that OG Anunoby didn’t know he was playing.
Watch this. There is no momentum taking Bane out of bounds. There is no fear of losing the ball. After Jalen Suggs and Anthony Black broke up a fast-break play by OG, Bane gathered the ball and just nailed him for it.
Look at the other angle, which might be even funnier! And listen to Mike Breen on the MSG call, because he likens Bane’s throw to Nolan Ryan.
OG got up and gave Bane a little push. Bane thought that would get Anunoby a technical foul. Instead, the refs reviewed it and gave Bane the tech for pelting OG with the ball. After the game, they laughed and hugged it out. I will never stop watching this clip and laughing at it.