Crusaders

Team USA players came inside the Kerry Sports basketball facility one by one, each sporting their preferred and comfortable gear from the blazing heat of the Philippine weather they were not so accustomed to. They were about to hold their first practices in Manila for the FIBA World Cup 2023, the sport&rsquo;s world championship meet.
Anthony Edwards was one of the last ones to enter the gym along with fellow NBA no.1 overall pick Paolo Banchero. He had his Adidas Adilette comfort slides put on with black Team USA jogger pants and an Adidas triple-colored hoodie. Edwards was fixated on his phone, walking past whispering reporters onto the team&rsquo;s huddle at center court, clearly being the center of attraction for the young Team USA squad.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s who they call the Ant-Man.&rdquo;
Once upon a time, Edwards&rsquo; name was held in a much lower regard. The 22-year-old is considered to be one of the best and brightest young players in the league but has yet to establish himself as one of the staples and premier superstars with an iconic and deep playoff performance that cements him in that tier.
Until these playoffs.
Edwards has separated himself from the pack of young superstars leading their teams and entered the upper echelon of basketball royalty in the NBA. With the league anticipating the &lsquo;changing of the guard&rsquo; as current faces LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant eventually diminish their shining glories as the league&rsquo;s best of the best, Edwards comes in as one of the hopefuls to take the mantle when that inevitable day comes.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been saying that he (Edwards) is the face of the league but he hates it when I say it &ndash; but it&rsquo;s true. The future&rsquo;s so bright you gotta put the sunglasses on when you&rsquo;re walking around him,&rdquo; Karl-Anthony Towns said, in their post-game interview after their first-round series with the&nbsp;Phoenix Suns.
Edwards glanced briefly at Towns, who was beside him at the podium. He had that little smile on his face while bowing down his head as his teammate praised him in front of the listening reporters. He looked at Towns again, this time shaking his head in disbelief, but it had the element of confidence. There was obviously a focus on what Towns was talking about but with Edwards&rsquo; elite level-headedness through it all.&nbsp;
&ldquo;You&rsquo;re a young superstar in the league and you have to face it,&rdquo; the statement emphasized on Edwards as he&rsquo;s trying to soak it all in.
Ever since Edwards has been adamant about not calling himself anything until he wins in the playoffs. Now that his Wolves beat the Suns to win the franchise&rsquo;s first playoff series since 2004, Edwards certainly has all the right in the world to give himself even the tiniest bit of praise.
He thought for a good three seconds, glancing at the reporter and the horizon for a moment. He was just asked if he was now able to give himself some grace in that regard when people call him that &lsquo;young superstar&rsquo; label. A small grin emerged onto his face, clearly oozing with confidence albeit a controlled one. He looked back with that smile on his face while nodding, he said:
&ldquo;Nah, not yet a man. Not yet.&rdquo;
Behind this usual brash, confident, and charismatic Edwards is a hungry side that never gets contented and satisfied until he achieves his ultimate goal: winning a championship. Maybe he&rsquo;ll have the guts to call himself one when they reach the Finals and end up going all the way. But that remains to be seen.
He&rsquo;s got the swagger, the personality, and the charisma to be marketable by the league. Edwards mentioned wanting to go kill everybody that&rsquo;s in front of him, and boy, he did.&nbsp;
Edwards swept the Suns featuring his childhood idol and favorite player of all time Kevin Durant, who he has been jawing back and forth at several times in the series. This was him going at his childhood hero, taking on the challenge and never backing down. However, the play of the series happened in Game 4 when Minnesota was trying to put the nail in the coffin for Phoenix.&nbsp;
With 2:18 left on the clock in the 4th quarter, Edwards blew by Beal and rose through the air as high as he could. Durant made the right business decision by not going up together with a rampaging bull as he should For a brief moment, he looked like the second coming of a certain Michael Jordan &ndash; yet again &ndash; after he&rsquo;s been labeled as such throughout the course of the season after each jaw-dropping spectacular play. Edwards threw down a ferocious poster slam dunk that might have literally blown the roof over the Footprint Center as the play signaled the beginning of the end for the Suns.
Durant and Edwards will play together in Team USA in August for the Paris Olympics, and these two for sure would go head to head making their practice sessions much more interesting. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s definitely a good feeling because he&rsquo;s my favorite player of all time, and I can tell him that I was the one who sent him home. It&rsquo;s gonna be a fun summer for sure,&rdquo; Edwards said.
First game of the Western Conference Finals and up against the Nuggets, Edwards scored a playoff career-high 43 points. He dissected their entire defense, scoring in all types of ways imaginable for a superstar. Edwards hit threes, blown by some of the toughest defenders in the NBA Aaron Gordon, and hit fadeaway mid-range jumpers reminiscent of Jordan. More importantly, Edwards displayed the level of maturity a superstar has to make in the playoffs &ndash; playing off of your teammates and playmaking for the entire team. He has done it so far with relative ease and that&rsquo;s why the Timberwolves have found their early success in this postseason.
He&rsquo;s doing it against supposedly their biggest challenge &ndash; the defending champions &ndash; who sent them home a year ago. &ldquo;Last year we didn&rsquo;t have Jaden (McDaniels) and Naz (Reid) against them so it was quite frustrating. Now that we have both I think we can definitely do better,&rdquo; Edwards said about their biggest thing in this rematch series vs Denver is being healthy.
Before the season started, Edwards was this up-and-coming 22-year-old star leading his nation at the World Championships for a chance at glory. Although the Americans ended up not medalling after losing to eventual world champions Germany in the semifinals and to neighboring Canada in the third-place game, Edwards was clearly the best player on the team filled with young American talent. He led Team USA in scoring, and at 22 years old, this was only the start of a big year ahead.
Edwards then was the clear-cut best player for the third-best team in the West, with Minnesota having a 56-26 record. Those 56 wins were the most since 2004 when they had 58 and went to the Western Conference Finals. They were led back then by legend Kevin Garnett but that was also their last time seeing the playoffs.&nbsp;
20 years later, Edwards is now shouldering all the burden by taking this Wolves team back to relevance, basking in all the glory he&rsquo;s worked so hard to attain. He&rsquo;s one of the bonafide young rising superstars in the league, and he intends to take them all the way.
Edwards&rsquo; huge season and ascension to superstardom could be attributed back to something you see coming even from a mile away. And it all started in that summer lengthy yet productive summer in 2023.
While most players use their summers to recuperate, have a vacation somewhere, and spend time with families and loved ones, Edwards took a privileged yet opportunistic route: play with the National Team at the FIBA World Cup. Usually, NBA superstars all express their willingness to play with the National Team at the Olympics. For no definite reason, somehow the FIBA World Cup does not seem appealing to play for the older/senior superstar guys, so it&rsquo;s usually the juniors/young guys who represent Team USA. Anthony Edwards took up that challenge and became the best player for the team and in turn, he&rsquo;s reaping the benefits of it in the playoffs.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve put in work this summer. Big shoutout to the USA team, man. They got me ready for the season.&rdquo;
That killer mentality that Edwards has is something that&rsquo;s never seen often and has been with only a select few in the history of the game, particularly Jordan and Lakers great Kobe Bryant. Behind all that bold and tough personality, however, is a side of himself that genuinely enjoys playing with his teammates.
When asked about the prospect of having his Wolves&rsquo; teammates, the first thing out of his mouth was how he was excited to meet them while playing for their respective countries (Rudy Gobert for France, Karl-Anthony Towns for Dominican Republic, Kyle Anderson for China, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker for Canada). He looked forward to playing against them, citing how much fun he would have once it happened.
Despite his clear burgeoning superstardom, however,&nbsp; Edwards still deflected every credit thrown towards him. When asked what he feels as one of the guys being billed as one of the next faces of the league, Edwards dismissed the idea faster than a Math teacher dispersing students after giving out a tough assignment due &ndash;&nbsp; immediately answering without hesitation that he does not make anything of it.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just gonna keep working, man. I make nothing of it, yeah. I just hope that I keep getting better.&rdquo;
It was clear all along among all the people in the gym that fateful day: Edwards had the most aura out of them all. It was just oozing, something you can feel when you&rsquo;re around certain people. It&rsquo;s kind of intimidating, but only to a certain extent. You can just feel the energy brewing and that certain look when you come across one of the ones. The underlying factor before the season was Minnesota only having five national TV games all season long. With most of their games out of the eyes of the majority, Edwards assured one thing going into the season sternly and convincingly.
&ldquo;We just gonna try to keep playing, man. We&rsquo;re not really worried about the national TV games. As long as we win, we&rsquo;ll be on TV when we make it into the playoffs. The world will know about us.&rdquo;
As their playoff mantra suggests, the Timberwolves have been waiting for this moment since 2004. From the annals of the great Kevin Garnett&rsquo;s era to ushering this new one paved by superstar-in-the-making, young Anthony Edwards, the Minnesota Timberwolves have arrived.

The underlying factor before the season was Minnesota only having five national TV games all season despite having Anthony Edwards.

‘WOLVES BACK’: Anthony Edwards introduces the Timberwolves back to the world

This article is part of a two-part series preview for the upcoming 2023-2024 NBA Playoffs.
With the 2023-2024 NBA Playoffs starting, all eyes will be on all teams competing for the championship as fans and players look on for a taste of postseason action. As eight playoff teams in each conference gear up for what promises to be an intense battle for the title, each team faces its own set of unique challenges. In this article, we take a closer look at the biggest question facing each Western Conference team heading into the playoffs, from injuries and roster changes to key matchups and strategic decisions.
<h3>Oklahoma City Thunder - How far can their youth and inexperience take them in the playoffs?</h3>
The Thunder got away through the regular season with historic from MVP frontrunner Shai Gilgeous Alexander, an impressive rookie season by Chet Holmgren, a star sophomore leap by Jalen Williams, and a coaching masterclass in a genius coach Mark Daigneault.
However, the playoffs as we know it is a different beast &ndash; will Mark Daigneault be able to sustain the good coaching he has done with his team throughout this regular season?
How much of this youth and inexperience be a factor for them to advance deeper in the playoffs; will they be able to use it to their advantage? Or will it be a hindrance against other experienced teams when they face each other in these tight situations? Most of the time, these situations require patience and discipline &ndash; teams with playoff experience have shown over time and have done it time and time again on their way to a deep playoff run.
<h3>Denver Nuggets - Can they go back to back?</h3>
There&rsquo;s really no other question for a team like the Nuggets at the peak of their powers: Can they win back-to-back titles? There has not been a back-to-back champion in the NBA for the past 5 years, with the last one coming in 2017 and 2018 when the Warriors won it all.
Like Boston, it is a title or bust status with Denver as of now. They have been fairly healthy throughout the regular season, have a mostly intact roster that won it all last year, and have the best player in the world in Nikola Jokic in his absolute prime. Denver this year has again all the necessary pieces to win &ndash; the right amount of shooters, defensive guys, scoring in the paint &ndash; which are all the makings of a championship team.
A couple of questionable factors though would be how much of an impact the loss of Bruce Brown would have in these playoffs. Brown was arguably the 5th, or 4th best player in their championship run last year &ndash; maybe even the 3rd in some games. He was essential on offense and defense, guarding the opponent&rsquo;s best perimeter threats while providing off-ball scoring and cuts that fit perfectly with Jokic.
Second, they&rsquo;ll be facing championship-caliber teams with hunger and drive to defeat them, and all have been competitive with the Nuggets this season. The Lakers, although the Nuggets swept them last year in the Western Conference Finals, still have LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and they won&rsquo;t take that lightly &ndash; likely coming back with a vengeance.
The Suns have won the season series with the Nuggets 2-1 and they pose a threat to the Nuggets with their formula of having three elite shotmakers that can explode anytime &ndash; which the Nuggets may not cover all at the same time.&nbsp; The Wolves, who perhaps have the best lineup suited to defeat them, are lurking in the same bracket waiting to pounce on them at sight.&nbsp;
These are all challenges a defending champion must go through to achieve a rare feat because the playoffs are supposed to be hard.
<h3>Minnesota Timberwolves -&nbsp; Will they finally break through after years of heartbreak?</h3>
This has already been a win of a season for the Timberwolves, achieving their second most wins in franchise history (56) since 2004 when they won 58 wins and reached the conference finals.
However, this has not stopped them from wanting more, and the wolfpack is not satisfied nor contented with just this achievement &ndash; they want more.
Minnesota wanting to go win that first playoff series like a hungry pack of wolves has been evident since trading for 3-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert. Although they fell short last season due to untimely injuries to key players, the Wolves ran it back and have proven their little experiment with two bigs in star Karl Anthony Towns and Gobert would work.&nbsp;
Led by their resurgent young superstar Anthony Edwards equipped with the best defense in the league, Minnesota certainly hopes this team would be the one &ndash; the one to end the longest playoff series win droughts in the league for quite some time now.
<h3>Los Angeles Clippers - Will they be able to meet the expectations this time around?</h3>
The Clippers trading for James Harden signaled one thing for the franchise: They are going all in with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George and surrounding them with all the help they can get. They are far from a perfect team, but the Clippers want to have the best possible results this season before transferring to their new arena next year.
The Clippers have only appeared in the conference finals once in the Leonard-George era after being plagued by several injuries during their different playoff runs. Due to that, people haven&rsquo;t been able to see what the team is capable of when their two stars are fully healthy in a playoff run.
However, this year might just be their year. Their core of Harden, George, and Leonard have been mostly healthy all season long. The front office has also surrounded them with complementary pieces to help them win. LA now has usable bigs in Zubac, Plumlee, and Theis; they have Terrance Mann as their designated stopper; Norman Powell being the sixth man off the bench microwave scorer; a 3-and-D wing in Amir Coffe; and Russell Westbrook as the spark plug that gives them the boost and the energy off the bench.
After being just the &lsquo;second team in LA&rsquo; and &lsquo;that other team in LA&rsquo; for years, the Clippers aim to prove the doubters wrong and change the perception that surrounds the team as they pivot into a new era of Clippers basketball.&nbsp;
<h3>Dallas Mavericks - Will Luka finally fulfill the promise he has been showing so far in his career?</h3>
Throughout his young NBA career, Luka Doncic has had one of the best starts since LeBron James statistically. He has been in constant range of breaking or matching LeBron&rsquo;s records in points scored, triple-doubles, assists, and rebounds. However, this has not always translated into wins with Doncic just appearing in just one conference finals in the first six years of his career. But that might change this season.&nbsp;&nbsp;
This year, the Mavericks have put up arguably the best roster on paper that Luka has had in his career &ndash; arguably even better than the 2022 team that made the conference finals.
Alongside Doncic&rsquo;s MVP act is a true partner in crime in Kyrie Irving; shot-blocking and rim-rolling vertical threats in Daniel Gafford and Lively; rugged forwards that can shoot in PJ Washington, Dante Exum, Josh Green, and Derrick Jones; a microwave off-the-bench scorer in Tim Hardaway Jr; and veteran bigs that have been in Dallas for quite some time now and you can count on in always with Maxi Kleber and Dwight Powell.
Can Luka finally overcome the Clippers? This season was one for the books with an MVP caliber and worthy year by averaging close to 34 points a game with 9 rebounds and 9 assists per game. Doncic has taken his game to another level in the regular season &ndash; this time, can he take his playoff game to another level as well?
All great young players have to go through someone as the stepping stone to reach newer heights &ndash; and Luka has lost to this Kawhi Leonard and Paul George-led Clippers team twice already in his career in the playoffs.
LeBron had to go through the Celtics, Jordan had to go through the Pistons. Could it be Luka&rsquo;s turn to get through this Clippers team that has tormented him for two playoff series?
<h3>Phoenix Suns - Will this new formula take them over the top?</h3>
The Suns have experienced substantial playoff success over the past three years by having a Finals appearance and reaching the conference semifinals twice. However, those groups fell short, with the feeling of something lacking or something missing that could take them over the top.
So lo and behold, Phoenix scrapped it and took a different approach this season &ndash; ditching the point guard spot and getting a rugged and physical big that could set screens and not demand the ball much on offense.
In its place came through as the Suns traded for Bradley Beal &ndash; going with a new formula by having three shot creators and shotmakers on the floor at the same time &ndash; pairing him with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. They also traded away former no.1 overall pick DeAndre Ayton for Jusuf Nurkic, a wide-bodied center whose job is to set screens, rebound, and get their three creators open in the lane or for jump shots.
They added an elite shooter in Grayson Allen to space the floor alongside those three, or sometimes Royce O&rsquo;Neale comes in for more defense against the opposing perimeter threats.
The Suns&rsquo; new approach and formula to the game make it incredibly hard to defend because you have to have three elite defenders to contain those three shot-creators, who can explode and get buckets at any point in the game. Although their defense is still suspect at times, the main point of this lineup is not to outscore &ndash; but to out-create teams and have a variety of options to dissect and defeat defenses.
If this new strategy works and could take the Suns to the promised land in these playoffs remains to be seen.
<h3>Los Angeles Lakers - Will they have enough this time around?</h3>
Despite a strong run to the Western Conference Finals as a 7th seed, the Lakers fell short last year vs the Nuggets after being swept 4-0. Throughout the season, the Nuggets&rsquo; dominance of the purple and gold continued, and now they have lost eight straight games against this Denver team.&nbsp;
However, there is optimism that the Lakers will turn it around and have a different result vs the Nuggets. Superstar LeBron James, even at 39 years old, looks to prove that he still has something left in the tank. Although they got outplayed and outcoached last in that series by the Nuggets, James can make those adjustments being the cerebral and high IQ player that he is.
James is perhaps one of the best if not the best tactically sound players of all time, so it would make sense &ndash; if they were to defeat Denver, he needs to be able to outsmart Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets this time around. Superstar tandem Anthony Davis will also be vital to the series having to defend the &lsquo;Joker&rsquo; and producing buckets himself.
The Lakers will also feature some new bench pieces this year that could be difference makers in the series Taurean Prince, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Gabe Vincent, all of whom could defend and hit those spot-up threes if needed.
Then there&rsquo;s a hungry D&rsquo;Angelo Russell who had a bad series vs Denver last year raring to bounce back along with an always-solid Austin Reaves to be the stabilizer.
<h3>Pelicans - How will they fare without Zion Williamson?</h3>
The New Orleans Pelicans start and end with their young star Zion Williamson. After going out with what is to be believed a left hamstring strain, everything now hinges on his health.&nbsp;
The Pelicans obviously need him no matter what and whether or not he&rsquo;s healthy for their first-round series vs the Thunder will likely be the answer if they win it or not.
We&rsquo;ve seen what Williamson is capable of doing, scoring 40 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in his first taste of postseason action in their play-in game vs the Lakers. The burly forward bullied the Lakers&rsquo; defense and he showed his once generational type of body and scoring prowess come together after finally being healthy for a full season in his five years in the NBA.
New Orleans has fallen short a lot of times in the playoffs, either failing to make it or to win a series, and it is clear that Zion is the difference that separates them from winning or losing a playoff series.

s eight playoff teams in each conference gear up for what promises to be an intense battle for the title, each team faces its own set of unique challenges.

2024 Western Conference Playoffs: Each team’s biggest question heading into the playoffs

After months of scrolling through countless Damian Lillard trade rumors, the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/bucks-shock-nba-world-by-acquiring-damian-lillard-in-blockbuster-trade" target="_blank" rel="noopener">news finally broke</a> on Wednesday afternoon that the Portland Trail Blazers' long-time franchise cornerstone was headed to the Milwaukee Bucks. In one of the more surprising blockbuster trades in recent memory, the seven-time All-Star guard will pair with Giannis Antetokounmpo to form one of the best duos in the league.&nbsp;
Now, the new big fish in the trade market is none other than the player Lillard was dealt for: Jrue Holiday. The Blazers' return featured Holiday, former No. 1 pick Deandre Ayton, Phoenix Suns second-rounder Toumani Camara, an unprotected Bucks 2029 first-rounder, and 2028 and 2030 first-round pick swaps from Milwaukee. The circumstances of Lillard&rsquo;s trade request and his desire to be dealt specifically to the Miami Heat dampened his trade value, but the Blazers were able to come away with a &ldquo;palatable&rdquo; return.
 However, Holiday is unlikely to stay in Portland for long as he does not fit their rebuilding timeline around core players Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe. <a href="https://twitter.com/BobbyMarks42/status/1707100851880259810" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ESPN&rsquo;s Bobby Marks</a> graded Portland&rsquo;s trade return as &ldquo;incomplete&rdquo; pending the potential assets the team receives for Holiday when they flip him.
Many contending teams are reportedly rushing to the phones to make moves in reaction to the Lillard blockbuster, with several expressing serious interest in Holiday. These possible suitors include the Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Clippers and Heat. Teams must factor in Holiday's potential free agency next summer and the possibility of signing him to a long-term extension, which he becomes eligible for on Feb. 22. Perhaps the Blazers will have some urgency to deal Holiday prior to Media Day on Oct. 2 in order to avoid questions and logistics about bringing him in for training camp.&nbsp;
For any team over the luxury-tax apron ($171,294,000) to trade for Holiday, they need to trade away at least $33,175,536 (90% of Holiday&rsquo;s 2023-24 salary) in salaries in order to legally execute a trade. The rest of the league will only need to send out $27,646,280 (75% of Holiday&rsquo;s 2023-24 salary) in order to make a deal.&nbsp;
Another important CBA note with any Holiday trade is that his $36,861,707 salary cannot be aggregated with other contracts for two months. While Holiday is still eligible to be immediately rerouted elsewhere, he cannot be traded with other players. For example, just a few months back, Chris Paul was traded to the Washington Wizards and then quickly rerouted in a separate deal to Golden State. Because Paul was the only salary going back to the Warriors, he was legally allowed to be traded. This must be taken into consideration when proposing potential trade ideas.
With Holiday potentially on the move in the coming days, let&rsquo;s take a look at some potential deals for the 33-year-old.
Realistic Trade Destinations
BOSTON CELTICS
Celtics receive: Jrue Holiday
Trail Blazers receive: Malcolm Brogdon, Al Horford, Dalano Banton (salary guarantee increased to $1,009,853 to satisfy trade rules), 2024 GSW top-4 protected first-round pick, 2025 BOS first-round pick, 2026 BOS first-round pick swap, 2024 CHI/DAL/NO (most favorable) second-round pick, 2026 MIN/NO/NYK/POR (most favorable) second-round pick
By trading away Marcus Smart this summer, the Celtics lost the key cog to their juggernaut defense. Despite not having a Defensive Player of the Year award, Holiday would probably serve as an upgrade to Smart on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor, helping the Celtics compete against the new-look Bucks in the East. If they wish to enter the Holiday sweepstakes, they would need to trade Malcolm Brogdon ($22,500,000), whom they were close to dealing to the Clippers in July. Along with Brogdon, they would have to sacrifice either Al Horford ($10,000,000) or Robert Williams III ($11,571,429) to make the salaries work. They have all of their own draft picks to trade as well as the Golden State Warriors' pick in 2024, which they got from the Smart trade.
MIAMI HEAT
Heat receive: Jrue Holiday
Trail Blazers receive: Kyle Lowry, Nikola Jovic, Haywood Highsmith, 2027 MIA first-round pick, 2029 MIA top-14 protected first-round pick, 2028 MIA first-round pick swap, 2024 MIA top-50 protected second-round pick, 2026 LAL second-round pick, 2027 HOU/IND/MIA/OKC/SA (least favorable) second-round pick
Missing out once again in their pursuit of a star third option to pair with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, Miami could use an upgrade like Holiday to their seemingly incomplete roster. Holiday would provide a must-needed scoring punch and would fit seamlessly in Miami&rsquo;s hard-working culture. While their Lillard trade package was highlighted by Tyler Herro, they likely wouldn&rsquo;t use him in any trade for Holiday. Their salary going out in a deal would come from Kyle Lowry&rsquo;s expiring salary ($29,682,540) and some combination of younger players like Jaime Jaquez Jr. ($3,510,533), Nikola Jovic ($2,352,000) and Haywood Highsmith ($1,902,137). While they are somewhat restricted in terms of draft assets, they can offer up to three first-round picks if they amend their 2025 first-round pick they owe the Oklahoma City Thunder. They have three second-rounders to offer as well.&nbsp;
NEW YORK KNICKS
Knicks receive: Jrue Holiday
Trail Blazers receive: RJ Barrett, Reggie Bullock, Khem Birch, 2024 DAL top-10 protected first-round pick, 2024 DET top-18 protected first-round pick, 2024 WAS top-12 protected first-round pick
Spurs receive: Evan Fournier, 2026 MEM top-42 protected second-round pick, 2027 NO/POR (less favorable) second-round pick
The Knicks may be holding out for when the next superstar &ndash; i.e. Joel Embiid, Donovan Mitchell or Giannis Antetokounmpo (although maybe not anymore?) &ndash; asks for a trade. While New York may be focused on further down the line, acquiring a player like Holiday could allow them to boost their roster right now without giving up enough capital to harm their future superstar pursuits. A Knicks trade that would not harm their trove of draft assets would have to send out RJ Barrett ($23,883,929), who potentially fits Portland&rsquo;s rebuilding timeline. Jrue could line up as the team&rsquo;s starting shooting guard alongside Jalen Brunson, while Josh Hart would play more minutes at small forward to mitigate the loss of Barrett. Evan Fournier&rsquo;s large salary ($18,857,143) would also have to be in any deal for the Knicks to take in Holiday. Portland wouldn&rsquo;t want to acquire both Fournier and Barrett as that would push them over the luxury tax, therefore they would likely route Fournier to another team (like San Antonio).
LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS
Clippers receive: Jrue Holiday
Trail Blazers receive: Marcus Morris Sr., Robert Covington, Amir Coffey, Jason Preston (salary fully guaranteed), 2028 LAC first-round pick, 2030 LAC first-round pick, 2029 LAC first-round pick swap
The Clippers may have been given an olive branch with a player like Jrue Holiday becoming available, as he's an impact player at a price they can afford. It also provides an alternative for the Clippers to land a third star while avoiding the potential drama/issues that could come with acquiring a player like James Harden. The Clippers have a lot of high-salary veterans they could use to get to Holiday&rsquo;s number like Norman Powell ($18,000,000), Marcus Morris Sr. ($17,116,279), Nicolas Batum ($11,710,818) and Robert Covington ($11,692,308). They would probably like to keep Terance Mann, who they seem to not want to include in a potential Harden trade, although his $10,576,923 could be useful. Portland could view their unprotected picks in 2028 and 2030 as some of the best draft assets they could receive due to their aging stars and lack of postseason success.
PHILADELPHIA 76ERS
76ers receive: Jrue Holiday
Clippers receive: James Harden, 2024 NYK second-round pick, 2029 PHI second-round pick, 2030 PHI second-round pick
Trail Blazers receive: Marcus Morris Sr., Robert Covington, Amir Coffey, Jason Preston (salary fully guaranteed to satisfy trade rules), 2028 LAC first-round pick, 2029 PHI first-round pick, 2029 LAC first-round pick swap
Amidst the James Harden debacle, Daryl Morey has remained steadfast in getting a formidable return if they choose to trade the disgruntled All-Star. A reunion with Jrue Holiday, who played in Philadelphia from 2009 to 2013, certainly should get Morey and the Sixers' attention. Holiday would certainly upgrade their defense while being a good support and influence on Tyrese Maxey. The Trail Blazers would have little interest in taking a direct package from Philadelphia, which would almost certainly be headlined by Harden ($35,640,000). Harden's desired destination, the Clippers, should still be interested in acquiring him, but may be more interested in trading for Holiday directly. Portland would likely get a similar package to what they would receive if they traded directly with the Clippers, potentially leaving Philadelphia out to dry. The Sixers would have to incentivize the Clippers by trading some draft capital to take Harden instead of Holiday.
Honorable Mentions
GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS
The Warriors are a logical Holiday destination in terms of fit and trade assets. A trade package would have to send the newly acquired Chris Paul back to Portland or a third team along with a young player like Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody or Brandin Podziemski, plus a draft pick. Given that coach Steve Kerr has talked all summer about bringing Paul into the fold, it would be pretty surprising if the team pivoted from the future Hall-of-Famer just before training camp. If the Warriors do choose to jump in the Holiday waters, they could quickly move to the front of the line.&nbsp;
TORONTO RAPTORS
Toronto was considered the favorite to acquire Lillard at one point, with a package that was likely headlined by OG Anunoby and draft assets. In order to acquire Holiday, they would need to use a similar package, albeit with less draft capital involved. It seems as though the Raptors were being coy about potentially dealing Anunoby for Lillard, according to <a href="https://torontosun.com/sports/basketball/nba/toronto-raptors/options-for-raptors-with-damian-lillard-trade-dream-done" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun</a>. If Masai Ujiri was unwilling to include Anunoby in trade discussions before, it&rsquo;s unlikely he will do so for a player like Holiday.&nbsp;
MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES
Holiday would be a near perfect fit alongside Anthony Edwards in the Wolves' backcourt and would greatly improve their defense. However, Minnesota simply doesn&rsquo;t have the right salaries or draft assets to realistically get to Holiday&rsquo;s number unless they are willing to part ways with Karl-Anthony Towns. Even if Tim Connelly was willing to deal Towns for Holiday, the trade may not be what Portland is looking for with the 2015 No. 1 overall pick&rsquo;s five-year supermax extension beginning next season. The idea of paying supermax money to Towns will likely be a turn off for Blazers GM Joe Cronin.
ORLANDO MAGIC
Orlando is probably the most fun dark-horse destination for Jrue. While Markelle Fultz has been a suitable lead guard when healthy, Holiday would bring a championship-level veteran presence that could be useful for Orlando&rsquo;s young squad. The question with the Magic is whether they would actually pursue a deal that would accelerate their timeline with Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, as well as whether they would part with draft capital that they could potentially use down the line in future trades.

With the Blazers looking to flip Jrue Holiday, Blake Stern breaks down several teams that make sense as a trade suitor.

NBA trade rumors: Examining potential destinations for Jrue Holiday

HOUSTON (AP) &mdash; The joy around the Mountain West Conference is palpable, stretching from the league office to each of its member schools.
After numerous near-misses, San Diego State gave the conference its first Final Four team by <a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/march-madness-san-diego-state-creighton-9ca0eee57ad130c3f5e55793918d4f6f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">beating Creighton</a>&nbsp;in the NCAA Tournament last weekend.
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s so much excitement, especially in the Mountain West office, because we&rsquo;re so good in basketball and to finally break through and get this far is just amazing,&rdquo; Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said. &ldquo;Couldn&rsquo;t be happier for San Diego State. We&rsquo;re super excited.&rdquo;
They should be.
Getting a team through to the Final Four is a major boost for mid-major conferences &mdash; financially, promotionally, for visibility on a national scale, event attendance and recruiting.
The financial windfall comes from what the NCAA calls &ldquo;units,&rdquo; a tally of wins, automatic qualifiers and at-large bids that determine how much conferences are paid. Each distribution year is assigned a value for a single unit, which is paid to the conferences over the next six years.
The deeper a team goes in the bracket, the more units they accumulate. In other words, more money &mdash; well into the millions.
Larger conferences already have large coffers and distribute the money entirely to their member schools. Smaller conferences use some of the money to cover expenses and distribute the rest to the schools.
The additional money allows mid-major conferences to be bolder on the promotional front and upgrade league tournaments. Schools often use the influx of money to upgrade facilities, increase campus video production, even on an extra charter flight here or there.
With each unit at $2 million for this year&rsquo;s NCAA Tournament, the Mountain West Conference will pull in an additional $16 million, thanks in large part to San Diego State&rsquo;s run to the Final Four. Florida Atlantic, which will play the Aztecs in Saturday&rsquo;s national semifinals, earned $10 million for Conference-USA.
&ldquo;Not that the Missouri Valley, Mountain West or leagues below those expect to get to the Final Four, but it&rsquo;s just found money and a great boost to your reputation, your swagger, not to mention financially,&rdquo; said Greg Elgin, the Missouri Valley Conference&rsquo;s commissioner from 1988 to 2021. &ldquo;Everything is better when you have that kind of success.&rdquo;
The Missouri Valley Conference had two big financial bumps in a five-year span: Wichita State&rsquo;s run to the 2013 Final Four and Loyola Chicago&rsquo;s run with fan favorite Sister Jean in 2018.
Many of the conference&rsquo;s schools used the money to increase video production of sports across campus.
When the Missouri Valley Conference first started its digital platform, it produced about 430 events &mdash; some simply a shot of the arena video board coupled with the radio feed.
The influx of money from the two deep March Madness runs also includes a production stipend, which allows schools to invest more in on-campus production, often with students manning the equipment. Now the Missouri Valley produces about 950 events across all sports.
&ldquo;It was a game changer for our membership because in the past they didn&rsquo;t have the wherewithal to do a lot of Olympic sports,&rdquo; said Jack Watkins, Missouri Valley Conference associate commissioner for media.
The biggest boon came from the Valley&rsquo;s TV deals.
Before Wichita State&rsquo;s run, the conference had a deal for a regular-season package of four men&rsquo;s basketball games on ESPN2, six on ESPNU and a sub license with CBS to broadcast the conference tournament title game.
After the Shockers went to the Final Four and opened the next season 35-0, CBS bought the rights from ESPN to show eight regular-season games on the CBS Sports Network and the semifinals of the conference tournament &mdash; Arch Madness &mdash; which had previously been shown on regional sports networks.
Following Loyola Chicago&rsquo;s 2018 Final Four run, CBS told the MVC it was picking up a four-year option on its sub-license with ESPN, extending what originally had been a five-year deal.
&ldquo;When somebody is doing a sub license, you have to prove yourself all the time,&rdquo; Watkins said. &ldquo;There was a recognition by CBS that, OK, second Final Four school in a five-year span, and they picked up our option for the last four years.&rdquo;
These deep March runs spread all types of wealth.
Attendance at the conference tournaments typically increases. So do applications at individual schools. Recruiting in all sports gets a boost.
Name recognition gives programs opportunities previously out of their reach, like multi-team events and off-shore tournaments like the Maui Invitational and Battle 4 Atlantis.
&ldquo;This is the biggest national stage in college basketball and across a lot of other sports,&rdquo; Nevarez said. &ldquo;For us to have a team in this moment on this stage, you can&rsquo;t buy this kind of advertising.&rdquo;
No wonder everyone in the league is so happy.

San Diego State gave the Mountain West Conference its first Final Four team by beating Creighton in the NCAA Tournament.

San Diego State’s Final Four run a boon for its conference

Longtime pro Jordan Crawford opens up to Spencer Davies about his unpleasant NBA experience, his Detroit connection and more.

Ex-NBA pro Jordan Crawford has a story to tell — and a whole lot more

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

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

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

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

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

Evaluating the Clippers' three NBA trade deadline moves

PARIS (AP) &mdash; NBA Commissioner Adam Silver had a meeting this week in Paris and was asked by a gracious host how he takes his coffee.
&ldquo;Un sucre?&rdquo; French President Emmanuel Macron asked.
Over that coffee, the leader of the NBA and the leader of France struck a deal to work together with hopes of continuing to grow the game of basketball internationally &mdash; a marriage of perfect timing, given how French star Victor Wembanyama is a few months from coming to the NBA and the Paris Olympics are about 18 months away.
The NBA announced some details Thursday, including a collaboration between the league and the LNB, which is France&rsquo;s top pro league; events that France and the NBA will work on together as part of the buildup toward Paris 2024; expanded youth programs; and additional work toward growing the game in Africa, with both the league and France committing to further investments there including facilities capable of playing host to Basketball Africa League games.
&ldquo;His belief, I think, is very similar certainly to the NBA&rsquo;s about the power of sport to bring people together and what a constructive force it can be and even as a global engine to create commonality and empathy among people,&rdquo; Silver said.
Macron, Silver said, happened to have his schedule align with a BAL game during a visit to Rwanda in the league&rsquo;s inaugural playoffs. Macron watched the game with Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s very familiar with all our global plans, in Africa particularly,&rdquo; Silver said.
Macron had other pressing matters on his schedule this week. At least 1.1 million people protested on the streets of Paris and other French cities Thursday amid nationwide strikes against plans to raise the retirement age, but Macron &mdash; who met with Silver on Wednesday in Paris, and was at a French-Spanish summit in Barcelona on Thursday &mdash; has said he will press ahead with the proposed pension reforms.
Basketball was likely only a brief distraction.
&ldquo;I am delighted and proud of the NBA&rsquo;s choice to make France and Paris one of its privileged playgrounds in the world,&rdquo; Macron said. &ldquo;It reflects the special and long-standing relationship that France has with the NBA. With the excellence of our training, the performance of our national teams and the hosting of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games, we now have the opportunity to go further and engage in a useful and lasting partnership for the benefit of French basketball, as well as in support of our development policy in Africa.&rdquo;
The NBA is in the process of planning another game in Paris next year, Silver said; he spoke Thursday just before a game between the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons, with Wembanyama and his family sitting courtside.
Silver and Macron also discussed plans for Paris 2024, including how the current schedule calls for preliminary games in Lille &mdash; about 140 miles north of Paris. That decision is not final, and has been the subject of some criticism given the high-profile status basketball has on the Olympic program.
&ldquo;He assured us everything would be OK,&rdquo; Silver said.
Other topics covered by Silver on Thursday included:
LABOR DEAL
Even though Silver and National Basketball Players Association executive director Tamika Tremaglio were in Paris this week, talks between the league and the union continued in New York.
&ldquo;Our colleagues are back in New York, negotiating as we speak,&rdquo; Silver said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve been meeting all week, just going issue by issue and trying to work through those issues that separate us. I would say, though, that I think we start from a very strong foundation.&rdquo;
The NBA and its players have until Feb. 8 if either side wants to opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement. That deadline has been pushed back once already from mid-December, and it would not be a surprise if it gets pushed back again.
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a strong sense of partnership between the players and the league,&rdquo; Silver said. &ldquo;That doesn&rsquo;t mean we don&rsquo;t have disagreements.&rdquo;
Among the issues that the NBA and the NBPA have been discussing in recent weeks is a return to letting players enter the draft straight out high school without waiting a year &mdash; that move is expected to be included in the next CBA &mdash; along with what the league considers an &ldquo;upper spending limit&rdquo; that would significantly tighten the rules on how much teams can spend each year on their roster.
LEBRON&rsquo;S RECORD
With LeBron James now perhaps just a couple of weeks away from catching Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and becoming the NBA&rsquo;s career scoring leader, Silver revealed some of the notions the league is considering to pay tribute to the accomplishment.
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt we will stop that game and make sure we record for history, the ball, the basket, the uniform,&rdquo; Silver said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll stop and make sure that we&rsquo;ve done our jobs as the archivists of the NBA. At the same time, there&rsquo;s that balance that they will be playing against a team that will very much want to win that night and not be distracted. Most likely we will do something in the moment, but then we will plan a larger celebration.&rdquo;
James is on pace to break the record in early February &mdash; and if he does, it&rsquo;s likely that the bigger celebration Silver spoke of would come at the NBA&rsquo;s All-Star weekend in Salt Lake City later that month.
RETURN TO NORMALCY
The last time the NBA played in Paris before Thursday was January 2020 &mdash; just under two months before the league shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
&ldquo;I actually remember when we were here then, that January in 2020, we started to see people wearing masks. People knew something was coming,&rdquo; Silver said. &ldquo;No one was predicting at that time that the world was going to shut down and we&rsquo;d go on to play in a bubble, etc. Our hope is, of course, that we&rsquo;ve bookended that pandemic, and the worst is behind us. We hope it is.&rdquo;
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

The leader of the NBA and the leader of France struck a deal to work together with hopes of continuing to grow the game of basketball.

Silver, Macron meet to discuss goals with NBA back in Paris

LOS ANGELES (AP) &mdash; Terance Mann slipped the gold-chained championship belt proclaiming &ldquo;Big Moment Fella Performance&rdquo; over his head.
He clearly earned it, scoring a career-high 31 points in the Los Angeles Clippers' 121-100 win over the Houston Rockets on Sunday.
After Houston tore through their defense early, the Clippers settled down and dominated the fourth quarter to extend the Rockets' season-worst skid to 10 straight games.
<a href="https://www.nba.com/watch/video/kawhi-with-the-steal-and-slam?plsrc=nba&amp;game-highlights=0022200649">Kawhi Leonard</a> added 30 for the Clippers, who had dropped eight of nine. He scored 13 points, including nine straight, in 11 minutes of the opening quarter.
Both teams were shorthanded. Houston starters Jalen Green and Jae&rsquo;Sean Tate served one-game suspensions for leaving the bench area during an on-court altercation in Friday&rsquo;s loss at Sacramento. The Clippers were missing starters Paul George (right hamstring soreness) and Marcus Morris (left knee contusion).
The Clippers broke open a close game and outscored the Rockets 30-10 in the fourth.
&ldquo;Nobody could get stops. Everybody was moving slow and that might have been because it was an early game,&rdquo; Mann said. &ldquo;Whichever team was going to play defense first was going to win.&rdquo;
With Leonard on the bench to start the fourth, the second unit gave the Clippers their first double-digit lead of the game. Robert Covington opened an <a href="https://www.nba.com/watch/video/la-clippers-with-a-11-0-run-vs-houston-rockets-5?plsrc=nba&amp;game-highlights=0022200649">11-0 run</a> with a 3-pointer and scored inside before Moses Brown&rsquo;s tip-in closed it for a 103-92 lead. Norman Powell led the bench with 18 points.
At the other end, the Rockets came up empty on consecutive possessions.
&ldquo;Keep the pressure on the defensive end, that's really what I like to bring to the table,&rdquo; Mann said.
Eric Gordon led the Rockets with 24 points. Kenyon Martin Jr. had 22 points and nine rebounds and Alperen Sengun had 15 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
The Rockets stretched their lead to eight early in the third. Leonard returned to score 12 points and Mann added five in a 25-16 run that gave the Clippers a 91-90 lead going into the fourth.
The Rockets didn't play like a team mired in last place in the West. They hammered the Clippers' defense for eight dunks in the first half, including four in the game's opening minutes. Martin accounted for six one-handed jams, one of the most vicious coming with a second left before halftime.
The crowd had barely finished reacting to it when <a href="https://www.nba.com/watch/video/top-plays-from-la-clippers-vs-houston-rockets?plsrc=nba&amp;game-highlights=0022200649">Mann tossed up a high-arcing 3-pointer</a> from midcourt that dropped in at the buzzer, drawing roars and leaving the Clippers trailing 63-62 at the break. Mann raised both arms as if to say, &ldquo;How 'bout that?&rdquo;
TIP-INS
Rockets: Green and Tate also were docked a game's pay. &ldquo;Our guys got to stay on the bench,&rdquo; coach Stephen Silas said. ... Garrison Mathews and Tari Eason were both fined for their roles in the incident. ... They got swept in the season series, 4-0. ... Daishen Nix got his first start of the season. ... Kevin Porter Jr. (left foot contusion) sat out.
Clippers: Luke Kennard (right calf soreness) and John Wall (abdominal soreness) were out. ... Wall will be re-evaluated in two weeks. Wall said he hurt himself dunking in Friday's loss to Denver but finished the game. &ldquo;Can't really run,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It's definitely frustrating.&rdquo; ... Amir Coffey started after being a DNP in two of his last three games and playing only a minute in the other. ... Reggie Jackson got a flagrant-1 foul midway through the second for not allowing Mathews to land on his shot attempt. ... Morris said he would be back to play Tuesday.
UP NEXT
Rockets: Stay in Los Angeles to play the Lakers on Monday.
Clippers: Host Philadelphia on Tuesday to wrap a five-game homestand.&nbsp;

Terance Mann scored a career-high 31 points in the Los Angeles Clippers' 121-100 win over the Houston Rockets.

Mann, Leonard lead Clippers over last-place Rockets 121-100

Depleted and fatigued as they get set to wrap up their season-long, six-game road trip Wednesday night in Cleveland, the reeling Phoenix Suns are keeping things in perspective.&nbsp;
It started with a candid conversation between the whole team, coaching staff included, following a listless 102-83 loss to the Knicks on Monday afternoon in New York &nbsp;&mdash; Phoenix&rsquo;s third straight defeat and sixth in seven contests. However, the topic of discussion shifted Tuesday on the heels of the tragic cardiac arrest that Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered mid-game in Cincinnati after Phoenix's contest ended.
&ldquo;We saw last night how important our brotherhood in sports is, watching the young man [Damar Hamlin] go down on the field last night. We talked about that today,&rdquo; &nbsp;Suns head coach Monty Williams told Basketball News and the Arizona Republic at an afternoon practice on Tuesday.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Yeah, we want to be really good as a team, but let's not forget people are going through a lot more worse than us. We lost a few games, you know? This young man is fighting for his life and his family's going through a tough time... I think it's just another situation where a guy was doing the very best to help his team in one of the biggest NFL games of the year, and then that happened and the whole scene changed from 'sport' to 'life.' And that always has to be at the forefront. With that in mind, we have to be able to compartmentalize as best we can and do the jobs that we're paid to do.&rdquo;
Suns forward Mikal Bridges echoed Williams&rsquo; sentiments about the trivial nature of the game versus the health of a human being.&nbsp;
&ldquo;It's life. It's gonna get bumpy on the road. Luckily for us, our 'bumpy on the road' is just losing games. [There are] a lot of other things that's worse,&rdquo; Bridges told Basketball News and the Arizona Republic. &ldquo;We've just gotta stay with it, just keep getting better and just get through it. You know, it ain't gonna rain forever, but if you just soak it in, just sit out there, it will. So you've just gotta keep fighting through it, keep going and just get through it.&rdquo;
On the court, away from the Footprint Center since Christmas Day, Phoenix has had its troubles with the injury bug and finding a rhythm on both ends. Devin Booker went down four minutes into a trip that began on a holiday in Denver and will conclude across the country in Cleveland just days into the New Year.&nbsp;
Nobody&rsquo;s body feels perfect; Bridges had a bag of ice on his right knee and Chris Paul had a wrap on his left calf, while Cam Payne just reentered the fold last game after missing half of December with a foot injury and Landry Shamet even missed some time with a sore Achilles following a 31-point outburst in relief of Booker. Cameron Johnson is still on the mend as well, recovering from meniscus surgery, and hasn&rsquo;t played a game since Nov. 4. (He was getting shots up on Tuesday, so that&rsquo;s a good sign.)
But the longtime NBA player and coach Williams knows this is what happens over the course of an 82-game NBA season, and in these short-handed times, it&rsquo;s about finding a way to execute with the Suns players who are available to go.
&ldquo;I just think you want to see a consistent style of play, no matter who you have on the floor,&rdquo; Williams responded to Basketball News. &ldquo;The outcome might not be the same because of the talent, but you can still play the same style. Nobody can take away your effort and your defense, and that's something that is an old adage in the NBA. I'm looking more for a consistent style of play. Sometimes you're not gonna make shots, but you can still play hard, you can still defend.&rdquo;
Williams said that the Suns were shocked when he told them they actually won the second half against the Knicks. (Phoenix outscored New York 52-48.)
&ldquo;You always want to finish out a road trip on a winning note, but in order to do that, it has to be a step-by-step process,&rdquo; Williams stated. &ldquo;We have to stack salad as best as we can, and not get deflated if you miss a few shots. I thought that hurt us in the first half. The first half put us in a hole; that can't happen, but more in a hole emotionally.
"I believe we'll be better tomorrow because you have to learn through these moments. Everybody in the league is gonna go through it. You can lose, or you can lose and learn, and I hope we do the latter.&rdquo;
Bridges kept it simple about his expanded role and how the team can adapt.
&ldquo;Maybe being a little more aggressive, but I just feel like keep playing the right way, find opportunities to score and then, just playing good ball. Play the right way at all times,&rdquo; Bridges said.
&ldquo;I just know you have to be resilient through the ups and downs of a season,&rdquo; Williams added. &ldquo;Like, no team in this league is gonna have a full allotment of their players through the season. So you're gonna have those adversities. No team is gonna play a game where they agree with the whistle every game. And I could go through the list of notes. You have to be resilient. We've had a long road trip. We've been on the road for a long time. It's like, look, man, that's life. You could be digging a ditch in a different country. So our guys understand what we have to do, we gotta do it more consistently, but we also understand that basketball is just a game.&rdquo;
Whether the Suns finish with a victory at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse or not, they&rsquo;ll return home for a quick cup of coffee against the Miami Heat and the same Cavs they&rsquo;ll face Tuesday. Then, another four-game swing on the road will await.
The competition will come fast and furious, and there will be no time to feel sorry for themselves. Williams appreciates the fact that Phoenix is unhappy with its play of late and has taken initiative to ensure things get turned around.
&ldquo;I mean I think teams have these [meetings] two or three times a year, especially if you have expectations. I applaud the guys for caring enough to talk about it,&rdquo; Williams said. &ldquo;I'm not into the 'team meetings' stuff where they go off and do all that. That's just not my thing. If you're gonna have a team meeting, in my opinion, you do it with everybody, [including] coaches, so we can all hear each other talk about stuff.&nbsp;
&ldquo;And it's not that dramatic. The guys understand that there's things that we have to do at a higher level because we are one, missing guys, and two, playing on the road against good teams. It's not like Hebrew math. You've gotta figure it out. So I applaud the guys for talking and caring, and they care. Our team is filled with a bunch of poor losers. It's one of the reasons I love these guys so much.&rdquo;

Monty Williams and Mikal Bridges share their thoughts on Damar Hamlin and how a Suns slump is trivial. Spencer Davies writes.

Suns keep things in perspective after frightening Damar Hamlin moment

It was mostly fine a month ago.
Through games played on Nov. 27, the Washington Wizards found themselves at .500 (10-10). Back up a week, and a shiny 10-7 record &mdash; including a six-wins-in-seven-games stretch &mdash; would be staring at you. Behind a surprisingly stout defense (sixth in defensive rating <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/advanced?DateTo=11/20/2022&amp;dir=A&amp;sort=DEF_RATING" target="_blank" rel="noopener">through Nov. 20</a>), the Wizards were racking up wins and hoping to put together their first winning season since the 2017-18 campaign (43-39).
It's probably safe to say that won't be happening now.
The defense has fallen off a cliff &mdash; they've posted a 117.8 DRTG (No. 27) since Nov. 21, and rank 24th overall this year &mdash; and the offense has never come together. Having Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis in and out of the lineup certainly hasn't helped matters on either end of the floor.
Because the slide has come so quickly and aggressively, it's fair to expect some moves to be made before February's trade deadline. Per Marc Stein of Substack, the Wizards have already attempted to acquire Phoenix Suns forward Jae Crowder in exchange for a package headlined by fourth-year forward Rui Hachimura, to which the Suns <a href="https://marcstein.substack.com/p/the-search-for-nba-sellers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly declined</a>.&nbsp;
But if there's anyone to keep an eye on, it's Kyle Kuzma.
He's been the metronome for this Wizards group, averaging a career-high 21.8 points per game on 56.4% True Shooting (also a career-high) while playing in all but one game this season. It's been a remarkable sequel to last season's campaign (17.1 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists), where he firmly established himself as one of the best young two-way forwards in basketball.
It's also a timely bit of ascension for Kuzma.
He's in the last guaranteed year of the three-year, $40 million extension he signed back in 2020; he has a $13 million player option for next season, but short of an accounting error or attack on the power grid, there's no way he isn't declining it and hitting the market. To that point, <a href="https://theathletic.com/3994995/2022/12/12/kyle-kuzma-wizards-contract/?redirected=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kuzma himself</a> has stated his intention to opt out for a new deal.
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On Monday, <a href="On%20Monday,%20Marc%20Stein%20of%20Substack%20reported%20that%20league%20executives%20feel%20that%20Kuzma%20is%20&quot;getable&quot;%20ahead%20of%20the%20dea" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stein reported</a> that league executives feel that Kuzma is "getable" ahead of the trade deadline.
Considering Kuzma's upcoming free agency and apparent (if not obvious) desire to land in a big(ger) market next season, it's hard to argue against moving Kuzma before the deadline approaches. There's always room for a sign-and-trade over the offseason, though I'm not sure the Wizards should be putting themselves against a hard cap. (They absolutely should not.)
With that said, let's take a look at Kuzma's season and who could benefit the most by bringing him in.
WHAT KUZMA BRINGS
The bucket-getting brings Kuzma to the dance, particularly inside the arc. His blend of strength, touch and footwork allows him to generate looks almost whenever he pleases. Watching him toggle between bullying smaller defenders and simply shooting over them inside the free-throw line has been a quiet joy of tapping into Wizards games.
Mid-post and in is where he does a majority of his work. Kuzma has converted 54.5% of his shots between 4-to-10 feet this season, per Second Spectrum. Of the 33 players that have taken at least 100 shots within that range, Kuzma ranks fifth in efficiency &mdash; and only trails Luka Doncic (58.3% FG, third) among non-bigs.
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Kuzma's ability to drive &mdash; the Wizards are generating 1.09 points per possession (PPP) on trips featuring a Kuzma drive this season, one of the best high-volume marks in the NBA &mdash; has continued to open up passing windows for him.
Quietly, he's become a slick interior passer. He's gotten comfortable making laydown or wrap-around passes when drawing a second defender. His willingness to throw lobs &mdash; and the combination of touch and placement he has on them &mdash; is impressive for a guy that doesn't have a true point-forward rep... at least, not yet.
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Off the ball, Kumza can't be completely ignored (more on that later). He's a heady cutter who's able to take advantage of airhead defenders. He's also more than willing to mix things up on the offensive glass, often tracking down his own missed shots in addition to cleaning up his teammates' messes.
Kuzma isn't just a one-trick pony though. He digs his heels in defensively as well. He's comfortable against both forward spots, though better against 4s. He moves well enough to switch onto pure wings in a pinch. And though I'd hesitate to play him as a small-ball 5 for extended stretches, his strength and rebounding prowess at least allows you to think about it &mdash; depending on what the rest of your personnel looks like.
LIMITATIONS
Kuzma has grown as a passer, but he's more reactive than proactive. There isn't a ton of manipulation present. Even with the rise of ball-screen usage as of late &mdash; he's running nearly 11 per 100 possessions since Thanksgiving &mdash; he's taking a shot on just under 60% of those plays, per Second Spectrum. Making a move for him to be your second option is probably too rich.
The real question mark for Kuzma is his outside shot. He's at career-high volume right now (7.5) while only converting 34.3% of his triples. Of those 7.5 attempts a night, 5.7 of them (76%) are of the catch-and-shoot variety; he's <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/player/1628398/shots-dash?Season=2022-23&amp;PerMode=Totals" target="_blank" rel="noopener">only nailed 35.4% of those</a>, below the threshold needed for teams to think twice about helping off of him.
In Kuzma's six-year career, he's eclipsed the 37% mark on catch-and-shoot threes twice &mdash; during his rookie season (37.5% on 4.6 attempts) and during his last year with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020-21 (37.5% on 4.7 attempts). Those happen to be the only seasons he's shot over 36% from three overall.
In short: Kuzma's been a streaky shooter off the catch, and a flat-out poor one &mdash; 26.1% on 402 attempts &mdash; when taking them off the bounce. Considering his poor three-point track record in the postseason thus far (28.3% across 27 games), it's fair for contenders to worry about how defenses will treat him, and how he'll respond.
LANDING SPOTS
If you need a 4 to put his head down and soak up some usage, keep the chains moving within a possession and defend forwards on the other end, Kuzma should be near (or at) the top of your list. The acquiring team likely has to be prepared to pay Kuzma at least $20 million per year on his next deal, which could limit the pool a bit. Still, contenders should be knocking down the Wizards' door with offers.
It's fitting that the Wizards and Suns have already had discussions aroud Crowder; Phoenix should absolutely try their hands at a Kuzma pursuit. Considering Chris Paul's decline as a rim threat and interior scorer, adding Kuzma to the fray could be a necessary boost to their attack. It's worth noting that the Suns, who famously don't care all that much about the draft, control <a href="https://www.prosportstransactions.com/basketball/DraftTrades/Future/Suns.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">all of their picks</a> for the next eight seasons.&nbsp;
The Los Angeles Clippers <a href="https://www.prosportstransactions.com/basketball/DraftTrades/Future/Clippers.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">don't have the pick capital</a> that the Suns do, but they have their <a href="https://www.spotrac.com/nba/los-angeles-clippers/cap/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">choice of mid-tier contracts</a> &mdash; Marcus Morris ($16.3M), Luke Kennard ($14.4M), Robert Covington ($12.3M) and Nicolas Batum ($10.8M) all fit &mdash; and intriguing young guys (Amir Coffey, BJ Boston, Jason Preston) to get into the discussion. I would imagine Covington would be the most expendable of the mid-contract veteran group; Covington, a young piece and a way-off future first could likely get a conversation started.
The Milwaukee Bucks have reportedly been lurking around the forward market, notably being linked to Crowder as a potential target. Like the Clippers, they don't have access to first-rounders in the immediate future. My sense is they'd be a little hesitant to move those considering that Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton are both over 30 years old &mdash; and they have some fun contract stuff to sort through with Middleton soon.
Beyond that, it's easy to see the on-court Kuzma fit in Milwaukee. He'd fit their size ethos up front, and his creation abilities could take some pressure off the Giannis-Jrue-Middleton triumvirate. They're also a team that feels a wing/forward defender short; Kuzma would help.
Meeting the vet + young piece + pick(s) threshold would be difficult though; I'm not sure a package of Grayson Allen, one (or both) of MarJon Beauchamp and Jordan Nwora and down-the-line capital would appeal to the Wizards. And considering how much market matters for Kuzma, the long-term fit may not be there.
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The Cleveland Cavaliers would be a fun landing spot, but they just blew their pick load in the Donovan Mitchell trade. They don't necessarily pass the market test either.
The Miami Heat might be the cleanest landing spot in the East considering on and off-court stuff, but they're:
1) Short on pick ammo to make a comfortable move.
2) Two tiers below the contending class at this point.
Kuzma would absolutely make the Heat better; would he improve them enough&nbsp;to justify cashing in their limited chips instead of going star-hunting again during the summer? I have my doubts.
While we're in the non-contender class: How about a make-me-feel-wanted swap between Kuzma and the Atlanta Hawks' John Collins? The Wizards would have to add more salary &mdash; Hachimura and Anthony Gill would get them there &mdash; but it's a framework I'd consider if I'm Washington. A Collins-Porzingis frontcourt would be an interesting mix; if all else fails, Collins has enough years on his deal to start the trade dance all over again if necessary.

Nekias Duncan breaks down possible landing spots for Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma and analyzes his solid season thus far.

Examining potential trade destinations for Kyle Kuzma

DETROIT (AP) &mdash; Paul George scored 32 points and the Los Angeles Clippers overcame a 14-point deficit in the final 3:34 of regulation to beat the Detroit Pistons 142-131 in overtime on Monday night.
Clippers coach Tyronn Lue pulled his starters when his team fell behind 126-112, but a lineup of Luke Kennard, Terance Mann, Amir Coffey, Nicolas Batum and Moses Brown finished the fourth quarter with a 16-2 run. Mann hit a tying jumper with 5 seconds left in regulation.
&ldquo;You have to give those guys credit for staying ready,&rdquo; Lue said. &ldquo;They came out and played with some urgency. Amir and Moses hadn't played in the game, so for them to come in and produce like the way they did was huge."
Los Angeles then outscored Detroit 14-3 in the extra period.
Ivica Zubac added 12 points and 15 rebounds for Los Angeles, which has beaten Detroit eight straight times. The Clippers had seven players score in double figures.
Bojan Bogdanovic led Detroit with 23 points, including the Pistons' only field goal of the last eight minutes. Isaiah Stewart added 21 points for NBA-worst Detroit.
&ldquo;We were down 15 points in the third quarter, fought our way back, got the lead and had a comfortable lead with three minutes left,&rdquo; Pistons Dwane Casey said. &ldquo;They threw in the towel and we have to learn how to win that game. I'm proud of the way we put ourselves into position to beat one of the best teams in the West, but we didn't get it."
George scored five points in the first minute of overtime, and baskets by Kennard and Mann gave the Clippers a 138-131 lead with 2:45 left.
The Clippers led by five at the half and expanded the margin to 88-73 midway through the third quarter. However, the Pistons answered with a 21-5 run, taking a 92-91 lead on Stewart's dunk.
Stewart&rsquo;s 3-pointer made it 119-112 with 5:23 left. After a Clippers miss, Bogdanovic's short jumper put the Pistons up by nine and forced Lue to call timeout.
Stewart&rsquo;s three-point play with 3:34 left capped off a 53-24 stretch that started with 6:48 left in the third quarter. From there, the Pistons shot 1 of 12 with five turnovers and two missed free throws.
&ldquo;They took their starters out and we thought the game was over,&rdquo; Stewart said. &ldquo;We had the lead and we didn't finish the game. That's completely on us, not the coaches.&rdquo;
Bogdanovic hit a 3-pointer on Detroit's first possession of overtime, but the Pistons missed their last five shots and turned the ball over three times.
&ldquo;I thought our defense is what changed the game,&rdquo; Lue said. &ldquo;We were rebounding the ball and we had deflections and steals.&rdquo;
TIP-INS
Clippers: Haven't lost to the Pistons since Jan. 12, 2019, when they fell 109-104 at Detroit. ... Kennard scored 18 points, and Marcus Morris, John Wall and Norman Powell each had 16.
Pistons: Came into the game averaging a league-high 46.7 bench points in December, but were outscored 61-39 by the Los Angeles reserves. ... Had eight players in double figures for the first time since Nov. 22 against the New York Knicks. ... Jalen Duren had 15 points and 12 rebounds.
GETTING EVERYONE INVOLVED
The Clippers used 11 players and all of them scored, with Coffey and Brown the only two who didn't reach five points.
&nbsp;

Paul George scored 32 points and the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Detroit Pistons 142-131 in overtime.

George, Clippers rally late, beat Pistons 142-131 in OT

LOS ANGELES (AP) &mdash; Kawhi Leonard knew he needed to carry the load for the Los Angeles Clippers. He was up for the challenge.
Leonard scored a season-high 31 points and the Clippers rallied in the fourth quarter to beat Washington 102-93 on Saturday, extending the Wizards&rsquo; skid to a season-worst nine games.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s feeling better, feeling good, starting to trust it,&rdquo; Clippers coach Tyronn Lue.
Still on a minutes restriction after missing last season with a torn ACL, Leonard equaled his season high of 31 minutes. He shot 12 of 26, made 5 of 8 free throws and had nine rebounds on a day when Paul George, Ivica Zubac, Reggie Jackson and Norman Powell were sidelined. That left the Clippers without nearly 61 combined points on average.
&ldquo;Just needed to be more assertive and aggressive the whole game," Leonard said. &ldquo;It was a big win for us.&rdquo;
Luke Kennard added a season-high 20 points off the bench, tying his season high with four 3-pointers.
&ldquo;You don't want to leave him," Leonard said. &ldquo;If you give that to him, he's going to knock it down.&rdquo;
Kristaps Porzingis led the Wizards with 19 points. Kyle Kuzma added 17 points and Deni Avdija had 10 rebounds. The Wizards, who were without Bradley Beal, have lost 12 of 13.
Los Angeles fought back in the fourth. Brandon Boston Jr. came off the bench for a steal and score, tying it at 78. The Clippers went up 81-78 on Amir Coffey's layup and Kennard's free throw after the Wizards' delay of game technical.
&ldquo;Just searching for a good lineup to hold it down until Kawhi came back,&rdquo; Lue said.
Washington ran off seven in a row and the Clippers answered with six straight. Porzingis' basket drew the Wizards into a tie at 87-all.
Kennard passed to Nicolas Batum for a 3-pointer that put the Clippers in front by three.
Then Leonard got going. He scored eight in a row and only missed a free throw that would have capped a three-point play as the Clippers led 98-89 and closed out their fourth win in five games.
&ldquo;I was able to get to my spots," Leonard said. &ldquo;When it's that time of game you want to be as aggressive as possible.&rdquo;
The Wizards were held to 18 points in the third and fourth quarters.
&ldquo;Especially on nights when we struggle to score the ball, defense is where we're going to hang our hats,&rdquo; Lue said.
The Clippers were down 15 points in the second quarter, but Leonard took over starting in the third. He scored eight of their first nine points to pull the Clippers into a tie at 59-all.
From there, the Wizards outscored the Clippers 16-13 to lead 75-72 heading into the fourth. Avdija had six points, punctuated by a one-handed slam, and Kuzma and two-way player <a href="https://www.nba.com/watch/video/jordan-goodwin-gets-the-steal-and-finds-will-barton-on-the-other-end?plsrc=nba&amp;game-highlights=0022200438">Jordan Goodwin</a> had five each as Leonard sat down with 3 1/2 minutes left.
TIP-INS
Wizards: Beal (right hamstring strain) sat out his sixth straight game. ... Rui Hachimura (right ankle soreness) missed his 14th game in a row. Although he still has discomfort, Hachimura has responded well to recent 3-on-3 play.
Clippers: George has a sore left knee, Zubac has a left knee contusion, Jackson has left Achilles inflammation and Powell has a left groin strain. ... The teams played a week ago and the Clippers won by 10 points on the road.
WALL 12K
Clippers guard John Wall hit a 3-pointer in the game's opening moments against his former team that pushed him over 12,000 career points. He's one of nine active players with at least 12,000 points, 5,500 assists and 1,000 steals. He finished with nine points, six assists and three rebounds.
&nbsp;

Kawhi Leonard scored a season-high 31 points and the Clippers rallied in the fourth quarter to beat Wizards 102-93.

Clippers beat Wizards 102-93; Washington drops 9th in a row

Nekias Duncan previews each of the Pacific division teams ahead of the 2022-23 NBA season.

2022-23 NBA Season Preview: Pacific Division

Miami coach Erik Spoelstra&rsquo;s chair remained vacant at Heat media day on Monday, for the best possible reason.
His family roster is growing.
Spoelstra and his wife Nikki welcomed their third child into the world Monday &mdash; Ruby Grace, the couple&rsquo;s first daughter after two sons.
That's one of the few lineup changes for the Heat in the last few months, with the team having its eight top scorers in terms of total points and all but one of its regular rotation players from a year ago back this season.
The exception: PJ Tucker, who signed a three-year deal with Philadelphia.
&ldquo;PJ&rsquo;s a traitor. I tell him every single day, but I love that guy,&rdquo; Heat forward Jimmy Butler said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re back at Square One, you know. New season, new year. I&rsquo;m excited. I know the guys are excited. We look around this locker room as we keep in touch over the summer, and we&rsquo;ll find a way to get done what we want to get done.&rdquo;
Finding Tucker's replacement at starting power forward is the primary task for the Heat before opening night. Phoenix&rsquo;s Jae Crowder &mdash; whom Tucker replaced as Miami&rsquo;s starter at that spot &mdash; will not be with the Suns for training camp and wants a trade, so it makes sense to think that the Heat would see if making a move there is possible. Miami also re-signed forward Caleb Martin, who enters camp as perhaps the frontrunner for that job.
Otherwise, camp and preseason will allow the Heat the chance to largely pick up where they left off last season. They claimed the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and made it to Game 7 of the conference finals, falling to Boston at home.
&ldquo;We always find a way,&rdquo; Heat center Bam Adebayo said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the Miami Heat way. ... No excuses. PJ&rsquo;s not with us anymore and we&rsquo;ve got to learn how to adapt to that.&rdquo;
CAMP TRIP
The first road trip of the season awaits before the first practice. Miami was flying to Nassau, Bahamas, on Monday afternoon to start training camp there Tuesday. Spoelstra is expected to join the team there sometime before Wednesday, though he was expected to miss the first practice session. Miami is planning to practice on the island through Saturday, with the final session being open to invited guests and kids from the Bahamas Youth Basketball Federation.
HAIR TODAY, GONE SOON
Butler has been experimenting with different hairstyles all summer, keeping the world apprised on Instagram while he toured parts of the world while on vacation and doing research for his Big Face Coffee brand. He arrived Monday with long braids, which are temporary.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just messing with stuff to make the Internet mad,&rdquo; Butler said. &ldquo;That was my goal this summer. And it worked. Thank you.&rdquo; He isn&rsquo;t sure what hairstyle he&rsquo;ll have when the season starts.
BACK-TO-BACK
Spoelstra has always been a proponent of back-to-back games during the preseason, in part to simulate the routine for when it&rsquo;ll happen during the regular season. Miami technically has two back-to-backs &mdash; in a five-day span &mdash; in this preseason; the team&rsquo;s open scrimmage game is Oct. 3 followed by the preseason opener against Minnesota on Oct. 4, and then comes a trip to Brooklyn on Oct. 6 and Memphis on Oct. 7.
AGE GAP
The Heat preseason roster has a teenager (Nikola Jovic, 19), 14 players in their 20s, four players in their 30s and one player in his 40s &mdash; 42-year-old Udonis Haslem, back for his 20th and presumably final season.
Butler explained why the Heat still value having Haslem in uniform: &ldquo;The No. 1 thing that he brings is legit, like real, real leadership and what it means to really be Miami in every single way. You&rsquo;re talking from the Miami Dolphins, to the Marlins, to the Heat. He went to Florida but I&rsquo;m pretty sure he likes the Hurricanes too. He just loves Miami through and through.&rdquo;
HERRO EXTENSION
The Heat and guard Tyler Herro haven&rsquo;t agreed yet on an extension; he remains eligible for one, but said he&rsquo;s not thinking about it entering camp. The NBA&rsquo;s reigning sixth man of the year also is hoping to be a starter this season, though insisted he&rsquo;ll do what Spoelstra wants. &ldquo;Whatever they want me to do, I&rsquo;ll do,&rdquo; Herro said.
&nbsp;

The Miami Heat hope to pick up where they left off last season as they start training camp for the 2022-23 NBA season.

Heat gather for training camp, with roster largely intact

With 6.8 seconds left in Game 1, the top-seeded Las Vegas Aces needed a bucket to stay alive.
Down three, 2022 Coach of the Year Becky Hammon drew up "Winner", a nifty end-of-game set most recently popularized by former Celtics head coach Brad Stevens, if you care about that kind of background.
The set calls for a big to receive a cross screen before receiving a long inbound pass from the opposite sideline. After the big receives the pass, a perimeter player is tasked with coming off a screen above the break. If timed and executed correctly, an open three-point shot should be created. <a href="https://youtu.be/c7i0Fs7QfgY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">When it's run well</a>, it looks like this:
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This is what happened when the Aces ran it.
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Jackie Young doesn't even set the cross screen for A'ja Wilson; she essentially "ghosts" the screen and jets to the corner. While that's being whiffed, Chelsea Gray -- one of the best passers on the planet -- throws the pass where Wilson is supposed to be. She wasn't, so that leads to some bobbling of the ball.
While&nbsp;that&nbsp;is happening, Kiah Stokes is setting the second of a pair of screens for Kelsey Plum. She sets one during the cross screen segment of the play to occupy Tina Charles (and bump Sue Bird), then flips the screen to the opposite side to free Plum for the actual shot. Stokes doesn't get a ton of contact on the first screen, and flat out misses on the second; the latter allows Bird to duck under Stokes and contest Plum's shot.&nbsp;
The look was still a solid one for Plum, a testament to how good the play call was. But the fact that it was a solid look instead of an open one speaks to a lack of thoroughness. The screening was off. The timing was off. Enough of the little things were mishandled to minimize the effectiveness of the play.
Would Plum have drained a three if the second screen from Stokes connected, allowing Plum to sip a cup of coffee due to being so open? We don't know. Great shooters miss great shots, and Plum very well could've missed it either way. It's just a shame that we didn't get a chance to find out.
Compare that to this clutch bucket by Jewell Loyd to give the Storm a 73-71 lead.
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The Storm set up a high ball screen because they know the Aces would switch the matchup. Once Breanna Stewart drives Young back and draws a double team, Stephanie Talbot cuts from the left wing to the right corner to distort Gray's help responsibilities. Sue Bird recognizes this and fires a pass to Talbot. She's able to attack a flustered Stokes from there, and the rotations to help on that drive free Loyd for a crucial shot.
Everything was done with intention.&nbsp;
The final score, a 76-73 win for the Storm, doesn't properly indicate how much better the Storm's execution was on both ends of the floor. That the Aces still had a chance to win is a testament to their talent and willpower. They'll simply need the execution and attention to finer details to turn things around in Game 2.
"I think the biggest thing we have to work on is our defense," Aces center Iliana Rupert said after practice on Tuesday.&nbsp;
"We made a lot of little mistakes, especially in transition. At one point, I think they scored six straight points, basically off of layups. When it comes to a game decided by a few points, you think about those actions."
Kiah Stokes offered similar sentiments.
"We only lost by three points, and we did&nbsp;so&nbsp;many things wrong," Stokes said.
"We gotta focus on cleaning up the little things, being a little sharper, and hopefully get rid of the stupid turnovers, fast break points, and things that we can control."
On the defensive front, the Aces never seemed to have a firm handle on the Storm's offense. They shot poorly, but their shot quality was pretty high. It especially stood out in the opening quarter, where the Aces reverted to their trapping style of ball screen coverage they displayed to begin the season.&nbsp;
"Our intention was to get the ball out of Jewell's hands when she was coming off a screen, but she did a great job of baiting the trap and getting rid of it early," Stokes told Basketball News.
"I think going forward, it's going to be more mixing things up and keeping her on her toes; keep her guessing between us trapping or short-hedging. Our focus point now is making the guards uncomfortable so they don't know what we're doing, make 'em think. It's easy, if you know we're going to trap, to one-dribble towards the screen, back away, kick it to Tina [Charles] and then they have open shots. Luckily for us, they missed those shots, but we don't want them to have those looks because they're a great team."
"They're smart players," Rupert told Basketball News.
"They know how to attack every defense, and I think they quickly understood the changes we made [to begin the game] and knew how to adapt. They had open looks -- luckily they didn't make them -- but that's why we changed a little bit [after the first quarter.]
You can get a feel for how quickly the Storm picked apart the Aces' aggressive scheme below. These aren't all makes, but they're all quality looks.
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Offensively, the Aces didn't have a ton of success. It's easy to point to their 6-of-23 clip from three and dub it as an anomoly. It may be, but the larger issue was the quality of those shots.
The offense as a whole didn't function particularly well. The Storm threw a wrench into the Aces' plans by flat-out ignoring Stokes away from the ball. That made it easier to load up on Wilson, who finished the game with eight points and a more-disturbing 10 shot attempts. Wilson only attempted one shot in the fourth quarter.
"The dunker or short corner is where I'm going to get most of my open shots," Stokes told Basketball News.
"One thing we did notice was that my defender wasn't really guarding me; they were acting more as a helper. So if I continue to cut and at least occupy the defense, it's either going to give me an easy layup or it'll allow A'ja to go 1-on-1 instead of 1-on-2; Kelsey [Plum] will be able to get downhill against one [player] instead of one and the big coming over to help."
"For me, it's just continuing to space [correctly], continuing to cut, catching passes and finishing at the rim."
The opening possession of the game was a great example of the opportunities that were, and will be, available for Stokes.
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It's a good design from the Aces. They stack the right wing with Young and Stokes while Gray, Wilson, and Plum occupy the left side of the floor. A Gray-Wilson ball screen with Plum in the strong side corner -- and Wilson rolling to Plum's side -- is a great way to put Bird in a bind as a helper.&nbsp;
Ideally, Bird would have to choose between tagging Wilson on the roll and leaving Plum open, or sticking with Plum and giving Wilson an open lane to roll into. It doesn't really work becuase Charles is parked at the free throw line to cut off a potential drive from Gray. Stokes does a great job of cutting behind the help, but misses the layup.
Stokes will have to capitalize on those openings. On a basic level, duh, you want players to make open shots. But Stokes has to nail those shots so the Storm aren't comfortable ignoring her. That will open the floor for everyone, which in turn will make life more difficult for the Storm.
Cutting will help. Flashing to the middle of the floor is another counter to keep an eye on. Stokes attempted a middle flash to set up a high-low with Wilson, but Stewart made a DPOY-level play by anticipating the entry pass and picking it off.
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It didn't work out, and it took a little long for things to set up for my liking. But it's more low-hanging fruit for the Aces to grab. If they're able to do so, we're going to have a fun series on our hands as things shift to Seattle.

Nekias Duncan breaks down some of the little things that plagued the Aces in their Game 1 loss, including insight from players.

Aces must clean up 'little things' to regain control of series

Pete Carril, the rumpled, cigar-smoking basketball coach who led Princeton to 11 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, where his teams unnerved formidable opponents and rattled March Madness with old-school fundamentals, died Monday. He was 92.
Princeton released a statement from Carril&rsquo;s family, which said he died &ldquo;peacefully this morning.&rdquo; It did not give a cause of death.
&ldquo;We kindly ask that you please respect our privacy at this time as we process our loss and handle necessary arrangements. More information will be forthcoming in the following days,&rdquo; the statement said.
Carril, a Hall of Famer, schooled his teams in a distinct and throwback brand of ball &mdash; the Princeton offense, a game marked by patience, intelligence, constant motion, quick passing and backdoor cuts that often ended in layups.
It was an offense that could be played at any level of basketball &mdash; as Carril proved when he left Princeton and joined the NBA&rsquo;s Sacramento Kings as an assistant.
At Princeton, Carril&rsquo;s offense was performed by players often dismissed or overlooked by some of the nation&rsquo;s basketball powers. Come the NCAA Tournament, however, Princeton&rsquo;s unforgiving discipline could offset the disparity of talent on the floor.
During Carril&rsquo;s 29 seasons as the Tigers&rsquo; coach, the system worked splendidly. His teams won 13 Ivy League titles and posted a 514-261 record without the benefit of scholarship players. Its deliberate approach draining the high octane from many opponents, Princeton led the nation in scoring defense in 14 of his last 21 seasons, including the last eight in a run that ended in 1996.
He guided Princeton to the National Invitation Tournament championship in 1975 and was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997.
Basketball fans loved to watch the headaches Carril&rsquo;s teams caused in March. That was certainly the case in 1989 for Georgetown&rsquo;s John Thompson, the Hall of Fame coach sweating late in the game with his trademark towel draped over his shoulder.
Princeton gave a No. 1 seeded Georgetown team featuring Alonzo Mourning and Charles Smith all it could handle, and as a No. 16 seed was on the verge of a monumental upset. The Tigers had two shots in the closing seconds at sending Thompson and his team home but were denied, losing 50-49.
Carril&rsquo;s final season in 1996 was highlighted by a first-round NCAA victory over defending champion UCLA, an outcome many consider one of the biggest surprises in tournament history.
Former Princeton athletic director Gary Walters was taught civics by Carril in the classroom and played on the hardwood under Carril in high school in Pennsylvania. He later served as an assistant coach to him at Princeton and was a lifelong friend.
&ldquo;His adaptability as a coach and being able to put the pieces together in a constructive way, was very, very important,&rdquo; Walters told The Associated Press on Monday. &ldquo;He also understood the game so well fundamentally. Very few coaches had his ability to teach fundamentals.&rdquo;
There was an outpouring of sympathy and praise on social media for Carril.
&ldquo;I believe that in defining greatness in coaches u must determine if they get maximum out of their TEAM personnel,&rdquo; ESPN sportscaster Dick Vitale tweeted. &ldquo;PETE CARRIL is a prime example of a brilliant coaching mind that got max out of his talent. May Coach RIP !&rdquo;
Peter Joseph Carril was born on July 10, 1930, to Spanish immigrant parents in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He played at Lafayette College under a venerable coach in Butch Van Breda Kolff. After an Army stint, Carril coached in high school in Pennsylvania in the 1950s and &rsquo;60s before getting a college head coaching job at Lehigh. He spent the 1966-67 season there, going 11-12, and then was on his way to Princeton.
Carril was more than a basketball coach. Friends and former players say he was intelligent, philosophical, a great judge of character, honest and caring. He was not the country-club type. He was down to earth, his attire simple: open-collared shirts, wrinkled sweaters, his thinning hair never quite combed. Occasionally, there would be a sport jacket.
On the court, Carril was demanding. He worked his players hard and sought perfection. It would not be unusual for him to sit on the bench with a 20-point lead and a pained look creasing his face following a bad pass, a turnover or missed layup. It was the craft, the process that mattered, never mind the score.
If asked, he would recall what his father had told him growing up in Bethlehem, one of the country&rsquo;s steel capitals.
&ldquo;When you lower your standards, they can turn around and attack you,&rdquo; Carril said often.
Success on the court never changed Carril. He liked his cigars. He enjoyed a drink, a coffee or just chatting with people at Andy&rsquo;s Tavern in Princeton, that is until it became a sushi bar in the 1990s. Conte&rsquo;s Pizza remained one of his hangouts. He would occasionally stop at the Princeton basketball office to talk hoops with Mitch Henderson, who became Princeton&rsquo;s coach in 2011.
After leaving Princeton, Carril jumped to unfamiliar ground &mdash; the NBA. He spent 10 seasons as a Kings assistant, helping coach Rick Adelman&rsquo;s teams win two Pacific Division titles and a spot in the 2002 Western Conference finals.
He joined the Washington Wizards&rsquo; staff in 2007 and in 2009 returned to the Kings. He retired from coaching in 2011.

The Princeton offense was a game marked by patience, intelligence, constant motion, quick passing and backdoor cuts that led to points.

Pete Carril was an old-school offensive maestro at any level

Is the NBA ready to add an expansion team? Evan Sidery explores what kind of team you could build in a present-day expansion draft.

NBA Expansion Mock Draft: What would a new expansion team look like?

The WNBA is somehow already a month into the season, and the Chicago Sky have shown perhaps the most growth a quarter of the way through the season. They have had success tinkering with lineups and implementing new players while attempting to build upon last year's title. Chicago is still re-integrating Finals MVP Kahleah Copper, who just played her fifth game last night against the Atlanta Dream. In that game, she put forth her best showing of the season, finishing with 21 points. The Sky are still finding their offensive flow, but each game, their footing improves.
Defensively, the Sky are putting together elite defensive stretches. Their offense clicking to the tenth degree was a large reason for their postseason success, yet their hyperactive defense deserved arguably as much focus. Through 9 games to start the year, Chicago is third in defensive rating per Her Hoops Stats.
They've given up 80 or more points just three times this season. Last night's 65-point output from the Dream is yet another feather in the cap of James Wade's aggressive scheme. The starting lineup of Courtney Vandersloot/Allie Quigley/Kahleah Copper/Candace Parker/Emma Meesseman pitched a no-hitter in essence, outscoring opposition by 18 points in the minutes they shared the court. Out of the 19 five-player lineups that have played at least 30 minutes in the W this season, only three have a higher net rating (+16).
This is Chicago's defense at its best: Active hands, ball pressure on screens, backline rotations, and timely recoveries to continually morph to each action.
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To start, Candace Parker angles herself so well on the trap, forcing Kirsty Wallce to backpedal and escape with a pass-out. Parker then recovers to Cheyenne Parker as Emma Meesseman peels back to the corner. Courtney Vandersloot is zoned up but slides back in front of Erica Wheeler. The defense is still in control, and Atlanta's first action is nullified.
Wheeler swings to Naz Hillmon in the corner to no advantage, so she kicks to Rhyne Howard sprinting up to the slot. Notice Allie Quigley actively track Wallace on the cut. It sounds minute, but this defense is so reliant on everyone being in sync and active. If one moving part falls asleep, the gaps open. Quigley takes away any sort of interior outlet for Hillmon.
Rhyne Howard sprints up to the slot and Rebekah Gardner gives chase. Howard dishes to Parker and cuts baseline for a pinch post action, but Gardner uses her length to negate that passing window. Now we're down to Cheyenne Parker taking Candace Parker one on one from the mid-post with minimal time on the shot clock.
This Sky team is adept at forcing offenses to work through progressions and into shots that are less ideal for an efficient and effective offense.
Parker, Meesseman and Azura Stevens all have the length and size to play the five, but it's the culmination of their skillsets that maximizes them defensively. Parker and Stevens are incredibly mobile and have great instincts in help. Meesseman also has good instincts and very good court vision and feel for where to be. She's always had active hands, but is sneakily 4th in the league in steals per game per Her Hoop Stats. She sniffs out plays moments before they happen and pounces.
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Playing alongside other like-sized players who have the ability to cover ground makes Meesseman's defense even more effective.
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Much like we saw with the Cleveland Cavaliers this season in the NBA, size, length and mobility across the board opens up the potential to greatly shrink the floor and squeeze the spacing of the offense. They're so good at knowing personnel and using it against opposition.
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Cheyenne Parker pops to three after the screen for Howard, but Candace Parker still sags off and heavily plays the paint. Parker has been willing to shoot the ball this season, but why give up the interior drive when you can force the ball to a shaky shooter or force difficult passes, much like the one Wallace ends up turning over?
Even if that pass goes through, Copper is reconnecting after the hard screen and Meesseman has already rotated over low to cover the rim. There's just so much length in the lane.&nbsp;
Nia Coffey is typically a solid shooter, but she has struggled to find her consistency this season. Meesseman knows that.
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Copper presses Howard fullcourt (something the Sky did much of the game to any ball-handlers), Meesseman cheats at the nail and Quigley zones up to make the weak side harder to manipulate.
The Dream opt for an empty ball-screen and a really hard set screen to try and force Meesseman into a one on one in space.
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Meesseman presents her length on the peel switch to deny an open pull-up. Quigley works to reconnect on the back end, and Azura Stevens rotates low (a staple of an aggressive defense) to meet Monique Billings at the rim and send her packing. Notice too how Gardner fights down to boxout Kia Vaughn whom Stevens helps off of to close off the rim. Without Gardner's extra oomph, that's an offensive rebound and likely putback.
Have you noticed how often Rebekah Gardner's name has popped up in this piece?&nbsp;
Rookie of the Year frontrunner Rhyne Howard finished with 5 points on 2/12 shooting last night and Gardner was a prime reason for her struggles. Gardner is so quick on her feet, and her defensive slides just never stop as her motor is always running red hot.&nbsp;
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Gardner sheds screens remarkably well, is so active at getting back in front in reconnection and uses her length to blow up plays with her quickness. She's establishing herself as one of the best off-ball chasers in the league and an incredibly fiesty on-ball defender as well.&nbsp;
If she does misstep or make a minor mistake on the perimeter, she has the recovery tools to turn errors into turnovers.
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As I <a href="https://twitter.com/MG_Schindler/status/1532877165670318088?s=20&amp;t=2Hc0cAryP9osyApoOMvGTA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mentioned yesterday</a>, it'd be difficult to keep her off of All-Defense the way she's playing to start the year.
With a record of 6-3 a quarter of the way through the year, the Sky aren't yet firing on all cylinders, and that's part of what makes the team so exciting. The moments of defensive dynamism where they absolutely shut the water off on opponents have flashed all year. Ousting the Washington Mystics in the late game during a primetime matchup and dragging the Dream in the mud on Friday night early in the game last night are the indicators you watch for throughout a season that make you go "hmmm," and stop to consider what the future may hold.
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The Chicago Sky are finding their footing slowly but surely, and they are putting forth some dominant defensive stretches.

The Chicago Sky continue to cement their defense

The term "X-factor" is thrown out a lot when it comes to postseason analysis. Its usage typically has a positive connotation &mdash; a player who defies expectations and helps the squad grind out a win by doing things outside of his scouting report.
Think Derrick White, who played hero for Boston in Game 1 of the 2022 NBA Finals by splashing in 5-of-8 threes as a 31.2% regular-season outside shooter.
Here's the reality, though: Being an X-Factor doesn't always&nbsp;correlate to team success. As Jackson Frank wrote <a href="https://uproxx.com/dimemag/jordan-poole-nba-finals-warriors-celtics-analysis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this week</a>, Jordan Poole can swing the Finals in either direction. Through one game, Poole's gravitational pull certainly wasn't in the Golden State Warriors' favor.
Poole quickly rose to prominence after his debut playoff series against the Denver Nuggets, averaging 21.0 points per game on an incredible 71.5% True Shooting. His production tapered off in the following two series, though he was able to maintain his outstanding efficiency with 72.7% TS in the Western Conference Finals.&nbsp;
However, battling against the best defense in the league on the biggest stage possible could prove to be a different type of test, and we saw it unfold on Thursday night.
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Poole's Finals debut didn't go as planned. He mustered just 9 points on 2-of-7 shooting, turned the ball over four times and was a minus-19 in 25 minutes.
That's right. Golden State got outscored by nearly a point a minute when Poole was on the floor. His deficiencies were highlighted tenfold by a diligent, gritty and experienced Boston team that had the scouting report imprinted on the inside of their eyelids. The Celtics' brigade of switchy swindlers quickly turned Poole's dream-like postseason into a nightmarish scenario.&nbsp;
Poole's handle, sense of wiggle, fluidity and ability to create from a standstill are all special for a player his age. Some might call it unteachable. He's Golden State's most bursty creator for a reason, a player that can generate drive-and-kick magic by simply tapping the gas and zipping past his assignment to force the defense to converge. Many times, he'll use a medley of hesitation moves, head fakes and crossovers to initiate the slightest sliver of separation.
When it works, the highlights are delightful. When it doesn't, Golden State's pitter-patter motion offense quickly slips into a morass of standing around and clock-eating isolations.
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Boston was all too prepared for Poole's slippery nature, shutting off the water and turning Golden State's splashy whiz kid into a dried-up basin. The Celtics effectively let Poole dribble himself into a pretzel, flashing every And-1 move in his bag to no avail. When the Warrior guard did surge downhill, Boston quickly erased that airspace by hugging him close and pressuring his every dribble, disallowing opportunities to showcase his glitzy layup package.
Always quick to clamp down on an opponent's errors, Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart each ripped away a steal against Poole when he showed his hand and made mistakes that a 20-year-old would: failing to strike from the triple-threat position in the first quarter and later foolishly attempting a spin-move in transition, both of which can be viewed in the clips below.
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Scoring-wise, Poole showed a clear perturbance versus Boston's pick-and-roll defense. Unlike Stephen Curry, Poole was unable to burn Boston with pull-ups when the Celtics unsheathed drop coverage in his presence. Playing Boston's bigs higher up the floor only further exposed Poole's limitations as a lead creator.
In the second clip from the video below, he nearly gave the phrase "buzzer-beater" a new meaning by smashing the shot clock with an errant shot after Al Horford stepped forward and shaded Poole toward the help of Smart.
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Shoot, even Payton Pritchard, Boston's most targetted defender in the previous three series, was able to survive in the minutes he was matched up with Poole. Pritchard has the requisite footspeed to keep tabs on Golden State's pesky lightning rod, whereas Poole lacks the core strength that normally overpowers and forces Boston's reserve guard off the floor.
Here, Pritchard does a nice job screeching over the top of Andre Iguodala's screen and rear view, contesting Poole into one of his four misses from deep on five total outside shots.&nbsp;
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One thing the Warriors should look to explore is involving both Poole and Curry in off-ball actions when the duo shares the floor. Doing so got Curry one of his cleanest looks of the game, and the same could easily go for Poole, who has shot 43.8% on catch-and-shoot playoff threes, should the roles be reversed. At the very least, using his scoring gravity away from the action is a far more prudent strategy than just spoon-feeding him a diet of pick-and-roll possessions in the friggin' Finals and hoping for the best.
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Look, it isn't inconceivable to imagine that the 22-year-old will eventually find his footing on offense; he's too gifted of a scorer to continue this type of production. What is concerning for Golden State was just how woefully underprepared Poole looked defensively on the final stage. The Warriors got eviscerated when they played Poole alongside either one of Curry (minus-13 together) or Klay Thompson (also a minus-13 together), and his inclusion in Golden State's small-ball lineup that went minus-9 in the fourth quarter was the ultimate nail in the coffin.
Poole looked overwhelmed by every aspect of the defensive side of the ball against a battle-tested Boston ball club, which, again, is understandable for a 22-year-old playing in his first Finals. His closeouts were sloppy and led to drives down the middle of the paint. Transition defense appeared purely optional. Maybe most importantly, Boston absolutely licked its chops at the thought of involving Poole in pick-and-roll actions. Tatum was able to beat Poole off the dribble and drive to the rim even with Poole in a drop. Yeah, that's how bad it was.
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Poole will be an evergreen target on defense against a Boston team that hunts mismatches like the Blade Runner, and if his offensive production can't overshadow his defensive deficiencies, Poole could quickly see his role diminish. Golden State has other options on the table if the lights prove to be too bright for the wunderkind combo guard.
The now-healthy Gary Payton II is just begging for an opportunity to muck things up versus Jaylen Brown and maybe Tatum. Otto Porter Jr. is arguably due for an uptick in minutes after his strong Game 1. Heck, even Jonathan Kuminga or Moses Moody could be worth a look should Boston's size and athleticism continue to bewilder Golden State's elder group.
Poole's meteoric rise has been something to behold, quickly establishing himself as one of the league's brightest up-and-coming stars after a sterling postseason. Boston and its titanium defense represent a whole new challenge, and an uptick in his production could very be the catalyst to Golden State hoisting the Larry O'Brien trophy in a few weeks' time.
With the Warriors in a 1-0 hole, Jordan Poole is now more than ever the ultimate X-Factor. What remains to be seen is which team, Boston or Golden State, will enjoy the spoils of his output.
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Matt Brooks goes in-depth on Jordan Poole's struggles in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against a stout Celtics defense.

Can Jordan Poole turn it around against the Celtics in the NBA Finals?

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

Jace