Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers take Game 3 at home to lead the series 2-1!
▪ Bennedict Mathurin: 27 PTS (Playoff career-high), 4 REB, 2 3PM
▪ Pascal Siakam: 21 PTS, 6 REB, 4 AST, 2 STL
Game 4 of the #NBAFinals presented by YouTube TV tips Friday at 8:30pm/et on ABC!
LAS VEGAS (AP) — There’s something that Kobe Bryant once said that has stuck with U.S. men’s Olympic basketball coach Steve Kerr and seems especially important now.
It was about how other nations have made big strides in basketball, how the gap between the rest of the world and the U.S. is closing and how that’s been a great thing for the NBA. And Bryant’s response, paraphrased, was basically, “so what?”
His point: If everyone else is getting better, then the U.S. better find ways to do the same.
“Maybe we’ll show that one to the guys,” Kerr said. “I love that. And it has to be our attitude this summer.”
After months of planning, it’s time for the U.S. Olympic team — one that will go to the Paris Games later this month seeking a fifth consecutive gold medal — to take the floor. The first practice for the squad is Saturday, the start of a four-day training camp before its exhibition opener against Canada on Wednesday.
Players began arriving Thursday in Las Vegas; Stephen Curry was the first to check in for camp, perhaps underscoring how anxious he is for what will be his first Olympics. The 12 players have all known each other for years, but the task of becoming a team starts in earnest Saturday.
“I feel like it starts when it gets there, because that’s when you really see each other eye-to-eye,” said Bam Adebayo, who is seeking his second gold medal after winning one at the Tokyo Games three years ago. “You have those conversations, you have those many conversations within what we’re going through, what we’re trying to do. And that’s when it’s time to really be honest about what we want to do.”
That part is easy: Win gold.
The how-to-do-it part, that’s the key.
Last year brought another humbling World Cup experience for the U.S.; after finishing seventh in 2019, the Americans were fourth at Manila. But the argument — or justification, for lack of a better word — for those stumbles was that the U.S. wasn’t sending the best possible roster to those tournaments. Getting the big names like Kevin Durant and LeBron James for the Olympics, that’s one thing. Getting them for the World Cup and asking them to represent their country in back-to-back summers, that’s something else.
Tyrese Haliburton and Anthony Edwards were on that World Cup team last summer and were picked for this Olympic team as well.
“Obviously, last year we didn’t do what we wanted to do,” Haliburton said. “And that was frustrating because any time you get to represent USA Basketball, the expectation is to win. And we weren’t able to do that.”
This team was put together with a very different ending in mind. James is back on the Olympic team for the first time since 2012 and seeking a third gold, Durant is going for what would be a men’s Olympic record fourth basketball gold, and five other players — Adebayo, Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday, Jayson Tatum and Anthony Davis — each have one. The first-time Olympians are Haliburton, Edwards, Curry, Kawhi Leonard and Joel Embiid, someone who the U.S. convinced to play despite a strong push by France for the Philadelphia star to represent the host nation in Paris.
As far as choosing a starting lineup, good luck.
“It’s a good problem to have,” Kerr said. “I’m guessing that all 12 players on this roster will be in the Hall of Fame someday. So, how do you pick five out of 12? The idea is, you find combinations that click, and you find two-way lineups that can be effective at both ends. Our big job in Las Vegas is to find five-man combinations that fit and to just ask all 12 guys to fully commit to the goal of winning a gold medal no matter what it looks like, no matter who’s playing.”
The Americans play their first exhibition against Canada in Las Vegas, then have games at Abu Dhabi (against Australia and Serbia) and London (against South Sudan and Germany) before the Paris Games start. The U.S. opens Olympic play July 28 against Serbia and will also have group games against South Sudan and the winner of Sunday’s qualifier in Puerto Rico — either Mexico, Lithuania, Italy or Puerto Rico.
“We’ve got 39 days or so to get locked in to go get this gold medal, 12 amazing, talented guys ready to come together for one goal,” Curry said when he arrived to check in for camp. “I’m hyped for it all.”
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| USA TODAY Sports |
Derrick White had missed 7 of 8 3-point attempts when he found himself open in the right corner of the floor in the final minute of a tie game with an NBA Finals berth at stake.
He watched Jaylen Brown handle the ball and was just waiting for his Boston Celtics teammate to deliver a pass. Once Brown did just that, it was White's turn to make a play.
"Just was trusting that JB is going to make the right play like he has this entire year," White said. "I got a good look and wanted to stay in the shot and knock it down."
White drained the 3-pointer with 45 seconds left and the Celtics finished off a four-game sweep of the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals with a 105-102 victory on Monday night at Indianapolis.
"It's a credit to him," Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said of White. "He's another guy who has short-term memory. The last (missed) shot doesn't bother him, he plays with a sense of presence."
Brown scored 29 points and Jayson Tatum added 26 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists as the top-seeded Celtics landed a spot in the Finals for the second time in the past three seasons.
"It's been nothing but a grind," Brown said. "We didn't skip no steps all season. We have a bunch of great guys in this locker room. We have a bunch of tough guys and our coaching staff and front office has been great. Now we want to take it to the next step."
Andrew Nembhard had 24 points and a playoff career-high 10 assists for the sixth-seeded Pacers, who lost in the East finals for the eighth time in nine trips. Indiana's only victory was over the New York Knicks in 2000.
Boston overcame a nine-point deficit in the fourth quarter while once again playing better basketball down the stretch.
A defensive breakdown by the Pacers left White standing alone in the right corner on the decisive shot. Brown, who was named the MVP of the series, spotted him and his pinpoint pass was on the mark, and White's shot swished through the net.
Nembhard missed a 3-pointer with 33.6 seconds left and Tatum got the rebound. Indiana decided not to foul, and Tatum missed a trey with 8.3 seconds remaining. But Jrue Holiday collected the offensive rebound with 4.7 seconds left, and the Celtics ran out the clock.
It was Boston's second straight comeback win in Indianapolis. The Celtics overcame an eight-point deficit with 2:38 left in Game 3 to post a 114-111 victory. Boston trailed by as many as 18 in that contest.
"We never say die," Tatum said. "These were some tough games we had to play in, and we always find a way to figure it out. It's different guys every single night and we sacrifice in order to reach our ultimate goal."
Holiday had 17 points and nine rebounds and White added 16 points, five steals and three blocked shots for the Celtics, who will face either the Dallas Mavericks or Minnesota Timberwolves in the Finals.
Pascal Siakam had 19 points and 10 rebounds and T.J. McConnell added 15 points for Indiana. Aaron Nesmith scored 14 points and Obi Toppin added 12.
Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton (hamstring) missed his second straight game.
"The level of fight was tremendous all the way through this," Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said of his team. "Circumstance never fazes them one way or the other. They were in this to win every possession that they could and any game that they could.
"A lot of respect to our players and how they conducted themselves in the series."
The Celtics shot 44.9 percent from the field, including 14 of 44 from 3-point range.
Indiana made 46 percent of its shot attempts and was 10 of 29 from behind the arc.
McConnell scored six points in 64 seconds early in the fourth quarter to give the Pacers an 89-82 lead. A three-point play by Nembhard made it 94-85 with 8:57 remaining.
After Boston moved within four, Nesmith made back-to-back baskets to give Indiana a 98-90 lead with 5:56 to go.
The Celtics answered with an 8-2 run, moving within 100-98 on Holiday's three-point play with 3:54 remaining.
Brown's runner tied the score at 102 with 2:40 left.
Tatum scored 16 points before halftime as Boston led 58-57 at the break. Nembhard also tallied 16 points in the first half.
The Pacers took an 83-80 advantage into the final stanza but were outplayed by Boston down the stretch of a close game for the third time in the series. Indiana lost Game 1 in overtime.
"It's hard because I think when you look at all those games, we were right there," Siakam said. "It stings and it's hard because I know how hard we work.
"It's heartbreaking losses after heartbreaking losses. ... It doesn't matter how good we played. We didn't get it done."
- Reuters
BOSTON -- In each of the first two rounds of the playoffs, the Celtics comfortably won Game 1 before dropping Game 2 at home, first against the Miami Heat and then against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
They flipped the script against the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals.
After needing a minor miracle to escape with a Game 1 win at home, when a last-second 3-pointer by Jaylen Brown forced overtime, Brown again ensured this series would be different in Game 2 on Thursday night, finishing with 40 points to power Boston to a 126-110 victory and a 2-0 lead in this best-of-seven affair.
Afterward, Brown, who learned Wednesday that he was edged out by Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton for an All-NBA selection, kept his focus on the main prize when asked about missing out on the honor.
"We're two games from the Finals," he said. "So, honestly, I don't have the time to give a f---."
The Celtics' 2-0 advantage feels more significant in the wake of not only their great escape in Game 1, but with Haliburton exiting Game 2 with a sore left hamstring -- the same hamstring he injured in a home game against the Celtics in January.
Two more victories by the Celtics in this series and they advance to the NBA Finals for the second time in three years. They will have a chance to close the series in Indianapolis after holding home court through two games for the first time since the beginning of last year's first round against the Atlanta Hawks.
And they've done it largely thanks to the play of Brown, who led the charge for a Celtics offense that shot over 50%, went 15-for-37 from 3-point range and finished with a 54-34 edge in points in the paint.
Add in Indiana's 16 turnovers and it became a comfortable victory for Boston. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle played his bench players for most of the fourth quarter as the partisan fans at TD Garden were relieved.
"Just continue to lock in," said Jrue Holiday, who had 15 points and 10 assists with just one turnover in 37 minutes. "We know that these guys coming off the bench, second and third string, this is their chance to make anything happen. ... We know on the big stage anything can happen and guys can make plays, so we really wanted to set the tone and control the game toward the end of the game."
Before Haliburton's injury in the third quarter, it appeared a Celtics injury would be the most significant. Luke Kornet, who has served as Boston's primary backup center with Kristaps Porzingis sidelined, left in the first quarter with a left wrist sprain. That forced Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla to go with small lineups whenever Al Horford was off the court.
For a brief stretch at the end of the first half and another in the fourth, those groups featured Jayson Tatum at center. Most of the time, however, it was reserve forward Oshae Brissett -- who had five appearances with five or fewer minutes through the first 11 games of the playoffs -- operating at center.
That lineup, in particular, helped open the game up in the third quarter, when the Celtics outscored the Pacers by six over the final five minutes after Brissett put together what became a plus-18 performance in 12 minutes.
"I'm happy to see that," Holiday said of Brissett, who spent the past three years with Indiana before signing with Boston in the offseason. "He stays ready. He hasn't seen many minutes this postseason, probably didn't play as much as he wanted to in the regular season, but that's part of sacrificing and staying ready."
Tatum added: "It was great. Just the energy he came in with at both ends, just find a way to impact the game. We see the 'stay ready' group guys work and show up for us every single day, so I love when they're able to get their number called and help us win the game."
As the series shifts to Indiana, the Celtics are hoping their success on the road -- the one trend that has carried through the first two rounds of the playoffs, with Boston 4-0 away from TD Garden -- will continue at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. If it does, the Celtics will get a full 10 days off before the start of the NBA Finals on June 6 in Boston and will likely spend several days watching the Minnesota Timberwolves and Dallas Mavericks duke it out in the Western Conference finals.
If there's any team that knows not to take anything for granted in the playoffs, however, it is Boston, which has repeatedly played in one long series after another.
"The only thing we should be thinking about is, they were down 2-0 a series ago and brought it to Game 7," Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said, referring to the Pacers' series against the Knicks. "They do a great job protecting their home court. They're undefeated at home. It's gonna take a lot more than confidence to get the job done.
"We have to focus on the details and the execution and the mindset, the things that go into playing against a team like this at home. I know they're gonna respond so it's up to us to do the same."
- Tim Bontemps, ESPN
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NEW YORK (AP) — Jalen Brunson left the locker room on an injured leg, walked onto the court and sent the Madison Square Garden crowd into a frenzy, just as Willis Reed had exactly 54 years earlier.
As the roars turned into “MVP! MVP!” chants, Brunson tried to block out the pain in his body and the noise all around him as he warmed up at halftime.
“It was really cool to hear, but I just knew that I had to get my mind in the right place to figure out how I was going to attack the second half,” Brunson said.
He shook off his right foot injury to score 24 of his 29 points in the final two quarters, leading the New York Knicks to a 130-121 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night for a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
On the anniversary of Reed's dramatic emergence from the locker room before Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals to lead the Knicks to their first title, Brunson had missed the entire second quarter while the Pacers surged ahead to a double-figure lead.
Reed's teammates have said they didn't know if he would play that night. Brunson's had no doubt.
“I mean, he’s a warrior. That’s all I got,” Donte DiVincenzo said. “There was no doubt in my mind that he’ll be back. All season long, no matter what is thrown at him, injury bug or whatever, he always bounces back. And we knew the severity of the game and everything, so we knew, everybody had confidence he was coming back."
Brunson fell short of becoming the second player in NBA history to score 40 or more points in five straight playoff games, but he gave the Knicks everything they needed to move halfway to their first Eastern Conference finals appearance since 2000.
“He’s a great leader, so I think the players all have respect for that, when a guy goes out and is willing to give whatever he has, and so that says a lot about him," Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said.
OG Anunoby added a career playoff-high 28 points before leaving with a left hamstring injury in the third quarter for the injury-riddled Knicks, who have already lost three key players to season-ending injuries.
But they got Brunson back and received huge efforts again from his two Villanova teammates. DiVincenzo scored 28 points and Josh Hart had 19 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists for the No. 2-seeded Knicks.
Tyrese Haliburton rebounded from a poor Game 1 with 34 points, nine assists and six rebounds for the Pacers, who finished the game without coach Rick Carlisle after he got two technical fouls and was ejected.
“Small-market teams deserve an equal shot,” Carlisle said during a postgame complaint about the officiating. “They deserve a fair shot no matter where they are playing.”
The series moves to Indiana for Game 3 on Friday and Game 4 on Sunday.
Former Knicks forward Obi Toppin added 20 points in another strong effort by Indiana’s reserves, but the Pacers hurt themselves by shooting just 10 for 17 (59%) from the free throw line.
Knicks fans profanely jeered Pacers Hall of Famer Reggie Miller, an enemy from the heated 1990s era of this playoff rivalry who was calling the game as part of TNT’s crew, during a delirious finish to what had been a nervous first half, when Brunson was missing for the entire second quarter.
He had made a 3-pointer for a 24-13 lead in the first quarter, giving the Knicks 10 baskets in their first 14 shots in a blistering start. But after Toppin made one for the Pacers on the other end, Brunson began waving to the bench for a substitution as he ran down the court on offense. That was early in an 11-0 run by Indiana to tie it, and it was tied again at 36 after Toppin made three free throws with 0.3 seconds remaining.
The Pacers then made 15 of 22 shots in the second quarter in Brunson’s absence, outscoring the Knicks 37-27 to take a 73-63 lead.
Brunson would only say he felt some discomfort and that once he warmed up, he knew he was going back into the game.
“I had a decision to make and I made a decision,” Brunson said.
Indiana’s lead was 79-70 before the Knicks stormed ahead with a 14-0 run, with Brunson contributing a three-point play during it as New York went ahead 84-79.
Anunoby was hurt soon after, appearing to injure his hamstring while trying to finish a fast-break layup, but Brunson guided the Knicks through the finish with 14 points in the fourth quarter.
With All-Star Julius Randle gone to shoulder surgery and key reserves Mitchell Robinson and Bojan Bogdanovic lost in the playoffs, the Knicks have been relying on their starters to play major minutes — all 48 of them for Hart in both games of the series.
So they can't afford to play without Brunson, who finished fifth in the voting for MVP that Nikola Jokic won Wednesday.
He had joined Jerry West, Michael Jordan and Bernard King as the only players with at least four straight 40-point games in the playoffs, and came in as the leading scorer in the postseason with 36.6 points per game.
Brunson ended up getting fairly close to that despite playing only 32 minutes, saying afterward that teammates were teasing him with Reed jokes.
Isaiah Hartenstein finished with 14 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists for the Knicks, forced to play 39 minutes after the Knicks announced Tuesday that Robinson would miss at least six weeks with a stress injury to his left ankle.
The Knicks paid tribute to Reed's return, one of the most memorable moments in NBA and Madison Square Garden history, during the first quarter. His No. 19 jersey, hanging in the rafters, was spotlighted, and Hall of Fame teammate Walt Frazier came onto the court for an ovation.
- BRIAN MAHONEY
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| AP Photo |
NEW YORK (AP) — Back when the New York Knicks would annually march on in the playoffs, they'd almost always run into the Indiana Pacers.
With the teams set to renew their playoff rivalry Monday in the Eastern Conference semifinals, it's easy to think back to those rough and rugged tussles in the 1990s. But while the matchup may be old school, Jalen Brunson and the Knicks are bracing for an opponent who plays a new-age style.
Tyrese Haliburton runs the NBA's highest-scoring offense, with Indiana putting numbers on the scoreboard that make the ones in the past Knicks-Pacers contests look like a different sport, not just a different century.
“I guess whenever you have the original teams from back then, there’s always going to be some type of history," Brunson said. "But you have two good teams who play very, I don’t want to say different, but like, they play their own style of basketball. And so it’s going to be a grind of who’s going to go out there, who’s going to want it more who’s going to try to go get it.”
Brunson led the No. 2-seeded Knicks past Philadelphia in the first round, sending the Knicks into the East semifinals in consecutive seasons for the first time since making nine straight trips between 1992 and 2000.
He scored 40 or more points in the final three games, just the seventh player in NBA history with three straight 40-point games in the playoffs. The league's No. 4 scorer in the regular season tops all players in the postseason with 35.5 per game.
Indiana's big numbers come as a team. The Pacers led the league with 123.3 points per game, sixth highest in league history, and also were tops in field goal percentage and assists. They reached 140 points 11 times, an NBA record.
The sixth-seeded Pacers haven't slowed down too much in the playoffs. They averaged 113 while knocking off No. 3 Milwaukee and reached at least 120 in all four victories during the six-game series.
The Knicks and Pacers met three straight times from 1993-95 — exchanging Game 7 victories in the latter two — then again from 1998-2000, with the last two of those in the Eastern Conference finals. Indiana won the most recent meeting, ousting the No. 2-seeded Knicks in the 2013 East semifinals.
Neither team ever reached 120 points in any of the 41 games.
“It’s just a very intense matchup, that’s really the simple truth about it,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. "There’s a lot of stuff with Reggie Miller for five or six years and I know in 2013 there was another matchup. We’re going to have to be very resilient and we’re going to have to be very together.”
THIS SEASON
Indiana went 2-1 against New York and was right at its season average with 123.3 points per game, including 140 in a Dec. 30 victory when the Knicks were short-handed after a trade. Brunson averaged 35.7 points.
BRUNSON VS. HALIBURTON
The point guards were U.S. teammates last summer playing in the Basketball World Cup, then went on to have their best NBA seasons. Both were All-Stars, with Haliburton the Eastern Conference starter in his home arena en route to leading the league with 10.9 assists per game.
EX-RAPTOR VS. EX-RAPTOR
Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby were starters in Toronto to begin the season before the forwards were traded, with Anunoby going to the Knicks in December and Siakam to Indiana in January. The Knicks are 24-5 with Anunoby in the lineup and may need him now to defend his former teammate, who opened the playoffs with consecutive games of at least 35 points and 10 rebounds.
BRUNSON VS. CARLISLE
Brunson began his career in Dallas playing for Carlisle, who praised his former player's character and said they had a great three years together. Brunson was asked if he had extra motivation after an ESPN podcast referenced his frustration in getting only 10 minutes of playing time in a Game 7 loss to the Clippers in 2021.
"In all honesty, I said this last time, you’re in the playoffs now, there is no extra motivation," Brunson said. “It is what it is, the past is the past. Rick, he welcomed me into this league and he helped me become the player and he helped me grow from day one. So a coach has got to make decisions that suit their team. So whatever happened, happened and we’re moving forward from there.”
OBI'S OPPORTUNITY
Obi Toppin was the Knicks' first-round pick in 2020 and became a fan favorite, though rarely got extended playing time behind All-Star Julius Randle. He scored a career playoff-high 21 points off the bench in the clinching victory over Milwaukee and now heads back to his original NBA home.
“They’re one of the most physical teams in the league," Toppin said. "They’ve had that identity for many years and we’ve got to come in there and match that physicality and play our style of basketball, and I think we’ll be good at that.”
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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Tyrese Haliburton struggled to find his shooting touch Friday night.
So he looked for other ways to impact the game — a thunderous slam dunk off a rebound, finding open teammates and patiently waiting for a chance to make a statement. Then in the waning seconds of overtime, Haliburton wanted the ball.
The All-Star guard completed a three-point play with 1.6 seconds left, capping his first postseason triple-double in his first home playoff game to give the Indiana Pacers a 121-118 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. Indiana leads the best-of-seven series 2-1, with Game 4 on Sunday in Indianapolis.
“You know I was going to shoot it, no matter what,” Haliburton said. “What I was going to get was really based off of feel. there. Khris (Middleton) pushed Pascal (Siakam) up to tell Patrick (Beverley) to go under and as soon as I saw Patrick kind of turn his head, I reacted and everything opened up across the middle and I finally made a shot. I couldn't buy a bucket tonight.”
Yes, Haliburton was just 8 of 22 from the field and 1 of 12 on 3-pointers. But he did just about everything else right, finishing with 18 points, 16 assists and 10 rebounds as two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo again sat out for Milwaukee because of a strained left calf.
Myles Turner added 29 points and nine rebounds, both playoff career highs, to help give Indiana its first back-to-back postseason wins since taking three straight in the 2014 Eastern Conference semifinals.
The Pacers also have their first lead in the playoffs since Game 3 of a first-round matchup against Cleveland in 2018. Indiana hasn't won a series since reaching the 2014 Eastern Conference finals.
“It was a really fun game and overtime, what more could you ask for?” Haliburton said. “It was a really fun atmosphere.”
Perhaps not so fun for a Bucks team that has gotten more bruised and battered by the game.
Middleton finished with a playoff-career high 42 points and had 10 rebounds and five assists after missing practice Thursday because of a sprained right ankle. He forced overtime by making a 3-pointer with 1.4 seconds to go in regulation, banked in a 3 to tie the score with 6.7 seconds left in overtime and then missed a 3 at the buzzer that could have forced a second overtime.
Damian Lillard added 28 points and eight assists, most coming after he hurt his left knee in the first quarter and then aggravating an Achilles tendon injury late in the fourth quarter.
“We've just got to turn the page and get one win after another,” said Lillard, who is playing in his first postseason with the Bucks, who are 2-6 against Indiana this season.
It was a wild finish in front of a festive crowed decked out in gold T-shirts for Indiana's first home playoff game since April 21, 2019 — and with many local favorites in attendance. The crowd included Indiana Fever newcomer Caitlin Clark, former Colts coach Tony Dungy, former Pacers forward Derrick McKey and current Colts players Anthony Richardson, Kenny Moore II and E.J. Speed .
But these fans never expected to see the experienced Bucks methodically trim a 19-point first-half deficit to 90-83 after three quarters or to open the fourth on a 10-2 run to take a 95-92 lead on Bobby Portis Jr.'s putback early in the fourth.
The teams then traded baskets, ties and leads over the final 7 1/2 minutes of regulation, with Siakam's putback with 19.1 seconds left giving the Pacers a 109-106 lead. But Siakam missed the ensuing free throw, Middleton answered with a midrange shot and the 3 to tie it. Siakam's long 3 to win it hit off the back of the rim at the buzzer.
“I thought we picked up our energy, I thought we got more physical," Lillard said. “We just kind of got things under control, we got matched up, got into the gaps and thought once we started to do all of those things, the game started to turn. That's something we've got to focus on.”
It was more of the same in overtime — until Haliburton broke free for the mid-range shot that drew a foul and led to the decisive three-point play.
Siakam had 17 points and nine rebounds. Portis had 17 points and 18 rebounds for the Bucks.
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In the midst of March Madness, the NCAA is pushing for states with legal wagering on sporting events to ban prop bets on college athletes.
“Sports betting issues are on the rise across the country with prop bets continuing to threaten the integrity of competition and leading to student-athletes getting harassed,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said Wednesday in statement posted on social media. "The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats and many are responding by banning college prop bets.”
Prop bets — short for proposition bets — allow gamblers to wager on statistics a player will accumulate during a game rather than the final score.
Baker's statement came two days after the NBA confirmed it opened an investigation into unusual betting patterns surrounding props involving Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter. The Raptors said Porter would miss his third consecutive game Wednesday for personal reasons.
Some NBA players and coaches have been outspoken recently about prop bets and how gamblers react when numbers fail to hit. Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton said his social media is filled with complaints and Cleveland Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff revealed he received threats from gamblers last season and reported it to the NBA.
Earlier this month, U.S. Integrity, a company used by many professional sports leagues and college conferences to monitor betting activity, flagged a Temple regular-season men's basketball game for wagering irregularities.
The NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments are a huge draw for gamblers. The American Gaming Association estimates $2.7 billion will be bet this year on March Madness through legal sportsbooks.
Several states including Colorado, Arizona, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Oregon have rules prohibiting prop betting on college athletes that predate the NCAA's recent push. Others such as Illinois, Connecticut and Iowa do not allow college athlete prop bets involving in-state teams.
Kansas, Michigan, Louisiana and Wyoming allow bettors to place prop bets on college athletes regardless of where they play.
The NCAA already has made some progress this year toward eliminating prop bets on college athletes. Gambling regulators in Ohio, Vermont and Maryland have removed prop betting on college athletes online and in sportsbooks. Baker and his staff are reaching out to regulators in other states to encourage similar bans.
The Ohio Casino Control Commission said last month in granting the NCAA’s request that prop bets last year on NCAA athletes with sports gaming operators in the state brought in approximately $104.6 million, which accounted for 1.35% of the total amount wagered. Prop bets on college athletes accounted for about 2.2% of wagers.
Chris Cylke, senior vice president for government relations for the American Gaming Association, said banning legal wagering on college player propositions would drive more bettors to illegal and offshore sportsbooks.
“While it is unclear how this advances our shared goal of reducing athlete harassment, we do know that driving customers to illegal channels will ultimately hinder the ability to monitor for and detect potential suspicious betting behavior,” Cylke said in a statement provided to The Associated Press.
The number of states that now allow some form of sports betting has grown to 38, plus the District of Columbia. Thirty states and the nation’s capital allow online wagering.
Companies that monitor sports betting for irregularities have warned college sports administrators that prop betting on unpaid athletes elevates the potential risk for a scandal because players can more easily influence their own performance than the overall outcome of a game.
The NCAA conducted a survey after last year's basketball tournaments that found 58% of 18- to 22-year-olds are gambling.
Baker has said the proliferation of legal sports gambling has increased stress on college athletes.
“All that chatter about who's playing, who's not playing. Who's sore, who's not sore. What's going on with the team you're playing? What do you think your chances are? Which is just classic chatter, where — in a world where people are betting — takes on a whole new consequence,” Baker said in January before his address to membership at the NCAA convention.
The NCAA has partnered with a data science company called Signify, which also works with the NBA Players Association and WNBA, to identify online threats made to athletes during championship events that are linked to wagering.
“Basically tracks ugly, nasty stuff that’s being directed at people who are participating in their tournaments and we’d use it the same way,” Baker said in January. “And it can shut it down or basically block it. And in some cases even track back to where it came from.”
In October, the NCAA announced it would be advocating for state legislators to update laws to crack down on harassment of athletes, coaches and game officials and bolster integrity protections.
In West Virginia, NCAA officials worked with lawmakers to pass a bill that would allow betting regulators to ban people from wagering in the state online or at sportsbooks who have been found to have harassed players, coaches, or officials online or in person. The bill is awaiting a signature from Gov. Jim Justice.
San Diego State men's basketball coach Brian Dutcher said he is concerned about how all the negative feedback impacts athletes' mental health.
“People complaining about how they’re playing, missing shots, and they just get beat up constantly,” said Dutcher, whose team is playing in Boston in the Sweet 16 this week.
Illinois guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn said he encourages his teammates to ignore the criticism.
“I never really am on social media but in person someone would be like, ‘I’m going to bet the under on you.’ In that moment you can’t say anything,” Gibbs-Lawhorn said. "So I’m just like, ‘OK, good job.’ Like, I don’t know what you want me to say.”
- RALPH D. RUSSO
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| AP Photo |
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — NBA All-Star weekend in Indianapolis had plenty of winners.
There was Damian Lillard, a 3-point shootout winner Saturday and the All-Star Game MVP on Sunday — a two-trophy weekend the likes of which only Michael Jordan pulled off previously. There were Stephen Curry and Sabrina Ionescu, who made their 1-on-1 shooting contest into must-see-TV. There was Karl-Anthony Towns, the fourth player to score at least 50 in an All-Star Game.
And there are the people tasked with updating the NBA’s All-Star record book. They’ll be busy for a while after the Eastern Conference’s 211-186 victory over the Western Conference on Sunday night in the highest-scoring All-Star Game.
The league goes quiet now, at least in terms of games, until Thursday. Everyone gets a break until then, and for those who were part of the shows in Indianapolis this weekend, it’s needed.
Some takeaways from Indianapolis:
ALL THOSE POINTS
Scoring 186 points is something that only two teams in the history of the All-Star Game had done before Sunday night.
The West scored 186 — and lost by 25. Hard to say anyone would have seen that coming.
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| AP Photo |
Here’s just some of the records: Most points by one team (211), most points by both teams (397), most points in a half by one team (the East tied it with 104 in the first half, then broke it with 107 in the second half), most 3-pointers by one team (42), most 3-point attempts by one team (97), most 3-pointers by both teams (67), most 3-point attempts by both teams (168), most field goals by both teams (163), most field goal attempts by both teams (289), and most assists by one team (the West had 60 to tie the record).
“Usually our preparation to get ready to compete, it looks a lot different than it looks when we come here,” Lillard said. “This weekend was a lot better than the past, but I think when the game is any type of loose, if it’s not a game where you’ve got a scouting report and you’re locked in and a lot is on the line, then guys who are too talented and are going to make a lot of 3s. That’s the kind of game it’s going to be.”
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| AP Photo |
LeBron James joined yet another exclusive club, and he’ll have plenty of familiar faces alongside him at the NBA All-Star Game.
James is an All-Star — and an All-Star starter — for the 20th time, with the league unveiling the results of this season’s starter balloting on Thursday night. James is the first 20-time All-Star in NBA history. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, whose career scoring record was broken by James last season, was a 19-time selection.
The game is Feb. 18 in Indianapolis.
Joining James in the Western Conference starting lineup: Phoenix’s Kevin Durant, Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Dallas’ Luka Doncic and Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the league's leader in 30-point games this season who edged perennial All-Star starter Stephen Curry of Golden State for the final West backcourt spot. Durant is a 14-time selection, one of only 11 players in NBA history to be picked that many times.
In the Eastern Conference, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo will be joined by Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid — the reigning NBA MVP, two-time defending scoring champion and current NBA scoring leader — in the frontcourt. Tatum set an All-Star Game record last season, scoring 55 points in Salt Lake City on the way to MVP honors.
The East guards are Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton — who’ll be a starter on his home floor — and Milwaukee's Damian Lillard.
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| Tyrese Haliburton. AP Photo |
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Tyrese Haliburton hit his third 3-pointer with less than a minute left, pounded his chest, and looked down at his wrist to let everyone know one thing: “It’s our time!”
Haliburton had 27 points and 15 assists and the Indiana Pacers beat the Milwaukee Bucks 128-119 on Thursday night to advance to the championship game in the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament.
The Pacers will face the Los Angeles Lakers for the title Saturday night. The Lakers routed New Orleans 133-89 in the second semifinal.
“We’re playing the right way and we’re shocking the world right now, we’re going to continue to do that,” Haliburton said. "And as long as we play the right way, we know we’re going to be in every basketball game.”
Myles Turner added 26 points for Indiana. Obi Toppin had 14 on 6-of-8 shooting, Isaiah Jackson chipped in 11 and Bruce Brown had 10.
Indiana is averaging a whopping 132.6 points during the tournament. Overall, they are averaging 128.3 this season — 131.7 over the last 14 games.
