The Good, Bad and Ugly Of Week 20 Of The 2025-26 NBA Season

Week 20 of the 2025-26 NBA season had a little bit of something for everyone. A feel-good comeback story, an epic collapse by a preseason championship contender, and an untimely losing streak by a team that was heavily favored to capture the regular season conference crown. 

THE GOOD: 

Nearly ten months after crumpling to the Madison Square Garden floor in Game 4 of the 2025 Eastern Conference Semifinals with a ruptured Achilles, Boston Celtics star forward Jayson Tatum walked back out onto a basketball court Friday night. After going 41-21 and sitting second in the East standings in his absence, Tatum’s return makes the Celtics a certified threat to contend for a title in a season that many once believed to be a wash. In front of a sold-out TD Garden, which gave him a well-deserved standing ovation, Tatum started and finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds, and seven assists in 27 minutes of play as the Celtics cruised to a 120-100 win over the Dallas Mavericks, marking his season debut 298 days after surgery. Thirty-six hours later, Tatum played 27 minutes in the team’s 109-98 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team many feel can represent the East after acquiring James Harden at the trade deadline. Playing the “Robin” to Jaylen Brown’s “Batman”, Tatum contributed 20 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists as he continues to ease back into a lineup that few outside of Tatum and his inner circle thought he would be part of. 

THE BAD: 

Not since early November have the Denver Nuggets rolled out their original opening-night starting five of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, Cam Johnson, and Christian Braun.  On Friday evening, their 64th game of the season, the Nuggets were finally whole. Unfortunately, the reunion lasted just 18 minutes as Murray rolled his ankle stepping on Jokic's foot late in the first half, was helped to the locker room, and didn't return. A two-point game at the end of the first quarter quickly turned into an embarrassment. OG Anunoby scored 34 points, Karl-Anthony Towns had 19 and 17, and the Knicks walked out of Ball Arena with a 142-103 win, matching the worst home loss in Nuggets franchise history. With approximately twenty games left in the season and the Western Conference playoff race within games of a guaranteed spot and a play-in berth, their questionable health status and a four-game slate against OKC, Houston, San Antonio, and the LA Lakers doesn’t look favorable for the Nuggets this week. 

THE UGLY: 

A week ago, the Detroit Pistons were the talk of the league with the best record in the East, Cade Cunningham among those in the MVP conversation, and a top-four playoff seeding locked up comfortably. Then everything fell apart at once. It started Thursday in San Antonio, where the Pistons lost 121-106 with Cunningham shooting just 38% and Ausar Thompson exiting early with an ankle sprain. It got worse from there. On Saturday, with Cunningham ruled out of a home game against the Brooklyn Nets, a team contending for the worst record in the league, Detroit built a 23-point third-quarter lead and somehow lost 107-105, with Brooklyn outscoring them 18-6 down the stretch.  Then on Sunday, Cunningham returned against the Miami Heat, but it didn’t bring positive results. Tyler Herro scored 25, Bam Adebayo had 24, as the Heat won 121-110 to extend Detroit's losing streak to a season-worst four games. With the Celtics trending upwards and the Pistons on a slide, the battle for Eastern Conference supremacy could come down to the final games of the season.