- The Kings made a “series-altering” adjustment in Game 6, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic. They decided to go smaller and faster, with more shooting around De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk, who both had terrific games. They went away from Alex Len as backup center and used Trey Lyles at the five, with Terence Davis, Kevin Huerter and Keegan Murray receiving more playing time, while Harrison Barnes and Davion Mitchell played less. “We knew we could run them a little bit and we took advantage of that tonight,” Monk said. “I felt it a little bit more on them. They were a little tired. We’re younger than they are. So we knew we could take advantage of that. We’re going to try to do the same thing Sunday.”
- It’s time for the Kings to show the same resiliency the Warriors displayed over the last three games, Jason Jones of The Athletic writes. Golden State has erased a 2-0 deficit to take a 3-2 series lead, heading into Friday’s showdown. Guard Davion Mitchell acknowledges Sacramento has to play with more determination. “We have to have the same mindset coming in. I mean, that’s a really good team, especially at home,” he said. “We have to punch them in the mouth first.”
The Raptors have been granted permission to interviews a number of prominent assistant coaches for their head coaching job, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports.
Toronto parted ways with Nick Nurse, who coached them to a championship, after the season. The Warriors‘ Kenny Atkinson, Bucks‘ Charles Lee, Suns‘ Kevin Young, Spurs‘ Mitch Johnson, Kings‘ Jordi Fernandez, Grizzlies‘ Darko Rajakovic and Heat‘s Chris Quinn are among the assistant they plan to interview. However, that list could expand.
Lee is one of the top candidates for the Pistons’ head coaching vacancy. Atkinson, of course, was previously the Nets’ head coach.
The Raptors will also look at ex-NBA head coaches, as well as NCAA and WNBA coaches. Regarding the latter, they have gained permission to speak with former Spurs assistant and current Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon. She led the Aces to last year’s WNBA championship.
As previously reported, they are also expected to interview current assistant coach Adrian Griffin.
April 26: Fox is officially available tonight, the team announced (Twitter link via James Ham of TheKingsBeat.com).
April 25: Though he was initially considered doubtful to suit up, All-Star Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox now intends to play through the fractured left index finger on his left shooting hand in Game 5, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee (Twitter link).
After winning the first two games at home, the Kings dropped consecutive games in Golden State, knotting up their series with the Warriors at 2-2. A critical Game 5 in Sacramento is scheduled for Wednesday evening.
“There’s no [ifs], ands or buts,” Fox told reporters after a team practice today, Anderson tweets. “I’m playing.”
The Kentucky alum pegged his odds of suiting up at “99, 100 percent,” per Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link)
According to Sean Cunningham of Fox 40 KTXL (via Twitter), Fox said that he would likely miss a week or two of playing time if he had suffered the same injury during the regular season. Fox, who underwent imaging after Sacramento’s 126-125 Game 4 loss at Chase Center, reiterated that he is still able to shoot with the hand.
Along with Curry, Fox has been the best player in this playoff series, so the prospect of potentially losing him Wednesday would have been a brutal blow to Sacramento’s chances. Across four games thus far, he’s been averaging 31.5 PPG on .447/.342/.700 shooting splits, along with 7.0 APG, 6.0 RPG, and 2.5 SPG.
Warriors small forward Andrew Wiggins has been a surprisingly excellent two-way contributor in the team’s 2-2 series against the Kings, writes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. The 6’7″ swingman had been away from the team since February 13 tending to personal issues, but hasn’t missed a beat in his return — he has played a total of 139 minutes in the series, a total just below those of De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. He’s averaging 19.3 PPG, 5.8 RPG, and 2.3 BPG across the first four games of the series.
There’s more out of Golden State:
- Following his very public physical training camp altercation with teammate Jordan Poole, Warriors power forward Draymond Green felt he had to work to regain his standing in the locker room, he tells Shams Charania of The Athletic. “We all know the situation,” Green said. “And I felt like I had to earn my voice. A voice isn’t given. For me, I wanted to do things to earn that back… I needed to earn respect and I needed to earn a voice. And not just because you’re Draymond… you’ve done this, you’ve done that in this organization and everyone’s just supposed to listen.”
- Starting Warriors center Kevon Looney, who once again has emerged as a major figure in these playoffs, recently detailed how a rigorous yoga routine keeps him, well, centered, per Scott Cacciola of The New York Times. Looney, who has struggled with injuries in the past, has not missed a single game over the past two season, a fact he credits to “Jana Joga,”
- Though Golden State shooting guard Klay Thompson has yet to submit a massive offensive showing through four playoff games against Sacramento, history suggests that one is forthcoming, writes Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. “He’s in that weight room every day, training room every day,” Green said. “As far as him competing and looking like Klay? It’s April. That is who Klay Thompson is. He is one of the biggest and best winners I’ve been around, and that’s what matters most to him.”
Forward Kyle Anderson has been ruled out by the Timberwolves for Game 5 of the first-round series against the Nuggets on Tuesday, the team’s PR department tweets.
Anderson suffered an eye injury on Sunday when he was struck by teammate Anthony Edwards as the two Timberwolves teammates defended a dunk attempt by DeAndre Jordan. Anderson is averaging 8.5 points, 4.5 assists and 4.0 rebounds in the series, which Denver leads 3-1.
We have more injury-related news:
- The Clippers will be without both of their superstars again for Game 5. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George have been ruled for Tuesday’s game as their team faces elimination against the Suns, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN tweets. Leonard received treatment on his sprained right knee on Monday but didn’t practice, Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times tweets.
- While Kings star guard De’Aaron Fox was initially considered doubtful for Wednesday’s game against the Warriors due to a fractured index finger on his left hand, there is internal optimism that Fox will try to play, Sam Amick and Shams Charania of The Athletic report. The medical staff will try to figure out if it’s feasible for Fox to play with the injury, which is on his shooting hand. The Kings have confirmed Fox has an avulsion fracture, Marc Stein tweets.
- Joel Embiid‘s status for the second-round series remains unclear as he tries to recover from a sprained LCL in his right knee. “I’m told he’s doing better and he’s moving around better,” ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne said on the NBA Today show (video link) regarding the Sixers’ center. “The swelling has subsided … (but) you’re not going to push it with something like that.”
Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox has sustained a fractured index finger on his left hand, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports that Fox is expected to officially be listed as doubtful for Tuesday’s Game 5 against Golden State (Twitter link).
The injury is believed to have occurred in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s Game 4, Charania adds (via Twitter). Anthony Slater of The Athletic provides a video (Twitter link) of the play, where Fox’s finger appears to be unintentionally clipped by Kevon Looney when Fox casually shot a layup after a foul had already been called on Jordan Poole.
Although Fox will be listed as doubtful, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN hears the Kings are hopeful their All-Star guard will be able to play through the injury Tuesday (Twitter link). Fox apparently broke the tip of his finger and will need to wear a protective covering if he suits up, according to Wojnarowski.
The Kings finally snapped their record-long playoff streak and got off to a 2-0 start against the defending champions, only for the Warriors to respond with two straight wins at home to even the series at two games apiece. Fox was Sacramento’s leading scorer during the regular season and is averaging 31.5 points, 6 rebounds, 7.0 assists and 2.5 steals on .447/.342/.700 shooting in his first four playoff games (38.5 MPG).
Unfortunately, Fox is far from the first player to be injured this postseason. He joins Giannis Antetokounmpo, Tyler Herro, Ja Morant, Kawhi Leonard, Joel Embiid and Victor Oladipo, among others, as players who have suffered injuries of varying severity.
If the 25-year-old is unable to suit up for the pivotal Game 5, fellow guards Davion Mitchell, Kevin Huerter and Malik Monk are candidates for more playing time. Reserve guard Terence Davis could see some action as well after playing just 13 combined minutes in his two appearances in the series.
The Warriors have announced in a press release (Twitter link) that reserve swingman Andre Iguodala had the stabilizing splint removed from his left wrist and is set to be reevaluated two weeks from now.
Iguodala fractured the wrist during a March 13 game against the Suns. Golden State’s announcement notes that the 2015 Finals MVP has begun rehabilitating the wrist and that the team could give him the green light to start shooting drills and light ball-handling activities within the next week.
There’s more out of Golden State:
- Warriors guards Gary Payton II and Jordan Poole have been listed as probable to suit up for today’s critical Game 4 against the Kings, per Anthony Slater of The Athletic (via Twitter). Payton missed Game 3 due to a non-COVID-19 illness.
- All-Star Warriors point guard Stephen Curry indicated that he and his comrades appreciated the urgency of Game 3 against Sacramento, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. “I mean, pretty bluntly, if we lost this game, it’s pretty much over,” Curry said. “You’ve got to understand the moment and we gave ourselves life. Biggest thing is, we’ve been in the situation where momentum doesn’t necessarily carry over from game to game unless you execute at the same level, so it’s just one game, but it was a big game for sure.”
- Golden State will bring star forward Draymond Green off the bench and retain the Game 3 starting lineup they used while he was suspended, per Kendra Andrews of ESPN. Shams Charania and Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweet that Green proposed the change. Poole will thus stay among the Warriors’ first five, separating the team’s two key shooting-challenged big men, Green and center Kevon Looney, for a crucial fourth game in their series against the Kings.
Kings forward Harrison Barnes will be an unrestricted free agent this summer and head coach Mike Brown is among those hoping the 30-year-old doesn’t go anywhere, according to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee.
Brown made it clear that he’ll leave the roster decisions to general manager Monte McNair and assistant GM Wes Wilcox, but made it clear he’d love for the Kings to re-sign Barnes, referring to him as “irreplaceable” and praising his “championship pedigree” and veteran leadership.
“I’m not trying to be funny, but that’s what irreplaceable means. He’s irreplaceable,” Brown said. “Having said that, that’s Monte and Wes’ area. … There’s nobody, at the end of the day, who’s going to be forever and ever in this league and this organization, but HB definitely is a guy who has been a big, big part of what we’ve got going here, and I hope he’s a big, big, big part of what our future looks like.”
Here’s more from around the Pacific:
- Devin Booker was an All-Star before the Suns acquired Kevin Durant, but Durant’s arrival has helped Booker take his game to another level, writes Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com. “You can’t leave (Durant), obviously. He draws a lot of attention,” Booker said after scoring 45 points in a Game 3 victory on Thursday. “A lot of the buckets I scored, I went right to him right after and said, ‘You opened that up.'”
- Reinserted into the Suns‘ starting lineup when the playoffs began in order to match up defensively against Kawhi Leonard, Torrey Craig has had a monster series so far, averaging 18.0 PPG and making 10-of-16 three-pointers (62.5%) through three games. As Doug Haller of The Athletic details, Craig’s performance is all the more impressive given the path he took to get here — he went undrafted in 2014 and spent the first three years of his professional career playing in Australia and New Zealand.
- Tim Kawakami of The Athletic explores the bond between Warriors forward Draymond Green and president of basketball operations Bob Myers and muses about what it would mean for the franchise to lose one or both of them as free agents this offseason. Elsewhere at The Athletic, Anthony Slater explores how a big game from veteran center Kevon Looney helped nullify Green’s absence in Game 3.
Celtics reserve combo guard Malcolm Brogdon has been named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year for 2022/23, the league announced on Thursday (Twitter link).
In his first season with the Celtics following a 2022 trade from Indiana, Brogdon averaged 14.9 PPG on .484/.444/.870 shooting splits. Across 67 games, the 6’5″ guard also chipped in 4.2 RPG, 3.7 APG and 0.7 SPG, and was a critical component on both sides of the ball during Boston’s 57-25 season.
Brogdon is the first Celtic to win the honor since eventual Hall of Fame center Bill Walton did so for the 1986 title team, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Brogdon’s Celtics are currently leading the Hawks 2-0 in their ongoing first-round playoff series.
As the NBA announced last week, the three finalists for the honor were Brogdon, Bucks backup big man Bobby Portis, and Knicks guard Immanuel Quickley. Each would have been a first-time winner.
According to the NBA, Quickley was the runner-up in Sixth Man voting over Portis, Clippers guard Norman Powell and Kings guard Malik Monk. Brogdon received 60 first-place votes and 408 overall points, while Quickley got 34 first-place votes and 326 points. Portis earned the remaining six first-place votes and 97 points.
A total of 10 players earned at least one vote.
Earlier this week, All-Star Grizzlies power forward/center Jaren Jackson Jr. was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year, All-Star Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox was honored as the NBA’s first-ever Clutch Player of the Year, and his Sacramento head coach Mike Brown won his second Coach of the Year award.
A global panel of sportswriters and broadcasters voted on all of this season’s awards recipients. The Rookie of the Year, MVP and Executive of the Year have yet to be named.