Posts Tagged ‘Danny Granger’

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Injuries Loom As Teams Make Playoff Push

April 2, 2013  ·  11:53AM

HANG TIME SOUTHWEST – Oklahoma City, Memphis and Miami, feel fortunate, very fortunate, and proceed with caution.

As the regular season churns down to a handful of games over these final 16 days, the three teams above are the only ones of the 16 current playoff teams, plus the desperately-trying-to-get-in Los Angeles Lakers, currently unaffected by injury — or injuries.

Playoff seeding, and ultimately playoff series, could tilt on an injury report that seems to grow with each passing game.

The Grizzlies caught a break with the quick return of center Marc Gasol from an abdomen injury. Initially the team listed him as out “indefinitely.” Later, Gasol said he’d be back for the playoffs. Next thing you know he’s back after missing just two games and right back on his game.

The Heat missed Dwyane Wade for a couple games during their win streak and, of course, he, LeBron James and Mario Chalmers came down with those, ahem, previously unreported injuries prior to Sunday’s game at San Antonio. Speaking of the Spurs, Manu Ginobili‘s most recent ill-timed injury (hamstring) has put the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed firmly in play Thursday night when San Antonio visits a Thunder team as healthy as any can be 70-something games in.

Few are so fortunate, and let’s start with the carousel of injuries that have beset the Lakers. Kobe Bryant continues to play through a sprained ankle and whatever else, Dwight Howard still deals with the sporadic shooting pain from the torn labrum in his shoulder and Pau Gasol is finally back. But Metta World Peace (knee) won’t be back and Steve Nash (hip) is “doubtful” for tonight’s big showdown against the never-say-die Dallas Mavericks (10:30 p.m. ET, TNT).

The Lakers won’t receive sympathy cards from Denver, which could be without spark plug point guard Ty Lawson (heel) until the playoffs. As soon as Chauncey Billups (groin) finally returned he was gone again, and couldn’t the sinking Clippers use him right about now?

Houston’s All-Star James Harden can’t seem to shake a sprained right ankle. Jazz reserve big man Enes Kanter (shoulder), whose March was his biggest month of the season, is out indefinitely. Golden State is essentially healthy, having lost Brandon Rush way back in the opening days of the season.

Over in the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics, New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls shake their heads at any team ruffled by a single injury, or two. The Celtics, having adjusted to life without Rajon Rondo, plus rookie Jared Sullinger are without Kevin Garnett (ankle) and Paul Pierce missed Monday’s loss at Minnesota for “personal reasons,” according to coach Doc Rivers. Meanwhile, Boston is dangerously close to slipping into eighth place and a first-round matchup against the Heat.

In the Big Apple, the injury list goes on and on: Tyson Chandler (neck) remains wait-and-see, Amar’e Stoudemire (knee) and Kurt Thomas (foot), very likely could join Rasheed Wallace (foot) as being shut down for the season. The Knicks, busting through it all with an eight-game win streak, continue to battle for the No. 2 seed with the Indiana Pacers, who have five straight and learned last week that Danny Granger (knee) won’t be making the late-season comeback they had expected just days earlier.

And those scrappy, scrappy Bulls by now must be resigned to a full season without Derrick Rose (knee), and they may have lost Rip Hamilton (back) for the season. They hope to soon get center Joakim Noah (foot) back in uniform, as well as Marco Belinelli (abdomen).

Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Nets, finally with Deron Williams healthy and playing like an All-Star again, would love to say the same about Joe Johnson (heel).

As the playoffs quickly approach, time is running short for players and teams to get healthy.

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Playoff Losses To Heat Shape Vogel, Pacers’ Plans For Prosperity

April 1, 2013  ·  1:41PM

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HANG TIME SOUTHWEST – The Indiana Pacers found themselves in the peculiar position of rooting for the Miami Heat last week. Not because they were trying to butter-up the beasts of the East as they went for consecutive win No. 28 at Chicago, but because their disdain for their Central Division rival runs that much deeper.

Still, the Pacers, as with as the rest of the free world, know the road to the Eastern Conference championship goes through Miami. Last May, Indiana held a 2-1 series lead over the eventual NBA champs before it all unraveled in a six-game, East semifinal defeat.

Approaching a year later, the Pacers are a bit older and wiser. They believe, even with Danny Granger officially ruled out for the season, that they’re big enough, deep enough, physical enough and more explosive offensively — and even tougher defensively — than last season’s version to match up with the Heat in a potential East finals.

“We feel like we can compete with anybody if we’re playing defense and we’re making sharp, sound decisions on the offensive end,” forward David West said during the Pacers’ stop in Dallas last week. “Right now they’re [the Heat] the cream of the crop. They’re the champs and everybody else is just chasing them.”

Added All-Star Paul George: “The only thing that we’ll have to prove is how well we can play in the playoffs.”

Which is where being wiser could ultimately make the biggest difference. And it starts with coach Frank Vogel, who is in just his second full season as coach and whose 40th birthday doesn’t roll around until a few days after the NBA Finals in June.

Vogel said he walked away from last year’s Heat series having learned two key lessons that he’s implemented since training camp.

“No. 1 is we were one of the worst fouling teams in the league last year,” Vogel said. “And it probably cost us two games in that [Miami] series where we had two guys in foul trouble for key stretches.”

Let’s tackle this one before revealing key lesson No. 2. Indiana racked up the third-most fouls in the league last season, and in the six games against Miami it committed 147 infractions, 24.5 fouls per game, even more than its regular-season average.

The two “cost us” games Vogel referred to were Games 1 and 4, when the Pacers were called for a combined 59 fouls, or 40 percent of their six-game total. (more…)

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Pacers Feel For Granger, But Eager To Plow Into the Playoffs

March 28, 2013  ·  10:09PM

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DALLAS – As late as Wednesday, after the Indiana Pacers beat the Rockets in Houston and then huddled around the nearest TV to catch the end of Bulls-Heat, they believed Danny Granger was coming back.

Word was as soon as Thursday night at Dallas.

All that changed in a matter of about 15 hours when coach Frank Vogel got the definitive news Thursday afternoon: Granger is done for 2012-13. After flare-ups followed a lone failed comeback bid in late February and early March led to another round of doctor consultations, the determination was for the former All-Star to undergo surgery on his troublesome left knee.

Granger’s next stop is the OR. But the Pacers’ is the postseason. As disappointing as the news is for Granger and his teammates, Indiana has reached this point — a dogfight with the New York Knicks for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference — without the him for all but five mostly ineffective games all season.

“It was surprising, I’ve been thinking he was coming back all along, but we can’t do anything about it now,” guard George Hill said. “I hope that he has a safe recovery and a quick recovery, but we have to move on as a team and continue doing what we’ve been doing all year long without him and that’s finding our identity and playing good, solid team basketball.”

As much as the addition of a 6-foot-9 shooter might have boosted the Pacers for the stretch run and beyond, integrating Granger at this late date could have proven more problematic than beneficial. In the five games he did play (more like three games because he logged just 10 and eight minutes in his final two appearances), Granger averaged 5.4 points and 1.8 rebounds. He played 19 minutes in each of his first three games.

“Now that question whether he’s going to get back or not is out of our minds,” David West said. “And we just have to go ahead with the guys we have.”

The Pacers have managed to fill Granger’s position nicely with budding All-Star Paul George, journeymen Gerald Green and Sam Young, and rookie Orlando Johnson. Lance Stephenson has emerged as a contributor as the starting shooting guard. Roles have long been established as has the Pacers’ hard-nosed identity as the league’s toughest defense.

With just nine games left after Thursday’s matchup with the Mavericks, the Pacers are focused on capturing the No. 2 seed. They’re hopeful of grinding their way to the East finals against the Heat, last season’s playoff ouster who Indiana actually rooted for to extend their streak to 28 at Chicago.

Indiana won the regular-season series with Miami, 2-1, taking two home games by an average margin of 11.5 points and holding the Heat to 77 and 89 points. With or without Granger, they believe they possess the team defense, interior size and scoring to make the Heat sweat.

“Succeeding in this league is about confidence, and it’s not like we just lost Danny and we have to go out and establish a belief in ourselves,” Vogel said. “We have a great deal of belief in ourselves, in who we’ve become this year without Danny. Obviously, we had hopes to bring him back, but we have a great deal of confidence.”

Vogel said he spoke to Granger Thursday prior to him leaving the team to return to Indianapolis and meet with doctors.

“He’s at peace with [the decision for surgery]. He knows that it’s the best decision,” Vogel said. “He’s disappointed, but you’ve got to make the best decision and we feel like we did.”

The best news to come Thursday for the Pacers was the return of West, Indiana’s second-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder (just a tick below George in both categories) from a six-game absence with a balky back.

West has made tremendous strides this season, returning to the form prior to his ACL injury that made him a two-time All-Star with the New Orleans Hornets. He’s averaging 17.3 ppg, up from 12.8 last season, on nearly 50 percent shooting, and 7.7 rpg, up from 6.6 last season.

“I don’t think you could give him enough credit for what he’s done with our team and our culture,” Vogel said of the 10-year veteran West. “He’s the lion in the locker room, he’s the heart and soul and he gives us the swagger of knowing we’re playing with one of the best in the game at the power forward position.”

What had been Granger’s team is now in West’s hands. A physical, defensive force and offensive go-to-guy in the clutch, West becomes a free agent this summer, while Granger returns for the final year of his deal.

But on Thursday, with Granger’s official departure and West’s return, all the uncertainty has ceased except for this: Just how far can these Pacers can go?

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Pacers’ Granger (Knee Surgery) Done For Season

March 28, 2013  ·  6:13PM



HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – The Indiana Pacers have muscled their way into a top three spot in the Eastern Conference standings this season mostly without Danny Granger healthy and in the lineup.

They’ll have to finish the season without him, too. The Pacers announced this afternoon that the eight-year veteran will have knee surgery and miss the remainder of this season, leaving the Central Division upstarts without a key member of their team for the playoffs.

Sure, the Pacers have managed just fine without him. They have a commanding lead over Chicago in the division race and sport a 45-27 record heading into tonight’s game against the Mavericks in Dallas.

Not having Granger available for the playoffs means the Pacers will have to rely on All-Star swingman Paul George and Lance Stephenson to hold down the responsibility on the perimeter. Both are talents, George has clearly established himself as one of the better young swingmen in the league, but lack the experience Granger brought to the Pacers on and off the floor.

The Pacer have strong leadership in David West and to a larger extent head coach Frank Vogel, who had to be caught off guard by today’s developments since he spoke with reporters yesterday about the possibility of Granger playing against the Mavericks.

Granger played in just five games this season, averaging just 5.4 points. He had a procedure for patellar tendinosis in October and came back Feb. 25, but had complications and was sidelined again with pain associated with his left knee.

The Pacers are battling New York for the No. 2 spot behind Miami in the Eastern Conference standings, but will have to do so without a former All-Star (2009) whose career scoring average is 18.1 points. He’d have been a valuable addition for the playoffs, giving the Pacers two elite-level perimeter players (along with George) to challenge the likes of the Heat and Knicks, if those matchups were to materialize.

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Pacers Have Pieces But Might Lack Punching Power

March 24, 2013  ·  12:17AM

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CHICAGO – At the risk of overreacting, on a night when Indiana was cleaning up the tail end of a back-to-back, on the road, playing without both David West and Danny Granger, the not-so-big “84″ that glowed from the scoreboard after the Indiana Pacers’ loss to Chicago at United Center Saturday remained a little troubling.

Against a beat-up Bulls teams missing its Defensive Player of the Year candidate (Joakim Noah) in the paint, taking on a defense that has sagged this season overall and been shredded recently for 121 points (Sacramento), 101 (San Antonio), 119 (Denver in OT) and 101 (Cleveland), the Pacers stalled out with just 84. Four shy of what they needed, way shy of what they’ll need to be logging when every team they’re facing in the Eastern Conference side of the playoffs is, well, a playoff team.

Look, the Pacers have a formidable starting lineup when healthy. They have one of the league’s bright young stars in Paul George, a legitimate center in Roy Hibbert in a league where they’re hard to find, a throwback post-up power forward in West and enough pieces (if not always consistency) off the bench to go toe-to-toe with almost anyone in the East.

Defensively, they are close to lockdown, with an NBA-best rating of 98.6 heading into Saturday’s game, the stingiest shooting percentages (41.4 FG, 32.2 3FG), disruptive coverages (opponents have passed for the third fewest assists) and size enough to grab even the streaking Miami Heat’s attention. The Pacers had been getting better, too, limiting teams to 39.6 percent shooting and 87.6 points over their most recent 20 games prior to facing the Bulls.

Offensively, though, Indiana hasn’t developed and sustained the sort of punching power it will need when facing Miami, Boston or maybe Chicago again in a best-of-seven situation. In three losses in a week earlier this month, the Pacers scored 91 against the Heat, 93 against the Lakers and 91 against the 76ers. It represented a regression to a very mean mean for them; they had picked the pace to average 98.5 points on 44.9 percent shooting since sputtering through their first 36 games at 90.9 and 42.0, respectively.

As an ensemble (i.e., superstar-deficient) team, Indiana faces questions of long-term postseason viability not unlike those heard by George Karl and the Denver Nuggets. The difference being, Denver has no trouble scoring. The Pacers, too often, struggle to put points on the board, such as in the fourth quarter Saturday. Their defense bothered Chicago into 6-of-22 shooting and just 19 points, but that went for naught when the Indy offense did even worse (4-for-20, 17 points).

Frank Vogel believes that the attack he’s seen – more often, at least – in the season’s second half is enough, with the playoffs’ opening weekend four weeks away.

“I think we do [have enough],” he said. “The first part of achieving something like the NBA Finals is believing you can do it. Are we the best team on paper to get to The Finals? No. But does that mean we can’t beat [Miami]. No it doesn’t.”

Like the Nuggets, the Pacers have no obvious “closer.” Like the Nuggets, they rely on one of those committee approaches forged out of necessity, not by choice. Vogel, like Karl, feels he has three or four scorers to whom he can turn in the clutch.

“It’s the open man, really,” Vogel said. “We have guys who have hit big shots. In some ways, that’s better. In some ways, it’s harder to prepare for that when you don’t know who it’s going to go to.”

George Hill has done it, George has done it, Granger might be able to if he ever gets back (his sore left knee might argue otherwise). But the fellow they most rely on is West, the one considered “a lion” in the Pacers’ locker room and one of the few guys who keeps LeBron James away from the “4″ spot. West has missed the past four games with a lower back sprain.

“When David’s in, he’s someone we go to late in the games,” George said. “That’s something we’ll always miss, win or loss. Still, we’ve been playing well with David out.”

What West does not or cannot do, George increasingly will be expected to.

“I feel like the depth and versatility that we have, it can be crucial come playoff time,” the Indiana shooting guard said. “Of late, we’ve been scoring in the 100s. Our winning margins have been in the 20s. That’s always encouraging. Especially starting the year off, when our offense wasn’t clicking, we always had our defense to rely on. Now our offense is starting to click, we’re starting to play for one another, our assists are going up.”

For most of the next four weeks, the Pacers will try to improve. After that, it’s less a matter of improving than of proving.

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Morning Shootaround — March 19

March 19, 2013  ·  7:40AM

Missed a game last night? Wondering what the latest news around the NBA is this morning? The Morning Shootaround is here to try to meet those needs and keep you up on what’s happened around the league since the day turned.

The one recap to watch: Eleven games on the schedule makes for the usual: a healthy dose of blowouts (Pacers-Cavs, Mavs-Hawks, Nets-Pistons, Warriors-Hornets, Wolves-Grizz and Lakers-Suns) and a smattering of close ones (Blazers-Sixers, Wizards-Bobcats, Nuggets-Bulls and Knicks-Jazz). We’d like to go outside the box and pick one of these closer games, but was any game more exciting last night than the Heat-Celtics affair from Boston? The Celtics jumped out to a 17-point lead in the second quarter, had control of the game most of the night and even had a 13-point lead with about eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter. But as our man John Schuhmann breaks it down (and as you can see in this comeback video), the efforts of Jeff Green and the rest of the Celts weren’t enough to slow the train that is LeBron James and the Heat.

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News of the morning

Denver taking paint scoring to new heights | Frank no fan of Knight posterizer | Scola’s minutes dwindle | Granger OK to practice

Denver painting a masterpiece around basket — Although the ending to last night’s Nuggets-Bulls game at United Center was wrought with controversy (our man Steve Aschburner has the full details on “tip-in-gate”), one thing that couldn’t be disputed was how often Denver scored in the paint on Chicago last night. The Nuggets put up 119 points on the Bulls’ often-solid defense and a look at the scoring logs reveals a lot of layups and dunks for Denver. Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post takes a closer look at just how efficient the Nuggets have been this season at scoring around the hoop:

Sure enough, Denver scored 64 in regulation time and finished with 68 in its 119-118 overtime victory over the Bulls.

The Nuggets’ brand of basketball leads to persistent paint penetration. It’s NASCAR basketball. The fast-breaking Nuggets entered Monday leading the NBA with an average of 57.6 points in the paint, scoring 60 or more 27 times. In the NBA this season, the six-highest paint-point totals have come from the Nuggets, with 78 as their high.

Nuggets fans should appreciate what they’re watching — few teams win this way. The Nuggets are just different.

“And you go down the roster, there’s speed and quickness,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said before the game. “Ty Lawson is as fast as anybody. Kenneth Faried runs the floor as well as any big. Andre Iguodala is a tremendous athlete. So they have a lot of guys who can go. Andre Miller is an older guy who plays at a different pace, but the way he plays allows him to play really fast. And you look at a guy like Corey Brewer, he’s found his niche there. He’s a winning-type player.”

Denver could finish with the highest average of paint points since the league started keeping that stat in the 1996-97 season. The record was set by the 1997-98 Lakers, who averaged 54.1.

Denver entered Monday leading the NBA with an average of 19.7 fast-break points and trailed only the Clippers with 19.7 points per game off turnovers.

Frank no fan of Knight’s ‘posterizing’ moment — The dunk residing at No. 1 on our own NBA.com Dunk Ladder is none other than DeAndre Jordan‘s one-handed alley-oop slam over the Pistons’ Brandon Knight (although, LeBron James‘ jam on Jason Terry last night has a good chance of supplanting it). Even though Pistons coach Lawrence Frank wasn’t on hand in L.A. when Jordan did the deed over Knight, Frank subsequently heard the buzz the dunk created on Twitter, television, Facebook and any other media means you can think of. Frank wasn’t a fan of all the chatter and posterization talk, as he tells the Detroit Free Press’s Vince Ellis:

Frank wasn’t there for the March 10 game at Staples Center when the Clippers center put Knight on a poster as he was away tending to his ill wife.

But when asked casually before tonight’s game about the uproar on social media and ESPN, Frank was critical.

“They’re called ‘game-quitters,’ they’re in the game but they’re really not in the game, so they bail out just because they don’t want to be dunked on.

“I mean, to me, I don’t know what the culture, whether it’s an AAU environment — I hate to blame that — or what the situation is, but when I read that and saw that stuff how it was such a … it just goes to show you we’re celebrating the wrong (stuff), we really are.”

He added: “If Brandon could have fouled the guy (and stopped the basket), DeAndre Jordan, the way he shoots free throws, it would’ve been a total non-issue. But at least Brandon has the courage to put himself out there to make a play. And the fact that people laugh about it and joke about it, I don’t know. There’s a whole lot more things to glamorize in our sport than something like that. I don’t even understand how that’s, like, a story, you know? And you read about how it’s trending on Twitter? Talk about Miami winning 22 games in a row, or talk about something else. But a dunk? Who cares?”

Scola’s playing time dwindling — As a member of the Houston Rockets for five seasons, Luis Scola started a possible 343 of 368 games and played in every possible game in a season four times. After being waived by Houston over the summer via the NBA’s amnesty program, he latched on with Phoenix and was thought to be the Suns’ starting power forward. That was the role Scola occupied at the start of the season before losing the gig … and then gaining it again … and then losing it again. In short, Scola’s role has been unpredictable at best for the Suns, but he hasn’t complained, writes Tyler Killian of the Arizona Republic:

Scola is averaging the least playing time (26 minutes, 11 seconds entering Monday’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers) since his rookie season in 2007-08 with Houston, when he seized the starting power-forward job midway through the year and never again came off the bench for the Rockets.

With the Suns struggling to forge an identity under interim coach Lindsey Hunter, Scola’s role often has been reduced as Hunter experiments with different rotations. The 6-foot-9-inch Argentinian admits to feeling discouraged at times.

“It’s hard for me. It’s hard,” Scola said. “It is (frustrating), but I try to use that frustration to work a little harder. Just try to stay ready and in shape.”

Whatever frustrations he may be feeling, Scola is keeping them private, living up to his reputation as a team player.

“We have no problems with Scola whatsoever,” Hunter said. “He’s the ultimate professional. If he plays 30 or he plays three (minutes), he’s the same guy — consistent. So he’s been great for us.”

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Scola is doing his best to provide value in other ways, however, mentoring the younger Suns and helping them through the tougher stretches of the season.

“The NBA is about winning 50, 60 games a year, going to the playoffs and making noise and hopefully winning a ring,” he said.

“Sometimes young guys, all they know is this (losing), and that’s a problem. So the biggest thing for us is to let them know that this is not what they should be looking for.”

Pacers’ Granger OK’d to practice — Indiana waited until late February to get its one-time All-Star forward, Danny Granger, back in the lineup because he was suffering from patellar tendinosis in his left knee. Granger played five games after coming back to the Pacers’ lineup on Feb. 23, but was hardly himself (his averages: 5.4 ppg, 1.8 rpg while shooting 28.6 percent from the field) before he was shut down again due to soreness in the left knee. According to FoxSportsOhio.com’s Sam Amico, though, Granger is OK to practice again with his teammates:

Danny Granger has been cleared to resume basketball activities, Pacers coach Frank Vogel said prior to Monday’s game at Cleveland.

A sore left knee has caused Granger to miss all but five of the Pacers’ 66 games this season.

“We sort of took him off his feet for a little while, so to speak, (but) he’s resumed activity,” Vogel said. “He’ll put in a lot of individual work this week, and practice time when we have practice. We’ll see where he’s at toward the end of the week.”

Granger, a 6-foot-7 forward, led the Pacers in scoring last season at 18.7 points per game. He’s averaging 18.1 points for his career, including 5.4 in 14 minutes per game this year.

ICYMI of the night: Lawrence Frank won’t like this play, but we know a lot of people who do …:


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Eight Questions For The Final Quarter

March 8, 2013  ·  11:12AM

HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – Friday marks the 3/4 mark of the 2012-13 season. Teams have played an average of 61 games, with 21 to go. What better time for a Q & A, where the Qs and As come from the same source?

1. Who will be the No. 1 overall seed, with home-court advantage through The Finals?

Miami.

The Heat’s winning streak has to come to an end at some point, but it has already put them even with the Spurs in the loss column. And Miami has the easiest remaining schedule in the league, according to cumulative opponent winning percentage. Their six remaining back-to-backs ultimately make their schedule a little tougher than that of a couple of other teams, but it’s still much easier than that of the Spurs or the Thunder.

2. Who wins the West?

Oklahoma City.

The Spurs have a two-game edge in the loss column, but don’t have Tony Parker for the next four weeks. The Thunder play easier opponents, but the Spurs play 13 of their final 20 games at home and have fewer back-to-backs (3 vs. 6).

OKC’s trump card is two games against the Spurs in the next month. They play Monday in San Antonio and April 4 in Oklahoma City. With Parker out, you’d have to give the Thunder the advantage in both matchups. Oklahoma City also has the advantage in the conference record tiebreaker should they split the final two meetings.

3. Will the Lakers make the playoffs?

Flip a coin again.

L.A. is just two games in the loss column behind the Jazz and seemingly has the momentum to make the playoffs.

L.A. also has the easier remaining schedule. Ten of their final 20 games are against teams over .500 and their remaining opponents have a cumulative winning percentage of just .484, the second-lowest mark in the Western Conference. The Jazz play 12 of their final 21 games against winning teams, and their remaining opponents have a cumulative winning percentage of .537, the third-highest mark in the West.

But Utah has the tiebreaker, having won the season series, 2-1. So the Lakers have to lose three fewer games than the Jazz over the final six weeks. Furthermore, though the Lakers are 10-5 over their last 15 games and the Jazz are 7-8, Utah has actually had a better point differential (NetRtg: +2.1) than L.A. (NetRtg: +0.0) in that time. While the Lakers have won a lot of close games in the last month, the Jazz have lost a lot of close ones. So, the momentum isn’t as strong as it may seem.

Both teams have three back-to-backs remaining, but Utah has one additional game (5 vs. 4) against teams on the second night of a back-to-back.

4. Shouldn’t we include Golden State and Houston in this conversation?

No. The Warriors have lost 10 of their last 15 games, but they still have four fewer losses than the Lakers and play 14 of their final 20 games at home. And they’re struggles have primarily come on the road. They’ve won eight of their last nine at Oracle Arena. They only have three back-to-backs remaining and play five opponents on the second night of a back-to-back. When you factor all that in, the Warriors have the easiest remaining schedule in the West.

Factoring in home/road and back-to-backs, Houston has the second easiest remaining schedule in the West, with 12 of its final 20 games at home. The Rockets also have the ninth best point differential in the league overall and sixth best (along with the No. 1 offense) over the last 15 games. They’re better than their record says they are.

If the Lakers grab a playoff spot, it’s the one that belongs to the Jazz. (more…)

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Pacers’ Granger Treads Lightly In Rust-Heavy Return

February 28, 2013  ·  10:56AM

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Danny Granger grew up in a modest-sized household – parents, an older sister, a younger brother – in a rough patch down in Metairie, La., outside New Orleans. But Danny Granger, Sr. came from a big crew, nine brothers and sisters. His son, the Indiana Pacers’ forward, has “about 30 cousins.” And when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, a whole bunch of them left devastated homes to move into the NBA rookie’s home up in Indianapolis.

So Granger knows a thing or two about fitting in. Despite his status as the family’s most famous member – beyond several square blocks of Metairie, anyway, where Danny Sr.’s tough-love reputation still resonates – Granger gets it that it isn’t always about him. Which should serve him well now.

The Pacers are in full sprint, nearly three-quarters of the way through the 2012-13 schedule. Having won 10 of their last 12 heading into Thursday night’s home game against the Los Angeles Clippers (7 ET, League Pass), with a 24-5 record at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, they are gaining on the Eastern Conference. They’ve got a breakthrough All-Star in Paul George, a starting lineup second to none, a brash coach in Frank Vogel daring them along and no fear of the Miami Heat, based on the teams’ six-game conference semifinals series last May and a 2-0 mark head-to-head this season.

Enter Granger, the Pacers’ five-time leading scorer and one of their leaders, period, over his first seven seasons in the league. That took a little time – Granger arrived just as Reggie Miller was exiting – but he became Indiana’s shot-taker and shot-maker, the closest thing they had to a go-to guy and a voice among them on and off the floor.

This is going to take time, too. Granger is back after essentially nine months away from the game, at least by NBA standards. Until the weekend in Detroit, he hadn’t played since that Heat series, hobbled by patellar tendinitis in his left knee.

In two games, Granger has been shackled by a minutes limit (20 per game) and hampered by adjustments to the pace, the flow, various tweaks in Indiana’s game in his absence and, of course, rust. “There’s a lot of rust, too,” he said with a slight laugh in a telephone interview Wednesday.

In Indianapolis terms, Granger is just now rolling from the garage onto the Brickyard, about 150 fast, frenzied laps into the race. He’s thinking, “Gentleman, start your engine!” and rolling under a yellow flag while his teammates and their opponents already are rushing toward the checkered one.

Things, as you would expect, are a little out of sync.

“I’m about maybe 60-65 percent of where I need to be,” Granger said. “Part of my rehab process was going to be practicing, and we don’t really practice at this stage of the season. The issue I’m still dealing with, with my knee, is my tendon has to adjust to new stresses. But we don’t really have ‘practices’ now, so we have to do it in games. This is literally my rehab.” (more…)

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Morning Shootaround — Trade Deadline Edition

February 21, 2013  ·  7:06AM

As today’s trade deadline approaches at 3 p.m., we’ll have coverage throughout the day on all the latest buzz and Twitter chatter. Here’s your dose of what’s buzzing as deadline day rolls along:

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3:10 P.M. UPDATE

3:03 P.M. UPDATE

2:59 P.M. UPDATE

2:52 P.M. UPDATE

2:25 P.M. UPDATE

1:50 P.M. UPDATE

1:22 P.M. UPDATE

1:14 P.M. UPDATE

12:57 P.M. UPDATE

12:40 P.M. UPDATE

Spurs miss out on Redick? – As of trade deadline day, the Spurs were one of several teams hot on the trail of Magic guard J.J. Redick. But despite a push to acquire him, it looks like San Antonio can forget about adding another shooter to the league’s best team, writes Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News.

11:55 A.M. UPDATE

A couple more quick hits from the world of Twitter …

10:44 A.M. UPDATE

A few quick hits from around the world of Twitter (which you can keep up with via our Twitter Reacts post, BTW)

And a quick note from Memphis, too …

Small move — or no move at all — likely for Grizz – Unless someone pulls off a major blockbuster between now and the 3 p.m. finish line, the Memphis Grizzlies will be the team on record in 2012-13 for pulling off the biggest trade after they shipped out Rudy Gay on Jan. 30. That said, it doesn’t look likely that Memphis will pull off another big deal, but a minor one may be in the cards. Ronald Tillery of the The Commercial-Appeal has more on what the Grizz may do:

The reality is that Griz brass is trying to be opportunistic today in hopes of getting something for nothing at the 11th hour (Orlando has made it clear J.J. Redick can’t be had for anything less than a first-round pick). As of this morning, the Griz were looking at their exceptions one of three ways: 1) acquiring a guard/swingman they like from the end of another team’s bench 2) grabbing an established big man only if he’s accompanied by a second-round pick 3) not using the exception at all.

The Griz need more size and could always use more shooting. However, they don’t want to acquire a guard who has no shot at cracking the rotation. It’s been difficult enough for Austin Daye to get minutes now that Quincy Pondexter is healthy.

So don’t be too surprised if the Griz did something minor today or nothing at all. But as is the case at the trade deadline, you can always expect the unexpected. Doing nothing would mean the team would likely pick up a D-League player they like to occupy the 13th roster spot. (more…)

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Whether Now Or Next Week, Granger’s Return All Plus For Pacers

February 13, 2013  ·  12:48PM


 

With the trading deadline just a week away, the Indiana Pacers are poised for a major acquisition. They are about to add a former All-Star and proven NBA scorer, a seven-year veteran, in his prime (age 29), who has averaged 21.6 points and shot 39 percent from 3-point range over the past five seasons. Oh, and they won’t be giving up a thing fo him – not a rotation player, not a scrub, not a draft pick, not a potted plant.

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

His name is Danny Granger.

Oh, you might be thinking. So there are some asterisks attached after all.

That is the concern, anyway, among the half-empty folks who have questions as Granger returns to action for Indiana after missing everything to this point left knee injury.

There are questions, naturally, about the level of Granger’s fitness as he hurries to play catch-up this season, about the durability of his bum knee and the amount of rust he’ll tote onto the court with him. Some people are bogged down in the micro stuff, as in “Will he play Wednesday night to make good on the Pacers’ desire to use him a little before the All-Star break? Or will they hold off after all, buying him and them another week before the Knicks visit Indianapolis on Feb. 20?”

Others opt for the macro worries, along these lines: Granger exited, when his layoff began in the fall, as Indiana’s leading scorer and primary shot-taker and maker. He has averaged 16.6 field-goal attempts since 2007-08 and he is used to being the Pacers’ “big dog.” Only now, there’s a new dog in the yard.

Paul George is Indiana’s All-Star rep this weekend and has blown up in his third season. The Scottie Pippen comparisons are starting to look more legit than silly at this point. He has 15 double-doubles and the team is 13-6 when he leads it in scoring. Oh, and George just happens to play Granger’s position.

George shifting to small forward in his injured mate’s absence has been a good thing, too, for Lance Stephenson, a strong shooting guard with raw but considerable skills (averaging 13.4 points on 50 percent shooting the past eight games). So the fear is that Granger’s return – at least than 100 percent initially, certainly – will disrupt the overall pecking order, shift George into the backcourt for some unforeseeable change in performance and stick Stephenson back in the cupboard.

That’s your half-empty perspective, anyway.

The half-full outlook is that the Pacers will instantly get deeper, and bench play has been a problem at times. They will add, in Granger, a shooter with range who can help open lanes and unclog the middle – which can only help power forward David West (who doesn’t need much help) and center Roy Hibbert (who most certainly does). They will add a veteran presence in the locker room and on the floor, not just another guy in a suit. And Stephenson has shown enough to help off the bench as a rotation guy, rather than the project he had been.

And let’s be honest, this is Danny Granger, not Carmelo Anthony – he doesn’t bring nearly the ego that would necessarily disrupt a team and, this being Indy vs. Manhattan, there’d be less wailing all around anyway. Granger could even be shifted to the bench.

So whether it happens tonight against Charlotte or next week against New York – really a small detail – Indiana is going to be better off, not worse, both short term and long.

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