LaVine Injures Knee, Bulls Hopeful It’s Not Serious
Bulls star wing Zach LaVine suffered a left knee injury in the first quarter of Friday’s game against Golden State but there’s initial confidence that it’s not serious, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.
LaVine was able to retreat to the locker room without assistance after playing four minutes. He was quickly ruled out for the remainder of the game. He will have an MRI on Saturday but the injury was described as “discomfort,” with the team erring on the side of caution, Wojnarowski adds.
However, there will be anxiety around the franchise and its fans until the results are revealed. LaVine tore his ACL in the same knee in 2017.
LaVine has enjoyed an outstanding season for Chicago, which owns the best record in the Eastern Conference. He came into the game averaging 25.6 PPG, 4.9 RPG and 4.3 APG.
If he’s out for any extended period, the Bulls may have to get more aggressive on the trade market. LaVine, who is making $19.5MM this season, is headed to unrestricted free agency this summer.
COVID Updates: Gobert, Gay, McDermott, Unseld Jr., Testing Procedures
The Jazz got some very good news on Friday, as center Rudy Gobert has exited the league’s health and safety protocols, Tim MacMahon of ESPN tweets. Utah’s defense has fallen apart without Gobert patrolling the middle. The Jazz’s defensive rating has ballooned to 120.8 in the five games he’s missed and they only won one of those contests. Forward Rudy Gay has also exited the protocols, Eric Walden of the Salt Lake Tribune tweets. Utah plays its next game on Sunday.
We have more COVID-related news:
- According to the league’s injury report for this evening’s games, Spurs forward Doug McDermott is no longer in the protocols. McDermott has not played since New Year’s Eve.
- Wizards coach Wes Unseld Jr. has entered the protocols, according to a team press release. Pat Delany will assume acting head coaching duties for Saturday’s game against Portland.
- Hornets big man Kai Jones has cleared the protocols and was eligible to play on Friday, the team tweets.
- Players who remain unvaccinated or who are eligible for a booster shot will remain under daily surveillance and game day testing through February 17, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets. Those who are currently ineligible for a booster due to having been more recently vaccinated won’t be under those restrictions, NBA Communications tweets. Those restrictions also won’t apply to league staff members, since they are all fully vaccinated.
Anthony Davis Could Return During Late January Trip
Lakers perennial All-Star big man Anthony Davis could be back in action sometime this month, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN. His return may come during a six-game road trip which runs from January 21-30.
Davis participated in an individual on-court workout on Friday, four weeks after spraining the MCL in his left knee. The initial prognosis was that Davis would miss at least four weeks.
Davis was injured when LeBron James was called for an offensive foul for pushing Minnesota’s Jaden McDaniels, who lost his balance and fell into his left knee. Davis is averaging 23.3 PPG and 9.9 RPG.
Davis has missed the Lakers’ last 12 games and the team has gone 5-7 during that stretch. The Lakers play three more games before their six-game road trip, which begins in Orlando next Friday.
CJ McCollum Set To Return On Monday
The Trail Blazers have endured a rough season but they will get one of their top players back in action on Monday, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.
Guard CJ McCollum will be in uniform against Orlando after fully recovering from a collapsed lung, an injury he suffered against Boston on Dec. 4. Portland indicated in a press release two days before Christmas that McCollum’s lung had healed but he required several more weeks of recovery to regain his conditioning.
McCollum has averaged 20.6 PPG and 4.5 APG on .424/.393/.700 shooting in 24 games (35.3 MPG) so far this season. The 30-year-old, who is in the first year of a three-year, $100MM contract, could be an in-season trade candidate.
McCollum’s long-term backcourt partner, Damian Lillard, underwent abdominal surgery on Thursday and will be reevaluated in 5-6 weeks. Portland is currently 10th in the Western Conference standings with a 16-25 record.
Lance Stephenson Signs Standard 10-Day Contract With Pacers
Lance Stephenson has been signed to a standard 10-day contract by the Pacers, according to a team press release.
Stephenson had signed a second 10-day deal under the hardship exception on Tuesday but could no longer be activated because Indiana does not currently have any players in the league’s health and safety protocols.
The veteran guard has given Indiana a huge boost during his latest reunion with the franchise. Prior to his 6-point, 6-assist outing against Boston on Wednesday, Stephenson averaged 20 PPG and 6.7 APG in the team’s three previous games.
The latest 10-day will buy Indiana a little more time before making a broader commitment to Stephenson. The Pacers have an open roster spot and won’t need to waive a player if they decide to retain Stephenson on a rest-of-season contract.
Southeast Notes: Collins, Reddish, Hachimura, Hornets
According to a Shams Charania report, Hawks big man John Collins has grown increasingly frustrated with his role. The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner provides more detail on Collins’ beefs.
Collins has spoken to head coach Nate McMillan about an increased offensive role but those concerns haven’t been properly addressed. The 24-year-old has also challenged his teammates to be more focused on the defensive end, but it hasn’t worked.
“I’ve banged my head on the wall a couple of times trying to figure it out myself,” Collins said of the defense. “There’s really no excuse. … All I can say is it’s unacceptable and we have to dig down and do the things necessary to win or this is going to be the result every night.”
We have more from the Southeast Division:
- Cam Reddish has been a prime sources of trade chatter, but The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor argues the Hawks should hold onto the 22-year-old forward. In O’Connor’s view, the Hawks would be better off trading Kevin Huerter or Bogdan Bogdanovic since they have similar skills, while Reddish provides more defensively and has a higher ceiling offensively.
- Rui Hachimura has finally returned to action after an extended personal absence. The Wizards forward wouldn’t go into detail about his absence but said he’s happy to be back in uniform, according to Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. “I’ve been waiting for this moment,” he said. “I had to take a little time off, but I’m so happy to be back on the court and playing with these guys. I missed the feeling,”
- Milwaukee’s championship should give the Hornets reason for optimism that their small market team can reach the pinnacle, Rod Boone of the Charlotte Observer writes. Charlotte’s ownership must exercise patience in the front office and the coaching staff, as the Bucks did, to allow the team’s young players to blossom while assembling the right pieces around them.
Pacific Notes: Lacob, Thompson, Davis, Kings
Warriors owner Joe Lacob believes his team is poised to win more championships, as he told Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
“Our goal is to be great throughout this decade,” he said. “We had a great last decade and our goal is to set ourselves up for another great decade.”
With the return of Klay Thompson on Sunday, Lacob is eager to see how deep the team can get in this year’s playoffs.
“We’ve got all the pieces back together and we’ve had a good offseason and we drafted some young guys that haven’t gotten a chance to play yet that we really like. So I feel like this is our first year of getting back after the five-year title run,” he said. “We’ll see where it goes. I’m not assuming anything at this point, but we certainly have a lot of talent, a really good team and I think it will jell even more so as we go along this year.”
We have more from the Pacific Division:
- Thompson had 17 points in his comeback game, including a first-half dunk. He drew energy from the crowd after missing 177 consecutive games, ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk writes. “I will never forget the reception that Warriors fans gave us, especially myself,” Thompson said. “Gosh it was fun and it was worth every single day of being away and in that squat rack or on that shuttle board and all the conditioning days. It was worth every single moment. I am not going to say equivalent to winning a championship But man, it was pretty freaking close.”
- The Lakers lost to Memphis on Sunday but there was one promising development, Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times notes. Anthony Davis was spotted on the court before the game going through an individual workout, the first time he’s done that since spraining a knee ligament on December 17. Davis wore a bulky brace on the knee for precautionary reasons. The Lakers are scheduled to provide an update on Davis’ recovery as early as this weekend, Woike adds.
- The disappointing Kings have to figure out over the next few weeks whether to be buyers or sellers on the trade market, Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee writes. It’s no secret that the front office has been shopping Buddy Hield and Marvin Bagley III. However, the team’s brass may have to consider moving De’Aaron Fox, Tyrese Haliburton, Harrison Barnes or Richaun Holmes to get an impact player that can change the franchise’s fortunes, Anderson adds.
And-Ones: Exum, Thomas, Doncic, Tatum, Yabusele
Former NBA guard Dante Exum plans to return to the NBA when his three-month contract with Barcelona expires, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Exum is averaging just 4.4 PPG in the EuroLeague after signing with the Spanish team early last month.
Exum was waived by the Rockets during training camp. He signed a three-year deal with Houston in September but the contract was non-guaranteed and Houston had 15 other players with guaranteed deals.
We have more from around the basketball world:
- Khyri Thomas has officially signed with Maccabi Tel Aviv, according to a team press release. A report surfaced over the weekend that Maccabi was interested in the former NBA guard. Thomas, a 2018 second-round pick, played in Spain last month before suffering an injury. He saw action in five games with Houston last season and came off the bench in 34 games for Detroit during the previous two seasons.
- Luka Doncic and Jayson Tatum remain the two players under 25 years old that NBA talent evaluators would want to build their teams around, according to an annual poll conducted by Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype. Ja Morant, LaMelo Ball and Trae Young round out the top five.
- Guerschon Yabusele has agreed to a contract extension with Real Madrid, according to a team press release. The three-year extension runs through June 2025. Yabusele, a first-round pick by the Celtics in 2016, last appeared in the NBA during the 2018/19 season when he saw action in 41 games for Boston.
G League Updates: Dunn, Ferguson, Meeks, Thornton, Thompson
Former lottery pick Kris Dunn has signed an NBA G League contract, Mark Stein tweets. That puts the combo guard in a position to be acquired by a G League franchise this week.
Dunn appeared in just four games last season with Atlanta after undergoing ankle surgery. Dunn was traded multiple times during the offseason, finally landing in Memphis. The Grizzlies waived him at the end of training camp and he’s been seeking another opportunity since that point.
Several other former NBA players have also gone the G League route:
- Terrance Ferguson has also signed a G League contract, according to Stein (Twitter link). Ferguson, who played for the Thunder and Sixers over the last four seasons, played three games in Greece this season, then returned to the U.S. to explore another NBA opportunity.
- Guard Jodie Meeks has joined the Raptors 905, Toronto’s affiliate. Meeks hasn’t appeared in an NBA game since logging 51 seconds of action for the Raptors in Game 3 of the 2019 NBA Finals, but has over 500 regular season appearances under his belt.
- Marcus Thornton has been acquired by the Motor City Cruise, the Pistons’ affiliate. Thornton has played 483 NBA games, making previous stops with New Orleans, Sacramento, Brooklyn, Boston, Phoenix, Houston and Washington during his career. He last played with the Pistons’ G League affiliate during the 2018/19 season.
- Jason Thompson‘s G League rights have been acquired by the Wisconsin Herd, the Bucks’ affiliate, JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors tweets. Thompson, 35, last played in the NBA during the 2015/16 season, splitting time between Golden State and Toronto.
Central Notes: Williams, Bol, Cavs, Warren, Stephenson
Bulls forward Patrick Williams has replaced the cast on his left arm with a removable brace, head coach Billy Donovan told Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago and other media members. Williams’ rehab from wrist surgery will now focus on rebuilding strength and regaining range of motion in the injured wrist and forearm. His timetable was initially projected to be four-to-six months after he underwent the surgery in late October.
We have more from the Central Division:
- The trade that sent Bol Bol from Denver to the Pistons is now official. According to the Detroit Free Press’ Omari Sankofa II, Bol could be an intriguing pickup for a team in need of a young big. He’s got enough talent to become a core piece for the organization, so he was worth taking a flier on before he heads into free agency this summer, Sankofa adds.
- The Cavaliers are expected to be active in the trade market, Dan Feldman of NBC Sports relays. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on NBA Today last week that he could “almost guarantee” Cleveland would make another deal beyond the acquisition of Rajon Rondo. The team is seeking perimeter and guard help and is talking to three or four different teams about scenarios, Windhorst added.
- The Pacers are still awaiting the season debut of forward T.J. Warren and it won’t happen this week, James Boyd of the Indianapolis Star tweets. According to coach Rick Carlisle, Warren is “still weeks away, if things continue to progress as they have been.” Warren is recovering from a foot fracture.
- Lance Stephenson‘s reunion with the Pacers has exceeded all expectations, Wheat Hotchkiss of the team’s website notes. Playing on a 10-day contract that expires tonight, Stephenson had a 30-point game and a 14-assist outing. Stephenson is expected to sign a standard rest-of-the-season contract.