Blake Griffin And Kristaps Porzingis Are Taking Off

Welcome to The Lab, FiveThirtyEight’s basketball podcast. On this week’s show (Nov. 1, 2017), Neil, Chris and Kyle discuss the NBA’s recent changes to the player rest policy and San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich’s response. In September, NBA owners approved new rules that would let commissioner Adam Silver impose fines for resting healthy players. Next, we go into the lab to break down the improved play of the New York Knicks’ Kristaps Porzingis, the LA Clippers’ Blake Griffin and the Orlando Magic’s Aaron Gordon. Plus, a small sample size segment on the unusual records we’re seeing at the start of the season.

Here are links to what we discussed on the show this week:

• Kyle wrote on how the Knicks’ latest savior may actually be a savior.
• The Ringer’s Jonathan Tjarks took a look at how Blake Griffin is elevating the Clippers.
• For Sports Illustrated, Rohan Nadkarni investigated how the Magic just needed to give Aaron Gordon a little space.