We are entering the eighth week of the 2024-25 season, and the NBA Cup is entering its single-elimination portion. With a trip to Las Vegas on the line this week, let’s expect things to get really good. As for the rest of the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers and their immense struggles have found unprecedented depths. They simply can’t be a good team with LeBron James on the floor, which we’ve never seen from a basketball team before (we’re not counting the 2004 Team USA struggles here). And, of course, we still have our NBA Stock Report, with the Denver Nuggets having their own problems and Ja Morant giving us the ole misdirection.
Here’s your latest NBA Rewind!
Stock Report extended
It’s time to check out what’s trending in the hoops world with our NBA Stock Report. This is what we do every Monday in The Bounce newsletter, but we expand it with deeper thoughts in this NBA Rewind format. We’ve seen big turnarounds from Minnesota, an embarrassing moment by Denver, Atlanta doing what none of us expected, more bad news for Orlando, Dallas flying high, San Antonio dipping low and Morant flying even higher. The Lakers didn’t make the stock report because their stretch is so bad it was given its own section (scroll down). Let’s see where teams and players are trending!
The story of the greatest players in NBA history. In 100 riveting profiles, top basketball writers justify their selections and uncover the history of the NBA in the process.
The story of the greatest plays in NBA history.
📈 Minnesota Timberwolves (12-11): Remember nearly two weeks ago, when the Wolves losing to the Sacramento Kings prompted Anthony Edwards to call his team soft? He was talking about their inability to communicate with each other, and not following the game plan of coach Chris Finch. That semi-risky bit of publicly vocal leadership by Edwards did the job. It has sparked a Wolves turnaround, as their defense has been reminiscent of what we saw a season ago, and Minnesota put up four straight wins before losing to Golden State Sunday night. The Wolves kept their opponents under 95 points in four straight games for the first time since 2012 during that streak. They still have a lot of ground to make up, but things are night and day since Edwards’ comments.
📉 Denver Nuggets (12-10): Nikola Jokić dropped 56 points on Saturday. It was the most points he’s scored in an NBA game. It was against the Washington Wizards, who hadn’t won a game in over a month. They were in the middle of a 16-game losing streak, and had only beaten the Atlanta Hawks this season. The Nuggets lost this game. And, yes, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon both missed it. You know who didn’t miss this game? The Wizards. They played in it. And they won by nine. Denver could have won 50 straight games before this, and losing to the Wizards would have landed them here. This could have only been justified by Jokić not playing in this game. And even then …
📈 Atlanta Hawks (13-12): That’s right! Back-to-back weeks with the Hawks trending up in the NBA Stock Report. The Hawks simply don’t go through sustained highs like this, almost ever, but we have to recognize what is finally happening with this team. Trae Young had 31 points and 20 assists in an overtime win over the Lakers this weekend. And the Hawks went 3-1 last week and have won six of their last seven. That includes two wins over Cleveland, a win over Milwaukee and the Lakers. Atlanta is actually playing defense too. Could this be the start of a new era?
📉 Orlando Magic health (17-9): We’ve been marveling at the Magic’s ability to withstand the absence of Paolo Banchero as he heals from his oblique tear. After losing the first four games without Banchero, the Magic went on a brilliant run fueled by the new and improved Franz Wagner. They had won 13 of 15 until Friday night, when more bad news happened. In a loss to Philadelphia, the Magic lost Wagner to a torn oblique. He’s out indefinitely, but we can probably expect him to miss about as much time as Banchero has so far. Banchero was projected to miss four-to-six weeks on Oct. 31, and we’re entering the sixth week of his absence. Hopefully he’ll be back soon, but now they have to tread water without Wagner too.
📈 Dallas Mavericks (16-8): The Mavs are the hottest team in basketball right now, with seven straight victories and wins in 11 of their last 12 games. They ended the win streak of a hot Memphis Grizzlies team, and we’re seeing what Nico Harrison was raving about this summer after bringing in Klay Thompson, Naji Marshall, Quentin Grimes and Spencer Dinwiddie to a team that made the NBA Finals. During this 12-game stretch, Luka Dončić has only played in six games. Kyrie Irving has been excellent. And they’re still waiting for Klay’s jumper to yield better results. They’ve been the league’s second-best offense, eighth-best defense and most dominant team since Nov. 15.
📉 San Antonio Spurs (12-12): The Spurs were hot before they cooled off a bit. They’ve lost four out of their last six games, with losses to the Lakers, Suns, Bulls and Kings. We were just praising them last week, and then, they lost by double digits in three straight games. On Friday, the Kings lit them up for 140 points in a 27-point loss by San Antonio. Either the Spurs’ effort goes toward a clicking defense or a clicking offense in this stretch; they haven’t had much balance. They have an 11-game stretch with nine games on the road starting right before Christmas, so San Antonio needs to pull it together here.
📈 Ja Morant dunking: The Grizzlies superstar infuriated and frustrated so many of us this past week when he claimed he was done dunking. Morant has missed a lot of games because of injury during his still-young career. And, with the reckless abandon he’s shown with his athleticism, we’ve definitely seen his style of play contribute to those injuries. Morant is one of the most impressive athletes we’ve ever seen, and his highlights on the court are tough to rival, which is saying something. So, we were upset at his responsible approach to our entertainment. Then, against the Celtics, Morant did this.
Ja Morant: “I’m not trying to dunk at all”
Also Ja Morant: https://t.co/FW5Xfq27oS pic.twitter.com/MaC9rRd98J
— NBA TV (@NBATV) December 8, 2024
My lord! That is shades of Dominique Wilkins and Shawn Kemp on that dunk! Avoiding 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porziņģis at the rim by bringing the ball down to your quads with both hands is one thing, but still bringing it back up for the reverse dunk is absurd. I’ll remind you Morant is 6-foot-2. I’m glad he’s sticking with us.
Big Story: The Lakers’ struggles
This weekend, I was hosting NBA Radio on SiriusXM when I heard something shocking. I was setting up this grand preamble to eventually get to the Los Angeles Lakers’ struggles, as they’ve now lost seven of their last 10 games. I was faux-waxing poetically about Nov. 19, when the Lakers were 10-4 and JJ Redick was being lauded for how this team was performing. At that moment, my cohost, Amin Elhassan, butted in with something that had escaped my NBA media and social media consumption. He told me people (both Lakers fans on social media and apparently some media) were saying the Lakers had found their next Pat Riley in Redick.
Since that 10-4 mark and alleged discovery of the next Riles, the Lakers have fallen apart. Their numbers are actually staggering across the board. Let’s drop them in here in bullet form to make it more dramatic and better spotlit:
- Offense: 105.9 offensive rating (27th) | 55.6 percent true shooting (23rd) | 32.0 percent from 3 (27th) | 0.222 free-throw rate (tied for 25th)
- Defense: 116.9 defensive rating (23rd) | 58.0 percent eFG allowed (29th) | 39.3 percent allowed from 3 (29th) | 0.187 free-throw rate (1st)
- Net rating: Minus-11.1 points per 100 possessions (27th)
- LeBron James: 22.2 points, 8.7 assists, 7.8 rebounds, 4.8 turnovers | 46.8/27.8/82.1 shooting splits | minus-18.3 per 100 possessions on-court, plus-3.4 off-court
There is a lot of bad there, but I think that last number is the most shocking. Since LeBron signed with the Lakers in 2019, they’ve had a massive issue of just trying to keep things afloat (especially on offense) when he was off the floor. During this 10-game stretch, the Lakers look like the Wizards when LeBron is ON the court, and they’re a positive when the 39-year-old is on the bench. I never thought I’d see that — and not to that dramatic of a degree either. There’s not a chance we’ve even come close to this kind of split over any 10-game stretch in LeBron’s basketball playing life. And yet, that’s where we stand with the Lakers and LeBron over the last 10.
The defense has been bad all season, but now the Lakers’ offense isn’t able to make up for it. They can’t make shots, and they’re surprisingly not getting to the free-throw line, which is a strength of theirs. Only the Blazers (105.8), Pelicans (105.2) and Wizards (100.2) have been worse offensively during this span. The Lakers can’t make 3-pointers, which continues to be an issue for them. Before the season, Redick talked about maximizing 3-point volume, which was a complaint about Darvin Ham’s offense during the previous coaching administration.
The Lakers aren’t hitting 3-pointers right now, and they really aren’t shooting many more than what we saw from them last season. Their volume is up, with 38,5 percent of their field-goal attempts coming from 3 this season compared to 35.8 percent last season. However, relative to their spot in the NBA, they’ve gone from 28th last season to 25th this season — not exactly moving mountains here. And part of the reason is the ultimate issue: roster construction. Their selection of Dalton Knecht with the 17th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft has been celebrated. And he’s been a solid rookie so far, with great shooting numbers and a good sense of how to move on the court without the ball.
The problem is, the Lakers went through offseason after offseason simply not signing or acquiring these kinds of guys. Six years into the search for shooters, they got one. Yay? Congrats? I don’t know how much we’re supposed to applaud a front office that has seemingly gone with status quo on the roster over the last couple offseasons. Blaming Frank Vogel … then blaming Ham. Now going to Redick for savior on the sidelines. Redick isn’t a good or bad coach yet. I think there are things to like and things to question, but the roster is far more concerning than any decision made.
The Lakers have believed Christian Wood and Jaxson Hayes are proper big men to have around LeBron and Anthony Davis. They keep sticking with D’Angelo Russell as a guard in the rotation, but his roller coaster of an impact on the floor never steadies. Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura are solid role players, but they’re the third- and fourth-best guys on the roster? And then, they’re hoping players like Cam Reddish, Max Christie and Gabe Vincent can have positive impacts. These things can be masked when LeBron is LeBron. He finally looks like he is losing some ground in his battle with Father Time. His defense has been rough for years, but his offense always made up for it. As he approaches 40 years old in the next three weeks, maybe for the first time ever you can’t rely on him as much anymore. That’s when the warts of this roster get a spotlight shined on them.
The Week Ahead: The NBA Cup gets serious!
Do you want to go to Las Vegas in the dead of winter? That’s where the NBA Cup action brings teams this week as the single-elimination round begins on Tuesday and Wednesday. Those are the only games in the NBA that night, with the bright spotlight of the In-Season Tournament (a.k.a. the NBA Cup) taking center stage in the Association. We have four teams from each conference squaring off. The winners of each of these games will head to Las Vegas this weekend to continue the tournament. Here are the matchups heading into the single-elimination portion of the NBA Cup:
(All game times in the Eastern time zone)
Tuesday
Milwaukee Bucks at Orlando Magic, 7 p.m. on TNT: The Magic probably aren’t sweating December weather at home too much, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to head to Vegas. The Bucks are looking to get back there for the second straight December. Last year, they lost to the Indiana Pacers in the semifinals in Vegas. They have a great shot of at least getting back to that stage with Wagner’s injury. It’ll be up to Goga Batidze, Jalen Suggs and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to slow down and best Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard.
BetMGM has the Bucks with the third-best odds (+450) to win the NBA Cup and third-best odds (+150) to make the NBA Cup Final. With the latest news, Orlando has the worst odds to win it (+2500) and reach the NBA Cup Final (+800). These two teams have not played each other this season.
Dallas Mavericks at OKC Thunder, 9:3o p.m. on TNT: The Mavericks are the hottest team in basketball, and they will bring that seven-game win streak into OKC. Dallas is mostly healthy right now, and Dončić is back to crushing opponents. The Thunder are 2.5 games ahead of Dallas for first in the West, but they’re still missing Chet Holmgren. Both of these teams are top 10 in both offense and defense. We’ll see how the Mavericks do with their fourth-ranked offense going against the best defense in basketball.
BetMGM has the Mavericks with the fourth-best odds (+700) to win the NBA Cup and fourth-best odds (+275) to make the NBA Cup Final. OKC is the favorite to win it (+275) but has the second-best odds make the NBA Cup Final (+125). The Mavs are 1-0 against the Thunder this season, beating them 121-119 on Nov. 17 in OKC. Dallas did not have Dončić in that game, and the Thunder were missing Holmgren, Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein.
Wednesday
Atlanta Hawks at New York Knicks, 7 p.m. on ESPN: Here we go again! Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks will try to ruin the good time of the New York Knicks. We saw this matchup in the 2021 NBA playoffs, when there was a lot of drama in their first-round series. Since then, Young has been a villain at Madison Square Garden, but this is also the best Knicks team he’s faced. New York has the best offense in basketball, so the Hawks need to really bring it on both ends of the floor.
BetMGM has the Hawks with the second-worst odds (+1800) to win the NBA Cup and second-worst odds (+700) to make the NBA Cup Final. New York has the second-best odds to win it (+300) and the best odds make the NBA Cup Final (+105). The Hawks beat the Knicks earlier this season 121-116 in Atlanta behind 33 points from No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher. The Knicks hit 22 3-pointers in that game and still lost.
Golden State Warriors at Houston Rockets, 9:30 p.m. on ESPN: For years, the Warriors stood in the way of the Rockets competing for an NBA championship. Now, they’re trying to go into Houston and block the Rockets from competing for the NBA Cup. We’ve seen a lot of fun play from both squads so far. The Rockets and Warriors have two of the best defenses in the league. Steph Curry against Dillon Brooks? Draymond Green against Alperen Şengün? Seeing who shows up between Jonathan Kuminga and Jalen Green? Sign me up.
BetMGM has the Warriors tied with Dallas for the fourth-best odds (+700) to win the NBA Cup, but they have the fifth-best odds (+300) to make the NBA Cup Final. Houston has the sixth-best odds to win it (+750) and is tied with the Warriors for fifth-best odds to make the NBA Cup Final (+300). The Warriors are 2-0 against Houston this season. They beat the Rockets 127-121 in overtime on Nov. 2 and then again this past Thursday, 99-93.
(Top photo: Winslow Townson / Getty Images )
