Category: NBA

Apparently, getting outscored by 33 points in nearly 13 minutes in one of the biggest choke jobs in NBA history can partially be chalked up to luck.

Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson surprisingly cited “luck” toward the beginning of his postgame press conference after his team’s shocking collapse in the 115-104 Game 1 loss to the Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.

Cleveland led by 22 points with 7:52 remaining and somehow managed to lose by 11 in overtime.

“I thought they hit some really tough shots in that fourth quarter, those two 3’s, prayer 3’s end of shot clock,” Atkinson said after the crusher.

“We got a little unlucky, quite honestly. (Jalen) Brunson obviously took over at the end.”

It takes more than luck for a team to collapse the way the Cavaliers did Tuesday night in a loss that could be rued the way Knicks fans lament last year’s Game 1 choke job against the Pacers.

While it would be fair to cite the Knicks’ astronomical shooting percentages in the final roughly eight minutes plus overtimes, including Shamet Landry’s miracle 3-pointer that bounced in to tie the game, that would be an easy excuse for a Cavaliers team that both stopped defending and taking good shots.

The Knicks routinely went after James Harden and reaped the benefits, with Harden unable to stop Brunson when the game mattered during the Knicks’ 30-8 run in the final 7:52 of regulation.

Atkinson cited Mikal Bridges’ pair of 3s in the final 2:38 as examples of tough shots the Knicks converted.

“The two Bridges 3’s, like kind of what are you going to do?” he asked.

An inefficient offense compounded those issues since the Cavaliers could not stop the Knicks’ run at the end of regulation, settling for bad jumpers that led to one-and-done possesions.

Neither Harden nor Donovan Mitchell rose the occasion like Brunson did.

“My only regret, and this can happen when you get a little fatigue, it just stopped moving,” Atkinson said. “We were pinging the ball over the place, great ball movement and then it got a little stagnant.”

The Cavaliers’ mettle will now be tested in Game 2, since losses of this magnitude are not easy to forget.

The Knicks never overcame last year’s shocking Game 1 loss to the Pacers en route to falling in 6, but Atkinson tried to harp on the positives after one of the worst losses in franchise history.

“I’m super proud of the way our group played,” he said. “We played great basketball tonight for three quarters, unfortunately … they dominated us in the fourth quarter.”

The Knicks made it no secret during their Game 1 comeback – they were looking to embarrass James Harden.

Trailing by 22 points in the fourth quarter, the Knicks rallied on the back of their captain clutch, Jalen Brunson, who exposed Harden in the 115-104 overtime victory.

In the fourth quarter, the Knicks did everything possible to get Harden as the primary on-ball defender, getting the veteran guard to switch on in nine isolations in the stanza and averaging 1.9 points per action, according to the “All NBA Podcast.”

Those nine isolations resulted in roughly 17.1 points for the Knicks, as Harden could do nothing to help Cleveland while it squandered the lead.

With the Knicks behind, 93-71, with roughly 7:45 to go in the game, a Brunson burner was lit, and the flames completely engulfed Harden.

The Knicks got Harden to switch into 9 isolations in the 4th quarter and OT, getting an obscene 1.9(!!) points per direct action. https://t.co/TWDE9I9L4vpic.twitter.com/Ni9TVU4Xzr

— ALL NBA Podcast (@ALLCITY_NBA) May 20, 2026

That trend continued into overtime, as Mike Brown’s group completely blew the Cavaliers out, outscoring them 14-3 in the deciding five-minute period.

Again, Harden was the primary target.

Harden was the screener in 21 on-ball picks in the fourth quarter and overtime combined, where the Knicks got 1.6 points per action in those plays (33.6 points), per the podcast.

Brown said the obvious after the win.

“It was no secret we were attacking Harden,” the coach said.

Meanwhile, Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson kept his timeouts in his pocket as the Knicks rallied.

“I like to hold my timeouts,” Atkinson said postgame. “I try to hold them.”

He held them a bit too long on that one, as from 5:34 to 3:30 left in the fourth quarter, Brunson went on an 11-0 run by himself to give the Knicks a chance.

Atkinson mercifully called a timeout with 3:30 left as the Knicks pulled to within five points.

Harden was the primary defender on each of those buckets during the 11-0 Brunson run.

“No,” Atkinson said when asked if he considered benching Harden during defensive possessions. “He’s been one of our best defenders in these playoffs. I trust him. Smart. Great hands. Didn’t think about that.”

Game 2 on Thursday night is the Cavaliers’ next chance to steal homecourt advantage, but this one has to sting a bit extra Wednesday morning for Cleveland.

It’s morning in Dallas. The kind of morning where everything is possible, where the sun shines in that special way and life seems a little bit less serious. Is that a small bubble of pure joy I feel deep inside?

Jason Kidd is not the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks anymore. The joy I feel is not because he is gone, but because the wind of change is finally here. 

Jason Kidd was a divisive coach. Some didn’t like him and wanted him gone, especially after the Luka Trade. Others didn’t mind him and thought he did a great job. 

I think the truth is somewhere in between. 

Was he part of making the decision to trade Luka Doncic? Who knows. But the Mavericks need a new start, fresh voices and thoughts, and innovative ways of doing things in order to be able to stay relevant in the fast-moving world of the NBA. And that just wasn’t possible with Kidd at the helm. 

He did a good job along the way. He helped develop many young players, and all have spoken very well of him. He managed egos and the intangible aspects of how to run a good team, like connectedness and individual accountability very well. He had a great talent for getting his players to believe and rally around him. I’m sure the list is much longer if you ask his players. And maybe this is really where he was best. 

But you can’t say that he was innovative. We regularly saw tired, old rotations, which often didn’t make sense and sometimes clearly served to prove other points than trying to win. 

We saw the same ATO plays so often that the opposing teams learned how to read it almost every time. 

We saw so many missed timeout opportunities, which could have helped the players rest, get resettled and change or stop momentum or a run. When questioned about this, he once replied: “I’m watching, like you guys”. Was he joking? Who knows, but it wasn’t very funny. 

And we saw too much reliance on his franchise player to carry the team and make plays out of sheer individual brilliance, rather than as a product of a coherent scheme. 

It wasn’t valued and given credit, and maybe only realized too late how much of an effect said player actually had on winning.

Right after the firing on Tuesday, ESPN Insights reported that Jason Kidd had a .563 win percentage with the Mavericks before Luka Doncic was traded on February 2, 2025. After the Doncic trade, Kidd had a .339 win percentage. 

But I am not sure things are that simple. 

The injuries and players he had on the roster were just not comparable. So either his partner and previous GM Nico Harrison set him up for failure with that trade — and all the medical staff hirings and issues — or Kidd was part of the decision-making and later reaped what he had sowed. They did arrive as a team in Dallas, the two of them, remember? 

Either way, Jason Kidd had to go after the Doncic trade fiasco. In order to start over, you have to start over. 

It was a quick and decisive move by new Dallas Mavericks president and alternate governor, Masai Ujiri. Hired on 4, it took him a couple of weeks to hire a general manager, Mike Schmitz, who he had wanted from day one. Then, just 11 days after that hire, the decision to fire Jason Kidd was announced. 

“I’ve known him for many, many years,” Masai Ujiri said of Mike Schmitz. “He’s an incredible scout, an incredible leader. He digs deep into work, data, and what you want to know about really scouting a player, team building, all those things.”

“Treating people well, scout organizing, managing people, it’s a whole package you want and it’s very important that we set a tone now for this organization because the fans, the organization, you (media) guys, everybody deserves that,” Ujiri said. 

That sounds like as good a reason to find a new coach, as any I’ve heard. 

They say you don’t want to meet your heroes. I never met Jason Kidd, but I came to know how to read him — along with most of the fanbase and media people — and to read between the lines when he spoke. There was a lot of saying one thing and doing another, playing certain players to prove a point and holding on to a decision instead of being flexible and adjusting along the way. We became accustomed to the mind tricks and framing. 

But we also got to experience some special moments. The fact that he managed to keep the small group of players who were not injured this season motivated stands out to me. That’s impressive. 

The “nobody’s dying” quote from 2023 remains a classic. “We’re getting better. It’s just a matter — can we be healthy in time to make a stretch run? If we’re not, that’s just the season. Nobody’s dying.”

And what about the old “I’m watching, just like you guys”, mentioned earlier. That was one for the history books. You really have to be sure of your spot to say something like that about your job. 

But with a new coach, the Dallas Mavericks will be the exciting new project, finally — the organization that Cooper Flagg — and what remains of the Mavs fanbase —deserves. 

Don’t underestimate the work they did to change what happened after they had the rug pulled from under them in the Doncic trade. Like the major protests outside the American Airlines Center:

Many stopped buying season tickets and showing up to games to show their disapproval and eventually the people in charge realized what a grave mistake they had made and fired Harrison earlier this year. 

There’s strength in numbers. Dallas fans showed that they have power if they stick together, and that is no small feat. Mavs fans spoke too loudly to ignore. Hopefully, others feel inspired to do the same, because change only happens when you stand up for what you believe. 

Jason Kidd, however, will always be part of Dallas Mavericks history. He was part of a memorable run as a player and then as a coach with two of the best and most entertaining players the league has ever seen. He has influenced the career arcs of both Doncic and Flagg. For that, we can be grateful. And for all parties involved, it is finally time to move on. 

Find more Beyond Basketball pieces here.

Yesterday, I was playing tennis with my son when Shams announced that Dallas had fired head coach Jason Kidd after five seasons. My thoughts immediately turned to those rumors from last summer. Remember how the Knicks brass, needing to fill their own coaching vacancy, allegedly tried to finagle access to Kidd? In the end, they hired Mike Brown, a veteran skipper and two-time recipient of Coach of the Year honors. Not a bad second—or third, or fourth, or fifth—choice, we thought.

The Knicks proceeded to win the most games in 13 seasons. Last night, they hosted Game One of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Just a hunch, but methinks the number of Knicks fans who would prefer Kidd to Brown right now is quite small.

After their second loss to the Hawks in Round One, New York rejiggered their offense. That led to a legendary tear, with seven straight wins and the Knicks’ offense finally reaching its potential after playing an 82*-game season. One of our concerns before the ECF was that while the ‘Bockers waited nine days for Cleveland to beat Detroit, they could get rusty. Or worse, they’d forget how to execute their brand-new, world-stomping offense.

Both concerns proved valid. Despite limiting the Cavs to 16 first-quarter points, New York looked little like the team that crushed the Sixers. Scoring just 23 points in each of the first three quarters and falling behind by 22, our heroes appeared completely cooked until the Brunson Burner kicked on and Coach Brown pulled all the right levers. Donning his cape—and with ample support from Mikal Bridges and Landry Shamet—Captain Clutch scored 15 points in the fourth quarter to lead a 28-4 run that sent the game into overtime. (If you can believe it, that magical run reached 44-11.) In the fifth frame, the Cavs reached the bottom of their tank, New York scored the first nine points, and the improbable win was secured: 115-104.

Cleveland took their best swing, but the better team dug deep and found a way. And look at that: each Conference Finals Game One went to overtime. Lord Silver must be pleased.

Early on, nine days of rust showed for the home team. Bricks came aplenty, with misfires by OG Anunoby, Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart (twice), and Jalen Brunson (twice). New York trailed by six before the midway point, having whiffed on their first five three-point attempts and 75% of their field goals. Luckily for them, neither team was shooting efficiently. At the five-minute mark, Mitchell Robinson picked off a Harden pass and then grabbed a rebound, which became a Brunson reverse layup, capping a 10-3 run for their first lead.

After a Cleveland timeout, New York kept the good times going. Bridges stole the ball from Max Strus and added a dunk; Dennis Schröder missed on a floater, and Brunson responded with a floater; Evan Mobley traveled, and Bridges fed Mitch an alley-oop. When the cutting was done, the teams had combined to shoot 16-of-45 from the field and 3-of-17 from deep. The Knicks were up 23-16.

In the second quarter, the Knicks continued to live in the Cavs’ jerseys. After Bridges, Anunoby, and Hart had pressured Cleveland into their lowest-scoring first quarter of the season, the bench did the same. On one sequence, Jose Alvarado closed in on Mitchell, almost wrestled the rock away, forced him into a panicked pass, and Keon Ellis tossed that hot potato out of bounds. Jose won’t get credit for it, but his dogged defense totally killed the possession for The Land.

New York needed the defensive intensity because they still misfired from beyond the arc. When OG finally connected from the corner just past the midway mark, the hosts attained their first double-digit lead of the contest. But then bench guy Sam Merrill retaliated with a triple, Harden matched it, and a 10-0 run cut the differential to one.

All those rusty three-point misses were costly, indeed. With a minute left in the half, a Strus triple tied the game, and one by Spida completed a 13-point swing. That gave Cleveland a 48-46 halftime lead.

The half was won in the paint and lost at the arc. New York dominated the interior, racking up a 32-14 advantage in paint points and shooting an efficient 47% from the floor. That inside success was completely offset by a disastrous 11% shooting performance from deep (2-of-19). Cleveland stayed afloat by knocking down eight triples at a 38% clip, but they bled points on the other end, specifically by turning the ball over 11 times and giving up 15 points off those mistakes. Predictably, Mitchell and Brunson were the top scorers so far, with 16 and 14 points, respectively.

To start the third, Towns missed from deep, then made one to end a 2-for-21 spell. KAT also committed a turnover and a holding foul that nullified a flagrant foul by Allen on Hart. Definitely a mixed bag of a game for the big fella. Meanwhile, the Cavs did what New York couldn’t—namely, convert from deep. With longballs by Wade and Evan Mobley, and Mitchell ripping the ball out of Bridges’ hands for a pick-six, New York fell behind by eight. Spida already had six steals. Things were about to get worse.

The Knicks completely lost control of the quarter, undone by sloppy turnovers (seven in nine minutes), more Siberian shooting, and Cleveland’s relentless transition attack. Mitchell was the biggest problem, carving up the Knicks’ defense and turning multiple steals into buckets. New York’s halfcourt offense crumbled with missed isos and rushed jumpers from Brunson and Towns. Meanwhile, Allen and Mobley dominated the glass and protected the rim on the other end.

You were asking, “Where was OG? Where was KAT?” We were, too. Those guys were essential to the new offense that was birthed against the Hawks. After three quarters, they’d combined for 12 points on 5-of-15 shooting.

Oh, and Hack-a-Mitch came back. Our man was missing from the stripe again, making 2-of-8 in the deep end of the third. Around then, New York fell behind by 16 and looked nothing like the team that faced Philadelphia. When Hart passed the ball past Brunson’s knees and out of bounds with 50 seconds left, things looked bleak; they got even darker when Brunson missed another free throw with 11 seconds left.

They were lucky to be down just 83-69 to start the fourth. Little was going right in the final frame, too. Two minutes in, Jordan Clarkson missed an uncontested bunny; then Brunson turned the ball over and missed on a drive to the cup. Towns grabbed a rebound, but then Mobley stuffed Bridges on a drive. Clarkson fouled Wade in the corner for a four-point play. KAT missed a layup. Mitchell connected from deep. Bridges airballed from 26 feet. The deficit reached 22, and this game got late early. Hardly anything that came before gave us any confidence that our heroes would turn this tilt around, nor could we dare to imagine the miracle that was about to unfold.

Landry “Always Ready” Shamet hit a three-pointe to get the deficit under 20, and Brunson went high off the glass to score over Wade. In a flash, an 11-1 run brought the hole to a dozen with five minutes left. When Allen missed two freebies, Brunson canned a floater from the elbow to make it 10. Suddenly, the Garden, which had turned silent as a crypt, regained its voice. The fans lost their minds when Harden airballed out of bounds, then Brunson hit a floater and a 26-footer to make the deficit five.

Out of a timeout, Mobley canned a triple at the three-minute mark. Anunoby made 1-of-2 free throws, but a loose-ball foul gave New York another possession, and Bridges hit a Hail Mary from the perimeter.

Down by four, KAT committed a maddening off-ball holding foul that could have doomed the rally. But not so! Brunson found Bridges in the corner for another triple, then Shamet made a three that bounced around and tied the game! With seconds to go, Merrill’s game-winner rimmed out, and the ref missed coach Brown’s plea for a timeout. We had overtime!

During bonus basketball, the team that played a Game Seven two days earlier lost its legs. Harden, specifically, simply disintegrated before our eyes. The hosts scored the first nine points of the frame, capped by another Shamet triple, and although Strus cut the deficit to six with 1:45 left, back-to-back fouls by Merrill kept the hosts in control. Then, finally, Bridges swatted away Strus’ dribble to kill another Cleveland possession, and Anunoby’s free throws carried us out.

Quoth chinaski1980: “Unbelievable comeback.” That, my friend, might be the understatement of the year. According to the broadcast (our very own Mike Breen!), it was the largest playoff comeback victory since 1970.

So, everyone’s cool with keeping Coach Brown, right? Seems to be doing a decent job. Now here’s yours: pay close attention. Commit as much to memory as you possibly can. Because this is the team you’ll be telling future generations about.

Up Next

Game Two will be played here on Thursday. Rest up, Knickerbockers. Box Score

* Should be one more, but NBA Cups are made by Dixie.

Welcome to our Phoenix Suns Season in Review series, where we revisit every player who suited up during the 2025–26 campaign through the lens of expectation, reality, and what it ultimately meant.

Player Snapshot

• Position: PG/SG
• Age: 29
• 2026-27 Contract Status: $57.1 million
• SunsRank (Preseason): 1
• SunsRank (Postseason): 1

*SunsRank is based on Bright Side writers’ ranking.

Season in One Sentence

Devin Booker stabilized a transitioning Suns team by sacrificing efficiency for structure, leadership, and relevance.

By the Numbers

The Expectation

To understand the expectations for Devin Booker entering the season, you have to go back to September, when the general belief was that the Phoenix Suns were going to be a 30-win team and Booker would once again find himself on an island offensively.

As Holden Sherman wrote in Devin Booker’s preseason player preview:

I think Booker will have a strong season, averaging around what he usually does, having a slight uptick in scoring, but his impact will go beyond the scoreboard. His influence on rookies Khaman Maluach, Koby Brea, and Rasheer Fleming will be what makes it a great year for him, not how many 40-point double-doubles he has.

In a time of retooling and realignment for the Valley, Booker needs to spearhead the way, and will do so for the 2025-26 season, and in the process break Tom Chambers’ single-season record for points per game in a season he set at 27.2.

That was the expectation. Booker would be tasked with elevating the players around him while simultaneously carrying the burden as the team’s primary scorer.

The Reality

Truth be told, Devin Booker met expectations, even if he didn’t do it in the typical hyper-efficient fashion we’re used to seeing.

Compared to the previous season, his scoring numbers were actually up. He averaged 25.6 points per game in 2024-25 and bumped that to 26.1 points in 2025-26. At the same time, his field goal percentage dipped. His three-point percentage dipped. His assists, rebounds, steals, and effective field goal percentage all declined as well. The turnovers increased, too.

It was a strange season because the Phoenix Suns were in a transitional phase overall.

The expectation entering the year was that Booker would have to carry the offense and drag the team toward competitiveness. What ended up happening instead was the roster around him flourished because of his presence. Multiple players had career years, and a large part of that comes from the gravity Booker creates. His playmaking ability remains strong enough to manipulate defenses and generate open looks for teammates.

Even though he finished only 23rd in the NBA in assists per game at 6.0, he led the league in secondary assists with 1.2. His ability to collapse defenses and create passing sequences that eventually led to points is one of the more underrated parts of his game.

One thing I don’t think enough people appreciated this season was the reduction in his workload. Booker averaged 36 minutes per game in 2023-24 and 37.3 minutes in 2024-25. This season, he averaged 33.5. That feels like the sweet spot. That’s where Booker should be living, especially if the roster around him can consistently provide scoring support.

Booker was unquestionably the stabilizer for this team, and you felt it anytime he wasn’t available. The Suns went 37-27 with Booker in the lineup and carried a 115.9 offensive rating. Without him, they went 8-10, and the offensive rating dropped to 110.0.

Everything became easier when Booker was on the floor, even if it didn’t necessarily become easier for him individually. That’s where the real challenge existed this season. Especially late in games, opposing teams knew exactly where Phoenix wanted to go offensively, and there wasn’t much Booker could do to counter it. In clutch situations, he didn’t consistently perform like the max contract superstar the Suns needed him to be.

In 30 clutch games, Phoenix went 14-16. Booker posted a -7 plus/minus on 44/31/87 shooting splits. His assist-to-turnover ratio sat at 1.4, and the team carried a -4.0 net rating in those situations.

What It Means

What does it all mean? That’s the ultimate question, isn’t it? Devin Booker did not have a bad season by any means. When you factor in the transitional nature of the Phoenix Suns organization as a whole, he was more than a good soldier. He was the leader whom people sometimes fail to give credit for being.

That still doesn’t erase the feeling that continues creeping into the conversation, the realization that simply having Booker might not be enough.

I look at a team like the Minnesota Timberwolves. They reached back-to-back Western Conference Finals and still found themselves bounced in the second round this season. They’re good. Really good. They’re also not good enough. When that happens year after year, you start asking difficult questions about what actually leads to ultimate success, making the NBA Finals, and winning a championship.

As the seasons pass and opportunities slip away, the conversation naturally shifts toward value. What matters most? What can realistically be achieved? That’s where the Timberwolves are right now after three consecutive failed postseason runs, and that is where the Suns are heading with Devin Booker, although they won’t tell you as much.

He’s a max contract player who is one season away from his supermax kicking in. At the same time, stretches like the clutch performances this season create a more finite understanding of what he can individually elevate a team toward. And because the organization has boxed itself into such a difficult cap situation, there’s also a definable ceiling attached to what this roster can realistically become with Booker as the centerpiece.

That’s what this season ultimately represented from a perception standpoint. Booker is a star. I don’t know if he’s a superstar.

He’s absolutely someone you want on your team, and lord knows the fan base appreciates everything he has done and continues to do for this franchise. Still, the ultimate goal of winning a championship feels increasingly difficult to realistically envision.

In many ways, Booker’s season personified the internal struggle Suns fans are wrestling with. Is the most important thing winning a title at all costs, or is there value in appreciating the ride, the loyalty, and the connection along the way? Sometimes those things align. Most of the time, they don’t.

That’s why this season felt like a shift in mentality and reality. Maybe even the season where some fans quietly started stepping off the U.S.S. Booker.

Defining Moment

The best moment of the season for Devin Booker was also one of the defining moments of the season for the Phoenix Suns as a whole. Playing against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix had an opportunity to prove that, despite all of the questions surrounding the roster and the transition happening within the organization, they could still stand toe to toe with the best team in basketball.

And they did exactly that.

Booker closed the night by hitting a dagger game-winner over Oklahoma City, one of those moments that instantly reminds you why he still means so much to this franchise and fan base. It wasn’t simply the shot itself. It was the atmosphere surrounding it. The emotion. The realization that, for one night against the NBA’s measuring stick, the Suns looked capable of punching back.

Grade: A-

Despite the frustrations surrounding his late-game productivity, especially toward the end of the season, this was still a quality year for Devin Booker. Sure, some of the statistical efficiency dipped compared to his normal standards. Still, the Phoenix Suns thrived with him as the focal point. Even if the percentages weren’t always pretty, the team around him benefitted simply from his existence.

This team does not win 45 games without Devin Booker as its primary player. This team does not exceed expectations if Booker doesn’t sacrifice parts of his individual game for the betterment of the roster around him.

Yes, there are still questions. The hope is that next season provides answers not only about Booker but also about the organization’s ability to internally develop players and use continuity as a pathway toward more wins and a more competitive roster.

At this point though, I’m thankful Booker is still in Phoenix. I’m thankful the organization didn’t completely detonate everything and enter a full rebuild where fans spend the next two or three seasons hoping they someday draft a player capable of becoming what Booker already is.

The price-for-value conversation is absolutely valid, and as the supermax looms larger, those conversations only become more important. Still, what Booker brings to the Suns is something difficult to quantify. Relevancy.

And that matters more than people sometimes want to admit. Relevance changes the way a franchise is viewed nationally. It changes free agency conversations, television schedules, postseason expectations, and the overall energy surrounding the organization. Devin Booker dragged the Suns out of basketball purgatory years ago, and even now, as Phoenix tries to stabilize itself within a brutal Western Conference landscape, he remains the connective tissue between where this franchise was and where it still hopes to go.

Maybe he never ends up delivering a championship to the Valley. That doesn’t erase the reality that he has already helped change the franchise’s trajectory entirely.

Basketball experts are pinning down their mock selections over a month away from the 2026 NBA Draft on June 23-24.

This draft class anticipates having among the best crop of talent to enter the league with players such as AJ Dybantsa, Cameron Boozer, Caleb Wilson and Darryn Peterson.

The Golden State Warriors have to decide whether to will draft a prospect or trade their No. 11 pick.

Despite being heavy buyers in the trade market, the consensus is that Golden State will retain their pick and lean into scouting for the right piece. Head coach Steve Kerr looks forward to that selection and believes developing that pick will be a "huge factor" in their 2026-27 season.

"I think we're in a different place now. Right, there's no question. And I've talked to Mike (Dunleavy, the Warriors GM), I mean, I don't know the draft, but he feels really strongly that we're going to get a good player. It could be a 19 year old, it could be someone older," Kerr told reporters.

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We knew the Western Conference Finals was going to be good, but hot damn.

With Oklahoma City on high alert for Game 2 after losing home court via a double-overtime thriller in the series opener, my Spurs vs. Thunder predictions call on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to bounce back from an off-night to top his scoring prop on Wednesday, May 20.

For more free NBA picks, read Douglas Farmer's Spurs vs. Thunder props.

Spurs vs Thunder Game 2 prediction

Who will win Spurs vs Thunder Game 2?

Thunder: The Thunder may have been a little rusty after waiting around for the Spurs to advance to the conference finals. Oklahoma City, which hadn’t played since May 11 after sweeping the Lakers, was on its heels in the first half before a late rally forced OT. The Thunder shot just 36% in the opening 24 minutes and was still able to hang around. Expect a full 48-minute effort and a home win in Game 2. 

Spurs vs Thunder best bet: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Over 28.5 points (-110)

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander deferred to his Oklahoma City Thunder teammates when L.A. sold out to stop him in Round 2.

He doesn’t have that luxury versus the San Antonio Spurs.

Gilgeous-Alexander was 1-for-5 with four points in the first half of Game 1 and quickly realized backup wasn’t coming. 

After just one shot inside of 15 feet in the opening half, SGA was more aggressive attacking the rim. 

All nine of his 2-point FGAs in the 2H came within 15 feet — seven in the paint — and he scored 18 points in the half before OT.

NBA player props projections sit closer to 30 points for a more aggressive SGA.

COVERS INTEL: SGA's Game 1 usage was down to 28.2%, including an uncharacteristically low 19.5% in the first half of Monday’s series opener.

Spurs vs Thunder Game 2 same-game parlay

A long layoff between series left the Thunder a little stiff in the opening 24 minutes of Game 1, and yet OKC stuck around. This time, Oklahoma City is playing with pressure after letting Game 1 slip away. The Thunder are 13-5 SU off a loss this season and 8-0 off a loss in the playoffs over the past two postseason runs.

Victor Wembanyama turned away three shots in Game 1, but OKC played passively in the opening 24 minutes and didn’t attack the inside at its normal rate. Business picked up in the second half, and the Thunder got aggressive, with all three of Wemby’s swats coming in the second half and OT periods.

Spurs vs Thunder SGP

• Thunder moneyline
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Over 28.5 points
• Victor Wembanyama Over 3.5 blocks

Our "from downtown" SGP: Mega powers explode

The Thunder clap back in a big way in Game 2.

Oklahoma City is 8-0 SU and 6-2 ATS off a playoff loss the past two seasons and gets 30+ from a more aggressive Gilgeous-Alexander.

Wembanyama sees more swats with OKC attacking the interior and Holmgren tries stretch the Spurs defense with his outside shooting, having hit at least two triples in six of his nine postseason games so far.

Spurs vs Thunder SGP

• Thunder -6.5
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Over 28.5 points
• Victor Wembanyama Over 3.5 blocks
• Chet Holmgren Over 1.5 threes

Spurs vs Thunder odds for Game 2

• Spread: Spurs +7.5 | Thunder -7.5
• Moneyline: Spurs +205 | Thunder -250
• Over/Under: Over 216.5 | Under 216.5

Spurs vs Thunder betting trend to know

Oklahoma City is 33-7 SU and 22-17-1 ATS off a loss the past two season, including 8-0 SU and 6-2 ATS off a playoff loss in that span. Find more NBA betting trends for Spurs vs. Thunder.

How to watch Spurs vs Thunder Game 2

Spurs vs Thunder latest injuries

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After Monday night’s double-overtime extravaganza, the Spurs were taking Tuesday to themselves to rest and reset for Wednesday night’s Game 2.

Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson, Devin Vassell, and Julian Champagnie gave some time to the media to answer some questions regarding the events of the last twenty or so hours.

After the press conference I rewatched an edited version of Game 1. It contained all of the plays of the game, not just the highlights and shots made. But instead of 3 hours, the entire game was trimmed down to 50 minutes. Imagine every play cut to the highest level of frenetic energy.

This game could have gone either way. There was never a safe lead for either team. Wherever SGA was stymied, Alex Caruso lurked in the corner to keep the Thunder roaring. The Spurs extend their lead to 10, the Thunder tighten back up.

The last minutes were a dogfight with both teams claiming and losing nail-biting leads. The pendulum of emotions washing over the crowd of over 19,000 over those last few shots dominated the atmosphere.

One made shot, one missed shot. A call that was made that shouldn’t have been. An incorrectly called out of bounds play. A legendary three-pointer an inch in the wrong direction. The MVP gets that one to bounce in.

Every Spurs starter played more minutes than average in Western Conference down to the wire double-overtime minutes.

After the game Wemby was aksed about his feelings, he responded that he was tired. Vassell shared that he was resting and watching film. Champagnie had just woken up and came in wearing slippers and said they weren’t coming off today.

Game 2 will be louder. It will be more physical, and the Thunder will play with increased urgency as they do not want to go to San Antonio down 0-2.

Coach Mitch Johnson stated that their game plan worked stating there were necessary improvements to tighten what has been put into play.

On the other sideline, Mark Daigneault tinkered with line-ups. His starting five did not return at half time, and for each of the overtime tip offs, the coach continued to adjust.

Expect more adjustments as the Thunder attempt to handle the Spurs double teams and control the pace of the game.

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Good morning, BBN!

Mark Pope and his staff are out on the recruiting trail as they look to make some noise in the high school ranks in the class of 2027. However, their biggest recruiting win might come from an NBA Draft decision by Malachi Morneo.

It is safe to say this decision will likely impact the excitement for next season and could either help get Coach Pope back into the good graces of the BBN or put one nail in the coffin many have already built for him. That is why the tweet from Moreno yesterday afternoon got the fanbase talking.

WHAT COULD IT MEAN?! That is exactly what we all were shouting as we saw it. Moreno has retweeted a few accounts in recent months, but this is actually the first tweet he’s personally sent out since March 19.

Moreno participated in the in the GSL Sports Group Pro Day in Los Angeles on Tuesday in front of all 30 NBA teams. After working out for the New York Knicks and meetings with the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics, it is expected that Moreno will have a few more workouts to end the week.

With his stock still sitting firmly around the late first round mark, you can find mock drafts that place him as the 23rd pick to Atlanta (Yahoo Sports) or find him slipping into the early second round, as ESPN has him.

One thing is for certain: If he does decide to stay in the draft, the Kentucky native will hear his name called this year. Now it just depends on which option he prefers.

Either way, we should be getting an answer very soon.

Tweet of the Day

Goodman with some strong words. LSU could have an awesome roster or a bunch of guys who are ineligible. It’ll be fascinating to watch it all unfold.

Headlines

Jacob Lang Has Historic Round Two at Bermuda Run Regional – UK

 Lang etched his name into the Kentucky men’s golf record books!

Wave of sixth-inning paper cuts bleeds Kentucky out of SEC Tournament- KSR

The Cats are now right on the bubble.

The BBN helped La Familia lock up home court advantage against Louisville’s TBT team- KSR

Will be a fun summer in the TBT.

Composite 4-star CB commits to Kentucky- Cats Pause

LETS GO!

Ansley Almonor is a champion in Finland (but can’t sing along with his teammates)- KSR

Congrats to the former Cat!

Jason Kidd out as Mavericks coach after five seasons- ESPN

There will be a new head coach in Dallas.

Arsenal win 1st Premier League title in 22 years after Man City draw- ESPN

A big day for Arsenal fans!

Who will be the next American to win NBA MVP?- CBS

Who is your bet?

SEC post-spring power rankings: Texas leads pack while Texas A&M, Alabama headline fluid middle tier- CBS

Where do you think the Cats rank?

For most of the last two years, Payton Pritchard’s contract has been one of the easiest things on the Celtics’ books to celebrate.

A four-year, $30 million deal signed in October 2023 for a guard who can shoot, handle the ball, push pace, scrap in the paint, bomb away from the logo and swing games by himself? Yes, please and thank you. No further questions. Please put that receipt in a frame and hang it next to the 2024 banner.

That version of the conversation was fun while it lasted. Sadly for us, though certainly not for PP himself, it’s about to change.

Pritchard is no longer a plucky underdog value story. He isn’t the scrappy bench guard who outperformed expectations and turned into one of Brad Stevens’ better pieces of business. Well, in a way he’s still all of that, sure, but as we’re about to find out, he’s become so much more. After his last couple of seasons, Pritchard has become one of Boston’s more interesting offseason variables.

That’s what happens when a bargain starts playing like something much closer to a pillar.

The contract is still absurd. The role is anything but.

The Celtics are set to pay Pritchard $7.8 million next season. In the NBA’s current financial climate, that number feels like it was discovered in a couch cushion. Boston will owe Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White roughly $145 million combined next season, while no other player on the roster is currently set to make more than $11 million. Pritchard living in that range while producing the way he did is laughably amazing for Boston. It’s one of the reasons the Celtics stayed afloat, and then some, during a season that could have gone sideways fast.

But that’s also where this gets complicated.

Pritchard feels like he’s become more than a “nice to have” player. The Celtics leaned on him too much, and he delivered too often, for him to be treated like a budget-friendly depth piece.

He gave Boston real creation when the offense needed it. He played with pace when the game started to bog down. He punished defenses that lost him. He became more than just a catch-and-shoot threat. There were nights when he wasn’t simply supplementing the stars. He was the star, organizing possessions, creating advantages and forcing Joe Mazzulla’s hand to trust him with more responsibility.

Pritchard plays with the exact kind of irrational confidence that makes sense only after the shot goes in. When it doesn’t, you’re halfway through saying, “Payton, what are we doing?” When it does, you’re nodding like you saw the whole thing coming.

Jaylen Brown said during the season that Pritchard was playing at an All-Star level and that Boston trusted him to run things. That wasn’t a throwaway compliment. It reflected what the games looked like. Pritchard earned more trust because he kept giving the Celtics reasons to offer it.

Now the team has to decide what that trust is worth.

A bargain with leverage

Pritchard is extension eligible this offseason, and that’s where the current bargain starts becoming a bigger question.

Under normal circumstances, this would be easy enough. Pay the guy. Keep the guy. Celebrate the guy. Maybe build a statue of him launching that infamous halfcourt heave in Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals.

But Pritchard’s current contract is such a bargain that it limits how much Boston can offer him on an extension. The rules come into play here, and Keith Smith recently laid out the key point: because Pritchard’s salary is below the Estimated Average Player Salary, Boston may be able to offer more than a simple 140% raise off his current number.

That is real money, but it’s also not the same as open-market money.

Pritchard is making $7.8 million next season, which is among the league’s best value deals. But if he believes this past season was a new baseline rather than a peak, waiting could make sense. The cap is going up. The tax line is going up. Teams always need shooting, ball handling and competitive guards who don’t shrink from big moments.

Taking the extension would give Pritchard security now. Waiting could give him leverage in the future.

For once, Boston might not be the only side with it.

And that’s before getting into the roster-building piece of all this. Pritchard’s contract is valuable because he outplays it. That also makes him one of the few movable contracts on the roster that could actually interest other teams. Boston doesn’t have many mid-sized salaries. So, if the Celtics want to chase a center, add more size or reshape the roster in a meaningful way, rival teams are not going to start the conversation by asking for the guys Boston is already mentally Photoshopping out of next year’s team picture.

Pritchard’s value cuts both ways.

The Celtics have to decide what Pritchard means to them

If you extend Pritchard, you’re keeping a player who has become part of the team’s identity. He plays with the exact kind of edge Celtics fans love. He’s annoying in the best way. He rebounds like he has personally been offended by taller people his whole life.

If you move him, you better be doing it for something that clearly raises Boston’s ceiling.

Trading Pritchard because his contract helps make the math work is one thing. Trading him because the Celtics are hunting for a real upgrade is another. There’s a tightrope there, and it’s a narrow one to traverse.

The Celtics don’t have to decide whether Pritchard belongs anymore. He answered that.

The harder question is what kind of player they believe he will be going forward.

Is he the long-term sixth man who stabilizes the offense and closes certain matchups? Is he a possible starter if Boston’s backcourt thins out? Is he the kind of player you extend now because you know the price will only get scarier later? Or is he one of the few non-star pieces valuable enough to help the Celtics make a bigger move?

None of those questions are meant to be insulting. They’re the cost of becoming important.

Pritchard’s contract is still one of Boston’s best bargains. But because of how out-in-the-open good he’s become, the conversation around him can’t stay cheap forever.

Being able to bounce back from terrible losses has allowed the Cleveland Cavaliers to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in eight years. They’ll need to do so again after they inexplicably blew a 22-point fourth-quarter lead and lost in overtime to the New York Knicks, 115-104, in Game 1.

“We lost, we f****** blew it,” Donovan Mitchell said afterward.

This terrible loss showed two things. Number one, the advantages that you thought the Cavs would have coming into this series proved true. And number two, this team struggles to counter in-game adjustments.

We’ll start with the positives, since those are easy to miss in a game defined by the final quarter.

The Cavs’ defense was up to the challenge.

Defense is the first thing that usually gets blamed when you blow a lead as large as the Cavs did. However, even in the Knicks’ fourth-quarter comeback, it was their inability to create offense that ultimately did them in far more than their defense.

Cleveland’s defense on Karl-Anthony Towns was excellent, especially when the Cavs had two bigs on the floor.

One of Towns’s best skills on offense is being able to pull the center out of the paint and then playmake from there. Having Evan Mobley providing on-ball pressure with Jarrett Allen off-ball at the rim short-circuited that process. This contributed to a few of his seven giveaways on the night.

Having Allen as the primary defender on Josh Hart paid off. The defense dared Hart to beat them off the dribble or with the three-ball. He wasn’t able to do so as he went 1-5 from three and finished with the worst plus/minus of anyone in Game 1 at -23.

Cheating off Hart can be risky because of what he can provide as an offensive rebounder. The Cavs did a good job of not losing track of him in these situations. Having two rim protectors, one to cheat off Hart and clog the paint, and one to guard Towns, worked perfectly

The Knicks weren’t able to generate many outside looks. The best way to defend the three-point line is to keep your opponent from getting those shots. The Cavs limited the Knicks to just 32 outside looks, which translated to a third of their shot attempts (24th percentile). That’s a win for a team that has been on fire from three throughout the postseason.

The Cavs were able to do so while still defending the rim. New York converted just 62.5% of their looks in the restricted area.

These are the signs of a good defensive process. It was their work on this end that led to their 22-point lead.

Offensively, Donovan Mitchell had much more space to operate compared to the previous two seasons. This allowed him to get to the paint more easily, especially during the second and third quarters when the Cavs were playing their best.

Cleveland’s bigs showed that they could be impactful in the paint. The guards didn’t feed them the ball as they should’ve, but when they did, good things happened.

Allen was impactful as an offensive rebounder. He grabbed six second-chance opportunities in a game that felt like it was going to be a reversal of the 2023 series.

The Cavs also generated clean three-point looks. The Knicks sell out more than nearly any other team to protect the basket. This is why they gave up the second-most threes in the league throughout the regular season.

Cleveland took nearly half of their shots from behind the arc. And while you don’t necessarily want to see Mobley attempt eight triples, most of the ones the Cavs did get were clean. The shot quality was good. The issue was that they only converted 32% of their looks. If they keep getting good shots, you’d expect that to turn around at some point.

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Blowing a 22-point lead doesn’t come down to one thing. So many factors worked against the Cavs in the final eight minutes for them to give this away. But if you were forced to blame one thing, the offense’s inability to score down the stretch is what ultimately did them in.

The Cavs scored just 11 points in the final 13 minutes of regulation and overtime. The process went away, as they opted to bleed the clock instead of attacking whenever they saw an opening.

Basketball is a rhythm-based sport. If you halt your pace to waste time, you also take yourself out of the natural flow that allows you to perform your best. And then when you need to get back to it, as the Cavs did in overtime, it’s hard to find that again.

Mitchell and James Harden deserve the most blame for the offense falling apart in the fourth. They both failed to get the bigs involved, weren’t able to get downhill, and needlessly dribbled the air out of the ball.

The lack of aggressiveness from Mitchell was the most puzzling. He attempted just four shots in the fourth quarter, and mostly wasn’t a factor late.

Kenny Atkinson deserves blame for the collapse, most of all with how the team defended Jalen Brunson down the stretch.

New York hunted Harden defensively. They put him in 21 on-ball screens in the fourth quarter and overtime. This resulted in nine isolations, with the Knicks scoring 1.9 points per those possessions.

There’s no excuse for seeing that happen and not adjusting.

We know who Harden is as a defender. There are things that he can do well, given his size and strength. Hanging with a quicker guard like Brunson in isolation isn’t one of them.

If Harden is going to be targeted like that, he probably shouldn’t be on the court. But if you’re insistent on playing him for what he provides offensively, the game plan around him needs to be better.

It’s clear that the Cavs were willing to just give up the switch. Defenders weren’t fighting to stay with their assignment when the screen came. This strategy worked with Hart in the game; it didn’t when New York opted for shooting.

The Cavs weren’t prepared for a small-ball version of the Knicks.

Harden was able to be targeted because Landry Shamet (a shooter) was in place of Hart (not a shooter). If one of the bigs was able to roam off Hart, the paint still would’ve been clogged, and Brunson wouldn’t have been able to get going.

Not being prepared for this caused the Cavs to try to double these actions late, but it’s clear this wasn’t something they could execute. The double was more passive than anything, and the backside rotations weren’t where they needed to be for this to work.

This collapse was more a failure of preparation — which is understandable given the turnaround from Game 7 in Detroit — than anything else. The Cavs have the personnel to defend this better and have done so in the past.

You’d expect the Knicks to go with more five-out lineups in Game 2.

This game stings. You can’t afford to give away opportunities like this against an opponent as good as the Knicks and get away with it. At least not if you do so repeatedly.

That said, Game 1 doesn’t decide a series. And if it does, it wasn’t one that you were going to win anyway. The sky isn’t falling, at least not yet.

The Cavs have experience in these situations due to blowing multiple games already this postseason. They’ve responded well in each of those situations. They’ll need to do so again if they’re going to come back from a hole they dug completely on their own.

“It’s one game,” Mitchell said. “We could’ve lost by 40. It still would’ve been 1-0.”

The Spurs took homecourt advantage from the Thunder in Game 1, which became an instant classic. While missing De’Aaron Fox, who might still be out a while longer, they went to Oklahoma City and handed the home team its first loss of the entire playoffs in double overtime. Now they’ll look to take a commanding lead back to San Antonio by winning Game 2.

Dylan Harper did phenomenally in Fox’s stead, showing once again a maturity beyond his years, but the game belonged to Victor Wembanyama. The big man finished with 41 points on 25 shots, along with 24 rebounds, three assists, and three blocks, yet somehow the stat line doesn’t do his performance justice. The Thunder couldn’t do anything about him on offense as he punished the smaller defenders they used on him. His long three-pointer to send it to a second overtime feels like one of those highlights that will be remembered if the Spurs advance.

If there’s such a thing as a must-win game this early in a series, Game 2 is it for the Thunder. Heading on the road tied at one would be a reasonably good result. They could regain homecourt advantage quickly with a split in San Antonio. Another loss, however, puts them in a position to have to win four of the next five, with three of those away from Oklahoma City. After a not stellar performance for his standards, reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will surely look to exert his will on the game like Wembanyama did in the previous matchup.

San Antonio Spurs (1-0) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (0-1)

May 20th, 2026 | 7:30 PM CT

Watch: NBC / Peacock | Listen: WOAI (1200 AM)

Spurs Injuries: De’Aaron Fox – Questionable (ankle)

Thunder Injuries: Thomas Sorber – Out (knee)

What to watch for:

Who guards Wemby?

The Thunder went with a common approach to defending Wembanyama: use a smaller player on him to push him out of position and take away his dribble. It’s been a tactic that has had success in the past, but not this time, as Wembanyama scored nine points in just five shots when guarded by Alex Caruso. Whenever he could catch close to the rim, either on cuts or after switches, it was a bucket. He also punished OKC in the offensive boards a couple of times. Wemby was too big, and the mismatch was a problem.

At the same time, can the Thunder really adjust? Wembanyama has gotten the best of Chet Holmgren for most of their pro career. Hartenstein could be a better option to guard him, but Wemby can just either draw him out to the perimeter or try to force a switch. There are just not a lot of bigs who can hang with The Alien, which is why the strategy of having strong perimeter guys guard him exists in the first place. It’s unlikely Mark Daigneault will completely switch his defensive game plan after one game, but he might mix things up more in Game 2.

The two young guards might need to step up again

De’Aaron Fox is listed as questionable and expected to be a game-time decision. There’s a chance he’ll suit up, but it’s also completely possible, and even likely, he’ll miss another matchup. If he does, Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle will need to once again answer the call and deliver like veterans on the biggest stage they’ve been on.

Their performances in Game 1 weren’t perfect, as they struggled with their outside shot and Castle was turnover-prone, but their defense was terrific, and they combined for 41 points, 17 boards, and 17 assists. Harper also pitched in seven steals. Lack of experience has been considered one of the Spurs’ weaknesses, but the two young guards looked comfortable despite the high stakes. If Fox is out again, hopefully they can have another consagratory performance, because the Spurs will probably need it.

Fatigue could be a major factor for both teams

The double overtime finish made Game 1 epic, but it also led to heavy minutes of intense play for most of the protagonists. All five Spurs starters were on the floor for more than 44 minutes, and Devin Vassell crossed the 50-minute mark. For the Thunder, Holmgren played 40+ minutes, SGA played 50+ minutes, and Jalen Williams, who is probably battling conditioning issues after injuries, got almost 40 minutes himself. There is only one day off between games, so the somewhat shallow San Antonio and the not-used-to-big-minutes OKC could struggle with exhaustion.

Fatigue could hurt the Spurs more, especially if Fox is not ready to go. While they are young, they had to play their main guys more in the first matchup. For San Antonio, a blowout, going either way, would provide an obvious signal they need to rest their guys, since there is no long break before the series continues. The hope is they can get production from their bench to avoid overloading their top players. But the potential of a 2-0 lead could be too enticing to resist, even if it means playing their starters heavy minutes to give themselves a chance. The Spurs are typically careful with load management, so it will be interesting to see how they handle playing time and rotations.

Game 7 in the NBA playoffs: a chance to kick back, enjoy the drama of a winner-takes-all shootout between basketball’s big beasts, and … switch over from your regular TV provider to Amazon Prime? The excitement drains from the occasion at the first touch of the remote. Amazon no doubt imagined it had landed a real coup when the Eastern Conference semi-final series between Detroit and Cleveland extended to its maximum length, thereby handing the retail giant’s streaming arm, Prime Video, the right to air a Game 7 in the first season of its partnership with the NBA. In the event, Sunday’s game was a dud: a blowout win for the Cavs, playing on the road, that had all the electricity and charm of a stint in the doctor’s waiting room. Fortunately for viewers, Prime Video did its best to match the moment by producing a broadcast that was every bit as dull and juiceless as events on the court.

The pre-tipoff highlight was an interview with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, on the occasion of his coronation as this season’s MVP, in which the Oklahoma City star appeared to be speaking from a movie theater for some reason. Blake Griffin, the house beefcake on Prime Video’s studio set, chided ESPN insider Shams Charania for leaking this year’s MVP announcement hours earlier: “It’s Sunday, Shams – go to brunch, you nerd.” If Hillary had won and Shams had kept his trap shut, we’d all be at brunch! The game got under way, and things did not improve. During the half-time show, Dirk Nowitzki rambled Germanly about various topics, while fellow former MVP Steve Nash delivered lines like “That decisiveness in isolation is so important” with all the conviction of a hostage recording a ransom video. Host Taylor Rooks tried valiantly to compensate for the lack of chemistry on set by laughing at even the slightest hint of a joke from any of her panellists. Awkward laughter delivered over dead air on a platform it feels like a punishment to access: that’s the Prime Video NBA playoffs guarantee.

Related: Wembanyama’s 41-24 double-double silences Thunder in West finals: ‘The best player in the world’

These have been a difficult debut playoffs for Prime as it muscles in on the broadcast territory once ruled by what the media analysts call “linear TV”. The feed dropped out for several minutes during overtime in the play-in game between the Hornets and the Heat; buffering, the nightmare we all thought we outlived in 2006, has plagued the stream in several games; and video has frequently been mistimed with audio, producing delays and mismatches. There’s primetime, which is when the bulk of these playoffs are taking place, and then there’s Prime Video time, which comes in around three seconds later. The audio itself in many games has often, in my experience at least, been strangely soft, requiring a trip all the way to the top of the volume scale to hear what the analysts and announcers are saying.

Compounding these technical difficulties has been the absence of any sense of occasion or big game feel on the Prime Video set. Inside the NBA, the program that anchored basketball coverage on TNT for many years before this season moving to ESPN, has become the pre-eminent talkshow in sports thanks to the alchemy of its stars, and the special qualities that each brings to the screen. The righteous fury of Charles Barkley, the bowtied jollity of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith’s calm assurance, Shaq’s dad mumble and roomy suits: each is critical to the show’s virtuosity and success. Shaq and Barkley, in particular, spar and talk over the top of each other so frequently they have developed a kind of harmonic verbal jazz that is now the show’s stylistic signature. And though the migration to ESPN has not been an entirely happy experience, the quad’s chemistry has thankfully survived the move.

Over on Amazon the contrast could not be more stark: the Prime Video playoffs have felt more like an extended quarterly corporate budget meeting than the pinnacle event in professional basketball. Nash and Nowitzki are Prime’s two heavy hitters, but even though they played together they often interact as if they’re vague acquaintances who’ve just bumped into each other at dinner; it’s all a bit too polite, a bit too safe, to make for compelling TV. Prime Video has exited the playoffs, the remainder of which will be shown on ABC/ESPN and NBC/Peacock. But the effect of Amazon’s shuddering experiment in anti-TV lingers.

For fans there is, of course, a real fragmentation to the viewing experience now that playoff basketball is parceled out across a number of platforms and viewing portals. Under the terms of the NBA’s new 11-year, $77bn media deal, live basketball is spread across NBC, Peacock, ESPN/ABC and Prime Video – a patchwork that includes broadcast TV, cable and streamers. This inevitably causes some disruption to the experience of watching live sport as we’ve become accustomed to it in the eras of channel surfing and multi-view, as an event in conversation with many others. For those of us with Prime Video and functioning fingers, that’s not exactly the end of the world – we all have the ability to handle the remote and press the right buttons to find what we’re looking for – but siloing premium live sports on streaming services does tend to make the viewing experience more static, more clunky, less zappy and less fun.

There’s also the question of access to consider. Instead of liberating us from the cable bundle, TV’s streaming era has ended up delivering us into a world where we all need to sign up for a retail goods delivery service to enjoy postseason basketball. To view the cream of the NBA in battle on the big screen from the comfort of your own home, you must first ensure you have a subscription for next-day delivery of toilet paper. On its own, $14.99 a month (the price of an Amazon Prime subscription) may not seem like much to pay for access to premium live sport – but that’s only one platform, and the costs of maintaining connection across all the different TV and streaming services that sports now live on are only multiplying (Amazon allows users to subscribe to streaming alone but structures it so that it’s most cost effective to pay for an entire Prime shipping subscription). Though precise figures are hard to come by, the most reliable estimates suggest that Amazon Prime has about 200 million customers in the US. On that basis it’s fair to assume that most basketball fans have Prime Video. But not all of them do – and not all neighborhood bars are prepared to pay the higher fees required to stream Prime in a commercial venue. At a time when the league is confronting a tanking epidemic and plagued by anxieties over its own product’s watchability, ripping a sizeable chunk of the postseason off normie TV and parking it on a streaming platform does not seem like the wisest strategy to allay those concerns and guarantee the sport’s long-term growth.

The NBA claims viewership is up across the board for the regular season and the playoffs – but data in the streaming era is notoriously chaotic and unreliable, so it’s anyone’s guess what the figures actually reveal. Ultimately the objective truth is probably less important than the semblance of growth, which is what the NBA and other big leagues need to keep attracting money. Appearance matters more than reality, the narrative more than the substance; the real audience for the NBA’s hosannas about market growth is not the fan on the couch but the underwriter in the corporate box. Viewership, popularity, even the public itself now seem increasingly incidental to professional sports, whose mega media deals are cooked up on the back of opaque datasets for the ultimate benefit of a tiny class of owners and investors. With each passing year televised sport becomes more and more like the unreal economy of venture capital, in which inscrutable claims about market size mix with a general contempt for the target public, and investment capital takes on a speculative character, unmoored from any objective metric of performance or even the need to show a profit.

The shackling of this year’s NBA playoffs to Prime Video has coincided with the emergence of a number of exotic new insults to the broader sports-loving public, most notoriously the extortionate pricing of tickets for the approaching World Cup. This weekend 40 dishonorables from the worlds of swimming, athletics and weightlifting will convene in Las Vegas for the inaugural drug-assisted Enhanced Games. The event will take place before “2,500 invite-only spectators” in a custom-built competition complex, according to organizers. The idea of a public sporting event restricting spectator entry to invitees in the way that a private club may seems shocking at first, but on closer inspection it’s no more than a signal confirming professional sport’s general direction of travel.

Once a gathering ground for the poor and disadvantaged, live sport – whether experienced in person or on screen – increasingly feels like an exclusive privilege for the global elite. Eventually it won’t even be enough to pay to gain access to it. In a sense, there’s something truly forward-looking about Prime Video’s janky first attempt at covering the NBA playoffs: Amazon has given us a broadcast so powerfully alienating it effectively anticipates sport’s viewerless future. Let’s appreciate it, then, while we still can – before professional sport slips behind the curtain of wealth and celebrity for good.

Math is hard. NBA math can be absolutely mind-dumbing even for “smart” people who write about the team. So when the cap experts talk, I like to listen.

I was watching old friend Keith Smith discuss the Celtics options on the Celtics Beat podcast and keyed in on some of the things he mentioned about the Celtics financial options (starting at about the 38:25 mark). He ran the numbers on the returning Celtics guaranteed contracts, the draft picks, and reasonable assumptions around the end of the roster guys and the two key figures he came up with are as follows.

The Celtics are about $15M under the luxury tax threshold and about $36M under the 2nd apron.

Here’s what that means to some potential paths forward for the team.

Duck the tax again, use the MLE

The math: The Celtics have roughly $15M under the tax threshold. The MLE is right around $15M.

So they’ll be close enough to under the tax that they will be able to once again find a way to stay under and still upgrade the roster with a quality free agent. That could mean bringing back Anfernee Simons. It could mean getting a guy like Mitchell Robinson (though that might be a long shot). Keith mentioned guys like Brook Lopez or even bringing back Nic Vucevic on short term (tradable) deals if all else fails. Perhaps there’s someone I’m not even tracking that makes sense at that number. The point is, it is a valuable tool for the team to use.

Another thing to note is that you could forget the MLE and use the space you have to make an unbalanced trade. One that comes to mind is dealing Hauser to the Pistons for Isaiah (Beef Stew) Stewart. That would save the Pistons about 4M and give them a floor spacing wing to add to their offense.

Theoretically, if the team is able to duck the tax one more time, they’ll be more willing to spend into the tax for the next several years (as it becomes harder and harder to fill out the roster around the Jays).

Pay the tax, use both the MLE and TPE

The math: The Celtics are about $36M under the 2nd apron. They could use the MLE and as much of the $27.7M trade exception as you can fit under the 1st apron.

An important note: Using either the MLE or the TPE would (by rule) hard cap the team at the 1st Apron ($195.9M) which is above the tax threshold ($187.7M) but obviously below the 2nd Apron ($207.8M).

This would only be worth it if they can really make a go-for-it title chasing move. We’re talking the equivalent of adding Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis back in 2023-24.

I have no idea who the names would be that fit that bill. Perhaps the Cavs end up winning the Giannis sweepstakes and decide that they need to offload a center and the Celtics happily oblige by taking Jarrett Allen (in exchange for picks) off their hands. Not sure how realistic that is, but the point is that you can do a lot with a $27.7M trade exception if you have an owner that is willing to pay the tax bill. But again, it has to be for the exact right guys that could put this team over the top.

Keith wisely points out that the one number the Celtics won’t go over is the 2nd Apron (if that’s even possible), because of all the roster restrictions that come with that (including the frozen future draft pick). Brad moved a lot of salaries to get out of that particular jail cell, and he’s not going to jump right back into it any time soon.

Blockbuster trade (involving Jaylen Brown or Derrick White)

We’ve already put a great deal of time and virtual ink dedicated to the blockbuster options. You know the names and potential impacts by now. I don’t think Brad is in any particular hurry to move either Jaylen or Derrick. On the other hand, I don’t think he would hesitate to sell high if the right return came back either.

What would you prefer to see the Celtics do? What are some names of players that you would want them to pursue this offseason?