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The Cavaliers lost at home to the Hornets yesterday. In overtime. Yes, the Cavs were missing the injured Evan Mobley, but 80 percent of their starting lineup played, as did their best player. They went scoreless in overtime. As far as I can tell from Basketball Reference’s Stathead search, this was only the 14th time in NBA history we’ve seen a team go scoreless in overtime.
Every day is Wembsday
Spurs’ superstar returns and eclipses Thunder
The Spurs gave the Thunder a head start in Saturday night’s NBA Cup semifinal. That seems like a preposterous thing to say when one team (San Antonio) is trying to establish itself in the loaded West and the other team (Oklahoma City) is smacking opponents around like they’re slow-moving mosquitoes. But that’s what the Spurs did when they brought Victor Wembanyama back from his calf strain and didn’t play him at all in the first quarter.
Some of us in the building wondered if San Antonio had been lying about Wemby coming back. We expected a minutes restriction after he missed the previous 12 games. But announcing him as back, only to not play him? It was confusing. Then he ripped the warmups off between the first and second quarter break — and quickly reminded everyone who he is.
His impact was immediately felt against a fully realized OKC team sporting its top starting lineup for the first time this season. After the Spurs gave up a 31-20 first quarter, Wemby arrived to ruin the Thunder’s streak. Ruin their dominance. And ruin their quest for the NBA Cup. It went like this:
- The Spurs were plus-seven in his first stint for nearly 3.5 minutes.
- They gave up a 14-2 run in the next four-plus minutes Wemby sat.
- They brought him back in and finished the second quarter on a 13-0 run to be down by three at half.
That’s plus-20 for Wemby in seven minutes and 19 seconds of action. Against these Thunder.
In the fourth quarter, Wemby scored 15 of his 22 points. The rust was gone. The swagger was there. He taunted Alex Caruso after the Thunder wing got away with a foul but still gave up a jumper to the Frenchman. He wanted everybody to know they’re in trouble if they think they can handle him long-term. All of a sudden, the Thunder (24-2) were scrambling in a way we haven’t seen from them since Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
The Spurs (18-7) pulled off the upset and will face the Knicks in the NBA Cup final on Tuesday in Vegas. Wemby showed everybody the problem ahead. Or the problem that’s here. The problem he promised following France’s loss to Team USA in the gold medal game of the 2024 Olympics. He said then he was worried for his opponents in the future. He clarified on the spot that he meant his opponents “everywhere.”
The Thunder are still great. They still have the best defense in the league, giving up 103.4 points per 100 possessions. The gap between them and second-ranked Houston (111.0) is nearly the same difference as Houston and the 25th-ranked Clippers (118.7). Oh, by the way, the Spurs’ defense when Wemby is on the floor? 104.3. I guess he’s done with the head starts now.
More on this game after some quick links …
The last 24
Trade SZN!
🤝 Trade intel! The Athletic’s Sam Amick has everything you need to know about the trade market. Including the latest on Giannis.
👀 Tiering up. The NBA trade market can also be broken into groups. How many teams will make moves to contend?
🪣 Pound for pound. Jalen Brunson scores like few people can in the NBA. Is he the best at it?
😱 What a shot! You have to see the latest practice miracle from Steph Curry. This has to be CGI.
🏀 New focus. The Thunder shockingly lost in the NBA Cup semis. Now it’s time to go for 74 wins.
🏀 Wolves’ conundrum. Minnesota probably needs its younger players to develop. But Chris Finch says the minutes simply aren’t there.
💰 Money moves. The WNBA and its player union remain far apart in negotiations, especially when it comes to revenue sharing.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
Intentionally foul
We’ve got to fix the ends of close games
Twelve minutes. TWELVE minutes! That’s not me telling you how long a quarter is in an NBA game. According to our Eric Koreen, who did the math, that’s how long the final 9.8 seconds of the Thunder-Spurs game lasted in real time. How is that even possible? There weren’t any replay reviews. We didn’t need to check for flagrant fouls. We didn’t have any fights to break up.
The intentional-foul game didn’t just happen because the Thunder were trying to extend time to pull off a comeback. The Spurs were intentionally fouling the Thunder well before they could fire up a potential game-tying 3-pointer in the final moments of a phenomenal game. As it was happening, I kept filing grievance after grievance with my colleagues around me. They were filing their own grievances. It took the air and suspense out of the end.
I’ve complained about this in The Bounce before. Back in May, the Thunder did the same thing to Minnesota in the Western Conference finals. They secured Game 4 because intentionally fouling up three points denied the Timberwolves a chance to get off a 3-point shot.
I’ll say it again. The NBA instituted the very European “take foul” when a defense intentionally fouls to stop a fastbreak from starting. Why? Because it ruins the fun and the flow of a game. So why are teams allowed to foul up three to force two free-throw attempts at the end of what should be a great finish? It makes zero sense. “Hey, you know this very fun, intense moment people live for the chance to see live in their favorite sport with their favorite teams and players? Well, we found an accounting loophole to prevent it! Isn’t that fun?” We want to see game-tying attempts!
The NBA has done so much to improve its game in many ways, but the lack of foresight to prevent “fouling up three” from being a thing literally takes the air out of a building. I know because I witnessed it Saturday. We see it night in and night out. And it always stinks.
NBA Stock Report
The Knicks are becoming beasts of the East
Every Monday, we put on a fancy suit, slick back our hair and start talking on oversized brick cellphones to the movers and shakers. I’m just assuming the movie “Wall Street” is accurate in how it portrays stockbrokers. Let’s dive into the NBA Stock Market and let you know who is headed in the right and wrong directions.
📈 Knicks (18-7). A convincing, relatively easy win against the Magic on Saturday night kept the Knicks rolling — right into the NBA Cup final. New York has won five straight and nine of its last 10. The Knicks have the second-best offense in the NBA. They’re shooting the lights out, and they’re not turning the ball over. More importantly, their defense has really picked up. In these 10 games, they’re seventh in defensive rating.
📉 Raptors (15-11). Things have come back down to earth for Toronto, which has lost four straight — all of them at home. The losses themselves aren’t bad in terms of opponents. Well … the Raptors did get blown out by Charlotte, and that’s not acceptable. But losing to the Lakers, Celtics and Knicks is very understandable. Five of their next six games are on the road. Three of them will be good opponents. Three will be against the Giannis-less Bucks, Nets and Wizards.
📈 Nuggets (18-6). Denver just went 4-0 on a road trip to Indiana, Atlanta, Charlotte and Sacramento. The Nuggets are just 6-4 at home, but they’re 12-2 on the road. We’re so used to hearing about their mile-high home-court advantage, and yet it’s the away games that are boosting their record. They’re still weeks away from getting Aaron Gordon (hamstring) and Christian Braun (ankle) back on the court, but the Nuggets look really good. Denver is already practicing for a potential Game 7 outside of Colorado.
📉 Orlando’s health. Over the last season and a half, it’s been really tough to get a handle on what this team can be. Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs all missed significant time last season. This season? It’s beginning to look like deja vu all over again. Banchero missed 10 straight games. Wagner is out for about a month. On Saturday, Suggs seemed to suffer another concerning injury. If he is out for long, it won’t tank the Magic’s season. But it also won’t help them realize their potential. We may need to put them in bubble wrap moving forward.
📈 Grizzlies (11-14). Nearly a month ago, Memphis had lost five straight games to fall to 4-11. Ja Morant was grumpy, things felt chaotic and a team that was supposed to compete for a Play-In Tournament spot in the vaunted West was looking like it should focus on scouting the draft. Well, the Grizzlies have won seven of their last 10, only one of those with Morant. They’re 10th in offensive rating during this stretch. But the reason they’re beating these teams is by pulling it all together defensively. Memphis is ranked third in defense since Nov. 20.
📉 Trail Blazers (10-16). After fighting their way to 8-10 this season, things have fallen off. They’ve won just two of their last eight. The two wins against Cleveland and Golden State were impressive. The Blazers have had one of the league’s toughest schedules. Their defense is about league average during this stretch, but their offense has been brutal. Only Toronto, Chicago and Sacramento are scoring worse during this stretch. Portland can’t seem to take care of the ball and is not making enough shots to make up for it.
