The Golden State Warriors were defeated by an energized LeBron James, who also advanced the Los Angeles Lakers to the Western Conference finals.
The 38-year-old scored 30 points as the Lakers won 122-101 in Los Angeles to clinch the best-of-seven series 4-2.
The Lakers, who finished seventh in the regular season, will play top seeds the Denver Nuggets in the series to decide who plays in the NBA Finals.
The Miami Heat beat the New York Knicks to reach the Eastern Conference finals.
Jimmy Buttler scored 24 points and eight rebounds as the Heat won 96-92 in Florida to take the series 4-2 and become the first eighth seed in 24 years to reach the Conference finals.
They will play the Boston Celtics or the Philadelphia 76ers, who are tied at 3-3 and play their decisive seventh game on Sunday.
Lakers extend season that started slowly
The Lakers made their worst start to a regular season for 65 years but remain in contention for a 20th Conference title and 18th championship win after closing out a big win over a Golden State Warriors side that has won four of the past eight NBA titles.
They were undone by James’ masterful performance in California, with the NBA’s leading all-time points scorer and four-time NBA champion making nine assists and nine rebounds to go with his 30 points.
Anthony Davis, playing despite a head injury from game five, chalked up 17 points and 20 rebounds, as the Lakers romped to victory.
After the game James embraced Warriors star Stephen Curry, who scored 32 points in defeat.
“Not many of our team have been in close-out games,” James said.
“So after game five up [a 121-106 defeat on Wednesday], I knew I had to come in with a lot of aggression but be efficient and strategic in how I played this game.”
Steve Kerr feels the Golden State Warriors are “whole” again with the return of Andrew Wiggins, despite defeat in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series to the Sacramento Kings.
Wiggins featured for the first time since February 13, having missed two months because of a family matter, and impressed in his 28-minute display – finishing with 17 points on 7-of-16 shooting and four blocked shots as the Warriors went down 126-123 at Golden 1 Center.
His performance impressed Kerr, particularly his first half display, and the signs look promising for the rest of the series.
“So awesome to have him back. You know, we’re whole with him out there. Our team makes sense with Wiggs back. I thought he looked really good,” Kerr said.
“The first half was amazing, second half he maybe wore down a little bit, which is to be expected, given he hasn’t played in a game in over two months. He was fantastic.”
Stephen Curry had a similar assessment of Wiggins’ return, saying: “When you go through all the decisions to put a roster together, all of the pieces have to be fit.
“He’s a big part of everything we do. When you go into a season, you want to be as fully healthy as possible because that’s the way all the pieces are meant to fit.
“We haven’t had it for a very long time, and we tried to hold down the fort. Now we have that look back.”
The Warriors meet the Kings in Game 2 on Monday, then finishing the series with back-to-back home games on Thursday and Sunday.
The Warriors sit sixth in the Western Conference with just games remaining in the regular season.
Two of those are on the road, with Golden State 9-30 outside of San Francisco this season. That is the worst record by a defending champion in the history of the NBA.
“Most of the questions when we lose are about what went wrong, and you try to point the finger, but if we obviously knew what to do about it, we would do it,” said Stephen Curry, who finished with 21 points in Denver.
“There’s a sense of urgency on these last three games, and not only just the wins but the vibe that you create going into a playoff series.
“That does matter. We’ve got to come to a realisation that if we’re going to win or do anything in the playoffs, this kind of game can’t happen.”
The Golden State Warriors played an inspired second half to recover from a 20-point deficit and defeat the visiting New Orleans Pelicans 120-109 on Tuesday.
As usual, the Warriors were led by reigning NBA Finals MVP Stephen Curry with a game-high 39 points on 14-of-25 shooting, hitting eight-of-15 three-point attempts while adding eight rebounds, eight assists and three steals.
It was a rough start for Golden State as they found themselves trailing 63-43 late in the second quarter, but some early shenanigans between Draymond Green and the entire Pelicans team seemed to spur some life into the Warriors defense after the break.
In typical Warriors fashion, they exploded in the third quarter in front of their home fans, putting together a 39-26 period to cut the lead to four going into the last.
They ratcheted up the defense even further down the stretch, holding the visitors to just 20 points while piling on 35 of their own as Curry, Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole all drained deep triples to blow the roof off Chase Center.
Despite the loss, it was another strong showing from Pelicans centrepiece Brandon Ingram. After his first career triple-double on Thursday and a career-high 13 assists on Saturday, Ingram again looked every bit of an All-NBA initiator with a team-high 26 points (nine-of-22), eight rebounds and seven assists.
A loss for the Warriors would have seen them drop to 39-38 and potentially swap spots with the eighth-seeded Pelicans, but they instead improved to 40-37 and leapfrogged the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves (39-37) in the process.
Donovan Mitchell dropped 44 points on the road but it was not enough as the Cleveland Cavaliers fell 120-118 to the Atlanta Hawks.
Mitchell shot 15-of-33 with five rebounds and five assists, while Darius Garland added 27 points (10-of-22) and Evan Mobley chipped in 20 points (10-of-13), 15 rebounds, four assists and four blocks – but the Hawks had all the answers.
Atlanta had seven players score double figures, led by Dejounte Murray’s 29 (11-of-22). Trae Young ran the show with 10 assists on an off-shooting night (four-of-15 for 16 points), and the Hawks’ bench delivered in a big way.
Backup center Onyeka Okongwu had a wildly efficient 20 minutes with 21 points (five-of-five from the field and 11-of-12 free throws), nine rebounds and three blocks, and trade deadline acquisition Saddiq Bey had 11 points, 10 rebounds and three assists.
The Oklahoma City Thunder received 30-point efforts from Josh Giddey, Jalen Williams and Isaiah Joe – but still lost 137-134 to the surprisingly in-form Charlotte Hornets.
Giddey had one of the best statistical games of his career with 31 points (14-of-22), 10 rebounds and nine assists; rookie Williams had 31 points (11-of-16), four assists and four steals; and Joe hit six-of-11 threes and 11-of-18 overall for his 33 points.
But P.J. Washington was not going to let the Hornets lose, scoring a career-high 43 points on 16-of-24 shooting as he added six rebounds and five assists in an eye-opening performance from the well-rounded six-foot-seven 24-year-old.
It was a standout showing off the bench for the spectacularly bouncy 22-year-old second-year center Kai Jones, collecting the first double-double of his career with 12 points (five-of-five) and 14 rebounds in 22 minutes.
The loss for the Thunder means they slipped to 37-39, still inside the play-in tournament placings, but now tied with the 11th-ranked Dallas Mavericks.
Steve Kerr found it amusing that the Dallas Mavericks were planning a protest after theGolden State Warriors defeated them 127-125.
The owner of the Mavericks, Mark Cuban, alleged that it was the “worst officiating non-call mistake possibly in the history of the NBA,” but Warriors coach Steve Kerr was sure that nothing was wrong.
Late in the third quarter, the Mavericks called a timeout and claimed the game officials had informed them they had the ball.
With 1:56 remaining in the third, a referee decision caused Warriors centre Kevon Looney to dunk unopposed off a pass from Jordan Poole, bringing the score to 90-87.
The Dallas players were not in position, leading to protests from Cuban and coach Jason Kidd, but the dunk stood.
Kerr teasingly said it was his season’s standout ATO – after timeout.
“Number one, it was my best ATO of the year. It worked brilliantly, just the way we got organised and confused them,” he said.
More seriously, he added: “I had to stop. When I saw them at the other end, I had to stop and think, ‘Isn’t this our basket?’, because I had drawn up a play for an out-of-bounds [play] underneath, a baseline out-of-bounds.
“When they were down at the other end I had to stop and think, ‘Is this right?’.
“I don’t know what happened. You’d have to ask their side. I thought it was pretty clear that it was our ball and that’s why I was drawing up a play out-of-bounds on the baseline.
Looney, who benefitted from the confusion, said: “I didn’t know what was going on. I’m just glad JP passed to me because I needed that to get to my double-double.”
The Golden State Warriors snapped a run of 11 consecutive road losses by defeating the Houston Rockets 121-108 on Monday.
Entering the game with the third-worst road record in the league (7-29), the Warriors had not won away from home since January 30 against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
After a back-and-forth first three quarters, the Warriors called on the Splash Brothers, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, to close the show, igniting a 37-28 final period to pull away.
The duo combined for 21 points in the fourth quarter, and they finished with remarkably similar games.
Curry top scored with 30 points on 10-of-23 shooting, hitting five-of-15 from deep with seven rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block. Meanwhile, Thompson posted 29 points on 11-of-21 shooting, hitting five-of-13 from deep with seven rebounds, a steal and a block.
With promising young Rockets center Alperen Sengun out, it was an opportunity for first-round rookie Tari Eason to earn his fourth start of the season, and he capitalised with 21 points (nine-of-16), 12 rebounds and four steals. Third overall pick Jabari Smith Jr added 17 points (seven-of-15) and 11 rebounds.
With the win, the Warriors pulled above .500 at 37-36, and combined with the Dallas Mavericks’ 112-108 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, they have climbed out of the play-in tournament placings and up into the sixth seed in the West.
New York Knicks forward Julius Randle scored a career-high 57 points as his side went down in a 140-134 shoot-out against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Randle had never previously scored more than 47 in a game, but he shot 19-of-29 from the field, eight-of-14 from three-point range and 11-of-13 from the free-throw line to set a new benchmark.
Unfortunately for him, the Timberwolves also could not miss, shooting 14-of-24 (58.3 per cent) from three-point range as a team, as they were buoyed by an outrageously efficient night from veteran wing Taurean Prince.
Prince shot 12-of-13 from the field and a perfect eight-of-eight from three for 35 points, while veteran point guard Mike Conley ran the show with 24 points (six-of-11) and 11 assists.
The Timberwolves (36-37) sit eighth in the West, just a game behind the Warriors.
Joel Embiid led both teams in scoring and rebounding but crucially fouled out in double-overtime as his Philadelphia 76ers fell 109-105 against the Chicago Bulls.
Embiid, now the favourite to win his first MVP, scored a game-high 37 points (11-of-22 shooting), grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds, and blocked a game-high three shots before picking up his sixth foul early in the second extra period.
Zach LaVine top scored for Chicago with 26 points (eight-of-20), seven assists and three steals, while DeMar DeRozan was just as good with 25 points (10-of-22), eight rebounds and three steals.
The win gives the Bulls (34-37) a two-game buffer on the Washington Wizards (32-39) in the race for the East’s final play-in spot.
After his late three-pointer against the Golden State Warriors proved to be the difference, Royce O’Neale claims that all of his Brooklyn Nets teammates are rising to the occasion.
On Sunday, the Nets won their second straight game thanks to O’Neale’s three-pointer with under a minute remaining that gave them a two-point advantage.
At the Chase Center, Kyrie Irving, the team’s talisman without injured Kevin Durant, made two free throws with 14 seconds left to complete a 120-116 comeback victory.
Midway through the fourth quarter on Sunday, Golden State held a 106-93 advantage, and O’Neale praised the Nets’ mindset and confidence.
“There’s a lot of confidence going around,” O’Neale told reporters.
“Everybody’s taking the challenge, stepping up, finding out ways to win games.”
Irving was key, teeing up O’Neale’s crucial three-pointer to cap a ninth assist of the game. He finished with 38 points and seven rebounds.
“Kyrie had been getting to the basket, hitting tough shots and at that moment, he drove, two people double-teamed and he found me open,” O’Neale said.
“I just needed to have the confidence to knock it down.”
Irving added: “They did a great job of staying on my body, keeping the game physical, making it tough.
“I felt like my team-mates had a lot of great looks, drawing the defense to lose their man.
“Royce being wide open, I felt like that was the best shot for our team, so I gave up the ball, trusted him to make it and luckily it went in.”
The Nets are fourth in the Eastern Conference, while the Warriors – reigning NBA champions – are down in 10th in the West after suffering a sixth loss from their last nine games.
Fresh off his first NBA Finals MVP, Stephen Curry continued his remarkable season with 33 points (11-of-20 shooting, seven-of-14 from three-point range) and a season-high 15 assists. It was one assist shy of his career high, set back in 2013 and matched in 2014.
But the story was his backcourt partner Klay Thompson, who is shooting a career-worst percentage from both the field (36.3 per cent) and from long-range (33.6 per cent) this season.
He began to right the ship with a stunning 43-point performance, hitting 10 of his 13 three-point attempts on his way to 14-of-23 shooting. It is the sixth game of his career with at least 10 three-pointers in a game, and he also owns the all-time record with 14.
For the Rockets, the third overall selection from this year’s NBA Draft, Jabari Smith Jr, showed exactly why he was so highly coveted. The long-armed, six-foot-11 power forward scored a season-high 22 points on eight-of-14 shooting, hitting three long-balls.
The win is the Warriors’ first on the road this season from nine attempts, giving them an 8-9 record, while the Rockets fell to 3-14.
Durant makes history in Irving’s return
Kevin Durant became the fourth player in NBA history to score at least 25 points in the first 17 games of a season in Sunday’s 127-115 victory against the Memphis Grizzlies.
In the return of Kyrie Irving from his team-imposed suspension, Durant led the Nets with 26 points on nine-of-16 shooting, adding seven rebounds, seven assists, a steal and a block. The last player to score at least 25 in their first 17 games of a season was Rick Barry back in the 1966-67 campaign.
The Nets also benefited from Ben Simmons’ best game since arriving with the team, scoring a season-high 22 points on 11-of-13 shooting with eight rebounds and five assists, boasting a game-high plus/minus of plus 19.
Irving was quiet in his return, hitting five-of-12 shots for 14 points and zero assists with four turnovers.
Fox leads the Kings to sixth win in a row
All five starters hit double figures, led by 33 points from De’Aaron Fox, in Sacramento’s 137-129 win over the Pistons on Sunday 👑 #LightTheBeampic.twitter.com/idgCENXvvE
The Sacramento Kings have now won six games in a row after a 137-129 shootout against the Detroit Pistons.
Sacramento have scored at least 120 points in each of their wins on this streak, highlighted by a 153-point outing against the Nets, which is the most points scored by any team this season.
De’Aaron Fox top-scored with 33 points on 11-of-18 shooting, adding seven assists. After never previously shooting better than 48 per cent in a season, Fox is 55.4 per cent from the field this campaign, and a career-best 37.5 per cent from three.
Draymond Green has been fined but avoided a suspension over an altercation with Jordan Poole that Steve Kerr described as “the biggest crisis” of his time as Golden State Warriors coach.
Footage emerged last week of the two team-mates pushing one another before Green escalated the incident by throwing a punch at Poole.
Green, a four-time NBA champion with the Warriors, has consequently been spending time away from the team and training in isolation ahead of the new season where Golden State are preparing to defend their championship.
The Warriors defeated the Portland Trail Blazers in preseason on Tuesday, after which head coach Kerr announced Green would return to the fold for their final warm-up against the Denver Nuggets on Friday, and their season-opener against the Los Angeles Lakerson Tuesday.
Kerr confirmed the decision had been taken following extensive conversations among several parties, including general manager Bob Myers, superstar Steph Curry, and after talks between Green and Poole themselves.
“We feel like we have a great feel for our team. We’ve got a lot of continuity on this team, so Bob and I know our players extremely well,” Kerr said.
“We feel like this is the best way after assessing everything for us to move forward. It’s never easy no matter what decision you make in a situation like this. It’s not going to be perfect. This is the biggest crisis that we’ve ever had since I’ve been coach here. It’s really serious stuff.
“We have spent the last week in deep discussions with all of our key figures in the organisation, including Jordan and Draymond of course, Steph, all of our players, Bob, myself, and I can tell you there have been a lot of conversations, individual, one-on-one discussions, players-only discussions.
“Everything that you can think of, all the different combinations that are possible to have in a conversation, we’ve had them. It’s been an exhaustive process.”
Kerr noted all possibilities were “on the table” over the ugly incident, and confirmed investigations are taking place into how the footage was leaked to TMZ.
He also accepted the final decision may come under scrutiny but felt Green has earned a chance to atone for his actions.
“Any criticism that we face here is fair,” Kerradded.
“He broke our trust with this incident but I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt because I think he’s earned that, and I think our team feels the same way.”
As well as his title wins, Green is a four-time NBA All-Star and was named Defensive Player of the Year in 2017.
Draymond Green’s mother, Mary Babers-Green, has never shied away from standing up for her son on social media, so it’s hardly surprising she came to his defense this week following his altercation with Golden State Warriors teammate Jordan Poole.
On Tuesday, Draymond’s mom hopped on Twitter to share her thoughts on the incident. As reported by NBC Sports, Babers-Green shared a few tweets before deactivating her account.
“They can get beyond this. Anything is fixable! Everything ain’t always what you think you see!” she wrote, suggesting that her son and Poole will be able to mend their relationship.
In a subsequent tweet, Babers-Green denied Draymond sucker punched Poole.
“That wasn’t a Sucker punch,” she claimed. “Dray didn’t aggressively go to Poole. His hands were down. Man to Man you go over to talk (to ask what’s up, what you say)! Got shoved and reacted.. End of story!”
Before deleting her Twitter account, Babers-Green said, “Enjoy Twitter- I’ll just leave the chirping for the birds and let ’em tweet! I’m going to deactivate this app so no one can say what I think or believe! I hope it can work itself out for the betterment of the Dubs!”
Footage of the scuffle, which took place last Wednesday, surfaced on Friday, resulting in Draymond announcing plans to step away from the team indefinitely.
In a clip leaked to TMZ, Green and Poole are seen exchanging words before Draymond approaches Jordan, who pushes his teammate away. That leads to Green punching Poole in the face and taking him to the ground. The two are quickly surrounded by teammates and coaches, who break up the fight.
After issuing a public apology to Poole, his family, and the Warriors organization, Draymond announced his plans on Saturday.
“I’m going to continue to stay away, as I’ve been away, and continue to do work on myself, but also just give guys space,” Green, 32, told reporters. “I do want to give my team some space, I want to give Jordan some space, and then also take a few days and continue to work on myself…take some time to let everything breathe.
Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers called Wednesday’s practice fight between Draymond Green and Jordan Poole “unfortunate”.
Initially reported by The Athletic, Wednesday’s session turned heated and led to the two players becoming involved in an altercation.
Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes later claimed “league sources” said “there was a build-up stemming from team-mates noticing a change in Poole’s behaviour throughout camp with the guard on the verge of securing a lucrative extension”.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, Myers said fights in practice will always be a part of highly competitive team sports.
“Everybody’s fine,” he said. “Look, it’s the NBA, professional sports, these things happen. Nobody likes it. We don’t condone it, but it happened.
“Draymond apologised to the team this morning, Jordan was there in the room, I was there in the room with the team, the coaches, the players and we heard that.
“It’s unfortunate, I’m not going to deny it. It’ll take some time to move through, but we’ll move through it and move forward, and I’m confident that we will.
“We’ve got a good team, we’ve got good leadership, we’ve got some guys that have been here a long time.
“This isn’t our first thing that’s happened, first sense of adversity; we’ve been through some of this before. Don’t like going through it, but it’s part of the NBA and it’s part of sports.”
But Myers suggested reports of conflict relating to player contracts were wide of the mark, saying “[it’s not about] who’s getting paid and who isn’t; I don’t sense that”.
Green was not at practice on Thursday, with Myers adding “space is good” and that time is needed to cool things down.
Myers finished by saying any potential suspension for Green will be handled internally.
Poole, 23, is coming off a career-best season in which he became a major asset for the championship-winning Warriors, averaging 17 points per game in the playoffs at over 50 per cent shooting while leading the NBA in free throw percentage (92.5 per cent).
This upcoming season will be the last of his rookie contract, and he will be expecting an extension similar to that recently awarded to the Miami Heat’s Tyler Herro, in the region of four years and $130million.
Meanwhile, Green is also in a crucial contract year, as after the season he will have the ability to opt out of the final campaign of his four-year, $99m deal to seek what will likely be the last big extension of his career.
