NBA Blog – NBA Basketball Blog
NBA Blog: The NBA basketball news blog section of Inside Hoops
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Jeremy Lin is still must-see TV in New York.
Lin’s first trip back to New York since signing with the Houston Rockets resulted in MSG Network’s highest-rated Knicks game of the season, according to the network.
The Rockets’ 109-96 victory Monday drew a 4.77 rating, MSG said Tuesday. That’s well above the 3.41 average rating for the first 18 games of the season.
— Reported by the Associated Press
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Cavaliers guard Dion Waiters is back in the starting lineup after missing eight games because of a sprained left ankle.
Cleveland hosted Toronto on Tuesday night.
Waiters is averaged 15 points and more than three assists per game. He was injured on Dec. 1.
Waiters was cleared to play late last week. Coach Byron Scott wanted Waiters to go through Monday’s practice session before he returned.
— Reported by the Associated Press
Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey announced today that the team has recalled forward/center Donatas Motiejunas from Houston’s single-affiliation NBA D-League partner the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
Motiejunas (7-0, 222, Lithuania), who was re-assigned to Rio Grande Valley on Dec. 14, has averaged 23.5 points and 10.8 rebounds over four starts with the Vipers this season.
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From the NBA Finals to the All-Star Game to the Olympics, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook have proven themselves to be one of basketball’s most dynamic duos.
To lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to the league’s best record, they’ve found even more ways to make an impact – primarily by putting their teammates in better positions to contribute.
Both Durant and Westbrook are averaging career highs in assists this season while cutting down on their turnovers, helping the Thunder become the NBA’s highest-scoring team with an impressive line of statistics. Oklahoma City leads the league in 3-point accuracy and free throw percentage and ranks second in overall field-goal shooting.
”We’re passing the ball so much better this year,” said coach Scott Brooks, who has long harped on the need to improve the team’s assist numbers and cut down on turnovers. ”Our basketball knowledge has improved a lot the past few years just from all the experiences that we’ve had. Our passing and our spacing is really good. Our offense has been in a nice rhythm.”
— Reported by Jeff Latzke of the Associated Press
A jury has returned a $17.3 million verdict against Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling in a lawsuit by an actress who lost most of her belongings in a fire at a West Hollywood apartment building he owns.
City News Service says the jury awarded $15 million in punitive damages to Robyn Cohen on Tuesday in her breach-of-contract and emotional distress lawsuit. The panel awarded her $2.3 million in general damages on Monday.
She sued Sterling over a 2009 fire caused by an electrical problem. She said a fire alarm horn and a dozen smoke detectors in the building weren’t working.
— Reported by the Associated Press
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Nets coach Avery Johnson said after Tuesday’s morning shootaround that he’s already privately heard the criticisms Deron Williams leveled at his offense following Monday’s practice, and is already trying to rectify it.
“I think we’re putting more and more stuff in that he’s familiar with, and getting back to some of those things, a lot of the things he did in his Utah system,” Johnson said.
“But at the end of the day, when the shots are going down, everybody feels better about the team and their individual game.”
Williams spoke at length Monday about the offense the Nets are running, and that’s it has been an adjustment for him from the system he was running in Utah under former Jazz coach Jerry Sloan.
But while Williams didn’t back away from any of the comments he made Monday, he did claim that the media had overblown them.
“You asked me about Utah, my time in Utah, [and] I’m not going to bad-mouth Utah,” Williams said.
— Reported by Tim Bontemps of the New York Post
Here’s a TV commercial starring the White Mamba, Brian Scalabrine for a drink called “Greater Than”
The New York Knicks today assigned Amar’e Stoudemire, Chris Copeland and James White to the Erie BayHawks, the Knicks’ NBA Development League affiliate.
Copeland (6-8, 225, Colorado) joins the BayHawks having played in 14 games for the Knicks this season, averaging 5.7 points and 8.0 minutes.
White (6-7, 215, Cincinnati) has appeared in 18 games for the Knicks this season, averaging 1.8 points and 6.6 minutes.
All three players are expected to practice with the BayHawks at MSG Training Center in Greenburgh, N.Y. today.
It seems like this is just for practice purposes. All three players may be called back up to the Knicks in a day or so.
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The Phoenix Suns couldn’t seem to make a shot from anywhere, struggled defensively and gave up too many offensive rebounds while falling behind by 19 points in the first half.
No problem. Big comebacks are their specialty.
Shannon Brown scored 14 of his 22 points in third quarter to bring Phoenix back, Jared Dudley had 20 points and the Suns added to their list of comebacks by beating the Sacramento Kings 101-90 Monday night…
The Suns were back to their fall-behind-big ways against Sacramento, out of sorts at both ends in the first half, drawing boos from the home crowd and plenty of stomping along the sideline by Gentry.
Phoenix looked like a different team in the second half, working the ball around for open shots on offense, playing better defense and getting to the glass better…
Marcin Gortat had 14 points, 13 rebounds and six blocked shots. Luis Scola gave the Suns his usual hustle while scoring 14 points and dishing out a career-high 10 assists. Dudley hit a couple of big 3-pointers in the fourth quarter when the Kings tried to rally…
Aaron Brooks added 12 points for Sacramento, which had a 51-38 rebounding advantage, including 18 on the offensive glass…
Hitting the shots that weren’t falling early, Phoenix went on an 18-4 run midway through the third quarter, going up 61-58 after Brown hit three straight shots, including a 3-pointer as he fell into Sacramento’s bench.
— Reported by John Marshall of the Associated Press
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The Memphis Grizzlies were struggling early against the stingy Chicago Bulls, taking bad shots and committing turnovers.
Then the Grizzlies’ bench took over, providing the burst that helped Memphis beat the Bulls 80-71 on Monday night.
”I thought it was huge what they did,” Grizzlies guard Mike Conley said of the second-period play by the reserves. ”They came in and changed the game, changed the tempo. They got it going up and down a little bit. Got the ball movement where we like it to be.” …
Conley led Memphis with 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting and four assists, while Zach Randolph added 10 points and 15 rebounds.
Rudy Gay had 12 points for Memphis but shot 5 of 13, continuing his slump. Wayne Ellington scored all 11 of his points in the second quarter, when the Grizzlies’ reserves provided the lift after a sluggish first period, when Memphis managed only 11 points for its lowest output in the opening quarter this season.
Carlos Boozer led the Bulls with 16 points and 13 rebounds, while Marco Belinelli finished with 13 points. Luol Deng and Joakim Noah had 11 points apiece for the Bulls, but Deng was 4 of 17 from the field…
Both teams shot just better than 37 percent. But Memphis was 6 of 11 from 3-point range compared to the Bulls hitting only 2 of 11 long-range shots. The Memphis frontline of Gay, Randolph and Marc Gasol were a combined 10 of 34, while the Bulls starting frontline of Deng, Boozer and Noah made 16 of 42.
— Reported by the Associated Press