Basketball Intelligence For 4/3/25
Today's Best NBA Reporting And Analysis
PODCAST
March Badness with Eric Koreen
Ray LeBov/Nick Agar-Johnson, Basketball Intelligence
Nick and Ray talk with The Athletic's Eric Koreen about his recent story detailing issues concerning the quality of NBA basketball in March . The discussion touches on how to de-incentivize tanking as well as the merits of potentially shortening the NBA season.
TEAM-SPECIFIC
BOS: Heat stop shorthanded Celtics’ nine-game winning streak
Adam Himmelsbach, Boston Globe
BOS: Celtics-Grizzlies notebook: Mazzulla’s awesome coaching decision, DWhite makes history, and the Celtics road streak continues
Noa Dalzell, Celtics Blog
BOS: Al Horford’s March Madness
Azad Rosay, Celtics Blog
CHI: The Bulls are a postseason team once again … kind of
Jon Greenberg, The Athletic
CHI: The Bulls and the Double-Edged Sword of Success
Michael Pina, The Ringer
The Bulls are playing exciting basketball. Can they stay patient this summer? Or will one hot stretch ultimately stunt their rebuild?
CLE: As Cavaliers inch closer to clinching East, Jarrett Allen and Isaac Okoro look to playoffs
Joe Vardon, The Athletic
CLE: Cavs continue dominance against the Knicks, rally in the second half for 124-105 win
Chris Fedor, cleveland.com
CLE: Jarrett Allen is rounding into playoff form
Chris Fedor, cleveland.com
CLE: Cavs address rebounding woes with unlikely source
Tony Pesta, Fear The Sword
DAL: Playing 'free,' Anthony Davis dominates as Mavericks top Hawks
Tim MacMahon, ESPN
DEN: For better or worse, Nuggets championship chances swing on Russell Westbrook’s volatility
Tony Jones, The Athletic
DET: Cade Cunningham is eyeing more success for the Pistons
Eric Woodyard, ESPN
DET: Dennis Schröder's veteran play is right on time for Detroit Pistons
Omari Sankofa II, Free Press
DET: Pistons rally in both halves despite shorthanded roster in loss to OKC Thunder
GSW: Inside Draymond Green’s defensive mind, which seeks to ‘completely destroy’ you
Marcus Thompson II, The Athletic
GSW: An NBA matchup nobody saw coming: the Jimmy Warriors vs. the Luka Lakers
Danny Emerman, San Francisco Standard
GSW: New Warriors face legit NBA playoff audition against new Lakers
Monte Poole, NBC Sports
LAC: Clippers navigate pitfalls of first game back home with methodical win over Pelicans
Justin Russo
LAC: Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard is back at an All-NBA level, and he wants to stay there
Law Murray, The Athletic
LAC: The Clippers Are the West's Quiet Threat
Dustin Brewer, Hoops Daily
LAC: Kawhi Leonard leads Clippers to a dominant win over the Pelicans amid playoff push
Broderick Turner, LA Times
LAC: Clippers dismiss Pelicans to keep pace in tight playoff race
Janis Carr. OC Register
LAL: In defense of LeBron James’ contributions amid a playoff push
Dan Woike, LA Times
LAL: Lakers looking to build their ‘playoff mentality’ against Warriors
Khobi Price, OC Register
LAL: One big miscalculation: The Lakers have a gap, and they fumbled the chance to fix it.
James Dator, SBNation
The Los Angeles Lakers are a very, very good team — that much is certain, but as we draw closer to the NBA Playoffs this team is looking much more like one that could see its run end in the Western Conference Finals, at best.
When it comes to big men at the top of the conference the Thunder have Chet Holmgren, the Rockets boast Alperen Şengün, the Nuggets have the incomparable Nikola Jokic. The Lakers? Well, they’ve got Jaxson Hayes. It’s one of the most biggest talent disparities among all the top teams in the NBA, and it could very well be their downfall. The strangest part of this is that it didn’t need to be this way.
The Lakers made the decision at the trade deadline to rescind their deal for Mark Williams with the Hornets. The cold feet purportedly came from Williams’ physical, something Charlotte pushed back against vehemently. At the time a majority of Lakers fans took the organization at face value, branding the trade as the Hornets trying to sell damaged goods. Now two months later it’s looking more and more like not making the deal could be the factor that stops the Lakers from potentially winning a championship.
LAL: An NBA matchup nobody saw coming: the Jimmy Warriors vs. the Luka Lakers
Danny Emerman, San Francisco Standard
LAL: ‘Make a name for myself’: How the Lakers’ Jaxson Hayes shows his worth
Dan Woike, LA Times
MIA: Heat’s winning streak at 6 after road victory over Celtics. Takeaways and details
Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald
MIA: Heat again preparing for play-in reality, with schedule released: ‘It’s fun and it matters still’
Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald
NYK: A Tale of Two Halves
Jonathan Macri, Knicks Film School
The Knicks showed up at the start against the Cavs, but were plagued by all the same issues down the stretch
NYK: Short-handed Knicks fade late in blowout loss to Cavaliers as struggles against NBA elite continue
Stefan Bondy, NY Post
NYK: Crushed in Cleveland
Tommy Beer, Knicks Centric
OKC: The Definitive NBA MVP Case For Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Part 1: The Offense
Hardwood Paroxysm
Lots of guys push off in the NBA and Shai’s not the only one to do this, but he is absolutely one of the best with how subtle he is with creating separation only with his upper arm.
He does this all the time to create separation. Here’s Kings phenom defender and reason Mike Brown got fired Keon Ellis trying to hang with him in transition
BI: We are not taking sides yet on who the MVP is (The regular season isn’t over). We expect to link to a Jokic’s case story soon.
OKC: Isaiah Joe, OKC Thunder spoil Josh Giddey's return in blowout win vs Chicago Bulls
Joel Lorenzi, The Oklahoman
OKC: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s past losses are driving him to two potentially huge wins
Kelly Iko, The Athletic
The rest of the team-specific stories as well as leaguewide and draft-related stories follow for paid subscribers