Category: Basketball

Marcus Smart was announced as the 2021-2022 NBA Defensive Player of the Year on Monday.

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The 2021-22 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year is Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart! pic.twitter.com/kfwG9NcUae

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 18, 2022

Smart was a part of the No. 1 rated defense in the League during the regular season. Smart became the first guard to win DPOY since Gary Payton did so in 1995-1996. The former sixth overall pick of the 2014 NBA Draft is the second Celtic to win the award, joining Kevin Garnett (2007-08) as the only Celtics in franchise history to do so.

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Marcus Smart is the first guard to win Defensive Player of the Year since Gary Payton in 1995-96.

He is the 2nd Celtics player to win the award, joining Kevin Garnett in 2007-08 (award began in 1982-83).

— Matt Williams (@StatsWilliams) April 18, 2022

Smart, Rudy Gobert, and Mikal Bridges were the finalists to win the DPOY.

AAC Freshman of the Year Jalen Duren will enter the 2022 NBA Draft after one standout year with The University of Memphis, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony reports. Duren told Givony that he would sign and hire Chafie Fields of Wasserman as his agent.

Duren was the leading scorer for the Tigers, averaging 12.0 points point game. He was also their leading rebounder (8.1) and shot-blocker (2.1). Duren stuffed his trophy case in his one year with the program, given multiple awards during his time with Coach Penny Hardaway at Memphis.

Duren was named the AAC Freshman of the Year and made the All-AAC First Team and All-AAC Tournament Team.

Duren is likely a top-10 pick after showcasing an intriguing combo of physical tools 6’11, 250 points, 7’5 wingspan), power, explosiveness, and a growing skillset. As the youngest player in the NBA Draft, Duren will also be drafted based on his potential and whoever drafts him hopes they can pull out of him while he’s on a rookie contract.

Duren will join a growing list of future NBA stars that have committed to entering the 2022 NBA Draft, which will take place on June 23rd at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

After the Miami Heat ended their practice session on Monday, star forward Bam Adebayo found that he was snubbed from being named a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year.

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Bam Adebayo says he didn’t know he wasn’t a DPOY finalist until talking to media after practice. His response:

“Disrespectful… I can do anything those other guys can do.”

Goes on to cite the lack of national TV games as a reason. pic.twitter.com/E8wzs3MrqD

— Wes Goldberg (@wcgoldberg) April 18, 2022

Adebayo seemed to have no idea he was snubbed until assembled media made him aware, per Wes Goldberg. Rudy Gobert, Mikal Bridges, and Marcus Smart earned the spots for DPOY finalists instead.

“Disrespectful,” Adebayo said about being overlooked for DPOY. “I feel like I can do anything that two out of the three can do. Besides, I mean, I can’t teach height. But they all three play on TV more than me. So I would expect that. They get more TV games, and they get more exposure. People like to talk about them more. Don’t nobody want to talk about us. So, it’s whatever at that point.”

Adebayo has also been the lynchpin of a Heat defense that finished the regular season fourth in defensive rating (108.4). Adebayo owns a defensive rating of 104.9. Adebayo finished the regular season averaging 7.6 defensive rebounds and 1.6 steals per game.

Coming into the season, the Suns had 34 nationally televised games scheduled. The Celtics had 32, the Jazz had 26, and the Heat had 22. Miami going 17-9 in the games he missed would also suggest that the Heat’s team defense was a major factor in Adebayo’s success within it.

No. 1 seed Miami will look to build a 2-0 lead when they take on No. 8 seed Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night.

The Jordan Brand Classic, an all-star game featuring the next generation of hoopers, returned on Friday night after a long two-year hiatus. This time hosted in Chicago, many of the top prospects in the Class of 2022 balled out one final time together before getting ready to take off to the college ranks. 

In the girls’ game, LSU-commit Flau’jae Johnson scored 27 points to win MVP for Team Air, and ultimately led her team to a 93-85 victory over team Flight, while Oregon State-commit Timea Gardiner won MVP for the other side after chipping in eight points. 

On the boys’ side, Team Air won 118-109 after Michigan signee Jett Howard dished it out to Duke commit Dereck Lively on the break for the game-winning dunk. Texas signee Dillon Mitchell (18 points) took home MVP honors back to Florida while Arkansas signee Nick Smith Jr (27 points) headed back to Little Rock with the MVP hardware for Team Flight.    

After surviving the NBA play-in tournament at the start of the weekend, the New Orleans Pelicans fell short in Game 1 to Phoenix Suns, 110-99 despite the Pelicans cutting a 23-point deficit to eight by the end of the third quarter.

Pelicans Coach Willie Green was an assistant coach under Coach Monty Williams last season when the Suns made it to the NBA Finals. Now facing his former team in the playoffs, Green told reporters about the adjustments he thinks the Pelicans will have to make ahead of Game 2.

“Well, we have to play faster,” Green said. “When teams have their hands on us, you can’t play slow, and you gotta get the ball out of bounds or rebound the ball and get up the court quickly and get into your actions with force. I think we were a step slow.”

Green followed up by stating how great it was seeing his team cut the lead to six points while only shooting only 33 percent from the field.

“We just gotta take our time. We did a good job getting into the paint and rebounding the ball, but overall we just gotta take our time with the ball. Gathering ourselves and getting shot fakes with Ayton down there will allow us to score. The one thing that is encouraging is that we cut the lead to only six points shooting 33 percent from the field, so we got some work to do, and that’s a really good team, so we have to come back and be better.”

The Pelicans look to even the series in Game 2 in Phoenix Wednesday.

DeMar DeRozan did not shy away from the media following the 86-93 Game 1 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. After finishing the game with 18 points, but shooting 6-of-25 from the floor and 0-2 from three-point range, DeRozan told reporters that would never happen again.

“It’s nothing they’re doing defensively. Most of the shots I took were wide open… No way in hell I shoot 6-of-25 again.”

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“It’s nothing they’re doing defensively. Most of the shots I took were wide open… No way in hell I shoot 6-of-25 again.”

DeMar DeRozan after his 6-of-25 shooting night in Game 1 of Bulls-Buckspic.twitter.com/w2kk1QPhU6

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) April 18, 2022

DeRozan followed up by saying that defense is going to give them the “opportunity to win” this series and that they need to turn it up.

“Offensively, I guarantee you we won’t shoot like we shot tonight again, but defense gives you an opportunity to win. In the 4th quarter, a couple plays got away from us, but a good learning experience. Gotta keep it up defensively and go to another level.”

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DeMar: “Offensively, I guarantee you we won’t shoot like we shot tonight again, but defense gives you an opportunity to win. In the 4th quarter, a couple plays got away from us, but a good learning experience…gotta keep it up defensively and go to another level.” pic.twitter.com/3GVvIgZiEf

— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) April 18, 2022

The Bulls will look to tie the series in Game 2 on Wednesday.

The Milwaukee Bucks protected their home court advantage taking a 1-0 series lead over the Chicago Bulls in a 93-86 win over the Chicago Bulls in the opening weekend of the NBA Playoffs.

The Bucks entered the game having won 17 of their last 18 games against the Bulls. An early 32-16 lead looked promising, but then, scoring troubles, and 14 turnovers in the second half, caused the game to close in.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, who led the team with 27 points, 16 rebounds and two blocks, praised teammate Brook Lopez for his performance, especially late in fourth quarter. When Antetokounmpo picked up his fifth foul during a stretch in which the Bulls cut the deficit to just one point, Lopez scored seven points, along with two boards and a blocked shot.

“Tonight in the fourth quarter he was amazing,” Giannis says, per CBS. “He was able to get to his spots, shoot his floaters, get to the rim, make his free throws. Defensively he was amazing, contesting shots. He’s big for us, he’s big. He had a great game, we need him to keep playing this way, we need him to keep helping the team any way possible. He is a big piece of who we are.”

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“He builds us up in so many ways offensively and defensively”

Giannis on the play of Brook Lopez down the stretch, and what he means to the @Bucks identity on both ends of the floor. pic.twitter.com/9fC8iAAbB6

— NBA (@NBA) April 18, 2022

Lopez finished with 18 points, five rebounds and two blocks as the second leading scorer for the team in Game 1. He also was a force on defense against the Bulls, who shot only 32.3 percent from the field, a season-low, and went 11-of-27 at the rim and 9-23 from mid range.

“We showed resiliency tonight,” Lopez says, per ESPN. “Things didn’t go our way offensively for a lot of the game, and we fought through it and did a good job defensively.”

The Bucks will now get ready to face off against Chicago at home for Game 2 on Wednesday.

In-Game 1 of the Heat-Hawks first-round series, Miami limited Trae Young to just eight points and six rebounds while forcing him to commit more turnovers (six) than assists (four). Young was also a +/- of -22 as the Heat blew the Hawks out of the water, 115-91.

As great as limiting Young to that low of output is, the Heat are also aware that Young and the Hawks coaching staff led by Nate McMillan will find a way to unlock their star point guards offensive talent. Young sat out the final 14 minutes of the game to gather his thoughts on what went wrong and the adjustments he could make for Game 2.

“He’s going to score the ball,” Heat forward P.J. Tucker said per ESPN. “That’s one game. You look at it as that. Treat him the exact same way the next game. Expect him to take a lot more shots and be a lot more aggressive, so we got to bring that same type of energy and even more. Because he’ll be better.”

According to ESPN Stats and Information, Ice Trae’s 8.3 percent shooting from the field was the worst single-game shooting performance of his career spanning the regular and post-season. Despite bottling Young like they did, the Heat are aware that a shifty guard that can shoot the three-ball like Young will never be bottled entirely up for at least four losses.

“Miami played at another level,” McMillan said per ESPN. “We have to get to another level. There is another level of intensity where you are locked in on winning every possession. We have to execute and value every possession in these games.”

The Heat finished the regular season fourth in defensive rating. The game plan from Coach Erik Spoelstra was to switch longer, rangier defenders onto Young whenever the Hawks ran pick-and-roll. According to Second Spectrum, the scheme resulted in the Heat switching 21 times against Young in Game 1, allowing 0.8 points per direct pick.

The Oklahoma product scored 0.96 points per direct pick against all opposing defenses that switched against him during the regular season.

“Keep him in front,” explained Jimmy Butler. “He is constantly breaking down defenses and causing you to help, and if you don’t help it’s a layup, [or] it’s a floater. And if you do help, he’s hitting the right guy every single time [with a pass]. I think we did a great job of not fouling and just moving our feet and staying in front of him.”

Young acknowledged that fatigue set in after a short turnaround from playing in the play-in tournament.

“You definitely feel the heavy legs, but you have to give them credit,” Young said. “They came out aggressive; they came out with a lot of energy.”

Game 2 of this first-round series will take place on Tuesday in Miami.

It’s typically hard to stay positive after being handed a loss on a buzzer-beating game-winner — especially when it’s the first game of the playoffs. However, Brooklyn Nets Coach Steve Nash was adamant about staying positive:

“You can look at it a number of ways. There’s obviously areas of the game where you wanna improve, so take your pick. I’m proud of the guys. That was our first real intense playoff experience together. They had a poor start to the second half, which cost us, obviously. But other than that, I thought there was a lot of growth from our group.”

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“I’m proud of the guys… We had a poor start to the second half which cost us, obviously. But other than that I thought there was a lot of growth” – Steve Nash pic.twitter.com/PUhVsNQkt7

— Nets Videos (@SNYNets) April 17, 2022

To Nash’s point, the Nets entered the locker room at halftime tied with Boston at 61 apiece. Cut to the halfway mark of the third quarter, and Boston is up 15 points on Brooklyn with a score of 84-69 showing on the jumbotron. Although Brooklyn would battle back to take the lead late in the game, the Celtics had one last trick to pull out of their sleeve.

Nash and the Nets have one more dance with the Celtics in TD Garden on Wednesday before heading back home to the Barclays Center on Saturday at 7:30 PM EST for Game 3.

Game 1 in TD Garden between the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets ended in a thrilling fashion, with Jayson Tatum hitting a game-winner to put the Celtics up 1-0 against the Nets. Tatum’s veteran teammate Marcus Smart gave high praise to his squad’s work ethic over the season leading up to this moment:

“The resilience we have. The approach we have. The work we put in. And you know, learning. We had a lot of games to learn from early in the year.”

Smart didn’t only dish out the game-winning dime to Tatum; he also recorded 20 points, seven rebounds, six assists, and two steals. However, it will likely be his last-second dime to Tatum that will be remembered for quite some time. Smart gives credit to Coach Ime Udoka for trusting his team to make the right decisions in the last play of Game 1.

“You’ve gotta credit Ime [Udoka] for trusting us in that situation,” Smart said.

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Marcus Smart on attacking our final possession without taking a timeout: “You’ve gotta credit Ime for trusting us in that situation.”

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) April 17, 2022

Coach Udoka and company will get the chance to repeat their magic at home on Wednesday at 7 PM EST for Game 2 before heading to Brooklyn on Saturday at 7:30 PM EST for Game 3.