Month: April 2014

Rockets guard Patrick Beverley hurts knee

Here’s the Oregonian reporting on the Trail Blazers:

Rockets guard Patrick Beverley hurts right knee

After suffering an overtime home loss in Game 1 of their first-round series against Portland, the Houston Rockets got more bad news.

Their starting point guard, Patrick Beverley, suffered a sprained right knee when he was hit by LaMarcus Aldridge on an attempted screen, the team announced after the game.

Beverley will have a magnetic resonance imaging taken on the knee Monday. It was the same knee on which Beverley suffered a meniscus tear in March. The injury had been serious enough that there was talk that it might require season-ending surgery, but he instead missed eight games before returning for the final four games of the regular season.

Wizards set to battle Bulls in first round

Here’s the Chicago Sun-Times reporting on the Wizards, who are set to face the Bulls in the first round of the NBA playoffs:

It’s a nice badge to carry into the playoffs: The team no one wants to play.

It even has a tinge of intimidation to it, that is, if the Bulls were actually facing a team that was susceptible to intimidation.

But they aren’t.

The Washington Wizards have little to lose, especially when all they’ve been hearing is they’re destined for elimination by next week.

“Why would they pick us?’’ Wizards center Marcin Gortat told the Washington Post on Friday when asked about all the predictions from the so-called experts favoring the Bulls. “First of all, Chicago is an experienced team. They have a lot of good players every year. The pressure is on them. I don’t understand why we should be mad. This is a good team, and we’ve just got to beat them. We’ve got to focus on our team.’’

Mike Beasley inactive for Heat in playoff opener

Here’s the South Florida Sun Sentinel reporting on the Heat:

Mike Beasley inactive for Heat in playoff opener

Michael Beasley was designated as inactive for the Miami Heat’s playoff opener Sunday against the Charlotte Bobcats at AmericanAirlines Arena.

Beasley sprained an ankle during Wednesday’s regular-season finale against the Philadelphia 76ers. Coach Erik Spoelstra said Beasley got in a workout Sunday and is closer to a return.

“Michael is still getting healthy from that ankle,” Spoelstra said. “He didn’t really progress the last couple of days the way that we had hoped. He was able to get a better workout today than he was the last couple of days.”

Dorell Wright says Blazers have that hunger

Here’s the Oregonian reporting on the Trail Blazers, who are set to face the Rockets tonight for Game 1 in their first round playoff series:

Dorell Wright says Blazers have that hunger

After slipping on his sneakers and lacing them up, Dorell Wright rose from the chair in front of his locker and surveyed the scene around the Trail Blazers’ locker room.

They had just defeated the Los Angeles Clippers, 110-104, in the final game of the regular season, winning for the ninth time in 10 games, and Wright had a knowing feeling. He had been in this situation before and he sensed something familiar, something exciting, in the room.

“There’s a hunger in here,” Wright said. “A lot of hungry guys.”

So hungry, in fact, it reminded Wright of his second NBA season, when he was a wide-eyed teenager along for the ride as the Miami Heat won a championship.

“When I played on that championship team, there was a lot of older hungry guys,” Wright said. “Guys that had been playing for so long and never got that opportunity. We’ve got the pieces in here to be special. And we’ve got guys that are hungry. When you’ve got guys that are hungry and willing to do anything to win and sacrifice their games, it’s a good feeling.”

Paul Pierce plays well in Nets-Raptors Game 1

Here’s the New York Daily News reporting on on Nets forward Paul Pierce:

Paul Pierce plays well in Nets-Raptors Game 1

Dubbed a “Dinosaur” on the front page of the local Toronto paper because of his age, the 36-year-old Pierce buried the Raptors in Game 1 of the opening round, scoring nine of his 15 points in the final three minutes of a wild 94-87 victory that started with a profane insult from Toronto’s GM and ended with a broken shot clock.

“Truth-asaurus Rex 1, Raptors 0,” Pierce retweeted from his account not long after the game.

An acrimonious tone was set when Raptors GM Masai Ujiri shouted “F— Brooklyn!” at a fan rally outside the arena before the game, drawing cheers from the assembled thousands. But by the time Pierce walked off the floor, the Nets, seeded sixth, had snatched home-court advantage from the inexperienced and combustible No. 3 Raptors, flexing their experience and $102 million payroll.

“You see, as a home-court team should do, (the Raptors) relied on their crowd, relied on their home-court advantage,” said Shaun Livingston. “So to come in and take that away from them in Game 1, it’s big for us.”

Another LeBron James vs Michael Jordan mention

Here’s the Miami Herald reporting on the LeBron James and the Heat, who tomorrow begin their first-round playoff series against the Charlotte Bobcats, who are owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan:

James has two NBA championships. Jordan won six. James has four NBA MVPs. Jordan earned five. James is a better athlete. Jordan is a tough competitor. James likes to ride bikes in his free time. Jordan is a golfer. And it goes on from there.

Everyone has an opinion. Even the President of the United States has weighed in on the topic.

Sure, Barack Obama once said James held the world in the palm of his hand, but, given a choice, he probably would pick Jordan to strip that sphere in the open court and glide in for a tongue-wagging breakaway dunk.

“I’m a Chicago guy, and Mike will always be the guy for me,” Obama said in an interview with Charles Barkley in 2012.

Of course, Obama then added to that show of loyalty a mighty large caveat.

“LeBron has the chance to be as good as anybody,” he said.

Are Miami Heat more vulnerable than usual?

Here’s ESPN Miami reporting on the Heat, who begin their first round playoff series against the Charlotte Bobcats on Sunday:

Having finished 54-28, the Heat endured their lowest winning percentage of any season since James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh came together in 2010. They’ve survived a seven-month grind during which nagging injuries forced Wade out of the lineup for 28 games and coach Erik Spoelstra to sort through 21 different starting lineups to fill the voids.

Now, the two-time defending champions enter the playoffs older — six of their top nine players are in their 30s — and arguably more vulnerable than they’ve been at any point. In addition to those factors, Miami limped into the postseason having lost 14 of their final 25 regular-season games and failed to secure home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, which proved to be essential last season.

Yet as defiant as they’ve ever been, the Heat insist none of those potential warning signs matter.

“On the outside, there’s more doubt,” said forward Udonis Haslem, who along with Wade are the lone players who have been with the Heat since their first championship season in 2006. “Within here, we’re still confident in one another. We still know what we can do. We still understand what needs to be done and we know how to get it done. From the outside looking in, people might have a different opinion.”

Rockets and Blazers set to battle

Here’s the Oregonian reporting on the Rockets vs Trail Blazers first round playoff series, which begins Sunday:

Bench play figures to be a wild card entering the first-round playoff series between the Trail Blazers and Rockets, if for no other reason than neither team leans that heavily on its reserves.

In the regular season, the Blazers used their reserves the fewest amount of minutes, while the Rockets ranked 25th out of 30 teams.

So when asked whether either team has an advantage, Portland coach Terry Stotts didn’t have an answer.

“I don’t know. It depends on how much either team plays the second unit,’’ Stotts said. “Ultimately, I don’t think either team is going to have five reserves in the game at one point. So the players who play, need to play well.’’

Point guards and big men figure to be the central players in both teams’ bench production. The Blazers’ Mo Williams and Houston’s Jeremy Lin will play the most, while Rockets big man Omer Asik figures to play an intricate role in how Houston defends.

Young Magic players have improvements to make

Here’s the Orlando Sentinel reporting on the Magic, who finished the season with a 23-59 record, the third worst in the NBA:

As crucial as the 2014 NBA Draft Lottery will be to the Orlando Magic’s rebuilding efforts — and, make no mistake, the lottery will be vital to the Magic — the team can’t do anything more to enhance its chances for the annual pingpong-ball drawing.

But there are several things the Magic can do to accelerate their rebuilding efforts.

One pertains to Maurice Harkless, Tobias Harris, Andrew Nicholson, Victor Oladipo, Kyle O’Quinn and Nik Vucevic. Simply put, those youngsters need to improve this offseason, and then those improvements need to translate onto the court in tangible ways during the 2014-15 season.

“I’m going to be working on a little bit of everything,” said Oladipo, a 6-foot-4 guard who just completed his rookie season.