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Northwest Notes: Dort, Harris, Trail Blazers, McCollum

August 30th, 2020 at 10:59am CST by Arthur Hill

Luguentz Dort has been celebrated for his defense on James Harden, but his shooting woes in Saturday’s Game 5 helped put the Thunder on the brink of elimination, writes Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman. Dort shot 3-of-16 from the field as the Rockets gave him plenty of room and basically used five defenders on the other four OKC players. Coach Billy Donovan remains supportive of Dort and said some adjustments are needed.

“I think part of his growth is understanding when to shoot some, when to drive some, when to pass some, and he probably had a mix of a lot of those in the game,” Donovan said.

Dort has been a pleasant surprise in Oklahoma City, earning a starting job at midseason after signing a two-way contract last summer. He quickly emerged as an elite defender, but his offense was a concern all year as he shot just 39.4% from the field and 29.7% from 3-point range.

“I’ve got to try to find ways to kind of incorporate him and help him as much as I can,” Donovan added. “But a lot of it’s going to be found in the course of the game through movement, through ball movement and spacing.”

There’s more from the Northwest Division:

The Nuggets will have shooting guard Gary Harris available for today’s Game 6 against the Jazz, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. It will be the first game in more than five months for Harris, who suffered a hip strain shortly after arriving in Orlando. He has made “significant progress” in workouts this week, Woj adds.
The presence of Damian Lillard prevents the Trail Blazers from thinking about rebuilding, observes Royce Young of ESPN. Still in his prime at age 30, the star guard always gives the organization a chance to be competitive, as he showed in Orlando before being injured. Young notes that as long as Lillard remains in Portland, the team will remain committed to building around him and CJ McCollum in the backcourt. He adds that management values continuity, and with Carmelo Anthony and Hassan Whiteside the only rotation players not under contract for next season, the front office views the team more as the Western Conference finalists from last season rather than the one that struggled to make the playoffs this year.
McCollum doesn’t expect to need surgery on the back fracture he played with in Orlando, tweets Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. He plans to rest for a couple of months and then resume normal basketball activity.

Russell Westbrook To Play In Game 5

August 29th, 2020 at 12:24pm CST by marksuleymanov

Russell Westbrook will make his postseason debut for the Rockets on Saturday, as he is set to play in the team’s Game 5 matchup against the Thunder, the team announced.

Westbrook missed Houston’s first four playoff battles against Oklahoma City due to a strained right quadriceps. The former league MVP reportedly looked “as explosive as ever” during a 5-on-5 scrimmage on Thursday as he prepared to rejoin his teammates on the court.

With the series tied 2-2, the addition of Westbrook gives the Rockets a major boost as Houston has dropped the last two games after opening the round with two straight wins over Oklahoma City. However, head coach Mike D’Antoni noted that Westbrook would likely be under some sort of minutes restriction upon his return.

In his first season with the Rockets, Westbrook posted his usual great numbers, averaging 27.2 PPG, 7.9 RPG and 7.0 APG in 57 contests. Westbrook’s 47.2% field goal percentage was the highest of his career and his scoring average was his best since his MVP season in 2017.

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.

Russell Westbrook Expected To Return For Game 5

August 28th, 2020 at 2:20pm CST by Luke Adams

2:20pm: Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni said on Friday that Westbrook will go through today’s practice and that the team expects him to be “ready to go” for Game 5, barring any setbacks. According to Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com (Twitter link), D’Antoni anticipates some sort of minutes restriction for Westbrook, but no specifics have been discussed yet.

9:44am: Rockets point guard Russell Westbrook is expected to play in Game 5 against Oklahoma City after missing the first four games of the series due to a strained right quadriceps, a source tells Mark Berman of FOX 26 Houston (Twitter link).

Westbrook, who was initially ruled out for Game 5, was upgraded to questionable on Wednesday and intended to test his quad on the court before the game to see if he’d be able to go. When players decided not to play Wednesday’s games in protest of social and racial injustices, he didn’t get the opportunity to test the injury.

However, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon and Adrian Wojnarowski report that Westbrook participated in a 5-on-5 intrasquad scrimmage held by the Rockets on Thursday. While the report doesn’t confirm that Westbrook intends to play in Game 5, a source told ESPN that the former MVP “looked as explosive as ever.”

The NBA hasn’t officially announced a new date and time for Game 5 of the Rockets/Thunder series, but there’s an expectation that it will be rescheduled for Saturday. The series is currently tied at two games apiece.

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.

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).

NBA Says Wednesday’s Games Will Be Rescheduled; Players To Discuss Next Steps

August 26th, 2020 at 4:23pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has announced in a press release that all three Game Fives scheduled to take place on Wednesday have been postponed and will be rescheduled.

Bucks players led a boycott of this afternoon’s game against the Magic, with the Thunder, Rockets, Trail Blazers, and Lakers quickly deciding to follow suit. The protests stem from a desire to raise awareness of social and racial injustices and enact change, and come in response to the recent police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter), the NBA, team owners, and front offices didn’t see today’s wave of player boycotts coming — as a few hours ago, they expected all of today’s games to take place.

NBA players have called a meeting for Wednesday night in Orlando to discuss and determine potential next steps, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

As Chris Mannix of SI.com notes (via Twitter), some teams – including the Raptors – have discussed the possibility of leaving the bubble altogether. Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe (Twitter link) hears that the Raptors and Celtics are leaning toward not playing Game 1 of their second-round series on Thursday.

Thunder, Rockets, Lakers, Blazers To Boycott Wednesday’s Games

August 26th, 2020 at 3:56pm CST by Luke Adams

In the wake of the Bucks’ decision to boycott Game 5 of their first-round playoff series against the Magic, the Thunder and Rockets will follow suit and boycott Game 5 of their series this evening, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter).

The Lakers and Trail Blazers, who were scheduled to play Game 5 of their series later tonight, are also boycotting, according to Charania (via Twitter). Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports first reported (via Twitter) that Portland and L.A. were leaning toward not playing tonight’s game.

The protests are a response to the recent police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

The Raptors and Celtics, who are scheduled to play Game 1 of their second-round series on Thursday, had been the first teams to broach the topic of a boycott. Raptors guard Fred VanVleet explained the thinking behind the idea to reporters earlier this week.

“We knew coming here or not coming here was not going to stop anything, but I think ultimately playing or not playing puts pressure on somebody,” VanVleet said, per Malika Andrews and Tim Bontemps of eSPN. “So, for example, this happened in Kenosha, Wisconsin, if I’m correct? Would it be nice if, in a perfect world, we all say we’re not playing, and the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks — that’s going to trickle down. If he steps up to the plate and puts pressure on the district attorney’s office, and state’s attorney, and governors, and politicians there to make real change and get some justice.

“I know it’s not that simple. But, at the end of the day, if we’re gonna sit here and talk about making change, then at some point we’re gonna have to put our nuts on the line and actually put something up to lose, rather than just money or visibility.”

Bringing attention to social justice issues and systemic racism was among the players’ primary goals when they agreed to the NBA’s restart plan this summer. However, in the wake of the latest shooting of a Black man by police, a number of players felt as if their efforts to raise awareness and enact change were being overshadowed by on-court results and have decided to change their tactics.

Northwest Notes: Dort, Malone, Nurkic, Collins

August 23rd, 2020 at 11:02am CST by Arthur Hill

A rookie guard who was virtually unknown a few months ago may have changed the shape of the Thunder’s first-round series, writes Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman. Luguentz Dort made life difficult for Rockets star James Harden whenever they were matched up in Saturday’s Game 3, setting the stage for Oklahoma City to rally for a badly needed overtime victory.

Harden scored 38 points, but shot just 7-for-21 while Dort was in the game. The rookie has shown an ability to stay in front of the league’s top scorer and force him into contested 3-pointers.

“We know Lu and what he does,” Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “That’s what we expect every night.”

Dort’s defensive prowess leaves coach Billy Donovan with a difficult choice moving forward, notes Royce Young of ESPN. The Thunder need Dort to counteract Harden, but that means sitting out one member of the unit that normally closes games. An injury to Steven Adams dictated the decision Saturday, but Donovan may have to adjust his regular lineup for the rest of the series.

There’s more from the Northwest Division:

It’s too soon to think about firing Michael Malone, but Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post believes trust between the Nuggets coach and his players is broken after two straight lopsided losses to the Jazz. Malone questioned his team’s resolve after Game 3, saying, “I think we give in too easy” and “Our group has to be a lot more mentally tough.” Denver doesn’t have a hard-nosed leader in the locker room, Kiszla adds, and its closest thing to a “glue guy” is Will Barton, who left Orlando to rehab his injured knee.
The strain of returning to a high-pressure environment 17 months after suffering a compound fracture in his leg is beginning to show on Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic, observes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Players are usually brought along slowly after such a serious injury, but Nurkic is being asked to log heavy minutes in a playoff setting. Slater notes that an injury to Zach Collins and a lack of production from Hassan Whiteside leaves Portland with no other options.
Collins talks with Jason Quick of The Athletic about the frustration of having a second serious injury within 12 months. Collins, who is coming off surgery on his left shoulder, now has a hairline fracture in his left ankle that doctors discovered before Game 2. “You don’t want to be a downer in front of your team and get everybody’s mood down,” he said. “They don’t need that. But definitely, when I got back (to the hotel) and talked with my agent and my parents, it all kind of hits you. It hits you that you are going to have to go through a whole another process again.”