Best of The Herd

Friday on The Herd, I’m in for Colin with Rachel, and before brackets and big guests, we had to start with the Lakers. LeBron set the tone by suiting up after a rough travel night and delivered a 30-15-10 at forty-one, Luka stacked sixty in thirty-eight minutes, the Lakers beat Miami, and the buy-in feels like a contender.

That sixty on a back-to-back felt more earned than Bam’s eighty-three, which leaned on freebies and a tanking foe; Luka’s been around forty a night over the last eight and is torching every narrative.

College pivot: AJ DeBonza dropped thirty-five and ten in a loss to Texas, and it spotlights an early-NIL dilemma—was seven million for one star smarter than spreading it across two or three high-level pieces who might stay another year?

We knew he’d score, so we treated jumpers as small wins, pounded the glass, and made sure the rest didn’t beat us, which is how we closed it out.

Texas snatched sixteen offensive boards, one big had nine, and BYU’s non-DeBonza shooting cratered; elite scorer, thin roster.

Close second story: Victor Wembanyama’s Spurs are back in the mix, going from the blueprint years to a crunch-time go-to who can face up from deep, fade, and bury you. He talks about not getting comfortable, their net rating jumps by roughly sixteen with him, and without him they’re ordinary—he’s already appointment viewing and in the MVP chat.

I’m reshuffling MVP: SGA slides to the edge despite the league’s best record on a stacked roster, Jokic trails with Denver down the standings, Jaylen Brown’s carried Boston, Wemby surges, and Luka’s my leader after a ridiculous month.

On Bam’s eighty-three, I still think Luka’s sixty was tougher—no gimmicks, real stakes, and nine threes on thirty shots—so was Bam kidding or being pointed when he hinted how hard eighty really is?

He was serious—eighty is brutal, which is why so few get there—and a little one-up energy after Luka’s seventy-three earlier this season is healthy for the league.

Given how the Lakers share it now, I don’t see Luka chasing a vanity number this season, but with today’s scoring he could absolutely clear eighty-three one day.

Quick ballot check—how does MVP voting actually break ties?

Voters rank five; when it’s razor-thin, team success can break the tie, which is why last year’s tight race swung to SGA with the league’s best record even if the final tally looked wider.

One more note: SGA played seventy-six last year and may finish closer to the high sixties now with slight dips in some categories, so we’ll see how availability and winning weigh as this race tightens.