LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Nick Nurse was close to quitting.He was 26 or 27 years old, coaching in Britain and wondering whether he had a future in the profession. He went to his hotel room one night and wrote down a list of four other careers he could pursue if he went back home.None looked appealing.“So I figured I’d better get working on coaching and figure it out,” Nurse said.He's sure done that.Nurse never stopped believing he could get to the top, and he never considered he couldn't stay there even after his best player left last summer.The Toronto Raptors coach's rise from the outskirts of basketball to the best of the NBA was recognized Saturday when he was overwhelmingly selected as Coach of the Year.Nurse, who has the Raptors on the verge of the second round of the playoffs without Kawhi Leonard, was a runaway winner. He received 90 first-place votes from a panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters and finished with 470 points.Milwaukee's Mike Budenholzer was second after... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — James Ennis of the Orlando Magic and Marvin Williams of the Milwaukee Bucks were ejected for scuffling on Saturday during Game 3 of their first-round playoff series. The forwards were battling for rebounding position midway through the second quarter with Milwaukee leading 53-34. When they headed back up the floor, Ennis shoved Williams, and Williams shoved back. As the two players were separated, Williams grabbed Ennis’ jersey. Ennis appeared to throw his fist in an attempt to free his jersey.Ennis was in Orlando’s starting lineup, while Williams was filling a reserve role for Milwaukee. The loss of Ennis further depleted an Orlando team that already was playing without Jonathan Isaac, Aaron Gordon, Michael Carter-Williams and Mo Bamba because of various injuries and illnesses.The Eastern Conference series is tied at one game apiece.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Nick Nurse was voted NBA Coach of the Year on Saturday after leading the defending champion Toronto Raptors to another 50-win season, this time without Kawhi Leonard.Nurse, who has the Raptors on the verge of the second round of the playoffs, was a runaway winner, receiving 90 first-place votes from a panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters. He finished with 470 points.Milwaukee's Mike Budenholzer was second after leading the Bucks to the best record in the suspended season, earning 147 points. Oklahoma City's Billy Donovan (134) was third. Nurse led Toronto to its first title last year in his rookie season, becoming the only coach to win an NBA championship and a G League championship. He won titles in 2011 and 2013 at the NBA's minor league level.Toronto's celebration last year was just winding down when Leonard decided to join the Los Angeles Clippers.The Raptors hardly missed a beat without the NBA Finals MVP, rolling to a 53-19 record and the No. 2... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Nick Nurse was voted NBA Coach of the Year on Saturday after leading the defending champion Toronto Raptors to another 50-win season, this time without Kawhi Leonard.Nurse, who has the Raptors on the verge of the second round of the playoffs, was a runaway winner, receiving 90 first-place votes from a panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters. He finished with 470 points.Milwaukee's Mike Budenholzer was second after leading the Bucks to the best record in the suspended season, earning 147 points. Oklahoma City's Billy Donovan (134) was third. Nurse led Toronto to its first title last year in his rookie season, becoming the only coach to win an NBA championship and a G League championship. He won titles in 2011 and 2013 at the NBA's minor league level.Toronto's celebration last year was just winding down when Leonard decided to join the Los Angeles Clippers.The Raptors hardly missed a beat without the NBA Finals MVP, rolling to a 53-19 record and the No. 2... [More]

More than any other sport, the cream of the NBA assuredly rises to the top in the playoffs. This, of course, is a postseason unlike any other. No fans. No home-court advantage. Everyone hunkered down in the same place.Will a Cinderella team emerge from the pack at Disney World? Maybe even claim an improbable title? “I felt that way coming into the whole thing,” said Rick Carlisle, coach of the seventh-seeded Dallas Mavericks. “Look, there’s no travel, you’ve got really the same environment virtually every game. The digital boards look different and stuff like that, but there’s just a great opportunity here for everybody.”Indeed, we’ve already seen signs of a topsy-turvy tournament unfolding in the land of Mickey Mouse.Milwaukee, top seed from the Eastern Conference, lost Game 1 of its opening-round series against eighth-seeded Orlando. The top team in the West, the Los Angeles Lakers, dropped their opening game as well to No. 8 Portland, a team that had to win a play-in game over Memphis... [More]

The Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks have restored some sense of normalcy to these anything-but-normal NBA playoffs.The top-seeded teams in the Western and Eastern Conferences, respectively, lost their openers and are now looking to take control of their series. The Lakers could pull ahead of the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday and the Bucks could take the lead on the pesky Orlando Magic.Lakers forward LeBron James has been around too long to get too worked up about one loss. He was confident the Lakers would recover from their Game 1 setback, and they looked much like their pre-pandemic selves in beating the Trail Blazers 111-88 on Thursday. “I know what we’re capable of,” he said. “I know how we’re built. I don’t compare us to anyone. I compare us to us.”The Lakers were fully aware of the challenge they would face against from the talented Blazers entering the series, led by All-Star guard Damian Lillard.“This team was in the conference finals last year,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — In a normal NBA playoff series Mike D’Antoni would be taking his Houston Rockets on the road.Finished with the first two games, it would be time to switch sites and head to Oklahoma City for the next two. With the Rockets leading 2-0, he might tell them all they’ve done is win their home games, warn them not to get complacent knowing the Thunder would be dangerous in their own building. Not this year.Coaches can’t count on the usual mind tricks in the bubble, where the only thing that seems to change from day to day is what time the rain shower passes through. More than ever, it’s up to players to motivate themselves. “So, every day is going to be the same — like it is here in the bubble,” D’Antoni said. “Every day is Wednesday, but we have to understand the urgency of today.”It was actually Thursday. Not that there’s much difference in one day, or even one week.To walk away with an NBA championship a team has to win 16 games over about two months and numerous... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Anyone not giving the Toronto Raptors much of a chance to repeat as NBA champions without Kawhi Leonard might want to reconsider.The Raptors have played mostly under the radar this season, yet earned the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. They are the only No. 1 or 2 seed not to get upset in the first two games of the first round of the postseason.Fred VanVleet, Kyle Lowry and Pascal Siakam have the Raptors with a 2-0 lead over the Brooklyn Nets entering Game 3 Friday.Their battle-tested playoff experience was on display Wednesday when the Raptors trailed for most of the game but rallied to take a lead in the fourth quarter and then held on to beat the Nets 104-99.“There is no situation we haven’t been in before,” VanVleet said.Raptors coach Nick Nurse called it a “gut it out” win on a night when the Raptors struggled with the Nets continuously switching on defense.In the end, the Raptors found a way to win as they have all season, going with a... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Patrick Beverley missed Game 2 of the Los Angeles Clippers' first-round series against Dallas, leaving Los Angeles without one of its top defenders against Luka Doncic.Clippers coach Doc Rivers said the guard had a left calf injury and wasn't moving well at shootaround, so the team decided to scratch him from the game Wednesday.Beverley is known as a tenacious defender and Rivers said he is one of the Clippers' most vocal players on that side of the floor. He also hit a couple 3-pointers and scored eight points in a 118-110 victory in Game 1 for the second-seeded Clippers.Doncic scored 42 points in the opener but the Clippers forced him into 11 turnovers.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — The Lakers and Bucks exited practice Wednesday to palm trees around them and sunny skies overhead.The weather is good at Walt Disney World. The service is great. The setting seems ideal.For the best NBA teams, it's anything but.The top-four seeds in each conference should be playing in their arenas right now, with home-court advantage in the first two games of their playoff series. They'd have their fans screaming during the action and in many cases families waiting at home afterward.Boy, do some of them miss that at the moment.“If's definitely a difference. You can feel it,” Bucks All-Star Khris Middleton said. "There's times where we really depended on our crowd last year and during the season this year to kind of pull us out of our struggle or whatever it was. And here, there is none of that."We have to bring it every single night. We can't rely on our crowd, our fans to give us that energy. We have to bring it ourselves."Milwaukee and Los Angeles, the No.... [More]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington Wizards general manager Tommy Sheppard said coach Scott Brooks will be back in 2020-21, the last season in his five-year contract.“He’s a decorated coach. He’s been in the league a long time as a player and as a coach. Very accomplished guy,” Sheppard said Wednesday on a video conference call with reporters. “And I think we’re in great hands next season."Washington went 25-47 this season -- going 1-7 in the NBA restart -- and missed the playoffs for the second time in a row, after getting there in each of Brooks’ first two years. The Wizards played all of this season without All-Star point guard John Wall, who tore his Achilles tendon, and were missing their other All-Star, shooting guard Bradley Beal, for the restart because of a shoulder issue. Both should be fine for the start of next season, whenever that might be. The timing is uncertain because of the coronavirus pandemic and the delayed finish to the current season.“Assuming that the season were to start,... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — First it was Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, unable to call upon what was one of the best defenses in the league.Then came LeBron James and the Lakers, clanging 3-pointers off the rim to provide a steady sound in a mostly empty gym.These NBA playoffs already promised to be the most challenging yet. They got a little tougher Tuesday for the league's top teams.Milwaukee and Los Angeles lost their playoff openers, the first time both conference No. 1 seeds have been beaten by the No. 8s to start their postseasons since 2003.So good for most of the season, the top seeds are having trouble in the bubble.There's no home-court advantage to lose in this postseason at Walt Disney World, making it easier not to panic in what would normally be a tougher predicament.“No frustration because the game is the game and we came in with a mindset to win. We didn’t take care of business, but we’ve got another opportunity on Thursday to even the series and that’s my only mindset,”... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — First it was Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, unable to call upon what was one of the best defenses in the league.Then came LeBron James and the Lakers, clanging 3-pointers off the rim to provide a steady sound in a mostly empty gym.These NBA playoffs already promised to be the most challenging yet. They got a little tougher Tuesday for the NBA's top teams.Milwaukee and Los Angeles lost their playoff openers, the first time both conference No. 1 seeds have been beaten by the No. 8s to start their postseasons since 2003.So good for most of the season, the top seeds are having trouble in the bubble.There's no home-court advantage to lose in this postseason at Walt Disney World, making it easier not to panic in what would normally be a tougher predicament.“No frustration because the game is the game and we came in with a mindset to win. We didn’t take care of business, but we’ve got another opportunity on Thursday to even the series and that’s my only mindset,”... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Utah guard Mike Conley has returned to Walt Disney World after the birth of his son and will go through a four-day quarantine period before joining the Jazz for their playoff series against Denver.Conley is set to miss Game 2 on Wednesday but could be back on the court for Game 3 on Friday. He returned to the NBA campus Monday night.The league completed its review and in accordance with the NBA’s COVID-19 policies, Conley’s four-day quarantine is expected to end Friday. Conley missed Monday's first-round opener, which Utah lost 135-125 in overtime despite a Jazz playoff-record 57-point performance from Donovan Mitchell.The 32-year-old Conley announced the birth of his son, Elijah Michael Conley, on social media late Sunday. Conley is averaging 14.4 points and 4.4 assists in his first season with Utah.He was acquired as part of a deal with Memphis in July 2019.The sixth-seeded Jazz already are missing Bojan Bogdanovic, who underwent right wrist surgery in May. ___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — The kids are having all kinds of fun at Walt Disney World.Donovan Mitchell, just 23 years old, opened the NBA playoffs with 57 points, third-most in history.Luka Doncic, only 21, scored 42, the best postseason debut the league had ever seen.They did everything but win.Numbers have been eye-popping all over the bubble, with individual players and sometimes entire teams pouring it on like never before. There’s no indication so far that’s going to change in the postseason. “In some ways I don’t know if it’s more competitive, but it’s competitive out there,” said Clippers coach Doc Rivers, whose team withstood Doncic’s debut to beat Dallas in Game 1.“I think because everyone in the bubble has confidence right now because they put the work in, so that’s what’s going to make it hard.”The thought was always that defenses tightened up come playoff time, with the pace of the game slowing down and more adjustments being made as teams familiarize themselves with an opponent... [More]

BOSTON (AP) — The Celtics say forward Gordon Hayward will be sidelined for around four weeks after suffering a severe right ankle sprain in Boston's Game 1 win over Philadelphia in their first-round playoff series.The injury occurred in the fourth quarter of the Celtics' 109-101 victory Monday night when he went up for a rebound and rolled his ankle as he landed on teammate Daniel Theis' foot. He limped to the locker room and didn’t return.Hayward played 34 minutes and scored 12 points on 5-for-13 shooting with four rebounds before the injury, which the team described as a Grade 3 sprain, the most severe type.The timeline for recovery means Hayward will miss the rest of the first round at a minimum and possibly some of the second if the Celtics advance. He already planned to leave the bubble for a time if the team was still playing in September. His wife is pregnant and is scheduled to deliver sometime next month.With Hayward out, it could mean a shift to a three-guard lineup and more minutes for Marcus Smart, who has been filling the role of Boston's sixth man. Smart played 32 minutes in Game 1. He started 40 games during the shortened regular season. The Celtics went 14-6 without Hayward this season. ___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Utah guard Mike Conley has returned to Walt Disney World after the birth of his son and will go through a quarantine period before joining the Jazz for their playoff series against Denver.The Jazz announced he was back at the NBA campus following the team's practice Tuesday. ESPN reported he arrived in the bubble Monday night.In accordance with the NBA’s COVID-19 policies, Conley is subject to a quarantine of at least four days. He is expected to miss Game 2 on Wednesday but possibly could be back for Game 3 on Friday.The league is reviewing his situation.Conley missed Monday's first-round opener, which Utah lost 135-125 in overtime despite a Jazz playoff-record 57-point performance from Donovan Mitchell.The 32-year-old Conley announced the birth of his son, Elijah Michael Conley, on social media late Sunday. Conley is averaging 14.4 points and 4.4 assists in his first season with Utah.He was acquired as part of a deal with Memphis in July 2019.The sixth-seeded Jazz already are missing Bojan Bogdanovic, who underwent right wrist surgery in May. ___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Nobody had ever scored as much as Luka Doncic in an NBA playoff debut.His evaluation of his historic performance?“Terrible," he said.Doncic is out for wins, not stats, and the Dallas Mavericks weren't good enough to get one in the opener of their series against the Los Angeles Clippers. They climbed back from a dismal start caused in part by Doncic's carelessness, but ended up losing 118-110 on Monday night.So while his 42 points were the number that drew the most attention, Doncic was focused on another number in the box score.“I should never have 11 turnovers,” he said. "That’s 11 more possessions I can have. The thing about this game is I’ve got to be way better than that for sure.” Three of the turnovers came in the opening minutes, when the Clippers raced to a 10-0 lead. They seemed intent on banging the 21-year-old guard around whenever they could and it appeared early that Doncic might not be able to handle it.But he kept picking himself up and in the... [More]

The NBA playoff pool is deeper than ever this season.Playoff teams will split a record $23,287,266 for making the NBA postseason, a figure that's up about $1.6 million from last year.And the Milwaukee Bucks stand to grab the biggest share of a pool ever, if they win the NBA title. The Bucks would split $6,827,848 if they won the NBA championship, based on the formula worked out by the NBA.The Bucks have already secured $1,606,897 from the pool by having the best record in the NBA, the best record in the Eastern Conference and making the first round. The top six teams in each conference get a bonus for their finish in the regular season.From there, the breakdown is this:— First-round qualifiers make $347,545.— Conference semifinalists get another $413,534.— Conference finalists get another $683,363.The biggest slices, of course, go to the teams that make the NBA Finals. The losing team receives another $2,732,699, while the NBA champions get another $4,124,054.For winning the NBA title last... [More]

The NBA playoff pool is deeper than ever this season.Playoff teams will split a record $23,287,266 for making the NBA postseason, a figure that's up about $1.6 million from last year.And the Milwaukee Bucks stand to grab the biggest share of a pool ever, if they win the NBA title. The Bucks would split $6,827,848 if they won the NBA championship, based on the formula worked out by the NBA.The Bucks have already secured $1,606,897 from the pool by having the best record in the NBA, the best record in the Eastern Conference and making the first round. The top six teams in each conference get a bonus for their finish in the regular season.From there, the breakdown is this:— First-round qualifiers make $347,545.— Conference semifinalists get another $413,534.— Conference finalists get another $683,363.The biggest slices, of course, go to the teams that make the NBA Finals. The losing team receives another $2,732,699, while the NBA champions get another $4,124,054.For winning the NBA title last... [More]