Today’s a big one.

Not only does the Starting 5 fam get first looks at the most popular jerseys & team merch of the season so far … here’s an early heads-up that the Panini Rising Stars player pool will be released at 4 ET today.

Head to the NBA App for the most in-depth coverage anywhere. Need to get the App? Tap here.

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THE LINEUP 🏀

1. 👀 Exclusive: Most popular jerseys
2. 🔥 Must-see from Monday
3. 🥇 Wolves win West showdown
4. 🌪️ Roundup: Best of 12-game night
5. 🆚 Celtics vs. Pacers, Round 5

Breaking: The 2024 Panini Rising Stars player pool will be released today, with players coming from this year’s rookie class, sophomore class and NBA G League / G League Ignite. From Jose Alvarado last year to Penny Hardaway in 1994, spin back Rising Stars history here.

TNT Doubleheader: The rival Celtics and Pacers meet for the fifth (!!) time this year (7:30 ET), followed by 76ers-Warriors out West (10 ET).

See It Here First: Check out an early clip from today’s Pass the Rock episode with Paolo Banchero and his mother breaking down the moves she taught her son.

1. EXCLUSIVE: CURRY, TATUM, LEBRON, WEMBY LEAD MOST POPULAR JERSEYS OF 1ST HALF

The Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry and the Los Angeles Lakers secured the top spots on the NBA’s Most Popular Jersey and Team Merchandise lists, respectively, based on NBAStore.com sales for the first half of the 2023-24 regular season, the NBA and National Basketball Players Association jointly announced today.

A few highlights:

• The Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum (No. 2) earned his highest ranking on the Most Popular Jersey list
• The San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama (No. 4) achieved the highest ranking on the Most Popular Jersey list for a rookie since Kristaps Porziņģis when he debuted for the New York Knicks in 2015-16
• The Philadelphia 76ers’ Tyrese Maxey (No. 9) and the Sacramento Kings’ De’Aaron Fox (No. 15) made their debuts on the Most Popular Jersey list
• San Antonio (No. 9) cracked the Top 10 in Team Merchandise sales for the first time since the 2017-18 season

Curry and Tatum will both be in action tonight as part of TNT’s doubleheader. First, Tatum and the Celtics will host the Indiana Pacers (7:30 ET), followed by Curry and the Warriors taking on the 76ers in San Francisco (10 ET).

2. TUESDAY MORNING MUST-SEE

📈 Top Stories

• Wolves Win West Showdown: Minnesota and OKC entered Monday with matching 32-14 records. The Wolves prevailed to take the No. 1 spot in the West and push the Thunder to third
• Knicks’ Streak Goes To 7: New York pushed the NBA’s longest active win streak to seven straight as its historic January continues

🏀 Top Plays

• Giannis, How?! Giannis drove baseline, was forced underneath the basket, but still rose for the slam from BEHIND the backboard
• Peep the Footwork: Terry Rozier shook KD with a hard pivot to free up for the jumper. Jaren Jackson Jr. went behind the back to get by the Kings’ defense for the lefty dunk
• A Wemby Trio: Which Wemby play was most spectacular: the reaction to save this ball, literally catching a shot attempt, or trying the self alley-oop and making the shot instead?
• Off the Glass: Zion’s shot kissed the top of the glass and dropped, while Jamal Murray hung in the air and flipped it underhand for the transition finish
• Welcome Back: In his first game in nearly three months, Ben Simmons was doing Ben Simmons things, hitting the Jazz with a steal and slam
• Connections: Anthony Davis found the cutting LeBron James in the lane for the two-handed flush. Luka Doncic hit Dereck Lively II with the no-look lob in clutch time (stay for Luka’s reaction at the end)

💥 Top Moments

• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander met some well-traveled fans before the Thunder-Wolves showdown
• Best of #NBAThrowItDown: Bill Walton stories, Ray Allen’s Doc Rivers impression and more from Monday’s show

📊 ‘Since Wilt’ Stats

• Domantas Sabonis (20 pts, 26 reb, 5 ast, 10-11 FG) joined Wilt (6x) as the only players ever with at least 20/25/5 on 90% shooting
• Speaking of Wilt, NBA.com’s writers debated if Wilt’s record 100-point game will ever be broken in light of last week’s scoring spree

3. WOLVES TAKE BACK 1ST IN WEST, KNICKS & CAVS STAY HOT, NUGGETS SPOIL DOC’S DEBUT

🐺 Wolves 107, Thunder 101: After seeing the Thunder climb even with them in the standings (with OKC owning the head-to-head tiebreaker), the Wolves snatched first place back from OKC with a 107-101 win behind a combined 48 points from Anthony Edwards (27 pts, 4 reb, 4 ast) and Karl-Anthony Towns (21 pts, 10 reb, 6 ast). | Recap | All Access

• Great Company: Edwards (22y, 177d) became the fifth player age 22 or younger to total 6K points, 1K rebounds and 1K assists – joining LeBron, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady and Luka Doncic
• SGA’s 37 Not Enough: Shai scored a game-high 37 points, his NBA-leading 35th game with 30+ points

🗽 Knicks 113, Hornets 92: The Knicks were shorthanded – no Julius Randle, no OG Anunoby – but that couldn’t keep them from tying the franchise record for wins in January, with 13. NY got a combined 60 points from Jalen Brunson and Donte DiVincenzo to pull away. | Recap

⚔️ Cavs 118, Clippers 108: The Clippers’ five-game win streak was snapped behind double-doubles from Donovan Mitchell (28 pts, 12 ast) and Jarrett Allen (20 pts, 17 reb, his 15th straight). Evan Mobley had 10 points and nine boards in his first game in six weeks as the Cavs won their 10th game of their last 11. | Recap

⚒️ Nuggets 113, Bucks 107: While Doc Rivers made his Bucks coaching debut, Michael Malone won his 400th game with the Nuggets thanks to Jamal Murray’s game-high 35 points, Nikola Jokic’s league-leading 14th triple-double (25 pts, 16 reb, 12 ast) and a game-sealing block by Aaron Gordon. Denver’s win coupled with OKC’s loss moved the Nuggets back to second in the West. | Recap | All-Access

4. ROUNDUP: MAVS RALLY PAST MAGIC + 7 MORE GAMES

🐴 Mavs 131, Magic 129: Trailing by 16 at the half, Luka Doncic (45 pts, 9 reb, 15 ast) and the Mavs won the third quarter 35-12, taking the lead on a 2/3 court pass from Luka to Tim Hardaway Jr. for a corner 3. Dallas held on for the comeback win; their first of the season when trailing by 16+ points (1-17). | Recap

• Luka x LeBron: With his second assist, Luka (24y, 335d) became the second youngest player to reach 10K points, 3K rebounds and 3K assists, trailing only LeBron (24y, 67d)
• Only Luka: Doncic is the only player in NBA history with multiple 45+ point, 15+ assist games. Gail Goodrich, Isiah Thomas, James Harden and Trae Young each have one
• Only Luka (x2): Doncic was already the only player to average a 40-point triple-double over six games. Now he’s the only player to do it twice (41 ppg, 11.3 rpg, 11.8 apg)

☀️ Suns 118, Heat 105: The Suns got a combined 65 points from Eric Gordon (23 off the bench), Devin Booker (22) and Kevin Durant (20) as they handed the Heat their seventh straight loss – Miami’s longest losing streak under Erik Spoelstra. | Recap

🌃 Nets 147, Jazz 114: The Nets had five players make at least three 3-pointers, led by Mikal Bridges with six, as they sank 21 triples in their largest win of the season. Ben Simmons (10 pts, 8 reb, 11 ast) fell two rebounds shy of a triple-double in his first game since Nov. 6. | Recap

👑 Kings 103, Grizzlies 94: The Kings won their fourth straight behind a monster game from Domantas Sabonis (20 pts, 26 reb, 5 ast, 10-11 FG), who recorded his second 20/20 game of January, with his 26 boards tying Chris Webber for the Sacramento-era team record. | Recap

🍀 Celtics 118, Pelicans 112: Jayson Tatum (28 pts, 10 reb, 8 ast) and Jaylen Brown (22 pts, 11 reb, 7 ast) both flirted with triple-doubles as the Celtics got back to winning in Boston after dropping two straight at TD Garden following the best home start in franchise history (20-0). | Recap

🚀 Rockets 135, Lakers 119: Jalen Green (34 pts, 12 reb, 7 ast) and Alperen Sengun (31 pts, 12 reb, 7 ast) made history as the only duo ever with at least 30/10 at age 21 or younger, outshining the 46 from LeBron James and Anthony Davis, who each scored 23 in the loss. | Recap

🧙 Wizards 118, Spurs 113: Washington won consecutive games for the first time this season as Kyle Kuzma (18 pts, 11 reb) led six Wizards in double figures. Wemby (22 pts, 11 reb, 3 blk) posted his 10th 20/10 game of the season, second in the NBA behind Anthony Davis | Recap

🌹 Blazers 130, Sixers 104: The Blazers got a combined 73 points from Jerami Grant (27), Malcolm Brogdon (24) and Scoot Henderson (22) as they pulled away from the shorthanded Sixers (no Joel Embiid or Tyrese Maxey) in the second half. | Recap

5. CELTICS VS. PACERS, ROUND 5

Tuesday’s game between the Pacers and Celtics (7:30 ET, TNT) will be their fifth meeting of the season.

That’s right. Fifth.

Yes, traditionally teams only play the other teams in their conference a maximum of four times.

But with the inaugural In-Season Tournament leaving two weeks of the schedule open, there are a total of seven five-game series this season.

• Pacers vs. Celtics: 2-2 Tie
• Pacers vs. Bucks: 4-1 Pacers
• Bucks vs. Knicks: 3-1 Bucks
• Knicks vs. Celtics: 3-0 Celtics
• Kings vs. Pelicans: 4-0 Pelicans
• Kings vs. Suns: 2-1 Kings
• Suns vs. Lakers: 3-1 Lakers

If the Pacers can follow the Nuggets and Clippers and hand the Celtics their third loss at TD Garden, Indiana will have won the five-game season series against the top two teams in the East – the Celtics (3-2) and the Bucks (4-1).

The fifth and final meeting of the regular season adds a new wrinkle as it will be the first matchup between the Pacers and Celtics since Indiana acquired Pascal Siakam from Toronto earlier this month.

After dropping their first three games with the new-look roster, the Pacers have won three in a row entering Tuesday and should have All-Star starter Tyrese Haliburton back in the lineup, giving the Pacers a new pick-and-roll combo for teams to fend against.

• Siakam has scored 1.32 points per possession as a pick-and-roll screener, which ranks in the 79.5 percentile league-wide
• Haliburton already had two efficient pick-and-roll partners in Myles Turner (1.40 ppp) and Jalen Smith (1.33), but now adds a third option

This series has seen a game decided by 51 points as Boston scored the second-most points and posted its third-highest margin of victory in team history on Nov. 1. It also saw the last game decided by two free throws with less than a second to play. What does round five have in store?