Inside Hoops – Page 1519 – NBA Blog

Elton Brand thinks he can do more for Mavs

Brand has had his struggles this season, but he doesn’t think the 17 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks he had in Saturday’s win over the Pistons should be considered a surprise. Those all at least match season highs, but Brand expects many more nights like this in a Mavs uniform.

“Nah, that’s not vintage,” said Brand, who was averaging 6.2 points and 6.0 rebounds entering the game. “Not even close. That’s what I can do. That’s where I’m at right now.

“With the opportunity and the looks, I’m still right there. I can do that every night – most nights – with those opportunities.”

By opportunities, Brand means shots and minutes. They were both tough to come by for Brand in the first month of the season.

— Reported by Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas

Marcus Camby out with sore left foot

Marcus Camby was ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Phoenix Suns shortly before tipoff due to a sore left foot.

Camby participated in a walk-through with the Knicks on Saturday, so it is unclear when the injury flared up. Mike Woodson said 90 minutes before tipoff he expected to have all of his players except Jason Kidd (lower back spasms) available.

Camby, 38, missed the entire preseason due to a calf injury and entered the season out of game shape. The veteran big man has played in just six of the Knicks’ 15 games. He has received DNP’s in the past two.

— Reported by Ian Begley of ESPN New York

Denver Nuggets recall rookie Quincy Miller from D-League

The Denver Nuggets have recalled rookie forward Quincy Miller from the Iowa Energy of the NBA Development League, Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Masai Ujiri announced today.

Miller, 6-9, 210, joined the Energy on Nov. 13. He started two of three games and averaged 14.0 points, 10.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 29.0 minutes.

Selected by the Nuggets with the 38th overall pick of the 2012 NBA Draft, Miller joined the Nuggets after being named the 2011-12 Big 12 Co-Freshman of the Year in his only season at Baylor University.

He averaged 6.8 points and 5.2 rebounds for Denver at the 2012 NBA Summer League but has not appeared in an NBA game.

Spurs assign Nando De Colo to D-League

The San Antonio Spurs today announced that they have assigned guard Nando De Colo to the Austin Toros of the NBA Development League.

De Colo has appeared in 13 games this season for San Antonio, averaging 2.5 points, 1.4 assists and 1.2 rebounds in 10.4 minutes.

The French native is currently in his first season playing for the Silver and Black. He was selected by the Spurs with the 53rd pick in the second round of the 2009 NBA Draft and spent the past three seasons playing for Valencia of the Spanish ACB League.

Warriors assign Jeremy Tyler to D-League

The Golden State Warriors have assigned forward/center Jeremy Tyler to the Santa Cruz Warriors of the NBA Development League, the team announced today.

He is slated to join Golden State’s D-League affiliate in time for the team’s game this afternoon at Reno.

Tyler, 21, has appeared in five games with Golden State this season, averaging 1.6 points in 2.0 minutes per contest.

Celtics re-assign Kris Joseph to D-League

The Boston Celtics announced today that they have assigned forward Kris Joseph to their NBA Development League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws.

Joseph, a 6’7” forward, appeared in one game for the Celtics during his recall from the Red Claws against the Portland Trail Blazers on November 30 and recorded two points in 4:55 of action. He returns to the Red Claws where he appeared in two games earlier this season and averaged 25.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.0 block per game.

Rick Majerus dead at 64

Rick Majerus, the jovial college basketball coach who led Utah to the 1998 NCAA final and had only one losing season in 25 years with four schools, died Saturday. He was 64.

Utah industrialist Jon Huntsman, the coach’s longtime friend, confirmed in a statement released through The Salt Lake Tribune that Majerus died of heart failure in a Los Angeles hospital. The coach had been hospitalized there for several months.

Players remembered Majerus as a coach who was exacting and perhaps a bit unorthodox at times, but always fair.

“It was a unique experience, I’ll tell you that, and I loved every minute of it,” said Saint Louis guard Kyle Cassity, who was mostly a backup on last season’s 26-win team after starting for Majerus earlier in his college career.

— Reported by the Associated Press

Dwight Howard reflects on Orlando Magic

The “Dwightmare” may be over, but on the eve of his first game against his former team, Dwight Howard was in a reflective mood about what happened over those final furious six months with the Magic.

“I’ve had a chance to sit back and think about it and there are some things I could’ve done better. There are some things that could’ve been done better on both sides,” Howard said in a lengthy, wide-ranging interview after Los Angeles Lakers practice on Saturday. “But at the end of the day, we all learn some lessons and we’ve got to move forward.

“I’m happy here, I’m having a lot of fun. This is a place that I’ve always prayed that I could be a part of something very special. So I want to take advantage of it.”

Howard didn’t want to elaborate on what he or the Magic could have done differently during the excruciating process that led to his trade to the Lakers in August. Los Angeles hosts Orlando on Sunday night at the Staples Center.

“It doesn’t really matter to talk about it now. It’s over and done with,” he said. “There are a lot of things we both could’ve done, but at the end of the day, it happened just the way it was supposed to happen. There was a reason behind everything. We might not see it or understand it at the time, but there was a reason why everything happened the way it happened and I think it made both parties stronger.”

— Reported by Ramona Shelburne of ESPN Los Angeles

Mark Cuban understands fine from NBA against Spurs

It’s not very often that Mark Cuban is on the same page with NBA commissioner David Stern.

But the Dallas Mavericks owner said Stern did the right thing Friday in fining the San Antonio Spurs $250,000 for not bringing Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Danny Green to Thursday’s nationally televised game in Miami against the Heat.

Cuban said where the Spurs went wrong is not bringing their marquee players to a game that was shown on TNT. If the Spurs had done the same thing in a game not played on national TV, Cuban said they likely would not have been issued a fine.

“Everybody who planned to watch San Antonio vs. Miami on TNT, we’ve got disappointed customers all over the place,” Cuban said before Saturday’s Mavericks home game against Detroit. “When I say our biggest customer, TV is our biggest customer.

“So I’m not saying San Antonio did the wrong thing. I’m just saying I understand exactly why the league did what they did.”

— Reported by Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Wade scores 34, Heat beat Nets

Dwyane Wade scored a season-high 34 points, LeBron James added 21 points and the Miami Heat rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat the Brooklyn Nets 102-89 on Saturday night.

Ray Allen scored 13 and Norris Cole finished with 12 for the Heat, who won their sixth straight and remained atop the Eastern Conference. Miami held the Nets to 30 points in the second half.

Andray Blatche scored 20 points for Brooklyn, which had won five in a row. Gerald Wallace had 13 points, Joe Johnson added 12 and Deron Williams finished with 10 points and 12 assists.

The Nets were 10 for 31 from the field in the second half and lost to Miami for the 12th straight time.

Wade added seven assists and shot 14 for 20 for Miami. He reached the 30-point mark for the first time this season when he took an alley-oop pass from Allen and slammed the ball for a 90-81 edge with 5:14 left…

Brooklyn had just one field goal in the first 9:06 of the final quarter, missing 10 of 11 shots in that stretch as Miami – despite shooting 5 for 16 over the same stretch – pulled away.

— Reported by Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press