Embiid + Ja throwback games + Do the Lakers need to make moves?
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What is the latest update on Nikola Jokić's injury?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily. I'm Dave DeFore here with Zena Keita. Happy New Year's Eve, everybody. Coming up, we got some good news about Nikola Jokic. Weird to say because he's going to miss a month. And the Sixers and Grizzlies had a heck of a game. Turn back the clock night for Ja and Embiid. Dan Wicke is here to talk about the Lakers and their struggles and what they might do with the deadline. Good morning, everybody. Happy New Year. Hey, Zena. It's New Year's Eve. I'm assuming you got huge plans for New Year's Eve.
Huge plans. Number one, waking up at 9 a.m. to do pregame for the Warriors playing Charlotte. There you go. What a great day. It's a great day to start off that way.
You know, listen, we probably sounded insane on yesterday's show. Yeah. I just want to come out and apologize. Were we melodramatic?
How did Joel Embiid and Ja Morant perform in their recent game?
I was going to say y'all were going through. We were. I mean, it was a shocking turn of events. You know, you just don't see Jokic wallowing in pain like that. But we got some good news, Xena. We got the report he's only going to maybe miss about a month, six weeks or so with a knee contusion. Same injury that Cam Johnson is also out for about a month with.
What challenges are the Lakers facing this season?
Again, good news compared to what it could have been. But bad news for the Nuggets. Bad news for Nikola Jokic's MVP case. Bad news, in my opinion, for the MVP race in general and the NBA, because I think that the 65 game rule, as we've seen already in the last couple of years, it really throws a wrench in the entire narrative arc of the regular season. You know, I want to start with the Nuggets first, OK? If it's a month, it's 18 games. They got February 1st circled on the calendar. That's the first game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Maybe he's back for that. Let's just we'll live in that world. But man, that's a long time being down. You know, there are four starters right now. Maybe they get a little bit healthier this week.
But how are they going to make do here in the next month?
It's a really good question. We've been crediting the Denver Nuggets for finding gems within their roster in the midst of these absences. Like how are they still winning games without Christian Brown, without Aaron Gordon? Like they've been able to find some extra special help in Spencer Jones and Bruce Brown and all these folks stepping up. And of course, Jamal Murray has been excellent. But now the main reason that we've been able to see Jamal Murray be excellent is because of the gravity that Nikola Jokic provides him to be able to maneuver around the court with a little bit more freedom. We know that he can create, but now that he's going to be the number one option on the scouting report, what does that look like?
What does that look like once they clamp down? And so I'm actually genuinely curious. It's a really good question. I'm not sure how they're going to figure it out, but they've been pretty resilient this year so far.
Yeah, I mean, look, it'll give us an opportunity to see Deron Holmes. I mean, he missed his entire rookie year. So, you know, he played eight minutes in the game that Jokic exited with the injury. So I'm sure we'll see more run out of him. Christian Brown, Aaron Gordon due back soon. You know, if not here in the next week, now that Jokic is out, I just don't know. But I do want to swing it to the MVP race because I think that this is an important thing to talk about. Like we mentioned it the other day when we talked about the Thunder kind of dropping off, not being this special team that we thought they might be, 70-plus wins, and what it did for the MVP case for Shea Gilgis-Alexander. Well, if Jokic misses an entire month, you can only miss 17 games, and it would be 18 games.
So he would be ineligible for not just the MVP, but awards in general. Right. And, I mean... Trying to explain the story of this season, Zena, without him even being on an all NBA team would be absurd because he, as we mentioned, he's having statistically the greatest offensive season in NBA history. There's just no way that you can talk about whatever happens this year without talking about Jokic.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the latest update on Nikola Jokić's injury?
0:09–1:03
2
How did Joel Embiid and Ja Morant perform in their recent game?
1:03–1:25
3
What challenges are the Lakers facing this season?
1:25–5:59
4
How does LeBron's birthday performance reflect on his career?
5:59–8:27
5
What are the implications of the Lakers' current roster decisions?
8:27–11:54
6
How does the MVP race change with player injuries?
11:54–15:13
7
What strategies can the Lakers use to improve their performance?
15:13–19:06
8
What are the long-term prospects for the Lakers this season?
19:06–37:20