Warriors veteran Andre Iguodala will miss at least one more week due to his cervical disc (neck) injury, the team announced (via Twitter).
Iguodala, who hasn’t played since Game 4 of Golden State’s first-round matchup against Denver on April 24, “is making good progress in his recovery and will be reevaluated again in one week.”
Morant, exploded for 47 points, eight rebounds and eight assists in Game 2 — including his team’s final 15 points. Obviously, having Iguodala available to defend Morant is off the table for now, as the veteran is still hampered by his neck injury.
Once a crucial part of Golden State’s lineup and an NBA Finals MVP in 2015, Iguodala battled injuries this season and was limited to 31 regular season appearances. However, the 38-year-old had been a part of Kerr’s playoff rotation when healthy, logging at least 12 minutes in three of the team’s first four playoff games. He missed Game 2 vs. the Nuggets due to a bilateral neck spasm.
As Slater notes (Twitter link), Iguodala will be sidelined for at least Games 3, 4 and 5 against Memphis.
Suns assistant Kevin Young, Bucks assistants Darvin Ham and Charles Lee, Celtics assistant Will Hardy, Grizzlies assistant Darko Rajakovic, Heat assistants Chris Quinn and Malik Allen, and Warriors assistants Mike Brown and Kenny Atkinson are among the assistants around the NBA who are viewed as potential head coaching candidates by league insiders, according to ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz (Insider-only link).
A number of the names on Arnovitz’s list have been linked to one or more of the NBA’s three current head coaching openings. Ham and Brown, for instance, all believed to be under consideration by all three of the Hornets, Lakers, and Kings.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
Harvard senior guard Noah Kirkwood, who declared for the 2022 NBA draft as an early entrant, has decided to remain in the draft and go pro rather than using his final year of college eligibility, according to agent Ronnie Zeidel (Twitter link via Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports).
Rockets forward/center Usman Garuba said in an interview with Spanish outlet AS.com that he’s committed to representing Spain at this year’s EuroBasket competition, as Eurohoops relays.
In an intriguing bit of international basketball news, an RMC Sport report indicates that Sixers center Joel Embiid is exploring the possibility of obtaining French citizenship and representing France in future international events. Embiid was born in Cameroon, but has family from France and has never suited up for the Cameroonian national team.
Despite having his vision affected after he was poked in the eye in the third quarter, star guard Ja Morant had one of the most impressive performances of his career on Tuesday, scoring 47 points – including the Grizzlies‘ final 15 points – to lead the team to a Game 2 victory over Golden State. Morant told reporters after the game that he was having trouble seeing out of his left eye in the fourth quarter, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.
“I can see on the middle. I can’t see on the outside. I got punched trying to get the rebound,” Morant said. “I got another good eye over here (on the right side) — 20-20 vision right here. Thank God for my right eye.”
As Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer details, the Warriors had no answer for Morant after Gary Payton II left Tuesday’s game due to a fractured elbow, and will have to reassess their game plan for defending the electric 22-year-old prior to Game 3 on Saturday.
When asked after Tuesday’s game about the Warriors’ plan for Morant, head coach Steve Kerr said the club hopes Andre Iguodala (neck) will be available for Game 3, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic. However, Iguodala is 38 years old and has battled injuries for much of the season, so Golden State can’t realistically expect him to shut down one of the league’s top scorers.
Here’s more on the Grizzlies/Warriors series:
Kerr was upset by the flagrant foul that injured Payton and earned Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks an ejection, as Kendra Andrews of ESPN writes. “I don’t know if it was intentional, but it was dirty,” Kerr said. “There is a code. This code that players follow where you never put a guy’s season [or] career in jeopardy by taking somebody out in midair and clubbing him across the head, ultimately fracturing Gary’s elbow … He broke the code. Dillon Brooks broke the code.”
The NBA is expected to further evaluate Brooks’ foul to see if it warrants a suspension, Andrews writes. Since there will be three off days before Game 3 tips off on Saturday, an announcement from the league shouldn’t necessarily be expected today.
Draymond Green, who briefly returned to the locker room after taking a hit to the right eye, had no regrets about flipping his middle fingers to the crowd on his way off the court, Andrews notes. “You gonna boo someone who was elbowed in the eye and face is running with blood, you should get flipped off,” Green said. “I’ll take the fine. I’ll do an appearance and make up the money. It felt really good to flip them off. … If they are going to be that nasty, I will be nasty too. I’m assuming the cheers were because they know I’ll be fined. Great — I make $25 million a year. I should be just fine.” Green got back in the game after receiving stitches for a right eye laceration, but Kerr said the former Defensive Player of the Year “was struggling” with the injury.
11:45 PM: Payton has fractured his left elbow, per Anthony Slater of The Athletic (via Twitter). Slater notes that tomorrow’s MRI will indicate the severity of the injury.
9:33 PM: The Warriors‘ second-round playoff matchup against the Grizzlies remains chippy as Game 2 takes place tonight.
After taking a hard foul from Grizzlies wing Dillon Brooks on a breakaway drive (Twitter video link, as captured by Bleacher Report), Warriors starting shooting guard Gary Payton IIexited the contest and headed back to Golden State’s locker room. Brooks was instantly assessed a Flagrant 2 foul and ejected from the game.
The Warriors announced (via Twitter) that they have ruled out Payton for the rest of Game 2, following X-rays on his left elbow (Twitter link). Payton logged just 2:52 of game action.
Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets that the imaging on the elbow proved “inconclusive,” but that Payton would undergo an MRI tomorrow that would hopefully have more answers for the Warriors.
Payton’s Golden State teammate Draymond Green also left the game after a Grizzlies player fouled him. Memphis center Xavier Tillman elbowed Green in the face, as Trisha Easto of the Memphis Commercial Appeal recaps. Green flashed a rude hand gesture in response to the FedEx Forum crowd, which could incur an NBA fine. The Warriors revealed (Twitter link) that Green suffered a right eye laceration and received stitches. He returned to the contest after being sewn up.
A day before Game 2 of his team’s second-round series against the Warriors, Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins said that center Steven Adams remains in the league’s health and safety protocols, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN tweets. Adams, who was placed in the protocols on Thursday, is listed as out for Tuesday’s game, the team’s PR department tweets. Starting guard Desmond Bane is listed as questionable due to lower back soreness. Bane was limited to nine points in 32 minutes in Game 1 on Sunday.
The NBA upheldDraymond Green‘s Flagrant Foul 2 ruling in Game 1 of the Warriors’ series against the Grizzlies. The player who was fouled, Brandon Clarke, wasn’t surprised that Green committed such an infraction (ESPN video link). “He’s been known for flagrant fouls in his career. I’ve watched him on TV my whole life, it feels like, so I wasn’t really shocked,” Clarke said.
The NBA won’t reduce or rescind the Flagrant 2 foul assessed to Warriors forward/center Draymond Green in Game 1 of the team’s series vs. Memphis on Sunday, according to Shams Charania and Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Green was called for the Flagrant 2 foul and ejected from the game late in the second quarter after grabbing and pulling the jersey of Grizzlies big man Brandon Clarke as Clarke attempted a layup (video link).
As we relayed earlier today, Green expressed optimism during an episode of his podcast on Sunday night that the league would review and adjust the foul, perhaps reducing it to a Flagrant 1. However, it appears that won’t happen.
Players are given two flagrant foul points for a Flagrant 2 foul and one for a Flagrant 1 during the postseason, with four total flagrant foul points resulting in an automatic one-game suspension. Green is now halfway to that automatic suspension and would be forced to miss a game if he’s called for another Flagrant 2 or two Flagrant 1 fouls during the remainder of the playoffs.
Mavericks swingman Tim Hardaway Jr. continues to recover from the surgically repaired fractured left foot that caused him to miss nearly half of the 2021/22 regular season and all of Dallas’ first-round 4-2 defeat of the Jazz. It certainly doesn’t sound like Hardaway will return in time for these playoffs — he has yet to be cleared to run, per Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter link).
“He’s shooting the ball, but from my eye, he hasn’t done any running or anything yet,” Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said in discussing Hardaway’s progress. “So that’s more of a medical question, but right now he’s out.”
Dallas has officially announced (Twitter link) that Hardaway will miss the first game of the Mavericks’ second-round matchup against the Suns. Across 42 healthy contests for the Dallas, the 6’5″ shooting guard out of Michigan averaged 14.2 PPG, 3.7 RPG and 2.2 APG this season, on .394/.336/.757 shooting splits.
There’s more out of the Southwest:
A left calf strain to Mavericks All-Star Luka Doncic allowed his starting backcourt mate Jalen Brunson to step up his own offensive game, per Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News. Brunson has earned rave reviews from his former Villanova teammate Mikal Bridges, whose Suns will face off against Brunson’s Mavericks in their upcoming second-round matchup starting Monday. “He’s been hooping all year,” Bridges enthused. “When Luka went out and he had to step up, he was ready for it. “I’m watching games and I could . . . just tell. I know what shots he’s going to make. I just know. I know how talented he is and how hard he works and how much of a dog he is.” While with Villanova, Bridges and Brunson won two NCAA titles.
Pelicans team president David Griffin acknowledged that forthcoming contract extension discussions with 2021 All-Star forward Zion Williamson may not be easy, writes Christian Clark of NOLA.com. The Pelicans will have the ability to offer Williamson a maximum extension worth up to 25% of the salary cap, with 8% yearly raises. “Obviously, that conversation is going to be one that will be a challenge,” Griffin said. “When it’s time to have that, we’ll have it. And right now what we’re focused on is him being healthy, and (being in) kind of elite condition to play basketball and we’ll start there.” Williamson recently indicated he hoped to remain with the Pelicans and get a deal done. Injuries have limited Williamson to just 85 healthy games across his three seasons of NBA action. The No. 1 overall pick out of Duke in 2019 has been quite productive when available, with career averages of 25.7 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 3.2 APG and 0.9 APG.
The Grizzlies, currently in the midst of their first playoff game against the Warriors in a 2-3 second-round matchup, might have a “death lineup” of their own, writes Chris Herrington of the Daily Memphian. All-Star point guard Ja Morant, breakout second-year shooting guard Desmond Bane, swingman Dillon Brooks, forward Brandon Clarke, and big man Jaren Jackson Jr. could give the Warriors’ ultra-small, shooting-heavy lineups plenty of trouble in their first-round matchup.
D’Angelo Russell was upset about being kept on the bench during the closing minutes of Friday’s Game 6 loss, writes Chris Hine of The Star Tribune. With their season on the line, the Timberwolves opted to trust reserve point guard Jordan McLaughlin instead of Russell.
It was a tough way to end the series for Russell, and he responded, “No. Not at all,” when asked if he was OK with coach Chris Finch’s decision. Russell had seven points and four turnovers in Game 6 and averaged 12 PPG and shot 33% throughout the series.
“We still think the fit is great,” Finch said of Russell. “His skill set, his play-making, all that stuff hasn’t changed. We’ve just got to figure out maybe some different sets or structures that kind of accentuate those things too. I could’ve done a better job of trying to get him into the series a little bit more with some plays for him maybe off the ball.”
The poor series came at an unfortunate time for Russell, who will be eligible for a four-year extension starting in July that could pay him up to $40M+ per season. Hine believes it’s unlikely the Wolves will make that offer and he questions Russell’s future with the team, especially now that Gersson Rosas, who brought him to Minnesota, is no longer with the organization.
“I don’t like to speak on that,” Russell said when asked about the extension. “It kind of comes back to haunt you a lot of the times. There’s nothing more that I can do to showcase my worth or the number that I’m looking for or anything like that. I would just rather not entertain myself with that until the time comes.”
There’s more from Minnesota:
The Wolves should commit to McLaughlin rather than Russell and should consider bringing back Grizzlies guard Tyus Jones in free agency, argues Jim Souhan of The Star Tribune. Jones played his first four seasons in Minnesota before signing with Memphis in 2019.
The team had to be impressed by its two youngest players, Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels, who both shined in their first playoff tests, states Jerry Zgoda of The Star Tribune. After the Game 6 elimination, Edwards invited his teammates to train with him this summer, and McDaniels said he’ll spend part of the offseason working out with Clippers star Kawhi Leonard. “The best path for us still is our internal growth, which is the exciting part with Jaden and Ant and the performances they can leave the season on,” Finch said.
Finch supports a permanent role for executive vice president Sachin Gupta, who has been running the team since Rosas was fired in September, Hine adds in a separate story.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr used a small-ball starting lineup to close out the Nuggets on Wednesday night, but he hasn’t decided if he’ll keep it for the rest of the playoffs, writes Tim Kawakami of The Athletic. Stephen Curry made his first start since returning from a sprained left foot and bone bruise, and was joined by Klay Thompson, Jordan Poole, Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green in a group that created match-up problems for Denver throughout the series.
A smaller approach might fare differently against the Grizzlies, who don’t rely on a big man the way the Nuggets do with Nikola Jokic. Memphis also went smaller in its first-round series, as starting center Steven Adams played a combined seven minutes after Game 1. He is currently in health and safety protocols.
“I don’t know, honestly,” Kerr said when asked about his lineup plans. “I’m not committed to anything. I think I told you before the playoffs started, we just don’t know this team that well because we haven’t had everybody together. You start thinking about all the options, you just don’t have any evidence. You don’t have any film, you don’t have the analytics. You can’t ask our analytics department for all the lineup combinations and plus-minus, offensive/defensive ratings, all that stuff, because these groups haven’t been together.”
There’s more on the Warriors:
Gary Payton II barely earned a roster spot before the season started, but he played a huge role in the Game 5 win over Denver, notes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. With Poole having an off night and Andre Iguodala injured, Payton was on the court for almost the entire fourth quarter as Golden State rallied to win. “Our front office has done an incredible job just plucking out talent where teams might have disregarded a guy,” Thompson said. “But our system and the confidence we give guys allows them to be themselves. What a find GP was.”
The Warriors don’t have anyone else who can stay in front of Ja Morant, so Payton might have an even bigger role in this series, Slater suggests in a separate story. Payton made six of eight three-point attempts against Denver, and he may move into a starting role if he keeps shooting that well.
The Grizzlies remind the Warriors of their early days as a contender, according to Kendra Andrews of ESPN. Memphis is the league’s second-youngest team with an average age of 24, and its oldest players are Adams and Kyle Anderson at 28. “They’ve built a foundation over the last few years through player development, through really smart drafting, investment, and they are really well coached,” Kerr said.
The Grizzlies, who entered the postseason as the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, eliminated the Timberwolves on Friday night in dramatic fashion. They’ll get precious little time before jumping into their conference semifinal matchup with a much more seasoned postseason participant — the third-seeded Warriors. The series begins on Sunday afternoon on Memphis’ home court.
After rolling to 56 victories in the regular season, the young Grizzlies got a jolt to the system during their first-round series. They needed to stage major, and sometimes unlikely, comebacks to take care of the Timberwolves. They rallied from a 26-point deficit in Game 3 and needed a last-second Ja Morant layup to take Game 5. They outscored Minnesota 40-22 in the fourth quarter to win Game 6.
Playing catch-up against the Splash Brothers & Co. isn’t a recipe for success. Golden State holds championship banners from 2015, 2017 and 2018 and its “big three” are playing at a high level once again.
Morant and Desmond Bane will try to prove they can hold their own, or even outplay, the storied duo of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Bane averaged a team-high 23.5 PPG in the opening round. Morant had ups and downs in the series, averaging a subpar (by his standards) 21.5 PPG and 4.2 turnovers per contest. He’ll need to provide steadier production in the second round.
Dillon Brooks will be a key factor at both ends in a series that will revolve around the teams’ guards and wings. Brandon Clarke played a huge role off the bench against Minnesota but the Grizzlies will need more from Jaren Jackson Jr. (11.8 PPG, 7.2 RPG). The X-factor could be center Steven Adams, who entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols prior to Friday’s win.
Adams started regularly all season, then dropped out of the rotation because he was a bad matchup against the floor-stretching Karl-Anthony Towns. Assuming he exits protocols early in the series, Adams could play a much bigger role against Golden State, which doesn’t have a high-scoring frontcourt piece.
The Warriors come into the series confident and rested after dismissing Denver 4-1 in the opening round. Curry and Thompson combined to average 50.6 PPG in the opening round and vastly improved Jordan Poole (21.6 PPG) continued to add a potent third offensive option.
Draymond Green led the team in assists per game (7.4) against the Nuggets and will remain a heady and all-around defensive force. Gary Payton II could play a major role off the bench as a defender against Memphis’ guards.
So, which of these teams will advance to the 2022 Western Conference Finals? We want to know what you think. Vote in our poll, then head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts on Warriors/Grizzlies!