Lou Williams Leads Clippers to Game 5 Win vs. Warriors Despite Kevin Durant’s 45

OAKLAND, CA - APRIL 24: Lou Williams #23 of the LA Clippers handles the ball against the Golden State Warriors during Game Five of Round One of the 2019 NBA Playoffs on April 24, 2019 at ORACLE Arena in Oakland, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)

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It was a surprise when the Los Angeles Clippers won a single game in their first-round playoff series with the Golden State Warriors, but they are a victory away from forcing a decisive Game 7 after Wednesday’s 129-121 win in Game 5.

Los Angeles has now won two of the three contests at Oracle Arena in this series but will need to win a home game to return.

Lou Williams went into takeover mode down the stretch and turned a one-point deficit into a seven-point lead with a four-point play and two shots inside the arc in the final minutes. He finished with 33 points and 10 assists, while Montrezl Harrell (24 points and five rebounds), Patrick Beverley (17 points, 14 boards and four assists) and Danilo Gallinari (26 points and seven rebounds) provided support.

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Kevin Durant spearheaded the losing effort for the Warriors with 45 points, but it still wasn’t enough.

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Nobody gave the Clippers a chance entering this series, and all they did was make NBA history by overcoming a 31-point deficit in the second half of Game 2, battle throughout Game 4 and control the pace for extended stretches of Game 5 on the road.

It would have been easy for the No. 8 seed to pack it in and look ahead to the offseason on Wednesday, but it poured in 71 points in the first half alone and sent a message to the Warriors and the rest of the league.

Los Angeles proved it can compete with one of the best dynasties the NBA has ever seen and played with the same type of mettle it displayed during the regular season when it still made the playoffs after the front office traded leading scorer Tobias Harris to the Philadelphia 76ers.

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Pat Bev draws a charge with one shoe on, Draymond gets a tech.

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Prospective free agents who are looking for teams they can take over the top surely took notice with the offseason around the corner.

Shaun Powell of NBA.com broke down the litany of reasons the Clippers are an attractive potential free agency destination.

They feature one of the league’s best coaches in Doc Rivers, a supporting cast that willingly accepts its roles and doesn’t stress about shot distribution, and the benefit of playing in a major market without the pressure that comes with being the primary show in town thanks to LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.

“What’s happening here in the playoffs, to the surprise of some, is the showcasing of an entire organization, in this case, the Clippers,” Powell wrote. “They’re sprucing themselves up and using their first-round series with the Warriors to spread their peacock feathers and get the attention of top free agents looking for a landing spot.”

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Live look at Clippers fans … https://t.co/JEov8W0Xcj

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29 Years Ago, Jordan Dropped Career-High 69 Points
Bosh Is Getting His Jersey Raised to the Rafters in Miami
Steph Returns to Houston for 1st Time Since His Moon Landing Troll
Lou Williams Is Coming for a Repeat of Sixth Man of the Year
Pat Beverley Has the Clippers Stealing the LA Shine
LeBron Keeps Shredding NBA Record Books
Young’s Hot Streak Is Heating Up the ROY Race with Luka
LeBron and 2 Chainz Form a Superteam to Release a New Album
Wade’s #OneLastDance Dominated February
Warriors Fans Go Wild After Unforgettable Moments with Steph
Eight Years Ago, the Nuggets Traded Melo to the Knicks
Two Years Ago, the Kings Shipped Boogie to the Pelicans
ASG Will Be Competitive Again If the NBA Raises the Stakes

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Those prospective top free agents include Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, Kemba Walker, Klay Thompson, Jimmy Butler and D’Angelo Russell, among others.

Add any of those players to the group that hasn’t backed down from the mighty Warriors, and legitimate championship contention is not far away.

Landry Shamet and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are rookies who will only improve. Williams is under contract until 2021 and someone who can provide a spark off the bench while whichever primary scorer they sign does the heavy lifting. Harrell and Gallinari are under contract next season and can take advantage of openings playing alongside a star by rolling to the rim for dunks and offensive rebounds or hitting threes, respectively.

The Clippers have made a statement in this series that will resonate into the summer.

Warriors Dynasty Will End at Rockets’ Hands Without Drastic Defensive Improvements

McCollum and the Blazers Snapped Postseason Losing Streak for “Jennifer”
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Jarrett Allen Is One of the NBA’s Hottest Rim Protectors
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Westbrook Makes History While Honoring Nipsey Hussle
Devin Booker Makes History with Scoring Tear
29 Years Ago, Jordan Dropped Career-High 69 Points
Bosh Is Getting His Jersey Raised to the Rafters in Miami
Steph Returns to Houston for 1st Time Since His Moon Landing Troll
Lou Williams Is Coming for a Repeat of Sixth Man of the Year
Pat Beverley Has the Clippers Stealing the LA Shine
LeBron Keeps Shredding NBA Record Books
Young’s Hot Streak Is Heating Up the ROY Race with Luka
LeBron and 2 Chainz Form a Superteam to Release a New Album
Wade’s #OneLastDance Dominated February
Warriors Fans Go Wild After Unforgettable Moments with Steph
Eight Years Ago, the Nuggets Traded Melo to the Knicks
Two Years Ago, the Kings Shipped Boogie to the Pelicans
ASG Will Be Competitive Again If the NBA Raises the Stakes

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The Warriors were a solid but unspectacular 11th in the league in defensive rating during the regular season but more than made up for it with the NBA’s top-ranked offense, per NBA.com.

Still, the defensive inconsistency was not exactly befitting of a dominant dynasty, especially one with four-time All-Defensive selection Draymond Green as an emotional leader. It was fair to wonder if motivation played a role, as winning three of the last four championships and an NBA-record 73 games makes regular-season defense feel less important when a team knows it can flip the switch.

That switch still hasn’t been flipped this postseason.

Golden State has allowed triple digits in every game this series and completely collapsed on the defensive end by giving up 85 points in the second half of Game 2 as it blew a 31-point lead. Los Angeles deserves plenty of credit for playing with a notable level of determination in the face of daunting odds, but a much stiffer test awaits the Warriors’ vulnerable defense when it inevitably wins this first-round series.

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Warriors take a time out down 15 with 8:59 left in 3rd.

Oracle is shellshocked. Warriors defense has been poor all night.

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Draymond wants all the smoke but JaMychal Green is taking him off the dribble for finger rolls.

The Houston Rockets may have beaten the two-time defending champions in last year’s Western Conference Finals if Chris Paul didn’t suffer a hamstring injury and miss losses in Games 6 and 7.

Now, they bring an offense that improved (114.8 offensive rating) from last year’s group, which posted a league-best 114.0 offensive rating. James Harden is as dangerous as ever as the NBA’s best scorer, Eric Gordon and PJ Tucker can consistently drill threes when defenders collapse on the backcourt, and Clint Capela will be a matchup problem.

Without a healthy DeMarcus Cousins, the Warriors will be less equipped to deal with Capela’s ability to explode to the rim on pick-and-rolls and battle for offensive rebounds.

Houston’s explosive offense just beat a Utah Jazz team that featured the league’s second-best defense in a mere five games. Golden State will not intimidate the Rockets on that end of the floor, especially after struggling so badly against the Clippers.

Houston is the perfect team to torch Golden State’s defensive weaknesses and end the dynasty in the second round unless the champions finally do flip that switch.

What’s Next?

The series returns to Los Angeles for Friday’s Game 6.

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Clint Capela: ‘I Want to Face’ the Warriors After Beating Jazz in 1st Round

HOUSTON, TX - APRIL 14: Clint Capela #15 of the Houston Rockets talks at the press conference after Game One of Round One of the 2019 NBA Playoffs against the Utah Jazz on April 14, 2019 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images)

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Houston Rockets center Clint Capela is making no secret about it. He wants another shot at the Golden State Warriors.

After Houston closed out the Utah Jazz with a 100-93 victory in Game 5 on Wednesday, Capela was asked about the possibility of facing Golden State in the second round.

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Capela wants the Warriors

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“Yeah…that’s what I want,” Capela told reporters. “I want to face them.”

Capela—who boldly claimed in January 2018 that Houston was “better” than Golden State Iisn’t the only Rockets player to hold that feeling given the way the teams’ last postseason meeting ended. Head coach Mike D’Antoni admitted as much during his postgame press conference:

NBA on ESPN @ESPNNBA

Mike D’Antoni’s response to potentially facing the Warriors in the second round …

“We said all year, ‘Let’s run it back.’ Well, okay. OKAYYY.” https://t.co/bZJ6s8plJc

Last May, Houston held a 3-2 series lead over Golden State in the Western Conference Finals, only to have Chris Paul miss the final two outings after he suffered a hamstring injury at the end of Game 5. The Rockets would go on to lose those contests, missing out on a chance to dethrone the defending champs and make their first trip to the NBA Finals since 1995.

It remains the only time in the two-plus years (eight series) of the Kevin Durant era that a team pushed the Warriors to more than five games in a series.

Now, Paul is healthy, and the Rockets are on a roll. They have won 10 of their last 12 games and have lost just five times in their last 30. It’s also worth noting they went 3-1 against the Warriors during the regular season, though they lost their most recent meeting back on March 13.

As much success as Houston had against Golden State during the regular season, All-Star Chris Paul made sure not to overreact:

Sitting next to Capela during Wednesday’s postgame press conference, Paul jokingly told his teammate that he’d wind up on Bleacher Report for his comments. (Spoiler alert: He was right.)

A rematch is what Houston has worked for all season, and it appears as though they may get that opportunity.

“I think that if you want to be champion, you’ve got to beat the champion,” Capela added. “At some point, you’ve got to do it, right?”

Golden State held a 3-1 series lead over the eighth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers at the time of the press conference, with Game 5 in progress on Wednesday night. The Rockets will have to wait and see who they will face in the second round, but they will be more than ready for the showdown if it does wind up being the Warriors.

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Putin, Kim begin first official meeting

Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un are meeting in Russia’s Far East for their first summit, with the North Korean leader looking for support in his nuclear stand-off with the United States.

The Russian leader landed in the Pacific coast port Vladivostok on Thursday, a day after Kim’s armoured train pulled in to the city’s Tsarist-era station.

The meeting is Kim’s first face-to-face talks with another head of state since returning from his Hanoi summit with US President Donald Trump, which broke down without a deal on North Korea’s nuclear arsenal in February.

Analysts say the Russia-North Korea summit scheduled for Thursday will serve as a reminder to Washington that the North Korean leader has other options in the region backing his leadership.

Kim will be looking for Russia’s support in easing sanctions imposed on Pyongyang over its nuclear programme, while Putin is keen to put Moscow forward as a player in another global flashpoint.

Arriving in Russia on Wednesday, Kim said he hoped for a “successful and useful” summit.

Kim has two urgent concerns as he heads to the summit – North Korean labourers in Russia and the food shortage in his country.

Around 10,000 North Korean labourers are still employed in Russia. All of them will have to leave the country by the end of the year as a 2017 UN sanctions resolution takes effect.

The labourers, who previously numbered as many as 50,000, provided Pyongyang with more than $500m in foreign exchange annually, according to documents seen by Reuters news agency.

“Maybe, the numbers will stop decreasing after Kim’s visit,” said Dmitry Zhuravlev, director general of the Institute of Regional Issues in Moscow.

The labourers’ presence is crucial in Russia’s underpopulated provinces that have plenty of fallow land, timber and natural resources but they are “large enough and there is enough room for the Koreans”, added Zhuravlev.

North Korea’s food shortage

Kim is also looking at the possibility of a food shortage in North Korea this summer. Russia has shown a willingness to provide humanitarian aid.

Last month, it announced it had shipped more than 2,000 tonnes of wheat to the North Korean port of Chongjin.

For Putin, the summit is a chance to push Russia’s agenda of opposing US international influence.

In an interview with China’s official People’s Daily published on Thursday, Putin lashed out at “countries claiming sole global leadership”.

“They carelessly trample on the norms and principles of international law, resort to blackmail, sanctions and pressure, and try to force their values and dubious ideals on entire countries and populations,” said Putin, who is heading to China after the talks for another summit.

The Vladivostok meeting follows repeated invitations from Putin since Kim embarked on a series of diplomatic overtures last year.

Since March 2018, the formerly reclusive North Korean leader has held four meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, three with South Korea’s Moon Jae-in, two with Trump and one with Vietnam’s president.

North Korea must deliver ‘blow’ to those imposing sanctions

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Game 5 Live: Warriors Trying to Close Out Clippers

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Game 5 Live: Warriors Trying to Close Out Clippers

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‘Racism and sexism’: Women of color slam white male tilt of Dem primary

2020 Elections

Elizabeth Warren shines at an event that provided a snapshot of building frustrations among many Democratic women.

HOUSTON — The women of color who packed into a university auditorium here Wednesday for a first-of-its-kind presidential forum delighted in the rhetoric of candidates who vowed to make Donald Trump a one-term president.

But their frustration was just as palpable — over the heavy media attention being paid to white male candidates in the early days of the Democratic primary, and over polling they contended is feeding a misleading narrative that only a white man can defeat Trump.

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“With all due respect to the vice president, he hasn’t even announced yet but he’s the frontrunner?” Leah Daughtry, a political operative and former Democratic National Committee official who helped organize the “She the People” event, said of Joe Biden. “Racism and sexism are part of the fabric and the fiber and the founding of our country,” she added, “and the way that the [Democratic] candidates are being treated, it just reminds you of that. We’re not past it.”

A procession of Democratic hopefuls took the stage, including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Beto O’Rourke and Cory Booker, and were all asked why women of color should vote for them. Warren won the crowd with her detailed ideas, garnering cheers whenever she dropped the line, “I have a plan.” Sanders got a less enthusiastic reception, though he was praised for showing up. And Harris revved up the crowd when she mocked politicians who’ve “evolved” on the opioid crisis: “Where were they when they had what was called the crack epidemic?”

The four-hour forum provided a snapshot of bubbling tensions among many Democratic women who are annoyed that the race looks like it could just as easily be unfolding in 1979 as 2019 — despite an historically diverse field.

Much of the discontent focused on Biden. He, along with another white man, Sanders, has dominated early polling even though he’s not even officially been a candidate. After weeks of deliberation and delay, Biden is set to announce on Thursday.

Aimee Allison, who co-founded She the People, said she thinks the polling is premature and has distorted the public’s perceptions about which candidates are viable or not. She said it’s an “open question” whether the former vice president can win over women of color in large numbers.

“He’s going to enter a really different world,” said Allison. “It’s a world in which we’ve woken up as women of color and we’re not just going along to get along for a Democratic Party insider.”

Others like LaTosha Brown said the media is “complicit” in boosting white male candidates.

“When you got a media that’s constantly saying Biden and Beto and Bernie and literally elevating the male candidates, I think that’s going to be reflected in the polls,” said Brown, who co-founded Black Voters Matter, a group that works on mobilizing the black community.

A’shanti Gholar, political director of Emerge America, which recruits and trains women to run for office, lamented that when Warren rolled out an ambitious public lands policy earlier this month, “the media was focusing on Pete Buttigeig expressing his sadness about Notre Dame in French.”

Then there’s the “electability” question that candidates like Harris and Warren are required to answer, said several of the women in attendance, but others like Buttigeig are not.

“Electable is code word for the type of leader [people are] used to seeing, the type of leader [they’re] comfortable with,” said Sayu Bhojwani, president of New American Leaders Action Fund, which helps immigrant candidates run for office. “And that is absent any understanding of the systemic issues that prop up white men.”

Wednesday’s forum — packed with vendors, operatives, voters, organizers and longtime Democratic Party leaders — told a different story than the one reflected in early polls. Warren and Harris received the warmest responses from the crowd of roughly 1,500 black, Latino, Asian, Native American, and Arab women — not Sanders or O’Rourke.

Sanders received notable groans and grumbles from the audience when he gave a roundabout answer to a question on what he would do to curtail white supremacist terrorism. When pressed on what he would do for black women or why women of color should vote for him, Sanders repeatedly pointed to his history of joining the 1963 March on Washington, being “one of the few white elected officials” to support Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign and his civil rights record.

Afterward, Allison said that Warren “stole the show.” She plans to organize “She the People” town halls across the country to educate and mobilize women of color ahead of the election next year.

“You have to really point out Elizabeth Warren’s performance here today,” added Maria Urbina, political director for the progressive group Indivisible. “She was specific, she didn’t just rely on her record.”

At one point on stage, Warren, who has made inroads with black voters lately, was asked how she’ll address people who after 2016 feel they may need to “flee to the safety of a white male candidate.”

“Are we gonna show up for people we [don’t] actually believe in but because we are too afraid to do anything else? That’s not who we are,” she said to booming applause. “We got a room full of people here who weren’t given anything. We got a room full of people in here who had to fight for what they believe in.”

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Report: FBI Investigating Alan Foster for Alleged Fraud Amid Lonzo Ball Lawsuit

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

The FBI has launched an investigation into Big Baller Brand co-founder Gregory Alan Foster for alleged fraud, according to the Los Angeles Times‘ Tania Ganguli and Richard Winton.

Ganguli notes that the FBI investigation could be at least two months old:

Tania Ganguli @taniaganguli

@LAcrimes It’s unclear when exactly the investigation began, but one law enforcement source said it was at least two months old. The investigation is focused on the allegations included in the lawsuit filed by Lonzo Ball and Big Baller Brand earlier this month.

Los Angeles Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball and Big Baller Brand filed a lawsuit against Foster earlier this month, saying he was conspiring “to steal millions of dollars.”

The lawsuit says Foster—who owns 16.3 percent of the company—made at least $1.5 million in unexplained cash withdrawals between 2016 and 2018. The lawsuit is seeking more than $2 million in damages.

Lonzo told ESPN.com’s Ramona Shelburne that he cut ties with Foster because he “used his access to my business and personal finances to enrich himself. As a result, I have decided to sever all ties with Alan, effective immediately.”

According to Shelburne, Foster was sentenced to over seven years in prison back in 2002 after “pleading guilty to one count of mail fraud and two counts of money laundering as part of a scheme that defrauded 70 investors of $4 million.” Per Shelburne, the pending lawsuit says Foster never informed the Ball family of his criminal history.

Foster’s relationship with the Ball family spans nearly a decade, dating back to Lonzo’s days in grade school. As Ganguli and Winton noted, LaVar Ball had previously called Foster his “brother,” while Lonzo suggested the business partner was “like my second dad.”

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