The East Valley Tribune (Jerry Brown) reports: The Suns won’t have Leandro Barbosa tonight and likely for up to a week after he left the team Thursday bound for his home in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Early Thursday afternoon, Barbosa received word that his mother Ivete had passed away. The relationship between Barbosa and his mother is a very close one. She visited Arizona every spring for an extended visit and the two talked by phone at least a half-dozen times a day. She survived a bout with cancer a few years ago but had been hospitalized in poor health for months. Barbosa lost his father to cancer in 2005.
Spurs assign Ian Mahinmi to D-League
The San Antonio Spurs announced today that they have assigned center Ian Mahinmi to the Austin Toros, the NBA Development League team owned and operated by the Spurs.
Mahinmi is currently recovering from a sprained right ankle. He will use this assignment to the Toros as an opportunity to get back into basketball shape and complete his rehabilitation.
The 22-year-old Mahinmi is entering his second season with the Spurs. He split the 2007-08 campaign between San Antonio and Austin. Mahinmi started the season in San Antonio, appearing in six games with the Spurs, averaging 3.5 points in 3.8 minutes, before being assigned to the Toros on 11/21.
Mahinmi was named to the 2008 All-NBA Development League First Team. In 46 games with the Toros, he averaged 16.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.70 blocks in 29.6 minutes while shooting .615 (276-449) from the field and .766 (219-286) from the line. Mahinmi ranked 19th in the D-League in scoring, second in field goal percentage, eighth in rebounding and ninth in blocks. For the season Mahinmi posted 16 double-doubles. In four games in the 2008 D-League Playoffs, Mahinmi averaged 18.3 points, 10.8 rebounds and 3.50 blocks in 38.3 minutes.
Mahinmi was selected by the Spurs in the first round of the 2005 NBA Draft with the 28th overall pick. He was signed by the Spurs on 8/23/07 after spending the previous four seasons in the French A League.
Lousy Iverson shooting stands out
Allen Iverson has made a career out of being a big-time scorer (27.7 points per game).
But he’s also always shot a low field goal percentage (career 42.6% and a lousy 31.4% three-pointers).
Typically, when a team shoots under 43% for a game, they tend to lose.
Now, Iverson does make up at least partially for his low shooting percentages by drawing so much defensive attention that opportunities get created for teammates that don’t necesarily show up on a stat-sheet, but still, ideally he’d have taken fewer shots per game over his career and hit around 5-7% more of them.
Last night, the Pistons edged the Warriors 107-102, and Iverson’s vast talents were on display as he scored 23 points, grabbed 5 rebounds and dished an impressive 9 assists. But he shot 8-for-23. The team won in spite of his shooting, not because of it.
When his career eventually winds down, “The Answer” will be known as an awesome offensive force, a super-quick, ultra-tough little scoring guard, but also as a player who took a lot of shots and missed too high a percentage of them.
Nov 13: Pistons 107, Warriors 102
The AP reports: Rasheed Wallace tipped a ball into the wrong basket at one end and missed two free throws at the other. Just when it seemed like his fourth-quarter mistakes might doom Detroit, Wallace hit back-to-back 3-pointers that gave the Pistons the lead for good and sent them to a 107-102 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night… Richard Hamilton scored 24 points and Allen Iverson added 23 as the Pistons won for the second straight time to open their four-game road trip after losing their first two games with Iverson… Wallace finished with a season-high 19 points and 11 rebounds. Prince grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds… Andris Biedrins had 17 points and 19 rebounds for his 16th straight double-double for the Warriors, who are still seeking their first back-to-back wins of the season. Watson and Stephen Jackson also scored 17 points apiece.
Nov 13: Bulls 98, Mavs 91
The AP reports: They barely had time to work up a sweat before the Chicago Bulls found themselves trailing by 19 points Thursday night against the Dallas Mavericks. And less than six minutes into the game, the boos started rolling across the United Center… And that’s what the Bulls did. They turned up the defense, started running the floor, then caught up and passed the Mavericks for a 98-91 victory, sending Dallas to its fourth straight loss… “They were attacking us with transition and they put us on our heels early,” said Ben Gordon, who led the Bulls with 35 points… Derrick Rose, who shot 1-for-8 in the first half, was 6-for-7 in the third quarter, when he scored 14 of his 16 points. Luol Deng added 20 points… Josh Howard, returning after missing two games with sore wrist, led Dallas with 21 points and added 11 rebounds. Erick Dampier scored 16 and pulled down 18 boards… Dirk Nowitzki scored only 12 for the Mavs, shooting 5-for-17.
Nov 13: Cavs 110, Nuggets 99
The AP reports: LeBron James scored 22 points, most of them coming with good buddy Carmelo Anthony guarding him, and Williams scored a season-high 24, making a critical 3-pointer with James on the bench, as the Cavaliers improved to 5-0 at home and beat the Nuggets for the first time since 2005… Daniel Gibson snapped out of a shooting slump and added 15 points for the Cavaliers, who held the Nuggets to 18 points in the fourth on 39 percent shooting… Chauncey Billups scored a season-high 26 points — 16 in the first quarter — Carmelo Anthony had 18 and Kenyon Martin 12 with 10 rebounds for Denver. Martin, who had missed the previous two games with a sprained wrist, was ejected with 55 seconds left after he was called for a flagrant-2 foul for slamming his shoulder into Cleveland forward Anderson Varejao… Cleveland’s Ben Wallace had a season-high 11 points but sat out the fourth with a bruised left knee.
Beasley defense lacking
The Palm Beach Post (Chris Perkins) reports: Coach Erik Spoelstra said it couldn’t be done, and he was right. The Heat can’t hide Michael Beasley’s defensive shortcomings. But Miami is trying. It put center Udonis Haslem on Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge in Wednesday’s 104-96 loss. It was the fourth time in eight games Beasley defended the opponents’ center instead of its power forward. Eventually in the Portland game, Beasley, who struggles with defensive rotations, had to be taken out altogether. “There were a lot of situations being thrown at him yesterday, and his head was spinning,” Spoelstra said after today’s practice.
Hot stats worth knowing
The Los Angeles Lakers, the NBA’s only undefeated team, are 7-0 for the first time since the 2001-02 season.
Phoenix’s Shaquille O’Neal, who finished with 18 points in the Suns’ home loss to Houston last night, moved passed John Havlicek into 10th place on the all-time scoring list. With 26,402 career points, O’Neal needs 266 points to tie Dominique Wilkins for ninth all time (26,668).
The Lakers’ Kobe Bryant needs three points to tie Larry Bird for 23rd on the all-time scoring list (21,791).
With 2,058 steals, Dallas’ Jason Kidd needs 17 steals to tie Mookie Blaylock (2,075 steals) for 10th all time.
Orlando’s Dwight Howard recorded his first career triple-double with 30 points, 19 rebounds and 10 blocks in last night’s win over Oklahoma City. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Howard became the first player with at least 30 points and 10 blocks in a game since Hakeem Olajuwon (31 points, 10 blocks) accomplished the feat against Dallas on April 13, 1996.
New Orleans’ Chris Paul has recorded at least one steal in 90 straight games, the longest active streak in the NBA. The all-time record is 105 straight games with at least one steal, held by Alvin Robertson.
Miami’s Dwyane Wade has scored at least 30 points in a franchise-record four straight games. Wade is averaging 28.2 points on the season.
Through seven games, Indiana’s T.J. Ford is averaging a career-best 17.1 points, while shooting a career-high .479 percent from the field. He had 17 assists combined through his first four games. He has 28 his last three contests.
–NBA News
Offensive gurus on TNT Thursday
Three of the NBA’s top offensive teams will be in action tonight on TNT as part of the network’s Thursday night double-header. The Cleveland Cavaliers host the Denver Nuggets (8 p.m. ET), followed by the Detroit Pistons visiting the Golden State Warriors (10:30 p.m. ET). Denver’s mission, should it choose to accept it, is to somehow contain the NBA’s most potent weapon: LeBron James. James accounts for nearly 30 percent of his team’s points and has scored at least 40 in three of the last four games. James is averaging a league-high 29.8 points, 8.4 rebounds (25th in the NBA) and 6.9 assists (7th), and is the only player to rank in the top 25 in each category. Denver is the league’s lone team with nine players averaging at least 7.5 points. Chauncey Billups is averaging 15.7 points and 6.0 assists, while leading Denver to a 3-0 record in his three appearances as a Nugget. The 4-3 Nuggets rank seventh overall in scoring (100.1 ppg), while the 5-2 Cavaliers are 10th (99.5 ppg) … The Warriors, who paced the league in scoring last season (111 ppg), rank third thus far at 102.6 ppg. The 5-2 Pistons will need to focus on keeping the 3-5 Warriors out of the middle and off the glass. Golden State ranks first in the league in offensive rebounds (14.4 orpg), third in points in the paint with 47.3 per game and fourth in second chance points with 17.1 per contest. Detroit’s Allen Iverson needs 41 points to tie Elgin Baylor for 19th on the all-time scoring list (23,149) and 69 to tie Adrian Dantley for 18th (23,177).
–NBA News
Wizards quotes
WIZARDS HEAD COACH EDDIE JORDAN
On carrying the momentum from last night’s win: “Our leaders are great leaders. They continue to echo that message that it’s one game and that we need to continue to do the things that we did last night in each game – 48 minutes of hard, smart basketball with winning plays at the end. Even if the shots don’t fall we can still rebound, get into people and be physical. Let’s keep that message and see if we can follow it a little bit more.”
On the defense against the Utah Jazz: “I think we got our hands on a lot of balls: deflections, steals, blocked shots. We kept the ball alive on the glass. That was one of the Utah Jazz’s comments that we controlled the paint. We started early with a couple of steals and some deflections and you feed off of that. You can feel that frenzied attitude.”
On the Miami Heat: “We need to keep him (Dwyane Wade) off the rim, off the glass and out of the paint. They’re young and they play fairly small. They open the floor up. They’re going to feel good at home. We’re going to go with what was good for us last night – we’ll go sort of big. We certainly can play small or big just as long as we keep the harmony and the chemistry, and that is what we are trying to develop.”
On JaVale McGee: “His bloodlines are genuine. He’s been taught the right away – how to compete, how to behave. He is learning at an early age how to pay attention and how to compete. No one teaches how to love the game, but he loves the game. He is a special player right now because of his growth and all of the intangibles.”
WIZARDS FORWARD CARON BUTLER
On the Miami Heat: “It’s going to be tough. They play with a lot of effort and energy. Dwyane Wade is definitely back – he’s playing at an unbelievable level right now. We have to bring it. It’s not going to be easy to win in Miami, but it’s definitely something we can accomplish.”
On JaVale McGee: “He’s doing great. A lot was expected of him, and I think he came in and did exactly what he was supposed to do. He played with a lot of effort and energy. When you apply that much energy and effort out on the court, good things are going to happen on the offensive end. Guys are going to reward you and throw the ball up there. He’s been doing great; he’s been finishing strong and getting the crowd into it. He was a real big part of our success last night.”
WIZARDS GUARD JUAN DIXON
On getting a win: “We’re happy to get a win. I thought we played a lot better on the defensive end and we moved the ball a lot more on the offensive end. As long as we continue to play with the energy we played with last night and execute on the defensive side, I think we’ll be fine.”
On the Miami Heat: “We have to contain Dwyane Wade. We have to be on point like we were last night (against the Utah Jazz). Miami has a young team and they have their All-Star (Dwyane Wade) playing at a superstar level right now. We have to do our part on the defensive end.”