NEW YORK (AP) — Nick Nurse rejoined the Philadelphia 76ers after attending his brother's funeral, saying Wednesday that Steve Nurse was a fan who would want him at Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Nurse was in Ankeny, Iowa, on Tuesday, the day between the first two games of the series against the Knicks in New York.

"I mean, kind of the film and the practice and the game and all that stuff kind of takes care of some time, right?" Nurse said before the game. “But I’m here coaching and my brother would expect me to be. He was a huge fan. He wants us to go play, he wants us to play hard, so that’s what we’re going to try to do tonight.”

Steve Nurse died unexpectedly at age 62 last Wednesday. Nick Nurse had remained with the 76ers as they rallied from a 3-1 deficit to knock off Boston in the first round, then fell to the Knicks 137-98 on Monday.

Nick Nurse said he and his family had received a lot of support, thanking opposing coach Mike Brown for offering his condolences when he began his news conference after the Knicks practiced Tuesday.

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OKLAHOMA CITY — Don’t rush back, Luka Doncic. 

It’s not worth it. The Lakers can’t beat the defending champion Thunder. You can’t risk further injury. 

Doncic spoke to the media Wednesday for the first time since suffering a strained hamstring on April 2. He said doctors initially told him he’d be sidelined eight weeks, which would coincide with the start of the NBA Finals.

He confirmed he went to Spain for platelet-rich plasma injections to expedite his return.  

“I’m working every day,” he said. “I feel better every day.”

The Lakers desperately need Doncic, who was the league’s best player last month, averaging 37.5 points a game while leading the Lakers on a 16-2 run.

But it’s not worth the risk.

The Lakers are facing the reigning champion Thunder in their second-round playoff series, trailing 1-0 after losing 108-90 on Tuesday. They need offense against the team’s historically great defense. 

They need Luka Magic.

But it’s not worth the risk.

Doncic recently started running. He’s not yet doing contact drills. There’s no timeline for his return. Game 2 on Thursday is exactly five weeks after he suffered the injury.

Lakers fans are getting impatient. Rightfully so. 

In Game 1, they watched the 41-year-old LeBron James play brilliantly, finishing with a game-high 27 points on 12-for-17 shooting, including 3-for-6 from deep. They watched Marcus Smart bottle up Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished with 18 points and seven turnovers, his fewest points and most turnovers this season. They saw Deandre Ayton play with force, grabbing 11 rebounds. 

They felt like the Lakers had a chance. 

If only Austin Reaves had scored more than eight points. If only Luke Kennard wasn’t 1-for-4 from the field. If only the best player on the team was on the court. 

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Wrestling legend Ric Flair took to X to express his frustration, tweeting, “Please Get In The Game! Take A Shot Of Cortisone And Deal With The Pain! They Are Paying You 50 Million A Year, And You’re Not There! WTF!”

But Lakers fans need to keep their perspective. 

If Doncic returned too early, he’d greatly increase his risk of suffering a worse injury, such as an ACL tear, which can rob a player of an entire season. 

No one is more upset than Doncic. 

Basketball is his refuge. Amid the chaos in his personal life, it’s where he has found peace. Amid the drama in his career, it’s where he has silently fought back with an MVP-caliber campaign. 

“I don’t think people understand how frustrating it is,” Doncic said. “All I wanna do is play basketball, especially [at] this time.”

But Doncic also knows he can’t be shortsighted.

“It’s a tough one for me because I came back from injuries before too soon, and it wasn’t the best result,” he said. “But like I say, this is the first time I have the hamstring injury. It’s not the same like other injuries. You have to be very careful.”

Doncic strained the same hamstring earlier this season, missing four games. But this injury was more severe. 

Returning during the intensity of the playoffs against a team with one of the most suffocating defenses ever sounds like a potential recipe for disaster. 

Doncic needs to err on the side of caution. He needs to prioritize his health over a quick return against a team that won all four regular-season meetings against the Lakers by an average of 29.3 points. He needs to ignore the noise. 

Lakers coach JJ Redick echoed that sentiment. 

“It’s very simple,” Redick said. “When he’s ready to play, he should play. That comes with the athlete having confidence. It’s no different from Austin [Reaves].”

Reaves, who suffered a sprained oblique April 2, returned after a month in Game 5 of the Lakers’ first-round playoff series against the Rockets. 

How’s that going? 

Over three games, he has averaged postseason career-lows in points (15) field goal percentage (30.4) and 3-point percentage (11.8%).

At least with Reaves, he’s not risking a worse injury. He’s likely playing through pain. But he’s not putting himself in danger.

When it comes to Doncic, this is not an injury to be rushed, regardless of how tantalizing it may be to have the Lakers’ superstar on the court.

Everyone knows what the Lakers are up against right now.

“When you play against the world champions and [miss] having a guy that averages 34 [points] and eight [rebounds] and nine [assists] and is that special, that’s [tough],” James said. 

But it’s not worth the risk.

Doncic is doing everything he can to return, including traveling to another continent for a regenerative treatment in which he received injections of his own concentrated blood platelets to accelerate hamstring healing.

But Lakers fans need to accept reality.

Doncic may not return. He probably shouldn’t return.

Not against this team.

Not with what could be at stake.

Observations after Sixers battle without Embiid but lose Game 2 to Knicks  originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

NEW YORK — The Sixers’ scrappy effort without Joel Embiid on Wednesday night did not yield a series-shifting win in New York.

The Knicks earned a 108-102 victory at Madison Square to take a 2-0 lead in their second-round playoff series. 

Tyrese Maxey was the Sixers’ leading scorer with 26 points.

Paul George (19 points), Kelly Oubre Jr. (19) and VJ Edgecombe (17) all had sizable roles in the Sixers’ Embiid-less offense.

Four Knicks scored at least 18 points in Jalen Brunson (26), OG Anunoby (24), Karl-Anthony Towns (20) and Mikal Bridges (18).

The Sixers dropped to 1-3 in the playoffs this year without Embiid, who was out because of right ankle and right hip injuries. Knicks center Mitchell Robinson sat with an illness. 

Game 3 will be Friday at 7 p.m. ET in Philadelphia. Here are observations on the Sixers’ Game 2 loss:

George gives Sixers immediate jolt 

George scored 11 of the Sixers’ first 13 points on 4-for-4 shooting, including two pure jumpers in a row from the left corner. 

He’s made at least one three-pointer in all of the Sixers’ nine playoff games and multiple triples in eight straight. For the postseason, George has gone a tremendous 31 for 59 (52.5 percent) beyond the arc. 

Kelly Oubre Jr. also had a hot start. He knocked down a pair of corner threes late in the first quarter to give the Sixers a 25-20 lead. 

Edgecombe opened the night playing tighter, more physical defense against Brunson higher up the floor than in Game 1. The rookie drew an early moving screen call on Towns with his effort to fight over the pick. Brunson didn’t score until he made two free throws with 3:05 left in the first quarter and missed his first three field goal attempts. 

Andre Drummond started in Embiid’s spot. Both he and Towns were whistled for two first-quarter fouls. Adem Bona returned to the Sixers’ rotation as Drummond’s backup. He had a strong offensive rebounding night, notching six offensive boards in his 16 minutes.

Maxey makes adjustments 

Towns picked up his third foul just 46 seconds into the second quarter. He subbed out and the Knicks shifted to small ball for a few minutes with 6-foot-5 Josh Hart at “center” and setting tons of ball screens. 

Maxey drained a three to put the Sixers up 41-35. He was great early in the second quarter, hitting his stride as an aggressive shotmaker after a rough Game 1. 

The Sixers got Maxey an easy basket on the first possession of the second period with a clever designed play that concluded with Maxey cutting backdoor and converting a layup. Maxey did a little bit of everything as a scorer, including successful post-ups against 6-foot Knicks guard Jose Alvarado. 

Besides simply seeking out his shot more, Maxey seemed to make some strategic tweaks when the Knicks blitzed or hard hedged ball screens. Quick passes are frequently the only viable option in those spots, but Maxey also mixed in occasionally 1. rejecting the ball screen (or screens) and 2. splitting defenders.

There’s always risk in trying to squeeze between defenders on the perimeter, but Maxey’s typically a low-turnover player and can certainly zoom downhill to the rim once he slithers through the front line of a defense.  With that said, the Sixers were inferior in the turnover department Wednesday. Maxey committed six of the team’s 18 giveaways. The Knicks ended with 13 turnovers.

Maxey couldn’t sustain his excellent run through the whole second quarter and the Sixers headed to halftime with a 62-61 edge.

Every Sixer played under 30 minutes in their blowout Game 1 defeat. Maxey logged a whopping 47 in Game 2.

Turning to Barlow at the five

Fouls were a predictable problem for the Bona-Drummond duo. 

By the 7:09 mark of the third quarter, both Drummond and Bona had four fouls. Towns became a logical focal point for the Knicks’ offense and scored very efficiently. 

With 4:53 to go in the third, Towns drew Bona’s fifth foul on a drive down the middle of the floor. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse responded sensibly by bringing in Dominick Barlow at center for his first minutes of the game.

Towns soon got his fourth foul and Knicks head coach Mike Brown slid Anunoby up to the five For the most part, offense won out in the Barlow vs. Anunoby center minutes late in the third quarter. Anunoby drilled a three to give New York an 86-84 lead.

The contest stayed close early in the fourth quarter. Considering the situation — thrown into a difficult moment in his first NBA postseason — Barlow did quite well. He was handy as a smart short roller passer and also added six points on 3-for-3 shooting and two rebounds. 

Barlow made a big defensive play when he closed out to Anunoby in the corner and blocked his three-point try. Maxey followed by sinking a go-ahead three.

Again, it’s hard to imagine Barlow entering a game with more on his plate. He often had to defend Brunson when the Sixers switched ball screens. The Knicks’ superstar guard made a mid-range jumper over Barlow to lift New York to a 101-99 advantage.

The Knicks went up six points on a long Bridges two-pointer. Down the stretch, the Sixers’ core players missed many of the jumpers they’d been hitting earlier in the night.

The Sixers eventually mobbed Brunson with blitzes and all-out double teams, but the Knicks didn’t leave the comeback door open and polished off a win that was much more testing than their 39-point Game 1 victory.

Kentucky Basketball head coach Mark Pope addressed fan concerns on Wednesday, answering questions about recruiting, the transfer portal, and the Wildcats’ roster outlook heading into the 2026-27 season.

With some frustration building among the fan base following missed recruiting targets, Pope took to social media a three-minute video to provide clarity on the program’s direction. One of the topics centered around NIL and whether Kentucky is being used as leverage by recruits. Pope didn’t shy away from the question.

“Yes, we are the biggest brand in college basketball,” Pope said during the video.

Recruiting was another major focus, especially after Kentucky missed on several top prospects in the 2026 class. Pope explained that while the staff aimed to get as many elite players on campus as possible, their attention was heavily centered on 5-star forward Tyran Stokes.

“This year, we were chasing a generational talent, and we fell a little short, but we weren’t sitting on our hands. We put together a roster that we are going to love watching, crush it in Rupp Arena,” Pope said.

The center position also remains a key factor, with Malachi Moreno currently testing the NBA Draft waters. Pope emphasized that Kentucky is fully supporting Moreno through the process while continuing to build depth at the position.

“Malachi Moreno was our number 1 priority for us, going into this portal season. We think that he is going to be the best center in all of college basketball next year here at Kentucky. He is also going through the (NBA) Draft process. He had a great workout just last night for an NBA team.

“Next week, he is heading to the (NBA) Combine, and we are supporting him every step of the way. This is the place where basketball dreams come true and Malachi has two dreams, he is dreaming of hanging a banner at Kentucky and he is also dreaming of playing in the NBA, so we are supporting him chasing both of those. At the same time, we are working hard in the portal to shore up this 5 spot.

“We are going to have an unbelievable crew at the center position.”

As the offseason continues, Pope made it clear Kentucky remains active in the portal and confident in the roster being assembled for the upcoming season.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Despite the gruesome nature of Jarred Vanderbilt’s dislocated right pinky injury, the Lakers forward’s status is day to day.

Medical personnel were able “to put his finger back together” after Vanderbilt suffered an open dislocation to the pinky during the second quarter of Tuesday’s Game 1 loss to the Thunder, Lakers coach JJ Redick said Wednesday.

“Obviously a tough-minded player and person,” Redick said. “I mean, he had a full dislocation. So they just put the stuff back together. He’ll be day to day.”

Redick added: “It’s called a reduction, apparently. He took some pictures for me, which I passed along to [my wife] Chelsea, because she was very curious, and she wishes I had not sent those photos.”

Sources told The California Post on Tuesday that a bone in Vanderbilt’s pinky broke through the skin after he attempted to block an alley-oop for Chet Holmgren, with Vanderbilt’s pinky hitting the backboard as he swiped for the ball. 

The 6-foot-8 forward immediately went to the ground in pain, holding his right hand near the Thunder bench, with Oklahoma City players reacting when they saw Vanderbilt’s hand. 

He immediately went back to the locker room at the 5:51 mark of the second quarter.

The Lakers ruled Vanderbilt out for the remainder of the game at halftime.

“It was disgusting! Bro’s whole bone was out of his skin,” Jaxson Hayes said. “You never want to see one of your teammates go down, but that was gross. That was really gross.”

Hayes added: “I’ve dislocated many fingers. That was definitely the worst. That was definitely the worst dislocation I’ve ever seen in my life. I have a picture right here; I’m not gonna show it, though. But, yeah, that was the most disgusting dislocation ever.”

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