NBA Blog: The NBA basketball news blog section of Inside Hoops
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The Denver Nuggets, who have lost eight straight games and been in a free-fall lately, have suspended point guard Andre Miller for two games for conduct detrimental to the team, general manager/executive vice president of basketball operations Tim Connelly announced today.
Miller will miss Denver’s home game against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday and will not travel with the team for Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center.
The Toronto Raptors’ Dwane Casey and the Phoenix Suns’ Jeff Hornacek today were named the NBA Eastern and Western Conference Coaches of the Month, respectively, for games played in December.
Casey led the Raptors to an 8-6 (.571) record, including road wins over the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder. The six road wins Toronto posted tied for best in the conference in December (Maurice Cheeks led the Detroit Pistons to six road wins). The Raptors had five players account for double-digit scoring averages on the month, and closed December winning seven of their final nine games.
Hornacek guided the Suns to a 10-3 (.769) record, including wins over the Mavericks, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers. Phoenix recorded a five-game winning streak between Dec. 4-15, the longest winning streak the Suns have had since January, 2011. The Suns, who rank eighth in the NBA in scoring at 103.7 ppg, eclipsed the 100-point plateau in 10 of their final 11 December contests.
Other nominees for Coach of the Month were Atlanta’s Mike Budenholzer, Golden State’s Mark Jackson, Indiana’s Frank Vogel, Los Angeles Clippers’ Doc Rivers, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra, Oklahoma City’s Scott Brooks, Portland’s Terry Stotts and San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich.
Here’s the Philadelphia Inquirer on New Orleans Pelicans point guard Jrue Holiday:
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Holiday hasn’t missed a game for the Pelicans, who improved to 14-15 with the win and remain on the fringe of playoff contention in the loaded Western Conference. During the first 29 games he averaged 15.3 points, 8.3 assists, and 4.7 rebounds in 34.3 minutes.
“He has the ability to be one of the very few two-way players who plays a lot of minutes,” Pelicans coach Monty Williams said of Holiday.
Williams added that it’s rare that a player who goes so hard at both ends of the court will play more than 25 minutes.
“Jrue does it 35-40 minutes a night and he is about as tough as they come,” Williams said.
The Portland Trail Blazers today assigned CJ McCollum to the Idaho Stampede, the team’s NBA Development League affiliate.
The assignment is the 65th of the 2013-14 campaign, and McCollum becomes the 33rd NBA player to be assigned to his NBa D-League affiliate this season.
The Atlanta Hawks have assigned guard Jared Cunningham to the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA Development League, it was announced today by President of Basketball Operations/General Manager Danny Ferry.
Cunningham, who was recalled from Bakersfield on December 29, has averaged 18.1 points, 5.4 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.0 steals in 33.1 minutes in eight games (all starts) in two stints with the Jam this season. In his last two contests with Bakersfield, Cunningham has put up 27.5 points, 9.0 assists, 4.0 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.0 blocks in 34.5 minutes (.704 FG%, .700 3FG%, .714 FT%).
He has appeared in three games with the Hawks this year.
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The injury hits keep coming for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Lakers guard Jordan Farmar had an ultrasound test and was examined by Dr. Luga Podesta this morning after injuring his left hamstring in last night’s game versus the Milwaukee Bucks. Results show that Farmar has a tear in his left hamstring, which is expected to keep him out a minimum of four weeks.
Although the hamstring tear is in the same leg, this tear is in a different location than the tear that Farmar suffered on December 1, which kept him out three-and-a-half weeks.
The Boston Celtics announced today that they have assigned guard MarShon Brooks to their NBA Development League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws.
Brooks, a 6’5” guard, has appeared in nine games for the Celtics this season posting averages of 3.2 points and 1.6 rebounds in 6.8 minutes per game. Brooks recorded a season-high of eight points twice (December 8 at New York and November 16 at Minnesota) and recorded a season-high five rebounds against Indiana on December 22.
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The New Orleans Pelicans announced today that the team has waived forward Lou Amundson.
Amundson appeared in 18 games for the Pelicans this season and averaged 2.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 0.6 blocks in 10.2 minutes per game. The 6’9” forward has appeared in 345 games over the course of eight years in the NBA and holds career averages of 3.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 0.7 blocks in 12.7 minutes per game.
The Pelicans roster now stands at 14 players.
Here’s CSN Houston with an update on the Rockets:
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Several players were asked about any New Year’s resolutions they might be making this year. Dwight Howard said he makes the same one every year, he said he just wants to win a championship.
After the Rockets New Year’s Eve loss at Toyota Center to the Sacramento Kings, 110-106, thoughts in his locker room from Howard and his teammates were far from that.
“We’ve got to learn from our mistakes. This team has beaten us twice the same way and we didn’t learn from it. Until we do, we’re going to continue to lose.” Howard said. “There’s nothing to talk about anymore, everybody’s got to do their part, play defense. It starts on the perimeter. I’m not blaming it on nobody, we’ve all got to play defense better.
“We’ve got to learn at some point. As a team, collectively, we’ve got to learn how to finish these games off and start these games. Until we do, we’re going to keep losing to teams who don’t have a better record than us.”
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Atlanta Hawks forward/center Al Horford had surgery today to repair a complete tear of his right pectoral muscle. The surgery was performed at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta by Dr. Xavier Duralde and accompanied by Hawks Team Physician Dr. Michael Bernot from the Peachtree Orthopaedic Clinic.
Horford will now undergo a period of rest, treatment and rehabilitation. He will be out through the remainder of the season.
At the time of his injury, the 6-foot-10 forward/center led the team in scoring (18.6), field goal percentage (.567; 7th in league), rebounding (8.4) and blocks per game (1.5; 13th) while adding 2.6 assists in 33.0 minutes per game in 29 games (all starts).