Category: NBA Teams

NBA teams blog

Wizards set to battle Bulls in first round

Here’s the Chicago Sun-Times reporting on the Wizards, who are set to face the Bulls in the first round of the NBA playoffs:

It’s a nice badge to carry into the playoffs: The team no one wants to play.

It even has a tinge of intimidation to it, that is, if the Bulls were actually facing a team that was susceptible to intimidation.

But they aren’t.

The Washington Wizards have little to lose, especially when all they’ve been hearing is they’re destined for elimination by next week.

“Why would they pick us?’’ Wizards center Marcin Gortat told the Washington Post on Friday when asked about all the predictions from the so-called experts favoring the Bulls. “First of all, Chicago is an experienced team. They have a lot of good players every year. The pressure is on them. I don’t understand why we should be mad. This is a good team, and we’ve just got to beat them. We’ve got to focus on our team.’’

Mike Beasley inactive for Heat in playoff opener

Here’s the South Florida Sun Sentinel reporting on the Heat:

Mike Beasley inactive for Heat in playoff opener

Michael Beasley was designated as inactive for the Miami Heat’s playoff opener Sunday against the Charlotte Bobcats at AmericanAirlines Arena.

Beasley sprained an ankle during Wednesday’s regular-season finale against the Philadelphia 76ers. Coach Erik Spoelstra said Beasley got in a workout Sunday and is closer to a return.

“Michael is still getting healthy from that ankle,” Spoelstra said. “He didn’t really progress the last couple of days the way that we had hoped. He was able to get a better workout today than he was the last couple of days.”

Dorell Wright says Blazers have that hunger

Here’s the Oregonian reporting on the Trail Blazers, who are set to face the Rockets tonight for Game 1 in their first round playoff series:

Dorell Wright says Blazers have that hunger

After slipping on his sneakers and lacing them up, Dorell Wright rose from the chair in front of his locker and surveyed the scene around the Trail Blazers’ locker room.

They had just defeated the Los Angeles Clippers, 110-104, in the final game of the regular season, winning for the ninth time in 10 games, and Wright had a knowing feeling. He had been in this situation before and he sensed something familiar, something exciting, in the room.

“There’s a hunger in here,” Wright said. “A lot of hungry guys.”

So hungry, in fact, it reminded Wright of his second NBA season, when he was a wide-eyed teenager along for the ride as the Miami Heat won a championship.

“When I played on that championship team, there was a lot of older hungry guys,” Wright said. “Guys that had been playing for so long and never got that opportunity. We’ve got the pieces in here to be special. And we’ve got guys that are hungry. When you’ve got guys that are hungry and willing to do anything to win and sacrifice their games, it’s a good feeling.”

Paul Pierce plays well in Nets-Raptors Game 1

Here’s the New York Daily News reporting on on Nets forward Paul Pierce:

Paul Pierce plays well in Nets-Raptors Game 1

Dubbed a “Dinosaur” on the front page of the local Toronto paper because of his age, the 36-year-old Pierce buried the Raptors in Game 1 of the opening round, scoring nine of his 15 points in the final three minutes of a wild 94-87 victory that started with a profane insult from Toronto’s GM and ended with a broken shot clock.

“Truth-asaurus Rex 1, Raptors 0,” Pierce retweeted from his account not long after the game.

An acrimonious tone was set when Raptors GM Masai Ujiri shouted “F— Brooklyn!” at a fan rally outside the arena before the game, drawing cheers from the assembled thousands. But by the time Pierce walked off the floor, the Nets, seeded sixth, had snatched home-court advantage from the inexperienced and combustible No. 3 Raptors, flexing their experience and $102 million payroll.

“You see, as a home-court team should do, (the Raptors) relied on their crowd, relied on their home-court advantage,” said Shaun Livingston. “So to come in and take that away from them in Game 1, it’s big for us.”

Another LeBron James vs Michael Jordan mention

Here’s the Miami Herald reporting on the LeBron James and the Heat, who tomorrow begin their first-round playoff series against the Charlotte Bobcats, who are owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan:

James has two NBA championships. Jordan won six. James has four NBA MVPs. Jordan earned five. James is a better athlete. Jordan is a tough competitor. James likes to ride bikes in his free time. Jordan is a golfer. And it goes on from there.

Everyone has an opinion. Even the President of the United States has weighed in on the topic.

Sure, Barack Obama once said James held the world in the palm of his hand, but, given a choice, he probably would pick Jordan to strip that sphere in the open court and glide in for a tongue-wagging breakaway dunk.

“I’m a Chicago guy, and Mike will always be the guy for me,” Obama said in an interview with Charles Barkley in 2012.

Of course, Obama then added to that show of loyalty a mighty large caveat.

“LeBron has the chance to be as good as anybody,” he said.

Are Miami Heat more vulnerable than usual?

Here’s ESPN Miami reporting on the Heat, who begin their first round playoff series against the Charlotte Bobcats on Sunday:

Having finished 54-28, the Heat endured their lowest winning percentage of any season since James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh came together in 2010. They’ve survived a seven-month grind during which nagging injuries forced Wade out of the lineup for 28 games and coach Erik Spoelstra to sort through 21 different starting lineups to fill the voids.

Now, the two-time defending champions enter the playoffs older — six of their top nine players are in their 30s — and arguably more vulnerable than they’ve been at any point. In addition to those factors, Miami limped into the postseason having lost 14 of their final 25 regular-season games and failed to secure home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, which proved to be essential last season.

Yet as defiant as they’ve ever been, the Heat insist none of those potential warning signs matter.

“On the outside, there’s more doubt,” said forward Udonis Haslem, who along with Wade are the lone players who have been with the Heat since their first championship season in 2006. “Within here, we’re still confident in one another. We still know what we can do. We still understand what needs to be done and we know how to get it done. From the outside looking in, people might have a different opinion.”

Young Magic players have improvements to make

Here’s the Orlando Sentinel reporting on the Magic, who finished the season with a 23-59 record, the third worst in the NBA:

As crucial as the 2014 NBA Draft Lottery will be to the Orlando Magic’s rebuilding efforts — and, make no mistake, the lottery will be vital to the Magic — the team can’t do anything more to enhance its chances for the annual pingpong-ball drawing.

But there are several things the Magic can do to accelerate their rebuilding efforts.

One pertains to Maurice Harkless, Tobias Harris, Andrew Nicholson, Victor Oladipo, Kyle O’Quinn and Nik Vucevic. Simply put, those youngsters need to improve this offseason, and then those improvements need to translate onto the court in tangible ways during the 2014-15 season.

“I’m going to be working on a little bit of everything,” said Oladipo, a 6-foot-4 guard who just completed his rookie season.

Raptors GM sounds off against Brooklyn

Here’s the Toronto Sun with a fun update on the general manage of the Raptors:

The Raptors-Brooklyn Nets series was never going to be a quiet one.

Between the Maple Leafs missing the playoffs eight of nine seasons and the Raptors done by late April for five straight seasons, Toronto fans have been impatiently waiting years for another taste of post-season action.

The Air Canada Centre was bananas from the start Saturday, getting on the visiting Brooklyn Nets, the referees and even Nets coach Jason Kidd. And if that wasn’t enough, scores of people gathered outside at Maple Leaf Square were even more amped up after team president/general manager Masai Ujiri, throwing political correctness out the window, ended an address to the gathered fans in emphatic fashion.

“F— Brookyn,” yelled Ujiri, handing off the mic as he left the stage with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment president and CEO Tim Leiweke, who dropped his head, perhaps thinking, ‘It’s on now.’

Robert Covington wins 2013-14 D-League Rookie of Year award

Houston Rockets rookie Robert Covington, who has played on assignment with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, was today named the 2014 NBA Development League Rookie of the Year, as voted on by the league’s 17 head coaches. The award recognizes the first-year professional who most significantly contributed to his team’s success during the course of the season.

Covington (6-9, 215, Tennessee State) played in 42 of the Vipers 50 regular season games on assignment from the Rockets, 41 as a starter. He averaged a team-high 23.2 points, good for second-best in the NBA D-League, while shooting 44 percent from the field. He rounded out his stat line averaging a Vipers-best 9.2 rebounds and 2.4 steals, second-highest in the league. During the regular season, Covington led the team in scoring 21 times and was the Vipers leading rebounder in 13 contests. He scored in double figures in 41 of his 42 games in Rio Grande Valley, recording two 40-plus point games and four additional 30-plus point outings.

A 2014 NBA D-League All-Star, Covington scored an NBA D-League All-Star record 33 points, 22 of which came in the game’s final six minutes, en route to earning MVP honors in the game. He connected on 12 of his 23 shots, including four-of-eight three-pointers at NBA All-Star festivities in New Orleans.

“Robert has had an excellent rookie season on assignment with the Vipers,” said Chris Alpert, Vice President of Basketball Operations and Player Personnel for the NBA D-League. “He embraced the opportunity to develop all aspects of his game in the NBA D-League and proved that he is able to perform at a professional level. I congratulate him on such a successful start to his career and look forward to watching his progress with the Houston Rockets.”

Covington helped the Vipers secure the fifth seed in the 2014 NBA D-League Playoffs, averaging 18.3 points in Rio Grande Valley’s first-round match-up against the Iowa Energy, a series the Vipers won in three games. He will re-join the Vipers tonight in Texas for the team’s game second-round playoff game against the Santa Cruz Warriors. Rio Grande Valley currently trails the Warriors 1-0 in the best-of-three series.