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Law Murray 📘: For James Harden, opportunity is key Cleveland/Darius Garland being tied to this is quite intentional DG hasn't played in nearly 3 weeks All of Harden's trades have targeted an existing "replaceable" guard (K. Martin, LeVert/Oladipo, B. Simmons, R. Westbrook)
Sean Cunningham: Kings in Boston tonight: Domantas Sabonis out for the second night of the back-to-back (left knee injury management), as well as Russell Westbrook (right foot soreness). Malik Monk is available. Celtics without Jaylen Brown (hamstring/knee).
Abrines played in the NBA from 2016 to 2019 for the Oklahoma City Thunder, the reigning champions. He played alongside Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Robert Schroeder, Carmelo Anthony, and others. It was an intense experience. But everything took a turn for the worse with mental health issues that led him to leave the NBA . " I never had a bad relationship with any player. Westbrook was incredibly kind to me. When I wanted to quit, he took me out to dinner, and it was fantastic. The whole hanging out, playing cards, and all that stuff we have there isn't really the norm. Maybe I would have preferred to have teammates I could share more with, which we did have the first year with the international players in Oklahoma. That's what loneliness is like; you have more time to dwell on things, and you feel very alone. I was also introverted, and combined with other factors, it all adds up, and I ended up the way I did."
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If you go back to when LeBron joined the Lakers in 2018 through free agency, I was told there was private grumbling from Jeanie about the way it was framed — that LeBron was saving a floundering franchise when he joined, rather than it being the result of a great front office and their brilliance in bringing him there. Fast forward some years — I heard about grumbling over his outsized ego, or Klutch Sports (his agency) and their attempts to exert control over the organization. There was a feeling that LeBron wasn’t culpable enough or didn’t take enough accountability for the failed Russell Westbrook trade. I was told of multiple instances in which she talked about not wanting to sign him to a contract extension, or feeling he wasn’t grateful enough.
Mike Brown called out Karl-Anthony Towns for a lazy play. With less than two minutes remaining in the second quarter of the Knicks’ 112-101 loss to the Kings on Wednesday night, Towns drove and fell after he was stripped in the paint by Precious Achiuwa. The Knicks center stayed on the ground instead of running back on defense, which allowed Achiuwa to grab an uncontested offensive rebound around midcourt. The sequence ended with Sacramento’s Russell Westbrook nailing a wide open corner 3-pointer to give the Kings a 17-point lead. “He drove. Something happened where he fell down. He drove, he fell down,” Brown said. “When you fall down, you got to get up and got to sprint down the floor. And even when you’re the last guy down the floor, you got to get down there just in case there’s a long rebound. But there was no urgency. That wasn’t the only play. There were a handful of plays that we did that. But there was no sense of urgency on that particular play to get back. And it was a five-point swing.
Joey Linn: James Harden shouted out LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Russell Westbrook when talking about longevity. “I work my butt off. You don’t understand how hard it is to work and the longevity of it. It’s a handful of guys who understand it and know it. A couple of them are still playing at a high level which is a beautiful thing to see… Cherish it. Embrace it. Love it. Because once it’s over it’s over. You watch guys like Bron, Steph, KD, Russ do their thing at the highest level still at our age. It’s a beautiful thing to see. It’s a testament to those guys and the work they put in, and we’ve put in, to be able to still doing it this long.”
Oh No He Didn't: Russell Westbrook after beating the Rockets and Lakers back to back: "I play the same way every night, but I do enjoy beating teams that I was formerly at, for different reasons"
Russell Westbrook after beating the Rockets and Lakers back to back:
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) January 13, 2026
"I play the same way every night, but I do enjoy beating teams that I was formerly at, for different reasons" pic.twitter.com/GPMCUc9AHz
Blazers PR: Avdija is the seventh player in the last 35 NBA seasons to reach 1000+ pts, 250+ rebs and 250+ asts over their first 39 games of a season: Deni Avdija (2025-26), Kobe Bryant (2002-03), James Harden (2x), Russell Westbrook (2x), Nikola Jokic (3x), Luka Doncic (6x), LeBron James (10x)
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One of the common internal criticisms on the ground level the past few seasons, team sources said, has been a lack of player-to-player accountability. Veteran guard Dennis Schroder, who Perry signed to a three-year, $45 million contract this summer, voiced as much recently, telling reporters at his locker after a 41-point road loss to the Clippers that it happens "here and there" but "consistently, I wouldn't say." "With the [German] national team, when I'm on some B.S., people will call me out," Schroder said. "'Dennis, you gotta come on,' That's what we need." Domantas Sabonis, league sources said, has held a similar desire for more vocal internal leadership, prompting him to push for the organization to sign Russell Westbrook, his former teammate in Oklahoma City.
With a driving layup midway through the fourth quarter Friday night, Russell Westbrook made history. Westbrook passed the legendary Oscar Robertson to become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer among point guards with 26,711 points.
“I didn’t know that he broke another record tonight. He continues to break records,” Kings coach Doug Christie said postgame. “Russ is a freak of nature. His competitiveness, his competitive drive, his spirit to continue to play as hard as he does, I think this is year 18 or whatever it is. Always been a fan of his and it’s an absolute honor to coach him.”
There’s a story Thunder GM Sam Presti likes to share. In the summer of 2019, he was in his office at the Thunder practice facility putting the finishing touches on a roster deconstruction. He had finalized the deal for George and was close to an agreement with Houston for Russell Westbrook. That night, after working on an op-ed for The Oklahoman that detailed how the team would dig itself out of the basketball rubble, Presti was walking down a hallway and heard the sound of a bouncing basketball. It was Gilgeous-Alexander, fresh off completing his physical, in the gym getting up shots. Watching from an office window Presti thought to himself: Wouldn’t it be something if this guy turned out to be a really good player. Presti, certainly, won’t claim to have foreseen an MVP talent—no one did—but once it became apparent, the organization mobilized to foster it. “Tactically, it was, How do we maximize this elite skill that he has?,” says Daigneault. Give him the ball, for one. Paul was traded in 2020. Dennis Schröder, another playmaker, was shipped out, too. Later that year in the bubble, the Thunder marveled at how Gilgeous-Alexander could slip through tight spaces. The emphasis shifted to widening them.
