The AP reports: Tim Duncan had 16 points and 13 rebounds in 26 minutes and the San Antonio Spurs beat Cleveland 91-70 on Thursday night, dropping the Cavaliers to 0-4 in exhibition play. Matt Bonner added 15 points, going 3-for-3 from 3-point range and 6-for-7 overall from the field, for the Spurs (2-2). Tony Parker had 14 points and five assists after missing the Spurs’ game Tuesday night against Detroit because of a sore left Achilles’ tendon. He played 17 minutes in the first half, then sat out the second half… LeBron James scored six points in 17 first-half minutes for the Cavaliers. He had two rebounds, five assists and a blocked shot.
Month: October 2008
Oct 16: Magic 94, Bobcats 84
The AP reports: Rashard Lewis scored 26 points, Dwight Howard 15 and Keith Bogans 14 for Orlando, which overcame a 13-point halftime deficit to win its third consecutive NBA preseason game… Gerald Wallace had 18 points and nine rebounds for the Bobcats before coming out of the game in the fourth quarter with a lower back contusion… Jason Richardson and Sean May added 11 points each and Emeka Okafor 10 for Charlotte, which shot 29.4 percent from the field over the final two quarters to remain winless in four exhibition games.
Devin Harris explains UK streetball incident
I’m sure you’ve heard by now about the Devin Harris streetball incident in the UK where a pretty harmless-looking dude had about 60 seconds of success against Devin in a little mini-game of one-on-one. The first shot was a simple but decent close-range jumper, but the second move involved putting the ball through Devin’s legs for a pretty sweet reverse layup.
Thursday night I was with Devin in New Jersey and a full explanation from him as to what happened is here in this Harris interview. Read it and post the link in any discussion you’ve seen about what went down.
–Jeff
Brendan Haywood out 4-6 months after surgery
Washington Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld announced today that center Brendan Haywood had successful surgery to repair a torn dorsal scapho-lunate ligament in his right wrist. He originally suffered the injury on Thursday, October 2 during the Wizards’ training camp in Richmond, VA.
The procedure was performed by Dr. Michelle Carlson at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. Haywood is expected to make a full recovery after missing four to six months while recovering from the surgery. He will spend the next 10 weeks in a cast before he begins the rehabilitation process.
Thunder exercise two options
Oklahoma City has exercised the third-year team options on both guard/forward Kevin Durant and forward Jeff Green for the 2009-10 season it was announced today by General Manager Sam Presti.
Durant and Green were both members of the 2007-08 T-Mobile NBA All-Rookie First Team and participated in the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge at the NBA’s All-Star Weekend.
Durant, 20, was named the 2007-08 NBA Rookie of the Year after averaging 20.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists in 80 games. The Washington D.C. native was named NBA Rookie of the Month five times and became just the third teenager to average 20 or more points per game.
Green, 22, concluded his rookie campaign with averages of 10.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists in 80 games. The Georgetown product averaged 10.5 points per game, fourth among all rookies last season.
Kings exercise option on Spencer Hawes
The Sacramento Kings today picked up the option on forward Spencer Hawes for the 2009-10 campaign, it was announced by Kings’ President of Basketball Operations Geoff Petrie.
Hawes, currently in his second NBA season, was selected by Sacramento in the first round (10th overall) of the 2007 NBA Draft as an undergraduate out of Washington. He averaged 4.7 points (.459 FGs, .190 3FGs, .655 FTs) and 3.2 rebounds as a rookie last season.
Getting to Nets games from NYC now harder
InsideHoops.com editor here, typing on my pocket pc phone. I was on my way to the Celtics at Nets preseason game and discovered that there is no longer a bus to the Meadowlands from the Port Authority.
It is now even harder to get to Nets games from Manhattan.
Now you must go to Penn Station and take the NJ transit train to Sekaukus. (I still don’t know how to spell it.) It is the first stop on the train. The good news is, the train leaves constantly, at least during rush hour.
Once you get to Sekaukus you go outside to the bus stop area where an unlabelled bus was waiting to take people to the Meadowlands. A group of fans were waiting and had no idea the bus 50 feet away was the Nets bus. I went over, asked, then yelled over to everyone.
On the bus now. Should be at the game soon.
Also, in the port authority I met two fans from Spain (a guy and his girl) who were trying to get to the game. So I brought them with me to make sure they got to the game. They are from Madrid and have now tod me six times that they’d have gotten lost without the help. Yay me.
And then, getting off the bus I asked the driver what the gate is, to know where to exit after the game. She had no idea, and seemed confused by my even asking the question. Obviously after walking for a minute I saw for myself what the gate area was but I bet most fans who came from NYC, a huge number of which are tourists who speak very limited English, may have to wander a while after the game.
Anyway, forward this blog entry to any NYC Nets fans you know.
–Jeff
Raptors backup PG competition
Now that TJ Ford is gone, traded to the Pacers in the offseason for Jermaine O’Neal, Jose Calderon is the official point guard of the Toronto Raptors. But who is his prime backup? The Toronto Sun (Mike Ganter) reports:
Up for grabs, it now appears, are the backup minutes to point guard Jose Calderon. Those minutes initially appeared destined to find their way to Will Solomon, the former Memphis Grizzlies player who has spent the past six years honing his craft in the European leagues. And that may still wind up being the case, but rather suddenly Croatian rookie Roko Ukic is getting some consideration there as well… “Right now we are giving (Solomon) an opportunity,” head coach Sam Mitchell said. “I haven’t decided yet because Roko is getting better every day. Roko is doing some things and I have to get him more (court time). I’m probably going to be trimming Jose’s minutes back a little bit and start playing those two guys more so I can really, really get a good look at both of them.”
The Raptors host the Timberwolves for a preseason matchup tonight.
Discuss the team on the InsideHoops Toronto Raptors message board.
James Jones to miss 3 months
The Miami HEAT announced today that forward James Jones will undergo surgery on Saturday, Oct. 18 to repair a ruptured extensor tendon in his right wrist. The rupture occurred during practice on Oct. 15. After consulting with HEAT team physician Dr. Harlan Selesnick, the surgery will be performed by Dr. Ann Ouellette. Following surgery, Jones will have his wrist placed in a cast and he is expected to be out for three months.
Jones was signed by the HEAT as a free agent on July 9.
Nash OK after sprain
Steve Nash sprained an ankle yesterday, but good news reported by the Arizona Republic (Paul Coro):
It sounds like Steve Nash is going to be just fine. Suns general manager Steve Kerr was called by head athletic trainer Aaron Nelson at halftime of Wednesday night’s 102-100 victory in Atlanta to let him know that Nash had suffered a mild right ankle sprain. Nash tried to continue and wants to practice today but the Suns aren’t going to let him do that or play on Friday. This is where the emphasis on resting Nash will come into play more this season. A year ago, Nash probably talks the staff into letting him play. This year, they will use any chance to give him a break and be safe at the same time. Plus, Goran Dragic could use the minutes and the practice situation of having the onus of running a game plan. You can see instincts in Dragic but he is still feeling his way around an overwhelming amount of new things.
Since it’s preseason and NBA league pass doesn’t operate yet, I still haven’t seen the new, slower Suns play yet. I will be at Celtics at Nets tonight, to see Boston’s bench go out it with all the young kiddies on New Jersey.