Basketball On The Internet.

BOB ON THE SPOT: Our man in the USA, BOB CRAVEN has the latest on the NBA Eastern and Western Conference Finals, WNBA developments and the drawcard Caitlin Clark is, along with some updates and an anniversary memory for one of the game's all-time greats.

THE NBA season is down to its Final Four with the Finals in both the Eastern and Western Conferences. 

In the East, the Boston Celtics, the runaway regular season champion and the number one overall seed in the playoffs, continued their dominant run through the Conference by beating the Cleveland Cavaliers in the semifinals in five games, their second straight 5-game series win.

They meet the Indiana Pacers in the Finals and have a 1-0 lead after a 133-128 overtime win to start it off. The Celtics were lucky to win that first game at home as they had to come back late in the game from a huge deficit to pull it out in OT.

In the West semifinals, the Minnesota Timberwolves knocked off three-time MVP Nikola Jokic and the defending champion Denver Nuggets in a fabulous Game 7 to reach the Conference Finals for the first time in 10 years.

This was an odd series in that the visiting team won the first five games, and the Wolves won the series in a Game 7 that was played in Denver. 

They are meeting the Dallas Mavericks and Luka Doncic in the Finals.  The Mavs won Game 1 in a squeaker in Minnesota as Doncic led Dallas in a strong finish to take the back-and-forth game.

Doncic had 15 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter, while Kyrie Irving scored 24 of his 30 in the first half to keep Dallas in the game early.

Dallas had earlier upset the Western Conference No.1 seed, the OKC Thunder with a one-point nail biter in Game 7. 

With about two seconds left in the game and Dallas trailing by a point, P.J. Washington was fouled on a three-point attempt. 

He made the first two, giving Dallas a one-point lead, then purposely missed the third shot. OKC's wild shot at the end had no chance, and Dallas moved on to the Conference Final.

There was a lot of media attention given to this series.  Aussie Josh Giddey had an up-and-down year in general, and particularly in this series with Dallas. 

The Mavericks either ignored him when he had the ball outside, daring him to shoot, or would put their centre out on him playing back in a loose defence. 

OKC coach Mark Daigneault then took Giddey out of the starting lineup and made him a leader of their second unit for the last two games of the series (both losses). 

Giddey started the first 222 games of his career up to that point.

The media had a field day with that and what it might mean for the future, both for Giddey and the Thunder. 

Giddey is a restricted free agent for next season, which means the team can sign him to a new contract extension, but other teams cannot offer him. 

Media speculation has it that his value has declined this year from what it would have been, and that OKC might trade him if it can't sign him to an extension of its liking. 

For his part, he has expressed an understanding of why he lost his starting position, and that he loves it in Oklahoma City and really wants to stay there.  Stay tuned.

THE most anticipated WNBA season ever has started up and Caitlin Clark and her Indiana Fever are breaking ticket sales records in every arena they play in. 

However, her introduction to pro basketball was a bit rough in the beginning.  She started slowly but has improved her production pretty consistently since then.  Indiana, however, still hasn't won yet this season, and is currently sitting at 0-5. 

Other big-name rookies have fared a bit better.  Cameron Brink of the LA Sparks has generally shown the best, particularly as a two-way player. The 194cm forward has not scored in bunches, but she has rebounded well and is leading the league in blocked shots. 

In her last game, she only scored four points (2-2 from the floor) but had a bunch of rebounds and four blocks.

Two of those blocks essentially allowed the Sparks to win a game, as she blocked back-to-back shots in the last two seconds to seal a victory. 

Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky has done well, but 201cm Brazilian centre Kamilla Cardoso has been injured and has not yet played.  She is tentatively scheduled to make her debut on June 1.

ELSEWHERE, Nikola Jokic in the NBA won his third MVP award in the past four years, and Victor Wembanyama was the unanimous choice for Rookie of the Year. 

He was also a unanimous choice for a place on the All-Rookie first team, as was fellow big, OKC's Chet Holmgren.  Wembanyama also became the first rookie to make the All-Defensive first team, while French centre Rudy Gobert won his fourth Defensive Player of the Year award.

Anniversaries

1976—The Doctor was operating as the then-NY Nets won the last ABA championship beating the Denver Nuggets in six games. They overcame a 22-point deficit in Game 6 to do so.  The Nets were led by, of course, Julius "Doctor J" Erving, who averaged almost 38 points per game in the final Series.