BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Celtics and their charitable arm, the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation, are committing $25 million over the next 10 years for initiatives to address racial injustice and social inequities in the greater Boston area.The commitment will include $20 million in cash and $5 million in media assets to support the NBA's efforts, as well as local programs focused on six specific areas that were identified in discussions with community leaders and Celtics players. The collective effort will be called Boston Celtics United for Social Change.The six areas the efforts will focus on are equity in education, economic opportunity, equity in health care, criminal and law enforcement, breaking down barriers and building bridges between communities, and voting and civic engagement.“We feel both the urgency of the moment and the weight of the centuries of injustices as we undertake this critically important work,” Steve Pagliuca, Celtics managing partner chairman of the Boston Celtics... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — The NBA fined Los Angeles Clippers guard Patrick Beverley $25,000 on Monday for verbally abusing a game official in Game 2 of his team’s Western Conference semifinal series against the Denver Nuggets.The incident took place Saturday night with 1:04 remaining in what became a 110-101 loss for the Clippers. Beverley was demonstrably upset with a foul call against him four seconds earlier, then unsuccessfully tried to take a charge when play resumed and got called for a blocking foul.Beverley then got two technical fouls as he argued to no avail. It became his second ejection of the season and his first of the playoffs.It’s also his second $25,000 fine of the season; he got the first in October for throwing the ball into the stands after the Clippers beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the opening game of the season for both clubs.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — The Milwaukee Bucks will play another day.They’re waiting to see if reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo will join them.It’s still a dire situation for the team that had the league's best regular-season record this season — they’re down 3-1 in the Eastern Conference semifinals to the Miami Heat, with another win-or-go-home test awaiting in Game 5 on Tuesday night. And they don’t know if Antetokounmpo, who sprained his right ankle in Game 3 and then again in Game 4, will be ready.“There’s hope,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “We’re not ruling him out, so I guess until he’s ruled out you have hope. He’s going to do everything he can to make himself available.”Also Tuesday: Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals, with that matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets tied at a game apiece.Antetokounmpo was with the Bucks for their light practice Monday. He got treatment on the ankle, then left wearing a protective boot over his right... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks was ruled out of Sunday’s Game 4 of his team’s Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Miami Heat after aggravating a sprained right ankle.Antetokounmpo was driving to the basket with 10:18 left in the second quarter, trying to get past Miami’s Andre Iguodala. He went down and screamed in pain as he grabbed at the ankle, and it didn't take long for most of those on the Bucks' bench to gather around him in concern.Antetokounmpo eventually went to the bench, then went back onto the court to shoot his free throws. He had to take them to have any chance of being able to return to the game, per NBA rules.In the end, it didn't matter: The Bucks announced at halftime that Antetokounmpo would not return to the game. He finished with 19 points in 12 minutes.The Bucks went into Sunday down 3-0 in the series and facing elimination. Antetokounmpo scored 18 of Milwaukee’s first 26 points in Game 4, shooting... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks left Sunday’s Game 4 of his team’s Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Miami Heat after appearing to aggravate a sprained right ankle.Antetokounmpo was driving to the basket with 10:18 left in the second quarter, trying to get past Miami’s Andre Iguodala. He went down and screamed in pain as he grabbed at the ankle, and it didn't take long for most of those on the Bucks' bench to gather around him in concern.Antetokounmpo eventually went to the bench, then went back onto the court to shoot his free throws.It was not immediately clear if he would return.He missed the first free throw, made the second and — after the Bucks took an immediate foul to get him out of the game — limped off for additional evaluation. He had to take the free throws in order to remain eligible to return to the game; had he not taken those shots, NBA rules would not have permitted him to return.The Bucks went into... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Montrezl Harrell was close last year. This year, his grandmother told him, he was going to win the Sixth Man Award.The only disappointment was she didn't live to see it.“It just hurts that I can’t take it home to her,” Harrell said, with the trophy sitting beside him.He won it on Friday, keeping the honor for the league’s top reserve with the Los Angeles Clippers for the third straight season.Harrell ended the two-year run of teammate Lou Williams — who finished third — and gave the Clippers four winners in the last five years. Harrell and Williams helped the Clippers have the league’s highest-scoring bench for the second straight season.Harrell received 58 first-place votes from a panel of 100 writers and broadcasters, earning 397 points. Dennis Schroder of Oklahoma City was second with 35 first-place votes and 328 points, while Williams got the other seven first-place votes and 127 points.Voting took account only games through March 11 and none during the... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Montrezl Harrell won the NBA's Sixth Man Award on Friday, keeping the honor for the league’s top reserve with the Los Angeles Clippers for the third straight season.Harrell ended the two-year run of teammate Lou Williams — who finished third — and gave the Clippers four winners in the last five years. Harrell and Williams helped the Clippers have the league’s highest-scoring bench for the second straight season.Harrell received 58 first-place votes from a panel of 100 sports writers and broadcasters, earning 397 points. Dennis Schroder of Oklahoma City was second with 35 first-place votes and 328 points, while Williams got the other seven first-place votes and 127 points.The Clippers averaged 51.5 points from their bench, continuing to get strong play from their second unit. Before Williams' consecutive awards, Jamal Crawford won the last of his three awards in 2016.Harrell is a 6-foot-8 force of energy, outworking fellow big men on the boards and outracing them on fast breaks. He averaged a career-best 18.6 points in 63 games, including two starts, through March 11.Voting took account only games through that point and none during the restart. Harrell didn't play during that after leaving the team because of his grandmother's death, but returned to help the Clippers into the second round of the playoffs.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — A year ago, Toronto had The Shot.This time, the Raptors have The Pass.Despite Kyle Lowry’s attempts to take attention off the pass that he threw to OG Anunoby to set up the gamewinning, probably season-saving 3-pointer at the buzzer for Toronto in what became its 104-103 win over the Boston Celtics on Thursday, he’s probably going to have to accept that it will be a memorable moment — especially if the Raptors go on to win this Eastern Conference semifinal series.Game 4 of Celtics-Raptors is Saturday night, followed by Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinal matchup between the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers got an easy 120-97 win in Game 1 behind 29 points from Kawhi Leonard, who last year made what Raptors fans will forever know as The Shot — the epic four-bounce-off-the-rim jumper at the buzzer of Game 7 to give Toronto a win over Philadelphia in the East semifinals.Leonard’s shot became iconic because the Raptors won it all.... [More]

Steve Nash was one of the NBA's most entertaining point guards, the engineer of a high-scoring team that helped usher in a new era of basketball. Now the Brooklyn Nets want to see what he can do as a coach.The Nets hired Nash on Thursday, putting the Hall of Famer in charge of the team that hopes to have Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving together next season.“Coaching is something I knew I wanted to pursue when the time was right, and I am humbled to be able to work with the outstanding group of players and staff we have here in Brooklyn,” Nash said in a statement.Nash, two-time MVP as the playmaker of the Phoenix Suns teams under Mike D'Antoni that piled up points and 3-pointers long before they became the norm in the NBA, had been a player development consultant with Golden State, where he worked with Durant.D'Antoni, now coaching Houston, said he texted Nash when he heard the news.“Jumping from the frying pan into the fire,” D'Antoni said. Warriors coach Steve Kerr was the general manager... [More]

Steve Nash was one of the NBA's most entertaining point guards, the engineer of a high-scoring team that helped usher in a new era of basketball. Now the Brooklyn Nets want to see what he can do as a coach.The Nets hired Nash on Thursday, putting the Hall of Famer in charge of the team that hopes to have Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving together next season.“Coaching is something I knew I wanted to pursue when the time was right, and I am humbled to be able to work with the outstanding group of players and staff we have here in Brooklyn,” Nash said in a statement.Nash, two-time MVP as the playmaker of the Phoenix Suns teams under Mike D'Antoni that piled up points and 3-pointers long before they became the norm in the NBA, had been a player development consultant with Golden State, where he worked with Durant.D'Antoni, now coaching Houston, said he texted Nash when he heard the news.“Jumping from the frying pan into the fire,” D'Antoni said. Warriors coach Steve Kerr was the general manager... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Having the NBA's best record during the regular season shows the obvious potential of the Milwaukee Bucks.It also means they haven't dealt with major on-court adversity often.They are now, facing a pivotal Game 3 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the rolling Miami Heat on Friday night. The top-seeded Bucks have dropped the first two games to the fifth-seeded Heat, marking just the fifth time this season that they've had a multi-game losing streak.“We've said it many times," Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “I think your character really comes through when you face adversity, when you're tested. I think the character of this group is off the charts."They are being tested now, so that theory better ring true for Milwaukee — or else.The ending of Game 2 was bizarre, a close call looking like it would take a win away from Miami — Goran Dragic’s foul of Khris Middleton with the Heat up by three in the final seconds, a play where Middleton tied... [More]

Steve Nash was one of the NBA's most entertaining point guards, the engineer of a high-scoring team that helped usher in a new era of basketball. Now the Brooklyn Nets want to see what he can do as a coach.The Nets hired Nash on Thursday, putting the Hall of Famer in charge of the team that hopes to have Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving together next season.“Coaching is something I knew I wanted to pursue when the time was right, and I am humbled to be able to work with the outstanding group of players and staff we have here in Brooklyn,” Nash said in a statement.Nash, two-time MVP as the playmaker of the Phoenix Suns teams under Mike D'Antoni that piled up points and 3-pointers long before they became the norm in the NBA, had been a player development consultant with Golden State, where he worked with Durant.Warriors coach Steve Kerr was the general manager in Phoenix for part of Nash's time and took elements of the Suns' system in winning three NBA titles. He thanked and congratulated Nash... [More]

The Brooklyn Nets hired Steve Nash as their coach Thursday, putting the Hall of Fame point guard in charge of the team that hopes to have Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving together next season.Nash, two-time MVP as the engineer of the high-scoring Phoenix Suns teams under Mike D'Antoni, had been a player development consultant with Golden State, where he worked with Durant.“Coaching is something I knew I wanted to pursue when the time was right, and I am humbled to be able to work with the outstanding group of players and staff we have here in Brooklyn," Nash said in a statement.The Nets finished the season under Jacque Vaughn, who they said would remain on staff as Nash's lead assistant.The Nets reached the postseason despite having Irving for only 20 games and Durant for none, but the two stars who came to Brooklyn together last summer are expected to be ready for the 2020-21 season.That made the Nets vacancy an attractive position, and general manager Sean Marks said he met with a number... [More]

The Brooklyn Nets hired Steve Nash as their coach Thursday, putting the Hall of Fame point guard in charge of the team that hopes to have Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving together next season.Nash, two-time MVP as the engineer of the high-scoring Phoenix Suns teams under Mike D'Antoni, had been a player development consultant with Golden State, where he worked with Durant.“Coaching is something I knew I wanted to pursue when the time was right, and I am humbled to be able to work with the outstanding group of players and staff we have here in Brooklyn," Nash said in a statement.”The Nets finished the season under Jacque Vaughn, who they said would remain on the staff as Nash's lead assistant.The Nets reached the postseason despite having Irving for only 20 games and Durant for none, but the two stars who came to Brooklyn together last summer are expected to be ready for the 2020-21 season.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles judge has issued a temporary restraining order keeping the Portland Trail Blazers' Trevor Ariza away from his 12-year-old son after the boy's mother alleged Ariza had physically abused him. Ariza strongly denied the abuse allegations, saying the boy's mother, his former girlfriend Lana Allen, had engaged in a long campaign to hurt his relationship with his son and to take away his visitation rights, according to court papers obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday. Allen alleges in documents filed Aug. 27 that Ariza punched his son in the arm and shoulder and put him in a choke hold on July 25 during a month-long visit at Ariza's Los Angeles-area home. The court filings allege Ariza engaged in similar abuse on previous visits, and has violated a court order against using corporal punishment. Allen sent the police to Ariza's home during the visit, but their investigation was inconclusive, the documents said. The filing called Ariza's actions “inexcusable;... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — The Los Angeles Lakers planned to get together Wednesday night to watch basketball, which is about all they've been able to do lately.Soon enough, they'll get to play it again.For now, their competition comes from video games. Their superstar player is also adept at those, as coach Frank Vogel revealed when asked what he's learned about LeBron James that surprised him most.“I would say how good he is at Madden football,” Vogel said. “I think they’ve been playing a lot of Madden football, our group has, and I hear he’s very good.” James won't be able to show his skills on the basketball court again until Friday, when the Lakers conclude a lengthy layoff in the bubble. The No. 1 seed in the Western Conference has been waiting for its second-round opponent. Houston and Oklahoma City were playing their Game 7 on Wednesday, with the Lakers set to watch it during a team dinner.Starting Thursday, the Lakers can start working on a game plan for either James Harden,... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla (AP) — Toronto guard Kyle Lowry knows the situation is bad.If there’s a silver lining, it’s this: He believes it could have been worse.Toronto would have ordinarily had home-court advantage in its Eastern Conference semifinal matchup against the Boston Celtics, and for the Raptors to fall into a 2-0 series hole — as they have here — that means they would have dropped two straight games at home and been forced to face a raucous crowd in Boston for Game 3.But in the bubble, home-court isn’t an issue and Lowry thinks that a win when the series resumes Thursday would be enough to get the Raptors back on track.“This is not a situation we’d like to be in,” Lowry said. “But it’s not the normal situation in the playoffs where we lost two home games. We just lost two games. We have a chance to get one game. That’s all we have to do, get one game. One game at a time. The Celtics, they’ve been playing extremely well. We have to find a way to get ourselves going.”The Celtics don’t... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Marcus Morris of the Los Angeles Clippers was fined $35,000 by the NBA on Wednesday for his flagrant foul on Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks, who was penalized $15,000 for throwing the ball at a referee.Both fines stemmed from actions in Game 6 of a first-round playoff series, which the Clippers won to eliminate the Mavericks.Morris swung his arm down hard and hit a driving Doncic in the neck area early in the second quarter. The forward was given a flagrant foul 2, an automatic ejection.The NBA said the amount of the fine for Morris — whose birthday was Wednesday — was based in part on the fact he has been disciplined several times in the past for physical altercations on the court. Doncic was called for an offensive foul later in the game and threw the ball into official Bill Kennedy's leg.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Jazz All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell was hypercritical of Utah's playoff losses to Denver: His eight-second violation in Game 1. Blowing a big lead in Game 5. Not matching Denver’s intensity in Game 6. Losing the ball late in a back-and-forth Game 7.It all added up to sixth-seeded Utah being on the wrong side of NBA history as the Nuggets became the 12th team in the annals of the league to overcome a 3-1 deficit to win a series. One thing Donovan won’t quibble with: The direction of the Jazz. He likes the trajectory they’re on with the team making the postseason for a fourth straight season. This was simply another lesson to be learned.“This won’t happen again,” said Mitchell, a third-year player out of Louisville. "I’m ready to go hoop again right now. We all are. This is just the beginning."Mitchell fell to the floor after Mike Conley’s 3-point attempt spun out at the buzzer in Game 7. His first emotion: Shock. “We worked so hard, as a unit, as a whole, to get to a point that we got to,... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Tyson Chandler figured sitting on the bench was better than sitting on the couch.He waited almost until the last minute before deciding he would join his Houston Rockets teammates for the restart. He was bored at home and wasn't going to feel any better if his team won a championship and he was watching it on TV.Then he came to Disney and got so sick he thought he had contracted the coronavirus he had spent all spring at home to avoid.“The first 48 hours, I was going like, ‘What the ... did you do?’” Chandler said. “I was like, ‘Come on, man.’”His health got better and eventually so did the experience. He's glad he came.But for players like Chandler, guys at the end of the bench, being inside the bubble is challenging on several levels. While stars like James Harden and LeBron James deal with the same mental fatigue being at Disney presents, they know when the game starts and the lights come on what time it is. Chandler has no idea if his number will even be... [More]