Nighthawks

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Somewhere, Gregg Popovich must be pleased.
Ime Udoka and Steve Kerr played for Popovich with of the San Antonio Spurs, both served as assistant coaches under him, and neither makes any effort to hide the affinity they have for the NBA&rsquo;s career victory leader.
And now, Udoka and Kerr are about to go head-to-head &mdash; in the NBA Finals.
The title matchup is set: It&rsquo;ll be Udoka and the Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics facing Kerr and the Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors, a series that begins Thursday night in San Francisco. The teams split their two regular-season meetings, each winning on the other&rsquo;s home floor.
The Warriors have been waiting for an opponent since this past Thursday after needing only five games to beat Dallas for the West title. The Celtics got there the hard way, winning Game 7 in Miami on Sunday night to capture the East.
&ldquo;We stayed with it. We believed in each other. We made a commitment on the defensive end," said Celtics forward Al Horford, who, after 141 playoff games, is headed to the NBA Finals for the first time. &ldquo;That was the biggest thing, defending."
For the Celtics, it&rsquo;s a chance at an 18th NBA championship &mdash; which would break the tie with the Los Angeles Lakers for the most in league history. For the Warriors, it&rsquo;s a chance at a seventh crown &mdash; which would break a tie with the Chicago Bulls for third-most in league history.
It&rsquo;s also a rematch of the 1964 finals, when Bill Russell and the Celtics topped the Warriors in five games.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve said it many times: You go to the finals, it&rsquo;s almost a two-month journey filled with stress and fatigue and everything else,&rdquo; said Kerr, who gave his team Friday and Saturday off before bringing them back to work Sunday. &ldquo;So, if you can get a little bit of a break, it&rsquo;s very meaningful. Hopefully, we can get healthy and have a few days of really good prep and be ready to go on Thursday.&rdquo;
Golden State won at Boston 111-107 on Dec. 17, behind 30 points from Stephen Curry. The Celtics rolled on Golden State&rsquo;s home floor in the rematch on March 16, winning 110-88 in the game in which Curry injured his foot &mdash; and that&rsquo;s where his regular season ended.
Curry was ready to go for the playoffs. So were the rest of the Warriors. They&rsquo;re 12-4 in the playoffs, getting through Denver, Memphis and Dallas to get to the title round.
&ldquo;It all starts with Steph,&rdquo; Kerr said.
Udoka has a chance to become the 10th coach to win a title in his first season. Eddie Gottlieb (1947 Philadelphia Warriors), Buddy Jeanette (1948 Baltimore Bullets), John Kundla (1949 Minneapolis Lakers), George Senesky (1956 Philadelphia Warriors), Paul Westhead (1980 Los Angeles Lakers), Pat Riley (1982 Los Angeles Lakers), Tyronn Lue (2016 Cleveland Cavaliers) and Nick Nurse (2019 Toronto Raptors) are eight of the coaches who have pulled off the feat.
The other name on that list is Kerr &mdash; who did it with Golden State in 2015, the start of this run of greatness from the Warriors. That was the beginning of six finals appearances in eight years, the two exceptions being when injuries and a roster reset kept them from the playoffs in 2020 and 2021.
&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t take it for granted,&rdquo; Curry said after the West title series. &ldquo;Nothing&rsquo;s ever guaranteed. We understand how hard it is to win. We&rsquo;ve said that until we&rsquo;re blue in the face the last two years. This is definitely special. Proud of everybody that is in that locker room, that came with it all year. Now we have an opportunity to go finish a job.&rdquo;
Udoka played for Popovich and later was a San Antonio assistant. Kerr played for the Spurs, then assisted Popovich with USA Basketball through last summer&rsquo;s Tokyo Olympics &mdash; when the Americans won a fourth consecutive gold medal.
The Warriors&rsquo; Draymond Green was on that Olympic team. So was Boston&rsquo;s Jayson Tatum. They celebrated winning gold together, and now they&rsquo;ll try to go through one another to get their fingerprints on the gold trophy that goes to the NBA champions &mdash; the Larry O&rsquo;Brien.
&ldquo;This is an opportunity that players dream of,&rdquo; Golden State's Andrew Wiggins said. &ldquo;To be put in a position to win it all.&rdquo;
And if nothing else, a Warriors-Celtics matchup made Green seem prophetic.
After the Warriors won the West, Green visited the TNT broadcast set after the game and was prodded by Shaquille O&rsquo;Neal to say which team from the then-undecided East title series that he would like to play.
Green began giving a diplomatic answer, saying that both the Heat and Celtics were tough. O&rsquo;Neal pressed him to be honest, and Green &mdash; never shy with words &mdash; gave in.
&ldquo;You&rsquo;re asking me who I want to play. I&rsquo;m gonna tell who I think we&rsquo;re going to play: We&rsquo;re going to play Boston,&rdquo; Green said Thursday night. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s who we&rsquo;re going to play.&rdquo;
He was right.
&nbsp;

The matchup is set: it will be the Boston Celtics facing the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals.

The Finals matchup: Celtics vs. Warriors for NBA title

Khris Middleton might not have been available for the Eastern Conference finals even if the Milwaukee Bucks had made it that far.
The three-time All-Star missed the Bucks&rsquo; last 10 games after <a href="https://apnews.com/article/chicago-bulls-milwaukee-bucks-nba-sports-46750c79bbe5ebbd7da9e84e81d3ef86">spraining the medial collateral ligament </a> in his left knee in Game 2 of a first-round series with the Chicago Bulls. Middleton sat out Milwaukee&rsquo;s entire second-round series with the Boston Celtics, who beat the Bucks in seven games and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/boston-celtics-miami-heat-nba-travel-sports-8108c54a1fcb1c58866b81eb87c05489">open the conference finals Tuesday in Miami.</a>
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if I would have been ready for tomorrow,&rdquo; Middleton said Monday. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if I would have been ready if it went to Game 7. It was almost a day-by-day thing, just waking up and seeing how I felt, seeing if there&rsquo;s swelling in there, and there&rsquo;s a point where you have to make sure the ligament&rsquo;s completely healed.&rdquo;
Middleton&rsquo;s absence was an unfortunate turn of events for the Bucks, who benefited from injuries to other teams during their <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-nba-milwaukee-bucks-phoenix-suns-64e76fe1b9f0851dbcf46ad66d90d6de"> title run last season.</a> The Bucks won a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/brooklyn-nets-milwaukee-bucks-nba-sports-7c1e79825d167e686b9c132c0c8634e0">seven-game East semifinal</a> with the Brooklyn Nets after injuries knocked out James Harden for most of the first four games and Kyrie Irving for the last three games.
<a href="https://apnews.com/article/wi-state-wire-atlanta-hawks-ga-state-wire-milwaukee-bucks-nba-14c850e27838fabcb2129f254d1cf745">The Bucks did lose Giannis Antetokounmpo to a knee injury </a> for two games in the East finals, but he returned <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-nba-basketball-milwaukee-bucks-atlanta-hawks-477d3e4a0a7cf768cf2ab47ce24a5aa7">to become MVP of the NBA Finals.</a>
&ldquo;It just wasn&rsquo;t our time,&rdquo; forward Bobby Portis said. &ldquo;All teams that go through a playoff stretch have luck along the way. We had our luck last year in some series that we went through with teams that went through some injuries.&rdquo;
Boston was missing forward/center Robert Williams the last four games due to a bone bruise in his right knee, but that only underscored the Celtics&rsquo; superior depth.
Williams was replaced in the starting lineup by Grant Williams, who scored a career-high 27 points and tied a Game 7 record Sunday by sinking seven 3-pointers in the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/milwaukee-bucks-miami-heat-boston-celtics-nba-travel-7d6fd7328f8ecf8df8dfb59001a9ce22"> Celtics&rsquo; series-clinching 109-81 victory.</a> None of the Bucks&rsquo; role players stepped up in a similar manner.
That forced the Bucks to depend even more on Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday.
Antetokounmpo was the first player to have 200 points, 100 rebounds and 50 assists in a playoff series. Holiday, who attempted more than 21 shots in a game just twice during the regular season, averaged 22 shots per game in the Celtics series.
&ldquo;If we had Khris, not that I&rsquo;m trying to make excuses, but maybe a different story,&rdquo; Antetokounmpo said after Sunday&rsquo;s game. &ldquo;But we gave everything we had. Guys came together. We realize, &lsquo;Hey, we&rsquo;ve got to get better. We&rsquo;ve got to get better as a team. We&rsquo;ve got to want it more. We&rsquo;ve got to work on our games.&rsquo; &ldquo;
They also must improve their playoff 3-point shooting.
Milwaukee ranked fourth in the league in 3-pointers per game (14.1) and fifth in 3-point percentage (36.6%) during the regular season. The Bucks made 38% of their 3-point attempts in their first-round series.
That all changed in the second round as the Celtics made nearly twice as many 3-pointers as the Bucks. Milwaukee went 57 of 204 (27.9%) from beyond the arc while Boston was 110 of 292 (37.6%).
The Bucks&rsquo; challenge is finding the right guys to complement the trio of Antetokounmpo, Middleton and Holiday.
Milwaukee&rsquo;s depth took a hit with the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-sports-lifestyle-milwaukee-bucks-houston-cfdf9c93a937a10201923495443db394">offseason departure of P.J. Tucker, </a> now with Miami. The Bucks&rsquo; top offseason addition was Grayson Allen, who played well in the regular season and in a first-round playoff series against Chicago. But after going 3 of 6 on 3-point attempts against Boston in Game 1, Allen went 2 of 18 the next six games.
&ldquo;In Game 1, I got three good open ones and knocked them down,&rdquo; Allen said. &ldquo;It felt like (Games) 2-7, the easy catch-and-shoot, spot-ups were very few and very hard to come by.&rdquo;
At the trade deadline, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/milwaukee-bucks-los-angeles-clippers-sacramento-kings-nba-sports-5afdea183f8000fd6c8c972baf968f7c"> the Bucks sent Donte DiVincenzo to Sacramento as part of a four-team deal that brought them Serge Ibaka, </a> who fell out of the rotation by April. Portis and Pat Connaughton have player options for next season and could opt for free agency.
The Bucks still should continue competing for titles as long as their top three guys remain healthy, though age offers cause for concern.
The 27-year-old Antetokounmpo was one of the younger players in the Bucks&rsquo; rotation this season. Holiday turns 32 next month and Middleton turns 31 this summer. Brook Lopez is 34, Wesley Matthews 35 and George Hill 36.
This playoff exit should add motivation.
&ldquo;Hopefully, this moment, instead of thinking that we lost something, we can gain and learn in order for us to put ourselves in position to win another championship,&rdquo; Antetokounmpo said.

Khris Middleton might not have been available for the Eastern Conference finals even if the Bucks had made it that far.

Middleton might have remained out even if Bucks had advanced

Memphis&rsquo; chances of staving off elimination are even tougher now.
The Golden State Warriors put the Grizzlies on the brink of the offseason after they rallied late in Game 4 on Monday night to grab a 3-1 series lead as Memphis star Ja Morant sat out with a sore right knee.
Morant is doubtful for the remainder of the postseason after an MRI and further evaluation revealed a bone bruise on his injured knee, the team announced Tuesday night. The NBA&rsquo;s Most Improved Player winner and All-Star guard had been averaging 38.3 points a game.
The Warriors now head to Memphis needing one victory to advance to the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2019 &mdash; when they lost in the NBA Finals before missing the last two postseasons.
That&rsquo;s been a long wait for a franchise that won three championships in the last decade.
&ldquo;Wednesday is going to be the hardest one yet,&rdquo; Warriors guard Klay Thompson said. &ldquo;It always is, the closeout. We have to put this behind us and put together a good game plan.&rdquo;
Even without Morant, Memphis still led for all but 45.7 seconds of Game 4 before Golden State rallied for a 101-98 victory. It was the first time Memphis had been held under 100 points this postseason.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re back home,&rdquo; Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got our fans. It&rsquo;s going to be loud, so we&rsquo;re excited to get back home and go play again, man. We have another chance to play. They&rsquo;re a good team. We obviously know how the game went. Yeah, we get another chance at it.&rdquo;
And that &ldquo;it&rdquo; is pushing this series back to San Francisco for Game 6 on Friday.
In the Bucks-Celtics series, Boston's Al Horford has tapped into a level of his game during the playoffs that many thought he&rsquo;d lost at age 35.
His play reached a new height in Game 4 during the Celtics&rsquo; 116-108 win over the Bucks on Monday night. The five-time All-Star scored 16 of his playoff career-high 30 points in the fourth quarter to help Boston tie the Eastern Conference semifinal series with the defending NBA champions at two games apiece.
Equally important, the Celtics have reclaimed home-court advantage as the series shifts back to Boston for Game 5 on Wednesday.
After spending a challenging season in Oklahoma City last year, Horford was packaged in the Thunder&rsquo;s trade for Kemba Walker, returning Horford to where he last earned All-Star honors in the 2017-18 season.
Horford said he feels like he&rsquo;s experiencing the fruits of an offseason in which he focused on being ready to play meaningful games again. He has gone from averaging 10.2 points and 7.7 rebounds during the regular season to 15.9 points and 9.4 rebounds in the postseason.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s from sitting at home,&rdquo; Horford said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s from watching the playoffs, not knowing what my future was holding and really just hoping to have an opportunity to be in this type of environment.&rdquo;
The resurgence has coincided with Boston needing someone to step up after big man Robert Williams III was sidelined for the second time this postseason, sitting out Game 4 with soreness in his surgically repaired left knee. He is questionable for Game 5.
After missing an opportunity to take a 3-1 series lead, Bucks guard Wesley Matthews said there&rsquo;s no time to sulk.
&ldquo;If it was easy to get to the semis, every team would get to the semis. It&rsquo;s hard. It&rsquo;s hard as hell,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;At the same time, you can&rsquo;t hold your head too high, can&rsquo;t hold your head low at all, and you&rsquo;ve got to bounce back.&rdquo;
Wednesday&rsquo;s games:
BUCKS AT CELTICS
Series tied 2-2. Game 5, 7 p.m. EDT, TNT
&mdash; NEED TO KNOW: After dropping the series opener at home, Boston is back at TD Garden with a chance to put the defending champion Bucks on the brink of elimination. The Celtics are 3-1 at home this postseason and continue to find ways to frustrate Giannis Antetokounmpo late in games.
&mdash; KEEP AN EYE ON: Milwaukee in the fourth quarter. The Bucks were outscored in the final 12 minutes in three of the four games, including 43-28 in Game 4. The only time it didn&rsquo;t cost them was their 103-101 win in Game 3.
&mdash; INJURY WATCH: The Celtics said Williams is questionable with left knee soreness &hellip; Bucks forward Khris Middleton (sprained left knee) remains out. George Hill (abdominal soreness) is listed as probable.
&mdash; PRESSURE IS ON: The Bucks. With no reinforcements coming in the form of Middleton returning, Antetokounmpo will need the best from his remaining supporting cast to avoid going down 3-2.
WARRIORS AT GRIZZLIES
Series tied 3-1. Game 5, 9:30 p.m. EDT, TNT
&mdash; NEED TO KNOW: Golden State is 43-24 all-time in series-clinching games and 19-8 since 2015. The Warriors also are 12-3 since 2015 in Game 5s. The Grizzlies are 3-11 when facing elimination.
&mdash; KEEP AN EYE ON: Jordan Poole. Dillon Brooks heard boos from Warriors fans in Game 4 after returning from a one-game suspension for his flagrant foul that sidelined Gary Payton II with a broken left elbow. Now Poole figures to be the target of Grizzlies fans after his involvement in the play that sent Morant to the sidelines.
&mdash; INJURY WATCH: Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who missed Game 4 after testing positive for COVID-19 and being placed in the league&rsquo;s health and safety protocols, will remain out for Game 5. Associate head coach Mike Brown will again coach in his place. ... With Morant out, Tyus Jones (19 points, six rebounds, five assists in Game 4) is expected to start again.
&mdash; PRESSURE IS ON: Brooks. He is just 8 of 35 from the floor and 4 of 18 from 3-point range in this series, with questionable shot selection. He missed a 26-footer that could&rsquo;ve padded Memphis&rsquo; lead in the final minute, possibly helping the Grizzlies pull out a gritty win.
___
AP Sports Writers Janie McCauley, Teresa M. Walker, Steve Megargee and AP freelance writer Jim Hoehn contributed to this report.

The Warriors have a chance to close-out on the road in Memphis, while the Celtics have regained home-court advantage on the Bucks.

Pivotal Game 5s on tap for Bucks-Celtics, Warriors-Grizzlies

The quirks of scheduling for the NBA playoffs created three-day breaks between games in the Boston-Milwaukee and Memphis-Golden State series.
In this case, the teams don&rsquo;t mind the delays too much. They have used the time off to get healthier and deal with unexpected roster changes.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s beneficial in a lot of ways,&rdquo; Celtics coach Ime Udoka said.
Both series are tied heading into Game 3s on Saturday at Milwaukee and San Francisco. These four teams haven&rsquo;t played since Tuesday.
NBA teams rarely get such long layoffs. For example, the Grizzlies had three off days between games just once during the regular season, aside from the All-Star break.
Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said he would have preferred to have two days between games rather than three. But he felt players could benefit from having time for a mental break amid a grueling series.
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s definitely positives,&rdquo; Bucks center Brook Lopez said. &ldquo;It is helpful to recover. It&rsquo;s helpful because you can watch film, you can go over what the other team&rsquo;s doing, what you&rsquo;re doing, learn a lot of stuff. But we&rsquo;re all definitely itching to play as well. Maybe that&rsquo;s because we lost the last game, but we&rsquo;re definitely ready to get back out there.&rdquo;
The longer break gave players time to heal.
Ukoda said NBA Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart is probable for Saturday after missing Game 2 with a bruised right thigh. Memphis center Steven Adams cleared health and safety protocols and should play Saturday after missing the first two games against the Warriors.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad Steve-O&rsquo;s back,&rdquo; Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson said. &ldquo;He looks great.&rdquo;
Bucks forward Khris Middleton remains out for at least the next two games with a sprained left medial collateral ligament, but the longer this series goes, the more likely he gets to play in this round.
The Grizzlies and Warriors also got accustomed to working without guys who will be missing when the series resumes.
Golden State&rsquo;s Gary Payton II is out indefinitely with a broken left elbow after taking a flagrant foul from Memphis&rsquo; Dillon Brooks, who received a one-game suspension.
&ldquo;Just having some time at home to get some rest in and get some good practices in and really lock in on the game plan is always going to be good for us,&rdquo; Warriors center Kevon Looney said. &ldquo;We have a veteran team and it&rsquo;s given us a chance to make some adjustments and figure out and learn from our last loss.&rdquo;
They like having that extra time, even though it&rsquo;s out of the ordinary.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been in the playoffs where we play every other day,&rdquo; Celtics forward Al Horford said. &ldquo;And when that&rsquo;s the case, you&rsquo;re wishing and hoping, &lsquo;Man, I hope we get an extra day.&rsquo; Now in this case, it&rsquo;s a &lsquo;When are we playing again?&rsquo;-type thing. At the end of the day, this is the way it is. The scheduling works out this way. We have to make sure we stay ready no matter what it is.&rdquo;
CELTICS AT BUCKS
Series tied 1-1. Game 3, 3:30 p.m. EDT, ABC.
&mdash;NEED TO KNOW: The Celtics bounced back from a 101-89 loss in Game 1&nbsp;by trouncing the defending champion Bucks 109-86 in Game 2. The Bucks have an 88-44 edge in paint points through the first two games of this series, while the Celtics have outscored Milwaukee 114-45 from 3-point range.
&mdash;KEEP AN EYE ON: Milwaukee&rsquo;s 3-point shooting. Since going 10 of 20 on 3-point attempts in the first half of Game 1, the Bucks have shot just 5 of 32 from beyond the arc.
&mdash;INJURY WATCH: Middleton remains unavailable and will miss a sixth straight playoff game. Smart expects to play Saturday. Bucks G George Hill, who hasn't played yet this postseason due to an abdominal strain, is listed as probable.
&mdash;PRESSURE IS ON: Bucks F Giannis Antetokounmpo. As long as Middleton remains out, Antetokounmpo is going to have to be at his absolute best for the Bucks to win. The two-time MVP is averaging 26 points in this series, but he&rsquo;s shooting 38.5% (20 of 52) from the floor.
GRIZZLIES AT WARRIORS
Series tied 1-1. Game 3, 8:30 p.m. EDT, ABC.
&mdash;NEED TO KNOW: The Grizzlies won 106-101 in Game 2 to tie the series after falling 117-116 in Game 1. Memphis&rsquo; Ja Morant is averaging 40.5 points, 9 assists and 8.5 rebounds through the first two games. The Warriors are shooting just 27.6% (21 of 76) from 3-point range in this series. They went 7 of 38 in Game 2.
&mdash;KEEP AN EYE ON: Warriors F Jonathan Kuminga. The 6-foot-7 rookie likely will play more with Payton sidelined.
&mdash;INJURY WATCH: The Warriors will be missing F Andre Iguodala as well as Payton. Iguodala remains out with a disk injury in his neck that has caused him to miss Golden State&rsquo;s last three playoff games. Adams should return for the Grizzlies after missing three games.
&mdash;PRESSURE IS ON: Adams. He was essentially benched in the first round but could have a major role in this series as the Grizzlies try to regain their regular-season form on the glass. Memphis led the NBA in offensive rebounding, total rebounds and second-chance points during the regular season but has been outrebounded by the Warriors in each of the first two games. Adams had an NBA-leading 4.6 offensive rebounds per game this season.
___
AP Sports Writers Janie McCauley and Teresa M. Walker contributed to this report.

The quirks of scheduling for the NBA playoffs created three-day breaks between games in Celtics-Bucks and Grizzlies-Warriors.

Long breaks between NBA playoff games give teams time to heal

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Bam Adebayo scored 23 points, Jimmy Butler had 22 points and 12 assists, and the Miami Heat beat the Philadelphia 76ers 119-103 on Wednesday night for a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Victor Oladipo scored 19 points on his 30th birthday and Tyler Herro added 18 for the Heat, the East&rsquo;s No. 1 seed. Oladipo had 10 of those points in the fourth quarter.
Tyrese Maxey scored 34 points for Philadelphia, which got 21 from Tobias Harris and 20 from James Harden.
A 10-0 run in the fourth turned an eight-point Miami lead into an 18-point edge, sealing the win and ensuring the Heat would hold home court before the series shifts north. Game 3 is Friday in Philadelphia.
And now, the Heat will hope history holds &mdash; and the 76ers will hope it doesn&rsquo;t.
Miami has taken a 2-0 lead in 18 previous series, including the first round this season against Atlanta, and won the matchup every time. The 76ers&rsquo; franchise has dropped the first two games of a matchup on 19 other occasions, never recovering to win the series.
The question going into Friday will revolve around whether Philadelphia&rsquo;s Joel Embiid could be ready for Game 3. The league&rsquo;s scoring champion and MVP finalist has, not surprisingly, been big-time missed by the 76ers.
&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have a big man right now,&rdquo; Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers lamented.
Adebayo surely isn&rsquo;t complaining. He was 8 for 10 from the field and 8 for 8 from the line in Game 1; he followed that up with a 7-for-11 night from the floor on Wednesday.
It wasn&rsquo;t just the absence of Embiid, though, that hurt Philadelphia. The 76ers were awful again from 3-point range, shooting 8 for 30.
Danny Green was 1 for 10 from the field &mdash; the second time in his playoff career that he had that many attempts and shot that poorly in a postseason game. The other? A 1-for-12 effort for San Antonio in 2013, also in Miami, the night the Heat won their third and most recent NBA title.
The Heat aren&rsquo;t close to that yet. But they are two wins from the East finals.
TIP-INS
76ers: Harden got fouled on a 3-point try with 0.1 seconds left in the half, making all three free throws to get Philadelphia within 60-52 at the break. ... Maxey got a cut on his right knee in the fourth quarter, the game stopping temporarily while the 76ers tended to him. He stayed in the game. ... Georges Niang had another unusual stat line. He was 0 for 7 &mdash; all 3-pointers &mdash; in Game 1, then fouled out in 10 minutes of Game 2. It was the fourth-fewest minutes played all season by anyone who fouled out.
Heat: PJ Tucker turns 37 on Thursday. ... It was the 497th consecutive sellout announced by the Heat, tying Sacramento for the fifth-longest streak in NBA history. The record is held by Dallas, which has 864 consecutive sellouts and counting. ... Miami held a 44-34 rebounding edge.
PASSING PAT
With the win, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra&rsquo;s postseason record improved to 91-59 (.607). Among coaches with at least 100 playoff games, he moved into fourth on the NBA&rsquo;s win-percentage list behind only Steve Kerr (.732), Phil Jackson (.688) and Billy Cunningham (.629). The coach Spoelstra passed in winning percentage Wednesday night? That would be his boss, Heat President Pat Riley, who went 171-111 (.606).
KENTUCKY SOUTH
The Kentucky ties ran deep Wednesday night. Wildcats coach John Calipari was at Game 2 to see Herro formally receive the Sixth Man award. Other former Kentucky players on the Heat and 76ers: Adebayo, Maxey and Heat two-way player Mychal Mulder. And Riley played at Kentucky.
UP NEXT
Game 3 is Friday in Philadelphia.

Miami took a 2-0 lead over the Philadelphia 76ers with a second-straight home win in the Eastern Conference Semis.

Adebayo, Butler lead Heat past 76ers 119-103 in Game 2

In the 2020 Summer Olympics, which took place in 2021 due to COVID, France matched up with Team USA in the men&rsquo;s basketball gold-medal game for the third time.
The first gold-medal meeting between the two nations took place was in 1948, with France <a href="https://www.usab.com/history/national-team-mens/games-of-the-xivth-olympiad-1948.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">losing 65-21 in that final</a>.
Despite having been historically good since then, it took another 52 years for the Frenchmen to return to that stage for a second time; unfortunately, Team USA awaited again. The game was much closer in 2000 than in 1948, but the Americans &mdash; led by Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett, Alonzo Mourning and Ray Allen among others &mdash; outlasted Antoine Rigaudeau, Laurent Sciarra, Frederic Weis and France, 85-75.
(No, that wasn&rsquo;t the game Carter <a href="https://youtu.be/WihbbVEmppI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dunked on Weis</a>; that was earlier in The Games.)
And in last year&rsquo;s gold-medal game, in the countries' third meeting on that stage, France <a href="https://www.espn.com/mens-olympics-basketball/boxscore/_/gameId/401347899" target="_blank" rel="noopener">got even closer</a>.
France's best Olympic team ever was defeated by the Americans, 87-82. Team USA started Damian Lillard, Jrue Holiday, Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bam Adebayo, answering the French quintet of Nando De Colo, Evan Fournier, Nicolas Batum, Guerschon Yabusele and Rudy Gobert.
Contributions from the U.S. bench came from Jayson Tatum, Zach LaVine, Draymond Green and Khris Middleton, while Timoth&eacute; Luwawu-Cabarrot, Frank Ntikilina, Thomas Heurtel and Moustapha Fall were key components of France's second unit. The Frenchmen trailed by as little as 3 points with just eight seconds remaining before Durant iced the game with two free throws.
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8YSrNfcKvA0" width="100%" height="325" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Now imagine that game with Joel Embiid... playing for France.
The 28-year-old NBA MVP candidate, who was born and raised in Cameroon and has never played for his home national team (despite <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/things-to-monitor-as-the-next-fiba-world-cups-next-qualifying-window-arrives">coming close in 2017</a>), is reportedly <a href="https://www.si.com/nba/2022/05/02/joel-embiid-could-change-nationality-play-french-national-team-report">eyeing an opportunity to suit up for France</a>.
Embiid has family in France, and is <a href="https://rmcsport.bfmtv.com/basket/basket-joel-embiid-superstar-de-nba-se-rapproche-de-l-equipe-de-france_AV-202205020664.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">considering changing his nationality</a> in order to play for the Frenchmen in the 2024 Olympic Games, where they&rsquo;d enter as one of the favorites to challenge Team USA again for the gold. According to French basketball general manager Boris Diaw, Embiid is <a href="https://actucameroun.com/2022/05/03/boris-diaw-manager-general-de-lequipe-de-france-confirme-les-demarches-entamees-par-joel-embiid-pour-jouer-avec-les-bleus-en-vue-des-jo-2024/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">taking the necessary steps</a>.
(Looks like we won't ever see the Embiid-Pascal Siakam tandem for Cameroon, unfortunately.)
In FIBA, each team is allowed one naturalized player on its roster. Current and recent instances of this include American-born players to suit up for different countries, such as Javonte Green (Montenegro), Matt Costello (Ivory Coast), Anthony Randolph (Slovenia) and Andray Blatche (Philippines). Non-American examples include Congolese center Serge Ibaka playing for Spain, Cuban native Ismael Romero playing for Puerto Rico and French-born Aaron Cel playing for Poland. Another famous occasion where this occurred saw Hakeem Olajuwon playing with Team USA in the 1990s.
Regarding American-born WNBA players, known examples include Bria Hartley representing France, Becky Hammon representing Russia and Leilani Mitchell representing Australia. Non-American examples in the women&rsquo;s game include Bahamian Jonquel Jones playing for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Senegal native Astou Ndour playing for Spain.
Now, it may be long before we see Embiid actually playing for France if this process gets finalized, or less than we think if he decides not to wait for the Olympics.
The next major European basketball tournament is EuroBasket 2022, <a href="https://www.fiba.basketball/eurobasket/2022">which will run from Sept. 1-18 later this year</a> across Italy, Germany, Georgia and the Czech Republic. France will be one of 24 teams competing, but seeing Embiid there would be surprising.
The 2023 FIBA World Cup, which France is <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/where-things-stand-after-the-second-window-of-fiba-world-cup-qualifiers">currently attempting to qualify for</a>, will take place from Aug. 25 through Sept. 10, 2023. Qualifying for the World Cup will run through next February before the final pool of 32 teams gets decided.
And the 2024 Summer Olympics, assuming we avoid another global pandemic, is expected to actually run that summer. The host of the Games? France, who will automatically qualify for the tournament <a href="https://www.fiba.basketball/pr-n34-brazils-national-teams-granted-automatic-places-at-2016-olympic-basketball-tournament" target="_blank" rel="noopener">by rule</a>. Embiid will be 30 years old by the next Olympics.
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Since Embiid is reportedly targeting the 2024 Games, let&rsquo;s look at some players who might be his teammates.
The oldest players from the silver-medal-winning squad last summer were De Colo and Batum, who&rsquo;ll be 37 and 35 by the 2024 Games, so expect many of the same players to run it back if possible. One name that could join the fray is Boston Celtics second-round pick Juhann Begarin, who is just 19 years old and was the No. 45 overall selection last summer. Isma&euml;l Kamagate and Hugo Besson, both of whom are 21, are in the 2022 NBA Draft pool; the same goes for 18-year-old Ousmane Dieng, who is quickly rising up draft boards. There's also plenty of hype surrounding fellow 18-year-old, ASVEL star and 7-foot-2 sensation Victor Wembanyama &mdash; a lock to be a high draft pick in 2023.
<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft">BasketballNews.com Sr. NBA Draft Analyst Matt Babcock</a> has Dieng going No. 21 overall, Kamagate at No. 40 and Besson at No. 51.
But really, there&rsquo;s one question we need to answer, and it has to do with a three-time Defensive Player of the Year already on the roster who holds down the 5 position. Could an Embiid and Gobert frontcourt lead France over Team USA?
If you haven&rsquo;t realized, the American pool of bigs is slighter than you think.
Many of the best centers in the NBA aren&rsquo;t American and don&rsquo;t represent America internationally. Examples include Embiid, Gobert, Nikola Jokić (Serbia), Karl-Anthony Towns (Dominican Republic), Nikola Vučević (Montenegro), Kristaps Porziņģis (Latvia), Clint Capela (Switzerland) and Jonas Valančiūnas (Lithuania).
The best centers that have represented Team USA, and/or have Team USA eligibility, have been Adebayo, Green, Jarrett Allen and JaVale McGee. Deandre Ayton (Bahamas) is a player to watch <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nba/suns/2021/06/22/suns-big-deandre-ayton-ideal-team-usa-2024-summer-olympics-paris/5307682001/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">who could represent Team USA in the future</a>, along with younger bigs like Evan Mobley and Chet Holmgren.
Assuming health, so the 2024 American team could start either Adebayo, Ayton or Allen, if not 2 of the 3. Team USA is generally harder to guess in advance, but your starting lineup could look like some combination of Ja Morant, Anthony Edwards, Booker, Tatum and Adebayo. Maybe, to match size, Ayton gets in there instead of Edwards.
Maybe a Trae Young, LaMelo Ball, Bradley Beal, Jaylen Brown and Donovan Mitchell sneak into the backcourt instead. Maybe someone we&rsquo;re not projecting to make another huge leap does &mdash; like Jordan Poole, Tyler Herro or Tyrese Maxey &mdash; or maybe Jaden Ivey or Jabari Smith are more ready than we think by 2024. Even so, you&rsquo;d throw, at best, Adebayo, Ayton, Allen, and Mobley at the Embiid-Gobert combo, and that tandem could be backed up by Dieng, Yabusele, and Vincent Poirier for France.
It&rsquo;s a lot to project, no doubt, but giving <a href="https://www.fiba.basketball/rankingmen" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the No. 4 team in the world</a> a top-four player in the world could be what it takes for someone to snatch the gold medal away from Team USA in the Olympics for the first time since 2004.
But a lot can happen in two years, so we'll table this... for now.&nbsp;
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Bryan Fonseca looks at the potential of Joel Embiid joining France in international competition.

We’re not talking enough about Joel Embiid possibly playing for France

Klay Thompson savored the moment by spending a few minutes on the court after a roller coaster of emotions during the final minute.
He hit the game-winning 3-pointer &mdash; only to miss two free throws before getting back on defense to force Ja Morant to miss a layup, giving Golden State a 117-116 win. It wasn't for a championship but was nevertheless a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/golden-state-warriors-memphis-grizzlies-nba-sports-stephen-curry-16816fd53866b2a3035410e7ca958d86">huge win for the Warriors</a> and more so for Thompson because of the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-sports-basketball-cleveland-cavaliers-golden-state-warriors-bfe97f2a39a2ee684e16f5a4e876ff04">injuries he's </a> dealt with the past two years.
&ldquo;Having to watch the last couple of years, just soaking everything in and internalizing the whole atmosphere and just appreciating where I&rsquo;m at,&rdquo; Thompson said.
Game 1 showed that the results of the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/memphis-grizzlies-golden-state-warriors-nba-sports-stephen-curry-14b992b9481c811bbf2b0594159b624e">1-on-1 scoring competition between Memphis' Morant (34) and Stephen Curry (24) of the Warriors</a> doesn't mean their team will win the game or the Western Conference semifinal series. Supporting casts are crucial at this stage of the postseason.
Thompson was just 3 of 10 from outside the arc and finished with 15 points. But Jordan Poole helped Golden State's bench outscore Memphis' reserves 47-30. Poole had playoff career highs with <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1521108501946380288?s=20&amp;t=Nk4nrsduC3oz16o2hJMtYA">31 points</a> and eight rebounds, and he also matched his playoff best of nine assists.
&ldquo;He was brilliant,&rdquo; Golden State coach Steve Kerr said.
Jaren Jackson Jr. had a playoff career-high 33 points in his second straight double-double. He also matched his season high with six 3-pointers.
When the fourth overall draft pick in 2018 plays like that, Grizzlies' teammate Kyle Anderson said, there's not a lot of teams that can beat them.
&ldquo;We need him on the floor,&rdquo; Anderson said of Jackson on Monday. "That's tough. We need those type of performances out of him.&rdquo;
Andrew Wiggins added 17 points for Golden State. Brandon Clarke has scored in double figures each of the first seven games coming off the bench for Memphis, and Grizzlies reserve De'Anthony Melton added 14 against the Warriors after not playing the final two games of the first round.
In the Eastern Conference, Giannis Antetokounmpo got more help from his Bucks&rsquo; teammates than Jayson Tatum did from the rest of the Celtics.
Antetokounmpo had a triple-double, leading the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/milwaukee-bucks-boston-celtics-nba-sports-5e6bf7a261b1ae3afe0b6db6848520f0">Milwaukee Bucks to a road win to open their Eastern Conference semifinal</a> with Boston. With <a href="https://apnews.com/article/milwaukee-bucks-chicago-bulls-nba-sports-khris-middleton-05a2ee1cdd14be2b01dfb2fb88731408">Khris Middleton still out with an injured knee,</a> Bobby Portis came through with 15 points and 11 rebounds to go along with Jrue Holiday&rsquo;s double-double.
Tatum got little help from his teammates, with Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart going a combined 7 of 24.
&ldquo;I have all the faith in the world in JB,&rdquo; Tatum said. "No one should hang their heads. Just get ready for the next one.&rdquo;
BUCKS AT CELTICS
Milwaukee leads 1-0. Game 2, 7:30 p.m. EDT, TNT.
NEED TO KNOW: The defending NBA champion Bucks started slowly but imposed their will on the Celtics in the second half of their 101-89 Game 1 win. Antetokounmpo shot 9 for 25 from the field but still posted his second career playoff triple-double (24 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists). The Celtics shot a playoff-low 33% (28 of 84) with just 21 assists and a playoff-high 18 turnovers.
KEEP AN EYE ON: How the Celtics adjust to the Bucks&rsquo; pressure. Milwaukee picked Boston&rsquo;s ball handlers up full court at different times, forcing the Celtics to speed up in some shaky half-court possessions. Boston coach Ime Udoka said changing the approach is a must to free up the offensive flow: &ldquo;You want to mix it up and at times and attack out of that when they&rsquo;re pressing."
INJURY WATCH: Udoka said Smart is questionable for Game 2, dealing with a fair amount of soreness from a bruised thigh hurt in the opener. He got hit twice in the same spot and also left just before halftime with a right shoulder stinger. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a tough guy that&rsquo;s going to try to play through things,&rdquo; Udoka said. &hellip; Milwaukee guard George Hill was on the court for Monday&rsquo;s practice doing individual work, but coach Mike Budenholzer said he will remain out with the abdominal strain that kept Hill out of the Chicago series.
PRESSURE IS ON: Tatum and Brown. Boston&rsquo;s star duo combined to go 10 of 31 from the field. Tatum managed 21 points, but Brown finished with only 12, going 3 of 9 from the 3-point line with seven turnovers. The Celtics&rsquo; offense goes how they go, and another lackluster performance by the tandem would almost certainly lead to a 0-2 deficit.
WARRIORS AT GRIZZLIES
Golden State leads 1-0. Game 2, 9:30 p.m. EDT, TNT.
&mdash; NEED TO KNOW: The Warriors outrebounded the NBA's top rebounding team 52-47, with an NBA statistic correction giving them another rebound well after the game. They also matched the Grizzlies on the offensive glass with 16 &mdash; far above Golden State's average of 9.8 during the regular season and 8.5 in the playoffs. That helped the Warriors outscore Memphis 26-24 on second-chance points.
&mdash; KEEP AN EYE ON: Draymond Green. He was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/memphis-grizzlies-golden-state-warriors-nba-sports-basketball-5b217bca404e848b636e9a23c7e95627">ejected from Game 1 late in the first half</a> for swiping Brandon Clarke's face with right hand, grabbing the Grizzlies forward's jersey with his left and pulling Clarke down to the court. Green said on his podcast he thought the NBA might reduce the flagrant foul but didn't. That leaves Green two points from a one-game suspension.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m never going to change the way I play basketball,&rdquo; Green said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s gotten me this far. It&rsquo;s gotten me three championships, four All-Stars, Defensive Player of the Year. I&rsquo;m not going to change now.&rdquo;
&mdash; INJURY WATCH: Desmond Bane got treatment during the second half on the bench for what Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins called &ldquo;general soreness." Jenkins said Bane is doing all right, just sore like most of the Grizzlies. Grizzlies center Steven Adams has not been cleared from the health and safety protocols and remains day to day. ... Thompson is probable for Golden State with right knee soreness.
&mdash; PRESSURE IS ON: Memphis. The Grizzlies already have lost home-court advantage. Dropping Game 2 means going to San Francisco with a sweep by the Warriors a much bigger possibility for one of the NBA's youngest teams playing on its biggest stage yet.
___
AP Sports Writer Kyle Hightower in Boston contributed to this report.

In a pair of Game 2s on Tuesday night, stars' teammates could prove to be critical once again for their teams.

Supporting cast key in semis matchup between Morant, Curry

On paper, a matchup between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Miami Heat is a tantalizing one.&nbsp;
Plenty of star power with Joel Embiid, Jimmy Butler, James Harden, and Bam Adebayo. Young guards (Tyrese Maxey, Tyler Herro) that can take the top off a defense if its shift too much attention elsewhere.
A pair of Hall-of-Fame coaches who've already shown off their defensive chops in this year's playoffs; the Heat's gameplan against Trae Young was superb, while the Sixers pressed plenty of buttons (zone, coverage alterations vs. Pascal Siakam) in their close-out win on Thursday. Expect a grind in this series.
But injuries -- bleep injuries, honestly -- are here to dampen the fun.&nbsp;
Embiid won't start the series. He's out indefinitely with a mild concussion and an orbital fracture suffered during the late stages of Thursday's matchup. While the Heat turned Young's water off for good earlier in the week, they did so without Butler (knee inflammation) and Kyle Lowry (hamstring). Butler should be back for the beginning of the series, but Lowry's status <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisBHaynes/status/1520800327347458048?s=20&amp;t=35oLEYfpS1Nm_hNQDljqAw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">is more problematic</a>. It'll be worth tracking their health moving forward.
At the risk of sounding like an annoying optimist, I'd argue that there's still plenty of intrigue left in this series. I still expect a hard-fought, in-the-mud battle. And that should ramp up when (if?) Embiid returns.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: TRANSITION + EARLY OFFENSE
This is the "selective running" battle if I've ever seen it.&nbsp;
Per Cleaning The Glass, the Heat (14.5%) and Sixers (14.1%) ranked 19th and 20th in transition frequency, respectively. It makes sense once you look at the personnel for each side. Neither squad has an abundance of track stars.
On the Sixers' side, Maxey drives the bulk of it. He generated 1.34 points per possession (PPP) in transition during the regular season, one of the best marks in the NBA, per InStat tracking. That number rose slightly against the Heat (1.35 PPP), largely due to the fact that there's no physical match for Maxey's speed on the roster.
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Embiid can cause some problems in transition himself. He can do the classic big man thing: grab the board, hit the guard, then high-tail it down the middle of the floor for a deep seal. Or, since he's turned himself into a terrifying grab-and-go threat, he also can take matters into his own hands.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Sixers look to bump up their pace in this series. Losing their MVP will necessitate it to a degree. Embiid led the NBA with 72 post-ups within the first 10 seconds of the shot clock, and the Sixers scored well over 1.3 PPP on those trips via Second Spectrum. Nikola Jokic (50) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (38) were the only guys that came close in terms of volume.
That would mean more Maxey early in the clock, but it would especially mean more Harden. Early drag screens to get downhill or force a mismatch has been his MO, and they'll need him to force the issue a little bit more.
I'd wager DeAndre Jordan gets the non-Embiid starts. We can quibble about that, but he does have chemistry with Harden as an early drag screener.&nbsp;
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Jordan isn't nearly the scorer that Embiid is (duh), but he does provide a little more juice as a vertical threat. His ability to slip will be important against Miami's switching.&nbsp;
Miami didn't run often, but they did so efficiently. The Heat were the NBA's most efficient transition team during the regular season, generating 133.4 points per 100 transition plays, per Cleaning The Glass.
What the Heat lack in pure speed, they make up for in processing speed. Neither Lowry nor Butler can beat Maxey in a foot race, but their well-timed outlet passes can appromixate the threat. Add in a willingness to pull from deep, and you have a pretty annoying team to keep tabs on when they decide to push.
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On a similar note, just about everyone is allowed to bring the ball up the floor. Adebayo is a freakish grab-and-go threat in his own right. You'll see PJ Tucker bring it up after misses. This allows the Heat to flow into their array of handoffs early in the clock. Only two teams -- the Sixers and Pelicans -- ran early-clock handoffs at a higher rate than the Heat during the regular season.
You have to match up quickly or run the risk of giving up open triples.
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Lowry pushes early, doesn't have a gap, then kicks it to Dewayne Dedmon. Embiid's deep in a drop, so Duncan Robinson sprints into a handoff. That suddenness is something the Sixers will have to be ready for.
Transition play is going to be an important battleground for this series. Both teams ran selectively, were efficient when they did run, and... quietly gave up a ton of points on the other end. The similarities are pretty wild.
Their transition frequency marks -- the percentage of possessions that started with a transition play -- were nearly identical (15.6% for Miami, 15.4% for Philadelphia). The Heat ranked 21st in PPP allowed after missed shots (1.203), and the Sixers ranked 20th (1.202).
The Heat faced the largest share of transition possessions following a miss (30.9%), which is a point in favor of Philadelphia until you realize they aren't far behind in that, either (29.7%, 25th).&nbsp;
Speed has consistently given the Heat issues. The Sixers are at a similar deficit in terms of overall athleticism, and it doesn't help that they have, let's say, effort issues at times from their stars.
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WHAT TO WATCH FOR: OUT OF BOUNDS
The Heat like to set up movement with their sideline plays. They went to Chicago action -- a pindown that flows into a dribble handoff --&nbsp; pretty frequently during the regular season meeting. This play is going to be a turnover, but you can see the openings Miami can create from this action.
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Beyond that, keep an eye on their post splits if there's plenty of time on the shot clock. Heck, sometimes they'll blend both together.
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The Sixers also went to Chicago action during the regular season series, though their goal was to get downhill more than it was to generate movement threes.&nbsp;
Other than that, there wasn't much creativity. It was an inbound to set up a high pick-and-roll or an inbound to the perimeter while they waited on Embiid to set up shop for a post-up.
I'm honestly curious about Maxey's usage after deadballs. Most of Philadephia's more intricate looks came while Seth Curry was on the roster. I liked this one from the first meeting, an Iverson cut from Curry that flowed into an empty corner ball screen with Embiid.
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I'd like to see the Sixers tap into that kind of stuff with Maxey. If they can give him head starts, good things should follow.
KEY QUESTIONS
1) Will the Heat use the Trae Young Gameplan for James Harden while Joel Embiid is out?
It would be easy to make that leap, right? The Heat stifled a One Man Band in Atlanta and will be facing another one in Philadelphia while Embiid is out. Throwing the same sink at Harden -- a revolving door of different match-ups while mixing in full-court pressure and traps -- seems logical.
But I'd be a little careful if I were Miami.&nbsp;
Part of what made their aggressive gameplan work was the lack of size from Young. Traps hit a little harder when you can't really see over/past them. The Heat did a great job of flustering Young if he tried to set up shop near the sidelines. Harden won't be bothered to the same degree.
The real reason I'd be worried about the traps in particular: the Sixers' other players have been humming this postseason.&nbsp;
Tobias Harris looked as decisive as ever in the first round. If he keeps that rolling, I'd be worried about feeding him a steady dose of catch-and-shoot or catch-and-go opportunities.&nbsp;
The real kicker is Maxey, who, again, has a level of speed the Heat typically struggle to defend. Maxey averaged 21.3 points against the Heat this year on absurd efficiency (67% from two, 40.9% from three on 5.5 attempts).
He deserves your full attention. Sagging off to help elsewhere is an invitation for Maxey to bomb away, and sloppy closeouts will lead to interior buckets more often than not.
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With respect to the Hawks, the Sixers aren't them. Philadelphia has non-stars that can shoot and&nbsp;threaten the paint in a way Atlanta couldn't.&nbsp;
If the Heat's lone matchup against Harden (as a Net) is any indication, there's a balance to be struck between letting him work on an island and completely selling out.&nbsp;
Butler got the bulk of the Harden assignment in that meeting. When Harden was able to draw favorable switches, the Heat were able to peel in to help elsewhere. Something to watch for: a Heat defender digging from the strong side corner, a gambit we saw plenty of in the Hawks series.
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2) Can the Heat stars beat the gap?
If you're ready for round 387 of the "What does this team look like in the half-court?" question, this section is for you!
We just saw Butler rip the Hawks to shreds with a mix of hard-nosed drives, push shots, and where-did-this-come-from three-point shooting. We also saw Adebayo average 12.4 points while shooting 52.4% on twos, which was a significant dip below his regular season mark (56.2%).
Neither guy had much success against the Sixers. Butler averaged 18.7 points while shooting 36.6% from the field. Haters can have fun with the remove-the-free-throws figure if they have extra time on their hands.
(Haters always have extra time on their hands.)
Adebayo was slightly better (14 points on 50% shooting), but he took four total free throws in his two showings against Philly.
And when working in tandem, the Heat generated under 0.43 PPP on trips featuring a Butler-Adebayo pick-and-roll. I don't think I need to explain how bad that is.&nbsp;
With Embiid missing some time, there should be a little more freedom to attack the paint. If I'm Philly, I'd still be comfortable playing that ball screen straight up or even switching it.
Harris mostly did a good job of bodying up Pascal Siakam in round one, and he has the upper body strength to absorb body blows from Butler or Adebayo. Jordan should at least make either guy shoot over the top, even if he isn't (close to) the rim protector he once was.
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One wrinkle we may see: the Heat having someone screen for Adebayo before he sets one for Butler. Forcing Jordan (or Embiid, when healthy) to navigate a screen before settling into coverage could create an opening for Butler to attack.
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3) How will the Heat dole out the perimeter assignments?
This only matters to an extent, since the Heat will likely switch a ton of screens, anyway. But I am curious about this one.&nbsp;
A popular move for the Heat this season has been to place PJ Tucker on a primary ball-handler, which would turn any pick-and-roll with that ball handler and their big into a switch. Tucker on Maxey sounds wild out loud, but it's really a way for the Heat to flatten a Maxey-Embiid ball screen.
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If no screen comes, I'd be worried about Maxey blasting by Tucker off the bounce. Harden may be a more "natural" matchup for Tucker under this line of thinking, but that leads into a Butler-or-Lowry (when healthy) question.&nbsp;
Do you want Butler trying to track Maxey considering his offensive workload on the other end? Does Lowry have a chance against him at this stage of his career, especially coming off a hamstring injury?&nbsp;
I might go unconventional: Lowry on Matisse Thybulle, Tucker on Maxey, Butler on Harris, and Max Strus on Harden.
Miami can use Strus as their innings eater. Give Lowry the free safety role since he's better as a roamer (and charge taker) than an on-ball stopper at this stage. Butler can bang with Harris on post-ups, and he should still have a little leeway to fly around (and dare Harris to continue his streak of decisiveness in the process).
STRAY THOUGHTS
<ul>
<li>I'm curious to see how much zone coverage we get in this series. The Sixers flustered the Raptors a bit during their Game 6 win, if you want the most recent example. We also saw it sprinkled in against the Heat during the regular season series. The sample is small -- 20 possessions, per Second Spectrum -- but the Heat only mustered a 65 offensive rating against the zone. The Sixers had much more success against Miami's zone (1.15 PPP on 61 possessions), though Embiid's presence will definitely be missed.</li>
<li>Lost in Miami's dominant series win over the Hawks: Tyler Herro didn't have a good showing. The scoring wasn't there (12.8 points, 39.1% from the field), and the defense was, well... let's not talk about the defense. He should see more drop coverage in this series, so the opportunity to bounce back is there. But he'll also be one of Harden's primary targets when they share the floor.&nbsp;</li>
<li>On a related note: boy, will this be a feast-or-famine series for Duncan Robinson. His movement shooting will be needed against the Sixers, provided they're in drop. But he'll also 1.) have to cash in those shots, and 2.) stay out of foul trouble on the other end.</li>
<li>On that note, this could be a prime opportunity for Victor Oladipo to carve out more of a role for the Heat. He doesn't present the defensive limitations that Herro or Robinson do, and his ability to get to the rim could be useful.&nbsp;</li>
<li>This keeps nagging at me, so I'll toss it here: what if the Sixers just go small while Embiid's out? The Maxey-Harden-Harris trio with Georges Niang and Danny Green has played two (2) possesions together this season, for example. Why not test it out in spurts?</li>
<li>Please keep Paul Reed as part of the rotation. If you aren't going to go full small-ball, Reed certainly needs to get playing time.</li>
<li>The Twitter barbs between these two fanbases are going to be ... whew. Godspeed, everyone.</li>
</ul>
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Nekias Duncan previews the second-round match-up between the Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers.

NBA playoff primer: What you should look out for in Heat-Sixers

In spite of Luka Dončić only playing half of the series, the Utah Jazz have been eliminated by the Dallas Mavericks in the opening round of the NBA Playoffs, which can only mean it&rsquo;s time to blow them up!
Okay, not really... but maybe? Virtually everyone is expecting organizational changes given the team's recent underachievement in the playoffs stemming from successful regular seasons. This incarnation of the Jazz was established in 2017-18, behind then-rookie Donovan Mitchell&rsquo;s quick rise to stardom and Rudy Gobert&rsquo;s emergence as an annual Defensive Player of the Year candidate.
That season, Mitchell &mdash; filling the void left by Gordon Hayward &mdash; finished his first season as a 20-point-per-game scorer despite being picked No. 13 overall and averaging just over 14 points per game in his first 19 appearances. Gobert, even having played only 56 games, was awarded his first of now three DPOY awards.
In these five years, there have been as many playoff trips &mdash; three as the No. 5 seed (including this season), one as the No. 6 in the Orlando Bubble, and another as the top overall seed in the Western Conference last year.
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In 2017-18, the Jazz overachieved, taking down the Russell Westbrook-Paul George-Carmelo Anthony-led Oklahoma City Thunder in six games before losing to the No. 1 seed Houston Rockets in five contests.
In 2018-19, Utah lost to the Rockets again in five, this time in the first round, and Houston even led 3-0 with a +55 scoring margin before dropping Game 4.
In 2019-20, the Jazz squandered a 3-1 lead to the Denver Nuggets, losing Game 7 in the final seconds of the opening round.
Last season &mdash; despite the Los Angeles Clippers losing Kawhi Leonard to a torn ACL (that he&rsquo;s still not back from) &mdash; the Jazz <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2yBy-EqnU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lost in six games to the Clippers</a> in the West semifinals, and Gobert was dunked on by both Terance Mann and social media in the ending.
And finally, this postseason &mdash; in a series with Dončić missing the first three games with a calf injury, in which Utah still trailed 2-1 upon his return &mdash; Utah lost on yet another last-second heartbreaker.&nbsp;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
THE PLAYOFF DROUGHT IS OVER. THE DALLAS MAVERICKS ADVANCE TO THE SECOND ROUND SINCE 2011!<a href="https://twitter.com/dallasmavs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dallasmavs</a> | 📺 BSSW | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/dALLasIN?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#dALLasIN</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBAPlayoffs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBAPlayoffs</a> <a href="https://t.co/VcWGAdSOL4">pic.twitter.com/VcWGAdSOL4</a>
&mdash; Bally Sports Southwest (@BallySportsSW) <a href="https://twitter.com/BallySportsSW/status/1519896562079518727?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Given <a href="https://twitter.com/tribjazz/status/1482077811019902980">the sniping back-and-forth between Mitchell and Gobert</a>, the Jazz's inability to break through and how far behind they appear from the top teams in the West, this seems like the summer where sizeable moves will be coming.
Personally speaking, it feels like we&rsquo;re heading toward Mitchell requesting a trade and moving on, but either way, one of Mitchell or Gobert &mdash; perhaps both &mdash; may be on the move in the coming months. Our Evan Sidery <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/examining-potential-trade-destinations-for-rudy-gobert" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently looked at five trade ideas involving Gobert</a>.
Today, let's look at where Mitchell could end up, <a href="https://fanspo.com/nba/trade-machine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">using this trade machine</a>.
Mitchell is due $30.3 million next year, $32.6 million in 2023-24, $34.9 million in 2024-25, and has a player option for $37 million in 2025-26. Keep that in mind as we embark on this journey together. (Why did I sound like Professor Oak there?)
New York Knicks
Mitchell&rsquo;s father, Donovan Sr., works with the New York Mets organization. The 25-year-old Mitchell himself is a native of Elmsford, New York. Naturally, with the New York Knicks, there will be Mitchell smoke until a deal (or something else) actually happens. Because Tommy Beer already <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/expect-the-knicks-to-make-a-real-run-at-donovan-mitchell-this-summer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">broke down the possibility of a Mitchell-to-New-York trade</a>, we won&rsquo;t stay here too long.
Regarding the Knicks&rsquo; actual proposal, the first look would be to RJ Barrett, who is extension eligible this summer, entering year four and making $10.9 million next year. The idea, for New York, should be to team Barrett and Mitchell together. If that&rsquo;s not possible, and the Mitchell deal were to have to get done, Barrett is your chief trade chip, along with first-round draft picks. The Knicks have all their own first-rounders as of this writing.
Usable salaries for the Knicks next year include Evan Fournier, who&rsquo;ll be at $18 million, Derrick Rose at $14.5 million, Alec Burks at $10 million, Nerlens Noel at $9.2 million and Kemba Walker at over $9.1 million. Rose, Burks and Noel all have team options for 2023-24, so they have ostensibly expiring deals. Walker&rsquo;s next season is his last under contract, and Fournier is signed through 2025, but that also includes a team option. Cam Reddish and Taj Gibson also enter the last year of their respective deals, at about $6 million and $5.1 million each, respectively.
The contract elephant in the room is Julius Randle&rsquo;s, which is a four-year, $117 million extension that begins next season at $26.1 million. It&rsquo;ll gradually increase until his player option for $32.4 million kicks in for 2025-26. The Knicks might try to move Randle instead, but what sense does that make for Utah? And if Utah isn&rsquo;t getting Barrett, would they want a package of the aforementioned veterans (say, Fournier and Burks), along with one or two of Immanuel Quickley, Quentin Grimes, or Miles McBride (who make between $1.6 and $2.3 million next year) and picks?
It&rsquo;ll be hard to do without Barrett, and maybe Randle gets involved in a three-team deal, but the Knicks have the picks, salaries and prospects to make it work, if that&rsquo;s the route the Jazz want to go.
Detroit Pistons
The Pistons seem like a team that could be a version of this past season&rsquo;s Cleveland Cavaliers &mdash; not in terms of play style or once being a top-four team in the Eastern Conference standings necessarily, but from the standpoint of being competitive a year sooner than we think and playing meaningful games down the stretch (like one or two in the Play-In Tournament).
Given that 20 of 30 NBA teams will have games beyond the regular season, the Pistons may (should) attempt to get one of those spots.
Last year&rsquo;s No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham is <a href="https://youtu.be/I9OLPXxgYWk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">someone you can build with</a>. Saddiq Bey should be a more efficient scorer with more experience and better teammates. Most of the rest is to be determined, but Detroit can start by using Jerami Grant&rsquo;s near $21 million expiring deal next summer.
What comes next depends on what stage the Jazz want to be closer to. If this is a rebuild, you can ask for a combination of Killian Hayes and Hamidou Diallo (both of whom make over $5 million next year), for example, and Hayes has a $7.4 million team option for 2023-24. If not, Kelly Olynyk has $12.8 million coming to him next year that&rsquo;s usable. Utah can in throw in, hypothetically, Royce O&rsquo;Neale&rsquo;s $9.3 million deal next year and get Olynyk anyway.
So the player framework can look something like:
<ul>
<li>Donovan Mitchell for Jerami Grant and Kelly Olynyk</li>
<li>Donovan Mitchell for Jerami Grant, Killian Hayes and Hamidou Diallo</li>
<li>Donovan Mitchell and Royce O&rsquo;Neale for Jerami Grant, Killian Hayes, Hamidou Diallo and Kelly Olynyk plus a sh*t ton of draft picks. The Pistons would be moving something like three first-rounders in the deal, and potentially multiple first-round pick swaps.</li>
</ul>
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Miami Heat
I brought this up during <a href="https://youtu.be/XBQwn0pOAa4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BasketballNews.com's NBA Trade Deadline stream</a>.&nbsp;
The Heat didn&rsquo;t do it then, but it might still be on the table depending on how these playoffs go. The Heat might not offer the best return package because of their draft picks, but they did unlock additional firsts by moving KZ Okpala to Oklahoma City in February. And, for Miami, we&rsquo;re mainly talking about one package. But again, it depends on the results of this postseason.&nbsp;
Currently, the Heat are getting ready to face the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference semifinals, a matchup they&rsquo;re favored to win (albeit narrowly). If they lose this particular series, or if they win and Tyler Herro continues to struggle in the playoffs, or even if Miami makes a deep run and Herro elevates from a slow start, he&rsquo;d be the primary chip in a Mitchell deal. Furthermore, the <a href="https://twitter.com/GregSylvander/status/1482101290964504580" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Heat are on Mitchell&rsquo;s shortlist</a>, according to Greg Sylvander of Five Reasons Sports.
The deal, as I mentioned on our stream, would include Herro &mdash; who is still on a rookie-scale contract ($5.7 million next year), but is extension-eligible this summer and wouldn&rsquo;t kick-in until 2023. Then comes Duncan Robinson, who&rsquo;ll enter the second year of a five-year, $90 million deal next season, which bookends with a near $20 million player option and rises to $16.9 million next season.
According to the trade machine, Omer Yurtseven&rsquo;s $1.7 million next season makes the math work, and would give Utah a Gobert backup who&rsquo;ll, if nothing else, get you 10 rebounds in 15 minutes on occasion. Would the Heat have to throw in at least one of Gabe Vincent, Max Strus or Haywood Highsmith (all of whom make between $1.7 and $1.8 million next year)? Perhaps. And from there, Miami has tradeable first-rounders in 2022, 2024 and 2026. So, in summation, it could look like this:
<ul>
<li>Donovan Mitchell for Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, Omer Yurtseven, one of Gabe Vincent/Max Strus/Haywood Highsmith, draft capital</li>
</ul>
But if Herro has a big playoff run moving forward, the Heat may instead opt to move Robinson in a separate, smaller deal for a worthy big man in their rotation, and mostly run it back otherwise.
Atlanta Hawks
Alright, now you saw what the Heat did to Trae Young in the first round. The Hawks clearly are not only poised to get Young some help, but make a 3-for-1-ish deal to consolidate some depth into a higher-end starter &mdash; or in the case of Mitchell, a fellow offensive starter. His teammate, Gobert, is probably the better fit, but one, I&rsquo;m not writing about Gobert (our Evan Sidery will handle that) and two, if Gobert is frustrated with Mitchell&rsquo;s defense...
But anyway, you gotta start somewhere. And for Atlanta, part of why the Heat neutralized Young is their malleability defensively, but also, the Hawks don&rsquo;t have another true star to account for on the perimeter. Mitchell would give Young a viable tag team partner offensively to spread the defensive focus. To do so, the Hawks could play this a few different ways.
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The obvious trade chip is John Collins, and there could be questions about his fit next to Gobert, but it&rsquo;s not a bad place to start if you&rsquo;re moving someone of Mitchell&rsquo;s caliber. Collins will make $23.5 million next year, and between $25.3 and $26.6 million through 2025-26. Collins has had rumored friction with Young, though they&rsquo;ve downplayed it over the years. From there, if you use Collins in a possible deal, it gets interesting.&nbsp;
De&rsquo;Andre Hunter &mdash; who makes $9.8 million next year in the last season of a rookie deal and is extension-eligible this summer &mdash; seems logical for both the Jazz to want and the Hawks to keep. Hunter was Atlanta's best player against the Heat, and has been a quality two-way wing when healthy. Is a framework of Collins and Hunter for Mitchell straight up enough of a deal for both sides? Sheeeeeiiiiit, ask them, but it sounds good to me!
<ul>
<li>Donovan Mitchell for John Collins and De'Andre Hunter</li>
</ul>
No Collins? Okay. You&rsquo;re not moving Clint Capela&rsquo;s long-term deal for Utah in a Mitchell move, so that&rsquo;s out of the picture. Kevin Huerter would absolutely have to be part of this, and no, that&rsquo;s not a white Utah joke. Hu-why would you think that?&nbsp;
Huerter begins his $65 million extension next year, the first of four, banking $14.5 million in 2022-23. Hunter probably stays in the deal because Utah has to get something really good, and the Hawks simply can&rsquo;t extend everyone. Again, Atlanta should want to keep Hunter, but this is the price of doing business. But if you&rsquo;re throwing in Huerter instead of Collins (which does work on the trade machine since different rules apply in the offseason than in-season), you&rsquo;ll need multiple first round picks &mdash; of which the Hawks have all their own &mdash; so that could get done.
Could Utah also want Onyeka Okongwu? Sure, but he seems like Atlanta's 5-man of the future, and a separate deal moving off Capela might be more likely. So the second proposal could look like this:
<ul>
<li>Donovan Mitchell for De'Andre Hunter, Kevin Huerter, draft capital</li>
</ul>
Now, the Hawks would still need to figure some things out defensively, seeing as how they&rsquo;d be led by two 6-foot-1 scorers in the backcourt. They could just became the new Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum to some extent, but <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/a-salute-to-the-defiance-of-damian-lillard-and-cj-mccollum" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Portland Trail Blazers are as much to blame for that &ldquo;not working,&rdquo;</a> and the Hawks can learn from those team-building mistakes.&nbsp;
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
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Bryan Fonseca takes a look at four logical landing spots for Utah Jazz star guard Donovan Mitchell.

Examining potential trade desinations for Donovan Mitchell 

The first round series between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Memphis Grizzlies has been equally riveting and rickety. The energy and intensity of the first five games have been as compelling, if not more, than any of the other seven (well, five now) first-round matchups.
In Game 5 on Tuesday night, the youth of both squads (seventh and second-youngest teams in the league respectively, per <a href="https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/transactions/composition_search" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Real GM</a>) was on full display, as the game was more akin to an NCAA Tournament game. The ebbs and flows, sheer inconsistency and exuberance played out with a myriad of turnovers, missed lobs, jumbled passes and a wealth of fouls (63 combined free throws).
While the series has certainly been messy, it's been equally endearing. Ja Morant has been bottled up by the Wolves, with his efficiency tanking and defensive limitations put on full display. Yet, for all of the struggles that he's endured throughout the series, if the Grizzlies win one more game and advance, few will remember or even care about what his True Shooting percentage was or wasn't, how many turnovers he had or what Patrick Beverley did to him in Game 4. (I, however, will not forget the Pat Bev game, nor will Pat Bev!)
As the clock wound down toward the end of the third quarter during Tuesday night's game, Morant transcended the game and possibly the series.
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This is one of those "Where were you?" moments.
Watching live, my immediate reaction was euphoric:
<ol>
<li>How on earth?</li>
<li>WOW.</li>
<li>This might be the greatest dunk I've seen live when accounting for timing, audacity, implications and shock factor.</li>
</ol>
From Paul George over Chris "Birdman" Andersen, to Michael Jordan on Dikembe Mutombo, to Baron Davis over Andrei Kirilenko, to Scottie Pippen on Patrick Ewing, Ja has cemented himself among the greats. The greatest of all time, I'm not sure &mdash; but upon dunk-hangover research, man, it's right there.
To say Memphis' offense was stuck in the mud prior to Ja's dunk would be an understatement. Minnesota's defense was incredibly active, forcing turnovers, halting drives and mucking up the half-court. The Grizz went on a 39-24 run to close out the game, including the aforementioned slam.
Morant hit the game-winning lefty layup with a second to spare, and scored the final 13 Memphis points in the fourth, as the dunk uncorked his own game as well.
Another angle.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Dunk of the year! <a href="https://t.co/U1McHfpZHQ">pic.twitter.com/U1McHfpZHQ</a>
&mdash; shot by nie 🔴 (@shotbynie) <a href="https://twitter.com/shotbynie/status/1519265068772380674?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Shout out to Malik Beasley for doing his very best to slide over and prevent the play. Jordan McLaughlin kinda digs at the nail to no avail. What happened on this screen is a wonderful question to ask.
Was Naz Reid <a href="https://youtu.be/ayAu5OkvwGY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supposed to</a> come all the way to the level at 30 feet? I'm guessing not, but maybe there was some miscommunication between him and Jaden McDaniels. McDaniels pretty clearly denies Morant the screen, which probably means it's unlikely that the Wolves are trying to give Morant a wide-open run to the rim.
Is there anything better than a perfectly ripped off vicious tomahawk slam? I'm going with "No." There are more picturesque or aesthetic dunks, but in terms of actual on-your-head moments, the tomahawk cocked back sits on the throne.
We can get caught up in analyzing everything, picking apart the minutiae of the game, and rightfully so; there's so much to dig into and find understanding with. But sometimes, the vibes and moment just need to reign supreme.
I don't care why the dunk happened or who did or didn't blow that defensive coverage. The dunk is SICK.
He takes his plant step like 2 feet inside of the free-throw line and gets that much air! There are only a handful of players in the NBA who could pull that off.
Part of what makes the game so amazing to me is the individuality, and personality, that shines through. This was another clip in the highlight reel of Morant's personified athleticism. The first time All-Star, former Rookie of the Year and recently-crowned Most Improved Player continues to mesmerize with joyous vibrancy.
What a player, what a game, what a dunk. Remember this moment!
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Ja Morant hammered home one of the all-time great playoff dunks in Game 5, spearheading a Memphis victory to take the series lead.

Ja-Dropping! Morant's tomahawk an unforgettable moment in dunk history

The road back to the NBA Finals has become bumpy for the Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks.
Devin Booker strained his right hamstring Tuesday in Phoenix and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/milwaukee-bucks-chicago-bulls-nba-sports-mike-budenholzer-598c4ea01c12a5c205da9a5dce63dfa2">Khris Middleton sprained his left knee a night later in Milwaukee</a>, leaving both teams without one of their All-Stars.
That wasn't all they lost. Both teams went on to fall in those Game 2s and find themselves tied as their series switch sites Friday night.
The Suns will be at New Orleans, while the Bucks make the short trip to Chicago.
Miami takes a 2-0 lead into Atlanta in the other game on the schedule Friday.
Milwaukee had to overcome the loss of Giannis Antetokounmpo to a knee injury last season during the Eastern Conference finals, winning the final two games against Atlanta in part because of how well Middleton played.
Now the Bucks will have to find a way without Middleton, who underwent testing Thursday that confirmed the diagnosis of a sprained left MCL. The Bucks said he would be treated daily and his status would be updated in approximately two weeks, which means he will miss at least the rest of the first round.
&ldquo;Obviously, it&rsquo;s a challenge. We kind of know the deal now," Antetokounmpo said. "We&rsquo;ve got to go and get one on the road. It&rsquo;s going to be hard. Nobody says it&rsquo;s going to be easy. But we know what the deal is. Khris is down. But we have a great team, talented team, tough team. Hopefully we can go out here and compete to the highest of our ability.
"Do we thrive in adversity? We&rsquo;ll see. We cannot predict the future but hopefully we can be ready to compete in Game 3.&rdquo;
Middleton and teammate Jrue Holiday flew with Booker to Tokyo last summer for the Olympics, just after the Bucks erased a 2-0 deficit in the NBA Finals to deny Phoenix its first NBA championship.
The Suns returned this season and soared through the best regular season in franchise history, rolling to an NBA-best 64-18 record. But they got just one win to open the postseason before Booker was hurt after scoring 31 points in the first half of Game 2.
Then the Pelicans, who had to win two play-in games just to make the postseason, rallied for a 125-114 victory behind 37 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists for Brandon Ingram.
The Suns played through Booker's absence because of hamstring trouble earlier in the season and a stretch without Chris Paul after the All-Star break because of a hand injury, so they also have experience having to get by without a star.
&ldquo;We're going to need everybody throughout this deep playoff run that we hope that we have,&rdquo; Paul said. &ldquo;So it's been a season like that for us. Next man up. Guys stay ready.&rdquo;
Friday&rsquo;s games:
HEAT AT HAWKS
Miami leads 2-0. Game 3, 7 p.m. EDT, ESPN
&mdash; NEED TO KNOW: Trae Young matched a career worst by shooting 1 for 12 in Game 1, then established a career high &mdash; of the wrong kind &mdash; by committing 10 turnovers in Game 2. Meanwhile, Jimmy Butler has been at his best for Miami and is coming off a playoff career-best 45 points in Game 2.
&mdash; KEEP AN EYE ON: Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro. Miami is up 2-0 in the series without Adebayo and Herro doing much yet in the scoring columns. If the Heat get them going, Atlanta is in even more trouble.
&mdash; INJURY WATCH: Clint Capela (knee) is definitely out for Game 3 and seems unlikely to play in this series, no matter how long it lasts. His absence has been huge in the first two games of the series. John Collins (finger) has filled in and performed admirably, considering he can&rsquo;t bend one of his fingers and the injury is so painful that he&rsquo;s been noticeably wincing several times so far in the series. But without Capela and with Collins far from 100%, the Hawks aren&rsquo;t themselves. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really have as much touch as I would like with my finger,&rdquo; Collins said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m doing the best I can.&rdquo;
&mdash; PRESSURE IS ON: Young has to step up his game for the Hawks to have any chance against the top-seeded Heat. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to be better,&rdquo; said Young, who became only the second player in NBA history after Nate Archibald to lead the league in total points and assists. Young considers this a personal duel against Miami coach Erik Spoelstra, who has thrown out all sorts of defensive wrinkles to slow the Atlanta star. &ldquo;Spoelstra is a top 15 coach of all time for a reason,&rdquo; Young said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not going to let me just outscore &rsquo;em. He&rsquo;s going to make it tough. It&rsquo;s my job to try to out-think him in certain ways.&rdquo;
BUCKS AT BULLS
Series tied 1-1. Game 3, 8:30 p.m. EDT, ABC
&mdash; NEED TO KNOW: Chicago's 114-110 victory in Game 2 was just its second win in the last 19 meetings with the Bucks. Milwaukee's defense has to regain control of DeMar DeRozan, who scored 41 points, and Nikola Vucevic and Zach LaVine, who both had at least 20. All three shot terribly in Game 1.
&mdash; KEEP AN EYE ON: Bulls guard Alex Caruso. He missed nearly two months of the regular season after breaking his right wrist on a flagrant foul from Bucks guard Grayson Allen that resulted in an ejection and one-game suspension. In the first two games of this series, Caruso has revealed just what the Bulls were missing while he was away. Caruso&rsquo;s defensive tenacity has bothered the Bucks, who have 36 turnovers in this series. Caruso had nine points and a season-high 10 assists in Game 2. The Bulls outscored the Bucks by 16 points in the 38 minutes when he was on the floor.
&mdash; INJURY WATCH: Bucks forward Bobby Portis left Game 2 with a right eye abrasion after taking a hit to the face from Chicago&rsquo;s Tristan Thompson while both players were competing for a rebound late in the first quarter. Bucks reserve guard George Hill has missed the first two games of the series with an abdominal strain and isn&rsquo;t expected to return anytime soon.
&mdash; PRESSURE IS ON: Holiday: Middleton's absence puts more responsibility on Antetokounmpo and Holiday to carry the load. Antetokounmpo has been as stellar as usual thus far with 30 points, 17 rebounds and 6 assists per game, but the Bucks need Holiday to take better care of the ball. Holiday has totaled 12 assists and 10 turnovers through the first two games.
SUNS AT PELICANS
Series tied 1-1. Game 3, 9:30 p.m. EDT, ESPN
&mdash; NEED TO KNOW: Losing Booker might be a problem but losing home-court advantage shouldn't for the Suns. They were an NBA-best 32-9 on the road &mdash; just four fewer wins than the Pelicans had total.
&mdash; KEEP AN EYE ON: The Suns' transition defense. Phoenix coach Monty Williams said it was about as bad as it's looked under him in Game 2, when the Suns had 16 fast-break points while shooting nearly 55% from the field
&mdash; INJURY WATCH: Pelicans coach Willie Green said Ingram was fine Thursday at practice after rolling his ankle in Game 2.
&mdash; PRESSURE IS ON: Mikal Bridges. Without Booker, the Suns are going to need more offense and will hope the Defensive Player of the Year runner-up is one of the players who can provide it, while also expecting him to lead a stronger defensive effort against Ingram.
___
AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami and AP Sports Writers Paul Newberry in Atlanta and Steve Megargee in Milwaukee contributed to this report.

Devin Booker strained his right hamstring Tuesday in Phoenix and Khris Middleton sprained his left knee a night later in Milwaukee.

Injuries make road back to NBA Finals bumpy for Suns, Bucks

Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo acknowledges there is pressure in the NBA playoffs and after the winning the first title, &ldquo;your mind wants to win a second time or a third time.&rdquo;
A leading MVP candidate again this season, Antetokounmpo likes to compare playing basketball to creating a work of art and he'll try to produce another postseason masterpiece this weekend.
His last time on the playoff stage, Antetokounmpo <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-nba-milwaukee-bucks-phoenix-suns-64e76fe1b9f0851dbcf46ad66d90d6de">scored 50 points in a Game 6 victory over the Phoenix Suns that gave the Bucks their first championship in a half-century. </a>
Antetokounmpo and the third-seeded Bucks face the sixth-seeded Chicago Bulls in an Eastern Conference first-round series starting Sunday in Milwaukee.
&ldquo;At the end of the day, the mindset doesn&rsquo;t change,&rdquo; Antetokounmpo said this week. &ldquo;Enjoy the game as much as possible because we worked hard for this moment. We can&rsquo;t take this moment for granted.&rdquo;
On the surface, it appears that winning a title last year took a weight off the 27-year-old's shoulders.
Having been there, done that, Antetokounmpo appears more relaxed.
The father of two has begun several postgame news conferences <a href="https://apnews.com/article/philadelphia-76ers-milwaukee-bucks-miami-heat-nba-sports-8b670f96b14955e42665b0c9feb79de6">by making &ldquo;dad jokes,&rdquo;</a> a practice he continued this week while getting ready for the playoffs.
&ldquo;What do you call a cow on a rollercoaster?&rdquo; Antetokounmpo asked reporters who gathered around him. &ldquo;A milkshake.&rdquo;
But the postseason is no laughing matter for Antetokounmpo. The Bucks leader insists he feels just as much pressure now as he did before he&rsquo;d won a title.
&ldquo;Obviously a lot of people think once you win a championship and you succeed in life, there&rsquo;s no pressure,&rdquo; Antetokounmpo said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really agree. Obviously I do not try to focus on the pressure as much. I try to focus and enjoy the game. But at the end of the day, your mind always is going to find something to replace that.
&ldquo;Almost like, &lsquo;OK, you won one time.&rsquo; Now your mind wants to win a second time or a third time.&rdquo;
That attitude reflects Antetokounmpo&rsquo;s artistic approach to the game
He believes a player enters each contest with a new opportunity to create, as if he&rsquo;s an artist staring at a blank canvas.
&ldquo;If you play well and you hold on to the past, it prevents you from playing well again,&rdquo; Antetokounmpo said. &ldquo;If you had 40 the previous game, you&rsquo;re like, &lsquo;OK, I had 40 the previous game. Today I can just be sloppy with the ball.&rsquo; That was that art that was created.
&ldquo;Today I reset. I get a new canvas and try to create new art.&rdquo;
The approach helped Antetokounmpo follow up the Bucks&rsquo; championship with one of his finest NBA seasons.
He enters the playoffs as the Eastern Conference player of the month for March and April. Antetokounmpo averaged a career-high 29.9 points &ndash; behind only Philadelphia&rsquo;s Joel Embiid &ndash; along with 11.6 rebounds and 5.8 assists.
He became the first player in NBA history to average at least 25 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists in four separate seasons. Oscar Robertson did it three times.
&ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t settle,&rdquo; Bucks guard George Hill said. &ldquo;One thing I do know about him: Him winning a championship doesn&rsquo;t define who he is. He&rsquo;s still in there every day, every morning, every night working his butt off to get better. He still feels like he has a lot to prove.&rdquo;
Teammate Jrue Holiday argued late in the season that Antetokounmpo merits consideration for the NBA&rsquo;s most improved player award because of the way the 6-foot-11 forward diversified his game.
Antetokounmpo said he liked the idea of &ldquo;changing the narrative&rdquo; about his game by showing he could shoot effectively and wasn&rsquo;t merely a guy who capitalized on his size and athleticism by scoring on dunks and drives to the basket.
Although he made fewer than 30% of his 3-point attempts this season, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/milwaukee-bucks-brooklyn-nets-nba-sports-kevin-durant-1a0734f03a711826d4e4f725957d2ffe">Antetokounmpo passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the Bucks&rsquo; scoring record by sinking a game-tying 3-pointer in the final minute of regulation in an overtime victory at Brooklyn. </a> He made 72.2% of his free-throw attempts, his highest percentage since the 2019-20 season.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s dominated and perfected one part of his game, and now he&rsquo;s going to grow and extend that range to the 3-point line,&rdquo; said Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd, who coached Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee from 2014-18. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what he says he&rsquo;s going to do, and that means he&rsquo;s going to do it.&rdquo;
And that means realizing what he accomplished last year won&rsquo;t necessarily play any part in whether the Bucks are able to repeat.
&ldquo;Last year&rsquo;s last year,&rdquo; Antetokounmpo said. &ldquo;Last year we were able to go through ups and downs in the playoffs and end up with the championship. But that doesn&rsquo;t mean nothing.&rdquo;
For now, it's just another blank canvas.

Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks face the sixth-seeded Bulls in an Eastern Conference first-round series starting Sunday.

Antetokounmpo, Bucks eager to win title a 'second time, third time'

From their first-ever Western Conference Finals appearance to a last-gasp play-in game, the Los Angeles Clippers have been a surprisingly resilient bunch.
They finished two games above .500 despite not having superstar Kawhi Leonard all season and losing Paul George for a big chunk of it. They traded for Norman Powell in February, only to lose him to injury days later.
George and Powell recently returned within days of each other and sparked the Clippers to a five-game winning streak to end the regular season.
They're not ready to head home for the summer.
The Clippers are a four-point favorite against the New Orleans Pelicans in their play-in elimination game Friday night, according to <a href="https://sportsbook.fanduel.com/navigation/nba">FanDuel Sportsbook.</a>
&ldquo;Honestly, it&rsquo;s not even about the matchup,&rdquo; George said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no pep talk, no X&rsquo;s and O&rsquo;s. We got to win.&rdquo;
<a href="https://apnews.com/article/new-orleans-pelicans-san-antonio-spurs-los-angeles-clippers-phoenix-suns-nba-6ee83546d2425bc98075a06b0c19dc3e">The Pelicans </a> advanced with a 113-103 victory over the San Antonio Spurs. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/los-angeles-clippers-minnesota-timberwolves-nba-sports-anthony-edwards-eeb23f11c4002d7d2f48dffeac32dcc9">The Clippers lost </a> to the Minnesota Timberwolves 109-104, which cost them the No. 7 seed and a first-round matchup against Memphis.
&ldquo;I definitely hope that we keep our spirits high, that we understand we still got another one on Friday, that we control our own destiny,&rdquo; Clippers guard Reggie Jackson said.
The winner earns the No. 8 seed and a first-round meeting with the NBA-leading Phoenix Suns. The Clippers lost to the Suns in six games in last year's conference finals.
MISSING IN ACTION
Both teams will be without their superstars.
Leonard continues to work his way back from surgery for a partial tear of his right ACL that occurred in the second round against Utah last year. The team has honored Leonard's penchant for privacy and provided little information about his status.
However, he has maintained a presence around the team and will be on hand Friday.
&ldquo;Even when PG was out, just having those guys around means a lot to this team, especially a young team,&rdquo; coach Tyronn Lue said Thursday.
Zion Williamson is progressing in his recovery from a foot injury that has kept him out all season for the Pelicans and has been participating in controlled scrimmages. However, the 2019 top overall draft pick isn't expected to play against the Clippers, although he did steal the show with <a href="https://www.nba.com/news/zion-williamson-throws-down-360-windmill-dunk-before-pelicans-play-in-game">a pair of windmill dunks </a> during warmups Wednesday.
THREE-PRONGED ATTACK
Even without Williamson, the Pelicans have still got a potent Big Three, so to speak, as the Spurs found out.
CJ McCollum, acquired in a midseason trade, center Jonas Valanciunas, acquired in a trade before the season, and incumbent wing Brandon Ingram combined for 81 points against San Antonio. Valanciunas also had 14 rebounds.
&ldquo;We have to ride those guys,&rdquo; coach Willie Green said. &ldquo;When you get to this point in the season, you&rsquo;ve got to bump their minutes up a little but more. We&rsquo;re going to run more plays that go through them and allow them to create for others, and they did a heck of a job&rdquo; against San Antonio.
GEORGE'S IMPACT
George's return to the lineup has positively impacted his teammates.
Ivica Zubac produced double-doubles in his last four regular-season games, averaging 12.3 points and 9.4 rebounds. The 7-footer has been a big factor on the defensive side as well.
Luke Kennard didn't make the trip to Minnesota because of a sore right hamstring, which he had treatment on Thursday. He leads the league in 3-point percentage at 44.9 and averaged 15.8 points in his last six games.
George has been showcasing his playmaking skills, averaging a career-high 5.7 assists. Double-teaming George hasn't been an answer for opponents since he can kick it out to Kennard and 7-footer Isaiah Hartenstein, who is showing a deft touch from long range.
GREEN BLOOMS
<a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-nba-phoenix-suns-new-orleans-pelicans-62e8b460b8288be4cdef3fcd850304a8">Green </a> guided the Pelicans to a 36-46 record after starting 1-12 in his first season as coach. Now, he faces off against his old team for a playoff berth.
Green was a shooting guard with the Clippers from 2012-14, averaging 5.7 points while playing 16 minutes a game on a team that featured the Lob City trio of Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan.
Green ended his 12-year playing career after the following season in Orlando.
He owns two NBA championships as a Golden State assistant. He was an assistant with Phoenix before taking the Pelicans job.
ROOKIE RELIANCE
The Pelicans' rookie trio of Herb Jones, Trey Murphy and Joe Alvarado passed their first postseason test, setting the stage for them to play significant roles against the Clippers as well.
Jones, a second-round pick out of Alabama, guarded Spurs All-Star Dejounte Murray and held him to 16 points on 5-of-19 shooting and five assists. He could wind up on George next.
&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have doubts in Herb,&rdquo; Valanciunas said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a great defensive player. He&rsquo;s always guarding the offensive threats from opponent teams."
Jones also scored 12 points, as did Alvarado, an undrafted rookie out of Georgia Tech. Murphy, a first-rounder out of Virginia, had a relatively quiet night but still played 22 minutes and has been an explosive scorer in recent weeks.
___
AP Sports Writer Brett Martel in New Orleans contributed to this report.

The winner between New Orleans and L.A. will earn the No. 8 seed and a first-round meeting with the NBA-leading Phoenix Suns.

Clippers looking to eke out playoff berth vs. Pelicans

For the first time since the 2017-18 season, and just the second time since 2003-04, the Minnesota Timberwolves are in the NBA playoffs.
In a raucous game at Target Center in Minneapolis, the Wolves came back from down double-digits early in the fourth quarter to gut out a defensive showcase down the stretch in a very fun (but also <a href="https://twitter.com/MG_Schindler/status/1514071151890386947?s=20&amp;t=cOTx5ha_fVET44iT43U6Yw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">very weird</a>) game.
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I added the Remember The Titans music to The Wolves winning the game. (Sound on) <a href="https://t.co/nYF9q9igAK">pic.twitter.com/nYF9q9igAK</a>
&mdash; Jason Gallagher (@jga41agher) <a href="https://twitter.com/jga41agher/status/1514110660636033024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2022</a></blockquote>

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First and foremost, celebrating is a good thing! I don't intend to straw-man; I'm sure it's a smaller group that's being vocal about the Wolves' post-game excitement, but it's worth hitting on. No, this team didn't win the NBA Finals and they're not on the way to doing that, but that loses the plot here. Other than maybe the Sacramento Kings, has there been a more frustratingly beleaguered franchise since the turn of the millenia?
Every turn this team has taken, including their one playoff appearance outside the Flip Saunders era, has come with consequences or at the expense of their future. I'm not a fan of the Timberwolves (or any team), but it's just awesome to see a team that has been resilient all year find their way and take the steps to be a solid team.
That's been special.
We don't need an entire halftime or postgame show clowning a team for enjoying themselves, rehashing history and talking about why a player wouldn't "make it in the 90s."
The game is different. What if we spent time talking about&nbsp;how the Los Angeles Clippers got Karl-Anthony Towns off his game? Or how KAT and the Wolves could scheme differently in the second half? I acknowledge that the TNT halftime show is not intended for me, and it did its job by drawing engagement, but if it's at the expense of the product they're dragging, what are we doing here?
JJ Redick gets it.
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Where&rsquo;s yours?
&mdash; JJ Redick (@jj_redick) <a href="https://twitter.com/jj_redick/status/1514118211674988546?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2022</a></blockquote>

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The 109-104 final score is unsuitable as a descriptor of what this game was.
Let's dive in.
PATRICK BEVERLEY'S IMPACT
Early in the game, Kevin Harlan slid in that Patrick Beverley is "the most impactful player" for the Wolves right as the TNT broadcast went to commercial. I had to rewind to make sure I heard that right!
While I have to disagree with Harlan at large, my God, Pat Bev sure as heck made his case throughout the course of action.
There's a small handful of players who supersede the cliche "he-brings-energy-and-toughness-and-grit-that-can-change-the-game," emotional tropes, and Beverley continues to assert himself to that group. He does every little thing that can be done on the margins with consistency, and in a way that breeds both admiration and contention alike.
Timely tie-ups and steals, hounding switches, flying all over the place on close-outs. It cannot be undersold the amount of energy this man expended playing defense last night.&nbsp;
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He even had a momentum-saving block after a missed dunk that could've shifted the game.
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And he hit perhaps the most insane "WTF" shot I've seen from a non-star player in a while. Like, what is this?! A one-legged three while falling backwards as the shot clock expires is just nutty. In an elimination game!
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That was just a special special game from Beverley last night.&nbsp;
Whether he's the most impactful is up for debate (and probably wrong), but the impact he's had on this group is palpable and last night was a microcosm of his presence this season.
TAKING OUT TOWNS
As good of a game as it was from Beverley, it was the opposite for Karl-Anthony Towns, who fouled out with a little over half the fourth quarter remaining.
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The Clippers were 3-1 against the Wolves this year and they did the same things that allowed them to win the season series, putting a smaller player on KAT and bringing help late at the rim with Ivica Zubac. It's not fully on Jarred Vanderbilt, as he still played a pretty good game (particularly on defense), but part of the difficulty of having a player whose gravity comes from attacking the cracks of a defense is what happens when those gaps are tightened.
If he's in the dunker spot and KAT is driving the lane, the Clippers are okay helping off of him and mucking things up at the rim. It's also worth noting that Towns found Vando on a dump-off later in the game, and that's been part of their offense all season. This is going to be one of the very enticing chess matches to watch during the series with the Memphis Grizzlies.
Back to KAT: the Clippers played him well, but he also got in his own head and got out of his game, which was incredibly frustrating from a bystander and analysis perspective. He forced some of his attempts from outside and on drives. He felt rushed. He played into offensive fouls.
 It's okay and healthy to be emotional. Every person handles things in their own way. But teams have consistently used KAT's frustration against him. Towns has really put things together this year and shed a lot of those tendencies this season, but last night was a reversion to past years. He's the best player on this team and integral to their success, so they really need him to maintain composure again moving forward. Trying to replicate these kind of contributions up and down the roster going forward is asking for a lot. This single game is not a referendum on KAT, as he's a <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/selecting-the-2021-22-all-nba-teams" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deserving All-NBA</a> performer. Let's save the rash takes. Criticism for last night is warranted, but the overarching narratives are not.
D'LO AND ANT
D'Angelo Russell and Anthony Edwards were fantastic last night in so many facets.&nbsp;
The Wolves came out extremely erratic and it seemed like the moment was too big for them to start the game. Their pace was quick but out of control. The defense was flying around, but almost too much.
The Clippers' defense struggled late as their offensive stagnation carried over, but the polarity of D'Lo and Ant gave the Clippers headaches throughout the night.
Russell's pacing was exquisite last night. It was by far one of the best games I've seen from him with regards to seeing the floor, picking his spots and attacking a defense. It felt like he hit every tough shot and pull-up last night, routinely never gaining separation, but it just didn't matter.
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Down the stretch, he masterfully pulled Los Angeles' defense apart, using some of their switching against them and orchestrating effective offense.
While Russell picked apart with pace and rhythm, Edwards was the overhand right coming off a jab. He set up his game early with a fluid contact finish over Marcus Morris and routinely found his way into the paint last night. Clippers defenders gave him an extra foot of space to try and wall off drives annnnd it was too much.
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He got to the line six times, nailed 5-of-11 threes, and hit shots off the bounce inside the arc if given the space.&nbsp;
When he doesn't make mistakes with the ball, it is so hard to defend Anthony Edwards. Do you give up the jumpers if he's hitting them at a high clip? Do you let him glide to the rim and hope help can bother him? It's a conundrum that many teams are finding harder and harder to solve as his game rounds out. He came ready for the moment last night off rip.
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"No one can guard him, and I keep preaching that to him" Patrick Beverley credits Anthony Edwards for his patience and hard work after the T-Wolves win to advance to the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBAPlayoffs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBAPlayoffs</a> presented by Google Pixel. <a href="https://t.co/SwD25thKCO">pic.twitter.com/SwD25thKCO</a>
&mdash; NBA (@NBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1514117290803052546?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Pat's whole rant on Ant is awesome, but Ant nodding his head the whole time in agreement like, "Yeah, I know. They can't guard me," is just priceless and awesome.
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When the lights come on, I show up. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Thurskii?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Thurskii</a>
&mdash; Anthony Edwards (@theantedwards_) <a href="https://twitter.com/theantedwards_/status/1514120995669524480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2022</a></blockquote>

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QUICK-HITTERS
Jarred Vanderbilt and Jaden McDaniels were so vital last night. The individual defense they played on Paul George was tremendous. He still got to his spots, but everything was well contested for the most part. He got to the line a good deal, but that happens against star players.
Last night, the Clippers were 12-of-28 in the paint with only 16 at-rim attempts and a large deal of that credit goes to that dynamic duo and their ability to crowd drives. By preventing full-on penetration, they were able to make some of the backline rotations just a little easier and cleaner for the Wolves. They went to a frontcourt of McDaniels and Vando at the 4 and 5 for a small stretch late in the game (which is not something that happened much this year) and they were able to hang tight before they brought in a true big. That was a really fun performance from them, and I can't wait to see how they perform in the playoffs.
The Clippers versus either the Pelicans or Spurs should be a fun match-up, and I can't wait to see that as well. The playoffs are almost here, and the postseason is already off to a fantastic start.

The Wolves are in the playoffs for the second time since 2004, earning their postseason trip after a terrific play-in performance.

NBA Play-In Tournament: Takeaways from Wolves-Clippers

For all the strides the Minnesota Timberwolves made this season on both ends of the floor, proving themselves as a team on the rise with plenty of untapped potential, their entry into the NBA playoffs has still yet to be secured.
Paul George and the Los Angeles Clippers present a significant roadblock.
&ldquo;He takes them to a whole other level,&rdquo; Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said.
The confident team that reached the Western Conference finals last year &mdash; and beat the Wolves three times in November when George was healthy &mdash; has the seven-time All-Star back in the lineup after a three-month absence with an elbow injury.
The Clippers visit the Wolves on Tuesday night in a play-in game for the No. 7 seed and a first-round date with Memphis. The loser must turn around and beat the San Antonio-New Orleans winner to get the No. 8 seed and a matchup with league-leading Phoenix, or else begin their offseason with the rest of the lottery-bound teams.
&ldquo;We stop Paul George, we win the game,&rdquo; said Anthony Edwards, who will likely have the primary responsibility of guarding the 12-year veteran wing.
George had 76 points, 25 rebounds, 18 assists and four steals over those three earlier victories by 11, 20 and 27 points. Minnesota won by 18 in the last matchup in January when George was out.
The Clippers, who finished four games behind the Wolves, have measurably more postseason experience to counteract the home-court advantage.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really believe in that,&rdquo; LA coach Tyronn Lue said. &ldquo;One game, anyone can get hot or we could have a bad shooting night. We can&rsquo;t ease into the game. We've got to be ready to go from the jump.&rdquo;
The Clippers recently welcomed back another integral player, Norman Powell, from a broken foot that sidelined him for 22 games shortly after he was acquired in a trade with Portland.
&ldquo;We're in a good place,&rdquo; Lue said. &ldquo;Got to continue playing the right way.&rdquo;
The Wolves only have Karl-Anthony Towns left from their 2017-18 team that lost in the first round to Houston, the only appearance in the playoffs since 2004 for the long-woebegone franchise. The fans have begun to come back and make the arena loud again, with Towns, Edwards and the rest of the roster giving them reasons to repeat their visits.
&ldquo;This is a great sports town,&rdquo; said Finch, who signed a multi-year contract extension on Monday. &ldquo;If you play hard and you play the right way and you do the right things, they&rsquo;ll support you.&rdquo;
WELL-VERSED
The addition of defensive ace and emotional leader Patrick Beverley this season has given the Wolves a big boost, and he's conveniently the most knowledgeable person in the organization about the ins and outs of the Clippers. Beverley spent the previous four seasons with LA. Two trades &mdash; the first one to Memphis &mdash; sent him to Minnesota.
&ldquo;He talks a lot of trash, but he can back it all up,&rdquo; Towns said. &ldquo;So shoutout to him, what he&rsquo;s done, what he&rsquo;s brought this team.&rdquo;
ROUGH STUFF
The Clippers were able to disrupt Towns and his flow with the offense in their matchups this season, one of the first opponents to find success by sending a smaller forward &mdash; in their case, Nicolas Batum &mdash; to defend the All-Star center with a physical approach to the post.
&ldquo;The Batum wrestling match&rdquo; was how Finch described it, with a wry smile.
KAWHI NOT?
On top of missing George and Powell for long stretches this season, the Clippers have been without Kawhi Leonard the entire time. The two-time NBA Finals MVP is still rehabilitating the torn right ACL he suffered in the second round of last year's playoffs.
Lue has given mostly vague answers to questions about Leonard&rsquo;s status, but the Clippers have not ruled him out for a return at any point during the playoffs.
COFFEY BREWING
Clippers guard Amir Coffey took advantage of increased playing time amid the injuries, and he'll have a chance to show off his development in his home state. The former Gophers star was the Minnesota AP Player of the Year for Hopkins High School in 2016.
&ldquo;Going back home, the most important game of the season, having my people in the crowd, hopefully we can come out with a win,&rdquo; said Coffey, who started 30 games this season and shot 54.2% from the field.
He played at Target Center in the Class 4A state semifinals his sophomore year, a four-overtime game he won by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XXjHoHjN94">swishing a tiebreaking shot from well behind half court to beat the buzzer</a>.
"Probably one of the craziest shots I made,&rdquo; Coffey said.

The Clippers visit the Wolves on Tuesday night in the West Play-In game for the No. 7 seed and a first-round date with Memphis.

Wolves get tough Play-In foe with George back for Clips

PHILADELPHIA (AP) &mdash; Joel Embiid made his closing argument for MVP votes and all but wrapped up the NBA scoring title, scoring 41 points while adding 20 rebounds and four assists to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to a 133-120 victory Saturday over the Indiana Pacers.
Embiid shot 14 for 17 from the floor, went 11 of 15 from the foul line and made both his 3-point attempts in a game that Philadelphia (50-31) needed to win to remain alive in the hunt for the third seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. It was the first time this season that an NBA player scored 40 or more points and had 20 or more rebounds in a game. It was the third time in Embiid's career it has happened &mdash; with all three times coming against the Pacers.
&ldquo;I've always said that every single night, I want to dominate,&rdquo; Embiid said. &ldquo;If you are dominating, things can show up in a lot of different ways &mdash; whether it is offensively or defensively. Sometimes, the numbers don't show it. But it's good, I guess.&rdquo;
Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers said: &ldquo;It's methodical and historical. Whatever the calls you want to put on it, it's what's he's been."
James Harden had 22 points and 14 assists for Philadelphia, who also got double-digit point performances from Tobias Harris (18), Tyrese Maxey (18) and Danny Green (15).
&ldquo;We're getting better,&rdquo; Rivers said.
Oshae Brissett scored 20 points and Tyrese Haliburton had 19 for Indiana (25-56), which lost its ninth straight game. The Pacers fell behind by 21 points in the first half, then cut the deficit to five late in the third quarter before Embiid and Harden began to take control of the game.
&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t seen a guy like this in the history of the league who has this kind of power and skill,&rdquo; Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said of Embiid. &ldquo;He's able to score on all three levels effortlessly. He's an amazing player and it will be interesting to see what teams do in the playoffs to try to slow him down.&rdquo;
Embiid is now averaging 30.6 points for the season, which is just ahead of LeBron James&rsquo; 30.3-point-per-game clip for the Los Angeles Lakers and Kevin Durant&rsquo;s 30.1 average for the Brooklyn Nets.
But neither James nor Durant will play enough games to qualify for the statistical title; in an 82-game season, 58 games played is the minimum. That means the scoring race comes down to Embiid and Milwaukee&rsquo;s Giannis Antetokounmpo, who would need a miracle finish to grab the scoring crown. The last center to win a scoring title with a more than 30 ppg average was Bob McAdoo, who averaged 31.1 points in 1976-77.
Embiid also has been considered one of main contenders for league MVP, along with Antetokounmpo and Denver's Nikola Jokic. Saturday's game was Embiid's 13th scoring 40 or more points.
The Sixers can move up to the third seed in the East and a first-round matchup with Chicago with a victory over Detroit on Sunday and a Boston loss at Memphis. Otherwise, Philadelphia will face Toronto in the 4-5 matchup in the first round of the postseason tournament.
Embiid said no decision was made about his playing status for Sunday night's game, which takes place at the same time Boston faces Memphis.
&ldquo;I want to, but at the same time it's a back to back and we have to get ready for the playoffs,&rdquo; Embiid said. &ldquo;I want to play because we still need to work on my spacing and chemistry. Whatever we can get out of this last game, it will be good.&rdquo;
TIP-INS
Pacers: Indiana guard Malcolm Brogdon was ruled out with lower back soreness while Jalen Smith sat because of left groin soreness. Reserve forward Nate Hinton was ruled out for the final two games because of the NBA's health and safety protocols. &ldquo;He's in a van heading home,&rdquo; coach Rick Carlisle said.
76ers: For the second straight game, Philadelphia inserted veteran guard Danny Green into the starting lineup in the spot normally held by top defender Matisse Thybulle. Thybulle may not be able to play in a possible first-round series in Toronto because of his COVID-19 vaccination status. Canadian rules forbid cross-border travel to anyone not vaccinated; Thybulle has not said publicly whether he is vaccinated. He missed Thursday night's 119-114 road loss to the Raptors and was listed as &ldquo;ineligible to play." ... Guard Georges Niang missed Saturday's game with left knee soreness. Rivers said the move was precautionary. &ldquo;If this was a playoff game, he would be in there,&rdquo; the coach said in his pre-game meeting with the media.
UP NEXT
Pacers: Play at Brooklyn on Sunday to finish their season.
76ers: Host Detroit on Sunday night in regular-season finale.

Joel Embiid makes one last MVP push with 41 points and 20 rebounds in Philadelphia's season finale.

Embiid has 41 points, 20 rebounds as Sixers down Pacers

In today's NBA, we&rsquo;re seeing more and more second-generation players. Stephen Curry is probably the most notable example, but Jerami Grant, Jalen Brunson and Jaren Jackson, Jr. are also the sons of former NBA players. And there&rsquo;s a lot more of them out there.
Throughout the course of NBA history, there have been a lot of basketball dads, including some who were able to coach their sons. Doc Rivers coached his son, Austin, and George Karl coached against his son Coby.
However, there&rsquo;s something we&rsquo;ve never seen before, and that&rsquo;s a teammate dad.
During All-Star Weekend, LeBron James admitted that he wants to become the first dad to play alongside his son, Bronny, and I'm hoping that we can witness that.
LeBron teaming up with his son would be a completely different level of accomplishment. And yes, it would be an accomplishment.
As athletes (especially NBA players) trying to win championships, we know that there&rsquo;s only so much we can control. We can eat right, have the best habits and act as great teammates and good coaches. Winning is hard, succeeding is hard, and doing so for 20 years is damn-near impossible.
LeBron has done it, though.
A lot has to line up for that to potentially happen. LeBron is 37 years old and much closer to the end of his career than the beginning, but that&rsquo;s why this is an incredible accomplishment and why it&rsquo;s worth pursuing.
LeBron came into the league and fulfilled every expectation people ever had of him. He&rsquo;s been so good for so long that, even at this point in his career, any team in the league would want to have him. He&rsquo;s been so good for so long that he was able to have a son, help raise him into a young man and help put him in a pretty good situation, all while still being arguably the best player in the league.
For Bronny, the NBA is the goal, and it&rsquo;s not too far off.
If things continue to play out the way they have been, LeBron sharing an NBA floor with his son may actually be a reality one day. That&rsquo;s not something that anyone could have ever imagined being possible, probably not even LeBron himself.
I also am a very proud basketball dad. My son Jace is about Bronny&rsquo;s age, and as he&rsquo;s grown up, Jace and I have had plenty of competitions, teaching moments and conversations about the chase to be great. Some of my fond memories from coaching in Cleveland are flashbacks of Jace and Bronny as young kids playing pickup and doing their own shooting drills in our practice gym. They were more interested in playing and getting better than they were watching us, so much so that they would be in the practice gym even while we had games going on.
I know what it feels like to watch your son grow up and try to follow in your footsteps. I also know that, for our children, it&rsquo;s not easy.
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If you <a href="https://twitter.com/james_posey41" target="_blank" rel="noopener">follow me on social media</a>, you&rsquo;ve probably seen me retweeting things about Jace. Even though I want him to stay grounded, I also want him to know that I&rsquo;m his biggest supporter.
As a basketball dad, I have to walk a fine line between being my son&rsquo;s biggest motivator and his biggest critic. On one hand, as a former pro player, I feel like I can help to guide him and develop him, but on the other, I want him to understand that being a pro player's son is a bit of a burden that he&rsquo;ll carry whenever he laces up his sneakers.
When Bronny, Jace and other players' children walk on the court, they may as well be wearing a target on their back. There are young, hungry players out there who look at kids like Jace and Bronny as opportunities to get some shine. That&rsquo;s something they've got to be ready for.
At the same time, people are going to have high expectations for these young players, because if their dad played professionally, they'll be expected to have similar abilities. But not every kid can handle that, and a lot of them decide not to follow in their dad&rsquo;s footsteps for that exact reason.
So, yeah. Tough love.
To this day, Jace hasn&rsquo;t beaten me in a pickup game, and I&rsquo;m damn sure never going to take it easy on him because I know nobody else competing against him will. I want him to stay humble and realize that the work never stops, and that just because he&rsquo;s my son, it doesn&rsquo;t mean things will be handed to him. If anything, it means he&rsquo;s going to have to work that much harder.
Bronny's experience must be magnified by 1,000. To be honest, I can&rsquo;t even imagine what it must be like for him. Imagine being the son of the world&rsquo;s most famous basketball player. Imagine what it must be like for everyone out there to want to bust your ass so they can say they got the better of LeBron&rsquo;s son.
Jace faces that as my son, and there&rsquo;s really no comparison between LeBron and me.
Like I said, tough love.
When I watch Jace play, I try to make sure I never get too hyped up or too excited about the things he&rsquo;s able to do on the court because I want him to maintain his edge and never be satisfied. That&rsquo;s a challenge that we as basketball dads have &mdash; we&rsquo;re constantly coaching and criticizing but always trying to stay positive and encouraging.
Why am I even saying all of this? Because basketball dads, particularly those who played in the NBA, have a unique perspective. When Jace picked up a basketball at 4 years old and decided he wanted to shoot hoops like his daddy, I couldn&rsquo;t imagine being able to play with him as a pro. Part of that is because when Jace was born, I was about 10 years older than LeBron was when Bronny was born, but another part of it was that I just can&rsquo;t say I envisioned being able to have the will, desire and good fortune to last in the league for as long as it would have taken.
Truth be told, it was probably hard for LeBron to imagine that too, which is probably why this has only become a conversation in the very recent past. But, because &lsquo;Bron is still playing at such a high level, it feels like it&rsquo;s close. How can we not be intrigued?
As a dad, there&rsquo;s no better feeling than watching your child set a goal, commit to it and accomplish it. That&rsquo;s not just in the world of sports, but in all walks of life. But man, I remember seeing Greg Anthony shed tears when his son Cole Anthony was drafted by the Orlando Magic, and I know that every other NBA dad felt the same way when their sons made it. They all know what their kids had to go through to get to that moment.
I can&rsquo;t even begin to imagine what Bronny has had to overcome. I&rsquo;m pretty sure LeBron knows, just like LeBron knows what he&rsquo;s had to do to maintain his status as one of the top players in the league for so long. If the day comes where those two share an NBA court &mdash; and it&rsquo;s obviously no guarantee &mdash; they will share one of the most incredible accomplishments the league has ever seen.
I, for sure, am rooting for it to happen.
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LeBron James could someday play alongside his son, Bronny James. Fellow NBA dad James Posey is rooting for it to happen.

Why teaming up with Bronny could be LeBron’s greatest accomplishment

Paul George's return jolted the Los Angeles Clippers back to life.
The All-Star guard scored 34 points after missing three months with an elbow injury, helping his team rally from a 25-point deficit to beat the Utah Jazz 121-115 on Tuesday night.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big morale boost,&rdquo; Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. &ldquo;Guys were getting worn down and tired. We needed that.&rdquo;
Seeing George hit back-to-back 3-pointers in front of the Clippers bench was all Lue needed.
&ldquo;I was like, &lsquo;OK, he&rsquo;s good, he's ready,'" the coach said.
Reggie Jackson added 21 points for the Clippers, who snapped a five-game skid with a 39-point fourth quarter after trailing by 16 early in the period.
From there, the Clippers outscored Utah 34-12 to end the game. The Clippers took their first lead of the game, 110-109, on a jumper by Isaiah Hartenstein. During the spurt, George hit his sixth 3-pointer of the game.
George hadn't played since Dec. 22 while rehabbing a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.
&ldquo;I feel good," he said. "There's no pain.&rdquo;
George initially wanted to have surgery after getting hurt, but the doctor told him that type of injury heals and the ligament would reattach itself to the bone.
&ldquo;Thankfully we went that direction,&rdquo; he said.
Assistant coach Brian Shaw had George running during rehab to the point where he felt more like a track and field athlete than a basketball player.
&ldquo;Unnecessary running,&rdquo; George said, smiling, &ldquo;but it paid off. I trusted him.&rdquo;
The Clippers have had multiple comeback wins when trailing by at least 20 points this season. Their 35-point comeback against Washington on Jan. 25 was the second-biggest in NBA history.
But George didn't enjoy seeing the holes they dug themselves while he was out.
&ldquo;Just always come out with energy,&rdquo; he counseled his teammates. &ldquo;Our intensity has to be there. The game completely changes when we give ourselves a chance.&rdquo;
It was in the fourth.
With George resting to start the period, Robert Covington drilled a 3-pointer from in front of his bench that left the Clippers trailing 103-94. It was their first single-digit deficit since the opening quarter, when they were held to 14 points.
Donovan Mitchell scored 33 points and Mike Conley added 19 points for the Jazz, whose losing streak stretched to five.
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Mitchell tried to call a timeout on an inbounds pass along the baseline with 10 seconds left, but the Jazz had none left. Jackson shot the technical foul and made it, putting the Clippers ahead by five.
&ldquo;We turned the ball over eight times I think in the fourth quarter. We gave up, I want to say, 12, 14 second-chance points,&rdquo; Utah coach Quin Snyder said. &ldquo;Those are possessions we don&rsquo;t get a chance to score. That's 39 points around those two things.&rdquo;
The Jazz struggled at the line, making 17 of 29 free throws.
Utah led by 25 points early in the third on a basket by Rudy Gobert. George scored 20 points in the period, including 10 of their final 12 points to cut the deficit to 94-82 heading into the fourth.
TIP-INS
Jazz: Greg Monroe had four points in his debut after signing a 10-day contract on Monday. He's expected to help fill backup minutes with center Hassan Whiteside ailing. ... Their previous four losses also came on the road.
Clippers: They've won once in three meetings with the Jazz this season.
UP NEXT
Jazz: Host the Lakers on Thursday.
Clippers: Visit Chicago on Thursday.

After missing three months with an elbow injury, Paul George helped the Clippers rally from a 25-point deficit to beat the Jazz on Tuesday.

Paul George returns, scores 34 as Clippers rally to beat Jazz 121-115

The NBA playoffs are fast approaching and as the season winds down, there are a total of 21 teams fighting for 16 playoff spots across the two conferences.
Every game matters.
Injuries have had a major impact on this season. In the Western Conference, a number of potential playoff teams are missing key pieces, including the Golden State Warriors (Stephen Curry and James Wiseman), Denver Nuggets (Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr.), Los Angeles Clippers (Kawhi Leonard and Paul George), Memphis Grizzlies (Ja Morant), Los Angeles Lakers (Anthony Davis), New Orleans Pelicans (Zion Williamson) and Portland Trail Blazers (Damian Lillard).
There are fewer injured stars in the Eastern Conference, but Jarrett Allen (CLE), Ben Simmons (BKN), Lonzo Ball (CHI), Gordon Hayward (CHA) and Colin Sexton (CLE) are currently sidelined.
Between now and the start of the playoffs on April 12, some important players are expected to return to their respective teams, which could alter the NBA landscape in a major way.
<h2>WESTERN CONFERENCE</h2>
DENVER NUGGETS
On March 15, the Nuggets assigned Jamal Murray to their G-League affiliate (the Grand Rapids Gold) to get some additional work at practice. This sent waves through social media, as fans anticipated Murray's long-awaited return to the Nuggets' lineup. However, just a few days later, Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said that Murray is "not close" to suiting up.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Denver Nuggets HC Michael Malone says Jamal Murray is "not close" to rejoining the lineup, per <a href="https://twitter.com/HarrisonWind?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HarrisonWind</a> <a href="https://t.co/7leLWbJe5W">pic.twitter.com/7leLWbJe5W</a>
&mdash; Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) <a href="https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1505676501303320576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2022</a></blockquote>

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It seems unlikely that Murray will be able to play during the regular season, but perhaps he'll be able to return at some point during the postseason.
Michael Porter Jr. is also on the mend, but the reports about his availability have been all over the place. There were rumblings that his rehab didn't go great and that he was further away than Murray. Then, there was a rumor that he's <a href="https://theathletic.com/3198516/2022/03/21/nuggets-hopeful-jamal-murray-and-michael-porter-jr-could-be-back-by-playoffs-but-no-immediate-return-on-the-horizon/?source=nbatw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">due back very soon</a>.

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A little over a week ago, Malone was asked about the possibility of Murray and Porter returning, and he <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/malone-michael-porter-jr-and-jamal-murrays-wont-be-back-soon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, "There is no immediate return on the horizon for either one of those players."
Denver is currently the sixth seed in the Western Conference, trying to stave off the Minnesota Timberwolves and avoid the Play-In Tournament.&nbsp;
Nikola Jokic has played at an MVP level (again) and the absence of these two stars has allowed for Bones Hyland to emerge as a legitimate rotation player as a rookie. Adding even one of these two players back into the fold would make the Nuggets a significantly more threatening first-round opponent for the Grizzlies, Warriors or Mavericks.&nbsp;
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NEW ORLEANS PELICANS
Since the acquisition of CJ McCollum on February 8, the New Orleans Pelicans rank No. 10 in offensive rating and No. 6 in net rating. While the Pelicans won't be getting All-Star power forward Zion Williamson back at any point this season, they did just have another impact player return to their lineup.
Larry Nance Jr. was acquired as part of the McCollum trade and he made his Pelicans debut a few days ago. The 29-year-old is a seamless fit on the offensive end and he'll give New Orleans some defensive versatility.
Even though we all wanted to see how this team would look with a healthy Zion, they have a solid core with McCollum, Brandon Ingram, Jonas Valanciunas, Herb Jones, Devonte' Graham, Nance and Co. &mdash; making them a scary opponent in the Play-In Tournament.

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New Orleans likely won't catch the Clippers for the eighth seed, but they could steal homecourt advantage in the 9-10 game against the Lakers, as they are currently a half game behind L.A.
LOS ANGELES LAKERS
With LeBron James on roster, there always seems to be this lingering feeling that the Lakers will catch their stride and figure this thing out. But without Anthony Davis, it seems unlikely that Los Angeles will be able to escape the Play-In Tournament.
There has been no official word on a potential return date for Davis, but the Lakers would need him available if they hope to play beyond April 12.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Anthony Davis continues to do on-court shooting, per Frank Vogel, and is progressing each day: &ldquo;Anthony has had a good week &hellip; He&rsquo;s had a productive week.&rdquo;
&mdash; Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) <a href="https://twitter.com/LakersReporter/status/1504943043669106699?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2022</a></blockquote>

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The presence of Davis would inject a tiny sliver of hope that he and James could will this team to victory and into a revenge series against the Phoenix Suns in the first round.
GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS
Stephen Curry is expected to be out until mid-April at the earliest, which is a huge blow to the Warriors. Fortunately, Curry has <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/breakingnews/warriors-curry-expects-to-return-by-start-of-playoffs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that he should be back in time for the first game of the playoffs.
The team has reintroduced Klay Thompson back into the fold, and Draymond Green is back in the lineup too. While Golden State's star-studded trio has only played three games together this season, at least the Warriors should have all three vets together for the postseason (barring any setbacks or new injuries).
Unfortunately, Golden State won't be at full strength, as James Wiseman was recently <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/warriors-james-wiseman-ruled-out-for-remainder-of-the-season" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ruled out</a> for the remainder of this season. The sophomore is still recovering from a torn meniscus that he suffered last April. Wiseman's size and versatility would have helped the Warriors, especially when facing the likes of Nikola Jokic, Rudy Gobert and Jaren Jackson Jr.
Golden State has been struggling without Curry, dropping four of their last five games (including surprising losses to the Orlando Magic, San Antonio Spurs and Atlanta Hawks). Golden State surrendered the No. 2 seed to the Memphis Grizzlies, and the Warriors could slip to fourth in the Western Conference, leading to a potential second-round matchup against Phoenix (instead of Memphis or Utah).&nbsp;
Still, assuming the Warriors have their Big Three, they will be dangerous in the playoffs.
LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS
Recently, Clippers head coach Ty Lue was asked about Kawhi Leonard and Paul George potentially returning prior to the playoffs, and he didn't shoot down the possibility.
"If guys are able to [return], they are gonna do it," Lue said. "But the most important part is making the sure the players are taken care of and making sure they're ready to go and fully healthy."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Ty Lue says he&rsquo;ll keep the door open on Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, and/or Norman Powell returning if it&rsquo;s less than a week until the playoffs. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Clippers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Clippers</a> <a href="https://t.co/iebGp2sRcp">pic.twitter.com/iebGp2sRcp</a>
&mdash; Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomerAzarly/status/1505958728125739011?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 21, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Leonard has been sidelined since last postseason, and Clippers fans have been holding out hope for a late-season comeback. ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33579571/nba-playoffs-injury-updates-steph-curry-zion-williamson-anthony-davis-more" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a> that Leonard may be able to return if the Clippers make it out of the Play-In Tournament.
George has been sidelined due to a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, and there is no timetable for his return. Recently, he has <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33579571/nba-playoffs-injury-updates-steph-curry-zion-williamson-anthony-davis-more" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> made progress and been cleared for 4-on-4 and shooting drills, so a return still seems possible.&nbsp;
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<h2>EASTERN CONFERENCE</h2>
CHICAGO BULLS
The Bulls skyrocketed to the top of the East standings early in the season thanks to a supernova DeMar DeRozan and stellar defense. Two key cogs of that defense were Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso, who have played just 35 and 36 games, respectively. Chicago also played most of the season without forward Patrick Williams, who's another important rotation player.&nbsp;
The absence of those two elite perimeter defenders caused the Bulls to slip to the East's five seed, and they are just one game ahead of the sixth-seeded Toronto Raptors.&nbsp;
Caruso returned on March 12 and Williams returned on March 21. But if Ball is able to return to the starting lineup, that could significantly affect the outcome of a series against the Celtics or 76ers.
However, here's the bad news:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Lonzo Ball will stop running on his knee for the next 10 days, per Billy Donovan. They&rsquo;ve been trying to ramp him up but he hasn&rsquo;t responded well
&mdash; Jamal Collier (@JamalCollier) <a href="https://twitter.com/JamalCollier/status/1506033717608865798?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 21, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Ball may not be needed for Chicago to avoid the Play-In Tournament, but his return is crucial in order for the Bulls to make a deep run in the playoffs.
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
Colin Sexton is not coming back this season. In fact, it's possible that he has played his final game as a Cavalier since he's set to become a restricted free agent.
However, one of the main reason that the Cavaliers have exceeded expectations this season is the play of Jarrett Allen. Ricky Rubio was also a key cog in the Cleveland machine, but his injury back in December led to the acquisition of Rajon Rondo... who is also currently out with an ankle injury.&nbsp;
Allen's presence defensively next to Evan Mobley is crucial to the success of the Cavs. Cleveland's opponents take the ninth-most shots at the rim in the league, but they shoot the worst percentage. Their perimeter defense funnels opponents to the rim because of the three 7-footers they have on the floor.&nbsp;
For Cleveland to pull off a first-round upset, Allen must be present and continuing his career-year.&nbsp;
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Unfortunately, injuries are a part of the game and oftentimes play a major factor in the postseason. This year is proving to be no different, as the field seems wide open due to injuries and the players who are returning could have a major impact on who is eventually crowned champion.
BROOKLYN NETS
After arriving in Brooklyn, Ben Simmons began ramping up his conditioning and preparing to make his season debut, but then his back started giving him trouble. Initially, it was being described as back soreness, but he was recently diagnosed with a herniated disc and he needed an epidural for the pain.
Nets head coach Steve Nash has said that surgery isn't currently being considered. Simmons is working with a physical therapist and trying to get healthy enough to make his Nets debut. Nash told reporters that he's "fully expecting" Simmons to play at some point this season.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33520712/brooklyn-nets-hold-hope-ben-simmons-return-couple-regular-season-games" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that Brooklyn hopes to have Simmons for a "couple" regular-season games so that he can start shaking off the rust and getting acclimated prior to the postseason.
Whenever he returns, the Defensive-Player-of-the-Year runner-up will provide a huge boost for the Nets. Last season, Simmons averaged 14.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 1.6 steals with the Philadelphia 76ers.
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Several NBA playoff teams are hoping to get back key contributors in time for the postseason. Justin Lewis examines these situations.

Examining 11 impact players whose return could alter NBA playoffs

Ty Lue said in <a href="https://twitter.com/tomerazarly/status/1505958728125739011?s=21" target="_blank" rel="noopener">his most recent press conference</a> that he&rsquo;ll keep the door open on Paul George, Kawhi Leonard and Norman Powell returning if it&rsquo;s less than a week until the playoffs.
"If guys are able to (return), they are gonna do it," Lue said. "But the most important part is making the sure the players are taken care of and making sure they're ready to go and fully healthy."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Ty Lue says he&rsquo;ll keep the door open on Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, and/or Norman Powell returning if it&rsquo;s less than a week until the playoffs. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Clippers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Clippers</a> <a href="https://t.co/iebGp2sRcp">pic.twitter.com/iebGp2sRcp</a>
&mdash; Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomerAzarly/status/1505958728125739011?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 21, 2022</a></blockquote>

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ANALYSIS:&nbsp;This is a plot thread more people should be keeping their eyes on. The Clippers have managed to keep their head above water well enough to at least make the play-in. If they have their full squad back before the playoffs, that doesn't just make them a shoo-in for the playoffs; it makes them a dangerous threat in that playoff picture.

Ty Lue has not ruled out Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, or Norm Powell returning, but only wants them back if they're ready to go.