Basketball

CHICAGO (AP) — The town of Newport, Maine, has a population of about 3,200 people. There's a bowling alley, a popular local diner that serves breakfast all day, a hunting club and it costs only $6 to license your dog.

Breanna Stewart will start her ninth WNBA season in a few days. The New York Liberty All-Star and WNBA champ has been around the league long enough to watch her peers fight for visibility.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Andrew Nembhard and the Indiana Pacers were just happy to make the Eastern Conference Finals last year.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Nikola Jokic was nearly unstoppable against Oklahoma City’s gritty, aggressive defense. The Thunder made a valiant effort to disrupt him, as they have all series.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points, and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Denver Nuggets 112-105 on Tuesday night to go up 3-2 in their Western Conference semifinal series.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Tyrese Haliburton scored 31 points, Pascal Siakam added 21 and the Indiana Pacers advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals with a 114-105 victory over Cleveland on Tuesday night, eliminating the top-seeded Cavaliers in five games.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Donovan Mitchell thought this Cleveland Cavaliers team would be the one to get him to a conference final for the first time. Instead, this trip ended with the same heartbreak as his other three to this point in the playoffs.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Indiana coach Rick Carlisle put it best in summing up his team's finishing punch in the Eastern Conference semifinals. “The winning team writes the script," he said.

These are the NBA playoffs of survival, where not even the stars are safe.

The diagnosis of a torn Achilles tendon for All-Star forward Jayson Tatum is a devastating blow to the defending champion Boston Celtics and the second injury of its kind during the NBA playoffs.