Detroit Pistons pull classic prank on rookie, filling car with popcorn
The Detroit Pistons pulled a classic prank on one of their rookies.
Teammates filled the car of 2024 second-round pick Bobi Klintman with popcorn, in a video posted on social media by the team on Friday. The reason? He forgot to bring the speakers.
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"Don't be late no more," Cade Cunningham said from inside Klintman's car, presumably before it was filled with popcorn. "When we tell you to bring the speakers, bring the speakers."
INJURY UPDATE: Isaiah Stewart to miss Friday's game against Bucks
"This is what happens when you don't do what you're supposed to do," Isaiah Stewart added.
Klintman, who was selected 37th overall last summer, has appeared in seven games this season.
Make "The Pistons Pulse" your go-to Detroit Pistons podcast, listen available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify).
Stay tuned all year long at freep.com/sports/pistons.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons prank rookie Bobi Klintman, filling car with popcorn
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Fox Sports
3 hours ago
- Fox Sports
Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton is on historic clutch streak; here are his best moments
Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton is having a postseason run for the ages. The funny thing is that Haliburton isn't necessarily lighting up the box score. Across Indiana's 17 postseason games, Haliburton, a two-time All-NBA honoree, is averaging 18.5 points, 9.5 assists, 5.9 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game, while shooting 46.6/33.1/80.4. Of course, the other side is that Haliburton has led the Pacers to the NBA Finals, and they now lead the Oklahoma City Thunder 1-0 after a fourth-quarter comeback that ended with him hitting a game-winning jump shot with 0.3 seconds remaining. This has been the theme for Haliburton this spring: hitting game-winning jump shots, sending games to overtime and pulling off clutch moment after clutch moment. Here are Haliburton's best moments of the 2025 NBA postseason. Game 5 of Eastern Conference first round The Pacers had the Milwaukee Bucks on the brink, leading the latter 3-1 in the series and having a closeout Game 5 on their home floor — and it turned out to be quite eventful. Milwaukee led 103-99 with 53 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Then, Haliburton connected on a pair of free throws and tied the game with a dunk following a Bucks possession where they came up empty, and the game went to overtime. Haliburton had Indiana's last six points in regulation. The Bucks were looking good in overtime. Even after a missed free throw by AJ Green, the one he knocked down gave Milwaukee a 118-111 lead with 40 seconds remaining. Then, it began to unravel. Andrew Nembhard hit a 3-pointer on the other end and then came up with a steal. Haliburton got an and-1 on the ensuing possession, and Milwaukee turned the ball over once again. With the Pacers down by one, Haliburton brought the ball up the court and went around Giannis Antetokounmpo for a go-ahead layup with 1.3 seconds remaining. No miracle took place for the Bucks, and the Pacers finished off theirs to advance to the semifinals. Haliburton finished with eight points in overtime, and 26 points, nine assists, five rebounds, three steals and three blocks for the game. It's the second consecutive season that the Pacers defeated the Bucks in the playoffs, with Indiana doing so in the first round last season. Game 2 of Eastern Conference semifinals After taking Game 1 from the No. 1-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers, the Pacers were going to be in solid shape going home, regardless of how Game 2 played out. This was probably the thought that crossed the state of Indiana's mind when Donovan Mitchell knocked down a pair of free throws to give Cleveland a 119-112 lead with 57 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Then, it started. Aaron Nesmith got a dunk and then forced an offensive foul on Mitchell, which Indiana capitalized on with Pascal Siakam getting an inside bucket, getting the Pacers within three. The Pacers forced a turnover and Haliburton got fouled on the other end with 12 seconds remaining. Haliburton made the first free throw, missed the second but got his own rebound off a deflection. After bringing the ball out to the perimeter, he made the go-ahead 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds remaining. Cleveland didn't score thereafter, and Indiana took a 2-0 series lead. The Pacers won the series in five games, going 3-0 on the road. Game 1 of Eastern Conference Finals Jalen Brunson made a 3-pointer with 2:51 remaining in Game 1, giving the New York Knicks a 119-105 lead on their home floor. While this was a high-scoring affair, it appeared to be a game that New York had in the bag. Emphasis on "appeared." On the ensuing possession, Haliburton knocked down a 3-pointer. And while New York scored throughout Indiana's run, Nesmith hit override on all of them, drilling four 3-pointers in the final three minutes and scoring 14 points altogether. Still, the Knicks led by two with seven seconds remaining. But Haliburton sent the game to overtime with a jumper that bounced in. It was originally ruled a 3-pointer, but replay showed that Haliburton's foot was on the line, and the game went to overtime. Indiana proceeded to out-score New York 13-10 in overtime to steal Game 1. Haliburton finished with 31 points and 11 assists. To boot, Haliburton remade Pacers legend Reggie Miller's "choke" symbol, which he did against the Knicks in Game 5 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals (however, the Knicks won that series), after the buzzer-beater at the end of the fourth quarter. The Pacers then won Game 2 and went on to win the series, 4-2, eliminating the Knicks for a second consecutive season. Game 1 of NBA Finals With 9:42 remaining in the fourth quarter, Jalen Williams slammed home a bucket for the Thunder, who led 94-79. And then it started to happen. Indiana scraped and clawed its way within striking distance and put pressure on Oklahoma City to close the game out on its home floor. Following a pair of free throws from Nembhard and a block and score on the other end from Siakam, the Pacers trailed by just one point with 48 seconds remaining. The Thunder then had two chances to stretch their lead, but Williams and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander couldn't connect, and the Pacers came down court in the final seconds, with Haliburton getting the honors. Despite Cason Wallace — who started Game 1 for the Thunder over center Isaiah Hartenstein — draped all over him, Haliburton fired a long-range two-pointer off the dribble and connected with 0.3 seconds remaining. That would be all, as the Pacers got a stop and finished off a 111-110 victory. Haliburton only had four points in the final 9:42 and finished with 14 points total, but, yet again, he hit the biggest shot of the game. In the aftermath of his latest crunch-time wonder, Haliburton has made four game-tying or go-ahead shots with under three seconds remaining in regulation or overtime this postseason, which ties him for second all-time in the play-by-play era (1996-97 season to present); LeBron James is first with eight. Haliburton and the Pacers have a 1-0 series lead in the NBA Finals. Who's to say his next heroic doesn't result in the Pacers hosting the Larry O'Brien Trophy? Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily! 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New York Times
5 hours ago
- New York Times
Can Bucks extend Giannis' prime and develop young players? Bucks mailbag, Part II
Last night, the 2025 NBA Finals got underway with the Indiana Pacers shocking the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1, winning 111-110. When the Pacers eliminated the Milwaukee Bucks from the postseason more than a month ago, it was tough to imagine Indiana would make a run to the finals. However, their journey provides an interesting backdrop for the larger questions our readers have sent, which ask me to contemplate the future of the Milwaukee franchise. Next week, we will address shorter responses to more questions, but in this mailbag, we have decided to focus on two big ideas that will have a significant impact on the Bucks moving forward. Note: Questions have been lightly edited for clarity. Advertisement With Giannis Antetokounmpo's downhill style of play, how many more years can he go before his knees become a problem? — Rd U. I think that is an impossible question to answer. I am not a doctor. I have no idea what Antetokounmpo's medical information looks like. Even if I did, I'd have no way of interpreting what that might mean for the potential for future injuries or when he might break down. But I think a larger, adjacent idea is interesting, so I wanted to explore that a bit. Over the weekend, my former colleague at The Athletic (and former director of basketball research for the Bucks), Seth Partnow, spent some time on Bluesky talking with people about where exactly Antetokounmpo belongs in the various tiers of NBA superstars and whether or not Antetokounmpo is still a 1A superstar alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokić. While our guy, Law Murray, put him in the 1A category with SGA and Jokić, Partnow wondered if Antetokounmpo had started to hit the downslope of his absolute prime and should be dropped to 1B. Before getting into this, I would remind folks that whether Antetokounmpo is 1A or 1B, we're talking about the best players in the world, so Partnow isn't suggesting Antetokounmpo is 'washed' or anything of that nature. He is trying to articulate the small differences that separate the most elite players. In this discussion, though, I would side with Murray in my belief that Antetokounmpo is still unequivocally a 1A player, and I don't see that changing over the next few seasons. The transformation that Antetokounmpo underwent this season offensively was impressive and felt like the first step in a larger transformation that will help keep Antetokounmpo at the same level as the league's top-level superstar players for years to come. That transformation started with Antetokounmpo's shot distribution. Per Cleaning the Glass, the Bucks superstar took 35 percent of his shots from the mid-range, with 17 percent of those attempts coming on mid-range shots longer than 14 feet. The last time he came close to numbers such as those was the 2017-18 season, which was Jason Kidd's final season as coach. As Antetokounmpo continued to whittle away at how many 3-point shots he tries each season, he ended up taking only four percent of his shots from behind the 3-point line, a career low. Antetokounmpo was able to use the mid-range more often to put less stress on his body, while still taking more shots from less than five feet (12 per game) than any other player in the NBA. Advertisement On top of changing his shot distribution, Antetokounmpo also put together the best mid-range shooting season of his career. (We detailed the work behind that progress, as well as the team of coaches that Antetokounmpo put together to help him evolve his game, before the Bucks beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2024 NBA Cup Final.) With career-high shooting percentages on both short and long mid-range shots, the two-time MVP hit a career-high 43.7 percent on shots taken outside of five feet and inside the 3-point line, per Cleaning the Glass. His previous career-high was only 40.9 percent from mid-range in the 2021-22 season. Along with the changes in his shot distribution and accuracy, coach Doc Rivers placed Antetokounmpo in different spots, which helped show how last season may be the first step in extending the peak of Antetokounmpo's MVP prime. At the end of the season, when Damian Lillard was out with a deep vein thrombosis blood clot in his right leg, the Bucks were forced to build the team solely around Antetokounmpo's strengths. That revealed how a more heliocentric approach could help Antetokounmpo elongate his prime, even if he is not the same world-destroying freak of nature he was when he won his first MVP in 2019. As Bucks general manager Jon Horst approaches next season, he can foster an environment that allows Antetokounmpo to thrive by building a roster where Antetokounmpo can operate in the mid-range and the post as a playmaker on offense while also not forcing him to save the day with a superhero effort on defense. Surrounding Antetokounmpo with players who can knock down shots and defend multiple positions would allow him to thrive on both ends of the floor. One of the frequent critiques I hear of Antetokounmpo's game is that he is not quite the defender that he used to be. That is fair considering he took home the 2020 NBA Defensive Player of the Year when he entered his athletic peak, but it may not be as fair when considering his 1A contemporaries. Gilgeous-Alexander put together an excellent defensive season this year, and he did it while sharing the floor with four players — Lu Dort, Jalen Williams, Alex Caruso and Chet Holmgren — that either earned All-Defensive Team honors this season or deserve consideration for those honors annually. He's on a team that has more defensive talent than any other team in the league. Jokić has long been in a system that hides his defensive weaknesses and accentuates his ball skills and intelligence. Advertisement Neither of those situations would describe a Bucks team that had just one defender, Brook Lopez, who has been worthy of All-Defensive consideration over the last five years and forced multiple defenders to play out of position. I like your concept of a gap year for the Bucks. If Horst can maneuver to get a couple of younger wings who can run the floor with Giannis, this could be the year for them to develop. Do you think Horst is thinking about younger and more versatile players? And do you think Doc can develop them? If I'm being honest, I have my doubts about both. — Jim W. This question speaks, at least a little bit, to my previous answer's ending, as well as several questions from this mailbag regarding the Bucks' ability as an organization to develop young talent. I think Jim's doubts are warranted. In recent years, the Bucks have not managed to get much out of the NBA Draft. Under Horst's leadership, here are the NBA Draft selections that the Bucks have made (or acquired in a trade) that ended up on the roster on opening night of the next season: Out of those selections, Donte DiVincenzo is the only player who has turned into a proven NBA contributor. To be fair, Sandro Mamukelashvili just completed his fourth NBA season, and Andre Jackson Jr. and AJ Johnson have both shown flashes on their rookie contracts. But DiVincenzo is the only player on the list who is an undeniable NBA success. Before making too harsh a judgment, it is worth noting that there are only four first-round picks on that list, and each of those selections occurred in the back half of the first round, which means the historical odds of those picks turning into a rotation player are somewhere around 25 percent. So, hitting on one of those four picks is actually in line with historical expectations. The Bucks, however, didn't get to see that investment through as DiVincenzo ended up finding his greatest success outside of Milwaukee. As you go deeper in the draft, the odds for success drop dramatically, so it isn't necessarily surprising that the Bucks haven't managed to hit in the NBA Draft with no lottery picks and a majority of their selections coming outside of the top 20. That will need to change moving forward, as the new collective bargaining agreement has made it important for teams to find players who can contribute on cheap contracts. One of the easiest ways for teams to do that will be the NBA Draft. If the Bucks are going to find more value in their draft selections, they will need to have far better organizational alignment on the goals that they want to accomplish with those players. Last season's usage of the Bucks' two most prominent young players provides decent guidelines for what the organization must consider moving forward. Advertisement The organization's greatest recent player-development success story is AJ Green, who was signed as an undrafted free agent on a two-way contract following the 2022 NBA Draft. With a few injuries during the 2022-23 season, Green ended up playing rotation minutes at times during his rookie season. Then, his two-way deal was converted to a standard NBA contract in July 2023. After failing to secure a spot in Adrian Griffin's rotation, Green became a more regular rotation player under Rivers in the 2023-24 season, and then a true regular last season. By the time the Bucks got to a do-or-die Game 5 against the Pacers, Green played 46 minutes as Rivers and the Bucks tried to stave off elimination. Now, Green is in a position to sign a real extension on his second NBA contract and solidify his place in the league next season. Green was only able to get to this position because of the opportunity he received from Rivers over the last two seasons. It wasn't just that Rivers played Green, but Rivers made sure to create a role that made sense for Green. Some plays involved Green as a screener for Antetokounmpo in inverted pick-and-rolls and after-timeout plays that freed Green for catch-and-shoot 3-point opportunities. Now, look at the rest of the young players on the roster last season. While Andre Jackson Jr. started 43 games and played 980 minutes, the Bucks never carved out an offensive role that made sense for him. He was a huge part of what they did defensively and the pressure that they applied against the league's top point guards, but unlike Green, he was not given special rules or opportunities offensively. Despite not being an aggressive 3-point shooter, Jackson sat in the corner for catch-and-shoot 3s before getting moved to the dunker to wait for drop-offs from Antetokounmpo or Lillard. At his best in college, Jackson was allowed to be a playmaker as a short roller, and he exhibited those same strengths in games Antetokounmpo missed, where Jackson played heavy minutes with Lillard. But the Bucks rarely used him in that role this season when all three shared the floor. It may be unreasonable to expect the Bucks to create a different package of plays for a role player, but they showed that willingness with Green when he played with Antetokounmpo on the floor and Lillard off. If the Bucks are going to develop young players successfully, these things are needed. Green is undeniably talented, but his NBA success has not been an accident. Advertisement If the Bucks want to have more of those success stories, they need to be aligned from the front office to the coaching staff and figure out how they plan to develop young players next season. They need to find pockets of playing time for those young players and also opportunities that allow them to play to their strengths while also helping the team play winning basketball. It is a lot to balance, but it must be a part of Milwaukee's path forward if it wants to maintain long-term success. (Photo of Giannis Antetokounmpo: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)
7 hours ago
Mr. Clutch: Tyrese Haliburton keeps delivering in the ultimate moments for the Pacers
OKLAHOMA CITY -- You are Tyrese Haliburton. You went to the Eastern Conference finals last year and got swept. You went to the Olympics last summer and didn't play much. You came into this season with high expectations and your Indiana Pacers got off to a 10-15 start. And on top of that, some of your NBA peers evidently think you are overrated. You got angry. 'I think as a group, we take everything personal,' Haliburton said. 'It's not just me. It's everybody. I feel like that's the DNA of this group and that's not just me.' The anger fueled focus, the focus became confidence, and the confidence delivered a 1-0 series lead in the NBA Finals. Haliburton's penchant for last-second heroics — one of the stories of these playoffs — showed up again Thursday night, his jumper with 0.3 seconds left going into finals lore and giving the Pacers a 111-110 win over the heavily favored Oklahoma City Thunder. The Pacers led for 0.0001% of that game. It was enough. 'When it comes to the moments, he wants the ball,' Pacers teammate Myles Turner said. 'He wants to be the one to hit that shot. He doesn't shy away from the moment and it's very important this time of the year to have a go-to guy. He just keeps finding a way and we keep putting the ball in the right positions and the rest is history.' Haliburton is 4 for 4 in the final 2 seconds of fourth quarters and overtimes in these playoffs, all of those shots either giving the Pacers a win or sending a game into OT before they won it there. The rest of the NBA, in those situations this spring: 4 for 26, combined. If Haliburton takes one of those beat-the-clock shots in the first three quarters of games in these playoffs, he's a mere mortal, just 1 for 7 in those situations. But with the game on the line, he's perfect. 'You don't want to live and die with the best player on the other team taking a game winner with a couple seconds left,' Thunder guard Alex Caruso said. No, especially when that best player on the other team is Haliburton. Just ask Milwaukee. Or Cleveland. Or New York. They could have all told Oklahoma City who was going to take the big shot and what was probably going to happen. Against the Bucks on April 29, it was a layup with 1.4 seconds left that capped a rally from seven points down in the final 34.6 seconds of overtime. Final score: Pacers 119, Bucks 118, and that series ended there. In Cleveland on May 6, it was a 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left for a 120-119 win — capping a rally from seven points down in the final 48 seconds. At Madison Square Garden against the Knicks on May 21, a game the Pacers trailed 121-112 with 51.1 seconds left, he hit a jumper with no time left to force OT and Indiana would win again. All those plays came with a little something extra. His father, John Haliburton, got a little too exuberant with Giannis Antetokounmpo after the Bucks game and wasn't allowed to come to the next few games; the ban has since been lifted. Haliburton did a certain dance that the NBA doesn't like much after the shot against the Cavs. He made a choke signal, a la what Pacers legend Reggie Miller did against New York a generation earlier, after hitting the shot against the Knicks. But on Thursday, all business. These finals are a long way from over, and he knows it. Game 2 is Sunday night in Oklahoma City. 'Again, another big comeback but there's a lot more work to do,' Haliburton said. 'That's just one game. And this is the best team in the NBA, and they don't lose often. So, we expect them to respond. We've got to be prepared for that. We got a couple days to watch film, see where we can get better.' Haliburton is in his first year of a supermax contract that will pay him about $245 million along the way. He has the Olympic gold medal from last summer and surely will be a serious candidate to play for USA Basketball again at the Los Angeles Games in 2028. He's now a two-time All-NBA selection. And he's officially a certified postseason, late-game hero. Three more wins, and he'll be an NBA champion as well. The anger is gone. Haliburton was all smiles after Game 1, for obvious reasons. 'Ultimate, ultimate confidence in himself,' Turner said. 'Some players will say they have it but there's other players that show it, and he's going to let you know about it, too. That's one of the things I respect about him. He's a baller and a hooper and really just a gamer.' And in his NBA Finals debut, Haliburton reminded the world that's the case. 'This group never gives up," Haliburton said. 'We never believe that the game is over until it hits zero, and that's just the God's honest truth. That's just the confidence that we have as a group, and I think that's a big reason why this is going on.'
