Basketball Intelligence For 3/5/26

Today's Best NBA Reporting And Analysis

Mar 05, 2026

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TEAM-SPECIFIC

BOS: 5 Takeaways From the Celtics’ Ugly Loss to the Hornets
Adam Taylor, Celtics Chronicle

CHA: The Hornets aren’t just a feel-good story, they are building a title contender
Eamon Cassels, Fansided

CHA: Hornets’ historic blowout streak raises the question: Is Charlotte actually a contender?
Jasmyn Wimbish, CBS Sports

CHA: Hornets’ victory over Celtics evidence that rebuilding days are over in Charlotte
James Jackson, The Athletic

CHA: The Hornets are officially a force to be reckoned with in the Eastern Conference
Doug Branson, Every Hornets Boxscore

CLE: How the James Harden move renewed the Cavaliers’ faith
Jamal Collier, ESPN

DEN: How Worried Should We Be About Nikola Jokic?
Michael Pina, The Ringer

almost every cause for concern… can be twisted into a simple case for optimism by acknowledging who hasn’t been on the court. Jokic missed all of January, a month when the Nuggets’ offense fell to 10th and their defense dropped to 24th. (It’s the only full month this season when Denver had a negative net rating.)
Gordon, Watson, Christian Braun, Cam Johnson, and Jonas Valanciunas have been sidelined for approximately 8,000 games at different points in the season. Gordon and Watson are currently out with hamstring strains and Johnson missed Denver’s last game—an unnecessarily tight escape act in Utah—with a sore ankle.
Injuries have prevented Adelman from leaning on a dependable starting five. Gordon, Jokic, Braun, Johnson, and Murray have appeared together in only 10 games this season, while the Nuggets have deployed 23 different starting lineups. (Last year it was 22. The year before it was 14.) To boot, only 26 percent of all Denver’s minutes have come with its starters on the court (currently the seventh-highest frequency in the league). Their average over the previous five years was 37.1 percent, which ranked first.
Functionally, these injuries have eaten away at Denver’s size, too. Once a strength—Michael Porter Jr. is not walking through that door—the Nuggets are struggling with some tiny five-man units that can’t attack or protect the paint. Jokic is an underrated defender who can make up for his physical limitations with quick hands and a PhD in basketball geometry. But right now he isn’t moving well enough to offer even the tiniest bit of resistance guarding a pick-and-roll. Far too often he’s caught in no-man’s-land, teetering between apathy and aggression, in desperate need of the insulation Denver’s depleted supporting cast can’t provide.
When your low man is Julian Strawther, Tim Hardaway Jr., or Bruce Brown, it’s hard to consistently deter ball handlers once they blow past the first line of defense

DEN: Aaron Gordon is aiming to return on Friday and this could change everything for the Nuggets
Eamon Cassels, Fansided

DET: The Pistons’ fortunes have changed, but Cade Cunningham hasn’t: ‘Stay humble’
Hunter Patterson, The Athletic

GSW: Warriors destined for NBA play-in tournament, giving Steph Curry time to heal
Evan Webeck, California Post

GSW: The Warriors are missing both Steph Curry and Kristaps Porzingis, but are all-but-certain to make the postseason
Joseph Dycus, Mercury News

HOU: As Reed Sheppard continues to evolve, so must the Rockets
William Guillory, The Athletic

LAL: Lakers vs. Nuggets: So Similar, Yet So Different
Iztok Franko, digginbasketball

MIA: Heat faces a game with meaning vs. hot Hornets on Friday
Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald

MIL: Bucks looking for immediate answers after 4-game skid
Eric Nehm, The Athletic

MIL: 3 reasons Giannis is back on the court
Eric Nehm, The Athletic

NYK: Knicks HC Mike Brown explains 14-10 record against NBA’s top teams
Kristian Winfield, Daily News

NYK: If this Knicks defense is here to stay, an NBA title is within their reach
James Edwards III, The Athletic

ORL: Goga Bitadze, always ready, steps up after late scratch
Philip Rossman-Reich, World R Squared