Posts Tagged ‘Anderson Varejao’

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Report: Howard Ready To Join Lakers?

July 19, 2012  ·  5:23AM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Has persistence finally paid off for the Los Angeles Lakers?

If the rumblings prove correct, that could be the case. Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard, whose months-old trade request to the Brooklyn Nets, is apparently warming up to the idea of joining the Los Angeles Lakers, per a report from RealGM’s Jarrod N. Rudolph.

With Howard reportedly set to sign a long-term extension with the Lakers, all that’s needed now is for all sides to sign off on a three-team blockbuster that will reshape the balance of power in the Western Conference and the league. The details from Rudolph (click here to hear Rudolph discussing the latest on the Howard drama on Episode 87 of the Hang Time Podcast):

Dwight Howard has long coveted the Brooklyn Nets as his next landing spot, but after a summer filled with daily rumors of four-team trade proposals, the six-time All-Star has moved on from his Big Apple infatuation and is locked in on joining the Los Angeles Lakers, sources tell RealGM.

The Lakers, Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers are reportedly discussing a three-team trade that would send Howard to the Lakers, Andrew Bynum to the Cavaliers, while the Magic would receive Anderson Varejao and multiple draft picks.

Howard has always been impressed with the Lakers’ winning tradition and intrigued with the off-court opportunities that come with playing in Los Angeles.

(more…)

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Posted in Free Agency 2012, HT News / Comments (449) /

James, Defense Help U.S. Beat Brazil

July 17, 2012  ·  12:29AM

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In front of President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden, the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team picked up an 80-69 exhibition victory over Brazil on Monday.

As the score indicates, the win was neither easy nor pretty. Brazil led 27-17 after the first quarter, and the U.S. scored an even 80 points on 80 possessions, not too efficient given all the offensive talent on the roster.

Shooting was the issue. The U.S. shot just 9-for-33 (27 percent) from outside the paint and players not named LeBron James shot just 4-for-21 (19 percent) from 3-point range. Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant, three of the U.S. Team’s four best scorers, combined to shoot just 9-for-31 overall.

James picked up the slack though, scoring 30 points on 11-for-20 shooting and adding six rebounds and four steals. And while he flourished in transition, he also took advantage of several matchups with the 6-3 Alex Garcia.

Except when it came to LeBron, Brazil had the matchup advantages inside. Big men Tyson Chandler and Kevin Love combined to play less than 25 of the 40 minutes, so the U.S. went small for almost half the game, and wings Andre Iguodala, Bryant and Durant often found themselves matched up with Tiago Splitter, Anderson Varejao and Nene in the paint.

U.S. head coach Mike Krzyzewski believes that the defensive matchups were partly responsible for the offensive struggles. (more…)

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Posted in USA Basketball / Comments (47) /

Brazil A Test For The U.S. On Monday

July 15, 2012  ·  11:08PM

WASHINGTON, D.C. – From every angle, Spain, featuring a frontline of Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, is the biggest threat to the U.S. Men’s Senior National team in its quest to win a second straight Olympic gold medal.

Argentina, with its generation of international stars playing one last tournament together, is a dangerous threat. France has as much NBA talent as any team outside of the U.S. And Lithuania and Russia are two more tough teams who won’t be eliminated easily.

But the team that gave the United States their toughest game at the 2010 World Championship was Brazil, who the U.S. will play Monday in an exhibition game at the Verizon Center (8 p.m. ET, ESPN2). It’s the U.S. Team’s final action on American soil before they travel to Manchester and Barcelona for three more exhibitions, and then to London for the Olympics.

The U.S. Women will also play Brazil as part of a double-header. The women’s game precedes the men on ESPN2 at 5:30 p.m. ET.

The Brazilian men finished ninth in Turkey, but they gave the U.S. a real scare in preliminary round action before falling 70-68 in a game that was inches away from going to overtime. It was also a game that was played without two of Brazil’s best players, Nene (not on the roster) and Anderson Varejao (injured).

Five players on this year’s U.S. Team were there in Istanbul and remember that game pretty vividly. The other seven got a taste of it when the team watched film Sunday morning before practice. (more…)

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Posted in USA Basketball / Comments (29) /

Air Check: That’s Hawesome!

February 1, 2012  ·  10:17AM

HANG TIME NEW JERSEY BUREAU – For NBA fans like us, there’s nothing better than League Pass. Having the ability to watch every game every night (and then again the next day) is heaven.

Of course, with local broadcasts, you get local broadcasters, which can be good and bad. It can be good, because these guys know their teams better than most national broadcasters. It can be bad, because these guys love their teams more than most national broadcasters. And they’re usually not afraid to show that love.

This season, we’re highlighting the good, the bad and the ugly of League Pass here on the Hang Time Blog. So here are five things from the last two weeks that made us laugh, made us smarter, or made us shake our heads.

No. 5 – Floppy play.
Game: Houston @ Minnesota, Jan. 23
Broadcast: Minnesota
NBA broadcasters spend a lot of time talking about the players, but not enough time talking about the plays they run. Here, coming back from a timeout, Wolves color analyst Jim Peterson diagrams a “floppy” side pick-and-roll play that the Wolves ran, resulting in a layup for Darko Milicic. I love it when an NBA broadcast makes you smarter …


No. 4 – A forgettable teammate.
Game: Memphis @ Phoenix, Jan. 29
Broadcast: Phoenix
Suns color analyst Eddie Johnson, who’s always an entertaining listen, has jokes. This one’s about how bad a shooter Tony Allen is. Unfortunately, play-by-play man Tom Leander ruins the fun …


“Thunder” Dan Majerle is Johnson’s former teammate with the Suns and current Suns assistant. So yeah, Johnson probably should have remembered him.

(more…)

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Posted in Air Check / Comments (11) /

Poster child

May 17, 2011  ·  4:19PM

CHICAGO — Here in this viral world, there are no secrets anymore. All privacy is gone. You can’t even get dunked on in peace.

That is the scar Dwyane Wade must live with, the fact that being tattooed by Taj Gibson in Game 1 will stay forever in cyberspace. Such is the inconvenience of existing in modern times. Surely, many great players in the past were posterized in similar fashion, or even harsher, but there’s no proof. There’s no video archive. And therefore, they can always point to what happened to Wade and tell their grandchildren: That never happened to me.

Within hours after Wade was Gibsoned, the video received over 200,000 views on YouTube. You see, when Michael Jordan dunked on somebody, we became fond of saying the victim was “posterized.” But that is so 1992. Today, you get “YouTubbed.” Posters can get dog-eared and yellow and eventually thrown in the trash by your mom. When you get YouTubbed, it’s for life.

(more…)

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Posted in 2011 Playoffs / Comments (53) /

Another Dagger For The Cavs

January 10, 2011  ·  2:05PM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – With all the Carmelo Anthony chatter and the hideout being buried under nearly two feet of snow, we almost missed the news of Anderson Varejao‘s season being over in Cleveland.

What a cruel stretch this has been for Varejao and the Cavs. We won’t bother digging up the mess that was their summer. But Varejao has been in the blender since training camp, as Mary Schmitt Boyer of the Plain Dealer reported:

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse for the Cavaliers, the team announced Sunday that center Anderson Varejao will miss the rest of the season with a torn peroneus longus tendon in his right foot that will require surgery.

“It’s devastating,” said Mo Williams. “Obviously he’s a big part of what we do offensively and especially defensively. It’s a tough one to swallow. It’s hard.”

Coach Byron Scott said he had not talked to Varejao, their defensive anchor who was averaging 9.1 points and 9.7 rebounds this season.

“When I heard the news, I’m not going to say I didn’t buckle,” Scott said before Sunday night’s game against the Suns in USAirways Center. “A lot of it was because Andy’s been playing great. He’s been unbelievable. He’s arguably our best player and for him to go down that way — in practice on the last drill just running up and down the floor, no contact whatsoever — that’s tough.

“I feel more saddened for him because of what he has put into this season and all the other stuff he’s been through. He’s been through a lot this season. To come out and play the way he’s been playing all season long, I feel real bad for him.”

Varejao left the team during training camp when his grandfather died in Brazil. A short time later, his father had heart surgery. On Dec. 29, he broke his cheekbone during a game in Charlotte and has had to wear a mask to protect it.

In the name of Dr. Naismith, something good needs to happen to that team and those fans in Cleveland!

Enough is enough.

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Notes from ARG 93, BRA 89

September 7, 2010  ·  5:12PM

Scola pointed the way to the quarterfinals. (Garrett Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images)

ISTANBUL – The round of 16 concluded with the best game of the 2010 World Championship thus far. From start to finish, this was a beautiful display of basketball, and it’s a shame that one of these two teams had to go home early.

That team is Brazil, with Argentina advancing to the quarterfinals with a 93-89 victory on Tuesday night. Both of these teams executed brilliantly in a win-or-go-home situation, and in the end, Argentina had Luis Scola, and Brazil did not.

Scola has clearly been the MVP of this tournament thus far, and apparently his 29-point average in pool play was just an appetizer for the medal rounds. He dropped 37 on Brazil, to go along with nine rebounds, three assists and two steals.

One of Scola’s biggest shots of the game was a post-up, fadeaway turnaround over Anderson Varejao, but we really didn’t see much of Scola in the post in this game. In fact, when he did post up earlier in the night, he turned the ball over a couple of times.

Most of his production came off pick-and-roll or pick-and-pop action with point guard Pablo Prigioni. But he also had a gorgeous running bank shot off a slip-and-dish from Carlos Delfino. Then there was a great weak-side cut down the middle of the lane off a Prigioni-Fabricio Oberto pick-and-roll.

The biggest bucket of the night was a pick-and-pop 18-footer that gave Argentina a five-point lead with 24 seconds to go. Brazil never got a chance to tie or take the lead after that.

On the other end of the floor, Brazilian point guard Marcelo Huertas was almost as brilliant as Scola. Huertas wasn’t dishing out assists like he did in the first half against the U.S. last week, but rather was getting to the rim off high screen-and-rolls. He also hit a few pull-up threes when the Argentine defenders backed off, finishing with 32 points on 10-for-16 shooting.

It was a ridiculously efficient game overall, with the two teams combining to shoot 56 percent from the field and score 182 points on 131 possessions, which translates to 139 points per 100. As a reference, the overall efficiency of the tournament before Tuesday’s games was about 105 points per 100 possessions.

(more…)

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Posted in USA Basketball / Comments (43) /

Start The Camp Countdown

September 7, 2010  ·  10:36AM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – We can see the starting blocks now.

Training camp is around the corner.

The official start is still a few weeks away, but if you pop your head into the practice facility of just about any team today you’re guaranteed to see NBA players getting a head start on the 2010-11 season.

They realize what’s at stake. They know how important the first steps of a marathon can be for anyone with playoff or even loftier expectations.

Summer school is over folks — and don’t you wish the folks grading your papers in college were the same folks handing out these summer report cards around here (not a single F was delivered, not one)?

The pressure is on all around the league, on players, coaches and front office types that understand the time to make a move up the league’s food chain is now. Kobe Bryant and the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers were the only ones that could go into the summer with any feeling of satisfaction, knowing full well that the good vibrations could last for only so long.

***

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It’s time to the make the donuts again, or close to it, and that means there are questions we need answered.

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Notes From FIBA Day 5

September 1, 2010  ·  6:14PM

ISTANBUL – Day 5 at the 2010 FIBA World Championship brought some key games, but USA-Iran was not one of them. As expected, the U.S. rolled to an easy win.

Did they accomplish anything other than clinching first place in Group B? I tried to answer that question in the postgame analysis.

Check out the quote near the bottom from Andre Iguodala about defensive communication. They’ll definitely need it against the teams that execute well offensively like Brazil did in the first half on Monday.

***

Jerry Colangelo mentioned after tonight’s game that the team had a great meeting in the morning. I don’t know the details, but here’s what Iguodala had to say about it…

“Coach K does a great job of motivating his teams. He showed us the difference between the games we played against Croatia and Slovenia versus the game we played against Brazil.”

And there’s little doubt that the staff made the players aware of the likelihood that they’ll face Greece or Spain in the quarterfinals, because both Iguodala and Rudy Gay admitted to knowing about the scenario that has been playing out in Groups C and D.

“Whether you play them in the first round or the gold medal round, you’ve still got to play your best basketball,” Iguodala said. “It just calls us to key in for the early rounds and hopefully, get wins. And it prepares us for the medal rounds.”

***

The big game at the Abdi Ipekci Arena today was the nightcap between Brazil and Slovenia. Brazil was clearly the tougher test for the U.S. and it also got Anderson Varejao back for this game, but it was Slovenia that captured second place in Group B with an impressive 80-77 win.

That puts Slovenia on the more wide-open half of the bracket, the one without the U.S. and likely without Spain or Greece. And now Brazil will play Croatia for third place in Group B on Thursday. If Brazil wins that one, they’ll be on the same half of the bracket as the U.S. and play the loser of tomorrow’s Argentina-Serbia game in the round of 16. No matter which of those two teams it is, that would be a must-watch matchup.

That Argentina-Serbia game could be the biggest of the day, and you can watch it on NBA TV at noon ET. The winner will finish first in Group A and be on the easier side of the bracket. The loser will finish second and likely have to play Brazil on Tuesday.

***

After their game was over tonight, the U.S. players caught the end of the Angola-Germany game in their locker room. Germany had a four-point lead with 30 seconds to go in regulation, but couldn’t hold on to it. They lost in overtime and were eliminated from qualifying for the round of 16.

Now, Angola will play Australia on Thursday, with the loser finishing fourth in Group A and facing the U.S. in the round of 16. The winner will finish third and face Slovenia.

***

I’ve written and tweeted plenty about the possibility of Spain (as D3) and Greece (as C2) facing each other in the round of 16, but it’s no guarantee. In fact, I think I was wrong when I wrote yesterday that Spain can finish no better than third in Group D.

Check out this scenario: If New Zealand beats France and Spain beats Canada on Thursday, then France, New Zealand and Spain would all be tied for second place at 3-2. The first tie-breaker is head-to-head, but all three teams would have one win and one loss against the other two.

The next tie-breaker would be what FIBA calls “goal average,” which is calculated by points scored / points allowed in the two head-to-head games. Here’s where the three teams stand before Thursday’s action.

France = 72/66 = 1.091 goal average (and would go down with a loss to New Zealand)
New Zealand = 84/101 = 0.832 GA (and would go up with a win over France)
Spain = 167/156 = 1.071 GA

So if New Zealand can upset France and take France’s GA below 1.071, Spain could finish second in the group and avoid that game against Greece.

Greece could also avoid it … if they lose to Russia on Thursday. That game is for second place in Group C.

Of course, if Spain finishes second in Group D and Greece finishes third in Group C, they’d still play each other …  on the other half of the bracket.

That’s a lot to think about …  and a lot of games to watch on Thursday.

***

More USA Basketball coverage: Analysis | Blog

John Schuhmann is a staff writer for NBA.com. Send him an e-mail or follow him on twitter.

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Notes From FIBA Day 2

August 29, 2010  ·  5:30PM

Hooked on Love. (Garrett Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images)

ISTANBUL – Day 2 of the World Championship is in the books. The U.S. had a bit of a rough stretch between the first and second quarters against Slovenia, but they recovered well for another win by 20-plus.

That ugly stretch and the travel calls, specifically, were the focus of today’s post-game analysis.

As you’ll read there, Boki Nachbar thought that there weren’t enough of those travel calls made against the U.S. on Sunday. And from all the whistles I heard, I’d say that the Slovenian fans in the crowd agreed with him.

I was actually asking Boki about the refs calling the game loose, because it seemed to me that the U.S. was allowed to push the Slovenians around a bit defensively (even more contact than you regularly see in FIBA ball). But here was his full response…

“The one thing that bothers me is too many times the refs looked away when they traveled. This is FIBA basketball. In FIBA basketball, you’re not allowed to take two steps before you put the ball down. And too many times, the refs don’t call that when Team USA’s on the floor. That’s the only thing that I have to say. Otherwise, they were good.”

***

Kevin Love is beastly. He’s now got 21 boards in 26:38 of playing time over the last two days. That’s 31.5 rebounds per 40 minutes. Not bad.

“That’s what I do,” he says. “That’s how I make my money.”

He admits, though, that his role is a little different than it is back in Minnesota.

“Playing with all these guys, they definitely open up the floor. I know that if I’m going to stay in the game and play minutes, I have to get out there and get every rebound. That’s kind of what coach tells me. Right before I go in the game, he says ‘get me every rebound.’”

And coach Mike Krzyzewski will probably be telling him that a little earlier in the game on Monday.

***

Things continue to go as planned in Group B, with Croatia beating Iran and Brazil cruising past Tunisia. This group will start to get interesting on Monday.

And Nachbar admitted today that his team is focused on its next two games.

“That wasn’t the most important game in the tournament for us, so we’re not too worried or concerned,” he said after Sunday’s loss to the U.S. “Croatia and Brazil are the most important games. They’re our rivals for the second spot in the group, so those are the most important games for us.”

Slovenia plays Croatia in the first game on Monday.

***

For now, the other groups are where the fun is at.

Group D almost had another shocker, as Canada led Lithuania by 17 points midway through the third quarter before blowing the lead missing on three chances to win or tie in the final minute-plus. The win keeps Lithuania tied with France atop the group.

Puerto Rico put another scare into Greece in Group C, but it was Group A that had the two most thrilling games.

Germany upset Serbia 82-81 in double-OT with the Germans’ final points coming on a ridiculous shot by Jan Jagla and Milenko Tepic missing on a drive that could have won it for Serbia in the final seconds.

So I guess Serbia won’t completely withstand the suspensions of Nenad Krstic and Milos Teodosic after all.

And in the nightcap in Kayseri, Argentina used a 13-0 fourth-quarter run to come back and beat Australia, but not before they came a hair away from blowing it in the final seconds.

Argentina was inbounding the ball with a two-point lead and 3.5 seconds on the clock, but they threw the inbounds pass away without it touching anyone. Australia then inbounded the ball into the corner, and Adam Gibson’s three went in … and out.

So at 2-0, Argentina is the only team in the World Championship that sits alone atop its group’s standings.

***

The U.S. will conclude their three games in three days with Monday’s matchup vs. Brazil (2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN). Brazil has beaten Iran and Tunisia by almost identical scores (81-65 and 80-65), the only team in the tournament, other than the U.S. to have won two games by 15 points or more.

Essentially, this game is for first place in Group B. If the U.S. wins, they’re on their way to a 5-0 mark. And if Brazil wins, they’re not likely to lose two more, and would have the tie-breaker against the U.S. should both teams finish 4-1.

Anderson Varejao, still nursing a sore ankle, has sat out the first two games. But the word from the Brazilian media is that he will play against the U.S., and maybe against Slovenia on Wednesday if his team needs him.

Monday will be an opportunity for American fans to get a good look at Tiago Splitter, who will be playing with the San Antonio Spurs next season.

***

If the U.S. beats Brazil, then we can start looking ahead to their possible round-of-16 matchups and what other teams will be on their side of the bracket, because neither Iran or Tunisia will have a chance against them.

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Turkish lesson of the day: İyi günler! = Have a nice day!

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More USA Basketball coverage: Analysis | Blog

John Schuhmann is a staff writer for NBA.com. Send him an e-mail or follow him on twitter.

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Posted in USA Basketball / Comments (38) /

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