April 2010 – Page 19 – NBA Blog

Raptors sign Joey Dorsey

The Toronto Raptors announced Sunday they have signed free agent forward-centre Joey Dorsey for the remainder of the season. Per team policy, financial details were not disclosed.

Dorsey, 26, was selected 33rd overall by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2008 NBA Draft. Following the Draft, he was traded to the Houston Rockets in exchange for the draft rights to the 25th pick, Nicolas Batum. In 18 career games with Houston and Sacramento, the Baltimore native averaged 1.3 points, 2.4 rebounds and 6.3 minutes. As a member of the Kings, he grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds February 5 at Memphis.

Dorsey has spent parts of two seasons with the Houston Rockets’ NBA D-League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. He averaged 14.9 points, 13.3 rebounds and 31.6 minutes in 16 games (all starts) this season. During the 2008-09 campaign, Dorsey appeared in seven games, starting five, and averaged 9.7 points, 9.0 rebounds and 29.4 minutes.

A two-time Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year in his junior and senior seasons, Dorsey averaged 6.7 points, 8.1 rebounds and 21.7 minutes in 149 career games at the University of Memphis. He finished his collegiate career as the school’s second all-time rebounder (1,209) and all-time leader in C-USA history.

The Raptors face the Golden State Warriors on Sunday at Air Canada Centre. Tip-off is at 6 p.m. (TSN/FAN 590).g

Celtics recall Marcus Landry from D-League

The Boston Celtics announced today that forward Marcus Landry has been recalled from the Maine Red Claws of the NBA Development League. Landry appeared in 13 games for the Red Claws and posted averages of 11.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 24.9 minutes per game.

The 47-28 Celtics are currently 4th in the Eastern conference, behind the no.3 Atlanta Hawks and ahead of the no.5 Miami Heat.

Jrue Holiday a bright spot for Sixers

Tom Moore of the Burlington County Times reports:

Jrue Holiday is the best – only? – good thing to come out of the Sixers’ disappointing 2009-10 season.

Despite being the youngest player in the league, Holiday is showing he can defend, run the offense and even score in this league. The more he plays, the better he gets.

Holiday had a season-high 25 points Saturday on 10-for-12 shooting, hitting a 3-pointer with 58.9 seconds left in regulation and another with 3:44 to go in overtime, in a 128-123 home loss to the Raptors.

While Holiday looks like a core player for years to come, the Sixers should still take Kentucky point guard John Wall if they’re fortunate enough to land the No. 1 overall pick in the May 18 draft lottery.

Heat plane diverted to Chicago

Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports:

The Miami Heat’s three-game road trip added one more city to the itinerary early Sunday morning, when the team plane was diverted to Chicago after a member of the flight crew became ill.

Team trainers tended crew member who lapsed into what appeared to be a diabetic coma. He then was transported to a hospital there before the flight from Saturday night’s 97-84 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves resumed.

The team charter plane eventually landed in Miami at 5:04 a.m., roughly an hour behind schedule.

Michael Wallace of the Miami Herald reports:

Heat guard Dwyane Wade sent out a message through his Twitter account at 1:27 a.m., asking for his followers to pray for the mechanic.

“Hey everyone pray for our pilot,” Wade wrote on Twitter. “We just had a emergency landing in Chicago. He went into a coma. God bless this man and his family.”

A Heat spokesman confirmed that the team’s plane landed about 1:30 a.m., about 90 minutes after its 11 p.m. scheduled departure from Minnesota. The team was waiting at the O’Hare airport as the mechanic was taken to a hospital. The team resumed its flight to Miami at 2:27 am.

Nets win 4th time in 6 games, beat Hornets

The AP reports:

Rookie Terrence Williams is finally figuring out how to play in the NBA, and so are the New Jersey Nets to be honest.

Williams had 14 points and a career-high 14 assists and the Nets posted their biggest win of the season with a 115-87 decision over the slumping New Orleans Hornets on Saturday night.

“Terrence was terrific,” Nets interim coach Kiki Vandeweghe said.

Unstoppable might have been a better word because the Hornets had no answer for Williams, who was 7 of 13 from the field and was the undeniable catalyst as the Nets (11-65) won for the fourth time in six games…

David West, who had 25 points, seven rebounds and six assists to lead New Orleans, noticed Williams in the game in which the Hornets allowed 40 fast-break points.

InsideHoops.com Notes:

Obviously it’s a bit late in the season for the Nets to come somewhat alive, but better late than never.

Williams has had a slightly better season than some may realize, only shooting 39.5% from the field for 7.9 points and a well-balanced 4.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 21.6 minutes per game.

In his last five games, Williams has averaged 15.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 7.2 assists.

The Nets yesterday beat a Hornets team that looked to have very little interest in competing, but still, T-Will’s improved play as of late is a rare New Jersey bright spot.

Andrew Bogut breaks hand, injures arm

Milwaukee Bucks General Manager John Hammond announced the following information on center Andrew Bogut:

“After falling hard to the floor after a dunk in the second period of the Bucks win over Phoenix, Andrew was examined at the Bradley Center by team orthopaedic physician Dr. Michael Gordon and then taken to Aurora Sinai Medical Center by ambulance for more tests.

“Further testing and imaging at Aurora Sinai showed that Andrew sustained a dislocated right elbow, a sprained right wrist and a broken right hand. He was released from the hospital and no timetable has been determined for his return.”

In 69 games this season, Bogut is averaging career-highs in points (15.9) and blocked shots (2.5), while adding 10.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. He ranks 2nd in the NBA in blocked shots, 9th in rebounds and 17th in field goal percentage (.520). Bogut’s 175 blocked shots to date are the most for any Bucks player since Alton Lister had 177 in 1982-83, giving him the sixth highest single-season total in franchise history. Bogut and Dwight Howard are the only players in the NBA averaging at least 15.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game.

The AP reports:

With Milwaukee leading late in the second quarter, Bogut took a long outlet pass in for a fast break slam dunk. He hung on the rim afterward, was touched in the back by the Suns’ Amare Stoudemire and crashed to the court. He wrenched his right elbow in ugly fashion trying to brace his fall.

Bogut appeared to be in serious pain, briefly writhing on the floor before being helped to his feet by the team’s medical staff. Hunched over and clutching his arm, he ran down the tunnel toward the locker room.

Video clip of injury and fan discussion is in this forum topic.

Rajon Rondo beats Bob Cousy single-season assists total

Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald reports:

Rajon Rondo collected his third franchise record of the season last night, smashing Bob Cousy’s single-season assists mark with his first two in the Celtics’ 119-114 overtime loss to the Rockets.

Rondo, thanks to a 10-assist, 21-point, five-steal, five-rebound performance, now has 724 assists with seven games left. Cousy’s mark of 715 had stood since the 1959-60 season.

Over the last month Rondo also became the only Celtic to hit the 650-assist mark in two different seasons, and also set the single-season steals record.

Kendrick Perkins said the Big Three is clearly “passing the torch” to the young point guard.

David Lee has first 30-20-10 game since Kareem in 1976

Marc Berman on the New York Post blog reports:

In another disgraceful Knick loss at the tail end of another disgraceful season, David Lee did something no NBA player has done since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1976.

Lee posted his first career triple-double in racking up 37 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists, though the defense-less Knicks were pummeled by Golden State, 128-117, tonight at Oracle Arena.

Lee registered the first 30-point, 20-rebound, 10-assist game since Jabbar went for 35-20-12 – also against Golden State, 34 years ago.

And yet the Knicks were barely in contention, falling behind by 20 points in the first half. Lee played 45:47, obviously kept in the game late to post his triple-double. It was emptier than an Easter Egg basket on Monday.

Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reports:

This is why stats are sometimes overrated. David Lee notched his first career triple-double as the Knicks lost, 128-117, to the hapless and undermanned Golden State Warriors Friday night. Lee finished with a career-high 37 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists in 46 minutes as the Knicks fell to 26-49. Danilo Gallinari added 29 points, while Anthony Morrow, who was the best player on the floor, scored 35 off the bench for Golden State.

The Warriors’ starting lineup consisted of Reggie Williams, Corey Maggette, Ronny Turiaf, C.J. Watson and Stephen Curry, who had 15 points and 10 assists. The Warriors (22-53) shot 57%.

Josh Dubow of the Canadian Press reports:

“It’s about getting wins, even at this juncture of the season when we know we’re not making the playoffs,” Lee said. “It’s disappointing we couldn’t get one. That’s two high-powered offensive teams tonight that aren’t the two best defensive teams in the league by any stretch of the imagination, so it’s a difficult loss for us. We need to find a way to win one in L.A. to salvage this road trip.”

Knicks sign Earl Barron to 10-day contract

The New York Knickerbockers President of Basketball Operations Donnie Walsh announced today that free agent center Earl Barron has been signed to a 10-day contract. As per club policy, terms of the deal will not be disclosed. Barron, a member of the Iowa Energy, became the 33rd call-up of the 2009-10 NBA Development League season.

Barron, 7-0, 250-pounds, averaged 16.2 points and 10.2 rebounds over 31.7 minutes in 47 games with Iowa this season. He spent the last two seasons in the D-League after appearing in 82 games with the Miami Heat from 2005-08. He averaged 4.9 points and three rebounds in 82 games (15 starts) with Miami. In 2007-08, he averaged 7.1 points and 4.3 rebounds over 19.3 minutes over 46 games (15 starts). He signed with Miami on Aug. 8, 2005, after going undrafted out of the University of Memphis.

The Knicks roster stands at 15 players.

Rumors talk: KG mouthing off

Regarding Garnett being fined by the league for mouthing off, the entire Celtics team seemed angry at how many fouls Kevin Durant managed to draw. The next obvious step for NBA observers is to see how true that is. The next Thunder game you catch, see if Durant earns the fouls he gets or not. And report on it, on the InsideHoops.com message board.

Kobe Bryant signed a 3-year extension with the Lakers today. No one should be too shocked. It wasn’t out there that this was going to happen, but in general it’s assumed that Bryant would keep re-signing. And now he has.

In equally huge news, according to multiple media outlets the Knicks will sign center Earl Barron to a 10-day contract. There could be another 10-day deal or two signed in the next 48 hours.

The NBA regular season ends on Wednesday, April 14. The playoffs start three days later.

While it’s true that the Warriors are good at finding D-League talent, it’ll be more interesting to see which of those players stick around in the league and become rotation players on good teams. Because everyone who joins the Warriors usually scores 30 on some wild night, but the team loses by 19, and the player is gone a few weeks, months or a season later.

I think Darko Milicic bulked up too much, over the years. I’d like to see him drop 20 or 25 pounds and be handed the rock regularly down around the low post, and see what he can do.

The Wolves should draft 29 more point guards. And then urge Ricky Rubio to come over. Yeah.

Rooting for Tracy McGrady to become an All-Star type player again is fun and all, but there’s no reason to think it’ll happen.

ESPN has about 49 LeBron James stories today. Rather than give you my take on them, I’ll simply share the bottom line on LeBron in general. Here goes:

LeBron is great. The Cavs are a very good team. He’s very comfortable in Cleveland. Chances are he stays there. And if he did come to the Knicks I think it would only be if he convinces some other top superstar to come with him.

Everything went wrong for the Pistons this season. Pretty much every player other than a rookie and maybe one other were disappointing. Other than that, everything went great!

If Monta Ellis feels he still doesn’t get full respect, he needs to win more games. It’s probably that simple.

I’m back to updating this every day. Talk to you Saturday.

This feature is an editorialized take on the day’s hot NBA rumors stories.