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      N.B.A. Investigating Kyrie Irving Over Maskless Party Video

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonThis Is for Stephen Curry’s CriticsAre the Knicks Back?A Year of Kobe and LeBronMarc Stein’s Fearless PredictionsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyN.B.A. Investigating Kyrie Irving Over Maskless Party VideoThe Nets said they were aware of the video, which appears to show their guard attending a large indoor party, which would violate the league’s coronavirus protocols.Kyrie Irving last appeared in a game for the Nets on Jan. 5. He has been out for what the team has called “personal reasons.”Credit…Frank Franklin Ii/Associated PressSopan Deb and Jan. 12, 2021Updated 9:59 p.m. ETThe N.B.A. is investigating whether Nets guard Kyrie Irving violated the league’s coronavirus protocols after a video emerged Monday on social media that appeared to show him at a crowded indoor party without wearing a mask.The N.B.A.’s health protocols prohibit players from attending indoor social gatherings of 15 or more people. If the league determines that Irving broke these rules, he could be fined 1/81.6 of his estimated $33 million annual salary (more than $400,000) for each game he has to miss while quarantining. The length of the quarantine depends on several factors, such as the setting of the violation and how long the player was there.Sean Marks, the Nets general manager, said in a statement that the team was aware of the video, which it described as showing Irving at a “family gathering.”“We are reviewing the circumstances with both Kyrie and the N.B.A. in order to determine compliance with health and safety protocols,” Marks said.Representatives for Irving could not immediately be reached for comment.It’s unclear when and where the gathering took place, but the video of it compounds puzzling aspects of the season for Irving, who has not played since Jan. 5 for what the team has called “personal reasons.”Ahead of last Thursday’s game against Philadelphia, Nets Coach Steve Nash said that he had not heard from Irving and did not know why he wasn’t playing. Before Tuesday night’s game against Denver, Nash declined to say more than that the organization had been in touch with Irving.“There’s been communication, but I think that’s all in-house,” Nash said. “We keep that to ourselves, and we try to figure out our home front privately.”Asked if he was confident that Irving would return this season, Nash said: “Sure. Like I said, right now, I’ve got to focus on coaching this team and getting the best out of them. So I can’t make any predictions, prognostications about things that are outside of this building.”In his statement, Marks said that Irving’s return had “yet to be finalized.”“In the meantime, we will continue to stay focused on our organizational goals,” Marks said. “Kyrie will have the opportunity to address his absence when he is ready to do so.”After Tuesday’s win over the Nuggets, the Nets were 6-6 for the season but 4-3 when Irving had played. He was off to a stellar start, averaging 27.1 points and 6.1 assists on 50.4 percent shooting in seven games. The Nets also went without Irving’s co-star, Kevin Durant, for a week because of the N.B.A.’s health protocols.James Harden, the Houston Rockets guard, was fined $50,000 earlier in the season after attending an indoor party with more than 15 people on Dec. 21, the eve of the season’s opening night. Irving was also fined $25,000 that month, for refusing to speak to the media.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Sixers’ Positive Virus Test Challenges N.B.A.’s Health Protocol

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonThis Is for Stephen Curry’s CriticsAre the Knicks Back?A Year of Kobe and LeBronMarc Stein’s Fearless PredictionsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySixers’ Positive Virus Test Challenges N.B.A.’s Health ProtocolThe Philadelphia 76ers and Nets continued a game even though a player who had been on the bench learned during play that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.Sixers guard Seth Curry was placed in isolation after learning during Thursday’s game against the Nets that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.Credit…Matt Slocum/Associated PressSopan Deb and Jan. 8, 2021Updated 9:50 p.m. ETIn the latest challenge for a major North American sports league trying to navigate the pandemic, the N.B.A.’s Philadelphia 76ers remained in New York on Friday to undergo contact tracing and coronavirus testing after one of their players learned during a game against the Nets on Thursday night that he had tested positive.The positive test result was returned while the player, Seth Curry, was on the Sixers’ bench during the first half of their loss to the Nets at Barclays Center. The game was allowed to continue, raising questions about the league’s health and safety protocols as it plays without the restricted setup it used to finish last season in Florida.The Sixers lost, 122-109, and a full evaluation to determine whether Curry had been in close contact with any Sixers players or staff members began in earnest the next morning — after the Nets had flown to Memphis for their next game.The 76ers will need eight players in uniform to go ahead with Saturday’s scheduled 3 p.m. game against the Denver Nuggets in Philadelphia, but it was unclear Friday night whether they would have enough players to avoid the league’s second postponement of the season.With the team still in Manhattan as of the N.B.A.’s injury report at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, seven Philadelphia players (Joel Embiid, Danny Green, Tobias Harris, Shake Milton, Vincent Poirier, Paul Reed and Matisse Thybulle) were listed as questionable because of the league’s health and safety protocols.Four other Sixers — Curry, Terrance Ferguson (personal reasons) and the injured duo of Mike Scott and Furkan Kormaz — have already been ruled out of the game. The Sixers have a 17-man rosterCurry, held out of Thursday’s game with an ankle injury, was removed from the Sixers’ bench and placed in isolation after being notified of the positive test during the first half, according to two people familiar with the circumstances who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the details publicly.“An initial positive test received during a game, when a player has already tested negative that day, results in the player’s immediate removal but does not trigger the cancellation of a game,” said David Weiss, the league’s senior vice president for player matters.Before Thursday’s game, Curry had taken two daily coronavirus tests as required by the N.B.A.’s health and safety protocols — one rapid polymerase chain reaction test and one lab-based P.C.R. test.Weiss added: “The testing strategy we have implemented of two daily P.C.R. tests creates a process that aims to identify an infected individual before they become infectious to others. Combined with our data that analyzes contact time and distance during on-court play, our experts believe that the game can safely proceed in these circumstances.”Major League Baseball faced a similar challenge of a positive test result received during competition, in Game 6 of the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays in October. The Dodgers’ third baseman, Justin Turner, learned during the seventh inning that he had tested positive, and was pulled from the game before the start of the eighth inning. The game was not stopped then, either, and Turner later apologized for returning to the field to celebrate winning the championship with his teammates.Curry’s rapid test came up as negative, allowing him to be on the bench with a mask, according to one of the people familiar with the situation. The 76ers then received the result of his lab test, which was positive, and took him to an isolated room at Barclays Center as play continued. He left the arena separately from the rest of the team.The Nets still played the Grizzlies, as scheduled, on Friday night. Nets Coach Steve Nash said before the game that he and his players “weren’t aware” of Curry’s positive coronavirus result as they played the Sixers, but he added that since then “the talk or chatter about it amongst our team was pretty minimal.”On Thursday, Curry had been seated on the front row of Philadelphia’s bench in the first quarter against the Nets in street clothes, with the assistant coach Sam Cassell to his right and, for portions of the quarter, Philadelphia’s star center Joel Embiid to his left.After the game, Embiid, who recently became a father, told ESPN that he planned to quarantine from his family until he was sure that he did not have the virus.The Washington Wizards, who played Philadelphia on Wednesday night, played the Celtics in Boston on Friday night. The Celtics announced earlier in the day that three rotation players — Tristan Thompson, Grant Williams and Robert Williams III — would miss that game because of possible exposure to the coronavirus. Other top players in the league have also been in quarantine, including Kevin Durant of the Nets, despite not reporting a positive coronavirus test.Players are required to quarantine for at least seven days if they are exposed to someone who tests positive. If a player tests positive, he could be required to isolate for at least 10 days. Several players have had to quarantine since the season began Dec. 22, but only one game has been derailed: Houston’s season-opener against Oklahoma City on Dec. 23 was postponed when the Rockets could not field the league’s minimum requirement of eight players.The N.B.A. announces the results of the leaguewide coronavirus testing weekly and said Thursday that four players out of 498 tested since Dec. 30 had tested positive. Last week, the league announced zero confirmed positive tests out of 495 players tested.According to the N.B.A.’s protocols, a positive test requires a team to “notify any close contacts of the confirmed positive case of their status and appropriate next steps,” including retesting or quarantine. A player that has tested positive must isolate for at least 10 days or return two consecutive negative tests at least 24 hours apart before he can take steps to return to play, such as working out by himself when no other players are present.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Nets’ Spencer Dinwiddie Out Indefinitely With Torn A.C.L.

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonThe Warriors Are StrugglingVirus Upends Houston RocketsMarc Stein’s Fearless PredictionsThe Reloaded LakersAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyNets’ Spencer Dinwiddie Out Indefinitely With Torn A.C.L.Dinwiddie, who started at guard alongside Kyrie Irving, hobbled off the court Sunday in the third quarter with what was initially called knee strain.Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie, who partially tore his right anterior cruciate ligament on Sunday, also tore his left A.C.L. in college.Credit…Michael Dwyer/Associated PressDec. 28, 2020Updated 3:20 p.m. ETThe Nets’ first loss of the season Sunday night at Charlotte has proved especially costly, with the team announcing on Monday that Spencer Dinwiddie, who has been starting at guard alongside Kyrie Irving, partially tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and is out indefinitely.Early in the second half of the Nets’ 106-104 loss to the Hornets, Dinwiddie fell to the floor clutching his right knee after an awkward step in the paint as he passed the ball to Kevin Durant. The team said more details about Dinwiddie’s recovery are expected after surgery next week.Dinwiddie averaged 6.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 21.4 minutes per game in the Nets’ 2-1 start. The Nets routed Golden State at home and Boston on the road in its first two games before slumping to defeat against the Hornets, who had started 0-2 and are not expected to contend for the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. The Nets will be without Dinwiddie, Durant and Irving on Monday night against Memphis at Barclays Center, with Durant and Irving being held out for rest on the second night of a back-to-back.Dinwiddie, 27, averaged 20.6 points and 6.8 assists per game last year while Durant was sidelined for the entire season while recovering from an Achilles’ tendon tear and with Irving limited to just 20 games by various injuries. But Dinwiddie did not join the Nets in the bubble at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla., in July, missing the N.B.A. restart while recovering from Covid-19.He earned a spot in the starting lineup this season when the new Nets coach, Steve Nash, decided to deploy Caris LeVert as a sixth man, only to be felled by the second knee injury of his career. Dinwiddie tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during his junior season at Colorado.The injury Sunday occurred on a drive to the basket against Charlotte’s Bismack Biyombo. Dinwiddie hobbled to the Nets’ bench and, after some treatment, was soon ruled out of the game for what was initially termed a right knee sprain.“When Spencer is going, he can’t be stopped — his offensive game when he’s going downhill creating shots for others,” Jarrett Allen, Dinwiddie’s teammate, told reporters after the game. “And even off the court, everyone loves having Spencer around. His energy, just his personality, is great in the locker room.”Playing on what is regarded as one of the N.B.A.’s most attractive contracts, Dinwiddie can become a free agent at season’s end or invoke a $12.3 million player option for the 2021-22 season.Despite Nash’s lack of coaching experience and uncertainty about how Durant and Irving would mesh after injuries prevented them from playing together in their first season in Brooklyn, the Nets are widely billed as a championship contender — in part because they have one of the league’s deepest rosters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Amar’e Stoudemire Is a Coach Now. But Don’t Call Him That.

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonNets and Clippers Win BigMVP: LeBron or Luka?The Reloaded LakersWill the Nets Reign?Assistant coach Amar’e Stoudemire of the Brooklyn NetsCredit…Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE, via Getty ImagesSkip to contentSkip to site indexAmar’e Stoudemire Is a Coach Now. But Don’t Call Him That.Stoudemire has reunited with his Phoenix Suns cohort of Steve Nash and Mike D’Antoni on the Nets’ staff. It’s weird to him, too.Assistant coach Amar’e Stoudemire of the Brooklyn NetsCredit…Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE, via Getty ImagesSupported byContinue reading the main storyDec. 23, 2020, 5:03 p.m. ETAs recently as late July, Amar’e Stoudemire was seemingly as far away as possible from joining the Nets’ coaching staff and a high-wattage reunion of Phoenix Suns alumni in Brooklyn. Stoudemire was still playing abroad — and helping Maccabi Tel Aviv win a 54th league championship in Israel.He didn’t know at the time that Steve Nash, the former on-court conductor of the Suns’ “Seven Seconds or Less” era, was a top-secret candidate to become the Nets’ new head coach. Like most connected to the N.B.A., Stoudemire also had no inkling that Mike D’Antoni — who had built a revolutionary offense in Phoenix around the Nash-and-Stoudemire combination — would soon pivot from coaching the Houston Rockets to becoming Nash’s offensive coordinator.For most of the summer, Stoudemire, 38, mostly wrestled with whether to keep playing. He was offered a new one-year contract by Maccabi soon after his performance (18 points and 7 rebounds) in the Israeli Basketball Premier League title game earned him most valuable player honors.Champions and MVP. #stayfocus #StayPostive pic.twitter.com/OySkZYr3yr— Amar’e Stoudemire (@Amareisreal) July 29, 2020
      “I never really thought much about coaching, to be honest with you,” Stoudemire said.That all changed in September after Nash, who played alongside Stoudemire for six seasons in Phoenix, was hired by the Nets as their head coach. Stoudemire reached out with interest in exploring his options to begin a post-playing career. Nash, who had also pitched player development roles on his fledgling staff to his former teammates Dirk Nowitzki and Raja Bell, made a similar offer to Stoudemire.“He’s just getting his foot in the door,” Nash said. “We wanted him to come in and share all the things that he learned from his experiences — but also to learn about coaching, video analysis, analytics and the front office.”Israel had “absolutely” become a second home, Stoudemire, a former Suns and Knicks player, said, after he immersed himself in Judaism over the past decade and then obtained Israeli citizenship in March 2019. That comfort level only added to the lure of playing one more season with Maccabi, but Stoudemire decided to give coaching a try, unsure as he was, even after 14 seasons in the N.B.A. and three playing in Israel and China, that he had reached an age he associated with the profession.“I just never liked the title Coach,” Stoudemire said. “There’s not a lot of swagger that comes with that title. I’m still not quite there yet. I’m still very young, and I like to feel young.”On the Nets’ organizational chart, Stoudemire has been officially named a player development assistant. He brings some experience to the role despite his ambivalence about the coaching label, having hosted a few Nike camps in his Suns and Knicks prime in which he worked briefly with future stars such as Blake Griffin, DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis.At Maccabi last season, Stoudemire also served as a mentor to the Israeli teenager Deni Avdija, who last month became the first lottery draft pick in his country’s history when the Washington Wizards took him with the No. 9 overall selection. Stoudemire, himself a former No. 9 pick in Phoenix, routinely urged Avdija, a versatile 6-foot-9 forward, to “get a triple-double every single chance he gets” and to “attack the rim with force.”Amar’e Stoudemire, right, was a mentor to the Israeli teenager Deni Avdija, left, who was drafted ninth over all by the Washington Wizards.Credit…Tolga Adanali/Euroleague Basketball, via Getty Images“We worked on a no-mercy mind-set,” Stoudemire said.Stoudemire “brings great energy,” Nash said, and can still participate in drills when needed. Nash called him “one of the first true small-ball centers” with much to pass on to modern big men. Nash and D’Antoni have often lamented that their groundbreaking Phoenix teams didn’t lean even harder on smaller lineups, rampant 3-point shooting and fast-paced play — all of which is much more accepted now than it was then. They were wildly successful but ultimately fell short of a championship.Beyond the practice floor, yet another Suns alumnus from that period — Nets General Manager Sean Marks — has given Stoudemire the latitude to sit in on management meetings to get a taste of front-office planning, scouting and recruiting strategies and integrating analytics with traditional coaching.“He has complete access,” Nash said. “We’re pushing him to be as involved as he wants.”“I get to learn from all departments,” Stoudemire said, “to see where I want my career to go.”The varied coursework feeds into a studious side that took hold of Stoudemire as his career progressed in the N.B.A. and blossomed in Israel, where he had two stints with Hapoel Jerusalem, Maccabi’s fiercest rival, before a January 2020 move to join the Tel Aviv club. Initially inspired to become a student of Torah after joining the Knicks in July 2010 and gaining more exposure to Judaism and its connections to his family’s heritage, Stoudemire enrolled at multiple yeshivas as a Jerusalem player to learn the religion’s Orthodox customs. He completed a formal conversion to Orthodox Judaism in August.Stoudemire observes the Jewish Sabbath (Shabbat) from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, keeps a kosher diet and became known in his Maccabi days for arriving at games in all-black Orthodox clothing rather than the trendy gear that has transformed player arena entrances in the N.B.A. into a virtual sport unto itself. Stoudemire, whose Hebrew name is Yehosaphat, said he would work with the Nets to determine the best way to maintain the same level of Orthodox Shabbat observance now that he is back in the United States, where businesses do not shut down on Friday nights as they largely do in Israel.“My time in Israel was amazing,” Stoudemire said. “It took me to another level of purifying myself and making me more mature. From the first day I got there to the last day to walking off with the M.V.P. trophy, it was simply a remarkable experience.”Nash said: “I really admire him. It’s not just our history and our relationship, but how open and inquisitive he is. Amar’e never feels like he’s fully formed; he’s always trying to learn more and do more. So when he showed interest, I said, ‘This is the kind of guy I want.’”Steve Nash, second from left, recorded his first coaching victory with the Nets in their opener on Tuesday night, a 125-99 win over the Golden State Warriors.Credit…Sarah Stier/Getty ImagesThe learning continues back on American soil: Stoudemire said he was taking online courses at the University of Miami in pursuit of an M.B.A. to augment his new job. One veteran coach who knows him well, though, thinks Stoudemire is more of a coaching natural than he even realizes.Phil Weber, known as Drill Phil for his player development work on D’Antoni’s staff in Phoenix, predicted that “players will immediately respect and naturally gravitate towards him.” Weber worked for years with Stoudemire on his shooting after their time together in Phoenix and said it would quickly be evident to the Nets “how much Amar’e cares and how personable he is.”The Nets’ Kyrie Irving said of Nash and the influence of so many former Suns: “Coming in with Mike D’Antoni, with Amar’e Stoudemire, they have been able to guide us to come together as a group.”Stoudemire emphasized, for the record, that he had not formally retired as a player. He likewise remains uneasy about Nets big men such as DeAndre Jordan and Jarrett Allen calling him Coach because the connotation, he said, “has kind of an older vibe to it.”Told that, on the flip side, being addressed in that manner could also suggest he had a higher level of wisdom, Stoudemire said, “I’ll take it.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      8 Fearless N.B.A. Season Predictions

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonNets and Clippers Win BigMVP: LeBron or Luka?The Reloaded LakersWill the Nets Reign?AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storymarc stein on basketball8 Fearless N.B.A. Season PredictionsHouston’s James Harden is widely expected to be traded soon. But Kevin Love? Zach LaVine? LaMarcus Aldridge? They could be on the move, too.The outlook for James Harden is now about when, not if, he will be traded from the Houston Rockets.Credit…Mark Mulligan/Houston Chronicle, via Associated PressDec. 23, 2020, 3:00 a.m. ETThe N.B.A.’s 75th season began Tuesday night with wins by the Nets and the Clippers. A new calendar year arrives in just nine days.The time, then, has never been more right to consult our crystal roundball for the usual batch of eight (almost) fearless predictions for what awaits in #thisleague in coming months:James Harden will be traded no later than Jan. 25 — two full months before this season’s trade deadline.The initial rumblings, at the start of Harden’s standoff with the Houston Rockets, suggested that a trade was unlikely to materialize until closer to the March 25 deadline. The Rockets were determined to first see if they could repair their relationship with Harden, then to leverage the two guaranteed seasons left on his contract on the trade market.More current rumblings indicate that tension within the Rockets is mounting each day Harden goes untraded. The Athletic illuminated some of that tension with a report Tuesday that Harden recently threw a ball in practice at Jae’Sean Tate, his new rookie teammate. Both sides now want to move on as quickly as possible. It’s time.I still regard Philadelphia as the most likely landing spot for Harden, largely because Ben Simmons most closely fits the description of the sort of building-block player Houston is holding out for in return. I’m also told that the familiarity between Daryl Morey and his Rockets successor, Rafael Stone, will outweigh any lingering ill feelings from Morey’s move to Philadelphia as president of basketball operations less than two weeks after he walked away from his Houston contract. I know Morey has said that Simmons is going nowhere. I also know Morey made similar statements about Chris Paul before he traded Paul to Oklahoma City for Russell Westbrook.The Heat let it be known this week that they are not actively pursuing Harden, which is a blow for the Rockets because Miami is one of those fearless teams with the oft-proven gumption to embrace an enigma like Harden in spite of the various red flags. The Sixers and the Nets, though, may not be the only other options: In recent days, it has become known that Toronto, Boston and Denver have also had exploratory talks with Houston.The Rockets will keep probing the market, as eager to move on now as the superstar they catered to for the past eight seasons.At least three of the following five players will be traded this season in addition to Harden: LaMarcus Aldridge, Aaron Gordon, Buddy Hield, Zach LaVine and Kevin Love. Maybe even all five.Love’s case is the most intriguing. He has $91.5 million left on his Cleveland contract with two more seasons after this one. Yet the flurry of contract extensions we’ve seen during the N.B.A.’s truncated off-season may encourage a team or two out there to sacrifice some future salary-cap flexibility to absorb Love’s deal, knowing that free-agent options will be more limited than anticipated.Both Aldridge and Gordon are interesting candidates with their shorter remaining contracts to slot in Boston’s $28.5 million trade exception, which the Celtics (depending on their willingness to run up their luxury-tax bill) can use to add absorb a huge salary in a trade.Kevin Durant will be first player in N.B.A. history to go from an Achilles’ tendon tear to Most Valuable Player Award candidacy.Kevin Durant’s game looked as fluid as ever during the preseason.Credit…Kathy Willens/Associated PressIn Tuesday’s New York Times, as part of a staff compendium of award predictions for the coming season, I went with Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks as my M.V.P. selection. As strong as Doncic’s case will surely be, I’ve been asking myself if I should have gone with Durant.It is super early in his comeback, true, and the Nets will be wary of overtaxing their star forward during the regular season. But Durant is shooting, moving and, yes, dunking as fluidly as we’ve ever seen a player post-Achilles’ tendon surgery.Even at 32, Durant looks highly capable of changing the devastating history of the most dreaded injury in the sport. Then again, Durant is one of the sport’s true offensive unicorns, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised.The Eastern Conference will earn your respect.I can’t claim to have invented the phrase, but I think I’ve been using “Leastern Conference” jabs in stories for almost 20 years. Even in recent seasons that produced a champion from the East, depth on that side of the N.B.A. has often been lacking.This season will be different. Although the West still has more teams that can credibly compete for a playoff spot, it appears that more challengers to the Lakers’ throne (starting with Milwaukee, Miami and the Nets) can be found in the East.Sorting out the East’s top seven, if the Indiana Pacers are indeed more dynamic offensively under new coach Nate Bjorkgren, should be complicated and fun.Finishing sixth in each conference will mean more than it ever has before.One of the best things about the N.B.A.’s play-in playoff round, beyond giving four more teams than usual a pathway to the postseason, is how much more value finishing sixth in the East or West holds.The No. 6 seed clinches a first-round playoff berth. The No. 7 seed slips into a four-team scramble that, in the worst-case scenario, could result in an early off-season. In the N.B.A.’s ongoing quest to make the regular season more meaningful (and watchable), this should help.The No. 9 or No. 10 seed in either conference would have to win two consecutive games to bump off No. 7 or No. 8 for a playoff spot.Game 1: The format calls for the seventh-place team in each conference seed to play No. 8, with the winner claiming the No. 7 seed.Game 2: The No. 9 seed goes up against No. 10. The loser is eliminated.Game 3: The loser of Game 1 faces the winner of Game 2. The Game 3 winner claims the final playoff berth, with the loser heading to the lottery.Got it?There will be All-Star balloting, like usual, even if there is no All-Star Game.All-Star festivities will be different this season, but we’ll still fight about selections and snubs as usual.Credit…Nathaniel S. Butler/NBA PhotosThe N.B.A. has already announced that its 2021 All-Star Weekend, which was scheduled to be held in Indianapolis, has been postponed to 2024 to give the Hoosier State another shot at hosting. Indianapolis last played host to an N.B.A. All-Star Game in 1985.I think the league, deep down, would like to arrange a simpler All-Star Game, just this season, if it made sense to do so. That, however, is a lot to ask in these coronavirus times — especially when a true midseason break of some sort is sure to be welcomed by players after the shortest off-season in history for most teams.Can you live with traditional All-Star balloting, coaches selecting the reserves and the usual Twitter fisticuffs over who got snubbed? I’m pretty sure we’re going to get all that.The Miami Heat will reach the N.B.A. finals again.This is going to be harder than it sounds if you remember the above warnings about the East’s top seven.It will be doubly difficult if you endorse the belief in some league circles that the Heat would not have advanced to the finals at Walt Disney World if not for some bubble anomalies, like the lack of travel and the absence of hostile environments on the road. Miami’s ever-demanding culture for players that puts so much emphasis on fitness and focus, as the theory goes, had its roster primed to cope better than anyone with the long bouts of isolation in the bubble and other mental-health challenges.I don’t buy it. I think the Heat have a worthy, versatile, defensive-minded team that orbits around Jimmy Butler and will be stronger this season as Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson develop. They beat the Lakers twice in the finals, remember, despite the injuries sustained by Adebayo and Goran Dragic.Miami was not a mirage.There will be a loud campaign for the N.B.A. to start cooking up a new all-time team, featuring 75 players as the league’s 75th birthday nears in June, to replace or update the league’s list of 50 greatest players named in October 1996, the league’s 50th season.And if I’m wrong and no loud campaign materializes, I will start it myself.The Scoop @TheSteinLineGrizzlies fans will have to watch Ja Morant from home for now.Credit…Brandon Dill/Associated PressCorner ThreeTrevor Ariza has probably been on your favorite team.Credit…John Raoux/Associated PressYou ask; I answer. Every week in this space, I’ll field three questions posed via email at marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as the city you’re writing in from, and make sure “Corner Three” is in the subject line.(Questions may be lightly edited or condensed for clarity.)Q: The West is obviously going to have more than eight teams vying for playoff spots. Which teams do you think we can rule out now? — Natalie Anfuso (Wayne, Pa.)Stein: I totally understand why you’re asking, because it’s a difficult question to answer. If you’re looking to rule out teams completely, I would feel comfortable naming only Oklahoma City — and that’s just because the Thunder have aggressively embraced a rebuilding posture. It wouldn’t surprise me, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander running the offense and Al Horford and Luguentz Dort anchoring the defense, if even the Thunder proved to be a tougher out than expected.Every team in the West that finished eighth or lower last season has grander visions of this season’s ceiling. No. 8 Portland believes it will contend for a top-four seed after the acquisition of Robert Covington and some additional roster tweaking. Memphis placed ninth and is counting on a similar finish, at worst, purely through Ja Morant’s presumed improvement in Year 2. And No. 10 Phoenix is widely regarded as playoff material now after going 8-0 at the Walt Disney World bubble and then trading for Chris Paul.While outsiders await a potential trade that ships out a veteran like LaMarcus Aldridge, DeMar DeRozan or Patty Mills, No. 11 San Antonio is optimistic that the experience its younger players gained in the bubble will make the Spurs a playoff sleeper. No. 13 New Orleans is one of the more difficult teams to assess and figures to have a puncher’s chance to reach the postseason purely based on the track record of its new coach, Stan Van Gundy, and Zion Williamson’s promising preseason. Golden State, of course, is expected to bounce back from the league’s worst record (15-50) to contend for a playoff berth — even with Klay Thompson out for the season after he tore his right Achilles’ tendon in November.I have more confidence in Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell clicking and No. 14 Minnesota joining that mix ahead of No. 12 Sacramento, but the Timberwolves and the Kings have to be considered playoff long shots in a conference this deep. The Kings, remember, have missed the postseason for a league-high 14 consecutive seasons and, even with a revamped front office, left numerous rival teams stunned by their decision not to match Atlanta’s four-year, $72 million offer sheet to Bogdan Bogdanovic.Q: Maybe it wasn’t part of the wildest off-season ever, but Luke Ridnour had a wild week in 2015 — he was traded five times, if I remember correctly. Did he ever play for any of them? — Barron Hall (Chicago)Stein: Good follow-up question to our recent debate in this space about the proper amount of awe in response to the leaguewide frenzy of transactions in the days before and after the Nov. 18 draft. Ridnour was actually traded four times in a week in June 2015 — one trade more than Trevor Ariza was subjected to last month — but he never played for any of the teams involved.In fact, Ridnour never played in the league again after his stint with Orlando in 2014-15. He had a nonguaranteed contract worth $2.75 million for the 2015-16 season, which is why Ridnour kept being moved, but he decided to stop playing after Toronto acquired him from Oklahoma City in trade No. 4. The first three trades sent him from Orlando to Memphis, Memphis to Charlotte and Charlotte to Oklahoma City.Ariza is on the Thunder’s opening-night roster and, according to my old friends at HoopsHype, has been traded 10 times in his career — more than any other player in league history. Ariza is likely to be mentioned frequently as the potential recipient of an in-season contract buyout that makes him a free-agent target for contending teams like the Lakers, but who would be surprised if Oklahoma City finds a way to trade him again?Q: I honestly don’t know what normal is anymore, but the last five minutes of the Golden State-Sacramento game last Tuesday night were pure joy. All the rookies and reserves were playing their hearts out, Kyle Guy’s buzzer-beater gave the Kings a win, and Steve Kerr, Alvin Gentry and Luke Walton were all laughing through their masks. As a basketball-starved, 70-year-old woman, I enjoyed all of it. Bring it on! — Gigi CoeStein: You get the last word, Gigi. Let’s hope, as the regular season opens Tuesday night, that we have lots of scenes like the one you describe to dissect and savor.Numbers GameCharlotte’s LaMelo Ball has wowed with his passing. Not so much his shooting, yet.Credit…Matt Stamey/Associated Press6Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo last week became the sixth player to sign a so-called supermax contract extension, joining Golden State’s Stephen Curry, Portland’s Damian Lillard, Houston’s James Harden, Washington’s Russell Westbrook and Houston’s John Wall. Two marquee stars who were eligible to sign supermax deals with their former teams but declined: Anthony Davis (New Orleans) and Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio). Utah’s Rudy Gobert was also eligible for the supermax but signed a five-year deal on Sunday with the Jazz at roughly $23 million below the highest amount he could have received.3The supermax contract was introduced to help incumbent teams retain superstar players, after Kevin Durant left Oklahoma City for Golden State in July 2016, but Harden recently became the third of those six supermax recipients to request a trade. Westbrook has been traded twice since signing his supermax with Oklahoma City in September 2017. Wall signed his with Washington in July 2017 and was traded for Westbrook on Dec. 2 after both players asked for a trade.26.2Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball threw some of the best passes I’ve ever seen during the preseason — including a one-handed bounce pass against Orlando on Saturday with skip and bend that should be enjoyed over and over — but Ball, a rookie guard, is struggling as badly as feared with his shooting. Drafted No. 3 over all by the Hornets in November, Ball shot 26.2 percent from the field and 27.3 percent on 3-pointers in Charlotte’s four exhibition games.44.3With a career conversion rate of 44.3 percent, Philadelphia’s Seth Curry ranks second in league history in 3-point percentage behind Golden State Coach Steve Kerr, who was a career 45.4 percent shooter from long range. The Warriors’ Stephen Curry is sixth at 43.5 percent, behind Hubert Davis (44.1 percent), Drazen Petrovic (43.7 percent) and Duncan Robinson (43.7 percent).5,739We can’t forget that Stephen Curry, coming into this season, had attempted 5,739 3-pointers in his 11 N.B.A. seasons. That’s more than Kerr (1,599), his brother, Seth (1,007), and Miami’s Robinson (641) combined (3,247).Hit me up anytime on Twitter (@TheSteinLine) or Facebook (@MarcSteinNBA) or Instagram (@thesteinline). Send any other feedback to marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.comAdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Nets and Clippers Open N.B.A. Season With Big Wins

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonNets and Clippers Win BigMVP: LeBron or Luka?The Reloaded LakersWill the Nets Reign?AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyNets and Clippers Open N.B.A. Season With Big WinsThe Nets dominated the Warriors, and the Clippers staved off a comeback attempt by the Lakers. Kevin Durant and Paul George were the night’s stars.Paul George had a strong performance for the Clippers on Tuesday, with 33 points on 13-of-18 shooting.Credit…Harry How/Getty ImagesScott Cacciola and Published More