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Pelicans

<p>Heading into <a href="https://stats.wnba.com/players/traditional/?sort=PTS&amp;dir=-1&amp;Season=2022&amp;SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;DateTo=05%2F22%2F2022" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this week's action</a>, Atlanta Dream rookie Rhyne Howard was leading the WNBA in scoring (20.5 points). It was an incredible feat for an incredible talent, one that we've talked about <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/the-atlanta-dream-struck-gold-with-rhyne-howard" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in this space</a>.</p>
<p>Her jumper is pure, and she's able to get to it in a multitude of ways. To the Dream's credit, they've done a great job moving her around the chess board to stress defensess. Playing drop coverage against the Dream is practically begging for them to run a movement set for Howard.</p>
<p>They've run this doozy for Howard a few times this season. The decoy action may vary, but the goal for the Dream is to clear one side of the court before setting a flare screen for Howard to fill that empty space. The Los Angeles Sparks were ill-prepared for it earlier in the season.</p>
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<p>The options are endless. If the screen hits, Howard can flow into a jumper like she did in the clip above. If the screen navigation is a little better, she has plenty of space to attack off the bounce. She can reset and go iso. It can flow into an empty corner pick-and-roll with whoever set the initial flare screen. Heck, they can just flip the angle of the screen and have her come the other way.</p>
<p>On May 20, Howard came out of the gates firing. She was facing the red-hot Washington Mystics, but it didn't feel like they could keep track of her. Howard would score 15 of her 21 points in the opening frame, including a bucket off an all-too-familiar action.</p>
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<p>Backup big Tianna Hawkins (#21) sees it coming. Twice in the action--once while Aari McDonald (#2) is executing a handoff in the left corner, and again as Naz Hillmon (#0) is setting up the flare screen for Howard--Hawkins points toward the empty side. She knows Kennedy Burke has her work cut out for her, but she gets hung up on the screen anyway.</p>
<p>Howard wasn't able to shake loose like that for the rest of the game. Again, she scored 15 in the opening frame but just six points the rest of the way. After the Dream dropped 25 points in the first, they scored 19, 14 and 15 points the rest of the way.</p>
<p>That brings us to the Tuesday matchup, where the Dream wanted to exact revenge for their five-point loss. Where Howard wanted to make up for a quiet three-quarter stretch. The Mystics simply weren't having it, and it was evident from the opening tip.</p>
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<p>On the left side of the floor, you have Natasha Cloud (#9) blowing up the pindown and getting reattached to Kristy Wallace. Howard and Cheyenne Parker (#32) attempt to set screens in the middle of the floor to get the Mystics moving, but Ariel Atkins (#7) is able to navigate the muck and stay attached to Erica Wheeler (#17) as she clears the right side.</p>
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<p>From there, it's go time.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The flare for Howard is coming, but look at the prep work Alysha Clark (#22) does. She gets inside of Howard's jersey before the screen is even set:</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/screenshot_2022_05_28_17_56_53_lg.png" alt="" width="577" height="325" /></p>
<p>As Parker sets the pick, Clark is able to slow Howard up with a grab before she attempts to fly over it.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/screenshot_2022_05_28_17_57_33_lg.png" alt="" width="577" height="325" /></p>
<p>Doing the homework early essentially blew up the first portion of the set. Howard and Parker attempt to go into a pick-and-roll with an empty side from there, but the Mystics had other plans. They sprang a trap on Howard, essentially pinning her in the right corner.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/screenshot_2022_05_28_18_00_26_lg.png" alt="" width="577" height="325" /></p>
<p>That's good work on Howard from Clark and rookster Shakira Austin. Cloud has the Parker assignment. Atkins has Wallace. Elena Delle Donne is on the backside of the action, keeping tabs on two Dream players on the right side of the floor. In other words, there are no easy outlets here.</p>
<p>Howard is able to jump-pass her way out of it, but the Mystics are able to rotate behind that pass. Wallace gets the release pass and is immediately pressured. The Dream do a good job of countering with a pin-in screen on Delle Donne, but she fights over it and gets a late-clock contest on the three from Wheeler.</p>
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<p>Whew.</p>
<p>Things didn't get easier for Howard or the Dream. On the individual front, Howard would miss all nine of her field goal attemtps and end the game with [checks notes] zero points. It was easily her worst outing as a pro. Her scoring averaged dropped from a league-leading 20.5 to 17.6, a clip that ranks 10th in the league.</p>
<p>And without Howard getting buckets, the rest of the team faltered. The Dream scored 50 points on the evening as the Mystics racked up a 70-50 victory.</p>
<p>Because of that game, the Mystics now hold the WNBA's <a href="https://stats.wnba.com/teams/advanced/?sort=DEF_RATING&amp;dir=-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">best defensive rating</a> at 92.3. Even before that game, the Mystics have impressed with their blend of ball pressure and activity on the backline.&nbsp;</p>
<p>If you want a not-so-hidden joy when watching this team, peep their activity whenever an offense tries to run a pick-and-roll from the wing. They attempt to "ICE" most of them, meaning the on-ball defender shades the ball handler toward the sideline. The fun really perks up from there, though.</p>
<p>Because they don't have a pure anchor in drop coverage, the pick-up points for their bigs are a little higher. And because&nbsp;<em>all&nbsp;</em>of their bigs--Austin, Delle Donne, Hawkins, Myisha Hines-Allen and freshly-in-the-fold Elizabeth Williams--are active with their hands, ball-handlers find themselves in trouble quickly.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Watching the Delle Donne-Austin frontcourt has especially been fun. There were questions about how Delle Donne would hold up defensively after her injury-riddled layoff. And it's always fair to wonder how quickly a rookie big like Austin can get acclimated to the big leagues. Both have embraced the challenge; in fact, the Mystics are allowing a defensive rating of 85 (!) when those two <a href="https://stats.wnba.com/lineups/advanced/?Season=2022&amp;SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;GroupQuantity=2&amp;TeamID=1611661322&amp;sort=NET_RATING&amp;dir=1&amp;CF=MIN*GE*50" target="_blank" rel="noopener">share the court</a>.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Getting ball pressure from Cloud and Clark--a pair of wings with All-Defensive team selections under their belts--or Rui Machida off the bench (she's <em>fun)</em> is one thing. Having active bigs can add another layer of mayhem. Combining that with opportunistic help defenders can make an offense feel like it's suffocating.</p>
<p>Shatori Walker-Kimbrough is currently leading the team in steals (1.6), mostly off the strength of her off-ball prowess. Atkins (1.5 steals) isn't too far behind her, showcasing why she's <em>also</em> made multiple All-Defensive teams in her career.</p>
<p>I mentioned Burke getting burned by the flare action for Howard earlier in the piece, but she's already been a problem for offenses as a help defender.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>That activity has been important. The Mystics currently rank third in opponent turnover rate, with offenses coughing up 21.2 turnovers per 100 possessions. That's way up from last season (17.9), and not too far off the franchise record (21.6) set back in 2005.</p>
<p>(And on that note, team offenses were <em>way </em>worse back then; the league average opponent turnover rate in 2005 was 18.1, much higher than the 15.9 mark this season. And we're early in the year, so that number will likely fall as the season goes on.)</p>
<p>We know what a healthy Mystics team can do offensively. Delle Donne is one of the most versatile offensive talents in basketball history. Cloud is a dynamic slasher and <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/natasha-cloud-shines-through-shooter-wnba-on-notice" target="_blank" rel="noopener">confident shooter</a>. There's plenty of shot-making, shooting and driving equity on the roster.</p>
<p>The defense has been a pleasant surprise, though we may see regression at some point. Opponents are only shooting 31.4% from 3, and the multiple efforts needed to make their scheme work can create some openings on that front.</p>
<p>They may not be <em>the&nbsp;</em>best defense in basketball. But if they hover around 3rd or 4th, that's still much better than they were last season (104.4 defensive rating, 11th out of 12 teams). And if the defense can hang, we need to start talking about this team as a serious title contender.</p>
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Nekias Duncan breaks down why the Washington Mystics' defense has been so successful to start the season.

How the Washington Mystics are winning with activity

Through two weeks of the WNBA season, where does each team stack up and what are some prime takeaways?

WNBA Power Rankings 5/22

<p>Everyone has seen the stat:&nbsp;<em>The Memphis Grizzlies are 20-5 without Ja Morant.</em></p>
<p>It doesn't make sense... unless it does.&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Are we gonna have a discussion about the fact that many of these beatdowns have happened without Ja Morant? Is there a discussion to be had?</p>
&mdash; Peter Edmiston (@peteredmiston) <a href="https://twitter.com/peteredmiston/status/1524591756901294086?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2022</a></blockquote>
<p>
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The discussion is not about whether the Grizzlies are better without Ja Morant. They aren't.</p>
<p>They are different, and different in ways that give Memphis rightful hope that it has a puncher's chance at winning this series against the Golden State Warriors.</p>
<p>The Grizzlies have outplayed the Warriors for the majority of the series. Golden State is up 3-2 due to its experience closing out games versus <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/can-the-grizzlies-overcome-their-youth-against-experienced-warriors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the youth of Memphis</a>. Game 4's ending is evidence that Memphis needs Morant, as the team could not create baskets down the stretch to stave off the Warriors' comeback.&nbsp;</p>
<p>So, without their superstar, how can the Grizzlies complete a 3-1 comeback? What's the formula?</p>
<p>Let's dig in.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>DEFENSIVE INTENSITY AND FOCUS</strong></span></p>
<p>The formula for Memphis in the regular season was defense leading to quick offense. The Grizzlies thrived on creating chaos and led the league in points off turnovers and fast-break points.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In Round 2, Memphis currently leads the NBA with 20.8 points off turnovers per contest. They are fourth in Defensive Rating (108.0), first in steals per game (10.6) and second in blocks per game (6.0). Another indicator of defensive intensity is a team's amount of deflections, a stat in which the Grizzlies lead the NBA with 16.0 per game in the second round as well.</p>
<p>In two games without Morant, Memphis has held the Warriors to an average of 98.0 points and forcing 19.0 turnovers per contest while amassing 32 total deflections during that span. Even more wild is the team's 94.7 DRTG without Morant in this series, holding the Warriors to a 49.1% Effective Field Goal percentage.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In the first two possessions of Game 5, the Grizzlies got exactly what they wanted from the Warriors &mdash; an Andrew Wiggins three and a Draymond Green three. Memphis is clearly forcing someone other than the Splash Brothers to try and beat them. In fact, the first five shots by the Warriors were by players not named Stephen Curry or Klay Thompson, and Curry did not take his first shot until there was 4:43 left in the first quarter.</p>
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<p>At this point in the game, Jordan Poole had been struggling with his shot. Since Kevon Looney isn't much of an offensive threat, Steven Adams plays drop coverage and allows De'Anthony Melton plenty of space to navigate the screen. Dillon Brooks face-guards Curry while Jaren Jackson Jr. is in help position due to the non-shooting threat of Green. Melton is a plus-defender off the bench. and his wingspan creats havoc for opponents, as Poole experienced on this possession.</p>
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<p>Memphis has made it quite clear that its game plan is to funnel the Warriors into the paint. When Green is playing on the perimeter, it allows Adams to cut off the backdoor plays, forcing Thompson into a baseline jumper rather than a layup while having the step on Tyus Jones.</p>
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<p>Jackson blitzes Curry on the screen, forcing Curry to get off the ball making a soft pass to a rolling Nemanja Bjelica. Jones gambles by leaving Thompson and gets the steal, but its the positioning of Desmond Bane and Adams that matters.</p>
<p>Again, Adams is 15 feet away from Green while Bane vacates Wiggins in the corner. Both are in help, and Memphis will either live with a Wiggins three or recover and rotate if the ball were kicked to Green on the perimeter.</p>
<p>In the two games without Morant, the Grizzlies have made life incredibly difficult for Curry, Thompson and Poole.</p>
<ul>
<li>Curry: 14-of-35 (40.0%) and 6-of-22 from deep (31.8%)</li>
<li>Thompson: 13-of-32 (40.6%) and 3 of 3 from deep (23.1%)</li>
<li>Poole: 5-of-18 (27.8%) and 1 of 6 from deep (16.7%)</li>
</ul>
<p>Meanwhile, Poole and Green have combined for 15 turnovers alone during the two games and 37 in the series. Green has more than doubled his total turnovers from the first round against the Denver Nuggets.</p>
<p>Memphis must continue creating chaos on defense and scoring off turnovers in order to have a chance without Morant.</p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">JAREN JACKSON JR.</span><br /></strong></p>
<p>Simply put, the Warriors do not roster a player who can guard Jaren Jackson Jr. when he is not settling for perimeter shots. It has been an interesting case study when it comes to the offense of JJJ with and without Morant.</p>
<p>The strength of Ja is getting downhill and attacking the rim; therefore, Jackson must not be occupying that space. JJJ floats around the perimeter for catch-and-shoot opportunities way too often when Morant is on the floor. So it makes sense that Jackson shoots 3.7% better when Morant is not playing, because he gets to the rim more often.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A contributing factor to the team's Game 4 loss was Memphis failing to get the ball to JJJ down the stretch, as he shot just four times in the final eight minutes. Jackson has to be the featured guy for this team to have any hope of advancing.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Mismatch.</p>
<p>Just call it what it is for the Warriors attempting to guard him. Memphis obviously drew this up to look for Jackson early on a post-up on the young and undersized Jonathan Kuminga. A key to featuring a player is getting him looks early. Look for the Grizzlies to do much of the same in Game 6 (and potential Game 7).</p>
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<p>Thompson has certainly lost a step and is not the perimeter lockdown defender he once was; the 7-foot Jackson is able to get by Thompson on the perimeter, forcing a Klay foul to prevent an easy bucket. As long as JJJ does not resort to only going left when he is headed downhill, he can put immense pressure on the Warriors' defense.</p>
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<p>Memphis has run this action multiple times for both Jackson and Bane, and should continue to do so. When Jaren has it going from deep, it is a massive game-changer for the Grizzlies in any game. Memphis needs a repeat performance from Game 5 Jaren.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>AUXILIARY OPTIONS</strong></span></p>
<p>Bane has been dealing with a bulging disc in his back. The Warriors have obviously game-planned to render Brandon Clarke ineffective on the offensive glass. Melton is still a wild card, and Brooks has been a hot mess.</p>
<p>In order for the Grizzlies to survive and advance, Bane has to be lethal, Clarke needs to be active on the glass, Melton has to show up and Brooks needs to play within himself. In Game 5, those things happened for the most part.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>This should tell you that Bane is closer to 100%. In the previous meetings, he was mostly limited to spot-up shooting. His ability to put the ball on the floor and turn the corner is crucial for Memphis' offense.</p>
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<p>Clarke got loose in Game 5. After four games of focused boxing out on BC, the Warriors allowed him to make a massive impact on the offensive glass. Clarke was the biggest X-factor in the first round for Memphis, and will need the same level impact going forward.</p>
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<p>Melton can be very hit or miss offensively. If he hits his first shot, watch out, because he is about to go on a binge. If he misses the first few, his minutes get cut rather quickly. Melton is a player who thrives off chaos on the defensive end, constantly deflecting balls, blocking shots and racking up steals. His ability to defend off the bench is key for the Grizzlies.</p>
<p>Its a long shot, but the Memphis Grizzlies are capable of coming back from a 3-1 deficit &mdash; even without their superstar. Can the Grizzlies stay locked in and play exceptional basketball for two more games?</p>
<p>Obviously, many things have to go right &mdash; but they did in Game 5.</p>
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Justin Lewis highlights what led to the Grizzlies' win in Game 5 over the Warriors and explains why Memphis can still take this series.

Despite missing Ja Morant, the Grizzlies can still defeat the Warriors

<p>After a 78-66 victory over the Minnesota Lynx that never really felt as close as the score might indicate, the Washington Mystics are now 2-0 to start the season. With Elena Delle Donne out for scheduled rest, Tianna Hawkins out due to personal reasons and Alysha Clark (who hasn't yet made her season debut) out due to a foot injury, we got a glimpse of the depth on this Washington roster.</p>
<p>Mystics rookie Shakira Austin impressed with a double-double in her first career start, really performing well on the defensive end. Ariel Atkins dropped a game high 20 points along with 5 assists, including a smattering of trips to the free throw line off her drives.</p>
<p>The story, though, was Natasha Cloud.</p>
<p>Cloud is one of the best defensive guards in the WNBA. She's a phenomenal driver and has a great feel for the game. Her ability to cut up defenses with her rim attacks and court vision in tandem is vital for kick-starting Washington's offense.</p>
<p>Her shot from deep has been inconsistent since a career year from beyond the arc in 2019 (38.6% on 3.1 attempts per game), limiting her impact as an off-ball player. She's a good cutter and relocates well in an offense, but constant unders on ball-screens and being helped off when spaced could muck up the paint.</p>
<p>Things are changing in 2022. This is a different offensive version of Cloud.&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">👀 &ldquo;I&rsquo;M A SHOOTER!&rdquo; Natasha Cloud <a href="https://twitter.com/T_Cloud4?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@T_Cloud4</a> grabbed my mic (😂) and put the whole league on notice during our end 1st quarter interview!! She went on to lead the <a href="https://twitter.com/WashMystics?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WashMystics</a> over the Lynx w/ 19pts, 6a &amp; 6r in Minnesota! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WNBATipoff?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WNBATipoff</a> 🏀🔥🏀🔥 <a href="https://t.co/clB9tLNB6a">pic.twitter.com/clB9tLNB6a</a></p>
&mdash; Ros Gold-Onwude (@ROSGO21) <a href="https://twitter.com/ROSGO21/status/1523507576155127809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 9, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<p>Cloud took 95 threes in 27 games last season, hitting just 26 of them. She's already taken 11 in two games this season, spurred on by her 4-of-7 outburst from deep last night. Even in Washington's first game against the Indiana Fever, her lack of hesitation at the three-point line and comfortability getting into her shot outside the arc was noteworthy.</p>
<p>Athletes Unlimited in late winter provided us a forecast of who Cloud might be in The W this season. She operated as a primary option, honed her aggression as a scorer and most notably went 34 of 84 (40.5%) from deep<em> in 12 games.</em></p>
<p>Cloud did not lie during that interview, and she hasn't lied once when yelling out, "I'm a shooter."</p>
<p>For her first shot of the game, Cloud kicks the offense into gear with an early-offense, empty-corner high pick-and-roll with Myisha Hines-Allen.</p>
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<p>The defense collapses on Hines-Allen's role, and she kicks the ball back to Cloud, who is spaced at the top of the key. A miss, but no hesitation and good process. The defense is still sagged off, and it's a pretty sluggish closeout. (Also, shout-out to Austin for the impromptu screen!)</p>
<p>Cloud's second shot of the game was her bread and butter with a heaping spoonful of seasoning.</p>
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<p>Running the screens that high for Cloud really opens up the floor, and she's able to get a step-and-a-half on the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, Sylvia Fowles. Cloud's contortion to avoid Jessica Shepard's rotation is wildly impressive.</p>
<p>The Lynx show on the drive with Natalie Achonwa in for Fowles at the 5, and Cloud shows off her playmaking. Shatori Walker-Kimbrough misses the shot, but this is a fantastic read-and-skip.</p>
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<p>Rui Machida, who I am very excited about, enters the game and shifts Cloud more off the ball in the half-court.</p>
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<p>Shepard rotates low. Rachel Banham, Cloud's defender, sinks to take away the open Shawndre' Jones in the dunker spot. Cloud lifts into the slot to make herself more available to Machida, but also a farther closeout path for Banham. CASH.</p>
<p>In past years, that's a defense you can get away with on Cloud. But if the past few months are any indication, defending weak side with Cloud in the corner or slot is going to be a headache.</p>
<p><em>Ok, it's been a game and five minutes, are we overreacting? </em></p>
<p>I had this thought Sunday night right before Cloud took this shot.</p>
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<p>A pull-up three going to her left?? Ok Tasha!!!</p>
<p>I'd understand calling this a "bad shot," and it not falling lends credence to that line of thinking, I suppose.</p>
<p>However, to really force defenses to adjust coverage to you as a shooter.... you have to shoot! Confidence and volume is essential to actually make a defense care.</p>
<p>With how many players were missing in this game and the surrounding context, I did a double-take with a grin watching this shot. This is the shot of someone who actually believes they're a shooter, and that's 90% of the battle.</p>
<p>Cloud puts together a multitude of her skills here on her next attempt.</p>
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<p>Drive, collapse the paint, kick to the open player and relocate in the flow. The Lynx defense breaks down after she initially bends it, and then she punishes them for letting her get away scot-free at the line. This is the equivalent of finding a crumpled 20-dollar bill in your pocket.</p>
<p>Slip on the breakaway, no matter, "I'm a shooter!"</p>
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<p>Finally, the Lynx have decided to shift things up. Cloud running pick-and-roll is devastating their defense right now.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Fowles comes up to the level and switches onto Cloud as she drives to her right off the screen, and she hits <em>THIS.&nbsp;</em></p>
<p>"I'm a shooter!"</p>
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<p>Cloud finished with 19 points in the first half, her total for the night. Her impact didn't stop there!</p>
<p>Look at how much attention she garners out of this high screen in the mid-third, indicative of how Minnesota approached her pick on-ball reps the rest of the night.</p>
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<p>Even with her drive halted, she quick-flips the ball to Austin to punish the bent defense off the catch, something she did well all night.</p>
<p>Cloud finally started drawing hard closeouts in the second half and attacked off the catch, hitting her pull-up inside the arc or knifing to the rim. She pushed the pace off misses, and was dynamic as a kick-ahead passer. Washington's half-court offense was good last night, but pushing in transition was vital to blowing open its lead while missing its most important half-court scorer.</p>
<p>Natasha Cloud is a shooter folks. She's confident, she's aggressive and she's a different offensive player in 2022. Things are getting interesting in D.C. as the early season unfolds, and Cloud is a significant part of that.</p>
<p>If you hadn't taken notice before, now would be a good time!</p>
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
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Natasha Cloud dropped 19 points in a win over the Lynx while showing out, backing up her claim that she's a shooter this year.

Natasha Cloud is a shooter, and the WNBA is on notice now

<p>Ja Morant scored 47 points to match his postseason high and carry the Memphis Grizzlies into a tie in the Western Conference semifinals with a 106-101 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>Morant scored the last 15 points for Memphis, starting with 4:16 left. He drove and turned around a defender before hitting a 7-foot jumper with 1:42 left to put Memphis ahead to stay at 100-99. He added four free throws and a 9-footer finishing with 18 in the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>The NBA&rsquo;s Most Improved Player, who also had 47 in Game 2 against Utah last year, became only the third player in league history to have multiple 45-point games in the postseason before turning 23. The other two? LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.</p>
<p>Ziaire Williams hit four 3s and finished with 14 points off the bench. Jaren Jackson Jr. scored 12 points before fouling out for the third time in eight games this postseason. Brandon Clarke added 10 points.</p>
<p>Now the youngest team to reach the semifinal round in the last 25 years heads to San Francisco for Game 3 on Saturday night knowing the series will return to Memphis for Game 5.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Stephen Curry finished with 27 points on 3-of-11 shooting outside the arc. Jordan Poole added 20 off the bench but was 1 of 6 from 3. Andrew Wiggins had 16, going 1 of 7 from 3. Klay Thompson finished with 12 points and was 2 of 12 from 3. The Warriors shot just 7 of 38 from 3-point range.</p>
<p>The Warriors, in the semifinals for the seventh time in 10 years, had their chances. Trailing 104-101, Curry passed to Green, who tossed it to Thompson, who traveled with 17 seconds left. Morant hit two free throws for the final margin.</p>
<p>The Grizzlies are coming off the franchise&rsquo;s first series win in seven years. But a team that was the NBA&rsquo;s second-youngest squad during the regular season is trying to take Memphis past the second round, something this franchise has done only once back in 2013.</p>
<p>It didn&rsquo;t get easier when Dillon Brooks, averaging 15 points this postseason and whose job was defending Curry, was ejected with 9:08 left in the first quarter after a hard foul on Warriors guard Gary Payton II. Payton went to the locker room for X-rays on his left elbow. He didn&rsquo;t return.</p>
<p>Green, ejected from Game 1 for his own Flagrant 2, went down a couple minutes after Brooks&rsquo; ejection. He went to the locker room, flashing the middle digit on each hand at the fans. He returned for the second quarter after getting stitches for a cut at his right eye that was nearly swollen shut by halftime.</p>
<p>Memphis scored the first eight points of the game and led 33-25 after the hectic first quarter with Morant scoring 14, Jackson 10. Curry had 11 for Golden State with Brooks in the locker room. The second quarter got a bit sloppy at times with the Warriors going 2 of 11 outside the arc with five turnovers.</p>
<p>The Grizzlies led 56-51 at halftime with Morant scoring the final four points of the second for Memphis, giving him 23.</p>
<p>Curry and Poole fueled a big third quarter in Game 1 combining for 23 points. This time, Curry scored four points and Poole had six, but Golden State finished the third on a 13-3 run to tie it up at 77. Morant was hit in the face in the final seconds and went to the bench saying he couldn&rsquo;t see out of his left eye.</p>
<p>Golden State took its first lead of the game within the opening minute of the fourth on a layup by Poole, and the Warriors led by as much as 81-77. Memphis answered with a 9-2 run capped by back-to-back 3s from Williams, who missed the last two playoff games with a sore right knee.</p>
<p><strong>TIP-INS</strong></p>
<p>Warriors: Now are 39-34 in Game 2s and 18-9 since the 2015 playoffs. ... Thompson needed only one 3 to reach 400 for his career in the playoffs. He knocked that down with 7:16 left in the first quarter. ... They outrebounded Memphis matching their postseason high for a second straight game at 52-47.</p>
<p>Grizzlies: Morant snapped a streak of six straight double-doubles that made him the youngest in 30 years with that long a streak in one postseason. ... Jackson tied Zach Randolph for third on the franchise&rsquo;s career blocks list in the postseason with his 24th a minute into the third quarter. ... They shot 14 of 45 from 3.</p>
<p><strong>IN THE CROWD</strong></p>
<p>Michigan State coach Tom Izzo was at the game with three former Spartans in this game, including Warriors forward Draymond Green. Izzo posed for a photo before the game with Xavier Tillman Sr. and Jackson.&nbsp;</p>

Ja Morant scored 47 points to match his postseason high and carry the Grizzlies into a tie in the West semifinals with a 106-101 victory.

Morant scores 47 points, Grizzlies tie Warriors at one apiece

<p>We have reached the point where Stephen A. Smith is conjuring up the narrative that Zion Williamson is holding back the New Orleans Pelicans from contending for a title.</p>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">When did we get to this part of the Twilight Zone, I need to get out 😭😭😭 <a href="https://twitter.com/PelicansNBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PelicansNBA</a> <a href="https://t.co/sOnggL7FYf">pic.twitter.com/sOnggL7FYf</a></p>
&mdash; Devonte Graham Bricks (@Marvason) <a href="https://twitter.com/Marvason/status/1521244564966756359?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 2, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<p>Let's not discuss that clip any further besides pointing out how dramatically <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/wednesday-was-a-celebration-of-how-far-the-pelicans-have-come" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Pelicans changed course and captured the respect of the national basketball audience</a> this season. Stephen A.'s rant is less relevant for its substance and more noteworthy because ESPN is&nbsp;<em>still</em> talking about the Pelicans even after they were eliminated from a hard-fought, first-round series. New Orleans started 1-12 (!!) and turned into one of the NBA's true darlings in a matter of months &mdash; all without its most marketable star.</p>
<p>Brandon Ingram asserted his star status, averaging 22.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game (27.0/6.2/6.2 during the postseason) while taking a leap as a playmaker. CJ McCollum fit right in as a "1B" creator and microwave shooter after the trade deadline. Herb Jones is the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/reassessing-herb-jones-upside" target="_blank" rel="noopener">certified steal of the 2021 NBA Draft</a>, and undrafted rookie Jose Alvarado isn't too far behind.</p>
<p>There is no hyperbole fit to describe the sheer joy I had watching the Pelicans through the wins and losses of this season, and if you followed along, you recognize the progress that far exceeded the record and results.</p>
<p>Perhaps the best part is that New Orleans remains built for the future.</p>
<p>Only three players hit free agency this offseason: Tony Snell, Jared Harper and Gary Clark. Everyone else is under contract for 2022-23 &mdash; no team options, no restricted free agents and no partial guarantees, per Spotrac. On the signing front, Zion is the biggest domino, as he'll be eligible to sign a rookie extension before hitting restricted free agency in summer 2023. At least publicly, he is giving positive indications:</p>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">I asked Zion Williamson if offered an extension this summer by the Pelicans would he sign it?<br />His answer.<br />&ldquo;Of course, I couldn&rsquo;t sign it fast enough.&rdquo;</p>
&mdash; Fletcher Mackel (@FletcherWDSU) <a href="https://twitter.com/FletcherWDSU/status/1520095546752516096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<p>However, Williamson has now missed a whopping 141 games in his NBA career. Even if he inks a max extension, which Dan Feldman of NBC Sports says <a href="&ldquo;Obviously,%20that%20conversation%20is%20going%20to%20be%20one%20that%20will%20be%20a%20challenge,&rdquo;%20Griffin%20said.%20&ldquo;When%20it&rsquo;s%20time%20to%20have%20that,%20we&rsquo;ll%20have%20it.%20And%20right%20now%20what%20we&rsquo;re%20focused%20on%20is%20him%20being%20healthy,%20and%20(being%20in)%20kind%20of%20elite%20condition%20to%20play%20basketball%20and%20we&rsquo;ll%20start%20there.&rdquo;" target="_blank" rel="noopener">could be worth well over $180 million</a>, Pelicans executive vice president David Griffin implied that talks might be complicated.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Obviously, that conversation is going to be one that will be a challenge,&rdquo; Griffin said. &ldquo;When it&rsquo;s time to have that, we&rsquo;ll have it. And right now what we&rsquo;re focused on is him being healthy, and (being in) kind of elite condition to play basketball and we&rsquo;ll start there.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Ultimately, Williamson's health and wealth are the rudder of the Pelicans' ceiling. But Griffin still has much to address on other fronts.</p>
<p>New Orleans has the Lakers' first round pick with zero protections &mdash; an exciting opportunity given that pick has the eighth-best lottery odds. At the very least, the Pelicans get a free chance to add another young talent to the rotation, and if things break right, they could add another franchise cornerstone.</p>
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<p>Senior NBA Draft Analyst Matt Babcock projects New Orleans to pick Duke freshman AJ Griffin in <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">our latest mock draft</a> if they remain at No. 8. Griffin is a high-upside choice as one of the youngest players in the draft class. A long, 6-foot-6 wing, he's returned from injuries in high school and at Duke, and flashes traits of a dynamic three-level scorer and creator.</p>
<p>The Pelicans send their first-rounder to Charlotte as part of last summer's Devonte' Graham trade. But they still hold their own second-round pick (No. 41 overall) and a pick from Utah (No. 52). Babcock has Kentucky center Oscar Tshiebwe and Villanova guard Collin Gillespie mocked to New Orleans in the second round.</p>
<p>Even with a packed roster and their draft picks, the Pelicans still have assets to get frisky in free agency. They'll have $10.2 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception to use on a free agent along with a $4 million bi-annual exception. More notable is their $17 million trade exception generated from trading Steven Adams to the Memphis Grizzlies. New Orleans could absorb a player into that exception with some financial flexibility.</p>
<p>But how much should the Pelicans shake things up? Since Jan. 1, they sported the 17th-best offense and defense, according to Cleaning the Glass, and were still only the ninth seed in a deep Western Conference at season's end. Yet we saw other young prospects &mdash; most notably Jaxson Hayes and Trey Murphy III &mdash; visibly develop as the year moved along. The five-man unit of McCollum, Ingram, Jones, Hayes and Jonas Valanciunas played 294 possessions after the trade deadline and was a solid plus-7.1 points per 100 possessions.</p>
<p>New Orleans receives one of the NBA's biggest boosts if Zion Williamson comes back healthy to open 2022-23. Willie Green gets a summer to prepare after a stellar first season as a head coach. The Pelicans have a bright future ahead, and this offseason should purely be icing on the cake.</p>
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
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The Pelicans surprised everyone with their run to the NBA Playoffs, and have only just begun an exciting trajectory.

2022 NBA offseason preview: What's next for the New Orleans Pelicans?

<p>The Memphis Grizzlies did not lose Game 1 against the Golden State Warriors because Ja Morant missed a layup.</p>
<p>Game 1 was a result of a young coach leading an even younger team against a proven franchise led by a seasoned, dynastic trio in Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.</p>
<p>The key to Memphis winning this series?</p>
<p>Growing up. Fast.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In the first round, the Grizzlies were the team taking advantage of the wildly inexperienced Minnesota Timberwolves, overcoming three different double-digit, fourth-quarter deficits to win the series in six games.</p>
<p>With eight minutes left in the fourth quarter of their second-round series opener on Sunday, the Grizzlies found themselves down double digits again, but the confidence was there. They've already proved they are resilient and capable of storming back, which they did.</p>
<p>The difference this time? An opponent with over 500 games of playoff experience on its roster. While Memphis was able to defeat Minnesota via three comebacks, Golden State did something it has always done: Respond.&nbsp;</p>
<p>This is a trend to watch throughout the series. If Memphis gets down and storms back, can it do the little things to win those games? Or will the experience of the Warriors win out?</p>
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<p>When looking for this trend, there has to be some identifiers that point towards the youth of Memphis, and in Game 1, there were a few examples.&nbsp;</p>
<p>One indicator of youth can be found in shot selection.</p>
<p>All season long, Memphis thrived by attacking the paint and second-chance points. During their comeback in the fourth quarter, the Grizzlies had seven straight possessions that resulted in a three-point attempt. In that four-minute span, they shot 2 of 7 from deep, only scoring from the free-throw line and one layup off on an offensive rebound. Although they outscored Golden State in that stretch, settling for perimeter jumpers was a failure to capitalize on their turned up defense.</p>
<p>Another indicator is careful attention to detail.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Thompson left the door wide open, missing two free throws with 6.7 seconds remaining in regulation. It would have been a one-possession game no matter the result, but it was winnable for Memphis. All the Grizzlies had to do was rebound the second miss.</p>
<p>The difference between Memphis getting that rebound and calling a timeout from the resulting jump ball was roughly three crucial seconds.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Multiple lapses happen here for the Grizzlies. Thompson missed the original three-point shot for a lead, only for Andrew Wiggins to gather the offensive rebound. Memphis gets caught ball watching and is slow on its rotations, leading to a wide-open Curry three.</p>
<p>Steph misses another opportunity to put the Warriors up, only for Wiggins to get another offensive rebound in an attempt to tie the game on a tip. He misses the tip, yet the Grizzlies still can not come down with the rebound. The tie-up leads to a jump ball, which ultimately gives the Warriors possession. The very next play, Thompson hits the game-winning three off an inbound play.</p>
<p>In the final minutes, Memphis was beat by its own medicine, allowing three offensive rebounds that led to two massive Golden State second-chance buckets.</p>
<p>Communication in crunch time is another thing that can fail a young team.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Upon first glance, it looks as if Ja Morant was ball watching and lost track of his man. From the beginning, Ja was actually matched up with Jordan Poole, and it was Brandon Clarke who was ball watching. It appears Clarke never had sight of his assignment (Gary Payton II), and assumed due to his position in help that Poole was the next man in rotation. By time Clarke realized the mix-up, it was too late, and the game was tied.</p>
<p>The mistakes of youth are not just attributed to the players on the court.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Grizzlie head coach Taylor Jenkins will have to grow alongside his team if there is any hope for Memphis to reach just the second Western Conference Finals in franchise history.&nbsp;</p>
<p>There is no question about his ability to keep his guys locked in despite deficits, and his <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/memphisminnesota-game-5-was-a-masterclass-in-playcalling-wizardry" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ATOs are top notch</a>, but his learning curve has to deal with managing rotations. Playoff rotations shrink for a reason. Although Memphis boasted a deep squad in the regular season, guys like Steven Adams and De'Anthony Melton were essentially cut from the rotation altogether in Round 1.</p>
<p>Though the Grizzlies avoided the foul trouble they ran into against the Timberwolves, Jenkins deployed 10 men in Game 1. Perhaps it was due to the one day's rest between these series, but Memphis saw success in the prior round when shortening the rotation.</p>
<p>For example, Jaren Jackson Jr. was in a groove that Memphis desperately needed to see from him.</p>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">jaren jackson jr is the only player in nba history to have a playoff game with at least 30 points, 6 made 3-pointers and 6 offensive rebounds</p>
&mdash; Fastbreak Breakfast (@fastbreakbreak) <a href="https://twitter.com/fastbreakbreak/status/1520973196979507200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 2, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<p>More importantly, Jackson only had 3 fouls and was never considered to be in foul trouble at any point in the game. Yet, he only played 30 minutes in a game where he was virtually unstoppable. With no Draymond Green on the floor, JJJ was a mismatch for the Warriors, and should have seen the floor more.</p>
<p>Even more perplexing was Jenkins' decision to sub out Melton rather than Dillon Brooks for the final three minutes of play. Brooks had 5 fouls and was 2 of 12 shooting prior to the substitution, while Melton was causing problems all over the floor; he produced 14 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals and a block.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Melton is the same level of a perimeter defender with a quicker first step, making him better suited to guard guys like Poole and Curry. His activity on the night, plus his scoring, should have warranted his stay on the floor. The decision comes down to Desmond Bane and Brooks. And on nights where both may be struggling in terms of scoring, you would prefer Bane's presence, as it only takes one shot to change the game (i.e., Thompson's game winner).</p>
<p>Memphis is going to have to grow up fast in order to knock off the veteran Warriors team standing in its way. From shot selection to late-game attention to detail, Morant and Co. will have to lock in at an even deeper level of execution, while Coach Jenkins and his staff will have learn what rotations are going to put the Grizzlies in the best position to win.&nbsp;</p>
<p>This series features two of the top teams in the NBA at different moments of their championship windows.</p>
<p>If the Grizzlies want to help close the Warriors window early, they'll have to overcome their youthful mistakes and grow up in front of a national audience.&nbsp;</p>
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
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Justin Lewis details the costly mistakes that the Grizzlies made down the stretch against the Warriors in Game 1, and how to rebound.

Can the Grizzlies overcome their youth against experienced Warriors?

<p>Klay Thompson hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 36 seconds left, and the Golden State Warriors overcame Draymond Green's first-half ejection to edge the Memphis Grizzlies 117-116 on Sunday in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals.</p>
<p>Jordan Poole led the Warriors with 31 points off the bench, hitting 5 of 10 3-pointers. Stephen Curry added 24 points, Andrew Wiggins had 17 and Thompson finished with 15.</p>
<p>Green was ejected for a flagrant foul just before halftime.</p>
<p>Thompson missed both free throws with 6.7 seconds left, then Memphis won a jump ball before taking a timeout with 3.6 seconds remaining to set up the final play. The Grizzlies ran a play similar to Ja Morant's last-second layup to win Game 5 in the first round, but Morant's layup went over the rim.</p>
<p>Morant finished with 34 points and 10 assists, and Jaren Jackson Jr. matched his season high with six 3-pointers and had a career-high 33 points as Memphis' first pair of teammates to score at least 30 in a playoff game. D'Anthony Melton added 14, and Brandon Clarke had 12.</p>
<p>The Grizzlies finished their first-round series by coming back from double-digit deficits in their final three wins &mdash; the first team in NBA history to do that more than once in a postseason, let alone a series. They came in leading the NBA in the fourth with an average of 33 points and outscoring opponents by 10.3 points a game.</p>
<p>This time, they could only match the Warriors point for point in the period.</p>
<p>Memphis edged the Warriors out for the No. 2 seed in the West by tying the franchise record with 56 wins, and the Grizzlies also took three of four in their season series. Thompson only played one and Green two of those games and Curry three.</p>
<p>This was a rematch with role reversals from the 2015 semifinal the Warriors won as the younger team with Memphis led by experienced vets. This also was just the first time the Warriors started a conference semifinal on the road and third playoff series Golden State didn&rsquo;t start at home with Steve Kerr as coach.</p>
<p>The Warriors mixed up their lineup, benching Poole in favor of Gary Payton II to focus on defending Morant, the Grizzlies' All-Star point guard and the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/memphis-grizzlies-nba-sports-ab99752f256668274bb16e1b325e6648">NBA's Most Improved Player</a> this season.</p>
<p>Morant opened the game with back-to-back 3s, half of what he made the entire first round against Minnesota, and he had 14 to help the Grizzlies lead 32-24 after the first quarter. It marked the first time Memphis held an opponent to fewer than 30 points this postseason.</p>
<p>The Grizzlies led by as much as 13 in the second quarter and were up 61-55 at halftime.</p>
<p>With 1:18 left in the second, Green fouled Brandon Clarke. Officials reviewed the play for several minutes with fans chanting &ldquo;Throw him out!&rdquo; Green finished with six points, four rebounds and five turnovers.</p>
<p>Curry was held to eight points in the first half, none in the second and picked up his third foul seconds after Green's ejection.</p>
<p>Curry was held to eight points in the first half, none in the second. But he scored 13 and <a href="https://twitter.com/warriors/status/1520883744676061184">Poole had 10</a> in the third as the Warriors outscored Memphis 36-29 and led 91-90 after the third. Golden State was 14 of 21 shooting in the third, including 5 of 7 outside the arc.</p>
<p><strong>TIP-INS</strong></p>
<p>Warriors: Curry passed Dennis Johnson for 23rd for most playoff points with 3,123. Next up is Paul Pierce with 3,180. ... Kevon Looney and Poole started the second half in place of Green and Payton, who started but was limited to eight minutes by three early fouls. ... The Warriors also started on the road against Houston in 2018 and Toronto in 2019. ... They won a road game in a series extending their NBA record to a 25th consecutive series.</p>
<p>Grizzlies: Steven Adams, who led the NBA in offensive rebounds per game during the regular season, missed a second straight game in the health and safety protocols. Ziaire Williams missed his second game with a sore right knee.</p>

The Warriors overcame Draymond Green's ejection to edge the Grizzlies 117-116 in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals.

Warriors rally after Green ejection, beat Grizzlies in Game 1

<p>Chris Paul turns 37 years old next week, but you would have no idea that&rsquo;s the case with the way he slammed the door shut on the New Orleans Pelicans potentially forcing a Game 7.</p>
<p>The Phoenix Suns&rsquo; future Hall-of-Fame point guard put together a masterclass performance, dropping 33 points and 8 assists on 14-of-14 shooting. Paul is the only player in NBA postseason history to attempt at least 14 field goal attempts without a miss, once again putting the Suns on his back when it mattered most.</p>
<p>Paul was the Suns&rsquo; only reliable offensive threat in Game 6, and he was totally okay with that. Easily slicing and dicing through New Orleans&rsquo; aggressive on-ball defense, Paul was able to get to his spots on the floor with no issue.</p>
<p>What was most remarkable is the fluidity and ease with which he disposed of New Orleans' defense. The Pelicans threw a hailstorm at Paul, toying with matchups, personnel, pressure and coverages.</p>
<p>As the game wore on, Paul eradicated each barrier set in front of him.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Jaxson Hayes struggled much of the series to remain an on-court neutral, and Game 6 was a microcosmic view of why (he ended up playing 12 minutes in spite of starting, playing only 13.8 minutes per game for the series).</p>
<p>Jae Crowder didn't shoot well last night, but he was dominant as a screener for Phoenix's offense. He set an absurd number of early offense screens to force inopportune switches and dicatate play immediately in the halfcourt.</p>
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<p>Crowder makes contact with CJ McCollum before five seconds have leaked off the clock, and that was a regularity. Deandre Ayton sets his screen further in to make it difficult for Hayes to recover quickly to the perimeter and switch on the screen; Ayton was demonstrative as a screener last night, an obelisk on the court, always ready to shift the dynamics of the court in a moment's notice.</p>
<p>Ayton flips the screen to open a pocket for Paul, Hayes tries to fight back under as Jonas Valanciunas keeps things in front in drop coverage, and Paul cashes the jumper.</p>
<p>The Pelicans started to prioritize length and mobility as the game went on, pressing Paul tight with Naji Marshall, Herb Jones and Jose Alvarado. Larry Nance Jr., a force in this series, played close to the level of screens as the defense worked to shrink those pockets near the elbow.</p>
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<p>Let's just note how many things the defense does here that they weren't off rip.</p>
<p>We have the three quarters pressure. The big is playing at the level. Ingram is fighting to deny the switch and keep Naji Marshall in front of Paul, as Marshall darts under the Ayton screen. Paul breaks right and jams Marshall into a well-placed rescreen from Ayton. Brandon Ingram stunts off Crowder to jab at the ball, but Paul is unfazed as he switches hands, crossing to his left before pulling up on a dime. Paul starts into his shot prep and Jones stunts from the strongside corner... and it just didn't matter.</p>
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<p>New Orleans did everything they could to stay solid while attacking Paul in every which way, a culmination of adjustments they'd made throughout the first half, and yet Chris Paul still rendered it ineffective. That's soul crushing.</p>
<p>Perhaps the shots he&nbsp;<em>didn't </em>take did an even better job of showcasing how absurd his play was.</p>
<p>Watch this play. The control is unreal. Paul is having his Neo-taking-over-the-Matrix moment. Every dribble is precise, calculated and surgical. He's shifting Ingram constantly.</p>
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<p>The second Ingram's hips turn, Paul flips the ball to Ayton for a quick rise and fire as he was in the midst of his own absurd shooting performance, as he went 10-of-12 from the field on a variety of finishes.</p>
<p>The late-game lob to take the lead was killer. The synergy between Paul and Ayton made a broken possession heartbreaking for New Orleans.</p>
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<p>Just when you think Paul's kept in front and smothered, you're getting yammed on with a well-disguised lob.</p>
<p>If Chris Paul had taken 27 shots last night, I'm not sure he misses. He just hit everything, and some of the bounces he got were ridiculous, displaying his otherworldly touch.</p>
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<p>A triple bounce on the rim after a high-arcing tear drop?</p>
<p>The ball flipping over the rim after hitting the front for the game-sealing bucket?</p>
<p>Just an absurd display of shot-making that felt willed on by divine intervention of some sort. It was one of the greatest offensive performances I've ever seen.</p>
<p>Throughout the Suns&rsquo; hard-fought first-round series against the Pelicans, Paul showcased brilliant moments on multiple occasions. In the end, Paul averaged 22.3 points, 11.3 assists and 1.8 steals on a 66.3% True Shooting.</p>
<p>As Suns head coach Monty Williams mentioned after the Suns&rsquo; close-out victory, this is just an expectation for players with the greatness of Paul.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I just know that great players have a knack for that,&rdquo; Willams said. &ldquo;They know when to and when not to. The game slows down for them, slower than it does for everybody else.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Williams even alluded to how Paul's outing is up there with the greatest performances (if not <em>the </em>greatest) he&rsquo;s witnessed from his superstar point guard. And doing it back where it all started for Paul in the Association made this moment even more special. The roots in New Orleans are still entrenched for Paul, and closing it all out in this manner was simply a breathtaking experience.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Unbelievably special,&rdquo; Paul said of his historical game in New Orleans. &ldquo;You have no idea what it&rsquo;s like for me to walk in here. Everybody that works back here, these people part of my family. &hellip; Chris (an arena security guard), he been here since I was here. Pound him before every game here back when I played in New Orleans, and did the same thing this entire series. My older brother sitting on the baseline. All of these people, it&rsquo;s my family. People sitting courtside been here since I was here.</p>
<p>"There&rsquo;s nothing like playing in this city, man. There&rsquo;s nothing like it. I went to other teams and all that, but the energy here, the way they show much love to the players, to your family. When I walked in, they asked if my parents were here and all that. And then Willie [Green], so many different ties to this team. [Garrett] Temple, Gary Clark was in my AAU program. &hellip; There&rsquo;s so many different ties to New Orleans and there always will be.&rdquo;</p>
<p>While sitting next to Paul, Devin Booker even mentioned how he and his father, Melvin, would drive down from Moss Point, Mississippi, to watch Paul and the New Orleans Hornets in the postseason. This full-circle experience for Paul is one he will never forget, and this trend of becoming an upgraded version of the &ldquo;Point God&rdquo; in close-out situations for the Suns continues to hold true.</p>
<p>Whether it be Paul&rsquo;s historical Game 6 in the Western Conference Finals last season against another former team in the Los Angeles Clippers, or what he just pulled off another year older in New Orleans, there&rsquo;s simply no more denying the greatness of CP3.</p>
<p><em>BasketballNews.com's <a href="https://twitter.com/MG_Schindler" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Schindler</a> contributed to this article.</em></p>
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Chris Paul's unbelievable Game 6 performance was the point guard's latest masterclass that put his greatness on full display.

Chris Paul's Game 6 masterclass is his latest moment of greatness

<p>If I told you that Ja Morant had the first triple-double in Grizzlies playoff history and Desmond Bane hit the most threes in a playoff game in franchise history, one might assume that Memphis cruised to a Game 3 victory in Minnesota.&nbsp;</p>
<p>It was anything but an easy win for the Grizzlies; in fact, it would be better described as improbable.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Taylor Jenkins made the decision to start Kyle Anderson over Steven Adams in Game 3, but it seemed as if the adjustment did not matter. The Timberwolves punched the Grizzlies square in the mouth, opening the game on a 12-0 run led by Patrick Beverley's 8 points in that span.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The adjustments by Chris Finch were clear. They were going to attack Morant on defense and then double him as the pick-and-roll ball-handler. It was a masterclass in gameplanning for the Timberwolves and they were executing it to perfection.&nbsp;</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4S1WycbFs9Q" width="100%" height="325" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p>Beverley was telling his teammates to get out of the way so he could go at the All-Star guard. This happened several times in the first quarter. The 10-year NBA veteran made it clear that the gameplan was to attack the poor defending Morant, so he did it over and over. The result was either going to be a foul or a bucket and not only did Beverley score eight of the first 12 points, Morant had two fouls in the first quarter, causing him to check out of the game six minutes earlier than normal.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2Vq_2ZOXb04" width="100%" height="325" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p>Since Game 1, Minnesota has had the same strategy on defense. In the clip above, watch as Morant drives into the paint. Minnesota has four guys with a foot in the paint, with D'Angelo Russell a step outside himself. Why can the Wolves pack the paint and take Ja out of his game? Look who is on the floor for Memphis.</p>
<p>Brandon Clarke and Kyle Anderson strike fear in nary a soul when it comes to perimeter shooting, allowing for three bodies on Ja any time he drives. The only true threat on the floor is Desmond Bane, while Tyus Jones is a capable shooter. The activity of Minnesota forces Morant to turn it over here.&nbsp;</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dgj3AodWTsE" width="100%" height="325" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p>Karl Anthony-Towns did do one thing well in Game 3 and that was hedging, switching and doubling the ball-screens on Morant. This clip is just one of several moments early in the game when Minnesota blitzed Morant, getting the ball out of his hands early or forcing him into a tough shot.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The gameplan was there. The Wolves were executing it. Until they weren't.</p>
<p>Up 18 points to end the first quarter, Minnesota scored eight straight to open the second, giving them a 47-21 lead at the 10:28 mark. Memphis proceeded to go on a 23-4 run to pull within seven points at the half.</p>
<p>At this moment, Memphis had to feel as if they seized momentum and the Timberwolves had to be feeling the pressure, right? Except, Minnesota started the second half the same way they started the game &mdash; absolutely dominating the Grizzlies.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>The Wolves' lead ballooned back up to 25 points with three minutes left to go in the third quarter. It seemed as if Memphis gave everything they had just to claw back in it, only to lose it again. It was embarassingly bad basketball.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Bane, one of the heroes for Memphis, was asked about his thoughts on the game afterward:&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Me: &ldquo;Where did that rank in terms of weirdest games you&rsquo;ve ever played?&rdquo; <br /><br />Desmond Bane: &ldquo;No. 1. I ain&rsquo;t never been down 20 twice.&rdquo;</p>
&mdash; Drew Hill (@DrewHill_DM) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrewHill_DM/status/1517336302093574150?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 22, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<p>Twice. Memphis went down 20+ twice in one contest after it was a single-digit game. The Grizz could have mailed it in down 25 with 15 minutes of game time remaining. But according to Rob Fischer of GrindCity Media and Bally Sports, Coach Jenkins' message in the huddle was simply to go out there and just play good basketball.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Target Center was rocking, booing Morant every time he caught a pass and erupting at every Wolves basket. According to Devin Walker, the Grizzlies' social director, the in-house DJ even had "Whoop That Trick" in the queue to troll the Grizzlies, as it is their song of choice following a playoff victory.</p>
<p>Even still, Memphis ended the third on a 13-4 run, down 16 heading into the final frame &mdash; much more manageable to do the improbable than down 20+.</p>
<p>It was 83-67 after Memphis scored the final 5 points of the third quarter. At the 8:33 mark, less than four minutes into the fourth, Bane drilled his sixth three to knot the score at 83-83.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In 4:32 of game time, the Grizzlies went on a 21-0 run, coming back from all but certain death. The energy in the Target Center belonged to the visitors as fans sat in disbelief. Even crazier, it wasn't Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr. or Dillon Brooks leading the charge.</p>
<p>After a Tyus Jones three to give Memphis their first lead, 86-85, Desmond Bane and Brandon Clarke scored the next 13 points for Memphis to not only complete an improbable comeback but to put the game away for fans to make an early exit.&nbsp;</p>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really know how we did it&rdquo; &mdash; Taylor Jenkins</p>
&mdash; Drew Hill (@DrewHill_DM) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrewHill_DM/status/1517327427890028544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 22, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<p>When you do the improbable, sometimes there is no explanation. During the 21-0 run, Minnesota shot 0-10 and turned it over five times. No one player from the Grizz had a historic showing to will their team to victory. Their coaches believed in them and, more importantly, they believed in each other.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>So, what's next for Minnesota? Can the young Wolves put that loss behind them and dominate the way they did for two quarters of play? Can they overcome the growing pains that come with being a young team in their first playoffs for a franchise that's been starving for postseason play?&nbsp;</p>
<p>Chris Finch should have called a timeout to stop a 21-0 run. Karl-Anthony Towns has to be a better leader on and off the floor. There's a mess in Minnesota that can be cleaned up with a win on Saturday, but a 3-1 deficit heading back to Memphis may cause a long look at how the team builds for the future.&nbsp;</p>
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Justin Lewis breaks down the Grizzlies' Game 3 win over the Timberwolves, which was one of the strangest games in some time.

Making sense of the mess in Minnesota: What happened in Game 3?

<p>Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday each scored 29 points and the Milwaukee Bucks edged the short-handed Boston Celtics 127-121 on Thursday night to take over second place in the Eastern Conference standings.</p>
<p>The Bucks (50-30) scored the game&rsquo;s final nine points to move a half-game ahead of the Celtics (50-31) and a full game ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers (49-31), who lost 119-114 at Toronto on Thursday.</p>
<p>Milwaukee withstood a triple-double from Jaylen Brown, who had 22 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds for the Celtics. Brown&rsquo;s 11 assists matched his career high.</p>
<p>Marcus Smart shot 7 of 12 from 3-point range and was the Celtics&rsquo; leading scorer with a season-high 29 points. Daniel Theis had 22 points and Derrick White added 19 for the Celtics.</p>
<p>Khris Middleton had 22 points, nine assists and eight rebounds for the Bucks. Antetokounmpo had 11 rebounds and five assists. Holiday had eight rebounds and eight assists.</p>
<p>One night after a 117-94 victory at Chicago, the Celtics held Jayson Tatum and Al Horford out of Thursday&rsquo;s game. They also continued to play without Robert Williams III, who hasn&rsquo;t played since March 27 due to a meniscus tear in his left knee.</p>
<p>The Celtics still almost won on the road.</p>
<p>Smart put Boston ahead 119-118 on a 3-pointer with 4:25 left and added a driving layup nearly two minutes later to make it 121-118.</p>
<p>Milwaukee&rsquo;s Bobby Portis tied it by sinking a 3-pointer with 2:11 remaining.</p>
<p>The Bucks took the lead for good when Antetokounmpo made the second of two free throws with 1:31 left. After White missed a 3-pointer, Holiday converted a putback of his own miss to make it 124-121 with a minute remaining.</p>
<p>After Theis couldn&rsquo;t score from right under the basket, Antetokounmpo made one of two free throws to extend Milwaukee&rsquo;s lead to 125-121 with 39 seconds left.</p>
<p><strong>HILL'S NECK PROBLEM</strong></p>
<p>Bucks guard George Hill offered more clarity Thursday on the neck injury that caused him to miss 17 games before he returned to action March 14.</p>
<p>Hill said he had a partial tear between the sixth and seventh thoracic vertebra in his spine. Hill didn&rsquo;t undergo surgery and plans to revisit the issue after the season.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Surgery can be season-ending, so you don&rsquo;t want to do that,&rdquo; Hill said after the Bucks&rsquo; Thursday morning shootaround. &ldquo;You want to figure out how I can manage to get back out with the guys. It feels a lot better now. I&rsquo;m just trying to give it everything I have.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>TIP-INS</strong></p>
<p>Celtics: Rookie Sam Hauser, a Wisconsin native who began his college career at Marquette, had a career-high 11 points and went 3 of 4 on 3-point attempts. Marquette and the Bucks both play their home games at Fiserv Forum. ... Celtics assistant coach Ben Sullivan, an assistant on Milwaukee's staff last season, received his 2020-21 championship ring in a pregame ceremony.</p>
<p>Bucks: The Bucks requested waivers on DeAndre&rsquo; Bembry, who played eight games for them before suffering a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/milwaukee-bucks-utah-jazz-nba-sports-brook-lopez-7703bb40fb72236c5e9655a26a7a6389">season-ending knee injury</a> in a loss at Golden State on March 12. &hellip; Grayson Allen didn&rsquo;t play due to left hip soreness. &ldquo;He got hit a little bit the other night in Chicago,&rdquo; Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said before the game, referring to a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/milwaukee-bucks-chicago-bulls-boston-celtics-nba-sports-89c777fcb55642d97f5523ac2d5f6024"> 127-106 victory</a> over the Bulls on Tuesday. &ldquo;Hopefully it&rsquo;s short-term.&rdquo; ... The Bucks outscored the Celtics 58-34 in the paint.</p>
<p><strong>UP NEXT</strong></p>
<p>Celtics: At Memphis on Sunday. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/memphis-grizzlies-boston-celtics-brooklyn-nets-nba-sports-3d2600b0730722e97fedf317fcb1237b">The Celtics beat the Grizzlies 120-107</a> in Boston on March 3.</p>
<p>Bucks: At Detroit on Friday. The Bucks are 2-1 against the Pistons this season but <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-sports-khris-middleton-jrue-holiday-milwaukee-c2a817547bf4b377674b1909beacc87a">lost the last matchup 115-106</a> at Milwaukee on Jan. 3.</p>

Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday each scored 29 points and the Bucks edged the shorthanded Celtics to take second in the East.

Giannis, Holiday help Bucks rally past Celtics 127-121

<p>There wasn&rsquo;t exactly a consensus about how the 2021-22 Los Angeles Lakers&rsquo; season would end, but it&rsquo;s probably safe to say that nobody foresaw this.</p>
<p>On Tuesday night, the Lakers saw their bleak playoff hopes reduced to zero when the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Denver Nuggets, and immediately thereafter &mdash; and rightfully so &mdash; Frank Vogel, Anthony Davis, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook were all in the news.</p>
<p>In the end, there&rsquo;s no single reason the Lakers turned in one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history &mdash; there&rsquo;s enough blame to go around.</p>
<p>What Rob Pelinka needs to figure out is how to fix it.</p>
<p>The answer, ironically, would probably be to start thinking small.</p>
<p>This past season, the team managed to find some serviceable pieces to augment the star-studded core, but only Davis, James, Talen Horton-Tucker and Austin Reaves are under contract next season. The Lakers hold a team option on Stanley Johnson and Westbrook and Kendrick Nunn both have player options they are likely to pick up.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">The official 2021-22 Kendrick Nunn highlight reel 🎥 <a href="https://t.co/wDPehJyqpN">pic.twitter.com/wDPehJyqpN</a></p>
&mdash; Lakers Lead (@LakersLead) <a href="https://twitter.com/LakersLead/status/1508967570560458762?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<p>Combined &mdash; thanks in large part to the commitments to Westbrook, James and Davis &mdash; the Lakers are in line to have about $148 million on their 2022-23 ledger, which is already about $26 million over the projected salary cap.</p>
<p>Said differently, outside of offloading one of Westbrook, James or Davis without taking much salary back in return, the team wouldn&rsquo;t be able to manufacture enough cap space to have a competent opportunity of improving via free agency. Obviously, the club could go the route it went this past season and hand out one-year, minimum salary contracts to aging veterans, but the players who could actually make a difference for the Lakers won&rsquo;t exactly be lining up to sign on the dotted line given the performance of this year&rsquo;s team.</p>
<p>To make matters even worse, the Lakers don&rsquo;t own a pick in this year&rsquo;s draft. Their first rounder was sent to New Orleans in the Anthony Davis trade, while their second-round pick is owned by the Spurs.</p>
<p>So how does a team with no cap space and no draft picks improve?</p>
<p>Simple: by thinking small.</p>
<p>Ask the Brooklyn Nets, and look toward the Miami Heat.</p>
<p>A historically frugal franchise, Miami has never necessarily found itself in the kind of salary cap hell the Lakers are in at the moment. Part of the reason why is because one of the constants during Pat Riley&rsquo;s tenure has been investing heavily in scouting and player development. The same rings true of most successful small market franchises.</p>
<p>Players like LeBron James and Anthony Davis may win you the championship, but throughout history, it&rsquo;s always been players like Alex Caruso, Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope who get you there in the first place.</p>
<p>Contenders invariably unearth valuable and sometimes unknown role players and maximize those role players' talent. For example, this year's Miami team has enjoyed the combination of Tyler Herro, Max Strus and Omer Yurtseven combining to earn only about $7 million. That's about $3 million less than Talen Horton-Tucker alone. Strus and Yurtseven are far from household names, but Miami wouldn&rsquo;t be entering play on April 6 as the first seed out East without them, especially considering the injuries the team has dealt with this season.</p>
<p>Duncan Robinson and Kendrick Nunn also go on a list that features the likes of Bam Adebayo, Mario Chalmers, Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem as players drafted and developed by the staff in Miami.</p>
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
<p>Some time ago, the Lakers had what looked like a competent core of young players. It&rsquo;s hard to imagine that just four years ago, Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle, Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart and Jordan Clarkson were all teammates in Los Angeles. They&rsquo;ve all come and gone, most to facilitate the arrivals of LeBron, Davis and then Westbrook.</p>
<p>The Lakers do have a championship to show for that roster churn, but from this point forth, the way out might actually be to go back to the drawing board. Sean Marks and his Brooklyn Nets, another franchise that Lakers VP of Operations Rob Pelinka would be wise to mimic this summer, provide a blueprint for how to go about doing that.</p>
<p>When Marks took over the Nets in 2016, Brooklyn was not in a good place. Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry had all come and gone, and the draft picks that became Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Collin Sexton were living their best lives elsewhere. The Nets had a bloated payroll, a team of scrubs and no future.</p>
<p>The NBA's Chicago Draft Combine was only two months after Marks was hired in Brooklyn, and despite not owning a first-round pick, he sent quite a contingent to the Windy City. Their directive was to do as much recon work as possible to find Marks some players who could help. Marks used Thaddeus Young to trade his way into the first round and came away from the draft with Caris LeVert and Isaiah Whitehead. Within the next six months, he signed two diamonds in the rough, Joe Harris and Spencer Dinwiddie.</p>
<p>One season later, Marks drafted Jarrett Allen and landed D&rsquo;Angelo Russell in a trade with the Lakers, and that was essentially the core that both got Brooklyn back on track and ultimately landed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Highlights Kyrie Irving &amp; Kevin Durant 🆚 Sixers<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NetsWorld?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NetsWorld</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBATwitter?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBATwitter</a> <a href="https://t.co/viw7ZzQQIZ">pic.twitter.com/viw7ZzQQIZ</a></p>
&mdash; Back2Back (@B2BFR) <a href="https://twitter.com/B2BFR/status/1502186067541307394?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<p>Obviously, that all took time to come to fruition, and time isn't something that LeBron James has. But the point is that no matter how daunting the situation, a competent NBA front office can build a team without having the most obvious assets readily available. That the Lakers have two superstars should actually make the task a bit less difficult.</p>
<p>In this league, there are generally two types of teams: those who rely on free agency and trades to build their contender, and those who build their programs organically, most often through the draft. Big-market teams tend to be the former, while small market teams usually go the other route.</p>
<p>If either Marks or Riley were put in charge of the Lakers&rsquo; front office, they would probably trade Horton-Tucker for draft capital after realizing he&rsquo;s not the right fit there. They&rsquo;d engage the Pelicans, Blazers, Thunder, Rockets, Pacers and Grizzlies &mdash; teams who may have multiple first-round picks &mdash; and find a way to come away from the draft with a young piece and at least one more promising player from the summer circuit. Only then would they go knocking on the doors of guys like Tristan Thompson, Semi Ojeleye and Victor Oladipo, all of whom could help and potentially be had for cheap.</p>
<p>By the time the 2022-23 season tips off, the team could be remade. Some names we&rsquo;d know, and many we wouldn&rsquo;t. But as we&rsquo;ve seen before, often, it&rsquo;s the names we don&rsquo;t know who end up making the biggest difference. Alex Caruso, anyone?&nbsp;</p>
<p>Neither DeMar DeRozan, Buddy Hield nor Kyle Lowry will be coming to save the day; Pelinka and James got themselves into their current mess, and they&rsquo;ll have to get themselves out.</p>
<p>With their season ending much sooner than anyone could have imagined, the Lakers will have plenty to address over their long summer.</p>
<p>But, at least in the NBA, small steps can lead to major strides.</p>
<p>With few options, the Lakers should be so wise.</p>
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
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With the Los Angeles Lakers out of playoff contention, they must now focus on rebuilding like a small-market team.

Only fix for LeBron’s Lakers is to operate like a small-market team

<p>Rudy Gobert had 22 points and 21 rebounds, and the Utah Jazz clinched a playoff berth with a 121-115 overtime victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>Jordan Clarkson also finished with 22 points for Utah. Donovan Mitchell added 20 points, eight rebounds, and five assists. Hassan Whiteside tallied 14 points and 10 boards off the bench.</p>
<p>Jaren Jackson Jr. scored 28 points for the Grizzlies. Tyus Jones added 24 points and Desmond Bane had 23 points, seven rebounds and four steals.</p>
<p>Memphis played without its top two scorers. Ja Morant (right knee soreness) and Dillon Brooks (right hip soreness) were both inactive. The same injury has sidelined Morant since mid-March. Their absence didn&rsquo;t stop the Grizzlies from producing big baskets as the fourth quarter wound down.</p>
<p>Jackson made a pair of 3-pointers in the final minute of regulation and Kyle Anderson put back Bane&rsquo;s airball on a 3-pointer before the buzzer to force overtime. Mitchell went 1 for 2 from the free throw line with 5.6 seconds on the clock and the Jazz leading 109-108.</p>
<p>Utah went ahead for good when Mitchell and Gobert scored on back-to-back possessions to help the Jazz carve out a 119-113 lead. Memphis was held without a basket for four minutes in overtime.</p>
<p>Utah built a 30-19 lead a minute into the second quarter after Clarkson and Mike Conley capped a 10-1 run with back-to-back 3s.</p>
<p>Memphis erased the double-digit deficit right before halftime. The Grizzlies tied it on a corner 3 from Bane and took a 50-48 lead on a pair of free throws from Jackson with 7.2 seconds left in the half.</p>
<p>Bane scored four baskets in 3 &frac12; minutes after halftime to help propel Memphis to a 68-57 lead. The second-year guard had 12 points in the third quarter alone. With Bane leading the way, the Grizzlies made six of their first nine shots in the second half.</p>
<p>Utah surged back ahead 91-83 early in the fourth quarter behind a 21-7 run fueled by three baskets and three assists from Clarkson. Danuel House, Jr. capped the surge with a four-point play and an alley-oop dunk.</p>
<p><strong>TIP INS</strong></p>
<p>Grizzlies: Jackson finished with three blocks, passing Pau Gasol for the franchise single-season record. Jackson has totaled an NBA-best 172 blocks this season. &hellip; Steven Adams led Memphis in rebounds (13) and assists (8). Adams&rsquo; assist total matched his season high.</p>
<p>Jazz: Clarkson beat the first-quarter buzzer with a reverse backdoor layup and Gobert beat the halftime buzzer with an alley-oop dunk. &hellip; Rudy Gay returned to Utah&rsquo;s rotation after recording a DNP-CD in back-to-back games. Gay played 13 minutes and finished with two points on 1-of-4 shooting. &hellip; Conley had a team-high eight assists.</p>
<p><strong>UP NEXT</strong></p>
<p>Grizzlies: Visit the Denver Nuggets on Thursday.</p>
<p>Jazz: Host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday.</p>

Rudy Gobert had 22 points and 21 rebounds, and the Jazz clinched a playoff berth with a 121-115 overtime victory over the Grizzlies.

Jazz clinch playoff spot with 121-115 OT win over Grizzlies

<p>All things considered, the Brooklyn Nets should consider themselves fortunate to have gotten a player of Ben Simmons&rsquo; caliber in exchange for James Harden.</p>
<p>And you know what? That will be just as true next season as it is today.</p>
<p>At some point, Brooklyn may need to do the responsible and sensible thing and rule the young point guard out for the remainder of the season, for the good of the team and for Simmons himself.</p>
<p>Since his arrival in Brooklyn, the Nets have been cryptic in the information they&rsquo;ve provided on Simmons' availability, or lack thereof. He&rsquo;s gone from being expected to suit up almost immediately after to trade to being available &ldquo;at some point this season.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Now, it's anyone&rsquo;s guess.</p>
<p>When asked about him on Tuesday, Nets head coach Steve Nash would only offer that there has been no improvement in Simmons' condition and that he&rsquo;s no closer to returning than he was last week. He also hasn&rsquo;t had another MRI, which can be good or bad, depending on your perspective.</p>
<p>Either way, at 25 years old, Simmons has an entire career ahead of him, so the idea that the Nets would somehow lose face on the Harden trade if Simmons is unable to play this season is absurd. Brooklyn was able to rid themselves of a disgrunted superstar who could have walked for nothing and got an All-Star caliber 25-year-old in return. The trade was a windfall, even without considering Seth Curry and Andre Drummond.</p>
<p>Knowing that there's a bigger picture (and a future) in Brooklyn, the Nets at some point will need to be responsible and simply rule Simmons out. Even if Nash still wanted to work him into the lineup ahead of the postseason, the grace period during which a coach would have been able to incorporate a new player has all but run out on Brooklyn.</p>
<p>More importantly, though, is that if Simmons is still nowhere near returning to the court, his back injury is probably more serious than originally thought. Rushing him back to make a run this postseason would be shortsighted.</p>
<p>Dwight Howard, Larry Johnson and Larry Bird all had back issues, and their careers were undercut as a result. Plenty of players &mdash; including Michael Porter Jr. &mdash; know they aren&rsquo;t anything to play with.&nbsp;And in Steve Nash&rsquo;s locker room, best believe, the clarity on Simmons' fate this season would probably go a long way. Of all the colors, gray is the least favorite of any NBA player.</p>
<p>As a class, our heroes thrive on routine, habit and known expectations. Players like to know how many minutes they&rsquo;ll play, what their roles will be, what is expected of them and who they can count on to be beside them. The lack of clarity with Kyrie Irving, it is believed, had a lot to do with Harden&rsquo;s unhappiness in Brooklyn in the first place. Ironically, now that Irving is available to the team on a full-time basis, the question mark that Nash and his coaching staff had to operate around &mdash; Irving &mdash; has now been replaced by another in Simmons.</p>
<p>For comparison's sake, the Golden State Warriors took the bull by the horns and ruled James Wiseman out for the remainder of the season so he can rehab his torn meniscus. The Warriors understand that his future is too important to risk rushing him back, so they're giving him every opportunity to get himself right and his teammates will likely benefit from the clarity it provides.</p>
<p>Brooklyn should be so wise.</p>
<p>Entering play on March 30, the Nets have just six games remaining in the regular season, and there&rsquo;s quite a bit at stake. They can realistically finish anywhere from seventh to 10th&nbsp;in the Eastern Conference. The same will be true for the Toronto Raptors, Cleveland Cavaliers, Charlotte Hornets and Atlanta Hawks.</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s all but guaranteed that Brooklyn will find themselves in the play-in tournament, though their seed and opponent are obviously still to be determined. Without Simmons suiting up to play at least four or five regular-season games, the risk of putting him out there in a do-or-die scenario could be too great for Nash to co-sign. A play-in game also doesn&rsquo;t seem like the ideal scenario to deploy a player who will need to acclimate himself to new surroundings. The same can be said of a first-round playoff series in which the Nets know they would be facing even stiffer competition should they advance.</p>
<p>Ideally, when a new key player is introduced to a lineup, a coach will give himself a 15-to-20 game grace period to figure out rotations, allow the troops to build chemistry and truly get a grasp on what it is they like to run. In the case of Simmons, incorporating him will be more difficult than a player like Seth Curry because Simmons is not a catch-and-shoot scorer. In order for Simmons to thrive, he'll need to have an opportunity to learn Brooklyn&rsquo;s offense, operate with the ball in his hands and learn his teammates' tendencies. That&rsquo;s not a process a team with championship aspirations can cheat.</p>
<p>Admittedly, Simmons could serve some utility as merely a finisher at the basket and a defensive presence, even if he's less than 100%. But there&rsquo;s at least room to wonder whether relegating him to that role would make him a net-positive over the likes of Bruce Brown or Andre Drummond. Brown can shoot, and Drummod provides more credible resistance to the likes of Bam Adebayo, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid.</p>
<p>In the end, Brooklyn is in a bit of a conundrum. On the one hand, they don&rsquo;t want to rush Simmons back before he&rsquo;s ready, but on the other hand, the longer he takes to get on the court, the higher the stakes will be for a team that will certainly need a few games to figure things out.</p>
<p>When Simmons arrived in Brooklyn, it was thought to signify the beginning of a new era for the Nets.</p>
<p>In the end, it still can be, even if it means waiting until the 2022-23 season to see it all come together.</p>

With Ben Simmons still ailing, the Brooklyn Nets may be wise to shut him down for the remainder of the season.

At some point, Nets may be wise to rule Ben Simmons out for season

<p>DALLAS (AP) &mdash; Luka Doncic knows the Mavericks haven't had home-court advantage in the playoffs since the young superstar came to Dallas.</p>
<p>Coach Jason Kidd might remember the last time the club did, since he was the point guard on the team that won the 2011 championship.</p>
<p>The Mavericks took an important step toward the elusive top half of the Western Conference playoff picture Sunday night.</p>
<p>Doncic scored 32 points and the Mavericks beat the Utah Jazz 114-100 for the inside track to the fourth seed in what could be a first-round playoff matchup.</p>
<p>The Mavericks (46-29) moved a game ahead of the Jazz (45-30) in the battle for the fourth and fifth seeds in the West and earned a split of the season series, with the home team winning all four games.</p>
<p>Dallas would have to finish a game ahead of Utah if the Jazz keep their Northwest Division lead over Denver. The Mavericks and Jazz have seven games remaining.</p>
<p>&ldquo;That's what we wanted, but it's a long way to go,&rdquo; Doncic said. &ldquo;We've still got to keep our composure, focus on the next opponent and try to win every game.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Rudy Gay scored 18 points for the Jazz, who lost their fourth in a row on a season-long, six-game trip that ends Tuesday night in Los Angeles against the Clippers.</p>
<p>Defensive stalwart Rudy Gobert was a late scratch for Utah because of the 7-foot-1 center's right leg contusion as another 7-footer, Hassan Whiteside, sat for the second consecutive game with a right foot sprain.</p>
<p>Bojan Bogdanovic was out for the ninth time in 10 games as he battles a right calf strain, and Utah had a scare in the third quarter when Donovan Mitchell left the game briefly after Dwight Powell landed on his lower right leg.</p>
<p>Mitchell stayed down in front of Utah's bench as play continued at the other end and limped to the bench when he finally got up. But Mitchell missed less than a minute and a half, finishing with 12 points on 4-of-13 shooting.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Most of their team wasn&rsquo;t playing, so you can&rsquo;t judge,&rdquo; Kidd said. &ldquo;We had a Christmas game out there without half our team. You only will be judged once the playoffs start. This wasn&rsquo;t a playoff game. No one&rsquo;s up 1-0.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Doncic beat the halftime buzzer with a longer 3-pointer to get the Mavericks within a point and set up a second-half surge as Dallas won for the 18th time in 22 home games.</p>
<p>Reggie Bullock connected on a season-high seven 3-pointers, finishing with 23 points on 7-of-11 shooting beyond the arc. He had consecutive 3s in the middle of the fourth quarter to give Dallas its biggest lead to that point at 17.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I thought Bullock's 3s were really big 3s,&rdquo; Utah coach Quin Snyder said. &ldquo;You can't take all of them away. There's a few that were really impactful.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Jalen Brunson had 22 points while matching Doncic with 10 rebounds and five assists. They were the first starting Dallas guards to have at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in the same game in franchise history.</p>
<p>Mike Conley and Jordan Clarkson scored 14 points apiece for Utah.</p>
<p><strong>TIP-INS</strong></p>
<p>Jazz: Snyder said Whiteside has been playing through soreness and mentioned feeling it in a loss at Brooklyn last Monday. Whiteside played the next game in Boston. &ldquo;It's a hard thing to predict, how long or how quickly,&rdquo; Snyder said of the outlook for Whiteside.</p>
<p>Mavericks: F Davis Bertans scored six points after missing three games with right knee soreness. ... G Sterling Brown was out again after entering COVID-19 protocols during the trip to Minnesota, where Dallas lost Friday.</p>
<p><strong>NCAA CONNECTIONS</strong></p>
<p>On the same weekend Villanova reached the Final Four, Brunson shared the floor with Utah's Eric Paschall, his teammate when the Wildcats won their second title in three years in 2018. Paschall made his third start of the season with Gobert out and scored 10 points. Jazz rookie Jared Butler, who scored seven points, was the point guard on Baylor's championship team last year.</p>
<p><strong>UP NEXT</strong></p>
<p>Jazz: After finishing the road trip at the Clippers on Tuesday, Utah returns home against the Lakers on Thursday. The Jazz are 2-0 against the Clippers and 0-2 against the Lakers.</p>
<p>Mavericks: The Lakers visit Tuesday before Dallas starts its final road trip of the regular season (four games) at Cleveland on Wednesday, the second night of a back-to-back.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

Luka Doncic scored 32 points and the Dallas Mavericks beat the Utah Jazz 114-100.

Doncic, Mavs top Jazz 114-100 for inside track to home court

<p>The Miami Heat were supposed to be peaking now.</p>
<p>After nearly one calendar year, Victor Oladipo returned earlier this month. Shortly thereafter, four months removed from <a href="https://twitter.com/BryanFonsecaNY/status/1479485862962413574" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a neck injury via that Nikola Jokić incident</a>, Markieff Morris finally came back. Beginning on March 5, the Heat were engaged in a stretch that included seven-straight home games &mdash; of which they won five &mdash; before their current back-to-back losing streak, their worst of the season.</p>
<p>Still, despite holding first place in the Eastern Conference, it&rsquo;s felt like the Heat have needed a jolt &mdash; nothing more amplifying of that fact than their last two games. In Philadelphia, against the 76ers without James Harden and Joel Embiid &mdash; <a href="https://twitter.com/5ReasonsSports/status/1507045025296928776" target="_blank" rel="noopener">whose broadcast apparently didn&rsquo;t want them to win</a> &mdash; defeated a mostly healthy Heat team. Miami was missing Oladipo and Gabe Vincent, but still had Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and Kyle Lowry, all of whom were nearly 30-balled by Tyrese Maxey.</p>
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<p>Okay, road game, regular season, 1-of-82 &mdash; sh*t happens.</p>
<p>But Wednesday, with no Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, James Wiseman, Otto Porter Jr. and Gary Payton II (or Baron Davis, Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway or Monta Ellis), the Golden State Warriors &mdash; led by a 30-ball from Jordan Poole &mdash; punked the Heat on their home floor, 118-104.</p>
<p>Look, these are still NBA players, sometimes that happens too.</p>
<p>What typically doesn&rsquo;t &mdash; in public &mdash; was the, &ldquo;<a href="https://twitter.com/LeBatardShow/status/1507040697219797000" target="_blank" rel="noopener">kerfuffle, a hurly-burly, tomfoolery, a skirmish, a quarrel, a brouhaha, a dust-up, a hubbub or agree to disagree</a>.&rdquo;</p>
<p>You&rsquo;ve probably seen it by now, but here:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Jimmy Butler was HEATED in the Miami huddle after the Warriors went on a big run to start the second half <a href="https://t.co/6waBmHlL1r">pic.twitter.com/6waBmHlL1r</a></p>
&mdash; Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCSWarriors/status/1506804574320955392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 24, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<li>Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra picks up a clipboard just so he could throw it.</li>
<li>Butler and Udonis Haslem need to be separated.
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<li>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll beat yo ass,&rdquo; which we&rsquo;ll get to in a bit.</li>
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<li>Markieff Morris and PJ Tucker act like this is a regular Wednesday, and it might be.</li>
<li>Warriors rookie Moses Moody looks amazed and/or confused.</li>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Haslem telling Jimmy Butler &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll beat your ass&rdquo; 😂 <a href="https://t.co/9AcQiNw6WY">pic.twitter.com/9AcQiNw6WY</a></p>
&mdash; Ted Buddwell 🏀🏈 (@TedBuddy8) <a href="https://twitter.com/TedBuddy8/status/1506806343402893315?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 24, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<p>After the game, and after joking that the team was heated about making dinner plans, Spoelstra offered his thoughts on the tense moment.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It was pretty clear. We have a very competitive, gnarly group; we were getting our asses kicked, for two straight games, we were not playing to the level that we wanted to play," Spoelstra said. "Every single person in that huddle was pretty animated about our disappointment in how we were playing...</p>
<p>&ldquo;... Everything has to be better across the board. It starts with our leadership &mdash; our veteran players have to lead. And then, we just have to play better. Play better to our identity, play more consistently, and that&rsquo;s really all the discussions were. I know how it can look to the outside, but as I mentioned before, that is more our language than playing without passion or without toughness or without multiple efforts and lifelessness.&rdquo;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z1Pu5pfoows" width="100%" height="325" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p>Tucker, along with Lowry and Adebayo, was one of the three Heat players to address the media after the game. He also downplayed the confrontation.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Something happened?&rdquo; Tucker <a href="https://youtu.be/A4T3AbNbufs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asked with a smirk</a>. &ldquo;You put cameras on any NBA team, football team, any team, man. (We&rsquo;re) No. 1 in the East, finally got our whole team back, got our butts handed to us two games in a row by teams who don&rsquo;t even have their star players... emotions run high ... I laughed, man. I walked off the court laughing... This is part of the game.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Lowry acknowledged that "it&rsquo;s crazy,&rdquo; but quickly added that &ldquo;it&rsquo;s passion.&rdquo;</p>
<p>"We&rsquo;re in a situation where we have a lot of competitive guys. Our biggest competitor is our head coach. Jimmy and UD are tough competitive guys. It&rsquo;s good sometimes to get some anger and frustration out and just talk about it," Lowry <a href="https://youtu.be/ssv0jGhR50Y" target="_blank" rel="noopener">added</a>. "We&rsquo;re gonna have situations that make people uncomfortable, but at the end of the day, as long as we&rsquo;re comfortable and we figure it out, it&rsquo;s all that really matters. And as long as we&rsquo;re still together, and we are.&rdquo;</p>
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<p>NBA players, veterans, reporters, veteran reporters, coaches, staff, referees, families and secret families would all tell you that this happens, and particularly with contenders. With the Heat specifically, it&rsquo;s an organization still run by the famously confrontational Pat Riley, who probably looks at this as a regular Wednesday despite the magnitude of social media amplification in 2022. Because<em> </em>this happened publicly, though, chances are this isn&rsquo;t the first time, just the most public. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Hardened personalities clash every now and then because they want the same goal and might have occasional philosophical differences on how to get there with their teammates. They can argue off of raw emotion because that&rsquo;s who they are, and the emotion itself mainly expresses that they care &mdash; care enough to argue over it, and are prideful enough to defend themselves publicly because of it. That&rsquo;s probably closer to what this actual is &mdash; the Heat, more than most teams and organizations &mdash; have probably earned that.</p>
<p>We&rsquo;ve heard his story, but it bares reiterating: Butler was homeless as a teenager and worked his ass off to become a first-round pick four years after being a JUCO-signee out of high school. Four years after being drafted, he won Most Improved Player, and has been a perennial NBA All-Star and All-Defensive player ever since while earning nine figures.</p>
<p>Just think. No, really, think about the self-belief <em>that dude </em>must have to pull that off? He never would&rsquo;ve went toe-to-toe with LeBron James in an NBA Finals without it.</p>
<p>Haslem is 41 years old, still in the league and has the respect of damn near everyone you could think of. He&rsquo;s a been through it all, seen it all and is an old-school dude who <em>really </em>values respect. Haslem went undrafted out of the Florida Gators program in 2002, played in France, came to the Heat in 2003 and has been there ever since.</p>
<p>Spoelstra was initially hired as the Heat&rsquo;s video coordinator in 1995 &mdash; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/sports/basketball/spoelstra-has-heat-right-where-it-wanted-to-be.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">even predating Riley&rsquo;s tenure in Miami</a> &mdash; and worked his way up onto eventually becoming the head coach in 2008.</p>
<p>Remember last season when Haslem went at Dwight Howard? Notably, before even discussing this with teammate Duncan Robinson and podcast co-host David Reid on the Long Shot, Haslem notes how close he&rsquo;s been with Coach Spoelstra. We don&rsquo;t know what Butler said, but it might be fair to suggest Haslem felt someone was being disrespectful; sometimes, in the heat of battle, that happens too.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/943BcpzGB2Y" width="100%" height="325" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p>&ldquo;Me and Spo been through a lot, man,&rdquo; Haslem said on the Long Shot in August. &ldquo;We done been through the bottom, we done been mad at each other, we&rsquo;ve been on the same team, we done evolved to now, we&rsquo;ve just got a great relationship. It&rsquo;s symbiotic, we don&rsquo;t have to say it, we can just feel it. I can look at him, and he can look at me.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Sometimes, these blowups are necessary &mdash; in a team environment, with your siblings, significant other, your bodega guy, your barber and/or your side piece. (Sometimes, you gotta get people to know their role, yanno?) Often, you just can&rsquo;t let failures fester, and there&rsquo;s a need to outwardly address them. Miami did that in a very "Heat" way, according to them.</p>
<p>For the Heat, it's very simple from here. This either invigorates you in time for the playoffs, or it derails your season at the worst possible time. It either really works or it really doesn&rsquo;t.</p>
<p>&ldquo;You can use moments during a season to catapult you,&rdquo; Spoelstra said. &ldquo;You can galvanize together over frustration and disappointment. Teams can also go the other way; I don&rsquo;t see that with our group, I don&rsquo;t see that with our locker room. But we have needed a kick in the butt from these two games.&rdquo;</p>
<p>They did, and now, they&rsquo;ll also have one of the most essential things an organization could obtain this last in the year &mdash; clarity.</p>
<p>If this works, the Heat will be a legit contender, mixing it up in a loaded Eastern Conference dogfight with the Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets and 76ers.</p>
<p>If it doesn&rsquo;t, and they flame out of a second-straight post-season, they&rsquo;ll have clarity on what to do next this summer.</p>
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Bryan Fonseca reviews Jimmy Butler and Erik Spoelstra's tense moment and why it might've been beneficial for the Heat.

The Heat’s blow-up was necessary, but now the rest is up to them

<p>NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; Donovan Mitchell scored 36 points and the Utah Jazz finished strong to start their road trip, beating the New York Knicks 108-93 on Sunday night.</p>
<p>Jordan Clarkson came off the bench to score 18 of his 23 points in the first half for the Jazz, who opened a six-game road trip with the first of two games in two nights in New York. Rudy Gobert and Royce O'Neale each had 14 points.</p>
<p>Mitchell, a New Yorker who got a nice ovation before the game, made seven 3-pointers and threw down a powerful dunk midway through the fourth quarter when the Knicks were getting back in the game.</p>
<p>RJ Barrett scored 24 points and Evan Fournier had 17 for the Knicks, who had won two straight and five of seven. Julius Randle was 6 for 21 for 13 points and 11 rebounds as the Knicks shot 37% from the field.</p>
<p>Missing some key offensive players, Utah controlled much of the game with its defense before New York trimmed it to 93-89 on Obi Toppin's dunk with 5:19 left. But the Jazz answered with a 12-0 run, holding the Knicks scoreless for nearly four minutes to pull away to a 105-89 lead with just under two minutes remaining.</p>
<p>Utah only had two baskets during that stretch, punishing the Knicks by getting inside and drawing fouls before Rudy Gay capped the stretch with a 3-pointer and Mitchell later added another.</p>
<p>Mike Conley rested his right knee ahead of the game Monday night in Brooklyn and Bojan Bogdanovic missed his fourth straight with a left calf strain. So the Jazz turned up their defense, allowing just 44 points combined in the middle two quarters of their third straight victory.</p>
<p>The Knicks led 31-26 after one, but Clarkson played the entire second and scored 10 points. He and Mitchell both had 18 at halftime as Utah led 60-53.</p>
<p>The Jazz held the Knicks to 24% shooting in the third quarter, blocking almost as many shots (5) as the Knicks had baskets (6).</p>
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<p><strong>TIP-INS</strong></p>
<p>Jazz: Mitchell missed the last game with bruised right calf. ... Hassan Whiteside returned after a one-game absence with an illness not related to COVID-19 but Trent Forrest missed his fifth straight game with a sprained right wrist.</p>
<p>Knicks: Immanuel Quickley scored 16 points. ... Coach Tom Thibodeau said he'd been using a nine-man rotation at the moment to allow plenty of minutes for players such as Obi Toppin and Quentin Grimes, though might extend at times for rookie Miles McBride. McBride did get in as the 10th late in the third quarter.</p>
<p><strong>LONG ROAD AHEAD</strong></p>
<p>Coach Quin Snyder was asked if there were any positives in having such a long road trip so late in the season. The Jazz don't play at home again until March 31.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know. We&rsquo;re going to some cities that have great restaurants,&rdquo; Snyder said. &ldquo;We anticipated this stretch for a while obviously and we&rsquo;re not healthy right now. But sometimes when we&rsquo;ve gone on the road and we&rsquo;ve found adversity, whether it be internal or your opponent, I think there&rsquo;s opportunity there.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>UP NEXT</strong></p>
<p>Jazz: Visit Brooklyn on Monday night.</p>
<p>Knicks: Host Atlanta on Tuesday night.</p>

Donovan Mitchell scored 36 points and the Utah Jazz finished strong to start their road trip, beating the Knicks 108-93 on Sunday night.

Mitchell scores 36 points, Jazz beat Knicks to open trip

<p>It was the upset that ruined the majority of March Madness brackets.</p>
<p>On Thursday night, 15-seeded Saint Peter&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/putting-saint-peters-shocker-over-kentucky-in-historical-context" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shocked the world</a> by slaying Goliath, the 2-seeded Kentucky Wildcats, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Many publications had Kentucky as 20-point favorites against the Peacocks, but as the Wildcats found out, seeds and favorites mean nothing once it&rsquo;s gametime.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Daryl Banks III led the way with 27 points, while Doug Edert poured in 20 off the bench to overcome a 30-point, 16-rebound explosion by Kentucky star Oscar Tshiebwe.</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s important to note that Kentucky had never lost to a team lower than an 11-seed in the history of the program. And they hadn't lost in the first round since 2008, when they were the No. 11 seed and were defeated 74-66 by 6-seeded Marquette.</p>
<p>In fact, the last time they lost in the first-round as a higher seed was back in 1987, when they came up short in a 8-seed vs. 9-seed game against Ohio State.&nbsp;</p>
<p>So yes, for Kentucky faithful, this upset was disastrous, cataclysmic, devastating, catastrophic and every other adjective fans have used since Thursday night.&nbsp;</p>
<p>I caught up with Derek Anderson &mdash; who helped lead Kentucky to a national championship in 1996 before becoming a lottery pick and 11-year NBA veteran &mdash; to get his thoughts on the upset.</p>
<p><strong>Etan Thomas</strong>: "Okay, DA, the dust has settled a bit after the shocking loss. What was your reaction?"</p>
<p><strong>Derek Anderson</strong>: "Well, as a fan, you&rsquo;re definitely disappointed. As a former player, you&rsquo;re hurt for various reasons &mdash; bragging rights being one of them. I had us going to the championship. But just watching the game, a lot of these young guys are just not being trained to make in-game adjustments and some of the decision-making was just frustrating. I mean, fans are upset, and they have good reason to be upset.</p>
<p>"As a former player, we would&rsquo;ve known to make certain adjustments because they were guarding [Sahvir] Wheeler differently. I don&rsquo;t know if you remember but with the San Antonio Spurs, when Avery Johnson couldn&rsquo;t shoot, they put him on the baseline. So when they were trying to match-up, they kept him down there, and that&rsquo;s where he hit his open shots. It was just frustrating. But the team played hard, no doubt about that. There was no quit in them. I love Oscar&rsquo;s work ethic. [Keion] Brooks did well. They gave it their all, so that wasn&rsquo;t the issue. But the adjustments just weren&rsquo;t there and that&rsquo;s unfortunate."</p>
<p><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/da1_lg.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="341" /></p>
<p><strong>Thomas</strong>: "In the postgame press conference, Coach Calipari pointed out that ya'll were up by six with three minutes to go. What do you think went wrong?"&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Anderson</strong>: "Well, the team took a timeout and went zone. So they made the adjustment and to be quite honest, we didn&rsquo;t adjust. We were fortunate to send it to overtime. But if we would&rsquo;ve adjusted, had Oscar set some screens up and then hit the glass, had two guys up top and Oscar could&rsquo;ve filled the baseline and had Brooks or someone catch in that free-throw-line area and had those two guys crash and get in that lane, I think we would&rsquo;ve had a better chance. But we simply didn&rsquo;t adjust."</p>
<p><strong>Thomas</strong>: "How impressed were you with Shaheen Holloway? I played against him for four years while he was at Seton Hall, and he used to always give us fits. He&rsquo;s been doing a phenomenal job coaching. I&rsquo;m happy for him."</p>
<p><strong>Anderson</strong>: "I was super impressed. I&rsquo;m watching a lot of these young coaches do really well. He&rsquo;s a former player and he actually gets adjusting. He said, 'Hey, we gotta adjust. We can&rsquo;t guard Oscar one-on-one, so we gotta change it up.' And unfortunately, we didn&rsquo;t adjust to his adjustment. And that was the game. Shaheen did a great job. Even the body language; he never got down, so they never got down. His head was up, so their heads were up. He never panicked, so they never panicked. He did a tremendous job."</p>
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<p><strong>Thomas</strong>: "I know a lot of people are upset about the loss and it's raw emotions, but a lot of Kentucky faithful are saying that there may need to be a coaching change with Calipari. What are your thoughts?"&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Anderson</strong>: "Kentucky fans are passionate. They want to win. It&rsquo;s great that it&rsquo;s an amazing catapult to the NBA, but Kentucky fans want to see the team win, period. It was a tragic loss &mdash; the first time we have ever lost to a team that was the 15th seed. And that&rsquo;s absolutely no disrespect to Saint Peter&rsquo;s, because they&rsquo;re hoopers obviously, right? People get too caught up with rankings sometimes, but I think the raw emotions of the UK fans are more about winning than it is about the coach."</p>
<p><strong>Thomas</strong>: "Okay, that&rsquo;s fair. But now that a little time has passed and the dust has settled a little, what does Derek Anderson say about whether there should be a coaching change?"</p>
<p><strong>Anderson</strong>: "Well, I don&rsquo;t want to say anything negative about Calipari because it&rsquo;s still raw emotions; it hasn&rsquo;t even been 48 hours yet. But I will say: I wish he would&rsquo;ve made different adjustments, like we all do. I don&rsquo;t have any ill feelings towards him, I just wish we would&rsquo;ve made adjustments during the game."</p>
<p><strong>Thomas</strong>: "So, what&rsquo;s next for Kentucky? I&rsquo;ve seen things written and comparisons to Virginia when they lost to a low seed and then came back and won the championship the next season. What are your thoughts about what to expect next year?"</p>
<p><strong>Anderson</strong>: "I think TyTy is really built for the NBA. He's really good one-on-one in open space. I think Oscar has a great opportunity to pursue his dreams, help his Mom get here; he has other things he&rsquo;s thinking about to help his family and I don&rsquo;t blame him at all for that, and nobody else should either. So I think those two guys will probably leave, if anybody. I think the rest of the guys would benefit from coming back, staying, growing. I don&rsquo;t know how good we&rsquo;ll be; we just had a de-commit from one of the top players (Skyy Clark), so I&rsquo;m not sure.</p>
<p>"But we really need some leadership. I think we need to look into this transfer portal and get someone like Oscar who has been playing some basketball for a few years and can lead the team. Wheeler is a good player, just struggled with his shooting, but he did everything else really well. It all depends on who comes and then I can give you a better evaluation. But whoever we bring in, we have to be able to make adjustments during the game or it won&rsquo;t matter. Adjustments are what wins games."</p>
<p><em><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/violalogo1_lg_lg.png" alt="" width="560" height="280" /></span></em></p>
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Kentucky alum Derek Anderson weighs in on the Wildcats' shocking loss to Saint Peter's, John Calipari's future and what's next for UK.

Derek Anderson on Kentucky's loss to Saint Peter's, Coach Cal's future

<p>Deep down, everyone knew.</p>
<p>All of you knew once you finalized your picks: The half-ass research, the questions to your even less knowledgeable friends, the &ldquo;expert&rdquo; analysis &ndash; none of it was going to matter. Your bracket was going to be busted by the end of the night. You didn&rsquo;t know how, you didn&rsquo;t know by whom, but you had an idea that even on day one of the men&rsquo;s NCAA Tournament, your bracket would get cooked.</p>
<p>You probably just didn&rsquo;t know it would be by Saint ******* Peter&rsquo;s University &ndash; against <em>Kentucky</em>, at that &ndash; who won 85-79 in overtime, destroying the evening of bracket-builders, parlay-players and spread-bettors alike.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">PEACOCKS. WIN. <a href="https://t.co/Jf10r5zyb4">pic.twitter.com/Jf10r5zyb4</a></p>
&mdash; Saint Peter&rsquo;s Athletics (@SPUAthletics) <a href="https://twitter.com/SPUAthletics/status/1504634900875550723?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2022</a></blockquote>
<p>If you don&rsquo;t know, Saint Peter&rsquo;s is a private Jesuit school in the middle of Jersey City, New Jersey. And if you&rsquo;ve ever been to the campus, you'd be even more surprised by this upset. Depending on who you ask, Saint Peter&rsquo;s could have either <a href="https://twitter.com/RyanFieldABC/status/1504645256586973185" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2,300</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/GaryGrumbach/status/1504634530338160642" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2,600</a>, or <a href="https://twitter.com/BryanAGraham/status/1504634903484375043" target="_blank" rel="noopener">3,500</a> students; either way, we know the University of Kentucky likely has 10x that, if not more.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">How's that bracket looking??<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StrutUp?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StrutUp</a>🦚 <a href="https://t.co/c5JXAN2kzb">pic.twitter.com/c5JXAN2kzb</a></p>
&mdash; Saint Peter's Men's Basketball (@PeacocksMBB) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeacocksMBB/status/1504664039338782721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2022</a></blockquote>
<p>The gap actually has nothing on the wage disparity between each team&rsquo;s head coaches. John Calipari reportedly banks in $8.5 million annually from Kentucky, which doesn&rsquo;t included bonuses of any kind. Shaheen Holloway was hired as Saint Peter's head coach in 2018, and he reportedly made less than $270,000 (<em>including</em> bonuses) in 2019. That means Coach Cal is paid 30x more than Coach Holloway before his first bonus check.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">St. Peter's men's basketball coach Shaheen Holloway made $266,344 in 2019, including bonuses paid and value of benefits, per school's most recent federal tax dox.<br /><br />John Calipari's basic pay from UK for this season -- not including bonuses, benefits and perks -- is $8.5 million.</p>
&mdash; Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) <a href="https://twitter.com/ByBerkowitz/status/1504647038163726362?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2022</a></blockquote>
<p>More on the financial side, <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/saint-peter-kentucky-win-marks-111130742.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a Yahoo Sports report says</a>, &ldquo;In the 2019-20 school year, the most recent season unaffected by COVID-19, Kentucky outspent Saint Peter&rsquo;s $18.3 million to $1.6 million in men&rsquo;s basketball, per the U.S Department of Education. In terms of both expenditures ratio and raw difference between budgets, that is the biggest disparity since 2007, as far back as data is publicly available... Kentucky outspends Saint Peter&rsquo;s in basketball by a multiple of 11.7, just edging out the 11.5 ratio from CJ McCollum and Lehigh&rsquo;s win over Duke exactly 10 years ago.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Furthermore, Kentucky reportedly spent over $138 million for its sports teams in 2020. Saint Peter&rsquo;s? Only $7.2 million.</p>
<p>We&rsquo;ve watched the University of Kentucky become a factory for producing countless pros. And it's not just the high-level NBA stars we see thriving in the league today like Anthony Davis, Devin Booker, Bam Adebayo and Karl-Anthony Towns. On opening night of the 2021-22 NBA season, <a href="https://ukathletics.com/news/2021/10/19/mens-basketball-uk-mbb-leads-nation-with-27-players-on-nba-opening-day-rosters.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kentucky had 27 alums on rosters around the league</a>. In their history, they&rsquo;ve had <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/colleges.cgi?college=kentucky" target="_blank" rel="noopener">125 players appear in the NBA</a> &ndash; a number that's sure to increase following the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2022 NBA Draft</a>. The Wildcats have potential 2022 lottery picks in TyTy Washington and Shaedon Sharpe, and a possible late-first-rounder in Oscar Tshiebwe, among other expected NBA prospects.</p>
<p>Kentucky has the most wins, highest winning percentage, second-most national titles, most national-title-game appearances (tied with UCLA), most NCAA Tournament appearances, most <a href="https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2021-07-30/these-college-basketball-teams-and-conferences-have-most-nba-first-round-draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first-round draft picks</a> and most NCAA tournament wins.&nbsp;</p>
<p>By the way, how many NBA players came from Saint Peter&rsquo;s program? <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/colleges.fcgi?college=stpeters" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Four. Just four</a>.</p>
<p>Bill Smith played nine NBA games in 1962. Harry Laurie played nine games in 1971. Elnardo Webster played 24 games in 1972. And Rich Rinaldi played 84 games between 1972 and 1974. That&rsquo;s it. Even Keydren Clark &ndash; who was the <a href="https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/keydren-clark-1.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NCAA's scoring leader in 2004 and 2005</a> while at Saint Peter&rsquo;s &ndash; didn&rsquo;t sniff the league after graduating in 2006.</p>
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<p>Four is also the number of NCAA Tournaments that MAAC Champion Saint Peter&rsquo;s has made in their history, with zero victories until last night. Their 85-79 win over Kentucky nuked all your hopes of a perfect bracket, and simultaneously reminded us why March is one of the best sports months on the calendar.</p>
<p>This only marked the ninth time in tournament history that a No. 15 seed knocked off a No. 2, and all of them have happened since 1991, including Oral Roberts taking down Ohio State &ndash; also in overtime &ndash; just last year. This one, because of the distinctions between the two institutions both in size, recruiting advantages, budgets and basketball history, could be the biggest upset we&rsquo;ve ever seen.</p>
<p>People love blue-blood programs, and in the case of Kentucky, love to hate them. But this is why people gather around TV screens this time of year, to see improbable stories like these unfold.</p>
<p>Others say they want the best facing the best with no upsets, and that&rsquo;s cool, but where&rsquo;s the enjoyment in that? If you only watch basketball for &ldquo;starzzzzz&rdquo; and &ldquo;hooperzzzzz,&rdquo; this probably doesn&rsquo;t excite you, but if <em>this</em> level of improbability<em> </em>can&rsquo;t resonate with you, why? That&rsquo;s strange. The fact is, in life, more people can and should be able to identify with the Saint Peter&rsquo;s element of this. Chances are, if you&rsquo;re reading this, you&rsquo;re closer to them than Kentucky, and that&rsquo;s OK. So don&rsquo;t be disappointed that Kentucky blew it. Embrace the uncanny underdog Peacocks from Jersey City, led by their badass head coach from New York City, who reminded you after the game, that it&rsquo;s just ball after all.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Q: &ldquo;Did you ever get nervous.&rdquo; <br /><br />Shaheen Holloway after No. 15 Saint Peter&rsquo;s upset No. 2 Kentucky in OT<br /><br />&ldquo;For what? It&rsquo;s basketball.&rdquo; <br /><br /><a href="https://t.co/t0odjVyGWb">pic.twitter.com/t0odjVyGWb</a></p>
&mdash; George Balekji (@GeorgeBalekji) <a href="https://twitter.com/GeorgeBalekji/status/1504637225685987342?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2022</a></blockquote>
<p>
<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</p>
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No. 15 Saint Peter's managed to beat No. 2 Kentucky in overtime. Bryan Fonseca explains why it may be the biggest upset ever.

Putting Saint Peter’s shocker over Kentucky in historical context

<p>We're in the midst of a ridiculous scoring explosion.</p>
<p>Since the All-Star break, there have been 26 instances of a player scoring at least 40 points. Twenty different players have achieved the feat, ranging from superstars like Giannis Antetokounmpo, stars like Darius Garland, quality starters like Gary Trent Jr., gap-fillers like Josh Hart and bench assassins like Jordan Clarkson.&nbsp;</p>
<p>If the single-game excursions don't do it for you, consider that 11 players are averaging north of 30 points since the break. Only three pulled it off during the 2019-20 season &mdash; the infamous Orlando Bubble year &mdash; and that's the high mark of the past decade. We'll see what happens as the post-break sample grows, but we're in rare air right now.</p>
<p>The list of 11 is filled with single-name guys: LeBron, Jokic, Embiid, Giannis and Trae to point out a few. But then you get towards the bottom, and you see a pair of Kentucky Wildcats.</p>
<p>There's De'Aaron Fox, who is 11th in scoring (30.4 points per game) while dishing out nearly 8 assists per contest. His turbo-charged attacks &mdash; both on the ball or flowing into handoffs and cuts alongside his shiny new All-Star Domantas Sabonis &mdash; <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/deaaron-fox-is-blossoming-alongside-domantas-sabonis-but-whats-next-for-the-kings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have been fruitful</a>. It helps that the jumper (38.6% from three on 5.7 attempts) is falling right now.</p>
<p>And then, right above him on the list is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is quietly averaging 30.6 points over his last 10 games.</p>
<p>He isn't just getting buckets, but he's doing it efficiently. His 62.9% True Shooting percentage is one of the best marks in the league among high-usage players. The impressive part is that the bulk of his success has come in the interior.</p>
<p>Frankly, there's no driver in the league like SGA. There are numbers to quantify that; he's averaging the <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/drives/?Season=2021-22&amp;SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;SeasonSegment=Post%20All-Star&amp;sort=DRIVE_PTS&amp;dir=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fourth-most drives</a> since the break (22.9), ranks second in drive scoring (13.9) and is the only player converting more than half of his drive-based shots (51.5%) while attempting at least 10 of them per game.</p>
<p>While we're at it, here are how some notable names are faring on <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/shots-general/?Season=2021-22&amp;SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;SeasonSegment=Post%20All-Star&amp;sort=FG2A&amp;dir=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">two-point shots</a> since the All-Star break:</p>
<ul>
<li>Brandon Ingram: 63.6% on 15.4 attempts</li>
<li>Giannis Antetokounmpo: 61.3% on 15.2 attempts</li>
<li><strong>Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: 57.6% on 15.8 attempts</strong></li>
<li>Ja Morant: 51.2% on 18.4 attempts</li>
<li>Joel Embiid: 45.9% on 15.0 attempts</li>
</ul>
<p>Truly, you have to watch him. Despite having sub-elite burst, a sub-elite handle and a middling vertical pop, SGA consistently gets to his spots. Factor in his supporting cast (read: general lack of spacing), and his numbers become nonsensical. He simply shouldn't be this efficient within his context, but he's good enough to make it work.</p>
<p>He is a beacon of flexibility and deceleration. His ability to vary his stride length &mdash; some steps are quick and choppy, others are longer &mdash; is top-tier stuff. Gaining leverage is the name of the game, and SGA stops-and-slithers his way into it on a majority of his drives.</p>
<p>Defenders are rarely at risk of being blown by in a traditional sense, but they can never catch up to him. More accurately, they can never match his timing.</p>
<p>Take this play, for example.</p>
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;">
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; overflow: hidden;" src="https://streamable.com/e/p41xu9" width="100%" height="325" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>
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<p>Cody Martin doesn't do anything wrong here. He's squarly in front of SGA when the drive starts. Even with SGA attacking his front foot, Martin is never out of position ... until the second step on the gather.</p>
<p>That second step is longer and more powerful than the first, allowing SGA to gain a little bit of an advantage when gliding through the air. That turns this:</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/screenshot_2022_03_15_17_59_20_lg.png" alt="" width="577" height="325" /></p>
<p>Into this:</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/screenshot_2022_03_15_17_59_33_lg.png" alt="" width="577" height="325" /></p>
<p>Watching SGA duck under defenders is a hidden joy. You don't have to be Allen Iverson-fast if you can get your shoulder into a guy's chest.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Martin reaches in space, but SGA counters with a behind-the-back dribble. With Martin upright, SGA crosses back to his left&nbsp;<em>and sinks low&nbsp;</em>to create the early advantage.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/screenshot_2022_03_15_18_11_21_lg.png" alt="" width="577" height="325" /></p>
<p>He now <a href="https://twitter.com/NekiasNBA/status/1503721522053238785?s=20&amp;t=0mgvyxKROeC9qeB3tz4COw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has Montrezl Harrell (Micro Shaq???) on a patch of land</a>. He's able to get lower than him, too, then catch Harrell off guard with a Steve Nash-ian scoop. Harrell's barely off the ground by the time the shot's up.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/screenshot_2022_03_15_18_16_36_lg.png" alt="" width="577" height="325" /></p>
<p>The gather timing is wild enough; SGA altering his level of explosion on the gather is some nasty stuff.</p>
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; overflow: hidden;" src="https://streamable.com/e/7jw9ho" width="100%" height="325" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe></div>
<p>Look at how silly he makes Mason Plumlee look. Plumlee goes with a full-blown vertical contest &mdash; typically the right thing to do! &mdash; but because SGA leads at 10% capacity, he's able to slide under Plumlee for an unbothered layup.</p>
<p>Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has seemingly found a hack early on in his career: the actual moves don't have to change much if you alter the timing enough to throw defenders off. The stop-and-start nature of his game keeps his enemies off-balance; his finishing moves deliver the final blow.</p>
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Nekias Duncan breaks down the unique driving ability of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.