Month: April 2014

Trail Blazers now focused on playoff position

Here’s the Columbian reporting on the Portland Trail Blazers, who have clinched a spot in the NBA playoffs:

“I think everybody is excited about it, but we understand that these three games are really important for us,” said Damian Lillard when asked how things have changed since Portland clinched a playoff spot with Robin Lopez’s arm draped over his shoulders.

Lillard, Lopez, Wesley Matthews and Nicolas Batum did their media interviews in what was basically giant group-hug in Tualatin.

With a 2-game lead over Golden State for the fifth spot in the Western Conference playoffs, the Blazers would face Houston next. The Rockets are now all but cemented as the No. 4 seed.

Golden State, the team chasing the Blazers, comes to Portland on April 13 with a chance to win the season series tiebreaker should the two teams finish with the same record and pick up a game in the standings.

Lopez said on the Blazers’ mentality: “I think we really want to get these next two. If we win these two, then beat Golden State that puts us in pretty good position.”

Wolves beat Spurs in game originally scheduled to be played in Mexico City

The Minnesota Timberwolves aren’t going to make the NBA playoffs, but at least they got to enjoy a win over the league-leading San Antonio Spurs Tuesday night. Here’s the Minneapolis Star Tribune reporting:

Four months later, under far different circumstances, and in front of a relatively sparse crowd announced at 10,117, the game was finally played.

Tuesday’s game between the Timberwolves and San Antonio at Target Center was originally scheduled for Dec. 4 in Mexico City, an international experience that went sour when a malfunctioning generator filled the arena with smoke, sending both teams home early. So, all these weeks later?

“It was worth the wait,” Wolves coach Rick Adelman said.

Getting contributions from just about everywhere the Wolves put a 110-91 pasting on the Spurs.

Kevin Love and Gorgui Dieng each had double-doubles. From Love, that’s not news. But from Dieng it’s an emerging story that added a chapter Tuesday, when he got the better of Spurs star Tim Duncan (10 points on 4-for-11 shooting).

“I dreamed of playing against those guys,” said Dieng, who didn’t shoot the ball terribly well but scored 12 points and got 15 rebounds. “Tim Duncan, he’s going to be a Hall of Famer. A great player. When I got the chance I didn’t want to let it go. Because you never know when you’ll get a chance again.”

Dwyane Wade misses seventh game in a row as a precaution

Here’s the Miami Herald with an update on the Heat and D-Wade, whose main focus is to be healthy for the upcoming NBA playoffs, which start Saturday, April 19:

Dwyane Wade misses seventh game in a row as a precaution

Dwyane Wade is close to returning to the court, but was held out of his seventh game in a row on Tuesday as a precaution.

Wade, who injured his hamstring March 26 against Indiana, put in extra hours in the training room and on the court Monday and wanted to play against the Brooklyn Nets, but the Heat’s trainers and coach Erik Spoelstra remained cautious. Wade, who has missed 26 games this season, might return to the court Wednesday in Memphis, but remains doubtful.

“He really pushed it the last two days and came in this morning and really pushed it,” Spoelstra said. “He is making progress and making, actually, significant progress, but he’s just not quite there.

“We’re going to go into it day by day like we usually do. I like the progress he has made. It’s day-to-day.”

Tim Hardaway happy for Alonzo Mourning despite Hall of Fame snub

Here’s the Miami Herald reporting on some Heat legends:

Tim Hardaway happy for Alonzo Mourning despite Hall of Fame snub

Odds are Tim Hardaway is going to get into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame sooner rather than later.

But there’s no doubt the five-time All-Star point guard — now a 47-year-old scout with the Heat — is disappointed he’s not joining the Hall in Springfield, Mass., this August alongside his former teammate Alonzo Mourning.

“I can’t really tell you my initial feelings,” Hardaway said of the Hall of Fame selection process before Tuesday night’s game against the Nets. “But I’m glad Zo got the call and he’s going in. I’m going to be there for him.

“We should have went in together,” Hardaway continued. “But you know, what can I say? I don’t have any control over that. That’s the way it is. “

Hardaway, whose No. 10 is the only other Heat jersey retired and hung up alongside Mourning’s No. 33 inside AmericanAirlines Arena, was joined at the hip with the 6-10, seven-time All-Star center in 1996 by Pat Riley.

Kevin Durant says he does not care about NBA scoring streak

Here’s the Oklahoman reporting on Thunder star Kevin Durant, who is averaging 32.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 1.3 steals per game on 50.7% shooting this season. And he has an amazing scoring streak that just won’t stop:

Kevin Durant didn’t just downplay his 25-point scoring streak after moving past Michael Jordan for sole possession of third place on the all-time list.

He flat out dismissed it.

“I don’t really care about it,” Durant said after his 38 points and 11 rebounds Sunday at Phoenix. “I wish it was over.”

Durant has scored at least 25 points in 41 consecutive games. Wilt Chamberlain owns the single-season record at 80 games in the 1961-62 season. Oscar Robertson is second with 46 straight 25-point nights in the 1963-64 season.

Durant might wish the streak was over — if you’re buying that— but opponents could have a tougher time than you might think in stopping it.

Gregg Popovich wants increased playoff role for Kawhi Leonard

Here’s the San Antonio Express-News reporting on the Spurs and small forward Kawhi Leonard:

Gregg Popovich wants increased playoff role for Kawhi Leonard

It was a comment Spurs fans have been clamoring to hear since, oh, about five games into Kawhi Leonard’s rookie season. Gregg Popovich, speaking last Sunday before Leonard would enjoy perhaps the best game of his young career, is finally ready to unleash his third-year small forward.

“We want to up his minutes,” Popovich said. “He’s going to play more minutes (in the playoffs) than Tim Duncan does probably, more minutes than Manu Ginobili probably. This is his stretch run and he needs to be in shape for it. He’s never really been able to do this because it was a lockout season or we had to limit his minutes last year. This is the first time he’s been able to lay it out there.”

And did Leonard ever lay it out there against the Grizzlies, sinking 12 of 13 shots en route to a career-high-tying 26 points. He earned a game score — a kind of single-serve efficiency measure — of 24.7 at Basketball-Reference.com, the highest in any his 219 NBA contests including the postseason.