Kobe Bryant has been in the NBA longer than James Harden and Francisco Garcia combined. It showed on this play.
(hat tip: CJ Fogler)
Kobe Bryant forces James Harden to box out Rockets teammate Francisco Garcia
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NBA playoffs schedule 2020: Dates, times, matchups for all games
And there were four.
The NBA is down to the conference finals — and the bubble has provided us with upsets galore. There are some unexpected teams in the NBA’s Final Four, but of course LeBron James is still there. The Lakers are the heavy favorites at this point.
Here are a few notes on the NBA playoffs schedule 2020:
• The NBA is continuing to push the pace with games every other day — except in the East, when ESPN wants a break not to clash with the NFL, and to let the West catch up. The fast pace of games will return with the NBA Finals.
• Families for the players, and with the final four now the coaches, are in the bubble.
• The NBA has released an NBA Finals schedule to teams and their target is still a Sept. 30 Game 1. If either conference finals goes seven games that date will need to be pushed back.
Here is the NBA playoffs schedule 2020 (all times are Eastern):
EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS
No. 3 Boston Celtics vs. No. 5 Miami Heat
Game 1: Heat 117, Celtics 114, OT
Game 2: Heat 106, Celtics 101
Game 3: Celtics 117, Heat 106 (Miami leads series 2-1)
Game 4: Sept. 23, 8:30 p.m. (ESPN)
Game 5: Sept. 25, 8:30 p.m. (ESPN)*
Game 6: Sept. 27, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)*
Game 7: TBD (ESPN)*
*If necessary
WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS
No. 1 Los Angeles Lakers vs. No. 3 Denver Nuggets
Game 1: Lakers 126, Nuggets 114
Game 2: Lakers 105, Nuggets 103 (Lakers lead series 2-0)
Game 3: Sept. 22, 9 p.m. (TNT)
Game 4: Sept. 24, 9 p.m. (TNT)
Game 5: Sept. 26, 9 p.m. (TNT)*
Game 6: Sept. 28, TBD (TNT)*
Game 7: Sept. 30, TBD (TNT)*
*If necessary
NBA playoffs schedule 2020: Second Round results
Eastern Conference
No. 3 Boston beat No. 2 Toronto 4-3
No. 5 Miami beat No. 1 Milwaukee 4-1
Western Conference
No. 1 Los Angeles Lakers beat Houston 4-1
No. 3 Denver beat No. 2 Los Angeles Clippers 4-3
NBA playoffs schedule 2020: First Round results
Western Conference
No. 1 Los Angeles Lakers beat No. 8 Portland 4-1
No. 2 L.A. Clippers beat No. 7 Dallas 4-2
No. 3 Denver beat No. 6 Utah 4-3
No. 4 Houston beat No. 5 Oklahoma City 4-3
Eastern Conference
No. 1 Milwaukee beat No. 8 Orlando 4-1
No. 2 Toronto beat No. 7 Brooklyn 4-0
No. 3 Boston beat No. 6 Philadelphia 4-0
No. 5 Miami beat No. 4 Indiana 4-0
Anthony Davis drains game-winner at buzzer to put Lakers up 2-0
It looked like Nikola Jokic, the All-NBA Second Team center, was going to be the star of the game — he scored Denver’s last 11 points and had them up with 2.7 seconds to go.
Then Anthony Davis — the All-NBA First Team center — drained this game-winner, a three over Jokic at the buzzer to win the game.
AD WINS IT AT THE BUZZER 🚨 pic.twitter.com/pcAe63xESj
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) September 21, 2020
This is why the Lakers got Anthony Davis (and gave up a lot to get him).
That shot gave the Lakers the 105-103 win to put them up 2-0 in the series. Game 3 is Tuesday night.
Davis carried the Lakers at the end of the game, hitting a couple of clutch threes, and finished with 31 points and nine rebounds. He has been the best Laker in this series, with 68 points and 19 rebounds through two games.
For the Lakers, it was a dramatic win in a game where they were sloppy with 23 turnovers, and where their defense came apart for stretches of the game. Good teams win ugly games, that’s how the Lakers have to view it.
Denver supporters may want to spin this as “look how much better we played” — and they did, slowing the pace down (97 possessions, via NBA.com) and getting inside more, taking advantage of switches — but the reality is the Lakers are only going to have bad outings once or twice a series and the Nuggets needed to take advantage. They didn’t, and this loss stings.
“This is the Western Conference Finals. No moral victories, no silver linings,” Nuggets coach Mike Malone said postgame.
Davis’ good look to win the game came on the kind of defensive breakdown Denver has at times that other teams have not exploited these playoffs. Mason Plumlee was inserted for his size and defense, and he was on Davis, who simply runs across the top of the arc. Plumlee doesn’t stick with him, instead running over by LeBron James, who is just hanging out at the elbow (but Denver fears), and acts like there should be a switch. Torrey Craig can’t switch, if he does that LeBron has a free lane to the rim and an easy two. If it was an X-out style switch then Plumlee needed to trail Davis all the way to Jokic, he didn’t, leaving Jokic a ridiculously long closeout. Plumlee blew it. Jokic read the play and got there to contest, but Davis had gotten a clean look.
Jokic had 30 points and nine rebounds for Denver, taking over the game when it mattered most and looking like an elite playoff performer. Jamal Murray had 25 points on 8-of-19 shooting and (as The Athletic’s John Hollinger noted on Twitter) was +16 in 44:14 minutes, meaning Denver was -18 in the 3:46 he was on the bench getting some rest. Denver got 15 points from Michael Porter Jr. and good minutes out of P.J. Dozier (although his five missed free throws in six attempts came back to bite the team).
Los Angeles got 26 points and 11 boards from LeBron and 11 points each from Danny Green and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
The Lakers came out flat in this game except for LeBron, who had the team’s first 12 points. It looked like a close game until the Lakers went on an 18-3 run in the second quarter, with 8-0 of that coming with LeBron on the bench. The highlight of that was an Alex Caruso dunk that had the Lakers bench up and yelling.
Bron is here for THE CARUSHOW 😤 pic.twitter.com/957MOVRJsV
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) September 21, 2020
Los Angeles stretched the lead out to as many as 16, but the Nuggets never quit.
Anthony Davis had to shut the door on them.
Watch Alex Caruso monster dunk, LeBron and Laker bench reaction
Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images
Alex Caruso has sneaky hops. Fans relate to him because he doesn’t look like an NBA player — he doesn’t really give off the vibe of one when you see him hanging out in the Lakers’ locker room either — but watch him on the court and he is more athletic than people realize. Alex Caruso can sky and throw down a dunk.
Bron is here for THE CARUSHOW 😤 pic.twitter.com/957MOVRJsV
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) September 21, 2020
The best part of this? The reaction of LeBron James and the Lakers bench.
The Alex Caruso dunk was part of an 8-0 Laker run right as LeBron went to get some rest. Denver had done a good job early being right with the Lakers by controlling the pace and limiting the Lakers in transition. That fell apart in the second quarter, fueled by Denver’s seven second-quarter turnovers (13 for the half), which allowed the Lakers to get out and run.
And Caruso to dunk, firing up the team.
Kevin Durant: ‘Knick fans, those Knicks media, they bothered me the whole year’
Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images
“No, I never planned on it — going to the Knicks. That was just the media putting that out there… So around February, as I was thinking, I didn’t want to be the savior of the Knicks or New York. I didn’t care about being the King of New York, that never really moved me. I didn’t care about being on Broadway or that s***.”
“I’ve seen the Knicks in the Finals, but kids coming up after me didn’t see that. So that whole brand of the Knicks is not as cool as let’s say the Golden State Warriors, or even the Lakers or the Nets now. You know what I’m saying; the cool thing now is not the Knicks.”
Kevin Durant has not held back from taking shots at the Knicks since signing with Brooklyn. Saturday, Durant turned his attention to Knicks fans and media.
Durant appeared on rapper Joe Budden’s podcast Saturday and, among other things, fired shots when asked if he could “leave the Knicks alone.” (Hat tip Nets Daily.)
“What you mean? They bothered me for a whole year! I was just trying to chill and just play and worry about my season. All the Knick fans, those Knicks media. They bothered me the whole year. But when it’s my time to talk about it, I gotta shut up now? I’ve been wanting to ask these questions for a year. Now that I’m available, it’s a problem?”
Before his free agency, the conventional wisdom around the league was that Durant was headed to the Knicks, possibly along with Irving or another star (there was a lot of smoke on the topic). Durant denied that after the fact. Either way, there certainly was anticipation in Manhattan, which means Durant was reading about it in the media and seeing it on social media. Durant pays attention to all that, and it doesn’t motivate him (it seems to have the opposite effect, actually).
Durant made his choice, and he went to the more stable organization right now, the one with the better foundation of players. Now he and Irving have to win, which will not be that easy with Durant coming off a torn Achilles.
That doesn’t mean he’s done taking shots at that team just over the bridge.