December 2009 – Page 5 – NBA Blog

Allen Iverson has arthritis in left knee

In his five games since returning to the Philadelphia 76ers, guard Allen Iverson is averaging 15.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists in 34.4 minutes per game. He’s shooting 41.0% on the Sixers, a bit under his career 42.5% FG average.

But he’s getting up there in age and recently missed some games.

Tom Moore of Philly Burbs reports:

Allen Iverson is 34 years old.

While he doesn’t think that’s too old to still be a factor, he admits he really felt his age when an MRI last week showed that he has arthritis in his left knee. The injury forced him to miss the 7-20 Sixers’ last two games, including Friday’s victory in Boston, and will keep him out tonight in Washington and Saturday in Utah. He’s expected to return next Monday in Portland.

“That was the worst part about the whole thing,” he said with a laugh after Monday’s practice. “Y’all could’ve said anything but arthritis. That sounds so old, but it’s something I’ve got to deal with. At least the fans and everybody else concerned about me will know exactly what it is.”

Iverson said the reason he got arthritis in the knee, which had to be drained three times in a five-day span, was because he overcompensated for his sore right shin.

No word if Iverson will be walking with a cane and getting into playing bingo in his old age just yet.

Dwyane Wade shooting is off

Israel Gutierrez of the Miami Herald reports:

Everyone who has seen [Dwyane] Wade play more than once is trying to figure out why, exactly, a player in his prime with an improving team around him is having the worst shooting season of his life.

The scientists are coming from his own front office (that would be Riley) and national and local experts alike, all of them attempting to devise the perfect theory for the most unusual development in what has been an otherwise predictable season.

Everyone seemed to have settled on the conditioning theory, because it seems to make the most sense.

This season, Wade is not coming off an Olympic run, and he is not coming off a summer where he built his legs back up from scratch, and he is not playing with as much to prove as he did last season, when he led the league in scoring and was third in MVP voting.

Chase Budinger out 2-3 weeks with sprained ankle

The Houston Chronicle reports:

Rockets guard Chase Budinger on Sunday was ruled out for two to three weeks with a sprained right ankle, following an MRI. Budinger turned the ankle on a drive in the second quarter on Saturday.

Budinger is averaging 8.2 points and three rebounds, making 40.9 percent of his shots.

The Rockets are not expected to add a player to their open roster spot with Budinger out.

Lakers beat writers stranded in New York

A huge snowstorm struck the Northeast United States on Saturday, and as a result beat writers covering the Los Angeles Lakers were all unable to make it to Detroit for Sunday’s Lakers at Pistons game (6 p.m. ET start time).

Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register reports (via blog):

Phil Jackson has cited the drain of travel distance to road cities being one reason why it’d be harder for the Lakers ever to go 72-10 the way the center-of-the-country Chicago Bulls did.

Well, here’s a reminder that cold-weather teams such as Chicago (and everyone else in the Eastern Conference who has to go more regularly to cold-weather cities) have travel issues brought on by snow and ice that the warm-weather Lakers rarely encounter.

The Lakers made it from Newark, N.J., to Detroit (or more accurately, they flew into Pontiac, Mich., to be closer to the arena in Auburn Hills) in the wee hours of Sunday morning despite an incredible snowstorm that began Saturday and grounded pretty much all commercial planes in the Northeast. It wasn’t an easy feat, and the club had booked hotel rooms in Newark for the night with the expectation that their plane might not be able to get in the air amid the still-descending snow.

None of the writers who travel separately from the team plane will make it to cover the Lakers-Detroit game, which is pretty much a historic development. Personally, I’ve never not been able to get to the next city because of weather.

I assume the reporters will still write game articles today, but from hotel rooms for a change.

Jonathan Bender looks good in return to NBA

The New York Knicks recently signed forward Jonathan Bender, who had fallen out of the NBA due to injury problems and was not expected to be heard from again.

But in Bender’s first game as a Knick he looked like a perfectly solid backup, playing 14 minutes and finishing with nine points, two rebounds and an assist.

Marc Berman of the New York Post reports:

On his first possession, with the Clippers on a 16-0 run, Bender snaked in from the perimeter on a drive and made a nifty layup over Marcus Camby.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” said Walsh who, while with the Pacers, made a trade for Bender soon after he was drafted with the fifth overall pick by the Raptors out of high school as an 18-year-old. “After that I said, ‘OK, that’s what I remember.’ “On his next touch, Bender drilled a left-corner 3-pointer. He also made an emphatic block of a Baron Davis’ floater — the cleanest block by a Knick this season. And he committed a flagrant foul on Eric Gordon, battering him to the floor as Gordon drove for a layup. The tough display was a rarity for a Knicks big man.

Bender said that would not have been a flagrant foul four years ago.

“Definitely not,” Bender said. “When Gordon goes to the rack, he bumps into you. I just put my arm out.”

One game doesn’t mean much, but Bender does look like an NBA player again, and that’s a success story all by itself.

Nets struggles continues

Fred Kerber of the New York Post reports:

All the tortures of a season of misery returned for the Nets. There was the mandatory lousy shooting (.378), a requisite injury as Chris Douglas-Roberts sprained his right ankle with 4:47 left, and the near-obligatory loss, though one far easier to accept with the effort but a loss all the same, the Nets’ seventh straight.

“We have to try to find a way to bring it every night. It’s as simple as that. For whatever reason, we aren’t,” said Douglas-Roberts, (20 points), who went for X-rays (negative) and was able to walk afterwards, which he found encouraging. “We don’t have the luxury to turn it on and off.”

Especially against the likes of the Lakers, who got a big night from Kobe Bryant, celebrating his waiting-to-be-signed extension with 29 points, 10 rebounds and five assists amid chants of “MVP” from a storm-thwarted announced crowd of 17,190. Pau Gasol (whose own three-year deal should be done before Bryant’s) had a 14-point, 14-rebound double-double.

Celtics recall Lester Hudson from D-League

The Boston Celtics announced today that guard Lester Hudson has been recalled from the Maine Red Claws of the NBA Development League. Hudson appeared in three games for the Red Claws averaging 16.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game.

Hudson, a 6’3” guard, has appeared in 13 games for the Celtics this season and registered season-highs of six points and three assists against Philadelphia on November 3.

Matt Bonner breaks hand

Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News reports:

At some point late in the first quarter of Saturday’s Spurs-Pacers game at the AT&T Center, Matt Bonner broke the fourth metacarpal — the bone in the meaty part of the hand that leads to the ring finger — on his right hand.

X-rays taken at the arena showed a partial fracture, and the initial diagnosis does not appear to indicate a need for surgery to repair the bone. Bonner will be re-examined on Monday before a final timetable for his return is announced, but he is certain to miss a significant number of games. He is optimistic his hiatus will last no more than a month.

“It’s not broken all the way through, so it should heal itself in about four weeks,” he said. “That’s about it.”

Agent wants Nate Robinson free of Knicks

Agent wants Knicks to trade Nate Robinson

High-jumping New York Knicks guard Nate Robinson is an exciting player who can score, leap very high and make lots of questionable court decisions. The Knicks have played relatively well lately, and they’ve done so with Nate not getting off the bench.

But Robinson’s agent had had enough and wants a change.

Howard Beck of the New York Times reports:

Nate Robinson has been locked out of the Knicks’ rotation and pushed to the edge of irrelevancy. His future surely lies beyond New York, and his agent is now pushing to accelerate the process.

Aaron Goodwin, who has represented Robinson for his entire career, said it was time for the Knicks and Robinson to part ways.

“I want to do what I can to get Nate out of New York,” Goodwin said in a telephone interview Saturday afternoon. “There’s no reason to allow this kid’s career to get rotted by what’s going on here in New York.”

It is not yet clear whether Goodwin will seek a trade or a buyout of Robinson’s one-year, $4 million contract. He spoke briefly Saturday with the team president, Donnie Walsh, and the two agreed to discuss the issue again in a few days.

Marc Berman of the New York Post reports:

“I have asked the Knicks to move Nate,” Goodwin told The Post “At this point it’s personal. I don’t think Mike [D’Antoni] has [ever] done anything to show it’s basketball-related. I felt that way talking to Walsh during the Chicago game when they went 4-of-23 in the third quarter and the gentleman didn’t look for Nate to help out. They had a 39-point second half and for whatever reason he didn’t consider Nate.”

Robinson signed a one-year, $4 million contract days before training camp and the player needs to give his approval for a trade under CBA law because it was a one-year deal. If Robinson is traded to a team that makes the playoffs, he would get an additional $1 million bonus.

The Knicks want to keep their salary cap room for next season. It’s tough to see the Knicks trading Robinson. Better for them to keep his expiring contract around.

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

Carl Landry has teeth repaired

Rockets F Carl Landry was forced to leave last night’s game in Dallas at the 9:28 mark of the second quarter following a collision with Mavericks F Dirk Nowitzki which resulted in damage to five teeth.

Landry was treated this morning by Rockets team dentist Dr. Thomas O’Brien who performed a series of procedures including a root canal and two dental bridges to repair the damage.

Landry will not play tonight against the Oklahoma City Thunder and will be listed as day-to-day moving forward.

The 6-9, 248-pound power forward is having an excellent season for the Rockets, averaging 16.0 points and 5.9 rebounds in 25.9 minutes per game.