Norse

The USA Men&rsquo;s National Basketball Team passed its second test after beating Australia, 98-92, in the USA Basketball Showcase in Abu Dhabi.&nbsp;
In part of their preparation for the Paris Olympics, Team USA looked to be in cruise control after leading by 20 over the Boomers. However, Australia unleashed a huge run in the 4th quarter, even cutting the lead down to just 4, 94-90, with 15 seconds to go.
Phoenix Suns&rsquo; superstar guard Devin Booker took over from there as he hit 4 clutch free throws to keep the rushing Australians at bay and win the game.
Anthony Davis once again had a double-double to lead the US with 17 points and 14 rebounds while Booker added 16 points of his own. Both came off the bench for the Steve Kerr-manned squad.
Main takeaways:
STEVE KERR PLAYING 4 GUARD LINEUP AT THE END
With Australia playing fast and wreaking havoc on the wings, Kerr opted for an interesting lineup to close the game with Tyrese Haliburton, Jrue Holiday, Anthony Edwards, and Devin Booker all on the floor &ndash; a 4-guard lineup &ndash; alongside Miami Heat big man Bam Adebayo. It could be argued that the lineup almost cost Team USA the game with the Boomers attacking the paint relentlessly against a relatively smaller Team USA lineup. However, it could also be argued on the other way that Kerr utilized the lineup to have more decision-makers on the floor, making reads, and moving the ball. Nonetheless, it was an interesting decision considering the personnel Kerr has at his disposal.&nbsp;
JOEL EMBIID GETTING ESTABLISHED ON OFFENSE
For the second straight game, no one from the opposing team could guard the NBA&rsquo;s MVP straight up. Joel Embiid had a better game vs Australia after fouling out vs Team Canada, scoring 10 points with 5 rebounds. He established his presence on the post, drawing out double teams. At times, Embiid attacked the man in front of him and scored twice on an and-ones. He also dished out assists to the open man when Australia came to double. Overall a good game from Embiid as Kerr has mentioned about Team USA wanting to establish the big man early on offense.&nbsp;

The USA Men’s National Basketball Team passed its second test after beating Australia, 98-92, in the USAB Showcase in Abu Dhabi.

Team USA defeats Australia in USA Basketball Showcase 98-92

Today, the NBA and FIBA announced 80 of the top high-school-age prospects from across Africa who will participate in the 19th edition of Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Africa, which will be held July 28-31 at the American International School of Johannesburg (AISJ) in South Africa.
BWB Africa 2023 will bring together 80 boys and girls from more than 25 African countries &ndash; including 19 NBA Academy Africa and NBA Academy Women&rsquo;s Camp Africa 2022 prospects &ndash; to learn directly from current and former NBA, WNBA and FIBA players, legends and coaches and compete alongside their peers from across the continent.&nbsp;
The campers will be coached by two-time NBA All-Star Bam Adebayo (Miami Heat; U.S.; ties to Nigeria), 2022 NBA All-Star Darius Garland (Cleveland Cavaliers; U.S.), 2022 NBA champion Jonathan Kuminga (Golden State Warriors; Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Jalen Suggs (Orlando Magic; U.S.).
Five current and former NBA head coaches will also serve as BWB Africa 2023 coaches: Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff; two-time NBA Coach of the Year, Nigeria Men&rsquo;s National Team head coach and Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown; 2018 NBA Coach of the Year Dwane Casey (most recently with the Detroit Pistons); Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham; and veteran NBA coach Dave Joerger (most recently with the Philadelphia 76ers).
Several former NBA and WNBA players will also serve as BWB Africa 2023 coaches, including 2015 FIBA AfroBasket champion Olumide Oyedeji (Nigeria), 2011 NBA champion Ian Mahinmi (France; ties Benin), former NBA player and Basketball Africa League Head of League Operations Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje (Cameroon), former NBA player Tacko Fall (Senegal), 2003 WNBA champion Astou Ndiaye (Senegal), two-time WNBA champion Taj McWilliams-Franklin, four-time WNBA champion Sheryl Swoopes and Mozambique basketball legend Clarisse Machanguana.&nbsp;
Toronto Raptors Vice-Chairman, Team President and Alternate NBA Governor Masai Ujiri; New Orleans Pelicans Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin; and Portland Trail Blazers Assistant General Manager Mike Schmitz will serve as camp directors, while David Crewe and Frank Adams (Phoenix Suns) will serve as the camp&rsquo;s athletic trainers.
The players and coaches will lead the campers through a variety of activities, including movement efficiency drills, offensive and defensive skill stations, three-point contests, 5-on-5 games, and life skills and leadership development sessions.&nbsp;&nbsp;A ceremony on the final day of the camp will award the Kim Bohuny Camp MVP, the Patrick Baumann Sportsmanship Award, the B.J. Johnson Most Improved Player Award, the Three-Point Champion and the Defensive MVP to the boys and girls who distinguish themselves on the court and as leaders.
As part of the camp, NBA players and coaches will also participate in several community outreach initiatives around Johannesburg, including a hospital visit and a Her Time to Play seminar for the female campers on July 28, and a court unveiling in the Alexandra Township on Saturday, July 29.&nbsp; In addition, BWB Africa 2023 coaches will lead a development clinic for local coaches at AISJ on July 30.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Also on July 29, select&nbsp;NBA players&nbsp;will visit the NBA Store at Sandton City Mall in Johannesburg and engage with fans.
BWB Africa 2023 will be supported by Nike, a global partner of BWB since 2002, which will outfit participants with Nike apparel and footwear, and Gatorade, which will keep players and coaches hydrated throughout the camp.
BWB has reached more than 4,100 participants from 136 countries and territories since 2001, with 112 former campers advancing to the NBA or WNBA.&nbsp; The NBA and FIBA have staged 70 BWB camps in 47 cities across 32 countries on six continents.
The following is a complete list of players participating in the 19th&nbsp;BWB Africa camp (rosters subject to change):
&nbsp;
<table style="width: 447px;" width="447">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 403px;" colspan="2">
GIRLS
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Name
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Country
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Ines Bellahmer
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Algeria
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Filomena Luis
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Angola
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Guigma Sadia
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Burkina Faso
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Gisele Kipo*
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Cameroon
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Hannah Dibadjou
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Cameroon
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Salma Khedr*
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Egypt
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Leila El Sanadily
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Egypt
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Aisha Hassan
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Egypt
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Lucie Mounganga
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Gabon
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Fatoumata Sylla
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Guinea
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Roseline Ooko
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Kenya
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Harena Randriamasimanana
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Madagascar
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Fitahiana Ratsimason
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Madagascar
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Joanie Rakotonanahary
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Madagascar
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Fatoumata Samake*
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Mali
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Oumou Soumare
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Mali
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Aya El Kallali*
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Morocco
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Albertina Matsinhe*
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Mozambique
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Bata Lurdes*
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Mozambique
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Shanaya Matusse*
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Mozambique
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Joy Biribebe
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Nigeria
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Benitha Ngarambe
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Rwanda
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Jane Dusabe
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Rwanda
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Fatou Sima
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Senegal
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Marie Diouf
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Senegal
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Ndickou Matar Diop*
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Senegal
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Tacko Sy
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Senegal
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Sheriffa Rahman
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Sierra Leone
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Onnetse Molokwame
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
South Africa
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Luhle Ndaba
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
South Africa
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Reneilwe Motebele
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
South Africa
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Susan Peter
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
South Sudan
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Asunta Ring
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
South Sudan
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Nawasa Lazaro
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Tanzania
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Ibouanga Moussounda
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Togo
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Arwa Ghorbel*
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Tunisia
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Eya Nasri
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Tunisia
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Afef Bengoula
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Tunisia
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Christine Namyalo
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Uganda
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 191px;">
Immaculate Adongpiny
</td>
<td style="width: 212px;">
Uganda
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
*Participated in NBA Academy Women&rsquo;s Camp Africa 2022
&nbsp;
<table width="447">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 418.75px;" colspan="2" width="447">
BOYS
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Name
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Country
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Aginaldo Neto*
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Angola
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Manuel Camboma*
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Angola
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Inacio Anatoli Da Silva
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Angola
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Claudino Capangaa
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Angola
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Sansao Wika
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Angola
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Philippe Ntungicimpaye
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Burundi
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Arnold Eyadi Kenfack
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Cameroon
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Hermann Bel Gassina
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Cameroon
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Chris Naguidebe
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Central African Republic
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Tahir Doungous*
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Chad
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Zie Cheikh Conde
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Tarek Khairy
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Egypt
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Ahmed Nedale
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Egypt
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Karim El Gizawi
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Egypt
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Courage Agbekpornu
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Ghana
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Kiggundu Austin Omondi
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Kenya
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Chouhaybou Keita
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Mali
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Mahamadou Konate
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Mali
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Hamza Bechchar
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Morocco
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Bolaji Oderinlo
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Nigeria
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Sultan Baruwa
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Nigeria
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Ibrahim Dan-Mutum
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Nigeria
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Jonah Precious
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Nigeria
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Ezekiel Obe*
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Nigeria
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Andre Bonazebi
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Republic of Congo
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Jude Fred Nkouka Silaho
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Republic of Congo
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Khadim Mboup*
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Senegal
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Assane Mandian*
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Senegal
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Yakhya Diop*
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Senegal
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Amar Diop*
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Senegal
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Mouhamed Camara
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Senegal
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Siyanda Radebe
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
South Africa
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Gilchrist Storm
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
South Africa
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Khaman Maluach*
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
South Sudan
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Moses Marial Mandiria
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
South Sudan
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Bol Wieu Mou Thet
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
South Sudan
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Lual Deng Lual Aguek
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
South Sudan
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Rayen Rouissi
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Tunisia
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Amen Hammi
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Tunisia
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 197.167px;" width="208">
Liberty Fusire*
</td>
<td style="width: 221.583px;" width="239">
Zimbabwe
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
*NBA Academy Africa prospect

Bam Adebayo, Darius Garland, Jonathan Kuminga and Jalen Suggs will coach 80 top high-school-age prospects from across Africa.

Adebayo, Garland, Kuminga, Suggs to coach prospects at BWB Africa 2023

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.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
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.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
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'

Spencer Davies tells the complex story of Eban Hyams, the first Indian-born international professional basketball player.

Setbacks and bouncebacks: On Eban Hyams, India's first pro ballplayer

We know you&rsquo;re upset. Underdogs have blown up every bracket in the country.
An upside of the upsets: perhaps the maddest March ever.
Defending national champion Kansas and fellow No. 1 seed Purdue are gone &mdash; the Boilermakers with a slice of unwanted history. The Sweet 16 won&rsquo;t have blue bloods Kentucky, Duke or North Carolina for only the second time since 1979.
In are upstarts like Princeton, Florida Atlantic and a team picked to finish last in the Big 12 Conference.
And, this being March, of course there&rsquo;s Tom Izzo.
SOUTH REGION
Alabama has looked every bit the No. 1 overall seed, blowing out Texas A&amp;M-Corpus Christi and Maryland despite turmoil swirling around the program.
Waiting for Alabama in Louisville, Kentucky, will be San Diego State. The fifth-seeded Aztecs are old and love to knock around opponents &mdash; just ask College of Charleston and Furman.
The second game marks Princeton&rsquo;s first Sweet 16 in 56 years. The No. 15 seed Tigers had the first major March upset by knocking off No. 2 Arizona and proved it was no fluke by taking down Missouri.
They face Creighton, one of three Big East teams to get this far. Inconsistent early, the bombing Bluejays and big man Ryan Kalkbrenner are in the Sweet 16 for the second time in three seasons after bouncing No. 3 seed Baylor.
EAST REGION
Florida Atlantic won the battle of bracket darlings by knocking off Fairleigh Dickinson, the second No. 16 seed ever to beat a No. 1, taking down Purdue.
The Owls better be ready for some bruises against Tennessee at Madison Square Garden in their first Sweet 16. The third-seeded Vols bullied their way through the first two rounds, pushing around Duke after grinding out a win over Louisiana.
Sharing the Garden marquee will be Michigan State and Kansas State.
The Spartans are at their best in March under coach Izzo, who won his record 16th NCAA Tournament game as a lower seed by bouncing No. 2 seed Marquette.
Jerome Tang is taking underdog Kansas State from one Manhattan to another in his first season in the Little Apple.
Picked last in the Big 12, the Wildcats and undersized but undeterred guard Markquis Nowell shoved aside Montana State and wore down Kentucky for their first Sweet 16 since 2018.
MIDWEST REGION
Tang said the Wildcats won because they&rsquo;ve &ldquo;got dudes.&rdquo; Houston has a few of its own.
The Midwest&rsquo;s No. 1 seed, the Cougars have played the lockdown defense that made them a Final Four favorite at the start of the season, holding Northern Kentucky to 52 points and Auburn to 64.
The Cougars&rsquo; bid to play the Final Four at home now heads to Kansas City, Missouri, where they will face Miami.
The speedy, fifth-seeded Hurricanes hit Indiana with a gale force of offensive rebounds, scoring 29 second-chance points to reach the Sweet 16 for the second straight season under Jim Larra&ntilde;aga.
Another Texas team is still in the mix to reach the Final Four in its home state &mdash; the one from Austin.
No. 2 seed Texas overcame the midseason firing of coach Chris Beard to play some outstanding basketball under interim coach Rodney Terry. The Longhorns shut down sweet-shooting Colgate in the first round and earned their first Sweet 16 appearance in 15 years with a 71-66 win over Penn State.
Up next is another coach making the most of an opportunity.
Fired by Arizona two years ago, Sean Miller landed back where he started at Xavier. The Musketeers earned their first Sweet 16 appearance since 2017 with a 84-73 win over Pittsburgh.
WEST REGION
Losing guard Jaylen Clark has done little to slow down No. 2 UCLA. Now the Bruins hope their lineup isn&rsquo;t depleted further after key guard David Singleton injured his ankle late in a 69-63 victory over Northwestern.
UCLA still has Jaime Jaquez and Tyger Campbell, which will give them at least a shot at beating Gonzaga in Las Vegas.
There were midseason whispers the Zags were in a down year. An eighth straight trip to the Sweet 16 under Mark Few put those to rest.
Two coaches with familiar last names face off in the other Sin City game.
Eric Musselman, son of longtime NBA and college coach Bill Musselman, has shown off his coaching chops by leading Arkansas to the Sweet 16 for the third straight season. The Razorbacks got there with a takedown of top-seeded Kansas that had Musselman taking off his shirt &mdash; again.
Danny Hurley&rsquo;s father is a Hall of Fame high school coach, his brother the NCAA&rsquo;s all-time assist leader. Bob&rsquo;s son and Bobby&rsquo;s brother has revitalized UConn, taking the Huskies to the Sweet 16 for the first time in nine years.

The Sweet 16 won’t have blue-blood programs in Kentucky, Duke or North Carolina for only the second time since 1979.

March Madness rounds the corner to the Sweet 16

Anyone trying to fill out their NCAA Tournament brackets ought to start by figuring out which teams have the best backcourts.
This has been a guard&rsquo;s event for years.
When Kansas&rsquo; Ochai Agbaji helped the Jayhawks win the national title last season, he became the ninth straight guard to be selected as a Final Four&rsquo;s most outstanding player. The list started with Duke&rsquo;s Tyus Jones in 2015 and continued with Villanova&rsquo;s Ryan Arcidiacono, North Carolina&rsquo;s Joel Berry II, Villanova&rsquo;s Donte DiVincenzo, Virginia&rsquo;s Kyle Guy and Baylor&rsquo;s Jared Butler.
Occasionally a big man can dominate the college basketball landscape the way Anthony Davis did while leading Kentucky to the 2012 title, but they&rsquo;re the exceptions. The NCAA Tournament generally is all about guard play.
Here&rsquo;s a look at six backcourts that merit watching.
BAYLOR: L.J. Cryer, Adam Flagler and Keyonte George.
Baylor won the NCAA Tournament two years ago behind its outstanding backcourt and will try to do it again with a different set of guards. All three of them score at least 14.5 points per game. Flagler was one of five finalists for the Jerry West Award given to the nation&rsquo;s top shooting guard. He also earned AP first-team all-Big 12 honors. George, the best pro prospect in the trio, was a second-team all-Big 12 pick. Baylor ranks second in Division I in adjusted offensive efficiency, a metric measured by college basketball stats guru Ken Pomeroy that essentially translates to points scored per 100 possessions when adjusted for the level of competition.&nbsp;
HOUSTON: Marcus Sasser and Jamal Shead.
Sasser is one of 10 semifinalists for the Naismith Award given to the national player of the year He&rsquo;s eager for this NCAA Tournament showcase after a foot injury ended his 2021-22 season after just 12 games. He injured his groin in the American Athletic Association Tournament and didn&rsquo;t play in Sunday&rsquo;s championship game, so it remains to be seen how close he is to full strength. Sasser has scored over 17 points per game each of the last two seasons. Shead has nearly three times as many assists as turnovers.
KANSAS: Gradey Dick, Dajuan Harris and Kevin McCullar Jr.
The defending national champions had to replace virtually their entire nucleus from last year but still put together an outstanding backcourt to complement forward Jalen Wilson, the AP Big 12 player of the year. Dick, a freshman, is a Jerry West Award finalist, scoring nearly 15 points per game; he arguably is more a small forward at 6-foot-8, but Kansas lists him as a guard. Dick and McCullar both were AP second-team all-Big 12 selections. McCullar, a Texas Tech transfer, has scored in double figures three straight seasons and is pulling down over 7 rebounds per game. Harris is dishing out over 6 assists per game and ranks third among all Division I players in assist-turnover ratio.
MARQUETTE: Kam Jones, Tyler Kolek and Stevie Mitchell.
Kolek, a Naismith Award semifinalist and the Big East player of the year, has 7.7 assists per game and has well over three times as many assists as turnovers. He was named the Big East Tournament MVP. Jones, a second-team AP all-Big East selection, leads Marquette in scoring and makes nearly three 3-pointers per game. Mitchell has over 7 points per game but is best known for his defense. This group helped Marquette win its first Big East outright regular-season title and first Big East Tournament championship.
MIAMI: Jordan Miller, Nijel Pack and Isaiah Wong.
This trio helped Miami win a share of the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title and earn the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament for the first time since 2013. Wong is a Jerry West Award finalist and AP first-team all-ACC pick. He was named ACC player of the year by a 75-member panel including coaches and media representatives. Wong, Miller and Pack are each scoring over 13 points per game.
XAVIER: Souley Boum, Colby Jones and Adam Kunkel.
This trio helped Xavier lead all Division I teams in assists per game. Boum and Jones are each averaging over 4 assists per game, while Kunkel has 3 per game. They&rsquo;re also scoring about a combined 42 points per game. Boum, an AP first-team all-Big East selection, ranks second in the conference in scoring. Jones was an AP second-team all-Big East pick.

A look at six backcourts that merit watching in the upcoming men's NCAA Tournament.

March Madness: 6 backcourts worth watching in 2023 Men's NCAA Tourney

NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; The final night of the Big East Tournament never sounded like this before.
Tyler Kolek and No. 6 Marquette raced out to a hefty lead and didn&rsquo;t look back, beating No. 15 Xavier 65-51 on Saturday to win its first Big East championship after 18 seasons in the conference.
As the clock wound down on an historic victory by a storied program that had been longing for an elusive title, chants of &ldquo;We are, Mar-quette!&rdquo; echoed through Madison Square Garden.
&ldquo;Marquette is a special place that has had a special basketball program for a long, long time,&rdquo; coach Shaka Smart said as he accepted the trophy. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re so proud to bring a championship back to Milwaukee.&rdquo;
Kolek had 20 points and eight rebounds as the top-seeded Golden Eagles (28-6) dominated a Big East final that brought a Midwestern flavor to Midtown Manhattan.
The brash Big East player of the year, who vowed his team would prove doubters wrong before the season, shared hugs with his family and friends as confetti poured down on the Golden Eagles after the game.
&ldquo;All the moments they&rsquo;ve been through with me have led up to this moment right here,&rdquo; Kolek said. &ldquo;To share that with my high school coach, my brother, my dad, my two best friends, it&rsquo;s special. There is no better feeling.&rdquo;
Smart&rsquo;s surprising team will head into the NCAA Tournament with a nine-game winning streak. Marquette&rsquo;s first appearance in the Big East championship game resulted in one of its best performances of a scintillating season.
Kolek&rsquo;s steal and layup made it 51-27 with 14:12 left. Less than a minute later, after two offensive rebounds by the Golden Eagles, David Joplin made a corner 3 to double up second-seeded Xavier (25-9).
Joplin finished with 12 points. Kolek was selected the tournament&rsquo;s Most Outstanding Player.
Adam Kunkel scored 12 points to lead the Musketeers, who had a five-game winning streak snapped. Leading scorer Souley Boum was held to one point on 0-for-9 shooting.
&ldquo;I thought tonight there are times when their effort level and their quickness, their togetherness, their communication, it was like there were six players on defense against us,&rdquo; Xavier coach Sean Miller said. &ldquo;We couldn&rsquo;t get a good shot, and that is to their credit.&rdquo;
Smart described his team&rsquo;s defense as &ldquo;violent.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Coming up here to New York, we&rsquo;ve really played for the most part very, very sticky, tough defense,&rdquo; Smart said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to need that if we want to advance in the NCAA Tournament.&rdquo;
This was the first Big East title game since the conference dropped football in 2013 to not feature any of its longstanding Northeast members.
Still, the Milwaukee school, which joined in 2005, and the Cincinnati school, which joined in 2013, filled The Garden for the first 1 vs. 2 seed Big East Tournament final in 19 years.
It looked more like a 1-16 NCAA Tournament game for a while.
Marquette jumped out to a 21-4 lead, and never relented.
&ldquo;It was huge,&rdquo; Smart said. &ldquo;And our guys played with real force to start the game.&rdquo;
During a particularly splendid 2 1/2 minutes, Stevie Mitchell swished a corner 3, Kolek came off a screen to make another 3, Kam Jones got free for a reverse layup after a nifty hesitation move on the baseline and Kolek converted a layup off a give-and-go with Oso Ighodaro.
At that point, Marquette was up 33-10 with 7:02 left in the first half and the Golden Eagles had not yet committed a turnover.
Marquette&rsquo;s only previous league tournament title was as a member of Conference USA in 1997.
Twenty-six years later, the Golden Eagles were able to clear the bench in the final minute of the Big East championship and their fans were finally able to make The Garden feel like home.
BIG PICTURE
Xavier: The Musketeers played what Miller called one of their best two-way games of the season in the semifinals Friday night against Creighton. Less than 24 hours later, they did almost nothing well. Xavier shot 34% from the field, forced only four turnovers and was held 12 points under its previous season low. The Musketeers fell to 0-2 in Big East championship games.
Marquette: Smart, who took VCU to a Final Four but never could find that consistent winning formula at Texas, guided a team picked to finish ninth in the Big East in the preseason coaches&rsquo; poll to maybe its best season since Dwyane Wade led Marquette to a Final Four in 2003. The Golden Eagles tied a school record for victories set in 1970-71.
UP NEXT
Xavier: Miller will have the Musketeers back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018.
Marquette: The Golden Eagles will be making their second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament and figure to earn perhaps a No. 2 seed.

No. 6 Marquette raced out to a hefty lead and didn’t look back, beating No. 15 Xavier 65-51 on Saturday to win its first Big East title.

No. 6 Marquette routs Xavier 65-51 to win first Big East title

Nekias Duncan checks back in with this year's NBA award races with an in-depth look at who leads the pack through the end of February.

2022-23 NBA award front-runners Vol. 2: MVP, DPOY, ROY, more

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) &mdash; Souley Boum and Colby Jones gave No. 16 Xavier a much-needed victory in a game that ended ugly.
Boum scored 23 points, Jones had 19 and the two combined on a decisive run early in the second half in leading the Musketeers to an 82-60 win over Seton Hall on Friday night.
With a few seconds remaining, players from both teams came together in front of the scorer&rsquo;s table after Boum and Seton Hall freshman guard Jaquan Sanders started jawing. Coaches and teammates did their best to separate the two, but for a moment it appeared things would escalate.
Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway was unhappy about a 3-pointer Boum attempted with Xavier ahead 82-57 with 22 seconds to play. Holloway waved his arms and would not shake hands with Xavier coach Sean Miller after the game.
Boum and Sanders were given technical fouls. Seton Hall forward KC Ndefo, who had fouled out, was ejected for leaving the bench.
Boum said Pirates players were acting tough in the closing seconds and his team was not going to stand for it.
&ldquo;Just two teams getting after it,&rdquo; Boum said after Xavier (21-8, 13-5 Big East) won for the second time in five games. &ldquo;Those (guys) act like they&rsquo;re tough and all that. But I&rsquo;m not going for that. This team is not going for that. We&rsquo;re not going to let nobody punk us on or off the court.&rdquo;
Miller said he didn&rsquo;t know what happened at the end and he was just happy to get a win. He downplayed the Holloway brushoff.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have problems with any coaches,&rdquo; Miller said.
Holloway apologized for the way the game ended.
&ldquo;That should never happen. As the head coach, I take full responsibility for that. My guys gotta do better, I gotta do better, it will never happen again,&rdquo; Holloway said, adding his team got beat in all phases and no one played well enough to be interviewed.
Adam Kunkel added 13 points for the Musketeers, who played without second-leading scorer and top rebounder Zach Freemantle for the seventh straight game.
Freemantle is making progress and Miller hopes he will be ready for the Big East Tournament.
Dre Davis scored 13 points off the bench to lead Seton Hall (16-13, 9-9). Sanders equaled his career high with 11. The Pirates played without point guard Kadary Richmond, sidelined by a back injury.
After both teams struggled for the opening eight minutes, Xavier took the lead for good with a 24-7 spurt. Kunkel ignited the surge with a desperation 3-pointer as the shot clock expired and Boum added eight of his 13 first-half points and three assists.
Trailing 40-21 at halftime, Seton Hall threatened to make it a game in the opening minutes of the second half by starting with a 12-1 run to pull to 41-33 on Femi Odukale&rsquo;s basket inside.
Boum hit a 3 to start the decisive Xavier spurt and Jones followed with a three-point play and two free throws in helping the Musketeers open a 53-33 lead. It only got worse for the Pirates after that.
&ldquo;We had an answer,&rdquo; Boum said. &ldquo;We ain&rsquo;t got time to give a team momentum like that. That first four minutes was 12-1. We can&rsquo;t do that, especially on the path that we are on. But I&rsquo;m glad we handled it. We bounced back, we took the punches and we did what we&rsquo;re supposed to.&rdquo;
BIG PICTURE
Xavier: The Musketeers broke a three-way tie for second place in the Big East, moving a half-game ahead of Creighton and Providence. With two regular-season games remaining, they are 1 1/2 behind Marquette, which has three games left. Xavier has clearly done enough to make the NCAA Tournament, but the team needs Freemantle back. Seton Hall made its brief comeback when it got the ball inside.
Seton Hall: The sixth-place Pirates have lost four of five, putting their NCAA Tournament hopes in serious jeopardy.
UP NEXT
Xavier: Plays at No. 20 Providence on Wednesday.
Seton Hall: Will host Villanova on Tuesday.

Souley Boum scored 23 points, Colby Jones had 19 and the two combined on a decisive run early in the second half.

Tempers flare at finish as No. 16 Xavier routs Seton Hall

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) &mdash; Keyontae Johnson scored 25 points, Markquis Nowell added 14 points and 10 assists, and No. 14 Kansas State followed a long first-half slump with a big second-half run to beat ninth-ranked Baylor 75-65 on Tuesday night.
Cam Carter added 10 points for the Wildcats (21-7, 9-6 Big 12), who trailed 34-31 at the break before their 18-4 charge gave them control. They coasted from there to a school record-tying seventh win over a ranked team this season.
Keyonte George hit six 3-pointers and scored 23 points for Baylor (20-8, 9-6), which had won seven of its last eight against the Wildcats and three straight in Manhattan. LJ Cryer added four 3s and finished with 16 points.
The game was a rematch for Bears coach Scott Drew and Kansas State counterpart Jerome Tang, who spent 19 years on Drew&rsquo;s bench. And it was every bit as wild as the Wildcats&rsquo; 97-95 overtime win in early January.
NO. 8 TEXAS 72, NO. 23 IOWA STATE 54
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) &mdash; Sir&rsquo;Jabari Rice and Tyrese Hunter each scored 15 points and Texas raced away from Iowa State with a big first half to keep the Longhorns at the top of the Big 12.
Texas (22-6, 11-4) is tied with No. 3 Kansas for first place with three games left in the regular season. The Longhorns haven&rsquo;t won even a share of the league crown since 2008.
Osun Ossunniyi scored 12 points to lead the Cyclones (17-10, 8-7), who beat Texas in their first matchup.
NO. 10 MARQUETTE 73, NO. 19 CREIGHTON 71
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) &mdash; Tyler Kolek&rsquo;s short jump shot gave Marquette the lead with 29 seconds left, and the Golden Eagles took a huge step toward the Big East regular-season title with a win over Creighton.
The Golden Eagles (22-6, 14-3) saw a 10-point lead with eight minutes left evaporate before Kolek came up big during a wild finish before a sellout crowd at CHI Health Center.
Kam Jones led Marquette with 19 points and Kolek and Oso Ighodaro added 18 apiece.
Baylor Scheierman had 18 points to lead the Bluejays (18-10, 12-5). Ryan Nembhard added 16.
NO. 25 TEXAS A&amp;M 68, NO. 11 TENNESSEE 63
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) &mdash; Wade Taylor IV scored 25 points, including four free throws down the stretch, and Texas A&amp;M extended its winning streak to six games.
Julius Marble added 21 points and nine rebounds for the Aggies (21-7, 13-2 Southeastern Conference), who haven&rsquo;t lost since Jan. 21.
It&rsquo;s the fourth loss in five games for the Volunteers (20-8, 9-6), with their only win in this stretch coming in a 68-59 victory over then-No. 1 Alabama on Wednesday.
Santiago Vescovi and Zakai Zeigler had 14 points each for Tennessee.
NO. 13 MIAMI 76, VIRGINIA TECH 70
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) &mdash; Norchad Omier had 17 points and 14 rebounds as Miami won its seventh straight.
Nigel Pack added 16 points for the Hurricanes (23-5, 14-4 Atlantic Coast Conference), who placed five players in double figures. Isaiah Wong finished with 13 points and Jordan Miller had 11 for Miami, which shot just 42.2% (27 of 64) after leading the ACC at 48.7 percent coming into the game. The Hurricanes helped themselves with 14 offensive rebounds.
Sean Pedulla led Virginia Tech (16-12, 6-11) with 17 points. Hunter Cattoor finished with 15 points for the Hokies, who shot 46.7% (28 of 60).
VILLANOVA 64, NO. 16 XAVIER 63
CINCINNATI (AP) &mdash; Justin Moore scored 25 points to give Villanova its biggest victory under first-year head coach Kyle Neptune.
Cam Whitmore added 11 points for the Wildcats (14-14, 8-9 Big East) who dealt a big blow to the Musketeers&rsquo; Big East title hopes.
Souley Boum led Xavier (20-8, 12-5) with 17 points. Jerome Hunter added 14 and Jack Nunge scored 12.
MICHIGAN STATE 80, NO. 17 INDIANA 65
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) &mdash; Tyson Walker shook off a slow start to score 23 points and lifted Michigan State in its first home game since last week&rsquo;s shootings on campus that killed three students and hospitalized five students.
The Hoosiers (19-9, 10-7) relied heavily on Trayce Jackson-Davis, as usual, and he had 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Michigan State&rsquo;s A.J. Hoggard had three turnovers early in the game, then didn&rsquo;t have another turnover and finished with 22 points and five assists. Joey Hauser and Malik Hall each scored 10 points for the Spartans (17-10, 9-7 Big Ten), who have won three of their last four games.
Jalen Hood-Schifino scored 16 and Trey Galloway had 11 points for the Hoosiers.
NO. 22 SAN DIEGO STATE 77, COLORADO STATE 58
SAN DIEGO (AP) &mdash; Jaedon LeDee scored 14 points and Matt Bradley scored 10 of his 13 in the first four minutes of the second half for San Diego State, which overwhelmed Colorado State for its fifth straight win.
Bradley, SDSU&rsquo;s leading scorer, appeared to hurt a finger on his left hand and was subbed out during a timeout with 7:47 left and the Aztecs leading 69-48. He returned with 4:55 to go but didn&rsquo;t play the final two minutes.
Micah Parrish added 12 and Lamont Butler and Darrion Trammell had 11 each for SDSU (22-5, 13-2 Mountain West), which solidified its lead in the conference race. The Aztecs have won nine of their last 10 games dating to an 82-76 overtime win at Colorado State on Jan. 18.
John Tonje scored 18 and Isaiah Rivera 15 for the Rams (12-16, 4-11), who have lost seven of nine.&nbsp;

A recap of Tuesday night's action in men's college hoops a battle of top-15 squads in a crucial Big 12 matchup.

No. 14 Kansas State beats No. 9 Baylor with big second half

With less than a second left on the game clock, Damian Lillard rises to his right and fires a three.
Not just a three, but a deep three from the right wing. And not just a deep three from the right wing; it's a three so deep, over the outstretched arms of a hopeless defender, that you immediately think: "How on earth is he so comfortable taking&nbsp;that shot?"
Naturally, it goes in without speaking to the rim, much less hitting it. The crowd goes crazy. The opposing team walks off the floor, demoralized. Lillard has the facial expression of someone who's been told the same joke three times in a row.
Some might even <a href="https://youtu.be/IH7Jfe-40Qc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">consider the shot a bad one</a>, but&nbsp;<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-damian-lillard-stephen-curry-are-exception-to-rule-bad-shot-trae-young-three-pointers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">is there&nbsp;a bad shot when it comes to Lillard</a>?
That was the question immediately following his 37-foot playoff series-ender against the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2019. And while Monday night's win against the Los Angeles Lakers doesn't sniff those stakes, it was a question worth asking again as Lillard drilled a fading triple from the "M" in Moda Center to close the first quarter.
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Not only was that Lillard's second made three to that point, it was the 10th make of the night from the Blazers. They'd go on to make seven more in the second, giving them 17 first-half triples on 29 attempts.
The Lakers simply couldn't match that firepower. The Blazers had more points via three-pointers (51) than LA scored all half (46). You're not winning when the math is that far on the opponent's side.&nbsp;
When asked about the splash-happy first half, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham gave a proverbial hat tip to the Blazers, citing shot quality.&nbsp;
"We checked the analytical data at halftime," Ham began. "And according to that data, our defensive shot quality would've been No. 1 in the league because they were contested."
"They moved the ball on some of them. Some of them [were open] by design, with certain guys we shifted more off the ball. But credit to them, they made shots tonight. Seventeen threes in a half, that's incredible."
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Naturally, if you're watching your favorite team's opponent burn the nets against you, one of the last things you want to hear is a variation of, "We were okay with what we gave up." But honestly, a review of the film and the numbers back that up.
Of the 17 threes made in the first half from the Blazers, eight of them were of the catch-and-shoot variety. Of those eight, four of them were made by Matisse Thybulle (2) and Trendon Watford (2). The other four were spread out between Lillard (2), Anfernee Simons (1) and Shaedon Sharpe (1).
We'll start with the Lillard-Simons-Sharpe triumvirate first. Lillard and Simons are generally treated like red-alert threats on the perimeter; Sharpe doesn't quite get that attention, but he certainly doesn't get "gapped" off the ball like a traditional non-shooter would.&nbsp;
Simons and Sharpe were the "bad" ones the Lakers gave up. The defense was tilted elsewhere, opening a pure catch-and-shoot opportunity for Simons and a clean look after a corner lift for Sharpe.
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Lillard, on the other hand, is where you shake your head as an opposing coach. On the first, Lillard acts as a trailer in transition, promptly draining a shot from nearly 30 feet. On the second, Lillard kicks off the chain with Chicago action &mdash; a pindown into a dribble handoff &mdash; before dishing, relocating and bombing away over a recovering Austin Reaves from 31 feet.&nbsp;
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I feel for Reaves on both clips. He's trying to match up with Lillard in transition while directing traffic. Nobody picks up Simons, so he finds himself toggling between him&nbsp;and&nbsp;Lillard before the shot. And on the Chicago action clip, Reaves is busting his butt trying to navigate the screen&nbsp;and&nbsp;the handoff while staying attached. All things considered, he did pretty well. It just didn't matter.
The Watford and Thybulle threes were pretty blatant gameplan calls. The Lakers simply did not care if either of them took shots from the perimeter. That's been true for the entirety of Thybulle's career; he's a 32.9% shooter from deep overall, and is only slightly better (34.4%) from the corners.&nbsp;
Watford hasn't shot nearly enough on the NBA level to shift the gameplan on him. He was shooting nearly 46% from three heading into Monday night's contest, but was averaging&nbsp;under&nbsp;one attempt per contest. When you include last night's 2-for-2 performance, Watford is 25-of-71 (35.2%) from three in 89 career games.
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Defenses will continue to live with those.
Eight of the other nine makes, including the aforementioned hail mary to cap the first quarter, came off some sort of movement.
There was a handoff triple from forward Nassir Little. Not only is he a career 34.1% shooter from deep, but Little has only taken 18 threes off a DHO in his four-year NBA career,&nbsp;per InStat tracking data. There's a reason he received "under" coverage on the handoff.
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Beyond that, the Lillard-Simons-Sharpe trio just went nuts off the bounce. Pull-ups, stepbacks &mdash; you name it, they did it. The starting backcourt specifically got busy in ball-screens, pulling up above the break with the space that was given.
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There wasn't a ton of space to operate with. Anthony Davis wasn't quite at the level of the screen, but he was a step or two higher up than your traditional deep drop. It probably would've been worth getting all the way up to the level.
Davis is still working his way back to the All-Defense form we saw earlier in the year, and deserves a little grace. We've probably, collectively, undersold just how much he has working against him, as well as the probability that he's still playing through stuff. But even with that context, that's probably the fairest criticism to levy towards Ham's defensive game plan in the first half.
And then there was this from Lillard, which... what the heck do you do with this?
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As for the actual numbers, they're pretty daunting.
Converting over 58% of your threes in a half is absurd on its own. On the type of threes the Blazers took, and considering who took them, their quantified shot quality (qSQ) was 50.61 &mdash; a mark that would rank first in the NBA across an entire season (a full point below the Miami Heat's mark of 51.87), per Second Spectrum.
Instead, they had an effective field goal percentage (eFG%) of 87.93%. Doing the simple math, that's an overperformance of 37.32%.&nbsp;
There have been 81 instances of a team taking at least 25 threes in the first half of a game this season. Nobody has outperformed the quality of their looks to the degree the Blazers did last night.
When filtering for the first&nbsp;or&nbsp;second half, that plus-37.32% mark ranks second in the NBA. The top spot belongs to the Golden State Warriors (38.83% above expectation), with the Thunder serving as their victims last Monday.

Nekias Duncan investigates the Blazers' red-hot perimeter shooting against the Lakers on Monday night and what it was a product of.

Luck or Lack? Exploring the Blazers' three-point offense vs. the Lakers

This year's NBA trade deadline challenged the glut of Western Conference contenders to test how far they would go to separate themselves from the pack.
Some teams, like the Phoenix Suns in their Kevin Durant blockbuster or the Dallas Mavericks in their Kyrie Irving acquisition, swung for the fences. Others &mdash; such as the Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans &mdash; only nabbed a rotation player or two, opting to bet on their current core.
The Los Angeles Clippers appear to fall in the latter group, but we should not overlook their trade-deadline moves. With three separate trades, all in the final hours of dealmaking on Thursday, the Clippers added Bones Hyland, Eric Gordon and Mason Plumlee. They took calculated risks and changed three important spots in their rotation, hoping the current stalwart defense insulates a boost of offensive juice.
Hyland was one of the hottest names in the rumor mill last week after his <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2023/02/09/nuggets-trade-deadline-bones-hyland-thomas-bryant-analysis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">falling out with the Nuggets</a>. Los Angeles pounced and dealt two second-round picks for the former No. 26 overall selection in the 2021 NBA Draft.
Hyland quickly becomes the most promising developmental talent on the roster at 22 years old. But more immediately, he brings a high-charged dose of long-range shotmaking to the Clippers' bottom-10 offense.
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Bones Hyland hit a career-high 7 three-pointers to lead the <a href="https://twitter.com/nuggets?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nuggets</a> to the win! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MileHighBasketball?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MileHighBasketball</a><a href="https://twitter.com/BizzyBones11?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BizzyBones11</a>: 26 PTS, 7 3PM <a href="https://t.co/IkJU5Ajf0U">pic.twitter.com/IkJU5Ajf0U</a>
&mdash; NBA (@NBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1586207446678138883?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 29, 2022</a></blockquote>

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The combo guard profiles as one of the most extreme perimeter creators in the entire league. Some evidence: Hyland has attempted 118 self-created threes this season, according to PBP Stats, which would rank second on his new team behind Paul George (164) and far above the third-place guard he's replacing (Reggie Jackson, 66), in only 820 minutes this season. His 39.8% clip on those attempts ranks 13th among 81 players who have attempted at least 50 such shots.
To this point of his career, however, Hyland's primary impact has come from distance. He can attack the basket, but he's no more than a mediocre rim-pressure threat, and he's a very limited playmaker. Microwave shooting is an important skill that can swing a playoff series if active; it's unclear if Hyland can consistently impact the game this way.
That's why the Eric Gordon trade adds another level of intrigue. Gordon, a 34-year-old shooting guard, finally leaves a rebuilding Houston Rockets situation after years in and out of reported trade talks. He rejoins the franchise that drafted him seventh overall way back in 2008.&nbsp;
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Ty Lue on the <a href="https://twitter.com/LAClippers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@LAClippers</a> new editions of Bones Hyland, Eric Gordon &amp; Mason Plumlee. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LAClippers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LAClippers</a> <a href="https://t.co/yxsD8SyutK">pic.twitter.com/yxsD8SyutK</a>
&mdash; Hoops &amp; Brews (@HoopsNBrews) <a href="https://twitter.com/HoopsNBrews/status/1624289182775656448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 11, 2023</a></blockquote>

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Gordon has a 15-year history of solid, albeit streaky, pull-up shooting, and he can still slice his way to the rim with ease. Gordon has converted 67% or more of his shots within three feet of the hoop in each of the last three seasons, per Basketball Reference &mdash; and that's in a Houston offense that has looked pretty wonky at times.&nbsp;
The Clippers acquired Gordon in a three-team deal with the Rockets and Grizzlies that ultimately sent John Wall to Houston and Luke Kennard to Memphis. They now have a reshaped guard rotation that includes Hyland, Gordon, Terance Mann and Norman Powell &mdash; four complementary scoring threats next to Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.&nbsp;
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Entering Saturday, L.A. took just 30.2% of its shots at the rim, a 23rd-ranked rate, per Cleaning the Glass. Gordon's talents should directly help, and Hyland's perimeter prowess ideally opens up lanes for others to attack.
The four-man crew allows for some interesting lineup flexibility. Does head coach Ty Lue opt to keep Mann in the starting lineup and let Hyland bombard off the bench, knowing Gordon can also keep teams honest? Or can Hyland eventually work his way up to start and provide a more powerful perimeter impact than Reggie Jackson ever could &mdash; also leaving Mann to keep the heat on with the second unit?
With just those two, we already see that the Clippers want to apply more pressure from more angles, versus the stagnation that can arise with just Kawhi plus PG plus floor-spacers. Mason Plumlee continues the theme in his own way as a passing hub.
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Pretty easy to see how Mason Plumlee's playmaking would fit seamlessly into Sacramento's offense. Lots of CHA's sets are similar to SAC's. Plumlee is averaging 4.6 assists per 36 mins and would probably be fairly cheap considering his expiring $9M deal. Davis + Len + two 2nds? <a href="https://t.co/U52qzH2vnd">pic.twitter.com/U52qzH2vnd</a>
&mdash; Brenden Nunes (@BrendenNunesNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrendenNunesNBA/status/1617660314237145088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2023</a></blockquote>

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Los Angeles added the veteran center in a trade with the Charlotte Hornets that sent Jackson and a 2028 second-rounder to Charlotte. During our <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/watch-basketball-news-2023-nba-trade-deadline-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 NBA Trade Deadline Show</a>, Nekias Duncan and I both commented on the parallels between Plumlee and the team's 2021-22 backup center, Isaiah Hartenstein.&nbsp;
Last year, <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-stats-notebook-isaiah-hartenstein-is-the-clippers-secret-weapon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hartenstein showed off his facilitation chops</a> by hitting cutters from the arc and operating out of some roll actions. He's in the sub-Nikola-Jokic tier of best big man passers in the NBA, and so is Plumlee.
For several seasons, the 32-year-old has consistently posted some of the best passing numbers in the league; his 18.0% assist rate is in the 92nd percentile among bigs this season, per Cleaning the Glass. Plumlee is assisting on 12.6% of his total passes, per Second Spectrum, which is the third-highest rate among centers.
Add in his stellar presence around the rim (73% shooting in that zone) and solid track record on the glass, and Plumlee seems about as ideal a fit at backup center as feasible. The healthy Clippers are looking at a Hyland-Gordon-Powell-Robert Covington-Plumlee second unit, with Nic Batum and Amir Coffey as additonal options. That is deep.
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The overarching worry: L.A. is tweaking the components of its top-10 defense &mdash; the backbone of its current fifth-place standing in the Western Conference. Hyland has serious defensive question-marks, Gordon is strong but undersized and Plumlee, while fundamentally sound, is by no means a rim-protector. Can the system and the prowess of the remaining players provide a stable floor? And if not, do the new pieces just fall out of the rotation, or do they unearth a new problem?
We likely won't know the final answer until the postseason. But the Clippers pointedly targeted several needs on Thursday, and the moves have more reward and more risk than they appear to at first. Even without adding a star, the Clippers have become another must-track team in the reshuffled West playoff race.

Ethan Fuller breaks down the Los Angeles Clippers adding Bones Hyland, Eric Gordon and Mason Plumlee prior to the trade deadline.

Evaluating the Clippers' three NBA trade deadline moves

Few people probably expected the NBA at large to be focused on a Reddit conspiracy theory for most of Saturday, but here we are.
Reddit user u/AdMassive6666 posted <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/10nbau4/memphis_grizzlies_scorekeeper_posting_fraudulent/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an elaborate investigation</a>&nbsp;into the validity of Jaren Jackson Jr.'s block totals at home so far this season. The SparkNotes: This poster essentially accused the Memphis Grizzlies' scorekeeper of artificially inflating Jackson's block counts at home, leading to a massive chasm between his home and away stats. They cited examples they believed backed up the claim and then tossed out accusations of personal bias or financial motive.
The conspiracy spread like wildfire Saturday morning and the post had over 44,000 upvotes by the afternoon. Meanwhile, NBA media members across Twitter were fact-checking the claim, which looks more and more like a&nbsp;theory&nbsp;than an actual conspiracy under further scrutiny.
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I watched every block by Jaren Jackson Jr. in slow motion from alternate angles to investigate the NBA Reddit thread claiming the Grizzlies scorekeeper is "posting fraudulent numbers." But only 3 of his 66 home blocks are incorrectly labeled, a completely insignificant amount. <a href="https://t.co/84ZiE1rPVD">pic.twitter.com/84ZiE1rPVD</a>
&mdash; Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/KevinOConnorNBA/status/1619400282953359360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2023</a></blockquote>

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There are already a&nbsp;lot&nbsp;of videos and threads like Kevin O'Connor's breakdown, including this one from <a href="&lt;blockquote%20class=&quot;twitter-tweet&quot;%20data-theme=&quot;dark&quot;&gt;&lt;p%20lang=&quot;en&quot;%20dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;THEY%20ARE%20LYING%20ABOUT%20JAREN%20JACKSON%20JR.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The%20Hoop%20ReView%20presents%20a%20full%20stat%20audit%20on%20Jaren%20Jackson%20Jr&amp;#39;s%20home%20block%20numbers&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;spoiler%20alert:%20HIS%20BLOCKS%20ARE%20VERY%20REAL&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;I%20went%20through%20every%20block,%20at%20most%20there%20were%204%20questionable%20or%20lacking%20video%20evidence.&lt;a%20href=&quot;https://t.co/w12jBHI8w6&quot;&gt;https://t.co/w12jBHI8w6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash;%20A:A%20(@Swarlayzers)%20&lt;a%20href=&quot;https://twitter.com/Swarlayzers/status/1619379441364533250?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&quot;&gt;January%2028,%202023&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;%20&lt;script%20async%20src=&quot;https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js&quot;%20charset=&quot;utf-8&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@swarlayzers</a>, this one from <a href="&lt;blockquote%20class=&quot;twitter-tweet&quot;%20data-theme=&quot;dark&quot;&gt;&lt;p%20lang=&quot;en&quot;%20dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;Did%20some%20&amp;#39;investigative%20journalism&amp;#39;%20this%20morning%20into%20the%20Jaren%20Jackson%20Jr.%20scorekeeper%20saga%20(from%20this%20Reddit%20thread%20alleging%20his%20stats%20are%20padded%20at%20home:%20&lt;a%20href=&quot;https://t.co/XH6X5muYkP&quot;&gt;https://t.co/XH6X5muYkP&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Here%20are%20some%20of%20the%20more%20questionable%20blocks/%20steals%20JJJ%20is%20credited%20for%20&lt;a%20href=&quot;https://t.co/oeVKSJoImt&quot;&gt;pic.twitter.com/oeVKSJoImt&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash;%20The%20Box%20and%20One%20(@TheBoxAndOne_)%20&lt;a%20href=&quot;https://twitter.com/TheBoxAndOne_/status/1619351079371829249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&quot;&gt;January%2028,%202023&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;%20&lt;script%20async%20src=&quot;https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js&quot;%20charset=&quot;utf-8&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Adam Spinella</a>, this response from former stat-checker&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/findingneema23/status/1619365149902798848?s=20&amp;t=dHOSgXZXmSBeIIoZGaqgqw">Neema Djavadzadeh</a>.&nbsp;Most of the follow-ups reach the same conclusion: The initial poster either cherry-picked some narrative-suiting examples or was just plain wrong about their claims.&nbsp;
Furthermore, the post painted a picture that some corrupt mastermind is at the center of Jackson's absurd defensive season when that simply is not how NBA statskeeping works.
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This post is making its way around the league now, not just the internet. For what it's worth, I checked in, and the Grizzlies use the same official scorer this season as they used last season. <a href="https://t.co/DViGP4JMxO">https://t.co/DViGP4JMxO</a>
&mdash; Fred Katz (@FredKatz) <a href="https://twitter.com/FredKatz/status/1619369038202953729?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2023</a></blockquote>

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Fred Katz of&nbsp;The Athletic&nbsp;gets the ball rolling with this thread, explaining that recording stats is not a one-person job anymore. In 2018, <a href="https://www.complex.com/sports/2018/04/how-nba-scorekeepers-track-player-stats" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Spencer Lund of </a><a href="https://www.complex.com/sports/2018/04/how-nba-scorekeepers-track-player-stats" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Complex</a>&nbsp;took a peek at the life of an NBA statistician and the evolution of the process. This segment offers a brief explanation of gameday protocols:
"The four-man statistics crews is divided into primary and secondary inputters and callers. The primary caller does just that: calls out each play using numbers instead of names. The primary inputter marks 'a touch screen of a basketball court,' the Brooklyn statistician says. That screen is connected to the screen of the secondary inputter, who edits mistakes and double checks iffy plays. The secondary caller works the DVR, and they&rsquo;re connected to NBA headquarters in Secaucus, NJ. That connection to Secaucus during the game is new this year, as is the mandate that every arena have four statisticians for a game.
Despite that connection, it&rsquo;s still up to the discretion of the statisticians to decide an assist. The primary inputter makes the first read, but if the stat is unclear 'it&rsquo;s kind of a consensus, majority rule,' the Nets&rsquo; statistician explains. The NBA says that they audit every stat, and they&rsquo;ve always done it that way since they went digital in the late ​&rsquo;80s; this season they&rsquo;re just connected during the game."
The NBA backed this up in its own counter to the Reddit post:
&ldquo;In order to ensure the integrity of our game statistics, auditors, independent of the statisticians on-site, review all plays and stats decisions in real-time during NBA games,&rdquo; <a href="https://nba.nbcsports.com/2023/01/28/nba-refutes-viral-reddit-post-claiming-conspiracy-to-pad-jaren-jackson-jr-s-stats/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">league spokesman Tim Frank told NBC Sports.</a> &ldquo;If changes are necessary, they are made at that time or following a postgame review. All of the plays questioned in the post on Memphis games were scored consistently within the rules set forth by the NBA statisticians manual.&rdquo;
Today's technology also puts the NBA light-years ahead of the human error from a single set of eyeballs. "Using cameras installed in the catwalks of every NBA arena, Second Spectrum software tracks the movements of every player on the court and the basketball 25 times per second," <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/help/faq" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the league's statistics database says on its tracking data.</a>&nbsp;
Still, some categories will involve judgement calls by nature. Even if some of Jackson's blocks are debatable, this isn't the first time the NBA fandom has questioned the integrity of the numbers. Matthew van Bommel and Luke Bornn <a href="http://www.lukebornn.com/papers/vanbommel_dmkd_2017.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">conducted a massive study about scorekeeper bias in 2016</a>.&nbsp;The Athletic's&nbsp;Seth Partnow has pointed out repeatedly how the frequency of shot attempts at the rim are unusually low at Golden Warriors home games, while the volume just outside the restricted area is much higher, for both teams competing. It's not a result of some ulterior motive; there just appears a tendency by the Warriors' record-keepers to judge shot locations differently.
Assists are notoriously subjective. Folks often wonder if John Stockton really&nbsp;racked up his all-time record of 15,806 assists, and <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/sports/2019/05/17/its-an-nba-urban-legend/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Andy Larsen looked into the total</a> for the Salt Lake Tribune in 2019.&nbsp;Larsen's work supports Stockton, but at the same time, he noted that the very definition of an assist leaves gray areas. <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2020/1/21/21074724/nba-home-court-assist-advantage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zach Kram wrote for The Ringer&nbsp;in 2020</a> about how even generous assist-crediting has changed in recent years.
So why is this suddenly captivating the league again? Three words: legalized sports betting.
Most basic NBA counting stats are now linked to video via the league's official database, with help from Second Spectrum. That opens up record-keeping to public eyes, including Redditors and people with money on the line.
Professional sports leagues, in marrying themselves to sports gambling, will face barrages of criticism about judgement calls because the stakes are higher than ever for viewers. The accuracy of block counts shouldn't be that big of a deal, nor should it factor so heavily into awards consideration as it is implied with Jackson. But it does now because millions of dollars can swing sides.
Maybe technological innovation renders human statskeeping obselete one day, and computers can track literal touches of a basketball with perfect precision. We're not there yet, though (and doesn't that get kind of creepy at a certain point?).
Defining assists and steals more clearly is one obvious pathway for improved transparency. For example, I firmly believe basketball should credit assists almost like hockey. Remove any subjective time measure or scoring difficulty component and automatically give an assist to the last passer of the score, provided the pass landed in the frontcourt. That's straightforward, and "good" assists are already up for debate anyway, so what would really change?
In general, today should really challenge the NBA fan base and betting base to understand the rulebook. At most, the major league analysts settled on 3-5 Jackson home blocks that were categorized questionably. The league itself backed up every swat. Amplifying a conspiracy theory like this one not only wastes a ton of time, but it means more ears will ignore future complaints, even if they do end up having merit.
It's great to hold pro sports leagues accountable, but you better be right when you do.
THE OUTLIERS (a.k.a. other random interesting numbers I found in the void):
<ul>
<li>For the record, <a href="https://twitter.com/SethPartnow/status/1619447671407738882?s=20&amp;t=V5yQjofyh8QAY1bsYGNRTQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jaren Jackson Jr. is as good a defender as any and all numbers say.</a></li>
<li>Another data point for this season's ridiculous NBA scoring:</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
The number of players with a 30-point game in each NBA season. <a href="https://t.co/ur04gbctPu">pic.twitter.com/ur04gbctPu</a>
&mdash; Todd Whitehead (@CrumpledJumper) <a href="https://twitter.com/CrumpledJumper/status/1617260889497047040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2023</a></blockquote>

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<ul>
<li>Caitlin Clark is one of the most mind-boggling scorers in the world:</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
The longest range shooters in women's college hoops: <a href="https://t.co/b5x7zc4FVV">pic.twitter.com/b5x7zc4FVV</a>
&mdash; Synergy Basketball (@SynergySST) <a href="https://twitter.com/SynergySST/status/1617691933945782278?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2023</a></blockquote>

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<ul>
<li>This is just over a week old now, but a really interesting graphic from SIS Hoops. Lauri Markkanen stands out to me:</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
A player's shot diet can shift meaningfully from year to year. Here's a look at the players who have experienced the largest changes in median shot distance this year compared to last: <a href="https://t.co/OK8BLRqwt0">pic.twitter.com/OK8BLRqwt0</a>
&mdash; SIS Hoops (@SIS_Hoops) <a href="https://twitter.com/SIS_Hoops/status/1616461874622513153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2023</a>
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</blockquote>

Ethan Fuller breaks down the realities of the Jaren Jackson Jr. stats conspiracy theory and its implications.

NBA Stats Notebook: What happens if you don't believe the stats?

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) &mdash; Emanuel Sharp came off the bench to score 18 points and No. 3 Houston bounced back from a loss that knocked it from the top spot in the rankings, beating UCF 82-71 on Wednesday night.
Jarace Walker added 17 points, Jamal Shead had 14 points and 10 assists, and Marcus Sasser also scored 14 for the Cougars (19-2, 7-1 American Athletic Conference), who lost 56-55 at home to Temple on Sunday.
Ithiel Horton scored 18 points and Taylor Hendricks had 17 for UCF (13-7, 4-4). Hendricks&rsquo; three-point play capped a 6-0 run that pulled the Knights within 67-62 with 7:02 remaining.
NO. 2 ALABAMA 66, MISSISSIPPI STATE 63
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) &mdash; Jahvon Quinerly scored 14 points and Alabama rallied from a 10-point deficit in the second half to beat Mississippi State.
The Crimson Tide (18-2, 8-0 Southeastern Conference) had to climb out of a hole and then hold on two days after reaching the program&rsquo;s highest ranking since rising to No. 1 in the 2002-03 season. The result was a ninth straight win and the first real scare during that stretch.
Quinerly had four assists for the Tide and scored nine in the second half. Brandon Miller and Noah Clowney both scored 13, and Clowney had eight rebounds.
Tolu Smith led Mississippi State (12-8, 1-7) with 15 points and seven rebounds. Dashawn Davis added 14.
NO. 4 TENNESSEE 70, GEORGIA 41
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) &mdash; Zakai Zeigler had 11 points and seven assists and Tennessee held its 10th opponent to 50 or fewer points.
Tobe Awaka came off the bench to score 10 points. Santiago Vescovi had six rebounds, four assists and six steals to go with his eight points as Tennessee (17-3, 7-1 Southeastern Conference) got its first win at home since having its 25-game home winning streak snapped by Kentucky more than a week ago.
The Bulldogs (13-7, 3-4), who managed just 29% shooting from the field, were led by Terry Roberts with 11 points.
NO. 13 XAVIER 82, NO. 19 UCONN 79
STORRS, Conn. (AP) &mdash; Souley Boum scored 21 points, Colby Jones added 20 and Xavier won its 13th in 14 games.
Jack Nunge had 12 points and Jerome Hunter added 11 for Xavier (17-4, 9-1 Big East), which led by 17 in the first half and 39-24 at halftime.
Jordan Hawkins scored 26 of his 28 points in the second half for UConn (16-6, 5-6), leading a comeback that fell just short. Tristen Newton added 23 points for the Huskies.
TEXAS A&amp;M 79, NO. 15 AUBURN 63
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) &mdash; Tyrece Radford had 30 points and nine rebounds and Texas A&amp;M ended the nation&rsquo;s longest active home winning streak at 28 games.
The Aggies (14-6, 6-1 Southeastern Conference) used a strong offensive start to hand Auburn its first loss at Neville Arena since Feb. 23, 2021.
Wade Taylor IV finished with 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting for the Aggies.
Johni Broome and Wendell Green Jr. each scored 16 points for the Tigers (16-4, 6-2), who had won five straight games overall.
NO. 23 PROVIDENCE 79, BUTLER 58
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) &mdash; Bryce Hopkins had 16 points and seven rebounds as Providence dominated Butler inside.
Devin Carter added 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Friars (16-5, 8-2 Big East), who have won two straight since back-to-back losses at Creighton and Marquette. Providence had a 42-24 rebounding edge and outscored the Bulldogs 48-20 in the paint.
Eric Hunter Jr. had 12 points and Jayden Taylor scored 10 with a team-high five rebounds for Butler (11-11, 3-8).&nbsp;

A recap of Tuesday night's action in men's college hoops includes a bounce-back victory for the Cougars and an upset at Auburn.

Sharp scores 18 off the bench, leads No. 3 Houston over UCF

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) &mdash; KC Ndefo grabbed a rebound and made a follow-up layup with 1.6 seconds remaining to give Seton Hall a 67-66 come-from-behind win over No. 15 UConn on Wednesday night.
Ndefo grabbed his eighth rebound of the game and scored the decisive points as he was fouled on the play. He missed the ensuing free throw, but helped Seton Hall rally from a 17-point first-half deficit. He finished with 14 points.
Kadary Richmond had a game-high 18 points and 10 rebounds for Seton Hall (12-8, 5-4 Big East)
Adama Sanogo had 16 points and five rebounds and Jordan Hawkins added 13 points and six rebounds for UConn (15-5, 4-5), which was without coach Dan Hurley and associate head coach Kimani Young due to the coronavirus.
DEPAUL 73, NO. 8 XAVIER 72
CHICAGO (AP) &mdash; Umoja Gibson scored 22 points, Javan Johnson added 16 and DePaul surprised Xavier.
The Musketeers (15-4, 7-1 Big East) came in rolling with 11 straight wins &mdash; their best run since the 2015-16 team got off to a 12-0 start. But they came up short against the Blue Demons (9-10, 3-5).
DePaul led by seven with about eight minutes remaining and made just enough plays to come away with its first win over a top-10 team since beating No. 5 Butler exactly three years earlier at Wintrust Arena.
Zach Freemantle had 18 points and 12 rebounds for Xavier. Jack Nunge finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds. But Big East scoring leader Souley Boum scored a season-low four.
NO. 10 VIRGINIA 78, VIRGINIA TECH 68
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) &mdash; Kihei Clark had 20 points and became Virginia&rsquo;s career victories leader as a player with No. 111 as the Cavaliers handed Virginia Tech its sixth straight loss.
Armaan Franklin added 15 points and Jayden Gardner 12 for the Cavaliers (14-3, 6-2 Atlantic Coast Conference). Clark was tied with Mamadi Diane (2017-20) on the overall victories list and with 64 career ACC wins.
Darius Maddox led the Hokies (11-7, 1-6) with 13 points and Grant Basile had 12. Virginia Tech&rsquo;s losing streak has come winning 11 of its first 12 games.
WEST VIRGINIA 74, NO. 14 TCU 65
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) &mdash; Kedrian Johnson scored 20 points and West Virginia built a big early lead and outlasted TCU.
Jimmy Bell Jr. added 15 points and 12 rebounds for West Virginia (11-7, 1-5 Big 12), whose players slapped hands with the student section after breaking a five-game losing streak.
Mike Miles Jr. scored 21 points while Emanuel Miller and Damion Baugh had 13 apiece for TCU (14-4, 3-3), which has lost three of its last four after starting the season 13-1.
NO. 16 AUBURN 67, LSU 49
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) &mdash; Wendell Green Jr. and Jaylin Williams each scored 14 points to lead Auburn to its fourth straight victory.
KJ Williams and Trae Hannibal scored 16 points apiece for LSU (12-6, 1-5 Southeastern Conference), which dropped its fifth straight conference game.
Auburn (15-3, 5-1) never trailed in the game and was only seriously threatened in the early minutes of the second half.
LSU never trailed by fewer than 12 points over the last 10 minutes of the game. After reducing its deficit to two points at 37-35, LSU made four field goals the rest of the game.
NO. 20 MARQUETTE 83, NO. 22 PROVIDENCE 75
MILWAUKEE (AP) &mdash; Kam Jones had 21 points and Tyler Kolek scored 19 as Marquette defeated Providence for its sixth victory in seven games.
Olivier-Maxence Prosper added 13 points for Marquette (15-5, 7-2 Big East). Kolek also had eight rebounds and six assists.
Bryce Hopkins had 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Friars (14-5, 6-2), who lost their second straight after a nine-game winning streak. Ed Croswell led Providence with 20 points, and Devin Carter had 18.
MISSOURI 79, NO. 25 ARKANSAS 76
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) &mdash; Kobe Brown scored 17 points and hit two free throws with 29 seconds to lift Missouri over Arkansas.
DeAndre Gholston added 16 points and Sean East II added 12 for the Tigers (14-4, 3-3 SEC), who avenged a 74-68 loss in Fayetteville on Jan. 4.
Davonte Davis scored 18 points and Ricky Council IV had 13 for Arkansas, which has lost four in a row. Anthony Black added 15 points for the Razorbacks (12-6, 1-5).

A recap of Wednesday night's men's college basketball action includes three top-15 upsets.

Seton Hall rallies from 17 down, beats No. 15 UConn 67-66

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
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
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
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
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

SAN ANTONIO (AP) &mdash; LeBron James picked the perfect time for his best offensive output of the season.
James scored a season-high 39 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as the Los Angeles Lakers escaped with a 143-138 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night.
&ldquo;We gave up a ton in transition, we turned the ball over, couldn&rsquo;t get a defensive rebound at times,&rdquo; Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. &ldquo;But again, when you&rsquo;re able to score the ball, it covers up for a lot of mistakes.&rdquo;
San Antonio has lost eight straight, tied for the fourth-longest skid in franchise history.
James matched a career high with seven 3-pointers. He finished 11 for 21 from the field, including a booming one-handed dunk on a lob from Russell Westbrook with a minute remaining in the first half.
While James was playing in his second game following a five-game absence, Los Angeles center Anthony Davis sat out with a bruised left calf he sustained in Friday&rsquo;s victory over San Antonio.
&ldquo;We still honed in and do what we do best,&rdquo; former Spurs guard Lonnie Walker IV said. &ldquo;And LeBron took us home, he took us to victory."
The Lakers (7-12) have defeated the Spurs three times in a seven-game span.
Dennis Schroder had 21 points and six assists for Los Angeles. Walker had 19 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter to help seal the Lakers&rsquo; fifth victory in six games.
Los Angeles opened the season losing its first five games.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a sense of you&rsquo;re not really sure of each other, we don&rsquo;t know each other,&rdquo; James said of the start. &ldquo;But over the last couple of weeks, we continue to learn one another, we continue to play some good ball, share ball.&rdquo;
Keldon Johnson had 26 points and 10 rebounds for San Antonio. Tre Jones added 23 points and 13 assists, and Devin Vassell had 19 points.
After trailing the entirety of Friday&rsquo;s loss, San Antonio scored the game&rsquo;s first points on a short jumper by Jakob Poeltl. It was the Spurs&rsquo; first lead since Nov. 20 against the Lakers.
&ldquo;They have got great character,&rdquo; San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. &ldquo;I thought they were fantastic. I am proud of them. They just keep playing. It doesn&rsquo;t matter what the score is, or who is there or who is not there, they are unbelievably coachable and they are trying very hard to do what we want them to do. I was just thrilled and proud of them tonight."
After shooting 6 for 33 on 3-pointers in Friday&rsquo;s loss, the Spurs had a season-high 18 3-pointers. San Antonio was 8 for 15 on 3s in the first half and 18 for 37 overall.
The momentum stalled when the Spurs lost two starters to right quadriceps injuries in the second quarter.
Poeltl had 12 points and nine rebounds in 10 minutes before exiting the game with 7:59 left in the first half. Poeltl felt soreness after landing awkwardly on a dunk.
San Antonio then lost rookie forward Jeremy Sochan with 4:54 remaining in the first half. Sochan took a knee to his right thigh when his layup attempt was blocked by Thomas Bryant.
The Spurs also lost reserve center Zach Collins to an ejection for a flagrant foul on Westbrook with two minutes left in the third quarter.
TIP-INS
Lakers: Westbrook suffered a deep cut at his hairline after taking a right elbow from Collins. After rebounding his own missed layup, Westbrook faked a follow and Collins leapt and came crashing down on him. Westbrook began bleeding profusely immediately but quickly rose from the court to confront Collins. Westbrook was issued a technical foul but Collins was ejected after video review. &hellip; G Patrick Beverley served the second game of a three-game suspension for forcefully shoving Phoenix center Deandre Ayton from behind in Tuesday&rsquo;s loss.
Spurs: San Antonio&rsquo;s longest losing streak is 13 straight in 1989 followed by 10 straight in 1987 and nine straight in 1989. The Spurs have lost eight straight in five other seasons, including 2020 and 1989. San Antonio finished 21-61 in 1989, the final season of David Robinson&rsquo;s two-year commitment to the Navy before joining the Spurs. &hellip; G Josh Richardson missed his third straight game with a sprained right ankle.
UP NEXT
Lakers: Host Indiana on Monday.
Spurs: At Oklahoma City on Wednesday.

LeBron James scored a season-high 39 points as the Lakers escaped with a 143-138 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night.

LeBron James' season-high 39 points lead Lakers by Spurs, 143-138

Over the last week, I have been very active on social media voicing my views on the Kyrie Irving situation, which prompted quite a few active NBA players to reach out to me privately to express that they too shared the view that the six requirements laid out for Irving to end his indefinite suspension were not only way over the top and excessive, but insulting.&nbsp;
Let&rsquo;s do a quick recap of the events that have led us to this point.&nbsp;
Irving shared a link to the documentary &ldquo;From Hebrews To Negroes: Wake Up Black America" without context, which caused a firestorm, as many viewed this as an endorsement of the film.&nbsp;
At his initial press conference, he expressed his reasoning for sharing the doc, saying, &ldquo;When I post, it does not mean that I support everything that&rsquo;s being said or everything that&rsquo;s being done or [that] I&rsquo;m campaigning for anything. All I do is post things for my people and my community.&rdquo;&nbsp;
He also said:&nbsp;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a divisive person when it comes to religion. I embrace all walks of life. You see it on all my platforms. I talk to all races, all cultures, all religions. And my response would be, it&rsquo;s not about educating yourself on what antisemitism is. It&rsquo;s really about where the root words come from and understanding that this is an African heritage that is also belonging to the people. Africa is in it, whether we want to dismiss it or not. So the claims of antisemitism; who are the original chosen people of God? And we go into these religious conversations and it&rsquo;s a big no-no, I don&rsquo;t live my life that way. I grew up in a melting pot, and I say a melting pot of all races: white, black, red, yellow, Jewish, Christian, Muslim. You see the way I live my life now, I&rsquo;m not here to be divisive."
This was prior to his spat with ESPN's Nick Friedell.&nbsp;
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This was met with criticism, condemnation and accusations that Kyrie was antisemitic, since people felt he was endorsing and promoting antisemitic propaganda (which he said wasn&rsquo;t his intention).
The media as a collective began taking turns bashing Kyrie, attributing beliefs to him that he did not express, and since he didn&rsquo;t vehemently denounce these ideas, many took that as an endorsement. It's not uncommon for athletes to be attacked by certain media talking-heads who shall remain nameless, but what we saw was a unified, non-stop, public lashing of Kyrie across the board.&nbsp;
He deleted his tweet. Then, during another press conference, he was asked if he was antisemitic and his answer was, "I cannot be antisemitic if I know where I come from." He also explained that he meant no harm, while adding that he wasn&rsquo;t the one who made the documentary.
This drew the ire of Brooklyn Nets governor Joe Tsai, as Irving was swiftly suspended for a minimum of five games and given six steps that had to be completed before he would be allowed to return.
The Nets released a press release that stated: "We were dismayed today, when given an opportunity in a media session, that Kyrie refused to unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs, nor acknowledge hateful material in the film. This was not the first time he had the opportunity &mdash; but failed &mdash; to clarify. Such failure to disavow antisemitism when given a clear opportunity to do so is deeply disturbing, is against the values of our organization, and constitutes conduct detrimental to the team. Accordingly, we are of the view that he is currently unfit to be associated with the Brooklyn Nets."
Many people (including some who strongly condemned Kyrie for posting the link to the documentary) viewed this as a blatant attempt to emasculate and dehumanize Irving in front of the entire world.&nbsp;
Irving eventually posted <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Ckhj8iIu0HN/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a lengthy apology</a> to the entire Jewish community on Instagram.
As I voiced my personal disproval of the six steps he had to complete to return &mdash; which is unprecedented for an NBA suspension &mdash; that&rsquo;s when I started receiving messages from active players who were also outraged by the treatment Kyrie was receiving. However, they didn&rsquo;t feel comfortable saying anything out of fear that a similar outrage would be directed toward them or that an objection to Kyrie's punishment would be interpreted as supporting him posting the movie. They didn't want to be lumped in with Kyrie and face the same backlash. Their apprehension was very understandable.&nbsp;
This caused me to ponder the question: what if this Kyrie backlash causes athletes to go silent again? After all, besides Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and Craig Hodges, athletes were pretty quiet back in the 1990s. That continued through my era in the early 2000s. Only recently, since Colin Kaepernick's protest, has there been a resurgence of athletes using their platforms and voices, and it&rsquo;s been beautiful to see. But it&rsquo;s also important to note that since Kaepernick took his stance, he has not played a single snap in the NFL. In addition, all of the protests have stopped and, for the most part, NFL players speaking out has significantly reduced almost to a whisper. Could that happen in the NBA?&nbsp;
Over the last 24 hours, both NBA commissioner Adam Silver and Joe Tsai said that they have met with Kyrie and can report that, in their opinion, he is not antisemitic, which has led many to believe that Irving will be returning to the court soon. But has the damage already been done?
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I reached out to Emerald Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner who has a newly-released book that I co-wrote called <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Finding-My-Voice-Grieving-Pushing/dp/1642598313/ref=nodl_?dplnkId=163ffcc0-f0f3-4ecf-b8fa-907636f54c3f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"Finding My Voice,"</a> to discuss this situation. We talked about what it meant to her personally when athletes used their voices and platforms to support her family and whether the Kyrie backlash might scare players into being silent going forward.
Etan: Do you think the backlash that Kyrie Irving is currently receiving has the potential to silence athletes?&nbsp;
Emerald: "I hope not. Listen, I don&rsquo;t know anything about the film, and don&rsquo;t support antisemitism in any form or fashion, but I didn&rsquo;t actually hear Kyrie say anything antisemitic. And correct me if I&rsquo;m wrong, but he didn&rsquo;t produce the documentary, did he? They&rsquo;re acting like it&rsquo;s his film."
Etan: No, he didn&rsquo;t produce it, but to be fair, he did share it without context. But he also cleared up his reasoning for sharing it in his initial press conference. He said he was just sharing it for the information and wasn&rsquo;t endorsing or promoting the film.
Emerald: "So, he apologized and deleted it, right?"
Etan: Yes, he did.
Emerald: "But he still has to go through all of these hoops before he gets to play again?"
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Etan: Yes, the six steps he has to complete are:
1) He has to apologize and condemn the film
2) Make a $500,000 donation to anti-hate causes
3) Complete sensitivity training
4) Complete antisemitism training&nbsp;
5) Meet with the Anti-Defamation League and Jewish leaders
6) Meet with Joe Tsai to &ldquo;demonstrate an understanding of the situation.&rdquo;
Emerald: "Wow, that&rsquo;s really a lot. So let me say it like this: officer Daniel Pantaleo murdered my father in broad daylight on video and he didn&rsquo;t have to do anything before he returned to active duty. I wrote about it in my book how traumatizing it was to see him laughing and joking with other cops on the street like nothing happened. He didn&rsquo;t have to do anything. He didn&rsquo;t even have to apologize to the family of the man he murdered. But they&rsquo;re gonna make Kyrie do all this before he can play basketball?"&nbsp;
Etan: Wow, that&rsquo;s a great point.
Emerald: "Listen, Kyrie and LeBron and all of the players on the Brooklyn Nets at the time and Kobe and all of the Lakers team supported my family after my father was choked to death by the NYPD. Back then, every time I turned on the TV, all I saw were people justifying his murder and saying why my father deserved to die. I will forever be thankful to him and all the athletes who stood with us for that."
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Etan: Yeah, a lot of people were quiet then, but athletes weren&rsquo;t. That started a new boom of athletes using their voices and platforms. That&rsquo;s why I wrote my book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/We-Matter-Athletes-Activism-Sports/dp/1617755915/ref=nodl_?dplnkId=3aa7746c-b367-4e3f-b314-48164e0e4144" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"We Matter: Athletes And Activism"</a> and interviewed so many athletes and impacted family members. I wanted to encourage the next generation of athletes to continue to use their voices and show the impact it has. My fear now is that after this, athletes may start being quiet again or people may advise them to be quiet again in fear of the Kyrie Irving treatment.
Emerald: "And that would be tragic. You have done an amazing job promoting that concept and, yes, there is great power in their voices. When I turned on the TV and saw all of the NBA players wearing 'I Can&rsquo;t Breathe' shirts&hellip; I&rsquo;m getting emotional right now..."
Etan: I&rsquo;m sorry, I don&rsquo;t want to trigger you.
Emerald: "No, it&rsquo;s ok. You know I always get emotional when we talk, and we talked about this in my book, but when I saw them wearing those shirts, it made me feel seen. That someone actually cared about what happened to my father. It didn&rsquo;t feel like anyone cared. The police definitely didn&rsquo;t show any remorse. They all stood around and watched as Officer Pantaleo choked my father to death, then they all supported Pantaleo, not one of them condemned anything. So many people supported Pantaleo like they always do when the police murder someone. But it was Kyrie and NBA players who supported me. And my father loved basketball. He loved every New York team that existed. Even sports he wasn&rsquo;t even that into, if they were [a team in] New York, he supported them. He would&rsquo;ve been so proud how they all supported him. I can see his big smile now. I can&rsquo;t tell you how much I miss seeing that big smile of his."&nbsp;
Etan: It&rsquo;s so important that people know this, and understand this. I&rsquo;ve gone on multiple programs recently and said that silencing athletes that you disagree with isn&rsquo;t the answer. Instead, have an actual dialogue. And I really believe that.
Emerald: "Listen, we have done enough speaking engagements for me to fully understand and be a supporter of dialogue. Of course it&rsquo;s important. And not lectures but actually listening to because, correct me if I&rsquo;m wrong, but I didn&rsquo;t hear Kyrie say anything bad or anti-anything. He said I love everyone, I respect all religions. It&rsquo;s like they&rsquo;re trying to make him believe things that he didn&rsquo;t say he believed. At least that&rsquo;s how I see it."
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Etan: I definitely agree. I didn&rsquo;t hear him actually say anything antisemitic. I&rsquo;m just worried about the effect it will have on athletes moving forward. When I was playing, I had so many people warn me to be careful (including David Stern). I had other people who literally said you don&rsquo;t want to get done like Craig Hodges or Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. I heard Shannon Sharpe initially say that on his show "Undisputed." I see people putting that notion out there.
Emerald: "Well, that would be tragic if athletes did 'shut up and dribble.' I&rsquo;mma be honest, I didn&rsquo;t realize the impact y&rsquo;all have until I started working with you and talking to other impacted families who had athletes stand up for them. How Russell Westbrook spoke up for Terence Crutcher, how Stephen Jackson spoke up for George Floyd, how LeBron speaks up for a lot of families, how the whole Milwaukee Bucks [team] spoke up for Jacob Blake, how the whole NBA spoke up for Breonna Taylor and I can go on and on and on. It&rsquo;s important. Take it from me, it means everything."

Could this Kyrie Irving situation silence athletes going forward? Etan Thomas discusses this with Eric Garner's daughter, Emerald.

Emerald Garner hopes Kyrie Irving backlash doesn’t silence athletes

Offenses have never been more lethal than they are in this era. With primary ball-handlers becoming larger, the collective shooting range expanding and teams leaning further into the importance of spacing, it&rsquo;s becoming even more difficult to keep the ball out of the basket.
With the game expanding, screening has become even more important. A well-placed off-ball pick can free a movement shooter for a triple or a catch-and-drive. On-ball screens can make shifty ball-handlers even harder to deal with in pick-and-roll and open the door for dump-offs, lobs and fruitful catch-and-shoot opportunities.&nbsp;
Screeners come in all sizes these days, ranging from the burly centers to mismatch-causing smalls. <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/changing-of-the-guard-the-future-of-screening-is-here" target="_blank" rel="noopener">I can&rsquo;t overstate how important guard-screening has become</a>, especially late in games.
This season, I want to keep tabs on who is &mdash; and isn&rsquo;t &mdash; getting the job done as screeners. Every week, I&rsquo;ll be highlighting a handful of the most powerful or shameful screen-setters in the league.
Let&rsquo;s get into it.
*All stats are through games played on October 29.*
BIG OF THE WEEK: STEVEN ADAMS
Assuming you&rsquo;re not a student of the James Harden School of Internet Consumption (JHSIC), you&rsquo;re likely aware of Ja Morant&rsquo;s MVP-level tear to begin the season.&nbsp;
He&rsquo;s once again living in the paint, making up finishing moves in midair. If that wasn&rsquo;t enough, he now has the audacity to bomb away from three with blistering efficiency (56.5% on 4.6 attempts).&nbsp;
Morant is nearly impossible to deal with in his own right; his blend of speed, ball-handling, leaping ability and body control is frankly unfair. With an oak tree like Steven Adams clearing a runway, there really isn&rsquo;t much you can do with him.
Among bigs who have set at least 75 on-ball picks, nobody has done a better job of laying down the law than Adams, connecting on 83.8% of his screens, per Second Spectrum. The Grizzlies have generated 1.04 points per possession (PPP) on trips featuring a Morant-Adams ball screen, one of the better marks in the league among high-volume pairings.
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That value extends off the ball, with his partnership with Desmond Bane being especially fruitful (1.24 PPP). Oh, he&rsquo;s generated contact on 75% of those screens too.
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Adams may not get many buckets off his rolls, but he makes the Grizzlies better. Keep it up, big fella.
WE SEE YOU: AL HORFORD
We won't talk about the defense right now, but the Celtics have generally been fun offensively. They rank first by a decent margin in half-court offense (107.5 ORTG), according to the good folks at Cleaning The Glass.
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The off-ball movement of this group has hit differently since the turn of the calendar. With Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown both comfortable attacking off screens, the Celtics often opt to have one &mdash; or somtimes both of them at the same time &mdash; coming off pindowns from the corner.
If you're watching a Celtic game and see that setup developing, keep an eye on the side with Al Horford on it. He gets wide and sturdy, consistently prying guys open for shots or drives.
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SMALL OF THE WEEK: FRED VANVLEET
If the Raptors need a half-court bucket &mdash; which is pretty often, considering they rank 26th in half-court offense right now &mdash; you can expect them to turn to Pascal Siakam. And if they need want to torture defenses in the process, they'll have Fred VanVleet set a screen for Siakam.
The benefits are obvious. You generally don't want to switch your point guards onto a mid-post bully like Siakam. If you're caught trying to stay attached, you run the risk of opening a driving window for Siakam, a three-point window for VanVleet or an open shot for someone else while you try to recover.&nbsp;
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A quick stat: the Raptors are generating a blistering 1.28 PPP on trips featuring a Siakam-VanVleet ball screen. There really isn't much you can do against it.
YOU SHOULD HAVE THE FACILITIES FOR THIS, BIG MAN: ANTHONY DAVIS
There's an argument to be made that grace should be afforded here. Anthony Davis has once again been dealing with body ailments, and it isn't like there's a ton of space to roll into within the Lakers' half-court offense.
But, man, some of the whiffs or lapses in effort are pretty loud, even with that context.
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I only went with three clips. You can find <a href="https://twitter.com/_JasonLT/status/1583529558115876864?s=20&amp;t=ymXCTvnbZWFno1opCuSZ5Q" target="_blank" rel="noopener">others elsewhere</a>. He's connected on less than half of his on-ball picks (47.7%) to this point of the season. He needs help going off in this context, but he has to help himself at a certain point. Commit to getting guys downhill and see what may open up.
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WE SEE YOU, TOO: ALEKSEJ POKUSEVSKI, MYLES TURNER
Poku, brother, I beg. We understand you're a slight guy, but at least pretend to set an angle and give your guards something to work with. Getting in the pocket doesn't mean as much if the ball-handler's defender doesn't have to think about you at all.
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Among 53 players to set at least 70 on-ball picks, Pokusevski ranks 52nd in the percentage of screens he generates contact on (41.7%). It simply won't do, especially if the Thunder actually want to sprinkle in some Poku-at-5 minutes.&nbsp;
Who's 53rd on that list, you ask? Well, that honor would belong to Myles Turner (33.8%).
I'm giving a little grace because he's has only played two games this season. I emphasize "little" here, because this is a multi-year trend with him. There's a thin line between slipping a screen to keep the defense off balance or honest, and slipping because you want the back &mdash; and leaving your ball-handler out to dry in the process.
It's only been a couple of games, but these aren't the reps you want to see to kick off the year.
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Screen Time will be back next Saturday!

Nekias Duncan takes a look at some of the best — and worst — screeners in the early portion of the 2022-23 NBA season.

Screen Time Vol. 1: Highlighting the NBA's best and worst screeners

Spencer Davies recaps Donovan Mitchell's introductory press conference in downtown Cleveland with the Cavaliers.