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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.”

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.”

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.

And-Ones: Weis, Embiid, Cook, Goodwin, Gambling

April 21st, 2024 at 8:43pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Former French center Frederic Weis ripped Joel Embiid for choosing Team USA over France in the Paris Olympics, Eurohoops.net relays. Weis, a 1999 first-round draft pick of the Knicks who never played in the NBA, made his comments on French station RMC.

Embiid reportedly told French officials in 2021 he would play for their national team. “I think he doesn’t have any respect for France and also for all the people who are asking for a French passport and don’t get it,” Weis said. “And under the pretext that he is a great athlete, he got it. I find it scandalous, I find it embarrassing. I don’t care about his excuses, cause they are his words, and his words mean nothing.”

We have more from around the international basketball world:

Former NBA guard Quinn Cook has signed with Puerto Rico’s Cangrejeros de Santurce, the team announced (via Twitter). Cook hasn’t appeared in an NBA game since the 2020/21 season.
Cook takes the roster spot of another former NBA guard, Brandon Goodwin, who has signed with another Puerto Rican club, Gigantes de Carolina, according to the team’s Instagram feed. Goodwin last appeared in the NBA during the 2021/22 campaign, when he saw action in 36 Cavaliers games.
Jontay Porter‘s ban from the NBA due to a gambling-related scandal could become the new norm for the NBA and other sports who have embraced betting sites, Kevin Draper and Tanai Ganguli of the New York Times write in an in-depth feature.

Sixers Have No Plans To Shut Down Joel Embiid

April 21st, 2024 at 8:59am CST by Arthur Hill

The Sixers won’t consider shutting down Joel Embiid after his second injury scare in eight days, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN.

The reigning MVP, who missed more than two months following meniscus surgery on his left knee in late January, collapsed to the court with pain in the knee after a spectacular play 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.

“I knew when I went in at halftime that they were checking him out,” coach Nick Nurse said. “And that he was up and moving. And they did say we are seeing. They didn’t rule him out yet. They just took him all the way to the end there to get him ruled back in.”

Embiid, who didn’t speak with reporters after the game, was injured with 2:37 left in the second quarter when he ducked under Mitchell Robinson, threw the ball off the backboard and finished the play with a highlight dunk (video link). He landed on his left leg before collapsing in pain. It was similar to a play against Orlando last week when he fell to the court after a drive to the basket late in the first half, but returned after being checked out by team doctors.

“It was a great play. It was an amazing play,” Kelly Oubre told reporters, including Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic. “Oh, man, it’s scary. Our bodies are what we use as our vehicles out here. It’s tough, and he’s seven-foot, 300 pounds. … It’s tough, man. I couldn’t even imagine being seven feet and being able to move like a guard and do the things that I can do but being that big. It’s tough, but he’s a warrior.”

Embiid’s health is obviously going to play a huge role in deciding the series with the Knicks, as he posted 29 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals in Saturday’s Game 1 loss. The Sixers were plus-14 in his 37 minutes on the court, but minus-21 in the other 11 minutes. However, Bontemps notes that he was much less effective after the injury, shooting just 2-of-11 from the field in the second half.

There’s no word yet on Embiid’s availability for Game 2, which will take place Monday night in New York, but there were no plans Saturday night for him to undergo more medical imaging on the knee, sources tell Vorkunov. He adds that Embiid was able to leave the arena without a limp.

Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer cautions that the Sixers need to be smart about how they use Embiid going forward because the strain he’s putting on his knee ligaments could result in a long-term injury. But Embiid has expressed a desire to keep playing, and it appears Nurse and team officials will honor that.

“I don’t think so,” Nurse responded when asked about the possibility of sidelining Embiid. “He’s really a warrior and he’s battling. I think he absolutely wants to play. Let’s see how he turns out here tonight.”

Injury Notes: Caruso, Bulls, Bucks, Embiid, Hartenstein

April 19th, 2024 at 5:36pm CST by Rory Maher

Bulls defensive ace Alex Caruso will be available for tonight’s play-in tournament game in Miami, head coach Billy Donovan said (Twitter link via K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago).

Guard Ayo Dosunmu (quad) and center Andre Drummond (ankle) will be active too, Donovan added. All three players had previously been listed as questionable.

Caruso was said to have sustained a “significant” left ankle sprain in Wednesday’s play-in victory over Atlanta, but the swelling subsided over the past couple days and he told reporters on Friday morning he expected to suit up. The injury was an aggravation of a previous sprain.

Duncan Robinson, who has been battling a back issue, will be available tonight for the Heat, tweets Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Robinson was technically active for Wednesday’s loss to Philadelphia, Chiang notes, but he didn’t see any action — that might change with Jimmy Butler sidelined due to a knee sprain.

Here are a few more injury-related notes from around the NBA:

Bucks guard Damian Lillard was a full practice participant on Friday, but two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo (left calf strain) was unable to do any live drills, according to a report from ESPN. Reserve guard A.J. Green, who sat out Tuesday’s practice with a left ankle sprain, was able to go through most of Friday’s practice. There have been mixed messages from Milwaukee on Antetokounmpo’s status, with president Peter Feigin saying he”definitely will not be back for Sunday,” when the Bucks will host the Pacers in Game 1 of their first-round series. Head coach Doc Rivers is still holding out hope that the perennial All-NBA First Team member will be ready though, per ESPN. “I don’t know yet,” Rivers said. “We’re still hoping. He hasn’t done anything. Would we throw him out there? Yeah, we would. For us, still we’re not sure.”
Speaking of Lillard, the Bucks‘ All-Star said he aggravated his Achilles tendon in Sunday’s loss to Orlando, but his adductor has been giving him the most trouble, as Eric Nehm of The Athletic relays (Twitter links). Lillard missed four games over the past few weeks with various injury designations, but he said the week off has helped him recover.
Sixers center Joel Embiid is officially questionable for Saturday’s Game 1 in New York with what the team is calling left knee injury recovery, tweets Fred Katz of The Athletic. Embiid, who missed a few months after tearing his meniscus in January, has been considered questionable for nearly every game since he returned to action at the beginning of April.
Since January 20, Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein has only played 30-plus minutes five times due to Achilles soreness. However, two of those instances came in his last two regular season games, and he said he’s ready for an increased workload in the postseason, according to Katz (Twitter link).

Kawhi Leonard Completes Team USA’s Star-Studded Roster For Olympics

April 16th, 2024 at 6:07pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Team USA has completed its selection of an All-Star laden 12-player roster for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Shams Charania and Joe Vardon of The Athletic report (Twitter link). Kawhi Leonard was chosen for the final roster spot, USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt tweets.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Monday the 11 other selections for the roster. Team USA received a firm commitment from Leonard on Tuesday, Wojnarowski tweets.

Unlike USA Basketball’s FIBA World Cup roster last summer, which lacked size and interior strength, the Olympic roster is filled with quality bigs. Joel Embiid, Bam Adebayo and Anthony Davis will be joined at the power positions by LeBron James and Kevin Durant.

The wings will be manned by Jayson Tatum, Leonard, Devin Booker and Anthony Edwards. Jrue Holiday, Tyrese Haliburton and Stephen Curry round out the backcourt.

Haliburton and Edwards are the only players from the FIBA World Cup roster to make Team USA’s Olympic roster.

Team USA has won the gold medal in each of the last four Summer Olympics.

Atlantic Notes: DiVincenzo, Embiid, Melton, Nets, Bridges

April 16th, 2024 at 3:15pm CST by Luke Adams

Knicks swingman Donte DiVincenzo is one of several notable players who will be ineligible for end-of-season awards this season despite playing in far more than 65 games, as James Herbert of CBS Sports observes. DiVincenzo appeared in 81 games this season, but technically didn’t meet the NBA’s 65-game criteria.

As we outlined in our glossary entry on the NBA’s new 65-game rule, a game only counts toward the 65-game minimum if the player logged at least 20 minutes. A player is also permitted to play 20+ minutes in just 63 games as long as there were at least two additional games in which he played 15+ minutes.

DiVincenzo played 20+ minutes in 62 games and logged at least 19 minutes in seven more, including one in which he played 19:51. If he had reached the 20-minute threshold in one of those games, he would’ve been award-eligible, but he just missed out. The Knicks wing would have been included on Most Improved Player ballots from multiple voters, including JJ Redick, who took to Twitter to express displeasure with the rule.

As Herbert points out, DiVincenzo’s teammate Isaiah Hartenstein is another player who might have received award consideration but is considered ineligible despite appearing in 75 games, since he played 20+ minutes in just 50 of those contests. Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga, another Most Improved candidate, played in 74 games but had 20+ minutes in just 61 of them, so he’s also ineligible.

Pelicans center Jonas Valanciunas (82 starts), Mavericks wing Derrick Jones (76 games, including 66 starts), and Clippers swingman Terance Mann (71 starts) likely wouldn’t have been serious candidates for any awards, but they’re a few of the other players who paradoxically failed to meet the 65-game criteria due to the nature of the rule. For what it’s worth, Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter link) says he would have put Jones on his All-Defensive Second Team if he could have.

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

As Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes, the Sixers are once again entering the postseason with questions about the health of Joel Embiid, who sat out Sunday’s regular season finale and has played just five games since returning from knee surgery. However, Embiid is on track to play in Wednesday’s play-in game. He practiced on both Monday and Tuesday, per head coach Nick Nurse; 76ers guard De’Anthony Melton (back) did not (Twitter links via Kyle Neubeck and Derek Bodner of PHLY Sports).
After a disappointing season in Brooklyn, the Nets‘ roster figures to undergo an overhaul this summer, and the players who finished this season with the team are bracing for that possibility, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. “I don’t think (any) of my years in the league I had the same team two years in a row,” Dorian Finney-Smith said. “Even if you win, teams still make moves, so I can only imagine how this summer’s gonna be.”
Nets forward Mikal Bridges admitted that it was a challenge to maintain a positive outlook during a “really tough” season and said that working on “being better mentally” will be one of his goals for this offseason, Lewis writes for The New York Post. He pointed to a December 27 loss to Milwaukee in which the Nets rested most of their regulars and the disappointing road trip that followed as low points. “The Milwaukee game and losing on that road trip, that was tough. I think that was a part of it. That didn’t help. For the players, I know that I was pretty hurt from that, I was pretty pissed off about that situation,” Bridges said. “That’s just part of it. I think I’ve failed at that part mentally. I was doing pretty good mentally, but I didn’t do a pretty good job of that this year. I let my emotions get to me.”

Team USA Locks In 11 Of 12 Olympic Roster Spots

April 15th, 2024 at 6:18pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Team USA men’s basketball program has determined 11 of its 12 roster spots for this year’s Paris Olympics, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Woj suggests that the final roster opening could remain open for a while. Sources inform Wojnarowski that Hall of Famer Grant Hill, Team USA’s managing director, is waiting for a July training camp and some Las Vegas exhibition games before finalizing that 12th spot.

10 of the 11 players were honored as All-Stars this season, while the 11th was a key two-way force on the 2021 gold medal-winning team, which is officially considered the 2020 Olympic team.

Here are Team USA’s 11 players:

Bam Adebayo, C, Heat
Devin Booker, G, Suns
Stephen Curry, G, Warriors
Anthony Davis, F/C, Lakers
Kevin Durant, F, Suns
Anthony Edwards, G, Timberwolves
Joel Embiid, C, Sixers
Tyrese Haliburton, G, Pacers
Jrue Holiday, G, Celtics
LeBron James, F, Lakers
Jayson Tatum, F, Celtics

So far, three NBA teams – the Lakers, Celtics, and Suns – will feature multiple U.S. Olympians.

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, serving again as the leader of Team USA this summer, will have just one current familiar face in All-Star point guard Curry, who will be making his Olympic debut. Among the other players listed, four others will be making their debuts with the program on this stage: reigning league MVP Embiid and young All-Star guards Edwards and Haliburton.

As Woj notes, 35-year-old Durant is one of just two players to have won three gold medals in Olympic history, along with future Hall of Fame forward Carmelo Anthony. James is playing in his first Olympics since 2012. James and Anthony were also members of Team USA the last time it didn’t win gold at the tournament, in 2004.

Injury Notes: Embiid, Sixers, Cavs, Hornets, Rozier

April 14th, 2024 at 12:15pm CST by Rory Maher

After previously being listed as questionable, reigning MVP Joel Embiid was subsequently ruled out by the Sixers ahead of Sunday’s season finale against Brooklyn, tweets Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports. Embiid’s official injury designation was left knee injury recovery, per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link).

When asked if he expected Embiid to play as long as he didn’t have any issues pregame, head coach Nick Nurse shifted around a bit while saying, “Yeah, same on the (other) questionable guys” (Twitter video link via PHLY Sixers).

De’Anthony Melton (back injury recovery) and KJ Martin (left great toe contusion), the other two players with questionable tags, were later ruled out as well.

In his fifth game back following a torn left meniscus in January, which required surgery, Embiid appeared to tweak the same knee in Friday’s win over Orlando, calling to be subbed out a couple minutes before the first half ended. He returned for the second half and finished the game, but was noticeably grimacing at times.

Sunday’s game has major playoff implications for the 76ers, who currently have the same record as Orlando and Indiana at 46-35 but are the No. 7 seed due to tiebreakers. Still, Embiid’s health outlook is much more critical for the postseason and the future — Philadelphia went just 15-27 without the 30-year-old this season.

Here are a few more injury notes from around the NBA:

The Cavaliers, who have secured at least the No. 4 seed in the East and could move as high as No. 2, will be without some of their top players on Sunday, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. Donovan Mitchell (knee), Darius Garland (lower back contusion), Caris LeVert (knee soreness), Sam Merrill (neck strain) and Dean Wade (knee sprain) are all out. “It’s not rest,” head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said prior to tipoff. “Those guys have things they are dealing with that we are trying to protect over the long term. Not guys who are just taking today off. That was the thinking going into it — if we can get them yesterday and today and get out throughout this week, hopefully by Saturday or Sunday, whenever we play, that’s an advantage for us. We will go out and compete our tails off to make sure whatever may happen. So much is out of our control. It’s not a situation where we are going in and saying, ‘We need to do this or do that.’ We don’t control the outcome. So many other teams that have their own plans and own minds that they are trying to make up. We’re going out and trying to compete our tails off and see what happens.”
The Cavs are facing the Hornets on Sunday, and Charlotte will also be very undermanned, the team announced (via Twitter). Miles Bridges (right wrist), Brandon Miller (right wrist), Davis Bertans (left Achilles), Nick Richards (right plantar fascia) and Grant Williams (right ankle) were all downgraded from questionable to out, joining four other players who are dealing with long-term injuries.
Heat guard Terry Rozier underwent additional testing on his neck injury in recent days, per Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (subscriber link). Head coach Erik Spoelstra continues to refer to Rozier as day-to-day, but he’ll miss his fourth straight game on Sunday, leaving his postseason status up in the air. Rozier has been taking anti-inflammatories to deal with the issue, Winderman adds.