NBA Playoffs Blog – Page 71 – NBA Blog

David Lee injured, out for rest of 2013 playoffs

Golden State Warriors forward David Lee will miss the remainder of the 2013 NBA Playoffs due to a complete tear of his right hip flexor, the team announced today following an MRI that was conducted this morning.

Lee, 29, registered 10 points and 14 rebounds in 29 minutes during last night’s Game 1 loss against the Denver Nuggets before leaving the contest with 11:33 remaining in the fourth quarter due to the injury.

In 79 games during the regular season, Lee averaged 18.5 points (15th in NBA), 11.2 rebounds (T-4th), 3.5 assists and 36.8 minutes per contest, earning a spot on the Western Conference All-Star Team. The 6’9” forward led the league with 56 point/rebound double-doubles, becoming the first Warriors player to lead the NBA in the category since Wilt Chamberlain in 1963-64.

This really damages the Warriors’ playoff hopes. They’re currently in the first round of the postseason, matched up against the Denver Nuggets. Although Denver has some key injuries as well, the Warriors frontcourt is pretty empty without Lee’s services.

Joakim Noah continues to battle foot problems

The Nets are bringing postseason basketball to Brooklyn, and Joakim Noah might have to miss the party.

Noah, who grew up in New York, is battling foot problems and might be sidelined when the series opens Saturday, leaving the Chicago Bulls without their top option to defend Nets All-Star center Brook Lopez.

”It’s really hard, it’s really hard,” Noah said Friday. ”All the work you put in is to play in this situation. This is probably one of the hardest things I’ve had to deal with in my career right now. Going back home and playing in these playoff games means the world to me. Not being able to be ready for that is hard. I’m going to try and do everything I can to help the team.”

Noah’s absence could make a huge difference in what shapes up as a competitive series between the Nos. 4 and 5 seeds in the Eastern Conference. Chicago won three of the four meetings during the regular season, but only one game was decided by more than four points.

— Reported by Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press

Brandon Jennings sticks up for his Bucks

Brandon Jennings smiled when asked about his Thursday night prediction of the Bucks over the Miami Heat in six.

Hey, somebody had to stick up for the Bucks, right?

“We were joking around,” Jennings said after the Bucks practice session Friday at the Cousins Center. “I was joking around with Aaron Rodgers before I even said it.

“Of course it’s always going to be taken to the next level. But at the end of the day, we’re getting bashed on ESPN. We’re getting bashed on TNT, anyway. Now that I say we’ll win in six, now it’s a problem.”

— Reported by Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Blog)

Tracy McGrady has chance to finally advance in playoffs

Tracy McGrady has chance to finally progress in playoffs

Let’s start with the playoff thing. Because that’s where any discussion of Tracy McGrady usually starts, and often ends.

The playoff thing has dogged McGrady at practically every stop of his high-scoring career, whether it’s his six previous NBA destinations or, most recently, to the other side of the world in China.

The 33-year-old swingman signed by the Spurs on Tuesday for the postseason push bears this ignominious distinction: He is the only scoring champion in NBA history never to have won a postseason series.

That fact is a fact, and McGrady has found it to be inescapable.

“I think so much is made (about) I’ve never got past the first round,” McGrady said Wednesday morning after his first practice in San Antonio, “but it takes more than just me.”

Still, the playoff thing is an albatross. Nil-for-eight in previous postseasons, McGrady has been gifted with a chance to exorcise that pockmark from his otherwise sterling NBA résumé, but with a twist.

If the Spurs, seeded second in the upcoming Western Conference playoffs, do advance to the second round this season, McGrady won’t be the one driving them there. He is a passenger, only along for the ride.

— Reported by Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News

Bulls playoff opponent still undecided

By beating Orlando on Monday, the Bulls ensured their first-round playoff opponent will remain a mystery until Wednesday night.

The Bulls are a half-game behind Atlanta for fifth place in the Eastern Conference, but won the season series 2-1 and therefore own the tiebreaker against the Hawks.

Atlanta hosts Toronto on Tuesday night. As the Bulls discovered twice last week, the Raptors seem intent on finishing the season strong, so a Hawks win may not be a foregone conclusion.

An Atlanta loss to Toronto would put the Bulls in the driver’s seat. They could claim the No. 5 spot by beating Washington, regardless of what the Hawks do in their final game at New York on Wednesday.

— Reported by Mike McGraw of the Arlington Heights Daily Herald (Blog)

Knicks clinch No. 2 seed in East with win over Pacers

Carmelo Anthony and his sore left shoulder will probably get the night off Monday.

The New York Knicks have earned the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, and with it the chance the rest some aching bodies.

Anthony scored 25 points on 9-for-23 shooting against the rugged Indiana defense, and the Knicks wrapped up the second spot with a 90-80 victory over the Pacers on Sunday.

The Knicks are back on the court Monday at Charlotte, but Anthony doesn’t think he’ll be joining them with nothing left to play for in the regular season.

”I always said today was a real important game for us to come in and lock down (the No. 2 seed),” Anthony said. ”It was a big game for us so now guys can get their rest, I can get my rest and come back full speed ready for the playoffs.”

Chris Copeland added 20 points and J.R. Smith had 15 for the Knicks, who will host seventh-seeded Boston next weekend. New York is guaranteed the home-court advantage for the first two rounds of the playoffs after finishing a distant second to Miami in the conference…

Lance Stephenson scored 22 points and David West had 17 points and eight rebounds for the Pacers, who came into the game with a chance to catch the Knicks for second but had to settle for wrapping up No. 3 after Brooklyn lost 93-87 at Toronto…

The Pacers committed 26 turnovers that led to 33 points and shot 61.5 percent at the free throw line, losing for the fourth time in five games with a sloppy offensive performance. Coach Frank Vogel will rest some of his players, too, noting George’s 1-of-8 shooting from 3-point range.

— Reported by Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press

Kenyon Martin says he will be ready for playoffs

Knicks forward Kenyon Martin, currently nursing a sprained left ankle, pronounced himself a game-time decision for Sunday’s home game against the Indiana Pacers, but would “definitely” be ready for the start of the playoffs, he told the Daily News at Radio City Music Hall, where he took in a boxing card along with teammate Carmelo Anthony on Saturday night.

Martin sprained his ankle in the fourth quarter of the Knicks’ 120-99 win over the Wizards on Tuesday, the team’s 13th straight. Martin missed the next two games, including Thursday’s streak-busting loss to the Bulls. X-rays were negative on his ankle, and Martin, already dealing with a sore left knee, feels encouraged about his return.

“I’m getting there,” Martin said from ringside, seated on an elevated stage at Radio City Music Hall in between fights.

— Reported by Mitch Abramson of the New York Daily News

Celtics lock up 7th seed in East

Courtney Lee scored 20 points and Jeff Green added 17 as the Boston Celtics cruised to a 120-88 victory over the Orlando Magic on Saturday night.

The win locked up the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference for Boston, which never trailed in beating Orlando for the eighth straight time.

All five Celtics starters reached double figures, with Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce scoring 14 and 12 points, respectively, after sitting out Friday against Miami.

Tobias Harris led the Magic with 22 points, and Nik Vucevic added 16 points and 12 rebounds.

Orlando hasn’t won back-to-back games since December. The Magic play their final home game of season on Monday against Chicago, and head to Miami for the season finale on Wednesday.

The Celtics conclude their regular-season schedule against Indiana on Tuesday and visit Toronto on Wednesday…

Boston G Jason Terry was given the night off by Rivers, marking his first missed game of the season.

— Reported by Kyle Hightower of the Associated Press

Mavs miss playoffs for first time in a long time

This is unfamiliar, uncomfortable territory for Mark Cuban.

It’s the first full season of his ownership tenure in which the Dallas Mavericks are finished before the playoffs. He hopes it will be the last such season.

“I’ve always said there is one winner and 29 other teams tied for last,” Cuban said via email Thursday morning, hours after the Mavs were officially eliminated, ending a 12-year playoff streak. “Our goal is to win championships, so it’s disappointing to not win. But we will come back and get better next year.”

This will be a big summer for the Mavs, as Dirk Nowitzki has said dozens of times as Dallas’ dozen-year playoff streak neared its end.

So was last summer, but the Mavericks had to settle for essentially constructing a temporary supporting cast of players on expiring contracts or willing to sign one-year deals. That definitely wasn’t the plan when Cuban made the difficult post-lockout decision to let Tyson Chandler and other key championship pieces depart Dallas via free agency.

The ideal situation would be adding a superstar who could take the burden off soon-to-be-35-year-old Nowitzki. When the Mavs opted to create significant salary-cap space for the first time in the Cuban era, they did so with the belief that Chris Paul, Dwight Howard and Deron Williams would all be on the market last summer.

— Reported by Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas

Heat clinch home-court advantage for entire 2013 NBA playoffs

All the Miami Heat did was set a franchise single-season record for wins with four games left to play, clinch the top overall spot in the NBA and secure home-court advantage for the entirety of the playoffs.

No big deal.

No wild celebration was merited. No celebration at all, really. Just business as usual for the Heat, whose lone goal isn’t being the best team in April – but rather, being the best team in June. Miami wrapped up the No. 1 overall seed with a 103-98 win in Washington on Wednesday, a game where the Heat played without LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Udonis Haslem, all sidelined by minor injuries or illness.

”We’ve had an amazing year,” Heat forward Shane Battier told reporters in Washington. ”We’ve set a lot of records and we’ve had a lot of story lines the whole year. Hopefully our best story line is still ahead of us. That’s what we’re saving the high-fives for.”

It was Miami’s 62nd win, one more than the Heat club of 1996-97 managed.

And now what has seemed inevitable for the last couple weeks – Miami finishing the regular season atop the league – has become reality.

— Reported by Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press