President Donald Trump’s plan to increase tariffs on Mexico was unpopular on both sides of the aisle and with the president’s own advisers. | Henry Nicholls – WPA Pool/Getty Images
President Donald Trump on Saturday blamed Democrats after a tumultuous week for trade and the broader USMCA deal negotiations following the president’s threat to impose tariffs on Mexico over migration at the U.S. southern border.
“Nervous Nancy Pelosi & the Democrat House are getting nothing done. Perhaps they could lead the way with the USMCA, the spectacular & very popular new Trade Deal that replaces NAFTA, the worst Trade Deal in the history of the U.S.A. Great for our Farmers, Manufacturers & Unions!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shot back in a statement criticizing the deal struck Friday evening between the U.S. and Mexico, under which Mexico said it would send 6,000 troops from its National Guard to the country’s southern border with Guatemala, a move aimed at cutting off the flow ofmigrants bound for the U.S.
“Threats and temper tantrums are no way to negotiate foreign policy,” the speaker said, also taking aim at the administration’s stance on Mexico holding asylum seekers on its own soil and its “failing to address the root causes of Central American migration.”
The speaker also said Trump “undermined America’s preeminent leadership role in the world by recklessly threatening to impose tariffs.”
Pelosi has been reluctant to set a date to vote on the USMCA as Democrats say they want stronger enforcement of labor and environmental provisions in the trade deal.
Trump’s plan to increase tariffs incrementally on Mexico unless a series of undetermined immigration goals was accomplished was unpopular on both sides of the aisle and with the president’s own advisers. Both Republican and Democratic party leaders pushed back at the idea, fearing it would hurt economic growth while undermining the USMCA deal.
The plan would have imposed an initial 5 percent duty on $350 billion of imports from Mexico from Monday, with an increase of 5 percent every month until it reached 25 percent on October.
Trump shifted between blaming the Democratic Party and praising Mexican leaders in a series of seven tweets sent Saturday morning.
“I would like to thank the President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and his foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, together with all of the many representatives of both the United States and Mexico, for working so long and hard to get our agreement on immigration completed!” Trump wrote.
The Trump-Pelosi feud has been brewing all week. The speaker told senior Democrats on Tuesday that she wanted to see the president “in prison” amid clashes on impeachment proceedings. Trump responded by saying Pelosi’s statement was a “disgrace to herself and her family,” while overseas marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Pelosi also this week said the tariff threat was a “distraction from the Mueller report” as the House prepares to have testimonies next week on the special counsel’s report.
Following the series of Saturday tweets, the president traveled by motorcade to Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, according to pool reports.
The NBA draft often takes more twists and turns than a Hollywood blockbuster.
That might be more true now than ever, since prospect rankings in this class lack consensus beyond the top three.
While every club hopes the annual talent grab plays out in ideal fashion, they all need contingency plans.
We’re here to identify possible Plan C surprise options each team will consider if its preferred draft-night path is unavailable.
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No, we’re not suggesting any funny business with the first overall selection. Zion Williamson is such a certainty at the top, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver might bypass putting the New Orleans Pelicans on the clock and just open the draft by announcing the pick.
But New Orleans can shift around the Association’s tectonic plates with a major move involving Anthony Davis. Despite initial resistance, new Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin has started taking offers on Davis, league sources told The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
New Orleans should focus on long-term assets in its Davis return, which could mean adding an additional top-10 selection (say, No. 4 from the Los Angeles Lakers, perhaps?). If the Pellies get one, they should give serious consideration to scoring guard Darius Garland, who’d fit snugly alongside Zion Williamson (and, if he’s kept, Jrue Holiday).
Garland has some mystery to him. He only played four full games in college before a meniscus tear wiped out the rest of his season. His defense and playmaking need plenty of seasoning. But he’s shifty with the basketball and dangerous as a scorer, both stationary and on the move. As a potentially premium shot-creator, he could make life easier on Williamson and any other franchise pillars the Pelicans add.
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Shortly after the ping-pong balls had settled at the draft lottery, the Memphis Grizzlies were already being linked with Murray State point guard Ja Morant. It made sense then and still makes sense now. The Russell Westbrook clone could be the perfect complement to Jaren Jackson Jr., potentially giving the Grizzlies centerpieces of an eventual contender.
But maybe Morant isn’t bound for Beale Street? While the Grizzlies could be doing their due diligence, they reportedly have requested a workout with RJ Barrett.
“Memphis has been sending out some mixed messages,” ESPN’s Jonathan Givony reports. “The Grizzlies’ ownership group is still telling people around the league that the team is locked in on Morant, but the front office has requested to have Barrett in for a private workout.”
While Morant seems the obvious selection, Barrett would be a lot more than a consolation prize. Prior to this past season, he was the most coveted prospect in the class in large part for the same polish and physical gifts he displayed at Duke. Over 38 games, the 18-year-old averaged 22.6 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists. He might be the best scorer to come out of this draft.
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If you subscribe to the theory this is a three-player draft, then the New York Knicks’ choice is obvious. Once the Grizzlies choose between Morant and Barrett, the ‘Bockers can add the other.
If it’s not as cut and dried, though, that could get someone like Jarrett Culver into the conversation.
His leap from his freshman to his sophomore season was astronomic. He went from being a part-time starter and No. 3 option to the team’s leader in points (18.5), rebounds (6.4) and assists (3.7). He helped set a tone for the country’s best defense and did the heaviest offense lifting for this season’s silver medalist.
While Culver projects more as a good NBA player than a great one, that might make it easier for him to establish a role early in his career. The Knicks may not seem in need of win-now talent amid a six-year playoff drought, but that could change quickly if their wildest offseason dreams come true.
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Gerry Broome/Associated Press
In the least surprising news of draft season, the Los Angeles Lakers are open to moving their pick for more immediate assistance, sources told Givony. Between their public interest in Anthony Davis and clear need for win-now talent around 34-year-old LeBron James, the Lakers always seemed likely to be open for business.
Should they keep this selection, they have no shortage of possible targets. That said, the following three are most commonly found across the mock-draft landscape: Garland, Culver and De’Andre Hunter.
But why no love for Coby White? The 19-year-old was the best player on a 29-win Tar Heels team stocked with blue-chippers, averaging 16.1 points, 4.1 assists, 2.3 triples and 1.1 steals. His big games were monstrous. He scored 27-plus points five different times, always against a Power Five opponent and each featuring at least five three-pointers.
White has size, athleticism and loads of promise as a pull-up scorer. His weak spots as a decision-maker would be covered by both LeBron James and Lonzo Ball in L.A. White could be an instant impact combo guard, and his potentially elite shot-making would address a glaring void. James works best when surrounded by shooters, and this past season’s Lakers finished just 20th in three-point makes and 29th in perimeter accuracy.
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David Zalubowski/Associated Press
If the Cleveland Cavaliers are realistic with their post-LeBron James self-assessment, they should see their cupboards are basically empty. Collin Sexton and Cedi Osman are likely long-term keepers. Ante Zizic and Larry Nance Jr. could be around a while, too. But that’s it.
Of that group, only Sexton has the age and pedigree to project as a possible star. If that’s not reason to value upside over everything at the draft, we don’t know what is.
That hunt for high ceilings could lead Cleveland to Kevin Porter Jr., who’s much more intriguing than his lackluster year at USC indicates. Injuries, inconsistency and a suspension all plagued his production, which finished at the underwhelming line of 9.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.4 assists across 22.1 minutes per game.
But the eye test loves the appeal of his physical profile, athleticism and scoring versatility. His offensive bag is deep for a 19-year-old, as he can lose defenders on step-backs and crossover pull-ups. There might be too much bust potential to even consider him this high, but few prospects beyond the top three can match his potential.
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The Phoenix Suns have a top-10 pick and a problematic vacancy at point guard. Ideally, the selection would address the vacancy, either by spending it on a freshman floor general or trading it for a veteran lead guard, which Givony hears the Suns would consider.
But what if Morant, Garland and White are all gone before the Suns are on the clock? It’s possible. Ditto for the trade market failing to deliver the perfect target. Mike Conley, Chris Paul and Kyle Lowry could be too old for consideration, and Lonzo Ball isn’t a veteran. Unless someone like Spencer Dinwiddie interests the Suns, they might not find what they want.
So, rather than reaching for a need, the Suns could instead invest the selection on someone with the most potential. For as much as Phoenix wants to accelerate its rebuild, what’s the rush when 22-year-old Devin Booker and 20-year-old Deandre Ayton are the centerpieces? If Phoenix plays the long game, it might do so with Sekou Doumbouya, the draft’s youngest prospect.
The French forward is a project, which is to be expected when he won’t turn 19 until December. At 6’8″ and 230 pounds, the teenager looks like he could play now and contribute with versatile defense, improving shooting and a competitive streak. But he needs more polish, which the Suns would have time to work on since they’re already well-stocked along the forward spots.
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Tony Dejak/Associated Press
The Chicago Bulls would surely like to add a point guard here if they could, but there’s a decent chance the board doesn’t break in their favor. If the three lottery lead guards are gone, Chicago might consider gambling on Nassir Little, last year’s McDonald’s All-American Game MVP.
His stock is down after a choppy season in Chapel Hill. He couldn’t crack a big chunk of coach Roy Williams’ rotation, leaving Little with problematically low averages of 9.8 points and 4.6 rebounds in 18.2 minutes.
“I’m not sure what I was able to do at UNC,” Little said at the combine, per Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press. “It was hard to understand exactly what my role was—especially on offense. It created a lot of hesitancy.”
Wrong role or not, Little’s offense needs work. But the Bulls aren’t necessarily searching for scoring, with Zach LaVine, Lauri Markkanen and Otto Porter Jr. steering that ship. Chicago would simply ask Little to maximize his elite physical tools in the open court and on defense. He could contribute in that role already next season and ideally grow into something much greater.
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Mary Altaffer/Associated Press
With a rising young nucleus and a pair of top-10 selections, the Atlanta Hawks can afford to go big on draft night. So, why not go as big as possible with the ultimate boom-or-bust player in this draft, Bol Bol?
His potential is as ridiculous as his dimensions: 7’2″ in shoes with a 7’7″ wingspan and a 9’7″ standing reach. The size alone demands evaluators take notice, but Bol’s skills are the real draw. He’s both an ankle-breaker and a 52-percent three-point splasher, as of this past season at least. He can score from the post out to the perimeter, and he has the handles to lead his own breaks off blocks or rebounds.
Admittedly, he’s surrounded by possible red cards. He lasted just nine games before a foot fracture ended his college career. History hasn’t been kind to 7-footers with health problems, and the worries with Bol holding up extend to his rail-thin 208-pound frame. While he moves well for his size, he’ll still have trouble defending in space against NBA athletes.
But, again, the upside is enormous. Put him in Atlanta, and he’d give Trae Young a massive target off pick plays and ensure John Collins’ clean runways to the rim.
*Reportedly acquired from the Brooklyn Nets in a deal that can’t be finalized until July 6, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
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The Washington Wizards have question marks at four of the five positions. With two-time All-Star Bradley Beal in place, shooting guard should be the one area the Wizards feel confident about.
But the 25-year-old could wind up a casualty to years of roster mismanagement. The Wizards are short on high-potential prospects, which is an issue when the nucleus needs a couple of needle-movers. The present looks grim with John Wall lost to a ruptured Achilles, and the future might be worse considering he’ll collect more than $38 million every year through at least 2021-22.
Rather than wait out Wall’s injury to see if the athleticism-dependent point guard can somehow age gracefully, the Wizards might consider a self-imposed demolition. The roster looks in need of a reset, and Beal would easily bring back the most assets.
Romeo Langford, then, could arrive in the District as Beal’s replacement. Knowing a thumb injury may have held him back in college, the Wizards might overlook his disappointing 27.2 percent three-point mark and instead focus on his shot-creating, slashing and finishing. If everything breaks right, he could one day emerge as a featured scorer.
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Had the Minnesota Timberwolves struck gold at the lottery, they may have found a path to the second scorer Karl-Anthony Towns desperately needs. But the 11th pick probably isn’t delivering that.
Rather than blindly pursuing upside, Minnesota might opt for a sure(ish) thing.
Brandon Clarke is a unique prospect. He’s sort of a big man trapped in the body of a wing (6’8″, 207 lbs), but he has the athleticism and energy to possibly make it work. He paced power forwards and centers in lane agility and max vertical at the combine, meaning his explosiveness is elite. It’s a major reason why his per-40-minute contributions last season included 12.2 rebounds, 4.5 blocks and 1.7 steals.
As a 22-year-old, he’s theoretically closer than most to his ceiling. That said, his shooting rates all took a big jump in 2018-19, and his 36-point outburst at the NCAA tournament perhaps hinted at more offensive ability than expected. While Minnesota shouldn’t expect more than a high-energy role player, it could have Towns’ frontcourt partner for the next decade.
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The Charlotte Hornets could continue their search for an electric wing player with the 12th overall pick. If they’re convinced Kemba Walker is staying, they might value early impact over future potential.
But after not rostering an intimidating interior player for years, they have the opportunity to add one. As an added bonus, Mfiondu Kabengele splits the difference as a short-term helper and long-term investment.
He’s the nephew of Dikembe Mutombo, and he has the physical gifts to prove it. Kabengele stands 6’10”, stretches out to a 7’3″ wingspan, and his 256-pound frame is chiseled with just 5.1 percent body fat. He has the energy, athleticism and length to shine as a rim runner, potentially plugging in as Charlotte’s best pick-and-roll screener already next season.
While all of the above puts the 21-year-old in the first-round discussion, his modern enhancements could possibly lift him into the lottery. He buried 34 triples at a 37.4 percent clip over two seasons with the Seminoles, and he flashed the mobility needed to handle defensive switches on the perimeter.
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In 2015, the Miami Heat had a shot at Devin Booker but instead used the 10th overall selection on Justise Winslow. Using the 13th pick on Tyler Herro four years later might be their do-over.
As The Ringer’s scouting report on Herro notes, he “models his game after Devin Booker, who had eerily similar strengths and weaknesses entering the NBA.”
To be clear, the probably of Herro becoming the next Booker is slim to none. That’s not a knock on Herro, just a reflection of Booker’s standing as an elite offensive force. The comparison, though, reflects Herro’s impressive upside on the offensive end. He has the mechanics of a knockdown shooter, he’s smart with his off-ball movements, he’s a clever distributor and he has a deep bag of scoring tricks around the rim.
But even if three-point shooting was his only weapon to translate to the NBA, he’d still be a good find for the Heat. This past season, their high man in threes per game was Dion Waiters, a below-average launcher for his career.
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He has the length and heft of a big man but the height and handles of a guard. He has enough streetball-style shakes to elude defenders, but his freshman finishing rates were just 40.6 percent from the field and 30.8 from three. He has multipositional potential on defense, but he often offered the resistance of a wet paper bag.
Talen Horton-Tucker might be the most interesting prospect in this class.
Interested teams are fascinated by his ceiling. He won’t turn 19 until November. His 7’1″ wingspan defies his 6’4″ frame. His physical profile is close to a shorter PJ Tucker or Draymond Green. Theoretically, if a team harnesses Horton-Tucker’s talent, he could one day harass opposing guards with length and outmuscle opposing bigs.
He’s years away from that reality, and it would take a great developmental staff to get him there. But if the Boston Celtics shift their focus forward this summer—Kyrie Irving might be close to the exits—they could have the time and resources to feel Horton-Tucker is worth the risk.
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Tony Dejak/Associated Press
The Detroit Pistons can—and maybe should—swing for the fences with the 15th pick. Their roster is basically a giant question mark around the Blake Griffin-Andre Drummond frontcourt, and their limited prospect collection leaves much to be desired.
At the same time, after misfiring in recent years on players like Stanley Johnson and Henry Ellenson, maybe the Pistons could seek more of a sure thing. Time isn’t exactly on the side of the 30-year-old Griffin, so it’s hard to overstate the appeal of plug-and-play potential.
Matisse Thybulle fits that description on the defensive end at least. The reigning Naismith Defense Player of the Year, he’s a 6’5″, 200-pound package of athleticism, length, instincts and energy. This past season, he averaged an absurd 5.8 combined steals and blocks. For context, Draymond Green topped out at 2.9 over his four-year career at Michigan State.
Thybulle’s defense alone could snag him a starting spot on Detroit’s wings, which is good, since his offense isn’t as projectable. He looks like a capable shooter (career 35.8 percent from three, 78.2 percent at the line), and he keeps the basketball moving. There isn’t much to mention with his scoring (career 9.2 points per game), which might be fine with Griffin, Drummond and Reggie Jackson fighting for shots already.
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The Orlando Magic won 42 games this season and then had their playoff run derailed after just five outings.
For most teams, that wouldn’t be justification to go win-now shopping. But the Magic might be an exception. This was their first taste of the postseason in seven years, and they’re hungry for more.
“We won 17 more games than the previous season, and most importantly our guys gained an understanding of the togetherness and intensity that it takes to be successful in this league,” Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said, per Magic.com’s John Denton. “That’s something we hope they will keep throughout the summer and will bring into next season.”
If Orlando wants to sustain and build on this season’s breakout, it must find more floor-spacers. Cameron Johnson might be the best one in this draft. In two of his last three seasons, he’s averaged multiple triples a night and cleared 41 percent from distance.
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If not for the fact that 18 could be a tad early, drafting Dylan Windler would be a comfortable process for the Indiana Pacers.
He grew up in the Circle City and is a lifelong fan of the team. He also plays a familiar game, with The Ringer listing Pacers free-agent swingman Bojan Bogdanovic as one of Windler’s comparisons.
Like Bogdanovic, Windler impresses first with his shooting. His mechanics are sound, and his results are special. He ramped up his perimeter volume the past three seasons, and his efficiency similarly spiked. By 2018-19, he was averaging 3.0 long-range makes and hitting those looks at a 42.9 percent rate.
But again like Bogdanovic, Windler is more than a shooter. He has handles, scores on the move, consistently hits his passing target, crashes the glass and keeps in front of his defensive assignment. Teams may question his ability to handle NBA size and strength, but his numbers won’t be easily ignored: 21.3 points, 10.8 rebounds, 65.9 percent two-point shooting.
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Under Gregg Popovich, the San Antonio Spurs have been defined by sharpened skills and instincts. Neither is a natural strength of Luguentz Dort.
So how would he end up on the Alamo City’s radar? For starters, did you see the photo above? The guy looks like an NFL rush end with the power, burst and explosiveness to physically overwhelm opponents. Between Dejounte Murray, Lonnie Walker IV and Dort, tomorrow’s Spurs could be supercharged by perimeter athleticism.
Dort’s decision-making and awareness need work at both ends. But there’s a potential difference-maker here if he’s properly polished. He already has the dribble moves to lose defenders, the intensity and versatility of a defensive stopper and the vision and accuracy of a secondary playmaker.
For now, he’s a ball of modeling clay with big-time tools but also big-time deficiencies, and San Antonio’s proven development system could be what sculpts him into a museum-quality masterpiece.
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While hardly alone in this regard, Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti has an obvious soft spot for length and athleticism. Those aren’t bad traits to desire, but they shouldn’t comprise an entire roster. OKC’s shooting was a debilitating weakness last season, and it contributed to nightly struggles with offensive consistency.
Maybe that will lead Presti outside his box. Ty Jerome is about as far from it as a prospect can get.
His wingspan is the same as his height without shoes (6’4″), and he lacks the boost to get all the way to the basket. OKC already has elite athletes, though. It needs more skill players, and that’s where Jerome shines. He has sound instincts and plays within himself. He’ll never be a star (career 9.6 points and 3.7 assists in college), but he has substantial role-player potential.
If he lands in the Sooner State, he’d address the shooting deficit and give OKC a more natural table-setter behind Russell Westbrook. Add Jerome, and the Thunder can either lessen the distributing demands on Dennis Schroder or shop the scoring guard for additional shooting and/or salary relief.
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The Utah Jazz might have taken their imperfect setup as far as it can go.
Rudy Gobert needs a stretch 4 at his side. The Jazz have instead given him Derrick Favors, an interior 5 (with a non-guaranteed contract for next season), or Jae Crowder, a 3 with questionable perimeter skills.
Enter Isaiah Roby. If the 6’8″, 215-pounder sharpens his outside shot—28 makes this past season but only at a 33.3 percent rate—and grows more comfortable with physicality, he could be the multidimensional forward this frontcourt is missing.
“He has solid ball skills, has worked diligently on his outside shot and profiles nicely as an athletic big who can play inside and out,” SI.com’s Jeremy Woo wrote. “He has the size, agility and shot-blocking chops to be a versatile defender.”
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If the Philadelphia 76ers can re-sign both Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris, their offseason shopping list should be straightforward. They need shooting, a reliable reserve behind Joel Embiid and, if TJ McConnell isn’t brought back, maybe an understudy for Ben Simmons.
KZ Okpala doesn’t really address any of those areas. He comes closest with shooting, but even then, he was a low-volume (career 0.8 makes per game), middling-efficiency (33.1 percent) perimeter contributor over two seasons at Stanford.
That said, he’s a physically gifted swingman with improving offensive ability and two-way potential. There isn’t such a thing as having too many wings in the modern NBA, and Okpala could add to Philly’s collection.
He must hone his undeveloped offensive skills, add strength and improve his defensive awareness. If he checks all three boxes, though, he could be an offensive mismatch and defensive Swiss Army knife.
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Fresh off their first Western Conference Finals in nearly 20 years, the Portland Trail Blazers are likely laser-locked on the here and now. It’s a sensible mindset to have with Damian Lillard‘s 29th birthday coming in July and CJ McCollum’s 28th following in September.
But if Portland embraces a pinch of patience on draft night, the team might find a long-term fit at forward in Chuma Okeke.
The 20-year-old tore his ACL during the NCAA tournament, so his immediate outlook is murky. As a future investment, though, he has tons to offer once his body allows.
He can guard multiple positions, wreak havoc off the ball defensively and make enough plays offensively to keep that end humming. He’s a catch-and-shoot sniper first (career 38.9 percent from deep), but he’s also a clever passer and capable of exploiting defensive switches from the post. With free agency looming this summer for Al-Farouq Aminu and the next for Maurice Harkless, Okeke could soon have a clear path to the starting five.
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The Brooklyn Nets are dreaming big this summer, so why not adopt the same bold-over-everything strategy on draft night?
Jalen McDaniels is an eye-of-the-beholder prospect. Woo placed McDaniels 59th on his big board and labeled him “more of an idea than someone you can throw into an NBA game with any confidence.” Kevin O’Connor slotted McDaniels all the way up at 18th on The Ringer, which classifies him as a “versatile player built for today’s league, with the height of a big and the perimeter skills of a wing.”
Admittedly, McDaniels may not hit. (Spoiler alert: A lot of these players won’t.) He lacks interior bulk (192 lbs) and perimeter touch (career 29.8 percent). Despite standing 6’10”, he’s not much of a shot-blocker or post-scorer.
But at this stage of the draft, upside like his is rare. He might fit the uber-valuable modern big man mold, like a Jonathan Isaac. If McDaniels can develop his deep ball, he could be the perfect pick-and-choose partner, as he can already attack off the bounce, roll to the rim or deliver on-point passes to open receivers. Tack on the ability to lock down the defensive perimeter, and it’s not hard to see why some are so bullish on him.
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The Golden State Warriors could look dramatically different next summer. Free agency looms over a huge chunk of this roster, including Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and DeMarcus Cousins. Meanwhile, retirement is an undeniable possibility for 30-somethings Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston.
It’s tough to tell which needs the Warriors will have without knowing how their roster will take shape. That said, it’s a virtual certainty there would be an opening for a contemporary swingman with height, length and shooting ability.
Louis King, a 5-star recruit, had his freshman season delayed and then hampered by a high school knee injury. But he got comfortable once the calendar flipped, averaging 15.0 points per game on 39.8 percent shooting from three after Jan. 1.
He can shoot both off the catch and on the move. He has flashed effective dribble moves and sometimes paired them with pinpoint passes. When he locks in defensively, he’s shown the ability to handle multiple assignments. Frankly, his upside looks a lot like the kind of supporting wing the Dubs could really use right now.
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Creativity will be critical for the Milwaukee Bucks this summer. With multiple stars and key reserves all heading for free agency, the Bucks probably don’t have the budget to keep everyone.
If their frontcourt gets squeezed—a near-certainty with both Brook Lopez and Nikola Mirotic hitting the open market—they might be in position to roll the dice on Nicolas Claxton.
The 7-footer handled some of Georgia’s point guard duties this season, and while an NBA team won’t ask the same of him, his comfort on the ball will allow him to clean the glass and kick-start secondary breaks. His ball skills could make him a productive screener on the short roll, as he can get to the rim or find open teammates. Defensively, he’d add another lanky, mobile, athletic piece to the puzzle.
The big question with Claxton is his shooting, which could be a deal-breaker for Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer. Claxton has shown nothing as a shooter so far—30.2 percent from three, 61.1 percent at the stripe—which for now keeps his ceiling in check. But if he adds that to his game, he’d have an intriguing inside-out skill set at both ends of the floor.
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Dallas Mavericks (37): Tacko Fall, C, UCF
This is early for a 23-year-old with major question marks, but it seems up the alley of outside-the-box Mavs owner Mark Cuban. Fall’s standing reach stretches above the rim. He helped himself as much as anyone at the combine. In some universe—hopefully this one—next season’s Dallas team is rolling out a lineup with Luka Doncic as a jumbo playmaker, Kristaps Porzingis as a jumbo 4 and Fall as a jumbo human.
While Sacramento’s needs list starts with rim protection and a backup point guard, the Kings could use this past season’s breakout as justification for going the best-player-available route. Oni, possibly the first Ivy League prospect to be drafted since 1995, boasts an all-around skill set that yielded per-game averages of 17.1 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.3 blocks as a junior.
Los Angeles Clippers (48, 56): Jaylen Hoard, PF, Wake Forest
While the Clippers might covet safe options to slot alongside the star free agents they hope to find, safety isn’t available this late in the draft. So, why not gamble on a good athlete with Association-ready physical tools? If Hoard’s shot comes around (his form looks good, but he only made 22.6 percent of his threes), he’d give L.A. a multipositional defender with range.
Toronto Raptors (59): Dedric Lawson, PF, Kansas
While productive at Kansas, Lawson isn’t for everyone. He’s a limited athlete and low-volume shooter, making him a tricky fit in today’s NBA. But the Raptors have shown a willingness to work with bigs of all types, and his scoring profile looks more interesting than that of Greg Monroe, whom Toronto added in free agency last summer (then traded away in February).
Denver Nuggets (No Picks): N/A
While the Nuggets don’t have a draft pick, they’ll still have a high-profile freshman heading into next season. Michael Porter Jr., last year’s 14th selection, should finally make his pro debut at summer league after having his would-be rookie season wiped out by a back injury.
Houston Rockets (No Picks): N/A
Not only are the win-now Rockets without a pick in this draft, but their future selections are up for grabs too.
Golden State Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson said there were no lingering effects from a hamstring injury that forced him to miss Game 3 of the 2019 NBA Finals during the Dubs’ 105-92 loss to the Toronto Raptors in Game 4 on Friday night.
“It didn’t affect me,” Thompson told reporters. “Like I said before, it’s the Finals. It’s a long season. You play 100-plus games, you’re going to be banged up. But you just got to dig deep. No one’s going to feel sorry for you, so you just got to go out there, man up and play to the best of your ability.”
Kawhi Leonard, who scored a game-high 36 points Friday, and the Raptors now hold a 3-1 advantage in the championship series, putting them within one victory of the franchise’s first NBA title.
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Thompson didn’t look all the way back to full strength in Game 4, but he still put together a strong performance for the banged-up Warriors. He tallied 28 points on the strength of six three-pointers to go along with three rebounds and two assists in 42 minutes.
“Klay was amazing,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “With a tweaked hamstring, to do what he did. [Kevon] Looney as well, coming in and playing 20 minutes, given his injury status. So both those guys are—they’re warriors. No pun intended. They just compete, compete, compete, and I’m really proud of both of them.”
Although Thompson, Looney and prized free-agent signing DeMarcus Cousins are all playing through injuries, Golden State remains without two-time defending NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant.
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The 10-time All-Star suffered a calf injury May 8 during Game 5 of the team’s clash with the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Semifinals, and he’s remained sidelined ever since.
It’s hard to imagine a scenario where the Warriors are able to win the next three games without getting contributions from Durant. Leonard is dominating the series, and Golden State hasn’t had enough firepower to keep pace, especially with so many key players at less than 100 percent.
Thompson and Splash Brothers backcourt mate Stephen Curry combined for 55 points Friday night, and the Dubs still lost by 13 after allowing 37 points in the third quarter.
Toronto’s first chance to close out the series comes Monday night, when they return home to Scotiabank Arena for Game 5. Tipoff is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
German footballer Mesut Ozil has tied the knot, with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as his best man.
The Turkish-German midfielder married his fiance, actress and model Amine Gulse, on Friday at a ceremony along the Bosporus in Istanbul that was attended by many statesmen and celebrities.
Photos of the wedding showed a smiling Erdogan and his wife Emine standing next to the couple as their marriage was formalised.
Ozil and Gulse, who was crowned Miss Turkey in 2014, also made a hefty donation to the Turkish Red Crescent to provide a meal to some 15,000 Syrian refugees.
Ozil whipped up a political storm when he was pictured alongside Erdogan last May [Anadolu]
Controversy
Ozil announced in March this year that he had asked Erdogan to be his best man.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff was part of a chorus of criticism of the invitation.
Helge Braun of Germany’s leading party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told Bild newspaper at the time that it “makes one sad” that Ozil would make such a move despite having been sharply criticised by the German public over his first meeting with Erdogan.
The footballer whipped up a political storm when he was pictured alongside Erdogan in May 2018. Criticism intensified after Germany crashed out of the first round of the World Cup in Russia.
Ozil’s resignation
After the summer defeat, Ozil posted a lengthy statement announcing his resignation from the national team and accusing German football officials of racism.
Ozil, who now plays for Arsenal, had made 92 appearances for Germany and played a key role in their 2014 World Cup victory.
He said he was being blamed for Germany’s disappointing World Cup performance.
Ozil also said the German Football Association head, Reinhard Grindel, failed to support him when he received hate mail, threatening phone calls, and racist comments on social media after Germany left the World Cup.
“I am German when we win, but I am an immigrant when we lose,” Ozil said, adding that despite his successful history with the team, the way he was treated made him “no longer want to wear the German national team shirt”.
Without Ozil, Germany started their UEFA Nations League journey with three consecutive bad results. They drew with France 0-0 at home, were defeated by the Netherlands 3-0 and by France 1-2 in an away match.
Germany also lost six of their last 10 matches and were relegated to League B in the UEFA Nations League.
Erdogan often attends marriages of Turkish celebrities, whom he particularly seeks out during election campaigns.
His presence at Ozil’s marriage comes ahead of a mayoral election in Istanbul on June 23, required after the original voting in March was annulled following a narrow victory for the main opposition Republican People’s Party.
Erdogan often attends the marriages of Turkish celebrities [Anadolu]
President Donald Trump’s plan to eradicate HIV transmission will require extending access to the most vulnerable Americans. | Chris Jackson/Getty Images
People who are still at risk have complex, unmet social needs.
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — If President Donald Trump’s ambitious plan to wipe out HIV transmission in America by 2030 is to have any chance of success, it will have to reach people like Kwanna Dingell’s mother.
In April,she walked into an emergency room in rural South Carolina seven times — and seven times she was refused care. That final time, the hospital called the police, who put the homeless woman in jail. From there, she went back to the same hospital, where she spent 18 days in the psychiatric ward.
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Frantic, Dingell finally tracked her mother down with help from the police, only to find that a hospice nurse was also looking for her, wanting to alert the hospital that Dingell’s mother had HIV. She had kept it a secret — from her daughter, from her community and from health care providers, who may have treated her quite differently had they known she was probably suffering from HIV-related dementia.
Public health now has the tools to eradicate HIV — medicines to protect people from getting the virus, to prevent those who have it from infecting others, and to prolong lives by decades. But it takes a lot more than a pill to reach the “hard to reach” populations, people who 40 years into the epidemic are still most at risk of contracting and spreading HIV/AIDS. These are the stigmatized, the marginalized, the poor, the homeless, the afraid, the addicted and the mentally ill, in rural communities and urban cores.
Unlike the 1980s, the faces of the AIDS crisis in 2019 are not found so much in San Francisco’s Castro district or New York’s Greenwich Village. They are disproportionately black men, and increasingly black women. Some are gay or bisexual and closeted in hostile communities. Many are at risk because of drug addiction and mental illness, in small rural southern towns or in troubled inner cities like Baltimore. Coping with HIV is one of only many challenges in their difficult, chaotic lives.
Eradicating the virus will need to look less like a science experiment and more like a broad social welfare program.
In his budget for fiscal 2020, Trump requested an additional $291 million for his AIDS program and plans to start some work even sooner by drawing about $30 million from the Minority AIDS Initiative fund.
But many doing HIV/AIDS prevention work worry that the approach may not be broad enough, and that rules on spending public funds may not be flexible enough. That’s particularly the case given a trend in some areas, like South Carolina, of moving away from community-based organizations that provide outreach, education and support services like van rides for rural patients who need to travel long distances to get to a clinic. Instead, the money and energy are going to a narrower medical approach.
Wiping out HIV does require pills — affordable pills. And getting people to take the pills and keep taking them day after day also requires support services. It would ideally involve a full-scale attack on poverty, racial, economic and educational inequalities and long-held stigmas against people who have acquired a disease associated with sex, drugs, and risky behavior.
“In some ways we’ve skimmed off the easiest [HIV] populations to take care of,” said Kyle Murphy of AIDS United, a nonprofit that has focused on getting grant money into hard to reach communities where, he said, people still in need of HIV services require more and different kinds of assistance.
The people that the U.S. is missing for HIV care now aren’t so obvious because they’re often not interacting with the health system or proactively reaching out for care, saidAmanda Rosecrans, who directs Baltimore City Health Department’s HIV and hepatitis C sexually transmitted disease clinics. These patients are hard to find and hard to keep in care.
Baltimore recently started up a mobile STD clinic that it sends out with the city’s needle exchange vans. Most people who come to the clinic are using drugs, engaged in commercial sex work or both. Many have never had health insurance (though they may be eligible now for free or subsidized coverage under the Affordable Care Act) and haven’t had health care in a long time, Rosecrans said.
The clinic has helped reach them but has not always enabled the consistent, ongoing relationships needed to keep them on AIDS meds for years. “It’s been really hard to keep those people engaged,” she said. “All of the patients who we’ve tried to do HIV treatment on the vans so far, we’ve sort of lost contact with for one reason or another — incarceration, folks that are homeless.” The city is starting to think of some ideas it could test to stay in contact with these people, like giving them mobile phones, but government grants that let them buy pills don’t necessarily let them buy phones.
Given recent biomedical and public health advances, the Trump administration sees the time as ripe for an audacious plan to slash new HIV infections in the U.S. by 75 percent within five years, and by 90 percent within 10. Medicines, if made affordable and taken correctly, can suppress the virus to undetectable levels, reducing transmission. Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or “PrEP,” drugs can prevent infection in people at high risk. New tools let public health officials pinpoint transmission hot spots, and swoop in where HIV infections are spreading most rapidly.
“Today, we have the right data, the right tools and the right leadership, to end the HIV epidemic,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said at the National HIV Prevention Conference in March.
But for many in rural South Carolina or hard-hit parts of Baltimore — two of the areas specifically targeted in the Trump plan because of high rates of new infections — fancy science isn’t the silver bullet that Washington bureaucrats count on.
“A lot of our clients … are below the poverty level, well below the poverty level. Most are zero-income and a lot of their issues are bigger than HIV,” said Selena Lowery, the lead case manager at the South Carolina HIV Council’s Wright Wellness Center in Columbia, South Carolina, which has been helping the Dingell family. Like her counterparts in Baltimore, she can get people into HIV treatment — but keeping them there means also addressing transportation, employment, and often underlying drug addiction or mental illness.
“If you had to think about, ‘Am I going to go to the doctor or go stand on line for day labor,’ I’m going to go to day labor because I have to eat, and I have to have some place to lay my head tonight,” she said. “If we’re not treating the whole person it’s not going to work.”
But money is limited for HIV-focused organizations — community-based organizations, not just medical clinics — to address these larger needs. The federal Ryan White program mandates that grantees spend 75 percent of their money on core services like doctor’s visits and medication. That leaves 25 percent for emergency financial assistance, transportation or food. Lowery said it’s not enough.
Lenatte Henry, the Wright Wellness Center’s outreach specialist, who spends a lot of her time trying to get the 20 to 30 percent of clients who drop out of HIV treatment back into care, says the main reasons people stop treatment are addiction, homelessness and general financial troubles. Everyday struggles leave little room for keeping track of pills and getting to appointments.
When Wright runs mobile testing clinics in and around Columbia, at sites like a rundown motel where sex workers or people recently released from prison stay, the people who show up are more motivated by the offer of a $5 or $10 gift card — enough for food for a day — than learning about their HIV status.
Even when people are identified as high-risk, getting them on PrEP is hard — only about one in five of the estimated 1.1 million eligible people are taking Gilead’s drug, which costs $20,000 a year. And the racial gap is huge. Black men and women account for about 40 percent of Americans who should be offered PreP, but make up only about 11 percent of current users. White Americans make up about a fourth of those who should be offered PrEP but comprise nearly 70 percent of those who get it.
Gilead in May announced it would donate enough PrEP medicine to treat 200,000 at-risk people for a decade. But critics fear the largess may slow down the adoption of cheaper generics. They contend that Gilead — whose high profits were just the subject of a critical House oversight hearing — could do a lot more to wipe out HIV simply by lowering its drug prices. The company was dogged by similar criticism for its high-priced hepatitis C medications. The PrEP drug Gilead sells for $1,600 a month in the U.S. goes for just hundreds of dollars a month in Europe. Many countries already have access to cheaper generics.
Money is only one obstacle to broad adoption of PrEP. The federal Ryan White program, which serves low-income and uninsured people with the HIV virus, does include wraparound services like emergency housing or mental health. But that law went into effect about 30 years ago to help people infected with the virus; it hasn’t been modified to help those who are high-risk but HIV negative.
Baltimore’s Rosecrans also wants federal funding to be more flexible, so clinics aren’t so boxed in by a patient’s HIV status. Her clinics can’t provide wraparound services for PrEP patients, nor, under current rules, can she combine services all on one site, which would eliminate obstacles for patients who traipse from one place to another to get health care, support and assistance.
And government funding has moved away from AIDS education and efforts to combat stigma, on the theory that the country has largely gotten the basic facts about HIV treatment and transmission. But in wide swathes of the country that’s not the case. People still think AIDS is an untreatable, fatal disease that can be spread through casual contact.
“It’s like going back in time,“ Dingell said of her mother’s community. “They look at it like it’s still the 1980s. They don’t know that there are resources there, that there’s education, that they can live a healthy life. They have no idea, and unfortunately my mother is one of those people.“ Her aunt, she added, always Lysol-ed the bathroom each time her mother visited, afraid of catching the virus. She was one of the few in the family who either knew, or at least suspected, that the woman had AIDS.
Similar anecdotes abound in support groups run by the Wright clinic for HIV-positive women and among gay, bisexual and transgender men. They tell of being shunned by their churches, and of being told, inaccurately, that AIDS is a death sentence and that they should not have babies because they too will die. One woman, Susan Kitchens, said her physician kicked her out of his office a few years ago for fear his other patients would drop him if word got out that he had treated her. Many said their doctors had never heard about PrEP.
“I’ve literally heard physicians say, ‘If that’s the lifestyle you want to live, why do I care if you live or die,’” said one man, who asked to use only his first name, Stephen, because of the stigma he still endures.
The Wright Center has found that stigma, while detrimental to all, has a higher impact on blacks than on whites. Whites feared social isolation; people of color worried about all that plus basic economic survival and losing their jobs, said Wright’s executive director, Bambi Gaddhist.
For children it can be worse. Some have been “cast out of their home” for being gay or bisexual or transgender. They can’t even begin to talk about HIV/AIDS, she said. The abstinence-only education that dominates schools leaves a lot unsaid about HIV prevention and treatment, and there isn’t much funding for what Gaddhist terms AIDS “Basic 101,” based in trusted community settings.
Similar fears play out in Baltimore; people travel across the city to visit an STD clinic to avoid being recognized.
Going directly to the community can make a big difference, Rosecrans said.
“A lot of times patients have had really negative experiences with health care settings, especially if going to an emergency room and getting labeled a drug user. … So, they come to us and we’re nice to them and it keeps them coming back over time,” she said.
But in South Carolina and among HIV workers there are fears that community outreach is being increasingly decimated, not built up.
In recent years South Carolina has cut off funding for Wright’s work with churches; the CDC no longer lets the organization use its grants to lease vans to transport patients to keep them in HIV treatment. There’s a broader shift of funding away from community-based organizations focused on prevention, unless they directly provide medical care. Grant applications often exclude rural jurisdictions because they don’t have the density of disease necessary to get the “bang for the buck” the federal government wants, added Nic Carlisle, the executive director of the Southern AIDS Coalition.
“We have to be really careful,” said Carlisle. “There’s a lot of talk about using federally qualified health centers and the whole medical model,” but the Trump plan is silent on support services that are often better managed by smaller community-based organizations.
“They are nimble, they end up doing more with less, they end up looking more like the communities they are trying to serve. … Unfortunately I think the emphasis on this sort of medical model or medicalization has really disadvantaged them,” he said.
In a recent conversation, Dingell said her mother was still in the hospital. She was barely eating; Dingell wasn’t sure how much longer she would survive. Like many in South Carolina, Dingell had not heard of Trump’s plan to eradicate HIV and was skeptical of how her mother’s community would react. More awareness and services like housing could eventually make a difference. But it’s likely too late for her family.
In an ideal world, “if she took her medicine and didn’t have a stigma around this disease she could have lived a healthy life, she wouldn’t be in this situation. And you know, if they treated her with dignity and treated her as if she was a person with rights to be treated medically,” she said. “But that’s not her reality.”
Amnesty International has urged Saudi Arabia to rule out the death penalty for a teenage boy who was arrested five years ago.
Murtaja Qureiris was arrested at the age of 13 for taking part in protests against the government and has been detained ever since, according to Amnesty.
Qureiris, now 18, faces possible execution for a series of offences, some of which date back to when he was 10 years old, the rights group reported.
Saudi Arabia’s public prosecution sought the death penalty for Qureiris last August for offences that include “participating in anti-government protests, attending the funeral of his brother Ali Qureiris who was killed in a protest in 2011, joining a ‘terrorist organisation’, throwing Molotov cocktails at a police station, and firing at security forces”, Amnesty said in a press release on Friday.
CNN published video footage showing Qureiris allegedly participating in bicycle protests in Saudi Arabia’s eastern province in 2011 along with a group of other young boys.
According to CNN, Saudi border authorities detained Qureiris when he was travelling with his family to Bahrain in 2014.
Amnesty said following his arrest, Qureiris was locked up at a juvenile detention centre in the eastern city of Dammam and denied access to a lawyer until his first court session in August 2018.
Upon his arrest, Qureiris “was held in solitary confinement for a month, and subjected to beatings and intimidation during his interrogation”, according to Amnesty. “His interrogators promised to release him if he confessed to charges against him.”
Saudi Arabia has yet to respond to the CNN report and the call by Amnesty International.
‘Chilling track record’
The teenager is currently awaiting his next trial session but human rights groups fear for his life.
Commenting on the case, Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Middle East research director, said: “It is appalling that Murtaja Qureiris is facing execution for offences that include taking part in protests while he was just ten years old.
“The Saudi Arabian authorities have a chilling track record of using the death penalty as a weapon to crush political dissent and punish anti-government protesters – including children – from the country’s persecuted Shia minority.
“There should be no doubt that the Saudi Arabian authorities are ready to go to any length to crack down on dissent against their own citizens, including by resorting to the death penalty for men who were merely boys at the time of their arrest,” Maalouf added.
Crackdown on Shia activists
In April, Saudi Arabia executed 37 people for what it said were “terrorism” related crimes, publicly pinning at least one of the bodies to a pole as a warning to others.
Human rights groups said at the time that nearly all of the accused – who were beheaded – were from Saudi Arabia’s Shia community.
The individuals were found guilty of attacking security installations with explosives, killing a number of security officers, and cooperating with “enemy organisations” against the interests of the country, the interior ministry said in a statement.
The sentences were carried out in Riyadh, the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, central Qassim province, and Eastern Province, home to the country’s Shia minority.
According to a count based on official data released by the official SPA news agency, at least 100 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of the year.
The oil-rich Gulf state is ranked among the top five executioners in the world, and according to Amnesty International carried out the death sentences of 149 people last year.
OAKLAND, Calif. — The Golden State Warriors have made a habit of ending games early. It’s kind of their thing.
After hanging around or building a small advantage in the first half, the Warriors regularly take a competitive game and accumulate a big lead in the third. Think the 18-0 run out of the third-quarter gate in Game 2 of the 2019 NBA Finals.
In Game 4, the Toronto Raptors used that trope against them, besting Golden State by 16 points during a 12-minute stretch en route to a monumental 105-92 win at Oracle Arena on Friday night. Now they head back home to Toronto with a 3-1 series lead.
“Well, we had a big problem with the third quarter in Game 2, so we had to make some adjustments there to try to combat the way they come out of the half,” Toronto head coach Nick Nurse said. “They have been historically really good at that.”
“Historically really good at that.” Ain’t that the truth.
The Warriors won third quarters by an average of 2.8 points this season and 5.1 in 2017-18, both tops in the league. In the Kevin Durant era, the Warriors have played 304 third quarters, winning or drawing 212 of them. This 16-point walloping ties their second-worst third-quarter point differential in three seasons.
The Raptors, rigid as ever in their execution on both ends, were able to give the Warriors a taste of their own medicine behind Kawhi Leonard, who picked apart the Warriors for 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting during the period compared to the Warriors’ 21.
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“Kawhi Leonard came out and hit two big eff-you shots to start the half,” Raptors guard Fred VanVleet said. “There’s no defense for that. There are no schemes for that. That’s two big-boy shots that he came out of the half with, two back-to-back threes. And that just kind of let you know how we were going to approach the third quarter and the rest of the half. It put us in a good position.”
Leonard’s threes to start the half caused a cascade effect, deflating the Warriors and derailing the momentum for the remainder of the game.
“I thought they just took it to us right from the beginning of the quarter,” Golden State head coach Steve Kerr said. “Kawhi hit two threes immediately, and they turned up their defense, and they just got on a run. And we just sort of lost that defensive tenacity that we had in the first half.”
From then on, the lead swelled. The Warriors tried to cut into it, but the Raptors always had a response.
What was said at halftime to boost the team? “Nothing really,” Leonard said.
Aside from making shots, Toronto’s big adjustment was starting VanVleet in the second half, removing Danny Green, who had shot 0-of-6 up to that point. The move increased the tempo and added a playmaker to kick-start the offense, something the Raptors have found success with over the course of the season.
“I think it just gives us a different look,” Nurse said pregame. “You know the look. We played Kyle [Lowry] and Fred together a lot, and it gives us kind of a double push, two guys that can push it up the floor, two guys that can take it off the bounce, two guys that can run the team. And mostly, it helps Kyle get off the ball and get up the floor, and Fred can get us into stuff.”
After making just two of 17 threes in the first half, the Raptors followed Leonard in the third, shooting 8-of-15 from beyond the arc and bending the Warriors defense to a breaking point.
“I think they made shots,” Draymond Green said. “Our defense was flying around. I think we still got some good contests there in the second half, like started the half, they had two great contests on Kawhi’s threes, and he hit them. Then they found a rhythm, and once a team like that finds a rhythm, it’s hard to take them out of it.”
Sometimes, good offense beats good defense. The Raptors saw an opening and went for the kill.
Green wasn’t too happy to be on that end of it: “Oh, this sucks. It sucks really bad. You just try and do whatever you can to change it. Get a stop, get a bucket, get some momentum. Every time we did, they answered. So yeah, it sucked, a lot. But can’t get it back now.”
The Warriors are on the ropes, but they have been here before. In 2016, they were down 3-1 in the Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The wisdom they gained from that series sets them up to fight their way out of the corner.
“It’s not over,” two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry said. “It’s not a good feeling right now, obviously, but like you said, we have been on both sides of it. And for us, it’s an opportunity for us to just flip this whole series on its head, and you got to do it one game at a time.”
Curry continued: “It sounds cliche, and for us, that’s literally the only way we’re going to get back in this series, is give everything we got for 48 minutes, everybody that sets foot on that floor in Game 5. In our locker room, we’re talking about believing, everybody out there believes that we can get this done. We got to—we can draw on those experiences that we had back in the day and see what happens.”
In potentially the last game at Oracle Arena, a place that has seen countless wins—and one that has presented true home-court advantage to the Warriors over this stretch (and 40-plus seasons before it)—the building was exhausted of its magic. Raptors fans out-chanted the Golden State faithful and overran the arena singing “O Canada” at the final buzzer.
It still feels impossible to count out the defending champions. This is too somber of an ending for a team that has dominated the league for half a decade.But as of Friday night, Kerr and the Warriors are simply “hoping” Kevin Durant can come back for Game 5 at Scotiabank Arena on Monday.
Maybe that would give Golden State the ammunition it needs. The team is going to need both the experience of coming back from 3-1 once before and Durant’s superior talent.
Regardless, this hole the Warriors have dug themselves into is deep. And if they can’t pull out if it, it may be a stunning end to one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday Mexico‘s government had reached a deal with the United States to avert a tariff war by pledging to take “strong measures” to contain the migration of mostly Central Americans crossing the southern US border.
Trump had threatened to impose five percent import tariffs on all Mexican goods from Monday if Mexico did not agree to his demands to tighten its borders. His announcement of a deal came after three days of Mexico-US negotiations in Washington.
“The Tariffs scheduled to be implemented by the US on Monday, against Mexico, are hereby indefinitely suspended,” Trump said on Twitter on Friday evening.
“Mexico, in turn, has agreed to take strong measures to stem the tide of Migration through Mexico, and to our Southern Border. This is being done to greatly reduce, or eliminate, Illegal Immigration coming from Mexico and into the United States,” Trump added.
Details of the agreement would be released shortly by the US State Department, Trump said.
Mexico wants long term solution
US border officers apprehended more than 132,000 people crossing from Mexico in May, the highest monthly level since 2006. Trump, who has railed against what he described as an “invasion,” had threatened to impose levies rising to 25 percent unless Mexico addressed the problem.
Mexico made concessions during the talks, offering to send 6,000 troops to its southern border with Guatemala, but has said it wants to see a long-term solution that would involve economic development aid.
Mexico had prepared a list of possible retaliatory tariffs targeting products from agricultural and industrial states regarded as Trump’s electoral base, a tactic China has also used with an eye towards the Republican president’s 2020 re-election bid.
Imposing tariffs on Mexico would have left the US fighting trade wars with two of its three largest trading partners and would further unnerve financial markets already on edge about a global economic slowdown.
The US slapped tariffs of up to 25 percent on $200bn in Chinese imports last month, prompting Beijing to levy its own tariffs on $60bn in American goods. Trump said on Thursday he would decide later this month whether to hit Beijing with tariffs on an additional list of $300bn in Chinese goods.
Economists say two trade disputes could damage supply lines and pinch consumers at a time when the global economic expansion that followed the 2008 financial crisis has started to sour and the risk of recession has risen.
Economic costs
Even the US, one of the more solid performers on the economic stage, would not be immune to the downdraft.
The US Labor Department reported on Friday that job growth slowed sharply in May and wages rose less than expected, raising fears that a loss of momentum in economic activity could be spreading to the labour market.
US business groups were generally opposed to the tariffs, warning they would raise costs for companies and lead to higher prices for American consumers. Trump’s fellow Republicans were also not keen on the prospect of a two-front trade war.
Kawhi Leonard is a man on a mission, and that mission is almost complete.
Following his Toronto Raptors‘ 105-92 Game 4 win Friday night to take a 3-1 NBA Finals lead over the Golden State Warriors, the three-time All-Star bluntly described his mindset to ESPN’s Doris Burke:
ESPN @espn
“I don’t play hero basketball. I’m not playing for fans. I’m just playing to win. I’m not out here trying to break records …”
Leonard may not care about his numbers, but his production has been indisputably dominant this postseason. Prior to his game-leading 36-point Game 4 performance, the 27-year-old was the second-leading scorer in these playoffs at 31.1 points per game.
Outside of statistics, he has authored legendary moments such as the first Game 7 buzzer-beater in NBA history to oust the Philadelphia 76ers in the conference semifinals.
Come Monday’s Game 5, Leonard can win the ultimate prize. Should the Raptors beat Golden State once more, the franchise will claim its first-ever title.
The title would be Leonard’s second, as he won with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014 while also claiming the Finals MVP.
The Toronto Raptors are one win away from capturing their first championship after a 105-92victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 4 of the 2019 NBA Finals on Friday night at Oracle Arena.
With the exception of Golden State’s 20-0 run in Game 2, the Raptors have dominated the series to this point. They have taken full advantage of Kevin Durant‘s absence and Klay Thompson’s limited availability to put themselves on the cusp of history.
Kawhi Leonard will be a lock for NBA Finals MVP if Toronto hangs on to win the series. He finished with a game-high 36 points and 12 rebounds. Serge Ibaka was a revelation off the bench with 20 points in 22 minutes.
Klay Thompson showed no lingering effects from his hamstring injury. The five-time All-Star led the Warriors with 28 points on 6-of-10 shooting from three-point range. Stephen Curry added 27 points, but he went just 9-of-22 from the field.
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There is always that one game that the eventual NBA champion wins during the finals that they seemingly have no business winning.
An example would be when the Warriors stole Game 3 against the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2017 by going on an 11-0 run in the final three minutes.
The Raptors had a similar moment in Game 4 Friday night. They didn’t have a miraculous late run like that Golden State squad, but the Eastern Conference champions overcame a horrendous opening quarter in which they scored just 17 points to take a commanding lead in the series.
Leonard, as has been the case often in the postseason, was the only Toronto player scoring consistently for a long time in the first half.
Even though the Raptors were only down 46-42 at halftime, it somehow felt worse than that. Thompson was exactly what Golden State needed in his return with 14 points through two quarters.
A funny thing happened after halftime: The Raptors used Golden State’s patented third-quarter run to take complete control of the game. They outscored the Warriors 37-21, including a 20-6 run over the final 5:11 to take a 12-point lead into the fourth.
Leonard and Ibaka outscored the Warriors on their own in the decisive third quarter, combining for 24 points.
ESPN Stats & Info @ESPNStatsInfo
Kawhi Leonard has recorded his 8th 30-point game on the road this postseason, tied for 2nd-most in a single postseason in NBA history. Only Kobe Bryant had more with 9 in 2009. https://t.co/0mPBpDDsVO
Another reason the Raptors were able to shake off that cold start is that their defense once again stepped up to the challenge. Thompson got his, but Curry went from having the best game of his playoff career in Game 3 with 47 points to seemingly unable to buy a basket.
Seth Greenberg @SethOnHoops
The @Raptors defense has length,versatility and toughness.
Vinay Killawala @vkillem
Imagine turning on the game at halftime and seeing this.
Head coach Nick Nurse has pushed all the right buttons with his team throughout this postseason. Leonard has solidified his standing as one of the few superstars worth putting on the short list for best player in the NBA.
Even when the pieces around Leonard are struggling to put the ball in the basket, Toronto has a chance to win because of its defense. These factors all add up to a franchise one win away from becoming NBA champions.
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The one big caveat hanging over everything in this series is Kevin Durant’s status. There was a brief glimmer of hope he could return for Game 4, but the two-time NBA Finals MVP was unable to take part in a scrimmage Thursday.
Head coach Steve Kerr continues to be coy about Durant returning when talking toreportersabout his injured star:
“It’s just about when the training staff tells me he’s ready. He’s been doing individual work on the court, he’s been in the training room, in the weight room. He’s been doing lots of different things, training staff said he’s not ready to play in a game yet, so that’s all.
“I was hoping that today would be the day when he could get out on the floor. It’s not going to be today. It’s going to be probably (Thursday), the following day, the next couple of days. So the hope would be that he could still make it back at the end of the series.”
If Durant is able to return for Game 5, the Warriors still have a glimmer of hope to win.
One reason Toronto was able to briefly run the box-and-one defense that Stephen Curryhated in Game 2 is that Golden State didn’t have another go-to scorer with size who could pick that set up apart.
Andre Iguodala‘s last-second three allowed the Warriors to steal a win in Toronto, but the past two games have proven the Warriors’ current setup isn’t good enough to compete with this team.
The Warriors’ usually-potent offense hasn’t figured out Toronto’s defense. They’ve been held to 42percent shooting overall, including 20-of-63 from three-point range, in their two games at Oracle Arena.
If nothing else, this series should put an end to any discussion that the Warriors might be better without Durant.
DraftKings @DraftKings
“The Warriors are better without Kevin Durant!” #NBAFinals
The Warriors got two of their three key injured players back in Game 4. Thompson was excellent and Kevon Looney contributed 10 points to take a lot of pressure off DeMarcus Cousins.
Yet even with that duo back and looking close to full strength, Golden State is still struggling to find an answer against the Raptors.
Heading back to Scotiabank Arena for Game 5 in front of a raucous crowd hoping to see their team win a championship, the Warriors’ last best shot at a three-peat is getting Durant back. He’s the best scorer in the league and allows Steve Kerr to play the kind of small lineup that runs opposing teams off the court.
Up to this point, it’s seemed as if the Warriors were just being coy about Durant’s status to keep Toronto guessing.
Now, though, Golden State needs its superstar back if it wants to get one more game at Oracle Arena and put the pressure back on the Raptors in this series.
What’s Next?
The Warriors and Raptors will return to Scotiabank Arena for Game 5 on Monday at 9 p.m. ET.
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