Wildcats

The league never forgot Joel Embiid&rsquo;s talent. But somewhere along the way, it forgot his dominance.
Injuries have a way of warping perception. Seasons missed blur together, and availability becomes the headline. Eventually, even generational players get reduced to qualifiers &ndash; when healthy, if healthy, on his best nights. For Embiid, those qualifiers followed him everywhere, overshadowing what he has always been at his peak.
Now that he&rsquo;s healthy again, those reminders are getting louder.
Over his last seven games, Embiid has scored 30 or more points six times, delivering a stretch of play that is marking his resurgence and reintroduction. The footwork is sharp. The jumper is automatic. The physical dominance is unmistakable. This is Embiid at full force &ndash; and at full force, he is arguably a top-five player in the NBA.
<h3>A generational blend in a big man</h3>
There has never been another player quite like Embiid. At his best, he is a rare fusion of finesse, skill, and brute power &ndash; a seven-footer who can bully defenders on the block, glide into face-up jumpers, and stretch the floor with ease.
His mid-range jumper is pure, bordering on unblockable. With his high release point and impeccable balance, defenders can contest perfectly and still watch the ball splash through the net. It&rsquo;s a weapon that is a constant pressure point which bends defenses before they even commit.
This is what makes Embiid so overwhelming when healthy. You can&rsquo;t play him one-on-one, you can&rsquo;t send soft help, and you certainly can&rsquo;t leave him unattended anywhere inside 20 feet.
<h3>The cost of being injury prone &ndash; and the price of forgetting&nbsp;</h3>
For years, critics pointed to Embiid&rsquo;s injuries as a reason to diminish his place among the league&rsquo;s elite. The logic was simple: if you&rsquo;re not always on the floor, you can&rsquo;t be among the very best.
But that thinking ignores a crucial truth &ndash; few players, if any, reach Embiid&rsquo;s level when fully available.
This season&rsquo;s stretch has been a reminder of how unfair that argument has always been. Embiid hasn&rsquo;t just been scoring; he&rsquo;s been dictating games. His presence changes defensive schemes before tip-off. His scoring runs don&rsquo;t feel explosive, yet they feel inevitable. It seems like he scores every trip down the floor without a second thought.
The league didn&rsquo;t move past Embiid. It simply forgot how devastating he could be.
<h3>Thriving alongside Tyrese Maxey</h3>
Philadelphia&rsquo;s evolution has brought a new reality: Tyrese Maxey is now the Sixers&rsquo; de facto engine, the pace-setter, the perimeter threat defenses fear most. But Embiid&rsquo;s resurgence has shown that hierarchy doesn&rsquo;t have to be exclusive.
When needed, Embiid can still flip the switch and become the No. 1 option without disrupting the offense. In fact, his presence amplifies Maxey&rsquo;s effectiveness.
Embiid&rsquo;s gravity in isolation is unmatched. Defenders can&rsquo;t help off him, and double teams arrive late. That creates clean driving lanes for Maxey, open pull-up jumpers, and easier reads across the floor. The spacing is tangible and it has brought the Sixers to new heights this season.
Even without dominating the ball every possession, Embiid controls the geometry of the court.
<h3>&ndash; &ndash; &ndash;</h3>
Now, this is the version of Embiid Philadelphia has been waiting for &ndash; healthy, measured, dominant without forcing the issue. He doesn&rsquo;t need to score 40 every night to assert control. His scoring bursts come naturally, within the flow of the offense, and often without spectacle.
And yet, when games tighten, there&rsquo;s no confusion about who the Sixers trust. The ball finds Embiid and the defense collapses. And the shot &ndash; that smooth, impossible-to-contest jumper &ndash; delivers again.
People wrote him off because of what he couldn&rsquo;t avoid. Now he&rsquo;s reminding them of what he has always been capable of. Joel Embiid never stopped being elite &ndash; he just needed the chance to show it again.

Joel Embiid is healthy again and reminding the NBA why he remains a top-five player at his peak.

Joel Embiid is healthy again – and he’s reminding everyone who he is

Alyssa Thomas has never been ordinary. She has never conformed to the traditional archetypes that have long defined basketball positions, nor has she allowed physical limitations &ndash; most notably two torn labrums in her shoulders &ndash; to dictate her game. Instead, she has rewritten the rules of what a forward can be, becoming the WNBA&rsquo;s most unique playmaker, a relentless competitor whose power and precision leave indelible marks on every contest.
Now, Thomas stands on the precipice of the one achievement that has eluded her: a WNBA championship. With the Phoenix Mercury, she is no longer just one of the league&rsquo;s most distinctive stars &ndash; she is the heartbeat of a team that has fought its way past both of last year&rsquo;s finalists, the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx, to sit just one series away from hoisting the trophy.
The one-of-a-kind blueprint
Thomas&rsquo; game is a study in contradictions. Listed at 6-foot-2, she is undersized compared to most dominant forwards, yet she plays with a ferocity that makes her feel much larger. She has no jump shot to speak of &ndash; her chronic shoulder injuries have left her unable to lift her arms fully above her head &ndash; yet she is among the WNBA&rsquo;s most creative offensive engines, manufacturing buckets through brute force, footwork, and finesse around the rim.
What sets her apart, however, is her vision. Thomas operates as a point forward in the truest sense, initiating offense with the instincts of a guard while anchoring the interior with her strength. No player in league history has more triple-doubles than Thomas, who has piled them up not through chasing numbers, but by simply playing the only way she knows: involving everyone, rebounding relentlessly, and attacking mismatches with precision.
Thomas is the ultimate connector, and when she is on the floor, everyone gets easier looks. Thomas is going to wear you down on both ends, and there&rsquo;s really no one else like her in the league.
Phoenix&rsquo;s resurgence this season
The Mercury have long been defined by legends, from Diana Taurasi&rsquo;s scoring brilliance to Brittney Griner&rsquo;s dominance in the paint, Phoenix&rsquo;s championship pedigree has always been tied to its superstars But this season, it&rsquo;s Thomas&rsquo; tenacity and versatility that have become the foundation of the Mercury&rsquo;s title pursuit.
In the quarterfinals, Phoenix knocked out the New York Liberty &ndash; a team that spent much of the season viewed as the championship favorite. Thomas imposed her will throughout the series, controlling tempo, dictating matchups, and ensuring Phoenix never wilted against a roster loaded with talent.&nbsp;
Then came the Minnesota Lynx, last season&rsquo;s runner-up, in the semifinals, a team known for physicality and defensive toughness. Once again, Thomas proved to be the difference, her relentless motor overwhelming Minnesota&rsquo;s interior presence while her passing picked apart their rotations.
Now, Phoenix sits at the doorstep of a championship. Thomas has emerged as the Mercury&rsquo;s lodestar &ndash; the player whose fingerprints are on every possession and whose competitive fire fuels the group &ndash; along with capable star teammates Satou Sabally and Kahleah Copper.
Redefining greatness and the reflection of a leader
Thomas&rsquo; rise to this moment is about redefining what greatness looks like in the WNBA. For decades, the league&rsquo;s superstars have often been bucket-getters &ndash; high-scoring guards or dominant post players who could bend games with sheer offensive output. Thomas represents a different mold.
Her greatness is measured in the connective tissue of the game: the rebound that sparks a fast break, the no-look pass to a cutting teammate, the defensive rotation that prevents a layup. She is the star who doesn&rsquo;t need the spotlight, the engine whose work is most felt in the way her teammates shine brighter.
And yet, Thomas herself has built a resume that cannot be ignored. She is the WNBA&rsquo;s all-time leader in triple-doubles, a perennial All-Star, and a force who consistently pushes her teams to overachieve. Still, for all her accolades, the absence of a championship has loomed large. With Phoenix, that narrative has a chance to finally change.
It is no coincidence that Phoenix&rsquo;s postseason surge has mirrored the very qualities Thomas embodies. The Mercury have played with resilience, grit, and selflessness &ndash; the same hallmarks of Thomas&rsquo; game. Every possession feels like a battle, and every victory has been earned through effort rather than ease.
This title run is about Thomas validating a career defined by sacrifice and unconventional brilliance. Few players would have thrived without a jump shot in today&rsquo;s game, but Thomas has carved a path by emphasizing everything else: defense, rebounding, playmaking, and leadership. She has shown that dominance comes in many forms, and that sometimes it is not just about the one filling up the scoring column, but the one making sure everyone else is in position to succeed.
Legacy in the making
The Mercury&rsquo;s journey is not complete. A championship series looms, either with the Indiana Fever or 3-time MVP A&rsquo;Ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces, and with it, the most difficult test of all. Opponents will key in on Thomas, daring Phoenix to find answers elsewhere. But Thomas has spent her entire career proving doubters wrong, overcoming obstacles that might have ended others&rsquo; careers, and finding ways to impose her will regardless of circumstance.
This, perhaps, is her ultimate chance to etch her name alongside the greats. Not just as the triple-double queen, not just as the league&rsquo;s most unique forward, but as a champion.
If Phoenix completes this run, it will be impossible to tell the story of the 2025 WNBA season without Alyssa Thomas at its center. She has already changed the way the game is played and understood, expanding the definition of stardom and forcing observers to appreciate the value of versatility.
Now, with the Mercury one step away from glory, Thomas is poised to add the ultimate chapter to her legacy. For a player who has done everything except win it all, the moment has arrived. And if the past few weeks are any indication, she is more than ready &ndash; because Alyssa Thomas has never been ordinary &ndash; she has been extraordinary in every sense of the word.

Alyssa Thomas, the WNBA’s triple-double queen, is powering the Phoenix Mercury’s title run.

WNBA triple-double queen Alyssa Thomas ready to lead Phoenix Mercury to a title

LOS ANGELES (AP) &mdash; LeBron James&rsquo; oldest son, Bronny, says he will play basketball at the University of Southern California in the fall.
Bronny James abruptly announced his much-anticipated decision on social media Saturday, about two hours before his father&rsquo;s Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Golden State Warriors in Game 3 of their second-round playoff series.
The 18-year-old James was a McDonald&rsquo;s All-American just like his father, but he was among the few uncommitted elite high school basketball prospects heading toward the summer. The namesake son of the top scorer in NBA history played at Sierra Canyon School, which is known for educating scions of the sports and entertainment industries in Chatsworth, an outer suburban neighborhood of Los Angeles.
James announced his decision by writing the Trojans&rsquo; school slogan, &ldquo;Fight On,&rdquo; below a photo of himself wearing his high school uniform in the Trojans&rsquo; locker room at the Galen Center.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
BRONNY JAMES HAS COMMITTED TO USC 🚨 <a href="https://twitter.com/0BronnyJames?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@0BronnyJames</a> <a href="https://t.co/JVTdFzycn6">pic.twitter.com/JVTdFzycn6</a>
&mdash; Overtime (@overtime) <a href="https://twitter.com/overtime/status/1654971687274774533?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 6, 2023</a></blockquote>

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James and his Sierra Canyon team played at the arena last January, beating a team from Georgia&rsquo;s Wheeler High School led by elite recruit Isaiah Collier &mdash; who is now James&rsquo; teammate at USC.
After choosing to stay close to home for college, the 6-foot-3 guard will join an already loaded Trojans roster coming off the school&rsquo;s third straight NCAA Tournament appearance under coach Andy Enfield.
Several key contributors to last season&rsquo;s team are returning, headlined by star guard Boogie Ellis. USC also will have guard Collier, one of the top recruits in the current high school class.
Many recruiting observers wondered whether USC&rsquo;s strong roster at guard would dissuade Bronny James from staying in Los Angeles for college, perhaps steering him toward Oregon or to an alternative to college. Instead, the son of the four-time NBA champion and league MVP didn&rsquo;t back down from the challenge of contributing to USC&rsquo;s current surge to national prominence.
The younger James&rsquo; full name is LeBron James Jr., but he&rsquo;s much better known by his family nickname. His younger brother, 15-year-old Bryce, is also an elite collegiate prospect at Sierra Canyon.
LeBron James has been an active, supportive parent for his sons&rsquo; basketball dreams. He also has frequently mentioned his desire to play in the NBA alongside Bronny, even though the logistics of such a dream would be daunting.
Last month, James spent the Saturday between the Lakers&rsquo; 81st and 82nd games of the regular season flying back and forth to Portland. James made the one-day trip with his mother, his wife and kids Bryce and Zhuri to watch Bronny play in the Nike Hoop Summit for Team USA.
The final game of Bronny&rsquo;s high school career was important enough to drive James through the weariness of an NBA season and onto a plane for the lengthy trek back and forth
&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t going to miss it,&rdquo; James said. &ldquo;I understand how important fatherhood is, just coming from a no-father household. ... We always try to support each other in all our endeavors. I&rsquo;m only as good as my family.&rdquo;

LeBron James’ oldest son, Bronny, says he will play basketball at the University of Southern California in the fall.

LeBron’s son Bronny James commits to play basketball at USC

Nobody blocked more shots per game, nor had better defensive numbers at the rim this season, than Memphis&rsquo; Jaren Jackson Jr.
And voters noticed.
The Memphis big man was announced Monday night as the NBA&rsquo;s defensive player of the year, becoming the second player to win the award while wearing a Grizzlies&rsquo; uniform. He joins Marc Gasol in that club, after the Spaniard did it a decade ago.
Jackson led the league with 3.0 blocks per game this season, after finishing fifth in the defensive player of the year voting last season. He got 56 first-place votes and 391 voting points to finish ahead of runner-up Brook Lopez of the Milwaukee Bucks, who got 31 first-place votes and 309 points. Cleveland&rsquo;s Evan Mobley &mdash; in just his second NBA season &mdash; was third with eight first-place votes and 101 points.
&ldquo;Team defense really helps us. It goes a long way,&rdquo; Jackson said on the TNT broadcast that announced the award.
The shooting percentage that Jackson allowed at the rim &mdash; 46.9% &mdash; was the best in the league among those with at least 300 shots defended there, and was an obvious plus on Memphis&rsquo; path to the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference playoffs.
&ldquo;Hands down, no-brainer, JJ&rsquo;s definitely defensive player of the year,&rdquo; Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins said earlier this month.
Jenkins could get into all the analytics that he wants, but the simple eye test also tells the story. Jackson wasn&rsquo;t ready for the start of the season because his surgically repaired right foot needed more recovery time.
And Memphis was, well, not great on defense while waiting for Jackson to get ready.
&ldquo;He missed the first (15) games of the year. We were really bad defensively,&rdquo; Jenkins said. &ldquo;He comes back into the lineup and things turn the corner drastically.&rdquo;
Jackson gave Jenkins and the Grizzlies&rsquo; staff much credit for his role in helping him win the award.
&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve instilled the confidence in me to be aggressive offensively &mdash; but really unleash me defensively to go out there and do whatever,&rdquo; Jackson said.
Lopez, the runner-up, had never been this close to a major individual award in his 15 NBA seasons.
Even though he&rsquo;s always been a shot-blocker &ndash; he&rsquo;s swatted 1.8 per game throughout his career &ndash; this was the first time that Lopez was a serious candidate for the DPOY award. He finished 10th in the balloting in 2020, a season in which his Milwaukee teammate Giannis Antetokounmpo took home both that award and MVP.
Lopez blocked a career-best and league-high 193 shots this season, plus contested 17.5 shots per game &mdash; by far the most of anyone in the league.
Golden State&rsquo;s Draymond Green was fourth, followed by Miami&rsquo;s Bam Adebayo in fifth, Antetokounmpo in sixth, Toronto&rsquo;s O.G. Anunoby and Milwaukee&rsquo;s Jrue Holiday tied for seventh, Philadelphia&rsquo;s Joel Embiid and Brooklyn&rsquo;s Nic Claxton tied for ninth, Chicago&rsquo;s Alex Caruso in 11th and Miami&rsquo;s Jimmy Butler in 12th.
The award was the first major individual one to be announced by the league this season.
Three more awards are scheduled to be revealed later this week &mdash; Clutch Player (Butler, Chicago&rsquo;s DeMar DeRozan or Sacramento&rsquo;s De&rsquo;Aaron Fox) is coming Tuesday, Coach of the Year (Sacramento&rsquo;s Mike Brown, Oklahoma City&rsquo;s Mark Daigneault or Boston&rsquo;s Joe Mazzulla) will be announced Wednesday and Sixth Man of the Year (Boston&rsquo;s Malcolm Brogdon, Milwaukee&rsquo;s Bobby Portis Jr. or New York&rsquo;s Immanuel Quickley) will be revealed Thursday.

Nobody blocked more shots per game, nor had better defensive numbers at the rim than Jaren Jackson Jr. And voters noticed.

Jackson wins Defensive Player of the Year over Lopez, Mobley

MEXICO CITY (AP) &mdash; A reggaeton song by Puerto Rican artist Daddy Yankee is blasting through the Arena Ciudad de M&eacute;xico with the lights out while fans wave their cell phones and dance to the rhythm of the music.
Then comes a drumbeat followed by a loud &ldquo;Ca-pi-ta-nes, Ca-pi-ta-nes&rdquo; chant.
Welcome to NBA G League action in Mexico City. And if fans get their wish, the atmosphere at Capitanes&rsquo; games will become the staple for home games of an actual NBA team in the city. It&rsquo;s a longshot but that hasn&rsquo;t dampened the optimism.
When NBA Commissioner Adam Silver visited Mexico in December, he said the Capitanes would give the league a great opportunity to see if Mexico could be considered for a franchise in the future.
So far, it appears the organization is on the right path.
Though the Capitanes lost a three-way tiebreaker and missed the G League playoffs &mdash; the finals begin Tuesday &mdash; they provided some answers to off-court concerns in their first season in Mexico City.
Following their inaugural G League season in Fort Worth, Texas, due to the pandemic, the Capitanes settled into the state-of-the-art Arena Ciudad de Mexico &mdash; a glass-clad facility located in the north part of the city that cost $300 million to build and opened in 2012.
Attendance was a concern, but team president Rodrigo Serratos said the Capitanes top the G League in selling individual tickets and rank fifth in total attendance despite their home arena not being located near downtown Mexico City.
&ldquo;We have a big arena, so we are working with a small set-up, but we have been averaging around 65% of its capacity,&rdquo; Serratos told The Associated Press. &ldquo;So far, it&acute;s been pure magic.&rdquo;
There also are safety concerns about having a permanent team in Mexico City. As recently as Monday, four people were killed in what is believed to have been drug gang-related violence. The killings came less than a week after a U.S. tourist was shot in the leg in the nearby town of Puerto Morelos.
The U.S. State Department issued a travel alert last month warning travelers to &ldquo;exercise increased caution,&rdquo; especially after dark, at Mexico&rsquo;s Caribbean beach resorts like Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, which have been plagued by drug gang violence in the past.
Alfonzo McKinnie, who played for four NBA teams before coming to the Capitanes, had said before the season ended that he feels comfortable in the city.
&ldquo;Everybody I know from players to family and friends asked me about safety, but we live in Polanco one of the nicest parts of Mexico City and I tell them we are as safe as one can be,&rdquo; McKinnie said.
Several players live in Polanco, one the wealthiest neighborhoods in Mexico City with some of the best restaurants, luxury hotels and expensive condos. The area is also one of the safest in the capital, with a strong police presence day and night. It is where NFL, MLB and NBA teams stay whenever they visit Mexico to play regular season games.
Serratos said McKinnie, along with Kenneth Faried and Gary Clark, are enjoying their experience with the Capitanes while hoping for another NBA opportunity.
&ldquo;All the American players said that they did not expect to find a country like this. The feedback that we are getting from them is that they are very happy and want to keep playing here,&rdquo; said Rodrigo Serratos, the team president. &ldquo;The city offers a lot of things; we are a rich country in experiences for foreigners.&rdquo;
Since 1992, when the Houston Rockets played the Dallas Mavericks, Mexico has hosted 30 NBA games out the 117 that the NBA has played outside of the U.S. and Canada in its history.
Silver has said having a G League team in Mexico City gives the league an opportunity to better understand the challenges that come with dealing with the local culture, a different language and all the other circumstances around possibly having an NBA franchise in the city one day.
Soccer is still king among sports in the country, but there are more basketball courts than soccer fields in Mexico and the fans have shown in the past how loyal they are. Before the Capitanes, the Mexico City Aztecs played in the defunct Continental Basketball Association in 1994 and averaged 9,000 fans a game.
&ldquo;You can call it love, passion or solidarity &mdash; any of those adjectives describe what the basketball culture in this country is, and that is what the NBA has found here,&rdquo; said Raul Zarraga, the director of the NBA office in Mexico.
Besides the reggaeton music that booms during game breaks, there is a fan who brings a drum to cheer for the Capitanes. &ldquo;The Mexicans are very passionate with sports; they are very involved and noisy,&rdquo; Serratos said, adding that the team had to get a special permit from the NBA for the fan&rsquo;s drum. &ldquo;It is a different atmosphere here than in any other G League venue.&rdquo;
Despite the early success of the Capitanes, fans should not expect to see an NBA expansion team in Mexico City anytime soon. The last time the league expanded was in 2004 with a franchise in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before that, the league expanded in 1995 with two teams in Canada.
Other cities, including Las Vegas and Seattle, also could be ahead of Mexico City when and if the NBA considers an expansion in the future.
Until then, fans can continue to party with the Capitanes.

if fans get their wish, the atmosphere at Capitanes’ games will become the staple for home games of an actual NBA team.

NBA in Mexico: G League Capitanes hope they're laying foundation

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) &mdash; LSU star forward Angel Reese sat in the back of an orange convertible Corvette, waving to thousands of fans lining the roadside &mdash; and also waving her hand in front of her face from time to time, repeating a gesture that caused a stir at the end of the national championship game.
The Tigers paraded across campus and into the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Wednesday night for ceremonies to honor their first NCAA women&rsquo;s national championship, captured Sunday with a 102-85 victory over Iowa in Dallas.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying not to cry,&rdquo; said coach Kim Mulkey, a Louisiana native who left behind the three-time national champion powerhouse she&rsquo;d built at Baylor two years ago to take over at LSU.
&ldquo;This is my home,&rdquo; she said, noting that her mother was in the arena.
Reese was not among the players who spoke at the event. But she has been outspoken on several topics this week.
She was unapologetic when questioned about waving her hand in front of her face while staring down Caitlin Clark during the game. Clark, The Associated Press Player of the Year, made a similar gesture to no one in particular during Iowa&rsquo;s victory over Louisville in the Elite Eight.
Reese also has said she would not accept an apology from First Lady Jill Biden for suggesting that both LSU and runner-up Iowa be invited to the White House. President Joe Biden did not follow through on that idea, inviting only LSU and men&rsquo;s national champion Connecticut.
LSU star guard Alexis Morris, an outgoing senior who aspires to play in the WNBA, was among the players who addressed the crowd inside the arena.
&ldquo;LSU, thank you. I appreciate your love, your unwavering support and for believing in us,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I just want you all to know I love you with all my heart.&rdquo;
Mulkey, who won a national title as a player for Louisiana Tech, said it was her goal to win a national title with the flagship university of her home state. But she said she never put a timetable on that.
Holding up a page of notes from a preseason meeting with her players, Mulkey said, &ldquo;Nowhere on here does it say, &lsquo;Win a national championship.&rsquo;&rdquo;
She said the goals she&rsquo;d written down were to win 90% of nonconference games, finish in the top four of the SEC, win one game in the SEC Tournament and remain ranked in the AP Top 25 throughout the season.
She also told the team, &ldquo;If you will play defense and if you will rebound the ball, you may surprise yourself.&rdquo;
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards was among the speakers following the parade.
&ldquo;Louisiana always had faith in you, but more importantly, you had faith in yourself and were smart enough not to listen to all the experts who said you didn&rsquo;t have a chance,&rdquo; Edwards told LSU&rsquo;s players.
As for Mulkey, Edwards said, &ldquo;We all knew she could do it, but what she has done to elevate this program and all of women&rsquo;s sports is truly remarkable.&rdquo;
Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome presented Mulkey with a key to the city.

The Tigers paraded across campus to honor their first NCAA women’s national championship.

LSU’s national championship women’s team honored with parade

DALLAS (AP) &mdash; Caitlin Clark overwhelmed the reigning champions with another sensational game, scoring 41 points to help Iowa spoil South Carolina&rsquo;s perfect season with a 77-73 victory on Friday night in the Final Four.
The spectacular junior guard set a record for the highest-scoring semifinal game and became the first women&rsquo;s player to post back-to-back 40-point games in the NCAA Tournament. She now has the Hawkeyes in a spot they&rsquo;ve never been in before &mdash; one victory away from a national championship.
They&rsquo;ll have to beat another SEC team to do that as Iowa (31-6) will face LSU in the title game on Sunday afternoon. The Tigers&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/womens-final-four-lsu-virginia-tech-march-madness-292680727b52d2e99d887b40667dbc59">beat Virginia Tech</a>&nbsp;in the other national semifinal.
It&rsquo;s the Tigers&rsquo; first appearance in the title game as well, as Kim Mulkey became the second coach to take two different teams to the championship game.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Caitlin Clark's NCAA Tournament so far: Rd. of 64: 26 PTS | 12 AST | 7 REB Rd. of 32: 22 PTS | 12 AST | 3 STL Sweet 16: 31 PTS | 8 AST | 3 REB Elite Eight: 41 PTS | 12 AST | 10 REB Final Four: 41 PTS | 8 AST | 6 REB ARE YOU SERIOUS 🤯 <a href="https://t.co/drWn36Z9nt">pic.twitter.com/drWn36Z9nt</a>
&mdash; BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews/status/1642014148169981957?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 1, 2023</a></blockquote>

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Thanks to the spectacular play of Clark and the historic year by South Carolina, this was one of the most talked about and highly anticipated matchups in women&rsquo;s Final Four history.
The game lived up to the hype surrounding it &mdash; the best player vs. the best team &mdash; much to the delight of the sellout crowd of over 19,000 fans.
Coach Dawn Staley and South Carolina (36-1) had won 42 in a row, including last year&rsquo;s championship game.
This was Iowa&rsquo;s first appearance in the Final Four in 30 years. The last time the Hawkeyes advanced this far was 1993 and C. Vivian Stringer was the coach of that team that lost to Ohio State in overtime.
Clark wowed the crowd that included Harper Stribe, a young fan of the team who has been battling cancer. She was featured in a surprise video that informed the Hawkeyes&rsquo; star that she was the AP Player of the Year.
Trailing 59-55 entering the fourth quarter, South Carolina scored the first five points to take the lead. Clark answered right back with two deep 3-pointers and an assist to Monika Czinano to give the Hawkeyes a 67-62 lead.
South Carolina got within 69-68 on Raven Johnson&rsquo;s 3-pointer before Clark got a steal for a layup with 3:32 left. Neither team scored again until star Aliyah Boston was fouled with 1:37 left. She made the second of two free throws.
Clark then scored another layup on the other end out of a timeout to make it a four-point game. After a layup by Zia Cooke made it a two-point game with 58 seconds left, the Hawkeyes ran the clock down with McKenna Warnock grabbing a huge offensive rebound off a Clark miss with 18 seconds remaining.
Clark hit two free throws after South Carolina fouled her with 13.5 seconds left. They were her 38th and 39th point, moving her past Nneka Ogwumike for the most points scored in a Final Four semifinal game.
After a putback by Johnson with 9.9 seconds left got the Gamecocks within 75-73, Clark sealed the game with two more free throws.
As the final seconds went off the clock, Clark threw the ball high in the air and galloped around the court.
The loss ended a spectacular season for the defending champion Gamecocks, who were trying to become the 10th team to go through a season unbeaten.
Cooke led the Gamecocks with 24 points. Slowed by foul trouble, Boston had just eight points and 10 rebounds as the Hawkeyes packed the paint, daring South Carolina to shoot from the outside.
The Gamecocks finished 4-for-20 from behind the 3-point line and couldn&rsquo;t take advantage of their 49-25 advantage on the boards that included 26 offensive rebounds.

Caitlin Clark had another sensational game with 41 points to lift Iowa over South Carolina 77-73 and into the national championship game.

Caitlin Clark, Iowa end South Carolina's perfect season in Final Four

HOUSTON (AP) &mdash; It wasn&rsquo;t so much that social media was criticizing his son. That happens sometimes &mdash; especially after a loss like THAT.
But when a post came up suggesting Terrance Williams II, a junior forward for Michigan, be left for dead in a ditch, his dad decided enough was enough. Terrance Williams Sr.&rsquo;s profanity-laced response to all the haters was, in many ways, an expected byproduct of social media vitriol that bubbled up after the Wolverines blew an eight-point lead in a one-point loss to Vanderbilt earlier this month &mdash; not in the NCAA Tournament but in the NIT.
&ldquo;You actually root for them when they&rsquo;re good,&rdquo; Williams Sr. said of the Michigan fans in an interview with The Associated Press two days after the season-ending loss. &ldquo;But then they make a mistake, and a game doesn&rsquo;t go your way and you turn to hate. That&rsquo;s unacceptable.&rdquo;
The episode was just one of countless examples of the toxic minefield that athletes, coaches, friends and family face all too often on social media, all of it amplified for college basketball players when the calendar flips to March and the madness begins.
College administrators and coaches alike have warned for several years that students and athletes are facing increasing mental-health challenges exacerbated by the pandemic. And never have there been more outside voices that not only scrutinize every move players make on the court, but impact their emotional well-being away from it.
&ldquo;The feedback right now, it can be so harsh and it&rsquo;s so immediate, and I think that&rsquo;s the hardest part,&rdquo; said Melissa Streno, a Denver-based mental health consultant for high-level athletes. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the immediacy of the feedback from people they don&rsquo;t even know. And it can be so impactful on their identity and how they see themselves as a player on the court.&rdquo;
Turning off social media is one option, but it&rsquo;s not really practical, not with the way society interacts in the 21st century. And many athletes use social media to open the door to cash. It comes with a toll.
A survey conducted by the NCAA in the fall of 2021 found spikes among athletes who experienced mental exhaustion, anxiety and depression compared with a similar survey two years earlier &mdash; before the pandemic, and also before name-image-likeness deals became an everyday reality of college sports. The survey also found that despite a growing recognition of mental health as something to be addressed, fewer than half the respondents felt comfortable seeking support from a counselor on campus.
Even so, those counselors have been busy; a growing number of questions they field from the players involve how to manage social media.
&ldquo;For some of them, social media brings pressure to put out information, to create content, build their brand and that can cause anxiety,&rdquo; said Charron Sumler, a former college basketball player who is now an athletic counselor at Ohio State. &ldquo;On the flip side, there&rsquo;s the input where they&rsquo;re receiving messages. And with phones in the locker room, sometimes they&rsquo;re receiving that negative feedback and content before they&rsquo;ve even had a chance to debrief with their coaches or with themselves.&rdquo;
Just this month, Virginia&rsquo;s Kihei Clark started trending for the wrong reasons when his ill-advised pass at the end of a first-round March Madness game against Furman allowed the Paladins to make the game-winning 3-pointer that sent the Cavaliers home.
After the game, Clark sat in the locker room and patiently answered every question. Predictably, social media was destroying him before the final buzzer even sounded.&nbsp;
Among those who knew the feeling was Matthew Fisher-Davis. He was the Vanderbilt guard who, thinking the Commodores were trailing, fouled a Northwestern player in the waning seconds of a first-round game in 2017. In fact, Vanderbilt was ahead by one; Northwestern made both free throws after the foul and won by a point.
Before the next season, Fisher-Davis released a slickly produced video showing him working out, the main theme of which was: &ldquo;Everybody&rsquo;s got something to say.&rdquo;
&ldquo;It gets to the point where, the stuff coming from outside the locker room doesn&rsquo;t make anything easier,&rdquo; Fisher-Davis told the AP in an interview this month.
Stanford&rsquo;s Haley Jones was named most outstanding player at the women&rsquo;s Final Four after helping the Cardinal win the national title in 2021. Two weeks ago, when Stanford made an early exit from this year&rsquo;s March Madness, Jones&rsquo; performance &mdash; and her prospects for the upcoming WNBA draft &mdash; were being dissected, sometimes cruelly, on social media.
&ldquo;Right after every game. I know what I did well, and I know what I didn&rsquo;t do well,&rdquo; said Jones, who is part of a program called Game 4 Good that focuses on mental wellness for athletes. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t need to go and listen to thousands of people who don&rsquo;t know me tell me these same things, and probably say it in a lot meaner way.&rdquo;
On rare occasions, players get ripped for doing something good.
In an episode that illustrates the parallel explosive growth of both social media and online sports wagering, TCU&rsquo;s Damion Baugh was the object of scorn in the second round this month when he launched a shot at the buzzer from near the halfcourt logo in a game that had already been sealed by Gonzaga.
Baugh&rsquo;s 3 went in. It trimmed TCU&rsquo;s final deficit to three, which allowed the Horned Frogs to cover the 4.5-point spread. That shot did nothing to change the brackets, but it did flip millions of dollars across the country and Baugh was roundly ripped on Twitter.
Baugh barked back: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t get how y&rsquo;all mad because I played until the last buzzer.&rdquo;
Former Ohio State guard E.J. Liddell also felt compelled to defend himself after he missed a late free throw that was key to an upset loss to Oral Roberts two years ago.
&ldquo;Honestly, what did I do to deserve this? I&rsquo;m human,&rdquo; he said in a post in which he posted screenshots of some of the insults directed at him, including a death threat.
Even one of social media&rsquo;s biggest stars, Oregon&rsquo;s Sedona Prince, who became famous after her video outlining the disparity between men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s weight rooms at the 2021 NCAA Tournaments went viral, had to take a brief break last year from TikTok.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not any different because I&rsquo;m on TikTok. I&rsquo;m still a person,&rdquo; Prince said in a tearful video since taken down, while acknowledging her mental health had been declining.
Streno, the mental health consultant, said social media can exacerbate depression and anxiety.
During a three-month stretch last spring, at least five college athletes died by suicide. Among the reasons given by friends and family were the constant pressure of performing at a high level, the pressure to maintain a certain weight or physique, the fear of being perceived as weak because of injuries and the limited social opportunities because of the demands of a sports schedule.
Given the amount of daily interaction athletes have with friends and family on social media apps, Streno said it&rsquo;s more realistic to coach players on how to deal with feedback than simply advising them to shut down everything.
&ldquo;If it were as simple as &lsquo;don&rsquo;t look at your phone,&rsquo; then this wouldn&rsquo;t be an issue,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;But there&rsquo;s such a quick, immediate, &lsquo;Oh, this must mean this about me. I&rsquo;m not good enough, or I&rsquo;m not living up to this level.&rsquo; And then your mind can kind of start going down into this spiral.&rdquo;
Williams, the father of the Michigan forward, said his son does a good job of shutting out social media during the season. After the events of this month, the dad planned on going dark for a while, too.
&ldquo;People said he didn&rsquo;t play well, and I get that,&rdquo; Williams said. &ldquo;But when you say my son, who I&rsquo;ve raised and who I love tremendously, that you wish him to be dead in a ditch, that&rsquo;s when I&rsquo;ve got to turn the switch.&rdquo;

There is a toxic minefield that athletes, coaches, friends and family face all too often on social media when the calendar flips to March.

A different March Madness: Online hate for the athletes

Isaac Mourier is the director of performance nutrition and sports science at Impact Basketball, one of the most prestigious independent training organizations for elite pro basketball players. He's spent time as a consultant for the Sacramento Kings and as a nutritionist for Georgia athletics, and he played pro basketball in Germany.
So while Mourier cannot speak for everyone in the NBA, his next statement carries weight:
"I've never met a player that doesn't want to play," Mourier told Basketball News. "Never, in my career as a player, as a practitioner, have I ever met a player that does not want to play. So that's a myth."
The NBA's perceived "load management crisis" has only sparked louder outrage this season from fans, some media and even former players. Charles Barkley has <a href="https://awfulannouncing.com/nba/charles-barkley-load-management-steel-mill-first-take.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called the trend</a> "disrespectful to the game."&nbsp;Kendrick Perkins has <a href="https://fadeawayworld.net/kendrick-perkins-rips-load-management-its-starting-to-get-beyond-disrespectful" target="_blank" rel="noopener">labeled the mental toughness of today's players</a> as "softer than funeral music." While these two are certainly controversial voices at the very least, they are significant influences in the sport's discourse.
Barkley and Perkins, among many others, are also warping the true hows and whys of load management.&nbsp;
Today's NBA game is more physically taxing than ever, and among those in the league, it's barely a debate.&nbsp;
"I was part of the physical era, where you could hand-check and grind, post up and all that," Mike Conley told <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nba/load-management-draymond-green-warriors-kevon-looney-technology-mike-conley-jerami-grant" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox Sports in January.</a> "We were a physical team. It&rsquo;s who we were. That was taxing in a whole other way. You played through injuries, but it was more bumps and bruises because you were being physically assaulted.
"Now it&rsquo;s like, imagine running as fast as you can for 48 minutes and having to do that every night. There are more possessions, more opportunities to get these non-contact injuries. Guys are having more calf strains, more hamstrings and stuff like that. We weren&rsquo;t getting those as much (before)."
Kevon Looney backs Conley up in <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nba/load-management-draymond-green-warriors-kevon-looney-technology-mike-conley-jerami-grant" target="_blank" rel="noopener">that article</a>, and Mourier supports them both. He says that the "physicality" of the old-school, post-centric game is much different from today's fast pace that wears out the body with more muscle contractions.
"What may look less physically taxing to the eye, in terms of less bumps and bruises and people getting knocked over &mdash; I think you're actually having the opposite effect on the body, where these distances covered, the speed at which they're covered and the changes of directions are far more taxing on the body," Mourier said.
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Today, teams can quantify those stresses. Mourier explains that players often jump on force plates and see how their power generated will change with fatigue throughout a season. Hormones and proteins found in blood testing can signal muscle damage or inflammation. Teams use GPS tracking and camera systems to monitor players' wear and tear even in practices. The data paints a collective picture of an athlete's overall load during the season.
Importantly, this data isn't hidden by doctors &mdash; it typically is part of an ongoing conversation throughout the year. Building trust between players and medical staffers is crucial to injury management. That way, players can trust the data and doctors can respect the athlete's motivations.
"There's a number of data points that you will track until it gets to the point where we have to stop," Mourier said. "It's not like, 'Hey, we've just noticed something and you're not gonna play tonight.' It will be something that's been in the works &mdash; overall wellness scores, looking at that force plate data &mdash; it will be a trend, which is happening over time, and it's got to a point where it's like, 'Okay, we really have to do this.'
"It's not taken lightly because, ultimately, everybody's job there is to make sure that people can play every night."
Fans often want to ask: Who's in control? And the difficult answer is that the power dynamics change in different organizations.
Mourier says that superstars' voices will naturally have more influence, but that college staffs have more control over player rest than NBA teams. Others in the NBA have observed that teams do hold serious decision-making power.
"I do know on occasion that it&rsquo;s not the player&rsquo;s choice [to rest]," New Orleans Pelicans forward Larry Nance Jr. told Basketball News.
"On the whole, I think people are on the same page, especially when it comes to our [Impact Basketball] guys on [NBA] teams," Mourier said. "I've never come across someone saying, 'They made me sit down; I wanted to play and I couldn't.'"
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/usatsi_20114521.jpg" alt="" width="575" height="444" />
Seth Partnow works for StatsBomb and writes for The Athletic, and was formerly the Milwaukee Bucks' director of basketball research, working adjacent to the sports scientists within the organization. He said in his general experience, trust in both data and relationships is a huge part of reaching decisions to rest.&nbsp;
"I think that the impetus for resting overwhelmingly comes from the medical and front-office side," Partnow told Basketball News. "I think that part of the increased comfort players have with revealing that information is maybe an increased willingness to take that advice."
Partnow explained that teams often boil down decision-making for rest to a "risk versus reward" scale. Does Player X need to play this specific game for the sake of the team, and is it worth the risk of a potential injury that could threaten playoff availability?&nbsp;
"We're going to be judged on how well we do in the playoffs," Partnow said. "And more of a bigger factor than a regular-season win or two is, 'Are my good players able to play?'"
That balance does not include the weight of the fan experience &mdash; a valid criticism within the conversation. Mourier, originally from England, remembers attending his first NBA game in person between the Miami Heat and Washington Wizards and being disappointed when LeBron James and Dwyane Wade didn't suit up. NBA tickets can be a significant investment for fans and families; understandably, they would be bummed when a star rests.
But "risk vs. reward" applies to the league's approach too, as evidenced by its lack of action on anything surrounding load management. Others, including <a href="https://theathletic.com/4272209/2023/03/03/load-management-nba-injuries/?source=user_shared_article" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a recent conversation between The Athletic's staff members</a>, have clamored for more transparency around injuries as at least a starting point.
&ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t a new issue. There&rsquo;s nothing particularly happening this season that we haven&rsquo;t seen happening over the last several seasons," Adam Silver <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/02/25/sports/sunday-basketball-notes/?p1=BGSearch_Overlay_Results" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in February</a>. "I understand it from a fan standpoint that if you are particularly buying tickets to a particular game and that player isn&rsquo;t playing. I don&rsquo;t have a good answer for that other than this is a deep league with incredible competition."
One motivator gaining traction is the idea of minimum-games-played requirements for season awards. Shams Charania has reported that <a href="https://theathletic.com/4302514/2023/03/13/the-bounce-lakers-cba-games-played-minimum-shams/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">both the league and the National Basketball Players Association like the idea</a>. But many do not, including Mourier.
"I think that opens up a pretty dangerous can of worms, because if you have somebody that's really not in a position where they're ready to play &mdash; we have to start looking at them as humans as opposed to just athletes," Mourier said. "If they're in a position where they are really not ready to play, they're feeling sore or there's an injury, and they're creeping up on that cut-off for games and they're about to play, and it's gonna mean that they're not going to get home, they can't put food on the table for their family or can't support the the different needs that they have, then we have a human issue."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr explains his position of protecting his players on the second night of a back-to-back, empathizes with the fans who are affected by load management and shares how a 72-game NBA season would be equally as rewarding as it&rsquo;d be safe. <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@basketbllnews</a> <a href="https://t.co/osTyhqxNyd">pic.twitter.com/osTyhqxNyd</a>
&mdash; Spencer Davies (@SpinDavies) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpinDavies/status/1616581456658108416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2023</a></blockquote>

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

Another common suggestion is to simply shorten the schedule, be it to 70 games, 65 games or whatever makes sense. It would lighten the workload for players and possibly address some of the concerns about the value of the regular season along the way. But Silver didn't seem excited.
&ldquo;If we thought it made sense to reduce the number of games, we would. But there&rsquo;s no data right now that suggests, as I said, based on some prior experiments or even as we look at the data over the course of the season and when players get injured, it isn&rsquo;t... You would think that it would be the case that injuries would increase as the season goes on, and that&rsquo;s not necessarily it either," Silver said.
Partnow echoes Silver's stance as a reason for the league shrugging its shoulders. There just isn't hard proof that the change wouldn't lead to an obvious loss of revenue from dropping 200-plus contests.
"Measuring how that sort of loss of &mdash; I don't know, if you want to call it loss of trust &mdash; might longer-term affect the per-game revenue, that's tough math to do, but I think that's the concern," Partnow added.
And even if the league did shrink the schedule, games are not the only way athletes are physically taxed during the year.
&ldquo;I think the biggest thing [fans don't notice] would just be trying to manage injuries and inflammation while traveling via airplane," Nance Jr. said. "That always seems to exacerbate most problems.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Fans can&rsquo;t imagine playing 82 games in different cities all across the country and the physical toll it takes on your body, even without injuries," added NBA veteran Etan Thomas. "It&rsquo;s difficult for most fans to really understand.&rdquo;
Mourier says that pros need at least 48-to-72 hours between high-level competition for their bodies to replenish with proper nutrients. That's not consistently happening under the current schedule, and travel doesn't help.
"All of the factors which are not directly related to after the ball is thrown up at the tip-off &mdash; so sleep, travel, all of that other stuff &mdash; how can we influence those things to put the players in a more favorable spot to be able to go and perform every night? I think that's where we start," Mourier suggested.
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Load management is the best strategy NBA teams have to contain injuries, but it isn't stopping them from happening. <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0263354" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Studies are showing</a> that NBA players get hurt more than ever. Partnow warns not to assume rest every time a star is out briefly; many of the smaller cases are still legitimate injuries.&nbsp;
The findings hint at a scarier truth: What if the NBA can't do anything about it? As <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27125793/these-kids-ticking-bombs-threat-youth-basketball" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ESPN's Baxter Holmes uncovered</a>, AAU and youth sports are taking major tolls on players' bodies before they even reach the pro level. Current pros are torn on if the grind of year-round youth basketball was worth it.
"I agree that kids are being overworked at a young age,&rdquo; <a href="https://hoopshype.com/2019/11/08/does-aau-lead-to-load-management-in-nba-kids-are-being-overworked/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chicago Bulls big man Nikola Vucevic told HoopsHype in 2019</a>. &ldquo;Parents push kids too hard to succeed and hire all these fake basketball coaches who don&rsquo;t teach them how to play the game the right way. Kids have to have fun first while they play, and not [have someone] make it a business for them right away."
The NBA doesn't supervise the entirety of American youth hoops, which means it can't stop one of the root problems.
"Yes, absolutely [it's worrisome]," Partnow said. "I mean, on some level, it's not just that youth sports are out of our control. Youth sports are out of control."
So, NBA teams and players have more data than ever to manage a sport that is more physcially demanding than ever. But the league doesn't have the data to comfortably make a big change, and the frustration only grows.
At what point does the NBA stop waiting for numeric proof to force change, and take the risk for the sake of its players and fans?
"That's a political question. I don't know," Partnow said. "The longer [load management] becomes front and center of the conversation, the shorter that timespan is. But if something intervening happens that takes the focus off, and now we're talking about this other thing, then it loses salience and it kind of subsides...
"It seems like this [conversation] has been pretty continuous for the last couple months, which is probably the longest I can remember it being sort of a constant."

Ethan Fuller talks to figures around basketball to understand why load management happens and what can be done about it.

Here's the reality of the NBA's perceived 'load management crisis'

NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; Willis Reed, who dramatically&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49vo1JvT8Ss&amp;list=PLTFeiOvo3A8YnG7byZppaX5GOw1Mi7hTV&amp;index=4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">emerged from the locker room minutes before Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals</a>&nbsp;to spark the New York Knicks to their first championship and create one of sports&rsquo; most enduring examples of playing through pain, died Tuesday. He was 80.
Reed&rsquo;s death was&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://twitter.com/NBAalumni/status/1638253401988296726?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">announced by the National Basketball Retired Players Association</a>, which confirmed it through his family. The cause was not released, but Reed had been in poor health recently and was unable to travel to New York when the Knicks honored the 50th anniversary of their 1973 NBA championship team during their game against New Orleans on Feb. 25.
The Knicks tweeted a photograph&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://twitter.com/NY_KnicksPR/status/1638265697380737027?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">picturing Reed from behind</a>&nbsp;walking onto the floor as his teammates were warming up for the 1970 finale, one of the most memorable moments in NBA and Madison Square Garden history.
&ldquo;As we mourn, we will always strive to uphold the standards he left behind &mdash; the unmatched leadership, sacrifice and work ethic that personified him as a champion among champions,&rdquo; the team said. &ldquo;His is a legacy that will live forever.&rdquo;
Nicknamed &ldquo;The Captain,&rdquo; Reed was the undersized center and emotional leader on the Knicks&rsquo; two NBA championship teams, with a soft shooting touch from the outside and a toughness to tussle with the era&rsquo;s superstar big men on the inside.
His accomplishments &mdash; seven All-Star selections, two NBA Finals MVP awards among them &mdash; would have warranted Hall of Fame induction by themselves. During the 1969-70 season, he became the first player to sweep the MVP awards for the regular season, All-Star Game and NBA Finals.
But his spot in history was secured simply by walking onto the floor on the final night of that season.
Reed had injured a thigh muscle in Game 5 of the series between the Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers, tumbling to the court in pain. He sat out Game 6 as counterpart Wilt Chamberlain had 45 points and 27 rebounds in a Lakers romp that forced a deciding game at Madison Square Garden.
Reed&rsquo;s status was unknown even to his Knicks teammates as he continued getting treatment until shortly before Game 7. Both teams were warming up when Reed came out of the tunnel, fans rising and roaring when they saw him emerge from the tunnel leading to the locker room.
&ldquo;And here comes Willis and the crowd is going wild,&rdquo; radio announcer Marv Albert said.
The Lakers stopped to watch Reed, who then made two quick jump shots in the early minutes of the game, running back down the court after both with a noticeable limp. He wouldn&rsquo;t score again but the Knicks didn&rsquo;t need it, with their captain&rsquo;s return and Walt Frazier&rsquo;s 36 points and 19 assists energizing them to a 113-99 romp and their&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHzxM69qm50" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">first NBA title</a>.
Frazier&rsquo;s performance was one of the finest ever in a deciding game, but it was forever a footnote to Reed&rsquo;s return. In 2006, to coincide with the NBA&rsquo;s 60th anniversary, it finished third in voting of the league&rsquo;s 60 greatest playoff moments, behind Michael Jordan&rsquo;s championship-winning jumper for his sixth title in 1998 and Magic Johnson ending his rookie season by filling in for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at center in Game 6 of the 1980 finals to lead the Lakers to a championship.
Long afterward, a player&rsquo;s return from injury has sometimes compared to Reed, such as when Boston&rsquo;s Paul Pierce was carried off the floor with a knee injury in Game 1 of the 2008 NBA Finals against Los Angeles before quickly returning. But Phil Jackson, a teammate of Reed&rsquo;s and then Lakers coach, dismissed that because of how serious Reed&rsquo;s injury was.
&ldquo;If I&rsquo;m not mistaken, I think Willis Reed missed a whole half and three-quarters almost of a game and literally had to have a shot &mdash; a horse shot, three or four of them &mdash; in his thigh to come back out and play,&rdquo; Jackson said.
Reed wouldn&rsquo;t be able to recover so quickly from injuries in the coming years. He was limited to just 11 games in 1971-72 but came back strong the next season to spark the Knicks to a second title in what was his last full season.
Though his return always made the &rsquo;70 title the more celebrated one, it was the &rsquo;72-73 squad, having been fortified by Hall of Famers Earl Monroe and Jerry Lucas, that stood out to Reed.
&ldquo;That, to me, in my mind was the best team,&rdquo; he said during its 40th anniversary celebration.
Reed would play only 19 games in 1973-74 before retiring because of a knee injury after just 10 seasons.
That was long enough to collect more than 12,000 points and 8,400 rebounds, both of which still rank in the top three on the Knicks&rsquo; career lists.
Willis Reed was born June 25, 1942, in Hico, Louisiana. He stayed in his home state for his college career, leading Grambling State to the 1961 NAIA championship and a third-place finish in 1963. The school retired his number and named its court after Reed in 2022.
A second-round pick in 1964, he quickly proved that standing only 6-foot-9 wouldn&rsquo;t keep him from becoming one of the league&rsquo;s top centers. He was voted Rookie of the Year and earned the first of his seven straight All-Star selections.
Reed was the anchor as the Knicks became one of the best teams in the NBA, with Hall of Famers such as Frazier, Bill Bradley and Dave DeBusschere.
Reed provided them with 18.7 points and 12.9 rebounds for his career, along with plenty of toughness. An ESPN documentary in 2014 on those Knicks showed footage of a 1966 fight in a game against the Lakers in which Reed appeared to throw punches at multiple opponents, with Jackson noting that it appeared Reed &ldquo;decimated this team.&rdquo;
His No. 19 was the first number retired by the Knicks and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 1982.
Reed went on to coach the Knicks to a playoff berth in 1977-78 but coached them only 14 more games the following season. He also was a head coach at Creighton and the New Jersey Nets, but his greatest success after his playing career came in the front office.
He was their senior vice president of basketball operations when they drafted Derrick Coleman and Kenny Anderson, who became All-Stars and led the Nets to the playoffs.

NBA legend and Hall-of-Famer Willis Reed, who helped the Knicks win their two championships, died on Tuesday at 80 years old.

Willis Reed, leader on New York Knicks’ two title teams, dies at 80

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) &mdash; Madison Scott hit a pair of free throws with 23 seconds left that gave Mississippi the lead for good, Angel Baker scored 13 points, and the Rebels delivered on their declaration to get defensive, stunning top-seeded Stanford 54-49 on Sunday night to reach the NCAA Tournament&rsquo;s Sweet 16 for the first time in 16 years.
Behind the entire game, Stanford called timeout with 28 seconds left then Hannah Jump turned the ball over and Scott converted. Haley Jones lost the ball out of bounds on the Cardinal&rsquo;s last possession with a chance to tie then again in the waning moments.
Marquesha Davis hit a pair of free throws with 15.4 seconds to play as Ole Miss overcame not making a field goal over the final 5:47, going 0 for 8.
These upstart Rebels (25-8) advance to the Seattle Regional semifinal next weekend, while Tara VanDerveer&rsquo;s Stanford team (29-6) is eliminated far earlier than this group envisioned &mdash; the season ending on the Cardinal&rsquo;s home floor.
GREENVILLE 1 REGION
No. 1 SOUTH CAROLINA 76, No. 8 SOUTH FLORIDA 45
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) &mdash; Zia Cooke scored 21 points and Aliyah Boston had her 81st career double double as South Carolina shook off a slow start to power past South Florida.
The Gamecocks improved to 34-0 with their 40th straight win overall and moved four victories away from a second straight national title. They&rsquo;ll head to Greenville, where they won the Southeastern Conference Tournament two weeks ago, to play for a spot in the Final Four.
Boston, the program career record holder for double doubles, finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds, coming out of her final game at home to a huge ovation.
South Florida (27-7) entered looking for a program-record 28th win this season and its first berth in the Sweet 16, but after a feisty start, couldn&rsquo;t hang with the Gamecocks.
No. 2 MARYLAND 77, No. 7 ARIZONA 64
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) &mdash; Diamond Miller scored 13 of her 24 points in the third quarter to help Maryland to a victory over Arizona.
The Terrapins (27-6) advance to the Sweet 16 for a third straight year and the 11th time under coach Brenda Frese. Maryland trailed by a point after two quarters but ran past the Wildcats (22-10) in the second half.
Shyanne Sellers scored 15 points and Faith Masonius gave the Terps a lift with 12.
Frese was coaching against her alma mater. She played at Arizona and graduated in 1993.
Cate Reese led Arizona with 19 points.
No. 3 NOTRE DAME 53, No. 11 MISSISSIPPI STATE 48
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) &mdash; Lauren Ebo had 10 points, 18 rebounds and four blocks to help Notre Dame beat Mississippi State.
Maddy Westbeld added nine points and 15 rebounds for the Irish, who blew an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter before making the plays down the stretch for the win.
Mississippi State scored eight straight points to open the fourth quarter and tie the game at 41. Ebo scored the first Irish basket of the final period on an offensive putback with 4:38 remaining.
The Irish regained the lead for good on a pair of KK Bransford free throws with 3:49 left in the game, which gave Notre Dame a 45-43 advantage. The Irish held onto the lead the rest of the way.
GREENVILLE 2 REGION
No. 2 UTAH 63, No. 10 PRINCETON 56
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) &mdash; Alissa Pili had 28 points and 10 rebounds to lead Utah to a win over Princeton.
Jenna Johnson added 15 points for the Utes, who made only one 3-pointer but still advanced to their first Sweet 16 since 2006.
Kaitlyn Chen scored 19 points, Grace Stone had 16 and Ellie Mitchell finished with 18 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive end, for Princeton (24-6).
Down the stretch, the game turned into an old-fashioned rockfight. The teams combined to miss 15 consecutive field goal attempts at one point, but Utah (27-4) got to the free throw line to advance and face No. 3 seed LSU.
No. 3 LSU 66, No. 6 MICHIGAN 42
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) &mdash; Angel Reese dismantled Michigan on both ends of the court with 25 points, 24 rebounds, six blocks and three steals to help LSU beat the Wolverines.
Reese, a 6-foot-3 All-America forward, did most of her damage with gauze wedged under her upper lip after a shot to her mouth drew blood in the opening minutes of the game.
Alexis Morris scored 11 and LaDazhia Williams had 10 points and 10 rebounds for LSU (30-2), which never trailed and held Michigan (23-10) to its lowest point total of the season.
SEATTLE 3 REGION
No. 1 VIRGINIA TECH 72, No. 9 SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 60
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) &mdash; Georgia Amoore scored 21 points and Virginia Tech held off South Dakota State.
Elizabeth Kitley added 14 points and 14 rebounds for the Hokies (29-4), who won their 13th consecutive game, to advance to the Sweet 16 for just the second time in program history. They will play the winner of Monday&rsquo;s matchup between No. 12 seed Toledo and No. 4 seed Tennessee.
Virginia Tech also set a school record with its 29th win, breaking the mark of 28 set by the 1998-99 squad &mdash; the only other team in school history to advance to the Sweet 16.
Myah Selland led South Dakota State (29-6) with 17 points and nine rebounds.
SEATTLE 4 REGION
No. 2 IOWA 74, No. 10 GEORGIA 66
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) &mdash; Caitlin Clark had 22 points and 12 assists while Monika Czinano added 20 points to help Iowa beat Georgia.
The Hawkeyes (28-6) advance to the ninth Sweet Sixteen in program history.
Gabbie Marshall added 15 points and McKenna Warnock had 14 for Iowa, which erased the memory of last season&rsquo;s second-round home loss to No. 10 seed Creighton.
Clark, a first-team Associated Press All-American, was held scoreless for 13 minutes in the first half, but scored 14 second-half points as the Hawkeyes finally shook off the 10th-seeded Lady Bulldogs (22-12). She made just 6 of 17 shots, but either scored or assisted on nearly every point by the Hawkeyes in the second half.
Georgia, a No. 10 seed, got within 68-66 on a 3-pointer from Audrey Warren with 2:17 left in the game, but the Lady Bulldogs would not score again, committing three straight turnovers and missing a layup.
Diamond Battles led Georgia with 21 points. Brittney Smith and Javyn Nicholson each had 12 points.

A recap of Sunday's slate of women's March Madness includes the Rebels upsetting the top-seeded Cardinal.

Ole Miss stuns Stanford, reaches first Sweet 16 in 16 years

North Carolina started the year at No. 1 only to miss the NCAA Tournament. And that was enough for the Tar Heels to call it a season.
The Tar Heels on Sunday officially became the first&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-basketball-new-orleans-north-carolina-college-4a628bd0aaab8e17f1c83b6e45182f81" target="_blank" rel="noopener">top-ranked team in The Associated Press preseason poll</a>&nbsp;to miss March Madness since the field&rsquo;s expansion to 64 teams in 1985. Shortly after the NCAA field of 68 teams was revealed, the school announced it had &ldquo;chosen not to participate&rdquo; in the NIT to end its season.
In a statement, coach Hubert Davis said the focus all season had been for the team to reach its potential and have another shot at the NCAA title that had eluded the Tar Heels in last March&rsquo;s magical run to the championship game. Instead, as Davis said, the season &ldquo;wasn&rsquo;t what we had hoped for.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Many factors go into postseason play and we believe now is the time to focus on moving ahead, preparing for next season and the opportunity to again compete for ACC and NCAA championships,&rdquo; Davis said.
The statement came a few hours before the NIT field of 32 teams was to be unveiled.
The Tar Heels (20-13) returned four starters from last year&rsquo;s wild postseason ride under Davis, who was in his first season replacing retired Hall-of-Famer Roy Williams. The highlight <a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/march-madness-north-carolina-tar-heels-mens-basketball-duke-blue-devils-mens-basketball-sports-mike-krzyzewski-76be1099a009ac7c2993c36a2eba00a8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was beating Duke in the Final Four</a> &mdash; and sending Hall-of-Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski into retirement &mdash; in the first-ever NCAA Tournament meeting between the famed rivals.
Yet little went to plan in&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/unc-tar-heels-ncaa-tournament-hubert-davis-54011db3081d9c471cf23b7e56d32842" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a season of unfulfilled expectations</a>, down to being listed as one of the first four teams outside the field.
The Tar Heels were one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in program history, and that allowed defenders to sag down on AP All-ACC big man Armando Bacot inside and take away driving lanes while daring them to make outside shots. They also had a mystifying knack for failing to close out tight games or making simple mistakes that proved critical the longer games wore on.
The combination first knocked them out of the&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AP Top 25</a>&nbsp;for good before the start of 2023, then turned a once-unthinkable Selection Sunday outcome into a reality.
&ldquo;The pressure, I think, can get to everybody,&rdquo; Bacot said after a second loss to the Blue Devils at the end of the regular season. &ldquo;I mean, we&rsquo;re human. I&rsquo;d definitely say it somewhat got into our locker room.&rdquo;
Of the 38 teams to be AP preseason No. 1 since 1985, 18 reached at least the Final Four, with six winning the NCAA championship. The Tar Heels were among that group in 2016, losing the title to Villanova on Kris Jenkins&rsquo; last-second 3-pointer in Houston &mdash; ironically the site of this year&rsquo;s Final Four. But they returned the next year to claim the title that had eluded them.
This year&rsquo;s team was trying to become the third in program history to pull off that redemption arc. The other came in 1982, when a team that lost to Isiah Thomas and Indiana returned to beat Patrick Ewing and Georgetown with a roster featuring program greats James Worthy, Sam Perkins and a skinny freshman named Michael Jordan.
Yet this year&rsquo;s Tar Heels couldn&rsquo;t land the bid to even get that shot.
They had no bad losses yet stood at just 1-9&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/c2bbc8025fb6abfa07ec5183dc920dbb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in Quadrant 1 games that top an NCAA resume</a>. Most notably: there was&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-alabama-north-carolina-mens-college-basketball-f8bd87aa3f1593ce55dde62a25fcb483" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a four-overtime November loss to eventual No. 1 overall NCAA Tournament seed Alabama</a>&nbsp;in a game that highlighted both the Tar Heels&rsquo; ability to play with anyone yet also their inability to close out a quality opponent considering they led after halftime in eight of their 13 losses.
The Tar Heels arrived at the home-state Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament in Greensboro knowing they had to work to do to bolster their NCAA chances. They beat Boston College but struggled against No. 13 Virginia&rsquo;s grinding defense, while Bacot exited early with an ankle injury from the BC win.
By the end&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/acc-tournament-unc-virginia-ba41c053cd1ad191b12d18431833755e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">of that 68-59 loss</a>, the Tar Heels seemed resigned to Sunday&rsquo;s outcome.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lot of emotions just to see from last year, the type of run we made,&rdquo; guard R.J. Davis said. &ldquo;Like you said, looking from the outside in this year, it&rsquo;s tough. It&rsquo;s a tough position to be in.&rdquo;

UNC became the first top-ranked team in the AP's preseason poll to miss March Madness since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

How UNC went from preseason No. 1 to missing NCAA Tournament

LAS VEGAS (AP) &mdash; Gonzaga&rsquo;s players heard the criticisms this wasn&rsquo;t the same Bulldogs team that has been among the nation&rsquo;s elite in recent years, and they even struggled themselves to live up to the program&rsquo;s enormous expectations.
&ldquo;There were numerous days where I was not fun to be around,&rdquo; Gonzaga coach Mark Few said.
The Bulldogs kept working at it, and on Tuesday night, No. 9 Gonzaga sent a message to the rest of the country with a dominant-from-the-start 77-51 victory over No. 16 Saint Mary&rsquo;s in the championship game of the West Coast Conference Tournament.
The Zags (28-5) continued their domination of the WCC with their fourth consecutive tournament championship and 10th in 11 years, with Saint Mary&rsquo;s in 2019 being the only exception. Gonzaga has won 21 tournament titles overall.
Drew Timme scored 18 points and became Gonzaga&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer, earning tournament Most Outstanding Player.
&ldquo;I took for granted winning,&rdquo; Timme said. &ldquo;I won so much in my career, it&rsquo;s a shock not to win. I think early in the year, it just kind of made me appreciate what it takes to win night in and night out. I think sometimes we kind of assume we were just going to win because we&rsquo;re Gonzaga.
&ldquo;Sometimes it&rsquo;s hard not to fall into mindset we just need to get to March. It was grind this season. I think that grind has made us as a group appreciate each and every night winning and what it takes to win and be a good team.&rdquo;
Saint Mary&rsquo;s (26-7) was seeded first in the tournament after the teams split the regular-season series, and Timme said it was strange wearing a blue jersey rather than the customary white one. The Gaels were the last team to beat Gonzaga, which takes a nine-game winning streak into the NCAA Tournament that includes beating Saint Mary&rsquo;s to end the regular season.
Both teams will find out their seedings and destinations Sunday.
Gonzaga made 58% of its shots, while holding Saint Mary&rsquo;s to 33% shooting. The Bulldogs led by as many as 37 points and never trailed.
Timme was efficient in making 8 of 10 shots to lead four Bulldogs into double figures. Malachi Smith scored 14 points, Nolan Hickman 12 points and Julian Strawther 10. Anton Watson had 10 rebounds.
Timme&rsquo;s short jumper with 10:18 left put him in first place alone as the leading scorer in Saint Mary&rsquo;s history. He entered just five points short of breaking the mark, and his 18 points for the game gave him 2,210 for his career. Frank Burgess held the previous record of 2,196 from 1958-61.
Logan Johnson led the Gaels with 20 points, and Alex Ducas scored 10.
Gonzaga took control early, using a nine-point run to go up 14-4 and maintained a double-digit lead most of the way from there. The Zags at one point in the first half made 10 of 12 field goals, and by halftime, they had taken full command with a 37-19 lead.
&ldquo;I told our guys we played 32 games and played pretty well in 32 of them,&rdquo; Saint Mary&rsquo;s coach Randy Bennett said. &ldquo;This one, we&rsquo;re off. You can credit them. They played well. We didn&rsquo;t show up.&rdquo;
BIG PICTURE
Gonzaga: Now is when the real pressure is on Gonzaga, which had made numerous deep runs in the NCAA Tournament, but is still searching for that elusive national championship. Until that happens, critics will say the WCC school is not on the same level as those from the power conference. It&rsquo;s up the the Zags to prove them wrong.
Saint Mary&rsquo;s: Saint Mary&rsquo;s nearly gave away all of a 26-point lead in Monday&rsquo;s semifinals because the Gaels had trouble with BYU&rsquo;s press. Gonzaga threw the press at Saint Mary&rsquo;s, and while it didn&rsquo;t result in transition baskets for the Bulldogs, it slowed the Gaels&rsquo; offense. Saint Mary&rsquo;s will need to figure out how to better execute against the press, or it will be a problem in the NCAA Tournament.
UP NEXT
Gonzaga has a legitimate shot at a No. 2 seed, and it entered the game ninth in the NET rankings, a metric the NCAA committee uses in selecting the field. Even though Saint Mary&rsquo;s was ranked just one spot ahead of the Bulldogs, the Gaels likely are looking at more of a five or six seed.

The Zags (28-5) continued their domination of the WCC with their fourth consecutive tournament championship and 10th in 11 years.

Timme sets record, Gonzaga routs Saint Mary’s for WCC title

The NBA schedule naturally lends itself to several checkpoints throughout the season that serve as frames of reference to check a team's pulse. The trade deadline and All-Star break are typically viewed as the midseason opportunities to evaluate performance.
However, for some teams, there's a specific date when their season drastically changed. For this year's New York Knicks, that date is December 4, 2022.
That night, in a 92-81 win against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Tom Thibodeau trimmed New York's rotation to nine players. Since making the tweak, the Knicks are 27-14 and one of three squads with top-10 offensive and defensive ratings, per Cleaning the Glass.&nbsp;
New York has bounced up to the fifth seed in a strong Eastern Conference and only gotten better since acquiring Josh Hart prior to the trade deadline. His addition, marking another important season benchmark, has coincided with a seven-game winning streak that has given this young squad a glow in the national spotlight.
The Knicks are fun because they don't have one cure-all player responsible for the surge. Sure, Jalen Brunson's off-dribble juice has changed the game, and Hart has been a seamless fit so far, but this squad really jells because of collective improvement and synergy across the rotation.
New York owns the second-best offensive rating in non-garbage-time minutes since Dec. 4, and they are No. 1 since the win streak began. But interestingly, their scoring distribution looks nothing like the pass-heavy green flags we associate with "good" offense. Look at some of these ball-movement numbers from the league's stats database since Dec. 4:
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; height: 154px;" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">Stat</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">Value (since Dec. 4)</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">NBA Rank</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">Offensive Rating</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">116.2</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">5th</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">Passes per game</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">265.5</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">25th</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">Assists per game</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">21.6</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">30th</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">Potential assists per game</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">38.9</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">30th</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">Assist-to-pass ratio</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">9.6%</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">29th</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">% of makes that were assisted</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">52.3%</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698%; height: 22px;">30th</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
So the Knicks are running an elite offense, yet their buckets aren't resulting from quality passes that make the box score. And without throwing another table at you, I'll add that these numbers rank similarly even when paring things down to the last seven games.
However, less passing does not necessarily indicate bad, or even unsustainable, offensive process. The Knicks might be iso-heavy, but they choose to be with purpose.&nbsp;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Clipped together the first 8 offensive possessions for the Knicks to start the 4th Q. Knicks are actively seeking out Hauser in matchups for both RJ and IQ to attack. There's a stark contrast in the quality of possessions initiated by both. <a href="https://t.co/TnDPTLpaRk">pic.twitter.com/TnDPTLpaRk</a>
&mdash; Ariel (@APachecoNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/APachecoNBA/status/1630603912536367106?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2023</a></blockquote>

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New York aggressively hunts mismatches so they can overpower defenses with drives. They're second in the NBA with 56.2 drives per game since Dec. 4 because they know they have several players &mdash; led by Brunson, Julius Randle, RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley &mdash; who can score and pass out of attacks. Notably, despite logging low assist numbers in general as shown above, New York's 6.0 assists per game via drives actually rank second in the NBA, and the team's 5.5% turnover rate is tied for second-lowest.
There is so much chess that occurs on these perceived isolation plays that involve opening up other opportunities, even if it's not directly from a pass at first. Ben Ritholz encapsulated this in the below video thread that strings together some Knicks possessions against the Miami Heat:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
🎥🏀Knicks Film Session🏀🎥 Today&rsquo;s Lesson: Herro Hunting How the Knicks used the RJ/Herro mismatch to their advantage to create looks down the stretch. Sound up 🔊 Featuring analysis by <a href="https://twitter.com/BenRitholtzNBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BenRitholtzNBA</a>. <a href="https://t.co/zfhn4CYato">pic.twitter.com/zfhn4CYato</a>
&mdash; Knicks Film School (@KnickFilmSkool) <a href="https://twitter.com/KnickFilmSkool/status/1621525534336327680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 3, 2023</a></blockquote>

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Barrett is the focal point of the video, but similar approaches apply for Randle and Quickley. Brunson, meanwhile, is in his own stratosphere as the self-creating engine for the franchise. The marquee summer signing ranks third in the league with 21.1 drives per game since Dec. 4, and second in the league with 8.6 passes per game out of drives.
Brunson has been one of the league's premier driving threats over the course of his career; I wrote a whole <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-stats-notebook-jalen-brunson-is-in-the-drivers-seat" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stats Notebook about his attacks with the Dallas Mavericks last spring</a>. He doesn't need to get all the way to the rim to bend defenses because he has the strength and shake to control the mid-range areas. As SDPN's Esfandiar Baraheni notes in this well-timed breakdown, Brunson has also spiked his drawn-shooting-foul rate, up to 13.0% from 7.9% a year ago.
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4diTEr5VdkE" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
With Brunson as the head of the snake, Barrett, Randle and Quickley (who is converting 56% of his driving field goal attempts!) each bring a different layer of difficulty off the dribble. And though he's only averaging 4.4 drives so far, Hart has done the same early on with the Knicks.
The 27-year-old is putting up 12.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game in his seven appearances so far. Hart's immediate impact is helped by a ludicrous 60.0% three-point clip that will surely cool off. But he'll be a force off the bench for the Knicks either way with his straight-line drives and unique production on the boards.
Hart has made 14 of his 19 shots at the rim in this tiny sample size and nine of those buckets were unassisted. The success tracks. Take a look at what he's done on "self-created" shots (attempts taken after at least two seconds with the ball) over his career, via PBP Stats:
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; height: 176px;" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 44px;">
<td style="width: 27.415144%; height: 44px;">Season</td>
<td style="width: 15.274151%; height: 44px;">FGM</td>
<td style="width: 15.274151%; height: 44px;">FGM</td>
<td style="width: 21.671018%; height: 44px;">FG%</td>
<td style="width: 20.365535%; height: 44px;">Freq. (% of total shots within 10 ft.)</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 27.415144%; height: 22px;">2017-18</td>
<td style="width: 15.274151%; height: 22px;">47</td>
<td style="width: 15.274151%; height: 22px;">70</td>
<td style="width: 21.671018%; height: 22px;">67.1%</td>
<td style="width: 20.365535%; height: 22px;">19.8%</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 27.415144%; height: 22px;">2018-19</td>
<td style="width: 15.274151%; height: 22px;">39</td>
<td style="width: 15.274151%; height: 22px;">77</td>
<td style="width: 21.671018%; height: 22px;">50.7%</td>
<td style="width: 20.365535%; height: 22px;">16.6%</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 27.415144%; height: 22px;">2019-20</td>
<td style="width: 15.274151%; height: 22px;">74</td>
<td style="width: 15.274151%; height: 22px;">113</td>
<td style="width: 21.671018%; height: 22px;">65.5%</td>
<td style="width: 20.365535%; height: 22px;">21.6%</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 27.415144%; height: 22px;">2020-21</td>
<td style="width: 15.274151%; height: 22px;">46</td>
<td style="width: 15.274151%; height: 22px;">84</td>
<td style="width: 21.671018%; height: 22px;">54.8%</td>
<td style="width: 20.365535%; height: 22px;">24.5%</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 27.415144%; height: 22px;">2021-22</td>
<td style="width: 15.274151%; height: 22px;">139</td>
<td style="width: 15.274151%; height: 22px;">215</td>
<td style="width: 21.671018%; height: 22px;">64.7%</td>
<td style="width: 20.365535%; height: 22px;">38.5%</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 27.415144%; height: 22px;">2022-23</td>
<td style="width: 15.274151%; height: 22px;">101</td>
<td style="width: 15.274151%; height: 22px;">167</td>
<td style="width: 21.671018%; height: 22px;">60.5%</td>
<td style="width: 20.365535%; height: 22px;">40.2%</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Hart has consistently been a high-level interior creator even as he takes on more volume. But so far, he's different from other Knicks players in his unabashed confidence to score in transition.
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; overflow: hidden;" src="https://streamable.com/e/7v2chp" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe></div>
Nothing schematic to break down here &mdash; Hart just takes the ball the length of the floor, puts his shoulder into one of the league's strongest players and finishes through Jonas Valanciunas for the and-one layup. He's already had several coast-to-coast scores with New York, and that's new for a team ranking 25th in transition frequency on the season.&nbsp;
Hart also fortifies one of the best rebounding units in the league. His 6.0% offensive rebounding rate and 18.8% rebounding rate with Portland this season are both top-2-percentile numbers among wings, per Cleaning the Glass. New York already has Mitchell Robinson, Isaiah Hartenstein and Jericho Sims as a trio with top-15-percentile splits among bigs, and Randle is top-20-percentile in these categories as a forward.&nbsp;
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
New York's offense operates with the vibes of a heavyweight boxer. The mismatch-hunting and on-court positioning are all setting up for the big punches, or drives orchestrated by the Knicks' leading scorers. Controlling the glass, plus a top-10 defense worthy of a separate article, help build out the chiseled frame of the team.
The numbers might not make the offense seem impressive at first, but when you piece them together and pair them with tape, the Knicks look a lot more imposing as a playoff contender.
THE OUTLIERS (a.k.a. other random interesting numbers I found in the void):
<ul>
<li>Antoine Davis is the man! The second note here blew my mind:</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Incredible career for Antoine Davis <a href="https://t.co/rIwf0qu4Xc">pic.twitter.com/rIwf0qu4Xc</a>
&mdash; Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamZagoria/status/1631649663735455756?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 3, 2023</a></blockquote>
<ul>
<li class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">Lauri Markkanen has been one of the best scorers in the NBA this year, full stop:</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Lauri Markkanen has been nothing short of special this year. He&rsquo;s now averaging 25.3 PPG, up from 14.8 last season, and while at an incredible level of efficiency. He&rsquo;s finishing WELL above league averages at the rim, in the midrange, and from 3. (53% on corner 3s 🔥) <a href="https://t.co/AmQwcSLodN">pic.twitter.com/AmQwcSLodN</a>
&mdash; Dom Samangy (@DSamangy) <a href="https://twitter.com/DSamangy/status/1631345431455178769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 2, 2023</a></blockquote>
<ul>
<li class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">Not quite like a full season triple-double average, but Nikola Jokic is making the case for his <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/sportsbooks-view-nikola-jokic-as-a-lock-to-win-his-3rdstraight-mvp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">third-straight MVP</a> look stronger every game:</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Nikola Jokic has averaged a triple-double in December, January and February. He is the 3rd player in NBA history to average a triple-double in at least 3 straight calendar months, joining Oscar Robertson and Russell Westbrook. <a href="https://t.co/3pQ0kAeNHY">pic.twitter.com/3pQ0kAeNHY</a>
&mdash; ESPN Stats &amp; Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNStatsInfo/status/1630762306253496321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2023</a></blockquote>

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Ethan Fuller shows that there's more to the New York Knicks' low-passing offense than the numbers initially suggest.

NBA Stats Notebook: Why the Knicks' low-passing offense works so well

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) &mdash; Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker and Gregg Popovich are all one step closer to basketball immortality.
The three international greats &mdash; Gasol, Nowitzki and Parker &mdash; were among the list of Class of 2023 finalists unveiled Friday by the Basketball Hall of Fame, putting them on the doorstep of enshrinement this summer. Also on that list: Popovich, the winningest coach in NBA history with the San Antonio Spurs, and Dwyane Wade, part of three championship teams with the Miami Heat.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really about the journey,&rdquo; Gasol said. &ldquo;These type of recognitions, which are an amazing honor, they come along when you do things very, very well for a long time and when you love what you do. I&rsquo;m just privileged to have played the game for so long, at a high level, with amazing people who taught me so much.&rdquo;
Also making the finalist cut were four selections from the Women&rsquo;s Committee &mdash; 1990 national player of the year, Olympic champion and world champion Jennifer Azzi; six-time WNBA All-Star and WNBA championship-winning coach Becky Hammon; and longtime coaches Gary Blair and Marian Washington.
The other finalists from the North American Committee include Gene Bess, believed to be the all-time collegiate coaching wins leader with 1,300 to his credit; two-time Division III national champion David Hixon; and seven-time Big Ten coach of the year Gene Keady.
&ldquo;I love the class. I think this is a loaded class,&rdquo; Hall of Fame Chairman Jerry Colangelo said.
Colangelo said it&rsquo;s unusual for finalists to get this far in their first year on the ballot. Wade, Popovich, Gasol, Parker, Nowitzki and more got this far in their first opportunity.
&ldquo;The Class of 2023 will be remembered as one of the most distinguished classes the Hall of Fame will ever see, and we are extremely excited for this unparalleled collection of talent and achievement to be one step closer to Springfield,&rdquo; Colangelo said.
Popovich has coached San Antonio to five NBA titles, four of them with Parker as the team&rsquo;s point guard, and led the U.S. to the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. The other two legs of the Spurs&rsquo; Big 3 from that championship era &mdash; Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili &mdash; are already Hall of Famers.
Nowitzki is sixth on the NBA&rsquo;s all-time scoring list and led Dallas to the 2011 NBA title as the top moment in his 21-year career, all of it spent with the Mavericks. Gasol won NBA titles and led Spain to a FIBA world championship, and Wade was a 13-time All-Star, Olympic champion and earned membership on the NBA&rsquo;s 75th anniversary team.
Hall of Famers get an orange jacket to commemorate their enshrinement. Wade said he&rsquo;s dreamed of wearing one, noting that he&rsquo;s now &ldquo;one step closer.&rdquo;
&ldquo;A young Dwyane Wade never would have thought this moment would be here,&rdquo; Wade said. &ldquo;Sometimes when you&rsquo;re young and you have a dream, a lot of people don&rsquo;t believe in your dream. It seems so far-fetched. But I&rsquo;ve always been a dreamer.&rdquo;
The Hall also announced Friday that longtime high school scout Tom Konchalski will receive the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor the Hall bestows short of enshrinement. CBS Sports will receive one of the Curt Gowdy media awards handed out this year, with ESPN&rsquo;s Holly Rowe and Marc Spears also now Gowdy recipients.
The Hall class will be announced April 1 at the NCAA men&rsquo;s Final Four in Houston. Enshrinement weekend is August 11 and 12 at Uncasville, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts.

Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker and Gregg Popovich are all one step closer to basketball immortality.

Gasol, Nowitzki, Parker, Popovich among Hoop Hall finalists

Sometimes, you just know it's good.
A well-timed joke in the middle of conversation. That screen pass you've been saving for the fourth quarter in Madden because your buddy's been spamming a run blitz on early downs. A perfectly placed bass run in the midst of a groove, for my musician friends reading this.&nbsp;
There's something about sensing an opening, taking advantage of said-opening and&nbsp;immediately&nbsp;knowing you made the right decision. Said the right thing, chose the right thing. It just feels&nbsp;good.
That had to be the Derrick White trade for the Boston Celtics last season.
For a team that wants to lock you down defensively &mdash; by erasing gaps with well-timed switching, or siccing its in-your-jersey defenders on unsuspecting ball-handlers while the big hangs back in a drop &mdash; White served as a perfect target.&nbsp;
There were a handful of players in the league that could navigate screens like White; close down on ball-handlers with pesky rearview contests; switch onto bigger players and swipe the ball away, or beat them to spots to draw timely charges. The Celtics were tough enough with Marcus Smart; to add another guy like that into the fold felt unfair.
And for a team trying to fully commit to moving the ball, as elementary as that sounds, White also served as the perfect target. The Celtics were just hitting their stride as an offense that could create and&nbsp;maintain advantages in the half-court without halting the show. White's ability to fit in &mdash; heck, his willingness to fit in &mdash; made him an easy fit.
He could initiate ball-screens, come off handoffs, set pin-in screens on the weak side, set pindowns for the stars to come off of, and act as an on-ball screener to force defenses into tough decisions. The shooting would serve as a bellwether of sorts, but White fit into just about everything the Celtics wanted to do on both ends.
White integrated well last season, though inconsistent three-point shooting &mdash; and waning aggressiveness &mdash; reared its ugly head during the playoff run.&nbsp;
This season, he's been even better. More comfortable, more aggressive. More efficient. For nearly a month now, he's just been more, period.
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The Celtics have been without Smart since Jan. 21, when he turned his ankle pretty badly towards the end of the first half of their matchup against the Toronto Raptors. White was already starting, but he's had to assume lead ball-handling duties since then.
To say White has been phenomenal in this recent run would be an understatement.
Over the past 11 games, White has averaged 20.1 points while converting 54.3% of his twos and 43.6% of his threes on high volume (7.1 attempts). He's dishing out 5.8 dimes (9.2 <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/passing?DateFrom=01/23/2023&amp;TeamID=1610612738&amp;dir=D&amp;sort=POTENTIAL_AST" target="_blank" rel="noopener">potential assists</a>) per game while rarely turning the ball over (1.5 turnovers). He's helped on the glass (4.6 boards), and has continued to be a menace on the defensive end.
You can really have some fun with filtering White's run too.&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Last eight games (6-2 record): 21.5 points, 6.3 assists (1.4 turnovers), 5.1 rebounds</li>
<li>Last five games (4-1): 25.0 points, 8.4 assists (1.8 turnovers), 4.2 rebounds, 1.0 blocks</li>
</ul>
White has racked up at least 25 points and 10 assists in each of his past three games &mdash; a streak he's never had in his career. He just won <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/shai-gilgeousalexander-derrick-white-named-nba-players-of-the-week" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Eastern Conference Player of the Week</a>, another feat he had yet to accomplish until this year.
What stands out about White's play is, again, how easy it feels. That isn't meant to diminish what he's doing, but to highlight how well he fits the Celtics' ethos. He's not pounding the ball to get assists or boogying against defenders to get his buckets. He's taking what the defense gives him, and doing so without hesitation.&nbsp;
Take this possession for example:
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The Celtics flow out of HORNS and look to hit either Jayson Tatum or White with a cut. Both players are defended well, with Jaren Jackson Jr.'s ball pressure on Robert Williams III also hindering things. The second option &mdash; two-man game with Williams III and Sam Hauser, testing the screen navigation of Ja Morant &mdash; doesn't hit either. The ball swings to White, and the fun begins.
White receives a screen but doesn't take it; he just waits it out, and gets Xavier Tillman switched onto him. After swinging it to the corner, the ball finds him again with Tillman out of position after attempting a steal.
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White immediately attacks the basket, driving right at Jackson. Because Tatum is on the left wing, the left corner is empty &mdash; meaning Dillon Brooks can't help without giving up an open shot on the perimeter. And with Williams III rolling to the basket, Jackson now has to choose between halting White's drive or taking away the roll &mdash; with no help behind him. He chooses the former, opening up the easy lob.
Quietly, White has been one of the most productive drivers in the NBA over this stretch. He's been able to finish through contact, avoid it altogether with a funky floater he can get to at weird times and angles, and feed open teammates if the defense overreacts to him.&nbsp;
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During this 11-game run, possessions featuring a drive by White have generated 1.17 points per possession (PPP), per Second Spectrum. That ranks seventh among 45 players with at least 100 drives in that time frame, putting him in a virtual tie with James Harden and ahead of All-Stars like Morant (1.15 PPP), De'Aaron Fox (1.15 PPP), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (1.09 PPP) and DeMar DeRozan (1.05 PPP).
White's work as a screener continues to be important for the Celtics. Because he naturally draws smaller matchups than Tatum or Jaylen Brown, his inclusion as a lead blocker forces defenses into tough situations.&nbsp;
Anything less than pristine screen navigation means giving one of the stars an opening to attack. Switching a smaller guy onto either of them is asking for trouble. Trapping or hedging simply opens up short-roll opportunities for White. You can get away with daring bigs to make quick decisions in space; you can't really do that with someone as smart as White is.
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And the defense. Whew, buddy, the defense.&nbsp;
You could make the case that White has been Boston's best defender this season &mdash; a massive feat on a roster featuring last year's Defensive Player of the Year in Smart. Brown remains a strong on-ball defender; Tatum, when locked in, can provide near-elite value on and off the ball. Williams III is still rounding into form, but remains a terrifying rim protector. Horford has been sturdy in drop, and still showcases comfort venturing out in space.&nbsp;
But yet it's White pestering folks and causing the most havoc on a nightly basis.
Among the 161 players to defend at least 300 pick-and-rolls, only Desmond Bane (0.22%) has been washed out by a screen at a lower rate than White has (0.26%), per Second Spectrum.
Put another way: Of the 760 screens that have been set on White, only 20 (!) of them have taken him out of the play.&nbsp;
That, my friends, is absurd.&nbsp;
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Because of White's ability to avoid being completely taken out of the action, he's almost always in position to affect the play. He'll fight to get back in front, mirroring ball-handlers before forcing them into tough looks &mdash; or passing the ball altogether.&nbsp;He'll get rearview contests if necessary, throwing off the rhythm of pull-ups and floaters.
Then, there are the action plays. He leads the team with 11 charges taken, tied with Kyle Lowry and Herb Jones (he's back, y'all) for 10th in the league.
No guard in the East has more blocks than White (53); only Gilgeous-Alexander (55) has more in the league (and has a two-inch height advantage). That White can get on-ball blocks and&nbsp;serve as a secondary rim protector is a rarity worth celebrating.&nbsp;
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The combination of productivity and availability &mdash; he's the lone Celtic to appear in all 58 games this season &mdash; should tilt the "Boston's best defender" argument in his favor this season. And for what it's worth, White leads all Celtics in Defensive Estimated Plus Minus (DEPM) this season (+1.5), edging out Smart (+1.3), Tatum (+1.2) and Horford (+1.2).
White has been everything the Celtics have needed him to be, on both ends of the floor. A quality role piece and a quality roll piece. A willing spacer. An All-Defensive level contributor &mdash; he and Jrue Holiday would be my First Team guards if I had a ballot.&nbsp;
And when more has been required, like this Smart-less stretch, White has stepped up in the equation. More buckets, more decision-making and roughly the same level of defense.
He's further proven to be one of the most valuable role players in the NBA. Not only can he slot into the Celtics' system on both ends, he can also scale up or down depending on who's available. That portion isn't true for most role players &mdash; even the good ones. He deserves his flowers for that.

Nekias Duncan puts the recent incredible performances of Celtics guard Derrick White in perspective.

Appreciating the scale of Derrick White's play for the Celtics

Trust me, I know.
Following the blockbuster trade that <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/mavericks-owner-mark-cuban-breaks-silence-on-kyrie-irving-trade" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sent Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks</a>, much of the conversation surrounding the deal focused on risk &mdash; how Irving's presence may affect the Mavericks' locker room, and especially, Luka Doncic; how the Mavericks would (struggle to) pivot if Irving were to walk in the offseason; how Kevin Durant is feeling in Brooklyn, seeing his co-star total drop from two to zero in a calendar year.
All of those concerns are valid.
There's a reason we immediately got a report from Bleacher Report's Chris Haynes saying the Phoenix Suns &mdash; who offered a package headlined by Chris Paul for Irving &mdash; are ready to push their chips in for Durant if he becomes available again.
The Mavericks absolutely should be keeping an eye on Doncic's long-term happiness. And with Irving, he hasn't been the beacon of reliability or availability. (That's putting it conservatively, for the sake of this piece and this piece only.)
Let's put that to the side for just a moment.&nbsp;
From an on-court perspective, the Mavericks have added a really good basketball player. The entire reason they made this gamble is because of the ceiling-raising that Irving's talent signifies. Let's take a look at what things could look like.
ON-BALL USAGE
Frankly, this should be pretty seamless.
Irving is one of the best isolation scorers of the modern era. His free-verse handle allows him to get wherever he wants to, whenever he wants to get there. He's quick enough to speed past off-balanced defenders, mixes in deceleration to keep defenders off balance (and flow into pull-ups on a dime) and has the body control and dexterity to create finishing angles out of mid-air.&nbsp;
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Over the past four seasons, trips featuring an Irving isolation have generated 1.12 points per possession (PPP). That's first in the NBA among 38 players with at least 1,000 isolations during that time frame. Drop the requirements to 500 isolations, expanding the field to 81 players, and Irving barely trails Zion Williamson (724 isolations, 1.123 PPP) despite having 463 more reps.
This season alone, trips featuring an Irving isolation have produced an absurd 1.21 PPP &mdash; third in the NBA among 88 players with at least 100 clear-outs under their belt. It's worth noting that the two players ahead of Irving &mdash; Lauri Markkanen (1.22 PPP) and D'Angelo Russell (1.213 PPP) &mdash; have combined for 214 isolations, while Irving is at 328 by himself.&nbsp;
I start with pure isolations because that's what the Mavericks have leaned into this season. They lead the NBA in isolations in whatever way you'd like to measure it: Total (1,397), per game (25.8) or per 100 possessions (26.9). Naturally, Doncic paces the league in total isolations (673) on elite efficiency to boot (1.14 PPP).
Even if you project this to be the most blatant my-turn-your-turn pairing in the leauge &mdash; and I don't, but we'll get into that shortly &mdash; these two are good enough to make that offense fruitful.&nbsp;
Irving's scoring chops also help him in ball-screens. Drop coverage is untenable because of his ability to chew up space. He's also, quietly, a pretty creative interior passer. Diverting too much attention to him can lead to a nice mix of pocket passes, dump-offs and lobs.
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Irving made sweet music with Nicolas Claxton in pick-and-roll this year (1.09 PPP). There shouldn't be a steep learning curve receiving screens from Dwight Powell or Christian Wood, assuming the latter is on the roster.&nbsp;
Also, prepare yourself to watch Doncic screen for Irving sometimes. Doncic is setting nearly three on-ball picks per 100 possessions this year, a career-high for him, though pretty low overall. If I had to guess, that number should perk up.
On-ball screens from Doncic have mostly been used to manufactor favorable matchups. That was more of a given when screening for Spencer Dinwiddie since they're close to the same size. Switching was, per Second Spectrum, easily the most common coverage that two-man pairing saw.&nbsp;
With Irving, that could shift a bit. Irving's defenders tend to be smaller than Dinwiddie's; this is an imperfect measure, but per NBA.com's matchup data, Irving has been <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/player/202681/by-position?Matchup=Offense" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defended by guards</a> roughly 69% of the time, <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/player/203915/by-position?Matchup=Offense" target="_blank" rel="noopener">slightly higher</a> than Dinwiddie's 61.8% clip.
At almost 6-foot-6, it would make sense that teams would feel more comfortable stashing wings and forwards on the latter. While throwing size on Irving makes sense in theory, even asking traditional wings to navigate screens or mirror Irving in space is a tall task.
(Yes, the joke was intentional.)
By the way, it's worth keeping an eye on how Irving deals with blitzes. To say he gets overwhelmed is overselling it, but there can be a bit of catch-hold-read-then-pass to those situations that may not vibe well with how slowly the Mavericks play. The short-roll playmaking on this roster continues to be a subplot worth following.
Because Irving can generate high-level offense, the Mavericks should be able to breathe easier in non-Luka lineups. Prior to the trade, the Nets were outscoring opponents by 44 points (plus-4.2 net rating) in the 676 minutes Irving played without Durant this season, <a href="https://www.pbpstats.com/wowy/nba?Season=2022-23&amp;SeasonType=Regular%2BSeason&amp;TeamId=1610612751&amp;Type=Team&amp;0Exactly1OnFloor=202681&amp;1Exactly1OffFloor=201142" target="_blank" rel="noopener">per PBP Stats</a>. The Mavericks have <a href="https://www.pbpstats.com/wowy-combos/nba?TeamId=1610612742&amp;Season=2022-23&amp;SeasonType=Regular%2BSeason&amp;PlayerIds=203915,1629029" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lost the Dinwiddie on/ Doncic off minutes</a>, though you can shoot some bail based on the sheer volume of talent missing in some of the games Doncic hasn't been available.&nbsp;
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OFF-BALL VALUE
This is where the on-court hand-wringing begins offensively, and honestly, I'm not sure where the major concern comes from.
It's very much true that Irving and Doncic like the ball in their hands. It's especially true for Doncic, who <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/touches?CF=GP*GE*30&amp;dir=D&amp;sort=TIME_OF_POSS" target="_blank" rel="noopener">leads the NBA</a> in average time of possession (9.6 minutes) and seconds per touch (6.39), ranks second to Trae Young in dribbles per touch (5.59) and fourth in touches per game (90.5) overall.
Irving isn't close to any of those marks. Would it shock you to learn that the Dribble Gawd himself ranks 22nd &mdash; in a tie with Dinwiddie, oddly enough &mdash; in time of possession (5.7), 41st in seconds per touch and 53rd in dribbles per touch (3.77)? You're welcome, friends.
But seriously, it feels like people are extrapolating some of Irving's iso exploits and turning him into a heliocentric nightmare that can't fit alongside Doncic. It couldn't be further from the truth.
On a basic level, Irving's ability to shoot &mdash; and opponents treating him like a top-of-the-line threat, which can't be said for Dinwiddie &mdash; should open up the floor for other Mavericks.&nbsp;
Jason Kidd isn't the NBA's Andy Reid, nor should he be confused as such; he won't be drawing up fancy screen designs to confuse defenses. It became a running joke in Dunker Spot watch parties (<a href="https://www.playback.tv/thedunkerspot" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rock with us, folks</a>) that fan pleas for more off-ball movement led Kidd to essentially respond with, "Here's a stagger for Tim Hardaway Jr. &mdash; enjoy!"
As bland as the movement stuff for Dallas can be, Irving can operate within those concepts. The Mavs love "Chicago" action, a common set in the league where a player receives a pindown before flowing into a handoff.
Josh Green misses the assignment in the first clip, but you can see the Nets run it for Irving in the second.
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That basic stagger for Hardaway? They'll run it for Dinwiddie too, in order to get him a head start downhill. With Irving's downhill funk and pull-up chops, it's easy to envision him cooking more in that setup.
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What stands out about Irving is how smart of a cutter he is. That bodes well considering the amount of double-teams Doncic draws in the post. But even in off-ball actions designed for him, he's fine going off script to find a better opening.
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And speaking of Doncic: Get ready for Irving to set screens for Doncic too, particularly during clutch time.
Irving has plenty of experience screening for bigger ball-handlers. He's done so for LeBron James during their Cleveland years together. The Nets were generating good looks out of the Durant-Irving inverted ball screen this season, even if the numbers behind it (0.88 PPP) were underwhelming. Screening for Doncic should be money.
As mentioned earlier, Irving likely being defended by smaller players may make it less enticing for defenses to switch that action. If teams opt to throw two defenders at Doncic, that'll open up short-roll opportunities for Irving. That doesn't seem ideal.
Off rip, Doncic is a&nbsp;much&nbsp;better passer than Durant, meaning Irving should have earlier, more fruitful short-roll opportunities than he saw in Brooklyn. Beyond that, Irving's best traits &mdash; pull-up mid-range shooting, rim finishing, dump-off passes &mdash; are highlighted in this setup.
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Have fun dealing with that.&nbsp;
The cloud hovering over all of this is, of course, how often we'll see Irving, period. Beyond that, it's fair to wonder what the defense will look like.
Irving is a more stout on-ball defender than Dinwiddie by my eye, though that isn't the highest bar. For whatever it's worth to you, Irving grades out as a slight positive (plus-0.2) according to DunksAndThree's Estimated Plus-Minus (EPM) metric, while Dinwiddie is firmly negative (minus-1.9). The size difference may hurt, especially once teams get into mismatch-hunting mode as the postseason nears.&nbsp;
But in a Western Conference that feels up in the air, I understand why the Mavericks made the gamble. When examining the on-court fit, I'd argue it's a pretty good one.

Nekias Duncan analyzes how Kyrie Irving will mesh with Luka Doncic and the Mavericks following the trade from Brooklyn.

Examining Kyrie Irving's basketball fit with the Dallas Mavericks

PARIS (AP) &mdash; NBA Commissioner Adam Silver had a meeting this week in Paris and was asked by a gracious host how he takes his coffee.
&ldquo;Un sucre?&rdquo; French President Emmanuel Macron asked.
Over that coffee, the leader of the NBA and the leader of France struck a deal to work together with hopes of continuing to grow the game of basketball internationally &mdash; a marriage of perfect timing, given how French star Victor Wembanyama is a few months from coming to the NBA and the Paris Olympics are about 18 months away.
The NBA announced some details Thursday, including a collaboration between the league and the LNB, which is France&rsquo;s top pro league; events that France and the NBA will work on together as part of the buildup toward Paris 2024; expanded youth programs; and additional work toward growing the game in Africa, with both the league and France committing to further investments there including facilities capable of playing host to Basketball Africa League games.
&ldquo;His belief, I think, is very similar certainly to the NBA&rsquo;s about the power of sport to bring people together and what a constructive force it can be and even as a global engine to create commonality and empathy among people,&rdquo; Silver said.
Macron, Silver said, happened to have his schedule align with a BAL game during a visit to Rwanda in the league&rsquo;s inaugural playoffs. Macron watched the game with Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s very familiar with all our global plans, in Africa particularly,&rdquo; Silver said.
Macron had other pressing matters on his schedule this week. At least 1.1 million people protested on the streets of Paris and other French cities Thursday amid nationwide strikes against plans to raise the retirement age, but Macron &mdash; who met with Silver on Wednesday in Paris, and was at a French-Spanish summit in Barcelona on Thursday &mdash; has said he will press ahead with the proposed pension reforms.
Basketball was likely only a brief distraction.
&ldquo;I am delighted and proud of the NBA&rsquo;s choice to make France and Paris one of its privileged playgrounds in the world,&rdquo; Macron said. &ldquo;It reflects the special and long-standing relationship that France has with the NBA. With the excellence of our training, the performance of our national teams and the hosting of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games, we now have the opportunity to go further and engage in a useful and lasting partnership for the benefit of French basketball, as well as in support of our development policy in Africa.&rdquo;
The NBA is in the process of planning another game in Paris next year, Silver said; he spoke Thursday just before a game between the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons, with Wembanyama and his family sitting courtside.
Silver and Macron also discussed plans for Paris 2024, including how the current schedule calls for preliminary games in Lille &mdash; about 140 miles north of Paris. That decision is not final, and has been the subject of some criticism given the high-profile status basketball has on the Olympic program.
&ldquo;He assured us everything would be OK,&rdquo; Silver said.
Other topics covered by Silver on Thursday included:
LABOR DEAL
Even though Silver and National Basketball Players Association executive director Tamika Tremaglio were in Paris this week, talks between the league and the union continued in New York.
&ldquo;Our colleagues are back in New York, negotiating as we speak,&rdquo; Silver said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve been meeting all week, just going issue by issue and trying to work through those issues that separate us. I would say, though, that I think we start from a very strong foundation.&rdquo;
The NBA and its players have until Feb. 8 if either side wants to opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement. That deadline has been pushed back once already from mid-December, and it would not be a surprise if it gets pushed back again.
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a strong sense of partnership between the players and the league,&rdquo; Silver said. &ldquo;That doesn&rsquo;t mean we don&rsquo;t have disagreements.&rdquo;
Among the issues that the NBA and the NBPA have been discussing in recent weeks is a return to letting players enter the draft straight out high school without waiting a year &mdash; that move is expected to be included in the next CBA &mdash; along with what the league considers an &ldquo;upper spending limit&rdquo; that would significantly tighten the rules on how much teams can spend each year on their roster.
LEBRON&rsquo;S RECORD
With LeBron James now perhaps just a couple of weeks away from catching Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and becoming the NBA&rsquo;s career scoring leader, Silver revealed some of the notions the league is considering to pay tribute to the accomplishment.
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt we will stop that game and make sure we record for history, the ball, the basket, the uniform,&rdquo; Silver said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll stop and make sure that we&rsquo;ve done our jobs as the archivists of the NBA. At the same time, there&rsquo;s that balance that they will be playing against a team that will very much want to win that night and not be distracted. Most likely we will do something in the moment, but then we will plan a larger celebration.&rdquo;
James is on pace to break the record in early February &mdash; and if he does, it&rsquo;s likely that the bigger celebration Silver spoke of would come at the NBA&rsquo;s All-Star weekend in Salt Lake City later that month.
RETURN TO NORMALCY
The last time the NBA played in Paris before Thursday was January 2020 &mdash; just under two months before the league shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
&ldquo;I actually remember when we were here then, that January in 2020, we started to see people wearing masks. People knew something was coming,&rdquo; Silver said. &ldquo;No one was predicting at that time that the world was going to shut down and we&rsquo;d go on to play in a bubble, etc. Our hope is, of course, that we&rsquo;ve bookended that pandemic, and the worst is behind us. We hope it is.&rdquo;
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

The leader of the NBA and the leader of France struck a deal to work together with hopes of continuing to grow the game of basketball.

Silver, Macron meet to discuss goals with NBA back in Paris

Springfield, Massachusetts has been offering glimpses into the future of basketball since James Naismith put some peach baskets on a YMCA wall in 1891. Every MLK weekend, the town gives us another in the form of the HoopHall Classic, where dozens of the best high-school players in the country descend on Blake Arena.
The HoopHall Classic is also one of three high-school showcases this season that was given the green light for NBA scouts to attend. It's a prime opportunity for the elite talents to separate themselves from the pack &mdash; or for less heralded names to put themselves on the map.
I checked into the arena at noon and spent 11 hours inside, sticking around until the penultimate contest. These standouts, among many others, caught my eye:
Boys &mdash; IMG Academy (FL) 61, Newton (GA) 52
Khani Rooths, IMG Academy &mdash;&nbsp;A 2024 wing, Rooths' impact on IMG's win far outshone his box score (11 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists). The 6-foot-6 wing kept the ball moving with some savvy passing versatility, making the right skip reads and interior decisions. He went 2-for-3 beyond the arc and seemed more comfortable spotting up and passing from a standstill versus attacking off the dribble.
Rooths also defended Newton star Stephon Castle for large portions of the game and made the 5-star guard's life pretty challenging. He can slide with relative success and deal with physicality without fouling. Rooths, a 4-star guard who is uncommitted, fits in all sorts of contexts and is a player who can thrive with today's direction of basketball.
Marcus Whitlock, Newton &mdash;&nbsp;Whitlock was one of the early head-turners of the weekend. He's a 6-foot-2 guard who plays with relentless confidence. The senior only made 4-of-12 threes but looked poised shooting off movement and spot-up attempts, finishing with 22 points.
He's not a half-court creator, but Whitlock did get chances to run and finish at the rim in transition. He also dove for loose balls on defense and wound up with three steals. Whitlock isn't ranked by most sites and hasn't chosen a school yet, so this effort might have put him on some college radars.
Girls &mdash; Sierra Canyon (CA) 67, Sidwell Friends (DC) 55
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The legend of Juju Watkins at Sierra Canyon continues to grow, as well. She missed a big stretch of the first half after tweaking her ankle, went down for a few moments again late on, and still put up 29/14/5/3/3 in 26 mins. Her physicality never wavered either. Generational. <a href="https://t.co/VGuq1TuqcT">https://t.co/VGuq1TuqcT</a> <a href="https://t.co/wVUIgv0fHd">pic.twitter.com/wVUIgv0fHd</a>
&mdash; Wilko (@wilkomcv) <a href="https://twitter.com/wilkomcv/status/1614365704995868673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2023</a></blockquote>

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Juju Watkins, Sierra Canyon &mdash; The No. 1 senior in the country had the performance of the day. Watkins missed time twice with injuries to both ankles, but you wouldn't notice from her final stat line: 29 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 blocks and 3 steals. (She said postgame that she's feeling alright).
Watkins relished the chance to beat another nationally-ranked opponent and the challenge of matching up against 6-foot-1 junior Kendall Dudley.
"It's definitely an adjustment playing against other players my size, learning how and when to get to my spots," Watkins told Basketball News in her postgame presser. "I just had to make that adjustment mentally, but when I made it, it was easier."
Though Watkins battled for rebounds and showed off limitless range, she also demonstrated a unique blend of speeds and gears, often warping time around her defenders and finishing with a teardrop floater. That's one of the young star's newest weapons.
"I worked on it a lot this summer &mdash; just learning how to change pace better and get my defender on their heels. I've been working on that a lot, and I went out there and showed it today," Watkins said.
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Mackenly Randolph, Sierra Canyon &mdash;&nbsp;The 5-star junior finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds and was critical in helping Sierra Canyon close out a 67-55 win. Randolph dominated on the glass against a physically imposing Sidwell Friends squad; it's no surprise that her dad is Zach Randolph. She also slashed through the lane for some impressive interior buckets.&nbsp;
Kendall Dudley, Sidwell Friends &mdash;&nbsp;Dudley is the No. 13 player in ESPN's 2024 rankings and she showed off the versatility that earned her the billing. The 5-star talent was cool and collected driving the basketball and kicking out. She can play physically at 6-foot-1, but doesn't need to, and her comfort off the bounce was apparent. She also led the defensive attack and did about as well guarding Watkins as her team could ask.
Dudley hasn't chosen a college yet and should be one of the most highly-anticipated commits in the coming year. She finished with 15 points, 10 rebounds and 3 steals in the loss.
Boys &mdash; Long Island Lutheran (NY) 64, Oak Hill Academy (VA) 56
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
FLOOR GENERAL 👏 Jayden Reid always in control as LuHi beats Oak Hill 64-56 <a href="https://twitter.com/LuHiBasketball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@LuHiBasketball</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/jaydenreid0?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jaydenreid0</a> <a href="https://t.co/PzVFy12thm">pic.twitter.com/PzVFy12thm</a>
&mdash; NIBC (@NIBCOfficial) <a href="https://twitter.com/NIBCOfficial/status/1614391132728836097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2023</a></blockquote>

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Jayden Reid, Long Island Lutheran &mdash;&nbsp;A 5-foot-10 playmaker who shined is going to land on this list all day. Reid, a 3-star senior point guard, showed total command of the offense with wraparound dimes and pocket passes in the pick-and-roll. He knocked down a pair of threes and finished off one fast break with an impressive double-clutch layup. The guard play from both squads was really excellent, but Reid stood out with 16 points, 7 assists and 4 steals.
Kaden Magwood, Oak Hill &mdash; Magwood caught fire off the bench, going for 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting. He made both of his threes and finished <a href="https://twitter.com/NIBCOfficial/status/1614385220500725760" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a stunning layup on the fast break</a> to help keep Oak Hill in the game. Magwood is only a sophomore and not in the early class frontrunners yet; I expect that to change pretty soon. He plays with a ton of fight for a guard listed at 6-foot-2 and 160 pounds.
Boys &mdash; Montverde Academy (FL) 85, La Lumiere (IN) 63
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Cooper Flagg is that guy 😎 (No. 2 ESPN 25) put on a show in Montverde&rsquo;s 85-63 win over La Lu <a href="https://twitter.com/MVABasketball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MVABasketball</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/CooperFlagg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CooperFlagg</a> <a href="https://t.co/VGOxQpkMy7">pic.twitter.com/VGOxQpkMy7</a>
&mdash; NIBC (@NIBCOfficial) <a href="https://twitter.com/NIBCOfficial/status/1614417408323723265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2023</a></blockquote>

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Cooper Flagg, Montverde &mdash;&nbsp;It's remarkable how polished Flagg plays despite being just a sophomore and in his first year with one of the most successful programs in the country. Flagg had 21 points in 25 minutes on 8-for-10 shooting (3-4 3PT). The shots came in all types: cutting via baseline out-of-bounds plays, spacing the floor in the corner and initiating the attack himself.&nbsp;
Then you add the defense, which included five steals and a few ticky-tack fouls that could have been blocks. Flagg is aware and active on both sides of the ball, and it's easy for him to string productive plays together regardless of whether he's getting buckets.&nbsp;
Flagg certainly matched the hype as one of the top players in the 2025 class. After leaving his hometown Nokomis High in Maine and transferring all the way to Florida, he's fit right in with the Eagles. He said approximately 100 friends and family made the four-hour drive down to western Massachusetts.
"I think it's kind of similar to my team back in Maine. We all trust each other. I think that's helped to elevate me too, is playing at the highest level and having a team [where] everybody trusts each other," Flagg said after his performance. "We know that every night it's gonna be someone else [stepping up]."
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KJ Evans, Montverde &mdash;&nbsp;The Oregon-bound senior quietly worked his way to 19 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists, but punctuated his effort with a powerful putback slam. Evans found most of his success around the basket and demonstrated syngergy with Flagg and other playmakers when cutting. The 5-star forward thrived in his role as Montverde tore apart La Lumiere with its decisive passing.
Boys &mdash; Centennial (CA) 66, Camden (NJ) 62
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Off the screen. A little head fake frees up Jared McCain for a deep 3ball. It&rsquo;s his fifth 3 of the night. Corona Centennial leads Camden (NJ) 50-45 after three quarters. <a href="https://t.co/me3L1dEpYo">pic.twitter.com/me3L1dEpYo</a>
&mdash; Tarek Fattal (@Tarek_Fattal) <a href="https://twitter.com/Tarek_Fattal/status/1614435225085304838?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2023</a></blockquote>

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DJ Wagner, Camden &mdash;&nbsp;It is all-but impossible to stop Wagner at this level when he bombards the basket. The 5-star senior slithered his way through space and sliced open double-teams with jump-stop attacks, finishing with 27 points. Though he struggled to shoot it from outside, his craft and touch around the rim are superb, and his functional strength is light-years from when I first got the chance to watch him at HoopHall as a freshman.&nbsp;
Wagner will team up with fellow 5-star classmate Aaron Bradshaw (15 points, 8 rebounds) at Kentucky, and he's excited to keep the momentum rolling with his 7-foot teammate.
"It's great. We've been playing together for a long time now," Wagner told reporters postgame. "Off the court, that's like my brother, so it's just fun to be able to go to the next level and play on the same floor with him in college."
Jared McCain, Centennial &mdash;&nbsp;McCain was money as a shooter and finished with 27 points, including six made threes. Centennial used him off of creative screening actions and as a spot-up threat, but the Duke commit also pulled up for a couple of self-created makes. He added an impressive driving layup and a fadeaway make from the free-throw line. A 4-star guard, McCain brought a really positive energy to Centennial's win with his confidence.
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Boys &mdash; Christopher Columbus (FL) 74, San Ysidro (CA) 67
Cameron Boozer, Christopher Columbus &mdash;&nbsp;Boozer was the second top sophomore to look far beyond his years on Saturday. The son of Carlos Boozer, Cameron finished with an effortless 33 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks &mdash; and still showed displeasure with his squad's defense &mdash; as Christopher Columbus led wire-to-wire. His twin brother Cayden, a guard, also had 14 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists.
Boozer is listed at 6-foot-9, 215 pounds online. He seems even more physically imposing in person. Yet he's not a bowling ball; Boozer calmly settled into three-pointers (3-for-5) and comitted just one foul while still battling around the basket.&nbsp;
"When I was younger, I got in foul trouble a lot swiping down," Boozer told Basketball News in his postgame scrum. "It's something I've learned: just stay vertical and contest guys so it's kind of tough to finish over me &mdash; using my size and my length to my advantage."
Boozer mentioned in the scrum that his favorite player is Anthony Davis, and he admires the Brow's full arsenal of two-way weapons.
"I feel like he can do it all," Boozer said. "He can rebound, he can pass, he can shoot it, he finishes well... When he's healthy, he's one of the best players in the league."

Ethan Fuller shares his scouting report from Saturday's action at the HoopHall Classic.

HoopHall Highlights: Top performances from Saturday's action

If we know anything about Kawhi Leonard, it's that he certainly won't vocalize that he's "back."
He had this to say two weeks ago after posting his first 30-point game since tearing his ACL in the 2021 Western Conference Finals:
"That's just how the game played out," <a href="https://www.si.com/nba/clippers/news/kawhi-leonard-reacts-to-first-30-point-game-since-acl-injury" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Leonard said</a> after that win against the Wizards. "Was able to get to my spots, rose over the top, knocked down some shots. When it's that time of the game when you want to be as aggressive as possible, either you're gonna make shots or pass it to your teammates and they make shots. Just want to make a play."
Leonard details his psyche for the performance, but he's not exactly trumpeting his totals, so let's do it for him.
Leonard's long, slow reintegration from his injury really took until this past December for the weight to be fully lifted after he dealt with recurring stiffness in his knee, plus an additonal right ankle sprain. He played five games before Thanksgiving and never cleared 25 minutes.
But Leonard has played over 27 minutes a night since returning from the ankle injury on Dec. 5. He's averaging 20.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game in that span.
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On the season, the 21-18 Los Angeles Clippers are 11-5 when Leonard makes an appearance. (He missed Monday's loss against Miami due to an illness). They're outscoring opponents by a staggering 16.7 points per 100 possession when Leonard's on the floor &mdash; a number that ranks in the 98th percentile among players this season, per Cleaning the Glass.
LA's leading man is doing nearly everything we've come to expect from one of the most well-rounded superstars of this generation: Creating as a scorer, facilitating when necessary and anchoring an elite defense.
The mid-range zone continues to be Leonard's home. He's taking over half of his shot attempts in the intermediate areas, and is currently drilling a career-best 52% of those attempts. The 31-year-old has also returned as a dominant isolation scorer in his limited action this season. He gets those buckets in classic Kawhi fashion &mdash; not with a viral handle or quick-twitch speed, but with precision, strength and touch.
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Check out how Leonard's faring among 69 players who have logged 40 or more possessions in isolation, per Synergy:
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">Category</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">Rate</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">NBA Rank</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">Iso Points/Possession&nbsp;</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">1.15</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">11th</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">Effective Field Goal Pct.</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">57.4%</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">8th</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">Turnover Rate</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">2.4%</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">2nd-Lowest</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">Score Frequency</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">56.1%</td>
<td style="width: 31.490698433420366%;">6th</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
It's a relatively small sample, but then again, Leonard has only played 16 games all year. He goes to iso plays 15.1% of the time (a pretty high rate), and is succeeding as usual.
But Leonard is more than an iso scorer or mid-range maestro, and his surgical approach to offense manifests as an attacking and playmaking presence. He doesn't drive the ball that often &mdash; a modest 9.1 times per game &mdash; and less than a quarter of his shots come at the rim.
When Leonard does drive the basketball, he's tough to stop. He's scoring on 56.5% of his driving field goal attempts this is season, which is tied for 15th with Giannis Antetokounmpo, if that tells you anything. He gets an assist on 10.3% of his drives and turns the ball over just 2.7% of the time. The latter rate is the lowest among 100 NBA players averaging six drives per game this season.
The Athletic's Mike Prada brilliantly illustrated how Leonard's strength and processing speed make him a puzzle for opposing defenses:
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Kawhi Leonard, savant. This is reading the game, not just playing it. <a href="https://t.co/cGdBLSeE6l">pic.twitter.com/cGdBLSeE6l</a>
&mdash; Mike Prada. (PRAY-duh) (@MikePradaNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/MikePradaNBA/status/1608882773351333890?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 30, 2022</a></blockquote>

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I have more where that came from. Leonard dished out 7 assists in his last contest, a narrow 131-130 loss to the Indiana Pacers. Four of them were particularly remarkable:
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In this game, we see:
<ul>
<li>Quick recognition and feed to a cutting Paul George out of a post-up</li>
<li>A no-hesitation extra pass to a wide-open Reggie Jackson</li>
<li>A spin out of a post-up into a baseline drive, and then, an automatic kick-out to a drifting PG (this one's gotta be particularly fun for Clippers fans)</li>
<li>A face-up drive, engaging Myles Turner as the help defender, and pass inside to an open Ivica Zubac</li>
</ul>
None of these dimes are all that flashy, nor are all of them particularly mind-boggling. But they're further proof of Leonard's unparalleled sense of timing. Nothing looks like a big deal to him because, well, he just gets everything that's happening.
Of course, Leonard's reputation as one of the sport's all-time defenders is well-established. But it's worth highlighting one more time, because while he's not atop many steals leaderboards or metric quantifiers, the veteran's impact remains just as pivotal. The Clippers are 10.1 points stingier per 100 possessions when Leonard takes the court, a 97th-percentile difference.&nbsp;
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Kawhi Leonard's nail help remains elite <a href="https://t.co/rRQcroQKdn">pic.twitter.com/rRQcroQKdn</a>
&mdash; Joe Viray (@JoeVirayNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeVirayNBA/status/1608645130634006528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 30, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Here's one example where Leonard won't get credit for any specifc action, but he mucks up a Boston Celtics drive with his help from the nail. He's adept at covering just enough ground to get a giant hand on the ball, but not overcommitting to a play and losing control of his positioning.
At a time where superstar explosions are dominating NBA headlines, Leonard continues to fly under the radar just by being himself. He's still got more room for positive regression; his ice-cold 27.4% three-point clip will almost certainly improve.&nbsp;
We no longer need to wonder if Kawhi Leonard will ever make it back to his old self, though. He's back and fully capable of leading the Clippers in a frenetic Western Conference.

Kawhi Leonard is averaging 20.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game since returning to the lineup on Dec. 5.

Amoni