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One Reggie Jackson, of the Yankees, made his mark in the World Series. Another, of the Los Angeles Clippers, is doing so in the N.B.A. playoffs.When insight was needed on the proverbial batting practice buzz generated by Stephen Curry’s pregame shooting routines or LeBron James’s unfamiliar pursuit of a championship in October, Reggie Jackson, the former Yankee, was a natural expert to seek out for an interview. More
Young, the Atlanta Hawks guard, isn’t the 3-point threat that you would think, considering how many deep shots he takes.When it comes to Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Milwaukee Bucks star, much of the discussion is about whether he takes too many 3-pointers at the expense of his true strengths, which include his dominance in the paint.It’s a worthy discussion, but after Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals, in which the Bucks convincingly equalized the best-of-seven series in a blowout, it’s also worth asking if that discussion should be directed toward Atlanta’s Trae Young, too.The Bucks put the game away in the first half with a 20-0 run en route to a 125-91 victory. How they won wasn’t exactly basketball rocket science. They made 3-pointers at a high clip. In the first half, Milwaukee shot 10 for 18 from deep and didn’t look back. Many of those shots were open and weren’t much different from the Bucks’ looks that didn’t fall in Game 1.As the perimeter opened up in Game 2, so did the lane for Antetokounmpo, who relentlessly attacked the rim, both in transition and in post-ups, and finished with 25 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists in 29 minutes.The Bucks also disrupted Young by playing him more physically. In particular, Milwaukee used its length to cut off passing lanes, forcing Young into nine turnovers. Jrue Holiday, an elite perimeter defender, was more aggressive in containing Young, particularly coming off screens.“They just picked up their pressure, their intensity,” Hawks Coach Nate McMillan said after the game. “They played with more sense of urgency. I didn’t think Jrue did anything other than stay focused on Trae, containing the ball and just being right there.”Young didn’t hesitate to take the blame.“That’s all on me,” Young said. “I’ve got to be better at taking care of the ball and just do a better job of at least getting us a shot. Nine turnovers. I’ve got to do better, and I will do better next game.”There is another issue with Young that doesn’t seem to get as much attention beyond the turnovers, and here he may have something in common with Antetokounmpo.Antetokounmpo went 0 for 3 from outside the perimeter in Game 2. And with each missed shot, TNT’s Reggie Miller harangued Antetokounmpo on the broadcast for taking those wide-open shots, saying that he was bailing out the Hawks’ defense. It has been a theme throughout Antetokounmpo’s playoff runs. In this year’s second-round series against the Nets, every time Antetokounmpo had an open look at Barclays Center, the crowd would roar with anticipation, hoping he would take the shot.Miller and the Nets fans were onto something. Those are not great shots for Antetokounmpo, given his strength near the rim. But three long jump shots in a game isn’t much in today’s N.B.A.Young, who is supremely confident in his long-range shooting, is an example of that. His confidence is part of what makes him such a great player and why the Hawks have unexpectedly made it to the conference finals. But there is growing evidence that Young’s 3-point shooting is almost as problematic — if not more so — than Antetokounmpo’s, because he takes many more of them and hasn’t consistently knocked them down.Young and his teammates struggled from 3 in Game 2, finishing 9 for 36 from 3. Young went 1 for 8. The one make was a highlight-worthy quick release following a crossover against Holiday. That’s just it with Young: When he succeeds, he does it in a flashy way, making it easy to forget about the seven misses. It’s easy to chalk this up to a poor shooting night. But in Game 1, when Young masterfully poured in 48 points, what went less noticed was that he shot 4 for 13 from 3.OK, that’s two poor shooting nights — at least from 3. That happens. But when one zooms out and looks at Young’s history as a shooter, there are holes. Against the Philadelphia 76ers in the semifinals, Young shot poorly from 3 over seven games: 32.3 percent on almost nine attempts a game. In the opening round against the Knicks: 34.1 percent over five games.Over 204 career regular-season games, Young has shot only 34.3 percent from 3. For someone who has averaged more than seven 3-point attempts per game for his career, that’s not very good.Part of this is the difficulty in the 3s Young takes. As the primary ballhandler, Young is excellent at creating shots for others, but he rarely has shots created for him. That means many of his 3-point shots are coming off pull-ups or step-backs, and rarely off catch-and-shoots. They’re also frequently contested.In the regular season, 43.8 percent of Young’s shots came after he dribbled the ball more than seven times, according to the N.B.A.’s tracking numbers. For comparison, that same number for Kevin Durant of the Nets was 13.1 percent. Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, a player Young has compared himself to, is at 24.3 percent.Young certainly looks the part of a great 3-point shooter: His form is similar to Curry’s. He is a great free-throw shooter (88.6 percent during the regular season). And he is often aggressively guarded as if he is a consistent threat as a shooter. But there’s isn’t evidence that he is much of one.During the regular season, when the closest defender was more than six feet away from Young, he only shot 39.6 percent from the field. During the playoffs, entering Friday, that number was slightly worse at 38.2 percent. (Curry, during the regular season, was at 48.9 percent. The Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James was at 45.2 percent, and Durant was at 56.3 percent.)This is an argument to occasionally guard Young in the same way that opposing teams guard Antetokounmpo: Goad him into taking more deep shots, particularly step-backs. Give him more space and put a defensive wall up around the rim. Young makes up for his shooting with his skillful ball-handling in the paint and by getting to the free-throw line. While Antetokounmpo bullies his way to the basket, Young uses finesse. One of Young’s best weapons is a floater, which he deploys often coming off a pick-and-roll and seeing a Bucks big man drop back in coverage. On Friday, Young was 5 for 8 inside the 3-point line.Simply put: The Bucks should encourage Young to take shots he doesn’t usually make and stop him from getting the ones he usually does. Giving him more space to operate on the outside might help neutralize his skill at breaking down defenses to get to the rim. The downside is that this leaves more space for Atlanta’s other shooters as well. But Young is adept at finding them anyway when he gets into the paint easily.Young is a better deep threat than Antetokounmpo, who shot 30.3 percent from 3 during the regular season. But to an extent, shooting has so far been a weakness in Young’s career — one that the Bucks should not be afraid to exploit as the series heads to Atlanta on Sunday.Young seems to think he’s a good long-range shooter. Don’t disabuse him of that notion. More
Young, the Atlanta Hawks guard, has embraced the booing, cursing crowds and his opponents’ defensive pressure. What he hasn’t embraced? Low expectations.Nate McMillan, more than most, knows the unpredictable nature of a point guard equipped with unflinching confidence.As a member of the Seattle SuperSonics, McMillan shared a backcourt with Gary Payton. The brash Payton scored on nearly everyone and backed down from absolutely no one, Michael Jordan included.So McMillan, now the interim coach of the fifth-seeded Atlanta Hawks, did not panic when the shot of his star guard, Trae Young, was off throughout much of his team’s deciding Game 7 in the N.B.A.’s Eastern Conference semifinals on Sunday night against the top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers.“I can’t believe how calm I was throughout this game, and I think it just came from the fact that I knew these guys were going to give me everything they had,” McMillan said, adding of Young: “He’s fearless, so the opponents, they have to guard for that. He will take a shot if he’s open, regardless of how many shots he has missed. He really stretches the defense.”And Young missed a great many shots on Sunday. But his greatest strength is his confidence, maximized by the unpredictability of his repertoire.Will he spot up from 30 feet or whip a line-drive pass through a small crease into the hands of John Collins? Will he zig and zag into the lane for a floater or lob an alley-oop pass to Clint Capela? Will he pull back for a midrange attempt or lure help defenders into the lane before kicking the ball out to Danilo Gallinari, Bogdan Bogdanovic or Kevin Huerter?The options appear plentiful on every offensive possession, with Young choosing the route dictated by the defense. On Sunday, Young, dealing with a right shoulder injury, missed 17 of his first 19 shots, as Huerter assumed the offensive burden while amassing a playoff career-high 27 points.Young, center, has leaned into the intensity of the playoffs, rewarding home crowds, pictured, with his effort and shrugging off the jeers on the road.Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesThe threat of Young pulling up from deep lengthened Philadelphia’s defense, and his many forays into the lane resulted in several finishes for Capela as Atlanta kept the game close.“I know I just had to find a way,” Young said afterward. “My shot was off tonight. My right hand and my shoulder — I was still trying to fight through it and push through it and shots weren’t going tonight, but my teammates showed up and made plays. Me, I just tried to find them.”In the closing moments, Young found his shot and Atlanta claimed the series with a 103-96 victory, earning its first conference finals trip since 2015. The Hawks will face the No. 3-seeded Milwaukee Bucks. Atlanta never trailed after Young’s midrange floater put the Hawks up, 86-84, and his long 3-point shot and free throws cemented the outcome.“They were making plays for me throughout the whole game,” Young said. “Just wanted to come through in the end and help them out a little bit. I know I didn’t shoot the ball great today, but they definitely made plays, and it was a total team effort tonight.”This season is coming to a close without the mainstays of recent playoffs, partly because of a rash of high-profile injuries. LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers bowed out in the first round. Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden lost in the second with the Nets. Stephen Curry’s only postseason appearances came while watching his brother, Seth, play for Philadelphia.Instead, these playoffs are providing a stage for players like Young and Phoenix’s Devin Booker to come of age. Both have been accused of putting up empty calorie stats for losing teams.Young took what defenses allowed as he learned the league during his first two seasons. He just didn’t have the caliber of teammates that he is now surrounded with in his third.Atlanta did not cross the 30-win threshold in either of the two previous seasons and was not one of the 22 teams invited into the Walt Disney World bubble last season when the N.B.A. resumed the pandemic-paused season.The organization quickly and smartly retooled itself by adding Bogdanovic and Gallinari through free agency and Capela and Lou Williams through trades to go along with the developing core of Young, Collins and Huerter. (De’Andre Hunter and Cam Reddish, two other young players, have been injured.)The Hawks began the season with the hopes of qualifying for the playoffs, but that goal seemed quickly out of reach. Atlanta started 14-20 before firing Coach Lloyd Pierce and promoting McMillan, who had been an assistant. The Hawks rebounded at the time Bogdanovic returned from an injury that had limited him, finishing the season 27-11 to earn the conference’s fifth seed.“It’s been a tough journey,” Young said. “It took a lot of losses to get here. For us, I think the guys who have been here since the rebuild, this feeling is a lot better than what it’s been. We know it’s our first year in the playoffs together, and it’s only the beginning, too. That’s the best part about this whole thing.”Young was at the forefront of both the rebuild and the rally and is averaging 29.1 points and 10.4 assists per game during the playoffs. He can be a frustrating player to watch. He entices fouls in a Harden-esque way, stopping randomly and purposefully in the lane so a defender can brush into him. He is getting results.So far this postseason, Young has bowed at Madison Square Garden while finishing off the Knicks in five games, and he performed push-ups on the court at Wells Fargo Center while outlasting the 76ers. The Hawks have claimed five road playoff games in New York and Philadelphia with Young relishing his role as a villain, smiling as crowds have booed and cursed at him.The last time the Hawks made it this deep into the playoffs, they were led by Mike Budenholzer, now the coach of the Bucks. Milwaukee flexes Giannis Antetokounmpo, a former defensive player of the year, and Jrue Holiday, who is regarded as one of the league’s premier perimeter on-ball defenders. The Bucks are paying Holiday handsomely — he signed a four-year, $135 million extension in April — to make an impact on a series just like the approaching one.The Bucks pose another serious challenge in a postseason in which Young and the Hawks have continually silenced their skeptics.No one expected Atlanta to qualify for the conference finals. The Hawks play like a team unaware people think it’s supposed to have a ceiling.Perhaps Young’s unflinching confidence is contagious.“The confidence is still there,” Young said. “The confidence is going to remain the same. We’re happy we made it to the Eastern Conference finals, but we’re not satisfied. So it’s great that we’re here, but we’ve still got some games to win.” More
Injuries to the Nets’ stars weighed on the team, which had been favored to win the championship this season.The Milwaukee Bucks are headed to the N.B.A.’s Eastern Conference finals after defeating the Nets, 115-111, in overtime on Saturday night in a decisive Game 7 for their semifinal series.Giannis Antetokounmpo led the way for the Bucks, scoring 40 points and grabbing 13 rebounds, allowing Milwaukee to withstand another masterful showing from Kevin Durant, who countered with 48 points and 9 rebounds of his own.Durant repeatedly exploited screen-and-rolls, and deftly used his post-up game to befuddle the Bucks defense. The deafening Barclays Center crowd roared when Durant hit a long jumper to tie the game with 1 second left in regulation to send the game to overtime. But the Nets, whose bench players scored no points and attempted no shots all game, were outscored in overtime, 6-2, and lost.It was a disappointing end to the series for the No. 2-seeded Nets, who entered the playoffs primed to make a championship run, with their stars at last seemingly healthy at the same time. Their best three players — James Harden, Kyrie Irving and Durant — played only eight games together during the regular season because of injuries and other absences.The Nets started the series favored against the third-seeded Bucks, but once again, injuries to the stars piled up, increasing the potential of an upset.In Game 1, James Harden left after less than a minute because of a right hamstring strain. Nonetheless, the Nets won the first two games of the series at home in convincing fashion.Then the Bucks squeezed out a win at home in Game 3. And in Game 4, the Nets lost Irving to a sprained ankle in the first half. The Nets also lost the game and appeared to be losing momentum with the best-of-seven series suddenly tied at two.But in Game 5, Durant put together one of the greatest playoff performances ever, finishing with 49 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists and becoming the first player to record those numbers in a playoff game. Harden surprisingly returned for that game, but was largely ineffective. The Bucks led by as many as 17 points, only for Durant to snuff out their lead almost single-handedly in the second half. Jeff Green emerged to fill some of the gap left by Irving, scoring a playoff-career-high 27 points, the most points off the bench by a Net in postseason history.The Bucks struck back with strong performances from their stars in Game 6, with Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday scoring 89 of the Bucks’ 104 points.Throughout the series, the Nets tried to take advantage of Antetokounmpo’s ineffectiveness as a shooter, a weakness that has vexed him throughout several playoff runs. Defenders routinely left him open on the perimeter or sent him to the free-throw line, where he also struggled. That made Antetokounmpo, a two-time Most Valuable Player Award winner, less of a threat late in games.But Antetokounmpo still managed to have one of the best series of his career. Through the first six games, he averaged 30.5 points and 12.8 rebounds per game on 56.5 percent shooting. It was good enough to get the Bucks to a Game 7, and to the Eastern Conference finals for the second time in Antetokounmpo’s career.The Nets had difficulty getting production from their role players, many of whom had career years. Joe Harris, one of the best shooters in the N.B.A., struggled all series — shooting just 35.5 percent from the field and only 32.5 percent from 3 through the first six games.The Bucks’ series win brings them one step closer to winning their first championship since 1971, when the team was led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In the Eastern Conference finals, they’ll will face the winner of the other semifinal matchup, between the Atlanta Hawks and the Philadelphia 76ers. That matchup is headed to a Game 7 on Sunday, after the Sixers tied the series behind a strong performance from Seth Curry on Friday. The Eastern Conference finals are set to begin on Wednesday.The Nets missed a chance to make their first conference finals since 2002 and 2003, when they were in New Jersey led by Jason Kidd. Both of those years, the Nets went to the finals. They haven’t won a championship since the A.B.A. merged with the N.B.A. in 1976. More
Injury woes are not new, but they have been acute during the playoffs. Never before have eight All-Stars missed at least one postseason game in the same year.Sprained knees. Strained hamstrings. Twisted ankles. Shattered hopes.The N.B.A. playoffs have turned into a battle of attrition as the league grapples with a growing list of injuries to many of its biggest stars. No less an eminence than LeBron James, whose Los Angeles Lakers made a hasty first-round exit after his All-Star teammate Anthony Davis injured his knee (and then his groin), weighed in on Wednesday, blaming the league’s compressed schedule. Regular-season games began in December after an abridged off-season.“They all didn’t wanna listen to me about the start of the season,” James wrote on Twitter. “I knew exactly what would happen.”It is worth noting that the league and its players’ union agreed on the schedule.But injuries were a problem for many N.B.A. teams even before the start of the playoffs — the Denver Nuggets, for example, were left without Jamal Murray, their starting point guard, when he sustained a season-ending knee injury in April — and a fresh batch of injuries in the postseason has only amplified the issue. In fact, with two-plus playoff rounds remaining, the N.B.A. has already set an ignominious record: eight All-Stars (and counting, perhaps) have missed at least one postseason game.Here is a look at those players, and how their injuries and absences have affected their teams:Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles ClippersKawhi Leonard sat during the end of Game 4 against the Utah Jazz on Monday with knee soreness.Kevork Djansezian/Getty ImagesInjury: Leonard was huge for the Clippers on Monday in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal series against the Utah Jazz, finishing with 31 points and 7 rebounds in a win that evened the best-of-seven series at two games apiece. But the Clippers’ victory proved costly: Leonard sprained his right knee.Impact: Leonard was expected to miss Game 5 on Wednesday night, and the Clippers did not offer a timetable for his return. One of the top two-way players in the league, Leonard is vital to the Clippers’ championship hopes. There is also a sense of urgency for the franchise, which has never made a conference final and had been banking on the star-studded pairing of Leonard and Paul George to help deliver its first title: Leonard can opt for free agency after the season. Another playoff disappointment could figure in his decision. The Clippers would prefer that they not have to find out.Anthony Davis, Los Angeles LakersAnthony Davis’s injuries hurt the Lakers’ quest to defend their championship this season.Harry How/Getty ImagesInjury: After helping the Lakers win it all last season, Davis stumbled through the 2020-21 regular season, missing about two months with a calf strain. It only got worse for him in the Lakers’ first-round series with the Phoenix Suns, as he injured his knee and his groin.Impact: Despite spraining his left knee in Game 3 against the Suns, Davis played through pain to deliver a win. But he strained his groin in Game 4, then missed Game 5. He limped through the early stages of Game 6 before heading to the locker room in pain, and the Lakers lost the game and the series without him. The Lakers had hoped to mount a stronger title defense. Davis blamed himself. “We just couldn’t stay healthy,” he said. “A lot of that is on me.James Harden, Brooklyn NetsHarden played with a strained hamstring in Game 5 against the Bucks. He scored just 5 points.Adam Hunger/Associated PressInjury: It took less than a minute for Harden, holding his hamstring, to leave Game 1 of the Nets’ second-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks. Harden missed the next three games before making a last-second decision to play in Game 5 Tuesday night. Strain to the same hamstring caused Harden to miss most of the last month of the regular season.Impact: The Nets’ top three stars — Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving — played only eight games together during the regular season. Harden is one of the most productive scorers in N.B.A. history, and he was largely ineffective in his return on Tuesday night in Brooklyn, with just 5 points and one made field goal. Without Harden’s shooting and playmaking ability, and combined with the loss of Irving, the Nets’ path to a championship becomes much more difficult. Harden is, however, expected to play in Game 6 on Thursday in Milwaukee.Kyrie Irving, Brooklyn NetsKyrie Irving landed on another player’s foot and sprained his ankle.Stacy Revere/Getty ImagesInjury: During the second quarter of Game 4 against the Bucks, Irving sprained his right ankle when he landed on Giannis Antetokounmpo’s right foot after a layup. He is out indefinitely.Impact: Losing just Irving, given the Nets’ depth, probably would be a storm the team could weather. But his loss combined with Harden’s problematic hamstring, makes the Nets much more vulnerable. It puts pressure on Durant to produce historic numbers like he did in Game 5 against the Bucks (49 points, 17 rebounds, 10 assists). But even without Irving, the Nets, as they showed Tuesday night, may be deep enough to get by without him if role players like Jeff Green continue to show up.Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ersEmbiid has missed just one game with a small lateral meniscus tear, but the injury has also negatively affected him when he’s played.Tim Nwachukwu/Getty ImagesInjury: Sidelined with a left knee bone bruise for a couple of weeks during the regular season, Embiid sustained a small lateral meniscus tear in his right knee in the 76ers’ first-round series with the Washington Wizards.Impact: Despite the apparent severity of his injury, Embiid has been out only once — Game 5 against the Wizards, which the 76ers won to close the series. He was terrific at the start of their conference semifinal series with the Atlanta Hawks, averaging 35.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game as the 76ers took a 2-1 series lead.He struggled, though, in a Game 4 loss, shooting 4 of 20 from the field, including 0 for 12 in the second half. He acknowledged afterward that his knee was bothering him. “As far as being 100 percent, I don’t think that’s going to happen until the year is actually over,” Embiid told reporters. “I just got to go out and manage it.”Donovan Mitchell, Utah JazzUtah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell (45) is helped off the court after injuring his ankle.Russell Isabella/USA Today Sports, via ReutersInjury: Mitchell missed the last 16 regular-season games and Utah’s playoff opener against the Memphis Grizzlies because of a sprained right ankle.Impact: The Jazz lost their first playoff game against Memphis without Mitchell. After Mitchell returned for Game 2, the Jazz dominated the series. Mitchell averaged 28.5 points and 5.8 assists in four games on 45 percent shooting. In Utah’s second-round match up against the Clippers, Mitchell has been even more dominant, with 37.3 points a game on 46.8 percent shooting through the first four games.Mike Conley, Utah JazzMike Conley’s absence leaves the Jazz without one of their key scorers beyond Donovan Mitchell.Rick Bowmer/Associated PressInjury: Conley has not played in Utah’s semifinal series against the Clippers because of a right hamstring strain. He also missed 20 games during the regular season because of injuries or rest related to that hamstring.Impact: Conley, when healthy, is the starting point guard for the Jazz. On a team that sometimes is too reliant on Mitchell to make plays, Conley is another player who can help break down defenses to take the pressure off Mitchell. During the regular season, Conley made his first All-Star appearance and averaged 16.2 points and 6 assists per game on 44.4 percent shooting, placing him firmly in the upper tier of N.B.A. guards.Jaylen Brown, Boston CelticsBrown had season-ending wrist surgery in May.Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty ImagesInjury: The Celtics announced on May 10 that Brown would miss the end of the regular season and the entire postseason because of a torn ligament in his left wrist.Impact: Brown established himself as a star this season, with averages of 24.7 points and 6 rebounds per game. He also made his first All-Star team. But his presence likely would not have made much of a difference in the playoffs, where the Celtics lost to the heavily favored Nets in the first round in five games. More
Paul, the Phoenix Suns guard, could miss at least a part of the Western Conference finals.After leading the Phoenix Suns into the Western Conference finals, Chris Paul is in danger of missing at least part of the series after entering the N.B.A.’s coronavirus health and safety protocols.How soon Paul can return to the Suns was not immediately known. The Suns announced Wednesday that Paul was “currently out” because of the protocols and that they would next provide an update about his status on Saturday.Among the factors that will determine how long Paul, 36, will be away from the Suns are his vaccination status and whether he tested positive for the coronavirus. Players who test positive are typically placed in isolation for 10 days, but isolation time, depending on the circumstances, can be reduced if a player is vaccinated.The team did not say why Paul was in the protocol. It could mean that he tested positive, but it also could just indicate that he was in close contact with someone who did. The N.B.A. announced Wednesday afternoon that one player tested positive for the virus within the past week but, as per usual, did not name the player. It’s not clear whether Paul has been vaccinated.The prospect of Phoenix’s losing Paul, after landing a spot in the conference finals on Sunday by completing a four-game sweep of the Denver Nuggets, was the latest blow to an N.B.A. postseason rocked by a string of health-related absences for star players.With the Los Angeles Clippers announcing on Wednesday that forward Kawhi Leonard would be out indefinitely with a sprained right knee, Leonard was poised to become the eighth All-Star to miss at least one playoff game this year because of injury. That is the most in league history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Leonard hurt his knee in the fourth quarter of the Clippers’ Game 4 victory against the Utah Jazz.The seven other All-Stars on that list: the Los Angeles Lakers’ Anthony Davis, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, Boston’s Jaylen Brown, Utah’s Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley, and the Nets’ James Harden and Kyrie Irving. The Clippers said Leonard would miss Wednesday night’s Game 5 against the Jazz. Paul would be the ninth All-Star to miss time this postseason if he is not cleared to rejoin the Suns before the conference finals, which will begin Sunday or Tuesday.Paul secured just the second trip to the conference finals of his 16-year career with perhaps the best series of his career. He averaged 25.5 points per game, shot 62.7 percent from the field and committed just five turnovers against 41 assists in the four games against Denver.Paul’s only previous appearance in the N.B.A.’s final four came with the Houston Rockets in 2018 and was marred by a series-turning injury. A hamstring issue sidelined him for the final two games against Golden State after Houston had taken a 3-2 series lead. Golden State capitalized on Paul’s absence to win those two games without Paul and went on to win its third championship in four years.A shoulder injury plagued Paul through the first several games of the Suns’ first-round series against the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers. But Paul recovered to help the Suns capitalize on Davis’s limited availability and eliminate the Lakers in six games, the earliest playoff exit in LeBron James’s career.When asked about the shoulder after the Suns’ sweep of the Nuggets, Paul said, “I’m good now.”The N.B.A. began the season in December in each team’s home market rather than in another restricted-access bubble environment like the one it engineered last summer in Florida to complete the 2019-20 season because of the pandemic. During the first half of the regular season, the league postponed 31 games because of coronavirus intrusions that left at least one team in each matchup without the minimum of eight players in uniform. But all 30 teams managed to complete their 72-game regular seasons in May, and Commissioner Adam Silver told Time magazine in April that more than 70 percent of the league’s players had received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine.The N.B.A. has issued weekly updates on the number of positive coronavirus tests leaguewide and, before Wednesday, had announced three successive weeks with zero positive tests since the playoffs began on May 22. More
The Bucks could not contain Kevin Durant on Tuesday.Elsa/Getty Images Kevin Durant’s performance on Tuesday night was a Pantheon Game, one that gets talked about for years to come and elevates a star player’s legacy. With Kyrie Irving out because of an ankle injury, and James Harden clearly hobbled, the Nets needed Durant to carry […] More
Bogdan Bogdanovic said he keeps improving, but he’s had these shooting skills. People are only noticing now, he said, because he’s winning.Imagine, for a second, how different the N.B.A.’s second-round Eastern Conference playoff series would be if, say, Giannis Antetokounmpo had Bogdan Bogdanovic spreading the court and opening space for him.Or where would the Atlanta Hawks be in their resurgence without the sharpshooting skills of Bogdanovic?The Milwaukee Bucks jumped a bit early during free agency in trying to secure Bogdanovic in a sign-and-trade-deal from the Sacramento Kings, after Bogdanovic was already frustrated over the Kings’ dismissal of their general manager, Vlade Divac.The rules-breaking act cost Milwaukee the deal for Bogdanovic, and a future second-round draft pick. Bogdanovic, a restricted free agent, ended up signing an offer sheet from Atlanta that Sacramento did not match. The turn of events became part of a significant overhaul that paid quick dividends for the Hawks.A bout with the coronavirus limited Bogdanovic before the season, and a knee injury forced him to miss 25 games. But his return coincided with the Hawks’ decision to elevate Nate McMillan to interim head coach from his assistant role and the team resuscitating its season by winning eight straight games. Bogdanovic has averaged 16.4 points per game in the Hawks’ playoff series against the Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers, matching his regular-season figure.Now, the fifth-seeded Hawks are improbably even at 2-2 with the 76ers, the No. 1 seed, in the best-of-seven East semifinals.Bogdanovic, 28, recently spoke to The New York Times about his exit from the Kings, his bond with his teammate Trae Young and how he became a fan of Kobe Bryant. His responses have been edited for length and clarity.Bogdanovic is averaging 16.4 points per game during the playoffs, consistent with his regular-season production.Brynn Anderson/Associated PressWhat was your perception of the Hawks before you signed your deal in Atlanta?Before everything started, before free agency, before everything, I had the conversation with the Kings and I wanted to stay, because I liked the culture and stuff and I was good with teammates. I feel like they liked to play with me. And I feel like we built something over there.But then, when they fired Vlade on my way back to Serbia, because there was an exit meeting and I’m talking with everyone, everything looks fine and I’m like, “I’m not even thinking about moving out.”So now, I’m not saying I’m there because of Vlade, but at the exit meeting, you hear something and then boom, no one says nothing and the changes are going.And I said already, “Something is going on.” But I got the call from the owner and he told me, “Hey, we still want to keep the team, but maybe we just need to change something, just so the players feel like a new staff, new beginning, blah, blah, blah.”But then, I got traded. I was in Serbia. I was working out. I didn’t talk with anyone during the summer and I talked only with my guys from the Kings and my teammates. And I didn’t know what’s going to happen and the Kings traded me overnight. And from that point, I decide, when they wanted to trade me I was like, “OK, they don’t want me there.” Like, “Why I’m even thinking about it?”So, I just wanted to leave and find the best situation for me and my family that I can go to the next level.And I said, “The Hawks were the perfect fit for me.”In the past, you’ve said that you were afraid of losing your competitiveness after losing a lot in Sacramento.Yes.Was that something that you did lose and then found this season again?No, I feel like I didn’t lose it, but I just didn’t have enough credit for it because I wasn’t winning. Because if you’re making the winning plays in a losing team and you’re still losing, that’s not a winning place. Even if I think like, “OK, that play, it doesn’t have to be a scoring play”— there is a lot of things on the court that you can influence the game to win the game.And I feel like that’s something that the regular people, they cannot see, the fans cannot see. But when you’re not winning, you’re losing the credit for it.One of the most difficult things to do in the N.B.A. is to develop a winning culture. How did the Hawks accomplish one midseason?When you’re losing, you see that very often in the league, everyone is become more selfish and they don’t care about others. And that’s what players do, trying to save their job.When you’re winning, everyone is willing to sacrifice.It seems like you and Trae Young developed a quick connection.I’m a competitor and he’s competitor, simple as that. He wants to win. He wants to work, first of all, and he knows in his life, everything he got wasn’t easy. He has to prove it every single time he has to do it. He has to work for it, and I feel the same way in my story. So, I feel like it’s easy to communicate with a guy like that.Bogdanovic silences the crowd in Philadelphia during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.Tim Nwachukwu/Getty ImagesWhat was going through your mind when you held up your finger to quiet the Philadelphia crowd during Game 1?I missed a couple of shots, they were louder and louder and I made that one. It just went out of me. It’s just momentum. It’s natural, and I feel like it’s fun as well.How do these playoff environments compare to those in Europe?I feel like the culture here is fans follow the players, the superstars and individuals. In Europe, because of the so many countries, so many different cultures, they’re more team-oriented and they’re more team-sensed.Growing up, why did you choose basketball above other sports?The 2002 World Cup, everyone was talking about it, kids in school. We were shooting 3s and repeating Peja Stojakovic or some big names of Serbian basketball.And hopefully, we have now kids that they can do the same thing with our last names. And it feels good to be in that position.Were you able to watch those Kings-Lakers series with Divac and Stojakovic back in the early 2000s when you were growing up?Yeah, that was huge. I remember Dallas was a tough match for Kings all the time in the playoffs and Lakers of course. I couldn’t catch the whole series because the TV rights and all that, but whenever the game was on the TV, we would watch. I think most of the games when the Kings had the home-court advantage, they had that broadcast in Serbia. I was so young. I was 10 years old, 9 years old.But aren’t you a Kobe Bryant fan? How did you reconcile rooting for the Kings when the Lakers had Bryant?I became Kobe fan when he dropped that 81 points. That was something crazy, something impossible.So, since then I started following that guy and I liked his passion. And then a couple of years later, he won a championship then he won it again. So I was like, “Damn, this guy’s really, really good.”What does it mean for Serbian basketball that Nikola Jokic won the Most Valuable Player Award?It will take a while for him to understand what he became this year. That M.V.P. award is something that I can compare with the gold medal that our Serbian team won with the national team back then when we had our idols like Peja Stojakovic, Vlade Divac, Sasha Djordjevic.So, I feel like he can be for sure, one of the kids’ idols there and he can be the next generation motivator for the kids in Serbia. It means a lot. He is the first ever and he still has a lot of game. More
