NBA Blog – NBA Basketball Blog
NBA Blog: The NBA basketball news blog section of Inside Hoops
Via the Deseret News:
Utah Jazz All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell did not take part in All-Star practice on Saturday morning due to a non-COVID illness, according to a team spokesperson.
Mitchell has not been ruled out for the All-Star Game on Sunday night.
The practices at All-Star weekend are mostly ceremonial.
LeBron James and the Lakers are in a tough spot these days. The squad faces an uphill battle in their quest just to make the playoffs. Via the Los Angeles Times:
The Lakers will be without Anthony Davis for at least the next four weeks, their place in the Western Conference standings on shaky ground. They have a 2 1/2-game lead on Portland, the current 10th-place team. They’re 4 1/2 games ahead of San Antonio and New Orleans, who are chasing the final play-in spot.
If there’s a reason to believe in the Lakers’ chances to make the playoffs, it’s been James, who is in one of the best offensive grooves of the season. He’s scored at least 25 points in 23 straight games, a stretch during which he’s averaging 31.7 points.
InsideHoops.com
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced today, at NBA All-Star 2022, six extraordinary players, four exceptional coaches and one world-class referee as finalists from the North American and Women’s committees to be considered for election in 2022.
This year’s list includes two first-time finalists: two-time NBA All-Star and four-time NBA champion Manu Ginobili and five-time WNBA All-Star, three-time WNBA Champion, and two-time Olympic Gold Medalist Lindsay Whalen.
Previous finalists included again this year for consideration are longtime NBA referee Hugh Evans, five-time NBA champion and five-time NBA All-Defensive First Team selection Michael Cooper, five-time NBA All-Star Tim Hardaway, consensus National Collegiate Player of the Year Marques Johnson, two-time NCAA National Coach of the Year Bob Huggins, the NBA’s sixth-winningest coach of all-time George Karl, the all-time winningest high school coach, Leta Andrews, four-time WNBA All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Swin Cash, and NCAA national champion and WNBA Coach of the Year Marianne Stanley.
Once again, Anthony Davis is injured. Via ESPN.com:
Anthony Davis will be out at least four weeks after an MRI showed that the Los Angeles Lakers star has a mid-foot sprain, the team announced Thursday.
Davis suffered the injury in the team’s 106-101 win against the Utah Jazz on Wednesday.
He underwent X-rays that night at Crypto.com Arena that revealed no fracture, according to the team, but an MRI Thursday revealed the sprain.
The Lakers said team doctors will reevaluate the star big man in four weeks.
The Lakers are just 27-31 this season, which is the 9th best record in the Western conference. They haven’t looked like a championship contender at all this season, and with the way things are going will have to hustle and step things up just to make the playoffs. A task made even more difficult with this Davis injury.
Denver Nuggets rookie guard Bones Hyland will replace injured Sacramento Kings rookie guard Davion Mitchell in the 2022 Clorox Rising Stars, which will be played on Friday, Feb. 18 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.
Hyland, 21, becomes the 15th Nuggets player in franchise history to represent Denver at the Rising Stars Challenge and is the second consecutive season that the Nuggets have had at least one player invited (Porter Jr. and Campazzo were both selected last season).
Bones has appeared in 46 games (three starts) for Denver this season, averaging 8.8 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 18.0 minutes per game. Over his last 17 games he is averaging 10.4 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.8 assists while shooting .402 from three-point range and .889 from the charity stripe. Among rookies he currently ranks first in free throw percentage (.881), tied for third in threes per game (1.7), third in total threes (79) and 13th in points per game (8.8).
The Wilmington, Delaware native has helped Denver to a 13-3 record in games when he scores in double-figures, including going 8-0 in games with 15+ points. He posted a career-high 27 points (6-10 3FG) to go with 10 rebounds and two assists on Jan. 15 vs. LA Lakers, becoming the only rookie this season with 27+ points, 10+ rebounds and 2+ assists in a game and just the third Nugget ever to post 27+ points and 6+ threes off the bench in a game (Will Barton and Wilson Chandler are others).
Hyland was selected by Denver with the 26th overall pick of the 2021 NBA Draft after spending two seasons at Virginia Commonwealth University. In his final season he was named the 2020-21 A-10 Player of the Year, leading the conference in scoring (19.5 ppg) and three-pointers made per game (2.9), becoming the first sophomore in VCU history to make himself eligible for the NBA draft. Hyland set a freshman record at VCU with 63 made threes and was a 2019-20 A-10 All-Freshman team selection.
Under a new format, the Clorox Rising Stars will feature four seven-player teams competing in a mini-tournament consisting of three games. The playing rosters are composed of 12 NBA rookies, 12 NBA sophomores and four elite young players from NBA G League Ignite. The team rosters are available here. The game will be played on Friday, Feb. 18 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. The annual showcase of premier young talent at NBA All-Star will air live on TNT and ESPN Radio in the United States at 9 p.m. ET.
The Sacramento Kings have waived forward Louis King, according to General Manager Monte McNair.
In two seasons (2020-22), King appeared in 16 games (one start) with Sacramento as a Two-Way player, averaging 5.6 points (.395 FG%, .316 3pt%, .813 FT%), 1.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 11.8 minutes per game.
Sacramento’s roster now stands at 16 players.
The Milwaukee Bucks have signed forward DeAndre’ Bembry.
A 6-5, 210-pound forward, Bembry appeared in 48 games (20 starts) with the Brooklyn Nets this season before being waived on Feb. 10.
Per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Bembry was waived by the Nets on Thursday in order to accommodate their acquisition of Ben Simmons, Seth Curry and Andre Drummond from Philadelphia. ”
With the Nets, Bembry averaged 5.8 points, 3.2 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.0 steal in 19.8 minutes per game while shooting a career-high 56.8% from the field and a career-best 41.7% from three.
In his sixth season in the NBA, Bembry was originally selected out of Saint Joseph’s with the 21st overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks. He went on to play in 189 games with the Hawks over four seasons before spending last season with the Raptors. In his career, Bembry holds averages of 6.1 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.0 steal across 288 games (55 starts) with the Hawks, Raptors and Nets.
Milwaukee’s roster now stands at 15 players.
Portland Trail Blazers guard Dennis Smith Jr. has been diagnosed with a high-grade partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, per the results of an MRI.
The injury occurred in practice on Friday, February 11.
Smith will be reevaluated in three to four weeks.
In 37 games (four starts) this season, Smith has averaged 5.6 points (41.8% FG, 22.2% 3-PT, 65.6% FT), 2.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.22 steals.
The Utah Jazz have signed forward Xavier Sneed to a two-way contract.
Sneed (6-5, 215, Kansas State) appeared in two games with the Memphis Grizzlies this season and also played in 18 games (all starts) with the Greensboro Swarm of the NBA G League, averaging 11.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.7 steals in 27.2 minutes per contest.
The St. Louis, Mo., native played in 13 games (10 starts) with the Swarm in 2020-21 and averaged 8.1 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.9 steals. He has additional professional playing experience in Canada where he played for the Niagara River Lions of the CEBL in 2020-21, averaging 17.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.6 steals.
Collegiately, Sneed played four seasons at Kansas State (2016-20), where he averaged 10.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.4 steals in 137 career games (104 starts).
Golden State Warriors rookie forward Jonathan Kuminga will replace injured Indiana Pacers rookie guard Chris Duarte in the 2022 Clorox Rising Stars, which will be played on Friday, Feb. 18 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.
The annual showcase of premier young talent at NBA All-Star will air live on TNT and ESPN Radio in the United States at 9 p.m. ET.
Kuminga is averaging 7.9 points and 2.8 rebounds in 14.3 minutes in 46 games this season. He ranks third among NBA rookies in field goal percentage at 50.4 percent. In his last seven games, Kuminga is averaging 15.7 points and 4.6 rebounds in 27.2 minutes while shooting 58.3 percent from the field. A 19-year-old from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kuminga was selected by Golden State with the seventh overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. He played with NBA G League Ignite in the 2020-21 season.
Duarte will not play in the Clorox Rising Stars because of a left toe injury, which he sustained in a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Feb. 13. The 24-year-old from the Dominican Republic is averaging 13.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 50 games this season. Duarte leads all NBA rookies in three-pointers made with 87.
Kuminga will replace Duarte on Team Payton, which is named for Gary Payton, one of four members of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team serving as Rising Stars honorary coaches. The other honorary coaches are Rick Barry (Team Barry), Isiah Thomas (Team Isiah) and James Worthy (Team Worthy).
Under a new format, the Clorox Rising Stars will feature four seven-player teams competing in a mini-tournament consisting of three games. The playing rosters are composed of 12 NBA rookies, 12 NBA sophomores and four elite young players from NBA G League Ignite. The team rosters are available here.
In addition, Sacramento Kings rookie guard Davion Mitchell will replace Duarte in the Clorox Clutch Challenge, a team shooting competition that will take place between Game 2 and Game 3 of the Clorox Rising Stars. Mitchell will team up with Toronto Raptors rookie guard/forward Scottie Barnes. Both players will play for Team Payton in Rising Stars.