Jason Kidd has been here before in his first season as coach of the Mavericks, down 1-0 in a third consecutive NBA playoff series.
The Bay Area native is looking for another bounce-back from Luka Doncic and company in his first trip to the conference finals as a coach, which just happened to start in San Francisco.
NEW YORK (AP) — Kyrie Irving may have to show the Brooklyn Nets he's more than a great basketball player if he wants a future with the team.
General manager Sean Marks made clear Wednesday that Irving will have to prove a commitment to being available to his team that wasn't there this season.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Boston Celtics big man Robert Williams didn't play in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series against Milwaukee on Monday because of soreness in his surgically repaired left knee.
NEW YORK (AP) — Brooklyn Nets guard Seth Curry had arthroscopic surgery on his left ankle Monday and is expected to be ready for training camp in the fall.
Ben Simmons underwent what was determined to be a successful back surgery in Los Angeles on Thursday. The Brooklyn Nets are hoping that he is fully recovered before the start of training camp this fall.
NEW YORK (AP) — Ben Simmons will have surgery to alleviate pain in his back caused by a herniated disk, the Brooklyn Nets said Wednesday.
The procedure will be done Thursday. The Nets said it was decided upon after consultation with multiple back specialists.
BOSTON (AP) — The Celtics’ sweep of the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the playoffs underscored one thing about Boston's late-season rise to the top tier of the NBA's Eastern Conference: it was no fluke.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — After a bumpy beginning to their postseason, the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks rediscovered their championship form in plenty of time to dispose of the Chicago Bulls in their opening-round series.
NEW YORK (AP) — With Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden, the Brooklyn Nets had expectations of being the last team standing.
NEW YORK (AP) — Even as they rolled through the second half of their schedule, the Boston Celtics knew there was a notion they should lose.
Tanking a game down the stretch and falling out of the No.
NEW YORK (AP) — Jayson Tatum scored 29 points, Jaylen Brown had 22 and the Boston Celtics completed a four-game sweep of the Brooklyn Nets, becoming the first team to reach the second round of the playoffs with a 116-112 victory Monday night.
NEW YORK (AP) — Jayson Tatum was stunned, yet certain. He disagreed with his sixth foul but had no doubt the Boston Celtics, with their rock-solid defense, would hold on without their scoring star.
NEW YORK (AP) — Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are struggling against Boston, and Ben Simmons won't be available to help them Monday night with the Brooklyn Nets' season on the brink.
Ben Simmons has been ruled out of Game 4 of Brooklyn's playoff series against Boston, making it possible he won't play at all this season.
The Nets listed Simmons as out Sunday on the injury report for the game Monday night, when they will be trying to avoid a sweep by the Celtics.
NEW YORK (AP) — The stoppers are suffocating the scorers.
And as Boston was finishing another shutdown effort against Kevin Durant and the Nets, a loud “Let’s Go Celtics! Let’s Go Celtics!” chant broke out from the many fans in green who had seats in Barclays Center.
NEW YORK (AP) — Jayson Tatum scored 39 points, Jaylen Brown had 23 and the Boston Celtics took a 3-0 lead over the Brooklyn Nets with a 109-103 victory Saturday night.
Again making things difficult on Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving with their suffocating defense, the Celtics put themselves in position to sweep their way into the second round with a victory Monday night in Brooklyn.
NEW YORK (AP) — Scoring has rarely looked so difficult for Kevin Durant.
A four-time NBA leader who averaged 29.9 points this season, Durant missed each of his 10 shots in the second half of Game 2 against Boston.
NEW YORK (AP) — Ben Simmons hopes to play for the Brooklyn Nets during their first-round series against Boston, though he probably won't be ready for Game 3 on Saturday.
BOSTON (AP) — Kyrie Irving behaved himself.
He just didn’t play very well.
One day after he was fined for cursing at Boston fans and giving them the finger, the Nets point guard managed just 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting Wednesday night in Brooklyn’s 114-107 loss to the Celtics.
BOSTON (AP) — Celtics fans got under Kyrie Irving’s skin in the opening game of their first-round matchup with the Nets.
It was Boston’s defense that kept him – and Kevin Durant – off balance in Game 2.
Kyrie Irving and the Nets are expecting more of the same from Boston — on and off the court — in Wednesday's Game 2 when the Celtics look to build on their buzzer-beating win in the series opener.
Jayson Tatum’s spinning layup in the lane over Irving as time expired sent the TD Garden crowd into a frenzy as Tatum’s final buck capped a 31-point performance that punctuated Boston’s victory.
NEW YORK (AP) — The NBA playoffs have begun with no clear championship favorite, and that appears to be good news for ABC and ESPN.
The opening-round schedule of five games last weekend on the networks had more viewers than any playoff start since 2011, and its average of 4.17 million was up 32% over last year, the Nielsen company said.
BOSTON (AP) — Nets guard Kyrie Irving has been fined $50,000 for making obscene gestures and directing profane language toward the crowd during Brooklyn’s Game 1 playoff loss to the Celtics,
League operations president Byron Spruell announced the fines on Tuesday.
BOSTON (AP) — Jayson Tatum made a layup at the buzzer off a pass from Marcus Smart to give the Boston Celtics a dramatic 115-114 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday in the Game 1 of the Eastern Conference first-round series.
BOSTON (AP) — Jayson Tatum has been adamant he didn’t view the Celtics’ matchup with the Nets as a chance to prove anything opposite two of the league’s elite scorers.
BOSTON (AP) — For most of the season, the spotlight was on everyone except the Celtics in the Eastern Conference.
That was until Boston and new coach Ime Udoka put things together down the stretch with a brand built on defense, buoyed by All-Star Jayson Tatum’s nightly scoring punch.
NEW YORK (AP) — Kyrie Irving cost himself millions of dollars in salary. He may have cost the Brooklyn Nets any realistic chance of winning the NBA title.
His decision not to be vaccinated against the coronavirus put him on center stage of the debate and left him ineligible to play in New York for most of the season.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Many of them NBA big-game beginners, the young Cavaliers took their lumps in Brooklyn the other night and missed their first chance of making the playoffs.
NEW YORK (AP) — Bring on Boston.
That's the next stop on a recent rise for the Brooklyn Nets, who were in 10th place not long ago but don't look like an underdog right now.
Kyrie Irving had 34 points and 12 assists, Kevin Durant added 25 points and 11 assists, and the Nets took the No.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Brooklyn Nets held a moment of silence before their play-in game against Cleveland and said they were donating $50,000 to help those who were injured after at least 10 people were shot on a subway Tuesday.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Unflappable. Maybe that's the best word to describe Cavaliers prized rookie forward Evan Mobley.
Or maybe unafraid. Or undeniable. Unreal could fit, too.
At roughly the same time the NBA wraps up this season after the Finals in June, Mobley will turn 21.
NEW YORK (AP) — Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have played in the NBA Finals and Olympics, so they've been in just about every kind of big game there is.
The play-in tournament is something new for them, and the Brooklyn Nets certainly didn't expect to experience it this year.
DALLAS (AP) — Luka Doncic strained his left calf in Dallas’ 130-120 victory over San Antonio in what turned out to be a meaningless regular-season finale Sunday night, putting the superstar’s status in question for the playoff-bound Mavericks.
It lasted 174 days, required the usage of more players than any season in history primarily because of the ongoing challenge of playing through a pandemic, and saw playoff-positioning chases go all the way down to the final moments.
CLEVELAND (AP) — The Milwaukee Bucks used the final game of the regular season to rest up before defending their NBA crown.
The Cavaliers didn't have any such luxury.
Kevin Love made eight 3-pointers and scored 32 points as Cleveland took the No.
NEW YORK (AP) — Four wins in the final week sent the Brooklyn Nets surging up to seventh in the Eastern Conference.
One more win sends them to the playoffs.
“Now we get to carry some of that momentum on into Tuesday,” Kyrie Irving said.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Brooklyn Nets signed Kessler Edwards to a standard NBA contract Sunday, making him eligible to play in the postseason.
The second-round pick from Pepperdine had been on a two-way contract, which meant he couldn't play beginning next week.
Joel Embiid is about to make a lot of history. And a half-dozen first-round or play-in game matchups are set to be decided.
The final day of the NBA season has no shortage of storylines.
A new scoring champion will be crowned and, barring something crazy, Embiid — who hails from Cameroon — will become the first international player to win that title.