The national anthem has become a staple of major American sporting events, and with versions sung every single night, every sport has its share of infamous performances. One that stands out in NBA history came back in 2003, when the Portland Trail Blazers were hosting the Dallas Mavericks in a first-round playoff game.
Natalie Gilbert, then 13 years old, took center court to sing, but midway through the performance, she forgot the words. Fortunately, she had an eager helper in the form of then-Blazers head coach Maurice Cheeks, who stepped up and encouraged her to keep going.
Cheeks even finished the song alongside her, embracing her afterward and turning what could have been a horrible night into a heartwarming moment that made national news.
Oliver Miller, the big man who helped Arkansas reach the Final Four before becoming the No. 22 pick in the 1992 NBA Draft, died Wednesday at 54. Miller, a talented all-around center, spent nine seasons in the NBA, bouncing between five teams.
His death was announced by both the NBA Players Association and the Arkansas basketball program. No cause of death was disclosed, but Arkansas announced that he had cancer during an event honoring its 1990 Final Four team last month.
Known as “The Big O,” the 6-foot-9 Miller reportedly weighed around 380 pounds at his heaviest during his career and is believed to have been one of the heaviest players in NBA history.
Miller grew up in Texas and was recruited to play for Nolan Richardson during his legendary stint at Arkansas. The Razorbacks reached the Final Four in 1990 with Miller as a key piece of their front court, but ultimately lost the national semifinal to Duke. A year later, he won Southwest Conference Player of the Year honors by averaging 15.7 points, 7.7 rebounds, 2.9 blocks and 2.7 assists per contest. Miller averaged 12.2 points and 6.5 rebounds across his four seasons with the Razorbacks.
Miller was drafted by the Suns and began his career as a backup in a Phoenix front court rotation that included Charles Barkley and A.C. Green and was a member of the 1993 team that reached the NBA Finals. He was traded to the Pistons after his second season, and later had his most successful year in during the 1995-96 campaign as a starter for the inaugural season of Toronto Raptors history. Starting 72 games, Miller averaged 12.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists per contest.
That proved to be the peak for Miller, who signed with the Mavericks in the following offseason only to eventually make it back to Toronto. The Raptors held a moment of silence for Miller before their game against Philadelphia on Wednesday night.
“The Toronto Raptors are saddened to learn of the passing of Oliver Miller, who spent three seasons with our organization,” the team said in a statement. “He holds a special place in our history as a member of our inaugural team in 1995, and we are so grateful for all his contributions. We send our deepest condolences to the Miller family.”
Miller would also go on to play for the Kings and Timberwolves along with a number of foreign and minor league teams. He even suited up for the Harlem Globetrotters for two short stints.
For his NBA career, Miller had averages of 7.4 points and 5.9 rebounds.
Mikal Bridges made news before the New York Knicks tipped off on Wednesday when he publicly lobbied for head coach Tom Thibodeau to play his starters fewer minutes. As it turned out, the Knicks needed every one of Bridges’ 41 minutes against the Portland Trail Blazers.
With Jalen Brunson still sidelined, Bridges took the reins of New York’s offense and scored 33 points, including the game-winning 3-pointer, in what was perhaps his best game with the Knicks.
The game was a classic even before the Bridges dagger, though. It included 42 lead changes in 53 minutes. And were it not for the shot Bridges drilled at the end, we’d remember this game for an entirely different reason. With 7.2 seconds remaining and the Knicks leading 111-110, Josh Hart needed to simply inbound the ball and wait for a teammate to get fouled so New York could extend the lead to two or three.
Instead, he committed one of the rarer violations in all of basketball. Hart moved several steps before he inbounded the ball, which isn’t allowed unless the inbound is coming after a score. This inbound came after the ball went out of bounds on Portland, so Hart was not allowed to maneuver the baseline. As a result of his blunder, the ball went back to the Blazers.
The call was so rare that broadcaster Mike Breen said on the air that he had never seen it at the end of a game in 33 years. The Blazers took advantage. While Mitchell Robinson blocked Deni Avdija on his go-ahead layup attempt, Avdija secured the rebound, made the putback and got fouled in the process.
That gave Portland a 113-111 lead, but with the game on the line, Thibodeau drew up the play for Bridges. He delivered with a game-winning triple.
After the game, Tom Haberstroh noted a somewhat shocking bit of NBA history that came on this Bridges shot. The tracking-era record for most lead changes in a game is 43. That was set in an overtime game between the Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks. In that game, Bridges hit a game-winner to secure a 114-113 victory for his team, just as he did tonight in a game that included the second-most lead changes of the tracking era (42).
It’s been an uneven debut season for Bridges with the Knicks. Despite rejoining his Villanova teammates Brunson and Hart, Bridges is having his worst 3-point shooting season since his rookie year. His defense hasn’t been up to its typical standard either, and after the Knicks gave up five first-round picks to get him, expectations were understandably high.
Perhaps this shot is a sign of things to come for Bridges down the stretch with the postseason approaching. If nothing else, Hart owes him a big thank you for the bail out.
The Los Angeles Lakers enter Thursday night’s Game 3 against the Denver Nuggets in desperate need of a win. The Lakers, who blew a 20-point lead in Monday’s Game 2, find themselves down 0-2 in the first-round playoff series and without answers of how to notch a win against the reigning champion Nuggets. Denver has won 10 games in a row against L.A., including six consecutive victories in the postseason.
Jamal Murray was the hero for the Nuggets in Game 2, hitting a buzzer-beating game-winner over Anthony Davis to give Denver a 101-99 win in a game the Lakers led nearly the entire night. It was a demoralizing loss for the Lakers, who will host Games 3 and 4 in L.A., needing at least one win to keep their season alive.
“It’s all about sustainability,” LeBron James told reporters after Game 2. “It doesn’t matter what you can do throughout the first 47.5 minutes. You got to close the game, which we didn’t do. We got to do a better job of that. But some of the things that we’ve done over the first couple games, we’re very excited and happy about those. But we got to do a better job of closing it.”
Here’s what to know about Thursday night’s Game 3:
Lakers vs. Nuggets — Game 3 info Time: 10 p.m. ET | Date: Thursday, April 25 Location: Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles TV channel: TNT | Live stream: TNT app Odds: Lakers -1, O/U: 217
Storylines Nuggets: It’s been a good start to the playoffs for the champs as they fought back for a Game 2 victory and kept home-court advantage in this first-round series. Nikola Jokic is nearly averaging a triple-double in the series with 29.5 points, 16 rebounds and 8.5 assists per game so far. Murray has only shot 37.5% from the floor, but he hit the biggest shot of the series. Michael Porter Jr. has added 41 points in the two games, while the Nuggets have limited the Lakers to 101 points per game.
Lakers: The Lakers’ stars have shined in the series. LeBron has been sharp, with 26.5 points and 10 assists per game. Davis has been the highest scorer of the series with 64 points so far. And D’Angelo Russell had a solid Game 2 after struggling in Game 1. Still it hasn’t equaled a victory, and the Lakers will need more production from players like Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura if they want to turn this into a competitive series.
Prediction The Nuggets just keep finding ways to beat the Lakers, especially in close games. It seems like if the Lakers are going to take a game against the Nuggets, they need to take it and make it a runaway before fourth-quarter Jokic can get his team back in the game. Don’t expect that to happen in Game 3 as Denver makes it 11 in a row and pushes L.A. to the brink of elimination: Pick: Nuggets +1
No NBA team has ever overcome a 3-0 playoff deficit to win a series, and Joel Embiid seemingly came into Game 2 against the New York Knicks knowing that. A home loss would have dropped his Philadelphia 76ers into a 3-0 deficit, and Embiid posted a new career playoff high 50 points in Philadelphia’s Game 3 win over New York to ensure that wouldn’t happen. Embiid’s performance was incredible, but it also came with several controversial moments in the first half.
In the first half, Embiid committed three notable fouls. Two of them were committed in the same general region against different Knicks. In the first quarter, Embiid was assessed an offensive foul for seemingly hitting Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein in the groin. In the second quarter, on a shot attempt, Embiid swung his leg upward unnecessarily and hit New York’s other center, Mitchell Robinson, in the groin as well.
Third controversial Embiid play of the night pic.twitter.com/vyYv01Q8h6
— Sam Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) April 26, 2024 Those plays, however, paled in comparison to another foul Embiid committed against Robinson. In the first quarter, Embiid got knocked to the ground by OG Anunoby near the basket. Anunoby passed the ball to Robinson, but Embiid, from the ground, grabbed Robinson’s leg and pulled him down to ground as well. He was assessed only a flagrant-1 foul for the play.
Should Joel Embiid have been ejected for this?
pic.twitter.com/BE4T27I0cE
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) April 26, 2024 After the game, Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo called the play “dirty.” Other teammates called it out, too.
Donte DiVincenzo called Joel Embiid’s Flagrant 1 on Mitchell Robinson a ‘dirty’ play. Isaiah Hartenstein said it ‘wasn’t a basketball play.’ Josh Hart said it was a reckless play and Knicks were fortunate that Robinson avoided a severe ankle injury.
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) April 26, 2024 Embiid, meanwhile, said he was trying to protect himself.
“It’s unfortunate,” Embiid said. “I didn’t mean to hurt anybody. In those situations I gotta protect myself because I’ve been in way too many situations where I’m the recipient of the bad end of it. It was unfortunate.”
The NBA’s official rulebook determines that a flagrant foul penalty 2, which triggers an automatic ejection, is to be called “if contact committed against a player, with or without the ball, is interpreted to be unnecessary and excessive.” Obviously, this is a subjective definition. However, pulling a player’s foot from the ground while he’s attempting to jump not only seems excessively dangerous, but it is hardly a basketball play.
Zach Zarba, the referee’s crew chief on Thursday night, commented to a pool reporter after the game about the decision of calling the foul a flagrant 1 instead of a flagrant 2.
“In this instance, the crew was unanimous along with the replay center official in Secaucus that this foul was unnecessary but did not rise to the level of a flagrant 2,” Zarba said. “He unnecessary contact rose to the level of a flagrant 1 but we were unanimous that this did not rise to the level of excessive contact, unnecessary and excessive, which would have been a flagrant 2 ejection. That’s why we kept it a flagrant 1.”
Robinson played through pain in the first half, but had a visible limp at points. He attempted to warm up to start the second half, but started the second half in the locker room and was eventually ruled out due to a left ankle injury. It is unclear what an impact the Embiid play had on him, as he was already listed as questionable due to an ankle injury entering Game 3, but it obviously did not help. Robinson left the arena in a walking boot after the game.
Asked about the flagrant foul after the game, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau responded “which one?”
Tom Thibodeau on the flagrant foul called on Joel Embiid:
“Which one? The one they called, or the one they didn’t call? Just want to make sure we have clarity on that.” pic.twitter.com/qlrkqYDWar
— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) April 26, 2024 Whether a foul is dirty or simply part of the physical nature of the game is ultimately subjective. But Embiid — who, per ESPN, is dealing with a mild case of Bell’s palsy — got caught in that gray area three times in the first half alone. If nothing else, he dialed up the intensity in an already chippy series to an 11. Embiid and the Sixers will attempt to tie the series at 2-2 on Sunday, and when this series does shift back to New York for Game 5, Embiid can expect a very cold welcome.
Los Angeles Lakers fans spent the summer of 2023 calling the Western Conference Finals “the closest sweep in NBA history.” Well, that isn’t quite true. Losing four straight games by only 24 combined points is pretty rare, but it wasn’t even the closest sweep of this decade. The 2022 Brooklyn Nets lost in four to the Boston Celtics by just 18 points. Within a year, those Nets had blown up.
The Lakers? Not so much. They largely ran back last season’s roster, swapping out Dennis Schroder for Gabe Vincent and cycling through a few new minimum-salary free agents, but otherwise retaining the bulk of the team that Denver had just swept. Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell and Jarred Vanderbilt all got expensive multi-year deals.
No future draft picks were traded for immediate help. The theory seemed to be that internal development could flip the not-quite-closest sweep in NBA history into a win. Here’s a not-quite-a-secret flaw to that theory, though: there’s no such thing as a close sweep.
The moments when these teams have been closest to their true selves have invariably favored Denver. They played 11 clutch minutes against one another and the Nuggets won those minutes by 15 points. Sure you could fake a close score against Denver by beating them in the early going and winning the non-Jokic minutes, but when Denver starts to take things seriously? Game over.
The Lakers have experienced that phenomenon firsthand this season. They played seven more clutch minutes against Denver in the regular season and lost them by 17 points. They’re not even getting to clutch minutes this time around because Denver is turning it on earlier. The Nuggets have outscored the Lakers by 29 in three third quarters so far in this year’s series. Not-so-surprisingly, the Lakers are on their way towards another not-as-close sweep.
Most of the “why’s” that applied to last year’s matchup still apply to this one. Russell scored 25 points in last year’s series. He’s shooting 14-of-43 from the field in this year’s rematch and just went scoreless in Game 3. The Lakers fielded trade offers for him at the deadline but elected not to move him.
Additionally, they have no reliable point-of-attack defense that doesn’t compromise their offense. The supposed answer to that problem was Vincent, who himself lost a gentleman’s sweep to Denver a year ago in the NBA Finals as a member of the Miami Heat. He technically “held” Jamal Murray to 21.4 points on 45-39-93 shooting, but remember, Murray also averaged 10 assists in that series. Murray more than did his part against the Heat last year. Even after a slow start, he’s held up his end of the bargain against the Lakers this time around.
And then there’s the Nikola Jokic problem. That isn’t exclusive to the Lakers. It’s just more of an issue for them when one of the prerequisites to contending for them is elite center defense. That’s part of the reason why they pay Anthony Davis max money. Unfortunately, Jokic eats him alive one-on-one whenever they match up. Nobody is suggesting the Lakers bench or trade Davis, but remember, they did defeat Jokic in a playoff series in 2020. They did so with Dwight Howard as a key Jokic defender. Yet, the only other big men the Lakers rostered this season were Jaxson Hayes and Christian Wood, both minimum-salary signings. They gave themselves no alternatives.
How fixable was all of this? That’s hard to say. The Lakers sniffed around Russell replacements, though it’s unclear how close they ever came to trading for someone like Dejounte Murray. There were paths to starrier additions like Kyrie Irving or Fred VanVleet during the offseason. An addition like that would have meant sacrificing all of the depth they’ve accumulated to clear out cap space. Whether or not that was worthwhile is debatable. More so, Howard-level post-defenders don’t grow on trees. The Lakers got lucky that a future Hall of Famer happened to be out of vogue when they signed him in 2019.
Perimeter defense is a more fixable problem. It just isn’t a trait the current Lakers seem to value all that much. Notice how they’re so frequently linked to big stars like Trae Young and Donovan Mitchell rather than lower-maintenance 3-and-D wings. The Lakers planted that flag when they effectively swapped out Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (now killing them in Denver!), Kyle Kuzma and Alex Caruso to get Russell Westbrook in 2021.
That’s the original sin here. Not necessarily the Westbrook trade itself, but the philosophy that went into it. It’s easy to forget this now, but the Lakers actually did have a team that beat Denver in the playoffs. The 2020 Lakers beat every team they played. They did it by surrounding James and Davis with the sort of two-way role players that help make Denver so dangerous. In Caldwell-Pope’s case, that is literal. Caruso has become the consensus best guard defender in the NBA. Kuzma has a $100 million deal in Washington. Howard, JaVale McGee, Danny Green and Avery Bradley were essentials to that roster that were never replaced. The Lakers wanted a top-heavy, offense-first roster and they got one.
There’s a cruel irony to this. The Lakers tore down the team that actually beat the Nuggets and won a championship… but refused to do the same to the team that the Nuggets crushed. They set themselves up for this embarrassment last summer. They doubled down on it at the trade deadline. The Lakers saw their team get swept by Denver a year ago, refused to change it, and now, well, they’re sleeping in the bed that they made. You can’t do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.
Despite being 39 years old, LeBron James still wants to compete in the Paris Games this summer. But during NBA All-Star weekend in Indianapolis, James admitted that his ability to play in the 2024 Olympics will depend on his health.
“The most important thing for me is definitely my health,” said James, whose last Olympics was the London Games. James’ Team USA squads won gold in 2012 and 2008, and bronze in 2004.
The Los Angeles Lakers are currently in ninth place in the Western Conference with a 30-26 record but still look like potential postseason contenders. If the Lakers are able to make a deep playoff run, that could throw a wrench into James’ Olympic plans if he’s banged up at all.
“I told myself before the season, when I committed to being part of the Olympic team, obviously it was all predicated on my health,” James said. “As it stands right now, I am healthy enough to be on the team and perform at a level that I know I can perform at.”
If the Lakers are able to reach the Western Conference finals or even the NBA Finals, James would still have time to rest up, but it’s also possible that he doesn’t want to tax his body anymore during the Paris Games, which will run from July 26 to Aug. 11.
After all, it’s likely that James still has a few more seasons left in the tank, so that could also be a contributing factor.
“It’s more miles put on these tires,” James said. “But if I’m committed — which I am — to Team USA, then I’m going to commit my mind, body and soul to being out there for Team USA, being out there representing our country with the utmost respect and go out there and play.”
James is now past the midway point of his 21st season, and he’s made it clear he isn’t sure how many more NBA seasons he plans to play.
The Lakers star has already become one of the most accomplished players in NBA history. He’s fresh off his 20th All-Star Game appearance, which is the most ever. During the 2022-23 season, James passed Kareem-Abdul Jabbar for the most points in NBA history, and is now just 132 points from tallying 40,000 points in his regular-season career.
Mike Conley has agreed to a two-year, $21 million contract extension with the Minnesota Timberwolves, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The Timberwolves, owners of the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed at the All-Star break, now have their starting lineup locked up going into next season.
Conley, who was acquired in a deadline deal that cost Minnesota D’Angelo Russell in 2023, has been everything the Timberwolves could have hoped for as their starting point guard. He has been a stabilizing force on an offense built around young superstar Anthony Edwards. His presence has made life significantly easier on both ends of the floor for former Utah Jazz teammate Rudy Gobert, who is favored to win his fourth Defensive Player of the Year award this season. Minnesota is 49-25 overall with Conley in the fold.
Getting Conley back at this price is a boon for a Timberwolves team facing a severe financial crunch. Right now, the Timberwolves have roughly $185 million on the books for next season dedicated to nine players.
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That includes their starting point guard, who is now locked into a deal that will pay him less than the non-taxpayer mid-level exception. He almost certainly could have earned more on the open market, but in Minnesota, Conley has his best chance to genuinely contend for a championship. Now he’ll be able to do so for the next two seasons at least.
The Brooklyn Nets have fired head coach Jacque Vaughn, the team announced Monday morning. Kevin Ollie is set to be named the interim head coach in Brooklyn, per ESPN. The Nets, now 21-33, have fallen out of the top 10 in the Eastern Conference and made a change over the NBA All-Star break with 28 games left on their regular-season schedule. Ollie’s first game will come Thursday night against the Raptors.
Ollie, previously the head coach at the University of Connecticut and the head of coaching and player development at Overtime Elite, joined Vaughn’s staff ahead of the 2023-24 season. Ollie spent 13 seasons in the NBA as a player, and he helped guide UConn to a national championship in 2014. He was a candidate for the Detroit Pistons head coaching job last summer before the team hired Monty Williams.
Vaughn took over the Nets under less than ideal circumstances. After serving as interim coach in 2020 after the firing of Kenny Atkinson, he remained on the staff under new coach Steve Nash. When Nash got fired early last season, Vaughn was again tapped as the interim replacement.
That interim tag was removed following a hot start, but things fell apart in the middle of the season when extension talks with Kyrie Irving broke down and he sought a trade. The Nets sent him to Dallas and followed that move up by dealing Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns. With a suddenly rebuilding roster, the Nets declined. They fell to the No. 6 seed in last year’s postseason, and now, at 21-33, they sit in 11th place in the Eastern Conference this year. They have gone 8-23 since their impressive 13-10 start.
The Nets are now somewhat stuck between eras. They lack the star power of the Durant-Irving years, but with the Houston Rockets owning so many of their first-round picks from the James Harden trade, they aren’t in an ideal position to rebuild either. They’ve accumulated plenty of picks from other teams in recent trades, and those picks could potentially help them land a new star to pair with Mikal Bridges. Of course, maintaining a winning culture in between those two eras would go a long way in recruiting such a player. Vaughn hasn’t done so, and now the Nets are moving on.
Vaughn is the third Eastern Conference coach to get fired this season. The Washington Wizards made a coaching change from Wes Unseld Jr. to Brian Keefe while the Milwaukee Bucks replaced Adrian Griffin with Doc Rivers. That means that 20% of the Eastern Conference has already made coaching changes this season, and when the offseason arrives, more could easily come.
Draymond Green is expected to return to the lineup on Monday when the Golden State Warriors face off against the Memphis Grizzlies, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania. Green was suspended indefinitely after a Dec. 12 incident against the Phoenix Suns in which he committed a flagrant foul against Jusuf Nurkic. In total, Green missed 16 games between his suspension and ramp up for a return, and his return is now set for Martin Luther King Day.
Green’s indefinite suspension was the result of several disciplinary issues over the course of his career. He had already been suspended five games earlier this season for a chokehold against Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert. Additionally, Green had been suspended several other times in his career, and the league had cited his previous disciplinary issues as the punishments grew more severe for newer infractions. As part of his return to play, Green needed to undergo counseling.
He revealed on his podcast, the Draymond Green Show, that commissioner Adam Silver needed to talk him out of retiring after the incident. He eventually apologized for what happened. “I was wrong,” Green said. “I was wrong regardless of what I was trying to do, regardless of — none of that shit matters. I was wrong. I accept my fault in that and I apologize.”
The Warriors have struggled mightily lately without Green. They started 5-1 after his suspension began, but are 3-7 since. At 18-21, the Warriors currently hold the No. 12 seed in the Western Conference and will need help just to make it into the Play-In Tournament. The defense that Green typically leads is currently ranked 24th in the NBA.
The Grizzlies, under other circumstances, might not be an ideal opponent for Green to return against. They have been one of Golden State’s primary rivals over the past several years, and Green has publicly feuded with them in that span. However, his primary antagonist in that window has been Dillon Brooks, who now plays for the Houston Rockets, and with the Grizzlies at 14-25 and dealing with several key injuries, this game isn’t as likely to generate controversy as a typical Warriors-Grizzlies matchup might have done. If the Warriors have their way, Green’s return will lead to a quiet victory against the Grizzlies and then a whole lot more of them as the season progresses.
