Los Angeles Clippers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Marcus Morris, Luka Doncic Receive Fines

September 2nd, 2020 at 12:30pm CST by Arthur Hill

Clippers forward Marcus Morris and Mavericks guard Luka Doncic have both been fined for incidents in Sunday’s Game 6 of their playoff series, the league announced.

Morris was fined $35K for “recklesssly striking” Doncic on a Flagrant 2 foul in the first quarter, resulting in Morris’ ejection (Twitter link). Morris’ history played a role in the amount of the fine, according to the statement, which notes that he has been “disciplined on several prior occasions for physical altercations on the court.”

Doncic received a $15K fine for “throwing the ball off the legs of a game official,” the league tweeted. It happened midway through the third quarter, and Doncic was assessed a technical foul.

Patrick Beverley Misses Fifth Straight Game With Calf Injury

August 30th, 2020 at 3:33pm CST by JD Shaw

Clippers guard Patrick Beverley missed his fifth straight game on Sunday due to a left calf injury, Marc Stein of the New York Times tweets. Stein adds that Luka Doncic (ankle), Dorian Finney-Smith (hip) and Tim Hardaway Jr. (cervical strain) are all active for the Mavericks.

Injury Updates: Butler, Westbrook, Lowry, Beverley

August 29th, 2020 at 5:30pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Heat have a week-long break after sweeping the Pacers in the first round, and the time off has given two players a chance to overcome injuries, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Jimmy Butler, who played Game 4 against Indiana with a strained left shoulder, and Jae Crowder, who has been dealing with a sprained left ankle, were both able to practice today.

“We had a couple of really good days of work and nobody was in a mood to work on Wednesday night or Thursday,” said coach Erik Spoelstra, who now has a fully healthy roster. “And that was the reason for this pause. We’ve been able to get a couple good days of work (Friday and Saturday). We’ll watch the (Bucks-Magic) game this afternoon and see what happens. Either way, our guys will be ready.”

There’s more injury news around the league:

Russell Westbrook will make his playoff debut for the Rockets today, but his minutes will be restricted, tweets Tim MacMahon of ESPN. Coach Mike D’Antoni said Westbrook, who has been sidelined since Aug. 11 with a strained right quadriceps, will be limited to 25-28 minutes in Game 5.
Raptors guard Kyle Lowry has been upgraded from questionable to probable for Sunday’s opener of the Eastern Conference semifinals, according to Andrew Lopez of ESPN. Lowry sprained his left ankle in the final game of the Nets series when he stepped on Chris Chiozza‘s foot. He was able to practice today, and Toronto coach Nick Nurse said he “looked OK.”
Clippers guard Patrick Beverley has been moved from doubtful to questionable for Sunday’s Game 6 against Dallas, tweets Jovan Buha of The Athletic. Beverley hasn’t played since the series opener because of a strained left calf.
Nuggets guard Gary Harris is listed as questionable for Sunday’s Game 6 against Utah, according to Mike Singer of The Denver Post (Twitter link). Harris is dealing with a strained right hip and hasn’t been able to play since the season restarted.

Restart Notes: Rivers, Beverley, Roberts, Protest, Paul

August 28th, 2020 at 6:37pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Clippers coach Doc Rivers felt the season would resume when the players sat out Wednesday’s games in protest but acknowledged it could have gone either way, according to Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times. “I knew how high the emotions were and I just, I had a lot of faith that it would all calm down,” Rivers said. He added that the players’ vote whether to keep playing was close. “I don’t think it was a layup either way,” he said.

We have more regarding the decision to resume the season:

Clippers guard Patrick Beverley admits he exchanged words with Players Association executive director Michele Roberts during the contentious players meeting on Wednesday, ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk notes. “Oh, just we had a very interesting conversation,” Beverley said Friday. “The PA is like a family… You don’t always agree with your family members, and that’s OK. You communicate about it and you try to make it better.” Beverley interrupted Roberts more than once, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports reports, and shot back “No, I pay your salary,” when Roberts objected. Other players, including Chris Paul and Udonis Haslem, intervened and admonished Beverley.
Players showed the power in their voices and action by sitting out games but must wield their influence wisely, Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated opines. Players are hurting emotionally and want answers, but there aren’t any easy ones. Changes can only come in small increments, and there is only so much NBA owners can do to alter that, Mannix adds.
Paul has done a remarkable job leading the Players Association, Thunder coach Billy Donovan said to The Oklahoman’s Joe Mussatto and other media members. “I don’t think there’s ever been a president of the Players Association that’s had to endure and handle what he’s had to handle this season,” Donovan said.

Coaching Rumors: Lue, Sixers, Pelicans, Kidd, Lucas, Walton

August 28th, 2020 at 5:10pm CST by Luke Adams

Clippers assistant Tyronn Lue is expected to be one of the NBA’s most popular head coaching candidates this offseason, having already been connected to at least three job openings.

As we relayed on Wednesday, Lue reportedly sought $7MM per year when he was in negotiations with the Lakers last year about their head coaching job. And Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer cites a league source who says Lue will once again be looking for $7MM annually in his talks with the teams this time around.

While Lue’s asking price remains high, it sounds like he could be more open to compromise this year. Pompey suggests that the former Cavaliers coach may end up settling for $5-6MM per year. That would be good news for teams like the Pelicans, who are reportedly budgeting about $5.5MM annually for their next head coach, and the Sixers, who will still have to pay Brett Brown $10MM over the next two years.

Here’s more on Lue, along with other NBA head coaching rumors:

We’ve heard that the Sixers and Lue have mutual interest, but Philadelphia will face plenty of competition. The Pelicans are expected to pursue Lue “hard,” according to Pompey, who adds that the former NBA guard is also “monitoring” the Bulls‘ coaching vacancy. Lue is considered a strong candidate for the Nets as well — he expects to receive an offer from Brooklyn, as Pompey has reported.
Lakers assistant Jason Kidd is interested in the Sixers‘ head coaching job, league sources tell Pompey. Pompey also reports that Rockets player development coach John Lucas is interested in the 76ers’ job. It’s not clear how seriously Philadelphia will reciprocate either coach’s interest.
The Kings are making it clear to potential GM candidates that they don’t intend to replace head coach Luke Walton prior to the 2020/21 season, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. However, Anderson notes that Walton’s position will still be somewhat precarious, as he’ll essentially be “auditioning for his own job” next season.

NBA Announces Updated Playoff Schedule

August 28th, 2020 at 3:47pm CST by Luke Adams

After postseason contests on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were postponed due to player protests, the NBA has announced its new playoff schedule for the weekend. That schedule is as follows:

Saturday, August 29

Bucks vs. Magic, Game 5 — 3:30pm ET
Rockets vs. Thunder, Game 5 — 6:30pm ET
Lakers vs. Trail Blazers, Game 5 — 9:00pm ET

Sunday, August 30

Raptors vs. Celtics, Game 1 (round two) — 1:00pm ET
Clippers vs. Mavericks, Game 6 — 3:30pm ET
Jazz vs. Nuggets, Game 6 — 8:30pm ET

While no games have been scheduled beyond Sunday, it’s probably safe to assume the NBA will resume its every-other-day format for each series. As such, the Rockets and Thunder would presumably play Game 6 on Monday. The Lakers/Trail Blazers and Bucks/Magic would do so as well if those series continue — L.A. and Milwaukee currently hold 3-1 leads.

For more details on the resumption of the season and the initiatives that the NBA and NBPA agreed upon as part of the restart, be sure to check out our earlier story.

NBA, NBPA Confirm Agreement To Resume Playoffs

August 28th, 2020 at 11:42am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA and National Basketball Players Association have issued a joint statement confirming that the postseason will resume on Saturday, August 29 and outlining the social justice and voting initiatives that have been agreed upon as part of the restart.

The full slate of games for Saturday and Sunday can be found right here.

As part of the agreement to resume the playoffs, the NBA and its players will immediately establish a “social justice coalition,” which will focus on issues such as “increasing access to voting, promoting civic engagement, and advocating for meaningful police and criminal justice reform.” Players, coaches, and team owners will all be part of that coalition.

Additionally, in each city where the NBA team owns its arena, owners will work with local officials to convert those buildings into voting locations for the 2020 election. A number of clubs have started doing this already, with the Rockets and Jazz among the latest to confirm their plans.

The Heat pushed for this initiative, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press, who tweets that the club has been “trying for months” to get local officials to make AmericanAirlines Arena a voting center.

The NBA also plans to work with players and the league’s broadcast partners to create more advertisements that promote “greater civic engagement in national and local elections” and raise awareness about voter access — they’ll be aired during the remaining 2020 playoff games.

Following the players’ decision not to play Wednesday’s games as scheduled, they met multiple times on Wednesday and Thursday and ultimately decided they wanted to complete the season. They held a call with team owners on Thursday evening to discuss next steps and came away satisfied with how their concerns were addressed — presumably, the initiatives detailed above were all discussed during that call.

NBA Postseason Expected To Resume On Saturday

August 28th, 2020 at 6:41am CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 28, 6:41am: Reports from Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle and Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press, among others, continue to point to Saturday as the day when the NBA’s postseason is on track to resume. We’re still waiting for official word from the league and the NBPA, but it appears increasingly unlikely that Friday’s games will be played as scheduled.

AUGUST 27, 1:28pm: NBA spokesperson Mike Bass has issued a statement confirming that Thursday’s games have been postponed and indicating that the league is hopeful to resume play either Friday or Saturday.

As reported by Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link) and confirmed by Bass, a meeting will take place today at 5:00pm eastern time to discuss the resumption.

Two players from each remaining playoff team, the owners of those 13 teams, commissioner Adam Silver, NBPA executive director Michele Roberts, and Hornets owner Michael Jordan (chair of the labor relations committee) will take part in that meeting, per Goodwill.

AUGUST 27, 1:07pm: The NBA playoffs are expected to resume on Saturday, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link).

Following Wednesday’s boycotts, NBA players decided today that they would resume the season. However, Thursday’s games are being postponed and it sounds like Friday’s will be as well.

According to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe (Twitter link), the Celtics/Raptors second-round series that had been scheduled to begin on Thursday is now expected to tip off on Sunday. Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times notes (via Twitter) that nothing is official yet, but says it sounds like the Lakers and Trail Blazers will play Game 5 of their first-round series on Saturday.

While no other dates have been confirmed so far, it seems safe to assume that the games originally scheduled for Wednesday would take place on Saturday, with Thursday’s contests being rescheduled to Sunday.

That would mean that Game 5 in two other playoff series – Bucks/Magic and Rockets/Thunder – would take place on Saturday, with the Jazz/Nuggets and Clippers/Mavericks playing Game 6 of their respective series on Sunday.

With meetings between players and team owners scheduled to take place later today, we’ll have to wait for official word from the NBA before locking anything in.

George Struggled With Depression During Shooting Slump

August 27th, 2020 at 7:13pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Star Clippers forward Paul George dealt with a rough four-game offensive showing during Los Angeles’ first-round series against the Mavericks. He bounced back with an incredibly efficient 35-point performance in Game 5 across just 25 minutes on Tuesday. George cites struggles with depression and anxiety living within the NBA’s Orlando restart campus as factors in his difficulty during the series, as Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN reports.

As we previously detailed, the Lakers and Clippers voted last night to strike for the rest of the 2019/20 NBA playoffs in response to the Sunday shooting of Jacob Blake by police officers in Kenosha, but the 11 other remaining NBA playoff teams voted to keep playing. In a follow-up meeting today, players ultimately decided to resume playoff participation tomorrow or Saturday.

Players Decide To Resume Playoffs; Thursday’s Games To Be Postponed

August 27th, 2020 at 11:01am CST by Luke Adams

The three NBA playoff games scheduled to take place on Thursday will be postponed, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter links). However, players have decided to resume the postseason and discussions are underway about when that will happen, Wojnarowski reports.

Games appear likely to resume as soon as Friday, per Shams Charania of The Athletic and Jeff Goodman of Stadium (Twitter links).

[UPDATE: NBA Hopes To Resume Postseason By Saturday]

According to Charania (Twitter link), NBA players who met today want to find “new and improved ways” to make social justice statements as they prepare to restart play.

Another meeting will take place today on the Orlando campus at 4:00 pm eastern time, with two players from each team participating, per Goodman and Tim MacMahon of ESPN (Twitter links). The goal of that meeting will be to formulate a specific action plan to address racial injustice issues and to work out the logistics of restarting play, a source tells MacMahon (Twitter link).

A meeting of NBA owners and players is also set up for later today, Wojnarowski and Marc Spears of ESPN report (via Twitter). It sounds like that will be a separate meeting, though it figures to focus on similar issues.

“The bubble is about more than just crowning a champion,” one veteran player told Spears (Twitter link). “More so now than ever. It felt like the message was fading. Hopeful this can create a new level of activism and commitment from our owners, (the) league, (and) teams towards real change.”

After the Bucks decided not to play Game 5 of their first-round series against the Magic on Wednesday to protest social and racial injustices, the Rockets, Thunder, Lakers, and Trail Blazers followed suit, and the NBA postponed those games.

Today’s contests between the Nuggets and Jazz, Celtics and Raptors, and Mavericks and Clippers will also need to be rescheduled. Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link) hears that one “common-sense” scenario being considered is to simply push each game back by two days, from Wednesday to Friday and Thursday to Saturday.

Following Wednesday’s boycott, players gathered last night to discuss next steps and that meeting reportedly got “emotional.” Players from the Lakers and Clippers voted in favor of ending the season, while other teams voted to continue playing and some players – including CJ McCollum – cautioned against giving up the platform afforded by the NBA’s bubble.

After further discussions both last night and this morning, LeBron James and other prominent players changed their positions, agreeing that it’s in players’ best interest to finish the season, tweets Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.

Sources tell Charania that players today discussed the sacrifices they’ve made to reach this point of the 2019/20 season, as well as the sense of normalcy that will be gained when family members are allowed to enter the Orlando campus next week (Twitter link). Everyone was ultimately in agreement on restarting the season, one player told Goodman (Twitter link).