Poll: Who Is The NBA’s 2024/25 MVP?
Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic concluded Friday’s overtime game against the Suns with the league’s first-ever 30/20/20 game, having totaled 31 points, 21 rebounds and 22 assists.
In some ways, the three-time MVP’s history-making stat line is almost unsurprising. Jokic continues to be on the forefront of award discussions while putting up video-game level stat lines every night.
The 30-year-old big man is averaging career highs of 28.9 points and 10.6 assists per game, while his 12.9 rebounds per game would be the second-best mark of his career. He’s doing this on an incredibly efficient .577/.439/.818 shooting split. His 43.9% three-point percentage and 4.4 attempts from deep per game are also both career highs.
And while Jokic’s stats might be unsurprising after three MVPs and six All-NBA appearances, it does not mean they should go overlooked. This kind of production is what fans read about in history books and resembles something of an old Wilt Chamberlain stat line.
Being an MVP isn’t all about individual statistics, however. Being the league’s most valuable player means leading a winning situation and making one’s teammates better. Jokic fulfills this criteria, having helped the Nuggets overcome a relatively shaky start to the season. Denver won nine straight from late January to late February and has emerged victorious in 14 of its last 17 games.
Christian Braun is having a season worthy of the Most Improved Player award and Russell Westbrook is proving to be a nice fit, along with other contributions up and down the lineup from the Nuggets’ starters and role players. Jokic has good players around him, but there’s no doubt he’s helping set them up for success.
Despite Jokic’s historic achievements, he’s still trailing Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in NBA.com’s most recent MVP ladder. Entering Friday, Gilgeous-Alexander appeared to be the runaway favorite for the award.
Gilgeous-Alexander, by the way, is absolutely deserving of the praise. He’s averaging a league-leading and career-high 32.8 points along with 5.1 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game. His 1.8 steals per night are second to only Dyson Daniels and he has posted an impressive .526/.378/.898 shooting line.
As we wrote Thursday, Gilgeous-Alexander’s efficiency is off the charts. His true-shooting and usage percentages are career highs, and he ranks first in the league among guards in the former category.
The Canadian superstar finished second in MVP voting last year and may very well come away with the award this year. He has become the NBA’s surest bet to score 50 points on a given night, having done so four times in the last seven weeks after having previously never accomplished the feat in his career.
Like Jokic, Gilgeous-Alexander accomplishes the two-pronged test of winning games and helping his teammates. The Thunder own the league’s second-best record at 52-11, sitting atop the Western Conference. Oklahoma City has only dropped two games since the start of February, winning 15 of its previous 17.
What’s more, the Thunder are doing this in the face of multiple injuries to key players. Marquee free agent addition Isaiah Hartenstein missed over 20 games due to injury this season while star second-year center Chet Holmgren has been limited to just 18 appearances. Lockdown defender Alex Caruso, acquired via trade, has also missed over 20 games.
There’s no doubt multiple Thunder players like Jalen Williams, Cason Wallace and Aaron Wiggins, to name a few, deserve individual praise. But Gilgeous-Alexander’s presence and elite offensive production are certainly helping bring out the best in those players as well.
Beyond the two hottest names in Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander, it’s easy to forget other players are worthy of being thrown into the conversation as well. Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s 30.8 points and 12.1 rebounds per game should not be overlooked. Jayson Tatum, Karl-Anthony Towns and Evan Mobley are also putting up tremendous numbers on contending teams. But all signs point to Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander being the top two in voting.
As NBA.com’s Shaun Powell writes, the Nuggets and Thunder play each other for the final two times this regular season on Sunday afternoon and Monday evening in back-to-back games. The results of those two contests could help sway voters in one direction or another. Premier matchups between the league’s best tend to go the most-noticed among fans, so it will be interesting to see if Jokic continues to close the perceived gap in the race. For what it’s worth, Basketball Reference’s 2024/25 NBA MVP tracker gives Jokic a 65.1% chance to win the award.
Regardless of what happens, it will be interesting to see if the clash between Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander ends up as close as Jokic’s first MVP win over Joel Embiid in ’21/22, the tightest race in recent memory. Both Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander are worthy of the honor and are putting up generational-type seasons.
That leads us to today’s question: Who should win the ’24/25 MVP award? Head to the comments to share your pick between Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander or to let us know if you believe another player should come away with the award.
Northwest Notes: SGA, Filipowski, McDaniels, Henderson, Billups
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is fresh off his fourth 50-point game in the past seven weeks and currently appears to be the favorite for the league’s Most Valuable Player award. As Fred Katz of The Athletic writes, an unmatched motor and a strong summertime workout routine helped Gilgeous-Alexander take what used to be an unconventional route to superstardom (none of the top three presumed MVP vote-earners were top-10 picks).
“He’s ahead of his time,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “Intuitively, he’s where the scientific research is, which is you wanna be making decisions. You want randomness in your workouts. You want variability. You want interweaving in the workout. He kinda does that naturally.”
Gilgeous-Alexander is breaking through the trend of high-usage players seeing efficiency taper off. His 64.5% true shooting percentage and 34.6% usage percentage are both career highs and lead most guards in the league.
“It’s like LeBron [James] in his prime, Giannis [Antetokounmpo], the speed of [Ja] Morant, the speed and power of [Russell] Westbrook; he’s a great athlete, but he’s not an overpowering athlete, where those guys are,” Daigneault said. “And yet, he gets to the same places on the floor as they do. And to me, that says it all about the skill.”
We have more from the Northwest Division:
- Jazz rookie big man Kyle Filipowski is coming off two of the best games of his career, scoring 25 points on Monday and going for 23 and 13 rebounds on Wednesday. Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune explores whether Filipowski is better suited to be playing the four or the five for the Jazz moving forward. Larsen opines that, while Filipowski isn’t the strongest interior defender, he’s probably best suited for the center position. “The responsibility between a four and a three on offense sometimes [doesn’t differ] very much,” head coach Will Hardy said. “The responsibilities between four and five are very different, and so Flip has had to deal with a lot of change throughout the season … He deserves a lot of credit, because that’s a hard thing. We have a lot of guys who are trying to learn their responsibilities at one position, and Flip’s doing it at two.”
- Jaden McDaniels offensive emergence is key to the Timberwolves‘ playoff push, writes Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. In his last 12 games, McDaniels has averaged 19.2 points and 3.0 assists per game — in his first 52 games, he put up just 11.0 PPG and 1.7 APG. The forward’s three-point volume has also gone up — he launched a season-high nine outside attempts on Wednesday. He’s also on a different level now as a rebounder than he ever has been. “He can do a lot of different things, and he works his butt off,” teammate Julius Randle said. “We need him to play with that confidence because it gives us a whole different level as a team.”
- Scoot Henderson is continuing to emerge as a more consistent player, but Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report (Substack link) doesn’t see the former No. 3 overall pick returning to the starting lineup soon. Because the Trail Blazers are still in contention for a play-in spot, a shake-up might not make sense at this juncture. If Portland is eliminated, the club may switch things up.
- In the same article, Highkin explores the Trail Blazers‘ three options with Chauncey Billups this summer. Billups has shown he’s grown as a coach with Portland’s turnaround, Highkin writes, so they could either pick up the fifth-year option he has for next season, sign him to an extension, or mutually allow him to look for other opportunities.
Western Notes: Harden, Kuminga, Hawkins, Nuggets
The Clippers had lost six of their last seven games and had fallen to ninth in the Western Conference standings entering Wednesday’s game vs. Detroit. They were also missing top scorer Norman Powell. So James Harden‘s 50-point outburst, which helped the team snap a three-game losing streak, was a welcome sight.
As Law Murray of The Athletic writes, it was Harden’s first 50-point game since December 2019 and the first time a Clipper had achieved the feat since Lou Williams in January 2018.
“To see him come out and score 50 on (the second night of) a back-to-back at the age of 35 just says a lot about him and competing every night,” Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue said after the victory. “Playing 38 minutes again on a back-to-back, but we needed every bit of it.”
It was a vintage performance for Harden, who set new personal season highs by making 14 field goals and getting to the free throw line 20 times. After leading the NBA in points per game for three straight years during his time in Houston, Harden has become more of a facilitator and a secondary scoring option in his mid-30s, but he made it clear on Wednesday he’s still capable of big scoring nights.
“I can do it, you know,” Harden said. “It’s not my first time. So somebody who has done it for the first time, it probably takes a lot of energy. For me, it’s just understanding the game. That’s the game within the game.”
Here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga won’t return on the team’s current road trip after all, having been ruled out for Thursday’s game in Brooklyn, tweets Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Kuminga, who has been out since January 4 due to a right ankle sprain, has been scrimmaging and there was a sense he might return at some point during Golden State’s five-game trip. But with the team on a tear, having won of seven of eight games, there’s certainly no need to rush him back.
- Pelicans second-year guard Jordan Hawkins is still bothered by the back pain that sidelined him earlier this season, but he has adjusted to playing through it and has been more effective as of late, writes Rod Walker of NOLA.com. Hawkins put up 14.8 points per game on 47.9% shooting (36.7% on three-pointers) during the team’s recent four-game road trip, well above his season-long averages. “He’s playing more consistent where he has more consistent minutes,” head coach Willie Green said. “He understands what his role is when he steps on the floor. This is a part of his growth.”
- One month removed from the February 6 trade deadline, a panel of writers for The Athletic – Jovan Buha, Sam Amick, Christian Clark, and Anthony Slater – check in on where things stand in the Western Conference. The group largely agrees that the Warriors have improved most in the short term and the Lakers have improved most in the long term as a result of their deadline moves. However, three of the four panelists still view the Nuggets as the best bet to knock off the Thunder for a spot in the NBA Finals this spring.
Northwest Notes: Jazz, Thunder, Reath, Blazers
Although the Jazz were missing several regulars and only lost by seven points, head coach Will Hardy wasn’t happy with what he saw from his team on Sunday at home vs. New Orleans. As Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune (subscription required) relays, Hardy had plenty to say after a 128-121 loss in which Utah gave up 76 points in the paint.
“Everybody wants to play more, and then you get a chance to do it, and you go out there and you don’t execute, that’s frustrating,” Hardy said. “… The frustrating part is that there’s so much opportunity on our team right now, and all of these young players are getting an opportunity to show us who they are, what they are, and that opportunity needs to be met with the desperation that it deserves.”
None of the 10 Jazz players who saw minutes on Sunday are older than 26 years old, while their oldest starter in the game was 24-year-old KJ Martin, so an already young team was even younger in that game vs. the Pelicans.
“No one cares what your résumé was before you got here,” Hardy continued. “I don’t care how many points you scored in high school. I don’t care what you were ranked coming out of high school. It doesn’t matter where you played in college. Doesn’t matter how many wins you got in college. It doesn’t matter how many points you scored in college. Your Instagram followers mean nothing to me. This is a job … this is a profession, and it needs to be treated as such.”
Utah had Walker Kessler and Collin Sexton back in its starting five on Monday against Detroit after they missed Sunday’s game, but the club didn’t fare any better on the second end of a back-to-back set, falling by 28 points at home to the Pistons.
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- The Thunder‘s top two scorers were firing on all cylinders in the team’s past two games, as Jalen Williams poured in a career-high 41 points in Sunday’s win over San Antonio (story via Joel Lorenzi of The Oklahoman) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander racked up 51 in Monday’s win over Houston for his fourth 50-point game since January 22 (story via ESPN.com). “Whether it’s 50, whether it’s 27, whether it’s 17 — as long as we win, I have fun with it,” Gilgeous-Alexander said on Monday. “… Like, you don’t play the game to score a bunch of points. You don’t play the game to get a bunch of rebounds or assists or steals. … You don’t play for anything besides to win, and that’s what it’s all about.”
- As the fourth center on the Trail Blazers‘ depth chart behind Deandre Ayton, Robert Williams, and lottery pick Donovan Clingan, Duop Reath hasn’t gotten a chance to play much this season. But he has taken advantage of a chance to play rotation minutes in Portland’s past two games, scoring 20 points in a total of 41 minutes on Sunday and Monday with Ayton and Williams out, writes Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian. “(Reath) was playing great,” Anfernee Simons said after Monday’s win. “Obviously, having not been playing, staying ready at all times, being professional and coming in doing his job when his numbers is called. We all know what Duop is capable of. Each and every time we know we’re going to get the best out of him.”
- In a mailbag, Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report (Substack link) considers why the Trail Blazers haven’t “embraced the tank” this season, explores whether it makes sense for Portland to pursue win-now moves this summer, and acknowledges that it may difficult for the team to find a good deal for Jerami Grant on the trade market this offseason.
Mark Daigneault, J.B. Bickerstaff Named Coaches Of The Month
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault and Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff have been named the NBA’s Coaches of the Month for February, according to the league (Twitter link).
It’s the second time this season that Daigneault has won the Western Conference award. He has traded it back and forth with Rockets head coach Ime Udoka, with Udoka claiming it for October/November and January while Daigneault earned it in December and February.
Daigneault’s Thunder were 11-2 in February, further cementing their hold on the top seed in the West. They currently have a 10.5-game lead on the No. 2 Lakers.
As for Bickerstaff, his Pistons continue to be one of the NBA’s best stories, having just completed a 9-3 February. Although Detroit is still just sixth in the East, the team is only one game back of the Bucks for a top-four seed in the East and has a five-game cushion on Miami in the race for the conference’s last guaranteed playoff spot.
Kenny Atkinson (Cavaliers) and Joe Mazzulla (Celtics) were the other nominees in the East, while Chauncey Billups (Trail Blazers), Steve Kerr (Warriors), Michael Malone (Nuggets), and J.J. Redick (Lakers) were nominated in the West, per the NBA (Twitter link).
Northwest Notes: Watson, SGA, R. Williams, Timberwolves
Nuggets forward Peyton Watson, who has been sidelined since January 31 due to a sprained right knee, was ruled out for at least four weeks when the injury was first diagnosed. His absence is expected to extend a little beyond that initial timeline, head coach Michael Malone said on Thursday.
“He’s still got some hurdles to clear,” Malone said on Thursday, according to Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (subscription required). “Heading in the right direction. … I don’t know, maybe another seven to 10 days, kind of see what happens after this road trip, when we get back after the Boston game (on Sunday). Kind of reassess everything. But he’s definitely making progress, and hopefully he’ll be back sooner rather than later.”
According to Durando, Watson played 3-on-3 with teammates this week, but continued to wear a brace on his right leg during that session.
Watson has further solidified his place in the rotation in his third year with the Nuggets after averaging 18.6 minutes per game across 80 appearances in 2023/24. Through 48 games this season, he has averaged 8.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.2 blocks in 24.1 minutes per night, with a .471/.340/.752 shooting line.
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- Asked about his decision to part ways with his agents before becoming eligible for a super-max extension this summer, Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said it wasn’t just about avoiding agent fees on his upcoming mega-deal, per Joel Lorenzi of The Oklahoman (Twitter link). “It wasn’t entirely that,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I think, for myself, I wanna be a well-rounded human being. Not just a basketball player — a business man, a father, a husband. I want to check all the boxes. I think it would be a good experience for me to learn and get better in another area of life.”
- Trail Blazers big man Robert Williams, who is dealing with a left knee sprain, will remain inactive for the rest of the team’s road trip, which runs through next Friday in Oklahoma City, reports Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian. Williams has been out since February 20 and hasn’t played in two consecutive games in over a month.
- Anthony Edwards‘ one-game suspension, which he served on Friday, will cost him $242,393, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. That’s 1/174th of Edwards’ $42,176,400 salary for the season. The Timberwolves will receive a tax variance credit of $121,196, Marks adds, which projects to reduce their end-of-season tax bill by about $515K.
- Speaking to Mark Medina of Sportskeeda, Timberwolves guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker discussed the process of establishing himself as a reliable rotation player in Minnesota and brushed off a question about his upcoming unrestricted free agency. “Truthfully, the preparation is to let the time come when it comes and not get ahead of yourself,” Alexander-Walker said. “It’s something for me to learn now. The season’s not done. I’m still trying to win a championship. This organization has given me so much. So I want to continue to pour into the opportunity that I have and see what I can do with it.”
Nets’ Claxton Suspended For Wednesday’s Game
Nets center Nic Claxton has been suspended one game without pay for accruing his sixth Flagrant Foul point, the league announced in a press release.
Claxton, who entered Monday’s game against the Wizards with five Flagrant Foul points, received a Flagrant Foul 1 in the fourth quarter. He will serve his suspension on Wednesday when the Nets host the Thunder.
It’s bad timing, as the Nets will have a much more difficult time keeping Oklahoma City’s big man duo of Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein under control.
Claxton put himself in danger of receiving a suspension by getting ejected twice for Flagrant Two fouls against the Magic’s Franz Wagner and the Hawks’ Dyson Daniels, Lucas Kaplan of NetsDaily.com notes. He’ll continue to be suspended for a game or two if he picks up additional flagrants.
Claxton is averaging 10.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.5 blocks this season. He has averaged 3.1 blocks over the last 10 games.
Community Shootaround: Defensive Player Of The Year
After finishing second in Defensive Player of the Year voting as a rookie in 2024, rising Spurs star Victor Wembanyama was viewed at this year’s All-Star break as the overwhelming frontrunner to win the award in his second NBA season.
However, the All-Star Game is the last game that Wembanyama will play in 2024/25, as he was ruled out for the remainder of the season after being diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder. While the Spurs do everything they can to make sure their franchise player is healthy and ready to go for the 2025/26 season, this year’s Defensive Player of the Year award is suddenly very much up for grabs.
Wembanyama will soon be officially out of the running, since he’ll fall well short of the 65-game requirement for end-of-season awards. As we wrote on Saturday, his absence has made Jaren Jackson Jr. of the Grizzlies and Evan Mobley as the Cavaliers the clear betting favorites to win Defensive Player of the Year.
The two young big men squared off on Sunday for the first time this season, with Mobley leading the Cavs to a tight victory by racking up 25 points, 13 rebounds, eight assists, and three blocked shots. For the season, Cleveland has a 106.9 defensive rating with Mobley on the court and a 112.6 mark when he’s not. Although Cleveland’s defense ranks seventh overall, that 106.9 defensive rating when Mobley plays would be second-best in the NBA.
Jackson, the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2023, has had a very similar on/off-court impact in Memphis. The Grizzlies have a 106.8 defensive rating when Jackson is on the floor and a 113.1 mark when he sits.
Mobley and Jackson are anchors of their respective defenses but have the athleticism and versatility to switch onto smaller opponents and move away the basket if necessary. Another player with that skill set is Heat big man Bam Adebayo, who has finished in the top five of Defensive Player of the Year voting in each of the past five seasons.
Asked last week about the possibility of a DPOY award, Adebayo made it clear he’s more focused on getting the Heat back on track than earning individual hardware. He may need to do the former to have a shot at the latter, since team success is a major factor in award consideration. Miami currently ranks eighth in the Eastern Conference with a 26-29 record.
While voters typically favor centers who protect the basket, a wing or forward can emerge as a leading candidate when no one big man separates himself from the field. Thunder swingman Luguentz Dort, a lock-down defender on the wing, could become that player this season. Oklahoma City’s 104.8 defensive rating leads the league by a wide margin and Dort currently has the third-best DPOY betting odds at BetOnline.ag.
Asked by Chris Mannix of SI.com last week about his individual goals beyond winning a championship, Dort acknowledged that he’d love to be recognized for his defense.
“Honestly, the biggest goal is to go out there and perform every night for my teammates,” he said. “But it will always be nice to get rewarded for the hard work that I do on the court, which would probably be Defensive Player of the Year or (All-Defensive) first team. If you ask me if I deserve it, I would say yes, just because of what I bring every night, all the matchups that I got to face every night. But all that would be a goal of mine.”
Dort’s teammates Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams, rising defensive stars Dyson Daniels and Amen Thompson, and four-time DPOY Rudy Gobert are among the other betting options available at BetOnline.ag, but I’d view them as longer shots.
We want to know what you think. Which player would be your 2024/25 pick for Defensive Player of the Year? Which player do you expect to win the award? Would Wembanyama have been your choice if he had reached the minimum-game threshold?
Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!
And-Ones: D. Williams, Cousins, Front Offices, Kuzminskas, More
Former No. 2 overall pick Derrick Williams has signed with the Mets de Guaynabo ahead of the 2025 season, the Puerto Rican team announced this week (via Instagram; hat tip to Sportando).
Williams, who was selected right after Kyrie Irving in the 2011 draft, appeared in 428 NBA games across seven seasons from 2011-18 before spending several years in Europe. The veteran forward, who will turn 34 this May, last suited up for Panathinaikos in Greece during the 2022/23 season.
The Mets de Guaynabo also made another notable roster announcement this week, indicating (via Instagram) that they’ve reacquired the rights to four-time NBA All-Star DeMarcus Cousins, who last played for the team in 2023.
According to Joseph Reboyras of Primera Hora (Twitter link), former NBA guard J.J. Barea, who is currently the Mets’ head coach, said a few days ago that Cousins’ return isn’t yet a lock. However, the former NBA center, who is now 34, has shown interest in returning to Puerto Rico for the coming season and was scheduled to meet with Barea this week to discuss the possibility.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- In a massive feature article, Sam Quinn of CBS Sports ranks all 30 NBA front offices, from the Thunder at No. 1 to the Bulls at No. 30. Quinn divided teams into 11 separate tiers, with the Celtics (No. 2) and Spurs (No. 3) joining Oklahoma City in the top group, while the Mavericks (No. 27), Suns (No. 28), and the Kings (No. 29) rounded out the bottom tier..
- Former NBA forward Mindaugas Kuzminskas, who appeared in 69 games for New York from 2016-18, has announced his retirement from the Lithuanian national team and won’t compete in EuroBasket 2025 this offseason, as Eurohoops relays. “I feel that now is the right moment to say thank you and step aside,” Kuzminskas said as part of a larger statement.
- Jeremy Woo of ESPN (Insider link) takes a look at 15 of the NCAA freshman who have emerged as top prospects for the 2025 NBA draft and poses one key questions for each player, including how high Cooper Flagg‘s offensive ceiling is, whether Kasparas Jakucionis‘ modest athleticism will limit him, and whether Tre Johnson can improve his shot selection.
Jazz Notes: Springer, Martin, Sensabaugh, Williams, George, Sexton
Two recent additions made their debuts with the Jazz during Friday’s loss to Oklahoma City, writes Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune. Former Celtics guard Jaden Springer, who signed a 10-day contract on Thursday, checked into the game in the first quarter as the second player that coach Will Hardy used off the bench. Springer had seven points, a rebound and two assists while playing nearly 11 minutes, and Larsen expects him to get another 10-day deal when the current one expires.
Also appearing for the first time in a Jazz uniform was KJ Martin, who went from Philadelphia to Utah in the five-team trade that sent Jimmy Butler to Golden State. Martin, who played 15:40 and scored two points, has a non-guaranteed $8MM contract for next season, so he’s auditioning for a future role with the team.
Hardy’s reliance on the two newcomers is an indication of his desire for increased energy on defense, according to Larsen. Hardy told reporters that he expects Springer and Martin “to be good individual defenders, and also sort of model what being a competitive defensive player looks like.” Larsen also notes that small forward Brice Sensabaugh, who’s averaging 8.9 PPG in 44 games, didn’t play at all as Hardy shifts the team’s emphasis to defense.
There’s more from Utah:
- Jazz rookie Cody Williams got to face his older brother, Thunder star Jalen Williams, for the first time ever on Friday night, Larsen adds. Cody, who was sidelined the first two times the teams met this season, said watching the matchup meant a lot to their mother, who attended the game with a large contingent of family members wearing split Jazz/Thunder jerseys. “I could tell she was crying, her eyes were a little red,” he said. “I think they realize the situation and just how blessed we are. It’s just an awesome moment, to have family out here.”
- Keyonte George talked about the need to keep improving in an interview with Cyro Asseo de Choch of HoopsHype. George has evolved into a more confident facilitator during his second NBA season. “When you understand the game, it slows down,” he said. “I’m trying to play with pace, to understand how defenses are going to guard me and some of our actions. And it’s almost like having the answer to the test -– when you prepare the right way and know what teams are going to do, it’s way easier when you’re out there on the floor.”
- Collin Sexton has resumed on-court activities and will be reevaluated early next week, the Jazz announced (via Twitter). Sexton has been out of action since February 3 with a sprained left ankle.