Warriors

Anyone else love going back and looking at old box scores and falling down afternoon-long rabbit holes, or am I the weirdo?
You might&rsquo;ve read the headline and either recalled this event actually happening, or are befuddled at how such a thing could take place, even in that NBA.
This article, published on April 6, 2022, marks 25 years since the Del Harris-led Los Angeles Lakers held Jim Cleamons and his Dallas Mavericks to 2 points in the third quarter of a regular-season game.
The contest was held at the LA Forum, where a 50-24 Laker team met a 22-53 Mavs squad with two weeks remaining before the playoffs started. Staples wasn&rsquo;t that big yet, and Crypto didn&rsquo;t exist. (Some might say it still doesn&rsquo;t, but you can fight about that amongst yourselves.)
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A large-ass, Biggie verse-having, All-Star center named Shaquille O&rsquo;Neal had been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/14/sports/injury-to-o-neal-is-a-blow-to-lakers.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">out with a knee injury</a> suffered that February, which he returned from five days later. Something tells me, if you made it here, you&rsquo;ve heard of him. Also on the Lakers, quite famously, was a talented rookie named Kobe Bryant, who had been playing regular rotation minutes at 18 years old, but wasn&rsquo;t yet Kobe.
The Mavericks had traded a controversial-but-talented point guard in Jason Kidd earlier in the season &mdash; along with Tony Dumas and Loren Meyer &mdash; to the Phoenix Suns for a package highlighted by Michael Finley, Sam Cassell and A.C. Green. They also dealt Jamal Mashburn to the Miami Heat several weeks later for Kurt Thomas, Sasa Danilović and Martin M&uuml;&uuml;rsepp.
And right before the deadline, Dallas rerouted Cassell as part of a five-man package including Jim Jackson, George McCloud (who wound up on the Lakers retroactively), Eric Montross and Chris Gatling for Shawn Bradley, Khalid Reeves, Robert Pack and Ed O&rsquo;Bannon &mdash; famously the Most Outstanding Player of the 1995 Final Four, and <a href="https://www.primerus.com/business-law-articles/ed-obannon-shines-a-light-upon-student-athletes-right-of-publicity-624201.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">killer of EA's NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball video game franchises</a>. This move not only cemented Dallas&rsquo; rebuild, but it officially made way for a <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/mavericks/2018/06/06/flashback-jamal-mashburn-on-what-really-happened-between-jason-kidd-jim-jackson-and-toni-braxton/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Toni Braxton-less future in Texas</a>.
The Mavericks, <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DAL/1997_games.html">who came in as losers of 10 straight heading into this game</a> &mdash; a lengthy skid that never saw the team score more than 92 points &mdash; went into Hollywood and started Pack, Finley, Green, Bradley and Derek Harper. Without Shaq, the Lakers began with Derek Fisher, Eddie Jones, Jerome Kersey, Corie Blount and Sean Rooks, who played a game-high 43 minutes (33 over his season average).
<a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/199704060LAL.html">The Mavericks led 30-17 after the first quarter and 51-37 at halftime</a>. The teams combined to attempt 12 threes in the first half, which most teams would typically combine to do in a quarter today. The Mavericks shot 21 of 44 from the field and outrebounded the Lakers 24-16 while holding L.A. to 12 of 32 shooting.
Bryant and Robert Horry went a combined 2 of 9 off the bench, and Rooks had logged 10 points and 7 boards to that point. Harper and Finley combined for 25 points on 9 of 15 shooting, while Bradley had 9 points and 9 rebounds.
Okay, now let's get to why you&rsquo;re here.
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Not only did the Mavericks score 2 points in the entire third quarter, but the points came from a pair of Harper free throws with 1:51 left in the quarter. So it took over 10 minutes to even get on the board in this period.
Anyway, the Mavericks shot 0 of 15 from the field for the quarter and missed all 4 of their three-balls. They also had 9 turnovers and only made one substitution over the entire 12 minutes, removing Pack for Sa&scaron;a Danilović about halfway through the third. That meant Green, Harper, Finley and Bradley were each a minus-25 for the quarter, and Pack was a minus-20.
For good measure, the Mavericks third quarter could be summed up like this:
<ul>
<li>Points: 2</li>
<li>Fouls: 3</li>
</ul>
The Lakers outscored the Mavericks 27-2 and still just led 64-53 after three. L.A. shot 10 of 17 in the quarter, made 5 of 7 triples, only needed to pull down 8 rebounds and turned the ball over just twice.
The Mavs outdid their horrific third quarter only 48 seconds into the fourth with two layups. They even cut their deficit to as close as 7 points in garbage time before the Lakers pulled away with a 87-80 win.
Fisher scored 21 points &mdash; not even close to a career-high for him &mdash; but to that point, his highest point tally had been just 14. In fact, the 21 points would remain a career-best mark for Fisher until he netted 26 points on March 13, 2001 in a win over the Boston Celtics four years later.
Sean &ldquo;2019 Bam Adebayo&rdquo; Rooks ended the night with 15 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 blocks. Bryant logged about 22 minutes off the bench, netting 13 points on 3 of 9 shooting, also finishing with 3 steals and going a perfect 5 of 5 at the free-throw line.
Harper led the Mavs with 18 points on 6 of 15 shooting. Finley only put up 9 shots in over 34 minutes of play. The next time he put up just 9 shots in that many minutes? <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200203310WAS.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">March 31, 2002</a>.
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So, what ended up happening to these two teams? Glad you asked!
The Lakers finished 56-26 and fourth in the Western Conference, sweeping the Kenny Anderson, Isaiah Rider, and Rasheed Wallace-led Portland Trail Blazers in Round 1. Then, in the West semifinals, L.A. fell to the No. 1 seed Utah Jazz, who eventually lost to the Chicago Bulls in the 1997 NBA Finals. The Lakers still had a few more years of Harris before Phil Jackson eventually came to clean things up prior to the 1999-2002 three-peat era.
The Mavericks finished 24-58 and were actually still fourth in the Midwest Division among seven teams, completing 1996-97 with only the sixth-worst record in the league. Unfortunately, they didn&rsquo;t own their own draft pick, but fortunately, the Celtics &mdash; who had it at No. 6 &mdash; used it on Ron Mercer, so it wasn&rsquo;t an egregious miss.
Tracy McGrady did go No. 9 overall, and the Mavs did settle on Kelvin Cato at No. 15, but they landed with a kid named Dirk Nowitzki in the 1998 NBA Draft after another 20-win season.
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Bryan Fonseca revisits when the Mavericks only mustered a measly 2 points in the third quarter against the Lakers.

25 years ago, the Mavericks scored just 2 points in an entire quarter

It still feels like yesterday.
Boston Garden was going crazy because we knew the championship was ours. Guys started celebrating, Paul dumped that red Gatorade on Doc&rsquo;s head and we all celebrated like 10-year-old kids.
Somehow, it&rsquo;s already been 14 years since we beat the Lakers in the 2008 NBA Finals, and even after all this time, I haven&rsquo;t forgotten those moments. It&rsquo;s like I have pictures ingrained in my head.
And going back to where it all went down to join my teammates to honor Kevin Garnett &mdash; even after all these years, man, Boston still feels like home.
I feel so blessed to have been able to play a part in such a great team accomplishing the ultimate goal. And we all felt like we played a small part in Ticket&rsquo;s jersey getting retired.
Last weekend, I was invited by the Celtics organization to attend Kevin Garnett&rsquo;s jersey retirement ceremony. It was scheduled to happen during Sunday&rsquo;s game against the Mavericks, and a bunch of the members of the 2008 team got together and spent the entire weekend in Boston. It was amazing.
It was like the band was back together. Just like old times, I was hanging out, cracking jokes and reminiscing with Paul Pierce, Big Baby Davis and Eddie House. I got to chop it up a bit and catch up with Danny Ainge. And of course, I got to not only catch up with Ray Allen and KG; I got to see them publicly, and once and for all, squash whatever beef they may have had.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
About last night. Appreciate the love as always <a href="https://twitter.com/celtics?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@celtics</a> Great to be HOME<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KGweekend?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KGweekend</a> <a href="https://t.co/Vt5ZRqw8bP">pic.twitter.com/Vt5ZRqw8bP</a>
&mdash; James Posey (@James_Posey41) <a href="https://twitter.com/James_Posey41/status/1502702175775907840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Sometimes in life, one tiny decision you make ends up having such a huge impact. Before I signed with Boston, I really thought I was going to New Jersey to play with Jason Kidd and the Nets. But for a few reasons, I ended up heading to Boston instead.
One of the things I&rsquo;ll always remember about being a Celtic was the fact that when I came to Boston, I was the only player on the team who had already won a championship. Doc would sometimes ask me questions in front of the team and want to get my perspective. He&rsquo;d ask me about things that Pat Riley preached and habits that Dwyane Wade and Shaq had. He figured that I&rsquo;d gotten the top of the mountain, so I at least knew what the view looked like, you know?
But even though I had that experience, being around Ticket was just different.
He was so easy to rally around because he made it his personal duty to do all that he could to push everybody around him. And even after all these years, he still has the same unique energy.
When Ticket walks in the room, it&rsquo;s like you immediately get on guard. He just makes you want to be sharp and on point. He has the same energy today, but it was that times 10 when he was your teammate pushing you on the floor.
Everyone on the 2008 team just has a special love and appreciation for Ticket.
So being able to reconnect with guys that you won a championship with and doing it in honor of someone who helped to bring out the best in you, that just made the entire weekend in Boston all the more enjoyable.
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It felt like everywhere we went in the city this past Friday and Saturday, people loved us and respected us and knew us by name. With the Celtics organization itself, they treated us like first-class citizens and made sure we were taken care of.
Not only does Boston remember what we achieved, they will never stop showing us love. And we owe a lot of that to KG. It was nice to see him get the highest honor that an organization is able to bestow on one of its own.
What I&rsquo;ll remember most from that weekend &mdash; aside from Jaylen Brown&rsquo;s <a href="https://twitter.com/celtics/status/1503106193102831620" target="_blank" rel="noopener">monstrous dunk</a> over Maxi Kleber &mdash; was KG shedding tears as he saw his jersey go up into the rafters.
A couple of us, including Big Kendrick Perkins, may have had one or two side bets about whether Ticket would cry. KG himself didn&rsquo;t think he would crack, but he obviously couldn&rsquo;t hold it all together, so we at least have something to tease him about the next time we see one another.
When I replay the weekend in my head, though, I kept finding myself thinking about Ray Allen. I was happy to see him there, but wasn&rsquo;t surprised that he attended.
I knew that everything that was said about him after he left for Miami would eventually become water under the bridge. But I knew that because I was a member of that team. The guys on that 2008 team simply loved each other too much and had too strong of a bond to let Ray&rsquo;s decision to leave ruin the bond forever. Even as words were exchanged over the years, I had all the confidence in the world that KG and Ray would bury the hatchet, and it unexpectedly happened during KG&rsquo;s moment.
While being interviewed during his jersey-retirement ceremony, out of nowhere, Ticket basically interrupted the interviewer just to say that it was good to see Ray there. Everyone started cheering before the two met at halfcourt and hugged.
As great as he was, Ticket was truly unselfish. So I guess it was fitting for him to share his moment in the spotlight with Ray and finally, publicly, squash the beef.
Nothing says &ldquo;brother&rdquo; more than that.
I think what most people don&rsquo;t really understand about being a pro athlete is how strong the relationship between teammates can become. The longer guys are together, the deeper the connection usually gets. And when you actually have success as teammates and when you win a championship together, it&rsquo;s almost as if the bond is solidified. And I speak from experience. Not only do you become members of an elite fraternity together, you helped one another get there.
Deep down inside, I think Ticket and Ray both had those feelings about each other.
After what&rsquo;s been said over the past few years, that was a beautiful thing to witness, and I&rsquo;m happy I was there in person to see it.
I&rsquo;ll never forget seeing KG and Ray hugging and jumping up and down at halfcourt at TD Garden back in 2008. It truly feels like yesterday.
In honor of Kevin Garnett &mdash; our leader and the engine that pushed that team &mdash; no other Celtic will ever wear No. 5.
I&rsquo;m proud to call him a friend and a teammate, and even prouder to see him receive the ultimate honor.
Fortunately, I have some new memories that I&rsquo;ll forever cherish.
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James Posey recounts his trip to Boston for Kevin Garnett's jersey retirement, which basically became a 2008 Celtics reunion weekend.

Even after 14 years, I was right at home with Kevin Garnett in Boston

When Edniesha Curry first found out new Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups was interested in talking with her, she was skeptical.
After all, the California-born Curry was a longtime Lakers fan who rued when Billups and the Detroit Pistons beat Los Angeles in the 2004 NBA Finals.
She jokes about it, but it was a good thing she took Billups' call. Now the former WNBA guard known as &ldquo;Eddie" is an assistant coach on Billups' staff, the first woman to serve as an assistant in Blazers history and currently one of just six women coaching in the NBA.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;d never met him before, just knew him as a player. Man, I&rsquo;ve got nightmares of him beating up on my Lakers back in the day,&rdquo; Curry said. &ldquo;But we had a synergy right away from the beginning.&rdquo;
This isn't a novelty to Curry, who was the only woman on the coaching staff of a Division I men's college team when she became an assistant at Maine for the 2018-19 season. In meeting with reporters for the first time, she raised her hand to tell them that, yes, she is a woman. It was her way of breaking the ice and getting the issue out of the way so she could focus on basketball.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never put a difference on it &mdash; whether I was coaching men or women," said Curry, 42. &ldquo;For me, it has always been about being in the right space with the right people. And that&rsquo;s literally how I said yes to being a men&rsquo;s basketball coach."
The first woman to serve as an NBA assistant was Lisa Boyer &mdash; now an assistant on Dawn Staley's staff at South Carolina. She was a volunteer with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 2001-02 season. She wasn't paid and couldn't travel with the team.
It would take until 2014 for a woman to become a full-time NBA assistant: Becky Hammon, who was hired by Gregg Popovich in San Antonio.
If you count Boyer, there have been 15 women to serve as assistants in the NBA. This season, Curry joins Jenny Boucek (Pacers), Kristi Toliver (Mavericks), Lindsey Harding (Kings), Teresa Weatherspoon (Pelicans) and Sonia Raman (Grizzlies).
The Blazers interviewed Hammon for the team's head coaching job in the offseason. Hammon and Staley have long been considered the two women closest to landing a head coaching gig in the NBA.
&ldquo;NBA jobs are hard to get. In some ways, I feel like the NBA maybe is close. In other ways, I feel like they&rsquo;re a long ways off,&rdquo; said Hammon, who became coach of the WNBA&rsquo;s Las Vegas Aces in late December
Curry isn't the only woman in a high-profile position within the Blazers organization. Jessica Cohen was recently promoted to head athletic trainer &mdash; becoming the only woman to currently hold the post in the NBA. Asjha Jones is director of planning and strategy, while Sheri Sam is scouting director. Both are former WNBA players.
Billups said he was looking to create a diverse staff in his first year as a head coach. Mutual friend Tina Thompson connected him with Curry.
&ldquo;We probably talked on the phone for an hour. I interviewed some other candidates but I just loved Eddie," Billups said. "I thought she was just so brilliant. She was smart. She was confident. She knew her stuff. She knew the NBA game more than I&rsquo;d thought for somebody that&rsquo;s been in college for so long. Her player evaluations, I thought, were on point.&rdquo;
Curry, who is not related to the brothers Stephen and Seth Curry, played at Cal State Northridge and Oregon. After a couple of seasons in the WNBA, she went overseas and it was there she got her first coaching jobs.
Curry was a school teacher in Atlanta when she took the job as Richard Barron&rsquo;s assistant at Maine. She draws on her teaching experience to coach.
She is also aware that as a Black woman, she's a role model. Both for girls and boys, she emphasizes.
&ldquo;I always tell people don&rsquo;t ever ask anybody's permission, just be what you want to be in life. Own your story, own your journey, and wherever you end up, you end up," Curry said. &ldquo;My journey is not only mentoring or being a role model for young girls, it's also the young men that I get the opportunity to work alongside and mentor, too. And that's phenomenal."
___
This story was first published on Feb. 22, 2022. It was updated on Feb. 23, 2022, to correct that Jessica Cohen is not the first woman head trainer in the NBA. She&rsquo;s the only woman who is currently serving as a head trainer.

As a Black woman, Blazers assistant coach Edneisha Curry is a role model — both for girls and boys, she emphasizes.

Curry blazing her own trail in Portland as an assistant

Vanessa Bryant took Michael Jordan&rsquo;s hand and walked down from the stage, a familiar chant breaking out throughout the arena as she made her way back to her seat.
&ldquo;Kobe! Kobe! Kobe!&rdquo; the crowd shouted.
With that, he was &mdash; officially, finally &mdash; a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Kobe Bryant is in the Hall now, along with contemporaries Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, headliners of a group of nine who got their delayed and long-awaited enshrinement on Saturday night, more than a year after being announced as the Hall&rsquo;s Class of 2020.
&ldquo;Right now, I&rsquo;m sure he&rsquo;s laughing in heaven, because I&rsquo;m about to praise him in public,&rdquo; Vanessa Bryant said.
And she did, her purple dress matching the traditional Los Angeles Lakers color, capping the night by giving the speech that her husband was not here to deliver.
&ldquo;There will never be anyone like Kobe,&rdquo; Vanessa Bryant said. &ldquo;Kobe was one of a kind. He was special. He was humble &mdash; off the court &mdash; but bigger than life.&rdquo;
Bryant, Duncan and Garnett were joined in the class by three-time NCAA champion coach Kim Mulkey, two-time NBA champion coach Rudy Tomjanovich, four-time Olympic gold medalist Tamika Catchings, three-time Final Four coach Eddie Sutton, 1,000-game winner Barbara Stevens and longtime FIBA secretary general Patrick Baumann.
&ldquo;I appreciate you,&rdquo; Garnett said to Duncan from the stage. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an honor to go into the hall with you, bro. You and Kob.&rdquo;
Duncan stayed true to who he is: modest and humble, on a day where his Spurs coach, Gregg Popovich, missed a game to see his enshrinement.
&ldquo;This is the most nervous I&rsquo;ve ever been in my life,&rdquo; Duncan said as he began his speech. &ldquo;Been through finals, Game 7&rsquo;s, this is officially the most nervous I&rsquo;ve ever been in my life. I&rsquo;ve been pacing in my room all day, so let&rsquo;s see what we get.&rdquo;
As usual, he delivered in the clutch.
And the other speeches didn&rsquo;t disappoint.
The Hall of Fame has a 10-minute countdown clock on the prompter that speakers used to assist with their remarks. Catchings blew past that with ease, going several minutes past in an emotional address that covered her many challenges.
&ldquo;Basketball chose me, an awkward, lanky, introverted tomboy, born with a hearing disability, a speech impediment, and a will to overcome obstacles, dream big and to change the world,&rdquo; Catchings said.
Mulkey talked about her roots, coming from a small town in Louisiana and getting to the Hall of Fame &mdash; marveling that she was presented for induction by Jordan, who held the same role for Bryant.
Bryant, Duncan and Garnett were joined in the class by three-time NCAA champion coach Kim Mulkey, two-time NBA champion coach Rudy Tomjanovich, four-time Olympic gold medalist Tamika Catchings, three-time Final Four coach Eddie Sutton, 1,000-game winner Barbara Stevens and longtime FIBA secretary general Patrick Baumann.
&ldquo;I appreciate you,&rdquo; Garnett said to Duncan from the stage. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an honor to go into the hall with you, bro. You and Kob.&rdquo;
Duncan stayed true to who he is: modest and humble, on a day where his Spurs coach, Gregg Popovich, missed a game to see his enshrinement.
&ldquo;This is the most nervous I&rsquo;ve ever been in my life,&rdquo; Duncan said as he began his speech. &ldquo;Been through finals, Game 7&rsquo;s, this is officially the most nervous I&rsquo;ve ever been in my life. I&rsquo;ve been pacing in my room all day, so let&rsquo;s see what we get.&rdquo;
As usual, he delivered in the clutch.
And the other speeches didn&rsquo;t disappoint.
The Hall of Fame has a 10-minute countdown clock on the prompter that speakers used to assist with their remarks. Catchings blew past that with ease, going several minutes past in an emotional address that covered her many challenges.
&ldquo;Basketball chose me, an awkward, lanky, introverted tomboy, born with a hearing disability, a speech impediment, and a will to overcome obstacles, dream big and to change the world,&rdquo; Catchings said.
Mulkey talked about her roots, coming from a small town in Louisiana and getting to the Hall of Fame &mdash; marveling that she was presented for induction by Jordan, who held the same role for Bryant.
&ldquo;Michael, I&rsquo;m incredibly honored,&rdquo; Mulkey said. &ldquo;I guess the last time we stood this close we were walking out of the &rsquo;84 Olympics and we were a hell of a lot younger lookin&rsquo; and probably a lot skinnier. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.&rdquo;
The totality of the accomplishments of the Hall class are staggering.
Bryant, Garnett, Duncan and Catchings combined for 58 All-Star appearances. Mulkey, Tomjanovich, Sutton and Stevens combined for more than 3,000 coaching wins. Baumann is widely lauded for his efforts in getting 3&times;3 basketball added to the Olympic program.
&ldquo;My life turned out better than my wildest dreams,&rdquo; Tomjanovich said, his voice cracking.
NBA championships, WNBA championships, national championships, Olympic gold medals, MVP awards, the class had some of everything.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re Hall of Famers, guys,&rdquo; Mulkey shouted. &ldquo;WE&rsquo;RE HALL OF FAMERS.&rdquo;
And while it was a celebration, it was also a remembrance for Hall of Famers lost since the last enshrinement in 2019. Three-time Grammy Award winner Ne-Yo performed &ldquo;Incredible&rdquo; in their memories, the video clips playing behind him including a message from former NBA Commissioner David Stern, who died Jan. 1, 2020, and Bryant &mdash; who died Jan. 26 of that year in a helicopter crash that also killed his daughter Gianna and seven others.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always said that I wanted to be remembered as a player that didn&rsquo;t waste a moment, didn&rsquo;t waste a day, and lived every day as if he was the 12th guy on the bench,&rdquo; Bryant said in the video.
Bryant wasn&rsquo;t the only member to be inducted posthumously; so were Sutton and Baumann. Sutton&rsquo;s son Sean Sutton delivered a recorded message on his father&rsquo;s behalf; Baumann&rsquo;s son, Paul, and daughter, Bianca, did the same for their father.
&ldquo;Thank you so much for this honor and for the opportunity to continue carrying his legacy forward,&rdquo; Bianca Baumann said.
Garnett spoke of legacy as well, the one he has in Minnesota and the one he still wants to have there. When he left the Timberwolves in 2007, they started a huge rebuild as a franchise. Now, with Minneapolis in need after a trying year following the 2020 death of George Floyd, Garnett wants to be part of another rebuild.
&ldquo;My only regret with Minnesota is that I didn&rsquo;t get to bring a championship,&rdquo; Garnett said. &ldquo;But like I said, I look forward to rebuilding Minneapolis.&rdquo;
Stevens &mdash; who spent most of her career at Division II&rsquo;s Bentley University &mdash; was presented by Hall of Famers Geno Auriemma and Muffet McGraw, longtime rivals from so many Connecticut-Notre Dame battles.
&ldquo;You guys good over there?&rdquo; Stevens asked.
All was well. Auriemma and McGraw had jumped at the chance to be together with Stevens, who, like all the other honorees who were present, had countless people to thank.
&ldquo;To my former players, many of whom are present: Simply put, you are the reason I stand here tonight,&rdquo; Stevens said. &ldquo;My greatest honor was to be called your coach.&rdquo;
The calendar now shifts to the next class, to be unveiled Sunday at the Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, where the next induction ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 11.
Among the finalists: Rick Adelman, Chris Bosh, Paul Pierce, Ben Wallace, Chris Webber and Jay Wright. Bill Russell is also a finalist, this time as a coach, 46 years after he was selected for the Hall as a player.
Many in the next class, like most Hall classes, will be able to say they overcame doubters &mdash; just as many in this class did. And on her husband&rsquo;s behalf, Vanessa Bryant had a message for those who suggested he would fall short of his goals.
&ldquo;He proved you wrong,&rdquo; she said.

Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett take their places among the legends.

Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett among 9 enshrined in Hall of Fame

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dennis Schröder hit the tying basket to force overtime and finished with 25 points, and the Los Angeles Lakers held off the Utah Jazz 127-115 on Saturday in a game between short-handed teams.
Schröder got by Royce O’Neale for a layup with 3 seconds remaining to tie it at 110 and force overtime after the Lakers got outscored 28-16 in the fourth.
Andre Drummond added 27 points and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had 25 points for the Lakers, who blew a 14-point lead early in the fourth before outscoring Utah 17-5 in the extra session.
“We clicked on all cylinders and we didn’t allow adversity to get us out of our game,” Drummond said. “The chemistry is getting there.”
The NBA-leading Jazz were without injured starters Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert. Mitchell will be out at least a week with a sprained right ankle he sustained in a win over Indiana on Friday night. An MRI showed there was no structural damage.
Jordan Clarkson led Utah with 27 points against his former team. Ersan Ilyasova added a season-high 20 points before fouling out in overtime and Joe Ingles had 20 points and a career-high-tying 14 assists. Bojan Bogdanovic had 19 points as Utah’s two-game winning streak ended.
“We’re missing four pretty important guys,” Ingles said. “For most of the game, we did a pretty good job. We were one stop away from winning the game.”
Injured Lakers superstars Anthony Davis and LeBron James watched in street clothes. But the Lakers had new addition Drummond and Markieff Morris back in the lineup, along with Kyle Kuzma and Schröder. All four had been dealing with various ailments.
“He’s always in the moment,” Morris said of Schröder. “Tonight we needed him to score more. He made some great plays at the end of the game. We’re getting to the point where everybody knows each other’s game. We need that camaraderie.”
Clarkson hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 8.7 seconds left in regulation. He had 10 points in the fourth, when the Jazz opened with an 18-4 run to get within two. Schröder scored the Lakers' final six points of regulation.
“We made more in-game adjustments than we have all year just to counter their attack,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. “To have a team storm back and take the lead and (us) not panic is definitely something we can draw on going forward. We'll have this experience to know that we’ll prevail.”
The Lakers took the game’s first double-digit lead on a jumper by Morris late in the third, capping a 7-0 run and stretching their lead to 84-74. The Jazz was held to 20 points, their lowest quarter of the game.
Los Angeles put on a dunking exhibition for the 1,710 fans in the stands. Drummond dribbled in from half-court and put down a one-handed jam to open the third, one of his three in the quarter. Alex Caruso and Montrezl Harrell had showy slams, too. Schröder tried to get in on the action, charging in but missing. He ended up sliding head-first out of bounds to end the period with the Lakers ahead 94-82.
TIP-INS
Jazz: Ilyasova made five of his career high-tying six 3-pointers in the first quarter, hitting three in a row to start the game. ... Gobert missed his first game of the season because of a right knee contusion. ... All-Star Conley also sat out for the first time with right knee soreness. 
Lakers: Davis isn't expected back for the rematch. ... Neither team led by more than five points in the first half when there were 10 ties. ... Their two-game home losing skid ended. ... Caldwell-Pope passed Eddie Jones for fifth on the franchise's career 3-point list with his 490th. ... Kuzma overtook Rick Fox for seventh on the 3-point list. 
FAMILIAR SIGHTS, SOUNDS
The victory triggered purple-and-gold streamers falling from the ceiling and “I Love LA” blaring on the sound system. The pared-down and socially distanced Laker Girls have been relegated to an upper level, with their live dancing intermixed with old video performances. 
Still, Drummond is enjoying taking it all in as a Laker. 
“It's kind of a surreal moment for me,” he said. “It’s definitely a great feeling and something I want more of.”
UP NEXT
The Jazz remain in Los Angeles to play the Lakers on Monday night.
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Andre Drummond led the Lakers to a win over the Jazz, 127-115, as he continues to get acclimated to his new team.