{"id":601454,"date":"2026-02-13T20:12:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T20:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/601454\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T20:12:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T20:12:25","slug":"central-notes-thomas-rivers-harden-cavs-t-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/601454\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Notes: Thomas, Rivers, Harden, Cavs, T. Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cam Thomas<\/a> scored just four points on 1-of-5 shooting in his first game with the Bucks on Monday, but he showed on Wednesday and Thursday why Milwaukee were eager to bring him in after he was waived by Brooklyn last week. In those two road wins over Orlando and Oklahoma City, Thomas racked up 46 points in 45 total minutes of action, making 17-of-33 shots from the floor.<\/p>\n

After Thomas scored 34 points against the Magic on Wednesday, head coach Doc Rivers likened the fifth-year guard to two former Sixth Man of the Year winners he coached earlier in his career with the Clippers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had Jamal Crawford. I had Lou Williams,\u201d Rivers said, per Eric Nehm of The Athletic<\/a>. \u201cAnd now, I have Cam Thomas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas has faced criticism at times during his four-and-a-half NBA seasons due to the perception that he\u2019s an \u201cempty calories<\/a>\u201d scorer who doesn\u2019t play good defense or contribute in any other ways on offense. As Nehm writes, Thomas insisted this week that he\u2019s \u201cmore than just a scorer\u201d and suggested his play-making is \u201cunderrated.\u201d While the 24-year-old is at his best when he\u2019s putting the ball in the basket, Rivers said the Bucks want to give him the chance to show off all facets of his game.<\/p>\n

\u201cCam wants to do right. He wants to play well. You can see that,\u201d Rivers said after Wednesday\u2019s game. \u201cAnd we\u2019re going to give him every opportunity. I mean, the guy is a natural scorer, and you can see that. Probably forced one or two today where he overdribbled. You live with that, and you teach that to get that out of him. But overall, he was fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

We have more from around the Central:<\/p>\n

Rivers had to attend a funeral and wasn\u2019t on the Bucks\u2018 bench for Thursday\u2019s game in Oklahoma City (Twitter link<\/a>). Darvin Ham coached the team in Rivers\u2019 place and led Milwaukee to an upset victory over the defending champions in a game that both teams\u2019 MVPs (Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>) missed due to injuries.
\nJames Harden<\/a> attempted just four shots in his Cavaliers home debut on Wednesday, but he had 11 assists and no complaints after the team improved its record to 3-0 since acquiring him. \u201cLike I told them, I\u2019ll figure it out. We\u2019ll do some adjusting with each other, but for the most part, I\u2019ll play with y\u2019all and do what y\u2019all been doing and I\u2019ll find my way and they\u2019ve been doing that,\u201d Harden said, according to Joe Reedy of The Associated Press<\/a>. \u201cSo even (Wednesday), I shoot four shots, but we win by 25 points. That\u2019s the most important thing. \u2026 I\u2019m just here to win.\u201d
\nAfter the Rocket Arena floor came under scrutiny<\/a> again last month following a Luka Doncic<\/a> injury scare, the Cavaliers have installed temporary extensions along the sidelines and baselines of their raised court in an effort to increase player safety, writes Joe Vardon of The Athletic<\/a>. A team spokesperson said a permanent solution will be implemented prior to the start of the 2026\/27 season, Vardon adds.
\nSecond-year\u00a0Pistons big man Tolu Smith<\/a>, who is on a two-way contract, got a chance to play on Wednesday for the first time since January 10 with Isaiah Stewart<\/a> and Jalen Duren<\/a> serving suspensions. Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said before the game that it represented a real opportunity for Smith. \u201cHe\u2019s an elite defensive rebounder, paint protector, pick and roll guy,\u201d Bickerstaff said (Twitter link<\/a> via Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press). \u201c\u2026 He\u2019ll be just fine with the tools that he has.\u201d Smith finished with three points, three rebounds, and two assists in 15 minutes off the bench in Detroit\u2019s win win over Toronto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cam Thomas scored just four points on 1-of-5 shooting in his first game with the Bucks on Monday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3775],"tags":[7,103,959,1849,2660,560,102,121,3871,6,30139],"class_list":{"0":"post-601454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-bucks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bucks","10":"tag-cam-thomas","11":"tag-darvin-ham","12":"tag-doc-rivers","13":"tag-james-harden","14":"tag-milwaukee","15":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","16":"tag-milwaukeebucks","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-tolu-smith"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116065150578203364","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}