Teams are competing and not blatantly exercising organizational priorities, and in a culture where we’re waiting for the next “trades we want to see” piece to drop, I like that NBA Cup games take place just after the glorified feel-out games that mark the opening weeks of the season and wrap up just before all of those new contracts become tradeable.

Jaylen Brown and Derrick White led a 51-point second quarter as the Boston Celtics stretched their winning streak to six games by beating the visiting Los Angeles Clippers 126-94 on Monday.