Boston Celtics Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Hauser Listed As Doubtful For Game 2; Porzingis Probable

May 6th, 2025 at 5:28pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Celtics’ injury report for Game 2 of their second-round series with the Knicks on Wednesday offers a mixed bag.

Key reserve forward Sam Hauser is listed as doubtful due to a sprained right ankle, Ian Begley of SNY TV tweets. However, starting big man Kristaps Porzingis is listed as probable for Game 2 after departing Game 1 early with an illness.

According to Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com (Twitter link), Hauser limped out of the arena on Monday with a protective boot on his ankle. Hauser played just four minutes in Boston’s overtime loss, missing both of this shot attempts. He scored a combined 16 points in Games 4 and 5 of the Celtics’ first-round series against Orlando.

During the regular season, Hauser played in 71 games (19 starts), averaging 8.5 points and 3.2 rebounds in 21.7 minutes per night. He made 41.6% of his 3-point attempts, so Boston, which misfired on 45 of its three-point attempts in Game 1, will be down one of its best long-range shooters if Hauser is sidelined.

Porzingis departed Game 1 after going scoreless in 13 minutes. The Celtics missed his inside presence while giving away a double-digit lead in the second half.

He sat out eight games in February and March due to a viral illness and is apparently still feeling the effects, according to Brian Robb of MassLive.com.

“I think since he came back he’s kind of been dealing with it on and off,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “Fighting through it, working through it, doing the best that he can. And I think it was just too much for him in that game. So I didn’t know that was going to happen until I found about it in that game but he had been working through it since he’s gotten back. And he’s done a great job of being available and it was just tough for him to continue yesterday so we’ll see kind of how he handles that.”

Thunder’s Sam Presti Named Executive Of The Year

May 6th, 2025 at 11:43am CST by Luke Adams

Sam Presti, the Thunder‘s executive vice president of basketball operations and general manager, has been named the NBA’s Executive of the Year for 2024/25, the league announced today (via Twitter). It’s the first time that Presti, who has run the Thunder’s front office since 2007, has earned the honor.

Presti, who built the Thunder around a young core led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams, made two notable moves last offseason to fortify the roster. He traded Josh Giddey to the Bulls in exchange for defensive standout Alex Caruso and signed big man Isaiah Hartenstein away from the Knicks in free agency.

Despite some injury woes that prevented Hartenstein and Holmgren from suiting up together until after the trade deadline, the Thunder dominated the NBA’s regular season in 2024/25, racking up a league-high 68 wins and recording a net rating of +12.7, one of the best marks in league history.

Oklahoma City ranked third in the NBA in offensive rating (119.2) and led the league in defensive rating (106.6) by a comfortable margin.

The Thunder, viewed as the heavy favorites to come out of the West this spring, remain well positioned to contend for years to come due not only to the talent already under contract but to their collection of future draft picks.

The Executive of the Year award is voted on by fellow team executives rather than by media members.

According to the NBA, Presti received 10 of 30 possible first-place votes and showed up on 22 ballots overall, earning 74 total points. He narrowly beat out Koby Altman of the Cavaliers (six first-place votes; 58 points) and Trajan Langdon of the Pistons (six first-place votes; 52 points), with Rafael Stone of the Rockets (four first-place votes; 38 points) coming in fourth.

A total of 13 executives showed up on at least one ballot, with Lawrence Frank (Clippers), Rob Pelinka (Lakers), Sean Marks (Nets), and Brad Stevens (Celtics) earning the remaining first-place votes. The full results can be viewed here (Twitter link).

Celtics Notes: Shot Selection, Porzingis, Waitzkin, Mazzulla, Stevens

May 6th, 2025 at 10:37am CST by Luke Adams

The Celtics set an ignominious record on Monday in their loss to New York. As Brian Windhorst of ESPN writes, their 60 three-point attempts were the most ever taken by a team in a playoff game, but their 45 three-point misses also represented a new high-water mark for the NBA postseason.

Boston hasn’t been shy this season about firing away from beyond the three-point arc. The team’s 48.2 attempts per game during the regular season were nearly six more than that of second-place Golden State (42.4). After making just 25.0% of their outside shots in a Game 1 loss, they expressed mixed feelings about having attempted 60 three-pointers compared to just 37 two-point tries.

“I look at the process and the shot quality, (and) our shot quality was high,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “There were probably eight to 10 shots that could be better at for sure.”

ESPN’s data backs up Mazzulla’s assertion. According to ESPN Research, 45 of the Celtics’ three-point attempts were “uncontested,” but the team missed 32 of those shots. Celtics stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum suggested after the game that they probably should’ve tried to get to the rim more often as those misses piled up.

“In those moments when the other team got momentum you can’t just fire up threes to break up momentum,” Brown said, per Windhorst. “You got to get to the free throw line, get to the paint, get to the basket, maybe get an easy two. You hit some free throws and then maybe the next three-pointer feels a little bit better.”

Here’s more on the Celtics:

The Celtics essentially cruised to a title last season, never losing a Game 1 or more than a single game in any playoff series. However, as Jay King of The Athletic writes, Mazzulla predicted ahead of the second round that his team would have to overcome more adversity this time around if it hoped to repeat. “There’s been great teams that have gone down (in series), great teams that have blown leads, kept leads, all that stuff just kind of goes into the nature of the competitive arena that you’re in, and you have to take the good with the bad if you plan on being in it for a good amount of time,” Mazzulla said before the Game 1 loss. “So studying that gives you the perspective you need to get to where you want to get to.”
Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis exited Monday’s game with 7:34 left in the second quarter and didn’t return due to an illness, as Souichi Terada of MassLive.com writes. Mazzulla said after the game that he hadn’t had a chance to check on Porzingis, who went scoreless in 13 minutes of action. “Obviously it impacts the game with his ability on both ends of the floor, and it obviously changes sub patterns or changes the things that you’re able to do matchup-wise and play-call frequency wise, so yeah, I think we felt it,” the Celtics’ coach said of the big man’s absence. “But it’s no excuse. We had plenty of opportunities to do it, and hopefully he’s ready for Game 2.”
In an interesting story for The Boston Globe (subscription required), Adam Himmelsbach takes an in-depth look at the impact that former child chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin has had on Mazzulla. According to Himmelsbach, Waitzkin – who was featured in the 1993 film ‘Searching For Bobby Fischer’ – was quietly hired by the Celtics as a consultant for this season and has become one of Mazzulla’s “most trusted” confidants. “Josh is great at finding certain segments of the game where it either went really well or it didn’t go well and seeing it from a non-tactical perspective,” Mazzulla explained. “It’s more getting into the mind of an individual fighter or performer.”
In a feature story for The Athletic, Jay King explores how Brad Stevens‘ time at Butler helped provide a blueprint for him to build the roster that turned the Celtics into champions. “Brad understands the most important thing in any organization, whether it’s the business world or sports world, is people,” said Zach Hahn, a former Butler guard who played for Stevens. “And he surrounds himself and finds people that live by the same standards that he lives by.”

Community Shootaround: Are NBA’s Top Seeds In Trouble?

May 6th, 2025 at 8:27am CST by Luke Adams

The second round of the 2025 NBA playoffs are off to an unexpected start, with the league’s top three regular season teams all dropping the first game of their respective series.

The 64-win Cavaliers, the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, fell to the Pacers on Sunday, and the No. 2 Celtics followed suit on Monday by losing to the Knicks. In Monday’s late game, the Thunder, who led the league with 68 regular season wins and dominated Memphis in round one, blew a late-game lead to the Nuggets and lost Game 1.

None of the three games were one-sided. The Pacers and Cavaliers were neck-and-neck through three-and-a-half quarters before Indiana pulled away late in the game; the Knicks required overtime to sneak past the Celtics; and the Thunder fell to the Nuggets on an Aaron Gordon three-pointer in the game’s final seconds.

It’s also worth noting that the Pacers are unlikely to make nearly 53% of their three-point tries (19-of-36) on a regular basis, as they did in Game 1. The Celtics probably aren’t going to miss 45 three-point attempts (they went 15-of-60) very often. And the Thunder could have easily won Game 1 if not for some questionable fouling decisions in crunch time.

In other words, the higher seeds may have no reason to panic — it’s not as if their opponents found glaring weaknesses that can be exploited for the rest of the series. Still, the margin for error in a competitive matchup can be slim, and the fact that those three higher seeds have all given up home-court advantage already could come back to haunt them later in the series.

Of the three teams who trail 1-0 in their respective series, the Cavaliers appear to be in the most danger due in large part to their injury situation. Darius Garland has been out since Game 2 of the first round due to a toe injury and is considered questionable to play in Game 2 vs. Indiana. Evan Mobley (ankle) and De’Andre Hunter (thumb) have joined him on the injury report with the same questionable designation after suffering injuries in Game 1.

Still, oddsmakers don’t appear overly concerned about the top seeds just yet. Despite the fact that they’re trailing in their series, the Cavaliers (-230), Thunder (-325), and Celtics (-355) are listed as solid favorites to advance by BetOnline.ag at the time of this writing. By comparison, the Timberwolves are just a -200 favorite against the lower-seeded Warriors despite that series not yet getting underway.

We want to know what you think. Do you still expect the Cavaliers, Celtics, and Thunder to make it through to the conference finals, or have the Game 1 results of any of those three series made you more inclined to pick an underdog to advance?

Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts.

Atlantic Notes: Hart, Knicks, Robinson, Kornet, Nets

May 5th, 2025 at 6:13pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Josh Hart‘s contributions will be even more invaluable to the Knicks in their second-round series, which began tonight, Jared Schwartz of the New York Post notes.

While the Knicks were able to answer runs against the inexperienced Pistons in their first-round series, the defending champion Celtics possess a killer instinct to bury teams once momentum shifts their way. Hart can guide his teammates through those storms.

“For me, I’ve said it all year, it’s how can I get my guys going? How can I help them get an easy shot or an open look or get their energy into the game? A lot of that I do by example,” Hart said. “I’ll talk to guys obviously, but it’s making a big play here or there, a hustle play that will get one of those guys an open shot that they knock down, now they’re feeling good, the energy is up. That’s something I always try to do, that I hang my hat on.”

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A big concern for the Knicks is matching up against the Celtics‘ bench, Schwartz notes. Boston has the Sixth Man of the Year, Payton Pritchard, and several other contributors in reserve, while Miles McBride struggled during New York’s first-round series. Mitchell Robinson was the only second-unit player who provided consistent production against Detroit and they’ll need that again from him in this series.
Speaking of Celtics reserves, Luke Kornet had to make a major career adjustment with the team. They asked him to be more of an interior presence, rather than joining the long list of big men tasked with stretching the floor. “It was actually really hard,” Kornet told Brian Robb of Masslive.com. “All of a sudden, the thing that I was most proud of and felt was my identity, and the reason I was in the NBA was kind of gone.”
The Nets‘ stockpile of draft picks is more valuable than ever, Brian Lewis of the New York Post writes. They have multiple picks in this year’s loaded draft, plenty of extra picks and picks swap in future seasons. Cheap rookie contracts are more important now because of the restrictions in the current CBA.

Celtics’ Jrue Holiday Removed From Injury Report

May 4th, 2025 at 5:42pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Jrue Holiday is off the injury report for Game 1 of the Celtics’ second-round series against the Knicks, as Brian Robb of MassLive.com writes.

The Celtics issued a clean injury report on Sunday, signaling they’ll be at full strength when they take the court for Monday’s home contest.

Holiday missed the final three games of Boston’s first-round series against Orlando due to a strained hamstring.

Holiday will likely be matched up defensively against the Knicks’ top offensive threat, Jalen Brunson. Brunson averaged 26.3 points and 5.8 assists against the Celtics this season but Boston swept the four-game season series.

Holiday, who won the NBA’s annual Sportsmanship Award, averaged 11.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.1 steals during the regular season while starting 62 games. The scoring average was his lowest since his rookie season, but he’s a steadying force.

Holiday was instrumental in Boston’s title run last season, averaging 13.2 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.4 assists while committing just 1.5 turnovers per contest and earning second-team All-Defensive honors.

Knicks Notes: Brunson, Anunoby, Towns

May 4th, 2025 at 1:45pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The next major playoff test for Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson will be grappling with the Celtics’ All-Defensive backcourt, writes Zach Braziller of The New York Post.

The reigning Clutch Player of the Year averaged 31.5 PPG, 8.2 APG, 4.0 RPG in New York’s first round playoff series victory against Detroit, while fending off top point-of-attack Pistons defender Ausar Thompson.

The Celtics’ imposing defensive duo of Derrick White and Jrue Holiday isn’t looking past Brunson either.

“Big-time player,” White said of Brunson. “Seems to make the big plays for them. He’s had an unbelievable year, and obviously these playoffs, he’s taken it to another level. … Try to make it as difficult as we can for 48 minutes.”

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All-Defensive Knicks forward OG Anunoby is preparing for his own massive test, in this case defending the Celtics’ best player, six-time All-Star forward Jayson Tatum, writes Peter Botte of The New York Post. “I always have confidence [in OG] no matter who he is guarding,” Brunson said of Anunoby. “He brings that mindset every game. And so I have confidence regardless of whatever he is doing.” As Botte notes, former All-Defensive wing Mikal Bridges could also spend significant time guarding Tatum.
After attempting a series-low 10 shots in the Knicks’ series-clinching Game 6 win over Detroit, Karl-Anthony Towns says he isn’t concerned about the drop in his field goal attempts — as long as New York keeps winning, writes Ethan Sears of The New York Times.
In case you missed it, Holiday is looking to return to the hardwood early in the Knicks series after sitting out Boston’s last three playoff games with a strained right hamstring.

Celtics Notes: Holiday, Brown, Porzingis, Offseason

May 4th, 2025 at 10:58am CST by Arthur Hill

The Celtics are getting healthier as they prepare for the start of their second-round series against the Knicks, writes Matt Vautour of MassLive. After Saturday’s practice, coach Joe Mazzulla offered an encouraging update on Jrue Holiday, who missed the final three games of the Orlando series with a strained right hamstring.

“He was able to work on everything he wanted to work on,” Mazzulla said. “He’s getting better every day.”

Holiday’s return will be especially important in the matchup with New York, as he’s likely to be the primary defender against Jalen Brunson.

Jaylen Brown told reporters that he’s feeling better despite dealing with a posterior impingement in his right knee that has been bothering him for several weeks. The condition hasn’t gone away, but Brown is learning how to play through it.

“I’m just trying to trend back in the direction of being 100 percent,” Brown said. “Physically holding my ground and still making plays for our team. Even with guys being out — Jrue, (Jayson Tatum) missed a game — being able to step in and fill a role. I feel I’m decent. Now, moving forward, it’s a whole different ballgame, different team, different challenges. My focus is fixed on that. Structurally, everything is fine. There’s some other stuff going on, but I’m trending in the right direction.”

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The Celtics are looking forward to getting back to their normal style of play after being frustrated by Orlando in the first round, Jay King of The Athletic states in a discussion of the upcoming series with Fred Katz and James L. Edwards III. That means returning to their normal rate of three-point attempts, which the Magic were able to limit much better than the Knicks did in their four regular season matchups with Boston.
There are reasons to be concerned about Kristaps Porzingis heading into the second-round series, Brian Robb of MassLive states in a mailbag column. Robb points out that Porzingis has never played more than seven games in any postseason, and he wasn’t effective in rebounding against Orlando or in stopping dribble penetration by Franz Wagner. Those challenges will be magnified against New York, which has Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson on the boards and Brunson attacking the basket.
Robb expects money-saving roster changes this summer, noting that the Celtics had “a unique two-year window” to compete for a title with the current group. He sees Porzingis and Holiday as obvious trade candidates and adds that there could be “surprises” depending on how far the Celtics advance in the playoffs.

Knicks Notes: Porzingis, Brunson, Bridges, Anunoby, Towns

May 3rd, 2025 at 9:50pm CST by Arthur Hill

Kristaps Porzingis was once beloved by Knicks fans who saw him as their best hope of escaping years of dysfunction, writes Stefan Bondy of The New York Post. But years later, after a devastating injury and a messy breakup, Porzingis is a member of the Celtics and stands in their team’s way of reaching the Eastern Conference Finals.

When he was drafted with the fourth pick in 2015, Porzingis was hailed as a “unicorn” because of his unique combination of size and outside shooting touch. He was an immediate fan favorite in New York, but his efforts to turn the Knicks into contenders were sunk by general mismanagement and what Bondy calls “petty infighting” involving the front office and coaching staff.

Bondy states that former team executives Phil Jackson and Steve Mills never viewed Porzingis as a future star and unsuccessfully tried to trade him after his second season. He suffered a torn ACL midway through the following season and then missed all of 2018/19. Before he was fully healed, he was traded to Dallas, and Knicks management cast him as a villain on the way out.

“The whole process was just a mess,” Porzingis said. “I didn’t like the way it ended. That wasn’t how I wanted it to end, if it did end. I tried to stay myself the whole time. Not do anything. Not say anything. If I did say anything, it would’ve been right after I was traded. Now it’s too late.”

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Knicks players are acknowledging that Boston will present a tougher challenge than they faced in the first round, per Peter Botte of The New York Post. New York went 0-4 against the Celtics this season, dropping the first three games by 63 total points before losing in overtime in April. “Obviously, (we have to) play better than we did (against them) throughout the regular season,” Jalen Brunson said. “Be better, ready to do it from the jump, knowing it’s going to be a game of runs, knowing that they’re capable of doing a lot of great things. I feel like we played better in that (fourth) game. We adjusted from the first three times we played them, obviously still not getting it done, but definitely played better and competed better than the first three games. So that’s something we can look at and build off of.”
The Knicks never lost faith in Mikal Bridges no matter how bad things got this season, and he rewarded them in the close-out game against Detroit, notes Barbara Barker of Newsday. Bridges scored 25 points in Game 6 and tied the contest on a put-back slam in the final minute. After Saturday’s practice, coach Tom Thibodeau told reporters that Bridges has done an admirable job in dealing with a heavy amount of pressure after the Knicks sent five first-round picks to Brooklyn to acquire him. “I think for anybody who gets traded or in free agency or whatever it might be there’s an adjustment period that you have to go through and it takes some time,” Thibodeau said. “I think he’s very confident in his abilities.”
Steve Popper of Newsday lists five keys for the Knicks in the series, including the need for Bridges and OG Anunoby to control Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, and a more consistent performance from Karl-Anthony Towns.

Celtics Sale Expected To Close Soon

May 3rd, 2025 at 8:47pm CST by Arthur Hill

The group headed by William Chisholm has attained enough money to cover the cost of buying the Celtics, and the sale is expected to be finalized in the next week or so, sources tell Ben Horney of Front Office Sports.

Two sources describe the group’s status as “oversubscribed,” according to Horney, with more than enough capital on hand to complete the deal. Horney states that the buyers will acquire slightly more than 51% of the franchise in the first part of the transaction, but the exact stake for Chisholm hasn’t been clarified.

Front Office Sports reported last week last that Chisholm was still seeking investors, so progress has apparently been made in the past few days.

Horney notes that Chisholm’s group has also resolved an issue involving Sixth Street Partners, a private equity firm. Reports emerged after the sale was announced in March that Sixth Street Partners was contributing more money to the sale than Chisholm, which isn’t permitted. NBA regulations state that private equity firms cannot be the largest stakeholder in a team and that at least 15% of the purchase price must come from the controlling owner.

That issue was raised by current minority owner Steve Pagliuca, who also sought to buy the team. Horney states that Pagliuca wrote a public letter to Celtics fans last month promising that his proposal was “fully guaranteed and financed” and contained “no debt or private equity money that would potentially hamstring our ability to compete in the future.”

Pagliuca added that he and his partners were “ready to check back into the game” if Chisholm’s group couldn’t comply with NBA bylaws.

According to Horney, a plan remains in place to have current owner Wyc Grousbeck continue as CEO and governor through the 2027/28 season. A source tells Horney that there will be two parts to the sale, and current minority owners can also keep their positions in the organization until 2028.

The minority owners can sell their stakes for up to 20% more than the original price of the deal, Horney adds, under a revenue-based formula established by the league. He estimates that it will bring the actual value of the deal to almost $7.3 billion.

Several new minority owners will be identified in the coming weeks, and they could include a few familiar names to Boston sports fans, according to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. A source tells Himmelsbach that Chisholm has made it a priority to establish ties with the local business community.

Himmelsbach also points out that no matter when the sale is finalized, it won’t become official until it’s approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors, probably in June or July.