The Minnesota Timberwolves were clearly pleased with their Game 1 victory over the Denver Nuggets. Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert says a lot of that is driven by how much the team pulls for each other to succeed.

"I’ve never been part of a group that understands each other, that cares about each other and wants to see each other shine. In this league, it’s not something that you find very often," Gobert said.

Gobert said that that the Wolves "love and trust each other" and that helps them overcome adversity, like falling behind at points against the Nuggets. The veteran center said that the process of growing together was a team was something that started last year for Minnesota, and that they've built upon it this year.

The Los Angeles Clippers were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs on Friday and enter an uncertain offseason with Paul George and James Harden becoming free agents. While Kawhi Leonard has already signed an extension with the Clippers, he was unavailable or the majority of the series, leaving the team in a diminished state.

George was asked whether he sees himself with the Clippers long-term alongside Leonard and Harden.

"Yeah," George said. "If it works that way, absolutely."

George is expected to be the most coveted free agent on the open market.

"I'm not even focused on that yet," George said. "I got a lot to kind of digest myself, so I haven't even got to that yet. Look forward to kind of going back, just letting everything kind of decompress, talk to my family, be around family support and then address the next step. ... Yeah, it's just not where I'm there. I'm not there yet."

The NBA has held discussions with partner sportsbooks about potential changes to prevent a recurrence of what occurred with Jontay Parker. 

Sportsbooks could prohibit betting on players on Two-Way contracts.

The NBA has commercial contracts with sportsbooks such as BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel that give the league some influence on what types of wagers are offered.

The NBA issued a lifetime ban to Porter after it was allegedly found he passed along information about his health to a known gambler and manipulated his performance for betting purposes in at least one game. The league also accused Porter of placing at least 13 bets on the NBA using an associate's online betting account. 

What happened in one snapshot in the NBA Playoffs on Saturday, May 4, 2024.

Lonzo Ball has picked up his $21.4 million player option with the Chicago Bulls for the 24-25 season.

Ball hasn't played since January 2022 and it is uncertain if he will play again.

Ball signed a four-year, $80 million deal with the Bulls during the 2021 offseason.

What happened in two snapshots in the NBA Playoffs on Friday, May 3, 2024.

Dallas Mavericks reserve big man Maxi Kleber has suffered a full dislocation of the AC joint in his right shoulder. Kleber is expected to miss a significant period of time, and potentially the remainder of the postseason.

Kleber played a big part in the Mavericks six-game victory over the LA Clippers in the first round of the 2024 playoffs. Kelber hit 10-of-18 three-pointers in the series and averaged 5.7 points in 19.3 minutes per game.

Los Angeles Lakers guard D'Angelo Russell was fined $25,000 for verbally abusing a game official. The incident took place after the Los Angeles Lakers loss to the Denver Nuggets in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series.

Paul George is widely expected to decline his $48.8 million player option for next season with the LA Clippers. After LA signed Kawhi Leonard to an extension, it was thought that George and the Clippers would agree to an extension. However, that hasn't happened, and George now appears poised to enter free agency this summer.

Two teams with known interest in George are the Orlando Magic and Philadelphia 76ers. Both teams have the ability to create the necessary cap space to sign the veteran wing to a deal worth up to his projected max salary of just over $49 million dollars for 2024-25.

George has continued to express he'd like to re-sign with LA. The Clippers have reportedly not offered him a max deal, and that's held things up. LA hopes that George, like Leonard did, will take less than the maximum to allow the team to dip below the second apron. That would free up the Clippers to make more roster moves to add talent around their stars.

Russell Westbrook wasn't happy about coming off the bench for the LA Clippers after the team acquired James Harden. In fact, Clippers front office executive Lawrence Frank had to convince Westbrook to take on the sixth-man role for LA.

Westbrook has a $4 million player option for next season. There's a good chance that the veteran point guard may decline that option to find a better opportunity elsewhere.