What’s up, Enjoyers! Great news, the NBA is back tomorrow! 🙏

Here’s how we’re feeling:

Today’s Lineup

🎉 Happy birthday Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Jaime Jaquez Jr, and Andre Kirilenko! 🎉

Second Half Storylines

With All-Star weekend behind us, we’ve officially entered the back-half of the 2025-26 regular season. With just eight weeks to go before the playoffs begin, let’s take a look at three storylines to keep an eye on… 👀

• Jayson Tatum’s Ramp-up: Going into the season, many thought this year would be a ‘gap’ season for the Boston Celtics while Jayson Tatum recovers from his torn achilles. Fast forward six months later, and Jaylen Brown and co. have Boston sitting at third in the East and are in the inner circle of East contenders. With Tatum being upgraded to practicing with the C’s G-league squad, rumors about JT’s return have ramped up significantly. Though it’s not 100% certain that Tatum will be suiting up this season, the east playoff picture will add a major element of excitement if the Six-Time All-Star feels ready to don that Celtic green…

• Western Conference Standings, seeds 3-7: Seemingly every year, the west standings shuffle around daily, where one three game losing streak can bring a team from a top three seed all the way down to a play-in spot. This season has been no different in the wild west, with seeds three through seven sitting just three games apart from each other in the standings. The fight to stay in the top six and avoid the play-in will be electric to watch, with Denver, Houston, the Lakers, Minnesota, and Phoenix all vying to stay above that line. How will the west standings shake out? Who will end up in the play-in? Only time will tell….

• Can the Hornets Stay Hot? The story of the last month has been the Hornets completely turning their season around. With Kon Knueppel turning into a rookie sensation, Brandon Miller making a leap, and Lamelo Ball staying relatively healthy, Charlotte has gone on a dominate run that has featured a nine game win streak and now find themselves in the play-in picture. With 27 games to go and new additions to work in such as Coby White, can Charlotte make another leap and sneak into the sixth spot out east and guarantee themselves a playoff spot for the first time in a decade?

College Game Recaps

#6 Iowa State holds off #2 Houston 70-67 in Top 10 showdown

It’s still only February, but Monday night in Ames, Iowa sure had a March feel to it.

This matchup between two of the best teams in the country lived up to the hype and then some. Iowa State jumped out to an early double-digit lead, but Houston came storming back and made a huge run of their own, led by 22 points from Kingston Flemings and 16 first half points from Emmanuel Sharp. Late in the second half, then Cougars held a 63-53 lead and looked ready to walk away with a huge road win.

Then, Nate Heise and the Cyclones happened.

After trimming Houston’s lead down to to one with just over a minute to go, Heise drained this insane, no-dip three ball that gave the Cyclones the lead for good.

I mean, listen to this crowd pop: 🗣️

With the win, Iowa State picks up their second victory over a top ten team in less than a week, and hands Houston their second loss in Big 12 play.

#1 Michigan picks up big 91-80 road win at #7 Purdue

The number one team in college basketball proved yet again why they’re the top dog on Tuesday night…

Michigan walked into Mackey arena on Tuesday to face a Purdue squad that had been riding high, rocking a four game win streak and found themselves into the top ten in the AP polls. The Wolverines swiftly put an end to the Boilermakers’ winning ways in their huge road victory.

This big-time victory was an offensive masterclass for Michigan, with six players finishing in double figures, led by Elliot Cadeau (17 PTS, 7 AST) and L.J. Cason and Trey McKenny combining for 26 points off the bench. 🔥 

As a collective, the Wolverines shot 53% from the floor and dished out 24 dimes on 30 made FGs. As they say, teamwork makes the dreamwork: 🙏

For Purdue, they were able to somewhat hang around in the second half, but never came close enough to truly scare the Wolverines. Trey Kaufman-Renn put up a smooth 27 points for Purdue in the loss.

Wayback Wednesday

On this week’s edition of Wayback Wednesday, let’s look back at the career of one of the high-flyers of the ‘90s and a former number one overall pick- Larry Johnson! 🙌

Larry Johnson came into the NBA in 1991 with high expectations for a brand new Charlotte Hornets franchise. LJ was an absolute freight-train in college at UNLV, winning a national championship on the star-studded 1990 Rebels squad and was one of the more dominating forces in college hoops.

His first two seasons in the NBA couldn’t have gone much better. Johnson took home the 1991-92 Rookie of the Year award (19.2 PTS, 11.0 REB, 1.0 STL) and the next season in ‘92-’93, he earned himself a spot on the All-NBA second team. That same season, he led the Hornets to their first ever playoff appearance and series win next to fellow star big-man Alonzo Mourning!

It seemed that LJ and Mourning were going to become the next great duo in the East, but as we’ve seen throughout NBA history, most circumstances don’t go exactly according to plan. A Mourning trade request left Johnson without his co-star, and the Hornets were never able to truly build on that special ‘93 playoff run.

Larry moved on to the Knicks entering the ‘96-’97 season, and unfortunately, his playing career took somewhat of a nosedive. A herniated disk in his back led to him losing most of his athletic and scoring ability, which is what truly made him great. Ultimately, his prime was cut short.

Though his individual stats steadily declined as he got older, his clutch gene never left him. In fact, it may have gotten better as the years went on. His most clutch moment of his career came in during game three of the 1999 Eastern Conference Finals against the Pacers. With his team down three, LJ converted a stunning four point play that gave the underdog, eigth-seeded Knicks the lead for good, and ultimately helped that squad go to the NBA Finals.

Take a look for yourself at one of the rarest clutch plays in league history: 🔥

Larry Johnson retired soon after this iconic moment, calling it a career in 2001. His career was cut a little short due to injury, but when LJ was his peak self, there was nothing you could do to stop him!

Three in the Key

Signing Off

That’s all for today, Enjoyers! Thanks for making us a part of your day. The NBA is back tomorrow, only one more day of waiting!

We’ll catch you on Friday.

Bobby Kasmire