Miles Bridges has been fined $50,000 for aggressively throwing his mouthguard into the crowd, hitting a teenage girl.
The incident took place when Bridges was ejected from the Charlotte Hornets' play-in game loss against the Atlanta Hawks after receiving two quick technical fouls in the fourth quarter.
While being escorted back to the locker room, Bridges appeared to react to a fan taunting him over the barricade, turning and throwing his mouthguard in that direction, but it missed and hit a 16-year-old girl.
He apologised for his actions when speaking with post-game media, calling it "unacceptable" and asked to be put in touch with the teenage girl to make amends.
The $50,000 fine matches the largest league-issued fine this season, equalling the figure Markieff Morris was slugged with after his flagrant foul on Nikola Jokic sparked a mini-skirmish.
Other big fines this season include $40,000 for Jusuf Nurkic for grabbing a fan's cell phone and throwing it into the stands, and $35,000 for Malik Beasley for striking Portland Trail Blazer Drew Eubanks.
Patrick Beverley has been hit with a $30,000 fine for "inappropriate statements" and "egregious use of profanity" after the Minnesota Timberwolves guard aimed salty shots at the Clippers.
The comments from Beverley came after Tuesday's 109-104 win for the T-Wolves in the seven-eight play-in game in the West.
Anthony Edwards played a starring role with 30 points for Minnesota and was interviewed alongside Beverley after the game.
Beverley was excitable after beating his former team. He spent four years on the Clippers before joining Minnesota last August.
"I wanted this so bad," Beverley said. "I wanted this one so bad."
He said his message to the Clippers was: "Take their a** home. Long flight to LA, take y'all a** home.
"It's deeper than that for me. I gave my blood and sweat and tears to that organisation. You guys know the story. Blood, sweat and tears, to just be written off like that, 'oh, he's injury prone, he's old', this, this, that, that.
"To be able to come here, play them in a play-in, beat their a**, there's no other feeling, man, no other feeling."
Beverley also used social media to express similar emotion, with added profanities. NBA chiefs considered he overstepped the line of acceptability.
A league statement on Thursday read: "Minnesota Timberwolves guard Patrick Beverley has been fined $30,000 for inappropriate statements during a media interview and on social media, including the egregious use of profanity, it was announced today by Byron Spruell, president, league operations."
It was a second fine inside a week for Beverley, who had a $25,000 punishment imposed for improper conduct to a game official after being ejected from the Timberwolves' April 10 loss to the Chicago Bulls.
The Dallas Mavericks are expecting Luka Doncic to sit out their playoff opener against the Utah Jazz on Saturday due to a calf strain.
Shams Charania of The Athletic broke the news on Thursday of what will likely prove to be a critical absence for the Mavs.
Doncic strained his left calf in the third quarter of the Mavs' final regular season fixture, a 130-120 win over the San Antonio Spurs, and sat out the rest of the game after putting up 26 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.
The two-time All-Star would have been ineligible for the game had the NBA not rescinded his 16th technical foul of the season, which he earned in the game prior against the Portland Trailblazers. Doncic would have been forced to serve a one-game suspension if the technical foul had stood.
Though the win over the Spurs was ultimately a meaningless game, with the Golden State Warriors defeating the New Orleans Pelicans and confirming the Western Conference's third seed, the Mavs still had to keep up their end of the bargain and beat the Spurs.
The 23-year-old Slovenian averaged 28.4 points, 9.1 rebounds and 8.7 assists per game this season.
Steph Curry is likely to return for Game 1 of the Golden State Warriors' first-round series against the Denver Nuggets, after missing the home stretch of the regular season with a foot sprain.
The two-time MVP and three-time NBA Champion is averaging 25 points, six assists and five rebounds this season in 64 games – his most games played since the 2018-19 season.
Curry is essential to the Warriors' success, as illustrated by their 8-10 record in games he has missed this season, compared to 45-19 when he has played.
Golden State head coach Steve Kerr spoke about how everyone is desperate to get the star guard back on the court, but the organisation will not rush him back before he has proven his readiness.
"We're not going to play him without getting a scrimmage," he said.
"The whole team will need a scrimmage, given that we generally play every other day and now we have six days between games, that's pretty unique.
"But it would be irresponsible to put Steph out there in a playoff game without having scrimmage time before."
Kerr also suggested that if Curry is to suit up in Game 1, he will be on a minutes restriction, saying he won't play "30, 35 minutes", and may come off the bench.
Curry's 'Splash Brother', Klay Thompson, also weighed in on the status of his team-mate.
"It felt good to play, and Stephen Curry looked like himself," he said. "He just gives everybody a lift with just his presence on the court.
"It was great to have him out there."
So here it is. That time of year again where we separate the wheat from the chaff, the men from the boys, the champions from the... rest.
The NBA playoffs get underway on Saturday with plenty of stories to be written and legacies to be cemented.
Can the Phoenix Suns turn their dominance in the regular season into a championship? Will the Milwaukee Bucks be able to retain their crown? Could someone from the play-in tournament sneak in the back door and go all the way?
These questions and plenty more will keep us glued to our screens as we watch the action unfold over the next two months.
But what of the individual stories? There are plenty of players who have made names for themselves in the business end of the season down the years, with lots of big names who will particularly want to make an impression this time around as well.
Stats Perform has selected five such players to focus on, explaining why they may just have a bit more to prove over the next few weeks than others.
James Harden – Philadelphia 76ers
It may feel slightly like shooting fish in a barrel to start with a player who is known for not being able to get over the line in the postseason, but we are not above easy wins here.
Harden has been to the NBA Finals just once in 12 postseason appearances, and that came 10 years ago with Oklahoma City Thunder.
Strictly speaking, his playoff averages have been impressive. While with the Houston Rockets, he averaged at least 26.3 points per game (PPG) in the playoffs, including an impressive 31.6 in the 2018-19 season.
However, it has more been one-off performances, invariably at crucial moments, that have let him down. This was summarised perfectly last year in Game 7 for the Brooklyn Nets against the Bucks, when he sank only five of 17 field goal attempts.
Now at the Sixers after a huge trade earlier in the season, and with the league's top scorer Joel Embiid on his side, Harden will surely be determined to silence his doubters and reach the second NBA Finals of his career.
Chris Paul – Phoenix Suns
This is likely the best chance the Suns will ever have to win an NBA championship, and ditto Paul.
An incredible regular season record of 64-18 saw them finish atop the Western Conference with a win percentage of 78.0, almost 10 per cent more than the second-place Memphis Grizzlies (68.3 per cent).
For Paul, this, therefore, is almost certainly his strongest chance to finally win a championship ring, especially having come so close last year.
The 12-time All-Star has the most assists per game in the league this season (10.8), and only Trae Young (737) has more overall assists than his 702, though the Atlanta Hawks star has played 11 more games.
At 36 years of age, Paul will not have many more opportunities, and will want to make this one count.
Luka Doncic – Dallas Mavericks
It has been another memorable season for the young Slovenian, averaging 28.4 PPG as well as 8.7 assists and 9.1 rebounds.
In his two previous playoff campaigns, Doncic has stepped his game up even more, averaging 31.0 PPG in 2019-20 and a remarkable 35.7 PPG last year. However, on both occasions, the Mavericks still could not make it past the first round.
Dallas ended the regular season with a record of 52-30, winning seven of their last eight games, and will go up against the Utah Jazz in the first round, a team they have beaten twice in the last six weeks.
It is not so much that Doncic himself has a point to prove, but he will be looking for more help from his team-mates as he looks to get to the latter stages, where a player of his talent surely belongs.
Tyler Herro – Miami Heat
Another young player who has already put in some strong postseason showings in his short career so far.
Herro impressed in the 2020 playoffs, but last year the Heat were whitewashed by the Bucks in the first round. As the number one seeds in the East this year, all eyes will be on them to do much better.
While Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo will of course be important, Herro could well be the difference-maker.
The 22-year-old point guard has comfortably produced his best regular season so far, averaging 20.7 PPG, as well as 4.0 assists and 5.0 rebounds.
Many expect it to be Miami v Phoenix in a battle of two number one seeds in the Finals this year, in which case Herro will be looking to repeat his second-best scoring performance of the season when he came away with 33 points in the Footprint Center in January's 123-100 win against the Suns.
Ben Simmons – Brooklyn Nets
It has been a nervous wait for Simmons, not just to return to fitness, but to see if he would even have the chance to turn out for the Nets this season.
While it has not been suggested the 25-year-old will return from back problems imminently, it has been reported the Nets are looking to use the player they traded Harden for in February sparingly towards the end of the first round.
Thankfully for him, his team-mates made it through their play-in game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday and so take their place in the playoffs, where they will start off in a fascinating encounter against the Boston Celtics.
Simmons has not played a single minute of basketball this season, not since his notorious performances in last year's postseason with the Sixers that saw him draw the ire of Joel Embiid and coach Doc Rivers.
Although Embiid accused Simmons of wanting to be a star more than wanting to win, that he won't necessarily need to fire from the off could help him, with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in excellent form for Brooklyn.
Simmons will want to discover the sort of form he showed in the 2018-19 campaign, when he averaged 16.9 PPG, as well as 7.7 assists and 8.8 rebounds.
Miles Bridges has apologised for throwing his mouthguard aggressively into the crowd, accidentally hitting a 16-year-old girl.
The incident occurred after Bridges was ejected from the Charlotte Hornets' 132-103 loss to the Atlanta Hawks in the play-in tournament.
After disagreeing with a referee's decision, he was assessed a technical foul, and then a second one for arguing and "aggressively approaching the official with a closed fist."
As he was being ushered down the tunnel to the locker room, Bridges appeared to react to a fan taunting him over the barricade, leading to him throwing his mouthguard. The mouthguard missed the man and hit a 16-year-old girl.
Speaking to post-game media, Bridges expressed remorse for his outburst, but mainly about the fact that he missed his intended target.
"I was aiming for the guy that was screaming at me and it hit a little girl," he said. "So that's definitely unacceptable on my part and I take full responsibility.
"That's out of character for me... I don't act like that or ever flash out like that.
"So that was definitely wrong, a lot of emotions and hopefully I can get in contact with the young girl and sincerely apologise to her and do something nice for her, but that's definitely on me.
"I was upset about a call – a couple of calls really – I let my temper get the best of me. It was definitely the wrong thing to do.''
New Orleans Pelicans guard C.J. McCollum called Wednesday's play-in tournament win against the San Antonio Spurs "the start of something special".
McCollum has been the star of the Pelicans since arriving in a mid-season trade, and it was no different against the Spurs, netting a game-high 32 points to go with seven assists and six rebounds.
The former Lehigh University standout has been averaging 23.3 points and 6.0 assists since the All-Star break and helped propel the Pelicans into the play-in tournament despite starting the season 1-12 from their first 13 games.
Speaking with post-game media, McCollum said it feels like something great is brewing in New Orleans.
"This is the start of something special, for sure," he said.
"You see the energy. Feel the energy. My mother is in town – I have some family in town – when we go out to eat, you can feel the city is excited about basketball, as they should [be].
"There's a lot of talent here. We're playing the game the right way. It's going to be a lot of winning in our future."
McCollum went on to talk about how seriously the Pelicans were taking this game with their season on the line.
"I understood the magnitude of this game," he said.
"The Spurs are always going to go on a run at some point. They are well-coached. They execute. They have a lot of great players who can shoot and score.
"When you get a chance to get up double digits, you have to put the pedal to the metal and try to be aggressive… I try to be more aggressive in the playoffs, try to get downhill a little bit more."
Pelicans head coach Willie Green had nothing but praise for his star shooting guard.
"We just got the ball to him, and he made play after play, score after score," he said.
"The rest of the guys started to feed off C.J. – he's been in these moments, he's played on the big stage.
"It's no coincidence that he goes out and has the game that he has."
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