Category: Basketball

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How Celtics can clinch playoff spot vs. Heat

How Celtics can clinch playoff spot vs. Heat originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The NBA playoffs are still a full month away, but the Boston Celtics are on the verge of punching their official postseason ticket.

The defending champions can lock in a top-six seed in the Eastern Conference Friday night. They would need to beat the Heat in Miami and get some help from the Los Angeles Clippers in Atlanta.

Celtics secure top-six seed in East if:

The Celtics (47-19) sit 15 games ahead of the Hawks (32-34), who are currently at the top of the play-in bracket as the No. 7 seed in the East.

Both teams only have 16 games remaining in the regular season, but the Hawks could pass the Celtics in the standings since they own the tiebreaker over Boston with a 2-1 advantage in the season series.

Now, clinching a playoff spot is a mere formality for the Celtics at this point. Not only are they a virtual lock for the postseason, but they are becoming increasingly locked into their seeding.

The Celtics have a 99.8% chance of landing the No. 2 seed in the East, according to Basketball Reference’s Playoff Probabilities Report. They trail the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers (55-10) by 8.5 games and are 5.5 games ahead of the No. 3 New York Knicks.

The Hawks are listed as the most likely first-round opponent for the Celtics, as they have a 38.9% chance of becoming the No. 7 seed for the playoffs, according to Basketball Reference’s Playoff Probabilities Report.

Next up: The Orlando Magic (31-36) have a 29.1% chance of becoming the East’s No. 7 seed, while the Heat (29-36) have a 22.5% chance of earning the No. 7 seed and creating a potential first-round rematch with the Celtics.

The Detroit Pistons (37-30, 4.4% chance at No. 7 seed), Chicago Bulls (28-38, 3.2%) and Indiana Pacers (36-28, 1.2%) also have slims chances of becoming Boston’s first-round foe.

Even if the Celtics do not clinch a playoff berth Friday night, they could get another crack at it on Saturday against the Brooklyn Nets during the second end of a road back-to-back.

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Can Steph open 5K 3-pointer Club? Don't bet against Warriors star

Can Steph open 5K 3-pointer Club? Don't bet against Warriors star originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – Steph Curry defies high definition. He’s 4K – a step above, creating new records as he goes. 

On his fourth 3-point attempt in the Warriors’ 130-104 win against the Sacramento Kings, Curry gave Golden State a nine-point lead Thursday night at Chase Center a few minutes into the third quarter, giving him 4,000 3-pointers for his career.

Club 4K only has one member: Curry. 

So did Club 3K when Curry first established it. 

Steph opened its doors as a late Christmas gift to himself on Dec. 28, 2021. All he needed was three years and a little more than two months to upgrade to a doper spot down the block. How far can Curry keep pushing the 3-point barriers? 

“Eight thousand?” Steve Kerr semi-jokingly responded. “Who knows? Who knows? It just seems like it was not too long ago that he broke the record. And what was that? Less than 3,000. (Kerr is told 2,974)

“He just keeps going. The way that he keeps himself in shape, in condition, in rhythm – he’s going to make another thousand, for sure. That’s what I would guess, but who knows.”

Curry’s two threes while being face guarded and top locked for all 94 feet puts him at 253 in 57 games this season. He’s making 4.4 threes per game, and he hasn’t missed a game since Jan. 28. Bilateral knee tendinitis had a treatment plan called Trading For Jimmy Butler. 

Assuming he plays every game the rest of the season, though Kerr would love to give him a rest or two if the playoff picture ever becomes clearer, Curry’s 3-point rate would have him finish his 16th regular season with around 324 threes. That puts him at 4,071 for his career. 

Shooters know shooters. They share a secret language, and Curry holds the passcode to where everybody wants to be but know it’s a place out of their reach. 

“Very special,” Buddy Hield said to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Kerith Burke in response to Curry reaching 4,000 career threes. “Growing up, you never think that mark will be in reach. But every year, every game, Steph always amazes people. It just shows his true dedication to the game of basketball and he’s been tremendously blessed.

“I just hope he gets to 5,000. I think he can do it.”

Say it again, Buddy. Five thousand? 

“I think so,” Hield said, doubling down. “I was doing the math the other day. … If he makes, what, 330 threes the next three years, I think he’s good for it. Nothing’s impossible for him.”

Those last four words beat math. Curry beat the system. He altered the game. Hield, as someone who joined Club 2K this season, should be heard. 

Curry’s current pace has him a few threes shy of Hield’s calculation. That’s questioning a couple of games of Curry going berserk behind the 3-point line. As history shows, that option always has to be considered. 

Giving him 330 threes this season now moves his career mark to 4,077. Curry’s current contract has two more years on it after this season ends, running through the 2026-27 season. Hield has Curry making 660 total threes in the final two years of his contract, now adding up to 4,737. Or, 263 short of 5,000.

But Curry said the day before he reached 4,000, two days before he turns 37 years old, he’s already eyeing to play past the 2026-27 season. 

“I know how my contract’s lined up, and I would like to outplay that for sure,” Curry said on 95.7 The Game’s “Steiny & Guru” after Warriors practice Wednesday. “But how long that goes? I have no idea.”

What about just one more season? Can Curry, in what would be his 19th season, make 263 threes? In a final campaign where he would turn 40 with one month left in the regular season? 

If Curry were to play 62 games and miss 20 in his age-39 season, one year longer than his current contract goes, he’d have to average 4.3 threes made per game to get to 5,000.

Doubt him at your own risk. Look where that has got him: Standing on a mountain nobody once dared to climb. 

“This is a really cool milestone,” Curry said, walking back to the Warriors locker room. “Let’s see how far we can push this thing.”

Don’t look now, but the competitor inside Curry is already drawing blueprints to Club 5K.

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Admiring Steph's attitude, gratitude, greatness on his 37th birthday

Admiring Steph's attitude, gratitude, greatness on his 37th birthday originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The NBA was the unloved brother of American sports 45 years ago when Magic Johnson and Larry Bird showed up with cleanser, polish and charm. Elite talents and extreme competitors bound by the kind of racial dynamic that enthralls this nation, they rescued the league.

Michael Jordan came along a few years later and his flair for the spectacular, along with the global technology boom, turned the NBA into the league heard around the world.

With those Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famers in their 60s, Stephen Curry, who celebrates his 37th birthday Friday, has bundled their best attributes and taken the league to another level. 

It’s more than being the first player to reach 4,000 career 3-pointers, from all areas of the court, which has accorded Steph one-name status and the title of “greatest shooter ever.” That’s only the beginning, for there is no more dazzling showman in the NBA and no more committed ambassador for basketball – or, perhaps, American sports in general.

“Steph is something like we’ve never seen,” says Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, a Hall of Fame guard and NBA champion who has spent the past 27 years in various capacities within the NBA.

Billups is not wrong. Fans around the globe – all ages, faiths, genders and skin tones – are bewitched by a superstar that radiates Magic’s exuberance but sprinkles it far beyond the lenses of cameras. By someone who has Larry’s gift for scoring and sensation but has expanded it to the outer edge of creativity. By someone who has Michael’s broad appeal but with a smoother exterior and expressing a more generous heart.

If Curry were someday to run for political office – and he declines to rule it out – his resumé would offer a comprehensive thread of humanity, benevolence, kindness and common sense too often missing in 2025 America. He’s a glorified soul with a basketball, a year-round Santa bearing gifts to the unprivileged. A hooper faithful to peace, justice and compassion.

“He might be the greatest human being …,” former teammate Andre Iguodala said recently, “after that Guy.”

And yet, Curry continues to play basketball at an ultra-high level even while peeping toward retirement. He’s invested in the tech sector and is a patron saint of the golf program at Howard University. He owns a piece of the Under Armour sports attire company and, along with his wife Ayesha, donates meals, books and playgrounds to Oakland Public Schools. He conceived his own international amateur golf program, Underrated Golf, sort of a DEI program for young people in the BIPOC community.

“For him to combine his love of golf with his understanding how important golf can be in a business sense for minorities who have been historically excluded from golf – and, thus, excluded from business opportunities,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “What an incredible project.”

During his first couple seasons coaching the Warriors, Kerr often wondered if Curry was burning himself out with so many off-court objectives that required his time and energy. The coach eventually realized that Curry is energized by the challenge that comes with managing his life.

“There’s so much more that’s going on off the court that can try to drag you down a little bit or distract you,” Curry told NBC Sports Bay Area in November. “Trying to battle that is great. The league has changed so much, and trying to reimagine what it would look like for Golden State Warriors in the [2024-25] season to win a championship is totally different than even ’22. It’s totally different than ’17 or ’18 or ’15.”

Curry thrives on doing what others believe he cannot. Been that way since childhood, when recruiters shunned him and wrote him off as too scrawny and fragile. Was that way after the 2009 NBA Draft, when he watched point guards Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn selected ahead of him. Was that way early in his Golden State career when he was battling Acie Law for minutes.

Even now, 16 years later, Curry still carries that chip, on and off the court, like a security blanket.

The game still comes first. Well, after family. The Currys have four children, two boys and two girls, and dad racks up the FaceTiming minutes when the Warriors are on the road. Not at the cost of his fitness. Yes, the man who has his own bourbon brand, Gentleman’s Cut, still pours himself into a regimen devised by longtime personal trainer Brandon Payne.

That’s before and after games. After mesmerizing audiences at home and across the NBA with his pregame workout routine, he signs autographs before heading to the locker room – and often signs more after the game. Crowds holding signs and Sharpies – or merely hoping for a glimpse of Curry – are not unlike the adoring galleries that followed Tiger Woods in the prime of his golf career.

“I was thinking to myself that the NBA is lucky because this man’s going into every arena putting on the show,” longtime teammate Draymond Green said. “It sounds like it’s a home game every time he does it. We’re all lucky to watch him operate the way he operates, playing the game the way he plays the game.”

Golden State rookie Quinten Post grew up in the Netherlands. The 24-year-old center grew familiar with Curry’s name and game while the Warriors were on their dynastic run almost a decade ago. Now as Curry’s teammate, he’s awestruck at his following.

“I had an expectancy,” Post said this week. “But after what he did in these Olympics and what I’ve seen traveling with him, it’s insane how we turn almost every away arena into a home game. And then, seeing him move from the bus to the hotel, there’s always people there.

“What I’m learning is that not every team deals with that. What I’m also learning is that those people are not there for me. They’re there for Steph. And that’s awesome.”

All superstars are subjected to the whims of a public that can be divided in its opinion. Curry has detractors because that’s part of the story with any accomplished life. Not everybody loves, or even likes, Steph. 

But the search for someone who “hates” him would be prolonged and conclude with one of two things. Questioning that person’s motives or nothing at all.

“One of my favorite qualities about Steph is that he understands his power and then he uses it productively,” Kerr said. “But it’s always done in the spirit of giving. There’s never a thought of ‘How can I make myself look better?’ It’s authentically kind and generous.

“He knows he can make an impact, and he does it out of the goodness of his heart. He’s an amazing human being.”

The world would benefit immensely if it had Curry for 37 more years. And another 37 after that.

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