IN THE LANE FOOLISH PRIDE:

After the Bucks maneuvered (manipulated?) their way into the No. 3 seed in the East and a first-round series against the wobbled Chicago Bulls, the Boston Celtics are extolling the merits of taking the high road, even with their No. 2 seed ultimately leaving them with the challenge of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and the Nets in the first round.“We weren’t running from anybody,” coach Ime Udoka said.“We were looking at ourselves the whole time. To each his own. In order to win, you have to win against really good teams at some point, so that was our approach to it. We didn’t want to get involved in trying to manipulate matchups or standings or anything like that.” Nah, still believe all four of the leading East seeds (Heat, Celtics, Bucks, Philadelphia 76ers) would have preferred avoiding the Nets.

PARALLEL VIEW: Having mentored the Heat’s Herro for parts of two seasons, Iguodala says he sees similarities with Warriors breakout scorer Jordan Poole.“I don’t think people knew quite how good of a passer Tyler was,” Iguodala said. “We call both of them ‘wonder boys’ because they are both from Milwaukee and they both have that flair and flash to their game. They both can score at a high clip and that can sometimes take away from the other parts of their game that they are pretty good at. They both have really good left hands, they both make those cross-court passes with one hand.”

REUNION TIME: Having shared in LeBron James’ championship success with the Heat, there is speculation that former Heat forward and assistant coach Juwan Howard might be coaxed from Michigan to help resurrect James’ Lakers. As is typical with such speculation, it then got complicated considering Howard has two sons he is coaching with the Wolverines, Jace, who will be a junior, and Jett, who will be a freshman. Howard’s wife, Jenine, then took to Twitter, asking the media to “stop making it about ‘his sons,’ ” noting a commitment to the entire roster. Howard left the Heat as an assistant coach in 2019 to take over the Wolverines program, which he led to this season’s Sweet 16. James was among those who lobbied for Howard to get the Michigan job, with the Lakers’ having also considered Howard before the now-dismissed Frank Vogel was hired in 2019.

UNIQUE PATH: At 36, former Heat forward Gerald Green decided to begin his coaching career, taking a player-development role at the start of this season with the Houston Rockets. At midseason, he decided he wanted to play again, joining the Rockets’ G League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. On Thursday night, he became a G League champion, scoring six points in a 131-114 victory over the Delaware Blue Coats. Green, who appeared in 69 games for the Heat in 2015-16, played 21 games in the G League this season, averaging 16.6 points.

2

Times over the last 20 seasons that at least four Eastern Conference teams finished with

50 or more wins, with the Heat, Celtics, Bucks and 76ers doing it this season, after the Bulls, Heat, Celtics and Magic did it in 2011-12.

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