The kids are alright. We could have guessed Enes Kanter (17 & 8 in 23 min.) would play well off the bench as Derrick Favors (12 & 10) got the tough start vs. Andrew Bynum (33 & 11 with 2 BLK). Another Jazz rookie to watch is Alec Burks (17 PTS in 19 min.) but the story of this shocker was a miserable 3-20 shooting night by Kobe Bryant, with seven turnovers. Starting PG Steve Blake went scoreless; backup Ramon
Pencils down and papers forward, please. Here are my grades on how teams did at the trading deadline. We aren’t going to evaluate whether Dallas was helped or hindered by Thursday’s wheeling and dealing. The Mavericks – and 13 other teams – didn’t make a deal, so consider their grade to be incomplete. Or a withdrawal, if you prefer. No one got an F, although the Nets came awfully close. At the other end of the scale, the Rockets are officially the teacher’s
It’s another edition of Trade Spin, where we try to sort out the fantasy implications of yesterday’s deadline deals. Tomorrow, the Spin will return to our usual around-the-league format as we catch up on who’s hot and who’s not. The biggest news of a busy Thursday was the three-way swap that sends JaVale McGee to Denver, Nene to Washington and Nick Young to the Clippers. It’s a homecoming of sorts for Young, the former USC star, and means Randy Foye has
Nate McMillan is out of a job. The Portland Trail Blazers fired their head coach today, one day after his team lost by 42 points to the reeling New York Knicks, and on the same day the team traded away Gerald Wallace and Marcus Camby. The interim head coach is Kaleb Canales, who has been with the Blazers for seven seasons, starting as a video intern, and had a 4-1 record as coach of the Blazers’s summer league team in Las Vegas
While the swirl around Dwight Howard and Rajon Rondo has calmed down to something less than a tornado, it is picking up elsewhere, specifically around the Portland Trail Blazers. After a quick start that saw the Blazers win at Oklahoma City and briefly hold the best record in the Western Conference, Portland has fallen to 18-18 and is on the outside looking in at the playoff picture. The Blazers have movable parts – the expiring contracts of Raymond Felton ($7.5 million) and Marcus Camby
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
Highlight Performance: Paul Pierce, BOS– Although Pierce producing is nothing new, the 13-year veteran produced yet another outstanding night, posting 28 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocked shots. He has been on a tear the last 4 games, and he has been great in both the assists and rebounding categories. With Rondo and Allen both out with injuries, the Celtics should continue to rely on him for production, and therefore his huge production spike may not be
The Memphis Grizzlies have found their rhythm at the right time and take a seven-game winning streak into Portland to face the Trail Blazers in Tuesday’s best NBA game. Saddled with expectations after a strong playoff run a year ago, the Grizzlies stumbled to a 2-3 start, then lost low-post monster Zach Randolph for eight weeks to a torn MCL. But Memphis has not panicked and now leads the Southwest Division with a 10-6 mark. The Grizzlies are coming off a 91-90