INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones is getting a little more help from his friends.
Seven years after two teammates created a special pad to protect Jones' fracture collarbone, the same duo has done it again, this time to fit over Jones' injured lower left leg. Jones said Wednesday he first wore it in a loss at Kansas City and then again in Sunday's loss to the Houston Texans.
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FILE - Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones (17), wearing a special pad on his lower left leg, throws a pass during an NFL football game against the Houston Texans, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Zach Bolinger)
FILE - Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones, wearing a special pad on his lower left leg, reaches back to hand off the ball during an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga, File)
FILE - Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones, wearing a special pad on his lower left leg, runs for a first down against the Kansas City Chiefs during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
FILE - Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones, wearing a special pad on his lower left leg, looks to the sidelines during the first half of an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025 in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann, File)
“Lucky to have smart friends who are really close friends,” Jones said. "It's pretty low profile and fits to my leg pretty well. I didn't really notice it Sunday."
Jones didn't elaborate much on what the extra padding does exactly other than noting Colts doctors and trainers gave him the approval to wear it.
Former Duke center Clark Bulleit and former Duke linebacker Kevin Gehsmann started the company, Protect3D, to produce custom-printed 3D braces and orthotics that help athletes recover from injuries. They created an app that allows the products to be scanned to mobile phones or tablets and are then printed out. The Durham, North Carolina,-based company also says it works with an advisory board of physicians and trainers that are listed on the website.
Bulleit's initial experience in a 3D-printing lab came one semester at Duke when he was able to work closely with the technology before Jones suffered the collarbone injury in 2018. It allowed him to return after just three weeks, and Colts coach Shane Steichen has no qualms with Jones getting some more help from his former teammates.
“I’m an UNLV guy, I’m not a Duke graduate so nothing against my alma mater — I love my alma mater — but Duke there’s like a high (intelligence) level,” he said. ”I guess it was a couple of players and there were like ‘Hey, what if we do this and create this system?’ and they've been doing good. It's pretty impressive."
But Jones didn't need anyone to help him print out this pad.
“My buddy Kevin actually delivered it to me in Kansas City,” Jones said. “He flew (in) and came to the game, I got to see him afterward.”
Jones continues to maintain he still feels healthy enough to play and has no intention of sitting out Sunday's game at Jacksonville (8-4), a matchup featuring the two teams tied for the AFC South lead.
“I've been cleared to play, and I know it's safe,” he said. “I feel good, I think I'm feeling better every week and continue to be able to do more and more, just being mindful of the injury and doing whatever I can to put the team in position to win.”
Jones' performance has declined over the past month with Indy (8-4) losing three of its past four games, including the Colts' first back-to-back losses of the season. As defenses have put increasingly more pressure on Jones, he has looked less mobile, at times, and has been less accurate completing throws than he was in Indy's first eight games.
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FILE - Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones (17), wearing a special pad on his lower left leg, throws a pass during an NFL football game against the Houston Texans, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Zach Bolinger)
FILE - Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones, wearing a special pad on his lower left leg, reaches back to hand off the ball during an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga, File)
FILE - Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones, wearing a special pad on his lower left leg, runs for a first down against the Kansas City Chiefs during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
FILE - Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones, wearing a special pad on his lower left leg, looks to the sidelines during the first half of an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025 in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann, File)
A winning season usually gets you to the NBA playoffs. Not this year.
There were a record-tying three teams — Charlotte at 44-38, Miami at 43-39 and the Los Angeles Clippers at 42-40 — that finished over .500 this season but failed to qualify for the playoffs.
The only other years when that happened were 1971 and 2022.
In NBA history, teams with records over the .500 mark have gone to the playoffs just over 95% of the time. For teams going at least 43-39 (or the equivalent in shorter seasons), that in-the-playoffs rate was 97.3%, until this season.
Miami now has finished over .500 in 25 of its 38 seasons. Of the first 24 Heat teams with winning records, 100% wound up going to the playoffs.
“My first year as a head coach, we won 43 games and we were the fifth seed,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We were the 10th seed this year with 43.”
If the playoff teams were their own 16-team league, counting only their games against one another in the standings, the top overall seed in these playoffs would be Detroit.
The Pistons went 30-12 against the other playoff clubs, just ahead of Oklahoma City (31-14) and San Antonio (29-14).
The Thunder had the biggest point differential in games against other playoff teams (8.4 per game), while the Thunder and the Spurs both had the most double-digit wins (18 apiece).
The playoff pool for this season is the most in NBA history, with $35,740,226 to be divided up between the 16 teams.
As the team with the NBA’s best record, the Oklahoma City Thunder are already assured $2,161,408 from that pool. If the Thunder win the NBA title, they will claim more than one-third of the pool — $12,805,503.
Teams get shares for finishing with a top-six record in their conference, plus for making the playoffs and the size of the shares increase for advancing to later rounds. There’s about a $5 million difference between winning and losing the NBA Finals.
Atlanta is in the playoffs for the 50th time, the Hawks becoming the fourth franchise to hit that total.
The other three? The Los Angeles Lakers (66), Boston (63) and Philadelphia (55).
It’ll be at least another four years before the 50-playoff-aappearance club grows. New York has made 46 appearances, including this year’s.
James Harden has yet to win an NBA championship. But at least he gets into the playoffs — every single year.
That's right: 17 years in the league, 17 playoff trips for Harden.
He and the Cleveland Cavaliers will take on the Toronto Raptors in Round 1 of the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Cavs will be the sixth team that Harden appears with in the postseason, after stints with Oklahoma City, Houston, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, the Los Angeles Clippers and now Cleveland.
Harden enters the series with the Raptors 14th on the league's career playoff scoring list, two points behind No. 13 Larry Bird. He's 59 points behind No. 12 Dwyane Wade, and if the Cavs make any sort of deep run would figure to have a chance to reach the top 10 in playoff scoring sometime this spring.
Some stat milestones that could await in these playoffs:
— Houston's Kevin Durant is 15 points shy of 5,000 for his playoff career. He'll be the seventh player to hit that number.
— The Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James — who already holds league records for playoff games, games won, games lost, points scored, field goals made, field goals attempted and steals, among other things — needs seven more steals to get to 500. Nobody else even has 400.
— If New York gets to the Eastern Conference finals, Mike Brown (who has 50 playoff wins) would pass Tyronn Lue (57) and move into the top 20 all-time for coaching playoff victories.
When the Denver Nuggets play, you're going to see a lot of points.
How many points? Well, probably more than what oddsmakers tell you to expect.
Denver's games went over the Vegas over-under total — the number of total points expected in the game from both teams — 63.4% of the time this season. That's the second-highest rate in the last 12 seasons, topped only by Indiana's games going over the total 65.3% of the time in the 2020-21 season.
Other betting nuggets from this season:
— Among the 16 playoff teams, Boston (59.8%) covered more often than any other team, followed by San Antonio (57.3%). Charlotte covered in 61% of its games but missed the playoffs.
— Speaking of the Celtics, only 36.6% of their games went over the total. That's the lowest rate in the NBA in at least 12 years.
— Oklahoma City was favored in 78 of its 82 games, as would probably be expected.
It's been a long time since Pistons fans can say this: Game 1 is at home.
The opener of the Detroit-Orlando series on Sunday will be the first time the Pistons open any playoff series on their home floor since 2008 — an Eastern Conference semifinal matchup, also against the Magic.
Detroit wound up winning in five games before falling to Boston in that season's East finals.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
Orlando Magic forward Franz Wagner, center, shoots as he gets caught between Minnesota Timberwolves guard Terrence Shannon Jr., left, and guard Jaylen Clark during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Indiana Pacers center Micah Potter (11) goes over the back of Detroit Pistons forward Paul Reed (7) during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Indianapolis, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) gets fouled by Portland Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija (8) during the second half of an NBA play-in tournament basketball game, Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
