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      Trae Young, Your Hair Is a Magnificent Unsolved Mystery

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      The complex ’do of the Hawks player has been debated, dissed and memed. But our critic pays respect to its “confusion, awe and strength.”What now? He’s gone. I mean, it’s gone. The single most fascinating thing about the N.B.A. playoffs hasn’t been, “Were the Nets ever really a team?” Or: “Whose death wish is better: Charles Bronson’s or Philly’s?” It’s not even: “Lord. What. Is. Ben Simmons. Wearing. To-night?” The single most fascinating thing about the last two postseasons has obviously been Trae Young’s hair.And now the matter is shelved, because the Hawks were just eliminated in Round 1 by the Heat, which means Trae Young is gone, which means so is that magnificent unsolved mystery of a haircut. I’m calling it a haircut. But that’s the thing about Young’s hair: cut where? How? This is hair so rich with paradoxical intrigue that a season of “Serial” wouldn’t be unwarranted. It’s thin yet full, short and long, wet but also dry, seemingly “young buck” despite seeming geriatric too, an optical illusion of barbering. There’s a fade, a part and bangs. It’s simply not a haircut. It’s a Michael Crichton novel.Young can be one of those thrilling, how-did-he-just-do-that basketball players, able to make passes that no regular body should be able to.Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesThe reason to pay any attention at all to this is that Young can be one of those thrilling, how-did-he-just-do-that basketball players, a Cubist’s rendition of a Houdini routine. On a good night, he seems to ooze between players on his way to the basket or while making passes that no regular body — no regular N.B.A. body — should be able to. He sprays his way to the basket. Makes sense, he’s 23 and at 6-foot-1 is below the league’s average height, and therefore a squirt. But he’s got the swagger of 30 7-footers. The hair completes the thrill. It’s the fuse on a stick of dynamite, candelabra flames. The swagger’s not a secret. It’s even got a nickname: Ice Trae.Young’s an entertainer, and the hair’s part of the entertainment. His breakaway lob won Game 3 against the Heat. In this series, the hair was full in the rear, like maybe a bustle was back there. Part of the fun of that particular game was studying how any time Young took off, the back of his head seemed to gallop full on behind him, like something you might fly to Pamplona in order to flee. Anytime he juked somebody on the Heat, the hair could seem a-twerk. After his veritable game winner, the clock was stopped at 4.4 seconds, and Young strolled to the sideline where you might have noticed that the bangs had been upended, turned back, folded over, something. On television, this short, dark coastline bore no immediate relation to the darker plume behind it. Except: of course they were related! It was a lawn in two phases: mowed and wild. It was a geologic table: Triassic and Neogene. It was a treat: cotton candy and fruit roll-up.Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesEverybody wants to know, what’s the point of this hair? Is it falling out? Is it being replaced? Is it still coming in? Are we looking at a technology in progress, at expensive science? Or is this simply, brilliantly, the art of nature? Nobody knows. But seemingly everybody with the N.B.A.’s app and a Twitter account would like to. Denzel Washington just wants it gone. “Tell that little boy to get a haircut,” he told Young’s Heat opponents on Sunday, after he ran into them in a hotel lobby and gave a pretty moving impromptu motivational speech. His advice for the “little boy” we all presume is poor Trae Young was just a bewildered aside: “What kind of haircut he workin’ with?” Um, Denzel: All of them! The real answer’s none of our business. I just adore how it seems to embolden Young, to make him brasher, slyer, swaggier. Or at least it did.Last year, in Game 7 of Round 2 against the Sixers, Young was dribbling down the court at top speed when he was flattened by Dwight Howard, who must weigh what two Trae Youngs do (and, for that game, wore his hair in a golden dread mohawk that said “dancehall rooster”). Down on his stomach, Young proceeded to do a set of push-ups right there on the court. One thing to love about that hair is that it doesn’t stop Young from doing stuff like that, straight trolling. The person wearing that hair wants you to think it’s going to bring him down.Young does push-ups after a collision with Dwight Howard of the Sixers in 2021.Matt Slocum/Associated PressEarlier in that run of the Hawks’, I’d watched them shock the Knicks in the opening game of their first-round series. We were all at Madison Square Garden and even the overjoyed, eventually crestfallen Knicks fans were, at least, appreciably flummoxed by how impossible Young looked. Slight yet entirely assured, daring, pressing, artistic. Little of that was on display this year. It was as if he was locked out of his own élan. The ’do had lost its derring. And now it’s back at home.I SUPPOSE WHAT some people want for Young’s hair is a Devin Booker or a Jayson Tatum. Something with evident shape. Hair that tells a story that doesn’t require trips to a glossary or reliance on a family tree. Something to dam a critic from a flood of metaphors. Indeed, Booker, who plays for the Suns and is currently saddled with a bum hamstring, and Tatum, who’s superseded Young as this postseason’s astonishment, do have more straightforward versions of what it seems like Young “should” be going for. Booker’s hair piles into a substantial, substantially handsome box of subtle curds. (Yes, curds!) And Tatum’s waving, almost ringleted, faded incarnation, complete with a short, shaped-up front curtain, really is the Bizarro Trae. You feel like you can explain it in five words or fewer: Renaissance Cupid goes to Freaknik.Young tries to shoot against Caleb Martin of the Heat on Sunday.John Bazemore/Associated PressBut the more time I spend with Tatum’s and Booker’s eligible-bachelor hair, the more I appreciate the gumption of Young’s. This hair is not an accident. (In fact, off-court, it’s tamed: a slick, glamorous number in a single inky shade.) Between games 3 and 4 of last year’s Knicks series, he got it cut. He did not cut if off. The back simply had less action than it had that month. Pure Ice Trae. This haircut happened in the Atlanta area, where the Hawks play. You just don’t play basketball for a team whose home also answers to Chocolate City with that hair and not know that people are going to have questions, that barbershops are likely twitching with exasperation, that as many stylists are probably waiting to jump you as Knicks fans were. Nonetheless, he persists. Well, he did.THE CLASH THIS MONTH between the Hawks and the Heat was exciting for its contrasting superstar hair. Jimmy Butler is the captain of Miami’s ship. For years, he’s had the single best hair in the N.B.A., an intricate tower of curls, twists and maybe dreads. In a league currently rich in cornrows and swinging plaits, thick with spilling meringues that may or may not require the aid of a hair sponge, there was nothing else like the control of Butler’s geyser. Every time I saw it, I wanted his hair to teach mine a class in structure, imagination and fades (fades that would tickle Mark Rothko). This did not look like easy hair to maintain. How, for instance, did he keep a consistent ratio among hair that seemed to dread, hair that twisted and hair that did something else? A delightful, loosely instructive video exists of Butler’s first post-N.B.A.-bubble haircut after the Lakers had beaten the Heat in the finals.John Bazemore/Associated PressAnd now? Well, that video’s an index of a glorious, bygone era, because all season he’s been playing with his hair braided. In poured inevitable comparisons to Allen Iverson’s cornrows. What Butler’s got going on is more artisanally illustrious than Iverson’s, which, nonetheless, remains the yardstick by which all other braided basketball hair is measured. He’s its Xerox, its Kleenex. Butler’s new hair, which is seemingly redone for each game, achieves grandeur (rivers, rivulets, lightning bolts, sculptures, crop circles, braids that clasp behind his head in a bunlet that rests just above the headbands he’s been playing in). This hair is a clear kick for him. There it is in another Michelob Ultra ad as its owner croons “I Only Wanna Be with You.” But me? I only wanna be with that box.So it felt fitting for this new hair to meet Trae Young’s in a playoff series. It’s got a clear purpose that isn’t all business and yet, in its way, is serious. And it must be said that Young’s does seem to be figuring itself out. Still, I remember what happened last year, going from Young’s Hawks to some other game. I was bored. After four quarters of Trae Young, everything else felt … flat. With him gone, it’s not all gloom. Hardly! The juicy Round 1 series between the Grizzlies and the Timberwolves is both an action franchise and a hair convention. It’s just that Young is a convention of one.Of late, Denzel Washington has become a meaningful font of fatherly wisdom. But on Trae Young’s hair, we must part. I don’t want it to change, although it probably will. It’s become too much of a thing. This has been hair that’s felt like it’s on its way somewhere, anyway; and I want to pay my respects before it gets there. Hopefully, its arrival won’t be too drastic. Young might owe his swagger to that hair, given the defiance required to wear it that way — those ways. It flies and swings and bounces and struts. It can do that thing that Mick Jagger does onstage, where he whips around as if to see who’s tapped him on the shoulder. It’s a source of amusement, confusion, awe and strength. It’s biblical that way. Cut that hair and a city might fall. More

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      One Final Look at a Nets Season That Fell Short

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      Exhaustion had replaced exhilaration by the time the Nets took the court for Monday’s fait accompli playoff game against the surging Boston Celtics.The early-season excitement surrounding the Nets and their glittering roster faded through a season’s worth of head-butting against the Murphy’s law adage that anything that can go wrong usually will.Gone, too, were the packed rows of New York celebrity onlookers, like Mary J. Blige, Spike Lee and Aaron Judge, who attended Game 3 at Barclays Center, perhaps trusting — despite the preponderance of evidence of the contrary — that a quick win on Monday would propel the Nets back into the series.Even Ben Simmons, who had stood out from the sideline earlier in the series because of his kaleidoscope outfits, was not there.Michelle Farsi for The New York TimesMichelle Farsi for The New York TimesThe Nets fans who attended Monday’s game seemed subdued, perhaps drained from one season that felt like many more because of the array of off-court distractions. Celtics fans, who witnessed their team undergo the midseason revitalization that Brooklynites expected of the Nets, arrived ready to pour salt into festering wounds.Boston — too cohesive, too lengthy, too tenacious — simply slammed the door on a Nets season derailed from the start.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesKyrie Irving missed most of the season because he refused to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Kevin Durant, bothered by a knee injury, missed more than a month.The Nets plummeted with an 11-game losing streak. James Harden forced a trade to Philadelphia that returned, among others, Simmons — the centerpiece of the deal who never took the court.Often alone shouldering the load throughout the season was Durant. During the playoffs, he crafted his best performance of the series on Monday with 39 points.Michelle Farsi for The New York TimesMichelle Farsi for The New York TimesMichelle Farsi for The New York TimesBut Jayson Tatum’s two-way performance throughout the series neutralized Durant. Boston fans serenaded Tatum with chants of “M-V-P” in Brooklyn before he fouled out on Monday with 2 minutes 48 seconds remaining and the Celtics leading by 6 points. Their final lead was just 4 points — just enough for victory. And too much for the Nets.Michelle Farsi for The New York TimesIrving is now in line for a contract extension. Most of the Nets’ veteran rotation players are scheduled for free agency. No one knows when the injured Simmons will play. But the story of this season may not so much be how it ended, but whether the Nets’ stars have been left with enough to find a way to start again.Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times More

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      The Fathers Talk Trash Courtside. The Sons Battle in the N.B.A.

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      They’re friends in real life, but Karl Towns and Tee Morant are bringing the heat for the Grizzlies-Timberwolves playoff series between their sons.MINNEAPOLIS — Karl Towns sat in his courtside seat about an hour before Game 3 of the Timberwolves’ first-round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies tipped off. His friend Tee Morant was pacing a few feet away, wearing reflective sunglasses, a black bucket hat, a white Polo Ralph Lauren shirt, white pants and a black jacket.Recently, a viral tweet had compared the appearance of the singer Usher to that of Morant.“Right now we’re trash-talking about how many people are going to know him when he’s in the building,” Towns said. “And I said he can’t go around calling himself Usher because that’s not right!“He walks up to people and says, ‘You know who I am?’ They don’t know who you are in Minnesota!”Towns knew that wasn’t true. The two of them had appeared together on NBA TV and on the Timberwolves’ local broadcast during Game 2. But when it comes to Morant, Towns never lets facts impede a good roast.Their sons are the two of the biggest stars in N.B.A.’s Western Conference playoffs: Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, 22, and Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns, 26, who is sometimes referred to as KAT.Each team has won two games in the best-of-seven series, which continues with Game 5 Tuesday in Memphis. Their fathers have watched proudly and have inadvertently achieved minor celebrity status through television appearances highlighting their friendly rivalry from courtside seats. They’ve made wagers about the games, and rolled their eyes at each other’s boasts.“It’s not a fight; it’s never a fight,” Tee Morant, center, said. “Because right here, all of this is competition. But once the clock goes zero, you’ve got to go back to your life.”Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images“Win or lose, we’re family,” Karl said. “That’s never going to change. This is my family right here. It’s just not about basketball — it’s about a family loving each other. We just have a good relationship. What people see is we’re just being genuine, we’re just being ourselves. And you know what, we’re proud of our kids, but we also enjoy our relationship.”They met three years ago when Ja was a rookie. Karl invited Tee to join a group for N.B.A. fathers, and they connected at an event in Orlando, Fla. Karl was on his way to pick up a meal for his wife, Jackie. Tee joined him and began “shadowing him,” as Tee put it. Their friendship blossomed from there.“I was like, ‘Yeah, I like this dude,’” Tee said. “He’s funny.” Unable to let a compliment lie, he added: “He’s not funnier than me.”Karl rolled his eyes.“I’m funny five days,” Karl said. “He’s got to take the weekend off.”Trash talk is a major part of their friendship, one that’s based mostly on their sons’ basketball careers. But there is a more meaningful element to it. Through basketball, they’ve gotten to know each other’s families. They aren’t vacationing together or visiting each other’s homes, but they still feel strongly about their bond.“I got genuine love for him because he takes time out of his day to think about me,” Tee said. “That’s the type of relationship we’ve built, as far as knowing that he got love for me, I got love for him. I got love for big KAT.”“I got love for Ja,” Karl said.They’ve been friends through some difficult times. When Jackie Cruz-Towns, Karl’s wife and Karl-Anthony’s mother, died of Covid-19 in April 2020, Tee called a few days later to tell Karl he was praying for the family, conscious of not wanting to burden him further.“I understood enough to give him space,” Tee said.Karl sends Tee passages from the Bible regularly, and Tee appreciates the gesture, though he doesn’t always read every word.“I want him to know that God is always on our side,” Karl said. “It’s a blessing to be on this Earth to see our kids do this.”They resist the idea that they’ve become celebrities, saying their sons are the real ones. They say they are just two fathers who are endlessly proud of their children.“I just stayed there long enough for my son to conquer his dream,” Tee said. “Just like he did.”“Just like I did,” Karl said.On Thursday morning, Ja was asked if he’d seen the interviews with his and Karl-Anthony’s fathers. He wore a serious expression.“Were they arguing?” Ja asked.He was told they were.“Like serious arguing?” Ja asked.He was told they weren’t, and his posture relaxed. In truth, their back-and-forth ribbing never gets too serious.Karl-Anthony Towns, left, and Ja Morant, right, have led their teams to a 2-2 series tie in the first round of the N.B.A. playoffs.Justin Ford/Getty Images“It’s not a fight; it’s never a fight,” Tee said. “Because right here, all of this is competition. But once the clock goes zero, you’ve got to go back to your life. Real life, this is my guy. Just because KAT had 30-something the first game and they beat us, and then Ja almost had a triple-double Game 2 and we beat them.“And then once we beat them by 20-something, he’s still going to love me. He’s going to cry a little bit.”Karl rolled his eyes again.“He slid that in real smooth, right?” Karl said. “But you know what? It’s OK. Because once we beat them, they don’t got to go far because the hotel is hooked to the place. You just walk across right to the hotel right through the tunnel.”They have said they placed a friendly wager on the series and whoever loses will have to wear the jersey of the other’s son. There are also smaller wagers.“After we beat them the first time he was supposed to take me to dinner,” Karl said. “You know what I saw? The back of his car leaving me.”Tee burst out laughing.He laughed again when Karl said the Timberwolves would win the series in six games.“No disrespect, but there’s no way you could win a game and play Prince,” Tee said, treading into dangerous territory by invoking the name of the musician, who died in 2016, one of Minnesota’s most beloved figures.“You hear this?” Karl asked. “Prince is a legend. He’s out of control right now. He’s out of control, you hear that? I’m about to revoke his ticket.”Karl began to ask every person who walked by if they wanted to trade seats with Tee.“I don’t even want to sit by him,” Karl said.One woman gave up the joke, reminding Karl he’d asked to have Tee be seated next to him.Karl-Anthony Towns, right, greets his father, Karl, left, and Tee Morant after Game 4.Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty ImagesJa took the court for warm-ups about 45 minutes before Game 3 began. He smiled and looked over at his father in between shooting 3-pointers, teasing him about how stylish he looked.“Do you know who my son is?” Tee hollered toward Ja. “I’ve got to put this on.”Tee spent much of the game’s wild swings standing up out of either excitement or frustration. He yelled at the referees when things were going poorly for the Grizzlies. He joked with Grizzlies players when things were going well for Memphis.After the bizarre and thrilling Grizzlies victory, in which Memphis recovered from multiple 25-point deficits, Tee turned to Karl and shook Karl’s jacket affectionately. He told Karl they wouldn’t be back in Minnesota after Games 3 and 4, implying that the Grizzlies would win the series in five games.Ja — like Tee might do to Karl — poked fun at Karl-Anthony on Twitter after Memphis won Game 3.But Tee was wrong: The Grizzlies will need at least six games to win the series, because the Timberwolves won Game 4 on Saturday. Afterward Karl-Anthony found his father on the sideline to hug him. Then he approached Tee, smiling.“He wasn’t getting the ball the game before, he said,” Tee recalled. “He took control and got to show what he’s capable of.”The fathers laugh together after every game, no matter who wins.Karl told Tee he’d see him in Memphis for Game 5, and reminded Tee to get him seats. They’ll be sitting courtside, right next to each other.When this series ends, will they both still be rooting for whichever team wins?“Afterward, I’m pretty sure he’s going to root for Ja,” Tee said.Said Karl: “I sure hope he still calls me as we advance in the playoffs.” More

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      Nets Eliminated by Celtics in NBA Playoffs

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      The early playoff exit was a stunning end to a season that began with championship dreams behind Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.The Nets were expecting to vie for N.B.A. championships, and perhaps some day they will. But that day is not now, and another abbreviated postseason appearance ended on Monday when the Boston Celtics defeated them, 116-112, to complete a four-game sweep in their first-round playoff series.It was a fitting finale to a disjointed season for the seventh-seeded Nets, who spent months cycling through a motley cast of characters. They were undone by injuries and absences, by a mishmash roster that could not unearth a coherent brand of basketball, and, finally, by a superior opponent that put its suffocating clamps on two of the planet’s best players.The Celtics produced the league’s top-ranked defense in the regular season, and they proved it was no fluke against Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Ime Udoka, the Celtics’ first-year coach, was one of Coach Steve Nash’s assistants in Brooklyn last season, and he applied his institutional knowledge throughout the series.Next up for the second-seeded Celtics is the winner of the first-round series between the Chicago Bulls and the Milwaukee Bucks. The defending champion Bucks have a three-games-to-one lead entering Game 5 of their series on Wednesday.The Nets, who had the second-highest payroll in the league this season, will try to recalibrate. Nash, who was hired by the Nets in 2020 without any head coaching experience, has now presided over two early postseason exits. (The Nets lost to the Bucks in the Eastern Conference semifinals last season.) Irving, who can become an unrestricted free agent, has said that he intends to re-sign with the team. But he appeared in only 29 regular-season games this season because of his refusal to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.The season was also interrupted by a midseason trade with the Philadelphia 76ers, who acquired James Harden in exchange for a package that included Ben Simmons, Seth Curry and draft picks. Simmons arrived in Brooklyn with a balky back and said he had been dealing with mental health issues for months. He never appeared in uniform.As for the Harden experiment, it was a bust. Harden, Durant and Irving played together in just 16 games over two seasons, including the playoffs.Before Game 4, Nash reflected on the Nets’ tumultuous season and spun it forward, saying it had made the team “better” and “stronger.”“We took the challenge and we all grew from it,” he said. “And at some point, those challenges will afford us a lot. We hope that we don’t have to face so many going forward, though.”Durant missed 21 games after spraining his knee in January, then played heavy minutes late in the regular season as the team scrambled for a spot in the play-in tournament. After Durant attempted just 11 field goals against the Celtics in Game 3, Nash acknowledged that fatigue may have played a role.Kevin Durant of the Nets had 39 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists in Game 4. After taking just 11 shots in Game 3, he had 31 attempts in Game 4.Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times“Kevin’s had to play 40-plus minutes for five-plus weeks after missing six, seven weeks,” he said, adding, “I’m sure that’s taken a big toll.”And there were the team’s highly publicized absences. Simmons watched the first three games of the series from the bench in street clothes. Harden now plays in Philadelphia. And Joe Harris, one of the team’s best shooters, had a bone particle removed from his left ankle in November. When his rehabilitation had a setback, he underwent another surgical procedure in March that ended his season.Against the Celtics, the Nets missed Harris’s length on defense along with his ability to stretch the floor as a 3-point threat. As a result, the Celtics could be even more aggressive about sticking multiple defenders on Durant whenever he touched the ball.The series itself was a swift descent into futility. After the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum won Game 1 with a buzzer-beating layup, Irving used several profanities to describe his interactions with fans who were sitting courtside in Boston. (The N.B.A. subsequently fined Irving $50,000 for making obscene gestures.) After the Nets got thumped in Game 2, Irving heaped praise on the Celtics’ young core, telling reporters that “their time is now.” And after he struggled in Game 3, Durant sounded baffled at his postgame news conference. What could he possibly do to keep the series alive? He did not have any immediate solutions.“Maybe shoot more, maybe be smarter,” he said in a slow monotone. “Catch the ball closer to the rim. Play faster. Catch and shoot more.”Durant said he would try to “figure it out” by studying more film ahead of Game 4.Now, the Nets have an entire summer to search for answers.Nets fans during game 4.Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times More

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      Praying the Lakers Regain a Starring Role in the N.B.A. Playoffs

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      This postseason, the only reminders of the Los Angeles Lakers’ luster appear on a fictionalized cable series and streaming documentaries.Dear God of Sports,This prayer comes in the name of N.B.A. healing and restoration.The playoffs are happening now, blessed with tension and talent. What a spectacle. Thank you for the young among us, beginning with Ja Morant and Jordan Poole. Make safe the health of the great, grizzled Noah known as Chris Paul.The vigor you have again bestowed upon the Boston Celtics is beauty to behold.But something is missing: the Los Angeles Lakers. Any postseason without the Lakers feels like a breach of a cosmic bond.For all to be right in the Kingdom of Hoops, the Lakers must be a fixture in the playoff firmament; same as they were in all but five seasons from their birth in the late 1940s until 2014, when Kobe Bryant (may he and his beloved rest easy) began edging toward retirement.The Lakers are cherished and hated like no other team. They bestow extra attention, vibe and legitimacy upon the postseason. Nothing is the same without them in the mix.Great Spirit of Sports, the Lakers now wander in the desert. With this season’s epic collapse, they have failed to reach the postseason in seven of the last nine years. Yes, they reached the highest of heights in 2020. But that season’s N.B.A. championship finished inside a pandemic bubble. Two years ago now seems like 20. Today, the journey to that title is a parable few remember. Was it just a dream?Basketball fans have been forsaken. A generation walks in the wilderness, having never seen a powerful Lakers team challenge Steph Curry and Golden State with everything on the line.But you never let us down, God of Sports. Amid the playoffs, you have sprinkled reminders of Lakers luster for all to see — at least those of us who subscribe to HBO Max and Apple TV+.Two years removed from winning an N.B.A. championship, the Lakers missed the playoffs this season.Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA Today Sports, via ReutersLast week came the unveiling on Apple TV+ of the documentary “They Call Me Magic.”Please allow for good reviews.Heal the hearts of the Lakers family, who now live in distress over another recent depiction, the HBO series “Winning Time.” It is classic Hollywood: a glitzy blend of fact, fiction and glammed-up dramatic license that focuses on the team’s 1980s Showtime era. All that off-court excess, all that soap opera intrigue, along with those five league titles.That series has caused hurt feelings and bruised pride to consume Lakersland.Jerry West demanded a retraction and an apology from HBO over the overheated, fictive way he is depicted.Kareem Abdul-Jabbar called the series a deliberately dishonest rendering, “with characters who are stick-figure representations that resemble real people the way Lego Han Solo resembles Harrison Ford.”Magic Johnson, the show’s centerpiece, the Showtime era’s North Star, said he had not seen the series and that it did not tell the truth. Confusing, I know.Lord of Hoops, Great Giver of the Three-Point Shot, far be it from me to tell these basketball legends that their anger is misplaced. But ease their troubles. Remind them that few will watch a series like “Winning Time” in these discordant days without being in on the joke.Help them see the irony: The Lakers’ iconic modern image was built in part on Hollywood smoke and mirrors. On the cloaking and twisting of reality. Indeed, on magic.The Lakers of the 1980s were more than just a team that won five championships in a decade. Their uniqueness came not just from those titles but from the power of make-believe — the Forum Club, the Lakers Girls, the age-defying movie stars in every other seat.Remind aggrieved Lakers of their team’s twists of narrative. Their storied rise in the 1980s was cast as villains to the Boston Celtics and drawn in simple strokes: the cool, Black team standing in the path of the stodgy, white one.Yes, Boston had Larry Bird and other white stars, but it also had Black Celtics like Dennis Johnson, Robert Parish and Cedric Maxwell — legends in their own right.And which team had a Black head coach? The Celtics, led by K.C. Jones for two of their three N.B.A. crowns that decade.In the longtime telling of this duel, the city of Boston has often been projected as mired in racism. But simple stories, as you well know, sometimes mask the complicated truth. Los Angeles has always had plenty of its own problems with race.Injustice exists everywhere. Greatness is a rarer thing. The greatness of 17 N.B.A. championships ground the Lakers, even though mythology has always been a part of their story.Oh mighty one, in the name of St. Elgin, lessen the burden of former Lakers who feel wronged.Then turn back to the hardwood.Restore LeBron James, his creaky knees and 37-year-old back.Remind him that all good things come in due time — so long as due time starts next season. The entertainment empire he is building in Los Angeles is something to behold. But being a movie mogul and community force flows first from the river of N.B.A. championships.Consider purgatory for the front office executives who signed Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony and the other elder-Lakers before this season.When you finish replenishing Hollywood’s team, would you mind granting an even bigger miracle to another basketball calamity?God of Sports, remember the Knicks? More

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      The Pelicans Are Finding Their Way Without Zion Williamson

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      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.

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      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

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      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