Embiid + Ja throwback games + Do the Lakers need to make moves?
The Athletic NBA Daily
The Athletic
4.1 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 31 December 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
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Summary
Dave DuFour and Zena Keita discuss Nikola Jokić’s injury timetable and react to Joel Embiid and Ja Morant turning back the clock in the Sixers overtime win over the Grizzlies. Then, Dan Woike joins the show to talk about LeBron’s spoiled birthday party, Luka’s lack of energy, and whether the Lakers will be making moves at the trade deadline.
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Host: Dave DuFour
With: Zena Keita and Dan Woike
Executive Producer: Andrew Schlecht
Audio/Video Producer: Alex Oliver
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily. |
| 0:11.4 | I'm Dave Dufour here with Zena Keda. |
| 0:13.7 | Happy New Year's Eve, everybody coming up. |
| 0:16.4 | We got some good news about Nicola Yokic, weird to say, because he's going to miss a month. |
| 0:20.4 | And the Sixers and Grizzlies had a heck of a game. Turn back the clock night for John Embed. Dan Woiky's here to talk about the Lakers and their struggles and what they might do at the deadline. Good morning, everybody. Happy New Year. Hey, Zena. It's New Year's Eve. i'm assuming you got huge plans for new year's |
| 0:40.8 | years years old plans number one waking up at nine a m to do pregame for the warriors |
| 0:45.7 | hey it's a great day it's a great day to start up the start off that way you know um listen we we |
| 0:53.0 | probably sounded insane on yesterday's show. I just want to come out |
| 1:00.2 | and apologize. Were we melodramatic? I was going to say, y'all were going through. Okay. We were, |
| 1:06.3 | I mean, it was a shocking turn of events. You know, you just don't see Yokic wallowing in pain like that. |
| 1:11.9 | But we got some good news, Zena. |
| 1:14.1 | We got the report. |
| 1:15.3 | He's only going to maybe miss about a month, six weeks or so with a knee contusion. |
| 1:20.8 | Same injury that Cam Johnson is also out for about a month with, again, good news compared |
| 1:27.4 | to what it could have been. But bad news |
| 1:29.8 | for the Nuggets, bad news for Nicola Yokic's MVP case. Bad news, in my opinion, for the MVP |
| 1:39.3 | race in general and the NBA, because I think that the 65 game rule, as we've seen already in the |
| 1:46.3 | last couple years, it really throws a wrench in the entire narrative arc of the regular season. |
| 1:52.4 | Zina, I want to start with the Nuggets first, okay? If it's a month, it's 18 games. They got |
| 1:58.4 | February 1st circled on the calendar. That's the first game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Maybe he's back for that. Let's just, we'll live in that world. But man, that's a long time being down. You know, they're four starters right now. Maybe they get a little bit healthier this week. But how are they going to make do here in the next month? It's a really good question. |
| 2:18.8 | We've been crediting the Denver Nuggets for finding gems within their roster in the midst of |
| 2:24.4 | these absences. Like, how are they still winning games without Christian Brown, without |
... |
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