Best Win of the Season? Plus the Spurs Are Back & More
If you watch enough Celtics games, you can tell when the team isn't playing hard. Tonight, they absolutely sleepwalked (sleptwalked?) through most of the first three quarters in Philadelphia. And when Ricky Council IV put in what seemed like his 40th fast-break layup/dunk of the night to put the Sixers up 90-64 with 2:56 left in the third, it felt like coach Joe Mazzulla would start pulling starters to rest up for Tuesday. Instead, Derrick White hit a three. Then he hit another three. A minute and a half later, Jayson Tatum hit a stepback three over Guerschon Yabusele, and with that shot, the hold Yabusele had on the game (he was 5-for-5 in the third quarter at that point) seemed to break, and it was on like Donkey Kong.
Of course, just because the C's were beginning to lock in wasn't all that mattered. The Sixers have played really well lately. They beat the Cavs, Bulls, Lakers, and Kings in a row, before losing a close one to the Nuggets the other night. The Cavs game was particularly close, with Cleveland closing to a one-point deficit with 12 seconds left before the Sixers hung on for the W. But the Celtics are just too good, and they steamrolled Philly in the fourth.
In a sense, you could say this was the best win of the season. The Celtics have repeatedly had trouble with teams playing shorthanded this season, and it looked like it was going to be that way again, with the nadir being that 26-point deficit. It seemed like they poured all of that frustration and exasperation into the fourth quarter. The one remaining star or sometimes even one random guy – Dillon Brooks, Trey Murphy III, Jakob Poeltl – has made a habit of tormenting them. When Tyrese Maxey scored 16 points on 5-for-11 shooting in the first quarter, it looked like we were walking down that path once again. But Maxey can rarely sustain hot shooting against the C's, and that is what happened in this one. He would only go 4-for-10 over the final three quarters, and in true Joel Embiid-like fashion, he was 0-for-4 in the fourth quarter.
It would be delightful if the C's were locked in from the start of every game, and started running teams off the court like they did throughout so much of last season. But when they play the way they did over the final 15 minutes of this game, it's more evidence that Boston's biggest opponent is itself, and when they get out of their own way, no one can really stop them. And now they've won three in a row, six of their last eight, and seven of their last 10 heading into their showdown with Cleveland on Tuesday. Not a bad place to be.
The Spurs Got De'Aaron Fox Without Giving Up Any Important Players
While most of the Western Conference was wading through the shock of the Luka Dončić trade, the San Antonio Spurs were busy ascending, and got De'Aaron Fox in a fascinating three-team trade with the Sacramento Kings and Chicago Bulls. As usual, I have absolutely no idea what the Bulls are doing. Beyond being cheap, I see no motive for them at all. I'm not sure there is one. They gave up their best player without getting a single building block back, which is just absolutely baffling. I legitimately feel bad for Bulls fans.
The Kings side is legitimately interesting. Since they are never a destination for free agents, having extra first-round picks is always a good thing. And they didn't trade much they weren't going to lose or wanted to keep anyway. Fox had made it clear he wanted a trade, and wanted it specifically to San Antonio, which should have tied their hands. Instead, they got Zach LaVine, who is having a great season, plus three first-round picks and three second-round picks. That's a pretty great haul!
Kevin Huerter, who Sacramento sent to Chicago, was also total dead weight on the Kings' books. He is making $16.8M this season, and since the Kings sent him to the bench at the end of November, he was averaging 16.6 minutes per game. Not a great ratio. When they acquired Huerter, he was a three-point shooting ace. In his last season in Atlanta and first in Sacramento, he combined to shoot .396 from three. But last year that dipped to .361, and this season it dipped to .302, which is unplayable, particularly since he's always been a liability defensively. It's pretty great work for the Kings to get off of his deal. (Side note – do you think DeMar DeRozan is happy or furious that he is being teamed up with LaVine again?)
The Spurs though exhibited with this deal why you stockpile draft picks, and why you make phone calls and try to involve other teams. While the Mavericks were busy getting 30 cents on the dollar for one of the best players of all-time, the Spurs subverted everyone's expectations. Last week, when he made his trade deadline primer, ESPN's Bobby Marks wrote the following:
There is no [De'Aaron] Fox trade unless [Stephon] Castle is included.
This seemed like sound logic, and it seemed like the Spurs would need to make a "Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks" type of two steps forward, two steps back kind of trade to get Fox. Instead, they roped in the Bulls, and didn't need to trade anyone impactful. It's nice that Zach Collins was able to rebuild his career after missing a whole season due to injury, but also Zach Collins kind of sucks. And he was playing 11.8 minutes per game. Tre Jones is OK, but he was also playing just 16.8 minutes per game, after playing 29.8 and 27.8 the prior two seasons. His minutes had been cut into by Castle and Chris Paul. Collins and Jones ranked 9th and 10th on the Spurs in total minutes played, and ninth and 13th in total points scored.
Put another way, the Spurs just acquired a top-3o player without trading a single player from their core rotation. Now, they can move CP3 to the bench where he belongs, and start a lineup of Victor Wembanyama, Fox, Harrison Barnes, Stephon Castle, and Devin Vassell, with CP3, Jeremy Sochan, Julian Champagnie, and Keldon Johnson coming off the bench. The Spurs need to upgrade from Charles Bassey for their second big, and it'd be nice to upgrade the bench a little too, but Sochan and Champagnie were helping this team win games in the starting lineup, and now don't even need to do that. This is a solid, solid team. Plus Fox has played with Barnes before, so his learning curve might be shorter than normal.
Plus, they still have plenty of ammo! According to Marks, the Spurs still have:
- Six of their next seven first-round picks
- Two unprotected picks from Atlanta (2025 and 2027) (next year's Atlanta pick suddenly is very valuable as the Hawks are in freefall, so San Antonio still could have a lottery pick and a chance at Cooper Flagg)
- First-round pick swap rights with Atlanta (2026), Boston (2028, top-1 protected), Dallas/Minnesota (2030, whichever pick is best), and Sacramento (2031)
This is what you're supposed to do when you're loaded with picks – move them and improve. I have no idea what the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder are doing with all of their draft picks, but now the Spurs are set up to be really good for a long time. They're not a championship contender yet, but they have managed their contracts situation very well, and with the ammo they have at their disposal plus a lot of desirable contracts, they have to be considered in play for every single good player who comes on the market for the foreseeable future. In other words, San Antonio is very much like Frank Costanza – they're back, baby!
Meanwhile, in Golden State
A week ago, it seemed like Jimmy Butler and Bradley Beal controlled the trade deadline. Instead, we've seen the biggest trade of the century, and a second trade that would be the headline of the trade deadline in almost any other season, and neither even remotely involved Butler or Beal. And with Butler's people now apparently telling the Warriors (per Brian Windhorst) that Butler won't sign an extension in Golden State, they've stopped pursuing him (what a shock that a team couldn't count on Jimmy Butler), and now LaVine (who would be a natural fit next to Stephen Curry) is out of reach for Golden State. Even if he isn't off the board, it would be a very cold day in hell before the Kings did anything to help the Warriors.
The Warriors' nepo baby GM keeps sitting on his hands, and the world keeps passing him by. The Kings did not get worse with their trade, and the Spurs got a lot better. The Warriors – sandwiched between those two teams in 11th place – are thus in an even more precarious position to make the play-in tournament. The Mavericks – as much as I dislike their deal – are unlikely to crater, and the Lakers have solidified their position. Even the Clippers got a little healthier long-term this weekend by getting under the luxury tax with their PJ Tucker trade. The Warriors...just hangin'.
We'll see if Golden State is able to salvage anything at all in the next few days. And no, I don't think acquiring Nikola Vučević will count as salvaging the deadline. Even that would represent an upset though, because the Warriors have so rarely made in-season trades. They may need to do something now though, because things are starting to look desperate. I know I shouldn't keep picking on the Warriors, but it is absolutely stunning to me that they've allowed things to sink to this level. After all, desperation is a stinky cologne.