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

Pelicans forward Zion Williamson playing limited minutes at beginning of NBA restart

Zion Williamson played limited minutes Thursday. Everyone would have loved to see him out there longer, except Pelicans brass, who are focused on keeping the big guy healthy and letting him build up momentum during the NBA restart. Here’s the New Orleans Times-Picayune reporting:

It was hard not to notice the similarities between Zion Williamson’s professional debut and his performance Thursday in the first game of the NBA’s restart in Kissimmee, Florida.

In each game, he played four short stints at the start of each quarter. Even though his minutes were limited, he put up impressive scoring totals. On Jan. 22, he had 22 points in 18 minutes. On Thursday, he scored 13 points in 15 minutes…

On Friday, Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin cleared the air on why Williamson was used so sparingly in New Orleans’ 106-104 loss to the Utah Jazz.

“I appreciate the fact that everyone wants him to play 40 minutes every night,” Griffin said. “I can promise you he’s not going to. No mistakes were made (Thursday) with how this was handled other than by me coming forward and expressing this in the clearest way possible. This isn’t complicated. He will not play significant minutes in the next game, and he may not in the following game. This is all about the ramp-up time. He didn’t get the benefit of the things that his teammates got for those 13 days. This is going to take some time.”

Nuggets will be missing multiple starters Saturday in game vs Heat

On Saturday, the Nuggets will face the Heat at 1 p.m. ET, with the game televised nationally on ESPN. Here’s the Denver Post reporting:

Denver will be down starters Gary Harris (right hip muscle strain) and Will Barton (knee soreness), while point guard Jamal Murray (left hamstring tightness) is questionable for the opener. Nuggets reserve Vlatko Cancar was also listed on Friday’s injury report with a left foot fracture.

After arriving late to Orlando, Harris missed all three of the team’s scrimmages.

Leading Scorers

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

Nuggets (PPG)
Nikola Jokic 20.2
Jamal Murray 18.8
Will Barton 15.1
Paul Millsap 12.0
Jerami Grant 11.6

Clippers to face a motivated Pelicans squad Saturday

The Clippers face the Pelicans tomorrow. Here’s the OC Register with some thoughts on LA:

Now, on the heels of their bubble-opening 103-101 loss to the Lakers, Doc Rivers’ squad shouldn’t expect the New Orleans Pelicans to accommodate the Clippers in their search for rhythm and cohesion ahead of the playoffs in mid-August.

No, the hungry, high-octane Pelicans have good reason to be disruptive.

New Orleans (28-37) is one of five teams chasing the eighth and final playoff spot, held currently by Memphis, which has a four-game lead on the Pelicans. And after dropping their bubble opener 106-104 against Utah on Thursday, the Pelicans will have even less room for error in their remaining seven seeding games.

Veteran coach Alvin Gentry has his Pelicans believing they can insert themselves into the postseason picture.

“I think we’re in a good place,” New Orleans center Derrick Favors told reporters, via Zoom, a couple days before the restart.

Leading Scorers

Pelicans (PPG)
Brandon Ingram 24.2
Zion Williamson 23.1
Jrue Holiday 19.6
JJ Redick 15.0
Lonzo Ball 12.3

Clippers (PPG)
Kawhi Leonard 26.9
Paul George 21.2
Lou Williams 18.7
Montrezl Harrell 18.6
Marcus Morris Sr. 17.1