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      Chris Paul Won’t Be Kept Off the Court

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      His coach had been inclined to sideline him as he deals with a shoulder injury. But he talked his way into the lineup and helped Phoenix tie its series with the Lakers.LOS ANGELES — A little over a week ago, Chris Paul christened the Phoenix Suns’ first trip to the postseason since the 2009-10 season with a bit of style. Paul, who is 6 feet tall, does not dunk often, but he rose to the occasion during warm-ups for the opening game of the Suns’ first-round series with the Lakers, leaping for an alley-oop as his teammates — and thousands of fans in Phoenix — celebrated in unison. It felt like a party. The city brimmed with hope.Why not? Rather than merely being back in the playoffs, the Suns had returned as the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. Now, anything seemed possible: a deep run, a chance at a championship. And Paul, of course, had been central to the team’s identity, adding leadership and a dose of feistiness to a young roster.Since Paul’s pregame dunk, the series has taken on the feel of a more earthbound slog: sprains and strains, trash talk and errant shots. More than a few possessions have bordered on skirmishes. After injuring his right shoulder in Game 1, Paul has personified the series in some ways. He has played with a grimace.But after being a nonfactor in back-to-back losses, Paul resurfaced for Game 4 on Sunday in vintage form. He scored and scowled. He had running conversations with defenders and courtside fans at Staples Center in Los Angeles. He played a huge role in the Suns’ 100-92 win, which evened the best-of-seven series at two games apiece, and amazingly he nearly played no role at all.Suns Coach Monty Williams said he had essentially decided before the game to pull Paul from the lineup. Paul had been ineffective in Game 3, and Williams said he was concerned — concerned about Paul’s health and concerned that his presence could actually hinder the team. It was not a decision that Williams had taken lightly.“It was something I’d been thinking about for the past 48 hours,” Williams said.So, a few minutes before the Suns gathered as a team, Williams met with Paul and James Jones, the Suns’ general manager, and shared how he felt. Paul pushed back and argued that Williams should let him start: If it was clear in the early minutes that he was not himself, then Williams could sit him and the team could go in a different direction.“This is one of those situations where I had to trust the player, trust our relationship from over the years,” Williams said, adding: “He’s trained to be in these moments, and my final thought was: I don’t want to be the one who takes that away from him.”It was one of several conversations that Paul had before the game. He said he called his brother, C.J., and conferred with the other members of his inner circle. He also talked to teammates Jae Crowder and Devin Booker, conveying an important message to both players.“If you all feel like I’m out here looking like some trash, just tell me and I’ll get out,” Paul recalled telling them. “I had to see what I could do.”For his part, Williams said he was reassured when Paul went through a pregame workout with an assistant coach and showed improved mobility in his shoulder. It was the first time Paul had touched a basketball since the Suns’ 14-point loss in Game 3 on Thursday. The team’s training staff had recommended rest.“They say that’s the only way to treat what I have going on,” said Paul, whose injury is listed as a contusion.Paul made his first shot — a pull-up jumper from 11 feet — and was assertive in the second quarter after the Lakers had built a double-digit lead.“I’m never doubting myself,” Paul said, “but I’m like, ‘Man, it’s on me. It’s on me.’ ”He left even more of an imprint at the start of the third quarter, when Lakers center Anthony Davis remained in the locker room with a strained groin. There was Paul, racing upcourt on a fast break before dumping a pass to Deandre Ayton for a layup. There was Paul, darting through the lane for a short jumper. And there was Paul again, firing an 18-foot fadeaway to give the Suns a 14-point lead. Davis left a void, and Paul pounced on the opportunity.“Once I got a couple shots to fall and we started to play with pace, we felt like we had it,” he said.Paul, who finished with 18 points, 9 assists and 3 steals, was not totally himself by any stretch. He was still favoring his right shoulder and dribbling with his left hand whenever possible. But he was productive — more so than he had been all series — and his teammates fed off his hallmark frowny-face energy.“The game’s a lot easier when he’s out there,” Suns guard Cameron Payne said.It has been that way all season for the Suns, who have leaned heavily on Paul. His impact has gone far beyond creating open looks for teammates. “A lot of guys have changed how they work out, how they eat, just by being around Chris,” Williams said.Now in his 16th season and playing for his fifth team, Paul is still trying to reach his first N.B.A. finals. It is a hole on his otherwise crowded résumé. Helping guide the Suns there in his first season in Phoenix would be an enormous achievement. Only a couple of days ago, that dream seemed in danger of prematurely crumbling into desert dust.Now, the Lakers look vulnerable, especially with Davis’s uncertain status for Game 5 on Tuesday in Phoenix.The playoffs, Williams said, tend to push players to their absolute limit. Paul, for example, is facing another test in a career full of them.“It was a good feeling,” Paul said, “just to be out there and compete.” More

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      Celtics Fan Arrested After Kyrie Irving Is Nearly Hit by Bottle

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      Irving, who was walking into an arena tunnel when he was almost hit, had recently asked fans not to be belligerent or racist when the Nets traveled to Boston.A fan in a Boston Celtics jersey was arrested Sunday after a bottle nearly struck Nets guard Kyrie Irving in the head following Boston’s Game 4 loss at TD Garden. It was the latest in a string of unruly fan behavior as N.B.A. arenas begin opening to near full capacity for the playoffs.Last week, before the best-of-seven series shifted to Boston, Irving, a former Celtics player who is Black, had anticipated booing but had asked fans not to be belligerent or racist. For decades, Black athletes in multiple sports, including the Celtics legend Bill Russell, have spoken about the racism they’ve experienced in Boston.“We claim that we care about each other as human beings, but we just call things out before they happen like I did the other day,” Irving said after Sunday’s game. “I’m telling people, ‘Just keep it basketball.’”Irving stressed that he expected fans to root for their home teams and that most were eager to watch quality athletes perform. But he said sports were now at a crossroads.“It’s been that way in history, in terms of entertainment, performers and sports for a long period of time and just underlying racism and just treating people like they’re in a human zoo,” Irving said. “Throwing stuff at them, saying things. There’s a certain point where it just gets to be too much.”Irving was heading into an arena tunnel after the Nets beat the Celtics, 141-126, when an object that appeared to be a water bottle sailed just past his head. Multiple videos on social media showed a person in a Celtics jersey being led away by the police.The bottle-throwing followed a run of incidents from last Wednesday night: In Philadelphia, a fan poured popcorn on the head of Washington Wizards guard Russell Westbrook as he left the game with an injury. In New York, a fan spat on Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young at Madison Square Garden. In Utah, security ejected three fans for obscene behavior toward the family of Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant.“We’ve had times in history when people have reacted and gone in the crowd, then we’re wrong and we need to be civilized and we need to keep our calm and we need to keep our cool and it’s reflected on us,” Irving said. “Just want to keep it upfront and truthful, and it’s just unacceptable for that stuff to be happening, but we move on.”Following Wednesday’s incidents, the N.B.A. released a statement saying its fan code of conduct would be “vigorously enforced.” The fans involved in those incidents have been barred indefinitely from the arenas.“Anything could have happened with that water bottle being thrown at me, but my brothers were surrounding me,” Irving said. “I had people in the crowd. So, just trying to get home to my wife and my kids.” More

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      Mark Eaton, Shot-Blocking Star for the Utah Jazz, Dies at 64

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      At 7-foot-4, Eaton was a two-time N.B.A. defensive player of the year, and his career shot-blocking average was the best in league history.Mark Eaton, the 7-foot-4 shot-blocking king who twice was the N.B.A.’s defensive player of the year during a career spent entirely with the Utah Jazz, died on Friday night in a bicycle accident near his home in Summit County, Utah. He was 64.The team said he had left his home for a bike ride, and shortly thereafter someone called 911 to report seeing him lying on a roadway and unconscious. He died at the hospital.The county sheriff’s office said, “It appears the man was riding a bicycle and crashed,” adding that there was no reason to believe a vehicle was involved.Eaton led the league in blocks per game four times, and his average of 5.6 per contest in 1984-85 remains the highest average since the N.B.A. started officially tracking that statistic. Eaton’s career blocks average of 3.51 per game is the best in league history, and his career happened almost by accident.Eaton blocking a shot by Otis Thorpe of the Houston Rockets. He credited Wilt Chamberlain with inspiring him to focus on defending the basket.Getty ImagesHe was working as an auto mechanic in 1977 when a community college basketball coach persuaded him to enroll. From there, he went to U.C.L.A., and his stint with the Jazz followed.“I had an unusual background,” Eaton said for a story published two years ago on the Jazz’s website. “It’s an unlikely story to be sure. I basically came into the N.B.A. with two years of junior college experience and sat on the bench at U.C.L.A. for two years. And Frank Layden gave me a chance and the team was in a space where they could afford to let me make some mistakes out there and get my feet underneath me. It worked out well for both of us.”The Jazz described him in a statement as an “enduring figure in our franchise history.”Eaton had been, among other things, a restaurateur and motivational speaker in his retirement.Mark Eaton was born on Jan. 24, 1957, in Inglewood, Calif. Information on survivors was not immediately available.In recent years, he served as a mentor to Jazz center Rudy Gobert — the only other player in the team’s history to win the defensive player of the year award.His 11 playing seasons with the Jazz are third most in team history, behind the longtime Utah cornerstones Karl Malone and John Stockton. Eaton’s durability was noteworthy, with him once appearing in 338 consecutive games. He finished with career averages of 6.0 points and 7.9 rebounds.Eaton shooting against Nate Johnston of the Portland Trailblazers. He spent his entire N.B.A. career with the Utah Jazz.Getty ImagesBut his best skill was defending the rim, and he once told a story about how Wilt Chamberlain offered him advice about his career. He shared the tale during a motivational speech, telling others that Rule No. 1 for success is to “know your job.”“Wilt grabbed me by the arm, took me out on the floor, positioned me right in front of the basket,” Eaton said. “He said, ‘You see this basket? Your job is to stop players from getting there. Your job is to make them miss their shot, get the rebound, throw it up to the guard, let them go down the other end and score, and your job is to cruise up to half-court and see what’s going on.’”“When Wilt shared that with me, everything changed,” he said. “I understood what I needed to do. I understood what I could be great at. Wilt showed me what my job was, and how doing what I did would benefit my team.”Eaton’s No. 53 was one of the first jerseys retired by the Jazz.He was the defensive player of the year in 1984-85 and 1988-89, was a five-time All-Defensive team selection — three first-team nods, two second-team picks — and was an All-Star in 1989. He retired in September 1994. More

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      Ugly N.B.A. Fan Behavior Is Back With Popcorn Toss and Spitting Incident

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      Inappropriate behavior by fans toward Washington’s Russell Westbrook and Atlanta’s Trae Young has highlighted a pitfall in the return to packed arenas for the playoffs.After months of basketballs echoing in nearly empty venues because of the coronavirus pandemic, Barclays Center is rocking, Madison Square Garden is electric and fans packing into N.B.A. arenas across the country are adding a dimension of excitement to playoff games that was sorely lacking in last postseason’s bubble.But the easing of restrictions, which has allowed fans to return in droves, has brought to the forefront another dimension that the pandemic had covered: the sometimes ugly behavior of unruly fans in proximity to players and players’ families.On Wednesday night alone: A fan in Philadelphia poured popcorn on the head of Washington Wizards guard Russell Westbrook as he departed the court at Wells Fargo Center with an ankle injury. In New York, a fan spat on Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young at Madison Square Garden. In Utah, three fans were ejected from Vivint Arena. The fans had directed comments at the family of Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, according to a person with knowledge of the details who was not authorized to publicly discuss them.Morant later responded to a tweet about the Jazz ejecting and indefinitely barring the fans, saying, “as they should.” His family, he added, should be able to cheer for him and his team without being verbally abused.“There are certain things that cross the line,” Westbrook told reporters after his game in Philadelphia. “In these arenas, you got to start protecting the players. We’ll see what the N.B.A. does.”The fans from Wednesday’s incidents have all been barred indefinitely from those arenas, and the 76ers announced that the popcorn-throwing fan, who was ejected, would have his season tickets revoked. But the punishments and subsequent apologies from teams will likely do little to alleviate growing concern among the players that fan behavior has grown unseemly, with players having little option but to take the abuse.“We apologize to Trae and the entire Atlanta Hawks organization for this fan’s behavior,” the Knicks said in a statement. “This was completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our venue. We have turned the information over to the appropriate authorities.”Young has quickly drawn the scorn of Knicks fans at the Garden during the first two games of their first-round series. Fans raucously cursed at him during Game 1 on Sunday, which the Hawks won largely because of Young. He put a finger over his mouth afterward to signal his silencing of a Garden crowd that had waited since 2013 to see the Knicks play N.B.A. playoff basketball.Throughout Wednesday’s game, fans again serenaded him with an expletive and mocked his hair. Young tweeted a video of the spitting incident on Thursday, asking the rapper 50 Cent, who sat on the sideline between Young and the fan, if he was OK.“We saw video of that, and unfortunately, I think we’re just living in a society where really people just don’t have respect anymore,” Hawks Coach Nate McMillan said. “In no way should that be allowed or should that happen at a sporting event or really any event where you are coming to watch a game and you do something like that.”Russell Westbrook of the Washington Wizards was headed to the locker room after an injury when a fan poured popcorn on him.Matt Slocum/Associated PressPlayers across the league voiced frustration over the incidents. “By the way WE AS THE PLAYERS wanna see who threw that popcorn on Russ while he was leaving the game tonight with a injury!!” Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James tweeted. “There’s cameras all over arenas so there’s no excuse!”The players’ union released a statement on Thursday, putting the first word, “true,” in bold and in italics for emphasis: “True fans of this game honor and respect the dignity of our players. No true fan would seek to harm them or violate their personal space. Those who do have no place in our arenas.”The union added that bad fan behavior would be “appropriately evaluated by law enforcement just as if it occurred on a public street.”In February, security ejected fans from their courtside seats after they argued with James in Atlanta, when the Hawks were one of only nine N.B.A. franchises allowing fans in attendance.“I’m happy fans are back in the building,” James told reporters after the incident. “I missed that interaction. I need that interaction. We as players need that interaction. I don’t feel like it was warranted to be kicked out.”He added, “They could’ve probably kept it going and the game wouldn’t have been about the game anymore, so the referees did what they had to do.”The unruly fan behavior is not limited to the N.B.A. Baseball stadiums have hosted a number of fights between fans since beginning its season this spring.Samuel R. Sommers, an associate professor of psychology at Tufts University and an expert on the psychology of fans, said that sports bring people together in both unifying and combative ways.“Take your pick, whether we’re talking a return to normalcy or whether we’re talking about people getting the pent-up energy out of their system,” Sommers said. “Things like this happen when you get groups of people like this together and when you add the excitement, the adrenaline, the energy of sports.”This week’s episodes resurfaced a trend of troubling fan interactions at N.B.A. arenas that the pandemic had paused. In 2019, the N.B.A. toughened its fan conduct code after lobbying from players amid high-profile incidents, including the Toronto Raptors’ Kyle Lowry being shoved by Mark Stevens, a Golden State Warriors minority owner, during a finals game.Players like Westbrook and Young have largely showed restraint when receiving vitriol from fans.“Obviously I’m doing something right if you hate me that much,” said Young, who cursed back at fans after his playoff debut against the Knicks. “At the end of the day, we’ll get the last laugh if we do that.”Westbrook said that he had learned to look the other way during most cases but that the situation was worsening. Three years ago, the Jazz barred a fan in Utah for, the team said, “excessive and derogatory verbal abuse directed at a player.” Westbrook, who is Black, said that fan, who appeared to be white, made “disrespectful” and “racial” comments.Three fans were ejected in Utah after a “verbal altercation” with the family of Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, center.Alex Goodlett/Getty ImagesThe Jazz on Thursday said they had also indefinitely barred the fans from Wednesday’s incident involving Morant’s family. “The Utah Jazz have zero tolerance for offensive or disruptive behavior,” the team said in a statement, adding, “We apologize to all who were impacted by this unfortunate incident and condemn unacceptable fan behavior.”Morant’s father, Tee, who is Black, told ESPN that one of the fans made a “sexually explicit remark to his wife.” Another, he said, told him, “I’ll put a nickel in your back and watch you dance, boy.”This week, Nets guard Kyrie Irving, in comments to reporters, appeared to be trying to pre-empt any personal or racial attacks before playing against his former team, the Boston Celtics, in Game 3 of their series at TD Garden on Friday.Black athletes from different sports have long described being taunted with racial attacks in Boston. Torii Hunter, a former M.L.B. outfielder, told ESPN that he had a no-trade clause to the Red Sox written into his contract because of the racial slurs he heard when he played in Boston.“I am just looking forward to competing with my teammates,” Irving said, “and hopefully, we can just keep it strictly basketball; there’s no belligerence or racism going on — subtle racism.”On Thursday, Celtics guard Marcus Smart told reporters that he’d heard the types of comments in Boston that Irving was referring to.“I’ve heard a couple of them,” he said. “It’s kind of sad and sickening, because even though it’s an opposing team, we have guys on your home team that you’re saying these racial slurs and you expect us to go out here and play for you. It’s tough.”The N.B.A., in a statement on Thursday, said that its fan code of conduct would be “vigorously enforced.”“The return of more N.B.A. fans to our arenas has brought great excitement and energy to the start of the playoffs, but it is critical that we all show respect for players, officials and our fellow fans,” the N.B.A. said.Marc Stein More

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      A Wrenching Knicks Loss, but an Electric Night at the Garden

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      Playoff basketball returned to Manhattan as a cultural event with a loud, spirited crowd and a new archenemy, the Hawks’ Trae Young.For 47 minutes 59.1 seconds, the fans at Madison Square Garden ranged from raucous to delirious, as the Knicks — their Knicks — were locked in a dogfight on Sunday night against the Atlanta Hawks in the New York team’s first N.B.A. playoff game since 2013.And with nine-10ths of a second remaining, Trae Young, the Hawks’ star guard, was able to get around Frank Ntilikina, a guard ostensibly known for his defense, and hit a game-winning floater.Young then added insult to injury by using his finger to shush the crowd, a good portion of which had been sending profane chants his way for much of the game, a 107-105 Hawks win.”Next one.”🤫🤫-@TheTraeYoung pic.twitter.com/e41Knsyl53— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) May 24, 2021
      “I’ve always looked at it as I’m doing something right if I’m offending them with my play that much,” Young told reporters after the game, adding, “Just got to let my play do the talking because at the end of the day, fans can only talk. They can’t guard me.”Neither could the Knicks in Game 1 of this best-of-seven first-round series. An unfazed Young took the air of the building repeatedly as he took over in the fourth quarter. It wasn’t just the game winner. It was the two free throws with 28 seconds left. Another floater with less than two minutes left, plus a free throw. Young scored 13 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter, deftly casting aside the howling home fans and the haymakers the Knicks kept throwing the Hawks’ way in a back-and-forth thriller. All nine of Young’s free throws came in the final quarter, as did three of his 10 assists.The Knicks tried valiantly to keep Young contained in pick-and-rolls. It didn’t work, as Young used his best weapon — the floater — to frustrate much taller centers.“He’s a great player,” Tom Thibodeau, the Knicks’ coach, said. “We’ll take a look at the film. You’re not going to be able to stay with a steady diet of anything, so obviously we have to do a better job.”Gathering outside Madison Square Garden before the game.Sara Naomi Lewkowicz for The New York TimesOn their feet inside near the end of the game.Pool photo by Seth WenigSunday’s game had all the hallmarks of the classic Knicks playoff games N.B.A. audiences were accustomed to in the 1990s. (Before tipoff, Thibodeau, who was an assistant coach for the Knicks then, recalled that he had never heard a building as loud as Madison Square Garden when Larry Johnson hit a game-tying 3 against the Indiana Pacers in Game 3 of the 1999 Eastern Conference finals — one of the most famous shots in Knicks history.)Game 1 was low scoring and defensively oriented, much like the premillennium Knicks. Angry fans chanted profanities at an opposing team’s best player (and the referees). Those same ones screamed so loudly that the public-address announcer could not be heard after RJ Barrett’s fast-break dunk over Bogdan Bogdanovic in the third quarter sent the crowd of 15,047 into a frenzy.An exuberant Spike Lee berated the referees and embraced Knicks players from the sideline. Other celebrities, like Tracy Morgan, Jon Stewart and Rachel Brosnahan, sat courtside to aid in efforts to rattle the Hawks. Christopher Jackson, the Broadway star, sang the national anthem. David Guetta, the French D.J., performed at halftime.The playoff opener was a reminder that at its best, the Knicks basketball experience is as much a cultural event in New York as it is a basketball one. (To that end, Andrew Yang, one of the leading candidates for mayor of New York City, posted a video of himself on Twitter shaking hands with attendees outside the arena before the game. He had apparently gotten over his previous disavowal of the franchise, which had also been done on Twitter.)The contest had everything Knicks fans could want except for a win. But this was the kind of game that had some significant outliers, making it difficult to project the rest of the series. For one thing, while Young, an All-Star, came through for the Hawks, the Knicks’ All-Star did not. Julius Randle, facing a steady rush of double teams, shot 6 for 23 from the field for 15 points. He dominated the Hawks during the regular season, but could not get his jumpers to fall on Sunday.“Listen, I’m not making no excuses,” Randle said. “I’ve got to be better, and I will be better. I’ll just leave it at that.”As a whole, the Knicks were one of the most accurate 3-point-shooting teams in the N.B.A. On Sunday, they were 10 for 30 from deep — 33 percent, far below their season average of 39 percent.The Knicks stayed in the game mostly because of the play of the reserves, particularly Alec Burks, who led the team with 27 points off the bench. Derrick Rose had 17 points and Immanuel Quickley added 10, including two momentum shifting 3s.Immanuel Quickley celebrated after hitting a 3-pointer in the first-half.Pool photo by Seth WenigA slight bounce here or a friendly foul call that doesn’t go Young’s way, and this discussion is way different. It would be about the Knicks returning to playoff glory and the large number of city residents who suddenly had to — wink, wink — call out sick on Monday. It would be about how the Knicks beat the Hawks despite their best players not playing well, and how well that bodes in a series in which the Knicks have home-court advantage.But the Hawks pulled it out. And they’re one game closer to a series win than the Knicks are.But there’s plenty of reason for optimism for the Knicks heading into Game 2 on Wednesday night at the Garden. Randle showed himself to be too good a player this season, particularly against Atlanta, to have a repeat of Sunday’s game. By the law of averages, more of those 3s the Knicks missed will start going in. The supporting cast showed it was capable of taking some of the load off Randle. And the team was 25-11 at home in the regular season.The unsolvable issue may be Young, one of the few players who can hurt a team from anywhere on the court. When the Knicks played up on him, he drove around them. When they gave him room to operate, he got off his floater or found Hawks teammates for dunks. The answer may be to pack the paint and encourage him to shoot more from 3-point range, where he was a 34.3 percent shooter during the regular season, or to send more traps at him to force the ball out of his hands.Even though Ntilikina was burned on Young’s game winner, he may get more time if Young continues to abuse the guards who had difficulty with him, like the starting guard Elfrid Payton, who continued to be ineffective.The one constant for Game 2 is that Knicks fans will be out in force. Lee will be there screaming, and thousands of others will match him note for note. As Rose said about the opener, the fans gave the team “everything that we expected and probably a little bit more.” More

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      These N.B.A. Playoffs Burst 2020’s Bubble

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      The confined, roiled 2020 N.B.A. playoffs reflected their times. So, too, do this year’s celebratory games.Last August, as the N.B.A. began its 2020 postseason in the confined bubble of Walt Disney World in Florida, the coronavirus pandemic raged, a vaccine was nothing but a dream and the battle for racial justice stood firmly at the forefront of every game.That was then, and this is now: The playoffs are back, but this time set against a much different backdrop. Vaccines have softened the pandemic’s blow, allowing America to reopen and N.B.A. fans to attend games in numbers that, while still limited, would have shocked last summer.Black Lives Matter slogans are not painted on the courts or stitched on jerseys. Players no longer lock arms and kneel during the playing of the national anthem.Last year’s N.B.A. postseason reflected the tension, tenor and tone of society. The league’s players, 75 percent of whom are Black, sparked a movement that spread to other sports when they boycotted games to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wis. These days, as the 2021 playoffs get off the ground, shootings continue without such stoppages.The tinderbox days of the bubble seem like forever ago.This postseason is more about moving forward and sloughing off, however tentatively, the raw pain of the last year. It’s about welcoming new possibilities. It’s about basketball, the pure sport and entertainment of it.And so far, after the first few days of action, it can’t get much better.It began with the so-called play-in tournament, an innovation first tried in the Florida bubble, which gives the league’s middle-of-the-pack teams a shot at making the playoffs.The tournament, held last week, gave us Jayson Tatum leading his Boston Celtics over the Washington Wizards, sinking every shot imaginable as he went for a cool 50 points.It gave us another unforgettable duel between the two players and two teams that have defined basketball in the 21st century. That the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors struggled through injury-filled seasons hardly mattered. Wednesday’s matchup was LeBron James against Steph Curry in a game with real meaning — even if it wasn’t the N.B.A. finals, where they met four times before.It ended like poetry, with James squaring his shoulders, setting his feet and nailing a 34-foot jumper with seconds on the shot clock and less than a minute left in the game. That he did so over the outstretched arms of Curry, his longtime nemesis, added to the moment’s indelible heft.Friday night, reeling from the heartbreak loss to the Lakers, there was Curry again, only this time his Warriors were playing on their home court, in their still new arena in downtown San Francisco. Roughly 7,500 fans were on hand, the largest, most boisterous crowd at Chase Center this season.Many lament that Steph Curry, left, will not be a part of a playoff run but what would the N.B.A. be without the emergence of fresh talent like Ja Morant, right?Jed Jacobsohn/Associated PressAnd this time, they played against the league’s youngest team, the Memphis Grizzlies, with everything on the line. The winner would advance to the playoffs. The loser, to vacation.Curry claims to be 33. Maybe he’s fooling us. Coming off an M.V.P.-caliber regular season in which he led a hobbled, patchwork team to the league’s most improved record, he barely took a breather. True, there were signs of fatigue. His slow walk during breaks in action. The occasional slump of his shoulders. The slight hint of bewilderment in his face as he endured another night of battering from swarming defenders.And yet he scored 39 points and willed his team from a 17-point deficit to force an overtime.The narrative, so said almost every pundit, would belong to Curry and the Warriors in the end. Ja Morant had other ideas. Memphis’s 21-year-old, catlike point guard outdueled Curry. Normally underwhelming from long range, Morant made five of his 10 3-point attempts. And when it counted most, in the last two minutes of overtime, he showed why he is one of the brightest young stars in the league, ready to emerge from the shadow of Zion Williamson, who was taken one spot ahead of Morant in the 2019 N.B.A. draft. Morant finessed his way past the Warriors’ defense in the last gasps of overtime and sank a pair of deft push shots to seal a Memphis win, 117-112.Many lament that Curry, global icon, will not be a part of a playoff run. Many still grouse about the play-in tournament, claiming it is unfair or that it cheapens the regular season. Remember when James said, seemingly only partly in jest, that the N.B.A. official who drew up the tournament should be fired? Considering the feast the games provided as an appetizer to the main course — and, of course, the high television ratings — the criticism seems silly now.Sure, we don’t have Curry and the Warriors in the playoffs, but what fun is sport without surprises and novelty? What would the N.B.A. be without the steady emergence of fresh talent like Morant and his cast of young Grizzlies teammates, who now must prove themselves anew in their first-round playoff series against the Utah Jazz, holders of the league’s best record, which began Sunday night?Last year, the N.B.A. reflected the mood of our society. Angered, standing up in the face of worry and fear.But if our sports are to be a mirror, they must also mirror our hope and joy and celebrate new genius.That’s what we’re seeing now: an N.B.A. still wary about the troubles of the past year but ready to do what it does best. Ready, as the playoffs of 2021 get underway, to put on a show. More

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      The Nets’ Starters Are Back Together. And So Are the Fans.

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      Over 14,000 fans attended Game 1 of the Nets-Celtics series as Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Blake Griffin and Joe Harris started together for the first time this season.Kevin Durant has dazzled in the postseason, having claimed two Most Valuable Player Awards in N.B.A. finals. But before Saturday night, his last postseason appearance was in 2019.Durant, a member of the Golden State Warriors then, had worked hurriedly to return to Game 5 of that year’s N.B.A. finals from a calf strain. He played about a quarter against the Toronto Raptors before limping off the court with an Achilles’ tendon tear.Plenty has occurred in basketball and in the world since. But on Saturday night, a tinge of familiarity returned.There was Durant, in Game 1 of a first-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics, pacing the Nets in scoring in front of over 14,000 cheering fans at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.“The whole ride this year, seeing him come back from such a devastating injury, he had such a long layoff, such a big hill to climb and a lot of doubt,” Nets Coach Steve Nash said of Durant. “Who knows if he comes back anywhere near the level he’s accustomed to?“So a tribute to his work ethic, his sacrifice, his talent, that he’s still able to play at an incredibly high level after that injury, that layoff.”The N.B.A. had waited months to find out how Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden would perform as headliners in a star-studded lineup.To be sure, the Nets are working through wrinkles typically smoothed over during a traditional training camp, or even the regular season. Cycles of injuries prevented Durant, Irving and Harden, who came over from Houston in a blockbuster trade in January, from sharing the court often.Game 1, a 104-93 victory over Boston, was the first time Durant, Irving, Harden, Blake Griffin and Joe Harris started together this season.“We knew it would be fun to play in front of the fans, but to step out there and see the place packed like that and the energy in the building was unbelievable,” Nash said. “I think there was a little bit of newness in many ways. We weren’t sharp offensively, but we found a way.”Nets guard James Harden celebrated a 3-point shot against the Celtics. The Nets missed their first 10 3-point attempts, and finished 8 of 34 from beyond the arc.Corey Sipkin/Associated PressThe Nets brushed off a sluggish start and, perhaps, the unfamiliarity of playing in front of a sizable crowd for the first time since the N.B.A. paused the 2019-20 season in March.An off-brand version of the Nets emerged in the bubble restart last year at Walt Disney World in Florida. Durant and Irving were rehabilitating from injuries. Spencer Dinwiddie and DeAndre Jordan did not play after testing positive for the coronavirus. Wilson Chandler opted out of resuming the season.The Nets had to scramble to fill out their roster, and Toronto quickly swept them from the first round of the playoffs.Saturday presented a traditional feel, more in line with what was envisioned when Durant and Irving shook up the N.B.A. by deciding to join forces in free agency before the 2019-20 season.Barclays Center rocked and reverberated with 14,391 spectators in attendance, the maximum allowed and just a few thousand short of the arena’s full capacity.“Maybe I’m speaking for myself, but the crowd kind of just threw me off a little bit,” Harden said. “It was pretty loud in there. The vibe was what we’ve been missing.”The Nets missed their first 10 3-pointers and trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half.“They definitely gave us an advantage, and it was weird,” Durant said of playing again in front of a large crowd. “We haven’t seen them all season. And there was 1,500 there the last couple months of the season, but to see people at the front row and then see more in the upper and lower bowl, it was pretty cool. And I’m pretty sure they enjoyed the win, but we want to play better for them as well.”Durant, Irving and Harden ignited in the third quarter, providing the Nets with their first 22 points of the second half, while erasing a 6-point halftime deficit.Importantly, the Nets limited Boston to 40 second-half points.“Maybe we just rushed,” Nash said. “We were a little impatient to start the game. I’d probably say the truth is somewhere in the middle — a little bit that they haven’t played much together, a little bit that it was an exciting evening for everyone to walk in the gym to see that many people, and our fans were outstanding.”Durant ended with 32 points and 12 rebounds. Both were game highs.“It’s always great playing in this time of year,” Durant said. “That intensity is the next level; it’s different than what’s in the regular season. It felt great to be back out there among the best teams and players in the league and looking forward to Game 2.”Irving scored 29 points. Harden added 21 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists.“It definitely felt different compared to what most of the season felt like, going to different arenas,” Irving said. “But coming back home and welcoming a lot of our fans home, you could feel the anticipation for a quality basketball game out there.”The attendance at Barclays Center on Saturday night was 14,391. Elsa/Getty ImagesEven this depleted version of the Celtics is too skillful and prideful to be classified as a breezy matchup for the Nets.Marcus Smart is lucky he isn’t a debit card, because there is no charge he’s unwilling to take. Robert Williams was a nuisance in the post, blocking nine shots, a Celtics single-game playoff record. (Blocks became an official statistic after Bill Russell had retired.)Boston will need much more from Jayson Tatum (6 for 20 for 22 points) and Kemba Walker (5 for 16 for 15 points) to steal a game or two and turn the matchup into a series.“Anything can happen,” said Irving, a former Celtic who would know firsthand when he said Boston was a well-coached team. “Especially against the Celtics. That lucky Irishman is always around the Celtics.”Irving added: “It’s going to be a great battle between a lot of great players on the floor.”If it is the case that “anything” does not happen, Brooklyn will continue using this series to get needed repetitions before facing what will be a more difficult second-round opponent, the winner of the series between the third-seeded Milwaukee Bucks and the sixth-seeded Miami Heat. More

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      Why Being a Knicks Fan Hurts So Good

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      Knicks fans used to disappointment are now reveling in a season of joy. “God forbid, if we win, we are going to burn this city down,” one famous fan said.Ashley Nicole Moss did not have much of a choice when she was growing up. Her father, Jeff, was a Knicks fan, which meant that she was a Knicks fan, too.For part of her childhood in Brooklyn and Queens, Moss, 27, found that rooting for the Knicks was not such a horrible thing. When she was especially young, the team often made the playoffs and even advanced to the N.B.A. finals in 1999, which she said was among her earliest memories as a fan. So she was completely unprepared for the subsequent two decades, which were largely a wilderness of losing and dysfunction, of failed hopes and shattered dreams.“It’s been a lot of disappointment and a lot of frustration,” said Moss, who is a co-host of “KnicksFanTV” on YouTube.All of which has made this season — this glorious season — so much more special for fans like Moss. The Knicks have engineered a comeback story, sending their long-suffering fans into a fervor. While the Nets, over in Brooklyn, are brimming with high-priced talent as a championship favorite, the Knicks have gone from punchline to playoff contender in the space of several thrilling months.“God forbid, if we win, we are going to burn this city down,” said Daniel Baker, an avowed Knicks fan more popularly known as Desus Nice on the late-night comedy show “Desus & Mero.” “Sorry, I’m just letting you all know.”The Knicks, with the second-lowest payroll in the league and a roster almost devoid of stars, will open their first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks are seeded fourth in the Eastern Conference after finishing with a 41-31 record in the regular season.“It’s a team that people can relate to,” Moss said, “because of that true New York mentality: You grind from the bottom, and you work your way up.”The filmmaker Spike Lee, who has famously clashed with the team’s owner, James L. Dolan, said the past was history.“This is a new era,” he said. “A new day. And all I see are orange and blue skies.”Two stars in Madison Square Garden: Julius Randle and Spike Lee.Vincent Carchietta/USA Today Sports, via ReutersIt is not often that the Knicks can cast themselves as gritty underdogs, given their history of profligate spending. Yet they have won just one playoff series since 2001. They are two seasons removed from finishing with the league’s worst record. They also haven’t landed big free agents: Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving opted instead for the Nets.But after trying something new — fiscal prudence — the Knicks have built themselves in the image of their first-year coach, Tom Thibodeau, who barks instructions with the low growl of an outboard motor. The Knicks rank among the league leaders in blue-collar categories like opposing field-goal percentage and rebound rate. There is not a whole lot of flash. Instead, fans celebrate the unsung things that the players do so well: a hard screen, an intercepted outlet pass.And while the Nets seem to channel the Harlem Globetrotters by lobbing passes off the backboard for alley-oop dunks, the Knicks lean on the more earthbound labor provided by the likes of Julius Randle, a forward and first-time All-Star who led the league in the most roll-up-your-sleeves category imaginable: minutes played.Earlier this season, when the Knicks beat the Indiana Pacers to improve their record to 17-17, a video that went viral on social media captured some fans rejoicing outside the Garden as if the team were on the brink of a championship.“And that was real,” said Josh Safdie, a Knicks fan who was co-director of the film “Uncut Gems” with his brother, Benny. “The same thing was happening in my living room.”Even the N.B.A.’s top star, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers, recognizes the importance of the team’s resurgence, saying on Twitter in April that “the league is simply better off when the Knicks are winning.”Knicks fans have experienced pockets of joy in recent seasons, of course. There was Jeremy Lin’s star turn in the off-Broadway production of “Linsanity.” And the early part of Carmelo Anthony’s tenure was often a lot of fun, with the team making three straight playoff appearances. But more common is fans investing in potential saviors — the former team president Phil Jackson, the former lottery pick Kristaps Porzingis — only to come away crushed.Knicks fans during Linsanity in 2012.Barton Silverman/The New York Times“As a Knicks fan, you’re signing up for basically insanity,” Baker said. “The beginning of the year, as a Knicks fan, you’re like, ‘Yo, we’re going to the finals.’ You have no rhyme or reason to say that. You have no player that’s going to take you to the finals, but you just go in with your gut.”Joel Martinez, Baker’s co-star on “Desus & Mero” who is better known as The Kid Mero, likened the Knicks to a “wild, volatile stock.”For Safdie, a formative moment came in 1994, when the Knicks, led by Patrick Ewing, faced the Houston Rockets in the N.B.A. finals. In Game 6, with a chance for his team to close out the series and win its first championship in two decades, the Knicks’ John Starks had his shot blocked at the buzzer, and the Rockets escaped with a narrow win.“Ewing was open,” Safdie said, his voice rising at the memory of it. “Ewing was wide open!”At the time, Safdie cried before heading to a nearby playground to shoot hoops. He consoled himself with the belief that the Knicks would win Game 7. They lost.“For the consummate Knicks fan, there’s a certain kind of masochism that comes with it,” Safdie said. “I’m a moody guy to begin with, but my moods and attitudes fluctuate so much based on the play of the Knicks.”For fans of a finer vintage, the present is often viewed through the lens of the team’s more illustrious past. Nostalgia, though, comes with a whiff of sadness, because the team’s only championships in 1970 and 1973 become more distant by the day.Lewis Dorf, 69, recalled working as one of the team’s ball boys for three seasons, from 1966 to 1969. During one of Dorf’s first nights on the job, the Knicks’ Willis Reed decked several Lakers, splattering blood on Dorf’s team-issue Converse sneakers. Some time later, Dorf had Reed over to his family’s home for dinner.Lewis Dorf in his lucky Knicks shirt.Kat Slootsky for The New York TimesA signed Willis Reed picture on Dorf’s wall along with his other Knicks memorabilia.Kat Slootsky for The New York Times“Those kinds of memories stick with you,” said Dorf, a high school sports referee who now lives in West Orange, N.J.Steve Finamore, 56, a longtime high school basketball coach in Michigan, grew up in Brooklyn mimicking Reed’s post moves, Earl Monroe’s spinning drives and Walt Frazier’s ball-handling wizardry. There was never any question, he said, about his fandom. The Nets were an afterthought in New Jersey, and the Knicks were a part of his identity as a New Yorker who loved basketball.“It’s something that grew on us,” he said, “the way plants grow in your backyard.”It was not until 2013 that Finamore had a crisis of conscience. Even though the Knicks were coming off a competitive season, Finamore was tiring of the drama that seemed to surround Dolan and some of the team’s stars. The Nets, meanwhile, had traded for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce in a bold title bid. Feeling the tug of his Brooklyn roots, Finamore picked up a couple of pieces of Nets gear before his wife, Mary, intervened.“She said, ‘You’ve been a Knicks fan since 1973, and you’re going to leave them now?’” Finamore recalled. “My loyalty won out. I realized there was no way I could do it.”Daniel Wann, a professor of psychology at Murray State University who has specialized in studying sports fans, said people tend to tie their identities to larger groups. But many of the groups that people once used to form connections have been in decline, Wann said. Fewer people attend church, for example, and most no longer live within walking distance of their relatives.So following a sports team, he said, gives many an important sense of belonging. Suffering along with a losing team is often considered a badge of honor because it shines a light on their loyalty.“It’s really hard to say, ‘Well, I don’t care anymore,’ even in those times when you want to say that you don’t care anymore,” Wann said. “The reality is, it’s just too much a part of who you are to let it go.”Dennis Doyle, a 38-year-old lawyer from Queens, spent the 2014-15 season attending every Knicks game, home and away. It turned out to be the worst season in franchise history.Dennis Doyle attended every Knicks game in the 2014-15 season, when the team went 17-65.Barton Silverman/The New York Times“I’ve always looked at it like it’s not a choice,” Doyle said of being a Knicks fan. “It’s almost like having a disease. It’s just something you’re kind of stuck with, and there was always too strong of an emotional bond.”His reward for persevering has come this season.“It’s such a pleasure to watch them,” Doyle said. “They play hard, and they play defense. And even though their offense stinks sometimes, you can live with that. I’m just so proud.”Dorf, who has been a season-ticket holder for 52 years, scrambled over the past week to land good seats for the first round. He said it was the first time he had felt stressed about tickets since 1999, when the Knicks last went to the finals. (On Tuesday, when Dorf called his ticket representative, he wore his commemorative T-shirt from the 1998-99 season as a “good luck charm,” he said.)Safdie said he was hoping to attend Sunday’s series opener. If not, he said, he will probably do what he usually does: stream the MSG Network’s broadcast of the game on his tablet, positioning his face approximately “four inches from the screen.” More