Russell Westbrook Strains Quadriceps Muscle
All-Star Rockets guard Russell Westbrook has suffered a strained right quadriceps muscle, according to Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated (Twitter link). After undergoing an MRI, Westbrook was a late scratch for today’s game against the Pacers, and will also miss Houston’s regular season finale Friday against the Sixers.
Spears notes that Westbrook may miss the start of the NBA playoffs next week, but his injury will be reassessed ahead of the first round.
Luckily for Houston, today also marks the first game back since March 10 for much-needed former Sixth Man of the Year Eric Gordon. The veteran Rockets guard has missed all of the team’s prior six seeding games with a left ankle injury. Gordon should help make up for the loss in backcourt scoring production.
Westbrook has been able to keep the team afloat when the Rockets’ other All-Star, MVP candidate James Harden, is off the court. That offensive load must now be replicated by committee, with Gordon and fellow impressive guards Austin Rivers and Ben McLemore needed to step up.
At 44-26, Houston is currently the No. 4 seed in the West. The club could fall as far as No. 6 depending on the outcomes of these final two seeding games. The Thunder and Jazz are the Rockets’ competition for virtual home court in the first round of the playoffs.
Nunn Clears Quarantine, Remains Out Tonight
Heat starting point guard Kendrick Nunn has tested negative for the coronavirus for the fourth straight day after re-entering the league’s Orlando campus and is thus finished quarantining, according to Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald.
However, Chiang goes on to note that Nunn will not suit up for Miami tonight in the team’s penultimate seeding game, against the Thunder, due to a sore throat.
Nunn, who left campus for an undisclosed personal matter, has already been named one of the three finalists for the 2019/20 Rookie of the Year award, along with Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant and Pelicans forward Zion Williamson. The 25-year-old Oakland alum has started all of his 66 games with the 44-27 Heat.
Heat veteran Goran Dragic started in Nunn’s stead during Miami’s most recent outing, a 114-92 defeat of their likely first round opponent, the Pacers, on Monday.
NBA Again Finds No Positive COVID-19 Cases
According to a press release issued today, the NBA has yielded zero positive results for the novel coronavirus among its 342 players since August 5, the date test results were last released.
The league has thus had a month without any positive COVID-19 tests since the Disney World restart campus was implemented, as Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today indicates (Twitter link).
This marks the fourth consecutive instance, as reported by the NBA and the NBPA, that there have been no new coronavirus cases among players in Orlando. The last two positive coronavirus tests were announced about a month ago after first players arrived at the Disney, but before those players cleared quarantine.
Of course, there are months of playoffs set to commence next week, so the NBA is not out of the woods just yet with regards to coronavirus testing. But the lack of COVID-19 cases at the Disney campus continues to suggest that the league’s restart plan has been effective.
Joel Embiid Returning For Sixers On Wednesday
All-Star Sixers center Joel Embiid is expected to rejoin his teammates tonight against the Raptors, per Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Embiid injured his left ankle in the first quarter of an eventual 124-121 defeat by the Trail Blazers on Sunday. He subsequently missed a 130-117 loss against the Suns on Tuesday.
Embiid will be joined by returning Sixers starters Tobias Harris, Al Horford and Josh Richardson — all of whom also sat out for yesterday’s Phoenix contest — in the bout against the Raptors, according to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Reserve Sixers guard Alec Burks, meanwhile, will miss today’s contest to address left foot soreness, according to a separate tweet from Pompey. The injury is not anticipated to be a lasting impediment for Burks.
At 42-29, the 76ers currently occupy the sixth seed in the East. They are one game behind the fifth-seeded Pacers with two left to play. Philadelphia is 3-3 on the Disney World campus.
Pompey also tweets that young wings Oshae Brissett and Patrick McCaw will be sitting for the Raptors due to knee soreness. Toronto forwards OG Anunoby and Serge Ibaka will also miss the game, per Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports (Twitter link).
Eastern Notes: Wizards, Nunn, Warren, Micic
Wizards point guard John Wall expects to have a different role in the team’s offense once he rejoins Washington, per Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. Wall has missed the entire 2019/20 season due to a ruptured Achilles tendon.
“My game is going to be totally different than what it was before because now with the way [Bradley Beal] can handle the ball,” Wall said of his Wizards teammate. “I can be off the ball a little bit and score from the wing and score in transition by running the wing.”
There’s more out of the Eastern Conference:
- The Heat anticipate that rookie starting point guard Kendrick Nunn will clear quarantine on Wednesday and be available to play for the team on Wednesday night, per Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Nunn returned to the Disney World campus late Saturday night after departing the NBA’s restart to tend to a personal matter.
- Pacers forward T.J. Warren has seen stellar results with Indiana as a de facto power forward during the NBA’s Orlando restart. Jonathan Tjarks of The Ringer wonders if this could give way to the team becoming more amenable to trading one of its two big men, Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner.
- Point guard Vasilije Micic, drafted by the Sixers with the No. 52 pick in 2014, is returning to Anadolu Efes of the Turkish Basketball Super League and the EuroLeague for the 2020/21 season, according to Justin Grasso of Sports Illustrated.
Southwest Notes: Ingram, Mills, McLemore, Johnson
Pelicans All-Star forward Brandon Ingram said on Monday that New Orleans will number among his “top choices” in free agency during the 2020 offseason, according to Andrew Lopez of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
Ingram, 22, will be a restricted free agent this summer. Considering his growth with the team, whatever offer is tendered to Ingram by another club would almost certainly be matched by the Pelicans. Ingram hailed his current NBA home as a “special place with a lot of really, really good people.”
A 2-4 showing thus far in the NBA’s Orlando campus has doomed the 30-40 Pelicans to miss the playoffs this season, but with Ingram and promising rookie Zion Williamson established as the team’s two cornerstones, they look to be an attractive destination for free agent players.
Here’s more out of the NBA’s Southwest Division:
- Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has addressed the fact that point guard Patty Mills has not played much during the NBA’s season restart in Orlando, according to Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News (Twitter link). “Might as well stay whole and take a rest,” Popovich said of Mills. “(He’s) kind of like a humming bird. He plays at such a high level of competitiveness, I’d rather have him whole for next season.”
- Rockets guard Ben McLemore, who has had a stellar showing for Houston during the team’s Orlando tenure, has just rejoined Klutch Sports for representation, per Ben DuBose of USA Today. McLemore’s previous agent was Jarinn Akana of Dynasty Sports Management. McLemore is currently signed to a two-year veteran’s minimum contract with a team option for the 2020/21 season. Given his recent play, it seems probable that Houston will retain him.
- Spurs rookie forward Keldon Johnson has started to come into his own during the NBA’s Orlando seeding games, according to Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. Johnson, drafted with the No. 29 pick in 2019 out of Kentucky, has emerged as a rotation player for San Antonio during the season restart. He notched career highs of 24 points and 11 rebounds in a crucial victory over the Rockets today. “He’s a high energy guy,” Popovich said of the rookie. “Very physical. Very competitive. Very coachable.”
New York Notes: Stoute, Thibs, Temple, Crawford
Knicks “branding manager” Steve Stoute is confident he can recruit stars to the team, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post.
Stoute, who joined New York’s front office in January, mentioned in a recent conversation with The Breakfast Club show that he, team president Leon Rose and senior vice president William Wesley have strong relationships with some of the NBA’s top stars. Stoute anticipates they will be able to capitalize on these friendships, making the Knicks an attractive free agent destination once again.
“With having Leon in, World Wide Wes and myself, the three of us, we’re the best sort of team as it relates to being able to speak with free agents,’’ Stoute said of the Knicks’ new front office team.
Though every club’s cap situation is fairly up in the air following the anticipated revenue loss caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Knicks could have one of the lowest payrolls in the NBA next season, with only about $55MM currently committed to guaranteed salaries. The club could have even more cap flexibility in 2021.
There’s more out of the Empire State:
- While speaking in a recent press conference, Knicks GM Scott Perry detailed how new head coach Tom Thibodeau won him over during a series of Zoom interviews, according to a separate Marc Berman piece for The New York Post. “During this process, it allowed me personally to get to know the man better and really see how our personalities could come together and mesh,” Perry said. “I felt really good about our time talking basketball. He’s got a lot of the same values about the game that I was raised in that came through clear to me throughout the process.’’
- Despite the Nets being one of the most injury-ravaged squads among the 22 NBA teams in Orlando, wing Garrett Temple expects his Brooklyn teammates to compete, according to Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “We’re trying to win,” Temple said after the seventh-seeded Nets defeated the East’s top-seeded Bucks today. “We’re not going out here to just mess around or have moral victories.”
- Nets interim head coach Jacque Vaughn is cautiously optimistic about the health status of injured 40-year-old guard Jamal Crawford, Brian Lewis of the New York Post noted in a separate article. Crawford played just five minutes before apparently suffering a strained left hamstring. “I’m telling you, I love having him around and it was awesome to see him on the floor, and look forward to him being on the floor again,” Vaughn said.
Rajon Rondo Returning To Florida To Rehab Off Campus
Veteran Lakers point guard Rajon Rondo will be returning to Florida on Wednesday, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. While discussing Rondo’s new travel plans, head coach Frank Vogel mentioned that the former four-time All-Star will not immediately return to the NBA’s restart campus in Orlando to quarantine.
According to McMenamin, the plan is for Rondo to continue his rehab close to the NBA’s campus. The veteran point guard fractured his right thumb in a team practice three weeks ago, and underwent surgery to address the injury. At the time, the team projected a six-to-eight-week absence for him.
Rondo’s injury has created more rotation minutes for guards Alex Caruso and Dion Waiters. In the Lakers’ three Orlando games, Waiters is averaging 20.7 MPG and Caruso is averaging 24.9.
Though the 34-year-old Rondo isn’t the defender he once was, the Lakers could still benefit from his playmaking and defensive rebounding acumen in short bursts. Los Angeles is hurting for additional backcourt bodies — the team will be pursuing its 17th title this summer without nominal starting point guard Avery Bradley, who opted out of the season restart due to family health concerns.
Southwest Notes: Zion, Mavericks, Forbes, DeRozan, Pop
Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson is among the top stars to watch in the NBA’s Orlando season restart, according to Scott Kushner of NOLA.com. Kushner notes that the league’s unique eight-game seeding play-in approach was clearly designed to imbue value to the Pelicans’ eight contests, and to allow a debut Williamson playoff appearance to be possible.
This play-in option, which equips the teams in the West seeded ninth to 13th with a theoretical chance of making the playoffs in a knockout two-game wildcard bout with that No. 8 seed, would benefit a team like the eleventh-seeded Pelicans, who fall to a 28-37 record after their loss to the Jazz tonight.
There’s more out of the NBA’s Southwest Division:
- Mavericks director of player personnel Tony Ronzone has been accused of sexual assault by another Mavericks employee, according to Jessica Luther and Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated. After the Sports Illustrated investigation was published, the Mavericks issued a response, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com. The Mavericks called the article a “one-sided, incomplete and sensational form of journalism, with its inaccuracies, mischaracterizations and omissions.”
- Spurs starting shooting guard Bryn Forbes will miss the team’s first seeding game in the league’s Disney World restart as he battles a sore right quad, according to Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News (Twitter link).
- Mike Finger of the San Antonio Express-News wonders if, thanks in part to the Spurs‘ inclusion in the Orlando restart, star shooting guard DeMar DeRozan and longtime head coach Gregg Popovich might remain with the team beyond this season. DeRozan, 30, can opt out of the 2020/21 season, the last season in the five-year, $139MM contract he signed with the team that drafted him, the Raptors, in 2016. Popovich, 71, has coached the Spurs since 1996. The team has made six Finals appearances during his tenure, winning five.
Northwest Notes: Noel, Morris, Lillard, Dozier
Backup Thunder center Nerlens Noel missed the squad’s final scrimmage ahead of the NBA season restart in Orlando after accidentally not taking his daily COVID-19 test, according to Joe Mussatto of the Oklahoman. The Thunder would go on to win that scrimmage, 131-120, against the Trail Blazers. Any player who misses a daily coronavirus test is required to quarantine in his hotel for at least a day before rejoining his team.
Noel signed a new one-year, veteran’s minimum contract with the Thunder last summer. He has proved to be a useful rotation addition for the club, averaging 7.7 PPG, 4.9 RPG, and 1.0 APG in 55 games. The Thunder will play their first game of the league’s restart on Saturday against the Jazz.
Here are more notes from around the Northwest Division:
- Nuggets backup point guard Monte Morris notes that he was entirely asymptomatic while testing positive for the coronavirus, Mike Singer of the Denver Post tweets. “I never felt any kind of way in terms of symptoms,” he said. “I felt fine.”
- All-NBA Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard will play in the team’s first restart game on Friday against the Grizzlies, per Jason Quick of The Athletic. Lillard missed the team’s final two scrimmage games against the Raptors and Thunder with a sore left foot. “I was able to do everything [normally],” he said after a private 45-minute solo workout Wednesday. “I feel fine. I’m ready to go for tomorrow.”
- Nuggets bench guard P.J. Dozier cleared his quarantine this morning, according to The Denver Post’s Mike Singer (Twitter link). Singer notes that, with Dozier’s new availability, every non-injured Nuggets player can now suit up for seeding games. Dozier arrived in Orlando for the season restart on July 28.