Stephen Curry had his first significant playing time in the past five games, playing nine minutes and scoring 12 points. John Wall recorded his third double-double in his past five games, scoring 20 points and dishing out 14 assists. The Jazz won their first road game since Feb. 12, against Memphis. Al Jefferson recorded 25 points, 13 rebounds, and 7 assists in their win over the Cavaliers. Van Gundy, who walked out with team doctors, was overheard complaining of chest pains. When asked about
Blazers re-sign Joel Przybilla
Veteran center Joel Przybilla, who was shut out of the abbreviated free agent market in December, re-signed Monday with the Portland Trail Blazers. Przybilla spent six-plus seasons with the Trail Blazers until being traded to Charlotte with other goodies at last year’s deadline for Gerald Wallace. He gives Portland depth at center, where the club is a tad long in the tooth. Portland’s starting center is 37-year-old Marcus Camby. His backup is 39-year-old power forward Kurt Thomas. At 32, Przybilla is a
The Bernucca List – Edition 13
Last week’s edition of The Bernucca List produced a handful of wrong guesses until reader Dashiell broke through with the right answer – former scoring champions who played for the Celtics. Get this: Throughout their illustrious history, the Celtics have never had a scoring champion. Unlucky edition 13 is below. The idea is to correctly identify the list with the proper parameters. First correct answer gets a mention in next week’s list. You can answer via the comments or Tweet me. The Bernucca
Tonight’s best game: San Antonio at Portland
The San Antonio Spurs try to extend one streak and end another Tuesday, continuing their road trip against the Portland Trail Blazers, who have won the last six meetings between the clubs at the Rose Garden. After defeating the Utah Jazz, 106-102, without two key players Monday in Salt Lake City, San Antonio extended the longest active winning streak in the NBA to 11 games. Manu Ginobili (oblique strain) and Tiago Splitter (calf strain) both suffered injuries in Saturday’s 103-100 win over
Tonight’s best game: Portland at LA Lakers
The Portland Trail Blazers visit Staples Center on Monday to play the Los Angeles Lakers, a matchup of teams whose personnel issues became quite public over the weekend. The Lakers (18-13) are coming off Sunday’s loss at Phoenix in which they were torn to shreds by the brilliance of point guard Steve Nash, while Derek Fisher and Steve Blake combined for two points in 47 minutes. The most recent trade talk involves Pau Gasol, and superstar Kobe Bryant would like to see
Fantasy Spin: Sunday Feb. 19
Ouch! I’d been touting Manu Ginobili as a buy-low trade target, anticipating that his minutes and production would improve as his left hand got stronger. Now he’s strained his oblique. There’s no official diagnosis yet, or an accurate prediction of how much time he’ll miss, but this is bad news for the Spurs, Manu and his fantasy owners. Hope you didn’t cut Danny Green or Gary Neal, whose value won’t be fading after all. Neal had 17 points yesterday, going
Clippers blunder leads to Spurs’ 10th straight win; Nets stun Bulls with early rout
The team not enough people are paying much attention to is creeping up the standings. Unable to get past the second round of the playoffs for the past three seasons, not many gave the aging San Antonio Spurs much of a championship-contending thought when the shortened season began. They were regarded as aging, middle-of-the-pack type team in the Western Conference. It’s time for second thoughts. Playing the sixth consecutive game on their annual rodeo road trip, the Spurs found a way to squeak
NBA Post-Game Notes
Dwight Howard notched hit 23rd double-double of the season as the Sixers fell to 0-6 when their opponent scores 100+ points. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, theCeltics have held their last 26 opponents under 100 points. That’s tied for the 6th-longest such streak in a single season in the shot clock era. The Pacers arrived at their Cleveland hotel to find Miami’s team was also staying at the Ritz-Carlton. Vogel joked, claiming they deserved it. “Take that,” he said. “You don’t