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Victor Wembanyama has blocked a shot in 101 straight games. It’s the third-longest streak in NBA history behind Dikembe Mutombo (116) and Patrick Ewing (145). The NBA released a 28-minute video of the best blocks from Wemby’s streak. It is enthralling, and I highly recommend carving out the time for it.
Tanking Tuesday
Has Duke’s Boozer emerged as the top pick?
Everybody went into this basketball season with an eye on three players for the top of the 2026 NBA Draft: BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, Kansas’ Darryn Peterson and Duke’s Cameron Boozer. At this stage of the college season, it feels like Boozer is having the most impressive campaign.
Dybantsa has been the biggest talk of the class since Cooper Flagg reclassified into the 2025 class. Peterson has become a known commodity over the last couple of years. And Boozer has been part of the heralded “Boozer Twins” for years now (his brother, Cayden, is a reserve guard for Duke). But Boozer has many wondering if he’s taking the lead for the race to the top spot in the draft.
Let’s throw the two big caveats out there before we dive in. 1) There is a lot of college basketball season left. 2) The bigger position of need for the team that ends up with the top pick might determine the decision.
It’s also worth noting Dybansta had a 33-point, 10-rebound and 10-assist triple-double last night in a win over Eastern Washington. Peterson has been in and out of the lineup with a hamstring injury, so he hasn’t had the chance to shine consistently in the same way. With all that said, what the 6-foot-9 Boozer is doing is eye-popping:
He is leading the nation in scoring at 23.3 points. Dybantsa is second at 23.1 points.
Boozer also averages 10 rebounds, four assists and 1.7 steals. He’s making 56.7 percent of his shots and 76.7 percent of his free throws.
He’s on pace to be just the 11th men’s Division 1 player to average at least 23-10-4.
Boozer would be the first to do this since Ron Harper (24.4-11.7-4.3) did it for Miami (Ohio) in 1985-86.
By the way, Larry Bird did that twice, as did Oscar Robertson.
Dybantsa’s stats — he’s also averaging 7.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists — are impressive too. As is his 59.1 percent shooting from the field. Both Boozer and Dybantsa are flashing a little bit of a 3-point shot, but both are shooting just 33.3 percent behind the arc.
Boozer is scoring in a variety of ways, being super physical in how he operates in the half court and showing every trick a player could be taught by a father (Carlos) who played in the NBA for 13 seasons. He’s bordering on the complete package for this draft, and there’s still plenty of room for improvement for him.
Boozer was Sam Vecenie’s No. 2 pick at the beginning of the month. But scouts and executives are taking notice of the relentlessness in how he’s scoring on everybody and trying to do everything.
The last 24
Draymond argued with Kerr and … just left?
🗣️ Big trouble? Draymond Green left the Warriors game last night. Why? He got into an argument with Steve Kerr.
📉 Power Rankings! Are the Rockets no longer contenders in the NBA? They’ve fallen a bit.
🏀 Safe for now. Despite the Cavaliers’ disappointing start, coachKenny Atkinson is not on the hot seat, our Joe Vardon reports.
🙏 Search is on. Rick Carlisle and the Celtics are seeking something important: bone marrow for their former team trainer.
🤔 Point taken. When Wemby talks about ethical hoops, there’s a larger truth at play, our Marcus Thompson writes.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
Yay or neigh?
The Joker is the world’s biggest ‘stable boy’
Can you have a 6-foot-11, 280-plus-pound stable boy? I suppose there’s no limit to how large someone can be to take care of horses. But maybe you wouldn’t want someone that big riding anything smaller than an elephant or rhinoceros. Still, a “stable boy” who is one of the largest and most skilled basketball players in the world definitely stands out.
The Athletic’s Nick Friedell wrote a stellar profile of what horses mean to Jokić. We’ve known for quite some time that Big Honey loves his horses. He showed far more emotion for a horse of his winning a race than he did when he led his team to the 2023 NBA championship. But where does this passion come from? When did Jokić first find this obsession?
“We have a saying,” Jokić told The Athletic. ‘If you’re young and you swallow the horse hair, you cannot stop loving them.’ What I like about them is how they run, how they act, how they’re resting, how they’re smelling. I like to watch them, I like to train them, I like to see them running, racing. The only thing I didn’t do, I did want to race back in the day. I miss that feeling when you and the horse are basically one.”
Jokić is clearly dedicated to this. But I’m not sure how much people realize this isn’t a quirk or a gimmick or a joke to him. His love for horses comes from his days growing up in Sombor, Serbia. People close to him believe horse racing is his first love, which seems impossible for a man so historically good at basketball. His teammates get to see this different side of him more often, and Aaron Gordon understands it a lot more after going to Serbia with Jokić.
“You understand why he’s as humble as he is,” Gordon said. “They still see him as a stable boy out there.”
Jokić confirms that.
“Yeah, definitely,” he said. “They don’t look at me as an NBA player; they don’t look at me as a player, actually. I have one of my friends who is still training my horses back home. I was 13 years old when I came there. I was a stable boy, and he still sees me as a stable boy.”
We all have our hobbies and passions. Mine is an affinity for Nicolas Cage movies. For Jokić? He just wants to race horses. I highly recommend reading this profile.
About last night
Warriors remind us how good they can be
Sometimes, we might say that a team reminded us of how dangerous they are, or how good they are, or how good health could result in a long postseason appearance. And those things can be true. In the case of the Warriors (15-15), I think they needed to remind themselves just how good they are supposed to be. Last night against the Magic (16-13), Golden State rolled through some pretty good competition, despite the Kerr-Green dustup.
The Warriors outscored Orlando 62-40 in the second half to turn a one-point halftime lead into an easy victory. This is the type of play we saw for years with Steph Curry and Green on the court. This is the type of play they rediscovered after acquiring Jimmy Butler last season. But we haven’t really seen much of that brand of basketball or that level of execution this season. The Warriors have kind of been in the dumps far too many nights, compared to what their skill level should dictate.
This win got them back to .500, which is nowhere close to the 23-7 they went with Butler on the floor last season. Their play has elicited viral emails from the fans to the owner Joe Lacob, who was happy to respond instantly. But dominating a good Magic team is something Golden State needs to remember. Maybe Kerr can harness this type and apply the effort and execution to other opponents. And, no, of course Kerr did not play Jonathan Kuminga in this one.
Pelicans 119, Mavericks 113: The Pelicans (8-22) cannot be stopped. If we’re going to interrupt the official six-game win streak by San Antonio by reminding everybody they lost in the extra NBA Cup final game, then that makes New Orleans the hottest team in the league with five straight wins. The Mavs (11-19) got 35 points and 17 rebounds from Anthony Davis, while the Pels got 24 points on 10-of-14 shooting from Zion Williamson off the bench. Has James Borrego fixed the Pelicans?
Thunder 119, Grizzlies 103: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went off for 31 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and four steals in this one. The Thunder (26-3) scored 31 points off of 23 turnovers by Memphis (13-16). And Jalen Williams blessed our TV screens with this monster dunk.
Pistons 110, Blazers 102: Despite their best efforts to give this one away, the Pistons (23-6) closed out the Trail Blazers (12-17). Portland mounted a big comeback after trailing by 21 in the third quarter and 17 in the fourth. But Jalen Duren’s 24 points and 10 boards, along with Ausar Thompson’s 18 points and 12 rebounds, were enough to take the road victory. Cade Cunningham had 14 points before fouling out.
Cavaliers 139, Hornets 132: I guess a win is a win. We’ve been wondering what’s wrong with the Cavaliers (16-14), and part of their recent bad stretch included an overtime loss to Charlotte (9-20) in which Cleveland didn’t score in the extra period. This time, they eked out a win against the Hornets. Donovan Mitchell had 30 points, Darius Garland had 27 points and 10 assists, and De’Andre Hunter had 27 off the bench.
Nuggets 135, Jazz 112: Denver (21-7) only got a “mild” game from Jokić. He had 14 points, 13 boards and 13 dimes for the Nuggets to take down the Jazz (10-18). Jamal Murray led with 27 points, and Peyton Watson joined Cameron Johnson in scoring 20 points.
Celtics 103, Pacers 95: The Celtics (18-11) have been winning games by lighting up teams from downtown and putting up incredible offense attack. That’s not what happened last night against the Pacers (6-23).