Three things to know: Anthony Edwards says doubters can ‘kick rocks’

By Kurt HelinMar 15, 2021, 9:30 AM EDT

The NBA season is into its second half, and we will be here each weekday with the NBC Sports daily roundup Three Things to Know — everything you might have missed in the Association, every key moment from the night before in one place.

1) Anthony Edwards scores 34, says doubters can “kick rocks”

No. 1 pick Anthony Edwards has looked every bit like a rookie this season. There have been flashes of the athleticism and potential that made him the top pick in the draft — and we saw that again on Sunday.

ANTHONY EDWARDS. OH MY. 😳 pic.twitter.com/YcImkTjqqn

— NBA TV (@NBATV) March 15, 2021

There’s also been a steep learning curve for the rookie, who is averaging 15.8 points a game but struggling with his shot — hitting 38.1% overall this season (and 31.5% from three) — and his defense. With No. 3 pick LaMelo Ball looking like a franchise cornerstone in Charlotte and No. 2 pick James Wiseman scoring an efficient 12 a game and playing key minutes for a Warriors team that looks play-in/playoffs bound, there have been critics and doubters who said Edwards should not have been taken No. 1.

After dropping a career-best 34 on Portland Sunday, Edwards had words for those still debating him as the No. 1 pick:

“Whoever is still talking about that, they can just kick rocks.”

“Let me say it was the right decision for us as an organization,” Karl-Anthony Towns added, speaking of the draft and having his teammate’s back. “I want to make that clear.”

Judging any draft midway through the players’ rookie season is premature. We will not fully know how these players develop until the end of the second, or even third, season (and maybe longer). So far this season, Tyrese Haliburton has looked more NBA ready than Edwards, he’s had a better rookie campaign (just nobody sees much of him playing in Sacramento), but Edwards is still developing and reaching his very high ceiling. Who will be the better player in a couple of years is up for debate.

Edwards may want the draft debate to go away, but ask Marvin Bagley III and Trae Young, and they will tell you it never really does. Fair or not, he was always be “former No. 1 pick Anthony Edwards.” And Edwards can be brash — this did not feel like a “tribute” when it happened — it felt mocking — and Carmelo Anthony is a future Hall of Famer that Ant should aspire to.

consider it a tribute pic.twitter.com/iBuR2uyi7S

— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) March 15, 2021

Edwards will always carry the burden of being the No. 1 pick, of being drafted in a spot where fans — and team owners — expect a franchise cornerstone player. Especially with LaMelo both impacting winning and having an “it” factor nobody else in this class can match, Edwards has a lot of development and a lot of work to do to stop people from questioning his draft status.

But nights like Sunday — 34 points on 12-of-24 shooting, including 6-of-13 from three, scoring 13 points in the fourth quarter to help the Timberwolves beat the Blazers — will answer some of those questions.

2) Kawhi Leonard joins the rest of us, is very concerned about Clippers’ consistency

There have been nights this season when the Clippers’ potential on paper comes to life on the court, and they look like a title contender and probably the best team in Los Angeles.

Then there are nights like Sunday.

Zion Williamson was in attack mode and scored 27, Brandon Ingram added 23 points, and the Pelicans bullied their way to a 135-115 blowout of the Clippers. What Jaxson Hayes did to Reggie Williams pretty much sums up the Clippers’ night.

JAXSON HAYES. POSTER. 😱 pic.twitter.com/TygqhKraJZ

— NBA TV (@NBATV) March 15, 2021

After the game, Leonard was honest about the lack of consistency for Los Angeles.

“It’s very concerning. If we want to have a chance at anything, you gotta be consistent,” Leonard said. “That’s what the great teams do, they’re consistent.”

“Until we show some toughness, until we show some willingness to play 1-on-1, I think it’s gonna be tough for us,” coach Tyronn Lue said, shooting down the idea the Clippers just haven’t had enough time together. “We didn’t do that tonight.”

The Clippers better find their defense on the plane from New Orleans to Dallas overnight because Luka Doncic awaits them on Monday.

Los Angeles has half a season to find some consistency — particularly in the clutch, where they have struggled on both ends of the court. If not, the new coach and improved locker room chemistry the Clippers have this season will lead down the same road we saw in the playoffs last year in the bubble.

3) Warriors, Stephen Curry run past Jazz for win

Utah’s half-court defense wasn’t great on Sunday, but Stephen Curry can make anyone look lost (despite Mike Conley actually doing a respectable job on him for stretches). Curry scored 32 points on his 33rd birthday (wearing colorways designed by his kids).

But the bigger problem was in transition — the Warriors started 19.2% of their possessions in transition and had a 152.6 net rating on those plays (stats via Cleaning the Glass).

Utah still sits on top of the West and has a cushion, but they have gone 2-4 in their last six with a league average defense in that stretch. It may be just a slump, it happens to every team, but a cross-country flight from San Francisco to Boston to take on the Celtics on Tuesday is a tough way to snap out of it.

Watch Tatum scores 40, Brown 30, Celtics blow out Bucks (again) 140-99

Associated PressMar 30, 2023, 11:06 PM EDT

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Jayson Tatum scored 40 points, Jaylen Brown added 30 and the Boston Celtics steamrolled the NBA-leading Milwaukee Bucks 140-99 on Thursday night.

The Celtics (53-24) shot 22 of 43 from 3-point range and moved within two games of the Bucks (55-22) in the Eastern Conference standings. The Celtics won the season series with the Bucks 2-1, which would give Boston the tiebreaker if both teams finish with the same record.

Boston’s performance in those three games with Milwaukee should give the Celtics plenty of confidence they could knock out the Bucks again if they meet in the postseason. The Celtics beat the Bucks in seven games in last season’s East semifinals.

HIGHLIGHTS: The Celtics went out and DOMINATED the Bucks in Milwaukee

Presented by: @TMobile pic.twitter.com/dvdN2qdmyn

— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) March 31, 2023

The Celtics beat the Bucks 139-118 in Boston on Christmas Day and lost 131-125 in overtime on Feb. 14. The Celtics didn’t play Brown, Tatum, Marcus Smart or Al Horford in that overtime loss.

Milwaukee took a hit on the floor as well as in the standings. Bucks forward Khris Middleton left the game midway through the third quarter after taking an elbow to the face from Brown. The play resulted in a charging foul on Brown and caused Middleton to receive stitches on his upper lip.

Boston built a 114-74 lead through three periods, causing most of the starters for both teams to sit out the entire fourth quarter.

Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 24 points.

This matched the Bucks’ most lopsided loss of the season. They fell 142-101 at Memphis on Dec. 15.

The Bucks were playing one night after a 149-136 victory at Indiana in which they shot a season-high 62.4% from the floor with Jrue Holiday scoring 51 points and Antetokounmpo having 38 points, 17 rebounds and 12 assists. This marked the first time an NBA team had one player score at least 50 points and another have a triple-double with at least 35 points in the same game.

Milwaukee found the going quite a bit tougher Thursday.

Antetokounmpo shot just 11 of 27, including 0 for 5 from 3-point range. Holiday started his night by sinking a 3-pointer, but went 1 of 7 the rest of the way and finished with just six points.

After the first 8½ minutes of the game featured nine lead changes and five ties, the Celtics seized control by going on a 29-9 over the last seven-plus minutes. Boston capped that spurt by scoring 13 straight points.

Boston didn’t let up the rest of the night.

Milwaukee’s Thanasis Antetokounmpo was ejected with 1:25 left for head-butting Boston’s Blake Griffin. The head-butting came after Griffin committed a flagrant-1 foul against Antetokounmpo.

Knicks’ Julius Randle out at least two weeks with sprained ankle

By Kurt HelinMar 30, 2023, 5:21 PM EDT

Dustin Satloff/Getty Images

In just a little more than two weeks, April 15 or 16, the New York Knicks will open the playoffs, likely on the road in Cleveland.

They hope to have Julius Randle back for that game.

The Knicks’ All-Star forward and leading scorer, Randle suffered a sprained ankle against the Heat on Wednesday night and will be re-evaluated in two weeks, the team announced.

Julius Randle sustained a sprained left ankle in last night’s game against Miami. He will be re-evaluated in two weeks.

— NY_KnicksPR (@NY_KnicksPR) March 30, 2023

That timeline has him re-evaluated days before the playoffs tip-off. He will not play again this regular season.

Randle rolled his ankle leaping for a rebound and landing on Bam Adebayo‘s foot in the second quarter, and he left the game not to return. Friday night against those Cavaliers (in Cleveland) will be the first game Randle has missed all season.

Randle is playing at an All-NBA level again this season, averaging 25.1 points and 10 rebounds a game. The Knicks have five games remaining in the season and are almost locked in as the No.5 seed, four games back of the No. 4 Cavaliers and 2.5 games up on the No.6 seed (and stumbling) Nets.

Kevin Durant: ‘I don’t care about legacy… I used to… Nowadays, I truly, truly don’t care’

By Kurt HelinMar 30, 2023, 1:35 PM EDT

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

In the neverending debate around sports, we become obsessed with a player’s legacy. What is LeBron James‘ legacy and does he need another ring in his GOAT battle with Michael Jordan? What will Damian Lillard‘s legacy be if he chooses to spend his entire career in Portland and doesn’t jump teams to chase a ring? What will Kevin Durant‘s legacy be with him getting ripped by some fans for going to Golden State and joining forces with Stephen Curry in the first place, then other fans ripping him for leaving that situation?

Durant doesn’t care.

That’s what he told Shams Charania of The Athletic.

“I don’t care about legacy,” Durant told The Athletic. “I used to. I used to want to carve out a lane or space in this game for myself that people can remember, but it’s become too much of a thing now. It just becomes too much of a focus on other people. What’s he done, what’s he done? Comparisons. Before, when we wasn’t doing all this debating, I cared about it … I’m about to be in the same breath as these top guys. It was big.

“Nowadays, I truly, truly don’t care. I truly just want to go out there and produce, be the best that I could be, go home, hang with my family, that’s it.”

Durant’s legacy as one of the great pure scorers the game has ever seen is unquestioned. If he walks away from the game right now, he goes down as likely a top 15 player of all-time (that may be low) and a lock first-ballot Hall of Famer. His ability to create a shot for himself, or just hit a jumper over his defender even if there isn’t a good look, may be unparalleled in league history.

Beyond that, it’s the eye of the beholder. Durant is back on the court in Phoenix trying to extend that legacy, however people choose to define it.

What you say about Durant’s years in Golden State — with a couple of rings and a couple of Finals MVPs — says more about what you want and expect from a superstar than it does Durant. He told Charania he saw no logic in what people said about him as he left Golden State, so he stopped worrying about it. He went to Brooklyn, which went worse than just about everyone expected, so he moved on and said he is ignoring the critics again. (Except the occasional foray into Twitter may suggest he cares more than he lets on.)

Durant has cast himself as a guy who just wants to hoop because, at his core, that’s who he is. This is a guy who loves the grind, the competition, he’s an ultimate process-over-results guy. He’s embraced that about himself, he sees that as his legacy even if others will pile more on top of it.

Durant can’t end the legacy debate around him. But he doesn’t have to care about it, either.

Rudy Gobert latest to rip referees, claims conspiracy against Wolves ‘It’s just so obvious’

By Kurt HelinMar 30, 2023, 12:55 PM EDT

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Devin Booker‘s 15 free throw attempts in the Suns’ win Wednesday was more than the 12 the entire Timberwolves team took.

That set Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert off on a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory that the referees wanted to help the Suns win. And the Kings the game before that. And the Warriors the game before that. Here’s the full quote (via Chris Hine) that will earn Gobert a healthy fine from the league:

“It’s bulls***. Bulls***. It’s really not fair. Every night. I’ve been in this league for 10 years and I try to always give the benefit of the doubt, but it’s hard for me to think [the referees] are not trying to help [Phoenix] win tonight. It’s hard for me to think they didn’t try to help the Warriors win the other night, or the Sacramento Kings the other night.

“It’s just so obvious. As a basketball player that’s been in this league for so long, it’s disrespectful, and it sucks, to be honest. We work so hard to be in a position to compete with the best, and we just get manipulated into those situations where it just impacts the game for the other team too much. They know how to do it. They do it a lot of different ways. Tonight was another way of doing it.

“But it’s all good. We understand that it’s also a business. Unfortunately. It’s sad, but it’s good also. It’s really good. But it’s true. We understand that we’re not the biggest of the markets, and we’re a team that … I think you want to see [Kevin Durant] in the playoffs, Steph [Curry] in the playoffs, you want to see LeBron [James] in the playoffs. The Timberwolves are not there yet. We got to keep putting our head down, keep playing through that, and it’s frustrating for sure, especially for me.”

For the record, the Timberwolves and Kings were very close in free throws attempted — 34 to 32 — in that Minnesota win. The Timberwolves had 25 free throws to the Warriors’ 17 in that Golden State win. Also, Sacramento fans will have a good laugh at the idea that they are lumped in with the big market, star-driven franchises that allegedly get all the breaks from the league.

It’s also amusing that Gobert is complaining about all the calls the Suns got when Phoenix coach Monty Williams was fined $20,000 after going off last week on how the referees are conspiring against the Suns. Maybe this is just Gobert taking a page out of Williams’ book? Gobert’s frustration is understandable on one level, Booker can be a frustrating player for defenders to go against. The Suns’ guard is a master of drawing contact (often initiating it) then getting the ball up looking for a shooting foul.

Two other quick thoughts. Suggesting that the number of free throws teams take in a game should be roughly even is flawed logic — aggressive teams attacking the rim get the calls. That is not always going to be even. Giannis Antetokounmpo gets calls because he is relentless in driving the lane, and nobody has another answer to stop him, and that is true of Joel Embiid, Luka Dončić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the other guys who get to the line a lot.

Is the NBA a star-driven league? Duh. It has been since David Stern started selling Magic vs. Bird instead of the Lakers vs. Celtics. Do the game’s biggest stars get special treatment from the referees? It does feel like it, but those are also the players with the ball in their hands the most, attacking and creating shots for themselves and others, so they were naturally going to draw more fouls anyway.

Gobert is frustrated and I get that. But the Timberwolves have been one of the best teams in the NBA over the few weeks, and that driving their chance to make the top six and avoid the play-in should be the focus. This Minnesota team is finding its stride, and the referees will not take that away. Unless the Wolves let them.

1) Anthony Edwards scores 34, says doubters can “kick rocks”

2) Kawhi Leonard joins the rest of us, is very concerned about Clippers’ consistency

3) Warriors, Stephen Curry run past Jazz for win

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