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Tag: wizards

  • Hornets carry modest momentum into clash with Magic

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    (Photo credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images)

    Hot-shooting rookie Kon Knueppel and the Charlotte Hornets look to continue a surge when they visit the Orlando Magic on Friday night.

    Charlotte has won three of its last five games and Knueppel, the No. 4 overall pick out of Duke, leads all rookies in scoring with 19.4 points per game and is shooting 41.9% from 3-point range.

    ‘We’re just going to take one game at a time, compete and try to get a win every night,’ Knueppel said following Tuesday night’s 126-109 win over the Washington Wizards. ‘And going forward, I think if we play our brand of basketball and play the way we want to play, we’re going to have a good chance to do that.’

    Knueppel was one of eight Hornets in double figures with 19 points against the Wizards, sinking 5 of 9 shots from behind the arc.

    LaMelo Ball has been in and out of the Hornets’ lineup, appearing in 20 of 30 games this season dealing with ankle injuries. He is averaging 19.6 points and 8.7 assists, which would rank fifth in the NBA if he had played enough games to qualify.

    Ball had a team-high 23 points with nine assists against Washington. Brandon Miller added 20 points, and Moussa Diabate delivered 12 points and 18 rebounds.

    Second-year Charlotte coach Charles Lee believes the team is turning the corner due to its increased defensive intensity.

    ‘I feel like our defense continues to get better,’ he said on Tuesday. ‘The games that we win, our defensive rating is usually in a really good spot. And then offensively, I feel like ever since the game at Brooklyn (a 116-103 loss on Dec. 1), we’ve done such a better job of trusting the pass, playing the pass.’

    Defense has been the Magic’s calling card for the last few years under coach Jamahl Mosley. That and injuries, unfortunately.

    The Magic’s leading scorer, Franz Wagner, is currently dealing with a left ankle sprain and has missed the last two weeks, and Moritz Wagner is still out after tearing his ACL last season.

    ‘Whoever is out there on the floor, you’re asked to play Magic basketball, and that is playing hard, playing together, playing defense, playing for one another,’ Mosley said Tuesday. ‘This group will continue to show that as we get bodies back, whenever that may be.’

    Orlando has won two of its last three games, most recently a 110-106 win in Portland on Tuesday. Desmond Bane scored 23 points, and Anthony Black added 22.

    Orlando continues to rank among the worst 3-point shooting teams in the NBA at 34.3%, 27th in the league. Bane, brought over in a monster offseason trade with the Memphis Grizzlies, is shooting a career-worst 36.6% from downtown, but is coming off making a season-high four 3-pointers on seven attempts against the Trail Blazers.

    Orlando defeated the Hornets 123-107 on Oct. 30 in Charlotte. The Magic have swept the last five meetings and won 10 of the last 11.

    –Field Level Media

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  • NBA roundup: Spurs off to first 5-0 start in team history

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    (Photo credit: Scott Wachter-Imagn Images)

    Victor Wembanyama posted 27 points, 18 rebounds, six assists and five blocks while leading the host San Antonio Spurs to a 107-101 victory over the Miami Heat on Thursday night.

    The Spurs, who have won five NBA titles, are off to a 5-0 start for the first time in franchise history. San Antonio also got 21 points, eight assists, six rebounds and four steals from Stephon Castle.

    Bam Adebayo scored a game-high 31 points and pulled down 10 rebounds while Andrew Wiggins added 24 points for the Heat, whose three-game winning streak ended.

    San Antonio, which entered the game with the best scoring defense in the NBA (104.5 points per game), won a battle against a Heat team that entered the day with the league’s No. 1 scoring offense (131.5).

    Bucks 120, Warriors 110

    Ryan Rollins scored a career-high 32 points and handed out eight assists, and seven other Bucks players reached double figures to lead Milwaukee to a victory over visiting Golden State without Giannis Antetokounmpo.

    Myles Turner delivered his best game as a Buck with 17 points and seven rebounds. Cole Anthony added 16 points despite fouling out with more than seven minutes remaining.

    Stephen Curry scored 27 points to lead the Warriors, with Jonathan Kuminga (24) and Jimmy Butler III (23) not far behind. Butler grabbed 11 boards.

    Thunder 127, Wizards 108

    Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 31 points, seven assists and no turnovers, leading Oklahoma City to a home win over Washington.

    The defending NBA champion Thunder are 6-0 for the second consecutive season after starting their championship season with seven straight victories. Oklahoma City turned up the heat defensively from the start, scoring 26 points off 23 Wizards’ turnovers while the Thunder turned the ball over just six times.

    After missing the first four games due to an offseason thumb injury, Bilal Coulibaly made his season debut for the Wizards. Coulibaly scored 16 points and added eight rebounds, four assists and three blocks in 24 minutes.

    Magic 123, Hornets 107

    Franz Wagner scored 21 points while Paolo Banchero and Anthony Black each added 20 points as Orlando defeated Charlotte for its first road win of the season.

    The Magic, who snapped a four-game overall losing streak, shot 51.7% from the field and made 16 3-pointers. Tristan da Silva added 19 points off the bench.

    Collin Sexton led the Hornets with 19 points off the bench, while Ryan Kalkbrenner and LaMelo Ball each scored 17 points. Charlotte was coming off a 1-2 road trip.

    –Field Level Media

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  • Knicks rule RJ Barrett, Quentin Grimes out vs. Wizards

    Knicks rule RJ Barrett, Quentin Grimes out vs. Wizards

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    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two starters are out of the Knicks’ rotation, though one could return any day now.

    RJ Barrett missed his third straight game due to a migraine on Friday, but was in good spirits ahead of tipoff against the Wizards. He was listed as questionable and scratched from the lineup a half-hour before tip but was all smiles when he arrived on-court at the Capital One Arena, and was laughing his way through the locker room ahead of pregame warmups.

    “Looking at him, he looks a lot better,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said ahead of tipoff. “So we’ll see. He was under the weather. Feeling a lot better today.”

    Friday’s matchup against the Wizards, however, was the first leg of a road back-to-back, with the second leg coming in Charlotte against the Hornets on Saturday.

    Barrett could be in play for an injury return for the second game.

    Quentin Grimes, however, was nowhere to be found on Friday.

    Grimes checked himself out of the game and darted straight to the locker room in the fourth quarter after swiping down on Bogdan Bogdanovic’s drive to the rim in Wednesday’s victory over the Hawks.

    Thibodeau called Grimes’ injury a bruised hand after the game, and the team ruled him out with a sprained left wrist on Friday. Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo started in place of Barrett and Grimes.

    “It’s just a sprain, so we’ll see where he is tomorrow,” Thibodeau said. Asked if Grimes is day-to-day and is expected to play for the remaining two games of the Knicks’ road trip, the coach said: “Yeah, so it’s just a bruise really.”

    Thibodeau, however, said he wasn’t sure whether or not Grimes got X-rays done on his hand. Without clarity on scans on his hand, there is no clarity for an injury return timeline.

    Grimes is the Knicks’ best perimeter defender who routinely defends the opposing team’s No. 1 scoring option. He is also shooting a career-best 40% from downtown to start the season.

    “Next guy get in there, get the job done,” he said. “We’ve got a bunch of wings that are more than capable.”

    With Grimes out on Friday, he is also likely to miss Saturday’s matchup against the Hornets.

    The Knicks wrap their five-game road trip on Monday against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

    ***

    Thibodeau chuckled at the idea that the NBA’s new In-Season Tournament  margin of victory format would influence the way he coached blowout games in the fourth quarter.

    “I don’t get stuck in all that,” he said with a smile. “I just want to win. So we’re gonna play the right way. That’s the bottom line.”

    The Knicks lost their first In-Season Tournament game to the Milwaukee Bucks by five. If they lose a second game, it will be difficult to envision them advancing to a further round.

    Thibodeau suggested his team has bigger fish to fry, but thinks the tournament is good for the league.

    “I think the interest is good for the fans,” he said. “I think the important thing for us is to understand each and every game counts the same, and to lock into that, so don’t get caught up in all the other stuff, ‘cause when you do that, that’s usually when you get knocked down.”

    ***

    Wizards coach Wes Unseld Jr. said Julius Randle’s ability to operate the pick-and-roll with both smaller and bigger  players setting screens creates matchup nightmares.

    “He’s a guy, obviously his size and his strength, he has the ability to score on all three levels,” he said ahead of tipoff. “For a power forward to play pick-and-roll the way he does, whether that’s big-big or small-big, it causes some coverage issues at some times, unconventional when smalls are setting for your power forward, but they find that action in the flow [of the offense] and it does cause some issues. You want to minimize the switch and the collateral that causes because it can be very effective in the post.

    “He’s another guy that finds a way to get to the line. The use of shot fakes and step-throughs, initiates contact and gets you lifted, so being able to guard a guy in space, minimize the fouls, but then also know that he can get hot from three. So he can do it at all three levels.”

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    Kristian Winfield

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  • Jordan Poole hangs 41 on Knicks as ex-Warriors star leads Wizards to victory

    Jordan Poole hangs 41 on Knicks as ex-Warriors star leads Wizards to victory

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    This time, it was Jordan Poole who threw the haymakers.

    Yes — that Jordan Poole: the third Splash Brother turned Washington Wizards franchise cornerstone who was unceremoniously traded from the Golden State Warriors after the punch felt ‘round the world.

    The last time the basketball world heard from Poole, he spoke with a tattered jaw after his tough-guy teammate Draymond Green duffed (read: sucker-punched) him during Warriors training camp a summer ago.

    Poole spent the entirety of an uncomfortable season playing alongside Green before the Warriors shuttled him to D.C. in a deal for Chris Paul.

    My-oh-my how things can turn with a change of scenery and a blaring green light.

    Poole’s light shined emerald with Kyle Kuzma sitting for the Wizards against the Knicks on Wednesday night. There was a Poole Party at MSG to end the preseason and usher in the regular season, which begins in a week on Oct. 25.

    The Warriors’ castaway-turned-Wizards star is still instant offense, an early front-runner for Most Improved Player of the Year after pelting the Knicks from downtown in a 131-106 finish in New York’s preseason finale on Wednesday.

    The Knicks, on the other hand, end the preseason on a low note in their first game with their starters playing a full share of minutes. Immanuel Quickley sat after head coach Tom Thibodeau called him “nicked-up” for the finale.

    Poole was anything but that.

    He finished with 41 points on 6-of-12 shooting from downtown, but 29 points came in the first half alone. Of his six threes, none were more impressive than his final three of the second quarter, where he pump-faked to get R.J. Barrett off his feet, then took one dribble toward the paint as if he were driving to the rim, before uncorking an unorthodox escape side-step three — a sequence that left Barrett swerving like an Uber driver on the Jackie Robinson Parkway.

    On his previous attempt from downtown, Poole let an open three fly, then turned his back and got back on defense before the shot ripped through the net.

    Just like he learned from Steph Curry.

    And he hit his final three of the night with three-and-a-half minutes left in the third quarter, when
    Quentin Grimes crowded him at half court, only for Poole to drive into him and push off for a top-of-the-key three. On the very next possession, Poole blew by Jalen Brunson and got to the line. He converted on 15-of-16 attempts from the line, 11 of the 12 coming in the first half.

    Maybe Poole is the new James Harden?

    After all, Harden’s ascent to superstardom occurred after his trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Houston Rockets, where the organization built an entire identity around The Beard’s offensive prowess and crafty style of play.

    Harden ironically did not win Most Improved Player of the Year despite a jump from 17 to 26 points and six assists as Rockets point guard the following season. Poole could very well be overlooked for the honor this season, as well: He has always had this kind of offensive ability – it was just dumbed downplaying fourth fiddle to Curry, Green and Klay Thompson on the Warriors.

    Poole’s 40-point night is going to become a regular occurrence on a team – aside from Kuzma – otherwise devoid of scoring.

    What cannot become the norm at The Garden is the Knick bench getting outplayed by the opponent.

    Wizards stretch-four Mike Muscala came off the bench and gave the Knicks 20 points — all after Julius Randle dunked on him midway through the first quarter. Muscala made his first five threes of the night. The Wizard bench scored 63 points to 48 for the Knicks reserves, minus Quickley — whose value increased in a loss he watched idly from the bench. Quickley will be a restricted free agent next summer, and the Knicks have an Oct. 23 deadline to sign him to a contract extension

    Randle finished with 20 points, Barrett with 19 and Jalen Brunson finished with just 12 points on 12 shot attempts. No Knicks players scored in double figures off the bench, Miles McBride struggled from downtown, and both McBride and Donte DiVincenzo posted the worst plus-minuses of the night: The Knicks were outscored by 23 in each of their minutes on the floor.

    And now, it’s a wrap: The exhibition games are over and the games will begin to count. Beginning with a seven-game stretch against teams far more talented than the Wizards — who hosted a Poole Party at The Garden to end the preseason.

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    Kristian Winfield

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