Three things to know: Jazz players aren’t worried after recent losses, should they be?

By Kurt HelinApr 27, 2021, 9:05 AM EDT

The NBA season has less than a month to go, 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) Jazz players aren’t worried after back-to-back losses to Timberwolves, should they be?

It was not pretty — and it could cost them the No. 1 seed.

The Utah Jazz just dropped two straight games to the Minnesota Timberwolves, a team already eliminated from the playoffs and with the second-worst record in the NBA. Monday’s loss was excruciating because two-time — likely soon to be three-time — Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert blew a switch, allowing D'Angelo Russell to have an uncontested layup for the game-winner. “If I don’t f*** up defensively, we win,” is how Gobert put it.

Two straight losses to the Timberwolves, plus one to the LeBron-less Lakers, and the Jazz have dropped 3-of-5 and their lead over the Suns for the best record in the West and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs is down to just one game. The losses lead to many questions: Can the Jazz defend scoring guards well enough to reach the Finals? What happened to the Jordan Clarkson from the first half of the season? What happened to the entire bench? Why won’t Royce O’Neale take a clean-look three, and can he make it if he does?

All of this has Jazz fans worried. Understandably. Utah is an ensemble team, one that can’t have off nights from its third or fifth best players and still beat the Lakers or Clippers of the world. Everything has to be clicking, and the losses to the Timberwolves prove it is not with just three weeks to go in the season.

The Jazz, however, are not worried.

The fantastic Andy Larsen of the Salt Lake Tribune asked Gobert if he had any worries: “None. I would be concerned if we were giving up 140 points. … Every team has some nights like this.”

Quin Snyder gave a much more coach-speak answer to the same question, but it was essentially the same — he’s not worried.

They have a point for one key reason: Donovan Mitchell is out. He’s missed the last five games with a sprained ankle (and likely will miss another week or more).

Mitchell is their best player and the one guy on this team capable of flipping a switch, going into attack mode, putting up 40, and taking over a game. He is the one Jazz player who can decide “we’re not losing to Minnesota again” and just flip a switch and make that happen.

The Jazz are an ensemble, and if it is going to struggle if its third or fifth best player is off, we should expect the same when their best player is out. Utah should be whole come the playoffs, and that’s when the real test comes (not against the Timberwolves).

2) Chris Paul ends Knicks’ win streak, Suns keep on rolling

While the Jazz stumble atop the West, the Suns keep on rising.

Phoenix went 3-2 on a tough five-game East Coast road swing and topped it off Monday night knocking off a Knicks team that had won nine in a row. Devin Booker had 33, Mikal Bridges had an efficient 21 points, but it was Chris Paul taking over late — scoring the Suns’ final seven points and sticking the dagger in them with a “how did he get that off” free throw line jumper — that was the difference.

Phoenix is just one game back of the Jazz for the best record in the West, and while Utah stumbles without Mitchell, the Suns keep finding ways to win.

The Suns have a tougher schedule the rest of the way — starting with the Clippers Wednesday then the Jazz on Friday — but this team has surprised the league all season long. Why can’t it keep on doing it now?

3) John Wall is out for the season with a hamstring strain

The basketball gods have had it in for Houston of late: D.J. Augustin, Eric Gordon, Sterling Brown, Dante Exum, and David Nwaba are all out due to injuries, Christian Wood missed the last game, and rookie Jae’Sean Tate had to go to the locker room during the middle of the last game with a tight back.

Now the Rockets will be without John Wall the rest of the season due to a strained hamstring, the team announced.

Wall started the season on fire and, even after slowing down of late, averaged 20.6 points and 6.9 assists a game this season. While the efficiency is not there anymore, but his confidence is, Wall sees himself as an All-Star in this league.

With two years and $91.7 million left on his current contract, expect Wall to be back as the face of the Rockets next season (they would have to give up so many sweeteners to move that contract it wouldn’t be worth it).

Is a rebuild coming to the Washington Wizards? League executives think so.

By Kurt HelinJun 7, 2023, 2:32 PM EDT

Scott Taetsch/Getty Images

The Washington Wizards have been stuck in the NBA’s middle ground for years (at least since 2018), with a push from ownership on down to make the playoffs rather than go through a rebuild. The result was 35 wins last season, 35 the season before that, 25 before that, and you get the idea. A team that has underperformed with Bradley Beal on it.

Is that about to change under new GM Michael Winger? No decision about the short term of the franchise has been made, Winger told Josh Robbins of The Athletic (in a fantastic profile of the man). Big decisions will tip Winger’s hand this summer, with Kyle Kuzma a free agent and Kristaps Porzingis able to opt-out and reportedly looking for an extension.

However, outside the organization, the expectation is that a rebuild is coming in the next couple of years.

Many rival executives The Athletic has polled informally over the last two weeks expect Winger to undertake a full rebuild — if not this offseason, then within the next year.

Asked about his plans for the team, Winger says he’s leaving his options open.

“The raw, unfiltered truth is, I haven’t yet crafted the immediate vision for the franchise,” he says. “There are a lot of talented and high-character players on the team. I want to get to know them a little bit. The construct of a team isn’t just a matter of what is demonstrated on the court. It’s not just a matter of the box score. Team dynamics are personal, and I think that I need to understand those things before hatching an actionable plan. And I know that that’s not necessarily measurable in this moment. But it is the truth.”

If a rebuild is coming, are the Wizards better off re-signing Kuzma and Porzingis to tradable market-value contracts they can move in a year or two? Maybe spend a season running it back, see if this team can stay healthy and what they can do, then start making moves? Or, is it time to hit the reset button now and have a frank conversation with Bradley Beal?

One way or another, the long-postponed rebuild in Washington is coming. It just might not be immediate.

Lillard said he expects to be in Portland next season, so everyone starts trade speculation. Again.

By Kurt HelinJun 7, 2023, 12:53 PM EDT

Steph Chambers/Getty Images

Everyone wants Damian Lillard to leave Portland more than Damian Lillard wants to leave Portland. We trash elite players for being mercenaries jumping teams, then the minute one is loyal, everyone questions why he would do such a thing. Welcome to NBA Twitter.

The latest on Lillard is just more of the same.

Lillard appeared on Showtime Sports The Last Stand with Brian Custer and, when asked if he expects to be a Portland Trail Blazer when next season starts, he said, “I do.” This echoes everything he has said all along, he wants to finish his career in Portland (the man just built a new house there). Lillard then reiterated what he also has consistently said — he wants a chance to compete for it all in Portland. If the Trail Blazers organization decides to go in another direction, then the conversations start.

“We got an opportunity, asset-wise, to build a team that can compete. … If we can’t do that, then it’s a separate conversation we would have to have.”

But Brian Custer leaned into the drama (although he did wait nearly 50 minutes into the pod to get to the topic), and so before asking about Lillard staying in Portland, this is how he phrases a trade question to Lillard:

“Everybody keeps saying Damian Lillard is going to be traded to the Knicks, Damian Lillard’s gonna be traded to the Heat, Damian Lillard should be traded to the Celtics, Damian Lillard’s gonna be traded to the Nets. If one of those trades went through, out of those teams, which one would you be like, that’s not too bad?”

Lillard could have, probably should have shot the premise of the question down. Instead, he’s a good guy and played along and said, “Miami obviously” and praised Bam Adebayo and called him “my dog.” He then said the same thing about Mikal Bridges, now with the Nets (Bridges is a guy long rumored to be a Trail Blazers trade target, maybe with the No. 3 pick in this draft).

All of this is nothing new. Lillard hopes to stay with the Trail Blazers and for them to put a team around him that can compete at the highest levels of the conference. They have young players and the No. 3 pick this year to make a deal for a second star (although some reports say the Blazers are not making Shaedon Sharpe available in any trade, it might take that to get the Nets to even consider a Bridges deal, and even then it may not be enough). If Portland’s front office doesn’t do that this offseason, then Lillard and the franchise need to weigh their options.

That won’t stop the speculation, even from former teammate CJ McCollum.

For now, Lillard wants to be a Trail Blazer and we should celebrate that.

It’s not just Harden, Rockets reportedly eyeing VanVleet, Lopez, Brooks

By Kurt HelinJun 7, 2023, 9:07 AM EDT

Vaughn Ridley/NBAE via Getty Images

The Houston Rockets are done rebuilding, ownership and management want to shift gears to picking up some wins and making the playoffs. That means using their league-best $60 million in cap space to add difference-making veterans to the young core of Jalen Green, Alperen Şengün, Jabari Smith Jr. and whoever they draft at No. 4 (if they keep the pick).

And it’s not just James Harden they are going after, reports Jake Fischer at Yahoo Sports.

…sharp-shooting center Brook Lopez, is a veteran free agent on Houston’s radar, league sources told Yahoo Sports.

There will be no shortage of players on the market connected to the Rockets between now and the opening of free agency June 30… The Rockets, though, are prioritizing adding a proven table-setting point guard, then looking to acquire upgrades at the wing and center position, sources said. And for that, should Harden ultimately stick with the 76ers, Raptors point guard Fred VanVleet has often been linked to Houston as a secondary option who could perhaps slot into the team’s lead ball-handling role.

On the wing, the Rockets do hold an interest in sharpshooter Cam Johnson, sources said, although Brooklyn personnel has indicated the Nets’ plan to match any realistic offer sheet for the restricted free agent, who was part of the franchise’s return for Kevin Durant. Dillons Brooks, last seen as Memphis’ starting small forward, is another Rockets target, sources told Yahoo Sports, and appears to be a more realistic candidate to join Houston this summer.

There’s a lot to digest there.

Milwaukee is facing some hard decisions as their championship roster is getting old and expensive fast, with the restrictive new CBA’s second tax apron looming. As Fischer notes, the Bucks are expected to extend Khris Middleton, who is owed $40.4 million next season (player option), and Jrue Holiday is extension eligible soon. Lopez will demand a big salary, he finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting and is a floor-spacing big who averaged 15.9 points per game last season. The Bucks would struggle to win without him, but at age 35 how will that contract age?

A lot of teams are eyeing Fred VanVleet and Toronto wants to keep him, he will have options. A lot of teams are watching Cam Johnson as a restricted free agent, but the Nets like him as part of their future and are not expected to let him walk. Dillon Brooks will not be back with the Grizzlies as a free agent, and for all the drama he is an elite on-ball defender and energy player who could help the Rockets.

Houston needs the James Harden domino to fall, then they can see what they have left to spend elsewhere. But one way or another, that will be a very different roster next season.

Three things to watch in Game 3, starting with who wins the fourth quarter

By Kurt HelinJun 7, 2023, 8:15 AM EDT

MIAMI — After looking flat in Game 1, the Heat got some rest, acclimated to the altitude, and looked like themselves in Game 2 — particularly in the fourth quarter. Miami had a game reminiscent of the Boston series, and when it was done the NBA Finals were tied 1-1.

Can Denver bounce back in Game 2? The Nuggets are facing adversity they have not seen yet this postseason — they were up 2-0 in every other series — and the question is how will they respond? That and how well will Miami shoot the 3-pointer?

Here are three things worth watching.

1) Who wins the fourth quarter?

While the Heat’s 48.6% 3-point shooting in Game 2 was at the heart of their win, the question shouldn’t be can they repeat it? Of course they can. It’s why they are still playing. They have seven games this postseason shooting 45+% from 3.

However, there is one other key factor in this series: The fourth quarter.

Through two NBA Finals games, the Denver Nuggets are +29 in the first three quarters but are -21 in the fourth.

Nuggets coach Michael Malone is no fan of the trend — and he had the stats to back himself up.

“If you really want to simplify the first two games, in the first three quarters we have dominated both games. The Miami Heat are dominating the fourth quarter,” Malone said, “They’re averaging 33 points a game in the fourth quarter, shooting over 60% from the field in the fourth quarter and over 50% from three.”

Malone was just getting started.

“I’ve got a great stat: I think quarters one through three after two games, we had around 19% of our possessions were [shots] at the end of the shot clock, last seven seconds,” Malone said. “In the fourth quarter of Game 1 and 2, that jumps from 19% to 32%.

“Which means we’re taking the ball out of the net, we’re walking it up, we’re playing against the zone and we’re getting caught playing in really late-clock situations, which is hurting our offense.”

Miami’s late-game dominance goes back to the regular season, when they had the second-best net rating in the clutch of any team in the league. It has continued through the playoffs, starting with against the Bulls in the play-in — when the Heat had to come back in the fourth just to be in the playoffs, — and has been a through line to the NBA Finals.

This is not going to be a series won in blowouts, there will be more games decided in the fourth quarter and the clutch. If Denver can’t figure out the final frame starting in Game 3, they will be in trouble this series.

2) Can Heat keep Nikola Jokić from being an assist machine

The Miami Heat need to make Jokić a scorer.

Erik Spoelstra hates that phrasing and Nikola Jokić says he’s just playing the game, not thinking about it that way. Fine. We’ll put it this way:

The Heat can’t allow Jokić to become an assist machine.

Phrase it any way you wish, but if Jokić is allowed to score and dish the Heat will not be able to keep up with the Nuggets offense. Put simply, if Jokić scores 35+ points but has around five assists, the Heat have a chance to win. But if he scores around 25 points but with 10+ assists, if Denver is raining down scoring from everywhere, Miami will not be able to keep up.

The Heat plan is a lot of Bam Adebayo and to keep giving Jokić different looks.

“He can go through two or three coverages and figure it out in a matter of, up and down, up and down,” Adebayo said, nodding his head up and down. “He’s already read the game, reading the game. So the biggest thing for us is switching up the coverages and having him see different looks.”

3) It’s all about the Heat shooting

It’s simple and reductive, but it’s been true thought the playoffs and continues into the Finals: When the Heat hit their 3-pointers at a 40%+ clip, they win. It was true in Game 2, and it’s how Miami can keep pace with Denver.

Game 2 was not some shooting aberration, the Heat can keep doing this and the Nuggets know it.

“They are shooting against Milwaukee 43%. They are shooting against Boston 40-something percent,” Jokić said. “They have good shooters, and that’s why they are so deadly and dangerous, because you cannot leave them open.
“Yes, the first game Max [Strus] and Caleb [Martin] didn’t shoot well. But we know they’re going to be better. We just need to don’t give them wide-open looks. They are two great shooters that at least they need to see somebody in front of them, not just a basket.”

That was the theme from Denver — get out and contest. Make it tougher. Use the Nuggets’ length and size advantage to challenge them. The problem is the Heat have shot incredibly well on contested 3s on the night their shots are falling, and with the comfort level their role players have at home it may not matter who is in their face.

1) Jazz players aren’t worried after back-to-back losses to Timberwolves, should they be?

2) Chris Paul ends Knicks’ win streak, Suns keep on rolling

3) John Wall is out for the season with a hamstring strain

Check out more on the Rockets

Here is more on the Wizards

Check out more on the Trail Blazers

Check out more on the Rockets

1) Who wins the fourth quarter?

2) Can Heat keep Nikola Jokić from being an assist machine

3) It’s all about the Heat shooting

Here's more from the NBA Finals