Category: Basketball

Mavs GM Nico Harrison says fans' love for Luka Doncic was deeper than he knew, but stands by trade originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison says he miscalculated the depth of love his club’s fans had for Luka Doncic before the trade that sent the young superstar to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis.

Despite the persistent catcalls from fans for him to be fired in the 2 1/2 months since the deal, Harrison still believes it was the right move for building a championship contender in Dallas.

“I did know that Luka was important to the fan base,” Harrison said Monday during his season-ending news conference, six days after a session with a smaller group of reporters that the club called to try to move on from the exhaustively discussed Doncic trade. “I didn’t quite know it to what level.”

As he has said before, Harrison expected plenty of blowback from the trade, but thought it would have eased sooner if Davis had been able play with Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, P.J. Washington and Dereck Lively II for most of the rest of the season.

Instead, those five haven’t played together yet, and the star combo of Davis and Irving shared less than three quarters together before Davis injured a groin in his Dallas debut. Irving tore the ACL in his left knee while Davis was out.

“We feel that’s a championship-caliber team and we would have been winning at a high level and that would have quieted some of the outrage,” Harrison said as part of the same answer about the fans’ love for Doncic. “And so unfortunately we weren’t able to do that, so it just continued to go on and on.”

The Mavericks almost didn’t have enough players to meet the NBA’s minimum requirement for several games while Davis was sidelined. Once he returned, the Mavs steadied themselves and qualified for the final spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament at No. 10.

Dallas won at Sacramento for a shot at the eighth seed in the playoffs before losing at Memphis.

Harrison said he believed the Mavs would get a good player in the first round of the draft, where they are currently slated to pick 11th. He also didn’t rule out changes in free agency.

But when asked what Dallas needed to become a contender again, Harrison said, “Really, we just need to get healthy. I think the team we’re bringing back is a championship-caliber. We fully expect to have Kyrie back with us next year when he gets healed from his injury. And we believe we’ll be competing for a championship.”

After Harrison said repeatedly last week that “defense wins championships” while defending the trade, Doncic was asked by ESPN his reaction to the session, saying it was “sad” what Harrison was saying and he wanted to move on.

Harrison, who said last week he still hasn’t spoken to the five-time All-NBA player who led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals last season, was asked about that exchange and said, “I feel the same way he does. I’ve actually never spoken ill of Luka, and I’m just ready to move on with this team that we have.”

Mavs GM Nico Harrison says fans' love for Luka Doncic was deeper than he knew, but stands by trade originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison says he miscalculated the depth of love his club’s fans had for Luka Doncic before the trade that sent the young superstar to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis.

Despite the persistent catcalls from fans for him to be fired in the 2 1/2 months since the deal, Harrison still believes it was the right move for building a championship contender in Dallas.

“I did know that Luka was important to the fan base,” Harrison said Monday during his season-ending news conference, six days after a session with a smaller group of reporters that the club called to try to move on from the exhaustively discussed Doncic trade. “I didn’t quite know it to what level.”

As he has said before, Harrison expected plenty of blowback from the trade, but thought it would have eased sooner if Davis had been able play with Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, P.J. Washington and Dereck Lively II for most of the rest of the season.

Instead, those five haven’t played together yet, and the star combo of Davis and Irving shared less than three quarters together before Davis injured a groin in his Dallas debut. Irving tore the ACL in his left knee while Davis was out.

“We feel that’s a championship-caliber team and we would have been winning at a high level and that would have quieted some of the outrage,” Harrison said as part of the same answer about the fans’ love for Doncic. “And so unfortunately we weren’t able to do that, so it just continued to go on and on.”

The Mavericks almost didn’t have enough players to meet the NBA’s minimum requirement for several games while Davis was sidelined. Once he returned, the Mavs steadied themselves and qualified for the final spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament at No. 10.

Dallas won at Sacramento for a shot at the eighth seed in the playoffs before losing at Memphis.

Harrison said he believed the Mavs would get a good player in the first round of the draft, where they are currently slated to pick 11th. He also didn’t rule out changes in free agency.

But when asked what Dallas needed to become a contender again, Harrison said, “Really, we just need to get healthy. I think the team we’re bringing back is a championship-caliber. We fully expect to have Kyrie back with us next year when he gets healed from his injury. And we believe we’ll be competing for a championship.”

After Harrison said repeatedly last week that “defense wins championships” while defending the trade, Doncic was asked by ESPN his reaction to the session, saying it was “sad” what Harrison was saying and he wanted to move on.

Harrison, who said last week he still hasn’t spoken to the five-time All-NBA player who led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals last season, was asked about that exchange and said, “I feel the same way he does. I’ve actually never spoken ill of Luka, and I’m just ready to move on with this team that we have.”

What 2025 draft picks Warriors, Heat will swap to finish Butler trade originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Warriors’ trade for six-time NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler from the Miami Heat on Feb. 5 officially is complete.

The league announced the final moving part on Monday after settling several tiebreakers through random drawings. As a result, Golden State will send the No. 20 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft to Miami and receives pick No. 41 in return.

The Heat get the No. 20 pick from the Warriors in the Jimmy Butler trade

The Warriors get the No. 41 overall pick from Miami https://t.co/Uc0ByU4NLO

— Dalton Johnson (@DaltonJ_Johnson) April 21, 2025

In sum, the Warriors acquired Jimmy Butler and the No. 40 selection from the Heat in exchange for Andrew Wiggins, Dennis Schröder, Kyle Anderson, Lindy Waters III and pick No. 20. Wiggins, Anderson and the 20th pick went to Miami, while Schröder and Waters landed with the Detroit Pistons.

So far, the five-team deal was worth it.

The Warriors were desperate for a spark, and Butler delivered. Golden State has won 24 of 31 total games with Butler in a Warriors uniform and currently has a 1-0 series lead over the Houston Rockets in the 2025 Western Conference first-round playoffs. Many analysts and fans consider the Butler-era Warriors to be contenders for the franchise’s fifth NBA championship in 11 seasons.

The Heat, meanwhile, survived the NBA play-in tournament but are candidates to be swept by the East’s leading Cleveland Cavaliers. Perhaps Dub Nation can find solace regarding Wiggins, a Bay Area fan favorite, as he is averaging a solid 19.0 points on 45.8-percent shooting in his new Miami threads.

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Why Kerr believes Warriors-Rockets playoff game had ‘old-school' feel originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Coach Steve Kerr felt a throwback vibe in his Warriors’ 95-85 Game 1 win over the Houston Rockets in the 2025 Western Conference first-round playoffs on Sunday night at Toyota Center.

“They’re not a typical modern NBA team, in terms of spreading you out, playing fast, shooting a million threes, they’re kind of old school,” Kerr told reporters postgame (h/t ClutchPoints’ Rexwell Villas). “In many ways, they’re in the image of their coach. Ime [Udoka] was a grinder as a player. He was tough and physical, and that’s what Houston is.”

Led by Udoka, the Rockets aren’t the same 3-point-shooting team they were during the bulk of their James Harden era. Houston shot just 6-for-29 on triples in Game 1 and 34-for-87 from the field overall, even collecting 22 offensive rebounds to Golden State’s six because of its poor shooting. The Rockets entered the game shooting the 10th-fewest triples per game (35.8) during the regular season.

The Warriors weren’t perfect, but were better on Sunday, making 12 of 32 triples. However, they shot a fair 36-for-76 overall and defended their tails off, even handling the stints when the Rockets went to an old-school, two-center approach.

“In this series, you can see they know where their advantage lies, and it’s playing [Steven] Adams a lot,” Kerr added. “Sometimes playing him with [Alperen] Sengun. Having everybody crash. So, it felt like 1997 out there to me. Completely different NBA game than we’re used to. We’ve got to be ready for that. This is what this series is going to be.”

The Warriors have won four NBA championships during the Steph Curry era, largely because of how he transformed basketball with his 3-point prowess. But in this series? Golden State must continue to lean into what Kerr considers old-school hoops.

The Warriors likely will take 95 points per game if it means Houston can’t reach 90, as all that matters is winning.

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Perk calls Warriors ‘legit title contenders' after win vs. Rockets originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins put a lot of stock in the Warriors after their 95-85 Game 1 win over the Houston Rockets in the 2025 Western Conference first-round playoffs on Sunday at Toyota Center.

“They can make a legit run to the NBA finals,” Perkins said on Monday night’s edition of “SportsCenter.” “I don’t have them picked, but with Jimmy Butler, he’s a Swiss Army Knife; he’ll cut you everywhere but loose. And it’s not just from him scoring, it’s from him going for the rebounds, getting the assists, getting the steals, and all of a sudden, he’s added more life, more joy to Steph Curry and this Warriors organization. All of a sudden, we’ve seen the Steph we’ve grown to love.

“This team continues to play at this pace, especially what they’re doing defensively with the combination of Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green, this team definitely can make a run to the Finals. I’m not putting them over [the Oklahoma City Thunder], but they are legit title contenders.”

After one game, Perkins can see Golden State giving Oklahoma City a run for its money. It’s not an outlandish take, either.

The Warriors were rejuvenated by Butler’s arrival and since have won 24 of the 31 games he has played in thus far, including Sunday’s playoff victory. Curry got his experienced running mate and, as Perkins highlighted, Green got another key defender to help lead Golden State’s defense, which has been elite since Butler’s arrival.

Golden State’s defense led the NBA with a 109.3 defensive rating after hosting NBA All-Star Weekend. The Warriors limiting the second-seeded Rockets to 85 points shouldn’t have surprised anyone who has been paying attention.

The Warriors still have 15 wins to go before earning their fifth NBA championship in 11 seasons. But Golden State looks like a real contender after its Game 1 victory, and Perkins is paying attention.

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Mavs GM Nico Harrison says fans' love for Luka Doncic was deeper than he knew, but stands by trade originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison says he miscalculated the depth of love his club’s fans had for Luka Doncic before the trade that sent the young superstar to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis.

Despite the persistent catcalls from fans for him to be fired in the 2 1/2 months since the deal, Harrison still believes it was the right move for building a championship contender in Dallas.

“I did know that Luka was important to the fan base,” Harrison said Monday during his season-ending news conference, six days after a session with a smaller group of reporters that the club called to try to move on from the exhaustively discussed Doncic trade. “I didn’t quite know it to what level.”

As he has said before, Harrison expected plenty of blowback from the trade, but thought it would have eased sooner if Davis had been able play with Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, P.J. Washington and Dereck Lively II for most of the rest of the season.

Instead, those five haven’t played together yet, and the star combo of Davis and Irving shared less than three quarters together before Davis injured a groin in his Dallas debut. Irving tore the ACL in his left knee while Davis was out.

“We feel that’s a championship-caliber team and we would have been winning at a high level and that would have quieted some of the outrage,” Harrison said as part of the same answer about the fans’ love for Doncic. “And so unfortunately we weren’t able to do that, so it just continued to go on and on.”

The Mavericks almost didn’t have enough players to meet the NBA’s minimum requirement for several games while Davis was sidelined. Once he returned, the Mavs steadied themselves and qualified for the final spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament at No. 10.

Dallas won at Sacramento for a shot at the eighth seed in the playoffs before losing at Memphis.

Harrison said he believed the Mavs would get a good player in the first round of the draft, where they are currently slated to pick 11th. He also didn’t rule out changes in free agency.

But when asked what Dallas needed to become a contender again, Harrison said, “Really, we just need to get healthy. I think the team we’re bringing back is a championship-caliber. We fully expect to have Kyrie back with us next year when he gets healed from his injury. And we believe we’ll be competing for a championship.”

After Harrison said repeatedly last week that “defense wins championships” while defending the trade, Doncic was asked by ESPN his reaction to the session, saying it was “sad” what Harrison was saying and he wanted to move on.

Harrison, who said last week he still hasn’t spoken to the five-time All-NBA player who led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals last season, was asked about that exchange and said, “I feel the same way he does. I’ve actually never spoken ill of Luka, and I’m just ready to move on with this team that we have.”

Eddie House: Tatum is the ‘most disrespected superstar' in the NBA originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Jayson Tatum will have to wait at least another year for his first NBA MVP award.

The league announced the three finalists for the award on Sunday: Oklahoma City guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, and Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo. Tatum will likely finish fourth in MVP voting for the second time in three years.

Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic have been co-favorites to win the award throughout the 2024-25 season. Choosing Antetokounmpo over Tatum is where NBC Sports Boston’s Celtics analysts Chris Forsberg and Eddie House take issue.

“I thought by the end of the season, the people that vote for these awards would recognize that if we sit here and keep saying, ‘We’re gonna vote for SGA (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) because (of) the team’s success,’ so we’re not rewarding Tatum for the success of the Celtics? So I thought they’d recognize that and put him ahead of Giannis,” Forsberg said on Sunday’s Celtics Postgame Live.

“Giannis had a great season. I get the numbers are probably pretty glitzy and he had to carry a heavier load without Damian Lillard out there. And yet, you can’t tell me that Jayson Tatum doesn’t more positively impact winning this season for a 60-win team. I think it’s just ridiculous that he’s not in the top three. If he needs any motivation, he finds it at every turn because people just don’t give him the respect he deserves.”

House, befuddled by the continued dismissal of Tatum’s impact, believes the six-time All-Star will use his latest MVP finalist snub as fuel for another deep postseason run.

“Most disrespected superstar in the league,” he said of Tatum. “Most disrespected All-NBA First-Team player in the league. Was it three straight years he’s been All-NBA? He’s disrespected.

“And that’s OK, because sometimes that’s fuel for the fire and for the greater good of what the Boston Celtics are doing. I think it’s turning him into a monster, and eventually, he’s gonna get that MVP. So thank you, everybody.”

Tatum averaged 26.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 6.0 assists over 72 regular-season games. The 27-year-old tallied 17 points and 14 rebounds in Sunday’s Game 1 win over the Orlando Magic.

C’s fans were given a scare in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game when Tatum went down with a wrist injury. However, it appears it won’t keep him out for Game 2, as X-rays came back clean.

Game 2 at TD Garden is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Coverage begins on NBC Sports Boston with Celtics Pregame Live at 6 p.m.

How Pritchard made strong impact on both ends in Celtics' Game 1 win originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

One of the reasons why the Boston Celtics could be more difficult to beat in the 2025 NBA playoffs compared to last year’s championship run is the emergence of Payton Pritchard as a go-to scorer and momentum-shifter off the bench.

Pritchard made a huge impact in Game 1 of the Celtics’ first-round playoff series against the Orlando Magic at TD Garden on Sunday, which Boston won 103-86.

The Sixth Man of the Year Award favorite entered the series opener with 1:50 left in the first quarter and immediately hit a 3-pointer, then assisted on a Jayson Tatum 3-point shot as the C’s closed the opening 12 minutes with a 26-18 lead.

Pritchard then scored eight points in the first four minutes of the second quarter before exiting with 7:50 remaining in the half and the Celtics up 39-31. He did not play the rest of the quarter and the Celtics offense began to stall. Orlando capitalized on this and ended the half on a 19-8 run to take a 49-48 lead into the break.

The Celtics found their groove again in the second half. Pritchard hit a couple 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter to destroy any hope the Magic might have had of a late-game run.

Pritchard finished with a playoff career-high 19 points on an efficient 6-for-8 shooting (4-for-6 from beyond the arc). The Celtics outscored the Magic by 13 points during Pritchard’s 25 minutes of playing time. He actually ended up outscoring the entire Magic bench (19-17) by himself.

The Celtics’ scoring depth might be their biggest strength and a huge advantage over pretty much every other team in the playoffs. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown both scored fewer than 20 points Sunday. For most teams, an average (or worse) performance from your two-best players will often result in a loss. But it wasn’t an issue for the Celtics because Pritchard, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White picked up the slack with a combined 58 points on 19-for-32 shooting.

“I think we did a very good job on those guys (Tatum and Brown),” Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley told reporters postgame. “Made it tough on them, made it difficult for them to get easy shots. They had a couple blow-bys to the rim, but for the most part it was the Derrick Whites of the world and the Payton Pritchards, coming off the bench for 19. Two guys that you don’t necessarily account for coming up with 49 points. I think we’ve got to do a better job there.”

Pritchard had some good games in the playoffs last season, but he wasn’t very consistent. He scored 10-plus points in four of the five games against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference semifinals. But in the other three rounds, he scored in double-digits only twice. He really struggled against the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals, scoring 17 total points over five games.

Pritchard has been much more reliable this season. He scored in double-digits in 57 of his 80 games played, which helped him average a career-best 14.3 points per game.

Pritchard isn’t just a one-way player, though. Despite his lack of size (6-foot-1, 195 pounds), he plays with great effort, physicality, energy and attention to detail on defense. There aren’t many weak spots in Boston’s lineup. But if teams are going to hunt one player on offense, it’ll probably be Pritchard.

The Magic tried to do that a little bit in Game 1 and didn’t have much success. They shot 3-for-7 against Pritchard when he was the primary defender. Magic star Franz Wagner shot 1-for-3 against Pritchard. Pritchard isn’t a lockdown defender, but he’ll make you work hard to score on him.

His defense did not go unnoticed by head coach Joe Mazzulla.

“I thought he was just as good defensively as he was offensively,” Mazzulla told reporters postgame. “Just him pushing the pace on the offensive end, but really his physicality at the point of attack was big for us. I think he got two tip-out rebounds in the second half that were big for us.”

Holiday had a similar assessment of Pritchard’s all-around impact.

“I think when he first came out, he had a quick 11 points (in the first half) — crazy,” Holiday told reporters postgame. “I think just Payton being Payton, taking the opportunity. Payton is also a gamer, as everybody here sees. Any opportunity he can to put the ball in the basket, he does it. But what makes him special is what he does on the defensive end — picking up anybody full-court, just being a dog, hounding whoever is in front of him.”

If the Celtics are going to get back to the Finals and repeat as champs, their offense will need to be firing on all cylinders. Boston’s path to a title, assuming they eliminate the Magic, would likely include the New York Knicks in the conference semifinals, the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals and the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Finals. All three of those teams ranked top 10 in scoring during the regular season. The Cavs ranked No. 1.

The Celtics probably will need to consistently score around 110 to 115 points per game in the playoffs to achieve their ultimate goal. If Pritchard chips in 15-plus points off the bench on a consistent basis, the C’s should have no trouble scoring enough points to beat their toughest competition.

Pritchard is an X-factor who raises the Celtics’ ceiling when he gives performances like he did Sunday.

The Knicks went up 1-0 against Detroit in the first round of the playoffs behind a dominant 21-0 fourth quarter run that turned the game around.

New York will be looking to defend home court in Game 2 on Monday, but the Pistons will come ready for revenge.

Here are the three biggest questions going into the next contest:

How will the Pistons adjust?

Detroit taking the first game on the chin likely means they’ll come back with some adjustments for New York to work through. Their first objective should be getting Cade Cunningham some breathing room.

The Knicks started their best defender on him, and threw a mix of aggressive pick-and-roll coverages, especially in that fourth quarter run. Cunningham was held to 8-for-21 shooting and forced into six turnovers, a rough outing for the engine of his team’s offense.

Detroit’s surrounding vets picked up the slack with some hot shooting, but expect the coaching staff to switch things up. More slipped screens that Cunningham can target can catch the Knicks defense off guard, and expect him to be better prepared for the aggression and less susceptible to turnovers.

They can also screen him with wings, and especially Jalen Brunson’s man, more. It was an effective strategy in the regular season and made Brunson work at the level at times in Game 1, but they could’ve pressed that button much more.

Cunningham could also get more off-ball plays run for him. If they get him going downhill off the catch with Anunoby screened and help in the blender, scoring should come much easier.

New York didn’t deal with much Ausar Thompson in Game 1 as he struggled with foul trouble. It’s not an “adjustment” per se, but expect more of an impact from him on Monday.

They also couldn't really adjust anything. If they’re of the belief the fourth quarter was an inexperience-fueled meltdown and the game plan is solid, they could walk into MSG with an identical approach to Game 1.

Whatever direction they go, the Knicks will need to respond on the fly if they want to keep home court secure. 

Will Mikal Bridges get more involved?

One hot button issue for Knicks fans after the win was Bridges’ play. His defense was outstanding, but his offense was a quiet eight points and two assists on 4-for-9 shooting, leading to a prolonged benching during New York’s comeback run. 

In his defense, he hit a timely bucket with under two minutes to play and created a lot of early offense even if it didn’t result in a big presence on the box score. Bridges had a good if uneventful game, just not a five-first-round-pick trade package game, which is the unfortunate standard he’s held to.

Still, even if Game 1 just wasn’t his scoring night, he could’ve been more aggressive in offensive creation during some of the team’s lulls, and the Knicks need him in rhythm to go far. Will they or Bridges make any changes for him to have a bigger role in Game 2?

New York can be more targeted in running some sets for Bridges, like when Cunningham is off the floor and he can target the diminutive and pesky Dennis Schroder. Bridges should generally take the reins more if the offense is in a rut, especially with Brunson off the floor, and call for picks to make something happen.

Will we see more Mitchell Robinson-Karl-Anthony Towns lineups?

One thing the Knicks have up their sleeve these playoffs -- should they choose to use it -- is creative lineup constructions, and enough of them to deal with anything an opponent throws their way. Many hoped New York would avail themselves of the Towns-Robinson frontcourt lineups in this series, given the Knicks' size advantage and defensive concerns with Towns in the middle.

It saw sparse regular season minutes and head coach Tom Thibodeau can often need his hand forced before turning to big changes, but we saw it in its full glory during Game 1. Granted, all nine minutes came in the first half, with Josh Hart in foul trouble.

Does Thibs still bring it out in Game 2 if Hart is foul free? It was only a +2 in that stretch, but looked dominant on the glass and defensively for the most part.

If the Pistons swing back hard, the Knicks may need a silver bullet to pull out Game 2. This lineup could be the answer.