Author: Editor

'We've just got to be ready': Jalen Brunson, Knicks embrace playoff intensity entering Game 2 against Hawks

'We've just got to be ready': Jalen Brunson, Knicks embrace playoff intensity entering Game 2 against Hawks

After Game 1 at MSG, Knicks‘ first-round series with the Atlanta Hawks does not lack playoff intensity.

Saturday’s 113-102 New York win saw Knicks captain Jalen Brunson outduel CJ McCollum, who took issue with his technical foul after a kick to Brunson’s midsection during a shot at the third quarter’s 1:40 mark and the Hawks facing a 57-55 deficit.

“I shot a jumper and Jalen thought we were at a Broadway show,” McCollum said after Saturday’s game. “He acted it out until they reviewed it. It’s a normal jump shot, nothing there — unnecessary, and I look forward to getting my $2,500 (fine) back.”

Brunson told reporters after the Knicks’ Sunday practice that he has “no reaction” to McCollum’s postgame comments.

“I didn’t see it,” New York coach Mike Brown said Sunday of McCollum’s postgame comments. “A lot of guys are going to say a lot of things throughout the course of the playoffs. So, whatever people want to say, that’s up to them.”

Brunson’s game-high 28 points edged McCollum’s 26, combining with Knicks co-star Karl-Anthony Towns to lead a full team effort for third-seeded New York against sixth-seeded Atlanta.

“We’ve just got to be ready for them,” Brunson said Sunday, referencing Monday’s 8 p.m. tipoff for Game 2. “You just know that teams usually bounce back after a loss, and so we’ve got to be ready to up our intensity, up our physicality and just be ready to match theirs. They’re a good team, they’re well-coached and they’re going to be ready to go.”

The Knicks seek a 2-0 lead at the Garden before the best-of-seven set goes to Atlanta for Thursday’s 7 p.m. Game 3.

“It’s one of those things you have to be there and experience it to really understand it,” New York wing Josh Hart said of MSG’s postseason energy Sunday. “Obviously, regular season’s always fun, it’s always cool. And I was talking to (Yankees right-hander) Cam Schlittler (Saturday) about it — playoffs in New York is different. The vibe is different. Everything is heightened in the Garden and, obviously, for them at Yankee Stadium. You’ve got to experience it, man — the energy, the passion, the love, it’s crazy.”

by Editor

Kingston Flemings Declares For 2026 NBA Draft

Kingston Flemings Declares For 2026 NBA Draft

University of Houston guard Kingston Flemings has declared as an Early Entry Candidate for the 2026 NBA Draft. Flemings is declaring after his freshman season with the Cougars.

ESPN has Flemings ranked as the seventh-best prospect in their Top 100 for the 2026 draft. He’s the fourth-ranked guard behind Darryn Peterson, Keaton Wagler and Darius Acuff Jr.

In his lone season with the Cougars, the 6-foot-3 guard averaged 16.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.5 steals. Flemings shot 47.6% from the field, including 38.7% on three-pointers.

by Editor

Trail Blazers Not Looking To Spend Big Money On A Head Coach

Trail Blazers Not Looking To Spend Big Money On A Head Coach

The Portland Trail Blazers may move on from Tiago Splitter, despite the interim head coach leading the team to their first playoff appearance in five years. If they Blazers do go for a new coach, they aren’t looking to spend big money to bring one to Portland.

New Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon apparently doesn’t want to spend more than $1.5 million per season on a head coach. That’s far less than what most head coaches make, and is in line with what teams pay top assistant coaches. That figure is also far less than what top college coaches makes. That could impact Portland’s ability to hire a quality leader on the sidelines.

Splitter is expected to be a candidate to keep the job, if a new deal can be worked out. After taking over one game into the season, Splitter led the Blazers to a 42-39 record, then a win in the Play-In Tournament to claim the seventh seed in the Western Conference Playoffs.

by Editor

NBA playoffs, not awards, drive Pistons star Cade Cunningham after last year's 1st-round exit

NBA playoffs, not awards, drive Pistons star Cade Cunningham after last year's 1st-round exit

DETROIT (AP) — The NBA playoffs, not awards, drive Detroit Pistons star Cade Cunningham to chase greatness.

A year after Cunningham had a first-round exit in his postseason debut, the point guard is motivated to lead the three-time championship franchise to success it hasn’t experienced in nearly two decades.

After falling one game short of the league’s 65-game minimum rule, he won an appeal to be part of the NBA awards voting this season

“It means a lot to me,” he said Friday.

It will mean more to him, though, to at least lift Detroit out of the first round of the playoffs.

The Pistons will host the winner of the Charlotte-Orlando game in Game 1 of the first round on Sunday night. Detroit hasn’t won a playoff series since 2008, when it reached the conference finals for a sixth straight season to end a run that included the 2004 NBA title and coming up one victory short of repeating the next season.

The Pistons were in the playoffs last year for the first time since 2019 and ended a league-record, 15-game postseason losing streak before being eliminated by the New York Knicks in Game 6.

Cunningham had chances to make winning plays in the games Detroit lost, and learned painful lessons when he didn’t come through.

“That was a chip on my shoulder to get better bodywise, skillset wise,” he said.

The 6-foot-6, 220-pound Cunningham added about 10 pounds of muscle in the offseason and said he feels strong staying at a weight that used to make him feel heavy.

Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff has seen Cunningham’s condition prepare him for the rigors of the game.

“His ability to drive the basketball and play through contact because he is so forceful, the added strength lets him do that,” Bickerstaff said. “Defensively, he can guard bigger guys. We switch them on the 4s, sometimes 5s, and he can be physical with guys. He can rebound in traffic.

“The strength helped him all around, and I think the motivation came by that experience.”

Cunningham’s offseason training couldn’t prevent an injury he had late a month ago with a collapsed lung that knocked him out of 11 games.

“I’m still trying to get back to full speed and just get my rhythm and everything back, but I’m getting close,” Cunningham said. “I’m still just knocking a little bit more of the dust off every day.”

In his first of three games following the injury earlier this month, Cunningham had his 38th double-double to lead all NBA guards.

The 24-year-old Cunningham, drafted No. 1 overall by Detroit in 2021, is in the first year of a five-year contract that will pay him more than $269 million.

He provided an early return on the investment as a first-time All-Star starter. He finished the season with 23.9 points, a career-high 9.9 rebounds and 5.5 rebounds a game, leading the franchise to a 60-win season and its first division title in 18 years, to likely earn another spot on an all-league team.

Cunningham was a third-team All-NBA player last season after leading one of best turnarounds in league history.

And like a player simply trying to make the team, Cunningham consistently was one of the first and last players on the court for practices all season, including on Friday.

“He’s a guy who’s in the gym every day,” said Jalen Duren, who was a first-time All-Star this season. “It’s a testament to the work he puts in. Even spending time with him in the summer, he works hard. He deserves everything that’s coming to him and more.”

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by Editor

First lesson of Oklahoma City repeat title run: Don't talk about repeat title run

First lesson of Oklahoma City repeat title run: Don't talk about repeat title run

The Oklahoma City Thunder are the defending NBA champions. They also have the fifth-youngest roster in the NBA.

That combination can spell doom for the immature. Even veteran title teams succumb to what Pat Riley termed “the disease of me” — players start thinking about themselves, their touches, their points, and how much money they make or should make. The unselfish ethos that won a team a ring starts to fade. So does the chance at another.

Oklahoma City does not give off that vibe as it gears up to defend its title, starting Sunday.

“I think that’s what makes us so good, is that we have so many unselfish guys,” Jaylin Williams told NBC Sports. “Nobody is like, when you know a guy’s out, nobody’s stepping in thinking, ‘Oh, I’m gonna get 25 shots tonight because somebody’s out.’ You’re thinking, ‘Oh, I’m gonna go in there and do whatever the team needs me to do to get the win’…

“Everybody’s just going out there and playing the game that we’re supposed to play. I think when you have a team that’s so unselfish like that, it makes you an even better team.”

Don’t talk repeat

Coach Mark Daigneault has worked to install a “focus on the little things and the big things will come” ethos, something that every coach preaches. Think day-to-day. Build good habits now, and it’s something the team can and will fall back on in the playoffs.

What’s different is that the Thunder players — from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on down — have fully bought in. With that, repeating as NBA champions is not a topic in the OKC locker room. It doesn’t really come up.

“We try not to take it like that,” Lu Dort told NBC Sports about the quest to win back-to-back rings. “I mean, obviously, just from the facts and the truth, we are the reigning champs, but we try to go in there and not even think about that. We still got to beat every team that we go against four times to advance.”
“I wouldn’t look at it as like us trying to be the defending champs going in these nights, like we’re going to these games, just as hungry to win, just like we were last season,” Williams added.

Discussions of “process” and “building good habits” can come off as boring coach speak, but it’s a mantra with the Thunder. Because of that, as a group, they can come off a little like the Tim Duncan-era Spurs — boring day-to-day, no drama, just putting in the work, focusing on the little things, and getting better. Duncan has five rings to show for it.

“I think the first thing for us is just making sure that we’re taking care of our stuff,” Daigneault said. “You know, it starts with how we’re playing, the habits we’re trying to sharpen, what we’re trying to get done. You go through the regular season, there’s different opponents every night that present different challenges, but it always starts between you and yourself.”

Boring? Maybe. Winning? Absolutely.

Continuity and experimentation

Oklahoma City may be young, but they have the kind of roster continuity that is rare in the tax apron era of the NBA. The core of the guys about to chase another ring already won one together. Even players in much larger roles now, such as reserve guard Ajay Mitchell, have been in the system, just not showcased.

“It definitely helps,” Dort said of the continuity. “Just like, we have a lot of the same guys from last season. Sometimes it’s hard to adjust to new guys on the team, just the fact that we got the same core that we had last year, it helps so much, and our team chemistry is just getting better and better and better.”

Even the adversity the Thunder faced this season with key players missing time — Jaylin Williams, Alex Caruso, Isaiah Hartenstein, among others — is seen as an opportunity. For Daigneault, it gave him a platform to do something he already wanted to do — experiment with different lineups. Put different combinations of players together.

“We’re actually not a team that wants to find rotational stability in the regular season,” Daigneault said. “We’re trying to constantly create variability, because that gives us some learnings and creates options for us. It also puts the guys in situations where they have to adapt to who they’re on the floor with, which we think is good for their development as players.”

“I think our coaches do a good job of keeping everybody ready for anything that could happen,” Williams said, echoing the idea. “We’re a super detailed team when it comes to different situations that we might not have encountered yet, but we’re always ready for whatever the situation is.”

“I mean, the fact that we’ve seen it before, it’s just a tool that we have in our pockets if something goes wrong,” Dort said of needing to pull out different lineups during a postseason series. “And then in the playoff teams throw a lot of different stuff, and you never know what they’re going to do. So the fact that we have a lot of different options that we can throw out there, so it’s a good thing for us.”

Thunder players also understand that continuity will not be the same in the coming years. Dort, Isaiah Hartenstein and Kenrich Williams all have player options for next season, just as massive new max contract extensions kick in for Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams ($41 million each, to start). Gilgeous-Alexandr has a new max contract starting in the 2027-28 season. The money is about to get tight in OKC, and roster changes will flow from that. The players know they don’t have many more chances with this locker room.

Ready for playoffs

The Thunder may not talk big-picture, but they are, to a man, ready to play games with real weight and meaning again.

They just wouldn’t let that get in the way of the process.

“Of course, just your competitive nature, you want to be back in those big environments, the loud playoff games, where every shot means so much,” Williams said. “But at the same time you can’t skip steps in a process. And that’s something the coaches also instilled in us, and I think our whole team understands that.”

The Thunder did not skip steps, and now they are ready to add to their collection of rings.

by Editor