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      Celtics’ Jayson Tatum Overcomes Own Poor Play to Force Game 7

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      Tatum said after Game 6 that he is “one of the best basketball players in the world.” But for the first three quarters against the 76ers, he sure didn’t look like it.PHILADELPHIA — At the end of one of the stranger games of his career, Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics pounded the ball against the court as the final seconds elapsed. The sound of those hard dribbles — each a percussive thud — seemed to fill Wells Fargo Center as thousands of 76ers fans tried to make sense of what had just happened in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.How was any of it possible? How had the 76ers blown an opportunity to secure their first trip to the conference finals since 2001? How had the Celtics seized on such a simple change — sliding Robert Williams into their starting lineup — to boost their defense? And how had Tatum, after having spent most of his evening chucking up wayward jump shots, ultimately preserved his team’s season?“For 43 minutes, I had to hear them tell me how bad I was,” Tatum said of the fans. “So it kind of felt good to see everybody getting out of their seats, leaving early.”A strange series full of strange games will go the distance — because why not? — after the Celtics put the clamps on the 76ers in a 95-86 victory on Thursday, forcing a Game 7 on Sunday in Boston.Both teams are built to win now. These are not young, overachieving franchises. The 76ers are desperate to fulfill the long-awaited promise of their team-building blueprint known as the Process, with Joel Embiid, who recently collected his first N.B.A. Most Valuable Player Award, operating as their focal point. The Celtics, meanwhile, have been using the slogan “unfinished business,” a nod to how close they came to winning it all last season when they lost to the Golden State Warriors in the N.B.A. finals.An early exit for either the 76ers or the Celtics — and getting bounced from the playoffs in the conference semifinals would qualify — could lead to a summer of change. A win, though, would be seismic.“Honestly, I wouldn’t want to go to Game 7 in Boston with any other group,” 76ers Coach Doc Rivers said. “I know we’re going to rally. We’ve rallied all year long on the road.”On Thursday, Tatum rallied from his own struggles. He missed 13 of his first 14 field-goal attempts, a stretch of futility that extended into the fourth quarter. His teammates, he said, continued to feed him positive reinforcement. Keep rebounding. Keep defending. Keep passing. Keep shooting.Joe Mazzulla, the Celtics’ first-year coach, went one step further.“I love you,” Mazzulla recalled telling him. “That’s a pretty powerful statement.”Tatum came alive in the fourth quarter of Game 6, hitting four 3-pointers.Matt Slocum/Associated PressTatum’s first 3-pointer of the game gave the Celtics an 84-83 lead. He sank another one 39 seconds later. He made four 3-pointers in the game’s final 4:14, turning the arena into a mausoleum. He finished with 19 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists.“We rely on him,” the Celtics’ Malcolm Brogdon said. “He’s our guy. And he’s proven that he’s reliable in those moments. I don’t think there’s any doubt in anybody’s minds. It doesn’t matter how many shots he missed in the first three quarters. He’s going to finish the game for us.”Tatum, a first-team all-N.B.A. selection for the second straight season, has no shortage of confidence. In a walk-off interview with ESPN after Thursday’s game, he referred to himself as “humbly, one of the best basketball players in the world.” It was quite a statement after he shot 5 of 21 from the field.“I think that shows character that you call tell yourself that when you’ve only hit one shot,” he said later, “and things aren’t going your way, and you’ve got to be the same person with the same morals, the same character whether you’re up or down. And I kept telling myself that. I believe in myself.”Accordingly, Tatum gave Mazzulla a reprieve — for at least a couple of days. Mazzulla, who was an assistant under Ime Udoka last season, took over as the team’s interim coach a few days before the start of training camp when the Celtics suspended Udoka for unspecified “violations of team policies.” The Celtics removed Mazzulla’s interim tag in February and signed him to a contract extension.But the pressure on Mazzulla, 34, has only mounted in the playoffs — and during this series, in particular. There was Game 1, which the Celtics lost even though Embiid was sidelined with a sprained knee. There was Game 4, which the Celtics lost in overtime after they forced up a poor shot in the closing seconds. (Mazzulla later apologized to his players for neglecting to use one of his remaining timeouts.) And there was Game 5, which the Celtics lost thanks to a listless display of basketball that had their home fans booing them.Joe Mazzulla has struggled to make adjustments during the playoffs in his first year as head coach of the Celtics.Tim Nwachukwu/Getty ImagesBefore Game 6, Mazzulla made a long-overdue change by starting Williams, a defense-minded center, in place of Derrick White — a move that Marcus Smart, the team’s starting point guard, endorsed. In addition to blocking two shots and affecting countless others, Williams had 10 points and 9 rebounds.“Joe’s learning, just like all of us,” said Smart, who finished with 22 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists. “I know he’s been killed a lot, rightfully so. He needed to make some adjustments, and he did that, and that’s all you can ask for — for him to just continue to be the best that he can be.”Tatum described how he and Mazzulla had leaned on each other throughout the season.“I know there’s a lot of questions and doubts,” Tatum said, “and I’ve told him a lot of times: ‘I’ve got you, I’ve got your back. We’re in this together.’” More

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      Knicks Knocked Out of Playoffs in Game 6 Loss to Miami Heat

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      It was the first time the Knicks had been to the Eastern Conference semifinals in a decade.MIAMI — A Knicks season that began with mild expectations and turned into what some fans called the team’s most exciting run in more than 20 years ended Friday night with a 96-92 loss to the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.After the Heat beat the Milwaukee Bucks — the East’s No. 1 seed and the N.B.A. title favorites — in the first round, a path to the Eastern Conference finals for the Knicks seemed plausible. The fifth-seeded Knicks had just defeated the Cavaliers, the talented fourth seed led by guard Donovan Mitchell. In contrast, the Heat arrived in the second round without guard Tyler Herro, who averaged 20.1 points per game in the regular season but broke his hand against the Bucks.But as the Knicks’ series with Miami began, the difference between these two teams became clear: The Heat have a legitimate star player in Jimmy Butler, who can will his team to victories seemingly when he chooses. The Knicks do not.Most N.B.A. fans have likely gotten used to Butler elevating his game in the playoffs, and this postseason he has followed suit. He gashed the Knicks with high-scoring games and stellar defensive efforts. He was averaging 24.8 points, 6.5 assists, and 7.0 rebounds per game against the Knicks going into Game 6.A six-time All-Star, Butler often plays to that level during the regular season but has been arguably the best player in these playoffs, leading a group that features undrafted starters who many casual N.B.A. fans might have to Google search to know.On the other hand, the Knicks’ best players, Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle, have fluctuated between looking formidable enough to lead this team to the Eastern Conference finals and looking unequipped for this stage. Brunson acknowledged his struggles in this series’ Game 1 loss, when he shot 0 for 7 on 3-pointers and said he was “horrific.”Randle, who was the Knicks’ lone All-Star selection this season and made an all-N.B.A. team, did not look like that player in these playoffs. In the regular season, he averaged a double-double of 25.1 points and 10.0 rebounds per game but was averaging just 16.8 points and 8 rebounds in the playoffs heading into Game 6. Randle is nursing an ankle injury that caused him to miss Game 1 against the Heat, but he has had concerning playoff struggles before.The Knicks’ last appearance in the playoffs came two seasons ago, when Randle again looked great in the regular season, making his first All-Star team and averaging a double-double with 24.1 points and 10.2 rebounds per game in the regular season. But in the first round of the playoffs against the Atlanta Hawks, he faltered, averaging 18.0 points and 11.6 rebounds, despite averaging 37.3 points in the teams’ three regular-season matchups — his most against any opponent. The Hawks eliminated the Knicks in a swift five games.After the Knicks went down 3-1 in this Heat series, Randle questioned the team’s desire.“Maybe they want it more,” Randle said in response to a question about the Knicks’ poor offensive rebounding and little aggression for loose balls. “I don’t know. That’s who we’ve been all year, and we’ve got to find a way to step up and make those plays if we want to keep this season alive.”The Knicks responded in Game 5, holding off a late comeback attempt from the Heat in a game when Brunson looked like the best player on either team.While the loss on Friday was particularly disappointing since it seemed the Knicks could have made a deeper run, they still overachieved this season, and performances like Brunson’s in Game 5 are a sign that this team has some of the right pieces moving forward.Last season, the Knicks finished 11th in the East, with questions about the futures of Coach Tom Thibodeau and Randle. In the off-season, the Knicks, as usual, missed out on the top free agents and didn’t trade for Mitchell, who has said he thought the Jazz would deal him to the Knicks, not the Cavaliers. Instead, the Knicks signed Brunson, a former Dallas guard, in a move that cost them a 2025 second-round pick for tampering.With Brunson, the Knicks became one of the more surprising teams in the N.B.A. this season, as Brunson and Randle formed an exciting one-two punch. Beating Mitchell’s team in the first round was something of a statement to those who have questioned the Knicks’ decision not to trade for him.“Being here, we’re playing with house money,” Teddy Foran, 24, who grew up in Stamford, Conn., said after Game 1 against the Heat. He became a Knicks fan while watching games with his father growing up.He added: “What we did in the off-season with keeping the young core was great. Not selling out for Donovan, as you see, if you sell out for Donovan, you’ll lose in five in the first round. So you know if we lose the second round, it’s all right.”Many fans had gathered and partied on Seventh Avenue after wins as Brunson and Randle guided the Knicks on their deepest playoff run since 2013, when they also lost in the second round. The team last made it to the N.B.A. finals in 1999 and the conference finals in 2000. But maybe these Knicks have finally done enough to make this team attractive to the marquee star players they have desperately been chasing and missing out on each off-season. More

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      Golden State on the Brink Against the Lakers

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      Golden State’s stars made several uncharacteristic errors down the stretch against the Lakers in Game 4. The role players haven’t helped much either.LOS ANGELES — With 37 seconds left in the fourth quarter Monday night, Stephen Curry was isolated with Lakers center Anthony Davis guarding him one on one.The Lakers were up by 1 point in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal series, and the Golden State Warriors needed a basket to keep from being pushed to the brink of elimination. It should have been a mismatch: one of the greatest scoring guards in N.B.A. history matched up against a slower center. But Curry was stymied twice on the same possession. First, Davis, a top defensive player, poked the ball away. Then Curry missed a fadeaway. After an offensive rebound, Curry missed a 3-pointer over Davis again.Those were two of several fumbles by Golden State in the closing moments of an ugly affair in which the team did not show the championship mettle that led to four N.B.A. titles since 2015.With nine seconds left, forward Draymond Green threw the ball away with Golden State down 3. On an ensuing jump ball, Curry came down with possession, and instead of calling a timeout, he threw the ball away.“I actually felt like somebody was behind me,” Curry said after the game. “I kind of just let it go. But bang-bang play. I wish I had a little bit more awareness to maybe call a timeout knowing we’ve got enough time, but, you know, it just didn’t go our way.”Golden State let an opportunity slip through its fingers, having led by as many as 12 in the third quarter. Instead, the Lakers won, 104-101.Curry finished the game shooting 12 for 30. Klay Thompson, Curry’s teammate, was 3 for 11. That, combined with not getting playmaking from Golden State’s role players, has placed the team in dire straits, down, three games to one, against a rejuvenated Lakers team. The late possessions were emblematic of a season-long deficiency that has plagued Golden State, particularly on the road: an inability to sustain effort through long stretches.Perhaps this is the reality of having a core anchored by Curry, 35; Thompson, 33; and Green, 33: It’s easier to get tired and make mental mistakes. But if Golden State doesn’t dig deep to resurface the magic of the last decade, its dynasty will be extinguished on Wednesday in San Francisco.This isn’t the first time Golden State has been down 3-1 in a playoff series. In 2016, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook’s Oklahoma City Thunder went up, 3-1, in the Western Conference finals before Golden State came roaring back and won the series. Three years later, Golden State found itself down, 3-1, against the Toronto Raptors in the finals. But with injuries to Durant, who was then a teammate, and Thompson, the team lost in six games.“It feels like what it is: three to one,” Coach Steve Kerr told reporters after Game 4. “You go home and you take care of business and you get a win and the momentum is right back in your favor. So that’s all it is. Somebody has to win four times, and that’s why you play it out.”It hasn’t helped that Golden State’s younger players have not been able to fill the void left by an off night by Curry. For the Lakers, Lonnie Walker IV, 24, a guard in his fifth year, scored 15 points, including crucial baskets in the fourth, to keep Golden State at bay. The second-year guard Austin Reaves, also 24, chipped in 21 points.Those kinds of contributions have eluded Golden State this postseason. Instead, Golden State has had to rely as much on Curry at age 35 as it did when he was 25, a recipe for trouble this late in the season.For years, the Golden State front office has been selling a two-timeline plan of development. It would try to chase championships in the present on the backs of Curry, Thompson and Green, while also developing young talent like Jonathan Kuminga, 20 (drafted seventh in 2021); Moses Moody, 20 (14th pick in that same draft); James Wiseman, 22 (second pick in 2020); and Jordan Poole, 23 (28th pick in 2019).It was a risky maneuver with mixed results. It has meant not trading young, developing talent for veterans who could help the team now, and placing more of the load on Curry in the back half of his career. Golden State traded Wiseman this season as injuries and inconsistency left him without a firm role in the rotation. Moody and Kuminga, each in his second year, have been yanked in and out of the lineup this season, though Moody has had playing time in this series. He scored 7 points in 19 minutes Monday night.That’s not abnormal for players barely out of their teenage years. But Golden State has one of the best players in the history of the N.B.A. playing at a high level right now. It needs Moody and Kuminga to be better immediately to take advantage of Curry’s window.Poole has been flummoxing. At times in his four-year career, he has been Golden State’s best player. When the team’s top stars have faced injuries, he has been counted on to fill their absences as a reliable scorer. Last year, he was a core part of a Golden State team that won a championship, and he started a majority of games during the regular season. Poole was a concrete example of investment in a young player that worked for Golden State.In October, Golden State invested in Poole further, rewarding him with an extension reported to be worth nearly $140 million. He was slated to be the bridge to the future — a potential All-Star replacement for a franchise looking forward to a life after Curry, Green and Thompson.But Poole’s production has become as unpredictable as his decision-making on the floor. While he averaged a career-high 20.4 points a game during the regular season, his shooting percentages dipped and his turnovers increased. His shot selection has drawn immense criticism.In the playoffs, Poole’s play has cratered. Against the Sacramento Kings in the first round, he shot a dismal 33.8 percent from the field. On Monday night, he missed all four of his shots and played only 10 minutes. One shot was an air ball near the basket.Andrew Wiggins of the Warriors guarded by Lonnie Walker IV of the Lakers.Etienne Laurent/EPA, via ShutterstockPoole’s play was clearly a sore spot for him after the game on Monday. When approached by a reporter in the locker room, a frustrated Poole tersely said, “I’ve got nothing for you, big man.”After being cajoled by a Golden State press representative, Poole took questions, though he would not physically face reporters, creating an odd spectacle of reporters aiming recorders at the back and side of his head.“Work ethic doesn’t change,” Poole said. “Routine doesn’t change. Maybe opportunity changes. But you can only control what you can control. We’ve got another game in a couple days at home.”Curry, asked about Poole, said it wasn’t about any one player.“We get questions about him a lot and it’s our whole team,” Curry said. “We’re all together in the sense of trying to figure out how to win playoff games. And we all have to make adjustments. We all have to play better, considering we’re in a 3-1 hole. So there’s no sense of isolating him in this situation.”Golden State has already overcome one playoff deficit this postseason. After being down, 2-0, in a first-round series against the Kings, Golden State found its footing. But it took Curry scoring 50 points in Game 7 for his team to win the series, the most he had ever scored in a playoff game.If Poole or the rest of Curry’s teammates don’t offer more support, Curry may need to reach into reserves that most 35-year-olds don’t have. And that means the Golden State dynasty may go out with a whimper rather than a bang. When Curry was asked after the game whether he let himself think about the larger implications of a series loss, he didn’t let the reporter finish the question.“No,” Curry said.“Just a 3-1 series deficit?” the reporter asked.“Yes. Thank you.” More

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      He Saw ‘Greatness’ in the Lakers When They Were at Their Worst

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      You’d have to look closely or you’d miss the homemade sign nailed to a telephone pole outside the Lakers’ practice facility in El Segundo, Calif.It’s right outside the entrance to the players’ parking lot, but many of them miss its blue-and-yellow words as they drive in.“I SEE GREATNESS IN YOU,” it says.The sign gives no indication of who “I” might be, who “you” are or what kind of greatness you possess. But in a small yet meaningful way, the message has inspired Lakers Coach Darvin Ham as he leads the team in their Western Conference semifinal series against the Golden State Warriors.Ham has even forged an unlikely friendship with the man who posted the sign: Terrance Burney, a basketball-loving airline employee whose home is filled with inspirational signs. Burney’s unceasing positivity has charmed prominent athletes and entertainers.“It’s not just a slogan he’s trying to get picked up by some corporate sponsor or something,” Ham said. “It’s something he actually believes in. I love it.”Burney lives in Los Angeles with his girlfriend, Crystal Lewis.Allison Zaucha for The New York TimesNeither rich nor widely known, Burney, 40, works for Delta Air Lines and lives in Los Angeles with his German shepherd, Ziva, and his girlfriend, Crystal Lewis.He stands outside of Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles after most Lakers home games holding a handmade sign bearing his message, hoping that whoever sees it feels happier, lighter or maybe even newly confident.“When I tell people, ‘I see greatness in you,’ it means, ‘I see God in you,’” Burney said. “So this is something that God told me to do, you know?”Burney first held up a similar sign 15 years ago on a street corner in Highland Park, Mich., a small city surrounded by his hometown, Detroit. He said prayer led him to do it.In the years since, he has taken his sign all over the world, flying for free as an airline employee. He has shared his message on street corners and during protest marches, in small gyms and outside professional arenas. He has shouted it as a contestant on “The Price Is Right.”“He’s like the Forrest Gump 2.0,” said Morris Peterson, a former N.B.A. player who grew close with Burney after a charity event Peterson hosted with the rapper Snoop Dogg to support people affected by the water crisis in Flint, Mich. “He’s just everywhere. He’s everywhere. You might see him in Paris with the sign.”Burney played basketball for one year at Prairie View A&M University, and in the years after he’d often get asked to participate in pickup games and workouts. In 2007, he was preparing for a workout with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, then the G League affiliate of the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons, when he spotted Rasheed Wallace, then playing for the Pistons, sitting at the bar of a T.G.I. Friday’s.Burney said he hoped his signs gave people confidence.Allison Zaucha for The New York Times“Excuse me, sir, your turnaround jump shot is the best in the history of a turnaround jump shot,” Burney recalled telling Wallace. “How do you get it over people who are taller than you?”Wallace got up from his seat and demonstrated his method. The two of them drank a few beers together and a friendship began.Wallace and Ham, the Lakers’ coach, had become close over the years through N.B.A. circles. Early this season, Wallace planned to visit Ham’s home. He asked if Burney could join.The Lakers had started the season 2-10. Ham was struggling to make the most of the team’s two best players, LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Not many people would have used “greatness” to describe anything happening with the Lakers. But Burney did.“He said: ‘Don’t worry, coach. You’re going to be great. We’re going to be great. I see greatness in you,’” Ham said.Ham trusted his read on Burney, so they stayed in touch. Burney sent text messages to Ham to inspire him. The Lakers’ fortunes began to change, which likely had more to do with their dramatic makeover at the trade deadline than with Burney’s sign. But he believes something larger was happening.Before Game 4 of the Lakers’ first-round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies, Burney sent a text to Ham that read: “Your PEACE gives PEACE to others!! I SEE GREATNESS IN YOU!!”Burney outside the Lakers’ practice facility in El Segundo, Calif.Allison Zaucha for The New York TimesThe Lakers were 6 points greater than the Grizzlies that day.“Everyone wants to be thought of in a positive light and have — not just in basketball, N.B.A. basketball, in life in general — you need good vibes, good energy, people that believe in you,” Ham said. “And he represents that.”The sign outside the Lakers’ practice facility has been there for weeks. Davis saw it for the first time on May 1, just before the Lakers left Los Angeles for their series against Golden State in San Francisco.He assumed a fan had left it there and gave it little thought.The next day, Davis scored 30 points with 23 rebounds, joining only four other big men in Lakers history with at least 30 points and 20 rebounds in a playoff game. His performance helped the Lakers beat the Warriors in Game 1 of their series.“Sooooo he saw the Sign before he had a RECORD setting win??” Burney said in a text message.He could not be convinced that it was a coincidence.Allison Zaucha for The New York Times More

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      James Harden Finds His Old Groove and Gets the Sixers Back on Track

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      Harden, the Sixers guard, summoned the scoring machine he had been for previous teams but had not been in Games 2 and 3, and Philadelphia tied its second-round series with Boston, 2-2.PHILADELPHIA — James Harden of the 76ers was on his way to Wells Fargo Center on Sunday morning when he received a text message from his coach, Doc Rivers, that included a link to a gospel song, “You Know My Name” by Tasha Cobbs Leonard. It was the first time Rivers had sent Harden a song. His curiosity was piqued.“I tell my homies, ‘Let’s play the song,’” Harden recalled, adding, “I let the whole song play, and I’m like, ‘All right, it’s got to be some kind of good juju in this song.’”It was not some random text, of course. The basketball-watching universe had spent about 36 hours dissecting Harden’s poor play in the past two games of the 76ers’ Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Boston Celtics. The point of sending the song, Rivers said, was to remind Harden of his identity.“James had to get himself back,” Rivers said.Sure enough, with 19 seconds left in overtime Sunday afternoon, Harden sank a baseline 3-pointer that lifted the 76ers to a 116-115 victory and evened the best-of-seven series at 2-2. Harden was brilliant in Game 4, finishing with 42 points, 9 assists, 8 rebounds and 4 steals.“Quite frankly,” Harden said, “today was do or die.”The 76ers have been a staple of the N.B.A. playoffs over the past six seasons, making five appearances in the conference semifinals. But those second-round series are where the road has tended to end for them. The last time they made the conference finals was in 2001, when Allen Iverson led them past the Milwaukee Bucks and into the N.B.A. finals. (The 76ers wound up losing in five games to the Los Angeles Lakers.)The collective patience of Philadelphians seems to be wearing thin. Before Game 3, when N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver presented 76ers center Joel Embiid with his first Most Valuable Player Award, it was the fulfillment — on at least one level — of the franchise’s dust-covered, team-building blueprint known as the Process. Without getting into too many of the messy specifics, it involved the team playing abysmal basketball for several seasons while collecting a slew of top draft picks, one of which they used to select Embiid from the University of Kansas.The challenge for the 76ers, of course, is that the Process was never about winning individual honors, though those are nice. The mandate now, on players like Embiid and Harden, but also on Rivers and Daryl Morey, the team’s president of basketball operations, is to vie for a championship. Embiid is 29. The 76ers traded for Harden last season. Before Game 4, Rivers was asked about his team’s level of urgency.“Do I really need to answer that question?” he said, laughing. “You worked on that question for 48 hours, and that’s what you came up with? Whatever high is, I’m going to assume it’s high.”Harden delivered. Early in the first quarter, he made a beeline to the basket and scored on a runner, playfully bopping the ball off his head after it fell through the hoop. It was a sign of more pyrotechnics to come.None of it was easy. The 76ers gave up a 16-point third-quarter lead. Embiid finished with 34 points and 13 rebounds, but struggled from the field, shooting 11 of 26. And Jayson Tatum scored 22 of his 24 points after halftime, nearly leading the Celtics to a crushing comeback victory. Instead, Harden shouldered the load for the 76ers.“I’m always a competitor,” he said. “I always want to win.”During the regular season, Harden operated as a facilitator, averaging a league-best 10.7 assists per game. He was neither the scoring nor the 3-point-shooting machine that he was in a former basketball life with the Houston Rockets. Instead, he formed a potent partnership with Embiid, the team’s centripetal force. Everything and everyone revolved around Embiid, for good reason, including Harden.Game 1 of the 76ers’ series with the Celtics upset that balance in an odd and unexpected way. Embiid had sprained his right knee late in the first round and was sidelined, which meant that Harden apparently felt obliged to board his personal time machine and travel back to his gluttonous, ball-dominant days with the Rockets. He torched the Celtics, scoring 45 points while shooting 7 of 14 from 3-point range to lead the 76ers to a narrow win.Embiid was back in the lineup for Games 2 and 3, and suddenly Harden seemed almost too conscious of his teammate’s presence, too passive and deferential. It hardly helped that Jaylen Brown affixed himself to Harden for long stretches. In those two losses, Harden shot a combined 5 of 28 from the field and 2 of 13 from 3-point range. Game 3 on Friday was particularly gruesome. Harden routinely passed up open shots. When he did launch a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter, he barely grazed the front of the rim. More than a few fans expressed their displeasure.“I think with anyone, if you’re not making shots, you hesitate at times,” Rivers said.For his part, Harden defended his shot selection, telling reporters: “I’m pretty good on basketball instincts. I know when to score. I know when to pass, so I’m pretty sure a lot of it was the right play.”Center Joel Embiid, left, going up for a shot against Al Horford of the Celtics, scored 34 points on Sunday.Matt Slocum/Associated PressOn Saturday, the 76ers had a lengthy film session at their practice facility. Rivers identified clips from Game 3 where he felt the 76ers needed to play with more pace, where the Celtics outhustled them for rebounds and loose balls, and where his players exhibited poor body language. The Celtics, who advanced to the N.B.A. finals last season and have renewed title aspirations of their own, carried themselves differently.“I think the film yesterday said what we had to be,” Rivers said, “that they’re going to make a run, that we’re going to make a mistake. Things are not going to go well, and just keep playing.”On Sunday, the 76ers made plenty of mistakes. Their offense stalled in the fourth quarter. They stopped moving and settled for tough shots. Harden, though, has playoff experience, and he said he was also inspired by the presence of John Hao, a student who survived the deadly shooting at Michigan State University in February. Harden and Hao connected over FaceTime.Late in regulation, Harden’s runner over the Celtics’ Al Horford tied the game, 107-107. And in overtime, Harden came up with a key steal while defending Marcus Smart. He appeared to have a calming influence on his teammates.He also found himself with the ball in his hands when it mattered most. He knew who he was. More

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      Stephen Curry and LeBron James Meet in the Playoffs, Maybe for the Last Time

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      Tim Hardaway knows stars when he sees them. Hardaway, a Hall of Fame point guard, battled against his share of them, including Michael Jordan, during a 14-year N.B.A. career.So when he sees Stephen Curry and LeBron James encountering each other yet again in the N.B.A. playoffs, only one comparison comes to mind.“Michael Jackson and Prince,” Hardaway said. “You must see that. That’s how big of a star they are. They command the crowd.”James, with the Los Angeles Lakers, and Curry, with the Golden State Warriors, have the attention of the basketball world in the Western Conference semifinals. It’s not the biggest stage, like when they faced off in four straight N.B.A. finals from 2015 to 2018, as James played for Cleveland. But in the N.B.A., any stage they are on is the biggest one. Together and apart, they have for a generation defined a league whose individual stars can determine a team’s fate and shift the broader culture more than stars in other team sports can.The Cleveland Cavaliers drafted James No. 1 overall in 2003. He’s been a headline star ever since, winning championships in Cleveland, Miami and Los Angeles. Clara Mokri for The New York TimesA playoff series headlined by Curry and James is the basketball equivalent of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles touring together. Or Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier, except with a touch more gray and way more mutual respect. Or, in basketball terms, this is Magic Johnson vs. Larry Bird in the 1980s.But this year’s matchup is especially significant. James, at 38, and Curry, at 35, are nearing the end of careers that have revolutionized basketball, with no clear heirs to continue the progression. Curry’s mastery of the 3-pointer ushered in a new era of long-distance shooting as a primary offensive attack, at all basketball levels. James, a powerful 6-foot-9 and 250 pounds, has been nearly impossible to duplicate physically, but he changed the way basketball stars viewed their own ability to bend teams to their will and create political and social capital for themselves off the floor.Their playoff matchup this year may be the last time fans see two basketball players of this level of influence competing against each other in the postseason, which may be why ticket prices are breaking records for a non-championship series.“What is it going to be like when those two guys — obviously two of the biggest names in the league, if not the biggest — are gone?” said Dell Curry, Stephen Curry’s father and a former N.B.A. player. “I think the league is very healthy as far as star power, but who takes the lead in that role?”Clara Mokri for The New York TimesFor much of the past two decades, James and Curry have been the N.B.A.’s largest draws, generating revenue through television ratings, sponsorships, and jersey and ticket sales. In 2009, when Golden State drafted Curry, Forbes estimated that the team was worth $315 million — the 18th most valuable N.B.A. franchise. Last year, after Curry led the team to its fourth championship in eight years, Golden State was ranked No. 1 with an eye-popping $7 billion valuation.Tamika Tremaglio, the executive director of the N.B.A. players’ union, said in an email that Curry and James “have fueled economic prosperity in the cities they play in.”“From an equity standpoint, our players are powerful, and Steph Curry and LeBron James are living proof of that truth,” Tremaglio said.New Orleans Pelicans guard CJ McCollum, the president of the players’ union, said, “What they’ve done is astronomical to our game in terms of viewership, in terms of globalizing the game.” He added, “Our league is in a better place because of it.”Curry and James faced off in the N.B.A. finals for four straight years, from 2015 to 2018. Curry’s Golden State teams won three times.Photo by Bob Donnan/Pool/Getty ImagesJames’s presence has been a boon at each stop in his career, from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Miami Heat and now to Los Angeles. He has become a symbol of modern fandom, in which many fans follow players and not teams. And Curry, whose pregame shooting routines draw even opposing teams’ fans, has shown how transcendent talent can test even the staunchest loyalties.“The basketball impact is like every kid especially that is coming into the league now, those are the two guys you want to be like,” said guard Isaiah Thomas, who has played with James and had to defend Curry. “I’ve seen younger guys come in the league and be in awe of these guys and they’re competing against them.”Jamal Crawford, who recently retired after two decades in the N.B.A., said Curry’s physique — 6-foot-2 and 185 pounds — made him seem like he was like “the boy next door” compared to bigger athletes.“He’s the guy — the kid — that every kid can look up to and say: ‘You know what? If I work hard on my game, if I work on my skills, if I believe in myself, I can accomplish unbelievable things,’” said Crawford, now a TNT analyst. “If you look at LeBron, you say, ‘Wow, he is a force of nature, something we’ve never seen before.’”Curry broke Ray Allen’s career 3-pointers record last season. He is widely considered the greatest shooter ever.Clara Mokri for The New York TimesSince they last met in the N.B.A. finals in 2018, Curry and James have expanded their influence on the culture. Curry spoke at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, and James endorsed Joe Biden for president that year and launched a voting rights group. They have been outspoken against gun violence, and Curry has helped with public health outreach during the coronavirus pandemic. James is the first active N.B.A. player to become a billionaire. And through production companies — James’s SpringHill Company and Curry’s Unanimous Media — both players have found opportunities to bolster their legacies, perhaps veering into hagiography.The documentary “Stephen Curry: Underrated,” directed by Peter Nicks and co-produced by Unanimous Media, debuted at the San Francisco International Film Festival last month and will stream on Apple TV in July. Curry, a top-10 draft pick out of Davidson, has won two Most Valuable Player Awards — one by unanimous vote, for the only time in N.BA. history. To get there he struggled through ankle injuries early in his career, but he is now widely considered the best shooter ever.In June, SpringHill, James’s company, is releasing the feature film “Shooting Stars” on Peacock, based on his high school team, St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio. It is an adaptation of a 2009 book by James and Buzz Bissinger.James has played for the Lakers since the 2018-19 season. He led the Lakers to the franchise’s 17th championship in 2020.Clara Mokri for The New York TimesThe projects underscore the two players’ vastly different paths to stardom. James was already a sought-after star as a teenager. Sonny Vaccaro, the former shoe-marketing executive, once flew James out to a Lakers playoff game in a private plane from Adidas while he was in high school. James was enthralled, recounted Jeff Benedict, who recently released an independent biography of James titled “LeBron.” He said James had long understood that “basketball isn’t just a sport.”“It’s like show business,” Benedict said. “It’s a very high form of public entertainment in the United States.”The cultural impact of Curry and James has also rippled out to the theater in independent plays unaffiliated with the stars. This summer, Inua Ellams, a playwright based in Britain, will debut a play called “The Half-God of Rainfall” at the New York Theater Workshop. The plot combines mythology and basketball: A half-god comes to Earth and becomes the biggest star in the N.B.A. Ellams, a longtime N.B.A. fan, said the character is loosely based on Curry and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.In another play, Rajiv Joseph’s “King James,” which makes its Off Broadway premiere this month at the Manhattan Theater Club in New York, James looms but doesn’t appear, an indication of his influence. The piece chronicles the friendship of two Cleveland-based men who idolize James.Joseph, a Cleveland native and lifelong sports fan, said the idea for the play came to him after James won a championship with the Cavaliers in 2016.James and Curry last met in the playoffs in 2018, in the N.B.A. finals.Gregory Shamus/Getty Images“It always felt to me, as I came to think about it, is he was almost like this deity who, when he smiled upon our fair little land in Cleveland, crops thrived and rivers ran clear,” Joseph said. “And then when he left, everything kind of dried up. Now, that is an exaggeration, but from a sports perspective, it certainly felt that way.”Ellams said the N.B.A. will feel a “cavernous” loss when Curry and James are gone. In February, James broke the league’s career scoring record, which had been held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar since 1984. Last season, Curry broke Ray Allen’s career 3-pointer record in 511 fewer games.“It’s going to be half a century before anyone comes close to what they have done — what they are actively doing,” Ellams said. “This isn’t history in the making. This is punching holes out of mountains.”James is in his 20th season, far past the time when most players’ careers are over. He and Curry, in his 14th season, have staved off the need for the N.B.A. to fully transition into a new era of stardom. But those in and around the league are bullish about its future.Led by Curry and his teammates Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, Golden State won four championships in eight years. The last was in 2022, against the Boston Celtics.Clara Mokri for The New York Times“There’s always a next, even though we can’t see it,” said Candace Parker, one of the most accomplished players in W.N.B.A. history.She added: “That’s what we asked ourselves after Michael Jordan retired. After Magic and Bird retired. It just seems like there’s always that next coming.”Parker, who plays for the Las Vegas Aces and is an N.B.A. analyst on TNT, cited players like Antetokounmpo, Dallas’s Luka Doncic, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid and Victor Wembanyama, the French prodigy expected to go first in this year’s N.B.A. draft, as possible torch carriers.Oscar Robertson, one of the best guards ever to play in the N.B.A., said part of the reason Curry and James were able to maintain their influence was because of how well they were still playing at their ages.“Some players when they are 29, they’re even too old. Some players when they are 34, they’re too old,” Robertson, 84, said. He added: “Guys try to rise to the occasion to play against these two athletes. And I’m so glad that these two athletes are meeting that challenge every time they go on the court.”But so far, no other current player in the N.B.A. — or likely anyone else in American team sports — is in the same orbit of stardom and influence as James and Curry.“We just have to enjoy these guys in the present because who knows how much longer they’ll play?” Crawford said. “But what we do know is we won’t see two like this ever again. So we should savor every moment.”Clara Mokri for The New York Times More

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      Pat Riley, Once Front and Center, Reigns in the Background

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      Riley’s decades in the N.B.A. have given him plenty of stories to tell. But the formerly flashy coach of the Knicks, Heat and Lakers is keeping a low profile — “the boss he thinks you should be.”The network camera was drawn to Pat Riley after Jimmy Butler’s 22-foot jumper landed like a kick to the collective groin of the Milwaukee Bucks late in Game 4 of Miami’s first-round playoff series upset. While Butler, soon to complete a 56-point masterpiece, pranced in full-throated fashion, there sat Riley, a gray-haired Buddha, arms folded across his suit jacket and tie, smiling without celebrating, blinking but not moving.No surprise, really. By this point in a long basketball life, what has Riley not already seen that would make him compromise on his veneer of calculated, unflappable control?Circulating online, the clip was another striking visual to add to the Riley collection. From the 1966 national championship game in which a Texas Western squad dominated by Black players defeated his all-white Kentucky team to his tenured role as the Heat’s president, Riley has been tethered to basketball history of tectonic magnitude.True, the 1970s version of Riley is most memorably recalled as a role player practically riding piggyback on the great Jerry West while leaving the court upon the Los Angeles Lakers’ clinching of the only title West ever won as a player. From the 1980s on, Riley moved front and center, stylishly coifed.Riley coached the Heat to a championship in the 2005-6 season, with Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal leading the team on the court. Miami beat the Dallas Mavericks in six games.Rhona Wise/European Pressphoto AgencyHe has played, coached or been chief executive for a team in a championship game or series for an extraordinary seven consecutive decades — the most recent being the Heat’s 2020 N.B.A. finals loss to the Lakers. Had there been an award for most venerable personality, the man who inspired Michael Douglas’s Gordon Gekko look for the 1987 film “Wall Street” would have to be its inaugural designee.Riley’s run as a coach and executive is arguably the most remarkable of all, given the generational shifts he has withstood. West is a front-office Lakers legend but was a reluctant three-season coach. Phil Jackson has more than double the head coaching titles (11-5), but he took on only star-laden rosters and was a bust as Knicks president. Red Auerbach deserves credit for coaching or assembling 16 of the Celtics’ 17 title teams, but most were achieved in a nascent league in which players had no freedom of movement.Riley coached the Lakers from 1981 to 1990, winning four championships with the future Hall of Famers Magic Johnson, right, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, left.Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE, via Getty ImagesRiley didn’t win a championship during his four seasons with the Knicks in the early 1990s, but they made it to the N.B.A. finals in 1994, when they lost to Houston in seven games.Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE, via Getty ImagesRiley did inherit a championship cast in Los Angeles, but he steered it to dynastic prominence and four titles. He made the Knicks matter again in the 1990s, however tortured — his word — he remains from not getting them across the finish line in the 1994 finals. He turned Miami’s nowhere expansion franchise into a contender and three-time champion.But we likely won’t hear much, if anything at all, from Riley on himself, the injury-plagued Heat or the Knicks during their Eastern Conference semifinal series. It’s not breaking news that he has ceded the organizational microphone to Erik Spoelstra, the coach he handpicked to succeed him in 2008 and who has remained in place well beyond the four-year Miami residency of LeBron James and the franchise’s last title in 2013.As far back as 2012, I sampled the Heat locker room for a column on how Riley had stepped away from the spotlight that once couldn’t resist him. Dwyane Wade, who joined the Heat in 2003, said, “For the most part, he stays back, stays out of the way when it comes to the players, and he’s been doing that for a couple of years.”Riley rarely speaks publicly anymore, but he has come out to support Wade, right, who spent more than a decade with the Heat.Michael Reaves/Getty ImagesRiley declined a request to talk about why his once-commanding voice is now seldom heard with rare exceptions — typically to acknowledge revered service, as in the recent cases of Wade’s election to the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Heat veteran Udonis Haslem’s upcoming retirement. Feelers to others affiliated with the Heat were met with a familiar refrain: Riley does not want anyone but Spoelstra and his players speaking publicly during the playoffs.Better then to consult someone whose employment doesn’t depend on him. Jeff Van Gundy, a Riley protégé who became his coaching antagonist after Riley’s stormy departure from New York in 1995, said: “He morphed into the boss that he always wanted, the boss he thinks you should be. Stay behind the scenes. Do your job.”Dave Checketts, who in 1991 hired Riley to coach the Knicks, recalled a phone conversation in which West, with whom Riley occasionally clashed during the Lakers’ Showtime era, warned him, “You’re going to have to figure out how to handle the press because Pat will lose his mind when someone says something he doesn’t want out there.”Said Checketts: “And Pat did say when he came, during hours and hours of conversation, that we needed to speak in one voice. That’s why I give him tremendous credit for what he’s done in Miami — he’s lived by what he’s espoused. And Spoelstra has been a great spokesman, too.”Six years ago, during my last extended conversation with Riley, he did veer off the agreed-upon interview topic — Magic Johnson’s brief ascension to the Lakers’ presidency. When I complimented him for refusing to tank, for remaining competitive despite losing James to Cleveland and Chris Bosh to a medical issue, Riley said:LeBron James, Wade and Chris Bosh spent four seasons together on the Heat, winning two championships. Riley was team president, after handing the coaching reins to Erik Spoelstra in 2008.Hans Deryk/Reuters“Players come and go, great players. When LeBron left, that was the most shocking thing to me — not to say he was right or wrong — and the most shocking thing to the franchise. But our culture is the same. You have your up years and your down years, but what can’t change is the way you do things.”That wasn’t necessarily the whole truth. After the Heat lost to San Antonio in the 2014 N.B.A. finals, Riley, undoubtedly referring to James’s looming free agency, told reporters: “You’ve got to stay together if you’ve got the guts. And you don’t find the first door to run out of.”James still exited, stage left. An old Riley tactic — challenging players’ manhood — fell on deaf, new-age ears. Most spiels grow old. And Riley, 69 at the time, is now a more muted 78, a stealth operator, Godfather Riley more than Gordon Gekko Riley. Yet he remains indisputably relevant, still resplendent, while watching and waiting for the auspicious occasion that will merit his last hurrah. More

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      James Harden Scores 45 to Beat the Celtics

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      Asked to shoulder the load, Harden scored 45 points in a playoff game for the first time in eight years.The last time James Harden scored 45 points in a playoff game, it was 2015. His Houston Rockets, down three games to none in the Western Conference finals, were winning a home game for pride against the soon to be champion Golden State Warriors.On Monday night, Harden matched that career playoff high in a much more significant game.With the Philadelphia 76ers’ star and N.B.A. scoring champion, Joel Embiid, out with a knee sprain, Harden scored 45 again, and gave the Sixers an unexpected one-game-to-none lead over the top-seeded Celtics, 119-115, at TD Garden in Boston.Points 43, 44 and 45 were the biggest, coming on a bloodless 3-pointer while closely guarded by Al Horford to give the 76ers a 117-115 lead with just over eight seconds left. On the next play, Marcus Smart of the Celtics threw the ball away in traffic under the basket, and two free throws wrapped it up for Philadelphia.“I was wondering if they were going to put two on the ball,” Harden said of the possibility of a double-team on the go-ahead shot. “It was a one on one. So then I’m looking up, I’m just, all right, this is what I work on every day. Get the best available shot no matter what it is. Raise up and shoot it.”Harden made 17 baskets on 30 shots, both season highs. He made seven 3-pointers on 14 shots, also both season highs. He also had a team-high six assists.From the first possession, Harden, 33, took it upon himself to get Philadelphia points, hitting a 10-foot jumper.“Whatever they gave me, I rose up and took a shot,” Harden said after the game. “Whether it’s a 3, whether it’s a floater, whether it’s a midrange jumper.”Asked why there was no double-team on the last shot, Celtics Coach Joe Mazzulla said: “That was one of our best defenders. He made a big shot.”Paul Reed had 13 rebounds filling in at center for Embiid. He had a career-high 15 in Game 4 of the Sixers’ first-round sweep of the Nets, a game that Embiid also missed.Going into Monday night’s game, the Celtics were favored not just in the series but to win the N.B.A. title. They were 9.5-point favorites to win Game 1 at home in the absence of Embiid.Disquietingly for the rest of the series, the Celtics actually played quite well on Monday, hitting 58.7 percent of their shots and outrebounding the 76ers by 10. But they never seemed to be able to stop Harden.“We have opportunities to bounce back,” a terse Mazzulla said.After three scoring titles and a Most Valuable Player Award with the Houston Rockets, Harden had built an impressive legacy. But it was tarnished somewhat with an abortive and injury-plagued two seasons with the Nets. When he was traded to the 76ers in early 2022, most of the focus was on the Sixers finally getting rid of Ben Simmons rather on their acquisition of Harden.Harden has fit in well as Embiid’s lieutenant in Philadelphia. He led the league in assists per game this season with 10.7 and averaged 21 points.Embiid shot around, but did not run on Monday at practice. Coach Doc Rivers said he didn’t know if Embiid would play in Game 2 on Wednesday.For one game at least, thanks mostly to Harden, the Sixers didn’t need him. More