It’s official: Kobe Bryant out Tuesday night vs. Spurs

By Kurt HelinApr 17, 2012, 4:09 PM EDT

We told you to expect this but Lakers coach Mike Brown made it official at the Lakers shootaround Tuesday — Kobe Bryant will miss his sixth straight game with a shin injury and will sit out the game against the Spurs, as reported by the Los Angeles Times and other sources.

The rule of thumb the Lakers trainers are using is when he shows he can jump without pain he can come back. While he has practiced with the team he is not where the trainers want him yet.

Kobe said recently he would be back “well before” the playoffs. So, how do you define that, coach Brown?

“With a guy like Kobe, especially, his feel is so great for the game that I think he’ll be able to ease in probably better than most guys,” Brown said, “but for me to sit here and say, ‘He needs five games’ or ‘He needs two games,’ would not be correct. I think it’s just more by feel than anything else.”

That is some quality tap dancing around the issue right there.

This game matters to the Lakers, who are now just one game ahead of the Clippers for the Pacific Division crown and the three seed in the West (the Lakers also have the tiebreaker with the Clippers). The team that wins the Pacific and gets the three seed gets to avoid a dangerous Memphis team in the first round.

The Spurs are on the second game of a back-to-back-to-back Tuesday, but none of their big three played more than 13 minutes in a blowout win against Golden State Monday night. Your guess is as good as mine as to what Gregg Popovich has planned.

PBT Extra: Can Rockets take Game 2 energy, execution on the road?

By Kurt HelinMay 20, 2018, 8:04 AM EDT

Cavaliers cruise past Celtics in Game 3, change complexion of Eastern Conference finals

AP Photo/Tony Dejak

By Dan FeldmanMay 19, 2018, 11:09 PM EDT

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The Cavaliers were heavy favorites over the Celtics entering the Eastern Conference finals. LeBron James has dominated the East for years, and Cleveland appeared to hit its stride in a sweep of the Raptors last round. Boston was shorthanded and inexperienced.

Were the Celtics’ two wins to open the series, as impressive as they were, really enough to override everything else we knew about these teams?

The Cavs walloped Boston in Game 3, 116-86, Saturday. Cleveland now has four of the NBA’s last five 30-point playoff wins – two against the Celtics last year, one over Toronto last round and tonight. (The Cavaliers lost the league’s only other 30-point game between, to the Pacers in the first round.)

Boston still leads the series 2-1, and teams up 2-1 in a best-of-seven series have won it 80% of the time.

But the team up 2-1 is usually the one seen as better entering the series. That isn’t the case here, not with LeBron on the other side. And the leading team usually isn’t so woeful on the road, which will remain a major storyline entering Game 4 Monday in Cleveland.

The Celtics bought themselves margin for error, but they blew a lot of it tonight.

It’d be an oversimplification to say the Cavs just played harder, but they did, and it went along way. They chased loose balls, tightened their defense and moved more off the ball offensively. Cleveland jumped to a 20-4 lead, led by double digits the rest of the way and spent most of the game up by at least 20.

LeBron (27 points, 12 assists, two blocks and two steals) dazzled as a passer and locked in as a defender. He received help from several players:

Kyle Korver (14 points on 5-of-5 shooting, including 4-of-4 on 3-pointers)
Kevin Love (13 points and 14 rebounds)
George Hill (13 points)
J.R. Smith (11 points)
Tristan Thompson (10 points)

In a low-resistance effort, Boston didn’t goon up the game at all.

The Cavaliers still have plenty of work ahead to reach their fourth straight NBA Finals, but tonight, they showed a path to advancing. Climbing out of their early series deficit now looks far less intimidating.

Luka Doncic named EuroLeague MVP at age 19

By Kurt HelinMay 19, 2018, 9:00 PM EDT

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Luka Doncic, the likely top two pick in the upcoming NBA draft, has led his Real Madrid team to the EuroLeague finals at age 19.

Now he has been named the youngest player ever win the EuroLeague MVP.

For those unfamiliar, EuroLeague is the equivalent of the Champions League in soccer — the very best club teams from around the continent face off against each other. On this biggest of European stages, Doncic has been a force. He is a gifted passer with great court vision. He can take his man off the dribble. He can hit threes. And he knows how to be a floor general and run a game. Did we mention he’s just 19?

Doncic said before the start of EuroLeague that he hasn’t decided what he is going to do about coming to the NBA or going back to Real Madrid. Don’t buy it. This is like asking a major college basketball star right before the NCAA Tournament if he is coming back to “State U” next year, they don’t want to say “no” right before the tourney so they give a non-committal answer. Same here. He’s not leaving millions on the table, he’ll be in the NBA next season.

And he’ll bee good.

Playoff losses wearing on LeBron James: ‘I lose sleep’

Getty Images

By Kurt HelinMay 19, 2018, 7:00 PM EDT

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Last season, the Cleveland Cavaliers lost one game before reaching the NBA Finals. The season before that, two. The season before that also two. In Miami before that, the last couple of years they went to the Finals the Heat lost three and four games before reaching the Finals.

This year, the Cavaliers have lost five games already and find themselves down 0-2 to the Boston Celtics heading into Game 3 Saturday night in Cleveland.

The losses do weigh on LeBron, as reported by Dave McMenamin of ESPN.

“I mean, I lose sleep,” James said after shootaround Saturday morning. “I mean, at the end of the day, when you lose any game in the postseason, [you lose sleep], so it’s never comfort. Playoffs is never comfort. There’s nothing about the playoffs that’s comfortable until you either win it all or you lose and go into the summer.

“So, for me, it’s always [a] day-to-day grind to figure out ways that you can be better.”

Cleveland has a lot to figure out to win the next two games because if they don’t and go down 3-1 in this series, it’s hard to envision how LeBron can drag this roster back to the Finals (what would be his eighth straight trip).

Offensively Cleveland has to get consistent play from guys other than LeBron (and to a lesser extent, Kevin Love) — J.R. Smith has been awful and needs to find a rhythm at home, George Hill needs to make some plays, Kyle Korver needs to get open and knock down some looks, and some help from the bench is needed.

But that’s not even the end of the floor that is the Cavs real problem. Defensively the Cavaliers recognition and communication has been dreadful, and the passing and player movement of the Celtics has carved them up. Cleveland has outscored teams and not defended all that well for a long time now — that’s how they made the Finals a season ago — but it’s not enough now. The offense and LeBron can’t carry them all the way.

We’ll see after Game 3 if LeBron is going to be able to get any sleep Saturday night.