See you in autumn (daily newspaper Junge Welt)

If it works, then it works. The Boston Celtics still have a chance for the best starting position in the NBA playoffs. The record champions won 117:94 against the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday evening and are hot on the heels of the leaders of the Miami Heat. German national basketball player Daniel Theis played in the Celtics’ 50th win of the season from the start and scored a good 15 points and six rebounds. Of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, the Celtics are in the best shape right now.

But interesting things are also happening in the western United States. Even things that hurt. For example in L.A. A few days ago, basketball superstar LeBron James made an April Fool’s joke, maybe it was just half a joke. “I’m out for the rest of the season. See you in the fall,” James wrote on Twitter, before a few hours later he dragged his limber body back onto the floor at the age of 37 and witnessed the next loss of his Los Angeles Lakers.

With the title goal, logically, you started the season. Instead, the Lakers, who finished 11th in the Western Conference, will not even participate in the playoff qualifier. “Some things we could control, some we couldn’t. There are no excuses, we just didn’t make it,” said veteran Carmelo Anthony on Tuesday evening (local time) after the 110:121 at the Phoenix Suns, which was not only the seventh loss in a row, but also the final end for the playoffs meant.

So James will actually only be allowed to watch when European stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks) and Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks) or the extremely strong Phoenix Suns play for the NBA trophy. The long-awaited fifth ring, with which James wanted to collect further arguments in the ongoing debate as to whether he or Michael Jordan should be considered the best player of all time, will not work for the time being. “We are extremely disappointed,” said head coach Frank Vogel, who should have no future with the glamor club after such a season. The team with star player James, the veterans Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook, Dwight Howard and Anthony Davis looked promising.

It still didn’t go well: Davis was injured for a long time, and James also had physical problems again and again. The team functioned neither offensively nor defensively. James was eliminated with an ankle injury on the sidelines. He was wearing a fairly casual t-shirt, gold chain, sunglasses. It’s emblematic of a season when nothing worked and some supporters were already accusing James of playing for the scoring title rather than the Lakers’ success. James’ record is split: the club missed the playoffs in 2019 and 2022, and in 2021 there was a loss in the first round. But in 2020, led by James and Davis, it was enough for the title. “We look really good on paper,” Davis said earlier this week of this year’s roster. “But we didn’t have a chance to show that.” The James team has to admit that rather mediocre teams like the New Orleans Pelicans or the San Antonio Spurs instead of the Lakers are playing for more tickets for the final round in the so-called play-in tournament hurt especially.

The Dallas Mavericks cannot be called mediocrity. They are currently in similar good shape as the Boston Celtics. The 131:113 against the Detroit Pistons was the seventh win in the past ten games for the team around Luka Doncic, who recorded the best values ​​of the game with 26 points and 14 assists. In the New York duel between the Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets, Kevin Durant had a strong evening and led the Nets to a 110:98 in Madison Square Garden.