Joel Embiid’s MVP-caliber season could come crashing down tonight if he can’t lead his Philadelphia 76ers to a win over the Miami Heat. If Philly gets sent packing in the semifinals again, this will be the fourth time in five years that’s happened. Two things are clear about Embiid’s situation in Philly:

1.) The narrative on Embiid is changing from him being a great player who’s ascending, to a great player that can’t get it done in big moments.

2.) The guy just can’t seem to catch a break with supposed star teammates who don’t produce and the frequent injuries that cause him to miss significant time each year.

This narrative is the easiest part for Joel to change as he can affect this most by winning. This is Embiid’s sixth NBA season (he missed his first two years with injuries), and he is yet to make it to a conference finals. As the best player in the series against Miami, Embiid and the Sixers were expected by many to handle Miami rather quickly. That hasn’t been the case. Embiid was injured, missed the first two games, then came back for games three and four and played welland Philly was able to tie the series at two games apiece.

Then Game 5 happened. That was a game where Embiid and Philly could have crushed Miami’s spirits and taken three straight games in the series, plus winning on the Heat’s home court. Instead, the Sixers looked flat as a tire and lost by 35 points. Embiid was the high scorer for Philadelphia with 17 freaking points. I know he’s not 100 percent, but when is Joel Embiid ever fully healthy? And this isn’t the first time Embiid’s had a chance to cement himself among the top superstars and the league, and he’s failed.

In March, the Sixers played a game against the Bucks where Embiid was great against Giannis Antetokounmpo, scoring 29 points, snagging 14 rebounds, and dishing seven assists. Then came winning time. With seconds left in the game, Embiid had the opportunity to send the game to overtime with a dunk but instead chose a layup and got his shot eaten up by Giannis. That game was during the thick of the MVP race, and Embiid could’ve put a stamp on the race.

Two weeks prior, the Sixers played another game where Embiid could have planted his MVP flag against eventual winner Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. Joel played well, posting 34 points and nine rebounds, but Denver won a close game, 114-110. Embiid talks about the odds being against him to win MVP the past couple of years, but when he has the opportunity to show voters, he doesn’t capitalize. Two significant victories over the last month of the season against the two players Embiid was battling for MVP would’ve gone a long way for his MVP case.

Its But Embiid still hasn’t won MVP, and he’s on the brink of elimination in the second round. Although Jokic has won consecutive MVP awards, there is still a group of folks who consider Embiid the best center in the game. Jokic has a conference finals appearance on his resume. I don’t care if it happened in the Orlando bubble. Embiid and his Sixers were bounced in the first round in that same bubble. And we know what Giannis has done to change his narrative about him over the last two years. He took his team to the Finals and won.

So, it can be done. Joel can completely flip the narrative, and it starts with staying alive against the Heat and pushing the series to Game 7. Game 7s are where stars shine brightest. If Embiid truly longs for superstar status, then he’s got to make it to the conference finals. Pretty soon, the excuses and blame-shifting won’t cut it. And there’s been plenty of that for and by Embiid.

For years the excuse was trusting “The Process,” which Sam Hinkie took the blame (rightfully so) for even after he was gone. The team was young and at least making the playoffs, so Embiid got a pass. Then it was Ben Simmons and whether he was ever going to live up to his potential.

After Game 7 against Atlanta last postseason, Embiid pointed the finger at Simmons. But that series shouldn’t have come down to that situation in Game 7 anyway. Once again, Embiid was let off the hook and allowed to blame someone else.

If the 76ers lose to the Heat, it’ll be James Harden’s fault this time, right? Harden is a shell of his former self and could never be trusted in the postseason anyway. Or maybe he’ll turn on Doc Rivers and toss his coach under the bus should they be eliminated by Miami.

No more excuses.

It’s time for Embiid to throw this team on his back and carry them like the superstar he aspires to be. Harden sure as hell ain’t gonna do it, and Rivers can only do so much from the sideline. Joel’s superstar status is on the line in these playoffs. It’s up to Embiid to figure out how this narrative plays out.

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The Detroit Lions have reportedly agreed to contract terms with first-round pick, Alabama wide receiver Jameson Williams, for NFL Networks Ian Rapoport.

Williams marks the fourth rookie to agree to terms with the Lions over the past few days, the others being fellow first-round pick Michigan edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson, third-round pick Illinois safety Kerby Joseph, and seventh-round pick Arizona State Chase Lucas .

Terms of the agreement were not reported, but as a first-round pick, Williams’ four-year contract is fully guaranteed and comes with a team option fifth year.

The Lions aggressively traded up to draft Williams with the No. 12 overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, despite being just five months into the recovery process from a torn ACL in the National Championship game. Williams — and his doctor about him —are optimistic that he will be recovered by training camp, even though that would recovery arc would be faster than typical.

“I’m 13 weeks from surgery. I’ve just been doing regular movements, getting back to it. But I should be ready to go by training camp, ”Williams said at his post-draft selection press conference. “I’m shooting for training camp.”

The Lions’ rookie minicamp begins on Friday — a three-day event — and while players do not need to have signed their contract ahead of time, Detroit traditionally works to get most, if not all, of their class paperwork done ahead of time.

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NBC announced on Thursday that they’ve tapped Maria Taylor to replace Mike Tirico as host of “Football Night in America,” the pre-show that airs before “Sunday Night Football.”

“Maria is the perfect choice to carry the legacy forward of anchoring the most-watched studio show in sports,” NBC Sports Executive Producer Sam Flood said in a statement.

“Football Night in America” ​​needed a new lead after Mike Tirico, NBC’s ubiquitous sports host, was moved over to SNF play-by-play. He’s taking the seat that had been occupied by Al Michaels, who decamped to Amazon’s Prime Video after NBC declined to renew his contract.

Taylor has been at NBC Sports since late July, just days after her contract with ESPN expired. Since then, she’s been very busy. In her first days at her new network, Taylor took on hosting duties for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In addition to that, Taylor has hosted the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the Super Bowl LVI Pregame Show, and served as co-host of “Football Night in America” ​​for the 2021 NFL season.

Taylor’s fraught departure from ESPN

Taylor left ESPN under circumstances that were not the greatest. In July 2021, an ESPN employee leaked a recording of reporter Rachel Nichols (who has since left ESPN), alleging that ESPN only gave Taylor the job of hosting the 2020 NBA Finals because of the network’s “crappy longtime record on diversity.” Nichols did not know she was being recorded.

That reportedly set off a firestorm at ESPN, with employees calling out how their employer had (poorly) handled issues of race and gender in the past. According to the New York Times, ESPN made promises to Taylor in response to the Nichols incident, but almost immediately broke them – and Taylor wasn’t happy about it.

Contract negotiations between Taylor and ESPN then broke down. She had a lot of interest from other networks, so despite ESPN reportedly offering her $ 3 million to stay, Taylor decided to move on to NBC.

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NEW YORK – Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks and coach Steve Nash met the media on Wednesday to discuss a season that went off the rails. The Nets were swept out of the first round, an almost unfathomable outcome when Marks’ front office put the roster together.

Marks, who took the majority of the questions, held himself to account, saying that he has to “get back to the drawing board” and look for the type of players that can improve the culture of the team. He said that Ben Simmons has “a new lease on life, so to speak,” after his recent back surgery. Most notably, Marks did not let Kyrie Irving off the hook for choosing not to get vaccinated and missing most of the season.

‘We’re going to need availability from everybody’

Sixteen days after Irving said that he looks forward to “managing this franchise” with Kevin Durant, Marks and owner Joe Tsai, a reporter asked Marks if the Nets were committed to Irving long-term. (Irving has a $ 36.5 million player option next season; if he opts out, he is eligible to sign a new contract for up to five years.)

“Yeah, look, I think that’s something we’ve been discussing and we will continue to debrief on and discuss throughout this offseason,” Marks said.

He added that the front office has decisions to make on “a variety of free agents,” not just Irving. Brooklyn only has six players under contract for 2022-23, excluding player options.

“It would be unfair for me to comment on how it looks with us and Kyrie because, to be quite frank, he has some decisions to make on his own,” Marks said. “So he has to look at what he’s going to do with his player option and so forth like that. But I think we know what we’re looking for. We’re looking for guys that want to come in here and be part of something bigger than themselves, play selfless, play team basketball and be available. And that goes not only for Kyrie but for everybody here. “

The key word there is “available.” Irving did not get vaccinated against COVID-19 despite a New York City mandate and played in only 29 of Brooklyn’s 82 regular-season games. The previous season, he took a sabbatical that turned into a seven-game absence because he violated the NBA’s health and safety protocols while away from the team.

Asked if it will be necessary to tell Irving that his absences must only be injury-related, Marks said: “I think those are going to be discussions. It’s a team sport and you need everybody out there on the court. And we saw this year, when you have Kevin miss 27 games with injuries and Kyrie being out for over half the season, I mean, that hurts. That hurts from a roster-building standpoint. That’s not what we planned for. “

Marks continued: “We need people here that want to be here, that are selfless, that want to be part of something bigger than themselves. There’s an objective and there’s a goal at stake here. In order to do that, we’re going to need availability from everybody. “

On how Irving’s absence affected the team, Marks said: “I think it’s obvious. Whenever you have a key part of your team that isn’t available and you’re trying to build chemistry, you’re trying to build camaraderie out on the court, that’s very difficult. ”

This was the rationale for shelving him before the beginning of the regular season, rather than allowing him to be a part-time player. Marks said that he does not, however, regret bringing Irving back into the fold before he was eligible to play at home, reiterating that, between Irving’s absence and Joe Harris’ injury, Brooklyn was asking Durant and other players “to take on too much . ” The team also had a COVID outbreak, further depleting its active roster. There was “no script,” he said, for the situation the Nets were in.

“It made it difficult for all of us,” Marks said. “Again, I don’t want to make any excuses on that because I think there were a variety of teams out there, and the teams that are still playing to this day, they may not have had quite the extent of the excuses that we can come up with but they had to navigate COVID as well, they had to navigate injuries, they had to navigate all of this. And if I’m going to be brutally honest, they navigated it better than we did. “

‘He needs to be in here, smell the gym again’

A reporter asked Marks if he worries about the fact that both Irving and Simmons have missed a significant amount of games while physically healthy – when negotiating a hypothetical contract, does he have to gauge how committed the player is to fulfilling it?

“100 percent,” Marks said. “We have to factor all of that in. Honestly, where we are, when you’re giving somebody a minimum contract and it doesn’t pan out, it still factors into how you’re building a roster and how much tax you ‘ re paying and so forth. So certainly when you’re looking at players that are making 30 or 40 million dollars or potentially making that, you have to factor in everything. And that’s the hard part of the business. “

He continued: “What makes them tick? What drives them? Do they want to be part of this? Are they motivated by something that maybe is not good for the whole team here? So those are questions we’re going to have to ask ourselves and also ask the players that we want to bring back in here. “

While Irving could be a free agent in July, Simmons is already under contract for the next three seasons. Simmons will make $ 40.3 million in 2024-25.

Marks did not question Simmons’ desire to play. “I think he was hoping more than anybody that he could come out and contribute to the team,” Marks said. He was not able to come back against the Boston Celtics in the playoffs, though, and then he had another MRI on his back di lui.

“We could see that the herniation had expanded,” Marks said. “At that point, there was really nothing but surgery that was going to fix this. I can tell you that from the communications I’ve had with him multiple times since the surgery, he’s feeling relief already, feeling great.”

Marks said he did not want to talk about Simmons’ or anyone else’s “mental health or mental performance.” The Nets, he said, are doing “everything we possibly can” to get him around the team.

“That is the key,” Marks said. “He needs to be in here, smell the gym again, around his friends, around his family, around to be quite frank and participate in this and let us help him build a culture together, build up together, build him up, build him back up. ”

Simmons is “a big, big part of this,” Marks said. “He fits a lot of holes, plugs a lot of holes that we think we potentially have. And with him in there, it’s a different dynamic out there. It’s a different dynamic for not only his teammates – what they’ll be asked to do in the roles they have to cover – but also for the coaching staff, so they can put people in places where they were honestly brought here to [be] and not have to try and fill a different role. “

‘You’d love people who are versatile’

If there was one message that Marks and Nash wanted to communicate, it was that they know things need to change. Through all of Brooklyn’s injuries, trades and shenanigans over the past two seasons, the team has always had championship aspirations. It fell far short of the goal, but the goal remains the same.

“I would be pretty naive if I thought we could just sort of run it back,” Marks said. “Right? I think we can see not only where the NBA is going, but potentially how defenses are now set up to guard the likes of Kevin, Ky and those sort of max players. So we’re going to have to put the right pieces around them. ”

Without Simmons and Harris against the Celtics, Brooklyn was too small and too big at the same time. The Nets’ rotation included four small, slight guards (Irving, Patty Mills, Seth Curry and Goran Dragic) and the 6-foot-4 Bruce Brown, who played a Swiss Army Knife role usually reserved for players four or five inches taller. They also used five roster spots on big men (Nicolas Claxton, Andre Drummond, Blake Griffin, LaMarcus Aldridge and Day’Ron Sharpe) and Boston’s wings repeatedly targeted the ones who made it on the floor.

“You’d love people who are versatile,” Marks said. “You’d love people who can play multiple positions and so forth. I think we look at some of the teams that are playing now, I mean, they’ve got 6-10 point guards out there. They’ve got, you know, Golden State has a – I don’t want to knock Draymond [Green]but what is he, a 6-7 center? “

The Nets could tell themselves that, as long as Simmons and Harris are healthy next season, they’ll have the size, rebounding, defense and shooting that they were missing. “But that, I think, is foolhardy,” Nash said. Repeatedly, he said that they need to try to “preempt” some of the challenges they might face. I took this to mean that Brooklyn needs to build a team that is better equipped to handle potential injuries, that doesn’t look severely deficient the moment that Harris has to miss a game.

“Regardless of who’s available,” Nash said, “how do we want to play? And [against Boston] I wasn’t happy with the way we played. “

Nash sees every disappointment as a gift and an opportunity to grow. In that sense, he said that the Celtics series showed them how they stack up against a top-level defense and forced them to ask “what really matters to us and where we want to hang our hat.”

Marks said that, as Brooklyn approaches the draft and free agency, it will be looking for players who fit with the core. Nash said that “opportunities abound” for the young players who are trying to improve over the summer and become part of the regular rotation. You do not have to be a basketball genius to see that the roster needs more shooters who can hold their own defensively, more size on the wing and more athleticism everywhere.

The vibe shift

Marks said that, because the Nets are built around highly-paid superstars, “our team is going to look vastly different every year – it has to.” When he talked about the changes that are coming, though, he did not mean simply shopping for shooters and stoppers. He said that they want to focus on “grit” and “resilience” and “doing some of the things that got us here in the first place.”

A long list of All-Stars and Olympians have come through Brooklyn’s practice facility at Sunset Park over the past few years, some to lead the team, some to come off the bench, some to coach. For several years before that, the same facility was full of underdogs and overachievers. Marks implied that, in this transition, something has been lost.

“We have prided ourselves in the past with finding players with a chip on their shoulder, with resilience, with something to prove,” he said. “We’re going to have to go back to that. We’re going to have to go back to looking a little bit more at development, looking more at finding the right characteristics of a player that fits here.”

It sounds like what Marks wants is a vibe shift. The Nets now have time to “do some deep soul-searching,” he said, “and think about what can change.” Is it possible to build a championship team around Durant and Irving that feels like the up-and-coming team that got Durant and Irving’s attention? No. But it is possible to surround the superstars with more overachievers, more two-way players, more players like Brown, who will be an unrestricted free agent in July.

Among the many things Marks has said about the nebulous concept of “team culture” is that it is always evolving, based largely on the people in the building. After a season he described as tough, disappointing and frustrating, he believes Brooklyn’s culture is in need of a course correction.

“Did we take a step back? Without a doubt,” Marks said. “Without a doubt, the culture isn’t what it quite was. And it’s going to be our job to pick that up. And between Steve and myself as the leaders of that, we’ll certainly be doing that. But we’ve got to find the players that’ll drive that culture. It has to be driven by players. “

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Kyle’s update, 1:30 PM PT: As predicted, the 49ers will face Russell Wilson under the lights. Sunday Night Football, San Francisco travels to Denver to face the Broncos. In Week 10, the Chargers will travel to Levi’s Stadium on Sunday Night Football. Finally, the Seattle Seahawks will host the Niners in Week 15 on Thursday night.

Those games above have been confirmed by Mr. David Fucillo, former overlord of Niners Nation. In 2018, the Niners had three of their first four games on the road. It’s not uncommon for teams to travel often early in the season.

There have been other leaks from other teams that have the 49ers traveling to Atlanta in Week 2. That means San Francisco starts the season with three road games in a row if the leaked information is accurate.

Here’s what the internet has found so far, including the three above:

Week 1: @ Bears
Week 2: @ Falcons
Week 3: @ Broncos
Week 5: @ Panthers
Week 7: Chiefs (neither home or away confirmed)
Week 10: vs. Chargers
Week 11: @ Cardinals, in Mexico City
Week 12: vs. Saints
Week 15: @ Seattle
Week 16: vs. Commanders
Week 17: @ Raiders
Week 18: vs. Cardinals

We can expect multiple schedule leaks throughout Thursday ahead of the official release at 5 PM PT. Danny Parkins of 670 The Score in Chicago is confirming the Chicago Bears opponents. In Week 1, the Bears will host the San Francisco 49ers:

When both teams faced in the middle of the season last year, we thought we’d see Justin Fields versus Trey Lance. This time, that’s more likely to happen with the uncertainty of Jimmy Garoppolo and nobody standing in the way of Fields as the starter.

The 49ers won 33-22 in Chicago last season, but they had to outscore the Bears 18-6 in the fourth quarter after Chicago came within a point after Fields had this miraculous touchdown run on 4th & 1:

I remember sitting in the corner of the end zone in the press box where Fields was running, thinking, “no way he scores.” This time around, hopefully, that’s Lance.

The Bears missed the extra point, and the 49ers would score a touchdown on the next drive to put the game away. Still, the game was closer than expected.

I don’t think the Niners will have to worry about a close game this time around. We don’t know what we’ll get from Lance, and there will be nerves, but the Bears have had a forgettable offseason, to say the least.

Current schedule leaks:

Week 1: @ Bears
Week 11: @ Cardinals, in Mexico City
Week 12: vs. Saints

We’ll update this as the day goes along. Feel free to share what you see in the comments. Nothing is confirmed as of yet, but the locals here in Phoenix believe Kyler Murray and company will finish the season in Levi’s Stadium in Week 18.

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Gino Cappelletti, an original member of the Boston Patriots and one of the greatest players in the history of the American Football League, has died at the age of 89.

A wide receiver, defensive back and kicker, played all 10 of the AFL’s seasons before it merged with the NFL, and never missed a game in those 10 seasons. With 1,100 points scored, he was the leading scorer in the history of the AFL, and in 1964 he was named the AFL’s Most Valuable Player.

Despite a good college career as a quarterback at Minnesota, Cappelletti wasn’t chosen in the 1955 NFL draft, and he then joined the US Army and played some minor league football, and he easily could have never had a professional football career.

But when the AFL came along, Cappelletti tried out for the Patriots, and he made an immediate impact. At first, he played on defense, and his efforts di lui included a three-interception game as a rookie. After his first season he switched over to offense, and over the course of his career he caught 292 passes for 4,589 yards and five touchdowns.

All the while, Cappelletti was one of the best kickers in football, leading the AFL in field goals three times. He retired after the 1970 season.

Upon retirement, Cappelletti worked in broadcasting, and the was the Patriots ‘radio commentator for seven years before a three-year stint as the Patriots’ special teams coach. He then returned to the broadcast booth before retiring in 2012.

“My heart aches after learning of Gino Cappelletti’s passing this morning,” Patriots owner Robert Kraft said. “For the first 51 years of this franchise’s history, Gino contributed as an all-star player, assistant coach and broadcaster. You couldn’t be a Patriots fan during that era and not be a fan of Gino’s. The Patriots have had many iconic, fan-favorite players over the years. Gino was the first. I remember watching him play in 1960 and throughout his career of him. He was one of the AFL’s biggest stars, becoming the first Patriots player to earn league MVP honors and retiring as the league’s all-time leading scorer. He became the second player in franchise history to earn Patriots Hall of Fame induction and I will always believe he deserves to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “

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Five-star senior Julian Phillips, the last remaining available five-star basketball prospect in the 2022 class, announced his commitment to Tennessee on Thursday.

Phillips chose the Volunteers over Auburn, although the G League Ignite team had emerged as an option late in the process. He had originally committed to LSU in October but was released from his letter of intent in March after coach Will Wade was fired following an NCAA notice of allegations accusing the program of five Level I violations.

A 6-foot-7 small forward from South Carolina who attended Link Year Prep (Missouri), Phillips is ranked No. 13 in the ESPN 100 for 2022 and is Tennessee’s sixth five-star recruit in the past four classes. He slots in as the No. 6 small forward in the class.

Phillips averaged 19.6 points per game for Upward Stars on the Adidas Gauntlet circuit last summer then helped lead Link Year Prep to the championship game of the Geico Nationals tournament last month. He averaged 15.7 points and 4.7 rebounds in three Geico Nationals games, including 20 points and six rebounds in a quarterfinal win over Oak Hill Academy (Virginia).

“Phillips is a long and skilled wing with the one-and-done talent that the NBA covets,” said Paul Biancardi, ESPN’s national recruiting director. “However, he will have to raise his talent and work habits to maximize his enormous upside. He plays both inside and out effectively. Phillips has been loaded with potential at a young age. His versatility at both ends and physical measurables make him a desirable recruit. “

Phillips immediately upgrades Tennessee’s frontcourt and is likely to play a starring role immediately. Coach Rick Barnes and the Volunteers are expected to return Zakai Zeigler and Santiago Vescovi on the perimeter and versatile Josiah-Jordan James on the wing. Phillips and James should form a forward tandem capable of creating matchup problems for most opponents.

They also get back Olivier Nkamhoua, who started 22 games before suffering a season-ending ankle injury, and starting center Uros Plavsic. Indiana State transfer Tyreke Key averaged 17.2 points per game two seasons ago before sitting out last season and will add further punch to the backcourt.

The Volunteers ranked No. 19 in the most recent update of ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25.

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The Boston Celtics could see the finish line. A 3-2 lead was right there if they could just keep their wits about them and stay on their feet. And then one stumble. Then another, and another, and suddenly, improbably, the Milwaukee Bucks nipped them at the tape to steal control of the East semifinal series.

“We gave it away,” Jaylen Brown said. “That’s how we lost it.”

Now, the action shifts back to Milwaukee for Game 6 and one of the most significant moments of the Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown era.

The duo, which has been together since Tatum arrived in the 2017 draft, has already made a number of deep playoff runs together. There was the surprise trip to the Eastern Conference finals in Tatum’s rookie season in 2018, where they ultimately lost Game 7 at home to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. They got back to the ECF in 2020 in the bubble, but were not fully healthy and couldn’t take care of business against the Miami Heat in a strange environment.

Both of those defeats were frustrating, but they felt like positive stepping stones for a young team at the time. The reins hadn’t fully been handed to Tatum and Brown, and in neither season were the Celtics likely to actually win the title if they broke through to the Finals – certainly not in 2018 against the Golden State Warriors at the height of their powers , and probably not against the LeBron and Anthony Davis-led Lakers in 2020.

None of those caveats apply this time around. This is well and truly Tatum and Brown’s team, and it would be a massive disappointment if they bow out in the second round, even to the defending champions. The title race is wide open this season, and there is a real opportunity for them to win it all. Tatum has established himself as one of the best players in the league, Brown is an All-Star, they’re getting some of the best basketball of Al Horford’s career and they have an elite defense that has been dominant at times in the playoffs.

The Celtics were favored coming into the series and looked to be the better team with Khris Middleton sidelined. For large chunks of the series they have been. They’ve led in the final minute in four of the five games, and despite trailing 3-2, they’ve outscored the Bucks 522-508. They could, and really should, be heading to Milwaukee with a chance to close things out and get back to the conference finals for a fourth time in six seasons. Instead, they’re coming off one the most heartbreaking losses in recent franchise history, and will be facing elimination on the road.

All of which makes Game 6 fascinating.

How do Tatum, Brown and the Celtics respond? As Tatum was quick to remind everyone during his postgame press conference, “the series is not over.” The Celtics have already won once in Milwaukee, and are more than capable of doing so again. But this group has never faced a test like this, and has never had to bounce back from a loss like this.

“The biggest challenge of the year,” Brown said. “Mentally, physically, emotionally, it puts a challenge on every component. So, we’ve gotta regroup and get our spirit to the point where we can go in and get a victory in Milwaukee.”

Will they be able to summon the resolve, the focus, the mental toughness it will take to force a Game 7? Or will another opportunity slip away? Questions like that are what the playoffs are all about, and now it’s Tatum and Brown’s turn to provide an answer.

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Tottenham and Arsenal face off tonight in the biggest north London derby in recent memory.

The bitter rivals are battling it out to claim the fourth and final Champions League place this season.

Antonio Conte’s side know they must win to keep their hopes of elite European football next season alive, while Mikel Arteta’s men can end the race with a win tonight.

• Arsenal beat Leeds United on Sunday, while Spurs secured a draw with Liverpool on Saturday
• Tottenham: Lloris, Dier, Sanchez, Davies, Emerson, Sessegnon, Hojbjerg, Bentancur, Kulusevski, Son, Kane
• Arsenal: Ramsdale, Cedric, Holding, Gabriel, Tomiyasu, Xhaka, Elneny, Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Nketiah
• talkSPORT will have updates throughout the day and you can listen through our radio player below

FOLLOW OUR LIVE MATCH BLOG FOR REGULAR UPDATES…

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