Tag Archives: Doncic

Sports

The Mavs Have a Blueprint for the Future, and It’s Not Just Luka Doncic

Leave a comment

Some losses tell a team where it stands. Some tell a team where it could go. The games the Mavericks have dropped in these conference finals feel very much like the latter—an emerging team finding its way in real time, on one of the biggest stages in basketball. Even now, just one loss away from getting swept, Dallas coaches and players have celebrated their run for what it is: a starting point.

“This is a lot bigger than just this one game or this one series,” head coach Jason Kidd said after Sunday’s Game 3 loss, building on a theme he’s returned to throughout the playoffs. Really, it’s an arrival.

Dallas is in the conference finals ahead of schedule, elevated by a 23-year-old basketball genius in Luka Doncic. It’s natural to frame any team down 3-0 in a series by what it’s missing—a rim protector or a second star or some critical bit of depth. Yet the Mavericks can be better understood by what they already have: a clear proof of concept.

Even in a series with a margin as lopsided as this one, you can see the bones of a formidable team defense: Dorian Finney-Smith cycling between every conceivable matchup; Reggie Bullock trailing the Warriors’ future Hall of Fame shooters in a perpetual high-speed chase; and Maxi Kleber stepping up to guard on the perimeter while doing what he can to protect the paint. Golden State—a cover unlike any other—has simply pushed good defenders to their limit, and an imperfect roster to its breaking point. But to even reach this stage, the Mavericks had to dispatch the NBA’s top-ranked offense in the first round and its third-ranked offense in the second. In both series, Dallas tightened the screws from one game to the next, slowly shutting down the actions that Utah and Phoenix had come to rely on. It was a remarkable transformation by a team that ranked 22nd on defense last season, according to Cleaning the Glass, with largely the same personnel.

“I would say it starts,” Finney-Smith explained, “from the head of the snake.”

Kidd, in his first season as Dallas’s head coach, managed to turn the Mavs into a top defensive outfit by sheer force of will. Dallas has worked on its defensive principles constantly under Kidd, cycling through the same scrambling sequences, over and over, until they became quick-twitch instinct. Overall, Mavs players point to attention to detail as the biggest difference between this season and last.

“It kinda gets boring sometimes, when you do shootarounds or when you go through it, because it’s always the same, the same, the same,” Kleber said. “But it’s just patterns we have in our head now that you know: This is an automatic rotation for me. That’s big time.”

This isn’t a training camp project or the focus of a practice-heavy homestand; Dallas has brushed up on its core rotations at every opportunity, on the floor and in film, until every player on the roster learned the system chapter and verse. “Then,” Kleber said, “we go into detail specifically on how the [other] team plays, what kind of offensive plays they have, and we analyze those. We just try to adjust our schemes to what they do and give us options in different scenarios.”

It’s easier to suppress Utah’s 3-point shooting when every rotation is ironed out in advance. The prospect of guarding Devin Booker feels more manageable when you’ve deconstructed the exact dribble handoffs Phoenix likes to run for him when it needs a bucket. This is textbook defensive process. “The littlest thing can help get a turnover or a rebound or a steal,” Kidd said. “This group has paid attention. This group has grown.”

Dallas’s defensive approach has been almost blandly conventional—no-frills, fundamental coverage that strays from making anything more difficult than it has to be. In that way, it’s the antithesis of the aggressive, overloading scheme Kidd’s teams ran in Milwaukee. That style was novel, but could be easily exploited by opponents that spread the floor. Dallas is building something more stout. There may be individual matchups to attack or double-teams to play out of (as Steph Curry has in this series), but most games will come down to whether an opposing team has the talent or the precision to beat the Mavericks on the details.

The Warriors have proved that they do. Dallas hasn’t figured out how to keep Curry under wraps without letting a teammate like Andrew Wiggins or Kevon Looney spring loose, which has led to some uncharacteristic lapses. Part of the reason the Warriors seem so elusive, however, is that it’s difficult to pin down what the details of their offense even are. “They play so random and so fast,” Finney-Smith said. “They probably have a couple plays, but the rest of it just be throw the ball to Draymond [Green], and they play out of pin-downs and back screens and back cuts.”

It is notoriously challenging to preempt how Curry will explode onto the scene in those situations, and potentially devastating for any team that fails to. Bullock and Finney-Smith, in particular, have been tasked to try. Yet as they do, they’re also butting up against the physical realities of being the go-to defenders for a team that can’t afford to take them off the floor.

“I always tell him: We can’t be tired, because at least one of us gotta be on the court,” Finney-Smith said.

That’s not an exaggeration. If Bullock and Finney-Smith manage to stay out of foul trouble in this series, they can expect to play upward of 40 minutes—40 minutes of uniquely taxing defense against a Warriors team back in championship form. That’s on top of the fact that they rank first and second, respectively, in total minutes this postseason. There are times, near the end of games, when you can see the toll that takes. It’s impossible to separate the demands on Bullock defensively from his shooting in Game 3, when he went 0-for-10 from the floor.

Finney-Smith, for his part, has logged more total minutes between the regular season and the playoffs than all but two other players. “He never takes a night off,” Kleber said. “He’s just a true fighter.” Yet even that resolve has a cost; Finney-Smith’s workload has reached a point that the Mavericks seem reluctant to play him at the 5, in what had been a series-changing lineup against previous opponents.

The Mavericks can’t rely on their wings beyond Finney-Smith and Bullock, so they’ve been forced to choose between what’s promising and what’s practical. Which only exacerbates a similar strain in the frontcourt. It’s proved difficult for Kidd to play Dwight Powell, the Mavericks’ starting center and designated lob threat, for more than a handful of minutes a game against the Warriors. That has stretched Kleber, one of the first Mavs off the bench, into an even larger role while erasing any margin for error. Kleber is a terrific defensive player, but when he, like Bullock, couldn’t get his long-range shooting on-line in Game 3, Davis Bertans—the Mavericks’ biggest defensive liability—wound up playing 13 minutes for the sake of better spacing.

In diagnosing the play of his team, Kidd will sometimes talk about a player’s need to participate. Not dominate. Just be willing and able to be involved. What Dallas needs now, more than anything, is just a few more players who can participate. Another star would be great. A top-notch rim protector would be outstanding. Yet Luka has this team close enough to a title that even a bit more rotation talent could make a dramatic difference. This isn’t a roster that necessarily needs to be reimagined—just reinforced. Dallas already started that process when it traded Kristaps Porzingis, diversifying with two bench contributors in Bertans and Spencer Dinwiddie. Another role player or two could keep the starters’ minutes out of the 40s, let Finney-Smith explore the full range of his versatility, and position Kleber to make an even bigger impact as a stylistic counter than as the only real option at center.

These are the kinds of limitations Dallas overcame while knocking out the desperate Jazz and upsetting the team with the league’s best record. It’s a triumph of high effort and note-perfect execution. Dallas doesn’t have a Defensive Player of the Year candidate to clean up all its mistakes and prop up wanting lineups. Everyone has to dig in. Everyone has to close out. Even Doncic, whom Kidd challenged publicly during the Suns series, has to compete hard enough to preserve the integrity of the system. The lack of a safety net has forced every defender in the chain to be accountable to one another. “Now when guys is not in their rotations or whatever, we can talk it out before we even get to the film,” Finney-Smith said. Or, in many cases, before they get to the bench during a timeout. Even when things break down against the Warriors, the Mavericks troubleshoot among themselves, searching for what could have caused the rotations they know backward and forward to come undone.

“It’s never one against one,” Kleber said. “We protect each other. And if someone’s beat, someone’s gonna rotate, and then out, out, out. We don’t leave anybody on an island. That’s the no. 1 concept that always stays the same.”

What Dallas proved this season is that it can take good defenders and connect them. It can bring together a group of players that will support one another so fervently from the bench that they’ll rack up nearly $200,000 in fines from the league office. It can trade for veterans playing some of the worst basketball of their careers, and help them tap back into who they were. This is what the Mavericks are building, obscured though it may be by a challenging matchup.

“When you’re in a battle, you’re not thinking about the big picture,” Kidd said. “You’re just thinking about the thing at hand and that’s making a basket or get a stop. But as we reflect this summer, whenever that starts, we’ll understand what we did and how we can get better. And that’s the blessing of this whole thing: We truly believe we belong here.”



Read original article here

Sports

NBA playoffs 2022 – ‘OMG WIGGS,’ sports world reacts to Andrew Wiggins’ monster dunk over Luka Doncic

Leave a comment

1:03 AM ET

  • Tory BarronESPN Editor

    Close
      Tory Barron is a Bristol-based writer and editor for ESPN.com. After retiring from playing lacrosse at UConn, the DC native decided to try her hand at writing about people playing sports.

Dunk of the postseason? Dunk of the postseason. The 2022 NBA playoffs rolled on Sunday night with the Golden State Warriors defeating the Dallas Mavericks 109-100 to take a 3-0 series lead in the Western Conference finals. But the story of the night was centered solely around Andrew Wiggins.

More specifically, Wiggins’ preposterous dunk over Luka Doncic. Wiggins, who scored a playoff career-high 27 points, took flight over Doncic midway through the fourth quarter for what was originally ruled an offensive foul. Golden State challenged, and the ruling was Wiggins’ elbow to Doncic was incidental contact, giving the Warriors a 93-83 lead.

The sports world immediately turned to Twitter to react to Wiggins putting Luka on a poster. Here’s what everyone from Magic Johnson to Terrell Owens had to say about the moment. We also included an old Joel Embiid tweet that didn’t age particularly well, because we’re petty like that.

Basketball world …

NFL stars of past and present …

An old take exposed …



Read original article here

Sports

Warriors absorb power punch from Luka Doncic, Mavs in Game 2, setting stage for Stephen Curry’s knockout blow

Leave a comment

SAN FRANCISCO — You could see it coming before Game 2 even started. Shoot, you could see it coming before Game 1 even ended. The Dallas Mavericks were blown off the court in the first game of the Western Conference finals on Wednesday, and you knew they would come out on Friday against the Golden State Warriors with a renewed focus, a better shooting touch and a vengeful, dangerous Luka Doncic.

“I’ve seen it for my entire time in the NBA, player, executive, coach. Game 2 of a playoff series is always very different based on the outcome of Game 1,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said before Game 2. “We have to maintain our edge tonight, and we’ve got to really come out and be ready for the force that they’re undoubtedly going to bring.”

Ready for the force, the Warriors were not.

Just seven minutes into the game, the Mavericks had raced out to a 26-10 lead in front of a hushed Chase Center crowd. Doncic had already scored 12 points and Dallas had sunk five 3-pointers, fulfilling the promise of a bounce-back shooting night that so many expected. Meanwhile the Warriors, despite knowing what was coming, looked stunned, flustered and frustrated. They turned the ball over 10 times in the first half while allowing a stunning 15 3-pointers and 72 points to the Mavericks.

Draymond Green played one of the worst halves of his playoff career, picking up a technical and finding himself in foul trouble along the way. Klay Thompson only had six points and mustered only two 3-point attempts by halftime. Stephen Curry was the only one who could get anything going, scoring 20 first-half points on 5-of-7 3-point shooting as the Warriors trailed by 14.

It was all coming to fruition. The probable had become the inevitable.

So when you see the final score, a 126-117 Warriors win to take a 2-0 lead in the series, it tells the tale of a team that absorbed a shiver-inducing body blow and got back up off the mat. Not only to survive, but to dominate.

“I thought we were so scattered in the first half. Maybe emotionally more than anything,” Kerr said after Game 2. “Dallas came out and just punched us. … So we just needed to get poised and get the game under control.”

We’re used to seeing third-quarter Warriors barrages, but it’s usually characterized by the offense. They put up a respectable 25 points in the third on Friday, but they only allowed just 13 points to the Mavs, which shaved 12 points off the halftime deficit.

“We just didn’t communicate well enough on the pick-and-roll [in the first half]. They were able to get out and hit some shots. They were able to find some shooters,” Warriors forward Otto Porter Jr. said after the game. “We got a little bit closer to them in the second half, made it tough for them. We just played harder.”

When the fourth quarter rolled around, that’s when the offensive assault began, and a fresh face was leading the charge. With Curry resting, Jordan Poole — who’s had an up-and-down postseason after a fantastic beginning — was absolutely masterful, scoring 12 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter. He also set up his teammates, including an absolute dime to Kevon Looney, who scored over 20 points in a game for the first time since his freshman year at UCLA.

“When Steph comes off the floor, the defense tends to focus on me a little bit more,” Poole said after the game. “So continue to be aggressive, and not only try to make plays for my teammates but try to look for more shots and just keep our rhythm going.”

By the time Poole subbed out with just over six minutes left in the game, the Warriors had turned a two-point deficit into a seven-point lead. From then on, the heroics were left to a much more familiar face of the Warriors dynasty — Wardell Stephen Curry.

Curry checked in at the 6:24 mark of the fourth quarter and proceeded to score 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting. With Doncic menacingly lingering on the other side, Curry made sure that any potential Mavericks comeback was squashed before it started. He finished with 32 point on the night, going 6 of 10 from 3-point range.

“There’s a reason that our team has won championships, and it’s that we’ve got players who are stars and players who are fearless and capable of playing and performing under pressure,” Kerr said after the game. “But Steph in particular, the guy is one of the great players of all time. This is what the greats do.”

Fittingly, it was Curry’s long 3-pointer as the shot clock expired with just over a minute left that sealed the victory, and allowed him to hit the Mavericks with his latest signature “night-night” celebration.

It’s become cliche to cite the Warriors’ championship pedigree — kind of like alluding to “Heat culture” — but it’s hard to deny when you witness performances like this. This was the 12th Warriors postseason comeback win after being down by at least 15 points since Kerr took over as head coach in 2014-15. Part of that is due to the highly explosive offense they’ve consistently put forth, but you don’t come back from that much, that often, without incredible resiliency, confidence and teamwork.

That’s what allows you to take an overhand right to the chin from a scrappy team with one of the best players in the NBA, then get up off the canvas to deliver the knockout blow — once again.

“For us, the experience, just the chemistry — obviously this group is different — but we have that attitude, the spirit that we feel like we’re never out of it,” Curry said after the Game 2 win. “That belief then turns into execution in the game, and you can feel the momentum. It’s more just focused on what we do. When we have those opportunities to stick the dagger or come up with three stops in a row, those are the times where we feel the good energy going our way.”

require.config({"baseUrl":"https://sportsfly.cbsistatic.com/fly-0235/bundles/sportsmediajs/js-build","config":{"version":{"fly/components/accordion":"1.0","fly/components/alert":"1.0","fly/components/base":"1.0","fly/components/carousel":"1.0","fly/components/dropdown":"1.0","fly/components/fixate":"1.0","fly/components/form-validate":"1.0","fly/components/image-gallery":"1.0","fly/components/iframe-messenger":"1.0","fly/components/load-more":"1.0","fly/components/load-more-article":"1.0","fly/components/load-more-scroll":"1.0","fly/components/loading":"1.0","fly/components/modal":"1.0","fly/components/modal-iframe":"1.0","fly/components/network-bar":"1.0","fly/components/poll":"1.0","fly/components/search-player":"1.0","fly/components/social-button":"1.0","fly/components/social-counts":"1.0","fly/components/social-links":"1.0","fly/components/tabs":"1.0","fly/components/video":"1.0","fly/libs/easy-xdm":"2.4.17.1","fly/libs/jquery.cookie":"1.2","fly/libs/jquery.throttle-debounce":"1.1","fly/libs/jquery.widget":"1.9.2","fly/libs/omniture.s-code":"1.0","fly/utils/jquery-mobile-init":"1.0","fly/libs/jquery.mobile":"1.3.2","fly/libs/backbone":"1.0.0","fly/libs/underscore":"1.5.1","fly/libs/jquery.easing":"1.3","fly/managers/ad":"2.0","fly/managers/components":"1.0","fly/managers/cookie":"1.0","fly/managers/debug":"1.0","fly/managers/geo":"1.0","fly/managers/gpt":"4.3","fly/managers/history":"2.0","fly/managers/madison":"1.0","fly/managers/social-authentication":"1.0","fly/utils/data-prefix":"1.0","fly/utils/data-selector":"1.0","fly/utils/function-natives":"1.0","fly/utils/guid":"1.0","fly/utils/log":"1.0","fly/utils/object-helper":"1.0","fly/utils/string-helper":"1.0","fly/utils/string-vars":"1.0","fly/utils/url-helper":"1.0","libs/jshashtable":"2.1","libs/select2":"3.5.1","libs/jsonp":"2.4.0","libs/jquery/mobile":"1.4.5","libs/modernizr.custom":"2.6.2","libs/velocity":"1.2.2","libs/dataTables":"1.10.6","libs/dataTables.fixedColumns":"3.0.4","libs/dataTables.fixedHeader":"2.1.2","libs/dateformat":"1.0.3","libs/waypoints/infinite":"3.1.1","libs/waypoints/inview":"3.1.1","libs/waypoints/jquery.waypoints":"3.1.1","libs/waypoints/sticky":"3.1.1","libs/jquery/dotdotdot":"1.6.1","libs/jquery/flexslider":"2.1","libs/jquery/lazyload":"1.9.3","libs/jquery/maskedinput":"1.3.1","libs/jquery/marquee":"1.3.1","libs/jquery/numberformatter":"1.2.3","libs/jquery/placeholder":"0.2.4","libs/jquery/scrollbar":"0.1.6","libs/jquery/tablesorter":"2.0.5","libs/jquery/touchswipe":"1.6.18","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.core":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.draggable":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.mouse":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.position":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.slider":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.sortable":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.touch-punch":"0.2.3","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.autocomplete":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.accordion":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tabs":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.menu":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.dialog":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.resizable":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.button":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tooltip":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.effects":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.datepicker":"1.11.4"}},"shim":{"liveconnection/managers/connection":{"deps":["liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4"]},"liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4":{"exports":"SockJS"},"libs/setValueFromArray":{"exports":"set"},"libs/getValueFromArray":{"exports":"get"},"fly/libs/jquery.mobile-1.3.2":["version!fly/utils/jquery-mobile-init"],"libs/backbone.marionette":{"deps":["jquery","version!fly/libs/underscore","version!fly/libs/backbone"],"exports":"Marionette"},"fly/libs/underscore-1.5.1":{"exports":"_"},"fly/libs/backbone-1.0.0":{"deps":["version!fly/libs/underscore","jquery"],"exports":"Backbone"},"libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tabs-1.11.4":["jquery","version!libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.core","version!fly/libs/jquery.widget"],"libs/jquery/flexslider-2.1":["jquery"],"libs/dataTables.fixedColumns-3.0.4":["jquery","version!libs/dataTables"],"libs/dataTables.fixedHeader-2.1.2":["jquery","version!libs/dataTables"],"https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/app/VideoPlayer/AdobePass-min.js":["https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/util/Utils-min.js"]},"map":{"*":{"adobe-pass":"https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/app/VideoPlayer/AdobePass-min.js","facebook":"https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js","facebook-debug":"https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all/debug.js","google":"https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js","google-platform":"https://apis.google.com/js/client:platform.js","google-csa":"https://www.google.com/adsense/search/async-ads.js","google-javascript-api":"https://www.google.com/jsapi","google-client-api":"https://apis.google.com/js/api:client.js","gpt":"https://securepubads.g.doubleclick.net/tag/js/gpt.js","hlsjs":"https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/hls.js/1.0.7/hls.js","newsroom":"https://c2.taboola.com/nr/cbsinteractive-cbssports/newsroom.js","recaptcha":"https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api.js?onload=loadRecaptcha&render=explicit","recaptcha_ajax":"https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/js/recaptcha_ajax.js","supreme-golf":"https://sgapps-staging.supremegolf.com/search/assets/js/bundle.js","taboola":"https://cdn.taboola.com/libtrc/cbsinteractive-cbssports/loader.js","twitter":"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js","video-avia":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/1.14.0/player/avia.min.js","video-avia-ui":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/1.14.0/plugins/ui/avia.ui.min.js","video-avia-gam":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/1.14.0/plugins/gam/avia.gam.min.js","video-ima3":"https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/sdkloader/ima3.js","video-ima3-dai":"https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/sdkloader/ima3_dai.js","video-utils":"https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/util/Utils-min.js","video-vast-tracking":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/sb55/vast-js/vtg-vast-client.js"}},"waitSeconds":300});



Read original article here

Sports

Luka Doncic hits SF’s Underdogs before Warriors-Mavs Game 2

Leave a comment

Whether or not he was actually up all night sick after a Game 1 beatdown at the hands of the Golden State Warriors, Luka Doncic was feeling well enough hours before Friday’s Game 2 to continue his tour of San Francisco bars and restaurants.

Doncic had lunch at Underdogs Cantina just after noon on Friday, SFGATE confirmed. Game 2 is slated for another early 6 p.m. start.

Underdogs is part of a group of popular Mexican restaurants and sports bars in San Francisco. The Cantina location where Doncic and friends grabbed lunch is across from where the Giants play and about a mile from the Warriors’ Chase Center home. 

An Underdogs employee said that Doncic’s party had Baja fish tacos and an Impossible burrito, although they were unsure what Doncic personally ate. (Doncic previously revealed he’s not really a fish guy, so the Impossible burrito seems like a safe bet, though sadly we may never know for certain.)

Doncic, Boban Marjanovic and Mavs assistant coach Igor Kokoskov were spotted at Sens in the Embarcadero Center on Tuesday, casually sipping a beer the day before Game 1. 


Our tipster did say that unlike Doncic’s visit to Sens the day before Game 1, he only ordered water, no beers.

TNT play-by-play announcer Kevin Harlan claimed that Doncic was “up most of the night and ill” after his middling Game 1 performance in a blowout loss to the Warriors on Wednesday night, though he immediately qualified that by saying that his sources weren’t inside the Mavericks or Warriors organizations. However Doncic was feeling on Friday morning, it was well enough to leave the team hotel to grab some Mexican grub a few hours before Game 2. Props to him for checking out some more local spots.

Read original article here

Sports

The revolutionary Golden State Warriors defeated Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks by embracing old-school ball

Leave a comment

SAN FRANCISCO — Something has dawned on Stephen Curry as the Golden State Warriors stage their first legitimate title quest in nearly three years: He’s now the old guy.

“When I look at some of those guys, you’re reminded of how young they are,” Curry said, contemplating the NBA’s starscape while the Warriors prepared for the Mavericks’ arrival in San Francisco. “Jayson Tatum is 24. Luka [Doncic] is 23. Ja [Morant] was 22. That’s the only part where you’re just like, ‘Hell, they’re really that young.’ You’re thinking about what you were doing at that age, trying to come into this scene and [play] playoff basketball.”

The NBA has long been a gerontocracy, a league ruled by the venerated vets who school — and at times torment — the upstarts before relinquishing the glory. Few NBA stars in recent decades lift a championship trophy until their early prime — and certainly not without a lot of help. Doncic has designs on accelerating his track, at the expense of Curry, America’s longtime favorite little brother who, in a flash, has graduated to elder statesman at age 34.

The Warriors’ 112-87 Game 1 blowout win against the Dallas Mavericks at Chase Center on Wednesday night was a timely reminder that, in the NBA, championships are still the finest source of inspiration. Though he was defended by the Mavericks’ toughest defensive guard in Reggie Bullock, occasionally blitzed by a second defender, targeted in Doncic’s pick-and-roll attack and uncharacteristically inaccurate from the free throw line, Curry displayed the poise and ease of a seasoned player entirely in his element. He led all players in points (21), rebounds (12) and assists (four, tied with four others) in Game 1 of these Western Conference finals, the first time in his playoff career he has done so in all three categories, according to ESPN Stats & Information data.

“We are super comfortable on this stage,” Curry said. “There’s more gratitude of being back here and more sense of urgency on not letting the opportunity slip away. Who knows how it plays out, but I’m enjoying every bit of this. I know Klay [Thompson] is, as well, and I know Draymond [Green] is because we haven’t played meaningful games at this time of year in two years. It’s special.”

The win was neither Curry nor the Warriors’ most artful exhibition of their trademark style. They were hasty early, and there were few classic clips of their patented split cut for the vault. Yet there were plenty of instances when the Warriors demonstrated the telepathy that comes with continuity, moments when Green’s help defense erased a high-percentage Dallas shot attempt or Curry skirted his way out of trouble courtesy of a pindown from Kevon Looney. The Warriors spent much of the night in transition against a Mavericks team that prefers to let Doncic pick apart possessions in the half court. Thanks to dogged defensive work from Andrew Wiggins, the Warriors made life difficult for Doncic in his first conference finals appearance.

The series opener also was a statement about just how influential Golden State has been on the trends that define NBA basketball, circa 2022. The Warriors beat a Dallas squad that attempted 19 more shots than they did from beyond the arc and ran a 5-out scheme for much of the night to maximize spacing, a practice mastered by the Warriors during their dynasty run. All the while, the Warriors relied on a lanky center with limited range to bolster their interior defense and rebounding, and they took twice as many shots from long midrange than they did at the rim.

For a team that revolutionized the league during the 2010s, Golden State looked positively Jurassic — and entirely effective.

“Teams kind of run us off the 3-point line,” Thompson said. “This time of year — [coach] Steve [Kerr] always harps on it — that midrange jump is going to be there. Andrew, Steph and I, [Jordan Poole], it was really working for us tonight.”

It’s not uncommon for even the most ardent idealists to embrace pragmatism in middle age. During their ascent to greatness, the Warriors broke rules of conventional NBA basketball, rewrote a few others and laid down some new ones. Now, after three years in the wilderness while nursing injuries and losing key contributors, the team has adopted a combination of homespun Warriors wisdom and practical magic.

The Warriors fully appreciate that while Dallas might not replicate the torrid shooting it unleashed on the Phoenix Suns last week, the Mavs also are unlikely to miss more than three-quarters of their attempts from distance going forward in this series.

For his part, Curry — who graduated from Davidson College last weekend — seems charmed that he is both mentor and rival to a new class of NBA stars. A relatively late bloomer, Curry marveled at Morant’s body of work and leadership during the Warriors’ series win over the Memphis Grizzlies in the conference semifinals. Curry also acknowledged that fending off the Grizzlies’ young virtuoso in the future won’t be easy.

But age also affirms self-confidence. It tells a guy who has won three rings, two MVP awards and changed the way the NBA plays basketball that he can trust his instincts without fail. Age also is a reminder for Curry that the clock is ticking.

“I’m not trying to claim the ‘old guy’ tag,” Curry said prior to Game 1. “But we’re as hungry as they are to get it done.”

Read original article here

Sports

Ranking 20 best players in NBA’s conference finals round: Luka Doncic, Jayson Tatum or Stephen Curry No. 1?

Leave a comment

The 2021 postseason belonged to Giannis Antetokounmpo. The 2020 postseason belonged to LeBron James. The 2019 postseason belonged to Kawhi Leonard. When the dust settles on the 2022 postseason, someone is going to stand on top of the mountain. Right now, there’s no clear frontrunner for who that might be.

Antetokounmpo, James and Leonard are all out of the picture. So is Kevin Durant and the defending Western Conference champion Phoenix Suns. The MVP winner and runner-up? They’re gone, too. Here’s a fun fact: There is only one former Finals MVP still alive. Want to guess who it is? It’s Andre Iguodala. There aren’t just four teams vying for the title. There are four stars vying for the league’s individual throne. 

Supporting them are some of the deepest rosters you’ll ever see at this stage of the postseason. There’s not a superteam to be found in the 2022 conference finals. Instead, we have dozens of underappreciated youngsters trying to make their way in the league. Some are playing for contracts. Others for status. And we’re going to rank the 20 best of them left in the playing field. (Note: Kyle Lowry would be listed below if not for the uncertainty due to his ailing hamstring injury. We’re leaving him out because we just don’t know his availability going forward.)

Tier 9: The Dallas specialists

The Dallas Mavericks are living proof that 3-and-D players come in all shapes and sizes. Bullock plays shooting guard. Last postseason, Kleber defended Kawhi Leonard. This postseason, he’s playing center. Their functions are nearly identical: Make the shots Luka Doncic creates, protect Doncic from giving up those same shots on the other end of the floor. It’s a relatively straightforward gig that these two get to make their own in entirely distinct ways.

So why does Bullock get the edge over Kleber? Workload. Bullock doesn’t get tired. He’s played 44 or more minutes five times this postseason. Kleber’s never done it once in his career. He’s a low-minutes player. That suits Dallas just fine. The Mavericks probably “need” what Kleber does slightly more. His shooting at center powers their five-out offensive identity. Bullock is a slightly inferior version of a player in the next tier. But replacing Kleber’s 25 minutes per night is just easier than replacing Bullock’s 40. There’s also the fact that Kleber is currently shooting 16 percentage points better from 3 than he did in the regular season. Let’s assume a slight dip in the Western Conference finals.

Tier 8: Defense wins championships, Part 1

Williams vs. Tucker is the first toss-up of the list. The work Williams just did against Antetokounmpo was reminiscent of Tucker’s performance against Durant last season. Williams is the better shooter of the two (he’ll even leave the corner sometimes!), but Tucker is the more versatile defender. He has a track record of covering guards for lengthy stretches of games. Williams can do so off of switches, but Tucker is one of the few five-position defenders on Earth. That’s so obscenely valuable in 2022 that he gets the slightest of nods here. Williams might be the next generation’s Tucker. He’ll probably be even better.

Finney-Smith is the king of the Dallas 3-and-D’s. A steadier shooter than Bullock and a sturdier defender than Kleber, Finney-Smith held Donovan Mitchell to 32.7 percent shooting on the 52 attempts he took against him in the first round. Finney-Smith will make an All-Defense team someday. Robert Williams should this season. Frankly, there’s a compelling argument for him as Boston’s true Defensive Player of the Year. Turning him into an off-ball rover saved Boston’s season. He’s the vertical element the Celtics largely lacked against Milwaukee, and he figures to be a major factor against Miami in the Eastern Conference finals. 

Tier 7: The bucket

Tyler Herro had a better season than either of the two other young guards on the list. He won Sixth Man of the Year for a reason and now provides so much spacing that the Heat can afford not to play Duncan Robinson when matchups dictate they shouldn’t. Herro’s job is to get buckets. He does so relatively efficiently and at fairly steep volume. But does he drive team offense to the extent that Jalen Brunson does? Probably not. Brunson stole Dallas’ two wins against Utah without Doncic. Miami’s playoff offense has completely cratered in the minutes Jimmy Butler has sat. The Warriors are at least surviving Stephen Curry’s rests, thanks in no small part to Jordan Poole, whose athletic gifts and superior vision give him access to plays Herro just can’t execute. 

Herro’s 2020 postseason was, by rookie standards, remarkable. He’s been much closer to average this postseason, shooting only 42 percent from the field and 27.3 percent from 3. More distressing is his waning usage. Victor Oladipo is now playing nearly as many minutes as he has. So is Gabe Vincent, and Max Strus is ahead of him. It’s telling that even with Lowry down, the Heat aren’t entrusting Herro with added ball-handling duties. His defensive vulnerability might be responsible for that. The Heat don’t miss a beat with Vincent, Strus or Oladipo playing defense. Herro might as well slap a bullseye on his chest. He’s talented enough to climb this list. He’s not playing up to that talent right now.

Tier 6: You get what you pay for

Wiggins is overpaid and a touch overrated. Who cares? He’s Golden State’s dream role player, a fully committed 3-and-D’er who is comfortable enough with the ball in his hands to operate freely within Golden State’s egalitarian offense. As Dallas will surely find as the postseason progresses … sometimes it’s nice to just have a fourth or fifth guy on your roster who can occasionally dribble out of trouble or sustain your bench units with two minutes of mid-range jumpers. Once or twice per game, Wiggins pulls some athletic feat that reminds you why he was the No. 1 pick in the draft before fading comfortably into the background. If he shared the sky-high basketball IQ that has made some of his teammates legends, he’d be in the top 10 on this list.

Basketball IQ isn’t a problem for Smart and Horford. If I wrote this list after Game 4 of the Bucks series, Horford might’ve found himself in the Draymond Green/Bam Adebayo tier. He’s their geriatric equivalent, Boston’s everything, everywhere-all-at-once big man. Could Green or Adebayo have given their teams 52 combined points in back-to-back road playoff games with their season on the line? Probably not. The next three games were a reminder that Horford has limits in his mid-30s. Smart, smack dab in his prime, does not. There isn’t a better help-defending guard on Earth than Smart. Go ask Brooklyn what happens when you try to dribble near the middle of the court against Smart’s team. Smart is simultaneously the guard equivalent of Horford and his shadow. Horford is reserved and scales up reluctantly. Smart will blow a game in crunch time, shrug and come back to take nine 3s in the next one. Championship teams need on-court versatility, but they also need those contrasting personalities.

Look, Klay is a legacy pick. He’s been worse than everyone in this tier on balance in the playoffs. I’m just going to ask you one simple question: After watching what he did to Memphis in Game 6 … can you honestly tell me you’d rather have anyone listed above him here with your season on the line? No? Great. We’re sticking with Klay in the top 10. He’s not remotely the defender he once was and you know within a few minutes when he doesn’t have it offensively. But when he does? Congratulations. You’ve won the game.

Tier 5: The future is now

  • 9. Jalen Brunson, Dallas Mavericks
  • 8. Jordan Poole, Golden State Warriors

This is Batman vs. Superman. Brunson is all craft, the little genius with some of the best footwork in the NBA. Poole has plenty of that craft too … but he can also stare down your best defender and say “watch me blow by him before flipping this pass behind my head to a wide-open shooter.” Brunson has maximized every ounce of talent he has. Poole is so talented that we’re years away from even knowing how far he can go. If you needed to pick one to be your primary ball-handler for a game or season? You probably take the steadier Brunson. If you want to strike terror into the hearts of defenses that are already panicking over what your superstar is doing? You take the nuclear athlete who hits 40 percent of his 3s.

Tier 4: Defense wins championships, Part 2

Draymond Green is the best defender in the world and would have won Defensive Player of the Year had he not gotten hurt. Bam Adebayo isn’t far behind, but for him to pass a three-time champion like Green, he’d have to bridge the gap somewhere else. He isn’t really doing that right now. He’s not allergic to the basket like Draymond is, but he’s not much of an individual shot-creator and his scoring has dipped to 14.6 points in the playoffs without Kyle Lowry to feed him buckets. That’s not especially surprising, but the Heat haven’t used Adebayo as much as a playmaker in Lowry’s absence as many expected. He’s a stellar passer, though he misses his favorite handoff partner Robinson, who has largely fallen out of the rotation. Their two-man dance was one of Miami’s most reliable offensive actions the last time the Heat reached the Finals. 

Scoring aside, Green’s offensive role is more vital. While Adebayo is more dependent on the offense to generate shots for him, Green’s ability to vacillate between point guard and center is essential to Golden State’s offense. Even without having to cover for his individual weaknesses, it’s worth noting that the Warriors were essentially a league-average offense during his prolonged mid-season absence. Adebayo is the closest thing we have to a “next Draymond.” His superior size and athleticism even opens doors for him that aren’t available to Green. But without steadier scoring, he can’t quite pass the Hall of Famer yet.

Tier 3: The perfect Robin

Jaylen Brown is easy. That’s the simplest way of putting it. He’s one of the league’s lowest-maintenance All-Stars, and that can be a double-edged sword. On lesser teams, his limitations as a shot-creator for teammates would be maddening. Boston has so much spare passing lying around the rest of its roster that Brown can blend into the offense as seamlessly as the Celtics need him to. As much as a tighter handle would help, Brown is a three-level scorer who rarely needs plays run for him. When we think of play-finishers rather than play-starters, we tend to think of big men dunking. Brown is the jump-shooting equivalent, someone who can sneak his way into 24 or 25 points with just a couple of well-timed cuts, quick releases off someone else’s penetration and a single aggressive stint with a bench lineup. Co-starring with Jayson Tatum isn’t always easy. He’s grown significantly as a playmaker, but he’s not always immune to the tunnel vision and poor shot selection that plagued his younger years. Boston doesn’t have a typical star-level point guard. Its offense functions as a unit and Brown is the second-most important cog within it.

Tier 2: I hope he doesn’t see that I left him out of Tier 1

  • 4. Jimmy Butler, Miami Heat

Antetokounmpo was the best player in the postseason, but if you woke up tomorrow and found out he was actually an alien from the planet Blingor, you probably wouldn’t be that surprised. Among humans, Butler has made a compelling case for himself. He’s scoring only three fewer points per game in the postseason than Doncic despite a usage rate 10 percentage points lower. Miami doesn’t like to play Luka-ball. They want to whip the ball around the court and cut their opponents to death. Butler personifies that in the regular season. He turns into a much more traditional, heliocentric star when the playoffs call for it. Lowry’s absence has forced his hand the past few weeks. He’s Miami’s only consistent shot-creator and its best perimeter defender. 

If we pretended that no basketball had ever been played before the 2022 playoffs? Butler makes the top tier. You could almost argue that his playoff track record is extensive enough for his inclusion even despite his less accomplished overall resume. As well as Butler is playing right now, he’s never made First- or Second-Team All-NBA. We’re comparing him to a three-time MVP, a probable First-Team All-NBA choice at his own position and a 6-7 point guard drawing comparisons to LeBron. Butler has just never been that sort of player over a sustained period of time. 

Tier 1: Maybe the best player in the world

  • 3. Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
  • 2. Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics
  • 1. Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks

Before we begin, I want to stress that this is a tier. You’d be justified ordering these players in any way you choose. Any one of them could get hot for the next few weeks and win the championship. One of them is probably going to and earn poll position in this group for next season. The gap here is so small that it’s practically a matter of preference. Here we go.

No modern offensive player affects defenses to the degree that Curry does. It takes five men to defend him. When one of them inevitably botches a switch or gets smacked by a screen, Curry takes what has been for the greater part of the past decade among the most efficient shots in NBA history. It says everything about Curry that you need to know that even in a season in which he’s making “only” 38 percent of his 3s, defenses haven’t loosened up one iota against him. That said … the fact that he’s making 38 percent of his 3s is concerning! He’s down to 36 percent in the playoffs. The degree of difficulty on his 3s is higher than practically anyone else’s, but that never kept him out of the 40s before. Steve Kerr doesn’t exactly help matters when he refuses to scale Curry’s pick-and-roll usage up until it’s absolutely necessary. Curry could make up for that lost efficiency with higher volume, but the Warriors are dogmatic about their motion offense. They have every right to be. They’re three-time champions. But as valuable as he is off the ball, he just hasn’t produced quite as much with it as his two contemporaries.

Tatum is the hardest to place here because he doesn’t quite dictate the terms of engagement as Curry and Doncic do. It took him five games to solve Milwaukee’s drop coverage. It would have taken Luka five minutes. That’s no knock on Tatum. He’s just a more specific sort of offensive player, something closer to Kawhi than LeBron. As we know, Leonard is an incredibly valuable offensive player. Tatum isn’t quite as lethal in the mid-range, but he’s growing in all of the same ways Leonard once did, and he’s doing so earlier in his career. He’s figured out how to force his way to the line when his shot isn’t falling. He’s grown by leaps and bounds as a playmaker since the last time he faced Miami in the playoffs. And if we’re sticking with the Leonard comparisons, Tatum just held Durant below 39 percent shooting in a four-game sweep. Doncic is a below-average defender. Curry is only slightly better. Tatum is a flat-out stopper. He’s the least valuable offensive player of the trio, but that enormous defensive gap gives him the slightest edge over this iteration of Curry.

But we’ve seen Tatum struggle in the playoffs, at least relative to his own lofty standards. Wes Matthews gave him fits early in the Bucks series. “Struggle” is probably too strong a word for what’s going on with Curry, but he’s undeniably mired in one of the worst shooting stretches of his career, and his shooting numbers have almost always dipped slightly in the playoffs. There are answers to Curry. There are answers to Tatum. They aren’t good answers, mind you. We’re talking about top-five players here. But defenses have found ways to make their lives harder in the playoffs.

That’s what separates Doncic, because based on what we’ve seen so far, there is no answer for him whatsoever. He played Leonard in the playoffs twice and came just shy of a 34-point triple-double average on 50-40 shooting splits. He averaged 29 playing hurt against Rudy Gobert. They have five Defensive Player of the Year awards between them. Mikal Bridges was this season’s runner-up and we all saw what Doncic just did to him. These are the best defenders in basketball … and they had no idea what to do with Doncic whatsoever. He’s defense-proof. Show him any sort of coverage and he’ll solve it by the third or fourth time he’s seen it. Nobody can defend him straight up. He’s too good a passer to blitz. Duck under screens and he’ll rain 3s on you. Chase him over and he’ll duck into you and draw a foul. His floater kills drop coverage. Switch and he tortures your worst defender. If you have any ideas, send them to Steve Kerr. I’m sure he’d appreciate them.

Breaking game plans to that extent is a level of greatness reserved for a very, very small group of players. Prime Shaq did it. Prime LeBron did it. Prime Michael Jordan did it. All of them won championships. Doncic probably isn’t going to do so this season. He’ll probably need the sort of star running mates Curry and Tatum have to eventually overcome them. But the fact that I kept using the word “probably” in those last few sentences is a testament to the uncharted territory Doncic is dragging us into. He’s so good that the typical rules of NBA history might not apply to him. He might not need another All-Star. He might be enough all by himself. That is why he’s the best player left in the playoff field. 

require.config({"baseUrl":"https://sportsfly.cbsistatic.com/fly-0233/bundles/sportsmediajs/js-build","config":{"version":{"fly/components/accordion":"1.0","fly/components/alert":"1.0","fly/components/base":"1.0","fly/components/carousel":"1.0","fly/components/dropdown":"1.0","fly/components/fixate":"1.0","fly/components/form-validate":"1.0","fly/components/image-gallery":"1.0","fly/components/iframe-messenger":"1.0","fly/components/load-more":"1.0","fly/components/load-more-article":"1.0","fly/components/load-more-scroll":"1.0","fly/components/loading":"1.0","fly/components/modal":"1.0","fly/components/modal-iframe":"1.0","fly/components/network-bar":"1.0","fly/components/poll":"1.0","fly/components/search-player":"1.0","fly/components/social-button":"1.0","fly/components/social-counts":"1.0","fly/components/social-links":"1.0","fly/components/tabs":"1.0","fly/components/video":"1.0","fly/libs/easy-xdm":"2.4.17.1","fly/libs/jquery.cookie":"1.2","fly/libs/jquery.throttle-debounce":"1.1","fly/libs/jquery.widget":"1.9.2","fly/libs/omniture.s-code":"1.0","fly/utils/jquery-mobile-init":"1.0","fly/libs/jquery.mobile":"1.3.2","fly/libs/backbone":"1.0.0","fly/libs/underscore":"1.5.1","fly/libs/jquery.easing":"1.3","fly/managers/ad":"2.0","fly/managers/components":"1.0","fly/managers/cookie":"1.0","fly/managers/debug":"1.0","fly/managers/geo":"1.0","fly/managers/gpt":"4.3","fly/managers/history":"2.0","fly/managers/madison":"1.0","fly/managers/social-authentication":"1.0","fly/utils/data-prefix":"1.0","fly/utils/data-selector":"1.0","fly/utils/function-natives":"1.0","fly/utils/guid":"1.0","fly/utils/log":"1.0","fly/utils/object-helper":"1.0","fly/utils/string-helper":"1.0","fly/utils/string-vars":"1.0","fly/utils/url-helper":"1.0","libs/jshashtable":"2.1","libs/select2":"3.5.1","libs/jsonp":"2.4.0","libs/jquery/mobile":"1.4.5","libs/modernizr.custom":"2.6.2","libs/velocity":"1.2.2","libs/dataTables":"1.10.6","libs/dataTables.fixedColumns":"3.0.4","libs/dataTables.fixedHeader":"2.1.2","libs/dateformat":"1.0.3","libs/waypoints/infinite":"3.1.1","libs/waypoints/inview":"3.1.1","libs/waypoints/jquery.waypoints":"3.1.1","libs/waypoints/sticky":"3.1.1","libs/jquery/dotdotdot":"1.6.1","libs/jquery/flexslider":"2.1","libs/jquery/lazyload":"1.9.3","libs/jquery/maskedinput":"1.3.1","libs/jquery/marquee":"1.3.1","libs/jquery/numberformatter":"1.2.3","libs/jquery/placeholder":"0.2.4","libs/jquery/scrollbar":"0.1.6","libs/jquery/tablesorter":"2.0.5","libs/jquery/touchswipe":"1.6.18","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.core":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.draggable":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.mouse":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.position":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.slider":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.sortable":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.touch-punch":"0.2.3","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.autocomplete":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.accordion":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tabs":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.menu":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.dialog":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.resizable":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.button":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tooltip":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.effects":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.datepicker":"1.11.4"}},"shim":{"liveconnection/managers/connection":{"deps":["liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4"]},"liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4":{"exports":"SockJS"},"libs/setValueFromArray":{"exports":"set"},"libs/getValueFromArray":{"exports":"get"},"fly/libs/jquery.mobile-1.3.2":["version!fly/utils/jquery-mobile-init"],"libs/backbone.marionette":{"deps":["jquery","version!fly/libs/underscore","version!fly/libs/backbone"],"exports":"Marionette"},"fly/libs/underscore-1.5.1":{"exports":"_"},"fly/libs/backbone-1.0.0":{"deps":["version!fly/libs/underscore","jquery"],"exports":"Backbone"},"libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tabs-1.11.4":["jquery","version!libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.core","version!fly/libs/jquery.widget"],"libs/jquery/flexslider-2.1":["jquery"],"libs/dataTables.fixedColumns-3.0.4":["jquery","version!libs/dataTables"],"libs/dataTables.fixedHeader-2.1.2":["jquery","version!libs/dataTables"],"https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/app/VideoPlayer/AdobePass-min.js":["https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/util/Utils-min.js"]},"map":{"*":{"adobe-pass":"https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/app/VideoPlayer/AdobePass-min.js","facebook":"https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js","facebook-debug":"https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all/debug.js","google":"https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js","google-platform":"https://apis.google.com/js/client:platform.js","google-csa":"https://www.google.com/adsense/search/async-ads.js","google-javascript-api":"https://www.google.com/jsapi","google-client-api":"https://apis.google.com/js/api:client.js","gpt":"https://securepubads.g.doubleclick.net/tag/js/gpt.js","hlsjs":"https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/hls.js/1.0.7/hls.js","newsroom":"https://c2.taboola.com/nr/cbsinteractive-cbssports/newsroom.js","recaptcha":"https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api.js?onload=loadRecaptcha&render=explicit","recaptcha_ajax":"https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/js/recaptcha_ajax.js","supreme-golf":"https://sgapps-staging.supremegolf.com/search/assets/js/bundle.js","taboola":"https://cdn.taboola.com/libtrc/cbsinteractive-cbssports/loader.js","twitter":"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js","video-avia":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/1.14.0/player/avia.min.js","video-avia-ui":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/1.14.0/plugins/ui/avia.ui.min.js","video-avia-gam":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/1.14.0/plugins/gam/avia.gam.min.js","video-ima3":"https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/sdkloader/ima3.js","video-ima3-dai":"https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/sdkloader/ima3_dai.js","video-utils":"https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/util/Utils-min.js","video-vast-tracking":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/sb55/vast-js/vtg-vast-client.js"}},"waitSeconds":300});



Read original article here

Sports

LeBron James Twitter Q&A – Still planning to play with Bronny; names Luka Doncic as his favorite player

Leave a comment

12:13 AM ET

  • Tory BarronESPN Editor

    Close
      Tory Barron is a Bristol-based writer and editor for ESPN.com. After retiring from playing lacrosse at UConn, the DC native decided to try her hand at writing about people playing sports.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’re probably privy to the fact LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers didn’t make the playoffs. It’s an outcome the 37-year-old — who has made the postseason in 15 of his 19 seasons — vowed will never happen again during his NBA career.

LeBron’s current “early offseason” status means the four-time NBA champion has a little extra time on his hands at the present moment. For that reason, it shouldn’t be entirely shocking that the four-time NBA MVP is seizing the opportunity to vacation with his family (private island in the Maldives — must be nice), watch a lot of basketball and, being a man of the people, conduct a wide-ranging Twitter Q&A with his fans.

Does LeBron still intend to play with his oldest son, Bronny? Which of his former teammates would he want by his side if he had to take on Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen? Who is his favorite player under 25 years old? What are his top five hip-hop albums? Could he take Tom Brady in an ice hockey shootout?

We told you the questions were wide-ranging. Here’s what King James had to say in response to the Twitterverse’s burning inquiries on Monday night:

LeBron is focused on longevity

OK, so it wasn’t exactly the detailed or definite answer we were looking for in regards to how much longer LeBron will play, but he doesn’t sound like someone who intends to call it quits any time soon.

He plans on playing with Bronny

The Lakers star has been consistent on this front. Anybody ask if Bronny is cool with this plan?

Also, for those wondering if Bronny has managed to get the better of his old man yet, it seems like a rematch is imminent.

He’s got love for Luka

LeBron gave Luka Doncic a serious endorsement the night after the Mavericks star’s huge Game 7 performance (35 points, 10 rebounds and four assists in 30 minutes) in Dallas’ critical win over the Phoenix Suns .

It’s official, Luka is your favorite player’s favorite player.

He’s going GOAT vs. GOAT

LeBron was clearly factoring in his Team USA days when selecting his former teammates. To be fair, if LeBron has to take on MJ and Pippen it only feels right he would want to do it alongside Kobe Bryant. Props to Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, too.

Hall of Famers in Bron’s book

LeBron to Orlando? Also, nobody tell him Tracy McGrady got inducted into the Hall of Fame a few years back.

He has respect for the postseason talent

LeBron is clearly a believer in Game 6 Klay.

He’d best Brady on the ice

It’s uncertain why this was Tom Brady’s question, but maybe these are the things seven-time Super Bowl champions contemplate.

Rooting for the home team

When asked for his Champions League Final prediction, LeBron went with the club for which he is a shareholder, Liverpool FC.

He appreciates greatness

Legendary MLB outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. is never the wrong answer.

Big Dr. Dre guy

Lest you think all of the questions were sports-related, LeBron was also asked to list his top five hip-hop albums.

Never let it be said he favors one coast over the other.



Read original article here

Sports

Suns suffer humiliating loss to Luka Doncic, Mavericks

Leave a comment

PHOENIX — The first time it felt like the Suns could be in serious trouble was only a little over two minutes into the game. At that point, Dallas held what was an insignificant 5–3 lead when Luka Dončić dribbled the ball up the middle of the floor across halfcourt. After calling Deandre Ayton into a screen at the top of the key and forcing Mikal Bridges to fight over it, Dončić did what he had done many times already during the series: He dribbled left and effortlessly stepped back into a three-pointer, giving him all eight of the Mavs’ points.

Almost immediately, you could sense a slight murmur in the crowd. In that moment the ball splashed through the net, Dončić went from 23-year-old wunderkind to horror-movie villain realizing the strength of his own powers. And he and his team never looked back.

Phoenix’s season—which before the playoffs had been the best in franchise history—ended in shocking, confusing, humiliating fashion on Sunday night. The Suns were pummeled in a 123–90 loss. It still doesn’t feel completely real. It wasn’t supposed to go this way. Didn’t Dončić still need more playoff seasoning before he could make the Finals? Wasn’t this supposed to be the storybook finish that had long eluded Chris Paul? Weren’t the Suns far and away the best team in the NBA? Dallas put all those questions to bed mercilessly and with brutality in what was a landscape-changing win for the league.

Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports

You have to start with Dončić. Every time he dribbled the ball up the floor after that early stepback you could sense the nervous, uncomfortable energy in the arena. How will he hurt us next? Luka toyed with DPOY-finalist Mikal Bridges. He posted up a center in Ayton and a point guard in Chris Paul and found success doing both. Dončić was ruthless, scoring at ease and laughing in the face of Phoenix’s agony. A few Suns players tried to find ways to unwind before Sunday’s Game 7. Devin Booker said he would play video games or take a dip in his pool to cool off from the oppressive Valley heat. Jae Crowder got a massage and watched some Ozark on Netflix. But there’s a reason why Monty Williams said before the game he could barely sleep. And that’s largely because of a player like Dončić, who can turn a top-three defense into dust with a smile.

By halftime, Luka had as many points as the entire Suns team combined. (He finished the game with 35. Phoenix’s starters had 37.) It was as thorough of a whooping as you will ever see in professional sports, and that’s with some great players on the other side of the floor.

It was a particularly ignominious loss for Paul, whose playoff career—fair or unfair—somehow continues to be defined by missed opportunities. The OKC turnover. The 3–1 lead against Houston. The hamstring injury vs. the Warriors. The 2–0 lead in the Finals. And now, one of the most unexpected blowouts ever. How much can one of the best to ever dribble a basketball—which is unquestionable, no matter how much he may irritate you—endure?

Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports

Scroll to Continue

Paul didn’t give anything away after the game. He said it was just one loss. He said his only message to the team was it’s time to get back to work. He said he feels like they’ll be back next year (and that people have been saying he blew his best chance at a title since 2008). The reality is it’s hard to fathom Paul being in a position this advantageous again. Luka is not going anywhere. Presumably the Lakers will be somewhat better. The Nuggets and Clippers will be healthier. The Warriors still have Steph, Klay, and Dray. Paul had a Game 7 on his home floor, and couldn’t capitalize. And that’s not even getting into his personal performance in this series, which dipped dramatically after a masterpiece in Game 2.

For his entire career, Paul has been one of the players in the league most adept at forcing a game to be played under his terms. He even out-manipulated Luka earlier in the series. Which made it all the more shocking that as Game 7 slipped away early, he couldn’t get a grip. The Mavs’ defense deserves a ton of credit, from their full-court pressure to crisp rotations. That still doesn’t make Paul’s play less of a headscratcher. (Though there were reports of a quad injury after the game. For what it’s worth, Paul was never listed on the injury report during the series.)

Meanwhile, Devin Booker struggled with blitzes and couldn’t find the hoop. Bridges went 0-for-3 from beyond the arc, which means he finished the series with five made threes, or as many as Spencer Dinwiddie hit in Game 7 alone. Ayton played only 17 minutes amid clear tension with Williams. (After the game, when asked about Ayton’s limited playing time, a normally soft-spoken Monty offered a terse, stern, “It’s internal.”) Nobody stepped up, even though as Cam Johnson put it, the “want and desire” was very much there.

Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports

The loss was a record-scratch moment for the Suns. You play all year to get homecourt in a Game 7 only to be run off the floor anyway. Now what? Paul will turn 38 before the Finals next year. You hope Booker and Bridges get better, sure. But what about Ayton, who finished the series poorly and now heads to restricted free agency? What happens at backup point guard after Cam Payne was benched in the middle of the series? Does Johnson get an extension, or does he enter a contract year like Ayton did? And then there’s the matter of owner Robert Sarver, the subject of a league investigation surrounding a hostile workplace, the results of which have yet to be made public. In an ideal world, those questions come after the Finals when everybody’s breath still smells like champagne. Instead, they come abruptly, like all the lights being switched on in the middle of the night.

Dallas, on the other hand, gets to be ahead of schedule. Instead of facing questions about how to build around Luka, the Mavs won a series nobody expected them to win. They are playing with house money, a dangerous proposition for anybody forced to deal with their tailor made-for-the-postseason style of basketball. You could sense the jubilation in the bowels of the arena after the game. The cheers emanating from the Dallas locker room sounded louder than anything the fans could muster in the second half. Good luck to the Warriors, the latest team forced to deal with the Dončić conundrum.

From Paul’s legacy to Luka’s chance to become the guy to beat, the fallout of this game is significant. Only two teams with as many wins as the Suns (the 2007 Mavs and 2016 Spurs) failed to reach at least the conference finals in league history. And that stat still doesn’t really fully begin to capture how shocking Phoenix’s loss was. These kinds of defeats don’t happen in the NBA, both on a one-game level and a series level. For the second straight summer, the Suns will have to dig deep to respond.

One of the coachisms Monty Williams dropped early in Round 2 was having “appropriate fear” of the opponent. You want to believe you can win, but also respect the opponent’s ability to beat you. Seemingly every time Dončić had the ball Sunday night after that early stepback three, you could sense the crowd’s fear growing. Could one player really ruin all that we’ve accomplished? It’s not exactly that simple. But Suns fans were ultimately right to be terrified.

More NBA Coverage:



Read original article here

Sports

Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks author dominant Game 7 effort en route to eliminating Phoenix Suns

Leave a comment

PHOENIX — The Western Conference finals will have a surprise participant after Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks dismissed the top-seeded Phoenix Suns from the NBA playoffs in completely dominant fashion.

The Mavericks claimed the right to advance to face the Golden State Warriors by rolling to a 123-90 rout of the Suns in Sunday’s Game 7.

After falling in an 0-2 hole with a pair of road losses, Dallas won four out of five games, putting the finishing touches on the series by humiliating the Phoenix home court. The Footprint Center crowd booed the Suns at the halftime buzzer — when the 30-point deficit was the largest ever at the half of a Game 7, according to ESPN Stats & Information research — and frequently in the second half.

Doncic, the Mavericks’ 23-year-old sensation, punched his ticket to the conference finals for the first time with a 35-point, 10-rebound, four-assist performance in 30 minutes. He sat out the entire fourth quarter, as the game was well in hand by that point.

“He’s Luka,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. “He loves the stage. As it gets bigger, he gets better.”

Doncic seized control on the opening possession, when he swished a turnaround jumper that gave Dallas the lead for good. He finished the first half with 27 points, matching Phoenix’s total, and became the first player in at least 25 seasons to equal or exceed an opponent’s scoring in a half of a playoff game.

Dallas sixth man Spencer Dinwiddie was almost as spectacular, scoring 21 of his playoff career-high 30 points in the first half. It marked the first time that a pair of teammates each scored at least 20 points in a half of a Game 7 since the New York Knicks tandem of Patrick Ewing and Allan Houston did it against the Miami Heat in 1997.

Meanwhile, the Suns’ star trio of Devin Booker, Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton combined to make only one of their 15 shots from the floor in the first half.

Paul, the 37-year-old legend who hoped to finally earn a championship ring after coming up short in his first NBA Finals appearance last season, didn’t get a bucket until the Suns trailed by 40 points midway through the third quarter. Booker’s first basket didn’t come until a bit later in the quarter.

Read original article here

Sports

Suns vs. Mavericks score, takeaways: Luka Doncic, Jalen Brunson lead Dallas to crucial Game 3 win over Phoenix

Leave a comment

The Dallas Mavericks have newfound life in their best-of-seven series against the Phoenix Suns following Friday night’s 103-94 victory in Game 3 to help Dallas avoid what would easily be considered an insurmountable 3-0 deficit. With the win, the Mavericks now have the opportunity to even the series on their home floor on Sunday.

Luka Doncic was fantastic for Dallas in the win finishing the game with 26 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists but he also had plenty of help as four other Mavericks players scored in double figures, led by Jalen Brunson’s game-high 28 points. On the other end, Phoenix’s entire starting lineup scored in double figures but they did not receive enough support from their bench in order to keep pace with Dallas. 

We’ll see what happens next when these two teams meet again this Sunday. 

Here are three key takeaways from the game:

1. Doncic puts on a show with post footwork

The Suns pulled away from the Mavericks in Game 2 in large part because they attacked Luka Doncic over and over again on the defensive end, and he had no answers. It was so bad that Doncic got called out by head coach Jason Kidd, who said he needed to “participate and play defense.”

While Doncic didn’t suddenly turn into prime Scottie Pippen, he was at least participating on that end in Game 3. And in truth, that’s more than enough when he’s dominating on the offensive side of the ball. Though hampered by foul trouble at times, Doncic put together another terrific performance on Friday, finishing with 26 points, 13 rebounds, nine assists and two steals in just 34 minutes. 

But while Doncic typically amazes with his passing or step-back 3-pointers, he went deep into his bag of tricks in Game 3 and put on a show with his post footwork. He absolutely cooked Deandre Ayton with a classic up-and-under:

Then he took Devin Booker into the paint and faked and pivoted his way into another easy bucket:

Eight of Doncic’s 11 field goals came at the rim, as he worked his way inside early and often in Game 3. While Doncic needs to play his part on defense, this game was another reminder that he makes his money when he has the ball in his hands. 

2. Brunson, Mavs role players step up

The first two games of this series were the Luka Doncic show for the Mavericks on offense — even more so than usual. He either scored or assisted on 43 of the Mavericks’ 76 field goals (56.6 percent) in Games 1 and 2. That’s impressive, but it’s also not a recipe for success against a team as great as the Suns. 

Dallas needed its role players to step up and provide some other offensive options if they wanted a chance to get back in this series. To their credit, they did exactly that on Friday night. The bench points were fairly even — 18-17 in favor of the Mavericks — but the other starters around Doncic were terrific. Reggie Bullock, Dorian Finney-Smith and Jalen Brunson all scored in double figures, and combined for 47 points. 

Brunson, in particular, was key. He was awesome in the first round against the Utah Jazz, carrying the Mavericks at the time in Doncic’s absence. But against the Suns he had been unable to get anything going. That changed in Game 3, as he came out aggressive and had 10 points in the first quarter. He kept that mindset up the rest of the way and finished with 28 points, four rebounds and five assists in by far his best game of the series. 

The Mavericks will need Brunson to carry this over into Game 4 if they want to tie the series. 

3. Paul, Suns off their game

The Mavericks deserve a lot of credit for how they responded in Game 3. They were down 2-0 and had been embarrassed at times in Phoenix during the first two games. This was a big-time statement that they weren’t about to lie down and let the Suns walk all over them en route to the Western Conference finals. 

At the same time, we have to acknowledge that this was just a strange performance by the Suns. The first few minutes went well, but after that, they looked nothing like the team that had cruised to a 2-0 series lead and looked like the class of the Western Conference. They were sloppy with the ball, missing shots they usually make and just generally seemed out of sorts. 

Nothing epitomized that more than Chris Paul’s seven turnovers in the first half. He didn’t have that many turnovers in the first two games combined and had never had even six turnovers in a half in a playoff game in his career. The Mavericks’ defense played a part, but there were a bunch of uncharacteristic plays where Paul just lost the ball or threw an off-target pass. 

In the weirdest moment of all, he turned down a wide-open layup to throw a hook pass with his left hand that caught Deandre Ayton completely off guard. 

Again, the Mavericks won this game. This isn’t to take away from what they accomplished, but rather to not that it was an odd performance from Paul — on his birthday, no less. 

require.config({"baseUrl":"https://sportsfly.cbsistatic.com/fly-0226/bundles/sportsmediajs/js-build","config":{"version":{"fly/components/accordion":"1.0","fly/components/alert":"1.0","fly/components/base":"1.0","fly/components/carousel":"1.0","fly/components/dropdown":"1.0","fly/components/fixate":"1.0","fly/components/form-validate":"1.0","fly/components/image-gallery":"1.0","fly/components/iframe-messenger":"1.0","fly/components/load-more":"1.0","fly/components/load-more-article":"1.0","fly/components/load-more-scroll":"1.0","fly/components/loading":"1.0","fly/components/modal":"1.0","fly/components/modal-iframe":"1.0","fly/components/network-bar":"1.0","fly/components/poll":"1.0","fly/components/search-player":"1.0","fly/components/social-button":"1.0","fly/components/social-counts":"1.0","fly/components/social-links":"1.0","fly/components/tabs":"1.0","fly/components/video":"1.0","fly/libs/easy-xdm":"2.4.17.1","fly/libs/jquery.cookie":"1.2","fly/libs/jquery.throttle-debounce":"1.1","fly/libs/jquery.widget":"1.9.2","fly/libs/omniture.s-code":"1.0","fly/utils/jquery-mobile-init":"1.0","fly/libs/jquery.mobile":"1.3.2","fly/libs/backbone":"1.0.0","fly/libs/underscore":"1.5.1","fly/libs/jquery.easing":"1.3","fly/managers/ad":"2.0","fly/managers/components":"1.0","fly/managers/cookie":"1.0","fly/managers/debug":"1.0","fly/managers/geo":"1.0","fly/managers/gpt":"4.3","fly/managers/history":"2.0","fly/managers/madison":"1.0","fly/managers/social-authentication":"1.0","fly/utils/data-prefix":"1.0","fly/utils/data-selector":"1.0","fly/utils/function-natives":"1.0","fly/utils/guid":"1.0","fly/utils/log":"1.0","fly/utils/object-helper":"1.0","fly/utils/string-helper":"1.0","fly/utils/string-vars":"1.0","fly/utils/url-helper":"1.0","libs/jshashtable":"2.1","libs/select2":"3.5.1","libs/jsonp":"2.4.0","libs/jquery/mobile":"1.4.5","libs/modernizr.custom":"2.6.2","libs/velocity":"1.2.2","libs/dataTables":"1.10.6","libs/dataTables.fixedColumns":"3.0.4","libs/dataTables.fixedHeader":"2.1.2","libs/dateformat":"1.0.3","libs/waypoints/infinite":"3.1.1","libs/waypoints/inview":"3.1.1","libs/waypoints/jquery.waypoints":"3.1.1","libs/waypoints/sticky":"3.1.1","libs/jquery/dotdotdot":"1.6.1","libs/jquery/flexslider":"2.1","libs/jquery/lazyload":"1.9.3","libs/jquery/maskedinput":"1.3.1","libs/jquery/marquee":"1.3.1","libs/jquery/numberformatter":"1.2.3","libs/jquery/placeholder":"0.2.4","libs/jquery/scrollbar":"0.1.6","libs/jquery/tablesorter":"2.0.5","libs/jquery/touchswipe":"1.6.18","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.core":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.draggable":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.mouse":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.position":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.slider":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.sortable":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.touch-punch":"0.2.3","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.autocomplete":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.accordion":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tabs":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.menu":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.dialog":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.resizable":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.button":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tooltip":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.effects":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.datepicker":"1.11.4"}},"shim":{"liveconnection/managers/connection":{"deps":["liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4"]},"liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4":{"exports":"SockJS"},"libs/setValueFromArray":{"exports":"set"},"libs/getValueFromArray":{"exports":"get"},"fly/libs/jquery.mobile-1.3.2":["version!fly/utils/jquery-mobile-init"],"libs/backbone.marionette":{"deps":["jquery","version!fly/libs/underscore","version!fly/libs/backbone"],"exports":"Marionette"},"fly/libs/underscore-1.5.1":{"exports":"_"},"fly/libs/backbone-1.0.0":{"deps":["version!fly/libs/underscore","jquery"],"exports":"Backbone"},"libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tabs-1.11.4":["jquery","version!libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.core","version!fly/libs/jquery.widget"],"libs/jquery/flexslider-2.1":["jquery"],"libs/dataTables.fixedColumns-3.0.4":["jquery","version!libs/dataTables"],"libs/dataTables.fixedHeader-2.1.2":["jquery","version!libs/dataTables"],"https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/app/VideoPlayer/AdobePass-min.js":["https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/util/Utils-min.js"]},"map":{"*":{"adobe-pass":"https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/app/VideoPlayer/AdobePass-min.js","facebook":"https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js","facebook-debug":"https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all/debug.js","google":"https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js","google-platform":"https://apis.google.com/js/client:platform.js","google-csa":"https://www.google.com/adsense/search/async-ads.js","google-javascript-api":"https://www.google.com/jsapi","google-client-api":"https://apis.google.com/js/api:client.js","gpt":"https://securepubads.g.doubleclick.net/tag/js/gpt.js","hlsjs":"https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/hls.js/1.0.7/hls.js","newsroom":"https://c2.taboola.com/nr/cbsinteractive-cbssports/newsroom.js","recaptcha":"https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api.js?onload=loadRecaptcha&render=explicit","recaptcha_ajax":"https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/js/recaptcha_ajax.js","supreme-golf":"https://sgapps-staging.supremegolf.com/search/assets/js/bundle.js","taboola":"https://cdn.taboola.com/libtrc/cbsinteractive-cbssports/loader.js","twitter":"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js","video-avia":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/1.14.0/player/avia.min.js","video-avia-ui":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/1.14.0/plugins/ui/avia.ui.min.js","video-avia-gam":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/1.14.0/plugins/gam/avia.gam.min.js","video-ima3":"https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/sdkloader/ima3.js","video-ima3-dai":"https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/sdkloader/ima3_dai.js","video-utils":"https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/util/Utils-min.js","video-vast-tracking":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/sb55/vast-js/vtg-vast-client.js"}},"waitSeconds":300});



Read original article here