Butler nets 40 in Heat victory
Jimmy Butler scored a playoff career-high 40 points, Goran Dragic added 27 and the Heat clamped down defensively in the last three quarters to defeat the Bucks 115-104 in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series
Monday in the NBA bubble in
Orlando, Florida.
The Heat also got 12 points,
17 rebounds and six assists from Bam Adebayo on their way to improving to 5-0 in the postseason.
Khris Middleton had 28 points, Brook Lopez 24 points and Giannis Antetokounmpo
18 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists for the Bucks, who scored 40 points in the first quarter but were held to 64 the rest of the way.
Chris Paul scored 28 points, including the goahead free throws with 13.1 seconds left, Danilo Gallinari added 25 and the Thunder forced a Game 7 in their first-round series with a 104-100 victory against the Rockets. James Harden led the Rockets with 32 points.
Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram was voted the NBA’s most improved player, receiving 42 firstplace votes from a panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters to outdistance Adebayo (38).
WASHINGTON — John Thompson, the imposing Hall of Famer who turned Georgetown into a “Hoya Paranoia” powerhouse and became the first Black coach to lead a team to the NCAA men’s basketball championship, has died. He was 78.
His death was announced in a family statement released by Georgetown on Monday. No details were disclosed.
“Our father was an inspiration to many and devoted his life to developing young people not simply on but, most importantly, off the basketball court. He is revered as a historic shepherd of the sport, dedicated to the welfare of his community above all else,” the statement said. “However, for us, his greatest legacy remains as a father, grandfather, uncle, and friend. More than a coach, he was our foundation. More than a legend, he was the voice in our ear everyday.”
One of the most celebrated and polarizing figures in his sport, Mr. Thompson took over a moribund Georgetown program in 1972 that was 3-23 the previous season and molded it into a perennial contender, culminating with a national championship team anchored by center Patrick Ewing in 1984.
Georgetown reached two other title games with Mr. Thompson in charge and Ewing patrolling the paint, losing to Michael Jordan’s North Carolina team in 1982 and to Villanova in 1985.
Later, Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo were among Mr. Thompson’s star players at Georgetown.
At 6-foot-10, with an ever-present white towel slung over his shoulder, Mr. Thompson literally and figuratively towered over the Hoyas for decades, becoming a patriarch of sorts after he quit coaching in 1999.
One of his sons, John Thompson III, was hired as Georgetown’s coach in 2004. When the son was fired in 2017, the elder Thompson was at the news conference announcing Ewing as the successor.
Along the way, Mr. Thompson said what he thought and took positions that weren’t always popular.
“I’ll probably be remembered for all the things that kept me out of the Hall of Fame, ironically, more than for the things that got me into it,” Mr. Thompson said on the day he was elected to the Hall in 1999.
“He was one of a kind,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, a fierce rival for many years in the Big East Conference, said Monday. “There aren’t that many. He brought a presence to the game that nobody does, has.”
One of Mr. Thompson’s honors — his selection as coach of the U.S. team for the 1988 Olympics — had a sour ending when the Americans had to settle for the bronze medal.
Mr. Thompson grew up in Washington, D.C. A highly touted prospect, he went to Providence College and graduated in 1964, then played two seasons with the Boston Celtics, earning a pair of championship rings as a sparingly used backup to Bill Russell.