NBA Blog: The NBA basketball news blog section of Inside Hoops
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Ricky Rubio practiced with the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday, Dec. 2, for the first time this season. He says his surgically repaired left knee feels good, and he’s anxious to see how his body responds on Monday.
There is still no timetable for his first game. Rubio says he wants to be sure his knee is 100 percent before he comes back. Rubio tore the anterior cruciate ligament and lateral collateral ligament in his knee last March.
— Reported by Jon Krawczynski of the Associated Press
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Rasheed Wallace delivered a hard whack to Luis Scola, then some hard words to the referees.
These New York Knicks won’t let anybody have it easy at Madison Square Garden, not even the officials.
Carmelo Anthony scored 34 points and the Knicks ran their best home start in 20 years to 7-0, withstanding Wallace’s ejection after a mere 1:25 of playing time to beat the Phoenix Suns 106-99 on Sunday.
Phoenix had won its last two at MSG but the Knicks have finally figured out under coach Mike Woodson that home-court games are not to be wasted. They are 18-1 in the regular season here since he took over last March, jumping on their last few opponents from the start…
Raymond Felton had 23 points, seven assists and no turnovers for the Knicks, who last won seven straight at Madison Square Garden to open a season when they started 9-0 in 1992-93. The point guard was hurting after the game, saying he was going to get an MRI on his swollen left hand…
[Tyson] Chandler finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds as the Knicks improved to 12-4 overall, a half-game behind Miami for the best record in the Eastern Conference. They got off to a good start in December after winning 11 in November for the first time since a 12-victory November in 1972 on the way to their last NBA championship…
Marcin Gortat had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Suns, who dropped their third straight and fell to 1-4 on their season-high, six-game road trip that ends Tuesday in Memphis. Shannon Brown scored 17 points.
— Reported by Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press
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Brand has had his struggles this season, but he doesn’t think the 17 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks he had in Saturday’s win over the Pistons should be considered a surprise. Those all at least match season highs, but Brand expects many more nights like this in a Mavs uniform.
“Nah, that’s not vintage,” said Brand, who was averaging 6.2 points and 6.0 rebounds entering the game. “Not even close. That’s what I can do. That’s where I’m at right now.
“With the opportunity and the looks, I’m still right there. I can do that every night – most nights – with those opportunities.”
By opportunities, Brand means shots and minutes. They were both tough to come by for Brand in the first month of the season.
— Reported by Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas
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Marcus Camby was ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Phoenix Suns shortly before tipoff due to a sore left foot.
Camby participated in a walk-through with the Knicks on Saturday, so it is unclear when the injury flared up. Mike Woodson said 90 minutes before tipoff he expected to have all of his players except Jason Kidd (lower back spasms) available.
Camby, 38, missed the entire preseason due to a calf injury and entered the season out of game shape. The veteran big man has played in just six of the Knicks’ 15 games. He has received DNP’s in the past two.
— Reported by Ian Begley of ESPN New York
The Denver Nuggets have recalled rookie forward Quincy Miller from the Iowa Energy of the NBA Development League, Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Masai Ujiri announced today.
Miller, 6-9, 210, joined the Energy on Nov. 13. He started two of three games and averaged 14.0 points, 10.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 29.0 minutes.
Selected by the Nuggets with the 38th overall pick of the 2012 NBA Draft, Miller joined the Nuggets after being named the 2011-12 Big 12 Co-Freshman of the Year in his only season at Baylor University.
He averaged 6.8 points and 5.2 rebounds for Denver at the 2012 NBA Summer League but has not appeared in an NBA game.
The San Antonio Spurs today announced that they have assigned guard Nando De Colo to the Austin Toros of the NBA Development League.
De Colo has appeared in 13 games this season for San Antonio, averaging 2.5 points, 1.4 assists and 1.2 rebounds in 10.4 minutes.
The French native is currently in his first season playing for the Silver and Black. He was selected by the Spurs with the 53rd pick in the second round of the 2009 NBA Draft and spent the past three seasons playing for Valencia of the Spanish ACB League.
The Golden State Warriors have assigned forward/center Jeremy Tyler to the Santa Cruz Warriors of the NBA Development League, the team announced today.
He is slated to join Golden State’s D-League affiliate in time for the team’s game this afternoon at Reno.
Tyler, 21, has appeared in five games with Golden State this season, averaging 1.6 points in 2.0 minutes per contest.
The Boston Celtics announced today that they have assigned forward Kris Joseph to their NBA Development League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws.
Joseph, a 6’7” forward, appeared in one game for the Celtics during his recall from the Red Claws against the Portland Trail Blazers on November 30 and recorded two points in 4:55 of action. He returns to the Red Claws where he appeared in two games earlier this season and averaged 25.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.0 block per game.
Rick Majerus, the jovial college basketball coach who led Utah to the 1998 NCAA final and had only one losing season in 25 years with four schools, died Saturday. He was 64.
Utah industrialist Jon Huntsman, the coach’s longtime friend, confirmed in a statement released through The Salt Lake Tribune that Majerus died of heart failure in a Los Angeles hospital. The coach had been hospitalized there for several months.
Players remembered Majerus as a coach who was exacting and perhaps a bit unorthodox at times, but always fair.
“It was a unique experience, I’ll tell you that, and I loved every minute of it,” said Saint Louis guard Kyle Cassity, who was mostly a backup on last season’s 26-win team after starting for Majerus earlier in his college career.
— Reported by the Associated Press
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The “Dwightmare” may be over, but on the eve of his first game against his former team, Dwight Howard was in a reflective mood about what happened over those final furious six months with the Magic.
“I’ve had a chance to sit back and think about it and there are some things I could’ve done better. There are some things that could’ve been done better on both sides,” Howard said in a lengthy, wide-ranging interview after Los Angeles Lakers practice on Saturday. “But at the end of the day, we all learn some lessons and we’ve got to move forward.
“I’m happy here, I’m having a lot of fun. This is a place that I’ve always prayed that I could be a part of something very special. So I want to take advantage of it.”
Howard didn’t want to elaborate on what he or the Magic could have done differently during the excruciating process that led to his trade to the Lakers in August. Los Angeles hosts Orlando on Sunday night at the Staples Center.
“It doesn’t really matter to talk about it now. It’s over and done with,” he said. “There are a lot of things we both could’ve done, but at the end of the day, it happened just the way it was supposed to happen. There was a reason behind everything. We might not see it or understand it at the time, but there was a reason why everything happened the way it happened and I think it made both parties stronger.”
— Reported by Ramona Shelburne of ESPN Los Angeles