NBA Playoffs Blog – Page 87 – NBA Blog

Joakim Noah will miss Bulls-76ers Game 5

Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah were at the Berto Center on Monday. While the swelling in Noah’s severely sprained left ankle has subsided some, he remains in a walking boot and is out for Game 5 on Tuesday.

Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau continued his cat-and-mouse game regarding injuries, merely conceding Noah is “most likely out.” But minutes later, he said the same starting lineup from Game 4 featuring Omer Asik at center would start Game 5.

“He did a good job for us,” Thibodeau said of Asik. “He has to keep doing what he does — anchor the defense, protect the rim, set great screens, run the floor. Just do his job.”

As for Rose, the clock on his recovery from a torn left anterior cruciate ligament starts after he undergoes surgery, which hasn’t been scheduled. Given that Rose typically trains during the offseason in Santa Monica, Calif., some of his recovery likely will take place there.

— Reported by the Chicago Tribune

Joe Johnson wants the ball more

Asked if he was happy with the number of touches he got in Game 4, Joe Johnson uttered just one word: “No,’’ he said. That was all.

Johnson took only eight shots in the 101-79 Game 4 debacle against the Celtics and made just four. That number of attempts was down significantly from the first three games, in which Johnson took 15 shots in Game 1, 17 in Game 2, and 28 in Game 3, the last total without power forward Josh Smith.

“I don’t think they’re doing nothing different defensively on me,’’ Johnson said. “I think it’s basically just getting the opportunity to touch the ball. That’s it.’’

The Celtics have been bearing down on Johnson, swarming him particularly at the end of regulation in Game 3, forcing him to pass – one resulted in a Willie Green miss that would have given the Hawks a late lead.

— Reported by Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe

Baron Davis out at least 12 months with knee injuries

Knicks point guard Baron Davis received the worst possible news on Monday when an MRI revealed that he tore the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his right knee in the second half of the Knicks’ Game 4 victory.

The injuries, which include a partial tear of the patella tendon, are career-threatening, and will keep the 33-year-old Davis sidelined for at least 12 months.

“The one thing he did say is, ‘Man, hey, I tried to give you all I could,’ and I have a great deal of respect for players that work for me and work for the organization and try to do the best they can to help us win ballgames,” Mike Woodson said.

— Reported by Frank Isola of the New York Daily News

CP3 leads Clippers past Grizzlies in OT to 3-1 series lead

Chris Paul scored eight of his 27 points in a dynamic overtime performance, and the Clippers moved to the verge of their second playoff series victory in 36 years with a 101-97 win over Memphis on Monday night, taking a 3-1 series lead.

The Clippers blew a 10-point lead late in regulation before finishing without Blake Griffin, who fouled out midway through overtime. It could have been another disaster for a franchise with more than its share, but Paul wouldn’t allow it…

Griffin had 30 points and seven assists before fouling out for the Clippers, who blew an 84-74 lead over the final 4 1/2 minutes before Paul took charge in extra time. He played with the same intensity he showed late in regulation, heedlessly flinging himself over the front row of chairs in an attempt to save a loose ball…

After Paul hit consecutive jumpers to put the Clippers ahead 99-93 with 44 seconds left, Mike Conley’s layup with 8.1 seconds left trimmed the Clippers’ lead back to two points. But after Mo Williams hit two free throws with 7.2 seconds left and Rudy Gay missed a meaningless 3-pointer, Griffin and Paul embraced while another frenzied sellout crowd of long-suffering Clippers fans roared…

Conley scored a career playoff-high 25 points and Gay had 23 on 8-of-25 shooting for the Grizzlies, who couldn’t match Paul’s late-game poise in another thrilling chapter of a highly entertaining series with four games decided by a total of 15 points…

Caron Butler, playing with a broken bone in his left hand, scored 14 points for the Clippers, who still can’t be comfortable after getting outrebounded 47-36 and giving away a big late lead.

— Reported by Greg Beacham of the Associated Press

Spurs complete 4-game sweep of Jazz

The San Antonio Spurs were feeling good Monday night after sweeping their first-round Western Conference series with the Utah Jazz.

They also were feeling some pain.

”I’m sore,” said reserve Stephen Jackson, who played 26 minutes in the down-to-the wire 87-81 victory. ”Those guys play hard.”

Fortunately, the Spurs are going to get some rest before the next round.

San Antonio awaits the winner of the Grizzlies-Clippers series, which may not be decided until Sunday. The Clippers lead 3-1 after winning 101-97 in overtime on Monday night…

Star sixth man Manu Ginobili hit consecutive 3-pointers after the Jazz had pulled within 61-58 late in the third quarter. And after the Jazz rallied from 21 down to get within four on Al Jefferson’s put-back in the final minute, Ginobili turned a steal by MVP candidate Tony Parker into a layup that sealed the win.

”I wasn’t making many shots, but I wasn’t taking that many either,” said Ginobili, who was 0 for 8 from 3-point range in the first three games but had three 3s Monday and finished with a team-high 17 points…

Parker had 11 points on 4-of-14 shooting Monday, Duncan added 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting, and starters Kawhi Leonard, Boris Diaw and Danny Green combined for a total of eight points. The Spurs’ bench picked up the slack, outscoring Utah’s reserves 57-10 and finishing with 27 more points than their own starters.

— Reported by Lynn DeBruin of the Associated Press

Ginobili had 17 points to spearhead a 57-10 edge for the Spurs’ bench and help overcome the first mediocre nights of the playoffs from Parker (11 points, 4 of 14) and Tim Duncan (11 points, three blocks).

Ginobili hit his first three 3-pointers of the series during a 15-0 second-half run that helped the Spurs build a 21-point lead with 6:17 to go.

At that point, Utah center Al Jefferson seemed a prophet. Maybe somebody could beat the Spurs, but it wouldn’t be the Jazz.

Then, with the Spurs’ key players on the bench — presumably to be mothballed until the second round — Utah sprang to life.

Jefferson finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds. Paul Millsap had 10 and 19. Derrick Favors, shifted into the starting lineup as Utah coach Ty Corbin opted to go jumbo, had 16 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks.

“They junked it up,” Duncan said. “They got real physical and real active, and found a way to make plays and get back into the game.”

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

The Jazz started with a big lineup because Corbin hoped putting 6-10 Favors in with 6-8 Millsap and 6-10 Jefferson would give Utah an inside advantage on offense and defense against the Spurs.

But Utah sputtered out of the gates again, only scoring 19 points in the first quarter. A 21-3 Spurs run, reminiscent of the killer 20-0 surge San Antonio had in the 31-point Game 2 blowout, helped the deep and deadly visitors go into the locker room with a 50-42 lead.

Jefferson scored a couple of baskets in a row for the Jazz in the middle of the second half, but there was a big problem between those two makes. Namely, Utah suffered through dry spell that lasted eight minutes and nine seconds, during which Ginobili hit three 3-pointers and scored 10 points in a 15-0 Spurs run.

San Antonio stretched that lead to 21 before Utah dug deep one last time. Even that last lineup was reflective of the Jazz’s season makeup, considering it included veterans-trying-to-prove-themselves in Jefferson, Millsap and Devin Harris, a young up-and-comer in 20-year-old Favors and a player trying to find his way in the league in DeMarre Carroll, who was picked up in February after Denver waived him.

— Reported by Jody Genessy of the Deseret News

Despite poor shooting, Sixers in command of series with Bulls

Flash ahead to this week where the Sixers have surprisingly built a 3-1 series lead over the top-seeded Chicago Bulls in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. To build that lead the Sixers won back-to-back games where they shot 39.2 percent or lower. Since 1986, there have been just 10 other teams to win two playoff games when shooting 39.2 percent or worse.

In Game 3, the Sixers beat the Bulls by five points while shooting 34.2 percent from the field. Since 1986, only seven other teams have won playoff games while shooting worse. Six of those teams eventually advanced to the conference finals. Five of them went to the NBA Finals.

“We get tight at home sometimes and we want to make every shot,” said Andre Iguodala, who has made just six of the 30 shots he has attempted outside of the paint in the series. “We appreciate the support we get from our fans, but sometimes we want to do so well that we get tight, so we have to get back to the main message, which is to keep playing and keep shooting.”

— Reported by John Finger of CSN Philly

Bulls don’t blame refs for loss but still cry foul

The 89-82 deficit on the scoreboard hurt the Bulls badly enough.

The 31-14 discrepancy in free-throw attempts felt like piling on.

“Listen, we’re not going to blame the referees for our loss,” Carlos Boozer said. “It was our fault we let up 25 points in the fourth quarter. But the discrepancy was huge and I thought we were being pretty aggressive.”

Several critical plays down the stretch rankled the Bulls.

Trailing 82-80, Boozer drove hard and appeared to draw contact from Elton Brand, who blocked his shot.

“It was a great pocket pass by C.J. (Watson),” Boozer said. “I was trying to go to the hole strong. Obviously, I wanted a layup or dunk. I thought I had some contact. I thought I got fouled to be frank. The fouls they were calling on the other side, I thought that call could’ve been made. But they didn’t call it. We just kept playing on.”

— Reported by K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune

Al Jefferson says Spurs are better than Jazz

Jefferson said he hasn’t competed against a team comparable to San Antonio during his eight-year career. And three separate times during an interview Sunday, the Utah big man acknowledged the Spurs are stronger than and superior to the Jazz.

“It gets to the point where you’re just playing a team that’s better than you; that know what it takes to win and know how to win,” Jefferson said.

He added: “If you lose to a team because you didn’t play your best, that’s one thing. If you’re playing your best and doing everything that you can, and you’re just playing against a team that’s better than you, that’s another one.”

— Reported by Brian T. Smith of the Salt Lake Tribune

No Mavs playoff money for Lamar Odom

In public, Dallas Mavericks players have been diplomatic when discussing Lamar Odom’s failure to compete this season. Their truer feelings came out in a locker room vote Sunday, when they decided not to include Odom in their share of playoff money.

A team source confirmed that Odom will miss out on about a $14,000 playoff share.

“If the Lamar thing would have worked out and if he would have played like the year before when he was the best sixth man, I think we would have had a shot,” Dirk Nowitzki said of going deeper in the playoffs. “It would have given us another playmaker, another guy that’s long, that can defend and rebound.

“But for whatever reason the stuff he was going through off the court was just too much. He couldn’t help us the way he wanted, the way we wanted, and we had to move on without him.”

— Reported by ESPN Dallas

Supporting cast gives Lakers 3-1 edge over Nuggets

Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum put up their usual big numbers. Their supporting cast came up even bigger, sealing the Los Angeles Lakers’ 92-88 victory over Denver on Sunday night that put the Nuggets on the brink of elimination.

Bryant had 22 points and Bynum added 19 to help the Lakers overcome a six-point halftime deficit and take a 3-1 lead in the first-round playoff series that they can wrap up Tuesday night when the series shifts back to Staples Center for Game 5.

Sixth-man Jordan Hill had 12 points and 11 rebounds, and recently acquired guard Ramon Sessions and reserve point guard Steve Blake each hit crucial 3-pointers in the final minute as the Lakers broke free.

Those were the players the Nuggets preferred had the ball in crunch time, and Bryant wasn’t at all hesitant to oblige…

Sessions, whose acquisition from Cleveland this spring led to the trade of five-time NBA champion Derek Fisher, finished with 12 points, and Blake had 10…

After torching the Lakers for 50 points combined in the previous two games, Ty Lawson was held to 11 points and Nuggets big men Kenneth Faried and JaVale McGee weren’t nearly as effective on offense or disruptive defensively as they were in Game 2, when they combined for 28 points and 30 rebounds. Together, they had 14 points and 11 rebounds Sunday…

The game was briefly delayed with 1:10 left in the first half when a female fan started walking across the court while the Nuggets were setting up a play.

— Reported by the Associated Press