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I braved a crowded, touristy IMAX theater to see “Gladiator II” this weekend, and I couldn’t be happier that I did. Review coming in tomorrow’s Bounce!
Stock Report
The Bucks are so back! I think …
Have the Bucks figured it all out after an abysmal start? Are the Pacers frauds? Can anybody stop Franz Wagner? Entering Week 5 of the Stock Report, we’ve got the teams and players trending in the right and wrong directions:
📈 Bucks (8-9): Remember that one-point Bucks loss to Charlotte that Doc Rivers blamed solely on the refs (accountability!)? That’s the only thing keeping the Bucks from having won seven straight games. Instead, they’re at four straight wins and just about even on the season after starting 2-8. During this stretch, Giannis Antetokounmpo is averaging 33.4 points, 10.9 rebounds, and 7.9 assists and shooting 60.8 percent from the field.
📉 Pacers (7-10): The Pacers are not in a good place. Remember that free-wheeling, historically high-powered offense from last season? Remember Tyrese Haliburton playing like a mutated X-Men version of Steve Nash? All of that has normalized in a bad way. The Pacers are 16th in offense this season and have lost five of their last seven, and Haliburton still doesn’t look recovered from the hamstring injury that derailed him last season.
📈 Clippers (11-7): Don’t look now, but the Clippers have become a defensive juggernaut. (Actually, I don’t know why I’m telling you not to look now. Clearly this is something I deem noteworthy and think you should look at.) Let’s try this again: Hey, look! The Clippers are a defensive juggernaut! Over the last five games, the Clippers have limited the Jazz to 105 points, Warriors to 99, Magic to 93, Kings to 88 and whatever’s left of the Sixers to 99. All wins.
📉 Pelicans (4-13): The Pelicans have been so bad (due to injury) in the first month of the season that I checked to see if they have their first-round pick in 2025. They do. The Pelicans are so injured, they signed Elfrid Payton before a game last week. He hadn’t played a game since April 2022. He started! They were 3-3 on Nov. 1. They’ve lost 10 of their last 11. Also, Zion Williamson’s PR team shouldn’t have let that video go out (more on him shortly).
📈 Franz Wagner, Magic: Not only are the Magic on a great run, winning eight of their last nine, but Wagner is sustaining a new level of dominance. Over these nine games (all without Paolo Banchero), the 23-year-old Wagner is averaging 28.3 points, seven assists and 6.3 rebounds. Most importantly? He’s shooting 47.7 percent from the field, 36.2 percent from three and 90.2 percent from the line. The 3-point shooting is the difference between him being guardable and him being a viable No. 2 on a serious team once Paolo is back.
📉 Pistons (7-11): Remember how we celebrated the Pistons for being on the way up last week? Welp! That’s not so much the case anymore. After being on the verge of .500 (7-8) this late into the season for the first time since 2018, the Pistons lost three straight games to Chicago, Charlotte and Orlando. To add literal insult to injury, Detroit lost Cade Cunningham to a hip injury after he had a hard fall at the end of the Hornets loss.
📈 Spurs (9-8): I was a little skeptical about putting the Spurs into this going into Saturday night’s game, and then they rallied to beat the Warriors. Their other two wins this week were against the Thunder and Jazz. That’s a great run for a team missing Victor Wembanyama for two of those wins. San Antonio is now above .500 on the season and has the league’s eighth-best defense.
The Last 24
Not the best week Zion Williamson ever had …
🏀 Williamson is not close to returning. He’s had multiple treatments on his hamstring and is expected to miss even more extended time, according to reports. Also …
👋 Zion and CAA are parting ways. Williamson does not have CAA listed as his representation anymore. Is he in danger of being waived?
🩼 Grant Williams is out for the season. The Hornets forward tore his ACL on Saturday night in the loss to the Bucks. How does Charlotte replace him?
📚 The Doc is here! Julius “Dr. J.” Erving comes in at 15th in the “The Basketball 100.” It releases tomorrow! Pre-order the book here.
📺 Don’t miss this game tonight. Clippers (11-7) at Celtics (14-3), 7:30 p.m. ET on League Pass. The Clippers are rolling, but the Celtics will be a strong test of this defensive run.
📺 This game could be a lot of fun. Knicks (9-7) at Nuggets (9-6), 9 p.m. ET on League Pass. Karl-Anthony Towns against Nikola Jokić. Jalen Brunson against Jamal Murray.
📺 Stay up late for this one, East Coast. Thunder (12-4) at Kings (8-9), 10 p.m. ET on NBA TV or Fubo. Once “Monday Night Football” is decided, this will provide that sports high you’re still chasing.
Weekend of Madness
Jokić, VanVleet and Ball had moments
I wanted to highlight three things this weekend that truly show just how fanciful and random the NBA can be. It involves an absurd shot, a wild overreaction and a rare losing performance. Let’s start with the shot, and, of course, it involves Nikola Jokić.
The Nuggets superstar and three-time MVP (four-time, if you count NBA Finals MVP awards) is having another season that doesn’t make sense. We need to break down his season soon, but it might be the best we’ve ever seen from him. That’s saying something. In a game in which the Nuggets went on a 50-17 run after being down 10 to the Lakers, Jokić tried this at the end of the third quarter:
Jokić is maybe 80 feet away from the basket. He decides to volleyball spike the ball with 0.3 seconds on the clock. And he didn’t actually come close to making it … but he kinda did when you consider the shot he took. This might be the greatest miss ever.
Speaking of misses, Houston guard Fred VanVleet will probably be missing some money or games (or both) after the Rockets’ 104-98 loss to Portland on Saturday. With 4.3 seconds left, VanVleet decided to voice his displeasure to the officiating crew. He got called for an offensive foul for shoving Toumani Camara on the inbound. Then, he told each ref how he felt, including coming within a few inches of his outstretched finger touching a ref.
And finally, LaMelo Ball put on a show against the Bucks on Saturday night with 50 points, 10 assists and five rebounds. Charlotte was plus-seven in the 40 minutes he played before losing 125-119. Ball did everything he could to lead the Hornets to a win, and historically, a 50-10-5 line almost always works for wins. We’ve seen 33 players in league history put up a 50-10-5 line. Ball joins Jokic, Wilt Chamberlain, Tiny Archibald and James Harden as the only players to lose with that line.
Role Playing!
My favorite role players through the first month
We’re one month into the season, and everybody is always giving love to the league’s stars. But what about the unsung role players or the slightly sung role players? Here’s a starting five of my favorites so far this season (no All-Stars or rookies):
Ty Jerome, Cleveland Cavaliers: He was one of my favorite guards in the 2019 draft class (24th pick out of Virginia). It took him a while to find his place. The Cavs are his fourth team in his six seasons, after signing him in 2023. The 27-year-old has gotten a chance in their rotation and is playing great ball in his role. Jerome is averaging 12.6 points and 3.8 assists in just 19.0 minutes. He’s also leading the league with a 73.6 true shooting percentage.
Norman Powell, LA Clippers: Powell is probably too good for this list, but I don’t care. I’m using this as an opportunity to get on my soapbox and suggest the coaches heavily consider him for the West All-Star reserves if he plays like this into January. Powell, 31, is averaging 23.3 points to lead the Clippers, and he’s doing it on a career-best 63.8 true shooting percentage, thanks to his 48.7 percent from 3-point range.
Shaedon Sharpe, Portland Trail Blazers: If you’re someone who stays up for the West Coast games, then your life is better when Sharpe is healthy. He’s averaging a career-best 18.4 points per game, and his athleticism has to be seen to be believed — especially in a league full of freak athletes. Sharpe, 21, missed the first eight games but he’s been back for a minute. In his last five games, he’s averaging 24.6 points on 44.8 percent from the field and 39.5 percent from deep.
Peyton Watson, Denver Nuggets: He was inexplicably left out of the playoff rotation back in May, but I love what Watson has done for Denver this season. Watson has been a defensive spark as the Nuggets are dealing with so many injuries. The 22-year-old has also made a lot of clutch defensive plays while having the best offensive season of his career (10.0 points, 56.7 true shooting percentage).
Jakob Poeltl, Toronto Raptors: The Raptors center is having the best season of his career so far, with career highs in scoring (16.7) and rebounding (12.3). He’s shooting just under 60 percent from the field (59.7), which he’s done for seven seasons of his nine-year career. The Raptors can’t score without the 29-year-old Poeltl, and he keeps them competitive.
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(Top photo: Stacy Revere / Getty Images )
