NBA Season 2025-26

[Redz]

OKC beat Toronto on the road. Without SGA or J-Dub. They now have 6 wins and 3 losses without SGA (54-55 win pace).

I wonder if their strong form without SGA will hurt his MVP chances. Although the same thing happened with DEN and Jokic. They played well without him. So the top 2 MVP candidates have had that happen to them. Maybe it won't cost either one of them as result.

Or maybe it will create an opening for a surprise candidate like Cade Cunningham to win MVP. Or Jaylen Brown. I see more and more people mentioning JB as an MVP candidate. Wemby in the mix too.

Celts have played really well without JB too.  Though it?s been just one game at a time unlike the others. 

[SparzWizard]

Orlando Magics. With the tough wins in LA the last 72 hours. That was a bad shot from LeBron at the buzzer, and Rui with the airball the possession before

[radiohead]

Orlando Magics. With the tough wins in LA the last 72 hours. That was a bad shot from LeBron at the buzzer, and Rui with the airball the possession before

In fairness to Lebron, Luka had a wide open look but hesitated. He passed the ball to Lebron with almost no time left. It was so satisfying to see. I remember when Luka drilled a game winning three pointer vs the Celtics a couple of years ago. He was clutch then. Can?t help but think that somehow playing with Lebron is making him second guess his moves.

[Celtics2021]

OKC beat Toronto on the road. Without SGA or J-Dub. They now have 6 wins and 3 losses without SGA (54-55 win pace).

I wonder if their strong form without SGA will hurt his MVP chances. Although the same thing happened with DEN and Jokic. They played well without him. So the top 2 MVP candidates have had that happen to them. Maybe it won't cost either one of them as result.

Or maybe it will create an opening for a surprise candidate like Cade Cunningham to win MVP. Or Jaylen Brown. I see more and more people mentioning JB as an MVP candidate. Wemby in the mix too.

Celts have played really well without JB too.  Though it?s been just one game at a time unlike the others.

Yeah, Joe has tried to be selective in resting Jaylen.  Against Washington, Indiana, and Sacramento for 3 of his 6, plus Phoenix missing their top 2 players.

[Redz]

OKC beat Toronto on the road. Without SGA or J-Dub. They now have 6 wins and 3 losses without SGA (54-55 win pace).

I wonder if their strong form without SGA will hurt his MVP chances. Although the same thing happened with DEN and Jokic. They played well without him. So the top 2 MVP candidates have had that happen to them. Maybe it won't cost either one of them as result.

Or maybe it will create an opening for a surprise candidate like Cade Cunningham to win MVP. Or Jaylen Brown. I see more and more people mentioning JB as an MVP candidate. Wemby in the mix too.

Celts have played really well without JB too.  Though it?s been just one game at a time unlike the others.

Yeah, Joe has tried to be selective in resting Jaylen.  Against Washington, Indiana, and Sacramento for 3 of his 6, plus Phoenix missing their top 2 players.

The win over Houston was such a huge confidence boost.  They?ve been really doubling down on the D and non stop hustle play since then and not losing a whole heck of a lot. 

They have enough dogs to do it.  Scheirman holding his own as a starter as on of those dogs has been huge.  Allowing PP to flourish off the bench along with the luxury of Vucevic there too. 

It looks like Harper can be added to the ?dog? team too (not gonna call them a dog pound just yet, but I really do believe Joe is excellent at developing the dog mentality).

[Donoghus]

Orlando Magics. With the tough wins in LA the last 72 hours. That was a bad shot from LeBron at the buzzer, and Rui with the airball the possession before

In fairness to Lebron, Luka had a wide open look but hesitated. He passed the ball to Lebron with almost no time left. It was so satisfying to see. I remember when Luka drilled a game winning three pointer vs the Celtics a couple of years ago. He was clutch then. Can?t help but think that somehow playing with Lebron is making him second guess his moves.

That team is going nowhere in the playoffs.

[Phantom255x]

Orlando Magics. With the tough wins in LA the last 72 hours. That was a bad shot from LeBron at the buzzer, and Rui with the airball the possession before

In fairness to Lebron, Luka had a wide open look but hesitated. He passed the ball to Lebron with almost no time left. It was so satisfying to see. I remember when Luka drilled a game winning three pointer vs the Celtics a couple of years ago. He was clutch then. Can?t help but think that somehow playing with Lebron is making him second guess his moves.

That team is going nowhere in the playoffs.

They are the typical "they have multiple star players who have been there before and will figure it out" but then they just don't figure it out partially because of their own flaws but also the roster around them. Their bench is very mediocre and they didn't do much to fix it besides Kennard but Kennard isn't great defensively either. Smart is one of the only few guys on that team who can play defense. Even in the final few minutes, LAL was making clutch buckets, but they were also getting toasted defensively and lost primarily because of that.

I don't see them as a real threat in the West. Neither do I see the Rockets really, they've needed a PG since Van Vleet got hurt and they somehow didn't add one. It's SAS, DEN, OKC, MIN as the Finals threats IMO

[No Nickname]

OKC beat Toronto on the road. Without SGA or J-Dub. They now have 6 wins and 3 losses without SGA (54-55 win pace).

I wonder if their strong form without SGA will hurt his MVP chances. Although the same thing happened with DEN and Jokic. They played well without him. So the top 2 MVP candidates have had that happen to them. Maybe it won't cost either one of them as result.

Or maybe it will create an opening for a surprise candidate like Cade Cunningham to win MVP. Or Jaylen Brown. I see more and more people mentioning JB as an MVP candidate. Wemby in the mix too.

Celts have played really well without JB too.  Though it?s been just one game at a time unlike the others.

Yeah, Joe has tried to be selective in resting Jaylen.  Against Washington, Indiana, and Sacramento for 3 of his 6, plus Phoenix missing their top 2 players.

The win over Houston was such a huge confidence boost.  They?ve been really doubling down on the D and non stop hustle play since then and not losing a whole heck of a lot. 

They have enough dogs to do it.  Scheirman holding his own as a starter as on of those dogs has been huge.  Allowing PP to flourish off the bench along with the luxury of Vucevic there too. 

It looks like Harper can be added to the ?dog? team too (not gonna call them a dog pound just yet, but I really do believe Joe is excellent at developing the dog mentality).

One huge bonus of this missed season by Tatum is that he's literally seeing with his own eyes that the team was not totally dependent on HIM to succeed.

So when Tatum does come back, he shouldn't feel like he needs to be the savior.

He can just think about himself as being additive, not indispensable.

Hopefully that will make him think twice about reverting to hero ball, and iso dribbles into step-back three-pointers.

Just do the good things like shoot open shots, make great passes, drive when you see a lane, play defense, and rebound.

[Birdman]

Porzingis out again with illness?forget about basketball, I?m concern bout his life going forward, it?s scary

[SparzWizard]

Tony Bennett, hired as an NBA Draft Advisor by the Lakers. Formerly a head coach in Virginia and he stepped away from coaching in 2024 after 15 seasons at UVA and won a national championship in 2019.