Category: General NBA insight

Brandon Jennings bobbled the ball once, twice, then let it fly.

His shaky ballhandling was erased by the steady aim of his 3-point shot. Jennings hit the go-ahead 3 late in the fourth quarter and finished with 33 points, eight assists, and four steals to lead the Milwaukee Bucks to a 105-96 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night.

”It was actually a big shot for us because they had the momentum,” Jennings said. ”It just gave us back the momentum.”

Monta Ellis scored 18 points and had seven assists, and Mike Dunleavy had 13 to help the Bucks improve to 3-0 on the road for the first time since they won their first four in 2001-02. Jennings and Ellis combined to make 20 of 41 shots with 10 rebounds and 15 assists…

Jrue Holiday had 25 points and a whopping eight turnovers for the Sixers. Jason Richardson scored 20 points and Wright had 14. The Sixers made 10 of 24 3-pointers.

— Reported by Dan Gelston of the Associated Press

Carmelo Anthony scored 21 points and JR Smith had 17 to lead the New York Knicks to a 110-88 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night.

Raymond Felton scored 16 points and Tyson Chandler had 14 to lead the Knicks to their first 3-0 start since the 1999-2000 season. The Knicks beat the Sixers 100-84 on Sunday in the opener of the home-and-home series.

The Knicks busted the game open in the third quarter, stretching the lead to 21 points. They got a surprising third from 38-year-old Rasheed Wallace, who scored eight points and hit a couple of 3-pointers, including a 26-footer at the buzzer to end the quarter.

After a solid first, the Sixers fell apart, and got nothing going with their set offense. Jrue Holiday led them with 17 points.

Wallace was wooed out of retirement by coach Mike Woodson following two years off spent in quiet in North Carolina. He gave the Knicks a nice, unexpected boost in the quarter from long range. Several thousand Knicks fans came out to the Wells Fargo Center and they went wild when Wallace unleashed his 3-point attempts.

— Reported by Dan Gelston of the Associated Press

A few hours before taking over Verizon Center, pop music sensation Justin Bieber paid a visit to Wizards practice, peeking down from the railing above the court. Martell Webster and John Wall had a chance to meet with Bieber, who is only 10 months younger than rookie Bradley Beal.

Bieber later sent out a message to his 29 million-plus Twitter followers that read, “pre-concert warmup. ballin with the wizards. #DC”

The pint-sized pop star didn’t actually hit the court, though A.J. Price said he would’ve liked to have seen the youngster come down in some shorts and high tops to show Bieber a few things. As assistant coach Sam Cassell headed to the locker room after practice, he shouted, “I got Bieber fever!”

— Reported by Michael Lee of the Washington Post (Blog)

Unlike the Philadelphia 76ers, the New York Knicks didn’t tip off the season on time last week. But it was the Knicks, and not the 76ers, who looked to be in midseason form Sunday afternoon.

Carmelo Anthony scored 27 points to lead four New York Knicks in double figures as New York routed Philadelphia 100-84 at Madison Square Garden.

J.R. Smith scored 20 points and hit four of the Knicks’ 11 3-pointers, Jason Kidd scored 12 points and Raymond Felton added 11 points for the Knicks…

Jrue Holiday had 27 points and Thaddeus Young scored 16 points for the 76ers, who fell to 1-1 in playing their first game in four days. Evan Turner had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds for the visitors.

“I thought they were much more aggressive than us,” 76ers coach Doug Collins said. “I think the layoff hurt us a little bit. We didn’t adjust to the speed of the game, the physicality of the game early. I’m hoping as we start playing more games we’ll be better.”

— Reported by Jerry Beach of the Sports Xchange

J.J. Redick scored 24 points, Arron Afflalo and Glen Davis each had 22 points, and Nikola Vucevic added 18 points and 13 rebounds as the Orlando Magic rallied to beat the Phoenix Suns 115-94 Sunday night.

The Magic trailed by as many as 13 points early in the second half, but used a 40-point third quarter to build as much as a 21-point cushion in the fourth.

Luis Scola led the Suns with 24 points and Michael Beasley added 22. But Phoenix’s shooting eroded overall in the second half.

With the victory the Magic opened a season 2-0 for the first time since 2009-10. The Suns lost their fifth straight game in Orlando.

— Reported by Kyle Hightower of the Associated Press

The Philadelphia 76ers announced today that they have named Aaron Barzilai as their Director of Basketball Analytics. Barzilai joins the Sixers from the Memphis Grizzlies, where he served as the Basketball Analytics Consultant dating back to April of 2009.

In his role with the Grizzlies, Barzilai was the sole advanced analytics consultant for the team and reported directly to General Manager Chris Wallace. He assessed potential transactions, including trades, free agent signings and draft picks.

Barzilai is the founder of BasketballValue.com, a website which presents adjusted and unadjusted plus/minus for players and units to illustrate the impact a player has on the court as well as on a team’s offensive and defensive efficiency. He has also contributed content to 82games.com.

A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Barzilai also owns a Ph.D. and Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford. He was a member of MIT’s varsity basketball team and was the co-captain his senior season.

The Boston Celtics announced today that they exercised the fourth year option in the contract of guard Avery Bradley. This option covers the 2013-2014 NBA Season

Bradley, a 6’2” guard, had a breakout season during the 2011-12 season recording career highs in virtually every statistical category. Bradley averaged 7.6 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 21.4 minutes in 64 games last season. He shot 49.8% from the field and shot 40.7% from three-point land. He set new career-high with 28 points against Atlanta on April 20 while also recording a career-high four steals. The former Texas Longhorn averaged 12.3 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.07 steals in his 28 starts while improving his shooting to 50.4% from the field and 46.5% from three. He had 20 games in which he netted 10 or more points and four games in which he recorded 20 or more.

The Philadelphia 76ers announced today that they have waived forward Devin Searcy. The Sixers roster now stands at 14.

Searcy (6-10, 226) appeared in two games for the Sixers this preseason. He played overseas last season after not being selected in the 2011 NBA Draft.

The San Antonio Spurs today announced that they have waived forward Derrick Brown and center Eddy Curry.

Brown was signed by the Spurs on Sept. 27. He appeared in five preseason games, averaging 6.6 points and 1.0 assist in 15.4 minutes.

Curry joined the Spurs on Oct.1 and saw action in five preseason games, averaging 8.4 points and 3.6 rebounds in 15.4 minutes.

The Memphis Grizzlies waived forward/center Michael Dunigan and guard Kyle Weaver, Grizzlies General Manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations Chris Wallace announced today.

Dunigan (6-10, 245) averaged 0.5 points and 2.3 rebounds in 6.8 minutes in four games for Memphis during the preseason. The 23-year-old Oregon product signed with the Grizzlies as a free agent on Sept. 29 after professional stints in Israel, Estonia, Italy and Ukraine.

Weaver (6-6, 201) recorded 2.3 points and 0.3 rebounds in 5.7 minutes in three appearances for Memphis during the preseason. Signed as a free agent on Oct. 1, the 26-year-old Washington State product holds NBA career averages of 5.0 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 18.9 minutes in 73 games (19 starts) over three seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz.

Drafted by the Charlotte Bobcats in the second round (38 th overall) of the 2008 NBA Draft, Weaver has also played for the NBA Development League’s Tulsa 66ers, Iowa Energy and Austin Toros, as well as overseas in Belgium and Germany.

Memphis’ current roster stands at 16