CLEVELAND -- You might remember back in October, when one quote from Karl-Anthony Towns set off a loud alarm for the fan base.

Towns was asked about his role in Mike Brown’s offense.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Towns said a couple days before the regular season. “I just don’t know. But we figuring it out. It’s just different. It’s different. So we’re still figuring it out.”

It wasn’t just the words Towns used. It was the way he delivered them. You didn’t need to be a body language expert to see that Towns wasn’t in love with his role in the new offense.

Fast-forward to Saturday night in Cleveland. About 90 minutes after the Knicks beat the Cavs to take a 3-0 series lead, Towns was asked to assess the job Brown has done this season.

Towns’ answer told you a lot about the connection between these Knicks players and their head coach and how it’s grown over the past seven months.

“With Mike, he had to learn us and adjust to us,” Towns said after the Knicks’ Game 3 win over Cleveland. “On the flip side, we had to do the same as well. Now, we are at a point where we are both working seamlessly. We understand each other’s language. He is getting the best from us and we are getting the best from him.

“I think that speaks to a season, especially a first season with a new coach and a new system and a new philosophy. It’s a testament to the players to do an amazing job coming together and showing that unity that made us special last year. But the coaching staff being receptive to the players and adjusting with us and finding the way to get the most out of us.”

It's always difficult to assess how well a coach is doing. We don’t get to see 90 percent of the work that they do behind the scenes. But what we have seen over the past month has been remarkable.

From the offensive adjustments to the big nights from role players, Brown has pushed nearly all of the right buttons during the Knicks’ 10-game win streak.

“He was put in a tough situation with a lot of expectations but he’s handled that unbelievably,” Josh Hart said. “He’s coaching us in his way, his style. He’s taking input from everybody. His ability to lead us to adapt to things has been great. That’s just the kind of person he is. He’s a high-character, and a great person first and foremost.”

Throughout the current streak, Brown has reminded his group to maintain their edge.

“It’s human nature to kind of get comfortable sometimes,” Landry Shamet said late Saturday night. “So he’s always checking us on that. Reminding us of fighting that off. It’s a lot of intangible stuff like that that I think he’s spectacular at. Keeping us in the right headspace. Obviously Xs and Os, the gameplan. He communicates with everyone. Just a great coach.”

Brown, as you know, was saddled with incredibly high expectations this season.

The Knicks reached the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 25 seasons last year under former coach Tom Thibodeau. Leon Rose, James Dolan and the Knicks concluded that the Knicks couldn’t take the next step under Thibodeau.

After a lengthy coaching search, they landed on Brown. Every game this season, in some way, was a referendum on that decision.

Now, with Brown and the Knicks one win away from their first NBA Finals trip in 27 years, the decision is validated. Not fully validated. But it certainly seems to be working out the way Rose and company had hoped when they made the change.

Would the Knicks have reached this point in the season -- up 3-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals -- under Thibodeau? Who knows? They’re here under Brown. They’ll have a chance to clinch a trip to the NBA Finals on Monday night.

LEANING ON THE BENCH

One of Brown’s edicts coming into the season? Establish a reliable bench. He’s checked that box this postseason, getting contributions from Shamet, Jordan Clarkson and Jose Alvarado alongside maintstays Miles McBride and Mitchell Robinson.

Here's Brown on his philosophy with bench players:

“I’ve been fortunate, blessed, lucky to be a part of some good coaching staffs and be with some great coaches. Steve Kerr, Gregg Popovich, they were guys that went deep into their bench. And they both always used to say, it’s not about now; it’s about the postseason. It’s not about now; it’s about the postseason. And you keep guys engaged by doing that, and you do develop not just a bench but the team, as well, because guys get used to playing with other guys, just in case something goes down.

“And so, again, it’s something I stole from them. Very few things I came up with on my own. I’ve seen it work in the past, and that’s kind of what I thought I wanted to do here. Tried to do it in Sacramento, too. So again, you’ve kind of been through it. You learn.

“You develop a philosophy from what you learn from and you believe in it, you try to stick with it as best you can, and that’s what we try to do here. Our guys, they’re doing a nice job getting rest, taking care of their bodies and their minds and trying to play as hard as they can. Every second they’re out on the floor, we have to keep doing that.”

Shamet, who is 6-for-7 from beyond the arc against Cleveland, has been in and out of Brown’s rotation at different points in the season. Shamet offered interesting insight into the makeup of the Knick locker room on Saturday night.

“Everybody wants to see each other do well genuinely,” Shamet said. “I mean that. If you guys write that in your report, it's not some locker room banter or BS. It’s like spiritual with this group. You know, we’ve got a lot of guys who are more than capable of being in certain situations, and we cheer each other on. Next man up. It's a beautiful thing, and it's what we have, and this locker room. So it's special.”

INTENSE FOCUS

Brown was asked about the Knicks’ identity on Saturday night.

“They’re so resilient,” Brown said. “We hit adversity during the regular season, which was fantastic. I embraced it. I wanted it to happen. We hit it numerous times. And our guys were tested then, and they stayed connected. And to see the ups and down, especially early in these playoffs against Atlanta and to see them stay connected while trying to sacrifice and believe, it’s fantastic. You don’t know if there’s gonna be carryover with those things in the postseason until you go through it, and going through it with these guys, these coaches and seeing it gives you hope for a lot of things, because the group has been fantastic.”

Both Brown and the players have cited a higher level of focus since their Game 3 loss in Atlanta.

“They’ve been fantastic trying to pay attention to all the details that we’ve been throwing at them. And we’ve thrown a lot of adjustments offensively and defensively at them throughout the course of these playoffs,” Brown said on Saturday. “And to still see them locked in and try to be focused on the details at hand, again, that just speaks volumes of my coaching staff and the way that they’re presenting and changing and all that stuff. But more so about these players and their want to go try to get a ring.”

So the Knicks are one win away from their first NBA Finals in 27 years. They’ve also matched the Nets mark of 10 straight post-season wins, set in 2003. Good for them.

Moving on.

We are in a bit of a news lull right now, between the Lottery and the Draft, to be followed by the Nets two summer leagues and free agency, During the news lull, a lot of the hard work on the Draft gets done. There’s the workouts and interviews; results from the NBA Combine; medical data; interviews with everyone the prospects have ever come in contact with: high school, AAU and college coaches, community leaders etc; as well as video clips, media, social media offerings, and if applicable, police reports. All of it gets pumped into the scouting database to be mulled by the front office as they make their decisions.

Again, part of the lull is due to the Nets historic unwillingness to share much about the process, particularly who’s been in for workouts. Hoopshype keeps a list of who’s been in around the league and as of this week, the list has only one Nets entry: Keba Keita a 6’8” 22-year-old big who played with both Egor Demin and A.J. Dybantsa at BYU.

As a senior last season, Keita averaged 6.2 points and led the team in rebounds (7.2) and blocks (1.8), a complementary piece for Brigham Young.’s stars. He’s on nobody’s Big Board of top 100 prospects but workouts aren’t just about the Draft. The Nets are looking at players for their two Summer League rosters, training camp and finally, the Long Island Nets. There could be other motivations as well. Did Demin recommend him? The native of Mali in west Africa does have a great story.

If you’re looking for hints as to who might have been in, the Hoopshype list includes 19 prospects who’ve been seen by the Knicks at their Greenburgh, N.Y. facility. Agents will schedule visits to give their clients as little travel time and as much rest as they can … and the Nets and Knicks facilities are about an hour apart.

So who’s been in for the Knicks, who hold the 24th, 31st and 55th picks? The big names New York has looked at, per Hoopshype, include Morez Johnson, the 6’9” 20-year-old power forward from Michigan who looked good at the Combine, as well as Zuby Ejiofor, the 6’9” 22-year-old PF from St. John’s and Malachi Moreno, the 7’0” 19-year-old big from Kentucky. Of course, we don’t know. With the Nets holding that sixth pick, top prospects are likely to accept an invitation for Brooklyn.

May is also around the time that the Nets scouting staff gathers at HSS to debate prospects, as the Nets excellent docu-series, SCOUT, showed us last year.

So, we wait. Not long. But we wait.

Waiting on Aspiration

At some point, presumably soon, the NBA will release its report on the Clippers reported manipulation of the NBA’s salary cap by using a company named Aspiration to illegally funnel as much as $28 million to Kawhi Leonard. In the last month, Pablo Torre, the freelance podcaster, has won both the Pulitzer Prize and National Magazine Award for his groundbreaking reporting on the scandal.

The league hired outside counsel Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, a powerhouse New York law firm with its fair share of former federal prosecutors, to investigate. Its progress remains a closely guarded secret. Once the report is in the hands of Adam Silver, it will be up to him to assess penalties which if he follows history could include heavy fines and other sanctions for the team and the league’s richest owner, Steve Ballmer, but also a loss of future picks.

In a similar circumstances back in 2000 involving the Minnesota Timberwolves and Joe Smith, David Stern fined the Minnesota Timberwolves $3.5 million in cash, voided Smith’s deal with the Timberwolves and stripped the T’Wolves of first first round picks. One was later restored. Owner Glen Taylor was suspended for a year and GM was forced to take a leave of absence.

Virtually any fine for Ballmer, worth $132.9 billion as of Friday’s Forbes estimate, would amount to pocket lint and there’s informed speculation that the league will not tinker with Leonard’s contract. That leaves the draft picks.

Let’s say Silver follows his predecessor’s precedent and vacates some Clippers first round picks. It’s complicated. The Clippers don’t have clear title to their own first rounder till 2029. Their 2026 first is owed to the Thunder but they hold the Pacers pick at No. 5. Their 2027 pick may have to be swapped with the Thunder and their 2028 selection is owed to the 76ers. It seems that a penalty docking them picks starting in 2029 and running through, say, 2033, would likely be greeted by a sigh of relief inside the Intuit Dome. Three years is plenty of time to adjust to new realities.

Could the penalties affect the Nets plans in this year’s Draft? For example:

1. Might the Clippers decide to resist trade offers for the fifth pick, understanding their cache of picks will be diluted and so, hang on to what they got? That would limit the Nets ability to move up.
2. Might they decide to trade the fifth pick for future firsts to lessen the pain of future losses? With the Nets having the most draft assets in the NBA by far, could that provide an opportunity for Brooklyn?
3. Might they decide to use the fifth pick in a trade for a star like say Giannis Antetokounmpo, forgetting any semblance of an organic route contention, knowing how constrained that route will become? That would also eliminate the possibility of a trade and add a new player and new needs to the mix at the top of the Draft.

Yes, we are deep in the weeds and yes, it’s all speculation and yes, we don’t know when the league will move — it will be after the Finals, that’s for sure! Before the 2026 Draft which takes place days after the Finals conclude? But every team, particularly the Nets, wants to know what the commissioner is planning and how the Clips will respond to whatever law he lays down.

A final bit of speculation: Silver seems ornery of late. The proposed anti-tanking rules would permit to pull picks from teams that continue to lose on purpose. That was a bit of a shocker. Unlike Stern, he cajols and threatens rather than lowering the hammer. Maybe he plans to assert himself in general.

Joe Tsai’s sports empire expands

Back in July of last year, we catalogued Joe Tsai’s burgeoning sports empire, centered on Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment properties, but noting that he’s gone well beyond the NBA and WNBA, citing ownership positions in the NFL’s Dolphins, both lacrosse leagues, the LAFC of the MLS, e-sports, the Asian University Basketball League and chunks of various sports services like Fanatics, Michael Rubin’s $30 billion digital sports empire that has its hands in everything from apparel to gambling; and Genius Sports, which supplies sports data to virtually every pro league and owns Second Spectrum, every crazed basketball fan’s go-to site for analytics.

Since then, we’ve noted a few changes in his thinking. He sold his stake in LAFC, exiting a group of investors that included mostly Hollywood celebrity types, while adding two interesting new sports. Last month, Sportico noted that his family office, Blue Pool Capital, has invested in the NFL’s growing flag football program. No details on how much or how it’s structured, but the league is putting a lot of money in the league. Sportico explained why:

Flag football comes with many benefits when compared to traditional football. It doesn’t carry the same head injury concerns that worry many parents, it’s easier to adapt to smaller rosters and it’s grown popular among young women who wouldn’t otherwise play the sport. Participation in the U.S. grew 15% from 2019 through 2024, according to data from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association…

The league successfully pushed to have the sport added to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and has granted players approval to play in the Olympics. NFL teams have also issued grants to help launch collegiate programs.

He also joined David Blitzer, managing partner of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils, and Ralf Reichert, founder of the e-sports league ESL, in investing in the new international catamaran-racing league, SailGP, now in its fifth year. According to reports in Yacht Magazine, Tsai et al are part of the group that owns the German team license.

Blitzer has also joined Tsai and other sports investors in the Asian University Basketball League which Tsai helped found, as we reported earlier this year in another story on his ambitions to help revive Chinese basketball. Per Sportico. the group includes Tsai, Blitzer, former Bucks principal owner Marc Lasry and Yao Ming, the basketball Hall of Famer who previously headed the Chinese Basketball Association.

A valuation of the league, featuring colleges across greater Asia, isn’t known, but a person familiar with the fundraise characterized it as being at least eight figures. The Tsai family office, Blue Pool Capital, led the round, on top of the seed funding it provided AUBL last year.

The investments will allow the league to expand from 12 to 16 university teams and from six to eight countries, including basketball hotbeds of Australia and the Philippines.

As we noted when we wrote about Tsai’s sports investments last year, they are now roughly equal to his Alibaba holdings.

Why does this matter to Nets (and Liberty) fans? It shows that Tsai and his wife Clara Wu Tsai are more and more committed to sports and particularly BSE which among their sports investments is the cash cow.

Beyond their investments in catamarans and Asian basketball and flag football, the Tsais are mid-way through a $150 million enhancement of Barclays Center, in the early stages of the Liberty’s $80 million practice facility in Greenpoint and working on plans for an arena-centric entertainment district in Brooklyn. The latest iteration of that master plan is an announcement this week that BSE is converting the bottom floor of One Hanson Place, formerly the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, to yet another high-end restaurant. Appropriately, among those reporting on it was Brooklyn Magazine, also part of BSE.

Draft Sleeper of the Week

We’ve written about Mikel Brown Jr. on the site. Now it’s his turn to be featured here. Increasingly, the draftniks see him as the Nets pick at No. 6 if indeed that’s where the Nets pick on the night of June 23 at Barclays Center. Brown, who played for Louisville this past season, seems to tick off more boxes than his rival lead guards. He’s just short of 6’5” and although on the skinny side, he’s athletic and plays on both ends of the court.

Among the four guard prospects, he finished second in height (6’3.5”), first in standing reach (8’ 4.5”), wingspan (6’ 7.50”) in anthrometric measurements; second in both the shuttle run (2.89 seconds), third in 3/4-court sprint (3.24 seconds), and max vertical (39.5 inches). Kingston Flemings finished first in most of the athletic testing.

Among Moreover, Brown is high character. He knows what to say, too, about the prospect of playing in Brooklyn…

“It would be a great opportunity right there,” Brown told Brian Lewis at the Combine about being drafted by the Nets. “Just continuing to build relationships with them as the time goes on and continue to talk to my family and my circle and my agent and the people behind me.

“It’s something that we’re definitely interested in, and looking forward to building a relationship with [the Nets].”

“I honestly don’t pay attention to the mock drafts,” Brown said. “You never know where you’re going to go on draft night. If you want me to be honest with you, it’s all about which team fits you the best. … I just know what I can bring to a team right now. I’m more focused on myself rather than trying to compete with [others]. I’m competing with myself at this point.”

He’s also highly likeable, as Corey Taluba of No Ceilings told our Collin Helwig on the Brooklyn Podcast…

Perfect. A little touch of humility amid the promise of star power.

As a freshman, Brown averaged 18.2 points and 4.7 assists per game for the Cardinals. He scored 45 points during a 118-77 win over N.C. State, breaking Cooper Flagg’s ACC freshman single game scoring record. A troublesome back injury kept him out of the NCAA Tournament.

The 45-point explosion showed a wide variety of offensive skills including a quick release on his three and a willingness to drive the lane, a refreshing trait for a Nets guard.

He hits 10 threes and grabbed nine board as well. He tied the Louisville single-game scoring record as well as breaking the ACC’s rookie record.

The back injury is troublesome, although Brown says he feels fine and looked fine at the Combine. As ESPN reported at the time of the injury, his back bothered him more than once during the season. He missed four games prior to March Madness after missing eight earlier in the season.

That said, he did well in big games. N.C. State was 18-6 when he exploded for 45. He also scored 29 vs. Kentucky and 20 each in back to back vs. Baylor and SMU. As Taluba also told Helwig, he’s got that Trae Young/Steph Curry combo of 3-point shooting and high-level passing.

Will be there? That could indeed be an issue.

Final Note

No, the Nets are not moving back to New Jersey. Not now. Not ever. Period, end of story. The state of New Jersey, now headed by Governor Mikie Sherrill, did not support the Nets while in New Jersey.

It’s particularly bothersome since the Tsais are spending more than $140 million of their own money in upgrades at Barclays Center after renovating the abandoned Modell’s store across the street into a community basketball center. More millions. Then there’s the Liberty’s $80 million practice facility in Greenpoint. That’s commitment, one that New Jersey never ever made.

Brooklyn is home.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Victor Wembanyama had 33 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three blocks and the San Antonio Spurs held Oklahoma City to its second-lowest postseason total, beating the Thunder 103-82 in Game 4 on Sunday night to tie the Western Conference finals.

De’Aaron Fox had 12 points, 10 rebounds and five assists for San Antonio, which has not lost three consecutive games all season. Stephon Castle and Devin Vassell added 13 points each.

“You definitely don’t want to go down 3-1 going into their house,” Vassell said. “We knew we had to respond and that’s how you respond. You get stops. You don’t try and focus on the offensive end, you get stops, you get out of transition. You guard your yard and that’s what we did.”

Game 5 is Tuesday in Oklahoma City, followed by Game 6 on Thursday in San Antonio.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 19 points on 6-for-15 shooting for the Thunder.

Wembanyama took Oklahoma City’s 123-108 victory Friday in Game 3 personally. The 7-foot-4 star from France said he needed to be better to make his teammates better. He was monumentally better Sunday night — and so was San Antonio.

“We all have high standards and I know I have a lot of responsibilities, but I’m here for it,” Wembanyama said. “Yeah, it was better today. It wasn’t perfect. But, you know, all of us, I’m talking about the whole organization, so we’re going to have to do things that we didn’t sign up for.”

The Spurs limited the Thunder to 33% shooting from the field, including 6 for 33 on 3-pointers (18%).

“I think we made a great defensive adjustment,” Vassell said. “I don’t want to say what it was. We were just able to rotate the shooters and not give them so many wide-open 3s. I feel like they had so many wide-open 3s over the past couple games and you’ve got to respect them, especially if they’re making them. So, we were trying to cut them out with that and just stay playing fast.”

After being outscored 76-23 in bench points in Game 3, San Antonio’s reserves scored 30 points while limiting Oklahoma City to 34.

The Spurs had another hot start in Game 4 after opening the previous game on a 15-0 run. Unlike Friday’s lopsided loss, the Spurs never relinquished that lead.

“They just punched us in our face early,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “It’s two games in a row they’ve come out the aggressor. The last game we were able to course correct. Tonight, we just didn’t do so.”

After blocking Jared McCain’s layup under the rim, Vassell tossed an alley-oop pass to Wembanyama for a dunk as part of 16-0 run that gave the Spurs a 23-8 lead with 4:19 remaining.

“I feel like with who we are, we need to start games like this,” Wembanyama said, “but it really doesn’t mean anything for the way it holds. I mean, it helps for sure, but it’s a whole ‘nother type of effort to be consistent rather than just hitting first.”

San Antonio had an assist on all 10 field goals in the first quarter.

San Antonio held Oklahoma City to 38 points in the first half, tied for its second-lowest half in the past four regular and postseasons. The Thunder are 2-9 when they score less than 40 points in any half over the last five seasons.

Oklahoma City’s franchise low is 65 points in a playoff loss to Memphis on May 3, 2014, and its second-fewest points had been 85 against San Antonio on May 21, 2014.

CLEVELAND — Sunday morning, after watching film, Kenny Atkinson met with his team.

The Cavaliers coach opened up the floor to anyone who wanted to speak.

He asked his players a question: Why do you believe we can come back?

“I had eight great answers,” Atkinson said. “I said, ‘Well that makes me believe more because you guys really believe in yourselves.’ Each guy had a different reason or two. I don’t want me to get up and say, ‘Hey we got to believe.’ It’s not that. It’s, do they believe? They do believe.

“They’re probably not steeped in the stats that you guys all know, how hard this is. But I don’t think they care about that. They believe in the group, they believe in each other, they believe we’ve had really good stretches against this team.”

The Cavaliers are facing an incredibly difficult climb, trailing the rampaging Knicks 3-0 in this Eastern Conference finals series.

No NBA team has ever rallied from being down 3-0 in the history of the playoffs.

Only four teams have ever forced a Game 7 after facing this kind of a deficit.

Cleveland has dropped the past two games by a combined 29 points, after blowing a 22-point fourth quarter lead in the series opener.

Yet the Cavs still have faith, even if it might be unfounded.

“I still feel like we’re the better ballclub,” reserve guard Jaylon Tyson said. “Obviously, we haven’t shown that. We have another opportunity Monday to keep this thing going.”

The Cavaliers point to outplaying the Knicks for most of Game 1 and their ability to respond to adversity throughout the playoffs.

They have won a pair of Game 7s in dominant fashion and don’t believe they have played a complete game against the Knicks yet.

They are running out of time.

It has to happen Monday night, or their season will be over.

“I think, ultimately, it’s a pride thing,” Tyson said. “Tomorrow is going to be a big test for where we are mentally. We’re at home — we don’t lose at home. We should take pride in that. These dudes, call a spade a spade, they’re trying to sweep us. Me, personally, I don’t take that lightly.

“Whether I’m playing five minutes or 15 minutes, whatever it is, I’m going to put my best foot forward and I know my teammates are going to put their best foot forward and try not to let that happen. I think that’s a pride thing.”

San Antonio avoided losing three games in a row for the first time all season and routed Oklahoma City 103-82 in a Game 4 blowout. The Spurs earned and built upon their advantage by staying home on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander defensively and depriving his teammates of open looks throughout many minutes of hellacious fullcourt coverage. San Antonio better shepherded their possessions tonight, while making life very difficult for Oklahoma City, as they were held to 33% shooting overall and 6-for-33 from three.

The Spurs received a far more complete effort in game 4 that they glaringly lacked in the previous two games. Wembanyama (33 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 blocks) and Castle (13 points, 6 assists, and 3 rebounds) found a timely third contributor in Devin Vassell (13 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists). The team’s ailing point guards – De’Aaron Fox (12 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists) and Dylan Harper (7 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists) looked no worse for the wear and steadied the Spur attack. San Antonio also benefitted from spirited bench minutes – in just the right dosages by Coach Johnson – from veterans Luke Kornet (6 points and 7 rebounds), Harrison Barnes (5 points and 3 rebounds) and Keldon Johnson (6 points and 3 rebounds).

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (19 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 turnovers) and Isaiah Harteinstein (12 points and 7 rebounds) paced Oklahoma City in defeat tonight. Chet Holmgren (10 points and 9 rebounds) competed capably in the first half. The Thunder’s vaunted bench production (16 points) was far muted than in Games 1-3.

San Antonio leapt ahead again in the opening frame, but in a vastly different manner than game 3, they were able to harrass the Thunder players into numerous forced looks. All of Oklahoma City’s offense – over the first 8+ minutes – came from none other than Hartenstein. The Spurs pieced together a 14-0 run spanning the middle minutes in the frame, and Oklahoma City could not find any open airspace for their shooters. Gilgeous-Alexander broke a nearly nine minute non-Hartenstein drought with a jumper, and then meekly fell to the floor on a Fox contest a minute later. A 5-0 burst brought the Thunder to within nine with Wembanyama (11) and Vassell (6) almost matching OKC’s total.

San Antonio played arguably its finest defense in this series so far over several sequences to start the second period. Unfortunately their offense could not match that excellence (5-for-23 in the first 10+ minutes), and Harteinstein continued to add to his team-leading total with a floater and dunk. San Antonio continued to squander handfuls of possessions, and Holmgren kept his team within three possessions with free throws and second-chance tips. With the Thunder continuing to hover close, Vassell’s jumper and Wembanyama’s buzzer-beating 47-footer extended San Antonio’s lead to 12.

A 7-0 run featuring Area 51 forced Dort to the bench with his fourth foul and put Oklahoma City down 16 early in the third quarter. Castle found Wembanyama in transition for a near free throw line dunk to put the Spurs back up 18. Harper rewarded Castle for his efforts with a rim-rattling lob to grow the lead to 22. Oklahoma City’s offense looked ever-so-slightly flustered. But even though the Thunder stayed under 50 points for 3/4 of the period, they were able to slice the deficit to 60-78 going to the fourth.

Observations

• The Dirk Nowitzki ‘let’s go home’ sequence: Harper, after dribbling an head-scratching 15 seconds on the perimeter, split two defenders, and thre down a monstrous slam on Jaylin Williams to make it 92-70.
• After Harteinstein bearhugged Wembanyama on an early loose ball, Scott Foster flew in from midcourt to call the foul on Harteinstein.
• Just as I was about to type “Julian Champagnie might shoot us out of this series, (9-for-28 after the first quarter for the series)” he did an upfake and drove it right to the rim for a layup. He’s going to need to turn into Bruce Bowen 2.0 over these next 2-3 games to justify his playing time.
• Reggie Miller – referencing San Antonio’s other rookie – called him ‘Bryant Carter’ pregame.
• It’s not just the foul merchant stuff on the offensive end, but when Gilgeous-Alexander stood up Vassell as he went upcourt on the dribble late in the half, the Spurs guard (6’5” / 195 lb) stayed upright, while the MVP (6’6” /195 lb) crumpled into a heap.
• My three sisters met up in San Antonio to go to game 4 in honor of dad. My mom (out of nowhere) said we lost game 3 because wer’re ‘too comfortable.’ We truly are a Spurs family now.
• Sequence of the Game #1: 90 seconds into game action and during what looked like yet another OKC second chance bucket, Wembanyama met Holmgren at the rim and turned away his dunk try.
• Sequence of the Game #2: During the Spurs’ 14-0 run in the first, Vassell looked like he might get beat for a reverse lay-up, but erased McCain’s attempt, and took it downcourt and fed Wembanyama for a lob slam.
• Sequence of the Game #3: To close the first half, Castle doggedly grabbed a rebound away from Jaylin Williams, and the ball ended up in Wembanyama’s hands – who knocked down a Curry-like pull-up from half court.
• Sequence of the Game #4: Partway through the third period, Vassell, after stealing an errant Holmgren pass, fed it to a streaking Harper – who (while completely neglecting the franchise superstar) tossed a soaring lob to Castle to make it 75-53.

Game Rundown

The teams’ centers traded buckets from the opening tip. While Wembanyama played well off of him, Harteinstein surprisingly added two more floaters. Castle connected on a contested jumper and spoonfed a lob to Wembanyama. Shockingly, Harteinstein’s fourth pop-a-shot put the Thunder up one. After Champagnie failed to convert several long-distance attempts, he drove deep into the paint for a lay-up. Nearly five minutes in, the three big OKC bench contributors (Caruso, Jaylin Williams, and McCain) from game 3 were inserted, but it was Johnson who immediately deflected two passes and willed home a shot over Williams. Castle and Vassell’s catch-and-shoot threes put the Spurs up 19-8. Vassell deflected the ball away on one Thunder possession, and Castle forced Holmgren to dribble the ball off of his foot on another. San Antonio’s offense stalled out a bit near the end of the stanza; yet they left it still up 28-19.

Isaiah Joe’s and-1 finished a 10-0 Thunder run spanning the first and second quarters. Harper drew Holmgren’s and Caruso’s second fouls in succession. But San Antonio concerningly missed free throws (8-for-15 at one point). Kornet’s second field goal put the Spurs up nine, which was answered by Harteinstein’s FIFTH FLOATER. San Antonio then forced a shotclock violation and unforced turnover – both on Gilgeous-Alexander. Coach Daigneault’s challenge on the latter sequence was upheld and Oklahoma City lost the ability to pose any more challenges. Barnes drew Lu Dort’s third foul halfway through the period, which put San Antonio into the foul bonus, too; Mr. 100%‘s hustle either extended San Antonio possessions or prevented the Thunder from leaking out in transition. Harper forced yet another Gilgeous-Alexander turnover, and Wembanyama drew Caruso’s third foul at the other end. Vassell’s shotclock beating fadeaway was outdone by Wembanyama’s audacious pull-up jumper from halfcourt to make it 50-38.

Wembanyama started the third by answering Cason Wallace’s three with an emphatic and-1 lob over Hartenstein and Dort, and Castle powered through Thunder defenders for a pair of lay-ups. Wembanyama (on Hartenstein) and Castle (on Wallace) combined to swat away two more shots to force another OKC shotclock violation. Vassell’s free throws put the Spurs up 25. Bryant committed a charge, and then inexplicably fouled McCain 40 feet from the basket #rookiemistakes. The Thunder finally passed 50 points 9 1/2 minutes into the quarter as part of 7-0 run. Kenrich William’s two triples negated Wembanyama’s microburst, and the Spurs went to the fourth up 18.

The Cleveland Cavaliers had a turbulent regular season after seemingly everything went exactly their way the year before. The one player who was dependable night in and night out to keep things on the rails was Donovan Mitchell. They don’t come close to putting up 52 wins if it wasn’t for his steady hand on the wheel.

The individual consistency and stellar play have landed Mitchell on the All-NBA Second Team. This is the third time he’s made an All-NBA team, with all of them coming in Cleveland. He was named to the second team in 2022-23 and the first team last year.

Mitchell averaged 27.9 points and 5.7 assists per game with an effective field goal percentage of 56.3%. All three of those categories are the second-best marks of his career. He participated in 70 regular-season games.

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All-NBA votes aren’t done by position anymore. The first team slot goes to the five players who receive the most All-NBA votes, and so forth. Mitchell received the eighth most points. He was behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Victor Wembanyama, Luka Doncic, Cade Cunningham, Jaylen Brown, and Kawhi Leonard.

Players must participate in at least 65 games to be eligible for All-NBA votes. The league made an exception for both Luka Doncic and Cade Cunningham. Both of their seasons were cut short at 64 games due to injuries.

Mitchell was the only Cavalier to be named to an All-NBA team, but two others received votes.

James Harden received one second-team vote and three third-team votes. Evan Mobley received one third team votes. Both Harden and Mobley made All-NBA teams the year before.