Jason Kidd passes on vindication as he leads Mavs to NBA Finals a year after chaotic finish - Basketball (2024)

The Canadian Press - Jun 3, 2024 / 3:15 pm | Story: 490599

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Celtics are prohibitive favorites to win Thursday's Game 1 of the NBA Finals and odds are on Boston to hoist what would be its record 18th championship banner.

But the money, at least at BetMGM Sportsbook, is pouring in on the Dallas Mavericks.

Senior trader Halvor Egeland said Monday that 80% of the bets were coming on Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and the Mavs to win their second NBA title. Boston is a -225 favorite to win it all, meaning someone would need to wager $225 to win $100.

As for the series opener, the Celtics are 6 1/2-point favorites, but 63% of the money has been on the Mavericks to cover the spread. Dallas is receiving 70% of the bets to win the game outright at +200.

“Pretty much, the public is just believing in the Mavericks,” Egeland said.

Despite that, the Celtics' odds have remained consistently solid not only at BetMGM but other sportsbooks as well. Even though Egeland said professional bettors are largely sitting out this series because they don't find much betting value, he said he didn't expect the lines to be significantly affected.

“We feel it's the correct betting line,” Egeland said. “If we were trading strictly off money, we would've moved it towards the Mavericks because it's all Mavericks money. But we're trying to get to a point where we're at like an equilibrium — half the time (betting is) going to be on one side, half the time it's going to go on the other. We've landed at 6 1/2 and that's the strategy you take.”

Egeland said there's a reason the Celtics are favored.

“The Celtics had an 82-game season and they've been the best team all year,” he said. “I know they haven't had the toughest competition to get to the Finals, but like I said, they've had 82 games to prove themselves, and they've done nothing but show you that they're that good of a team.”

THE PORZINGIS FACTOR

Part of the reason for the opening-game spread, Egeland said, is the expected return of Boston's Kristaps Porzingis. He hasn't played since straining his left calf in Game 4 of the opening round against the Miami Heat.

Porzingis not only would give the Celtics size if he is back, but the 7-footer is an effective 3-point shooter, creating a difficult matchup for the Mavs. He averaged 20.1 points and 7.2 rebounds during the regular season.

Egeland said if the Celtics have to sit Porzingis yet again, they likely would drop to 4 1/2- or 5-point favorites.

“The team's been pretty good without him,” DraftKings sportsbook operations director Johnny Avello said. “So with him, it makes them even that much better. Will he be able to get back into the mix kind of quickly? I think so. This series could be a seven-game series, so any bodies you can get in there and contribute, they are welcome for both sides.”

RUST VS. REST

Both teams have received extended time off to prepare for this series after the Celtics swept the Indiana Pacers and the Mavericks eliminated the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games.

“I would say the Mavs had it a little bit harder than the Celts did, so maybe (the layoff) would affect the Celtics more since they didn't get pushed much,” Avello said. “The Mavs' 4-1 (series victory) wasn't really reflective of how that series went, although you consider the Celtics, too. They could've lost an early game (to Indiana). It certainly would've changed the complexion of that series.”

Egeland said the extra prep time should especially benefit Porzingis, but also noted that Doncic has been playing on a gimpy knee and ankle.

M-V-P!

Jayson Tatum is a -120 favorite to be the Finals MVP at BetMGM, but Doncic is close behind at +200. DraftKings has Doncic at -205 and Tatum at +280, nearly a complete flip from late last week.

“He's taking more money," Avello said of Doncic before the odds changed.

HOW LONG CAN IT GO?

The odds at BetMGM favor the series ending in anywhere between five and seven games, with the odds ranging from +200 to +225. A sweep is at +450.

DraftKings is even more bullish on a long series, posting the chances of it going six or seven games at -150 compared to +125 to be shorter.

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The Canadian Press - Jun 3, 2024 / 2:33 pm | Story: 490594

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The Canadian Press - Jun 3, 2024 / 12:20 pm | Story: 490572

CLEVELAND (AP) — The Cavaliers will interview Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori for their head coaching vacancy — the fifth known candidate in Cleveland's search — in the next few days, a person familiar with the meeting told The Associated Press on Monday.

A long-time NBA assistant, Nori assumed bench duties during the playoffs when Minnesota coach Chris Finch suffered a knee injury and had limited mobility.

Nori joins a list of candidates in Cleveland that will continue to grow, said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the team is not commenting during the search to find J.B. Bickerstaff's replacement.

ESPN.com was first to report the Cavs' interest in Nori.

Bickerstaff was fired one week after the Cavs' postseason ended with a second-round loss to Boston. The Cavs respected the job Bickerstaff did, but feel a new voice is necessary to take the team further.

Cleveland improved each season under Bickerstaff, and the Cavs were among the Eastern Conference's top teams all season despite numerous injuries. They won a seven-game series over Orlando in the firs round.

Nori has been on Minnesota's staff since 2021. He's also worked with Toronto, Sacramento, Denver and Detroit.

With the Timberwolves, he's been the equivalent of a bench coach in baseball, serving as Finch’s top advisor while helping manage the rest of the staff. Nori previously worked with Finch in Denver.

The 50-year-old Nori is an Ohio native. His warm personality has endeared him to colleagues and players and it wasn't unusual for Nori to use a funny analogy during TV sideline interviews to keep the mood light.

Last week, the Cavs opened their search by receiving permission to speak with Golden State assistant Kenny Atkinson, New Orleans assistant James Borrego, New York assistant Johnnie Bryant and Miami assistant Chris Quinn.

Both Atkinson and Borrego are former head coaches. Bryant is an interesting candidate because of his relationship with Cavs All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell, who is eligible to sign a long-term contract extension with Cleveland this summer.

Bryant and Mitchell worked together in Utah.

Cavs president of basketball operations Koby Altman stressed the team would be methodical in finding a new coach. Ideally, he would like to have the coach in place for the NBA draft on June 26, but hinted it could take longer.

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This story has been corrected to show that Nori is 50, not 40.

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The Canadian Press - Jun 3, 2024 / 10:54 am | Story: 490554

BOSTON (AP) — When Celtics guard Derrick White stood in the corner behind the 3-point line late in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals as teammate Jaylen Brown drove into the lane, drew defenders and flipped a pass toward him, White felt prepared for the moment.

That’s because Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla had simulated scenarios just like it throughout the season.

“It starts in practice with them championship stations that Joe loves to do,” White recalled. “It starts there and then just continue to trust one another.”

White trusted that Brown would make the correct basketball play. He did, and it ended with White connecting on a tie-breaking 3 that ultimately secured Boston’s place in the NBA Finals and a matchup with the Dallas Mavericks.

The play may also be a perfect example of how in his second year as coach, Mazzulla has managed to help the Celtics recover from the disappointment of a season that ended on the cusp of the Finals a year ago, to a run this season that again has them four wins away from capturing the franchise’s 18th championship.

White’s shot, Mazzulla said, is a microcosm of the kind of a team culture he’s tried to cultivate over the past two years. One that puts details first.

“Things that you can’t take for granted,” said Mazzulla, who at age 35, is the youngest head coach to reach the NBA Finals since Bill Russell (also 35) did it in 1969. “Sometimes it’s as small as getting the ball inbounds. But just try to pick little things, that we see on a nightly basis that can impact winning and can affect losing. And, we just practice them over, over and over again until they become second nature.”

What’s equally become central to the Celtics’ success this season is the buy-in to an egoless, team-first philosophy in which individual credit is secondary on a roster loaded with current and past All-Stars like Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Jrue Holiday, along with White, 7-footer Kristaps Porzingis, and a deep bench.

Meanwhile, Mazzulla has also benefited from working alongside a coaching staff he was able to choose this offseason. That’s something he didn’t have last season after being thrust into a job he didn’t expect to have following predecessor Ime Udoka’s suspension just days before the start of training camp.

Lead assistant Charles Lee and Sam Cassell have helped Mazzulla tweak a system build around 3-point shooting and defense, which saw the Celtics rank first and third, respectively, in offensive and defensive rating during the regular season.

Those rankings have remained the same this postseason for a team that is 6-0 on the road and 3-0 in close-out games.

But as much as Mazzulla and his staff have been driven home their philosophies via X’s and O’s, they’ve also continued to focus on the mental aspects of the game.

Last season it was in film sessions that began with Mazzulla showing the team images of sand castles, which he used as a metaphor that even the best castles get washed away by the daily tide — requiring them to be rebuilt.

It was something Tatum said was “a little cheesy” but “something we bought into.”

Mazzulla’s tactics were on display again during a blowout win back in March over Phoenix. He went viral after he sprinted to contest Phoenix’s Royce O’Neale’s practice basket heading into a timeout.

“I saw a guy going in to get a shot and he hadn’t made one and I didn’t want him to feel good about himself going to the bench,” Mazzulla explained at the time. “That’s the bench rule. ... If I’m going to ask the guys to contest, staff’s going to do the same thing.”

Mazzulla said later during an appearance on Boston radio’s 98.8 that instances like that are the foundation of their team culture.

“We can laugh about it. But at the end of the day I think you have small moments in your organization to set the temperature of what you want to be about,” Mazzulla said. “We did that last year and thinking back that’s an important thing that mindset that we try to bring. That we’re going to bring it every day. That we want our opponents to constantly be uncomfortable. We don’t want to give them an edge at any point.”

Holiday acknowledged that Mazzulla’s style is unique, but one that he’s come to appreciate during his first season in Boston.

“You go with it. You go with the craziness,” Holiday said. “I think maybe it’s controlled madness. I think it’s definitely his way of preparing us and I feel like preparing himself. And I feel like it’s been working. It’s fun. It’s different. ... Joe definitely brings a spark and some weird energy.”

From Mazzulla’s perspective, it’s about forming the kind of bonds that may ultimately bring Boston another championship.

“I think, one of the best gifts, things that I have is, why I got into coaching is building relationships with guys,” he said. “When I left college to go to the NBA, most people were, like, hesitant about that because NBA guys get a negative rap as to being able to build relationships with them. But I felt like it was, ‘There’s a lot there.’"

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The Canadian Press - Jun 2, 2024 / 6:26 pm | Story: 490477

EDMONTON — Brody Clarke scored 18 points and Ben Krikke chipped in with 14 and six rebounds as the Edmonton Stingers defeated the visiting Saskatchewan Rattlers 93-77 in a Canadian Elite Basketball League battle of unbeaten teams on Sunday.

The Stingers, who improved to 4-0, led 40-37 at halftime in their home opener at the EXPO Centre.

Elijah Harkless led the Rattlers (3-1) with 25 points and eight rebounds, while Jalen Harris had 19 points and eight rebounds.

Elsewhere in the CEBL on Sunday:

ALLIANCE 95 HONEY BADGERS 77

Chris Smith scored 23 points and added 10 rebounds as the Montreal Alliance finally hit the win column with a 95-77 victory over the visiting Brampton Honey Badgers.

Ahmed Hill scored 19 points and Jaden Edwards added 17 for the Alliance at Verdun Auditorium. The Alliance improved to 1-3 and sit fourth in the five-team Eastern Conference.

The Alliance led 44-21 at halftime and outscored the Honey Badgers 30-19 in the third quarter. It was the first time in six meetings the Alliance managed to beat the Honey Badgers.

Zane Waterman led the Eastern Conference co-leading Honey Badgers (2-2) with 28 points and eight rebounds, while Shamiel Stevenson had 24 points and five rebounds.

THROW-INS: The Vancouver Bandits (3-1) visit the Stingers (4-0) on Tuesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2024.

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The Canadian Press - Jun 2, 2024 / 12:58 pm | Story: 490434

BOSTON (AP) — Whether injured Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis will be ready in time for the start of the NBA Finals this week is still to be determined.

But signs are pointing to him being able to return to the court sooner rather than later during Boston’s matchup with the Dallas Mavericks.

The 7-footer hasn’t appeared in a game since sustaining a strained left calf in Game 4 of Boston’s first-round playoff series against Miami on April 29.

But 4-1 victories over the Heat and Cleveland in the second ground, followed by a 4-0 sweep of Indiana in the Eastern Conference finals, have given the Latvian extended recovery time.

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla has refrained from making predictions on when he expects Porzingis to be available. But he was clear that his team is better with Porzingis in the lineup, despite compiling a 9-1 record without him this postseason.

“When KP is at his best, he’s been tremendous for us and we expect that from him and we know he’ll give that to us,” Mazzulla said.

Porzingis last spoke publicly on May 4, saying of the injury, “It’s something, it’s not nothing,” and adding that it would take “a little bit of time” to recover from.

His official status since then has been day to day as he slowly began rehabbing for a chance to face the Mavericks team he played for from 2019-22.

Porzingis took to social media this week to provide his most significant update, posting on the X platform, “I’ll be back in the lineup very soon. See you in the finals.”

Two days later, when the doors were opened to the media Friday after a practice session, Porzingis was one of only a handful of players still on the court, going through extended 3-point shooting drills with assistant coaches and trainers. He wore a compression sleeve on his injured left leg.

Then, on Saturday he participated in light 5-on-5 play with his teammates – his most extensive on-court workout since sustaining his injury.

Mazzulla said Porzingis “did everything the team did” during Saturday’s practice and was expected to go through a more intense session on Sunday.

Assuming he clears that benchmark, it would mark the most promising sign yet that the Celtics could soon get back the the scorer and rim protector that Boston traded longtime stalwart Marcus Smart for this past offseason.

When healthy, Porzingis has provided on both ends of the floor, averaging 20.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.9 blocks during the regular season while appearing in 57 games. Before his injury in the Miami series, he averaged 14.0 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks.

Porzingis missed seven games earlier this season with what the team called left calf injuries. He also missed time with a smattering of other issues this season, from inflammation and bruises in his right knee, right hamstring problems, a sprained left ankle and a sore back.

Those ailments added up to 25 missed games in which Boston went 21-4.

Celtics guard Derrick White, who was voted to the NBA All-Defensive third team along with teammate Jrue Holiday, said Porzingis’ presence on the defensive end is hard to replicate.

“He does a great job of just making things difficult,” White said. “It’s always nice to know that he’s back there, whether he blocks or he doesn’t block. He makes them think about it. That’s been really great having him on our side, just doing the things he did day in and day out. Once he comes back and gets in the flow I think it’s going to be nice.”

Holiday said one of the reasons the Celtics have been able to excel without Porzingis during this stretch is because they remember what it was like going through those periods during the regular season without him.

“I go back to the regular season where sometimes KP was out and Al (Horford) was in and vice versa. We literally went through it before,” Holiday said. “We kind of went through all scenarios before of what could happen or what would happen or whatever. And it kind of shows.”

That said, Holiday said the preference is to have him available when the finals tip off on Thursday. He doesn’t think re-integrating him back into the lineup will be an issue.

“KP is one of the best scorers. He’s one of our best rim protectors,” Holiday said. “And I feel like we’re all mature enough to get back in the groove or have him fit right back in whenever he comes back. And we do want KP back. We can’t wait for him to be back and be a part of this on the court.”

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The Canadian Press - Jun 1, 2024 / 10:40 am | Story: 490324

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans Pelicans have opted to wait until 2025 to use the last of the three first-round draft choices they received from the Los Angeles Lakers as part of the 2019 Anthony Davis trade, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity Saturday because no announcement had been made about the decision, which means the Lakers will retain their selection in the first round of this year's draft on June 26, when they are slated to pick 17th overall.

It also leaves the Pelicans with only their own first-round pick at No. 21 in this year's draft.

Under the terms of the Davis trade, the Pelicans cannot wait beyond 2025 to use the pick, which is the last remaining Lakers asset they are owed from that deal.

The blockbuster trade shortly before the 2019 draft sent the Pelicans three Lakers players: Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart. Only Ingram remains with New Orleans, but he is entering the final season of his contract.

The Pelicans won the draft lottery in 2019, when they selected Duke star forward Zion Williamson first overall. They then used the Lakers' No. 4 overall pick in a trade for the eighth and 17th overall picks, as well as the 35th overall choice in the second round.

With those, they drafted center Jaxson Hayes, guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker and guard Didi Louzada, none of whom are still with the Pelicans.

New Orleans used a second Lakers' first-round pick in 2022 to select Australian wing Dyson Daniels eighth overall.

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The Canadian Press - Jun 1, 2024 / 6:39 am | Story: 490310

Kyrie Irving was not making a threat, nor was he boasting, nor was he saying anything that would be considered outlandish. It was the final week of the regular season. He and the Dallas Mavericks had just clinched a division title and Irving was asked to talk about what it means.

He didn't look back. He looked ahead.

“We just know that the job isn’t finished,” Irving said in Miami that night. “And we’re just getting started.”

Turns out, he was right. The Mavericks — who spent most of February and March looking destined for the play-in tournament, a team that was barely better than a mediocre 26-23 after 49 games — figured things out just in time, and a trip to the NBA Finals is their reward.

Dallas will visit Boston in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night. It's a matchup of the teams with the NBA's two best records since Feb. 1; Boston has gone 39-9 in that span, Dallas 36-15. Boston also had the best record in the league before Feb. 1 (37-11), while Dallas was only 14th best in that stretch (26-22).

“It doesn’t happen a lot of times (where) you go from the lottery to the finals," Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. "But we truly believe that we had the pieces.”

A year ago, they didn't. When this season started, they didn't have all the pieces they needed, either. But since swinging trades for Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington in February, the Mavericks have been one of the best teams in the league — and going 16-2 in one late stretch of the regular season only reinforced Irving's belief that something good was happening.

“That’s the type of confidence that I felt the majority of this playoffs, just no matter what’s going on — in the beginning of the game, middle of the game, before the game — our words of affirmation and positivity go a long way,” Irving said.

In the current NBA playoff format, which goes back to 1984, Dallas is only the fifth team seeded No. 5 in its conference or lower to make the final. Miami did it last year as a No. 8 seed, Miami did it again in 2020 as a No. 5 seed, New York did it in 1999 as a No. 8 seed and Houston did it in 1995 as a No. 6 seed. Of those teams, only the Rockets went on to win a title.

But this Dallas team has been playing as well as anybody.

The Mavericks are 11-1 in these playoffs when they score more than 100 points. They've won five in a row on the road during this post-season run, matching their longest such streak from the regular season. They have a player in Irving who has won the finals before, a coach in Kidd who won a title as a player — with Dallas, no less — and arguably the best player in this post-season in Luka Doncic, who is headed to the title series for the first time.

Irving was right. The Mavs were just getting started. And now, they have a chance for the perfect finish.

“I think we've got a great team," Doncic said. “But most importantly, we've got great guys, some great guys on the team. From players to coaches, everybody on the team, we have great guys and that’s the most important thing. We stay together and we just play basketball.”

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The Canadian Press - May 31, 2024 / 9:48 pm | Story: 490300

The Sacramento Kings have agreed to a extension with coach Mike Brown to keep him under contract through the 2026-27 season, a person familiar with the deal said.

The Kings and the 2022-23 NBA Coach of the Year reached agreement on the extension Friday night, the person told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the contract hadn't been announced by the team.

ESPN first reported the deal and said Brown will get a $4 million raise to $8.5 million for next season and then $8.5 million a year for two additional seasons added on to his previous deal.

Brown has a 94-70 record in two seasons with Sacramento. He led the Kings to their first playoff berth since 2006 in his first year in charge and then fell just short of a return to the playoffs this last season, when Sacramento lost a play-in game for the eighth seed to New Orleans after going 46-36 in the regular season.

Brown has been a key part of a turnaround in Sacramento, helping the team snap the longest playoff drought in NBA history and winning his second career coach of the year award.

Brown and Rick Adelman are the only Kings coaches to lead the team to a winning record in any season since the franchise moved to Sacramento in 1985.

Brown has a 441-286 career record with Cleveland, the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento.

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The Canadian Press - May 31, 2024 / 4:50 pm | Story: 490266

CLEVELAND (AP) — Cleveland added two more candidates to its coaching search Friday, receiving permission to interview New York Knicks assistant Johnnie Bryant and Miami Heat assistant Chris Quinn, a person familiar with the process told The Associated Press.

Earlier this week, the Cavs began looking for J.B. Bickerstaff's successor by getting clearance to speak with Golden State’s Kenny Atkinson and New Orleans’ James Borrego.

Bickerstaff was fired one week after Cleveland was knocked out in the second round of the NBA playoffs by Boston. The Cavs believe they have their pieces to compete for a championship and want a new voice.

The Cavs will further broaden their list of prospective candidates, said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the team is not commenting during its first search for a coach in five years.

Cleveland and the Los Angeles Lakers are the only teams with coaching vacancies at the moment.

Bryant's name has been linked for some time to the Cavs because of his background with Donovan Mitchell. The All-Star guard worked with Bryant in Utah and has credited him with helping him develop as a player.

Mitchell can sign a long-term extension with Cleveland this summer, and Bryant's hiring could seal the deal.

Quinn, who is highly regarded in Miami, has been a candidate for several jobs in recent years. The Heat agreed to terms with assistant coach Caron Butler on a four-year deal earlier this week, and have been talking with Quinn and fellow assistant Malik Allen on new contracts as well.

Bickerstaff's dismissal was somewhat shocking since he had guided the Cavs through the early stages of a rebuild and had made improvement each season.

He was forced to juggle his lineup almost this entire season due to injuries. The Cavs played the series against the Celtics without center Jarrett Allen because of a broken rib, while Mitchell sat out Cleveland's final two games with a strained calf.

Bickerstaff took over for John Beilein midway through the 2019 season and went 170-159 in the regular season. He got the Cavs back to the playoffs for the first time since 2018 last season, but a first-round exit against the Knicks didn't help his resume.

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The Canadian Press - May 31, 2024 / 2:17 pm | Story: 490230

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Timberwolves have their entire core signed for next season and beyond, boasting two All-Stars and multiple award winners from this breakthrough journey to the Western Conference finals.

Maintaining the continuity they're seeking is going to cost them.

The Timberwolves — carrying mega-contracts for Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert — are on track to surpass the second apron of the luxury tax, a yet-to-be-determined figure above the salary cap that has become more punitive with the NBA 's newest collective bargaining agreement.

“Oftentimes, the final four table comes with a price tag that’s different than on teams that aren’t playing this late in the season,” president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said on Friday, following the team's ouster from the playoffs the night before. “To be where we are, it’s going to come with a certain check, and I think by all accounts ownership has given us no indication we’re going to be anything but aggressive and try to get over one more hump."

Approving a tax bill that could approach $50 million is far from simple summer business, considering the state of flux around controlling ownership of the franchise, with Glen Taylor's halted sale to Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez sent to arbitration. But Connelly said he's confident the roster won't be affected.

“Ownership has been unbelievably supportive. Whatever happens is kind of a level up. I trust whatever happens will be the right path,” Connelly said.

Connelly, who was hired two years ago after building an eventual title-winning team in Denver, has an opt-out in his contract this offseason. Presumably, that will bring him a raise in Minnesota, not elsewhere.

“I’ve had a blast here. Feels like we have roots here. It’s pretty special,” Connelly said.

The Wolves had the second-best regular season record in franchise history (56-26), trailing the 2003-04 team (58-24) that was the only other one beside this bunch to advance past the first round of the playoffs. They flustered Phoenix stars Devin Booker and Kevin Durant in a first-round sweep, beat the defending champion Nuggets and three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic with a Game 7 comeback in Denver and had home-court advantage against Dallas before crashing hard against stars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.

“Looking back, maybe we hit a wall,” key reserve Kyle Anderson said. “It just felt like we didn’t have the same juice that we had in the Denver and Phoenix series, and sometimes you don’t even realize it.”

Teams in this league rarely skip steps before winning a title, so with a superstar in Edwards who's still 22 it would have been a stretch for these Wolves to hoist the trophy. Coach Chris Finch said he believes the players felt a mental and physical fatigue against Dallas that ought to shape their anticipation and preparation for the next postseason experience.

“When we come back to work in October, we’re not going to fast forward to the Western Conference finals,” Finch said. “We have to make sure that the lessons that we learned in the Dallas series and before in the playoffs are applied day one in training camp and every day up until that time, because there’s a lot of teams that have reached this point and gone backward.”

TOWNS ENTERS YEAR 10

Towns will make more than $49 million next season, his 10th in the league. If the front office were to shed salary, he would be an obvious trade candidate considering he's still only 28 and has the type of offensive skill any team would want in a big man.

Towns made clear strides as a playoff performer, but his overall body of work this spring also left plenty of room for improvement. Both Connelly and Finch unequivocally said they believe Towns is good enough as a sidekick star to Edwards to be on a championship team.

“I’m confident I’ll be able to be here with my brothers and continue what I love to do here at home. So that’s the plan. Nothing’s changed on my side. I love this city. I love this organization,” Towns said.

WORKING HARDER

Edwards, who will play for the U.S. at the Summer Olympics, acknowledged there’s another level of offseason dedication he can reach.

“We trained this year as if we was going to just play 82 games, maybe one round of the playoffs. We didn’t know we was going to go this far,” Edwards said. “I think this summer is going to be huge for all of us, because we know what type of team we’ve got and we know what we’re capable of, so we need to train like it, like we know what we’re going to do.”

FIX-IT LIST

The Wolves must establish more consistency on offense if they want to return to the conference finals, let alone play for a title. That starts with becoming more efficient on the break.

“We don’t have the physically fastest guys, but we’ve got to make an effort and commitment to get easier stuff in transition, running, stretching the floor,” Finch said. “We were not a very good finishing team. Some of our transition plays this year, it was incredible that we weren’t able to score. The league plays so fast now, so when you aren’t fast and you’re struggling to get easy looks, that’s a good place to start and try to find them. We’ve got to be better there.”

SLO-MO ON THE MOVE?

Anderson is the lone rotation player with an expiring contract. After finding his groove in the playoffs following a rocky regular season in which he played more at the small forward or “3” spot than he was used to, Anderson will be an unrestricted free agent. He sounded like he's expecting to price himself out of the team's plan for 2024-25.

“Wherever I go, I’ll still be in the NBA,” he said.

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The Canadian Press - May 31, 2024 / 11:48 am | Story: 490185

NEW YORK (AP) — The WNBA's new charter flight program still has a few expected kinks but commissioner Cathy Engelbert expects everything to be running smoothly after the Olympic break.

“It’s a big Rubik’s Cube,” Engelbert told The Associated Press in a phone interview Friday. “Where could we get planes and pilots for long haul flights? It’s not like the plane takes you and waits there for two days. It’s been deployed elsewhere. There’s a logistical complexity.”

It usually takes months of work to put together a charter schedule for a professional league because of plane availability and pilot staffing. The WNBA was able to get it done in a few weeks, in large part because of a longstanding relationship with Delta and the blueprint the NBA has in place.

“The footprint of our season is so dense. We wanted to take advantage of the fact that we knew these first couple of weeks, especially on the front end of this, were going to be challenging for our teams,” Engelbert said. “That’s why we pulled the trigger when we did. We looked at the schedule and challenges it created and decided it was time.”

Engelbert said that the original plan was to roll out the charters gradually as they became available, but the league was able to secure charters for every team within a week of the season starting.

The league, which will pay about $25 million annually for the next two years for the flights, will use three types of planes for its charters — VIP, Delta mainline and regional jets.

So far, most of the flights have been done on regional jets because of aircraft availability. May, June and July are the busiest months for flying and other planes weren't available on such short notice.

The regional jets are smaller with 30 seats and have to stop to refuel on long flights. Fuel stops also were made when the NBA started its charter flight program in 1997.

Many of the planes also haven't had power outlets or WiFi — a problem that also occurs on commercial flights sometimes. Small inconveniences that definitely don't outweigh the positives of charter flights, which have been monumental.

“It happened overnight almost,” WNBA players’ union president Nneka Ogwumike said. “It was a little bit shaky on the rollout, but nevertheless for me I think it’s a huge win. The only word I can think about is transformational.”

No longer do players have to get up at 5 a.m. to get to the airport to fly to the next city for a game. Travel time has been nearly cut in half. They also don't have to deal with long security lines and cramped seats.

Last season, the AP traveled with New York on a trip from Connecticut to Las Vegas that took 13 hours to get between cities because of connecting flights.

“The fact is we can just pull up to the plane and get on the plane and get ready to go,” Liberty forward Breanna Stewart said. “We haven't done it yet, but to be able to finish a game and then fly out to the next city and not waste a whole day is huge.”

Players can do much needed recovery after games now on flights as they head to the next city.

Of the 120 flights that franchises will have to make in May and June, the league was able to get 116 of them at the team's preferred times to fly. That's allowed teams to practice at home and then fly on the road.

The league will track how many times a team flies on each of the charter options and those will balance out over time.

The Indiana Fever, for instance, took the first charter flight and it was on a VIP aircraft. That was only possible because the Indiana Pacers were in the playoffs and their charter was available to take the Fever to Connecticut.

The WNBA started paying for charter flights for teams that were playing back-to-back games last season. Coming into this season, they kept that program going before securing charter flights for every road game. Some teams, however, may have bigger planes or VIP ones because they are playing back-to-back games or are in the finals of the Commissioner’s Cup on June 25.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

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