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Kings

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Jimmy Butler doesn&rsquo;t like being a called a scorer.
Never mind that the moniker seems appropriate. He&rsquo;s averaging nearly 30 points per game in this postseason, has reached the 40-point mark three times in his last 10 games after having zero such regular season games since 2017, and carried the Miami Heat over the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.
But say &ldquo;scorer&rdquo; to him, and he will scoff in disdain.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been a quote-unquote scorer at other points in my career, and it didn&rsquo;t work out too well for me,&rdquo; Butler said.
Things have been working out just fine so far in this postseason for Butler and the top-seeded Heat, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/miami-heat-boston-celtics-nba-sports-jimmy-butler-5b5681ec485608add59e6eb15f24ee9f">who&rsquo;ll look to take a 2-0 lead in the East title series</a> when they play host to the second-seeded Celtics again on Thursday night. It won&rsquo;t be easy: The Celtics are 3-0 after losses in these playoffs, winning those bounceback games by an average of 14.7 points and getting two of those victories on the road.
The Celtics are hoping to have defensive player of the year Marcus Smart (mid-foot sprain) back for Game 2, listing him as probable for Thursday night. Boston was also without forward Al Horford (health and safety protocols) for Game 1 &mdash; he is doubtful for Game 2. And coach Ime Udoka was sick Wednesday with a non-COVID illness.
&ldquo;We have a lot of confidence,&rdquo; Celtics center Daniel Theis said Wednesday as his team gathered for a film session.
The Heat have some injury issues as well: Point guard Kyle Lowry will miss his eighth game of the playoffs with a hamstring issue. His replacement, Gabe Vincent &mdash; the Heat are 7-0 in these playoffs when he starts &mdash; is questionable with a hamstring issue of his own, as is fellow starting guard Max Strus.
Game 1 was a 118-107 loss for the Celtics on Tuesday night, though Boston pointed out after the game that the combined scores of the first, second and fourth quarters added up to Celtics 93, Heat 79.
That pesky third quarter, however, counted.
A 39-14 romp by Miami in those 12 minutes &mdash; Butler had 17 points in that quarter alone, outscoring the Celtics by himself &mdash; turned the whole game around, and the Heat never saw their lead trimmed to less than nine in the final quarter.
&ldquo;Expect us to play better,&rdquo; said Boston forward Jayson Tatum, who had six turnovers in that pivotal quarter. &ldquo;Expect myself to play a lot better.&rdquo;
In other words, he&rsquo;s expecting to get to a higher level.
Butler is already there.
He&rsquo;s averaging 29.8 points, 7.7 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 2.3 steals in these playoffs on 53.5% shooting. Since the NBA began charting each of those statistics, nobody has finished a postseason averaging so much in each category while shooting that well. And Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has a simple reason why Butler is in this space.
&ldquo;Heightened attention to detail,&rdquo; Spoelstra said. &ldquo;But again, I don&rsquo;t want to get in a long dissertation about it. If you&rsquo;re driven by competition, and the stakes get raised, you&rsquo;re going to raise your level of play. It&rsquo;s not about trying to get bigger numbers. It&rsquo;s about doing what&rsquo;s required. And this level is high level, this competition, and he senses it, and he knows it. He feels it.&rdquo;
Butler went 17 for 18 from the foul line in Game 1. The only player to make, or take, more free throws in a game against Boston this season was Kevin Durant &mdash; who was 18 for 20 for Brooklyn in Game 2 of the first-round series between the Celtics and Nets.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s comfortable,&rdquo; Boston&rsquo;s Jaylen Brown said of Butler. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s very comfortable right now, and we&rsquo;ve got to do a better job of breaking that rhythm that he&rsquo;s in. That&rsquo;s it. We&rsquo;ve got to take the challenge.&rdquo;
Butler&rsquo;s last 40-point game in the regular season came on Jan. 25, 2017, for Chicago &mdash; three franchises and more than five years ago. But he&rsquo;s had five such games in the playoffs since coming to Miami, the first two coming in the bubble two years ago when he carried the Heat to the NBA Finals. The other three have been in the last month, when he&rsquo;s carrying the Heat again, despite his insistence that he&rsquo;s not carrying anyone.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care if it&rsquo;s a big stage or a little stage or who is watching,&rdquo; Butler said. &ldquo;I do what I do for my family, for my people, for my organization and for my teammates. That&rsquo;s it. Doesn&rsquo;t matter if it&rsquo;s a big stage, home or away. I know why I do what I do.&rdquo;

Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat look to take a 2-0 lead over Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Jimmy Butler, Heat seeking to take a 2-0 lead over Celtics

Fresh off their first title in 50 years, the Milwaukee Bucks entered the season with a few questions.&nbsp;
There were big-picture unknowns surrounding the main cast. What would Giannis Antetokounmpo look like after getting the proverbial monkey off his back? Was it time to stop questioning Mike Budenholzer, who eventually finally found enough schematic answers en route to a title?
(If the latest episode of <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/podcasts/the-dunker-spot" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Dunker Spot</a> is any indication, the answer to the Budenholzer question is a resounding "No.")
And then, there was one bubbling underneath the surface: How would the Bucks replace PJ Tucker?
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Tucker was an integral part to the Bucks' title run. He brought value offensively as a screener, and, while his percentages were below his norm, he still made timely shots from the corners. He hummed around the dunker spot and gave Milwaukee extra possessions on the glass &mdash; ask the Atlanta Hawks how the "Hide Trae Young on Tucker" strategy worked for them.
More importantly, Tucker brought the goods defensively. His value was two-fold. Even at his age, he was able to slither over screens, slide with stars in space and hold his own when bigger players attempted to post him up. The star assignments were almost exclusively his to take. And because he took on those assignments, guys like Giannis and Middleton didn't have to.
Tucker wasn't and isn't as important as those two, but his departure to the Miami Heat &mdash; what a <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/pj-tucker-the-ultimate-roll-player-miami-heat" target="_blank" rel="noopener">season he's had</a> &mdash; left a bit of a void.
The Bucks added Semi Ojeleye over the summer in hopes he could provide similar impact. Maybe Thanasis Antetokounmpo, as the endless ball of energy he is, could be enough of an irritant in spurts.
Neither thing happened.
They eventually went back to the veteran well on Dec. 3, signing the well-traveled Wes Matthews to a deal. The thinking was clear: We need a guy who can defend tough matchups and hit enough shots on the other end to keep teams honest.
Fast forward to the postseason, and Matthews has done just that.&nbsp;
He's knocked down 44.1% of his threes on nearly 4 attempts this postseason. He's been a help-off-him point for defenses much like Tucker, but the two differ in their shot profiles. Over 80% of Tucker's threes came from the corners last postseason; only 41.2% of Matthews' triples have come in those pockets.
You can still stash him in the strong-side corner and dare teams to help off of him there. You can still space him in the weak-side corner, and have another player cut or set a pin-in screen to free him.
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But because Matthews is better at &mdash; and more willing to take &mdash; above-the-break threes, he's a little easier to move around the chessboard. He can also chill above the break, acting as the one-pass-away outlet on Giannis post-ups or isolations.
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Defensively, it's hard not to marvel at the job Matthews has done. This is a 35-year-old, who's suffered a torn Achilles in his career, graciously taking on assignments like DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Despite being at a size disadvantage and athleticism disadvantage, Matthews has been able to hold his own. He's proven to be a high-level screen navigator at his big age, able to fight through picks and reattach to a star's hip to bother him. Even when he's hung up on a screen, he doesn't die. He finishes possessions with rearview contests, or at the very least funnels his man into Milwaukee's forest in the paint.&nbsp;
A drop-coverage scheme doesn't work without someone like Matthews. Asking any big man, no matter how good he is, to deal with elite scorers in space is typically unfair. Matthews is able to make life easier for his bigs, much like their size acts as a buffer in the event that Matthews gets beat.
It's been fun watching Matthews have to problem-solve in the first two rounds. He got the DeRozan match-up in Round 1, which meant dealing with the All-Star's superb footwork and herky-jerky style. Nikola Vucevic is one of the NBA's best screeners, so dealing with them in tandem is tough work.
Matthews had to fight over screens and duck under screens when Chicago went to its Double Drag looks. He had to ICE screens &mdash; attempting to keep the action on the sideline &mdash; while also worrying about DeRozan snaking picks and getting into the mid-range area. He's built the whole boat on mid-range buckets, so slowing him down is a lot easier said than done.
Yet, Matthews did a darn good job. He faced 104 picks while defending DeRozan in pick-and-roll, per Second Spectrum. The Bulls generated 0.66 points per posssession (PPP) on those trips &mdash; well&nbsp;below their regular-season mark (1.04 PPP).
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The expectation has changed a bit during the second round. He's gone from the guile and patience of DeRozan, to the more sudden and explosive natures of Tatum and Brown. It's been mostly Tatum, whose lack of comfort in the mid-range is countered by his willingness to pull from deep, as well as his downhill aggression.
But again, Matthews has mostly held his own. Possessions featuring Matthews defending a Tatum-led ball-screen have only generated 0.77 PPP. This may shock you, but that number is also below Boston's regular-season norms (1.00 PPP).
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Overall, Matthews has defended 195 on-ball picks &mdash; the fifth-highest mark of the postseason. He's one of 21 players to defend at least 100 of them. Of those 21 players, only two &mdash; Marcus Smart (119, 0.72 PPP) and Jae Crowder (115, 0.75 PPP) have allowed fewer points per possession on direct plays than Matthews (0.85 PPP).&nbsp;
Matthews is knocking down open shots from all over the floor. He's taking on star wing assignments so Giannis doesn't have to. He's also holding his own with said assignments.
Naturally, the Bucks are having a good time with Matthews on the floor.
In 259 minutes with Matthews on the floor, the Bucks have <a href="https://www.pbpstats.com/wowy-combos/nba?TeamId=1610612749&amp;Season=2021-22&amp;SeasonType=Playoffs&amp;PlayerIds=202083" target="_blank" rel="noopener">outscored opponents</a> by 8.4 points per 100 possessions. The defense is 2 points stingier with Matthews on the floor; the offense is almost 4 points better, thanks to pretty big gap in three-point shooting (37.6% with Matthews on, 30.7% with Matthews off).
In summation: Matthews deserves his flowers.&nbsp;
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Nekias Duncan breaks down the two-way impact of Wes Matthews for the Bucks this postseason.

Wes Matthews' two-way play deserves your attention

Mark Schindler teams up with Nekias Duncan and Jackson Frank to create a consensus All-Defensive Team ballot and choose a DPOY.

Celebrating defense: Selecting the 2022 NBA DPOY, All-Defensive Teams

The final rebound of the game fell into Jimmy Butler's hands just a moment or two before the final buzzer, and Bam Adebayo started celebrating for two reasons.
One, he knew Butler had just gotten a triple-double.
Two, the Miami Heat had just won his comeback game.
Tyler Herro scored 23 points, Adebayo scored 14 in his first game coming off a six-week absence following thumb surgery and the Miami Heat held off the Toronto Raptors 104-99 on Monday night.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re just blessed to have a team like this," Adebayo said. &ldquo;Everybody buys in. Everybody wants to compete. And everybody wants to get the job done."
Adebayo played 32 minutes, shooting 4 for 12 and grabbing nine rebounds.
&ldquo;You can see his energy out there," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after his team pulled into a virtual tie with Chicago for first in the Eastern Conference. &ldquo;He makes us different."
Butler finished with 19 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds &mdash; the last of those coming as time was expiring, when Fred VanVleet's 3-point try missed. It was Butler's ninth triple-double with the Heat, tying LeBron James for the most in team regular-season history.
Chris Boucher scored 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Toronto. VanVleet finished with 22, and Pascal Siakam added 18 points and 10 assists for the Raptors. Scottie Barnes scored 16 points, OG Anunoby scored 14 and former Heat forward Precious Achiuwa grabbed 15 rebounds for Toronto.
Siakam scored off a turnover with 1:48 left to get Toronto within 99-96, but PJ Tucker made a corner 3 with 20 seconds left &mdash; off Butler's 10th assist &mdash; to help Miami hold on.
Toronto basically used a six-man rotation, with those players getting between 34 and 42 minutes. The only other Raptor who got minutes was Justin Champagnie, who played 9:07 before leaving with a dislocated finger.
&ldquo;We played as tough as we could,&rdquo; Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t see anything that was changing. We were battling from start to finish. ... That one could have went either way. It was a hell of an effort by our guys.&rdquo;
The game was expected to be the first time that Heat guard Kyle Lowry faced the Raptors since leaving Toronto for Miami this past season. Lowry helped Toronto win the 2019 NBA title on his way to claiming to the unofficial moniker of GROAT &mdash; the Greatest Raptor Of All-Time.
Lowry missed the game for personal reasons.
&ldquo;I wanted to see him, obviously,&rdquo; Nurse said.
Lowry missed a pretty good one.
There were 22 lead changes and 10 ties in the first 35 minutes, putting the teams knotted at 75-75 late in the third. Herro scored the last five points of the third quarter, then had the first bucket of the fourth to put Miami up by seven.
The Heat wouldn&rsquo;t trail again. Anunoby made a 3-pointer with 6:57 left to get Toronto within two, but Miami scored the next seven points in a span of 59 seconds &mdash; a basket by Adebayo, a corner 3 from Max Strus and a driving layup by Caleb Martin for a 98-89 lead.
TIP-INS
Raptors: Gary Trent Jr. (ankle) was listed as questionable and has been doing some on-court work but wound up missing his fifth consecutive game. ... Khem Birch, who broke his nose and needed surgery last week, is likely to miss about two weeks. ... Each of VanVleet&rsquo;s first 10 shot attempts were 3-pointers. ... Toronto used a 17th starting lineup of the season. The Raptors have had only four lineups start at least four games.
Heat: Chicago, Brooklyn, Milwaukee and Philadelphia &mdash; the teams that started Monday closest to Miami in the East standings &mdash; all lost on Monday. ... Gabe Vincent scored 15 points for the Heat. ... Floyd Mayweather Jr., a regular at Heat games in recent years, sat courtside. ... The Heat are 3-5 on Mondays this season. They&rsquo;re 25-11 on all other days. ... Adebayo wore a wrap to protect his repaired thumb. ... Lowry&rsquo;s next game will be the 1,000th regular season appearance of his career.
SEE YOU SOON
Monday&rsquo;s game was the first of three Heat-Raptors meetings in a span of 16 days. The teams play again in Miami on Jan. 29 and then the Heat visit Toronto &mdash; potentially Lowry&rsquo;s first game back since his departure &mdash; on Feb. 1. It&rsquo;s unclear if fans will be back at Raptors games by then; Miami also visits Toronto on April 3.
LINEUP CHANGES
With Adebayo back, it meant rookie center Omer Yurtseven was the odd man out in the Heat rotation. Yurtseven had averaged 11.6 points and 13.4 rebounds in his last 14 appearances, but didn't play on Monday. Yurtseven&rsquo;s 14-game streak of double-digit rebounds is the second-longest in the NBA this season behind Utah&rsquo;s Rudy Gobert, who entered Monday with an 18-game streak of at least 10 rebounds.
RAPTORS AT MIDPOINT
Monday marked Toronto&rsquo;s 41st game of the season &mdash; meaning all 30 NBA teams have now reached the midway point of their planned 82-game campaigns. The Raptors (21-20) are over .500 at the halfway mark for the eighth time in the last nine seasons, the exception being last season. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s been a lot of positives,&rdquo; Nurse said.
UP NEXT
Raptors: Visit Dallas on Wednesday.
Heat: Host Portland on Wednesday.

Tyler Herro scored 23, Bam Adebayo added 14 in his first game coming off a six-week absence and the Heat held off the Raptors.

Bam back, Butler gets triple-double, Heat top Raptors 104-99

Nekias Duncan previews the Central Division for the 2021-22 NBA season.

2021-22 NBA Season Preview: Central Division

The <a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/the-only-player-with-a-winning-record-against-jordan-kobe-and-lebron/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">following article</a> first appeared on <a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BasketballNetwork.net</a>:
Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are up there in the discussion of the greatest ever to play. However, no matter how good these legends were, one player had their numbers and finished his career with a winning record against all three.
Chauncey Billups is one of the few players in NBA history fortunate enough to have faced Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James. This reflects the work he put in and how he took care of his body.&nbsp;
In 17 seasons, Billups played for eight different teams, but he would be best remembered as part of the Detroit Pistons squad that defeated Kobe and Shaquille O&rsquo;Neal in the 2004 NBA Finals.
Interestingly, he's also the only player in NBA history with a winning record over MJ, Kobe and LeBron in career head-to-head games.
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Jordan enjoyed a 3-1 advantage head-to-head against Billups when he was still part of the Chicago Bulls in the 1997-98 season. As a Washington Wizard, Jordan&rsquo;s record against Billups was 1-5, leading to a total of 6-4 in Chauncey&rsquo;s favor.
Against Kobe, Billups holds a 24-21 record, including a 6-5 advantage in the playoffs. The sweetest victory would have to be the 2004 NBA Finals championship when the Pistons shredded the Lakers, 4-1.&nbsp;
Billups faced LeBron James while he was still with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Fans could argue that LeBron was still finding his footing in the league, meaning his losses against the veteran Billups were understandable. But a total of 39 games played and a 22-17 record is more than enough for Billups to say that he had LeBron&rsquo;s number as well.
So, was Billups an excellent player or did he benefit from strong teammates? The answer could be both. Beating NBA legends on a regular basis shows consistency in performance. Basketball is a team sport, but point guards generally direct the teams on the floor. His leadership shined brighter on the biggest stage, and that&rsquo;s why he earned the moniker "Mr. Big Shot." The fact that he wasn&rsquo;t a flashy player always resulted in Billups being underappreciated and underrated by the general NBA public.
Now, as the new head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, he'll be tasked with leading Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum and Co. next season. Can Billups help his team put together a winning record of their own against NBA superstars such as James, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic? It remains to be seen. But his playoff experience and composure in challenging moments should help him as he makes the transition to the sidelines, and the floor-general-turned-coach will work closely with Lillard.
Not many coaches can rattle off story after story about beating MJ, Kobe and LeBron, so that should instantly give Billups some credibility in the locker room.
Check out more articles from BasketballNetwork.net <a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

There's only one player in NBA history who had a winning record against these three NBA legends.

Who's the only player with a winning record vs. MJ, Kobe and LeBron?

It's not simply the Los Angeles Clippers vs. the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference Finals. The Clippers are fighting their own fraught playoff history.
It's a rutted road of blown leads, blowout losses, and early dismissals. The burden has lingered far longer than any of the current players have been on the roster.
Merely by reaching the conference finals for the first time, the Clippers have altered their playoff history. That they did it by overcoming 0-2 deficits to win series against Dallas and Utah is even more compelling.
And because they play in Hollywood, why not up the drama? They're back home trailing the Suns 0-2.
Game 3 is Thursday night at Staples Center. The Clippers are a 1-point favorite, according to <a href="https://sportsbook.fanduel.com/sports/navigation/830.1/10107.3">FanDuel Sportsbook.</a>
Five-time All-Star Kawhi Leonard remains out with a right knee injury, the Clippers tweeted Wednesday. He was hurt in Game 4 against Utah. Leonard stayed back in LA to rehab while the team lost in Phoenix.
Chris Paul is listed as probable in the league's injury report to play for the Suns after being sidelined for the first two games of the series while in the league's health and safety protocols.
&ldquo;It's going to be that much tougher," Paul George said about Paul's impending return.
Paul would like nothing better than to win on his former team's home court, where he, along with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, rehabilitated the Clippers' reputation from woebegone franchise to exciting contender. Paul was MVP of the 2013 All-Star Game. His alley-oop passes to Griffin and Jordan for dunks established the team's Lob City moniker.
The trio was part of an epic collapse in 2015. The Clippers led James Harden and the Houston Rockets 3-1 in the second round, but they dropped the final three games to lose 4-3.
After six seasons, in which the Clippers never got past the second round, Paul exited. Griffin and Jordan followed him out of LA.
The playoff shortcomings didn't end there.
With George and Leonard in their first season together, the Clippers led Denver 3-1 in the bubble last year. They appeared headed toward their first appearance in the conference finals.
Instead, they blew a 15-point lead to lose Game 5, blew a 19-point lead in losing Game 6 and collapsed in the fourth quarter to lose Game 7. Coach Doc Rivers ended up getting fired.
In his first year guiding the Clippers, coach Tyronn Lue has made a series of tweaks in each round. His latest involved starting 7-foot Ivica Zubac and Patrick Beverley in Game 2, in place of the small-ball combo of Terence Mann and Nicolas Batum.
&ldquo;We called T-Lue Bill Belichick, all the adjustments he makes,&rdquo; guard Reggie Jackson said. &ldquo;He's definitely going to find a way, and we're going to find a way, also, like we always do.&rdquo;
BOOGIE'S T
Clippers center DeMarcus Cousins was issued a postgame technical by the league on Wednesday for his &ldquo;actions at the conclusion of the game" in Phoenix.
Cousins exchanged words with Suns guard Cameron Payne before pushing him. Cousins then bumped into Devin Booker and shoved him. Both incidents occurred in the chaos after Deandre Ayton's game-winning dunk &mdash; dubbed <a href="https://www.nba.com/watch/video/phantom-cam-deandre-aytons-game-winning-slam-and-walkoff?plsrc=nba&amp;collection=must-see-highlights"> &ldquo;The Valley Oop" </a> in Phoenix &mdash; with 0.7 seconds to go, when the Suns were celebrating and the Clippers were asking officials to review the play.
BOOKER'S NOSE
Booker might be wearing a mask for Game 3 after he and Beverley bumped heads hard enough to draw blood. Booker's nose needed a few stitches and he had his right nostril plugged after the game. Beverley sported a Band-Aid on his forehead.
PLAYOFF P
George has been streaky in the playoffs during his career, first with the Indiana Pacers and then the Oklahoma City Thunder. With Leonard sidelined, the spotlight and burden is squarely on him.
He's averaging 40.7 minutes this postseason, similar to his averages with the Pacers (40.8) in 2018-19 and the Thunder (43.0) in 2016-17.
"Whenever he's taking a lot of jump shots and not really attacking, you can tell he's tired,&rdquo; Lue said after Game 2, when George led the team with 26 points. But he missed two huge free throws with 0.9 seconds after making big plays down the stretch to give LA the lead.
George insisted, &ldquo;I got stronger as the game went on."
The 31-year-old forward hasn't been this deep in the playoffs since 2013-14, when the Pacers lost to LeBron James and the Miami in the Eastern Conference finals for the second year in a row.
After being the centerpiece in Indiana, George moved to Oklahoma City and partnered with Russell Westbrook for two seasons. The Thunder lost in the first round both times.
George had surgery to repair tears in both shoulders in two years ago. He missed training camp and the first 11 games of his initial season in LA. In the playoff bubble, he averaged 20.2 points. It was his lowest output since 2012-13, when he averaged 19.2 with the Pacers.
George has scored 20 or more points in all 15 playoff games so far.
&ldquo;If I have to do more, I&rsquo;ll do that,&rdquo; he said.
FEELING THE PAYNE
The Clippers felt the Payne. Cameron Payne, that is.
He <a href="https://www.nba.com/watch/video/20210622nn?plsrc=nba&amp;collection=top-trending-videos">had a career night </a> subbing for Paul, scoring 29 points in just his second career postseason start. Payne's offense proved crucial, with Booker going 5 of 16 from the floor following his 40-point, triple-double in Game 1. Payne had nine assists, two steals and no turnovers in 37 minutes. He had just one turnover in Game 1.
&ldquo;Cameron Payne has done an unbelievable job of filling in for CP,&rdquo; George said.
Payne has traveled a start-and-stop path since leaving Murray State two years early for the draft.
He played his first few seasons with Oklahoma City and Chicago. He was with Cleveland on a pair of 10-day contracts and then got released by Toronto in October 2019. Payne briefly turned up playing in China before landing in the NBA's G-League early in 2020.
Last June, he signed with the Suns and had his highest scoring and rebounding averages while coming off the bench in the bubble.
___
More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

It's not simply the Clippers vs. the Suns in the Western Conference Finals. The Clippers are fighting their own fraught playoff history.

Clippers traveling a rutted playoff road, again

LeBron James has made it known to top officials at USA Basketball that he wants to play in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, but the uncertainty surrounding the 2020-21 NBA season has made planning next to impossible.
&ldquo;I was told he wants to plan on being able to play, but no one can totally commit under these circumstances,&rdquo; USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo told BasketballNews.com on Thursday.
The uncertainty extends to Team USA coach Gregg Popovich, who may be coaching the San Antonio Spurs next July when the Olympics get underway &ndash; if they get underway. As of now, the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee and the International Olympic Committee are planning to hold the Games July 23 through Aug. 8, 2021, after they were postponed this past summer because of the coronavirus pandemic.
A monkey wrench was thrown into the basketball equation when <a href="https://www.nba.com/article/2020/09/22/adam-silver-next-nba-season-will-likely-start-2021" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBA commissioner Adam Silver told CNN that is now seems most likely that the start of the next NBA season will be pushed back to January of 2021.</a> And since the Commissioner wants to play a regular 82-game season, it is creating a potential scheduling conflict. Silver acknowledged that this might impact Team USA (as well as other national teams).
&ldquo;There are a lot of great US players, and we may be up against a scenario where the top-15 NBA players aren&rsquo;t competing in the Olympics, but other great American players are competing,&rdquo; Silver said. &ldquo;And, obviously, there are many NBA players who participate in the Olympics for other countries. That&rsquo;s something we&rsquo;re going to have to work through... These are highly unique and unusual circumstances. And I think just as it is for the Olympic movement, it is for us as well. And we&rsquo;re just going to have to sort of find a way to meld and mesh those two competing considerations.&rdquo;
Nonetheless, Colangelo is doing his best to prepare Team USA for as many possible scenarios as he can envision.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been on the phone with (NBA deputy commissioner) Mark Tatum about this, and he said all sorts of possibilities are on the table, but things change every day," Colangelo said. "I wish I could plan. I just can&rsquo;t.
&ldquo;I was told the NBA season would start in December, and then it was Christmas, and then after Jan. 1, and that keeps pushing the schedule for me. The NBA season typically takes 170 or 171 days to complete, so that creates a conflict on paper,&rdquo; said Colangelo, adding that a suspension of the NBA season in order to clear time for the Olympics also has been discussed.
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The most recent version of Team USA did not fare well in the 2019 World Championship in China, finishing seventh following a loss to France in the quarterfinals and a loss to Serbia in the classification semifinals.
&ldquo;Argentina won that tournament without a single NBA player on their roster, and the Euroleague is starting up Oct. 1, so those other teams will be ready," Colangelo said. "But at the same time, other federations are relying on NBA players, too, so nobody is sure what will happen."
There <a href="https://www.usab.com/news-events/news/2020/02/men-olympic-finalists.aspx">are 44 finalists for the next Olympic team</a>, but USA Basketball&rsquo;s roster is typically extraordinarily fluid, with last-minute changes to the roster commonplace. James has not competed for Team USA since the 2012 Olympics; he was also on the 2008 and 2004 Olympic teams, along with the 2006 World Championship team.
The United States is one of eight nations that has already qualified, along with host Japan, Argentina, Australia, Spain, France, Iran and Nigeria. The other four spots will go to the winners of four qualifying tournaments that are scheduled to be held in Canada, Lithuania, Croatia and Serbia from June 29-July 4.
&ldquo;If the [NBA] season conflicts with the Olympics, I might have 14 non-playoff teams to choose from, but then other players will become available as the NBA playoffs progress," Colangelo said. "The problem is that the ICO has a rule mandating an early submission of a 12-man roster. But with a pandemic, the hope would be that you&rsquo;ve got to set aside outdated rules. I assume people will be reasonable and come up with some kind of a program that works.&rdquo;
The problem is, the IOC is not always reasonable and the history of USA Basketball is lettered with instances of the Americans getting a raw deal, including but not exclusive to the 1972 Olympic gold-medal game debacle that ended with the Americans refusing to accept their silver medals, which to this day reside in a vault in Switzerland.
So Colangelo is not necessarily counting on reason to prevail, especially in these current turbulent times when reason and calm are both in short supply.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Nobody can totally commit to anything under these circumstances. Take our coaching staff, for instance. Pop, Steve Kerr and Lloyd Pierce are all NBA coaches. Will they be available?" Colangelo asked. "All we know for sure is that Jay Wright (of Villanova) will definitely have his season over by then. But it extends to our medical staff and our training staff as well. And we still have to determine how we will getting around over there. Will there or won&rsquo;t there be fans?
&ldquo;Emotionally, a lot of people are committed. But, in reality, we have to wait until we&rsquo;re a lot further down the road. There are a lot of moving parts, and we want the absolute best team that we can have, but I&rsquo;ve got to deal with the hand I&rsquo;ve been dealt,&rdquo; Colangelo said. &ldquo;Until the NBA locks in on a start date for the season and a start date for the playoffs, only then will we know. There&rsquo;s just a whole lot of questions and not a lot of answers.&rdquo;

If the NBA season starts in January, it may conflict with the 2021 Olympics. USA Basketball's Jerry Colangelo discusses this concern.

Chima