Boston Does L.A., Honeymoon Harden, a Denver Hiccup, and a Kawhi Deep Dive With Zach Lowe

What It Covers

Bill Simmons and Zach Lowe analyze the Celtics' win over the Lakers, debate the crowded NBA MVP and All-NBA races featuring SGA, Jokic, Wemby, Cade Cunningham, and Jaylen Brown, assess Denver's concerning 16-16 stretch, evaluate Cleveland's Harden honeymoon period, and conduct a deep-dive career retrospective on Kawhi Leonard across his 15 seasons.

Key Questions Answered

• •Lakers structural flaw: The LeBron-Luka-Reaves trio produces inconsistent results because all three players disengage off the ball, creating isolated island offense rather than connected movement. Their losses are almost exclusively blowouts rather than close games, and Deandre Ayton's chronic boxing-out failures compound the problem. Luka has attempted the same number of clutch-situation shots this season as Khris Middleton, exposing how rarely the Lakers actually play in close games.
• •Clutch performance as MVP tiebreaker: When separating closely ranked MVP candidates, clutch stats provide a concrete differentiator. Cade Cunningham leads all players with 49% shooting on 75 clutch-situation field goal attempts, plus 18 assists and only 7 turnovers, generating a plus-49 rating for Detroit in those minutes. This mirrors the Derrick Rose 2011 precedent where one-seed narrative and clutch dominance overrode raw statistical comparisons against superior individual performers.
• •All-NBA first team chaos: The 2024-25 All-NBA first team faces unprecedented logjam with SGA, Jokic, Wemby, Cade, Anthony Edwards, Donovan Mitchell, Luka, and Jaylen Brown all competing for five spots. Wemby qualifies as a floor-five candidate despite games-played concerns. The 65-game threshold becomes the decisive variable — if SGA reaches it, he wins MVP; if multiple stars fall short, voting chaos produces historically unusual results across both MVP and All-NBA selections.
• •Detroit's playoff readiness formula: Detroit compensates for below-average three-point shooting through interior passing precision, constant cutting, offensive rebounding, and rapid decision-making from every roster player. Observed in person at Madison Square Garden, even role players like Caris Levert, Duncan Robinson, and Javonte Green make the extra pass immediately rather than holding. This half-court cohesion, combined with playoff experience from last year's Knicks series, positions them as a legitimate Eastern Conference Finals contender.
• •Cleveland's ceiling with Harden: James Harden's honeymoon-phase version — the unselfish facilitator who doesn't demand ball dominance — elevates Cleveland's ceiling beyond what Darius Garland provided. Harden averaging 24 points, 10 assists, and 5 rebounds while shooting 48% from three creates easier catch-and-shoot opportunities for Donovan Mitchell and provides a different offensive system when Mitchell rests. The combination of Harden, Mitchell, Mobley, and Allen represents the East's highest theoretical ceiling if Struss returns healthy for playoffs.
• •Denver's warning signs are real: Denver sits 16-16 over their last 32 games, ranks bottom-five defensively over 30 games, and lacks wins against quality opponents since January 7th. Aaron Gordon's absence removes the only player capable of sealing post-up advantages against smaller defenders in playoff matchups. The Cam Johnson acquisition has underdelivered — he shoots 43% from three but registers minimal presence in games. The championship-pedigree dismissal of these trends carries genuine risk heading into playoff seeding.
• •Kawhi Leonard's offensive transformation: Kawhi averaged 9.5 field goal attempts per game in his first four seasons, then doubled his scoring output to 24 points per game over the next four — a transformation Simmons describes as inconceivable when watching the 2014 Finals. His current offensive toolkit includes a stutter-step pull-up, foul-line jumper, and elite paint finishing. Statistical tracking data from his development years showed near-identical pick-and-roll and ISO usage patterns to Jaylen Brown at the same career stage, suggesting the transformation was systematic rather than accidental.