Category: General NBA insight

The Austin Toros today announced the addition of NBA veteran guard Ronald “Flip” Murray.  Murray will join the Toros bench tonight when the team takes on the Texas Legends at 7:30 pm at Cedar Park Center.  Murray will wear jersey number 24.  Da’Sean Butler has been waived due to injury.

Murray has played in the NBA eight seasons, starting in 2002-03 with the Bucks and averaging 9.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 487 games with multiple teams including the SuperSonics, Cavaliers, Pistons, Pacers, Hawks, Bobcats and Bulls.  Murray was the NCAA’s Division II Player of the Year during his senior season at Shaw.  Most recently, Murray played professionally in Turkey.

The Toros host the Texas Legends tonight and the Springfield Armor Friday night at Cedar Park Center for the final two regular season home games.  Both games tip-off at 7:30 pm.  Fans attending tonight’s game can view the Aflac NASCAR #99 inside the arena and the first 500 fans attending Friday night’s game will receive a free cinch bag courtesy of Multimedia Games in exchange for one non-perishable food item that will be donated to Caritas.

Danny Green wasn’t looking for vengeance or payback on the Cavaliers. He got some anyway.

Green scored 19 points against a Cleveland team that released him last season, Tony Parker added 19 and the San Antonio Spurs coasted to their eighth straight win, 125-90 over the lifeless Cavs, who have lost eight in a row and were blown out at home again.

Green played his rookie season for Cleveland, which cut him at the end of training camp in 2011. He’s found a new home with the Spurs, who built a 22-point lead in the first half and rested Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili for most of the fourth quarter while pushing their lead to 37.

“It does mean a little something to me because this was my first team,” Green said. “It’s nice, but that’s not the important thing for me. It’s more important that we continue to get better. We want to keep winning going into the playoffs.”

Rookie Kyrie Irving scored 13 points for the Cavs in his return after missing one game with a sprained right shoulder. But even with their best player back, Cleveland dropped its eighth straight and followed up a 37-point loss at home to Milwaukee with a 35-point setback.

— Reported by Tom Withers of the Associated Press

Cavaliers guard Daniel Gibson had successful surgery on Monday to repair a torn tendon in his left foot and ankle. The surgery was performed by Dr. Richard D. Ferkel at the Southern California Orthopedic Institute in Van Nuys, California.

Gibson will now undergo a period of rest and then transition into a rehabilitation phase, while missing the remainder of the Cavaliers season. His status will be updated as appropriate as he works towards a return to basketball activity.

Gibson is expected to make a full recovery from the injury and be ready for the start of training camp for the 2012-13 season.

The Seattle Mariners have sent a letter to the city of Seattle and King County officials saying as of now they do not support the idea of a new NBA/NHL arena in the same neighborhood as the Mariners home of Safeco Field.

The letter was sent from the team on Tuesday and signed by Mariners chairman Howard Lincoln. In the letter, Lincoln says the franchise supports the idea of the NBA returning to Seattle, but that an exhaustive examination of various sites for a new arena in the greater Seattle area needs to be conducted.

— Reported by Tim Booth of the Associated Press

For the Clippers, five in a row was a big deal. It had been over five years since the team accomplished what seems like a modest milestone, but they didn’t celebrate it.

They built on it.

Monday in Dallas, everything came together.

Randy Foye was draining everything from the perimeter. Caron Butler got to the rim. Blake Griffin scored easy baskets and grabbed every rebound. The only thing, really, was that Chris Paul didn’t shoot the ball well. That was just a momentary hiccup.

While Foye won’t knock down jumper after jumper most nights, the Clippers are looking like a team that’s starting to figure it all out. The rotation seems set, and the players seem to be comfortable in their roles.

— Reported by Dan Woike of the O.C. Register Blog

The Hornets say Eric Gordon is expected to play Wednesday night against Denver, marking his first action in three months.

The fourth-year shooting guard out of Indiana has played only two games this season because of a right knee injury.

He bruised his knee in the season opener, when he scored 20 points in a victory at Phoenix. He returned for one game Jan. 4 against Philadelphia, scoring 22 points in a loss.

— Reported by the Associated Press

The New York Knicks season has been a wild, unpredictable ride filled with surprises, disappointments, and extended winning and losing streaks. But now now one of the bright spots will be out recovering instead of helping the squad play like a functional unit.

Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press reports:

Say so long to Linsanity.

Jeremy Lin will miss the rest of the regular season because he needs knee surgery that will sideline him six weeks and could leave the Knicks without their star point guard in the playoffs—if they make it that far.

Lin had an MRI exam this week that revealed a small, chronic meniscus tear and he has elected to have surgery next week in New York.

With the regular season ending April 26, the biggest story in basketball this season is done unless the Knicks make a deep postseason run.

Speaking slowly during a pregame press conference, Lin was unable to hide his disappointment with the decision that was reached earlier Saturday after a painful workout.

“It (stinks) not being able to be out there with the team,” he said.

Upcoming: Lin-surgery.

The San Antonio Spurs don’t care that you think they are too old to matter anymore. They’ll keep right on winning, whether you like it or not.

The AP reports:

The San Antonio Spurs made it seven straight wins by beating the Indiana Pacers 112-103 in the NBA on Saturday.

Tim Duncan had 23 points and 11 rebounds while Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili added 18 points apiece for the Spurs, who are 8-1 since making a rare plunge into midseason moves by adding forwards Stephen Jackson and Boris Diaw .

Despite their hot form, San Antonio has not been able to reduce its 2-1/2 game deficit to first-placed Oklahoma City, which is also on a winning streak.

Paul George and Danny Granger each scored 18 for the Pacers, who are struggling to break out of the jammed East playoff picture and secure some home-court edge.

The Los Angeles Clippers today announced that they have assigned rookie guard Travis Leslie to the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA Development League.

This marks Leslie’s second stint with the Jam this season. In four games played with Bakersfield from March 2nd through March 11th, Leslie tallied 12.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 21.0 minutes per game.

The 47th overall selection in the 2011 NBA Draft, Leslie has averaged 1.4 points and 4.5 minutes in 10 games played for the Clippers this season.

The Heat’s two-day break in the schedule couldn’t come at a more important time. The team is searching the dregs of its energy reserves as the regular season nears its final month.

With a record of 8-6 since the All-Star break, the Heat (35-13) is dragging itself through the second half of the season. Blowout losses on Sunday and Monday were highlighted by sloppy play (turnovers), a lack of energy (rebounding) and general exhaustion. After the loss to the Indiana Pacers on Monday, you could hear the fatigue in the players’ voices and see it on the face of Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.

“Obviously, we’re in a rut right now mentally,” Chris Bosh said. “We just have to hang in there and figure something out. We have to be mentally tough and survive this.”

Bosh isn’t in a rut, exactly. It’s more like his game has fallen headfirst into a ditch. The Heat’s max-salary power forward had two rebounds and 14 points against the Pacers. Those numbers were merely the continuation of a trend.

–Reported by Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald