General NBA insight – Page 43 – NBA Blog

Dwyane Wade, Kevin Durant named NBA Players of Week

Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade and Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant were today named NBA Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played Monday, Jan. 25 through Sunday, Jan. 31.

Wade led the Heat to a 4-0 week, which included wins over the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks, behind averages of 24.0 points (tied-third in the Eastern Conference), 7.0 assists (fourth in the conference), 4.8 rebounds, 2.0 steals (tied-eighth in the conference) and 1.75 blocks (tied-fifth in the conference). On Jan. 26, he tallied 27 points, eight assists, four rebounds, three steals and two blocks during a 102-98 win over the Brooklyn Nets.

Durant’s league-best 34.7 points on the week helped the Thunder to a 3-0 record. He ranked fourth in the Western Conference with 11.7 rebounds, contributed 4.3 assists and averaged a conference-high 40.0 minutes. Durant recorded point-rebound double-doubles twice, including a 44-point, 14-rebound outing on Jan. 26, as the Thunder topped the New York Knicks 128-122 in overtime.

Other nominees for the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week were Golden State’s Klay Thompson, Indiana’s Monta Ellis, the Los Angeles Clippers’ Chris Paul, Memphis’ Jeff Green, New Orleans’ Ryan Anderson and Jrue Holiday, Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook and Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry.

January 23 Celtics-Sixers and Jazz-Wizards games postponed

The National Basketball Association announced today that two games scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 23 have been postponed due to potential severe weather conditions in the Eastern United States.

The game between the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers has been postponed and will be made up on Sunday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. ET. The game between the Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards has been postponed and will be rescheduled at a later date.

Pregame Cameron Payne, Russell Westbrook dance routine: Swagdaddies

Look, people. Pregame NBA dance routines from players are important. They set the tone. Bad dance routine? Expect a loss. That’s just the way it is.

OK, maybe not quite. Perhaps we’re just being silly. Still, pregame dance routines are fun, so we support them and any coverage they receive.

Here’s ESPN.com reporting:

Cameron Payne says there’s a simple name for it.

“Swagdaddies,” he says.

Hyphen?

“No hyphen. One word. Swagdaddies.” With an emphasis on swag.

Payne has used that word to describe other things, like a ridiculous Euro step, but in this case is talking about his now moderately infamous pregame dance routine — if you want to call it that — with Russell Westbrook. It goes like this: Actually, it doesn’t go like anything. You’ve just sort of got to see it. And then watch the next game’s routine, because no two are the same.

“Every game is something new,” Westbrook said.

Number of NBA preseason games may be reduced

Here’s Michigan Live reporting on the NBA preseason landscape and how it is expected to change in upcoming seasons:

It is anticipated that there will be a movement to reduce the number of preseason games by 2017, when the players and owners both can opt out of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who was in Detroit for his first Pistons home game since taking the job in February 2014, said he has a position on the matter “but it’s something that we’re going to save for bargaining with our players.” Teams typically play eight preseason games. Some coaches and general managers, including Pistons president-coach Stan Van Gundy have advocated for a reduction. “It’s something that we’re currently discussing,” Silver said. “Obviously, it has an economic impact on the league if we reduce the number of preseason games, but I’m also sympathetic to the wear-and-tear issue on our players as well.”

NBA Eastern conference doing well this season

Here’s the Indianapolis Star reporting on the NBA Eastern conference, which so far this season has collectively been around as good as the West:

For so many years, analysts and fans used to refer to the collection of teams in the East as the Leastern Conference or the Other Conference because the West was so dominant. Yes, the West still has the two best teams in the league with the Golden State Warriors, the defending champions, and San Antonio Spurs.

But this season has shown there is more of a balance of talent throughout the NBA. Entering Wednesday, 10 teams in the Eastern Conference possessed a winning record, double the five it had last season on Dec. 23. The East also had a winning record – 85-84 – against teams from the West through Wednesday’s games.

The Indiana Pacers are one of the many reasons the East has regained its footing. A resurgence from Paul George and a remodeled offense from coach Frank Vogel has pushed the Pacers from out of the playoffs to one of the conference’s better teams. Yet the Pacers understand their place in the standings can change quickly if they have a losing streak or win three consecutive games, as they did last week.

Video: Spike Lee directs anti-gun violence PSA with Melo, Steph, CP3, J.Noah

On Christmas Day, new Spike Lee-directed video PSAs featuring Carmelo Anthony (New York Knicks), Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors), Joakim Noah (Chicago Bulls), Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers) and survivors of gun violence will debut on ABC and ESPN’s NBA game coverage.

Lee joins Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund and the NBA to launch “End Gun Violence.”

Here is the video:

NBA news and notes: Dec. 21, 2015

The Trail Blazers announced that Damian Lillard (foot) will not play tonight against the Hawks, snapping his string of 275 consecutive games. Since Portland joined the NBA in 1970-71, Lillard is the only NBA player to begin his career starting his team’s first 275 games, according to Elias.

Kings coach George Karl (1,153 wins) needs three victories to pass Phil Jackson for fifth place on the NBA’s career list.

Warriors guard Stephen Curry has made a three-pointer in 100 consecutive regular-season games, the second-longest streak in NBA history. The record is 127 games by Hawks swingman Kyle Korver, whose streak lasted from November 2012 to March 2014.

Rookies Karl-Anthony Towns of Minnesota, Jahlil Okafor of Philadelphia and Kristaps Porzingis of New York all averaged at least 13 points and eight rebounds in their first 25 games. According to Elias, the last time three rookies averaged those totals in their first 25 games was during the 1992-93 season, when five players accomplished the feat: LaPhonso Ellis, Tom Gugliotta, Christian Laettner, Alonzo Mourning and Shaquille O’Neal.

Bulls center Joakim Noah has passed Horace Grant to become the franchise leader in offensive rebounds (1,893). Noah is 491 total rebounds behind Michael Jordan (5,836) for the most in team history.

Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has scored 20 or more points in 926 regular-season games, tied with Michael Jordan for third most in NBA history, according to Elias. Karl Malone leads with 1,134 20-point games, followed by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 1,122.

Clippers guard Chris Paul (7,156 assists) is five assists from supplanting Terry Porter for 13th place on the NBA’s all-time list. Paul is second among active players behind Timberwolves guard Andre Miller (8,477).

Guard Arron Afflalo is averaging 21.0 points on 59.6 percent shooting during the Knicks’ four-game winning streak.

Nuggets guard Will Barton had 32 points, 10 rebounds and six assists off the bench in Sunday’s loss to the Pelicans, the first 30/10/5 game for a reserve since the Pacers’ Detlef Schrempf in 1993, per Elias.

NBA TV will televise a record 12 live games from the NBA Development League Showcase 2016 presented by Samsung at Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz, Calif. Each of the league’s 19 teams will play two regular-season games apiece during the Jan. 6-10 event.

— NBA News

2015 NBA Christmas Day game info

The NBA will play five games on Christmas Day, all nationally televised, for the eighth consecutive year.

Friday’s schedule features Cavaliers-Warriors (5 p.m. ET, ABC) — the seventh time that the teams from the previous season’s Finals are meeting on Christmas Day the following season — as well as Pelicans-Heat (12 p.m., ESPN), Bulls-Thunder (2:30 p.m., ABC), Spurs-Rockets (8 p.m., ESPN) and Clippers-Lakers (10:30 p.m., ESPN).

Six NBA MVP winners are set to suit up on Christmas Day, including the holiday’s all-time scoring leader, the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant, who is scheduled to make his record 16th and final appearance on Christmas.

Thirteen of the 15 players selected to the 2014-15 All-NBA Teams are also poised to compete.

Celtics assign Terry Rozier to D-League

The Boston Celtics announced today that they have assigned guard Terry Rozier to the Maine Red Claws of the NBA Development League.

In his latest matchup with Maine on November 20, Rozier tallied 16 points on 5-10 (.500) shooting from the field, three rebounds and a game-high eight assists in 31 minutes of action. He has played in three contests for the Red Claws this season and is averaging 23.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 7.3 assists and 1.0 steal in 33.8 minutes per game.

Rozier has appeared in 15 contests for the Celtics this season and is averaging 1.8 points and 1.1 rebounds in 6.4 minutes per game over that span.

Basketball Hall of Fame set to reduce eligibility wait time

Here’s NBA.com reporting some Hall of Fame news, for those of you who maintain a scoreboard at home as to when your favorite players might be added to the Hall’s list of greats:

The Hall of Fame is making major changes to the election process, including reducing the wait for eligibility by one year in a move that could suddenly produce an unexpected mega-class of Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson and Yao Ming in 2016, NBA.com has learned.

An official announcement is expected this week. But people with knowledge of the plans said the Hall has finalized the adjustment to shorten the wait time from five seasons in retirement to four before a player can be nominated, wanting to avoid what becomes a sixth year by the time voting is complete near the end of the NBA regular season. Under the new plan, voting and potential enshrinement would come after five calendar years, rather than five NBA seasons.