Spoelstra, Udoka have Heat, Celtics ready for East finals
He grew up in Portland, basketball in his blood. Wasn't exactly a big-time recruit before eventually playing some college ball in the West Coast Conference. Took a circuitous route into coaching, guided along the way by one of the game's legendary sideline bosses. And last summer, he was part of the brain trust that helped USA Basketball win Olympic gold.
That is Erik Spoelstra's story.
That is also Ime Udoka's story.
There is enormous respect between those men, who have known one another for decades and have deep ties. Spoelstra coaches the Miami Heat, Udoka is in his first season coaching the Boston Celtics, and one of them will be representing the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals. Game 1 of the East title series is tonight, the top-seeded Heat playing host to the secondseeded Celtics.
“We have great respect for what they've done during the regular season, to develop the right habits,” said Spoelstra, now in his 14th season after taking over as Miami coach for Hall of Famer Pat Riley. “And like I said, this is the way it should be — the two teams that played most consistently at the top of the East for most of the year, and we're meeting in the conference finals to figure it out.”
The Heat needed five games to get past Atlanta in Round 1, then six games to oust Philadelphia in the East semifinals. Boston swept Brooklyn in Round 1, then ended Milwaukee's reign as NBA champions by finishing off a seven-game series win in the other East semi that ended Sunday.
It's a rematch of the 2020 East finals, held in the restart bubble at Walt Disney World, when Miami topped Boston 4-2 to earn a berth in the NBA Finals.
Lakers have already made Pelicans lucky
Time for the NBA draft lottery, where some team will get a nice reward for a miserable season.
Not the Lakers, though. Their misery is set to make a good year even better for the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Pelicans are the lone playoff team among the clubs who can get a boost from lotto luck when the drawing is conducted tonight in Chicago.
The Houston Rockets, Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons all share a 14% chance of winning the lottery and the No. 1 pick for the June 23 NBA draft in New York. Auburn's Jabari Smith, Gonzaga's Chet Holmgren and Duke's Paolo Banchero are among the top college players available.
The Rockets, Magic and Pistons were young teams who finished at the bottom of the league, the kinds of teams the lottery is supposed to benefit.
Then there's the Pelicans.
They were just like most other observers in and around the NBA this season, expecting the Lakers to be a winning team, possibly a championship contender. But when the Lakers instead flopped to a 33-49 finish, eighth-worst in the league, it left New Orleans in position to cash in one of its chips from the 2019 trade that sent Anthony Davis to Los Angeles.
The Pelicans will make the pick from the Lakers as long as it lands in the top 10 — and there's about a 99.6% chance of that.