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      Andre Iguodala Plans to End His Career With Golden State

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      Iguodala said he plans to return on a one-year deal after a detour to the Miami Heat. “The opportunity to end it here was just something special,” he said.Andre Iguodala found himself in recent months in discussions with his few N.B.A. peers remaining, the ones who sculpted paralleling journeys, from being teenagers to experiencing parenthood, from playing for free in high school gyms to playing for millions in front of thousands. More

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      In the NBA Playoffs, The Scariest Teams Are Lower Seeds

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      Injuries and illness dragged down the records of several teams, including the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers. That could mean early postseason exits for the season’s best.The N.B.A.’s play-in tournament nearly fell flat with a series of blowout games until LeBron James and Stephen Curry rescued the postseason appetizer experiment with a dynamic one-off between the Los Angeles Lakers and Curry’s Golden State.Now, the real games are here, with the Knicks and the Nets both earning a seat at the table.The championship is up for grabs after a truncated off-season and a somewhat sluggish and injury-filled regular season.In the Western Conference, neither of the two top seeds — the Utah Jazz or the Phoenix Suns — is favored to escape the conference with the defending-champion Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers lurking.In the Eastern Conference, the Nets are finally at full strength at the right time, Milwaukee and Philadelphia are revamped, looking to advance beyond past stumbles, and Jimmy Butler and his Heat — last season’s Eastern Conference champions — will try to prove that success last year was no fluke.Here’s a look at the matchups.Eastern ConferenceNo. 1 Philadelphia 76ersvs. No. 8 Washington WizardsPhiladelphia’s Joel Embiid is one of three finalists for the league’s Most Valuable Player Award.Matt Slocum/Associated PressThe Wizards have emerged as an Eastern Conference feel-good story to rival the Knicks. To seize the East’s final playoff berth, they rallied from a 17-32 start and a coronavirus outbreak that shut down the team for nearly two weeks.The problem: Washington’s reward is a first-round matchup with the best Philadelphia team since Allen Iverson led the 76ers to the N.B.A. finals in 2001. Joel Embiid is one of three finalists for the league’s Most Valuable Player Award, Ben Simmons ranks as one of the league’s most feared defenders and Coach Doc Rivers, in his first season with the Sixers, has this group primed to capitalize on an enticing playoff draw.The three teams best equipped to keep the Sixers out of the N.B.A. finals — Milwaukee, Miami and the Nets — are all on the other side of the bracket, meaning Philadelphia can face only one of them and not before the conference finals.The potency of Bradley Beal and the triple-double king Russell Westbrook in the Wizards’ backcourt might enable them to steal a game, but this is a series in which the Wizards could use Thomas Bryant, their rugged big man who sustained a season-ending knee injury in January. As good as Daniel Gafford has been since Washington acquired him from Chicago on trade deadline day in March, Gafford and a resurgent Robin Lopez will need help to cope with Embiid.No. 2 Brooklyn Netsvs. No. 7 Boston CelticsBoston’s challenge in facing the Nets is daunting, but Jayson Tatum gives the Celtics (some) hope.Bob Dechiara/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe Nets’ starters have not played together enough to be deemed invincible, but it will take a team at full strength to pose any serious challenge. The Celtics are not that team.Boston limped through the regular season with injuries to Kemba Walker, Marcus Smart and Evan Fournier, whom the Celtics traded for in March. Most significantly, Jaylen Brown and his 24.7 points and 6 rebounds per game are out for the season following his wrist surgery.Walker and the offensive virtuoso Jayson Tatum will have to play magnificently and carry the burden just to steal a game or two against a Nets defense that can be porous. The Nets finished with one of the most efficient offenses in N.B.A. history, scoring 117.3 points per 100 offensive possessions, and vied for the Eastern Conference’s top seed, despite piecing together rotations throughout the season.The most realistic result of this series is that the Nets will use the games as an opportunity to jell following a regular season in which Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving rarely all shared the court. Their real test won’t come until they meet healthier opponents down the playoff line.No. 3 Milwaukee Bucksvs. No. 6 Miami HeatJimmy Butler and the Miami Heat have a chance to show that their success last season was not a fluke.Bob Dechiara/USA Today Sports, via ReutersLast season, the Heat thumped the Bucks in the Eastern Conference semifinals, needing just five games to eliminate Giannis Antetokounmpo & Co. It was another disappointingly brief postseason appearance for Milwaukee, which has reoriented itself behind Antetokounmpo for another crack at its first trip to the N.B.A. finals since 1974 — and its first championship since 1971. Few contenders, if any, have gone about their business more quietly. Antetokounmpo went a long way toward ensuring a drama-free existence for the franchise by signing a huge contract extension before the start of the season, and the addition of Jrue Holiday has given the team some defensive-minded toughness.A season removed from an Eastern Conference championship (and a demolition of the Bucks in the process), the Heat have had their ups and downs. Jimmy Butler appeared in just 52 games because of injuries and illness, but he is a fearsome competitor — especially in the postseason. Duncan Robinson and Tyler Herro are constant perimeter threats, and the power forward Bam Adebayo is coming off the most productive regular season of his career. Slowing Antetokounmpo — who was limited by an ankle injury last season — will be the challenge.No. 4 New York Knicksvs. No. 5 Atlanta HawksTrae Young was Atlanta’s leading scorer this season, averaging 25.3 points per game.Brett Davis/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe Knicks and Hawks might be the most evenly matched teams in the first round. Each team has a marquee player who carried it to the postseason: Julius Randle for the Knicks, and Trae Young for the Hawks. Both teams played their best basketball in the second half of the season after an inconsistent first half. Both were among the slowest in terms of pace.All of that to say: This is a tossup. The Hawks do have a wild card in their favor: health. They’re getting some key players back, including Kris Dunn and De’Andre Hunter, who were out with injuries for most of the season. That could cause some headaches for the Knicks, who have mostly avoided the injury bug.The Knicks were elite defensively and have the weapons to contain Young. But offensively, the Knicks have had trouble finding consistent help for Randle. That being said, Randle played the best basketball of his season against the Atlanta. The Knicks won all three of their matchups.Western ConferenceNo. 1 Utah Jazzvs. No. 8 Memphis GrizzliesUtah’s Jordan Clarkson is one of three finalists for the league’s Sixth Man of the Year Award. He averaged a career-high 18.4 points per game.Neville E. Guard/USA Today Sports, via ReutersWhat to make of the Utah Jazz? They were the best team in the N.B.A. and did not have a single top candidate for the Most Valuable Player Award. Donovan Mitchell, their young star in the midst of a career year, missed the final 16 games of the season because of an ankle injury. The Jazz went 10-6 in those games. Utah led the league in point differential, meaning the average margin of victory for their games. The team was dominant, in large part because of Rudy Gobert’s anchoring of the defense, and because of players like Joe Ingles and Jordan Clarkson picking up the slack with Mitchell absent.It’s unclear whether Mitchell will be able to return for the first round. But the biggest issue is that we’ve seen great regular seasons from the Jazz in the past two years, only for them to get bounced in the first round. But this is the best regular-season Jazz team since 1998-99.They’ll face Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies, who overpowered Golden State in a play-in game on Friday night for the eighth seed. Morant, who won the Rookie of the Year Award last season, was relentless on Friday with 35 points. The Grizzlies are young and inexperienced, but they’re also fearless. That mind-set will give them their best chance against the Jazz.No. 2 Phoenix Sunsvs. No. 7 Los Angeles LakersLeBron James’s game-winning 3-pointer against Golden State in the play-in game, which gave the Lakers the seventh seed, signaled that he’s ready for the playoffs.Mark J. Terrill/Associated PressThe Suns assembled their best regular season since 2006-7, motoring through a competitive conference to win their division. Just two seasons ago, they went 19-63 and were a laughingstock. But their talented young core, led by Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton, has begun to fulfill its potential, and the addition of Chris Paul in the off-season infused the team with leadership, desire and direction.The Suns’ reward for all their hard work? A first-round meeting with the defending champions. It doesn’t exactly seem fair that Phoenix has to christen its first trip to the postseason since 2010 by figuring out how to contend with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. (Welcome back to the playoffs!)The Lakers are an oddity as a No. 7 seed: Injuries to their stars hindered their season, and the roster was seldom whole. James, for example, appeared in just 45 games because of an ankle sprain. But if his game-sealing 3-pointer against Golden State in the play-in round is any indication, he could be rounding back into form — and the Suns could be in for a tough series.No. 3 Denver Nuggetsvs. No. 6 Portland Trail BlazersThe Trail Blazers are healthier than they were this time last season, but they will still need to rely on their All-Star guard Damian Lillard.Steve Dykes/Associated PressThe last time these teams met in the playoffs, the result was an epic seven-game clash that included a quadruple-overtime game before Portland exhaustingly outlasted Denver in the 2019 Western Conference semifinals.Both teams have sensational M.V.P. candidates — Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Portland’s Damian Lillard, stars looking to journey past the conference finals for the first time.Both also wavered through uneven stretches during the regular season. Denver was below .500 after the first 13 games of the season, and Portland often struggled while cycling through a series of injuries to key rotation players.But Portland will have the services of CJ McCollum and the former Nugget Jusuf Nurkic after each missed chunks of the regular season. The Nuggets will be without Jamal Murray, one of the breakout stars of last season’s playoffs, after he sustained a knee injury in April. Denver’s Monte Morris and Will Barton are also nursing recent injuries.Jokic should be able to find holes in Portland’s 29th-ranked defense. The Nuggets will look for Aaron Gordon, acquired in a March trade with Orlando, and Michael Porter Jr. to replace some of Murray’s scoring punch, and will need to pay attention to Lillard and McCollum on screens.No. 4 Los Angeles Clippersvs. No. 5 Dallas MavericksThe Clippers fell apart in last season’s playoffs, but they stand a good chance against the Dallas Mavericks this year.Mike Ehrmann/Getty ImagesWhen the Clippers lost their final two regular-season games to Houston and Oklahoma City, two of the league’s worst teams, it signaled to the rest of the N.B.A. that the Clippers wanted to get out of the Lakers’ side of the Western playoff bracket and delay a possible matchup until the conference finals. With the Clippers needing only a win over the Thunder to clinch the No. 3 seed, rest assured that they were equally motivated by the prospect of dropping to No. 4 and locking in a first-round series with Dallas.The state of the Clippers’ psyche remains a major curiosity after their second-round collapse against Denver last season, but no one questions their confidence in being able to beat the Mavericks for the second straight postseason. It’s a matchup they clearly relish; health is the greater uncertainty after they coped with myriad injuries this season.For all of the danger Dallas’ Luka Doncic poses, Clippers Coach Tyronn Lue has a variety of defensive options (Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Marcus Morris for starters) to send at Doncic and make him work for his numbers. To have a chance, the Mavericks will need consistent production from Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jalen Brunson, and even more so from their big men who can stretch the floor with shooting — Maxi Kleber and Kristaps Porzingis. More

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      Basketball Hall of Fame to Enshrine 16 More

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      The next class will include Chris Bosh, Paul Pierce, Ben Wallace, Chris Webber, Toni Kukoc, Bill Russell (as a coach this time), Yolanda Griffith, Lauren Jackson and Jay Wright.SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Jay Wright used to sell tickets to games in the United States Football League. Ben Wallace was passed over by every N.B.A. team, some of them twice. Yolanda Griffith got a job repossessing cars so she could take care of herself and her infant daughter while playing community college basketball.For all of them, those days are long gone. Basketball’s highest honor has come their way.Wright, Wallace and Griffith were part of a 16-person class that was announced Sunday as the 2021 inductees for the Basketball Hall of Fame. The longtime standout N.B.A. forwards Chris Bosh, Paul Pierce and Chris Webber were among those selected, along with the former coaches Rick Adelman and Cotton Fitzsimmons and the three-time W.N.B.A. most valuable player Lauren Jackson.“It’s not anything you ever even dream of,” Wright said on the ESPN broadcast of the announcement. “It’s pretty cool.”The class even includes someone who has been a Hall of Famer for 46 years. The 11-time N.B.A. champion Bill Russell, enshrined in 1975 as a player, has been selected again as a coach. Russell becomes the fifth Hall of Famer who will be inducted as both a player and a coach, joining John Wooden, Lenny Wilkens, Bill Sharman and Tommy Heinsohn.“Special is only reserved for a few,” Celtics Coach Brad Stevens said of Russell, the N.B.A.’s first Black head coach, who was a player and coach after Red Auerbach retired. “And Bill Russell is as special as they come.”Fitzsimmons was selected as a contributor, as were the former W.N.B.A. commissioner Val Ackerman and Howard Garfinkel, a founder and longtime director of the Five-Star basketball camp, which revolutionized how players were recruited and how coaches taught the game.Toni Kukoc, a three-time N.B.A. champion with Chicago and two-time Olympic silver medalist, was selected by the international committee. Clarence Jenkins was chosen by the Early African-American Pioneers Committee.The four-time All-Star Bob Dandridge was the pick of the veterans committee, and Pearl Moore — a 4,000-point scorer in college in the 1970s, most of those points coming at Francis Marion — was selected by the women’s veterans committee.Wright said he never imagined when he started coaching at Division III Rochester that the Hall of Fame would be a possibility, and he has championed the candidacy of one of his Villanova predecessors — Rollie Massimino — for years.But now, the two-time N.C.A.A. champion coach who was on the hot seat at Villanova after a slow three-year start to his tenure there is in the Hall himself. He had the ticket-selling job before getting into coaching at Rochester and turned that chance into a career like few others.“Jay is one of the best coaches I’ve ever had, and one of the best people I’ve ever known,” said the former Villanova guard Kyle Lowry, now with the Toronto Raptors. “He treated me like a son, and he helped me become the man I am today. He is truly a special person.”Bosh and Pierce were selected in their first year of eligibility; Webber had been a finalist in each of the last five years before finally getting the call. Bosh was a two-time champion in Miami whose résumé was still considered Hall-worthy even after his career ended abruptly — and with him still at an All-Star level — because of blood clots.“Chris Bosh was the ultimate leader, teammate and winner,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He was a huge part of our success and always did it with real class, selflessness and professionalism. His accomplishments on the court earned him this great honor, but he is also a Hall of Fame quality person.”Bosh was an 11-time All-Star, Pierce a 10-time selection and a 2008 N.B.A. champion with Boston, and Webber was a five-time All-Star pick after a college career in which he was part of the University of Michigan’s Fab Five.“I’m just thankful, man,” Webber said.Adelman’s teams won 1,042 games in the N.B.A., the ninth most in league history. Fitzsimmons was a two-time N.B.A. coach of the year who coached, among others, Charles Barkley, Jason Kidd and Steve Nash.Of the now 140 players from the N.B.A. and A.B.A. that are enshrined in the Hall, none of them averaged fewer points than Wallace, who managed 5.7 per game for his career. He never had a 30-point game as a pro; his regular-season high was 23 points, his playoff high was 29 points.He was a four-time defensive player of the year, making that end of the floor his specialty.“To have that type of journey, to have it end the way it’s ending, it’s an awesome feeling,” Wallace said on the broadcast.Griffith once accepted a scholarship to Iowa, then had a baby and wound up at Palm Beach Community College in South Florida, followed by Florida Atlantic — then a Division II school. Those were the days when she had the repo job, but she still got into the W.N.B.A., won an M.V.P. Award in 1999 and now will be listed among the greats.“My journey was like a rocky, roller-coaster ride, but I owe it all to my family,” Griffith said. “Without my family, none of this would be possible.”Also Sunday, the Hall said ESPN’s vice president for women’s sports programming, Carol Stiff, is this year’s recipient of the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award. She will be honored at Hall of Fame weekend, which is scheduled to be capped with the enshrinement ceremony on Sept. 11.Sunday’s announcement came one day after the 2020 class — including Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett — was enshrined in a ceremony delayed from last fall because of the Covid-19 pandemic. More

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      These N.B.A. Contenders Just Got Better

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      A look at the league’s top-tier contenders after a busy period of player movement.The N.B.A.’s trade deadline on Thursday featured more than a dozen trades — some surprising, some not so much. Several players named Gary were traded (Trent Jr., Clark, Harris). Miami was the biggest winner, acquiring Victor Oladipo and, separately, Nemanja Bjelica.Many of the top teams in the league stood pat. The Los Angeles Lakers didn’t trade for Kyle Lowry. Their rivals, the Los Angeles Clippers, traded backup point guards: Lou Williams to the Atlanta Hawks for Rajon Rondo. The Philadelphia 76ers added a solid veteran guard in George Hill from the Oklahoma City Thunder.But did any teams make any moves to vault themselves to title contender status? With roughly a third of the season left, a wide-open N.B.A. season is now showing more signs of a traditional hierarchy.In the Eastern Conference, entering Sunday’s games, the fourth and 11th seeds were separated by five and a half games. But the third-seeded Milwaukee Bucks were ahead of the No. 4-seeded Charlotte Hornets by five and a half games, establishing a clear top tier. In the West, there was less separation between the top seeds, with the No. 6-seeded Portland Trail Blazers seven games behind the No. 1-seeded Utah Jazz, leaving room for a lot of movement.Here’s a look at the top-tier contenders from each conference and where they stand after the trade deadline.The EastPhiladelphia 76ers (32-14)Simmons, center, and Tobias Harris, right, are keeping the Sixers at the top of the East, even without the injured Joel Embiid.Kyle Terada/USA Today Sports, via ReutersWhy They’ll Win the Finals:The Sixers are deep and well balanced to surround Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. They’ve gone 6-2 without Embiid, who hasn’t played since March 12 because of a knee injury. In that stretch, they beat the Spurs — a likely playoff team — by 35 points and the Kings by 24. In the playoffs, they’ll have Embiid, a matchup nightmare and a candidate for the Most Valuable Player Award. They have also had an elite defense all season, and been boosted by a career year for Tobias Harris.Adding George Hill, who led the league in 3-point shooting last season, was a good move by the Sixers’ front office. He plays solid defense, has a lot of playoff experience and gives Embiid and Simmons more room to work.Why They Won’t: Health. Embiid has missed roughly a third of the season and has had conditioning issues. Also, Embiid and Simmons have struggled in past playoffs to produce at a high level as defenses focused more on them. And as good as Embiid and Simmons are, if the Nets and the Bucks are healthy, Philadelphia won’t have the best top-end players on the floor if they meet.Milwaukee Bucks (29-16)P.J. Tucker, right, gives the Bucks perimeter defense and toughness.Jeff Hanisch/USA Today Sports, via ReutersWhy They’ll Win the Finals: The Bucks made a significant acquisition with P.J. Tucker, the gritty, defensive-minded forward who gives Milwaukee another perimeter threat. The team is finally showing itself to be the juggernaut it was predicted to be in the preseason, going 13-3 in its last 16 games. The Bucks are deep, and Giannis Antetokounmpo may very well win his third straight M.V.P. Award this season. They have one of the league’s best offenses and a top-10 defense.The Tucker trade freed up roster spots, giving the Bucks room to add a free agent. (Austin Rivers and Kelly Olynyk, who were recently traded, could be great fits here if they are bought out of their contracts or released.)Why They Won’t: Once again, the Bucks are having a great regular season. Ultimately, the Bucks will only advance if Antetokounmpo isn’t flummoxed by playoff defenses, as he has been. He is shooting only 30 percent from deep, so expect opposing teams to continue to pack the paint when he has the ball.Brooklyn Nets (31-15)James Harden has been the lone member of the Nets’ starry trio on the floor many times, as Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving miss games for injury and personal reasons. He has handled it just fine.Rick Bowmer/Associated PressWhy They’ll Win the Finals: The Nets are a cheat code. Since Feb. 14, they have had the league’s fifth best offense. Why is that date relevant? Because Kevin Durant has not played at all in that time because of an injured left hamstring. The Nets have an elite offense and they’re not even playing one of the greatest offensive players in the history of the game. James Harden has been exceptional. He leads the league in assists, despite not having Durant to pass to for most of his time with the Nets. The team is 17-3 in its last 20 games — almost entirely without Durant.And the Nets just added LaMarcus Aldridge in addition to their recent signing of Blake Griffin.Why They Won’t: It’s one thing to navigate the regular season without Durant. But in the playoffs, that creates different challenges. Is he definitely going to be healthy for the playoffs? And even if he is, given how ball dominant he is, will there be enough time to mesh with Harden and Kyrie Irving properly?Miami Heat (22-24)The Heat have struggled with and without Jimmy Butler, but a few trade deadline moves could help them make a run down the stretch.Joel Auerbach/Associated PressWhy They’ll Win the Finals: Yes, the Heat are under .500. But they did make the N.B.A. finals last year despite being a lower seed, and they have most of the same players this year. Their record is mostly a result of health. Jimmy Butler, their best player, missed a bunch of time this season and now is actually having the best campaign of his career, averaging career highs in field-goal percentage, rebounds and assists. The team also added Victor Oladipo, another playmaker, to help share responsibility with Butler.Why They Won’t It’s tough to capture lightning in a bottle twice, and the rest of the contenders have better top-level talent. In 20 games with Houston, Oladipo played poorly — averaging 21.2 points on only 40.7 percent shooting from the field. The Heat have lost six in a row, and in general have been inconsistent. It’s hard to believe that a sub-.500 team this late in the season can win a title.The WestUtah Jazz (34-11)Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert are in sync, and that has meant success for the Jazz this season.Alex Goodlett/Getty ImagesWhy They’ll Win the Finals: In the early stages of the pandemic, dysfunction swirled around the Jazz. Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell had a relationship that was on the rocks. But they began to reassemble their chemistry in the bubble, and now Utah has the best record in the N.B.A. Mitchell has emerged as a star — one who is fully capable of lifting his team into title contention. The difference this season is that he and Gobert have more help, and the Jazz are overwhelming teams from the 3-point line.Why They Won’t: Aside from their pockmarked playoff history, the Jazz play in a conference packed with championship-tested players, luminaries who are identifiable by their first names (LeBron, Kawhi) and know what it takes to make deep trips through the postseason. The Jazz, on the other hand, have not reached the conference finals since 2007.Los Angeles Clippers (31-16)Paul George has rebounded from postseason struggles last summer to keep the Clippers in the mix in the West.Darren Abate/Associated PressWhy They’ll Win the Finals: The Clippers faced questions after their meltdown in the bubble. (You’ll recall that they blew a 3-1 series lead over the Nuggets in the conference semifinals.) Paul George absorbed much of the criticism for his poor play. He has had his ups and downs this season — who hasn’t? — but appears to be in better form. The Clippers are contenders because of Kawhi Leonard, but George’s postseason play will determine if they are actually capable of winning it all.Why They Won’t: The Clippers hope that Rajon Rondo, whom they acquired at the trade deadline, can provide the sort of leadership they were missing last season. But they still lack depth at the point, and the team has been terrible in clutch situations, dating to last season’s bubble implosion. Championship teams are adept at closing out games. The Clippers are not.Los Angeles Lakers (29-17 entering Sunday)Why They’ll Win the Finals: LeBron James and Anthony Davis showed the damage they could do together last season when they rolled through the playoffs in leading the Lakers to their first championship since 2010. It was a resurgent season for James, in particular, and it proved (if anyone needed proof) that a team with two of the top players on the planet is a pretty safe bet to make a championship run, no matter the complementary pieces. James and Davis, of course, are back this season — and if they are healthy for the playoffs, look out.Why They Won’t: James (ankle) and Davis (calf) are not healthy, and that is an enormous problem — for now, if not forever. Davis has not played since Feb. 14, and Coach Frank Vogel said recently that Davis was “still a ways away.” The Lakers were already struggling without him when James sprained his ankle on March 20. He could be sidelined for at least another month. At the same time, a host of lesser Lakers have labored with their shooting strokes: Markieff Morris, Alex Caruso, Wesley Matthews, Dennis Schroder, Marc Gasol. Take your pick. Is it windy?Phoenix Suns (31-14)Why They’ll Win the Finals: In hindsight, the Suns’ nifty footwork in acquiring Chris Paul in the off-season was one of the best moves an up-and-coming team could have made. He brought experience, toughness and defense to a team that was making big leaps — the Suns closed out the 2019-20 regular season by going undefeated in the bubble — and he has allowed Devin Booker to play off the ball. The window is closing for Paul, an 11-time All-Star who, at 35, has never played in an N.B.A. finals. In this topsy-turvy, anything-goes season, perhaps this is the moment when he finally makes it happen.Why They Won’t: Inexperience. Booker, the team’s best player, has yet to get a taste of the postseason. The reality is that it’s asking a lot of a young group of players to make a very deep push in its first run through the playoffs, even if Paul is guiding the group.Denver Nuggets (27-18, entering Sunday)Why They’ll Win the Finals: Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray continue to evolve and improve, and the time is now for the team to capitalize. The Nuggets’ front office signaled as much at the trade deadline when it acquired Aaron Gordon and JaVale McGee, veterans who should help improve the team’s middling defense. Gordon also gives the Nuggets another scoring option.Why They Won’t: The Nuggets have been wildly inconsistent this season, and it didn’t help that they lost Jerami Grant and Mason Plumlee — two valuable role players — in free agency. Michael Porter Jr., who has surfaced as the team’s third scorer, has huge potential but has missed a lot of time and is still developing. More

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      Sports Are Returning to Normal. So Is Their Role in Political Fights.

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonVirus Hotspots in the N.B.A.LeBron and Anthony DavisThe N.B.A. Wanted HerMissing Klay ThompsonKobe the #GirlDadAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySports of The TimesSports Are Returning to Normal. So Is Their Role in Political Fights.American society is redrawing cultural norms and protections for citizens’ rights. It shouldn’t be a shock that sports is the most visible battleground.On March 11, Stephanie Marty demonstrated against a proposed ban on transgender girls and women from female sports leagues outside the South Dakota governor’s mansion in Pierre, S.D.Credit…Stephen Groves/Associated PressMarch 15, 2021, 12:01 a.m. ETThe end of the terrible coronavirus pandemic seems, at long last, within reach. President Donald J. Trump is gone and America has just endured a withering year of death and protest.In times like these, sports can be a cultural touchstone expected to comfort and heal.But as we dream of a return to normalcy, what will we now expect from the games we love? A return to the mythical notion that sports should operate at arm’s length remove from the important issues of the day?Or an understanding that sports provide much more than a forum for entertainment and the exploration of human potential?Searching for guidance, I called Harry Edwards last week. There’s no one better to offer perspective. The sociologist has been on the front lines of athlete protest dating to the 1960s. He started off with a broad stroke: “Sports does not so much mirror society — it is integral to the functioning of society,” Edwards said.How true.Then he zeroed in. We both did. We agreed that sports have become society’s prime cultural battleground for every hot-button social and political issue. No matter the subject — race, religion, sexuality, patriotism, the role of the police — the sports world is more powerful than ever as a venue for the often harsh hashing out of opposing views.Consider the recent push by conservatives to open a new flank in our divisive wars over social progress. Mississippi’s Republican governor just signed a law that will bar transgender athletes who identify as female from participating on girls’ or women’s sports teams. A flurry of similar, Republican-backed bills is moving through at least 20 statehouses, all under the guise of ensuring the rights of athletes who were born biologically female.Never mind that such legislation is unnecessary. If it fires up a base fearful of expanding L.G.B.T.Q. rights, well, purpose served. The drive for restrictive laws also shows how sports will continue to be used as a litmus test for conservatives and progressives alike.In this new world, with its fraying social bonds and lack of historical memory, nothing packs the power of sports as a platform for battles over change. Not popular music. Not the clout that springs from our universities. Not Hollywood. “No matter how great the hero in a movie,” Edwards said, “you are not going to see people fighting over movies.”Trump provided a powerful accelerant. He stoked the flames amid his ardent supporters who view sports as a last bastion for the good old days and their gauzy myths. The pandemic forced us inside and limited our lives — and also helped give activist athletes and their supporters more time to think and organize. (Hence the walkouts led by the N.B.A. and W.N.B.A. last summer.) All the while, the ubiquitous, hyperbolic power of the internet and social media continued to grow at breakneck speed.Take the case of Greg McDermott, the Creighton men’s basketball coach, who posted an apology on Twitter to get ahead of a story about the terrible language he used while addressing his players after a recent loss to Xavier. “I need everybody to stay on the plantation,” he admitted telling his team. “I can’t have anybody leave the plantation.” Needless to say, words like that were a gut punch to his Black players, who produced and publicly shared a video to express their pain.Creighton guard Shereef Mitchell was among a group of players who read statements about their reactions to comments from Coach Greg McDermott that led to the coach’s suspension.Credit…Chris Machian/Omaha World-Herald, via Associated PressThe incident quickly became headline news and the subject of widespread discussion about the power of words and white leaders’ responsibility to understand the Black experience.As all of this unfolded, a clip went viral of a Miami Heat reserve player, Meyers Leonard, spewing an anti-Semitic slur while playing a video game on a public livestream. Criticism came hard and swift. The N.B.A. suspended Leonard and fined him $50,000. Heat coaches and players expressed dismay. “We can’t tolerate that here,” said Udonis Haslem, the team’s veteran forward, sending a clear signal from a league full of activist players on standards for speech and rooting out hate. “Right is right, and wrong is wrong.”In years gone by, there’s a good chance none of this would have received such a public airing. A decade ago, in a world with different expectations and less connectivity, McDermott’s rant and Leonard’s online slur probably would not have become public. And that would mean no apologies, no condemnation, no chance for a wide-open discussion on acceptable speech.Smartphones and the internet have utterly changed the dynamic. Edwards recalled leading an anti-discrimination protest in 1967 by Black football players on the campus at his alma mater, San Jose State, and trying to spread the word across the country by making over 100 calls from a rotary phone.“The principal difference between what we did in the 1960s and what we see today is technology,” Edwards said. “The rapidity of communication, the way everyone now can hear the message, make their own message, and experience it all in real time.”We love sport not only for its drama but also for its precision and certainty. Games almost always end with clear winners and losers. We can measure the speed of a sprinter down to the millisecond. We know the exact batting average of the best hitter in baseball and, these days, the speed of the swing and the angle at which hits loft toward the outfield.But when mixed with the drive for change and the demand for new protections of rights, our sports get messy. Fights over power are always that way.So what will the future hold?“The struggle will continue,” Edwards said. “And sports will be where it all plays out.” He ticked off the names of today’s most prominent athlete activists — LeBron James, Maya Moore and Colin Kaepernick — and said they and others of their ilk are more astute than the players of old at “dreaming with their eyes open, working for justice, cultivating the tools to make those dreams happen.”Then the wise professor stopped for a moment, before reminding me that the battles are not only fought by progressives.“Remember,” Edwards said, “for every action, there is a reaction. Expect the other side to operate in direct opposition to what these athletes are pushing for.”Conflict is inevitable. So is change.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Meyers Leonard Fined $50,000 and Suspended for Using an Anti-Semitic Slur

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonVirus Hotspots in the N.B.A.LeBron and Anthony DavisThe N.B.A. Wanted HerMissing Klay ThompsonKobe the #GirlDadAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyMeyers Leonard Fined $50,000 and Suspended for Using an Anti-Semitic SlurLeonard, a reserve center for the N.B.A.’s Miami Heat, said the slur while playing a video game on a public livestream.Meyers Leonard of the Miami Heat used an anti-Semitic slur while playing a video game on a livestream on Monday. Credit…Lynne Sladky/Associated PressMarch 11, 2021, 3:28 p.m. ETMeyers Leonard, a reserve center for the Miami Heat, has been fined $50,000 and suspended for one week after a viral clip showed him using an anti-Semitic slur while playing a video game on a public livestream.“Meyers Leonard’s comment was inexcusable and hurtful and such an offensive term has no place in the N.B.A. or in our society,” Adam Silver, the N.B.A. commissioner, said in a statement announcing the punishments. “Yesterday, he spoke to representatives of the Anti-Defamation League to better understand the impact of his words and we accept that he is genuinely remorseful.”The statement continued, “We have further communicated to Meyers that derogatory comments like this will not be tolerated and that he will be expected to uphold the core values of our league — equality, tolerance, inclusion and respect — at all times moving forward.”Leonard, a 29-year-old gaming aficionado, was playing “Call of Duty: Warzone,” a popular multiplayer video game, on Twitch, a livestreaming platform, when he said the slur. He also said a sexist vulgarity in his comment, after another player tried to kill his character in the game. The video was recorded Monday, but the clip did not spread on social media until Tuesday.The condemnation of Leonard was swift, with the Heat suspending him indefinitely on Tuesday and the Anti-Defamation League saying in a statement on Twitter that it was “shocked and disappointed” to see Leonard use the “ugly, offensive” slur.Leonard apologized Tuesday in a statement posted to Instagram.He said he was “deeply sorry” for using the slur, and that he did not know what the word meant at the time.“I acknowledge and own my mistake and there’s no running from something like this that is so hurtful to someone else,” Leonard said. “This is not a proper representation of who I am.”On Wednesday, further criticism came from within the Heat organization.Erik Spoelstra, the Heat’s coach, told reporters that Leonard’s words were “distasteful and hurtful.”“We know Meyers. Meyers has been a really good teammate,” Spoelstra said. “He’s a good human being. He said something that was extremely distasteful and hurtful. And we’re left with the aftermath. We don’t condone that obviously.”Udonis Haslem, who has played for the Heat for almost two decades, said of Leonard: “We can’t tolerate that here. Right is right and wrong is wrong. And since I’ve been here in this organization, to the day I leave this organization and beyond, we’re going to try to be on the right side of everything — especially issues like this.”Haslem added that he had “never heard him use any language that made me uncomfortable at all” previously.Leonard, who had played only three games this season, his ninth in the league, already was expected to miss the rest of the season because of a shoulder surgery last month. He is making about $9.4 million this year, with a team option for next season. He has come off the bench for much of his career but started the majority of the Heat’s games last year.After the clip of him saying the slur went viral, Twitch suspended his channel and several gaming companies he had been affiliated with denounced him. FaZe Clan, an e-sports team Leonard invested in two years ago, said it was cutting ties with him, although it was unclear what that meant since Leonard was an investor. Other companies, like Origin PC and Scuf Gaming, which are both owned by the hardware company Corsair, and Astro Gaming, whose gaming headsets Leonard was giving away as a promotion, also said they were ending their relationships with him.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Meyers Leonard Will Be Away From Heat ‘Indefinitely’ After Use of Anti-Semitic Slur

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonVirus Hotspots in the N.B.A.LeBron and Anthony DavisThe N.B.A. Wanted HerMissing Klay ThompsonKobe the #GirlDadAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyMeyers Leonard Will Be Away From Heat ‘Indefinitely’ After Use of Anti-Semitic SlurLeonard, a reserve center for the Miami Heat, lost gaming sponsorships after a video emerged of him using the slur while playing a video game on the livestreaming site Twitch.Meyers Leonard, right, during the 2020 N.B.A. finals. This season, he had played only three games and was expected to miss the rest of the campaign after having shoulder surgery.Credit…Kim Klement/USA Today Sports, via ReutersSopan Deb and Published More

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      No Bubble for the N.B.A. Season? It’s a Problem

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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 storymarc stein on basketballNo Bubble for the N.B.A. Season? It’s a ProblemCoronavirus cases, and game postponements, are piling up less than a month into the season. The league is turning to stricter rules off and on the court, but that may not be enough.The N.B.A. is tightening its rules after a number of teams, including the Boston Celtics, have been hit hard by positive coronavirus tests and potential exposures.Credit…David Butler Ii/USA Today Sports, via ReutersJan. 13, 2021, 10:00 a.m. ETAs long, costly and emotionally draining as 2020 was for the N.B.A., beyond the universal strain of a global health crisis, not every one of those 366 days was dour. The league was applauded often for how it responded to the challenges.Twelve days into a new year, and just three weeks into a new season, echoes of that smartest-league-in-the-world praise are faint. The N.B.A.’s attempt to stage a high-intensity, face-to-face indoor team sport during a pandemic has quickly proved to be as complicated as feared. Five games from the first 23 days of the 2020-21 schedule have been postponed because teams had too many players unavailable, either because of the league’s coronavirus health and safety protocols or injuries.League officials had an inkling it might go like this. For the first time, they released a schedule for only the first half of the season, to build in flexibility to cope with coronavirus-related interruptions. They anticipated turbulence after opening night was moved to Dec. 22 and braced for criticism for returning to play less than three months after completing a season in a bubble. Yet there was an unmistakable sense of rising anxiety leaguewide as general managers, players’ union representatives and team owners held meetings Monday and Tuesday in the wake of multiple postponements, even though a review of the league’s protocols had been planned between Jan. 6-13.“This is the N.B.A. in 2021,” Stan Van Gundy, the coach of the New Orleans Pelicans, said Monday after his team’s game against the Dallas Mavericks was called off. “I know it’s cliché, but in this year, it’s absolutely true: It is literally one day at a time.”Van Gundy also spoke about how the situation “scares me,” noting he is 61 years old. The coach’s candor, which doesn’t always land softly, will surely be appreciated by others in the game who don’t feel as emboldened or secure to speak up.The league office, to be fair, would have preferred returning to a bubble like the restricted campus used to complete the 2019-20 season at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla. Officials initially proposed playing in regional bubbles, at least at the start of the season until vaccines were widely available, as a compromise. When pretty much no teams or players wanted to do any of that again, largely because of the isolation and mental toll, it was agreed to start play in their home markets in December. That was the timetable favored by the league’s television partners and, according to N.B.A. estimates, worth at least $500 million in preserved revenue versus waiting until January to give players more time off.The N.B.A. has expanded its rules around masks, requiring players to wear them at all times when they are in the bench area.Credit…Robert Hanashiro/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe league is determined not to pause the season, despite the mounting postponements, in part because officials believe even more players would be infected if they were not subject to the N.B.A.’s health protocols. Money must be assumed to be a key factor, in addition to any protective motivations, but the league’s ability to stick to that stance and avoid at least a temporary pause is being severely tested. While January lives up to the dire projections of health experts who said it would be the pandemic’s worst month yet, multiple teams (Boston, Dallas, Miami and Philadelphia) are struggling to meet the minimum requirement of eight players in uniform for games.“We are committed to proceeding with our industry, and we’re doing it with all the best science and adherence to the protocols, but ultimately we’re not in control,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said.The league and players’ union announced changes to the N.B.A.’s nearly 160 pages of health and safety guidelines on Tuesday, including instructions for players and team personnel to stay home “at all times” for at least the next two weeks outside of team and essential activities. For all the understandable unease at the moment, league officials have maintained that amendments were always likely.“We have a lot of protocols in place, but the protocols are kind of our starting point,” said John DiFiori, the N.B.A.’s director of sports medicine. “We made a lot of adjustments in Orlando and, really, it’s the lesson that we learned. This is an evolving situation — always — from the medical and scientific side, as well as just the experience of not being in a bubble and trying to manage the logistics of travel and people living in their communities and having life events that occur.”The conversation with DiFiori took place on Thursday, before Sixers guard Seth Curry was hustled off Philadelphia’s bench at a Nets game in Brooklyn when his coronavirus test result that was expected to arrive on Friday came back early — and came back positive. To that point, there had been only one postponement: Houston’s season opener on Dec. 23 against Oklahoma City, when the Rockets could not field eight players in uniform.Since the Sixers-Nets game, it has been chaos.A lot of that stems from how thoroughly the league insists on contact tracing after a positive test to try to prevent spread. The time-consuming nature of the tracing was a primary factor in postponements on Sunday (scuttling Miami’s ability to play the Celtics in Boston) and Monday (preventing Dallas from hosting New Orleans). But Tuesday’s new measures requiring team personnel to stay home and outlawing guests at team hotels were essentially an admission that previous efforts to get everyone in a 46-person traveling party to behave as if they were ensconced in a bubble have fallen short.A new set of stricter masking regulations was implemented as recently as Jan. 5, but the league mask policy on benches and flights and in team meetings was stiffened again Tuesday. The league also warned against “extended socializing” in a bid to curtail pregame and postgame greetings between players on opposing teams.Whether these prove to be any more than cosmetic changes depends on each team’s vigilance in enforcing them, along with the protocol officer assigned to each team by the league from a private security firm. Skeptics will point out that it has always been against protocol for coaches to routinely pull down their masks to relay instructions to players, but it happens anyway.Philadelphia 76ers Coach Doc RiversCredit…Chris Szagola/Associated PressSacramento Kings Coach Luke WaltonCredit…Rich Pedroncelli/Associated PressLos Angeles Clippers Coach Tyronn LueCredit…Harry How/Getty ImagesToronto Raptors Coach Nick NurseCredit…Jeff Chiu/Associated PressPhiladelphia Coach Doc Rivers revealed recently that he was fined $10,000 by the league for doing so and called it “the right thing to do.” He has since asked one of his assistant coaches, Eric Hughes, the athletic trainer Kevin Johnson and “whoever else is behind me on the bench” to warn him when he is in violation.“I bet 20 times they had to remind me to put the mask back on,” Rivers said. “The players can’t hear me through the mask, so I’m taking it down to talk and I forget to bring it up.”One team I spoke to this week said that the benches, locker rooms and planes had been identified as prime trouble spots for keeping players distanced. That’s in addition to the potential problems on the floor.One that Rivers has mentioned frequently is the risk for overuse injuries on teams that have to play with skeleton squads, since the N.B.A.’s eight-man minimum was not designed with a pandemic in mind. Another possible issue is the league’s contention that the virus is unlikely to be transmitted during live action unless players spend at least 15 minutes within six feet of each other. It is fair to wonder whether those guidelines for close contact properly account for the amount of shouting, heavy breathing and chest-to-chest grappling that takes place on a basketball court.So much to think about, then, as the N.B.A. tries to cope with even meaner curveballs than its outdoor counterparts faced, from Major League Baseball’s coronavirus outbreak with the Miami Marlins in July to the N.F.L.’s need to postpone or move several games because of the virus en route to the playoffs. N.B.A. rosters, compared with baseball’s or football’s, are much more likely to take an irreparable hit when multiple players are lost.“It’s a lot,” Washington’s Bradley Beal said Monday night. “But this is what we agreed to do.”The Scoop @TheSteinLineCorner ThreeYou 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 N.B.A. made a deal with the Capitanes de Ciudad de México to become the 29th G League franchise and play this season. What is their status? — @JDogindy from TwitterStein: Capitanes won’t be one of the 18 teams in the forthcoming G League bubble at Walt Disney World, but I’m told that the team is expected to begin playing in the 2021-22 season. The assumption, if we dare, is that neither the N.B.A. nor the G League will be gripped by a pandemic by then, making it easier to finally embark on this long-anticipated grand experiment with the league’s first franchise outside the United States and Canada.The G League bubble will feature 17 of its 28 current franchises and the Ignite select team, which gives elite draft prospects like Jalen Green, Jonathan Kuminga and Daishen Nix a different path to the professional ranks than playing in college or overseas. There is a fee of about $500,000 for the N.B.A. teams that are sending their G League affiliates to the bubble. Some parent clubs balked, because of the cost or because they intended to use their players on two-way contracts at the N.B.A. level for the entire season to mitigate potential roster shortages caused by injuries or virus protocols.On the players’ side, there is added incentive for those aspiring to reach the N.B.A. Participation in what some are calling the “glubble,” or the “gubble,” not only showcases them in a well-scouted league but puts players into the N.B.A.’s coronavirus testing program. That will shorten the quarantine-related delays all new players face when they are signed by an N.B.A. team. Monday’s G League draft attracted nearly 200 players for less than 30 available roster spots.Q: We need a better name than “baseball-style series” when a team plays two road games in a row against the same host. They don’t play two-game series in baseball. — @MackMachine80 from TwitterStein: Agreed. I’ve had similar thoughts every time I type the phrase.Sadly that is also an admission that I haven’t come up with anything better. The description stems from baseball’s distinction as the only major team sport known for parking its teams in the same city for three or four days, but I’m with you — and open to suggestions. Send them in.Unclear, though, is whether these are schedule anomalies we will be discussing beyond this season. It’s something the league is studying after the absence of travel was frequently cited as one of the pluses of the Disney World bubble. The reduction in travel these two-game sets provide is sensible this season, when teams are trying to protect their traveling parties from the virus, but I am not a fan because they are yet another factor in teams’ dwindling home-court advantage these days.Mostly empty arenas, the added comfort road teams are finding on those two-game excursions and sudden player absences have contributed to home teams’ underwhelming records through Monday’s play: 41-39 (.513) in the Eastern Conference; 34-39 (.465) in the West. These are obviously small sample sizes, but the early pace is worrisome. In the N.B.A.’s most recent season with teams playing exclusively in their arenas in 2018-19, Eastern teams went 341-274 at home (.554) and Western teams went 388-227 (.631).Q: Are you a big Marvel guy? — Adam HowesStein: Not really. I posted a tweet Sunday praising the San Antonio Spurs for their use of the popular Spider-Man vs. Spider-Man pointing meme from my favorite animated series, but I really didn’t consume much animated programming in my youth (or thereafter).I was infected with extreme sports nerdity so early that, even by age 9, I was already obsessed with playing Strat-O-Matic baseball — to the point that I turned a big white toy chest in the garage into a faux manager’s desk so I could pretend to be Billy Martin or Bob Lemon.Yet I do still love the original “Spider-Man” animated series (especially Season 1) that debuted in 1967. The episode that produced the meme of Spider-Man and his impostor pointing at each other, “Double Identity,” is a top-three episode in my personal rankings. So I applaud any time someone on N.B.A. Twitter finds a well-crafted reason to bust it out.The No. 1 episode in those rankings, for the record, is “To Catch A Spider.” That’s the one in which Spider-Man has to defeat several of his arch enemies, including my beloved Electro, after Dr. Noah Boddy breaks Electro, Vulture and the Green Goblin out of jail.Numbers GameKawhi Leonard played with a mask for six games.Credit…Tony Avelar/Associated Press12:07Washington’s Bradley Beal guarded Boston’s Jayson Tatum for 8 minutes 22 seconds on Friday night, and Tatum guarded Beal for 3 minutes 45 seconds, according to advanced tracking data from the league. The friends from St. Louis spent a combined 12 minutes 7 seconds in proximity to each other without masks during the game and had an extended postgame discussion, leading the N.B.A. to place Beal in its health and safety protocols after Tatum later tested positive for the coronavirus.15Guarding another player during a game is typically not considered close contact by the league for the purposes of contact tracing. The N.B.A. has taken its cues from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to define close contact as spending at least 15 minutes within six feet of another person while not wearing a mask. The league said its research showed that it was rare for two players to spend that much time within six feet of each other during game action.60Only 29 players have scored at least 60 points in an N.B.A. game. The most recent two — Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Washington’s Beal — did it three days apart last week.44.4Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers shot a mere 44.4 percent from the field (48-for-108) in the six games he played wearing a clear shield over his face. Leonard is a career 49.0 percent shooter and had 35 points Sunday (including a career-high-tying seven 3-pointers) in his first game after shedding the mask. The protective gear was required after Leonard took an inadvertent elbow from his teammate Serge Ibaka on Christmas Day that required eight stitches in his mouth.3,663The Toronto Raptors had averaged 3,663 fans for their first three home games in Tampa, Fla., before it was announced Saturday that fans will no longer be admitted through at least Feb. 5 because of a sharp rise in coronavirus cases in the area. That leaves five N.B.A. teams currently allowing reduced crowds for home games: Cleveland, Houston, New Orleans, Orlando and Utah. There was a maximum capacity of 3,800 at Tampa’s Amalie Arena, which the Raptors are using as their temporary home this season because of travel restrictions between the United States and Canada.Hit me up anytime on Twitter (@TheSteinLine) or Facebook (@MarcSteinNBA) or Instagram (@thesteinline). Send any other feedback to marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More