East + West Playoff check-in
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What are the latest updates on the NBA playoff races?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily presented by Amazon Prime for March 2nd, 2026. I'm Dave DeFore. Here with Zena Keita and S. Baraheni. Coming up, six weeks left in the regular season. We're going to check in on the playoff races in the Western Conference, in the Eastern Conference after a weekend of big games. Good morning, everybody. What's up, guys? I'm happy to be back. Welcome back. After you just did that intro, I'm happy you're back, too. My God. I struggle doing those things. I agree. Hey, I just got to say, first, off the top, thank you guys for doing such a great job piloting the ship last week. I didn't watch any basketball games. It was great, but I still know what was happening in the league because I listen to the show every morning.
There you go. I had to do it.
It's part of the job. But also, man, you guys were great. It was a lot of fun. Law Murray talking about power rankings. Oh, yeah. Accompanied me on a very nice hike. And I was, like, very intrigued by his entire process. So if you're listening or if you're watching on YouTube, great time to like, subscribe, leave a five-star review because it was on my mind. I don't think I'm allowed to do it ethically. It's kind of like voting for yourself. It's a little bit lame. So, you know, if a few hundred people were to do that, that'd be fantastic. Yeah. Anyway, guys, my first weekend back and we get marquee matchups all weekend long. I mean, it started Friday where we had shorthanded Cavs. Sure. Got a great game with Cavs and Pistons.
I mean, the Rockets losing to the Heat is going to come up. But I thought that after all these big games and looking ahead at the schedule, we only have six weeks left until we get to the playoffs. It's all about the playoffs right now. So I thought it was a good time to check in on where we're at. And as we're recording, look, the Oklahoma City Thunder are sitting exactly where they've been in the Western Conference. They're at number one. They've been there all year. And, you know, the Spurs just had this 11 game win streak. So they were hot on their heels until they ran into the Knicks, which seems like the Knicks are the one team that's giving the Spurs some trouble right now this season, guys. Which is so strange, just considering the matchup and what the Knicks have allowed all season in terms of paint points.
And the Spurs are really good at getting into the paint. Now, do we think that when Minyama could probably do more scoring in the paint? Absolutely. We always believe that. But yeah, it just feels like the Knicks turn up the physicality when they go up against the Spurs. Would you say that is?
Yeah, I think so. And I also thought, like, the Knicks did a really good job of scoring in the paint against the Spurs, which is something a lot of teams have struggled to do against Victor Wiminyama and the Spurs. One of it is, like, the Spurs have such a great point-of-attack defense with their kind of three-headed monster, if you will. But at the same time, they have that backline defense of Victor Wiminyama that just cleans up everything that they do. So the fact that the Knicks were able to score in the paint, to your point, shows a level of physicality. And also, I think... You know, the Spurs played really good basketball in February. And a lot of that was, I think, in part because their three-point shooting was awesome.
Yeah. In February, they were seventh in three-point percentage all month. And tonight they shot, well, against the Knicks, they shot 26%. Like the three-point shot wasn't falling. And I think that really hurt their offensive scheme against the Knicks team that obviously can shoot the ball well. Yeah, they only put up 89 points, 41 points in the first half.
And they had 22 turnovers, which provided New York 24 points. I mean, that run at the end of the first quarter, they went 19 straight points, I believe. I mean, these were crazy runs that New York was allowed to go on. And that is unheard of, typically, that the Spurs aren't able to respond. That's actually kind of been their calling card all season.
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