Spurs Notes: Castle, Harper, Fox, Conference Finals
The Spurs didn’t need much time to grow into a contender. Three years after the lottery win that brought Victor Wembanyama to San Antonio, the team is headed to the Western Conference Finals with several rotation players who are even younger than he is.
After eliminating the Timberwolves on Friday with a 30-point win at Minnesota, coach Mitch Johnson said his players never focused on any issues their inexperience might cause, relays Dave Campbell of The Associated Press.
“I understand the general expectations of what we were supposed to do in October aren’t necessarily aligned with where we’re at right now,” Johnson said. “We never talked about what we were going to be or what we were going to do. We just knew that we had a lot of potential and we were going to try to be the best team we could be.”
Wembanyama gets the most attention, but the Spurs have plenty of weapons around him – building the team by drafting well and taking advantage of some good fortune in the lottery. Stephon Castle, the fourth pick in 2024, led the way in Game 6 with 32 points and 11 rebounds while shooting 5-of-7 from three-point range. Rookie guard Dylan Harper, the No. 2 pick last summer, continued his outstanding series with 15 points and five rebounds off the bench.
“We’re a really talented group that plays together and plays very selfless, and we’re all young,” Castle said. “I think we can beat anybody on any given night. Us just being very selfless in the way we move the ball, it’s just fun to play.”
There’s more on the Spurs:
- At 28, De’Aaron Fox is enjoying his role as a mentor to his two young backcourt partners, per Michael C. Wright of ESPN. Fox, who was acquired from Sacramento at last year’s deadline, is trying to build on their natural talents and create a winning culture. “I want them to feel that success from as early as you can get it in your career because you never know when those things can come back around,” he said. “[I] just give them little tidbits that they can get here or there because they’re just so talented. Just giving them a cheat sheet to kind of maneuver throughout the league. I try to add what I can to what they can already do. They can already do a lot of things.”
- Minnesota coach Chris Finch admits he made a mistake by beginning Friday’s game with center Rudy Gobert guarding Castle, Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News writes in a subscriber-only story. “I’ll take the blame for the start of the game,” Finch said. “We flipped the matchups around. We tried to do some things there that maybe slow down their start. Allowed Castle to get hot early, that certainly wasn’t the plan. That’s on me.”
- The Spurs seem mentally prepared for the challenge of facing the defending champion Thunder in the conference finals, observes Kelly Iko of Yahoo Sports. “The nature of the playoffs means that we’re going to play against better and better teams,” Wembanyama said. “And that was already elite between the first and second round. But we have the guidance. Good coaching staff, the best actually, so we can trust them.” Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman offers a series preview with a comparison of the two teams in several important areas.
Pistons’ Robinson, LeVert, Huerter Questionable For Game 7
The Pistons have listed guard/forwards Duncan Robinson (low back soreness), Caris LeVert (right heel contustion) and Kevin Huerter (left adductor strain) as questionable for Sunday’s do-or-die Game 7 against Cleveland, according to Hunter Patterson of The Athletic (Twitter link).
All three players were also listed as questionable for Friday’s Game 6 win in Cleveland, which evened the second-round series at three games apiece. Robinson, LeVert and Huerter were all upgraded to available prior to that victory.
Huerter reportedly received an injection prior to Game 6 after aggravating his adductor injury, which had caused him to miss two-plus weeks. He didn’t end up playing on Friday, but Robinson and LeVert both played significant roles with the Pistons facing elimination for the fourth time this postseason.
Robinson, who was limited in Game 4 due to the back issue that caused him to miss Game 5, recorded 14 points (including converting four of his seven three-pointers), two rebounds, two assists in 20 minutes. The veteran shooting guard has been a key floor spacer and secondary play-maker in his first season in Detroit. He came off the bench in Game 6 for the first time this season (Daniss Jenkins got his second straight start).
LeVert, meanwhile, had eight points, three rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block in 29 minutes on Friday. The veteran wing is facing his former team with a chance to advance to an Eastern Conference final matchup vs. New York.
Wolves Notes: Edwards, Roster, Giannis, Randle, Hyland
Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards made an unusual gesture during Friday’s Game 6, congratulating the Spurs during a timeout with Minnesota down 33 points at home with 8:01 remaining (YouTube link). Edwards said it was an acknowledgement that San Antonio was the better team, per Myron Medcalf of ESPN.
As Medcalf writes, the Timberwolves have now lost three consecutive playoff elimination games by an average of 27 points each. They lost at home to Dallas in Game 5 of the 2024 Western Conference finals, at Oklahoma City in Game 5 of the 2025 Western finals, and at home to San Antonio on Friday in the conference semifinals.
When asked if there were any common themes during those three losses, Edwards replied, “Good question. No comment.”
According to Medcalf, Edwards said he was content with the current roster, but he also said the Wolves didn’t prepare like a championship contender.
“I feel like you’re supposed to build championship habits or playoff habits in a regular season,” Edwards said. “No, we didn’t build the habits during the regular season.”
Here’s more on the Wolves:
- Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic views Edwards’ gesture as a sign that the 24-year-old guard recognizes the Timberwolves have been passed in the West’s hierarchy and believes it was a message to the front office to trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo. As Thompson observes, while Edwards publicly said the roster wasn’t an issue, he also suggested his teammates didn’t take advantage of the double teams he faced. “It was no struggle,” Edwards said of handling the defense’s extra attention. “Just trusting in my teammates, trusting in the next action we’re going to make something happen. And I feel like we did, man. We just couldn’t make enough shots to win the game. I think that’s just what it came down to.” That’s not exactly a bold statement, considering Julius Randle (three points on 1-of-8 shooting), Rudy Gobert (zero points on 0-of-4 shooting) and Jaden McDaniels (13 points on 4-of-13 shooting, five fouls in 23 minutes) combined to score 16 points on 5-of-25 shooting in Game 6.
- According to Medcalf, Edwards said the following about when asked how the Wolves can catch up to the Thunder and Spurs, with other teams lurking in the West: “I don’t know, man. I don’t think that’s a question for me.“
- Randle, who was a game-worst minus-34 in 23 minutes, looks “miscast” as a No. 2 option when playing against title contenders, according to Thompson, who points out that Game 6 was so lopsided because San Antonio’s secondary stars — including Stephon Castle, who had a game-high 32 points, 11 rebounds and six assists — dominated. Randle had no answers for trying to score on Victor Wembanyama throughout the series, Thompson writes.
- Backup guard Bones Hyland hopes to re-sign with Minnesota as an unrestricted free agent, tweets Chris Hine of The Star Tribune. “It feels like where I belong so I definitely want to come back,” Hyland said.
Chris Finch Expected To Remain Timberwolves’ Head Coach
Within a story examining the big-picture implications of the Timberwolves being eliminated from the playoffs following Friday’s lopsided Game 6 loss to San Antonio, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic states that head coach Chris Finch “will be back for his sixth full season” in 2026/27.
Finch has compiled a 258-193 record (.572 win-loss percentage) in parts of six seasons at the helm in Minnesota. The Timberwolves have posted a winning record and made the playoffs in each of his five full years, including back-to-back trips to the Western Conference finals in 2024 and 2025.
The Wolves had another uneven regular season in 2025/26, winning 49 games for the second straight year and entering the playoffs as the sixth seed. Minnesota upset the third-seeded Nuggets in round one before falling to the No. 2 Spurs in the Western semifinals.
Finch was a longtime assistant before he landed the Wolves’ top coaching job in February 2021. The 56-year-old, who has two years left on his contract, Krawczynski notes, suggested after the team was eliminated that some roster tweaks might be necessary to try and catch up to the defending champion Thunder and the rising Spurs.
“You either gotta be a problem or have a solution,” Finch said. “You have to be built in a way that troubles your opponent with something they don’t have or have something to counter what they do have.”
Krawczynski also confirms that owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez are interested in signing president of basketball operations Tim Connelly to a contract extension, and writes that team employees on both the business and basketball sides of the organization were happy Matt Lloyd stayed in his role as general manager. Lloyd was a finalist for the Bulls’ top basketball operations job before they hired Bryson Graham.
Elliot Cadeau Withdrawing From Draft, Returning To Michigan
Junior guard Elliot Cadeau is withdrawing from the 2026 NBA draft and returning to Michigan for his senior season, agent Drew Gross tells Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports (Twitter link).
A 6’1″ point guard, Cadeau tested the draft waters this spring after he helped lead the Wolverines to the NCAA championship in early April. He was named to the NCAA All-Tournament team and took home Most Outstanding Player honors as well after averaging 12.3 points, 7.5 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 1.7 steals while shooting 38.7% from long distance in six games during the tournament.
Cadeau, who played his first two college seasons at UNC prior to transferring to Michigan, appeared in all 40 of the Wolverines’ games in 2025/26. He averaged 10.5 PPG, 5.9 APG, 2.7 RPG and 0.9 SPG in 27.3 MPG, with a shooting line of .411/.376/.709.
A New Jersey native, Cadeau was invited to attend the G League combine earlier this month and reportedly worked out for the Knicks on May 5. His decision to withdraw doesn’t come as a surprise, as he wasn’t on ESPN’s latest big board of the top 100 prospects in the class of 2026.
Mike Conley Wants To Continue Career
Timberwolves guard Mike Conley wants to play at least another season, he told Chris Hine of the Minneapolis Star Tribune (Twitter link).
“I think I might’ve proved to myself I can play a little longer,” he said.
Conley will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. Conley, 38, began the season with the Timberwolves but endured a tumultous journey during the trade deadline.
The Timberwolves sent Conley to Chicago in a salary-dump trade on February 3, with the Bulls flipping him to Charlotte along with Coby White a day later, just ahead of the Feb. 5 trade deadline. The Hornets subsequently cut him, which cleared the way for the 38-year-old to return to Minnesota.
NBA rules prohibit a player who is traded and then waived to immediately re-sign with the team that traded him away. However, that restriction only applied to the Bulls, not the Timberwolves, since Conley was traded twice.
His playing time increased late in the regular season and he was part of the postseason rotation. He appeared in 12 playoff games, including five starts, and averaged 4.4 points and 2.7 assists in 14 minutes per game.
Conley has played 1,220 regular-season games and 120 playoff games in a career that began in 2007 with Memphis.
Cavs Notes: Mitchell, Thompson, Game 7, Harden
Donovan Mitchell failed to carry the Cavaliers into the conference finals in Game 6 against Detroit on Friday. Mitchell scored a series-low 18 points on 6-of-20 shooting and had as many turnovers (three) as assists in the 21-point loss.
“I can’t dwell on it,” Mitchell said. “I missed shots tonight. … I’ve been making them most every game of this series, and tonight I didn’t.”
Mitchell must get past this clunker and deliver in Game 7 at Detroit on Sunday, Jason Lloyd of The Athletic opines. The outcome of Game 7 will have major implications for Mitchell and the franchise.
Lloyd speculates that Mitchell might be hiding an injury, noting that he hasn’t looked like himself for most of this postseason.
Here’s more on the Cavaliers:
- A controversial ruling allowed the Pistons’ defensive ace, Ausar Thompson, to stay in the game. While fighting through a screen during the second quarter, Thompson threw Sam Merrill to the court with his arm around Merrill’s neck. However, the officials assessed Thompson with a Flagrant 1 foul, rather than ejecting him. Lead official Zach Zarba explained the decision. “The criteria for a flagrant foul 2 would be windup, impact and follow-through,” Zarba said, per The Athletic’s Joe Vardon. “On this particular play, there was impact and follow-through, but there was no windup. It was unnecessary contact but also not excessive, so that’s why it wasn’t upgraded to a Flagrant 2.”
- James Harden said the Cavs need to match Detroit’s defensive intensity to win Game 7, per Cleveland.com. “Not shooting the basketball well, I wouldn’t say it’s an excuse, but it’s not a reason. Our defense has to be the priority from the beginning of the game until the last buzzer,” he said. “That’s priority number one. And I don’t think we necessarily did that from the beginning of the game until the final buzzer, which is the reason why we didn’t play well. We feed off our defense, our energy comes from our defense, and we didn’t do that well enough like they did. So then our offense is a little bit more difficult just because you’re not getting stops. So we got to take the ball out, and it’s just a trickle effect. So in order to win this game, we gotta hang our hats on the defensive end, and we should be in a good position.”
- At least for this postseason, Harden has passed Stephen Curry on the all-time points list, Daniel Oyefusi of ESPN notes. He moved into 10th place during the first quarter on a step-back 3-pointer from the right wing. That gave him 4,148 postseason points. Curry has scored 4,147 points.
Pistons Notes: Game 6 Win, Bench, Duren, Cunningham
The Pistons shook off their Game 5 collapse with a convincing road victory in Cleveland on Friday night, forcing a decisive Game 7 in Detroit on Sunday night. It’s the fourth time this postseason the Pistons have delivered in an elimination game.
“They just don’t quit,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said, per Jamal Collier of ESPN. “The resolve that they have, the belief that they have in one another. They just have the ability to bounce back mentally where they don’t hang on to things.”
The Pistons pulled away by holding the Cavaliers to 29% shooting in the second half and 39% overall.
“I just think you got to look at the backgrounds of this group,” guard Daniss Jenkins said. “I’m not supposed to be in this position according to everybody in the league. I just think we’re special. We just want to defy all the odds. We not taking [anything] from [anybody]. We know it’s us against the world.”
Here’s more on the Pistons:
- Reserves Marcus Sasser, Paul Reed and Caris LeVert delivered in dynamite fashion in Game 6, Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press notes. They combined for 34 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Sasser, who had been out of the rotation, played 18 minutes and Detroit outscored Cleveland by 27 points during his court time. “That was the plan,” Bickerstaff said. “We have so much depth. Obviously, foul trouble changed a couple of things for us, but we just trust these guys and trust the depth that we have and that they can go out and make an impact. Guys like Sass, in the two years we’ve been here, has proven that when his number’s called, he’s prepared and he goes out and can give us buckets, defend at a high level. I thought he was great tonight. Up and down the roster, I thought we had great production, great intensity.”
- All-Star center Jalen Duren, the subject of heavy criticism during this postseason, posted a double-double in Game 6 with 15 points and 11 rebounds. He added three blocks, equaling his total from the first five games. “My confidence never wavered in myself. I know what I can do. I know what I can be and try to keep it rolling,” Duren said, per Joe Reedy of the Associated Press. “I’m playing my best basketball when I’m being assertive and picking my spots. I think early on I was just getting a groove.”
- They’re looking forward to having a raucous crowd for Game 7 at Little Caesars Arena, Cade Cunningham told Bob Wojnarowski of the Detroit News. “It’s gonna be a madhouse in there, the crowd’s gonna come to play as well,” Cunningham said. “They want to insert themselves in the game, so it’s gonna be a fun environment.”
NBA To Announce MVP Award Sunday; SGA, Jokic, Wembanyama Named Finalists
The NBA will announce the winner of the Most Valuable Player award on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime, just before the start of Game 7 of the Cavaliers–Pistons series, the league office tweets.
Reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić and Victor Wembanyama are the three finalists for the award.
Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 31.1 points, 6.6 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals in 68 regular-season games while leading the Thunder to a league-high 64 victories. He shot a career-best 55.3 percent from the field.
Jokic is seeking his fourth career MVP. The Nuggets center averaged a triple-double for the second consecutive season with 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds and a career-high 10.7 assists in 70 games. Wembanyama averaged 25.0 points, 11.7 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 3.1 blocks in 64 games. He was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year last month. The Spurs center would be the first French player to claim the MVP trophy.
The Spurs will face the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals, beginning on Monday, and the scheduling announcement hints that SGA could be the winner, the Associated Press notes. Last season, Gilgeous-Alexander was announced as the winner on May 21, and he was formally presented with the trophy before Game 2 of the conference finals in Oklahoma City the following day.
Former First-Rounder Sam Dekker Transitioning To Coaching
Former NBA first-round pick Sam Dekker has been named an assistant men’s basketball coach at the University of South Carolina, the school announced in a press release. The 32-year-old will work under head coach Lamont Harris, who was an assistant at Wisconsin during Dekker’s time with the Badgers.
While Dekker will be involved in all aspects of coaching for the Gamecocks, his focus will be on-court player development.
“I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of Gamecock basketball,” said Dekker. “I’m so grateful to Coach Paris for trusting me with this role, and I take it very seriously. The decision to transition from player to coach is not one I took lightly, but joining Coach Paris and this program was a dream opportunity.
“I am thrilled to return to the college game and compete at such a high level in the SEC. My 11 years as a pro have provided so many experiences with amazing players, coaches and styles. Some of my best memories as a player were competing in two Final Fours with Coach Paris, and I look forward to doing that with him again. My goal is to win in March and give our players the best opportunity for success on and off the court.”
The 18th overall pick in the 2015 draft, Dekker spent his entire rookie scale contract (four years) in the NBA but didn’t find a ton of success. He was traded multiple times in those four seasons and spent a couple years in Russia and Turkey before catching on with the Raptors in the 2021 offseason.
The 6’9″ forward only spent a few months with Toronto, having been waived at the start of the 2021/22 campaign after making one brief appearance with the team. He has spent the past five seasons playing professionally in Turkey, England and — most recently — Spain.
Dekker was a productive international player as recently as 2024/25, but his numbers fell off considerably last season the Spanish club Joventut. The former Badgers star averaged 5.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 15.4 minutes per game across 201 NBA appearances.