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Central Notes: Bucks, Cavs, Hunter, Buzelis, Mathurin

December 19th, 2025 at 2:56pm CST by Luke Adams

The Bucks hoped last Thursday’s win over Boston would act as a catalyst as they look to turn their season around. But they’ve since dropped back-to-back games to Brooklyn and Toronto and now have an 11-17 record, with Giannis Antetokounmpo seemingly not close to returning from the calf strain that has sidelined him since December 3.

Still, head coach Doc Rivers said this week that he doesn’t plan to make any major tactical or personnel changes as Milwaukee attempts to get out of its slump, per Steve Megargee of The Associated Press.

“We like our team,” Rivers told reporters on Wednesday. “I really like this team. We’re not playing well. We’re not playing well for a lot of reasons. You don’t recreate the wheel. You just don’t. Teams that do that, then they fail. I’m just being honest. I’ve been around this long enough.

“… We want to tweak things. We like what we run. We like our defensive package overall. We’ve just got to do it better. We’ve got to take care of the ball. But we like the parts of this team, and that has not changed. This is not, ‘OK, guys, we’re five games under .500, let’s blow it all up.’ This is not where we’re at. We’re not even thinking in those terms.”

We have more from around the Central:

  • Shortly after Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com published a column advocating for the Cavaliers to move De’Andre Hunter out of the starting lineup, the team did just that on Wednesday, as Fedor writes in a separate story (subscription required). The early returns weren’t great, as the new starting five – with Jaylon Tyson in Hunter’s spot – was outscored by eight points in 11 minutes of action in a loss to Chicago. However, sources tell Fedor that the Cavs plan to stick with it for the foreseeable future in the hopes of stabilizing the second unit and getting Hunter, who thrived as a sixth man last season, back in his “comfort zone.”
  • According to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times, the Bulls‘ priority in the coming months shouldn’t be competing for a play-in spot — it should be doing all they can to unlock the star potential of forward Matas Buzelis, who has been up and down in his second NBA season. In Cowley’s view, it’s not inconceivable that Buzelis and Josh Giddey could be the only current Bulls still on the roster in a year, so maximizing their potential is crucial.
  • As Tony East of Circle City Spin details, a handful of Pacers players provided updates this week on injuries they’re coming back from or are continuing to deal with. Among those players was Bennedict Mathurin, who admitted that the toe injury which sidelined him for 11 games earlier in the season isn’t fully behind him. “Still an issue. I would say it’s still a problem, but I’m a problem solver, I find solutions,” said Mathurin, who has played in every game since November 17. Asked specifically how the injury is affecting what he does on the court, the Pacers wing replied, “Without saying too much, I can still feel it, man.”
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Evaluators Split On Keon Ellis’ Value

December 19th, 2025 at 1:26pm CST by Luke Adams

Within a look at potential Lakers trade targets, Dan Woike of The Athletic reports that league sources believe the current asking price for Kings guard Keon Ellis is a protected first-round pick.

Ellis, who will turn 26 next month, has a reputation as a solid defender, is a career 41.8% three-point shooter, and is earning just $2.3MM in 2025/26, making him an appealing option for teams not well positioned from a cap perspective to acquire a player on a larger contract.

However, there’s not a consensus on Ellis’ value, according to Woike.

One league source who spoke to The Athletic referred to the fourth-year guard as “maybe the most divisive player in the league,” pointing out that rival scouts are high on him but neither Mike Brown nor Doug Christie has been comfortable leaning on him consistently in Sacramento. After starting 28 games and averaging 24.4 minutes per game last season, Ellis has made two starts and averaged 17.6 MPG in 2025/26.

As Woike explains, some skeptics believe Ellis’ defensive skill set is more suited to generating turnovers than to actually slowing down opposing offensive offensive players, while others have reservations about his size and ability to hold his own against bigger guards.

It’s also worth noting that Ellis will reach unrestricted free agency in July if he doesn’t sign an extension before then (he’ll become eligible on February 9), so a team acquiring him would risk losing him for nothing during the 2026 offseason.

Still, Woike believes Ellis is one of the possibilities being considered by the Lakers, who could badly use another defensive-minded player in their rotation. Pelicans forward Herbert Jones, Heat forward Andrew Wiggins, Clippers forward Derrick Jones Jr., Nets guard Terance Mann, Hornets wing Josh Green, and Bulls guard Ayo Dosunmu are among the other potential targets Woike mentions, though he cautions that not all of them will be available, especially for a price the Lakers would be comfortable meeting.

Los Angeles only has one tradable first-round pick (in either 2031 or 2032) and one movable second-rounder (2032). The team could also offer a handful of first-round pick swaps. The trade value of Dalton Knecht, a 2024 first-rounder, has slipped since last season, as he has fallen out of JJ Redick‘s regular rotation this fall.

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Trade Rumors: Castle, Suns, Raptors, Davis, Kings

December 19th, 2025 at 12:19pm CST by Luke Adams

There’s reportedly a sense that the Spurs won’t seriously pursue a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade even if the Bucks make the two-time MVP available this season. While San Antonio seemingly has the assets necessary to make a compelling offer for a star-level trade candidate like Antetokounmpo, the team is very high on its young core and isn’t eager to break it up to go all-in on an older player, writes Kurt Helin of NBC Sports.

Victor Wembanyama is obviously untouchable and reports have indicated that the Spurs have never shown any interest in moving rookie Dylan Harper, dating back to lottery night when they won the No. 2 overall pick and the right to draft him. The team’s unwillingness to discuss trades involving its rising young stars also extends to reigning Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said this week during an appearance on The Ryen Russillo Show (YouTube link).

“I cannot tell you how much the Spurs loved Castle when they got him,” Windhorst said (hat tip to HoopsHype). “Like, right out of the gate they were like, ‘Oh my god, do we love this guy.’ They are convinced that he is the perfect guy to have with Victor. … They love everything about his make-up. They love everything about the way he competes. They love everything about his willingness to improve. They love Stephon Castle.”

While Windhorst acknowledged that very few players in the NBA are absolutely untouchable, he stressed that the Spurs are extremely unlikely to move Castle anytime soon.

“I would be stunned if they gave Castle away for almost anything,” he said.

Here are a few more trade-related notes and rumors from around the NBA:

  • Gerald Bourguet of Suns After Dark confirms that the Suns and Raptors spoke about a possible trade that would send Nick Richards to Toronto in exchange for Ochai Agbaji and a second-round pick, but says Phoenix isn’t looking to make a deal quite yet, doesn’t have a ton of interest in Agbaji, and didn’t love the quality of the second-rounder the Raptors were willing to offer. While it’s unclear which pick Toronto put on the table, neither of the 2026 second-rounders the team controls would be very valuable if the season ended today — the Raptors’ own pick would be No. 52, while the Lakers’ second-rounder Toronto owns would be in the 56-58 range.
  • Mavericks big man Anthony Davis sits atop the trade deadline “big board” published today by Sam Vecenie of The Athletic, who ranks potential trade candidates based on a combination of their potential impact and their likelihood of being moved. If Antetokounmpo doesn’t get traded this season, Davis is considered the one player on the market who could “swing the title race the most if he were dealt to the right situation,” Vecenie writes.
  • Earlier this week, Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) published the first installment of his comprehensive guide to the 2026 NBA trade deadline, identifying possible trade candidates and potential goals for all 30 teams. For instance, in examining the Kings, Gozlan classifies Keon Ellis and Dennis Schröder as likely to be traded, Russell Westbrook, Malik Monk, and DeMar DeRozan as “very possible” to be moved, and Zach LaVine and Domantas Sabonis as more likely to stay put due to their sizable contracts.
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Patrick Beverley Signs With PAOK BC

December 19th, 2025 at 11:26am CST by Luke Adams

Free agent guard Patrick Beverley has finalized a rest-of-season contract agreement with PAOK BC, the Greek team officially announced in a press release. Reporting over the weekend indicated that Beverley and PAOK had reached a deal that was pending a physical.

Beverley, 37, spent 12 seasons in the NBA from 2012-24, appearing in 666 regular season games for seven teams during that time. Known for his defensive tenacity, Beverley posted career averages of 8.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.4 assists in 26.6 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .413/.371/.760.

Beverley’s NBA career ended on a sour note. During the 2024 playoffs, he repeatedly threw a basketball at Pacers fans in Indiana during the waning moments of the Bucks’ season, at one point hitting an unsuspecting female fan in the side of the head. The incident resulted in a police investigation and a four-game suspension, which Beverley would have had to serve at the start of the 2024/25 season if he had signed another NBA contract.

Instead, the veteran guard opened last season with Hapoel Tel Aviv before parting ways with the Israeli club in February following a team-imposed suspension.

Beverley was arrested in Texas last month on assault charges following a domestic incident. According to a report, Beverley – who was charged with assault of a family/household member – was accused of punching his 15-year-old sister in the eye and choking her for up to 30 seconds. He was released after posting a $40K bond and disputed the allegations.

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NBA Players Who Can’t Be Traded This Season

December 19th, 2025 at 10:24am CST by Luke Adams

As we explained when we identified the players who will become trade-eligible on unique dates this season, there’s a small group of players whose trade restrictions won’t lift until sometime after the February 5 trade deadline. These players meet one of the following criteria:

  1. They signed a free agent contract or were promoted from a two-way contract after November 5.
    • A player who signs a free agent contract or is promoted from a two-way contract is ineligible to be traded for at least three months.
  2. They signed a veteran contract extension (meeting certain criteria) after August 5.
    • A player who signs a veteran extension that keeps him under contract for more than four total years (including his current contract), includes a first-year raise greater than 20%, includes a subsequent raise exceeding 5%, or includes a renegotiation is ineligible to be traded for six months.
  3. They signed a super-max contract.

We identified all the players who fell into these three categories in our previous story on unique trade dates, but they may have slipped through the cracks amid the larger list of players we discussed in that article.

With that in mind, we want to specifically single them out today to make sure it’s clear which players won’t become trade-eligible at all until sometime after the 2025/26 regular season.

Here are the players who fall into the three aforementioned groups and who can’t be traded this season:

Players who have signed standard contracts since November 5:

There hasn’t been a ton of action on the free agent market since the regular season began, with most players who have signed with NBA teams receiving two-way contracts rather than standard deals.

Still, there are a couple players who fit this bill. Curry didn’t sign with Golden State until December 1, meaning his trade restrictions won’t lift until March 1, well after this year’s deadline. The Pacers, meanwhile, have rotated several players in and out of their 15th roster spot, signing Monte Morris and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl to standard contracts before waiving them and making Mathews their 15th man.

Both Curry and Mathews are ineligible to be moved this season, and this list will continue to grow if more free agents sign standard contracts between now and February 5.

Players who have signed veteran contract extensions meeting certain criteria since August 5:

Camara likely wouldn’t have been a trade candidate regardless of whether or not he signed an extension in recent months, since the Trail Blazers could have made him a restricted free agent in 2026. But given the way the Bucks, Pacers, and Mavericks have struggled so far this season, it’s entirely possible Green, Nesmith, and/or Washington would have become the subject of in-season trade speculation. Due to their recently signed contracts, all of them are ineligible to be dealt until the 2026 offseason.

It’s not uncommon for some players who are eligible for in-season veteran extensions to sign new deals well into the season, so it’s certainly possible more names will be added to this group before February’s trade deadline.

Players who have signed super-max contracts:

Gilgeous-Alexander signed his designated veteran extension on July 7, 2025, which means he won’t become trade-eligible until July 7, 2026.

No other players will join the reigning MVP on this list prior to February’s trade deadline, since super-max deals can’t be signed during the season.

Note: This article refers to players on standard contracts. Players on two-way contracts can’t be traded for 30 days after signing, meaning any player who signs a two-way deal after January 6 this season will be ineligible to be dealt by the deadline.

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And-Ones: MVP Race, Expansion, NBA Cup, All-Star Voting

December 19th, 2025 at 9:20am CST by Luke Adams

If the results of the first Most Valuable Player straw poll conducted this season by ESPN’s Tim Bontemps are any indication, a pair of Northwest Division stars could be on their way to one of the tightest MVP races in recent NBA history.

Of the 100 media members polled by Bontemps, 57 chose Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as their early MVP of 2025/26, while 42 selected Nuggets center Nikola Jokic. Gilgeous-Alexander earned 865 total points, narrowly edging out Jokic (822). Both players were well clear of third-place finisher Luka Doncic of the Lakers, who had 432 points and earned the only other first-place vote.

The Thunder’s 25-2 start to the season has helped give Gilgeous-Alexander the early edge, but he has also been even better than he was when he won his first MVP award in 2024/25, with career-best shooting percentages of 55.9% from the floor and 43.2% on three-pointers. He’s averaging 32.4 points per game despite playing just 33.0 minutes per night, his lowest mark since he was a rookie in ’18/19.

Although Jokic’s scoring average lags behind SGA’s, his 29.6 points per game would be a career high, and he’s leading the NBA in rebounds (12.3) and assists (10.9) per game while shooting a remarkable 61.2% from the floor and 42.6% from beyond the arc. His Nuggets have the second-best record in the West (20-6).

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

  • Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic identifies four factors that may determine whether or not the NBA announces plans for expansion at some point in 2026, while John Hollinger of The Athletic considers what exactly it would look like if the league established new franchises in Seattle and Las Vegas. As Hollinger points out, a 32-team league seems likely to result in a move to four-team divisions, which would make sense for numerous reasons. For one, each division could be a group for NBA Cup purposes, with the division winners advancing to the knockout round. Plus, if each team played its division rivals four times apiece, other clubs in its conference three times, and clubs from the opposing twice, it would work out to an 80-game schedule (the remaining two games would be added based on the NBA Cup results).
  • Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium is being considered as a possible home for the NBA Cup’s championship game in 2026, ESPN’s Shams Charania said during an appearance on NBA Today (Twitter video link). Reporting earlier this week indicated that the league is strongly weighing the idea of moving the Cup final to a new neutral site after Las Vegas hosted it in each of the past three Decembers.
  • The NBA’s All-Star voting, which began on Wednesday, will run through January 14, the league announced this week (Twitter link). Fan votes make up 50% of the total vote for All-Star starters, with players (25%) and media members (25%) also weighing in.
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Pistons Notes: Bickerstaff, Officiating, Trade Targets, Cunningham

December 19th, 2025 at 8:09am CST by Luke Adams

The Pistons had their four-game winning streak snapped on Thursday in Dallas as the Mavericks pulled out a nail-biting 116-114 upset victory in overtime. During his post-game remarks to the media, head coach J.B. Bickerstaff stressed that his team didn’t lose the game solely because of the officiating, but aired out a number of complaints about the referees, with a focus on crew chief John Goble.

As Tim MacMahon of ESPN writes, Bickerstaff never explicitly called out Goble by name. However, he repeatedly cited calls made by the crew chief and told reporters that Goble said to him during the game, “Night by night, this is how our interactions are.”

“So, that says to me that the referee is coming into the game not being objective,” Bickerstaff said. “OK? That same referee, at halftime, I get my technical foul. I don’t say anything to him. I go to grab Cade (Cunningham) to get Cade off the floor. He gives me a technical foul. That’s my job to get my player away from the referee, get us back to halftime so we can have the conversations that we need to have.

“So, the same referee who comes into the game who’s not objective, and then he goes out and makes those calls. (That) same referee, if you take a look at the play where he ejects (Ausar Thompson), he steps towards A.T., right? That’s where the minimal contact happens, where he steps towards him and initiates it.”

Goble told pool reporter Christian Clark of The Athletic after the game that he assessed Bickerstaff with a technical foul for “continuous complaining” and that Thompson was ejected for “aggressively approaching and making contact with an official.”

Bickerstaff also wasn’t happy about the fact that he wasn’t awarded a timeout during the Pistons’ final offensive possession despite the fact that “that same referee” (Goble) was standing next to him.

“You had one guy who wanted to make the game about the referees when that’s not what this should have been,” Bickerstaff said. “This was two teams competing their tails off, playing high-level basketball. But anybody who comes into the game and says ‘night by night,’ he clearly has an unobjective point of view.”

Here’s more on the Pistons:

  • In a subscriber-only story for The Detroit Free Press, Omari Sankofa II identifies three-point shooting, power forward depth, and a second scorer to complement Cunningham as three areas the Pistons should be focusing on as the trade deadline approaches. Sankofa also singles out a few players who could be targeted in trades to address those needs, including Lauri Markkanen, Sam Hauser, and Dorian Finney-Smith.
  • Cunningham just turned 24 years old in September, but he has already emerged as the Pistons’ leader. Hunter Patterson of The Athletic traces Cunningham’s desire to lead back to his high school days, when he was the youngest player on his varsity team and felt like the “odd man out” among players who didn’t want him there. “Me and those guys have come to terms, and we’re all good now. But it was something that made me grow a lot,” Cunningham explained. “… I learned how to lead from that, learned how to make people feel how I wanted to be made to feel at that time. I think that was one of the first moments where I was like, ‘I don’t like how this type of leadership is, and I want to be better whenever I have that opportunity to be the best player on the team.’ So I always revert back to that team whenever I’m thinking about how a leader was (that) I didn’t like.”
  • After finishing seventh in MVP voting a year ago, Cunningham has career-high averages of 27.2 points, 9.2 assists, 6.2 rebounds, and 1.4 steals per game so far this season. Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said prior to Thursday’s game that the Pistons guard deserves to be an even bigger part of the MVP conversation this season. “When you look at the pace, his speed and his ability to control the game not just from scoring but passing,” Kidd said (Twitter link via Sankofa). “… He understands when it’s time to go. He should be mentioned with the MVPs, if not MVP right now, because of the high level he’s playing.”
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Giannis Downplays Trade Talk, Claims He’s ‘Locked In’ With Bucks

December 18th, 2025 at 10:44pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Giannis Antetokounmpo distanced himself on Thursday from a report earlier this month that he and his agent Alex Saratsis have held discussions with the Bucks regarding his future.

“If my agent is talking to the Bucks about it, he is his own person,” Antetokounmpo said, per Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “He can have any conversation he wants about it. At the end of the day, I don’t work for my agent; my agent works for me. And there’s going to be conversations that are going to be made between him and the Bucks, and him and his other players, and him and other teams and other GMs, executives around the league. It’s something that you can’t control. But at the end of the day, I personally have not had the conversation with the Bucks.”

Antetokounmpo held court with the media for the first time since he suffered a calf strain on December 3 that knocked him out of action. The superstar forward said he remains focused on maximizing the potential of his current team.

“I’m still locked in, locked in on my teammates. Most importantly, locked in on me getting back healthy,” Antetokounmpo said. “And then, locked in on my teammates and how can I help them from the sideline or encourage them to be able to play and play free? Because at the end of the day, it takes a toll on them, too, right? They’re playing game after game after game. Thank God we’ve had a very good schedule in the last couple of weeks, but it takes a toll on them, too — rumors, injuries, lose, win. It’s hard, right? As a leader, but most importantly as a winner, you just gotta be there for them first.”

Antetokounmpo recognizes that the trade rumors aren’t going to die down unless the Bucks go on a hot streak.

“Do I hope it ends? For sure. Do I think it’s going to end? No,” he said. “I think when people see cracks, they see opportunity to get in through those cracks. And I understand it. It’s part of the game. It’s part of winning. You’ve gotta make the right moves to create the best chance for your organization to compete and win a championship. So, I get it.

“If I was on the other side and I was an executive, I would probably do the same thing. Eventually, you’re going to break. We’re going to keep on calling you, and if the team is not doing well or is not performing in the standings the way you guys think it should, we’re going to keep on calling until you say, ‘OK, let’s get it done.’ That’s how it works in business.”

Milwaukee is currently floundering near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings with an 11-17 record. While he waits to get healthy enough to play again, he has tried to encourage his teammates and make sure they’re playing with a sense of urgency.

“You just gotta give urgency to the team. Like, ‘Guys, this is serious,’” Antetokounmpo said. “Who are we trying to be? We gotta turn this around. We have time to turn this around. And you gotta have a little bit more urgency. I think I’ve had the conversation with the coach about it; I think I’ve had the conversation with individual players about it. I’ve been approached by teammates and asked about the rumors because it also may affect their own life and their own career. I’m straight with them, whatever that answer might be.”

As for his soleus (calf) strain, Antetokounmpo believes it was related to a previous injury — he had a left adductor strain earlier in the season. He doesn’t want to make the same mistake regarding his latest ailment. Reporting at the time of the calf injury suggested a recovery timeline of two-to-four weeks, though it doesn’t appear he’s close to returning.

“As a leader of this team, when we are competing and you feel like maybe you’re not out there to help your team and not giving your team the best chance, you kind of feel like sometimes it’s your fault,” Antetokounmpo said. “And instead of taking the time — the appropriate time — for you to get back, you kind of rush things, which that’s what I’ve done my whole career, just to be out there. So, maybe it was a mistake of me coming back a little bit earlier. … The only way you can pop your soleus is by overcompensating and then having an extreme amount of (work) load or play a lot of games in a short period of time.”

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Community Shootaround: Knicks’ Title Drought

December 18th, 2025 at 9:14pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Knicks finally stood atop the NBA world this week, even if it was just the in-season tournament. Winning the NBA Cup was a nice way to head into the holidays but the franchise and its fans are looking for something much bigger – a trip to the Finals and the Larry O’Brien trophy.

They reached the Eastern Conference Finals last season for the first time in a quarter century, only to get knocked out by the underdog Pacers. They haven’t sniffed the Finals since the 1998/99 season, when the Spurs’ Twin Towers of David Robinson and Tim Duncan bounced them in a five-game series.

As their long-time fans know, the Knicks haven’t hoisted the trophy since 1973, when the iconic starting five of Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley and Earl “The Pearl” Monroe carried them past the Lakers.

The Eastern Conference certainly seems ripe for the taking. The Pistons have been nothing short of marvelous during the first two months of the season but they haven’t won a playoff series since 2008.

The Cavaliers, who rolled to the top seed in the conference last season, are hovering around .500. Perhaps a young team like the Magic can get hot at the right time, but currently the Knicks are a solid favorite to come out of the East.

Via trades and free agency, the Knicks have assembled a formidable starting five (or six, if you count Mitchell Robinson) in Most Valuable Player candidate Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart.

Offensively, they rank in the top five in points and three-point shooting while keeping their turnovers down. Defensively, they rank in the top five in opponents’ field goal percentage.

Their bench may be somewhat underwhelming, though they have some veteran pieces. Their ability to make moves is severely hamstrung by the fact that they’re hard-capped and operating narrowly below the second tax apron.

That brings us to today’s topic: Is this the season the Knicks finally reach the Finals again and perhaps even win the championship for the first time in 53 years? If not, what do you think will hold them back?

Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.

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Northwest Notes: Joe, Wiggins, Blazers, Timberwolves

December 18th, 2025 at 7:47pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Isaiah Joe is back in action tonight for the Thunder after missing four games due to a bruised left knee. Alex Caruso said that Joe’s presence provides optimal spacing of the floor, Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman tweets.

Joe is averaging 12.9 points per game, with most of them coming from beyond the arc. He’s attempting 6.9 three-point shots per game and making 41.9% of them.

“He’s the anomaly for our team with spacing rules and cutting and moving stuff,” Caruso said. “He’s the one guy we tell to stand a couple feet behind the line and space the floor as far away from the basket as you can because he carries that threat.”

Here’s more from the Northwest Division:

  • Aaron Wiggins is also averaging better than 41% on his three-point tries for the Thunder this season. Wiggins has filled up the stat sheet, averaging a career-best 12.3 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 24.2 minutes per game. “He’s a guy who has mastered our system over time on both ends of the floor,” coach Mark Daigneault told Martinez. “He’s just a system monster. He’s finding different ways to impact the game. … He’s an impressive person from that standpoint. He can wear a lot of different masks.”
  • Interim Trail Blazers coach Tiago Splitter has come up with a novel way of motivating his players to excel on the defensive end, according to Joe Freeman of The Oregonian. They have started a new post-game ritual that recognizes defensive prowess. After each win, the Blazers’ coaching staff will select a player they deem to be the “best defender of the night,” and that player will write his name on a piece of paper and slide it into a small wooden box. At the end of the season, the players with the most entries will win a to-be-determined prize. “I wanted to do something for the group, (offer) a little reward for a good defensive day,” Splitter said.
  • The Timberwolves haven’t played like an elite Western Conference team this season, Chris Hine of the Star Tribune opines. A case in point was their home loss to Memphis on Wednesday. “Our offensive decision-making was awful,” head coach Chris Finch said. “From shot selection to turnovers to execution it was just not very good.” The Wolves will get a chance to show they can still compete at that previous level on Friday when they face the Thunder, who defeated them 113-105 in late November.
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