November 2015 – Page 5 – NBA Blog

Warriors enjoy wild comeback win against Clippers

The 13-0 Golden State Warriors are the talk of basketball. Last night, they looked to be on their way towards their first loss of the regular season. But since they’re the Warriors, and Stephen Curry is on their team, they kept winning. Here’s the San Jose Mercury News reporting:

The Warriors’ season-opening winning streak will not die.

Not after the defending champions trailed by 23 points to the rival Los Angeles Clippers.

Not with Stephen Curry and the Warriors willing their way to a comeback.

The Warriors claimed a 124-117 win Thursday night that did more than improve their record to 13-0, two short of matching the best start in NBA history.

The Warriors’ comeback came against their bitter rivals at Staples Center and provided yet another chapter to remember as they became one of only five NBA teams to ever start 13-0.

Curry poured in 40 points to lead the charge and hit six 3-pointers. He got the best of Chris Paul, who scored 35 points but had to suffer the indignity of seeing the Warriors claim the largest comeback win in the league this season.

No LeBron, Blatt drama this season

Here’s Cleveland.com reporting on the Cavaliers, who at 9-3 are already a success this season and have the services of Kyrie Irving to eventually look forward to once he heals and is ready to play:

Want to set off some Cavs fans?

Tell them about LeBron James and David Blatt.

The distrust. The undermining and second guessing. The disconnect.

It’s a sore subject for Cavs faithful. Either James shouldn’t treat his coach that way, or Blatt wasn’t right for the job, or the media shouldn’t bring it up.

This season, though, there hasn’t been any James-Blatt drama to discuss.

Hours before Cleveland beat the Milwaukee Bucks 115-100, turning in a solid-but-not-perfect performance after days of being ripped in public and private by James and Blatt, the Cavs superstar dropped a different kind of bomb.

“He does his job as great as any coach can do in this league,” James said of Blatt, following the team’s shootaround in the morning.

Pelicans waive Jimmer Fredette

The New Orleans Pelicans announced today that the team has waived guard Jimmer Fredette.

Fredette, 6-2, 195, who was re-signed by New Orleans on November 10 after the team received a hardship exception from the NBA, appeared in 13 minutes over four games. Originally signed by New Orleans on July 24, 2014, the BYU product appeared in 50 games for the Pelicans in the 2014-15 season, averaging 3.6 points and 1.2 assists in 10.2 minutes per game.

New Orleans’ roster now stands at 15.

D-Wade struggling after fast start to season

Through Tuesday’s games, the Miami Heat are 6-4. A perfectly respectable record at this early point in the season. But veteran shooting guard Dwyane Wade, after an excellent start to the season, has cooled off in a big way. Here’s the South Florida Sun Sentinel reporting:

The first five game were a statement, an I’m-back statement, with Dwyane Wade scoring at least 20 points in each outing. Since then, though, the Miami Heat shooting guard has not scored more than 12, shooting 18 of 55 over his four subsequent appearances.

Tuesday’s 103-91 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves included another uneven performance, this time 5 of 13 from the field for 10 points, with six assists and five turnovers.

“My opportunities are different,” Wade said, as the Heat turned their attention to Thursday’s fifth game on this season-longest seven-game homestand, against the Sacramento Kings at AmericanAirlines Arena. “The first five games were a little different. I’m not really worried about scoring. I’m just trying to be aggressive, sometimes to make plays, sometimes to score.”

Wade has not attempted more than four free throws in any of his past four appearances, including none Tuesday night. Some of that is opposing teams daring him to take his jumper; some of it is the Heat this season playing both Hassan Whiteside and Chris Bosh in the post.

Rick Carlisle strongly disagrees with Rockets` firing of Kevin McHale

Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle thinks it’s absurd that the Houston Rockets have fired head coach Kevin McHale. Here’s the Dallas Morning News reporting:

Rick Carlisle, who played with McHale in Boston and has been friends with him ever since, didn’t mince words about the Rockets’ move.

“It’s preposterous,” he said. “It’s beyond belief. I’m really shocked. It’s just hard to believe that something could happen at this stage to a guy who took a team unexpectedly to the conference finals last year. To have this happen after just 11 games is just preposterous. Nobody expects this. It’s very disappointing to hear. But Kevin will be fine. There will be a lot of people wanting to hire him. I can tell you that.”

Cavs struggling from free throw line

The Cleveland Cavaliers are 8-3 this season; a very good start, especially considering the team is without the services of still-healing point guard Kyrie Irving. But things could be even better, as the Akron Beacon Journal reports:

While LeBron James continues to rip his teammates for their lack of effort and David Blatt says they need to get tougher, one of the more perplexing problems facing the Cavaliers in the early season has been free-throw shooting.

The Cavs enter Thursday’s rematch against the Milwaukee Bucks 29th in the league in foul shooting, ahead of only the Detroit Pistons. Poor free-throw shooting was a big reason for their two road losses to the Bucks and Pistons and the Cavs don’t have many explanations for the struggles.

“If I had the sure-fire answer to that I would be a genius,” Blatt said. “I guess I’m not.”

The Cavs are converting less than 69 percent of their free throws, a number that continues to trend in the wrong direction. They shot 58, 63 and 60 percent from the line in their past three games after converting 75 percent at the line last season — 18th in the NBA.

Kristaps Porzingis the focus of New York

Here’s the New York Post reporting on the most intriguing Knicks rookie in a very long time:

If it feels like Kristaps Porzingis is a breath of fresh air … well, it’s because he is that and so much more than that: He is a gust of fresh air, a gale of fresh air, a 198-mph wind blast of fresh air. He is 20 years old and having the time of his life, and 12 games into his professional career, he has Madison Square Garden chanting his name.

You want fresher air than this, you’ll have to move to Wyoming.

If it feels like this almost never happens to the Knicks, and for the Knicks … well, it’s because it almost never does. The last 15 years may feel like an endless treadmill of bad trades and bad players and bad drafts and bad decisions but in truth, with rare exception, that’s been Garden policy far longer than the Dolan Era, extending all the way back to the Eisenhower Administration.

You can make an argument, and a good one, that Porzingis is one of only 10 truly impactful rookies the Knicks have had going back to Willis Reed’s magnificent debut in 1964-65, and of all the absurd negative numbers the Knicks have assembled over the years, that might be the coup de grace.

Report: Kevin McHale fired by Rockets

When a team with the exact same core of players that has proven to be successful in the very recent past under a certain coach stops performing up to expectations, what often happens?

The head coach gets fired, that’s what.

And that’s what is going down with the Houston Rockets, who are off to a 4-7 start and have reportedly fired head coach Kevin McHale, per a Yahoo Sports report.

McHale delivered the Rockets to the Western Conference Finals a year ago, but four straight blowout losses and a roster struggling to respond with effort pushed the organization to make a move to salvage what had been expected to be a season of championship contention.

Only 11 games into the season, the move reflects owner Leslie Alexander’s seriousness about winning within the present window with James Harden and Dwight Howard. Alexander and management, including executives Daryl Morey and Gersson Rosas, made the decision on Tuesday to replace McHale, league sources said.

McHale signed a three-year contract extension a year ago and is owed approximately $12 million.

A look at Rockets player shooting percentages this season is alarming: James Harden 37.2%, Trevor Ariza 33.6%, newly-acquired guard Ty Lawson 33.3%, Patrick Beverley 34.2%, Corey Brewer 29.9%.

Even worse, the team’s quality of play so far has actually appeared worse than their 4-7 record would suggest. The Rockets have been one of the lowest-rated squads in the league this short season both offensively and defensively per 100 possessions.

And per the Washington Post:

The symbol of Houston’s disastrous start has been Ty Lawson, a mercurial point guard the Rockets dealt for this summer after a tumultuous prior 12 months with the Denver Nuggets. Lawson – the player who organized Tuesday’s players-only meeting – has been awful thus far, averaging just 8.9 points and 5.6 assists while shooting 33.3 percent overall and 27.3 percent from three-point range. The combination of two ball-dominant guards in Lawson and James Harden, last year’s league MVP runner-up, has made for an awkward pairing.

The Rockets certainly have the roster needed to bounce back. But if it happens, it’ll be under new leadership.

Victor Oladipo should return soon for Magic

The Orlando Magic are 5-6 through Monday’s games and awaiting the return of Victor Oladipo (14.7 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 3.9 apg this season). Here’s the Orlando Sentinel reporting the latest:

Magic coach Scott Skiles said there is a chance that SG Victor Oladipo could play against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night if he clears the NBA’s concussion protocol.

Oladipo was injured when he ran into center Dewayne Dedmon during the Magic’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers last Wednesday night at Amway Center.

Skiles said Oladipo participated in the Magic’s non-contact practice on Tuesday.

“Vic went through the practice today. He did no contact. We had a no-contact practice anyway,” Skiles said. “And so now he’ll be evaluated again. He did the bike work. He did other exercises. So they build the person up and they give tests again either (Tuesday) or (Wednesday) I think and depending on how that goes, that will determine whether he plays or not.

“He got through all of it and looked pretty good. And now it will all be up to the tests.”

Wilson Chandler undergoes season-ending hip surgery

Nuggets Forward Wilson Chandler underwent successful surgery to repair a labral tear in his right hip, Nuggets General Manager and Executive Vice President Tim Connelly announced today.

The arthroscopic surgery was performed by Dr. Bryan Kelly at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, New York.

Chandler has missed all 10 games this season and will miss the remainder of the season.

He is expected to make a full and complete recovery for the start of the 2016-17 campaign.