POWERED BY

There’s 31 days until the play-in, but first—Madness! Think you can craft a better bracket than us?

Here’s your chance to prove it - join our men’s bracket challenge and women’s bracket challenge, or search “Enjoy Basketball” on fantasy.espn.com. The password to play is enjoymadness—game on!

Today’s Lineup

🎉 Happy birthday to Steph Curry, Marvin Bagley III, and Enjoyers Steven and Peter! 🎉

Game Recaps

Balanced Bucks overcome Luka’s 45 in 126-106 win over Los Angeles

The Lakers are going to be without LeBron James for another week or so, so if there was ever a time for Luka Doncic to start taking over games, it’s now. And that’s the kind of performance Luka (45 PTS, 11 REB) had last night, draining three after three and contributing a little on defense as well.

But Milwaukee responded in stride, spreading their offense across the entire court (four Bucks with 22+ PTS) and dissecting the Lakers’ bench unit. Giannis (24 PTS, 12 REB. 9 AST) led the Bucks in scoring with another near-triple-double, with Brook Lopez (23 PTS, 4 BLK) also contributing to what turned out to be an effective defensive effort against every Laker not named Luka.

SGA drops 34, Thunder beat Celtics 118-112 in Boston

Jokic, Shai, Jokic, Shai. It feels like recently, in terms of MVP-worthy performances, the two candidates have been trading buckets down the stretch of the season.

The Thunder jumped out to a lead early in this one, but led by 18 first half points from Jayson Tatum (33 PTS, 8 AST, 8 REB), the Celtics found a way to tie up the game by halftime. But in front of the Boston crowd, SGA (34 PTS, 7 AST) wasn’t going to let the opportunity for an award-winning moment pass without capitalizing. Becoming the seventh player in NBA history to record 60 straight games of 20+ points, Shai led the Thunder on an impressive second half campaign, stealing the win from the C’s in Boston.

In case you were curious, the other players that have recorded 60 straight 20+ point games are Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, and Oscar Robertson. Does better company than that exist?

Elsewhere around the NBA…

• Game-winner alert! After a back-and-forth affair, Mikal Bridges’ last-second three helped the Knicks overtake Portland and steal the 114-113 win on Wednesday. Bridges led New York with 33 PTS opposite Deni Avdija (27 PTS, 15 REB).

• Cade Cunningham had 38 and 10, but the Pistons ultimately fell 129-125 to the Wizards, who were led on both ends by Alex Sarr (19 PTS, 4 BLK) and got four threes out of Jordan Poole (17 PTS).

• The Wolves are now 11-0 in their last 11 games with Julius Randle (25 PTS) on the court… is it time to start talking about the KAT trade again? Most recently, Minnesota controlled their entire game against Jokic (34 PTS) and the Nuggets and came home with the 115-95 W.

• De’Aaron Fox’s heroics (32 PTS, 11 AST, 9 REB) powered the Spurs past the shorthanded Mavericks 126-116 despite a well-rounded Dallas offensive attack (seven Mavs in double figures). Speaking of, Fox is set to miss the rest of the regular season after undergoing finger surgery—we’re wishing Swipa a fast recovery!

• The Rockets keep climbing, and the Suns keep falling. Houston, led by Jalen Green (29 PTS), handled Phoenix 111-104 in a game where H-Town led virtually wire-to-wire. Bradley Beal led the Suns in scoring with 25.

• 30 and 10 for Bogdan Bogdanovic, 29 and 14 from Ivica Zubac, and 24 and 11 from James Harden helped the Clippers overcome a big Tyler Herro night (31 PTS, 7 AST, 6 REB) en route to a 119-104 L.A. win over Miami.

Top Five Friday

The end of the 2024-25 NBA regular season is fast approaching, and with that comes award season. There’s been a lot of debate about this season’s award races recently—especially the MVP race—but today, we’re here to mix it up.

In this week’s edition of Top Five Friday, let’s take a look at five under-the-radar dark horse candidates for the NBA’s most prestigious awards.

⭐️ MVP: Giannis Antetokounmpo, MIL

The third wheel of this year’s MVP race is quietly having another incredible season. Case in point: there have only been eight players in NBA history to average 30 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists for a full season. Giannis has already done that twice, but he’s on track to do it again this season and would be the first to complete the feat three times. With his new midrange game on point and his shooting percentage still hovering over 60%, the Greek Freak’s production and efficiency are a tough combo to beat.

✌️ ROTY: Zaccharie Risacher, ATL

It’s crazy that the first-overall pick from this past draft is eligible for a list like this, but with all the discussion about Stephon Castle and Jaylen Wells, it feels like Risacher has gone under the radar as a really, really solid rookie this year. After a somewhat slow start, the French rookie has averaged over 14 points per game on 51.9%/47.0%/71.4% efficiency after returning from an adductor strain in January.

↗️ MIP: Dyson Daniels, ATL

It’s impossible to escape the discussion of how great of a defender Dyson Daniels has been this season. Ironically, it’s also impossible to dribble the ball next to him without it getting stolen.

The Great Barrier Thief has been a monster on defense for the Hawks this year, providing some solid production on the offensive end as well. And Daniels hasn’t just played a larger, more important role for the Hawks this year than for New Orleans last year—he’s doing more and more with the extra minutes HC Quin Snyder has been allotting him.

🔒 DPOY: Lu Dort, OKC

To be fair, Dyson Daniels could have fit in this slot too as one of the most impressive defensive guards in the league. But we’ll hand it to Dort, whose perimeter defense and overall toughness have been a huge part of the reason why the Thunder have been so dominant this season. The Dort-ure Chamber is real!

🎩 COTY: Taylor Jenkins, MEM

While it feels like one of the coaches leading their team on a near-70-win pace (Mark Daigneault or Kenny Atkinson) are shoe-ins for this award, Jenkins has done a fantastic job this season. Guiding a franchise away from a disastrous, injury-ridden season and towards a guaranteed top-three finish in the West deserves some recognition, and we’re here to give the Grizzlies HC everything he deserves. Not to mention the development and incorporation of Memphis rookies Zach Edey and Jaylen Wells, who have been crucial to the Grizzlies’ resurgence this year.

Three in the Key

Signing Off

TGIF, Enjoyers! The NBA season winding down is a reminder for all of us to take our lives one step at a time. You never know which stages or phases of your life will last forever and which ones will come to an end—stay flexible, patient, and diligent!

Austin Zeglis