Northwest Notes: Hyland, Dort, Nuggets, Blazers
In an excellent profile, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic explores the journey Bones Hyland has taken to end up with the Timberwolves, detailing the tragic 2018 fire that burned down Hyland’s childhood home and took the lives of his grandmother and 11-month-old cousin. Hyland, who jumped out of a second-floor window to safety, tore the patellar tendon in his right knee and was initially told by doctors that they didn’t think he’d play basketball again, Krawcyznski writes.
“I cried my eyes out,” Hyland said. “But I knew it wasn’t the end for me. God always got the last say-so.”
Grieving the loss of two family members and recovering from his own injuries with the overwhelming support of a Wilmington community that made sure he was never alone in his hospital room, Hyland began rehabbing his knee and eventually made it back onto the basketball court, earning a scholarship to VCU and then becoming a first-round pick in the 2021 NBA draft.
Although earlier stints with the Nuggets and Clippers didn’t end the way he hoped, Hyland has found a new NBA home in Minnesota, where he has settled into a second-unit role for the Wolves this season, averaging 7.1 points and 2.5 assists in 14.7 minutes per game, with a 38.8% three-point mark.
“I love having him on the team,” head coach Chris Finch said, per Krawczynski. “He’s the same every day. He’s a super happy guy. He’s one of these guys who brings joy to the game in the way that he plays it.”
We have more from around the Northwest:
- Four days after being ejected from a showdown with the Nuggets after tripping Nikola Jokic on his way up the court, Thunder forward Luguentz Dort expressed some regret for the play that was ruled a flagrant 2 foul, writes Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic. “Obviously, that was unnecessary contact that I shouldn’t have done,” Dort said. “… That’s a physical game and there’s limits to it. And I went over the limit.” Informed of Dort’s comments, Nuggets coaches and players were unmoved, with David Adelman, Bruce Brown, and Jonas Valanciunas each responding with a “no” when asked by Troy Renck of The Denver Post if Dort’s acknowledgement meant anything to them (Twitter video links).
- Efforts to secure public funding for the Trail Blazers‘ arena renovation took a step forward on Wednesday as the Oregon state senate passed Senate Bill 1501, which would allow the state to issue up to $360MM in bonds toward the renovation plan (Twitter links via Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report). The bill, which will be sent to the state’s house of representatives for a vote, is just one piece of the overall puzzle, according to Bill Oram of The Oregonian (subscription required), who notes that the project will also require funding from the city and the county. Additionally, the Blazers still need to negotiate a new Moda Center lease once new owner Tom Dundon takes control of the franchise.
- The two-way deals recently signed by guard Chris Youngblood and forward Jayson Kent with the Trail Blazers will each cover two seasons, running through 2026/27, Hoops Rumors has learned.
Nuggets Notes: Johnson, Gordon, Watson, Adelman
Nuggets forward Cameron Johnson was forced out of Sunday’s loss to Minnesota with a lingering right ankle injury and doesn’t expect to be available for Monday’s game at Utah, writes Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette. Johnson struggled through a frustrating afternoon against the Wolves, going scoreless in 23 minutes and missing all six of his shots. Benedetto notes that he’s shooting just 31.4% from the field and 26.7% from three-point range in six games since the All-Star break.
“One (part) is understanding that you’ve been through it before,” Johnson said. “(It’s) understanding that every time that you’ve felt down that you don’t really feel like you’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel — you just feel like you keep letting yourself down, letting your teammates down — every time that’s happened, I’ve been able to turn it around and get back on track some way somehow.”
Johnson was expected to be a seamless replacement for Michael Porter Jr. when he was acquired in a trade with Brooklyn last summer. After a slow start to the season, he found his outside shot in November and December before suffering a bone bruise shortly before Christmas that sidelined him for six weeks.
The first priority is fixing the ankle issue that Johnson said has bothered him throughout the season. He plans to try different shoes or orthotics to help ease the pain.
“It hasn’t knocked me out of the game completely yet. It hasn’t forced me to hang it up. It hasn’t forced me to miss every shot for the rest of my career,” Johnson said. “I just got to continue on with that trust, continue to work and forget about it.”
There’s more on the Nuggets:
- Coach David Adelman adjusted his substitution pattern after watching a nine-point lead slip away while Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray were both resting early in the second quarter, Benedetto states in a separate story. Murray remained on the court the next time Jokic went to the bench early in the fourth quarter. “It’s not what I want to do,” Adelman admitted. “I like them to play together. I don’t like when I’m taking minutes away from them not being on the court together. If we have to do it, we’ll do it, because this can’t happen. It’s happened two games in a row. It’s cost us big time.”
- The Nuggets haven’t been able to able to add any wing help in the buyout market, so that heightens the need for Johnson to get healthy, observes Sean Keeler of The Denver Post. They missed out on two potential targets when Khris Middleton opted to stay in Dallas rather than seeking a buyout and Kyle Anderson decided to return to Minnesota after being let go by Memphis.
- Reinforcements could be coming soon as Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson are close to returning from hamstring injuries, per Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints (Twitter link). Sources tell Siegel that both players are ramping up their activities and will be reexamined this week.
- Meeting with reporters before Sunday’s game, Adelman had some harsh words about Friday’s incident that saw the Thunder‘s Luguentz Dort get ejected for tripping Jokic, relays Bennett Durando of The Denver Post. “There’s a point where we play these games and what he deals with nightly, anybody would react that way,” Adelman said of Jokic. “And then for Dort to take that shot — and then I guess it wasn’t that big of a deal from their standpoint, how they looked at it — is ridiculous. That was malicious. It was a cheap shot. Lu Dort’s a great player, and that’s not what I’ve seen him do before. But at some point, you have to stand up for yourself.”
Northwest Notes: Jokic, Dort, SGA, Avdija, K. George
Thunder wing Luguentz Dort was ejected in the fourth quarter of Oklahoma City’s overtime victory over Denver on Friday for sticking out his right leg and tripping Nikola Jokic (Twitter video link via ESPN). The Nuggets‘ superstar big man angrily confronted and chest-bumped Dort, who backed away as his teammate Jaylin Williams intervened.
“Unnecessary move and a necessary reaction,” Jokic said, per Bennett Durando of The Denver Post. “There is no such thing — I think there’s not supposed to be those things on a basketball floor. So it was just an unnecessary move (by Dort) and a necessary reaction by me.”
As Durando writes, Dort was initially called for a common foul, but it was upgraded to a flagrant foul 2 upon review. Jokic and Williams both received offsetting unsportsmanlike technicals for their part in the altercation.
“Lu Dort was assessed a flagrant foul penalty (level) two because we deemed his contact on Jokic to be unnecessary and excessive with a high potential for injury,” crew chief James Williams said in a pool report. “And also because the contact led to an altercation that did not dissolve.”
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault noted it was a physical game between the Northwest Division rivals, who faced off in the Western Conference semifinals last year. Oklahoma City won that series in seven games en route to the championship.
“If you were watching the game, I think you could see very clearly, very early that it was a chippy game,” Daigneault said, according to Durando. “These are two teams that played each other in a seven-game series. We’re in the same division. We’ve played each other 100 times. They know our playbook. We know their playbook. It just is what it is. … I know Lu. I know Jokic. I know J-Will. I don’t think anybody was trying to hurt anybody. They’re just great competitors. It just boiled over. I think it was nothing more than that.
“I will say this. If a player (for us), if J-Will is running up the floor and gets tripped, we expect a flagrant two from this point forward. That’s all. If that’s the precedent, if that becomes a malicious play and flagrant two is the line in the sand on that, we would expect that if it’s J-Will. We would expect that if it’s anybody.”
When asked if he was suggesting that Dort was only ejected because Jokic — a three-time MVP — was the player fouled, Daigneault demurred.
“I’m not going to answer the question like that. I said what I needed to say about it,” Daigneault replied.
On Sunday, Nuggets head coach David Adelman addressed the incident, as Durando relays (via Twitter).
“For Dort to take that shot — and then I guess it wasn’t that big of a deal from their standpoint, how they looked at it — is ridiculous,” Adelman said as part of a larger quote. “That was malicious. It was a cheap shot. Lu Dort’s a great player, and that’s not what I’ve seen him do before. But at some point, you have to stand up for yourself, and the team does as well.”
We have more from around the Northwest:
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander returned to action on Friday after missing nine games with an abdominal strain, recording 36 points, nine assists, three rebounds, two steals and two blocks in 34 minutes. However, the Thunder superstar couldn’t play in overtime due to a minutes restriction, writes Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman (subscriber link). Daigneault let the Canadian guard know it advance that it was possible he might be forced to miss a potential extra period. “They kind of had no choice because if they tried that on the fly, I wasn’t gonna go,” Gilgeous-Alexander said with a laugh. “They had to get ahead of it, for sure. But with that being said, it is the right decision to make. If I re-injure this injury, all of it and everything that we’ve done up to this point doesn’t matter. So that’s first and foremost.”
- Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija will miss his fourth straight game on Sunday in Atlanta because of low back injury management (Twitter link). The first-time All-Star first experienced the back issue in early January and aggravated the injury just 59 seconds into a February 22 game at Phoenix.
- Third-year guard Keyonte George was back in the Jazz‘s starting lineup for Saturday’s loss to New Orleans, writes Kevin Reynolds of The Salt Lake Tribune. George, who had missed the last six games because of a right ankle sprain, said he felt good in his return but will be on a restriction of approximately 20-to-24 minutes for the time being. “Feet are the most precious thing for any athlete. So I want to make sure I feel good, not feeling off balance or nothing like that,” said George, who also dealt with a left ankle sprain last month. “Just want to be cautious with the ankle injuries and stuff like that.”
Thunder Notes: PPP, Topic, Williams, Boeheim
The NBA is looking at the Thunder for player absences in last Wednesday’s game against San Antonio, tweets Dan Woike of The Athletic.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein, Luguentz Dort, and Alex Caruso all missed that nationally televised game after having played the previous night vs. Orlando. With the exception of Gilgeous-Alexander, who has remained sidelined due to an abdominal strain, the others were all back in action for the Thunder’s next game on Saturday.
If a team plans to sit a player for one game in a back-to-back set, the NBA typically wants it to happen during the game that isn’t nationally televised, so the league will consider whether Oklahoma City violated its player participation policy (PPP). However, besides SGA, none of those Thunder players meet the “star” criteria, and Rylan Stiles of SI.com suggests (via Twitter) that all their health issues were legitimate, so we’ll see if anything comes of the investigation.
Here’s more on the Thunder:
- After missing his entire rookie season in 2024/25 due to a torn ACL and then undergoing treatment for testicular cancer this past fall, Thunder guard Nikola Topic made his G League debut on Monday. In his first game for the Oklahoma City Blue, the 20-year-old Serbian had seven points and seven assists in 16 minutes off the bench. “Great accomplishment,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said, per The Associated Press. “Just can’t say enough about him as a guy, his mental toughness, maturity, resilience. … He hasn’t played a lot of basketball over the last two years, and he comes off a one-year rehab and immediately has a surprising diagnosis and goes through chemotherapy, three rounds of it. So for him to work himself back onto the court is just an unbelievable accomplishment, and we’re incredibly happy for him.”
- Jalen Williams‘ return following a 10-game absence due to a hamstring strain was a success, writes Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman. Williams scored 10 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter to help Oklahoma City secure a 119-110 road win over the Lakers. “He slammed the door on that game,” Daigneault said. “It was impressive. He’s got such a body of work that we’re not overly concerned with how he plays coming back. We’re just happy he’s back. … Obviously, he was huge tonight. We know he’s a big-time player.”
- Buddy Boeheim‘s new two-way contract with the Thunder will cover two seasons, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. Boeheim joined the team last Friday, filling the roster opening created when the team waived Chris Youngblood, who had reached his 50-game limit.
And-Ones: Ott, Lee, No. 1 Pick, Graham, Dort
The Suns’ Jordan Ott and Hornets’ Charles Lee have been named the Western and Eastern Conference Coaches of the Month, respectively, for games played in January, according to the league (Twitter links). Phoenix went 11-5 last month, while Charlotte posted an 11-6 record.
David Adelman (Nuggets), Chris Finch (Timberwolves) and Tyronn Lue (Clippers) were the other Western Conference nominees. Kenny Atkinson (Cavaliers), J.B. Bickerstaff (Pistons) and Joe Mazzulla (Celtics) were also nominated from the Eastern Conference.
Here’s more from around the international basketball world:
- Kansas shooting guard Darryn Peterson and BYU forward AJ Dybantsa loom as the projected top two picks in the upcoming NBA draft, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. ESPN polled 20 NBA scouts and a dozen chose Peterson as the top pick, while Dybantsa garnered the other eight votes. With BYU visiting Kansas this past Saturday, those two stars put on a display to solidify their resumes. Dybantsa had 17 points and Peterson scored 18 in the Jayhawks’ victory. At least 17 NBA teams had reps at the contest. However, Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman claims there’s another legitimate candidate for the top pick (Twitter link). He says multiple front office executives and scouts have Duke’s Cameron Boozer atop their draft boards.
- Former NBA guard Devonte’ Graham and Crvena Zvevda have severed ties. After several consecutive games without playing, Graham agreed to a termination of his contract, according to Eurohoops.net. Graham only played seven EuroLeague games, averaging 3.0 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in 11.2 minutes per contest. Graham, who signed with the Serbian club in August, appeared in 336 regular season NBA games, making 171 starts and posting career averages of 11.1 PPG, 2.3 RPG and 4.3 APG.
- Thunder defensive ace Luguentz Dort has hired Klutch Sports as his representative, the agency tweets. Oklahoma City holds an $18.2MM club option on his contract for next season.
Thunder’s Dort, Pelicans’ Fears Fined By NBA
Thunder forward Luguentz Dort and Pelicans guard Jeremiah Fears have been fined $25K apiece for their roles in an altercation at the end of Tuesday’s game between the two teams, the NBA announced today in a press release (Twitter link).
With the Pelicans trailing the Thunder by a score of 104-95, Fears grabbed an offensive rebound on a missed three-point attempt in the game’s final seconds and attempted to put up a shot. He appeared to be fouled by Dort, but no call was made, and the two players got tangled up, with Dort shoving Fears and both players grabbing one another’s jerseys “in an aggressive manner,” per the league (Twitter video link via Bleacher Report).
“I think that’s a foul on Dort,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said after the game, per Rod Walker of NOLA.com. “If it was, they should put a whistle on that play regardless of the score and the time. Because if they do that, everybody stops playing and you legislate the situation as you normally would. But because they didn’t put a whistle on it, it’s the end of the game and they can do nothing about it and you end up with that situation.”
Players and coaches from both teams came onto the floor and separated the two players to prevent the dispute from escalating. Fears was escorted off the floor by a Pelicans security officer and Jordan Dumars, the son of head of basketball operations Joe Dumars, according to Walker (Twitter video link).
While $25K doesn’t represent a significant percentage of either player’s salary, the fine will impact Fears, a rookie, a little more than it will affect the seventh-year veteran Dort. Fears is earning roughly $7.5MM in his first NBA season, while Dort’s 2025/26 salary is $18.2MM.
Northwest Notes: Avdija, Edwards, Gobert, Shannon Jr., Braun
Trail Blazers breakout star forward Deni Avdija won’t play on Tuesday against Golden State. He’s sidelined with lower back soreness, the team’s PR department tweets. Avdija, who is averaging 26.1 points, 7.1 rebounds and 6.9 assists per game, has appeared in all 40 of Portland’s previous games.
Another key Blazers player, forward Jerami Grant, is doubtful due to left Achilles tendonitis.
Here’s more from the Northwest Division:
- Timberwolves star guard Anthony Edwards won’t suit up on Tuesday against Milwaukee due to right foot injury maintenance, the team’s PR department tweets. This will be the eighth game Edwards has missed this season — he’ll be ineligible for postseason awards if he misses 10 more games. Center Rudy Gobert will also miss the game — he’s serving a one-game league suspension for accumulating too many flagrant fouls. Regarding Gobert’s suspension, ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes that the one-game ban will cost Gobert $201,149 (Twitter link). The Wolves will also receive a tax variance credit of $100,575.
- Timberwolves guard Terrence Shannon Jr. is making progress from his left foot abductor hallucis strain but there’s no timetable for his return, according to a team press release. Shannon will miss his 10th straight game this evening. The 2024 first-round pick has appeared in 22 games off the bench this season but has only averaged 4.5 points in 12.8 minutes per game.
- Nuggets guard Christian Braun will miss his second consecutive game due to a left ankle sprain. Braun warmed up to play against Milwaukee on Sunday but didn’t feel right and was ruled out, Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports tweets. It’s a concerning development, considering Braun missed nearly two months of action with an ankle injury before returning earlier this month.
- The Thunder‘s Luguentz Dort is a late scratch for tonight’s key matchup with San Antonio due to left foot soreness, Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman tweets.
Thunder’s Isaiah Hartenstein Returning Saturday
After missing the past six games with a right soleus (calf) strain, starting center Isaiah Hartenstein is not on the Thunder‘s injury report ahead of Saturday’s NBA Cup semifinal against the Spurs, which indicates he’ll be available to play, tweets Rylan Stiles of SI.com.
Oklahoma City got some other reinforcements back ahead of Wednesday’s quarterfinal win over Phoenix, with Luguentz Dort (right adductor strain) and Alex Caruso (right quad contusion) returning from injuries that cost the defensive stalwarts three and four games, respectively.
Guard Cason Wallace, who leads the NBA in steals per game (2.3), will be active on Saturday as well after leaving Wednesday’s game early — he was hit by a hard screen from Suns center Mark Williams, per Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman (subscriber link).
The defending champions have been on an absolute tear this season, holding an active 16-game winning streak — a franchise record — heading into Saturday. The Thunder are currently 24-1, tied with the 2015/16 Warriors for the best 25-game start in NBA history.
Head coach Mark Daigneault was asked after Wednesday’s blowout victory how the Thunder have avoided complacency after winning the title in ’24/25 (Twitter video link from Martinez).
“You have to understand anything in the past takes you out of the present moment,” Daigneault said in part. “Anything in the future takes you out of the present moment. And the competition happens in the present moment.”
Thunder Notes: Paul, SGA, Dort, Holmgren
The single season that Chris Paul spent with the Thunder planted the seeds for last year’s championship run and the current 23-1 start, writes Tim MacMahon of ESPN.
Paul was traded to Oklahoma City in the summer of 2019, along with a collection of draft assets, in the deal that sent Russell Westbrook to Houston. He regularly invited his younger teammates to his home on off nights to watch other NBA teams play and used those games as teaching opportunities. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luguentz Dort both credit that experience with helping them develop into better players.
“Chris really was the first person to show me what it meant to be a professional,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “He was always doing extra. It was more so off the court than on the court. It was the things you don’t think about as a kid. As a kid, you’re taught to just work super hard, but you’re not really taught nutrition and taking care of your body, getting massages, getting treatment, those type of things he was always on top of. He just always had a get-better mentality in every way, in every way of life.”
Paul was especially influential with Dort, who was in his rookie season when they were teammates. Paul bought him an iPad to study game footage, along with a subscription to the Second Spectrum video service. He was also vocal about encouraging Dort not to pass up open shots, even though he was connecting at less than 30% from beyond the arc at the time.
“I used to be on Lu all the time,” Paul said. “I used to say, ‘Lu, you play defense so hard and you compete so hard that I don’t care if you miss (shots) on offense. I just want you to shoot it and give yourself a chance.’ When guys compete and play like that, then you live with the results.”
There’s more from Oklahoma City:
- In an interview with Marc J. Spears of Andscape, Gilgeous-Alexander said the Thunder became more motivated to succeed after losing to Milwaukee in last year’s NBA Cup final. OKC was already establishing itself as one of the NBA’s elite teams, but it fell by 16 points to a veteran Bucks squad in the title game. “It definitely helped. It for sure helped. Losing in general helps all the time,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “It’s easy to learn from losing. It definitely just showed us the formula for losing. The way we played that night, we didn’t give what the game required and it showed us that. And I think that prepared us to go into the playoffs having to play for something. It showed us before the schemes, before the scouting report, before the making shots, missing shots, the personnel, you’ve got to bring a certain level of intensity, focus and fight to the game if you want a chance to win.”
- One reason for this year’s improvement is the presence of Chet Holmgren, who was only available for 32 regular season games last year. Holmgren has reinvented himself on offense, observes Rylan Stiles of Sports Illustrated, becoming an efficient shooter all over the court and a reliable scorer in transition, pick-and-rolls and post-ups.
- The Thunder’s dominance may make teams reluctant to go all in with trade offers for Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, suggests Kirk Goldsberry of The Ringer. Particularly for Western Conference teams, it may not make sense to mortgage their future in a major deal if OKC looks unbeatable.
Injury Notes: SGA, Thunder, Booker, Essengue, Schröder
Reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will miss his first game of the season on Sunday when the Thunder face the Jazz in Utah, tweets Clemente Almanza of Thunder Wire. Gilgeous-Alexander is dealing with bursitis in his left elbow, per the team.
The superstar guard is one of seven Oklahoma City players who will be out Sunday. Others include rotation members Luguentz Dort (right adductor strain), Alex Caruso (right quad contusion), Isaiah Joe (left knee soreness) and Isaiah Hartenstein (right soleus strain).
Here are more injury notes from around the NBA:
- Suns head coach Jordan Ott provided an update on star guard Devin Booker on Friday, according to Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic (Twitter video link). Booker is recovering from a right groin strain and could return for Wednesday’s NBA Cup quarterfinal at Oklahoma City. “We’ll continue to assess him day-by-day, but he’s been through this before,” Ott said. “So he knows exactly where he’s at and his body and he’s made good progress in a short amount of time. … If his body is feeling good and he’s in a good place, he’ll absolutely be available (Wednesday).”
- Speaking to the media on Saturday, Bulls lottery pick Noa Essengue said his season-ending left shoulder injury was a dislocation, as K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network relays (via Twitter). The French forward added that he dislocated the same shoulder a couple of years ago and his surgery is scheduled for Wednesday.
- Kings point guard Dennis Schröder was out again last night in Miami due to a right hip flexor strain, notes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee (Twitter link). While Schröder’s strain is “mild” and he’s considered day-to-day, he has now missed five straight games, having last suited up on Nov. 24 vs. Minnesota.