Tonight’s Must-Watch Games

The Opening Tip

• Nikola Jokic made DeAndre Ayton look stupid last night

• We’re in the Golden Age of 60-point losers

• Because of a strange cocktail of events, Doc Rivers is coaching the All-Star Game

1. Jonathan Kuminga: Anti-establishment king

The next time someone in your profession tells you to put your head down and work harder, consider Jonathan Kuminga, who has complained his way into basketball competency.

Timeline: 

• July 29, 2021-Jan 4, 2023: Kuminga spends the first 2.5 years of his Warriors career looking like a future lottery wash out. He’s in and out of the lineup and barely cracks 10 PPG. 

• Jan 5, 2023: Kuminga/Kuminga’s agent leaks that he’s ‘lost faith’ in Steve Kerr over inconsistent minutes and lack of a defined role. 

• Jan 5, 2023-present: Kerr, apparently alpha’d, finally starts to play Kuminga big minutes, who goes on a tear that hasn’t stopped. 

Kuminga, pre-complaint this season: 22.1 MPG, 12.8 PPG

Kuminga, post-complaint: 32 MPG, 21.4 PPG, .595/.455 shooting splits

He’s also having his breakout moment in his third season, a make-or-break year for so-so lottery picks, which usually ends in a lucrative rookie extension or a trade, depending on how that season goes.

So … complain → play better → cash in on generational wealth.

Shout out to Jonathan Kuminga.

[WATCH: Kuminga drops career-high 31 vs. Kings]

2. Daily GIF: Bad defense or great offense?

(It’s a little bit of both.)

3. Trivia

4. Stats we found interesting but have no higher use for

60 points, 3 losses

An unintended consequence of the NBA’s scoring boom: Players scoring a shit-load of points and losing. There are 12 non-Wilt instances in NBA history of someone scoring 60-plus and losing. A quarter of those have happened in the last 13 days: KAT (62), Devin Booker (62) and Steph Curry, who dropped 60 in an OT loss on Saturday.

27 points

The Jazz outscored the Bucks in the fourth quarter last night by 27 points. Utah, which trailed by 12 entering the fourth, is the eighth team in NBA history to win by 15 or more after entering the final quarter trailing by double-digits.

1,118 miles

Steven Adams must have a warped view of America: He’s spent his entire career in the south/southwestern/south-midwestern 1,118-mile loop of Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Memphis and, now, Houston.

30 letters

Ukrainian Celtic forward Sviatoslav Yuriyovych Mykhailiuk has 30 letters in his full name. Our Anglo-Saxon-based brains could never.

Quick hits

• Why Doc Rivers is coaching the All-Star Game for the Eastern Conference. 

• Matt Barnes got weirdly aggro with a student announcer at one of his kid’s high school basketball games over the weekend.

• Broadcasting legend Gus Johnson said a Maryland player ‘had her shit blocked’ on Saturday. 

• Jordan Poole, who the Warriors gave a $140M deal to 1.5 years ago, is now averaging 16 PPG on 40.7% shooting on one of the worst teams in the league. 

• A new NBA fan/Redditor thought Robin Lopez was a made-up State Farm character until last night. 

Reads

• When Caitlin Clark shows up, it’s way bigger than a game [WaPo]

• Marcus Smart is a Celtic at heart. Sunday’s return showed that. [Boston Globe]

That's the buzzer.
Thanks for reading the 355th edition of The Grip.