Category: NBA Teams

NBA teams blog

With Jimmy Butler out, Heat fall to Bucks

Playing without Jimmy Butler and getting outscored by 20 points in the 4th against a team like the Bucks is a pretty solid recipe for losing a basketball game. And that’s what the Heat did, falling 130-116 to a Bucks team that has now clinched the No. 1 seed in the Eastern conference. Here’s the Miami Herald reporting on Butler but also guard Goran Dragic, who missed the game as well:

Butler has now missed two consecutive games. Coach Erik Spoelstra said prior to Thursday’s game there has already been an X-ray and MRI done on Butler’s injured foot, and “at this point, it’s rest and recovery.”

“Jimmy, his foot is sore,” Spoelstra said. “We want to make sure that he’s feeling like he did even a week ago.”

Meanwhile, Dragic limped off the court with 5.2 seconds to play in Tuesday’s victory over the Boston Celtics after landing awkwardly on his left ankle. The Heat announced later that night that an X-ray on his injured ankle returned negative.

“Goran, obviously you saw at the end of the game with a sprained ankle,” Spoelstra said Thursday. “Moving around a lot better, had a really good day yesterday and today of treatment.”

In the win for the Bucks, Giannis Antetokounmpo put up 33 points, 12 rebounds and four assists, though he did commit six turnovers. Khris Middleton also scored 33 points, plus six rebounds and an impressive eight assists. While Brook Lopez added 17 points.

In the loss for the Heat, Duncan Robinson shot well for 21 points, as did Tyler Herro who had 20 off the bench.

Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. suffers season-ending knee injury

The Memphis Grizzlies today provided the following medical update on Grizzlies forward/center Jaren Jackson Jr.:

In Monday’s game against the Pelicans, Jaren Jackson Jr. experienced an unstable landing after making contact with an opposing player while contesting a shot. Subsequent medical evaluation revealed a meniscus tear in his left knee, which will cause him to miss the remainder of the season.

Per the Memphis Commercial Appeal, “it’s the same knee he injured on Feb. 21 against the Lakers that caused him to miss nine games.”

The Grizzlies have lost their first three games at the Disney NBA bubble for the season restart. They’re currently 8th in the Western conference, but the Trail Blazers and Spurs are just two game behind them in the standings.

Per ESPN.com, “the eighth and ninth-place teams in the West will play against one another in a play-in tournament later this month at the conclusion of the eight seeding games — assuming there are four games or fewer between the two teams, something that is all but guaranteed to happen now.”

Jackson Jr. is one of the team’s key young stars. His season average is 17.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game, shooting 46.9% FG and 39.4% from three-point range.

The team being without him puts even more pressure on the shoulders of star rookie guard Ja Morant.

Jazz show life but fall to Lakers, 116-108

Monday night on national TV, the Jazz faced the Lakers, and hung around, but Anthony Davis’ dominance was too much to handle. Here’s the Deseret News reporting:

For exactly 30 minutes on Monday night against the Los Angeles Lakers at Disney World, the Utah Jazz looked like a completely different team from the one that was altogether befuddled in a 16-point loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder last Saturday.

The new week brought a new Jazz squad, as they were aggressive in getting into the lane, moving the ball and they caught some fire from distance in the second quarter after an 0-for-9 start in the first.

But then suddenly at the midway point of the third quarter, the wheels came off. Up by four at 71-67, Utah surrendered a 14-0 run in less than five minutes, and the new double-digit deficit was too much to overcome in an eventual 116-108 loss.

The defeat moved the Jazz to 42-25 overall on the season and 1-2 during the NBA’s restart in Orlando.

And the Salt Lake Tribune:

What are the Jazz playing for here, exactly?

After tonight’s loss, they’re now in fifth, half a game below the Houston Rockets for the four seed. That means they’d play the Rockets again in the playoffs in the first round, if things started today.

Normally, you’d say that they’re playing for home court positioning. But everyone’s playing in Orlando this year, and I have a hard time believing that the virtual fans are making the Jazz play better or worse. Sorry, virtual fans. The Jazz’s home-court advantage is usually one of the best — if not the best — in the NBA, but it simply won’t matter this year.

So given that, the only reason the Jazz are playing right now is to

A) avoid the seventh seed, which would mean playing the Clippers in the first round

B) figure things out so that they can play well in the playoffs while staying healthy

C) find the best matchup they can in the first round and throughout the playoffs

And the OC Register:

The Lakers (51-15) are a better team when Davis is a focal point. And while LeBron James (22 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists) got in on the action, particularly in the fourth quarter, it was no coincidence that Davis’ most assertive game so far in the restart was also the Lakers’ most convincing win.

The added emphasis on getting Davis rolling early was part coaching script, part teammates feeding him, and part Davis himself, feeling unsatisfied after his 14-point effort two nights before.

“I have to play better basketball than I did to help the team win,” Davis said. “Even though I was making the right plays, I still have to be aggressive. I didn’t like the way I performed. … So it was a collective effort to come out more aggressive.”

In the win for the Lakers, Davis shot 13/28 for 42 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and three steals, while LeBron James shot 9/16 for 22 points, eight rebounds, nine assists and two steals.

In the loss, Donovan Mitchell shot 9/22 plus 11/12 free throws for 33 points, while Mike Conley hit 8/17 shots for 24 points and eight assists. But 21 turnovers and just 10 combined points from their starting forwards made it tough for Utah.

Guard Patrick Beverley makes return for Clippers

Here’s the OC Register reporting on scrappy Clippers guard Patrick Beverley, who just went through an extremely busy time as he underwent the process to suit up and ball:

Patrick Beverley was … ready.

Ready on Thursday, when the Clippers restarted the season against the Lakers on the same day he rejoined his squad after leaving the bubble July 21 to mourn the death of a loved one, and then waiting out a four-day quarantine upon his return.

Ready on Sunday, when he was back in the starting lineup, accounting for three of the Clippers’ franchise-record 25 3-pointers and a host of other contributions that Coach Doc Rivers called “immeasurable” in the 126-103 victory over New Orleans.

Ready on Monday ahead of practice at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort Convention Center, where he saw Lawrence Frank, the Clippers’ president of basketball operations, in the hallway at told him as much (albeit with more colorful language).

The Clippers are the West’s No. 2 seed. They won’t catch up with the No. 1 Lakers, but aren’t far ahead of the No. 3 Nuggets.

Almost every key Nets player will miss Tuesday’s game vs Bucks

The Nets will be without an extraordinary number of players tomorrow in their game against a Bucks team that boasts the best record in the NBA. But somebody has to suit up. Here’s the New York Daily News reporting:

Add Caris LeVert, Joe Harris and Jarrett Allen to the Nets’ already lengthy injury report.

LeVert (thigh contusion), Harris (hamstring and back tightness) and Allen, who is out due to “unusual circumstances,” will all sit out when the Nets play the league-best Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday.

Reminder: This team is already without Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie, DeAndre Jordan, Taurean Prince and Wilson Chandler. That means against Milwaukee, the Nets will lack their top eight scorers…

The Nets have also yet to make a decision on Jamal Crawford, who has yet to play a scrimmage or a game for the team in the Orlando bubble. Vaughn said the performance team will make a decision Tuesday morning.

They could trot out a starting lineup of Chris Chiozza, Garrett Temple, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Justin Anderson and Rodions Kurucs. All of those players, except the veteran Temple, saw time in the G-League this season.

The Nets are currently in 8th place in the Eastern conference, and as short-handed as they are, it would take a small miracle for the 9th place Wizards — who are also missing star players — to go on a big-enough run to swipe that 8th spot.

Mavericks clinch spot in 2020 NBA playoffs

Led by young superstar Luka Doncic, the Dallas Mavericks are back in the playoffs. Here’s ESPN.com reporting:

The Dallas Mavericks weren’t in the mood to celebrate the end of the franchise’s three-year playoff drought.

The Mavs officially clinched a playoff berth due to the Memphis Grizzlies’ 108-106 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday afternoon. Hours later, Dallas dropped to 0-2 in the NBA bubble with a 117-115 loss to the Phoenix Suns in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

“Our goal was to make the playoffs, and we achieved that, but for me and for us, we’re going to try to win every game now that we have left in the regular season,” said Mavs center Kristaps Porzingis, who scored 30 points in the loss. “Then, we’ll see where we end up in the playoffs and go from there. This is not a sprint. This is a marathon, and with each day, with each game, with each practice, we want to be a better team and better individually.”

Through Sunday’s games, the teams that so far have clinched Western conference NBA playoffs spots are the Lakers, Clippers, Nuggets, Rockets, Jazz, Thunder and Mavs.

The Grizzlies are currently in 8th place, with the Spurs, Trail Blazers and a few other teams not far behind.

Magic forward Jonathan Isaac injured with torn ACL

Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac suffered a left knee injury with 9:19 remaining in the fourth quarter tonight against Sacramento. He underwent an MRI immediately after the game. Results revealed that Isaac has sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Isaac will be out indefinitely and his return to the court will depend on how he responds to treatment and rehabilitation.

Isaac (6’10”, 230, 10/3/97) has played in 34 games (32 starts) this season for Orlando, averaging 11.9 ppg., 6.8 rpg., 1.4 apg., 2.29 blkpg. and 1.56 stlpg. in 28.8 minpg.

Trail Blazers squeeze out 140-135 overtime win vs Grizzlies

The NBA restart at Disney Wide World of Sports in Florida began Thursday. On Friday, the Western conference 9th-seed Blazers squeezed out a tough 140-135 overtime win against a Grizzlies team that is currently just above them in the standings at 8th. Here’s Blazers.com reporting:

Playing for the first time this season with both Jusuf Nurkić and Zach Collins in the starting lineup, the Trail Blazers got off to a quick start Friday afternoon by shooting 62 percent from the field in the first quarter quarter. Had the Grizzlies not shot five more free throws and made twice as many three-pointers, Portland would have entered the second quarter leading by more than the 35-30.

The free throw discrepancy only got worse in the second quarter, with the Grizzlies being awarded 15 trips to the line compared to just five for the Trail Blazers. Even with Memphis being gently guided to the charity stripe seemingly every offensive possession, Portland still managed to take a 12-point lead, their largest of the game, before taking a 68-60 advantage into the intermission…

“We all knew coming in it was going to be a battle,” said Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard. “They’re a really high energy, young team, they play fast, they play hard… We kept our minds in it and once it came down to it, I think we showed we was the team that wanted it more.”

The Trail Blazers are now 30-37 overall and 1-0 in Orlando. More importantly, the win, along with the associated loss, gets the Trail Blazers to within 2.5 games of the Grizzlies for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West with seven “seeding games” to play.

Washington DC now has a sportsbook

Sportsbetting is growing, in every way imaginable. Here’s the Washington Post reporting on a gambling development in D.C.:

With American sports stirring back to life, sports gambling in the nation’s capital entered a new phase on Friday with the opening of the District’s first sportsbook.

William Hill, the British bookmaker, opened a temporary sportsbook at Capital One Arena, making it the first professional sports arena or stadium in the country to host a full-service sports betting operation.

The gambling conglomerate is working on a permanent sportsbook in the space formerly occupied by the Greene Turtle Sports Bar and Grille, but construction has been delayed by complications related to the coronavirus pandemic.

With the return of live sports, though, William Hill and Monumental Sports and Entertainment, which owns the arena, wanted to get a sportsbook up and running quickly. So they converted the arena’s ticket box office area, dormant in the absence of Wizards and Capitals games this spring, into a temporary betting site…

Ticket windows will now be used to place sports wagers, and nine electronic kiosks will also be spread across the space. The sportsbook will be open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. until 11 p.m. The space opened Friday afternoon, just hours after the team secured its licensing from city officials and shortly before the Wizards tipped off their first game of the NBA’s restarted season in Florida.

We used to post daily odds on our site, back years ago. Maybe it’s time to start doing that again.

Heat star Jimmy Butler praises new Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau

The Knicks recently made Tom Thibodeau their new head coach. Heat star Jimmy Butler knows Thibs, having spent serious time playing for him in the past. Here’s the New York Post reporting what Butler had to say about New York’s newest hire:

Jimmy Butler sounds ready for another reunion with Tom Thibodeau.

Having played under the new Knicks coach in Chicago and Minnesota, Butler — who has credited Thibodeau with his development from late first round pick to five-time All-Star — said he believes the young core of RJ Barrett and Mitchell Robinson could make similar progress with Thibodeau’s teachings.

“He’s going to do great. He’s going to turn those young guys into some real players; some superstars, some All-Stars,” Butler said of Thibodeau. “I know he’s been itching for this. I know he’s been preparing for it. When you talk about Thibs and the big stage, I think they go hand in hand.”

Things with Butler didn’t go smoothly in Minnesota, as the rest of the above article details. But his praise of Thibs is the takeaway here.

Butler and the Heat are in Orlando at the Disney NBA campus, where they will face the Nuggets on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Leading Heat scorers this season (PPG)
Jimmy Butler 20.2
Bam Adebayo 16.2
Goran Dragic 16.1
Kendrick Nunn 15.6
Duncan Robinson 13.3