🏀 Justice for Jokic!

Welcome back, y’all! The In-Season Tournament rocked, but isn’t it nice to have a full schedule again? There’s just nothing quite like having ten League Pass tabs open at the same time.

Thank you once again for all the support on the Shooting Stars Collection! The hoodies and hats are all sold out, but if you still want to snag a T-shirt we got you. 🫡

Today’s Lineup

🔥 Dante’s Inferno: The Mavericks got some help from an unlikely hero!

😯 Ejected for WHAT?: Nikola Jokic got an early night off after this crazy tech.

🎺 NBA History Spotlight: This early 2000s dynasty refused to go down despite losing two superstars…

Last Night’s Action

Exum’s Mavericks put on a show in 127-125 thriller vs. Lakers

From NBA 2K15 villain to Dallas’ finest hero, Dante Exum has had quite the career. The veteran journeyman was a surprise savior for the Mavericks last night, burying five second-half threes (including the decisive dagger with just seconds to go) to stave off a furious Lakers comeback.

But Exum was far from the only one to ball out in this game. Tim Hardaway Jr. (32 PTS) torched EVERYONE in the first half and Luka Doncic (33 PTS, 17 AST) was his usual spectacular self, even putting Bron in a spin cycle.

On the Lakers’ side, who else could it be but LeBron James (33 PTS, 8 REB, 9 AST) and Anthony Davis (37 PTS, 11 REB)? The all-time great duo dragged the LakeShow back into this game in the second half, but it just wasn’t enough to get the W.

Nuggets cruise past Bulls 114-106 despite controversial ejection

Listen. We’re Enjoy Basketball. Positivity is our game. But what is this ejection on Nikola Jokic? You know it’s a bad call when even the other team’s fans are booing.

But despite only having the Joker for about 16 minutes, Denver managed to pull this one out comfortably thanks to 50 points off the bench. Shout-out to Julian Strawther (16 PTS, 6 REB) and DeAndre Jordan (9 PTS, 10 REB), but it was Reggie Jackson (25 PTS, 6 AST) who led the way with another vintage performance during what’s been his best season in years. Put some respect on his name!

Celtics overcome slow start to beat Cavs 120-113

Being on at the same time as a couple other great games swept this one under the rug, but the Celtics and Cavs gave us some high-quality hoops regardless.

Cleveland started out hot behind some nice buckets from Donovan Mitchell (29 PTS), but being on the second night of a back-to-back really killed them down the stretch. The Celtics buried all 26 of their free throws, played well-rounded team basketball, and took advantage of the Cavs’ fourth-quarter scoring drought to run away with a seven-point victory.

Suns use late run to fend off Warriors 119-116

Draymond with his usual Draymond activities sort of killed the vibe there for a minute, but let’s not let that distract us from what was a really good basketball game.

After a back-and-forth affair heading into the 4th, Phoenix managed to pull away thanks to a crucial 12-0 run led by Devin Booker (30 PTS, 7 AST). Some costly turnovers and poor defense helped the Warriors get close in the final seconds, but the Suns hit their free throws to hang on.

Despite the loss, this is one of those games that reminds you how important Chris Paul (15 PTS, 11 AST) is. On a night when the Warriors starters were ice cold, CP3 helped lead the bench unit to one of their best performances of the year.

Clippers demolish Kings in 20-point beatdown

What goes up must come down. One night after setting their franchise record for three-pointers made, the Kings got totally steamrolled by the Clippers. LA's starters got the night off early, but Kawhi Leonard still managed to drop 29 on just 14 shots.

Monday Night Notes

Wonderful news: the hoops gods blessed us with a loaded 13-game slate on Monday! We don’t have the time (or the space) to cover everything, but here are some interesting tidbits you might have missed.

MONDAY’S BOX SCORES

• Zion Williamson heard the haters. After a disappointing exit in the In-Season Tournament, the former first-overall pick dominated the NBA’s #1 defense to the tune of 36 points on 17 shots, as the Pelicans picked up a huge win over the Timberwolves.

• Averaging a casually incredible 1.33 points per possession, Joel Embiid has absolutely terrorized the Wizards this season. This time, it only took him three quarters to put up 34 and 11 in a 45 (!!) point win for the Sixers.

• He and Portland may not have left LA with a win, but Shaedon Sharpe gave us one of the filthiest ankle-breakers of the year during Blazers/Clippers. Sorry, Daniel Theis. 😬

• We see you, Dereck Lively! 👀 The rookie center out of Duke is looking more and more like the missing piece down low that Dallas desperately needed. He finished with 16 points and 16 rebounds in the Mavericks’ win over the Grizzlies.

• All aboard the Coby White hype train! Chicago’s 5th-year guard has averaged 23-5-5 over his last ten games, including an efficient 33 points in the Bulls’ narrow overtime loss to Milwaukee.

• Franchise record alert! The Kings’ shooters were scorching against the Nets, hitting a team record 25 threes in the 131-118 dub. Very cool.

• And finally, here’s your daily “that was absolutely filthy” Wemby highlight.

NBA History Spotlight

There’s only one set-in-stone rule when it comes to NBA history, and that’s that all dynasties must come to an end. After all, imagine if Jordan left the Bulls or LeBron left the Cavs and the team just… kept winning.

Well, that’s exactly what happened with the 2003-04 Utah Jazz.

With HOFers Karl Malone and John Stockton gone (to the Lakers and retirement, respectively), nobody expected much out of the team that had won 47 games the year prior. With an over/under of 25.5 wins, Utah wasn’t just assumed to be bad—they were predicted to be the worst team in all of basketball.

So when the Jazz started the season 10-6, it came as a bit of a surprise.

The key to their unexpected success? A legendary coach and a breakout foreign star. The late Jerry Sloan won games by the boatload during his tenure in Utah, but this season might just have been his magnum opus. The Jazz weren’t dominating the competition or anything, but by midseason Utah was right in the middle of the playoff conversation when absolutely no one expected them to be.

But at the heart of it all was one of the most unique players in hoops history—Andrei Kirilenko, better known as AK47. The 22-year-old Russian stepped into the the leading role and casually delivered one of the most dominant defensive seasons in NBA history. With a ridiculous 7’4” wingspan, Kirilenko joined Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson as the only players in NBA history to get 150+ steals and 200+ blocks in the same season.

We wish this story had a happier ending, but the Jazz ended up missing the 2004 playoffs by a single game with a 42-40 record. However, this season shouldn’t be remembered for its failures. An incredible coach and one of the most underrated two-way players ever absolutely REFUSED to let a powerhouse fade into irrelevancy, and you know what? We think that’s pretty great.

Daily Trivia ✅

Speaking of AK47, let’s see how well you know your defensive legends.

Three in the Key

• We love how the Knicks rallied around Mitchell Robinson! 🙏

• Basketball Reference’s Year in Review is always a good time. 🏀

• There’s only one answer for which NBA player should play in the NFL… 🏈

What We’re Enjoying

Flashback: There’s just something about all these random New York Times games that makes them so addicting. The latest one we can’t get enough of is Flashback, a weekly history quiz where you have to put major historical events in chronological order. Somebody needs to make an NBA version of this ASAP!

Signing Off

Thanks for spending part of your Wednesday with us! Remember to show some love to Mitchell Robinson today—the Knicks center with a heart of gold is currently recovering from ankle surgery. Rest up, big fella!

Until next time,

-Spencer Poole

Before you go…