The Boston Celtics' Jayson Tatum (right) is a six-time NBA All-Star [Getty Images]
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.
Apr 27, 2025; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner (33) take a shot against Milwaukee Bucks forward Kyle Kuzma (18) in the second quarter during game four of first round for the 2024 NBA Playoffs at Fiserv Forum. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images
Benny Sieu-Imagn Images
MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Indiana Pacers scored at will while the Milwaukee Bucks couldn't recover from the loss of one of their two superstar players.
Now the Pacers are on the verge of ending the Bucks' season for a second straight year.
Myles Turner scored 23 points and the Pacers shot 60.2% on Sunday night while winning 129-103 over the Bucks, who lost Damian Lillard to a lower left leg injury midway through the first quarter.
The preliminary examination of Lillard indicated a possible Achilles tendon injury, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team did not immediately reveal those details.
“Once he kind of looked back, I think we all kind of knew what it was,” Turner said. “It's a weird feeling to describe because you have to still compete, you have to get out there, but you just never want to see that happen to another athlete who puts in as much time as he does to his craft and to his game, like we all do.
"It's very disheartening, but it happens fast. It's the playoffs. You have to be able to move on.”
The Pacers, who beat Milwaukee 4-2 in the first round last year, can eliminate the Bucks again by winning Game 5 on Tuesday in Indianapolis. The Bucks have lost eight straight road playoff games and the last five of those defeats have come at Indiana.
Milwaukee might have to try ending that streak without Lillard, who was helped off the court and into the locker room after suffering a non-contact injury midway through the first quarter.
“They’re going to do an image tomorrow,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “Obviously, it’s lower leg. And, just being honest, it’s not very promising.”
The Pacers led 15-12 at the time of Lillard’s departure and seized control without him, as eight Pacers scored in double figures.
Aaron Nembhard had 20 points and Tyrese Haliburton had 17 points and 15 assists. T.J. McConnell had 15 points, Aaron Nesmith 14 and Obi Toppin 13. Pascal Siakam and Jarace Walker added 12 points each.
Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo had 28 points, 15 rebounds and six assists before leaving with 4:44 left and the Bucks trailing 120-98. Kevin Porter Jr. added 23 points for the Bucks.
Antetokounmpo was the only Bucks starter to score more than six points. Kyle Kuzma continued his tough series by scoring three points and shooting 1 of 6.
“I've seen injuries deflate teams, but tonight, that one hurt," Rivers said. “I thought our guys tried, but it was tough. ... My job over the next 48 hours or whatever we have is to get us upright again, try to win one game in Indiana and get it back here.
"But my brain right now is at the same place as our players are, and that's thinking about Dame."
Two nights after blowing a 10-point halftime lead in a 117-101 loss at Milwaukee, the Pacers bounced back. They won convincingly despite missing Bennedict Mathurin, who was out with an abdominal bruise.
“I feel like we kind of let our foot off the gas pedal (in Game 3),” Haliburton said. “I thought we responded the right way today."
Turner, who had scored six points while shooting 1 of 9 from the floor in Game 3, had nine points in the first 4½ minutes Sunday as the Pacers never trailed.
The Pacers went on a 10-3 run immediately after Lillard's exit to extend its lead to double digits. Indiana led 63-52 at halftime and stayed in control by shooting 69.2% over the final two quarters.
"It's not very promising…" Doc Rivers said of Damian Lillard's Game 4 leg injury. "I feel bad for him. The guy tried to come back for his team."
Midway through the first quarter, Damian Lillard went down with a non-contact leg injury. He was helped off the court and did not return to the Bucks' eventual loss to the Pacers.
Damian Lillard goes down with a non-contact injury.
Lillard, 34, is a nine-time All-Star and seven-time All-NBA player who was part of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team. He averaged 24.9 points and 7.1 assists a game this season.
"It's not very promising…" Bucks coach Doc Rivers said of Damian Lillard's Game 4 leg injury. "I feel bad for him. The guy tried to come back for his team."
Midway through the first quarter Sunday, Damian Lillard went down with a non-contact leg injury. He was helped off the court and did not return to the Bucks' eventual loss to the Pacers.
Damian Lillard goes down with a non-contact injury.
Lillard was out for six weeks from the end of the regular season through the start of the playoffs after deep vein thrombosis was discovered in his calf. He went on blood thinners and made a speedy recovery, however, during that process his workouts were limited. He's been working to get his game and conditioning back.
Lillard, 34, is a nine-time All-Star and seven-time All-NBA player who was part of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team. He averaged 24.9 points and 7.1 assists a game this season.
Apr 27, 2025; Orlando, Florida, USA; Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) moves the ball past Orlando Magic guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (3) in the fourth quarter during game four of first round for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Kia Center. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
Orlando was always going to be a tough matchup for Boston — they are big, physical, and Boston can’t just force switches and target someone, this is an elite defensive team who can hold their own after switches.
Boston, however, has Jayson Tatum and guys who know how to close out a game.
Orlando tied it up with Boston 91-91 with four minutes remaining, but the Celtics closed the game on a 16-7 run, led by Jayson Tatum, who was a force all night and scored 37 in the win.
With the 107-98 victory, the Celtics have a commanding 3-0 series lead heading home for Game 5.
This game summed up a lot of what we have seen in this series: Orlando is an elite defensive squad that does not quit, but it lacks the firepower to hang with the defending champions.
Everything falls on the shoulders of Paolo Banchero, going into the teeth of an outstanding Boston defense. He scored 31 in Game 4, but shot 12-of-32 to get there. The Magic don’t have anyone else to turn to.
Boston is deep with scoring options (and were playing without Jrue Holiday again due to a hamstring strain. Beyond Tatum, this was the best game in the series for Kristaps Porzingis, who was getting position inside and finished with 9 points on 7-for-14 shooting despite playing through foul trouble. Jaylen Brown added 21 points.
The only thing we can say for sure about Game 5 on Tuesday is that Orlando is not going to roll over and let Boston have this one. The Celtics are going to have to earn it.
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.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Dick Barnett, a basketball Hall of Famer who played on both New York Knicks NBA championship teams after being part of a historic college powerhouse at Tennessee A&I, has died. He was 88.
The Knicks announced the death of the former guard Sunday. There were no details provided about his death.
“Throughout his illustrious career, Dick Barnett embodied everything it meant to be a New York Knick, both on and off the court," the Knicks said in a statement. "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.”
Barnett played on the Knicks' title teams in 1970 and 1973 and reached the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and as a member of his college teams at Tennessee A&I (later Tennessee State), the first HBCU to win a national championship in basketball.
A native of Gary, Indiana, Barnett went on to star for the Tennessee A&I teams that made up one of college basketball's first dynasties. The Tigers won three straight NAIA championships starting in 1957, with Barnett being chosen an All-American each season and twice being selected the MVP of the NAIA Tournament.
He was taken by the Syracuse Nationals with the No. 5 pick in the 1959 draft and also played for the Los Angeles Lakers before coming to the Knicks in 1965. He spent nine years with the Knicks, averaging 15.6 points and playing on their championship teams in 1970 and 1973.
Barnett is ninth on the Knicks' career scoring list and his No. 12 jersey was retired in 1990.
Barnett led a long quest for recognition for his college team. The Tigers were eventually enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 2019, represented on stage by Barnett, and in 2024 visited the White House to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Barnett, who was selected for one NBA All-Star Game, was inducted in the Hall of Fame as a player in 2024.
Minnesota center Rudy Gobert tries to move to the basket under pressure from Lakers guard Austin Reaves, left, and forward Rui Hachimura, right, during the Timberwolves' 116-113 win in Game 4 on Sunday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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.
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.
Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle celebrates during the fourth quarter of a 116-113 win over the Lakers in Game 4 of the first round of the Western Conference playoffs Sunday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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.
Lakers forward LeBron James, top, fouls Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards in final seconds of Game 4 on Sunday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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.
Minnesota guard Anthony Edwards shoots over Lebron James and Luka Doncic in Game 4 Sunday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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.
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
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.
Apr 27, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) celebrates while looking to the Los Angeles Lakers bench in the second quarter during game four of first round for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Matt Blewett-Imagn Images
Matt Blewett-Imagn Images
J.J. Redick showed you how important this game was — he played his core five the entire second half. Not one sub (Jaxson Hayes started the game at the 5, but it was Dorian Finney-Smith for the entire second half).
In some ways, that was the difference. While the Lakers looked gassed down the stretch — Minnesota won the fourth quarter 32-19 in part because of that — the Timberwolves had bench players Naz Reid and Donte DiVincenzo on the court, making clutch plays in the final minutes.
In a more important way, the difference on Sunday was Anthony Edwards — 43 points for the game, 16 in the fourth quarter as he took over when it mattered and out-dueled Luka Doncic down the stretch.
ANT POWERS THE WOLVES TO A 3-1 SERIES LEAD OVER THE LAKERS
Behind Edwards, the Timberwolves beat the Lakers 116-113. Minnesota now leads the series 3-1 as it heads back to Los Angeles on Wednesday for a must-win game for Los Angeles.
The Lakers are a top-heavy team and the top of that roster did its part. Luka Doncic scored 38 and was good about making the pass when the Timberwolves were doubling and trapping him at the halfcourt line. LeBron James had 27 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists, and in the clutch of the game had a block and a steal that mattered. Rui Hachimura scored 23 and Austin Reaves 17 (although he missed a clean look at a game-tying three at the buzzer).
The Wolves were EVERYWHERE defensively on this final possession
Got the stop to secure a 3-1 series lead as we head back to LA for Game 5!
The rest of the Lakers had eight points on 3-of-13 shooting. That lack of depth hurt.
The Lakers were helped out by hitting 19-of-47 from 3-point range (40.4%), but that was the only major category they seemed to win. The Timberwolves won the bench points battle 25-6, outscored the Lakers 48-30 in the paint, and won the rebound battle (49-41).
Julius Randle had one of the best all-around games of his career and finished with 25 points and seven rebounds. Jaden McDaniels had 16 points, 11 rebounds and played fantastic defense. Naz Reid had a dozen points off the bench.
The Lakers now have to beat the Timberwolves three straight games, starting at home on Wednesday night, or they will be on vacation far earlier than planned for a 50-win team with superstars like LeBron and Doncic, but that’s the West, where the gap between seeds two and eight was always paper-thin.
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."
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.
Lakers star LeBron James, front, and Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert battle for position under the basket during the Lakers' 116-113 loss in Game 4 of the first round of the Western Conference playoffs Sunday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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.
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.
Minnesota guard Anthony Edwards puts up a shot in Game 4 on Sunday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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.
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.
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.
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.
The program announced Sunday in a social media post that the 7-foot-2, 250-pound Maluach would go the one-and-done route after helping the Blue Devils reach the Final Four.
Clippers star Kawhi Leonard, left, tries to keep the ball away from Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon during the Clippers' Game 4 loss at the Intuit Dome on Saturday. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Typically, Kawhi Leonard said after Game 4 Saturday at Intuit Dome, the four and five seeds in NBA playoff matchups are equal in many ways.
That appears to very much be the case in the fifth-seeded Clippers' first-round series against the fourth-seeded Denver Nuggets.
They have each won two games, with Game 5 scheduled for Tuesday night in Denver.
They had identical 50-32 records and split the four games they played against each other in the regular season.
“It’s like another four, five seeding series,” Leonard said. “You usually get some tough battles in these seedings. You guys watched the ending of the last two weeks, three weeks of the season and everybody was fighting. I think we pretty much have the same record. So, that’s how it is. The matchups might be different, different styles of play, but both teams are fighting to win.”
The latest loss was emotionally draining for the Clippers after their rally from a 22-point deficit fell just short.
“Just bounce back,” Norman Powell said. “We know what time it is. We’ve all said it — that’s a good team over there. They’ve won a championship. They know what it takes. They got the will, they got the guys, they are not going to quit. It’s just us going back to the drawing board and seeing how we can improve.”
All five of Denver's starters played at least 42 minutes in Game 4. But they got two days off to recover.
And the Nuggets have Jokic — he’s averaging a triple-double in the series with 28.5 points, 13.5 rebounds and 10.8 assists.
"We’re going back to Denver, so I think now it’s best-of-three and the series is even and it’s completely different, I would think," Jokic said.
The Clippers are leaning on their four top players to guide them and their formidable defense.
Leonard leads in scoring (26.5 points per game), followed by James Harden (21.3), Ivica Zubac (18.8) and Powell (16.8). Zubac leads the Clippers in rebounding (11.5 per game), Harden leads in assists (9.5), Leonard leads in steals (1.8) and veteran Nicholas Batum leads in blocks (1.2).
The Clippers are holding the Nuggets to 99.5 points per game in the series, the fifth-best defense in the postseason.
“We feel good that we can beat this team," Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said.
