Celtics Notes: Walker, Hayward, Brown, Waters
Kemba Walker didn’t find it remarkable that he was able to be a difference maker in Wednesday’s win over the Nets five days after spraining his neck, relays Tim Bontemps of ESPN. Walker scored 39 points and explained afterward that he recovered quickly from an injury that many feared was serious.
“I’ve been over it,” he said. “I mean, I could have played last game, honestly. But if I’m on the court, I’m on the court. That’s really it. I wasn’t out there thinking about anything. I wanted to win.”
Walker refused to get into the controversy involving Kyrie Irving, who was the target of chants throughout the game even though he wasn’t with his team because of an injured shoulder. Walker appreciated “MVP” support from Celtics‘ fans, but refused to say anything bad about the man he replaced in the Boston backcourt.
“I don’t really pay attention to the Kyrie stuff,” he said. “That’s just the fans and how they feel. That’s not something I’m really paying close attention to. And of course the MVP chants are really great. It’s always a great feeling to have support from your fan base, and I most definitely appreciate this fan base.”
There’s more from Boston:
- Nearly three weeks after breaking a bone in his left hand, Gordon Hayward feels ahead of schedule in his recovery, tweets A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston. A timetable hasn’t been set for Hayward, who was projected to be sidelined for six weeks after having surgery November 11. He participated in shooting drills earlier this week, tweets Nicole Yang of The Boston Globe.
- Jaylen Brown has raised his game in the wake of Hayward’s injury, Blakely writes in a full story. Brown, who received a four-year extension last month, has averaged 19.8 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.2 assists per night since Hayward got hurt. “We have a next-man-up mentality around here,” Brown said. “When someone goes down, it’s an opportunity for someone else to step up. Some nights, it’s gonna be me. Other nights, it might be someone else. The thing is, you just have to make sure you stay ready and when your time comes, make the most of it. That’s basically what I’m trying to do when I’m out there; do whatever I can to help the team win.”
- Tremont Waters admits being nervous during his NBA debut Monday, relays Tom Westerholm of MassLive. Despite shooting 2-of-7, Waters had a plus-20 rating for the game. “It’s a surreal feeling,” he said. “Kids dream of this moment, and to be able to be in this position, to go from the G League, obviously I’m working on my game, to come to the NBA level and to help the team actually get a win definitely feels good, but I’m not satisfied with it. Just got to keep working and everything else will definitely play itself out.”
Kyrie Irving Ruled Out For Celtics Rematch
After missing Wednesday’s game in Boston, Nets point guard Kyrie Irving has also been ruled out of Friday’s rematch with the Celtics in Brooklyn, as Brian Lewis of The New York Post writes. Irving, who continues to deal with a right shoulder impingement, will miss his eighth consecutive game as a result of the injury.
The Nets and Celtics face one another four times this season, but the next two games won’t take place until after the All-Star break. Irving’s first opportunity to play his old team will be on March 3, when the Nets travel to Boston again for a prime-time showdown on TNT.
The Nets did get some good injury news on Thursday, as the team announced that center DeAndre Jordan has been listed as probable for Friday’s game vs. the Celtics after missing Brooklyn’s last two contests.
Kyrie Irving Hears Boston Heckling From Miles Away
Kyrie Irving didn’t make the trip to Boston on Wednesday as his team took on the Celtics. Despite his absence, the TD Garden was filled with anti-Irving chants and the streets of Boston were filled with posters calling the point guard a coward. Irving heard the heckling from miles away.
“It happens all the time and Tonight just shows how Sports/Entertainment will always be ignorant and obtrusive,” Irving wrote in a lengthy Instagram post. “It’s one big SHOW that means very little in the real world,” Irving posted on social media (via Brian Lewis of the New York Post).
The Celtics will take on the Nets again on Friday (in Brooklyn this time) and Irving, who is nursing a shoulder injury, has a chance to play in that matchup. While he won’t get a chance to see many of his former fans, he will get a chance to connect with old teammates and his former coach Brad Stevens, who defended the point guard before Wednesday’s contest.
“That’s one of the things that, unfortunately, when you’re really, really good at something, the level of scrutiny is even higher,” Stevens said. “He’s one of the best players in the NBA. The level of scrutiny is unfair, but it comes with the territory of all those guys. That’s why it’s so important that we constantly remind ourselves of how good they are.”
Jarrett Allen Working Toward Big Contract
- The Nets have already exercised their team option on center Jarrett Allen for next season and he’ll probably command major dollars once he’s eligible for free agency, Brian Lewis of the New York Post relays. Allen had a 20-20 game against Cleveland on Monday.
NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 11/26/19
Here are Tuesday’s assignments and recalls from around the G League:
- The Celtics have assigned Tremont Waters to the Maine Red Claws, according to the team’s Twitter feed. Waters was selected in the second round of the 2019 draft.
- Jonah Bolden and Zhaire Smith are back with the Delaware Blue Coats, per Derek Bodner of The Athletic (Twitter link). The Sixers recalled the pair for the team’s trip to Toronto earlier this week.
- The Wolves have assigned Jaylen Nowell to the Iowa Wolves, according to the team’s Twitter feed. The shooting guard has appeared in two games for Minnesota this season, seeing a total of 15 minutes with the club.
- Caleb Martin and Jalen McDaniels are heading back to the Hornets, the team announced on Twitter. The recall concludes Martin’s fourth stint with the Greensboro Swarm and McDaniels’ third.
Marcus Smart Opens Up About Kyrie Irving
Kyrie Irving didn’t officially leave the Celtics until July, but he started withdrawing from his teammates long before then, Marcus Smart tells Jay King of The Athletic. Smart offers a look inside what was frequently portrayed as a dysfunctional locker room last season as Boston failed to meet lofty expectations.
“It’s not that we didn’t know how to act (around him),” Smart said. “It’s that we didn’t know how he was going to act. We didn’t know what his moods were and we didn’t know what Kyrie was going through. And that made it tough on us because if somebody’s going through something in their life and you don’t really know what it is, it’s kind of hard to see what’s wrong with him, it’s kind of hard to (provide) some help. It’s not against Kyrie, it’s just a defense mechanism as a human being you have. And he wasn’t here long enough to really be able to open up the way he probably wanted to, and it probably got to him a little bit.”
Smart’s comments come before Irving and the Nets are scheduled to make their first trip of the season to Boston tomorrow night. Irving, who is sidelined with a shoulder impingement, won’t play and may not be in the building, but King notes that the memory of his two years with the Celtics will affect the franchise for years to come.
The toxic atmosphere played a role in Al Horford‘s decision to opt out of his contract and sign with the Sixers. The loss of Irving and Horford cost the Celtics any chance to make a play for Anthony Davis after years of building up assets. Davis can opt out of his current deal next summer and wouldn’t consider re-signing in Boston unless he was surrounded by star power.
The height of Irving’s popularity with Celtics fans came at an event for season ticket holders last October when he promised to re-sign with the team. But he slowly walked back those comments throughout the year as the Celtics underachieved and he was frequently seen as the cause.
Boston entered last season as heavy favorites to win the East based on the strong playoff performance of young players like Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier, who reached the conference finals the previous year while Irving and Gordon Hayward were sidelined with injuries. But there was an uneasy balance as those players weren’t always willing to take a back seat with the two stars returning.
Irving didn’t help matters with comments to the press about the difficulty of managing “the young guys.” He admitted during Brooklyn’s media day in September that he failed the Celtics as a leader and said the death of his grandfather last October affected him emotionally.
“A lot of basketball and the joy I had from it was sucked away from me,” Irving said. “There was a facial expression that I carried around with me throughout the year. Didn’t allow anyone to get close to me in that instance, and it really bothered me.”
A pivotal part of the year came after the Celtics took a 1-0 lead over the Bucks in the Eastern semifinals after sweeping the Pacers in the first round. A witness tells King that Irving “disconnected” from the team at a voluntary practice the next day, sitting by himself in the stands while his teammates worked on the court. He shot 30.1% for the rest of the series as Boston was eliminated in five games.
The Celtics moved on quickly from Irving once he made his free agent decision. They reached a deal with Kemba Walker and started to rebuild the team-first culture that coach Brad Stevens has always emphasized. The result, according to sources inside the organization, is a much more positive and relaxed atmosphere.
“We don’t have to worry about doing stuff on our own,” Smart said. “We don’t have to worry about being in our own minds and just think it. We can actually talk. Last year, everybody didn’t know what to say. They didn’t know if they could speak, if they could speak to anybody, or somebody, or a group, and they didn’t know how the reaction would go. It was just different. This year is different. Everybody’s not holding anything in. If we have anything to say, we’re saying it and we’re moving on from it.”
NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 11/25/19
Here are Monday’s assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
- The Wizards assigned forward Admiral Schofield and guard Justin Robinson to the Capital City Go-Go, the team’s PR department tweets. In six games with the Go-Go, Schofield has averaged 18.0 PPG and 6.0 RPG, while Robinson has posted averages of 12.8 PPG, 7.2 APG and 3.2 SPG.
- The Knicks assigned rookie forward Ignas Brazdeikis to the Westchester affiliate, the team’s PR department tweets. The second-round pick is averaging 18 PPG and 7.1 RPG in four games at the G League level.
- Suns rookie guard Ty Jerome was assigned to the Northern Arizona Suns, the team’s PR department tweets. The first-round pick is rehabbing from an ankle injury.
- The Hawks recalled forwards Bruno Fernando and guard Tyrone Wallace from the College Park Skyhawks of the NBA G League, the team tweets. Fernando posted nine points and nine rebounds in a game with College Park while Wallace, another second-round pick, scored 26 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
- The Pacers recalled forward Alize Johnson from the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, according to a team press release. Johnson had 36 points, 14 rebounds, seven assists, and two steals against the Windy City Bulls on Sunday. Johnson has appeared in five games with the Pacers this season, averaging 2.6 PPG and 2.4 RPG.
- The Mavericks assigned rookie forward Isaiah Roby to the Texas Legends, the team’s PR department tweets. Roby has averaged 11.8 PPG and 8.2 RPG in five G League games.
- The Nets recalled forward Rodions Kurucs from their Long Island affiliate, Brian Lewis of the New York Post tweets. Kurucs, a 2018 second rounder, has appeared in nine games with Brooklyn this season.
Nets Notes: Dinwiddie, Defense, Allen, Carroll
Spencer Dinwiddie has been playing so well in Kyrie Irving‘s absence that he might remain in the starting lineup once Irving returns, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Dinwiddie poured in 30 points in Sunday’s win over the Knicks and has averaged 25.0 points and 6.2 assists per game since becoming a starter. Irving is sidelined until at least Friday with a shoulder impingement, and coach Kenny Atkinson said he will consider using them together as the starting backcourt.
“Kyrie is still learning exactly what we want to do. Spencer’s got a little more corporate knowledge,” Atkinson said. “It’s going to take time for Kyrie to completely understand what we’re doing on both sides of the ball. That being said, for not understanding he’s been pretty darn good. So it just gives us a lot of different options. I think about Spencer playing so well right now, when Kyrie comes back what does that look like? Is Spencer coming to start? You have [Garrett Temple] with the defense. There’s a lot [of options] … which is a good problem to have.”
Dinwiddie started 58 games during the 2017/18 season, then excelled as a sixth man last year, so he’s comfortable with either role. He understands that his place on the team will continue to evolve as Caris LeVert returns from injury later this season and especially when Kevin Durant is healthy enough to play in 2020/21.
“The role just changes, like an amoeba. Sometimes it’s defense, sometimes it’s going to be scoring,” Dinwiddie said. “Obviously usage rate is probably through the roof right now because Kyrie is out, Caris and obviously the monster is going to be back probably next season. For now my job is to do this, and then it’ll shift when they get back.”
There’s more this morning from Brooklyn:
- The Nets have been successful without Irving because of improvements on defense, Lewis notes in a separate story. Brooklyn has won four of its last five games and is posting a 102.4 Defensive Rating in that span, which ranks fifth in the league. The changes came about after Temple replaced LeVert and Iman Shumpert entered the rotation after being signed last week.
- Improved play from Jarrett Allen has also lifted the Nets, observes Alex Schiffer of The Athletic. Allen got off to a slow start while adjusting to the addition of DeAndre Jordan, but through 16 games his averages of 10.9 PPG and 9.4 RPG are in line with last season’s.
- DeMarre Carroll respects the Nets for letting him know he wasn’t in their future plans before free agency began, relays Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News. Carroll signed with the Spurs after spending two years in Brooklyn. “They just let me know they weren’t going to be able to pay me what somebody else would pay me. All they really had the minimum because they wanted to go out and pursue other guys,” Carroll said. “They went out and got Kevin Durant and Kyrie and DeAndre. They already kind of laid it out before I went into free agency.”
Nets Exercising Caution With Kyrie
After Al Horford left for bigger free agent riches in Philadelphia this summer, the Celtics signed scoring-oriented Enes Kanter as a cheap replacement, hoping that Daniel Theis, Kanter, Robert Williams and rookie Grant Williams could compensate for Horford’s absence piecemeal.
So far, that has proven to be the case during Boston’s 11-4 start. A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston preaches caution against disrupting team chemistry by trying to trade for a major center upgrade like Clint Capela or Karl-Anthony Towns.
Instead, Blakely notes that 7’5” rookie Tacko Fall, on a two-way contract, has impressed in the G League thus far. Blakely suggests that Fall might be an option who could shore up the Celtics’ interior defense in spot minutes. Boston should also monitor the buyout market and top Chinese Basketball Association centers, Blakely opines.
There’s more from around the Atlantic:
- After making his first NBA triple in a 109-104 win over the Knicks, Sixers All-Star point guard Ben Simmons mentioned his desire to play for the Australian national team in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, Tim Bontemps of ESPN reports. Sixers coach Brett Brown was recently announced as the Australian national team’s coach for the event.“We have a great relationship,” Simmons said of Brown in his postgame comments. “I’ve known him my whole life. I’m excited to put together a great team.”
- Prized offseason Nets acquisition Kyrie Irving has missed the past four games with a shoulder impingement. Though coach Kenny Atkinson insists that the ailment will not be a long-term issue, he concedes that Irving is not healthy enough to play, as the New York Post’s Brian Lewis relays. “We have a protocol before a guy comes back to play. Usually we’re not just going to throw you out there without seeing you. We have these kind of set standards in the past,” Atkinson notes. “We’re not at that point yet. Hopefully, he will get there soon.”
- Knicks coach David Fizdale has challenged second-year forward Kevin Knox to improve his defense, according to Zach Braziller of the New York Post. “I am definitely riding Kevin, to challenge him to go to another level, especially defensively,” Fizdale confirmed, before praising his improved offense. “His shooting percentage is up, finishing around the rim is much better, he’s seeing the floor better. But I want him to take a big jump forward defensively… He’s got the physical tools to do it.” Braziller points out that Fizdale has been quicker with the hook for Knox lately. The 6’7″ forward from Kentucky has averaged 14.7 minutes across the team’s last four contests, a far cry from the more generous 23.6 minutes he was allotted over New York’s first 11 games.
Kyrie Irving To Miss Nets’ Upcoming Road Trip
Nets point guard Kyrie Irving will miss Brooklyn’s upcoming three-game road trip that will include matchups against the Knicks, Cavaliers and Celtics, the team announced on Friday (via ESPN). Brooklyn noted that Irving will be reassessed once the trip concludes.
Irving, 27, has already missed the Nets’ past four contests due to a shoulder impingement. Before the injury, the six-time All-Star had been a force, averaging career-highs with 28.5 PPG and 7.2 APG across 11 games. The upcoming absence will force Irving to miss his first matchup against his former team, the Celtics, after departing from Boston in free agency over the summer.
“I don’t think it’s something he can play through right now,” Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson said after practice Thursday. “The shoulder is a sensitive spot, especially for a point guard — you’re like a quarterback.”
The recent absence of Irving, Caris LeVert being sidelined due to thumb surgery, and Kevin Durant likely out for 2019/20 due to a torn Achilles has contributed to Brooklyn’s 7-8 record. The Nets occupy the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference.