Sam Billings' return to action for Kent lasted just a matter of minutes, as he suffered a dislocated shoulder that may rule him out of England's ODI trip to Ireland next week.

Billings, Kent's captain, had returned to the team for his first county fixture of the season, against Glamorgan at Cardiff in the Royal London Cup, after completing his stint with Chennai Super Kings in the IPL.

However, he suffered a dislocated left shoulder in attempting to stop a shot in Harry Podmore's first over of the match.

In obvious pain, Billings was left prone on the outfield for several minutes, and treated with oxygen before being helped from the field.

Kent later confirmed that he had been taken to hospital, where the shoulder was relocated, and returned to Sophia Gardens afterwards. He is scheduled to see a specialist on Friday, where he will undergo scans.

Billings had not been included in England's 15-man squad for next month's World Cup, but was likely to play against Ireland in Dublin next Friday, and had also been named for the one-off T20I against Pakistan in Cardiff two days later.

He is one of a number of concerns for England, particularly among their batsmen, as they build towards the World Cup opener against South Africa at The Oval on May 30.

Jason Roy is missing for Surrey in the latest round of Royal London Cup games, after suffering a back spasm earlier this week, while Eoin Morgan also sat out the same fixture for Middlesex after complaining of sore shins before the toss.

Kent's other England selection, Joe Denly, was not included for the trip to Glamorgan after himself suffering a back spasm while batting against Gloucestershire on Tuesday.

Alex Hales, meanwhile, has been put on indefinite leave by Nottinghamshire for personal reasons, but is expected to link up with the England squad for a pre-season training camp in Cardiff this weekend.

Toss: Rajasthan Royals chose to bowl v Kolkata Knight Riders

Rajasthan Royals captain Steven Smith decided to field first against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on Thursday. Smith said that it was a welcome change to play on a slightly more grassy pitch, which his opposite number Dinesh Karthik also said would help the batsmen.

The home side have dropped Harry Gurney and KC Cariappa, and have brought in Prasidh Krishna and Carlos Brathwaite. That means there was still no room in the XI for Robin Uthappa and Kuldeep Yadav, who had been left out in Knight Riders' previous game, against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Royals have given an IPL debut to fast bowler Oshane Thomas and also added Varun Aaron, dropping Ashton Turner and Dhawal Kulkarni.

Knight Riders are looking to break their five-match losing streak this season, having slid down to sixth on the points table after beginning the season well. They also have the worst bowling economy rate, conceding runs at 9.10 per over in IPL 2019. Royals have had problems of their own, chiefly to do with their team's batting and bowling not clicking together. They are currently in last place on the table with just six points.

Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Chris Lynn, 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Shubman Gill, 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Dinesh Karthik (capt, wk), 6 Andre Russell, 7 Carlos Brathwaite, 8 Rinku Singh, 9 Piyush Chawla, 10 Prithvi Raj, 11 Prasidh Krishna

Rajasthan Royals: 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Sanju Samson (wk), 3 Steven Smith, 4 Ben Stokes, 5 Riyan Parag, 6 Stuart Binny, 7 Jofra Archer, 8 Shreyas Gopal, 9 Jaydev Unadkat, 10 Oshane Thomas, 11 Varun Aaron

NEW YORK -- A video recording of a conversation about paying college coaches and athletes that was played Wednesday in the college basketball corruption trial featured aspiring sports agent Christian Dawkins promoting his connections to top coaches, including Arizona's Sean Miller.

At one point in the June 6, 2017, recording, Dawkins -- who is on trial for having allegedly bribed college coaches -- talks about incoming Arizona player Deandre Ayton and says Miller told him, "I'm taking care of everything myself. I wanna bring you in. I'll turn everything over to you."

The recording played while prosecutors questioned former financial adviser Marty Blazer, who was present for the conversation and said the reference was about Miller "taking care" of payments for Ayton.

"Sean Miller has to know everything that's going on. I can call Sean and have a conversation ... like this is what is needing to be done," Dawkins said on the video. He said that Miller is, "talking on the phone about stuff he shouldn't be talking on the phone about."

U.S. District Court Judge Edgardo Ramos ruled Friday that defense attorneys could not subpoena Miller and LSU's Will Wade to testify during the federal bribery trial. Steven Haney, Dawkins' lead attorney, said he was going to file a motion Thursday morning asking the judge to reconsider his decision about Miller.

"We are aware of the reports of the testimony today by a Government witness. We will continue to monitor the proceedings," the University of Arizona said in a statement. "As has been stated previously, the University of Arizona is committed to the highest standards of integrity and ethical conduct in all of our athletic programs and our commitment to those principles is unwavering."

The recording played Wednesday was of a meeting on a yacht docked in Manhattan, where Dawkins met with Blazer, his business partner Munish Sood and -- unbeknownst to Dawkins and Sood at the time -- two undercover FBI agents posing as potential investors in Dawkins' and Sood's new athlete financial services agency.

Dawkins and ex-Adidas consultant Merl Code are facing a series of bribery-related charges in connection with the alleged payments made to assistant basketball coaches in exchange for the coaches' persuading their top players to sign with Dawkins' new agency when they turned pro.

In August, Sood pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to commit bribery, along with other charges, and he has been a witness for the government. Blazer began cooperating with the government in 2014, as part of an arranged plea deal after he was caught in an investment fraud scheme for which he pleaded guilty in September 2017.

In October 2018, a jury convicted Code, Dawkins and former Adidas executive James Gatto of conspiracy and fraud charges in the first federal case involving a pay-for-play scheme to send top recruits to Adidas-sponsored schools, including Kansas, Louisville and NC State. A judge sentenced Code and Dawkins to six months and Gatto to nine months in federal prison.

Much of the testimony and playback of phone calls and videos Wednesday included several references Dawkins made to the influence college coaches had on players and his connections. Blazer testified that part of the plan was to pay college coaches to gain early access to their top NBA-bound players, so they could gain influence and form relationships before the players knew their true worth.

Prosecutors showed a screenshot of a text message that Blazer said was Dawkins' list of coaches he planned to target. At the top, it said, "These are my main guys," and it included several names of schools and coaches, including six head coaches at the time: Michigan State's Tom Izzo, LSU's Wade, UNLV's Marvin Menzies, Louisville's Rick Pitino, North Carolina State's Kevin Keatts and Arizona's Miller, whose name was listed first. Pitino and Menzies have since been fired.

Some of the other schools on the list, along with names of assistant coaches, were Alabama, Arizona State, Cleveland State, Creighton, DePaul, Miami, Michigan, Oregon, Texas, Texas A&M and USC. The list did not indicate any payments to coaches, nor whether those coaches were contacted.

Blazer also testified that he met with the following assistant coaches: Yasir Rosemond from Alabama, Anthony Coleman from Arizona State and Amir Abdur-Rahim from Texas A&M (now Kennesaw State's head coach), but he did not provide any further details Wednesday of his meetings with those coaches. He said he met with USC's Bland, as well as Creighton assistant coach Preston Murphy, who Blazer said took $6,000 at the meeting and arranged to be set up on a monthly retainer.

In the video taken aboard the yacht, Dawkins also talks about his relationship with former Arizona assistant Emanuel "Book" Richardson, whom Dawkins said was worth paying $4,000 a month because Arizona would have top-10 picks every year.

Richardson, along with fellow ex-coaches Tony Bland (USC) and Lamont Evans (South Carolina and Oklahoma State) have already pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy charges and are awaiting sentencing in their connection with the pay-to-play scheme.

Richardson admitted to accepting $20,000 in bribes. Richardson said he planned to use $15,000 to entice a high-profile prospect to sign with the Wildcats.

A fourth ex-assistant coach -- Chuck Person of Auburn -- has pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy and is awaiting sentencing. He had been scheduled to go to trial in June, along with Rashan Michel, a former college and NBA referee who ran a successful custom-suit business in Atlanta and is still under indictment.

Defense attorneys said in their opening statements Tuesday that Dawkins and Code were opposed to paying coaches, saying it was a "waste of money," and that the undercover FBI agents were the ones pushing that plan.

But in testimony Wednesday, Blazer said Dawkins had already been making payments to Evans, then at South Carolina, and Blazer ended up taking over those payments.

In a recording of a meeting Blazer had with Evans, Sood and Dawkins in March 2016, Evans and Dawkins talk frequently about the influence Evans -- or coaches in general -- have on players, specifically on whom they choose to work with when they turn pro.

In a recording of a conversation Dawkins had with Blazer and Sood in the car after meeting with Evans, Dawkins said Evans was "going to bring you, give you access to the situation, the parents, whatever." At one point, Dawkins says to them, "you can never get caught up," which, Blazer testified, meant that the coach would get in trouble -- possibly fired -- if his payments were discovered.

Blazer said Dawkins told him that he had been going to South Carolina once a month to pay Evans $2,500 in cash so there would be no paper trail. Blazer testified that after he took over the payments, he traveled all over the country delivering them in person or sending them via wire transfers. When Evans pleaded guilty in January, he admitted to accepting $22,000 in bribes for influencing players at South Carolina and Oklahoma State.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- In recent days, some Golden State Warriors players admitted they were keeping an eye on their potential second-round opponent, the Houston Rockets.

"We see our opponent, they're up 3-0," Warriors guard Klay Thompson said of the Rockets after his team's Game 4 win Sunday. "So we don't wanna give them any more rest days."

But the LA Clippers, who beat the Warriors 129-121 in Game 5 on Wednesday to extend their first-round series, took exception to being overlooked.

"For us, our focus was to come in, extend the series and get another win on the home floor," Clippers star reserve Lou Williams said after the win at Oracle Arena, which pushed the series to Game 6 on Friday in Los Angeles. "It's their mistake for looking ahead. So that's on them."

The Clippers are the first team to win two playoff games as double-digit underdogs in the same postseason since the 1993 Lakers, according to ESPN Stats & Information. (The '93 Lakers won Games 1 and 2 against the Suns in the first round as 13.5- and 14-point underdogs before losing the best-of-five series in five games.)

Wednesday's upset also tied for the second-largest postseason upset since 1991, according to ESPN Stats & Info. The Clippers entered the game as 15-point underdogs.

After losing Game 5, Thompson admitted he was looking ahead.

"Yep, start with me. I was," Thompson said. "I thought we were going to come out and win tonight, but sometimes life doesn't go as planned. We're still in a great position with hopefully only 48 minutes left to close these guys out. They've been pesky. They've been tough, but now it's time to do what we do."

Warriors stars Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, however, both said the team isn't looking past the Clippers.

"I know I'm not thinking about the future," Durant said. "Just thinking about the game. And I feel like everybody has their mindset."

Said Curry: "We understand, we've been in this situation plenty of times. We know how hard it is to close a series out. At the end of the day, as bad as we played in the first half, we were up one with 2½ minutes left. So we clawed our way back and gave ourselves a chance to win. They just made shots down the stretch. And you gotta, I think at the end of the day, look yourself in the mirror and hold our team accountable for how we started the game and gotta do a better job of that."

During the series, Clippers coach Doc Rivers said he felt that his team hadn't played to its potential.

"I told our guys, like, they haven't been [themselves] in the series," he said. "We have yet to put a game where we are us through the game."

But that changed Wednesday.

"That was us," Rivers said. "That was our team today. And so that was great to see."

Could the Clippers be ahead 3-2 in the series? Clippers guard Patrick Beverley seemed to say as much after the game when he referenced his team's performance in Game 4.

"This past game, Game 4, we felt like we should have won that," Beverley said. "We felt like we lost a game, not that they beat us."

Rivers also mentioned the possibility that Wednesday could've marked the last game for longtime Clippers broadcaster Ralph Lawler, who is retiring after the postseason.

"Ralph never speaks to me before the game when I'm on the floor, and he walked up to me, first time ever, and said, 'Coach, I've had 20 people [come up] to congratulate me on my career and say good luck, like, tonight is the end of Ralph. Please do something about that,'" Rivers said.

"So Ralph, we did. And it's all good."

Clippers players also spoke about extending Lawler's broadcasting career for at least one more game.

"It's great for Ralph," Williams said. "It's great for all of us. And Ralph's been around 40 years. So for us to have an opportunity to keep dragging him in the gym and having him around, it's great."

For his part, Warriors coach Steve Kerr heaped praise upon the Clippers, describing them as "a hell of a team" that won 48 games in the regular season.

"They have our respect, for sure," Kerr said. "They outplayed us tonight, and they've got a hell of a team. So we've got to bring it if we're going to beat them."

Thompson, when asked to describe the Clippers, replied simply: "They play hard. They play hard."

Detroit Pistons star forward Blake Griffin has undergone arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.

The Pistons said the procedure Wednesday was successful and addressed the issue that caused soreness in the knee across the last two weeks of the regular season and the postseason. They said Griffin is expected to be fully recovered before the start of training camp in September.

The 30-year-old forward mostly avoided injury this season, playing in 72 games, but he missed four of the final six regular-season games and the first two of the Pistons' first-round playoff series against the Milwaukee Bucks because of the troublesome left knee injury.

He averaged a career-high 24.5 points per game, along with 7.5 rebounds and 5.4 assists. He also made a career-high 189 3-pointers, shooting 36 percent from beyond the arc. This is the most games he has played since he appeared in 80 in 2013-14 with the Los Angeles Clippers.

HOUSTON -- Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell entered the offseason much earlier than he hoped and with a massive dose of motivation.

With the exception of his fourth-quarter heroics in the Jazz's Game 4 win, it was a mostly miserable first round for Mitchell as the Houston Rockets eliminated Utah in five games. Mitchell shot only 32.1 percent from the floor in the series, finishing with a 12-point, 4-of-22 outing in Wednesday's 100-93 loss.

"Honestly, I got some looks that I wanted," said Mitchell, who had only one assist and five turnovers in Game 5 and 16 assists and 21 turnovers in the series. "A lot of it is just trying to attack. I'm not going to stop attacking. Obviously, you don't want to shoot 4-of-22 with five turnovers. It happened."

No player had attempted at least 20 shots from the floor and hit less than 20 percent in a playoff game since 2003, until it happened twice in this series. The Rockets managed to win Game 3 despite Harden's 3-of-20 performance. The Jazz couldn't overcome Mitchell's off night, which included him missing all nine of his 3-point attempts.

"It's funny, Dame [Lillard] said this yesterday: 'You don't succeed without failure, and you don't succeed without going through times like this,'" Mitchell said. "To have that so vividly in my head in a moment like this -- I can tell you that I'm upset, but I'm going to be better, simply put."

Mitchell, 22, is a rarity as a player so young who serves as the unquestioned go-to guy for a playoff team. He became the first rookie to lead a playoff team in scoring last year and boosted his scoring average significantly as a sophomore, averaging 23.8 points for the 50-win Jazz this season.

The Jazz front office attempted to ease the burden on Mitchell before the trade deadline by pursuing Mike Conley Jr., but talks with the Memphis Grizzlies ultimately fizzled. As a result, opponents could make Mitchell the clear focal point of their defensive game plan, as the Rockets did with Eric Gordon as his primary defender.

The Jazz didn't alleviate any pressure on Mitchell with their poor shooting during this series. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, the Jazz generated the most uncontested field goal attempts per game (39.6) so far in the playoffs but shot only 48 percent on them, including 26 percent from 3-point range.

"In a lot of ways, as Donovan goes at times, we go," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "I won't call it a burden, but it's a responsibility that I think he's shown [he embraces] time and time again, even for a young player like that, and to rise to the challenge. You're not always going to have great nights. You're not always going to make the shot. You're not always going to have it go your way.

"The thing I'm grateful for in having an opportunity to coach Donovan is his approach, and how he goes into it. For all of us, for myself and Donovan, anytime you have disappointment and adversity, hopefully you challenge that and get better."

Asked specifically what he planned to work on during the offseason, Mitchell said: "Better shape, I'll leave it at that." That could be considered an admission that the stocky Gordon overpowered Mitchell physically frequently during the series.

Mitchell's spectacular stretch in Game 4 -- a 13-point flurry during Utah's go-ahead 15-1 run at the start of the fourth quarter -- came with Gordon resting. Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni made sure that didn't happen in Game 5, tweaking Houston's rotation to have Gordon mirror Mitchell's minutes.

"Eric does a great job on him, as good as can be done, and he did another terrific job," D'Antoni said of Gordon, who stripped Mitchell with 54.8 seconds remaining and the Rockets clinging to a one-point lead.

Harden, who has endured some rough playoff exits in his career, expects this series to be a blip in Mitchell's career.

"First-round matchup, it's tough playing against us," said Harden, whom Mitchell considers a mentor. "He's confident. You see what he did last game. He's capable of taking over a game, and it's only his second year. Once he gets them years under his belt and more comfortable -- obviously, we know what his job is -- but once he gets more comfortable in his role and he knows that he's one of those guys, the sky's the limit for him."

HOUSTON -- The faces of the Rockets franchise preferred to wait until the Golden State Warriors punched their ticket out of the first round to discuss the looming rematch with the dynasty that eliminated Houston last season.

James Harden declined to answer a question about the Warriors in the wake of the Rockets' grinding out a 100-93 win in Game 5 on Wednesday to eliminate the Utah Jazz, saying he would wait and see what happened in Golden State's series with the LA Clippers.

That was Chris Paul's plan, too, until Clint Capela blurted out the truth.

"That's what I want," said Capela, the rising star center who created headlines last season by declaring to ESPN that he believed the Rockets were better than the Warriors when they executed well. "I want to face them."

The Clippers prevented the Warriors from granting Capela's wish -- at least for now -- as LA extended the series with a 129-121 road win over Golden State in Game 5 on Wednesday.

Paul, who was seated next to Capela after Harden conducted a solo news conference, responded with a sigh. Paul, the savvy veteran point guard, instantly knew that Capela's confident comment would go viral.

"Look at you," Paul said, glancing at a reporter. "You can't wait to tweet that."

But Capela, who bounced back from an illness-influenced poor performance in Houston's Game 4 loss with 16 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks in the close-out victory, kept going. He saw no reason to hide the fact that the Rockets have been hoping to get another crack at the Warriors since they were eliminated by Golden State in Game 7 of last spring's Western Conference finals.

"We've been working on it all year long," Capela said. "I think if you want to be the champion, you've got to beat the champion. So at some point, you've got to do it, right?"

That point was conceded by Paul, who missed the last two games of last season's West finals due to a hamstring strain, an injury many in the Rockets organization are convinced cost them an NBA championship.

"Yep, make sure y'all put that, too," Paul said, meaning the full context of Capela's desire to see the Warriors in the second round.

"CC said it best. Real talk. In order to get to where you're trying to get to, you've got to go through them. They're the reigning champs, been running the West for, like, five years straight now."

The Rockets, known primarily for their historically elite offense led by Harden, earned their way to the second round in gritty fashion against the defensively dominant Jazz.

After opening the series with a pair of home routs, the Rockets sputtered offensively in the final few games, in which Harden averaged 26.0 points (more than 10 fewer than his league-leading average) on 32.3 percent shooting. But the Rockets played stingy defense throughout the series, holding the Jazz to fewer than 100 points three times in the series, though some poor shooting by Utah helped.

It was fitting that a couple of defensive stops were the key plays in the Rockets' Game 5 win. With Houston up one and 54.8 seconds remaining, Eric Gordon stole the ball from Donovan Mitchell, the Jazz star whom Gordon smothered all series, especially during Mitchell's 12-point, 4-of-22 shooting, 5-turnover outing Monday. After PJ Tucker sank a pair of free throws, Harden swiped the ball out of Rudy Gobert's hand as the Jazz big man went up for a dunk, essentially ending Utah's season.

"We didn't make as [many] shots as we wanted to offensively, but these last few games, we hung our hat on defense," said Harden, who finished Game 5 with 26 points on 10-of-26 shooting despite a 1-of-11 start and contributed 3 steals and 4 blocks. "That's what's going to get us to our goal. Shotmaking is extra. It's a bonus. If we're guarding like we're guarding and knocking down our shots, it's going to be real tough."

Of course, it has been tough to beat the Warriors in the playoffs for the past five seasons, in which their only series loss has come in the 2016 NBA Finals. It's a challenge the Rockets will readily embrace.

It doesn't bother Houston that a date with the Warriors would come a series before last season, the result of the Rockets' dropping to the Western Conference's fourth seed on the final day of the regular season after spending months digging out of the hole they created with an 11-14 start. The sooner the better, some Rockets figure.

"I don't mind playing them this early," Gordon said. "Everybody's going to be fresh. I'm glad nobody's injured. We're going to have everybody ready, so I'm glad where we are right now."

Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni tried to delay the discussion about a rematch with the Warriors, saying it was premature. However, he couldn't resist weighing in just a little bit.

"You know, we said all year that we were going to run it back," D'Antoni said with a laugh, referring to Houston's slogan this season. "Well, OK. I guess we're going to run it back."

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Golden State Warriors superstar Kevin Durant acknowledged one of the hard truths about his team's up-and-down season in the wake of a surprising 129-121 Game 5 loss to the LA Clippers on Wednesday night -- the group doesn't show a consistent killer instinct when it needs one, and the lack of intensity continues to cost it games.

"When we get a nice lead, we just tend to relax a little bit," Durant said. "I said it before. Teams are looking for something just to get them back into the game, you know what I'm saying? If we foul a 3-point shooter or turn the rock over or we shoot a few bad shots in a row, teams get going. They'll build some confidence. Because they're already playing loose, with nothing to lose, those shots, they don't have no pressure from the start to the finish, especially as an 8-seed. So they're coming out with some confidence already. And we kind of kept the door open with our intensity to start the game."

The Warriors' lack of intensity was a major talking point for players afterward as they tried to describe exactly what went wrong in a game they thought would close out the series. Golden State still has a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference first-round series, but the team has to go back to Los Angeles now for Game 6 at Staples Center on Friday night.

"It's very disappointing," Warriors forward Draymond Green said of not being able to finish off the series. "You know that falls on me. If I bring the intensity from the start, everybody usually falls in line on that side of the ball, so that's my fault. I got to be better."

The reality for the Warriors is that the same habits they built throughout the regular season were the same ones that doomed them Wednesday. As was the case throughout their first 82 games, especially in many of their 11 regular-season losses at Oracle Arena, some nights the defensive intensity and the focus just weren't there. In Game 5, those same two habits came to the forefront again.

After noting that his team's defensive performance was "not good," Golden State coach Steve Kerr sat at the postgame news conference trying to explain how the Warriors' issues won't go away.

"It's been a year where things haven't gone exactly smoothly all the time," Kerr said. "So it's -- I'm not surprised by anything. But I expected to come out and play better and to win the game. It's the NBA playoffs. This is a seven-game series, and you gotta play. You gotta defend with some urgency. And we gave up 129 points on our home floor, and they shot 54 percent.

"We weren't right from the very beginning -- everything that we did in L.A., we did not do tonight. We sort of seemed to take it for granted that we were gonna be OK. But I said it before the game: This Clipper team has been scrapping and clawing all year, and you knew they weren't gonna go down without a fight."

The Warriors repeatedly brushed off the notion that they were looking ahead to a potential Western Conference semifinals showdown with the Houston Rockets after the Rockets finished off the Utah Jazz on Wednesday in five games, but now that they find themselves headed for Game 6, they are confident they can rise to the occasion Friday night.

"This game sucked," Warriors swingman Klay Thompson said. "We lost. Let's go win Friday. Let's win big. Let's freakin' win by 30, like we're capable of. But it's basketball, so I'm excited for Friday."

With the first round nearly over, let's cruise through some winners and losers -- with a focus on teams we haven't written about yet, or aren't writing about ahead of Round 2.

Russell Westbrook

The only important question for the Thunder after their third straight post-Kevin Durant flameout is whether this season signals the beginning of a long-term decline for Westbrook -- and what, if anything, they can do if they believe it does.

It's not really that Westbrook -- after four knee surgeries in six years -- is perhaps the worst high-volume 3-point shooter ever. He is, but that's almost trivial -- a punchline. He has always been a bad 3-point shooter; he's just worse now, so bricky that opponents are braver taking an extra step away from him when he doesn't have the ball. And as has been the case for the entirety of his career -- see last season's version of this same column -- Westbrook has never been much interested in making himself useful when he doesn't have the ball.

Paul George is the only long-range threat Thunder opponents guard off the ball. George running a pick-and-roll is the NBA's "Jon Snow wielding a sword alone against an entire charging army" meme.

The real issue is that Westbrook's shot has deserted him inside the arc. He emerged as an MVP candidate in part because he became reliable -- 40 percent-plus -- on what he calls his "cotton shot" from the elbow.

He hit 32 percent on jumpers from between 15 and 19 feet this season, per NBA.com. Of 104 players who attempted at least three pull-up jumpers per game, Westbrook ranked 104th in accuracy. Against Portland, he alternated between looking afraid to take them, and burying the Thunder under a pile of endless misses.

His dunks are down, and he could not always summon the explosive midair fury that once busted conventional defenses.

The Blazers dropped Enes Kanter far back in the pick-and-roll, and dared Westbrook to blow through him. Westbrook couldn't do it.

His defense, overrated for years, came and went even in one of his most focused seasons. Portland's monster Game 5 fourth-quarter comeback started with a sloppy Westbrook closeout on CJ McCollum in the right corner, opening the door for an easy floater -- a sequence that would be repeated on the opposite side four-plus minutes later. He still dies on screens, loitering around half court.

In his MVP season, the Thunder could not survive without him. This season, they were a disaster whenever Westbrook played without George -- while thriving in the opposite scenario. That continued in the playoffs; the Thunder were plus-13 in 39 George-only minutes against the Blazers. Portland obliterated them by 33 points in 32 Westbrook solo minutes, per NBA.com.

Westbrook is still a very good player. I selected him third-team All-NBA. He's just not as good as he used to be. He lost some of what made him an MVP candidate, and refined none of the weak spots in his game.

His mega-max contract runs through 2022-23, when Westbrook will be 34. The Thunder are capped out through at least 2020-21. Setting aside the James Harden trade -- yeah, I know -- Sam Presti has used magic to keep this thin, rickety roster afloat. He thinks years in advance, and tracks devalued young players -- Victor Oladipo, for instance -- because he knows they will carry trade cachet if an opportunity arises. He has somehow turned disgruntled players and bad contracts into semi-helpful things: Reggie Jackson became Enes Kanter became Carmelo Anthony became Dennis Schroder. When does the music stop?

A poor shooter needs shooters around him. Oklahoma City has been thin on shooting for Presti's entire run. His track record suggests a fetish for long, defense-first tweeners, and some faith the Thunder can teach such players to shoot. They have failed. Andre Roberson was dynamic enough on defense to thrive in the highest-stakes moments, but he's hurt. Most of the other long-shot bets busted.

Most late first-round picks bust. Most "second draft" prospects -- e.g., Dion Waiters -- just are what they are. If shooters who could survive on defense were easy to find, every team would have a bunch.

But good teams stay good as their stars age because they nail a couple of long-shot bets. One of the Thunder's stars -- the remaining foundational Thunder star, the one they in many ways chose over Harden -- appears to be aging, and aging badly. Presti surely has a plan, even as he appears pinned in by cap realities. Let's see what it is.

Damian Lillard and the determined Blazers

A lesser team -- hell, most teams -- would have broken apart after the four-game humiliation New Orleans inflicted on Portland a year ago. The Blazers didn't run from it. They took time to hurt. They acknowledged weakness. And then, they fortified themselves.

They didn't overhaul their system, on either end. They got better at it, and added new wrinkles. Lillard came back with new ways to skirt trapping defenses. They stormed out of the gate, survived a hellish winter schedule, and surged again in March and April. They believed, even after losing Jusuf Nurkic -- their second-best player for much of the season.

They knew they could win, but also that they could lose without fracturing. Losing no longer scared them. "There's nothing for us to be afraid of," CJ McCollum told me in November, "because the worst has already happened."

They were ready for Oklahoma City's blitzing defense. Lillard picked the Thunder apart. He wore down the redoubtable Steven Adams. On one Lillard pick-and-roll midway through the third quarter of Portland's pivotal Game 4 win, Adams failed to rumble beyond the 3-point arc. Lillard, perhaps surprised by the open space in front of him, walked into an easy triple to put Portland up 12.

Billy Donovan then shifted Adams away from Portland's screen-setters, and had him guard Maurice Harkless off to the side. It was surrender. It was merciful. A year ago, Lillard's confidence melted under pressure from New Orleans' trapping defense. You could see it. He broke. This time around, he broke the Thunder.

The whole team played with poised ruthlessness. McCollum cooked pull-up jumpers, and rescued wobbly all-bench units. Portland's guards will never have classic postseason size, but the ability to make tough shots -- to make something from nothing -- is a must-have playoff skill, too. Al-Farouq Aminu, the Blazers' quiet soul, did a little of everything. Harkless scrounged for double digits. Bit players stepped up.

The Blazers spent the season asking: Why not us? Why can't we be the second-best team in the Western Conference? Why can't we make the conference finals?

But perhaps even they didn't realize what they were really asking: If Durant departs Golden State, why can't we challenge for the NBA Finals?

Maybe they'll never get there. Nurkic has a long recovery ahead. Zach Collins looks like a guy who can make the leap, but actually making it is a different thing. The cap is strangling them. They are always one bad playoff matchup from facing the same old questions about the smallish LIllard-McCollum backcourt.

But right now, the Blazers look like a case study in persistence -- proof there is value in staying good in a league that too often disparages prolonged goodness.

Derrick White

If you paid attention during the regular season, you knew White was good. I'm not sure anyone expected him to work as San Antonio's best player for much of its series against Denver, with a 36-point eruption in Game 3 that stood as the best single-game performance of the first round -- a two-way masterpiece that bordered on perfection -- until Lillard's 50-pointer.

Foul trouble slowed White in Game 5. Tiny cracks emerged in his defense. But zoom out, and the Spurs must be thrilled with how at home he looks in the postseason hothouse.

The Nuggets are ignoring him off the ball -- White will have to shoot better from deep eventually -- but it hasn't mattered. When his man dips into the paint to help, White skulks a few feet left or right, girds himself for a pass, and charges into the lane before his defender can figure out where he has gone. He reduced Jamal Murray to a quivering, uncertain mess, head turning frantically upon realizing he had sprinted to where White no longer was. (Denver has since hid Murray on lesser threats.)

Once on the move, White has overwhelmed every Denver guard with sheer physicality. If he can't get around them, he just drives through them.

On defense, White is doing everything the Nuggets need someone to do against him. He helps and recovers on a string, head up, never losing track of the ball or his man. He thinks one step ahead of the offense. I mean, look at this:

White sees that DeMar DeRozan has left Will Barton to double Nikola Jokic; he begins rotating there. But he also knows Barton, in a hellish slump at that point in Game 3, probably doesn't want to shoot. He approaches him slowly, on balance, ready to pivot and intercept Barton's pass.

White and Dejounte Murray -- each drafted at No. 29 -- should make a formidable long-term backcourt duo. What the Spurs have done avoiding any bottoming out -- or anything close to it -- since drafting Tim Duncan 22 years ago is remarkable.

A counterfactual I'd love to see: How many games would the Spurs have won this season had they traded Kawhi Leonard for a more rebuild-oriented package centered on picks and younger players? DeRozan steadied them as a playmaker and scorer. He can, and will, play alongside the Murray/White duo. He bought White and Bryn Forbes time to grow. He added wins. But I wonder: How many?

D'Angelo Russell

Russell averaged more than 19 points against the burly Sixers, and played with his usual fearlessness. The playoff stage did not shake him. But if you harbored doubts about Russell as a No. 1 option against top competition, these playoffs deepened that anxiety.

The Sixers dropped Joel Embiid back and invited Russell to take shots he likes -- floaters, midrangers, off-the-bounce 3s. They put larger-than-usual defenders on him -- mostly Ben Simmons -- and bet they could pressure him into more misses. They wagered he would not adapt.

Russell shot 36 percent, and 32 percent from 3, with just 13 free throws and 18 assists in five games. He got to the rim at his usual (very low) rate.

Russell is good. This season was not simply a case of Russell making more than usual on an inefficient shot diet. Making more shots is not always some fluky thing. It is a skill guys improve. Beyond that, Russell played a craftier, smarter floor game.

But it's fair to wonder how far any team can go with a No. 1 option taking these sorts of shots, earning so few free throws, and playing below-average defense. Caris LeVert looked like Brooklyn's best player before he busted his foot, and he began looking like it again against Philadelphia. Spencer Dinwiddie is really good.

Maybe the ballsiest move on the board is Brooklyn signing-and-trading Russell -- or re-signing him to trade him at the first chance -- at the peak of his value. There would be some PR hit in dealing away the first All-Star nurtured under the Sean Marks/Kenny Atkinson regime. The trade market for Russell might not be as strong as you'd think.

Phoenix still needs a point guard, but a Russell-Devin Booker backcourt amounts to long-term defensive suicide. The Suns ending up in position to draft Ja Morant would make the issue moot before trade season. I've long been intrigued by a trade centered on Russell and Aaron Gordon, but Russell doesn't quite fit the Jeff Weltman/John Hammond player type.

Indiana makes some sense; Russell and Oladipo could split ballhandling duties, and Oladipo can defend both guard positions -- allowing more leeway in hiding Russell. It's unclear what Indiana would send back, especially since Brooklyn already has a young center in Jarrett Allen. Other teams will come out of free agency with holes at point guard.

It's easy to dismiss the idea of Brooklyn trading Russell. The Nets probably won't. But smart teams consider everything, and plot out dozens of scenarios. The Nets are smart. If you think they haven't had an internal spitballing session about Russell's trade value, you're kidding yourself.

Pascal Siakam

Oh, you thought he was fake -- a regular-season mooch who would quake in the playoffs? Drink some hot sauce. He was Toronto's best player in the highest-stakes moments of their highest-stakes first-round game -- their close-ish Game 3 win in Orlando. He defended everyone. When the Magic slotted smaller defenders on him -- as they had to in playing their best five-man lineup -- Siakam beasted them.

He was an ironman, leading the team in minutes, and bridging the gap between the starters and small-ball lineups featuring Leonard at power forward. (That said, the Siakam-as-solo-starter lineups should probably vanish as the competition ramps up.)

He's real.

Nikola Jokic

So is Jokic. Even Jokic fans were curious how his idiosyncratic game would translate to the playoffs. Would amped-up defenses scheming for him yield Jokic's pet backdoor passes? Could he bulldoze top defenders in the post, and draw double-teams? Most pressing: Could he survive on defense?

The slow, old-school Spurs are a soft landing spot in that regard; they don't have the tools to stretch Jokic beyond his breaking point. He has held up well after an uneven start. Denver's defense has given up only 102 points per 100 possessions with Jokic on the floor over five games, a tick below Milwaukee's league-best season-long figure, per NBA.com. He susses out what San Antonio wants to do early, and lumbers his way into position. He has 15 deflections, sixth most overall.

He can't snuff emergencies at the rim; it wasn't surprising to see Jokic teeter over the first three games as Denver's perimeter defense hemorrhaged straight-line drives. As Denver tightened up with more focused effort, some toggling of assignments and one lineup change -- Torrey Craig for Will Barton -- Jokic has looked better (minus some blown box-outs against the relentless Jakob Poeltl).

His offense has sustained. Jokic is averaging 20 points, 12 rebounds and 9 assists, and is finding more ways to puncture San Antonio's defense. His two-man game with Murray started to sing in Game 5. Almost every post-up for Jokic produces an open shot, and Jokic has gradually figured out where and how to hunt for position on the block. A favorite tactic Jokic leaned on more the past two games: picking-and-popping, catching the ball, pump-faking, and then dribbling into deep post position.

He will face teams more equipped to exploit his defense, next round or next season. But Jokic belongs, and the Nuggets showed real mettle winning Game 4 in San Antonio after melting down a bit in Game 3.

Utah: Regular-season team?

Utah is now 2-8 over two postseasons against the Rockets. An interesting debate raging in league circles: Is that more about a singularly bad matchup -- and the Rockets being awesome -- or might it signal that Utah is built for the regular season?

It is probably some of both, though the "good regular season" backhanded compliment is a little reductive. It really just means "not as good as the very best teams," and, like, duh. Utah is clearly good -- perhaps the third-best team in the West. The Jazz shot about 25 percent -- preposterous! -- on wide-open 3s, per NBA.com; hit at an average rate, and the series looks different.

The Jazz are better at producing good shots than making them, but this was an anomalous performance even by their standards.

Every drop-back rim protector like Rudy Gobert is going to run into a problematic matchup at some point over four playoff series. If it weren't Houston and Harden, it would have been someone else. If your goal is a championship, you have to grapple with that. You need some other stylistic card to play. Clint Capela's switchability becomes more important in the playoffs.

And yet: After the shock-and-awe of Games 1 and 2 -- some of it self-inflicted with a radical strategic shift -- Utah's defense was sound. That includes Gobert. He has fared better against Golden State than you'd expect given his foot speed and the five-out, go-go stylistic card the Warriors can play.

This is true: Among Utah's perimeter players, only Donovan Mitchell can exploit switching defenses that become more prevalent in the playoffs -- and he's not great at it yet. He's not efficient from anywhere, and his assist-to-turnover ratio is not where it needs to be. He either misses too many easy kickout passes, or sees them and decides to force the issue. Some improvement will come with experience.

Really, all of this hand-wringing over Mitchell, Westbrook, Russell, and even George makes you appreciate how transcendent you must be as a No. 1 option -- how impossible, how rare -- to elevate a normal roster into contention. Being an All-Star isn't enough. Being All-NBA sometimes isn't enough.

Flip it around: Every postseason seems to illustrate the limited importance of big men who can't (or don't) post up switches -- Gobert and Myles Turner in this first round, for instance -- and stretch-whatevers who can't make plays with the ball. In some ways, that fretting is fair. Things get harder in the playoffs. Defenses switch more. They poke at any weakness. It matters that those guys aren't comfortable working with their backs to the basket against guards.

But they are also unlucky in that they don't play with Harden, or Stephen Curry, or Kevin Durant, or LeBron James. Capela can't (or doesn't) post up switches, and it doesn't matter, because Harden can exploit the other end of those switches in almost every circumstance. Mitchell can't. Voltron every healthy perimeter player on the Pacers into some super-player, and that guy probably couldn't, either.

Utah is a really good team that needs a little more top-end scoring and playmaking talent to crack the NBA's most rarefied territory. The Jazz knew that before this series. More talent allows for more schematic versatility. Beyond that obvious thing, I'm not sure Utah should worry that its best players or fundamental belief systems are somehow at odds with playoff success.

Masai Ujiri and Marc Gasol

The Raptors did not appear to need Marc Gasol. Serge Ibaka was thriving as a full-time center. Nabbing Gasol would mean demoting Ibaka to reserve duty, and no one was sure how he would take that. (Nick Nurse experimented with flipping the starting job between them, but it was clear from the start that Gasol would supplant Ibaka.)

Jonas Valanciunas had found his water level as a backup scoring force. Why risk chemistry for a marginal upgrade?

But Ujiri and his staff knew better. Gasol is much more than a marginal upgrade, even if he's barely shooting -- just 5.6 attempts per game against the Magic! He has changed the look and feel of Toronto's team. He shored up the Raptors' defensive rebounding. He yields nothing in the post; Nikola Vucevic couldn't dislodge him, and he gives Toronto a chance to guard Embiid without sending urgent double-teams.

He and Kyle Lowry share a basketball sensibility -- head-on-a-swivel selflessness that can bleed into fastidiousness -- and together, they injected a sometimes sloggy half-court offense with new verve. With about five minutes left in the third quarter of Toronto's Game 4 blowout, Gasol caught a pass on the move at the left elbow with two shooters -- Siakam and Leonard, looking dangerously like the "Thanks, I'll be taking the ball from you now" Kawhi from two years ago -- open on the right side.

In one motion, Gasol turned his head, glanced at Siakam, and fired the ball to Leonard. Ibaka can make that pass; he needs a second to scan the floor. That second is everything. Gasol gave that second back to the Raptors, and that alone has justified the trade.

Nikola Vucevic

Oof. Vooch waited six years to get back into the playoffs, and ran into a brutal matchup -- a post-up bulwark in Gasol surrounded by a harrowing group of fast, handsy, high-IQ help defenders. Vucevic just couldn't do anything. A bad way to end what had otherwise been a fantastic contract season.

Eric Gordon: Rock solid

Gordon is the unheralded ingredient in Houston's success over the past two seasons. He is more than a 3-point expert, though he shot 49 percent against Utah in a series that became a slog -- a battle in which Houston needed every bucket to breathe -- after Game 2.

He is playing with both physicality and hunger. Just when you expect Gordon to spot up for another 28-footer, he puts his head down, shoulder-checks some sucker, and burrows to the rim for more of a sure thing. Houston needs more of that during stretches when the 3s stop falling, and the game gets away from them.

Gordon absolutely stonewalled Mitchell on the other end. A great series for an important, underappreciated player.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Landry Shamet

I don't really care that Gilgeous-Alexander has struggled with his shot outside his 25-point outburst in Game 5, or that the Warriors stick Draymond Green on him precisely because Green can ignore him and rove. Sometimes you watch, and know: This dude is ready. The stage -- postseason games against the superteam that has defined much of SGA's basketball life -- does not unnerve him.

He has defended Curry and Klay Thompson, and switched across all sorts of assignments without suffering too many hiccups of hesitation and miscommunication -- blips Golden State feasts upon. He fights, and he pokes, and he has defended the Warriors with more steady ferocity than most veterans 10 years his senior manage.

Shamet doesn't have Gilgeous-Alexander's physical gifts, but he has fared better than anyone could have expected chasing around both Splash Brothers -- first Thompson, and then Curry for the latter part of the series. Both have stayed within their roles on offense, never overstepping but also never shying away when the situation requires they shoot or drive. They have played with a certain polish.

There are certain random mid-rung teams that win a place in the hearts of NBA nerds: the 2017 Heat team of misfit toys that finished 30-11, or the Suns that accidentally won 48 games behind Goran Dragic's mad rushes. Even if they can't stretch this to Game 7 -- and holy cow, imagine that! -- these Clippers are going to be one of those teams.

Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams: Still freestylin'

In Houston two seasons ago and now as the slithering, juking, gliding soul of these weirdo Clippers, Williams has shed his reputation as an empty calories gunner whose game -- all those sly shooting fouls -- drops off when refs swallow the whistle in the postseason. He has been too crafty for the Warriors.

Harrell has been too fast, too fierce, and probably too furious. They are still out here, partying.

The Warriors, keeping it interesting

In 2017 and 2018, the Warriors experienced one playoff series among eight longer than five games. Four were sweeps. The ragtag Clippers, a No. 8 seed starting two rookie guards and -- over the past two games -- an out-of-position "center" they acquired two months ago, have pushed the Durant-era Warriors to where only last year's 65-win Rockets have ever taken them.

Golden State still blitzes through quarters and halves in which they look invincible -- when they get stops and run, and turn into a wave of sound and energy that overtakes everything in its vicinity.

But they are now 12th in both points allowed per possession and defensive rebounding rate in the playoffs -- my God, those soft non-box-outs of Patrick Beverley in Game 5! -- after a mediocre regular season on that end. They have made mistakes -- of sloth, but also of communication and connectivity -- uncharacteristic of this team. The Warriors of the 2017 and 2018 postseasons do not drop two home games to these Clippers. They do not blow that 31-point lead in Game 2, not all the way. Maybe it gets to six, or eight, but they don't lose.

Durant fluctuating between pass-first KD and "I'm Kevin Durant!' has been ... strange. His free agency hovers over everything. They are a win away from the one series in which they could really use -- maybe need -- DeMarcus Cousins.

When I had Bob Myers, Golden State's president, on my podcast last month, I told him the league's great hope was that for whatever reason -- Durant's free agency, complacency, some kind of tension -- the Warriors would crumble when someone punched them in the face. He didn't seem worried.

They are one of four teams still playing in a first round in which juggernauts have stomped lesser lights. They have been punched. They have been my pick to win the title all season, over the field. I'd still pick them now. But something isn't quite right. Let's see how they respond.

The Los Angeles Angels demoted Cody Allen as their closer Wednesday following a four-game stretch in which he allowed five runs, including three home runs.

Allen, who joined the Angels on a one-year, $8.5 million deal, began the season with five scoreless innings before struggling in his next four appearances. He is 0-2 with a 5.40 ERA.

Angels manager Brad Ausmus said he will turn to Ty Buttrey, Hansel Robles and Luis Garcia as his primary options in the ninth inning.

"We're going to go with whoever we think gives us the best chance in a save situation," Ausmus said. "We're actually much better as a team when Cody is closing, but right now, we're going to put him in some lower-leverage situations to try to get back to where he needs to be and get command of his pitches."

Allen, 30, is coming off a subpar 2018 season that saw his ERA balloon to 4.70 following five straight seasons of sub-3.00 ERAs.

He had been a longtime workhorse for the Cleveland Indians, recording three straight 30-save seasons from 2015-17.

"Brad's job is to put guys in position to help the team win," Allen said. "I'm working through some things to get back to being the guy I was before that. And there are some guys down there who are throwing the ball very well, Ty Buttrey and Hansel Robles. They give us a better shot to win games or close games out."