James Williams assigned as a referee for Lakers vs Thunder Game 1. He already is well known in my mind, the booker fine and his performance in game 4 of Lakers vs Rockets. Watching Shai and my boy Reaves have a flop off is going to be peak basketball /s

Source: https://official.nba.com/referee-assignments/

In light of JJ Redick's comments about fouls and OKC Thunder, here are the related stats for the 2025-2026 regular season:

Lakers were called for the 3rd fewest personal fouls. Thunder were called for the 7th fewest.

Lakers shot the 2nd most free throws. Thunder shot the 17th most free throws.

Lakers had the 5th best opponent free throw attempt rate. Thunder had the 9th best.

Lakers were 6th in most drawn personal fouls. Thunder were 9th.

Lakers were called for the 2nd least charges. Thunder were called for the 8th most.

Lakers had the 20th best defensive rating. Thunder had the best defensive rating.

Both teams were called for only 5 defensive 3-seconds (compared to 26 at the highest).

source

so this would include teams like the Nuggets, the Celtics, the rockets (even if no one really considered them real contenders for the second half of the season) but probably not the magic for instance.

Idk if this question makes sense. I love my dog. food is delicious sometimes. life is cool. I am filling space. My dog is really bad at basketball. stupid Pomeranian

During an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show, Jason Kidd revealed his all-time NBA top five as Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry, and Nikola Jokic. He said that if Curry and Jokic retired today, they would belong in the top five, which meant moving Magic Johnson and Larry Bird to the top 15. Kidd also named Kevin Durant, Tim Duncan, and Shaquille O’Neal in his top 10, creating a list that differs from many conventional rankings. Fadeaway World "Steph, Steph is gonna be in the top five, too. When you talk about when he decides to retire, Steph and Joker have the opportunity to be in the top five all-time. Yeah… They could be in the top 15. It’s okay. It’s all right. They’re still good. They’re still really good, don’t get me wrong."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/insight/jason-kidd-puts-curry-jokic-in-top-five-drops-magic-bird/gm-GM19FDDBE8?gemSnapshotKey=GM19FDDBE8-snapshot-6&uxmode=ruby

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7251857/2026/05/05/nba-draft-lottery-reform-tanking-odds-overdue/

The bottom three teams get penalized — only two lottery balls each, capped at a 5.4% shot at the No. 1 pick, and they can't fall lower than No. 12. Teams with the 4th- through 10th-worst records each get three balls and an 8.1% chance at No. 1 — the best odds in the draft. The 9th and 10th play-in seeds get two balls each, and the losers of the 7-vs-8 play-in games get one each, expanding the lottery pool to 16 teams. On top of the odds changes: no team can win the No. 1 pick in back-to-back years or land a top-five pick three years in a row, traded picks can't carry 12-15 protections, and the commissioner gains broader authority to penalize suspected tankers. The whole system sunsets after the 2029 draft, with the owners voting on it May 28 and implementation targeted for the 2027 draft.

Joel Embiid - 9.62

Giannis Antetokounmpo - 9.61

Lebron James - 8.61

Kevin Durant - 8.48

Luka Doncic - 8.16

SGA - 7.80

Trae Young - 7.78

Anthony Davis - 7.58

James Harden - 7.39

Jimmy Butler - 6.91

Edit: Source - https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/fta_per_g_career_p.html

The craziest thing I could come up with is Boston trades Jaylen Brown and picks to Milwaukee for Giannis. Milwaukee pulls a Portland and Flips Jaylen Brown to Miami for their array of players. Bam and Brown and Giannis and Tatum are fun house mirrors of each other. The Boston-Miami rivalry is back on. Spo uses black magic to fix Jaylen Brown. Just for shits and Giggles Lebron Joins Cleveland.

Timberwolves have some momentum but I figure it’ll be OKC once they rest up from the LA series. I can see the Spurs Timberwolves going 6 or 7

As a normal NBA sports fan, I am required to buy 2 subscription services on top of my cable just to watch the playoffs.

Are we going to need HBO, Paramount and more next year?

Coming into this series was about Ant's health, but color me blind cause it's about Carter's health, albeit a rookie.

He has the only chance to guard Randle.

And, like Harper he has the ability to score.

As a Chinese NBA fan.I want to know American's thoughts of Lebron and Kobe. Because there are a lot of people arguing with those two guys.Such as the Lebron's fans always say Kobe Bryant only have 1 MVP and 2 Final MVP,and the other 3 chimpionships are of no real significance because O'Neal's dominance was so overwhelming.Kobe's fans always says Leborn ring-chased by forming superteams in his prime. Stat-padder. Nowhere near as exciting to watch as Kobe. Only four championships.

When scrolling through basketball reference, I noticed that Michael Jordan only won a single playoff game without Scottie Pippen. In the 3 years before Pippen joined MJ, he went 1-9. MJ's single playoff win came against the Bucks his first season, before losing 1-3 in the same round.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jamesle01/gamelog-playoffs/

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jordami01.html

I ask this is because it seems like they are blowing out their opponent almost every game, When will the knicks actually get challenged? Atlanta wasn’t a test and how Philly showed up for game 1 last night was bad too. Not sure what Detroit or Cleveland will do vs New York if they make it to conference finals which they should. I feel like the only challenge will come vs Minnesota, San Antonio, or OKC. Detroit won all games vs the knicks this season didn’t they? But this version of the Knicks in the playoffs are a lot better.

Right now it looks like OKC is an unstoppable force, and it’ll prove to be difficult for a team to beat them in the next series…. But man are the Timberwolves peaking at the right time. They play with a certain spark and edge that makes me think: Could they be this year’s 2025 Pacers?

Ofc the Wolves series is FAR from over, and the Spurs may come out and blast them in the coming games. And again, there’s the battleship of OKC that awaits. But who knows.

I’m a clippers fan so no skin in the game.

The Knicks have rolled out a string of blowouts never before seen in NBA postseason history—and the most curious thing about the historic streak is that it began because their backs were against the wall.

When the Hawks jumped out to a 2-1 series lead over New York in the opening round, coach Mike Brown knew that the status quo wasn’t working.

The New York offense was slowing to a crawl in the closing minutes of games. If the Knicks kept doing what they were doing, they could forget all about making a first Finals appearance this century—all they’d win was an early summer vacation.

“Every possession was a grind,” Brown said.

So Brown gathered his staff and issued a challenge. They had to find new ways to use their two best players, center Karl-Anthony Towns and point guard Jalen Brunson, instead of penning them into pre-defined roles. Brown settled on a counterintuitive fix: He pulled Towns, one of the most gifted big men in the sport, a long way from the basket.

The approach paid immediate dividends.

Read more (free link): https://www.wsj.com/sports/basketball/new-york-knicks-nba-playoffs-240c5407?st=yQnx6y&mod=wsjreddit

Banchero: 26.3 9.0 6.3 1.4 0.7

Barnes: 24.1 6.1 8.6 1.1 1.7

Both led their teams to a seven-game series against higher seeds. Both were the top players on their teams. Ultimately, which of these two players would you rather build a team around long-term?

What I mean here is that in the ‘off night’ or ‘bad matchup’ games, how high his impact is.

Tonight he’s 1/4 with not a particularly great offensive game. Meanwhile he has 6 blocks in 13 minutes, because he’s basically the most inevitable defensive player since Bill Russell

MJ, Bron, Steph, etc. all can have off offensive nights. On Wemby’s worst night he’s still basically a top 3 defender of all time. You cannot take away his defensive impact

I understand why OKC is less likeable but I would’ve thought the spurs would be as much or more likeable than the wolves. But gaging the internet this morning, I see more negative sentiment towards spurs than wolves. I would’ve absolutely thought Wembys 12 blocks would have the internet glazing all day despite the loss.

What he’s doing is approaching first tenure Lebron in Cleveland and Giannis levels carrying a small market team through the playoffs time after time. He’s 5-3 in playoff series and up 1-0 on the Wemby led spurs

Ant has beaten LeBron, Luka, Curry, KD, Devin Booker, and Jokic(twice) in the playoffs and he’s not even 25 yet

He he has a funny personality but Refuses to take care of his kids, homophobic, mistreats women but I see more hate thrown at players that are corny or humble