PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — As uncertainty about his future with the Portland Trail Blazers swirls, interim coach Tiago Splitter is approaching the job with the same positivity that has helped carry the team through a strange season and into the NBA playoffs.
The sentiment was apparent after the Blazers won Game 2 against the San Antonio Spurs 106-103 to even the first-round series at 1-1 heading into Friday night's game in Portland.
“This is why we do this, to have games like this, to experience wins like this,” Splitter said. “I told them before the game, I mean, all the stuff that we went through throughout the season is to get to these moments. And have fun. Go there and hoop. Go there and ball.”
Hired as an assistant last June, Splitter took over as interim head coach after Chauncey Billups' surprising arrest and he led Portland to its first playoff appearance in five years.
But according to recent reports, new Blazers owner Tom Dundon has been looking at different candidates to fill the head coaching job on a permanent basis.
Splitter shrugged off the reports.
“Just trying to be a pro,” Splitter said before Game 2. “Try to focus on my locker room and my staff to stay and think about basketball. Same way when I got the job and all the stuff that was going on.”
Splitter, a 6-foot-11 center from Brazil, played seven years in the NBA with San Antonio, Atlanta and Philadelphia before officially retiring from basketball in 2018. He won an NBA championship in 2014 with the Spurs.
He previously served as head coach for Paris Basketball in the top French league for one season after a stint as an assistant for the Houston Rockets.
Just hours after the Blazers opened the season with a 118-114 loss to Minnesota, Billups was taken into custody in an early morning raid, part of an FBI takedown of two sprawling gambling operations that authorities said leaked inside information about NBA athletes and rigged poker games. Billups has pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud and money laundering.
Splitter was tasked with continuing Billups' development of a young and inexperienced but talented squad that included Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Camara and Deni Avdija.
Along the way the Blazers withstood several extended absences because of injury. Henderson missed 51 games with a hamstring injury, Avdija struggled with a sore back, and veteran Jrue Holiday had calf injury that sidelined him for 25 games.
And then there was the speculation over Dundon's acquisition of the team. The former majority owner of the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes struck a deal with the estate of former owner Paul Allen to buy the team before the start of the season. The sale became final last month.
There were concerns about possible changes under Dundon, based on cost-cutting measures he took with the Hurricanes. One has already drawn the ire of Trail Blazers fans: There will be no free T-shirts on the seats at the Moda Center for fans attending Friday's game.
No matter what the future holds, the fact remains that under Splitter the Blazers finished the regular season 42-40, above .500 for the first time since the 2020-21 season.
“Just glad to be in this situation with that group, they make everything easier," Splitter said about making the postseason. "Great group of guys. I think Joe (general manager Joe Cronin) put a great group of human beings first, and that makes everything easier, the day to day. Even though we went through a lot of things throughout the season, I told them, I’m so proud of every accomplishment that we had, individually and as a group.”
Splitter has certainly made a case for removal of the interim tag among the players.
“He got thrown in a difficult situation,” Deni Avdija said. “It wasn’t easy for him to just all of a sudden take the head job. But I think he’s done phenomenal. He’s getting the best out of everybody. He’s believing in each and every single one of his players, and we love playing for him.”
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Portland Trail Blazers acting head coach Tiago Splitter reacts to a call during the second half in Game 2 of a first-round NBA playoffs basketball series in San Antonio, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Washington (AP) — President Donald Trump says Israel and Lebanon have agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks after talks at the White House on Thursday.
Trump says the meeting between Israel’s and Lebanon’s ambassadors to the United States went “very well.” The meeting was the second high-level negotiation between the two countries since last week.
The initial 10-day ceasefire, which took effect last Friday, had been due to expire Monday.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
Washington (AP) — Lebanon and Israel were set to begin a second session of direct talks at the White House on Thursday to discuss the possibility of extending a truce between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group and plans for future negotiations between the two neighbors with a long history of hostile relations.
A U.S. official said President Donald Trump plans to greet Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad and her Israeli counterpart Yechiel Leiter on their arrival for the meeting, which is the second between the two diplomats, days after they held the first such direct talks between the two countries in three decades. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration planning.
The U.S. will be represented in the talks by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, State Department Counsellor Michael Needham, Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa, according to the State Department. Huckabee did not participate in the first round.
Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun said Wednesday that Hamadeh will put forward an extension of the 10-day ceasefire that went into effect last Friday. She also will ask for an end to Israeli home demolitions in villages and towns occupied by Israel after the latest war broke out on March 2, Aoun said in comments released by his office.
Preparations are being made for wider-reaching negotiations between Lebanon and Israel. The aim of the future talks is to “fully” stop Israeli attacks, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon, release of Lebanese prisoners held in Israel, deployment of Lebanese troops along the border and beginning the reconstruction process, Aoun said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has called on Lebanon to work with Israel to disarm the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.
“We don’t have any serious disagreements with Lebanon. There are a few minor border disputes that can be solved,” Saar said during Independence Day remarks to Israel’s ambassadors and diplomatic corps in which he also described the neighboring country as a “failed state.”
“The obstacle to peace and normalization between the countries is one: Hezbollah,” he said, adding that Lebanon could have “a future of sovereignty, independence and freedom from the Iranian occupation.”
The latest war started when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel, two days after Israel and the U.S. launched attacks on Iran. Israel responded with widespread bombardment of Lebanon and a ground invasion in which it captured dozens of towns and villages along the border.
Israel’s military currently occupies a buffer zone stretching as much as 10 kilometers (6 miles) into southern Lebanon. Israel says it aims to remove the threat of short-range rockets and anti-tank missiles being fired toward northern Israel.
Hezbollah has rejected the talks. Wafiq Safa, a high-ranking member of the militant group’s political council, told The Associated Press that it will not abide by any agreements made during the direct talks.
Despite this, the talks are a major step for two countries with no diplomatic relations that officially have been at war since Israel’s inception in 1948.
The Lebanese government hopes the talks will pave the way to a permanent end to the war. While Iran has set ending the wars in Lebanon and the region as a condition for talks with the U.S., Lebanon insists on representing itself.
Since the ceasefire went into effect last week, there have been multiple violations by both side sides.
On Wednesday, Amal Khalil, a well-known Lebanese journalist covering southern Lebanon, was killed by an Israeli strike. Lebanese health officials said the Israeli military opened fire on an ambulance that responded to the scene, preventing rescuers from reaching her. Her body was pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building several hours later.
The Israeli military denied that it had deliberately targeted journalists or fired on rescuers, but the case sparked widespread anger in Lebanon ahead of the Washington talks.
After a Cabinet meeting Thursday, Lebanon’s Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri said the government is working on a report documenting alleged war crimes by Israel and that ministers had discussed joining the International Criminal Court.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war has killed around 2,300 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of women and children, and displaced over 1 million people.
Last week’s talks were the first between Israel and Lebanon since 1993. Both countries have relied on indirect communication, often brokered by the U.S. or UNIFIL, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s top political authorities, critical of Hezbollah’s decision to fire rockets toward Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Iran, quickly proposed direct talks in a bid to stop the escalation, hoping Israel would not launch its ground invasion.
Mroue reported from Beirut. Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed.
Mourners hold posters that show portraits of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, who was killed Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike, during her funeral procession in the village of Baysariyeh in southern Lebanon on Thursday, April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
President Donald Trump speaks as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, and Vice President JD Vance listen in the Oval Office at the White House, Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives at the White House, Wednesday, April 22, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives at the West Wing of White House in Washington, Thursday April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during diplomatic talks with ambassadors of Lebanon and Israel at the State Department in Washington, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
