They didn’t quite return the favor after Saturday’s beatdown at Dodger Stadium, but the New York Yankees are leaving Los Angeles with a win after all.

The Yankees, after a wild 18-2 blowout loss Saturday, rolled to a solid 7-3 win over the reigning World Series champions on Sunday afternoon. That gave them their first win of the three-game series as they successfully avoided the sweep. The Yankees are one of three teams in the league, along with the New York Mets and Cincinnati Reds, who have yet to be swept this season.

The Yankees jumped out in front right away on Sunday afternoon after Trent Grisham scored on an error following a Jasson Domínguez single. While Tommy Edman hit a solo home run in the second for the Dodgers to tie it up, the Yankees responded the next inning. Ben Rice hit a deep two-run shot to center, which put the Yankees up 3-1. Anthony Volpe scored on a wild pitch from Yoshinobu Yamamoto that inning, too.

Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Yamamoto lasted just 3 2/3 innings on the mound for the Dodgers in his shortest start of the season. He gave up seven hits and four earned runs.

The Yankees added two more runs in the fifth after DJ LeMahieu and Oswald Peraza each hit RBI singles. That gave them a 6-1 lead, which just about put the Dodgers away. Though both Andy Pages and Max Muncy hit solo shots for the Dodgers in the seventh, the comeback attempt started too late. The Yankees made it out of that inning, and then quickly fought through the final two to escape with the four-run win. LeMahieu hit a deep RBI double in the final inning to add one last run for good measure. He went 4-for-5 on the night in what was his first four-hit game since 2021.

The Dodgers won the opening game of the series 8-5 on Friday, thanks to a pair of home runs from star Shohei Ohtani. Then came Saturday’s stunner, which was powered by seven RBI from Muncy. Their 18 runs were the most the Dodgers have ever put up against the Yankees. Things got so bad at one point that Ohtani even hilariously lost interest.

The Dodgers, even with Sunday’s loss, sit at 36-23 on the season. They lead the NL West, and have won four of their past six games. They’ll open a four-game series with the Mets on Monday night.

Though the Yankees are still in great position at this point of the season — they hold a 36-22 record and are leading the AL East — it’s clear the Dodgers are still one step ahead of them after this past weekend’s series in Southern California. 

The Indiana Pacers had , playing quality defense across the frontcourt positions and doing it all while hardly ever turning the ball over. He’s just completely rock-solid: an additive accelerant, an All-Star and one of two NBA champions on the roster — we see you, Thomas — and an absolutely perfect fit.

OK, back to the clamps …

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After that incremental progress post-Pascal deal, Indiana jumped all the way up to 13ththis season. And if you chop off those first 25 injury-plagued games, the Pacers rank ninth in defensive efficiency after early December.

“We’re starting to care more,” Pacers center Myles Turner told reporters earlier this season. “We went through a stretch last season where we kept on saying the same thing: ‘We gotta defend, we gotta defend.’ But I think now we’re putting those words into actions.”

That manifests in more focused effort on the boards, where Indiana went from a bottom-five defensive rebounding rate last season to just below league-average in 2024-25. It shows up in an improved attentiveness to defending without fouling: The Pacers went from dead last in opponent free-throw attempt rate last season to, again, just below league-average. It pops up in both a commitment to floor balance and a dedication to sprinting back after a shot goes up; no team was better during the regular season at limiting opponents’ transition opportunities than Indiana.

And it leaps off the screen in the sheer amount of ground Indiana covers (second in the regular season and first in the playoffs in average distance traveled per game on defense, according to Second Spectrum) and in how quickly they do it (No. 2 in the postseason in average speed on defense) — especially in terms of the pressure they apply to opponents in the backcourt.

3. The Pacers love to pick up full court

The Pacers have played press defense more often than any other team in the NBA this season, according to Synergy Sports tracking data — 12.4 possessions per game during the regular season, and 19.9 possessions per game in the playoffs, twice as much as any other team in the postseason field. Indiana has forced turnovers on 14.4% of those press possessions, which is good, but almost beside the point; even without forcing a cough-up, the press pays dividends in the discomfort it inflicts on the opposing offense.

Applying pressure the length of the court is a great way to put extra miles on the legs of an opposing point guard; it’s no coincidence the second-place team in playoff press possessions, at 8.8 per game, is the Pistons, who deployed Ausar Thompson and Dennis Schröder to try to tire out Brunson in Round 1. It’s also a great way to get an offense out of rhythm.

Committing a defender (typically Nembhard, Nesmith, Sheppard, or the über-caffeinated T.J. McConnell) to face-guarding the opposing point guard the full 94 feet will often force the opponent to inbound to a secondary ball-handler — often someone less adept at handling ball pressure and at getting the team into its prescribed offensive sets. Indiana will also throw second and third defenders into the backcourt, including their bigs, trying to make even your release-valve outlet passes more stressful than they typically are. 

The more difficult it is to get the ball across half-court, and the longer it takes to do so, the less time the offense has to attack. And, when it does, the more likely it is that it’ll be starting at a disadvantage, with players in spots they’re not supposed to be, scrambling around trying to get into position, knowing all the while that every second it takes to get started brings them one tick closer to the shot-clock buzzer. Hurried possessions are rarely smooth ones, and late-clock shots are less likely to find the bottom of the net: Indiana’s opponents have shot 51.3% this season when they fire with 15 or more seconds remaining on the clock, 45.2% after the 15-second mark, and 41.6% with seven seconds or less on the timer, according to NBA Advanced Stats.

All told, the Pacers have allowed 0.997 points per press possession this season, according to Synergy — right in line with their overall defensive mark. It’s a valuable tool in Carlisle’s arsenal — one he’s able to deploy because …

4. The Pacers are deep

No Pacer averaged more than 33.6 minutes per game during the regular season; no Pacer has averaged more than Haliburton’s 35.1 minutes per game in the playoffs. As my podcast partner Tom Haberstroh noted on a recent episode of The Big Number, all five members of Indiana’s starting lineup entered the conference finals averaging at least 14 points per game in the postseason — the first time since 1987 that a team has done that (minimum of 10 games started) — and eight Pacers are averaging at least eight points per game.

“It’s a balanced effort,” Haliburton said after scoring 31 points in the Game 5 closeout in Cleveland — the Pacers’ first 30-point-scoring performance of these playoffs. “We’re different than every other team in the NBA. We don’t just have one guy who scores all the points. I think we defeat teams in different ways: We move the ball, the ball is flying, we’ve got a lot of different guys making shots, making plays.”

Carlisle leans on the starting five of Haliburton, Siakam, Nembhard, Nesmith and Turner — one of the best big-minutes lineups in the NBA during the regular season, and a league-best plus-80 in 249 playoff minutes. He won’t hesitate to go 11 or even 12 deep, though, because he’s got players he can trust all the way down his bench.

McConnell’s an ace backup point guard: a defensive menace at the point of attack, a sure-handed facilitator (63 assists against 25 turnovers in 260 playoff minutes) and a north-south engine who routinely makes well over 60% of his shots at the rim. Bennedict Mathurin offers scoring punch (and, sometimes, just punch) in the second unit — another source of hard drives, athletic finishes and defensive physicality on the perimeter.

Sheppard brings length and quickness on the ball and a bit more long-range shooting touch than Mathurin, but with less scoring verve (and in a quieter overall package). Obi Toppin’s a perfect frontcourt fit on a team that loves to push the ball in transition; while Indiana will often play Siakam and Toppin together at the 4 and 5 spots when Turner sits, Bryant has provided a credible floor-spacing, interior-scoring complement; against the Knicks, even deep-bench center Tony Bradley got opportunities to combat the offensive rebounding of Mitchell Robinson, and largely acquitted himself well. 

While other teams tighten their rotations, the Pacers stretch theirs; the deeper you get into the series, the more evident the impact.

“Through the course of the series, you can see it on the other team’s faces,” Nesmith told reporters. “They’re tired. Their hands are on their knees. We’re continuing to run. It’s just game-by-game, quarter-by-quarter. You may not see it in the game, but they feel it.”

Carlisle’s comfort level with cycling through those options helps ensure that Indiana has fresh legs and the confidence that it can make a push with any combination in any circumstance — like, say, chopping down a 19-point deficit in a closeout game on the road.

“We just had a lot of guys that played extremely hard, and we just said, ‘Hey, let’s hang in this thing, try to wear them down and see if we can outlast them,’” Carlisle told reporters after Game 5 in Cleveland. “And essentially, that’s what happened.”

That’s happened a lot this season. The Pacers owned the NBA’s best net rating in “clutch” games during the regular season, blitzing opponents by 20.9 points per 100 possessions when the score was within five points in the final five minutes. Including the playoffs, Indiana is now 31-15 in “clutch” games — the most close and late wins of any team in the league — and has outscored its opposition by 175 points in the fourth quarter, the NBA’s fourth-highest mark, behind only Cleveland (+259), Minnesota (+221) and Oklahoma City (+205).

One big reason why?

5. Tyrese Haliburton isn’t overrated. If anything, he’s underrated

NBA players are certainly entitled to their opinions, and we’d never presume to say otherwise. Facts aren’t feelings, though, and a preponderance of them point toward Haliburton being a friggin’ monster when it comes to generating offense and driving winning.

Haliburton has been one of the most lethal crunch-time performers in the league this season, scoring 131 points in 149.5 regular- and postseason “clutch” minutes on 48/40/77 shooting splits, with 33 assists against just six turnovers. When he’s had a shot to tie or take the lead in the final two minutes of the game this season, he’s gone a preposterous 12-for-14 (85.6%) — 6-for-6 inside the arc, and 6-for-8 from 3-point range.

Three of those makes have come in these playoffs: his driving layup around Antetokounmpo in the series-clinching Game 5 overtime win over the Bucks; his stepback 3 over Ty Jerome to snatch Game 2 from the Cavs; and arguably the shot of the season, his stepback buzzer-beater to force overtime against the Knicks in Game 1, putting the Pacers in position to complete a 17-point comeback and deliver an uppercut to New York’s jaw at the outset of the Eastern finals.

According to ESPN Research, Haliburton is just the second player in the last 28 years with multiple go-ahead field goals in the final two seconds of a game in a single postseason. The other: LeBron James in 2018.

As impressive as those buckets are, though, Haliburton’s impact isn’t confined to crunch time. Since those underwhelming first 25 games, he’s averaging 19.1 points on .625 true shooting to go with 9.7 assists against just 1.6 turnovers, 4.1 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game, and the Pacers have scored 122.9 points per 100 possessions in his minutes, according to PBP Stats — an offensive rating that would’ve led the NBA during the regular season.

Among the 214 players who’ve logged at least 1,000 minutes in that span, the only primary ball-handler types whose teams had higher offensives rating in their minutes are Nikola Jokić, Donovan Mitchell and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Filtering just for this postseason, the Pacers have stayed steady, scoring a blistering 122.5 points-per-100 in Haliburton’s minutes — which ranks above all those guys.

He also just turned in one of the best games that any point guard has ever played in the postseason: 32 points, 12 rebounds, 15 assists, four steals, zero turnovers, a Mozart-level masterpiece in Game 4 against the Knicks.

Haliburton’s style of play is at the heart of what makes Indiana’s offense tick. He lives to push the pace, hunting hit-ahead passes and opportunities to probe for early, easy offense. When things slow down, he surveys and dissects coverages as well as any player in the NBA — but he’s not ponderous in his pursuits. Haliburton trailed only Jokić in touches and passes per game during the regular season, but he ranked 112th in both seconds per touchanddribbles per touch, according to Second Spectrum tracking.

In a related story, the Pacers finished second in the NBA in passes per game during the regular season and the playoffs, averaging a whopping 314.3 passes per game — the most of any conference finalist in the player tracking era (2013-14). And they’re doing it while averaging just 2.9 seconds per touch — the second-fastest average touch time in the postseason.

Attitude reflects leadership; the ball finds energy. Haliburton leads by serving, and so, everybody eats. (And eats really well: Indiana finished the regular season fifth in team effective field-goal percentage, and leads the postseason at 58.3% — the highest mark of any conference finalist in the Cleaning the Glass database, which stretches back to 2003.)

The results speak for themselves: Two playoff appearances in Haliburton’s three full seasons in Indiana; two conference finals appearances; and now, the Finals. Doesn’t sound too overrated to me.

And hey, speaking of underrated …

6. You guys: Andrew Nembhard

Over the last two regular seasons, the 25-year-old Gonzaga product has averaged 9.6 points and 4.6 assists per game on 48/32/80 shooting splits. Over the last two postseasons: 13.9 points and 5.3 assists per game on 52/48/80 shooting. I believe this is what the kids call “a playoff riser.”

Nembhard gives the Pacers a secondary ball-handler capable of initiating offense — he’s toting a 3.2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio through three rounds — and making opponents pay for face-guarding Haliburton to force the ball out of his hands. Including possessions where he passes out to a teammate, Indiana is scoring 1.07 points per possession finished out of one of Nembhard’s pick-and-rolls in these playoffs, according to Synergy — a top-15 mark among postseason players to finish at least 25 such plays.

He gives them another willing and credible shooter, one unafraid of stepping into and knocking down huge shots — like, for example, his season-saving go-ahead 30-footer in Game 3 against the Knicks in 2024’s second round, and his bully-ball and-one on Darius Garland with 1:07 to go in Game 5 against Cleveland.

He gives Indiana one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA — someone consistently able to bear the brunt of matchups against every team’s toughest offensive options. I mean that literally: Nembhard ranked in the 100th percentile in the NBA this season in average matchup difficulty, according to The BBall Index — ahead of venerable stoppers like Luguentz Dort, Dyson Daniels, Jrue Holiday, Jaden McDaniels and, well, everybody else in the league.

Nembhard also finished in the 99th percentile in individual perimeter isolation defense, and in the 96th percentile in off-ball chaser defense — elite at both applying clamps one-on-one on the ball and staying connected to dudes who scamper around screens all over the court. He’s got a knack for timely disruption, too, coming up with two of the biggest defensive plays of the playoffs — one steal with the Pacers down four in the final minute of overtime to continue their unreal comeback in Game 5 against Milwaukee, and another on an inbounds pass with Indiana down three in the final half-minute of the similarly unreal comeback in Game 2 against Cleveland — and snagging six steals in a sensational defensive effort against Brunson in the Game 6 clincher over New York.

Every team needs players who can defend at the point of attack, nail help rotations, distribute the ball, knock down shots, create in isolation and play through the ratcheted-up physicality that comes in the postseason. The Pacers found one with the first pick of the second round of the 2022 NBA Draft and inked him to a three-year contract extension that will account for less than 12% of the salary cap through 2028 — a deal that, just one year later, looks like an absolute steal for a 16-game player whose value leaps off the screen.

7. They’ve been good against good competition

The Pacers went 20-18 against teams with .500-or-better records during the regular season, the seventh-best record against winning opposition in the NBA. Go by net rating, and Indiana went 15-9 against teams with top-10 point differentials. (Oklahoma City, for its part: 31-10 against over-.500 competition, and 21-9 against teams with top-10 point differentials.) 

Haliburton’s playmaking, the collective shooting, the roster-wide commitment to playing off the pass, the full-court pressure, the defensive physicality of Nembhard and Nesmith on the ball, Turner’s rim protection and floor-spacing at the 5 — it all makes Indiana a bear to play against, even for the best opponents. Especially when they put the show on speed.

“It’s hard to play at our pace in a seven-game series,” Haliburton said. “It’s hard to play at our pace in a one-game series.”

That rat-a-tat pace baffled the Bucks, then it capsized the Cavs, and then it knocked out the Knicks. The Pacers have been building toward this ever since they dealt for Haliburton, and now the biggest opportunity of all — the chance to compete for the NBA championship for the first time since 2000 and to win a title for the first time since 1973, when Indiana was still in the ABA — is right there in front of them. All that’s left is to seize it.

“You know, the league is wide open this year,” Carlisle said after finishing off Cleveland. “I mean, there are a lot of great teams, but it’s wide open. And we’ve just got to keep believing.”

After 35 seasons, “Inside the NBA” as we know it is no more. 

The iconic studio show signed off for the last time on TNT at the conclusion of Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals between the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks.

Kevin Harlan and Reggie Miller first bid farewell to Turner’s coverage of the NBA at the end of the trophy presentation with an emotional tribute to the many broadcasters who had worked for the network over the years. 

In a nod to the final episode of “Inside the NBA on TNT,” Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal cast themselves off to sea, along with the show’s longtime crew and producers — and, yes, the New York Knicks — as part of their trademark “Gone Fishin'” segment. 

“We’ve come to the end of the road here with the NBA on TNT,” Johnson said.

“Even though the name changes, the engine stays the same,” O’Neal said. “To that new network we’re coming to [ESPN], we’re not coming to ‘F’ around. And since it’s the last show, I’ll say it: We’re not coming to f*** around. We’re kicking ass, we’re taking names, we’re taking over.”

Smith followed with his own F-bomb. With Pacers fans behind them chanting, “TNT! TNT! TNT,” Johnson choked up as he started to sign off.

“If I had written the script, the NBA and TNT would have been together forever,” Johnson said. “It’s not going to happen.” 

O’Neal and Smith dropped their mics while Johnson and Barkley set theirs on the desk, and the four hosts walked off the TNT set for the final time.

While it’s the end of an era that’s significant to NBA fans of all ages, “Inside the NBA” is indeed not going away. It’s just moving to a new location at ESPN. 

ESPN acquired the rights to “Inside the NBA” in a landmark November deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to broadcast the show on its networks. In return, TNT Sports will take over exclusive rights to a slate of Big 12 football and men’s college basketball games from ESPN, in addition to a deal it previously had in place with the network for rights to College Football Playoff games.

In short, “Inside the NBA” will carry on next season despite the end of TNT’s 35-year run covering the NBA.

Is ESPN going to mess with Inside the NBA?

Probably/hopefully not?

ESPN and chairman Jimmy Pitaro wanted “Inside the NBA” for a reason. ESPN is not very good at producing NBA studio shows. 

For pretty much its entire existence as an NBA partner, ESPN has failed to produce a show that’s compelling, much less one that captures the zeitgeist like “Inside the NBA.” Instead, the quality of the ESPN product has generally ranged from functional to must-mute. 

NBC via Getty Images

The struggles aren’t from a lack of trying. ESPN has rotated in and out a cast of hosts, analysts and reporters while trying to find the right formula. None of the efforts has produced more than moderate success, despite significant high-level talent in the rotation.

So Pitaro reached a reasonable conclusion. If you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em. Or trade for ’em, at least. Once it became clear TNT was, in fact, getting out of the NBA business for the first time since 1989, Pitaro came up with one of the more brilliant, yet obvious ideas in recent sports media: obtain the rights to “Inside the NBA” and put it on the air as is.

It was an idea with two significant impacts: Upgrade the product around ESPN’s NBA broadcasts. And, more importantly in the grand scheme, give a lifeline to “Inside the NBA,” which was previously on track to become an all-too-unfortunate casualty of the latest NBA media rights shuffle. 

TNT ‘will continue to independently produce Inside the NBA’

By all accounts — including directly from ESPN — it sounds like “Inside the NBA” will continue to run largely as is. In its announcement about acquiring the rights to the show, ESPN made clear that “Inside the NBA” will continue to be produced by TNT Sports. 

“TNT Sports will continue to independently produce Inside the NBA from its Atlanta-based studios over the term of the agreement,” ESPN’s announcement from November reads.

It will feature the same cast and production team, and will continue to be produced out of Turner’s Studio J in Atlanta. ESPN and ABC will simply license the show for broadcast on its own networks.

But surely ESPN will want to put its own fingerprints on the show, right? There’s no way the “worldwide leader” won’t want to tinker with it, at least a little bit. 

The Athletic’s media reporter, Andrew Marchand, who’s covered the show’s transition from TNT to ESPN, doesn’t think so. Here’s what he told “The Dan Patrick Show” in November.

“I don’t think that’s gonna happen,” Marchand said of ESPN tinkering with the show. 

Marchand went on to cite other high-profile acquisitions under Pitaro like “The Pat McAfee Show” that runs largely untouched by ESPN management, and the network’s decision to allow Peyton Manning to broadcast his “Monday Night Football” “ManningCast” out of his garage in Denver. 

“I think that’s the Pitaro playbook,” Marchand continued. “If I’m a producer there, I’m kind of saying, if I’m in Bristol, ‘What are we doing? We can’t get this right. The big boss keeps outsourcing our programming. That’s not a good sign.’

“But it’s not the same Bristol. … [Pitaro’s] going out and getting what he wants, especially in terms of the on-air people.”

Barkley, Johnson, Smith, O’Neal reportedly all on board

The people Pitaro wanted, in this instance, were Charles Barkley, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal. And he’s got them. 

Johnson was reportedly staying at TNT whether or not “Inside the NBA” continued. Barkley was signed to a long-term deal with TNT before the ESPN acquisition and has since reaffirmed his commitment to the network.

O’Neal has signed a new deal to remain with the network since ESPN licensed the show. And Smith is expected to remain on the show on a multiyear deal, according to CNBC.

So what will be different?

When exactly and for how long “Inside the NBA” will air isn’t entirely clear. But some important details are, including the “Inside the NBA” crew covering the NBA Finals for the first time. 

ESPN provided a framework of a schedule in its acquisition announcement:

“The legendary ‘Inside the NBA’ studio team will appear on ESPN and ABC surrounding high-profile live events, including ESPN’s pregame, halftime and postgame coverage of the NBA Finals on ABC, conference finals, NBA playoffs, all ABC games after January 1, Christmas Day, opening week, the final week of the season and other marquee live events.”

ESPN also announced that its in-house studio shows, “NBA Countdown” and “NBA Today,” will continue to air. So “Inside the NBA” isn’t fully replacing ESPN’s NBA studio coverage.

So does this mean that “Inside the NBA” won’t air before Christmas outside of opening week? That wouldn’t make much sense given the October start to the NBA’s regular season. 

It’s possible that some of those early-season broadcasts could fall under the umbrella of “other marquee live events” and potentially include the NBA Cup that runs from mid-November through mid-December. But none of that is confirmed as of yet. 

Smith recently raised concerns about giving up schedule control to ESPN in an interview with the New Yorker.  

“We have the same crew of people doing the show,” Smith said. “But the timing: Are we a half hour now? Are we forty-five minutes? Fifteen minutes? 

“Those are the things that you can control when you own your I.P. But we don’t. That was the only part that made me uncomfortable and disheartened, because I felt that the four of us should have went into ABC to negotiate that deal. I’m not saying that our executives don’t know how to do that, but we are the I.P. now.”

So not everything will remain the same. And there will inevitably be some unexpected surprises given all the new moving parts. 

But the big picture is clear. We’re not mourning the end of “Inside the NBA” this week with the conclusion of the Eastern Conference finals. We’re just welcoming a new chapter. And that’s great news for those of us who love the NBA.

“The craziness you see, the nonsense and the foolishness and the top-notch basketball analysis — all of that stuff is going to be on ESPN and ABC next year, not on TNT,” Johnson said in a final sign-off. “And for that, we’re sad.

“I’m proud to say for the last time: Thanks for watching us. It’s the NBA on TNT.”

When Michael Jordan hit the clinching shot over Utah in the 1998 NBA Finals, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wasn’t even born yet. When Kobe Bryant threw the iconic ‘oop to Shaquille O’Neal in the 2000 Western Conference finals, Tyrese Haliburton was just a few months old.

Feeling old yet?

Millennials certainly do.

But nothing makes this millennial feel older than the following fact:

The 2025 NBA Finals winner will be the first Gen Z champion in league history.

Welcome to the Zoomers NBA.

Headlining these Finals are two youthful teams — the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers — whose franchises haven’t won a title in decades and whose average age makes them too young to qualify for the millennial cohort. The rotations of the Thunder and Pacers hardly have any 30-year-olds.

The playoffs used to be the domain of older, savvy vets deep into their 30s, but the league has gotten younger, and the best teams seem to be heading in that direction more rapidly.

Is contending for a title increasingly becoming a young man’s game?

The first Gen Z champ

While there is no official separating line between Gen Z and millennials, leading think tank Pew Research Center has defined 1996 as the last birth year for the millennial generation based on their demographic work looking at technological, economic and social shifts throughout the last century. For the first time in NBA history, all four conference finalists — based on minutes-weighted average age, which accounts for playing time — will fit into the Gen Z category.

This postseason, the Celtics’ minutes-weighted average age was 29.9 years old, a birth year of 1995, making them the last millennial team that was remaining in the playoff field. The much younger and healthier Knicks squad (27.7) ousted them in six games after Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles in Game 4. (For the research study, ages are derived from Basketball Reference’s historical pages using a player’s age on Feb. 1 of the season.) If current trends hold, the Celtics will be the last millennial team to ever win the championship.

The kids are doing more than alright. Led by 26-year-old Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder’s minutes-weighted average age clocks in at 24.7 years old. That gives the West’s No. 1 seed a “team” birth year of 2000, three years after the 1997 cutoff for Gen Z. The 25-year-old Haliburton represents the face of the speedy Pacers, who, at an average of 26.2 years old, blitzed past the slightly more senior Cleveland Cavaliers (26.5) and Milwaukee Bucks (28.1) in earlier rounds. 

If you’ve been paying attention, the NBA’s elder statesmen have all been kicked to the curb this postseason. There is no LeBron James, no Stephen Curry, no Jimmy Butler left. No Kevin Durant, who didn’t even make the play-in tournament. Not even Jrue Holiday, who won a title with both the Celtics and Bucks; the 34-year-old might as well be known as Uncle Jrue around some of the remaining youngsters.

With an 80-18 record including the postseason, the Thunder are redefining everything that older generations thought they knew about what championship contenders look like. If OKC were to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy this season, it would be the second-youngest NBA champion ever, trailing only the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers (24.2) led by a 24-year-old Bill Walton. A modern precedent to these Thunder doesn’t really exist if they pull it off. The youngest championship team of the 21st century was the 2015 Golden State Warriors, who were 26.3 years old, almost two full years older than the current OKC squad.

With the Thunder leading the way, the average age of the two finalists stands at 25.5 years old, which is the lowest on record. As recently as 2014, that same figure was 30.4 years old.

This continues a surprising trend that has seen the NBA get younger and younger in its final stages of the season. A Gen Z champion was only a matter of time, but if late 1990s roster trends held firm, we’d be about 2-3 years away from reaching that point. With these four teams, we’re way ahead of schedule.

While it’s true the league, in general, has gotten younger across the decades, the final teams used to be far older than the also-rans. Nowadays, the age gap is narrowing to the point where, especially this season, there doesn’t seem to be much of one at all.

What’s going on?

Zooming out, this could be a function of injuries weeding out the old man. Previously, I pointed out the postseason is being riddled with injuries to star players more than ever. Heading into this postseason, the NBA averaged seven injured All-Stars over the previous five postseasons, a rate that has increased more than sevenfold since the late 1990s (0.8 per season).

Older stars like Stephen Curry (hamstring strain) and Damian Lillard (Achilles tear) were knocked out due to leg injuries while other veteran-led teams like the L.A. Clippers and L.A. Lakers only lasted a round.

Can millennial bodies still hold up and go the distance in today’s pace-and-space era? It’s a question that has gnawed at Steve Kerr.

The Warriors head coach was almost 33 years old when he won the 1998 NBA Finals as a player with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.

That’s roughly the same age as T.J. McConnell, the elder statesman of the Pacers who turned 33 in March. On that veteran-laden Bulls team, McConnell would have been just one of the guys. Scottie Pippen was 32. Jordan and Ron Harper were 34. Dennis Rodman was 36. The babies on the team were Toni Kukoc and Luc Longley, who were both 29 years old — the same age as Knicks “veteran” big Karl-Anthony Towns is now. The Bulls’ average age on that team was 32.1 years old. There’s not a single 32-year-old or older player on the OKC roster.

Kerr has taken notice.

Ellen Schmidt via Getty Images

When I asked Kerr to compare the league back then to now, the nine-time champion immediately pointed to the pace — the number of trips up and down the floor in each game. In the 1998 playoffs, the game was played at a snail’s pace, just 85 possessions per 48 minutes. Today, with teams favoring an uptempo playing style, playoff teams average about 95.

Kerr then points out how the 3-point shot — “the pace and space” — has broadened the physical demands of today’s defenders. It’s not just the frenetic pace of today’s game; it’s the expanding dimensions of bodily activity and psychological attention. He’s not totally surprised Curry, Lillard, Tatum and others have fallen victim to injury in today’s environment.

“Who’s more likely to be able to withstand the rigors of the pace and space and the game-every-other-day schedule — the younger players or the older players?” Kerr said.

“The younger guys are.”

Pace is indeed up, and according to player-tracking research, players are putting about 9% more mileage on the court per 48 minutes compared to a decade ago. Throw in the fact the NBA has wedged an in-season tournament and a play-in tournament into the schedule, and it’s hard to see where top vets can find enough recovery time.

“The most important point of all of this,” Kerr says, “is the pace and space and how much more mileage that players are covering. You see all these injuries … I don’t think players get enough rest anymore.”

Kerr, whose Warriors were ousted in the Western Conference semifinals, brings up the 37-year-old Curry, who lasted only 13 minutes in Game 1 of the series against the Timberwolves before his hamstring gave out, the first time in his 16-year career he suffered a hamstring strain.

It’s of Kerr’s belief the schedule was a significant factor to blame. It was Curry’s third playoff game in five days, with travel in between all three games. With the season on the brink, Kerr leaned on the two-time MVP for 42 minutes in Game 6 in San Francisco and a game-high 46 minutes in Game 7 in Houston. And then they traveled again, jetting up to Minnesota.

It’s a condensed workload that maybe a 27-year-old Curry might have been able to handle, but 37? In the aftermath of Curry’s injury, Kerr consulted his team doctors and performance staff. He asked Rick Celebrini, the team’s longtime director of sports medicine and performance, about the circumstances surrounding Curry’s first-time injury.

“Do you think Steph pulling his hamstring has anything to do with playing 48 hours after logging 46 minutes of Game 7 in Houston?” he asked.

“One hundred percent,” Kerr remembers Celebrini telling him. “If he had an extra day or two … we can’t prove this, but I have no doubt based on our understanding of the scientific literature that the hamstring injury was the result of inadequate recovery and fatigue.”

Kerr relents that it’s impossible to know what would have happened if the two rounds were more spaced out. But he certainly nodded along when he heard millennial and former NBA champion Aaron Gordon speak on the issue following his own hamstring injury. After the Denver Nuggets lost to the Thunder in the conference semifinals, Gordon was critical of the schedule that also required his Nuggets to play a Game 7 and Game 1 in a 48-hour span.

“I would really, really appreciate it if there were a couple of days in between games in the playoffs instead of every other day,” Gordon told reporters. “The product of the game would be a lot better. You’ll see a high level of basketball. Probably less blowouts.”

Kerr hopes the league takes action and either spaces out the existing schedule by adding a week to the season calendar or cutting regular season games. But in his discussions with the league both publicly and privately, he hasn’t gotten very far.

I think all the complaints of the wear and tear, and the scheduling, are all valid. But they all fall on deaf ears because of the dollar sign.Warriors coach Steve Kerr

“I think all the complaints of the wear and tear, and the scheduling, are all valid,” Kerr says. “But they all fall on deaf ears because of the dollar sign. I don’t think the league’s constituents are willing to give up any money, that’s the problem. But we all know this is not healthy or sustainable if you want guys to survive out there and not have injuries.”

Teams around the league are studying the issue ahead of the draft and free agency. Said another longtime assistant coach: “Experience matters. So does strength. But with how the game is played, being able to move has skewed the importance more towards athleticism and youthful ability to recover more.”

Kerr hopes every stakeholder will look in the mirror — including coaches.

“We’ve got to try something,” Kerr says. “It’s going to take representatives from the players’ association, the coaches association, the owners, the league and the TV partners to actually acknowledge all of this.”

Kerr doesn’t want to take away from the terrific play — and superior health — of the remaining teams. He isn’t resistant to the idea of leaning on younger players — Golden State’s 22-year-old Brandin Podziemski was the youngest starter in the conference semifinal field. The Gen Z takeover is happening whether the millennials are ready or not.

Where does the league go from here?

With the Thunder being the odds-on favorite to win it all at BetMGM, it does seem like a generational shift is occurring before our very eyes. If younger teams are indeed outpacing their older foes, it holds important implications on long-term planning projections around the league.

That’s especially true for the teams hailing from the state of Texas. The Houston Rockets, whose 52-win core relied heavily on players barely of drinking age, may have reservations about giving up the farm for Durant, who turns 37 in September and has one year remaining on his contract with the Phoenix Suns. How much should they read into Butler’s fast decline in the postseason with the Warriors?

Up the road in San Antonio, the Spurs have already signaled they see Victor Wembanyama’s title window as appearing sooner than initially assumed. At the trade deadline, the team acquired 2022-23 All-NBA guard De’Aaron Fox to upgrade from the 40-year-old Chris Paul, who provided a steady hand as the team’s point guard. With Paul set to become a free agent, Harrison Barnes, 32, remains the team’s only player older than 27.

It’ll be fascinating to see how the Spurs complement Wemby, who missed half the season with deep-vein thrombosis. Do they put Stephon Castle and/or their No. 2 pick in the 2025 draft in a potential package for Giannis Antetokounmpo, who will be 33 years old by the time his contract expires in 2027-28?

And then there’s Dallas, which could make Golden State’s two-timeline experiment look timid by comparison. Does it make sense for Dallas to add an 18-year-old Cooper Flagg to a team anchored by a trio approaching their mid-30s in Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson and Anthony Davis? Or does Dallas cut bait on the millennial core?

Despite Kerr’s misgivings about the rigors of the NBA season, it doesn’t seem like reform is on the way. Looking at the remaining teams in the postseason, it does seem like it’s a young man’s game now. Kerr feels conflicted in going that far.

“I wouldn’t put a blanket comment saying, ‘It’s a young man’s game,’ because in some ways that’s always been true,” Kerr says.

He gives it another thought.

“Maybe now,” he says, “they’re going to be taking over the league a little bit earlier than they were 10, 20 years ago.”

For the first time in the 2025 NBA playoffs, Mark Daigneault enters as the freshly-faced rookie. He coached against two interim coaches in the first two rounds with Tuomas Iisalo and David Adelman. And while Chris Finch was in last year’s Western Conference Finals, that didn’t matter as OKC was a buzzsaw.

But Rick Carlisle is on a different level. He’s been an NBA head coach since 2001. This will be his second NBA Finals. He was the Dallas Mavericks’ head coach when they upset the Miami Heat in 2011. The 65-year-old hopes history repeats itself.

The Oklahoma City Thunder enter the 2025 NBA Finals as the heavy favorite. They were the league’s best team all season and continued their dominance in the playoffs with a 12-4 record against the West to reach the championship round.

Meanwhile, the Indiana Pacers have caught fire at the right time. Tyrese Haliburton is the headliner, but the East’s fourth seed is rich with depth. Pascal Siakam has stepped up as the second-best player. Myles Turner and Andrew Nembhard have been complementary pieces.

It’s also helped to have Carlisle as their head coach. If anybody can bring their squad an advantage from the sidelines, it’s the future Hall-of-Famer. He helped take down the Miami Heat in their first year with LeBron James. It’ll take a similar David-esque approach to slay the Thunder.

“I have a lot of respect for him. He’s had an unbelievable life in basketball. When you look at all the things he’s experienced in his playing career and his assistant coaching career and his head coaching career. He’s forgotten more about the game than most of us have seen,” Daigneault said about Carlisle. “I have a lot of respect for him. He’s the president of the Coaches Association. He’s got 29 really good relationships with the coaches and is in constant communication with us.”

Besides a few blips, Daigneault has made the right decisions in the playoffs. Let’s see if the national spotlight and the highest stakes possible in a basketball game will change that. Meanwhile, Carlisle should know what to expect at this point in the year.

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Mark Daigneault talks Rick Carlisle before Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals

The Oklahoma City Thunder (and the Seattle Supersonics before them) have 51 jersey numbers worn by the players who have suited up for the franchise since its founding at the start of the 1967-68 season. To commemorate the players who wore those numbers, Thunder Wire is covering the entire history of jersey numbers and the players who sported them since the founding of the team.

And while those Supersonics jerseys may not remain part of the franchise history should a new team be established in Seattle as was the case with the return of the Charlotte Hornets, they are part of the Thunder’s history today.

For this article, we continue with the 30th jersey number in the series, jersey No. 30, with 13 players in total having donned the jersey in the history of the franchise.

The 13th of those players did so in the Oklahoma City Thunder era, big man alum Olivier Sarr. After ending his college career at Kentucky, Sarr would go unselected in the 2021 NBA draft, instead signing with the Thunder.

The Niort, France native would play all three seasons of his NBA career with OKC, leaving the league afterward.

During his time suiting up for the Thunder, Sarr wore only jersey No. 30 and put up 4.8 points and 3.5 rebounds per game.

All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Thunder jersey history No. 30 – Olivier Sarr (2021-24)

WEST LAFAYETTE − Kymistrii Young had a long list of suitors.

After a visit with Purdue football over the weekend, Young chose the Boilermakers. He announced the commitment on X Sunday evening.

The three-star receiver had 24 Division I offers, according to 247, among them 16 from schools in Power Four conferences.

Young becomes Purdue’s eighth verbal commitment in the 2026 class.

Listed at 6-foot-3 and 185 pounds, Young caught 25 passes for 626 yards and 10 touchdowns at Sarasota, Florida’s Cardinal Mooney High as a junior, according to MaxPreps. Cardinal Mooney went 12-1 and advanced to Florida’s Class 2A state semifinals.

What Kymistrii Young’s commitment means for Purdue football

Among Purdue’s eight 2026 verbal commitments, seven are offensive players and Young is the fourth skill player, joining quarterback Corin Berry, running back Izaiah Wright, and tight end ArMari Towns.

If Young ends up signing with Purdue, it will be a big win to get a skill player who had offers from the likes of Penn State, Miami, and Louisville, among many others.

More: Purdue football’s Devin Mockobee opens checkbook to thank hometown youth football league

Receiver has been a priority in the transfer portal with the additions of Michael Jackson III, Nitro Tuggle, Corey Smith and David Washington, all since the spring season concluded. Barry Odom’s December signing class also included five transfer receivers, though Nathan Leacock entered the transfer portal after the spring window opened.

Receivers Jackson, Chauncey Magwood, EJ Horton Jr. and Charles Ross all are entering their final season of eligibility, but Purdue’s roster could include current scholarship receivers Jesse Watson, De’Nylon Morrissette and Arhmad Branch in addition to Tuggle, Smith and Washington for the 2026 season.

Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on X and Instagram @samueltking.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Purdue football gets commitment from Florida receiver