I Dig Sports
Sheffield Wednesday pulled off the greatest comeback in English Football League playoff history as they overturned a 4-0 first-leg deficit against Peterborough United to reach the League One playoff final via a penalty shootout on Thursday.
Wednesday, who narrowly missed automatic promotion from the third tier and finished 19 points above Peterborough in the regular season, looked down and out after Friday's hammering.
But roared on by the home fans at Hillsborough, they turned the tie on its head to win 5-1 on the night after extra time and then held their nerve to prevail 5-3 in the shootout to spark wild scenes of celebration with the fans invading the pitch.
Michael Smith got the comeback under way with a penalty after nine minutes and Lee Gregory halved the arrears before halftime to give Wednesday belief.
Reece James made it 3-0 on the night and in the eighth minute of stoppage time Liam Palmer prodded home from close range to spark pandemonium in the stands.
Another twist saw Peterborough edge ahead on aggregate in the first half of extra time when a cross deflected in off the unlucky Gregory. But a weary Wednesday would not give in and Callum Paterson's cool finish in the 112th minute sent the game into a shootout.
Wednesday then scored all of their penalties while Dan Butler thumped his against the bar for Peterborough.
Jack Hunt dispatched the crucial kick to send Wednesday to Wembley and a chance to return to the Championship.
AS Roma earned a 0-0 draw at Bayer Leverkusen in their Europa League semifinal return leg on Thursday to reach the final with a 1-0 aggregate win.
The Rome side have now reached back-to-back European finals under coach Jose Mourinho following last season's Europa Conference League title.
- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)
The visitors were on the backfoot for the entire game and had to survive intense pressure from the Germans, who missed a lot of chances and also hit the woodwork, as they advanced thanks to last week's 1-0 win in Italy.
They will play the winners of the other semifinal between Sevilla and Juventus in the final on May 31 in Budapest.
It all started well for Leverkusen, looking to reach their first European final in 21 years.
Apart from a second minute chance for Roma's Lorenzo Pellegrini, the hosts had the upper hand in the first half with a dozen efforts on goal compared to their opponents' one.
Moussa Diaby rattled the crossbar with a powerful shot in the 12th minute and Kerem Demirbay's low drive in the 21st was saved by goalkeeper Rui Patricio.
The visitors tried to push up a bit higher in the second half to intercept Leverkusen's attacks earlier but the hosts kept finding ways to create chances.
Demirbay forced another good save in the 67th from Patricio, who thought he was beaten by Sardar Azmoun minutes later only for the Iranian's shot to sail just wide.
Leverkusen, whose last major title dates back to 1993, had 23 efforts on goal but it was Mourinho's Roma that went through even if they had just the one effort on goal in the entire game.
"All that was missing was a goal," said Leverkusen's Demirbay. "We did not have that bit of luck. It was bitter not to be rewarded for such a performances. But I am proud of the way we played."
Europa League thoroughbreds Sevilla fought back to reach yet another final as substitute Erik Lamela scored with a fabulous header five minutes into extra time to earn a gritty 2-1 win over Juventus on Thursday, securing a 3-2 aggregate victory.
The Spaniards will bid for a record-extending seventh Europa League title when they face AS Roma in the final in Budapest on May 31, after Jose Mourinho's side drew 0-0 at Bayer Leverkusen to secure a 1-0 aggregate victory in their semi-final.
Juventus, who were held to a 1-1 draw by Sevilla in the first leg, looked on course to reach the final when substitute Dusan Vlahovic scored with a tidy finish in the 65th minute at a raucous Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium.
But midfielder Suso levelled six minutes later with a stunning long-range strike to take the game into extra time. Lamela then wrapped up the win when he leapt in a crowded area and sent a towering header into the net to delight the fans.
Graham Clark century drives Durham back into box seat
Durham 393 for 9 (Clark 100, de Leede 65, Borthwick 53) vs Gloucestershire
Encountering a flat pitch and batter-friendly weather for the first time this season, the visitors won the toss and ran up 393 for 9 by the close, thanks in large part to a superb partnership of 124 in 34.4 overs for the sixth wicket between Clark and Bas de Leede. There was also a half century for captain Scott Borthwick, while opener Alex Lees and in-form wicketkeeper-batsman Ollie Robinson contributed 41 and 40 respectively.
A Gloucestershire side deprived through injury of captain Graeme van Buuren, experienced strike bowler Merchant de Lange and leading wicket-taker Tom Price fought hard throughout, chipping away at the top and middle order and making Durham graft for their runs on a typically slow Bristol pitch. Slow left armer Zafar Gohar claimed 4 for 104 and seamer Ajeet Singh Dale 2 for 73 as the hosts stuck to their task manfully.
But the visitors at last took control in the final session, Clark raising exactly 100 from 155 balls, with 13 fours and a six, and de Leede, making only his third first-class appearance, registering a Championship-best score of 65 to put their side in credit.
Top of the table after three wins from five games and brimful of confidence, Durham have gained a reputation for playing 'Bazball' style cricket this season. But they were made to think twice by Singh Dale, who has put on a yard of pace over the winter.
Bending his back and summoning no little bounce and movement off the seam, he accounted for Michael Jones in the third over, the Scottish batsmen failing to offer a shot and looking back in horror as off and middle stumps were dislodged. It was far from plain sailing for the visitors and Borthwick was handed a life on 20 when edging debutant Zaman Akhter to second slip where the usually reliable Chris Dent allowed opportunity to slip through his fingers. He then survived a confident lbw appeal from the same bowler as Gloucestershire's seamers continued to make life difficult.
Having grafted their way to 50 in the first hour, Durham's second wicket pair moved up through the gears, Lees in particular going after slow left armer Zafar. Still to find the rhythm that begets consistency of line and length, Akhter also proved expensive.
Under pressure, Gloucestershire stood their ground and were rewarded when Lees, having crafted 41 from 64 balls, drove Shaw to backward point where Zafar took a startling catch. Having shared in a stand of 71 for the second wicket, Borthwick then added a further 63 in partnership with David Bedingham either side of lunch as Durham flourished. Borthwick went to 50 from 73 balls via his ninth four, punched through mid-off at the expense of Dale.
Once again, Gloucestershire stuck to their task and Borthwick, having assiduously avoided being tempted by the short ball, nevertheless fell into a carefully-laid trap, pulling Dale and succumbing to a brilliant catch by Miles Hammond at backward point for 53. When Bedingham clipped Matt Taylor to mid-wicket in the next over, Durham were 149 for 4, their position of strength in serious danger of being eroded.
New batsmen Robinson and Clark attempted to wrest back control in a diligent alliance of 65 in 16 overs for the fifth wicket, only for the former to bottom edge a catch behind off Zafar and depart for 40 when a fourth half century of the season appeared his for the taking.
Reduced to 214 for 5 and still just about being held in check, Durham were thereafter indebted to Clark and de Leede, who worked hard to wrestle back the initiative and at last confirm northern supremacy during the final session. Playing for only the second time this season, de Leede matched Clark blow for blow in a resilient innings that spanned 117 balls and included 11 fours.
The Dutchman was looking to become more expansive when he fell to the new ball in the last hour, stumped by stand-in Gloucestershire captain James Bracey off the bowling of Zafar.
Gloucestershire's overseas hired hand recovered well after his first four overs went for 33 in the morning session, pinning Ben Raine lbw for two to lead a spirited fightback in the early-evening sunshine. But the indomitable Clark still had the final say, working Zafar to square leg and punching the air before even he had completed the single which signaled his first century since 2017.
He was out next ball, trapped lbw by Zafar, and there was still time for Akhter to claim his first Championship wicket, Hammond taking a stunning diving catch at point to remove Matthew Potts without scoring.
Clinical Kohli, du Plessis keep RCB's fate in their hands
Royal Challengers Bangalore 187 for 2 (Kohli 100, du Plessis 71) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 186 for 5 (Klaasen 104, Bracewell 2-13) by eight wickets
RCB momentarily reached the top four with 14 points to their name, level with Mumbai Indians. Both sides have a game left but RCB have the better net run rate. It might well come down to these two teams' final matches on the final day of the league stages.
SRH's top-order woes continue
Asked to bat first on what began as a slowish surface, the new SRH opening combination of Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi struggled to get bat on ball. In the first three overs they scored just 11 runs. And just after Tripathi began going with a four and a six in the fourth over, they both gifted their wickets to Michael Bracewell. Abhishek cut a short and wide loosener straight to cover point, and Tripathi lapped him to short fine leg.
Klaasen checks in
It might be rude to say so but the early strikes were a blessing in disguise for SRH. They brought out their best batter to bat early. And to the first ball he faced, Klaasen showed why he is their best. This offbreak from Bracewell turned appreciably, ending at the top of the leg stump, but Klaasen went back and punched it past extra cover for four.
Klaasen's ability to hit off the back foot anything marginally short of a length or slow in the air forced the spinners every now and then to overpitch. Whenever they did overpitch, Klaasen was quick to come forward and launch them down the ground. The ease with which Klaasen hit spin - he eventually scored 70 off 29 against them, with five fours and five sixes - forced RCB to bring back the quicks sooner than they would have liked to.
Mohammed Siraj and Wayne Parnell bowled economical overs, but Klaasen got the better of Harshal Patel. It left RCB needing to bowl an over of spin at the death, which is when Klaasen hit Shahbaz Ahmed for successive sixes.
Parnell, Siraj finish off well
Even when Klaasen was going great, he didn't get much support from the other end. Parnell and Siraj bowled overs 18 and 20 for seven and four runs respectively to keep SRH down to 186. Klaasen scored 104 off 51, the other batters 76 off 69. This was a special innings with a control percentage of 97.1 and a strike-rate of 204. Only AB de Villiers has ever scored a better-controlled hundred at a strike rate of 175 or above in the IPL.
The Kohli-du Plessis show
This match was taking place in Hyderabad, but you wouldn't have known it from the Aar See Bee chants. It took the significant RCB-supporting section of the crowd just one ball to come back to life after Klaasen had lowered their volume. Kohli drove at an outswinger from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and got four for it. The next ball he drove off the back foot and over cover-point. The roof came off.
An experimental attack made up mainly of medium-pace and one full-time spinner was under the pump right away. SRH went for Abhishek Sharma's part-time left-arm spin with the new ball, and Kohli rightly pre-empted arm balls, made room, and hit him for fours too. It was apparent that RCB, who love to bat first, had made the right call at the toss as the grip in the surface had come down from the first innings.
SRH make errors
There were two moments of luck for du Plessis. First Kartik Tyagi drew a top edge from him in the fourth over, and Glenn Phillips, of all fielders, dropped him at deep square leg. Then, even after a lot of damage had been done, Mayank Dagar took a screamer diving to his right at deep midwicket off debutant Nitish Reddy, but because there was a dismissal involved, the umpires could check the height of this bouncer on replay. By a few centimetres, it was the second bouncer of the over, and instead of celebrating his maiden IPL wicket, Reddy was now bowling a free-hit.
Intent on during the middle overs
This was a chase, net run rate was important, the pitch had quickened up, the SRH attack wasn't flash, but it was still a sight for sore eyes seeing Kohli not drop his intent in the middle overs. He was 29 off 19 at the end of the powerplay, and he scored 26 off the next 19 he faced.
Time and again, du Plessis stood and admired Kohli's shots in awe. And when the spinners did manage a quiet three-over period of 18 runs, Kohli broke the spell with a slog-sweep against the turn of a left-arm spinner.
Landmarks arrived as matters of fact. Well before the 171-run stand ended, Kohli and du Plessis had had brought up the most prolific single IPL for an opening pair. Du Plessis went past 50 for the eighth time this IPL, the last three of them on the trot. Kohli went past 50 for the seventh time. The successful chase was only the third time RCB had won chasing 185 or more in the IPL, out of 36 times of asking. In less than two seasons, Gujarat Titans have done it the same number of times.
Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
Amy Jones fifty backed up by Grace Potts, Emily Arlott as Central Sparks start with a win
Central Sparks 137 (A Jones 51, Castle 3-24, Villiers 3-28) beat Sunrisers 114 (Griffith 53, Arlott 4-23) by 23 runs
England wicketkeeper Jones held Sparks together with a swashbuckling 51 from 34 balls out of a score of 137 all out after they were invited to bat first. Kelly Castle and Mady Villiers kept the rest of the Sparks line-up in check, the former taking two wickets in successive balls.
Sunrisers got early joy after deciding to field with Davina Perrin trapped in front for a duck from the last ball of Kate Coppack's opening over.
Eve Jones threatened briefly, scoring all the first 15 runs off the bat before missing a horrible short ball from Grace Scrivens which crashed into the stumps and Australian allrounder Erin Burns failed to make the most of being dropped on 1 when stumped by Amara Carr off the impressive Castle.
And when Ami Campbell was castled by Villiers Sparks' flame was in danger of being snuffed out at 59 for 4. Amy Jones though stood firm, feasting on some short offerings with savage pulls square of the wicket as well as driving crisply through the covers.
At 94 for 4 a big score looked on, but Castle returned to have Abbey Freeborn stumped by Carr, before yorking Katie George with the next ball, leaving Arlott to prevent the hat-trick.
Jones moved serenely to 50 only to hole out at mid-off to the very next ball from Villiers after which the tail scrambled to 137.
The hosts looked to Scrivens for a solid start, but the teenager went early, striking one from Potts into the midriff of George at midwicket.
George then had a mixed over ball in hand, producing a trio of wides before Lissy Macleod despatched her twice to the fence. George though had the last laugh having Macleod taken at the second attempt down the leg-side by Amy Jones from one that flicked the glove.
Potts turned the screw a little tighter with three overs off the reel in the powerplay to put Sunrisers behind the clock.
Griffith took up the chase to strike England speedster Issy Wong first over midwicket and then through mid-off for successive boundaries. Georgia Davis was similarly despatched through cover and when George returned to the attack, she was cut to the fence at third twice in successive balls.
In need of a wicket, Sparks summoned the miserly Potts back to the bowling crease and she delivered, trapping Carr plumb in front, and Villiers didn't entertain us for long, swinging one from Burns into the hands of George at cow corner.
The double strike caused the rate required to climb with 46 needed from the last five. Griffiths scampered two to reach 50 from 43 balls with six fours, but when she skied one to cover off the bowling of Arlott later in the over the task proved too much for the Sunrisers tail.
Commish: WNBA using Aces case as talking point
The WNBA will continue to work with its teams and coaches regarding its respect in the workplace policies following the punishments levied on the Las Vegas Aces and coach Becky Hammon, league commissioner Cathy Engelbert told ESPN's Malika Andrews on Thursday.
"We'll be talking with all of our teams, all of our coaches, with our respect in the workplace policies around the sensitivity, especially in a women's league," Engelbert said during an appearance on ESPN's "NBA Today." "Really important to tailor those trainings to make sure everybody understands discussions that are held one-on-one with players or with a player group have to be in compliance with our policies."
The WNBA suspended Hammon for two games without pay and took a 2025 first-round draft pick from the Aces after ruling that the team had violated league rules in its treatment of former player Dearica Hamby.
The league said the violations came from promises of impermissible benefits during contract extension negotiations with Hamby, while a respect in the workplace violation was regarding comments from Hammon to Hamby related to the player's pregnancy.
During the offseason, Hamby alleged in social media posts that she had been traded to the Los Angeles Sparks in January because she was pregnant and that the Aces acted unethically toward her. Hammon countered Wednesday that the trade was "a business decision" based on the Aces' needs and denied any harsh statements were made to Hamby.
Asked about the investigation process, Engelbert defended the inquiry as thorough, noting that two former prosecutors interviewed more than 30 people.
"They reviewed text messages, emails, kind of an independent review, thorough investigation to come to the conclusions we came to around both the draft pick and Becky's suspension," Engelbert told Andrews.
Both the Aces and Hammon have said they were disappointed in the league's decision. Hammon on Wednesday said the investigation did not speak to any current Aces players who were with the team last year.
Andrews asked Engelbert about what conversation she may have had with Hammon.
"I let the lawyers do their work and get all the facts to us at the league office," Engelbert said.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- About the only thing Bryson DeChambeau has transformed more than his golf swing during his career has been his body. After bulking up to hit the ball farther off the tee a few years ago, DeChambeau has slimmed down considerably to conserve energy.
That change, along with a series of others, finally led to some positive results in the opening round of the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club on Thursday. DeChambeau had six birdies and two bogeys and took the early lead with a 4-under 66.
"The emotions have definitely fluctuated pretty high and pretty low, thinking I have something and it fails and going back and forth," said DeChambeau, the former No. 4 player who has since fallen to No. 214 in the Official World Golf Ranking. "It's humbling. Golf, and life, always [has] a good way of kicking you on your you-know-what when you are on your high horse. It's nice to feel this today."
DeChambeau, who says he weighs between 210 and 215 pounds, has changed his diet from a daily intake of 5,000 calories to about 2,900. He has stopped eating foods that inflame his body, including corn, wheat, gluten and dairy products. DeChambeau said he lost 18 pounds in 24 days after he started the diet in August.
"It was crazy," DeChambeau said. "It wasn't fat. It was all water weight. You know how I looked before. I was not skinny."
Those weren't the only changes DeChambeau made in his life. The 2020 U.S. Open champion jumped from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf, where he is captain of Crushers GC. He changed his equipment company, caddie and swing coach as well.
Through increased strength and swing speed, DeChambeau once believed he could conquer professional golf with brute force. He once boasted about Augusta National Golf Club, the site of the Masters, being a par-67 course because of how far he was hitting balls off the tee. He entered national long-driving contests and performed well.
Even after losing considerable weight, DeChambeau averaged 313.3 yards off the tee Thursday, which ranked sixth in the field when he finished his round. He was gaining nearly 2.5 strokes on the field after hitting nine of 14 fairways.
For 18 holes, at least, DeChambeau was not only hitting it far but also was hitting it straight, which isn't something he had always done in the past.
"That's been the most surprising part because I'm so used to hitting it everywhere," DeChambeau said. "Look, it could happen tomorrow. I don't think it will, but I feel really confident. Golf is a weird animal. You can never fully have it like Arnie (Arnold Palmer) said. You always think you have it one day, and then it just leaves the next. Just got to be careful."
The other parts of DeChambeau's game looked good in the first round too. He hit 15 of 18 greens and was gaining more than 2 strokes on the field in putting.
"Geez, he played great," said Keegan Bradley, who played with DeChambeau on Thursday and shot a 2-under 68. "It looked like Bryson to me. He hit the ball great, putted great, drove it really nice. It was good to see him. He was smashing drives again, and he played pretty much flawless golf."
Often called "The Scientist" because of his physics degree from Southern Methodist, DeChambeau said he might finally be done experimenting with his body and game.
"I want to be just stable now," he said. "I'm tired of changing, trying different things. Yeah, could I hit it a little further? Could I try and get a little stronger? Sure. But I'm not going to go full force. It was great. ... Shoot, I can hit my 8-iron 200 yards now. So it's an asset, and it was a fun experiment, but definitely want to play some good golf now."
Source: Steelers, Trubisky finalizing extension
PITTSBURGH -- Mitch Trubisky isn't going anywhere any time soon.
With a year left on the backup quarterback's contract, the Pittsburgh Steelers are finalizing a two-year extension with the former No. 2 overall pick, a source confirmed to ESPN.
NFL Network first reported that the Steelers were finalizing the extension with Trubisky.
Earlier Thursday, Steelers general manager Omar Khan had said in an interview with "The Pat McAfee Show" that he was "finishing up an extension" with Trubisky but did not disclose the length of the deal.
"We feel good about our quarterback room, and that was an important piece," Khan said in the interview. "We've got, obviously, Kenny Pickett is our starter. We feel really good about Mitch Trubisky in the role that he's in. He feels good about it. We've added Mason Rudolph. We feel really good about the QB room."
Trubisky was set to count $10.6 million against the cap for the 2023 season, and an extension offers cap flexibility, while also giving Trubisky security as a top-tier backup. The move also comes a day after the Steelers re-signed Rudolph to a one-year deal after he hit the open market in free agency, keeping the quarterback room from 2022 intact.
Though Trubisky, selected as a 2022 team captain, lost the starting job early last season, he was a valuable resource for first-round pick Pickett, and he offered the Steelers a solid insurance policy in spot starts and appearances.
Khan was transparent about his desire to retain Trubisky at the NFL combine in February, hinting at an extension then.
"Mitch has been great," Khan said at the NFL combine. "It's been great to have him around, and I would look forward to having him around here for a long time. Not only this year but for a long time."
Signing a two-year, $14 million contract with Pittsburgh on the first day of free agency in 2022, Trubisky, drafted by the Bears in 2017, joined the Steelers looking to jumpstart his career after a year as Josh Allen's backup in Buffalo. The Steelers drafted Pickett in the first round less than two months after signing Trubisky, but the veteran retained the starting job out of training camp.
The offense, though, struggled to find its footing in the opening games of the season, often lacking explosivity in a conservative game plan. Searching for a spark, the coaching staff inserted Pickett to replace Trubisky as the starter at halftime of the Week 4 loss to the New York Jets. In his first four starts in Pittsburgh, Trubisky threw for 653 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.
"The fact that they voted me captain means I gotta come in here, put my hand in the pile and lead these guys in any way I can, even if it's not on the field," Trubisky told ESPN last year.
After moving to a support role for Pickett, Trubisky got one more start in Week 14 against the Carolina Panthers, completing 17 of 22 attempts for 179 yards in a 24-16 win. Trubisky saw action in two other games after Pickett sustained concussions, first helping the Steelers to a win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 6 as he completed 9 of 12 attempts for 144 yards and a touchdown. Then, in Week 13, he threw three interceptions to one touchdown in a loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
In six seasons in the NFL, Trubisky has completed 64.2% of his pass attempts and thrown 68 touchdowns to 43 interceptions in 64 games (55 starts).
BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics have made a habit out of responding to adversity over the past two postseasons.
Celtics center Robert Williams III said he expects his team to do so again when the Eastern Conference finals resume against the Miami Heat with Game 2 on Friday night here at TD Garden, but he said Boston's insistence on putting itself in such positions is eventually going to come back to haunt the team.
"There's no doubt in my mind that we'll come out ready to play in Game 2," Williams said after Boston's practice Thursday afternoon. "But the problem is we can't keep relying on that.
"We can't rely on our backs being against the wall. There's no time for it. We have to fix it."
After dropping Game 1 of this series to the Heat on Wednesday, the Celtics will be looking to improve on their 4-1 record in these playoffs coming off of a loss, and an 11-3 record in those situations over the past two playoffs.
But that ability to bounce back -- and that it has had to happen so regularly, as Williams pointed out -- goes back to Boston's maddening level of inconsistency over the course of these past two playoffs. Nothing signifies that trend more than the way the Celtics have played at home.
Including Wednesday's Game 1 loss, the Celtics are now 10-10 at TD Garden over the past two postseasons. They were 6-6 here a year ago, including losing Game 6 of the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors to end last season, and are now 4-4 at TD Garden in these playoffs.
"There were moments where we executed, there's moments where we played well, and then there were moments where we didn't," Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said.
"This series is a test of discipline, it's a test of mentality, and we've got to be extremely detailed in our effort and our consistency."
The only thing consistent about the Celitcs, however, is their lack of consistency. That was once again on display in Game 1, after Boston controlled the run of play through the first 24 minutes -- dominating the paint, taking care of the ball and jumping out to a nine-point halftime lead -- before allowing Miami to explode for 46 points in the third quarter alone to turn the game on its head and allow the Heat to steal back home-court.
Not surprisingly, most of the focus of Thursday's film session was on what happened in those 12 minutes and what Boston needs to correct moving forward.
"It looked exactly like it looked last night," Williams said. "It was a lot of stuff you don't want to see."
"It was pretty much what I thought," Joe Mazzulla said.
There was little that went right. Like after the game, the Celitcs talked a lot about spacing issues offensively gumming things up. The defense was clearly a problem, given the Heat nearly matched their first-half total over the course of 12 minutes.
In specifics, though, Mazzulla was asked about two rotation decisions from Game 1: starting the double-big lineup of Williams and Al Horford together, and then playing guard Payton Pritchard over forward Grant Williams.
The Robert Williams-Al Horford pairing -- as part of a starting lineup with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart -- was one of the NBA's most dominant lineups last season under former coach Ime Udoka. This season, it barely saw the court, as Williams spent the first couple of months of the season rehabbing from September knee surgery, and then Mazzulla tended to stick to more offensively oriented lineups featuring more speed, spacing and shooting.
But Mazzulla went back to that group in Game 6 of the Philadelphia series, a move that helped flip it in Boston's favor and allow the Celtics to reach this point. In Game 1 against Miami, however, Williams was a team-worst minus-14 in 26 minutes, and that five-man unit was outscored by 10 points in nine minutes together.
"That's a good question," Mazzulla said, when asked what he thought of that grouping in the first game. "I thought each lineup presented things that did well. I thought Rob was really good, 6-6, got offensive rebounds, really kind of got us going at the same time. We just have to be more consistent regardless of the lineup. So we've developed an identity this year to play a bunch of different ways, and so we can't just look at it as it's this way versus that way.
"We have a lot of depth ... and so we just have to be able to use that and flex into that, and when we go into those different lineups at different times, we got to maintain our spacing and understand what we're doing when with those lineups out there."
Part of that versatility was also represented in Mazzulla going to Pritchard for 12 minutes in Game 1 and continuing to leave Grant Williams -- an essential part of Boston's playoff rotation a year ago -- off the court this time around.
After playing in every playoff game last year, starting several and playing over 27 minutes per game in Boston's run to the Finals, Williams has played in only nine of Boston's 14 playoff games this time around, and is averaging 12.9 minutes per night.
Mazzulla -- who also went to Pritchard in Game 5 against Philadelphia -- said he went with Pritchard against the Heat because he liked his shooting, playmaking and pick-and-roll defensive ability.
"We have a plan to use the depth we need in order to give us the lineups we think can really help us, and obviously, in the playoffs when minutes are expanding, you look to play seven or eight guys throughout," Mazzulla said. "Grant is always gonna be ready, and we've built a lot of versatility in our lineup where we can go a lot of different ways. We trust that anybody we call on will be ready."
Phone: (800) 737. 6040
Fax: (800) 825 5558
Website: 
Email: 
