Nuggets' Connelly talks to T'Wolves
Denver Nuggets president Tim Connelly is set to meet with Timberwolves controlling owner Glen Taylor in the next step of talks with Connelly to take over as Minnesota’s president of basketball operations, with a deal being close between the sides, sources confirmed.
Owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez, who are set to take over as controlling owners in 2023, have the most important voices in the process of identifying and targeting a top-tier NBA executive to run the Wolves going forward, but Taylor, as current controlling owner, has to sign off on any deal.
Since becoming a part of the organization last summer, Lore and Rodriguez have wanted to target a big name with a long track record of building a successful franchise to run basketball operations moving forward. Connelly helped build a perennial contender in Denver around two-time MVP Nikola Jokic since joining the Nuggets as general manager in 2013. He was later promoted to team president.
The Nuggets reached the Western Conference finals in 2020. Jamal Murray, the burgeoning guard who spearheaded that run alongside Jokic, has been out since April 2021 after tearing his left ACL. Denver hasn’t advanced past the second round in the two playoffs since.
Connelly would inherit a Wolves roster that made its second playoff appearance since 2004. The hiring process for the Wolves owners has been a high-wire act of negotiations; they are still allowing executive vice president Sachin Gupta to run the team on a day-to-day basis after the firing of Gersson Rosas in September.
They also will be shelling out a large contract to lure Connelly away from Denver, with sources saying there was a possibility Connelly could receive an ownership stake.
Should Connelly receive a formal offer and accept the job, his hiring would lead to a lot of questions moving forward. He would take the job knowing he would be working with head coach Chris Finch, who signed a four-year deal in March. The two have prior experience working together when Finch was an assistant in Denver during the 2016-17 season.
NBA ANNOUNCES ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM » Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics was the leading vote-getter for the All-Defensive first team, with Mikal Bridges of the Phoenix Suns joining him as the other guard.
Former Defensive Players of the Year Rudy Gobert of Utah and Giannis Antetokounmpo of Milwaukee were also voted Friday to the first team along with Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr.
Smart received 99 first-place votes and 198 points from the panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters. Bridges, the runner-up to Smart for the league’s top defensive award, got 95 first-team votes and three second-team votes for a total of 193 points.
Players received two points for a first-team vote and one for a second-team vote.
Gobert, the three-time Defensive Player of the Year, was a first-team All-Defensive selection for the sixth straight season. Antetokounmpo made it for the fourth straight season, which includes the 201920 season when was both the NBA MVP and Defensive Player of the Year. Jackson, who led the league with 2.27 blocks per game, is a first-time selection.
The second team was Miami forward Bam Adebayo, Milwaukee guard Jrue Holiday, Philadelphia guard Matisse Thybulle, Boston center Robert Williams III and Golden State forward Draymond Green.
BOSTON » Bam Adebayo scored 31 points with 10 rebounds for the Miami Heat, who blew a 25-point, first-half lead and lost Jimmy Butler to a knee injury but held on to beat the Boston Celtics 109-103 in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals on Saturday night.
Boston never led in the game, but erased almost all of the 6237 deficit and came within one point, 93-92, with 2:40 to play on a 3-pointer from Jaylen Brown, who finished with 40 points.
Max Strus answered with a 3 and then Adebayo bounced off defender Al Horford and made a basket at the shot clock buzzer to give Miami a six-point cushion it held to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Game 4 is Monday night in Boston.
In a game that saw Butler and Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart leave with injuries — though both Celtics returned — Kyle Lowry came back from a four-game absence and scored 11 with six assists for the Heat.
P.J. Tucker — like Lowry a gametime decision — scored 17 for the Heat.
Horford scored 20 points with 14 rebounds, and Smart scored 16. Tatum had 10 points on 3-for14 shooting; he also had six turnovers and Brown committed seven of Boston’s 24 turnovers — a 2022 playoff high.
After losing Game 2 at home by 25 points to cede homecourt advantage to the Celtics, the Heat opened a 62-37 lead with under three minutes left in the second quarter and then watched Boston score the last 10 points of the half to claw its way back into the game.
Things got worse for the Heat when they announced at halftime that Butler, who scored 41 in the series opener, would not return with right knee inflammation.
Miami still led by 15, 87-72, after three, and made it a 17-point game on Adebayo’s basket to start the fourth. But the Celtics ran off the next nine points to get within single digits for the first time since the first three minutes of the game. Trailing 93-80, the Celtics scored 12 straight points – 10 by Brown – to make it a one-point game with 2:40 left.
In and out
Boston opened the second with a basket to make it a 13-point game, but the building went silent when Smart, the Defensive Player of the Year, went down in a collision with Lowry while going for a loose ball and needed to be helped to the locker room.
Smart returned just five minutes later, drawing a huge cheer when the scoreboard showed him walking down the tunnel back toward the court. He checked back in with seven minutes left in the third and hit a 3-pointer that made it a 10-point game, 72-62, and forced the Heat to call timeout.
The situation was repeated when Tatum went down in obvious pain with five minutes left in the fourth.
He went straight to the locker room, clutching his right side, but also returned to the cheers of the crowd.
Lowry missed eight of the Heat’s previous 10 games with a right hamstring strain, last playing in Game 4 of Miami’s second-round series with Philadelphia. Tucker had a sore left knee but was also in the starting lineup.
The Celtics played without center Robert Williams III, who missed three games in the second round against Milwaukee with soreness and a bone bruise in his surgically repaired left knee. Daniel Theis started in his place. Derrick White returned after missing Game 2 to be at the birth of his first child.
Tip-ins
The Celtics’ 24 turnovers led to 33 Miami points. The Heat had nine turnovers that led to nine Celtics points . ... Miami’s bench outscored Boston’s 26-16. ... The Heat shot 64% in the first quarter, but finished at 46.7%. ... Penn State coach and former Celtics assistant Micah Shrewsberry and Providence College coach Ed Cooley were both in attendance.