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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Patriot Way felt in Raiders’ RB room along with front office, coaches – NFL Nation

“No, Josh is a great coach. I’m sure he feels like it’s a great opportunity; that’s why he took it. Other than against us, I hope he does well. I’m sure he will do well. He’s an outstanding coach. Some of the people that are with him are very good, too. It all worked out well. It’s an opportunity we couldn’t provide.” — New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, when asked if he had any issues with new Las Vegas Raiders coach Josh McDaniels pilfering any of his coaches and players.

HENDERSON, Nev. — On the surface, it looks like Josh McDaniels simply pillaged the Patriots’ front office and coaching staff, bringing with him to Las Vegas a general manager (Dave Ziegler), offensive coordinator (Mick Lombardi), offensive line coach (Carmen Bricillo) and quarterbacks coach (Bo Hardegree).

But, as expected, McDaniels also brought in a gaggle of players he knew from New England.

And the effect — in real life and the fantasy sports realm — will be felt mostly in the Raiders’ running back room.

Because while Las Vegas returns Josh Jacobs, who rushed for a career-low 872 yards in 2021 after authoring a pair of 1,000-yard rushing seasons in his first two years, and Kenyan Drake, who is returning from a broken right ankle, the Raiders brought in a pair of ex-Patriots in Brandon Bolden and fullback Jakob Johnson in addition to former Carolina Panthers running back Ameer Abdullah.

“That’s a position that’s hard to stay healthy, it just is,” McDaniels said at the recent NFL owners meetings. “They touch the ball more than everybody but the quarterback, and they get hit more than anybody.”

McDaniels referenced two backs who were “rehabbing” at the moment.

“To have depth in that room is important because if you don’t have quality depth in the running back room today in the NFL, a lot of times you’re going to run into some issues and some injuries, you know, and then you get caught in trying to make a quick transaction during the middle of the season,” McDaniels said. “So we’ve always tried to have as much depth in that room as we can.

“It’s a position that it’s really critical to have good players, but it’s also really good to have good depth that you can plug in there and they can serve a lot of roles.”

Here, in Week 1 of Phase 1 of the Raiders’ offseason training program, it’s safe to pencil in Jacobs as the starting running back, even if he is new to McDaniels’ system.

Even quarterback Derek Carr, in his news conference announcing his contract extension, said the benefit from the offense would be felt most by the lead back.

“Right now, we’ve only had two days of [classroom] work,” Carr said, “but the happiest person in the building should be Josh Jacobs. I know that.”

The versatile Drake, meanwhile, was rounding into form when he went down with 63 carries and 30 catches for a combined 545 yards and three touchdowns. He remains a wild card as he rehabs and learns the offense.

Trey Ragas returns after spending most of last season on the practice squad (he did have one regular-season carry, for 9 yards, and two catches for 6 yards).

Abdullah, a seven-year veteran, caught a combined 38 passes for 289 yards and a TD and rushed 51 times for 166 yards for the Panthers and Minnesota Vikings last season.

It was Bolden, though, who made his name as a pass-catching back in New England, catching 41 passes for 405 yards and two touchdowns last season, while rushing for 226 yards and a score on 44 carries.

Johnson? He’s a seldom-used fullback in McDaniels’ system, who, nonetheless, knows the system well.

“Look, the opportunities that we had to add a few players that you have some familiarity with, that never hurts,” McDaniels said.

Same thing with the coaching staff. Because as McDaniels said, the last time he was hired as a head coach, by the Denver Broncos in 2009, he did not know nearly enough people to bring with him.

“I had only been in the league for eight years, so I didn’t have as much experience and as many connections as I do at this point,” he said. “It’s a blessing that we have an opportunity to work together, some of us that have had those relationships. You just hit the ground running a little quicker when you have the opportunity to do that, and those guys have done a great job. I’m really pleased with our staff, the way they’re working, their mindset, their attitude, their work ethic has been tremendous so far this spring.

“I give them a lot of credit for the time they’re spending at the facility. It’s tireless. Most of our families aren’t out there yet. We go from the end of one season and it’s work all day and all night now. Really enjoy being around this group of guys.”

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Russell Wilson has quickly become the Face(Time) of Broncos’ franchise – NFL Nation

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — On the morning of March 8, many Denver Broncos players found out the team had acquired quarterback Russell Wilson in a blockbuster trade with the Seattle Seahawks when their phones imploded with a tidal wave of texts, calls and notifications.

They knew Wilson’s resume as a player — a Super Bowl winner and nine-time Pro Bowl selection. But in the weeks and sun-splashed throwing sessions in California that have followed since that franchise-altering deal, many of his Broncos teammates have learned something else about their starting quarterback.

“He’s a big FaceTimer,” Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton said with a smile.

Wilson’s drive, his proclaimed “wild obsession” with preparation and his hit-the-ground-throwing approach has already made an imprint on how the Broncos have proceeded through the early portion of their offseason program. But Wilson’s affinity for FaceTime has influenced how he’s reached out to his teammates in the first few weeks since being traded from the team that selected him in the third round of the 2012 NFL draft.

“A few days [after] we found out we were going to have Russ as our quarterback, he shot me over a FaceTime,” Broncos safety Justin Simmons said. “[He] just expressed his excitement … I was like, ‘We’re the ones who are excited.'”

After Peyton Manning signed with the Broncos as a free agent in March 2012, he said “football will come naturally, it’s the thing we all have in common and we’ll get to work on the field,” but emphasized getting to know his teammates and familiarizing himself with the team’s staff would take as much effort and consideration as the on-field work.

He often joked about the number of wrong turns he took on the way to the Broncos’ facility in those first few weeks.

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Russell Wilson heaves a dart to a fan in the crowd during his introduction to the Nuggets crowd.

Wilson’s first public appearance as the Broncos’ quarterback came when he visited patients at Children’s Hospital in Denver shortly after the trade. Since then he has made the rounds of Denver’s sports scene, sitting courtside with his wife, Ciara, at a recent Denver Nuggets game and throwing the first pitch at the Colorado Rockies‘ season opener, which he attended with his family.

He also held throwing sessions in California with a group of Broncos. And through it all, his teammates have learned to expect a FaceTime ring from Wilson.

Randy Gregory, who signed a five-year, $70 million deal with the Broncos last month, said Wilson was firing off texts to Gregory like deep crossers before Gregory made his decision between signing with the Broncos and re-upping with the Dallas Cowboys. And Wilson greeted Gregory with another FaceTime when Gregory agreed to terms with Denver.

“I don’t know if it was eight times, but he hit me up a lot,” Gregory said after he signed. “The first night I was afraid to answer back, there was a lot of uncertainty with everything going on. I woke up the next morning and the first text I saw was from him again. Then he sent me another one. I said you know what — and mind you, he’s FaceTiming me throughout this whole entire process.

“It’s funny — he was coming from the Children’s Hospital. There’s a certain image he has out in the public. It was funny, I was telling my parents, and I was telling my wife, I was like, ‘He’s literally what he is out in the public.’ He’s coming from a Children’s [Hospital], taking the time to call a guy that he’s trying to bring to the team.”

It’s all part of Wilson’s franchise quarterback equation. And in a locker room that, save kicker Brandon McManus, has no players remaining from the Broncos’ last playoff team — one that won Super Bowl 50 — it’s something they can sense in everything that Wilson does.

“His knowledge of the game is to a different level,” Sutton said. “It comes to him so easy, he wants everyone around him to understand it the way he understands it. … [But] you all can feel it, we all can feel it, the juice is just different. I wasn’t here when Peyton Manning was here, but everyone who was here when Peyton was said the juice is similar. … Everyone understands we have to operate at a different level, a different standard.”

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Five contenders to replace Sean Dyche at Burnley


After nearly 10 years at the club, Sean Dyche has left Burnley with eight games of the Premier League season left to play.

With the Clarets currently sitting 18th in the Premier League and four points from safety, it seems likely the Lancashire outfit will have to appoint a new boss as soon as possible if they are to stand any chance of beating the drop.

101 have taken a look at the current favourites for the job below.

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Sam Allardyce

Club: None

Odds: 9/2

The current favourite for the job is Sam Allardyce.

Given the fairly low standing of Burnley, they are unlikely to be able to attract too many top names.

However, with just eight games left to play and a four-point deficit to be overturned, the man you probably want to call is Sam Allardyce.

Allardyce is a relegation specialist and has only ever been relegated from the Premier League once in his career – at the end of 2020/21 with West Brom.

Michael Duff

Club: Cheltenham Town

Odds: 10/1

The next favourite to take the job is Michael Duff. Duff is a former Burnley player, notching 342 appearances between 2004 and 2016 for the Clarets.

Duff has since taken charge of Cheltenham Town and secured them promotion to League One for the first time in their history last season.

How quickly he could adapt to the Premier League remains to be seen.

Nuno Espirito Santo

Club: None

Odds: 10/1

Currently on the same odds as Duff, Nuno Espirito Santo is likely to be a better choice than the former Burnley star.

Granted, Nuno’s stint at Tottenham earlier this campaign was a disaster, but the Portuguese has experience in the Premier League, and in the Championship. He won promotion with Wolves in 2017/18.

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Daniel Farke

Club: Left Krasnodar during current season

Odds: 12/1

Farke was in charge of Russian side Krasnodar, but he left the club on March 2nd due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Farke could be a decent appointment for Burnley if they do go down as the German has won promotion from the Championship twice.

He is also a much more attack-minded manager than Dyche, so could be a good pickup if Burnley are looking to change their style of play.

However, Farke’s record in the Premier League is pretty woeful and it is hard to see him keeping Burnley up should he take the job.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Club: None

Odds: 12/1

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been out of work since he was sacked by Manchester United earlier this year.

And whilst he did have some success with United, the Norwegian does not have a great record when fighting relegation.

Solskjaer took charge of Cardiff in 2014 and led them to relegation that same season, earning just 30 points from 38 games.

The former Manchester United man also doesn’t have a great record in the Championship, being sacked by Cardiff early in the 2015/16 campaign after a poor start.


Burnley betting odds, next game:

West Ham vs Burnley odds: result, both teams to score, correct score & goalscorers

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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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