Category Archives: Basketball News
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Stephen Curry sat dejected in front of his locker Wednesday night, shirtless and with his right foot soaking in a tub of ice water. The unhappy look on his face wasn’t a product of the game’s result — a 106-104 victory for his Warriors over the Suns in Phoenix. It was due to the fact that he was bitten by the injury bug once again.
Curry suffered what the team is calling a strained tendon in his right foot during the first quarter. He came out of the game with a little more than two minutes remaining in the first, following an awkward landing off of a reverse layup attempt on a fast break.
“It’s just something different,” Curry said with a bit of disbelief, while trying to describe the injury afterward. “They haven’t figured out if it’s my tendon or my plantar fascia yet, but it’s on the other side so it’s not my ankle, which is good.”
Curry has struggled with a recurring ankle injury in his young career, and has already missed nine games this season because of it. He did try to come back in near the end of the first half to see if he could go, but he just wasn’t feeling it.
“I tried to make a cut, but it didn’t respond they way I thought it would,” Curry said. “Coach made the decision in the second half just to let it rest.”
Warriors head coach Mark Jackson said that he didn’t see the need to force the issue.
“I’m not an expert, but the right thing to do was to shut it down and make sure that he takes advantage of the rest that we have moving forward, and get the proper treatment or whatever the doctors say,” he said.
Curry is scheduled to participate in the Skills Challenge as part of the NBA’s All-Star weekend, an event he won last year in Los Angeles. But obviously, his health for the duration of the regular season grind will have to be considered first.
“I’m going to have a discussion on it, it’s unfamiliar territory for all of us,” he said. “We’ll figure out what we’re going to do with the break and getting treatment and all that. I haven’t made a decision yet.”
At this point, Curry’s status for All-Star weekend can be seen as questionable at best. And whether it turns out to be a plantar fascia issue or not, the league might want to start lining up a possible replacement.
Reuters
Here is our daily look around the NBA — links to stories worth reading and notes to check out (stuff that did not get its own post here at PBT).
When he dines out at a fine steak house, LeBron James apparently likes apple martinis, his steak well done and he wants it cut up for him. Not my drink of choice but I can live with the apple martini. Getting your steak cut up for you is a little juvenile, but fine. However, the wannabe foodie in me must complain — to have a good piece of steak cooked until it is well done is a crime against nature and the animal that gave its life for your meal. Medium at most. I’m medium rare to rare myself. Also, tip a lot. That’s how these people make a living. (Via Ball Don’t Lie)
On a serious note, Dwyane Wade is concerned that the Heat not peak too early.
Stephen Jackson got a DNP-CD from Bucks coach Scott Skiles Monday against the Magic. That situation is deteriorating fast.
Wilson Chandler hopes to have a deal with the Nuggets in the next week or so.
Kobe Bryant says his jumper is “sexier” than Dirk Nowitzki’s. I have no idea how to judge that. Nor do I want to.
What trouble in the Lakers organization? Metta World Peace gives his stamp of approval to Mitch Kupchak.
Dave Chappelle swung by the Warriors locker room and hung out.
Drew Gooden is getting a second opinion on his wrist.
Ty Lawson sprained his left ankle again Monday night. We don’t know the severity yet, but don’t expect to see him for a couple games.
Minnesota’s suddenly hot big man Nikola Pekovic also rolled his ankle but said after the game it was “not bad.”
The Kings are trying to use Tyreke Evans as a small forward, and that’s a big adjustment for him.
Expect Danilo Gallinari to return to the Nuggets after the All-Star break.
Andrea Bargnani will be out through the All-Star Game.
The Warriors picked up a good win Monday night, and Mark Jackson doesn’t want to go there, but if they fall too far out of the playoff picture look for the Warriors to start force-feeding the young players (Klay Thompson fantasy owners rejoice).
Quentin Richardson suffered a quad injury Monday night and did not return to the game. That’s not a huge blow to Orlando, however.
The Hornets are giving Donald Sloan a second 10-day contract.
And the All-Star Three-Point Contest continues to have way more star power than the Dunk Contest….
Kevin Durant has been chosen to replace the Hawks Joe Johnson in the Foot Locker Three-Point Contest on All-Star Saturday night in Orlando, the league has announced. Johnson has tendonitis in his left knee and is resting it through the weekend (the Hawks will re-evaluate him next week, he has missed the last couple Atlanta games).
Durant joins Kevin Love, defending champion James Jones of the Heat, Mario Chalmers, Anthony Morrow and Orlando’s own Ryan Anderson.
Durant is shooting a good 36.7 percent from three this year — a number you have to respect in game but is not what you usually see from winners of this event (40 percent plus). However, he can knock them down, and people will tune in to watch him because he’s a name.
Which is more than you can say for the dunk contest.
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The impact of players-only meetings are vastly overrated. Vastly.
And they are usually conducted after an ugly loss that should be the bottoming out of a streak (but rarely is, back to the vastly overrated thing).
But in what has been an unusual season for the Lakers, Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher decided to call one after a blowout win over Portland Monday night. That according to Chris Broussard of ESPN.
Their message was clear: Trade rumors do not matter; your feelings about management or the coaching staff don’t matter; all that matters is that the 14 men in that locker room support and believe in one another. If they stay together and stay on the same page, they can get to where they want to go as a team.
The trade rumor thing is obviously a message to Pau Gasol, although Andrew Bynum and others that will hear there name come up in the next three weeks should take heed.
As for being disgruntled with the coach… welcome to any basketball team anywhere. Yes Mike Brown is different in style than Phil Jackson, what did you expect? Yes Mike Brown is experimenting with lineups and rotations, every coach is doing that because of the lockout and no training camps. This season is one big Petri dish for coaches.
Being disgruntled with management is a hot new trend for the Lakers, but pretty much every player in that locker room has been there before, too.
So the “it’s us against the world” message is swell. Good for them. Keep the issues in house.
Not going to mean much, really, these meetings are overrated. And it doesn’t really solve the point guard issue that is the bigger problem. But good for them.
AP
It’s been 14 years since Michael Jordan stepped on an NBA court (Washington? I choose not to remember that stop) and he is still the most valuable brand in basketball worldwide. By miles and miles and miles.
Which is why NBA legend and current Bobcats owner Jordan — along with — Nike has a team of lawyers that protect that brand. And they have turned their guns on a Chinese firm, Qiaodan, and sued the company that manufactures sports apparel and shoes.
You don’t know that name but that is the nickname Jordan has gone by in China since he first came to popularity nearly three decades ago. This is a clear attempt to profit off his name.
In a statement released through his spokeswoman, Jordan says he’s worked hard to establish his name and calls the issue “deeply disappointing to see a company build a business off my Chinese name without my permission, use the number 23 and even attempt to use the names of my children.”
Jordan says he’s “This complaint is not about money, it’s about principle and protecting my name.”
It’s about money.
It is about protecting his name — which when put on Nike shoes and apparel is worth a whole lot of money. Particularly in the emerging massive market that is China. (Most all of which is made in China anyway.)
This follows from the “any time someone says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money” principle. That doesn’t mean Jordan and his army of lawyers is wrong here. Enforcing it in China may not be so simple, however.
From the AP:
San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili is expected to miss two weeks with a strained left oblique…Forward Tiago Splitter also is expected to miss two weeks with a strained right calf, but he traveled with the team to Salt Lake City and will continue his rehab during the road trip.
Ginobili has been playing great basketball when healthy this season, but has only appeared in 9 regular-season games so far because of injuries. Splitter has blossomed this season, averaging 9.4 points on 62% shooting in 20.7 minutes per game. The Spurs have been surging, and are currently on a 10-game winning streak, but these injuries will make it tough for them to sustain their incredibly high level of play.
AP
UPDATE 7:56 pm: The league finally got around to confirming what everybody already knew…
It’s official, Rajon Rondo is in for the All-Star Game, replacing Joe Johnson who an MRI confirmed is suffering from tendonitis in his left knee. Which requires rest. so he sits.
There are some complaining that Rondo is the guard on a below .500 team who missed a chunk of games due to injury. That’s a reasonable argument if you’re going to replace him with Josh Smith (keeping an Atlanta connection). However, if you want to keep the roster balanced with guards Rondo is the next best one available. So I’m good with this.
1:05 pm: It’s not official from the league yet, but multiple sources out of Boston — including CSNNE.com’s A. Sherrod Blakely — are reporting that Atlanta’s Joe Johnson is going to have to pull out of the All-Star Game in Orlando this week (and the Three-Point Contest).
Sean Grande, the play-by-play voice for the Celtics, was the first then Blakely sent out this tweet.
And then there were two … #Celtics all-stars this year. Rajon Rondo will replace #Hawks G/F Joe Johnson.
The “and then there were two” reference is to Paul Pierce already being selected as an All-Star reserve. Johnson is dealing with a sore knee that team doctors have described as tendonitis, which needs rest. So, he’ll stay off the court in Orlando.
Rondo got snubbed the first time around — he missed eight games due to injury and that seemed to cost him with the coaches. But he is having his best season ever, taking on a larger role with the Celtics and giving them 14.8 points and 9.5 assists per game. He defends, he organizes. He’s one of the best point guards in the game.
Safe to say Rondo will not replace Johnson in the Three-Point Contest.
The guy with the legit snub complaint now is Josh Smith, the Hawks forward who is having a monster season. With Johnson out and no Smith, the Hawks have no representative. But brining in Rondo keeps the guard/forward roster balance closer to even.
Reuters
UPDATE 4:13 pm: Rose is back and in the starting lineup.
Remember that while he was out for back spasms, he had played through a turf toe injury before that and this time off certainly will help a little with that as well.
3:50 pm: After missing five games due to a back injury, Derrick Rose is expected back in the Bulls lineup Monday afternoon against the Hawks.
The Bulls guard injury information like it’s the nuclear football, but Rose took contact in practice on Sunday then Monday K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune tweeted this:
DRose is gametime vs. ATL. Rip, CJ out. CJ has migraine. DRose has been cleared by trainers. So barring warmup setback, he’s in.
Rose has been battling back spasms and the only long-term answer was rest. He needed some games off and while the Bulls struggled a little (splitting a pair against Boston) they were able to maintain their hold on the top seed in the East (and get coach Tom Thibodeau that All-Star coaching gig he didn’t really want).
The only people happier to have him back than Bulls fans are a bunch of fantasy hoops owners.
Reuters
Dwight Howard heads to New Jersey Wednesday night to play the Nets in the building that team will not play in next season. The Nets are going to Brooklyn, and they want Howard to join them there.
So they are pulling out all the fireworks. Literally.
Here is the tweet from Andy Vasquez, the Nets beat writer for the Bergen Record (he has photo evidence).
Nets appear to be setting up a special pregame pyrotechnic show, with Dwight Howard in town. What a coincidence.
Yes, a fancy intro should do it. It will end the entire debate.
Okay, maybe not. It goes like this: First, will Orlando’s front office decide they have to move him at the deadline, or will they take the risk and keep him through the season. If the Magic keep Howard, he will opt out of the last year of his contract, at which point the question becomes does he think he stands a better chance of winning a ring in the future in Dallas, Brooklyn or Orlando. (And pretty much not Orlando, or he would have stayed already.) The Nets have Deron Williams, but does he trust that management to put a team of good role players around them? You know Dallas will spend, but Dirk Nowitzki is not young, do you think they can transition after he leaves?
Howard will get asked all those questions at All-Star Weekend, and he will dodge them all.
Knicks rookie Iman Shumpert had been playing through knee pain for a couple weeks, but with the arrival of J.R. Smith and Baron Davis finally getting healthy, Shumpert was scratched Monday, is not expected to play Wednesday. He will be re-evaluated after the All-Star break.
But what about the All-Star Saturday Dunk Contest? Shumpert is scheduled to be one of the contestants.
Nothing is official, but there are rumors swirling Shumpert will pull out and the Jazz’s Jeremy Evans will replace him.
If you haven’t seen Evans — which is possible, he’s only been in 16 games for Utah and is averaging 5.6 minutes per contest — he is a human pogo stick who can leap out of the building. Honestly, I didn’t know much about him until I saw him at the Impact Series of workouts/games this past summer in Las Vegas, and in that free-flowing setting his athleticism caught your eye.
Evans was a snub — there had been a campaign for him from Utah, so if Shumpert has to be out this is the right call.
