The NBA's playoff redemption continues
New teams, young stars are enriching the spring. And there's the Celtics, too.
Way back in 2023, the NBA wore an ice pack and a frown. Too often it wore designer jackets instead of jerseys. Teams were benching healthy players, a silent protest against the demands of a suddenly treacherous schedule. Injuries happened anyway. Defense was strictly optional. Instead of savoring the athletes in their midst, fans were wondering who the summertime defectors would be, and loud people in TV studios were still litigating GOAT arguments from years past.
Only Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets seemed to be operating in the present, and thus won last year’s championship.
Now we have two conference-final showdowns that do not include LeBron James, Giannis Antetokoumpo, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Joel Embiid and Jimmy Butler. Among the top 15 players in takehome pay, only Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert remains. The Indiana Pacers and Minnesota Timberwolves never have won an NBA title, and the Dallas Mavericks have won only one. The Boston Celtics have won 17, but present company is excluded, even though Jayson Tatum (26) and Jaylen Brown (27) are playing in their fifth Eastern final.
Thanks to the transfusion, the wrinkles and the sclerosis are gone. The NBA looks younger, but, at least for the moment, has put away childish things. Oklahoma City was eliminated by Dallas on Saturday, but at the end of its victories the Thunder’s stars greeted the TV interviews en masse. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the MVP runnerup, made sure the whole crew got some face time. Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton leads an ensemble of his own, and, when the Pacers mercifully smothered the Knicks on Sunday, slyly wore a T-shirt that pictured Reggie Miller giving Spike Lee the choke sign.
Anthony Edwards had shooting problems on Sunday for Minnesota, but he defended, piloted and eventually willed the Timberwolves to an epic Game 7 win at Denver, despite a 20-point deficit in the third quarter. He was interviewed by the TNT panel afterward. Charles Barkley said he’d be in the Twin Cities for the Western final and asked Edwards for some restaurant tips. “Bring ya ass,” Edwards replied. In 24 hours, “Bring ya ass” took on a dot-com suffix and became a motto, of sorts, for the Minnesota Tourist Board.
It is futile, of course, to hope that Edwards, Gilgeous-Alexander and Haliburton never change. Ahead of them lie contracts befitting a Mobil CEO, clashes with all corners of the media, including social, and conflicts with teammates. There’s also the corrosive world that lies outside the arena. Not long ago we thought Ja Morant was refreshing, too. And, inevitably, someone will get hurt. The anesthesia and the rehab process will take away just enough of their magic to make them vulnerable to the next new kids in town.
But right now the NBA is a more credible place, thanks to their physical ability and mental clarity.
It isn’t just them. The Knicks’ collection of second-round picks and 45-minute men was exactly what the league needed, even though ABC/ESPN took its Knick-centric perspective to a place somewhere beyond embarrassment. Josh Hart is the type of nonstop player the league should be promoting, but the Knicks’ appeal went beyond individuals. They were brought down by injury and by a far deeper and more talented Indiana crew. Afterward, there were reports of Brunson and Hart leaving their cars and greeting Knicks fans on the street. No golf course or Cancun-bound plane for them, at least not yet.
All kinds of affirmations are happening in Dallas. As Oklahoma City discovered, there are few more doomed feelings than watching Luka Doncic come downcourt with intentions of removing your one-possession lead. But beside him is a smiling, productive, outward-looking Kyrie Irving. He is reminding one and all that he’s as good as anyone alive at making a basketball obey him. Could it be that Dallas is far enough from the water’s edge to make him feel secure? In any case, the thought of Kyrie bringing his game back into Boston is almost too juicy to entertain.
The Mavericks would not be in this position if not for the defense upon which Jason Kidd insists. Dereck Lively, a 19-year-old rookie from Duke, roamed unchallenged in the paint when Dallas beat the Thunder, with 12 points and 15 rebounds. Kidd said Lively reminded him of Moses Malone. “It’s insane how he plays,” Doncic said.
Indiana is the most entertaining survivor. After it led the NBA in scoring during the regular 82, it is the only playoff team shooting over 50 percent. The Pacers come at you like rows of driving machines on Memorial Day, with seven players averaging in double figures. Somehow they got Pascal Siakam in the Toronto silent auction, and Siakam is reminding us what he was like when the Raptors won the 2019 title. No team can sustain its offense longer. In Game 7 at New York, the Pacers hit 29 of 38 shots in the first half, a playoff record for accuracy. After they fell behind Boston 12-0 in Game 1 of the East Final on Monday, they were 27 for 40 until halftime.
But they lost, 133-128 in overtime, and they didn’t waste their breath on “attaboys.” This one hurt, especially when the Pacers led by three with 8.6 seconds left, threw away an in-bounds pass, and watched the Celtics’ final play unfold. Many teams foul in that situation. That’s a debatable option, but allowing an All-Star to shoot a 3 is not. The Celtics ran a pick for Brown, and T.J. McConnell didn’t switch, which meant Siakam had to run to the corner and stand there, fearful of fouling, as Brown swished it in jarring fashion.
Coach Rick Carlisle said he should have called time with 27 seconds left, before Haliburton turned it over at midcourt and Indiana up by three. The screwups continued in overtime, and Tatum wound up with 36 points.
The Celtics are still favored to win this, and they learned that Kristaps Porzingis, the seven-footer with a 3–point touch, could return from his calf injury by Game 4 of this series.
Meanwhile, “industry sources” claimed that TNT still has a shot at retaining NBA rights in the new TV deal. That would rescue Inside The NBA, by far the best studio show in sports-TV history. The difference, this spring, is that you feel compelled to watch the games, too.