Photo: USA Today
With the Orlando Magic continuing to go through a rough patch, Mario Hezonja is receiving more playing time. The week didn’t start well by losing 113-94 to Boston. It was another poor performance with no offensive flow. Hezonja played 21 minutes and was limited to just two shots. As shots are going around in a crowded rotation, the rookie guard only scored two points.
Orlando finally ended their eight-game losing streak on Sunday against Boston. Hezonja scored a career-high 17 points on seven of thirteen shooting. After scoring twelve points in the second quarter, Scott Skiles ended up playing him for most of the second half. That decision was rewarded by Hezonja converting another three-pointer and difficult long jumper with the shot clock winding down. It was an impressive performance featuring several contested jump shots. Mario’s shot selection is still inconsistent, but his confidence cannot be ignored. Confidence is a valuable trait for any rookie, especially on a struggling team. Hezonja helped spark a 14-point comeback for a much-needed 119-114 win over the Celtics.
Hezonja goes off against Boston
Hezonja’s minutes stayed afloat, as Skiles played him for 28 minutes against San Antonio. While they lost 107-92 in convincing fashion, Orlando was fairly competitive until the fourth quarter. Mario scored four points on two of eight shooting from the field. It wasn’t a big surprise that the first round pick struggled against an elite defense.
After losing nine out of their last ten games, the Magic desperately need to go on a winning streak. A tough four-game stretch makes a long winning streak unlikely. They will face Oklahoma City tonight, before facing the Clippers on Friday. Similar to their back-to-back series with Boston, Orlando will face Atlanta for two consecutive days. The Magic will be home on Sunday, before traveling to Atlanta on Monday.
Photo: CBS
It was another forgettable week for the Brooklyn Nets. They lost all three games, while Bojan Bogdanovic continues to come off the bench. The second-year shooting guard was scoreless in 19 minutes against Dallas last Friday. Brooklyn shot 36 percent in a 91-79 loss. Bojan scored three points in 20 minutes of action against New Orleans. With Wayne Ellington and Shane Larkin playing well, Bogdanovic was reduced to just three shots in a 105-103 defeat. The week ended against Detroit, as Bojan scored eight points on three of nine shooting. Another lackluster performance won’t boost his profile towards possibly being traded to a playoff team. Despite being labeled as a sharp-shooter, Bogdanovic is only shooting 34 percent from three-point range on the season. Brooklyn lost 105-100 to finish a winless week.
Brooklyn will continue their three-game home stand tonight against Indiana and Friday against Sacramento. They will travel to Philadelphia on Saturday, which seems to already have NBA lottery implications. The Nets will finish their week at home against Denver on Monday.
Photo: AFP
The Golden State Warriors extended their win-streak to seven after registering wins over Knicks, 76ers and MAvericks this week. Andrew Bogut started for the Warriors at center in all three games and put up an efficient performance in limited time. Andrew averaged 4 points, 1 block, 3 assists and 12 rebounds in only 19 minutes of action. The Warriors continue to give Andrew rest down the stretch to save him for the playoffs against some of the bigs in the west. It will be interesting to see if the Warriors resign Andrew to a new contract this summer.
Andrew Bogut might might be appearing on Shaqtin’ a fool
Photo: NBA
After watching from the bench during the last four games, Damjan Rudež returned to action against the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday. The Croatian international finished the match with six points and two rebounds in 14 minutes of action. Damjan played well offensively, but didn’t have an answer for Brandon Bass on the defensive end. Hopefully, this trend continues for the Croatian forward.
~Allen Strk reporting from New York and Denis Svirčić reporting from sunny Southern California
your correct on the brooklyn first round picks
might go down as the worst trade in nba history
Assuming Orlando allows him to play for the repka and doesn’t put pressure on him not to play and stay in Orlando during the summer to workout. Wouldn’t be e first time a team did that.
At Barca he played the same amount of minutes, at times very inconsistent amount of minutes.
Best ing for him is to not say anything and just work.
Hezonja is in a challenging situation with Skiles and Orlando.
Yes he needs to learn how to compete and play D on a nightly basis, but he is the 5th pick and they play him like second round walk on. With a log jam at wing, not even sure why Orlando even drafted him?
His 3 point shooting has been consistent all year. His dribble drive game is good for a wing player but not quite fluid for an NBA shooting guard. He also looks a little stiff. I fear that he could lifting too many weights?
He was much more agile at Barca?
Point is that Skiles does not play that weak punk stuff.
Hezonja will be better for the Repka in July and should be plenty fresh for us.
Agree, I expect many a clunker. Up until now pretty much everything was a clunker, and I know that is not indicative of his potential. So just happy he saw some shots drop, now he knows he can do it in the nba.
This is normal for a rookie. He will have a good game like today and then will follow up with two clunkers. Very normal.
I am liking this little breakthrough for Hezonja. Until this week he was playing like a bust.
Grobar Hezonja with a good game tonight in OKC. I know OKC doesn’t play D, but it was good wild game to watch.
By the way, the NBA screwed up by not having Hezonja in the dunk contest. Any time you can get a white dude who can jump should be a no brained for the dunk contest. It would increase eyeballs.
I believe that Boston owns Brooklyn’s next three unprotected first round picks.
Think about that for a sec.
The NBA made a rule to prevent teams from trading picks in consecutive years to prevent a single dumb GM from burying a team’s future, and Billy King (Brooklyn’s GM) circumvented that rule by trading their unprotected firsts in 2016 and 2018, and gave Boston a choice for a pick swap in 2017.
All this for about 2 years worth of Garnett and Pierce in the twilight of their careers.
Brooklyn is likely to be a bottom five team for the next several years, so Boston will probably end up with a top-5 pick in each of the next three drafts. Either that or they will just trade these picks away for a couple of star players like Cousins or Paul George.
Ah … 2006 World Cup … Should have STARTED Luka Modric!
Srna missed penal v Japan!
Soccer can be a cruel sport.
Love to go see Kranjčar and have is little fat ass big time the local Croatian community. Bas mi briga.
Even at this point if Kranjčar could train like Kalinic and drop 5 kilos he would be effective in many spots.
Armada
I’ve been keeping track of this story! How the mighty have fallen. Don’t even know the Cosmos media situation is or Kranjcar will be doing interviews. Hoping the Red Bulls give him a call. I got to do more research.
It will be ten years in June, when I watched my first ever game. Croatia-Brazil WC 06. Kranjcar was going right at Ronaldinho and Kaka. Won my heart immediately.
Ziva
Correct about Boston, I always forget about that. Simmons shooting is a big concern, but eventually he will dedicate enough time to work on his perimeter game. All the great players eventually do so. Only Rondo comes to mind, when it comes to non centers or big men in general.
Doesn’t their first round pick go to Boston (and its unprotected) as part of the Paul Pierce/Garnett trade from Boston.
By the way……….Ben Simmons. Great athlete, smart basketball IQ, good head, but the dude cant shoot.
He cant make a shot outside the lane. He will improve, but for him to be this bad of a shooter has to be a concern.
All star weekend is boring for all sports. Don’t waste time watching both teams play no defense.
NBA is a crazy league. Who knows what will happen with Orlando, as they have so much young talent. Let’s see how they value Payton, Oladipo, and Hezonja in 2017-2018.
Really hoping to see Bojan get traded. Brooklyn is such a wreck with limited upside for the future, unless they get the first pick and get Simmons from LSU.
@ Allen
Don’t cum all over yourself now…
http://www.empireofsoccer.com/former-spurs-midfielder-niko-kranjcar-trains-with-cosmos-44426/
Niko Kranjcar training with the NY Cosmos.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CaTs7ACXEAA-um5.jpg:large
Exclusive interview maybe? They train at Hofstra, no? Quick ride from Astoria, dude!
Magic are not going to trade Grobar Hezonja.
Nets are a different story. Who knows what they will do.
The rookie vs. second year game is pure garbage. Nobody event tries in that game. Maybe with this format it is a bit different.
@ Allen
Shame that our boys are struggling as your NBA coverage is iLLmatic.
I’ll say this, there are many playoff teams that would love to have 6’8″ shooters like Hezonja and Bogdanovic. Both the Magic and Nets should trade both of them if they do not value there 3 pt shooting.
I hope they both beast at the world v USA game at all-star weekend.