HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

At his end-of-season press conference, Nets general manager Billy King said Brook Lopez was scheduled to meet with doctors this week, and would resume workouts if everything went well.

So, sure enough, when the first day of the Nets’ NBA Draft combine was completed yesterday at the team’s practice facility, Lopez was out on the court shooting jumpers.

“Brook’s making good progress,” King said. “He was in here [Friday]. … It’s great anytime you have guys in the gym, but it’s also good to see Brook shooting on the court.

via Tim Bontemps of the New York Post

It makes little sense for a young team to add an old gunslinger such as Ray Allen, the 36-year-old Boston guard due to be an unrestricted free agent.

The prospects of this draft, however, hold appeal for Denver.

With Arron Afflalo, Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari, the Nuggets are overstocked in wing men. There’s not enough time in a game for coach George Karl to keep all his centers happy. Add the team’s 20th overall pick in the first round, and (Masai) Ujiri might have the goods to move into the top 10 of this draft. It depends, of course, on how much Denver is willing to surrender in a deal.

But want the Nuggets to have a shot to do serious damage in the playoffs?

Go get (Austin) Rivers.

via Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post

The Los Angeles Lakers trudged off the Staples Center floor late Saturday, a single loss now separating them from season’s end, another fourth-quarter collapse once again causing their undoing. They didn’t show much poise in the locker room, either, with Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum pointing blame at others for allowing the Oklahoma City Thunder to steal their second victory in three games.

Bryant missed eight of his 10 shots in the final quarter, but shrugged off his struggles by saying his teammates’ lack of aggressiveness “forced” him to take tough shots. He also left no question which teammate deserved the most blame for the 103-100 loss in Game 4.

Pau Gasol.

Bryant faulted Gasol for not playing aggressive enough. It was also Gasol’s turnover that led to Kevin Durant making the winning 3-pointer with 13.7 seconds left.

“Pau’s got to be more assertive,” Bryant said. “He’s the guy they’re leaving [open]. When he’s catching the ball, he’s looking to pass. He’s got to be aggressive. He’s got to shoot the ball or drive the ball to the basket. He will be next game.”

via Johnny Ludden of Yahoo! Sports

The Clippers can only hope (Blake) Griffin learns from this. He’s already cut out some of the histrionics from the first round when the Memphis Grizzlies mocked him for flopping all over the court and crying at every whistle that didn’t go his way. But as Griffin learns to restrain his emotions, he must also expand his game.

Nothing less than the Clippers’ future depends on Griffin returning next season with a more versatile, more complete, skill set. Chris Paul limped through another loss to the Spurs, his injured hip contributing to another dozen missed shots. “We have to do a better job of helping him,” Griffin said afterward, and that includes beyond the remainder of this series.

Paul’s contract ends after next season, and every decision the Clippers make – how they fill out their roster, whether they retain coach Vinny Del Negro – is weighed by whether it will help ensure Paul re-signs. Griffin could become the biggest reason Paul stays – or, perhaps, one of the reasons he leaves.

via Johnny Ludden of Yahoo! Sports

The most intense matchup in this series has been between (LeBron) James and Indiana’s Danny Granger, who has not shied away from being physical with Miami’s superstar.

Granger and James have had altercations in the past two games, with their teammates stepping in to separate them before either could do anything they’d regret. Granger was called for a technical Thursday after he pulled James’ jersey on a breakaway and then took exception to an elbow extended toward his face.

”That’s part of basketball. That’s two men battling,” Granger said. ”I’m not backing down from anybody, and he’s not backing down from anybody. And when you get that, you get some altercations.”

(Frank) Vogel has preached all season for his players to have an ”edge,” but doesn’t want them to do anything that could hurt the team.

via Tom Withers of the Associated Press

The conversation between Thunder coach Scott Brooks and star pupil Kevin Durant that led to the lanky, “6-foot-9” forward checking the 6-6 Kobe Bryant down the stretch was a short one. Mostly because it wasn’t so much a discussion as it was an order.

“He said, ‘You get ‘em,’” Durant recalled, laughing. “I had to go guard him. I couldn’t tell Coach no. I didn’t want to back down from the challenge.”

With Durant’s long limbs all up in his face and the Thunder big men fronting in the post, Bryant fired off 10 shots in the fourth quarter and connected on only two. He didn’t make any of the four shots he fired up with Durant guarding him; his only points against the OKC forward came on two free throws after Serge Ibaka fouled him on a closeout.

Up 11 early in the fourth after Bryant surged for 15 third-quarter points on 5-for-7 shooting, the Lakers as a whole shot just 31.8 percent in the final period and were held to just two field goals over the final 4:28, with the second a meaningless Kobe jumper as time expired.

Bryant took seven of his team’s nine attempts from the floor over the game’s final five minutes as a stiff Thunder defensive stand forced L.A. into a one-man show (a tragic comedy, of course), and helped seal a 103-100 victory and a commanding 3-1 series lead.

“He wants to guard him,” Brooks said. “We like putting Thabo [Sefolosha], James [Harden] and Kevin on him. It was about three and [a] half minutes to go, and I made the decision. I thought that was the right thing to do at the time. Kobe was making shots like he always seems to do, but I thought Kevin did a good job of using his length and bothering him.”

via Justin Verrier of ESPN

For those who believe in cosmic order, the San Antonio Spurs’ 96-86 comeback win over the Los Angeles Clippers provided a bold confirmation.

At some point, prosperity will be balanced by misfortune, bad will even out good and a team like the Clippers that roared back from 27 points down in their first-round series will inevitably have to answer to universal payback.

Up 24 points three minutes into the second quarter of Game 3 against San Antonio on Saturday afternoon, the Clippers coughed up the lead as the Spurs roared back and went ahead before the midway point of the third quarter.

Chris Paul called the collapse “devastating.” Blake Griffin said the loss hurt every bit as bad as the Clippers’ historic Game 1 rally in Memphis felt good.

“To be up that much early,” Griffin said. “They’re too good of a team to just kind of lay back and take a loss like that. They lock you down. In the second half — especially the third quarter — we did a poor job of responding.”

via Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN

Game 4 of the Western Conference playoff series between the Los Angeles Clippers and San Antonio Spurs, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Staples Center, would be moved to Monday if the hockey game between the Los Angeles Kings and Phoenix Coyotes, scheduled earlier in the day at the arena, goes multiple overtime periods and delays the start of the NBA game too much, an NBA spokesman told ESPNLosAngeles.com.

Staples Center is in the midst of a dizzying run of hosting six playoff games in four days. The final stage of the Amgen Tour of California is set to finish in front of the building Sunday morning, just 30 minutes before the start of the Kings game.

Organizers have warned fans to arrive as early as possible for the 12:30 p.m. hockey game, Game 4 of the Western Conference finals which the Kings lead 3-0, to avoid problems entering the arena. Many of the streets in and around downtown Los Angeles will be closed Sunday morning for the cycling event so fans are advised to take public transportation or park at the Coliseum where a free shuttle will take them to the arena.

via Romana Shelburne of ESPN Los Angeles

Indiana Pacers guard Lance Stephenson was contrite and apologetic in talking about flashing a choke sign at LeBron James after a missed free throw. James’ response, meanwhile, was flatly dismissive.

Cameras picked up Stephenson grasping his neck on the Pacers bench when James missed the shot after a technical foul late in the third quarter of the Pacers’ 94-75 Game 3 win Thursday night. James also missed two clutch free throws as well in the Heat’s Game 2 loss earlier this week.

“I was wrong and disrespectful to my teammates, the Miami Heat and their organization,” Stephenson told NBA.com on Saturday. “I’m sorry that I did that. It was very disrespectful.

“(I) try to talk to other players, but in a good way. Get them off their game a little bit but not being disrespectful. I just got out of hand one time, and I’ll never do it again.”

via Brian Windhorst of ESPN

Kevin Durant is the most valuable player in these playoffs.

Ordinarily it would be foolish to make sweeping generalizations based on one day in one building … but with half the remaining NBA participants in action inside Staples Center on Saturday, I’m confident in these proclamations: The San Antonio Spurs are the best team, and Oklahoma City’s Durant is the best player.

You can’t ask a guy to do more to deliver a playoff victory than Durant did down the stretch in the Thunder’s 103-100 Game 4 victory that gave them a 3-1 lead in the series against the Lakers. He guarded Kobe Bryant while Bryant was in the process of missing eight of nine fourth-quarter shots (that doesn’t count the meaningless last-second shot that went in). For the game, Bryant shot 0-for-4 with Durant guarding him.

Durant came up with his second big steal of the series, this time when Pau Gasol ignored an open shot and made a pass that disappointed Mike Brown and infuriated Bryant. He hit a baseline jumper to tie the game and a 3-pointer to put the Thunder up for good with 13.7 seconds remaining.

via J.A. Adande of ESPN

The Spurs are maddening. So patient. So poised. They thrive on the institutional knowledge of playing championship-level basketball for as long as some of you have been fans of the NBA.

So when the scoreboard read Clippers 40, Spurs 16 in the second quarter Saturday — and it wasn’t a glitch caused by overheating due to all the games being played in Staples Center this weekend — they did what the Spurs do. They kept at it, chipped away at the lead basket-by-basket, stop-by-stop.

It wasn’t perfect, but the Spurs still are in these playoffs.

The Spurs remained undefeated in the postseason with their 17th consecutive victory since April 11, coming back from a 24-point deficit and beating the Clippers 96-86 to take a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinals.

“Trying to stay cool and collected when things are going all different directions around you, you try to keep it even keel and you’re not affected by the goods and the bads as much,” the great Tim Duncan said. “It’s a great quality to have.”

via Ken Berger of CBS Sports

Indeed, (Andrew) Bynum faulted the Lakers from going away from what was working. He had 14 points and seven rebounds as L.A. built a 10-point lead at halftime. With the Thunder increasingly fronting him, Bynum took just four shots in the second half, two in the fourth quarter when the Thunder erased a 13-point deficit over the final eight minutes.

“I didn’t touch the ball, so the game started speeding up, speeding up, speeding up, speeding up,” Bynum said. “They beat us in transition at the end.

The Lakers, Bynum said, never successfully countered the Thunder’s defense.

“You have to be smart,” Bynum said. “When a team fronts you, that means you’re hurting them. So they make an adjustment and you can’t keep running the same offense. You have to make them pay for that, whether you use a ball fake and come back to the same side or readjust. Reading that situation is a problem for us.”

via Johnny Ludden of Yahoo! Sports