The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its clubs. “But to be honest, I wasn’t surprised. We all know that Tatum can score with the best of them — he averaged 23.4 points per game this season, the 17th-best rate in the league — but he's starting to leverage that ability to set his teammates up for easy baskets. Brown struggled with his shot in Boston's second-round series with the Raptors, but his defence never wavered. Jimmy Butler, 31, is the best player on the Miami Heat and is in his ninth N.B.A. The three playoff games scheduled to be played Thursday — Game 6 of the Denver Nuggets-Utah Jazz series, Game 1 of the Boston Celtics-Toronto Raptors series and Game 6 of the Clippers-Dallas Mavericks series — were postponed. It'll be the fourth time the two franchises have faced each other in the playoffs, although a lot has changed since their last meeting in 2012. “All of us tried to transfer our anger to the basketball game. That was it.”. Dialogue among players in Wednesday night’s meeting led to Thursday’s decision to continue the season. © 2020 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. But despite the result of the game, there was still frustration over the Louisville grand jury ruling. Going into the game, you do have to compete. The WNBA also postponed its three games that were scheduled to take place Thursday. Catch every game of the playoffs on NBA League Pass. By Anthony Chiang. But at the end of the day, I mean, we're people first, not just athletes.”. It’s no secret that the Miami Heat arguably boasts the best player development program in the entire NBA right now. ROOKIE RISING:How Tyler Herro sank Celtics in Game 4, LEBRON REACTION:James 'devastated, hurt, sad, mad!' This unequal treatment of Black people at the hands of the police has to stop. His numbers don't pop like other players in this series, but his willingness to do all the little things ties everything together for the Celtics on both ends of the court. 17 points (9-11 FT), 2 assists and 1 steal The Heat will play the winner of the Bucks-Orlando Magic series in the next round, with Milwaukee holding a 3-1 lead in the series. After spending most of the season restart in the NBA's Disney bubble calling for justice surrounding Breonna Taylor’s death, players learned that the result of the investigation wasn't what they expected. Here is an example of his playmaking. According to NBA.com, Herro has logged 19 clutch minutes through nine games, the fourth-most on the Heat. Similar to how we do our other rankings, we each submitted a list of who we believe are the 12 best players in the series. https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/NBA_Global_CMS_image_storage/55/c7/crowder-091220-ftr-gettyjpg_12xe8n8wrvpfw1gtzq7taf5zzf.jpg?t=-2083077228&w=500&quality=80. Stevens declined to say which players, if any, took him up on his offer. Three Wednesday playoff games were postponed after the Milwaukee Bucks chose not to play in the wake of the recent police shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Robinson isn't just a spot-up threat, either. When it comes to shooting, few do it better. “Our guys have been able to manage a lot of this disappointment over the last several months of things that have been happening for obviously way too long.”, “The idea of just going into that apartment doesn't make any sense,” Stevens said. https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/NBA_Global_CMS_image_storage/23/9e/dragic_k2qs4z19qfjv1pfryfahylmv1.jpg?t=463960652&w=500&quality=80. All times are still to be determined - Australian Eastern Standard Time, (NBA Getty Images) (NBA Getty Images) For the Miami Heat, the playoff pause likely means an even longer break after completing a first-round sweep of the Indiana Pacers on Monday. But clearly, the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat had more on their mind than how to win Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals. P-L-A-Y-S pic.twitter.com/tTz2eJ8dGr. Tatum averaged 5.3 assists per game against the Raptors in the second round, up from 2.5 in the first round and 3.0 in the regular season. But this day was different, and Stevens had to send a text message to his team. Smart also came up big offensively for the Celtics against the Raptors. Theis outplayed Marc Gasol and held his own against Serge Ibaka in the previous round. Offensively, he's proven to be one of the best passers at the centre position, as well as one of the league's most feared rollers and cutters, someone who can do things like this... Dragic gets downhill and finds Bam on ABC!