Danny Granger returning soon, but not yet, for Pacers

danny granger

Danny Granger’s return to the Indiana Pacers will have to wait at least another week.

Any chance of the team’s leading scorer returning to game action tonight at Bankers Life Fieldhouse against the Charlotte Bobcats was derailed by the flu-like symptoms.

Coach Frank Vogel said Granger’s injured left knee “responded well” to Tuesday’s practice, but Granger might not have played tonight anyway.

“He probably wouldn’t be quite ready yet if he wasn’t sick,” Vogel said after the morning practice.

— Reported by Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star

Top NBA Draft prospect Nerlens Noel out for season with knee injury

University of Kentucky freshman Nerlens Noel will miss the rest of the 2012-13 season with a torn ACL in his left knee, the school announced Wednesday.

Noel suffered the injury during the second half of Tuesday night’s 69-52 loss at Florida.

Noel, who some have projected as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, will undergo surgery in the next two to three weeks, UK said. The timetable for recovery is estimated at six to eight months.

“I’ve been coaching for 22 years and this is the first injury we’ve had of this kind during the season, which makes it even more devastating,” Coach John Calipari said in a statement released by UK. “I met with Nerlens earlier today. The meeting was really positive, and I loved his attitude. The way he is already dealing with this injury lets me know that he is going to come back stronger than ever. The good news is he is insured, so he would have been fine even if the injury would have been worse. Obviously this is not a career-ending injury and it’s one that athletes bounce back from all the time.”

Kentucky (17-7) has seven more regular-season games remaining.

The 6-10 freshman was leading the nation in blocks (106) and blocks per game (4.4) and ranked second in the Southeastern Conference in rebounding (9.5). He was also averaging 10.5 points per game for the Wildcats.

— Reported by the Lexington Herald-Leader

Hedo Turkoglu suspended 20 games for violating NBA anti-drug program

Hedo Turkoglu of the Orlando Magic has been suspended without pay for twenty games for violating the terms of the NBA/NBPA Anti-Drug Program by testing positive for methenolone, it was announced today by the NBA.

Turkoglu’s suspension will begin tonight when the Magic play host to the Atlanta Hawks at Amway Center.

Statement from Turkoglu: “While I was back home in Turkey this past summer, I was given a medication by my trainer to help recover more quickly from a shoulder injury.  I didn’t know that this was a banned substance and didn’t check before taking it. “I take full responsibility for anything that goes into my body. This was a complete error in judgment on my part and I apologize to the Orlando Magic organization, the league, my teammates, and the Magic fans. I know I have let down a lot of people and I am truly sorry for my mistake.”

Statement from Orlando Magic General Manager Rob Hennigan: “Hedo unknowingly took a banned substance. There are more than 125 banned substances on the NBA List, and we spend a lot of time educating our players on the contents of that list and will certainly continue to do so moving forward. We believe this was an honest mistake.”

According to the Associated Press, “Turkoglu is making about $11.8 million this season. He has one more year remaining on his current deal. He was picked as the NBA’s most improved player in 2008 while with Orlando.”

Did Vince Carter commit beard violation?

vince carter

The rules regarding the Mavericks’ beard pact are a bit fuzzy, so to speak.

Shaving the neck is definitely allowed. What about the cheekbones? That will determine whether sixth man Vince Carter has violated the pact of not shaving until the Mavs hit .500 again.

Carter’s beard is bushy, but it’s been lined up on the neck and cheekbones and his mustache has been well trimmed. According to his interpretation of the unwritten rules, Carter is still in compliance.

“I can’t have it in my eyes, bro. Sorry,” Carter said. “Have you seen Chris Kaman? I can’t do that, man. I didn’t make the rules. That’s the thing. I don’t know where all the rules came from. O.J. (Mayo) was like, ‘We can’t cut the beard.’ The beard is the beard.”

— Reported by Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas

Mayor Kevin Johnson close to unveiling plan to keep Kings in Sacramento

sacramento kings

As he prepares to head to Houston this weekend to lobby the NBA’s team owners to keep pro basketball in Sacramento, Mayor Kevin Johnson said he is getting “very close” to revealing the deep-pocketed investors he has recruited to make a pitch to buy the franchise.

Those investors – along with a plan for a new downtown arena – would be the foundation of Johnson’s argument to the NBA to block a deal the Kings’ owners have to sell the franchise to a group that would move the team to Seattle in time for the 2013/14 season.

Johnson said he is working against a March 1 deadline to secure those investors and an arena plan. That date is the deadline for a team to file for relocation, which the Kings did last week.

The mayor is expected to make his pitch to the league’s Board of Governors – made up of team owners – in New York in mid-April.

— Reported by Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee

A glance at Brooklyn Nets trade assets

kris humphries

Kris Humphries, who will have a $12 million expiring contract next season, is their main one. Then there’s MarShon Brooks, the highly talented/sometimes mistake-prone 24-year-old swingman who has struggled to gain confidence while playing sporadic minutes. Brooks is making just $1.16 million this season and won’t be eligible for restricted free agency until the 2015-16 campaign.

The Nets also have several future first-round picks at their disposal, and Tyshawn Taylor’s career-high 12-point, 34-minute performance on Monday night only increased his value in a potential deal. 

Smith, 27, becomes a free agent at season’s end. He’s averaging 17.1 points and 8.6 rebounds, and would certainly be an upgrade at power forward, assuming the Nets could land him. Just imagine a lineup featuring Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Gerald Wallace, Smith and Brook Lopez

— Reported by Mike Mazzeo of ESPN New York

Kyrie Irving ignoring 3-point shootout advice from Byron Scott

kyrie irving

Irving continues to dismiss any advice Scott could offer him on the contest, poking fun at his coach’s third-place finish in 1988. But Irving did get advice from former Cavs sharpshooter Mark Price, who won the event in 1993 and ’94.

“I’m not taking any advice from Coach Scott,” Irving said. “I know I’m a better shooter than Coach Scott. I believe it, he believes it.”

Scott scoffed at Irving when he told him he wanted advice from Price.

“That’s good. Mark Price won a 3-point contest and I have three championship rings,” Scott told him. “So I got the last laugh in that one. He shook his head, he didn’t say nothing after that. So that was the end of that conversation.”

— Reported by Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal

Lousy loss cancels shootout, creates lengthy film session for Cavs

Cavaliers practice on Tuesday was easy on the legs, but hard on the eyes. Instead of a rigorous workout, coach Byron Scott turned the day’s practice into a film session that lasted more than two hours.

There was plenty not to like following Monday’s dismal loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Cavs apparently went through it all frame by frame. After it was over, Scott told his players to forget about it and get ready for the San Antonio Spurs, who will carry the league’s best record into Quicken Loans Arena tonight.

“We’re going to throw this game away and focus on tomorrow,” Scott said. “I said my piece as far as some things guys needed to hear. I also said enough of this talk. You’ve got to start doing what you’re supposed to do every single night. It can’t be three or four games where we come out and play hard, then two or three games where we don’t. If you really are serious about winning and getting better as a team, you’ve got to compete every single night. Pretty simple.”

— Reported by Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal

James Harden leads Rockets past Warriors 116-107

james harden

James Harden sat in a chair in the visiting locker room with his feet in a bucket of ice and his knees wrapped in bandages when somebody plopped a laptop on his thighs to watch the replay of his scary fall.

The bearded All-Star guard played through the pain in his right ankle and his already nagging left knee to finish with 27 points and seven rebounds, stealing the spotlight from backcourt teammate Jeremy Lin in the Houston Rockets’ 116-107 victory over the slumping Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night.

”Very tough. I can barely walk. Still limping,” Harden said. ”I kind of felt the momentum going our way in the third quarter … so I didn’t want to shut it down.”

He didn’t.

And neither did the rest of the Rockets.

Chandler Parsons had 21 points, nine assists and eight rebounds, and Lin added 14 points and 10 assists to help Houston past his former team for the second time in eight days.

A week after the Rockets tied the NBA record with 23 made 3-pointers in a testy 140-109 rout of the Warriors, Harden took the Bay Area rematch off script…

Stephen Curry had 27 points and six assists and Jarrett Jack scored 22 points off the bench after missing the past three games with a right shoulder injury for the Warriors, who head into the All-Star break on a season-high five-game losing streak. The first four losses had come on the road.

”We’re not there yet. We’re not where we think we are,” said Warriors center Andrew Bogut, who had six points and 12 rebounds. ”I think we thought we were maybe a little better than we were.”

— Reported by Antonio Gonzalez of the Associated Press

Kobe Bryant 4 points, 8 turnovers, yet Lakers beat Suns

kobe bryant

Just when the Los Angeles Lakers thought their season was fully saturated with weirdness, Kobe Bryant made one shot and committed eight turnovers in one of the worst games of his career – and the Lakers still beat Phoenix.

Although the Lakers keep finding new ways to flummox their fans and themselves, they’re also still finding ways to win.

Dwight Howard had 19 points and 18 rebounds, Antawn Jamison added 19 points, and the Lakers survived Bryant’s bizarre four-point performance for their eighth victory in 11 games, 91-85 over the Suns on Tuesday night.

Even in this tumultuous season jam-packed with statistical oddities and high-profile failures, the Lakers’ latest victory is a curiosity. Returning from a seven-game road trip, the Lakers hung on to win despite the fifth-leading scorer in NBA history, who had never played this many minutes (36) with just one field goal in his 17-season career.

Bryant didn’t attempt a shot in the first half and scored his first basket with 2:13 to play, finishing 1 for 8 in his lowest-scoring game since Jan. 13, 2005, when he left a game against Cleveland after six minutes with an injury.

Yet after the win, he greeted his horrific statistics with a smile.

”I thought it was great, actually,” Bryant said. ”Obviously, scoring four points, going 1 for 8, that’s not necessarily a recipe for success. … But it’s not about us as individuals. It’s about what we can do to help the team.”

Bryant counteracted his nine assists -just one in the second half – with a raft of turnovers, yet the Lakers survived against one of the NBA’s worst teams with big plays from Howard, Steve Nash and Metta World Peace, who scored 17 points. Bryant finally got an 8-foot leaner to fall, keeping the Lakers in control.

— Reported by Greg Beacham of the Associated Press