Sportal AU
The Golden State Warriors have officially clinched home-court advantage in the Western conference. The conference was essentially clinched after their win over Memphis. It was another statement win against the number two seed in the Western conference. In a tough environment in Memphis, Golden State dominated through a 107-84 victory. The back-court duo of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson scored 66 out of the 107 points. Andrew Bogut played 27 minutes in contributing with two points, eight rebounds, and three assists. It was another solid effort from him, along with limiting Marc Gasol to just 13 points on four of ten shooting. Andrew continues to embrace his role of being a role player offensively and being the center piece defensively.
Bogut was limited to just 19 minutes in his reunion in Milwaukee. The seven-footer scored six points and six rebounds in a 108-95 victory. With the Warriors up by 19 going into the fourth quarter, the starters received their well-deserved rest. The superstar duo of Curry and Thompson once again played an integral part in another convincing victory. They scored 46 of the 108 points in another sensational shooting performance. Both players shot over 50 percent from the field. The win brought their win total to sixty, which signifies how special this season has been. Bogut was involved in an incident by receiving a flagrant foul against Giannis Antetokounmpo. The link below in what was a “veteran foul” by the center.
Was Bogut’s foul on Antetokounmpo flagrant?
A busy week lies ahead for the Warriors, although we could very well see Steve Kerr rest several starters. With nothing to play for, Bogut and several other veterans could take games off or at least see their minutes decrease significantly. They will be on national television against Phoenix on Thursday. A three-game road trip starts in Dallas on Saturday. They play San Antonio on Easter Sunday in what could be a playoff preview. The week ends on Tuesday against New Orleans. It’ll be interesting to see how Steve Kerr utilizes the starter’s minutes. It may not happen this week, but resting starters could happen shortly to secure a fully strengthened squad.
Adam Hunger- USA Today Sports
Bojan Bogdanovic continues to evolve, as the Brooklyn Nets are trying to salvage something from their inconsistent season. An upset win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday was arguably their biggest win of the season. In a 106-98 victory, Bogdanovic had another productive game with 18 points in 32 minutes. Bojan’s increased aggressiveness has propelled him towards playing more minutes and shooting at a more efficient rate. A seven for twelve shooting effort is the result from attacking the hoop consistently. The rookie shooting guard took Iman Shumpert and Timofey Mozgov to the hoop on multiple occasions. Instead of hovering around the three-point lane, Bogdanovic continues to find openings around defenses and give Brooklyn a major boost from the bench.
https://youtu.be/b9H19ki-63k
Bogdanovic has one of the best games of his career
Brooklyn continued their winning streak against the Los Angeles Lakers in a 107-99 victory. Bogdanovic’s minutes decreased significantly for no specific reason. In just nine minutes of action, Bojan shot one for four from the field in a disappointing effort. Nobody quite knows why the Croatian shooting guard was an afterthought for such an important game. Lionel Hollins continues to be unpredictable in utilizing his rotation.
The strange decline in minutes continued, as Bogdanovic played only eight minutes in Brooklyn’s 111-106 victory over the Pacers. One puzzling stat through looking at the stat sheet was that Bogdanovic had the worst plus-minus on the team. It’s rare to have a negative 16 in just eight minutes of action. Bojan is still a below average defender, although his improvement offensively should garner him more minutes. For him to play well against one of the best teams in the league should have catapulted his stock higher. Instead his minutes are declining for no particular season, which has been a common theme under Hollins’ regime.
The must-win games continue for Brooklyn, as they’re holding onto the eighth seed by a thread. It starts tonight against the Knicks in the cross-town rivalry game. They play Toronto on Friday, before heading to Atlanta on Saturday in what looks to be a difficult stretch of top opponents. The week ends on Monday against Portland in another difficult test. Brooklyn will have to continue to prove their a playoff-caliber team by beating at least one of those three playoff teams.
Damjan Rudez’s Twitter
After losing eight out of their last ten games, the Indiana Pacers have fallen out of the eighth seed. A tough loss against the Milwaukee Bucks from Thursday caused that setback. They lost 111-107 in another disappointing defensive effort. Milwaukee shot 50 percent from the field against one of the better defenses in the league. Damjan Rudez played 24 minutes, but shot only one for six from the field. With David West suffering from an illness, Rudez was called upon and failed to deliver in a pivotal game.
West came back on Sunday’s game against Dallas and it showed in the team’s performance. They beat Dallas by a score of 104-99 to avoid another losing streak. Rudez played only 12 minutes, which was to be expected following a poor performance. The rookie small forward responded well by scoring on both of his three-pointers. Damjan continues to showcase his deadly shooting touch, although it has been inconsistent recently. They need him to be more consistent with Paul George likely not coming back this season.
The production finally occurred on a back-to-back basis, as Rudez was on point last night against Brooklyn. Rudez shot five for six from the field, along with nailing two three-pointers for 12 points. Damjan found openings against slow Brooklyn’s defense on the baseline. That led to a relatively productive game in giving Indiana a much-needed boost from three-point range. Indiana went onto losing 111-106 in another brutalizing defeat.
Indiana faces a relishing challenge in the upcoming week. They face three playoff hopefuls in the Eastern conference. It starts on Wednesday against the resurgent Boston Celtics on the road. The stakes continue to grow in facing Charlotte on Friday and Miami on Sunday in two games with major playoff implications. Rudez’s shooting will be needed in what could be a make or break week for the Pacers.
Pat Sullivan- AP
After suffering from a migraine injury, Justin Hamilton is back in the fold for the depleted Minnesota Timberwolves. The seven-footer was limited to just ten minutes in a 120-110 loss against the Houston Rockets. Hamilton scored three points, as he continued to shake off the rust from the week-long layoff.
While Minnesota’s losing streak continues to grow, Hamilton’s minutes continue to increase in the rotation. The former LSU Tiger scored eleven points and had five rebounds in a 110-88 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. It was a positive performance against the team that cut him a month ago. While his defense is a work in progress, his offensive versatility has been on display. Teams will have to respect his outside shooting based on his efficiency. Hamilton prefers to stay on the outside rather than bang inside.
The week ends with another loss against the Utah Jazz in a 104-84 defeat. Hamilton received his second start and contributed with eleven points, along with four rebounds on the stat sheet. Rudy Gobert had his way with Hamilton in terms of rebounding and posting up on the interior. It was a difficult matchup against the rising French star. Hamilton seems to be a better fit as a power forward rather than being relied upon as a center. Minnesota is at 15-68, as they continue to look at young talent and build for next season.
Twitter: @Allen_Strk
@ Denis Svirčić Seriously you would take all those players before Carmelo Anthony you must be joking right? Dwayne Wade Mr Bum Knee cant’t play a full season misses many shots. Anthony Davis Mr Uni Brow doesn’t play good when the team needs him most. New Orleans is currently 9th Melo got Denver to 8th carried the team in his first season.Boogie Cousins can’t even get the Sacramento Kings to 8th seed proves he’s not that good the Kings are and always will be a basement team.Blake Griffin all he does is make 1 foot jumpers and dunks. Aldridge is average, same as Lillard and Marc Gasol. John Wall is nothing special average at best.CP3 misses many shots has a few good games once in a blue moon is not reliable. Melo can match it with Westbrook, Harden Curry, Irving when healthy same as Durant but not LBJ. I said as a Number #1 overall draft pick he is a bust compared to Magic Johnson,James Worthy,Hakeem Olajuwon,Patrick Ewing,David Robinson,Larry Johnson,Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Webber,Allen Iverson,Tim Duncan,Lebron James, Dwight Howard,Derrick Rose,Kyrie Irving just to name a few in the history of #1 picks.
@Andrew Bogus,
Bogut is not a bust in the 2005 draft.
#2 Marvin Williams
#3 Deron Williams
#4 Chris Paul
#5 Raymond Felton
#6 Martell Webster
#7 Charlie Villanueva
#8 Channing Frye
#9 Ike Diogu
#10 Andrew Bynum
#11 Fran Vázquez
#12 Yaroslav Korolev
#13 Sean May
#14 Rashad McCants
#15 Antoine Wright
CP3 and Deron have had better careers. You can make a case for Bynum, however, Bogut has played more seasons. The other 11 players are busts. Super week draft.
Carmelo Anthony top 10 player?
1) Lebron
2) Druant
3) Westbrook
4) Harden
5) Curry
6) Irving
7) Anthony Davis
8) John Wall
9) CP3
10) DWade
11) Boogie Cousins
12) Aldridge
13) Lillard(hasn’t had a good year)
14) Marc Gasol
15) Blake Griffin
I would take all 15 of those before Carmelo.
.
Andrew Bogut is a bust as a #1 overall draft pick you must admit that. Carmelo Anthony is a top 10 NBA player.
I am hoping my man Chris Mullin recruits some blue chip Hrvati to St. John’s and gets it poppin at MSG.
Dolan is a socio path. My son and I were getting into Danilo and crew and then they made that melo trade. Donnie Walsh (from neighboring parish to me) was a no to that bone head move. Dolan still listens to Isaiah.
Bojan looks like he has gotten sharper his year.
He goes off at EuroBasket with our young phenoms and we will make some noise in Zagreb in pool play.
@ Allen
This thread will gain more and more momentum.
Interview with Hezonja this June ?
Svaka čast brate.
@jm,
Carmelo has been with the team since the 2010-11 season
Give me the names of these free agents flocking to NY to play with Carmelo. Not one above average NBA player. They resigned an old Jason Kidd. Thats about all you have.
Lakers were in the same boat. No one wants to play with Kobe.
I just hope we dont max out Rondo. Lakers should go after Marc Gasol and Aldrige. Both will most likely resign with their teams. Love isn’t a bad option, but he’s at most a #2 on a championship team.
@Mate,
Minnesota? They will be fun to watch but will need a couple of years to make the playoffs.
@jm,
I agree with you on analytics and that the triangle offense is a dinosaur.
Here is where I disagree with you:
3) Carmelo signing is no good. not true at all. carmelo is actually a really fantastic player (he’s not durant, leboron, westbrook etc) and his large salary will make very little difference going forward. once the nba re-nogiates their tv deal in 2016, the salary cap will sky rocket and the carmelo deal will be a bargain. this is why lebron only signed for 2 years in cleaveland. so that he could get a MASSIVE payday in 2016
Carmelo is an extremely talented offensive player. At the same time, offensively, he’s a ball stopper just like Blake Griffin. When the ball goes into them in the post, they kill at least 5 seconds trying to figure out what to do next.
Defensively, Carmelo is below average on one of the most important positions in the game(wing).
Money: NY payed max money for carmelo to sell tickets and stay relavent. Just like the lakers did with kobe. Lakers know Kobe is done, but they are selling it as if Kobe could LEAD the lakers to another title. NY is selling Carmelo as if he’s a top 5 player in the league. He’s not even top 10.
5) ny is stlil a high desire location. amare stoudemire signed there as a marquee guy. and carmelo wanted to go as well. the reason the knicks havne’t been able to get more players is b/c players don’t want to play for a terrible team, not b/c the location is bad….even though i’d rather play in la
Play in NY: Start with 1990 and work your way to 2015. What free agents has NY signed? Staudomire was already over the hill and no one else wanted to pay a max deal for a older player with multiple surgeries. Carmelo signed because 1) Knicks were the only team that can pay him a 5th year. 2) He’s from NY and believes that he can be a leader of a championship team. 3) He wanted to team up with Lebron, but Lebron wanted to part of carmelo. Even Kobe wanted no part of carmelo. Two ball hogs would clash on who gets the shot.
@ Armada87
Being a Wings fan myself, I absolutely loath NYR right next to Montreal. Sadly for me, both teams are top of the East
Does anyone know who’s in first in the NHL Eastern Conference?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av1cTYQN0f0
Yeah it’s been rough being a sharks fans. They need a cleaning starting at the gm down to te coach. Get rid of Thornton and such and build around pavelski, couture, burns, pickles (vlasic). Get a reliable goalie. Niemi has been subpar for way too long.
Sharks games are fun. We walk to the stadium from our place. During the season it’s a lot of fun but playoffs are a totally different league. But after last years catastrophic pusenje, they lost a lot of fans and cemented their position as the leagues biggest chokes. I don’t think they’ll even make it this year.
@ante
Ahh yes the “we believe” and then they got rid of the whole team pretty much and my hatred began. Don’t they have the old laker GM now? I do like going to sharks games, they usually get pretty intense and people go crazy!
My only other reference is the United Center in the 90’s when the Bulls were playing. It was loud but not like Oracle where people stand the entire game and stray away from the “DE-FENSE” chants. The Warriors chant is just sick. I’ve never been to OKC for a game so I can’t even begin to assume. However when I went to a playoff game last year, I almost felt like I was at a European game. Keyword: almost. When they kicked Dallas out in ’08, that’s when they started rebounding in terms of attendance.
@ante
I would have to disagree, when OKC is healthy and winning games and a sold out arena I think it is the hardest place to play at. I remember seeing the Oracle arena empty when the team was shit, and now suddenly all of the bay area supports them. OKC is pretty full even this year since it the only professional team they have so people flock there.
Hey so I was wondering, is it just me or are the athletes better in Europe when it comes to recreational drugs than in the USA? Pot for instance, how many professional athletes in the USA get suspended and what not but you never hear of it in Europe really. Does Europe not test for it as much or what is the reasoning?
I can’t wait for the playoffs to start. I don’t think anybody can beat the Warriors in a seven game series and that Curry is the MVP of the league. Also can’t wait to hit up Oracle for some games. It’s super easy to get to and the atmosphere is the best in the league.
(Porcelain comment next.) 🙂
Laughing at the thought of the Lakers signing Rondo. I think his better days are behind him.
@ denis
Knicks problems:
1) Phil Jackson has never managed before
2) DFish has never coached before
3) No one wants to play with Carmela just like no one wants to play with Kobe.
4) Carmelo signed for 4 more years at 2018/2019 paying him $27 mil. Yikes!
5) NY has never attracted free agents. High taxes. Pressure from the NY media.
Points 1 and 2 are right on the money. Jackson is a dinosaur with his triangle offense. The advanced analytics movement is leaving him in the dust. Just look at teams that adopt the space and pace 3-piont shooting style and how they’re doing: spurs, hawks, cavs, warriors. and look at how the jackson disciples of triangle offense are doing: brian shaw in devner (fired) and fisher in ny (enough said). byron scott is not too far from this who said earlier this year that he only wants to take 10-15 3s a game! this is crazy! both the lakers and knicks are way behind on analytics and we see the results
3) Carmelo signing is no good. not true at all. carmelo is actually a really fantastic player (he’s not durant, leboron, westbrook etc) and his large salary will make very little difference going forward. once the nba re-nogiates their tv deal in 2016, the salary cap will sky rocket and the carmelo deal will be a bargain. this is why lebron only signed for 2 years in cleaveland. so that he could get a MASSIVE payday in 2016
5) ny is stlil a high desire location. amare stoudemire signed there as a marquee guy. and carmelo wanted to go as well. the reason the knicks havne’t been able to get more players is b/c players don’t want to play for a terrible team, not b/c the location is bad….even though i’d rather play in la
Swaggy P is horrible lol don’t kid yourself. All the storied franchises are in the dirt right now. Boston could sneak in if they win a few games but NYK and LAL have been mismanaged for the last few years. Melo has nothing to play with (rightfully so since he’s a bum of a teammate), Kobe screwed his team out of 40 million over 2 years and ended up having to sign Jeremy Lin with his 10 point 10 T/O double doubles. Even the rumors of the Lakers signing Rando go through, it won’t make a difference.
I’ll say it here first but if any franchise gets into the playoffs next season, it might be Minnesota. Great young core and a solid big and guard in Pekovic and Rubio.
Swaggy P is a clown and now he has women problems. It would be nice to ship off Swaggy P to Phily for a bag of chips.
I don’t know about swag P for sure yet. He’s good, but is he laker great? i don’t know, time will tell. I like Jordan Clarkson, he’s showing a ton of potential and he can play shooting guard if needed, if we end up getting a PG in the draft.
Lakers need to lock down Swaggy P long term!
Then they’ll be fine.
@Armada,
Yes, Phil will take off. He will blame his health for not continuing and never admitting to his failure.
@Ziva Istina,
All I prayed for last season was that the lakers dont sign Carmelo. I don’t mind Duke Ellington as my shooting guard for a year.
You are a Bulls fan if my memory serves me right?
I’ll never understand the Knicks pursuit of Carmelo. If they had any sense of leadership they never would have made the trade they did for Carmelo. If he wanted to play in NYC, “his home”, then he would have done so as a free agent. Then, why on earth did they pay him that new contract. Dude has a bad leg and doesn’t make any of his teammates better. Who were they bidding against?
I don’t blame Carmelo for wanting to be paid. But, he can’t bitch about his situation because he is partialy responsible.
@ Svircina
Knicks are a dumpster fire, I know…
I don’t see them doing shit in the draft or free agency. Phil will get sick of this nonsense and hit the road after another year or so… Wash, rinse, repeat.
@dennis
Yeah even though I lived in thr Bay Area for 11 years, I just can’t like the Warriors. For the longest time they just seemed like they always wanted to suck so I couldn’t do it. My uncle that lives in a Santa clarita is a big lakers fan and he got me into them.
@ante
I’ve been to more Chicago games than laker games. My girlfriend is a big time Chicago fan so i don’t mund the Bulls.
I live about an hour from okc so I go to a lot of thundergames but I hate Westbrook lol.
Vatrena Cast,
Lakers?!?! I’m going to be sick. I’m a Bulls fan but I’ve also been following the Warriors, even when they were super shitty.
@VatrenaCast,
I didn’t know that you’re a lakers fan.
@Armada87,
Knicks are in trouble. Luckily, they are in the east but that won’t help them too much. Knicks are mush for the next four seasons. Lakers have a chance to turn things around this summer or at the latest next summer when Kobe takes off.
Knicks problems:
1) Phil Jackson has never managed before
2) DFish has never coached before
3) No one wants to play with Carmela just like no one wants to play with Kobe.
4) Carmelo signed for 4 more years at 2018/2019 paying him $27 mil. Yikes!
5) NY has never attracted free agents. High taxes. Pressure from the NY media.
my gf at the time use to live by one of those Zabar stores… good stuff in therw!
@armada
Maybe a Zabar buys them and they turn things around! lol
jkjk couldn’t resist sorry
you know who is really not doing hot?
my NY Knicks!
its not that i don’t read them, I just have nothing to say about them. My lakers aren’t doing too hot so its ehh
can we get 5 comments on this thread? i’m doing my part!