1. היריבות בין הת'אנדר והספארס עלולה להתפתח למוצר מס' 1 של ה-NBA

סיפור מאת Tim MacMahon ו- (The budding Spurs-Thunder rivalry that could shape the West)

הכדור אצל ויקטור וומבניאמה. שומר עליו צ'ט הולמגרן. מה שאתם רואים עלול להתפתח ליריבות מס' 1 בליגה.

כשהספארס מובילה ב-3, צ'ט הולמגרן מחמיץ זריקת פאול אחת משתיים עם 8 טיקים לסיום ב-Emirates NBA Cup semifinal on Dec. 13, שלמעשה תיקתקה את כרטיס הספארס לגמר. שהספרס הפסידה בגמר לניו יורק ניקס הוא סיפור אחר.

היה זה נצחןן שהצדיק CELEBRATION לספארס. הוא עצר ריצת 16 נצחונות לת'אנדר, והרים את הספארס למדרגה גבוהה יותר, עם הידיעה של שחקני הספארס שאף שחקן מהרוסטר שלהם לא שיחק עדיין משחק פלייאוף של הנ.ב.א. הת'אנדר ניצחה פעמיים: ב-2025 וכשהייתה בסיאטל. בשעה שהספארס חוגגת, ת'אנדר כבר מסתכלת לעבר שני מפגשים עם היריבה החדשה, אחד ששוחק אמש, והשני שישוחק בחג המולד – מחר – ב- 9:30 בערב, שעון ישראל.

אתם יכולים לקחת מילה שלי שת'אנדר – ספארס הפך להיות המשחק בה' הידיעה מכולם!

הת'אנדר מצידה הפכה לקבוצת הנ.ב.א הצעירה השנייה להתחיל עונה עם רקורד של 1-24. הספארס מוכנה לעצור את הרצף עם קבוצה צעירה שעליה אמר היום ה-MVP שג"א:

"Yeah, there's a good chance," reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said of the prospect of a rivalry after the Thunder's Cup loss. "They are young, really good, have a lot of talent, play the right way. They play a good brand of basketball".

-האם הם מסוגלים לנצח אתכם? – הוא נשאל.

"I've noticed that anything can happen in a couple years. So, yeah, it's definitely a possibility."

2. ה-NBA חושבת שאולי היא מצאה דרך למנוע TANKING. האמנם?

הפעם אני מכניס את כל המאמר החשוב ביותר, באנגלית, כי אני מוצא אותו קשה מדי לתרגום, אבל הוא כתוב בשפה קלה ומובנת

The NBA has begun to gather input from its owners and general managers on new ways to combat tanking in the aftermath of the gambling scandal that rocked the league at the start of the season, sources told ESPN.

At a board of governors meeting Friday, the league presented several ideas around potential modifications to rules regarding draft pick protections, the draft lottery and other possible approaches, according to multiple sources.

The league rolled out new policies Friday to combat insider information and performance manipulation in the wake of federal indictments of Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and former player Damon Jones. But the league is also increasing its focus on tanking, due to its tie to the injury reporting rules and how those were exploited by gamblers seeking inside information, according to the government indictments.

In recent years, multiple teams have either shut down players early or sat players for games to try to improve their draft positioning, often tied to a protected pick. Sources said multiple ideas were proposed as a brainstorming measure to combat tanking, including:

• Limiting pick protections to either top four or 14 and higher, which would eliminate the problematic mid-lottery protections.

• No longer allowing a team to draft in the top four two years in a row.

• Locking lottery positions after March 1.

These ideas, which came from the league and its high-ranking officials, would theoretically dissuade non-playoff teams from sitting their starters for games throughout the season and provide reason to continue to try to win games, particularly down the stretch of a campaign.

As multiple sources described, the attempts to find solutions to tanking are not intended to deter rebuilding teams who use their players as normal, but rather teams that deliberately manipulate their rosters down the stretch of a season in order to land a higher pick or a protection range.

The NBA last changed the lottery rules in 2019, giving the three worst teams in the regular season the same 14% odds to land the first overall pick, and a 52.1% chance of landing in the top four. Since then, three teams have jumped from outside the top five best odds to land the top pick, including the Atlanta Hawks (10th) and Dallas Mavericks (11th) each of the past two seasons.

In addition to the ideas for combating tanking, the league office presented the board of governors several examples of protected picks potentially impacting the finish of recent seasons.

One of the most blatant incidents occurred in April 2023, when the Mavericks were still mathematically alive for a play-in spot but owed a top-10 protected 2023 first-round pick to the New York Knicks. Dallas elected to rest Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic in its last game against the San Antonio Spurs. In the previous game against the Chicago Bulls, Irving did not play and Doncic played 12 minutes. The Mavericks lost both games.

The Mavericks ultimately were fined $750,000 for conduct detrimental to the league, but they kept their pick and eventually traded down two spots with the Oklahoma City Thunder to select Dereck Lively II at No. 12 overall.

Last season, the Philadelphia 76ers, who entered the year with title aspirations, were able to preserve the top-six protected pick they owed the Thunder. They lost 29 of their last 37 games, finishing with the fifth-worst record entering the lottery. They moved up two slots in May and selected guard VJ Edgecombe at No. 3. That pick is now top-four protected in the 2026 draft; it's currently slotted 21st, as Philadelphia is 16-11 and Edgecombe is averaging 16 points per game.

The Utah Jazz were fined $100,000 last March for holding star big man Lauri Markkanen out of multiple games, part of a stretch in which the Jazz lost 21 of their final 23 games to end last season. At an introductory news conference in June, Utah's new president of basketball operations, Austin Ainge, said "you won't see that this year" when asked about tanking via manipulating minutes and player performance.

However, the Jazz owe a top-eight protected pick to the Thunder as a result of the salary dump of Derrick Favors in 2021 — and personnel across the league are paying attention to how they handle the rest of this season. The pick had top-10 protection each of the past two seasons, and Utah kept the pick both times. The Jazz currently have the eighth-worst record in the league. If they were to stay there, they'd be at risk of losing the pick if a team jumped them in the lottery.

In the sports betting indictment of Rozier and Jones, the government cited an unnamed co-conspirator, matching the description of Billups, who allegedly told a bettor that a number of Trail Blazers players would miss a March 2023 game as the team began to tank. The Blazers were 32-40 at that point, but they lost nine of their final 10 games of the season to finish with the fifth-worst record in the league.

The NBA saw immediate results Monday from its new injury reporting policies that require teams to submit listings on game day between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. local time and then update public injury reports on NBA.com every 15 minutes, rather than hourly.

The Jazz upgraded Markkanen from questionable to available midday before playing the Denver Nuggets on Monday night, the Mavericks upgraded Klay Thompson from questionable to probable against the New Orleans Pelicans, and the Charlotte Hornets upgraded LaMelo Ball from probable to available in Cleveland while also downgrading two other players to out.

In the Mavs' previous game against the 76ers on Saturday, prior to the injury reporting changes, they upgraded Thompson from questionable to probable to available at 5:15 p.m. and 5:31 p.m. on game day.

ESPN's Bobby Marks and David Purdum contributed to this report.

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3. באיזה אחוזי דיוק הנסיון למנוע TANKING עדיף על STRAIGHT DRAFTING

4. תחילת הסוף של דריימונד גרין? ניזרק מספסל הווריורס אחרי ויכוח רם עם – נגד – סטיב קר

המאמן סטיב קר ודריימונד גרין הלכו אחד נגד השני משך רוב המשחק. בטיימאאוט ברבע השלישי דריימונד גרין נשמע צועק ממש לעבר קר, ואז הסתובב והלך לעבר חדרי ההלבשה.

כל מה שקר אמר בסיום המשחק היה "גרין החליט לרדת מהמגרש בעצמו. הוא לא אמר מילה. פשוט קם והלך לחדר ההלבשה."

גולדן סטייט ניצחה את אורלנדו מג'יק 97-120.

גרין אמר שהעצבים היו ברמה גבוהה והוא החליט שהטוב ביותר יהיה אם הוא יעזוב את האולם וילך להתקלח.

"Tempers spilled over, and I thought it was best that I get out of there," Green said. "I don't think it was a situation where it was going to get better. It was best to remove myself."

Green returned to the bench prior to the fourth quarter, but he didn't remove his warmups and never checked back into the game. Kerr said he wouldn't have gone back to Green

קר נשאל."אילו חזר לשחק עם סניקר וגופיית המשחק, היית נותן לו לשחק?

"לא".

היה זה המשחק השני ברציפות שגרין מוציא את עצמו מהמשחק:

It was the second straight game that Green had departed prematurely. He was ejected after playing only eight minutes in Saturday's home win over the Phoenix Suns and was only on the floor for 18 minutes before choosing to depart Monday night.

בסיום המשחק קר נשאל אם הוא ימשיך לשחק עם גרין. זאת הייתה תשובתו (שמאד הפתיעה אותי):

"We need Draymond," Kerr said. "He's a champion. We've been together for a long time."

וגרין? מה הוא אמר לפני שנעלם אל השחור?

"We've been at this now for a long time," Green said. "Sometimes you're with people for a long time and there's a level of comfort and shit happens. We move forward."

5. מה היית עושה אילו אתה המנכ"ל של הקבוצה שביכולתו (ותפקידו) להחליט הכל בקשר לגרין?

6.דריימונד גרין על מה שקרה:

Golden State Warriors star forward Draymond Green and head coach Steve Kerr were seen having a heated exchange on the bench on Monday night at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., and they were certainly not arguing about Christmas dinner recipes.

During a timeout with 8:31 remaining in the third quarter of the game against the Orlando Magic, Kerr and Green got into a shouting match. That led to Green leaving Golden State’s bench and going straight to the locker room, where he spent the rest of the contest.

Although the former Defensive Player of the Year never returned to the game, he did not skip his postgame media duties, as he shared his side of the fiery player-coach moment.

“Tempers spilled over,” Green told reporters, via Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area & California. “And I thought it was best that get out of there. I didn’t think it was a situation where it was going to get better. So, it was best to remove myself.”

It will be interesting to see how the spat between Green and Kerr will affect the team and their relationship with each other going forward.

However, Green’s absence in the final 20 minutes of the game ultimately did not matter, as the Warriors pounded Orlando in a 120-97 victory. 

Stephen Curry paced the Dubs with 26 points, while Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody contributed 21 and 20 points, respectively. Read Comments