The Miami Heat closed out the Boston Celtics in the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals on Monday, winning a deciding Game 7 103-84 to advance to the NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets.
The road victory for the Heat blocked the proud Celtics franchise from becoming the first NBA team to rally to win a seven-game series after losing the first three contests.
“We have some incredible competitors in that locker room. They love the challenge,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They love putting themselves out there in front of everybody. Open to criticism. Open to everything.”
Celtics point guard Malcolm Brodgon said he thought his team played tight and it affected their results on both ends of the court.
“I thought (the Heat) played loose. I thought they really executed on the defensive end,” the league’s Sixth Man of the Year said. “Then offensively they were poised. They weren’t rushed, they weren’t nervous.”
Eighth-seeded Miami had to come through the play-In tournament but has not let its underdog status have any bearing on its impressive playoff run so far.
Against Boston on Monday, Miami forward Jimmy Butler led the way with 28 points while forward Caleb Martin netted 26 points and had 10 rebounds.
Boston shot a frigid 39% from the field as a team, and no Celtic managed to score 20 points in the game.
Many teams have tried, a few have gotten close, but ultimately all have failed in trying to achieve the comeback of all comebacks, netting 0 for 151 attempts.
Most teams to go down 0-3 didn’t even make it this far.
This Boston squad marks the just the fourth team to ever force a Game 7 following a 0-3 start to a series: the New York Knicks forced a Game 7 in the 1951 NBA Finals against the Rochester Royals, the Denver Nuggets pushed it to the brink in the 1994 Western Conference semis against the Utah Jazz and the Portland Trail Blazers almost made history in the 2003 Western Conference first round against the Dallas Mavericks.
The Heat, who have won three NBA titles, most recently in 2013, will face the top-seeded Nuggets in Denver on Thursday.
The Nuggets have not played a game in a week after sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals last Monday.
Spoelstra’s team took down Giannis Antetokounmpo and the No. 1-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first round, before winning a war of attrition against the Knicks in the Eastern Conference semis.
Despite Boston’s impressive regular season record, the No. 2 seed struggled throughout the postseason. It took the Celtics six games to get past the seventh-seeded Atlanta Hawks and another seven to get through the Philadelphia 76ers.
This brought the Heat and the Celtics together in the Eastern Conference Finals. The series has been an incredible display of drama and tension with the momentum ebbing and flowing throughout.
The Heat raced to a 3-0 lead in the series thanks to incredible performances by Butler and the Miami supporting cast.
Butler has been one of the stars of the NBA postseason and continued this form during the early games of the series against the Celtics.
Missing Tyler Herro through injury meant that head coach Erik Spoelstra had to seek other alternatives to support his star man. Up stepped Gabe Vincent and Martin – who have come up big in clutch time and throughout the series.
However, the Celtics won Game 4 and Game 5 in comfortable fashion with Jayson Tatum showing his brilliance in the win-or-go-home games. Back-to-back blowouts meant that Boston took the series back to Miami for Game 6 – the most crucial game of the series so far.
Buoyed by their home crowd support, it looked like the Heat had finally got their momentum back and had enough in the tank to become Eastern Conference champions.
The Heat held a one-point advantage with just three seconds left on the clock, but with the ball in Boston’s hands, it was far from over. As Marcus Smart attempted to splash home a game-winning three, the ball bounced off the rim and Derrick White scored a buzzer-beating putback to edge the game for the Celtics.
“It felt good. Everybody was asking me, ‘Did you get it off?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, I think so,’ but it was so close, you never know,” White told reporters afterwards. “We’re just happy we won. However, we got to get it done, we got it done, and now it’s on to Game 7.”
Unfortunately for the Celtics, the Game 7 hill was again too steep to overcome.
MIAMI (AP) — Derrick White scored on a putback with 0.1 seconds left and the Boston Celtics moved to the brink of the greatest comeback in NBA playoffs history, holding off the Miami Heat 104-103 on Saturday night to force a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference finals.
Jayson Tatum scored 31 points, Jaylen Brown scored 26 and Marcus Smart added 21 for the Celtics, who became only the fourth NBA team to erase a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series and force a deciding game. The others in that club — the 1951 New York Knicks in the NBA Finals, the 1994 Denver Nuggets in the second round and the 2003 Portland Trail Blazers in the first round — all lost Game 7, all on the road.
Boston, however, is going home for its shot at history. Game 7 is Monday night on the Celtics’ floor, a matchup that’ll decide who meets the Western Conference champion Denver Nuggets in a title series that will start Thursday.
Jimmy Butler made three free throws with 3.0 seconds left for a one-point Heat lead. Smart missed a 3-pointer, but White grabbed the rebound and scored as time expired.
Butler scored 24 points and Caleb Martin had 21 for the Heat, who are trying to pull off their own improbable trek to the title series by being only the second No. 8 seed to make the NBA Finals. They’ve now lost as many games this week — three — as they had in their first 14 playoff games this spring combined on the way to ousting No. 1 Milwaukee, then No. 5 New York and taking what was supposed to be an insurmountable 3-0 lead over the second-seeded Celtics.
The Celtics have now won five of their last six East finals games in Miami — a stretch that includes a Game 7 over the Heat last season to reach the NBA Finals.
That one, obviously, ended the Heat season. At least this time, Miami still has a chance.
The Heat are the 151st team to grab a 3-0 series lead in a best-of-seven. All 150 of the previous clubs finished the job. But the Celtics have made very clear that they have other ideas.
Celtics: The Celtics are 5-0 when facing elimination this season, 3-0 on the road. They beat Philadelphia twice on their way to erasing a 3-2 lead in the East finals, and now have tied this series. … Malcolm Brogdon (right forearm strain) was downgraded to out about an hour before game time.
Heat: Diddy was at the game, as was former Heat guard Goran Dragic and Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk. … Unless Miami wins Game 7 at Boston, it may have been the final home game of Heat forward Udonis Haslem’s 20-year career. The Heat are 613-297 in the 910 games in their home arena with Haslem on the roster; that doesn’t include the restart bubble’s home games in 2020.
The Celtics are 27-9 in Game 7s, winners of their last four — including one in Miami last season and one earlier this season, against Philadelphia in the East semifinals. They’re 1-1 against the Heat all-time in such games (losing the 2012 East finals deciding game in Miami), and 22-5 at home in Game 7.
The Heat are 6-5 all-time in Game 7s, lost their last two (home vs. Boston in 2022, at Toronto in 2016), and are 0-2 when facing such a game on the road. Besides the Raptors game seven years ago, they lost a Game 7 at Atlanta in 2009.
UNSUCCESSFULLY SUCCESSFUL
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra used a challenge early in the third quarter, after Martin was called for a foul on a play where Brown scored. Miami claimed Brown hooked Martin; referees, after review, said there was no foul on Martin — but counted the basket anyway and the Heat lost their review.
Yes, what the Red Sox did to the New York Yankees in 2004 was discussed around the Boston Celtics on Monday. A day after a debacle in Miami to fall into a 3-0 deficit in these Eastern Conference finals — “embarrassing,” Boston forward Jaylen Brown said — the Celtics will try to extend the series and at least delay a Heat celebration in Game 4 on Tuesday night.
“We still believe we’re the better team,” Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon said Monday. “We have not played like it in any of the three games. But, you know, there is always a first.”
No NBA team has rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win a series; it’s happened only once in Major League Baseball, when the Red Sox shook off a 19-8 drubbing in Game 3 to win four straight and top the Yankees in that 2004 AL championship series.
Of course, there had never been a No. 8 seed that won an NBA playoff game by 26 points, either — until Miami rolled its way to a 128-102 cakewalk in Game 3. It led to All-Star Game MVP Jayson Tatum saying Boston needs to show some pride, veteran big man Al Horford calling upon the Celtics to stay together and first-year coach Joe Mazzulla taking the blame as speculation about his future only gets louder and louder.
“We didn’t play well at all,” Tatum said. “Obviously, by the score, it showed.”
Meanwhile, a Heat win on Tuesday would send Miami to the NBA Finals for the seventh time since 2006 — and give the team more than a week to rest before the series opens on June 1. The Denver Nuggets won the Western Conference title on Monday night, sweeping LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.
If Miami wins the East, Denver will have home-court advantage in the finals. If Boston rallies, the Celtics would have the home-court edge.
Before all that, there’s a Game 4 in Miami, and that has Heat coach Erik Spoelstra’s full attention.
“We can expect just a great, competitive game,” Spoelstra said. “Boston has great pride. They’ll bring it. And you want to embrace it. You don’t want to get ahead of yourself and think about anything else other than embracing the competition. This is what you want. You want to be in the Eastern Conference finals in a really competitive game with a chance to finish and close out.”
Thing is, that was also the thinking going into Game 3. After dropping the first two games at home, conventional wisdom would suggest that Boston would have arrived Sunday night loaded up for their best effort.
It wasn’t even close.
Boston trailed by as many as 33 in Game 3 — the second-biggest deficit the Celtics faced this season. They trailed Oklahoma City by 37 on Jan. 3, a game where the Thunder scored 88 points in the middle two quarters on the way to a 150-117 romp. The Celtics responded from that defeat by winning their next nine games.
“Faith is the most important thing in the world,” Mazzulla said.
The Heat would say the same. They’re trying to join the 1999 New York Knicks as the only No. 8 seeds to reach the NBA Finals, and they’re doing so after nearly missing the playoffs altogether.
They know the chance they have Tuesday. They watched Boston celebrate in front of Heat fans last year in Game 7 of the East finals. They have an opportunity to make the Celtics watch them celebrate winning the East this time around.
“We have a great opportunity ahead of us,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said.
3-0, 0-3
The Heat are up 3-0 in a series for the 10th time, including one sweep of a best-of-five in 2000. In the eight previous best-of-seven instances where Miami has led 3-0, the Heat have gone 5-3 in Game 4 and never been extended past Game 5.
Boston is down 0-3 in a series for the eighth time, including one best-of-five sweep defeat. The Celtics forced one of those best-of-seven deficits to six games, one to five games and got swept on the other four occasions.
LOVE UPDATE
Heat forward Kevin Love has a strained muscle in his lower left leg and is probable for Game 4. He got hurt in the first quarter of Game 3. “Felt like a muscle cramp,” Love said, adding that if Miami’s lead hadn’t been so sizable that he would have lobbied to return to Sunday’s game.
WELL RESTED
Jimmy Butler was needed for only 31 minutes in Game 3, after he averaged almost 42 minutes in his last nine playoff appearances for Miami.
BOSTON (AP) — Jimmy Butler scored 27 points, hitting a pair of buckets to give the Heat the lead after they erased a double-digit, fourth-quarter deficit and Miami beat Boston 111-105 on Friday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.
Bam Adebayo had 22 points, 17 rebounds and nine assists, and Caleb Martin came off the bench to score 25 points for eighth-seeded Miami, which won twice in Boston to earn a chance to complete the sweep at home.
Jayson Tatum had 34 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists for Boston. But the Celtics star went 0 for 3 with two turnovers in the fourth quarter, when Boston blew an 89-77 lead en route to a second home loss in three nights. Jaylen Brown scored 16 points on 7-for-23 shooting; he went 1 for 5 with a turnover in the final quarter, when Miami outscored Boston 36-22.
The Celtics led by 11 in the third quarter and made it a dozen early in the fourth. It was a 96-87 Boston lead when Butler scored, going forehead-to-forehead with Grant Williams before hitting the free throw to complete the three-point play.
Butler sneered at Williams’ attempt to get him off his game with words, and after Tatum missed from long distance, Butler drove to the basket to make it a four-point game.
Miami trailed 98-96 when Butler was called for an offensive foul, kicking Marcus Smart after landing on a missed 3-pointer.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra challenged, but lost.
He made a 17-footer to tie it 100-all, and then a short fadeaway to give Miami the lead. After Max Strus made one of two free throws, Adebayo scored on a putback dunk to make it 105-100 with less than a minute to play.
Boston used a 21-2 run to turn an eight-point, first-quarter deficit into an 11-point lead.
Brown was 1 for 7 in the first quarter, when Tatum scored 12. Derrick White, who made a single 3-pointer, was the only player other than Tatum who scored more than 2 points in the first. … Adebayo and Butler each grabbed five rebounds in the first quarter. … Lowry and Grant Williams did a little shoving after Williams fouled Adebayo with nine minutes left in the second quarter, with no repercussions.
BOSTON (AP) — The Miami Heat were in need of a calming presence following a sluggish start to their latest conference finals showdown with the Boston Celtics.
Jimmy Butler provided that and a lot more.
Butler scored 35 points, including 20 after halftime, and the Heat rallied in the second half to beat the Celtics 123-116 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals on Wednesday night.
He said his teammates have given him confidence.
“I’m playing at an incredible level because they are allowing me to do so,” Butler said. “They are not putting a limit on my game. They are trusting me with the ball, on the defensive end. I think that’s what any basketball player wants.”
Miami trailed by nine at the half before turning it around with a franchise playoff-record 46 points in the third and outscoring Boston 66-50 over the final two quarters. It was Butler’s fifth game with 30 or more points this postseason and he added seven assists, six steals and five rebounds.
“One of the premier two-way basketball players of this association. … That’s what we needed.” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Down the stretch Jimmy was able to do everything we needed – as a scorer and as a facilitator.”
Bam Adebayo added 20 points and eight rebounds. Kyle Lowry, Caleb Martin, Gabe Vincent and Max Strus all added 15 points apiece. The Heat went 16 of 31 from the 3-point line.
The No. 8-seeded Heat have opened all three playoff series with road victories. Game 2 is Friday in Boston.
Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 30 points, but didn’t take a shot in the fourth quarter. Jaylen Brown finished with 22 points and nine rebounds. Malcolm Brogdon added 19 points.
Boston is just 4-4 at home during this postseason.
“I don’t know why,” Tatum said of their home struggles. “You’ve still got to play the game, you’ve got to make plays, regardless of whether you’re home or away.”
The Celtics, who are at their best when they’re defending and getting up more shots than their opponents, were 10 of 29 from beyond the arc.
“We lost our offensive purpose,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said.
The tip-off of the series marked the third time in four seasons that the Heat and Celtics have met in this round. Boston won last year’s matchup in seven games.
Wednesday’s opener felt every bit like a continuation of that most recent meeting. Boston dominated inside early on and led by nine at halftime.
Spoelstra said his team was “more intentional” over the final 24 minutes.
Miami took a page out of the Celtics’ book and used a 13-1 run to quickly erase that gap, tying the game at 78 in the third quarter. During the next timeout Mazzulla was captured by broadcast cameras throwing a clipboard in frustration.
Boston couldn’t stop the onslaught and Miami then nudged back in front as Butler penetrated to create opportunities for his teammates.
The Heat outscored the Celtics 46-25 in the period and took a 103-91 lead into the fourth, prompting a few boos from the TD Garden crowd.
Boston responded, scoring the first seven points of the final period before a 3-pointer by Vincent ended the run.
Miami led 114-109 with just over three minutes to play when Brogdon was fouled by Butler. But he connected on just 1 of the 2 free throws. Butler was trapped on the next Miami possession before finding Martin for a corner 3.
Tatum travelled, giving the ball back to the Heat. A Miami miss gave the ball back to Boston, but Tatum was called again for travelling.
Miami wound the shot clock down before getting a 3-pointer by Butler to rattle in with 1:03 remaining.
But everything changed in the second half.
“We are just playing really good basketball,” Butler said. “More than anything, we are staying together through the good and through the bad.”
ROAD WARRIORS
The Heat are the fifth team to open with road wins in each of their first three series, joining the 2021 Hawks, 1999 Knicks, 1989 Bulls and 1981 Rockets. The Knicks were the only other No. 8 seed to make the conference finals.
TIP-INS
Heat: Miami’s previous high in the playoffs was 43 points in a half against Charlotte in 2016. … Lowry hit 5 of his first 6 shots, scoring 13 points in his first nine minutes of action. … Butler (12) and Adebayo (6) combined for 18 of Miami’s 28 points in the first quarter. It marked the seventh time Butler has reached double figures in the first period this postseason.
Celtics: Marcus Smart finished with 13 points and 11 assists. … Led 66-57 at halftime. With the score tied at 47, Boston outscored Miami 19-10 over the final 5:26 of the half. … Brown wore his black protective mask after going without it for the final two games of their semifinals matchup with the 76ers. He fractured a facial bone late in the regular season. … New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick was in attendance.
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MIAMI (AP) — New York guards Jalen Brunson and Quentin Grimes played an entire elimination game with no rest, just to extend their season.
And Miami’s Jimmy Butler — even after being on the losing end of that effort — tipped his cap out of respect.
At this time of year, whatever it takes. It’s why Brunson and Grimes are playing 48 minutes, why Butler is playing through ankle soreness, why Golden State’s Stephen Curry is taking more shots per game — by a significant margin — than he ever has in a playoff run, and why the Los Angeles Lakers’ Anthony Davis will likely play through whatever is ailing him after he had to leave early Wednesday night.
For two teams, Game 6 on Friday night is win-or-go-home; for two others, it could be win-and-move-on to the conference finals. The Heat play host to New York, the Lakers play host to Golden State, both home clubs have 3-2 series leads and both visiting clubs staved off elimination with wins on Wednesday in their respective Game 5s.
“Every moment is its own challenge and its own game and its own opportunity to see what you’re made of,” Lakers forward LeBron James said. “Friday is another opportunity for us to see who we are and see what we’re made of and to go out there with, I guess, the grit and the fight that we’ve had since we came together after the All-Star break.”
The Warriors have won a road game in 28 consecutive playoff series, an NBA record. They have to get to 29 with a win Friday, or their reign as champions will end. Curry is taking 23.6 shots per game in the playoffs, about three more per game than he ever has in a postseason run, and who knows how many he’ll need to try to give Golden State its best chance on Friday.
“The guys will always have belief,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “That’s just who they are.”
Miami coach Erik Spoelstra has raved about the level of competition in the Heat-Knicks series, and expects more of the same in Game 6. The Heat wasted a close-out chance in Game 5 at New York, but have a chance at home Friday to finish the series and get to the East finals for the third time in four years.
“I’m never surprised with anything come playoff basketball time,” Butler said. “Your best is needed. All 48 minutes, if more if you’re going into overtime. If ‘Spo’ tells me to play 48 minutes, I will be suited and booted and ready to do that and we’ll win.”
KNICKS AT HEAT
Heat lead 3-2. Game 6, 7:30 p.m. EDT, Friday, ESPN.
— NEED TO KNOW: The Heat missed 30 3-pointers, got outrebounded 50-34, were outscored 59-30 over an 18-minute stretch of Game 5 — and still only lost to the Knicks by nine. That all means there are many ways for Miami to improve in Game 6, though the Heat know that New York will be incredibly desperate again in an effort to stave off elimination.
— KEEP AN EYE ON: New York’s depth. In Game 5, Brunson and Grimes were the first teammates to play 48 minutes in a non-overtime playoff game since 2005, when Washington had Gilbert Arenas and Larry Hughes do it — also against Miami. Butler played 43 minutes for Miami in Game 5.
— INJURY WATCH: None of the main characters are 100% and most probably aren’t anywhere near 100%. Brunson (38 points in 48 minutes) was incredible in Game 5; Butler (19 points, seven rebounds, nine assists, four steals and two blocks) has been gutting it out through his bad ankle, and they’ll both be the go-to options Friday night.
— PRESSURE IS ON: Miami. The Knicks did their job; they extended the series and know they have the luxury of Game 7 in Madison Square Garden. New York hasn’t had a Game 7 at home since 1995 and Miami doesn’t want to see that streak end here.
WARRIORS AT LAKERS
Lakers lead 3-2. Game 6, 10 p.m. EDT, Friday, ESPN.
— NEED TO KNOW: The Lakers have won eight straight games in their downtown arena, including six since the end of the regular season. They’ve only lost one home game in nearly two months. On the other hand, the Warriors have never played a postseason series in Stephen Curry’s career without winning at least one road game, and this is their final chance to keep the streak alive.
— KEEP AN EYE ON: Anthony Davis missed the second half of the fourth quarter after a blow to the head from Kevon Looney, who also elbowed Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis in the face during the first round. Any absence or even a limitation for the Lakers’ star big man would fundamentally change this series, which Davis has heavily influenced with his defense.
— INJURY WATCH: If Davis can’t play or is limited, the Lakers will be forced to go small more often, as they did late in Game 5. A three-guard Lakers lineup with LeBron James as the de facto center would likely be an advantage to Golden State, which has more experience in small ball. The Warriors also have Curry, the best guard in the series.
— PRESSURE IS ON: Los Angeles. Nobody wants to play the defending champs in a Game 7 on their home floor, so James and his teammates must dig down deep and attempt to close out the series at home. Davis’ absence might make that nearly impossible, but the Lakers have built up enough teamwork and cohesion since the trade deadline to give them a chance.
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AP Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney in New York and AP Sports Writer Greg Beacham in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
MIAMI (AP) — Heat coach Erik Spoelstra walked into the postgame interview room, a cup of a celebratory beverage in his hand, took a seat and began explaining how difficult the journey has been for Heat.
The regular season was a struggle. They needed to survive the play-in. They were three minutes away from going home before the playoffs even started, needing a rally just to earn the right to play top-seeded Milwaukee.
All forgotten. They’re in the NBA’s final four — getting there as a No. 8 seed.
Jimmy Butler scored 24 points, Bam Adebayo added 23 and the Heat are headed back to the Eastern Conference finals after topping the New York Knicks 96-92 in Game 6 on Friday night.
“It is really frickin’ hard to get to the Eastern Conference finals,” Spoelstra said.
Maybe for some franchises. Not for Miami. The Heat are headed there for the 10th time overall, the seventh time in the last 13 years and the third time in the past four seasons. They’ll play Game 1 at either Boston or Philadelphia on Wednesday; those teams will decide their East semifinal series Sunday.
“It means we’re one step closer to our goal,” Butler said.
Max Strus scored 14 points and Kyle Lowry had 11 points and nine assists for the Heat. They’re the second No. 8 seed in NBA history to make the conference finals — joining the Knicks, who pulled it off in 1999.
Jalen Brunson was spectacular for New York, scoring 41 points on 14-for-22 shooting. But his teammates combined for only 51 points — Julius Randle had 15 and RJ Barrett 11 on 1-for-10 shooting. Josh Hart also had 11 points for the Knicks.
“Congratulations to the Heat, to the organization, to the coaching staff, Spo and Pat Riley and all their players,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “They played tough in this series and hats off to them. But I’m proud of our guys. There’s always disappointment in the end of the season and in the end, there’ll be one team standing. … Proud of the way this team worked all year.”
It was dicey at the end, but Miami survived. Gabe Vincent was called for a flagrant-1 against Brunson with just under a minute left, starting a run where the Knicks scored four points in 4.6 seconds.
Brunson made the free throws, Hart added a layup and a 92-86 lead was down to 92-90.
The Knicks got a stop at the other end, but never got a shot off on the next possession. Lowry knocked the ball away for a steal, Butler made two free throws with 14.4 seconds left and the countdown back to the conference finals was on.
“It was a battle,” Lowry said. “A Tom Thibodeau-coached team, they’re always going to play hard. … This was a grind and we found a way.”
The Heat had to dodge one dicey situation after another. The Knicks tied it once after halftime, about four minutes in, but missed 10 other field-goal attempts in the second half — along with two free throws — that would have pulled them into a tie or given them the lead.
“Just got to give them a lot of credit. They didn’t play like an 8 seed — at all,” Brunson said. “They were unbelievable. The utmost respect for them and that organization. I liked the way we fought.”
Brunson had 22 points in the first half, tying his third-most before intermission in any game this season – and his most ever by halftime of a playoff game. He had 15 in the first quarter when the Knicks came out flying to grab early control.
New York led 14 in the opening quarter, and Miami never led by more than two in the first 24 minutes. But it was Miami with the lead at the half, going up 51-50 by the break in large part because it finally kept New York off the line.
The Knicks made 11 free throws in the first quarter — the most by any Heat opponent this season and tying the fourth-most against Miami in an opening period over the last decade. But they didn’t even get to the line in the final 15:16 of the half.
The score to that point: Knicks 29, Heat 17. The score over the rest of the half: Heat 34, Knicks 21. And the Knicks never had the lead again.
“We’ve got guys that just want it,” Lowry said.
TIP-INS
Knicks: Brunson and Quentin Grimes played all 48 minutes of Game 5, but that was quickly off the table in Game 6. Grimes sat for 6:41 of the opening half, Brunson for 2:44, though some of that was because he got his third foul with 37.6 seconds left. … Immanuel Quickley (sprained left ankle) missed his third consecutive game. … New York finished 53-40, its best record in a season since going 60-34 in 2012-13.
Heat: Victor Oladipo was at the game, on crutches and braced after surgery to repair his torn patellar tendon. … The Heat had three starters (Vincent, Strus and Butler) all shorter than the Miami Marlins’ starting pitcher a couple miles away — rookie Eury Perez, who made his big-league debut, is 6-foot-8. … Miami had 3-point tries as time expired in each of the first three quarters. They all missed.
CELEB WATCH
Among those at the game: Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel — even on a rookie minicamp weekend for his team – and Dallas (and former Knicks) guard Tim Hardaway Jr., whose father’s jersey is among those retired by the Heat.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Giannis Antetokounmpo didn’t play for the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference first-round series against the Miami Heat on Wednesday night.
Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said at his pregame availability that Antetokounmpo wouldn’t be available due to the bruised lower back that knocked the two-time MVP out of the Bucks’ 130-117 Game 1 loss on Sunday.
“(We were) hopeful that he would play and also aware that he might not,” Budenholzer said. “The guys are ready. The group’s focused and in a good place.”
Antetokounmpo had been listed as doubtful in the injury report Tuesday but was upgraded to questionable Wednesday. Antetokounmpo left the Bucks’ Game 1 loss for good early in the second quarter.
“He’s continued to improve, but organizationally and talking and working with him and the sports performance group, the decision was made,” Budenholzer said. “He’s out. The guys that are ready and the guys that are available are good to go. We’ll continue to monitor him and expect for him to improve and still continue to be optimistic that soon he’ll be ready to play.”
Antetokounmpo was driving to the basket with a little over four minutes left in the first quarter Sunday when he collided with Miami’s Kevin Love, who got called for a blocking foul on the play.
Antetokounmpo landed awkwardly on his backside and lay on the floor before getting up slowly. He stayed in the game to attempt his free throws and didn’t leave until picking up his second foul with 1:46 left in the first quarter.
Antetokounmpo then headed into the locker room, only to return to the game with 9:56 remaining in the second quarter. He headed back to the locker room with 8:33 left in the second quarter and didn’t play again.
The Bucks went 11-8 in games Antetokounmpo missed during the regular season. That included a pair of losses in Miami, though the Bucks also beat the Heat 128-99 in a Feb. 24 game in which Antetokounmpo played just six minutes before leaving with a right knee issue.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Antetokounmpo’s absence likely means the Bucks’ style of play “will be just a little bit different.” In their four regular-season matchups with the Heat, the Bucks averaged 52.5 3-point attempts when Antetokounmpo was out and 43 3-point attempts when he was in the starting lineup.
The Bucks also were missing Wesley Matthews, who was out with a right calf strain after playing 18 minutes in Game 1. Budenholzer said Matthews got hurt during Sunday’s game.
The Heat didn’t have Tyler Herro, who broke his right hand in Game 1. Herro is undergoing surgery Friday and likely won’t return unless the Heat reach the NBA Finals.
Milwaukee had Bobby Portis fill Antetokounmpo’s usual spot in the starting lineup. Miami’s Duncan Robinson started in place of Herro.
Miami’s Kyle Lowry, who was listed as questionable with a sore left knee, will be available to play Wednesday. ___
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The Miami Heat arena is now called the Kaseya Center after its owners this week inked a more than $100 million deal with a new sponsor, Miami-Dade County officials said.
Miami-Dade County commissioners on Tuesday voted to enter a 17-year naming rights deal for the county-owned facility with Kaseya, an IT management and security software firm. Kaseya will pay $117.37 million over the term of the deal, with much of that going to the county. The Heat will receive $2 million per year under the deal.
The name change takes effect immediately.
The new sponsorship comes roughly three months after a federal bankruptcy court terminated the arena’s previous $135 million sponsorship deal with FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange that collapsed amid fraud allegations late last year. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who stepped down as company CEO in November, has been in and out of court in recent weeks after federal prosecutors charged him with money-laundering, fraud and most recently bribery.
After having FTX’s name stripped from its roof, court and hallway entrances, the South Florida stadium was temporarily redubbed the Miami-Dade Arena.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to new federal charges of bribery.
AP Photo/John Minchillo
FTX’s implosion just two years into its 19-year deal with Miami-Dade County made county’s officials more cautious about picking the right sponsor for this latest naming deal, CBS News Miami reported.
“The collapse of our previous partner caught everyone by surprise but, in conjunction with Miami-Dade County, we worked efficiently and incredibly quickly to fill our naming rights vacancy with Kaseya,” Heat business operations president Eric Woolworth said in a statement.
“I learned that some companies do bad things. This isn’t cryptocurrency, this is a business, just like FTX was supposed to have been,” Miami-Dade County Commissioner Keon Hardemon told CBS News Miami. “But unfortunately that business committed crimes, and sometimes businesses do that, however, we don’t expect this company to commit a crime,” he said.
The county will generate net revenues totaling $83.3 million over the term of the deal, CBS Miami reported — $3.5 million more than it stood to earn from the FTX deal. The county will allocate those funds toward the Anti-gun Violence and Prosperity Initiatives Trust Fund (Trust Fund).
Headquartered in Miami, Kaseya serves 48,000 customers in more than 25 countries and has roughly 4,500 employees, according to the company.
As part of the deal, Kaseya’s name will also appear on arena signage and digital content. The company will also have a presence in hospitality and game-day features and community engagement events.
The Miami Heat’s arena-naming situation wasn’t always so complicated. The stadium bore the name “AmericanAirlines Arena” for two decades before the company declined to renew the deal in 2019.
The naming rights deal between FTX and Miami-Dade County was terminated Wednesday by a federal bankruptcy court, a move that allows the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange’s brand to be stripped from the arena where the NBA’s Miami Heat play.
The order means that before long — and probably starting very soon — all FTX signage and advertising at the arena will be removed. There was no immediate word from the Heat or the county on when the process will begin.
That will be a massive undertaking. There is FTX branding on the arena’s roof, on the basketball court, over many of the entrances, on the polo shirts worn by security personnel and even on many of the electronic cards employees use to gain access to the facility.
Terminating the rights deal “shall be effective immediately upon entry of this order,” U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John T. Dorsey wrote.
The FTX sign at FTX Arena on Dec. 8, 2022 in Miami, Florida.
Getty Images
The county asked for the naming rights deal to be terminated in November, saying at the time that continuing to refer to the building as FTX Arena will only add to the “enduring hardships” brought on by the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange.
The county owns the arena and negotiated what was to be a 19-year, $135 million naming rights deal with FTX. The Heat were to receive $2 million annually as part of that deal, which went into effect in June 2021.
FTX’s next payment due to the county was to have been $5.5 million on Jan. 1.
FTX was the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange, though it ended up with billions of dollars’ worth of losses — estimates range from $8 billion to $10 billion — before seeking bankruptcy protection after a spectacular crash that took only a few days.
Its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, was arrested last month in the Bahamas and extradited to the U.S. to face criminal charges in what U.S. Attorney Damian Williams has called “one of the biggest frauds in American history.” Bankman-Fried has been released on bail and is scheduled to go on trial in October.
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The unspoken deal between sports fans and their favorite teams and players has been, in theory: Sure, there are billions of dollars being thrown around, but at the core, sports are supposed to be fun and games, a never-ending menu of two- or three-hour escapes into a land of winners and losers where nobody really gets hurt.
For all but the most starry-eyed fanatics, that worldview unraveled in 2022 — much as it did the year before, the year before that, and the year before that, and so on. A more accurate assessment might be that sports are not so much an escape from the world’s problems as simply another window into them.
Hardly a day passed in 2022 when a headline running across the ticker on ESPN would’ve been every bit as fitting on CNN or Fox Business or, in some cases, on NBC’s “Dateline.” The intersection between sports and real life ranged from toxic workplace environments, alleged sexual misconduct, sportswashing, cryptocurrency, transgender sports and the COVID-19 pandemic — plus a sprinkling of doping, geopolitics, hypocrisy and corruption.
Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison for possessing a small amount of hashish oil, which is illegal in Russia. Months of tense negotiations ensued. Ultimately, Griner was released, and the sign-off for both countries’ negotiating teams came from none other than Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin.
Putin, who, as much as any world leader, has tried to use sports to project his country’s strength, began the year front-and-center with Chinese premier Xi Jinping, as the autocrats used the start of the Beijing Olympics to highlight their partnership on the world stage.
Shortly after those Games, Russia invaded Ukraine, leaving the global sports community to wrestle with whether Russian athletes should be able to compete in international events, sometimes head-to-head against athletes from the country under siege.
“I think it’s fairly simple,” said Sebastian Coe, the head of World Athletics, when asked in November what it would take to see a Russian in a track meet anytime soon. “Get out of Ukraine.”
As the year closed and the war remained far from a conclusion, Coe was hardly in the majority among world sports leaders.
Many of those leaders, meanwhile, had brought their athletes home safely from China, where the government shuffled all 2,800 competitors and thousands more officials and media in and out of the country for the Beijing Games without suffering a major COVID-19 outbreak.
It happened thanks to the country’s draconian, opaque testing procedures and cordoned-off Olympic venues, all of which served to tamp down any notion of dissent or free speech in a land that doesn’t view any of that kindly. The COVID restrictions helped China ultimately prove that it could pull off a major worldwide event in the midst of the pandemic — even if the festivities fell short of the global outpouring of peace and love that the Olympics so desperately wants to be.
“It’s kinda like sports prison,” Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris said.
China was hardly the only country hoping to use sports for air of legitimacy — or to whitewash its own perceived sins.
Later in the year, misgivings about holding soccer’s World Cup in Qatar were placed under a similar microscope. The country’s poor treatment of migrant workers and members of the LGBTQ community, to say nothing of the alleged corruption involved in awarding the tournament to a kingdom with no soccer roots, overshadowed the run-up to a tournament that nevertheless concluded with Argentina winning one of the most thrilling soccer matches ever.
While the World Cup was unfolding, the cryptocurrency world was melting down. The bankruptcy of multibillion-dollar crypto exchange firm FTX and the arrest of its owner, Sam Bankman-Fried, had sports connections everywhere. Tom Brady and Steph Curry were pitchmen for the company, and FTX’s name quickly came off the arena where the Miami Heat played.
Despite that, 2022 was the year that crypto officially became entrenched in sports, for better or worse, via sponsorships of leagues, endorsement deals by athletes and, of course, crypto-backed non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that are becoming a new status symbol of sports stars, who have, for decades, had a knack for inducing fans to buy what they buy and wear what they wear.
“It would make sense for these (crypto) companies to work with a sports team or a sports celebrity because there’s an emotional attachment that goes along with that partnership,” said Brandon Brown, who teaches sports and business at New York University’s Tisch Institute for Global Sport.
In basketball, Griner’s was hardly the only story that strayed far outside the lines. The year was filled with reports about the rot that infiltrated the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, whose owner, Robert Sarver, was pressured into selling the team after the details emerged. Employees documented years of abuse and toxic workplace culture that included frequent disrespect of women and use of racially inappropriate language.
Another owner behaving badly: Daniel Snyder of the NFL’s Washington Commanders.
Snyder found himself accused by a congressional committee of standing in the way of investigations about sexual harassment and misconduct that had allegedly been prevalent throughout the organization for two decades. Part of the investigation suggested the franchise was receiving help from the NFL itself in slowing down investigations. It’s a claim the NFL has denied, while pointing to its own outside probes into conditions that existed on Snyder’s team.
In many corners, the saga reflected poorly on a league that has long been trying to grow its female fan base. Not helping was the ongoing story of one of the league’s best quarterbacks, Deshaun Watson, who, in 2022, reached settlements with 23 women who accused him of sexual misconduct while he was getting massages. He served an 11-game suspension that ended just in time for the holidays. He has not admitted guilt.
But perhaps the single issue that underscored the inseparable bond between sports and all it touches was the furor over the future of transgender athletes.
It is among society’s most complex topics, one steeped in a mix of physiological science, common sense, human decency and, yes, politics — and one that has left different sides of the debate at seemingly intractable loggerheads.
One goal, said Olympic swimming champion Donna de Varona, an outspoken advocate in the transgender debate, should be to find some nuance in both the debate and the policymaking.
“But nobody wants nuances,” she conceded.
Such is the bottom line in sports, the place where fans go not for shades of grey, but, rather, to see wins and losses neatly summed up in black and white.
What became clear as ever in 2022 is how far past the scoreboard we have to look to see the true outcomes of the games.
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Sports fans who view their favorite players as role models might think twice before taking their financial advice, too.
The bankruptcy of FTX and the arrest of its founder and former CEO are raising new questions about the role celebrity athletes such as Tom Brady, Steph Curry, Naomi Osaka and others played in lending legitimacy to the largely unregulated landscape of crypto, while also reframing the conversation about just how costly blind loyalty to favorite players or teams can be for the average fan.
Cryptocurrencies are digital money that use blockchain as the database for recording transactions. It isn’t backed by any government or institution and it remains a confusing concept — one that at first was largely the niche of tech-savvy coding specialists, people who distrusted governments and centralized banking systems and speculators with money to risk.
But now that risk is increasingly being taken on by investors who can’t afford to lose, and the disparity in wealth between celebrities and their fans creates an ethical dilemma: Should sports stars, or teams, or leagues, be touting products that could lead their fans to financial harm? Or should fans bear the responsibility for their own risky behavior regardless of who is encouraging it?
“In retrospect, it was an unwise business association that put Curry and Brady together with bad company,” Mark Pritchard, a professor at Central Washington who has studied the intersection of ethics and sports, said in an email to The Associated Press. “Not sure how much due diligence was paid to the decision, but it does call to mind a Warren Buffet quote: ‘Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.’”
The marriage between crypto and sports formed a few years ago and has only strengthened since, despite all the troubles plaguing the industry. A study by the IEG sponsorship group, for instance, found FTX and other crypto companies had spent $130 million for sponsorship in the NBA alone over the 2021-22 season; the season before, the sum was less than $2 million.
FTX itself had numerous ties to sports before its eventual collapse: The company paid an undisclosed amount to place patches on the uniforms of MLB umpires, $135 million for the naming rights on the arena where the Miami Heat play, and another $10 million to Curry’s basketball team, the Golden State Warriors, for ad placement in its arena and throughout the Warriors organization.
While those deals, as well as some others, cratered when FTX declared bankruptcy, plenty more live on. They include the naming rights for the home of the Lakers, which was once known as the Staples Center, but is now known as Crypto.com Arena, at the reported cost of $700 million over 20 years. There are crypto deals in cricket, soccer and Formula 1.
Separately, dozens of athletes have endorsed crypto, and in doing so, have led some of their fans to follow suit — and others to file suit, against the likes of Curry, Brady and other high-profile personalities for using their celebrity status to promote FTX’s failed business model.
Ben Salus, a Philly sports fan who has lost money in crypto, said he was uncomfortably surprised at the sudden increase of crypto-related signage around his favorite teams.
“It’s a very odd transition, especially because I don’t know if the world was ready for the prominence of crypto,” Salus said. “You’re getting these big personalities backing a thing that they, or their teams, know something about, but not very much.”
The debate has become even more complex over the past five years, with the intersection between crypto, digitized artwork offered in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), legalized sports wagering and e-gaming, along with the ever-expanding virtual-reality Metaverse — all growing more popular among large factions of sports stars and fans alike.
“It’s a lot more connected than people think,” said Ryan Nicklin, who studies the role of crypto in sports as part of his public-relations business. “And there’s a lot more crossover from the crypto world to the gambling world and into gaming, because when you spend on one of these Metaverse games, you’re essentially gambling since you don’t know whether the value of that asset you’ve purchased is going to go up or down.”
Crypto’s move into the public mainstream wasn’t driven by sports, but as it became a better-known commodity, sports leagues and teams and their athletes — never shy about trying to make a buck off the latest trends — got into the act.
“A lot of endorsements have to do with an emotional attachment,” said Brandon Brown, who teaches sports and business at New York University’s Tisch Institute for Global Sport. “So, it would make sense for these (crypto) companies to work with a sports team or a sports celebrity because there’s an emotional attachment that goes along with that partnership.”
One key moment came in 2020 when a few players, including Carolina Panthers Pro Bowl lineman Russell Okung, announced they would take all or some of their multimillion-dollar salaries in crypto.
“So many purchase Bitcoin to become cash rich,” Okung tweeted not long after the announcement. “I bought it to be free from cash.” Not long after, Bitcoin.com proudly stated that the increases in the price of Bitcoin had essentially doubled the $6.5 million portion of Okung’s salary that was paid in crypto.
Bigger names followed. Actors Matt Damon and Larry David were among the Hollywood types. The mayors of New York and Miami made a splash when they, too, said they would take their pay in crypto.
Aaron Rodgers, Shaquille O’Neal, Beckham Jr. and Trevor Lawrence were among a large group of high-profile athletes who also got into the act. One popular commercial involved Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Brady and his then-wife, Gisele Bündchen, calling friends to talk crypto and playfully asking them: “Are you in?”
The relationship between crypto and sports is also regenerating a debate about how athletes should use the platform they wouldn’t otherwise have but for sports. Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling, to say nothing of the racial tensions laid bare in the U.S. by George Floyd’s killing in 2020, upended the old “shut up and play” cliché, and presented many athletes with an opening to use sports to send a message.
Curry is among those who has been unafraid to delve into some of society’s more difficult topics, speaking out after Floyd’s killing and contributing to the Players’ Tribune website where athletes blog about their views unfiltered by traditional media.
Now, Curry is in the headlines again as one of many paid endorsers of FTX. But aside of being named in the class action lawsuit and being ridiculed on some social media sites that are heavily engaged in crypto discussions, there hasn’t been any major blowback against Curry for his investments and endorsements — and there may never be.
“When the currency blows up, will people look poorly on the currency, or will people look poorly on Brady or Steph Curry?” Brown said. “I’d venture to say that people are likely to have such a strong connection with their sports figures that they’ll latch onto said sports figure and blame the other party, which in this case is FTX, or the currency.”
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AP Business Writer Ken Sweet contributed to this report.
The Golden State Warriors were named in a lawsuit Monday alleging the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX used the reigning NBA champions to fraudulently promote its platform.
It’s time for our silliest preseason tradition: The 11th (how???) annual League Pass Rankings, a watchability scale to help you avoid wasting time on things like, “Wait, has this team actually ordered its players to tie their shoes together as part of its Lose-A-Rama for Victor Wembanyama campaign?”
These are not power rankings! They are derived from a formula Bill Simmons found scrawled on parchment paper inside a glass bottle that washed up on the shores of Malibu.
Teams are scored 1-10 in five categories:
ZEITGEIST: When you talk about this team at parties, do people slink away?
HIGHLIGHT POTENTIAL: Do you linger on games in case a superstar does something amazing?
STYLE: Where are they on the continuum from “Golden State Warriors beautiful game” to “Julius Randle just took four jab steps and launched an 18-footer”?
LEAGUE PASS MINUTIA: All the little things that mean too much to damaged die-hards: announcers, court designs, uniforms.
The Jazz aren’t really a basketball team after detonating the Donovan Mitchell–Rudy Gobert-Quin Snyder-Making-Amazing-Faces era. They are an airport waiting area for players, only those players have to play together a bit because the NBA mandates the Jazz field a team instead of working together “Ocean’s Eleven”-style to rig the lottery.
They are the NBA Spider-Man Pointing meme of shoot-first combo guards: Jordan Clarkson, Collin Sexton, Talen Horton-Tucker, Nickeil Alexander-Walker. Lauri Markkanen and Malik Beasley aren’t exactly prime John Stockton, either. Poor Mike Conley can bring the ball up, pass it once and head into the stands for a drink. (I am excited to watch Sexton again. He averaged 24 points on 47.5% shooting two seasons ago, and purists dismissed it because the Cleveland Cavaliers stunk and Sexton’s a blah passer. Putting up those numbers is not easy. Sexton plays with classic little guy bravado, flinging himself inside for rebounds and going at larger superstars as if they should be scared of him.)
We are only one year removed from the Utah broadcast team shrieking at Rudy Gay’s debut as if the Jazz were getting prime Karl Malone. I can’t wait to hear how the Jazz are not really tanking, how dare anyone suggest it, the honorable caretakers of this community treasure would never allow that toxin to infect your beloved Jazz Men.
The new uniforms are a crime against NBA art:
The black and yellow ones are high school gym class-level. Why is a team with such a rich color palette going all-in on black? The white ones are passable only because the Jazz note — a perfect piece of sports art — is front and center, but they’ve even sullied that by removing the blue, yellow and green in the note head in favor of (yup) black.
The new court at least has the smoky white-gray shadow of that note along the sidelines.
The Pacers are one trade from challenging the San Antonio Spurs as frontrunners for the league’s worst record. They fall behind the Spurs here only because of the “zeitgeist” category; winning five titles buys San Antonio gravitas, especially when their last tank job kick-started that dominance.
Tyrese Haliburton is more entertaining than the entire Spurs team. He operates two steps ahead of defenses, and takes joy in passing. He gets off the ball early instead of hunting assists. When Haliburton is on the floor, the ball flies. He celebrates assists more loudly than baskets. You will sometimes catch Haliburton shouting with glee as his big man is about to cram one of his feathery lobs. (Haliburton and Isaiah Jackson are a fun alley-oop connection.) He might lead the league in assists.
Indiana’s young (and raw) bigs seemed to catch Haliburton’s spirit; the Pacers had the ball shifting side-to-side. Terry Taylor is the most ferocious offensive rebounder you don’t know. He will Kool-Aid Man through four guys to snag a second chance.
T.J. McConnell must be furious Jose Alvarado seized his throne as the king of the back-court sneak steal. I expect McConnell to respond by wearing a Hamburglar mask and hiding in the stands.
Chris Duarte bobs and weaves behind screens with liquid veteran guile. Bennedict Mathurin is a blast of athleticism for a team that ranked 27th in dunks. There’s plenty of room on Aaron Nesmith Island!
28. SAN ANTONIO SPURS (21.5)
The Spurs were for so long the League Pass nerd team: Manu Ginobili driving Gregg Popovich mad with thread-the-needle passes; Boris Diaw’s roly-poly, spinning, shoulder-checking drives; Kawhi Leonard snatching the ball from people. They birthed the Spursgasm, and raised the sport to perhaps its stylistic zenith in 2013-14.
Welp.
Can I interest you in the Low-Risk Point Guard Sibling Olympics between Tre and Tyus Jones? What about Point Josh Primo? Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell should develop into really good support starters, but it’s hard to hone your secondary playmaking on a team this light on first-option types to bend defenses — even if Popovich will have everyone sharing and moving. (Vassell is the biggest draw — a potential 3-and-D monster who has flashed ball-handling chops.)
At least Jakob Poeltl free throws have drama; he has hit below 50% over three seasons, and that will be a big deal if Poeltl — a fine player — ends up on a playoff team again.
Jeremy Sochan is fun, and leads three 2022 first-round picks who should see minutes.
Is this the best non-fiesta jersey in Spurs history — maybe the best, period?
I love that spur jutting out of the “X” in that new “SATX” wordmark. That gorgeous pattern down the sides is rendered in the style of Mexican serapes. The Texas state logo is a nod to the team’s origins as the Dallas Chaparrals in the American Basketball Association.
This 50th anniversary court, though …
The gold doesn’t go, and the center-court logo looks as if someone draped a carpet over the big spur.
27. OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER (21.5)
They’d be at least three spots higher with Chet Holmgren healthy. Without him, the roster is a morass after the strange-but-cool Shai Gilgeous-Alexander/Josh Giddey/Luguentz Dort trio. I mean this in a good way: It is really hard to find a perimeter trio with almost zero overlapping skill among them.
Giddey is the tall genius passer who dares long-range, no-look lasers with zero margin for error. Dort is the brick wall who lofts ceiling-scraping 3s and bulldozes inside. Gilgeous-Alexander is the ungraspable phantom, everywhere and nowhere at once as he slithers into the lane — different limbs seemingly operating at different speeds, and moving in different directions.
Good luck distributing minutes beyond that. If you’re chasing wins, you’d play Kenrich Williams and Mike Muscala. Then there are at least seven young guys who merit time — including three of the first 34 picks in the last draft.
Aleksej Pokusevski has shown hints that he’s a basketball player, not just a gangly novelty. He has vision, and a knack for blocking shots. (Does he think you get more points if jumpers go in at higher velocities?) Tre Mann is crafty. If a Darius Bazley corner 3 hits the side of the backboard, does it make a noise? (Don’t sleep on the Thunder hiring Chip Engelland — longtime assistant coach and shooting guru for the Spurs.)
A juicy subplot: midtier playoff teams cannot afford losses to the Wembanyama Brigade. Those can be the difference between No. 6 and the play-in. The Thunder signaled doom for the Los Angeles Lakers last season with two massive early comeback wins.
The broadcast is less propaganda-y than it once was. Progress!
26. Washington Wizards (24)
The cherry blossom uniform is the best thing to happen to this franchise since the Charlotte Bobcats took Michael Kidd-Gilchrist No. 2 in 2012. They should give these uniforms a no-trade clause.
The team with perhaps the most blah art collection of the last 15 years — this is the first season they’ve used multiple courts! — nailed every detail: the soft-pink; the gradual shift to gray on the shorts; the stenciled flowers dripping down the sides.
Gandalf is back!
After years of ignoring their kooky wizarding heritage, the team is tiptoeing into some semi-ironic hipster embrace of it. It took me years before I realized the contrast between the wizard’s white beard and black cloak formed a “W.” (I might have problems.)
Oh, the team! The Wiz could push for a high-end play-in spot, or skid early and Avada Kedavra themselves into the Wembanyama sweepstakes.
For a team that has been under-.500 since 2018, they have few (if any) young prospects you are dying to watch. Deni Avdija is a heady ball-mover who enjoys defense — remember when he started forming an “X” with his forearms after stops? — but needs to do more on offense. Rui Hachimura was empty calories last season; he has a lot to prove in the final year of his rookie contract.
Kyle Kuzma was awesome across the board, and elevates NBA fashion. Bradley Beal is one of the league’s most artful three-level scorers — a sleek blend of old school and new school. You often hear how Beal can’t be the No. 1 guy on a title team, but who cares (other than Wiz fans who can recite his salary cap hit in 2027)? How many such players exist? Beal is a star, and would look incredible as the second-best player — and maybe No. 1 scorer — on a great team stacked with defenders. (In other news, the Wiz had a three-year window in which they could have traded Beal for a gazillion draft picks.)
The funniest random NBA streak is Orlando’s 10-season run ranking 20th or worse in points per possession. That is Dimaggio-level consistency in offensive incompetence. I really hope they are 20th on the last day of the season and go all-out for 19th.
I think we are on rebuild No. 3 post-Dwightmare? This one might take. Paolo Banchero is the offense-first fulcrum the Magic have searched for this entire decade — an all-court hub with the passing and shooting chops to lift his teammates. Franz Wagner is an ideal secondary wing — all heady cuts and snappy passes, with the touch and ball-handling guile to take the reins mid-possession. Wendell Carter Jr. is only 23, and he’s already a decent starting center. They should land another high pick in this draft.
Cole Anthony plays as if he thinks he’s the best player on the floor, and I love it. He’s a solid backup and spot starter.
Everything else is a mystery. Unless Wagner becomes an every-possession point-forward — that seems a stretch — the Magic still need a perimeter orchestrator. What, exactly, is Jalen Suggs?
Jonathan Isaac’s return sometime between now and 2030 would introduce some ultra-modern lineup combinations. Can you go giant, with Wagner and all three of Isaac, Banchero and Carter? What about the center-less front-court of Wagner/Isaac/Banchero? I will never give up on Chuma Okeke!
The broadcast trio of David Steele, Jeff Turner, and Dante Marchitelli is tremendous. They have fun without degenerating into shrill homerism.
24. CHARLOTTE HORNETS (24.5)
This is the floor for a team featuring one of the league’s most inventive passers in LaMelo Ball; Eric Collins’ rapturous play-by-play; Kelly Oubre Jr. talking trash to everyone in earshot; and some of the league’s best and most immediately identifiable art. (Here’s hoping they bring back the mint shade they unveiled two seasons ago; the Hornets can own that.)
This alternate court is another hit:
That all-purple silhouette of a scary-looking Hornet leaps off the screen. The stinger theme echoes along the sideline, and on the outside of the “H” and “S” of the accompanying jersey:
The half-basketball with turquoise lining is the rare instance where dividing the circle by color works.
The Hornets played fast and ranked No. 2 in dunks last season, but almost half those dunks belonged to Miles Bridges and Montrezl Harrell. Steve Clifford teams typically don’t play fast, or experiment with the funky “nothing else is working, let’s try this?” zone defenses James Borrego cooked up.
(Clifford is a really good coach. Even so, we have not spent nearly enough time discussing how hilarious and perfectly Hornets it is that Charlotte hired one coach — Kenny Atkinson — only for him to bail once he got a look inside, and then turned to the coach they fired four years ago.)
Pairing Clifford with a chaos agent like Ball will either result in an untenable tug-of-war or a healthy meeting in the middle. (Clifford has little choice but to play a pile of unproven young guys.) I’m curious how Ball finds his footing in slowed-down, half-court sequences — what moves and passes he leans on, how he incorporates teammates.
Terry Rozier has canned an inexplicable number of clutch jumpers over the last two seasons. There is something mesmerizing about watching Mason Plumlee decide, “Screw it, I’m going to unleash this reeeeeeaaaally slooooooowwwww spin move from the foul line. It’s my time to live, baby!” Did you know Plumlee switched to shooting free throws lefty last season? That happened!
23. NEW YORK KNICKS (26.5)
The Knicks played at the league’s second-slowest pace, and their games featured tons of free throws. Their starting five was unwatchable, unless you enjoy Julius Randle, RJ Barrett and Mitchell Robinson bumping into each other. The rollicking bench shocked them to life, and if the basketball gods are kind, we will see more Barrett alongside Obi Toppin and Immanuel Quickley. (You never know when Toppin might stage his own in-game dunk contest.)
Toppin is a quick-twitch ball-mover, and Quickley went up two levels as a playmaker last season. Isaiah Hartenstein will have the ball popping, and stitch the bench together. If Robinson isn’t on point, we might see Hartenstein finish games.
Jalen Brunson should restore order and spacing to the starting five. The Knicks boast Mike Breen and Clyde Frazier, Madison Square Garden’s theater lighting and a pristine royal blue court. (I will drop them one spot if they introduce more black-and-orange art. You are the Knicks of New York freaking City. Do not be Team Halloween!)
I would like an in-game feed of Leon Rose and slouching, hangdog James Dolan sitting next to each other in silence, only the Knicks would never risk accidentally broadcasting Dolan shouting back at fans urging him to sell the team. (The camera might also catch them frowning at Tom Thibodeau’s refusal to play Cam Reddish.)
The potential for cranky Randle turning against the fans again adds to the comedy score.
22. HOUSTON ROCKETS (27)
On the one hand: Houston ranked first in dunks and second in pace, and features a bunch of telegenic young players. Jalen Green goes from zero to 100 in a nanosecond, and hunts bodies at the rim. He can also slow down for smooth midrange pull-ups — a nice break from Houston’s dunks-and-3s credo.
How do you even describe Alperen Sengun? He attempts such unusual feats of pivotry that you sometimes wonder if he traveled even though you just watched him shift both feet three times without dribbling. Was that so weird, it was somehow legal? Sengun could carry the ball 20 steps and still be astonished the referees whistled him for traveling.
He sometimes pass fakes to no one — literally to empty space — just to get defenders leaning into that void. Is it genius or madness?
On the other hand: Houston fouled the bejesus out of everyone and gagged up one of the highest turnover rates in recent history; its style of play — young guys running and gunning — lends itself to raggedness.
Tari Eason will clean up the defense. He is here to lock victims up. Jabari Smith Jr. brings some preternatural polish.
Do Derrick Favors and Maurice “I’m coming for Ish Smith’s record” Harkless ever wonder, “Wait, what city am I in?” It hurts the comedy score that Eric Gordon is too professional to write “Trade me!” on his shoes a la Chris Morris.
Boban Marjanovic cameos are always welcome. Every move Garrison Mathews makes — kicking his legs out on jumpers, running smack into picks — carries a hint of danger. Every team needs a Jae’Sean Tate.
21. SACRAMENTO KINGS (27.5)
This is too low for Sacramento.
You never know when the #KANGZZ might appear in-game. Example: Remember when NBA Twitter kicked into Conspiracy Theory mode because Vivek Ranadive sat courtside between the general manager he had recently fired (Vlade Divac) and Divac’s replacement (Monte McNair)? Because it was the Kings — with their “Game of Thrones”-style power structure and habit of hiring coaches before GMs — anything was possible.
In describing that bizarre scene, Jason Jones of The Athletic recalled Ranadive tweeting happy birthday to Jimmer Fredette (whose selection at No. 10 in 2011 after a nonsensical trade down is another #KANGZZ moment) “while negotiating a buyout [with Fredette] at the same time.” Even the tweet in question has a hidden #KANGZ treasure:
Ranadive is making the “hang loose” gesture in front of another photo of him flashing the “hang loose” gesture.
Anyway, Team Play-In-Or-Bust should be a fast-paced scoring machine built around the already sophisticated De’Aaron Fox-Domantas Sabonis two-man game. They are a natural match: opposites in build, but tethered in craft and wink-wink IQ. Sabonis might flip the angle of his screen two, three, four times, and Fox shifts in sync with each move. Sabonis can brutalize switches, push in transition and even run the occasional inverted pick-and-roll.
Malik Monk is a show, Kevin “Red Velvet” Huerter adds shooting and underrated playmaking, and Keegan Murray intrigues. I will miss the Haliburton-Richaun Holmes lob connection, but Holmes’ push shot — the best of its kind — carries on.
The algorithm is angry Miami discontinued its instantly iconic “Miami Vice”-style jerseys.
The Heat are a sneakily hard sell for casual fans. They were 28th in pace and 26th in dunks, and they foul a lot. Watching Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry, and Bam Adebayo make magic in tight spaces is an acquired taste. You have to really pay attention to notice all the smart cuts, shoulder fakes, give-and-gos, and slick interior passes that make Miami’s half-court offense hum — when it hums.
Lowry gets them moving with overzealous full-court hit-aheads. I’m excited to see what Tyler Herro does as a permanent starter. He became over-infatuated — with the team’s encouragement to some degree — with becoming a high-volume pick-and-roll ball handler at the expense of some catch-and-shoot 3s. He should recalibrate 15% or so in the direction of Klay Thompson.
There is something beautiful and almost contradictory about Jimmy Butler’s bruising game. He doesn’t just plow into people. He’s violent and physical, but never reckless. In a blink, he can transition from a burrowing drive into a stop-on-a-dime jumper that drips with surprising softness. He brings the same balletic ferocity to his off-ball cuts. (Butler might be the league’s most underrated cutter.)
The flip side of self-serious #HeatCulture is that there is almost nothing funny — unintentionally or otherwise — about the Heat.
19. PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS (29)
There is nothing in basketball like an avalanche of Damian Lillard 3s. In Portland, the buzz builds as fans realize: We might see one of those nights. It reaches a euphoric crescendo when one final 30-footer forces a timeout, and Lillard, scowling, stares and nods at the crowd in his house.
On the road, you hear fear — really hear it. It starts with low murmuring: Uh oh. As the streak unfolds, the noise morphs into a sort of collective shriek that begins when Lillard pauses mid-dribble as if he might launch.
For the first time in ages, the Blazers have surrounded their star with some oomph: Josh Hart rampaging end-to-end; Nassir Little testing the limits of his game; Anfernee Simons flicking 3s and hunting tin; Gary Payton II rim-running and committing felonies on defense; the unknown of Shaedon Sharpe.
Simons might have the league’s prettiest floater; he pogo-sticks into the clouds, above reaching defenders, and flips that baby from all angles.
Chauncey Billups might have to start from scratch on defense after last year’s blitzing scheme failed.
The Blazers have the best team name, and maybe the best top-to-bottom art. This floor is close to seizing my No. 1 court design spot from the Lakers:
A few teams have experimented with differently colored painted areas. That contrast works better on the boundaries — as the Blazers have done here. The pinwheel might be the best logo in U.S. sports; whoever decided to extend the striping from the center-court pinwheel onto each sideline deserves a big raise.
Lillard planted the pinwheel smack in the center of the new jersey he helped design — and echoed its striping down the sides:
More teams are trying jerseys showing only their primary logo — no wordmark at all — and the pinwheel is well-suited to that. The Blazers were smart to render the numbers in white instead of black.
18. CHICAGO BULLS (30)
This an eight-spot drop from last year, reflecting Lonzo Ball’s importance as Chicago’s fast-break engine and the connective tissue between the disparate styles baked into the roster.
I was gobsmacked watching from courtside last November as the Bulls ran circles around the Lakers at Staples Center. LeBron James didn’t play, but Chicago’s blowout win was so emphatic, his absence seemed almost immaterial. The younger, bouncier, cockier Bulls looked as if they were playing a different sport. They passed and cut and jacked 3s ahead of the Lakers. Ball and Alex Caruso terrorized L.A. on defense. The Lakers quit. The Bulls danced.
That team vanished six weeks later, and has never returned. It got slower, more predictable, over-dependent on DeMar DeRozan’s graceful but somewhat repetitive midrange game. Zach LaVine is the best dunker since Vince Carter, but wings don’t dunk often enough to warp viewing habits; Lavine dunked 62 times in 67 games. (Derrick Jones. Jr. might literally jump over someone at any moment.)
If LaVine cans one or two fading step-back 3s — he’ll do that from the corners too! — definitely stick around. A high-degree-of-difficulty swish-fest may be coming.
Nikola Vucevic is a footwork artist on the block, but playing alongside LaVine and DeRozan marginalized that part of his game and turned him into a run-of-the-mill pick-and-pop shooter; Vucevic averaged eight post touches per 100 possessions, second-lowest of his career, per Second Spectrum.
Ayo Dosunmu and Patrick Williams offer the appeal of the unknown, and how they develop — and how fast — is of immense importance to a team that could be trapped in upper-class mediocrity. Williams’ career could spin in an unusual number of directions; the Bulls might even spot him minutes at center.
Adam Amin and Stacey King keep the broadcast light-hearted, and lose nothing when Jason Benetti fills in. The logo, court, and jerseys (other than anodyne black alternates) are top-notch.
17. TORONTO RAPTORS (30)
Some fans are concerned about strategic homogeneity — every team playing spread pick-and-roll, chasing the same shots. That concern is overblown, but there is an easy antidote: Watch the positionless, avante-garde basketball experiment unfolding in Toronto!
The Raptors’ rotation amounts to Fred VanVleet and several tall people who can do lots of things on offense and guard everyone on defense. They leverage their length in ways you’d expect, and some you might not: switching, playing wacky zones, bombarding the offensive glass, and posting up size mismatches. They do the unthinkable on defense: allow lots of 3s (basically) on purpose, confident their speed and preposterous arms make for frightening closeouts. (Only Matisse Thybulle has blocked more 3s than Chris Boucher over the past three seasons.)
Playing mismatch ball can be laborious; Toronto possessions after made baskets lasted 18.3 seconds — highest in the league, per Inpredictable. But even the grueling nature of its half-court offense runs counter to trends in a way that makes it appealing.
Scottie Barnes — 6-9 point-whatever — is the perfect foundational player for this ethos, and might soon grasp the superstar tools to lift Toronto’s offense from the muck. He seemed to play last season in second gear, digesting the speed and dimensions of the NBA before pushing the throttle. By the playoffs, he appeared to have a better understanding of how good he could be.
Pascal Siakam is a fine all-around No. 1 option, and VanVleet is that greater-than-his-statistics guy you appreciate more the longer you watch him. Every seemingly innocuous move — every cut, dribble, wink, shoulder fake — opens a few inches of space, and those inches eventually add up to an open shot.
You never know where that first Precious Achiuwa dribble might lead — everything from a dunk to a pass into the fifth row is in play — but his transformation into a stretch center changed Toronto’s offense.
The announcers, court, and red-and-white jerseys are all great. The pitch on Jack Armstrong’s “Get that gah-bage outta here!” call somehow gets higher every season. Thumbs down to the alternate black-and-gold look.
16. DETROIT PISTONS (31)
Cade Cunningham has that rare Luka Doncic-style ability to find life in places where possessions often die — in the extended paint with a live dribble that doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, against a set defense.
Cunningham is strong enough to keep pushing, tall enough to see everything. Most of all, he’s smart enough to know how every pivot and twist might manipulate the defense. One lunge inside from a help defender, and zip — the ball finds a shooter. Once Cunningham refines his touch around the rim, every possibility will open up.
Jaden Ivey’s lightning-bolt drives might form the perfect duality alongside Cunningham’s patient game. Corralling the Pistons could someday be like facing consecutive pitches from Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson.
Bojan Bogdanovic widens the floor. Saddiq Bey should find the right water level in his game. Don’t mess with Isaiah Stewart. Beef Stew should shoot more 3s, and he’s the keystone to Detroit’s switch-everything defense. Jalen Duren is a high-flying, rim-munching backup center who might even share the floor with Stewart in short stints.
The rest of the bench is a bit of a mystery.
There’s also this:
Was anyone yearning for the return of the 1990s teal and flaming horse? Do fans like these now? Is the affection ironic or genuine? Do teal and red mesh? The flaming exhaust pipes and “DP” corner logos are kinda cool.
The new black jerseys — with fat striping as a Bad Boys call-out — are a bust. Black has been every team’s “whatever” alternate for a decade, and the blocky, outlined black lettering looks generic.
I do like Detroit’s two main courts, with the edges of a basketball along each sideline echoing the central logo:
15. LA CLIPPERS (31.5)
The Clips are about as entertaining as it gets for a slowish team that lives on jumpers and rarely flies above the rim. Paul George glides in a way that makes everything (except dribbling through traffic) look effortless.
There is majesty — power, strength, rigid up-and-down precision — to Kawhi Leonard’s pull-up game. Leonard showed two seasons ago that he can still dial up peak Spurs-era sharktopus mode on defense, and there is no wing player alive who instills the same level of panic as Sharktopus Kawhi. He is the rare weakside help defender who dictates terms — vibrating on his toes, arms spread fingertip to fingertip — in that netherworld between a corner shooter and the big man rumbling down the lane. Even the best ball handlers freeze at the sight of that menace: Is Kawhi’s guy open? Oh, wait, Kawhi is gonna apparate into that passing lane. What about the lob inside? Could he snatch that too? Overthink, and Leonard has already won.
If that Leonard is back when it counts, the Clip are in the inner circle of contenders.
John Wall, Norman Powell and Terance Mann are the jolt of head-down, north-south speed this team needs. (The Clips are so deep, a lot of preseason analysis has skirted past Powell. He is a critical variable, and should finish lots of games.) The Clips will play five-out, centerless lineups, and every game will teach us something about which perimeter trios work best around Leonard and George.
You know your art is dull when no one notices the difference between your primary court and the “special” alternate:
This is shockingly low for a 64-win team with a layered pick-and-roll attack, potential for drama with Deandre Ayton, and the return of the classic purple sunburst jerseys.
Phoenix even amped up the pace last season, unusual for a Chris Paul team. Devin Booker is a vintage scorer, with his velvety leaning midranger and a sneaky-nasty post game. He and Paul rain old-school fire. Paul’s maximize-every-edge perfectionism can be irritating — the rip-through is coming the second Phoenix enters the bonus — but it’s what makes him who he is.
(It also results in on-court disagreements, one of which gave us the iconic fake-laughing meme. That thing transcends basketball. Try it out in your life. It’s a great way to end those exchanges of small talk with long-lost high school classmates you don’t really like.)
It is so satisfying when Paul kicks that fastidiousness and decides to preen — showing off fancy yo-yo dribbles, or nutmegging someone just because he feels like embarrassing them.
The young guys will stretch themselves; Cameron Johnson piled up 20-plus-point games last season, and Mikal Bridges has dabbled with quick-hitting duck-ins. (Bridges’ defense is a show. He envelopes people — the rare wing defender so long, he can block his own guy’s shot before the ball really escapes the shooter’s hand.)
But we’ve seen and enjoyed this movie enough for now: Paul and Booker snaking their way to midrangers from the right elbow, the Suns’ steadfast defense forcing those same shots on the other end. They are Team Bizarro Shot Selection.
The algorithm underestimates how interesting it will be watching Trae Young and Dejounte Murray figure out how to amplify each other. There could be hiccups over the first 20-plus games. Will Murray make enough catch-and-shoot 3s? Will Young play off the ball, like, at all?
The variety is welcome. Young can do almost whatever he wants against any pick-and-roll scheme. We know about the 3s ands floaters (and foul-baiting flails), but Young still doesn’t get enough credit for his next-level anticipatory passing. He sees everything early, and can make almost any pass — including long lefty slingshots and other across-the-floor reads off-limits to most 6-1 guards.
Still: Too much of anything gets redundant, and Murray offers a reprieve — plus the ability to float across huge chunks of space on defense.
Young’s lob passing makes Atlanta a perennial top-10 dunk team. John Collins gets way above the rim and finishes with panache and power. Onyeka Okongwu is a two-handed thunder dunker. Okongwu will be a starter sooner than later; he and De’Andre Hunter are the biggest X factors for the Hawks now.
Young leaning into WWE-level villainy is great television. Bogdan Bogdanovic punctuates hot streaks with sumptuous snarling trash talk. Aaron Holiday is a little cinder block who attacks the rim with the aggression of someone a foot taller.
12. CLEVELAND CAVALIERS (32.5)
We’re in the range where every team feels too low, and this will indeed end up low for the Cavaliers. Between their four stars, Cleveland has something for every fan. Donovan Mitchell supplies the highlights; he is a hunched blur, attacking along sharp diagonals and seeking to inflict pain at the rim. Jarrett Allen fears no dunker at the summit. Darius Garland is all staccato craft and demoralizing ultra-long 3s. Evan Mobley is getting ready to show the breadth of his game. They all complement each other.
I have never liked the Cavs wine-and-gold scheme, but their creative team has produced a clean new jersey set:
Both shades are muted in a pleasing way. The Cavs found a spot — on the left side of the shorts — where their gigantic “C” stands out without dominating. Turning the “V” in “Cavs” into a basket is a nice homage to the Mark Price/Brad Daugherty era.
They’ve cleaned up the court too, refilling the painted areas and erasing the shaded city skyline:
We need another Ricky Rubio–Kevin Love reunion tour. Remember how unhappy Love seemed as the lone championship holdover on a rebuilding team? That story almost never ends with said veteran sticking around to enjoy the fruits of that rebuild, and it’s remarkable Love is here and happy.
J.B. Bickerstaff proved last season that he is willing to buck convention: ultra-big lineups, Mobley lording over the top of zone defenses, copious amounts of Dean Wade.
For reasons I can’t explain, I enjoy how Robin Lopez sits on the floor in the corner instead of on the bench.
John Michael and Austin Carr are a nice mix — the serious one and the silly cackler. Keep an eye on Michael at the broadcast table, standing and leaning and crouching to keep eyes on the action. He does not want to watch through a monitor.
11. PHILADELPHIA 76ers (33.5)
Joel Embiid guarantees a top-12 finish here. Few athletes have ever combined so much grace, power and high-IQ feel. On three straight possessions, Embiid might: rain in a soft midranger; then obliterate someone on the block and dunk them through the floor; and finally pump-and-go from the arc, Eurostep around one sucker, and kiss in a falling layup.
The James Harden-Embiid two-man game was so potent, Embiid so effective scoring off Harden’s pocket passes, defenses resorted to desperate and dangerous counters: Should we, umm, not even leave Embiid and just let Harden drive almost to the rim — and then swarm from one of Philly’s shooters? We get to see a whole season of that cat-and-mouse-and-beard game. (They lose points for how many free throws they generate. It’s a slog.)
Tyrese Maxey takes over when Harden rests, but he’s almost more fun playing off Philly’s two stars. He waits along the arc, like a sprinter in the starting block, primed to catch a kickout and fly through the diagonal crease Harden has unlocked.
Matisse Thybulle teleports on defense. He is way over there, and then suddenly and implausibly, he is blocking your shot. There is a feast-or-famine element to almost every Philly reserve. You can’t look away.
Philly a top-four art team. Kate Scott and Alaa Abdelnaby are talented enough that they don’t have to resort to homerish propaganda. It hurts the credibility of the overall product.
I appreciate referees for allowing Montrezl Harrell to do pull-ups on the rim after dunks. I’d watch a broadcast that just zooms in on P.J. Tucker making life miserable for opponents.
Basketball: Los Angeles Lakers Russell Westbrook (0) in action vs Chicago Bulls at Staples Center. … [+] Los Angeles, CA 11/15/2021 CREDIT: John W. McDonough (Photo by John W. McDonough/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images) (Set Number: X163867 TK1)
Sports Illustrated via Getty Images
With the hype around 2023 NBA Draft prospect Victor Wembanyama reaching almost unreasonable levels, teams around the association are gearing up for what could be the tanking of our lifetimes post the trade deadline.
That, in fairness, makes sense. Wembanyama is the most intriguing prospect since LeBron James and projects as a clear-cut franchise superstar, health permitting.
An interesting subplot to the inevitable tanking will be that of the trade market. In order to be as bad as possible, teams will need to sell off quality pieces, especially their veterans, which means competitive teams could find themselves in a buyer’s market.
Below are three teams that should all be aggressive on the trade market later in the season, in order to upgrade their roster.
Chicago Bulls
The Bulls are clearly trying to win, having signed former All-Stars Andre Drummond and Goran Dragić to contracts over the summer, adding them to the established core of veterans, led by Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vučević.
What the Bulls also have in their possession, somewhat interestingly, is a fair chunk of young players. Patrick Williams, Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, and Dalen Terry are all on cost-controlled deals for this season.
Williams has yet to break out as the team had hoped for, but does still offer a strong 6’8, 225 frame with two-way upside. Dosunmu proved to be a young starting caliber guard, who like Williams has two-way upside, but unlike Williams is closer to realizing it.
Terry is untested, but an energetic spark plug who does a little bit of everything, and could find himself in a rotation not long from now due to his size (6’7 with a 7’1 wingspan), and positional flexibility that allows him to play three positions.
For rebuilding teams, moving out veterans for young players should be attractive, especially as youth is rarely tied to winning. Last year, Harrison Barnes was an often rumored name for the Bulls prior to the deadline, and he could resurface in trade talks if the Kings are dead in the water in the middle of the season.
It’s also not inconceivable that the Detroit Pistons spend half the year building up the trade value of Bojan Bogdanović, only to flip him later for another young piece, in which case the Bulls could make for an attractive destination.
There are options for the Bulls on the trade market, as long as they’re willing to go all-in. Given that they gave up most of their future draft picks for Vučević and DeRozan, logic dictates they should at least be willing to explore.
Los Angeles Lakers
While Russell Westbrook is rumored on a daily basis to find himself in another uniform, it might behoove the Lakers to hang onto the point guard until the midway point of the season, and letting teams get desperate for a proper tank commander.
Right now, teams are demanding the Lakers relinquish two first-round selections for them to take on Westbrook’s contract, but that price could get pushed down if a team like the Spurs are finding themselves slightly too good near the trade deadline.
Acquiring Westbrook at this stage of his career, and letting him do whatever he wants on the floor, is not going to improve any roster. He’ll put up a lot of numbers, but do so inefficiently, while piling up turnovers.
The Lakers, who are in drastic need of quality depth around James and Anthony Davis, would likely settle for a group of role players, as long as they needn’t relinquish draft capital.
One team the Lakers should keep an eye on are the New York Knicks, who could go either way during their season. They have a talented roster, but the individual pieces have yet to work collectively. Would the Lakers be interested in swinging a deal centered around Westbrook and Julius Randle?
Perhaps the Lakers could also give Gordon Hayward and Terry Rozier a strong look in Charlotte, as they could be looking to get substantially worse in the coming months.
Regardless, the Lakers may have a more attractive trade piece on their hands in Westbrook than most assume, and it’s all due to Wembanyama.
Miami Heat
As I wrote about recently, the Heat need to do something. They stood path during the summer when everyone around them got better, and their roster is still screaming for a talent injection.
The challenge for Miami is that they have very little to offer in any deal. Tyler Herro, due to his contract extension, now has Poison Pill status which makes him difficult to trade, and the mid-tier contracts they do have, in Duncan Robinson, Victor Oladipo, and Caleb Martin simply aren’t going to fetch a ton.
This might force them to explore what they can get for rookie forward Nikola Jović and their 2023 first-round selection, should they be willing to fork over those two assets.
(Miami owes their 2025 first-rounder to Oklahoma City, and are thus not able to attach their 2024 or 2026 selections.)
Of course, giving up Jović is no small thing as the 6’10 forward has vast all-around upside, not to mention a knack for putting the ball in the basket. It’s almost ironic that he fits what Miami needs, only years from now.
The Heat could be looking at similar players as the Bulls, given they also have a positional need at the power forward position. Both Bogdanović and Barnes would instantly improve Miami’s offense, and provide them with some much needed punch in the playoffs.
MIAMI — UDONIS HASLEM was vacationing in Orlando with his family this past July when he saw a black SUV pull up to his rental house.
“My antenna goes up,” the Miami Heat veteran says of the moment. “A black SUV? I can’t see inside it? I told my kids, ‘Go in the house.’”
Haslem was right to be suspicious.
“I start walking up to the car, and [Heat vice president of sports media relations] Tim Donovan jumps out with T-shirts [with an image of Udonis on them],” he says. “I think he was shocked by my initial response, but that’s because I didn’t know who the hell it was.”
It’s ironic, given how much this surprise visit was so much about two decades of familiarity.
Donovan’s arrival marked the Heat’s invitation for Haslem, then a free agent, to return for a 20th NBA season, an offer he officially accepted when he re-signed for one year with Miami in August. He will join Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas Mavericks) and Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers) as the only NBA players to have played at least 20 seasons all with one franchise. And at 42, he will remain the oldest player in the league for one more season — one he announced in August at his basketball camp in Miami.
But Haslem would still like his say in the discussion of what exactly a power forward in his 40s can offer a team.
“This is not a f—ing charity case,” he says. “My guys know what I bring to the table, appreciate me and respect me.
“I’m not joking. Trust me, I’d be the first one to get the f— out of here if I couldn’t do it anymore. I’m not gonna get my ass kicked by little guys every day.”
When his signing was announced, critics discussed the Heat’s inability to quit Haslem on social media. Among the more popular posts was one pointing out that since 2017, Haslem made the most money per minute played in the league: He has played just 273 minutes, or the equivalent of less than six full NBA games, in that time.
Udonis Haslem is the highest-paid active player per minute in the last five seasons.
Could the spot be better utilized on developing young talent? Would Haslem be just as valuable as an assistant coach? Or does the man, who is affectionately called “UD” as well as “OG,” because of his extensive tenure with his hometown franchise, have something left to offer a team with which he’s already won three championships?
“I understand what my role is, so why not play?” he counters. “Some day, it’s gonna be over. But everything about me being here and being a part of this is based on the fact that I can still contribute if I need to.”
Haslem is the fabric of the Heat franchise and probably the greatest single contributor to the oft-referenced Heat culture. Those who see him daily recognize his contribution to winning is real, and not some myth the organization is keeping alive.
This is, after all, still a Pat Riley-led franchise. One of the former Heat coach-turned-president’s consistent messages is, the older you get in the NBA, the better condition you must maintain. Hence, Haslem has gotten more lean in the past few seasons to maintain his agility. Riley says Haslem is currently under 5% body fat.
Despite not seeing the floor in the playoffs since 2016, Haslem felt he played his part in Jimmy Butler’s impressive performance in Miami’s 2022 playoff run by testing him in one-on-one battles before home games.
“It gets competitive up here, bro,” Haslem says. “He makes some shots on me that drive me nuts sometimes.
“If you ask anybody, that [playoff run] started up here. I was watching that s— on Joel Embiid, it was literally déjà vu of the s— he makes on me up here. I said to myself, ‘This is why we do what we do. This is why we come up here and we play 1s, and we get competitive. That’s how I know he can lead us to where we need to go.’”
Those individual sessions aren’t reserved for just Butler. Any Heat player, any size, any age gets a shot at Haslem whenever they want to sharpen their skills.
“That definitely surprised me, because I didn’t think he was gonna be playing and moving like that,” Heat forward Caleb Martin says. “A lot of people at his age have been done playing for years. He’s still in here getting it in, top-tier shape. To see him coming in and working like he does every day, knowing he’s probably not gonna get into the game … it’s impressive.”
Added teammate Victor Oladipo: “I played against him when I was coming back in rehab. OG can still slide ’em. It’s not no tough out. He’s gonna make you work for every inch. He’s willing to do whatever to help us be better, and he doesn’t even have to. He’s the most selfless person we have.
“He’s not UD sometimes. He’s UD all the time.”
THE LEGEND OF Haslem began during George W. Bush’s first presidential term in 2003, after a year playing overseas and getting in NBA shape.
A leaned-out Haslem had spent time with both Miami’s and San Antonio’s summer squads, looking almost nothing like the wide-bodied post-presence he was in three years at Florida. He’d spent his college career dominating in the low post with hook shots and heart, but was now trying to make his name with defense and an evolving midrange jumper.
“I didn’t want him to get down to [Spurs coach Gregg] Popovich, because I knew Pop would sign him in a heartbeat,” Riley recalls.
Playing for his hometown team eventually convinced Haslem to sign his first NBA deal with Miami over San Antonio, joining rookie Dwyane Wade and the newly-acquired Lamar Odom from the LA Clippers.
Before Haslem’s initial game in a Heat uniform, Riley gave the first indication that Haslem and the organization would begin a long-standing partnership.
“We were down in Puerto Rico after a week of training camp, I think it was our first preseason game,” recalls Riley, who would eventually hand the head-coaching duties to Stan Van Gundy five days before the 2003-04 season began. “We all went to the shootaround, and this is the first time I’m going to say, ‘OK, this is our starting lineup.’ And I called out Dwyane, I called out Eddie [Jones], I called out Brian [Grant], I called out Caron [Butler]. And I said, ‘OK UD, you’re starting at the 4 ahead of Lamar Odom.’
“Players were looking around because Lamar was a very, very talented player. And that’s where Udonis showed me, showed everybody that he was one of the great competitors in our franchise and in this game.”
Haslem started the first 24 games of that season (Odom eventually started all 80 regular-season games he played with the Heat that season) before being moved to the bench. He averaged 7.3 points and 6.3 rebounds for a surprising Heat team that reached the Eastern Conference semifinals. Haslem would then start 360 of the next 362 games he played over the following five seasons, and all 22 games of the 2006 Heat championship run — capped by a 17-point, 10-rebound performance in the championship-clinching Game 6 in Dallas.
“I said to him, you’re going to be wide open a lot,” Riley recalls telling Haslem before that game. “Get into the creases, get into the gaps. He hit a baseline jumper, hit another elbow jumper, and then he got an offensive rebound and put that back in. He had no fear of the big moment. He never did.”
Among the greatest signs of respect Haslem received from his peers was when the Heat’s Big Three — Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh — took slightly less than their maximums in 2010 so Haslem could re-sign with the team and be a part of what would be a run of four Finals appearances in four years.
Haslem, at this point playing mostly as a reserve, thanked them with moments of unforgettable support — most notably by filling in for an injured Bosh early in the 2012 playoffs. Against the Indiana Pacers in the second round, Haslem’s Game 5 retaliation against Tyler Hansbrough would become the moment that most typified that stage of his career.
Hansbrough had fouled Wade in the head and neck area one play earlier. So Haslem, himself wearing eight stitches over his right eye from a collision one game earlier, committed a hard foul against the Pacers forward, leaving Hansbrough bloodied and getting OG ejected and suspended for Game 6.
“Just staying ready so I didn’t have to get ready,” Haslem says, of his biggest contribution to that championship. “CB gets hurt, we don’t win the Indiana series or the Boston series without me. Regardless of what my role was, we don’t win that series without me, which means we don’t win the Finals without me.”
When the current iteration of the Heat was built around Jimmy Butler, Haslem discovered a running mate with a similar affection for work. And as the Heat were making a run to the NBA Finals in the Orlando bubble in 2020, he had another chance to prove his worth.
“We were going to be comfortable with being uncomfortable,” Haslem says. “This is not home. This is our job. It’s almost like going to Europe to play: You spend your nine months there, and then you bring your ass home.”
Together, they came up with a plan. “Soon as we hit the bubble, we were on some militant s—,” Haslem recalls.
“I was crazy, I was sleeping on the couch. I never slept in the bed. I slept on the couch for the three months I was in there. I had my cabinets full of Campbell’s soup, water bottles and a little shot of Hennessy on the side. I never left my room, either. Me and Jimmy didn’t have many friends.”
Haslem is proud of his part in taking the fifth-seeded Heat to the NBA Finals inside the bubble, even though they lost to the Lakers in six games. Last season, he remained visible throughout Miami’s run to the Eastern Conference Finals. The most in-your-face moment came when he broke up an on-bench argument between Butler and coach Erik Spoelstra in the midst of a late-season losing streak.
“He brought it down to a level where all parties understood this was about winning, period,” says former Heat all-star Alonzo Mourning, now the team’s vice president of player programs and development. “Every team wants a player like that in their locker room. We’re just fortunate enough to have that.”
HASLEM WAS INITIALLY unsure about returning for this season. But it was a conversation from two years ago with his father Johnnie that convinced him to reach that round number.
“We were just going through the summer, and he was like, ‘S—, the way you’re going, you could do 20,’” Haslem recalls from their talk in 2020. “I thought he was crazy. I was like, ‘I don’t know about that.’ But he said I should really think about it.
“And then Dwyane mentioned it. Those are two people that I trust and I value their opinions. So I started thinking, ‘If the mind holds up and the body holds up, that’s a hell of a class to be in.’”
But while Haslem is inevitably being celebrated with jersey swaps and tributes for the next seven months, his father won’t be around to see what he helped inspire.
Johnnie died Aug. 30, 2021, at the age of 70, taking with him the perfect ending to his son’s underdog story.
“It just wasn’t gonna be the ending I envisioned after 20 years,” Haslem says. “That was the most important piece, my dad. Not to take anything away from my stepmom or my wife or my kids, but from the day I picked up a freakin’ basketball, that dude’s been right there.
“It definitely dampened it, put a dark cloud over it. But there are a lot of people that deserve to be a part of this. I didn’t want to forget about those people.”
Those include his family and friends, and his teammates.
“He’s constantly making me better, whether it’s talking, breaking down film, playing one-on-one,” Butler said. “He’s in everybody’s ear for the better because he knows what it takes to win, he’s been a champion, and he wants everybody else to feel the same. Glad to have that guy back.”
Back in a jersey, specifically. Not only because OG still has something left in those 42-year-old legs, but because when he is finally done, he envisions more than just an assistant coach role.
Haslem looks at what Buster Posey just did in San Francisco, joining the Giants’ ownership group just one year after his 12-year career with the team, and is determined to do the same with the Heat.
Until then, his goals are more about making sure his impact carries on. His value over the past several years of his career can only truly be measured by those in uniform with him. And he’s hopeful his work resonates well after he’s retired.
“I want to pass the torch to Bam [Adebayo] as the next bearer of the culture,” Haslem says. “I want to continue to mold and help Jimmy be the champion that he deserves to be. And I just want to leave this locker room headed in the right direction.
“I want kids somewhere to say, ‘I want to have a career like Udonis Haslem — undrafted, worked for everything I got, won three championships, retired and went into ownership with the same organization I played with for 20 years.’”
