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Via the Toronto Star:
Adrian Griffin is finally getting a shot to run his own show.
NBA sources confirm that Griffin, the former Raptors assistant, is poised to become the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks.
The 48-year-old Griffin had been with the Raptors since 2018 and served as the stand-in head coach whenever Nick Nurse had to miss a game.
Via the Miami Herald:
While the Miami Heat prepared for Saturday night’s Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics at Kaseya Center, the Denver Nuggets were already preparing for both the Heat and Celtics ahead of the NBA Finals.
The Nuggets earned that luxury after completing the 4-0 sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals on Monday night. Next up for the Nuggets is Game 1 of the NBA Finals on June 1.
“Each round we have one coach dedicated to the opponent,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said Friday. “So right now, obviously, we have two coaches, one working on Boston, one working on Miami. We have been talking about both teams every day.”
The Heat’s historic playoff run as a No. 8 seed has left Malone impressed. The Heat already became the sixth No. 8 seed in league history to eliminate a No. 1 seed in the first round and the second No. 8 seed in NBA history to advance to the conference finals after qualifying for the playoffs through the play-in tournament this year.
Via the Denver Post:
Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth is more interested in doling out credit than taking any.
The first-year GM knows the foundation of his team’s success was laid well before he took over last summer, and in some instances, before he even arrived as the assistant GM in 2017.
That shouldn’t, and won’t, minimize the shrewd work Booth did in putting the finishing touches on what could be a championship roster. His peers recognized his contributions when he finished tied for third in executive of the year voting. But, as an executive who prides himself on learning from the past, Booth is savvy enough to understand what he inherited.
He saw firsthand what former team president Tim Connelly did in helping construct the foundation of a championship roster, building the culture from the ground up before his abrupt departure to Minnesota last summer. Even a version of the Kentavious Caldwell-Pope trade, which Booth ultimately executed shortly after assuming the job, was under consideration before Connelly left Denver.
Via the Miami Herald:
Miami will host Game 6 Saturday night and it will (and should) have a must-win feel in order to avoid a Game 7 back in Boston.
“They let us get two,” said the Celtics’ Jaylen Brown, “so don’t let us get another one.”
It’s amazing/amusing how the national narrative had flipped entering this Game 5.
At 3-0, Heat: It’s done. Change is bearing down on the Celtics like a tsunami off Lake Charles. Joe Mazzulla can’t coach. Time to break up the Jayson Tatum/Jaylen Brown duo and retool.
At 3-1 entering Thursday: Whoa, Miami. Uh oh. Mighty Boston is back! The national media (Chowderhead Division) fell in love again during the third period of Game 4 and is convinced NBA history is happening.
Now, the Heat still is up 3-2 but it hardly seems so.
Via Boston.com:
No team has ever rallied back from a 3-0 deficit. All three teams in NBA history who have evened a 3-0 series went on to lose Game 7. The Heat still have a home game, and even if they lose that one, they’ve won two games at TD Garden this series. They have a number of solid role players. They have Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. Smart money would probably still bet on them to get back to the Finals.
But the Celtics have turned a lot of things around and applied a ton of pressure to a Heat team that looks shakier now than at any other point in the postseason. The Heat had a negative point differential during the regular season and were one of the worst 3-point shooting squads in the NBA. The Celtics had the league’s best net rating and were the 2-seed in the Eastern Conference…
One of the most eye-opening stats over the last two games has been the turnovers for the Heat. The Celtics forced 10 turnovers in the second half of Game 4. On Thursday, they picked up where they left off by forcing 16 and outscoring the Heat 29-17 off those turnovers.
The Heat were the more aggressive team by far in Games 1-3. The fact that the Celtics have turned that on its head is maybe the most important reversal aside from the 3-point shooting.
Via Boston.com:
Jimmy Butler’s energy was completely different from the last time he walked into a postgame press conference at TD Garden.
On Sunday night following Game 3, Butler sang as he strutted in, playing Morgan Wallen’s 2021 single “Somebody’s Problem” from his smartphone. He yelled and clapped his hands as he left the TD Garden floor. He said “hell no” when asked if Grant Williams was the answer to stopping him.
But Sunday night’s postgame presser following Game 5 showed a more quiet and reserved Butler. There was no singing or trash talk this time. The Celtics crushed the Heat with a 110-97 win in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals and forced a Game 6 on Saturday night in Miami.
“We just have to play better, start the game off better, make it more difficult for them” Butler said. ” They were in a rhythm since the beginning of the game. But we’re always going to keep it very positive knowing that we can and we will win this series. We’ll just have to close it out at home.”
Via Boston.com:
The Celtics have been staring at improbable odds for close to a week now.
But their messaging hasn’t wavered since falling into an 0-3 hole against the Miami Heat.
“Don’t let us win one,” was the mantra echoed by both Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown on Tuesday — just hours before Boston kept its season alive with a Game 4 victory down at Kaseya Center.
And minutes after the Celtics became just the 13th team to force a Game 6 after three straight losses, Brown stuck to a familiar and focused script.
“They let us get two, so don’t let us get another one,” Brown said on TNT’s broadcast following Boston’s Game 5 win in the Eastern Conference Finals on Thursday.
Via Boston.com:
Now, as the series heads back to Boston for Game 5, Heat guard Jimmy Butler says Miami has to play like its backs are against the wall.
A Celtics win on Thursday night would give Boston a two-game winning streak heading into Game 6. If a Game 7 is needed, it will be in Boston.
So, how does Butler plan to stay loose ahead of Thursday’s game?
“Just stay consistent,” Butler said. “Do the same things that I do, that we do after every game. We’re going to listen to some music, you know. Going to drink some beers back there. Going to have some wine. I don’t think you can just focus on basketball at times. You have to be able to get away from the game a little bit.”
Via the South Florida Sun Sentinel:
The Miami Heat still have the math on their side, even after Tuesday night’s 116-99 loss to the Boston Celtics at Kaseya Center that trimmed their lead in the Eastern Conference finals to 3-1.
Of the previous 150 teams that have started a best-of-seven NBA playoff series up 3-0:
— 44 have managed to force a Game 5, as the Celtics have with Thursday night’s 8:30 p.m. matchup at TD Garden.
— 11 have made it to a Game 6, which in this case would be, if needed, 8:30 p.m. Saturday at Kaseya Center.
— 3 have made it to a Game 7
Via the Denver Post:
What LeBron can do, Joker can do crazier.
A 38-year-old LeBron James highlighted his 31-point first half Monday with a circus 3-pointer that wasn’t even a shot. It was an attempted pass toward the rim.
So how did Nikola Jokic respond? With a pair of high-arcing, clumsy yet graceful, ugly yet acrobatic 3s with hands in his face throughout the remainder of Game 4. It helped the Nuggets earn their first-ever playoff series sweep and the franchise’s first-ever trip to the NBA Finals.
Jokic, already a two-time league MVP, was named MVP of the Western Conference Finals after Game 4. It was a fitting coronation after Jokic broke Wilt Chamberlain’s all-time record with his eighth triple-double of this postseason: 30 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists.