VIDEO: Top 10 Plays from Friday’s action
NEWS OF THE MORNING
Beal could be back | Porzingis impresses | Karasev apologizes | Warriors need faster starts
No. 1: Beal feels ready to return — The Wizards have won two straight games, but it never hurts to get the key cog in your offense back into the lineup. That could happen Saturday in Detroit with Bradley Beal ready to get back in action. The Wizards’ leading scorer has been out for two weeks with a should injury, but told Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post that he’s feeling no pain:
“I want to play. I had a good practice today,” Beal said. “I just have to see how I recoup tomorrow and go through shoot-around and see how I feel before the game and go from there.
Beal, Washington’s leading scorer, hasn’t played in nearly two weeks, but has missed just three games because of the Wizards’ inactive schedule. The team called the ailment a shoulder contusion but he contended that the injury also included muscle tightness in his neck and back. He said the discomfort lingered.
“I could be just sitting here and it’d be throbbing and hurting and I couldn’t move,” said Beal, who has never dealt with shoulder troubles before. “So it was a lot worse than people just saying it was a bruised shoulder. I think I’m tougher than that.”
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No. 2: Nowitzki calls Porzingis the real thing — Over the past two decades there have been plenty European imports who were labeled the next best thing since Dirk Nowitzki came to the NBA from Germany. Just a few years back, the Knicks themselves had their month of fantasy from American home-grown Jeremy Lin. So while it may be tempting to say that the early excitement around Kristaps Porzingis should be tempered, none other than Nowitzki himself told Marc Stein of ESPN.com that the Knicks rookie is legit:
The greatest European import of them all, when asked this week by ESPN.com for his initial impressions of the Latvian, didn’t hesitate.
“He is for real,” Nowitzki said.Dare I say Dirk would know. In January 1999, when the NBA’s first-ever lockout abruptly ended, Nowitzki had to suddenly make the leap from mysterious European prospect to frontcourt starter in the best league in the world. The same leap Porzingis is making as we speak.
As well as anyone you could consult, Nowitzki understands how broad of a jump it is.
In one of the more memorable stories of my 20-odd years on the NBA beat, then-Mavericks coach Don Nelson told me for a piece in The Dallas Morning News that he expected Nowitzki to win NBA Rookie of the Year honors. Which was great for the newspaper and a terrible disservice to the skinny 20-year-old kid who had to shoulder the weight of such an audacious forecast.
The transition from the thoroughly unknown DJK Wurzburg X-Rays of the German Bundesliga to the moribund Mavericks of the rugged Western Conference proved to be so bumpy that Nowitzki would confess years later that he gave serious thought to going back to Europe for Year 2.
So if you don’t want to listen to windbags like me try to convince you that Zinger’s start is legitimately special, perhaps you’ll be interested in Nowitzki’s take.
Says Dirk: “He is long. He is athletic. He is tough. He’s got a touch. He can put it on the floor.
“He is for real,” Nowitzki repeats. “Sky’s the limit.”
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No. 3:Nets’ Karasev doesn’t want out — We all know how it is with family. Sometimes you want to hug them and sometimes you feel like you want to choke them. Nets’ swingman Sergey Karasev was in full retreat and apology mode after his father complained about lack of playing time and said his son was looking into a trade away from coach Lionel Hollins. The younger Karasev told Brian Lewis of the New York Post that Dad was speaking out of turn and he’s committed to the Nets:
“My dad, he’s my biggest fan, so he has his own opinion. I can’t control what he says to the press. A lot of people want that I play, especially back home in Russia, so they have their own opinion,’’ Karasev said. “I’m with the Nets. I love this organization, I like Coach Hollins, so I just keep working hard. I’m just with this team right now. All my focus, all my mind is to win the game. That’s why I’m here.’’
“I talked with [my father] and he said, ‘Yeah, I know, I apologize.’ But … that’s his opinion. I can’t control this. He can say whatever he thinks. That’s not what I’m thinking. We are like thinking different directions.’’
Modal TriggerWhich is something Hollins — father of several basketball-playing children himself — understood. He brushed the comments off.
“Put it this way: Sergey’s father is a father. I’m a father. I had sons that played basketball. I had a daughter that played basketball. We all want our kids to be first position,’’ Hollins said. “So he has his opinion, and I understand where he’s coming from as a father. But it’s just that: his opinion.’’
The 22-year-old Karasev also spoke with Hollins several days ago about what he needed to do to earn more playing time.
“[Hollins] said I need to be more aggressive on the court and that’s what I try to do right now. I try to work hard every day. I work on my conditioning because … .you need to be in shape every day to be ready, because that’s why you have 15 players on the roster,’’ Karasev said. “I talked with him, and he said he likes how I worked the last practices, so I think I go in the right direction.’’
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No. 4:Walton wants faster starts for champs — Admittedly, it might be quibbling. Like finding flaws in the Mona Lisa or telling Kate Upton she should stand up straight. But champions are held to a higher standard and even at 14-0 interim coach Luke Walton wants the Warriors to stop digging themselves early holes, according to Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle:
“To me, it’s two things,” Warriors interim head coach Luke Walton said before Friday’s game. “It’s people wanting to be the first to give us a loss, and they’re coming out and playing like it’s a playoff game. It’s the biggest game of the season for them.
“Two, we’re not matching their intensity early. We were thrilled with our intensity early in the season — as far as the way we were starting games. That was one of the focal points of training camp, and we did a great job of it early. We’ll continue to talk about it and make it a point in our meetings, but it’s something that our guys out on the court need to change.”
The Warriors outscored their first 10 opponents by an average of 30.5-23.3, keeping four opponents to fewer than 24 points during the span. But their past four opponents have outscored the Warriors by an average of 32.8-25.8.
It’s no coincidence that three of the Warriors’ four toughest wins came after allowing Brooklyn (36 first-quarter points), Toronto (25) and the Clippers (41) to get off to fast starts. Brooklyn took the Warriors into overtime, the Warriors squeaked out a five-point win over Toronto, and they had to overcome a 23-point deficit to beat the Clippers.
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SOME RANDOM HEADLINES: Hip surgery sidelines Wizards’ Martell Webster for the season…J.R. Smith accused of choking 19-year-old…Metta World Peace says “Malice at Palace” brawl sent him into depression…NBA players often bond over popcorn and movies…John Calipari’s name keeps getting linked to Sacramento…Kobe Bryant and Caron Butler have stayed like brothers down through the years.
