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      Kevon Looney Leads Golden State in Comeback Win Over Dallas Mavericks

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      Looney had the best night of his career to fuel his team’s comeback from 19 points down to the Dallas Mavericks in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals.SAN FRANCISCO — The day before Kevon Looney produced the best game of his professional career, he sat in a hallway at Chase Center in San Francisco, thinking about the way his role had changed since Golden State drafted him in 2015.This was a team known for its smaller lineups; that’s how it had won a championship that year. At 6-foot-9, and despite a wingspan of more than seven feet, Looney was considered undersized.Looney chuckled at the thought, then he considered it a little bit more.“The league’s kind of changed, and now I’m more the traditional center now in the N.B.A.,” Looney said, as he thought about the way people sometimes talk about Golden State. “So it kind of is weird to me. Sometimes it feels like a slap in the face when they’re like, ‘They don’t have any size.”Looney typically is not the most talked-about member of the Warriors. He was drafted less than two weeks after Golden State won its first championship with Steve Kerr as coach, and was part of the team for four consecutive appearances in the N.B.A. finals and two championships. After overcoming early injury woes, he became a critical part of Golden State’s roster, and this year was one of only five players leaguewide to play in all 82 regular-season games.In the playoffs this year, Golden State has been able to count on him. He didn’t start in Games 1 through 5 of their Western Conference semifinal series against the Memphis Grizzlies, then started and grabbed 22 rebounds in the Game 6 win that clinched the series.Golden State turned to Looney in Game 6 of its series against the Grizzlies, and his play was crucial. He grabbed 22 rebounds in the win.Ezra Shaw/Getty ImagesOn Friday night in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals series against the Dallas Mavericks, Looney scored 21 points with 12 rebounds in the 126-117 comeback win. It was the first time since his only season at U.C.L.A. that he had scored more than 20 points in a game. It was also the first time a Warriors center had scored 20 points with at least 10 rebounds in the playoffs since 1977.“We see the work that he’s put in to make that a reality,” Golden State guard Stephen Curry said. “Now, in the playoffs, just taking that next step. He brings a lot of joy to what we do in the locker room. I’ll call him, like, the muse in the locker room. He kind of just has a great demeanor about him. He’s the bridge between the vets and the young guys. Pretty awesome to see him adapt to that role.”Kerr called Looney “everybody’s favorite guy.”Forward Draymond Green called him a master of professionalism.“The same professional he is today, he was when he came in the league,” Green said.Looney may have projected professionalism and levelheadedness to Green, but the truth was that when Looney was drafted, he was a wide-eyed 19-year-old just trying not to break anything.This team was riding high after its championship, and his job was to fit in, not to stand out. As the only rookie, he didn’t have anyone with common experiences to talk to about what that was like and what he should do.“Definitely was intimidating,” Looney said.That July, he was in Las Vegas after playing in the N.B.A.’s Summer League tournament, where teams field rosters of their young players and N.B.A. hopefuls. The veterans on his team were in Las Vegas for a players’ union awards show, and one night Andre Iguodala texted, asking him to bring over some doughnuts.“It’s like 1 in the morning,” Looney said, laughing. “I didn’t even know if he was serious. First day, I’m already scared. I don’t want to mess up on my first day.”He attended the awards show, but when the team went up onstage together, he said he was too shy to join them. That shyness persisted during the early part of the season as the team went 24-0 on its way to an N.B.A.-record 73 wins.“They used to joke that I didn’t talk for the first six months,” Looney said.In addition to requesting doughnut deliveries at 1 a.m., Iguodala took Looney under his wing and helped him adapt. Green would invite Looney to spend time with him just to make him feel more comfortable in this new setting.That helped in the locker room, but Looney would experience other challenges. He had hip surgery before his rookie year began. Then he had another hip injury in his second season.Looney had never missed a game in college or high school, and called the injuries “devastating.”“We didn’t know what we had,” Kerr said, noting that the team did not pick up Looney’s contract option for a fourth season because he had not played much. He continued: “And then his third year he has a great year, it’s like, uh oh, we might lose this guy.”Looney is relishing the chance to have an impact during the playoffs. He had 10 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in Game 1 against Dallas, also a Golden State victory.Kyle Terada/USA Today Sports, via ReutersLooney was keenly aware of the questions the organization had about him, but he took solace in the support from his teammates.“Always got the respect from my teammates, and that made me keep going, that made me feel good about myself and know that I’m doing the right thing,” Looney said. “Even if the fans — you might have a bad game, the fans might say you’re not good enough, somebody might say you’re not good enough — but when you’ve got your teammates saying, like, ‘Man I don’t care what the stat lines say, I want to be out there with Loon,’ it’s a great honor.”Looney was inactive throughout the playoffs for his first two seasons. But in his third season, he began to have a significant role for the Warriors and contributed to their 2017-18 championship run. He often defended the best players.Now 26, he’s a veteran on a team that has incorporated young guys who are experiencing their first playoff runs. Looney knows what that felt like and tries to help guide them through the process.And if Golden State wins another championship this year, it will feel a little bit more special, given his contributions.“To make an impact, and start a lot of these games, playoff games, be there for the team, have some big roles in playoff moments, this’ll mean a lot to me,” Looney said. “It’ll just be kind of like the cherry on top to be able to close it out and win and be there for my team.” More

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      Marcus Smart Leads Boston Celtics Over Miami Heat in Game 2

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      Smart, the Celtics’ point guard, made an impact on offense and defense as Boston beat Miami in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals.Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart had an open lane for an easy fast-break basket. Then he unnecessarily moved the ball behind his back and flubbed a layup.A minute later, he had the ball again and hit an acrobatic circus shot on the baseline from behind the backboard. He drew a foul, too.OH MY MARCUS 😱 pic.twitter.com/atJAYR2AxX— Boston Celtics (@celtics) May 20, 2022
      That was the Marcus Smart Experience in a nutshell on Thursday night: sometimes ugly, sometimes entertaining, always impactful. In Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals, Smart had 24 points, 9 rebounds and 12 assists in a game the Celtics thoroughly dominated, 127-102, to tie the best-of-seven series. He had only a single turnover in one of the best playoff performances of his career.This season has seen the continuation of a remarkable shift for the 28-year-old Smart: There’s a lot less ugly. He’s emerged as a steady, reliable point guard who can more than competently run Boston’s offense, even as his efforts on the other end of the floor — he was named the N.B.A.’s defensive player of the year — draw the most attention.Smart missed the first game of the series on Tuesday because of a foot sprain, and his absence was evident. The Celtics collapsed in the third quarter, when Smart’s talents for calming the offense down and anchoring the defense could have changed the game.Right from the opening tip on Thursday, Smart affected the game. The Celtics first scored off a difficult cross-court pass from Smart to shooting guard Jaylen Brown. Smart immediately followed that with a harder-than-it-looked alley-oop to center Robert Williams III.In the first half, though, Smart shot a dismal 2 for 11 from the field. For most players, that would mean they were having a bad game. But Smart was one of the best players on the court, because of his seven assists and zero turnovers. The Celtics led by 25 at halftime, and they had outscored the Heat by 26 points with Smart on the floor.“I’m not the type of coach that wants to call a play every time down,” Celtics Coach Ime Udoka said. “I leave it in his hands, and he usually makes the right decision.”Smart did not enjoy the same kind of trust earlier in his career. In the previous seven years of his N.B.A. journey, all with Boston, Smart was known mostly as a stalwart defensive player with a penchant for throwing up bad shots early in the shot clock and for making ill-advised passes. He was also, for the most part, a poor shooter from 3-point range. Smart had other attributes that made him a fan favorite, however, such as his willingness to constantly dive to the floor for loose balls.This year, despite his perceived offensive limitations, Smart was handed the keys to the Celtics offense for the first time. It was a risky decision. Smart had never been a starting point guard for a whole season. He had never even been a full-time starter until the 2020-21 season. He had played behind star point guards like Kemba Walker and Isaiah Thomas, two former All-Stars who had made their living as scorers. But Walker’s injuries last year gave Smart a chance a get a taste of being the main point guard.Smart didn’t shoot well during the first half of Thursday’s game — he was just 2 of 11 — but he made up for it in the second half with 17 points.Eric Espada/Getty ImagesSmart initially struggled adjusting to his new role, as did the rest of the Celtics. In his first 50 games this season, Smart averaged 11.7 points and 5.3 assists. Boston’s offense often looked stuck in the mud. After a November loss to the Chicago Bulls, Smart incurred the ire of his teammates when he publicly criticized the two best players on the team, Brown and Jayson Tatum, for not passing the ball more. Smart’s underwhelming point guard play contributed to Boston’s lackadaisical 25-25 start.But then came the turnaround. In Smart’s final 21 games of the regular season, he averaged 13.2 points and 7.1 assists on 43.2 percent shooting. He also morphed into a more reliable shooter. While there were certainly other factors, Smart’s improvement coincided with the Celtics’ surge from fringe playoff team to N.B.A. finals contender. Tatum said Thursday that Smart had given the Celtics “another guy who can handle the ball under pressure and get us organized and get us in position where we need to be.”His strong playmaking has carried over into the playoffs. In the first round against the Nets, Smart averaged 16.5 points and 7 assists in Boston’s four-game sweep. Against the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round, Smart averaged 14 points and 5.7 assists, while shooting 39.4 percent from behind the 3-point line.“Being the point guard that I am, I take a lot of pressure off our guys so they don’t have to try to force it as much so they can be who they are,” Smart said after Thursday’s game.This is all while Smart has often been tasked with guarding the opposition’s best players. In the first round, those were Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. He followed that up by switching between Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday in the second round. Against Miami, Smart was asked to try to slow down Jimmy Butler on Thursday night.Smart increasingly has found himself rescuing the Celtics with his offense as well as his defense. When the Heat were making a third-quarter run in Game 2, it was Smart who took it upon himself to stop it. In addition to his circus shot over the backboard, Smart hit multiple 3s to stop the bleeding. He scored 11 points in the quarter, including the highlight of the game. The Heat had cut the lead to 17 and the Miami crowd was suddenly re-engaged. Smart dribbled the ball up, bounced a crossover dribble between his legs, causing Heat forward Max Strus to tumble backward to the floor. As he scrambled to his feet, Smart calmly stepped forward and made a free-throw line jumper.That was the new Marcus Smart Experience. Undisturbed under pressure. Reliable. And still entertaining.“That’s what I got drafted here to do, and I just waited my turn,” Smart said. “And I’m blessed to be in this situation and to have the opportunity to go out and show what I can do. And I think everybody in the organization — in the world — has seen what I can do at that point guard position.” More

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      Who Referees the NBA Referees? On TV, Steve Javie Does.

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      SECAUCUS, N.J. — “They think they know refereeing,” Steve Javie muttered to no one in particular, wearing a wry smile. “It’s even hard in slow motion.”The “they” could be anyone, from enraged fans to confused television broadcasters — and, sometimes, even Javie, who was an N.B.A. official for 25 years. He was sitting in a corner of a darkened control room in the league’s replay center, flanked by three monitors showing what seemed to be every conceivable angle of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals between the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks. A large flat-screen monitor loomed above, and a key light was stationed over his shoulder.The space had the distinct air of the bridge of the starship Enterprise, except with only a couple of staffers and Javie aboard. Since the 2012 N.B.A. finals, it has been Javie’s job to help viewers on ESPN and ABC broadcasts understand the rationale behind officiating decisions and to explain whether he agrees. He called the control room, from which he shares his views, the “biggest sports bar without a bar.”Steve Javie watches Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Boston Celtics.Brian Fraser for The New York Times“Block/charge is always tough,” Javie, 67, said into his microphone following a charge call on Boston’s Jayson Tatum, connecting him with ESPN’s broadcast team of Mike Breen, the play-by-play announcer, and the analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson.Javie had the steady voice of a no-nonsense-but-congenial army general.He grew up and lives outside Philadelphia. His father, Stan Javie, was an N.F.L. official, and his godfather, John Stevens, was an umpire in Major League Baseball. Javie was chosen to officiate 15 N.B.A. finals, an assignment typically reserved for referees with the highest grades for accuracy during the regular season and playoffs. He worked in the N.B.A. until 2011, when knee issues forced his retirement. Since then, he has provided on-air officiating insights for ESPN and ABC. When he started, it was still seen as an unusual innovation for sports broadcasts. A friend of Javie’s, the former N.F.L. referee Mike Pereira, had begun the practice for network broadcasts by doing N.F.L. games the year before and had received positive reviews.“I never dreamed of something like this,” Javie said, crediting Pereira for opening the door for him. Joe Borgia, who retired from the N.B.A.’s referee operations department in 2020, also does commentary for Turner Sports.In the first half of Javie’s career, he was known to have a hot temper. Javie described his style early in his career as “aggressive.” He ejected Hoops, the Washington Bullets mascot, in 1991 for, from his perspective, inciting the crowd. The game included several other ejections and Hoops was the last to go after the mascot raised its arms and invited the crowd to jeer the referees.“He had a reputation when he first came into the league of being a young official who gave out a lot of technicals,” Breen said. “And normally when officials first start, they work their way in before they start handing out technicals left and right. But it just shows you how confident and fearless he was when he started.”Javie with Sacramento’s Vlade Divac during Game 3 of the 2002 Western Conference finals between the Kings and the Los Angeles Lakers.Jed Jacobsohn/Getty ImagesAbout a decade or so into his career, Javie mellowed, at least from his telling. One formative interaction he recalled was with the former guard Brian Shaw, who was playing for the Orlando Magic in the mid-1990s. Javie had assessed several technicals to players and was in an — ahem — foul mood.“Brian Shaw is walking by me and I just hit another guy with a technical foul,” Javie said. “And I go, ‘You know what, it must be a full moon tonight.’ He looked at me. He goes, ‘Yeah, you’re the werewolf.’ Well, I had to give him a technical foul, too, but it was a good line.”Monty McCutchen, the senior vice president of referee training for the N.B.A. and a former longtime colleague of Javie’s, disputed the perception that Javie had a temper. The mark of a temper is losing control of one’s emotions, he said.“I never saw Steve out of control,” McCutchen said.Javie’s ESPN career began with some “SportsCenter” hits. He said he didn’t have any media training. At first, he was nervous about commenting on his former co-workers.“These are his friends and his colleagues that he worked with for years, that now maybe he had to second-guess a call or two,” Breen said. “That’s a difficult thing for a guy to do.”For Javie, professional empathy for officials is a must for a former referee on television, since crowds, coaches and players rarely provide any.Workstations in N.B.A.s replay center in Secaucus, N.J. Officials here help decide calls when teams or on-site officials ask for reviews.Brian Fraser for The New York Times“They think they can do it: ‘Look how they missed that one. How do you mess up?’” Javie said. “I told my producer: I’m always going to be an official, and I’ll speak as an official. I know what it’s like to have a big game. I know what it’s like to be in bad position. I know what it’s like to blow calls at the end of the game. You can’t sleep at night.”Now, Javie said: “I feel a little more comfortable being able to say why I disagree. And I think that’s what ESPN wants. They want my opinion.”Each year, Javie does about 40 games, including playoffs and the N.B.A. finals. Throughout the Bucks’ game with the Celtics, Javie scribbled notes on a lined notepad in front of him. They’re reminders about the rules. Notes like “no clear path” and “criteria for flagrant foul” in barely intelligible handwriting fill the pages. Other times, Javie would use a machine in front of him to scroll the game back and forth to watch replays.And then there were the moments when Javie would be needed. He’d hear a voice call out, “They might go to Javie here” — and he would immediately sit up straight, swivel in his chair to face the light behind him and look directly into the camera.This postseason has seen its share of public complaining from players, coaches and executives about perceived unfairness in officiating and flopping being rewarded. Milwaukee General Manager Jon Horst made a fuss about the lack of calls for the Bucks against Boston, while Celtics Coach Ime Udoka grumbled for the opposite reason.This, in sports parlance, is known as working the refs — an attempt to persuade referees to make more friendly calls in the next game. It’s a fool’s errand, Javie said.“They think it’s going to help them or something like that,” Javie said. “But any official worth their weight doesn’t give a darn what this guy says.”Away from the control room, Javie doesn’t spend any time watching basketball. He’s not a fan of the sport — it’s just business. His energy is spent mostly on spiritual endeavors and time with his wife, Mary-ellen Javie. He recently became an ordained minister, the latest step in his relationship with Catholicism, which began to evolve when he met Mary-ellen in the late-1980s at an airport counter.“I started getting back in my faith while we were dating,” Steve said.The journey “never ends,” he added. “And now we go through it together, which is really kind of cool.”Faith helped Javie get through a moment that threatened not just his livelihood, but his freedom. In 1999, Javie faced a federal prison sentence after he and several other referees were charged with tax evasion. The officials were accused of flying coach when the N.B.A. had purchased first-class tickets and then not reporting the difference in prices as income. The N.B.A. rules allowed for the downgrading of tickets and accepting the cash surplus, but the prosecutors said the officials were obligated to pay taxes on that money. Javie was the only official to fight the charges.Javie isn’t a basketball fan, but he does like the Philadelphia Eagles.Brian Fraser for The New York Times“In my faith journey, that was momentous,” Javie said, adding: “I don’t wish a federal trial on anybody. Two weeks in federal court, not knowing what the consequences could be, weighed very heavily on me. And I just couldn’t handle it.”He began to attend mass daily instead of just on Sundays. And he leaned on the closest person to him.“I said, ‘Mary-ellen, what’s going to happen if I’m found guilty and I’m convicted and I go to jail?’ She goes, ‘Well, then when you get out, we pick up the pieces and we move on,’” Steve said.He was acquitted by a jury in Philadelphia. Decades later, life is simpler now for Javie. He spends his summer weekends at the Jersey Shore with his wife, in an area where his former colleagues also spend summers. He’s a Philadelphia Eagles fan. But as far as broadcasting goes, Javie said that he saw himself as more of an “exception” in terms of post-career options for officials. In fact, Javie said no younger official has ever approached him for advice on breaking into the field.“Actually, I’m kind of looking for someone to take my spot when I go,” Javie said, adding, “I’ll do it as long as they want me.” More

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      Golden State’s Andrew Wiggins Isn’t the Bust You Thought He Was

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      Wiggins, the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2014, had developed a reputation as a bust. Coming to Golden State has helped him finally tap his potential.SAN FRANCISCO — Reputations tend to stick if they ring true and, for a while, Andrew Wiggins’s reputation in the N.B.A. was that he was a bust.For years, the word on Wiggins, a former No. 1 pick, was that he was inconsistent. That he was bad at defense. That he didn’t care.The Cleveland Cavaliers had drafted him first overall in 2014 but traded him to the Minnesota Timberwolves less than two months later. More than five seasons in Minnesota bore little fruit, and after the Timberwolves went to the playoffs only once during that period they sent Wiggins to Golden State.His latest stop, though, has changed things for Wiggins. Wednesday night offered one more example of his progression.Golden State made a statement in the opening game of the Western Conference finals, leading the Dallas Mavericks by 30 points in the fourth quarter and winning, 112-87. Golden State’s point total wasn’t exceptionally high, but its defense propelled its victory.Wiggins was a big part of that. The Warriors asked Wiggins to be their primary defender on the All-Star guard Luka Doncic, and Wiggins made sure Doncic didn’t hurt Golden State in the way he had hurt the Mavericks’ previous playoff opponents.“That’s why he was the No. 1 pick,” Golden State’s Klay Thompson said of Wiggins. “You can’t teach that athleticism. You can’t teach that length. You can’t teach his timing. I’m just happy the world is getting to see who he really is.”Wiggins 8 of 17 from the field on Wednesday, including three 3-pointers.Thearon W. Henderson/Getty ImagesDoncic finished the game with 20 points, only one more than Wiggins and only 2 of them after the first half. He also committed seven turnovers and had only four assists. Doncic suggested after the game that an achy shoulder had played a role in his performance, saying it was causing him pain when he shot the ball, but added that he would be fine with some treatment.But part of Golden State’s plan was to wear him out, and it was Wiggins’s job to do it.“He took the challenge, and Luka’s tough,” Warriors guard Stephen Curry said. “He still finds a way to control possessions. You’ve got to assume he’ll shoot a little bit better, but Wiggs was relentless. Every possession, he was out there on him. That’s all we really want. Even if Luka has his numbers, you just want to, at the end of the day, feel like he had to work for everything he got.”On Most possessions, Wiggins would start guarding Doncic in the backcourt, not allowing him to easily bring the ball up the court. Asked after the game if that all-court effort had tired him out, Wiggins shrugged and offered a half smile.“I feel like I’m still young,” said Wiggins, who is 27. “I don’t really get too tired. I’m locked in. I’m motivated. And when you see it work or I feel like it’s helping us play better, it just motivates me to do it more.”Said Thompson: “He just doesn’t seem to get tired.”Thompson appreciated the effort more than most: the way Wiggins has been playing, he said, took some pressure off him.“I don’t have to check the best player every night again,” said Thompson, who was known for his defense before missing the past two seasons with leg injuries. “Especially after what I’ve been through, it’s a nice change of pace.”The 87 points the Mavericks scored were the lowest opponent total against Golden State this postseason. The Warriors have held opponents below 100 points three other times during the playoffs this year; each time, they have won.The Mavericks had great success from 3-point range in earlier rounds, but made only 3 of 19 3-pointers in the first quarter Wednesday, and finished the game 11 for 48 from behind the arc. Those misses came from throughout their roster — it wasn’t only Doncic who struggled offensively. But Doncic is the player who drives the Mavericks, so his struggles loom larger.After the final buzzer, Doncic let out a long exhale as he walked through the tunnel toward the visiting locker room at Chase Center. He wore a T-shirt over his uniform because he hadn’t played the final five minutes; by then, the game was too far out of hand for playing him to be worth the risk. His face was marked by an inadvertent red scratch from Wiggins, several inches long, from the right side of his nose down his cheek.The Mavericks have a habit of losing big and recovering. They lost to the Phoenix Suns by 30 points in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals before beating them by 27 in Game 6 and by 33 in Game 7. Several Mavericks players on Wednesday spoke after the game about expecting a much better performance from Doncic during Game 2 on Friday.“We’re under no illusion we’ve figured anything out,” Golden State Coach Steve Kerr said.What they have figured out, and are glad others are seeing now, is that Wiggins has tapped into a part of his potential that might have been dormant, or at least less obvious in previous seasons.Thompson said being with Golden State has allowed Wiggins to be himself. Curry said he’s learning how to win.Wiggins said the winning culture of Golden State cultivated by players like Stephen Curry, center, has helped him “see a different side of the game.”Harry How/Getty Images“Wiggs is understanding the nuances of what winning basketball is and just how to key in on the little things in terms of consistent effort from the defense, taking those one-on-one challenges, being aggressive on the offensive end, using his athletic ability to get to the rim if he needs to, confidence shooting the 3; being comfortable in our offense,” Curry said. “So there’s a lot of different things that he’s understanding that this time, in terms of a playoff run, requires to win games and the joy that comes with it.”Wiggins passed the credit for that right back to Curry, Thompson and Draymond Green, who all won three championships and went to five straight N.B.A. finals together.“It helps me see a different side of the game,” Wiggins said. “Being here, the culture, the people, organization, most importantly, just being around winners.”A winner was not a label attached to Wiggins much at the start of his career, but during these playoffs he has showed more and more that it fits. 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      The Stats Are Hiding a Secret About the Miami Heat’s P.J. Tucker

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      Tucker did a little bit of everything in a Game 1 win over the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals — including help neutralize Jayson Tatum.MIAMI — A lot of N.B.A. players go through the motions when it comes to boxing out for rebounds on free throws, and no one can really blame them. Most free throws, nearly 80 percent of them, are successful. So why bother boxing out at all?And then there is Miami’s P.J. Tucker, a 6-foot-5, 245-pound wrecking ball who has spent his career disguised as a power forward. Consider Game 1 of the N.B.A.’s Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday night, as Gabe Vincent, a teammate with the Heat, lined up for the second of two free throws. Tucker took advantage of that window to throw most of his body weight into the midsection of the Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum.It was a bit much. One of the referees advised Tucker to cool it, which did not please him. But it was not going to prevent Tucker from playing the only way he knows how to play — hard — and his toughness was among the reasons the Heat were able to run away with a 118-107 victory in the series opener.“He inspires everybody,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said, adding: “He’s like a great linebacker. He just gets everybody organized and he communicates so well.”Tucker’s defense helped stymie the Celtics in the second half. Boston was just 2 of 15 in the third quarter and was outscored by 64-45 after halftime.Lynne Sladky/Associated PressIn a game that Jimmy Butler, as usual, dominated for Miami, finishing with 41 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists, Tucker posted a bunch of numbers that were nondescript. He had 5 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. He shot 2 of 5 from the field and missed both of his free throws. He trudged around the court like a dump truck with a flat tire after rolling his right ankle in the first half.But his impact was enormous. After Tatum scored 21 points to lead the Celtics’ to an 8-point lead at halftime, Tucker — bad wheel and all — somehow managed to affix himself to Tatum for long stretches of the second half, helping to limit him to 1 of 7 shooting and 8 points the rest of the way.“What he does doesn’t really get noticed by everybody out there,” Spoelstra said of Tucker. “I don’t have my glasses on, so I don’t even know what his stat line was. But you’re talking about one of the toughest covers. And then when he’s on the weak side, he does all the right things.”The Heat outscored the Celtics by 12 points in the 31 minutes that Tucker played. They won by 11.“I didn’t know I would fall in love with a basketball player as much as I have with P.J.,” Butler said. “He’s got the tough job every night of guarding the opposing team’s best player, and then goes down there and shoots the ball five times. You’ve got to respect that.”The Celtics were short-handed — and short on rest. Their conference semifinal series with the Milwaukee Bucks went to seven games before they were able to advance on Sunday.As if that had not been challenging enough, they were down two starters for their opener against the Heat: Marcus Smart, the league’s defensive player of the year, was sidelined with a sprained right foot, and Al Horford entered the league’s coronavirus health and safety protocols on Tuesday afternoon.Boston’s Jayson Tatum had 21 points in the first half but just 8 for the rest of the game.Michael Reaves/Getty ImagesThe Heat had been off since Thursday. They scuffled through a rusty start against the Celtics, missing their first seven field-goal attempts. Tucker was miffed.“Took us a long time to get aggressive,” he said. “We were way too soft, and they got to pretty much everything they wanted.”At 37, Tucker is the proud protagonist of one of the more well-chronicled basketball odysseys. He joined the Toronto Raptors for the 2006-07 season as a second-round draft pick out of the University of Texas. But after he played sparingly for the Raptors, he spent the subsequent five seasons playing in Israel, Ukraine, Greece, Italy and Germany, refining his game along the way.By the time he signed with the Phoenix Suns before the 2012-13 season, he had proved he could do a bit of everything: defend, rebound, facilitate and even score when the opportunity presented itself. An invaluable defender, he won an N.B.A. championship last season after the Bucks picked him up near the trade deadline.At this late stage, Tucker is closer to the end of his playing days than he is to the beginning, and the wear and tear of his profession was clear during Tuesday’s game. After he rolled his ankle in the second quarter, he hobbled to the locker room. His return appeared in doubt.But Tucker swapped out his footwear — one of the league’s more prolific sneakerheads, he has hundreds of pairs to choose from — and summoned some divine intervention.“There’s a genie back there,” Tucker said. “Took one of my wishes.”Spoelstra recalled checking on Tucker’s availability for the second half.“He looked at me dead in the eye and said: ‘Don’t even think about it. I’m playing in the second half,’ ” Spoelstra said. “I’m like, ‘All right, I wasn’t even questioning it.’ ”As he played through pain, Tucker seemed to take out his angst on Tatum, one of the postseason’s emerging young stars. Tucker was like the old guy at the neighborhood park: hobbled but wise, an unshakably annoying presence. The Celtics shot 2 of 15 from the field in the third quarter as the Heat outscored them, 39-14. But again: Tucker saw room for improvement.“What took us so long?” he asked.He sank his lone 3-pointer in the fourth quarter and seized the moment by raising his arms to the crowd. It was a rare chance for him to bathe in the spotlight, but his teammates understand his worth.At the final buzzer, Butler embraced him.“He does all the little things,” Butler said. More

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      NBA Preview: Miami Heat and Boston Celtics Fight to Win the East

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      Miami and Boston will meet in the Eastern Conference finals, with each team rightfully confident in its ability to win. The series may be too close to call.A group of mostly 20-something out-of-towners heading to Miami this time of year typically would be called spring breakers.But for our purposes, we’re referring to the Boston Celtics. Their reward for outlasting the Milwaukee Bucks in a grueling seven-game Eastern Conference semifinal series is a date in the conference finals with the No. 1-seeded Miami Heat, starting Tuesday.The series is a rematch of the 2020 conference finals, except then the Celtics had the higher seed and the games were at Walt Disney World — another spring vacation destination in Florida.Many of the key characters are the same. The No. 2-seeded Celtics are once again led by their top guards, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart, while the Heat will counter with their top stars, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.But even though the rosters haven’t changed much, there are significant differences from two years ago. The Celtics are now coached by Ime Udoka, who morphed Boston’s defense into the league’s best in his first season. Boston’s Grant Williams and Miami’s Tyler Herro were rookies in 2020 and have since developed into indispensable role players.Here is what to look out for in the Eastern Conference finals.Wait. Before we get to that, wasn’t there something important that happened in the 2020 series?Yes. At the end of Game 1, Adebayo blocked a Tatum dunk attempt that would have tied the score in overtime. It was one of the most important blocks in N.B.A. history and it changed the trajectory of a series that Boston was favored to win. The series was close: Three of the Heat’s four wins were by less than double digits.How did each team do this year?The Heat went 53-29, their best regular-season record since 2013-14, when LeBron James was on the team and they lost to San Antonio in the N.B.A. finals. This season provided their seventh highest win total in franchise history.Boston finished hot on their heels. On Jan. 28, the Celtics were 25-25. Since then, including the playoffs, they’ve lost only nine times. They ended the regular season with 51 wins for a remarkable turnaround.Both teams were strong defensively, but not as proficient offensively.The playoffs are a different animal, though.The Celtics opted not to try to avoid the Nets in the first round, even though that meant Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving — two A-list stars — would await them. It turned out they didn’t have to worry. The Celtics swept the Nets, solidifying their status as a team to be feared.Also in the first round, Miami faced the Atlanta Hawks, who employ one of the N.B.A.’s best guards in Trae Young. The Hawks were hampered with injuries, and the Heat easily dispatched them in five games, in part because of a suffocating defense on Young.In the second round, the Celtics exchanged haymakers with the Bucks, who were missing a perennial All-Star in the injured Khris Middleton. The Celtics withstood 44 points and 20 rebounds from Giannis Antetokounmpo in Game 6, one of the greatest playoff performances ever. Tatum countered with 46 points to carry the Celtics to Game 7, where Milwaukee ran out of gas.Miami caught a break in its semifinal series against the Philadelphia 76ers. Joel Embiid, the second-place finisher in the voting for the Most Valuable Player Award, missed part of the series because of a concussion and an orbital bone fracture. The Heat took the first two games at home. Embiid unexpectedly returned for Games 3 and 4 in Philadelphia, spurring two wins for the Sixers. But Miami adjusted and took the final two contests, and the series.Who is favored in this series?It’s a toss up. Miami has home-court advantage, but the Celtics were a different team in the second half of the season.Both teams are strikingly similar in that they employ efficient, active, switching defenses, while occasionally struggling with offensive droughts. Both teams will have a welcome break from having to deal with a physically bruising center like Antetokounmpo or Embiid.The Celtics have Tatum, who at 24 has blossomed into one of the most complete players in the N.B.A. He has also shown a penchant for delivering in big moments — like the 46-point performance against the Bucks, or his 50-point showing in a first-round playoff win against the Nets last year. During the regular season, Tatum averaged 26.9 points, 8 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game — all career highs. He has also improved at creating opportunities for teammates.The Heat have Butler, a versatile six-time All-Star. He averaged 21.4 points, 5.9 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game during the regular season. In the postseason, Butler has been dominant, averaging 28.7 points, 7.6 rebounds and 5.4 assists in 10 games.In addition, the Heat have the 22-year-old Herro, who averaged 20.7 points a game off the bench and was named the sixth man of the year. He can, every now and then, take over a game by himself. One of his best performances came against Boston in the 2020 playoffs, when he scored a career-high 37 points.Any X factors?Health, for one thing. The Celtics said Monday that Marcus Smart, their starting point guard and the league’s defensive player of the year, is questionable for Game 1 because of a foot sprain. The Heat’s starting point guard, Kyle Lowry, a six-time All-Star, is unlikely to play in Game 1 because of a hamstring injury. He’s missed most of the playoffs so far.The Celtics’ starting center, Robert Williams III, will be available for Boston, a huge boost after he had missed most of the postseason because of a knee injury. His athleticism and shot-blocking skills will be a necessary counter to Adebayo.The Celtics were buoyed by spurts of offense from Grant Williams, Al Horford and Payton Pritchard against the Bucks, while for the Heat, the third-year forward Max Strus has been a strong scorer off the bench.Miami is slower and more methodical on offense than Boston and less reliant on 3-pointers. Heat guard Victor Oladipo, after missing most of the regular season recovering from an injury, has emerged as a playmaker in the postseason. He has reached double figures in scoring four of his eight playoff games.Why will Boston win?The best defensive team in the N.B.A. will limit Butler’s effectiveness. Because Butler is a weak 3-point shooter, Boston will crowd the paint and muck up Miami’s spacing. With the Williamses and Horford, Adebayo won’t be able to roam on defense as easily.Also, Tatum is the best offensive player on either team.Why will Miami win?Miami is the more physical team, and Butler won’t be fazed by the Celtics’ defense. While his defenders sag off him from the perimeter, he is skilled enough to force his way into the paint and create space for shooters like Strus and Herro.The Celtics will rely too much on deep 3s because of Adebayo’s strong rim protection and they’ll have cold shooting nights. Miami has the more reliable bench with Herro and Oladipo, a two-time All-Star. And if they need shooting in a pinch, they’ll dust off Duncan Robinson, who has been in and out of Miami’s rotation in the playoffs after starting 68 games in the regular season.And if Miami doesn’t start off by winning games, Udonis Haslem, who has been on the Heat roster since the Big Bang, will yell at them until they do. More

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      Dallas Mavericks Stun the Phoenix Suns in Game 7 Upset

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      The Suns had the best record in the N.B.A. in the regular season, and went to the finals last year. This time, they couldn’t make it out of the second round of the playoffs.A Game 7 in the N.B.A. playoffs is supposed to be the most thrilling, intense type of game, where the high stakes bring out the best in both teams.It doesn’t always work out that way, but rarely does a team crumble as thoroughly as the Phoenix Suns did Sunday night.By halftime, Suns fans sat slumped in their seats, the Suns’ players wore blank looks as they sat on the bench and the Mavericks’ Luka Doncic could not stop laughing.Phoenix’s catastrophe was well underway.The top-seeded Suns lost to No. 4-seeded Dallas, 123-90, in Game 7 of their Western Conference semifinals series in Phoenix. Dallas, which led by 46 points in the second half and never trailed, will face Golden State on Wednesday in San Francisco in Game 1 of the conference finals.The Suns dominated the regular season and set a franchise record for wins with one goal in mind: return to the N.B.A. finals for a second straight year — and win the championship this time.Now, they won’t even get a chance to try.“I know they didn’t want to play that way,” Suns Coach Monty Williams said. “We basically played the worst game of the season tonight. That group has a lot of character and integrity. I know how bad they wanted it.”He added: “Dallas played their tails off from start to finish.”Doncic scored 35 points with 10 rebounds and 4 assists, without playing at all in the fourth quarter. Spencer Dinwiddie added 30 points for Dallas, and Jalen Brunson scored 24.“I can’t get this smile off my face right now,” Doncic said after the game. “I’m just really happy.”Game 7 between the Suns and Mavericks was the first time the road team won in the series. The Suns had beaten the Mavericks by an average of 19 points per game in the previous three games in Phoenix.On Sunday, though, being at home offered no boost for Phoenix.By halftime, the Suns had eight assists and seven turnovers. Their entire team had scored 27 points — just as many as Doncic had during the first half. Devin Booker and Chris Paul, their offensive leaders, had made none of their 11 field goal attempts.“Some of the pressure was probably on them early because they missed some shots that they normally make,” Mavericks Coach Jason Kidd said.Booker finished with 11 points and Paul with 10. Center Deandre Ayton played only 17 minutes 27 seconds, and scored 5 points.For Phoenix, the loss ended a season that began ominously when the N.B.A. started investigating Robert Sarver, the owner of the Suns and the W.N.B.A.’s Phoenix Mercury, after current and former employees accused him of racist, sexist and otherwise inappropriate behavior. The results of the investigation have not been announced.On the court, it was the Suns’ most promising season in 12 years. They were nearly unbeatable, going 64-18 during the regular season.They lost three out of their first four games, but then went on an 18-game winning streak that included two wins over the Mavericks and one over Golden State. The Suns set the franchise single-season wins record with their 63rd victory, which came against the Los Angeles Lakers in a game that knocked the Lakers out of playoff contention.The Suns were led by two All-Star guards: the 25-year-old Booker, and the 37-year-old Paul, in his 17th N.B.A. season. Last season marked the first time Paul had ever been to the N.B.A. finals.Suns wing Mikal Bridges finished second in voting for the league’s Defensive Player of the Year Award, and Williams was named coach of the year.Dallas’ Luka Doncic, left, scored 27 points in the first half. So did the Phoenix Suns.Christian Petersen/Getty ImagesAs the playoffs approached, Williams worked to balance his desire to rest players, heading into what they expected to be a long playoff run, with a need to keep them playing for momentum heading into the postseason.They lost four of their last six games, but still entered the playoffs as heavy favorites as the No. 1 seed.Right from the start their path was rockier than expected. They took six games to beat the New Orleans Pelicans, who had sneaked into the playoffs through the play-in tournament after having the ninth-best record in the West.The Suns have the most wins and finals appearances of any N.B.A. team that has not won a championship.Last season, Phoenix made its third trip to the finals and fell to the Milwaukee Bucks, losing four consecutive times after winning the first two games.The Bucks also were eliminated from the playoffs on Sunday, losing a Game 7 to the Boston Celtics, who will face the top-seeded Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals starting Tuesday. More

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      Boston Celtics Dominate Milwaukee Bucks in Game 7 Win

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      Boston, with a surprise 27 points from Grant Williams, led by as many as 28. The Celtics will face the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals.BOSTON — It was no secret that Grant Williams was hesitating when he had open looks from the 3-point arc. The Milwaukee Bucks were offering him acres of real estate on Sunday afternoon, but Williams had reached the point, after a few early misses, when he was questioning himself. Doubt had crept in. His Celtics teammates told him to knock it off.“It’s tough to get into your own head when 15 people walk up to you saying: ‘Let it fly. Keep shooting,’ ” Williams recalled.Emboldened by their support, Williams decided to do what they told him to do. It hardly mattered that it was Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, or that the Celtics were facing one of the planet’s best players in Giannis Antetokounmpo, or that Williams had drifted in and out of the team’s rotation last season. It was his job to shoot. So he suppressed his nerves and delivered in a big way as the Celtics went about their business of eliminating the N.B.A.’s reigning champions.“We just said: ‘Why not now? Why not put it together?’ ” Williams said.In a tightly contested series that was stretched to its limit, the Celtics added to their season-long comeback story by defeating the Bucks, 109-81. They will face the top-seeded Miami Heat in the conference finals beginning Tuesday. It was not necessarily surprising that Boston won — the Celtics were a deeper, more explosive team than the Bucks — but no one expected Williams, a third-year forward, to clinch the series by scoring 27 points or by shooting 7 of 18 from 3-point range or by outshining Antetokounmpo.Anyone who predicted as much two weeks ago?“I would’ve called you a liar for sure,” the Celtics’ Jaylen Brown said.Jayson Tatum had 23 points for the Celtics in the win. Winslow Townson/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThen again, the playoffs have a way of pushing unsung actors into starring roles. On Sunday, the Celtics turned to Williams, an understudy no more as the Bucks crowded the paint on defense to cut off avenues to the rim. Ime Udoka, the Celtics’ first-year coach, told Williams that the Bucks were disrespecting him by leaving him so open. Brown resorted to yelling at him: Shoot the ball!“That’s what they were giving us,” Brown said. “He came through, man.”Last month, Nets guard Kyrie Irving told reporters that the Celtics’ window was now. And he made that proclamation even before the Nets’ first-round series with the Celtics ended. It ended soon enough, as the Celtics completed a four-game sweep.Irving and Kevin Durant in the first round? Antetokounmpo in the conference semifinals? By now, the Celtics are fearless. And make no mistake, their series with Milwaukee posed a big challenge, especially after they blew a 14-point lead to lose Game 5 at home. Facing elimination on the road in Game 6, they sailed to a win behind Jayson Tatum’s 46 points, setting the stage for Game 7.“Two games where our season was on the line, and we didn’t want it to be over,” Brown said. “We didn’t overcome all the stuff we did earlier in the season for this to be it.”Their whole season has been a test. The Celtics had a losing record in late January, before they found their chemistry. They began sharing the ball. They played tenacious defense. Tatum and Brown started to fulfill their twin-pronged potential as the Celtics emerged as the league’s best team over the second half of the regular season.They made a statement by sweeping the Nets. They showed it was no fluke against the Bucks. Now, they will face the East’s best regular-season team with a trip to the N.B.A. finals on the line.“I’d be dumb to say I don’t feel a little banged up, but everybody does this time of year,” Williams said.Antetokounmpo, a two-time winner of the N.B.A.’s Most Valuable Player Award, inflicted a lot of that damage. Because the Bucks were without the floor-spacing presence of Khris Middleton, the All-Star forward, who was sidelined for the series with a sprained left knee, Antetokounmpo had to shoulder even more of the load than usual. On Sunday, that meant collecting 25 points, 20 rebounds and 9 assists.Giannis Anteokounmpo did a lot of everything for the Bucks in Game 7 — 25 points, 20 rebounds, 9 assists — but it wasn’t enough for the win.Adam Glanzman/Getty ImagesBut there were moments — small moments — when seven games of nonstop aggression seemed to have taken a toll. After Antetokounmpo missed a 3-pointer in the opening seconds of the second half, he got the ball back for a finger-roll layup that he left on the front of the rim. As the ball caromed out of bounds, Antetokounmpo doubled over in disbelief: How? How had he missed? How was it possible?“It felt like we started to grind him down a little bit tonight,” Udoka said, adding: “It’s an extremely hard task because of the way he attacks and doesn’t settle.”As the Celtics’ lead swelled, the fourth quarter turned into a party that masqueraded as the closing minutes of a playoff game, replete with rhythmic chants from the crowd: “Beat the Heat! Beat the Heat!”The Celtics did most of their damage from behind the 3-point line, where they shot 22 of 55. The Bucks were just 4 of 33. At his postgame news conference, Udoka scanned Milwaukee’s side of the box score and noticed all the zeros — from Jrue Holiday, from Pat Connaughton, from Grayson Allen. None made a 3-pointer. They combined for 15 attempts.Tatum, who had 23 points in the win, was struck by a different statistic: Williams’s 22 field-goal attempts.“I told him, ‘Don’t get used to that,’ ” Tatum said, laughing. “But obviously tonight we needed it.”Williams, who was a first-round draft pick out of Tennessee in 2019, has shaped himself into one of the Celtics’ more versatile players. His ability to shoot from the outside stretches defenses. And at 6-foot-6 and 236 pounds, he has the strength and agility to guard multiple positions. Against the Bucks, he helped out against Antetokounmpo, a thankless job.“He’s just relentless in his approach,” Brown said of Antetokounmpo.But Williams seemed to be determined to fight until the very end. The Celtics’ lead was 21 points in the fourth quarter when the Bucks’ Bobby Portis escaped in a transition and elevated for a dunk. But Williams met him at the rim and swatted the shot away. He turned to the crowd — his crowd — and pumped his fists.The stage belonged to him. More