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Tag: Spencer Dinwiddie

  • Mavericks fire GM Nico Harrison 9 months after widely panned Luka Doncic trade

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    DALLAS (AP) — The Dallas Mavericks fired general manager Nico Harrison on Tuesday, an admission nine months later that the widely criticized trade of Luka Doncic backfired on the franchise.

    The move came a day after Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont attended a 116-114 loss to the Bucks in which fans again chanted “fire Nico,” a familiar refrain since the blockbuster deal in February that brought Anthony Davis from the Los Angeles Lakers and angered the Dallas fan base.

    The Mavericks appointed Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi as co-interim general managers to oversee basketball operations.

    Dumont’s hope for goodwill with the fans never came even after Dallas landed No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg with just a 1.8% chance to win the draft lottery.

    There have been plenty of empty seats in the upper deck of American Airlines Center this season, something not seen consistently since 2018, when the Mavericks traded up to get Doncic with the third overall pick.

    Doncic was a 25-year-old generational point guard in his prime when Harrison unloaded him for the oft-injured Davis, who has missed 30 of 44 regular-season games since his arrival in February.

    Harrison was in his fourth season and had engineered three trades that helped the Mavs go on a run to the Western Conference finals in 2022 and the NBA Finals two years later.

    The Doncic trade and a slow start to the first full season without the young superstar led to a stunning downfall for Harrison, who declined to comment to The Associated Press. Dallas is 3-8, and Davis has missed six of the 11 games with a calf injury.

    “No one associated with the Mavericks organization is happy with the start of what we all believed would be a promising season,” Dumont wrote in a letter to fans. “You have high expectations for the Mavericks, and I share them with you. When the results don’t meet expectations, it’s my responsibility to act.”

    While Dumont didn’t directly mention the Doncic trade in the letter, he acknowledged the vitriolic reaction of fans, who protested after the shocking deal. The Las Vegas-based Dumont and Adelson families, who bought the Mavericks from Mark Cuban in late 2023, were targets of the criticism as well.

    “I understand the profound impact these difficult last several months have had,” Dumont wrote. “Please know that I’m fully committed to the success of the Mavericks.”

    Dumont approved Harrison’s decision to trade Doncic, which kept the Mavericks from having to commit to a $346 million, five-year supermax extension for the Slovenian star.

    Harrison tried to defend the deal by repeating a “defense wins championships” line. But with Davis sidelined by a calf injury and star guard Kyrie Irving still out after tearing the ACL in his left knee last March, defense hasn’t mattered much because Dallas has one of the worst offenses in the NBA.

    With Davis and Irving playing together for just part of one game last season, the Mavericks missed the playoffs a year after Doncic led them to the NBA Finals.

    The slow, injury-plagued start to this season for the Mavericks coincided with Doncic joining Wilt Chamberlain as the only NBA players to open a season with three consecutive games of at least 40 points.

    Doncic’s historic run was interrupted by a three-game injury absence, but the Lakers won twice without him and are 8-3.

    Harrison had spent 20 years with Nike and had close relationships with several NBA stars, including the late Kobe Bryant, when Cuban hired him in 2021.

    The hiring of Harrison was the first step in trying to restore stability after former general manager Donnie Nelson was fired, then Rick Carlisle resigned as coach a day later. Nelson and Carlisle had been together for 13 years.

    Harrison hired Jason Kidd as coach, and the Mavericks reached the Western Conference finals their first season together after Harrison’s first blockbuster trade.

    He broke up the European pairing of Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis and got Spencer Dinwiddie, who played a key supporting role with Doncic as the Mavericks stunned Phoenix with a Game 7 blowout in the second round before losing to Golden State in five games.

    A year later, Dinwiddie was part of the next blockbuster trade, which brought Irving from Brooklyn. The Mavericks faltered the rest of that season largely because of injuries, but they reached their first NBA Finals in 13 years in 2023-24, led by the pair of star guards. Dallas lost to Boston in five games.

    That deep playoff run came in the first six months after Cuban sold the team. He said then that he would maintain control of basketball operations, but that didn’t happen.

    Dumont quickly put full control of the basketball side in the hands of Harrison, who saw Davis as a championship-caliber player in the mold of Bryant. Davis won a title with LeBron James and the Lakers in 2020.

    Cuban criticized the trade of Doncic, saying he never would have approved it and adding that he didn’t think Dallas got enough in return. Months later, though, Cuban credited Harrison for his salary cap management.

    Finley, who was Harrison’s top assistant and has been in the Dallas front office for a decade, was a two-time All-Star for the Mavericks in the early 2000s when Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki was coming of age.

    Finley had moved on to San Antonio when Nowitzki led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals in 2006. Dallas lost to Miami that year but beat the Heat five years later for the franchise’s only championship.

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    AP NBA: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NBA

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  • Nikola Jokic after Nuggets’ 11th straight win over Lakers: “Don’t get bored with success”

    Nikola Jokic after Nuggets’ 11th straight win over Lakers: “Don’t get bored with success”

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    LOS ANGELES — They showered Darvin Ham with boos as the coach was introduced before opening tip. They bombarded him with more pointed chants before time expired in an otherwise lifeless building.

    “Fire Darvin!”

    But is this Ham’s fault? D’Angelo Russell’s? The bench’s? All of the above? The Nuggets have infiltrated Los Angeles and sowed instability within an American institution. The Lakers’ superstar foundation is crumbling under the overwhelming pressure of Denver’s starting lineup, which is on the verge of securing a second playoff sweep of Los Angeles in as many seasons.

    “To beat a team like that in the first round, who I think if seeded differently, they could make it to the Western Conference Finals or something like that, it’s definitely a challenge,” Peyton Watson said. “But we’re up to it every time, and we love going out there and winning games.”

    With every successive win — every identical win — the unthinkable becomes closer to reality. The Nuggets might just own the Lakers.

    If they finish the job Saturday in Game 4, they’ll accomplish what not even the Steph Curry-Kevin Durant Warriors could, eliminating LeBron James via sweep two years in a row. Golden State needed five games in 2017.

    “They do not have a weakness offensively,” James said. “… Definitely one of the better teams that I’ve played in my career.”

    Maybe Denver will need five games in 2024. But if there’s any reason to believe that now, it’s this: The Nuggets are clearly a danger to themselves in this matchup. They are prone to stretches, even entire halves, of complacency against an opponent that can’t hold a lead against them. The ongoing 11-game win streak features six double-digit comebacks.

    “I think in this job as a coach, you always have to put on the hat of, ‘We have to fight human nature.’ And how do you do that when you’ve beaten a team 10 times in a row?” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said before Game 3, a 112-105 victory. “… Well, we’ve been down 12, we’ve been down 20. We’ve lost the first quarter of both games. We’ve been down at halftime in both games. That’s cool in your home building when you have that crowd behind you, but now it’s just us.”

    Those turned out to be hollow words. Denver spotted Los Angeles an 8-0 lead that grew to 12 before everyone other than Aaron Gordon decided to take Game 3 seriously.

    What followed was a 24-point swing between the second and third quarters. Like clockwork.

    “To be honest, I think every game is tougher and tougher,” Nikola Jokic said. “You can see, they were up 20 in Denver, in Game 2. They were up 12 today in the first half. But yeah, I think it’s really hard to play against the same team over and over again. You kind of get bored with the style of the play or whatever. So you just need to — especially for us, because we won the last three — just trust what we are doing and don’t get bored with success. Because it can (go) wrong really quick.”

    Michael Porter Jr. (1) of the Denver Nuggets knocks down a mid-range jumper over Anthony Davis (3) of the Los Angeles Lakers during the fourth quarter of the Nuggets’ 112-105 win at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Thursday, April 25, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

    The Nuggets are so bored of this matchup that they’ve inadvertently become thrill-seekers, dangling a win in front of the Lakers every night only to pull it out of reach at the last second when Anthony Davis tries to snatch it.

    Moments of redemption for the Lakers are short-lived against Denver. Davis’s dominant first half against Jokic in Game 2 was forgotten because he didn’t score in the fourth quarter. Russell’s 23-point bounce-back was superseded by his scoreless Game 3. In the first and third games, he combined to shoot 6 for 27.

    The variations of a Los Angeles second unit have failed to take any advantage of Jokic’s rest minutes. Before Game 3, Taurean Prince was the only Lakers bench player who’d scored a point in the series. Nothing from Spencer Dinwiddie. Nothing from Gabe Vincent.

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    Bennett Durando

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  • Nets’ offense comes back down to earth as they fall to Steph Curry, Warriors

    Nets’ offense comes back down to earth as they fall to Steph Curry, Warriors

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    One night after hanging 136 points on the short-handed 76ers in Philadelphia, the Nets’ offense came spiraling back down to earth in Monday’s 109-98 loss to the Golden State Warriors, a game where Ben Simmons sat out for precautionary reasons.

    Buckets were hard to come by for both teams Monday night — especially from distance. The Nets held Golden State to 38.3% shooting in the first half and went into the locker room with a 49-43 advantage. But the Warriors, led by Jonathan Kuminga and Stephen Curry, quickly became the aggressors in the second half, outscoring Brooklyn 32-21 in the third quarter to take a five-point lead into the final frame.

    The Nets’ largest lead in the first half was nine points. Golden State made just two 3-pointers in the first half, both from Curry, and turned the ball over 10 times.

    Royce O’Neale did his best to keep the Nets in it down the stretch. He knocked down three 3-pointers in just over a minute to cut the Warriors’ lead to four with 7:37 left in regulation. But Curry responded with five straight points and suddenly Golden State was getting to the rim just about whenever it wanted. A Brandin Podziemski layup put the Warriors up 11 with 5:41 to play.

    The Nets’ frustration boiled over with 4:59 left, as Nic Claxton slammed Podziemski onto the hardwood while trying to prevent him from grabbing another offensive rebound. The play was reviewed. Referees found Claxton’s actions aggressive and unnecessary. He was ejected soon after, which spoiled a night where he tied a career-high with six blocks. Claxton was also Brooklyn’s most efficient scorer on Monday, converting on 7-of-9 attempts.

    The Warriors went 13-for-22 in the fourth quarter (59.1%) and outscored Brooklyn 34-28. Curry, who finished with a game-high 29 points, poured in 12 in the final frame. Golden State outrebounded them 60-38, including 10 on the offensive glass. The absences of Simmons, Day’Ron Sharpe and Dorian Finney-Smith were felt.

    Kumina added 28 points on 9-of-18 shooting for the Warriors. Cam Thomas led the Nets with 18 points but did it on a 4-of-21 clip (10-of-11 from the free throw line. Thomas, O’Neale, Mikal Bridges and Spencer Dinwiddie shot a combined 17-for-60 from the field. It was ugly.

    The Nets (20-29) had won three of their last four games entering Monday night.

    Lonnie Walker IV left the game with 1:20 left in the first quarter and did not return. Left hamstring tightness was the initial diagnosis. He had missed 17 straight games earlier in the season because of a left hamstring strain.

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    C.J. Holmes

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  • Nets’ Spencer Dinwiddie stepping up as distributor in Ben Simmons’ absence

    Nets’ Spencer Dinwiddie stepping up as distributor in Ben Simmons’ absence

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    For much of the season, Spencer Dinwiddie’s role with the Nets was undefined.

    The veteran began the 2023-24 campaign as Brooklyn’s starting shooting guard, ceding the point guard position he primarily played last spring to a healthy Ben Simmons.

    When Cam Thomas kicked off the season with successive offensive outbursts, the 22-year-old quickly emerged as the Nets’ top backcourt scoring option, further clouding Dinwiddie’s situation.

    But in the three weeks since Simmons re-injured his surgically-repaired back, there’s been no question where Dinwiddie fits. Dinwiddie stepped right back in as Brooklyn’s ball-distributing point guard — a role he continues to thrive in.

    Dinwiddie recorded a game-high 11 assists to go with 14 points in Saturday night’s win over the Heat, giving him his second consecutive double-double. Saturday marked his eighth straight start at point guard in place of Simmons and his fourth time in five games tallying at least seven assists.

    “We had talked about Spencer finding his niche with the group, and we’re still not whole yet, so they’re still going to have to get to a different place once we are whole,” coach Jacque Vaughn said after Saturday’s game.

    “Right now, he’s taken advantage of really commanding the basketball, getting us in our spots, calling the right plays, seeing who’s touched the ball, who hasn’t touched the ball, a lot of things that you need to do, responsibility-wise, as a point guard.”

    Dinwiddie is no stranger to being the floor general. He excelled as a passer after returning to Brooklyn in the trade that sent Kyrie Irving to Dallas last February, averaging 9.1 assists in 26 games. Simmons only appeared in four of those games before a nerve impingement in the right side of his back ended his season after 42 games.

    Dinwiddie led the NBA with 146 assists last March, averaging 9.7 per game for the month. He was even better in April, averaging 12.0 over four regular-season games.

    “It’s a natural position for him to be able to go in there and create plays from the point guard spot,” Nets forward Cam Johnson said Saturday. “He does a good job of it. He does a good job no matter where he’s put.”

    The Nets offense looks much different with Dinwiddie at point guard compared to Simmons. With the tempo-pushing Simmons, the Nets are among the NBA’s best transition teams, scoring at least 20 fast-break points in each of his six starts.

    With Dinwiddie, the Nets run less frequently and operate more out of their halfcourt offense. Four of Dinwiddie’s assists Saturday led to buckets at the basket for center Nic Claxton, including two alley-oops. On four of his other assists, Dinwiddie found teammates for three-pointers.

    “Assists are a thing that happen when your teammates make shots, so [I’m] very thankful for them,” Dinwiddie said.

    Now in his seventh season with the Nets, Dinwiddie moved into fifth place on the team’s all-time assists list last week. His 1,784 assists with Brooklyn entering Sunday trailed only the totals compiled by Jason Kidd, Kenny Anderson, Deron Williams and Darwin Cook.

    Dinwiddie is one of three Nets ever to record at least 1,500 assists and make at least 500 three-pointers, along with Kidd and Vince Carter.

    “It just means I’m old,” said Dinwiddie, who, at 30, is the oldest player on the Nets’ roster by a few weeks.

    Simmons, who is now dealing with a nerve impingement in the left side of his lower back, only recently resumed light individual court work, meaning Dinwiddie should remain the Nets’ point guard for at least the foreseeable future.

    The Nets have also been without Thomas, their leading scorer, since Nov. 8 due to a sprained ankle, though he’s expected to be integrated back into team activities this week.

    “I can’t replace Ben,” Dinwiddie said Saturday.

    “I try to fit into whatever role happens. Tonight we were making shots, so just trying to find people. It’s pretty much that simple. When those guys come back, we’ll see what happens.”

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    Peter Sblendorio

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  • Irving trade official as Mavs essentially start season over

    Irving trade official as Mavs essentially start season over

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    DALLAS (AP) — Luka Doncic has his co-star, and the Dallas Mavericks are set for their season essentially to start over after trading for Kyrie Irving.

    The blockbuster deal with Brooklyn sending the mercurial Irving to the Mavericks became official Monday, two days before what figures to be his Dallas debut at the Los Angeles Clippers.

    Dallas also gets Markieff Morris in a trade that sent Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, a 2029 first-round pick and two second-round choices to the Nets.

    It’s unknown if Doncic will be available against the Clippers. He wasn’t with the Mavs at the start of a five-game trip out West after bruising his right heel in the final home game before the trip. He was ruled out of the second game on the trip at Utah on Monday night.

    Whenever the All-Stars do get on the court together, Doncic and Irving instantly become one of the NBA’s top duos in a tightly packed Western Conference. Mavs coach Jason Kidd said that made the opportunity too good to pass up, despite the distractions Irving has caused off the court.

    “To have the ability to have two starters that are going to start in the All-Star Game, for the Mavs, is probably a first,” Kidd said. “We have to be excited about this opportunity. It’s easy to look at all the talk of the negative, but let’s look at the positive of what he’s done on and off the court. That’s the way we approach it.”

    The Nets hardly even said goodbye, perhaps fed up from all the drama Irving caused in just 3½ seasons.

    Brooklyn’s news release on the trade barely mentioned Irving, whereas the announcement last year that they had dealt James Harden to Philadelphia included a quote from general manager Sean Marks thanking the star guard for his contributions and wishing him well in the future.

    Irving’s departure was a far cry from the fanfare that followed his arrival along with Kevin Durant in 2019, when the player who was a Nets fan in New Jersey came home in hopes of leading the franchise to its first title.

    But they never got close, and when Irving asked to be traded, just like he once did in Cleveland, the Nets quickly accommodated him.

    Irving is set to become a free agent after the season. But negotiations will involve Dallas general manager Nico Harrison, who was a Nike executive before taking over the Mavericks in 2021.

    Irving had a relationship with Nike for the entirety of his NBA career until earlier this season, when the sneaker giant dropped him and canceled the planned release of his next signature shoe just before it dropped. It was part of the massive fallout from Irving posting a link to an antisemitic film on his Twitter account.

    That was one of many drama-filled sagas that marked Irving’s time with the Nets. He wouldn’t get vaccinated against COVID-19 and, because of New York City workplace rules, had to miss most of Brooklyn’s home games last season. He also took two leaves of absence during the 2020-21 season.

    He has expressed no shortage of controversial opinions during his career — including repeated questioning whether the Earth was round before eventually apologizing to science teachers.

    Doncic is in a dead heat for the scoring lead with fellow MVP candidate Joel Embiid of Philadelphia, and is the only one of the seven current 30-point scorers also averaging at least eight rebounds and eight assists per game. Irving is averaging 27.1 points, 5.3 assists and 5.1 rebounds.

    The West has several title-contending teams beyond defending champion Golden State, which eliminated the Mavs in the conference finals last season.

    Jalen Brunson was crucial to Dallas’ playoff run alongside Doncic last season, but decided he wanted his own starting role as a point guard and left for the New York Knicks in free agency.

    While the Mavericks traded for a solid No. 2 scorer in Christian Wood in the offseason, they haven’t been able to win without Doncic this season.

    Dallas was 0-7 without Doncic going into the game against the Jazz, when Wood was expected to return after missing eight games with a fractured left thumb.

    A year ago, the Mavericks were right around .500 when their surge started just as the calendar turned to 2022. The arrival of 2023 hasn’t had the same effect — the high point so far is six games over .500 — but the Mavs hope the arrival of Irving will.

    Dallas beat Utah twice in the first three games of a first-round series last season when Doncic was out with a calf injury, and Brunson was the biggest reason. Now Doncic has higher-profile help.

    “Just being able to give Luka an opportunity to come down the court without having to dribble or run every play,” Kidd said. “We look back when we had (Brunson) and being able to have a playmaker like that. When you look at Ky, nothing against (Brunson), but Ky is at a different level.”

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    AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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  • Doncic’s 30-point streak hits 8 games as Mavs beat Raptors

    Doncic’s 30-point streak hits 8 games as Mavs beat Raptors

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    DALLAS — Luka Doncic scored 35 points, his eighth consecutive game of at least 30 to begin the season, as the Dallas Mavericks beat the Toronto Raptors 111-110 on Friday night.

    The only other NBA player to score 30 or more points in the first eight games of a season is Wilt Chamberlain, who did it in the first eight games of 1959-60 and the first 23 games of 1962-63.

    Doncic played 37 minutes and passed the 30-point mark with 18.7 seconds left in the third quarter on a turnaround fadeaway jumper.

    The Raptors cut a 19-point third-quarter deficit to 108-105 with 35.5 seconds left. Doncic sank the first of two free throws with 15.9 seconds to gain a four-point lead. O.G. Anunoby drove for a dunk with 11 seconds left. Spencer Dinwiddie hit two free throws with 3 seconds to go, making the score 111-107. Anunoby hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

    Dinwiddie had 21 points and seven assists for the Mavericks, who have won three straight games after splitting their first six.

    The Mavericks outscored the Raptors 14-2 during the first four minutes of the second half to build a 73-57 lead. During the run, Doncic had a 3-pointer, two free throws, two steals, a rebound and an assist.

    Anunoby scored 27 points, Pascal Siakam 18 and Chris Boucher 17 off the bench for the Raptors, who came off wins of 30 points and 43 points. The latter, at San Antonio on Monday, was the franchise’s largest road victory margin.

    Doncic scored 14 points in the first quarter, playing the full period, and added only two in the second quarter, playing only the final 4½ minutes.

    TIP-INS

    Raptors: G Fred VanVleet, fourth in the NBA in steals, missed his third-consecutive game with lower back stiffness. Coach Nick Nurse said he thought VanVleet would play after going through a full practice on Thursday. “I’m expecting him pretty soon to be back,” Nurse said.

    Mavericks: C Dwight Powell, a Toronto native, made his second start of the season, replacing JaVale McGee in the starting lineup.

    UP NEXT

    Raptors: Begin a home-and-home with Chicago at home on Sunday.

    Mavericks: Host Brooklyn on Monday.

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    AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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