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Lakers Notes: Game 4, Hachimura, Wood, LeBron

April 27th, 2024 at 7:32pm CST by Arthur Hill

Despite a 3-0 deficit, the Lakers‘ confidence hasn’t waned going into tonight’s Game 4, writes Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times. L.A. has dropped its last 11 games to Denver, including seven straight in the playoffs, but the players aren’t convinced that the series is over.

“We have the guys here, we have the talent, for sure. You know, I don’t think anybody can beat us, you know, just the talent-wise,” Rui Hachimura said Friday. “… In my opinion, yes, we have the talent here, we have the guys that can beat any team in this league. And I talked to somebody about it too, but just this first round against Denver, it’s a conference final, it’s the exactly last thing. But even that, it’s the same story. We always up 20 and then we just come back and lose. So we just gotta put everything together and tomorrow we’ll see. We’re gonna play the same way and just gotta continue.”

Coach Darvin Ham isn’t planning any changes to his starting lineup, saying he wants to give his current unit a chance to respond to the challenge that the Nuggets present, Woike adds. Ham, whose job may be in jeopardy if the Lakers can’t rally, described the team as disappointed by its performance so far.

“Guys are irritated, frustrated, fed up, ready to make a change in terms of not continuously going down this road,” Ham said. “And the overall theme was just our mindset. Belabor the problems, what’s gone on up to this point or shift our focus to how do we stay alive? And looking at the film, had a really good first quarter. How can we sustain that type of performance during the duration of the game?”

There’s more on the Lakers:

  • Christian Wood has been medically cleared for tonight’s game, according to Khobi Price of The Orange County Register. The backup big man underwent surgery in March after missing about a month before that due to swelling in his left knee. Wood appeared in 50 games and averaged 6.9 points and 5.1 rebounds per night in the first season of a two-year contract he signed last summer.
  • There was a sharp contrast after Game 3 as Nikola Jokic talked about the long process of building a competitive team and LeBron James questioned what some of his teammates were thinking during the game, notes Ramona Shelburne of ESPN. The stability in Denver may lead to a second straight title, Shelburne adds, while the discord in Los Angeles will likely result in another summer of change.
  • Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report examines what the Lakers might look like if James turns down his $51.4MM player option for next season and signs elsewhere in free agency. If D’Angelo Russell, Jaxson Hayes, Cam Reddish and Wood also opt out and New Orleans takes L.A.’s first-round pick this year, the team would have about $32MM in cap space to work with. Pincus suggests that if Russell picks up his option, he could be part of a trade package to obtain a reliable scorer such as Trae Young or Donovan Mitchell.
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Lakers Notes: Game 3 Loss, LeBron, Davis, Russell, Ham

April 26th, 2024 at 7:55am CST by Luke Adams

The Lakers lost their 11th consecutive game to Denver on Thursday night and are now one game away from being swept out of the postseason by the Nuggets for a second straight season. As Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes, it’s hard to blame Los Angeles’ two stars for the Game 3 loss — LeBron James and Anthony Davis combined for 59 points on 26-of-43 (60.5%) shooting to go along with 21 rebounds and 12 assists.

“We’ve been — me and this guy [Davis] have been playing together for six years,” James said. “We’ve been to the mountaintop. We’ve been close to the mountaintop. We’ve played a lot of games. We know what it takes to win. We know what it takes to win a championship and how damn near perfect you got to be. That’s not like something that’s so crazy to obtain.”

While James expressed that he and Davis are confident in their ability to deliver big games when it matters most, he didn’t say the same about the rest of the Lakers, McMenamin observes. Austin Reaves had a solid night (22 points on 8-of-17 shooting), but the rest of the Lakers besides LeBron and AD combined for just 24 points and shot 10-of-30 (33.3%) from the floor, including 2-of-16 (12.5%) on three-pointers.

Asked if the Lakers’ were overwhelmed by the Nuggets’ execution, James replied, “You’d have to ask the individuals that question and see how they feel. It’s hard for me just to be like, ‘This is what I think that guy feels.’ … I can’t do that. I’m not a mind reader. I don’t know.”

Here’s more on the Lakers:

  • A disastrous performance against the Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals last spring hurt D’Angelo Russell‘s stock a little as he prepared to enter free agency. The same thing may be happening this year. Russell went scoreless on 0-of-7 shooting on Thursday and declined to speak to reporters after the game, according to McMenamin. Russell, who is now averaging 12.0 PPG on 32.6% in the first round, holds a player option worth $18.7MM for the 2024/25 season.
  • Davis told reporters after Game 2’s loss earlier this week that the Lakers “have stretches where we don’t know what we’re doing on both ends of the floor.” Those comments were interpreted as a shot at the coaching staff and didn’t sit well with some people in the organization, according to Jared Greenberg of TNT Sports. “I can tell you from speaking to people within the Lakers’ organization, they were upset – and disappointed, quite frankly – by AD’s comments,” Greenberg said during an NBA TV appearance on Thursday (Twitter video link). As Sam Amick of The Athletic notes, when asked about Davis’ comments on Wednesday, head coach Darvin Ham told reporters he chalked them up to frustration and that he would “agree to disagree.”
  • With the Lakers on the brink of elimination, Ham is on the hot seat in Los Angeles, according to Bill Plaschke of The L.A. Times, who notes that some home fans began a “fire Darvin” chant during the fourth quarter on Thursday. Plaschke adds that Ham has been out-coached by Michael Malone during the first round so far, which has been evident by the way the teams have adjusted at halftimes. The Nuggets have outscored the Lakers by a total of 31 points in the third quarters of games, per McMenamin; L.A. has outscored Denver by 11 in the other nine quarters.
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Sixers To File Grievance Over Officating

April 23rd, 2024 at 4:26pm CST by Luke Adams

4:26pm: The league acknowledged in its last two-minute report that Brunson and Josh Hart both fouled Maxey during the last-minute scramble. It also indicated Nurse should have been granted a timeout on the inbounds play, Bontemps tweets.

7:26am: Following their Game 2 loss to the Knicks in New York on Monday, the Sixers intend to file a grievance with the NBA over the officiating, a team spokesperson told Tim Bontemps of ESPN and Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports.

According to Neubeck, the 76ers’ list of concerns will include (but won’t necessarily be limited to) the following:

  • Two calls in the last two-minute report from Game 1 went against the Sixers.
  • The Sixers have been the most disadvantaged team in the NBA this season based on last two-minute reports, with a report compiled in early April indicating that 22 missed calls benefited their opponents and 11 benefited them, the worst such ratio in the league.
  • The Knicks included detailed referee information in their game notes for the first two games of the series (Twitter link), which Bontemps describes as “unusual.”
  • The Sixers believe they should have been awarded a timeout at multiple points during a key inbounds play and possession late in Monday’s loss (Twitter video link). They also believe Tyrese Maxey was fouled during the play, with Jalen Brunson grabbing his jersey.

That inbounds play occurred with 27 seconds left in the game and the Sixers holding a two-point lead. Head coach Nick Nurse appeared to briefly signal for a timeout just before Kyle Lowry inbounded the ball to Maxey, who was held by Brunson. Maxey fell to the floor with the ball as Nurse attempted to call timeout again, but the Sixers lost possession before a timeout could be granted, leading to a Donte DiVincenzo go-ahead three-pointer.

“Well, the first thing is obviously they score,” Nurse said in describing the sequence after the game. “We take a look at getting it in quick. We don’t get it in quick. I call timeout. Referee looked right at me. Ignored me. Went into Tyrese, I called timeout again. Then the melee started.

“I guess I got to run out onto the floor or do something to make sure and get his attention, but I needed a timeout there to advance it. Would’ve been good. But, couldn’t get it.”

Joel Embiid was even more blunt in expressing his displeasure with the officiating.

“Everybody was trying to call a timeout on the floor,” Embiid said, per Bontemps. “Me included. Coach on the sideline. But they didn’t give it to us. But, forget about the timeout. There’s a bunch of fouls. That’s f—ing unacceptable. …That’s on the frigging referees. I hate to put the game on them. But I am sure the two-minute report is going to come out and we are going to see what happened. … We fought for 47 minutes and whatever 20 seconds. For that to happen … that’s not OK.”

The Sixers weren’t the only team with complaints about the officiating after a tough Monday loss. As Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes, the Lakers also had gripes to share after losing to Denver 101-99 on a Jamal Murray buzzer beater.

Los Angeles was upset that a Michael Porter Jr. foul on D’Angelo Russell in the third quarter, which would have led to a pair of free throws, was overturned because the contact was deemed “marginal” (Twitter video link). Russell later tweeted, “That’s a foul we all saw it on national television.”

“D-Lo clearly gets hit in the face on a drive,” LeBron James said. “What the f–k do we have a replay center for if it’s going to go [like that]? It doesn’t make sense to me. … It bothers me. … And then I just saw what happened with the Sixers-Knicks game too. Like, what are we doing?”

As Fred Katz of The Athletic tweets, the Sixers’ grievance isn’t a formal protest of Game 2, so it won’t affect the outcome of Monday’s contest. It’s presumably just an attempt at gamesmanship on behalf of the 76ers, who will be looking to regain an edge in the series as the teams head to Philadelphia for Game 3.

For what it’s worth, Embiid remains very confident in his team’s ability to pull out the series despite facing a 2-0 deficit.

“We’re good,” Embiid told reporters on Monday, according to Bontemps. “We’re going to win this series. “We are going to win this. We know what we got to fix. We did a better job today, so we are going to fix it. We are the better team. We are going to keep fighting.”

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And-Ones: Postseason Awards, Fernandez, SLC Summer League, Players’ Poll

April 22nd, 2024 at 10:45pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The NBA revealed the finalists for seven postseason awards on Sunday. The league will begin announcing the winners on Tuesday, the NBA’s communications department tweets.

The Most Improved Player award will be announced on Tuesday. Tyrese Maxey, Alperen Sengun and Coby White are the finalists. The Sixth Man of the Year award winner will be revealed on Wednesday, followed by the Clutch Player of the Year (Thursday) and Coach of the Year (Sunday).

We have more from around the basketball world:

  • The Nets’ hiring of Jordi Fernandez as their head coach won’t affect his status with Team Canada. Fernandez will coach their national team at the Paris Olympics, Canada Basketball tweets.
  • The Salt Lake City Summer League will take place July 8-10 at the Jazz’s Delta Center, according to a press release. The Jazz, Grizzlies, Thunder and Sixers will once again compete in the round-robin summer showcase, which precedes the Las Vegas Summer League.
  • The Athletic’s Sam Amick and Josh Robbins compiled poll results from 142 NBA players on a variety of topics. Nikola Jokic topped Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for MVP, while Michael Jordan edged out LeBron James for Greatest Player of All Time. A majority of the players chose James Johnson as the player they’d least like to fight.
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Lakers Notes: James, Davis, Vanderbilt, Russell, Wood

April 21st, 2024 at 2:38pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Lakers All-Stars Anthony Davis and LeBron James submitted good-but-not-great outings in L.A.’s 114-103 Game 1 defeat against the Nuggets on Saturday, writes Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times.

Guided largely by the efforts of those two stars, Los Angeles led Denver by as many as 12 points in the first half. James had 27 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 shooting from the charity stripe, along with eight assists, six rebounds, a steal and a block. He also turned the ball over seven times.

Davis scored 32 points on 12-of-23 shooting from the floor and 8-of-9 shooting from the foul line. He also grabbed 14 rebounds, dished out five assists and blocked four shots.

No other Laker scored more than 13 points. Woike notes that Denver enjoyed distinct advantages in offensive rebounding and combined second-chance and fast-break points, which also seemed to help make the difference.

There’s more out of Los Angeles:

  • Backup Lakers combo forward Jarred Vanderbilt is in a walking boot as he continues to deal with a right foot injury, per Khobi Price of The Orange County Register (Twitter link). Los Angeles head coach Darvin Ham claims the boot is not a setback, noting that “everything’s still going to plan” with regard to Vanderbilt’s recovery.
  • Starting point guard D’Angelo Russell had been on a tear for much of the second half of the 2023/24 regular season, and seemed primed to avenge his forgettable showing in last year’s Western Conference Finals defeat to Denver with this first round rematch. He had a rough Game 1, however, scoring just 13 points on 6-of-20 shooting from the floor. Ham made a point to defend Russell after his uneven showing, per Dave McMenmain of ESPN. “D-Lo is a huge reason why we’re here in the first place,” Ham said. “I’m not going to bail out on my player just because he’s missing the shots that he normally makes. So same shots were going in against New Orleans [in the play-in tournament] and other games that he’s played in to help us get to this point. So it just wasn’t his night.”
  • Reserve Lakers big man Christian Wood is hoping to return in time for Game 3 of the series, when the action moves to Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, per Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). He has been sidelined since a February knee surgery. Ham, however, cautioned that Wood “still [has] a couple boxes to check” before he can come back in this series, according to McMenamin (via Twitter).
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Kawhi Leonard Completes Team USA’s Star-Studded Roster For Olympics

April 16th, 2024 at 6:07pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Team USA has completed its selection of an All-Star laden 12-player roster for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Shams Charania and Joe Vardon of The Athletic report (Twitter link). Kawhi Leonard was chosen for the final roster spot, USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt tweets.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Monday the 11 other selections for the roster. Team USA received a firm commitment from Leonard on Tuesday, Wojnarowski tweets.

Unlike USA Basketball’s FIBA World Cup roster last summer, which lacked size and interior strength, the Olympic roster is filled with quality bigs. Joel Embiid, Bam Adebayo and Anthony Davis will be joined at the power positions by LeBron James and Kevin Durant.

The wings will be manned by Jayson Tatum, Leonard, Devin Booker and Anthony Edwards. Jrue Holiday, Tyrese Haliburton and Stephen Curry round out the backcourt.

Haliburton and Edwards are the only players from the FIBA World Cup roster to make Team USA’s Olympic roster.

Team USA has won the gold medal in each of the last four Summer Olympics.

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Team USA Locks In 11 Of 12 Olympic Roster Spots

April 15th, 2024 at 6:18pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Team USA men’s basketball program has determined 11 of its 12 roster spots for this year’s Paris Olympics, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Woj suggests that the final roster opening could remain open for a while. Sources inform Wojnarowski that Hall of Famer Grant Hill, Team USA’s managing director, is waiting for a July training camp and some Las Vegas exhibition games before finalizing that 12th spot.

10 of the 11 players were honored as All-Stars this season, while the 11th was a key two-way force on the 2021 gold medal-winning team, which is officially considered the 2020 Olympic team.

Here are Team USA’s 11 players:

So far, three NBA teams – the Lakers, Celtics, and Suns – will feature multiple U.S. Olympians.

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, serving again as the leader of Team USA this summer, will have just one current familiar face in All-Star point guard Curry, who will be making his Olympic debut. Among the other players listed, four others will be making their debuts with the program on this stage: reigning league MVP Embiid and young All-Star guards Edwards and Haliburton.

As Woj notes, 35-year-old Durant is one of just two players to have won three gold medals in Olympic history, along with future Hall of Fame forward Carmelo Anthony. James is playing in his first Olympics since 2012. James and Anthony were also members of Team USA the last time it didn’t win gold at the tournament, in 2004.

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Lakers Notes: Play-In Picture, Vincent, Timer’s Error, Vanderbilt, LeBron

April 13th, 2024 at 9:05pm CST by Arthur Hill

There are countless ways the Western Conference standings could end up, but the Lakers‘ mission is clear heading into Sunday’s game, writes Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times. Regardless of what else happens, L.A. can secure the No. 8 seed with a victory at New Orleans. That would avoid a potential meeting with the Warriors in the 9-10 matchup with both teams’ seasons on the line.

“Every game matters,” LeBron James said. “Every seed matters.”

The Lakers know that from experience after rising from the seventh seed to reach the Western Conference Finals last season. Woike notes that the worst-case scenario they face on Sunday would be losing to the Pelicans while Golden State and Sacramento both win, which would drop L.A. to No. 10. The Lakers could finish ninth with a loss if either the Warriors or Kings also lose.

Sunday’s game will be challenging because New Orleans, which has won four straight, is also highly motivated. A victory would ensure the sixth seed for the Pelicans, who are just one game ahead of Phoenix.

“They got a lot of weapons on both sides of the floor. And we have to be able to play the right way,” Anthony Davis said after a narrow win Friday at Memphis. “We can’t play how we played tonight, the turnovers and letting them get offensive rebounds and sloppy play. They’ll take advantage of it.”

There’s more on the Lakers:

  • Gabe Vincent delivered his best game since returning from knee surgery to help L.A. avoid a costly loss to the Grizzlies, Woike adds. Playing for just the 10th time this season, Vincent logged 19 minutes off the bench and was a plus-27. “Gabe’s a winner. It’s that simple,” James said. “And as he continues to get his legs up underneath him, hopefully he has enough time, hopefully we continue to give him enough time to get his legs up underneath him. But he’s a winner. That’s why we brought him on.”
  • The NBA confirmed that a timer’s error added an extra 1:06 to Friday’s game, per Jonah Dylan of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. Play was stopped for a shot clock violation with 1:14 left in the third quarter, but the game clock was reset to 2:20 without anyone catching the mistake. “The error was not noticed in real time by the teams, the referees, the game clock operator or the stats crew,” NBA spokesman Tim Frank said. “While unfortunate, the error was not identified in time to resolve the situation in-game.”
  • There’s no clarity on Jarred Vanderbilt‘s status as the regular season winds down, according to Khobi Price of The Orange County Register. The power forward hasn’t played since February 1 because of a sprain in his right foot, and coach Darvin Ham offered only a brief update on his condition. “He had a good workout [Friday],” Ham said, “so we’ll see.”
  • Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report examines how the Lakers would be affected if James decides to turn down his $51.4MM player option this summer.
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Los Angeles Notes: James, Davis, Lue, Westbrook

April 9th, 2024 at 6:25pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Perhaps it’s been somewhat overlooked but the Lakers’ LeBron James is shooting better from the perimeter than he ever has, ESPN’s Chris Herring notes.

A career 34.8% shooter from deep, James has knocked down a career-best 41.3% from 3-point range this season. His overall field goal percentage of 53.6% is his best since the 2017/18 campaign. Herring breaks down how James’ form has improved, noting that the longtime star attributes the uptick to better health.

“I’ve been able to be on the floor a lot more during non-game days,” James said. “My foot has felt a lot better. I didn’t have much time to really rep a lot last year because I couldn’t be on the floor running around or put much pounding on the floor with my foot.”

We have more on the Los Angeles teams:

  • The Lakers are listing Anthony Davis and James as questionable heading into their showdown with the Warriors tonight, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin tweets. Davis has a left eye injury, while James is battling flu-like symptoms.
  • Tyronn Lue says he has no plans to rest players for the remainder of the regular season unless the Clippers’ seeding is already decided. “We’re still fighting for that four seed, so (not) until we are able to clinch that, or we understand that we have a chance to clinch it or we don’t have a chance to clinch it,” he told Janis Carr of the Orange County Register. “Right now, our focus is on just playing better basketball, continuing to keep getting better and ending up the best we can as far as seeding.”
  • Russell Westbrook has revamped his mentality. A three-time scoring champion, Westbrook has focused on the other end of the floor for the Clippers this season, according to Carr. “Well, all year long, honestly, I’ve been depending on my defense and holding people and stopping people when time is needed,” Westbrook said. Westbrook has been a bargain for the Clippers this season and holds a $4MM option on his contract for next season.
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Lakers Notes: Davis, Playoff Picture, Hayes, LeBron

April 8th, 2024 at 7:59am CST by Arthur Hill

Anthony Davis left Sunday night’s game with another injury to his left eye, but the Lakers are optimistic that he’ll be available Tuesday against Golden State, a source tells Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Davis was hurt when Minnesota’s Kyle Anderson accidentally struck him in the face on a putback dunk late in the first quarter. He went to the locker room to have it examined and didn’t return.

“He’s extremely valuable,” coach Darvin Ham said. “Everyone around here knows that. Everything he brings on both sides of the ball, it’s tough. Already being without (LeBron James) and seeing him go out, it’s tough. But my hat’s off to our guys. They didn’t feel sorry for themselves. They kept competing all the way through.”

It’s the second eye issue in less than a month for Davis, who suffered a corneal abrasion in a March 16 game. McMenamin’s sources say Davis had to be treated by a specialist last month as his eye was swollen shut and his vision was impaired.

“I just couldn’t see,” Davis said of the original injury. “The corneal abrasion was actually right in the middle of my eye. It wasn’t like off to the side. So anytime I looked it was blurry. My eye was swollen. I thought my eye was like, [torn] open. But it wasn’t. It kept watering. It just felt like sand was in my eye.”

There’s more from Los Angeles:

  • It’s still possible for the Lakers to escape the play-in tournament, but Sunday’s loss makes it much more difficult, McMenamin adds. At 45-34, L.A. is a game-and-a-half behind Phoenix and New Orleans, and trails Sacramento by a game in the loss column as well. D’Angelo Russell is confident about the team’s postseason prospects no matter where it ends up. “I think we just finish this season strong, finish these games strong and whoever we match up with, we go full force,” Russell said. “I don’t think we care about the teams that are doing well versus how they’re going to look in the playoffs. It’s experience versus inexperience in the playoffs, that kind of gets you over the hump. So I like our chances versus anybody.”
  • With Davis sidelined, Jaxson Hayes played more than 32 minutes and provided 19 points, 10 rebounds and a career-best five steals. Hayes holds a $2.5MM player option for next season, and Russell believes he’ll have suitors if he decides to test free agency, tweets Jovan Buha of The Athletic. “He’s gonna make a lot of money this summer playing on this stage,” Russell said.
  • On his latest Hoop Collective podcast, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst predicts that James will turn down his player option for next season and seek a no-trade clause in a new deal with the Lakers (hat tip to Bleacher Report). “If he extends the contract he’s in or picks up that option, extends onto it, he can’t get a no-trade clause,” Windhorst explains. “And I think for a number of different reasons, LeBron would like, ask for, and probably be granted a no-trade clause.”
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