Category: Basketball

The NBA announced that Tyler Herro won the 2021-22 Sixth Man of the Year award on Tuesday.

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Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro has won the 2021-22 NBA Sixth Man of the Year award.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 3, 2022

The Kentucky product won the award over fellow finalists Kevin Love and Cam Johnson. Love finished as the runner-up for the award after receiving 214 total votes from award voters. Herro received 488 total votes, including 96 first-place votes.

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Herro pulled the flamethrower out. (via @NBA) pic.twitter.com/069VqQ5lnl

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) May 3, 2022

Herro averaged 20.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game on 44.7 percent shooting from the field and 39.9 percent from beyond the arc. He was the second-leading scorer for the No. 1 seeded Miami Heat. Herro thrived coming off the bench a season after he was maligned for not meeting expectations coming into his second season. He put up 15.1 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game during his up and down sophomore season.

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The Boy Wonder’s range is limitless. (via @NBA) pic.twitter.com/HGyraBkjF9

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) May 3, 2022

Herro became the first Heat player in franchise history to be named Sixth Man of the Year. He also broke up a streak of six straight Western Conference players earning the honor, with the Clippers winning four of them.

Herro is coming off a 25-point, seven-dimes performance in a 106-92 Game 1 win over the 76ers. Game 2 of the Heat-Sixers second-round series will take place on Wednesday.

Since Draymond Green was ejected late in the first half of the Warriors’ eventual Game 1, 117-116, win over the Memphis Grizzlies, much has been made about his physical playstyle and the reputation and legacy he’s gained as the ultimate glue guy of the Warriors dynasty.

Green has even gone to social media to make a case that other players, who don’t necessarily have the same reputation for the physical play he does, should be kicked after Player A accidentally kicked Player B in the groin or Player C committed a hard foul on Player D.

When the Inside the NBA crew questioned him about his aggressiveness, he reminded the legendary basketball media crew that the Warriors still won thanks to the collective defensive effort of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, who both got clutch defensive stops against Ja Morant late in the fourth quarter to secure their tight win and the hot scoring of Jordan Poole who scored a team-high 31 points.

“We won the game,” Green said.

That doesn’t negate the fact that the Warriors and Green need each other. The former DPOY missed two months due to a back injury, and without the Michigan State product in the lineup, the Warriors went from 34-12 when Green played to 19-17 without him.

In the 17 minutes Green played in Game 1, he posted six points, four rebounds, three assists, and three steals. Without Green on the floor, Poole, Kevon Looney, Jonathon Kuminga, Otto Porter Jr., and Andrew Wiggins picked up the slack on the rebounding side, helping the Warriors win the rebound battle 50-47. The Grizzlies led the League in rebounding, corraling 49.2 boards per game; in the playoffs, they bring down 46.4.

“That’s what it takes when you lose a guy,” Green said.

In the meantime, the Warriors and Green will have to contend with Green’s physical play and a looming suspension if Green picks up another Flagrant 2 foul. League rules state if a player picks up four flagrant foul points, one point for a Flagrant 1 and two for a Flagrant 2.

The last time those rules reared their ugly heads in the playoffs for the Warriors was Game 5 of the infamous 2016 NBA Finals, which Green missed due to picking up a Flagrant 2 and his fourth point in the previous game. The Cleveland Cavaliers used his absence to spark a 3-1 comeback, the first time a team climbed back from a 3-1 deficit to win the NBA Finals.

Defiant as ever, Green won’t allow those memories to deter him from playing hard. He also expressed some frustration with the flagrant foul system.

“My reputation is a badge of honor,” he said. “Not everybody can earn that reputation. So, life goes on. I’m never going to change the way I play basketball. It’s gotten me this far: Three championships, four All-Stars, Defensive Player of the Year. Not gonna change that.”

“There’s a lot of things in this league that are probably old and outdated and (don’t) make sense, and people are too lazy to go change things; there’s a laundry list of things that are old, and they worked in the ‘60s, but they probably don’t work today, but people are too lazy to go change them.”

Game 2 of the Warriors-Grizzles story takes place in Memphis on Tuesday.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Phil Jackson, who coached the team from 1999 to 2004 and again from 2005 to 2011, will advise the Lakers in their search for a new head coach.

“One person who is significantly involved in this process is Phil Jackson. He’s got a voice in this. He did last time when they hired Frank Vogel. You know, Kurt Rambis [as well],” Woj said.

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“One person who is significantly involved in this process is Phil Jackson. He’s got a voice in this. He did last time when they hired Frank Vogel. You know, Kurt Rambis [as well].”

– @wojespn on the Lakers’ coaching search process.

(via @_Talkin_NBA)pic.twitter.com/1MVN2BLCKK

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) May 3, 2022

The Charlotte Hornets are reportedly set to start interviewing candidates for their head coach vacancy.

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ESPN Sources: The Charlotte Hornets are beginning to interview candidates for their head coaching job, including Golden State assistant Kenny Atkinson, Milwaukee assistant Darvin Ham, Dallas assistant Sean Sweeney and Mike D’Antoni.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 3, 2022

Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson, Bucks assistant Darvin Ham, Mavericks assistant Sean Sweeney, and Mike D’Antoni are the candidates that the Hornets front office executives will be interviewing.

Atkinson previously coached the Brooklyn Nets, leading the franchise to a 118-190 record in nearly four seasons before abruptly resigning during the 2019-2020 campaign. He then served as an assistant for the Clippers and the Warriors, where he is currently filling the same job. D’Antoni has the most head coaching experience amongst the four interviewees, leading the Nuggets, Suns, Knicks, Lakers, and the Rockets to a 672-527 record in 16 seasons.

Ham has also received a request to interview for the open Lakers job. Ham is a former player, having played overseas and in the G League. Since retiring in 2008, he’s served as a head coach for the former-New Mexico Thunderbird, now-Canton Charge of the G League. Since then, he’s worked as an assistant coach for the Lakers, Hawks, and Bucks.

After starting as a video coordinator in Brooklyn, Sweeny has worked as an assistant coach in Milwaukee, Brooklyn, and Detroit. He filled the same position at Northern Iowa and was director of basketball operations at the University of Evansville; he also coached at Anoka Ramsey Community College and the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Sweeney is another former college hooper, earning all-conference honors as a senior in 2005-06 while playing at the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul).

As a result of Luka Doncic scoring 45 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists on 15-30 shooting from the field in a 121-114 Game 1 loss to the Phoenix Suns, Doncic has now posted his sixth 40 + point game, the most ever by a player 23-years-old or younger.

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Luka Doncic now has the most 40-point playoff games by a player 23 or younger after dropping his 6th postseason 40-piece tonight.

— SLAM Newswire (@SLAMnewswire) May 3, 2022

Doncic has eclipsed Larry Bird, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving, Tracy McGrady, Chris Paul, and Devin Booker for most 40-point games in just 17 career playoff games. Luka Magic is tied with Stephen Curry and George Gervin. To top off this accomplishment, Doncic’s playoff career average of 33.5 points per game matches that of the GOAT himself, Michael Jordan.

The only thing that Doncic and the Mavs could’ve asked for was a win to go along with his primetime performance. Phoenix went into Game 1 of their second-round series with Dallas focused on preventing the Mavs’ other playmakers from getting into a rhythm. The rest of Dallas’ starters combined for just 39 points; the second time in Doncic’s playoff career, he scored more points than his teammates in the starting lineup.

“He got whatever he wanted, when you look at the shots in the paint, behind the arc, midrange, and then also I thought he got his teammates some great looks that we normally had made,” Coach Jason Kidd said per ESPN. “I thought he played great.

“We’ve just got to get someone to join the party.”

The Suns also made to sure blanket Dwight Powell during pick-and-roll situations and prioritized switching on screens set by Maxi Kleber, who scored 19 points on 6-9 shooting. The breakout star of the first round, JalenBrunson, had a tough night shooting, scoring 16 points on 6-16 shooting, and Spencer Dinwiddie finished with eight points on 3-8 shooting.

Game 2 of the Phoenix-Dallas series will take place on Wednesday.

The top-seeded Phoenix Suns rolled to a 121-114 victory over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals on Monday night. Deandre Ayton scored 25 points, Devin Booker added 23 for the Suns. On the other hand, Luka Doncic led the Mavericks with 45 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists.

“I thought Maxi and Luka in that first half kept us afloat,” the Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said, via ESPN. “We could have easily been down 39 at halftime but Maxi and LD were good. LD was good in the second half, too.

“We’ve just got to get someone to join the party.”

Game 2 is on Wednesday in Phoenix.

Luka Doncic went off for 45 points as the Mavericks lost against the Suns in Game 1 of the second round series. Dallas head coach Jason Kidd was asked about the performance of the Slovenian superstar.

“He got whatever he wanted,” Kidd said postgame. “When you look at the shots in the paint, behind the arc, mid-range and then also I thought he got his teammates some great looks that normally have made. But I thought he played great.

“We didn’t play him the whole game. Again, in that fourth quarter those guys started to get a rhythm and started to play a little harder. But I thought he played great.

“I know he’s going to look at those turnovers and say they could be better, but he did everything to help his team in the position try to win on the road.”

The Los Angeles Lakers star guard Russell Westbrook, who is equally well known for his off-court reputation as an enthusiastic fan of fashion, attends the 2022 Met Gala:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g63zxtMJ8rY

The dynamic between Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell has reportedly gotten to a point where the Stifle Tower has told Utah front office executives that it’s “him or me” and could possibly request that he or Mitchell get traded out of Utah per Sean O’Connell.

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I know I am not usually @utahjazz breaking news guy, but a source close to situation has informed me that Rudy Gobert is at “him or me” point with Donovan Mitchell and will demand that one of them be traded in next few days. Doesn’t feel they will win championship together.

— Sean O’Connell (@realOCsports) May 2, 2022

The reported rift between the two franchise cornerstones has been much maligned since Gobert and Mitchell became the NBA’s Patient Zero for COVID-19, causing the League to shut down for several months before the Orlando Bubble took place. Since then, the pair of All-Stars have publicly made sure to downplay any issues they may have had.

“My understanding is that conversation has yet to happen,” O’Connell said per KSL Podcast. “Maybe he and his agent are formulating a better strategy than a simple ultimatum, and that’s why we haven’t had anything. This is from a very trusted, hashtag, source for me, and it could be less than 100 percent complete information from what Rudy and his camp are actually planning on doing. Obviously, I’ll fully allow for that.”

Although the experimental 1-2 punch hasn’t yielded the result the Jazz want, Gobert seemingly isn’t ready to quit on the Jazz or continue to play with Mitchell, letting NBA Twitter know that the rumors were false.

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Everyday has it’s own new “rumor” 🙄

— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) May 2, 2022

Gobert averaged 15.6 points, 14.7 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game during the regular season. His playstyle has come under fire for being unable to guard forwards and centers who can stretch the floor. He was endlessly teased for being the main defender being cooked when Terance Mann scored 39 points to eliminate the Jazz in Game 6 in the Clippers’ run to the conference finals last year.

Meanwhile, Mitchell finished the 2021-22 season, averaging 25.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game on 44.8 percent shooting from the field and 35.5 percent from beyond the arc. As a volume scorer, Mitchell has tended to settle more for jumpers instead of exploding to the rim like he’s done in the past.

After a controversial ejection due to a Flagrant 2 assessed to Draymond Green that sent NBA Twitter into a frenzy, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported on Monday that the NBA would not look to reduce the Flagrant 2.

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Warriors star Draymond Green’s Flagrant Foul 2 in Game 1 will not be reduced by the NBA, league spokesperson tells me and @anthonyVslater.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 2, 2022

Later that afternoon, Green set up an emergency episode of his podcast ‘The Draymond Green Show’ in his Memphis hotel room to set the record straight on his hard foul and reaction to the ejection.

“If we went through the definition of a flagrant 2 foul, I’m not sure that that play would quite fit the definition of a flagrant foul; I’m not sure if it’ll meet that criteria,” Green said.

The former Defensive Player of the Year reiterated during his postgame press conference and via the pod that his reputation as a player was the reason he was ejected, saying “tonight was probably a reputation thing.”

The penalty for Green’s ejection has yet to be disclosed while the Warriors prepare for Game 2 of their Western Conference Semi against the Memphis Grizzlies Tuesday night.