Celtics’ Marcus Smart -- (NBA - Photo)

NBA NEWS - Celtics’ Marcus Smart and Suns’ Mikal Bridges lead All-Defensive First Team

Rudy Gobert, a three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, has been voted to the NBA All-Defensive First Team for the sixth consecutive season. Antetokounmpo, the NBA Defensive Player of the Year and a two-time Kia NBA Most Valuable Player, is an NBA All-Defensive First Team honoree for the fourth straight season. Jackson, a four-year NBA veteran and the 2021-22 season leader in blocks per game (2.27), is making his debut on the NBA All-Defensive Team - THIS DAY IN THE NBA

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Friday May 20, 2022

Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics and Mikal Bridges of the Phoenix Suns lead the NBA All-Defensive First Team, the NBA announced today.

Smart and Bridges comprise the two guards on the NBA All-Defensive First Team. Smart, the NBA Defensive Player of the Year, received 198 points (99 First Team votes) to earn his third selection to the NBA All-Defensive First Team.

Bridges, who finished in second place for the Defensive Player of the Year Award in his third NBA season, received 193 points (95 First Team votes). This is Bridges’ first selection to the NBA All-Defensive Team (First Team and Second Team).

Joining Smart and Bridges on the NBA All-Defensive First Team are Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert (171 points; 76 First Team votes), Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (156 points; 63 First Team votes) and Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. (153 points; 55 First Team votes).

Gobert, a three-time Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year, has been voted to the NBA All-Defensive First Team for the sixth consecutive season. Antetokounmpo, the NBA Defensive Player of the Year and a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player, is an NBA All-Defensive First Team honoree for the fourth straight season. Jackson, a four-year NBA veteran and the 2021-22 season leader in blocks per game (2.27), is making his debut on the NBA All-Defensive Team.

The NBA All-Defensive Second Team consists of Miami Heat forward Bam Adebayo (152 points), Bucks guard Jrue Holiday (89 points), Philadelphia 76ers guard Matisse Thybulle (87 points), Celtics center Robert Williams III (70 points) and Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (34 points).

This is the third NBA All-Defensive Team selection for Adebayo, the fourth for Holiday and the second for Thybulle. Williams joins Bridges and Jackson as a first-time member of the NBA All-Defensive Team. Green, the 2016-17 NBA Defensive Player of the Year, has earned his seventh selection to the NBA All-Defensive Team.

The All-Defensive Team was selected by a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters. Players were awarded two points for each vote to the NBA All-Defensive First Team and one point for each vote to the Second Team. Voters selected two guards, two forwards and one center for each team, choosing players at the position they play regularly. Players who received votes at multiple positions were slotted at the position at which they received the most voting points.

The voting results for the 2021-22 Kia NBA All-Defensive Team are below. The “Total Points” category represents voting points that players received at any position, not just the position at which they are listed. The balloting was tabulated by the independent accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP. Complete ballots for each voter will be posted at PR.NBA.com after the announcement of all end-of-season awards.

Below are the other players who received votes for the All-Defensive Team, listed at the position at which they received the most voting points. The “Total Points” category represents voting points that players received at any position, not just the position at which they are listed.

THIS DAY IN THE NBA

May 20, 1979 Washington reserve Larry Wright hit two free throws with no time on the clock to give his club a 99-97 victory in the opening game of the NBA Finals against Seattle. Wright’s clutch shots gave him 26 points in just 23 minutes and led the Bullets to their only victory of the five-game championship series.

May 20, 1995 Houston’s Mario Elie sank a three-pointer from the corner with 7.1 seconds left in the game, lifting the visiting Rockets to a 115-114 win over Phoenix in Game 7 of their Western Conference Semifinal Round series at America West Arena. With the win, the Rockets became the first NBA team in 13 years (since the ‘82 Sixers against Boston) to overcome a 3-1 deficit to win a best-of-7 playoff series. Houston’s victory also broke a string of 20 consecutive wins by the home team in the deciding Game 7 of a playoff series. Just 24 hours later, Indiana repeated that feat by the road team after downing host New York 97-95 in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal Round series.

May 20, 1996 Chicago’s Michael Jordan earns a record 96.5 percent of first-place votes (109 of 113) from the media to win the Maurice Podoloff Trophy as the 1995-96 NBA Most Valuable Player, his fourth overall NBA MVP Award. Jordan’s MVP stats include 30.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.20 steals per game

May 20, 2000 Malik Sealy of the Minnesota Timberwolves dies in an auto accident at the age of 30. Sealy starred at Tolentine High School in the Bronx, leading the school to the mythical high school national championship in 1988. Later that year, he took his game to St. John’s, where he carved out a stellar career, putting together numbers bettered only by Chris Mullin. Sealy was drafted by the Indiana Pacers with the 14th pick in the first round of the 1992 NBA Draft, and he played with Indiana, the Los Angeles Clippers, Detroit and Minnesota in an eight-year NBA career.