The Los Angeles Clippers worked overtime to clinch a playoff spot — and send the Golden State Warriors to the NBA's play-in tournament.
The final game to end the regular season was a big one for seeding in the Western Conference, with the Clippers beating the Warriors 124-119 in overtime Sunday to clinch the No. 5 seed.
The Warriors fell to No. 7 and will host No. 8 Memphis on Tuesday, with the winner earning the No. 7 seed.
Had Golden State won, the Clippers would have fallen to seventh. But James Harden prevented that with 39 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds to cap an All-Star season for the former NBA MVP and give the Clippers an eighth straight win and a 50-32 record.
“We’re a good team and we’re excited to show the world, but we’re a good team,” Harden said in a postgame interview with ESPN on the court.
The West bracket wasn't set until a final day that had numerous teams in the running for numerous positions after the top three of Oklahoma City, Houston and the Los Angeles Lakers was already determined.
The Denver Nuggets regrouped after their chaotic final week that included the firing of coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth to secure the No. 4 seed and home-court advantage in the first round against the Clippers by beating the Rockets 126-111.
The Lakers, Nuggets and Clippers all finished 50-32, with Los Angeles having the tiebreaker to finish No. 3 and start a series in Los Angeles for the first time since 2012.
The Timberwolves — who could have slipped all the way to eighth in some scenarios — instead landed in the No. 6 spot at 49-33 following their 116-105 victory over Utah. Anthony Edwards scored 43 points after stressing to his teammates the urgency to avoid having to play at least one more game.
“Like, we don’t want to play in the play-in, because I’ve been in both situations,” the All-Star guard said. “We want to be fully prepared going into the playoffs. We want that whole week.”
So did the Warriors, who have never won a game in the play-in tournament. They would have finished sixth to set up another marquee matchup between Stephen Curry and LeBron James in the postseason and have just two days to shake off the disappointment.
“We’re right where we want to be,” forward Jimmy Butler said. “We’ve still got an opportunity and we control our own fate. We’re going to be just fine.”
Sacramento is No. 9 and Dallas No. 10 in the West. They will play Wednesday in Sacramento, with the winner having to beat the loser of the Golden State-Memphis game to face the top-seeded Thunder in the first round.
There was no final-day drama in the East, where everything had already been decided.
Cleveland is No. 1 and Boston is No. 2, and they will await the two teams to advance from the play-in. The No. 3 New York Knicks will face the No. 6 Detroit Pistons, and No. 4 Indiana will meet No. 5 Milwaukee.
Orlando is No. 7 and will host eighth-seeded Atlanta on Tuesday, with the winner advancing to face the Celtics. The loser will get another shot against the winner of the game between No. 9 Chicago and No. 10 Miami.
Besides the victories by the Nuggets and Clippers, the Indiana Pacers beat Cleveland in two overtimes to finish 50-32. That gave the NBA nine teams with at least 50 wins for the first time since 10 teams did it in 2014-15.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
Los Angeles Clippers center Ivica Zubac (40) reacts after scoring against the Golden State Warriors during the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, April 13, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Denver Nuggets forward Peyton Watson, center, celebrates his three point basket with Russell Westbrook during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Houston Rockets, Sunday, April, 13, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith)
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) reacts during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz, Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia on Friday celebrated the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, as President Vladimir Putin presided over a massive parade of tanks, missiles and troops through Red Square and welcomed over two dozen world leaders — the most since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.
Victory Day, which Russia marks on May 9, is the country’s most important secular holiday. The parade and other festivities underline Moscow’s efforts to project its global power and cement the alliances it has forged while seeking a counterbalance to the West amid the conflict in Ukraine that is grinding through a fourth year.
Friday’s parade was the largest since Russia sent troops into Ukraine in 2022 and drew the most global leaders to Moscow in a decade, including high-profile guests like Chinese President Xi Jinping, who sat next to Putin, and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Their attendance underscored how Putin has tried to emphasize the failure of the West to turn Russia into a global pariah.
“It’s again showing that Russia is not isolated, that Russia is seen as a very legitimate victorious nation that is among victors in World War II,” said Alexander Gabuev, director of Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.
"Russia is standing tall among the so-called global majority,” Gabuev said, adding that the attendance of Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico showed that “Russia has allies even within the Western camp” and marked a major public relations victory for Putin.
World War II is a rare event in the nation’s divisive history under Communist rule that is revered by all political groups, and the Kremlin has used that sentiment to encourage national pride and underline Russia’s position as a global power.
The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in what it calls the Great Patriotic War in 1941-45, an enormous sacrifice that left a deep scar in the national psyche.
Addressing the crowd in Red Square, Putin praised Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, saying that “we are proud of their courage and determination, their spiritual force that always has brought us victory.”
Putin, who has ruled Russia for 25 years, has turned Victory Day into a key pillar of his tenure and has tried to use it to justify his action in Ukraine.
For Putin, Victory Day celebrations have become "a civic religion that boosts patriotism, nationalism, nostalgia, and justifies both his repressive regime at home and Russia’s increasingly expansionist foreign policy abroad, particularly including towards its neighbors,” Gabuev said.
The parade featured over 11,500 troops and more than 180 military vehicles, including tanks, armored infantry vehicles and artillery used on the battlefield in Ukraine. As a reminder of Russia's nuclear might, huge Yars nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles launchers rolled across Red Square. Also among the weaponry on display were drones carried on military trucks, a tribute to their pivotal role in the conflict.
Fighter jets of Russian air force's aerobatic teams flew by in close formation, followed by jets that trailed smoke in the colors of the national flag.
Afterward, Putin shook hands with Russian generals who led the troops onto Red Square and spoke to medal-bedecked senior North Korean officers who watched the parade, hugging one of them.
Last month, Putin thanked North Korea for fighting alongside Russian troops against Ukrainian forces and hailed their sacrifices as Pyongyang confirmed its deployment for the first time.
The Russian and North Korean statements emphasized their expanding military partnership, especially after Russia said its troops have fully reclaimed the Kursk region that Ukrainian forces seized in a surprise incursion last year. Ukraine denied the claim.
After the parade, Putin hosted foreign leaders at a Kremlin reception and sat down with Lula for a bilateral meeting. More sessions were planned, officials said.
Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump exchanged “warm words” and “congratulations on the occasion of our common holiday” through their aides, the Russian leader's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told state Channel One TV.
Victory Day festivities this year were overshadowed by Ukrainian drone attacks targeting Moscow and severe disruptions at the capital’s airports. Aeroflot on Wednesday canceled more than 100 flights to and from Moscow, and delayed over 140 others as the military repelled Ukrainian drone attacks on the capital.
Russian authorities tightened security ahead of the parade and cellphone internet outages were reported amid electronic countermeasures aimed at foiling more potential drone attacks.
Military parades and other festivities were also held in scores of other cities across Russia amid tight security. As a historic tribute, Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg symbolically regained its Soviet-era name of Leningrad for a day Friday and Volgograd temporarily reverted to Stalingrad, as it was known during World War II.
Putin had declared a unilateral 72-hour ceasefire starting May 7 to coincide with the Victory Day celebrations, but warned that Russian troops would retaliate to any attacks. Moscow has been reluctant to accept a U.S.-proposed 30-day truce that Ukraine has accepted, linking it to a halt in Western arms supplies to Ukraine and Kyiv’s mobilization effort, conditions Ukraine and its Western allies have rejected.
Ukrainian authorities reported scores of Russian strikes Friday that killed at least two people in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and damaged buildings. A Russian drone also struck a civilian vehicle in Zaporizhzhia, critically injuring a man and also wounding his wife.
As the parade and other festivities unfolded in Moscow, dozens of European officials met in Lviv, in western Ukraine, to endorse the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russian officials accused of war crimes.
“Russia needs to feel our common and, most importantly, growing strength,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, addressing the Lviv meeting. He emphasized the need for Russia to be held accountable, adding that “this is the moral duty of Europe and of everyone in the world who values human life.”
“I’m sure that this tribunal will allow for the fight against impunity against all war crimes that have been committed during this war of aggression of Russia against Ukraine,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot.
Russian authorities have fiercely denied allegations of war crimes. Asked about the tribunal on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow "will not be reacting to this.”
Barrot also said European allies have agreed on another package of sanctions against Russia.
Standing alongside top Ukrainian government officials in Lviv, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the tribunal's launch will mean that “nobody can be left unpunished for the crimes committed."
Most of Europe marks the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II on May 8.
BRM-1K reconnaissance vehicles roll along Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, Friday, May 9, 2025, during celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany during the World War II.Maxim Bogodvid/Photo host agency RIA Novosti via AP)
People carry portraits of relatives who fought in World War II, during the Immortal Regiment march at the Nevsky prospect, the central avenue of St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, May 9, 2025, during celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany during the World War II. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
Chinese President Xi Jinpin, left, Russian President Vladimir Putin, centre, Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon, right, and President of the Republic of Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso, centre right, attend a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Alexander Garden after the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, Friday, May 9, 2025, during celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany during the World War II. (Yuri Kochetkov/Pool Photo via AP)
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov is driven along Red Square in an Aurus car during the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, Friday, May 9, 2025, marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany during the World War II. (Alexander Wilf/Photo host agency RIA Novosti via AP)
From second right: Turkmenistan President Serdar Berdimuhamedow, Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinpin watch the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, Friday, May 9, 2025, during celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany during the World War II. (Sergei Bobylev/Photo host agency RIA Novosti via AP)
Russian servicemen take part in the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, Friday, May 9, 2025, marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany during the World War II. (Maxim Bogovid/Photo host agency RIA Novosti via AP)
Turkmenistan President Serdar Berdimuhamedow arrives in Moscow, Russia, Friday, May 9, 2025, for celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany during the World War II. (Mikhail Voskresensky/Photo host agency RIA Novosti via AP)
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, left, arrives to attend a working lunch with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the The Faceted Chamber of the Kremlin's Grand Palace at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, May 8, 2025, ahead of celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany during the World War II. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin greets President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, ahead of the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, Friday, May 9, 2025, marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany during the World War II. (Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
President of Russia Vladimir Putin, right, and President of China Xi Jinping talk during a dinner on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation for heads of foreign delegations in the Grand Palace at the Kremlin in Moscow, Thursday, May 8, 2025, ahead of celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany during the World War II. (Sergey Bobylev/Photo host agency RIA Novosti via AP)
Military troops stand in formation in Red Square before the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, Friday, May 9, 2025, during celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany during the World War II. (Alexey Maishev/Photo host agency RIA Novosti via AP)