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On Christmas, the NFL’s average audience was five times larger than the NBA’s
The NFL vs. NBA on XMA(s) was a TKO.
In the biggest test yet of pro football’s muscle on December 25, the league for the first time ever put three games up against a five-game, all-day slate of NBA action. The audience gravitated to the game played with the oblong ball.
The widely-circulated numbers paint a very stark picture.
Packers-Dolphins: 25.92 million viewers. (This was the only game of the day between a pair of playoff contenders.)
Broncos-Rams: 22.57 million viewers. (Both teams had been eliminated from the postseason, with the Rams winning 51-14.)
Buccaneers-Cardinals: 17.15 million viewers. (The Cardinals were starting a third-string quarterback in a game between two teams under .500.)
76ers-Knicks: 4.04 million viewers.
Lakers-Mavericks: 4.33 million viewers.
Bucks-Celtics: 6.03 million viewers.
Grizzlies-Warriors: 4.70 million viewers.
Suns-Nuggets: 2.49 million viewers.
That’s an average viewership of 21.88 million for the NFL, and 4.318 million for the NBA. The NFL drew an audience more than five times bigger than the NBA’s.
And remember — the NBA games weren’t televised only on ESPN. ABC simulcast each and every one of them, in an obvious effort to boost the ratings.
What does this mean for the NFL and the Nielsen ratings of Christmas future? Look for the NFL to constantly find a way to fill the day, regardless of the day of the week on which it lands.
In 2023, it will be easy. Play a full slate of games on Sunday, December 24, and play three on Monday, December 25.
In 2024, it gets a little more complicated. Thanks to the leap year, Christmas nudges to Wednesday. How will the NFL manage the schedule to put games on a Wednesday? The best (and perhaps only) option would be to give the six Christmas teams the prior Sunday off, giving them a very late bye week — but giving them basically two half-byes, with a 10-day break and then an 11-day break.
In 2025, Christmas lands on Thursday, just like Thanksgiving. In 2026, Friday. In 2027, Saturday. In 2028, Monday.
Given the performance of the NFL with the captive audience of Christmas, look for the NFL to find a way to keep stealing Christmas away from the NBA.
And imagine how big the NFL’s numbers will be if/when the games are more entertaining than this year’s trio was.
NBA’s City Edition jerseys for 2022-23 are out. Here are some of their backstories
The NBA released its newest slate of City Edition jerseys, the ones teams will wear for the 2022-23 season. These uniforms, from jersey to shorts, usually carry some kind of thematic tie to the franchise’s home city.
The Athletic spoke to Jesse Alvarez, Nike’s product director of men’s basketball, to get a sense of how some of the most notable City Edition jerseys were designed and the details fans should look for when watching their teams play.
I want to start with the Spurs jersey. Can you walk me through the design and the inspiration for it?
Photo courtesy of the NBA.
The Spurs, I think, as a lot of people remember, have one of the most iconic All Star Game uniforms that we’ve done, just in the world of jersey culture. So you can see some pretty clear nods to that in terms of just the color and the vibe. That was really the focus for that one, to be able to tie that in. You asked about some of the details: I think the belt buckle ‘SA’ and the Spur logos on the belt hook was just like a really nice way to round out and add a subtle detail to highlight the All Star uniform that they’ve been synonymous with.
So I recognize the coloring for that when I’m looking at those jerseys. The Pistons ones are green, a color I don’t associate usually with Pistons colors. What happened there?
Detroit has an amazing story. One of the things about that story is St. Cecilia. So St. Cecilia is really a place where players used to go run and play pickup basketball. And so that color, the green, is inspired by the actual St. Cecilia. That, coupled with the iconic details of the short patch, you’ll actually see like a stained glass or a grab that’s inspired by the stained glass that shows up at St. Cecilia, with a 313 logo at the center of it just as a way to weave those stories together. The mantra of St. Cecilia was ‘Where stars are made, not born.’ So it just really packages that story all together to bring that to life.
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Did you guys send people there to kind of look through the gym and just walk through it?
Yeah, so we actually partner with the team, and so the team was over there. They’re sending us pictures, you name it. Anything that we needed, we got to be able to really bring that to life. Like with any uniform, really, it starts with the team. They know their fan bases the best. And so that’s where all those points of inspiration are coming from.
Photo courtesy of the NBA.
For you, do you have a favorite jersey?
You know, it’s funny, I was just telling someone it’s hard to have a favorite. Especially, they all feel like your kids. But I think, just right behind you, Chicago. I really like Chicago. I think how the municipal Y shows up in a number of different ways. And the symbology behind it, like uniting a city and how the Bulls at the center of the the Y on the side profile. I think this is a great representation of how a team is at the heart of a city. So Chicago is where I live.
I liked the color pattern on the Timberwolves one, but obviously it’s not something that’s associated with the Wolves. What is that about? What makes that unique?
One of the unique things about City Edition (jerseys) just in general, before I answer your question, is that with each story from an organization, they get to take it to wherever place they want to go. So Minnesota is known as being a creative hotspot for artists of all sorts. That (jersey) is a nod to some of the creative community. So one of the things that makes that uniform unique is that the pattern that you see in the uniform, it actually gets cut in a different way for every uniform. So every uniform is a unique one, just kind of as a way that each creative is unique in their own way. So that’s really how that story comes to life.
So you guys have like a big pattern of all these colors. Each swatch is different for each uniform?
Think about it more in in terms of when you think about how a uniform was made, each piece gets cut, so no two pieces are the same. So when they’re sewing those things together, every uniform is going to be slightly different, just like a fingerprint.
Photo courtesy of the NBA.
I know sometimes you guys collaborate not only with teams but with like certain individuals on creating the jerseys. Is there anyone notable here that helps you with the creation, with the ideation of some jerseys?
Yeah, Detroit’s a great example. Big Sean is the creative director with the Pistons, so he’s somebody who helped bring that to life. Right behind you, you have KITH with the New York Knicks. Those are those are the two teams that are top of mind. Just kind of highlight some of the names that also work with organizations to bring their city edition uniforms to life.
I was looking at the Hornets’. That’s the angriest hornet I’ve ever seen in my life.
It’s an aggressive hornet. Really cool story, I think, centered around the Mint. So one of the cool things — I’m not sure if you were able to take a look at it — but the pinstripes are actually a nod to the Mint. The Mint is, you know, the source of inspiration for that uniform. The gold lettering with the mint trim, just harkens back to the financial inspiration with the Mint being in Charlotte.
Heat City Edition jersey” width=”1022″ height=”1024″ /> Photo courtesy of the NBA.
And the last one, I heard you talking about the Heat jersey. Can you kind of walk me through that one, especially the rope on the side. That seems to be a really cool detail.
So if you’ve ever turned on a game for the Heat, you’ll see that there’s actual yellow rope that surround the cord. They use the yellow piping to be able to be inspired by that yellow rope that you will see during the game. Their concept is kind of their chapter two of their mashup that they introduced last year.
This year, they flipped the color to white and then they took different components from previous iconic elements of their identity and mash those up together to be able to have this customized look. So you’ll see elements of their Floridians, their white hot, vice versa. All those different kinds of stamps in time that have made up the Heat organization, all mashed up into one uniform.
(All photos courtesy of the NBA)
Memphis Grizzlies to play Golden State Warriors as part of NBA’s Christmas Day slate
The Memphis Grizzlies are in line to be part of the NBA’s Christmas Day slate of games for the first time.
Ja Morant and the Grizzlies will face Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and the rest of the reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors on Dec. 25 in San Francisco, a source with knowledge of the league’s scheduling plans told The Associated Press.
The Grizzlies were one of two current NBA franchises yet to have a game on Dec. 25. The Charlotte Hornets are now the only club still waiting for its first Christmas schedule invite.
The rest of the Christmas schedule will have Philadelphia facing New York, Milwaukee meeting Boston, the Los Angeles Lakers playing against Dallas and Phoenix going up against two-time reigning MVP Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets.
The Athletic was first to report on the full Christmas Day lineup of games. The NBA is expected to release the season’s full schedule later this week. The season opens Oct. 18. Training camps open in late September.
If the Lakers’ LeBron James — the all-time Christmas scoring leader, who enters the season 1,325 points behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most in NBA history — appears in that Dec. 25 game against the Mavericks, it’ll be his 17th time playing on the holiday. That would break a tie with Lakers great Kobe Bryant for the most ever.
Golden State and Memphis met in the second round of last season’s playoffs, as did Milwaukee and Boston.
This will mark the fifth consecutive year that Christmas — again, barring a late change — does not feature a rematch of the NBA Finals. Golden State topped Boston for last season’s championship; there hasn’t been a Finals rematch on Dec. 25 since the Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers played in the 2017-18 season, on their way to a fourth consecutive meeting in the title series.
Noticeably absent from the Christmas schedule: Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets. Durant told the Nets in June that he wants a trade elsewhere, reiterating that request earlier this month.
Dallas will host a Christmas game for the second time. The first was in 2011, after the Mavericks topped the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals the previous season. James and the Heat spoiled that season opener for the Mavericks, winning 105-94.
The Lakers will be playing on Christmas for the 24th consecutive year, by far the longest stretch in the league. Golden State will make its 10th consecutive Christmas appearance, Boston its seventh in a row and Milwaukee its fifth straight on Dec. 25.
New York is playing on Christmas for the 55th time, extending its record.
Of the eight teams that made the conference semifinals last season, seven appear on this year’s Christmas schedule. The exception is Miami, the No. 1 seed in the East last season, which fell to Boston in seven games in the Eastern Conference finals.
With Memphis now getting a Dec. 25 game, the longest Christmas droughts besides Charlotte’s belong to Sacramento (last Christmas game in 2003), Indiana (2004), Detroit (2005) and Orlando (2011).
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
How Celtics grew into NBA’s most resilient team, going from ‘lowest moment’ in January to Finals in June
On Jan. 6, the Boston Celtics blew a 25-point lead to the New York Knicks, and lost in heartbreaking fashion when RJ Barrett banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer. That was the Celtics’ fifth loss in seven games, and dropped them to 11th place in the Eastern Conference at 18-21.
A frustrated and disappointed Ime Udoka sat at the podium and let his team have it after that loss. The Celtics’ first-year head coach called them out for a “lack of mental toughness to fight through those adverse times.”
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“I feel like he’s 100 percent right, to be honest,” Robert Williams III said at the time. “We get rattled a lot, especially when we’re facing adversity. We’ve got to find in ourselves the fight to just come together.”
Five months later, the team has not only come together, it has advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2010. On Sunday night, the Celtics hung on by a thread down the stretch to beat the Miami Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, 100-96.
The postgame message this time around was a bit different:
“Two Game 7s in the last two series,” Udoka said. “Shows what I said about our group. That we fought through a lot of adversity this year. A resilient group. Tonight seemed to typify our season.”
The Celtics still have their flaws. They’re turnover prone, can be taken out of games at times by worrying too much about the officials, and have issues scoring in crunch time. They blew a 14-point lead to the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 5 of the second round, lost Game 6 of this series at home despite holding a late lead and saw their 13-point lead in the final few minutes of Game 7 get whittled down to two in the closing seconds.
But even if they don’t always make it easy on themselves, they always have a response.
“That’s what we do, we did all that on purpose to make it interesting,” Jaylen Brown said. “No, I’m just kidding. But that’s us. We’ve been responding all year, all season to adversity. Today was the biggest test, not just of the year but of our careers, to mentally come into a Game 7 away after losing on our home court, which was tough, and we got it done.”
There were mini examples throughout this game. When their 17-point lead was cut to six at halftime (in part due to some questionable officiating), they went on a quick 7-1 run out of the break to push it back to double figures. When the Heat made another charge at the start of the fourth quarter to make it a three-point game, the Celtics rattled off an 8-0 run. And finally, when the Heat got it back down to two in the closing seconds, Marcus Smart hit two clutch free throws to help seal the deal.
That was the mental toughness and resilience we’ve seen from this group throughout the playoffs. They’re 3-0 in elimination games, including two wins on the road, have won two Game 7s and are still a perfect 6-0 following a loss. In fact, they haven’t lost back-to-back games since late March.
At times, it’s hard to believe this is the same team that sat there on that fateful January night in New York wondering where everything had gone wrong. That defeat still lingers in Tatum’s mind. He referenced it again on Sunday, calling it the “lowest moment” of the season.
In another world, that could have been the beginning of the end for this group. Whether Tatum and Brown could play together was a constant topic of debate, not only in local Boston media, but on a national level. Marcus Smart’s ability to run the team was in constant question, and he was subject to trade rumors yet again. There was skepticism, too, about whether Udoka was the right man for the job.
Even internally, the doubts were starting to creep in.
“It was tough,” Tatum said. “Like truly. There were definitely some tough moments throughout the season where — not doubt yourself but maybe question, right, question, can we do it? You start to realize how hard it is to win. You start to question yourself; are you good enough to be that guy?
“But I think you just trust in yourself, trust in the work that you put in to get to this point and continue to work. It can’t rain forever. Good days were coming. I felt that we were — whatever it was, one step away from clicking throughout the season, and obviously once we did, we haven’t looked back.”
Not when they blew that game to the Knicks and were sitting outside of play-in tournament position. Not when they choked away Game 5 to the Bucks in the second round and had to win two straight elimination games. Not when they fell apart down the stretch in Game 6 of the East finals and had to go back to Miami for a Game 7 on the road.
No matter the situation, the Celtics were always confident in their abilities and eager for a chance to respond. For the past four months, they’ve been focused on the next game and the next opportunity. Now, they have their biggest one yet.
“I think it’s all right to enjoy this tonight and be happy because it’s hard,” Tatum said. “It’s not easy — clearly this is my first time being in the championship. It is not easy. We know we have a tough task ahead. They’ve been there many a times, they’ve won many a times. I’m looking forward to it.”
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Marcus Smart, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Rudy Gobert headline NBA’s All-Defensive teams
Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart, Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert and Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo highlighted the 2021-22 NBA All-Defensive teams, which were announced on Friday night.
Smart, the league’s 2021-22 Defensive Player of the Year, earned his third first-team nod. He was joined at the guard spot by Mikal Bridges of the Phoenix Suns, who earned his first career All-Defensive team nod. Smart and Bridges were the top two vote-getters.
Antetokounmpo picked up his fifth All-Defensive team award and his fourth first-team selection. Since All-Defensive Teams were first announced in 1968-69, the only other players with four first-team selections and multiple MVPs are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Tim Duncan.
Antetokounmpo was joined at the forward spot by Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr. who, like Bridges, earned his first selection.
Gobert, who had won three of the last four Defensive Player of the Year awards, earned his sixth consecutive selection. That breaks a tie with Hakeem Olajuwon and Abdul-Jabbar for the most consecutive first-team honors for a center.
The second team was Milwaukee’s Jrue Holiday, Philadelphia’s Matisse Thybulle, Miami’s Bam Adebayo, Golden State’s Draymond Green and Boston’s Robert Williams III.
With Smart and Williams making the team, it’s the first time Boston has had multiple players on the All-Defensive Team since Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett made the squad in 2011-12.
The Celtics had six players end up with a vote as Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Al Horford all picked up a first-team vote. Celtics reserve guard Derrick White, acquired at the trade deadline from the San Antonio Spurs, received three second-team votes.
Holiday’s selection, his fourth overall, earned him a $120,000 bonus.
It was Green’s seventh selection to the team, and he did so playing in just 46 games. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, only Andrei Kirilenko (41 in 2004-05) and Scottie Pippen (44 in 1997-98) made the All-Defensive team playing in fewer games.
Adebayo made his third career All-Defensive team (all second teams) while it was Thybulle’s second and Williams’ first.
Rookies Evan Mobley of Cleveland and Herb Jones of New Orleans were the fifth and sixth-place vote-getters for forwards. They missed out on becoming the first rookies to make the All-Defensive team since Tim Duncan did so in 1997-98.
Ranking 20 best players in NBA’s conference finals round: Luka Doncic, Jayson Tatum or Stephen Curry No. 1?
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.)
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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.
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What matters most in one of the NBA’s tightest Eastern Conference playoff races ever
The top of the NBA’s Eastern Conference couldn’t be much more compact.
Entering Tuesday’s action, four teams — the Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers — were within a single loss of one another.
And, in serendipitous timing, all four were set to face off, with the Bucks playing in Philadelphia on Tuesday, followed by the Heat and Celtics squaring off in Boston on Wednesday — a 24-hour span that could have delivered a pair of Eastern Conference semifinal previews.
Let’s look at one key question surrounding each of the conference’s top four teams as they prepare for the playoffs, and how each storyline played out in two high-level matchups.
The results — a pair of close, competitive games with Milwaukee and Miami both winning on the road — only whet the appetite for what should be a scintillating spring full of playoff action in the East.
Is Lowry Miami’s playoff X factor?
When Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was asked whether Kyle Lowry’s do-it-all performance in Miami’s win against the Celtics on Wednesday night was indicative of the kind of performances the Heat expected when they signed him last summer, Spoelstra smiled.
“Look, we’ve been on the other side of it,” Spoelstra said. “There were many years that I just really did not like Kyle Lowry, because he was such a thorn in our side.”
Spoelstra pointed to the seven-game series between the Toronto Raptors and Miami in the first round of the 2016 playoffs, which Lowry’s Raptors won.
“As that series got deeper, the better he played in clutch moments,” Spoelstra said. “You can’t define it by an analytic or a number or a playcall … he just knows how to make winning plays.”
Lowry made all sorts of them Wednesday. He finished with 23 points (6-for-12 from 3-point range) and eight assists in 36 minutes. He played his usual brand of in-your-face defense despite collecting four fouls down the stretch.
“That’s just a great luxury to have a Hall of Fame point guard who can choreograph your offense but also take on big challenges defensively on the other end,” Spoelstra said.
It’s been an up-and-down season during Lowry’s first in Miami after nine seasons with the Raptors, particularly because he has missed chunks of time to deal with personal matters. After a rocky week that saw Miami relinquish three fourth-quarter leads and get pummeled at home by the Brooklyn Nets, this performance was vintage Lowry.
Coming into Boston, which had been the hottest team in the league over the past two-plus months, and winning a back-and-forth game was a perfect elixir to wash away the ugly moments of last week.
In last year’s lopsided first-round sweep to Milwaukee, the Heat were exposed as a team that needed another playmaker. Adding Lowry gave them a guard who could helm their offense, remain part of the Heat’s defensive identity and provide the kind of offensive jolt he gave Miami on Wednesday inside TD Garden.
“I think having a real live point guard that’s a pass-first guy who has of late, ‘Screw pass-first, I’m going to score first.’ … That’s good,” Jimmy Butler said. “I miss Goran [Dragic] like hell, I like handling the ball, Tyler [Herro] likes handling the ball.
“But having a guy like Kyle that’s telling everybody where to go, knowing how to get everyone the ball. … Yes, we needed Kyle Lowry.”
How will Boston adjust to life without its anchor?
In Boston’s first test without Robert Williams III, who will be sidelined at least four weeks after meniscus surgery, the results were a mixed bag.
Heat center Bam Adebayo controlled the game. In a reminder of what Adebayo did to Boston in the 2020 East finals, he finished with 17 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists. It wasn’t a coincidence that he was a plus-12 in 33 minutes, and Al Horford, who struggled to 6 points on 2-for-6 shooting, was minus-14 in 34 minutes. Grant Williams, meanwhile, was 2-for-7 from the field, and missed all three of his 3-point shots in his first start in place of Robert Williams alongside the rest of Boston’s usual starting lineup of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and Horford.
Meanwhile, Daniel Theis finished with 15 points on perfect 6-for-6 shooting in 17 minutes.
It’s a reminder of the varying skill sets Boston must now use to match Robert Williams’ impact at both ends of the court.
“We feel confident with the three bigs, [and] the versatility that they have,” Celtics coach Ime Udoka said. “It’s not the same as Rob from the shot-blocking perspective, but a lot of the similar things he was doing on- and off-ball, they’re very capable of.”
Robert Williams certainly could’ve helped in trying to contain Adebayo on Wednesday, even as a help defender. And, perhaps more glaringly, he could’ve given Boston a boost offensively with his ability to both create vertical spacing as a lob threat and create easy shots when it mattered most (Boston shot 6-for-22 in the fourth).
“It’s definitely an adjustment not having Rob here,” Horford said. “We have to find ways to be effective and we have to find other ways to score.”
Even if fully healthy, the red-hot Celtics were bound to lose a game or two. Their 24-4 stretch through Sunday’s win over Minnesota — the game in which Williams injured his knee — wasn’t likely to carry forward at that clip. Still, Wednesday’s game displayed the difficulties this team will face navigating the East playoffs with its defensive anchor off the court.
Splash Mountain is back: Could Lopez unlock the best version of the Bucks?
The Bucks have spent virtually the entire season with Brook Lopez, their starting center, watching in street clothes. He has played in only eight games — seven coming in the past three weeks — after undergoing back surgery on Dec. 2.
Tuesday night was an important test. How would Lopez, matching up against arguably the league’s biggest and toughest to guard center, Philadelphia’s MVP candidate, Joel Embiid, hold up over the course of the game?
The answer, it turned out, was quite well.
Lopez played 29 minutes and scored 17 points for Milwaukee — 11 of which came all in a row to open the second half for the Bucks. More importantly, Lopez went 4-for-9 from 3-point range, helping create some of the space on the court for Giannis Antetokounmpo — he finished with 40 points, 14 rebounds, six assists, a steal and three blocks, including the one that won the Bucks the game — to operate.
That Milwaukee is 14th in the league in defense this season with Lopez, one of the league’s best (and biggest) interior defenders mostly watching as a spectator, is not a shock. The part of Lopez’s game that is forgotten, however, is how he can break the court wide open for Antetokounmpo & Co.
It’s rare for a guy of Lopez’s size (7 feet, 282 pounds) to be able to shape the game at both ends. And while he’s not Milwaukee’s most important player — or even their third — the Bucks looked like a team ready for the playoffs Tuesday with him on the court.
And for a team that has spent much of the season playing a combination of Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis at center, getting another 30 minutes of high-level, big-man play made everything else fall back into the places they were so effective for the Bucks during last year’s championship run.
On a night when there were plenty of reasons to smile for the Bucks, Lopez’s return and his effectiveness might have been the biggest of all.
Will MVP-level Harden make more appearances for Philly?
After Tuesday night’s loss, 76ers coach Doc Rivers said he and James Harden had spoken at length that morning about needing the guard to get back to being the scorer he was with the Houston Rockets, rather than operating as the distributor he was with the Brooklyn Nets.
And, after playing arguably his best game as a 76er — 32 points, five rebounds and nine assists in 37 minutes in the loss to Milwaukee — Harden said he felt it was a step in the right direction.
“I’m trying to get it right,” Harden said. “I’m trying to be the best James Harden I can be. And I’m trying to make sure that I’m doing the things necessary to help my team win.
“[Rivers] just told me, to sum it all up, to just go out there be you. And that was kind of my mindset today, and it felt good to have that confidence from Doc.”
The 76ers need the best James Harden he can be — because that’s the version they hoped they were acquiring from the Nets at the trade deadline. And, while Harden has had moments of brilliance — he’s averaging 23.0 points, 9.8 assists and 7.4 rebounds in 15 games as a Sixer — he has failed to consistently play to the type of MVP level Philadelphia hoped for.
For example: Of the 133 players who have attempted at least 200 layups or dunks this season, only three are shooting under 50% from the field: the Orlando Magic’s Cole Anthony, the Utah Jazz’s Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Harden.
But Tuesday night was a vintage performance for Harden. He went 5-for-7 from inside the arc, had the step-back working (he went 4-for-10 from 3) and got to the free throw line 12 times. More importantly, he made short work of Milwaukee’s experiment of having Wesley Matthews start the game guarding him. In the closing minutes, it was defensive stopper Jrue Holiday — not Matthews — checking Harden.
If Philadelphia can get that version of Harden on a nightly basis over the next few months, he will form the partnership with Embiid that the 76ers need to make a deep playoff run.