Category: Basketball

Clippers Say Paul George Out Against Pelicans Due to Protocols

Paul George has reportedly entered the League’s health and safety protocols, per Tim Bontemps of ESPN.

PG-13 will thus miss the Clippers contest against the Pelicans to determine who will face the Phoenix Suns as the eighth seed in the playoffs.

George posted 34 points, seven rebounds, and five assists in a Play-In Tournament loss to the Timberwolves for the No. 7 seed in the playoffs. George averaged 24.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5.7 dimes per game on 42.1 percent shooting from the field.



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New York Liberty Announce Nyara Sabally Will Miss 2022 Season

During a post-draft press conference, the New York Liberty announced that Nyara Sabally, the fifth overall selection of the 2022 WNBA Draft, would miss the 2022 season.

When asked about the process of Oregon Duck forward, Liberty GM Johnathon Kolb stated they decided to draft Sabally being fully aware of her health concerns. Sabally has been held back from multiple ACL tears in her right knee. Due to knee injuries, she missed eight games during the 2021-2022 season. Sabally played just 47 games while she played for Oregon, the majority of which came last season.

“We knew heading into the selection for Nyara that there’s a very strong chance she will not play this year because of her current health condition.” Kolb said.

Last season during the 24 games where she was on the court, Sabally was Oregon’s best player as she averaged a team-high 15.4 points and 7.8 rebounds per game on 52.7 percent shooting from the field and 72.5 percent shooting from the free-throw line. Sabally led the Ducks (20-12) to a second-place finish in the Pac-12 and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament, where they lost in overtime to Belmont in the first round.



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Joel Embiid on Raptors Defense: ‘They Just Play Recklessly’

Ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers-Toronto Raptors first-round series set to open on Saturday, Joel Embiid opened up with assembled media on what playing the Raptors is like, especially on the offensive side.

Embiid, who just became the first center to win a scoring title since Shaquille O’Neal, has averaged 29.3 points against Toronto. However, the Raptors have proven to be a challenge for The Process. Of the 13 times, Embiid has 10 or fewer points in a game; five came against Toronto. The Raptors even held him to a zero-point outing in 2019.

“The way they defend me has never changed,” Embiid told the media, per Yahoo Sports. “They just play recklessly, sending three guys at me as soon as the ball is in the air.

“They made me better, honestly, over the years, just playing against them and watching them. Definitely made me a better playmaker.”

When the two met in the 2019 Eastern Conference semifinals, Coach Nick Nurse designed a defense that held Embiid to 17.3 points per game on 37 percent shooting from the field.

Embiid and the 76ers hope that the solution to the defensive gameplan Nurse designs will be the Kansas products’ improved playmaking and the improved play of James Harden, who they acquired at the deadline to take them over the top as a Finals threat. The 76ers went 14-7 with Harden in the lineup this season.



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MOLDED BY THE DARK: Memphis Grizzlies Cover SLAM 238

It’s an early Saturday morning in April, and the Memphis Grizzlies have a rare day off. The players have come to the arena to participate in a celebratory event for season ticket holders, which includes a game of Simon Says that quickly escalates and becomes competitive—when head coach Taylor Jenkins gets eliminated, he briefly looks as though he might get T’d up. 

In many ways, it’s indicative of the competitive culture this Grizzlies team has embraced. “Get better every single day,” Jenkins says, when asked to summarize his system. “Simple as that. We know our goal is to just find our best version. I’m repetitive because I don’t want them to be thinking anything other than, Hey, there’s going to be this marker that people are going to talk about. We are really trying to find our best selves defensively, offensively, spirit-wise, all that just gets better every single day.”

SLAM 238 featuring the Memphis Grizzlies is available now.

Even though the season isn’t quite over yet, the Grizzlies indulging in some fun feels appropriate. One season ago, Memphis was fighting to finish anywhere above .500 and make the play-in game. This season, as the second-youngest team in the NBA, the Grizzlies finished 56-26, the second-best record in the League and tied for the most wins in franchise history. The Grizzlies are the first team in the history of the NBA to lead the League in rebounds, blocks and steals, and have contributors firmly in the conversations for MVP, Coach of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Most Improved Player.

A little over a year ago, Ja Morant was on the cover of SLAM fronting a story about how the Grizzlies seemed poised to go from rebuilding to contending. Well, that future is right now. These Grizzlies have proven that a youth movement in modern sports can be a good thing, maybe even a great thing. 

The crazy part is how it almost didn’t even turn out this way. The Grizzlies began this season 9-10 and had the worst defense in the NBA. And then, just when you thought things looked dim, in the final game of that opening stretch, Morant went out with a non-contact knee injury. Things went from dim to dimmer.

While Morant avoided serious injury, he did miss a few weeks, and the Grizzlies promptly won 10 of their next 11. Ever since then, the Grizzlies have pulled off a dazzling transformation, morphing into a top-five team on both defense and offense. How did this happen? If it was easy to figure out, everyone would be able to do it. But a franchise that won only 22 games five seasons ago has turned into a victory machine. Winning time? Right now, that’s in Memphis, mane.

A few minutes after Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke is crowned the Simon Says champ, Jaren Jackson Jr sprawls on a couch near the locker room. Jackson, in his fourth NBA season, is still just 22 years old, a few weeks younger than Morant. Jackson Jr or “Trip” as he is known among his teammates, has embraced the nickname “Block Panther,” emerging as the interior defensive stopper who allows his teammates on the perimeter to swipe at loose balls and overplay passing lanes. Besides leading the NBA in blocked shots, he’s also second on the Grizz in three-point attempts, making him a prototypical modern big in today’s NBA.

“The culture here is crazy,” Trip says. “We don’t know how important it is, because we just do it naturally. It’s just ironic that we all kind of hang out and do the same stuff, enjoy the same stuff. We just ride with it. But it obviously helps—it helps us win, it helps us communicate, it helps us understand each other better off the court. It’s just a big deal for us. We love it.

“We just kick it with each other. We go out to eat, we hang out, we go to each other’s rooms on the road, we go play video games—we just chill.”

Perhaps no Grizzlies player is more chill than Dillon Brooks, who always arrives for press conferences wearing sunglasses and speaks in a whisper. Yet on the floor, he plays with ferocity, particularly on the defensive end, a clear throwback to the Grizzlies’ grit-and-grind heritage. (“I’m trying to smile more so I don’t get too upset out there and they start teeing me up again,” Brooks recently joked.) In his fifth season in Memphis, Brooks is the longest-tenured Grizzlies player, and also the their second leading scorer this season, at 18.4 ppg. Still, his relentless defense-first mindset seems to set the tone for much of what the Grizzlies do.

Brooks cites improved team defense as a reason for the Grizzlies’ current success. “Play physical,” he says. “Make the refs call every single foul and see if they can do it. Slide our feet from one to 12. We are contesting at the rim, and we are doing it as a team. Playing team defense, communicating, talking. It is really good to see us get out and run and do what we are good at. That is what we have to bring to the playoffs.”

Morant sees a major difference between this year’s team and last season’s squad: “Attention to detail,” he says. “I feel like we’re way more locked in. No matter what goes on during the game, if we’re missing some shots we move on. And I feel like last year we had times where we missed coverages, where we talked about it for two days, and teams made us pay for that. And I feel like now we’re very locked in and feel like everybody is just locked down on the defensive end and knowing we can score the basketball.”

Morant began this season with a flurry of ninja emojis on everything he tweeted, using the phrase, “Welcome to the dark.” Morant eventually provided some context, noting that the work done in the dark is eventually seen in the light. And then he welcomed the rest of the NBA into the darkness. 

Morant finished his third season averaging 27.4 points per game, and despite being listed at just 6-3, he led the NBA in points scored in the paint. There were literally dozens of highlights along the way, from Ja scoring 52 in a game (prompting an online MVP endorsement from Allen Iverson) to dunks over bigs and gravity-defying blocked shots to hitting the griddy on the way back to the locker room after every win.

Along the way, Ja turned his Twitter account into a personal bully pulpit, campaigning for Jackson Jr to win Defensive Player of the Year, for Desmond Bane to win Most Improved, for Jenkins to win Coach of the Year.

While the Grizzlies have had explosive performances from a variety of players this season—eight different players have been a game’s leading scorer this season—perhaps nobody has been more consistent than Bane, the second-year guard.

Projected as a spot-up shooter when the Grizzlies drafted him out of TCU, Bane has developed into a dynamic all-around guard, able to score off the dribble, run the offense as a secondary ballhandler and still shoot the lights out—as Jackson Jr said after a recent game, “Des is, you know, all hail Des.” Over the Grizzlies’ last 17 games, Bane led the team in scoring eight times and along the way set a franchise record for made threes in a season. 

“Coach always talks about the energy and the ball,” Bane says. “Guys tend to shoot it better as long as you just keep moving the ball. We stay consistent with our work habits and our approach. Shots are going to find a way.”

The roster that Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman and his basketball operations staff has assembled is filled with a“bunch of hoopers,” as the players like to say. Memphis finishing with the second-best record in the NBA wasn’t just because of the four guys you see on the cover of this magazine—it’s taken major contributions from guys like Steven Adams, who set a franchise record for offensive rebounds in a season. It’s been guys like Tyus Jones, who led the NBA in assist-to-turnover ratio. Some nights it’s been rookie Ziaire Williams, who started 30 games this season and developed into a crucial rotation player. It’s been Kyle Anderson, who gives Jenkins incredible versatility in the lineups. It’s been Brandon Clarke, who is not only apparently great at Simon Says, but has been on the finishing end of many highlights this season. It’s been DeAnthony Melton, known as “Mr. Do-Something” for his uncanny ability to make impact plays on both ends of the court. It’s been John Konchar, Killian Tillie and Xavier Tillman Sr. Even two-way players like Santi Aldama have had memorable moments this season. 

“We have a squad,” Brooks says, “so you may not get to see those guys play a lot, but they exceed. It is special to see, and we are going to need that all year. You never know what is going to happen with injuries or COVID. Teams know when they play us, no matter who is on the floor, guys are ready to play.”

“The phrase we keep talking about,” says Jenkins, “is Everybody Eats. When you’re playing with that rhythm, that just inherently creates confidence amongst all five guys out there. It becomes infectious. It doesn’t matter when we sub guys, they just kind of pick up where that first group left off.”

For the Grizzlies, the strength of the wolf is the pack, and the strength of their pack is the wolf. Every player has embraced their role, and whenever their time comes, each player is ready to play. With so many young players destined to be in Memphis for a while, the future looks blindingly bright. But don’t overlook the present, either.

“We expect to win every game we play,” Jackson Jr says. “We don’t go in thinking that we’re down, even if we don’t have players playing. Because the way we’re taught to play, everybody knows how we’re supposed to play—move the ball, make defenses work. We like to tire teams out, run them, make them work on defense. We work so hard on defense. Everybody can play defense. If you play defense, you’re going to end up hooping.”

And somewhere on the journey, the Grizzlies figured out that playing with a little attitude was a good thing. Against the Lakers in January, Desmond Bane brushed against LeBron James, who pushed back and caused a momentary pile-up in the paint. As Bane stepped to the charity stripe, LeBron could be overheard on the broadcast telling the Grizzlies to stop talking ish. The Grizzlies would go on to beat the Lake Show, 127-119, for their ninth straight win. 

A few weeks later, after the Grizz drubbed the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on national television, Jaren Jackson Jr and Morant faced the media together. 

“We play with energy, we play with intensity,” Trip said. “We love that. That brings joy to us. That back and forth, that’s just what we like, so, if you want to play that game, we can play that game. It’s cool. It’s all in between the lines. It’s never personal. I don’t care who I’m talking to, it’s just a person, and I’m just going to say what I feel, and I’m going to do what I feel, too.”

And then Morant sat up in his chair, and with a smile, summarized the Grizzlies way, for a team and a city that has been overlooked for far too long: “Ain’t no runnin’ in the M, man. We climb up the chimney.”

“Yeah, for sure,” agreed Trip.

“We gonna let everybody know that we’re here,” continued Morant. “We’re gonna play hard, trying to get a win.

“And if you don’t like it?” Morant asked rhetorically.

“Oh well.”

SLAM 238 is available now in these Gold and Black Metal Editions, as well as a Cover Tee. Shop now.

Portraits by Atiba Jefferson.



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Draymond Green’s bewildering message – TalkBasket.net

Photo: Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press

Draymond Green is known for being blunt when it comes to expressing his thoughts. During a recent episode of his podcast the three-time NBA champion made an honest admission.

He concurred with those who say that the Warriors stars could not do it without each other on the team. On the other hand Green said that what he, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson have built together is beautiful.

“There’s always this notion of ‘Draymond can’t do it without Steph’ or ‘He can’t do it without Klay,’ and I’ll be 100% honest, I can’t,” Green said. “On the flip side Klay can’t do it without Steph and Dryamond, and Steph can’t do it without Klay and Draymond.

“I think for me what we’ve built, it’s not that I can’t go on and do something else. It’s not that you wouldn’t be successful playing with someone else, it’s not that Klay couldn’t go to the Lakers tomorrow and be Klay… it’s not that. It’s just not as beautiful as what we’ve been able to do together.

“F*ck everybody who say I can’t or he can’t or Klay can’t. You’re right, we can’t. We can’t do it without each other. But we’re damn good doing it together.”

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REPORT: Luka Dončić Expected to Miss Playoff Opener Against Jazz

Luka Dončić will miss at least Game 1 against the Jazz due to a strained calf, according to Shams Charania.

Dončić suffered the injury last Sunday in the third quarter of the Mavericks’ season finale against the Spurs. Dončić playing at all in the third frame came with some derision, although the Mavs had an incentive to play their starters. Had the Mavs won, and the Warriors lost against the Pelicans, Dallas would’ve entered the playoffs as the third seed. However, that scenario didn’t play out because the Warriors blew the Pelicans out 128-107.

Coach Jason Kidd said seeding didn’t affect his decision to play Dončić and his starters. Kidd also said he intended to always play his starters through the third due to a long layoff between their last regular-season game and playoffs starting.

Dončić averaged 28.4 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 8.7 assists per game on 45.7 percent shooting from the field and 35.5 percent shooting three-point territory.



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REPORT: Luka Dončić Will Miss Game 1 Against Utah Due to Calf Injury

Editor’s Note: It has now been confirmed by ESPN’s Luka Dončić will miss Game 1 against the Utah Jazz due to the calf injury he suffered during the Mavericks’ regular-season finale against the San Antonio Spurs.

Luka Dončić will miss at least Game 1 against the Jazz due to a strained calf, according to Shams Charania.

Dončić suffered the injury last Sunday in the third quarter of the Mavericks’ season finale against the Spurs. Dončić playing at all in the third frame came with some derision, although the Mavs had an incentive to play their starters. Had the Mavs won, and the Warriors lost against the Pelicans, Dallas would’ve entered the playoffs as the third seed. However, that scenario didn’t play out because the Warriors blew the Pelicans out 128-107.

Coach Jason Kidd said seeding didn’t affect his decision to play Dončić and his starters. Kidd also said he intended to always play his starters through the third due to a long layoff between their last regular-season game and playoffs starting.

Dončić averaged 28.4 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 8.7 assists per game on 45.7 percent shooting from the field and 35.5 percent shooting three-point territory.



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Former DIII Guard Eric Demers is Ready to Tap Into His Potential

Eric Demers, the NCAA’s leading scorer for the 2019-2020 season, is dripping sweat after a grueling pregame workout of corner threes, elbow sprints, and dribble handoffs before the Maine Celtics take on the Westchester Knicks. 

One of just a couple dozen players in the G League and NBA to have played college basketball outside Division I, Demers’ mere presence in the G League cuts against conventional knowledge that the best basketball players can all be found at the top of high school recruiting lists and draft boards. He averaged 8.1 points and 1.2 assists in his first season as a pro in the G League. 

For a professional athlete, Demers is surprisingly unassuming. A 6-1 shooting guard who likes to golf and hang with his family, Demers is easy to hang with. Michael Rejniak, Demer’s coach with team We Are D3 in the TBT remembers when Demers first walked into the pre-tournament workouts. “Eric might be the last guy you pick, like, from a visual viewpoint to be the G Leaguer. But he is.”

Looking out onto the court where players he used to watch on ESPN warm up, the Gordon College alum points out that he’s “the one guy in the G League that has loans.” Division III rules do not allow schools to offer athletic scholarships, and at nearly $40,000 a year, Gordon’s tuition is nothing to scoff at. Ask him if he would change his path to the G-League, though, and Demers will tell you that he wouldn’t change a thing.

During his senior year at Gordon College, Demers led the nation in scoring with 32.4 points per game, dropping 42 against Hartford in an exhibition game, his only Division I opponent that year. Last summer, he went off for 25 points in his TBT debut for team We Are D3, off the bench. 

Rejniak proudly calls Demers “one of the best shooters I’ve had the pleasure to coach,” while Maine Celtics assistant coach Craig Luschenat, a fellow DIII alumnus, was “shocked by his quick release” when first watching Demers play. But for all the things he does well, Demers has some adjusting and learning to do since entering the G-League, and he has to overcome ageism too, all while playing against the best competition he’s ever faced.

What’s more, the G League is molded in the NBA’s image, and as such, is dominated by the pick and roll, an offensive scheme which calls for defensive assignments that Demers has never played and for a brand new offensive approach for him, too. Where in college he had the green light like Damian Lillard, in the G League he’s tasked with emulating Jae Crowder, a typical three-and-D wing.

“Coming from DIII, he’s so used to being able to kind of do whatever he wants,” Luschenat explains. At Gordon, Demers would set up shop above the break. He had the freedom to attack the rim off the dribble, shoot deep pull-up threes, and even post up on occasion, as he did in his 25-point TBT performance. But in the G League, Demers now lives in the corner, waiting for more higher-profile players to pass him the ball, rebuilding his game to fit the new level. 

“I didn’t have any scholarships coming out of high school or anything like that. I just fell in love with the process of getting better,” he explains. “I loved basketball so much, I wanted to become the best I can. And I still do. So I try not to put a ceiling on myself or a window of opportunity. I just truly want to find my potential.”

After solidifying himself as one of the top scorers in college basketball, Demers was in Los Angeles training with professional trainer Jordan Lawley—also known as JLaw, who counts Zach Lavine, Klay Thompson, and Alex Caruso among his many clients—when COVID-19 hit. An early Instagram post from 2020 shows Demers working out with a EuroLeauge ball, underlining his impression that his first gig was going to come overseas. Freshly married and coming off a successful senior season at Gordon, Demers looked to sign with an agent and begin his pro career, but he found that “meeting with agents is a lot different for Division III athletes rather than Division I athletes.” 

Conversations over Whatsapp with agents speaking broken English trying to convince Demers to play in the country where they lived proved unfruitful, and a contract to play in New Zealand fell through because “they were kind of COVID-free at the time and didn’t really want anyone coming into their country.” With just half of G League teams going to the bubble, Demers didn’t get an invite and found himself teamless for the first time in years. 

Though Demers and his wife Lauren were “100% locked in” on Demers playing professional basketball, the financial realities of starting a family set in, and Demers was forced to take a job at a mortgage company through a friend at church, working out every day in addition to his office and family duties. (Lauren and Eric welcomed their first child, Jordan, in August 2021.) Months in, Demers says there were “moments in time where I had some hard conversations with my wife, and it was like, is it time to just move on from basketball?”

Ultimately, the pair decided that they’d wait to see what professional opportunities would come his way. Six months later, Demers earned an invitation to NBA Summer League with the San Antonio Spurs. Having quit his day job and now beginning his professional journey, Demers arrived in Las Vegas, only to find more doubters.

Walking around the Summer League arenas, someone even asked him if he worked in the Spurs front office. Looking for a table at a restaurant with former teammates from Gordon College, Demers was about to be turned away from the restaurant until one of his buddies told the restaurant workers that Demers was a Summer League player. 

And yet, Demers isn’t sweating any of it. He says the story about the restaurant is one of his favorite moments since becoming a professional basketball player. For JLaw, Demers’ ability to be “able to turn off the basketball side” when he’s not on the court is what sets him apart from other players.

Luschenat and Rejniak echo JLaw’s sentiment: “He doesn’t care whether you’re 6-8, 6-7,” boasts Rejniak, “he’ll cook you.” It seems from the outside that Demers is the ever-elusive, even-keeled player, never too high and never too low. 

Demers’ coachability is reflected in the ways he challenges his teammates. Sam Hauser, a two-way player for the Boston Celtics, is Demers’ main matchup in practice, says Demers is “consistently moving and keeping the defense on edge,” a skill that wasn’t important for him in college, but is now a key facet of his game. 

In the words of  Luschenat, Demers is “always ready.” After the game against the Knicks, the pro reflects on his rookie season thus far, and how unlikely it’s all been. This is just the beginning for him; he says that he can see himself playing in the G League for “two to three years,” and then potentially taking his talents overseas. 

 “Not many rookies especially come from where I’ve come from [and] get the opportunity to impact the team the way I have.”

Photos via Getty Images.



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REPORT: Stephen Curry On Track to Return By Game 1

Stephen Curry is reportedly set to return to the Warriors lineup as soon as Saturday for Game 1 of their playoff series against the Nuggets.

Curry’s return comes with one condition, though. The two-time MVP has to get through the team’s Thursday afternoon scrimmage without any complications.

SC39 first hurt his foot nearly a month ago, on March 17. He missed the rest of the regular season, 12 games, due to the left foot sprain he suffered against the Celtics.

Curry finished the regular season averaging 25.5 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 6.3 assists per game on 43.7 percent shooting from the field. 



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Ben Simmons Reportedly Eyeing Late First Round Return for Brooklyn Nets

Ten days after Steve Nash told reporters Ben Simmons would be sidelined for the Play-In Tournament, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reports that Simmons is now targeting Game 4, 5, or 6 of the Nets’ first-round matchup against the Boston Celtics for his debut with the Brooklyn.

Simmons has remained sidelined throughout the season since being traded from Philadelphia to Brooklyn while mending a back injury. Windhorst reported that while Simmons hasn’t begun five-on-five scrimmages, the hope is that he would be able to progress to that stage by the end of the week.

While this is the most solidified timeline Brooklyn has had on Simmons’ return to the court, both Durant and Nash expressed their plans to prepare for Boston regardless of Simmons’s timeline after practice on Thursday.

“I’m not expecting him to play,” Durant said. “That’s easier for me. I’m not putting any pressure on Ben to come out there and hoop. So I’m not expecting him to do anything but just to get his body right and get healthy as fast as he can. So in my mind, I’m preparing as if we’re playing with the team we have.”

Even though the three-time All-Star hasn’t played in almost a year, the defensive prowess and knack to find the open guy would be increasingly influential for Brooklyn in the postseason.

“There’s a chance Ben comes back; there’s a chance he doesn’t come back. So I think for us, we got to focus on the group; support Ben and his journey to get back on the floor, but at the same time we don’t have time to lose focus on the group that’s playing,” Nash said after practice.

The focus is on the here and now for the Nets as they prepare for Game 1 of the first round against the Boston Celtics Sunday night in TD Garden.



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