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Thunder

The 2023 NBA Draft could go down as a special class, with talented prospects such as Victor Wembanyama, Scoot Henderson, Brandon Miller and the Thompson twins as well as some interesting depth pieces.
But will it ever be considered one of the best draft classes in NBA history? That remains to be seen.
Today, we're going to identify the cr&egrave;me de la cr&egrave;me of NBA draft classes.
The 2003 NBA Draft
The 2003 NBA Draft featured multiple generational talents that would come to define the NBA for the next two decades. Led by LeBron James, this class also included household names such as Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Not only did this draft have star power, it was also very deep. Twenty-seven players from the 2003 class played at least 10 seasons in the NBA: James, Wade, Anthony, Bosh, Kyle Korver, David West, Zaza Pachulia, Nick Collison, Boris Diaw, Kendrick Perkins, Leandro Barbosa, James Jones, Chris Kaman, Kirk Hinrich, Dahntay Jones, Steve Blake, Mo Williams, Luke Ridnour, Willie Green, Matt Bonner, Travis Outlaw, Keith Bogans, Darko Milicic, Mickael Pietrus, Sasha Pavlovic, Josh Howard and Luke Walton. This class featured nine All-Stars and plenty of quality role players.
The 1984 NBA Draft
The 1984 NBA Draft stands as a legendary class, and some might argue that it's the greatest draft of all-time. Two of the top three picks &mdash; Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon &mdash; would ultimately etch their names in the annals of basketball history and redefine greatness. In addition to Jordan and Olajuwon, players like Charles Barkley, John Stockton and Alvin Robertson showcased their immense talent as well. This class produced five Hall-of-Famers and seven All-Stars.
The 1996 NBA Draft
The 1996 NBA Draft changed the landscape of the league, heralding the arrival of future Hall-of-Famers and icons. Led by the legendary Kobe Bryant and the enigmatic Allen Iverson, this class boasted an array of talent that reinvigorated the game. This class also featured Ray Allen, Steve Nash, Jermaine O'Neal, Ben Wallace, Stephon Marbury, Peja Stojakovic, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Antoine Walker, Marcus Camby, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Derek Fisher. The 1996 NBA Draft was deep, producing 10 All-Stars and five Hall-of-Famers. Jon Finkel recently revisited this star-studded class in his book "1996," and he <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/revisiting-the-starstudded-1996-nba-draft-kobe-bryant-ray-allen-steve-nash-allen-iverson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ran a terrific excerpt on Basketball News</a>.
The 1985 NBA Draft
The 1985 NBA Draft was certainly special. This class featured 10 All-Stars including Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Joe Dumars, Detlef Schrempf, Xavier McDaniel, Charles Oakley, &nbsp;AC Green, Terry Porter and Michael Adams. The class also featured Arvydas Sabonis, an overseas legend and terrific Portland Trail Blazer. Like the 1996 NBA Draft, this class has the star power and depth to be considered one of the best drafts in NBA history.
The 2009 NBA Draft
While not as immediately illustrious as some of the other classes on this list, the 2009 NBA Draft proved to be a treasure trove of talent. This class exemplified the importance of patience and player development, as Stephen Curry, James Harden, Blake Griffin, DeMar DeRozan, Jrue Holiday and Jeff Teague would all go on to become All-Stars. Griffin missed his rookie year with an injury, but dominated as soon as he stepped on an NBA court. Curry battled injuries early in his career, but would become a four-time champion and two-time MVP. Harden went from being an elite sixth man to an MVP once he got the opportunity in Houston. This class also featured Brandon Jennings, Ricky Rubio, Tyreke Evans, Darren Collison, Ty Lawson, Patty Mills, Danny Green, Taj Gibson and Patrick Beverley among others.
Which class is the greatest in NBA history? <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tweet us your thoughts</a>!&nbsp;

Basketball News examines the crème de la crème of draft classes throughout NBA history.

Exploring the 5 best draft classes in NBA history

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MILWAUKEE (AP) &mdash; Jaren Jackson had 36 points, Luke Kennard added 19 and the Memphis Grizzlies beat the short-handed Milwaukee Bucks 137-114 on Friday night to wrap up the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference for the second consecutive season.
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Memphis entered the game with a two-game lead over Sacramento for second place in the West, but the Kings owned the tiebreaker. Denver took the No. 1 seed in the West on Wednesday night.
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"It's very important," Grizzlies guard Ja Morant said about the second seed. "We're a very good team at home, so we obviously want that home-court advantage. Definitely big time for us."
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Morant, who finished with 12 points and eight assists, went to the locker room early in the game after sustaining a right wrist and hand injury in a collision with Milwaukee's Jae Crowder. Morant, who later returned to the game, had a large wrap on his right arm in the locker room afterward.
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When asked about his condition, Morant said: "I'm good."
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After trailing by one point at the half, Memphis took command with a 24-7 run to start the third. The Grizzlies led by 24 in the quarter and held the Bucks at bay throughout the remainder of the game.
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"Our communication wasn't great in the first half," Kennard said. "We didn't play up to how we have been playing, especially on the defensive end. We weren't very physical and we kind of laid back a little bit."
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Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins said he challenged the team at halftime to be more physical and communicate better.
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"We raised our level in that third quarter," Jenkins said.
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The Grizzlies held the Bucks to 15 points in the third after surrendering 41 points in the second.
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"Better discipline, a little bit more effort," Jackson said. "We figured it out and I'm glad we did."
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The increased intensity on defensive after halftime gave a boost to the Grizzlies offense, Kennard said.
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"We didn't give them many second chance opportunities and we were able to get out in transition and get some easy looks," he said.
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Lindell Wigginton had 25 points and Crowder a season-high 24 to lead Milwaukee. Wigginton had a total of eight points in limited action this season prior to Friday's output. He also had 11 assists.
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"It was a great opportunity for Lindell," Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. "He brings a toughness, a competitiveness. He makes shots. He gets to the paint."
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The Bucks, who clinched the NBA's best record and the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference with a victory over Chicago on Wednesday, sat six players, including Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez.
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Antetokounmpo, who also sat out Wednesday, was listed on the injury report with a sore right knee. Holiday and Lopez rested, while Middleton was held out with a right knee issue. Grayson Allen and Pat Connaughton also sat out with ankle injuries.
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Bobby Portis and Joe Ingles were active but didn't play.
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The Bucks' makeshift lineup got off to a hot start and led by nine in the first quarter before the Grizzlies pulled ahead and led 36-31 after the period.
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After the Grizzlies charged to an 11-point lead in the second, the Bucks rallied to take a 72-71 lead at the half, paced by 18 points from Crowder, who made all seven of his shots from the field, including four from 3-point range. Milwaukee shot 15 of 30 from deep over the first two quarters, which allowed them to hold the lead despite Memphis shooting 65% overall in half.
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TIP-INS
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Grizzlies: Kennard, who came in averaging 9.1 points per game, had 11 in the first quarter. &hellip; Jackson had 22 first-half points. &hellip; Outscored the Bucks 62-34 in the paint. &hellip; Finished 16-24 on the road.
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Bucks: Antetokounmpo was honored in a pregame ceremony for his accomplishments this season, including becoming the franchise leader in points, assists and games played. He was joined on the court by Middleton, former Bucks star Paul Pressey and one-time general manager John Hammond, who selected Antetokounmpo with the 15th pick in the 2013 draft.
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UP NEXT
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Grizzlies: At Oklahoma City on Sunday.
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Bucks: At Toronto on Sunday.
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The Memphis Grizzlies beat the short-handed Milwaukee Bucks 137-114 on Friday night to wrap up the No. 2 seed in the West.

Grizzlies beat Bucks 137-114, secure No. 2 seed in West

PHOENIX (AP) &mdash; Devin Booker scored 27 points and the Phoenix Suns never trailed, beating the depleted San Antonio Spurs 115-94 on Tuesday night to clinch a playoff spot.
The Suns (44-35) won their sixth in a row, the longest current winning streak in the NBA. With one more victory in the final three games, Phoenix would assure itself of at least the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference and home-court advantage in the first round.
Chris Paul scored 22 points, while Deandre Ayton had 19 points and 11 rebounds. Kevin Durant scored 18 points and reserve Torrey Craig added 15.
The Suns are 7-0 when Durant has been in their lineup.
Malaki Branham led the Spurs with 21 points. Tre Jones scored 20, while Keita Bates-Diop and Sandro Mamukelashvili each had 13.
The Spurs (20-59) only dressed 10 players. They were without their top two scorers, Keldon Johnson (right foot sprain) and Devin Vassell (left knee). Also out for San Antonio were Zach Collins (finger), Jeremy Sochan (right knee soreness) and Romeo Langford (left adductor).
And during Tuesday&rsquo;s game, Doug McDermott played six minutes and limped off with an apparent knee injury. Dominick Barlow was hurt in a fourth-quarter collision, and starter Devonte&rsquo; Graham was helped to the locker room late in the game after hurting his leg.
San Antonio entered the night ranked last in scoring defense, having allowed 122.8 points per game. Phoenix came out roaring, shooting 63% in the first quarter in building a 42-25 lead. That&rsquo;s the most the Suns have scored in the first quarter this season, passing the 40 points against Chicago on March 3.
Booker had 14 points in the first quarter.
The Suns led by as many as 31 points in the second quarter and were up 69-51 at the half. Paul made 7 of 8 shots in the half to lead the Suns with 18 points. Phoenix shot 56% and San Antonio 38 percent, with the Suns outrebounding the Spurs 30-20.
The Spurs got within nine in the third quarter, but by the end of the period Phoenix was back ahead 97-76. Booker scored 13 in the quarter to lead Phoenix.
MUTUAL ADMIRATION
Suns coach Monty Williams played for Gregg Popovich with the Spurs and coached under him as well.
&ldquo;I just enjoy seeing him and I&rsquo;m grateful for the history I have with him,&rdquo; Williams said before the game. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m grateful that I get to tell people outside of basketball that I know Gregg Popovich as a man, as a mentor, as a friend.&rdquo;
Popovich may not have enjoyed Tuesday&rsquo;s result, but he too admires what Williams and the Suns have done.
No matter who&rsquo;s playing, Popovich said of Williams, &ldquo;He&rsquo;s gonna coach. He&rsquo;s going to do the same things, have the same standards, the same accountability. Kick &rsquo;em in the butt when necessary, put an arm around them and love &rsquo;em when necessary. He&rsquo;s a good man.&rdquo;
DURANT, TOO
Popovich coached the Olympic gold-medal team in 2021 and saw Durant from the same bench.
&ldquo;He was great. I love him,&rdquo; Popovich said. &ldquo;How do you stop him? You can&rsquo;t. There&rsquo;s no way you can stop him. Now you can double-team him, and he&rsquo;s smart enough to give it up. No matter what happens, they&rsquo;ll figure out what they need to do.&rdquo;
NEXT
Spurs: Play Portland on Thursday in Austin, Texas.
Suns: Host Denver Thursday.

The Suns (44-35) won their sixth in a row, the longest current winning streak in the NBA.

Suns clinch playoff spot, rout injury-riddled Spurs 115-94

According to the <a href="https://twitter.com/tp4pt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Transfer Portal For Playing Time</a>, the NCAA men&rsquo;s basketball transfer portal has set a new record for the most D-I and D-II entries in the first four days, with more than 1,015 players putting their name in thus far. For comparison, it took six days longer to surpass 1,000 entries in 2022. The transfer portal has created a period of unprecedented player movement across the NCAA. On "The Collision: Where Sports And Politics Collide,&rdquo; me and my co-host Dave Zirin did a deep dive into the transfer portal and what this means for college basketball going forward.
Dave Zirin: I heard your former coach, Jim Boeheim, discuss some of the things that have changed the dynamics of college basketball. He discussed NIL and the transfer portal. Has it surprised you how quickly the power dynamics have shifted in college hoops? Etan Thomas: Interesting. I was actually just listening to Coach Boeheim discuss this on the radio with Jay Williams and Keyshawn Johnson this morning after I dropped my kids off at school. For me, as far as the transfer portal (goes), I&rsquo;m kind of torn on this topic, to be honest.
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Dave: I am as well. I'm very torn, but please continue. Etan: So, on one hand, players now have flexibility and I think it&rsquo;s important for players to have that flexibility to move to a different situation if the situation they are currently in is not the best for them. So, I&rsquo;m definitely all for that. In addition, from a players perspective, you&rsquo;re no longer&hellip; how can I say this... held captive. I don&rsquo;t want to use that strong of a phrase and, of course, this is in a basketball sense &mdash; don&rsquo;t take this literal, please. Dave: I understand what you&rsquo;re saying. Etan: Yeah, so I just want to make that point clear. But in the past, no matter how bad the situation was for you, from a player&rsquo;s perspective, you were almost forced to deal with it because [the] repercussion or punishment for transferring would be that you had to sit out an entire year and lose that year of eligibility. And that is a lot; you had to really be unhappy in your situation to give up an entire year. Now, it&rsquo;s different. Players now have the flexibility to leave if the situation is not good for them and I&rsquo;m all for that, in theory. Now, from a coaching standpoint &mdash; and this was Coach Boeheim&rsquo;s point this morning &mdash; how do you build a team with that reality, [when] you have half of your team leaving every year? And I understand that issue. But should players have the flexibility to leave? I think so. I mean, coaches have the flexibility to leave anytime they get a better opportunity somewhere. I always thought &mdash; and this was way before the transfer portal was even a reality &mdash; but I thought that if your coach left, you should have the right to leave without having to sit out a year. I think that should&rsquo;ve been a rule anyway. Dave: I definitely agree with that. I mean, that definitely seems fair for so many reasons. Etan: Right. But at the same time, when you look at the transfer portal now, it just opened up and in, what, 3 days you have over 1,000 players who want to transfer? That&rsquo;s a lot, so that&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m torn on this topic. Dave: Whew. I too am very torn on this. So, on the one hand, the checkmate argument in favor of the transfer portal is exactly what you just said: coaches can leave, so why can&rsquo;t players? Coaches don&rsquo;t have to sit out a year, so why should players? Coaches can pursue the best opportunities for themselves and for their families, so why can&rsquo;t the players make similar choices in that regard? That, to me, is the most checkmate of all checkmate arguments. But, there is another side to it, and you can&rsquo;t deny this other side. You know, you actually end up sometimes losing arguments when you don&rsquo;t grant that the other side has a point.
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Etan: That&rsquo;s very true because then you look unreasonable. It&rsquo;s okay to say, "I agree with you here, but this is where I have a different perspective." Dave: Right, so the thing that I really don&rsquo;t like about the transfer portal is: I think there is actual value in team sports of fighting your way forward, of being the person freshman year who had to bust their hump to start sophomore year. And if you&rsquo;re that unhappy that you want to leave, I don&rsquo;t mind there being a high bar for that level of unhappiness. Listen, we all know how this situation works, and we all know that young people can be a tad impulsive. So, I like the idea of there being guard rails for when players make these decisions to consider, "Okay, do you really want to leave? Is it really that bad? Or are you just having a really bad week or month? Is this something you can persevere through?"
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&ldquo;I&rsquo;m bringing my luggage with me. And it&rsquo;s Louis&hellip; The more of you that transfer, the more room there is&rdquo; Deion Sanders telling most of the team to transfer after they gave him an ovation is a WILD move<a href="https://t.co/tCbWEeJYQq">pic.twitter.com/tCbWEeJYQq</a>
&mdash; Max Chadwick (@Chad_Maxwick) <a href="https://twitter.com/Chad_Maxwick/status/1599591913560023041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Now, with that being said, and I have to point him out because he has been the most honest about it: Deion Sanders walks in at the University of Colorado, addresses his players in full view of the cameras and says something to the effect of, &ldquo;Yeah, a third of you won&rsquo;t be here next year." And it&rsquo;s like, you&rsquo;re talking to scholarship athletes in their teens and are basically telling them, "Hey, that class you&rsquo;re taking that you really like or your girlfriend that you&rsquo;re thinking of possibly proposing to in a few years or that frat you just rushed, well good luck because those life plans are out the window! Because I&rsquo;m the new coach and I&rsquo;m in charge." And that doesn&rsquo;t seem very fair because if you&rsquo;re offered a scholarship, that should mean something." Etan: Yeah, but people still have to understand that it is a year-to-year agreement. My wife gets tired of me using her as an example, but it&rsquo;s what happened to her after she tore her ACL for the third time while she was playing at Syracuse. The doctors told my wife (who was my girlfriend at the time), Nichole Oliver, if she wanted to be able to run around and play with her children when she was in her 30s, she would have to stop playing, and the coaches tried to take her scholarship away.
Her and her mother actually had to get a lawyer and meet with the Athletic Director and threaten legal action and a ton of bad publicity for the university if they did that. And here&rsquo;s the thing, Dave: every time I tell this story, we get multiple messages from parents or players asking for advice because their university is trying to do that very same thing to them.
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/syracuse23.jpg" alt="" width="503" height="300" /> Dave: Wow, that&rsquo;s awful. Etan: Right, it's terrible. So, people do have to put stories like that into consideration. But it&rsquo;s an example of how all of the power was always leaning to the side of the colleges, and I never liked that dynamic. But again, like we said earlier: there a thousand players in the transfer portal right now! So, what I would say is I think they should come up with a rule that you get one transfer, so make it a good one because you only get one. You have some players you see now and this is their third transfer and their third different college, and their just a junior! I&rsquo;m not sure if that&rsquo;s good either. So, that&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m torn on this topic. Dave: I really like that idea. Thinking of my own child, if my son went to a university and the coach was super intense about recruiting him and then day one on campus, the coach leaves, [that changes things]. Here is my son as a freshman and he has to deal with the fact that he has to either [transfer] or find peace with the new coach who may or may not even value him as a player. He may not be a player he wants to play and he has no connection to him because he never recruited him, so why would he stay there? Etan: I agree, 100%. So in my scenario, if you only get one transfer, that&rsquo;s like the exception. If your coach leaves, that doesn&rsquo;t count against your one transfer because, yes, that changes everything for an athlete.
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Dave: Ah, I like that too because the new coach could have a completely different idea of what they want to do from what you were promised when they recruited you there. Etan: I agree. But with that being said, I do have to be able to acknowledge &mdash; and this is what Coach Boeheim brought up today on the radio &mdash; if he was still coaching now, he would be chasing players to see who is going to stay and who is going to leave, and it&rsquo;s a musical chairs type of thing now. You lose four players, you replace them with four new players. But how can a coach actually coach players? If they don&rsquo;t like anything, they just leave! Well, I can see that both ways. If you&rsquo;re being brutally unfair to someone, yes, they&rsquo;re probably going to leave because you can no longer hold them captive. Some coaches call it &ldquo;coaching a player hard," but I don&rsquo;t like that term because Bobby Knight in his mind thought that&rsquo;s what he was doing when it was actually abuse. So, a coach can no longer do that and hold a player captive anymore, and that&rsquo;s a good thing, in my opinion.
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But now the other side, and this is the part that Coach Boeheim brought up, sometimes it&rsquo;s simply not your turn yet. So I look at myself: my freshman year at Syracuse, it just wasn&rsquo;t my turn yet. I was playing behind a more experienced, bigger, stronger and, quite frankly, better senior center in Otis Hill, who had just been to the NCAA Finals the year before, so I had to be patient. And, of course, it was hard because I was at the bottom of the totem pole on the team. But when I came back my sophomore year, I was ready and prepared to step in as a starter, got back-to-back Big East Defensive Player of the Year and things turned around for me. But I had to wait, so I know firsthand that a bad situation can definitely change.
Dave: If they had the transfer portal your freshman year, would you have stayed? Etan: Listen, I was almost going to transfer even without them having the transfer portal how it is now (laughing). But looking back now, I&rsquo;m glad I didn&rsquo;t make that decision. But I was very close to doing it because it was not a good environment and situation for me in my freshman year. Coach Boeheim also used the example of <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/hakim-warrick-qa-2003-syracuse-championship-and-jersey-retirement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hakim Warrick</a>, who didn&rsquo;t play a whole lot in his freshman year but then came back his sophomore year and blocked the shot against Kansas in the championship game that really won the game for Syracuse. So his point is that things can change, and he&rsquo;s right. So, there is an argument to be made that some players are losing the lessons of perseverance, fighting through adversity, etc. because at any hint of difficulty, they transfer. But at the same time, there&rsquo;s the question of should they be able to have the flexibility and the choice to leave a situation they are unhappy in? So, that&rsquo;s why this is a complex topic. Dave: Very complex indeed.

So far, 1,015 players have entered the NCAA transfer portal. Etan Thomas and Dave Zirin discuss what this means for college hoops.

Is the NCAA transfer portal getting out of control?

BOSTON (AP) &mdash; Mikal Bridges was considered a defensive star and complementary offensive player in Phoenix before abruptly having his five-year run there ended when he was shipped to Brooklyn as part of the trade that sent Kevin Durant to the Suns.
Bridges gave his new team another glimpse of the go-to potential he could grow into.
Bridges scored 38 points and the Nets overcame a 28-point deficit to stun the Boston Celtics 115-105 on Friday night.
He has reached 30 or more points in three of Brooklyn&rsquo;s last six games. Bridges also had 10 rebounds, playing nearly 43 minutes.
&ldquo;I think we kind or realized over a couple of games that offense wasn&rsquo;t really our problem,&rdquo; Bridges said. &ldquo;I feel like our offense is pretty good. But our defense, we got stops and stayed together possession-by-possession. ... We just kept and stayed together.&rdquo;
It was Brooklyn&rsquo;s first victory over Boston in four meetings this season.
Bridges played through pain in the second half after knocking knees with Derrick White, hitting on the same spot he did in a similar collision with Jalen Brunson in Wednesday loss to the Knicks.
&ldquo;I think when I got traded it was kind of at the right time because when everybody was out in Phoenix I had to take up another role offensively and be more aggressive,&rdquo; Bridges said. &ldquo;By the time I got traded I was in a great rhythm and was confident.&rdquo;
Fellow former Sun Cam Johnson added 20 points. Dorian Finney-Smith finished with 17.
It is the largest comeback by a Boston opponent since the Los Angeles Clippers also rallied from 28 down to beat Boston 123-112 at TD Garden on Feb. 9, 2019.
The Celtics have lost two out of three and lost more ground on East-leading Milwaukee, which was idle Friday. Boston, which made 26 3-pointers in a 139-96 win over the Nets on Feb. 1, went just 9 of 30 from beyond the arc on Friday.
&ldquo;They beat us in every analytical category possible,&rdquo; Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. &ldquo;If we don&rsquo;t commit to the margins, no matter how hard we play, we&rsquo;re not going to win.&rdquo;
Jaylen Brown led Boston with 35 points. Jayson Tatum, who was celebrating his 25th birthday, added 22 points and 13 rebounds.
Boston led by 28 in the first half before being outscored 69-43 over the second and third quarters.
The Nets scored just 23 points in the first 16 minutes of the game, allowing Boston to go up 51-23 with 7:23 left in the first half.
It evaporated in a rash of pull up jumpers and one-and-done possesses for the Celtics as Brooklyn mounted a 57-23 run to nudge in front 80-74 with 3:56 in the third quarter. The lead was 106-90 early in the fourth.
During one wild sequence, the Nets secured four offensive rebounds and had five shots on a single possession before the Celtics were finally able to corral the ball, triggering a fast break and layup by Derrick White. It was one of the few highlights for Boston the rest of the way.
The Nets&rsquo; frantic rally also saw the Celtics lose big man Robert Williams for the night after he left early in the third with left hamstring tightness.
A 3-pointer by Marcus Smart got Boston as close as 110-102 with just over four minutes to play. But Finney-Smith answered with a triple of his own on the Nets&rsquo; next possession.
The lead grew as high as 51-23 early in the second, but the Nets chipped it down 64-55 at halftime.
NEW INJURY FOR SIMMONS
Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said Ben Simmons began experiencing some back soreness this week while starting to increase his activity to strengthen the sore left knee that has kept him sidelined since the All-Star break restart. There isn&rsquo;t a timeline for him to return, and there hasn&rsquo;t been discussion of sitting him down for the remainder of the season.
TIP-INS
Nets: Outscored the Celtics 40-27 in the second quarter, shooting 65% (15 of 23) from the field. Bridges had 15 points in the period. &hellip; Johnson, who celebrated his 27th birthday, was whistled for three fouls in less than three minutes of action. It contributed to the Nets putting Boston in the bonus at the 8:48 mark of the opening quarter.
Celtics: Finished with 19 turnovers, leading to 21 Brooklyn points. ...Went 0 for 6 from 3-point line in third quarter. &hellip; Al Horford played his 1,000th career regular-season game. He&rsquo;s only the 11th active player to reach that plateau. After his milestone was announced to the TD Garden crowd, he capped the ensuing possession with a 3-pointer to put Boston in front 16-5.
UP NEXT
Nets: Host Charlottes on Sunday night.
Celtics: Host New York on Sunday night.

Mikal Bridges scored 38 points and the Brooklyn Nets overcame a 28-point deficit to stun the Boston Celtics 115-105 on Friday night.

Mikal Bridges scores 38 points, Nets rally to stun Celtics 115-105

Now in his eighth season with the Indiana Pacers, Myles Turner is easily the team&rsquo;s longest-tenured player. In fact, no other Pacer on the current roster has been in town longer than four seasons.
Turner arrived in Indiana as a wide-eyed teenager who was selected with the No. 11 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. In the years that followed, Turner would watch as the team continually changed around him. He has played for four different head coaches &mdash; Frank Vogel, Nate McMillan, Nate Bjorkgren and Rick Carlisle &mdash; and witnessed a ton of roster turnover. But despite Turner&rsquo;s name surfacing in trade rumors annually, he has been the one constant in Indiana.
As a rookie, Turner suited up alongside stars like Paul George and Monta Ellis. During his sophomore campaign, he called Al Jefferson, Thaddeus Young, Jeff Teague and Lance Stephenson teammates. The following year, Victor Oladipo, Domantas Sabonis, Bojan Bogdanovic and Darren Collison joined the squad. Turner has also played with veterans such as Tyreke Evans, Ty Lawson, Rodney Stuckey, Caris LeVert, Doug McDermott, T.J. Warren and C.J. Miles over the years.
However, one could argue that no teammate has had a greater impact on Turner&rsquo;s game than his current star running mate: Tyrese Haliburton.
When the Pacers <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-interview-tyrese-haliburton-indiana-pacers-chad-buchanan-bennedict-mathurin-myles-turner-sacramento-kings-domantas-sabonis-trade-drew-hanlen" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acquired Haliburton from the Sacramento Kings</a> prior to last year&rsquo;s trade deadline, Turner was ecstatic. He was a fan of Haliburton&rsquo;s game and potential, and couldn&rsquo;t wait to team up with the pass-first point guard. Unfortunately, Turner wasn&rsquo;t able to play alongside Haliburton in the second half of last season due to a stress reaction in his foot.
This year, the Pacers&rsquo; one-two punch of Haliburton and Turner has been on full display, and they have become one of the most productive pick-and-roll duos in the NBA.
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pretty.😍 Tyrese Haliburton to Myles Turner for two. <a href="https://t.co/TupiSM909t">pic.twitter.com/TupiSM909t</a>
&mdash; Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) <a href="https://twitter.com/Pacers/status/1629656051175026688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2023</a></blockquote>

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Turner has set 814 picks for Haliburton, which is the third-most of any pick-and-roll duo in the league, per Second Spectrum. The only tandems who have run the pick-and-roll more are Philadelphia&rsquo;s James Harden and Joel Embiid (893 picks) and Phoenix&rsquo;s Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton (897). Possessions featuring a Haliburton-Turner pick-and-roll have generated 1.063 points per possession &mdash; the fifth-best PPP of the 24 duos with at least 500 picks.
&ldquo;This has been a wonderful opportunity for Myles to play with a playmaking guard of Tyrese&rsquo;s caliber,&rdquo; Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle told Basketball News. &ldquo;A couple weeks ago, we checked and they were top-five or top-six in the league as a successful pick-and-roll connection, and that&rsquo;s pretty amazing. Myles is getting all different kinds of stuff &mdash; he&rsquo;s getting rolls for dunks, he's getting a little bit of mid-range, he's getting good looks for threes and he's getting some late passes underneath for dunks as well.
"I just love the force that he&rsquo;s playing with. Tyrese has had a wonderful impact on Myles and certainly the rest of the team, but the connection those two guys have has been special.&rdquo;
The partnership has been mutually beneficial. Turner gets easy looks from an elite floor general who ranks second among all players in assists per game (10.2) and assist percentage (46.9%), while Haliburton gets a unique big-man partner who can score inside (62.8% on twos) and out (40.3% on threes). It&rsquo;s no coincidence that both players are having career years.&nbsp;
Turner is averaging career-highs in points (18.2), rebounds (8.0), field-goal percentage (54.9%), three-point percentage (40.3%) and made threes (1.7), while also contributing 2.3 blocks, 1.4 deflections and 0.6 steals per game. Turner's dominance shows up in his analytics too, as he's posting personal bests in win shares per 48 minutes (.157), Box Plus/Minus (+2.6), True Shooting percentage (65.8%), Player Efficiency Rating (20.6) and total rebound rate (14.7%).
&ldquo;Myles has blossomed this year. We've seen the relationship with him and Ty; they're one of the best pick-and-roll [duos] in the league right now,&rdquo; Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard said recently. &ldquo;This is the beginning of a nice core &mdash; no, a great core.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Meanwhile, Haliburton <a href="bit.ly/3AyPKHC" target="_blank" rel="noopener">became a first-time All-Star</a> after averaging career-highs in points (20.1), assists (10.1) and threes (2.8), while also contributing 3.7 rebounds and 1.7 steals per contest. Haliburton is also posting personal bests in advanced stats like assist percentage (46.9%), PER (23.0), VORP (3.8), BPM (+6.9) and WS/48 (.189).
&ldquo;It was unfortunate that I didn&rsquo;t get a chance to play with him last year and really start to develop that synergy, but I think we&rsquo;ve really picked it up quickly,&rdquo; Turner told Basketball News. &ldquo;Ty is someone who&rsquo;s easy to play with. Obviously, he sees the floor well. And as the season has progressed, we&rsquo;ve done a better job of communicating with each other. It&rsquo;s been a fun experience.&rdquo;
Despite the fact that they&rsquo;ve only played 44 games together, they have developed a strong connection and can often anticipate each other&rsquo;s next move.
&ldquo;I think I know what he&rsquo;s going to do before he does it in a sense,&rdquo; Turner said. &ldquo;I think that just comes with playing with him.&rdquo;
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this sequence.🔥 a huge block by Myles Turner followed by a huge dunk by Tyrese Haliburton.👀 <a href="https://t.co/4MpAf4Kp0B">pic.twitter.com/4MpAf4Kp0B</a>
&mdash; Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) <a href="https://twitter.com/Pacers/status/1630770909442191360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2023</a></blockquote>

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&ldquo;We just needed time together, that&rsquo;s all,&rdquo; Haliburton told Basketball News. &ldquo;I feel like I&rsquo;ve had pretty good chemistry with my bigs throughout my NBA career, and I knew that playing with Myles wasn&rsquo;t going to be any different. He brings a different dynamic than what I&rsquo;m used to, with his ability to space the floor. And he&rsquo;s the best shot-blocker that I&rsquo;ve ever played with, so that gives me confidence on the defensive end to be able to take more risks and get into the ball a little bit more.
"I think it&rsquo;s a mutual relationship where he&rsquo;s got my back and I&rsquo;ve got his.&rdquo;
Not too long ago, Turner&rsquo;s days in Indiana seemed numbered. After all, the team traded away nearly all of its veterans last season (including Sabonis, LeVert, Torrey Craig, Justin Holiday and Jeremy Lamb), and Turner&rsquo;s name continued to pop up in trade rumors. However, since Turner is only 26 years old, the Pacers&rsquo; brass felt that he could be on a similar timeline as Haliburton, who is 23.
It certainly seems that the Pacers are building around this duo, especially after Turner was given a two-year, $60 million extension in January.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad that we got it done. I think it was a win-win for both sides,&rdquo; Turner said. &ldquo;I think I have a good relationship with (Pacers owner) Herb Simon, and I think he has a big belief in what I&rsquo;m capable of as well. I&rsquo;m glad that we were able to come to terms on an agreement. Behind the scenes, for me personally, I was open to the idea of free agency, but I also wanted to at least give Indy a fair chance, and both sides came to an agreement.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m comfortable. I&rsquo;m where I want to be. I&rsquo;m growing with a young team that&rsquo;s hungry. I think we&rsquo;re just trying to get better and better every day, and that&rsquo;s the main goal of this whole thing. I have a lot of belief in this city, a lot of belief in this program and a lot of belief in the guys in this locker room, so that was a big initial factor in me wanting to stay here.&rdquo;
Since Turner was a popular trade candidate, many fans of other teams got excited about the possibility of him joining their favorite squad. When Turner inked his extension with the Pacers, some of these fans reacted negatively &mdash; upset that he was no longer on the market.&nbsp;
&ldquo;What fans don&rsquo;t realize is that this is a business, and both sides have to do what&rsquo;s best for them,&rdquo; Turner said. &ldquo;Sometimes it doesn&rsquo;t work out where you&rsquo;re able to stay with the same team, but I&rsquo;ve been blessed and fortunate enough to be with the same team for my entire career. That&rsquo;s not something that happens a lot, and I never take that for granted. That was obviously something that went into my decision as well. For the casual fan, they have to realize that while basketball may be a fun game, the business aspect of it will always reign supreme.&rdquo;
As Turner mentioned, not many players stay with one NBA team for the entirety of their career. He admits that retiring in Indiana would mean a lot to him.
&ldquo;Yeah, obviously, it&rsquo;s something that would be very special,&rdquo; Turner said. &ldquo;Like I always talk about, the business of basketball always reigns supreme, but my loyalty is with the organization that drafted me and the city that took me in, and hopefully it&rsquo;s able to stay that way for years to come.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Turner has been a part of many different iterations of Pacers basketball. Now, looking at the current pieces around him, he&rsquo;s excited about the team&rsquo;s promising future.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen the growth in a lot of our young guys throughout the entire year,&rdquo; Turner said. &ldquo;The best thing for them was getting a chance to play early. For <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-feature-interview-indiana-pacers-rookie-andrew-nembhard-rick-carlisle-tj-mcconnell-gonzaga-florida" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Drew [Nembhard]</a>, Ben [Mathurin] and those guys, playing heavy minutes early was big for their development, and not every rookie has a chance to do that. The fact that they&rsquo;re getting battle-tested so early is going to bode well for them.
"I&rsquo;ve just enjoyed the overall spirit and fight of this team. We&rsquo;ve got a lot of guys who clock in and work hard day in and day out, and they&rsquo;re coming in here and getting a chance to compete after working their whole life to get here.&rdquo;
While playing alongside Haliburton has certainly helped Turner, the big man does deserve a lot of credit for the leap he has taken this season. He&rsquo;s put in a lot of hard work behind the scenes to maximize his potential and make the most of his opportunity.
&ldquo;I attribute [my career year] to patience and obviously the hard work I put in over the offseason to prepare for these moments,&rdquo; Turner explained. &ldquo;I also attribute it to just the years that I&rsquo;ve been in the league, where I&rsquo;ve been able to play out on the perimeter at the 4 position and now I&rsquo;m able to play my natural position (the 5).
"I&rsquo;m thankful that I was able to just stick it out those years that I was here and see what the other side of basketball was like, outside of just getting what you want when you want it. I think I waited my turn and, obviously, I&rsquo;m thriving now, and I&rsquo;m only hoping to get better from here.&rdquo;
Nekias Duncan contributed to this article.

Alex Kennedy catches up with Pacers big man Myles Turner to discuss his extension, playing with Tyrese Haliburton and more.

Pacers' perfect pairing: Turner, Haliburton form dominant 1-2 punch

ATLANTA (AP) &mdash; The Atlanta Hawks returned from the All-Star break &mdash; and a coaching change &mdash; refreshed and motivated.
The Cleveland Cavaliers, playing on the second night of a back-to-back, couldn&rsquo;t match Atlanta&rsquo;s energy and drive.
Trae Young scored 34 points and the Hawks beat the Cavaliers 136-119 on Friday night in their first game under interim coach Joe Prunty.
Dejounte Murray had 15 of his 25 points in Atlanta&rsquo;s high-scoring second period.
Darius Garland led the Cavaliers, who suffered their third straight loss, with 33 points. Donovan Mitchell had 19.
The Hawks played their first game since coach&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/indiana-pacers-atlanta-hawks-portland-trail-blazers-nba-sports-fdb995cad88d7a509b49ca747008f96c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nate McMillan was fired</a>&nbsp;on Tuesday. The team had three practices, including a shootaround session on Friday morning, under Prunty, who had been McMillan&rsquo;s lead assistant.
&ldquo;Each night is a new experience, understanding a team that is fresh and newly motivated,&rdquo; said Cleveland coach J.B. Bickerstaff, who said that created a challenge for his players &ldquo;being prepared to match that, and I don&rsquo;t think we matched that enough. ... We didn&rsquo;t put up much resistance, especially in the first half.&rdquo;
The Cavaliers lost to Denver 115-109 on Thursday night.
General manager Landry Fields said Wednesday that former Utah coach&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/atlanta-hawks-nba-sports-playoffs-nate-mcmillan-cb25039415b0a651ff041b515a27a5bd" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Quin Snyder is a candidate</a>&nbsp;to replace McMillan. Snyder could be hired to take over the team this season.
Atlanta held its big lead of 32 points for the last time at 103-71 late in the third quarter before Cleveland pulled to within 13 points at 108-95 in the final period. Atlanta then reclaimed its momentum.
Murray missed his first five shots before making his next seven in the second period. The Hawks&rsquo; 49 points in the period were their most in any quarter this season. They led 81-57 at halftime, setting another season-high mark for points in an opening half.
&ldquo;I think we were pushing the ball and playing fast and getting some 3s and getting some stops, too,&rdquo; Young said. &ldquo;It was a big effort tonight on the defensive end, for sure.&rdquo;
Prunty said he worried his players would be rusty after the break and said &ldquo;I was really impressed with our guys and how we started the game.&rdquo;
BEY IMPRESSES
Saddiq Bey, acquired by Atlanta from Detroit on Feb. 9 as part of a three-team trade with Golden State, had 19 points while starting at power forward as a fill-in. John Collins (concussion protocol) did not play. The 6-foot-8 Bey, listed as a guard-forward, is thought to be best suited to play small forward but showed his versatility while filling in for Collins at power forward.
ROAD WOES
The Cavaliers, fourth in the Eastern Conference at 38-25, have good motivation to earn home-court advantage in the postseason. They fell to only 13-18 in road games to offset their 25-7 mark at home.
TIP-INS
Cavaliers: F Cedi Osman (lower back contusion) had 10 points in 17 minutes and G Ricky Rubio (knee management) logged 12 minutes, scoring 2 points after not playing in Thursday night&rsquo;s game. ... The Cavaliers also are being careful with F Danny Green, 35, in his ongoing recovery from left knee surgery. Green&nbsp;signed with the Cavaliers&nbsp;on Feb. 15 after being bought out by Houston and had three points in 11 minutes. Speaking of Green&rsquo;s role in the postseason, coach J.B. Bickerstaff said before the game the goal is &ldquo;to make sure he&rsquo;s ready when we need him most.&rdquo;
Hawks: G Bogdan Bogdanovic passed 5,000 career points while sinking back-to-back 3s early in the second period. It was part of a string of four consecutive Atlanta baskets by Bogdanovic, who had 10 points. .... Onyeka Okongwu recorded a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. ... Collins suffered the head injury in a collision with New York Knicks F Julius Randle on Feb. 15 in Atlanta&rsquo;s last game before the All-Star break.
UP NEXT
Cavaliers: Host Toronto on Sunday.
Hawks: Host Brooklyn on Sunday.

Trae Young scored 34 points and the Hawks beat the Cavs 136-119 on Friday night in their first game under interim coach Joe Prunty.

Hawks pull away in first half, rout Cavaliers 136-119

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) &mdash; Negativity has dogged the Kentucky basketball program since its disappointing loss to South Carolina on Tuesday.
Heading into Saturday&rsquo;s 63-56 win over No. 5 Tennessee, Wildcats coach John Calipari did his best to insulate his players while absorbing as many bullets as possible himself.
&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t lost faith in any of these guys,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a good team. (Friday night), I collected all the (players&rsquo; cell) phones and iPads and everything else.&rdquo;
Antonio Reeves scored 18 points and Oscar Tshiebwe had 15 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Wildcats (11-6, 2-3 Southeastern Conference) over the Volunteers. The victory ended a 25-game home win streak for Tennessee (14-3, 4-1) that dated back to the end of the 2020-21 season.
Kentucky led 58-50 with 3:28 left in the game. Two free throws by Santiago Vescovi and two buckets by Uros Plavsic closed the gap to two with less than a minute to play.
A Wildcat turnover gave Tennessee a shot to tie or take the lead, but Zakai Zeigler and Plavsic missed down low.
&ldquo;Both coaches made it a slugfest,&rdquo; said Calipari. &ldquo;Nobody backed down.&rdquo;
The Wildcats showed a physical presence and dominated the Volunteers on the boards, 43-23. Tennessee came into the game leading the SEC in rebounding margin (+9.94).
&ldquo;Our frontline&rsquo;s gotta do a better job rebounding,&rdquo; said Tennessee coach Rick Barnes. &ldquo;On the defensive end, we have to get everyone involved.&rdquo;
The Tennessee big man Plavsic, who scored 19 points, was the only Vol to match Kentucky&rsquo;s physicality.
Calipari said the strategy was to focus on the Vols&rsquo; perimeter play, while letting Plavsic have his way.
&ldquo;They can beat us with 3s,&rdquo; said Calipari. &ldquo;They won&rsquo;t beat us with 2s.&rdquo;
CJ Fredrick scored eight in a row and had 10 of his 13 points in the first half as Kentucky led at the break, 33-26.
Vescovi, who tweaked his shooting (left) shoulder in a collision early in the game, had seven in the first half for Tennessee. He finished with 13 points.
&ldquo;We had some uncontested looks at the rim,&rdquo; Barnes said. &ldquo;Point-blank layups &mdash; you&rsquo;ve gotta make them.&rdquo;
POLL IMPLICATIONS
During his 36 seasons as a head coach in college basketball, Rick Barnes has led his teams into the AP Top 25 a total of 299 weeks. That includes 131 weeks in the Top 10.
BIG PICTURE
Kentucky: Besides the frustration that comes with six losses this early in the season, the Wildcats have had to deal with injury problems. G Cason Wallace (back) and F Jacob Toppin (shoulder) have been sidelined. Both started against the Vols. &hellip; Big man Oscar Tshiebwe leads the SEC with 10 double-doubles this season. &hellip; Sahvir Wheeler leads the SEC with 6.3 assists a game. This is his third straight year on top. &hellip; John Calipari coached his 36th game against Tennessee. No other coach has led his team against the Vols in as many games.
Tennessee: Senior G Santiago Vescovi has been hot lately. He came into the Kentucky game averaging 16.5 points over his last five games while shooting 60% from the field and 57% from 3-point. &hellip; Zakai Ziegler, who has gotten used to his role as a point guard coming off the bench, had 27 assists in his last three games heading into Saturday. &hellip; Chris Lofton (2004-08), the SEC&rsquo;s all-time leader in 3-point baskets made (431), had his No. 5 hoisted into the rafters of Thompson-Boling Arena.
UP NEXT
Kentucky: Hosts Georgia on Tuesday.
Tennessee: Visits Mississippi State on Tuesday.

Antonio Reeves scored 18 points and Oscar Tshiebwe had 15 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Wildcats over the Volunteers.

Calipari, Kentucky silence doubters, beat No. 5 Tennessee

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Brooklyn got another win. Now the Nets have to hope for good news on Kevin Durant.
Royce O'Neale's putback with 3.2 seconds left put Brooklyn to stay, and the Nets beat the Miami Heat 102-101 on Sunday night in a game where Durant left in the third quarter with a right knee injury.
&ldquo;Right knee, he'll get evaluated tomorrow and then hopefully I'll have some more info," Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said. &ldquo;Most likely it will include imaging, just to make sure we're good."
Durant was awaiting his teammates after the big finish, giving them all fist bumps as they walked into the locker room. Vaughn said he did not ask Durant how he was feeling, though Kyrie Irving said his friend was in good spirits.
Durant left with 36.6 seconds left in the third quarter, not long after he appeared to get hurt on a drive by Miami's Jimmy Butler. Durant grabbed at his right knee after Butler, who had just driven to the basket, landed with his back to Durant and fell into him.
&ldquo;Those plays are scary, because when someone&rsquo;s not looking what&rsquo;s going on, anything can happen in those moments,&rdquo; Irving said. &ldquo;So I&rsquo;m grateful for all that time he&rsquo;s put in the weight room putting his body in a great position, and his body was able to save him from something worse.&rdquo;
Durant took two big hits in the second half. He also grabbed at the knee after being called for an offensive foul on a drive where he collided with Miami's Kyle Lowry with 7:57 left in the third.
&ldquo;You never want to see him go down like that," Vaughn said. &ldquo;Any player, for that matter. Pretty hard collision, but you've got to give our group credit for staying with it."
Irving scored 29 to lead the Nets, who have won 18 of their last 20 &mdash; after winning only nine of their first 20 games. Durant had 17 before departing and Seth Curry scored 14 for Brooklyn.
Nic Claxton had 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Nets.
Butler scored 26 for Miami, which got 24 from Tyler Herro. <a href="https://twitter.com/BallyHEAT/status/1612260290938257408?s=20">Butler missed a contested shot at the rim on the game&rsquo;s final play,</a> and Herro was shaken up on it as well before limping off &mdash; replays showing he may have slipped.
&ldquo;Jimmy made the absolute right play," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, after the team argued for a foul to no avail.
Spoelstra said Herro indicated postgame that he was fine, but the team will know more Monday. Bam Adebayo was limited in the second half because of a right hand contusion &mdash; X-rays were negative &mdash; and scored 10 for Miami, as did Max Strus and Haywood Highsmith.
Brooklyn led 66-64 at the half, with Irving leading the Nets with 24 and the teams both shooting well &mdash; 54% for Miami, 57% for Brooklyn.
And then in the third, the defenses showed up.
Brooklyn shot 28% in the quarter, Miami 25%, and the Heat outscored the Nets 18-13 in the period to take a three-point lead into the fourth.
Miami led by as many as nine in the final quarter, went up 101-100 on back-to-back baskets by Butler late, but couldn't corral the rebound on Irving's missed 30-footer in the final seconds. <a href="https://twitter.com/YESNetwork/status/1612258949243482117?s=20&amp;t=Xj7MNRicRcfWvztP6dv1tw">O'Neale got the rebound and turned it into the eventual winner.</a>
&ldquo;I was just right there to finish it," O'Neale said.
TIP-INS
Nets: Claxton blocked three shots and has at least three blocks in six consecutive games. Only the Lakers&rsquo; Anthony Davis has done that this season, and no Nets player has done that since Shawn Bradley had two separate 11-game streaks in 1996.
Heat: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was in attendance, as was DJ Khaled. ... Caleb Martin (left quadriceps strain) was out. ... Lowry and Victor Oladipo each were 2 for 10. ... Miami is 21-20 at the season's midway point.
DURANT MILESTONE
Durant needed just two points to pass Dominique Wilkins (26,668) for 14th on the NBA's career scoring list. With 17 on Sunday, Durant is up to 26,684.
He's 26 points away from No. 13 Oscar Robertson (26,710).
&nbsp;

Kevin Durant left with an injury but the Brooklyn Nets got a Royce O'Neale putback with 3.2 seconds to beat the Miami Heat 102-101.

Nets top Heat 102-101, lose Durant to right knee injury

On Monday, Nike announced that it officially cut ties with Kyrie Irving due to him sharing a link to the documentary "Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America," which many have labeled antisemitic. The news comes after Nike had suspended Irving and canceled his signature sneaker line.&nbsp;
The relationship between Irving and Nike began to deteriorate prior to the recent controversy. Last July, Irving said that the Kyrie 8 sneakers were "trash" and that he had "nothing to do with the design or marketing" of the shoe, but that "Nike plans to release it without my okay."
However, Nike co-founder Phil Knight specifically mentioned Irving's scandal as the reason the company was parting ways with him.
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&ldquo;Kyrie stepped over the line, it&rsquo;s kind of that simple,&rdquo; says Nike co-founder Phil Knight. &ldquo;He just made some statements we can&rsquo;t abide by and that&rsquo;s why we ended the relationship.&rdquo; <a href="https://t.co/VWWAEbsIku">pic.twitter.com/VWWAEbsIku</a>
&mdash; CNBC (@CNBC) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/1590741070018641931?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 10, 2022</a></blockquote>

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After nearly a decade-long run of success with Nike, Irving is officially a sneaker free agent.
In response to this, during Wednesday's game against the Charlotte Hornets, Irving wore the Kyrie 3s with the Raygun colorway, but employed black tape to cover the Nike Swoosh logos. Additionally, he handwrote in marker the messages "I AM FREE" and "Thank you God... I AM" and "Logo Here" on the side of his shoes.
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Kyrie Irving covered up the Swoosh on his Nike Kyrie 3 with some messages following his official split with the company. Irving is a sneaker free agent <a href="https://t.co/xyKS4qN1qd">pic.twitter.com/xyKS4qN1qd</a>
&mdash; Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) <a href="https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1600692264774287360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2022</a></blockquote>

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(The Brooklyn Nets also won 122-116, with Irving leading all scorers with 33 points and finishing one assist shy of a double-double.)
Irving&rsquo;s agent, Shetellia Riley Irving, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/05/business/nike-kyrie-irving.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The New York Times</a> that the sides &ldquo;mutually decided to part ways and we just wish Nike all the best.&rdquo;
On my radio show, "The Collision: Where Sports And Politics Collide,&rdquo; my guest was Torraine Walker, the <a href="https://twitter.com/TorraineWalker" target="_blank" rel="noopener">founder of Context Media Group</a>. We examined what Nike&rsquo;s decision to break ties with Irving means in the grander scheme of things, what actually constitutes antisemitism and if an ADL-style punishment is the answer. This was a great discussion.
Etan Thomas: What was your response to Nike dropping Kyrie and his response to being free? Were you surprised they did that?
Torraine Walker: "No I wasn&rsquo;t really surprised. I know once this controversy blew up that there was going to be some type of corporate response to it. I didn&rsquo;t think it would go to this extreme, but at the same time, I can&rsquo;t really say that I&rsquo;m surprised. Whether we like it or not, sports and politics are often divisions, and anything that looks like it&rsquo;s going to affect the brand, the bottom line, is going to be dealt with harshly when you&rsquo;re dealing with corporations.
"But the one thing I think this really lays out is, it shows the difference between ownership and sponsorship. A lot of times, we get caught up in the idea that someone who is the face of a brand has some type of bargaining power to the level that they can make contractual decisions. So this 'Hebrews To Negroes' controversy was so big that Nike could not ignore it.
"The other side is this &mdash; I think this is a great opportunity for Kyrie and also other athletes to look at basically creating their own brand and basically having some ownership in the products they are endorsing and have their faces on. Now, the question is, will the public get on board with that? Let&rsquo;s be honest, Nike has such a stronghold on the market and such strong brand loyalty and brand recognition that it&rsquo;s going to be difficult for someone who is coming into the market to do that. But I&rsquo;m not surprised at all that Nike did what they did."
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Thomas: What role did the media have in really magnifying this issue and controversy?&nbsp;
Walker: "The media had the primary role in keeping this 'controversy' going as long as it did. I can see the point where the posting of the documentary may have ruffled some feathers, or it made some people feel like it was an antisemitic thing. But usually when something like this happens, if an athlete or celebrity does something that people take offense to, people get offended, the athlete releases a statement, there&rsquo;s usually a cooling off period and, then, it goes away.
"But for some reason, there was this drive in the media to make this thing bigger than it was. They took a two-day story and made it into a month story, and I still don&rsquo;t fully understand the motivation behind that. I know a lot of organizations were pushing this. And I wonder if people inside the Nike organization was pushing this as well because, if I&rsquo;m not mistaken, Kyrie&rsquo;s contract is coming up anyway.
"But I think with the media, this was just the an opportunity for them to jump on an antisemitic angle with Black people and a Black man specifically, and they can run with it. So they saw a hot story and narrative that they could really push, and that&rsquo;s why we are where we are with this situation with Nike dropping him today. So to answer your question, the media had a huge role in this."
Thomas: What do you think about Kyrie and what he did with his shoes on Tuesday night &mdash; putting the tape over the logo and writing "I Am Free." What was your reaction to that?&nbsp;
Walker: "I was in favor of it, and I&rsquo;m glad he did it that way. My question is, how long will this be sustainable? It&rsquo;s easy to create a moment, it&rsquo;s easy to get people&rsquo;s attention, but can you direct that attention into something that will then be tangible for you to really be 'free?' And what does 'freedom' look like? Freedom looks like something different to everybody. Does this mean he is free from having to hold his tongue on issues he is concerned about? Does this mean he is free to create his own sneaker line? Does this mean he is free psychologically? I would love get clarification on that. I think it was a powerful statement, especially the timing, but would love to see it turn into something tangible."
Thomas: You mentioned something before, and it's the question that I continued to ask throughout this entire process: what is considered "antisemitic?" I think right now, there is a wider and wider bucket of what is being casted as antisemitic. On my show, "The Rematch," I spoke with an actual Rabbi, Harry Rozenberg, and we talked about this. He said, "Well, I may have a different opinion than your's, and feel very strongly and emotionally about my different opinion, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean your's is antisemitic." So I&rsquo;m asking you, in your opinion, what exactly is antisemitic?
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Walker: "Well, in my opinion, being antisemitic means you are making hateful statements about Jewish people, or you are calling for their extermination &mdash; which is what a lot of white supremacists and neo-Nazis call for. I don&rsquo;t believe that having questions about Judaism or having questions or issues as a Black man in America with the relationship between Black people and Jewish people is necessarily 'antisemitic.'
"And what&rsquo;s happening now is, any questioning of anything having to do with Jewish people or the state of Israel is being seen as antisemitic, and I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s fair and it doesn&rsquo;t make for a rational conversation. It has become this thing where even if you mention it, you are labeled as antisemitic, and that shuts down any conversation. So to answer your question, my definition of antisemitism is violent hatred of any person who is Jewish. That&rsquo;s my definition of it."
Thomas: Well, I couldn&rsquo;t agree more. I had a debate with Dave Zirin, my regular co-host on The Collision, when he guested on The Rematch, and we disagreed for literally the entire interview. We just had a different view of everything that had occurred, and this is when everything first happened.
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I mentioned my debate with Harry Rozenberg and we disagreed at times &mdash; we definitely disagreed when it came to discussing Palestine and Israel &mdash; but we also agreed that everything isn&rsquo;t in the "antisemitic" bucket. I think one of the things that happens is, when you label something as "antisemitic," it&rsquo;s kind of a lazy argument because it shuts down all conversation. Once you say something is antisemitic, then there is no conversation. But I think there are different things that can and should be discussed without the label of "antisemitic."
Walker: "Absolutely, and like I said earlier, when you are an African-American, your ideas on what 'antisemitism' means and what discrimination feels like is very different than what someone else from a different demographic may be familiar with. And this is not to say that people who are Jewish have not dealt with discrimination and bigotry in Europe and America &mdash; they definitely have &mdash; but that conversation has to change a little bit when we&rsquo;re talking about Black people.
"Because, we have to be honest: Black people are still collectively at the bottom of the economic ladder in America. And our relationship with someone who may be a landlord or someone who is exploiting them, it may be coming from an attitude of pushing back against exploitation. It doesn&rsquo;t mean that it&rsquo;s antisemitic, and a lot of times that gets lost in this conversation.
"But I do think that one thing that has come out of this conversation with Kyrie and Nike and Kanye [West] and [Dave] Chappelle, to an extent, is that these conversations are beginning to happen and they have to happen in order for any meaningful, impactful dialogue to take place. You can&rsquo;t just label something as antisemitic and then shut down the conversation and punish anyone who brought it up like Nike did with Kyrie."
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Thomas: I agree 100%. And yes, Nike&rsquo;s decision to drop Kyrie in the wake of him sharing the documentary "Hebrews To Negroes" has actually made them become part of the problem we&rsquo;ve seen with the ADL. Punishment over dialogue. Labeling over discussion and understanding.&nbsp;
Van Jones also took it upon himself to apologize to the Jewish community on behalf of the entire Black community for statements made by Kanye West &mdash; even though I don&rsquo;t know who appointed him as spokesperson for the Black community. But before we finish, let me make this point clear: a lot of people are, and have been, conflating Kanye West a.k.a. Ye and Kyrie Irving, but they are two COMPLETELY separate issues. One is NOT like the other and should NEVER be lumped together in any way, shape or form.
Walker: "I definitely agree."
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Etan Thomas speaks with Torraine Walker to discuss Nike parting ways with Kyrie Irving, how he responded and what it could mean.

Nike employs ADL tactics as it officially drops Kyrie Irving

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) &mdash; Olivia Miles had 21 points and eight rebounds for No. 7 Notre Dame, and UConn star Azzi Fudd was injured in a collision with a teammate as the Fighting Irish handed the third-ranked Huskies their first loss of the season, 74-60 on Sunday.
Fudd, who came in averaging 24.0 points per game, exited in the final minute of the first quarter following a collision with teammate Aaliyah Edwards. She returned midway through the second period to play four minutes, but sat the rest of the day, going scoreless on two shots over 13 minutes.
Maddy Westbeld added a season-high 17 points and nine rebounds for Notre Dame (7-1), which bounced back from a 74-72 loss to No. 20 Maryland three days earlier.
Lou Lopez Senechal led UConn (6-1) with 21 points. Edwards added 14.
No. 2 STANFORD 84, No. 23 GONZAGA 63
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) &mdash; Cameron Brink had 14 points and a season-high 16 rebounds and Brooke Demetre made five 3s and scored 17 points, leading Stanford past Gonzaga.
The Cardinal (10-1) have now won five straight games after falling to top-ranked South Carolina in overtime on Nov. 20.
Hannah Jump hit four 3s and scored 14 points and Haley Jones had 12 points for Stanford.
Short-handed Gonzaga (7-2), limited to seven players because of illness and injuries, had won three in a row.
No. 4 OHIO STATE 82, RUTGERS 70
PISCATAWAY, N.J. (AP) &mdash; Rebeka Mikulasikova scored a career-high 31 points and Taylor Mikesell added 30 to help Ohio State beat Rutgers, a day that the Scarlet Knights honored former coach C. Vivian Stringer.
The school dedicated the court to Stringer, who retired after last season.
Buoyed by the return of their Hall of Fame coach, Rutgers played its best game of the season against a ranked opponent. Ohio State (8-0) jumped out to a 20-6 lead after one quarter, but the Scarlet Knights (4-6) wouldn&rsquo;t go away.
They were down 18 near the end of the half before Kaylene Smikle hit a 3-pointer just before the buzzer to get within 43-28. Rutgers continued that momentum in the second half and made it 53-45 with 3:25 left in the third quarter.
Mikulasikova and Mikesell then scored the next six points for Ohio State to restore the double-digit advantage, and Rutgers couldn&rsquo;t recover.
Smikle led Rutgers with 21 points.
No. 5 INDIANA 65, ILLINOIS 61
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) &mdash; Mackenzie Holmes scored 23 points, including a go-ahead layup with 37 seconds left, and Indiana got past Illinois in their Big Ten opener.
Indiana (9-0) had not trailed in the second half of any game this season before going back and forth in the closing minutes with Illinois (3-7).
Makira Cook scored 33 points to lead the Illini.
The Hoosiers were coming off an 87-63 win over No. 6 North Carolina.
No. 9 VIRGINIA TECH 59, TENNESSEE 56
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) &mdash; Kayana Traylor scored 18 points and Virginia Tech held off Tennessee in a Jimmy V Women&rsquo;s Classic matchup.
Jordan Horston led Tennesssee (4-5) with 26 points and 11 rebounds, but missed a pair of late shots that would&rsquo;ve tied it.
Trailing 58-56 with 3 seconds left, Horston was off on a jumper. Down three with 1.1 seconds remaining, her 3-point try from the top of the key bounced off.
Cayla King scored 11 points and Georgia Amoore and D&rsquo;asia Gregg each had 10 for the Hokies (8-0).
Tennessee played without leading scorer and rebounder Rickea Jackson, who was absent because of a coach&rsquo;s decision.
No. 10 IOWA 102, WISCONSIN 71
MADISON, Wis. (AP) &mdash; Caitlin Clark had 22 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for her seventh career triple-double to break the Big Ten record in Iowa&rsquo;s win over Wisconsin.
Clark surpassed the record of six career triple-doubles set by former Iowa player Samantha Logic, who achieved the feat from 2012-2015.
Iowa (6-3) stopped a two-game skid and beat the Badgers (3-7) for the 26th straight time.
No. 11 LSU 85, TULANE 72
NEW ORLEANS (AP) &mdash; Angel Reese scored 21 points and had 10 rebounds and Jasmine Carson scored 21 and LSU beat Tulane.
The Tigers (9-0) are off to their best since winning their first nine in the 2009-10 season.
LSU led 27-20 in a first quarter in which it made 11 of 16 shots and Tulane 9 for 17. The Tigers extended their lead to 40-27 at halftime before the Green Wave unloaded with a 30-point third in which it shot 12 for 16 including 6 for 7 from 3-point range. Dynah Jones scored 16 of her team-high 25 points for Tulane in the quarter and the Green Wave closed to 61-58.
Reese made 1 of 2 foul shots for the Tigers and Kahia Warmsley responded with a layup for Tulane to get it within two, but LaDazhia Williams made a layup and Carson a 3 and LSU kept Tulane at bay from there. Reese made two foul shots with 5:01 left to extend the lead to 73-62.
Marta Galic scored 21 points for Tulane.
ST. JOHN&rsquo;S 66, No. 13 CREIGHTON 62
NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; Jayla Everett scored 20 points and St. John&rsquo;s remained unbeaten by handing Creighton its first loss.
The Red Storm had a 47-32 lead in the middle of the third quarter before the Bluejays got it down to a one-possession deficit in the final 90 seconds.
After Emma Ronsiek&rsquo;s basket pulled Creighton within 61-59 with 1:27 to play, the Bluejays had a possession to tie or take the lead but couldn&rsquo;t score.
Kadaj Bailey and Unique Drake had 13 points apiece for St. John&rsquo;s (8-0, 2-0 Big East Conference).
Lauren Jensen scored 21 points for the Bluejays (7-1, 2-1) but couldn&rsquo;t get the tying jumper to fall with 13 seconds to go.
No. 14 ARIZONA 77, NEW MEXICO 60
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) &mdash; Jade Loville made 10 of 13 shots, including a career-best six 3-pointers, and scored 27 points to lead Arizona to a win over New Mexico.
Shaina Pellington added 19 points for the Wildcats (7-0), who had their lowest output of the year and won by less than 20 for only the second time this season.
Paula Reus scored 14 points for the Lobos (4-4).
No. 17 MICHIGAN 77, NORTHWESTERN 66
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) &mdash; Emily Kiser and Laila Phelia scored 18 points each and Michigan shut down Northwestern with an 8-0 run in the fourth quarter.
Leigha Brown added 10 points and 11 assists for Michigan (9-0), which won its Big Ten opener.
Jillian Brown had 17 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals for Northwestern (4-4, 0-1 Big Ten). Caileigh Walsh had 12 points and four blocks, and Sydney Wood scored 10 points.
MIDDLE TENNESSEE 67, No. 18 LOUISVILLE 49
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) &mdash; Savannah Wheeler had 23 points, six rebounds and five assists, Courtney Whitson added 16 points and 10 rebounds and Middle Tennessee beat cold-shooting Louisville.
Middle Tennessee (5-2) won its first home game against a ranked opponent since the Lady Raiders beat No. 6 Kentucky 70-58 on December 28, 2011.
Kseniya Malashka added 15 points for Middle Tennessee (5-2).
Olivia Cochran scored a season-high 14 points for Louisville (5-4).
NEBRASKA 90, No. 20 MARYLAND 67
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) &mdash; Jaz Shelley scored 29 points, Nebraska dominated the second half and the Cornhuskers surprised Maryland in the Big Ten Conference opener for both teams.
Allison Weidner had 13 points and 15 rebounds for Nebraska (6-3). Isabelle Bourne had 18 points and Alexis Markowski added 14. Shelley had six 3-pointers, five assists and three steals.
Two free throws from Diamond Miller drew Maryland (7-3) to within 77-67 points with 4:03 remaining, but the Terrapins would not score again while Nebraska scored 13.
No. 21 BAYLOR 79, HOUSTON CHRISTIAN 35
WACO, Texas (AP) &mdash; Freshman guard Bella Fontleroy came off the bench to score 17 points and grab 11 rebounds and Baylor romped to a victory over Houston Christian.
Fontleroy sank 6 of 10 shots with three 3-pointers for the Lady Bears (6-2) and notched her first double-double. Jaden Owens added 14 points and six assists. Kendra Gillispie scored 10 on 5-of-6 shooting.
Marilyn Nzoiwu was the lone bright spot for the Huskies (3-4). She finished with 13 points and five rebounds, sinking 6 of 9 shots from the floor. Her teammates made 8 of 40 shots, including 2 of 15 from beyond the arc.
The Lady Bears played a fifth straight game without injured leading scorer Aijha Blackwell.
No. 22 TEXAS 92, SOUTHERN 43
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) &mdash; Shaylee Gonzales scored 22 points, Sonya Morris added 20 points, and Texas routed Southern.
Aaliyah Moore scored 11 points and DeYona Gaston had 10 for the Longhorns (4-4). Rori Harmon had nine points and 10 rebounds.
Freshman guard Sirviva Legions led the Jaguars (2-5) with 13 points off the bench.
The Longhorns rolled to a 29-10 lead through the first quarter after making 10 of 14 shots. They scored 11 points off seven Southern turnovers. Texas went on to lead 46-16 at halftime.
SETON HALL 82, No. 24 MARQUETTE 78
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. (AP) &mdash; Lauren Park-Lane scored 17 of her 31 points in the fourth quarter, Sidney Cooks added 23 and Seton Hall knocked off Marquette.
Kae Satterfield added 12 points for Seton Hall (6-4, 2-0 Big East Conference), which has won four straight. The Pirates last beat a ranked team, No. 24 DePaul, in January 2019.
Chloe Marotta scored 30 points and had 12 rebounds for the Golden Eagles (7-2, 1-1). Jordan King added 14 points and Liz Karlen had 12 points and nine rebounds.
No. 25 VILLANOVA 79, PROVIDENCE 54
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) &mdash; Maddy Seigrist scored 20 of her 29 points in the first half and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Villanova past Providence.
Seigrist was 12-of-18 shooting, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range. The Wildcats (7-2, 1-1 Big East Conference) made 12 of 28 behind the arc and shot 52% overall (33 of 63). Lucy Olsen added 14 points and Bella Runyan 10.
Janai Crooms led the Friars (6-4, 0-2) with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

A recap of Sunday's women's college basketball slate features a top-10 battle.

Notre Dame tops UConn as Azzi Fudd gets hurt

TORONTO (AP) &mdash; Pascal Siakam had 23 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out, O.G. Anunoby scored 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter and the Toronto Raptors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 108-105 Wednesday night.
Gary Trent Jr. scored 19 points, and Scottie Barnes and Fred Van Vleet each had 15 as Toronto outscored Cleveland 32-21 in the final period.
Donovan Mitchell scored 31 points in his Cleveland debut, Jarrett Allen had 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Evan Mobley added 14 points for the Cavaliers, who held an eight-point lead through three quarters but failed to close it out.
Cleveland All-Star guard Darius Garland injured his left eye in a collision with Trent late in the second quarter and didn't return. Garland shot 2 for 8 and scored four points in 13 minutes.
Cedi Osman scored 17 points and Mitchell had nine assists for the Cavaliers, who are hoping to take a step forward this season after acquiring him from Utah over the summer. Cleveland reached the play-in tournament last spring, but was eliminated after losing in Brooklyn and at home to Atlanta.
Toronto shot 8 for 22 from 3&ndash;point range through the first three quarters, but made 5 of 8 from long distance in the fourth.
The Cavaliers led 97-92 with 4:55 left in the fourth before Barnes scored and Anunoby made a pair of free throws that cut the deficit to one.
After Allen turned the ball over, Anunoby fed Barnes for a driving dunk that put Toronto up 98-97 with 3:31 left.
Cleveland led 57-51 at the half. Mitchell scored 10 points in the third as the Cavs took an 84-76 lead to the fourth.
TIP-INS
Cavaliers: Osman took Garland&rsquo;s place to begin the second half. &hellip; Cleveland shot 9 for 18 in the third quarter. &hellip; F Mamadi Diakite (not with team), G Ricky Rubio (left knee) and G-F Dylan Windler (right ankle) were not available.
Raptors: Barnes had a team-high seven assists. &hellip; Toronto has eight international players, leading the league for the second consecutive season. Dallas, Indiana and Sacramento have seven. &hellip; C Khem Birch (left knee), F Chris Boucher (left hamstring) and F Otto Porter Jr. (left hamstring) were not available.
IN THE FOLD
Toronto exercised the third-year team option on Barnes and the fourth-year team options on F Precious Achiuwa and G Malachi Flynn. All three are signed through 2023-24.
UP NEXT
Cavaliers: Visit Chicago on Saturday night
Raptors: Visit Brooklyn on Friday night.

Pascal Siakam had 23 points and 11 rebounds, O.G. Anunoby scored 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter and the Raptors won.

Raptors overcome Mitchell's 31 points, beat Cavs 108-105

Jalen Suggs and the Orlando Magic can breathe a bit easier.
Suggs has a sprained left knee capsule and bone bruise, but his collision with Dallas' Dorian Finney-Smith during the Magic-Mavericks preseason game Friday night did not lead to more serious injuries.
The Magic announced the results of Suggs' MRI on Saturday morning, saying his return to play &ldquo;will depend on how he responds to treatment."
&ldquo;He's worked his tail off and he's going to continue to work his tail off," Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. &ldquo;That's what we can depend on for him."
Suggs got hurt on a play where he was fouled by Dallas' Spencer Dinwiddie and collided into Finney-Smith, immediately grabbing at his left knee. He had checked into the game only 1:38 earlier.
The No. 5 pick in the 2021 draft out of Gonzaga missed 34 games last season, mostly because of thumb and ankle injuries, but finished his rookie year with averages of 11.8 points and 4.4 assists.
He joins a lengthy list of Magic players currently sidelined, including 2017 No. 1 pick Markelle Fultz (fractured left big toe), guard Gary Harris (left knee meniscectomy recovery), forward Admiral Schofield (bruised left knee) and forward Jonathan Isaac &mdash; who hasn't played since 2020 because of ongoing left knee injury recovery.
Orlando has two preseason games left, both at home, against Memphis on Tuesday and Cleveland on Friday. The Magic open the regular season at Detroit on Oct. 19.

Orlando Magic point guard Jalen Suggs has a sprained left knee capsule and bone bruise.

Jalen Suggs has sprained knee capsule and bone bruise, Magic say

Nekias Duncan thoroughly breaks down all five teams in the Central Division ahead of the 2022-23 season.

2022-23 NBA Season Preview: Central Division

In a released statement, Phoenix Suns and Mercury governor Robert Sarver announced that he will be reluctantly <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/robert-sarver-announces-intentions-to-sell-phoenix-suns-mercury" target="_blank" rel="noopener">selling his portion of the franchise</a>. Simultaneously, he made sure to make the point clear that this was against his wishes, and that he didn&rsquo;t believe any of this was fair to him.&nbsp;
Let&rsquo;s be clear: This isn&rsquo;t a real punishment. Sarver is cashing out, and stands to make around $2 billion when he sells the franchise. But that doesn&rsquo;t appear to be the point for him. No, instead, Sarver has somehow transformed himself into the victim in the situation.
Recently, AndScape senior writer (and frequent guest on ESPN's Around The Horn) David Dennis Jr. <a href="https://archive.wpfwfm.org/mp3/wpfw_220922_100000collision.mp3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">joined my show</a> with Dave Zirin, "The Collision: Where Sports And Politics Collide."
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We asked Dennis to discuss Sarver&rsquo;s unapologetic departure and his possible plans in the near future.
Etan Thomas: David, I want to read <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidDTSS/status/1572641668251389952?s=20&amp;t=3AvIsxxafvOpk7M31VHjsw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a tweet of yours</a>. I want you just to go a little bit more in-depth. In this tweet, I saw the segment on Around the Horn and I thought it was great; that's the reason I reached out to you. But your tweet said, "Pardon my cynicism here, but Sarver already seems to be planning out his cancel culture tour that is going to make him richer than he was before. And we've seen all of this before." Go into a little more detail about what you meant.
David Dennis Jr.: "Yeah. So, he took an excruciatingly long, what, five days to decide to give up the team? And Sarver has already greased the wheels to start his cancel culture tour, which we've seen so many celebrities do after they're called out for racism, misogyny, sexual misconduct, etc. Instead of owning up to it, they say, 'Well, I was canceled by this woke mob.' Basically, code language that says, 'These Black folks, these women, etc. are out of control and they cost me my career,' and they go on a Fox News tour pushing that false narrative. And Sarver's comments that he made about why he's selling the team were all about that. It was about the fact that he wasn't given a chance to do right, it was the fact that he was basically saying cancel culture without saying that phrase.
"And this is a pathway that so many other people have taken that he now seems ready to take himself. He can write a book about how he was wronged by these NBA players. He can go on Fox News and the Newsmaxes of the world as a business consultant and talk about this. He can go on a worldwide tour, basically talking about how he was the affronted person, because of the fact that he was not allowed to clear himself of all of the racism and misogyny that he was accused of. And we've seen this so many times, and there's so much money to be made in it. Now, as far as the penalty? There&rsquo;s really no penalty for being a terrible person. I mean, he's already going to sell the team for $2 billion, and he has a financial forward-thinking thing that he's already looking forward to."
Dave Zirin: What were your thoughts, David, about the way that Adam Silver handled all of this? Initially, Silver was widely criticized for how he handled this. And then, a school of thought has emerged that said, "Maybe Silver played it correctly because he allowed public opinion to push Sarver out." I frankly wonder if that gives Silver too much credit, but I would love to hear your thoughts.
Dennis: "Yeah. I mean, there's one thing that this country loves to do &mdash; it loves to give white men the benefit of the doubt, especially when it comes to racial reckoning, right? There's always some idea that there is some great master plan. I don't see the master plan. I see a guy who was being paid by the owners to speak out on behalf of the owners, and that's what he did. The other 30 white-men billionaires did not see enough of a problem with what Sarver did to kick him out of the league. Adam Silver got that memo, and he went out there and was the voice box for those people. If the NBA really felt like Sarver did something or felt like they could say something strong about Sarver, the statement that they put out, the investigation would not have said that there is no racial or sexist animus in his actions of saying the N-word or insulting women.
"It was, 'Here's the information, but also, we're going to defend him at the same time.' Adam Silver, probably deep down in his hope of hopes, thought that this wasn't going to happen so that he would get let off the hook and that the NBA would look good in the long run. But the problem with that is he ends up putting the onus on Black folks, Black players, Black fans to protest. But whatever happened to white folks just going out and doing what's right just because it's the right thing to do? Which, we did not see from the other owners."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Pardon my cynicism here but Sarver already seems to be planning out his &ldquo;cancel culture tour&rdquo; and it&rsquo;s going to make him richer than he was before. We&rsquo;ve seen this before. <a href="https://t.co/ZluZo9Zdwn">pic.twitter.com/ZluZo9Zdwn</a>
&mdash; David Dennis Jr. (@DavidDTSS) <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidDTSS/status/1572641668251389952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 21, 2022</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Etan: It's interesting. We had <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/howard-beck-explains-differences-in-donald-sterling-robert-sarver-cases-" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sports Illustrated writer Howard Beck on last week</a>, and he made some good points. I asked him the difference between this situation and the Donald Sterling situation, and why they were handled differently. I thought a precedent had been set and this one didn't follow that. But he made some good points. He said some of the differences being No. 1, there was no smoking gun, no actual audio of Sarver saying this that could be repeatedly played throughout the media. The timing of everything, there wasn't the player uproar or the national media uproar, like there was with Sterling.
And he talked about even the press conference, the amount of media that was there, it paled in comparison to that of Sterling. Do you think those are all relevant factors as to why Adam Silver and the governors were reluctant to give Sarver the Sterling treatment? Or do you think those are irrelevant factors?
Dennis: "I do think that those are factors. I think, here's the biggest factor, is that [the] Donald Sterling [incident] happened in what, 2013, 2014? And since then, these white billionaires have learned that if you are in fact caught on tape saying terrible things about people, you can still become the President of the United States. And so, you've learned that there are more people who actually side with you for these things than they thought before. There was a time when Donald Sterling did this that people thought, 'Oh, this is going to be universally panned as wrong.'
"But now, we live in a society where people believe what Robert Sarver did was not wrong, and he has more backers than they originally thought. And billionaires are more likely to stick to their guns because they see that we have a country in which racism and misogyny are more accepted than they once thought it was. If you could be on the Supreme Court or President of the United States or continue to own your companies, then why the hell do I even have to listen to a bunch of Black players, a bunch of Black fans who are just upset? I'm still the one with power. So, I think that is the biggest change. It's not the change in the players or the league. It's society as a whole, that is more accepting in this country of racism, and despite all the cancel culture stuff that they're talking about."
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Zirin: But do you think, David, that there's also been a polarization? I mean, since Donald Sterling, obviously the great societal difference since then has been the growth and expansion through 2020 of the Black Lives Matter movement, the largest demonstrations in the history of the United States. I mean, it makes me wonder if the climate has also produced an environment where if we were coming up on the season, players would not have put up with this either. And I think that might have created a much greater conflict than what we're currently seeing.
Dennis: "Oh yeah. I mean, I agree in saying that there's racism, but I think that they feel like they have more backers behind what Sarver's doing than they once thought before. So, it is a different sort of environment. And players were going to be more vocal and do all those things, but there was also probably enough of what the owners believed that they can put up with than they probably could before. There's more of an appetite for being okay upsetting Black people, I think, than before. And then that's why we end up with this sort of head-on collision.
Etan: You referenced Robert Sarver's statement. I want to read a little bit of so people know exactly what we're talking about. Sarver said in his statement:&nbsp;
<blockquote>
Words that I deeply regret now overshadow nearly two decades of building organizations that brought people together and strengthened the Phoenix area through the unifying power of professional men's and women's basketball. As a man of faith, I believe in atonement and the path to forgiveness, I expected that the commissioner's one year suspension will provide the time for me to focus, make amends and remove my personal controversy from the teams that I, and so many fans love.
But in our current unforgiving climate, it has become painfully clear that this is no longer possible, that whatever good I have done or could still do is outweighed by what I have said in the past and for those reasons, I am in the process of seeking buyers for the Suns and Mercury.
</blockquote>
So, as you said, he doesn't sound very apologetic. He really sounded like he's going to not go away quietly, but we might see him on that Fox News, right-wing Tucker Carlson tour talking about how he was done wrong and unjustly forced to sell his team.
Dennis: "Yes, that's exactly what he is doing. And another thing, he said he wanted a year to atone for this. He had a year; the investigative report came out a year ago. So, these things were already out, and he had a year to fix this and make this right. And we don't even know if those are words he regrets because Robert Sarver's the only person who says that, when he said the N-word, he was repeating it from somebody else. So, we don't even know if he's telling the truth about the origin of why he was saying those words in the first place. Because I do find it hard to believe that he heard another Black person say, 'N-words in the back, white people in the front.' And he just decided to repeat that? So, he had all the time to atone and do all that stuff. This just feels like a defense that he's going to use as fuel for his... whatever campaign that he's going to run going forward."
Etan: But let me jump right in with that. Even with that, people leave out the part about Earl Watson telling him, "Wait a minute, you can't say that word. It means something different when you say it." And then, him ignoring, I guess, what Earl Watson said, or [thinking] "You&rsquo;re beneath me, you can't tell me what I can't say. Why can't I say the N-word too? if Draymond Green could say it, why can't I say it?" So he kept saying the N-word over and over &mdash; the actual word.
And it's just interesting hearing a lot of people, who happen to be white, not understand how that's unacceptable in any way shape or form when you're specifically told that what you were saying is offensive. You know what I mean? I don't understand how so many people don't make that connection.
Dennis: "I think that connection is very clear. I just think they don't care. And that's exactly what Sarver said to Earl Watson. That he doesn't care. And I think that's going to be part of his next thing is why. Can't you see him doing an N-word documentary about why can't white people say this word and Black people can? This is a tale as old as time. Every time a white person gets called out for saying the N-word, we all ask the question of, 'Why can't white people say it?' And I just want to know, why do white people want to say it so badly? It just feels like if I'm in a conversation with somebody and they say, 'Hey, that's offensive,' a decent human being just says, 'Okay, my bad, I apologize.' That&rsquo;s just how human interaction works. But this has literally tormented white folks for decades that they cannot say this one word.
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Zirin: It's really staggering. I mean, I have teenage children who understand why you don't say that word in any context. And yet, these supposedly "masters of the universe," emphasis on the word "masters" in their own mind, can't get it through their own heads about what is, or is not, offensive. And it's because as you said, they're leaning in that direction in the first place and they resent the fact they can't do what their great grandfathers were able to do, I think they say to themselves, "Why am I denied what previous generations of my white forefathers were able to do?" And that, in and of itself, offends them.
Dennis: "Yeah. I mean, and if we want to talk about a very long history, there's a long history of white men having trouble with the word 'no' when it comes to a lot of things. And part of becoming a white billionaire, quite frankly, is not taking no for an answer &mdash; no matter who it harms. And that comes to a head in these situations, and that&rsquo;s exactly what we saw with Robert Sarver."
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David Dennis Jr. speaks on Robert Sarver's poor attempt to spin his selling of the Suns and Mercury into a victim mentality.

Disgraced NBA team governor Robert Sarver blames everyone but himself

Young players who enter the NBA go through an adjustment period. The competition is highly skilled and uber-athletic, and their lifestyle changes drastically. As a result, it usually takes a season (or two) for top picks to get acclimated.&nbsp;
So, when a top pick suffers a season-ending injury before their rookie campaign begins, it&rsquo;s obviously less than ideal. At best, it costs their team a year of development. At worst, it&rsquo;s an omen of things to come.
The Oklahoma City Thunder&rsquo;s prized rookie, Chet Holmgren, recently suffered a Lisfranc injury to his right foot while defending LeBron James on a fastbreak at The CrawsOver Pro-Am in Seattle. Holmgren doesn't have an alarming injury history, but any seven-footer who weighs less than 200 pounds is going to raise certain red flags.
While we&rsquo;ve yet to see Holmgren compete regularly against NBA players, he certainly looked like the real deal last season at Gonzaga and in this year's Summer League. He&rsquo;s fluid on the offensive end, where he can handle the ball and shoot from just about anywhere. And defensively, Holmgren is a menace. His absurd 7-foot-6 inch wingspan enables him to erase shots that are launched anywhere in his vicinity.
To summarize, Holmgren&rsquo;s injury is a real bummer for everyone involved. Sure, the Thunder will suffer &ndash; and maybe get into the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes. (Wouldn&rsquo;t that be something?!) But alas, it&rsquo;s always darkest before dawn. Holmgren is not the first lottery pick to miss his entire rookie season, and there are numerous examples of these players returning to their dominant pre-injury form.
While guys like Larry Bird, Jerry Lucas and David Robinson all missed their rookie seasons for non-injury reasons, we're focusing on players who were sidelined after getting hurt. Julius Randle was also left off this list since he technically played 14 minutes prior to his season-ending injury as a rookie.
Let&rsquo;s look back at several high-end lottery picks who had to postpone their NBA debut for a full year.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Joel Embiid
Embiid is the most obvious example. His foot injury cost him his first two seasons in the NBA. He underwent surgery prior to the 2014 NBA Draft and had another surgery on that same foot the following offseason.
The Philadelphia 76ers were patient with Embiid, allowing him to miss the 2014-15 season and 2015-16 season. Once he was healthy, Embiid returned for 31 games in 2016-17, averaging 20.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game. He also connected on 36.7% of his three-point attempts.
Now, Embiid's injury issues are mostly behind him. He played in 68 games this past season, leading the league in scoring (30.6 points) while also averaging 11.7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks.
While he&rsquo;s suffered a few injuries in recent years, he&rsquo;s been far more durable than expected. Embiid is a five-time All-Star who has been named to four All-NBA teams and three All-Defensive teams.
Blake Griffin
Griffin&rsquo;s pre-rookie-year injury was tough to stomach because he fractured his kneecap in the final preseason game, meaning it wouldn&rsquo;t have happened had he sat out that last exhibition game.
Like Embiid, Griffin hit the ground running once he returned. He was a refreshing mix of power, skill, size and speed not seen since Shawn Kemp or Dominique Wilkins. He averaged 22.5 points and 12.1 rebounds per game in his first NBA season, winning Rookie of the Year and never looking back.
Griffin is a six-time All-Star, and he&rsquo;s been named to five All-NBA teams. He managed to revamp his game after his athleticism dwindled, making an impressive transformation.
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Ben Simmons
Simmons was the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, and he entered the league with plenty of hype.&nbsp;
Simmons' career got off to a slow start thanks to a broken foot suffered before his rookie season. The nature of Simmons' injury was less concerning than that of Embiid or Griffin. However, the 76ers' fan base was still awaiting the return of Embiid from his pre-rookie-year injury, so they were understandably frustrated when another top prospect was sidelined.
Fortunately for all involved, Simmons came back with a vengeance. He averaged 15.8 points, 8.2 assists and 8.1 rebounds per game in his rookie season, teasing fans with his unique mix of size and speed. While he's yet to completely reach his full potential, Simmons was obviously unaffected by his foot injury. He won Rookie of the Year in 2017-18, and he's now a three-time All-Star.
Nerlens Noel
Before Embiid landed in Philadelphia, there was Noel. Noel was projected to be a top-three pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, but then a collision with the basket cost him the end of his freshman season at Kentucky. Noel was ultimately drafted No. 6 overall by New Orleans, with the understanding that he'd miss a considerable amount of time. Noel was eventually dealt to Philadelphia as part of the Jrue Holiday trade, which was Sam Hinkie's first move in Philadelphia.
Noel rehabbed his torn ACL with the 76ers and missed the 2013-14 campaign. The following year, he returned and played 75 games. While Noel lacked a jump shot, he made an immediate impact, averaging 9.9 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in 30.8 minutes for the 18-64 76ers.
Noel's career never reached the heights that some hoped, but that has little to do with his ACL injury. He's grown into an impactful&nbsp;backup center, capable of starting for stretches for a playoff-caliber team.&nbsp;
Michael Porter Jr.
After being ranked the top high school player in the country, Porter suffered a back injury that required spinal surgeries in 2017 and 2018. Despite only playing three games at the collegiate level, Porter was still selected No. 14 in the 2018 NBA Draft based on his high-school dominance and potential.
Porter was viewed as a risky selection for the Denver Nuggets. After all, the Los Angeles Clippers' team doctor had <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/how-michael-porter-jr-became-a-star-after-career-ending-diagnosis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">written a report</a> projecting that Porter may never play again.
After missing the entirety of the 2018-19 season, Porter returned the following year and played 55 games. In 2020-21, he had a breakout campaign, averaging 19.0 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.8 threes per game.
Unfortunately, his back issues would surface again last season, as he needed another back surgery that caused him to miss all but nine games.&nbsp;
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Greg Oden
Oden's story is the saddest of the bunch. He was projected by many to be a generational talent. He was taken No. 1 overall in the 2007 NBA Draft, one pick before Kevin Durant.
After one Summer League game, his knees were already a problem. He underwent microfracture surgery on his right knee before the season began. At the time, he was the first No. 1 pick to miss his entire rookie year since David Robinson in 1987.
Oden played in only 105 games across three NBA seasons, suffering season-ending injuries in 2007-08, 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13. He retired with career averages of 8.0 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.&nbsp;
***
Lottery picks are supposed to play. They are young and vibrant, and they represent hope for a team&rsquo;s future. While incredibly scary, season-ending injuries can be more of a bump in the road than a demolition. Holmgren seems to have a very bright future, so let&rsquo;s hope his injury is more of the former.

Chet Holmgren's season-ending injury is unfortunate, but he's far from the first lottery pick to miss the entirety of his rookie year.

Chet Holmgren isn't the first NBA lottery pick to miss rookie season

Joel Embiid's final line in the box score looked a bit pedestrian compared to his usual MVP numbers. But the Philadelphia 76ers center played Game 3 anyway. With a thumb that needs a surgery. With a broken face. And just days after suffering a concussion.
His mere presence in the lineup changed the 76ers' fortunes in Game 3&nbsp;&mdash; and perhaps their chances against Miami in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The 76ers are not only alive but Embiid is well enough to make them 2-point favorites in Sunday&rsquo;s Game 4, according to <a href="https://sportsbook.fanduel.com/navigation/nba" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FanDuel Sportsbook</a>.
The Heat had some company when it came to dropping Game 3 on the road. Luka Doncic had 26 points and 13 rebounds and helped the Dallas Mavericks get back in their series against the Phoenix Suns with a victory.
The Heat and Suns lead their respective series 2-1.
&ldquo;Down 2-0, I had to do really everything possible to be out there, no matter how I was feeling,&rdquo; Embiid said.
Embiid tightened the 76ers' defense and helped open the lane for Tyrese Maxey and the outside for Danny Green. Both players scored 21 points and showed how everyone on the Sixers benefits with Embid in the lineup. Embiid is playing with a mask because of a right orbital fracture &mdash; and during breaks in action, he constantly lifted the mask and wiped sweat off his face &mdash; in the foreseeable future.
But with the season at stake, Embiid knows how vital he is to a 76ers' championship run. He had 18 points and 11 rebounds on 5-of-12 shooting from the floor in 36 minutes.
&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think I had a lot of energy, honestly,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was really trying to really get through it. Kind of, you just use my presence out there as a decoy. I feel like I pride myself really defensively. And I feel like that&rsquo;s where my presence is really felt. On the defensive end. So that&rsquo;s one of the main reasons why playing I thought I could have a huge impact.&rdquo;
Embiid's return after sitting out the first two games only added to Miami's misery. The Heat missed 23 of 30 3-point attempts, were outrebounded and had only two players in double-digit scoring.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been like that for his entire career, but that&rsquo;s not really the reason why we lost that game,&rdquo; guard Jimmy Butler said. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t get back, we turned the ball over, we didn&rsquo;t get stops, we fouled, there was a lot that went into that, but he is a big part of it.&rdquo;
Dallas ended an 11-game losing streak against Phoenix, regular season included. The Mavericks limited the impact of Devin Booker in much the same way they did Chris Paul. Booker scored 18 but was just 2 of 7 inside the 3-point line. Paul had 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting in the Suns&rsquo; lowest-scoring game of the season. Paul also had seven turnovers.
&ldquo;You&rsquo;re up two games and you know they&rsquo;re going to come out and hit you in the mouth, but I thought we could have settled down a little bit more on offense,&rdquo; Suns coach Monty Williams said.
HEAT AT 76ERS
Heat lead 2-1 Game 4, Sunday, 8 p.m. EDT, TNT
&mdash; NEED TO KNOW: The 76ers held Miami to 79 points, the first time a playoff team scored fewer than 80 since the 2012 postseason. Philadelphia held Miami to just 14 points in the final quarter, marking the 10th time since 1980 that the team has held its opponent to 15 or fewer points in the fourth quarter of a postseason game.
&mdash; KEEP AN EYE ON: Danny Green. He snapped out of a slump in a big way, making 7 of 9 3-pointers and scoring 21 points. The 76ers get offensive production from Tyrese Maxey and James Harden in spurts. A reliable Green could go a long way.
&mdash; INJURY WATCH: Other than Embiid, Kyle Lowry returned for the Miami Heat after missing four games with a hamstring injury. Lowry missed all four shots and went scoreless in 25 minutes. The Heat had won all four games in Lowry's absence. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t expect to be amazing," Lowry said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t expect to have zero points.&rdquo;
&mdash; PRESSURE IS ON: The Heat. It's impossible not to imagine it could be the Sixers going for the sweep on Sunday had Embiid played in the first two games. But the Heat could still have two more home games in the series and a road win would clearly put them in control of the series. The 76ers haven't advanced out of the second round since 2001.
MAVERICKS AT SUNS
Suns lead 2-1. Game 4, Sunday, 3:30 p.m. EDT, ESPN
&mdash; NEED TO KNOW: The Suns fell short of 50% shooting for the first time in the playoffs in Game 3, finishing at 45% to end an eight-game run. They also had a hard time getting shots for Paul and Booker. The pair combined for just 22 shots while two complementary scorers behind Doncic, Dorian Finney-Smith and Reggie Bullock, attempted 21 3-pointers and made eight (four apiece).
&mdash; KEEP AN EYE ON: Deandre Ayton&rsquo;s numbers were solid in Game 3 (16 points, 11 rebounds), but he wasn&rsquo;t the force that helped the Suns cruise in the series opener. His overall efficiency is down as well. Ayton is shooting 55% against the Mavericks after finishing at 70% in the six-game victory over New Orleans.
&mdash; INJURY WATCH: Dallas F Maxi Kleber keeps on plugging through physical challenges. He played 32 minutes after a scary fall on his back, shoulders and neck in Game 2. Then he came out of Game 3 with a little shadow under his left eye after a collision when he tried to block a dunk attempt from Mikal Bridges.
&mdash; PRESSURE IS ON: The Suns don&rsquo;t even want to think about what happened the last time they had a 2-0 lead. It was the NBA Finals last year, when Milwaukee answered with four consecutive wins. Now&rsquo;s the time for the defending West champs to put the Mavericks on the brink of elimination in Dallas&rsquo; first trip past the first round since winning the title 11 years ago.

Joel Embiid's mere presence changed the 76ers' fortunes in Game 3 — and perhaps their chances in this series against Miami Heat.

Joel Embiid's return for 76ers changes dynamic of Heat series

BOSTON (AP) &mdash; Jaylen Brown scored 32 points and Jayson Tatum had 31 to help the Boston Celtics stop a rare late-season stumble and beat the Indiana Pacers 128-123 on Friday night.
It was the eighth time this season that &ldquo;The Jays&rdquo; each scored at least 30 points.
&ldquo;We're not trying to take turns. Just playing the game the right way,&rdquo; Tatum said. &ldquo;If he takes six good shots in a row, that&rsquo;s fine with me.&rdquo;
The Pacers lost their sixth straight game despite getting 30 points from Tyrese Haliburton before he fouled out early in the fourth quarter with Indiana trailing 103-101. The Celtics led 124-120 with 40 seconds left when <a href="https://twitter.com/celtics/status/1510075050048688135">Al Horford found Tatum coming down the lane </a> for a dunk that all but sealed Boston's win.
Horford scored 17 points with 10 rebounds for the Celtics, who had won 24 of 28 games before losing to Toronto on Monday night without four of their starters. They followed it up with a loss to Miami on Wednesday &mdash; the first time they lost back-to-back games in two months as they climbed from below .500 to the top of the Eastern Conference standings.
But a loss to the Pacers, a non-playoff team with the fifth-most losses in the league, would have been more concerning.
&ldquo;Credit to them for making it tough on you,&rdquo; Celtics coach Ime Udoka said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re playing loose and free with nothing to lose right now. You can tell. At the same time, we&rsquo;re aiding them.&rdquo;
Oshae Brissett and Jalen Smith scored 17 points apiece for the Pacers.
The Celtics scored 11 of the first 13 points in the game before giving up the next nine to tie it. Boston took a 37-28 at the end of the first quarter and led by as many as 10 points in the second.
FOULED OUT
Haliburton had 22 points at halftime and had 30 points on 10-for-11 shooting &mdash; including 6 for 6 from 3-point range &mdash; before picking up his fifth foul with 4:27 left in the third quarter on a collision with Boston&rsquo;s Derrick White while going for a loose ball.
Haliburton complained about the call, and got coach Rick Carlisle to challenge it, but it was upheld. Haliburton sat out the rest of the third and the first 3:33 of the fourth, then lasted just 14 seconds before fouling out, drawing jeers from the crowd.
INJURIES
The Celtics, who lost center Robert Williams III to a meniscus tear on Sunday, had a few injury scares against Indiana, but Udoka said everyone is OK.
Brown appeared wobbly after getting hit in the face by teammate Grant Williams but he returned. Williams is OK after stepping on someone's foot. Guard Marcus Smart limped off to the locker room at the end of the first half after a collision with Daniel Theis but returned for the third quarter.
&ldquo;I reaggravated an injury in my right ankle. It scared me for a moment as well,&rdquo; Smart said. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t need to be going down at this time, getting close to the playoffs. But I&rsquo;m fine. Checked it out. I&rsquo;ll be all right.&rdquo;
TIP-INS
Before the game, the Celtics honored longtime Pacers director of media relations David Benner. Celtics vice president Jeff Twiss presented Benner, who has worked for the Pacers for 28 years, with a piece of the Boston Garden parquet floor. ... Celtics swingman Nik Stauskas missed the game with a right ankle sprain. ... Pacers guard Malcolm Brogdon missed his seventh straight game. ... For '90s night, the Celtics brought back 1991 slam dunk contest winner Dee Brown. ... Tatum had three 3-pointers, giving him 222 for the season, tying Antoine Walker's 2002 mark for the second-most in franchise history.
UP NEXT
Pacers: Host Detroit on Sunday.
Celtics: Host Washington in regular-season home finale on Sunday.
&nbsp;

Jaylen Brown scored 32 points and Jayson Tatum had 31 to help the Boston Celtics beat the Indiana Pacers 128-123.

Brown, Tatum pair up to lead Celtics past Pacers 128-123

The Atlanta Hawks had such high hopes.
After a surprising playoff run that came up just short of the NBA Finals, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ga-state-wire-atlanta-hawks-milwaukee-bucks-nba-sports-8d827eabf721d1b06d7207da48def57a">they came into this season</a> with a deep roster led by one of the league's most exciting young players.
Yet now, with only a handful of games remaining, Trae Young and the Hawks are limping toward the postseason with no prospects beyond a play-in spot and nothing to indicate they'll be hanging around very long in April.
Of the NBA's most disappointing teams, the Hawks are near the top of the list.
&ldquo;We still have an opportunity,&rdquo; insisted coach Nate McMillan, whose team is 36-37 and 10th in the Eastern Conference, the final play-in spot. &ldquo;The goal is to get ourselves in the playoffs. Once you get there, we showed last year that anything can happen.&rdquo;
Only last year, the Hawks rolled into the playoffs as one of the league's hottest teams, flipping a switch when McMillan took over for Lloyd Pierce.
They went 27-11 after the coaching change, grabbing a No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference.
They kept up that momentum in the playoffs, romping past the New York Knicks in what became Young's (Madison Square) Garden party, stunning the top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers in seven games (effectively finishing off The Process), and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/atlanta-hawks-phoenix-suns-milwaukee-bucks-nba-finals-nba-86a45418b2bf41ffcd7e53a00e0f7044">taking the eventual NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks</a> to six games in the East final.
If Young had not twisted an ankle in a freak collision with a referee, the Hawks very well could have knocked off the Bucks and advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time since moving to Atlanta in 1968.
Suddenly, the A-T-L went from a sleepy backwater NBA city that generally ranked near the bottom of the league in attendance to abuzz with excitement &mdash; especially after the team locked up cornerstones <a href="nba.com/news/reports-hawks-trae-young-expected-to-finalize-extension">Young</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-nba-atlanta-hawks-john-collins-3641936ced947b00296dc2abb4dbfd84">John Collins</a> with massive contracts.
But this season hasn't come close to meeting expectations.
The Hawks have lingered around .500 all season &mdash; never building any sort of momentum, generally playing like a group of strangers, showing very little of the joy and camaraderie that carried them so far last summer.
Their mediocrity has been especially glaring in a year when the Braves gave Atlanta its first World Series title since 1995 and the Georgia Bulldogs won the college football championship.
&ldquo;Last year for a lot of guys, it was new,&rdquo; center Cint Capela said. "People don't really realize how hard it is to get there. You&rsquo;re never guaranteed to go back to the conference finals.&rdquo;
Young has put up another big season, ranking fourth in the league in scoring (28.1 points per game), but his supporting cast has been perplexingly inconsistent.
Capela has taken a big step backward, leaving the Hawks vulnerable defensively and on the boards. Bogdan Bogdanovic has never looked comfortable taking some of the scoring load off Young. Ditto for Kevin Huerter, who has too many nights when he fails to show up in the box score. Collins may be done for the season with hand and foot injuries.
Promising wins are generally followed by baffling losses, such as <a href="https://apnews.com/article/atlanta-hawks-nba-sports-toronto-detroit-4f14d2b182f0e9744d20a3770493778c">Wednesday night's 122-101 debacle</a> against lowly Detroit, a 20-53 team that looked like a championship contender against Atlanta
The Pistons took control with a 23-0 run and led by as many as 29.
The Hawks haven't won back-to-back road games since late December, which doesn't bode well for a team that will likely have to win two straight away from home just to earn its way into the playoffs.
&ldquo;We know what we've got to do,&rdquo; Young said. &ldquo;We've got to stay locked in and try to finish out the season strong and see where it leads us in the end."
There have been some unexplainable losses to the league's weakest teams &mdash; three times to the Knicks, twice against the Pistons, not to mention Orlando, Washington, Portland, San Antonio and Houston.
General manager Travis Schlenk, who totally overhauled the roster to set up last year's playoff run, held off on any major changes at this season's trade deadline. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-sports-atlanta-new-york-knicks-atlanta-hawks-7b92f82027b999ad26fd862414456510#:~:text=ATLANTA%20(AP)%20%E2%80%94%20The%20struggling,Knox%20is%20heading%20to%20Atlanta.">His only move</a> was dealing former first-round pick Cam Reddish, who was unhappy with his lack of playing time, to the Knicks.
Now, Schlenk will have to decide if 2021 was an aberration and more big changes are needed.
Capela hopes this season was just an unexpected blip.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a new process. Sometimes the next season, you put too much pressure on yourselves, so you don&rsquo;t do as good," he said. &ldquo;It's the season after that where you do good."
So, Hawks fans, maybe check back again in 2023.

Of the NBA's most disappointing teams, the Hawks are near the top of the list.

After thrilling playoffs, Hawks limping into NBA postseason

The continuous struggles of the Los Angeles Lakers didn&rsquo;t come to an end when they faced the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night. The Lakers lost 111-104 in yet another disappointing fashion, and much of the blame was once again directed toward Russell Westbrook.&nbsp;
While it is undeniable that Westbrook is in quite a bit of a shooting slump, the unexpected happened when he was benched in the fourth quarter during their final push to win the game.
"[I was] playing the guys that I thought were going to win the game," Lakers head coach Frank Vogel said following Wednesday's loss when asked about Russ not being on the floor to finish the contest.
Speaking with ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski on Friday morning, Westbrook reacted to Vogel's choice.
"Surprised, yes," Westbrook <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33115018/russell-westbrook-disagrees-benching-remains-undeterred-helping-los-angles-lakers-win-long-run" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in the exclusive interview</a>. "I was disappointed I didn't go back in, but I'm more disappointed that we lost the damn game... I want to be able to be on the floor to help my teammates and be able to help our team win in games like that &mdash; but that was a decision that was made."
Westbrook went on to reflect on the Lakers' status at the moment, and being considered a disappointing team.
"Ultimately, you have to be okay when sh** doesn't go well, and I'm okay," Westbrook <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33115018/russell-westbrook-disagrees-benching-remains-undeterred-helping-los-angles-lakers-win-long-run" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in the interview</a>. "I've done everything that's been asked of me here [in L.A.], and I'll continue to do so and ride this out as long as we can toward our ultimate goal &mdash; and that's to win a championship... We obviously haven't been fully healthy, but I'm committed to making this thing work. The communication is there with everybody in the organization to make this thing work, to make this team we all want it to be in the future.
"I have accepted everything that has been asked of me and tried to do it to the best of my ability," <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33115018/russell-westbrook-disagrees-benching-remains-undeterred-helping-los-angles-lakers-win-long-run" target="_blank" rel="noopener">he continued</a>. "I'm not the ultimate decision-maker of if it's working, or if it's not working. I'm okay with sacrificing some of the things that I've been able to do in this game to win, because that's the most important part of this game. I've done everything they've asked me to do to this point."
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With much of the chatter the past couple of days being centered around criticisms of Westbrook and calls for him to be moved by the Feb 10. trade deadline and run out of L.A., I wanted to have a more nuanced discussion on the topic.&nbsp;
On The Collision: &ldquo;Where Sports And Politics Collide,&rdquo; me and my co-host Dave Zirin had an <a href="https://archive.wpfwfm.org/mp3/wpfw_220120_100000collision.mp3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in-depth discussion about Westbrook</a>, and if the criticism he's been receiving this season has been warranted.
Etan Thomas: Okay, so Russell Westbrook was benched in the last five, six minutes of the game. They lose to the Indiana Pacers. There&rsquo;s been an ongoing criticism of Westbrook's play for a while now. What&rsquo;s your assessment of Westbrook in the midst of all of this criticism?
Dave Zirin: "The first thing we have to recognize is that Russell Westbrook is a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer and arguably the most dynamic point guard of his generation and, in my opinion, a top-five all-time point guard in the NBA. He is a titanic talent, the likes of which you get once in a generation. It is also true that while it may be a dream for Russell Westbrook to go home to Los Angeles &mdash; played at UCLA, play for the Lakers &mdash; there's a historical error happening here.
Etan:&nbsp;Break it down for me.&nbsp;
Zirin: "I don't think it's a good spot for him, and ironically, right across town I think if he was on the Clippers, he'd already be being celebrated as an MVP candidate there."
Etan: Oh really?
Zirin: "Factor it all in, like Kawhi being hurt, Paul George being hurt. Because for Russell Westbrook to be Russell Westbrook, he needs to be able to cook. He needs to be able to do the Russell Westbrook things that he does, and there's probably one player in the entire NBA who is so good all around that it sort of upsets the balance of what makes Westbrook, Westbrook, and that's LeBron James.
"I love LeBron, I respect LeBron, but look at LeBron's career. It's like he needs a certain type of player and a certain mindset around him to be the LeBron who we want to see and who can thrive. And Russell Westbrook, that's less his game; [he doesn't do] spot-up three-pointers, 3-and-D, a lot of defense. I don't think it's a very good fit at all, the two of them, from everything I'm watching. Russ looks at times tentative, but then he'll pull something out of the bag and dunk on Rudy Gobert, almost from the foul line right in the middle of the game.&nbsp;
"So all the athleticism is still there. All the amazingness is still there, it's just he needs the opportunity to make it happen, and right now it's not happening. But it's not that he's terrible. I'm looking it up right now. He's averaging 18.5 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists. For a lot of players, that would be a dream season. For Russ, it's significantly down."
Etan: I understand what you're saying as far as the cohesiveness between him and LeBron, but it's almost as if Westbrook has to be the scapegoat because they're not going to blame LeBron, they're not going to blame Anthony Davis. So the only other person to be able to blame for the Lakers not achieving the level that everybody thought that they would achieve so far is Westbrook.
Zirin: "Yeah, which to me just also an incredible advocation of leadership with the Lakers, and that's the other thing that's going on here. There have been a lot of leaks to the media that are clearly coming from inside the Lakers that are, I think, meant to undermine the presence of Westbrook on the team and Frank Vogel's coaching. Vogel could be gone at the end of business [this week], for all we know. The rumors are that hot and heavy, but I don't think Frank Vogel's necessarily done anything "wrong." But I do think that for the benching of Westbrook...
"And let me say something about this too, for people who didn't see the game [Wednesday] night. With about eight minutes to go, [Caris] LeVert &mdash; who's a really good player, big, athletic &mdash; beat Westbrook off the dribble and hit a layup. Big deal, it happens. A member of the L.A. coaching staff leaked to the media that [that particular play] is what soured Vogel on Westbrook; they had told him to guard LeVert a certain way and it didn't happen, and that's why he was getting pulled from the game.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
The play that got Russ benched <a href="https://t.co/yONE54ZTCW">pic.twitter.com/yONE54ZTCW</a>
&mdash; Lakers Daily (@LakersDailyCom) <a href="https://twitter.com/LakersDailyCom/status/1484178684697137154?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2022</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

"LeVert in the fourth quarter [Wednesday] night went 8 of 9 with 22 points. He was cooking on everybody and to me, he's a great player &mdash; injury-plagued, brilliant player who will be a superstar and an All-Star if he gets in the right situation and gets his health on point. So it's no shame giving up a layup to Caris LeVert for goodness sakes if you're Russell Westbrook.
"But the idea that they would leak to that the press is strange. It's weird... it also doesn't quite fit because Westbrook stayed in the game another three minutes before he took him out. Then, there&rsquo;s all these leaks about how there are all these people in the front office who didn't want to bring in Westbrook, but LeBron and Rob Pelinka (who's obviously very close to LeBron) insisted upon it. So this is my belief and please Etan, please disagree with me on this.
"I think the problem at its root level... I don't think it's coaching. I don't know about the Westbrook-LeBron dynamic being able to work together, particularly without a healthy Anthony Davis to erase all mistakes with people coming towards the hoop. Now what? Can you see Russ and LeBron working with a different coaching style, format, motivation? Do you like the combo?"
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Etan: You know, we talked about this a few weeks ago with my guys from Chopping it Up with G and Z. One of the things that I suggested was having Rajon Rondo play a little bit more at the point and having Westbrook play more of the 2 and attacking, with Rondo doing more facilitating, and that didn't happen at all. I mean, Vogel didn't even play Rondo at all and they traded him to Cleveland.
So I thought that would have worked as a strategy, to be honest with you because I think that you... there are ways that you can utilize what Westbrook brings to the table. I mean, is he a spot up shooter, like you said, for LeBron to drive and then kick it out to Westbrook for the three? That wouldn't really be my strategy. Would that be a strategy if you were the coach?
Zirin: "Not at all."
Etan: Right. So I don't know if they're playing him to his strengths. But let me ask you this: What do you think about some of the people like Shannon Sharpe, who are <a href="https://twitter.com/undisputed/status/1484550725061521410?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">constantly criticizing him publicly and kind of drumming up all criticism towards Westbrook</a>? Or do you think Shannon's just echoing what everybody is already saying? Not him in particular, but just a lot of the media talking heads, because I'm hearing a lot of people pile on with Westbrook. And I know the Lakers are always in the spotlight, but it's a little bit extra this year with Westbrook it seems.
Zirin: "Yeah. The Lakers are the the closest things to the Dallas Cowboys in the NBA. They're America's team. So there's a ton of focus on the Lakers at all times. And L.A. is a city that loves stars. So it's like that affects the decision-making, like Buddy Hield would have been a better [fit]... they had to choose. They were going to get either Buddy Hield, or they could get Russell Westbrook. And Buddy Hield is not... just being very frank, is not one-tenth of the player that Russell Westbrook is.
"But Buddy Hield would've been a better fit. He&rsquo;s like a 40% three-point shooter, plays defense. I think if the Lakers were the Cleveland Cavaliers, they would have said, 'Oh, of course we're [making a move for] Buddy Hield. That fits in with what we're trying to do.' But the Lakers... man, they're star-addicted. So they bring in Russell Westbrook, and Russell Westbrook in a lot of ways is like catnip for the L.A. media, and Shannon Sharpe is the L.A. media."
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Etan: Russ was great in D.C.
Zirin: "He was amazing."
Etan: Everybody here loved him.
Zirin: "Oh, he was outstanding in D.C. I wish he was still in D.C. He was [putting up] 22/12/12 for the season. That's bonkers.&nbsp;And his stats, in terms of shooting splits, aren't really down from last year. So that's why I think it's total scapegoating. I don't think he's the best fit in LA. I think from a coaching perspective, you start [LeBron and Russ] both and you play them both at crunch time. But second and third quarter, stagger them. Stagger them in the game, [and] have Russ's team and then have LeBron's team, make it work like that."
Etan:&nbsp;So how do you think this ends?&nbsp;
Zirin: "I think Vogel gets fired, and I think somebody comes in who tries to make it work in a better way, even though I do not blame Vogel for what's happening (except for this last game, where I think he was clearly trying to throw a little mischief in the mix). I think they get someone in there, fresh start, whole new ball game. Russell Westbrook, LeBron James, make a playoff run, make it at least to the Western Conference Finals. Boom, I'm throwing that down right now."
Etan: Okay. So you have faith think it can work with Russell Westbrook? And you're not hopping off the Westbrook train or anything like that?
Zirin: "Not even a little bit. You've got to make it work. You know, it's one of those things where it's like you got to play the hand that you're dealt. Would I, as a general manager, have combined these two incredible Hall-of-Fame talents? No, I wouldn't have, but you've got to make use with the talent that you have, especially when it's talent like Russell Westbrook. And I want to say this 'til the cows come home: He's 33 years old. Anybody who saw that dunk on Gobert knows Russ has not lost a step.&nbsp;At 33. So don't give me any of this, 'Oh, he doesn't have what he [used to].' Give me a break. He's in amazing shape. He takes tremendous care of himself. Nobody's more intense. I miss him on the Wizards terribly!"
Etan: I hear you Dave, and again, I was his teammate for a year, and it was a young Russell Westbrook. I have nothing bad to say about him. I mean, the intensity that he brought every single game and the way he brought it, the passion that he brought &mdash; I thought it was absolutely amazing. I still think it's a tragedy that OKC couldn't keep all those guys together (the young Thunder all together), but that's a whole different topic. Yeah, no, what he brings, I have a lot of respect for him &mdash; both on and off the court.
I interviewed him for <a href="http://www.akashicbooks.com/catalog/we-matter-athletes-and-activism/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">my book,</a> "We Matter: Athletes and Activism." He's <a href="https://apnews.com/article/5e662a89d2e24aaf80c69de3a93a67e2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speaking out about Terence Crutcher</a>. He's speaking out for the community and for our people and against police brutality. He cares.&nbsp;
So just hearing people pile on him like he's almost like a cancer to the team (as far as on the court and as far as in the locker room), and the media trying to set it up like he's now going to be a problem child because he got taken out the game is ridiculous. So I'm glad that you made these points.
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Etan Thomas speaks with Dave Zirin about Russell Westbrook's benching on Wednesday and how he isn't solely to blame in L.A.