Day: May 11, 2024

Mike Budenholzer has agreed on a five-year contract to become the next coach of the Phoenix Suns, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Friday.

A formal announcement will be made Saturday, sources said.

Budenholzer is expected to accompany the team to the NBA draft combine in Chicago, which begins this weekend, and work on a coaching staff already has begun, sources said.

The Suns fired Frank Vogel on Thursday after one season as their coach.

The Suns went 49-33 in the regular season, then were swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the opening round of the Western Conference playoffs.

The hiring of Budenholzer comes with significant pressure and expectations for the team. The roster has been constructed around Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, bringing championship aspirations and a slim margin for error.

Budenholzer will become the franchise’s third head coach in three seasons, a run that has included owner Mat Ishbia firing Monty Williams and Vogel in successive years. Vogel had four years left on his contract, and the cost of a $200 million-plus payroll only gets steeper with the $20 million-plus left on Vogel’s deal and what is now a substantial deal for the most accomplished head-coaching candidate available.

Budenholzer is from Arizona, and his late father was a well-regarded high school coach in the state. Budenholzer won the 2021 NBA championship with the Bucks. He had a 271-120 (.693) record in five seasons in Milwaukee and a 213-197 (.520) record in his previous years with the Atlanta Hawks.

Budenholzer, 54, is a two-time NBA Coach of the Year, winning for the 2014-15 and 2018-19 seasons.

INDIANAPOLIS — In a series being defined by bodies crashing to the court, gamesmanship with the referees and clutch shot-making, it was a miracle heave that now looms largest.

Andrew Nembhard breathed life into his Indiana Pacers, making a 31-foot bomb as the shot clock buzzed. It happened with 16 seconds left in Game 3, snapping a tie in the Pacers’ 111-106 victory over the New York Knicks to pull the series to 2-1.

It tied the longest shot of Nembhard’s career and was hardly a thing of beauty. He rushed it as he was feverishly stepping back to find room and nearly fumbled the ball as he went up. But as the ball swished through, igniting the hometown crowd, it became series-altering.

“I can’t say that was a product of practicing,” Nembhard said. “That was just an in-the-moment type of thing.”

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To say it was unexpected was an understatement as Nembhard was having a tough night. After Knicks’ star Jalen Brunson had torched him repeatedly over the first two games, making 14 of 21 shots for 33 points when Nembhard was the primary defender, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle told him Thursday night that he was making a change and putting the bigger Aaron Nesmith on Brunson for the pivotal game.

Nembhard struggled on offense, missing his first six shots and not scoring until the fourth quarter. But all of that was forgotten with the sweet redemption of making the huge basket over Brunson as he was trying to close out on him.

It was a broken play as Tyrese Haliburton allowed himself to be trapped near half court and fired it to Nembhard with almost no time to spare.

“That was just an in-the-moment type of thing,” Andrew Nembhard said of the late 31-foot heave that lifted the Pacers to a 111-106 Game 3 win. Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images

“I put Drew in kind of a bad situation and he just made an unbelievable shot,” Haliburton said. “He just really stepped up to the moment when we needed him the most.”

Haliburton was in the midst of a huge game, scoring 35 points with seven assists. He’d made six 3-pointers already and the Knicks were desperate to get the ball out of his hands.

“Haliburton had the ball and he had it going pretty good, [so] double-team,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “We had a good rotation, he made a really good shot.”

After the Knicks won the first two games of the series by making most of the vital plays and getting crucial offensive rebounds in the fourth quarters, that trend flipped Friday.

With the Knicks playing smaller after losing OG Anunoby to a hamstring injury, the Pacers got the needed offensive rebounds down the stretch. Including one by Nesmith that allowed for an extra possession that led to the Nembhard shot.

“At the end of the day, he shouldn’t have got that shot cause we should have got a rebound,” said Knicks guard Josh Hart, who had 18 rebounds in the game.

As with the first two games, there was another officiating controversy. With just over two minutes left and the game tied, Hart was on a breakaway after a steal, but Pacers center Myles Turner chased him down and blocked the shot from behind, a major momentum turn.

Replays showed Turner might have made the block a split second after the ball touched the backboard. It was not reviewed.

“I know it was a goaltend,” Hart said. “I saw it.”

It was the best play of a strong game from Turner, who had 21 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks.

Brunson, who’d been on a hot streak throughout the playoffs, struggled with Nesmith on him. Questionable coming into the game with a right foot injury, the Pacers pressured Brunson as he was bringing the ball up the court more aggressively than in the first two games. He briefly left the game in the first quarter when he appeared to slip and tweak the foot.

With less space and perhaps a little less lift off the foot, Brunson ended up shooting just 10-of-26 for an inefficient 26 points. The Knicks suffered without his trademark fourth-quarter magic as they went just 4-of-19 shooting over the game’s last 12 minutes. It was far and away the Pacers’ best stretch of defense in the series.

“If I’m out there, I’m playing, and there’s no excuse whether I’m hurting or not,” Brunson said. “If I’m hurting, I’ll come out.”

It appeared to be a night where Donte DiVincenzo was going to take another hero turn as he had one of the finest games of his career. He scored 35 points and tied a Knicks playoff record by making seven 3-pointers. But he didn’t make a basket in the game’s final 11 minutes, and with Brunson struggling, the Knicks run of clutch-time dominance came to an end at the hands of Nembhard’s stunner.

“I was really proud of the way our guys hung in, kept fighting, stayed the course, kept their emotions in check, and then made a couple of plays at the end,” Carlisle said. “There’s just a lot of things to be proud of, but it’s only one game and so we’re going to have to circle the wagons very quickly and get ready for Sunday afternoon.”

MINNEAPOLIS — Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone challenged his team to act and play like the defending champions.

On Friday, the Nuggets, and Jamal Murray in particular, responded with their best performance of the playoffs, routing the Minnesota Timberwolves 117-90 in Game 3 at the Target Center. The Nuggets trail the Wolves 2-1 in their best-of-seven series.

Murray, fueled by a hostile Minnesota crowd that booed him from the moment he stepped onto the floor during pregame warmups, scored 18 of his 24 points in the first half to set the tone for the Nuggets.

“That definitely fueled me during the game,” Murray said of the boos. “And just keeps me in that mode. So it’s fun. I embrace that challenge. I embrace that moment. I probably deserved the boos, so I’m not shying away from it.”

Minnesota fans wouldn’t let Murray off the hook for throwing a heat pack and towel onto the floor during a dreadful 106-80 Nuggets loss in Game 2. Murray, who shot 3-for-18 in that loss, was fined $100,000 by the league for throwing objects onto the court.

Murray’s troublesome left calf strain was better Friday night, and he thrived in his role as the villain.

“He does kind of relish those moments where he’s a bad guy,” Malone said. “To me, that beginning of the game, you’re in hostile territory and that’s kind of where you separate the man from the boys.”

The Nuggets built a 45-25 lead midway through the second quarter. With Malone emphasizing a hit-first mentality on offense, the Nuggets cleared more space for their shooters than they had in the previous two games against Minnesota’s suffocating defense.

Murray showed how much better he was feeling when he used two crossovers to shake free of Karl-Anthony Towns before drilling a jumper on the big man in the first quarter.

“We had a live practice, so I got to test it out,” Murray said of Denver’s practice on Thursday. “But this was probably the best I felt going into the game. And then it tightened up at the end. But it’s good, man.”

Minnesota fans likely wished Murray had been suspended for throwing objects onto the floor in Game 2, even if Wolves coach Chris Finch wasn’t expecting that to happen.

“I wasn’t disappointed in the league’s decision,” Finch said. “Not because necessarily I agreed. It was simply I never, ever, ever expected them to suspend him. I thought they would throw a heavy fine. There hasn’t really been much precedent for suspending people certainly in the playoffs unless it’s a repeat offense. Whether it is or it isn’t a suspendable thing doesn’t matter now.”

Finch was expecting the Nuggets to deliver a championship performance, and Denver did just that. All five of Denver’s starters scored in double figures. After Murray started hot, MVP Nikola Jokic took over in the third quarter, scoring 13 of his 24 points in the frame. He finished with 24 points, 14 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks, along with several crucial screens to set teammates free for shots.

Michael Porter Jr. had 21 points, and Aaron Gordon buried three triples and had 13 points.

“That was Denver Nugget basketball,” Malone said. “And that’s the first time I’ve seen that in this series for four quarters.”

Anthony Edwards led the Wolves with 19 points but also had a game-high five turnovers, and Minnesota was outscored by 32 points in the 37 minutes he was on the court.

“I’ll take the blame for this loss,” Edwards said. “I came out with no energy at all. I can’t afford to do that for my team. I let my team down, coaches down, fans down. I’ll be ready Sunday.”

Edwards wasn’t the only member of the Wolves to take accountability after the team lost for the first time this postseason following a 6-0 start.

Minnesota point guard Mike Conley (10 points, 6 assists) said the game was officiated differently than the series was in Denver, as evidenced by Jaden McDaniels picking up three fouls in eight minutes of playing time in the first half. But Conley put the onus on his team to adapt to the whistle.

“Tonight, guys weren’t allowed to be as physical as we were in the last game, so we had to adjust our play for that, and that’s what good teams do,” Conley said. “We don’t blame the refs and think that’s why we lost this game. We know better than that.”

Towns, who had 14 points on 4-for-7 shooting, tied for the second-fewest shot attempts he has taken in 23 career playoff games, said that Denver gave Minnesota a wake-up call.

“It’s a great humbling experience, I think, for our team,” Towns said. “To understand that this is not easy. Just because we’ve been fortunate to find ourselves on the winning end for six straight playoff games don’t mean that the seventh, the eighth, the ninth, the 10th is going to be the same result. I think this is a great humbling experience for us and the defending champions definitely gave us that experience and it’s going to make us hungrier, I think it’s going to make us a better team.”

ESPN’s Dave McMenamin contributed to this report.