Inside Hoops – Page 764 – NBA Blog

Chandler Parsons undergoes season-ending knee surgery

Dallas Mavericks forward Chandler Parsons underwent arthroscopic surgery today to address an injury to his right medial meniscus. The surgery was performed by team physician Dr. Daniel Worrel at The Carrell Clinic in Dallas.

Parsons will miss the remainder of the 2015-16 season.

The Mavericks are 35-36 this season and currently the 7th seed in the Western conference. They are in a very tight playoff race against the 6th seed Trail Blazers and 8th seed Rockets, with the Jazz very close in the 9th spot.

Parsons (6-10, 230) finished the year with averages of 13.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 29.5 minutes in 61 games (51 starts). He shot 49.2 percent (320-of-651) from the field and 41.4 percent (104-of-251) from 3-point range.

Over his final 30 games of the season (since Jan. 12), Parsons averaged 18.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 34.3 minutes. He shot 52 percent (204-of-392) from the floor and 47.5 percent (75-of-158) from deep in his last 30 games.

Pelicans sign Jordan Hamilton to 10-day contract

The New Orleans Pelicans have signed forward Jordan Hamilton to a 10-day contract. This brings their team roster to 17. They were able to exceed the usual 15-player maximum after receiving an injury hardship exception from the NBA.

The 6-7, 220-pound Hamilton most recently played for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers (D-League), appearing in 14 games and averaging 14.9 points on .497 shooting from the floor, 9.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists in 29.2 minutes per outing.

Selected 26th overall by Dallas in the 2011 NBA Draft out of the University of Texas, Hamilton has appeared in 140 career regular season games with Denver, Houston and the Los Angeles Clippers, holding averages of 5.5 points and 2.6 rebounds in 12.8 minutes per contest.

Hamilton will wear #25 for the Pelicans.

His signing marks the 36th “Call-Up” from the D-League this season.

The Pelicans are 26-45 this season and have been a huge disappointment, partially due to their level of play but certainly injuries played a huge factor in their struggle. The team recently announced that star forward Anthony Davis won’t play again this season. Davis recently had knee surgery, while playing through a long-time shoulder injury.

Nuggets sign Axel Toupane to multi-year contract

The Denver Nuggets have signed Axel Toupane to a multi-year contract.

The 6-7, 210 swingman appeared in 11 games for Denver, averaging 3.0 points and 1.3 rebounds in 13.8 minutes per game. He previously played in 32 games (14 starts) for the Toronto 905 of the NBA D-League this season, averaging 14.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.00 steals in 29.7 minutes per game.

The 23-year-old native of France played professionally for Strasbourg of the French Pro National Basketball League A from 2011 through 2015. He went undrafted in the 2014 NBA Draft.

The Nuggets are 30-42 this season and technically still in the race to qualify for the 2016 NBA playoffs, though they’d have to go on a big run to make that happen and get lucky as well. Not likely.

Meyers Leonard having season-ending shoulder surgery

Portland Trail Blazers forward Meyers Leonard will undergo surgery to repair his injured left shoulder and as a result will miss the remainder of the season.

The surgery is scheduled to be performed on Friday, April 8 by Dr. Neal ElAttrache at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles.

Through 61 games this season, Leonard is averaging 8.4 points and 5.1 rebounds per game.

Huge James Harden season stats also include a ton of turnovers

The Houston Rockets are 35-37 this season and half a game out of the playoff race, behind the 8th seed Utah Jazz. James Harden is putting up monster stats: 28.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 7.4 assists and 1.75 steals per game. But in an effort to carry this squad, he’s also averaging 4.6 turnovers per game. That’s a ton. Here’s the Denver Post blog with more:

Houston Rockets guard James Harden has a chance to break the league’s all-time single-season turnovers record. At 332 with 10 games remaining, Harden needs just 34 to tie Artis Gilmore’s 39-year-old mark, according to basketball-reference.com. He is on pace for 372.

The four-time all-star became the first player in a decade to reach at least 321 turnovers last season, the first since Miami’s Dwyane Wade (321) and Philadelphia’s Allen Iverson (344) in 2004-05. Iverson was the first to reach at least 340 since Clippers guard Ron Harper in the 1986-87 season.

In second place this year, Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook has 303 through 71 games. He’s on pace for 350 — that’s tied with Charles Barkley’s 1985-86 season in Philadelphia. In third, Washington’s John Wall (291) is trending toward 336 — top-20 all-time.

Alan Anderson day-to-day with groin injury

The Washington Wizards are 35-36 and if the season ended today would miss the playoffs. Here’s the Washington Post blog with a health update:

Alan Anderson has not played in three of the last four games for the Washington Wizards and the team has listed him as out because of ankle ailment. Coach Randy Wittman has said it’s been Anderson’s left ankle, which he had surgery on in October, which forced him to miss the first 55 games of the season.

But Anderson’s agent said Thursday that Anderson is dealing with a groin injury, not an ankle problem, and his status is “day to day.” The Wizards host the Minnesota Timberwolves Friday before beginning a five-game west-coast trip Sunday in Los Angeles against the Lakers.

Jazz enjoy big win road vs Rockets

The NBA playoff race is heating up, and in the West the Utah Jazz are now the 8th seed, slightly ahead of the Houston Rockets. Utah also now has the same record as the Dallas Mavericks, who are currently the 7th seed. Here’s the Deseret News reporting:

Before Wednesday’s game against the Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder didn’t want to hear about how important the game was, even though the two teams are jockeying for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

“It gets you on a slippery slope,” he said, pointing out that the game against the Rockets two months ago was just as big in the grand scheme of things and that every Jazz game is important.

But after a gutsy, come-from-behind 89-87 victory over the Rockets at the Toyota Center, Snyder was all smiles, reveling in his team’s resolve in overcoming an 18-point first-half deficit and sort of admitting how big the win was.

“We had big performances, guys stepped up,” he said. “Our guys composed themselves and started getting some stops and that opened things up for us.”

Help coming soon for the Pistons

The Detroit Pistons are 38-34 and one game ahead of the Chicago Bulls for the 8th spot in the Eastern conference. We’re down to the wire in the 2016 NBA playoff race. For this squad especially, each remaining win/loss matters. Here’s Michigan Live with a health update:

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Reggie Bullock were back at the Detroit Pistons’ practice facility today and presumably will be recovered well enough from their illnesses to play Friday against the Charlotte Hornets.

The two guards both fell ill Wednesday and missed that night’s 118-102 victory over the Orlando Magic.

Darrun Hilliard got his first NBA start in their absence.

Festus Ezeli ahead of schedule in knee rehab

The Warriors are 63-7 this season. That’s a 90 percent winning percentage. And they’ll be even better when backup center Festus Ezeli, the team’s fifth leading scorer (7.5 ppg), third leading rebounder (5.9 rpg) and third leading shot-blocker (1.23 bpg) returns to action. Here’s the San Francisco Chronicle reporting:

Festus Ezeli said Wednesday that he’s ahead of schedule in his return from left knee surgery, adding some optimism to an otherwise choppy contract year for the Warriors’ backup center.

“I mean, to be honest, this is not an ideal contract year for me,” Ezeli said in his first public statements since the team updated his progress from a Feb. 8 arthroscopic procedure. “I started off, and I felt like I was gaining confidence and I was playing pretty well. I was getting a feel for the chemistry of the team, and we were bonding.

“Getting hurt right there in the middle is not ideal, but you can only focus on what you can control. Right now, I’m just working on my rehab and working on getting back, so I can work toward our main goal, which is to win a championship.”

Huge Jazz-Rockets game tonight

Through Tuesday’s games, the Rockets have the 8th seed in the Western conference, with the Jazz just half a game behind them for 9th. The two teams play against each other tonight in Houston. Huge matchup. Here’s the Salt Lake Tribune reporting:

Gordon Hayward began celebrating his 26th birthday on Wednesday in as much style as is possible for an NBA player about to play his biggest game of the regular season. There was a brief shootaround. He was serenaded by the Utah Jazz rookies. Assistant coach Steven Schwartz penned a hip-hop verse in his honor.

Besides that, there weren’t too many smiles and laughs coming from Hayward, the Jazz small forward. A win over the Houston Rockets is all he and anyone associated with the organization really wants.

This is the chance the Jazz have been waiting for. They are currently a half-game behind the Rockets with 12 to play. The tie-breaker for the season between the two teams is at stake, which means tonight essentially counts as two games in the standings. With four teams jostling for the Western Conference’s last three playoff spots, the enormity of tonight’s game at the Toyota Center can’t be understated.