NBA Teams – Page 1299 – NBA Blog

Injured DeMarcus Cousins misses second straight game

Once again, the Kings had only 11 players available for a game.

Center DeMarcus Cousins missed his second consecutive game because of a left quadriceps contusion when the Kings faced the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on Sunday night.

Cousins, who did not travel to Los Angeles, will test his quad today at practice to see if he might play Tuesday against the visiting Los Angeles Clippers.

“He did some things on the floor (Saturday) but more treatment than anything else,” coach Keith Smart said. “He won’t do anything until (today).”

— Reported by Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee

Another strain for ailing Tyson Chandler

So now Tyson Chandler has a stiff neck too. Wonderful.

The Knicks announced yesterday Chandler missed his second straight game not because of his badly bruised left knee but because of a strained muscle in his neck. However, Chandler limped out of the locker room yesterday and didn’t stop to talk to reporters.

While Carmelo Anthony’s recently drained right knee is not expected to be ready for combat tonight in Utah, Chandler is closer to action. It’s become strange why Anthony even bothered to fly back to Los Angeles.

The Knicks said Chandler’s knee is virtually healed and the Knicks center has played through a sore neck earlier this season. Chandler said Wednesday night after the Denver game that he is very willing to play hurt, especially with the Knicks on the verge of an embarrassing 0-5 West Coast trip that will be hard to live down.

— Reported by Marc Berman of the New York Post

Heat set for hostile Celtics environment on Monday

A few days ago, Paul Pierce said he wanted not only for the Heat’s streak to end, but for Miami to lose every game for the rest of the season.

The Heat, which won its 22nd game in a row on Sunday, plays the Celtics at TD Garden on Monday. Dwyane Wade expects a hostile crowd. The game represents arguably the most difficult game of the streak because the Heat is 0-5 in Boston in the regular season since 2010.

“It’s always a great atmosphere when we go there but obviously now they’re going to want to see us lose,” Wade said of Celtics fans. “They’re going to want to see [the Celtics] beat us. We’ve got to step up to the challenge at the beginning of the game. It’s going to be loud.”

The Celtics are without Rajon Rondo, who suffered sustained a season-ending knee injury before the All-Star break, and Kevin Garnett is questionable because of soreness in his hip. On paper, the loss of Rondo and Garnett would seemingly give the Heat a definitive advantage, but the Heat knows those things sometimes don’t matter in Boston.

— Reported by Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald

Kenyon Martin does not wish good things for the Clippers

Knicks forward Kenyon Martin played for the Clippers last season, but it’s clear the breakup between the two sides was a bit messy and Martin still holds some bitterness.

When asked about the Clippers, Martin quickly snapped: “I don’t care what they do, to be honest with you. I hope they lose every game.”

After a few more game-related questions, the topic of the Clippers’ fast breaking and dunking style arose, and Martin said, “They can’t do it in the playoffs, so it doesn’t matter. Regular season, it’s all up-and-down. We know how the game goes in the regular season.”

Finally, I asked him why there was bad blood between him and the Clippers and he simply said, “Next question.”

— Reported by Jovan Buha, special to ESPN New York

Rodrigue Beaubois out indefinitely with fractured hand

The injury bug bit [Dallas Mavericks guard] Rodrigue Beaubois once again.

Beaubois exited Sunday night’s game against the Thunder after fracturing the second metacarpal in his left hand during the second quarter. He is out indefinitely.

The fourth-year guard had played his way back into Rick Carlisle’s rotation with two strong performances this week. Carlisle called Beaubois 18-point, five-assist outing in Friday’s win “by far” his best game of the season.

— Reported by Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas

Larry Sanders fined $50,000 by NBA

Larry Sanders of the Milwaukee Bucks has been fined $50,000 for using a derogatory and offensive term and publicly criticizing the officials, it was announced today by Stu Jackson, Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations.

With 2:44 in the fourth quarter of the Bucks 107-94 home loss to the Miami Heat on Friday Sanders directed a derogatory and offensive term to the officials and was subsequently ejected. Following the game he publicly criticized the officials.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Sanders argued after being called for fouling Heat star LeBron James on a drive to the basket. Sanders was ejected from back-to-back games last week against Washington and Miami. He has been ejected four times this season. There were no incidents with Sanders as the Bucks beat the Orlando Magic, 115-109, on Sunday at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.”

Heat pull away from Raptors, win 22nd straight game

The Miami Heat equaled the second-longest winning streak in NBA history, pulling away in the fourth quarter Sunday to beat the Toronto Raptors 108-91 for their 22nd consecutive victory.

LeBron James had 22 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists, Dwyane Wade added 24 points and nine assists, and Ray Allen scored 16 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter for the defending NBA champions.

Chris Bosh finished with 18 points as the Heat tied the 2007-08 Houston Rockets for the second-longest winning streak in NBA history. The longest is 33 games, set by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers.

Miami will try to move into sole possession of second on Monday when it visits the Boston Celtics – who ended the Rockets’ run five years ago…

Rudy Gay scored 27 and Amir Johnson had 18 points and 18 rebounds as the Raptors lost their 11th straight against Miami, extending their longest active losing streak against a single opponent.

Jonas Valanciunas scored 18 points, and Terrence Ross and DeMar DeRozan each had 12 for the Raptors, whose last victory over the Heat was a 111-103 home win on Jan. 27, 2010 – when Bosh still played for Toronto and James was in Cleveland.

— Reported by Ian Harrison of the Associated Press

Hornets continue to struggle defensively despite extra work

There are 16 games remaining in the regular season and it doesn’t appear the New Orleans Hornets are any closer to solving their glaring defensive problems than they were two months ago.

It hasn’t mattered how long Hornets Coach Monty Williams puts his team through video sessions to go over mistakes or have walk-through practices or shootarounds to emphasize specific defensive assignments, it’s still not carrying over into games. The Hornets continue to struggle with their defensive rotations that causes them to give up too many open shots on the perimeter and drives into the lane that leads to layups or dunks.

“We’ve had a number of breakdowns and that falls square on my shoulders,’’ Williams said. “I have to get guys in the game who want to compete for 48 minutes. There is no margin for error with this team, especially when you have lost guys like Jason Smith (injured) and you don’t have experience.’’

— Reported by John Reid of the New Orleans Times-Picayune

Hawks have chance to make up ground on Nets

At least one Hawks player is looking at Sunday’s key matchup against the Nets with an eye toward the playoffs.

DeShawn Stevenson said there is a something more at stake in the game.

“It means a lot because we might end up playing them (in the playoffs),” Stevenson said. “We don’t want to be down 3-1. That game is important.”

The Hawks have lost two of three meetings with the Nets this season, including a poor performance March 9 in a 93-80 loss at Philips Arena.

The Hawks (36-29) have the same record as the Bulls, who own the tiebreaker, for the fifth spot in the Eastern Conference. They are two games behind the fourth-place Nets (38-27). The Celtics, who played the Bobcats on Saturday, would make it a three-way tie with win.

— Reported by Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal Constitution

Cavs players love their basketball shoes

After Dion Waiters departed the arena after a typical home game in late January, left behind in his locker were a towel, a mesh laundry bag, some workout clothes … and 11 pairs of Nike sneakers.

C.J. Miles estimated he has owned more than 800 pairs of shoes in his life. Daniel Gibson owns a pair of pink Converse, shoes with spikes on them and Louis Vuitton gold shoes he refers to as “shoe jewelry.” Gibson owns so many shoes, he built a closet in his bedroom just to store them all. Of course his wife, R&B singer Keyshia Cole, has quite a few pairs in there, as well.

The combination of shoe deals and unlimited millions for playing in the NBA has created a sort of shoe fetish within the league. Players pay attention to what is on their feet both on and off the court, and for various reasons — some of which are fairly practical.

When it was time to sign his shoe deal, Kyrie Irving chose Nike over Under Armour and Adidas in part because of how the shoe giant molded special footwear to protect his toe when he was returning from surgery for the NCAA tournament at Duke.

— Reported by Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal