The Warriors made the wrong kind of NBA history in an aggravating 114-105 loss to the Denver Nuggets Monday night at Chase Center.
Golden State became the first team in league history to shoot under 25 percent from the 3-point line, under 60 percent from the free-throw line and commit 20 or more turnovers.
The Warriors tonight are the first team in NBA or WNBA history with…
– under 25% from three (on 30+ 3pa) – under 60% from the line (on 25+ fta) – 20+ turnovers
With three-time MVP Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray sitting in street clothes on the Nuggets bench, the Warriors blew a golden opportunity to steal a win from one of the best teams in the Western Conference.
Botched passes, poor shot selection and an inability to stop Russell Westbrook and Aaron Gordon from slicing up the defense led to a deflating loss. The turnovers gave Denver 24 free points, and with an exhausted Steph Curry unable to will himself to another strong game, Golden State squandered a chance to close the gap in the standings.
Instead of being within 2.5 games of the Nuggets for third place in the West, the Warriors now are 4.5 games back.
Golden State’s turnovers have been devastating this season. They are 0-5 when they commit at least 20 turnovers and 2-7 when they give away 24 or more points off turnovers.
Self-inflicted mistakes like those need to be rectified quickly if Golden State wants to secure a top-six seed in the conference and avoid the chaotic NBA Play-In Tournament.
With the regular season soon ending, the Warriors can ill-afford to make more dubious NBA history. Otherwise, another early playoff exit appears to be the most likely outcome.
The Boston Celtics have rarely been at full strength this season.
Boston’s preferred starting five of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Kristaps Porzingis, and Jrue Holiday have played a little more than 300 minutes together over 20 games. Boston’s top six — adding in Al Horford — has been available just 16 times. The Celtics have had their top 10 — adding in Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, Luke Kornet, and Neemias Queta — available just 12 times over 68 games.
And it doesn’t appear those numbers will grow by very much before the playoffs arrive.
Brown is set to miss Tuesday’s visit from the Brooklyn Nets due to a knee impingement. Boston hasn’t had its preferred starting five available since February 23, a rare day when the team had its entire top nine available and leaned on that playoff core in a triumph over the New York Knicks.
Thirteen games remain after Tuesday’s tilt with Brooklyn. But that includes two back-to-backs. Boston will almost certainly rest players on both ends of those sets, eliminating four more possibilities to see the full playoff rotation. What’s more, one of those back-to-back features Orlando and New York, two teams that are two of the more likely playoff opponents, so there might be a value in playing it close to the vest then, anyhow.
Boston closes out the regular season with a home-and-home against Charlotte on April 11 and 13. Last year, in a similar setup, Boston rested much of its veterans over its final two home games, even with nearly a full week off before the playoffs due to the play-in tournament.
If Boston elects to do the same this season, that would essentially leave seven games where the Celtics could potentially trot out their top nine bodies to the finish line of the regular season:
March 21 at Utah
March 26 at Phoenix
March 29 at San Antonio
March 31 at Memphis
April 2 vs. Miami
April 4 vs. Phoenix
April 6 vs. Washington
There is only one surefire playoff team in that mix: Memphis (fifth in the West). And the Grizzlies will have to balance playing the front end of their own back-to-back with a visit from Golden State looming the following night.
All of which is our longwinded way of noting that Boston isn’t going to get many more playoff-like reps for its core group. But does it matter?
It feels mildly important for the starting five to get some additional run. Boston’s preferred five has logged just 307 minutes together and has a minus-1.6 net rating in that span. The numbers have improved from a rocky start after Porzingis first returned from offseason ankle surgery, but are not nearly as glitzy as the plus-17.3 net rating that Boston posted in 265 minutes with Horford as the starting center while Porzingis was rehabbing. What’s more, a lineup with Kornet starting in place of both Horford and Porzingis has a plus-11.5 net rating in 68 minutes.
A year ago, Boston’s preferred starting five had a plus-11 net rating in 623 minutes together over 37 games. Still, Porzingis appeared in only seven postseason games, so that group logged only 82 total playoff minutes. The Horford lineup ended up playing 305 minutes over 19 games.
Internally, there is great confidence the Celtics can find their full-health mojo on short notice, even if there’s not a lot of reps to the finish line of the season. The continuity from last season should aid this team, while one of Boston’s greatest strengths has been its ability to thrive regardless of availability.
Matchups could dictate how Boston ultimately deploys personnel in the postseason. There are teams that will force the team to lean heavier into the double-big lineups that have produced some of Boston’ best basketball this season.
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Will the Celtics get Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown extra rest before the playoffs?
Still, it’s undeniable that getting the starting five at least a couple more opportunities to find last year’s swagger could be valuable. Boston is virtually locked into the No. 2 seed — a 99.9 percent chance per NBA Reference daily simulations (and that 0.1 percent chance is catching the Cavaliers for the No. 1 seed, not slipping to No. 3).
There are a few side quests that Boston could entertain at the finish line of the season. Jaylen Brown needs nine more games to be eligible for All-NBA, and a loud finish could aid his chances to muscle back into one of those 15 spots. Payton Pritchard is steamrolling towards the Sixth Man of the Year honor and will get plenty of run to make sure Malik Beasley and Co. don’t catch him at the finish line.
Can Torrey Craig use late-season reps to earn Joe Mazzulla’s confidence? It’s easy to suggest Boston will lean solely on its top nine in the postseason but, last year, Xavier Tillman made a couple of important cameos during Boston’s NBA Finals run and there will be opportunities for deeper-depth guys to put their fingerprints on the Celtics’ quest to repeat.
Holiday is averaging 12.4 points while shooting 50 percent from the floor and 35.7 percent beyond the 3-point arc since returning from his mallet finger injury in the pinky on his right shooting hand. More regular-season reps with that ailment should help, even if initial returns have been encouraging.
Recent draftees like Baylor Scheierman and Jordan Walsh, along with all of Boston’s younger players, need to embrace whatever minutes are available at the finish line of the season with hopes of making an impression.
There’s not a lot to accomplish over the next month, and the schedule might conspire against the few things that Boston yearns to do. An occasional glimpse at the playoff rotation would be helpful but, ultimately, that might just have to wait until mid-April and beyond.
The streamer is now offering in-market streaming of NBC Sports Boston, a regional sports network that includes live Boston Celtics games and other local sports programming, through add-on subscriptions to Peacock Premium and Premium Plus Plans. In-market blackouts may apply to certain games based on user location consistent with television availability and league policies.
The network stream will be available around the clock to users within its television territory via the add-on subscription priced at $14.95 per month.
The Celtics are set for another deep postseason run as they aim for a second-straight championship. Led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the Celtics are all but locked into the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference at 49-19 with 14 games remaining in the regular season.
NBC Sports Boston’s live-game Celtics coverage includes comprehensive pregame and postgame shows. The network also offers New England Patriots programming and gameday shows, as well as live coverage of the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun and the NBA G League’s Maine Celtics.
NBC Sports Boston also provides sports news, analysis and commentary programming, such as “Early Edition” and “Boston Sports Tonight.”
Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service featuring an extensive library of movies, shows and original content, offers more than 8,000 hours of live sports and entertainment programming, including NFL games and WWE events.
Peacock will also add additional NBA games beginning with the 2025-2026 season when an 11-year partnership between the league and NBC is set to begin. That will include 100 national games each regular season, with approximately 50 Peacock-exclusive national regular-season and postseason NBA games, including national Monday night games and doubleheaders.
Peacock’s in-market streaming add-on subscriptions for NBC’s regional sports markets are also available in respective television territories for NBC Sports Philadelphia ($24.95), NBC Sports Bay Area ($17.95 per month) and NBC Sports California ($17.95).
Disclaimer: NBC Sports Boston and Peacock are both owned by Comcast.
The Southeastern Conference shattered the record for most teams selected for the men’s NCAA tournament field on Sunday, with 14 of 16 schools going dancing. Why are we surprised? The SEC has been a slumbering basketball behemoth for most of the century. In 2016, it saw just three teams make the tournament, with Vanderbilt eliminated …
It was long before LeBron James went on national television to say he was taking his talents to South Beach. Long before Kobe Bryant announced his retirement in an essay published on The Players Tribune. Long before Luka Doncic broke social media when news of his trade was tweeted.
Long before the existence of Twitter and TikTok, before the daily use of websites and e-mails, before the reliance on iPhones and Wi-Fi, Michael Jordan sent a fax 30 years ago today.
The brevity of the two-word statement announcing his return to the Chicago Bulls after a 17-month retirement, and the now antiquated manner in which it was delivered, add to the legend of what transpired after the fax was sent. And, of course, after the confirmation page was received.
To active NBA players, the fax machine is as foreign as the peach basket.
And for kids out there who have never dialed anything other than the touch screen of an iPhone, Jordan is to LeBron what fax is to e-mail.
Jordan’s fax is perhaps the most famous in the device’s history. And the day after it was sent, he was back on the court in an NBA game.
Jordan had unexpectedly retired in October of 1993 at the age of 30, just months after he helped lead the Bulls to their third consecutive championship. Citing a lack of motivation — and still mourning the death of his father James, who was murdered that July — Jordan announced that he would pursue a baseball career.
Jordan went on to play 127 games with the Double-A Birmingham Barons, hitting .202 with three home runs and 51 RBIs.
Michael Jordan of the Birmingham Barons throws during an August 1994 game against the Memphis Chicks in Alabama. (Photo by Jim Gund/Getty Images)
The Bulls, in the first season of the post-Jordan era, won just two fewer games in the regular season than the year prior at 55-27. Scottie Pippen averaged a career-best 22.0 points per game, finishing third in MVP voting. The Bulls swept the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round and then pushed the New York Knicks to the limit in the Eastern Conference semifinals, with a Game 7 road loss signaling the end of their dynasty.
The following season, they were hovering around .500 in March when speculation of Jordan’s return intensified — practicing with his former team earlier that month was kind of a spoiler. The fax made it official.
It was sent on March 18, 1995.
To do so, a document was placed onto the fax machine, a phone number was dialed, the paper was scanned, the images were transmitted to its destination, a hard copy printed out for the recipient, a confirmation page was provided to the sender.
It has some similarities to e-mail, but the delivery process typically would take a few more minutes and require far more paper and patience — particularly if ink was low or if there was a dreaded paper jam. Still, at the time, it was the most efficient way to spread information.
Not much ink or paper was required for Jordan’s fax.
Jordan had looked over drafts of a news release prepared by his agent David Falk.
“He didn’t like the feel of them,” Falk told ESPN. “He said, ‘I’ll do it myself.'”
The message was typed on Falk Associates Management Enterprises letterhead and opened with the agency’s standard press release introductory language:
WASHINGTON, DC. (March18, 1995) — The following statement was released today by Michael Jordan, through his personal attorney and business manager David B. Falk, Chairman of Falk Associates Management Enterprises, Inc. (“FAME”) located in Washington, D.C., in response to questions about his future career plans:
“I’m back.”
The following day, Jordan was back on an NBA court as the Bulls took on the Indiana Pacers, his first game since June of 1993. Indianapolis transformed into the chaotic center of the basketball world as national media and ticket scalpers descended upon the area.
“It was like David Stern (then the NBA commissioner) deciding the NBA championship would be a one-game playoff, and that one game is in your building and you’ve got 24 hours to prepare,” Pacers media relations staffer David Benner told the Indianapolis Star.
As Jordan took the floor with the Bulls starting lineup, he wore his familiar red Bulls jersey. Same name on the back, but different number. Jordan’s second chapter in the NBA began with him wearing not his familiar No. 23, but the No. 45 he wore on his baseball uniform.
#SICoverOTD: March 27, 1995: 'I'm Back' With a new number and the same theatrics Michael Jordan returns to the NBA after a brief retirement pic.twitter.com/Evboo2ulTH
As time passes, and reality fades to myth, it might be said that Jordan instantly returned to dominant form in his first game like a Hollywood movie. The truth is, his field goal percentage wasn’t much higher than his batting average.
Jordan’s first field goal wouldn’t come until just over four minutes remained in the second quarter and the Bulls trailed by 18. Chicago did come back to force overtime, tying the game on Pippen’s 3-pointer with 19 seconds remaining, but went on to lose 103-96.
Jordan finished just 7-for-28 from the field, recording 19 points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals over 43 minutes.
Less than a week later, in the fourth game of his return, Jordan became Jordan. He hit a pull-up jumper at the buzzer to give the Bulls a 99-98 win over the Atlanta Hawks. In his following game, against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, he scored 55 points in what became known as the “double-nickel” game.
Jordan, over the 17 regular season games he played that season, averaged 26.9 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.3 assists. The Bulls would go on to advance to the conference semifinals, where they lost in six games to the Orlando Magic.
It was the last playoff series Jordan would lose in his career.
The following season, he led the Bulls to what was a then NBA record 72-win season and the first of three straight championships.
Following his second three-peat, Jordan retired in 1998 for the second time. And, once again, returned years later.
Having served as part owner and president of basketball operations of the Washington Wizards, Jordan revealed in 2001 than he would be resuming his playing career with the team at 38 years old.
This time, there would be no fax.
Michael Jordan in his first game as a player for the Washington Wizards in 2001. (Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images)
The formal announcement, which had been expected for weeks, ultimately was made just 13 days after the September 11th terrorist attacks.
The Wizards released a statement saying Jordan had signed a two-year contract with the team and would be donating his $1 million salary for the upcoming season to relief and victim-assistance efforts.
“Although I am energized by my impending return to the court, I am deeply saddened by the recent tragic events and my heart goes out to the victims and their families,” Jordan said in the statement. “Out of deep respect for them, I will not participate in media interviews before the start of training camp on October 1.
“I am returning as a player to the game I love because during the last year and a half, as a member of Washington Wizards’ management, I enjoyed working with our players, and sharing my own experiences as a player. I feel there is no better way of teaching young players than to be on the court with them as a fellow player, not just in practice, but in actual NBA games. While nothing can take away from the past, I am firmly focused on the future and the competitive challenge ahead of me.”
Northern Iowa Panthers (20-12, 14-7 MVC) at SMU Mustangs (23-10, 14-8 ACC) Dallas; Wednesday, 9 p.m. EDT BOTTOM LINE: SMU and Northern Iowa meet in the National Invitation Tournament. The Mustangs' record in ACC play is 14-8, and their record is 9-2 against non-conference opponents.
George Mason's average of 6.9 made 3-pointers per game is 1.7 fewer made shots on average than the 8.6 per game Samford allows. Samford averages 10.8 made 3-pointers per game this season, 3.1 more made shots on average than the 7.7 per game George Mason gives up. TOP PERFORMERS: Haynes is scoring 14.1 points per game with 7.1 rebounds and 1.4 assists for the Patriots.
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