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The Oklahoma City Thunder has assigned guard Jeremy Lamb to the Tulsa 66ers of the NBA Development League, it was announced today by Executive Vice President and General Manager Sam Presti.
Lamb, who was originally acquired from the Houston Rockets along with Kevin Martin on Oct. 27, has appeared in eight games this season averaging 2.1 points in 4.3 minutes.
He will be in uniform when the Tulsa 66ers take on the Rio Grande Valley Vipers on Nov. 30 at the SpiritBank Event Center.
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Forget Hack a Dwight.
Opposing teams may just want to adopt this strategy to win games: Hack the Lakers.
The Lakers rank 29th out of 30 NBA teams in free-throw shooting at 66.8 percent. In four of the Lakers’ eight losses, the margin between made and missed free throws exceeded the point differential between winning and losing. Among the worst Lakers players to send to the free-throw line include Dwight Howard (47.8 percent), Morris (56.5 percent), Jordan Hill (61.5 percent) and Antawn Jamison (63.2 percent).
“Stop talking about it. I don’t want to hear about it,” Howard said after going 3 of 12 from the line in the Lakers’ 79-77 loss Tuesday to the Indiana Pacers. “That’s my problem, thinking too much at the line.”
— Reported by Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News
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Evans has played well lately, averaging 21 points while shooting 54.8 percent from the field. So if the game is on the line, he wouldn’t mind having the ball.
“I want to try to take on that challenge if the coach puts the ball in my hands to make a play for me or one of my teammates,” Evans said after Wednesday’s practice. “That’s what I was trying to do (Tuesday) night. I thought I could have had the elbow jumper a little bit more, but I was looking for the assists, I was looking to pass the ball.”
Evans said the Kings usually look for the player who is hot late in games.
In the last two seasons, that’s sometimes meant finding Marcus Thornton, who has been a go-to guy in the fourth quarter.
Other times, the Kings have looked to DeMarcus Cousins. That’s been good in the past but hasn’t worked well in the last two losses.
— Reported by Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee
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Through 16 games, Greg Monroe is on pace to put his name among the elite centers in the NBA.
Monroe is averaging 16.5 points and 9.4 rebounds.
But it’s his playmaking skill that makes him different from other bigs. His 3.6 assists per game put him third among NBA centers behind the Grizzlies’ Marc Gasol (4.8 entering Wednesday) and the Bulls’ Joakim Noah (4.0).
Coach Lawrence Frank said before Wednesday’s game that the assist total is part of the plan, and Monroe, 22, only has scratched the surface of his potential.
— Reported by Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press
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James Harden’s return to Oklahoma City was only a small part of an emotional day for the Houston Rockets.
Kevin Durant matched his season high with 37 points and the Thunder beat Houston 120-98 on Wednesday night, after the Rockets made a stop in Minnesota earlier in the day to attend the funeral of coach Kevin McHale’s daughter.
Harden scored 17 points, but was limited to 3-for-16 shooting. He had six shots blocked by the Thunder.
After a draining 24 hours, he was ready to put it behind him.
”It felt good just to be competing against those guys and finally get this over with, to play here and get it over with,” Harden said. ”Now, I can continue on with the season.”
Harden missed his first nine shots, and by the time he made one, the Rockets were down by double digits in the second half. They never got closer than 10 after that.
— Reported by Jeff Latzke of the Associated Press
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Doc Rivers wants the Boston Celtics to be tough – not violent.
The message came too late for Rajon Rondo.
The Celtics point guard was ejected from Wednesday night’s game against the Nets when he retaliated for a hard foul against Kevin Garnett by shoving Brooklyn forward Kris Humphries into the courtside seats. Rondo, Humphries and Nets forward Gerald Wallace were ejected, and Brooklyn held on to win 95-83…
Joe Johnson scored 18 points and Andray Blatche had 17 points and 13 rebounds as the Nets opened up a 21-point, first-half lead and took advantage of the loss of the Celtics’ All-Star to win for the ninth time in 11 games.
Garnett had 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Paul Pierce added 14 points for Boston. Rondo had three assists before he was kicked out, ending his streak at 37 games with double-digits – tied for second-longest in NBA history.
The Nets led by eight after one quarter and scored 19 of the first 25 points in the second to make it 47-26. Boston cut the deficit to 14 points and trailed by 16 when Garnett took an off-balance jumper from the right baseline and Humphries leveraged him to the floor with his left arm.
Rondo trailed the play with a two-handed shove that sent Humphries into the courtside seats.
— Reported by Jimmy Golen of the Associated Press
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After an atrocious 1-for-10 night at the free throw line last week, Al Horford decided to spend extra time working on his foul shots.
”That’s one of the things I always work on, and I got away from it a little bit,” he said. ”I think it showed when I went in that little slump.”
His recent effort seems to have paid off.
Horford scored 17 points and hit two clinching free throws to help the Atlanta Hawks win their sixth straight game with a 94-91 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday night.
Josh Smith and Lou Williams also had 17 points apiece for the Hawks.
Ben Gordon scored 20 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter and Ramon Sessions had 18 to lead Charlotte, which has lost two straight and three of four…
In the fourth quarter, Gordon was 5 for 7 on 3s and hit all five free throws he attempted, but he wasn’t able to give Charlotte the lead.
— Reported by George Henry of the Associated Press
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After their worst start in history, the Washington Wizards became a national punch line. On TNT, Charles Barkley compared them with the Washington Generals, and a local newspaper had photos of fans wearing paper bags over their heads at Monday’s 26-point loss to San Antonio.
The jokes can stop – at least for now.
Washington earned its first victory after starting the season with 12 straight losses, beating the Portland Trail Blazers 84-82 on Wednesday night.
”When you’re 0-12, guys are going to make fun. That’s our business, guys,” Wizards coach Randy Wittman said…
Washington survived a scoreless 6:47 in the fourth when Jordan Crawford, who had 19 points, hit on a 3-pointer with 2:06 to play. The Wizards finally took the 84-82 lead on Emeka Okafor’s two free throws with 39.1 seconds remaining…
Trevor Ariza had 14 and Kevin Seraphin added 10 points and 10 rebounds for Washington, which ended the third quarter on a 23-7 run to take a 68-59 lead, then padded its lead to 15 barely three minutes into the fourth…
Lillard and Nicolas Batum led Portland, losers of three straight, with 20. LaMarcus Aldridge had 17. Hickson had 15 points and 19 rebounds.
— Reported by the Associated Press
Jonas Jerebko tried his best not to say much, and verbally, he succeeded.
The Detroit Pistons power forward’s fiery eyes showed how he really felt about discussing his demotion this week.
“You never want to sit on the bench,” Jerebko said before tonight’s game against the Phoenix Suns. “So I’m just going to keep working on my game and keep doing what I do. Just be ready when my number’s called.”
Jerebko was the primary backup to Jason Maxiell and often the first big man off the Pistons’ bench until Charlie Villanueva took over that role before Sunday’s loss to the New York Knicks.
— Reported by David Mayo of Michigan Live
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Lakers guard Steve Blake was examined today by Dr. Steven Yoon and had an MRI exam.
The exam confirmed that Blake still has an abdominal strain. As a result, he will be out at least another two weeks.
Blake was originally diagnosed with the abdominal strain on November 12 and has missed the last eight games with the injury.