NBA Blog – NBA Basketball Blog
NBA Blog: The NBA basketball news blog section of Inside Hoops
Manu Ginobili has won the league’s Sixth man of the year award. And he deserved it.
My question is, when he’s handed the award, is he going to flop backwards in an effort to draw a charging foul on whatever league official hands it to him?
I’m just kidding, of course. He’s a fantastic player. Who just happens to flop a bit more than a lot of other fantastic players.
General Manager John Hammond announced today that Scott Skiles has agreed to a multi-year contract to become the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. Skiles becomes the 11th head coach in the history of the franchise and comes to Milwaukee with eight seasons of NBA head coaching experience. “Scott is a proven NBA head coach who has shown an ability to win,” said Hammond. “He was a passionate player at all levels of the game and that thirst for success has served him well as a coach. We look forward to what he will bring to this franchise and we welcome him and his family to Milwaukee.”
Detroit Pistons President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars announced today that the club has hired Scott Perry as Vice President of Basketball Operations. “We are pleased to welcome back Scott Perry to the Pistons basketball operations staff,” said Dumars. “Scott is familiar with the culture of our team and understands our goals we have as an organization. Given his past experience with the club, I feel the transition will be seamless.” Perry, 44, re-joins the Pistons after serving as assistant general manager for the Seattle Supersonics for the 2007-08 campaign. He first joined the Pistons organization as a college scout during the summer of 2000 and was promoted to director of player personnel in June of 2002. Perry will be responsible for directing day-to-day operations of the basketball operations department, handling player personnel issues and assisting in roster development.
Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs is the winner of the NBA Sixth Man Award presented by Kia Motors as the league’s best player in a reserve role for the 2007-08 season, the NBA announced today. Ginobili received 615 out of a possible 620 points, including 123 of a possible 124 first-place votes, from a panel of 124 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Leandro Barbosa of the Phoenix Suns finished second with 283 points and Jason Terry of the Dallas Mavericks finished third with 44 points.
The Indianapolis Star (Mike Wells) reports: Danny Granger has set the bar as high as possible. “My goal is to be like Kobe (Bryant) because he scores and he locks people down on defense,” Granger said. “That’s my ultimate goal. I’ve never really created with my dribble. I need to become the isolation player where coach can come to me and I get a bucket for the team.” Granger carries himself like an emerging force who is ready to take the reins that Reggie Miller and Jermaine O’Neal have held for many years. It doesn’t hurt that he scored 30 or more points in three of the final four games. Basketball is more than offense, of course, and that’s what coach Jim O’Brien reminded him. “I think Danny will be an All-Star if he becomes a complete player,” O’Brien said. “A complete player being a guy that will be our best defensive player, that people know he’s our best defensive player. A guy that can absolutely shut the best player down.”
The AP reports: Ray Allen scored 18 points and Kevin Garnett had 16 as the two newcomers who led the Boston Celtics to the NBA’s best record sparked them to a 104-81 win Sunday night in their playoff opener against the Atlanta Hawks. Garnett stopped a 14-3 Hawks run with a jumper, starting a six-point Boston surge that made it 35-27 in the second quarter. And Allen scored 10 straight Celtics points midway through the third that extended a 13-point lead to 67-48 with 5:39 left in the period… Eighth-seeded Atlanta, which ended the NBA’s longest playoff drought with its first appearance in nine years, was led by rookie Al Horford with 20 points and 10 rebounds and Joe Johnson added 19 points… Paul Pierce scored 16 for Boston and Rajon Rondo had 15.
The AP reports: Andre Miller scored 20 points and Willie Green had a career playoff-high 17, helping the 76ers stun Detroit 90-86 Sunday in Game 1 of their first-round series. Sixers forward Reggie Evans smiled when told the Pistons were shooting the breeze with Flip Murray during breaks in the game… Rasheed Wallace took the blame for the loss—despite having 24 points, nine rebounds and matching a franchise playoff record with seven blocks—but didn’t think blowing a big lead had anything to do with talking to Murray… Andre Iguodala Iguodala made two free throws with 7 seconds left to seal the win… Iguodala finished with a career playoff-high 16 points after a slow start, Evans had a career playoff-high 11 points and 14 rebounds and Thaddeus Young scored 10 for the Sixers in his postseason debut. Billups scored 14, Richard Hamilton had 13 points on 5-of-17 shooting, Maxiell contributed 12 points and a career playoff-high 11 rebounds and Prince added 12.
The AP reports: Pau Gasol established career playoff highs with 36 points and eight assists, and he also had 16 rebounds and three blocked shots Sunday as the Los Angeles Lakers took command in the third quarter and beat the Denver Nuggets 128-114… Kobe Bryant, who said he made himself a decoy through most of the game, scored 18 of his 32 points in the final 8 minutes to keep Los Angeles safely ahead. Lamar Odom had 17 points, 14 rebounds and six assists and Luke Walton added 16 points for the Lakers, who entered having won eight of their last nine regular-season games to earn the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference… Carmelo Anthony had 30 points and 12 rebounds for the eighth-seeded Nuggets. Allen Iverson also had 30 points before picking up two technical fouls with 2:10 remaining, calling for immediate ejection. Linas Kleiza scored a career playoff high 23 points and J.R. Smith added 15 before fouling out with 3:14 left.
The AP reports: Dwight Howard was in high school the last time the Orlando Magic won a playoff game. On Sunday afternoon, he made sure Orlando didn’t have to wait any longer. Howard had 25 points and 22 rebounds and blocked five shots, and the Magic defeated the Toronto Raptors 114-100 in the opener of their first-round series. Jameer Nelson added 24 points for Orlando… Anthony Parker had 24 points and 8 rebounds for Toronto, Chris Bosh scored 21 and Rasho Nesterovic had 16 points and 8 rebounds. Jason Kapono scored 18 off the bench. The Raptors, who trailed by 20 points after the first quarter, drew within five with 10:24 left in the fourth on two quick 3-pointers by Kapono and a Parker jumper. But Toronto went scoreless for the next 3:16 as Orlando pulled away.
Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard have been buddies for years, but now they’re facing each other in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Here’s what Howard said about their relationship, as reported by Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun:
“We’ve really grown closer this past year, but for now we have to be enemies,” Howard said. “I just can’t wait to get it going. We’ve been talking about playing each other since the summer before last. We were around each other for the Olympic team (last year) and we were always talking about how his team would do against us and how my team would do against his.”