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The NBA has signed off on Michael Jordan's bid to buy the Charlotte Bobcats, and commissioner David Stern expects the league's board of governors to approve the purchase by the end of next week. In an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, Stern said he expects the vote to pass "very easily." Jordan will become the first ex-player to own an NBA team and the second black... (Charlotte Bobcats)
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing would like to lure the Pistons back downtown, where they played when he was on the team. Bing said Thursday that the Pistons could relocate from The Palace in suburban Auburn Hills. Pistons owner Karen Davidson has said she's considering a possible sale of the NBA team. The Pistons played at Cobo Arena in the city when Bing was with them, from 1966-75. (Detroit Pistons)
Portland 110, Golden State 105 Offense goes away. You can put as much effort as humanly possible into it, but... (Portland Trail Blazers)
Each weekday morning, BDL serves up a handful of NBA-related stories to digest with your Cheerios. (Los Angeles Clippers)
It seems clear the Philadelphia 76ers are going to fire head coach Eddie Jordan at some point in the near... (Philadelphia 76ers)
All of Andray Blatche's numbers have gone up since he was inserted into the starting lineup. Since he took Antawn Jamison's place in the starting lineup after Jamison was traded to Cleveland 11 games ago, Blatche is averaging 23.5 points, 10.4 boards and 3.0 assists. However, the one number that the team doesn't tout—but coach Flip Saunders refuses to let Blatche ignore—is his high turnover percentage. In the team's last seven games, Blatche is averaging 4.1 turnovers. In the team's loss to Houston he committed five, including a behind-the-back over-the-shoulder pass to no one in particular that was downright embarrassing. His high turnover mark of the season is eight. (Washington Wizards) It's tough to beat a team twice in the same week in the NBA. But that's the charge for the Trail Blazers, who visit Sacramento on Friday night after beating the Kings on Tuesday night at the Rose Garden. The Blazers (39-28) have defeated Sacramento (22-43) five straight times dating back to the 2007-08 season, in no small part due to a big advantage on the boards. Marcus Camby will try to continue that trend. The Blazers' newly acquired center was the difference in Tuesday's match, scoring six points, grabbing eight rebounds and blocking five shots. The Blazers must do a good job defending Sacramento's Rookie of the Year candidate, point guard Tyreke Evans, who collected 18 points, six rebounds and six assists on Tuesday. Trail Blazers 110,... (Portland Trail Blazers) It all seemed too over the top. The cardboard cutouts of Tyreke Evans' face on a stick that were handed out to 5,000 Kings fans at Arco Arena on Wednesday night, the Evans T-shirts seen everywhere, the mayor of Sacramento—former NBA point guard Kevin Johnson—giving the pre-game speech, all of these things continued the campaign for Evans as the league's Rookie of the Year. And while the fanfare was certainly excessive, Evans certainly did his part in living up to it. The 20-year-old had his first career triple-double in the Kings' blowout win over Toronto, finishing with 19 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Evans is averaging 20.3 points, 5.5 assists and five rebounds per game for the season. (Sacramento Kings) Not only did they open their four-game trip with back-to-back victories over Chicago and Detroit, the Jazz scored a combined 247 points in the games while shooting 55.2 percent, with seven players scoring in double-figures both nights. Their defense has left some cause for concern—Deron Williams noted that the Pistons outscored the Jazz in three of four quarters Wednesday—but the Jazz finally appear to have taken the offensive game they play at home on the road. The Jazz need just four victories in their 10 remaining road games to clinch their first winning road record since the 2000-01 season. They are 17-14 after Wednesday's victory and have won 10 of their last 12 road games. They will head to Milwaukee for Friday's game against the Bucks having... (Utah Jazz) The Raptors could use a loss Friday night. A Bulls' loss. Coming off successive defeats on the West Coast that have taken them within one game of falling out of playoff position in the Eastern Conference, there's nothing the slumping Raptors needed more Thursday and Friday than a couple of days off. A short trip (just 90 miles) from Sacramento to Oakland, where they'll face Golden State on Saturday night, also helped. The Raptors are scheduled to practice in Oakland on Friday, but rest assured they will be back in their hotel rooms well before dinnertime. That's because a key game in the Eastern playoff race will be taking place at 4:30 p.m. Pacific time, when the Bulls travel to Miami to take on the Heat. At this point, it would behoove the Raptors to root for the... (Toronto Raptors) The talk around San Antonio lately has revolved around Manu Ginobili and whether the team plans to extend his contract before the season is over, or risk Ginobili testing free agency. Earlier in the season it might not have seemed like such a risk. But, now Ginobili is playing his best basketball, driving to the basket confidently, hitting jumpers and doing so well that it would seem crazy for the Spurs not to lock his unique talents up. Ginobili was at his best again Wednesday night and the Spurs needed all of it to get past the New York Knicks at home, just another example of how difficult life will be down the stretch without injured point guard Tony Parker. After scoring 38 points in a tough, two-point loss at Cleveland, Ginobili poured in 28 in Wednesday's... (San Antonio Spurs) The Suns apparently are really serious about changing their reputation around the league. First came the defense. Now comes the toughness. The Suns got the win they wanted Saturday, beating the Pacers before taking five days off to rest up for the stretch drive. But the most vivid memory from the 1,900th victory in franchise history will be Channing Frye and Danny Granger trading blows after a third-period scuffle between Frye and guard Earl Watson. Frye was ejected. Granger was booed loudly whenever he touched the ball for the rest of the game. And both teams are probably happy they are done with each other for the season. "I was just setting a screen for Steve (Nash), and Earl swatted my hands away the first time and that wasn't a big deal," Frye said. (Phoenix Suns) The Hornets are running out of gas—and players—as their season begins to wind down. They lost their sixth straight road game, their seventh game in the last nine overall, and dropped to 32-33 when they lost at the Oklahoma City Thunder, 98-83, Wednesday night. Only nine players were in uniform as the team's injury list grew. The Hornets learned Wednesday that starting small forward Peja Stojakovic will miss at least the next two weeks because of a lower abdominal strain suffered against the Warriors on Monday night. Stojakovic joined All-Star point guard Chris Paul and reserve forward Sean Marks in street clothes. Paul is expected to miss at least another week as he rehabs from knee surgery, and Marks is out indefinitely with a shoulder injury. ... (New Orleans Hornets)The Knicks would like to use these remaining five weeks of the season to not only develop young players such as Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler and Toney Douglas, and see how much is left in the tank of Tracy McGrady, but also to showcase as much of Eddy Curry as possible to make him more tradable this summer. The only issue is getting Curry on the court. The injury-plagued 7-footer was supposed to make his return to the lineup Wednesday night in San Antonio against the Spurs. But before tip-off, he pulled out with a sore right calf. At this point, he is now day-to-day with the calf issue, which happens to be in the same one he injured in training camp and cost him all of camp and the first three weeks of the regular season. "We just don't want to push it if it's... (New York Knicks) With rumors swirling that he'll be fired at the end of his first season with the 76ers, Eddie Jordan defended himself and his coaching staff Wednesday. Jordan, who has two more guaranteed years on his contract, was especially annoyed with the perception that he's lost the players in the locker room. "We just won a game against the fifth seed in Toronto (two days before losing to Indiana)," Jordan said. "You guys push that aside like it's nothing. We split a (two-game) road trip. "Our team is working hard. They're good character guys. Like all teams, every once in a while they need a kick in the pants and motivation and positive thoughts. I don't know where that comes from. (Philadelphia 76ers) The Magic probably could leave their starters on the bench and still win this next game. Riding a season-high seven-game winning streak, they return to action Saturday night in Washington against the Wizards, a woeful team also caught in a scheduling nightmare. The Magic will be resting and traveling Friday. The Wizards will be playing their third game in three nights Saturday. They lost at home Thursday to Atlanta in a make-up game that originally was postponed because of an early-season snowstorm. They play Friday night in Detroit, then return home to play Saturday against the Magic. The Magic, defending Eastern Conference champs, are hitting their stride at just the right time. (Orlando Magic) While the present remains a nightmare of indescribable proportions, the Nets' future is undeniably bright. And a huge part of that future finally starts coming to fruition Thursday with ground-breaking ceremonies on the Barclays Center, the Nets' planned home in Brooklyn. The expected dignitaries scheduled to attend included New York Governor David Patterson (who'll welcome the break from the enormous scrutiny of administration scandals and staff resignations), New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, current Nets owner Bruce Ratner, Barclays President Robert E. Diamond, Nets CEO Brett Yormark and Nets investor Shawn (Jay-Z) Carter, who counts one LeBron James among his friends. The 18,000-seat arena has been the linchpin of the multi-billion dollar Atlantic Yards project... (New Jersey Nets) Proving the critics wrong wasn't the major motivation for the Thunder this season, but it's a nice byproduct. Oklahoma City has exceeded most every prediction made before the season. "That's pretty cool when people don't expect us to do something and we do it," Kevin Durant said. "For example, winning (39) games, people didn't expect that. I think that is pretty cool to us that people always underestimate us, but we come back and always show them what we really can do." Now that the Thunder are likely headed to the playoffs and should be in that conversation for years to come, the days of flying under the radar are long gone. "We're going to miss those days because once you start to get up there everything is in the spotlight," Durant continued. (Oklahoma City Thunder) Grizzlies majority owner Michael Heisley likes the way his team has developed this season. "At the beginning of the season, if you go back and look at the record, I said I'd be happy with a 35-40 win season," Heisley said recently. "With 40, I'd be very happy. At this point we're ahead of that pace so I'd be less than honest if I didn't say I was pleased. But like everything else in life, once you get to a certain point, you always want better. "I kind of hoped that we would make the playoffs. We still have a chance but it's going to be a tough road. But we'll rack up a very respectable record this year." Heisley discounted continuous rumors that he wants to sell the team. "I'm 73 years of age, my family is not going to take over this basketball team," Heisley... (Memphis Grizzlies) When you walk into the Bucks' locker room, you'd almost think you're walking into a library. It's awfully quiet. Unlike most Bucks teams in the past, which had plenty of chatty players, the current Bucks' edition is comprised mostly of soft-spoken, almost introverted individuals. "We have a lot of quiet guys," said Bucks center Andrew Bogut, who may be the team's most boisterous player. Bogut doesn't mind being surrounded by bunch of low-key teammates, though. Now in his fifth pro season, Bogut said the camaraderie on the Bucks is as good as it has ever been. "Our chemistry is good on the court and off the court," Bogut said. "Most of the guys genuinely like being around each other. (Milwaukee Bucks) |
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