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    The Pelicans Are Finding Their Way Without Zion Williamson

    New Orleans’s success without Williamson, who has been injured, has raised the ceiling on the team’s potential when he returns.Last month, Zion Williamson threw the ball off the backboard, caught it in the air, crossed it between his legs and threw down a dunk before descending back to earth. This month, he drove to the paint, leaped up from the restricted circle and launched into a 360-degree slam. These were the Cirque du Soleil-style highlights that Pelicans fans had hoped to see Williamson perform nightly after New Orleans drafted him with the No. 1 pick in the 2019 N.B.A. draft.The only problem? Neither of those highlight-reel plays took place during a game. The first was posted to Williamson’s Instagram story from an empty gym, and the second came during pregame warm-ups before the Pelicans defeated the Los Angeles Clippers in the play-in tournament.It has been almost a year since Williamson last played in a live game, the result of foot surgery that has been painfully slow to heal. Without him, the Pelicans have made a surprising playoff run and are giving the top-seeded Phoenix Suns all they can handle in their first-round series. The Pelicans’ performance has left basketball fans everywhere — and especially in New Orleans — wondering how good this young team could be if Williamson were there.The Pelicans tied the series, 2-2, with an energetic 118-103 victory at home over Phoenix on Sunday. The Suns were up by 2 at halftime, but New Orleans outscored them by 12 in the third quarter and led by as many as 18 en route to the win. The home crowd was rocking — the kind of atmosphere that could become routine as the team continues to find itself, with and without Williamson.The last game Williamson appeared in was on May 4, 2021, against Golden State. He had 23 points, 12 assists and 7 rebounds in the win.Gerald Herbert/Associated PressAs a high schooler, Williamson was hyped like no player since LeBron James. His high-flying dunks made him a social media celebrity and a sought-after recruit, but some scouts wondered whether a 6-foot-6, 280-pound forward could thrive in college basketball or the N.B.A. In his single season at Duke, Williamson left no doubts about his abilities. In his collegiate debut against Kentucky, he scored 28 points in 23 minutes on 11-for-13 shooting and produced the first of many mind-boggling highlights when he blocked a 7-footer’s shot with both hands before leading a fast break and finding RJ Barrett for a bucket in transition.During that Duke season, Williamson’s dunks continued to peel the paint off rims and to air on repeat on “SportsCenter.” But he proved to be more than a human highlight reel. He showed an uncanny knack for seeing passing lanes before they appeared on offense — and for cutting them off on defense, where he averaged 2.1 steals per game. Despite his size, the Blue Devils often played Williamson at the 5, and he defended the rim admirably, averaging 1.8 blocks per game.“This kid is — he’s just one of a kind,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski told reporters in March 2019. “He’s certainly a special basketball player, but as a youngster, he has a maturity. It’s uncommon. It really is uncommon. How humble he is. How fresh, exciting. He’s exquisite. He’s just the best.”In one of the most memorable moments of Williamson’s college career, on the road against No. 3 Virginia, he pulled off a seemingly impossible block against a future top-five pick, De’Andre Hunter. After initially defending guard Kyle Guy outside the 3-point line, Williamson chased a pass to a wide-open Hunter in the opposite corner. Covering 25 feet in two seconds, Williamson launched as if from Cape Canaveral and swatted Hunter’s shot into the fourth row of the stands.Brandon Ingram has powered the Pelicans without Williamson, averaging 29.7 points over the first three games of the series against the Suns. He had 37 points in New Orleans’s Game 2 win.Matt York/Associated PressAfter tearing his meniscus in the 2019 N.B.A. preseason, Williamson appeared in only 24 games during his first season in New Orleans. Nonetheless, he was named to the N.B.A. All-Rookie first team. The next season, he averaged 27 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game on the way to his first All-Star selection. He proved to be one of the most efficient scorers in the N.B.A., at one point shooting better than 50 percent from the floor in 25 consecutive games. His average of 20.3 points in the paint per game was more than any player since Shaquille O’Neal. It’s Williamson’s ability to score easily in halfcourt sets that New Orleans has missed the most this year.With Williamson sidelined again this season, the Pelicans looked listless to start the year. They won just one game in their first 13 and spent most of the first three months in the Western Conference cellar. But Willie Green, their first-year head coach, managed not to let the team linger on questions of when Williamson would return. Instead, he focused on developing other young stars: Trey Murphy, a first-round pick; Herbert Jones, a second-round pick; and the undrafted point guard Jose Alvarado have emerged as surprisingly mature and effective rookies. As the trade deadline approached, the Pelicans had become a pesky and physical defensive team and had climbed to 10th place in the West.Trading with the Portland Trail Blazers for guard CJ McCollum took some of the offensive pressure off their leading scorer, Brandon Ingram, and gave the Pelicans a much-needed veteran leader in the locker room. Ingram and McCollum developed a quick chemistry despite playing in just 15 games together during the regular season. When McCollum and Ingram shared the floor with center Jonas Valanciunas, the Pelicans posted an astounding 119.2 points per 100 possessions. The strengths that the team has developed — from rebounding to transition offense to points in the paint — perfectly suit Williamson’s skills. And when New Orleans’s offense stagnates in the halfcourt, it’s hard not to imagine how much more pressure it could put on defenses with a 60 percent shooter in its arsenal.CJ McCollum has averaged more points, rebounds and assists since he was traded to New Orleans from Portland in February.Christian Petersen/Getty ImagesIn prior matchups against a healthy Williamson, the Suns often assigned the 6-foot-11 center Deandre Ayton to guard him. When Williamson pulled Ayton out to the perimeter, driving lanes that had once resembled the freeway on a Friday afternoon suddenly opened. There’s no doubt that a healthy Williamson would have an impact on this series. With the Suns’ starting shooting guard, Devin Booker, sidelined because of a hamstring injury, the return of Williamson could transform the series. And even if he was not able to put New Orleans over the top of the reigning N.B.A. Western Conference champions, his presence would be an opportunity for the Pelicans’ core players to get experience playing together in high-stakes situations.According to ESPN, Williamson and the franchise have a “difference of opinion” about whether he’s healthy enough to play. But the team has not officially ruled him out. Whatever tension exists between Williamson and the Pelicans is likely to spill over into the off-season, with Williamson eligible for a rookie max extension after having played just 85 games in three seasons.“Some things need to stay private, but I will say this: What Z is going through is extremely difficult,” Green told reporters in February. “As a player and person, I’ve went through injuries. No excuses made on my part, but it’s difficult. You’re weighing a lot at those moments. You’re weighing when you’re going to continue to play. A lot goes through your head. For us here, for me, it’s having compassion and having an understanding of what he has to go through to get healthy.”Until Williamson’s return, all that’s left for his fans to do is rewatch old highlights, overanalyze new ones and wonder what could be. More

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    The Nets Need a Miracle. Or Two. Or Three. Or Four.

    No N.B.A. team has won a playoff series after losing the first three games. That’s the Nets’ challenge now, and Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant don’t look ready.As an unmistakable feeling of desperation closed in on the Nets, Coach Steve Nash reached toward the deepest recesses of his bench on Saturday and summoned a former star in twilight. Blake Griffin shed his warm-ups, along with some cobwebs, and reported to the scorer’s table.Griffin, 33, has a bum ankle and a surgically repaired knee that at a previous stage of his career — back when he was dunking over midsize sedans as one of the faces of the N.B.A. — had a full allotment of cartilage. But he had not caught a whiff of playing time in 21 days, dating to the regular season. Now, with the Nets trailing the Celtics in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series, Nash turned to Blake for something, anything — a spark, a lift, maybe even a miracle.The Nets were willing to take what they could get, and for a few glorious minutes at Barclays Center, Griffin delivered. He sank a couple of 3-pointers. He grappled for rebounds. He even tried to defend Jayson Tatum as the Celtics hunted for favorable one-on-one matchups against him.Miracles alone do not win playoff series, much less championships. And while there was a time, not so long ago, when the Nets were celebrated as the latest superteam that seemed bound for great things, they have discovered the hard way that titles cannot be store-bought or hastily cobbled together after months of injuries and dysfunction.The Nets turned to Blake Griffin for the first time this series on Saturday. But a few quick 3-pointers and rebounds from him weren’t the miracle the team needed.Michelle Farsi for The New York Times“I just felt like we didn’t have the right spirit throughout the entire game,” Griffin said after the Nets’ 109-103 loss, which pushed them to the brink of an early off-season.Boston, a team that has been ascendant under Ime Udoka, its first-year coach, can close out the Nets with a series sweep on Monday night, and it is probably only a matter of time before this one gets wrapped up regardless: No team in N.B.A. history has come back from a three-games-to-none series deficit.Aside from that inconvenient truth, the Nets appear acutely aware that the Celtics are a more complete, cohesive team. Just listen to them. Griffin cited the Celtics’ top-ranked defense. (“This is a great defensive team,” he said.) Kevin Durant cited their length. (“I just think they got more size than us,” he said.) And Nash cited their ability to drive to the basket. (“We haven’t been able to contain the basketball,” he said.) This is not a winning formula for the Nets.On Saturday, the Nets offered up plenty of small moments that typified larger problems. But consider one of their final possessions, as Durant dribbled against the Celtics’ Grant Williams with the hope of creating some space. Finding none, Durant threw a bounce pass to Kyrie Irving that was intercepted by Tatum, who raced away for a dunk that punctuated the win. It was the Nets’ 21st and final turnover of the game.“Poor decision-making,” Nash said. “Not connecting simple passes, and they’re going the other way.”The Celtics have smothered Durant, limiting him to 22 points a game on 36.5 percent shooting. On Saturday, he tried just 11 field goals. His postgame news conference sounded vaguely like therapy.“I’ve just been thinking too much, to be honest, this whole series,” he said.Kyrie Irving struggled in Game 3, missing all seven of his 3-point attempts. He finished with 16 points in the loss.Michelle Farsi for The New York TimesAfter shooting 4 of 17 from the field in Game 2, Durant had come into Game 3 wanting to find his teammates more often and “let the ball find me” within the flow of the offense, he said. But he was already questioning himself as he scrutinized another miserable box score in a series full of them.“I probably should’ve took more shots,” he said, adding: “In my mind, I’m just trying to see how I can help everybody. Sometimes, I end up taking myself out of the game.”Durant was not the only star who struggled. Irving shot 6 of 17 from the field and missed all seven of his 3-point attempts. Nash blamed fatigue for part of their woes. Irving is fasting for Ramadan. Durant has been supplying huge minutes for weeks — first when the Nets were scrambling to secure a spot in the postseason, and now as they try to survive against a superior opponent.“They’ve both got to be tired,” Nash said. “Fasting can’t be easy, you know? If I go play tennis and I haven’t eaten, I feel like I’m going to fall over. So I can’t imagine how he feels in an N.B.A. playoff game.”At the same time, the series has offered contrasting approaches to team building. The Celtics’ core is largely made up of players whom they drafted and developed, a list highlighted by Tatum and Jaylen Brown. That list also includes Marcus Smart, the N.B.A.’s defensive player of the year, and Robert Williams, the fourth-year center who returned to the rotation on Saturday about three weeks after knee surgery.The Nets were constructed with a championship-or-bust approach, but inconsistency on and off the court has made a deep playoff run seem out of reach.Michelle Farsi for The New York TimesIn that way, the Celtics are reminiscent of contenders like the Golden State Warriors and the Memphis Grizzlies, teams that developed continuity and chemistry by sticking with their young players.The Nets went the other way, acquiring high-priced stars like Durant and Irving while trading away their draft picks and prospects. It was championship or bust from the start. Sometimes that experiment pans out. The Los Angeles Lakers, after all, won the championship in 2020 by following a similar script. But that seems to be the exception these days, and the Lakers have since crumbled into a pile of very expensive and aging dust after mortgaging their future to try to win now. The Nets may not be far behind.The Nets, of course, have had a particularly disjointed season, and even before the start of Game 3, Nash was rattling off an abridged list of the challenges his team had faced: not having Irving for much of the season because he refused to be vaccinated; trading James Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers; losing Durant for six weeks because of a sprained ligament in his knee. Nash said he was not making excuses, but. …“We’ve had very few pockets with everyone able to play,” he said.At this point, they may have only one of them left. More

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    Jordan Poole Is Reviving Memories of Golden State’s Glory Days

    Jordan Poole’s emergence as a scoring threat has helped give Golden State the flow and feel of its championship teams. “They allow me just to be me,” he said.Early in the 2019-20 season, as the Golden State Warriors were in the initial stages of amassing the worst record in the N.B.A., Coach Steve Kerr tried to offer some perspective. He knew that he had been enjoying a charmed life in the Bay Area. Now, it was time to teach and develop. He had no choice.“The tough part is obviously losing,” he said in an interview after a morning shootaround at the time. “But it’s a great group, and they’re really fun to work with. They’ve got great energy, they’re competing and they’re learning.”Jordan Poole was a first-year guard out of Michigan shooting a less-than-robust 33.3 percent from the field as a rotation player. But he started 14 games and averaged more than 22 minutes per game overall because Kerr did not have many other options.Klay Thompson was out for the season after knee surgery. Stephen Curry had broken his left hand and would appear in just five games. Kevin Durant had left for the Nets. Draymond Green would miss more than 20 games with various ailments as the Warriors boarded an express train to the draft lottery.There were no guarantees that Golden State would be able to reassemble its championship pieces, a dream that became even murkier when Thompson ruptured his Achilles’ tendon in the fall of 2020, an injury that sidelined him for an additional season. Nothing was assured. Golden State had shown how quickly dominant teams could crumble.Now, as they close in on winning their first playoff series since 2019, the Warriors are back — and, in some important ways, the team is reminiscent of the juggernaut that advanced to five straight N.B.A. finals, between 2015 and 2019, winning three titles. Same high-octane formula. Same stylish swagger. Only the team’s supporting cast has changed, highlighted by the emergence of Poole in Golden State’s first-round playoff series with the Denver Nuggets.Stephen Curry is back to dancing and celebrating in the playoffs again.Jeff Chiu/Associated PressAt 22, Poole is using his lanky 6-foot-4 frame to shake defenders and create space for himself off the dribble. He is scoring from the 3-point arc, at the rim and from the foul line, where he led the N.B.A. in free-throw percentage this season. Shaped by the past three seasons, and molded by mentors who are identifiable by their first names, Poole has given a championship-tested core an enormous boost.“The fun part is seeing Jordan in it for the first time,” Kerr said after Golden State’s 118-113 win in Game 3 on Thursday. “We’ve got an interesting mix with all these vets who have been there, and we’ve got some young guys who are getting a taste of what it’s like.”Ahead of Game 4 on Sunday afternoon, the Nuggets are in trouble. Absent the injured Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., they have a depleted roster and virtually no chance. The Nuggets still employ Nikola Jokic, who did everything he could in Game 3, collecting 37 points and 18 rebounds, but no team has ever come back from a three-games-to-none deficit in the N.B.A. playoffs. Denver is not likely to be the first, not against the likes of Curry, Thompson and Green, who have played in a combined 367 postseason games.On Thursday, all three boarded their collective time machine back to the old days — before the injuries and the playoff drought and the questions about whether they could recapture their magic. Curry leaked out in transition and shuffled a no-look pass to Thompson for a layup. Green effectively sealed the win by stripping Jokic, then screamed at the opposing crowd. Curry pretended to go to sleep. Translation? Game over.“What a fun night at the office,” Thompson said. “The ball is just flying around.”It was a script lifted straight from 2015. Even Andre Iguodala, now 38 and one of the oldest players in the league, got in on the fun by soaring for a dunk.“Vintage Andre,” said Kerr, who was not surprised that his players seemed fueled by Denver’s crowd. “These guys have been around the block a few times, so they’re not fazed by this stuff.”And then there is Poole, who is new to the neighborhood, having appeared in three career postseason games, all against Denver. He scored 30 points in Game 1, 29 in Game 2 and 27 in Game 3. In the process, he has continued to absorb lessons from his more experienced teammates.“Just being out there with those guys late in the game and in that moment was extremely special because you get to see how locked in and how focused they are,” Poole said, adding: “They allow me just to be me.”Poole’s development was not a straight line. When he was coming out of college, teams had concerns about his defense and his shot selection. Mike Dunleavy Jr., one of Golden State’s assistant general managers, scouted him at the Big Ten tournament and saw potential. Golden State selected him with the 28th overall pick in 2019.Draymond Green has fiercely defended Denver’s Nikola Jokic, who won the Most Valuable Player Award last season.Ezra Shaw/Getty ImagesPoole has had his share of growing pains. Last season, he even dipped down to the G League for 11 games. Now, he has surfaced as one of the team’s most explosive options.“I’ve seen him put in so much work behind the scenes,” Thompson said.Poole has created a unique problem for Kerr, who has been bringing Curry off the bench in the series as he builds his minutes after a late-season foot injury. Curry has gracefully accepted the role (for now), saying everyone is going to get their minutes. And Kerr has shown an increased willingness to play a small-ball lineup that features Curry, Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Poole, with Green operating as the centripetal force. It is a throwback of sorts to the famed Hamptons Five lineup that included Durant, and to the so-called Death Lineup that preceded that one. This third iteration just needs a nickname.Poole has been so good, and so unflappable, that his coaches and teammates have resorted to being nitpicky. Late in the fourth quarter of Thursday’s game, with the result still in doubt, Poole had an open look at a 3-pointer. Instead of firing away, he drove to the hoop where he met Jeff Green, a 6-foot-8 forward. Poole treated him like a theater prop.“I probably would’ve preferred the corner 3 in that case,” Kerr said. “But he went in and made a circus shot.”Curry said the win was something that Poole, along with the rest of the team’s young players, could build on. A little bit of youth? A whole bunch of experience? For Golden State, the puzzle is almost complete. More

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    Grizzlies Deflate Timberwolves With Jaw-Dropping Playoff Comeback

    The Memphis Grizzlies were down by more than 20 points — twice — against the Timberwolves in Minnesota but won anyway. And it wasn’t because of their biggest star.MINNEAPOLIS — The job was almost finished, and Memphis Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane looked out across the court, flashed a triumphant smile and wiggled his eyebrows.The Grizzlies had overcome not one but two deficits of more than 20 points. They had fallen behind by 26 points early in the second quarter, pushed around by a punishing Timberwolves defense, but punched back and cut the deficit to 7 at halftime. A 15-0 run that helped them do it included three 3-pointers from Bane.But it didn’t stick.The Grizzlies trailed by 25 with 3:10 left in the third quarter, and Coach Taylor Jenkins screamed “one possession” through the deafening roar in the building. He reminded his team to focus on each possession instead of the daunting deficit.With each Grizzlies stop the arena got quieter. They outscored the Timberwolves, 50-16, over the rest of the game, again with Bane’s help from deep and an unyielding defensive effort that allowed only 12 fourth-quarter points.The Minnesota crowd filed out of the building, stunned by a result they half expected from years of Timberwolves futility. The Grizzlies love to boast when they’ve earned it, and Thursday night they certainly did.“I ain’t never been down 20 twice and won,” Bane said. “It was just a weird game. It was a weird game.”The attention that comes the Grizzlies’ way often focuses on Ja Morant, the effervescent 22-year-old point guard whose dunks seem to be aided by a pogo stick. But Morant has spent all season trying to shower more attention on the rest of his team.On Thursday night, the Grizzlies beat the Timberwolves, 104-95, to take a two-games-to-one lead in their best-of-seven first-round series in the Western Conference. It was a game that gave Morant more ammunition as he campaigned for his teammates. They won even though Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Dillon Brooks were 11 of 38 from the field after starting.“They deserve a lot more respect and recognition for what they do for us on the floor,” Morant said of his teammates as he sat next to Tyus Jones, his backup. “Like you said, us three struggled, but that’s why we got this guy alongside of me and the rest of our teammates to be there to pick us up. That’s why we’re really the deepest team in the league and we’re so good.”This was not the first time the Grizzlies had proved their ability to succeed even when key players were struggling or absent.Morant missed 25 games of the regular season, and the Grizzlies lost only five of them. When the team sat four starters against the league-leading Phoenix Suns on April 1, Memphis won anyway.Bane didn’t play in that game against the Suns, but he has been a major reason for the Grizzlies’ success this season. He was drafted 30th overall in 2020 and has gone from being a role player in his rookie year to a starter this year — from averaging 9.2 points a game to 18.2 points a game this regular season.“Last year I kind of felt like I was learning all year long, trying to learn, absorb as much information as I can so I could apply it in years to come,” Bane said in an interview Thursday morning. “Obviously, I’m still learning. I’m a young player, but I have a different role so I’m being extremely aggressive and having fun.”Bane scored 17 points in the Grizzlies’ Game 1 loss to the Timberwolves and 16 in their Game 2 win. On Thursday he led all scorers with 26 points. Game 4 is Saturday.The series pits against each other two young teams who are short on playoff experience but brimming with confidence. The Grizzlies had the second-best record in the league this year. The Timberwolves used a late push to force their way into the playoffs.As soon as the Grizzlies lost Game 1, a memory of last season came in handy. They had defeated the Jazz in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series last year, then Utah won the next four games.Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke made several critical shots down the stretch as Memphis, somehow, took the lead late after being down by as many as 26 points.Brad Rempel/USA Today Sports, via ReutersWhen Morant was asked pregame if he would like to steal a win from the Timberwolves on their home court, he said, “I want to steal two.”When asked why he loved road games so much, Morant was equally succinct.“Sending their fans home mad,” he said.The Timberwolves fans booed Morant every time he touched the ball, and Minnesota’s defense prioritized stopping him. Relative to his usual performances, it did. Morant, who averaged 27.4 points a game in the regular season, scored just 16 on Thursday. But the win was enough for him. As time expired, Morant asked for the ball and threw it up into the rafters as the crowd, seeming more sad than mad, departed.Jones, whom Morant introduced as “Point God” after the game, scored 11 points with 4 assists and 5 rebounds.Brandon Clarke scored 20 points, and took the podium after Morant and Jones. As they crossed paths, Morant playfully chided him for hiding his jewelry under his shirt. Morant wanted him to shine.The early playoff baptism for this young Grizzlies team is likely to pay off as their careers progress.“This is the best player development you can get,” Memphis Coach Taylor Jenkins said. He added: “The mental focus that you’ve got to have. The attention to detail we pride ourselves on all season long. Game plan discipline, night in and night out. That’s all the work that our guys put in. When you get to this level and you’re playing high stakes game to game, ups and downs. Just staying even keeled throughout.”Bane is quite aware of how unusual his first two seasons in the N.B.A. have been. Not everyone comes into a young team where they can make an immediate impact and also go to the playoffs.“Some players go their whole career without ever making the playoffs,” Bane said Thursday morning. “And for me to be able to do it my first two years in the league, I don’t want anything else. I want to get to the playoffs every year.”A smile brightened his face as he said it and thought about such a future.In the shorter term, Bane is thinking bigger.“We want to make some noise in this postseason,” Bane said. “We want to make a run. It’s obviously exciting times, and we’re confident about where we’re at and what we’ve done, but there’s still a lot to be done.” More

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    The Nets May Be in Trouble. But They Still Have Kevin Durant.

    The brilliant Durant who so often appears in critical moments? He’s been missing in the playoffs against the Celtics. “I just got to go out there and play,” he said.BOSTON — Kevin Durant had no room. He admitted as much. Whenever he had the ball against the Celtics on Wednesday night, and even when he did not, defenders were crowding his space, shadowing him, draping themselves all over him like Saran wrap. They were on the perimeter, and in the paint, and at the elbow. How was it possible that only five of them were on the court at once?“They’re mucking up actions when I run off stuff,” said Durant, who singled out the Celtics’ Al Horford for “leaving his man to come over and hit me sometimes.” Durant went on: “Just two or three guys hitting me wherever I go. And that’s just the nature of the beast in the playoffs.”It was nearing 11 p.m. as Durant offered up his post-mortem of the Nets’ 114-107 loss to the Celtics in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series, and he did not necessarily seem concerned. In fact, his analysis came off as dispassionate: Here were the facts, and it was his job to remedy the issues as the Nets seek to rebound from their two-games-to-none deficit in the best-of-seven series. It heads to Brooklyn for Game 3 on Saturday night.“It’s on me to just finish it and figure it out,” he said. “I’m not expecting my teammates or the defense to give me anything. I just got to go out there and play.”Durant is having an atypical series. In the Nets’ loss in Game 1 on Sunday, he shot 9 of 24 from the field and committed six turnovers. In Game 2, he shot 4 of 17 from the field and committed six turnovers. The Celtics, with their length and toughness, produced the N.B.A.’s top-ranked defense during the regular season, and now they are putting the clamps on the best all-around scorer on the planet. It is no fluke.“When you’re a great scorer, or you’re a consistent scorer, you’re used to seeing open space, and you’re usually shaking guys with one or two moves,” said the Nets’ Kyrie Irving, who had his own problems, scoring 10 points while shooting 4 of 13 from the field. “But with this defense, those two or three moves, guys are staying on your hip.”You may have heard this already, but the Nets have had a turbulent season. At one point, James Harden played for them, until they traded him away for Ben Simmons. Irving was not allowed to play for the Nets, and then he was — but only on the road, up until about a month ago. And stay tuned: Simmons may actually make his debut for the team in this series. The bottom line is that the Nets have never had much cohesion.It would be a mistake, of course, to count them out. Durant and Irving are capable of doing extraordinary things all by themselves. But the Celtics are determined — they trailed on Wednesday by as many as 17 points before mounting a comeback — and they have two stars of their own, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who have finally unlocked their own brand of chemistry. Irving sounded like their publicist.“I’m not surprised at all,” Irving said. “I just think the timing is right. Their window is now for these young guys that are on this team that have matured. They’ve been through series together, they’ve been through seasons together, and they’ve been through battles together.”On Wednesday, the Celtics were ready for a fight. A couple of hours before the game, Marcus Smart, the team’s starting point guard, made a statement when he showed up to the arena wearing a bedazzled boxing robe with the acronym “D.P.O.Y.” splashed across the back. In a pregame ceremony, he formally accepted the N.B.A.’s Defensive Player of the Year Award from a cast of luminaries that included Gary Payton, who was the last guard to claim the award, for the 1995-96 season.Durant shot just four of 17 from the field in the Nets’ Game 2 loss to the Celtics on Wednesday.Michael Dwyer/Associated PressStill, pretty much everyone in the building expected Durant to bounce back from his struggles in Game 1, and for good reason. Last season, he averaged 41.8 points in the four games that followed playoff losses for the Nets. Ime Udoka, the coach of the Celtics, was acutely aware of that statistic. He cited it before Wednesday’s game.“Just understanding what he’s going to come out and try to do,” Udoka said. “We all know that.”Udoka, especially. Last season, he was one of Nets Coach Steve Nash’s assistants. Udoka has institutional knowledge, and he has been putting it to use.“They switch everything,” Durant said. “They’re basically playing a zone so it’s easier for every player. They don’t have to chase over screens, don’t have to fight through stuff. Just use your length, sit in the lane and help.”At his postgame news conference, Durant kept glancing at the box score as if it were a riddle he needed to solve. He made a few observations. He observed, for example, that the Celtics had seven players score at least 10 points, which was indicative of their balance. He also observed that “they made a few more shots than us.”Solutions were not forthcoming — not yet. On the one hand, the Celtics merely maintained their home-court advantage in the series. On the other hand, the Nets are in dire straits: They need to win four out of the next five games, potentially. The math is unforgiving.“To be honest with you, we don’t really have time to be disappointed,” Irving said.Perhaps Durant’s minutes are beginning to take a toll. In the final weeks of the regular season, the Nets needed to scramble to assure themselves of a spot in the postseason, and Durant shouldered a heavy load: 42 minutes against the Charlotte Hornets, 45 minutes against the Milwaukee Bucks, 42 minutes against the Atlanta Hawks. He also supplied more than 40 minutes in the final game of the regular season, a 5-of-17 shooting performance against the Indiana Pacers. It was, in its own way, a sign of things to come against the Celtics.Ahead of Saturday’s game, Durant said he would study film. He expressed faith in his teammates.“The name of our game is just to play extremely hard,” he said.The problem? That’s the Celtics’ game, too. More

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    For the Raptors, Scottie Barnes Can Do a Little Bit of Everything

    Barnes is a finalist for the Rookie of the Year Award. But he has bigger aspirations than that, starting with winning a championship this year.When the Toronto Raptors selected forward Scottie Barnes with the fourth pick of the 2021 N.B.A. draft, some people in the basketball world raised their eyebrows. Jalen Suggs, considered one of the can’t-miss prospects, was still on the board.One regular season later, the Raptors look prescient. The 20-year-old Barnes is a top contender for the Rookie of the Year Award. He’s evoked comparisons to Vince Carter and Damon Stoudamire, the two Raptors who have been named rookie of the year.“I had actually never been to Toronto,” Barnes told The New York Times recently. “I never even thought of being in Toronto. It was just never a thought in my mind. It’s not as different as I thought it would be. The only thing that is different is just that weather, because I’m from Florida.”At his best, the 6-foot-9 Barnes is a versatile dynamo with a game similar to, but much less refined than, that of Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo. This season, Barnes started all 74 of the games he played in, averaging 15.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game on 49.2 percent shooting. In one blink, he can speed the ball up court as a quasi-point guard. In another, he attacks the rim for thunderous dunks. Raptors Coach Nick Nurse has often had Barnes defend top players, including Kevin Durant and Luka Doncic.Barnes said he wants to leave a legacy of being “a great all-around player.”Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated PressNow, he’s a key to Toronto’s hopes to win the championship. He fits the mold of the players who helped the Raptors win the franchise’s first title, in 2019, General Manager Bobby Webster said.“These really kind of versatile, long forwards that can do a bunch are just hard to come by,” he said. “And if they hit, they can be really valuable and productive players.”The question mark for Barnes is his long-range shooting. He hit just 30.1 percent of his 3-pointers during the regular season, and even that was an improvement on his lone year at Florida State University, where he shot 27.5 percent from 3.Barnes, who grew up in West Palm Beach, Fla., helped the Raptors claim the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference and a matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the playoffs. During Game 1 on Saturday, Barnes was given the task of trying to contain James Harden, but he left the game with an ankle injury and was out for Game 2 on Monday. Toronto missed Barnes’s defense and energy, and lost in a 112-97 blowout to fall to 0-2 in the series. Game 3 is Wednesday, and it’s not clear if Barnes will be able to play.In an interview with The Times before the playoffs, Barnes discussed the strong start to his career, his confidence level and his campaign for the Rookie of the Year Award.This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.It was considered pretty surprising at the time that the Raptors picked you at No. 4 in the draft. What ran through your head when your name was announced?Even throughout the whole predraft process, I really just went in with no expectation. Really, paying no mind. I really was just not worrying about things that I couldn’t control. So I really just went there and just was me wherever I went. So going into that when they said my name, I was just really excited, really happy. I didn’t really know what was going to happen, so I didn’t really have any expectation. So I was just a huge burst of excitement.Barnes has become known for his energy, off and on the court. He’s often tasked with the toughest defensive assignments.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press, via Associated PressWhat do you remember about your predraft conversations with Raptors president Masai Ujiri?He is a big person on winning. Just winning, winning, winning. So, me, I’m a big person on winning, too. So, really, it was just like, we just both really had a mutual mind.What’s been the hardest thing about jumping to the N.B.A. so far?Either traveling as much or just adjusting to, like, the refs and really how they call the game.When you have free time, what do you like to do?Just chill at the crib and play video games.What are you playing right now?Play NBA 2K. Call of Duty. Fortnite.When you play 2K, do you play as the Raptors?I don’t really play as teams. I usually play a create-a-player mode.What was your favorite moment of the regular season?So one of our favorite games played this year was probably with the Brooklyn Nets. K.D. [Kevin Durant] and James [Harden]. I think it was at their house, but we lost. But it was an interesting game. There was a lot of trash talk being involved. So it made it more fun. There was trash talking, and we were trash-talking back, and it was awesome. It was going down to the wire, going back and forth, back and forth. But I would say it was a great game.Barnes had 23 points and 12 points against the Nets in a game on Dec. 14. The Raptors lost by 2 points.Sarah Stier/Getty ImagesDo you trash-talk on the floor?Sometimes. Not as much, but only sometimes I will. But I won’t say so much out here.LeBron James said he watched you play in seventh grade. Did you know that until he said that recently?I don’t remember him saying it. It sounds great, but I know he watched me in 10th or ninth grade year when I played with Zaire — Dwyane Wade’s son. Him and Dwyane Wade were courtside watching our games. I hit a game-winner and I clapped him and D-Wade up. I was hype and I went to the sideline and sniped D-Wade and Bron’s hand after the game because I just hit a buzzer-beater. But to see those guys just say those things about me, it shows that people see that potential in me of what I can do.Were you one of the popular kids in school? What were you like?I was always an outgoing kid. Not saying I was so popular, but, you know, I had that core, that little swagger. I was very talkative, a kid with a lot of energy. So I would say I had a good amount of friends. I was always like one of those funny kids in class.There are a lot of comparisons between your impact as a rookie and Vince Carter’s and Damon Stoudamire’s. Have you ever spoken to Vince Carter at all?I actually did. I saw him at one of our games this year and I went up to him. I said, “What’s up?” We really couldn’t have that much conversation. I actually saw Damon Stoudamire at the mall in Boston, and we chatted it up for a little while. Went up to him. Recognized him. And I just started talking to him.What kind of impact are you hoping to leave in the league?In this league, I would say I want to, of course, win rookie of the year this year. Be on the All-Defensive team, multiple times. Be a future M.V.P. Be a finals M.V.P. Be a finals N.B.A. champion multiple times. Of course, be a multiple-time All-Star. Really, just leave that legacy. that I was just a great all-around player.Is there something that makes you rookie of the year over the other candidates?Really just doing so many different types of things, and being that versatile player that’s just having a big impact on our team really winning basketball games. More

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    Golden State’s Playoff Reappearance Doesn’t Quite Feel Like Old Times

    The heart of the roster — Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green — is back in the N.B.A. playoffs, a world away from the team’s soul in Oakland.SAN FRANCISCO — The scene felt both comfortingly familiar and oddly askew.Warming up before Game 1 of the Golden State Warriors’ first-round playoff series against the Denver Nuggets, Klay Thompson launched orbital jump shots beside his longtime teammate Stephen Curry. The nets singed with swishes, same as they ever had.This was a home game for Golden State, which in the not-too-distant past — let’s just say anytime during the five straight N.B.A. finals appearances and three championship titles that began in the 2014-15 season — would have meant Oakland, inside the madhouse bandbox known as “Roaracle,” the worn-at-the-heels arena long known as one of the loudest in sports.But that was the past.This was San Francisco. The present. Chase Center. The first Golden State playoff game since 2019. A crowd full of new fans who can afford the astronomical ticket prices. A crowd still learning how to love its favorite team.At Oracle, fans rarely left their seats during the heart of the action.At Chase, there are so many amenities — lounge-like lobbies, $25 lobster rolls — that plenty of seats were open as the first half wound to a close Saturday with Golden State on a scintillating run that propelled it to a 123-107 victory.At Oracle, fans often broke out into a loud chants that seemed to spell doom for opponents.At Chase, fans chanted, but the sound seemed comparatively diminished, the cadence, strength and timing not quite right.What a difference nearly three years makes for two great American cities and one great global brand of an N.B.A. team.On June 13, 2019, Golden State played its final game at Oracle Arena in the heart of Oakland. Presaging the dark days ahead, the Toronto Raptors won Game 6 of the N.B.A. finals, snatching the title from the defending champion, closing the building and ending Golden State’s run as this century’s most dominant N.B.A. team. Thompson tore up his left knee in that game. Kevin Durant, felled by an Achilles’ tear in that series, signed with the Nets within weeks.A mural of Curry adorned the rear wall of a gym complex near Jack London Square in Oakland in 2019.Jim Wilson/The New York TimesGolden State now plays in a three-year-old crown jewel of a waterfront stadium nestled across the bay, tucked within a high-priced neighborhood of gleaming shops, offices and condominiums.But the longtime, nearly spiritual bond between Oakland and its famed basketball team remains. Emblazoned on Curry’s shoes Saturday was the word “Oakland” in a gold font. The players still speak of the city as if it is sacred. “The soul of our team comes from Oakland,” Draymond Green said this year.To get a sense of the city and gauge how residents feel about losing a team that bonded with its home community as few franchises do, I spent a few days in Oakland last week. I walked the downtown streets and the working class neighborhoods near the old Oracle, now known as Oakland Arena. I visited a mosque and an old church, several tiendas, a shopping mall, a soul food joint and several homes.I trudged around the old arena, which looks sad and forlorn. It is primarily a concert venue now. Maxwell, the silky-voiced R&B singer, had been set to play on Saturday night, but his concert was postponed.That seemed symbolic. Nothing seems certain in Oakland these days. As the city struggles to recover from the worst of the pandemic, its connection with professional sports — a history that includes 10 league championships won in Oakland among its N.B.A. franchise, the A’s of M.L.B. and the Raiders of the N.F.L. — hangs by a thread.The Raiders followed the Golden State blueprint and left for Las Vegas in 2020.The A’s remain, but for how long? On Monday, when they play their 2022 home opener against the Baltimore Orioles, they will take the field at a decrepit old stadium that looked marvelous when it was built in the 1960s but now has the charm of a concrete coffin.With the team’s plan to build a waterfront stadium along the busy Oakland port at a standstill, the city again in financial distress and the A’s team owner flirting with Las Vegas, nobody can say that professional baseball will stay put.“Very soon, we might have no teams here,” said Paul Brekke-Miesner, a historian of the Oakland sports scene who has lived in the city’s hardscrabble eastern flats for decades. Brekke-Miesner grimaced, thinking of Oakland and its long heritage of professional sports greatness now fading.Seeing Golden State play a postseason series at the Chase Center, “it’s more than a gut punch,” he said, echoing a sentiment I heard often. The wound remains raw. “And it’s so ironic because we have the legacy here as far as basketball, but that doesn’t matter to the owners anymore. They don’t understand.”Perhaps this should not surprise. The relocation of teams tears at the fabric of a community, but it is nothing new.The Raiders started in Oakland, moved to Los Angeles, came back to Oakland and now have a Las Vegas address.Both the A’s and the Warriors were born in Philadelphia.When the basketball franchise came west in 1962, it played in San Francisco. Oakland didn’t become home until 1971. What’s old is new again.More than once last week, I heard Oakland residents describe going to Golden State games at the arena in their city as akin to a spiritual undertaking. When the team was in Oakland, through lean years and world titles it oozed with the town’s vibe — soulful, tough, while also willing to break old norms and throw jabs at the status quo.Oakland birthed the Black Panthers and became one of the most diverse and progressive cities in the nation. It produced a slew of trailblazing athletes, iconic and unafraid. Bill Russell, Frank Robinson and Curt Flood to name three. That Curry changed how basketball is played while suiting up in Oakland felt perfect.“Oracle was like my cathedral,” one longtime fan told me, thinking back to all the games he watched from the rafter seats while Curry strung together mind-bending 3-pointers as if touched by grace. “Chase Center? Hmm. Definitely not.”It’s not anyone’s cathedral just yet.“Oracle, especially during the playoffs over the years, was just an incredible atmosphere,” Steve Kerr, Golden State’s coach, said before Game 1. “Those are amazing memories that will last a lifetime. Now it’s time to start some new ones.”Getting out to a 1-0 series lead was a good beginning. Even if the home crowd, still learning how to rise with raucous chants, made three years seem like eons and Oakland feel far, far away. More

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    Boston Celtics Buzzer-Beater Takes Down Kyrie Irving and the Nets

    Irving, the Nets guard, had a brilliant Game 1 against Boston on Sunday, but the Celtics, led by Jayson Tatum and his buzzer-beater, ended up on top.BOSTON — There was a time when Celtics fans were excited about Kyrie Irving. They can recall the summer of 2017, when Irving forced his way out of Cleveland and landed in Boston, where he delighted in the Celtics’ illustrious past and pledged to do what he could to help the team win.But over Irving’s two seasons with the Celtics, all that communal excitement morphed into a bunch of different stuff: tolerance as he struggled with injuries, then impatience as he criticized teammates, then something that resembled rage as it became clear that he and Boston were bound for a divorce.On Sunday afternoon, Irving was back in Boston, where a fervent crowd at TD Garden christened Game 1 of the Celtics’ first-round playoff series with the Nets by booing Irving at every opportunity. They booed him when he emerged from the visitors’ tunnel for warm-ups. They booed him during introductions. They booed him whenever he touched the ball. And he nearly silenced them with another tour de force in a career full of them.But in the opener of a best-of-seven-game clash between teams with outsize goals, Jayson Tatum sent the arena into a state of pandemonium with a layup at the buzzer that gave the Celtics a 115-114 win. Game 2 is in Boston on Wednesday.“It was fulfilling for us, especially the way we started this year off,” Celtics guard Marcus Smart said. “The resilience we have, the approach we have, the work we put in and learning — we had a lot of games to learn from early in the year.”As the series continues, the Celtics will need to put all that knowledge to use against Irving, who was spectacular in Game 1. He finished with 39 points and 6 assists, and his 3-pointer with 45.9 seconds left put the Nets ahead by 3. In the process, he reminded Boston why the city wanted him in the first place, while underscoring all the bitterness that has followed.Those feelings resurfaced at various points of the game. On at least two occasions, Irving appeared to raise his middle fingers at fans sitting near the court. He said in his postgame news conference that people in the crowd were swearing at him and referring to him using explicit terms.“It’s nothing new when I come into this building, what it’s going to be like,” he said. “But the same energy they have for me, I’m going to have the same energy for them.”He added: “There’s only so much you take as a competitor. We’re the ones expected to be docile and humble and take a humble approach. Nah.”For most of the game, Irving let his play do the talking. The Celtics were undaunted in the final minute, though, and after Jaylen Brown drove for a layup, the Nets’ Kevin Durant missed a long 3-pointer. At the other end, Smart found Tatum, who spun past Irving for a layup with the clock winding down. It was his easiest bucket of the night.“I think that’s kind of a microcosm of our season: guys moving the ball, playing unselfish,” Celtics Coach Ime Udoka said. “It all came together on the last possession.”Tatum finished with 31 points, and Brown had 23. Smart had an astounding all-around game, collecting 20 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals. Durant had 23 points and shot just 9 of 24.For the second straight postseason, the Nets and the Celtics are meeting in the first round. Last year, the Nets advanced in five games in a series that only inflamed the dynamic between Irving, who appeared to stomp on the Celtics’ logo at midcourt, and Boston fans, one of whom chucked a water bottle at him.Irving shooting over Boston guard Marcus Smart, a finalist for the Defensive Player of the Year Award. The Boston fans booed Irving, a former Celtic, throughout the game.David Butler Ii/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThat series also helped spur significant change in the Celtics’ organization. Brad Stevens moved to the front office after eight seasons as the team’s head coach. His job was filled by Udoka, a longtime N.B.A. assistant and Gregg Popovich disciple who seems to have unlocked the collaborative potential of Tatum and Brown. Remember when the Celtics had a losing record, 23-24, in late January? They closed the regular season by going 28-7.Udoka entered the series uniquely familiar with the Nets. Last season, as one of Coach Steve Nash’s assistants, Udoka got to know Irving and Durant — and their gifts.Amid a sloppy, foul-marred start, the Celtics’ top-ranked defense gave the Nets fits, forcing seven first-quarter turnovers. The game’s assembled stars — Irving, Durant, Brown and Tatum — combined to miss 12 of their first 14 field-goal attempts.Irving got going early in the second quarter with a pair of 3-pointers, the second on a pull-up in transition. The game was tied at 61 at halftime before the Celtics began to roll — a jolt that was predictably predicated on their defense. Late in the third quarter, Jaylen Brown blocked the Nets’ Bruce Brown at the rim, then raced away to convert a layup at the other end. Then the Nets took their turn, but Tatum blocked a jump shot by Durant, then hit a 3-pointer to extend Boston’s lead to 11.Irving was virtually unstoppable in the fourth quarter, scoring 18 points on 7 of 9 shooting, which set the stage for the game’s dramatic conclusion.“I don’t know that there’s any atmospheres that are going to rattle him,” Nash said, adding: “The guy’s done about all you can do in the game.”The Nets secured the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs by defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in the play-in tournament on Tuesday. The Celtics had an even longer layoff, with a full week to prepare, since they closed their regular season on April 10 as the No. 2 seed.Boston’s Jaylen Brown, left, driving against Kevin Durant. Brown had 23 points on 9 of 19 shooting.Maddie Meyer/Getty ImagesThe Celtics were without Robert Williams, their rim-protecting, fourth-year center. Williams was having a breakout season when he tore the meniscus in his left knee last month and had surgery. Udoka said the Celtics were preparing as if Williams would not be available for the series, though Udoka did not rule out the possibility — however remote — of Williams returning. “He’s progressing nicely,” Udoka said.Before the game, the Celtics’ game operations crew spiced things up a bit on the arena’s video board by flashing a quote from Bruce Brown about how the Nets could “attack” Al Horford and Daniel Theis in Williams’s absence. (The crowd booed.) Horford was terrific on Sunday, finishing with 20 points and 15 rebounds, and he was animated throughout the game. Having Williams, of course, would only enhance the team’s championship hopes.The Nets are used to waiting, too. They waited for Irving to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, and when he was unwilling to do so, they waited for New York City to lift its vaccine mandates so that he could play in home games. Now, the Nets are waiting — still waiting — for Ben Simmons to take the court for the first time since they acquired him in a midseason trade with the Philadelphia 76ers.Simmons, who has not played since last postseason, has been dealing with a balky back since arriving in Brooklyn, and no one has any idea what he would look like if he were actually to take the floor against the Celtics. On Saturday, apparently for the benefit of reporters who were monitoring his progress, Simmons dunked at practice.“Make sure you get this,” he said to those who were filming him with their cellphones.On Sunday, Simmons wore mirrored sunglasses on the visitors’ bench as Irving and the rest of the Nets went about their business in a hostile environment. For one afternoon, at least, and by the slimmest of margins, the Celtics were the more complete team. More