Basketball Intelligence For 10/29/25
The Warriors prevail in the battle of the league’s two oldest teams, the Sixers nix the Wizards in overtime, the Thunder keep rolling in Sacramento, and much more...
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*FEATURES OF THE DAY*
Victor Wembanyama Is Crashing the NBA Playoff Picture Already
Neil Paine, Neil’s Substack
What’s real? Examining 8 unexpected starts
Mike Shearer, Basketball Poetry
TEAM NEWS
BOS: Why Not Minott?
Paul Flannery, Hoopology
BOS: Hugo González, 19, forced Joe Mazzulla’s hand with advanced defensive game
Gary Washburn, The Boston Globe
BOS: Bounce-Back or Band-Aid?
Adam Taylor, The Celtics Chronicle
BOS: Anfernee Simons, Celtics catch fire late, blow out Pelicans for first win: 8 takeaways
Tom Westerholm, Boston.com
BKN: Brooklyn Nets may have one of worst defenses in NBA history
Lucas Kaplan, Nets Daily
GSW: Steve Kerr Plans on Rotating Two Warriors Players for Final Starting Spot
Jared Knobloch, SI.com
GSW: What we learned as Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler power Warriors to win over Clippers
Dalton Johnson, NBC Sports Bay Area
Like old times, the Warriors have found their superpowers coming out of halftime for the third quarter. They outscored the Los Angeles Lakers by 10 in the third quarter, the Denver Nuggets by nine, the Portland Trail Blazers by one and the Memphis Grizzlies by 12. The Warriors, in their first four games of the season, averaged nearly 35 points in the third quarter and needed that same kind of firepower Tuesday night.
Led, of course, by Curry, they found it. Curry, in the first five minutes, scored seven points and dished three assists, making him responsible for all 14 Warriors points to give them the lead. Even when the Clippers made it close, the Warriors never wavered.
GSW: Moses Moody quietly provides steady shot, big impact for Warriors
Joseph Dycus, The Mercury News
GSW: Jimmy Butler, Warriors crank up defense in second half, cruise past Clippers
Ron Kroichick, San Francisco Chronicle
IND: Ben Sheppard is in overdrive, for worse and perhaps, eventually, better
Caitlin Cooper, Basketball, She Wrote
LAC: “You will always come first”
Kylie Cheung, Basketball Feelings
LAC: Clippers crumble in second half to drop to 2-2
Justin Russo, Russo Writes, a Substack publication
BI: At the heart of the Clippers’ offensive failures last night was a lack of ball movement, as a group that includes all-time distributors like Chris Paul and James Harden somehow accounted for only 10 total assists.
LAL: Lakers’ Austin Reaves, Deandre Ayton fast-tracking chemistry
Khobi Price, Los Angeles Daily News
MEM: Cedric Coward Looks Ready to Impact the Memphis Grizzlies from Day One
Sam Vecenie, Game Theory w/ Sam Vecenie
MIA: Jaime Jaquez Jr can’t stop scoring, plus other takeaways from Heat-Hornets
Brady Hawk, Miami Herald
MIA: After rough second season, Heat’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. worked this offseason to be better. It’s showing
Anthong Chiang, Miami Herald
MIA: before the defense blinks
bang!’
MIN: Anthony Edwards’ Hamstring Injury Is More Complicated Than It Seems
Andrew Dukowitz, Zone Coverage
NYK: Definition of Insanity
Jonathan Macri, Knicks Film School
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NYK: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks hand Knicks a reality check in 121-111 loss
Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News
ORL: Paolo Banchero: Direction more important than speed
Philip Rossman-Reich, World R Squared
PHI: The Joel Embiid era is over in Philadelphia
Ian Levy, Fansided
PHX: Ryan Dunn’s sophomore season is starting to look like a reality check
John Voita, Bright Side of the Sun
POR: Tiago Splitter, Trail Blazers doing the work, finding their way after shocking arrest of coach
Kurt Helin, NBC Sports
SAC: Kings lose another fourth-quarter lead; Thunder rallies to stay undefeated
Jason Andreson, The Sacramento Bee
SAS: Victor Wembanyama is impossible to defend
Matthew Tynan, Corporate Knowledge
SAS: A Second Look: Revisiting Wemby’s Defense vs the Raptors
Paul Garcia, The Spot up Shot
AROUND THE LEAGUE
Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks Beat the Knicks Despite an Early 12-pt Deficit | HOOPS, 10/29/25
Dustin Brewer, Hoops Daily
Copycat Candidates
Chris Gunther, Charting Hoops
Mail bag! What’s up with the Magic, WembyMania, and more
Jared Dubin, Last Night, In Basketball
Five NBA early-season surprises: Lakers have a star in Austin Reaves; Ajay Mitchell is breaking out in OKC
Brad Botkin, CBS Sports
Reaves’ legit card has long been stamped, but this is something else. Through four games, Reaves is averaging 35.8 PPG. His 143 total points are tied with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for tops in the league entering play Tuesday. He went for 51 on Sunday in a win over the Kings, missing a triple-double by one assist and becoming the first player in history to record at least 50 points, eight rebounds and eight assists on 80% true shooting in a single game.
Mannix’s NBA Notebook: Victor Wembanyama’s Terrifying Start and Early Season Shockers
Chris Mannix, SI.com
NBA Power Rankings: How all 30 teams stack up after one week
NBA Insiders, ESPN
The NBA’s Eastern conference
Coach Thorpe, TrueHoop
Early Season Signals: The Trend of Ball Pressure Continues
Iztok Franco, Diggin Basketball
NBA power rankings 2025-26: Plenty of shake ups around league, but not with Thunder
Kurt Helin, NBC Sports
NBA News and Rumor Roundup 10/29/2025
Jacob Sutton, JSutt Hoops
Alright, fine, the Warriors have *it*
Tom Ziller, Good Morning It’s Basketball
NBA Power Rankings: Best and worst teams after Week 1?
Ben Rohrbach, Yahoo Sports
Grading Every NBA Team After Wild First Week
Andy Bailey, Bleacher Report
NBA DRAFT
4-quadrant takes that can determine college basketball season and 2026 NBA
Parker Fleming, Subtsakalidis
Dissecting Darryn Peterson’s Jumper
Quinn Fishburne, No Ceilings