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Portland Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy underwent successful arthroscopic surgery today on his right knee to repair a partial tear of the meniscus, it was announced by General Manager Kevin Pritchard.
Roy, who will be sidelined for at least 1-2 weeks, will not travel with the team for the first two playoff games at Phoenix.
Dr. Don Roberts performed the knee arthroscopy this morning at Southwest Washington Medical Center in Vancouver, WA.
The Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant today were named the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Month presented by Kia Motors, respectively, for games played during April.
Rose was second in the Eastern Conference in scoring (25.4 ppg) and added 7.0 assists and 4.1 rebounds, leading the Bulls to a 6-2 record. On April 13, Rose recorded career highs in points (39) and blocks (three), to go along with seven assists and five rebounds, in a 101-93 win over Boston. Rose led the Bulls in scoring six times, including seven games of 20 or more, and averaged 30.6 points in Chicago’s final three games, all must wins for a playoff berth. On April 8, Rose tallied 24 points and 10 assists in Chicago’s 109-108 win over Cleveland.
Durant led the league in scoring (34.6 ppg) and added 7.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists 2.0 steals and 1.6 blocks. On April 3, Durant recorded 23 points, five assists, five rebounds and five steals, leading Oklahoma City to a win at Dallas and the team’s first playoff berth since 2005. Durant followed up that performance with 40 points, nine rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal in a win over Minnesota the following night. Durant, who became the youngest player ever to lead the NBA in scoring (30.1 ppg), had a streak of seven consecutive 30-point games to end the season.
Other nominees for Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Month presented by Kia Motors were Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki, Indiana’s Danny Granger and Orlando’s Dwight Howard.
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Portland Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy will undergo surgery on Friday to repair a partial meniscus tear in right knee, it was announced today by Trail Blazers General Manager Kevin Pritchard.
“This was not an easy decision to make,” said Roy. “But, if I’m going to be out there, I want to be contributing. If we’re fortunate enough to advance in the playoffs, having the surgery now gives me the best opportunity to help our team.”
Dr. Don Roberts will perform the knee arthroscopy on Friday morning at Southwest Washington Medical Center in Vancouver, WA. A timetable for Roy’s return will be set following surgery, but he’ll be sidelined for at least the first round series vs. the Phoenix Suns.
“This is a setback, but we’ve been overcoming injuries all season long,” said Pritchard. “This is about looking long-term and doing what’s best for Brandon.”
Roy left at the 5:45 mark of the second quarter of Sunday’s game at the Los Angeles Lakers after experiencing pain in his right knee.
The best-of-seven first-round series with the Suns tips off Sunday in Phoenix at 7:30 PM.
The AP reports:
Al Jefferson and Kevin Love are quality pieces of the foundation, as is Corey Brewer, who showed considerable improvement this year. But that’s not enough.
”We don’t have THE block,” president David Kahn said. ”That one block where you can build everything else around.”
They went 15-67, tying the 1991-92 Timberwolves for the worst record in franchise history. They lost 29 of their final 31 games of the season and played in front of sparse crowds that became more disillusioned as the year passed.
Now it’s time to find out if taking those lumps all season long was worth it.
”Now, it’s very hard to say we’re going to get that guy this summer, and I hope we can. … But somehow, some way over the next certain amount of time we’ve got to find our great player,” Kahn said.
Los Angeles Lakers head coach Phil Jackson has been fined $35,000 for publicly criticizing game officials, it was announced today by Stu Jackson, NBA Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations.
Jackson was fined for comments made to the media on April 13.
We’ll add more detail over the next hour. We are guessing this is in regard to Jackson saying that Kevin Durant gets lots of calls in his favor. This page will be updated shortly.
The Los Angeles Clippers today relieved Kim Hughes of his duties as interim head coach. The remaining members of the team’s coaching staff will remain in their current roles at this time.
“We appreciate Kim’s contributions during his time here especially over the last two and a half months,” stated Clippers’ President Andy Roeser. “But we also know that our responsibility is to do what is in the organization’s immediate best interests for its ability to move forward. This season was an overall disappointment and certainly fell short of both our expectations and what should rightly have been anticipated by our fans. We will move deliberately and productively to regain the successful competitive position we had all hoped for when this past season began.”
“We think our situation is extremely attractive, both from the standpoint of the talented and popular core of players who are already under contract, as well as the salary cap flexibility we have created for this summer,” Roeser continued. “Los Angeles is a great city, we have total support from our ownership, our facilities are state of the art and we are blessed with a tremendous fan base.”
A search for a new coach has already begun. There are no leading candidates. In order to maintain the ability to take advantage of the widest sample of available and quality coaches, there will be no stated completion timetable.
The AP reports:
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The Chicago Bulls clinched the NBA’s last unclaimed playoff spot on Wednesday night, as Derrick Rose scored 27 points and Joakim Noah added 21 points and 13 rebounds in a 98-89 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats.
Overcoming numerous injuries, internal strife, key trades and a horrible stretch early in the season, the Bulls closed the regular season with a three-game winning streak to beat out Toronto for the right to face Eastern Conference top seed Cleveland.
Needing a win or a Raptors loss to New York to get in, the Bulls quickly took it to the Bobcats, never trailing and leading by as many as 18 points.
Tyrus Thomas had 16 points and nine rebounds against his former team, while Gerald Wallace scored 15 points and Stephen Jackson 14 for the Bobcats, who had already locked up the seventh seed in the East and a first-round matchup with Orlando.
Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports:
David Stern was asked about the Bucks’ performance this season, in which they made the playoffs, the team’s financial state and the Bradley Center.
“I think that it certainly is up to the Bucks to fill up their arena before we spend a lot of time thinking about a new one,” Stern said. “It’s also fair to say that the powers that be in Milwaukee understand that the Bradley Center is reaching sort of the end . . . . It will soon be among the oldest non-renovated or replaced buildings in the NBA. But that’s not an immediate decision. That’s something people are working on and looking at there.”
The Bucks drew an average of 15,108 fans per game at the Bradley Center this season, 281 fans fewer per game than last season. The Bucks finished 24th in the league in attendance, the same ranking they had the previous season.
Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-news reports (via blog):
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Spurs guard George Hill tweaked his previously injured right ankle stepping on a camera man in the first quarter of tonight’s game at Dallas and will not return.
Hill, who missed four games this month with a strained ankle tendon, landed on the cameraman on the baseline after completing a layup with 7:14 to play in the quarter.
InsideHoops.com Says:
I’m actually surprised this doesn’t happen more often. Some of the camera and photographer areas near the basket are extremely crowded. There’s very little room for NBA players around the baseline near the basket support. Which is strange, because players are a tad more important than the guys who record or take photos of them.
Marc Berman of the New York Post reports:
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CC Sabathia told WFAN there’s a likelier chance of his friend LeBron James leaving for New York if Cleveland wins the NBA title.
Asked about James’ thought process, Sabathia told hosts Evan Roberts and Joe Benigno, “I think it depends on what happens this year in the playoffs and how they play, to see how close they get and if they win, how that weighs in his decision.
“I know he wants to go where he can win. I know he likes the idea of New York.”
Sabathia added, “I think if he won (a title), it would be easier for him to leave.”