Turns out the Sixers lost Game 1 because of the schedule, not because the Knicks crushed their souls into dust.

Let’s see if having a bit of rest helps the Philly Numbers, or if they keep crumbling.

Fresh Bulletin now, Game 2 later.

Mike Brown

On coaching under the Finals-or-bust pressure:

“People have talked about a mandate — like I’m coaching to win. It doesn’t matter what others say. I’m disappointed if we’re not in the Finals and having a chance to win it.”

On embracing expectations once he signed with New York:

“The opportunity for this job came open, and I was just intrigued by the players. I was intrigued by being in New York, calling Madison Square Garden my home court, being around the fans, hanging with [team president] Leon Rose who I’ve known for many years. He’s just a fantastic human being. And being around the players on that roster, and that’s all I looked at it as. The mandate and all that other stuff, like that’s what I expect, that’s what I want to do, and hopefully it can happen, but who knows.”

On the need for improvement after Game 1:

“We’re playing well at the right time, but I think we have room to grow. We can’t give up 34 free throws like we did last night. It’s gonna be tough if you give up 34 free throws. We had 15 turnovers last night. We can’t have 15 turnovers against this team because they thrive at the free-throw line, they thrive in the steal game, they convert those turnovers into points really quickly. And they didn’t shoot well. We know they’re gonna shoot better. We know that [Tyrese] Maxey is gonna be more aggressive, so we have to be even more alert than what we were in our last game.”

On guarding Maxey and Embiid without fouling:

“Maxey and Embiid are really, really good at drawing fouls. Maxey’s speed, he’s gonna drive and he’s gonna attack your chest. Most of them you can’t lead with your hands, you gotta lead with your chest. You hope that the referee sees that at times, we’re not initiating the contact, but we can’t put ourselves in the position to put the whistle on the referees’ hands of making a call or no call. So we gotta do a better job of leading with our chest and showing our hands. Shot fake, shot fake, and he can still shoot it whether its from two or three. We have to be disciplined and we have to stay down and figure out how to be the second jumper while having tests from behind and stuff like that. But we can’t send those guys to the free-throw line – and the rest of their team – 34 times and expect to get a win, especially if we only go 17.”

On Maxey’s point-of-attack challenge:

“The biggest thing when guarding Maxey at the point of attack is, he just moves so well and he can score from all three levels. His quickness, his athleticism for his size, is second to none. Because he can score from all three levels, so you have to give a multiple effort on every single possession. Because when he gives it up, you best bet that he’s gonna get it back at some point during that possession if not right away.”

On offering condolences to Nick Nurse:

“I’d like to pass my condolences along to Nick Nurse and his family, his brother’s family, and all their friends. Life is precious, and you don’t wish that upon anybody.”

Josh Hart

On the Game 1 blowout not meaning that much:

“I mean, it’s pretty easy because yesterday is irrelevant. Only thing that matters right now is the present. We got to make sure we’re focused, have good attention to detail, make sure we’re prepared for tomorrow. You know, that’s a good team. Obviously, they had an emotional Game 7, and I don’t know what their travel schedule is like and all that, but I’m sure they probably didn’t even go home. They probably went straight here. They had physical and exhausting series in travel. So, they’re gonna try to get their legs under them and come out with energy tomorrow. So we gotta make sure we don’t just match that, but exceed it.”

On being the favorites against the Sixers:

“Being the favorite means literally nothing. Every game you have to come in with a focus and attention to detail. And if you don’t do that, you can lose anybody in this league. We feel like we can beat anybody, but it’s that mentality that you have to go out there and be present every single day. Not worried about the past, because that’s irrelevant. Not worried about what the future holds, because you have no idea. It’s about us being in the present. So we don’t really care too much about being favorites or All Stars, All-NBA and all, because at the end of the day, none of that really matters. And none of that matters if you win. No one remembers the leading scorer or how many All Stars you had or how many NBA, All-NBA [honors you had]. They remember you being a champion, and that’s obviously the goal.”

On Brunson’s head size comments from Kelly Oubre:

“I feel like that was something that is very well documented. So I don’t think that was any shocker when he said that one.”

On Mikal Bridges and Miles McBride guarding Maxey:

“That was huge. Both of those guys obviously are blessed enough athletically to be able to keep up with him, use their physicality, use their length to their advantage. Maxey obviously is an offense unto himself, being able to break out and transition. You know, he’s tough, so they did an amazing job on him and have to continue it.”

Deuce McBride

On guarding Tyrese Maxey as a team:

“I feel like the whole team was just locked in, honestly. Mikal started off on him really well and then I came in, but there were times where other guys were matched up with him, and all of our antennas are up just guarding him as a team.”

On staying locked in during the series:

“Man, give God the glory. Can’t take it for granted being here. We’ve been here. We’ve lost. We’ve been up. We’ve been down. This is an experienced group, so we just can’t take it for granted. We’re locked in.”

On targeting Embiid in pick-and-roll:

“A lot of it is just reading and reacting.”

Jalen Brunson

On finding rhythm in Game 1:

“Most importantly, the ball was going in, and I got in a rhythm. My teammates did a good job with setting screens and getting me open.”

Nick Nurse

On the lack of rookie jitters from Edgecombe:

“Not very often. There’s been one or two brief moments. I think in the playoff game in Orlando, he took some wild shots. But it’s better than him turning them down.”

On the Game 1 defensive struggles:

“We have to wash that one away and get back and provide a bunch more energy and physicality. I just felt like we were a full step slower defensively. We just seemed like we were chasing everything, didn’t guard the ball well enough, didn’t contest shooters well enough. They were obviously picking us apart, just moving a lot better than we were. I think it was a pretty tough night for everybody. I didn’t think we shot it particularly well, but I don’t think we generated good enough shots. We’re gonna have to figure out how to run more offense to get some of the same looks we got in the past series. Obviously it’s a new series. We gotta figure it out.”

Kelly Oubre Jr.

On Brunson’s “big head”:

“I just know he has a big head. He’s got the braids. He’s a very smart, tactical player, so he uses all that to his advantage. Hey, I’ll be there. He can whip me [with his braids] all he wants, but he’s not getting free like that.”

On bouncing back from the Game 1 loss:

“We kind of started the Boston series off like this, right? But we made adjustments. We got better each and every game, so I expect the same from this series. Only up from here.”

On the Game 1 loss links to the quick turnaround after Game 7 in Boston:

“It was a quick turnaround. We had to travel, didn’t have a full practice before the game. In my time, I remember in the playoffs, you always had at least a practice before the game. If we were able to get some rest, get some recovery, and then get a good practice in…we would’ve been a little bit more prepared. But we don’t make the schedule. We just have to go out there and play.”

VJ Edgecombe

On his rookie season extending into the second round of the playoffs:

“Obviously, this is a dream. I didn’t imagine it to happen so fast like this.”

On adjusting to guarding Brunson:

“He’s a great player, so he’s going to make adjustments. Now, it’s time for me to make adjustments on how I guard him. Just play hard, fight through, just try to make sure I don’t get hit by any screens. Just try my best to stay in front of him and make him make difficult shots.”

On embracing the unpredictability in playoffs:

“You live for surprises. It’s hard to set high expectations and think you are going to fulfill all your expectations. I didn’t set crazy high expectations for myself. I just wanted to play basketball. I’m glad I’m in the position I’m in.”

Tyrese Maxey

On not overreacting to the Game 1 loss:

“If we lose by seven points, or 70 points, it doesn’t really matter. They won one game and we lost one game. We’re gonna make some adjustments and we’ll be ready for Game 2. Game 1 doesn’t carry over to Game 2.”

Paul George

On the emotional toll of the Celtics series and the need for adjustments vs. New York:

“We can’t use the fatigue as an excuse. But it has been an emotional roller coaster. You go from a Game 7, you get one day off and then you’re right back into another matchup. I think there was some carryover of us trying to get up and trying to get prepared for this next matchup. But we definitely should have come out and did a better job.”

On settling in after the Game 1 blowout loss:

“Just get settled in. Yeah, we had breakdowns but they also shot the (expletive) out of the ball. You know, they were hot. They came out hot, they came out on fire. But it’s a game of adjustments. We’ll make adjustments; see what we need to get better at. It’s the same as last series. It’s one. They don’t get any extra points for going up big [in Game 1]. We’ll be ready for Game 2.”

Aristotle “Telly” Hatzigeorgiou

On NYC restaurants banning Philly cheesesteaks:

“We just sat around, and all of a sudden we see the word ‘Philly’ there, and we’re like, ‘ugh!’ Teeth are grinding, and we didn’t want anything Philly that’s weak. We wanted strong NYC grit. Not a weak Philly cheesesteak.”

BOSTON — Three days after the Celtics’ early playoff elimination, Brad Stevens sat down in front of the media for his longest press conference of the year, touching on a slew of questions ranging from the team’s offensive play style, reports that Jaylen Brown is unhappy with the organization, Jayson Tatum’s Game 7 sidelining, and much more.

Here’s the crux of what Brad Stevens had to say — and some of my instant reactions to his comments.

On Tracy McGrady’s recent comments about Jaylen Brown:

Tracy McGrady made headlines late Tuesday night when he shared on his podcast that Jaylen Brown is frustrated with the Boston Celtics.

“His frustration lies deeply in the organization that we don’t have the details to,” McGrady said. “There’s just been a lot of stuff that I’ve been hearing, just going on with the Boston organization with JB.”

McGrady, a former NBA superstar, is a prominent member of the media and an NBC analyst. But he’s also long been a mentor and close friend of Brown’s, so his words carry more weight than most.

While he didn’t offer specifics, his comments raised eyebrows, particularly in that they came on the heels of a Jaylen Brown saying this was his favorite-ever Celtic season on a Twitch stream on the day following the team’s elimination.

As such, the first question Stevens fielded was about T-Mac’s comments regarding Brown’s grievances.

“I talked to Jaylen Monday a little bit after —  real quickly, and it was nothing but positive,” Stevens said. “He has not expressed those frustrations to me. We’ve been here 10 years together. Obviously, I love JB, and everybody around here loves JB, and just like any of our other guys, as we get to the end of the season, I’ll be here, and my door is always open, and if anybody ever wants to come in and talk about it — and talk about their team, their place, whatever the case may be, I’m all ears. And that would be 1-16, not just Jaylen, not just Jayson, not just the guys that have been here. I think it’s really important to be available. So I certainly am, and none of that has been expressed to me.”

My reaction: Would Stevens air out private conversations of frustration from his star player? Probably not. So, while I was glad this question was asked, Stevens’ answer did not provide assurance that the organization and Brown are on good footing. I don’t have insight into Brown’s frustrations, but between the Twitch stream and T-Mac’s comments, there may be something there. I imagine we’ll learn more in the weeks to come.

On the Celtics’ first-round loss to the 76ers:

The Celtics blew a 3-1 lead for the first time in franchise history, but they were also just a few fourth-quarter shots away from advancing in Game 7.

How did Stevens reckon with that duality?

He took it upon himself to address the series loss before even taking any questions.

“I thought we really struggled to generate good looks against Philly,” he said. “I thought they deserved to win. I thought on the other end, they made it really hard on us, and really kind of felt in control in a lot of ways, especially as Embiid got his legs under him. I thought that probably one of the defining things that they did to us in games five through seven was they cleaned up the glass, which had been a real boost for us. Our first-shot offense wasn’t very good the whole series, but we really got a lot of good looks on second chances and off the glass, and I thought they did a really good job. So I think overall, obviously, we had chances to win, and I’m sure there’ll be specific questions about that, but I thought overall, Philly deserved to win, and played a great series and made it hard on us.”

My reaction: I was a little bit surprised at how candid Stevens was about the team’s first-round shortcomings — he clearly felt like Philadelphia was the better team, and that the Celtics didn’t just miss shots — they struggled to generate good looks. That’s a key difference from what Joe Mazzulla maintained after Game 7.

On the Celtics’ play-style and three-point-heavy offense:

Are the Celtics too reliant on three-point shooting? That’s been the million-dollar question for years now, and this year’s postseason performance re-surfaced those conversations. Stevens fielded at least four questions on the topic, and here’s what he had to say.

Do the Celtics shoot too many threes?

“I look at more of each shot individually, and my general feeling watching us play, in really each of the last two playoffs, in the second-round against New York, even against Orlando in the first round, was, we had a hard time generating really good looks on that first shot,” he said. “So, we got to figure out a way to do better in that. And I think that that’s again, one of the things that we’ve got to figure out is how to have more of an impact at the rim. And I think we do need to add to our team to do that. Everybody plays a role in that. But, at the end of that game, Embiid is standing at the rim on all those possessions, or a lot of those possessions, right? And so I thought the shots we took, with the exception of Jaylen’s top-of-the-key-three and the one where you get in the middle of the lane, and then Payton’s open shot, I thought they were really well defended. I thought we struggled to get to where we wanted to go on offense a lot of the series, but it was particularly in those last four games, when those four perimeter defenders who are all very good, had Embiid standing behind them.”

Asked about three-point shooting again, he double-downed:

“The biggest thing is: can we generate looks at the rim?” Stevens said. “Yeah, everybody wants to do that, and every one of us would prefer a dunk over that, over a three. Every single one of us. Those are hard to get, and we struggle to generate them, and so, yeah, we certainly shot some bad ones. I’m not telling you we didn’t. There’s no question about that. But I also thought we shot some really hard shots at the rim, really hard shots in the midrange too, and I don’t necessarily fault anyone for that, other than credit to Philly’s defense, and we’ve got to do a good job as we build out the roster to have more options.”

My reaction: In Brad Stevens’ eyes, this is not an issue of making or missing shots. He doesn’t believe the Celtics have been able to sufficiently generate good looks in their first-shot offense, and clearly said that’s been an issue in their last three playoff serieses. At the same time, it’s evident to me he feels like it’s a reflection of roster shortcomings: “We need to add to our team to do that.” This line of questioning, more than anything, made me feel like Stevens feels that the roster needs significant upgrades.

On Jayson Tatum coming back and then missing Game 7:

Jayson Tatum returned to the lineup 10 months after rupturing his Achilles tendon, was excellent to close the regular season, and was in the midst of a very good first-round series against the 76ers before he injured his knee and had to miss Game 7.

Stevens fielded multiple questions about the left knee stiffness that held him out of the biggest game of the year, providing context on what Tatum was dealing with.

“You probably could see it at the end of Game 6,” Stevens said. “We thought that it would dissipate and be okay the next day. He didn’t do very much on Friday, just rested, and then came in on Saturday morning and tried to do a workout. I watched it, and [he] clearly didn’t feel right.  I think it’s not like a long, long-term concern, but it certainly didn’t look right when he was working out, and didn’t feel right. So, it made sense to be smart about that. The obvious answer is, anytime you’re coming back from an injury like he was coming from, there’s a tendency to overcompensate, and there’s probably a little bit of that there.”

He was also asked about Tatum’s heavy minutes in the weeks leading up to Game 7, and about whether that could have contributed to his sidelining.

“We did try to ramp him up for more playoff load and playoff minutes towards the end of the regular season, including a couple of the games there late where we kept him in, even though the games weren’t necessarily close, just to get his minutes up,” he said. “And that’s a part of this kind of load management era that we have a lot of discussions about, because I think Phil Coles and his group do a great job. And a big part of that is they say you have to be ready to play those kinds of meaningful minutes in those kinds of meaningful moments. Do we think that that had an impact on his knee stiffness and the injury in Game 6? Hard to tell, but you can’t cross it off. So we have to look at that. I know that they will, but I feel really comfortable that they worked their butts off to try to get everybody on the court, and they did an amazing job with JT, and he did an amazing job all year, and to be able to play a lot if needed.”

My reaction: This was always a risk, and it’s unfortunate that Tatum had to miss the biggest game of the year. But, I don’t think he or the team has any regrets about the way his return-to-play was handled, and ultimately, there was no real harm done: Tatum did not get seriously hurt, proved to himself he’s still the guy he was before the injury, and should be good to go and fully rested to begin next season.

On Joe Mazzulla’s future with the Celtics:

Stevens was asked about the job that Joe Mazzulla has done over the past four years and what his future holds.

“First of all, I know how hard that job is, and I know all that goes into it,” he said. “And I know he and his staff are putting everything they can into it. And when I say that we struggle to get by — I think that’s, again, that’s — we need to add to our team. So, I think our coaching staff, like all of us, can continue to improve and get better. That said, I think they’re very good. And we need to continue to provide them the resources to grow, and to get better, and to continue to be the best that we can be. I don’t think we can ignore, and certainly, again, can’t ignore anything, the good and the bad. But there was a lot of growth this year, and I thought that there [were] a lot of things that we can build off of, even though that ending was disappointing.”

My reaction: I don’t think Joe Mazzulla is on the immediate hot seat, and Stevens said multiple times that the coaching staff did a good job. That being said, this was not a ringing, resounding endorsement (he could have gone further in discussing Joe’s coaching tenure positively), and it’s clear that Stevens expects Mazzulla — like everyone — will get better.

The Eastern Conference was unpredictable during the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs thanks to three seven-games series and the upset loss of the No. 2 seed Boston Celtics.

The conference’s frenzied first round also changed FanDuel’s market for 2025-26 NBA Eastern Conference Finals MVP. Superstar Celtics like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were previously among the favorites for the media-voted award before their untimely first-round dismissal.

The wide-open race in the East, coupled with Boston’s elimination, means three players are ahead of the pack for the Larry Bird Award. New York Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson (+160) is the current favorite after averaging just over 26 points per game in the first round against Atlanta. Continuing a string of strong postseason runs, Brunson’s consistency and high usage gives him considerable traction with the Knicks as the conference’s new favorites.

Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham slightly trails Brunson on the heels of a terrific first round against Orlando. With Detroit trailing 3-1 in the series, Cunningham took over and averaged 36.3 points per game in the final three games of the series — helping the Pistons recapture their confidence in the process. Cunningham now sits at +200, behind only Brunson in the Eastern Conference.

Donovan Mitchell (+600) from the Cleveland Cavaliers sits third in the market for Eastern Conference Finals MVP. Although Cleveland moved past Toronto in the first round, the Raptors made Mitchell work and held him to 23.1 points per game and 43 percent shooting after Mitchell put up 27.9 points on 48 percent shooting in the regular season. Cunningham and Mitchell will battle in the second round for a spot in the Eastern Conference Finals with the winner likely gaining a significant market boost in the process.

After a noticeable decline in the odds, the secondary list of contenders is still filled with All-Stars capable of taking over a playoff series. Karl-Anthony Towns (+1200) played improved defense for the Knicks while closing out the Hawks. But Towns was third in scoring for the Atlanta series behind Brunson and guard OG Anunoby — hurting Towns’ potential case for a series MVP award.

Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid (+1700) must stay healthy and eliminate the No. 2 seed Knicks in the second round to even make the Eastern Conference Finals. But a healthy Embiid is still a force after averaging 29 points per game in four games against Boston.

Similar to Embiid’s candidacy, 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey (+3000) needs to first get past New York in the second round to even garner serious ECF MVP consideration. But if Maxey’s stellar play against Boston is any indication, the high-scoring guard is capable of putting up points in bunches after averaging just under 27 points per game in the series.

A few other notable names to consider for Eastern Conference Finals MVP includes Knicks two-way threat OG Anunoby (+3300), Cavaliers veteran guard James Harden (+3500), and Cleveland big man Evan Mobley (+5500).

Knicks fans got a little too wild outside of Madison Square Garden after Game 1, but J.R. Smith is surviving.

The former Knick talked about how social media is the real culprit for why it took so long for him to get up as a pack of wild fans nearly trampled him Monday night after the Knicks beat the 76ers.

“The Knicks fans saw JR walking and they couldn’t believe it, man,” former Knicks teammate Iman Shumpert said to Smith on an episode of “Run it Back.” “They gave him love. They gave him too much love and knocked him down in front of Madison Square [Garden]. Legendary performance.”

Smith responded: “The worst part about it is in this society, man, they’re so bad. Everybody just has their phone out, and I’m like, ‘Yo, bro, pull me up. Come on, dog.'”

Smith joked that he “needed some help” and was looking for Shumpert to come to his rescue.

Knicks fans were going wild after a 137-98 victory, and when they saw Smith outside the arena, they crowded him and nearly trampled the former NBA star.

Smith repeatedly told the fans to “relax” as they piled on top of him, but that did not stop them from crowding him.

The former Knicks guard, who played for the team from 2011-15 when the Knicks were a strong Eastern Conference contender with Mike Woodson as coach and Carmelo Anthony leading the charge, did not specify whether he would attend Game 2 following the dangerous encounter.

Shumpert and Smith were also teammates on the Cavaliers’ championship team in 2016 after a trade from the Knicks at the trade deadline.

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The Knicks will look to keep their torrid pace going with Game 2 on Wednesday night at home.

The Nature Boy is very upset with the Lakers’ wonder boy.

After Luka Doncic missed Game 1 of Los Angeles’ conference semifinals matchup with the Thunder on Tuesday night due to a hamstring strain, Ric Flair laid into the point guard for not playing injured.

“@lukadoncic,” the wrestling legend wrote on his X page as Oklahoma City dismantled the Lakers, 108-90, “Please Get In The Game! Take A Shot Of Cortisone And Deal With The Pain! They Are Paying You 50 Million A Year, And You’re Not There! WTF!”

Flair then went on to say he was so ticked over the matter, he hopes LA trades the 27-year-old this offseason.

“Nobody Wants A Lame Duck On Their Team!” he said.

Following backlash, Flair fired off another message about the situation early Wednesday morning, and while he softened a bit, he nonetheless remained critical of Doncic.

“FYI-,” Flair wrote, “Obviously They Are Not Going To Trade Luka. He’s Their Future. He’s Their Franchise. But Do The Math- He Averages 33 Points A Game. If He Has 20, LeBron @KingJames Has 27, And The Rest Of The Team- They Win!

“I Would Have Said The Same Thing About @jaytatum0 On The @celtics, But I’m Not A Boston Fan. For 46 Million Dollars A Year, I Think You Can Play! Everyone Is Allowed To Have Their Own Opinion. And This Is Mine!”

Doncic sustained a Grade 2 hamstring strain during a regular-season game against the Thunder on April 2. He has not suited up since, though he’s taken measures — including traveling overseas for treatment — to get back on the court as soon as possible.

LA head coach JJ Redick said earlier this week he didn’t have “any updates on Luka,” but the six-time All-Star is expected to miss at least one more game of the postseason series with the Thunder.

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With 5:28 seconds left in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Cleveland Cavaliers tied things up at 93 points apiece. They mounted an 18-point comeback against the Detroit Pistons, the top seed, capped off by three James Harden free throws. A whole new ballgame.

But Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson made one of his many questionable coaching decisions at this moment.

In between free throws two and three, the Pistons brought back in their best player, Cade Cunningham. The Cavs, however, stuck with their lineup at the time — which did not include Donovan Mitchell or Evan Mobley. It would be over a minute later before those two would enter the game, a period in which Cunningham and starting center Jalen Duren took back momentum with a block and two pick-and-roll dunks. By the time Atkinson brought in his closing lineup, the winds had shifted. Duren had another dunk a few seconds later, and the Cavs would remain at arm’s length.

The playoffs have a way of exposing every flaw a team has and then magnifying them to the national audience. Harden and Mitchell’s turnovers are one of them, but Atkinson’s puzzling decision-making is another. He waited too long to use his timeouts, and not getting Mitchell and Mobley back into the game when the Cavs seemingly had the Pistons on the ropes is another. Does Duren get those easy dunk opportunities with Mobley in the game? Hard to say for sure, but not having your best defender out there in crunch time would have made things harder.

Opposing head coach, and former Cavs scapegoat, J.B. Bickerstaff, sensed the Pistons losing control of the game and brought his best player back in to disrupt Cleveland’s rhythm. It worked.

Atkinson has talked a lot about rhythm this season, largely as it relates to the many different lineups the Cavs had to trot out during the regular season due to injury. Whether it was Darius Garland’s nagging toe ailment or the revolving door of small forward, finding rhythm has been a key emphasis for last year’s NBA Coach of the Year. But last night his decision-making was not sound.

When answering a question post-game about Jarrett Allen’s foul trouble, which limited him to 18 minutes last night, Atkinson said it disrupted the rhythm and his rotations. That is understandable, but not putting Allen back in the game with just a few minutes left is not.

The only Cavalier starter with a positive +/- rating was Allen, and he did so playing bench-level minutes. Atkinson subbed him out during that “too little, too late” timeout, and Allen never saw the floor again. The puzzling part is that Allen had four fouls, not five, and — most importantly — it was crunch time with the opportunity to steal a game on the road. Why not put Allen in? Bickerstaff was still playing Ausar Thompson and Duncan Robinson with four fouls, and both of those players impacted the game late.

There is an argument to be made as well that Mitchell, Mobley, and Harden should have played more minutes. Coincidentally, they all finished with 35, which is less than what Tobias Harris logged for the Pistons. Atkinson noted post-game that he wanted to conserve some energy with certain guys and try to find new energy off the bench, likely due to the grueling seven-game series they played against Toronto. But Detroit also played an equally demanding series against the Orlando Magic and still had its best players playing the most minutes.

It will be very difficult for the Cavs to win this series, whether on the road or not, if Atkinson is routinely getting out-coached by Bickerstaff. Game 1 can be a feel-it-out effort to try and see what works and what doesn’t, but the Cavs had a real chance to win – despite playing exceptionally poorly for most of it. Like the Cavs’ backcourt, Atkinson has to be better. And, like his team, Atkinson needs to be moving with a sense of urgency.

The 39-point defeat the Sixers suffered in Game 1 of the second round at the hands of the New York Knicks was disappointing, but not that surprising. Not just because the Sixers weren’t wearing what’s become their lucky white jerseys, but it was a very quick turnaround from their Round 1 triumph in Boston to starting the next series.

Having less than 48 hours to come down from the emotional high, the Sixers looked pretty tired in Game 1. On top of that, the Knicks hit everything. They finished the game shooting 63% from the field. The silver lining in this was that the Sixers were able give all their key guys the night off early. Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, Paul George and VJ Edgecombe all had their nights end before the third quarter.

That’s about as much recharging as the Sixers will be able to get as one day off in between games becomes the norm as the playoffs progress. After the game, the Sixers didn’t want to use exhaustion as an excuse for their performance, but the Knicks shooting unsustainably well was something pointed to as a reason they can bounce back.

“Yeah, they just had a good game plan. We had a couple breakdowns and we’ll be better next game,” Maxey said.

George acknowledged the miscues, but also thought the Knicks couldn’t miss a shot.

“Yeah, we had breakdowns tonight but they also shot the shit out of the ball,” he said. “They came out hot, they came out on fire. But you know, it’s a game of adjustments. We’ll make adjustments; see what we need to get better at.”

It would be quite the feat if the Knicks shoot over 60% from the field for the series, one that would definitely sink the Sixers’ chances of being competitive in this series. Nick Nurse’s answers after the game explained a little bit more why the Knicks shot so well, and why it might be more than shooting variance.

“I think [on] five or six mid pick-and-rolls in a row that they scored on in every way they could,” Nurse said. “I think they hit six straight times off that and that kind of extended a little bit.”

Nurse is talking about a five-minute stretch in the first quarter, one that got the Knicks running away with the game. The Knicks, primarily through Jalen Brunson, were able to generate a really good shot nearly every time down the floor against the Sixers’ drop coverage.

When Embiid came up high to flash against Brunson, Mitchell Robinson was able to slip behind him for a lob. If Embiid stayed lower, Brunson was able to get over a screen easily and walk into an open jumper. All of these baskets are in this clip below by Adam Aaronson of PhillyVoice.com

This had the Sixers’ defense so flummoxed that they resorted to Hack-A-Mitch as soon as the Knicks were in the bonus in the first quarter. Nurse brought Justin Edwards in the game for the single purpose of using his fouls to get Robinson on the free throw line.

“I think it was right on the end of that famous pick-and-roll series I’m talking about,” Nurse said, “so I think it was a chance to try to stop their momentum a little bit.”

Robinson did miss all four of his free throw attempts, but with the Sixers’ offense unable to make them pay on the other end, the Knicks were able to get back to their pulverization of Philly.

The Sixers pulled off their comeback against the Celtics thanks in large part to the defensive adjustments they made. They were able to limit Boston’s three-point shooting as much as they could. They’ll similarly have to reduce the Knicks’ shot quality if they want to have a chance in this series. With an offensive threat at center in Karl-Anthony Towns and an offensive strategy that is more than getting up as many threes as possible, the Knicks pose more complicated challenges, and it’s on the Sixers to figure them out.

The San Antonio Spurs take on the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 2 of the teams’ Western Conference semifinal series. The Timberwolves won Game 1 104-102. Victor Wembanyama blocked an NBA playoff-record 12 shots but it wasn’t enough to beat Minnesota, which was lifted by the return of Anthony Edwards. The Spurs are 9.5-point favorites in Game 2 with an over/under of 215.5.

How to watch Minnesota Timberwolves vs. San Antonio Spurs

• Date: Wednesday, May 6

• Time: 9:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. PT

• Where: Frost Bank Center, San Antonio, Texas

• TV Channels: ESPN

• Live Stream:NBA League Pass | Follow on Yahoo Sports

Odds

• Spread: San Antonio Spurs -9.5

• Moneyline: San Antonio Spurs -424 (77.6%) / Minnesota Timberwolves +327 (22.4%)

• Over/Under: 215.5

Series schedule, results

Game 1:Timberwolves 104, Spurs 102
Game 2: Minnesota at San Antonio (Wednesday May 6, 9:30 ET, ESPN)
Game 3: San Antonio at Minnesota (Friday May 8, 9:30 ET, Prime Video)
Game 4: San Antonio at Minnesota (Sunday May 10, 7:30 ET, NBC/Peacock)
Game 5: Minnesota at San Antonio (Tuesday May 12)*
Game 6: San Antonio at Minnesota (Friday May 15)*
Game 7: Minnesota at San Antonio (Sunday May 17)*

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James has been playing spectacular basketball in unprecedented territory. We've never seen anyone be this good, for this long, especially at this age.

He's etched his name on countless of records in the NBA history books from all-time points scored, both regular season and postseason, All-Star games, most seasons played, you name it.

For someone who's done just about everything there is to do in the NBA from a four-time MVP, four-time NBA champion and four-time NBA Finals MVP with three different teams ― you'd think there's nothing else he's playing for.

During an episode of his podcast Mind the Game, released on May 5, James revealed that he's motivated to continue playing due to his love of the sport, his ability to still inspire and play the game at a high level.

"I still love the process of getting up and putting my body through rigorous rehabs and training sessions and whatever the case may be to try and find the results," James said.

This postseason he's shown that there is one last motivating factor: LeBron James ... Junior.

Bronny James' presence on the team and playing meaningful postseason minutes has almost seemingly rejuvenated Poppa James.

"To be able to have Bronny in the locker room has definitely helped out a lot as well," James said on the podcast. "I have a job and a responsibility to show him what it means to be a professional. Yes, he's seen it from the outside looking in throughout the course of his life, but now, being in the locker room, being in film sessions, being on the plane, being in everything that surrounds how to be a professional, and the results that come with it. I have a responsibility in that. So those are a couple ways for me that's given me inspiration and given me motivation to still do this."

He added: "I hope it's paid off, you know, in a sense for Bronny, and in the sense of my teammates that, you know, they get to see, how I approach the game, and it comes way before the lights come on and the popcorn is popping and everyone is filled in their seats, and whatever the case may be."

The Philadelphia 76ers will try to even their second-round NBA playoff series against the New York Knicks. The Knicks routed the 76ers 137-98 in Game 1. New York is favored by 6.5 points in Game 2. The total is set at 215.5.

How to watch Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks

• Date: Wednesday, May 6

• Time: 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT

• Where: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York

• TV Channels: ESPN

• Live Stream:NBA League Pass | Follow on Yahoo Sports

Odds

• Spread: New York Knicks -6.5

• Moneyline: New York Knicks -274 (70.2%) / Philadelphia 76ers +221 (29.8%)

• Over/Under: 215.5

Series schedule, results

Game 1:Knicks 137, 76ers 98
Game 2: Philadelphia at New York (Wednesday May 6, 7 ET, ESPN)
Game 3: New York at Philadelphia (Friday May 8, 7 ET, Prime Video)
Game 4: New York at Philadelphia (Sunday May 10, 3:30 ET, ABC)
Game 5: Philadelphia at New York (Tuesday May 12)*
Game 6: New York at Philadelphia (Thursday May 14)*
Game 7: Philadelphia at New York (Sunday May 17)*

*if necessary

Make no mistake, the Sixers coming back from 3-1 down in their first-round series against the Celtics is by far their biggest playoff achievement in the last 25 years. It’s no surprise that the comeback was fueled by the return of Joel Embiid.

The former MVP became the first player in NBA history to score 100 points in a playoff series when he did not play the first three games. He was outstanding and given all the playoff disappointments he’s been through, most of which have either been the result of bad injury luck or not enough help on the roster, no one deserved a moment like Embiid had on Saturday more than he did.

But perhaps Monday night’s blowout loss was a sobering reality of how difficult it will be to win a title with Embiid in his 30s. Many fans thought Philly was up against more than just the Knicks in Game 1 having to battle the fatigue that comes with having to erase a 3-1 deficit against a team like the Celtics. Let’s rewind to the beginning of the season to explain how we got here.

Practically everyone went into the season assuming Embiid would miss about half of the regular season. He ended up missing slightly more than half of the regular season, appearing in 38 games. With Embiid missing so much time, the Sixers ended up in the play-in tournament. Despite winning their first and only game in the play-in tournament to secure the East’s No. 7 seed in the playoff bracket, having a seed that low meant drawing the Celtics in the first round. Once the Celtics appeared on the schedule, most thought Philly didn’t stand a chance at winning the series. That ended up not being true, but it still took a lot of heavy lifting to get out of the 3-1 hole. 

For as amazing as the moment was on Saturday night, it was still only the fourth out of a necessary 16 wins to capture an NBA Championship. Unlike the regular season, Philly doesn’t have the luxury of sitting Embiid every other game now. The way to avoid early-round postseason fatigue is to make quick work of your first-round opponent which gets you more time off before the second round starts. But with Embiid destined to miss so much time in the regular season, how likely is it that the Sixers could get a high seed in future postseasons that would allow them to win their first-round series in four or five games?

The point is, for the rest of his career, you’re likely asking Embiid to ramp it up after playing about half of the regular season, and to appear in six or seven playoff games per round for four rounds over two months. That’s 24-28 games without a long break in a two-month span for someone that would have only played about 40 games with plenty of long breaks over a six-month span in the regular season.

The easiest remedy for this is to build a deeper roster. As we’re seeing in the playoffs, Nick Nurse only plays seven or eight players in most games. If that number could grow to nine or 10 players in a playoff rotation, that would also mean additional depth in the regular season. In turn, that would probably result in more wins in games Embiid doesn’t play, which would give the team a higher playoff seed and ideally a faster victory in the first and potentially second round and preserve Embiid more. 

Maybe Daryl Morey and Elton Brand can pull that off this summer and Philly can win 50-60 games in 2026-27. But the cold hard truth here is that we’re going to be wobbling on shaky ground for the entire time Embiid is trying to get through two months of playing in the postseason at a high level. That’s likely a truth that lasts for the remainder of Embiid’s career.

None of this is to say that it can’t be done. Philadelphia could come out on Wednesday night and look like a much different team. After all, all of its starters played under 30 minutes in the blowout loss in Game 1. That’s probably the closest thing we’ll realistically see to load management in the playoffs but maybe it’s enough to even the series. The Sixers sure responded well from blowout losses in Games 1 and 4 against the Celtics, winning Games 2 and 5 in Boston. They might not be the deepest team, but their top-end talent appears to be more reliable than it has been in previous postseasons to the point where not every win needs to be fueled by Embiid, especially if Paul George’s strong play continues.

We’re simply trying to reiterate what might have been obvious a week and a half ago, but forgotten a bit once the comeback started against the Celtics. It’s still a very steep hill to climb when it comes to winning an NBA championship with Embiid as this team’s best player. If you’re already worried about the team running out of gas in the second round, that’s not a worry that subsides in the conference finals or the NBA Finals if the team is to advance that far.

This dynamic probably creates a difficult contrast in vibes for the fanbase. Frankly, it’s understandable if you’re taking the Boston comeback as the pinnacle moment of Embiid’s playoff career and willing to accept that it probably won’t get any better. Of course, that’s a disappointment if that ends up being the case. But if you’re simply not trying to get let down whenever the team is eliminated, you’ve got a real moment to cling to now and that’s worth something. However, if you’re someone that’s gone from jubilant to quickly concerned over the possibility of the Sixers and Embiid looking fatigued and getting blown out in this series by a Knicks team that hasn’t had to expend as much energy as they have, that’s also a fair emotion to be feeling right now.

While we can look at the East with Boston eliminated and say it’s wide open and right there for the taking, you have to ask yourself if you think the Sixers can walk this tight rope for another six weeks without falling down.  If your answer is no, that doesn’t make you a bad fan as much as it does a realist. On paper, the Sixers might just have enough talent to win the East this year. But the games aren’t played on paper. Every other night, the ball goes up in the air and said talent needs to show up, be available and play well enough time and time again. For as great as the Boston comeback was, and it’s undoubtedly a moment all Sixers fans should cherish, keep all of this in the back of your mind for however long this playoff run goes. 

Should Philly be able to pull out this Knicks series and then lose altitude fast against Detroit or Cleveland in the conference finals, just cherish the fact that the Sixers would have eliminated their top two rivals in the same postseason. We should all allow the improbability of a championship with Embiid to force us to enjoy the good moments he does give us from here on out even more.  As the saying goes, don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. But hey, it’s still far from over! On to Game 2.

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The Minnesota Timberwolves are full of surprises. 

First, star Anthony Edwards suddenly comes back from a leg injury, and then Minnesota stuns the San Antonio Spurs to grab a 1-0 series lead.

What shockers await in Game 2 tonight?

There’s money in those mysteries. I go digging for basketball betting gold amongst the individual efforts in my Timberwolves vs. Spurs props.

Here are my best NBA picks and Timberwolves vs. Spurs predictions on May 6.

Best Timberwolves vs Spurs props for Game 2

Player	Pick
Dylan Harper	Over 17.5 points + assists + rebounds	-112
Victor Wembanyama	Over 12.5 rebounds	-105
Naz Reid	Over 1.5 Threes	-130

Game 2 Prop #1: Dylan Harper Over 17.5 points + assists + rebounds

-112 at bet365

Dylan Harper was one of the rare bright spots for the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1.
 
The reserve guard led the team with 18 points but also dished out four assists and snatched four rebounds in 29 minutes of action. 

Harper could have packed the box score even more, considering he generated 12 potential assists but watched those setups be wasted by San Antonio’s poor shooting. He tracked eight rebounding chances yet pulled down only half of those balls.

He’s a high-energy guy, and that’s what the Spurs need after a stagnant series opener. Look for San Antonio to put its foot on the gas, pushing the pace and trying to get out in transition. That’s where Harper does his best work.

Harper’s scoring projections range from 10 points to 12, with most models leaning toward that ceiling. His passing projections flirt with four assists, and his rebounding forecasts sit at 3.5 boards.

Game 2 Prop #2: Victor Wembanyama Over 12.5 rebounds

-105 at bet365

Victor Wembanyama posted a "big man" triple-double in Game 1, including 15 rebounds to go along with those points and blocks.

Wemby was in position for 23 rebounding chances, converting just 65% of those into boards. That’s a slide from his 74% rebound win rate in the final two games versus Portland after returning from a concussion.

The opener was a rock fight, as both teams shot well below their season averages and dropped the pace rate to 96.0 in Game 1. I do see an uptick in tempo coming, as both teams like to get out and run – especially San Antonio. That increases shot attempts and, therefore, rebounding chances.

Wembanyama has wrangled 13 or more rebounds in nine of his last 13 games going back to the regular season, and player projections for Game 2 call for as many as 15 boards, with most models on the other side of this total.

Game 2 Prop #3: Naz Reid Over 1.5 Threes

-130 at bet365

Naz Reid’s ability to stretch the defense is vital to the Minnesota Timberwolves’ success in this series. 

The 6-foot-9 forward isn’t shy about letting it fly from distance and finished 2-for-3 from outside in Game 1, striking on a pull-up when the defense sagged off and knocking down a corner 3-pointer on a drive-and-kick.

Minnesota is relentless when it comes to attacking the rim, even with Wembanyama setting up shop in the paint. That collapses the Spurs’ defense and lets Reid slip to the wing with waiting hands and plenty of space.

Reid wasn’t very active from outside in the series win over Denver, and his perimeter play took a step back in the second half of the schedule. Before the All-Star break, Reid was knocking down 2.4 triples on 6.3 attempts per game. That slimmed to 1.4 makes on 4.6 long-range looks in his final 21 games.

His Game 2 forecasts are bullish on Naz beyond the arc, ranging from 1.6 to as high as 2.3 triples. Given this hefty spread, the game script says Minnesota is fighting from behind, and that prompts perimeter action in an effort to catch up.

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

Oh, how seductive it must have been.

You buy a basketball team. Months later, you are standing at midcourt in Minnesota holding the Western Conference Finals trophy. Confetti rains down. Cameras catch your face. For one dangerous second you cannot help but think: is this what owning a sports franchise is like?

It is not.

A few days later, the confetti is falling in Boston, and it belongs to someone else. Even worse, you are months away from being hoodwinked into believing that being on the business end of the NBA version of the Babe Ruth trade is a good idea. Soon, boos will serenade you in your home arena as even marginally adept lip readers will notice you ask your associate, “Are they booing…me?” Oh, they were.

That has been the painful, expensive education of Patrick Dumont. Buying a basketball team and understanding the NBA are not mutually inclusive, a line I wrote in November when Nico Harrison was finally fired. The new Mavericks governor inherited Mark Cuban’s human Rolodex hire and trusted the man’s confidence over the man’s competence. By the time Dumont understood the magnitude of what he had been bamboozled into signing off on by Harrison, the trade had already happened, and the booing had already started. A few rocky months later, an 18-year-old SMU freshman in a Luka Lakers jersey was sitting four rows behind him at the American Airlines Center, waiting to apologize.

What Dumont did at that game, on November 10 of last year, was admit he had been wrong. To a kid named Nicholas Dickason, who had flipped him off on opening night and come back to make it right. “Sometimes you have good intentions and you make mistakes. We all do it.” Dumont also told Dickason, according to The Athletic, that he “feels horrible for the trade” and “wants to make it up to us.”

Nico Harrison was fired the next morning.

The brakes-on crowd

I’m tired of writing about Nico Harrison.

Nobody at this site has taken him apart more often, with more long-winded metaphors, than I have. Fifteen months of column work spent litigating a single trade and a single regime, and I’d like to be done.

I have not been part of the move-on crowd. I have been part of the driving-with-the-brakes-on crowd. The people who understood that the Adelson-Dumont ownership group is not selling the team, that some of the faces tied to the trade were going to remain, and that the reset many fans wanted was not coming on their preferred timetable.

Tuesday, for the first time, a brighter horizon actually felt possible when the Mavericks introduced Masai Ujiri as the team’s new president of basketball operations and alternate governor.

Not because Patrick Dumont sold the team. Because Dumont brought in someone whose entire career has been the photographic negative of the man he replaced. Someone whose first instinct in front of a microphone was to acknowledge what happened, name the wound, and offer a path forward that did not pretend the wound was imagined.

The pivot is straightforward: Patrick Dumont trusted the schmoozer. Now he is trusting the scout.

When the Rolodex was the resume

When Mark Cuban hired Nico Harrison alongside Jason Kidd in 2021, he was hiring a Rolodex.

After years of striking out in free agency, Cuban ostensibly convinced himself that the missing ingredient at the top of his front office was relationships. Connections. Access. Harrison had been at Nike for two decades. He had the cell phone numbers of every star in the league. He had brokered deals with Kobe and Curry and Kyrie and Durant. He could schmooze. That was the pitch.

The problem, as the Mavericks would learn the hard way, is that schmoozing was a job where Harrison could not lose.

At Nike, even if you flubbed a star’s pitch meeting (the famous Steph Curry / Under Armour story comes to mind), there was always another superstar coming through the door. Nike does not compete with 29 other shoe companies for a fixed pool of talent. The next star would always be there, ready to be courted. Failure in Harrison’s previous job was, in the most consequential sense, impossible.

The NBA front office is a different planet. You compete against 29 other teams. Talent evaluation is the entire job. Many of the men who become NBA general managers spent years grinding as scouts before they ever sat in a draft room with veto power, watching gym after gym, mapping international tournaments, building the eye that eventually recognizes a hidden gem and the spine to take the swing. Harrison did none of that. He was a shoe rep with the keys to a basketball empire.

The results came on schedule. “One team source recalls a document where Harrison placed Jrue Holiday within the same trade target tier as Nikola Jokić,” Tim Cato reported at DLLS Sports last fall. Read that sentence again. A real general manager does not put Jrue Holiday and Nikola Jokić in the same tier of trade targets. A schmoozer does, because the difference between Holiday — a decorated guard whose best version was already behind him — and the generational Joker does not exist in the world of brand partnerships.

That blindness explains the Anthony Davis trade. Davis had appeared on Harrison’s Instagram a decade earlier, dousing him with ice water during the ALS Challenge. That version of Davis, the prime All-Star Davis of 2014, is the one Harrison saw when he looked at the trade assets on the Lakers roster. The brittle 30-something Davis who would play 29 regular-season games across two partial Mavericks seasons before being salary-dumped to Washington for spare parts? That Davis was invisible. Harrison saw the friend, frozen in time.

The Mavericks never endured the kind of long, semi-intentional wilderness years that let a franchise stockpile picks between eras. The Mavs leaned into asset-burning to build around Dončić. By 2025, Luka qualified for the supermax. The supermax would have given Dončić more money than any player in NBA history, along with the institutional power that comes with that contract. That power would have made Luka virtually impervious to Harrison’s outsized need for control. So Harrison did the boldest thing a schmoozer driven by ego can do. He traded the king before the king could outrank him.

“The easiest thing for me to do is nothing,” Harrison told reporters at the Cleveland press conference the day after the trade. “Everyone would praise me for doing nothing.”

He could not stand to be praised for doing nothing. He needed his shining moment. He needed his real-life PlayStation move. He needed to prove that he, the shoe executive, was the architect of a championship and not a passenger in the Luka Dončić era.

He got fired instead.

The scout’s path

Ujiri did not arrive at Tuesday’s introductory press conference from a cushy industry job. He arrived from the gym.

Ujiri’s career began as an unpaid scout in 2002, working for the Orlando Magic and the Denver Nuggets. Kiki Vandeweghe and Jeff Weltman hired him onto salary at Denver. The Dallas connections in that scouting tree are real. Amadou Gallo Fall, a longtime Mavericks scout and director, was Ujiri’s friend and mentor, and Ujiri name-checked Fall, Donnie Nelson, and Vandeweghe in his opening remarks Tuesday. The braid back to the Mavs predates this hire by twenty years.

To become a scout, Ujiri had to outwork other scouts. To become an assistant general manager, he had to outwork other scouts who had also outworked other scouts. To become an executive vice president and general manager of the Denver Nuggets in 2010, he had to demonstrate, year over year, that his hits on Kenneth Faried and Wilson Chandler and the post-Melo Nuggets roster he helped assemble were not luck. They were the work born of a process started years earlier, before the accolades.

The work paid off. In 2013, Ujiri was named NBA Executive of the Year, the only non-American ever to win the award. The Nuggets won 57 games that season, the most in the franchise’s NBA history. Then he went on to Toronto and built another contender from what remained of the Bargnani-era roster he inherited. And in 2018, he made one of the riskiest moves any general manager has ever made. He traded the longest-tenured Raptor and franchise face DeMar DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard, a one-year rental of a two-way superstar coming off an injury-marred season and a public divorce from the Spurs.

It worked. The Raptors won the 2019 championship. Kawhi left as a free agent that summer. Ujiri’s team played the long game and the short game in the same window, and won both.

The recent Toronto stretch was not pristine. The OG Anunoby trade for RJ Barrett did not yield what Ujiri wanted. The Quickley extension was rich. The Ingram trade looked desperate. The Collin Murray-Boyles draft pick is still developing. No executive bats a thousand, and the latter years in Toronto were the years when the puzzle around Ujiri stopped giving him pieces to put together.

But a championship can keep an executive in a chair past the point where the chair still fits. The Mavericks learned that lesson with the waning years of Donnie Nelson’s tenure. For Ujiri, the fit in Toronto ran long. Twelve years. Five Atlantic Division titles. Two Eastern Conference Finals appearances. One NBA championship that almost no one outside the team’s own building saw coming.

What Dallas needed and now has are the fresh eyes of a seasoned, unsentimental evaluator with the power to evoke real change. Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving were spoken of mythologically by Nico Harrison. I do not get that sense from Masai Ujiri. He has shown, throughout his career, that he can attach to players without becoming attached to them. He can pull the trigger on a trade when the math says pull the trigger, even if the trade is for a one-year rental who might not re-sign, even if the trade involves moving the most beloved player on the roster.

Bring the calm

“I hope to bring calm,” Ujiri said early in his opening remarks Tuesday. “I hope to bring to this place winning.”

The first half of that sentence is more important than it sounds. Calm has not been a recurring feature of the Mavericks’ recent operating environment. The Harrison era was a blender. Opaque decision-making, late-night trades, manufactured dysfunction narratives served to ownership in private while the actual roster was being built around a generational player. Calm is the antidote.

It is also a tonal philosophy. Watch how Ujiri handled the inevitable Luka questions Tuesday. Asked twice (once about a healing process, once about whether he would have made the trade), Ujiri did not throw his new boss under the bus. He did not call the trade a mistake. He also did not pretend the wound was not there.

“There’s a healing process with that,” he said.

And then he gave the franchise something it had not been given by anyone in the organization since that fateful Shams bomb on a cold February night. A frame.

“Luka is a Hall of Famer, a future Hall of Famer, and that’s the past. I always say in Africa, we say when kings go, kings come, and a king went, and we have a little prince here that we’re going to turn into a king.”

That is a culturally specific framing that does real work on the grief. The throne is not empty. The loss is real. The path forward is the prince, and the prince is right there in the building, 19 years old and newly minted Rookie of the Year.

The Harrison version of this answer (and the Jason Kidd version, which I wrote about at length on Easter Sunday) was a clipped we have to move on, with the unstated insistence that there was nothing to see here, that the trade was good, that the fans were the problem for refusing to get over it. Ujiri eventually got there too, saying “we really have to move on,” but only after giving the grief oxygen first. He gave fans permission to mourn what was lost and a structure for walking toward what comes next. Different operating system entirely.

That is what calm looks like in practice. Acknowledgment plus forward motion.

The Brooklyn irony

There is a quote you should know about, if you do not already.

The date was April 19, 2014. The location was Maple Leaf Square in Toronto, where thousands of Raptors fans had gathered for a rally before Game 1 of the Eastern Conference first round against the Brooklyn Nets. The Raptors’ relatively new general manager, fresh off his Executive of the Year award in Denver, took the stage. He grabbed the microphone. He shouted “F*** Brooklyn!” at the assembled crowd.

The NBA fined him $25,000. He later said he was not taking it back, and that if the Raptors got the rematch he would say it again.

The head coach of the Brooklyn Nets at the time was asked for his response.

“You gotta tell me who the GM is,” Jason Kidd said. “I don’t even know who their GM is.”

He knows now.

This historical wrinkle matters because it tells you something about the dynamic Kidd is walking into. Asked about Kidd’s future Tuesday, Ujiri did exactly what he should have done. He praised Kidd as a Hall of Fame player. He said Kidd had done a great job. He referenced his own track record of keeping inherited coaches: George Karl in Denver for three years, Dwane Casey in Toronto for five. Both were inherited. Both were eventually replaced. Read between the lines if you wish, or do not. Either reading lands you in the same place.

What Ujiri did not do was endorse Kidd as the Mavericks’ coach. He could have. He could have said the obvious thing: that Kidd is a Hall of Fame player, that he took this team to the Finals, that Cooper Flagg’s relationship with him is real and worth preserving. Instead, Ujiri said: “…we’re going to look at this thing from head to toe.”

That is the right answer. For too long, Kidd’s halo as a Hall of Fame player and his 2024 Finals run insulated him from a dispassionate evaluation. His Dallas regular-season record finished this season hovering around .500 across five years, with three lottery-bound seasons in five. His best playoff outcomes came when he had the second-best player on the planet running the offense.

There is also a question of whether Kidd wants the new arrangement. Under Harrison, Kidd had outsized power. He had sway over personnel. He had an enabler at GM who shared his preferences. Whether Kidd was the Cleveland-hotel-room Pollyanna he claimed to be is a question I addressed at length last month. What is no longer in question is what the new front office will be. Masai Ujiri is not going to outsource personnel decisions to his head coach. The cook-with-the-groceries era is over, even if it never quite existed in the form Kidd publicly claimed.

The power dynamics around Kidd have been upended. The veterans on this roster may now be assets to be moved rather than minutes to be allocated. Klay Thompson is on the third year of his three-year contract. Daniel Gafford is a useful big man on a reasonable deal. PJ Washington is a versatile forward in his prime. Even Kyrie Irving, whom most every Mavericks fan loves, will be a trade market question if he returns from his ACL injury looking like himself and other teams come calling.

I do not get the sense that the Mavericks’ new president will hesitate to improve the roster or the asset stockpile. Ujiri has made a basketball life out of evaluating players with the eyes of a scout and the deal-making of a card shark. The mythologizing is for the rest of us.

That may not be Jason Kidd’s preferred operating environment. We are going to learn very soon whether Kidd would rather take the new dynamics or whether he would rather find a job somewhere else where he can again be both coach and shadow GM…or, for that matter, actual GM.

The full body scan

The Mavericks have needed a full body scan for a long time.

Not just the front office. The medical staff, which Ujiri flagged twice Tuesday as an area where the franchise has to get better. What fate awaits the interim general managers, Matt Riccardi and Michael Finley? The same can be asked of the coaching staff. The scouts. The development pipeline. Every player on this roster not named Cooper Flagg.

A full body scan is not as glamorous as confetti. Confetti is the schmoozer’s gift: the false sense of arrival, the borrowed credit for someone else’s hard work, the trophy you did not earn but get to hold. Confetti is what Patrick Dumont may well have mistaken for understanding when he bought this team.

A full body scan is the scout’s gift. It is unglamorous. It is slow. It involves sitting down with people and asking them to defend their work. It involves looking at processes and asking whether they produce results or just produce comfort. It is what the Mavericks needed in 2021 and did not get. It is what they needed during the aftermath of the trade and did not get. It is what they have, finally, on the table now.

The reset that a significant chunk of this fanbase wanted (every face associated with the Luka trade out of the building) was never going to happen on the timeline they wanted. Patrick Dumont and Miriam Adelson are not selling the team. Ownership stays. But what Tuesday showed is that the reset can come from a different direction. By evaluating everyone. By saying that nobody in this building is untouchable, except the 19-year-old prince who wears jersey number 32.

“This is a winning organization. We want to get back to that,” Ujiri said Tuesday.

He cannot tell you how. Yet. He is going to scan the body first.

The lottery last May gave the Mavericks two gifts in one ping-pong ball. The first was Cooper Flagg, the generational player around whom everything else now reorients. The second was the chance to bring Ujiri to Dallas. Because Ujiri, when asked Tuesday whether he would have taken this job without Flagg, did not pretend the question was unfair. He listed the Western Conference gauntlet: Wembanyama, Luka, Anthony Edwards, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokić. He said you cannot beat them without something in your pocket. And in his pocket, he has Cooper Flagg. The job was the job because Flagg was the player.

I have watched the Dallas Mavericks since 1980. The schedule last season felt like a slow-moving funeral procession, even with Cooper Flagg’s Rookie of the Year campaign in progress. Watching this team grind through the back half of a tanking season under the weight of a trade nobody wanted to talk about was harder than I expected.

Tuesday was the first day in a long time I felt actively excited to write about this team again.

Dallas finally and at long last got rid of the schmoozer and replaced him with the scout. The full body scan that this organization has needed for years can finally begin.