Chapter 1: What happened in the Timberwolves vs. Cavaliers game?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily presented by Amazon Prime for January 9th, 2026. I'm Dave DeFore here with Zena Keita. Coming up, Cavs and Wolves matched up. We're going to talk about that game a little bit. The Pacers snapped their 13-game losing streak. We're going to hit that. And I sat down with Sam Amick and asked him the question we all want to know. Is Giannis leaving Milwaukee?
Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Zena. Good to see you. Hope you're doing OK out there in Chicago. You got the athletic show tomorrow morning. Doing great. Excited to get back on it. Starting New Year strong. Yeah, absolutely.
Before we talk about the Timberwolves Cavaliers game, we would like to also send our thoughts and prayers to everyone in Minneapolis, to the family of Renee Nicole Goode.
and join the timberwolves and the entire you know country in the world in sending our our condolences and thoughts um the timberwolves had a moment of silence before the game for renee nicole goode whose life was tragically and recklessly taken from her by a federal agent in minneapolis the other day um but again yeah our thoughts and prayers to her family and friends and everybody affected by this
Um, there was a basketball game as heavy as all of our hearts were. There was a basketball game. Um, and it was, it was pretty good. You know, the Timberwolves, they pick up another win, uh, one 31, one 22. They, they defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers. It's a good win for them in a string of good wins. They've been 15 and five Zena since Thanksgiving, uh, We talk about their offense.
They've got a number one guy in Anthony Edwards who typically shows up every single night. But that number two guy, Julius Randle, 28 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists, the playmaking.
I mean, the way that they're able to use Anthony Edwards off of Julius Randle, we get to see that against a top level defense in the Cleveland Cavaliers, at least when everybody's out there and playing at their best.
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Chapter 2: How did the Pacers snap their losing streak?
And they were able to score, I mean, 131 points on this Cavs defense is still something.
You have four players in 20 or more scoring. Like, that's huge. When you look on the other side of the ball, you only have Donovan Mitchell being able to put that number in 30. And Sam Merrill popped tonight, of course, or last night. But it's just not enough coming from Cleveland in terms of their offensive production. They started slow. They got blown out in that third quarter.
Their defense was just kind of all over the place a little bit all tonight. Darius Garland looked a little bit lost offensively. On defense, he was just continuously being overtaken, in my opinion. Overall, Minnesota did what they do, which is shoot threes and shoot them very well. They made 20 made threes versus 11 only for the Cavs. That's not going to be enough.
But yeah, I'm liking the way that Minnesota's rolling.
Yeah. And look, I will say the Cavs, they tried out a little bit of a different look in the starting lineup. Craig Porter Jr. was out there because DeAndre Hunter has just been struggling for them. They've got to figure this out. And maybe it's sometimes it's going to be Sam Merrill when you need extra offense. And sometimes it's going to be maybe Jalen Tyson or DeAndre Hunter or someone.
But they're in the stage of we have to figure out how to solve our problems because the playoffs are coming. We don't want to be a first round out. And right now they look like it.
1000%. They have got to get that defense together and they've got us. They look soft. Yeah. They got to toughen up a little bit.
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Chapter 3: What insights did Sam Amick share about the Trae Young trade?
Yeah, absolutely. The Pacers. Ooh, they've lost 13 in a row. You know, this is just, again, the, the injury stuff with them. They lose miles Turner. It's been a season from hell and they get a big win. So again, Congratulations to the Pacers, snapping the longest losing streak in team history by beating the Hornets. And it was a close game. They win by two.
And TJ McConnell seals the deal with an inbound steal in this game. Like, this was just a scrappy win for the Pacers, who... I mean, look, let's be honest here. They're angling for a very high lottery pick. But they do beat a Hornets team that's been playing better lately. So this wasn't just some kind of a, you know, one of these Thursday nights and January games that you could just throw away.
Andrew Nembhardt out of this game. Lower back soreness still. Their point guard situation has just been rough all season long. And you go up against a team like Charlotte. who has the luxury of bringing LaMelo Ball off the bench. LaMelo Ball goes for 33 points off the bench, 7 of 15. And, Zena, look, the Hornets had this game. They did have it under control late.
And LaMelo made a huge mistake in transition. He tries to throw a lob to Moussa Diabonte, and it just goes awry. Pascal Siakam comes down on the other end, hits a layup. I mean, it just – everything fell apart. And I want to note, I was watching the pregame. I got to give LaMelo Ball credit here because I do think that we –
Chapter 4: Is Giannis leaving Milwaukee according to his interview?
We tend to clown him a little bit, right? He is, you know, I will say playful. I don't want to call a grown man childish, but he's playful. And I think that we kind of treat him in a certain way, like he's not mature, which, hey, I've seen the way he tears out of the arena in his car. That's not maturity. But I saw maturity...
off on the podium from him last night where he talked about, he had regret about that play. He was like, you know, in that time and score, I got to back out. But the thing that I love about LaMelo is that he will throw that lob. Like he's so fun to watch because he's fearless. So I hope that as he matures, he doesn't reign that in. Don't lose your dinosaur, LaMelo.
You know what I mean? Yeah. I love that. I'm happy that you brought, you call that out because there isn't, there is an element that we still see LaMelo ball as a kid. coming out of high school that was thrown, you know, lobs to himself off the backboard. And we see that entertainment value in his game. And so when you make mistakes, it's easy to equate.
Oh, it's just that he still hasn't grown up from his high school game. It's like, no, but there's also an element of this is what has made him so fun. And that's what, this is also what's made his team so trusting of him that he will throw that up. He will look for you. And so there is some, some element to that too. And, It was a really great effort by the Indiana Pacers at the end of the game.
It's actually similar to what Minnesota did because Cleveland made a run for it or tried to make a run for it in the fourth quarter. And Minnesota was just more scrappy. And you saw very much so like Indiana be very similar to that, being scrappier, being a little bit more. We need to win this game.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of Trae Young's trade for the Hawks?
And I ain't gonna lie to you, Dave. I didn't know they had a 13 game losing streak. I just kind of snuck up on us. Yeah, I did not realize it was that bad. And so I'm happy they got the win. They were able to do it with LaMelo Ball getting 33 points off the bench. But the thing is, he had 33 points at 19 minutes and 17 seconds.
He ends up playing 26 minutes total, defers, I guess, a little bit more in the fourth quarter. But my question to you, Dave, Because this has come up a lot where people will go off in the first half. They'll go off in the first three quarters and then they go silent.
Philosophically, would you rather go for 40 in the first three quarters and then silent in the fourth or have an even five, five, five, five, but it's only 20 points?
I mean, I just want to win. So if I get 40 and I don't score in the fourth because we're winning, okay, I'll take the 40. But if I get 20, I'm going to take 20. This is why you know who's the perfect player for this is Kevin Durant. Because Kevin Durant is going to get seven points in a quarter. Every quarter for the rest of his basketball career until he decides he stops.
And then you've got that outlier where he might go for 20. You know, I think that scoring, you know, it's funny because we're this season. I think that with some of the teams that have struggled, when you look at, you know, Cleveland Cavaliers, it's been very much like, please, Donovan, save us at the end of games. And he has to save up quite a bit of energy for that.
So, I mean, there's an argument to be made that some players maybe should save their best stuff for later and kind of coast a little bit. LeBron famously does that or has done that in his career through regular seasons where he saves his moments, but Yeah, I think with LaBello, I want to see him take more than four shots in the fourth quarter.
I want him to take more layups in the fourth quarter than the one that he took because he can get to the basket seemingly at will. You know, look, the guy is a great three-point shooter. I mean, he launches them seven of 15 in the game. So I want him to shoot threes. But to me, it's don't be passive, attack the basket.
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Chapter 6: How might Anthony Davis fit into the Bucks' plans?
And I did not like, and I'll never knock a guy for making a pass, but I felt like He got the drive at the end of the game with a chance to tie the game up, and he kicked the ball out to Colin Sexton, who didn't really wind up with a good look. I would have rather seen LaMelo kind of force the play at the basket.
You know, he was guarded and it was contested, but I think I would have liked to see him actually just go to the basket instead of kick that one out. But now I'm splitting hairs. Speaking of, all right, before we go to break, We originally, a little programming note, we originally were going to have Joel Lorenzi on the show to talk Bulls Heat, but we had to make a scheduling change.
And luckily for us, although I would have loved to talk to Joel after the game was canceled, Bulls Heat was postponed because the court had condensation. And Zena, there's a funny thing, right? Like this doesn't happen very often, which is pretty incredible. But a lot of the NBA arenas double as hockey arenas. So the Chicago Blackhawks. share the United Center with the Chicago Bulls.
They just put that floor right down over the ice. There's some kind of a barrier in between. And you would think as cold as Chicago is outside, there's no way that ice is able to melt enough that it causes the floor to get wet. But apparently that's what happens sometimes.
Interestingly enough, I showed up to Chicago in my full parka thinking it was freezing cold and it's warmer here than it is in the Bay. That's the crazy part. I think that that is what Chicago was not prepared for. And that's exactly what happened with that condensation.
There we go. All right. From Zena, our meteorologist on the scene in Chicago. Thank you very much for that. Guys, stick around. After the break, we got Sam Amick to talk trade, Trey Young trade, Giannis trade, every kind of trade. But before you go to that, just don't forget, guys, we're all we've got and we're in this together.
Recently, we asked some people about sharing their New York Times accounts.
My name is Kayla.
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Chapter 7: What are the latest rumors surrounding Zion Williamson?
My husband and I use his email address to access the New York Times. Each day, we compete for who gets to do connections. Sometimes I log into the app and I discover that he's already finished connections that day. And I'm like, Jonah, it was my day. And he's like, I know, I just couldn't resist. You would do us a huge favor if we got to log in as a family with separate emails.
I really think our well-being as a couple depends on it. Thanks for looking into this.
Kayla, we heard you. Introducing the New York Times Family Subscription. One subscription up to four separate logins for anyone in your life. Find out more at nytimes.com slash family.
Trey Young was traded from the Atlanta Hawks to the Washington Wizards. That means trade season has begun. Here to break it down for us, Sam Amick, senior national writer at The Athletic. You guys know him. Sam, I know you've been busy, man. How's it going?
Dave Dufour. What's up, my guy? Great to see you. Busy is better than the alternative. So we're good, man.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Look, the Trey trade, we kind of had Trey Young for CJ McCollum as like the base. Corey Kispert gets added, makes the salaries work. Feels like we had that trade kind of in the bag for a few days. It finally happens.
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Chapter 8: What are the final thoughts on Giannis's future in Milwaukee?
Let's close the book on it. How did this come about? And what were the other options for Atlanta for Trey Young?
Well, I think that last question is the key one. I honestly have not still learned about other options beyond the Wizards. You know, you would try to canvas the league and find out who was interested.
And it's funny because it was reported that Washington was Trey's preferred destination and not trying to be glib, but it was like, okay, are we sure that list is beyond one team as far as interested parties? But the backstory on the Atlanta side, as you know, is that They come into this season with high hopes.
They get celebrated during the offseason for the roster work they did, the front office, with adding a lot of pieces that seemingly were going to fit well around Trae Young and some of his deficiencies. And next thing you know, everybody's getting hurt. Trae's getting hurt. Porzingis is getting hurt. They're not really able to see...
what it is that they built, but they do have this stretch where when Trey comes back from injury, they go 0-5 with him. They were 13-9 without him. Now, granted, there is a Porzingis factor within there as well, but it was a final straw. It was one of those things where the Hawks
clearly looked at this and said, you know, that we got a guy making almost $50 million who's got a player option for next season. We might have some interest in, you know, this is a subplot that we'll keep tracking, is that Porzingis is going to be a free agent this summer. Whether it's him, they need a big, they need a rim-protecting,
uh you know big and a guy that they can give their presence and continue with their plan and so anthony davis is certainly a real option that they've been looking at but they you're not going to have trey and ad on the same roster so trey goes out you know this this era of him uh doing his ice tray thing that honestly people forget you know what he did uh at his peak and taking that team to the conference finals in 2021 and
And, you know, pissing off all the Knicks fans in the garden and like some pretty great memories. And I think it's fair to him. You got to remember this guy's a fantastic player. He's obviously a one way player.
Now, the other side real quick on the Wizards, you know, that one is tricky because they do legitimately have a vision for him as a guy who could be part of the program long term as their point guard. But there's dual purposes here. So I don't think he's going to hit the floor anytime soon. They're trying to keep their pick.
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