Basketball is not a sport, it's a way of life.

JK isn't kidding, some league lesser knowns, J-Dub stands for "just win"...

QUICK HITS

• In a season where his team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, had already put the league on notice, the play of second-year forward Jalen Williams is only acting to further confirm the notion that the Thunder are a force to be reckoned with. In just his second year as a professional, Williams should already be getting some All-Star consideration for his impressive numbers—18.6 ppg, 4.5 apg, 4.1 rpg, 1.1 spg, on 54.2% from the field and 43.8% from the three. And if the offensive stats alone aren’t juiced enough, Williams’ hyper-efficient scoring is complemented by stalwart defensive play. As a perimeter defender, Williams is a formidable combination of a flight-ready wingspan (7’2) and elite strength for a small forward (he added upwards of 15 pounds of muscle in the offseason). But it’s what Williams has been able to do late in games for the Thunder—especially as a second-year player—that should have the league most concerned. Williams is leading Oklahoma City in fourth-quarter scoring at 6.8 points per game (14^th in the NBA with a minimum of 20 games played), while his 58.7% from the field is second amongst all players in the top-20 of fourth-quarter scoring (Giannis – 59.2%), and his 56.8% from three in the deciding period is the best among any player in the top-50 in scoring in the fourth. More impressive still is the unflappable confidence that Williams plays with in those decisive minutes, only bolstered by the fact that he has already established a devastating go-to move. With his combination of size and ball-handling, Williams has nearly perfected the step-back/fade-away when driving hard to his left. His ability to create separation on the play, using his elite length to get distance as he fades back, makes the shot nearly unguardable. It’s an extremely devastating move to have adapted for his skillset; just ask the Trail Blazers, who fell victim to the shot as Williams hit a game-winner against Portland this past Tuesday.

• Basketball is a game of singular talents coming together for unified brilliance. Good basketball requires cohesion. Great basketball requires sacrifice. It’s with those notions in mind that I heap praise on Tim Hardaway Jr. Now in his 10^th season, the Dallas Mavericks shooting guard’s 18.0 points per game this year is the second-best scoring average of his career. While the scoring punch isn’t necessarily much of a surprise for a three-point specialist in an era of rapidly inflating statistics, what has been impressive is Hardaway Jr. producing those numbers in a predominantly reserve role (he’s started just 8 of 43 games this season), the first time in such a capacity since his third season with Atlanta (yeah, I forgot he played there too). And Hardaway Jr. isn’t just sacrificing the status that comes along with being a starter; he’s been sacrificing his body as well this season. Never known as much of a defender, Hardaway Jr. has really increased his effort on that end in the last couple of years. This season, his 20 charges taken are second in the league (Brunson – 23). The combination of willingly taking a bench role and committing himself to becoming a better defensive player is the exact type of sacrifice and commitment that any organization would hope to see from their veteran leadership. Yet don’t get it twisted, Hardaway Jr. is, and always will be, a gunner first, as his 8.9 three’s attempted per game are a career-high and are fifth in the entire league. He’s also first amongst reserve players (min. 20 appearances) in bench scoring at 17.0 points per game.

• The Golden State Warriors have had a season that’s been overindulgent in questions and storylines. Yet, amidst all the roster turmoil, Draymond drama, and season-long disappointment, the biggest question concerning the Warriors may be that of just how good is Jonathan Kuminga? Or framed more critically for the organization: How good can Jonathan Kuminga become? Golden State’s third-year swingman is already in the midst of his best season, averaging 14.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, on 53.0% from the field—all career highs. But as the trade deadline nears, and the conversations about potential Warriors moves intensifies, Kuminga has made a case as of late to quite possibly be an untouchable piece. Over his last six games—all affairs in which he has scored 20 or more points—Kuminga is averaging 25.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.0 steals, on 62.8% from the field, and a very encouraging 57.9% from three on 1.8 makes per contest; easily the best stretch of his young career. As painful as it’s been to watch the Warriors this year, the improvement in Kuminga’s decision-making and confidence—particularly his willingness to keep teams honest by taking the open three—have been some of the few bright spots this season. While he still works too much out of isolation to get his own shot (29.4% of his field goal attempts are taken after 3 dribbles or more), Kuminga clearly has identified how to use his quickness and explosive athleticism to work into spots that optimize his finishing around the basket. Kuminga scores 57.5% of his points in the paint, meaning that he’s using his dribble to get deep position, where he often has the size advantage (6’8) over small forwards. Defensively, when Kuminga is locked in, he can be a stifling defender on the perimeter, but his focus waxes and wanes, and during moments when he’s lost, his late rotations and missed assignments can be glaring. What’s amazing about Kuminga is that this is still just his third season in the league. We have spent so much time talking about him and his organizational fit since the moment he was taken 7^th in the ’21 draft, that it feels like he’s been around for much longer than just two and a half seasons. But Kuminga just turned 21 on Oct. 30^th and has been showing flashes of star potential with an increased frequency as this season has progressed. If you’re Golden State, having developed Kuminga within your system, and knowing that this year is beginning to feel like a sunken cost, keeping the young up-and-comer feels at this point like one of the few answers this season has actually provided.

• Book can cook. While we all know that, it seems about once or twice a year Devin Booker has the type of offensive explosion that reminds us just how volatile a scorer he can be, as he serves up a veritable feast of buckets. But the thing about a greatly prepared meal is that it’s most often best when it’s a collaborative effort; when several different palates offer creative input and their own substantive offerings. Much the same, when Booker gets cooking, too often it becomes a one-man show, and the meal that is Phoenix Suns games becomes an underwhelmingly linear expression of singular greatness. After another scorcher of a game in which he scored 62 points against Indiana Friday night, but ultimately in a losing effort, the question becomes how beneficial is Booker’s outbursts to Phoenix’s bottom line of winning? The Suns are now 4-6 in Booker’s ten best individual scoring games, including being 0-3 in his top three—Booker had 70 in a loss to Boston on 3/24/17; 62 in the loss Friday to Indiana; 59 in a loss to Utah 3/25/19.

  Friday’s game was another example of two things for Phoenix that are in direct conflict with each other:

  -  When Devin Booker gets going, he is as elite a scorer as this league has ever seen.

  -  When Devin Booker gets going, he hijacks all forms of offensive continuity, and teammates tend to watch his greatness rather than stay involved in the game.

  It’s a difficult position to be in, watching a teammate riding the type of heater Booker was on Friday because too often you want to allow a player making those types of shots to get as many opportunities as possible. But by nature, teammates become spectators and ultimately too uninvolved in the action. We saw this on Monday night in Karl-Anthony Towns' 62-point performance, as Anthony Edwards was so deferential to Towns in the first three quarters of the game that he couldn’t get himself offensively engaged in the fourth quarter when his team needed his one-on-one scoring ability.

  In Booker’s case Friday, he shot a very impressive 59.5% from the field (22-37), but those 37 attempts represented 41.5% of the team's total field goals attempted for the game. And much like Towns on Monday, when the game was tight late against Indiana, the defense was keying so heavily on Booker that despite the torrid shooting, the shots he was taking late were predictable and heavily defended. Ultimately, this is not intended to be a knock on Booker, who has become about as smart a player as there is in terms of toggling between getting his and making the right play to get someone else a bucket—his 7.4 assists per game this season are a career-high and rank ninth in the NBA. But there is too large a sample size now in Phoenix indicating that it is not to the team’s benefit when Booker is the only cook in the kitchen.