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De’Anthony Melton Active For Sixers In Game 3

April 25th, 2024 at 6:13pm CST by Tristan Tucker

Sixers guard De’Anthony Melton is active and available for the team ahead of Game 3 against the Knicks (Twitter link via PHLY Sports’ Kyle Neubeck).

Melton went through shootaround earlier today, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps (Twitter link), but it’s unlikely he’ll have a big role after barely playing this calendar year. We noted earlier today that Melton was trending toward a Game 3 return.

“He’s always an impactful player when he’s out there,” teammate Tyrese Maxey said of Melton in a story from Neubeck. “One thing I can say as a co-worker and friend, he really works. There’s never been a moment that he’s been down, he’s worked every single day to try to come back. He hasn’t given up. As a teammate, all you can do is appreciate something like that. And if he’s able to come back, I think he can change the series.”

In 38 games (33 starts) with the Sixers this season, Melton averaged 11.1 points, 3.7 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.6 steals while shooting 36.0% from deep. He has only appeared in seven games since the start of 2024 and he hasn’t played 20 or more minutes in a game since Jan. 12 while dealing with a back injury.

Melton has missed 22 of the past 24 games for the Sixers, not including either of their playoff games. Down 0-2 to the Knicks, the Sixers are banking on getting a boost in their backcourt from the veteran guard, even if he plays sparingly. In the 2023 playoffs, Melton averaged 7.9 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.2 steals while shooting 38.8% from three across two series.

Neubeck suggests that Melton could help get trade deadline acquisition Buddy Hield, who has struggled offensively, off the floor. Melton would be better suited to help in a series defined by physicality, athleticism, rebounding and versatility.

“[I can do] the little things,” Melton said. “Rebounding, boxing out, getting deflections, getting steals, I feel like in the playoffs every possession matters. Holding them to one possession is important.”

The Sixers have lost their two playoff games to the Knicks by a combined 10 points, including a three-point defeat on Monday that featured a controversial ending.

New York center Mitchell Robinson, who was listed as questionable, is active.

Atlantic Notes: Melton, Brunson, Sixers Comeback, Tatum

April 25th, 2024 at 10:55am CST by Dana Gauruder

The Sixers may have another rotation player available for Game 3 of their first-round series with the Knicks tonight. De’Anthony Melton practiced on Wednesday and could suit up on Thursday, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

“I’m feeling good,” Melton said after the practice. “I’m ready for the game tomorrow and we’ll see how it goes.”

Melton averaged a career-high 11.1 points per game this season and is a strong perimeter defender. He has played only seven games since Dec. 30 due to a spinal injury.

“I think for me, the little things, rebounding, boxing out, getting deflections, getting steals,” Melton said of the impact he could make.

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

Despite his team being up 2-0 in the series, Knicks star guard Jalen Brunson isn’t happy with his production. He’s shooting 29.1% from the field during the first two contests, with the Sixers sending extra bodies to force tougher shots. “The easy answer is I need to adjust and I need to be more poised, just understand what they’re doing and just flat-out be better,” Brunson said, per Peter Botte of the New York Post. “There’s no gimmicks to it. It’s just, ‘Jalen, you need to be better.’ And it’s that plain and simple.”
Their ability to keep Brunson in check with Kelly Oubre Jr. as the primary defender is one of the reasons why the Sixers should be optimistic about rallying in the series, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps writes. The fact that Joel Embiid has been able to effectively play through a sore knee is another reason to believe a turnaround is coming.
Following their 111-101 home loss to the Heat on Wednesday night, Celtics star forward Jayson Tatum said it’s his team’s turn to counter Miami’s adjustments, Brian Robb of MassLive.com relays. “I think we’ve gotta be more creative,” Tatum said. “The playoffs are about making adjustments game to game, and they did that. They’re not just going to let us catch the ball, they’re not just going to let us throw it to (Kristaps Porzingis) easy. They’re supposed to try to mess things a little up, and make it a little bit tougher. So it’s our job to react in real time, as well as make our adjustments going from game to game.”

Batum: Pretty Much No-Brainer Maxey's MIP

April 23rd, 2024 at 10:54pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Trade deadline acquisition Bojan Bogdanovic came up big for the Knicks in Game 2 against the Sixers on Monday despite a sore left wrist, Stefan Bondy of the New York Post notes. Bogdanovic, whose $19MM contract for next season is partially guaranteed for $2MM, hit a couple of 3-pointers and added two assists in 12 minutes.

Sixers forward Nicolas Batum felt that Tyrese Maxey was a “no-brainer” for the Most Improved Player award. Maxey was named the winner on Tuesday. “This is the first award that after 30 games people were like, ‘Maxey’s the Most Improved Player.’ It was pretty much a no-brainer. I’m very happy to see him get it,” Batum told Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “He deserves it with the work he puts in, and the way he carried himself this year. I’m just happy for him.” center Paul Reed added, “He deserves it for sure.”

Sixers’ Maxey Named Most Improved Player

April 23rd, 2024 at 6:13pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey has won the NBA’s Most Improved Player award for the 2023/24 season, the league’s communications department tweets.

Maxey edged out Bulls guard Coby White for the award. Maxey received 51 of 99 first-place votes while recording 319 voting points. White had just 32 first-place votes, but showed up on more ballots (91) than Maxey (79) and compiled 305 points.

The third finalist, Rockets center Alperen Sengun, was a distant third with six first-place votes and 92 points.

Thunder forward Jalen Williams and Knicks guard Jalen Brunson finished fourth and fifth, respectively, according to the NBA, which revealed the full voting results on Twitter.

A total of 14 players appeared on at least one ballot, with Wizards forward Deni Avdija and Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton each earning one first-place vote.

Maxey, who is expected to sign a maximum-salary contract this offseason as a restricted free agent, ranked 11th in the NBA in points per game (+5.6 PPG from last season) and 20th in assists per game (+2.7 APG from last season). The first-time All-Star also made a career-high 212 three-pointers, up from 160 last season.

Maxey recorded three games of 50 or more points, tied for the most in the NBA. Those were the first 50-point games of his four-year career.

Maxey is the first member of the Sixers to win the award since Dana Barros was the leading vote-getter for the 1994/95 season.

Sixers To File Grievance Over Officating

April 23rd, 2024 at 4:26pm CST by Luke Adams

4:26pm: The league acknowledged in its last two-minute report that Brunson and Josh Hart both fouled Maxey during the last-minute scramble. It also indicated Nurse should have been granted a timeout on the inbounds play, Bontemps tweets.

7:26am: Following their Game 2 loss to the Knicks in New York on Monday, the Sixers intend to file a grievance with the NBA over the officiating, a team spokesperson told Tim Bontemps of ESPN and Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports.

According to Neubeck, the 76ers’ list of concerns will include (but won’t necessarily be limited to) the following:

Two calls in the last two-minute report from Game 1 went against the Sixers.
The Sixers have been the most disadvantaged team in the NBA this season based on last two-minute reports, with a report compiled in early April indicating that 22 missed calls benefited their opponents and 11 benefited them, the worst such ratio in the league.
The Knicks included detailed referee information in their game notes for the first two games of the series (Twitter link), which Bontemps describes as “unusual.”
The Sixers believe they should have been awarded a timeout at multiple points during a key inbounds play and possession late in Monday’s loss (Twitter video link). They also believe Tyrese Maxey was fouled during the play, with Jalen Brunson grabbing his jersey.

That inbounds play occurred with 27 seconds left in the game and the Sixers holding a two-point lead. Head coach Nick Nurse appeared to briefly signal for a timeout just before Kyle Lowry inbounded the ball to Maxey, who was held by Brunson. Maxey fell to the floor with the ball as Nurse attempted to call timeout again, but the Sixers lost possession before a timeout could be granted, leading to a Donte DiVincenzo go-ahead three-pointer.

“Well, the first thing is obviously they score,” Nurse said in describing the sequence after the game. “We take a look at getting it in quick. We don’t get it in quick. I call timeout. Referee looked right at me. Ignored me. Went into Tyrese, I called timeout again. Then the melee started.

“I guess I got to run out onto the floor or do something to make sure and get his attention, but I needed a timeout there to advance it. Would’ve been good. But, couldn’t get it.”

Joel Embiid was even more blunt in expressing his displeasure with the officiating.

“Everybody was trying to call a timeout on the floor,” Embiid said, per Bontemps. “Me included. Coach on the sideline. But they didn’t give it to us. But, forget about the timeout. There’s a bunch of fouls. That’s f—ing unacceptable. …That’s on the frigging referees. I hate to put the game on them. But I am sure the two-minute report is going to come out and we are going to see what happened. … We fought for 47 minutes and whatever 20 seconds. For that to happen … that’s not OK.”

The Sixers weren’t the only team with complaints about the officiating after a tough Monday loss. As Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes, the Lakers also had gripes to share after losing to Denver 101-99 on a Jamal Murray buzzer beater.

Los Angeles was upset that a Michael Porter Jr. foul on D’Angelo Russell in the third quarter, which would have led to a pair of free throws, was overturned because the contact was deemed “marginal” (Twitter video link). Russell later tweeted, “That’s a foul we all saw it on national television.”

“D-Lo clearly gets hit in the face on a drive,” LeBron James said. “What the f–k do we have a replay center for if it’s going to go [like that]? It doesn’t make sense to me. … It bothers me. … And then I just saw what happened with the Sixers-Knicks game too. Like, what are we doing?”

As Fred Katz of The Athletic tweets, the Sixers’ grievance isn’t a formal protest of Game 2, so it won’t affect the outcome of Monday’s contest. It’s presumably just an attempt at gamesmanship on behalf of the 76ers, who will be looking to regain an edge in the series as the teams head to Philadelphia for Game 3.

For what it’s worth, Embiid remains very confident in his team’s ability to pull out the series despite facing a 2-0 deficit.

“We’re good,” Embiid told reporters on Monday, according to Bontemps. “We’re going to win this series. “We are going to win this. We know what we got to fix. We did a better job today, so we are going to fix it. We are the better team. We are going to keep fighting.”

Community Shootaround: First Round Playoff Series

April 23rd, 2024 at 2:37pm CST by Luke Adams

After the NBA playoffs tipped off on Saturday with a handful of one-sided contests, things got a little more interesting on Sunday and Monday, with the Thunder, Knicks, and Nuggets among the teams to pull out victories in games that went down to the wire.

All three days of the playoffs so far, however, have had one thing in common: The home team has won. The road teams have an 0-11 record entering Tuesday’s action.

It’s not necessarily surprising that the home teams are controlling the eight series so far. Those clubs are the higher seeds, and home-court advantage is often a difference-maker in the postseason.

Still, it’s somewhat rare for the higher seeds to be quite this dominant to open the playoffs, especially when we saw so much parity during the regular season. The No. 2 and No. 8 seeds in the East finished the season just four games apart, while only two games separated the No. 4 to No. 7 teams in the West.

The lower seeds are going to start picking up some wins at some point, especially in Game 3s when they get to play on their respective home courts. But will any of them actually make it out of the first round?

Currently, BetOnline.ag lists all the lower seeds as series underdogs, giving the Mavericks (+140) the best chance to erase its 1-0 deficit and win the series. Those odds aren’t surprising — Dallas finished the season strong, was only a game behind the Clippers in the standings, and seems unlikely to face a fully healthy Kawhi Leonard in the first round.

The Suns (+150) and Pacers (+195) are also viewed as viable candidates to pull off upsets over Minnesota and Milwaukee, respectively. On the other hand, despite only being down 1-0 in their series, the Pelicans (+660) and Heat (+5000!) are massive underdogs vs. the Thunder and Celtics.

Of the teams who have to climb out of a 2-0 hole, BetOnline.ag views the Sixers (+380) as the strongest candidates for a comeback, followed by the Magic (+640) and Lakers (+870).

We want to know what you think. Will any of the eight lower seeds make it out of the first round? If so, which ones do you expect to see in round two?

Head to the comment section below to share your thoughts!

And-Ones: Postseason Awards, Fernandez, SLC Summer League, Players’ Poll

April 22nd, 2024 at 10:45pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The NBA revealed the finalists for seven postseason awards on Sunday. The league will begin announcing the winners on Tuesday, the NBA’s communications department tweets.

The Most Improved Player award will be announced on Tuesday. Tyrese Maxey, Alperen Sengun and Coby White are the finalists. The Sixth Man of the Year award winner will be revealed on Wednesday, followed by the Clutch Player of the Year (Thursday) and Coach of the Year (Sunday).

We have more from around the basketball world:

The Nets’ hiring of Jordi Fernandez as their head coach won’t affect his status with Team Canada. Fernandez will coach their national team at the Paris Olympics, Canada Basketball tweets.
The Salt Lake City Summer League will take place July 8-10 at the Jazz’s Delta Center, according to a press release. The Jazz, Grizzlies, Thunder and Sixers will once again compete in the round-robin summer showcase, which precedes the Las Vegas Summer League.
The Athletic’s Sam Amick and Josh Robbins compiled poll results from 142 NBA players on a variety of topics. Nikola Jokic topped Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for MVP, while Michael Jordan edged out LeBron James for Greatest Player of All Time. A majority of the players chose James Johnson as the player they’d least like to fight.

Sixers’ Embiid, Maxey To Play In Game 2

April 22nd, 2024 at 6:08pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey will both play tonight in the Sixers’ Game 2 matchup with the Knicks, according to TNT’s Chris Haynes (Twitter links).

The team’s two stars were considered game-time decisions leading up to the contest. Embiid played 37 minutes in Philadelphia’s Game 1 loss on Sunday but continued to struggle with his mobility due to his surgically repaired left knee. He shot 8-for-22 from the field while scoring 29 points and had issues defensively as the Knicks scored 27 fast-break points and out-rebounded Philadelphia, 55-33.

Embiid collapsed to the court with pain in the knee late in the first half on Saturday. He was eventually able to slowly walk to the locker room and was cleared to return after intermission. Some media members have questioned whether Embiid should even be playing.

Maxey is battling through an illness which forced him to miss the morning shootaround. Maxey had 33 points in 44 minutes during the 111-104 Game 1 loss.

2024 NBA Draft Tiebreaker Results

April 22nd, 2024 at 5:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Tiebreakers among teams with identical regular-season records were broken on Monday through random drawings to determine the order for this year’s draft prior to the lottery.

The results are as follows, according to a press release from the league:

Charlotte Hornets (No. 3) over Portland Trail Blazers (No. 4).
- Note: The Hornets will get one more lottery ball combination (out of 1,000) than the Trail Blazers.
Sacramento Kings (No. 13) over Golden State Warriors (No. 14)
- Note: The Kings will get one more lottery ball combination (out of 1,000) than the Warriors.
- Note: The Warriors will send their pick to the Trail Blazers unless it moves into the top four.
Philadelphia 76ers (No. 16) over Los Angeles Lakers (No. 17) over Orlando Magic (No. 18) over Indiana Pacers (No. 19)
- Note: The Pelicans have until June 1 to decide whether to acquire the Lakers’ pick or defer it to 2025.
- Note: The Pacers will send their pick to the Raptors.
Milwaukee Bucks (No. 21) over Phoenix Suns (No. 22) over New Orleans Pelicans (No. 23).
- Note: The Pelicans will exercise their swap rights with the Bucks and move up to No. 21.
Dallas Mavericks (No. 24) over New York Knicks (No. 25).
- Note: The Mavericks will send their pick to the Knicks.
Denver Nuggets (No. 28) over Oklahoma City Thunder (No. 29).
- Note: The Thunder will send their pick to the Jazz.

While the tiebreaker winner will pick ahead of the loser(s) in the first round, that order will be flipped in the second round. For instance, the Pacers’ second-round pick (traded to the Clippers) will be at No. 46, followed by the Magic at No. 47, and the Lakers (traded to San Antonio) at No. 48. Philadelphia’s second-round pick (which would have been No. 49) is forfeited due a previous free agency violation.

For lottery teams that finished with identical records, the second-round order is still to be determined depending on the lottery results.

For example, if the Trail Blazers win the No. 1 overall pick on lottery night and Charlotte slips to No. 5, the Hornets’ pick in the second round would be at No. 33, while Portland’s would be at No. 34 (Charlotte has traded its second-rounder to Portland, however, while the Blazers have sent theirs to Milwaukee).

Atlantic Notes: Hetzel, Nets, Maxey, Thibodeau, Celtics

April 22nd, 2024 at 10:02am CST by Luke Adams

The Nets are hiring veteran assistant coach Steve Hetzel to be part of Jordi Fernandez‘s new staff in Brooklyn, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

Hetzel was an assistant coach in Portland for the past three seasons under Chauncey Billups. Prior to his stint with the Blazers, he worked on Steve Clifford‘s staffs in both Charlotte (2014-18) and Orlando (2018-21).

Perhaps most notably, Hetzel was the head coach of the Canton Charge in the G League during the 2013/14 season. Fernandez was an assistant on his staff that year before taking over as the Charge’s head coach for the next two seasons after that.

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

The Sixers have listed guard Tyrese Maxey as questionable to play in Game 2 on Monday due to an illness that forced him to miss this morning’s shootaround, tweets Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
In an anonymous player poll conducted by The Athletic, 47% of the respondents named Tom Thibodeau as the head coach they’d least want to play for. However, Thibodeau’s Knicks players were prepared to go to bat for him, as Fred Katz of The Athletic writes. “Nobody’s in our locker room and everybody that talks is on the outside of our locker room. They don’t know what goes on,” Donte DiVincenzo said. “Thibs is a great leader. He’s a great head coach and he’s done an amazing job this year not only dealing with injuries in and out of the lineup but also getting the best out of every single player on our team. I’m having a career year. Different guys on the team are having career years.”
The Celtics have made at least the Eastern Conference Finals in five of the last seven postseason but haven’t won a title during that time. Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston explores how last year’s additions of Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday give the team a new dimension and raise its ceiling entering the 2024 playoffs.
Porzingis passed a key test in Game 1 on Sunday vs. Miami, writes Brian Robb of MassLive.com, scoring 18 points and finishing as a +17 in his 34 minutes. Porzingis – who had only played in 10 playoff games, including none since 2021 – lacks the extensive postseason experience of his fellow Celtics starters, but he showed on Sunday that he’s up to the challenge with the stakes raised, says Robb.

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