The Ohio State softball team led the country in runs scored and home runs, and one of the main reasons it did was catcher Jasmyn Burns.
All Burns did was hit 25 home runs, 14 doubles, and drive in 72 RBIs while securing a batting average of .455. It was a momentum-building year for her and the Ohio State program under new head coach Kirin Kumar, but that forward- looking optimism took a bit of a blow when Burns entered the transfer portal.
If there were any hopes that Burns would have a change of heart and take her name out of that portal to return to the banks of the Olentangy, that all ended on Saturday when Burns took to social media to announce her commitment to Texas Tech, a team that just finished off a memorable run to the finals of the Women’s College World Series before falling to Texas in the championship series.
While this might seem like a blow for Ohio State and a massive commitment for Texas Tech, you have to believe that the Buckeyes are still in good hands with what Kumar is building in Columbus. The 5-foot, 3-inch catcher has two years of eligibility left in Lubbock.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love sat behind future first-ballot Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers for three seasons before taking over as the starting signal caller for Green Bay. It was a valuable experience that helped shape him into the quarterback he is today—one who led the Packers to back-to-back playoff appearances and helped the organization maintain a consistent winning culture.
Still, those years on the bench were not always sunshine and rainbows.
“When I got drafted here I knew right away exactly what situation I was being put in, who I was being behind,” Love explained during the spring of 2023. “So I knew it was going to come with time that I was going to come in and learn and grow. But I’ll admit, I think the hardest time was when he re-signed the contract last year. It was kind of like, ‘OK, well, where do we go from here? What do I do?’ I sat back, thought to myself and came back with the approach like just go ball out.”
Green Bay traded Rodgers to the New York Jets in 2023. After spending two seasons in New York, Rodgers signed a one-year deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Friday. He will face his former team in Week 8 when the Steelers host the Packers on Sunday Night Football.
Speaking with Channel 3000’s Jason Wilde, Love shared his expectations for facing his former mentor in the upcoming season.
“It’s going to be fun,” Love said. “It’s going to be awesome. I’m excited for it.”
“I can’t wait to be on different sides, meeting up, and I know we’ll talk pregame, things like that. And, hopefully, we can exchange jerseys after.”
Love also said he was not surprised when he heard the news of Rodgers signing with Pittsburgh.
“I was excited for him, that he was obviously coming back and going to be playing,” he said. “There were also some rumors that he might be done, so just knowing he’s going to keep playing, that’s pretty awesome.”
It should be a special night for many members of Green Bay’s organization, as well as for Rodgers himself. There should be some Packers fans hoping this is not the last time these two teams meet in 2025. For Packers fans, a Super Bowl matchup against Pittsburgh would be a dream come true and one of the most captivating storylines in NFL history.
The Lebanon Warriors (27-4) are headed to the softball state finals for the first time since 2017 after a 2-0 extra-innings win over the Lancaster Gales (28-3) Saturday, June 7.
The game was scoreless through eight innings. Finally, in the ninth, Lebanon pushed a run across when senior Kennedy Jauch singled home the game’s first run. Freshman Emma Sheidler bunted home the other Lebanon run. Junior pitcher Sophia Sheidler retired the Gales 1-2-3 in her ninth inning of work to seal the win.
Lebanon will play the Centerville Elks (18-13) in the Division I softball state final on Sunday, June 8, at 4 p.m. at Firestone Stadium in Akron. The Elks punched their ticket by beating Massillon Jackson (21-9) 8-4 in the other Division I state semifinal on Saturday.
Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn, left-handed pitcher Zach Root and catcher Ryder Helfrick postgame press conference after Arkansas’ 4-3 win over Tennessee in Game 1 of the Fayetteville Super Regional. Visit http://HawgBeat.com for more coverage of Arkansas baseball.
Visit our homepage for more coverage of the Diamond Hogs.
Manaea came out of his first rehab start on Friday night, “all good,” the manager said, adding the left-hander will throw again on Tuesday or Wednesday for the High-A Brooklyn. “See how the next couple of days goes,” Mendoza said.
The southpaw had a rough go of it, allowing four runs (three earned) on four hits and a hit by pitch in 1.2 innings while throwing 36 pitches (26 strikes).
Montas will make his fourth rehab start on Sunday for Triple-A Syracuse, and the plan is for him to throw 80-85 pitches. While Montas is “getting closer to normal” with the high pitch count, Mendoza said the 32-year-old will likely make another start at Triple-A before he is ready to be activated from the IL.
“After he gets through this one, we’ll see where he’s at,” the manager said. “But I don’t think this is gonna be his last one.”
Results have not been there for the right-hander, as he has allowed runs in all of his previous outings (the first two coming with Brooklyn). On Tuesday, he surrendered five runs on eight hits (including four home runs) and a walk in 4.0 frames, throwing 61 pitches (43 strikes).
When asked what point he might start to care about the results from these rehab appearances, Mendoza said it is “still early, especially for Manaea.”
“With Montas, I’ll say we’ll see how [Sunday] goes and then we’ll start to look more at results and all that,” he said. “More about how they are bouncing back. For Sean, after the first one, it’s too early for him.”
The contact has been there for the 23-year-old catcher – a 92.8 mph average exit velocity and a 47 percent hard-hit rate – but the results haven’t quite been there – just four extra-base hits and a .301 slugging percentage – through his first 93 at-bats of the season.
“We haven’t seen him driving the ball with authority,” Mendoza said of Alvarez, who was not in the lineup for Saturday’s game. “I feel like he’s on and off. There’s been some games where I feel like he’s put himself in a good position to make swing decisions, and you see the barrel and the bat path coming through the zone. But then there’s also been games where he’s late.
“We just gotta continue to grind, continue to help him. And hopefully he gets there because he’s too good of a player, too good of a hitter. And, obviously, we know the power is there, but we just haven’t seen that yet.”
“I feel like last week he was making progress,” he said. “[Friday] night, he looked like he was late with some of the fastballs. Part of some of the inconsistency that we’ve seen from him. But he’s working hard, that’s the one thing with him: He’s such a hard worker and he’s always looking for ways to get better…. And we gotta get him there.”
Alvarez batted .315 with a .534 slugging percentage against 690 fastballs a season ago. After Friday’s game, those numbers were down to .264 and .302, which are down 46 points and eight points from three weeks ago. But there have been improvements in his expected numbers, which could indicate some of the work is paying off, even if the results haven’t been there just yet. His xBA on fastballs is up to .225 from .213 on May 19 and xSLG is up to .373 from .299.
Alvarez also “made a very significant swing change in the offseason,” president of baseball operations David Stearns mentioned in late May, something that could be impacting his production, which was further hampered by a stint on the IL.
In 27 games on the year, Alvarez is batting .237 (the same mark he finished with in 100 games last season) with a .625 OPS (down from .710 a year ago).
Bullpen workload on skipper’s mind
Manage the personalities and vibe in the clubhouse, manage the lineup, manage the in-game strategy, and manage the bullpen’s usage. Those are the four big areas a big league manager can show they are worth their salt.
“We’ve been using them pretty hard,” Mendoza said when asked about the workload of Ryne Stanek, Huascar Brazobán, and Reed Garrett.
Of course, the hitters could do something to help the relievers out.
“When you look at Reed Garrett, I feel like the past week he’s been on and off, on and off. That’s not sustainable,” he said. “This is something that we gotta be careful here. Same with Stanek, the past week I feel like [he’s been used] every other day. I’m not gonna complain, but we’re playing so many tight games that every time they’re available, we’re using them. Same thing with Brazoban.
“That’s the balance here that we’re gonna have to watch those guys closely.”
OKLAHOMA CITY — Rick Carlisle wants to make one thing abundantly clear: The Pacers are not looking for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to go off.
“We are not looking to get Shai going,” he said Saturday on the eve of Game 2 of the 2025 NBA Finals. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
That stands to reason! If the other team’s best player has the ball a ton, and is doing a lot with it, it’s reasonable to assume that it would be a bad thing for your defense.
Here’s the thing, though:
• In the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs against the Pacers, Donovan Mitchell wound up averaging 34.2 points on 25 field goal attempts per game, finishing a mammoth 41% of the Cavaliers’ offensive possessions with a shot attempt, foul drawn or turnover — a usage rate more than 10% higher than it had been against Miami the previous round. (Injuries to Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and De’Andre Hunter played a role there.)
In a possibly related story: Only one other Cleveland player (Mobley) averaged more than 15 points per game in the series, and a Cavaliers team whose league-leading offense assaulted the record books all season long scored just 109.6 points per 100 possessions in Mitchell’s minutes in the conference semifinals — same as the 25th-ranked Toronto Raptors managed during the regular season. The Pacers drummed Cleveland out of the playoffs in five games.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 38 points in Game 1, but it wasn’t enough. (Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images)
• And hey, sure, given your druthers, you’d certainly prefer that the NBA’s reigning Most Valuable Player not score 30-plus points on you — as Gilgeous-Alexander did on Thursday, pouring in 38 to lead the Thunder in Game 1.
If he’s going to, though, you’d probably like those points to come as inefficiently as possible. Say, on 30 shot attempts — tied for the third-highest total of his career. And probably while soaking up a ton of possessions. Like, for example, a 37.1% usage rate — the third-highest mark of his playoff career. And maybe even while dominating the ball to a greater degree than usual. For instance, a total time of possession of 8.8 minutes — up more than two minutes from the regular season, and more than one minute from the first three rounds.
Totally. You know what’s really hard, though? Needing to generate virtually everything by and for yourself, possession after possession, against what’s been a top-10 defense for the last six months, led by one of the NBA’s best point-of-attack defenders in the gaining-respect-by-the-day Andrew Nembhard, while the opponent sells out to cut off your teammates and burn your lifeboats.
How the Pacers played SGA in Game 1
OK, so maybe “give the best guy on the team as many shots as he can handle” isn’t exactly Indiana’s double-secret defensive game plan.
As blueprints for success go, though, “force that player to make a ton of tough 2-point shots, keep anyone else from getting off, and when possible, funnel touches and shots to less-threatening options” — like, for example, by having rangy power forwards Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin cross-match against Thunder guard Luguentz Dort, sag way off of him to play more aggressive help defense, and then live with him taking dare-you 3s when the ball finds him … well, that wouldn’t be the worst one ever constructed against a team that relies so heavily on its elite top option.
The Pacers threw a ton at Gilgeous-Alexander in Game 1. The MVP saw a heavy dose of Canadian national teammate Nembhard as his primary defender, with Siakam, Aaron Nesmith and Bennedict Mathurin also pulling shifts. Indiana was also aggressive in showing help in the gaps on Gilgeous-Alexander’s isolations and drives, and “next-ing” his pick-and-rolls — having the defender who’s nearest to the play switch over onto SGA as he drives, with his initial defender switching back onto SGA’s now-uncovered teammate — to try to corral him in the two-man game.
“He’s the MVP of our league, so you’re not going to shut a guy like that down,” Pacers guard T.J. McConnell said Saturday. “He’s a special talent. It’s just about making things as difficult as possible and trying to tire him out and wear him down. Credit to everyone that guarded him. They played a part in trying to do that. Obviously, he had a phenomenal game, but it’s a collective effort.”
That effort extends to the defensive end of the floor: The Pacers went 7-for-12 in Game 1 on plays where Gilgeous-Alexander was the closest defender, according to NBA Advanced Stats. As they did to Brunson last round, Indiana at times looked to target Gilgeous-Alexander — putting him into action, leveraging size mismatches on switches, attacking him in isolation — to ensure that he wouldn’t get the benefit of a breather when he didn’t have the ball:
Then they went after SGA. Got him switched on-ball — created an iso 3, a drive that drew rotation and an o-board (1 point), and a Siakam crash vs SGA for a put-back 2. Relentless. pic.twitter.com/6JvnC6kdea
My favorite moment from that huge Nembhard iso 3 vs. SGA. How Haliburton wanted Nembhard to go iso there — he spaced away, even signally to Siakam to space. He believes in his teammates more than most – it’s infectious pic.twitter.com/rrKtYq8iYF
“I think that’s what we’re trying to do: just make him work on both ends,” McConnell said. “I mean, he’s a great player. And you know, when great players play a lot of minutes, it can kind of get into their legs. Obviously, I’m not sure we saw a lot of that — he had 38 points. But it’s a process thing.”
Indiana will continue trusting that process, betting that the deposits they put in early will pay off with compound interest late. The Game 1 effort already paid some dividends, though, by influencing Gilgeous-Alexander to put the onus largely on himself. He passed out of just two of his 27 drives to the basket — emblematic of an outing that saw him call his own number more frequently than usual.
“I always try to be aggressive and I never, like, predetermine it,” Gilgeous-Alexander said Saturday. “I always just let the game tell me what to do. So I guess last game, I felt more often than not I had a shot or a play that I could attack on more than in the past, and that’s just the way it went.”
SGA wasn’t alone in playing less frequently off the pass, though: After averaging 270.7 passes per game in the regular season, and 256.6 during the first three rounds, Oklahoma City threw a shockingly low 207 passes in Game 1, leading to a season-low 13 assists.
“The same thing will happen in Game 2,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I will read the defense, and I will play off my feeling and my instincts, and if it’s calling for me to shoot or if it’s calling me to pass, that’s what I will decide to do.”
SGA will need help in Game 2
The key for the Thunder? If the game’s calling for Gilgeous-Alexander to pass — if, after film study, he recognizes that the crowd that Indiana’s showing him means some of his teammates are wide open — then they’ve got to knock ‘em down at a much better clip than they did in Game 1.
Non-SGA Thunderers shot just 25-for-68 (36.8%) from the field — including a 5-for-19 mark off of Shai’s passes — and 8-for-24 (33.3%) from 3-point land on Thursday. Strip out Dort’s 5-for-9 outing from beyond the arc, and the rest of Oklahoma City’s rotation went just 2-for-15 from deep — the kind of output that’s not exactly going to dissuade the Pacers from making Gilgeous-Alexander’s teammates prove they can knock down enough shots to make them pay for their defensive approach.
That puts the spotlight squarely on Williams, who needed 19 shots to score 17 points in Game 1, and on Chet Holmgren, who spoke Saturday about needing to improve his finishing after going 2-for-8 in the paint in Game 1 against the length and physicality of Turner on the interior.
“I think we had a good offensive process,” Williams said after Game 1. “We got some good shots towards the end … I repped a lot of the shots that I shot tonight — over and over and over again, consistently, throughout my career, this year, the playoffs. All you can do is shoot them and not get scared to shoot them.”
Maintaining that mentality isn’t easy, especially when you know the opponent is betting that, if they throw everything they’ve got at stopping your teammate, you won’t be able to make them pay for it. But Williams said Saturday that knowing he’s Oklahoma City’s failsafe Plan B isn’t anything new for him, and doesn’t come with additional pressure to score every time the ball swings his way.
Sometimes, though, the circumstances will demand Williams and Holmgren finish those possessions with a bucket — pulling a contested 3, finishing over Turner or Siakam at the rim, or just playing through contact to get to the foul line. Heady stuff for a 23- and 24-year-old.
“[Holmgren] and Dub, specifically, obviously, they have carved out huge roles on our team,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “They are a huge reason why we’re here. They are in an uncommon position for third-year players … and now that they are here, they have to continue to do what they have done all the way through the playoffs, which is go out there, fully compete, learn the lessons, and apply it forward.”
Williams, for his part, sounds ready to shake off Game 1 and do just that.
“Pressure is a privilege,” Williams said. “I enjoy being counted on.”
The Thunder are counting on him, Holmgren and everyone else to bounce back in a big way. The Pacers are counting on it, too.
“Look, everybody’s pattern after a loss is to come more aggressively,” Carlisle said. “So [Gilgeous-Alexander’s] going to be more aggressive. Williams is going to be more aggressive. Chet is going to be more aggressive. Their whole team is going to be even more aggressive defensively. The challenge for us is to be able to match that.”
If the Pacers can’t, they still walk out of Oklahoma City with a split. If they can, though — if they’re able to replicate what worked in Game 1 and improve on what didn’t — they could find themselves precisely where they’ve been in every series they’ve played in this postseason: up 2-0, in complete control, and in position to do something that very few people outside their locker room ever thought could be possible.
“We don’t want Shai getting 38 points if we can avoid it,” Carlisle said. “We don’t want him living on the free-throw line. We don’t want him getting easy 3s — we don’t want him making that 3 at the end of the third quarter. That was a tough shot, but he banged that in.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Rick Carlisle wants to make one thing abundantly clear: The Pacers are not looking for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to go off.
“We are not looking to get Shai going,” he said Saturday on the eve of Game 2 of the 2025 NBA Finals. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
That stands to reason! If the other team’s best player has the ball a ton, and is doing a lot with it, it’s reasonable to assume that it would be a bad thing for your defense.
Here’s the thing, though:
• In the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs against the Pacers, Donovan Mitchell wound up averaging 34.2 points on 25 field goal attempts per game, finishing a mammoth 41% of the Cavaliers’ offensive possessions with a shot attempt, foul drawn or turnover — a usage rate more than 10% higher than it had been against Miami the previous round. (Injuries to Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and De’Andre Hunter played a role there.)
In a possibly related story: Only one other Cleveland player (Mobley) averaged more than 15 points per game in the series, and a Cavaliers team whose league-leading offense assaulted the record books all season long scored just 109.6 points per 100 possessions in Mitchell’s minutes in the conference semifinals — same as the 25th-ranked Toronto Raptors managed during the regular season. The Pacers drummed Cleveland out of the playoffs in five games.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 38 points in Game 1, but it wasn’t enough. (Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images)
• And hey, sure, given your druthers, you’d certainly prefer that the NBA’s reigning Most Valuable Player not score 30-plus points on you — as Gilgeous-Alexander did on Thursday, pouring in 38 to lead the Thunder in Game 1.
If he’s going to, though, you’d probably like those points to come as inefficiently as possible. Say, on 30 shot attempts — tied for the third-highest total of his career. And probably while soaking up a ton of possessions. Like, for example, a 37.1% usage rate — the third-highest mark of his playoff career. And maybe even while dominating the ball to a greater degree than usual. For instance, a total time of possession of 8.8 minutes — up more than two minutes from the regular season, and more than one minute from the first three rounds.
Totally. You know what’s really hard, though? Needing to generate virtually everything by and for yourself, possession after possession, against what’s been a top-10 defense for the last six months, led by one of the NBA’s best point-of-attack defenders in the gaining-respect-by-the-day Andrew Nembhard, while the opponent sells out to cut off your teammates and burn your lifeboats.
How the Pacers played SGA in Game 1
OK, so maybe “give the best guy on the team as many shots as he can handle” isn’t exactly Indiana’s double-secret defensive game plan.
As blueprints for success go, though, “force that player to make a ton of tough 2-point shots, keep anyone else from getting off, and when possible, funnel touches and shots to less-threatening options” — like, for example, by having rangy power forwards Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin cross-match against Thunder guard Luguentz Dort, sag way off of him to play more aggressive help defense, and then live with him taking dare-you 3s when the ball finds him … well, that wouldn’t be the worst one ever constructed against a team that relies so heavily on its elite top option.
The Pacers threw a ton at Gilgeous-Alexander in Game 1. The MVP saw a heavy dose of Canadian national teammate Nembhard as his primary defender, with Siakam, Aaron Nesmith and Bennedict Mathurin also pulling shifts. Indiana was also aggressive in showing help in the gaps on Gilgeous-Alexander’s isolations and drives, and “next-ing” his pick-and-rolls — having the defender who’s nearest to the play switch over onto SGA as he drives, with his initial defender switching back onto SGA’s now-uncovered teammate — to try to corral him in the two-man game.
“He’s the MVP of our league, so you’re not going to shut a guy like that down,” Pacers guard T.J. McConnell said Saturday. “He’s a special talent. It’s just about making things as difficult as possible and trying to tire him out and wear him down. Credit to everyone that guarded him. They played a part in trying to do that. Obviously, he had a phenomenal game, but it’s a collective effort.”
That effort extends to the defensive end of the floor: The Pacers went 7-for-12 in Game 1 on plays where Gilgeous-Alexander was the closest defender, according to NBA Advanced Stats. As they did to Brunson last round, Indiana at times looked to target Gilgeous-Alexander — putting him into action, leveraging size mismatches on switches, attacking him in isolation — to ensure that he wouldn’t get the benefit of a breather when he didn’t have the ball:
Then they went after SGA. Got him switched on-ball — created an iso 3, a drive that drew rotation and an o-board (1 point), and a Siakam crash vs SGA for a put-back 2. Relentless. pic.twitter.com/6JvnC6kdea
My favorite moment from that huge Nembhard iso 3 vs. SGA. How Haliburton wanted Nembhard to go iso there — he spaced away, even signally to Siakam to space. He believes in his teammates more than most – it’s infectious pic.twitter.com/rrKtYq8iYF
“I think that’s what we’re trying to do: just make him work on both ends,” McConnell said. “I mean, he’s a great player. And you know, when great players play a lot of minutes, it can kind of get into their legs. Obviously, I’m not sure we saw a lot of that — he had 38 points. But it’s a process thing.”
Indiana will continue trusting that process, betting that the deposits they put in early will pay off with compound interest late. The Game 1 effort already paid some dividends, though, by influencing Gilgeous-Alexander to put the onus largely on himself. He passed out of just two of his 27 drives to the basket — emblematic of an outing that saw him call his own number more frequently than usual.
“I always try to be aggressive and I never, like, predetermine it,” Gilgeous-Alexander said Saturday. “I always just let the game tell me what to do. So I guess last game, I felt more often than not I had a shot or a play that I could attack on more than in the past, and that’s just the way it went.”
SGA wasn’t alone in playing less frequently off the pass, though: After averaging 270.7 passes per game in the regular season, and 256.6 during the first three rounds, Oklahoma City threw a shockingly low 207 passes in Game 1, leading to a season-low 13 assists.
“The same thing will happen in Game 2,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I will read the defense, and I will play off my feeling and my instincts, and if it’s calling for me to shoot or if it’s calling me to pass, that’s what I will decide to do.”
SGA will need help in Game 2
The key for the Thunder? If the game’s calling for Gilgeous-Alexander to pass — if, after film study, he recognizes that the crowd that Indiana’s showing him means some of his teammates are wide open — then they’ve got to knock ‘em down at a much better clip than they did in Game 1.
Non-SGA Thunderers shot just 25-for-68 (36.8%) from the field — including a 5-for-19 mark off of Shai’s passes — and 8-for-24 (33.3%) from 3-point land on Thursday. Strip out Dort’s 5-for-9 outing from beyond the arc, and the rest of Oklahoma City’s rotation went just 2-for-15 from deep — the kind of output that’s not exactly going to dissuade the Pacers from making Gilgeous-Alexander’s teammates prove they can knock down enough shots to make them pay for their defensive approach.
That puts the spotlight squarely on Williams, who needed 19 shots to score 17 points in Game 1, and on Chet Holmgren, who spoke Saturday about needing to improve his finishing after going 2-for-8 in the paint in Game 1 against the length and physicality of Turner on the interior.
“I think we had a good offensive process,” Williams said after Game 1. “We got some good shots towards the end … I repped a lot of the shots that I shot tonight — over and over and over again, consistently, throughout my career, this year, the playoffs. All you can do is shoot them and not get scared to shoot them.”
Maintaining that mentality isn’t easy, especially when you know the opponent is betting that, if they throw everything they’ve got at stopping your teammate, you won’t be able to make them pay for it. But Williams said Saturday that knowing he’s Oklahoma City’s failsafe Plan B isn’t anything new for him, and doesn’t come with additional pressure to score every time the ball swings his way.
Sometimes, though, the circumstances will demand Williams and Holmgren finish those possessions with a bucket — pulling a contested 3, finishing over Turner or Siakam at the rim, or just playing through contact to get to the foul line. Heady stuff for a 23- and 24-year-old.
“[Holmgren] and Dub, specifically, obviously, they have carved out huge roles on our team,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “They are a huge reason why we’re here. They are in an uncommon position for third-year players … and now that they are here, they have to continue to do what they have done all the way through the playoffs, which is go out there, fully compete, learn the lessons, and apply it forward.”
Williams, for his part, sounds ready to shake off Game 1 and do just that.
“Pressure is a privilege,” Williams said. “I enjoy being counted on.”
The Thunder are counting on him, Holmgren and everyone else to bounce back in a big way. The Pacers are counting on it, too.
“Look, everybody’s pattern after a loss is to come more aggressively,” Carlisle said. “So [Gilgeous-Alexander’s] going to be more aggressive. Williams is going to be more aggressive. Chet is going to be more aggressive. Their whole team is going to be even more aggressive defensively. The challenge for us is to be able to match that.”
If the Pacers can’t, they still walk out of Oklahoma City with a split. If they can, though — if they’re able to replicate what worked in Game 1 and improve on what didn’t — they could find themselves precisely where they’ve been in every series they’ve played in this postseason: up 2-0, in complete control, and in position to do something that very few people outside their locker room ever thought could be possible.
“We don’t want Shai getting 38 points if we can avoid it,” Carlisle said. “We don’t want him living on the free-throw line. We don’t want him getting easy 3s — we don’t want him making that 3 at the end of the third quarter. That was a tough shot, but he banged that in.
And more importantly, no Finals script logo anywhere on the floor.
Short of Oklahoma City fans wearing all white, you couldn’t tell the magnitude of the moment. Tyrese Haliburton’s winning shot in Game 1 will be etched in history regardless of the series outcome, but visually something was missing.
Fans took to social media in the last few days to remark how the floor looks sterile and bare compared to NBA Finals series of the past, and they were especially dismayed when bringing up the special courts the NBA uses for the early-season Emirates NBA Cup.
A closeup view of the 2014 NBA Finals logo at American Airlines Arena in Miami. (Photo by John W. McDonough /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
John W. McDonough via Getty Images
“We have the opportunity to plan well in advance and to design a specific neutral court for a Cup championship game, and the teams design their own Cup courts,” commissioner Adam Silver said Friday. “And it actually takes a significant amount of time to create new courts in terms of how they’re painted, et cetera.”
Here’s a solution for the league, which they could employ starting next year: At the start of the conference finals, start making four versions of the floor for each arena so something will be ready for the Finals.
Of course, two will go unused, but the payoff of fan satisfaction could be worth the investment.
It’s simple, and it doesn’t affect the style or quality of play. But the visual of the logo makes the moment feel big, and the NBA should focus on making moments feel bigger — especially for a television audience.
“There was a sense that maybe the logos added some slipperiness to the court, and it was a change on the court that was coming just at the time of the Finals,” Silver said Friday afternoon at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Oklahoma County ribbon-cutting ceremony, where the league refurbished educational spaces, among other things.
“And again, maybe it’s for superstitious reasons or just a sense from teams. We shouldn’t be changing things around such important competition.”
Maybe it was somehow slippery, although no moments come to mind when injuries occurred around the logo. Or maybe the NBA didn’t think it was that important.
The World Series has significant logos on the grass, and the Super Bowl has its unique signage at both 20-yard lines.
Silver, who seems to be online more than people would expect, saw the reaction and indicated perhaps a change can be made in the future.
“I hadn’t thought all that much about it till I thought it,” Silver said. “I’m nostalgic as well for certain things and and also, I think, for, you know, media-driven culture, whether it’s people watching live or seeing those images on social media, it’s nice when you’re looking back on highlights and they stand out because you see that that trophy logo or some other indication that it’s a special event.”
The Finals script design made its return in 2022 after a few years of a very bland, Microsoft Word-style design that was panned by all. When the script returned for the first time since the 2017 Finals, fans across the league rejoiced.
It felt important. It felt big.
It was first put on the floors in the 1989 NBA Finals, and two years later, decals for the entire NBA playoffs were placed. Like Silver said, it created a nostalgia that for some reason the league went away from reinforcing.
During the ABC broadcast, there seemed to be nothing special — no televising the national anthem or starting lineups, and in last year’s Finals, digital advertising signage was placed on the floor instead of the Finals script.
It seems like an easy solution, and the league pays enough attention to social media and the like that it wouldn’t be a shock to see some level of visual change.
Are numerous different champions better?
Not only will this be the seventh straight year the NBA will crown a new champion, Oklahoma City and Indiana joining the party means 11 teams have played for the NBA title during that span — with Boston, Miami and Golden State making multiple appearances since 2019.
Who knows if it’s a good, great or terrible thing — the lack of connective tissue between the Finals year after year? But it’s clear Silver believes this being a function of the collective bargaining agreement is a positive.
“I remember when I first joined the league,” Silver said Thursday during his Finals availability news conference. “David used to joke early on in his tenure, David Stern, as commissioner, he said his job was to go back and forth between Boston and L.A. handing out championship trophies.
“I think it was very intentional, it didn’t begin with me, it began with David and successive collective bargaining agreements, that we set out to create a system that allowed for more competition in the league, with the goal being having 30 teams all in position, if well managed, to compete for championships. That’s what we’re seeing here.”
In Stern’s 30 years as commissioner, he handed trophies to Chicago, San Antonio, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, Detroit, Golden State, Houston and Cleveland. Silver is already close to topping that number in less than half the time.
“I’ve said before, the goal is that market size essentially becomes irrelevant.”
And more importantly, no Finals script logo anywhere on the floor.
Short of Oklahoma City fans wearing all white, you couldn’t tell the magnitude of the moment. Tyrese Haliburton’s winning shot in Game 1 will be etched in history regardless of the series outcome, but visually something was missing.
Fans took to social media in the last few days to remark how the floor looks sterile and bare compared to NBA Finals series of the past, and they were especially dismayed when bringing up the special courts the NBA uses for the early-season Emirates NBA Cup.
A closeup view of the 2014 NBA Finals logo at American Airlines Arena in Miami. (Photo by John W. McDonough /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
John W. McDonough via Getty Images
“We have the opportunity to plan well in advance and to design a specific neutral court for a Cup championship game, and the teams design their own Cup courts,” commissioner Adam Silver said Friday. “And it actually takes a significant amount of time to create new courts in terms of how they’re painted, et cetera.”
Here’s a solution for the league, which they could employ starting next year: At the start of the conference finals, start making four versions of the floor for each arena so something will be ready for the Finals.
Of course, two will go unused, but the payoff of fan satisfaction could be worth the investment.
It’s simple, and it doesn’t affect the style or quality of play. But the visual of the logo makes the moment feel big, and the NBA should focus on making moments feel bigger — especially for a television audience.
“There was a sense that maybe the logos added some slipperiness to the court, and it was a change on the court that was coming just at the time of the Finals,” Silver said Friday afternoon at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Oklahoma County ribbon-cutting ceremony, where the league refurbished educational spaces, among other things.
“And again, maybe it’s for superstitious reasons or just a sense from teams. We shouldn’t be changing things around such important competition.”
Maybe it was somehow slippery, although no moments come to mind when injuries occurred around the logo. Or maybe the NBA didn’t think it was that important.
The World Series has significant logos on the grass, and the Super Bowl has its unique signage at both 20-yard lines.
Silver, who seems to be online more than people would expect, saw the reaction and indicated perhaps a change can be made in the future.
“I hadn’t thought all that much about it till I thought it,” Silver said. “I’m nostalgic as well for certain things and and also, I think, for, you know, media-driven culture, whether it’s people watching live or seeing those images on social media, it’s nice when you’re looking back on highlights and they stand out because you see that that trophy logo or some other indication that it’s a special event.”
The Finals script design made its return in 2022 after a few years of a very bland, Microsoft Word-style design that was panned by all. When the script returned for the first time since the 2017 Finals, fans across the league rejoiced.
It felt important. It felt big.
It was first put on the floors in the 1989 NBA Finals, and two years later, decals for the entire NBA playoffs were placed. Like Silver said, it created a nostalgia that for some reason the league went away from reinforcing.
During the ABC broadcast, there seemed to be nothing special — no televising the national anthem or starting lineups, and in last year’s Finals, digital advertising signage was placed on the floor instead of the Finals script.
It seems like an easy solution, and the league pays enough attention to social media and the like that it wouldn’t be a shock to see some level of visual change.
Are numerous different champions better?
Not only will this be the seventh straight year the NBA will crown a new champion, Oklahoma City and Indiana joining the party means 11 teams have played for the NBA title during that span — with Boston, Miami and Golden State making multiple appearances since 2019.
Who knows if it’s a good, great or terrible thing — the lack of connective tissue between the Finals year after year? But it’s clear Silver believes this being a function of the collective bargaining agreement is a positive.
“I remember when I first joined the league,” Silver said Thursday during his Finals availability news conference. “David used to joke early on in his tenure, David Stern, as commissioner, he said his job was to go back and forth between Boston and L.A. handing out championship trophies.
“I think it was very intentional, it didn’t begin with me, it began with David and successive collective bargaining agreements, that we set out to create a system that allowed for more competition in the league, with the goal being having 30 teams all in position, if well managed, to compete for championships. That’s what we’re seeing here.”
In Stern’s 30 years as commissioner, he handed trophies to Chicago, San Antonio, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, Detroit, Golden State, Houston and Cleveland. Silver is already close to topping that number in less than half the time.
“I’ve said before, the goal is that market size essentially becomes irrelevant.”
OKLAHOMA CITY — The initial shock has worn off from the New York Knicks firing Tom Thibodeau after a successful five-year run and a trip to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2000.
What was clear was Thibodeau’s firing being spearheaded by Knicks owner James Dolan, sources told Yahoo Sports. Dolan and team president Leon Rose held exit meetings with key Knicks players and the complaints were clear.
Dolan, whom sources said was never a huge Thibodeau fan through the years, asked the questions in the meeting while Rose took a secondary role.
A couple of players felt like Thibodeau played the starters too many minutes and felt he had an inability to adjust, sources said, and another player said he didn’t feel like he could play for Thibodeau if the coach returned next season.
The complaints obscured the success, perhaps — four winning seasons in five years, the last two being 50-win campaigns. Getting to at least the second round in the last three years was commendable, but perhaps the Knicks left food on the table in the playoffs, falling short to the Pacers last year and this year, the latter in spectacular fashion.
Thibodeau did play his starters a lot and didn’t develop a bench the way other coaches have. Mikal Bridges openly complained about playing too many minutes and that’s when it seemed things started to go sideways.
You don’t fire Thibodeau with three years and $30 million on a contract extension that won’t kick in until next season because you lose in the conference finals. You fire Thibodeau because you want to.
But it’s unclear where the Knicks go from here. Perhaps they try to poach Jason Kidd from Dallas, maybe highly thought of assistant Johnnie Bryant gets his first job — albeit in a difficult situation.
Some have suggested the coaching search will go into Summer League in July, because it seems the Knicks don’t have an outlined plan for the future.
Either way, things are intriguing, if not wholly uncertain, in Manhattan.
