December 2009 – Page 10 – NBA Blog

Nate McMillan has surgery

Portland Trail Blazers Head Coach Nate McMillan underwent successful surgery Monday to repair a ruptured right Achilles tendon.

He is expected to make a full recovery and return to the bench for the Trail Blazers’ Dec. 15 game vs. Sacramento. The injury occurred during a Dec. 4 practice.

Dr. Jay Crary performed the surgery at Southwest Washington Regional Surgery Center in Vancouver, Wash.

Lead Assistant Coach Dean Demopoulos will serve as the team’s head coach in McMillan’s absence, starting tonight at New York.

Suns assign Taylor Griffin to Iowa Energy of D-League

The Phoenix Suns have assigned rookie forward Taylor Griffin to the Iowa Energy of the NBA Development League, it was announced today by Suns President of Basketball Operations and General Manager Steve Kerr.

The 6-7, 238-pound Griffin was selected by the Suns with the 48th overall pick (second round) of the 2009 NBA Draft and has appeared in two games this season for Phoenix. The Oklahoma product is expected to appear in both of the Energy’s home games this Friday, Dec. 11 and Saturday, Dec. 12 against the Dakota Wizards.

The Suns (15-6) return to action Tuesday night, taking on the Dallas Mavericks (14-7) at American Airlines Center at 6:30 p.m. Phoenix time. The game can be seen locally on My45 and heard on Sports 620 KTAR.

Pacers still finding their rotation

With 6-12 record, the Indiana Pacers aren’t off to the best of starts. Star Danny Granger is having a very good season, though he needs to raise his 40.1% field goal percentage. But he simply doesn’t have much help. And head coach Jim O’Brien is still searching for the best player combinations to help turn things around.

Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star reports:

Jim O’Brien has used many starting combinations. Dahntay Jones replaced Brandon Rush at shooting guard and O’Brien has used both Roy Hibbert and Jeff Foster at center.

O’Brien may also want to take a look at point guard. T.J. Ford didn’t do anything to earn the confidence of teammates during the trip.

Ford had a total of 10 assists and 11 turnovers in four games. O’Brien went with Earl Watson in Ford’s place for most of the second half against Sacramento and the Los Angeles Clippers last week.

The Pacers must have stability at point guard if they expect to win.

O’Brien hopes to eventually settle on a nine-man rotation.

Considering the limited roster, Mike Dunleavy being hurt until just five games ago, Troy Murphy missing some games, etc., I’d say the Pacers are doing about as well as expected.

Bulls offense is struggling

The Chicago Bulls, whose super-scoring guard Ben Gordon is now with the Detroit Pistons, are struggling to put points on the board.

K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune reports:

The Bulls’ offense is so bad that the notoriously long-winded Hubie Brown, who was the color analyst forFriday’s game in Cleveland, ran out of talking points.

The Bulls’ offense is so bad that it rivals the above lame attempts at one-liners. Rim shot, please, indeed. Anything better than the boring, predictable high screen-and-roll and slow ball reversal that, lately, has resulted in air balls.

Let’s get the ugly numbers out of the way first:

The Bulls score 90.4 points per game, 28th in the league. They shoot 43.2 percent, 27th in the league. They rank 24th in 3-point shooting at 31.1 percent and only Utah and Memphis take fewer 3-pointers than the Bulls’ 11.8 per game.

The Bulls have surpassed 100 points and shot 50 percent just once in 18 games.

On the bright side, the Bulls (unofficially) lead the league in heavily contested long 2-pointers jacked from just inside the 3-point line.

Chicago has lost seven of their last eight games, and many of the losses haven’t even been close. A shakeup could take place soon if this continues.

Have an opinion? Share it on the InsideHoops Chicago Bulls forum.

Spurs need to show improvement

With a 9-8 record, the San Antonio Spurs sit in the middle of the Western conference pack. If the regular season ended today, they’d qualify for the playoffs, but just barely — via a tie-breaker with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Will the Spurs soon raise the level of their game?

Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express News reports:

After back-to-back homecourt losses to the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets, the Spurs head to the scene of one of their worst losses of the season with a sense their season has reached an early turning point.

The Jazz’s motivation is much simpler. They need a victory over any team to erase the embarrassment of Saturday night’s loss to Minnesota. The Timberwolves had won only two games before coming from 14 points down to beat a Jazz team that coach Jerry Sloan says didn’t defend in the second half.

The Spurs, 9-8 after back-to-back losses, approach tonight’s game with a fair amount of optimism. But they also understand that this revamped roster — one which many hoped would position them for a title run — needs to begin showing results, and soon.

“This stretch of games right here is really good for us,” Spurs captain and leading scorer Tim Duncan said. “We need to turn a corner and learn things about ourselves and become a better team.”

Right now, it’s hard to take the Spurs seriously as a championship contender. Perhaps that’ll change in the near future.

Yi Jianlian suffers busted lip, gets 50 stitches

Nets forward Yi Jianlian suffered an upper lip laceration on Saturday, December 5, as a result of an inadvertent elbow while playing 3 on 3 after practice. The laceration required 50 stitches to close. Yi will be re-evaluated on Monday, December 14, at which time a determination will be made on when he can return to action.

Yi has played in four games this season, averaging 9.8 ppg and 7.5 rpg and has missed the past 15 games with a sprained right MCL.

The 1-18 Nets got their first win of the 2009-10 season in their last game, beating the Charlotte Bobcats in New Jersey. On Sunday the team heads to New York for a matchup with the Knicks.

Have Nets opinions? Share them on the InsideHoops New Jersey Nets forum.

Nate Robinson in the doghouse

New York Knicks guard Nate Robinson is good at providing sparks and bursts of scoring, but also tends to show questionable decision-making. And although he recently unleashed a wild scoring display late in a game against the Orlando Magic, the tiny leaper is on coach Mike D’Antoni’s bad side.

Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News reports:

Donnie Walsh didn’t give Nate Robinson a $2 million raise to have him turn into a non-playing reserve, but the Knicks’ president has no problem with Robinson being demoted six weeks into the NBA season.

“Mike is in charge of that,” Walsh said Saturday, referring to coach Mike D’Antoni. “I’m supportive of whatever he does. I think it’s been difficult with this team to come up with a rotation. I think he’s given everybody time, so at some point he’s got to come up with a rotation to win with. If a guy’s not in it, he’s not in it.”

With Robinson losing his minutes to rookie Toney Douglas, largely because of his showboating and other on-court antics, the Knicks have split their last two games. Since that’s what passes for success these days at the Garden, D’Antoni is not about to change his rotation for today’s home game against the Nets.

This season, Robinson is averaging 10.9 points and 3.2 assists in 22.0 minutes per game. He’s shooting a decent 44.3 percent.

The Knicks face the Nets Sunday in New York.

Greg Oden injures left knee, needs surgery, likely out for season

Portland Trail Blazers center Greg Oden injured his left knee early in the first quarter Saturday night as his team hosted the visiting Houston Rockets.

Rockets point guard Aaron Brooks, dribbling from the left side of the court, drove at the basket and Oden jumped to contest the shot. The Blazers big-man came down clutching his left knee.

Oden stayed down on the court for quite a while and was eventually wheeled away on a stretcher.

Joe Freeman of the Oregonian reports (via blog):

Trail Blazers center Greg Oden fractured the patella in his left knee Saturday night against the Houston Rockets and will likely miss the rest of the season.

Oden collapsed to the floor and clutched his left knee, grimacing, with 7:45 remaining in the first quarter after he slid over to provide help defense on a drive by Rockets point guard Aaron Brooks. It did not appear that Brooks made contact with Oden’s left knee on the drive, but that Oden’s knee simply gave out as he planted to elevate.

Blazers trainers and doctors sprinted to Oden from the far side of the court and, after he lay for several minutes, brought out a stretcher and carted him away. Several teammates helped Oden onto the stretcher and offered words of encouragement just before Oden exited from a corridor near the Houston bench.

UPDATE: The AP reports:

Portland Trail Blazers center Greg Oden will likely miss the season after fracturing his left patella during a game against Houston on Saturday night.

Oden will undergo surgery, the Trail Blazers said.

UPDATE: The AP reports:

He was almost immediately surrounded by trainers and physicians. The crowd at the Rose Garden stood and chanted “Oden! Oden!”

The game was stopped for some 7 minutes. Finally, Oden was gently moved to a stretcher and wheeled from the court. He underwent an MRI shortly thereafter.

Read fan reaction and share your own opinion in this forum topic.

Nate McMillan injured in practice

Guard Nate McMillan suffered an injury in practice yesterday.

That would be a normal thing to read if McMillan was still playing in the NBA, but he’s the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers.

Jason Quick of the Oregonian reports:

Add coach Nate McMillan to the Trail Blazers’ injury list.

In another twist to an already strange season, McMillan on Friday ruptured his right Achilles tendon while he and assistant coach Monty Williams were filling in as practice players because the team didn’t have enough healthy bodies to play five-on-five.

McMillan will coach tonight’s home game against Houston, but will undergo surgery Monday and miss the Blazers’ four-game trip next week to New York, Indiana, Cleveland and Milwaukee. Lead assistant Dean Demopoulos will coach the team.

McMillan’s injury comes at an especially unsettled time for the Blazers (12-8), who have lost three in a row, all of them decisive defeats. His injury also continues a trend of injuries and sickness that has plagued the Blazers since last summer.

Kidding here: No word if the Blazers will now look to sign guard Clyde Drexler to fill in.

Have Blazers opinions? Share them on the InsideHoops Portland Trail Blazers forum.

Nets get first win of season

Friday night in New Jersey the Nets finally won their first game of the 2009-10 NBA regular season, beating the Charlotte Bobcats 97-91. It was the first game for new Nets interim head coach Kiki Vandeweghe.

The game was fairly close from start to finish, with the Bobcats leading by one point after the first quarter, by four at the half, and by one after three quarters. But the Nets stepped up big in the fourth and now have one win and 18 losses.

Nets center Brook Lopez (12-of-22) scored 31 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. Courtney Lee, starting at shooting guard, shot 11-of-16 (3-of-4 three-pointers) for 27 points, four rebounds and three steals. Point guard Devin Harris, still not completely healthy, shot just 2-of-14 but hit 11-of-13 free throws for 16 points and 8 assists.

As a team, New Jersey shot just 39.1%, but they fought hard and had 87 field goal attempts, while the Bobcats only took 73 shots.

Terrence Williams struggled off the New Jersey bench, shooting 2-of-12. But like his teammates, the rookie hustled hard all game.

Charlotte struggled with ball control with 18 turnovers. The Nets had just seven.

For the Bobcats, point guard Raymond Felton shot 11-of-14 (4-of-4 threes) for 28 points, five rebounds and four assists. Shooting guard Stephen Jackson shot 10-of-23 for 28 points. Gerald Wallace had an amazing stat-line: 13 points, 20 rebounds, five assists and two blocks. And starting center Tyson Chandler added 13 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks.

But, no one else on the Bobcats did much of anything. Boris Diaw was an awful 1-of-6 with six assists, and the Bobcats bench combined to shoot 2-of-13 for just five points and one assist between three reserves who got minutes.

The next Nets win may come sooner than it took to get their first. Sunday the team will visit New York to face the beatable Knicks. Tuesday, they head to Chicago where they’ll meet the inconsistent Bulls. On Wednesday, the Nets host the Golden State Warriors. And Friday, they head to Indiana to play the Pacers. It wouldn’t surprise InsideHoops.com to see the Nets win at least one of those games.

Read fan reaction and share your own opinion in this forum topic.