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I promise you we will not talk about tanking today. Well, it is Tanking Tuesday, and I do have a section related to a prime prospect. So I guess that’s not true. However! We will not talk about potential tanking fixes or anything Adam Silver has discussed with executives about it.
About last night
Spurs stifle Pistons for ninth straight win
Last night, the hottest team in the East played the hottest team in the NBA. The San Antonio Spurs, winners of eight straight games, faced off against a Detroit Pistons squad that had won five straight and possessed the league’s best record. Both teams have had proverbial “sending a message” games over the last couple of weeks. But last night, the unstoppable force played a game of chicken with the immovable object.
The Spurs won 114-103 because, in a game featuring two elite defenses, it’s reasonable to expect the best defender to find the edge toward victory. That’s exactly what happened with San Antonio, led by Victor Wembanyama. Wemby didn’t actually have a great game by his standards, but you’d never know it from his final stat line.
He finished with 21 points, 17 rebounds (eight offensive), four assists and six blocks on the night. But the fourth-quarter finish was when Wemby made his mark. In that final quarter, Wembanyama had 11 points, six rebounds, three assists and four blocks. Funny enough, while typing that last sentence, autocorrect tried to make “alone” into “alien,” which is apropos considering the subject matter
San Antonio (41-16) held Cade Cunningham to 16 points on 5-of-26 shooting. He did have 10 assists, three blocks and two steals, but it wasn’t enough for the Pistons (42-14) to send another message to a contender. The Spurs are one win away from their first double-digit win streak since 2015-16. They play in Toronto tomorrow.
I’ve had a few conversations recently about whether the Spurs can buck their lack of experience and make a deep playoff run. I keep resisting the notion — and they keep raising their level.
Rockets 125, Jazz 105: How committed are the Jazz (18-40) to tanking? The Rockets gave up 34 points on 27 turnovers and still won by 20.
Kings 123, Grizzlies 114: Maybe you don’t think this game matters, but both teams got something out of this. The 13-46 Kings snapped their franchise record 16-game losing streak. Also, the Grizzlies (21-35) got an important loss in the tank journey. Look, I know I said I would avoid talking about tanking, but Utah and Memphis played basketball games
The last 24
🎤 Top songs. Shakeia Taylor, Tony Jones and Jason Jones continue The Athletic’s fun hip-hop and basketball project with the top-24 NBA drops in rap lyrics. I’m going with “I Got a Story to Tell.”
📈 Power Rankings! The Spurs have been climbing up the ranks for weeks. They’ve even jumped ahead of OKC.
🐅 Tiger talk. Tiger Woods spoke to the Lakers and took questions, our Dan Woike reports. There was one thing LeBron James wanted to know.
⏰ Deadline set. The WNBA is in danger of losing games. The league informed its players that the season will be impacted if there’s no CBA agreement in place by March 10.
🗽 KAT back? Karl-Anthony Towns’ season has been all over the place. He’s finally turned the corner.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
Tanking Tuesday
The curious case of Darryn Peterson
“It’s not my decision. Coach thought I was ready for it. Obviously, I’m in shape. I work out a lot. I try to stay in shape. But if I need to play 40 minutes to win, I’ll play 40 minutes to win.”
That was potential No. 1 NBA Draft pick AJ Dybantsa after playing all 40 minutes in Saturday’s 79-69 win over Iowa State. Dybantsa dropped 29 points (10-of-17 from the field, 7-of-9 from the free-throw line), 10 rebounds and nine assists as the 23rd-ranked Cougars took down the No. 6 Cyclones at home. Dybanta’s comments after the game also seemed to fly right in the face of another potential top draft prospect.
The Darryn Peterson saga at Kansas has been extremely odd. He’s only played in 17 games, a few of which he hasn’t finished for various reasons. Sick? Injured? Cramps? All have been reasons that Peterson has either missed or left games early this season. That has cast a glaring stigma on Peterson as either being not tough enough or making business decisions to preserve future NBA health over his current Jayhawks team.
Recently, Peterson said this to Myron Metcalf of ESPN: “Basketball is my life. If I could have been out there every game this year, I would have. If you would have asked me last year, what were my goals for this year, I would never mention missing games. So all this stuff kind of just happened, but I’ve got to deal with it.”
We have more questions than answers when it comes to Darryn Peterson. (Evert Nelson / USA Today via Imagn Images)
He does have to deal with it, but is it affecting his draft status? That’s the question many of us waiting for his arrival in the NBA are pondering. We want to know:
Why isn’t he playing more? Not since Kyrie Irving missed 26 games for Duke in 2011 has a potential No. 1 pick missed so many games. There are plenty of internet/social media folks wondering if Peterson is actually hurt. The potentially reckless accusations are that he’s being told by his representation to sit out while looking out for his future. Some people claim he’s too soft to play games or heavy minutes. Other people look at his play and say he’s clearly hurt. The Athletic’s Jerry Brewer wrote this about Peterson:
“The kid isn’t inventing injuries. You can criticize his inability to grind through pain, but he doesn’t look right on the court. If you paid any attention to Peterson before he arrived at Kansas, you can see the difference.
“But since injuring his hamstring in early November, he has been a limited player. His explosion and lift are different. Even his trademark jumper feels negotiated.”
What does this mean for his draft stock? This is the question I care about the most, and it’s the one I’ve been annoying experts and sources with for weeks. The response has been a bit of a mixed bag. Plenty of people are concerned about Peterson’s perceived “lack of motor” or “lack of commitment” or however it gets written into a draft profile. Some people I’ve talked to lean toward questioning whoever is advising him. The missed games against Connecticut, Duke and Arizona are eyebrow-raisers for them.
I’ve also had executives and experts tell me his talent is too good and his potential too high to worry about any of this college stuff affecting his draft position. No significant drop in his stock is expected. He’s still supposed to go in the top three. And teams don’t expect any of his issues at Kansas, whatever they may be, to continue in the NBA.
A couple of people have also relayed to me that this act of high-profile prospects with big NIL money sitting out could become a trend. Especially if Peterson turns out just fine in the NBA. Peterson did play last night against No. 5 Houston. He had 14 points in 30 minutes in the 69-56 win. Kansas has three games left before conference tournament season. One is against Arizona. All eyes will be on Peterson and his status for the rest of the season.
City of Angels
Is that a Laker legend or a Wicker Man?
Over the weekend, the Lakers honored Pat Riley with a statue outside Crypto.com Arena. It’s the eighth statue they’ve given out, with Riley joining Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Elgin Baylor, Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Chick Hearn and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. A coach getting this honor in sports is pretty rare, and Riley finally got his just due from the Lakers. It’s a cool pose for the statue, with Riley putting up his fist in victory while wearing an Armani suit. It captures Riley in almost every way.
But this was pointed out on social media, and now I can’t unsee the canny resemblance to another Los Angeles legend:
This statue is a “National Treasure.” Maybe you’d want to take the “Face/Off?” But what would happen if a statue of you resembled a different celebrity? “It Could Happen to You.” There’s nothing you can do about it. You can raise a big fuss, but that’s the “Kiss of Death.” You’d feel terrible and want to be “Gone in 60 Seconds.” Then you’d “Drive Angry,” and everybody would be “Left Behind.”
Was this section just about my love of Nic Cage and wanting to work in a bunch of movie titles as wordplay? There’s no way of “Knowing.”