The Clippers could take something from their most irregular final regular-season meeting on Thursday in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, a 103-101 loss to the Lakers. “It’s a good lesson for the team,” Coach Doc Rivers said over Zoom. “You can’t make as many mistakes as we made in one game and be shorthanded.” The “self-inflicted…
Clippers see silver lining in otherwise sloppy loss to Lakers — Press Telegram
[ad_1] Ja Rule — yes, Ja Rule — spoke for everyone who watched the Pelicans-Jazz matchup Thursday night (WARNING: BAD LANGUAGE BELOW). Why the fuck is Zion on minutes restrictions??? — Ja Rule (@jarule) July 31, 2020 NBA RESTART: Schedule | Playoff bracket | Bubble, explained After re-entering the NBA’s campus following an excused absence and being […]
Why didn’t Zion Williamson play more minutes vs. Jazz? Pelicans’ Alvin Gentry offers confusing explanation — BMNews
After re-entering the NBA’s campus following an excused absence and being cleared to play in the restart opener, Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson scored 13 points in just 15 minutes as New Orleans fell to Utah in a tightly contested game. Williamson played the first five minutes of the fourth quarter but never returned after being subbed out with 7:19 left in regulation.
When asked about Williamson sitting on the bench as the Jazz took control of the game, Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry told reporters the 20-year-old was on a minutes restriction.
“Well, of course we wish we could’ve played him down the stretch, but we had used the minutes that were given to us. That’s the way it is. We weren’t going to stick him back out there,” Gentry said. “Our medical people said that we played in the minutes that were allowed [for] us to play him, and we’ll just move on.
“I thought he looked good. I thought he had some good moments, and obviously we’re a much better and a much different basketball team when he’s out on the floor.”
Gentry’s explanation is confusing for a few reasons. First, Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes reported prior to tipoff Williamson would play in “short bursts” but noted he wouldn’t necessarily be on a minutes restriction. So was Williamson on a burst plan, a minutes restriction or both?
Second, if Gentry did know Williamson couldn’t play more than approximately 15 minutes, did he not plan to save some of those minutes in case the Pelicans needed Williamson in crunch time? Every “seeding game” matters for the Pels because they are fighting against multiple Western Conference teams for the final playoff spot. If New Orleans’ coaching staff didn’t consider this scenario, then that’s a major error.
And third, what is Williamson’s status right now? Williamson said after the loss he hasn’t suffered any recent medical setbacks and denied he had to sit because of conditioning issues.
“Not even just conditioning, it’s just getting my flow to the game back,” Williamson said. “This is the NBA. These are the best players in the world. You want to feel comfortable. I don’t want to hurt my team more than I help them in a sense.”
Pelicans’ Zion Williamson, kept to 15 minutes in bubble opener, said he hasn’t suffered any medical setbacks & added that sitting during crunch time isn’t solely due to conditioning. “It’s just getting my flow to the game back… I don’t want to hurt my team more than I helped.” pic.twitter.com/uK7FROHrW7
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) July 31, 2020
Williamson is the future of the franchise. If there is any risk of him getting seriously hurt, then clearly he shouldn’t play. No reasonable person would question the Pelicans’ decision-making process in that situation.
However, this appears to be more of a communication issue. If the Pels want to make a playoff push, then everyone needs to be on the same page.
Otherwise, Ja Rule (and the rest of us) will keep asking the same question.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — From the night this NBA season began, to the night it began again, the Lakers-Clippers has carried the feel of a heavyweight bout. In March, each team seemed trim, limber, ready to contend. After a hiatus unlike any in the sports’ history at four-and-a-half months long, the Lakers and Clippers…
Lakers win slugfest over Clippers in NBA restart to charge out of the hiatus — Press Telegram
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The NBA season is in overtime. For LeBron James, and by extension the Los Angeles Lakers, every one of those minutes is precious. There’s a clock running on James’ prime years, which have still unbelievably kept churning on. But in the NBA bubble on the Disney campus, those sands in…
LeBron James’ clock is ticking, but Lakers hope the restart is time enough to win it all — Daily News
Jaylen Brown has been exemplary in his handling of off-the-court issues in recent months. And the Boston Celtics guard spoke out on another important one Wednesday — voting. “I want to continue to demand justice for Breonna Taylor. I want that to continue to be reiterated while I’m down here,” Brown told reporters from the…
Celtics’ Jaylen Brown Issues Thoughtful Message About Importance Of Voting — NESN.com
Jaylen Brown has been exemplary in his handling of off-the-court issues in recent months. And the Boston Celtics guard spoke out on another important one Wednesday — voting. “I want to continue to demand justice for Breonna Taylor. I want that to continue to be reiterated while I’m down here,” Brown told reporters from the NBA bubble in Orlando, Fla. “Also, I want to encourage people in my community to get out and vote — not just for the presidential elections, but state representatives, elected officials, etc. I think there is a lot of power in coming together and voting, especially in the black community. Politicians have made empty promises to the black community year after year after year. They think that is OK and acceptable and it’s not. “So, I want to emphasize that we got to continue to vote. We got to come together, use our power, utilize it in the right manner. And I want to inspire people in Georgia, where I’m from, Marietta, … Boston, Massachusetts, Dorchester, Roxbury, Oakland, East Oakland, West Oakland, wherever my influence reaches I want people to continue to vote. There’s a lot of power in exercising that. And we got to use it…” You can listen to Brown’s full statement below, courtesy of NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg. Get out and vote let’s make it a trend 💯
Read more at: https://nesn.com/2020/07/celtics-jaylen-brown-issues-thoughtful-message-about-importance-of-voting/
Kemba Walker appears to be progressing positively from his knee injury. The Celtics guard has been dealing with a nagging knee issue this season that’s caused him to miss some time during his first season in Boston. And even though he wasn’t 100 percent heading into the NBA’s bubble environment in Orlando, Fla., it’s getting…
Celtics’ Kemba Walker’s Knee ‘Strongest It’s Been’ Since September — NESN.com
The injury is not considered serious enough to keep him out for an extended period of time.
Frank Vogel: “Some concern” Anthony Davis could miss Lakers’ opener Thursday due to eye — ProBasketballTalk | NBC Sports
Ideally the hurdles would have come earlier in the scrimmage schedule. Read More
GANTER: Raptors’ final scrimmage not their finest hour — Toronto Sun
deally the hurdles would have come earlier in the scrimmage schedule.
But after two solid games with the odd issue to deal with, the Raptors closed out the scrimmage portion of the NBA re-start with their worst of three performances in a 117-106 loss to the Phoenix Suns.
On Saturday, the games count for real and the competition only gets tougher with the LeBron James-led Los Angeles Lakers providing the opposition.
A repeat of Tuesday’s turnover-prone offence and lackadaisical defence is going to get the Raptors off on the wrong foot.
In truth, this was a team that looked and played like they were done with these tune-up games.
Through three quarters, much of that with the starters on the floor, the Raptors turned the ball over 18 times. And it wasn’t as if it was just one guy having a bad game. The giveaways were contagious with Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, Kyle Lowry, OG Anunoby and Norm Powell all committing three turnovers each.
But the Suns were allowed to do just about whatever they wanted and scored more than 30 points a quarter in the three quarters the starters were still in the game, a claim very few opponents can make against a Raptors team that hangs its hat on its defence.
All in all, it was a very un-Raptors-like performance.
“Well, we certainly didn’t do anything very well,” head coach Nick Nurse said. “It’s a combination of us not being super engaged or energetic and them playing very well. Give them a lot of credit, I thought they had us back on our heels all night. We turned it over — geez, we must have had eight turnovers in the backcourt, which is just strange; you have one or two of those every two months, you know what I mean, normally. So just, not very engaged and that’s it.”
Perhaps the best thing about the night from a Toronto perspective was that it marked the end of the meaningless scrimmages.
Nurse seemed to be in complete agreement with that.
“I think I’m glad there isn’t any more of these, right?,” he said. “I think we’ve gone one too far with these you know what I mean? Certainly (based on) our mindset or the way we played tonight.
“But it’s OK,” he continued. “Listen, we again didn’t have a lot of great, engaged play tonight, and it showed up in transition defence and contesting shots and missed assignments and things like that. But it’s so meaningless that you can kind of wash it away pretty quick and hopefully we’ll have (the players’) attention here for a few days of practice which I’m sure we will and we’ll get some things ironed out and then we get to see come Saturday night what the deal is.”
Nurse knows his team better than anyone else and he pointed out they tend to have one of those games once in a while where they get all the bad habits and poor play out of the way and then normally rebound in a very big way.
Powell, one of just a few Raptors who will look back on this game and find anything they want to take from it, was very clear just how long he thought the stench of this one would last.
“Right after the game ended,” he responded to a question about how long it would take this team to flush this one. “We’ll obviously talk about it and about how we can improve and get better but we take it for what it is and move on to the next one.
“It’s real come Saturday so we can’t focus too much on this one. We’ll take the learning (lessons) that we can and see how we can get better for the actual seeding games and get ready for the real deal.”
THE FEW BRIGHT SPOTS
It starts with Marc Gasol in this one. Nurse stretched him out to almost twenty minutes and he looked as engaged as anyone on the court wearing Raptors colours.
Gasol had five points and nine boards, but it was his energy and bounce that caught Nurse’s eye.https://www.youtube.com/embed/CTYRMukWGeM?embed_config={%27relatedChannels%27:%20[],%27autonav%27:true}&autoplay=0&playsinline=1
Powell was an offensive standout as after a couple of games of not seeing his shot drop, he seemed to find the range.
The combo guard/forward was 6-for-11 from the field and made two of his three attempts from beyond the arc for a 14-point night.
Two-way guard Paul Watson also got some love from his coach in this one. The seldom-used Watson played just over 10 minutes and had seven points.
“He was good, man,” Nurse said. “I just liked his energy, he as attacking, I thought he played with good confidence. I liked him a lot tonight. I think he’s got some size, got some speed, he looks like he’s certainly not afraid out there. He looked good, a good bright spot and a good chance to see him.”
QUICK HITS
Mississauga native Oshae Brissett, the Raptors’ other two-way player on the roster, was a no-go for Tuesday’s final scrimmage after he got banged up a little earlier in the week. He joined Pat McCaw, who remains out with an undisclosed issue that Nurse said he expects McCaw will wind up playing through … Nurse was not aware of any other setbacks in the game from an injury perspective, although he noted Terence Davis took a hard fall and was a little sore. He didn’t believe that would be a lingering injury.
Kyrie Irving isn’t about to allow WNBA players to go unpaid for opting out of the league’s abbreviated 2020 season. The Brooklyn Nets star pledged $1.5 million to help pay WNBA players that have chosen to sit out the season, whether its due to social justice or COVID-19, the Associated Press reported Monday. Irving has…
Kyrie Irving To Donate $1.5M To Pay WNBA Players Who Opted Out Of Season — NESN.com
No need to worry about Fred VanVleet. Read More
Raptors’ VanVleet puts collision behind him but questions bring his family to Disney — Toronto Sun
No need to worry about Fred VanVleet.
The Raptors’ guard left Sunday’s scrimmage early after knocking knees with Anfernee Simmons but confirmed Monday he is fine.
Well, there was that video of his daughter that hit Twitter and gave us all a chuckle. Initially she couldn’t find her dad on the television screen and got a little agitated. Once she found him though she got very excited.
While the rest of us laughed, VanVleet said it actually made him cry.
It’s one of the mostly unseen price these players are paying in order for the NBA to push the start button again.
“That was tough, man,” VanVleet said. “It’s funny ‘cause she’s a character. But yeah, it definitely hits home a little different, you know, not being able to see them.”
VanVleet has the option of bringing in his family after the first round of the playoffs if he and his family choose to go that route, but he’s still weighing the pros and cons on that one.
“I wish they coulda came with us right away, but they’ll have to go through their own process of getting here,” VanVleet said. “There’s a bunch of stuff they gotta do to clear quarantine. There’s a lot of obstacles, for sure. If I didn’t have two small children, I would say definitely yes, but I’m still trying to decide if I wanna put my kids through that.”
The big issue for VanVleet is the quarantine period that would have to pre-date any trip to see dad
“I wouldn’t wish that on anybody, locking my two kids in a room for four-to-seven days with anybody,” he said. “I don’t care how much money you got or whatever the case may be, that’s not an experience I would wish on anybody. My kids are rough, so that might be a long four days.”
On the court VanVleet said he, like everyone else, is still adjusting to a quiet gym without fans for games.
But his primary concern right now is getting back into the flow of the game, something he didn’t feel he managed in the first game and something he never had the chance to do in the second coming out as early as he did after the collision.
“There’s just so many intangibles and so many variables that are not present, so it’s a different game for sure,” he said of the NBA game inside the bubble. “But it’s still basketball at the end of the day, so we’ll see. I didn’t have much rhythm in the Rockets game and didn’t play much in the Portland game, so right now I’m hating it. Until I get my rhythm going, I’ll probably get more into it.”
The lack of rhythm was something head coach Nick Nurse touched on also and it’s not just the time away from the game that has created it.
“I feel good,” VanVleet said when asked where his game was at right now. “I feel good in practice, I feel good when I’m working out, I feel good in the scrimmages. Again, it’s gonna take time. I spoke about this a little bit earlier. We haven’t had our full team pretty much all year and now in this position playing a whole entire new game of basketball with a new team, trying to figure everything out.”
A MASK THAT WILL BE IN DEMAND
Both Nurse and VanVleet were wearing new masks featuring the Toronto skyline with the raised fist that is the symbol for Black Lives Matter when they fulfilled their media obligations on Monday.
Nurse was handing them out to all the team after a former neighbour of his from Liberty Village sent them down. Nadia Lloyd, a local artist designed and sewed an array of locally themed masks and are donating five dollars of every mask sold to Black Lives Matter. If interested you can see her line at nadialloyd.com.
“I just wanted to support a local business, small business owner, great artist,” Nurse said. “I think she did an amazing job.”
A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK
Raptors 905, the G-League little brother of the Toronto Raptors may not be in Orlando, but they are in lock step with what the parent club is doing down there.
Led by 905 head coach Jama Mahlalela, the 905 are teaming up with First Book Canada and Penguin Random House Canada to launch the Raptors 905 Summer Reading Challenge.
Sponsored by Tangerine Bank the challenge is designed to keep students reading through the summer and not just any reading but books authored by Black writers which represent Black people and other minorities in a positive light.
They are stories based on the authors’ own experiences that foster empathy, understanding and a spirit of inclusion for the young readers taking part in the challenge.
It’s right in line with similar initiatives the Raptors are developing and carrying out on the NBA campus as they take part in the NBA restart. The team has made it clear that while the chance to defend their championship is vitally important to them, the chance to use their platform to foster change in society with regards to racial equality is their primary focus.
Five books including Dragons in a Bag by Zetta Elliott, Clean Getaway by Nic Stone, What Lane? by Torrey Maldonado, No Small Potatoes by Tonya Bolden and Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson will be featured in the Challenge.
That’s five books in five weeks for a cumulative total of 905 minutes of reading
Two hundred Grade 5 students from Peel region will be asked to read one book per week and then write a short report highlighting what they have learned and what they enjoyed in each book. A weekly Friday virtual meeting to interact with the author will be led by Mahlalela.
“I’m so excited to be able to participate and help guide some of the discussion around these books and more broadly around some really important issues in our community,” Mahlalela. “I have always been passionate about education and the knowledge that comes through that, and reading is such a valuable tool for kids, and adults, to continually work at and develop.”
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. >> On any given night, Devin Dismang checks an online folder to see hours of footage he’ll have to comb through — sent by JaVale McGee. Inevitably this is a grind. For the next few hours, he’ll watch a lot of raw material: JaVale waking up, JaVale eating, JaVale getting time…
With a camera, JaVale McGee has brought millions of viewers inside the NBA bubble — Press Telegram
The view from left field 