Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily presented by Amazon Prime for March 23rd, 2026. I'm Dave DeFore here with Espera Henney and Zena Keita coming up. KD passes MJ on the all-time scoring list. J-Dub is back and we're going to talk about some of the teams that have been more impressive since the All-Star break. Good morning, everybody. What's up, guys?
You guys watch college basketball all weekend or are you grinding NBA tape like I am? I'm grinding NBA tape, truthfully.
I think I'm a little bit more on the college, women's college side. Let's just be real.
Chapter 2: What does Kevin Durant's milestone of passing Michael Jordan mean for his legacy?
That's right. Yeah, it's a little bit of both for me.
Yeah, well, let's do a plug, by the way, for No Off Season. Yes. That is our women's basketball podcast hosted by Zena Kadis. Go and check that out. Anything crazy happen in the tournament over the weekend, Zena?
Like on the women's side? I will just say this. The community. committee knows exactly what it's doing. Once it gets past the first round, you're not really going to get upset on the women's side, but that four or five, those, those combinations have been some incredibly exciting, really tough matchups. So, yeah. So now I would say the madness is really about to start on the women's side.
Zena, just a heads up. And this is not college related. I am going to bug you about tempo stuff in the coming months. I'm just going to keep bugging you.
Yes. I'm very excited.
Another favorite team. What are you talking about? This is my job. I am impartial.
That's fair. There you go. There you go. But yes, CBA agreed to WNBA season is coming. So I think more than anything, March Madness is crazy, but that what's about to happen with the WNBA season, a draft is,
Isn't that like 700 free agents?
Yes, yes. Pretty much 80% of all the vets are wide open. So that is really the March Madness that's about to happen. Let's see. Yeah, that's going to be fun.
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Chapter 3: Can Kevin Durant realistically pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the all-time scoring list?
were the favorites, you know, the best two teams in the West coming into the season. Whether that's what it is now or not, I don't know. But they're finally, for the first time all year, we're going to see them at full health. So, I mean, I'm wondering, do you guys feel the same about Denver right now as you do with OKC, where it's like, hey, OKC, they're powerhouse, they're full strength.
I mean, you guys expect Denver to look good here down the stretch? Like...
dominant even I don't put it past them I still don't think I've seen enough consistency out of what Cam Johnson is supposed to provide for Denver for me to be able to say it in this to compare it to OKC where pretty much everyone with OKC has been consistent to what you expect them to have or be and you add in Jared McCain who's been great for them as well um I think it's great that Peyton Watson is back not only just from an offensive perspective he's great on like
Great off the bounce, but defensively, that's really where I'm thinking he can raise the Nuggets ceiling. He can switch one through five. He is long. He gives you that length that you need on the wing. And David Adelman hasn't really had that size to play with consistently on the defensive end. So I really think that that's going to be huge for Denver's defense to get healthy right now.
Yeah, I mean, both Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson are so important to the weak side help for Jokic. And they've bailed him out so many times when they're healthy this season of like Jokic is going to blow coverage. Boom, Peyton Watson is there or Aaron Gordon is there to cover them. And so they need that in the final stretch of the season. They need that for the playoffs.
He, it's obvious what he can provide as a role player. To me, what's exciting to your point, Dave is like that shock creation. Do they have another level that they can get to with what Peyton, Peyton Watson has also worth mentioning San Antonio Spurs. You know, I just feel like we have to mention that name because we brought up Denver. We brought up. Okay. See, I,
I would firmly put the Spurs in that category now, too, as a team that can make it out of the Western Conference. No question.
Yeah, we just didn't. I don't think we saw the Spurs coming. I agree with you. They're a year early to me, and incredibly so. Anyway, guys, stick around. After the break, we're going to talk about some of the teams that have been impressive since the All-Star break. Guys, the Lakers have won nine in a row thanks to a Luke Kennard buzzer beater against the Magic over the weekend.
No, thanks to Paulo Banqueiro blowing the coverage twice.
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Chapter 4: How are the Oklahoma City Thunder improving as they get healthy?
I had low expectations of the CJ McCollum move because, you know, he's a veteran guard. He was going to be coming off the bench for them. But he's basically doing what he was doing for the Wizards, which made them trade him. Like they had to get CJ McCollum off the Wizards because he was too good.
And so that's why I thought it wasn't going to work because they had a young athletic team in Washington and it didn't work. But it's working here.
I don't get it. I think there's a the big thing is that Atlanta is trying to win and that Wizards just didn't want to do it. And so when you add a guy like CJ McCollum, who was having a good season, I think it makes a lot of sense for them. The biggest thing, though, this defense with Nikhil Alexander Walker and Dyson Daniels. Yep. That's something Daniels. Yeah, that is something.
And so Daniels has gotten better offensively. We knew he was the glue defensively, but he's even finding his own shot. He still can't shoot from three to save his life, but he's getting he's getting buckets where he can find his heart.
I will say they have a tough schedule moving forward. So they play the Celtics a couple of times. They play the Cavs a couple of times. They play the Knicks. They play the Heat. I'm very excited to see how this March basketball is. Okay.
All right. Y'all Atlanta. Y'all hear him. The Celtics guys. It's a weird time to pick the Celtics on this. Cause you know, they just dropped a bad one to the Timberwolves yesterday at home. It was the first time in 20 years, 21 years. This is Kevin Garnett. Yeah. Yeah, since the Wolves beat Boston in Boston, which is an absurd stat. But guys, look, the Celtics are 12 and five since the break.
They're still the two seed, although as we sit here right now, they only have a half game lead over the Knicks. I do not believe that they're going to catch the Pistons for the one seed, but they're in a fight for two with the Knicks. Tatum continues to look pretty good in the comeback. They're deep. We like this team, I think, better than last year. Their big man rotation is so much better.
You guys, what do you think? Is this more like are we seeing the Celtics become title contender, not just, you know, they're going to have, you know, maybe they make it to the conference finals?
Yeah, especially with the Cade Cunningham injury, which we genuinely don't know when he's going to come back. And I hope Cade does come back. He's obviously having an incredible season and like it would really, really suck if that's the way his season ends. Hopefully he's OK. But with that injury now. I think the Celtics are the favorites to come out of the East just because Jason Tatum exists.
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