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 18th, 2026. I'm Dave DeFore here with Espera Henney. Coming up, the Thunder clinch a playoff berth. Anthony Edwards is going to miss a week. And S&I draft lottery teams by who has the most hope. Good morning, everybody. What is up? S, did you catch the baseball game last night? Yes.
Feliz studies to my Venezuelans, man. Shout out to y'all. Enjoy yourselves. Great time to be Venezuelan, Dave. S is a huge baseball fan as of last year. As of 25 minutes ago. Yes. No, I'm kidding.
Chapter 2: What led to the Thunder clinching a playoff berth?
I'm kidding. Shout out to my Blue Jays. We'll be back.
Chapter 3: How did the Timberwolves perform without Anthony Edwards?
Redemption, as you know. World Baseball Classic. Man, what a fun format for baseball. It's so good. Electric. Yeah. Again, you know, it made me think about the World Cup and how much fun that is. And if you guys get a chance to go to a World Cup ever. It's a lot of fun. Even Eurobasket, you know. Yeah, if we don't get priced out of World Cup tickets.
Yeah, well, I mean, the Olympic tickets, I'm sure, are going to be crazy in 2028 out in L.A. Yeah, it's going to be crazy. Let's go to the NBA. Look, another night, another Thunder win. They're now 54-15. They handled the Magic in Orlando, 113-108. Actually, S. I think we should tip our caps to the Orlando Magic, at least to their starters. They really played well.
They were in it for basically the entire game. Paolo Bancaro had a nice night, 32 points. Kind of the sort of game that we've been talking about out of him since the All-Star break. Able to score. Other guys able to feed off of that. But the big story is the Thunder. They're the first team to clinch the playoffs. Shea Gilchrist-Alexander. 40 points. Very casual.
Again, it's like watching Michael Jordan right now. I'm glad you brought that up, Dave. Oh. I'm glad you brought that up, actually. Oh, did we stumble on an organic bit? We did stumble on an organic bit. I'm glad. It's just poetic that you brought up Michael Jordan. Perfect. Awesome. So look, the Thunder won 68 games last year. They are on pace to win 65 plus again. Okay.
The last time that a team did that in back-to-back seasons, very obvious answer here, the Golden State Warriors. They did that in back-to-back. Actually, they did that three seasons in a row between 2014 and 2017. The last time, before that, was Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls in the 90s, the 95-96 and 96-97 season. Obviously, the 72-win season, but they won 67 the following year.
My point is it's really hard to win 65-plus games two seasons in a row, and the Oklahoma City Thunder are going to do it. That's all I'm saying. I think that's worthwhile to mention while it's happening. We don't know if they're going to win the championship. We don't know if they're a dynasty, yada, yada, yada.
But just to mention it now, you know, kind of give them their flowers while they're blooming type of thing. The Oklahoma City Thunder are on their pace to win 65 games again. Are they going to are they going to hold off the Spurs for the one seat? I think they will. I think they will. I don't see them dropping a whole lot.
The other aspect to this whole thing is that Jalen Williams has barely played this year for them. He's played like 30 games for them. Alex Caruso has missed a bunch of games. Isaiah Hartenstein has missed a bunch of games for them. It feels like they probably could have won more given if they were healthy. And the other aspect to that is they won 68 games last year and they weren't healthy.
So I just, I know that's a factor here, health, but again, just tipping your cap to the Oklahoma city thunder for winning 65 plus games. I mean, it's a credit to the depth that they've got. I mean, you know, even in this game, what are they played? They play 11 guys. Yeah. You know, I mean, I thought you would be more impressed by that stat 65 plus games.
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Chapter 4: What factors contribute to the Thunder's success this season?
But just as a secondary creator or maybe tertiary creator next to Desmond Bain and Paolo Bancaro, it's so important for them. I mean, we've talked about this for the last year and a half, how important Jalen Suggs is for the magic. That's proving to be the case again. Their turnaround really coincided with him getting right.
And I just think having his energy out there matters for them quite a bit. Even when he's not on the ball. I just think the way that he plays, especially on defensive end, kind of gets those guys going. We got news. Anthony Edwards is going to be out. one to two weeks with the knee injury, and it was poor timing because the Timberwolves played the Suns last night.
The Suns were only two games back of the Wolves, but pretty good showing. Look, Julius Randle continues to impress this year. Yeah, he was awesome. Every single time they need him. I mean, he's been a great number two option. I know that everyone wants Jaden McDaniels to be this number two guy, but... It's been Julius Randle all year, 32 points, seven rebounds, had three steals.
Not as much, you know, the playmaking from him has not been a concern. It's not the issue. It's that these guys are not hitting shots, actually, because, you know, you look and you say, wow, he's got the ball a lot. Where are the assists? But. When you watch them, you realize, I mean, like, Dante DiVincenzo had a rough shooting game. Yeah. No, he did. Oh, I mean, 0 of 6.
This is like, maybe I'm being too nice about rough shooting games. He goes through stretches like that, man. Oh, man. It's crazy. You catch Dante DiVincenzo on the wrong night, and he looks like he has no chance of playing on the floor. But they got a lot from Bones Highland, you know? He poured in 22 points off the bench for them. I think overall, like... They have enough to sustain.
It's crazy to say because it's Anthony Edwards, and they obviously are much, much better with Ant in the lineup. But I do think they'll survive this stretch, and they've provided themselves a decent enough cushion. They're now three games ahead of the Suns, and the Suns are not looking great right now, truthfully. Yeah.
You know, that loss to the Raptors, loss to the Celtics, and now loss to the Timberwolves. I know the schedule got harder for them, but you can feel the difference of not having Dylan Brooks on there. You can feel the difference of not having Mark Williams in there. It feels like it's a lot of Devin Booker and a lot of reliance on him to basically be everything for them.
I mean, he scored 34 points tonight. He's doing what he can, but it's going to be tough for them to climb into that top six spot, truthfully. Yeah, if Anthony Edwards does miss, let's say he misses 10 days, that would put him out for four games. So he'd miss Utah. Portland at Boston and then a game against the Rockets. So, you know, you split those two and those you probably feel OK about it.
I mean, they are in that race with the Nuggets. You know, they're both both of those teams, three games up on the sun. So I feel like probably giving themselves enough cushion where they're not worried about falling in the play and just and it's funny one game. But, you know, there's just not a lot of time left.
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Chapter 5: What challenges do the Timberwolves face with Anthony Edwards' injury?
Yeah. I'm going to do the thing that everybody does with the Pelicans. And you do this presumed health, even though no one's ever healthy there. Right. If they're healthy next year, are they in the mix with their play in team or are they better than that? I think they're a playing team. They're probably, yeah. I don't think they could be any better than that.
So the high-level talent is the issue, right? Because Zion is sort of an unfulfilled promise. Right. It's not like, I don't think he's going to be a guy. Do you think they could, because Zion's been relatively healthy this season, do you think they could maybe use that to trade him this summer? Just be like, hey, he played 60 games. I don't know. I mean, what is that going to get you?
You know, I don't know. Yeah, you're right. I don't know what the value is. That's the weird thing about the Pelicans. It's like we can go and look at their roster and say Trey Murphy has value. Herb Jones has value. All these guys, DeJounte Murray will have value. What will they do with that is the question. But I didn't even pick them. Are you picking the Pelicans? No. Okay.
I was just saying, like, I look at them and I just say, man, they have all these good players, but I just don't believe in them. I'm going to go with the Wizards. I think that they ā I see the vision. Getting Trey Young and Anthony Davis isn't about winning a title. It's about getting more assets. It's a very Utah jazzy type pick in the sense that the floor is there. That's right.
But also getting more assets for those guys, which I think is the play. But they have good talent. They're just missing ā The high-end guy. They don't have the number one guy. I like Saar. I like Trey Johnson. Yeah, I like all their young guys. Trey Young and Trey Johnson have already kind of shown me that that's going to work offensively. And you can see where Anthony Davis and Saar will work.
Saar can stretch the floor. So, I mean, they're not going to win a title next year. I don't even think necessarily be that good. But I see the vision. And maybe I believe in the path they're taking. I think the Wizards are going to be a playoff team next year. I mean, it's the East. Not to go to the old cliche. I think they'll get a pick. Whatever that pick is, Trey and AD will play.
Trey, at the very least, will play. And that will give them a cushion to, especially in the Eastern Conference, at least be in the playoff. That's fun. That's fun. I could see it. Anyways, I agree with you. That's cool. I'm going to take the Pelicans. I feel like this is a comfortable spot to take the Pelicans. That was my debate, was those two teams. I mean, the Pels, again, the talent's there.
The other team I debated here, and I'm curious if this is going to be your pick, is the Chicago Bulls. It's hard. It's so hard. I mean, you know, look, I'm no longer a fan of the Bulls, but man, I just, I lived through it. I think, look, I think you're probably right. I mean, Giddy is a high floor player. Low ceiling. I mean, they should be a playoff or play-in team this year, right?
If they hadn't maybe played around so much to force themselves out. At this point, do we draft the team that has less talent but a higher chance of winning the lottery now? I mean, that's kind of what we're looking at, right? Like the Kings. Yeah, but ā okay. The Kings get the number one pick and they're messing it up, right? Like I just ā I mean, you're not wrong. You're not wrong.
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