Five issues facing the New York Knicks ahead of the playoffs
New York Knicks coach Mike Brown speaks of a standard, not unlike former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin's. "The standard is the standard," Tomlin would often say&.
“The standard is the standard,” Tomlin would often say in his news conferences during his near two-decade run on the sideline. That standard was about Super Bowls. Tomlin took the Steelers to two of them, winning one. It’s a run of success that the Knicks, who haven’t reached the NBA Finals since 1999, can’t match.
That’s why the standard that Brown refers to is more micro. The coach, who led the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Finals in 2007 and was an assistant on three title-winning teams with the Golden State Warriors, was hired last July under the expectation that he would elevate the Knicks into playing until June. But that starts with establishing winning habits in the doldrums of the regular season.
“You want to embrace your standard,” Brown said Monday night in the bowels of the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, before an eventual loss to the LA Clippers.
“I think our guys have embraced the standard of sacrifice, competitive spirit, connectivity and overall belief in each other’s process.”
For the past two months, Brown’s messaging seemed to be getting through to his team. After a 2-9 stretch from Dec. 31 through Jan. 19, the Knicks lost just four games the rest of January and all of February, buoyed by big wins over the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs that seemed to reignite championship expectations.
Now, a rocky stretch of three losses in five games — including two in a row in Los Angeles against the Clippers and Lakers — have brought back the old feelings of uneven performances, giving ammo to critics who believe the Knicks won’t be able to make a deep playoff run in the wide-open East. That wouldn’t be acceptable to owner James Dolan, who told WFAN in January that the standard for the Knicks this season, at minimum, is a Finals appearance.
“We want to get to the Finals,” Dolan said. “And we should win the Finals. This is sports and anything can happen. But getting to the Finals, we absolutely got to do.”
With six weeks left in the regular season, Brown knows the Knicks need to raise their standard. They are 42-25 and in third in the East, 1.5 games above the Cavaliers. They were 43-24 at this time a year ago.
Here are five issues that the Knicks must solve before the real season begins on April 20:
By the numbers, Towns is having a good, not great, second season in New York. His minutes, production and efficiency are down across the board — his 20.0 points per game are his fewest since he averaged 18.3 as a rookie in 2015-16 — as he has struggled at times finding his way in Brown’s offense.
KAT’s Stats The Past Two Seasons
Stat
2024-25
2025-26
PPG
24.4
20.0
FG%
52.6%
49.1%
3P%
42.0%
36.7%
MPG
35
31.3
He has shown the ability to carry the Knicks for stretches, including on Monday night. Twenty-one of his game-high 35 points came in the first half, as New York’s bench didn’t muster a point and ended up with 14 for the game.
Relying on Towns to carry the team has not been a formula for success, however. The Knicks are 16-11 when he takes at least 15 shots and 24-12 when he shoots fewer than 15 times.
In February, before the Knicks’ comeback win over the Rockets, Brown made it clear that the offense should run through Brunson. When asked about Towns’ season and the feeling that Towns has been underwhelming, he raised his hand about six inches above his head to symbolize Brunson as the No. 1 option. Then he brought it down a few inches to show where Towns should be — as the No. 2.
“I look at KAT and he’s probably right where he should be,” Brown said. “Maybe he should be the leading scorer, I don’t know. He gets the second-most attempts, right behind Jalen.”
“It’s a work in progress, and you got to continue to feel and evolve as a group and hopefully do it around the guys you need to.”
Brown has said he has simplified the offense to fit his entire roster, not just Towns. As gifted as an offensive option as any big in the NBA, Towns has to assert himself while not forcing his own offense — which can look clunky when he does force it. But he also has to make sure he doesn’t allow himself to disappear, either.
“My career has been so crazy where I’ve had to learn how to go with the flow,” Towns told ESPN later that evening. “My usage is high, I’ve got to do something with that. [When] my usage is low, I’ve got to maximize my opportunities so everybody else could get going.”
When told of Brown’s comments, Towns said, “You’re used to touching the ball, having a rhythm of the game, flow of the game — also minutes being lower, you have more time to get into the game.
“It’s different, something different in my career. I haven’t dealt with something like that.”
Hunkering down on defense
The Knicks were a top-five team in the clutch last season, going 19-12 in games that were within five points in the last five minutes. Their clutch-time experience showed in the Eastern Conference semifinals against the then-champion Boston Celtics, when they had two comeback victories in the opening games on the road.
They were a team that couldn’t be counted out, even if the numbers said they were an average defensive team under former coach Tom Thibodeau.
They’re a better overall unit this season, ranking eighth in defensive efficiency. They have been the league’s best defensive team since Jan. 15. They have given up 106.1 points per 100 possessions over that stretch, a huge contrast from the two prior months, when they ranked 23rd at 117 points per 100 possessions.
Josh Hart seemed surprised when notified of the recent developments.
“If that’s what the numbers say, I don’t think the numbers are wrong,” Hart told ESPN on Sunday. “I think what we’re doing is a great attention to detail and a level of physicality. I think we can sustain that. We have good players, smart players. You see the formula that it takes for us to be successful. Now we just have to sharpen that.”
Brown said defensive coordinators Darren Erman and Brendan O’Connor showed the players film on some of the league’s best defensive teams — the Detroit Pistons, Oklahoma City Thunder and Phoenix Suns — to highlight what they get away with and examples of good physicality.
“When we’re watching our games against those guys, we can see the contrast and difference in those kind of things,” Hart said. “You can learn from other teams, see where you can be physical, how to use that physicality to your benefit, where the refs let you play.”
The Knicks fell back to Earth against the Lakers and Clippers but have opportunities against lower-rated offensive teams coming up, including the possibility of going against a Stephen Curry-less Golden State Warriors team at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
They’ll play four top-10 offenses the rest of the season, including an April 9 showdown against the Celtics, who are second in the East and just got back Jayson Tatum from the Achilles injury he suffered against the Knicks a year ago.
Getting Brunson on track
Brunson is the key to everything the Knicks do offensively. When Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby have tried to put the ball on the floor to make plays, it hasn’t always turned out well — all roads lead back to Brunson as the sole reliable shot creator from the perimeter.
Teams have gotten more aggressive with the Knicks, however. The usually sure-handed Brunson had seven of the team’s 19 turnovers against the Lakers, and the roster spread around the mishaps the next night (20 turnovers).
Anunoby’s assist-to-turnover ratio is about even and while Bridges has been put in position to facilitate more offense, Brown doesn’t have him making reads from the top of the floor.
Brunson’s 30.3% usage rate ranks 13th in the league, right behind Cade Cunningham and Nikola Jokic, slightly higher than his rate last season (29.5%). He’s getting doubled more as teams try to force the ball out of his hands — he and Brown have found ways to get him free, but more sophisticated defenses will be more physical.
Brunson has avoided serious injuries this season — he missed a month with an ankle sprain last season, which hampered him in the first round against Detroit. Keeping him healthy and fresh is a goal as the Knicks approach the homestretch.
Perhaps it was signs of fatigue or strategy when he had a rough three-game stretch recently, going 16-of-50 against the Lakers, Nuggets and Thunder.
“He’s human, and he’s going to have some nights like that,” Brown said Monday. “And his track record shows that he’ll go get it done.”
Brunson’s scoring has slumped since January, as he has averaged 23.1 points in his last 31 games. He was at 29.4 in the first 30. Is that because of Brunson’s increased effort on defense?
“It’s possible, but we’re not going to focus on that,” Brunson said. “We’re more focused on doing the little things. The offense will take care of itself.”
The plan for the oft-injured but critically effective backup center has worked as well as anyone could’ve anticipated. After playing just 48 games the past two seasons because of an assortment of injuries, Robinson has played 48 this season, with the team holding him out of back-to-back games and keeping his minutes at a manageable rate (19.2 per game) to ensure he will be ready for a heavier load come playoff time.
He averaged 17 minutes per game in November and 19.9 in December. In January, his heaviest month to date, he averaged nearly 22 minutes and crossed the 10-rebound-a-night threshold for the first month since November 2023.
Casey Smith, the Knicks’ highly regarded vice president of sports medicine, has spearheaded Robinson’s plan. Smith has been part of multiple runs with the U.S. men’s national team during the Olympics, as well as winning the 2024-25 NBA Athletic Training Staff of the Year award.
“The biggest thing is to get [Robinson] in games this year, to make sure that he stays healthy,” Brown said Monday.
Robinson’s presence gives the Knicks an advantage on the offensive glass, which Brown has said is part of their strategy to become a more potent 3-point shooting team. Many of their comebacks, such as Christmas Day against Cleveland or recently against the Rockets, were in large part because of Robinson’s offensive rebounding, which leads to a scrambled defense and open shooters.
Robinson’s free throw shooting woes have returned (39.5%) after he shot a career-high 68% last season, but his offensive rebounds per 36 minutes ranks No. 1 in the league (8.0). That’s a skill Brown plans to use in abundance over the next few months.
Holding everyone accountable — including Brown
Brown has had to learn a team that already knew itself before he arrived. The adjustment, especially in November when players, including Hart, grumbled about being benched in fourth quarters in consecutive games to Memphis and Orlando, hasn’t always been smooth.
But Brown has adjusted — and so have the players. The Knicks have turned into one of the league’s best 3-point shooting teams (sixth in makes, fourth in percentage), while going from a fifth-ranked offensive team to third this season. They were 14th in defense a year ago and are now eighth.
“Everybody’s a lot better with the accountability aspect of it too,” Brown said. “Not just making sure we’re holding each other accountable but being OK with being held accountable.”
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Brown has talked about leaning on the assistants who were holdovers on Thibodeau’s staff for guidance on dealing with players. Being collaborative and amenable to suggestions made him an attractive hire following Thibodeau. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t show his teeth at times.
After Sunday’s loss to the LeBron James-less Lakers, he was as outwardly frustrated as he has been all season. That’s perhaps a callback to the standard he wants.
He routinely said of the Lakers, “This is not a knock at them …” and then referred to mishaps the Knicks made all afternoon: the turnovers, poor decisions and bad defense.
“Whether it’s this game or another game, I’m always direct,” Brown said of his message to his team. “There’s no sugarcoating.”
The Knicks are two games behind the Celtics for the 2-seed in the East, a potential rematch of last season’s shocking semifinals. They’re just ahead of the Cavaliers, who defeated the Knicks easily in their last meeting. If the Knicks slip to the 4-seed, it could put them in the crosshairs of the Pistons, who are likely headed toward the top spot. Detroit has beaten the Knicks in three meetings this season, all in decisive fashion.
That’s where Brown will be ultimately judged: his team’s performance in the playoffs — and the road to getting there these next few weeks is just as important.
Remember NBA St. Patrick’s Day uniforms? Knicks, Bulls, Celtics, Raptors went green for the holiday
Anthony GharibMar 17, 2026, 11:00 AM
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St. Patrick’s Day is here, with eight games being played around the NBA, and one noticeable difference continues for yet another year — no holiday-themed uniforms.
During the league’s uniform partnership with Adidas, a select group of teams each year would wear special green uniforms on St. Patrick’s Day. The Chicago Bulls, New York Knicks and Boston Celtics were frequent participants and jump-started the trend in the mid-2000s.
However, similar to special Christmas Day threads, the initiative ended when Nike became the NBA’s uniform supplier ahead of the 2017-18 season and introduced the current “Edition” system for uniforms. As a result, more emphasis went toward the yearly City Edition program rather than one-off holiday uniforms. The NBA and WNBA agreed to a 12-year contract extension with Nike in 2024.
In the absence of festive threads for this season, here’s a look back at notable St. Patrick’s Day jerseys of the past.
New York Knicks
How lucky was the look? 3-3 overall record in St. Patrick’s Day uniforms
New York went deep into its uniform closet each St. Patrick’s Day with an all-green look that included orange and black trims throughout. The Knicks debuted the threads against the Detroit Pistons on March 17, 2006, and it brought them good luck.
Led by 18 points off the bench from Jamal Crawford, the Knicks defeated the Eastern Conference-leading Pistons 105-103.
New York last wore the green threads during the 2011-12 season, a win against the Indiana Pacers.
Chicago Bulls
How lucky was the look? 4-6 overall record in St. Patrick’s Day uniforms
The Bulls went from red to green for a look that surely took some getting used to for die-hard fans. Even though the uniform was all green, the bull logo on the shorts and back of the jersey remained the traditional black and red.
Chicago first wore the threads against the Miami Heat in an 85-84 loss on March 18, 2006, a day after the holiday. The Bulls wore the uniform each year until the 2016-17 campaign except in 2015-16.
Boston Celtics
How lucky was the look? 4-4 overall record in St. Patrick’s Day uniforms
Green is already the Celtics’ primary shade, but even they received a neat makeover ahead of St. Patrick’s Day 2006. The numbers and “Celtics” word mark were turned gold with a similar color trim across the shorts and jersey. They uniform set received a slight tweak for the 2013-14 season with a short-sleeve version.
Like Chicago, Boston donned the special look until the 2017-18 campaign.
How lucky was the look? 1-4 overall record in St. Patrick’s Day uniforms
Toronto entered the holiday trend on St. Patrick’s Day 2008, debuting a clean look in a road defeat against the Utah Jazz. The Raptors continued to wear it for the next four seasons.
Their only victory came when Chris Bosh made the winning jump shot with two seconds left against the Atlanta Hawks in 2010, his final season in Toronto.
SGA breaks Wilt’s record: Thunder star’s historic feat, by the numbers
Zach KramMar 13, 2026, 03:07 AM
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Editor’s note: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander broke Wilt Chamberlain’s record for most consecutive 20-point games in NBA history (127) against the Boston Celtics on Thursday.
On Nov. 1, 2024, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 30 points in a 137-114Oklahoma City Thunder win in Portland. It wasn’t an especially notable performance at the time; Gilgeous-Alexander had averaged 30.1 points the previous season en route to an MVP runner-up finish.
Now, 16 months later, that game carries great historical importance, as it was the start of a 127-game odyssey for a player who has since won the regular-season MVP award, been named Finals MVP and has now broken a 63-year-old record.
Against the visiting Celtics, Gilgeous-Alexander scored at least 20 points for the 127th game in a row, dating to that night in Portland. He passed the great Wilt Chamberlain for the longest such streak in NBA history.
It’s a fitting record, based in historic consistency, for the man who once declared, “My whole life is consistent, everything I do.”
To commemorate that consistency, here are the 20 wildest, most extreme and most impressive stats about Gilgeous-Alexander’s historic 20-point streak. (Note: The facts that follow reflect his performance through 126 games.)
1. The first surprise about Gilgeous-Alexander’s accomplishment is that he even came close to Chamberlain’s record. Nobody else had done so previously; before SGA, the second-longest 20-point streak in NBA history belonged to Chamberlain himself, at 92 games. There’s a reason Gilgeous-Alexander considers Chamberlain “almost like a mythical creature,” because his statistical feats were so singular.
Oscar Robertson’s 79-gamer was in third place — which means that for all of NBA history until this season, Chamberlain was the only player to push his streak as long as the equivalent of an entire season. And even Robertson’s streak brought him only 63% of the way to the record.
2. The competition has been even less compelling recently. In the 21st century, Kevin Durant is the only other player to get more than halfway to Chamberlain; he had a 72-gamer that started in his last season in Oklahoma City and ended early in his Warriors tenure. Next on the 21st-century list is Kobe Bryant, who reached 63 games in a row — exactly halfway to Chamberlain’s 126 — from December 2005 to November 2006.
On average, the longest 20-point streak for every MVP this century other than Gilgeous-Alexander is only 36 games.
Longest 20-point streaks from 21st-century MVPs
3. Meanwhile, the next-longest active streak behind SGA belongs to Kawhi Leonard at 42 games, and Leonard and the currently injured Joel Embiid (24 games) are the only active players whose streaks extend back to 2025, let alone 2024. Gilgeous-Alexander’s streak isn’t the result of an era effect so much as a superlative achievement from the reigning MVP — and the heavy favorite to repeat in 2025-26.
4. Against that historical backdrop, it’s worth doing some math to place the extremity of this streak in context. Over the past two seasons, during which Gilgeous-Alexander embarked on his record-setting mission, players named to an All-Star team have scored 20-plus points in 71% of their games. Given that base probability, the odds of an All-Star reaching 20-plus points 126 games in a row are about 1 in 3,200,000,000,000,000,000, or 1 in 3.2 quintillion.
The quintillion range is also the same magnitude as one estimate of the number of grains of sand on Earth. In other words, the chances of a modern NBA All-Star surpassing Chamberlain’s streak are roughly the odds of finding a specific grain of sand somewhere on the entire planet.
5. So how, exactly, did Gilgeous-Alexander beat those outrageous odds and chase down one of Chamberlain’s many long-standing records? One answer is that he excelled from every area on the court.
Splitting Gilgeous-Alexander’s 4,092 points during his streak across the general regions of the offensive end, as defined by GeniusIQ, there is a remarkably even distribution. He has scored between 16% and 25% of his points from all five areas: free throw line, restricted area, key, midrange and 3-point range.
For comparison, the second-highest-scoring player over the past two seasons is Luka Doncic. And while Doncic generates a similar proportion of his points from the charity stripe (23%), he is far more skewed to 3-point range (36%) than closer to the basket (11% from the restricted area). Gilgeous-Alexander’s shot distribution is uniquely egalitarian for a guard in the modern NBA.
6. Gilgeous-Alexander is also not a static player; he has improved during his streak. He is only a 35.9% career 3-point shooter, but he’s up at 39.3% since last year’s All-Star break. That mark places him in the same range as star shooters Stephen Curry (39.8%), Kawhi Leonard (39.0%), Anthony Edwards (38.9%), Desmond Bane (38.8%), and Klay Thompson (38.4%) during that span.
7. Gilgeous-Alexander has also improved inside the arc: He’s making a career-high 60.1% of his 15 2-point attempts per game this season. That’s the most efficient 2-point performance for a guard in NBA history (minimum 10 attempts per game).
8. Gilgeous-Alexander’s overall efficiency is also near the top of the charts thanks to the combination of his improved 3-point marksmanship, historic 2-point accuracy and penchant for drawing fouls (and converting at a 90% clip from the line). With a 66.7% true shooting mark, Gilgeous-Alexander ranks second on the all-time list of 30-point scorers. Only Stephen Curry’s 66.9% figure from 2015-16 — when he won a unanimous MVP award and produced arguably the greatest offensive season in NBA history, with a record-setting 402 3-pointers — ranks higher.
9. Gilgeous-Alexander’s overall efficiency improves further because he’s not just generating positive plays, but avoiding negative ones as well. He’s averaging just 2.1 turnovers per game this season, which is the fewest on record for a player averaging 30 PPG. The previous record belonged to … Gilgeous-Alexander, who averaged 2.2 turnovers in 2023-24. And last season, he was at 2.4 turnovers per game, which is tied with Michael Jordan’s 1995-96 campaign for the third-fewest.
10. Since the start of last season, Gilgeous-Alexander naturally leads the league in 20-point games. But he is also No. 1 by a wide margin in 30-point games, with 86. Doncic is in second place with 59, which is 31% behind SGA’s total
11. Gilgeous-Alexander is also tied for the most 40-point games since the start of last season; he and Edwards have 18 apiece.
12. And even though Gilgeous-Alexander is known more as a consistent scorer than an explosive one, he also leads the league in 50-point games since the start of last season, with five. Nikola Jokic (four) is the only other player with more than two.
13. Plotting Gilgeous-Alexander’s game-by-game point totals over the course of his 126-game streak reveals another even spread. Gilgeous-Alexander has scored exactly 20 points, 21 points, 22 points and so on, all the way up to 42, at least once.
SGA’s single-game point totals during streak
He is most often clustered in the low 30s. His modal point total during his streak is 30 points on the nose (13 times), followed by 31 (11 times), 35 (nine times) and 32 and 33 (eight times apiece).
14. Those point totals pale in comparison to Chamberlain’s, of course. The Big Dipper averaged 49.2 PPG over his record streak, compared to SGA’s 32.5. But Chamberlain also benefited from now-unheard-of playing time, as he averaged 48.4 minutes per contest and was subbed out in just three of 126 games. (In those games, he still played 45, 40 and 36 minutes.)
Gilgeous-Alexander, for comparison, hasn’t reached 48 minutes in any game during his streak and has far more games with minutes totals in the 20s (24) than 40s (five).
15. Calculating the two stars’ stats on a per-36-minute basis to even out the playing time disparity reveals a much closer competition: 36.6 points per 36 minutes for Chamberlain versus 34.4 from Gilgeous-Alexander.
16. One statistic where the two scoring superstars notably diverge is team success. Oklahoma City has gone 102-24 during Gilgeous-Alexander’s streak, compared to the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors’ 66-60 mark during Chamberlain’s.
17. Zooming out, Gilgeous-Alexander is on pace to average 30-plus PPG for the fourth consecutive season. The only other players in NBA history to accomplish this feat are Chamberlain (seven straight years), Jordan (seven), Robertson (four) and Adrian Dantley (four).
18. The only players to average 30-plus PPG for four straight years and win a title during that span are Gilgeous-Alexander and Jordan.
19. So, returning to Gilgeous-Alexander’s present accomplishment: How high can his 20-point streak climb? After all, Chamberlain’s streak snapped because of a fluke rather than underperformance: After 126 20-point games in a row, he was ejected just four minutes into Game 127 when he received two technical fouls for arguing a foul call against a teammate. Immediately thereafter, Chamberlain eclipsed the 20-point mark for 20 consecutive games, then missed once, then embarked on his 92-game streak.
In other words, Chamberlain was only one ill-timed argument and a few bounces away from an astonishing 240-game 20-point streak, which would have nearly doubled the actual record.
20. Gilgeous-Alexander, conversely, isn’t a threat to be ejected, and he hasn’t even had any close calls of late. Since he returned from injury at the end of February, Gilgeous-Alexander has averaged 30.8 PPG and scored at least 26 in all five games.
It’s still reasonable to expect his streak to end before too long, just given the sheer odds against even reaching triple digits, let alone continuing in perpetuity. Before his current run, SGA’s longest 20-point streaks were 37 games in 2023, 29 games in 2024 and 20 games in 2023-24. He has clearly leveled up as a scorer over the past two seasons, but plenty of other historically great scorers didn’t get anywhere near 126 games — and counting — in a row.
But that’s all the more reason to appreciate Gilgeous-Alexander’s latest achievement. Matching any of Chamberlain’s multitudinous records is worthy of celebration.
Bam Adebayo’s AAU coach weighs in on historic 83-point performance
Jason Jordan
Mar 13, 2026, 06:20 PMShareLikeOpen Extended Reactions181
Even days after Bam Adebayo‘s 83-point outing, the Miami Heat star’s former AAU coach, Ty White, is stuck in a wild mental dichotomy as he ponders the historic night.
Yes, he’s shocked that the 6-foot-9 center finished with the mind-boggling stat line, but not because he didn’t think he was capable.
It’s just that 83 points is, well, 83 points!
“I mean, it’s so crazy to think that anyone could score that many points in an NBA game,” said White, director of Team Loaded. “But in retrospect, the kid was always a super athlete who always had a nose for the basketball. I wasn’t even watching the game live, so many people started texting me saying, ‘Bam Bam Bam!'”
Adebayo’s 83 points, nine rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks came in a 150-129 win over the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night. He went 7-of-22 from 3 and set an NBA record for most free throws made (36) and attempted (43).
Prior to the game, Adebayo’s career high was 41 points.
Adebayo’s 83 points were the second-most points scored in a game in NBA history, trailing only Wilt Chamberlain‘s legendary 100-point outing in 1962.
White said that, aside from Adebayo’s overwhelming athleticism, he had the innate ability to “do something to ‘wow’ you every game” during his playing days with Team Loaded.
“That was without fail,” White said. “He would do something that would make you just scratch your head at how he was able to do that. We were the most exciting team in the country to watch, and it was mostly because of him.”
White pointed to Adebayo’s development as a scorer over the years, going from a powerful athlete to a meticulously skilled scorer.
“When he was with me, he was more of a lob threat, drop-off guy,” White said. “Now, he’s initiating offense and he’s one of the most versatile players in the league. The way he’s evolved as a player is just unreal.”
That said, White’s amazement at the point total is understandable — Adebayo’s career high with Team Loaded was just 30 points. He averaged 25 points and 15 rebounds a game.
“Eighty-three is just wild, I don’t care who you are,” White said. “He’s got to just believe the sky is the limit after that. His confidence has to be at an all-time high right now and rightfully so. People can say what they want, but at the end of the day he’s No. 2 behind Wilt with 83, and nobody can take that away.”
Fantasy basketball pickups: Sensabaugh, Williams stepping up for Jazz
André SnellingsMar 16, 2026, 06:15 PM
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We are well into the fantasy hoops playoffs at this point, and every game played is magnified in importance. In both daily and weekly leagues, it is important to maximize the number of productive player-games on your squad, and every day there are more lightly rostered players getting elevated opportunities and performing like starters.
So, as we do every week, let’s identify some of these players that can help your squad get to the finish line with the best chance to win.
Scoot Henderson, PG, Portland Trail Blazers (14.5% rostered in ESPN leagues): Henderson has scored in double digits in four straight games, averaging 20.3 PPG, 3.8 3PG and 3.0 APG in 24.8 MPG off the bench over that span.
Ajay Mitchell, Oklahoma City Thunder (37.8% rostered in ESPN leagues): Mitchell returned from his long injury absence without missing a beat. In three games back, he has averaged 16.7 PPG and 4.0 APG in 28.7 MPG.
Quentin Grimes, SG, Philadelphia 76ers (38.1% rostered in ESPN leagues): Grimes has stepped up as the primary scoring option for the 76ers with their three stars all out either injured or suspended. Grimes has scored at least 23 points in four of his last six games and has averaged 29.5 PPG in his last two.
Cody Williams, SG, Utah Jazz (3.8% rostered in ESPN leagues): Williams has ramped up his game tremendously over the last couple of weeks. He has scored in double figures in six straight games, with one points/rebounds double-double and three other games with at least seven assists. He exploded on Sunday with a by-far career-best 34 points alongside seven rebounds and seven assists.
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Brice Sensabaugh, SF, Jazz (25.6% rostered in ESPN leagues): Sensabaugh has started four straight games for the Jazz and scored at least 21 points in all four. In that span, he has notched 25.8 PPG with 4.3 A3PG, 3.3 RPG and 1.8 stocks.
Gui Santos, SF, Golden State Warriors (26.3% rostered in ESPN leagues): Santos has become a consistent plus-scorer for the Warriors. He has started six straight games, averaging 17.5 PPG, 6.7 RPG and 5.0 APG over that span.
Jarace Walker, PF, Indiana Pacers (17.4% rostered in ESPN Leagues): Walker moved into the starting lineup for the Pacers on February 11 and, in the 14 games since, he has notched 15.0 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 3.9 APG and 1.9 3PG in 31.2 MPG.
Jerami Grant, PF, Trail Blazers (46.8%): Grant has scored at least 20 points in nine of his last 11 games as the most consistent healthy scoring option on the Trail Blazers in that span. He’s also been averaging 2.9 3PG in those games, with his long-range shooting providing a significant portion of his scoring.
Center
Wendell Carter Jr., C, Orlando Magic (30.2% rostered in ESPN leagues): Carter has been productive all season, but in the last week he has stepped up both his scoring and his rebounding to help the Magic stay hot. Over his last three games, he has averaged 15.0 PPG and 10.0 RPG along with a combined three 3-pointers, blocks and steals per game.
Maxime Raynaud, C, Sacramento Kings (33.1% rostered in ESPN leagues): Raynaud has either scored at least 20 points or grabbed double-digit rebounds in 10 of his last 13 games, averaging 15.6 PPG and 9.7 RPG over that span. Raynaud and Precious Achiuwa (40.9% rostered) have formed a strong 1-2 punch in the Kings frontcourt.
NBA consecutive scoring streaks: Player records to know
Keith Jenkins
Mar 18, 2026, 01:34 AMShareLikeOpen Extended Reactions926
What’s more impressive: scoring 100 points in a single game or scoring 60-plus points in three straight games twice in the span of a month and a half?
Wilt Chamberlain accomplished both during a dominant stretch of the 1961-62 NBA season.
One of Chamberlain’s many other NBA scoring records was broken by reigning NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. When the Oklahoma City Thunder guard scored 20 against the Boston Celtics on March 12th, it marked his 127th consecutive game with 20-plus points, breaking Chamberlain’s record of 126 games (1961-63).
While SGA’s streak is going strong, another came to an end. In December 2025, LeBron James‘ streak of consecutive games with 10-plus points ended at 1,297, after scoring eight points in a win against the Toronto Raptors.
Take a look at other consecutive scoring streaks in NBA history below:
Pistons guard Cade Cunningham leaves game with back spasms
ESPN News Services
Mar 18, 2026, 01:06 AMShareLikeOpen Extended Reactions9
WASHINGTON — Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham, a two-time All-Star who is among the leaders in the NBA MVP race, left Tuesday night’s game against the Washington Wizards with back spasms.
Cunningham appeared to suffer an injury early in the first quarter while diving for a loose ball. He played for a few more minutes before being taken out at the 6:40 mark.
The team said during the second quarter he would not return.
Cunningham is averaging 25 points, 10 assists and 5.6 rebounds this season. He had six points and two rebounds in 5 minutes, 20 seconds Tuesday night before leaving the game.
Cunningham has played 61 games this season. A player must appear in 65 games to qualify for major postseason awards such as MVP and All-NBA teams.
Anthony GharibMar 17, 2026, 11:00 AM
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