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The N.B.A. draft lottery was delayed three months. The Minnesota Timberwolves are certainly feeling like the wait was worthwhile.The Timberwolves won the lottery Thursday night, giving them the No. 1 pick. The lottery was conducted virtually because of the pandemic, with N.B.A. officials doing the drawing in Secaucus, N.J.Golden State holds the No. 2 pick, Charlotte got the No. 3 pick and Chicago will pick fourth. The Hornets and Bulls both bucked the odds to move into the upper echelon. The Knicks will have the No. 8 pick.The Timberwolves were 19-45 this season, marking the 14th time in 15 years that they missed the playoffs and finished with a losing record. And a month ago, Glen Taylor — who has owned the franchise since 1994 — said he “will entertain” offers for the Timberwolves and the W.N.B.A.’s Minnesota Lynx.It’ll be Minnesota’s first time holding the No. 1 pick since 2015.Chicago had a 32 percent chance of moving into the top four spots, and Charlotte and about a 26 percent chance. They leapfrogged four teams that had better top-four odds — Cleveland, Atlanta, Detroit and the Knicks.For now, the delayed draft — originally set for late June — is scheduled for Oct. 16. The N.B.A. has been hoping for a Dec. 1 start to the 2020-21 season, though Commissioner Adam Silver said on the ESPN telecast of the draft lottery that the December date now “is feeling a little bit early to me.”Without fans at games, the league and its teams are without a major revenue stream. There have been talks about starting next season with one or multiple bubbles, like the one where the league is playing now at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., but the league is hoping it doesn’t come to that.“Our No. 1 goal is to get fans back in our arenas,” Silver said on the telecast. “My sense is, in working with the players association, if we could push back even a little longer and increase the likelihood of having fans in arenas, that’s what we would be targeting.”So not only is it unclear which player is going when — but it’s also unclear when anyone will see their N.B.A. debuts.Unlike a year ago, when Zion Williamson was clearly going to be the first selection, there is no consensus No. 1 pick. Top candidates include Georgia’s Anthony Edwards, Memphis’ James Wiseman and LaMelo Ball — the brother of New Orleans guard Lonzo Ball.Edwards, a 6-foot-5 guard, averaged 19.1 points in 32 games for Georgia in his lone college season. Wiseman, a 7-foot-1 center, played in only three games for Memphis and averaged 19.7 points before giving up what had been a lengthy fight with the N.C.A.A. over his eligibility. Ball, a 6-foot-7 guard, averaged 17 points in 12 games while playing in Australia’s top pro league this past season.Cleveland got the fifth pick, followed by Atlanta, Detroit, the Knicks, Washington, Phoenix, San Antonio, Sacramento and New Orleans at No. 13.Memphis, which had 200-to-1 odds of winning the No. 1 pick and was 97.6 percent certain of finishing 14th, ended up in exactly that spot — a pick that will now be conveyed to Boston as part of a 2015 trade. It means the Celtics could have three first-round picks on draft night, barring any moves by Boston beforehand.The rest of the first-round order, starting with the No. 15 pick and going to No. 30, as of now is: Orlando, Portland, Minnesota, Dallas, the Nets, Miami, Philadelphia, Denver, Utah, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Boston, the Knicks, the Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto and Boston. More

OAKLAND, Calif. — A new video released by the lawyers for Masai Ujiri, the Toronto Raptors’ president, appears to show that an Alameda County sheriff’s deputy initially shoved him twice leading to an altercation moments after the Raptors had defeated the Golden State Warriors in the 2019 N.B.A. finals.The Raptors had just won their first title by winning Game 6 at Oracle Arena in Oakland on June 13, 2019, when Ujiri moved toward the court to join his celebrating team.Alan Strickland, an Alameda County sheriff’s deputy, claimed in a federal lawsuit filed in February that he stopped Ujiri because he didn’t provide the proper credential, leading to a shoving match that was partially captured on video. Strickland accused Ujiri of hitting him “in the face and chest with both fists,” trying to go around him and repeatedly ignoring orders to stop.Video released Tuesday by Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy, the law firm representing Ujiri, from Strickland’s body camera shows Ujiri walking while pulling credentials out of his suit’s breast pocket and Strickland aggressively shoving him twice shortly before Ujiri shoves him back. The footage ends shortly after that.The Raptors said in a statement they stand by Ujiri, adding that the video showed Strickland’s accusations were “baseless and entirely without merit.” Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Raptors and the Toronto Maple Leafs of the N.H.L., also supported Ujiri.“We believe this video evidence shows exactly that — Masai was not an aggressor, but instead was the recipient of two very violent, unwarranted actions,” the team said.“While Masai has the full backing of Raptors and M.L.S.E. as he fights this injustice, we are aware that not all people have similar support and resources. This is a spurious legal action that M.L.S.E., the NBA, and especially Masai should not be facing,” it added.In a counterclaim filed Tuesday, Ujiri’s lawyers said the footage shows Strickland was “undeniably the initial aggressor” in the confrontation and that the new evidence will vindicate Ujiri’s rights “as a victim of unreasonable force, assault, and battery at the hands of Mr. Strickland,” the East Bay Times reported.Mastagni Holstedt, a law firm that represents Alameda County sheriff’s deputies, did not respond to a request for comment.In a statement Wednesday, sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly, a sheriff’s spokesman, said the department had closed out its part in the case last July. Kelly distinguished between the public case, which ended with a citation hearing last November, and the private matter of Strickland’s suit against Ujiri.“There’s been a snippet of video released publicly that doesn’t tell the story of the entire investigation,” Kelly said. “That story will have to come out through the process. We stand by our original statements.”Kelly confirmed that Strickland remains employed by the department and said the deputy is on leave recovering from injuries sustained during the incident. More

The eight N.B.A. teams that did not qualify for the season’s restart at Walt Disney World in Florida can create bubbles and hold voluntary group workouts at their team facilities beginning in mid-September, the league and its players’ union announced on Tuesday.The provision applies to teams like the Knicks and the Golden State Warriors, who were no longer in contention for the playoffs when the N.B.A. suspended its season on March 11 because of the coronavirus pandemic. The league resumed play in July with 22 teams in an isolated campus at Disney World near Orlando, Fla., that has thus far not yielded any positive coronavirus tests after players and staff left quarantine.The announcement by the league is an indication that the N.B.A. has faith in its approach and feels comfortable expanding it, even as the pandemic continues to affect lives daily in the United States. Like the Florida restart, this plan would be implemented in phases, including a quarantine period before workouts. It would require players and staff to stay “in a campuslike environment under controlled conditions,” according to the statement released by the N.B.A., and to undergo daily testing for the coronavirus.The eight teams affected are the Knicks, Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls and the Charlotte Hornets. The league said that all eight teams could also invite up to five players who currently are not signed to a league contract but were assigned to the team’s G League affiliate.The news release said that it would be up to the teams to create campus environments in their own home cities and that it is not mandatory for players to attend. This new agreement would open the door for teams to have intrasquad scrimmages and group conditioning sessions.It is not clear where the home city campuses would be. The Knicks declined to comment. The team recently hired Tom Thibodeau as its newest head coach.In the plan for the Florida restart, the N.B.A. allowed 22 teams to take part: the eight teams slated for the playoffs in each conference, as well as six teams that were within six games of the eighth seeds in their conferences. They played eight seeding games to complete the regular season and to determine which 16 teams made the playoffs and where they would be seeded. The playoffs began Monday. More

How the Dallas Mavericks’ two young European stars fare on the league’s biggest stage looms as one of the foremost curiosities of the playoffs. More

Can the Lakers and the Clippers meet expectations as the N.B.A. playoffs begin? More

In striving to manufacture a home-court advantage where none exists, the N.B.A. and W.N.B.A. are relying on a database of music, audio cues and graphics to help teams feel at home. More

With a fourth quarter scoring run propelled by CJ McCollum and Carmelo Anthony, Portland earned a spot in the first round of the N.B.A. playoffs. They will face LeBron James’s Lakers. More

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Zion Williamson, the Pelicans’ cornerstone forward, will have a new coach in New Orleans next season as he tries to rebound from an injury-plagued rookie season.The Pelicans fired Coach Alvin Gentry on Saturday with one year left on his contract. The widely expected move came the day after the Pelicans had returned home from a disappointing showing in the N.B.A. restart at Walt Disney World.Two of the first five teams eliminated from the N.B.A. bubble made major moves in response to their early exits. Before Gentry’s ouster, Sacramento General Manager Vlade Divac stepped down under pressure on Friday after the Kings had extended their league-leading playoff drought to 14 seasons.New Orleans was one of six sub-.500 teams given a chance by the league’s return-to-play format to force their way into the postseason, joining the 16 teams that had attained playoff positions when the season was suspended indefinitely on March 11. The Pelicans won just two of eight games and finished 21st out of 22 teams.After missing nearly two weeks’ worth of basketball activities in the N.B.A.’s so-called bubble, attending to what the Pelicans described as an urgent family matter and completing a subsequent four-day quarantine before he could rejoin the team, Williamson played no more than 27 minutes in his five games in Florida.Williamson also missed the first 43 games of his rookie season after undergoing surgery in October to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee and wound up playing in just 24 of New Orleans’s 72 regular-season games. He posted big numbers when he did play, though, becoming the first rookie since Shaquille O’Neal in 1992-93 to average at least 20 points (22.5) while shooting better than 55 percent from the field (.583).Gentry, who is owed an estimated $5 million next season, coached the Pelicans for the past five seasons, posting a record of 175-225 (.438), but managed just one playoff berth amid a seemingly constant swirl of injuries.New Orleans reached the second round of the playoffs in 2017-18 and then endured a season of tumult in 2018-19 that ultimately led the star forward Anthony Davis to force a trade to the Los Angeles Lakers in July 2019.The Pelicans’ struggles last season, however, did put them in position to win the 2019 draft lottery and the right to select Williamson out of Duke. With Williamson, Jrue Holiday and Brandon Ingram — who was acquired in the Davis deal — on the roster, New Orleans is expected to attract a strong field of candidates to replace Gentry. The former Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue, the former Milwaukee Bucks and Nets coach Jason Kidd and the former Nets coach Kenny Atkinson have already been mentioned as potential successors.The Pelicans join the Chicago Bulls as the only current teams with coaching openings, but the Nets are expected to conduct a broad coaching search that would also include Lue and Kidd when their stay in the bubble is over. The Nets have said repeatedly that their interim coach, Jacque Vaughn, will also receive consideration for the full-time post.“I’m grateful for and appreciative of Alvin’s commitment to the organization and, most importantly, the local community,” David Griffin, the Pelicans’ executive vice president of basketball operations, said in a statement. “These types of moves are often about fit and timing, and we believe now is the right time to make this change and bring in a new voice.”Williamson was held out of the Pelicans’ final two games in Florida after they had been eliminated from playoff contention, but he seemed to acknowledge in his final interview session with reporters on Thursday morning that playing at his listed weight of 285 pounds might have contributed to his injury issues this season.Williamson said he planned to spend the off-season doing the requisite “work on getting my body where it needs to be.”When pressed about his weight and conditioning, Williamson said: “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But I’m going to stick to the opinions of the people closest to me and my team and just go from there.” More