Month: March 2011

Bulls sign John Lucas III and Jannero Pargo

The Chicago Bulls announced today the team has signed free agent guards John Lucas III and Jannero Pargo.  In accordance with team policy, terms of the contracts were not announced.

Lucas III (5-11, 165) appeared in two games with Chicago earlier this season, and averaged 1.0 ppg and 0.5 apg in 5.0 mpg.

Pargo, a 6-1, 185-pound guard, joins the Bulls for his fourth stint having played for Chicago during the 2003-06, 2009-10 seasons.  A seven-year NBA veteran, Pargo played overseas in 2008-09, where he split time between the MBC Dynamo Moscow (Russian Super League) and Olympiacos B.C. (Greek League/Euroleague).

In 379 regular season contests in the NBA, Pargo has averaged 6.6 ppg, 2.0 apg and 1.5 rpg in 15.7 mpg.  A .349 career shooter from behind the arc, he also owns career shooting averages of .388 from the field and .861 from the line.  He has played in 35 playoff games, and posted postseason averages of 6.2 ppg, 1.6 apg, 1.4 rpg, 14.2 mpg, .370 from the field, .371 from behind the arc and .711 from the line.

Chicago’s roster now stands at 15 players.

Nets sign Sundiata Gaines to multi-year contract

The New Jersey Nets have signed guard Sundiata Gaines to a multi-year contract, Nets General Manager Billy King announced today.  Per team policy, terms of the contract were not released.

The 24-year old from the University of Georgia signed the first of two consecutive 10-day contracts with the Nets on February 28, 2011.  He has appeared in seven games for the Nets, averaging 5.0 points and 2.9 assists in 14.6 minutes per game.  In 21 games with New Jersey, Toronto and Minnesota this season, he has averaged 4.3 points and 1.8 assists in 12.2 minutes per contest.

Over 53 career NBA games, including 32 appearances with Utah in 2009-10, Gaines has averaged 3.7 points and 1.4 assists in 8.9 minutes while shooting .427 (73-171) from the field.

Man with knife arrested on Staples Center court

The AP reports:

Police engaged in a roughly 20-minute standoff Saturday with a knife-wielding man on the floor of Los Angeles’ Staples Center, where the Los Angeles Clippers and Cleveland Cavaliers were set to play later in the day.

Police tackled and apprehended the man after the face-off on the court near the visitors’ bench area.

Some spectators for the 12:30 p.m. game had begun filing into the arena, but were evacuated once the standoff started.

The Press Enterprise blog reports:

During that time, Staples Center was essentially in a lockdown. A few players — as well as the Clippers’ dance team — were on the court when the incident began but were quickly removed. Those in the building’s backstage area confined to wherever they were as the incident began. For most of the players on both teams — save for the later-arriving Cavaliers players, who were unable to get in — that meant being held in their locker rooms, or the section of hallway in front of them.

For a time, players on both teams, as well as various other personnel, crowded around one of the small monitors used by a broadcast crew, watching a live feed of the incident from the court, wondering how the standoff would be resolved.

Jameer Nelson buzzer-beater helps Magic top Nuggets

The AP reports:

Jameer Nelson

Jameer Nelson
38.5% 3FG

Jameer Nelson swished a 3-pointer from the top of the key at the buzzer to give the Orlando Magic a dramatic 85-82 win over the Denver Nuggets on Friday night.

The Magic led most of the final period, but struggled at the line and let the Nuggets tie the game with 5.7 seconds to play.

Dwight Howard led five Magic players in double figures with 16 points and 18 rebounds. Hedo Turkoglu had 15 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, while Nelson, Brandon Bass and Jason Richardson all added 13 points.

Wilson Chandler scored 20 points, Danilo Gallinari added 17 and Nene 14 for the Nuggets, who had a four-game winning streak snapped and lost for the 17th time in their last 18 trips to Orlando.

Pacers beat red-hot Bulls

The AP reports:

Tyler Hansbrough

tyler hansbrough
Not lousy

Tyler Hansbrough had 29 points and 12 rebounds to help the Indiana Pacers beat Chicago 115-108 in overtime on Friday night, snapping the Bulls’ eight-game winning streak.

Danny Granger scored 19 points and Darren Collison added 17 for the Pacers, who have won three of four.

Derrick Rose tied a career high with 42 points for the Bulls. He scored 19 in the fourth quarter and made three free throws with 1.2 seconds left to force overtime. Luol Deng added 21 points for the Bulls.

Chicago entered the game with the best record in the Eastern Conference, and could have been the first team in the East to win 50 games.

Chicago forward Carlos Boozer missed his fifth straight game with an injured left ankle.

Jazz will not re-sign Marcus Cousin

Utah Jazz general manager Kevin O’Connor announced today that the team has elected not to re-sign center Marcus Cousin (pronounced koo-ZAHN) to a second 10-day contract.  Following the transaction, the Jazz roster now stands at 14 players.

Cousin was originally signed to a 10-day contract on March 9 and appeared in four games for the Jazz (all as a reserve), averaging 1.0 point and 0.8 rebounds in 4.5 minutes per game.  He registered four points, two rebounds and a block in 13 minutes of action at Minnesota on March 11.

Cousin (6-11, 255, Houston) was averaging 14.7 points, 8.6 rebounds and 1.16 blocks through 38 games (all starts) for the NBA Development League’s Austin Toros at the time he was signed by the Jazz.  He became the NBA’s 14th D-League Call-Up and 12th different player promoted to the NBA this season.  He was also the sixth D-League Call-Up in Jazz history, joining Rusty LaRue (2000-01), Mikki Moore (2003-04), Louis Amundson (2006-07), Sundiata Gaines (2010-11) and Othyus Jeffers (2010-11).

Heat need a healthy Udonis Haslem

Tom Haberstroh of ESPN reports:

Udonis Haslem

udonis haslem
Rocks cornrows

Haslem may not be a center, but he usually replaced one when he was healthy. His inside presence allows the Heat to go “small” with him at the four and Bosh at the five. In fact, three of the four most frequent lineups with Haslem on the floor feature Bosh at center. And it’s incredibly effective. The score with those “small” lineups? Heat 203, Opponents 166.

The Heat don’t just suffer on the boards without Haslem. Offensively, the Heat’s floor spacing becomes congested around the rim with the Heat’s big men. On Wednesday night, the Thunder bigs routinely cheated off of Howard, Dampier, Anthony and Jamaal Magloire in the paint without consequence. For a team that depends on open lanes for Wade and LeBron to penetrate, the offensive deficiencies of the Heat big men become exponentially troublesome. It’s no longer a game of five-on-five.

Armed with a silky jumper, Haslem can hit shots inside and out. His presence can help stabilize the Heat’s offense and unclog the paint for his attack-minded teammates.

This is all to say that Haslem offers a specific skill set the Heat woefully lack: a hard-nosed rebounder who commands the attention of opposing defenses. No one else on the Heat roster fills that essential role. On Wednesday against the Thunder, Haslem’s absence was profoundly felt by the Heat’s thin frontline.

Garnett says Rondo is playing hurt

Chris Forsberg of ESPN.com reports:

“Rondo’s playing hurt,” said Kevin Garnett [about Celtics teammate Rajon Rondo]. “He’s giving us everything he has and he’s grinding. I think the nights where he’s playing countless minutes for us, and he’s not playing washed up guys. He’s playing [Indiana’s Darren Collison] and [New Jersey’s Deron Williams] and all these guys and they’re coming at him. He knows that, so he’s just a little focused in. But everybody’s banged up at this point and [Rondo] is no different from that.”

Doc Rivers suggested before Wednesday’s game that Rondo was “just not playing well,” and said he’d work his way out of it. Rivers has praised Rondo’s play in recent games — despite stat lines that are less eye-catching than we’ve been accustomed to this season — and, while making his weekly appearance on Boston sports radio WEEI (850 AM) reiterated that there’s no mystery ailment here.