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The Miami HEAT announced today that Chris Bosh has sustained a strained right calf and will not participate in Saturday’s Three-Point Shootout competition or play in Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game.
“I am honored to be selected to participate in the All-Star Weekend festivities, and will still be here to support my fellow East All-Stars,” said Bosh. “But I will also use this weekend to try to heal and focus on the second half of the HEAT season.”
Here’s the Miami Herald with insight on a Heat limitation that makes it harder for the team to be all they can be:
Because opponents don’t fear several of the Heat’s perimeter shooters, Chris Bosh said Heat players are being left unguarded on the perimeter far more than ever before in his 5 1/2 years here. He said trying “to get in that upper part of the East, it’s tough to do that without shooting.”
Though he says “I’m always a believer in making due with what you have, we could always use another shooter. Everybody could. It’s a perceived weakness we have and it’s something we have to get over.”
The Heat, scanning the trade market for a three-point shooter, is making 32.3 percent of its threes, 28th in the league and among the lowest in team history. Miami’s 15-win teams in its first season (1988-89) and in 2007-08 both shot threes better than this one.
The Lakers (11-44) are getting 11.1 points and a very impressive 10.0 rebounds in 27.3 minutes per game from forward Julius Randle this season. Here’s the Los Angeles Daily News with good news from the head coach’s perspective:
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The pouting Julius Randle showed as he went to bench left Lakers coach Byron Scott questioning the 21-year-old’s maturity.
Randle’s inconsistency with his jump shot prompted Scott to express skepticism whether he could fix it before this summer. An injury to Larry Nance Jr. still left Scott in doubt as to whether Randle could reclaim his starting spot.
But lately, Randle has given Scott a different impression.
“He’s been fantastic,” Scott said of Randle. “He’s not going overboard as far as trying to go too fast. He’s picking his moments and he’s rebounded the hell out of the ball.”
New Orleans Pelicans guard Tyreke Evans underwent surgery today on his right knee. As a result of the procedure, Evans will miss the remainder of the 2015-16 season.
Evans, 6-6, 220, had appeared in 25 games this season for New Orleans (all starts), averaging 15.2 points, 5.2 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 1.3 steals.
Originally drafted fourth overall by Sacramento out of the University of Memphis in 2009, Evans has appeared in 433 career regular season games with the Kings and Pelicans, holding career averages of 16.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.3 steals.
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Phoenix Suns rookie Devin Booker will replace injured U.S. Team selection Nerlens Noel of the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2016 BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge on Friday, Feb. 12 at Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
The BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge at NBA All-Star features first- and second-year NBA players from the United States against first- and second-year NBA players from around the world. TNT will televise the BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge in the U.S. at 9 p.m. ET, and Sportsnet ONE and TSN will simulcast the game in Canada. ESPN Radio also will provide coverage.
Booker, the 13th pick of NBA Draft 2015 presented by State Farm, is averaging 10.6 points and shooting 40.3 percent from three-point range in 48 games. The 19-year-old guard is averaging 15.2 points in his 23 starts, including a career-high 32-point performance against the Indiana Pacers on Jan. 19. Booker will also compete in the Foot Locker Three-Point Contest on Saturday, Feb. 13 at Air Canada Centre as part of State Farm® All-Star Saturday Night.
Noel, a second-year forward-center, will not play due to tendinitis in his right knee. He is averaging 10.8 points, 8.2 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.6 blocks in 46 games.
Denver Nuggets guard Emmanuel Mudiay will replace injured defending champion Patrick Beverley of the Houston Rockets in the 2016 Skills Challenge on Saturday, Feb. 13 at Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
The Skills Challenge is part of All-Star Saturday Night and this year includes some big-men. In the past, the event was entirely guards.
Mudiay, the seventh pick of NBA Draft 2015, ranks first among rookies in assists (5.9 apg), second in minutes (30.2 mpg) and fifth in scoring (11.4 ppg). A native of what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mudiay will also compete for the World Team in the BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge on Friday, Feb. 12 at Air Canada Centre.
Beverley, who won the 2015 Skills Challenge in his event debut, will miss this year’s competition due to an ankle injury.
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Charlotte Hornets forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist has suffered another major injury.
The team announced today that Kidd-Gilchrist underwent a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which revealed a torn labrum in his right shoulder. He sustained the injury with 8:39 remaining in the third quarter of Charlotte’s 117-95 win against the Indiana Pacers on Feb. 10. Kidd-Gilchrist will be re-evaluated after the All-Star break and further updates on his status will be provided when available.
Kidd-Gilchrist is averaging 12.7 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 29.3 minutes per game in seven contests (all starts) for the Hornets this season. The fourth-year forward from Kentucky has averaged 9.1 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game in 202 games (198 starts) with Charlotte.
These days, his talent as an excellent defensive player is being overshadowed by his injury woes.
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Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside has been suspended one game without pay for throwing an elbow and making contact with the head of San Antonio Spurs center Boban Marjanovic, it was announced today by Kiki VanDeWeghe, Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations.
The incident, for which Whiteside was assessed a Flagrant 2 and ejected, occurred with 9:35 remaining in the fourth quarter of the Spurs’ 119-101 win over the Heat at AmericanAirlines Arena on Feb. 9.
Whiteside will serve his suspension when Miami plays the Atlanta Hawks on Feb. 19 at Philips Arena.
To view the play, click on this link.
Here’s MassLive reporting Danny Ainge’s comments from the 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Toucher & Rich program in response to a rumor involving the Celtics and Hawks center Al Horford:
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The Celtics have been rumored as a possible destination for Atlanta Hawks center Al Horford, but Ainge threw a bit of cold water on that idea. Despite a batch of recent reports saying the Hawks could consider drastic changes, Ainge said he believes they will keep their core intact.
“I will just remind you that ‘according to reports’ is the key phrase there,” he said. “There’s a lot of motivations that teams have. Sometimes it’s just to see what the value of their players are, and by leaking things like that you can find maybe what people are willing to offer. Typically when you do that and you leak out that you’re willing to move your team or break up your team and start over, you don’t really get — people are looking for bargains. They’re not going to give you the best deal. So my feeling is Atlanta will stay intact. They may make a trade or two but I don’t think they’re going to lose their key guys.”
The Houston Rockets are just 27-28 this season and don’t look anything like a serious contender. There is reason for alarm. Here’s the Houston Chronicle reporting:
The Rockets could no longer deny the reality. They had lost interest in the season-long exercise of fooling themselves.
The Rockets took another bad loss into the break. They were smacked around by the Trail Blazers with all the familiar shortcomings through their stunning fall this season glaringly evident on the way to a 116-103 loss that did not seem nearly that close.
They fell to 27-28 and to ninth in the Western Conference, closer to the bottom four teams than the top four that they had once assumed would include them. Save a few misleading stretches on Wednesday, they had spent the night bouncing from disinterested to disillusioned, playing like strangers or worse.
When they were through, the Rockets could no longer cling to the memory of what they once were or expected to be. They faced what they had become with center Dwight Howard and guard James Harden meeting with Rockets interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff and general manager Daryl Morey long into the night.