Tag Archives: nba
Reuters
There are a lot of things worth watching in Game 6 between the Celtics and Sixers. For one, Kevin Garnett has invited the considerable wrath of Philadelphia down on him, one of his tricks for self-motivation. It will be loud and angry in the building.
All eyes will be on Brandon Bass to see if he can replicate his Game 5 and drop 27 again.
Can Boston, up 3-2 in the series close it out — note that in the “big three” era in Boston the Celtics are 2-10 in road closeout games (via Dei Lynam at CSNPhilly.com).
But none of that is what will decide Game 6 and if the Sixers can force a deciding game in Boston on Friday night. No, it comes down to one thing:
Can Philly contain Rajon Rondo?
In the second half of Game 5 Rondo was able to get deep into the Sixers defense and that opened up things for everyone else — Brandon Bass cutting to the basket behind the defense, Kevin Garnett (and Bass) for open midrange jumpers, even Greg Stiemsma had five buckets just cutting to the basket and putting away the pass in that game.
In a defensive series, Rondo was getting the Celtics easy buckets at the rim in the second half — Boston shot 61 percent in the third when they pulled away — and that was the difference.
Boston has Avery Bradley and Ray Allen as injured and are game time decisions. But you know at least one, probably both, will go.
Other things to watch — the team being aggressive and attacking has gotten to the line in this series and that has been a huge advantage. Also, the team last four games the team that won dominated the third quarter. Watch how they come out of the locker room. Also, Philly needs to turn their defense into offense with Jrue Holiday and Andre Iguodala getting buckets in transition. A magical Lou Williams night wouldn’t hurt, either.
Sixers coach Doug Collins has gone to the history card, showing the Sixers how in 1982 their predecessors came back on the Celtics in the same situation. That’s great, players don’t know enough about history. But what they really need is a way to keep Rondo in check.
Reuters
It’s still odd to think of the Clippers as a team that could enter next season as a contender — this has been the worst franchise in the league for decades.
But Blake Griffin started to change the culture and perception around the team, then Chris Paul arrived before the season and added rocket fuel to the changes. The Clippers went 40-26 and made it to the second round of the playoffs. It was a big step forward.
Now come the next steps. GM Neil Olshey said the Clippers targets will be wing players, according to the O.C. Register.
Olshey said the Clippers would like to add a shooting guard with some size and a back-up forward with shooting range and passing ability. Olshey and the Clippers will also have to make a lot of decisions regarding their own free agents.
Chauncey Billups, Randy Foye, Nick Young, Kenyon Martin and Reggie Evans will all be free agents this summer.
With the Clippers right now at the salary cap line for next year, they will be looking to find a starting two for the mid-level exception of about $5 million, plus bring back some of those role players like Young and Evans. They could use depth everywhere, save for maybe the point (Eric Bledsoe killed it in the playoffs when Paul sat).
Free agent two guards out there who might come for the mid-level (with the promise of going into the playoffs with Paul and Griffin): Ray Allen, Jamal Crawford, J.R. Smith, Courtney Lee… and from there the list gets less impressive. The good news — CP3 said he would play lead recruiter.
There are bigger issues facing the Clippers this offseason — offering Griffin a max extension to his rookie deal and starting discussions with Chris Paul about his future (he will be entering the last year of his deal). Then there’s what to do with Vinny Del Negro?
But this is now a team that needs tweaks not big moves to contend. This is a team that needs its players to learn the lessons of the playoffs. Their weaknesses were exposed by the Spurs, now is when you start to work on improving those. Come back better next fall. The Clippers will be more about the steps and improvements they make, about improved maturity of game, than they will be about moves off the court.
But look for a new starting two in LA next year. Likely one who can defend well on the perimeter.
After a one day hiatus, we return 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) — done in bullet point form. Because bloggers love bullet points.
• That’s Adam Morrison to the right, going with the Samson look. He played in Europe last year and was at a multi-player workout hosted by the Nets this week. (Thanks @AdamZagoria for posting the pic.)
• Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor facing off on the playgrounds.
• How the Knicks and Nets can still land Dwight Howard in a trade. By the way, the Phil Jackson and Dwight Howard as a package to the Nets rumors have less basis in reality than a Kardashian television show.
• Mike Miller talks about the Heat’s physical series with the Pacers.
• Kobe Bryant is more convinced than most Lakers fans the team can get right back on top.
• Metta World Peace isn’t sure the Lakers ever stopped being the best team in the NBA: “We underachieved. We’re the best team in the NBA and lost in five. We should still be playing, up 3-2.” Why do I imagine that from MWP’s perspective the world looks like the candy park in Willy Wonka?
• What would help the Lakers is landing someone like SoCal native James Harden in free agency, and Harden would not rule out a return when he is a restricted free agent next summer. Nice thought, but no way the Thunder let him walk. No way.
• Another ridiculous bit of trade speculation: Chris Bosh for Pau Gasol. Not happening, if the Lakers move Gasol they are looking to reduce future payroll not take on more.
• Ramon Sessions wants to return to the Lakers. A lot of Lakers fans just rolled their eyes, but he is a good guard who fits the traditional sets Mike Brown wants to run pretty well. He got wide-eyed during the playoffs, but that was his first playoff experience, you should expect some of that. (Lakers fans are not exactly notorious for patience and understanding.)
• Golden State is working out six players in a closed session Wednesday: My man Casper Ware out of Long Beach State; Jordan Taylor, Wisconsin; Drew Gordon, New Mexico; Kyle O’Quinn, Norfolk State; Quincy Acy, Baylor; Mitchell Watt, Buffalo.
• Are we seeing the end of professional sports in Oakland?
• Sasha Kaun, a player the Cavaliers retain the draft rights too, has signed with CSKA Moscow.
• Apparently things don’t change a lot in rural Indiana. Via The Big Lead, a look at the locations used in Hoosiers as they are now. Great video.
AP
Andrei Kirilenko had to watch from the sidelines with an ankle sprain the last couple games as his team — Russian powerhouse CSKA Moscow — wrapped up another Russian League title after being part of the EuroLeague final four.
So, now what for Kirilenko? Does he stay in Russia? Return to the NBA? If so, where?
He doesn’t really know, he told Russian site sovsports.ru (translation via Sportando).
“I haven’t decided my future yet. There are 50-50 chances for me to stay or to go. I just want to say that if I stay in Europe, it will be with CSKA Moscow. I won’t play for any other team. I am going to weigh my options. It is going to be a very busy summer” said Kirilenko,
Assuming he does leave for the NBA (and the interviewer thinks he will, if Google Translate did its job right) Kirilenko said that the Utah Jazz and Brooklyn Nets are the “priority.” Utah is where Kirilenko has played before (and they could use him) while Brooklyn is owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov (and they could use anybody).
At some point I expect Kirilenko will return to Russia to play a few more years and finish his career, but I expect him back in the NBA next season.
Reuters
This much was clear from Miami’s thrashing of the Indiana Tuesday night — with Danny Granter the Pacers may not win but without him they are doomed.
Granger sprained his ankle just 3:11 into the third quarter when he landed on LeBron James’ foot following a three-point jumpshot attempt. He rolled his ankle and instantly went to the bench.
After Granger left the game the Pacers were outscored by 21 points. They may not win with him but Indiana is not winning Game 6 Thursday without him.
Granger left the arena in a walking boot but said to the Indy Star he would play Thursday.
“I don’t see a circumstance where I wouldn’t play (Thursday),” Granger said.
Players are usually the worst people to ask about when they can come back from an injury. Coach Frank Vogel said he didn’t know if Granger would be available. The fact is how the ankle feels the next 48 hours and responds to treatment will determine if he plays.
Even if he plays he will not be 100 percent. Which is not good, his defense on the wing is key to the Pacers plan of slowing the game down and turning the Heat into a jump shooting team. If an injured Granger rolls out there and LeBron and Dwyane Wade drive around him like he’s an orange traffic cone the Pacers will be golfing very soon.
Getty Images
Sixty guys with a dream.
The names for the NBA Draft Combine to take place in Chicago have been released. These are the guys who will be measured, weighed and in most cases put through drills to test their speed, agility and shooting. I say in most cases because, like the NFL draft combine, some of the best players will sit out some drills.
If you wonder why they won the national championship, Kentucky had more player invited than any other school with six. North Carolina has four invitations; Baylor, Vanderbilt and Syracuse have three.
As for snubs, there is Casper Ware out of Long Beach State should be on this list. DraftExpress.com has him at 57 and he was one of the best players at the mid-major level this year. I’ll admit my bias up front — I’m a Long Beach State season ticket holder and watched Ware for four years. But he’s exactly the kind of player you will fall for at Summer League — quick, good in the open court, can shoot with range if he sets he feet, is aggressive and plays hard all over the court. He’s not big (5’9”) but the guy could find a spot in the league. Not inviting him to the combine was a mistake.
Still, all the big names got the call. The invitees are below in alphabetical order.
Quincy Acy, Baylor
Harrison Barnes, North Carolina
Will Barton, Memphis
Bradley Beal, Florida
J’Covan Brown, Texas
William Buford, Ohio State
Jae Crowder, Marquette
Jared Cunningham, Oregon State
Anthony Davis, Kentucky
Marcus Denmon, Missouri
Andre Drummond, UConn
Kim English, Missouri
Festus Ezeli, Vanderbilt
Evan Fournier, France
Drew Gordon, New Mexico
Draymond Green, Michigan State
JaMychal Green, Alabama
Moe Harkless, St. John’s
John Henson, North Carolina
Tu Holloway, Xavier
Robbie Hummel, Purdue
Bernard James, Florida State
John Jenkins, Vanderbilt
Orlando Johnson, UC Santa Barbara
Darius Johnson-Odom, Marquette
Kevin Jones, West Virginia
Perry Jones III, Baylor
Terrence Jones, Kentucky
Kris Joseph, Syracuse
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Kentucky
Doron Lamb, Kentucky
Jeremy Lamb, UConn
Meyers Leonard, Illinois
Damian Lillard, Weber State
Scott Machado, Iona
Kendall Marshall, North Carolina
Fab Melo, Syracuse
Khris Middleton, Texas A&M
Darius Miller, Kentucky
Quincy Miller, Baylor
Tony Mitchell, Alabama
Arnett Moultrie, Mississippi State
Kevin Murphy, Tennessee Tech
Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonaventure
Kyle O’Quinn, Norfolk State
Miles Plumlee, Duke
Austin Rivers, Duke
Thomas Robinson, Kansas
Terrence Ross, Washington
Mike Scott, Virginia
Henry Sims, Georgetown
Jared Sullinger, Ohio State
Jeff Taylor, Vanderbilt
Tyshawn Taylor, Kansas
Marquis Teague, Kentucky
Hollis Thompson, Georgetown
Dion Waiters, Syracuse
Royce White, Iowa State
Tony Wroten, Washington
Tyler Zeller, North Carolina
If you didn’t already love Ben Wallace, an NBA Champion, a true class act, one of the best defensive players of his generation, and a guy who always left it all out on the court, you should after seeing what he’s driving around. CSN Chicago has the scoop from SB Nation’s Evan Dunlap:
According to basketball-reference.com, Ben Wallace made over $87 million over his 16-year NBA career. That helps him buy a lot of fun items, including a car you’ve probably never seen before.
Forget Lamborghini’s and Ferrari’s, it’s not a Porsche or a Rolls-Royce Phantom. Wallace’s ride looks like something straight out of the future. On Monday morning, it happened to be in the same auto shop as SB Nation blogger Evan Dunlap, who sent out the picture via twitter.
I don’t know if that’s a motorcycle or a car, but it does look like something that could help Bruce Wayne defend Gotham City from Bane and the rest of the Rogue’s Gallery. Given the fact that the car looks like it might have a missile launcher hiding on it somewhere and that we know Ben Wallace drives it, it’s probably the last thing on the road I’d want to scratch with my car.
The Lakers’ Game 3 win over the Thunder on Friday was gritty, hard-fought, and earned largely at the free throw line. With the game slowed and the clock stopped is where L.A. did most of its damage offensively, scoring 41 of the team’s 99 points from the foul line on 42 attempts.
The free throw percentage of 97.6 was the second best in NBA playoff history, with a minimum of 30 attempts. It’s unlikely that the Lakers will get that many tries again in Game 4, but if nothing else, they’ll try to recreate the offensive stylings that helped get them to that point in Game 3.
“It’s two games in a row now where we’ve controlled the tempo,” said Kobe Bryant after Game 3. “We’ve done a pretty good job controlling the pace of the game being physical. But as you see, even tonight there were stretches where, (with) their explosiveness, they just go on runs quickly. In 45 seconds to a minute they can go on a 7-0, 8-0 run. So we’ve got to be careful with the ball and keep them out of transition.”
Bryant wasn’t kidding about the Thunder’s explosiveness. One such run came in a 36-second span midway through the fourth quarter, where OKC was able to score seven straight points in the blink of an eye. He was also dead-on about the turnovers.
The Lakers played excellent halfcourt defense for the second straight game, and really only struggled for extended periods when they were careless with the ball and allowed the Thunder to get out in transition for easier looks.
It truly is all about pace and tempo for the Lakers in this series, especially with such a short turnaround time between Games 3 and 4. The first back-to-back set of these playoffs will have these teams back at Staples Center for tip-off less than 24 hours after Game 3 was in the books.
That would appear to favor the youth and energy of this Thunder team, and Bryant knows if his team doesn’t play with the same discipline it has in the past two games, the Lakers will be in serious trouble.
“No, not if it’s an up-and-down game, no. We don’t have a shot,” Bryant said, when asked if the Lakers could play with a more energetic Thunder team in Game 4. “We could both be extremely well-rested and not have a shot. Just slow the game down, play our pace and play our tempo, and we’ll be fine. Whether it’s back-to-back or three nights in a row, it doesn’t matter. If we control the pace, we’ll give ourselves a great opportunity.”
The opportunity will indeed be there for the Lakers to even the series if they can execute their plan to perfection. They’ll need to take full advantage of it, too. Because as exhilarating as beating the Thunder to get back into the series was on Friday, all will be lost if they can’t repeat the performance on Saturday, and the team has to head back to Oklahoma City on the wrong end of a three-games-to-one series deficit.
AP
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) — done in bullet point form. Because bloggers love bullet points.
• LeBron James and Kobe Bryant made Forbe’s list of the World’s most powerful celebrities. Of course, they are no J-Lo.
• Steve Nash is dominating and craft in the business boardroom, too.
• Walter McCarty, the former Kentucky star who played and coach in the NBA, is now focused on his music.
• McCarty needs to hook up with Warriors’ vice president and general counsel David Kelly, better known as hip hop artist Cap D.
• Still bitter? Former Laker Jordan Farmar tweeted he would have made that last-second shot Steve Blake missed Wednesday night. So would Jamaal Wilkes, it matters about as much.
• Dallas coach Rick Carlisle says the goal this summer is to make Dirk Nowitzki Dallas’ second best player.
• Is Mike Budenholzer the best and most overlooked lead assistant in the league? A guy who should be getting more job interviews than he does? I agree with Ziller here — yes. If you’ve been Gregg Popovich’s right hand for years, you deserve a shot in the big chair.
• USA Basketball head honcho Jerry Colangelo reminds Mark Cuban and the rest of the NBA owners that Team USA in the Olympics has been a big part of the international growth of the league — meaning it’s put a lot of money in their pockets. So stop complaining.
• C.J. Watson just had surgery on both of his feet to relieve his plantar fasciitis. That man played through a lot of pain.
• Al Harrington had knee surgery this week.
• Andrei Kirilenko apparently hurt his ankle during the Russian League finals, we don’t think it’s severe but details from Russia are few.
• CSKA Moscow was upset in a dramatic EuroLeague final by Olympiacos Piraeus. In a classy move, the owners of CSKA sent a letter the next day to Olympiacos congratulating them. I’m guessing Micky Arison didn’t do that for Mark Cuban last year.
The Miami Heat are just one road loss away from facing a Game 7 in the 2nd round of the NBA Playoffs, but they sure did look like a championship team on Tuesday night, when they absolutely dominated the Indiana Pacers en route to a 115-83 win.
There’s really only one way to describe this game: everything went exactly right for the Heat. The Heat haven’t been getting much help from their supporting cast or been able to implement their “Pace and Space” offense throughout this series, but they got contributions from all of their rotation players, made their threes, got out on the break, played great defense, and got great performances from both LeBron James and Dwyane Wade while playing suffocating defense. This is the Miami Heat team that we all imagined when LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade announced that they were joining forces. This is the team that looked like an absolute juggernaut. Even though the Heat have a long way to go before they get out of this series, let alone get to the Finals, but on Tuesday night the Heat looked like they can beat either the Spurs or the Thunder.
Let’s go through it: The game started off with the slumping Shane Battier hitting a few wide-open threes, which was the best possible thing that could have happened for them. Battier was in full “No-Stats All-Star” mode on Tuesday, making 4 of his 5 three-point attempts and playing great defense on David West, which allowed the Heat to effectively mitigate the loss of Chris Bosh for at least one night.
LeBron James was in MVP mode once again — he had every aspect of his game working, and finished with 30 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 assists on 12-19 shooting from the field. He made outside shots, he worked in the post, he punished the Pacers on the fast-break, he made pinpoint passes, and he crashed the boards hard on both ends. He also made what could be the best pass of the playoffs when he grabbed an outlet pass one-handed, and, while falling out of bounds, hit Wade with an absolute laser beam pass right on the numbers for an easy fast-break dunk.
Dwyane Wade was in rare form as well — he slithered to the basket at will, made some impossible shots around the basket, and even mixed in some outside shots.
There are times when it looks like the offensively challenged Joel Anthony looks like a waste of a roster spot for the Heat, let alone deserving of the 5-year contract they gave him, and there are times when Anthony looks like one of the best bargains in basketball. Tuesday night was an instance of the latter. Anthony showed and recovered brilliantly on pick-and-rolls, kept the Pacers from getting the ball to their bigs in good positions, got 4 blocks, and even made 3 of his 4 shots from the field.
Udonis Haslem has his mid-range shot working again, and gave the Heat great energy, but was a source of controversy after the game. In the 1st half, Haslem delivered an extremely hard foul on Tyler Hansborough shortly after “Psycho T” was called for a Flagrant-1 foul on Dwyane Wade. Haslem was called for a Flagrant-1 foul and was not ejected, but if his foul on Hansborough wasn’t a Flagrant-2, then I’ve frankly never seen a Flagrant-2 foul in my life, and there may be a possibility that Haslem will be suspended for Game 6.
It was a physical game all-around — Dexter Pittman will almost certainly be suspended for a brutal elbow on the Pacers’ Lance Stephenson in the waning moments of the game, and Danny Granger missed most of the 2nd half after he twisted his ankle after landing on LeBron James’ foot after launching a jump shot. (Some Pacer fans may say that LeBron pulled a “Bowen” on Granger to cause the injury, but it certainly looked unintentional to me — if LeBron slipped his foot under Granger’s foot intentionally, he’s the league’s best actor as well as its best player.)
The Heat shot 61% while holding the Pacers to 34% shooting from the field — the Pacers kept themselves in the game early by making some long jumpers, but they were never able to establish their big men against the Heat’s swarming defense, and the offense fell apart completely after Granger had to go to the trainer’s room.
One game can change everything in the playoffs, and the Heat aren’t done with the Pacers yet, and there are no such thing as “statement games” in the playoffs. Still, this was a darn impressive performance from the Heat, and the Pacers definitely need to find some answers before Game 6.
