Julius Randle wins 2020-21 NBA Most Improved Player award

New York Knicks forward Julius Randle has been named the 2020-21 NBA Most Improved Player.

A first-time NBA All-Star selection in his seventh season, Randle becomes the first player to win the NBA Most Improved Player Award with New York. The annual award, which was first presented in the 1985-86 season, is designed to honor an up-and-coming player who has made a dramatic improvement from the previous season or seasons.

Randle received 98 first-place votes and earned 493 total points from a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters.

Detroit Pistons forward Jerami Grant received the other two first-place votes and finished in second place with 140 points. Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. finished in third place with 138 points. Players were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote.

In his second season with the Knicks, Randle averaged 24.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and 6.0 assists in an NBA-high 37.6 minutes in 71 games. He set career highs for averages in points and assists and matched his career high in rebounds, ranking in the top 20 in the NBA in all three categories. The 6-9 Randle is the sixth player in NBA history to average at least 24.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists in a season, joining Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, Nikola Jokić (who also did it this season), Oscar Robertson and Russell Westbrook.

Randle made a career-high 160 three-pointers in 2020-21, eight fewer than his total for the previous five seasons combined (168). He shot 40.1 percent from three-point range, well above his career mark of 29.5 percent entering the season. Randle also shot a career-high 81.1 percent from the free throw line.

Selected as a reserve for the 2021 NBA All-Star Game, Randle tied for eighth in the league in double-doubles with 41 and tied for seventh in triple-doubles with six. Randle was named the Kia NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Month for April and the Eastern Conference Player of the Week for Week 17.

Behind Randle, the Knicks (41-31) finish tied for the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference. New York made the NBA Playoffs for the first time since the 2012-13 season.

Randle, 26, signed with the Knicks as a free agent on July 9, 2019. Before joining New York, he played his first four seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers and one season with the New Orleans Pelicans. Randle entered this season with career averages of 16.1 points, 9.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists.

Lakers vs. Suns Game 2 is tonight at 10PM ET

Lakers vs. Suns Game 2 is tonight at 10PM ET. Here’s the OC Register on the Lakers:

There’s an assumption that the Lakers have the proverbial “on” switch that they can flip at any time. The driver of this assumption is LeBron James, who has played 15 first-round series before this one and has not lost any of them. He’s looked wobbly before, most memorably going to seven first-round games against Indiana in 2018 with a Cavaliers team that was on shaky ground for much of the back half of the season. But if you’re betting on someone to advance in the playoffs, there’s nobody historically who is a better bet than James, who has made nine of the last 10 Finals.

There are other reasons to think the Lakers know how to respond, too. Anthony Davis tied his lowest-ever scoring output in a playoff game in the opener against the Suns, with just 13 points. The only other time he’s done that was in the Game 5 Lakers’ blowout of Houston – he came back with a 37-point outing against Denver to open the Western Conference Finals. Even coach Monty Williams didn’t want to take too much credit for slowing Davis down, because as his former coach, he knows how dangerous Davis can be when a handful of those jumpers actually are on target.

Will the No. 1 NBA defense give up 34 points to Devin Booker again? They don’t think so. A fully intact coaching staff from last season that didn’t lose two playoff games in a row last postseason? It’s a good bet there are some adjustments. There’s a ton of playoff experience up and down the Lakers roster that the Suns do not possess – that has to matter, right?

Ties broken to establish selection order in 2021 NBA Draft

Six ties among teams with identical regular-season records were broken today through random drawings to determine the order of selection for NBA Draft 2021.

The drawings were conducted by NBA Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations Kiki VanDeWeghe at the NBA office in Secaucus, New Jersey. The tiebreaker process was overseen by Marc Dieli, a representative from the accounting firm of Ernst & Young.

The results of the drawings:

The Oklahoma City Thunder (22-50) won a tiebreaker with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Chicago Bulls (31-41) won a tiebreaker with the New Orleans Pelicans and Sacramento Kings. Second and third place in the tiebreaker drawings went to Sacramento and New Orleans, respectively.

The Charlotte Hornets (33-39) won a tiebreaker with the San Antonio Spurs.

The New York Knicks (41-31) won a tiebreaker with the Atlanta Hawks.

The Dallas Mavericks (42-30) won a tiebreaker with the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers. Second and third place in the tiebreaker drawings went to Los Angeles and Portland, respectively.

The LA Clippers (47-25) won a tiebreaker with the Denver Nuggets.

NBA Draft Lottery 2021 will be held on Tuesday, June 22 and air live on ESPN at 8:30 p.m. ET. NBA Draft 2021 will take place on Thursday, July 29.

CHANCES NBA LOTTERY TEAMS HAVE AT WINNING THE FIRST OVERALL pick

Houston 14.0%
Detroit 14.0%
Orlando 14.0%
Oklahoma City 11.5%
Cleveland 11.5%
Minnesota 9.0%
Toronto 7.5%
Chicago 4.5%
Sacramento 4.5%
New Orleans 4.5%
Charlotte 1.8%
San Antonio 1.7%
Indiana 1.0%
Golden State 0.5%

Note that the Houston, Minnesota and Chicago picks may change hands.

Celtics home games will allow increased fan capacity in playoffs

The Boston Celtics today announced increased capacity and ticket sale information for all 2021 NBA Playoff games played at TD Garden, beginning with Game 3 of Boston’s first round matchup with Brooklyn on Friday, May 28.

Additionally, the Boston Celtics and TD Garden will host fans at near full capacity beginning on Sunday, May 30.

Tickets for all Round 1 home games are available now and can be purchased on the Celtics app, at Celtics.com, or at the TD Garden Box Office.

First two Knicks home playoff games vs. Hawks, capped at 15,000 fans, have sold out

The New York Knicks today announced that the team’s first-two playoff games against the Atlanta Hawks, set at 15,000 capacity due to Covid-19 social distancing guidelines, sold out.

Per the team, fully-vaccinated fans are expected to make up almost 90% of those in attendance at The Garden. The events will be the largest indoor gatherings for New York State since the start of the pandemic.

“I hope everyone in sports and entertainment is listening because the public has spoken – they are fine with getting vaccinated and want to get back to the experiences they love,” said James Dolan, Executive Chairman of MSG Sports and Executive Chairman and CEO of MSG Entertainment. “This overwhelming response by Knicks fans – almost 90% of whom are vaccinated – should silence any doubters. It’s time to start booking events and filling up our schedules, so stay tuned. We want to thank Governor Cuomo for this leap forward; he knew we could do this – not just for us, but for New York.”

Hawks coach Nate McMillan fined by NBA

Atlanta Hawks head coach Nate McMillan has been fined $25,000 for detrimental public comments asserting bias by the NBA relating to the 2020-21 Playoffs, it was announced today by Byron Spruell, President, League Operations.

McMillan made his remarks to the media on May 19.

Per ESPN.com, “on Wednesday in a Zoom call with the media, McMillan, whose Hawks play the Knicks in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, said the NBA wants New York in the playoffs. He said on the call that that’s the message he has delivered to his team. “Absolutely, I’ve talked about that to the team a lot. Basically, I’ve gone as far as saying the league wants this,” he said. “They need this, New York, this is a big market for the league, and New York has been out of the playoffs for a number of years.” “And this is a team that our league, they want to see — there’s a huge fan base — and they want to see New York in the playoffs.”

Pacers and Hornets square off in NBA Play-in Tournament game tonight

The Hornets play the Pacers at 6:30PM ET tonight in the first of two NBA Play-in Tournament games tonight. In the second game, at 9PM ET, the Wizards will face the Celtics. Both games are on TNT.

PACERS TEAM NOTES

The Pacers finished the regular season ranked sixth in the NBA in scoring and set a new NBA franchise record for the highest scoring average over a season with 115.3 points per game.

Indiana matched its franchise record with 21 3-pointers made in Thursday’s loss to Milwaukee. Justin Holiday led the Pacers with 26 points – his highest total in his two seasons with Indiana – and set a new career high with eight 3-pointers – one shy of the team’s franchise record. The Pacers set a new franchise record for 3-pointers made in a season (12.4 per game)
and passed their previous mark after 63 games this year (779 in 2018-19).

Indiana finished with the best road record in the Eastern Conference at 21-15. The Pacers finished with their third-best winning percentage (.589) on the road in NBA franchise history.

Indiana finished first in the NBA in blocked shots with 460 and 6.4 per game. The Pacers finished with their second-highest average for blocks in NBA franchise history (6.5 in 1979-80). Despite missing 25 games due to injury this season, Myles Turner finished second in the NBA with 159 rejections.

Domantas Sabonis finished with his best NBA season in 2020-21 with 20.3 points, 12.0 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game. He became the first player in franchise history and the fifth player in NBA history to record averages of 20 or more points, 12 or more rebounds and six or more assists per game. He is the first player since Kevin Garnett in 2002-03 to post such averages in a season.

Sabonis finished 31st in the NBA in scoring, fourth in rebounding, 13th in assists, 23rd in field goal percentage (.535), 25th in steals (1.2) and fifth in minutes played (36.0). He also finished tied for fifth in the league with 48 double-doubles and fifth with a franchise-record nine triple-doubles.

After missing the final six games of April with a back injury, Sabonis posted four triple-doubles over a nine-game span in May while averaging 23.0 points, 14.1 rebounds and 10.7 assists. He finished with 21 points and 20 rebounds in the win at Cleveland May 10, becoming the fourth player in NBA franchise history to record multiple games with 20+ points and 20+ rebounds (Jermaine O’Neal, 2, 2002-03; Clark Kellogg, 2, 1982-83; Dan Roundfield, 2, 1977-78).

Acquired in January via trade, Caris LeVert set career highs in 2020-21 despite missing 24 games due to a medical condition after the trade. LeVert finished with averages of 20.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.4 steals per game, all of which were his highest numbers in his five-year NBA career.

T.J. McConnell finished the regular season as the NBA’s leader in steals with 128 thefts, which was 20 more than the next-leading player (Miami’s Jimmy Butler, 108). McConnell finished with career highs this season with 8.6 points, 3.7 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 1.86 steals per game. He also shot a career-best 55.9 percent from the field, which led the team and ranked 15th in the NBA.

HORNETS TEAM NOTES

This season, the Charlotte Hornets had two of the league’s top 3-point shooters with guard Terry Rozier finishing fifth in total 3s with 222 while guard Devonte’ Graham knocked down 179 shots from beyond the arc, 14th best. Charlotte is one of three teams along with Utah (7. Jordan Clarkson: 208, 12. Joe Ingles, 183, 13. Bojan Bogdanovic: 180) and Dallas (8. Tim Hardaway Jr.: 207, 10. Luka Doncic: 192) with multiple players in the top 15 in made 3s this season as well as one of four teams with two or more players making at least 175 3s as Chicago also joins that group (Zach LaVine: 200, Nikola Vuecivic: 176).

Rozier and Graham are the first duo for the Hornets with 175 or more made 3s in the same season as Rozier’s 222 made 3s ended up as the fifth most in a season in franchise history while Graham’s now ninth in made 3s in a season with his 179. Rozier ranks averaging 3.2 3-point field goals made per game, which ranks 12th among league leaders while Graham is 11th in 3s per contest at 3.3 as only Charlotte and the Jazz (Donovan Mitchell: 3.4, Clarkson: 3.1) have two players within the top 15 in 3s per game.

Hornets forward Miles Bridges had an excellent third season, averaging 12.7 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game while shooting .503% from the field.

Hornets guard LaMelo Ball returned from a 21-game hiatus due to injury and averaged 15.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 1.6 steals per game in his 10 games back. Ball totaled 27 points, six rebounds and six assists, his 10th game this season with at least 20 points, five rebounds and five assists, which is the third most by a rookie in their teens in NBA history as he passed Carmelo Anthony (8) on May 4 at Detroit and finished only behind Luka Doncic (17) and LeBron James (17). The first-year guard out of Chino Hills is second in franchise history in games with 20-5-5 by a first-year player, only behind Larry Johnson (16), as he totaled 17 20-point performances this season after scoring 22 points vs. New Orleans on May 9 for the fourth most in franchise history by a Hornets rookie surpassing Emeka Okafor (2004-05: 16). Since returning to action, Ball dished out at least five assists eight straight games from May 1-13 and nine of his 10 games and posted five-plus assists in 39 games this season.

In his first season, Ball averaged 15.7 points, 5.9 rebounds and 6.1 assists and 1.59 steals per game as he became just the 12th rookie in NBA history to average at least 15.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.5 steals per outing in their debut season. He was just one of four players in the 2020-21 season to average at least 15.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.5 steals while appearing in at least 70% of their team’s contests along with Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butkler and Dejounte Murray as he ranked tied for 17th in assists and ninth in steals per game among league leaders this season. Ball ranks second in assists (313), third in 3s (92), tied for fifth in steals (81) and 10th in points (803) among the Hornets all-time rookie leaders as he was third in total points, second in assists and third in steals among rookies this season.

Hornets guard Terry Rozier had a strong season as he once again set a career-high in scoring with 43 points knocking down a career-best 16 field goals vs. New Orleans on May 9. Rozier also knocked down seven 3s as he totaled 24 points in the first half, tying his career-high for most points in the first half as he had 18 points in the second quarter alone.

Rozier has been stellar in the fourth quarter and in clutch moments for the Hornets as he scored 28 points vs. Orlando on May 7, including 18 second half points and 13 points in the fourth quarter. He has six games this season with 20+ points in the second half as he was one of 19 players with six or more 20-point second halves and one of 25 players with eight or more 20+-point halves this season. Rozier is averaging 3.3 points per game in 27 games played in clutch situations, the 19th best clutch scoring average, and averaging 0.5 3s per game in those instances, which is tied for fifth in the NBA.

Longtime MSG photographer George Kalinsky receives award

A Madison Square Garden legend has received a great career honor. Via the NY Post:

It’s been a tough season away from the World’s Most Famous Arena for the Garden’s legendary photographer George Kalinsky.

But the season had a happy ending when Kalinsky got the phone call from the Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend informing him that he was named the 2021 recipient of the Curt Gowdy Media Award.

“As much as you think that this is going to be the greatest feeling, it’s even greater than that,’’ Kalinsky told The Post. “It’s something that they can never take away from you. The reality is even bigger when you’re told you made it.’’

The Knicks, meanwhile, are enjoying their best season in many years and will face the Hawks in the first round of the 2021 NBA playoffs.

On the state of the Timberwolves

The Timberwolves remain a work in progress. Via the Star Tribune:

Objectively, this season was a failure. The Wolves began with modest hope, then finished 23-49.

Subjectively, you can see the makings of a quality team, an entertaining team, perhaps the best Wolves team since the roster included not only Kevin Garnett and Sam Cassell, but also Ndudi Ebi, Latrell Sprewell, Quincy Lewis, Fred Hoiberg, Oliver Miller, Michael Olowokandi, Mark Madsen and “the other” Ervin Johnson, just in case you forgot how any given roster can look like the cast of a “Survivor”-like game show.

Making the dangerous assumption that the Wolves will be relatively healthy next season, their starting five — even without a top-three draft pick — would be D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels and Karl-Anthony Towns.

That’s more than good enough in the categories of athletic ability, three-point shooting and ballhandling, and the Wolves’ improvement on defense toward the end of this season might be an indication that defense won’t be the embarrassment that it was before Ryan Saunders was fired.

Their leading scorers in 2020-21 were Towns at 24.8 points per game, Beasley at 19.6 ppg, Edwards at 19.3 ppg, and Russell at 19.0 ppg. Everyone else averaged under 12 ppg.

Heat and Bucks to face off in first round of playoffs

The Heat and Bucks faced each other in the playoffs last year, and will do so again this year. Via the Miami Herald:

This year, the sixth-seeded Heat (40-32) will take on the third-seeded Bucks (46-26) in the first round of the playoffs. The best-of-7 series will begin either Saturday or Sunday at Fiserv Forum, with the schedule yet to be released.

“They’re a really good team, obviously. They’re much different than last year,” Heat second-year guard Tyler Herro said of the Bucks. “They added a bunch of guys with Jrue [Holiday] and Bobby Portis and some guys off the bench. So it’s going to be a great series. I feel like two great teams in the Eastern Conference going at it.”

At the surface, the Bucks don’t seem as dominant as they were last season when they entered the playoffs with the NBA’s top record and net rating.

The Bucks enter the playoffs this season with the league’s seventh-best record and fourth-best net rating.

While the numbers might not be as overwhelming as last season’s, the Bucks’ roster seems better suited for the playoffs this season after adding Holiday, Portis and reserve guard Bryn Forbes in free agency last offseason and trading for veteran three-and-D specialist P.J. Tucker in March.

And the Sun Sentinel:

Familiar competition, with the Heat having defeated the Bucks 4-1 in last season’s Eastern Conference semifinals.

But also dissimilar circumstances. Unlike like last year’s playoffs, there will not be the cocoon of the Disney World quarantine bubble, with Milwaukee this time receiving true homecourt advantage at Fiserv Forum. It also is a Bucks team bolstered by the offseason addition of Jrue Holiday. And this time, after a march to the 2020 NBA Finals, it is not a Heat team that will be taking anybody by surprise.