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      Twins, Timberwolves and Wild Postpone Games After Shooting

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      With the Minneapolis area on edge, M.L.B., N.B.A. and N.H.L. teams decided they could not play on Monday following the shooting of Daunte Wright.Professional baseball, basketball and hockey games in Minnesota were postponed on Monday in response to tension and unrest after a police officer shot and killed a Black man during a traffic stop north of Minneapolis.The Minnesota Twins postponed their afternoon game with the Boston Red Sox and were quickly followed by the N.B.A.’s Minnesota Timberwolves calling off a game against the Nets and the N.H.L.’s Minnesota Wild postponing a match against the St. Louis Blues.With the region on edge as the trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer facing murder charges in the death of George Floyd, continues in Minneapolis, the Twins said it would not have been appropriate to play. The police in Brooklyn Center, Minn., where the latest shooting took place Sunday, said that the victim, Daunte Wright, 20, was shot accidentally by an officer who had intended to use a Taser.“Our community’s been through a lot, and we have a trial taking place just blocks away from Target Field,” said the Twins team president, Dave St. Peter, in a video news conference with reporters. “Emotions across our community, emotions across our organization, are raw.”He added that baseball seemed “a little less important” now, and that the Twins prioritized safety and compassion over holding the game as scheduled.“Make no mistake, part of the decision here today is out of respect for the Wright family, but there’s a big part of this decision that’s also rooted in safety and consultation with law enforcement about unknowns, about what will, or could transpire within the broader community over the next several hours, based on the news that has come out of Brooklyn Center this morning,” St. Peter said.“Once you understand that information, for us the decision becomes a lot easier. The right thing to do is always to err on the side of safety for our players, for our staff, for our fans.”Outside of Minnesota, Aaron Hicks, who had previously played for the Twins, asked to sit out of Monday’s game between the Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays. Another Yankees player, Giancarlo Stanton, was considering sitting out as well.“I would say that Aaron is hurting in a huge way,” Manager Aaron Boone told reporters. “I think in a way felt like it was probably the responsible thing to take himself out and knowing that it was going to be hard for him to be all in mentally in what’s a high stake, difficult job to go out there and perform for the New York Yankees.”In a statement, the N.B.A. said the decision to postpone Monday night’s game was made after consultation with the Timberwolves organization as well as local and state officials.Last spring, after the killing of Floyd, several N.B.A. and W.N.B.A. players became active participants in the protests that broke out around the country.Last August, after the N.B.A. had resumed its season on the Walt Disney World campus near Orlando, Fla., some N.B.A. players took their demonstrations further after the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis. Blake, then 29, was partially paralyzed after being shot multiple times in the back by police while trying to enter his vehicle.With emotions high after the shooting of Jacob Blake, the Milwaukee Bucks refused to take the court for a playoff game on Aug. 26, 2020.Kevin C. Cox/USA Today Sports, via ReutersBefore a playoff game between the Milwaukee Bucks and Orlando Magic, George Hill, then a guard for the Bucks, persuaded the rest of his teammates to sit out the game. This created a cascade effect: The other games on tap that night were postponed as well, as well as those in other leagues, like women’s basketball, baseball and soccer. Naomi Osaka, a Black tennis star, threatened to leave the Western & Southern Open, which pushed officials to delay the tournament by a day.Two days later, the N.B.A. and its players’ union announced an agreement that would convert some team arenas into polling sites and lift the player-inspired work stoppage. Some of the league’s top players, including LeBron James and Chris Paul, consulted with former President Barack Obama on a path forward.In discussing the Twins’ postponement on Monday, Manager Rocco Baldelli said some players were shaken by the incident in Brooklyn Center.“We have some guys that I would put in the category of passionate,” Baldelli said, “and were really damaged and hurt by everything that was going on today.”The Twins and the Red Sox were scheduled to play four games through Thursday, and this is Boston’s only scheduled trip to Minnesota this season. The teams play a series in Boston in late August, but St. Peter said the Twins have not considered moving the series to Fenway Park.The N.B.A.’s announcement did not say when the Timberwolves and Nets would make up the lost game. The Wild’s game against the Blues has been rescheduled for May 12. More

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      The Nets Could Have Had It All With Dr. J

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      As great as today’s Nets look with their starry threesome, they could have dominated the N.B.A. much, much sooner — in the 1970s, behind Julius Erving.Kevin Loughery and Julius Erving share a city, Atlanta, a golf club and an emotional connection to a basketball allegory told inharmoniously in three distinct parts — what was, what might have been and what now has become.In other words: the history of the Nets, from Long Island to New Jersey to Brooklyn.Inevitably, wistfully, Loughery’s conversation with Erving centers on Part 2, the potentially grand Nassau Coliseum stage that was dismantled just before the curtain was to rise on the N.B.A. debut of Erving and the Nets.“I always talk to him about what we might have done,” Loughery, who coached the developing legend of Dr. J. to two A.B.A. titles and stayed on to guide the remains of the Nets after the financially troubled franchise sold the rights to Erving, the world’s most electrifying player, to the Philadelphia 76ers on the eve of the 1976-77 season.Loughery added in a telephone interview: “What haunts you is that when we had him in the A.B.A. he was the best he ever was. The last A.B.A. series against Denver, when we won that second title, that was the best series I’ve ever seen anyone play.”That’s quite a mouthful, coming from an 81-year-old basketball lifer who once shared a backcourt in Baltimore with Earl Monroe and who coached seven pro teams, including one in Chicago that unveiled a rookie named Jordan.There is also an evolving symmetry to this ancient history. Forty-five years after their infamous selling of the rights to the Doctor, the Nets finally have become what they were poised to be in 1976: the sport’s sexiest team, with an opportunity to be its best.Kevin Loughery, who coached Erving in the A.B.A., said Dr. J “was the best he ever was” before he even got to the N.B.A.Associated PressAlas, Brooklyn’s assemblage of a superstar-laden lineup has occurred during a time of fan-less arenas only now welcoming crowds still enfeebled by the menace of Covid-19. Selling out America with Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving for now remains the dream it was for Loughery and Erving.On the eve of that 1976-77 season, Erving was holding out for a contract upgrade and the league office was holding its breath after scheduling the Nets for a nationally televised opener against Golden State in Oakland. The arena sold out weeks in advance, but the sale of Erving’s rights to Philadelphia two days before the game by the owner Roy Boe — and after the Knicks absurdly let themselves be outbid for a homegrown player who would have altered their history — persuaded CBS to show a late-night movie instead.Erving was electrifying in the A.B.A., where he won two championships with the Nets.Associated PressHoping to make a splash, or at least save face, the Nets had acquired Nate Archibald, an explosive, New York-bred guard who was known as Tiny, one month earlier. Archibald had a bigger annual salary than Erving, which stiffened Erving’s resolve, despite his not wishing to leave Long Island, where he’d grown up.“It’s tough to play Abraham Lincoln and George Washington in the frontcourt,” Loughery memorably told reporters when the news reached California that Erving was gone. He and his players were gutted, even if they came to realize that Boe’s inability to pay millions both for league entry and to the Knicks for territorial rights limited his options to one.Still, Loughery has for decades wondered: what if? “I don’t know if we would have been a championship team, but we would have been very, very competitive,” he said.Rod Thorn, who returned to Loughery’s side that season as an assistant after a one-year absence to coach the Spirits of St. Louis, offered a more certain revisionist take.“History in New York basketball would have been changed,” he said. “We played and won exhibitions against N.B.A. teams. Every building was sold out for Doc. We also would have had a couple years’ window to add more pieces.”Instead, Archibald played 34 games for the Nets and blew out an Achilles’ tendon. The team moved to Piscataway, N.J., to play in a college gym. Loughery and Thorn shared long drives from their homes on Long Island, epitomizing the detour into a competitive ditch.The Nets and the 76ers had more peculiar chapters to co-author. Two years later, they played what may have been the weirdest game ever, when the N.B.A. upheld a Nets protest of technical fouls — the referee Richie Powers called three each on Loughery and Bernard King, one more than the limit for ejection.The game was replayed more than four months later from a point in the third quarter, but before then the teams made a four-player trade. In the final box score of the suspended game — won by the 76ers — three of the players appeared on both sides.Thorn later made what until further notice remains the most beneficial deal in the Nets’ N.B.A. history. As team president in 2001, he acquired Jason Kidd, who inspired successive runs to the finals. Thorn left New Jersey in 2010, joining the 76ers’ front office, essentially trading places with Billy King.Jason Kidd turned the Nets into an Eastern Conference powerhouse in the early 2000s.Ray Stubblebine/ReutersBilly King took over as Nets general manager in July 2010.Bill Kostroun/Associated PressThat put King at the Nets’ helm as they finished out their New Jersey run in April 2012 by hosting, of course, the 76ers.Now Thorn watches from afar as Sean Marks, who succeeded King with the Nets, plays personnel chess, building on his big three by reeling in the former All-Stars Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge with the ease of signing escapees of the G League.Skeptics worry about Durant’s health, Irving’s reliability and their sensitivity to criticism. Loughery has reservations about the perimeter defense of Harden and Irving. But Thorn has come to believe that the Nets will be fine as long as they remain in Harden’s soft hands.“I’ve changed my opinion of him,” he said. “He dominated the ball so much in Houston, but he’s been a fantastic playmaker for them.”As fate would have it, the Nets are challenging for Eastern Conference supremacy with the 76ers, along with Milwaukee. On Wednesday, they go to Philadelphia to confront a formidable group coached by a man nicknamed Doc (Rivers). On the Nets’ plus side, their owner, Joseph Tsai, is rich beyond belief. Lincoln and Washington didn’t make the cut. More

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      Irving Scores 40 as Short-Handed Nets Beat the Knicks

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      With Kevin Durant out and James Harden departing early with a sore hamstring, Kyrie Irving took over in a win against the Knicks.The injured Nets star Kevin Durant has been missing since mid-February, but his team got some good news on Monday with the return of James Harden, who had missed Brooklyn’s last two games with a hamstring injury.Harden’s return lasted four minutes.When the injury flared up again, he asked to come out. That left the Nets in a serious bind against the Knicks at Barclays Center, their Big Three reduced to a lonely one.James Harden, Nets say, is out for the rest of tonight’s game against the Knicks with right hamstring tightness.— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) April 5, 2021
      Step forward, Kyrie Irving. The third member of the Nets’ star triumvirate poured in 40 points with a blend of speed, strength and deep 3-pointers, as the Nets — short-handed as they have been for much of the season — beat the Knicks, 114-112.Irving shot 15 of 28 from the field, made five 3-pointers and also led his team with seven assists. Jeff Green added 23 points, tying his season high, but was merely a supporting player in Irving’s impressive performance.Irving’s final basket was a long 3-pointer that extended the Nets’ lead to 5 points with a minute left.After the Knicks rallied to tie the score at 112-112, Green drew a foul with three seconds left and hit both free throws. Julius Randle, who had a triple-double for the Knicks, missed a driving jumper to tie it as time expired.“This is the Brooklyn way, also mixed with a little Jersey swag,” Irving said in an on-court interview after the game, to the cheers of the pandemic-limited crowd of 1,700. He went to high school in Elizabeth, N.J., before spending his only college season at Duke.Harden had started the game but asked out early after pulling up in front of the scorer’s table and reaching for his hamstring. Coach Steve Nash quickly removed him.His cameo ended without a point, bringing to an end his 450-game streak of scoring in double digits. (LeBron James continues to lead that category with more than 1,000.)“Very similar to last time,” Nash said of Harden’s injury. “He has an awareness of something’s not right in his hammy. His scan was clean. His strength tests when he came back to the locker room were normal. It’s something where we have to protect him, we have to trust him. Very frustrating for James, but we can’t risk it, if we can afford not to.”Nash held out hope that Monday was merely a brief delay in Harden’s recovery, and not something that could imperil the championship dreams of the first-place Nets (35-16).“Who knows?” Nash said. This may linger or it may be all be behind us, like we thought it was before the game.”Even the injured Kevin Durant seemed impressed with some of Irving’s shots.Vincent Carchietta/USA Today Sports, via ReutersHarden remains a most valuable player candidate, scoring 25 points a game and leading the league in assists (10.9 per game) and minutes (37.1).With a third straight win over the Knicks, the Nets completed a season sweep of their rivals for the first time since 2014-15.Durant, who has his own hamstring injury, shot around before the game, and the Nets said they were hopeful he would return soon. Durant, Harden and Irving have played together only seven times since joining the Nets, making it all the more remarkable that the team leads the Eastern Conference.Randle’s triple-double — 19 points, 15 rebounds, 12 assists — was his fourth of the season. The Knicks are hanging on to the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference, on track for their first playoff appearance since 2012-13. More

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      In the Philippines, Everyone Knows Jordan Clarkson’s Name

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      Clarkson, who is Filipino-American, is having a career season with the Utah Jazz and drawing a new international fan base to the team.For the longest time, Paolo del Rosario felt alone. In the Philippines, he was that rare type of basketball fan: He rooted for the Utah Jazz.He had adopted the team as a young boy in the late 1990s because he loved the two-man game of John Stockton and Karl Malone — and because the rest of his family, like many Filipino families, loved the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Lakers irritated him.“I guess I just found them too loud,” he said.Now a Manila-based sports broadcaster, del Rosario, 30, remained on his own in his Jazz fandom for years until suddenly, about halfway through last season, he discovered that he was no longer on his own. The Cleveland Cavaliers had traded Jordan Clarkson to the Jazz, and del Rosario started receiving text messages from friends: “Hey, are you ready? You’re not going to be the only Jazz fan in the Philippines anymore.”Even as the Jazz have gone about their business of building the best record in the N.B.A. this season, they have struggled to escape the long shadows cast by glitzier rivals. Beloved in Utah, the Jazz do not exactly have a global following.The one clear exception, though, is their growing presence in the Philippines, a basketball-crazed country where the 28-year-old Clarkson, who identifies as Filipino-American, is a household name. His highlights flood social media.Clarkson has been a lift coming off the bench for the Jazz this season.David Zalubowski/Associated Press“I’ll say this: If he doesn’t win sixth man of the year, I’m not sure the N.B.A. is ready for the online reaction from this part of the world,” said Nikko Ramos, the editor in chief of the Philippines edition of Slam magazine.In the Philippines, where, because of the time difference, many people wake up with breakfast and basketball, fans are getting a heaping serving of Clarkson to go with their tapsilog and pandesal.“N.B.A. League Pass is your best friend here,” Ramos said.Fans have spent 45 percent more time on the streaming service watching Jazz games this season than they did last season, according to the league. And on the N.B.A. Philippines Facebook page, Clarkson-related posts outperform all other content by an average of three to four times. A video of his highlight from a win over the Los Angeles Clippers in December has been viewed more than 1.2 million times.Clarkson clips have become a part of the morning ritual for Gabe Norwood’s three young sons, who have more of a direct connection to the shooting guard than most do: Their father has played with him on the Philippine national team, known as Gilas Pilipinas.“My kids get ready for school by watching N.B.A. games rather than cartoons,” said Norwood, a longtime small forward for the Rain or Shine Elastopainters, one of 12 teams in the Philippine Basketball Association.Clarkson, who is having the best season of his seven-year career, averaging more than 17 points per game, said he was acutely aware of his Filipino roots growing up in San Antonio. His maternal grandmother, Marcelina Tullao, made sure of it. She told stories about Pampanga, the province northwest of Manila where she was born, and made traditional dishes like chicken adobo and lumpia.Those meals helped him feel a connection to the place, one that grew stronger as he got older — and one that eventually led him to develop a friendship with Norwood, who also grew up in the United States but has become a bit of a pied piper for Philippine basketball.Children play during a Junior N.B.A. program at Don Bosco Technical Institute of Makati City.Chang W. Lee/The New York Times“If there’s a Filipino somewhere playing hoop, Gabe finds them and acts as a big brother to them almost by default,” Ramos said.Norwood, whose mother’s side of his family is Filipino, played at George Mason, where, as a junior, he came off the bench for the team that reached the Final Four in 2006. The Final Four typically doubles as a coaching convention, and a couple of coaches from the Philippines approached Norwood’s mother one afternoon. Did she have a son playing in the tournament? “Sure enough, she did: No. 5 for George Mason,” Norwood said.The following summer, Norwood traveled to the Philippines with a sports ministry group called Athletes in Action, and he used the trip to network. After his senior season, he was named to the Philippine national team and signed a contract with Rain or Shine of the P.B.A. “I’ve been here ever since,” said Norwood, who met his wife, Lei, in the Philippines.In the process, Norwood has become one of the country’s leading basketball evangelists, a staple of the national team since 2007 and an advocate for the sport. As such, he played a role in helping carve Clarkson’s path to Gilas Pilipinas.Clarkson was still in college when Norwood heard about him from a friend. When Clarkson declared for the N.B.A. draft in 2014 following his junior season at Missouri, Norwood gave him a call and sent him a pair of Nike sneakers that had been a special release in the Philippines, part of the Kobe Bryant signature line. Clarkson said he wound up wearing them in his predraft workouts.Clarkson, playing for Mizzou in 2014, became very famous very fast.Jamie Squire/Getty Images“I just wanted to give him a heads up in terms of the support he has out here,” Norwood said.At the time, Clarkson was still fairly unknown in the Philippines. Ramos, for example, said he had never even heard of him until Norwood mentioned that there was a prospect of Filipino descent preparing for the draft.“And I work in basketball,” Ramos said, “so for me not to have heard his name when he was at Mizzou, that sort of tells how much of a new name he was in the country’s consciousness.”Clarkson became very famous very fast. A lot of that had to do with his joining the Lakers after he was a second-round draft pick in 2014. The Lakers are popular in the Philippines, where many fans still idolize Bryant — a superstar who made at least a half-dozen appearances in the country in his prime.“So if the intention was to get Jordan as much instant popularity with the Filipinos as possible, that was the dream scenario,” Ramos said.Clarkson also soon proved that he was a bona fide N.B.A. player, averaging 11.9 points per game as a rookie. The following summer, he made a trip to Manila — and drew crowds wherever he went. He had traveled to the country as part of an N.B.A. Cares initiative with several other players, including Trey Burke and Horace Grant. But it became apparent that Clarkson was the main attraction.Ramos helped show Clarkson and Burke around. On one of their first nights there, Ramos took them to dine at one of the city’s trendiest clubs, though he had his concerns.Clarkson played for the Philippines in the Asian Games in 2018.Dita Alangkara/Associated Press“I remember telling him, ‘Hey, are you sure you want to do this?’” Ramos recalled. “And Jordan was like: ‘I play for the Lakers, and I live in L.A. I’m used to getting some attention. It’ll be fine.’”It was not fine. As the scene spiraled into something that resembled chaos, Ramos grabbed a towel to throw over Clarkson’s head — an ineffective disguise — and ushered him out of the building through a back door.“We couldn’t walk 10 steps,” Ramos said. “Everyone knew he was in the country.”They eventually made it to a late-night pizza spot, where the people waiting to order also recognized Clarkson. When they insisted that he jump to the front of the line, he bought slices for everyone.“I just remember how much love everybody was showing me,” Clarkson said. “I didn’t know that people even knew I was Filipino.”The country’s adoration for Clarkson, who has a Philippine passport, went to another level when he competed for Gilas Pilipinas at the 2018 Asian Games, and nearly led the team to an upset over China in group play. His grandmother would watch the games and cry.“For Filipino fans to actually see him play for our national team, it was almost surreal,” said del Rosario, the broadcaster and longtime Jazz fan.Clarkson plans to return to Gilas Pilipinas in 2023, he said, when the team takes part in Olympic qualifying competitions, including the World Cup, which the Philippines is co-hosting. FIBA, the sport’s international organizing body, allows one naturalized player per team, though Clarkson said he was hopeful that FIBA would consider him a local player ahead of the next Olympic cycle. “I think that’s the big thing that’s being figured out right now,” he said.For its part, FIBA has maintained that Clarkson is only eligible to compete for the Philippines as a naturalized player.The Clarkson jersey with “Kapayapaan” on the back, center, with other Utah Jazz jerseys.Hannah Reyes Morales for The New York TimesIn any case, Clarkson has learned just how much Filipinos care. In the N.B.A. last season, players had the option of putting league-approved messages on their jerseys, and international players could display them in their native languages. Clarkson chose the word “Peace,” which caused a small uproar in the Philippines because he had not used the Filipino word for peace, “Kapayapaan.” It became such a hot topic that his father, Mike, went on Instagram to assure everyone that his son “continues to represent his Filipino roots with pride,” adding a string of hearts for good measure. Clarkson said it had not even occurred to him that using the Filipino word was an option.“I guess it was a little controversial,” he said.Some industrious entrepreneurs around Manila took matters into their own hands by manufacturing bootleg Clarkson jerseys with “Kapayapaan” on the back. It proved to be a popular item. Del Rosario managed to get ahold of one. He was not alone. More

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      N.B.A. Fines Kevin Durant for ‘Derogatory’ Social Media Spat

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      Michael Rapaport, an actor and podcast host, shared screenshots of a conversation in which Durant used homophobic and misogynistic language.The N.B.A. fined Kevin Durant, the Nets star, $50,000 for using “offensive and derogatory” language on social media, an apparent reference to screenshots of a private social media conversation between Durant and Michael Rapaport, an actor and podcast host.On Tuesday, Rapaport posted screenshots of an Instagram conversation with Durant in which Durant used homophobic and misogynistic language to refer to Rapaport, who was critical of an interview Durant did on TNT in December.The images shared by Rapaport did not appear to show the full exchange of messages between the two, but in one, Durant seemed to threaten Rapaport by naming a time and place for them to meet. Rapaport, who is white and has publicly made racist comments, responded multiple times by telling Durant, who is Black, to, “Go help the kids in BROWNSVILLE, BROOKLYN.” Brownsville is a mostly Black neighborhood where Rapaport has said he has gone to play basketball.After Rapaport posted the screenshots on Twitter, Durant replied to the post, saying, “Me and mike talk CRAZIER than this on the regular and today he’s pissed….My bad mike, damn!!” Rapaport then replied with misogynistic language. Rapaport’s initial post has been shared more than 15,000 times.The Nets declined to comment. Durant, 32, apologized on Thursday.“I’m sorry that people have seen the language I used,” Durant told reporters. “That’s not what I want people to see or hear from me, but hopefully I can move past it and get back out there on the floor.”Durant is prolific on social media, often using Twitter and Instagram to defend himself from fan criticism, no matter how small or large the fan’s followings. In 2017, it was revealed that Durant had created so-called burner accounts — alternate identities — to defend himself. Last year, he said on a podcast that he still has them.Rapaport, 51, is best known for roles on television shows such as “Boston Public” and “Prison Break” but has become more known in recent years for his basketball fandom and for his public social media feuds, including with his former employer Barstool.Durant has not played since Feb. 13 because of a hamstring strain. The Nets have not lost a step without him, having gone 18-3 since then. It is unknown when Durant will play again, but on Thursday he said, “I feel like it’ll be soon that I can be out there with my teammates.” 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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      The Time Dad Locked Down Elgin Baylor

      by

      Elgin Baylor’s N.B.A. legacy will loom large in basketball history. But the time our columnist’s father managed to defend Baylor for a half became a cherished part of family lore.Memory fades, but simple tales we hear as children can drill so deep down into us we do not forget. It’s because of such a tale, short and sweet and told with some regularity by my late father as I grew up, that I will always hold tight to the memory of the basketball great Elgin Baylor, who died this week at 86.“Did I ever tell you about the time I played Elgin Baylor?” my father would say as he looked into my eyes, filled with wonder no matter how many times he’d begun this way.“Elgin couldn’t score on me, no he couldn’t. Not in that first half he couldn’t.”There would be more to this parable, which my three older brothers also grew up hearing. It would turn into a lesson about humility and a meditation on witnessing greatness, but that start was how dad hooked me in the years not long after Baylor’s 1971 retirement from basketball, when the Lakers’ great was still widely known as a star. With that opener, and the account that followed, Baylor came to be one of the great pillars of my early imaginings.This week, there will be many fond remembrances told about Baylor. Most will focus mainly on his All-Star years in the N.B.A. This is as it should be for a player who helped revolutionize basketball with his high-flying athleticism and all-around skill. Baylor’s decade of dominance in the 1960s foreshadowed Julius Erving, Michael Jordan and the dazzling, acrobatic game we love today.Less attention will be given to Baylor’s unusual college years in the 1950s, spent far from well-known training grounds like Kansas, North Carolina or U.C.L.A.Raised in Washington D.C., Baylor was overlooked by the major powers during an era when segregation was rampant in basketball and integrated teams tended to have no more than one or two African-American players. He ended up playing for the College of Idaho. Yes, the College of Idaho.Then he transferred to another western school, Seattle University, a small Jesuit university with a lightly regarded basketball team that he promptly led to the finals of the 1958 N.C.A.A. tournament.Memories fade. Baylor, one of the most superb men’s basketball players in history, graced Seattle with his talent for years. But in the city of my birth, the city where I grew up and now live, few outside of old-timers and rock-solid sports fans know of his history here.Elgin Baylor in a game against Gonzaga while he played for Seattle University.Associated PressAlso fading from collective recall are the 1950s years when A.A.U. basketball — then a nationwide league backed by local businesses and stocked with ex-college stars who could hold their own against counterparts in the still-fledgling N.B.A. — was a force.That’s where my father went shoulder-to-shoulder with Baylor.Mel Streeter was a talent in his own right then. He had played at the University of Oregon in the early 1950s, when he was the only Black player on his teams. (Imagine that as you watch the Ducks, bursting with Black talent, in the Sweet Sixteen of the men’s tournament.) After moving with my mom to Seattle, he thrived in the fast-paced, wide-open style favored in Seattle’s powerful A.A.U. league, where games were played in front of packed crowds and were often featured prominently in the sports pages.Baylor was a part of that mix. He suited up for a powerhouse A.A.U. team: Westside Ford.I wish now that I had asked my father more about his one-and-only game against Baylor, more about that league and those times. But dad died 15 years ago. As close as we were, some of his history will always be cut off from me. I don’t know what team he was on when he played against Baylor. I don’t know if it was a big game with high stakes — like the battles that helped decide who would head off to the A.A.U. national championship.Thankfully, I have a firm recollection of the look on my father’s face as he spoke of how, in a head-to-head matchup between two tall, lithe and powerful forwards, he held Baylor to two first-half points. Oh, and dad never let any of his four sons forget that while he was holding down Baylor, he was lighting up the scoreboard. Even before my older brother Jon knew I was writing this column, the moment he heard about Baylor’s death he sent me a text with his own recollections of our family’s well-told tale: “Dad scored 11 in the first half!”But how did the game end?Whenever he came to the story’s backstretch, my dad would always smile and bring me close, letting me know that this short fable was not actually about him.As it turned out, angered at being shown up, Baylor came out in the second half determined to teach Mel Streeter a lesson. As dad told it, the entire back half of the game was essentially a blur as Baylor whipped past my father for layups or arcing, orbital jump shots. Baylor didn’t just turn the tables: He made known that he was simply a different kind of cat. He shut down dad with lockdown defense, and torched dad for 24 points.Whenever my father told this story, which was usually while we shot hoops on the basket that hung over our old garage, he never ended it sounding defeated. His smile widened and his face lit up as looked straight at me and spoke of Baylor with awe. “There was nothing I could do,” dad would say. “He was just too much.”Dad had witnessed true genius, true athletic genius, right up close, shoulder-to-shoulder under the rim inside a packed Seattle gym. And he had loved every second of the opportunity, even as he got scorched.That’s what I’m left with. My father’s thankfulness.If only he’d still been alive to hear about the first time I met Baylor, who I crossed paths with while in my role as a reporter roughly a dozen years back. It happened in Los Angeles, at the old training center for the Clippers, which Baylor struggled to run as general manager for just over 20 years.As I introduced myself, he thought for a moment about my name.“Streeter, huh?”I could see he was thinking back, working his memory to make a connection.I nudged him a bit. Without going into details, I reminded him that he’d played Mel Streeter in an old A.A.U. game.Then he put it all together.“Your dad,” he said, “let me tell you, he could play. He could really play.” More