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Caron Butler fractured his left hand during the third quarter of the Clippers’ playoff game against Memphis on Sunday.
Butler was holding his hand after he scored a basket in the third quarter. He had 12 points on five-for-12 shooting.
The Clippers said Butler’s status for the rest of the best-of-seven Western Conference playoff series against the Grizzlies will be determined later.
— Reported by the Los Angeles Times
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Chris Paul hit a pair of free throws with 23.7 seconds left, and the Los Angeles Clippers rallied from 27 down to beat the Memphis Grizzlies 99-98 Sunday night in the opening game of this Western Conference series.
Rudy Gay missed a 15-footer with 0.9 seconds left after the Grizzlies squandered a lead they held for the first 47 minutes.
The Clippers lost Caron Butler to a broken left hand. But Nick Young scored 19 points off the bench, including three 3-pointers in the midst of the Clippers’ 26-1 run. Paul finished with 14 points, and Blake Griffin had 17. Butler had 12 before leaving the game.
— Reported by the Associated Press
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The New York Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Chris Paul today were named the NBA Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Month, respectively, for games played in April.
Anthony led the Knicks to a 9-4 month and helped them secure their second consecutive playoff berth. He led the league in scoring, averaging 29.8 points, connecting on 135-of-273 shots from the floor. Over the month, he compiled seven 30-point and two 40-point performances, to go along with his second career triple-double in an April 17 victory over the Celtics. On April 8, Anthony scored 43 points and connected on both game-tying and game-winning three-pointers to knock off the Bulls 100-99 in overtime.
Paul helped the Clippers to a 9-5 record and steered them to their first playoff berth since 2005-06. He averaged 20.7 points, ranking fourth in West while pacing the league with 3.0 spg and leading the conference with 9.9 apg. He engineered six double-doubles, seven 20-point games and three 30-point games. On April 22, Paul scored 33 points, handed out 13 assists and had a season-high eight steals in a 107-98 win over New Orleans.
Other nominees for NBA Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Month were Atlanta’s Joe Johnson and Josh Smith, Boston’s Avery Bradley, Indiana’s David West, Miami’s LeBron James, Memphis’ Rudy Gay, Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, San Antonio’s Tony Parker and Utah’s Al Jefferson.
Los Angeles D-Fenders head coach Eric Musselman was today named the winner of the Dennis Johnson Coach of the Year award, as voted by his fellow NBA Development League head coaches.
Musselman helmed a Los Angeles team that recorded an NBA D-League record 38 victories during the 2011-12 regular season en route to a Western Conference Championship and the first overall seed in the 2012 NBA D-League Playoffs presented by BBVA.
Musselman’s D-Fenders are undefeated in postseason play, and have a chance to secure the 2012 NBA D-League Championship over the Austin Toros tonight in the second game of the best-of-three NBA D-League Finals presented by BBVA. Tip-off is set for 10:00 p.m. ET.
During his first year with the team, Musselman oversaw the development of six top NBA D-League prospects who earned a total of eight GATORADE Call-Ups to the NBA this season, including the 2012 NBA D-League All-Star MVP Gerald Green, now of the New Jersey Nets and Houston Rockets guard Courtney Fortson, who both signed contracts for the remainder of the season with their NBA teams.
Musselman’s D-Fenders led the League in rebounding percentage (.572) and held their opponents to a League-low 44 percent from the field, while its 48 percent from the field was good for second best in the League.
“Eric’s deep knowledge of the game and his unparalleled passion have been evident every step of the way for the D-Fenders this season,” said Chris Alpert, Vice President of Basketball Operations and Player Personnel for the NBA D-League. “Not only was Eric able to achieve a level of on-court success our League has never seen before, he was able to do it while developing top NBA D-League prospects into current NBA contributors. I offer my hearty congratulations to him on a season well done.”
The award is named in honor of the late Dennis Johnson, NBA Legend and former Austin Toros head coach who was enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in August 2010. In his playing career, Johnson won three NBA titles with the Boston Celtics and Seattle SuperSonics, played in five NBA All-Star games and was named to the All-Defensive First Team six times. He served as interim head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers in 2002, and was in his third season coaching in the NBA D-League when he passed away.
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The Los Angeles Clippers are tired of seeing Blake Griffin take hard fouls and have vowed to protect their All-Star forward if it continues.
“I feel like people are intentionally trying to hurt him,” Clippers center DeAndre Jordan said. “It’ll all come back around.”
Late in the fourth quarter of the Clippers’ loss to the Phoenix Suns on Thursday, Suns center Robin Lopez was ejected for a flagrant foul on Griffin. On Sunday, Griffin will see New Orleans Hornets center Jason Smith on the court for the first time since Smith was ejected and suspended two games for a flagrant foul on Griffin in the fourth quarter of their game last month.
The criticism of Griffin and his teammates in the past is they haven’t done enough to retaliate after those hard fouls.
“If Blake gets fouled, I can’t go punch someone in the nose,” Jordan said. “We can’t do that but throughout the course of a game, other fouls happen to other players on the opposite team and if they happen to be hard fouls, they happen to be hard fouls. We’re going to protect our teammates; it doesn’t matter who it is.”
— Reported by Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles
Los Angeles Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said Phoenix Suns center Robin Lopez should have been suspended for his flagrant foul on Blake Griffin last Thursday and shouldn’t have been allowed to play until Griffin recovered from the injury he sustained.
“I have an issue that Blake got hit that hard and he is in pain and he is still in pain and the player that did that played yesterday,” Del Negro said. “I have a problem with that. I don’t know how the league wants us to deal with that because then it will get out of hand.”
— Reported by Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Clippers today announced that they have recalled rookie guard Travis Leslie from the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA Development League.
Leslie has been with the Jam since March 30, and appeared in four playoff games with Bakersfield. In two separate stints with the Jam this season, Leslie appeared in 10 regular season games and averaged 10.2 points, 1.4 assists, 3.2 rebounds and shot 50.4 percent from the field in 20.4 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.
“Basketball Wives” star Jennifer Williams is filing a lawsuit Wednesday accusing a Manhattan woman of a flagrant foul for viciously slapping her face during a taping of the reality show.
Williams, ex-wife of NBA player Eric Williams, also has filed a complaint with the state attorney’s office in Florida, said lawyer Sanford Rubenstein.
“Violence used against any person is wrong but when a woman hits another woman it sets a horrible example for young girls everywhere,” Williams told the Daily News.
“I choose to use the justice system to fight back,” she said in an exclusive interview.
The defendant, Nia Crooks, is a personal assistant to “Basketball Wives” co-star Evelyn Lozada. Crooks belted Williams while VH1 cameras were rolling Jan. 21 in the presidential suite of the Gulfstream Park racetrack in South Florida.
— Reported by John Marzulli of the New York Daily News
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Chris Paul scored 31 points, including the game-winning shot on a layup with 8.8 seconds left, lifting the Los Angeles Clippers to a 100-98 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night that kept them in position for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Paul got past Thunder defensive specialist Thabo Sefolosha and squeezed the ball onto the rim past the league’s leading shot blocker, Serge Ibaka, to put L.A. ahead.
Kevin Durant missed a 3-pointer that could have won it, hitting the back rim on a shot over Clippers center DeAndre Jordan from the left wing.
Durant led Oklahoma City with 22 points and Russell Westbrook scored 20 on 3-for-14 shooting. The West-leading Thunder have lost four of their last six games.
Blake Griffin added 16 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists for Los Angeles.
— Reported by Jeff Latzke of the Associated Press
Shabazz Muhammad, who grabbed nearly every award a high school basketball player can earn this season, said Wednesday that he plans to sign with UCLA. He chose the Bruins over Duke and Kentucky.
“Just making the decision was really difficult,” Muhammad said. “It’s a lot of jitters going through my mind. I thought how comfortable I was with the coach (Ben Howland). I chose to be a Bruin, so I’ll be at UCLA next year. I just think it’s a challenge, knowing how bad they were the last two years. It’s a challenge to get them back up to the top. With Kyle Anderson coming with Jordan Adams and hopefully Tony Parker, it will be a great team for the future.”
Muhammad, a 6-6 small forward for Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas), averaged 29.8 points, 9.9 rebounds and 2.5 assists while leading the Gaels to a state 4A title. Though most recruiting services list him as the No. 2 player behind Nerlens Noel, he won the Morgan Wootten Award and Naismith Award as the nation’s top high school player.
— Reported by Jim Halley of USA Today