Both Nikola Jokić and Julius Randlehave been punished by the NBA after a scuffle that erupted in the final seconds of Game 4, the league announced on Sunday.

Jokić was fined $50,000 for his role in the incident, and Randle was assessed a $35,000 fine. Neither was hit with a suspension, and both will be available for Game 5.

Minnesota took a 3-1 series lead with Saturday’s 112-96 win, behind a monster performance from Ayo Dosunmu off the bench. But with seconds left on the clock, and the Timberwolves up by double digits, forward Jaden McDaniels made an unnecessary open layup to grow Minnesota’s score even more.

Jokić quickly confronted McDaniels over the bucket, which broke an unwritten rule about scoring instead of letting the clock run down. From there, both teams rushed over and got into a shoving match.

Once the scrum was cleared, the referees ejected Jokić and Minnesota’s Julius Randle, citing unsportsmanlike conduct.

Postgame, both McDaniels and Jokić told reporters that they didn’t regret their choices. Jokić said that he confronted the young Timberwolves forward “because he scored after everybody stopped playing.”

McDaniels, meanwhile, did not show any remorse about the layup. “The clock’s still be running, so, I’m about to go score,” he said.

The series will now return to Denver for Game 5 on Monday night. While that’s sure to be a heated outing between the two teams, both Jokić and Randle will be able to take the court at Ball Arena after all. With the series on the line for the Nuggets, Jokić’s presence is sure to make a big difference.

Both Nikola Jokić and Julius Randlehave been punished by the NBA after a scuffle that erupted in the final seconds of Game 4, the league announced on Sunday.

Jokić was fined $50,000 for his role in the incident, and Randle was assessed a $35,000 fine. Neither was hit with a suspension, and both will be available for Game 5.

Minnesota took a 3-1 series lead with Saturday’s 112-96 win, behind a monster performance from Ayo Dosunmu off the bench. But with seconds left on the clock, and the Timberwolves up by double digits, forward Jaden McDaniels made an unnecessary open layup to grow Minnesota’s score even more.

Jokić quickly confronted McDaniels over the bucket, which broke an unwritten rule about scoring instead of letting the clock run down. From there, both teams rushed over and got into a shoving match.

Once the scrum was cleared, the referees ejected Jokić and Minnesota’s Julius Randle, citing unsportsmanlike conduct.

Postgame, both McDaniels and Jokić told reporters that they didn’t regret their choices. Jokić said that he confronted the young Timberwolves forward “because he scored after everybody stopped playing.”

McDaniels, meanwhile, did not show any remorse about the layup. “The clock’s still be running, so, I’m about to go score,” he said.

The series will now return to Denver for Game 5 on Monday night. While that’s sure to be a heated outing between the two teams, both Jokić and Randle will be able to take the court at Ball Arena after all. With the series on the line for the Nuggets, Jokić’s presence is sure to make a big difference.

The Mets once again failed to produce any offense, dropping the second game of Sunday’s doubleheader, 3-0, to the Colorado Rockies at Citi Field.

Kodai Senga failed to get out of the third inning, surrendering three runs on three hits and three walks with one strikeout while getting eight outs on 50 pitches (30 strikes).

But the story of Game 2 was the same as Game 1: The bats failed to produce. The Mets left seven runners on base and went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and have now scored one run or fewer in 10 of 28 games this season. Rockies starter Chase Dollander was the beneficiary, allowing just five hits and two walks as he struck out seven batters in seven shutout innings.

New York, which scored just one run in 18 innings on 10 hits Sunday, fell to 9-19 on the season. Colorado improved to 13-16 with the three-game sweep in Queens.

Here are the key takeaways…

– Senga collected his first strikeout of the day on a good forkball in an eight-pitch, 1-2-3 first. The second was less successful with a hit batter and a walk to start the frame. After a fielder’s choice, a Senga 0-2 forkball hung over the plate and was ripped into right for an RBI single. But a pair of flyouts to left field stranded two runners. Through two innings, Senga had been leaning heavily on his fastball and forkball, with those two pitches making up 32 of his first 34 offerings.

Senga started the third with a first-pitch curve, and Edouard Julien lined it up the middle for a single. Senga then got stung by Hunter Goodman staying on a down-and-away fastball for a two-run shot to right-center on a ball that carried 390 feet (104.9 mph off the bat). It wasn’t a bad pitch; Goodman just crushed it. 

A four-pitch walk followed, and pitching coach Justin Willad was out for a visit. After a flyout, Brett Baty made a good play down the line at first for an out, but threw the ball into left field trying to do too much, putting a runner at third with two down. After a third walk of the game, manager Carlos Mendoza came out to grab the starter.  

Senga, who was working on eight days’ rest as the Mets looked to reset him after a tough outing in Chicago, just didn’t find his groove after the first and saw his ERA balloon to 9.00 through his first five starts. He’s now allowed 21 runs (20 earned) on 26 hits (five homers) and 13 walks to 23 strikeouts in 20 innings for a 1.950 WHIP.

– The bullpen then did its job shutting down Colorado’s offense: Carl Edwards Jr. entered in his Mets debut with runners on the corners and two down, and walked the first guy he faced, but got a groundout to stop any further damage. Edwards issued a one-out walk but struck out the side in the fourth, with all three going down swinging at the curveball. He followed with a walk and strikeout in the fifth before adding a 1-2-3 in the sixth with another strikeout.

Luke Weaver allowed a one-out single, but picked off Mickey Moniak at first to get a clean seventh, Brooks Raley added a strikeout in a 1-2-3 eighth, and Devin Williams struck out the first two on the changeup in a 1-2-3 ninth to keep the Mets in the game, but the offense never arrived. 

– The Mets had a chance in the first inning against Dollander. Juan Soto ripped a bullet one-out single up the middle (106.5 mph off the bat) and Baty, who had a tough time in Game 1 with three strikeouts looking, walked on four pitches to put two on and two out. But MJ Melendez popped out a 3-2 offering to the shortstop in shallow center. 

– There was something really cooking in the fifth as Carson Benge grounded a ball up the middle and Ronny Mauricio yanked one through the right side to put two men on. But Tyrone Taylor looped a line drive at the first baseman to double off Mauricio at first, and Bo Bichette grounded out to short. It ended up being a 13-pitch inning for Dollander, getting the last two batters on four pitches. 

– Bichette was hitless in his first two at-bats with a strikeout looking, thanks to a Goodman challenge on a 3-2 pitch that just caught the zone down and away. He was robbed of a hit with one out in the eighth when Ezequiel Tovar made a diving stop at short on a ball he smashed 109.2 mph to finish the day 0-for-4 with a strikeout. 

Bichette, who played shortstop in Game 1, made a great pick at third on a hard smash off Brenton Doyle‘s bat (100.9 mph) for the second out in the sixth.

– Benge put a good swing on a 1-2 pitch to poke the ball the other way for a two-out hit in the seventh. He went 2-for-4 as he has looked much better at the plate in recent games, but popped out to left to end the game.

– Melendez, who was hitless in his first three times up with a strikeout swinging, dropped a double into the left field corner with one out in the ninth to finish 1-for-4. He also made a nice running grab tracking down a ball in the corner in left to start the fifth.

– Soto finished 1-for-2 with two walks and a strikeout swinging on a 100.4 mph heater from Dollander to start the sixth, after losing the Mets’ final challenge of the game on strike one.

– Marcus Semien blistered a single up the middle to start the second inning, but was caught stealing second a few pitches later. He went 1-for-3 with a strikeout swinging.

He made a nice play to start the seventh, ranging to the shortstop side of the bag to backhand the ball and make a nice throw to get Goodman running to first.

– Francisco Alvarez went down swinging on a letter-high 99 mph fastball from Dollander in his first at-bat and went down swinging on a low-and-away Dollander slider in the sixth. He finished 0-for-4.

– Baty finished 0-for-3 with a walk and a smashed liner (102.1 mph) but right at the centerfielder to end the sixth. 

– Mauricio finished the day 1-for-3 with a strikeout swinging.

– Taylor was hitless in three at-bats.

Next Up

The Mets have Monday off before opening up a three-game set with the Washington Nationals. 

Clay Holmes (2.10 ERA, 1.033 WHIP in 30 innings) gets the ball for Tuesday’s 7:10 p.m. first pitch in Queens. Zack Littell (7.56 ERA, 1.680 WHIP in 25 innings, who leads baseball with 11 home runs allowed) goes for the visitors.

HOUSTON (AP) — Houston’s Kevin Durant won’t play Sunday night in Game 4 against the Los Angeles Lakers as the Rockets try to avoid being swept in the first-round Western Conference playoff series.

Durant missed Game 3 with a sprained left ankle on Friday night, when the Rockets blew a six-point lead with less than 30 seconds to go in regulation of an eventual 112-108 overtime loss to fall to 0-3 in the first-round series.

This will be the third game of the series that Durant has missed after he sat out the opener with a bruised right knee. He returned for Game 2, scoring 23 points in 41 minutes of the 101-94 loss, during which he injured his ankle late in the game.

His injury problems this postseason came after the 37-year-old ranked second in the league in the regular season by playing 2,840 minutes.

Durant, who is in his first season in Houston after an offseason trade from Phoenix, is the fifth-leading scorer in NBA history.

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

Michael King was dealing in the second game of the Mexico City Series between the San Diego Padres and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The right-hander completed six innings and allowed two runs on three hits with one walk and eight strikeouts. King took a no-hitter into the bottom of the fourth inning and did not allow a run until the bottom of the fifth inning when Jose Fernandez hit a solo home run to make the score, 6-1. King allowed the second run of the game to Arizona in the bottom of the sixth inning when Ildemaro Vargas hit another solo home run. San Diego held a 7-2 lead when King walked off the mound after the final out of the bottom of the sixth inning, but that was when the game got interesting as the Padres bullpen imploded and the result was an 12-7 loss at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu on Sunday.

David Morgan took over on the mound for the Padres and recorded a flyout to start the bottom of the seventh inning. Morgan then allowed three singles to load the bases before Tim Tawa hit a grand slam home run to left field that made the score, 7-6. The reliever left the game after just 1/3 of an inning and Bradgley Rodriguez came on to try to get the final two outs of the frame.

Rodriguez had his own struggles and allowed a leadoff double before getting a groundout for the second out of the inning. With a runner on third base, Rodriguez walked Corbin Carroll to put runners at the corners. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. followed with a double to left that scored two runs and gave the Diamondbacks an 8-7 lead and robbed King of a potential win. Rodriguez got the final out of the inning when James McCann grounded out to second base, ending the six-run frame for Arizona.

Ron Marinaccio came on to pitch the bottom of the eighth inning for San Diego and allowed three consecutive singles to load the bases to open the inning. Tawa flied out to shallow left field, which prevented any movement from the runners and gave Vargas another opportunity to put runs on the board for Arizona. He did just that with a triple to right field which put the Diamondbacks ahead of the Padres, 11-7. Ketel Marte followed with a single to right field, which pushed the score to 12-7 and knocked Marinaccio out of the game.

Wandy Peralta was called on to get the final two outs of the inning for San Diego but allowed a single to Carroll to put runners on the corners with one out. Peralta then walked Gurriel Jr. to load the bases before he induced a ground ball off the bat of McCann that was fielded by Jake Cronenworth, who tagged the runner and threw to first base for a double play to end the inning.

The Padres brought the top of their lineup to the plate in the top of the ninth inning and Ramon Laureano led off with a single. Fernando Tatis Jr. followed with a lineout to right field and Jackson Merrill flied out to right field. With two outs and Laureano on base Manny Machado stepped to the plate and hit a line drive to third that was caught by a diving Nolan Arrenado to secure the win for the Diamondbacks.

Manny Machado was the offensive highlight of the game for both teams in the early innings. He hit a two-run home run in the top of the third inning and followed that with a three-run home run in the top of the fifth inning to give San Diego a 6-0 lead heading to the bottom of the fifth. The Diamondbacks got on the board in the bottom of the inning and the Padres answered in the top of the sixth when Luis Campusano hit a solo home run to push the lead to 7-1.

San Diego returns to Petco Park to take on the Chicago Cubs on Monday at 6:40 p.m.

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Editor’s Note: This bet was placed before it was announced that Joel Embiid would be returning to the 76ers lineup tonight.

The Boston Celtics got back home-court advantage in Game 3. Now they’ll try to put a stranglehold on the series against the Philadelphia 76ers with another win in Philadelphia.

Philly is hampered by injury and had a rare collapse in crunch time to fall behind in the series. Boston seems to have everything going its way.

That’s why my Celtics vs. 76ers predictions and NBA picks predict a Celtics cover as a road favorite. 

Celtics vs 76ers prediction

Who will win Celtics vs 76ers Game 4?

Celtics: The Boston Celtics stars are stepping up, and they’re set to take a stranglehold of this series. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum have increased their scoring averages and are hitting a combined .500 from the field, .400 from three, up from .467, .342 in the regular season.

Celtics vs 76ers best bet: Celtics -7.5 (-105)

The Boston Celtics thrive as the road favorite. Boston is 16-9 ATS in that position this season and 26-16 ATS overall in road games. The Philadelphia 76ers are below .500 ATS both as a home dog and in all home games.

The Game 3 result added to both trends.

Boston bounced back from a Game Two loss by clamping down on the two players who burned them. VJ Edgecombe and Tyrese Maxey combined for 59 points on 23-of-48 shooting, 11-of-22 from three, in Game Two.

Boston put Jayson Tatum on Edgecombe in game three, and both Philly shooters paid the price. They combined to hit just 17 of 47 shots and were 5-of-20 from three.

Maxey stopped trying to drive in the second half and found some success shooting from outside. Philadelphia will need to find an adjustment to get both of its scorers back into the game, however.

Embiid is improving but still listed as doubtful. His replacements in the paint have struggled. Adem Bona had hustle and high-energy plays, but too frequently made costly mistakes, picking up offensive fouls on moving screens and getting called for goaltending.

Backup Andre Drummond has been a defensive liability against the faster Nikola Vucevic.

While Philadelphia’s bench players are getting exposed in the post in Embiid’s absence, it highlights an overall Boston advantage in depth. The Celtics’ bench outscored the Sixers’ bench 35-14. They also logged significantly more minutes—92 to 52. 

For the series, the bench scoring mismatch is 92-62 in Boston’s favor, and the bench’s minutes played are 264-225. The longer the series goes on, the more it will benefit the Boston starters.

Celtics vs 76ers same-game parlay

Boston plays at the slowest tempo in the NBA, and Philadelphia is at No. 15. All three games in the series have gone under. Philly has gone Under in 10 of 15 games as a home dog this season, while Boston has been Under 16 of 25 as a road favorite.

Jayson Tatum is averaging 23 points in the playoffs and has scored 23 or more in nine of the last 10. He’s a better bet than Jaylen Brown, whose points prop is 2.5 points below his playoff average, because Brown is less consistent with his scoring. In his last eight, he has three games over 35 points and five at 26 or lower.

Celtics vs 76ers SGP

• Celtics -7.5
• Under 213.5 points
• Jayson Tatum Over 22.5 points

Our “from downtown” SGP: Mismatch Heaven!

Nikola Vucevic is in a mismatch with Bona, who can’t stay on the floor with fouls and bad plays, and Drummond. He has 17 rebounds in the three games and could increase that if Philly relies more on the outside shot.

VJ Edgecombe has been Philly’s best rebounding option with Embiid out. He hit double figures on the boards in each of the last two games and has 39 rebounds in the last five.

Tyrese Maxey found success from outside late in the last game, making four straight from three-point range in the second half. He’s been hampered by a finger injury and made just 16 of 55 threes for a .291 percentage over a 10-game stretch before hitting five in each of the last two games.

Jaylen Brown has hit 13 threes in the last five games.

Celtics vs 76ers SGP

• Nikola Vucevic Over 5.5 rebounds
• VJ Edgecombe Over 6.5 rebounds
• Tyrese Maxey Over 2.5 made threes
• Jaylen Brown Over 1.5 made threes

Celtics vs 76ers odds for Game 4

• Spread: Celtics -7.5 (-110) | 76ers -7.5 (-110)
• Moneyline: Celtics -290 | 76ers +237
• Over/Under: Over 213.5 (-110) | Under 213.5 (-110)

Celtics vs 76ers betting trend to know

Boston has hit the game total Under in 36 of its last 50 games (+20.60 Units / 37% ROI). Find more NBA betting trends for Celtics vs. 76ers.

How to watch Celtics vs 76ers Game 4

Celtics vs 76ers latest injuries

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The Portland Trail Blazers went into halftime with a 17-point lead over the San Antonio Spurs, then completely collapsed in the second half. They simply couldn’t figure out a solution to the constant shot-making of De’Aaron Fox (28 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists), and the stardom of Victor Wembanyama (27 points, 11 rebounds, 7 blocks, 4 steals, 3 assists). 

The Spurs, who are now up 3-1 in the series, won 114-93 as they simply demolished the Blazers in the second half, outscoring them by 38 points. 

San Antonio is now one win away from moving on to the second round and will look to close out the series on Tuesday back in Texas. 

This is the best first-round challenge for Victor Wembanyama 

Concussion protocol and missed games aside, this is just the perfect test for Wembanyama.

The Blazers have nimble guards, big combo forwards, and a 7-foot-2, beefy center in Donovan Clingan — and they’re throwing everything and everyone at Wembanyama. The 7-foot-5 Defensive Player of the Year has been guarded by everyone from Clingan to Jrue Holiday, as the Blazers keep switching up their coverage, forcing him to adjust and get used to a physical presence, regardless of who is tasked with guarding him. 

It’s a smart strategy, as it forces the Spurs superstar to constantly make decisions with his defender in mind. 

The potential downside for Portland? That Wembanyama solves it and takes away the advantage. Which is pretty much what happened Sunday.

In the second half, Wembanyama adjusted to changing defenses and found room within their back-line defense. This resulted in multiple lob plays and a general focus on interior scoring after struggling from the perimeter in the first half. 

Defensively, he also became more assertive, and not just in the category of swatting shots. He’d guard the nail, help and recover, and make a ridiculous play. One time he blocked Robert Williams, who looked as if he had a wide-open dunk on the baseline off a cut. 

When healthy, it’s difficult to argue against Wembanyama’s value for the Spurs. His 11 stocks (steals and blocks) led to several leak-outs by Spurs guards, who could then push the tempo against a struggling Blazers transition defense. 

The enigma of Scoot Henderson 

Coming into Game 4, Henderson was averaging 23.3 points per game in the series. 

He was scoreless in Game 4, missing all seven of his shots, which speaks to a lack of consistency from Henderson and the strength of Portland’s depth. 

The 6-3 guard scored in a variety of ways over his first three games, canning 3-pointers, getting to the rim and connecting on floaters. For the Blazers to suddenly lose that scoring aspect is tough to overcome, as it makes their game plan all the more unpredictable and reliant on others. 

If the Blazers move on from this round, it’s fairly crucial that Henderson settles into a role that doesn’t offer this level of variance. 

Two-way wing play 

This is an area that stands in sharp contrast between these two teams. The Spurs don’t have oodles of positional size on the wing, nor do they have a forward who is routinely one of the better 3-and-D performers in the league. 

The Blazers have an elite 3-and-D wing in Toumani Camara, an All-Star wing in Deni Avdija and a 6-9 jumbo forward in Jerami Grant. This offers them size, production and diversity. 

While the Spurs have Keldon Johnson, Carter Bryant and Harrison Barnes, all three are on the smaller side and are either untested, a little on the older side or not necessarily a two-way force. 

If anything, this series should give the Spurs a clear vision of where they need to upgrade in the coming summer, if they wish to optimize their long-term championship window.

Joel Embiid is back.

The Philadelphia 76ers star was cleared to return for the team’s Game 4 matchup with the Boston Celtics on Sunday night, less than a month after he underwent an emergency appendectomy.

Embiid has been working on his comeback so far in the playoffs and began a strength and conditioning program last week. He was listed as “doubtful” ahead of Friday’s 108-100 loss to the Celtics and did not play.

But the team announced less than an hour before Game 4 was scheduled to tip off that Embiid was both available and in the starting lineup. The former league MVP did play with a special wrap around his midsection to protect the affected area.

Embiid underwent surgery in Houston on April 9 after he was diagnosed with appendicitis, something that can typically take up to six weeks to recover from. That knocked Embiid out for the rest of the regular season and the start of the playoffs. The Celtics rolled to a 22-point win in Game 1, but VJ Edgecombe and Tyrese Maxey tied up the series in Boston with a huge 14-point win in Game 2.

Embiid averaged 26.9 points and 7.7 rebounds in just 38 games in the regular season for the 76ers. It marked his third straight season in which he’s appeared in less than 40 contests due to injuries. Before his appendicitis, Embiid also dealt with an oblique strain, a sore right knee and shin issue, and a right knee injury. Embiid played in just 19 games last season with lingering left knee issues, too.

The Celtics lead the series 2-1 entering Sunday night’s game in Philadelphia.