Gregg Popovich placed his left thumb on the inside of his right wrist, paused for a couple of moments and then confirmed that, yes, he has a pulse.
It was also an indication when asked that yes, he is thinking about Victor Wembanyama.
There are very specific rules that teams must follow right now when it comes to mentioning the name of the 7-foot-3 French phenom with big-man height and elite guard skills who will be the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. Essentially, since the 19-year-old is not officially in the draft yet, they can&rsquo;t mention him.
So they don&rsquo;t. And they don&rsquo;t have to, either. Everyone knows what the teams who&rsquo;ll be in the NBA lottery next month are hoping to have happen when those 14 ping-pong balls go into a hopper and determine the future for Wembanyama and the team that&rsquo;s lucky enough to draft him.
&ldquo;If I have a pulse and I&rsquo;m in basketball, I&rsquo;m probably going to think about the ping-pong balls or the lottery, I guess. I can do that, right? It&rsquo;s not against the rules,&rdquo; said Popovich, the San Antonio coach and all-time NBA wins leader. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t talk about any players or anything, I guess. But I&rsquo;m alive. I have ears, and I see TV. There&rsquo;s a lottery, yes. I&rsquo;ve thought about it. Duh.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Duh&rdquo; would also be the appropriate answer when the lottery winner gets asked what they&rsquo;ll do with the No. 1 pick. There is no debate. Wembanyama is the pick. A team that was really bad this season is probably going to get really good really fast.
They were woeful for Wemby. Now they&rsquo;re waiting for Wemby.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a freak,&rdquo; soon-to-be Hall of Fame inductee Dirk Nowitzki said. &ldquo;I mean, unbelievable. You always think you&rsquo;ve seen it all during your life and your career and history of the league, and then somebody else comes along. Kevin Durant comes along, a 7-foot-2 two-guard. Now we have a 7-foot-4 two-guard. &hellip; This kid is unbelievable.&rdquo;
Playing for the Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92, Wembanyama leads the French league with averages of 21.3 points. 9.9 rebounds and 3.1 blocks. He makes going viral an everyday thing; his latest break-the-Internet moment was when he took a 3-pointer, missed it short, followed the shot and slammed it home in one motion, completely unbothered by the players who were in his way.
&ldquo;Yeah, I&rsquo;ve seen him,&rdquo; Houston forward Jabari Smith Jr. said. &ldquo;Yeah, he&rsquo;s a problem.&rdquo;
The teams with the three worst records this season &mdash; Detroit, Houston and San Antonio &mdash; have the best odds of winning the lottery, 14% apiece. Detroit got here by having its worst season in more than 40 years. Houston has now had back-to-back seasons of 60 losses. San Antonio had its third-worst season ever.
They were never in the playoff race, though never drew any public scorn from the NBA office for trying to tank with hopes of improving draft odds, either &mdash; unlike Dallas, which faces a league investigation now for giving up on its play-in tournament chances with two games remaining. The team that wins the lottery will say it was all worth it. The others will feel at least some pang of disappointment, whether they say it or not.
&ldquo;Talent-wise, I think he&rsquo;s something that we&rsquo;ve never seen before,&rdquo; said Tony Parker, the former Spurs guard who&rsquo;ll be going into the Hall of Fame later this year &mdash; and owned the team that Wembanyama played for in France last season.
It&rsquo;s not just Wembanyama who will be coveted at this draft, though he is far and away the top prospect. This shapes up as a loaded draft at the top with G League Ignite standout Scoot Henderson and Alabama&rsquo;s Brandon Miller expected to be the second and third picks in some order. It&rsquo;s conceivable that in any other year, they would be vying to be picked first.
&ldquo;Looks good to me,&rdquo; Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said of the top of the draft class. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s legal or not legal to say. The very top of (the draft) is very impactful.&rdquo;
Most experts would agree that Henderson and Miller are more than consolation picks. Teams that lands one of them should also get better, and that&rsquo;s why no team is betting it all on the lottery.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not really worried about where the ball drops,&rdquo; Detroit general manager Troy Weaver said. &ldquo;Would I celebrate with everybody? Absolutely, but I don&rsquo;t walk around like that.&rdquo;
Wembanyama &mdash; who keeps a relatively low public profile, rarely doing even postgame interviews despite worldwide interest in his every move &mdash; knows he captured the league&rsquo;s attention long ago. LeBron James respectfully called him an alien last fall, Durant raves about Wembanyama&rsquo;s game and French center Rudy Gobert said he knew at least three years ago that the teenager would be an enormous star.
Even Giannis Antetokounmpo marvels at Wembanyama, predicting he could be &ldquo;one of the best to play this game.&rdquo;
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to get ready for this kid,&rdquo; Antetokounmpo said.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s cool to see Giannis saying this stuff,&rdquo; Wembanyama said when he sat down with the NBA&rsquo;s social media team a few weeks ago and was shown the clip of Antetokounmpo&rsquo;s comments. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s probably like my favorite player.&rdquo;
Paolo Banchero was the No. 1 pick last year. He entered the league with massive expectations and delivered; he&rsquo;s the frontrunner to win rookie of the year after a strong opening season with the Orlando Magic. And he knows what Wembanyama will go through &ndash; on some level, anyway.
&ldquo;His hype is a lot bigger than my hype,&rdquo; said Banchero, who led Duke to the Final Four in his only year in college. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to have it probably worse than I did, but I&rsquo;d tell him to just enjoy it. I&rsquo;m sure he&rsquo;s dreamed of this for a while and a lot comes with it, but it&rsquo;s also a lot that you gain from it, a lot of good things as well. I&rsquo;d tell him embrace it all and shoot, have fun. It&rsquo;s going to be a dream come true for him.&rdquo;
A dream come true for the lucky team, too. And answers start coming soon. The draft lottery is May 16, the same day that Wembanyama&rsquo;s French season is scheduled to end. The draft is June 22. Summer league starts in early July; anticipation of Wembanyama playing in Las Vegas again after two ballyhooed games there this past fall is already building. He intends to play in the Basketball World Cup for France starting in August. And then his rookie season starts in October.
For one team, all the losing this season will be quickly forgotten, based on how four ping-pong balls land.
&ldquo;This can be his league,&rdquo; Nowitzki said, &ldquo;for a long, long time.&rdquo;
___
AP Sports Writers Kristie Rieken in Houston, Schuyler Dixon in Dallas, Noah Trister in Washington, Larry Lage in Detroit and Michael Marot in Indianapolis, along with Associated Press Writer Raul Dominguez in San Antonio, contributed to this story.

Playing for the Metropolitans 92, Wembanyama leads the French league with averages of 21.3 points. 9.9 rebounds and 3.1 blocks.

The losing is done, and teams are now waiting for Wembanyama

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Trae Young scored 25 points, Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds and the Atlanta Hawks grabbed the No. 7 in the Eastern Conference playoffs by beating the Miami Heat 116-105 in a play-in tournament game Tuesday night.
Dejounte Murray added 18 points for the Hawks, who avenged a five-game Round 1 loss to Miami last season and earned an East first-round matchup with Boston that will start Saturday.
Kyle Lowry scored 33 points &mdash; his highest-scoring game in his two Miami seasons &mdash; for the Heat, who will host either Toronto or Chicago on Friday to decide the No. 8 seed and a spot against top overall seed Milwaukee in Round 1. The Raptors and Bulls play Wednesday; the winner of Friday&rsquo;s game opens the series against the Bucks on Sunday.
Tyler Herro scored 26 for Miami, and Jimmy Butler finished with 21.
For the Hawks, four reserves &mdash; Saddiq Bey, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Onyeka Okongwu and Jalen Johnson &mdash; combined for 53 points.
The Hawks improved to 3-0 all-time in play-in tournament games; that&rsquo;s the best mark in the league, one that New Orleans can match when it plays host to Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.
And they earned this one on the boards. Atlanta outrebounded Miami 63-39, including 22-6 on the offensive glass that keyed a 26-6 edge in second-chance points.
The Hawks took two timeouts in the first 3:53 of the third quarter, as most of what was a 24-point lead with 2:37 left in the first half &mdash; 63-39 Atlanta was the margin &mdash; got whittled away, and fast.
Miami cut the margin to 15 by halftime, then opened the third quarter on a 16-6 run. Add it all up, and it was a 27-8 run in about 7 minutes of play to get the Heat within 71-66.
But the Hawks had an answer then, and every other time the Heat made a run. The Atlanta lead was 13 again going into the fourth, and when Miami was within six midway through the final quarter, the Hawks scored five straight to restore a double-digit edge.
TIP-INS
Hawks: It was the second time this season that Atlanta took a huge first-half lead and nearly wasted it all. The Hawks were up 26 over Miami on Jan. 16, let the Heat get within four in the final moments and held on to win 121-113. &hellip; Capela had one 20-rebound game in the regular season.
&nbsp;

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Trae Young scored 25 points, Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds and the Atlanta Hawks grabbed the No. 7 in the Eastern Conference playoffs by beating the Miami Heat 116-105 in a play-in tournament game Tuesday night.
Dejounte Murray added 18 points for the Hawks, who avenged a five-game Round 1 loss to Miami last season and earned an East first-round matchup with Boston that will start Saturday.
Kyle Lowry scored 33 points &mdash; his highest-scoring game in his two Miami seasons &mdash; for the Heat, who will host either Toronto or Chicago on Friday to decide the No. 8 seed and a spot against top overall seed Milwaukee in Round 1. The Raptors and Bulls play Wednesday; the winner of Friday&rsquo;s game opens the series against the Bucks on Sunday.
Tyler Herro scored 26 for Miami, and Jimmy Butler finished with 21.
For the Hawks, four reserves &mdash; Saddiq Bey, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Onyeka Okongwu and Jalen Johnson &mdash; combined for 53 points.
The Hawks improved to 3-0 all-time in play-in tournament games; that&rsquo;s the best mark in the league, one that New Orleans can match when it plays host to Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.
And they earned this one on the boards. Atlanta outrebounded Miami 63-39, including 22-6 on the offensive glass that keyed a 26-6 edge in second-chance points.
The Hawks took two timeouts in the first 3:53 of the third quarter, as most of what was a 24-point lead with 2:37 left in the first half &mdash; 63-39 Atlanta was the margin &mdash; got whittled away, and fast.
Miami cut the margin to 15 by halftime, then opened the third quarter on a 16-6 run. Add it all up, and it was a 27-8 run in about 7 minutes of play to get the Heat within 71-66.
But the Hawks had an answer then, and every other time the Heat made a run. The Atlanta lead was 13 again going into the fourth, and when Miami was within six midway through the final quarter, the Hawks scored five straight to restore a double-digit edge.
TIP-INS
Hawks: It was the second time this season that Atlanta took a huge first-half lead and nearly wasted it all. The Hawks were up 26 over Miami on Jan. 16, let the Heat get within four in the final moments and held on to win 121-113. &hellip; Capela had one 20-rebound game in the regular season.
Heat: Lowry came off the bench in a postseason game for the first time since 2009. His last 94 appearances after the regular season were all starts. &hellip; The Heat went 1-6 this season against Friday&rsquo;s possible win-or-go-home opponents &mdash; 0-3 against Chicago and 1-3 against Toronto.
LOOKING AHEAD
Boston went 3-0 against Atlanta this season, and nearly all the rotation players from both teams missed at least one of those contests. Young averaged 31 points and 11 assists in two games against the Celtics; Jayson Tatum averaged 26.5 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists in two games against the Hawks.
It&rsquo;ll be the 13th series between the Celtics and Hawks franchises, the first since Atlanta&rsquo;s six-game Round 1 win in 2016.
PLAY-IN HISTORY
Miami became the 16th franchise to participate in the play-in tournament. Chicago, Toronto and Oklahoma City will stretch that list out to 19 teams on Wednesday. That leaves only Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento and Utah as clubs who have yet to be part of the play-in event.
UP NEXT
Hawks: Visit Boston for Game 1 of an East first-round series Saturday.
Heat: Host either Toronto or Chicago in an elimination game Friday.

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Trae Young scored 25 points, Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds and the Atlanta Hawks grabbed the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs by beating the Miami Heat 116-105 in a play-in tournament game Tuesday night.
Dejounte Murray added 18 points for the Hawks, who avenged a five-game Round 1 loss to Miami last season and earned an East first-round matchup with Boston that will start Saturday.
Kyle Lowry scored 33 points &mdash; his highest-scoring game in his two Miami seasons &mdash; for the Heat, who will host either Toronto or Chicago on Friday to decide the No. 8 seed and a spot against top overall seed Milwaukee in Round 1. The Raptors and Bulls play Wednesday; the winner of Friday&rsquo;s game opens the series against the Bucks on Sunday.
Tyler Herro scored 26 for Miami, and Jimmy Butler finished with 21.
For the Hawks, four reserves &mdash; Saddiq Bey, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Onyeka Okongwu and Jalen Johnson &mdash; combined for 53 points.
The Hawks improved to 3-0 all-time in play-in tournament games; that&rsquo;s the best mark in the league, one that New Orleans can match when it plays host to Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.
And they earned this one on the boards. Atlanta outrebounded Miami 63-39, including 22-6 on the offensive glass that keyed a 26-6 edge in second-chance points.
The Hawks took two timeouts in the first 3:53 of the third quarter, as most of what was a 24-point lead with 2:37 left in the first half &mdash; 63-39 Atlanta was the margin &mdash; got whittled away, and fast.
Miami cut the margin to 15 by halftime, then opened the third quarter on a 16-6 run. Add it all up, and it was a 27-8 run in about 7 minutes of play to get the Heat within 71-66.
But the Hawks had an answer then, and every other time the Heat made a run. The Atlanta lead was 13 again going into the fourth, and when Miami was within six midway through the final quarter, the Hawks scored five straight to restore a double-digit edge.
TIP-INS
Hawks: It was the second time this season that Atlanta took a huge first-half lead and nearly wasted it all. The Hawks were up 26 over Miami on Jan. 16, let the Heat get within four in the final moments and held on to win 121-113. &hellip; Capela had one 20-rebound game in the regular season.
Heat: Lowry came off the bench in a postseason game for the first time since 2009. His last 94 appearances after the regular season were all starts. &hellip; The Heat went 1-6 this season against Friday&rsquo;s possible win-or-go-home opponents &mdash; 0-3 against Chicago and 1-3 against Toronto.
LOOKING AHEAD
Boston went 3-0 against Atlanta this season, and nearly all the rotation players from both teams missed at least one of those contests. Young averaged 31 points and 11 assists in two games against the Celtics; Jayson Tatum averaged 26.5 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists in two games against the Hawks.
It&rsquo;ll be the 13th series between the Celtics and Hawks franchises, the first since Atlanta&rsquo;s six-game Round 1 win in 2016.
PLAY-IN HISTORY
Miami became the 16th franchise to participate in the play-in tournament. Chicago, Toronto and Oklahoma City will stretch that list out to 19 teams on Wednesday. That leaves only Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento and Utah as clubs who have yet to be part of the play-in event.
UP NEXT
Hawks: Visit Boston for Game 1 of an East first-round series Saturday.
Heat: Host either Toronto or Chicago in an elimination game Friday.

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Trae Young scored 25 points, Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds and the Atlanta Hawks grabbed the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs by beating the Miami Heat 116-105 in a play-in tournament game Tuesday night.
Dejounte Murray added 18 points for the Hawks, who avenged a five-game Round 1 loss to Miami last season and earned an East first-round matchup with Boston that will start Saturday.
Kyle Lowry scored 33 points &mdash; his highest-scoring game in his two Miami seasons &mdash; for the Heat, who will host either Toronto or Chicago on Friday to decide the No. 8 seed and a spot against top overall seed Milwaukee in Round 1. The Raptors and Bulls play Wednesday; the winner of Friday&rsquo;s game opens the series against the Bucks on Sunday.
Tyler Herro scored 26 for Miami, and Jimmy Butler finished with 21.
For the Hawks, four reserves &mdash; Saddiq Bey, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Onyeka Okongwu and Jalen Johnson &mdash; combined for 53 points.
&nbsp;
The Hawks improved to 3-0 all-time in play-in tournament games; that&rsquo;s the best mark in the league, one that New Orleans can match when it plays host to Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.
And they earned this one on the boards. Atlanta outrebounded Miami 63-39, including 22-6 on the offensive glass that keyed a 26-6 edge in second-chance points.
The Hawks took two timeouts in the first 3:53 of the third quarter, as most of what was a 24-point lead with 2:37 left in the first half &mdash; 63-39 Atlanta was the margin &mdash; got whittled away, and fast.
Miami cut the margin to 15 by halftime, then opened the third quarter on a 16-6 run. Add it all up, and it was a 27-8 run in about 7 minutes of play to get the Heat within 71-66.
But the Hawks had an answer then, and every other time the Heat made a run. The Atlanta lead was 13 again going into the fourth, and when Miami was within six midway through the final quarter, the Hawks scored five straight to restore a double-digit edge.
TIP-INS
Hawks: It was the second time this season that Atlanta took a huge first-half lead and nearly wasted it all. The Hawks were up 26 over Miami on Jan. 16, let the Heat get within four in the final moments and held on to win 121-113. &hellip; Capela had one 20-rebound game in the regular season.
Heat: Lowry came off the bench in a postseason game for the first time since 2009. His last 94 appearances after the regular season were all starts. &hellip; The Heat went 1-6 this season against Friday&rsquo;s possible win-or-go-home opponents &mdash; 0-3 against Chicago and 1-3 against Toronto.
LOOKING AHEAD
Boston went 3-0 against Atlanta this season, and nearly all the rotation players from both teams missed at least one of those contests. Young averaged 31 points and 11 assists in two games against the Celtics; Jayson Tatum averaged 26.5 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists in two games against the Hawks.
It&rsquo;ll be the 13th series between the Celtics and Hawks franchises, the first since Atlanta&rsquo;s six-game Round 1 win in 2016.
PLAY-IN HISTORY
Miami became the 16th franchise to participate in the play-in tournament. Chicago, Toronto and Oklahoma City will stretch that list out to 19 teams on Wednesday. That leaves only Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento and Utah as clubs who have yet to be part of the play-in event.
UP NEXT
Hawks: Visit Boston for Game 1 of an East first-round series Saturday.
Heat: Host either Toronto or Chicago in an elimination game Friday.

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Trae Young scored 25 points, Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds and the Atlanta Hawks grabbed the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs by beating the Miami Heat 116-105 in a play-in tournament game Tuesday night.
Dejounte Murray added 18 points for the Hawks, who avenged a five-game Round 1 loss to Miami last season and earned an East first-round matchup with Boston that will start Saturday.
Kyle Lowry scored 33 points &mdash; his highest-scoring game in his two Miami seasons &mdash; for the Heat, who will host either Toronto or Chicago on Friday to decide the No. 8 seed and a spot against top overall seed Milwaukee in Round 1. The Raptors and Bulls play Wednesday; the winner of Friday&rsquo;s game opens the series against the Bucks on Sunday.
Tyler Herro scored 26 for Miami, and Jimmy Butler finished with 21.
For the Hawks, four reserves &mdash; Saddiq Bey, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Onyeka Okongwu and Jalen Johnson &mdash; combined for 53 points.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
The Hawks were in total control against the Heat and advance to the playoffs 🔥 Trae Young: 25 PTS, 8 REB, 7 AST Clint Capela: 4 PTS, 21 REB, 2 BLK Dejounte Murray: 18 PTS, 6 AST, 5 REb <a href="https://t.co/bDdWcMiIxb">pic.twitter.com/bDdWcMiIxb</a>
&mdash; BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews/status/1645969225582882816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 12, 2023</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

The Hawks improved to 3-0 all-time in play-in tournament games; that&rsquo;s the best mark in the league, one that New Orleans can match when it plays host to Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.
And they earned this one on the boards. Atlanta outrebounded Miami 63-39, including 22-6 on the offensive glass that keyed a 26-6 edge in second-chance points.
The Hawks took two timeouts in the first 3:53 of the third quarter, as most of what was a 24-point lead with 2:37 left in the first half &mdash; 63-39 Atlanta was the margin &mdash; got whittled away, and fast.
Miami cut the margin to 15 by halftime, then opened the third quarter on a 16-6 run. Add it all up, and it was a 27-8 run in about 7 minutes of play to get the Heat within 71-66.
But the Hawks had an answer then, and every other time the Heat made a run. The Atlanta lead was 13 again going into the fourth, and when Miami was within six midway through the final quarter, the Hawks scored five straight to restore a double-digit edge.
TIP-INS
Hawks: It was the second time this season that Atlanta took a huge first-half lead and nearly wasted it all. The Hawks were up 26 over Miami on Jan. 16, let the Heat get within four in the final moments and held on to win 121-113. &hellip; Capela had one 20-rebound game in the regular season.
Heat: Lowry came off the bench in a postseason game for the first time since 2009. His last 94 appearances after the regular season were all starts. &hellip; The Heat went 1-6 this season against Friday&rsquo;s possible win-or-go-home opponents &mdash; 0-3 against Chicago and 1-3 against Toronto.
LOOKING AHEAD
Boston went 3-0 against Atlanta this season, and nearly all the rotation players from both teams missed at least one of those contests. Young averaged 31 points and 11 assists in two games against the Celtics; Jayson Tatum averaged 26.5 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists in two games against the Hawks.
It&rsquo;ll be the 13th series between the Celtics and Hawks franchises, the first since Atlanta&rsquo;s six-game Round 1 win in 2016.
PLAY-IN HISTORY
Miami became the 16th franchise to participate in the play-in tournament. Chicago, Toronto and Oklahoma City will stretch that list out to 19 teams on Wednesday. That leaves only Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento and Utah as clubs who have yet to be part of the play-in event.
UP NEXT
Hawks: Visit Boston for Game 1 of an East first-round series Saturday.
Heat: Host either Toronto or Chicago in an elimination game Friday.

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Quin Snyder&rsquo;s bags were packed in February for an overseas trip. He was going to spend time with some friends and family, see some coaches he&rsquo;s gotten to know over the years.
Then the Atlanta Hawks called with a job offer, to bring him on as coach.
And now Snyder&rsquo;s bags are packed again &mdash; for the playoffs, starting with a trip to Boston.
Trae Young scored 25 points, Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds and the Hawks earned the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs by beating the Miami Heat 116-105 in a play-in tournament game Tuesday night.
&ldquo;Our guys are trying to be the best version of ourselves at the end of the year,&rdquo; Snyder said. &ldquo;The year&rsquo;s not over. So hopefully we can take this and continue to build on it. It&rsquo;s one game &mdash; but it was our game.&rdquo;
Dejounte Murray added 18 points for the Hawks, who avenged a five-game Round 1 loss to Miami last season and earned an East first-round matchup with Boston that will start Saturday.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
The Hawks were in total control against the Heat and advance to the playoffs 🔥 Trae Young: 25 PTS, 8 REB, 7 AST Clint Capela: 4 PTS, 21 REB, 2 BLK Dejounte Murray: 18 PTS, 6 AST, 5 REb <a href="https://t.co/bDdWcMiIxb">pic.twitter.com/bDdWcMiIxb</a>
&mdash; BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews/status/1645969225582882816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 12, 2023</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

The Hawks improved to 3-0 all-time in play-in tournament games; that&rsquo;s the best mark in the league, one that New Orleans can match when it plays host to Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.
And they earned this one on the boards. Atlanta outrebounded Miami 63-39, including 22-6 on the offensive glass that keyed a 26-6 edge in second-chance points.
The Hawks took two timeouts in the first 3:53 of the third quarter, as most of what was a 24-point lead with 2:37 left in the first half &mdash; 63-39 Atlanta was the margin &mdash; got whittled away, and fast.
Miami cut the margin to 15 by halftime, then opened the third quarter on a 16-6 run. Add it all up, and it was a 27-8 run in about 7 minutes of play to get the Heat within 71-66.
But the Hawks had an answer then, and every other time the Heat made a run. The Atlanta lead was 13 again going into the fourth, and when Miami was within six midway through the final quarter, the Hawks scored five straight to restore a double-digit edge.
TIP-INS
Hawks: It was the second time this season that Atlanta took a huge first-half lead and nearly wasted it all. The Hawks were up 26 over Miami on Jan. 16, let the Heat get within four in the final moments and held on to win 121-113. &hellip; Capela had one 20-rebound game in the regular season.
Heat: Lowry came off the bench in a postseason game for the first time since 2009. His last 94 appearances after the regular season were all starts. &hellip; The Heat went 1-6 this season against Friday&rsquo;s possible win-or-go-home opponents &mdash; 0-3 against Chicago and 1-3 against Toronto.
LOOKING AHEAD
Boston went 3-0 against Atlanta this season, and nearly all the rotation players from both teams missed at least one of those contests. Young averaged 31 points and 11 assists in two games against the Celtics; Jayson Tatum averaged 26.5 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists in two games against the Hawks.
It&rsquo;ll be the 13th series between the Celtics and Hawks franchises, the first since Atlanta&rsquo;s six-game Round 1 win in 2016.
PLAY-IN HISTORY
Miami became the 16th franchise to participate in the play-in tournament. Chicago, Toronto and Oklahoma City will stretch that list out to 19 teams on Wednesday. That leaves only Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento and Utah as clubs who have yet to be part of the play-in event.
UP NEXT
Hawks: Visit Boston for Game 1 of an East first-round series Saturday.
Heat: Host either Toronto or Chicago in an elimination game Friday.

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Quin Snyder&rsquo;s bags were packed in February for an overseas trip. He was going to spend time with some friends and family, see some coaches he&rsquo;s gotten to know over the years.
Then the Atlanta Hawks called with a job offer, to bring him on as coach.
And now Snyder&rsquo;s bags are packed again &mdash; for the playoffs, starting with a trip to Boston.
Trae Young scored 25 points, Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds and the Hawks earned the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs by beating the Miami Heat 116-105 in a play-in tournament game Tuesday night.
&ldquo;Our guys are trying to be the best version of ourselves at the end of the year,&rdquo; Snyder said. &ldquo;The year&rsquo;s not over. So hopefully we can take this and continue to build on it. It&rsquo;s one game &mdash; but it was our game.&rdquo;
Dejounte Murray added 18 points for the Hawks, who avenged a five-game Round 1 loss to Miami last season and earned an East first-round matchup with Boston that will start Saturday.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
The Hawks were in total control against the Heat and advance to the playoffs 🔥 Trae Young: 25 PTS, 8 REB, 7 AST Clint Capela: 4 PTS, 21 REB, 2 BLK Dejounte Murray: 18 PTS, 6 AST, 5 REb <a href="https://t.co/bDdWcMiIxb">pic.twitter.com/bDdWcMiIxb</a>
&mdash; BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews/status/1645969225582882816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 12, 2023</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Kyle Lowry scored 33 points &mdash; his highest-scoring game in his two Miami seasons &mdash; for the Heat, who will host either Toronto or Chicago on Friday to decide the No. 8 seed and a spot against top overall seed Milwaukee in Round 1. The Raptors and Bulls play Wednesday; the winner of Friday&rsquo;s game opens the series against the Bucks on Sunday.
&nbsp;

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Quin Snyder&rsquo;s bags were packed in February for an overseas trip. He was going to spend time with some friends and family, see some coaches he&rsquo;s gotten to know over the years.
Then the Atlanta Hawks called with a job offer, to bring him on as coach.
And now Snyder&rsquo;s bags are packed again &mdash; for the playoffs, starting with a trip to Boston.
Trae Young scored 25 points, Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds and the Hawks earned the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs by beating the Miami Heat 116-105 in a play-in tournament game Tuesday night.
&ldquo;Our guys are trying to be the best version of ourselves at the end of the year,&rdquo; Snyder said. &ldquo;The year&rsquo;s not over. So hopefully we can take this and continue to build on it. It&rsquo;s one game &mdash; but it was our game.&rdquo;
Dejounte Murray added 18 points for the Hawks, who avenged a five-game Round 1 loss to Miami last season and earned an East first-round matchup with Boston that will start Saturday.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
The Hawks were in total control against the Heat and advance to the playoffs 🔥 Trae Young: 25 PTS, 8 REB, 7 AST Clint Capela: 4 PTS, 21 REB, 2 BLK Dejounte Murray: 18 PTS, 6 AST, 5 REb <a href="https://t.co/bDdWcMiIxb">pic.twitter.com/bDdWcMiIxb</a>
&mdash; BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews/status/1645969225582882816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 12, 2023</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Kyle Lowry scored 33 points &mdash; his highest-scoring game in his two Miami seasons &mdash; for the Heat, who will host either Toronto or Chicago on Friday to decide the No. 8 seed and a spot against top overall seed Milwaukee in Round 1. The Raptors and Bulls play Wednesday; the winner of Friday&rsquo;s game opens the series against the Bucks on Sunday.
Tyler Herro scored 26 for Miami, and Jimmy Butler finished with 21.
&ldquo;Come Friday, we have to play the legit exact opposite of how we played tonight,&rdquo; Butler said.
For the Hawks, four reserves &mdash; Saddiq Bey, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Onyeka Okongwu and Jalen Johnson &mdash; combined for 53 points.
The Hawks improved to 3-0 all-time in play-in tournament games; that&rsquo;s the best mark in the league, one that New Orleans can match when it plays host to Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.
And they earned this one on the boards. Atlanta outrebounded Miami 63-39, including 22-6 on the offensive glass that keyed a 26-6 edge in second-chance points.
&ldquo;We all understand the moment and the time of year it is,&rdquo; Young said. &ldquo;Credit our guys for being locked in, ready and focused on the game plan.&rdquo;
The Hawks took two timeouts in the first 3:53 of the third quarter, as most of what was a 24-point lead with 2:37 left in the first half &mdash; 63-39 Atlanta was the margin &mdash; got whittled away, and fast.
&nbsp;

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Quin Snyder&rsquo;s bags were packed in February for an overseas trip. He was going to spend time with some friends and family, see some coaches he&rsquo;s gotten to know over the years.
Then the Atlanta Hawks called with a job offer, to bring him on as coach.
And now Snyder&rsquo;s bags are packed again &mdash; for the playoffs, starting with a trip to Boston.
Trae Young scored 25 points, Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds and the Hawks earned the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs by beating the Miami Heat 116-105 in a play-in tournament game Tuesday night.
&ldquo;Our guys are trying to be the best version of ourselves at the end of the year,&rdquo; Snyder said. &ldquo;The year&rsquo;s not over. So hopefully we can take this and continue to build on it. It&rsquo;s one game &mdash; but it was our game.&rdquo;
Dejounte Murray added 18 points for the Hawks, who avenged a five-game Round 1 loss to Miami last season and earned an East first-round matchup with Boston that will start Saturday.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
The Hawks were in total control against the Heat and advance to the playoffs 🔥 Trae Young: 25 PTS, 8 REB, 7 AST Clint Capela: 4 PTS, 21 REB, 2 BLK Dejounte Murray: 18 PTS, 6 AST, 5 REb <a href="https://t.co/bDdWcMiIxb">pic.twitter.com/bDdWcMiIxb</a>
&mdash; BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews/status/1645969225582882816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 12, 2023</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Kyle Lowry scored 33 points &mdash; his highest-scoring game in his two Miami seasons &mdash; for the Heat, who will host either Toronto or Chicago on Friday to decide the No. 8 seed and a spot against top overall seed Milwaukee in Round 1. The Raptors and Bulls play Wednesday; the winner of Friday&rsquo;s game opens the series against the Bucks on Sunday.
Tyler Herro scored 26 for Miami, and Jimmy Butler finished with 21.
&ldquo;Come Friday, we have to play the legit exact opposite of how we played tonight,&rdquo; Butler said.
For the Hawks, four reserves &mdash; Saddiq Bey, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Onyeka Okongwu and Jalen Johnson &mdash; combined for 53 points.
The Hawks improved to 3-0 all-time in play-in tournament games; that&rsquo;s the best mark in the league, one that New Orleans can match when it plays host to Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.
And they earned this one on the boards. Atlanta outrebounded Miami 63-39, including 22-6 on the offensive glass that keyed a 26-6 edge in second-chance points.
&ldquo;We all understand the moment and the time of year it is,&rdquo; Young said. &ldquo;Credit our guys for being locked in, ready and focused on the game plan.&rdquo;
The Hawks took two timeouts in the first 3:53 of the third quarter, as most of what was a 24-point lead with 2:37 left in the first half &mdash; 63-39 Atlanta was the margin &mdash; got whittled away, and fast.
Miami cut the margin to 15 by halftime, then opened the third quarter on a 16-6 run. Add it all up, and it was a 27-8 run in about 7 minutes of play to get the Heat within 71-66.
But the Hawks had an answer then, and every other time the Heat made a run. The Atlanta lead was 13 again going into the fourth, and when Miami was within six midway through the final quarter, the Hawks scored five straight to restore a double-digit edge.
And now, a team that was the East&rsquo;s No. 1 seed last spring is one game from elimination.
&ldquo;Nothing about this season has been easy,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to do this the hard way.&rdquo;
TIP-INS
Hawks: It was the second time this season that Atlanta took a huge first-half lead and nearly wasted it all. The Hawks were up 26 over Miami on Jan. 16, let the Heat get within four in the final moments and held on to win 121-113. &hellip; Capela had one 20-rebound game in the regular season.
&nbsp;

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Quin Snyder&rsquo;s bags were packed in February for an overseas trip. He was going to spend time with some friends and family, see some coaches he&rsquo;s gotten to know over the years.
Then the Atlanta Hawks called with a job offer, to bring him on as coach.
And now Snyder&rsquo;s bags are packed again &mdash; for the playoffs, starting with a trip to Boston.
Trae Young scored 25 points, Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds and the Hawks earned the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs by beating the Miami Heat 116-105 in a play-in tournament game Tuesday night.
&ldquo;Our guys are trying to be the best version of ourselves at the end of the year,&rdquo; Snyder said. &ldquo;The year&rsquo;s not over. So hopefully we can take this and continue to build on it. It&rsquo;s one game &mdash; but it was our game.&rdquo;
Dejounte Murray added 18 points for the Hawks, who avenged a five-game Round 1 loss to Miami last season and earned an East first-round matchup with Boston that will start Saturday.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
The Hawks were in total control against the Heat and advance to the playoffs 🔥 Trae Young: 25 PTS, 8 REB, 7 AST Clint Capela: 4 PTS, 21 REB, 2 BLK Dejounte Murray: 18 PTS, 6 AST, 5 REb <a href="https://t.co/bDdWcMiIxb">pic.twitter.com/bDdWcMiIxb</a>
&mdash; BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews/status/1645969225582882816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 12, 2023</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Kyle Lowry scored 33 points &mdash; his highest-scoring game in his two Miami seasons &mdash; for the Heat, who will host either Toronto or Chicago on Friday to decide the No. 8 seed and a spot against top overall seed Milwaukee in Round 1. The Raptors and Bulls play Wednesday; the winner of Friday&rsquo;s game opens the series against the Bucks on Sunday.
Tyler Herro scored 26 for Miami, and Jimmy Butler finished with 21.
&ldquo;Come Friday, we have to play the legit exact opposite of how we played tonight,&rdquo; Butler said.
For the Hawks, four reserves &mdash; Saddiq Bey, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Onyeka Okongwu and Jalen Johnson &mdash; combined for 53 points.
The Hawks improved to 3-0 all-time in play-in tournament games; that&rsquo;s the best mark in the league, one that New Orleans can match when it plays host to Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.
And they earned this one on the boards. Atlanta outrebounded Miami 63-39, including 22-6 on the offensive glass that keyed a 26-6 edge in second-chance points.
&ldquo;We all understand the moment and the time of year it is,&rdquo; Young said. &ldquo;Credit our guys for being locked in, ready and focused on the game plan.&rdquo;
The Hawks took two timeouts in the first 3:53 of the third quarter, as most of what was a 24-point lead with 2:37 left in the first half &mdash; 63-39 Atlanta was the margin &mdash; got whittled away, and fast.
Miami cut the margin to 15 by halftime, then opened the third quarter on a 16-6 run. Add it all up, and it was a 27-8 run in about 7 minutes of play to get the Heat within 71-66.
But the Hawks had an answer then, and every other time the Heat made a run. The Atlanta lead was 13 again going into the fourth, and when Miami was within six midway through the final quarter, the Hawks scored five straight to restore a double-digit edge.
And now, a team that was the East&rsquo;s No. 1 seed last spring is one game from elimination.
&ldquo;Nothing about this season has been easy,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to do this the hard way.&rdquo;
TIP-INS
Hawks: It was the second time this season that Atlanta took a huge first-half lead and nearly wasted it all. The Hawks were up 26 over Miami on Jan. 16, let the Heat get within four in the final moments and held on to win 121-113. &hellip; Capela had one 20-rebound game in the regular season.
Heat: Lowry came off the bench in a postseason game for the first time since 2009. His last 94 appearances after the regular season were all starts. &hellip; The Heat went 1-6 this season against Friday&rsquo;s possible win-or-go-home opponents &mdash; 0-3 against Chicago and 1-3 against Toronto.
LOOKING AHEAD
Boston went 3-0 against Atlanta this season, and nearly all the rotation players from both teams missed at least one of those contests. Young averaged 31 points and 11 assists in two games against the Celtics; Jayson Tatum averaged 26.5 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists in two games against the Hawks.
It&rsquo;ll be the 13th series between the Celtics and Hawks franchises, the first since Atlanta&rsquo;s six-game Round 1 win in 2016.
PLAY-IN HISTORY
Miami became the 16th franchise to participate in the play-in tournament. Chicago, Toronto and Oklahoma City will stretch that list out to 19 teams on Wednesday. That leaves only Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento and Utah as clubs who have yet to be part of the play-in event.
UP NEXT
Hawks: Visit Boston for Game 1 of an East first-round series Saturday.
Heat: Host either Toronto or Chicago in an elimination game Friday.

Trae Young scored 25 points, Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds and the Hawks grabbed the No. 7 seed by beating the Heat 116-105.

Hawks hold off Heat 116-105 in Play-In Game, grab No. 7 seed in East

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Getting to the play-in tournament probably wasn&rsquo;t the goal of any team when training camps opened back in September.
It does, however, beat the alternative.
There are 12 teams with playoff spots right now, 10 teams whose seasons are over &mdash; and eight teams with a second chance. The play-in tournament starts Tuesday, with Atlanta going to Miami and Minnesota visiting the Los Angeles Lakers, with the winners going to the postseason.
Oklahoma City goes to New Orleans and Chicago visits Toronto on Wednesday for elimination games; loser goes home, winner moves on to face the loser of Tuesday&rsquo;s games in another win-or-go-home contest.
&ldquo;You have to embrace this new experience,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. &ldquo;To the old heads in our locker room, each of us have experienced long NBA careers and not have had this opportunity. I think it&rsquo;s been great for the league. How harrowing this has been, the last six, eight weeks for 16 teams in the West and the East. It&rsquo;s just been great for competition and overall. it&rsquo;s been great for the league.&rdquo;
The NBA added it to boost end-of-season excitement, give more teams playoff hope &mdash; and discourage tanking. Dallas still had a chance at the play-in until its 81st game of the season on Friday, when it held several rotation players out and lost. The NBA is investigating the Mavericks&rsquo; motivations there and if Dallas lost to protect its draft odds.
&nbsp;

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Getting to the play-in tournament probably wasn&rsquo;t the goal of any team when training camps opened back in September.
It does, however, beat the alternative.
There are 12 teams with playoff spots right now, 10 teams whose seasons are over &mdash; and eight teams with a second chance. The play-in tournament starts Tuesday, with Atlanta going to Miami and Minnesota visiting the Los Angeles Lakers, with the winners going to the postseason.
Oklahoma City goes to New Orleans and Chicago visits Toronto on Wednesday for elimination games; loser goes home, winner moves on to face the loser of Tuesday&rsquo;s games in another win-or-go-home contest.
&ldquo;You have to embrace this new experience,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. &ldquo;To the old heads in our locker room, each of us have experienced long NBA careers and not have had this opportunity. I think it&rsquo;s been great for the league. How harrowing this has been, the last six, eight weeks for 16 teams in the West and the East. It&rsquo;s just been great for competition and overall. it&rsquo;s been great for the league.&rdquo;
The NBA added it to boost end-of-season excitement, give more teams playoff hope &mdash; and discourage tanking. Dallas still had a chance at the play-in until its 81st game of the season on Friday, when it held several rotation players out and lost. The NBA is investigating the Mavericks&rsquo; motivations there and if Dallas lost to protect its draft odds.
The Heat were the No. 1 seed in the East last season and now need the play-in just to get back to the playoffs. But they&rsquo;re also playing perhaps their best basketball of the season &mdash; just like the Lakers, who went a West-best 16-7 after the All-Star break.
&ldquo;We put ourselves in a position where we can move on,&rdquo; Lakers star LeBron James said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s all we could ask for, to put ourselves in a position to be able to move on. We had obviously a very, very slow start, starting 2-10 ... to know where we are today, we can be happy about that, but not satisfied.&rdquo;
No team that has used the play-in tournament &mdash; Portland in 2020 in the bubble under a slightly different format; Boston, Washington, the Lakers and Memphis in 2021; Brooklyn, Atlanta, Minnesota and New Orleans last year &mdash; to reach the actual playoffs has ever won a first-round series.
But it still provides hope, and perhaps a shot in the arm for those who survive and advance.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking forward to it,&rdquo; Spoelstra said. &ldquo;Our guys love competition. And this has high stakes to it. And that&rsquo;s ultimately where you find out about yourself &mdash; when there&rsquo;s stakes to it, when there&rsquo;s consequences to it.&rdquo;
FORMAT
Even in Year 3 of this format, it still can be confusing. Here&rsquo;s how it works:
&mdash; No. 7 plays No. 8. The winner is in and gets the No. 7 seed for the playoffs. The loser has a second chance.
&mdash; No. 9 plays No. 10. The loser&rsquo;s season is over. The winner moves on to face the loser of the 7 vs. 8 game.
&mdash; The remaining teams (the 7-8 loser and the 9-10 winner) play at the higher seed, with the winner getting the No. 8 seed. The loser&rsquo;s season ends.
&mdash; All six games either have a team qualifying for the playoffs, or getting eliminated, or both.
MATCHUPS
EASTERN CONFERENCE
NO. 8 ATLANTA (41-41) AT NO. 7 MIAMI (44-38)
Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., TNT
Season series: Miami, 3-1
Previous play-in appearances: Hawks went 2-0 to become No. 8 seed in 2022; Heat are in play-in for first time.
At stake: Winner plays Boston in Game 1 on Saturday; loser plays elimination game Friday.
Outlook: All four games ended up relatively close (Heat by 8, Hawks by 8, Heat by 8, Heat by 2). ... Miami&rsquo;s Jimmy Butler averaged 25 points and Bam Adebayo averaged 24.5 in the season series. ... Trae Young averaged 19.8 points for the Hawks against the Heat, but was held to 36% shooting and 21% from 3-point range. ... Hawks aiming to become first team in the play-in era to win three games after going 2-0 last year.
X-factor: Miami&rsquo;s Caleb Martin shot 64% against the Hawks, averaging 15.8 points and going 8-for-11 on 3-pointers.
NO. 10 CHICAGO (40-42) AT NO. 9 TORONTO (41-41)
Wednesday, 7 p.m., ESPN
Season series: Toronto, 2-1
Previous play-in appearances: Both teams are in play-in for first time.
At stake: Winner plays elimination game Friday; loser is eliminated.
Outlook: Home teams went 3-0 in the season series. ... Zach LaVine averaged 23.5 points vs. the Raptors this season, while Fred VanVleet averaged 20 points vs. the Bulls. ... Toronto never led by more than 10 points in any of the three games vs. Chicago this season.
X-factor: Chicago&rsquo;s DeMar DeRozan has played at Toronto seven times since leaving the Raptors, so he&rsquo;s dealt with the emotions before &mdash; though never in an elimination game in his former home building.
WESTERN CONFERENCE
NO. 8 MINNESOTA (42-40) AT NO. 7 L.A. LAKERS (43-39)
Tuesday, 10 p.m., TNT
Season series: Minnesota, 2-1
Previous play-in appearances: Timberwolves went 1-0 to become No. 7 seed in 2022; Lakers went 1-0 to become No. 7 seed in 2021.
At stake: Winner plays Memphis in Game 1 on Sunday; loser plays elimination game Friday.
Outlook: Anthony Davis played against Minnesota twice, scored exactly 38 points in both of those games &mdash; the Lakers winning one of them, the Wolves winning the other. ... LeBron James averaged 23 points in two games against Minnesota, shooting only 39.5%. ... Anthony Edwards had 29 points in Minnesota&rsquo;s win over the Lakers in October, then was held to a combined 30 points in two March meetings between the clubs.
X-factor: The dustup involving Rudy Gobert and Kyle Anderson on Sunday will either empower the Timberwolves &mdash; or fracture them. Gobert has been suspended for Tuesday&rsquo;s game by the Wolves.
NO. 10 OKLAHOMA CITY (40-42) AT NO. 9 NEW ORLEANS (42-40)
Wednesday, 9:30 p.m., ESPN
Season series: New Orleans, 3-1
Previous play-in appearances: Pelicans went 2-0 to become No. 8 seed in 2022; Thunder are in play-in for first time.
At stake: Winner plays elimination game Friday; loser is eliminated.
Outlook: New Orleans&rsquo; three wins over the Thunder were by three, three and four points &mdash; but the Pelicans held leads of 21, 20 and 13 points in those games. ... New Orleans&rsquo; Brandon Ingram played in just one of the four games, scoring 34 points in that outing. ... Shai Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 33.5 points against the Pelicans this season, with high games of 44 and 35.
X-factor: Thunder have nothing to lose except lottery odds. Pelicans were in this exact spot last year and know what it takes.

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Getting to the play-in tournament probably wasn&rsquo;t the goal of any team when training camps opened back in September.
It does, however, beat the alternative.
There are 12 teams with playoff spots right now, 10 teams whose seasons are over &mdash; and eight teams with a second chance. The play-in tournament starts Tuesday, with Atlanta going to Miami and Minnesota visiting the Los Angeles Lakers, with the winners going to the postseason.
Oklahoma City goes to New Orleans and Chicago visits Toronto on Wednesday for elimination games; loser goes home, winner moves on to face the loser of Tuesday&rsquo;s games in another win-or-go-home contest.
&ldquo;You have to embrace this new experience,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. &ldquo;To the old heads in our locker room, each of us have experienced long NBA careers and not have had this opportunity. I think it&rsquo;s been great for the league. How harrowing this has been, the last six, eight weeks for 16 teams in the West and the East. It&rsquo;s just been great for competition and overall. it&rsquo;s been great for the league.&rdquo;
The NBA added it to boost end-of-season excitement, give more teams playoff hope &mdash; and discourage tanking. Dallas still had a chance at the play-in until its 81st game of the season on Friday, when it held several rotation players out and lost. The NBA is investigating the Mavericks&rsquo; motivations there and if Dallas lost to protect its draft odds.
The Heat were the No. 1 seed in the East last season and now need the play-in just to get back to the playoffs. But they&rsquo;re also playing perhaps their best basketball of the season &mdash; just like the Lakers, who went a West-best 16-7 after the All-Star break.
&ldquo;We put ourselves in a position where we can move on,&rdquo; Lakers star LeBron James said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s all we could ask for, to put ourselves in a position to be able to move on. We had obviously a very, very slow start, starting 2-10 ... to know where we are today, we can be happy about that, but not satisfied.&rdquo;
No team that has used the play-in tournament &mdash; Portland in 2020 in the bubble under a slightly different format; Boston, Washington, the Lakers and Memphis in 2021; Brooklyn, Atlanta, Minnesota and New Orleans last year &mdash; to reach the actual playoffs has ever won a first-round series.
But it still provides hope, and perhaps a shot in the arm for those who survive and advance.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking forward to it,&rdquo; Spoelstra said. &ldquo;Our guys love competition. And this has high stakes to it. And that&rsquo;s ultimately where you find out about yourself &mdash; when there&rsquo;s stakes to it, when there&rsquo;s consequences to it.&rdquo;
FORMAT
Even in Year 3 of this format, it still can be confusing. Here&rsquo;s how it works:
&mdash; No. 7 plays No. 8. The winner is in and gets the No. 7 seed for the playoffs. The loser has a second chance.
&mdash; No. 9 plays No. 10. The loser&rsquo;s season is over. The winner moves on to face the loser of the 7 vs. 8 game.
&mdash; The remaining teams (the 7-8 loser and the 9-10 winner) play at the higher seed, with the winner getting the No. 8 seed. The loser&rsquo;s season ends.
&mdash; All six games either have a team qualifying for the playoffs, or getting eliminated, or both.
MATCHUPS
EASTERN CONFERENCE
NO. 8 ATLANTA (41-41) AT NO. 7 MIAMI (44-38)
Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., TNT
Season series: Miami, 3-1
Previous play-in appearances: Hawks went 2-0 to become No. 8 seed in 2022; Heat are in play-in for first time.
At stake: Winner plays Boston in Game 1 on Saturday; loser plays elimination game Friday.
Outlook: All four games ended up relatively close (Heat by 8, Hawks by 8, Heat by 8, Heat by 2). ... Miami&rsquo;s Jimmy Butler averaged 25 points and Bam Adebayo averaged 24.5 in the season series. ... Trae Young averaged 19.8 points for the Hawks against the Heat, but was held to 36% shooting and 21% from 3-point range. ... Hawks aiming to become first team in the play-in era to win three games after going 2-0 last year.
X-factor: Miami&rsquo;s Caleb Martin shot 64% against the Hawks, averaging 15.8 points and going 8-for-11 on 3-pointers.
NO. 10 CHICAGO (40-42) AT NO. 9 TORONTO (41-41)
Wednesday, 7 p.m., ESPN
Season series: Toronto, 2-1
Previous play-in appearances: Both teams are in play-in for first time.
At stake: Winner plays elimination game Friday; loser is eliminated.
Outlook: Home teams went 3-0 in the season series. ... Zach LaVine averaged 23.5 points vs. the Raptors this season, while Fred VanVleet averaged 20 points vs. the Bulls. ... Toronto never led by more than 10 points in any of the three games vs. Chicago this season.
X-factor: Chicago&rsquo;s DeMar DeRozan has played at Toronto seven times since leaving the Raptors, so he&rsquo;s dealt with the emotions before &mdash; though never in an elimination game in his former home building.
WESTERN CONFERENCE
NO. 8 MINNESOTA (42-40) AT NO. 7 L.A. LAKERS (43-39)
Tuesday, 10 p.m., TNT
Season series: Minnesota, 2-1
Previous play-in appearances: Timberwolves went 1-0 to become No. 7 seed in 2022; Lakers went 1-0 to become No. 7 seed in 2021.
At stake: Winner plays Memphis in Game 1 on Sunday; loser plays elimination game Friday.
Outlook: Anthony Davis played against Minnesota twice, scored exactly 38 points in both of those games &mdash; the Lakers winning one of them, the Wolves winning the other. ... LeBron James averaged 23 points in two games against Minnesota, shooting only 39.5%. ... Anthony Edwards had 29 points in Minnesota&rsquo;s win over the Lakers in October, then was held to a combined 30 points in two March meetings between the clubs.
X-factor: The dustup involving Rudy Gobert and Kyle Anderson on Sunday will either empower the Timberwolves &mdash; or fracture them. Gobert has been suspended for Tuesday&rsquo;s game by the Wolves.
NO. 10 OKLAHOMA CITY (40-42) AT NO. 9 NEW ORLEANS (42-40)
Wednesday, 9:30 p.m., ESPN
Season series: New Orleans, 3-1
Previous play-in appearances: Pelicans went 2-0 to become No. 8 seed in 2022; Thunder are in play-in for first time.
At stake: Winner plays elimination game Friday; loser is eliminated.
Outlook: New Orleans&rsquo; three wins over the Thunder were by three, three and four points &mdash; but the Pelicans held leads of 21, 20 and 13 points in those games. ... New Orleans&rsquo; Brandon Ingram played in just one of the four games, scoring 34 points in that outing. ... Shai Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 33.5 points against the Pelicans this season, with high games of 44 and 35.
X-factor: Thunder have nothing to lose except lottery odds. Pelicans were in this exact spot last year and know what it takes.

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Getting to the play-in tournament probably wasn&rsquo;t the goal of any team when training camps opened back in September.
It does, however, beat the alternative.
There are 12 teams with playoff spots right now, 10 teams whose seasons are over &mdash; and eight teams with a second chance. The play-in tournament starts Tuesday, with Atlanta going to Miami and Minnesota visiting the Los Angeles Lakers, with the winners going to the postseason.
Oklahoma City goes to New Orleans and Chicago visits Toronto on Wednesday for elimination games; loser goes home, winner moves on to face the loser of Tuesday&rsquo;s games in another win-or-go-home contest.
&ldquo;You have to embrace this new experience,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. &ldquo;To the old heads in our locker room, each of us have experienced long NBA careers and not have had this opportunity. I think it&rsquo;s been great for the league. How harrowing this has been, the last six, eight weeks for 16 teams in the West and the East. It&rsquo;s just been great for competition and overall. it&rsquo;s been great for the league.&rdquo;
The NBA added it to boost end-of-season excitement, give more teams playoff hope &mdash; and discourage tanking. Dallas still had a chance at the play-in until its 81st game of the season on Friday, when it held several rotation players out and lost. The NBA is investigating the Mavericks&rsquo; motivations there and if Dallas lost to protect its draft odds.
The Heat were the No. 1 seed in the East last season and now need the play-in just to get back to the playoffs. But they&rsquo;re also playing perhaps their best basketball of the season &mdash; just like the Lakers, who went a West-best 16-7 after the All-Star break.
&ldquo;We put ourselves in a position where we can move on,&rdquo; Lakers star LeBron James said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s all we could ask for, to put ourselves in a position to be able to move on. We had obviously a very, very slow start, starting 2-10 ... to know where we are today, we can be happy about that, but not satisfied.&rdquo;
No team that has used the play-in tournament &mdash; Portland in 2020 in the bubble under a slightly different format; Boston, Washington, the Lakers and Memphis in 2021; Brooklyn, Atlanta, Minnesota and New Orleans last year &mdash; to reach the actual playoffs has ever won a first-round series.
But it still provides hope, and perhaps a shot in the arm for those who survive and advance.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking forward to it,&rdquo; Spoelstra said. &ldquo;Our guys love competition. And this has high stakes to it. And that&rsquo;s ultimately where you find out about yourself &mdash; when there&rsquo;s stakes to it, when there&rsquo;s consequences to it.&rdquo;
FORMAT
Even in Year 3 of this format, it still can be confusing. Here&rsquo;s how it works:
&mdash; No. 7 plays No. 8. The winner is in and gets the No. 7 seed for the playoffs. The loser has a second chance.
&mdash; No. 9 plays No. 10. The loser&rsquo;s season is over. The winner moves on to face the loser of the 7 vs. 8 game.
&mdash; The remaining teams (the 7-8 loser and the 9-10 winner) play at the higher seed, with the winner getting the No. 8 seed. The loser&rsquo;s season ends.
&mdash; All six games either have a team qualifying for the playoffs, or getting eliminated, or both.
MATCHUPS
EASTERN CONFERENCE
NO. 8 ATLANTA (41-41) AT NO. 7 MIAMI (44-38)
Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., TNT
Season series: Miami, 3-1
Previous play-in appearances: Hawks went 2-0 to become No. 8 seed in 2022; Heat are in play-in for first time.
At stake: Winner plays Boston in Game 1 on Saturday; loser plays elimination game Friday.
Outlook: All four games ended up relatively close (Heat by 8, Hawks by 8, Heat by 8, Heat by 2). ... Miami&rsquo;s Jimmy Butler averaged 25 points and Bam Adebayo averaged 24.5 in the season series. ... Trae Young averaged 19.8 points for the Hawks against the Heat, but was held to 36% shooting and 21% from 3-point range. ... Hawks aiming to become first team in the play-in era to win three games after going 2-0 last year.
X-factor: Miami&rsquo;s Caleb Martin shot 64% against the Hawks, averaging 15.8 points and going 8-for-11 on 3-pointers.
NO. 10 CHICAGO (40-42) AT NO. 9 TORONTO (41-41)
Wednesday, 7 p.m., ESPN
Season series: Toronto, 2-1
Previous play-in appearances: Both teams are in play-in for first time.
At stake: Winner plays elimination game Friday; loser is eliminated.
Outlook: Home teams went 3-0 in the season series. ... Zach LaVine averaged 23.5 points vs. the Raptors this season, while Fred VanVleet averaged 20 points vs. the Bulls. ... Toronto never led by more than 10 points in any of the three games vs. Chicago this season.
X-factor: Chicago&rsquo;s DeMar DeRozan has played at Toronto seven times since leaving the Raptors, so he&rsquo;s dealt with the emotions before &mdash; though never in an elimination game in his former home building.
WESTERN CONFERENCE
NO. 8 MINNESOTA (42-40) AT NO. 7 L.A. LAKERS (43-39)
Tuesday, 10 p.m., TNT
Season series: Minnesota, 2-1
Previous play-in appearances: Timberwolves went 1-0 to become No. 7 seed in 2022; Lakers went 1-0 to become No. 7 seed in 2021.
At stake: Winner plays Memphis in Game 1 on Sunday; loser plays elimination game Friday.
Outlook: Anthony Davis played against Minnesota twice, scored exactly 38 points in both of those games &mdash; the Lakers winning one of them, the Wolves winning the other. ... LeBron James averaged 23 points in two games against Minnesota, shooting only 39.5%. ... Anthony Edwards had 29 points in Minnesota&rsquo;s win over the Lakers in October, then was held to a combined 30 points in two March meetings between the clubs.
X-factor: The dustup involving Rudy Gobert and Kyle Anderson on Sunday will either empower the Timberwolves &mdash; or fracture them. Gobert has been suspended for Tuesday&rsquo;s game by the Wolves.
NO. 10 OKLAHOMA CITY (40-42) AT NO. 9 NEW ORLEANS (42-40)
Wednesday, 9:30 p.m., ESPN
Season series: New Orleans, 3-1
Previous play-in appearances: Pelicans went 2-0 to become No. 8 seed in 2022; Thunder are in play-in for first time.
At stake: Winner plays elimination game Friday; loser is eliminated.
Outlook: New Orleans&rsquo; three wins over the Thunder were by three, three and four points &mdash; but the Pelicans held leads of 21, 20 and 13 points in those games. ... New Orleans&rsquo; Brandon Ingram played in just one of the four games, scoring 34 points in that outing. ... Shai Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 33.5 points against the Pelicans this season, with high games of 44 and 35.
X-factor: Thunder have nothing to lose except lottery odds. Pelicans were in this exact spot last year and know what it takes.

The play-in starts with Atlanta going to Miami and Minnesota visiting the Lakers, with the winners going to the postseason.

Play-in tournament starts Tuesday, giving 8 teams new life

Scoring was up in the NBA this season, to a level not seen in more than a half-century.
NBA teams averaged 114.7 points per game. That&rsquo;s the ninth-highest figure in the league&rsquo;s 77 seasons and the most since teams averaged 116.7 per game in 1969-70.
It represents a jump of 3.7% over last season.
A record 282,127 points were scored this season, smashing the previous mark of 273,573 set in 2018-19.
FREE THROW RECORD
The NBA has never had a better season from the foul line. Again.
The league-wide record for accuracy will fall for the third time in the last four seasons. Teams have combined to shoot 78.2% from the line this season.
That topped the 77.8% mark from two seasons ago. And while that difference &mdash; a mere 0.4% &mdash; doesn&rsquo;t look like much, it is. NBA teams could have combined to miss their first 200 free throws on Sunday when the regular season was ending and still have been on pace to set a season record.
A BOSTON FIRST
When you&rsquo;ve done something that&rsquo;s never been done before in Boston Celtics history, that&rsquo;s impressive.
So, take a bow, Jayson Tatum.
The forward averaged 30.1 points per game this season &mdash; the most ever by a Celtics player. John Havlicek and Isaiah Thomas each averaged 28.9 in their best seasons in Boston, and Larry Bird averaged 29.9 in 1987-88, but Tatum is the first to average 30.
Bird technically averaged 29.93 points that season, and two more points would have given him 29.95, which many would have rounded up to 30.0. He was five points shy that season of averaging exactly 30 per game.
BRIDGES&rsquo; STREAK
Brooklyn&rsquo;s Mikal Bridges technically missed a game this season, but his consecutive games-played streak &mdash; now 392 games and counting &mdash; lives on because he wasn&rsquo;t eligible to play while the Nets were completing the process of acquiring him in a trade with the Phoenix Suns.
Regardless, he still played in a league-best 83 games this season. It&rsquo;s quirky, since a season is 82 games, but the Nets had more games to play than the Suns did when the trade happened. And it lived on in Sunday&rsquo;s season finale because Bridges appeared for the first 4 seconds to extend the streak, then checked out for the day.
Bridges didn&rsquo;t miss a game at Villanova, either. His last missed game was in high school.
Bridges is the first player to appear in 83 games in a season since Josh Smith in 2014-15. Bridges was one of 10 players to not miss a game this season &mdash; Houston&rsquo;s Tari Eason and Kenyon Martin Jr., Chicago&rsquo;s Nikola Vucevic and Patrick Williams, Boston&rsquo;s Derrick White, Golden State teammates Kevon Looney and Jordan Poole, New York&rsquo;s Isaiah Hartenstein and Sacramento&rsquo;s Harrison Barnes also played in all 82 for their clubs this season.
The NBA&rsquo;s all-time record for games in a season probably is one of those records that&rsquo;ll never be broken. Walt Bellamy played in 88 games in 1968-69 &mdash; 35 with New York, then 53 with Detroit.
SCORING MARGIN
San Antonio was outscored by just over 10 points per game this season &mdash; the worst margin in Spurs history.
It was the 20th time in NBA history that a team had been outscored, on average, by double digits for an entire season.
3&rsquo;s DOWN
For nine straight seasons &mdash; 2012-13 through 2020-21 &mdash; the NBA saw a record set annually for 3-pointers made per game.
It seems the growth era from beyond the arc has plateaued.
For the second consecutive year, 3-pointers made dropped this season, albeit slightly. The league saw an average of 24.7 3s per game this season, down from 24.9 per game last season and the record 25.4 per game in 2020-21.
The league finished the regular season with 30,359 3s made &mdash; just off the record total of 30,598 last season. But teams also attempted, on average, about 3% fewer 3-pointers this season than they did a year ago.
3s UP
That said, there were more highly prolific 3-point shooters this season than ever before. The league finished with 20 players with at least 200 3-pointers &mdash; the most ever, just ahead of the 18 who made at least 200 3s last season.
The 20 in the 200 Club this year: Golden State&rsquo;s Klay Thompson, Indiana&rsquo;s Buddy Hield, Golden State&rsquo;s Stephen Curry, Cleveland&rsquo;s Donovan Mitchell, Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard, Boston&rsquo;s Jayson Tatum, Brooklyn&rsquo;s Malik Beasley, New York&rsquo;s Julius Randle, Dallas&rsquo; Tim Hardaway Jr., Portland&rsquo;s Anfernee Simons, New Orleans&rsquo; CJ McCollum, Golden State&rsquo;s Jordan Poole, Toronto&rsquo;s Fred VanVleet, Minnesota&rsquo;s Anthony Edwards, Sacramento&rsquo;s Keegan Murray, Miami&rsquo;s Tyler Herro, Sacramento&rsquo;s Kevin Huerter, Chicago&rsquo;s Zach LaVine, New Orleans&rsquo; Trey Murphy III and Utah&rsquo;s Lauri Markkanen.
AND 3s RECORDS
The Warriors finished with 1,363 3-pointers as a team, the most by any team in an NBA season. The previous record was 1,323 by the 2018-19 Houston Rockets.
Four of the six most prolific 3-point seasons in NBA history happened this season: The Warriors broke the record for a team, Boston (1,315) finished eight behind Houston&rsquo;s 2018-19 mark, Dallas (1,246) made the fifth-most in a season and Milwaukee (1,217) made the sixth-most in a season.
Golden State, Boston, Dallas and Milwaukee obviously also set their franchise single-season record for total 3s made. So did Brooklyn, Indiana, the Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Sacramento.
BETTING STATS
Those who bet the Oklahoma City Thunder all season long probably did quite well.
The Thunder covered the spread a league-best 58.5% of the time this season, just ahead of Orlando and Philadelphia (57.3%).
The Los Angeles Lakers were a perfect 50% against the spread &mdash; 41 times covering, 41 times not.
Dallas and San Antonio bettors likely weren&rsquo;t happy. Those clubs both covered only 39% of the time, just a bit worse than Miami and Detroit (both 40.5%).
ONE OF EACH
Golden State&rsquo;s 56-point win over Portland on Sunday was the biggest of the season. The biggest rout going into the season&rsquo;s final day was a 45-point win by New Orleans on Nov. 21 &mdash; against the Warriors.
That made the Warriors the first team since the 1997-98 Trail Blazers to win a game by at least 45, and lose a game by at least 45, in the same season.
Portland beat Dallas 120-75 on Nov. 17, 1998. The Blazers lost to Indiana 124-59 on Feb. 27, 1998.

Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press breaks down the 2022-23 NBA season by the numbers.

Inside the NBA numbers: A look at the season’s stats

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; The individual stat races in the NBA saw two repeat winners this season. Philadelphia&rsquo;s Joel Embiid is now a back-to-back scoring champion, and Memphis&rsquo; Jaren Jackson Jr. won the blocks race for the second consecutive year.
A look at the top stat races:
SCORING
Embiid is the NBA&rsquo;s scoring champion for a second consecutive year, averaging 33.1 points per game. His closest pursuers were Dallas&rsquo; Luka Doncic (32.4) and Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard (32.2).
This season was the first in NBA history when three players averaged at least 32 points per game. Embiid becomes the 19th player to win multiple scoring championships.
The high-point game this season was 71, done twice &mdash; Donovan Mitchell did it for Cleveland against Chicago on Jan. 2, and Damian Lillard did it for Portland against Houston on Feb. 26.
ASSISTS
Philadelphia&rsquo;s James Harden reclaimed the assist title, averaging 10.7 per game this season. It&rsquo;s his second time finishing as the leader in assists per game; he also did it in 2016-17 when he was with Houston.

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; The individual stat races in the NBA saw two repeat winners this season. Philadelphia&rsquo;s Joel Embiid is now a back-to-back scoring champion, and Memphis&rsquo; Jaren Jackson Jr. won the blocks race for the second consecutive year.
A look at the top stat races:
SCORING
Embiid is the NBA&rsquo;s scoring champion for a second consecutive year, averaging 33.1 points per game. His closest pursuers were Dallas&rsquo; Luka Doncic (32.4) and Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard (32.2).
This season was the first in NBA history when three players averaged at least 32 points per game. Embiid becomes the 19th player to win multiple scoring championships.
The high-point game this season was 71, done twice &mdash; Donovan Mitchell did it for Cleveland against Chicago on Jan. 2, and Damian Lillard did it for Portland against Houston on Feb. 26.
ASSISTS
Philadelphia&rsquo;s James Harden reclaimed the assist title, averaging 10.7 per game this season. It&rsquo;s his second time finishing as the leader in assists per game; he also did it in 2016-17 when he was with Houston.
&nbsp;

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; The individual stat races in the NBA saw two repeat winners this season. Philadelphia&rsquo;s Joel Embiid is now a back-to-back scoring champion, and Memphis&rsquo; Jaren Jackson Jr. won the blocks race for the second consecutive year.
A look at the top stat races:
SCORING
Embiid is the NBA&rsquo;s scoring champion for a second consecutive year, averaging 33.1 points per game. His closest pursuers were Dallas&rsquo; Luka Doncic (32.4) and Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard (32.2).
This season was the first in NBA history when three players averaged at least 32 points per game. Embiid becomes the 19th player to win multiple scoring championships.
The high-point game this season was 71, done twice &mdash; Donovan Mitchell did it for Cleveland against Chicago on Jan. 2, and Damian Lillard did it for Portland against Houston on Feb. 26.
ASSISTS
Philadelphia&rsquo;s James Harden reclaimed the assist title, averaging 10.7 per game this season. It&rsquo;s his second time finishing as the leader in assists per game; he also did it in 2016-17 when he was with Houston.
Harden is the 13th player to win multiple assist titles. He also had the high-assist game by a player this season, with 21 of them in Philadelphia&rsquo;s win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Dec. 23.
&nbsp;

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; The individual stat races in the NBA saw two repeat winners this season. Philadelphia&rsquo;s Joel Embiid is now a back-to-back scoring champion, and Memphis&rsquo; Jaren Jackson Jr. won the blocks race for the second consecutive year.
A look at the top stat races:
SCORING
Embiid is the NBA&rsquo;s scoring champion for a second consecutive year, averaging 33.1 points per game. His closest pursuers were Dallas&rsquo; Luka Doncic (32.4) and Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard (32.2).
This season was the first in NBA history when three players averaged at least 32 points per game. Embiid becomes the 19th player to win multiple scoring championships.
The high-point game this season was 71, done twice &mdash; Donovan Mitchell did it for Cleveland against Chicago on Jan. 2, and Damian Lillard did it for Portland against Houston on Feb. 26.
ASSISTS
Philadelphia&rsquo;s James Harden reclaimed the assist title, averaging 10.7 per game this season. It&rsquo;s his second time finishing as the leader in assists per game; he also did it in 2016-17 when he was with Houston.
Harden is the 13th player to win multiple assist titles. He also had the high-assist game by a player this season, with 21 of them in Philadelphia&rsquo;s win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Dec. 23.
REBOUNDS
Sacramento&rsquo;s Domantas Sabonis led the league in rebounds per game, averaging 12.3. It&rsquo;s his fourth consecutive season averaging at least 12 rebounds per contest, the longest such active streak in the NBA.
The most rebounds any player had in a game this season was 29, done by Ivica Zubac of the Clippers against Indiana on Nov. 27.
STEALS
Toronto&rsquo;s O.G. Anunoby edged Miami&rsquo;s Jimmy Butler for the steals title in a very close race. Anunoby averaged 1.91 per game, while Butler averaged 1.83.
Anunoby is the first Raptors player to win the steals crown. Butler was trying to become the 10th player with multiple steals titles; he also led the league in 2020-21.
Philadelphia&rsquo;s De&rsquo;Anthony Melton and Minnesota&rsquo;s D&rsquo;Angelo Russell had the most steals in a game this season. They each had seven, Melton getting his on Dec. 9, Russell on Oct. 28 &mdash; and both efforts were against the Los Angeles Lakers.
BLOCKS
Jackson Jr. has gone back-to-back as the NBA&rsquo;s blocked-shot champion, averaging 3.0 per game this season.
&nbsp;

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; The individual stat races in the NBA saw two repeat winners this season. Philadelphia&rsquo;s Joel Embiid is now a back-to-back scoring champion, and Memphis&rsquo; Jaren Jackson Jr. won the blocks race for the second consecutive year.
A look at the top stat races:
SCORING
Embiid is the NBA&rsquo;s scoring champion for a second consecutive year, averaging 33.1 points per game. His closest pursuers were Dallas&rsquo; Luka Doncic (32.4) and Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard (32.2).
This season was the first in NBA history when three players averaged at least 32 points per game. Embiid becomes the 19th player to win multiple scoring championships.
The high-point game this season was 71, done twice &mdash; Donovan Mitchell did it for Cleveland against Chicago on Jan. 2, and Damian Lillard did it for Portland against Houston on Feb. 26.
ASSISTS
Philadelphia&rsquo;s James Harden reclaimed the assist title, averaging 10.7 per game this season. It&rsquo;s his second time finishing as the leader in assists per game; he also did it in 2016-17 when he was with Houston.
Harden is the 13th player to win multiple assist titles. He also had the high-assist game by a player this season, with 21 of them in Philadelphia&rsquo;s win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Dec. 23.
REBOUNDS
Sacramento&rsquo;s Domantas Sabonis led the league in rebounds per game, averaging 12.3. It&rsquo;s his fourth consecutive season averaging at least 12 rebounds per contest, the longest such active streak in the NBA.
The most rebounds any player had in a game this season was 29, done by Ivica Zubac of the Clippers against Indiana on Nov. 27.
STEALS
Toronto&rsquo;s O.G. Anunoby edged Miami&rsquo;s Jimmy Butler for the steals title in a very close race. Anunoby averaged 1.91 per game, while Butler averaged 1.83.
Anunoby is the first Raptors player to win the steals crown. Butler was trying to become the 10th player with multiple steals titles; he also led the league in 2020-21.
Philadelphia&rsquo;s De&rsquo;Anthony Melton and Minnesota&rsquo;s D&rsquo;Angelo Russell had the most steals in a game this season. They each had seven, Melton getting his on Dec. 9, Russell on Oct. 28 &mdash; and both efforts were against the Los Angeles Lakers.
BLOCKS
Jackson Jr. has gone back-to-back as the NBA&rsquo;s blocked-shot champion, averaging 3.0 per game this season.
He&rsquo;s the first player to lead the league in blocks in two consecutive seasons since Anthony Davis (2013-14, 2014-15).
Milwaukee&rsquo;s Brook Lopez had the high-block game this season, swatting nine against Brooklyn on March 9.
THREE-POINTERS
Golden State&rsquo;s Klay Thompson had the most 3-pointers by a player this season, getting to 301 by making six in Sunday&rsquo;s finale.
Thompson is only the third player to make 300 3&prime;s in a season. Warriors teammate Stephen Curry has done it four times, and Philadelphia&rsquo;s James Harden did it while playing for Houston in 2018-19.
Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard had the most 3&rsquo;s in a game this season, connecting on 13 in his 71-point outburst against Houston on Feb. 26.
TEAM BESTS
Sacramento (120.7 points per game) led the NBA in average scoring this season. Denver (50.4%) was the NBA&rsquo;s best team from the field.

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; The individual stat races in the NBA saw two repeat winners this season. Philadelphia&rsquo;s Joel Embiid is now a back-to-back scoring champion, and Memphis&rsquo; Jaren Jackson Jr. won the blocks race for the second consecutive year.
A look at the top stat races:
SCORING
Embiid is the NBA&rsquo;s scoring champion for a second consecutive year, averaging 33.1 points per game. His closest pursuers were Dallas&rsquo; Luka Doncic (32.4) and Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard (32.2).
This season was the first in NBA history when three players averaged at least 32 points per game. Embiid becomes the 19th player to win multiple scoring championships.
The high-point game this season was 71, done twice &mdash; Donovan Mitchell did it for Cleveland against Chicago on Jan. 2, and Damian Lillard did it for Portland against Houston on Feb. 26.
ASSISTS
Philadelphia&rsquo;s James Harden reclaimed the assist title, averaging 10.7 per game this season. It&rsquo;s his second time finishing as the leader in assists per game; he also did it in 2016-17 when he was with Houston.
Harden is the 13th player to win multiple assist titles. He also had the high-assist game by a player this season, with 21 of them in Philadelphia&rsquo;s win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Dec. 23.
REBOUNDS
Sacramento&rsquo;s Domantas Sabonis led the league in rebounds per game, averaging 12.3. It&rsquo;s his fourth consecutive season averaging at least 12 rebounds per contest, the longest such active streak in the NBA.
The most rebounds any player had in a game this season was 29, done by Ivica Zubac of the Clippers against Indiana on Nov. 27.
STEALS
Toronto&rsquo;s O.G. Anunoby edged Miami&rsquo;s Jimmy Butler for the steals title in a very close race. Anunoby averaged 1.91 per game, while Butler averaged 1.83.
Anunoby is the first Raptors player to win the steals crown. Butler was trying to become the 10th player with multiple steals titles; he also led the league in 2020-21.
Philadelphia&rsquo;s De&rsquo;Anthony Melton and Minnesota&rsquo;s D&rsquo;Angelo Russell had the most steals in a game this season. They each had seven, Melton getting his on Dec. 9, Russell on Oct. 28 &mdash; and both efforts were against the Los Angeles Lakers.
BLOCKS
Jackson Jr. has gone back-to-back as the NBA&rsquo;s blocked-shot champion, averaging 3.0 per game this season.
He&rsquo;s the first player to lead the league in blocks in two consecutive seasons since Anthony Davis (2013-14, 2014-15).
Milwaukee&rsquo;s Brook Lopez had the high-block game this season, swatting nine against Brooklyn on March 9.
THREE-POINTERS
Golden State&rsquo;s Klay Thompson had the most 3-pointers by a player this season, getting to 301 by making six in Sunday&rsquo;s finale.
Thompson is only the third player to make 300 3&prime;s in a season. Warriors teammate Stephen Curry has done it four times, and Philadelphia&rsquo;s James Harden did it while playing for Houston in 2018-19.
Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard had the most 3&rsquo;s in a game this season, connecting on 13 in his 71-point outburst against Houston on Feb. 26.
TEAM BESTS
Sacramento (120.7 points per game) led the NBA in average scoring this season. Denver (50.4%) was the NBA&rsquo;s best team from the field.
&nbsp;

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; The individual stat races in the NBA saw two repeat winners this season. Philadelphia&rsquo;s Joel Embiid is now a back-to-back scoring champion, and Memphis&rsquo; Jaren Jackson Jr. won the blocks race for the second consecutive year.
A look at the top stat races:
SCORING
Embiid is the NBA&rsquo;s scoring champion for a second consecutive year, averaging 33.1 points per game. His closest pursuers were Dallas&rsquo; Luka Doncic (32.4) and Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard (32.2).
This season was the first in NBA history when three players averaged at least 32 points per game. Embiid becomes the 19th player to win multiple scoring championships.
The high-point game this season was 71, done twice &mdash; Donovan Mitchell did it for Cleveland against Chicago on Jan. 2, and Damian Lillard did it for Portland against Houston on Feb. 26.
ASSISTS
Philadelphia&rsquo;s James Harden reclaimed the assist title, averaging 10.7 per game this season. It&rsquo;s his second time finishing as the leader in assists per game; he also did it in 2016-17 when he was with Houston.
Harden is the 13th player to win multiple assist titles. He also had the high-assist game by a player this season, with 21 of them in Philadelphia&rsquo;s win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Dec. 23.
REBOUNDS
Sacramento&rsquo;s Domantas Sabonis led the league in rebounds per game, averaging 12.3. It&rsquo;s his fourth consecutive season averaging at least 12 rebounds per contest, the longest such active streak in the NBA.
The most rebounds any player had in a game this season was 29, done by Ivica Zubac of the Clippers against Indiana on Nov. 27.
STEALS
Toronto&rsquo;s O.G. Anunoby edged Miami&rsquo;s Jimmy Butler for the steals title in a very close race. Anunoby averaged 1.91 per game, while Butler averaged 1.83.
Anunoby is the first Raptors player to win the steals crown. Butler was trying to become the 10th player with multiple steals titles; he also led the league in 2020-21.
Philadelphia&rsquo;s De&rsquo;Anthony Melton and Minnesota&rsquo;s D&rsquo;Angelo Russell had the most steals in a game this season. They each had seven, Melton getting his on Dec. 9, Russell on Oct. 28 &mdash; and both efforts were against the Los Angeles Lakers.
BLOCKS
Jackson Jr. has gone back-to-back as the NBA&rsquo;s blocked-shot champion, averaging 3.0 per game this season.
He&rsquo;s the first player to lead the league in blocks in two consecutive seasons since Anthony Davis (2013-14, 2014-15).
Milwaukee&rsquo;s Brook Lopez had the high-block game this season, swatting nine against Brooklyn on March 9.
THREE-POINTERS
Golden State&rsquo;s Klay Thompson had the most 3-pointers by a player this season, getting to 301 by making six in Sunday&rsquo;s finale.
Thompson is only the third player to make 300 3&prime;s in a season. Warriors teammate Stephen Curry has done it four times, and Philadelphia&rsquo;s James Harden did it while playing for Houston in 2018-19.
Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard had the most 3&rsquo;s in a game this season, connecting on 13 in his 71-point outburst against Houston on Feb. 26.
TEAM BESTS
Sacramento (120.7 points per game) led the NBA in average scoring this season. Denver (50.4%) was the NBA&rsquo;s best team from the field.
And from the line &mdash; be it the foul line or the 3-point line &mdash; nobody was better than Philadelphia.
The 76ers made 83.5% of their free throws &mdash; the second-best rate by a team in NBA history. The Los Angeles Clippers made 83.9% of their tries from the line in 2020-21.
The 76ers also shot a league-best 38.7% from 3-point range this season, just ahead of Golden State&rsquo;s 38.5%. The Warriors made 1,363 3&rsquo;s this season, a single-season record.

With the 2022-23 NBA regular season over, here's a look at who won each individual stat race.

Embiid wins NBA’s scoring race, Harden takes assist title

The Eastern Conference play-in tournament matchups are set, as are the top four seeds in the Western Conference.
Also apparently decided: The NBA&rsquo;s scoring race.
Brooklyn sealed the No. 6 seed in the East on Friday night, which locked Miami into No. 7 and the play-in tournament. The Nets will play Philadelphia in Round 1 of the playoffs &mdash; meaning Brooklyn will be up against a soon-to-be two-time scoring champion.
Philadelphia center Joel Embiid &mdash; he didn&rsquo;t play in Friday&rsquo;s overtime win over Atlanta and there&rsquo;s no need for him to in the 76ers&rsquo; regular-season finale on Sunday, either &mdash; will almost certainly finish the season averaging 33.1 points.
The only player who had a realistic chance entering Friday to catch him was Dallas&rsquo; Luka Doncic. But he played sparingly Friday, changed into street clothes at halftime of the Mavericks&rsquo; loss to Chicago &mdash; one that eliminated Dallas from postseason contention and assured Oklahoma City the No. 10 spot in the play-in tournament. Mavs coach Jason Kidd said Doncic won&rsquo;t play Sunday in the finale against San Antonio, so his season is over.
&nbsp;

The Eastern Conference play-in tournament matchups are set, as are the top four seeds in the Western Conference.
Also apparently decided: The NBA&rsquo;s scoring race.
Brooklyn sealed the No. 6 seed in the East on Friday night, which locked Miami into No. 7 and the play-in tournament. The Nets will play Philadelphia in Round 1 of the playoffs &mdash; meaning Brooklyn will be up against a soon-to-be two-time scoring champion.
Philadelphia center Joel Embiid &mdash; he didn&rsquo;t play in Friday&rsquo;s overtime win over Atlanta and there&rsquo;s no need for him to in the 76ers&rsquo; regular-season finale on Sunday, either &mdash; will almost certainly finish the season averaging 33.1 points.
The only player who had a realistic chance entering Friday to catch him was Dallas&rsquo; Luka Doncic. But he played sparingly Friday, changed into street clothes at halftime of the Mavericks&rsquo; loss to Chicago &mdash; one that eliminated Dallas from postseason contention and assured Oklahoma City the No. 10 spot in the play-in tournament. Mavs coach Jason Kidd said Doncic won&rsquo;t play Sunday in the finale against San Antonio, so his season is over.
&ldquo;Decisions, sometimes, are hard in this business,&rdquo; Kidd said.
Doncic played Friday for only the first quarter and the first 35 seconds of the second quarter. He scored 13 points, his average falling to 32.4.
&nbsp;

The Eastern Conference play-in tournament matchups are set, as are the top four seeds in the Western Conference.
Also apparently decided: The NBA&rsquo;s scoring race.
Brooklyn sealed the No. 6 seed in the East on Friday night, which locked Miami into No. 7 and the play-in tournament. The Nets will play Philadelphia in Round 1 of the playoffs &mdash; meaning Brooklyn will be up against a soon-to-be two-time scoring champion.
Philadelphia center Joel Embiid &mdash; he didn&rsquo;t play in Friday&rsquo;s overtime win over Atlanta and there&rsquo;s no need for him to in the 76ers&rsquo; regular-season finale on Sunday, either &mdash; will almost certainly finish the season averaging 33.1 points.
The only player who had a realistic chance entering Friday to catch him was Dallas&rsquo; Luka Doncic. But he played sparingly Friday, changed into street clothes at halftime of the Mavericks&rsquo; loss to Chicago &mdash; one that eliminated Dallas from postseason contention and assured Oklahoma City the No. 10 spot in the play-in tournament. Mavs coach Jason Kidd said Doncic won&rsquo;t play Sunday in the finale against San Antonio, so his season is over.
&ldquo;Decisions, sometimes, are hard in this business,&rdquo; Kidd said.
Doncic played Friday for only the first quarter and the first 35 seconds of the second quarter. He scored 13 points, his average falling to 32.4.
Barring something mathematically improbable in the season&rsquo;s final two days, Embiid will become the 13th player to win back-to-back scoring crowns &mdash; with the most recent name on that list being his 76ers teammate James Harden, who did it with Houston. Embiid won it last year by holding off Milwaukee&rsquo;s Giannis Antetokounmpo by 0.7 points per game and is now poised to edge Doncic this year by the same margin.
Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard will finish with an average of 32.2 points per game; Oklahoma City&rsquo;s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is currently fourth at 31.4 per game. For him to catch Embiid, assuming Embiid doesn&rsquo;t play Sunday against Brooklyn, Gilgeous-Alexander would need to play and score 148 points in the Thunder&rsquo;s regular season finale against Memphis &mdash; so it&rsquo;s probably safe to start engraving the trophy.
Doncic likely only made any appearance Friday because it was Slovenia Night at Dallas; the first 3,500 fans in the building got a scarf that said &ldquo;I Feel Slovenia&rdquo; in an obvious nod to Doncic&rsquo;s homeland.
&nbsp;

The Eastern Conference play-in tournament matchups are set, as are the top four seeds in the Western Conference.
Also apparently decided: The NBA&rsquo;s scoring race.
Brooklyn sealed the No. 6 seed in the East on Friday night, which locked Miami into No. 7 and the play-in tournament. The Nets will play Philadelphia in Round 1 of the playoffs &mdash; meaning Brooklyn will be up against a soon-to-be two-time scoring champion.
Philadelphia center Joel Embiid &mdash; he didn&rsquo;t play in Friday&rsquo;s overtime win over Atlanta and there&rsquo;s no need for him to in the 76ers&rsquo; regular-season finale on Sunday, either &mdash; will almost certainly finish the season averaging 33.1 points.
The only player who had a realistic chance entering Friday to catch him was Dallas&rsquo; Luka Doncic. But he played sparingly Friday, changed into street clothes at halftime of the Mavericks&rsquo; loss to Chicago &mdash; one that eliminated Dallas from postseason contention and assured Oklahoma City the No. 10 spot in the play-in tournament. Mavs coach Jason Kidd said Doncic won&rsquo;t play Sunday in the finale against San Antonio, so his season is over.
&ldquo;Decisions, sometimes, are hard in this business,&rdquo; Kidd said.
Doncic played Friday for only the first quarter and the first 35 seconds of the second quarter. He scored 13 points, his average falling to 32.4.
Barring something mathematically improbable in the season&rsquo;s final two days, Embiid will become the 13th player to win back-to-back scoring crowns &mdash; with the most recent name on that list being his 76ers teammate James Harden, who did it with Houston. Embiid won it last year by holding off Milwaukee&rsquo;s Giannis Antetokounmpo by 0.7 points per game and is now poised to edge Doncic this year by the same margin.
Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard will finish with an average of 32.2 points per game; Oklahoma City&rsquo;s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is currently fourth at 31.4 per game. For him to catch Embiid, assuming Embiid doesn&rsquo;t play Sunday against Brooklyn, Gilgeous-Alexander would need to play and score 148 points in the Thunder&rsquo;s regular season finale against Memphis &mdash; so it&rsquo;s probably safe to start engraving the trophy.
Doncic likely only made any appearance Friday because it was Slovenia Night at Dallas; the first 3,500 fans in the building got a scarf that said &ldquo;I Feel Slovenia&rdquo; in an obvious nod to Doncic&rsquo;s homeland.
Dallas was in an uphill spot for the last play-in berth in the West anyway. It needed to win Friday and Sunday, and hope that Oklahoma City would lose to Memphis on Sunday &mdash; just to get the No. 10 spot and still need two more road wins to make it to a Round 1 series against Denver.
&ldquo;We were fighting for our lives and this is the situation we&rsquo;re in,&rdquo; Kidd said. &ldquo;The organization has made a decision to change and we have to go by that.&rdquo;
Not making the play-in tournament helps Dallas&rsquo; chances of claiming no worse than the No. 10 pick in this summer&rsquo;s draft &mdash; which is important &mdash; and provide at least a tiny chance of winning the lottery and the chance to draft French phenom Victor Wembanyama.
&nbsp;

The Eastern Conference play-in tournament matchups are set, as are the top four seeds in the Western Conference.
Also apparently decided: The NBA&rsquo;s scoring race.
Brooklyn sealed the No. 6 seed in the East on Friday night, which locked Miami into No. 7 and the play-in tournament. The Nets will play Philadelphia in Round 1 of the playoffs &mdash; meaning Brooklyn will be up against a soon-to-be two-time scoring champion.
Philadelphia center Joel Embiid &mdash; he didn&rsquo;t play in Friday&rsquo;s overtime win over Atlanta and there&rsquo;s no need for him to in the 76ers&rsquo; regular-season finale on Sunday, either &mdash; will almost certainly finish the season averaging 33.1 points.
The only player who had a realistic chance entering Friday to catch him was Dallas&rsquo; Luka Doncic. But he played sparingly Friday, changed into street clothes at halftime of the Mavericks&rsquo; loss to Chicago &mdash; one that eliminated Dallas from postseason contention and assured Oklahoma City the No. 10 spot in the play-in tournament. Mavs coach Jason Kidd said Doncic won&rsquo;t play Sunday in the finale against San Antonio, so his season is over.
&ldquo;Decisions, sometimes, are hard in this business,&rdquo; Kidd said.
Doncic played Friday for only the first quarter and the first 35 seconds of the second quarter. He scored 13 points, his average falling to 32.4.
Barring something mathematically improbable in the season&rsquo;s final two days, Embiid will become the 13th player to win back-to-back scoring crowns &mdash; with the most recent name on that list being his 76ers teammate James Harden, who did it with Houston. Embiid won it last year by holding off Milwaukee&rsquo;s Giannis Antetokounmpo by 0.7 points per game and is now poised to edge Doncic this year by the same margin.
Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard will finish with an average of 32.2 points per game; Oklahoma City&rsquo;s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is currently fourth at 31.4 per game. For him to catch Embiid, assuming Embiid doesn&rsquo;t play Sunday against Brooklyn, Gilgeous-Alexander would need to play and score 148 points in the Thunder&rsquo;s regular season finale against Memphis &mdash; so it&rsquo;s probably safe to start engraving the trophy.
Doncic likely only made any appearance Friday because it was Slovenia Night at Dallas; the first 3,500 fans in the building got a scarf that said &ldquo;I Feel Slovenia&rdquo; in an obvious nod to Doncic&rsquo;s homeland.
Dallas was in an uphill spot for the last play-in berth in the West anyway. It needed to win Friday and Sunday, and hope that Oklahoma City would lose to Memphis on Sunday &mdash; just to get the No. 10 spot and still need two more road wins to make it to a Round 1 series against Denver.
&ldquo;We were fighting for our lives and this is the situation we&rsquo;re in,&rdquo; Kidd said. &ldquo;The organization has made a decision to change and we have to go by that.&rdquo;
Not making the play-in tournament helps Dallas&rsquo; chances of claiming no worse than the No. 10 pick in this summer&rsquo;s draft &mdash; which is important &mdash; and provide at least a tiny chance of winning the lottery and the chance to draft French phenom Victor Wembanyama.
If the Mavs&rsquo; pick is between No. 1 and No. 10, Dallas keeps it. If it is No. 11 or deeper in the draft, it conveys to New York as part of the compensation agreed to as part of the Kristaps Porzingis trade in 2019.
So while the West play-in field and first-round matchups remain unsettled and won&rsquo;t be totally finalized until Sunday&rsquo;s regular season finales, the East is set.
No. 7 Miami will play host to No. 8 Atlanta on Tuesday night, while No. 9 Toronto will get a visit from No. 10 Chicago on Wednesday night in the first two games of the East play-in.
Miami still had an outside shot at reaching No. 6 entering Friday, but now knows the play-in round awaits.
&ldquo;This is our reality and you have to embrace that,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. &ldquo;This is a totally new experience for all of us. It&rsquo;s not exactly where we wanted to be heading into this season if you go back to training camp, but that is totally irrelevant. We have this in front of us, and it&rsquo;s competition, and it&rsquo;s great competition with a lot at stake. That is something to look forward to.&rdquo;
&nbsp;

The Eastern Conference play-in tournament matchups are set, as are the top four seeds in the Western Conference.
Also apparently decided: The NBA&rsquo;s scoring race.
Brooklyn sealed the No. 6 seed in the East on Friday night, which locked Miami into No. 7 and the play-in tournament. The Nets will play Philadelphia in Round 1 of the playoffs &mdash; meaning Brooklyn will be up against a soon-to-be two-time scoring champion.
Philadelphia center Joel Embiid &mdash; he didn&rsquo;t play in Friday&rsquo;s overtime win over Atlanta and there&rsquo;s no need for him to in the 76ers&rsquo; regular-season finale on Sunday, either &mdash; will almost certainly finish the season averaging 33.1 points.
The only player who had a realistic chance entering Friday to catch him was Dallas&rsquo; Luka Doncic. But he played sparingly Friday, changed into street clothes at halftime of the Mavericks&rsquo; loss to Chicago &mdash; one that eliminated Dallas from postseason contention and assured Oklahoma City the No. 10 spot in the play-in tournament. Mavs coach Jason Kidd said Doncic won&rsquo;t play Sunday in the finale against San Antonio, so his season is over.
&ldquo;Decisions, sometimes, are hard in this business,&rdquo; Kidd said.
Doncic played Friday for only the first quarter and the first 35 seconds of the second quarter. He scored 13 points, his average falling to 32.4.
Barring something mathematically improbable in the season&rsquo;s final two days, Embiid will become the 13th player to win back-to-back scoring crowns &mdash; with the most recent name on that list being his 76ers teammate James Harden, who did it with Houston. Embiid won it last year by holding off Milwaukee&rsquo;s Giannis Antetokounmpo by 0.7 points per game and is now poised to edge Doncic this year by the same margin.
Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard will finish with an average of 32.2 points per game; Oklahoma City&rsquo;s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is currently fourth at 31.4 per game. For him to catch Embiid, assuming Embiid doesn&rsquo;t play Sunday against Brooklyn, Gilgeous-Alexander would need to play and score 148 points in the Thunder&rsquo;s regular season finale against Memphis &mdash; so it&rsquo;s probably safe to start engraving the trophy.
Doncic likely only made any appearance Friday because it was Slovenia Night at Dallas; the first 3,500 fans in the building got a scarf that said &ldquo;I Feel Slovenia&rdquo; in an obvious nod to Doncic&rsquo;s homeland.
Dallas was in an uphill spot for the last play-in berth in the West anyway. It needed to win Friday and Sunday, and hope that Oklahoma City would lose to Memphis on Sunday &mdash; just to get the No. 10 spot and still need two more road wins to make it to a Round 1 series against Denver.
&ldquo;We were fighting for our lives and this is the situation we&rsquo;re in,&rdquo; Kidd said. &ldquo;The organization has made a decision to change and we have to go by that.&rdquo;
Not making the play-in tournament helps Dallas&rsquo; chances of claiming no worse than the No. 10 pick in this summer&rsquo;s draft &mdash; which is important &mdash; and provide at least a tiny chance of winning the lottery and the chance to draft French phenom Victor Wembanyama.
If the Mavs&rsquo; pick is between No. 1 and No. 10, Dallas keeps it. If it is No. 11 or deeper in the draft, it conveys to New York as part of the compensation agreed to as part of the Kristaps Porzingis trade in 2019.
So while the West play-in field and first-round matchups remain unsettled and won&rsquo;t be totally finalized until Sunday&rsquo;s regular season finales, the East is set.
No. 7 Miami will play host to No. 8 Atlanta on Tuesday night, while No. 9 Toronto will get a visit from No. 10 Chicago on Wednesday night in the first two games of the East play-in.
Miami still had an outside shot at reaching No. 6 entering Friday, but now knows the play-in round awaits.
&ldquo;This is our reality and you have to embrace that,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. &ldquo;This is a totally new experience for all of us. It&rsquo;s not exactly where we wanted to be heading into this season if you go back to training camp, but that is totally irrelevant. We have this in front of us, and it&rsquo;s competition, and it&rsquo;s great competition with a lot at stake. That is something to look forward to.&rdquo;
The Miami-Atlanta winner will face No. 2 Boston in Round 1; the Miami-Atlanta loser will play host to the Toronto-Chicago winner on Friday to see who meets No. 1 Milwaukee in the opening round.
The East&rsquo;s other Round 1 matchups: Philadelphia-Brooklyn and Cleveland-New York. Those series will begin either April 15 or 16, when the playoffs officially open.
Denver had previously clinched No. 1 in the West, and Phoenix was locked into No. 4 already. Memphis beat Milwaukee on Friday to earn the West&rsquo;s No. 2 seed, which means Sacramento &mdash; a franchise about to play its first playoff game since 2006 &mdash; will be No. 3 on the West bracket.
The other six teams assured of no worse than a play-in berth out West are the Los Angeles Clippers, defending champion Golden State, New Orleans, the Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota and the Thunder.

The East play-in tournament matchups are set, as are the top four seeds in the West. Also apparently decided? The NBA’s scoring race.

East play-in field set, Embiid poised to win scoring title

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; This story would never have been told if Udonis Haslem&rsquo;s mother hadn&rsquo;t moved from Miami to Jacksonville. Or if his stepbrother hadn&rsquo;t been so smart about an airball. Or if Atlanta signed him in 2002. Or if San Antonio did in 2003.
Any of those things happen differently, it all changes. He probably wouldn&rsquo;t be with the Miami Heat right now. Maybe never.
Haslem, the NBA&rsquo;s oldest active player at 42 and a three-time champion, is in the final days with his hometown team. He&rsquo;s the third player to spend a two-decade career with one franchise, joining Dallas&rsquo; Dirk Nowitzki and the Los Angeles Lakers&rsquo; Kobe Bryant.
&ldquo;All I&rsquo;ve ever tried to do is take care of my people, take care of my city,&rdquo; Haslem said. &ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s why I can sit down with the mayor and commissioners, or I can sit down with people in the &rsquo;hood, and be comfortable either way. It&rsquo;s because of the sacrifices that I&rsquo;ve made for this city.&rdquo;
Heat President Pat Riley is more succinct.
&ldquo;Udonis is Miami,&rdquo; Riley said.
Haslem was on the NBA&rsquo;s All-Rookie team in 2003-04. He never was an All-Star, never All-NBA, never even a player of the week out of 438 possible chances. The last time he averaged double figures for a season was 2009.
But ask anyone with the Heat, and they insist Haslem &mdash; the team captain who&rsquo;ll have his No. 40 jersey retired next season &mdash; has been vital for two decades.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the poster child of a guy who was average, supposedly, and yet he became great,&rdquo; said Chet Kammerer, who has spent 27 years in Miami&rsquo;s player personnel department. &ldquo;And how did he do that? Hard work. Great spirit. Great attitude. Never &lsquo;can&rsquo;t do this,&rsquo; never &lsquo;can&rsquo;t do that.&rsquo; And the success that we&rsquo;ve had, he&rsquo;s had more of a major contribution over the whole 20 years than people know.&rdquo;
Take the night Miami won its first NBA title in Dallas in 2006. Haslem played with a separated shoulder. He had to guard Nowitzki, the Mavericks&rsquo; best player. Nowitzki didn&rsquo;t have a field goal in the fourth quarter; Miami won 95-92, Haslem had 17 points, 10 rebounds and a good cry afterward.
&ldquo;The champagne got me,&rdquo; he said. Everyone knows otherwise; they were tears.
Other players got headlines that night; Dwyane Wade was Finals MVP, Shaquille O&rsquo;Neal won his fourth ring. But without Haslem, there would be no title.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s always had tremendous courage,&rdquo; Riley said. &ldquo;Whatever endeavor, he rises to another level. And you need that. He was for real. He was that kind of man, someone who has tremendous pride being from Miami.&rdquo;
Many Miami kids grow up with football dreams. Haslem was one of them. But when his mother took a job in Jacksonville when he was 9, focus began shifting to basketball. (&ldquo;Football isn&rsquo;t as big there,&rdquo; Haslem said.) When he was around 12, Haslem was on the court with his older stepbrother, Sam Wooten. Haslem shot an airball. Wooten caught the ball and scored.
&ldquo;Nice pass,&rdquo; Wooten said, genuinely. He, and that moment, had tremendous impact on Haslem; Wooten died in 1999 from cancer and Haslem has a &ldquo;R.I.P. Sam&rdquo; tattoo on his neck to pay tribute to his mentor.
Haslem had backboard-breaking dunks as a high school freshman, starred at Miami High, then starred at Florida but struggled with weight and NBA teams passed on drafting him in 2002. Atlanta brought him in for a camp that summer, but signed Ira Newble to its last roster spot instead.
So Haslem played in France, dropping the extra weight by eating only turkey sandwiches. The next summer, he was offered a one-year contract by the Spurs.
&ldquo;We couldn&rsquo;t lose him,&rdquo; Kammerer said.
The Heat offered two years. Haslem signed. He never left. He had multiple chances, often for more money. But he stayed and will remain with the organization in a to-be-determined role; Haslem wants a chance to join the ownership group.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s monumentally important for our organization and our locker room,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. &ldquo;He embodies everything that we believe in. And he has a way, because of the respect level, that he&rsquo;s able to influence and mentor literally every player in the locker room.&rdquo;
There are many stories of Haslem&rsquo;s toughness. He&rsquo;d dislocate fingers in practice and pop them back in like nothing happened. People still talk about his hard foul on Indiana&rsquo;s Tyler Hansbrough in the 2012 playoffs, after the Pacers caused him to get eight stitches the game before and Hansbrough had just sent Wade flying. He often is the one giving impassioned locker-room speeches at halftime, even before Spoelstra gets a chance. The wall outside Miami&rsquo;s locker room is now a tribute to Haslem moments.
He&rsquo;s not Miami&rsquo;s best player. It could be argued nobody has meant more.
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s nobody else like him,&rdquo; Spoelstra said.

Udonis Haslem — the Heat's captain who’ll have his No. 40 jersey retired next season — has been vital for two decades.

Udonis Haslem, Miami Heat reflect on rare 20-year NBA career

The road to the NBA Finals now goes through Milwaukee. The road out of the Western Conference goes through Denver, for the first time ever.
And the rest of the top half of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket is now set as well.
The Bucks will have the No. 1 overall seed and home-court advantage for the entirety of their time in the NBA playoffs, after defeating Chicago 105-92 on Wednesday night. Milwaukee is now 58-22 this season; no other team in the league can get to more than 57 wins.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a credit to the players,&rdquo; Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. &ldquo;The players have really stepped up. I think they&rsquo;ve embraced the challenge. Night in and night out in this league, it&rsquo;s hard. There&rsquo;s great opposition. ... To have the best record, it is something that matters. It is important.&rdquo;
The No. 1 seed in the West was decided Wednesday night as well. The Nuggets will have home-court throughout the West playoffs, after New Orleans defeated Memphis in overtime &mdash; and took away the last bit of hope the Grizzlies had of catching the Nuggets for the top spot out West.
&nbsp;

The road to the NBA Finals now goes through Milwaukee. The road out of the Western Conference goes through Denver, for the first time ever.
And the rest of the top half of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket is now set as well.
The Bucks will have the No. 1 overall seed and home-court advantage for the entirety of their time in the NBA playoffs, after defeating Chicago 105-92 on Wednesday night. Milwaukee is now 58-22 this season; no other team in the league can get to more than 57 wins.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a credit to the players,&rdquo; Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. &ldquo;The players have really stepped up. I think they&rsquo;ve embraced the challenge. Night in and night out in this league, it&rsquo;s hard. There&rsquo;s great opposition. ... To have the best record, it is something that matters. It is important.&rdquo;
The No. 1 seed in the West was decided Wednesday night as well. The Nuggets will have home-court throughout the West playoffs, after New Orleans defeated Memphis in overtime &mdash; and took away the last bit of hope the Grizzlies had of catching the Nuggets for the top spot out West.
The Bucks are a No. 1 seed for the first time since 2020. Denver has never previously been a No. 1 seed.
Boston (55-25) will be the No. 2 seed in the East, clinching that Wednesday by topping Toronto. That locks Philadelphia (52-27) into the No. 3 seed and a likely first-round matchup with Brooklyn. The Nets (44-36) defeated Detroit and now need only one more win or one Miami loss to clinch the No. 6 seed.
&nbsp;

The road to the NBA Finals now goes through Milwaukee. The road out of the Western Conference goes through Denver, for the first time ever.
And the rest of the top half of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket is now set as well.
The Bucks will have the No. 1 overall seed and home-court advantage for the entirety of their time in the NBA playoffs, after defeating Chicago 105-92 on Wednesday night. Milwaukee is now 58-22 this season; no other team in the league can get to more than 57 wins.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a credit to the players,&rdquo; Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. &ldquo;The players have really stepped up. I think they&rsquo;ve embraced the challenge. Night in and night out in this league, it&rsquo;s hard. There&rsquo;s great opposition. ... To have the best record, it is something that matters. It is important.&rdquo;
The No. 1 seed in the West was decided Wednesday night as well. The Nuggets will have home-court throughout the West playoffs, after New Orleans defeated Memphis in overtime &mdash; and took away the last bit of hope the Grizzlies had of catching the Nuggets for the top spot out West.
The Bucks are a No. 1 seed for the first time since 2020. Denver has never previously been a No. 1 seed.
Boston (55-25) will be the No. 2 seed in the East, clinching that Wednesday by topping Toronto. That locks Philadelphia (52-27) into the No. 3 seed and a likely first-round matchup with Brooklyn. The Nets (44-36) defeated Detroit and now need only one more win or one Miami loss to clinch the No. 6 seed.
Another first-round Eastern Conference matchup was set earlier this week; No. 4 Cleveland will meet No. 5 New York. They&rsquo;ll meet on either April 15 or 16 for Game 1, with the NBA playoffs opening that weekend.
Still unclear in the East is the order of the teams headed to the play-in tournament, which starts Tuesday.
Miami is the leader and currently in seventh, ahead of the three other play-in bound teams &mdash; Atlanta, Toronto and Chicago. The winner of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 game on Tuesday (as it stands now, the matchup there would be Atlanta at Miami) will draw Boston in Round 1; the other team to emerge from the East play-in tournament will open against the top-seeded Bucks.
Clinching a seed now gives some teams the chance to rest players before the playoffs start, and in many cases, that figures to be welcomed. The Bucks won without Giannis Antetokounmpo on Wednesday and with Khris Middleton &mdash; who has battled injuries for much of the season &mdash; sidelined after eight minutes with a recurrence of knee pain.

The road to the NBA Finals now goes through Milwaukee. The road out of the Western Conference goes through Denver, for the first time ever.
And the rest of the top half of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket is now set as well.
The Bucks will have the No. 1 overall seed and home-court advantage for the entirety of their time in the NBA playoffs, after defeating Chicago 105-92 on Wednesday night. Milwaukee is now 58-22 this season; no other team in the league can get to more than 57 wins.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a credit to the players,&rdquo; Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. &ldquo;The players have really stepped up. I think they&rsquo;ve embraced the challenge. Night in and night out in this league, it&rsquo;s hard. There&rsquo;s great opposition. ... To have the best record, it is something that matters. It is important.&rdquo;
The No. 1 seed in the West was decided Wednesday night as well. The Nuggets will have home-court throughout the West playoffs, after New Orleans defeated Memphis in overtime &mdash; and took away the last bit of hope the Grizzlies had of catching the Nuggets for the top spot out West.
The Bucks are a No. 1 seed for the first time since 2020. Denver has never previously been a No. 1 seed.
Boston (55-25) will be the No. 2 seed in the East, clinching that Wednesday by topping Toronto. That locks Philadelphia (52-27) into the No. 3 seed and a likely first-round matchup with Brooklyn. The Nets (44-36) defeated Detroit and now need only one more win or one Miami loss to clinch the No. 6 seed.
Another first-round Eastern Conference matchup was set earlier this week; No. 4 Cleveland will meet No. 5 New York. They&rsquo;ll meet on either April 15 or 16 for Game 1, with the NBA playoffs opening that weekend.
Still unclear in the East is the order of the teams headed to the play-in tournament, which starts Tuesday.
Miami is the leader and currently in seventh, ahead of the three other play-in bound teams &mdash; Atlanta, Toronto and Chicago. The winner of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 game on Tuesday (as it stands now, the matchup there would be Atlanta at Miami) will draw Boston in Round 1; the other team to emerge from the East play-in tournament will open against the top-seeded Bucks.
Clinching a seed now gives some teams the chance to rest players before the playoffs start, and in many cases, that figures to be welcomed. The Bucks won without Giannis Antetokounmpo on Wednesday and with Khris Middleton &mdash; who has battled injuries for much of the season &mdash; sidelined after eight minutes with a recurrence of knee pain.
&ldquo;Now we get to take a breath,&rdquo; Budenholzer said. &ldquo;I have no idea what we&rsquo;ll do Friday and Sunday.&rdquo;
Chicago will be on the road to open the play-in tournament; the Bulls are locked into No. 10 in the East and will visit whichever team finishes ninth &mdash; Toronto or Atlanta.
And when the playoffs start for the Bucks, they&rsquo;ll try to defy some recent trends. There hasn&rsquo;t been a No. 1 seed to win the East title since Cleveland in 2016, and no team with the best regular-season record has gone on to win the NBA Finals since Golden State in 2017.
&nbsp;

The road to the NBA Finals now goes through Milwaukee. The road out of the Western Conference goes through Denver, for the first time ever.
And the rest of the top half of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket is now set as well.
The Bucks will have the No. 1 overall seed and home-court advantage for the entirety of their time in the NBA playoffs, after defeating Chicago 105-92 on Wednesday night. Milwaukee is now 58-22 this season; no other team in the league can get to more than 57 wins.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a credit to the players,&rdquo; Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. &ldquo;The players have really stepped up. I think they&rsquo;ve embraced the challenge. Night in and night out in this league, it&rsquo;s hard. There&rsquo;s great opposition. ... To have the best record, it is something that matters. It is important.&rdquo;
The No. 1 seed in the West was decided Wednesday night as well. The Nuggets will have home-court throughout the West playoffs, after New Orleans defeated Memphis in overtime &mdash; and took away the last bit of hope the Grizzlies had of catching the Nuggets for the top spot out West.
The Bucks are a No. 1 seed for the first time since 2020. Denver has never previously been a No. 1 seed.
Boston (55-25) will be the No. 2 seed in the East, clinching that Wednesday by topping Toronto. That locks Philadelphia (52-27) into the No. 3 seed and a likely first-round matchup with Brooklyn. The Nets (44-36) defeated Detroit and now need only one more win or one Miami loss to clinch the No. 6 seed.
Another first-round Eastern Conference matchup was set earlier this week; No. 4 Cleveland will meet No. 5 New York. They&rsquo;ll meet on either April 15 or 16 for Game 1, with the NBA playoffs opening that weekend.
Still unclear in the East is the order of the teams headed to the play-in tournament, which starts Tuesday.
Miami is the leader and currently in seventh, ahead of the three other play-in bound teams &mdash; Atlanta, Toronto and Chicago. The winner of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 game on Tuesday (as it stands now, the matchup there would be Atlanta at Miami) will draw Boston in Round 1; the other team to emerge from the East play-in tournament will open against the top-seeded Bucks.
Clinching a seed now gives some teams the chance to rest players before the playoffs start, and in many cases, that figures to be welcomed. The Bucks won without Giannis Antetokounmpo on Wednesday and with Khris Middleton &mdash; who has battled injuries for much of the season &mdash; sidelined after eight minutes with a recurrence of knee pain.
&ldquo;Now we get to take a breath,&rdquo; Budenholzer said. &ldquo;I have no idea what we&rsquo;ll do Friday and Sunday.&rdquo;
Chicago will be on the road to open the play-in tournament; the Bulls are locked into No. 10 in the East and will visit whichever team finishes ninth &mdash; Toronto or Atlanta.
And when the playoffs start for the Bucks, they&rsquo;ll try to defy some recent trends. There hasn&rsquo;t been a No. 1 seed to win the East title since Cleveland in 2016, and no team with the best regular-season record has gone on to win the NBA Finals since Golden State in 2017.
&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re ready, well-prepared,&rdquo; Bucks guard Jrue Holiday said. &ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ve been through a lot &hellip; really excited to be going into the postseason.&rdquo;
WHAT&rsquo;S LEFT
Most of the drama remains in the West, where Denver, Memphis, Sacramento and Phoenix have clinched playoff spots &mdash; and eight teams are still in the running for the six remaining playoff or play-in berths.
Defending champion Golden State, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Los Angeles Lakers, New Orleans and Minnesota can do no worse than make the play-in tournament. Oklahoma City, Dallas and Utah are all vying for play-in berths.
Dallas helped itself Wednesday by topping Sacramento 123-119. The Mavericks (38-42) remained 11th, but are now tied with No. 10 Oklahoma City, both teams with two games left. New Orleans&rsquo; win assured the Pelicans of no worse than a play-in berth.
&ldquo;Is this crazy or what?&rdquo; Pelicans broadcaster Joel Meyers mused after New Orleans&rsquo; overtime win.
Out West, expect the crazy to continue all the way through the regular-season finales on Sunday.
&nbsp;

The road to the NBA Finals now goes through Milwaukee. The road out of the Western Conference goes through Denver, for the first time ever.
And the rest of the top half of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket is now set as well.
The Bucks will have the No. 1 overall seed and home-court advantage for the entirety of their time in the NBA playoffs, after defeating Chicago 105-92 on Wednesday night. Milwaukee is now 58-22 this season; no other team in the league can get to more than 57 wins.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a credit to the players,&rdquo; Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. &ldquo;The players have really stepped up. I think they&rsquo;ve embraced the challenge. Night in and night out in this league, it&rsquo;s hard. There&rsquo;s great opposition. ... To have the best record, it is something that matters. It is important.&rdquo;
The No. 1 seed in the West was decided Wednesday night as well. The Nuggets will have home-court throughout the West playoffs, after New Orleans defeated Memphis in overtime &mdash; and took away the last bit of hope the Grizzlies had of catching the Nuggets for the top spot out West.
The Bucks are a No. 1 seed for the first time since 2020. Denver has never previously been a No. 1 seed.
Boston (55-25) will be the No. 2 seed in the East, clinching that Wednesday by topping Toronto. That locks Philadelphia (52-27) into the No. 3 seed and a likely first-round matchup with Brooklyn. The Nets (44-36) defeated Detroit and now need only one more win or one Miami loss to clinch the No. 6 seed.
Another first-round Eastern Conference matchup was set earlier this week; No. 4 Cleveland will meet No. 5 New York. They&rsquo;ll meet on either April 15 or 16 for Game 1, with the NBA playoffs opening that weekend.
Still unclear in the East is the order of the teams headed to the play-in tournament, which starts Tuesday.
Miami is the leader and currently in seventh, ahead of the three other play-in bound teams &mdash; Atlanta, Toronto and Chicago. The winner of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 game on Tuesday (as it stands now, the matchup there would be Atlanta at Miami) will draw Boston in Round 1; the other team to emerge from the East play-in tournament will open against the top-seeded Bucks.
Clinching a seed now gives some teams the chance to rest players before the playoffs start, and in many cases, that figures to be welcomed. The Bucks won without Giannis Antetokounmpo on Wednesday and with Khris Middleton &mdash; who has battled injuries for much of the season &mdash; sidelined after eight minutes with a recurrence of knee pain.
&ldquo;Now we get to take a breath,&rdquo; Budenholzer said. &ldquo;I have no idea what we&rsquo;ll do Friday and Sunday.&rdquo;
Chicago will be on the road to open the play-in tournament; the Bulls are locked into No. 10 in the East and will visit whichever team finishes ninth &mdash; Toronto or Atlanta.
And when the playoffs start for the Bucks, they&rsquo;ll try to defy some recent trends. There hasn&rsquo;t been a No. 1 seed to win the East title since Cleveland in 2016, and no team with the best regular-season record has gone on to win the NBA Finals since Golden State in 2017.
&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re ready, well-prepared,&rdquo; Bucks guard Jrue Holiday said. &ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ve been through a lot &hellip; really excited to be going into the postseason.&rdquo;
WHAT&rsquo;S LEFT
Most of the drama remains in the West, where Denver, Memphis, Sacramento and Phoenix have clinched playoff spots &mdash; and eight teams are still in the running for the six remaining playoff or play-in berths.
Defending champion Golden State, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Los Angeles Lakers, New Orleans and Minnesota can do no worse than make the play-in tournament. Oklahoma City, Dallas and Utah are all vying for play-in berths.
Dallas helped itself Wednesday by topping Sacramento 123-119. The Mavericks (38-42) remained 11th, but are now tied with No. 10 Oklahoma City, both teams with two games left. New Orleans&rsquo; win assured the Pelicans of no worse than a play-in berth.
&ldquo;Is this crazy or what?&rdquo; Pelicans broadcaster Joel Meyers mused after New Orleans&rsquo; overtime win.
Out West, expect the crazy to continue all the way through the regular-season finales on Sunday.

The road to the NBA Finals now goes through Milwaukee. The road out of the Western Conference goes through Denver, for the first time ever.
And the rest of the top half of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket is now set as well.
The Bucks will have the No. 1 overall seed and home-court advantage for the entirety of their time in the NBA playoffs, after defeating Chicago 105-92 on Wednesday night. Milwaukee is now 58-22 this season; no other team in the league can get to more than 57 wins.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a credit to the players,&rdquo; Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. &ldquo;The players have really stepped up. I think they&rsquo;ve embraced the challenge. Night in and night out in this league, it&rsquo;s hard. There&rsquo;s great opposition. ... To have the best record, it is something that matters. It is important.&rdquo;
The No. 1 seed in the West was decided Wednesday night as well. The Nuggets will have home-court throughout the West playoffs, after New Orleans defeated Memphis in overtime &mdash; and took away the last bit of hope the Grizzlies had of catching the Nuggets for the top spot out West.
The Bucks are a No. 1 seed for the first time since 2020. Denver has never previously been a No. 1 seed.
Boston (55-25) will be the No. 2 seed in the East, clinching that Wednesday by topping Toronto. That locks Philadelphia (52-27) into the No. 3 seed and a likely first-round matchup with Brooklyn. The Nets (44-36) defeated Detroit and now need only one more win or one Miami loss to clinch the No. 6 seed.
Another first-round Eastern Conference matchup was set earlier this week; No. 4 Cleveland will meet No. 5 New York. They&rsquo;ll meet on either April 15 or 16 for Game 1, with the NBA playoffs opening that weekend.
Still unclear in the East is the order of the teams headed to the play-in tournament, which starts Tuesday.
Miami is the leader and currently in seventh, ahead of the three other play-in bound teams &mdash; Atlanta, Toronto and Chicago. The winner of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 game on Tuesday (as it stands now, the matchup there would be Atlanta at Miami) will draw Boston in Round 1; the other team to emerge from the East play-in tournament will open against the top-seeded Bucks.
Clinching a seed now gives some teams the chance to rest players before the playoffs start, and in many cases, that figures to be welcomed. The Bucks won without Giannis Antetokounmpo on Wednesday and with Khris Middleton &mdash; who has battled injuries for much of the season &mdash; sidelined after eight minutes with a recurrence of knee pain.
&ldquo;Now we get to take a breath,&rdquo; Budenholzer said. &ldquo;I have no idea what we&rsquo;ll do Friday and Sunday.&rdquo;
Chicago will be on the road to open the play-in tournament; the Bulls are locked into No. 10 in the East and will visit whichever team finishes ninth &mdash; Toronto or Atlanta.
And when the playoffs start for the Bucks, they&rsquo;ll try to defy some recent trends. There hasn&rsquo;t been a No. 1 seed to win the East title since Cleveland in 2016, and no team with the best regular-season record has gone on to win the NBA Finals since Golden State in 2017.
&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re ready, well-prepared,&rdquo; Bucks guard Jrue Holiday said. &ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ve been through a lot &hellip; really excited to be going into the postseason.&rdquo;
WHAT&rsquo;S LEFT
Most of the drama remains in the West, where Denver, Memphis, Sacramento and Phoenix have clinched playoff spots &mdash; and eight teams are still in the running for the six remaining playoff or play-in berths.
Defending champion Golden State, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Los Angeles Lakers, New Orleans and Minnesota can do no worse than make the play-in tournament. Oklahoma City, Dallas and Utah are all vying for play-in berths.
Dallas helped itself Wednesday by topping Sacramento 123-119. The Mavericks (38-42) remained 11th, but are now tied with No. 10 Oklahoma City, both teams with two games left. New Orleans&rsquo; win assured the Pelicans of no worse than a play-in berth.
&ldquo;Is this crazy or what?&rdquo; Pelicans broadcaster Joel Meyers mused after New Orleans&rsquo; overtime win.
Out West, expect the crazy to continue all the way through the regular-season finales on Sunday.

The road to the NBA Finals now goes through Milwaukee. The road out of the Western Conference goes through Denver, for the first time ever.
And the rest of the top half of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket is now set as well.
The Bucks will have the No. 1 overall seed and home-court advantage for the entirety of their time in the NBA playoffs, after defeating Chicago 105-92 on Wednesday night. Milwaukee is now 58-22 this season; no other team in the league can get to more than 57 wins.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a credit to the players,&rdquo; Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. &ldquo;The players have really stepped up. I think they&rsquo;ve embraced the challenge. Night in and night out in this league, it&rsquo;s hard. There&rsquo;s great opposition. ... To have the best record, it is something that matters. It is important.&rdquo;
The No. 1 seed in the West was decided Wednesday night as well. The Nuggets will have home-court throughout the West playoffs, after New Orleans defeated Memphis in overtime &mdash; and took away the last bit of hope the Grizzlies had of catching the Nuggets for the top spot out West.
The Bucks are a No. 1 seed for the first time since 2020. Denver has never previously been a No. 1 seed.
Boston (55-25) will be the No. 2 seed in the East, clinching that Wednesday by topping Toronto. That locks Philadelphia (52-27) into the No. 3 seed and a likely first-round matchup with Brooklyn. The Nets (44-36) defeated Detroit and now need only one more win or one Miami loss to clinch the No. 6 seed.
Another first-round Eastern Conference matchup was set earlier this week; No. 4 Cleveland will meet No. 5 New York. They&rsquo;ll meet on either April 15 or 16 for Game 1, with the NBA playoffs opening that weekend.
Still unclear in the East is the order of the teams headed to the play-in tournament, which starts Tuesday.
Miami is the leader and currently in seventh, ahead of the three other play-in bound teams &mdash; Atlanta, Toronto and Chicago. The winner of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 game on Tuesday (as it stands now, the matchup there would be Atlanta at Miami) will draw Boston in Round 1; the other team to emerge from the East play-in tournament will open against the top-seeded Bucks.
Clinching a seed now gives some teams the chance to rest players before the playoffs start, and in many cases, that figures to be welcomed. The Bucks won without Giannis Antetokounmpo on Wednesday and with Khris Middleton &mdash; who has battled injuries for much of the season &mdash; sidelined after eight minutes with a recurrence of knee pain.
&ldquo;Now we get to take a breath,&rdquo; Budenholzer said. &ldquo;I have no idea what we&rsquo;ll do Friday and Sunday.&rdquo;
Chicago will be on the road to open the play-in tournament; the Bulls are locked into No. 10 in the East and will visit whichever team finishes ninth &mdash; Toronto or Atlanta.
And when the playoffs start for the Bucks, they&rsquo;ll try to defy some recent trends. There hasn&rsquo;t been a No. 1 seed to win the East title since Cleveland in 2016, and no team with the best regular-season record has gone on to win the NBA Finals since Golden State in 2017.
&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re ready, well-prepared,&rdquo; Bucks guard Jrue Holiday said. &ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ve been through a lot &hellip; really excited to be going into the postseason.&rdquo;
WHAT&rsquo;S LEFT
Most of the drama remains in the West, where Denver, Memphis, Sacramento and Phoenix have clinched playoff spots &mdash; and eight teams are still in the running for the six remaining playoff or play-in berths.
Defending champion Golden State, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Los Angeles Lakers, New Orleans and Minnesota can do no worse than make the play-in tournament. Oklahoma City, Dallas and Utah are all vying for play-in berths.
For now, Golden State and the Clippers &mdash; both 42-38 &mdash; would be in the playoffs, while the Lakers, Pelicans, Timberwolves and Thunder would have the play-in spots. The Clippers beat the Lakers (41-39) on Wednesday night.
Dallas helped itself Wednesday by topping Sacramento 123-119. The Mavericks (38-42) remained 11th, but are tied with No. 10 Oklahoma City, both teams with two games left. Oklahoma City visits Utah on Thursday, Dallas plays host to Chicago on Friday, and then on Sunday the Thunder play host to Memphis while the Mavs entertain San Antonio.
&ldquo;At this point in the season, it is what it is in terms of the reality of the standings,&rdquo; Mavs guard Kyrie Irving said. &ldquo;We just have to take it one minute at a time.&rdquo;
New Orleans&rsquo; win assured the Pelicans of no worse than a play-in berth.
&ldquo;Is this crazy or what?&rdquo; Pelicans broadcaster Joel Meyers mused after New Orleans&rsquo; overtime win.
Out West, expect the crazy to continue all the way through the regular-season finales on Sunday.

The road to the NBA Finals now goes through Milwaukee, and the road out of the Western Conference goes through Denver.

Milwaukee, Denver wrap up No. 1 seeds in NBA playoffs

For the second time, the NBA will have an international player as its scoring champion.
It will be the second time in as many years.
Philadelphia&rsquo;s Joel Embiid &mdash; who was born in Cameroon &mdash; is on the cusp of becoming a back-to-back scoring champion, though he and Dallas&rsquo; Luka Doncic might take that race down to the wire.
Embiid opened up a bit of breathing room on Sunday, when he had 28 points in the 76ers&rsquo; loss to Milwaukee while Doncic &mdash; who is from Slovenia &mdash; scored 28 in the Mavericks&rsquo; overtime loss to Atlanta.
Embiid now has 2,110 points in 64 games; that&rsquo;s an average of 32.97 per game. Doncic has 2,096 points, also in 64 games; that&rsquo;s an average of 32.75 per game.
Philadelphia has four games remaining, Dallas has three. No NBA games were being played Monday, with the league taking off the day of the NCAA men&rsquo;s Division I championship game.
Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard is third in the scoring race at 32.2 points per game. He&rsquo;ll finish at that average, because the Trail Blazers have shut him down for the rest of the season given that they are out of playoff contention.
Technically, Lillard could still move ahead of Embiid and Doncic, but it&rsquo;s highly unlikely &mdash; even if Embiid and Doncic both play in a game and are held scoreless, their averages still wouldn&rsquo;t dip below Lillard&rsquo;s.
&nbsp;

For the second time, the NBA will have an international player as its scoring champion.
It will be the second time in as many years.
Philadelphia&rsquo;s Joel Embiid &mdash; who was born in Cameroon &mdash; is on the cusp of becoming a back-to-back scoring champion, though he and Dallas&rsquo; Luka Doncic might take that race down to the wire.
Embiid opened up a bit of breathing room on Sunday, when he had 28 points in the 76ers&rsquo; loss to Milwaukee while Doncic &mdash; who is from Slovenia &mdash; scored 28 in the Mavericks&rsquo; overtime loss to Atlanta.
Embiid now has 2,110 points in 64 games; that&rsquo;s an average of 32.97 per game. Doncic has 2,096 points, also in 64 games; that&rsquo;s an average of 32.75 per game.
Philadelphia has four games remaining, Dallas has three. No NBA games were being played Monday, with the league taking off the day of the NCAA men&rsquo;s Division I championship game.
Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard is third in the scoring race at 32.2 points per game. He&rsquo;ll finish at that average, because the Trail Blazers have shut him down for the rest of the season given that they are out of playoff contention.
Technically, Lillard could still move ahead of Embiid and Doncic, but it&rsquo;s highly unlikely &mdash; even if Embiid and Doncic both play in a game and are held scoreless, their averages still wouldn&rsquo;t dip below Lillard&rsquo;s.
This could be the closest scoring race in more than a decade. The last time the scoring title was decided by less than a half-point per game was 2011-12, when Oklahoma City&rsquo;s Kevin Durant edged the Los Angeles Lakers&rsquo; Kobe Bryant by 0.17 points per game; Durant averaged 28.03, Bryant averaged 27.86.
Embiid held off Milwaukee&rsquo;s Giannis Antetokounmpo to lead the league in points per game last season to become the first official international scoring champion. Dominique Wilkins also won a scoring title; he was born in France but played for the U.S. and is considered an American player.
(It should be noted that Embiid&rsquo;s average of 30.6 points last season was barely ahead of LeBron James&rsquo; 30.3 per game, but James did not officially qualify for the NBA leaderboard because he did not appear in enough games.)
WHO&rsquo;S IN
East: Milwaukee, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland and New York have secured playoff spots. Brooklyn, Miami and Atlanta have secured no worse than a play-in tournament berth and Toronto is locked into the play-in tournament. Chicago and Orlando still could make the play-in field, though the only way the Magic get there and bump the Bulls out is if they go 4-0 while Chicago goes 0-4.
West: Denver, Memphis and Sacramento have secured playoff spots. Phoenix, the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State can&rsquo;t do worse than making the play-in tournament, and all enter the final week of the regular season in position to secure playoff berths.
WHO&rsquo;S OUT
Detroit, Charlotte, Indiana and Washington have been eliminated in the East; Houston, San Antonio and Portland have been eliminated in the West.
RACE FOR WEMBY
While we won&rsquo;t know until May 16 who gets the No. 1 pick in the draft &mdash; spoiler alert, unless some incredible trade happens, the lottery winner will select Victor Wembanyama &mdash; we do know there&rsquo;s a 42% chance that the top pick will go to Detroit, Houston or San Antonio.
The Pistons, Rockets and Spurs are assured of finishing in the three bottom spots of the league this season. But there&rsquo;s still some odds that can be &ldquo;improved,&rdquo; in that the team that finishes with the worst record is assured of not leaving the lottery with worse than the No. 5 draft pick.
Detroit is almost assured of having the worst record; the Pistons are 16-62, well &ldquo;ahead&rdquo; of Houston (19-60) and San Antonio (20-58).
There&rsquo;s a lot of jostling that will happen this week for lottery odds as well. Charlotte is locked into finishing with the fourth-worst record, but the fifth- through eighth-worst spots are all up in the air &mdash; with Portland, Indiana, Washington and Orlando all currently having either 33 or 34 wins. And the worse a team&rsquo;s record is, the better chance it has of winning the lottery and the Wembanyama sweepstakes.
3 WITH 32?
Should Embiid, Doncic and Lillard all finish with averages of at least 32 points per game, it&rsquo;ll make NBA history.
There never has been a season where three players had such an average. There have been two players averaging at least 32 points on four previous occasions &mdash; Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain did it in 1960-61, 1961-62 and 1962-63; Bryant and Allen Iverson did it in 2005-06.
0 WITH 60
Unless Milwaukee goes 4-0 this week, there won&rsquo;t be a 60-win team in the NBA this season.
And that&rsquo;s relatively rare.
It didn&rsquo;t happen during Milwaukee&rsquo;s 2020-21 championship season, when there was a 72-game schedule &mdash; and no team had a winning percentage that year that would have been equivalent to a 60-22 &ldquo;regular&rdquo; regular season anyway.
After that, the most recent time there wasn&rsquo;t a 60-win team (or equivalent win percentage in a shortened season) was 2000-01, when San Antonio went 58-24 to lead the league. Before that, one has to go all the way back to 1978-79, when Philadelphia went 54-28 to top the standings.

For the second time, the NBA will have an international player as its scoring champion.
It will be the second time in as many years.
Philadelphia&rsquo;s Joel Embiid &mdash; who was born in Cameroon &mdash; is on the cusp of becoming a back-to-back scoring champion, though he and Dallas&rsquo; Luka Doncic might take that race down to the wire.
Embiid opened up a bit of breathing room on Sunday, when he had 28 points in the 76ers&rsquo; loss to Milwaukee while Doncic &mdash; who is from Slovenia &mdash; scored 28 in the Mavericks&rsquo; overtime loss to Atlanta.
Embiid now has 2,110 points in 64 games; that&rsquo;s an average of 32.97 per game. Doncic has 2,096 points, also in 64 games; that&rsquo;s an average of 32.75 per game.
Philadelphia has four games remaining, Dallas has three. No NBA games were being played Monday, with the league taking off the day of the NCAA men&rsquo;s Division I championship game.
Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard is third in the scoring race at 32.2 points per game. He&rsquo;ll finish at that average, because the Trail Blazers have shut him down for the rest of the season given that they are out of playoff contention.
Technically, Lillard could still move ahead of Embiid and Doncic, but it&rsquo;s highly unlikely &mdash; even if Embiid and Doncic both play in a game and are held scoreless, their averages still wouldn&rsquo;t dip below Lillard&rsquo;s.
This could be the closest scoring race in more than a decade. The last time the scoring title was decided by less than a half-point per game was 2011-12, when Oklahoma City&rsquo;s Kevin Durant edged the Los Angeles Lakers&rsquo; Kobe Bryant by 0.17 points per game; Durant averaged 28.03, Bryant averaged 27.86.
Embiid held off Milwaukee&rsquo;s Giannis Antetokounmpo to lead the league in points per game last season to become the first official international scoring champion. Dominique Wilkins also won a scoring title; he was born in France but played for the U.S. and is considered an American player.
(It should be noted that Embiid&rsquo;s average of 30.6 points last season was barely ahead of LeBron James&rsquo; 30.3 per game, but James did not officially qualify for the NBA leaderboard because he did not appear in enough games.)
WHO&rsquo;S IN
East: Milwaukee, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland and New York have secured playoff spots. Brooklyn, Miami and Atlanta have secured no worse than a play-in tournament berth and Toronto is locked into the play-in tournament. Chicago and Orlando still could make the play-in field, though the only way the Magic get there and bump the Bulls out is if they go 4-0 while Chicago goes 0-4.
West: Denver, Memphis and Sacramento have secured playoff spots. Phoenix, the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State can&rsquo;t do worse than making the play-in tournament, and all enter the final week of the regular season in position to secure playoff berths.
WHO&rsquo;S OUT
Detroit, Charlotte, Indiana and Washington have been eliminated in the East; Houston, San Antonio and Portland have been eliminated in the West.
RACE FOR WEMBY
While we won&rsquo;t know until May 16 who gets the No. 1 pick in the draft &mdash; spoiler alert, unless some incredible trade happens, the lottery winner will select Victor Wembanyama &mdash; we do know there&rsquo;s a 42% chance that the top pick will go to Detroit, Houston or San Antonio.
The Pistons, Rockets and Spurs are assured of finishing in the three bottom spots of the league this season. But there&rsquo;s still some odds that can be &ldquo;improved,&rdquo; in that the team that finishes with the worst record is assured of not leaving the lottery with worse than the No. 5 draft pick.
Detroit is almost assured of having the worst record; the Pistons are 16-62, well &ldquo;ahead&rdquo; of Houston (19-60) and San Antonio (20-58).
There&rsquo;s a lot of jostling that will happen this week for lottery odds as well. Charlotte is locked into finishing with the fourth-worst record, but the fifth- through eighth-worst spots are all up in the air &mdash; with Portland, Indiana, Washington and Orlando all currently having either 33 or 34 wins. And the worse a team&rsquo;s record is, the better chance it has of winning the lottery and the Wembanyama sweepstakes.
3 WITH 32?
Should Embiid, Doncic and Lillard all finish with averages of at least 32 points per game, it&rsquo;ll make NBA history.
There never has been a season where three players had such an average. There have been two players averaging at least 32 points on four previous occasions &mdash; Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain did it in 1960-61, 1961-62 and 1962-63; Bryant and Allen Iverson did it in 2005-06.
0 WITH 60
Unless Milwaukee goes 4-0 this week, there won&rsquo;t be a 60-win team in the NBA this season.
And that&rsquo;s relatively rare.
It didn&rsquo;t happen during Milwaukee&rsquo;s 2020-21 championship season, when there was a 72-game schedule &mdash; and no team had a winning percentage that year that would have been equivalent to a 60-22 &ldquo;regular&rdquo; regular season anyway.
After that, the most recent time there wasn&rsquo;t a 60-win team (or equivalent win percentage in a shortened season) was 2000-01, when San Antonio went 58-24 to lead the league. Before that, one has to go all the way back to 1978-79, when Philadelphia went 54-28 to top the standings.

Associated Press writer Tim Reynolds highlights storylines to watch for in the final week of the 2022-23 season.

It’s Embiid vs. Doncic for scoring title in NBA’s final week

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Miami was desperate. So was Dallas.
Jimmy Butler and the Heat had just enough to help their playoff position &mdash; while dealing the Mavericks a big blow.
Butler had 35 points and 12 assists, Cody Zeller added 20 points and the Heat held off the Mavericks 129-122 on Saturday night to snap a three-game losing streak.
Max Strus and Kevin Love each scored 18 and Tyler Herro added 15 for the Heat. Miami won despite allowing Dallas to shoot a season-best 61%.
&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t necessarily have drawn it up this way,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Luka Doncic was brilliant again for Dallas, finishing with 42 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Tim Hardaway Jr. had 31 points and Kyrie Irving added 23 points and eight assists for the Mavericks.
&ldquo;A win is a win,&rdquo; Butler said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like the fact that they shot 61%. But I do like the fact that we finally won a game.&rdquo;
The Mavs had been 7-0 this season when shooting at least 54%, and fell to 30-2 all-time, including playoffs, in games where they shot at least 60%.
&nbsp;

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Miami was desperate. So was Dallas.
Jimmy Butler and the Heat had just enough to help their playoff position &mdash; while dealing the Mavericks a big blow.
Butler had 35 points and 12 assists, Cody Zeller added 20 points and the Heat held off the Mavericks 129-122 on Saturday night to snap a three-game losing streak.
Max Strus and Kevin Love each scored 18 and Tyler Herro added 15 for the Heat. Miami won despite allowing Dallas to shoot a season-best 61%.
&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t necessarily have drawn it up this way,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Luka Doncic was brilliant again for Dallas, finishing with 42 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Tim Hardaway Jr. had 31 points and Kyrie Irving added 23 points and eight assists for the Mavericks.
&ldquo;A win is a win,&rdquo; Butler said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like the fact that they shot 61%. But I do like the fact that we finally won a game.&rdquo;
The Mavs had been 7-0 this season when shooting at least 54%, and fell to 30-2 all-time, including playoffs, in games where they shot at least 60%.
&ldquo;Our defense was nonexistent,&rdquo; Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. &ldquo;Couldn&rsquo;t get stops.&rdquo;
Both clubs went to the conference finals last season; the Heat are trying to get out of the play-in round, and the Mavericks are trying to just have a shot at the playoffs.

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Miami was desperate. So was Dallas.
Jimmy Butler and the Heat had just enough to help their playoff position &mdash; while dealing the Mavericks a big blow.
Butler had 35 points and 12 assists, Cody Zeller added 20 points and the Heat held off the Mavericks 129-122 on Saturday night to snap a three-game losing streak.
Max Strus and Kevin Love each scored 18 and Tyler Herro added 15 for the Heat. Miami won despite allowing Dallas to shoot a season-best 61%.
&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t necessarily have drawn it up this way,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Luka Doncic was brilliant again for Dallas, finishing with 42 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Tim Hardaway Jr. had 31 points and Kyrie Irving added 23 points and eight assists for the Mavericks.
&ldquo;A win is a win,&rdquo; Butler said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like the fact that they shot 61%. But I do like the fact that we finally won a game.&rdquo;
The Mavs had been 7-0 this season when shooting at least 54%, and fell to 30-2 all-time, including playoffs, in games where they shot at least 60%.
&ldquo;Our defense was nonexistent,&rdquo; Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. &ldquo;Couldn&rsquo;t get stops.&rdquo;
Both clubs went to the conference finals last season; the Heat are trying to get out of the play-in round, and the Mavericks are trying to just have a shot at the playoffs.
The win moves Miami (41-37) closer to securing no worse than the No. 7 seed and most advantageous spot in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament. The Heat are now 2 1/2 games ahead of both No. 8 Atlanta (38-39) and No. 9 Toronto (also 38-39).
Miami moved within 1 1/2 games of No. 6 Brooklyn (42-35). Even if the Heat win out and finish with 45 wins, the Nets &mdash; who hold the head-to-head tiebreaker &mdash; would only need to go 3-2 in their final five games to ensure they would finish ahead of Miami.
Meanwhile, it&rsquo;s a big blow to Dallas (37-41).
The Mavs fell a full game back of No. 10 Oklahoma City (38-40) in the race for the last Western Conference play-in spot, and worse, the Thunder own the head-to-head tiebreaker. Dallas is now two games back of No. 9 Minnesota (39-39) and just a half-game ahead of No. 12 Utah (36-41).
&ldquo;Just got to play hard, play with desperation and anything can happen,&rdquo; Hardaway said. &ldquo;Anything can happen.&rdquo;
&nbsp;

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Miami was desperate. So was Dallas.
Jimmy Butler and the Heat had just enough to help their playoff position &mdash; while dealing the Mavericks a big blow.
Butler had 35 points and 12 assists, Cody Zeller added 20 points and the Heat held off the Mavericks 129-122 on Saturday night to snap a three-game losing streak.
Max Strus and Kevin Love each scored 18 and Tyler Herro added 15 for the Heat. Miami won despite allowing Dallas to shoot a season-best 61%.
&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t necessarily have drawn it up this way,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Luka Doncic was brilliant again for Dallas, finishing with 42 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Tim Hardaway Jr. had 31 points and Kyrie Irving added 23 points and eight assists for the Mavericks.
&ldquo;A win is a win,&rdquo; Butler said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like the fact that they shot 61%. But I do like the fact that we finally won a game.&rdquo;
The Mavs had been 7-0 this season when shooting at least 54%, and fell to 30-2 all-time, including playoffs, in games where they shot at least 60%.
&ldquo;Our defense was nonexistent,&rdquo; Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. &ldquo;Couldn&rsquo;t get stops.&rdquo;
Both clubs went to the conference finals last season; the Heat are trying to get out of the play-in round, and the Mavericks are trying to just have a shot at the playoffs.
The win moves Miami (41-37) closer to securing no worse than the No. 7 seed and most advantageous spot in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament. The Heat are now 2 1/2 games ahead of both No. 8 Atlanta (38-39) and No. 9 Toronto (also 38-39).
Miami moved within 1 1/2 games of No. 6 Brooklyn (42-35). Even if the Heat win out and finish with 45 wins, the Nets &mdash; who hold the head-to-head tiebreaker &mdash; would only need to go 3-2 in their final five games to ensure they would finish ahead of Miami.
Meanwhile, it&rsquo;s a big blow to Dallas (37-41).
The Mavs fell a full game back of No. 10 Oklahoma City (38-40) in the race for the last Western Conference play-in spot, and worse, the Thunder own the head-to-head tiebreaker. Dallas is now two games back of No. 9 Minnesota (39-39) and just a half-game ahead of No. 12 Utah (36-41).
&ldquo;Just got to play hard, play with desperation and anything can happen,&rdquo; Hardaway said. &ldquo;Anything can happen.&rdquo;
Miami changed its starting lineup, partly out of necessity. Center Bam Adebayo didn&rsquo;t play because of a right hip contusion, so Zeller &mdash; starting a game for the first time since May 15, 2021, for Charlotte &mdash; took his spot and Strus took the forward starting spot that had been held by Love since he joined the Heat in February.
The moves paid immediate dividends. Strus was 3 for 3, all 3-pointers, in his first shift. Love was 3 for 3 from the field and 6 for 6 from the line for 13 points in his first 8 minutes off the bench, and Zeller had 12 points by halftime.
&ldquo;K-Love is always, always has been about winning,&rdquo; Butler said. &ldquo;As long as we win, he&rsquo;s not going to complain.&rdquo;
It all helped add up to the third highest-scoring first half in Heat history: Miami led 76-64 at the break, stretched the lead to 18 in the second half &mdash; then had to hang on in the final moments anyway.
&nbsp;

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Miami was desperate. So was Dallas.
Jimmy Butler and the Heat had just enough to help their playoff position &mdash; while dealing the Mavericks a big blow.
Butler had 35 points and 12 assists, Cody Zeller added 20 points and the Heat held off the Mavericks 129-122 on Saturday night to snap a three-game losing streak.
Max Strus and Kevin Love each scored 18 and Tyler Herro added 15 for the Heat. Miami won despite allowing Dallas to shoot a season-best 61%.
&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t necessarily have drawn it up this way,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Luka Doncic was brilliant again for Dallas, finishing with 42 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Tim Hardaway Jr. had 31 points and Kyrie Irving added 23 points and eight assists for the Mavericks.
&ldquo;A win is a win,&rdquo; Butler said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like the fact that they shot 61%. But I do like the fact that we finally won a game.&rdquo;
The Mavs had been 7-0 this season when shooting at least 54%, and fell to 30-2 all-time, including playoffs, in games where they shot at least 60%.
&ldquo;Our defense was nonexistent,&rdquo; Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. &ldquo;Couldn&rsquo;t get stops.&rdquo;
Both clubs went to the conference finals last season; the Heat are trying to get out of the play-in round, and the Mavericks are trying to just have a shot at the playoffs.
The win moves Miami (41-37) closer to securing no worse than the No. 7 seed and most advantageous spot in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament. The Heat are now 2 1/2 games ahead of both No. 8 Atlanta (38-39) and No. 9 Toronto (also 38-39).
Miami moved within 1 1/2 games of No. 6 Brooklyn (42-35). Even if the Heat win out and finish with 45 wins, the Nets &mdash; who hold the head-to-head tiebreaker &mdash; would only need to go 3-2 in their final five games to ensure they would finish ahead of Miami.
Meanwhile, it&rsquo;s a big blow to Dallas (37-41).
The Mavs fell a full game back of No. 10 Oklahoma City (38-40) in the race for the last Western Conference play-in spot, and worse, the Thunder own the head-to-head tiebreaker. Dallas is now two games back of No. 9 Minnesota (39-39) and just a half-game ahead of No. 12 Utah (36-41).
&ldquo;Just got to play hard, play with desperation and anything can happen,&rdquo; Hardaway said. &ldquo;Anything can happen.&rdquo;
Miami changed its starting lineup, partly out of necessity. Center Bam Adebayo didn&rsquo;t play because of a right hip contusion, so Zeller &mdash; starting a game for the first time since May 15, 2021, for Charlotte &mdash; took his spot and Strus took the forward starting spot that had been held by Love since he joined the Heat in February.
The moves paid immediate dividends. Strus was 3 for 3, all 3-pointers, in his first shift. Love was 3 for 3 from the field and 6 for 6 from the line for 13 points in his first 8 minutes off the bench, and Zeller had 12 points by halftime.
&ldquo;K-Love is always, always has been about winning,&rdquo; Butler said. &ldquo;As long as we win, he&rsquo;s not going to complain.&rdquo;
It all helped add up to the third highest-scoring first half in Heat history: Miami led 76-64 at the break, stretched the lead to 18 in the second half &mdash; then had to hang on in the final moments anyway.
TIP-INS
Mavericks: Dallas&rsquo; string of three consecutive winning regular seasons will end. The best the Mavs can finish is 41-41. ... The Mavs fell to 5-16 in games where they allow more than 100 points. ... Dallas had one offensive rebound.
Heat: Butler&rsquo;s 16 first-quarter points were his second-most in any quarter this season. He had 17 in the third quarter against Milwaukee on Feb. 4. &hellip; Miami will finish with a record of at least .500 for the fourth consecutive year and the 24th time in its 35 seasons.
WHAT&rsquo;S LEFT
Dallas plays its final road game of the regular season at Atlanta on Sunday, then finishes with home games against Sacramento, Chicago and San Antonio.
Miami starts a trip to Detroit, Philadelphia and Washington on Tuesday, before finishing at home April 9 against Orlando.
UP NEXT
Mavericks: Visit Atlanta on Sunday.
Heat: Visit Detroit on Tuesday.

Jimmy Butler had 35 points and 12 assists, and the Heat held off the Mavs 129-122 on Saturday night to snap a three-game losing streak.

Jimmy Butler has 35, Miami gets needed win over Dallas, 129-122

The NBA will have labor peace for years to come.
The league and its players came to an agreement early Saturday on a new seven-year collective bargaining agreement, the NBA announced. It is still pending ratification, though that process is almost certainly no more than a formality.
The deal will begin this summer and will last at least through the 2028-29 season. Either side can opt out then; otherwise, it will last through 2029-30.
Among the details, per a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke to The Associated Press: the in-season tournament that Commissioner Adam Silver has wanted for years will become reality, and players will have to appear in at least 65 games in order to be eligible for the top individual awards such as Most Valuable Player. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because neither the league nor the National Basketball Players Association released specifics publicly.
&nbsp;

The NBA will have labor peace for years to come.
The league and its players came to an agreement early Saturday on a new seven-year collective bargaining agreement, the NBA announced. It is still pending ratification, though that process is almost certainly no more than a formality.
The deal will begin this summer and will last at least through the 2028-29 season. Either side can opt out then; otherwise, it will last through 2029-30.
Among the details, per a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke to The Associated Press: the in-season tournament that Commissioner Adam Silver has wanted for years will become reality, and players will have to appear in at least 65 games in order to be eligible for the top individual awards such as Most Valuable Player. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because neither the league nor the National Basketball Players Association released specifics publicly.
Another new part of the CBA will be a second luxury tax level that, when reached, will keep teams from using their midlevel exception to sign players. That was a clear compromise, given how some teams wanted the so-called &ldquo;upper spending limit&rdquo; that would have essentially installed an absolute ceiling on what can be spent each season and help balance the playing field between the teams that are willing to pay enormous tax bills and those who aren&rsquo;t.
&nbsp;

The NBA will have labor peace for years to come.
The league and its players came to an agreement early Saturday on a new seven-year collective bargaining agreement, the NBA announced. It is still pending ratification, though that process is almost certainly no more than a formality.
The deal will begin this summer and will last at least through the 2028-29 season. Either side can opt out then; otherwise, it will last through 2029-30.
Among the details, per a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke to The Associated Press: the in-season tournament that Commissioner Adam Silver has wanted for years will become reality, and players will have to appear in at least 65 games in order to be eligible for the top individual awards such as Most Valuable Player. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because neither the league nor the National Basketball Players Association released specifics publicly.
Another new part of the CBA will be a second luxury tax level that, when reached, will keep teams from using their midlevel exception to sign players. That was a clear compromise, given how some teams wanted the so-called &ldquo;upper spending limit&rdquo; that would have essentially installed an absolute ceiling on what can be spent each season and help balance the playing field between the teams that are willing to pay enormous tax bills and those who aren&rsquo;t.
Not in the CBA is a change to the policy that would allow high school players to enter the NBA draft. It was discussed and has been an agenda item for months, but it won&rsquo;t be changing anytime soon &mdash; probably not for at least the term of the next CBA.
&ldquo;We also appreciate that there is a lot of benefit to really having veterans who can bring those 18-year-olds along,&rdquo; NBPA executive director Tamika Tremaglio said in February during an NBPA news conference at All-Star weekend. &ldquo;And so, certainly anything that we would even consider, to be quite honest, would have to include a component that would allow veterans to be a part of it as well.&rdquo;
Silver said Wednesday, at the conclusion of a two-day Board of Governors meeting, that he was hopeful of getting a deal done by the weekend. He also said there had been no consideration &mdash; at least on the league&rsquo;s part &mdash; of pushing the opt-out date back for a third time.
&nbsp;

The NBA will have labor peace for years to come.
The league and its players came to an agreement early Saturday on a new seven-year collective bargaining agreement, the NBA announced. It is still pending ratification, though that process is almost certainly no more than a formality.
The deal will begin this summer and will last at least through the 2028-29 season. Either side can opt out then; otherwise, it will last through 2029-30.
Among the details, per a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke to The Associated Press: the in-season tournament that Commissioner Adam Silver has wanted for years will become reality, and players will have to appear in at least 65 games in order to be eligible for the top individual awards such as Most Valuable Player. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because neither the league nor the National Basketball Players Association released specifics publicly.
Another new part of the CBA will be a second luxury tax level that, when reached, will keep teams from using their midlevel exception to sign players. That was a clear compromise, given how some teams wanted the so-called &ldquo;upper spending limit&rdquo; that would have essentially installed an absolute ceiling on what can be spent each season and help balance the playing field between the teams that are willing to pay enormous tax bills and those who aren&rsquo;t.
Not in the CBA is a change to the policy that would allow high school players to enter the NBA draft. It was discussed and has been an agenda item for months, but it won&rsquo;t be changing anytime soon &mdash; probably not for at least the term of the next CBA.
&ldquo;We also appreciate that there is a lot of benefit to really having veterans who can bring those 18-year-olds along,&rdquo; NBPA executive director Tamika Tremaglio said in February during an NBPA news conference at All-Star weekend. &ldquo;And so, certainly anything that we would even consider, to be quite honest, would have to include a component that would allow veterans to be a part of it as well.&rdquo;
Silver said Wednesday, at the conclusion of a two-day Board of Governors meeting, that he was hopeful of getting a deal done by the weekend. He also said there had been no consideration &mdash; at least on the league&rsquo;s part &mdash; of pushing the opt-out date back for a third time.
The current CBA, which took effect July 1, 2017, came with a mutual option for either the NBA or the NBPA to opt out after six seasons &mdash; June 30 of this year. The sides originally had a Dec. 15 deadline to announce an intention to exercise the opt-out, then pushed it back to Feb. 8, then to Friday.
The league and the union continued talking after the midnight opt-out deadline passed, and a deal was announced nearly three hours later.
The agreement doesn&rsquo;t end the process, though it&rsquo;s obviously a huge step forward.
The owners will have to vote on what the negotiators have hammered out, and the players will have to vote to approve the deal as well. Then comes the actual writing of the document &mdash; the most recent CBA checked in at around 600 pages containing nearly 5,000 paragraphs and 200,000 words. Much of it will be the same; much of it will need revising.

The NBA and its players came to an agreement early Saturday on a new seven-year collective bargaining agreement.

NBA, players' union reach deal for a new labor agreement

The Springfield Symphony Hall lists a capacity of 2,611. This is going to be a problem when the basketball world heads to western Massachusetts on Aug. 12.
Act surprised on Saturday when the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announces its class of enshrinees for 2023. Among the finalists: Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, Dwyane Wade, Tony Parker and Gregg Popovich. It&rsquo;s widely assumed that they&rsquo;ll enter the Hall this summer, in what will be a most star-studded event.
&ldquo;We might need a stadium for that one,&rdquo; Brooklyn coach Jacque Vaughn said.
He&rsquo;s not wrong. More than 2,611 people will want to go to this. Probably more than 261,111 people will want to go to this.
It was never a question that the biggest names &mdash; the Nowitzki, Gasol, Wade, Parker group &mdash; would get into the Hall.
The question was about Popovich. Not if. But when.
The NBA&rsquo;s all-time winningest coach, a five-time champion and the coach of the team that won Olympic gold at the Tokyo Games quietly rejected overtures from the Hall in the past. He wanted to see his best San Antonio players &mdash; Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili among them &mdash; go into the Hall first. He also wanted to see some coaches he respected most, like Rudy Tomjanovich, finally get the call first. Besides, it&rsquo;s not like people will look at Popovich with more reverence or respect after he gets his orange jacket from the Hall and officially gets to be introduced as a Hall of Famer.
&ldquo;It will mean more to us as former coaches, former players, than to him I think,&rdquo; Vaughn said. &ldquo;And that&rsquo;s not a slight at all. I think what he will enjoy is seeing his former players there, and people who he has touched in a tremendous way, families he&rsquo;s impacted for a long time because of his knowledge and his ability to share his knowledge and his ability to care for people.&rdquo;
More than 300 people have either played for or coached under Popovich in his time with the Spurs and USA Basketball. Nowitzki had more than 200 teammates. Gasol is beloved by teammates on two continents. The Miami Heat will probably send their entire staff up to see Wade give his speech. Add up the numbers, and we&rsquo;re getting toward that magic 2,611 number really quickly. And that doesn&rsquo;t even include, you know, the enshrinees&rsquo; families and friends, along with the other living Hall of Famers.
&ldquo;I know this much,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be on a plane from wherever we are, and I&rsquo;ll be there.&rdquo;
Spoelstra will be coaching with USA Basketball this summer under head coach Steve Kerr at the Basketball World Cup, which takes them to the Philippines in August and September following warm-up games in Las Vegas, Spain and Abu Dhabi. They&rsquo;ll be in Las Vegas until a few days before the Hall enshrinement, then the American contingent will head to Spain for games against Spain and Slovenia. Can&rsquo;t imagine they&rsquo;ll be very well-attended, not with Gasol going into the Hall that same weekend, with Slovenia&rsquo;s Luka Doncic probably going to pick being with Nowitzki over a pair of exhibitions, with Popovich set to be enshrined.
The Hall will give the enshrinees a number of tickets. It won&rsquo;t be enough for any of them. Popovich&rsquo;s guest list will be impossible to pare down, especially his innermost circle of confidants, who remain there even after they leave the Spurs.
Case in point: Utah coach Will Hardy. He left the Spurs to be an assistant in Boston under another former Spurs player and coach, Ime Udoka. But when Popovich was coaching the Olympic team, he picked some of the best and brightest to be alongside him, Kerr, Spoelstra, Mike Krzyzewski and others for the process of getting ready. Hardy made that list.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve talked about imposter syndrome some this year &mdash; maybe never higher than those moments when you&rsquo;re sitting in a room and it&rsquo;s Gregg Popovich, Steve Kerr, Erik Spoelstra, Jerry Colangelo, Jay Wright, Lloyd Pierce, Ime Udoka, Coach K is in the room,&rdquo; Hardy said. &ldquo;And you&rsquo;re going, &lsquo;How am I sitting at this table right now?&rsquo; In a lot of ways it makes no sense. I felt like I was in the greatest basketball grad school class of all time. You almost can&rsquo;t write fast enough in terms of taking notes and listening.&rdquo;
So many of the pairings will be fitting. The Popovich-Parker duo and Wade faced off twice in the NBA Finals. Popovich-Parker and Nowitzki had Texas-sized battles for years. Nowitzki and Wade played in the finals against one another twice, each winning a title on the other&rsquo;s home floor. Gasol played against them all for years.
They&rsquo;re all beloved. Wade has teammates already planning their trips to Springfield. Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley doesn&rsquo;t have his entire summer plan picked out yet, but he&rsquo;s going to Springfield for Nowitzki &mdash; who he coached in Dallas.
&ldquo;The most wonderful thing about him is that being around him in public and going to events, I&rsquo;ve never seen him turn people down or say no,&rdquo; Mosley said of Nowitzki. &ldquo;Whether he&rsquo;s tired or doesn&rsquo;t want to do it, he&rsquo;s always going to go the extra mile to make sure those around him feel his appreciation for how much they&rsquo;ve given to him. He might be one of the most humble Hall of Famers I&rsquo;ve ever been around in that regard.&rdquo;
Mosley will have a seat for the big night. So will Hardy. So will Vaughn. How close they&rsquo;ll be to the stage is anyone&rsquo;s guess, but with this Hall class, there won&rsquo;t be a bad seat in the house.

Among the HOF finalists to be announced Saturday: Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, Dwyane Wade, Tony Parker and Gregg Popovich.

This 2023 Basketball Hall of Fame class could be an all-time great

Tim Reynolds is a writer for the Associated Press.