Lakers guard Austin Reaves is set to return to the lineup Wednesday night in Game 5 against the Rockets. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
After missing a month with a Grade 2 left oblique strain, Austin Reaves is available for his postseason series debut Wednesday, but will not be in the starting lineup as the Lakers try to clinch their first-round series against the Houston Rockets.
In Game 5, the Lakers will start the same lineup that helped them build a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series over the fifth-seeded Rockets: :LeBron James Marcus Smart, Luke Kennard, Rui Hachimura and Deandre Ayton.
But it took Reaves only three weeks to get upgraded to questionable on the status report. One day shy of four weeks, he can return just in time to give the Lakers a much-needed boost to close out a tough Rockets team.
Reaves’ return will help stabilize the Lakers’ shorthanded backcourt that is still without Luka Doncic. The Lakers have averaged 20 turnovers a game in this series, including 24 in Game 4 in Houston, where the Lakers missed out on a chance to sweep the series. James has handled the majority of the play-making responsibilities, had eight turnovers in each of the last two games.
“If he is able to go, we just want Austin to be Austin,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said before the game. “That's the biggest thing, I think, as the series has gone on, their pressure and physicality has just increased every game, and ball-handling is been important for us all series.”
One more win against the Rockets will put the Lakers into the Western Conference semifinals against the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder swept the Phoenix Suns in the first round.
While the Lakers are getting healthier, the Rockets will be without their star player for the third consecutive game. Kevin Durant was ruled out Tuesday because of a left ankle sprain. He has missed four of the five games this series.
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - APRIL 2: Austin Reaves #15 of the Los Angeles Lakers dribbles the ball during the game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on April 2, 2026 at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2026 NBAE (Photo by Zach Beeker/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
You can never doubt Austin Reaves’ heart.
After an initial recovery timeline that would have him out 4-6 weeks, Reaves returned to the court last week and will return to the lineup just under a month after suffering his injury, joining the Lakers for Game 5 against the Rockets on Wednesday.
Lakers star Austin Reaves has been cleared to return for Game 5 against the Houston Rockets, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/T3fNjPEOeF
As has been the case, Reaves was a gametime decision for Game 5. In both Game 3 and Game 4, Reaves went through pregame warm-ups before being ruled out. On Wednesday, he went through pregame warm-ups and was ruled available.
JJ Redick on Austin Reaves for Game 5: “He’s going to go through the same process and we’ll make the decision at game time”
In the days leading up to Game 5, it became more and more clear that Reaves was likely to make his return. The Lakers came into the playoffs not expecting Reaves or Luka Dončić to play in the opening round. While Luka is no closer to returning, they’ve at least gotten back one of their best players in Austin.
It took multiple weeks and the Lakers had to win some playoff games without him, but Austin Reaves will be joining the team for competitive matchups once again.
Now, he is back, giving the Lakers a huge injection of offensive firepower. He averaged 23.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game this season. His rebounding and scoring totals are career-highs for the five-year guard.
It’s been nearly a month since Reaves has played in a Lakers game. He suffered his injury during a loss against the Thunder. Afterward, his MRI confirmed that he had a Grade 2 oblique strain, and the projected recovery period was 4-6 weeks.
The Lakers have found plenty of playoff success in Reaves’ absence. They’ve been able to survive and extend their season in time for him to come back, which was a goal Lakers head coach JJ Redick established before the postseason began.
Despite the Lakers’ short-term success, long-term wins will only come with Reaves on the floor. Shockingly, that is coming perhaps sooner than expected.
The Lakers upgraded Reaves from questionable to available 45 minutes before tipoff on Wednesday at Crypto.com Arena, making Reaves eligible to make his playoffs debut after missing the first four games of the best-of-seven first round playoff series.
Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves, who was sidelined for just under four weeks because of a left oblique strain, will play in Game 5 vs. Rockets.
Reaves was sidelined for 27 days because of the Grade 2 left oblique strain he suffered during the April 2 loss to the Thunder, returning earlier than the 4-6 week recovery timeline that typically comes with the injury.
He was listed as questionable for Friday’s Game 3 win and Sunday’s Game 4 loss before being downgraded to out for both games.
During his first media availability since suffering on Tuesday, Reaves responded, “just how my body feels,” when asked what would determine whether he played on Wednesday.
Cleary, he feels good enough and confident in his body, which coach JJ Redick emphasized was the most important
“I said, ‘let’s take the context of the series out of it’,” Redick said pregame on Wednesday. “‘Because if you’re not confident, you shouldn’t play. If you are confident, you should play.’ It’s that simple.”
The Lakers had been without Reaves and fellow star guard Luka Doncic (left hamstring strain) since both suffered regular season-ending injuries on April 2.
He and Doncic missed the final five games of the regular season with their respective injuries, with the Lakers going 3-2 in those games.
“I’ve been pretty miserable,” Reaves said on Tuesday. “Just not having somewhat of a control on a game, just sitting over there with…no hope that I can affect the game. Obviously I can talk and try to lead from being over there, but not really being on the court sucks. We’ve seen in the past when I get injured, I do everything I can to get back as soon as I can while still being safe at the same time.”
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The Lakers entered Wednesday up 3-1 in the first round series over the Rockets.
“Obviously, our confidence doesn’t waver as a team,” Reaves said. “Basically the message from that day forward was, ‘we’re going to do everything as a team, that they were going to do everything as a team to give us an opportunity to come back and play.’ And they’ve done exactly what they said.”
Reaves’s availability should help spark a Lakers offense looking to close out the Rockets Wednesday night. NBAE via Getty Images
Reaves averaged a career-high 23.3 points to go with 5.5 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 1.1 steals in a career-low 51 regular season games after also missing significant time in December and January because of a calf strain.
He has a $14.9 million player option for 2026-27 that he’s expected to decline, making him an unrestricted free agent this offseason with the expectation of a significant pay raise.
“We just want Austin to be Austin,” Redick said pregame of Reaves. “That’s the biggest thing. As the series has gone on, their pressure and physicality have just increased every game, and ball handling has been important for us all series, so he would certainly help there.”
Are the Kentucky Wildcats in danger of losing Malachi Moreno to the NBA Draft?
When Moreno first announced he was testing the NBA waters, many assumed that he’d ultimately withdraw and return to school. While that’s still the likeliest outcome, his NBA stock appears to be higher than anticipated.
The latest 2026 NBA Mock Draft from ESPN’s Jeremy Woo has Moreno going 43rd overall to the Brooklyn Nets, right in the middle of Round 2. While it’s still pretty far from a first-round selection and guaranteed money, it does give Moreno something to think about if he feels confident that he’d be one of the 60 selections in this year’s draft.
Elsewhere, Jayden Quaintance went 15th overall to the Chicago Bulls, while no other Wildcats from this past season were selected, though Ugonna Onyenso, who finished his career at Virginia, went 50th overall to the Toronto Raptors.
I’d still wager on Moreno returning for his sophomore season, especially with the 2027 draft class looking significantly weaker than this one. A sophomore leap could very well put him in the first-round range of next year’s draft.
In other words, it’s far too early to panic about potentially losing Moreno to the NBA, but it will be interesting to watch the pre-draft process unfold for him, especially if he gets invited to the NBA Combine in Chicago on May 10-17.
The Toronto Raptors held their own in their crucial first-round game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on the road, even taking a lead into the half.
But not only did the Raptors lose Game 5, 125-120, they may have lost one of their key players due to injury.
Star forward Brandon Ingram, who led Toronto in scoring during the regular season, was ruled out for the second half with right heel inflammation, an issue that he has been managing since after the All-Star break.
“Brandon, as you guys know, has been dealing with his heel,” Raptors coach Darko Rajaković told reporters after the game. “He reaggravated the heel on one play. We tried to re-tape him. At halftime, he tried to activate it to see if he could be ready for the second half, but he was not able to come and play the second half.
“So tomorrow we will know more when we do more evaluation.”
Ingram played 11:22 in the first half, but was subbed out with 7:32 left to play in the second quarter and immediately went back to the locker room; he did not return to the floor for the rest of the period.
During his time on the court, Ingram was limited to just 1 point on 0-of-2 shooting, with 2 assists, 1 rebound and 1 block.
Ingram has struggled a bit during the postseason and entered the night averaging just 14.8 points per game, which was well below his season average of 21.5.
“It’s something that’s on and off,” Rajaković continued. “He was doing well, and he just reaggravated it on that play.”
The Raptors, at least initially, appeared to be well-equipped to handle Ingram’s absence; at the half, Toronto had five different players reach double-figures in scoring, with guard Ja’Kobe Walter leading the way with 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including 5-of-8 from 3-point range.
HOUSTON, TX - APRIL 26: Reed Sheppard #15 and Amen Thompson #1 of the Houston Rockets react during the game against the Los Angeles Lakers during Round One Game Four of the 2026 NBA Playoffs on April 26, 2026 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2026 NBAE (Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
April 29, 2026
Location: CryptoDotComStaplesForum, Los Angeles California
TV: ESPN
Radio:KBME Sports Talk 790 / KLTN 102.9 (en español)
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 21: Head coach Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors talks with Stephen Curry #30 on the sidelines against the Portland Trail Blazers in the second quarter during an NBA Cup game at Chase Center on November 21, 2025 in San Francisco, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images) | Getty Images
It’s been nearly two weeks since Steve Kerr huddled with Steph Curry and Draymond Green in the waning moments of the Golden State Warriors season-ending loss to the Phoenix Suns. Kerr seemed intent to keep the sentiments that he uttered to his Hall of Fame-bound players a secret, though Curry, Green, and the league’s microphones had other plans.
In the aftermath of that loss, Kerr said that he would take “a week or two” to decide his future, and choose between a hiatus from the sidelines, or a 13th season at the helm of one of the sport’s model franchises.
No one could fully read the tea leaves, but in the first week it sure started to feel like Kerr was going to spend 2026 Opening Night on a coach in his Southern California home, legs kicked up, and a cold one in his hand. A few days after the loss, Green said “it felt like that was it,” when speaking about the moment he shared with Curry and Kerr. Warriors insider Monte Poole said he felt the odds were slim that Kerr would return.
And then, of course, there’s the historical precedent. Usually when someone takes a step back and a few weeks to evaluate their future, it results in a change of direction. The “take a week or two” for a coach is like couples therapy in a relationship: it’s doing due diligence for something that, more often than not, already has a predetermined fate.
But that might not be the case in Kerr’s situation, and it feels like the tide is starting to turn, and the momentum has shifted towards a Kerr return. An article published on Wednesday by ESPN’s Shams Charania, Ramona Shelburne, and Anthony Slater reports that Kerr met with Joe Lacob and Mike Dunleavy Jr. for a few hours on Monday, and that the trio will meet again next week. That points to something fairly obvious: if Kerr wanted to leave, he would have done so already.
The ESPN report, and others in recent days, paints the picture of a team that is fairly unified in their desire to re-sign Kerr, and a coach who just isn’t sure what he wants to do (ESPN described it as “Kerr will take a previously planned golf trip to close out this week as those around him continue to describe Kerr as torn about his own side of the choice”).
Some of his conflict, admittedly, might stem from those conversations with Lacob and Dunleavy. Reports have suggested that the Warriors not only want Kerr to sign on for multiple years to give the team long-term stability amid roster retooling, but also would like him to modernize his offensive scheme, work more closely with the analytics department, and revamp his coaching staff. Kerr is too much of a company man to force his own employment against anyone’s wishes, so deciding whether or not he wants to coach under those parameters might be the biggest thing for him right now.
For now, we wait. The longer this goes on, the greater the odds of Kerr returning for a few more years, and presumably lining up his retirement with Curry and Green’s. The fact that his decision hasn’t been made, and the fact that he’s meeting with the team a second time, suggests that he does, indeed, still love and enjoy coaching. Ultimately, that seems the factor that’s most likely to win out in the end.
NEW YORK (AP) — New Orleans’ DeAndre Jordan won the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year award Wednesday, edging Portland’s Jrue Holiday and Houston’s Jeff Green.
Jordan finished with 1,445 points in voting by 385 current NBA players. Holiday — a three-time winner — finished with 1,437 points and Green had 1,420.
A panel of league executives selected 12 finalists, six from each conference, to be considered for the honor. Jordan adds the award to a list of accolades that includes three All-NBA selections, two All-Defensive Team picks, one All-Star nod, an Olympic gold medal from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and a championship with Denver in 2023.
The award pays tribute to the player deemed the league’s best teammate “based on selfless play, leadership on and off the court as a mentor and role model to other NBA players, and commitment to the team.”
It has been presented since 2013 and is named for Jack Twyman and Maurice Stokes, teammates on the Rochester/Cincinnati Royals from 1955-58. Stokes suffered a brain injury in the final game of the 1957-58 regular season, fell into a coma days later and was paralyzed. Twyman became Stokes’ legal guardian and advocate, and supported him for the rest of his life.
Other players nominated for the award this season were Toronto's Garrett Temple, Charlotte's Pat Connaughton, New York's Jalen Brunson, Boston's Jayson Tatum, San Antonio's DeAaron Fox, Detroit's Duncan Robinson, Oklahoma City's Jaylin Williams, Orlando's Desmond Bane and the Los Angeles Lakers' Marcus Smart.
The Houston Rockets will try to get their season alive against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 5 of the teams’ first-round playoff series. The Rockets avoided elimination with a 115-96 victory in Game 4. The Lakers hold a 3-1 lead in the series. One more victory and they will advance to the second round to face the Oklahoma City Thunder.
How to watch Houston Rockets vs. Los Angeles Lakers
The Orlando Magic are trying to close out the Detroit Pistons in their NBA first-round playoff series. One more victory by the Magic and they will advance to the second round to face the winner of the Toronto Raptors-Cleveland Cavaliers series. The Pistons are favored by 10.5 points, with the over/under set at 211.5.
awks forward Jalen Johnson and New York Knicks forward Og Anunoby reach for the ball during Game 5.
ATLANTA — The admission was telling.
There was no deflection or talking around the subject. No pointing to other problems. Dyson Daniels said it plainly.
“I just think their mindset was to come out and try to bully us and be physical,” he said. “And they did that.”
It’s not often NBA players acknowledge being bullied. They don’t usually like having their manhood or machismo questioned.
But it’s become glaring and unavoidable — the Knicks are manhandling the Hawks.
They had an 18-point advantage in points in the paint during their 126-97 Game 5 win over the Hawks Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, which gave them a 3-2 series lead heading back to Atlanta. They owned the glass, with 21 more rebounds. It helped them to an 11-point advantage in second-chance points.
“One of the things that we said we gotta do, we gotta box out,” coach Mike Brown said. “And we [only] gave up five offensive rebounds, which to that team is huge, because they’re one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the league. … We talked about boxing out. Our guys did an unbelievable job on the glass. I tell you, OG [Anunoby] and [Karl-Anthony Towns] were monsters. Between the two of them, they had 22 defensive rebounds. They both had a double-double. They were phenomenal. It’s huge for us to keep these guys off the glass.”
Hawks guard CJ McCollum looses the ball to New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson and Knicks guard Josh Hart during Game 5. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST
Coming into the series, most expected the Knicks to have a significant size advantage, particularly with Towns and the Hawks’ lack of a big man who can match up with him. It took a little while to materialize, but over the last two games, the Knicks have beaten up the Hawks and imposed their will.
After two straight one-point losses, the Knicks have responded with two straight blowouts. Their physical edge has been central to it.
“We’ve done a great job,” Towns said of what changed from Games 2 and 3 to Games 4 and 5, “executing with our physicality.”
As a result, it’s allowed the Knicks to dictate the game flow to a style that better suits them. The young and athletic Hawks love to run and score in transition. But the Knicks have bottled them up and forced them to play in the half-court, where their size advantage can be utilized. The Hawks had just four fast-break points Tuesday and seven in Game 4.
It’s been key to the Knicks defensive turnaround the past two games. They are forcing the Hawks to play in a style they are not comfortable with.
Hawks forward Jalen Johnson and New York Knicks forward Og Anunoby reach for the ball during Game 5. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST
The decision to switch Josh Hart onto CJ McCollum plays into it. Hart is a much bigger, stronger and more physical defender than Jalen Brunson, who began the series guarding McCollum and struggled mightily. Hart’s physicality turned McCollum, who finished with six points on 3-for-10 shooting from the field, into a nonfactor Tuesday.
“Their defense never really let us establish consistently how we need to play to beat them,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “And we have to be more committed, it’s really like imposing your will on the offensive end. Moving and passing, you can feel possessions where that occurs and that’s when we’re efficient or have success. We had some shots that didn’t go in that’s always in play, but for us I think we need to execute on who we are and what we’ve done to be a good team. That’s hard when you play against a team of their caliber. That level for us, we didn’t hit it. And again, they had a lot to do with that.”
The uptick in physicality has meant the Knicks have taken fewer 3-pointers — they shot just 26 Tuesday, way down from their regular-season average of 38.2. Brown has constantly stressed his desire for the Knicks to take tons of 3-pointers, but with the way they are finding easy points in the paint, he said he “loves” the adjustment.
It’s not even just the Knicks who traditionally thrive inside who have been effective there. It’s been across the board.
“We just gotta take a stand,” Onyeka Okongwu said. “Obviously Brunson, KAT do their thing, but we can’t let dudes like [Jose] Alvarado get into the paint.
“Overall, we just gotta play through it. We can’t let their physicality take us out of what we want to do. That’s it.”
With the Hawks now facing elimination, the Knicks expect some sort of response in the physicality department.
“They’re probably gonna be aggressive again offensively in terms of crashing the glass, trying to get extra possessions, playing in transition,” Jordan Clarkson said. “I know they’re gonna try to bring a lot of force down there, so we gotta be prepared and we know what’s coming. We’ll be ready.”
As long as the Knicks are in fact ready, there is little the Hawks can do to combat their physical edge.
The Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers meet in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series. Toronto evened the series on Sunday with a 93-89 victory in Game 4. The Cleveland Cavaliers are favored by 8.5 points, with the over/under set at 216.5.
How to watch Toronto Raptors vs. Cleveland Cavaliers
LOS ANGELES, CA - MARCH 6: Jalen Brunson #11;Karl-Anthony Towns #32 and OG Anunoby #8 of the New York Knicks before the game against the Los Angeles Lakers on March 6, 2025 at Crypto.Com Arena in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 NBAE (Photo by Juan Ocampo/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
When breaking down a playoff series, one can occasionally overthink things. They may look at matchups, schemes, depth, injuries, past matchups, and analytics. I’m guilty of that myself, and even did that for the Knicks’ current series against the Hawks. But Games Four and Five served as a friendly, but very loud, reminder that in basketball, sometimes it just comes down to who has the best player.
That isn’t always the case—ask Detroit. But, more often than not, the team with the best player on the court tends to prevail. And in the Knicks’ case, they have the best player, the second-best player, and they even have a strong argument for having the third-best player in the series. However you want to rank them, Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and OG Anunoby have cases, to varying degrees, for being the top three players in the series.
For New York, while it took a couple of games longer than fans would have liked, this realization—that they not only have more depth and experience, but also possess much more talent up top—has resulted in back-to-back convincing wins. For Atlanta, though, this has resulted in a challenge they don’t seem to quite have the answers for.
In Game Four, the Hawks started out putting Dyson Daniels on Brunson again and made life for the captain difficult. But unlike the past couple of games, the Knicks finally took what the defense was giving them. Instead of Brunson having to initiate everything, he was delegated to playing off the ball more. We saw him set more screens, use his gravity for the betterment of the team, and act as a decoy at times. And the team finally leaned on Towns to be the catalyst of their offense.
Secret sauce for the Knicks: getting off ball movement back on the table. Helps balance the Knicks offense. Play through KAT at the top. Looks like a stagger for Clarkson but he and Hart just exchange. Clarkson fakes a backpick (by setting NAW up) and cuts backdoor. pic.twitter.com/ocd4VXLORx
The big man was patient and deliberate, and the team greatly benefited from his offensive process—one that saw him score at ease while also racking up 10 assists. The other beneficiary was the other undoubted top-three player in the series. Anunoby picked apart a good Hawks defense by masterfully timing backdoor cuts, hitting open threes, and attacking closeouts by imposing his physicality.
Karl-Anthony Towns finds OG Anunoby for the corner 3, giving him a triple-double pic.twitter.com/kwSHICQIBv
And as many had preached, playing through Towns not only helped the team, it made Brunson’s job easier in the long run. The Hawks, who were out of answers for Towns, started Game Five with Daniels now on him. And that allowed Brunson to get back into a groove early. When the point guard went on his fourth-quarter rampage, Daniels was back on him, but it’s difficult for a defender, no matter how good they are, to stop an offensive force like Brunson when he is in the kind of rhythm he was in.
Now, Quinn Snyder and the Hawks, with their season on the line, are tasked with the difficult challenge of trying to slow down more than just one of these guys. It’s plausible that any of them could just have a bad game. But if those three continue to trust the process and trust each other, all they will need to do is take what the defense gives them and attack.
If the Hawks want to put Daniels on Brunson again, New York should gladly play through Towns, look for cuts, and then clear out for him to attack the paint if the initial actions don’t work out. Not a single player on the Hawks roster can stop Towns consistently, and they’ll be forced to give up a big scoring effort or get in foul trouble trying to stop him from doing so.
Conversely, if the Hawks decide to put Daniels back on Towns, their best bet might as well be to just pray that Brunson has an off game. And as somebody who has seen Brunson heat up late in playoff series and send teams home with big games, that might not be a plausible strategy either.
Regardless of what the Hawks do, though, the Knicks should have all of the answers and counters. All they need to do is be smart and execute.
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - MARCH 26: Jordan Clarkson #00 of the New York Knicks plays against the Charlotte Hornets during their game at Spectrum Center on March 26, 2026 in Charlotte, North Carolina. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images) | Getty Images
On January 19, the Knicks got absolutely blasted by the Dallas Mavericks in an embarrassing game at home on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In the postgame recap, I likened it to an extremely similar game in an extremely similar situation against the same opponent in the same arena a few years ago. That game led to the permanent benching of Derrick Rose and Cam Reddish and sparked a turnaround the next night.
Of course, the Knicks then emphatically ended their 2-9 nightmare slump with a 54-point blowout over the rival Nets that featured one big rotation change. Jordan Clarkson, who signed with the Knicks in July after agreeing to a buyout with the Utah Jazz, was now out of the rotation after several games of increasingly bad play.
After his NBA Cup heroics and microwave scoring potential sparked optimism to start the year, he had become the new Evan Fournier. While Fournier was benched nearly a month before the Mavs catastrophe, he shares more similarities to Clarkson than the divisive Reddish and ultimate vet Rose.
He played a total of seven minutes in the next five games combined, all in garbage time. But midway through that stretch, Deuce McBride went down with a knee injury that turned into a multi-month absence due to core surgery, and while Mike Brown initially decided to give his minutes to Tyler Kolek and a mix of more run for Landry Shamet and Mo Diawara, he eventually turned back to the veteran to get some run right before the trade deadline, where he performed admirably.
But when Jose Alvarado came into the fold in early February, he was once again pushed out of the rotation, as the Knicks’ bench took shape as Alvarado, Shamet, Mitchell Robinson, and a mix of Diawara and Jeremy Sochan.
That was until March 8 in Los Angeles, when the Knicks’ offense was being handcuffed by a fiery Lakers team without LeBron James. Needing a spark, Mike Brown called on Clarkson, who did his best in an eventual loss. While it didn’t immediately lead to re-entering the rotation, it was a start. A few days later, he took advantage of a Josh Hart injury for a memorable return to Utah.
From there, he was back. He played meaningful minutes in the team’s final 15 games of the season, emerging as Diawara endured growing pains and Alvarado struggled to entrench himself in the rotation, even when McBride returned as the season drew to a close. But it wasn’t the microwave scoring that had earned Coach Brown’s trust; it was a total reinvention of who he is as a player.
For much of Clarkson’s career, he’s only been known for scoring. He doesn’t pass, he doesn’t defend, he doesn’t do the little things. There’s a reason that Mike Breen was so disgusted with him when he played with Utah. He was there to do a very specific role, and since he wasn’t doing it, he was benched.
But what if he started to do those little things? That’s likely what went through Clarkson’s brain after he got benched, and you saw the change immediately.
Jordan Clarkson with great defense on Reed Sheppoard for nearly 20 seconds, and then Amen Thompson finds Tari Eason for the corner 3, Knicks timeout pic.twitter.com/2uEHwhrCoj
All of a sudden, Clarkson was picking up full court. He was pressuring ballhandlers. The effort we were seeing was drastically different, and it looked like a player who knew he was playing for his job.
He was still taking a fair amount of shots, but the dumb shots were dwindling. He shot 52.5% from the field after being reinserted in the rotation after being a pitiful 42.8% into early March. He was also passing more, putting up multiple games with at least four assists.
And while this, coupled by him becoming a paint-scoring machine, is good enough to warrant consideration off the bench, he’s also decided to channel his inner Josh Hart and become a rebounding machine.
Offensive rebounds: First 56 games: 41 (993 minutes) Last 21 games: 30 (364 minutes)
He’s grabbed nine through five playoff games. He had at least four on two different occasions in the final month of the regular season.
He’s suddenly become a key part of a Knicks team that has championship aspirations, while being a completely different player than he has been his entire career.
Jordan Clarkson is rebounding a hilarious 12.2% of NYK misses in playoffs.
This follows a season in which he sported the highest OREB% of his long career, and the Knicks overall OREB% was 3.2% higher with him on floor.
The near-34-year-old looked doomed to be in Fournier’s shoes, out of the league once his contract expired, to suddenly looking like a desirable vet for a team next season. But that’s not what’s on his mind right now. He’s been given a new lease on life and, after a half-decade in the doldrums of a tanking Utah team, he’s finally somewhere that’s trying to win and has reinvented himself to do so. It’s certainly admirable.
TORONTO, CANADA - APRIL 26: Sam Merrill #5 of the Cleveland Cavaliers shoots against the Toronto Raptors during Game Four of the Eastern Conference First Round NBA Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena on April 26, 2026 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Cole Burston/Getty Images) | Getty Images
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