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Brandon Ingram Wins Most Improved Player Award

August 31st, 2020 at 6:07pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Brandon Ingram has been named the league’s Most Improved Player, Andrew Lopez of ESPN tweets.

The Pelicans forward collected 42 first-place votes and 326 total points to edge Heat center Bam Adebayo, who picked up 38 first-place votes and 295 points. Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (12 first-place votes, 101 points) finished a distant third. A global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters voted on the award.

The seeding games in Orlando were not considered when the voting was conducted.

From the beginning of the season through the stoppage of play on March 11, Ingram averaged 24.3 PPG, 6.3 RPG and 4.3 APG in 34.3 MPG in 56 games. He was one of seven players to average at least 24.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.0 steals this season.

He will be a restricted free agent this offseason.

Ingram made 137 3-pointers in games played through March 11, which is more than he recorded in his first three seasons combined (127).

Ingram, who turns 23 on Sept. 2, was selected as a reserve for the 2020 NBA All-Star Game in his first season with New Orleans after being included in the blockbuster, multi-team deal that sent Anthony Davis to the Lakers. Ingram averaged 18.3 PPG, 5.1 RPG and 3.0 APG in 33.8 MPG in 52 games with the Lakers last season.

The Raptors’ Pascal Siakam won the award last year and finished seventh in voting this season. The full voting results can be found right here.

Mavs Notes: Doncic, Porzingis, Future, Barea

August 31st, 2020 at 4:56pm CST by Luke Adams

The Mavericks were eliminated from the postseason on Sunday, but Luka Doncic acquitted himself well in his first playoff experience, averaging 31.0 PPG, 9.8 RPG, and 8.7 APG on 50.0% shooting in six games vs. Dallas. As ESPN’s Tim MacMahon writes, Doncic is the reason why both the Mavs and rival teams are high on Dallas’ long-term outlook.

“He’s a guy that I predict is going to win multiple MVPs,” one Eastern Conference scout said of Doncic. “I could not be higher on a guy in the league. If you start that ‘Who would you take to build a team’ conversation, there’s not another guy that I would take over Luka.”

Although there’s no doubt that Doncic is capable of being the best player on a championship-contending team, there’s no consensus yet on whether Kristaps Porzingis can be a reliable No. 2, MacMahon writes. One Western executive expressed optimism on Porzingis, but cautioned that it’s too early to pass judgment, given the big man’s injuries.

“There’s some optimism there. Give the Mavs credit,” a Western scout told MacMahon. “They went and got a 1 and potentially a 2. Doncic is definitely a 1. I’m not all-in on Porzingis as a 2, but he’s a really good 3 in the worst case. Now it’s just about filling in the pieces around them.”

While the Mavs are well positioned to eventually add another impact player, sources tell MacMahon that they aren’t likely to make significant roster changes right away, especially if Tim Hardaway Jr. opts in for $19MM, as expected. According to MacMahon, people within the organization have pushed for Dallas to focus this offseason on acquiring veterans who have “reputations for toughness” and can be signed to short-term contracts.

Here’s more on the Mavs:

While the Mavericks will probably be conservative this fall, their salary cap situation sets them up well to go hunting for a star player during the 2021 offseason, ESPN’s Bobby Marks writes in his Insider-only preview of Dallas’ upcoming decisions. Marks also explores how Dallas should use its draft picks – including the No. 31 selection – and the best way to utilize the mid-level exception.
In the wake of the Mavericks’ Sunday loss to the Clippers, team owner Mark Cuban and former star Dirk Nowitzki were among those who tweeted optimistic messages about the franchise’s future. “This is just the beginning,” Cuban said.
J.J. Barea will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason and acknowledged in a conversation with Fernando Ribas Reyes of Puerto Rican outlet El Nuevo Dia that he was a little frustrated by his lack of playing time this summer (he was a DNP-CD in five seeding games and five more playoff games). Barea said it would be “difficult” to leave Dallas, but suggested that the Mavs might only want him back as a coach, meaning he might have to look elsewhere if he wants to continue playing (hat tip to Sportando).

Mavericks Notes: Doncic, Injuries, Porzingis, Game 6

August 29th, 2020 at 3:30pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Mavericks don’t expect star guard Luka Doncic to be under any restrictions when their series with the Clippers resumes Sunday, writes Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News. Doncic had been dealing with the effects of a sprained left ankle he suffered in the second half of Game 3, but an unexpected three-day break in the playoff schedule has allowed it to heal.

Doncic fought through the pain to deliver a remarkable performance in Game 4, posting 43 points, 17 rebounds and 13 assists and nailing a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer. He is officially listed as questionable for Game 6, but coach Rick Carlisle told reporters today that Doncic has made significant progress.

“Ankle’s doing well, all things considered,” Carlisle said. “The extra two or three days is a plus, certainly. In practice today, he looked pretty good, so going into tomorrow, I don’t think he’s going to be limited.”

There’s more Mavericks news to pass along:

Injuries will be a concern as Dallas tries to keep its season alive, Caplan adds in the same story. In addition to Doncic, Tim Hardaway Jr. (cervical strain), Dorian Finney-Smith (left hip strain) and Trey Burke (left ankle sprain) are all listed as questionable for Game 6.
The knee issue that has sidelined Kristaps Porzingis may change the way the Mavericks deal with him moving forward, suggests Tim Cato of The Athletic. The team needs to recognize that Porzingis could eventually develop chronic knee problems, Cato states. He advises the Mavs to expand their frontcourt depth in case Porzingis has to miss numerous games every season and points out that there has never been another 7’3″ player with his mobility who plays so many minutes. Cato believes the organization should consider limiting Porzingis to about 30 minutes per game and reducing his travel schedule.
Like all the remaining teams, the Mavericks face the challenge of putting aside the emotions of a difficult week and concentrating on basketball, Caplan writes in a separate story. “We’re going to go … whistle to whistle, timeout to timeout,” Carlisle said, “and we’re going to do everything possible to get to a Game 7.”

Injury Updates: Westbrook, Gordon, Lowry, Mavs

August 26th, 2020 at 12:18pm CST by Luke Adams

After initially being ruled out for Game 5 due to his quad injury, Rockets guard Russell Westbrook was upgraded to questionable today, as Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle tweets.

With the Rockets and Thunder set to tip off at 5:30 pm central time tonight, Westbrook is expected to test his strained quad on the court before the game, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who tweets that the All-Star point guard will be a game-time decision.

While it remains to be seen whether Westbrook will get the go-ahead to play tonight, it sounds as if he’s getting awfully close, which means the odds we’ll see him in action before the end of the series are increasing.

Here are a few more brief injury updates from around the NBA:

Magic forward Aaron Gordon (hamstring) has been ruled out for Game 5 against Milwaukee, the team announced today (via Twitter). We heard on Tuesday that Gordon was still having trouble running up and down the court and that the club didn’t want to risk him suffering a more serious injury. If Orlando loses today, Gordon’s season will be over without him getting a chance to play in the postseason.
Raptors guard Kyle Lowry (ankle sprain) didn’t practice again today, as Marc Stein of The New York Times tweets. However, Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca doesn’t necessarily view that as a bad sign, tweeting that there would be no sense running Lowry through a full practice even if he’s feeling good and plans to play on Thursday. Lowry’s status for Game 1 against Boston remains up in the air.
Four key Mavericks players – Kristaps Porzingis (knee), Luka Doncic (ankle), Dorian Finney-Smith (hips), and Trey Burke (ankle) – are listed as questionable to play in Game 6 on Thursday, with Dallas’ season on the line, according to Brad Townsend and Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter links).

Injury Updates: Doncic, Beverley, Westbrook, Harris, Green

August 22nd, 2020 at 5:22pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Mavericks are listing star guard Luka Doncic as questionable for Game 4 against the Clippers, tweets Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News. In today’s session with reporters, coach Rick Carlisle said Doncic, who left Friday night’s contest with a sprained left ankle, might be a “game-time decision” for Sunday.

“I wish I knew right now, but I don’t,” Carlisle said. “We have good depth to play without him, but he’s one of the best players in the world, so if we have to play without him, it’s a big loss.”

Doncic was scheduled to have an MRI on the ankle today, but the test was delayed because of an issue with the machine. He briefly returned to Game 3 after suffering the injury in the third quarter, but was removed again after about three minutes.

“I could run,” he told reporters, “but I couldn’t push off my left leg.”

There’s more injury news to pass along:

Clippers guard Patrick Beverley is listed as doubtful for Sunday, according to a tweet from the team. If he can’t play, it would mark the eighth game in the past nine that Beverley has missed with a strained left calf.
Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni continues to cite improvement from Russell Westbrook as he recovers from a strained quadriceps muscle, but hasn’t speculated on when he might return, tweets Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. Westbrook’s running has been limited to an alter-G device that restricts how much of a player’s weight is placed on the treadmill. D’Antoni said Westbrook is “doing better, as expected. Every day he does a little bit more.”
Nuggets shooting guard Gary Harris has been upgraded to doubtful for Game 4, raising hopes that he might soon be ready to play for the first time in five months, writes Mike Singer of The Denver Post. A right hip strain has kept Harris out of action since the team arrived in Orlando.
The Celtics announced that small forward Javonte Green will miss his second straight game Sunday with a sprained right knee (Twitter link). Green’s court time in the playoffs has been limited to a brief appearance in Game 2.

Luka Doncic To Undergo MRI On Injured Ankle

August 22nd, 2020 at 10:16am CST by marksuleymanov

Mavericks point guard Luka Doncic is expected to undergo an MRI today on his left ankle after he suffered a sprain in Dallas’ 130-122 loss to the Clippers on Friday which put the team in a 2-1 series hole, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon writes.

Doncic suffered the injury late in the third quarter as he rolled his ankle while Kawhi Leonard drove to the basket. The 21-year-old returned in the fourth quarter but managed to play only briefly before leaving for the remainder of the game.

“It’s not that bad,” Doncic said after the game. “Honestly, I had luck it’s my left ankle. It’s not my right. It’s a little sprained. We’ll know more tomorrow.”

Doncic being forced to miss any games for the remainder of the Mavericks’ first-round series against the Clippers would likely derail their postseason. The Slovenian had been dynamic in the series thus far, recording 42 points in a Game 1 loss and managing to total a triple-double (13 points, 10 assists, 10 rebounds) in Game 3. Doncic is the third-youngest player to ever record a triple-double in the postseason, behind Magic Johnson and LeBron James.

Dallas is set for Game 4 against the Clippers Sunday afternoon which gives Doncic less than 48 hours to recover but head coach Rick Carlise was optimistic about his chances.

“The game is early Sunday, which doesn’t help things, but we’ll see,” Carlisle said. “We’ve got every advanced treatment modality that you can have, as every team here does. We’ll see how this responds in the next 36 hours.”

NBA Announces All-Bubble Awards

August 15th, 2020 at 1:15pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA announced today that Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard has been named the Player of the Seeding Games, earning de facto MVP honors for the league’s restart.

Lillard, who averaged 37.6 PPG and 9.6 APG on .497/.436/.888 shooting in eight seeding games, led the Blazers to a 6-2 record, allowing the team to surpass the Grizzlies for the No. 8 seed in the West. Portland will earn the conference’s final playoff spot if it picks up a win over Memphis today or tomorrow.

Lillard was the unanimous selection among 22 media voters for the bubble’s MVP award. Devin Booker (Suns) received 19 second-place votes, with T.J. Warren (Pacers) picking up two and Luka Doncic (Mavericks) getting the other one. Booker, Warren, Doncic, James Harden (Rockets) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks) all received third-place votes.

Meanwhile, Suns head coach Monty Williams was named the Coach of the Seeding Games, per today’s announcement. The selection comes as no surprise after Williams led Phoenix to an 8-0 record this summer. The Suns narrowly missed out on a spot in the play-in tournament, but were the only club that went undefeated during the seeding games, despite initially being ranked 21st of the 22 teams invited to Orlando.

Williams was a near-unanimous choice, with Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts receiving one first-place vote and finishing second overall in voting. Nets coach Jacque Vaughn and Raptors coach Nick Nurse were among the other top vote-getters.

The NBA also announced All-Seeding Games First and Second Teams, as follows:

First Team:

Damian Lillard (Trail Blazers)
Devin Booker (Suns)
Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
James Harden (Rockets)
T.J. Warren (Pacers)

Second Team:

Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks)
Kawhi Leonard (Clippers)
Kristaps Porzingis (Mavericks)
Caris LeVert (Nets)
Michael Porter Jr. (Nuggets)

Lillard, Booker, and Doncic were unanimous First Team selections, with Harden and Warren each receiving 18 of 22 First Team votes. Antetokounmpo received the other eight First Team votes.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Doncic, Porzingis, SGA Among Players Out For Monday’s Games

August 10th, 2020 at 11:09am CST by Luke Adams

Mavericks stars Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis won’t play in Monday’s game against Utah, according to the league’s official injury report. Dallas will also be without starting forward Dorian Finney-Smith.

Doncic and Porzingis are both listed out due to “injury recovery” — right ankle for Doncic and left knee for Porzingis. Finney-Smith, meanwhile, is dealing with a left hip strain.

At 42-30, the No. 7 Mavericks are two games behind the sixth-seeded Jazz (43-27), so today’s game has seeding implications. If the Mavs lose, they’ll be locked into the No. 7 seed in the West. Utah, just a half-game behind the No. 5 Thunder, could still move up a spot or two in the standings, though the team may prefer to remain at No. 6 if it means avoiding the Rockets in the first round. Houston has eliminated the Jazz in the postseason in each of the last two years.

Donovan Mitchell has also been downgraded from questionable to out for today’s game due to a left lower leg peroneal strain, according to the Jazz (via Twitter).

Meanwhile, per the league’s injury report, the Thunder will be without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (right calf contusion), Steven Adams (left lower leg contusion), Danilo Gallinari (left ankle injury maintenance), and Nerlens Noel (right ankle sprain), in addition to missing Dennis Schröder, who remains out for personal reasons after attending the birth of his child.

Those absences bode well for the Suns, who will need to remain undefeated in the bubble in order to keep pace in the race for the Western Conference’s final playoff spot. As we detailed earlier today, Phoenix won’t technically be eliminated from postseason contention with a loss, but it would make the path to a play-in spot a whole lot more difficult.

Western Notes: Gasol, Doncic, Kings, Zion

August 9th, 2020 at 5:03pm CST by JD Shaw

Marc Gasol played the Grizzlies on Sunday for the first time since being traded to Toronto in February of 2019, though this isn’t how the veteran center envisioned his reunion would be, Josh Lewenberg of TSN writes.

The Raptors and Grizzlies were originally slated to play each other twice late in the 2019/20 season, though COVID-19 naturally put a halt to these plans in March. Gasol didn’t get the chance this season to play in Memphis for the first time since the trade, with the city still holding a special place in his heart.

“I got there when I was 16 years old, it was my first time out of Spain,” Gasol said. “Imagine what it meant for me to go to high school there as a teenager and [then leave] as a father of two kids. My youngest actually is from Memphis. He was born in Memphis. And my daughter, their best friends are from Memphis and so on.”

“My ties to the city and my roots go pretty deep. My love for the people there, and what they mean [to me], and for the franchise, it’s forever.”

Gasol spent the first 10 1/2 seasons of his career with the Grizzlies, making three All-Star teams while leading the franchise to numerous playoff berths. He recorded 10 points and six rebounds in 22 minutes of action during the contest.

There’s more from the Western Conference tonight:

Several figures around the league raved about the performance from Mavericks star Luka Doncic on Saturday, Tim Bontemps of ESPN writes. Doncic finished with 36 points, 14 rebounds and 19 assists in a win over the Bucks, as he continues to prove his worth as an offensive superstar. “I clapped,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “I applauded. I thought it was phenomenal. The sign of a great player, a truly great player, is the ability to pull off something like that against a team like Milwaukee, that gives up virtually nothing in the paint. We’re seeing more things all the time. Luka is not only a great basketball player, he’s a great performer. I’d pay money to watch him play. I don’t say that about a lot of players, but he’s really special.”
Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee explores the job security of Kings coach Luke Walton, general manager Vlade Divac, and more in his latest mailbag. Sacramento (29-40) is currently three games behind the No. 8 seed Grizzlies (33-38), losing four of their five games in Orlando. The team will be eliminated from playoff contention if it loses to the Rockets on Sunday.
NBA insiders at ESPN explore how Pelicans star Zion Williamson has played in Orlando and what it means for the team’s future. Williamson has seen his minutes reduced throughout the team’s games, even scoring a career-low seven points in just 14 minutes during his second game on the campus. Most of the writers agree that Williamson, despite his impressive athleticism and defensive potential, needs to show more effort on defense to reach the next level of his game and help the Pelicans succeed.

Southwest Notes: Ingram, Popovich, Doncic, Zion

August 8th, 2020 at 6:37pm CST by Arthur Hill

Brandon Ingram had planned to be a Lakers star for a long time, but that changed when Anthony Davis became available last summer. Ingram was part of a package of young talent that was sent to the Pelicans for the star big man, but he has fond memories of his three seasons in Los Angeles, writes Kyle Goon of The Orange County Register.

“I think it’s love from each end, because if it was a bad remark or a negative remark, maybe go back, re-tune something and get better at it,” he said of his relationship with Lakers fans. “If it was a good remark, then I thank them for knowing the game of basketball and the person that I am, and that I was gonna get better. So it’s all love from each side. I still got love for the Laker fans, I still got love for the Duke fans.”

There’s more from the Southwest Division:

Gregg Popovich continues to stress player development even though his Spurs are in the middle of the battle for the eighth and ninth seeds in the Western Conference, according to Joe Vardon of The Athletic. Veteran guard Patty Mills sat out Friday’s win over the Jazz to give time to Keldon Johnson, Quinndary Weatherspoon and Drew Eubanks, none of whom have playoff experience. “This is all about development, I’ve said that from the beginning,” Popovich said. “The young guys, they get evaluated, we see them playing together and we get to determine how valuable they are in terms of the guys we want to move forward with.”
The Grizzlies used a lineup change Friday to pick up their first win since arriving in Orlando, Vardon adds in the same story. Brandon Clarke had been replacing injured big man Jaren Jackson Jr., but coach Taylor Jenkins opted to go with Anthony Tolliver. Memphis outscored Oklahoma City by 21 points while Tolliver was on the court.
Three ESPN writers look at what to expect from Mavericks guard Luka Doncic as he gets ready for his first NBA playoff series.
Zion Williamson is expected to be ready to face the Spurs tomorrow in a crucial game in the playoff race, tweets Marc Stein of The New York Times. Williamson missed Friday’s game, but the Pelicans didn’t list anyone on today’s injury report.