Bulls Notes: LaVine, Team Meeting, Green, Williams
Bulls guard Zach LaVine has been playing through a right hand contusion, and it has been affecting his performance. Including Tuesday’s loss to Indiana, in which Chicago blew a 21-point lead, LaVine has gone 6-of-36 (16.7%) from three-point range over his past five games.
K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago asked him about his struggles after the game.
“I’m playing with a messed-up finger obviously on my shooting hand,” LaVine said. “You can see by the numbers I’m not shooting the ball well from three. I can still get to the cup and shoot free throws, shoot mid-range. Obviously, you can see by the numbers it’s affecting my shot. But it’s not going to keep me from trying to go out there and help and contribute.”
As Johnson notes, LaVine wasn’t on the injury report prior to the game and was previously only listed as probable after suffering the injury on January 11. The 27-year-old is getting regular treatment and is playing with a brace, and while he says it’s painful at times, he’s not using it as an excuse.
“If I’m out there, I’m healthy enough to play,” he said, per Johnson.
Here’s more out of Chicago:
- The Bulls held a team meeting after their three-game win streak came to an end in disappointing fashion against Indiana on Tuesday night, but it remains to be seen whether it will help get the team out of a cycle of inconsistency and mediocrity, writes Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic. “Honestly, there’s not much to be said,” Nikola Vucevic said after the Bulls were outscored by 22 points in the second half of a six-point loss. “There’s nothing you can say. It’s just a lot of frustration. We did all the talking. So we’ve just got to do it or this is where we’re going to be.”
- There’s still some uncertainty surrounding Javonte Green‘s recovery following knee surgery, as Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times relays. The Bulls forward has yet to resume running or jumping, according to head coach Billy Donovan. “I’ll probably get a better idea of where he’s at physically once they say he can get on the court and start moving around a little bit, but he has not been able to do any of that,” Donovan said.
- Former fourth overall pick Patrick Williams hasn’t necessarily developed at the rate the Bulls had hoped, but the team views performances like Monday’s 18-point, 10-rebound showing as a sign that he’s continuing to move forward, even if the progress is slow, Cowley writes for The Sun-Times. “One of the most versatile players on this team,” DeMar DeRozan said of Williams. “Once he gets comfortable and realizes what he’s doing now it’s going to help us even more.”
Rory Maher contributed to this post.
Brandon Ingram On Track To Play Wednesday
After spending the last two months on the shelf due to a toe injury, Brandon Ingram will be available for the Pelicans on Wednesday night when they host the Timberwolves, barring any last-minute setbacks, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Ingram has been limited to just 15 games so far this season after sustaining a contusion affecting the big toe on his left foot during a November 25 loss in Memphis. Prior to the injury, he was his usual productive self for the ascendant Pelicans, averaging 20.8 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 4.7 assists in 32.1 minutes per game on .472/.467/.868 shooting.
Ingram’s return couldn’t come at a better time for New Orleans. The team got off to an 18-8 start this season, but has struggled in recent weeks with Ingram unavailable and Zion Williamson dealing with his own health ailments.
The Pelicans have lost 10 of their lost 13 games, including their last five, and are now just 26-22. They still hold the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference, but their margin of error has disappeared — the nine teams currently holding the Nos. 5-13 seeds in the West are all within four games of New Orleans.
With Williamson ruled out for at least two more weeks, getting Ingram back should give the Pelicans a shot in the arm as they look to snap their losing streak and hang onto their top-four spot in the conference standings.
Danny Green Plans To Make Season Debut On February 1
Grizzlies swingman Danny Green is targeting February 1 for his return from an ACL tear, he announced in the latest episode of his Inside The Green Room podcast. Memphis will be hosting the Trail Blazers on that date, one week from today.
Green, who spent last season with the Sixers, tore the ACL and LCL in his left knee during Philadelphia’s season-ending Game 6 loss to Miami in the Eastern Conference Semifinals last May.
The 35-year-old was attached to a first-round pick in the offseason trade that sent De’Anthony Melton to the 76ers, but the Grizzlies made it clear they didn’t just view him as a salary-matching piece. Despite a preseason roster crunch and the fact that he wouldn’t be ready to return for several more months, Green made Memphis’ 15-man roster to open the regular season in October.
Now, Green – who has already won titles with the Spurs, Raptors, and Lakers – believes he can help a young Grizzlies team realize its championship potential, as he tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
“What I bring is definitely needed here: perimeter shooting and perimeter defense,” Green said. “I think I can bring maturity and help a young team understand what it takes to win. This has been an A-1 organization from top to bottom in handling this entire rehab with me.”
In recent years, many NBA players who have suffered torn ACLs have missed a full calendar year, or even longer, but Green will be making his return just eight-and-a-half months after sustaining his injury. He noted in his podcast that he’s fortunate to have been able to accelerate his recovery timeline.
“It’s not realistic (to come back from this injury this quickly),” Green said, per Wojnarowski. “Everybody’s body is very different, but I’ve been lucky … to have a pretty good surgeon, a pretty good body that healed really well and quickly, and the right people around me to help me get there. A lot of things had to fall in place for this to happen this way.”
As Green ramps up for his Memphis debut, it’s worth noting that he’s on an expiring $10MM contract and the Grizzlies have already been quite successful without him (their 31-16 record places them second in the West), so he could become a trade candidate at the February 9 deadline if the team wants to acquire another piece and needs to send out some salary.
However, general manager Zach Kleiman and head coach Taylor Jenkins have praised the veteran wing for the leadership he has brought to the franchise. And for his part, Green doesn’t sound like someone who would welcome a change of scenery.
“This is a place I hope that I can call home for the next couple years,” he told Wojnarowski. “I’m lucky to be in a great situation with a winning team.”
Anthony Davis Set To Return On Wednesday
Lakers star Anthony Davis is on track to make his return from a foot injury on Wednesday night, reports Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
According to McMenamin, Davis intends to suit up in Los Angeles against the Spurs as long as he doesn’t experience any setbacks in his pregame warmups.
Davis has been sidelined since December 16 due to a bone spur and stress reaction in his right foot. The Lakers, who were 12-16 when Davis went down, have held their own without one of their two superstars available, going 10-10 in their last 20 games and remaining very much in the play-in hunt.
At 22-26, the Lakers are 13th in the Western Conference, but they’re only three games back of the fifth-seeded Clippers.
As McMenamin outlines, the plan on Wednesday is for Davis to be on a restriction of about 20-to-24 minutes. The Lakers’ next game isn’t until Saturday in Boston, so the team will have a couple days off to assess how the big man’s foot responds to his return to action.
In addition to getting Davis back, the Lakers will have more reinforcements in their frontcourt when they host the Spurs — newly acquired forward Rui Hachimura will be available to make his debut with his new team, head coach Darvin Ham told McMenamin and other reporters on Tuesday.
With Davis just coming off a major injury and Hachimura working on getting acclimated to a new situation, the Lakers’ rotation on Wednesday will be a work in progress. According to a previous report, the plan is for Hachimura to join the starting frontcourt alongside Davis and LeBron James, but that may not happen right away.
Kings Sign Monte McNair, Wes Wilcox To Extensions
JANUARY 25: The Kings have officially extended both McNair and Wilcox, the team announced late on Tuesday night in a press release.
“Monte is an integral part of this organization, and I am thrilled to announce his extension,” team owner Vivek Ranadivé said in a statement. “Since joining the Kings, Monte and Wes have proven to be thoughtful and strategic decision makers who have shown their ability to execute a long-term vision for the team. The work continues, and I have confidence in this front office to keep driving our efforts forward.”
JANUARY 24: The Kings and general manager Monte McNair have reached an agreement on a contract extension, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Sacramento is also finalizing a new contract for assistant GM Wes Wilcox, Wojnarowski adds.
According to Sam Amick of The Athletic (Twitter link), McNair is signing a three-year extension with no options.
Marc Stein reported in December that there was a growing expectation in NBA circles that McNair, who was in the final year of his contract, would sign an extension as soon as January, and now that has come to fruition.
“I’ll just say my family loves it in Sacramento and we’re very happy with how things are going,” McNair told Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee last month. “We’re just focused on winning and continuing to keep this thing growing.”
At 27-19, the Kings are currently the West’s No. 3 seed and are in a strong position to snap their 16-year playoff drought, which is an NBA record. The McNair-led front office drafted and then later traded rising point guard Tyrese Haliburton to Indiana for All-Star center Domantas Sabonis, and selected guard Davion Mitchell in the 2021 draft.
In the 2022 offseason, the Kings drafted forward Keegan Murray, who has made an immediate impact, traded for sharpshooter Kevin Huerter and added sixth man Malik Monk in free agency. The franchise also hired head coach Mike Brown, who has helped change the culture of the previously dysfunctional organization.
Grizzlies’ Steven Adams Out 3-5 Weeks With Knee Sprain
Grizzlies starting center Steven Adams is expected to miss three-to-five weeks after spraining the PCL in his right knee on Sunday against Phoenix, Memphis announced (via Twitter).
According to Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal (Twitter link), Adams was injured on the final play of the two-point loss to the Suns.
Considering how physical his game is, you would expect Adams to have a lengthy injury history, but he has actually been quite durable — he has played 76-plus games in six of his nine seasons leading up to 2022/23, missing a career-high 14 games two years ago with New Orleans. Unfortunately, he’s likely to exceed that total over the next handful of weeks.
Adams will be tough to replace while he’s out. Not only is he one of the most fearsome screeners in the NBA and a solid defender, he also leads the league in total offensive rebounds (214), offensive rebounding percentage (19.8%), total rebounding percentage (22.2%), offensive rebounds per game (5.1), and is fourth in rebounds per game with a career-high 11.5 in just 27.0 minutes per contest.
The 29-year-old had been especially great on the boards recently, averaging 14.0 rebounds (5.8 offensive) over his past 15 games (27.6 minutes). The Grizzlies are the top rebounding team in the league in part due to his efforts.
With Adams sidelined, Xavier Tillman and Brandon Clarke should see more frontcourt minutes. Memphis is currently 31-16, the No. 2 seed in the West.
Lakers Notes: Pelinka, Hachimura, Ham, Reaves
Lakers vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka spoke to the media on Tuesday evening following the trade for Rui Hachimura. He said they started talking to the Wizards “about a week ago” when the young forward was made available.
“It felt like it was an opportunity for us to strike early and address a need, in a market that has proven to be a little bit slow. It doesn’t mean our work is finished,” Pelinka said, per Mark Medina of NBA.com (Twitter video link).
When asked by Jovan Buha of The Athletic (Twitter link) about potentially dealing away their 2027 and 2029 first round-picks, Pelinka said that option is always on the table, but only if it makes the Lakers a championship “frontrunner.”
“The calculus for the Lakers is to win a championship or not,” Pelinka said. “There’s no in between or incremental growth. As we analyze opportunities, we have to do it through that lens.”
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- Head coach Darvin Ham said he’s “super-duper excited” about Hachimura’s addition, Buha tweets. “I’ve always been impressed by him,” Ham said. “Just a multi-faceted, strong, athletic, skilled young player. … I think he’s gonna bring a lot.”
- Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report explores what’s next for L.A. following the deal. While he liked the move in some ways, he points out that dealing away second-rounders in 2028 and 2029 could come back to bite the Lakers if they want to try to add protections to their two first-rounders in future trades.
- Although Nekias Duncan of BasketballNews.com views Hachimura as a “mixed bag” defensively, he notes that the 24-year-old is a strong finisher in transition, so that should play to the team’s strengths — the Lakers rank seventh in the league in pace. Overall, Duncan thinks it was a worthwhile gamble, as Hachimura should have a better pathway to easy looks playing with the Lakers rather than the Wizards.
- Austin Reaves is currently sidelined with a left hamstring strain and is set to be reevaluated later this week, but he’s confident he’ll be back “soon,” as Buha writes for The Athletic. “We’re going forward, moving forward,” Reaves said of his injury. “Progress. Feeling good.” The second-year guard was able to sprint on Monday first the first time since the injury, Buha adds.
Celtics’ Marcus Smart Hopes To Return In 1-2 Weeks
Celtics guard Marcus Smart missed his second straight game on Tuesday versus Miami after sustaining a sprained right ankle Saturday against Toronto. While there’s no official timeline for his return, and he plans to be cautious in his recovery, he hopes to return in a “week or two,” per Souichi Terada of MassLive.com.
“I don’t want to go out there and just rush back,” Smart said pregame Tuesday, “and we’re in this same predicament a couple months from now, a couple days from now, a couple weeks from now when I do come back and it just stays lingering than it has to.”
According to Terada, Smart was unable to put weight on his ankle and had to be helped off the floor by Boston’s training staff. The 28-year-old says he aggravated an old injury, as he dealt with a bone bruise on the outside of his ankle during last year’s playoff run.
“I got the bone bruise on the outside, but now I’m dealing with the bone bruise on the inside as well,” Smart said. “Some scar tissue that was there. That’s really it. So we’re just taking it one day at a time.”
As Terada writes, the Celtics are pretty shorthanded tonight. In addition to Smart, Jaylen Brown (adductor management), Al Horford (lower back stiffness) and Malcolm Brogdon (personal reasons) are all out.
Through 41 games (32.4 MPG), the reigning Defensive Player of the Year is averaging 11.1 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 7.2 APG and 1.3 SPG on .422/.333/.787 shooting. Backup guard Payton Pritchard should continue to play an increased role with his fellow backcourt teammates out — he got his second start of the season on Tuesday.
Pelicans’ Zion Williamson Out At Least Two More Weeks
The Pelicans announced in a press release that star forward Zion Williamson was recently reevaluated, and while he is “making good progress” in his recovery from a right hamstring strain and is “healing as expected,” he will be out for at least two more weeks. He’ll be evaluated again at that time.
Williamson sustained the hamstring strain on January 2 against Philadelphia. He has missed the last three weeks with the injury.
At the time he was injured, the Pelicans were 23-14 and held the third-best record in the Western Conference. They have gone 3-7 in their 10 most recent games without Williamson, including four consecutive losses, to fall to 26-21, the fourth-best record in the West.
The 22-year-old was having a stellar season prior to his latest injury, averaging 26.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.1 steals while shooting 60.8% from the floor and 71.4% from the line through 29 games (33.0 minutes per contest). He almost certainly would have earned his second All-Star nod had he stayed healthy, and there’s still a chance he gets voted in, but it’s looking doubtful that he’ll return before the break and be able to participate in the exhibition game at this point.
Until Williamson and Brandon Ingram (toe) are able to return to the lineup, New Orleans will continue to lean on players like CJ McCollum, Jonas Valanciunas and Trey Murphy, among others, for offensive production. Ingram and fellow forward Naji Marshall (toe) have been ruled out for Tuesday’s contest against Denver, per head coach Willie Green (Twitter link via Christian Clark of NOLA.com).
Atlantic Notes: Fournier, Durant, Tatum, Raptors
Asked directly if he wants to remain with the Knicks, Evan Fournier paused to consider his answer before responding, writes Zach Braziller of The New York Post. As the veteran wing eventually explained, while his preference would be to stay in New York, that may not be the case if he’s going to remain out of the team’s rotation.
“Best-case scenario, I want to stay here. I want to play here,” Fournier said. “I had a bunch of different choices in free agency and I wanted to be a Knick. I love New York. I wanted to play for (head coach Tom Thibodeau). So I’d love to stay, but I’d love to play.”
Fournier went on to say that he feels like he’s in the best shape of his career and that he’d rather not spend some of his prime years sitting on the bench.
“I should be in my prime. I am in my prime,” he said, per Braziller. “You want to play, for sure. Especially as a competitor. It’s not like I forgot how to play. Last year I had a different role and somehow I was able to break a 30-year-old franchise record (most three-pointers in a season). So I am going to find a way to adapt to any situation.”
The veteran wing has been ruled out of Tuesday’s game vs. Cleveland for personal reasons, the Knicks announced (via Twitter). According to Steve Popper of Newsday (Twitter link), Fournier’s wife gave birth today.
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- It’s uncertain after today’s update from the team whether Kevin Durant will be healthy in time to play in next month’s All-Star Game, but if the decision is up to him, the Nets star would like to suit up in Salt Lake City, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN. “I want to play tomorrow if I can,” Durant said. “So that’s what my sense of urgency is. Obviously, I don’t want to rush anything. I want to make sure I’m 100%. But yeah, I want to play. I want to be a part of all these events.”
- Celtics forward Jayson Tatum didn’t rule out the possibility that his sore left wrist will require surgery after the season, but indicated that he has no plans to miss extended time during the season, using rest and injury management to play through the ailment, per Bobby Manning of CLNS Media.
- Eric Koreen and John Hollinger of The Athletic teamed up to take a closer look at the Raptors‘ approach to the trade deadline and various factors the team should be considering as it weighs its options. Hollinger views the Lakers as one logical trade partner for Gary Trent Jr., pointing out that L.A. would be in position to re-sign the veteran swingman to a new contract this summer.