Category: Basketball

Why Draymond waking up spells trouble for Rockets vs. Warriors originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

While praising longtime teammate Stephen Curry’s marvelous finish in the Warriors’ Game 3 win over the Houston Rockets on Saturday, Draymond Green also sprinkled a bit of criticism upon himself.

Curry, Green explained, excelled as the team’s emotional accelerant, a role customarily filled by him.

“You know, oftentimes I try to bring that energy, and I didn’t have it,” Green said. “And he found it, and then I followed him, and we all followed him.”

Green “didn’t have it,” and didn’t hide from his self-awareness. Truth is, he hasn’t been his usual hyperkinetic self in the first three games of his first-round Western Conference playoff series. It’s always erroneous to measure his impact by individual statistics, and those have been relatively ordinary. What’s more noticeable, though, is that of his inconsistent energy. It waxes and wanes, moments of his famous “fire” interspersed with moments of relative lethargy.

Draymond is, particularly on offense, blending into the scenery much more often than generating action with blowtorch intensity.

It was enough to wonder if, at age 35, he still could summon the vitality that made him such a game-changer.

“They’re trying to take away Draymond’s playmaking and take him out of our offensive scheme as best they can,” coach Steve Kerr conceded on Sunday. “So, this is not an easy series for Dray.”

Green typically lives for the postseason. His pulse quickens, his focus narrows, his voice adds a few decibels, and his raging spirit can spread throughout the locker room. It’s seen. Felt. Off and on the court.

“This is a very difficult series in a lot of ways,” Kerr said, citing the junkyard-dog defense of Houston’s Fred VanVleet. “And they’re doing a good job of trying to get him out of places where he can usually impact the game on the offensive end. The big challenge for Dray is to embrace that, accept the fact that we’re going to generate offense elsewhere, and he can still control the game defensively, regardless of what happens at the offensive end. And I think that’s that was the case (Saturday) night.”

A more familiar Draymond was seen in the second half of Game 3. After a low-impact first half – three points, four rebounds, one assist, one steal, three turnovers, minus-3 over 17 minutes – Draymond blasted off after intermission. He contributed four points, four rebounds, three assists, two blocks, one steal, two turnovers, plus-15 over 17 minutes. They tell part of the story.

His spirit was visible. He scored the first bucket of the fourth quarter. He committed three fouls in an 81-second span. Hyped up, he took his four fouls to the bench to cool off for a couple minutes. Upon returning, he played the last five minutes as if on a rescue mission. A block on Dillon Brooks. An assist to Brandin Podziemski. A block on Alperen Şengün. A swipe of a VanVleet pass.

“His fourth quarter defense was incredible,” Kerr said. “But he has to maintain that, that poise and that edge even through the physicality and the offensive stuff that they’re taking away from him.”

Maybe Green, who shared a contentious postgame exchange with Houston guard Jalen Green, was inspired by the fire started by Curry.

“I thought it was beautiful,” Green said of Curry supplying what he usually does. “He realized that it wasn’t there (for me), and he took it upon himself to bring that type of force to the game, and we all fell in line and followed.”

Maybe, too, Draymond sniffed the savory scent of victory. Winning would give the Warriors a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. They would be in position to silence the nettlesome young Rockets and advance to the conference semifinals.

If that Draymond shows up for Game 4 on Monday night, there might not be a Game 6.

If that Draymond doesn’t show up for Game 4, the Rockets might find an avenue to even the series at 2-2 and regain homecourt advantage upon returning to Houston for Game 5.

Yes, Green still is that important. Has been since 2014. Still is in 2025.

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Defending champions the Boston Celtics held off the Orlando Magic 107-98 to win game four of the first round of the NBA play-offs.

Jayson Tatum scored 37 points and claimed 14 rebounds, making all 14 of his free-throw attempts, including four in the final minute.

The Magic levelled the game at 91-91 in the fourth quarter but the Celtics took control by scoring 10 of the next 11 points at Kia Center in Orlando.

Boston, who are seeded second, are 3-1 ahead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference series.

The New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers also took 3-1 leads in the East.

The Pacers beat the Milwaukee Bucks 129-103, with the Bucks losing point guard Damian Lillard to a non-contact injury.

The 34-year-old, who has recently returned from a blood clot in his right calf, hurt his left leg in the first quarter and will have an MRI scan on Monday.

The Knicks edged out the Detroit Pistons 94-93, but there was controversy at the end when the Pistons' Tim Hardaway Jr missed what would have been a winning shot at the buzzer with no foul called as he was knocked by Josh Hart.

In the Western Conference first-round series the Los Angeles Lakers fell to a 113-116 defeat by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Luka Doncic scored 38 points and LeBron James 27 for the Lakers, but they will have to rally from 3-1 down when they host game five on Wednesday.

If it wasn’t clear before Game 4, Jalen Brunson’s play on Sunday removed any doubt that he’s the best player in this Knicks-Pistons series. 

Brunson had 15 points and two assists in the fourth quarter to lead the Knicks back from a 10-point deficit in the Game 4 win. He finished with 32 points on 50 percent shooting, 11 assists, two turnovers and two free-throw attempts. 

This is no slight to Cade Cunningham, who is an incredible young player. If he remains healthy, Cunningham is going to be one of the top guards in the NBA for a long time. But to say Cunningham is the best player in this series is to ignore what’s happening on the court. 

Another Knick outplaying his competition? Tom Thibodeau. The oft-criticized head coach pushed the right button often in Detroit this week. 

After taking just three shots in the second half of Game 2, Karl-Anthony Towns has gotten the ball – and delivered – over the past two games. 

In Game 3, the Knicks got Towns open looks from the perimeter early on. 

On Sunday, they got him touches deep in the paint.

The Knicks built double-digit leads early in both games.  

If you’re going to criticize Thibodeau for Towns’ play in Game 2, doesn’t he also deserve some credit for what Towns did over four days in Detroit?

“(There’s) a lot of people who don’t give him that credit, but I’m happy to say he puts us in position where we’re prepared, we’re ready, and he lets us play,” Brunson said on Sunday.  “… He lets us talk things out. He talks things out, too. But for the most part, he’s gonna let us play, he’s gonna let us figure it out, and we’re gonna have to figure it out together. He puts us in position to be successful, and that’s how he’s been since I’ve known him.”

The Knicks have succeeded often under Thibodeau. They have reached the playoffs in four of his five seasons as head coach. They’ve won 50 games in back-to-back seasons. Still, the stakes were high for Thibodeau coming into this series. If the Knicks failed to get out of the first round, there would have been a lot of tough conversations in the offseason. Those conversations would include an assessment of the head coach. 

But Thibodeau’s Knicks took care of business in Detroit this week. They come home with a 3-1 series edge. 

The last time the Knicks took two straight road games in a playoff series, Thibodeau was a 41-year-old assistant coach. 

Rick Brunson was a 26-year-old guard. It’s been a while. 

That Knicks team reached the NBA Finals. This Knicks team has the same championship aspirations. 

First, they have to finish off Detroit on Tuesday. No matter how it plays out that night at the Garden, you can be sure Thibodeau will have the Knicks well prepared. 

“We’re always, I feel like, one of the best prepared teams in the league,” Josh Hart said Sunday. “That’s a credit to him and his philosophy. Now we’ve gotta roll that into Game 5.” 

As the Lakers departed from the court at Target Center with their heads down, white towels were being whirled everywhere around them.

The crowd was doing more than celebrating the home team’s 116-113 victory on Sunday afternoon. The 19,289 fans here could see what was happening. They could feel what was happening.

Four games into this first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Lakers haven’t figured out what to do.

Read more:LeBron and Lakers falter late in loss to Minnesota, moving to brink of elimination

They haven’t figured out how to stop Anthony Edwards. They haven’t figured out how to stop the Timberwolves from overwhelming them in the paint. They haven’t figured out how to stop their opponents from grabbing offensive rebound after offensive rebound.

Now, they’re down three games to one, and another defeat will finish their season.

Two days after stomach problems reduced him to practically being an on-court spectator, Luka Doncic returned to score 38 points.

That didn’t matter.

LeBron James contributed in every dimension of the game, finishing with 27 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists, three steals and three blocks.

That didn’t matter either.

At this stage of the season, against this particular opponent, their shortcomings are outweighing the strengths, and coach JJ Redick doesn’t sound as if he has any answers.

“Certainly played well enough to win,” Redick said. “Gave the effort to win.”

Redick complained about a couple of late-game calls,and he was justified in doing so, but a referee’s whistle won’t be what saves the season.

The Timberwolves present matchup problems for the Lakers, and the Lakers might not have the necessary personnel to reverse their deficit.

As well as Doncic and James played, Edwards outshined them both, scoring a game-high 43 points while also contributing nine rebounds and six assists.

The Lakers’ desperation was perhaps best represented by Redick’s second-half substitutions: There weren’t any.

“We just made a decision at halftime,” Redick said.

The team’s third-quarter starters — Doncic, James, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith — played the entire second half.

“Those guys,” Redick said, “gave a lot.”

The Lakers scored a series-high 36 points in the third quarter to take a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter but predictably ran out of gas against a Timberwolves team with a deeper roster.

“This is the playoffs,” Doncic said. “Fatigue shouldn’t play a role.”

That doesn’t mean it won’t.

“It was tough,” Finney-Smith acknowledged.

The team’s lack of a center came into even sharper focus, as Jaxson Hayes never reentered the game after picking up his second foul just four minutes into the game.

If the Lakers are to come back from this three-games-to-one deficit, it will start with Doncic, who was said by Redick to be throwing up “all afternoon” leading up to their Game 3 defeat.

Doncic said he spent the day between Games 3 and 4, “mostly laying down.”

“Today,” Doncic said, “I felt better.”

And the Lakers started better.

They did in the opening quarter what Redick implored them to do, which was to take better care of the basketball.

They committed only one turnover in the first 12 minutes of the game, after which they were ahead, 32-28.

They weren’t as careful in the second quarter, however.

The Lakers turned over the ball four times in the opening five minutes of the quarter. Their lead quickly vanished, and they went into halftime with a 61-58 deficit.

The Lakers deserved to be down by more, but James and Doncic kept them in the game by themselves, the two stars carrying nearly the entire offensive load as Reaves’ minutes were limited by early foul trouble.

James and Doncic scored 22 and 21 points in the first half, respectively. The last time the Lakers had multiple players score 20 or more points in a single half of a postseason game was on May 31, 2002 against the Sacramento Kings.

The two players who did it then: Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.

Only three Lakers other than James and Doncic scored in the first half: Hachimura, Finney-Smith and Hayes.

The Lakers opened the second half with a 14-0 run, with a three-pointer by Reaves extending their lead to 72-61. They were ahead by as many as 12 points, only for the Timberwolves to do against them what they have done the entire series.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

At the end of the day, it's what happens on the floor that matters. Everything else is just noise.

And on the floor in Detroit just before the buzzer sounded in Game 4, the referees did not blow their whistle for a foul in the Knicks' 94-93 win over the Pistons to take a 3-1 series lead in the opening round of the NBA Playoffs on Sunday.

But after the game, referee David Guthrie, the game's crew chief, acknowledged that on the final play – Tim Hardaway Jr. shooting a three-pointer from the corner – the non-call for the contact made by Josh Hart after Hardaway's pump-fakeshould have been called a foul.

"During live play, it was judged that Josh Hart made a legal defensive play," Guthrie told the pool reporter. "After postgame review, we observed that Hart makes body contact that is more than marginal to Hardaway Jr. and a foul should have been called."

The contact wasn't hard to see, and through the Knicks' bench erupting onto the floor in celebration, the lone figure in blue, Pistons head coach JB Bickerstaff, entered the fray to confront the referees, gesticulating wildly. It was all in vain.

"There's contact on Tim Hardaway's jump shot," Bickerstaff said matter-of-factly in his postgame news conference. "I don't know any other way around it. There's contact on his jump shot. The guy [Hart] leaves his feet. He's at Timmy’s mercy. I repeat: There's contact on his jump shot."

Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff was heated after this no-call to end the game 👀 pic.twitter.com/gtSvQPkVTU

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 27, 2025

Hart, in his typical fashion, admitted to everything but confessed to nothing.

"Did I make contact with him? Yeah. I made contact with him," Hart said, speaking from the locker room a few minutes before Guthrie's comments were made public. "Was it legal? I don’t know. We'll let the two-minute report [judge] that.

"He shot faked, I feel like I kind of got there. I feel like I was kind of straight up. He kind of jumped into me, trying to get the foul. At the end of the game, it's tough."

Hardaway needed fewer words to say more or less the same thing: "You guys saw it. Blatant."

Hart, who finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and four steals in 42 minutes, didn't have much sympathy for Hardaway.

"We don't pay attention to it," he said of the referee's calls. "We go with whatever they call. Sometimes it benefits us, sometimes it doesn't."

But would he have called a foul there? "It went by so fast there, none of that went through my mind there," Hart said.

In a game that was noted for its physicality, there were just 17 fouls called on New York and 17 on Detroit, with the home team shooting 17 free throws to the visitors' 18.

"You wanna match their physicality," Karl-Anthony Towns, who committed five fouls, said. "It gives old-school vibes. I think this is great for kids watching who haven't been able to see old-school basketball, to see this kind of reminiscent game of old-school physicality. I'm just honored to be part of it."

Had the foul been called, Hardaway, an 85.5 percent free-throw shooter on the season, would have had three attempts to make two to win the game. Instead, he finished 0-for-1 from the line in a one-point loss.

Knicks legend and two-time NBA champion Dick Barnett died on Sunday at the age of 88.

Barnett played nine seasons in New York from 1965-66 to 1973-74. During that time, the shooting guard helped the Knicks capture two titles in 1970 and 1973 -- the team's only two championships in franchise history.

Following the news of Barnett's death, the Knicks issued a statement:

"We are terribly saddened to hear about the passing of Knicks legend Dr. Richard Barnett. Throughout his illustrious career, Dick Barnett embodied everything it meant to be a New York Knick, both on-and-off-the-court. He left a positive impact on everyone he encountered and this organization is incredibly fortunate to have him be such an integral part of its history. His jersey will forever hang in the rafters of Madison Square Garden, and his play throughout his career will forever be a part of Knicks fans memories. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and teammates in this difficult time."

pic.twitter.com/PZnymwVlmZ

— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) April 27, 2025

In nine seasons in New York, Barnett averaged 15.6 points and 2.9 assists across 604 games. He was named an All-Star during the 1967-68 season -- his lone selection.

In 1990, the Knicks retired his jersey number 12.

Barnett spent 14 years in the NBA, playing for the Syracuse Nationals and Los Angeles Lakers before joining New York, and was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024.

Value each possession. Move with purpose and speed over every inch of the court. Make the right pass. Hit the big shot. Do the right thing.

Over and over and over.

These are the demands that must be met to win in the playoffs, and when you’re on the road in a building pulsating with energy such as the Timberwolves’ arena, the demands only intensify.

Every turnover can spark a highlight. Every missed rebound can reenergize. Every wrong step is one closer to the end of the season.

Read more:Hernández: Can the Lakers overcome their biggest vulnerability exposed during their Game 3 loss?

So you meet these moments with your best players, counting on them to make the biggest plays in the most stressful moments.

And Lakers coach JJ Redick met that moment by going all-in, playing his five best players for 24 straight minutes in a game where the Lakers ran out of gas in a 116-113 loss.

They will have to fight off elimination in Game 5 on Wednesday in Los Angeles, down 3-1 in the best-of-seven series.

The Lakers took the court to start the second half Sunday afternoon with Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith. And then to start the fourth, all five got off the Lakers' bench.

It’s impossible to know if the heavy legs mattered when Reaves missed wide-open three-point attempts. It’s impossible to know if fatigue was the difference in clean looks at the rim for Doncic and James that both didn’t go down. And no one can know if the stress of having to dance with Anthony Edwards on the perimeter dribble after dribble, fake after fake, caused cracks in the Lakers' defense to be exposed too much.

And no one can know for sure if 22 seasons in the NBA prevented the 40-year-old James from connecting with Doncic on an inbound pass in the final 30 seconds, robbing the Lakers of a massive possession down one point.

James appeared to get one key stop late, stripping Edwards with 10 seconds left, but officials ruled James committed a foul and Edwards made a pair of free throws to provide the final margin of victory. Edwards finished with 43 points and nine rebounds.

The Lakers still made plays down the stretch, Reaves hitting a big three. James coming up with a pair of massive defensive stops and Finney-Smith hitting a go-ahead three.

Doncic, who played with a stomach bug in Game 3, looked far more like himself in Game 4. He began by attacking the basket, getting into the paint and finishing around the rim. He stretched the defense back beyond the three-point line, answering Minnesota jumpers with shots of his own, motioning for the crowd to calm down twice during the second quarter.

Read more:With Luka Doncic ailing, LeBron James' historic night can't save Lakers in Game 3 loss

James, who scored 38 in Game 3 to keep the Lakers close, was wildly efficient, using quickness and strength to get advantages against Minnesota’s excellent defense.

And even after foul trouble limited Reaves to a scoreless first half, he made five threes and scored 17 points.

But Reaves’ shot in the corner at the buzzer didn’t drop.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Tatum makes NBA playoff history in Game 4 win over Magic originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Jayson Tatum took over for the Boston Celtics in their Game 4 victory over the Orlando Magic and made NBA history in the process.

The six-time All-Star finished with 37 points and 14 rebounds in the Celtics’ 107-98 win. He was 14-for-14 from the free-throw line, making him 26-for-26 on FTs over his last two games.

According to Celtics stats guru Dick Lipe, Tatum is the first player in NBA playoff history with at least 35 points, 12 free throws, and a 1.000 free-throw percentage in consecutive games. He scored 36 points while making all 12 of his free throws in Boston’s Game 3 loss, a game he was initially listed as doubtful to play in due to a wrist injury.

Tatum tweaked his wrist again during the fourth quarter of Game 4. It didn’t appear to bother him over the final few minutes.

The 27-year-old recorded 16 points in the fourth and didn’t back down when Orlando got physical. He and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, whose hard foul caused his wrist injury in Game 2, got technical fouls after bumping one another, and Tatum laughed off a light shove from KCP.

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla praised Tatum’s approach.

“Just poise. Poise. Having an understanding of your environment,” he said. “Obviously, some shot-making there, but at the same time, physical drives and getting to the free-throw line.”

Kristaps Porzingis, who finished with 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting, is impressed with the growth he’s seen from his superstar teammate since joining the C’s last season.

“The three that he hit towards the end of the game, I thought to myself, ‘This guy is special,'” Porzingis said of Tatum. “From when I got here to now, he’s developed even more of a killer instinct.”

Despite winning his first NBA championship last year, Tatum continues to play with a chip on his shoulder. After watching co-star Jaylen Brown earn Eastern Conference and NBA Finals MVP honors, Tatum finished just outside the top three in NBA MVP voting for the 2024-25 season. Not to mention, his forgettable Olympic experience has undoubtedly fueled his fire throughout the campaign.

Tatum will look to stay hot and lead the C’s to a series-clinching win at TD Garden on Tuesday night. Tip-off for Game 5 is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston.