March 2013 – Page 17 – NBA Blog

Bobcats sign Jannero Pargo to 10-day contract

Charlotte Bobcats President of Basketball Operations Rod Higgins announced today that the team has signed guard Jannero Pargo to a 10-day contract.

The 6-1 Pargo is in his ninth NBA season and has career averages of 6.4 points, 2.0 assists and 1.5 rebounds in 443 games played with the Lakers, Raptors, Bulls, Hornets, Hawks and Wizards. For his career, Pargo has shot .388 from the field (1104-2845), .350 from beyond the three-point line (338-966) and .867 from the free-throw line (301-347). He has also seen action in 40 playoff games, averaging 5.8 points, 1.5 assists and 1.4 rebounds in the postseason.

Pargo has played in 14 total games this season, seven each with the Wizards and Hawks, with overall averages of 4.0 points and 2.4 assists in 15.4 minutes.

Pargo will wear No. 5.

The Bobcats roster stands at 15 players.

Kobe Bryant out indefinitely after spraining left ankle

Kobe Bryant has been playing some of his best basketball since the All-Star break, almost single-handedly pushing the Los Angeles Lakers into the playoff race.

Now he’s facing what may be his toughest opponent of the season.

Bryant is out indefinitely with what he calls the worst sprained ankle of his 16-year career, crumpling to the court with 3 seconds remaining after missing a game-tying shot in a 96-92 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night.

While X-rays were negative, the Lakers sounded pessimistic about Bryant’s chances of playing anytime soon, an especially tough blow with just 16 games left in the regular season and Los Angeles clinging to a half-game lead over Utah for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Bryant tweeted Thursday morning that he was undergoing treatment on his ailing left ankle while watching movie after movie.

”Compression. Ice. Django. Zero Dark Thirty. This is Forty and 1 hour of sleep,” he wrote. ”On to the next.”

— Reported by Paul Newberry of the Associated Press

Balanced Rockets beat Suns by 30 points

A night of reminders from Houston’s recent past ended with a big win for the Rockets.

Donatas Motiejunas scored a career-high 19 points to lead five Houston starters in double figures and the Rockets routed the Phoenix Suns 111-81 on Wednesday night.

James Harden scored 18 and Omer Asik had 14 for the Rockets, who stayed in the No. 7 spot in the Western Conference standings.

Luis Scola had four points and four rebounds for Phoenix in his first game in Houston since the Rockets designated him as their amnesty cut last summer. And point guard Aaron Brooks got his first action since returning to the Rockets after Sacramento waived him on March 1.

”He took some of my little cheers, man,” Brooks said. ”I wish he could’ve come back another time.”

Goran Dragic, another former Rocket, had 11 points and four assists for the Suns. Dragic signed a four-year, $30 million contract with Phoenix in the offseason after averaging 11.7 points and 5.3 assists in 66 games for Houston in 2011-12.

— Reported by Chris Duncan of the Associated Press

Garnett, Pierce reach milestones in Celtics win over Raptors

Kevin Garnett received his standing ovation in the second quarter, then joined Boston’s fans when they returned to their feet for Paul Pierce.

Garnett and Pierce added to their growing list of accomplishments with significant moves up the list of NBA career scoring leaders Wednesday in the Celtics’ 112-88 rout of the Toronto Raptors.

Garnett passed Jerry West for 15th all-time and Pierce joined him in the top 20 scorers in league history when he passed Charles Barkley for No. 20.

”The joke around here is that every two days or something we’re making history,” Garnett said. ”It’s not a bad joke to be a part of.”

Not at all.

Garnett needed four points to pass West (25,192 points) and finished with 12. Pierce finished with 15 points after entering the game nine points shy of tying Barkley (23,757) for 20th.

Garnett hit a bank shot with 10:03 left in the second quarter and received a standing ovation when his milestone was announced during a stoppage a few minutes later. Boston fans rose again in the third to recognize Pierce, who responded with a salute back to the crowd.

— Reported by the Associated Press

Kobe Bryant injures ankle in Lakers loss to Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks were mired in a slump. They were missing two key starters. And they were facing Kobe Bryant and the streaking Los Angeles Lakers.

Talk about an unlikely time to get a win.

Devin Harris scored 17 points, Ivan Johnson hit a key basket, and the short-handed Hawks shook off a 20-point third quarter by Bryant for a 96-92 victory Wednesday night, a physical game that was marred in the closing seconds when Bryant went down with a severely sprained left ankle after missing a game-tying shot.

The Lakers said Bryant is out indefinitely, just as the team is pushing for a playoff spot.

”I’ll just do what I have to do” to get back, he said.

Atlanta won for just the second time in eight games despite missing Josh Smith and Jeff Teague. Six players scored in double figures and everyone contributed to the victory, at least everyone who suited up.

”That’s the way we have to play,” said Kyle Korver, who hit the clinching free throws. ”When we’re missing guys, we can’t just say, ‘You’re the next-best guy on the team, you take all the shots.’ That’s a recipe for disaster.”

Bryant took a lot of shots for the Lakers – 33 in all – but he couldn’t knock down the one that mattered.

Then he couldn’t get up…

Bryant finished with 31 points, but made just 11 of those 33 shots.

— Reported by Paul Newberry of the Associated Press

Roy Hibbert scores 27 in Pacers win over Timberwolves

Roy Hibbert knew he was going to get the ball. It was just up to him what he was going to do with it.

It’s been a slow process for the Indiana Pacers’ center to playing up to expectations – a process that has stretch over the course of much of the season.

However, when teammate Paul George told him before the game he was getting the ball, Hibbert capitalized by scoring a season-high 27 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Pacers to a 107-91 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night…

Hibbert is just a piece of the puzzle and starting to fit in place quite comfortably. Along with the season-best scoring night, had nine offensive boards and four blocks.

”Roy Hibbert was the star of the game,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. ”He was dominant at both ends. You can see in his body language he is playing more confident.”

George had 17 points and George Hill added 16 points with six assists to help the Pacers get their second win in three games and remain in the hunt with the New York Knicks for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Ricky Rubio had 21 points and 10 assists and Luke Ridnour scored 17 points for the Timberwolves, who have lost nine of their last 11 games.

— Reported by Jim Johnson of the Associated Press

John Wall shines in Wizards win over Bucks

Washington Wizards point guard John Wall and coach Randy Wittman got in each other’s faces. Then, after Wittman momentarily walked away, they got in each other’s faces again.

Whatever was said during that third-quarter timeout Wednesday night worked.

Wall had 23 points and 10 assists, and the Wizards beat the Milwaukee Bucks 106-93.

The exchange came as Washington was blowing a 20-point, second-half lead, but Wall rallied with eight fourth-quarter points to hold off the Bucks.

“Oh, that’s coaching. C’mon,” Wittman said emphatically. “I love that.”

Wall said the dispute centered around how the Wizards defended Ersan Ilyasova who finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds.

“Just us being both competitive and being on different pages,” Wall said. “But we talked about it, and we did a great job in the fourth quarter of keeping Ilyasova from getting hot.”

As Martell Webster said of Wall, “He is a competitor, and he feels like he has to be Superman.”-
– Reported by the Associated Press

Heat beat Sixers for 20th straight win

LeBron James missed once, then again, whiffing on two easy looks at the rim that could have left Miami shaken.

Like a good teammate, Dwyane Wade swooped in for the saving tip, preserving the lead and keeping the Heat’s amazing win streak rolling.

James scored 27 points and the Heat became the fourth team to win at least 20 consecutive games in a season, beating the Philadelphia 76ers 98-94 on Wednesday night.

Against a struggling Sixers team that was revved up like a playoff game, the Heat just found a way to win.

And when it was done, they took the time to admire their mark.

”Twenty is special,” Wade said. ”Win 20 games in a row, it’s awesome. You can’t get around it. We’re going to try to go for the next one.”

Wade scored 21 as the Heat needed big baskets over the final 2 minutes to top the Sixers for the milestone win. He stuck with the ball on James’ misses and scored the clutch tip that made it a three-point lead with 29 seconds left and squashed the Sixers’ upset bid.

— Reported by Dan Gelston of the Associated Press

Kevin Love remains weeks away from returning for Wolves

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love had his surgically repaired right hand examined on Wednesday and was given the green light to increase his conditioning program.

But the two-time All-Star was not cleared to begin full-contact drills, according to the Pioneer Press. Love will be re-evaluated in two to three weeks.

Dr. Michelle Carlson, performed the surgery on Love’s hand on Jan. 15 in New York.

— Reported by the Sports Xchange

Sam Mitchell once banned Andrea Bargnani from shooting 3-pointers

Mitchell, who coached Toronto from 2004 through 2008, said he set aside one 10-game stretch where he forbade Bargnani from taking a three-point shot. He said he went so far as to tell the young Italian he would remove him from the game if he stopped to shoot from beyond the arc.

“My thing was, I wanted him to understand he used the three-pointer as a crutch,” he said. “He relied on it too much. I wanted him to use the three-pointer as a weapon. I wanted him to realize that, from 17 feet in, in one dribble, Andrea could get anywhere on the basketball court.”

Mitchell, who has spoken of management’s interference before, would not go into the specifics of what upper management told him. He would not offer names.

“Maybe, looking back, if I ever coach again and I want to do something like that, I’ll sit down with the general manager first and say, ‘this is what I want to do, this is why I’m going to do it, and after these 10 games, I’m going to turn him loose,’” he said.

— Reported by Sean Fitz-Gerald of the National Post