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Seven Of Eight First-Round Playoff Matchups Set

August 13th, 2020 at 6:59am CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 13: Following wins by the Thunder and Clippers on Wednesday night, three Western Conference first-round matchups have now been set, with only the Lakers still awaiting their opponent. Those first-round series are as follows:

  • Los Angeles Lakers (1) vs. Play-in winner (8)
  • Los Angeles Clippers (2) vs. Dallas Mavericks (7)
  • Denver Nuggets (3) vs. Utah Jazz (6)
  • Oklahoma City Thunder (4/5) vs. Houston Rockets (4/5)

We’ll know by the end of Thursday which two teams out of the Trail Blazers, Grizzlies, Suns, and Spurs will be participating in the play-in tournament in the West, but it may be Sunday before the Lakers know their first-round opponent.

AUGUST 12: As a result of the Pacers’ 108-104 win over Houston this afternoon, the four Eastern Conference matchups for the first round of the postseason have been set. They are as follows:

  • Milwaukee Bucks (1) vs. Orlando Magic (8)
  • Toronto Raptors (2) vs. Brooklyn Nets (7)
  • Boston Celtics (3) vs. Philadelphia 76ers (6)
  • Miami Heat (4/5) vs. Indiana Pacers (4/5)

Typically, the Heat and Pacers would be continuing to fight for home court advantage in their series, but the unusual nature of this season means claiming the No. 4 seed instead of No. 5 won’t make much of a difference.

Despite the fact that several teams were within two or three games of one another in the standings when the restart began – or were even tied, like the Pacers and Sixers – the first-round matchups in the East look exactly the same as they did when the season was suspended on March 11.

Over in the West, a small number of teams – including the No. 1 Lakers – are locked into their playoff spots, but most matchups remain up in the air. For now, the most likely pairings are Lakers/play-in winner, Clippers/Mavericks, Nuggets/Jazz, and Rockets/Thunder, but one or more of those could change by Friday.

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Rivers Wants Harrell To Play Friday

August 12th, 2020 at 12:00pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Clippers coach Doc Rivers is hopeful big man Montrezl Harrell can play in the team’s final seeding game on Friday, Jovan Buha of The Athletic tweets. Rivers would like to play one game with his usual rotation prior to the playoffs, Buha adds. One of the league’s top reserves, Harrell left the Orlando campus due to the passing of his grandmother. He’ll have to rebuild rhythm with teammates and regain his conditioning, Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times notes.

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Clippers Coaches "Love" Terance Mann

August 10th, 2020 at 12:16pm CST by Luke Adams
  • Clippers coaches “love” rookie guard Terance Mann, according to Sean Deveney of Forbes.com, who tweets that the club was more willing to give up a first-round pick than Mann at the trade deadline in February. Mann’s name did reportedly come up in the Marcus Morris trade talks with New York — at the time, a report suggested the Knicks preferred draft picks to young players.
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Montrezl Harrell Returns To NBA’s Campus

August 10th, 2020 at 10:35am CST by Luke Adams

More than three weeks after leaving the NBA’s campus in Florida for personal reasons, Clippers center Montrezl Harrell has returned to Walt Disney World. As Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN writes, Harrell published an Instagram video early on Monday morning showing the view from his Disney hotel, and posted, “I’m back!!!!!!!!” on Twitter.

Harrell left the NBA’s campus before last month’s scrimmages began, in order attend his grandmother’s funeral and to be with his family. The 26-year-old was very close with his grandmother, whose death hit him hard. The team had told Harrell to take as much time as he needed to grieve before returning to Orlando.

Having left the bubble with an excused absence, Harrell will likely be subject to a quarantine period of just four days now that he’s back, as long as he tested negative for the coronavirus each of the last seven days of his absence. If he didn’t abide by the league’s testing protocols, his quarantine period could be up to 10-to-14 days, but for now there’s no indication that will be the case.

As Youngmisuk notes, Clippers head coach Doc Rivers was asked on Sunday whether the team might have Harrell available for its final seeding game this Friday vs. Oklahoma City.

“We hope so,” Rivers replied. “That’s all I can say.”

Of course, even if Harrell clears quarantine on Thursday, he may need a practice or two to get back up to speed, considering he hasn’t worked out with the team since mid-July. But his return to Disney World bodes well for his availability for the postseason, which is scheduled to begin a week from today.

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NBA Announces Finalists For 2019/20 Awards

August 8th, 2020 at 12:01pm CST by marksuleymanov

The NBA has announced the finalists for several awards as the seeding games on the Orlando campus move forward and the postseason nears. It was announced in July that all awards for the 2019/20 season would be based on games up until March 11, when the coronavirus pandemic shuttered play. Media members made their votes before the seeding games began on July 30.

NBA Most Valuable Player Finalists:

NBA Defensive Player of the Year:

NBA Rookie of the Year:

NBA Most Improved Player:

NBA Sixth Man of the Year:

NBA Coach of the Year:

  • Mike Budenholzer (Bucks)
  • Billy Donovan (Thunder)
  • Nick Nurse (Raptors)

The winners for the awards will be announced during the NBA playoffs after the seeding games period concludes on August 14.

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Latest On Clippers’ Montrezl Harrell

August 7th, 2020 at 9:15am CST by Luke Adams

Clippers center Montrezl Harrell has been away from the NBA’s campus at Walt Disney World for approximately three weeks, attending to his family and grieving following the recent death of his grandmother. However, he appears to be getting close to a return.

[RELATED: Clippers Tell Montrezl Harrell To Take Time To Grieve]

During a Thursday night appearance on TNT, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (video link) reported that Harrell’s grandmother will be laid to rest this Saturday, with the Clippers center expected to travel to Orlando soon after that.

Sources tell Haynes that Harrell has been getting tested daily for the coronavirus and has continued to receive negative results. That means that when he does return to the NBA’s campus, he should only be subject to a four-day quarantine period. That would put the Sixth Man of the Year candidate on track to rejoin the team in time for the start of the playoffs on August 17, though he’ll probably need a couple practices to get back up to speed before being activated.

The Clippers have been somewhat shorthanded since the seeding games began. Lou Williams missed the first two contests due to his extended quarantine period, Patrick Beverley left the third game with a calf injury and remains sidelined, and Harrell, of course, hasn’t played at all this summer.

Head coach Doc Rivers said on Thursday that he’d love to get back the roster to full strength at some point in the next week or two, but added that he’ll continue to make the most of what he has available, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.

“It would be nice to have a stretch where our whole team was available, practicing and playing,” Rivers said. “But we haven’t had that all year. It’s been amazing. We just got to keep rolling.”

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Williams Admits Making Bad Decision

August 6th, 2020 at 6:38pm CST by Dana Gauruder
  • Clippers guard Lou Williams took a lot of flack for visiting an Atlanta strip club after temporarily leaving the Orlando campus and he admits to making a bad decision, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN writes. “It’s been documented how much I talk about this place, how much I eat there,” Williams said of Magic City. “I just did something that was routine for me. … At the time, I thought I was making a responsible decision. After looking back on it, with everything going on in the world, the pandemic, maybe it wasn’t the best-quality decision.” Williams is back in action after clearing quarantine.
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Beverley To Miss Thursday's Game With Calf Injury

August 5th, 2020 at 9:27pm CST by Jovan Alford

The Clippers announced on Wednesday that starting point guard Patrick Beverley is out with a left calf injury for Thursday’s game against the Mavericks (Twitter link). In addition to Beverley, forward Montrezl Harrell is still away from the team.

Beverley suffered the injury in the first quarter against the Suns on Tuesday afternoon. The defensive-minded point guard’s injury isn’t considered serious, however, which is good news for the Clippers, who have championship aspirations.

Without Beverley, Reggie Jackson could be inserted into the Clippers’ starting lineup, with Lou Williams and Landry Shamet also handling point guard duties.

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Patrick Beverley Leaves Game With Calf Injury

August 5th, 2020 at 11:03am CST by Luke Adams

Clippers point guard Patrick Beverley left Tuesday’s game against Phoenix in the first quarter with a left calf injury and didn’t return, as Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN details. The injury isn’t considered serious, but Doc Rivers suggested after the game that the team will play it safe, with the postseason not scheduled to begin until August 17.

“I don’t think it’s bad,” the Clippers’ head coach said. “We’re going to be very cautious, I can tell you that.”

Beverley’s injury occurred just as Lou Williams returned to action for the Clippers following his 10-day quarantine period. If Beverley is able to get back on the court soon and Montrezl Harrell reports to the team within the next week or so, L.A. should be back at full strength before the playoffs get underway.

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Darren Collison: Rumors Of Midseason Comeback Were Overstated

August 4th, 2020 at 5:00pm CST by Luke Adams

After making a surprise retirement announcement during the summer of 2019, veteran point guard Darren Collison was said to be mulling the idea of coming out of retirement to join either the Lakers or Clippers earlier this year. However, Collison – who elected to stay retired – said during an appearance on the A Minute Til 6 podcast (video link) that rumors of a comeback were overstated.

“To keep it 100, they overhyped the whole thing,” Collison said. “I wasn’t even thinking about coming back. … Mentally, I just wasn’t in that right frame of mind. I’m still trying to work some things out in my life and trying to help the youth out as well. I always felt like after this season, yeah, I’ll assess everything else. But this season I just never thought about coming back.”

An appearance at a Lakers/Rockets game in early February alongside Lakers owner Jeanie Buss fueled speculation that Collison might want to team up with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. However, Collison said during his A Minute Til 6 appearance that he was just at that game to watch his friend Russell Westbrook in action.

Reports of Collison’s potential return persisted for weeks in January and February, so if he never seriously considered the idea, it’s odd that he didn’t squash those rumors at the time. Still, it wouldn’t have made a lot of sense for him to sign a prorated minimum salary contract after potentially passing up an eight-figure salary last summer.

Collison, who will turn 33 later this month, played well for the Pacers in 2018/19, with 11.2 PPG and 6.0 APG on .467/.407/.832 shooting in 76 games as the club’s starting point guard, so his retirement was unexpected. He said at the time that he wanted to dedicate more time to volunteer work and his Jehovah’s Witnesses ministry.

Based on his latest comments, it doesn’t sound as if Collison has entirely ruled out the possibility of seeking an NBA return at some point — if he does decide to come out of retirement, he’d be an intriguing option for teams in need of a veteran point guard.

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