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What Celtics’ big win over Cavs meant for Boston’s NBA Cup chances
Tuesday’s thrilling win over the Cavaliers kept the Celtics in contention for the 2024 NBA Cup.
The 120-117 victory at TD Garden improved Boston’s record to 1-1 in NBA Cup group play. It sits second in the Eastern Conference’s Group C, behind 2-0 Atlanta and ahead of 1-1 Cleveland thanks to a head-to-head tiebreaker. Washington and Chicago round out the group at 0-1.
The three group winners and top second-place finisher from each conference qualify for the win-or-go-home quarterfinals.
“Even though it’s a November game, this was an NBA Cup game,” Celtics big man Al Horford said. “We squandered one away last week against Atlanta, and (we wanted to) find a way to get this win and try to stay relevant in that. It was important. I think it’s a good thing that this early in the season, you’re playing meaningful games like that.”
How can the Celtics advance? The simplest path would be to win their two remaining Cup games (at Washington this Friday; at Chicago next Friday) and have the Hawks, who opened Cup play with a 117-116 win in Boston, lose both one of theirs (at Chicago; vs. Cleveland). In that scenario, the Celtics would finish atop Group C and guarantee themselves a spot in the knockouts.
If Atlanta wins one or both of its remaining games, then Boston would need to worry about point differential, which is the second tiebreaker behind head-to-head. The Celtics currently are at plus-2 in NBA Cup play, with the Hawks at plus-13 and the Cavs at plus-15.
The Celtics will have prime opportunities to pad that number over their final two contests, as they’ll be heavily favored over both the Wizards (overall record: 2-11) and Bulls (6-9). It would behoove them to win those games by as many points as possible, even if it means keeping their foot on the gas late in a blowout. Boston already routed Washington by 20 in a non-Cup game back on Oct. 24.
In last year’s In-Season Tournament (as the NBA Cup was known at the time), the Celtics needed to beat the Bulls by more than 22 points in their final group game to break a three-way tie with Orlando and Brooklyn. Head coach Joe Mazzulla reinserted his starters in the fourth quarter and repeatedly fouled poor free-throw shooter Andre Drummond, and Boston won by 27.
“I apologized to Andre Drummond for doing that,” Mazzulla said at the time, “but it gave us the best chance considering the circumstances we were in.”
Both wild-card teams that advanced to the quarterfinals last season had 3-1 records in group play and point differentials of plus-34 or higher.
Losing to either Washington or Chicago likely would eliminate the Celtics from NBA Cup contention. Players on all teams that reach the knockout rounds receive escalating bonuses: $50,000 for the losing quarterfinalists, $100,000 for the losing semifinalists, $200,000 for the runners-up and $500,000 for the NBA Cup champions.
Originally Published:
President Trump holds up an executive order to limit mail-in voting as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick looks on in the White House’s Oval Office in March.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
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Alex Wong/Getty Images
President Trump’s executive order to limit voting by mail has hit a legal hurdle.
On Thursday, a Boston-based judge blocked parts of the order that, at least so far, has not directly affected mail-in voting for this year’s midterm primary elections.
The legal fight, however, is likely to continue. The order pushes the boundaries of Trump’s authority under the Constitution, which gives state legislatures and Congress — not the U.S. president — the power to set the rules for federal elections.
The Trump administration is expected to appeal the new ruling by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, a nominee of former President Barack Obama, as a separate appeal of an earlier ruling by another federal judge moves forward in a similar set of lawsuits based in Washington, D.C.
Among other directives, Trump’s order from March calls for the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Postal Service to create lists of adult U.S. citizens or eligible voters in each state. It also calls for USPS, which is independent of a president’s administration, to deliver mail-in ballots only to people on those lists.
In response, USPS has proposed using information from state election officials to create voter lists. Postmaster General David Steiner told lawmakers Wednesday that under the proposal, the Postal Service would not deliver the mail ballots of any states that refuse to turn over their absentee voter lists to the federal government.
For the D.C.-based cases, the judge found in late May that it was too early for an emergency ruling that would block directives that the Trump administration has yet to carry out. Democrats are appealing that judge’s ruling to the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia.
Editor’s note: USPS is a financial supporter of NPR.
Edited by Benjamin Swasey
Local News
The boy was stabilized and flown to a Boston hospital, police said.
A 13-year-old boy was flown to a Boston hospital after he was found unresponsive in a swimming pool at a home in Beverly on Wednesday afternoon, police said.
Police and firefighters were called to a home on Parramatta Road after bystanders pulled the boy from the pool, the Beverly Police Department wrote in a press release.
Bystanders administered CPR until first responders arrived, according to police. First responders continued CPR and other “life saving measures,” police said.
An ambulance took the boy to Beverly Hospital where he was stabilized. He was then taken by medical helicopter to a Boston hospital, police said.
The incident is currently being investigated by Beverly police, the department said.
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Federal judge in Boston bars Trump from implementing proof of citizenship requirement to vote – The Boston Globe
A federal judge on Wednesday permanently barred President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing most of his first executive order on elections, part of which sought to require people to show documentary proof of citizenship when they register to vote.
The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper in Boston effectively converts a preliminary injunction she issued a year ago, in which she temporarily blocked many of Trump’s efforts to overhaul elections, into a permanent ban.
Casper rejected the administration’s argument that the lawsuit to block the changes brought by Democratic state attorneys general was premature because the rules had yet to be implemented. Instead, she agreed that the Constitution gives states and Congress the authority to regulate elections, and that Trump’s requirements violated the separation of powers.
The Constitution “does not grant the President any specific powers over elections,” she wrote.
Among other proposed changes, Trump’s order would have required people to provide documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote, prevented mail ballots from being counted if they arrive after Election Day, even if they were postmarked by then, and punished states that failed to comply by withholding certain federal money.
It was the latest in a string of rulings against the elections executive order Trump signed just months after taking office for his second term. He has since signed another executive order on elections, seeking to create a national voter list and limit mail balloting. That directive also faces multiple legal challenges.
Last fall, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., overseeing a separate challenge to the first election executive order by civil rights and Democratic Party-aligned groups blocked the government from taking steps to include the proof-of-citizenship requirement on the federal voter registration form. That judge later barred the Secretary of Defense from requiring documentary proof of citizenship when military personnel register to vote or request ballots.
In an apparent nod to the difficulty of implementing a proof-of-citizen requirement by executive order, Trump is pushing legislation in the Republican-controlled Congress to create such a mandate. The SAVE America Act has passed the House but has stalled in the Senate, leading Trump to advocate for eliminating the filibuster that is blocking the legislation.
On Wednesday, he abruptly cancelled the expected signing of a bipartisan housing bill, saying he won’t sign legislation until Congress passes his proof of citizenship requirement for voting.
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