Miami Heat

The USA Men&rsquo;s National Basketball will face arguably their biggest threat in the Olympics in Team Canada on July 10 in Las Vegas. This Canadian team features a multitude of NBA talents, just like Team USA. Led by 2024 NBA MVP finalist Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and 2023 NBA Champion Jamal Murray, Team Canada is poised to give Team USA all the headaches and possible roadblocks in its pursuit of gold.&nbsp;
With all things considered, here&rsquo;s what Team USA could do to stamp their dominance against their neighboring rivals up North and send a message to the rest of the world eager to challenge their throne.
Dump the ball to Joel Embiid and let him go to work
Perhaps the most dominant basketball player in the world right now, there&rsquo;s probably nobody who could guard Joel Embiid one-on-one today on God&rsquo;s green earth. A 7-foot-2 big man blessed with skill, size, finesse, and power, Embiid&rsquo;s complete game will be a main problem for Team Canada. Among the frontliners they could throw at Embiid are Dwight Powell, Kelly Olynyk, and Trey Lyles but none of them - on paper and quick eye test - are quick or strong enough to deter Embiid and his dominance. Embiid dominated some of the league&rsquo;s best defensive players, putting up 50 points on 4-time DPOY Rudy Gobert and scoring 70 points in phenom Victor Wembanyama&rsquo;s head last season.
Team USA should quickly take advantage of this opportunity and run the offense through Embiid and make Team Canada send double teams at him. That&rsquo;s when advantages and opportunities will open up to the rest of the guys like LeBron cutting to the rim or Durant and Curry spotting up for wide-open threes. It could be a pick-your-poison type of game where Team Canada could let Embiid play one-on-one and destroy them inside the paint or double him and risk putting two on the ball creating opportunities for the rest of Team USA.
Get into lots of screening actions to create advantages and confuse the defense
Team Canada&rsquo;s biggest strength will be their on-ball perimeter defense. Among Dillon Brooks, Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, they will have long wings that could disrupt passing lanes and wreak havoc on the perimeter, creating easy baskets in transition. Canada&rsquo;s a relatively young team with most players in their athletic prime so they would definitely take advantage of their biggest strength and make it their main style of play.
To counter this, Team USA could involve their players in more screening actions to create advantages on offense and confuse Canada&rsquo;s defense. They should also incorporate slips and slides in those screens and in the pick and rolls for cutters and shooters to get open shots. By doing this, Team USA will negate Canada&rsquo;s biggest strength and create easy and quality looks against their vaunted perimeter defense.
Play defense
It&rsquo;s no secret that Team USA&rsquo;s core players are aging and nearing the end of their athletic peaks. Although being the superstar basketball players that they are and still being at the top of their offensive games, Team USA&rsquo;s defense will be suspect here and would probably be the main attacking point of their opponents. Jrue Holiday, Anthony Edwards, and Derrick White will have their work cut out for them in the perimeter right from the get-go as Team USA could be punished by a guard-heavy offensive team like Team Canada.&nbsp;
Team USA might outscore everyone, but you can make them work on the other side of the floor, and this could be Canada&rsquo;s main mindset coming into the game. Despite the top-end talent and superstar-level shot-making on offense, Team USA should put more effort on the defensive end of the floor if they want to win this game.

The USA Men’s National Basketball will face arguably their biggest threat in the Olympics in Team Canada on July 10 in Las Vegas.

USA vs CAN preview: 3 things Team USA could do to win exhibition game against Canada

Although we&rsquo;re in the middle of the NBA Playoffs and the Boston Celtics are about to take on the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals for the championship, teams on the outside looking in are starting to make their moves to bolster their benches. Here are some of them that are on the move:
Warriors, Darvin Ham to discuss assistant coach role
According to reports, Golden State has approached former Lakers head coach Darvin Ham for an assistant coaching role with the team. Although it isn&rsquo;t expected to materialize, it is a signal of the Warriors&rsquo; desire to add a big-name assistant, and indications are they are in search of either a former head coach or former player to fill the role. The Warriors will continue their search moving forward.
Wizards hire Brian Keefe as head coach
The Washington Wizards have promoted interim head coach Brian Keefe to be the team&rsquo;s full-time coach. Keefe, who will be the 26th head coach in Wizards franchise history, had an 8-31 record as interim head coach last year for Washington. He takes over the franchise who have intriguing young talents in Deni Avdija, Bilal Coulibaly, and Tristan Vukcevic.
Lue, Clippers ink extension
Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue will be back for the considerable future in LA as he extends with the Clippers for 5 years, USD 70 million. Lue, an assistant on Team USA&rsquo;s staff, has agreed with Clippers owner Steve Ballmer regarding the extension which will make him one of the league&rsquo;s highest-paid coaches.
Caron Butler returns to Miami on a 4-year deal
Butler, a part of Erik Spoelstra&rsquo;s staff in Miami, has been extended for another 4 years to remain on the bench for the Heatles. A 16-year NBA veteran and an ex-Heat player, Butler has spent the last 4 years as an assistant with the team.
David Fizdale joins Mike Budenholzer in Phoenix
Fizdale, who has been a part of Frank Vogel&rsquo;s staff, will join newly installed head coach Mike Budenholzer&rsquo;s staff in Phoenix.

Teams on the outside looking in are starting to make their moves to bolster their benches. Here are some of them that are on the move.

NBA Coaching Changes: Teams starting to equip their tacticians

Josh Childress is a retired American basketball player who played three years at Stanford University, where he became an AP first-team All-American, consensus second-team All-American, the Pac-10 Conference Player of the Year and Pac-10 Conference Tournament MVP as a junior in 2004.&nbsp;
He was selected by the Atlanta Hawks with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2004 NBA Draft, becoming the highest Stanford player to be drafted in the NBA. While Childress played in the NBA for the Hawks (2004-2008), Phoenix Suns (2010-2012), Brooklyn Nets (2012) and New Orleans Pelicans (2013), he made a name for himself overseas when he moved to Greece to play for Olympiacos from 2008 to 2010.&nbsp;
Childress had a fruitful career overseas, playing in leagues like the NBL (with the Sydney Kings and Adelaide 36ers) in Australia and the B-League (with the San-en Neo Phoenix) in Japan. Over the course of his 15-year basketball career, Childress averaged 9.1 points and earned a number of honors including All-NBL first team, NBL top scorer, All-Euroleague second team, Greek League top scorer, Greek League best defender and NBA All-Rookie second team.
Now, the 40-year-old Childress is an investor in the East Asian Super League, <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/east-asia-super-league-set-to-have-its-biggest-event-yet-in-cebu">a rapidly growing league across East Asia.</a> During the EASL's Final Four in the Philippines, Childress spoke with BasketballNews&rsquo; Mon Anthony L. Valmoria to share what he is up to nowadays, his venture with the EASL, his fond NBA memories, his journey playing overseas and more.
You are an investor in the EASL. When did this happen?&nbsp;
Josh Childress: &ldquo;I started as an investor last year, last summer. I talked about seeing the opportunity [to] kind of &lsquo;bridge&rsquo; the gap between the countries in Asian basketball and it's a fantastic opportunity to do that. So EASL did a great job here in its first year and we hope to build on this moving forward.&rdquo;
Why invest in the EASL? Why do you think it will be a successful league?
Childress: &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s bringing together a bunch of different countries and leagues that have all increasingly gotten better and I think if you can find a way to connect Asian basketball across the board, it will be a fantastic league. A fantastic opportunity for fans, media and the players. So, I&rsquo;m hopeful that when this tournament &ndash; this Final Four &ndash; has more traction, you get more countries involved in the league and have some great basketball.&rdquo;
After your 15-year playing career, what are you up to these days?
Childress: &ldquo;I have an investment company. I run investments; we do real estate, we do sports properties, we do stuff like this (the EASL). We invest in a bunch of different things and I run it full-time &ndash; that&rsquo;s what keeps me busy these days.&rdquo;
Watching the EASL games and seeing how basketball is played over here, how would you describe the brand of basketball that's played on this side of the world?
Childress: &ldquo;It is very physical and very fast-paced. We&rsquo;ve seen really exciting games here and I think players here are playing for pride. There&rsquo;s obviously a nice prize &ndash; a cash prize &ndash; at the end of it. But at this point, it&rsquo;s just pride and making sure that you win and you&rsquo;re the champion of Asia. So I think [basketball here] is really exciting.&rdquo;
Let's talk about your experiences as an NBA player. What are your fondest memories from your playing days?
Childress: &ldquo;Most of your memories are around your teammates, you know? Around the locker room like how fun that was, those plane rides, just the camaraderie you have with your team &ndash; that&rsquo;s the thing that I missed the most about playing. The friendships and the teammates that you have over the years.&rdquo;
Speaking of your teammates, you played with a lot of teams in the NBA &ndash; who was your favorite teammate?&nbsp;
Childress: &ldquo;They were all my favorites (smiles). But I&rsquo;d say between Marvin Williams, Zaza Pachulia, Josh Smith, Joe [Johnson], Tyronn Lue, Mike Bibby &ndash; all those guys were great teammates. I&rsquo;m very thankful that I had the opportunity to play with them.&rdquo;
What is your best NBA memory?
Childress: &ldquo;Getting drafted. I mean, that&rsquo;s a dream come true. It&rsquo;s something that, as a kid, you always see on TV. So, that was an amazing experience.&rdquo;
When it comes to American NBA players deciding to play overseas, you were one of the pioneers. What were the pros and cons?
Childress: &ldquo;It was something that has been done before, but it was a great experience. I loved playing in Greece &ndash; the fans were amazing. I got the chance to experience European basketball, which was different. The pros and the cons are that it sets you up in a situation where you&rsquo;re playing a different style of basketball and having to figure out how to play there. But that was so much fun, you&rsquo;re in very hostile environments playing against teams that you never knew existed and having the chance to compete at a high level. So, I loved my time in Europe. In the EuroLeague, basketball was fantastic; in the Greek league, it was fantastic. So hopefully we can mirror that EuroLeague style format here with the EASL.&rdquo;
Other than monetary considerations, what would you advise fellow Americans about the decision to play overseas? What other factors do you think are crucial in choosing where to play?
Childress: &ldquo;I think the biggest thing is playing style &ndash; you know, going somewhere your style of play fits [in with] where you&rsquo;re going &ndash; or having the opportunity of playing a lot of minutes. I know some guys that are going to certain countries that may pay a little bit less, but they know they&rsquo;re going to play a lot, they&rsquo;re going to play their game. And that will lead them to those opportunities for success with bigger contracts and moving the following year. So, always make sure you go somewhere where you can be the best version of yourself and play at a high level.&rdquo;

Josh Childress shares what he's up to nowadays, his EASL investment, his NBA memories and his journey playing overseas.

Q&A: Josh Childress on NBA journey, EASL investment, overseas hoops

USA Basketball announced today a 41-athlete player pool for the 2024 USA Basketball Men&rsquo;s National Team. The players were selected by USA Basketball Men&rsquo;s National Team managing director&nbsp;Grant Hill&nbsp;and is subject to change. The 12-member 2024 USA Men&rsquo;s National Team, which will represent the United States at the 2024 Olympic Summer Games in Paris, will be announced at a later date.
Featuring 28 players who have represented the USA in Olympics and/or FIBA Men&rsquo;s World Cup and who together have collected 23 Olympic or World Cup gold medals, the 2024 USA Men&rsquo;s National Team finalists are&nbsp;Bam Adebayo,&nbsp;Jarrett Allen,&nbsp;Paolo Banchero,&nbsp;Desmond Bane,&nbsp;Scottie Barnes,&nbsp;Devin Booker,&nbsp;Mikal Bridges,&nbsp;Jaylen Brown,&nbsp;Jalen Brunson,&nbsp;Jimmy Butler,&nbsp;Alex Caruso,&nbsp;Stephen Curry,&nbsp;Anthony Davis,&nbsp;Kevin Durant,&nbsp;Anthony Edwards,&nbsp;Joel Embiid,&nbsp;De&rsquo;Aaron Fox,&nbsp;Paul George,&nbsp;Aaron Gordon,&nbsp;Tyrese Haliburton,&nbsp;James Harden,&nbsp;Josh Hart,&nbsp;Tyler Herro,&nbsp;Jrue Holiday,&nbsp;Chet Holmgren,&nbsp;Brandon Ingram,&nbsp;Kyrie Irving,&nbsp;Jaren Jackson Jr.,&nbsp;LeBron James,&nbsp;Cam Johnson,&nbsp;Walker Kessler,&nbsp;Kawhi Leonard,&nbsp;Damian Lillard,&nbsp;Donovan Mitchell,&nbsp;Chris Paul,&nbsp;Bobby Portis,&nbsp;Austin Reaves,&nbsp;Duncan Robinson,&nbsp;Jayson Tatum,&nbsp;Derrick White&nbsp;and&nbsp;Trae Young.
&ldquo;The United States boasts unbelievable basketball talent and I am thrilled that many of the game&rsquo;s superstars have expressed interest in representing our country at the 2024 Olympic Summer Games,&rdquo; Hill said. &ldquo;It is a privilege to select the team that will help us toward the goal of once again standing atop the Olympic podium. This challenging process will unfold over the next several months as we eagerly anticipate the start of national team activity."&nbsp;
The 2024 USA Men&rsquo;s National Team will be led by head coach&nbsp;Steve Kerr&nbsp;(Golden State Warriors), who is assisted by&nbsp;Mark Few&nbsp;(Gonzaga University),&nbsp;Tyronn Lue&nbsp;(L.A. Clippers) and&nbsp;Erik Spoelstra&nbsp;(Miami Heat). Last summer, the quartet coached the 2023 USA Basketball Men&rsquo;s National Team to a fourth-place finish at the 2023 FIBA Men&rsquo;s World Cup in Manila. Kerr is a 2020 Olympic gold medalist after serving as an assistant coach to&nbsp;Gregg Popovich&nbsp;in Tokyo.
In related news, USA Basketball also announced that the 2024 USA Men&rsquo;s National Team will host Canada at Las Vegas&rsquo; T-Mobile Arena as part of the USA Basketball Showcase. The exhibition contest is set for July 10 at 7:30 p.m. PT/10:30 p.m. ET live on FS1.
The USA Basketball Showcase features a series of games that help the USA Basketball National Teams prepare for major competitions, including the Olympic Summer Games and FIBA World Cup.
Following Las Vegas, the Americans will embark on an international training window that features exhibition games against the national teams of South Sudan on July 20 and Germany on July 22 at the O2 Arena in London.
Tickets for all three contests are on sale now at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.usab.com/tickets">www.usab.com/tickets</a>.
"USA Basketball is excited to return to Las Vegas as our men's national team program looks forward to tipping off the journey to the 2024 Olympic Games there in July," said&nbsp;Jim Tooley, USA Basketball CEO. "The game at T-Mobile Arena against Canada is an important opportunity in our preparations and a great opportunity for our fans to support the U.S. national team before heading overseas."&nbsp;
Prior to the Canada game, the USA will hold training camp in Las Vegas, its longtime training hub. Additional information will be announced at a later date.
The USA officially qualified for the 2024 Olympics as one of the top two nations from the FIBA Americas zone at the 2023 FIBA World Cup in September. The American men will compete for their fifth straight &ndash; and 17th&nbsp;overall &ndash; Olympic gold medal.
In total, USA Basketball will be represented by four teams at the 2024 Olympic Summer Games, including 5-on-5 men and women and 3x3 men and women. The USA are reigning Olympic champions in 5-on-5 men and women and 3x3 women, with 3x3 men set to make their Olympic debut next summer. &nbsp;More information about all four USA Basketball teams will be announced at a later date.

USA Basketball announced today a 41-athlete player pool for the 2024 USA Basketball Men’s National Team.

USA Basketball announces player pool for 2024 Men’s National Team

Following a slow start to this season, the Los Angeles Clippers have had an incredible turnaround.
 Immediately after acquiring star guard James Harden, the Clippers lost seven of 10 games, leading to some questions about Harden's fit and whether the team could right the ship.
However, since Harden&rsquo;s infamous &ldquo;give us 10 games and we&rsquo;ll figure it out&rdquo; statement, the Clippers have been one of the hottest teams in the NBA. They have the best record in the NBA since Dec. 1, and they have won 15 of their last 18 games and 20 of their last 26.&nbsp;
Los Angeles has the fourth-best record in the Western Conference (23-13), while boasting the NBA's seventh-best offense (scoring 116 points per 100 possessions) and ninth-best defense (allowing 110.4 points per 100 possessions).
The Clippers have been rolling as of late, and here are several reasons for their recent success.
Kawhi Leonard is healthy again and having an MVP-caliber season
The Clippers&rsquo; undisputed best player is currently having his healthiest season in years, playing 31-of-35 possible games. Leonard is currently shooting a career-best 52% from the field and is the biggest reason for Los Angeles' surge. The Clippers have registered 12-straight wins with Leonard in the lineup, and he ranks 10th in the league in scoring over that stretch. Leonard's numbers &ndash; 28.1 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists &ndash; are impressive, and he recently became the first player in NBA history to shoot 60% from the field, 50% from three-point range and 90% from the free-throw line over a 13-game span &ndash; an astounding demonstration of his dominance and efficiency this season.
Paul George is playing as a second &lsquo;Batman&rsquo; rather than being a &lsquo;Robin&rsquo;
Rather than being Robin to Leonard&rsquo;s Batman, Paul George has proven he&rsquo;s more than just a second fiddle this season. The 6-foot-9 forward has a solid All-Star case so far, averaging 23.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 3.4 threes and 1.6 steals, while shooting 45.8% from the field, 40.8% from three-point range and 92.4% from the free-throw line. George has taken it upon himself to carry more of the offensive load thus far even when Leonard is playing, scoring at least 20 points in nine-straight outings. This aggressive approach has done wonders for the Clippers.
James Harden is playing efficiently and making sacrifices
With the Clippers, James Harden isn't in a primary-scorer role. Although his resume speaks for itself, the 10-time All-Star and three-time scoring champ has deferred the scoring duties to Leonard and George. Instead, Harden&rsquo;s main job is to distribute the ball and keep the offense running, which makes scoring a secondary goal at this stage of his career. Also, he's constantly finding center Ivica Zubac for lob opportunities and even Norman Powell off catch-and-shoot actions.
This has led to one of Harden's most efficient seasons, as he's shooting a career-best 42% from three and a True Shooting percentage of 65%. Harden has been at his best when he's playing alongside the Clippers&rsquo; All-Star forwards, as the three-man lineup of Harden, Leonard and George has a net efficiency rating of plus-17.8 and has outscored opponents by 143 points.
Furthermore, the trio ranks first among the NBA's three-man lineups in several different categories including net rating (25.6), offensive rating (131.7), defensive rating (106), three-point percentage (43%), True Shooting percentage (65%) and turnovers (10.6).
Tyronn Lue finally playing bigs and shying away from center-less lineups
But perhaps the biggest difference between this year&rsquo;s Clippers and previous versions of the team might be Tyronn Lue finally playing his centers and using them to their full extent. His usual obsession with small-ball lineups &mdash; with wings at the 4 and 5 spots &mdash; has been non-existent this season, particularly since the team moved Nicolas Batum and Marcus Morris as part of the trade that netted Harden.
In previous seasons, Lue would close out games with Batum at the 5, or even at times playing George or Leonard there (which was kind of outrageous). Now, he utilizes his centers much better. On offense, Harden uses Zubac as a roller and rim threat for lobs, with Zubac catching and finishing easy buckets. Also, Russell Westbrook has good chemistry with backup center Daniel Theis in the second unit. Defensively, the Clippers no longer have a size disadvantage that leads to offensive rebounds by opposing players, as Zubac and incoming Mason Plumlee command minutes and bring physicality.
Using bigs has certainly changed the way Los Angeles plays. Everything seems to be going right for the Clippers, who will try to continue their strong play and contend for a championship.

The Los Angeles Clippers have been rolling as of late and Anthony Valmoria breaks down several reasons for their recent success.

The Los Angeles Clippers are rolling, and here are 4 reasons why

With the 2023-24 NBA season fast approaching, discussions are beginning to ramp up surrounding team expectations. Which teams are the early favorites and contenders? Which teams are just wishful thinkers? These topics are debated often, usually leading to a select number of teams facing win-or-bust expectations.&nbsp;
But, of course, there can only be one team in June that hoists the Larry O&rsquo;Brien.&nbsp;
Entering a season with championship expectations isn&rsquo;t easy, as <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-james-posey-championship-expectations-boston-celtics-doc-rivers-kevin-garnett-paul-pierce-ray-allen-cleveland-cavaliers-lebron-james-tyronn-lue-miami-heat-pat-riley-shaquille-o-neal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Basketball News&rsquo; James Posey highlighted in this recent article</a>. Which teams fall into the win-or-bust category for the 2023-24 season? Let&rsquo;s look at two teams &ndash; one from each conference &ndash; who qualify.&nbsp;
LOS ANGELES LAKERS
The Los Angeles Lakers have dealt with championship aspirations and expectations maybe more than any other team in NBA history. With 17 championships, which is tied with the Boston Celtics for the most all-time, it's clear why. This franchise is used to collecting hardware by season&rsquo;s end, and did so as recently as 2020, defeating the Miami Heat to win the championship in the midst of a global pandemic and in the wake of the passing of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.&nbsp;
So, how can a team that won a title in recent years already be facing pressure to win again?
The Lakers, led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis, are heading into this season fresh off a clean sweep in the Western Conference Finals by the eventual-champion Denver Nuggets. While seemingly negative on paper, the season was largely viewed as a success, as nobody expected this squad to make a Conference-Finals run after starting an abysmal 2-10.&nbsp;
How did they turn their season around? By ending the Russell Westbrook experiment, the Lakers landed D&rsquo;Angelo Russell and Jarred Vanderbilt in a trade, in addition to trading for Rui Hachimura. These three, along with a blossoming Austin Reaves and a rejuvenated James and Davis, brought the Lakers to familiar heights &ndash; defeating the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round and taking down the then-defending-champion Golden State Warriors in round two.&nbsp;
It was clear that the Lakers fixed their mistakes and were back on course. Even the naysayers had to tip their cap after the team&rsquo;s surprising Western Conference Finals run.
Now comes the familiar pressure.&nbsp;
This offseason, Lakers were able to keep last year&rsquo;s core together, re-signing Russell, Reaves and Hachimura, while adding quality role players in Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince, Jaxson Hayes and Cam Reddish. This is really the first time in the LeBron-Lakers era that the team has been given the green light to try again for a second season. Seeing as the team didn&rsquo;t come together until late last season, it would have been very much in the Lakers&rsquo; nature to come into this year with a completely different-looking team. Instead, the front office chose to run it back, aside from some changes on the margins. This decision is what puts them in the win-or-bust category.&nbsp;
With LeBron entering his 21st NBA season, that sentiment is stronger than ever. The Lakers have to take advantage of the fact that James is still playing at such a high level so late in his career. Being a sports team in Hollywood (especially one with 17 championships) you need to not only have the stars, you need to win. If the Lakers have stars but aren&rsquo;t winning, then they are essentially just becoming their neighbors, the Angels. The Lakers have the script ready for them, but we&rsquo;ll have to wait and see if they can top the box office.
PHILADELPHIA 76ERS
 
With the Philadelphia 76ers coming off their second-round exit in the 2023 NBA Playoffs courtesy of the Boston Celtics in seven games, there&rsquo;s pressure to take the next step and win a championship. This pressure isn&rsquo;t new; they&rsquo;ve been feeling it for several years.&nbsp;
Superstar center Joel Embiid won his first Most Valuable Player award last season, giving the 76ers two MVPs on the team, with James Harden being the other. While the duo has looked good in the short time they&rsquo;ve been together, they haven&rsquo;t looked like two MVPs playing side-by-side. This is especially true in the postseason, with Embiid and Harden both known for sometimes regressing in playoff series compared to the regular season. 
The fact that Doc Rivers was the team&rsquo;s head coach, a man who has coached three teams that all lost a playoff series after being up 3-1 and someone who has a 6-10 record in Game 7s, certainly didn&rsquo;t help. There's no question that he also deserves his fair share of blame for the team&rsquo;s issues. All of this, along with the lingering effects of the Ben Simmons debacle, came to a head last season.&nbsp;
This offseason, the team parted ways with Rivers, and Harden requested a trade. While Harden has yet to be traded and it is possible he remains with the team, the Sixers obviously aren&rsquo;t in an ideal state. It remains to be seen what kind of pieces they can get back for Harden.
In the meantime, the Sixers hired former Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse to replace Rivers. Nurse is a great coach who won a championship in 2019 and the NBA's Coach of the Year award in 2020. But if the team begins to underperform, a new coach &ndash; especially one who&rsquo;s known for previously incorporating a rougher defensive style when it came to guarding Embiid &ndash; could become an easy target for blame for the Philly faithful.&nbsp;
The 76ers might have more pressure on them than any other team this upcoming season. The reigning MVP, a former MVP (or the trade package they can get for him), a former Coach of the Year and a solid supporting cast mean this team is built to win now. This team is no stranger to win-or-bust expectations, but this may be the most pressure they&rsquo;ve faced yet.&nbsp;

Jack Maguire examines two teams facing win-or-bust expectations entering the 2023-24 NBA season.

Which NBA teams are under the most pressure entering 2023-24 season?

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Miami&rsquo;s Erik Spoelstra and Denver&rsquo;s Michael Malone are two of the four NBA coaches to have spent at least eight years with their current team.
They know how rare that is &mdash; especially as the league&rsquo;s coaching changes mount.
Championship-winning or title-contending coaches aren&rsquo;t safe in the NBA these days. In recent days, 2019 NBA champion Nick Nurse, 2021 champion Mike Budenholzer, 2021 Western Conference champion and 2022 Coach of the Year Monty Williams and most recently 2008 NBA champion Doc Rivers were all fired.&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/raptors-nick-nurse-fired-c2b7dc404915ee3ae12fe1a52e589830">Nurse was fired by Toronto</a>,&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/milwaukee-bucks-budenholzer-fired-e9ab56f83d317afd621adb7d7c244006">Budenholzer by Milwaukee</a>,&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/suns-monty-williams-fired-53f33c2c3c8d69af7449cbfbf931bc0a">Williams by Phoenix</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/76ers-nba-doc-rivers-fired-09368e77a8f741576222c975c3affe55">Rivers by Philadelphia.</a>
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s disturbing,&rdquo; Spoelstra said. &ldquo;Doc&rsquo;s a Hall of Famer. ... There&rsquo;s only so many teams that can advance. It&rsquo;s just a really hard thing to do. Yeah, it&rsquo;s been a tough couple weeks, hearing the news of just some really surprising firings.&rdquo;
It doesn&rsquo;t make sense to Spoelstra, or likely to many other coaches. Spoelstra has the NBA&rsquo;s second-longest current tenure with one team. San Antonio&rsquo;s Gregg Popovich has coached the Spurs since 1996, Spoelstra took over the Heat in 2008, Steve Kerr became coach in Golden State in 2014 and Malone became coach in Denver in 2015.
&ldquo;I understand this business,&rdquo; said Malone, who&rsquo;ll lead Denver into the Western Conference finals starting Tuesday against the Los Angeles Lakers. &ldquo;You look around the coaching landscape, if you want a secure profession, coaching is not the one to get into. I should have been a TV reporter.&rdquo;
Of the last nine coaches to take a team to the NBA Finals, only two &mdash; Kerr and Spoelstra &mdash; are still with the franchise that they went to the title round with.
Three of the last four championship-winning coaches &mdash; Budenholzer in 2021, the Los Angeles Lakers&rsquo; Frank Vogel in 2020 and Nurse in 2019 &ndash; have since been fired by those clubs. Also no longer with their teams for various reasons after recent runs to the finals: Ime Udoka in Boston, Cleveland&rsquo;s David Blatt and then Tyronn Lue as well, and now Williams by the Suns.
&ldquo;This is the nature of this league and I think sometimes it&rsquo;s the chemistry,&rdquo; NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told ESPN in a televised interview before the draft lottery on Tuesday night. &rdquo;They don&rsquo;t go from being great coaches to bad coaches from one year to the next. It has to do with the chemistry of the team, the style, maybe somebody believes the players need to hear a new voice. But I&rsquo;m incredibly sympathetic. It&rsquo;s a rough side of this business and I think they understand it. They choose this profession. They&rsquo;re my friends and I hate to see it.&rdquo;
Budenholzer&rsquo;s dismissal left Kerr upset, as he revealed earlier this month &mdash; but noted that all coaches understand how vulnerable they are.
&ldquo;My first response is not necessarily shock, it&rsquo;s more disappointment because Bud is a fantastic coach,&rdquo; Kerr said. &ldquo;He just won a championship and has been wildly successful in his coaching career. But this is the business we&rsquo;re in. &hellip; Expectations every year for every team are so high, and only one team can win. It&rsquo;s sad news for the coaching profession.&rdquo;
At least six teams will have new coaches next season &mdash; Phoenix, Milwaukee, Toronto, Detroit and now Philadelphia are looking, and&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/rockets-udoka-celtics-b65d91fdfa3174b0c9fa36634cd20e42">Houston has hired Udoka</a>&nbsp;as the replacement for Stephen Silas. There were two in-season moves as well: Brooklyn&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/brooklyn-nets-nba-sports-new-york-e72b511a6d8cdb4e4875dbc1b157557e">Jacque Vaughn was hired by the Nets</a>&nbsp;in November, and Atlanta&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/utah-jazz-atlanta-hawks-nba-sports-playoffs-bce807f9f9f26951421f9ea2c2e5d52f">Quin Snyder was hired by the Hawks</a>&nbsp;in February. And two coaches in the conference finals are in Year 1 of their careers: the Lakers&rsquo; Darvin Ham, and the Celtics&rsquo; Joe Mazzulla, who had to take over unexpectedly in Boston last fall following&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/boston-celtics-nba-sports-basketball-ime-udoka-0f04a614b82c497346a423d9da036521">Udoka&rsquo;s suspension</a>&nbsp;for an inappropriate relationship with a Celtics employee.
Mazzulla will meet Spoelstra and Miami in the Eastern Conference finals starting Wednesday. Spoelstra has faced Boston three times for the East title in four years, going up against three different coaches &mdash; Brad Stevens in the NBA bubble restart in 2020, Udoka last year and now Mazzulla &mdash; and says while the coaches change, organizational stability exists and is crucial.
&ldquo;Joe was in the bubble. ... He&rsquo;s been part of some really good teams,&rdquo; Spoelstra said. &ldquo;That does have an impact. Probably more than anything in this league right now, you&rsquo;re looking for some kind of organizational stability between the front office and coaching staff.&rdquo;
There aren&rsquo;t many examples of that in the league right now. At minimum, 13 of the NBA&rsquo;s 30 teams will open next season with a coach who has been in place for no more than one season.
Rivers said Sunday that he expected to stay with the 76ers. &ldquo;No one&rsquo;s safe in our business. I get that,&rdquo; Rivers said.
Further proof of that came two days later, when he was dismissed.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just the business of basketball,&rdquo; Miami guard Kyle Lowry said. &ldquo;And one thing about our business is sometimes it gets a little cut-throat.&rdquo;
Spoelstra has long said part of Miami&rsquo;s strength is consistency. Managing general partner Micky Arison, CEO Nick Arison, team president Pat Riley, general manager Andy Elisburg and others have been with the Heat for decades &mdash; and from the very beginning, in Elisburg&rsquo;s case, since he&rsquo;s been with the franchise for all 35 of its seasons.
Spoelstra has been with the organization for more than half his life as well; he was 24 when he started in the video room, and now he&rsquo;s 52.
&ldquo;It takes so much time and energy to restart something,&rdquo; Spoelstra said. &ldquo;And I think that&rsquo;s part of the reason why we&rsquo;ve been able to reboot so many times, over and over and over. We&rsquo;re not reinventing a new culture and then trying to teach everybody and then all of a sudden, two years later, it&rsquo;s going to be somebody else doing the exact same thing. But particularly to have proven veteran guys (fired), it&rsquo;s just been stunning. It really has been disturbing.&rdquo;

Erik Spoelstra, Mike Malone and Adam Silver discussed the firings of Monty Williams, Doc Rivers, Mike Budenholzer and Nick Nurse.

As NBA coaching changes mount, some lament the lack of job security

The Phoenix Suns fired Monty Williams on Saturday, two years after reaching the NBA Finals and a year after he was the overwhelming choice as the coach of the year.
Williams had great success in his four regular seasons in Phoenix, winning 63% of his games. But three consecutive years of playoff frustration was likely too much for the Suns to overlook &mdash; especially after two straight years of Phoenix trailing by 30 points at halftime of elimination games at home.
ESPN and The Athletic first reported the decision.
&ldquo;Monty has been foundational to our success over the past four seasons,&rdquo; said James Jones, the Suns&rsquo; president of basketball operations and general manager. &ldquo;We are filled with gratitude for everything Monty has contributed to the Suns and to the Valley community.&rdquo;
Jones also said he made the decision to fire Williams.
The Suns had a 2-0 lead in the 2021 NBA Finals, only to lose in six games. They lost in the second round in each of the last two seasons, both times in an embarrassing home finale &mdash; last year to Dallas, this year to Denver.
&ldquo;Neither day feels good,&rdquo; Williams said after the loss earlier this week to Denver, when asked to compare last season&rsquo;s debacle to this year&rsquo;s season-ending loss.
Saturday likely didn&rsquo;t feel good, either.
The Suns now become yet another high-profile coaching opening, after Toronto fired Nick Nurse and Milwaukee fired Mike Budenholzer. Nurse won the 2019 NBA title with the Raptors, while Budenholzer was the coach who overcame Phoenix&rsquo;s 2-0 lead in the 2021 finals.
It&rsquo;s the second major move made by the Suns in the three months or so since new owner Mat Ishbia closed the sale that gave him control of the club. In February, Ishbia green-lighted a blockbuster trade that brought Kevin Durant to Phoenix and gave the Suns a core &mdash; him, Devin Booker, former No. 1 pick Deandre Ayton and Chris Paul &mdash; that the team hoped would be enough to deliver a title.
It just didn&rsquo;t work, at least, not this year. Paul got hurt in the playoffs to continue his run of bad luck on the health front in the postseason, Ayton sat out the finale and Booker and Durant simply looked gassed by the time it was over.
Williams, after the season ended, blamed himself.
&ldquo;I take that personally, not having our team ready to play in the biggest game of the year,&rdquo; Williams said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s something that I pride myself on and it just didn&rsquo;t happen. ... That&rsquo;s something I have to take a deep look at, everything I&rsquo;m doing.&rdquo;
Williams had been the coach with the fifth-longest tenure with his current team entering Saturday &mdash; just four years. Gregg Popovich has been coach in San Antonio since 1996, Erik Spoelstra in Miami since 2008, Steve Kerr in Golden State since 2014 and Michael Malone in Denver since 2015.
Phoenix becomes the fourth team to currently have an opening, along with the Raptors, Bucks and Detroit Pistons.
Of the last nine coaches to take a team to the NBA Finals, only Kerr and Spoelstra are still with the franchise they got to the title series.
The others &mdash; Boston&rsquo;s Ime Udoka, the Los Angeles Lakers&rsquo; Frank Vogel, Cleveland&rsquo;s David Blatt and Tyronn Lue, along with Budenholzer, Nurse and now Williams -- have all been fired by the team that they brought to the finals.
&ldquo;When you look at really good coaches who have lost their jobs shortly after winning a championship, that&rsquo;s something that is just different about our business,&rdquo; Williams said Friday, adding that &ldquo;it&rsquo;s just a part of our NBA economy.&rdquo;
The Suns started 16-7 this season, looking every bit like a contender again. They were only 29-30 the rest of the way.
They used 26 starting lineup combinations, and had Durant for only eight regular-season games after the trade. They had to wait about a month after acquiring him for a January knee injury to heal, and then as he warmed up for what was supposed to be his home opener with the Suns on March 8 he slipped on the court during warm-ups, hurt an ankle and missed three more weeks.
The Suns were 12-1 in Durant&rsquo;s first 13 appearances, five of those in the playoffs. And then they went 2-4 against the Nuggets, all four losses by double figures.
And Williams took the fall.
Williams was second in the official NBA coach of the year balloting in 2021, behind New York&rsquo;s Tom Thibodeau. He was the coach of the year that season as chosen by his peers in the National Basketball Coaches Association.
A year later, Williams was the NBA&rsquo;s winner &mdash; and the NBCA one yet again.
Now, he&rsquo;s out, and the Suns will start anew.
This was Williams&rsquo; ninth season as a head coach, after a five-season run with New Orleans from 2010 through 2015. He was 194-115 with the Suns &mdash; an NBA-best 168-76 since the start of the restart bubble near Orlando to end the 2020 season.
Phoenix became one of the feel-good stories of the bubble, going 8-0 to narrowly miss out on what would have been a most improbable playoff appearance. Williams got elected as coach of the bubble &mdash; &ldquo;coach of the seeding games&rdquo; was the official NBA award &mdash; and was a four-time Coach of the Month in his tenure with the Suns as well.
That started the run of success. Paul got traded to the Suns in November 2020, the franchise&rsquo;s first finals trip since 1993 was how that season ended, and last season&rsquo;s 64-18 mark was the best in Suns history.
In his nine seasons overall, he&rsquo;s 367-336 in the regular season, plus 29-27 in the playoffs.

The Phoenix Suns fired Monty Williams on Saturday, two years after reaching the NBA Finals and a year after he was Coach of the Year.

Suns fire coach Monty Williams after 4 seasons with the club

PHOENIX (AP) &mdash; Load management is a big topic across the NBA these days.
One great way to make sure players get rest in the playoffs is to end the series early.
The Phoenix Suns, Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics all have that opportunity on Tuesday night when they host Game 5s with a 3-1 lead in the series.
&ldquo;Closeout games are always the hardest,&rdquo; Suns center Deandre Ayton said. &ldquo;We expect it&rsquo;s going to be a battle. We&rsquo;re just gearing up.&rdquo;
The Western Conference top-seed Nuggets already had one opportunity to end their series, but the feisty Timberwolves managed to extend it with a Game 4 win in overtime on Sunday.
&ldquo;We really wanted to come out and have a sweep under our belt. Didn&rsquo;t happen,&rdquo; Nuggets guard Jamal Murray said. &ldquo;They fought. They fought like hell, all game long. Even when we put a scare in their heart a little bit, they kept fighting, kept playing, and the crowd was into it.&rdquo;
The Suns-Los Angeles Clippers series has been shaped by Kawhi Leonard&rsquo;s knee injury. Leonard has missed the past two games with a sprained knee, which has helped tip the series in favor of Phoenix.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s definitely hurt. It&rsquo;s not load management where he&rsquo;s taking time off,&rdquo; Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s shown in the past that he&rsquo;s played through injuries in the playoffs and so if it&rsquo;s something he can&rsquo;t play through, then it has to be pretty serious.&rdquo;
L.A.&rsquo;s Paul George has been out since March 21 with the same injury as Leonard.
HAWKS AT CELTICS
Boston leads 3-1. Game 4, 7:30 p.m. EDT, TNT.
&mdash; NEED TO KNOW: The Celtics have never lost a best-of-seven playoff series after building a 3-1 lead. They are 27-0 in those situations over their storied history.
&mdash; KEEP AN EYE ON: Jaylen Brown&rsquo;s facial wear. The Boston star had been using a protective mask since February, when he sustained a broken bone in his face. But he ditched the mask in the second quarter of Game 4 after making just 1 of 7 shots. He went 11 of 15 the rest of the way to finish with 31 points in a 129-121 victory. Presumably, he won&rsquo;t be wearing the mask anymore in these playoffs. &ldquo;As soon as I took it off, things started to turn around a little bit,&rdquo; Brown said.
&mdash; INJURY WATCH: Boston G Marcus Smart looked just fine in Game 4 after falling hard on his tailbone in the previous contest. He said they were times when his lower back tightened up, and he&rsquo;ll have to remain diligent in his treatment to make sure the pain doesn&rsquo;t keep him off the court. &ldquo;Throughout the game, it got a little tight on me. It flared up. But once I got it stretched out again, got it loose, got some heat on it, it was pretty good,&rdquo; Smart said.
&mdash; PRESSURE IS ON: The Hawks. It looks like another brief playoff appearance unless they can pull of a win in Boston, and the challenge got even tougher when guard Dejounte Murray was suspended for Game 5 after bumping and verbally abusing an official after the end of Game 4. Murray is averaging 25.3 points in the series. Atlanta has lost five straight at TD Garden since its last victory on Feb. 17, 2021, including a pair of 13-point defeats in the first two games of this series. If the Hawks lose, it would be the second straight year they&rsquo;ve gone down in five games in the opening round and could signal major changes heading into the offseason.
TIMBERWOLVES AT NUGGETS
Denver leads 3-1. Game 5, 9 p.m. EDT, NBA TV.
&mdash; NEED TO KNOW: The Nuggets closed the last 2&frac12; minutes of the fourth quarter of Game 4 on a tying 12-0 run, but the Timberwolves recovered with an 18-point overtime on 6-for-8 shooting for a 114-108 victory. It denied Denver a first playoff-series sweep in franchise history and keep the first-round matchup alive despite Nikola Jokic&rsquo;s playoff-career-high-tying 43 points.
&mdash; KEEP AN EYE ON: Anthony Edwards. Minnesota&rsquo;s All-Star guard has 129 points in four games, the second-most in the NBA playoffs behind Phoenix&rsquo;s Devin Booker (139). He delivered a wide array of clutch baskets down the stretch for the Wolves in Game 4, including a pull-up 3-pointer from the wing with 11.5 seconds left in overtime to push their lead to four. He&rsquo;s the first player in Wolves&rsquo; history with 100-plus points over three consecutive playoff games. Only LeBron James (eight) had more 30-plus-point playoff games before age 22 than Edwards does (five). Still, Edwards was aiming for a higher bar after his 12-for-27 shooting performance.
&ldquo;I played terrible, if you ask me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I took three bad 3s, three terrible possessions, and I damn near shot us out the game.&rdquo;
&mdash; INJURY WATCH: Wolves sixth man Kyle Anderson was inadvertently struck by a stray arm from Edwards during a leap for a rebound late in the third quarter and did not return after suffering what the team announced as a left eye and facial contusion. Coach Chris Finch said Anderson went to see an eye specialist. ... Nuggets coach Mike Malone on Jokic&rsquo;s aggression with 12 free-throw attempts in Game 4 after zero in Game 3: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s banged up. He&rsquo;s playing hard.&rdquo;
&mdash; PRESSURE IS ON: Jamal Murray. After scoring 40 points in Game 2, Denver&rsquo;s standout point guard missed 26 of 43 shots over the two games in Minnesota. He had 19 points in Game 4, with Nickeil Alexander-Walker frequently picking up his defense before half court and making him work hard for every shot, drive and pass.
CLIPPERS AT SUNS
Phoenix leads 3-1, Game 5, 10 p.m. EDT, TNT
&mdash; NEED TO KNOW: The Suns took control of the series with two wins in Los Angeles and now return to Phoenix to try and close it out. The Suns have taken advantage of the absence of L.A. star Kawhi Leonard, who missed both Games 3 and 4 because of a sprained knee.
&mdash; KEEP AN EYE ON: Three-time All-Star Devin Booker is cooking for the Suns, averaging 34.8 points on 57.1% shooting. The 26-year-old isn&rsquo;t just scoring, he&rsquo;s averaging 5.5 assists, 4.3 rebounds, 2.8 steals and 1.3 blocks.
&mdash; INJURY WATCH: All eyes are on Leonard to see if he can return. The Suns have been without backup point guard Cam Payne, who hasn&rsquo;t played in the series because of a sore back.
&mdash; PRESSURE IS ON: Russell Westbrook. If Leonard can&rsquo;t play, the Clippers almost certainly have to have another massive game from Westbrook, who has played well in the series. He&rsquo;s improved his scoring total each game, rising from 9 points in Game 1 to 28 in Game 2, 30 in Game 3 and 37 in Game 4. L.A. might need a 40-spot from him on Tuesday to extend the series.

The Phoenix Suns, Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics all have an opportunity to advance on Tuesday night when they host Game 5s.

Suns, Nuggets, Celtics can all advance with Game 5 wins

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) &mdash; LeBron James has seemed wise beyond his years since the start of his basketball journey, and he wasn&rsquo;t about to drop down to Dillon Brooks&rsquo; level of discourse heading into a pivotal game for the Los Angeles Lakers.
James declined to respond to the Memphis Grizzlies&rsquo; top agitator Friday after Brooks said the top scorer in NBA history was &ldquo;old&rdquo; following Game 2 of the teams&rsquo; first-round playoff series, which resumes Saturday night in Los Angeles.
The 38-year-old James patiently parried several questions about Brooks&rsquo; comments and about the importance of trash talk in general before abruptly cutting short his media session at the Lakers&rsquo; training complex. James never said Brooks&rsquo; name, but he clearly knew who&rsquo;s behind the narrative trying to push its way into a competitive series after two eventful games in Memphis.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m ready to play,&rdquo; James said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s it.&rdquo;
The seventh-seeded Lakers&rsquo; visit from the Grizzlies is the second game of a Saturday doubleheader at the downtown Los Angeles arena long known as Staples Center. The short-handed Clippers tip off against the Suns in Game 4 about 6 1/2 hours earlier, with Phoenix looking to claim a daunting 3-1 series lead with a second straight road win.
Also Saturday in Eastern Conference play, the Philadelphia 76ers will look to sweep the Brooklyn Nets in Game 4 before the Heat host the top-seeded Bucks in Game 3 with their series even at 1-1 after Miami swiped the opener in Milwaukee.
James has won four NBA titles and four league MVP awards on top of practically every other achievement possible in the modern game during his 20 seasons. The 27-year-old Brooks, who is older than the median and average ages of current NBA players, has won one playoff series in his six-year career.
So a resume competition would be a blowout victory for James, but he wasn&rsquo;t about to play any such games with Brooks, who described his overall philosophy after Game 2 as: &ldquo;I poke bears.&rdquo;
&ldquo;At the end of the day, there&rsquo;s 10 guys on the floor,&rdquo; James said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re one of the best defensive teams in the league, and we have to respect that. No matter who is out in a Grizzlies uniform during that particular time, during that quarter, during that minute, we&rsquo;ve got to respect everybody and we&rsquo;ve got to execute offensively.&rdquo;
James will go back to work against Brooks and the Grizzlies on a landmark night in Lakers history: For the first time in 10 years, and for the first time with James and Anthony Davis on the roster, this 17-time NBA champion franchise will hold a playoff game in front of a capacity home crowd.
The Lakers missed the playoffs in six consecutive seasons after losing in the first round to San Antonio in 2013, and their 2020 championship run occurred in the Florida bubble. They hosted three playoff games in a first-round loss to the Phoenix Suns in 2021, but attendance was capped at less than half-capacity due to COVID-19 restrictions.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking forward to it,&rdquo; James said.
Ja Morant&rsquo;s availability for Game 3 is still unclear after he missed Game 2 with a sore right hand, but the Grizzlies star appears to be improving quickly. He went through a noncontact practice and individual drills Friday in Los Angeles, but coach Taylor Jenkins said they&rsquo;ll wait until game time to decide whether he&rsquo;ll play.
76ERS AT NETS
76ers lead 3-0. Game 4, 1 p.m. EDT, TNT
&mdash; NEED TO KNOW: Philadelphia star Joel Embiid will sit out because of a sprained right knee. The 76ers added the All-Star center to the injury report Friday night, a night after he was limping multiple times during their Game 3 victory. Philadelphia can earn some valuable rest before the second round by finishing off the Nets.
&mdash; KEEP AN EYE ON: The Sixers have dominated even with relatively pedestrian contributions from two-time scoring champion and MVP candidate Embiid, who had only 14 points in Game 3.
&mdash; PRESSURE IS ON: Brooklyn, obviously. A tumultuous Nets season will end in ignominious fashion if they can&rsquo;t take at least one game off the powerhouse Sixers.
SUNS AT CLIPPERS
Suns lead 2-1. Game 4, 3:30 p.m. EDT, TNT
&mdash; NEED TO KNOW: The Clippers announced late Friday that Kawhi Leonard will miss his second straight game with a right knee sprain. Los Angeles coach Tyronn Lue made two game plans depending on whether the quiet superstar could play, but the Clips will have to attempt to win again without their two best players.
&mdash; KEEP AN EYE ON: Devin Booker. He is averaging 36.3 points per game in the series, and the Suns star invariably plays with an extra spring in his step in the building once called home by his hero, Kobe Bryant.
&mdash; INJURY WATCH: &ldquo;If (Leonard) is not back, we have to rally around each other, support each other, find ways to make something happen.&rdquo; Russell Westbrook, who had 30 points in the Clippers&rsquo; loss in Game 3. ... Phoenix&rsquo;s Cam Payne is questionable with low back soreness.
&mdash; PRESSURE IS ON: The Clippers&rsquo; supporting cast, which will attempt to conjure an upset with Leonard back on the shelf. Leonard missed all of last season and played in just 52 games this season to stay in top shape for the playoffs. Clippers fans are growing increasingly discontented as they wait for Leonard and Paul George to deliver four years into their partnership.
BUCKS AT HEAT
Series tied 1-1. Game 3, 7:30 p.m. EDT, ESPN
&mdash; NEED TO KNOW: The Heat are only 12-11 in their last 23 home playoff games, excluding the &ldquo;home&rdquo; games from the bubble in 2020. Among those 11 losses: defeats by 17 and 29 points to the Bucks in 2021. The Heat were 27-14 at home this season, plus 1-1 in the play-in tournament, while Milwaukee was an NBA-best 26-15 on the road.
&mdash; KEEP AN EYE ON: The 3-point line. Milwaukee made 25 3s in Game 2, and that was without Giannis Antetokounmpo around the basket for the Heat to worry about. There&rsquo;s no way the Bucks are losing when they&rsquo;re making that many 3s.
&mdash; INJURY WATCH: All eyes on Antetokounmpo, whose back contusion knocked him out of Game 1 early and kept him out of Game 2 entirely. Miami obviously won&rsquo;t have Tyler Herro, who will be recovering from surgery to repair the right hand that he broke in Game 1.
&mdash; PRESSURE IS ON: Miami. Milwaukee routed the Heat in Game 2 without their best player even in uniform. Miami has to respond.

LeBron James wasn’t about to drop down to Dillon Brooks’ level of discourse heading into a pivotal game for the Los Angeles Lakers.

LeBron James not trading trash talk with Dillon Brooks before Game 3

PHOENIX (AP) &mdash; Kevin Durant is the shiny new toy for the Phoenix Suns. Devin Booker is still the team&rsquo;s heart and soul.
Booker &mdash; the three-time All-Star who has spent all eight of his NBA seasons in Phoenix &mdash; scored 38 points, Durant added 25 and the Suns beat the Los Angeles Clippers 123-109 on Tuesday night in Game 2 to tie the Western Conference first-round series.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s an all-around player,&rdquo; Durant said about Booker. &ldquo;He can do everything at an elite level on a basketball court.&rdquo;
The Suns needed a gritty effort after a disappointing loss in Game 1. Their shots weren&rsquo;t falling for much of the first half and they fell into a 13-point hole midway through the second quarter.
But led by Booker, they never panicked.
The 26-year-old drilled a 3 just before the halftime buzzer to tie it and scored 18 points in the third quarter on 7-of-8 shooting, helping the Suns push to a 92-87 advantage entering the fourth. The defense also improved after the Clippers got several easy baskets in the second quarter.
&ldquo;People talk about adjustments all the time and we make them,&rdquo; Suns coach Monty Williams said. &ldquo;But sometimes basketball is just being able to sit down and guard the ball, keep your man from getting to the basket and contesting the shot.&rdquo;
Phoenix never trailed in the final quarter, slowly pulling away. It was their first playoff win with Durant on the floor. The team was 8-0 during the regular season with the 13-time All-Star following his trade from the Brooklyn Nets in February.
The series moves to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Thursday night.
Kawhi Leonard led Los Angeles with 31 points after he scored 38 in Game 1. Russell Westbrook added 28 points on 9-of-16 shooting.
&ldquo;We know it is going to be a tough series,&rdquo; Westbrook said. &ldquo;They came back and took care of business tonight.&rdquo;
Booker had a stellar shooting night, connecting on 14 of 22 shots, including 4 of 7 on 3s. He added nine assists. Deandre Ayton added 14 points &mdash; on 7-of-10 shooting&mdash; and 13 rebounds. Torrey Craig hit 5 of 8 3s and had 17 points, and Chris Paul had 16 points and eight assists.
&ldquo;We tried to blitz. We tried to fire. We did a lot of different things,&rdquo; Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. &ldquo;They played great.&rdquo;
PAUL VS. FOSTER
Paul&rsquo;s archnemesis was carrying a whistle Tuesday, not dribbling a basketball.
The point guard had his personal 13-game playoff losing streak snapped when referee Scott Foster is on the floor. The long-running feud has lasted years with Paul criticizing Foster multiple times.
&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t notice,&rdquo; Paul said. &ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re all about, in this run, minimizing distractions. That is what it is, I&rsquo;m sure it&rsquo;ll still be a thing.&rdquo;
SWITCHING DEFENSES
Several Suns players credited the Clippers coaches and players for their unpredictable defensive sets, which they said was part of the reason for the team&rsquo;s slow start.
&ldquo;They switched their defense up like every possession,&rdquo; Durant said. &ldquo;They might double, they might triple, they might go zone, they might go full court press. So they&rsquo;re trying to throw us off with their coverages. I think we did a good job of (eventually) figuring it out. Just playing simple.&rdquo;
TIP-INS
Clippers: Eight-time All-Star Paul George (sprained knee) hasn&rsquo;t played since March 21. ... L.A.&rsquo;s bench outscored Phoenix&rsquo;s 30-13. ... Leonard shot 11 of 20 from the field, including 3 of 5 on 3-pointers.
Suns: G Cam Payne (low back soreness) hasn&rsquo;t played yet in the series. Said coach Monty Williams &ldquo;He&rsquo;s just not ready. He&rsquo;s done a lot more on the floor, but there&rsquo;s certain movements he can&rsquo;t do yet without pain.&rdquo; ... Hosted a 76th consecutive sellout, combining regular season and playoff games.

The Phoenix Suns beat the Los Angeles Clippers 123-109 on Tuesday in Game 2 to tie the Western Conference first-round series.

Devin Booker scores 38 points, Suns beat Clippers to even series

LOS ANGELES (AP) &mdash; Kawhi Leonard scored 27 points, Norman Powell added 23 and the Los Angeles Clippers solidified their hopes of avoiding the play-in game with a 136-125 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday.
Russell Westbrook had 20 points for the Clippers, who have won four of their last six and hold the fifth spot in the Western Conference.
Wins by LA and Minnesota on Saturday ensured the Clippers can finish no lower than seventh. Their best hope of avoiding the play-in game though is beating Phoenix on Sunday in what could be a preview of a first-round series.
While the Suns are expected to sit most of their starters, which they also did Friday night against the Los Angeles Lakers, coach Tyronn Lue said he will play everyone that he can.
&ldquo;I hope they sit all five guys. I&rsquo;ll take it however I can get it,&rdquo; Lue said. &ldquo;My main focus is doing what we have to do to get into the playoffs. It doesn&rsquo;t matter what seed.&rdquo;
The Clippers need a win in the final regular-season game to avoid landing in the play-in for the second straight season. They were the eighth seed last season and lost to Minnesota and New Orleans to miss the playoffs.
&ldquo;We have to win. That&rsquo;s the focus,&rdquo; Leonard said.
The Clippers would be assured of a top six seed if the Timberwolves beat the Pelicans on Sunday afternoon. A win would wrap up the fifth seed while a loss and Golden State win would drop them to sixth.
However, if the Pelicans win, the Clippers could fall into the seventh spot and host the play-in game on Tuesday with a loss. The only way they would avoid it in that scenario is if Portland beat Golden State and the Lakers defeated Utah.
&ldquo;The parity in the West is incredible this year. I&rsquo;ve seen some tough races, but this may be the toughest I&rsquo;ve seen. Just all the way down to today and tomorrow, guys need to win. It&rsquo;s some tough situations,&rdquo; Portland coach Chauncey Billups said. &ldquo;I hate that we are not participating in it, but there&rsquo;s been a lot of learning experiences this year because of that.&rdquo;
Kevin Knox II had 30 points, Shaedon Sharpe 26 and Trendon Watford 24 for the Trail Blazers, who have dropped three straight and eight of their last nine.
&ldquo;We played against a very desperate team. they are fighting and clawing for every win and they need it,&rdquo; Portland coach Chauncey Billups said. &ldquo;Our group came out and got it going. They made some adjustments in the second half when they needed to.&rdquo;
Portland led 70-64 at halftime before the Clippers went on a 14-2 run early in the third quarter to gain control.
The Trail Blazers rallied to get within 86-85 on a 3-pointer by Knox before the Clippers put it away for good with a 23-7 spurt.
Leonard had 13 points in the third quarter as the Clippers were 15 of 24 from the field, including eight 3-pointers.
&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t a great first half because we didn&rsquo;t play the right way. That&rsquo;s why they came out and played like they did in the third quarter,&rdquo; Lue said.
Los Angeles&rsquo; largest lead was 19 in the fourth quarter.
TIP-INS
Trail Blazers: In the first half, Sharpe had 21 points on 8-for-12 shooting; while Watford added 18 while going 7 of 9. ... Shaquille Harrison had a career-high 11 assists.
Clippers: Ivica Zubac had 14 points and 10 rebounds for his 27th double-double, which is new career high in a season.
UP NEXT
Trail Blazers: Host Golden State Sunday in the season finale.
Clippers: Travel to Phoenix Sunday in what could be a first-round preview.

Kawhi Leonard scored 27 points, and the Clippers improved their odds of avoiding the play-in with a 136-125 win over the Blazers.

Clippers beat Blazers to bolster hopes of avoiding play-in

LOS ANGELES (AP) &mdash; Paul George went down hard in the fourth quarter. He may have taken the Los Angeles Clippers&rsquo; championship hopes with him.
George got hurt in Tuesday night&rsquo;s 101-100 loss to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The star guard hit the court after getting fouled by Luguentz Dort with 4:38 remaining. He lay on his back for several minutes before being helped to his feet. Supported by staff on either side, George headed to the locker room, appearing unable to put any weight on his right leg.
&ldquo;I went up for the rebound, kind of hit his leg,&rdquo; Dort said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t do it on purpose, definitely an accident.&rdquo;
There was no immediate update on George after the game. Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said he was still being evaluated. George later left the arena on the back of a cart with his right leg extended.
George&rsquo;s running mate, Kawhi Leonard, said he hadn&rsquo;t spoken to George afterward.
&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t see the play,&rdquo; Leonard. &ldquo;I just thought he got hit in the face at the time.&rdquo;
George had 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Potentially losing him so close to the end of the regular season could put the Clippers&rsquo; postseason aspirations in jeopardy.
&ldquo;Next man up,&rdquo; Leonard said about the possibility of playing without George. &ldquo;We got a group of guys that still want to win, like to play basketball, so we&rsquo;ll see what happens.&rdquo;
Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points against his former team. Jalen Williams added 20 points for the Thunder.
George had a highlight-reel dunk in the third, rotating 360 degrees before slamming the ball in the hoop as the crowd cheered.
Leonard and George stepped up in the second half after shooting a combined 5 of 16 in the first half, but it wasn&rsquo;t enough. Leonard finished with 21 points.
&ldquo;I just didn&rsquo;t think we played right the whole night offensively,&rdquo; Lue said. &ldquo;We played too slow and didn&rsquo;t share the ball. When we don&rsquo;t play a good brand of basketball this is the results you get.&rdquo;
The game was tied 91-all when George went down. Leonard scored before the Thunder ran off six points in a row to take a 97-93 lead.
Nicolas Batum hit a jumper to pull the Clippers to 101-100. The Clippers lost a coach&rsquo;s challenge of an out-of-bounds call with 30 seconds left. The Thunder inbounded, but missed a shot and Leonard grabbed the rebound.
Leonard dribbled down the final seconds when the Clippers didn&rsquo;t have any timeouts left. He was hounded by Thunder defenders and didn&rsquo;t get a shot off.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll take ownership of it,&rdquo; Leonard said. &ldquo;Definitely should have gotten a shot off.&rdquo;
The teams kept it close throughout the third. Gilgeous-Alexander scored the Thunder&rsquo;s final 10 points and they trailed 81-80 going into the final period.
The Clippers blew a 14-point lead to start the game. They opened on an 18-4 run, but the Thunder tied it minutes later.
TIP-INS
Thunder: Improved to 14-21 on the road against the West. ... Won five of six overall.
Clippers: Leonard received a technical and Terance Mann got hit with two technicals at 4:24 of the second period. Mann was ejected. Leonard said he was told he got whistled for clapping in the referee&rsquo;s face. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t believe it,&rdquo; he said.
UP NEXT
The teams play again Thursday night in Los Angeles.

Paul George got hurt in the fourth quarter of the Clippers' 101-100 loss to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder on Tuesday.

Paul George injures leg in Clippers' 101-100 loss to Thunder

Let&rsquo;s go ahead and put Denver and Sacramento into the Western Conference playoffs. It&rsquo;s hard to imagine Memphis and Phoenix falling out of the mix, even with&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/ja-morant-checks-into-counseling-program-no-timetable-to-rejoin-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ja Morant away from the Grizzlies</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/suns-kevin-durant-expected-to-miss-23-weeks-with-sprained-ankle" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kevin Durant still not able to make his home debut for the Suns</a>&nbsp;because of ankle trouble. Put them on the bracket as well.
And from there, it&rsquo;s anyone&rsquo;s guess.
The West is an absolute mess, and the middle of the pack &mdash; the race for the last two guaranteed playoff spots and the four berths into the play-in tournament &mdash; is as muddled and murky as possible.
&ldquo;Hope,&rdquo; Utah coach Will Hardy said, &ldquo;is a good motivator.&rdquo;
True. There&rsquo;s plenty of hope still out there, too.
The West has, more often than not in recent years, been the power-broker side of the NBA. Not this year. The shinier records are at the top of the Eastern Conference, which is on pace to finish with three of the best four records this season &mdash; something that hasn&rsquo;t happened since 2008-09.
The West has become a logjam this year, and the standings change almost nightly. A single win or loss can change everything: Utah was ninth in the West entering Monday, and a&nbsp;four-point loss at Miami left the Jazz tumbling three spots to 12th. The Los Angeles Lakers, meanwhile, went from 11th to ninth &mdash; from out of the play-in to back in &mdash; without even playing.
Defending champion&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/suns-warriors-thompson-curry-booker-9cd92497df68da54f0225b275cb4c264">Golden State beat Phoenix</a>&nbsp;and went from sixth to fifth. After the Warriors, it&rsquo;s the Los Angeles Clippers in sixth, Minnesota seventh, Dallas eighth, the Lakers ninth, New Orleans 10th, Oklahoma City 11th and the Jazz 12th.
Put another way, 2.5 games separated the fifth-place Warriors from the 11th-place Thunder. Only 4.5 games separated the Warriors from the 13th-place Portland Trail Blazers. It&rsquo;s hard to envision a scenario, given how tight the standings are right now, where at least some West races for seeding don&rsquo;t go down to the final day.
&ldquo;No one&rsquo;s really out of it right now, at this point in the Western Conference,&rdquo; Hardy said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a couple teams that have fallen, I guess, out of the race, but 5 through 13 are so tight that every team is competing each night with that hope of like, &lsquo;Hey, if you string a few together, you can really vault in the standings.&rsquo; We&rsquo;d all be lying if we say we don&rsquo;t check the standings. We definitely do, but it can be a little distracting.&rdquo;
This is exactly what the NBA wanted when it added the play-in tournament &mdash; intrigue all the way to the end of the season. Only the top six teams in each conference are guaranteed playoff spots when the regular season ends on April 9; the next four from the East and West go to a play-in tournament to decide the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds on the respective brackets.
Only three teams &mdash; Houston, San Antonio and Detroit &mdash; have been eliminated. Charlotte isn&rsquo;t too far away from joining that trio. Everyone else still has a legitimate chance, at least at the play-in.
&ldquo;You do have to embrace the competition,&rdquo; Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re dreaming about things in the middle of the summer, this is what you want. You want games with incredible pressure and context. You don&rsquo;t want games to have no meaning, to play for lottery balls. You want to have this kind of context. And you want to see what this competition can bring out of you.&rdquo;
Teams will find out, whether they want to know or not.
There are no fewer than 24 matchups the rest of the way that will pit those teams vying for spots 5 through 8 on the West bracket against one another, meaning those nights could lead to a big swing in the standings.
It also might come down to which teams get somebody back in time to help the cause.
The Lakers may get LeBron James back at some point. The Warriors aren&rsquo;t sure when Andrew Wiggins &mdash; out for personal reasons &mdash; could return, or if he will. The Mavericks are dealing with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving both having injuries. The Timberwolves hope Karl-Anthony Towns is close to a return from a calf injury. The Pelicans have remained in the race despite not having Zion Williamson, which they&rsquo;re probably used to by now.
Buckle up. Denver might not get caught atop the West. The trio of Milwaukee, Boston and Philadelphia will finish 1-2-3 in the East in some order. But everything else is pretty much up for grabs, especially in the super-cluttered West.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s funny what a couple of wins can do right now,&rdquo; Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said.

All but two West teams are fighting for a playoff spot. Only 2.5 games separate the 5th-place Warriors from the 11th-place Thunder.

Earning a Play-In spot in the Western Conference won't be easy

USA Basketball will play a pair of games in Abu Dhabi this summer on its way to the World Cup in the Philippines.
The federation announced an agreement with Abu Dhabi&rsquo;s Department of Culture and Tourism on Wednesday, and as part of that deal the U.S. will bring Germany and Greece there for games in August.
The U.S. will host the three-game series, and it&rsquo;ll mark the first time that the men&rsquo;s national team will play in the United Arab Emirates. The Americans will play Greece on Aug. 18 and Germany on Aug. 20; Germany and Greece will play there on Aug. 19.
&ldquo;USA Basketball is thrilled to work with DCT Abu Dhabi to bring the USA Basketball Showcase to Abu Dhabi,&rdquo; USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley said. &ldquo;This is the first time our men&rsquo;s national team will play in the UAE and we&rsquo;re excited to engage with fans from across the globe, while also offering our players and coaches memorable on- and off-court experiences.&rdquo;
The U.S. is ranked No. 2 in the world by FIBA, with Greece No. 9 and Germany No. 11. The Americans will announce their World Cup roster this summer, before gathering in Las Vegas for training camp under coach Steve Kerr of Golden State and assistants Erik Spoelstra of Miami, Tyronn Lue of the Los Angeles Clippers and Mark Few of Gonzaga.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s set to be an unforgettable summer in Abu Dhabi and it&rsquo;s an honor to host the first USA Basketball Showcase in the UAE,&rdquo; said Saleh Al Geziry, DCT Abu Dhabi&rsquo;s director general of tourism.
The NBA played games in Abu Dhabi for the first time last year, sending Milwaukee &mdash; including Greece&rsquo;s Giannis Antetokounmpo, who presumably could be part of these matchups &mdash; and Atlanta there in October for a pair of preseason games. The NBA plans two more preseason games in Abu Dhabi later this year, in advance of the 2023-24 season.
It will be the second weekend of exhibitions abroad for the U.S. on its way to the World Cup. Spanish officials announced earlier this year that the Americans, Luka Doncic-led Slovenia and Spain are set to play in Malaga from Aug. 11-13 as part of the 100th anniversary celebration of Spain&rsquo;s national federation.
Spain &mdash; ranked No. 1 by FIBA and the reigning World Cup champion &mdash; will play No. 7-ranked Slovenia on Aug. 11. The U.S. and Slovenia will play Aug. 12, and the Americans will face Spain on Aug. 13.
The World Cup starts Aug. 25 and continues through Sept. 10. Games will be played in the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan; the U.S. will play all of its games in Manila.
The World Cup draw, when the 32 participating teams will find out their opening opponents, is April 29.&nbsp;

USA Basketball will play a pair of games in Abu Dhabi this summer on its way to the World Cup in the Philippines.

USA Basketball to play Greece, Germany at Abu Dhabi

LOS ANGELES (AP) &mdash; Russell Westbrook not only switched locker rooms at Crypto.com Arena. He went from being on the bench to a return to the starting lineup.
Los Angeles Clippers coach Tyronn Lue didn&rsquo;t waste much time seeing how well Westbrook would mesh with his new team. The eight-time All-Star&nbsp;signed after he cleared waivers&nbsp;on Wednesday and was the starting point guard Friday night in a game against the Sacramento Kings.
Westbrook&rsquo;s Clippers debut was overshadowed in what ended up being the second-highest-scoring game in NBA history. He had 17 points, 14 assists and five rebounds in 39 minutes during the&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/kings-beat-clippers-176175-in-2ndhighest-scoring-game-ever" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Clippers&rsquo; 176-175 loss to the Kings in double overtime</a>.
&ldquo;It was great to get back on the floor. Obviously, you want to win and that&rsquo;s the most important part,&rdquo; said Westbrook, who fouled out with 1:49 remaining in the second overtime.
Lue was pleased with Westbrook&rsquo;s debut despite him having only two practices with the Clippers before the game. Westbrook was waived by Utah on Monday after being&nbsp;traded to the Jazz by the Lakers&nbsp;on Feb. 9.
&ldquo;I thought he was great. Still learning the offense, still learning where guys like the basketball and where to get the ball,&rdquo; Lue said. &ldquo;He knew PG&rsquo;s (Paul George&rsquo;s) plays and Kawhi&rsquo;s (Leonard) plays, that&rsquo;s the most important thing, and he picked up on those right away.&rdquo;
Westbrook quickly fit in by pushing the pace and finding his new teammates. He was the first Clippers player to have at least 10 assists in his team debut since 2005.
Of Westbrook&rsquo;s 14 assists, Leonard was the biggest beneficiary. Leonard scored 13 of his season-high 44 points off passes from Westbrook, including three 3-pointers.
Norman Powell had three catch-and-shoot 3-pointers, but Westbrook also had to work it inside, finding Mason Plumlee inside for three easy baskets.
George, the biggest supporter of Westbrook joining the Clippers, said it was quickly apparent that Westbrook filled an immediate need.
&ldquo;We needed a point guard. What you saw tonight: somebody to get us on offense and someone to get us easy baskets,&rdquo; said George, who played with Westbrook for two seasons in Oklahoma City. &ldquo;I know his strengths. If you run with him, he will make the game easier for us.&rdquo;
Westbrook was 7 of 13 shooting. Most of his attempts were drives in the paint (6 of 9) instead of pullup jumpers, which defined his 1 1/2 seasons with the Lakers. He missed his first three 3-point attempts before making one in the corner in the first overtime.
For all the positive flashes that Westbrook showed, there are things he still needs to clean up with his game. There were seven turnovers, with four attributed to bad passes. He got crossed up on defense late in regulation when Malik Monk hit a 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime.
The Clippers will need Westbrook to continue to get up to speed with only 20 games remaining in the regular season. Los Angeles is fifth in the Western Conference with a 33-29 record but only two games in front of the pack in the play-in tournament spots.
&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s going to be just learning as we go through the process,&rdquo; Lue said. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have a lot of time to really experiment, because we&rsquo;ve still got to win games. We have to make sure we take advantage of everything we can so we can get up to speed.&rdquo;

Russell Westbrook made his Clippers debut on Friday, returning to the starting lineup after coming off the bench for the Lakers.

Russell Westbrook makes Clippers debut, returns to starting role

USA Basketball put together different rosters for all six World Cup qualifying windows, and coach Jim Boylen noticed the same two things with each of those groups.
One, every player beamed when putting on the &ldquo;USA&rdquo; jersey for picture day. Two, by the third or fourth day of practice, the players were coaching each other.
It took 52 players and more than a year, but the job is done &mdash; USA Basketball is going to the World Cup in the Philippines this summer. The U.S. won&rsquo;t have to sweat it out this weekend when the final spots in the 32-team field get claimed, after rallying to beat Uruguay on Thursday and clinching a berth.
&ldquo;When they put on the USA jersey, the same jersey that LeBron James wore, the same jersey that Kobe Bryant wore, the same jersey of the senior men&rsquo;s national team, there&rsquo;s a joy from those guys unlike what I&rsquo;ve ever seen,&rdquo; Boylen said. &ldquo;And then it clicks: They&rsquo;ve reached a higher level of distinction and they&rsquo;ve got to come together. That&rsquo;s what happened.&rdquo;
Boylen has led the U.S. to a 9-2 record in qualifying, with one game left at Brazil on Sunday. It&rsquo;s meaningless, on paper, for the Americans, but could decide whether Brazil goes to the World Cup or not.
His efforts were lauded Friday by Steve Kerr, who will coach the roster of NBA players that the U.S. will take to the World Cup this summer.
&ldquo;Jim Boylen has done a great job with that whole group and they all go unheralded, and I just want take the time to say &lsquo;thank you&rsquo; as the coach of the team that will be playing in the World Cup this summer,&rdquo; said Kerr, the Golden State coach. &ldquo;My gratitude goes out to Jim and all the players.&rdquo;
For many of the U.S. players, Sunday could be the last time they play with &ldquo;USA&rdquo; on the front of the jersey. The World Cup roster will be filled by NBA players; the qualifying teams, with a handful of exceptions, were primarily players from the G League.
If the U.S. finishes as one of the best two teams from the Americas region in the World Cup, they&rsquo;ll also qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Americans are the four-time defending Olympic champions. Kerr will again coach the Americans in the Olympics if they qualify, assisted by Miami&rsquo;s Erik Spoelstra, the Los Angeles Clippers&rsquo; Tyronn Lue and Gonzaga&rsquo;s Mark Few.
&ldquo;All I want them to do is take care of business,&rdquo; said guard Langston Galloway, who played in the most qualifying games for the U.S. over the last 15 months. &ldquo;I feel like I&rsquo;m part of their success to some extent. We&rsquo;ve done our job and now we hand it over to the next group and let them finish the job.&rdquo;
MELO ON BOARD
Carmelo Anthony was introduced in Manila on Friday as the newest FIBA World Cup Global Ambassador.
He said it was special to be picked for the role, especially since his close friend Kobe Bryant was an ambassador for the 2019 World Cup in China. Anthony said it was &ldquo;special to kind of follow what Kobe has created on a global scale.&rdquo;
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure he definitely would have been here with me, watching these games, coming over, hanging in the Philippines and just enjoying himself,&rdquo; Anthony said. &ldquo;For me, I can continue part of his legacy, but also establish what I have to establish for myself.&rdquo;
Anthony, a three-time Olympic champion, joins Pau Gasol and Luis Scola as ambassadors.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad we&rsquo;re not competing no more. We&rsquo;re on the same side now,&rdquo; Anthony said.
FIELD UPDATE
Jordan made the 32-team World Cup, clinching its spot Friday when New Zealand defeated Saudi Arabia.
Jordan is the seventh team to advance through the Asian Qualifiers, joining co-hosts Philippines and Japan, Lebanon, New Zealand, Australia and China. There is one spot left unclaimed from Asia, with Iran and Kazakhstan still in the running.
Also clinching on Friday were South Sudan and Egypt.
The other teams that have clinched so far:
Americas Region (7 spots)
In: USA, Canada.
Still in the race: Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico. Those last five spots will be decided Sunday.
Europe Region (12 spots)
In: Finland, Latvia, Germany, Greece, Slovenia, France, Lithuania, Spain, Italy.
Still in the race: Serbia, Belgium, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Georgia, Iceland.
Africa Region (5 spots)
In: Ivory Coast, South Sudan, Egypt.
Still in the race: Angola, Cape Verde, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia.

USA Basketball will compete in the World Cup in the Philippines this summer, and Carmelo Anthony was named an ambassador.

Team USA clinches World Cup berth; Carmelo Anthony named ambassador

PHOENIX (AP) &mdash; Paul George and Terance Mann each scored 26 points and the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Phoenix Suns 116-107 on Thursday night in the final NBA game before the All-Star break.
Kawhi Leonard added 16 points, all in the second half, and nine rebounds. Ivica Zubac and Eric Gordon each scored 13 points and Zubac had 12 rebounds.
The Clippers go into the break with wins in their last two games as they adjust to a new lineup rotation. Recent acquisitions Gordon, Bones Hyland and Mason Plumlee all played important roles in the victory. They combined for 30 points and 10 rebounds and were a collective 11 for 11 from the foul line.
&ldquo;The new guys came in and just plugged right in as if we started the season,&rdquo; George said. &ldquo;We played great team basketball. We shared it and got stops as we needed to.
&ldquo;We got everything we need. We just have to bring that all together and find an identity that can carry us.&rdquo;
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Leonard missed all eight of his shots in the first half but was 5 of 10 after that and made all six of his free-throw tries.
&ldquo;I just made shots,&rdquo; Leonard said abut the difference. &ldquo;You just gotta keep pushing.&rdquo;
The Suns missed nine of their first 10 3-point attempts, with only Josh Okogie warming up later in the game. Okogie led Phoenix with 24 points. He was 6 of 12 from behind the arc, but the rest of the Suns made five combined.
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&ldquo;It feels good without having to look over your shoulder when you mess up,&rdquo; said Okogie, whose recent performances have put him in the running to join Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Deandre Ayton in Phoenix&rsquo;s starting lineup when Durant returns from a knee injury.
&ldquo;Coach (Monty Williams) told me, &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t care if you miss eight in a row. I won&rsquo;t take you out for missing but I will take you out for not shooting.&rsquo;&rdquo;
Booker had 19 points and nine assists for Phoenix. Ayton scored 18 points and newcomer Terrance Ross had 16 points. Booker was 1 of 6 from 3-point range, but tied Steve Nash&rsquo;s franchise record with 1,051 3s.
Paul had 11 assists, two nights after having a season-high 19 against Sacramento.
The Clippers have scored 100 or more points in 20 of their last 21 games.
The loss was the Suns&rsquo; first against a Pacific Division opponent in 10 games, and the Clippers moved ahead of Phoenix into second place going into the All-Star break.
TURNOVER
The Suns won the first two meetings between the teams, both in Los Angeles, but the squads have undergone major changes since then.
The Clippers&rsquo; new threesome made their presence known Thursday night, while the Suns expect Kevin Durant to play soon. He was acquired with T.J. Warren from Brooklyn for Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson and Jae Crowder plus four first-round picks.
Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said the Suns&rsquo; trio of Durant, Booker and Paul reminds him of going against Durant, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson when Lue was coaching Cleveland in the NBA Finals.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to think about it,&rdquo; Lue said about the Suns adding Durant to their rotation. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a tough coverage, tough matchup. I&rsquo;m interested to see how they play, how they share the basketball. But on paper it looks really good.&rdquo;
NEW GUY
Ross joined the Suns for the game and made a quick impact, scoring a team-high seven points in the first quarter. Ross, a 6-foot-6 guard/small forward, was waived by Orlando as his contract was expiring after this season.
Ross, in his 11th NBA season, was averaging eight points in 22 minutes per game for the Magic.
TRAINER&rsquo;S ROOM
Los Angeles played without Norman Powell, who was resting his ailing right knee. &ldquo;No bigger concerns,&rdquo; Lue said of Powell resting the Clippers&rsquo; last game before the All-Star break. Phoenix remains without Durant (knee), Landry Shamet (foot) and Cameron Payne (foot).
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Paul George and Terance Mann each scored 26 points and the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Phoenix Suns 116-107.

All-Star George, Mann lead Clippers past Suns 116-107

LOS ANGELES (AP) &mdash; The Los Angeles Clippers have 22 games remaining to integrate their trade deadline acquisitions. They didn&rsquo;t waste any time.
Kawhi Leonard&nbsp;scored 33 points, tying his career high with seven 3-pointers, and the Clippers beat the Golden State Warriors 134-124 on Tuesday night to snap a two-game skid.
&ldquo;The Clippers just outplayed us,&rdquo; Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. &ldquo;They were great in the second half and they deserved it.&rdquo;
Norman Powell added 24 points and Paul George had 20 points and eight assists for the Clippers, who debuted newly acquired Eric Gordon, Bones Hyland and Mason Plumlee. They helped outscore the Warriors&rsquo; bench, 49-42.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be different for us,&rdquo; Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. &ldquo;We got to put this together as fast as we can.&rdquo;
Gordon finished with seven points, Hyland had six and Plumlee scored eight in the teams&rsquo; last game before the All-Star break.
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&ldquo;They did a good job of just being themselves and being aggressive,&rdquo; Leonard said.
Leonard was 12 of 17 from the floor, 7 of 9 from 3-point range and made both of his free throws in 34 minutes.
&ldquo;I kept shooting with confidence,&rdquo; he said.
Jordan Poole&nbsp;led seven Warriors in double figures with 28 points. Klay Thompson had 18 points playing the second game of a back-to-back for the first time this season. Kevon Looney had 11 points and 14 rebounds.
The Warriors fell to 29-29 at the break. They hope to have Stephen Curry back not long after the season resumes, while newly acquired Gary Payton II could be out a month.
&ldquo;We have reinforcements coming and we have a lot to look forward to,&rdquo; Kerr said. &ldquo;We have lost so many games that we should have won. We know we&rsquo;re right there.&rdquo;
Gordon&rsquo;s 3-pointer extended the Clippers&rsquo; lead to 18 points early in the fourth. The Warriors cut it to 116-106 on&nbsp;Jonathan Kuminga&rsquo;s&nbsp;3-pointer. He finished with 16 points off the bench.
Leonard hit his seventh 3-pointer in the closing minutes before leaving the game with the Clippers ahead 128-114.
The teams traded leads and were tied five times early in the third. The Clippers outscored the Warriors 19-7 over the final minutes to lead 105-93 going into the fourth. Leonard and George had just two points each while their supporting cast carried them. Plumlee had six points and Hyland had two during the run in which seven different players scored.
&ldquo;With this offense, I feel like I can create in the lane and find teammates,&rdquo; Hyland said. &ldquo;I forgot Mason can push the ball, too.&rdquo;
The Warriors had four players in double figures at halftime when they led 65-61.
TIP-INS
Warriors: Thompson missed 11 games, all second games of back-to-backs, due to right Achilles tendon injury management. ... Andrew Wiggins was out for personal reasons and will rejoin the team after the All-Star break. Donte DiVincenzo started in his place and scored 10 points. ... Kerr got a technical late in the third for arguing a call. ... Andre Iguodala (right hip soreness) missed his 16th straight game.
Clippers: Hyland will run the point for the second unit. &ldquo;Just watching him, the pop he has, running pick and rolls, getting downhill, attacking and making the right passes, making the right plays,&rdquo; Lue said.
GREEN&rsquo;S CRITIQUE
Draymond Green&nbsp;was critical of the Warriors&rsquo; defense, something that has concerned Kerr all season.
&ldquo;Defense is all about a will &mdash; a want to defend. Defense isn&rsquo;t fun. You just got to want to do it if you want to win and we haven&rsquo;t,&rdquo; Green said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m always going to try on that side, but I can be better. I&rsquo;m not going to point the finger at anyone or point blame. If you&rsquo;re a leader at something and you&rsquo;re failing, it&rsquo;s your fault.&rdquo;
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Kawhi Leonard scored 33 points, tying his career high with seven 3-pointers, and the Clippers beat the Golden State Warriors 134-124.

Leonard’s 33 points lead Clippers over Warriors, 134-124

The NBA has a new king sitting atop its scoring throne... The King.
On Tuesday night, in front of the legendary previous record-holder Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and a packed Staples Center in Los Angeles, LeBron James became the NBA's all-time scoring leader.
LeBron's 38,388th career point came via a fadeaway at the end of the third quarter.
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HISTORY. With this bucket, LeBron James moves past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer! <a href="https://t.co/N6V5RxPe6r">pic.twitter.com/N6V5RxPe6r</a>
&mdash; NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/1623184801284104192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2023</a></blockquote>

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He came out firing in the first half, dropping 20 on 6-for-11 from the field and getting downhill with aggression, and followed that up with 16 points in the third period alone to break the record.
Following the incredible feat, the Lakers and NBA stopped the game with 10.9 seconds left in the third and held a celebration.
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This moment between Kareem and LeBron is something special. <a href="https://t.co/NygObZsn7p">pic.twitter.com/NygObZsn7p</a>
&mdash; NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/1623186718861176833?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2023</a></blockquote>

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We are all witnesses 👏 <a href="https://twitter.com/KingJames?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KingJames</a> <a href="https://t.co/d2PsIFv0Ke">pic.twitter.com/d2PsIFv0Ke</a>
&mdash; NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/1623187836206997504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2023</a></blockquote>

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"I just want to say thank you to the Laker faithful, you guys are one of a kind. To be able to be in the presence of such a legend and a great as Kareem, it means so much to me. It's very humbling," LeBron said to the crowd. "To my beautiful wife (Savannah), my daughter (Zhuri) my two boys (Bronny and Bryce), my friends, my boys, my family, my mother (Gloria), everybody that's been a part of this run with me the last 20-plus years &mdash; I just want to say I thank you so much 'cause I wouldn't be me without y'all. All y'all help, all y'all passion, all y'all sacrifice has helped me get to this point.
"And to the NBA, to (Commisioner) Adam Silver, to the late, great David Stern, I thank you guys so much for allowing me to be a part of something I've always dreamed about. I would never, ever in a million years dreamt this even better than what it is tonight."
Abdul-Jabbar's mark of 38,387 points stood for nearly 34 years.
Once thought to be an <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/what-are-the-most-unbreakable-individual-records-in-sports-history" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unbreakable record</a>, LeBron has added inarguably his greatest individual accomplishment to date to a plethora of other personal accolades, most recently passing Mark Jackson and Steve Nash to take fourth place on the NBA's all-time assist list.
James is in the midst of yet another All-Star season in Year 20, entering the night's contest with averages of 30.0 points, 8.5 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game.
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In front of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and a packed Staples Center, LeBron James became the top scorer in NBA history on Tuesday.

Tyrone