The Bounce: Jokić's knee has us holding our breath. Plus, let's fix tanking
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LeBron James turns 41 today. I’ll remind you that he ranks first all-time in points, 25th in rebounds, fourth in assists, sixth in steals, second in games played, first in minutes played, second in shots made, sixth in 3-pointers made, second in free throws made, first in All-Star selections (21), first in All-NBA selections (21), first in All-NBA First Team selections (13) and third in MVPs (four). And he’s still going. Happy birthday, LeBron!
About last night
A knee injury that could change everything
I thought about GIF’ing the play in which Nikola Jokić seemed to hyperextend his knee against the Heat on Monday. But I didn’t want to broadcast a replay of something you don’t want to see. The Nuggets’ superstar left the game at the end of the first half with the injury, after he limped off the floor to the locker room. Teammate Hunter Tyson stepped on Jokić’s foot in a way that made him take a bad step. Our Sam Amick reported that the results of Jokić’s medical tests will be known today.
Jokić is having one of the best seasons we’ve ever seen. He went into last night averaging 29.9 points, 12.4 rebounds and 11.1 assists. He’s leading the league in rebounds and assists. He has absurd 60.4/44.0/85.5 shooting splits. And he still managed to lead Denver (22-10) in points (21) in its 147-123 loss to Miami (18-15) despite not playing the second half.
Now we all just wait with bated breath and hope it’s not a serious knee injury. We’ll update tomorrow when we know more.
Cavs 113, Spurs 101: If it wasn’t for the Jokić injury, this would have led the night. Cleveland had a monster 37-23 fourth quarter to take control of this game. Donovan Mitchell only had 10 points on 12 shots, but Jarrett Allen put in 27 points. Victor Wembanyama’s 26 and 14 weren’t enough, and the Cavs (18-16) finally looked like the team we saw last year.
Raptors 107, Magic 106: Jamal Shead’s 19 off the bench helped erase a 20-point deficit as Toronto (20-14) held Orlando (18-15) to 12 fourth-quarter points. The Raptors had 50 bench points in this one.
Knicks 130, Pelicans 125: Zion Williamson had 32 and Saddiq Bey had 27 for New Orleans (8-26). But the Knicks (23-9) dished out 35 assists and knocked down 20 3-pointers to overcome it. Jalen Brunson had 28 and 10 to lead New York.
Thunder 140, Hawks 129: The good news is the Hawks (15-19) did not lose another game with Trae Young. That’s because he didn’t play. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 39 for OKC (28-5) sent Atlanta to its seventh straight loss.
Suns 115, Wizards 101: Devin Booker struggled a bit with 22 points on 8-of-23 shooting. But Dillon Brooks helped with 26 and Collin Gillespie had 25 for Phoenix (19-13). Rookie Tre Johnson dropped 24 for Washington (7-24).
Wolves 136, Bulls 101: The Wolves (21-12) outscored the Bulls 81-53 in the second half. Chicago (15-17) lost both Coby White (calf) and Josh Giddey (hammy) in the first half.
Bucks 123, Hornets 113: Giannis Antetokounmpo had 24, Bobby Portis had 25 and Myles Turner had 23 as the Bucks lit up the Hornets for 52 percent from the field and 47 percent from deep.
Warriors 120, Nets 107: Steph Curry’s 27 points were enough for Golden State (17-16) to hold off a spirited effort by the Nets (10-20), who got 23 from rookie Egor Demin. Also, this happened.
Blazers 125, Mavs 122: Deni Avdija’s 27 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds were enough for Portland (14-19) to stop the Max Christie (25) comeback in this one. Cooper Flagg’s great stretch hit a speedbump; he had 15 points on 20 shots for Dallas (12-22).
Rockets 126, Pacers 119: This game was not as close as the score says. Indiana won the fourth 41-21 to make it look better. Kevin Durant dropped 30 on the Pacers (6-27), who have lost nine straight.
The last 24
Flagg takes his rightful place
🏀 Rookie rankings! Sam Vecenie has another round of rookie rankings. Cooper Flagg is finally on top.
🏀 This is cool. James Edwards had someone break down some of Jalen Brunson’s plays. It was Brunson himself.
📈 Time capsules! How will each team remember the year 2025? Law Murray’s Power Rankings will tell you.
🐺 Naz Reid! The Minnesota super sub had his best night of the season on Monday. Perhaps he inspired one of his biggest fans, who faces brain surgery.
📈 More wins! Doc Rivers passed George Karl on the all-time wins list. He’s now sixth.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (__try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass__.
Fix the lottery?
We judge the NBA’s anti-tanking ideas
The NBA wants to fix tanking … again? Or for the first time? I’m not sure the league ever accomplished this, but it does believe flattening the lottery odds has helped curb tanking, along with the Play-In Tournament. I’m dubious that flattened lottery odds actually stopped any tanking, but the Play-In Tournament has helped a lot. You only get a few teams bailing on the season, rather than several.
As part of the NBA’s effort to fight illegal gambling incidents, the league wants to put a stop to teams tanking as blatantly as they have. Whether that’s setting up your roster for a season of feces ball or just deciding in the last couple of months that all your best players are coincidentally too banged up to play, tanking is a blight for the league. It’s hard to justify charging full price on tickets when teams tank. (They still do it, but it’s hard.)
The league has been brainstorming some ideas to help curb tanking further. David Aldridge wrote a great article on the problem being the lottery itself. This part struck me the most:
“Trying to make the lottery somehow ‘fairer,’ while at the same time discouraging teams from embarking upon it as a roster-building tool, is a contradiction of purpose — a fatal flaw in the whole apparatus of letting ping-pong balls determine the fate of billion-dollar franchises, rather than significant investment in infrastructure, coaching and development to make the players you have get better. Standing on your own two feet as an organization, not praying for lottery luck, is a much better predictor of adding difference-makers in free agency and_/_or trades, as more great players think your shop is where they want to be.
“But you’re either all in and competing for real, or you’re not. And there’s no way to reconcile those two contradictory approaches.”
That is perfectly and succinctly stated. I guess that’s why DA is literally in the Hall of Fame. There’s a lot of potential benefit to tanking, which is why Sam Hinkie went so hard with it with the 76ers over a decade ago. Most teams are subtle about it. Plenty of teams are accidental about it. And some teams are fine flaunting it in your face at some point. They do it because you can end up with a superhero to save your franchise. Sometimes, you can even end up with multiple superheroes.
You don’t always end up with a Wembanyama, but you still want to play the lottery odds to give yourself the best chance. Let’s go over some ideas and judge them on a “Fix It” meter of 1-10 hammer emojis.
NBA Idea 1: Freeze future draft-pick protections.
Fix it meter: 🔨🔨🔨. I think draft-pick protections can cause some trouble. We saw Dallas bow out of Play-In Tournament contention a few years ago to save its pick (it landed them Dereck Lively II). The idea is to get rid of anything between top-four protection and outside of the lottery. It could work a little, but I don’t see this changing anything but trades being made.
NBA Idea 2: No top-four picks in consecutive years.
Fix it meter: 🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨. This prompts the conversation of whether it’s fair for a team to have a situation in which it lands a top-four pick one year and the next year suffer legitimate major injuries. I’m open to this idea, but we might see more on-the-fly tanking spread across the league than just the same bad franchises over and over.
NBA Idea 3: Draft position locked in on March 1.
Fix it meter: 🔨🤦. So we just move the tanking season from March and April to January and February? This is the dumbest idea possible, and it doesn’t fix anything. It just moves the tanking window.
My idea: Unweight the lottery.
Fix it meter: 🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨. I like my idea! I do not believe teams will consistently tank out of the playoff picture for a 1-in-14 chance to win the lottery. Owners won’t pass up any playoff revenue, and you have to convince them this is the right move. This is a nearly flawless plan, but is there another version better? Let’s go to The Athletic’s Eric Koreen!
Koreen’s idea: Unweight the lottery, including teams that lose in the first round of the playoffs.
Fix it meter: 🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨. This would eliminate any idea of missing the postseason to tank for a 1-in-14 chance. Now you make it a 1-in-22 chance for the top pick and you’re drawing for all 22 spots, not just the top four? Sign me all the way up.
Early returns
Fans are over Lebron and KD as All-Stars
The NBA released the first fan voting returns for the 2026 All-Star starters yesterday. And there are some very surprising developments. Remember, this year will have two teams of USA-born All-Stars and one team of international All-Stars. So the voting process is a little more complicated. However, the league also simplified it by making it entirely positionless. Here are the top 20 in each conference.
My initial reactions:
- Deni Avdija has more votes than Kevin Durant and LeBron James?! What?
- KD and LeBron are eighth and ninth in the West? Yes, they’re old, but this is shocking for a popularity contest.
- I’m also shocked Wemby is only fifth.
- Are Clippers fans not even voting for Kawhi Leonard? He has 85k? That’s it?
- Tyrese Maxey being second in the East is another shock. I didn’t know he was that popular.
- Michael Porter Jr. having more votes than Joel Embiid is surprising. Maybe Embiid needs to podcast more?
- If we took the international All-Stars just from the fan voting returns, that team would be Luka Dončić, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jokić, SGA, Wemby, Avdija, Alperen Şengün and Pascal Siakam.