The Bounce Newsletter | This is The Athletic’s daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.
On this date in 1934, the great Bill Russell was born. Russell, who died in 2022, was the greatest winner in NBA history, taking 11 rings in his 13 seasons. And somehow, he was as big a figure off the court as he was on the court. I highly recommend this interview he did with Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jamaal Wilkes back in 1980.
Patriot Games
What the NBA can learn from 4 Nations
The NBA will split up its All-Stars between U.S.-born and international players on Sunday. To refresh your memory, there will be a team of eight younger USA players, a team of eight older USA players and a team of eight international players competing in a round-robin tournament. NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s hope (prayer?) is that national pride will spark competitive juices that have been absent from many All-Star Games over the last few years.
The NBA is playing off what we saw in the 2024 Olympics. It’s also drawing from the NHL. That league replaced its All-Star Game last year with the 4 Nations Face-Off, which was a massive hit. It drew record television audiences in the U.S., and even some hockey novices like me were glued to the games. The NBA isn’t replicating that, but it is dying for a similar response on the court and from the audience. So is NBC, which is broadcasting the All-Star Game for the first time under the new media-rights deal.
I asked Sean McIndoe, one of the scribes of our hockey newsletter Red Light, for some insight on what the 4 Nations Face-Off did right and how the NBA can learn from it.
How easy was it for the 4 Nations Face-Off to be implemented by the NHL?
Sean: Not easy enough to have done anything like it since 2016, apparently. But they did have those previous World Cups to look back on, which probably helped, and limiting the field to just four teams also simplified things. The new angle with 4 Nations was that it was a midseason event, so they had to figure out the schedule implications. But the travel was straightforward, and the league didn’t have to constantly bend the knee for the IIHF. All told, I’m guessing the NHL would say it wasn’t all that easy, but fans would say it was close enough that something similar should be a regular event.
Why do you think it was such a hit?
Sean: It’s funny to talk about it now, but for a time nobody was quite sure what to expect, because it was best-on-best but it wasn’t the Olympics. The big question was how seriously the players would take it — there was a lot of talk about the possibility that they’d treat it as a glorified All-Star game, which is to say, they’d barely care at all. But once the games started, it was clear that the players did care, a lot. And that’s why it worked. The intensity is everything, and it’s either there or it’s not. For the 4 Nations, it obviously was.
Why does the NBA All-Star Game feel so far away from the NHL’s format?
Sean: I see what they’re going for, and I’m kind of intrigued by the youngs vs. olds side of it, but it just doesn’t have the feel of a true international competition. The NHL tried a “North America vs. The World” All-Star format for a while, and nobody took it seriously. Sidney Crosby isn’t North American or international or whatever; he’s Canadian, and you’re not going to get his best game unless you put that red maple leaf on his chest.
When it comes to patriotism and national pride, “close enough” just isn’t that close at all
The last 24
🏀 Peak of dunks. Ten years ago, Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon squared off in the dunk contest. Here’s my look back on the epic night.
☀️ Sunrise. Phoenix owner Matt Ishbia was accused of meddling too much when he first took over the team. Now he says he’s actually doing things his way, and the results are looking pretty decent.
🏀 Something’s Bruin. We’ve got a pretty interesting WNBA mock draft today. UCLA dominates these selections.
🏀 Hall of Famers? The 2026 finalists for the Basketball Hall of Fame have been named. Candace Parker and Doc Rivers lead the class.
🩼 Flagging an injury. A foot sprain has knocked Cooper Flagg out. He’ll miss All-Star weekend.
👼 She’s back! Angel Reese is going to finish the Unrivaled season. She’s back with Rose BC.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
Suspensions!
NBA puts Beef Stew in a can
The NBA announced four suspensions from Monday’s Pistons-Hornets fight. Detroit’s Jalen Duren, who instigated it with a face smush of Moussa Diabate, received two games for his efforts. Diabate and teammate Miles Bridges received four games. Diabate looked out of control when the incident started and needed to be restrained a handful of times before he finally stopped pursuing Duren. Bridges immediately jumped toward swinging at Duren and then tried to sucker punch him later on at a different part of the court.
Isaiah Stewart received the biggest suspension at seven games. He came running off the bench to defend Duren after Bridges tried to attack him when things should have been diffusing. Stewart has three previous suspensions for altercations, so his history was factored into the suspension. And you automatically get one game when you leave the bench. We know Stewart has no regrets, though.
The players began serving their suspensions immediately. It didn’t affect either the Hornets or the Pistons last night. Detroit hammered Toronto behind 29 points, nine rebounds and seven assists from Cade Cunningham. Paul Reed filled in well for the missing big men with 22 points. Duren will miss the Pistons’ next game after the All-Star break when they head to New York. Stewart will be out for that game and against the Bulls, Spurs, Thunder, Cavaliers and Magic. He’ll be back March 3 in Cleveland.
About last night
The tanking crown belongs to the Kings
I could not have been more locked into the tanking battle that took place on League Pass last night.
The Kings went into Salt Lake City with 13 consecutive losses to take on the inventively tanking Jazz. In Utah’s previous two games, it sat its veteran big man starters (Jaren Jackson Jr., Lauri Markkanen and Jusuf Nurkić) in the fourth quarters. And Jazz coach Will Hardy isn’t even calling timeouts in situations he should. The Kings (12-44) desperately need a top pick in this draft and have the worst record in the league. The Jazz (18-37) are trying to keep their top-eight protected pick owed to Oklahoma City.
Unfortunately for those who love chaos and car wrecks, this game didn’t deliver the tanking chicanery we hoped to see. Utah blew out the Kings out from the start, leading 39-20 after the first quarter and 71-44 at halftime. Markkanen and JJJ didn’t play in the fourth, but they didn’t need to. If the Jazz hadn’t scored a point in the fourth, they still would have won by seven. (Hardy did play Nurkić almost four minutes in the fourth.)
The Kings have now lost 14 straight, tying a franchise record set in Cincinnati in 1960 and matched again by the Royals in 1971. They can set their franchise record with a loss to Orlando after the All-Star break.
The Sacramento Kings have lost 14 in a row. (Rob Gray / AP)
Knicks 138, 76ers 89: Jose Alvarado hit eight 3-pointers for 26 points off the bench and had five steals. The Knicks led by as many as 52.
Clippers 105, Rockets 102: Kawhi Leonard made scoring on Amen Thompson look easy to get the and-1 jumper with two seconds left in the game. He finished with 27 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and four steals.
Bucks 116, Magic 108: One game with Cam Thomas, and the Bucks got a massive performance. He had 34 points in 25 minutes off the bench.
Thunder 136, Suns 109: Jalen Williams had 28 points, and the Thunder got 74 points from its bench.
Nuggets 122, Grizzlies 116: Nikola Jokić almost had a quadruple-double. He put up 26 points, 15 rebounds, 11 assists and … nine turnovers. OK, not the quad-double you’d want. But Denver (35-20) moved back ahead of Houston for third.
Spurs 126, Warriors 113: Victor Wembanyama had 26 points and nine rebounds, with De’Aaron Fox grabbing 27 points and eight assists. San Antonio (38-16) dominated the fourth quarter 32-19.
Wolves 133, Blazers 109: Julius Randle had 41 points, and the Wolves scored 43 points off 26 Blazers turnovers. Two of them were this windmill dunk by Randle!
Cavs 138, Wizards 113: Sam Merrill had 32 points on 11-of-12 shooting from the field and 9-of-10 from deep. James Harden had 13 points on 1-of-4 from the field, 10-of-12 from the line and 11 assists for Cleveland (34-21).
Celtics 124, Bulls 113: Payton Pritchard had 26 off the bench, and Jaylen Brown had 24 points in 29 minutes.
Heat 123, Pelicans 111: Bam Adebayo had 27 points and 14 rebounds. Jaime Jaquez Jr. had 23 off the bench. And the Heat (29-27) moved a half-game behind Orlando for seventh.
Pacers 115, Nets 110: Jarace Walker led Indiana with 23 points. Did you know Nets rookie Egor Demin has made more 3-pointers (116) than he has attempted 2-pointers (113)!