Tag: JAYLEN BROWN
Adebayo, Tucker carry Heat to win in Game 3
In the second half of Game 3 of their Eastern Conference finals series against the Boston Celtics., the Miami Heat were without their best player in the playoffs and their best player in this series, Jimmy Butler(knee inflammation), and they were missing Tyler Herro(groin), who sat out the final eight minutes of the fourth.
However, Bam Adebayo scored 14 of his 25 points in the second half, and P.J. Tucker had nine of his 17 points in the second half as the Heat held on to beat the Celtics 109-103 at TD Garden Saturday night.
Miami leads the series 2-1. Game 4 is Monday night in Boston.
Miami led from start to finish and led by as many as 26 points in the first half, but Jaylen Brown came alive in the second half as he had 25 of his 40 points in the second half, including 14 points in the fourth. Boston cut the lead to 93-92 with under three minutes left, but Max Strus would connect on a three; Adebayo hit a jump hook as the Heat went on a 16-8 run to close the game.
Miami came out with renewed purpose on Saturday night after getting routed by Boston in Game 2.
“Well, as everybody knows, in the previous game, they beat us like we stole something,” Adebayo said after the win.”That should wake anybody up, getting beat like that at home. From my point of view, that says it all.”
The Heat got it done, but concern has to shift to Butler and Herro. They were able to weather the storm without both players in Game 3, but if these two are out for an extended period, Miami will have to figure some things out going forward.
“That’s the part that sucks about the game, the injuries, and you know, this is tough,” Kyle Lowry, who scored 11 points after missing the first two games of this series, said. “Jimmy is a warrior. Tyler is a warrior. But we have to continue to stay focused on what we did as a group tonight, and hopefully, those guys will be back and ready to go next game.”
Everybody is battling something at this point of an NBA season, and it could come down to which team is the healthiest. Boston was without Marcus Smart and Al Horford in Game 1, and Jayson Tatum left but returned in the fourth after injuring his shoulder.
It appears we will have a long series; we’ll see who is the last team standing.
Cavs’ Garland: ‘It’s next-man-up mentality’
Health and safety protocols have been the talk of the sports world right now, and it has impacted the Cleveland Cavaliers. On Wednesday against the Celtics, Cleveland had seven players out due to health and protocols, including three starters, Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley, and Isaac Okoro.
However, just like they always do, the Cavaliers fought, but they were outmanned and outgunned by the Celtics, and they fell 111-101 at TD Garden.
Boston led by five after one and took a 63-48 lead at halftime. The Celtics took their largest lead of 23 points in the third, but Cleveland went on a 14-1 run to cut the lead to 10 in the fourth, but it wasn’t enough.
With the loss, Cleveland’s(19-13) six-game winning streak is over, while Boston(16-16) moved to .500.
Here is the Great, the Not So Great, and the Bottom Line of the Cavs’ loss to Boston.
The Great for the Cleveland Cavaliers:
-Darius Garland led the Cavaliers with 28 points and six assists. He also had three steals. Coming into this game, Garland led the league in plus/minus, and while this is not a great thing, he was a team-best -6 Wednesday night.
-Kevin Love had a double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds off the bench. Love has scored in double figures in eight straight games, and he has been in double figures 10 out of the last 11.
-Tacko Fall, yes, Tacko Fall. He got his first NBA start in the city where it all began for him. Fall was originally signed by the Celtics after going undrafted and spent two seasons in Boston. On Wednesday, Fall had four points, 10 rebounds, and blocked two shots in 19 minutes of action.
The Not so Great for the Cleveland Cavaliers:
Three-point shooting: Cleveland was 9/38 from downtown. Lauri Markkanen was 0/5, Love was 1/5, and Cedi Osman was 1/5 from deep.
Turnovers: Cleveland had 16 turnovers, which led to 19 Boston points. Turnovers are expected when you are trying to integrate new players. However, this has been an ongoing issue as they are 26th in turnovers per game(14.6).
-Lauri Markkanen struggled with his shot as he was 2/12 from the field, including 0/5 from deep. He finished with seven points and nine rebounds.
-Ricky Rubio, who got the start for Okoro, also was 2/12 from the field and 1/5 from downtown. He had a game-worst -20 rating. Rubio had eight points, six assists, and three steals.
Bottom Line:
Boston had their two best players in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, so they had a clear advantage Wednesday night. According to NBA commissioner Adam Silver, the league has no plans to press the pause button on the season, but should they? Around the league, stars are missing games, and we are seeing a lot of G League talent on NBA basketball courts, and while it’s a great thing for those players, it’s probably not good for the product on the court.
“It’s next-man-up mentality,” Garland said postgame.
What’s Next:
Cleveland will have a few days off as they return to the court Sunday at home against Toronto.
Best of the Rest:
Four out of Boston’s five starters scored in double figures, led by Jaylen Brown’s 34 points and six rebounds. Robert Williams III added 21 points and a team-high 11 rebounds, a game-high seven assists, and two blocks, and Jayson Tatum chipped in with 18 points, nine rebounds, and five assists.
40-year-old Joe Johnson, who signed a 10-day contract with Boston, made his debut late in the fourth and scored two points.
-Osman added 13 points off the bench for Cleveland.
Watch below as Fall and Garland react to the loss to Boston:
Curry, Booker, Tatum headline three-point contest
Former 3-Point Contest champions Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns and Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors lead a field composed entirely of current NBA All-Stars who will participate in the 2021 MTN DEW® 3-Point Contest on Sunday, March 7 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. The competition will take place before the 2021 NBA All-Star Game, airing on TNT.
The six-player field also features 2021 NBA All-Stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics, Zach LaVine of the Chicago Bulls and Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz. This marks the first 3-Point Contest in which each participant is a current NBA All-Star.
Booker, the 2018 MTN DEW 3-Point Contest champion, will make his fifth appearance in the event. Curry, the 2015 champion, will compete for the seventh time, tying Dale Ellis for the second-most appearances behind Craig Hodges (eight). A seven-time NBA All-Star, Curry has made a league-high 164 3-pointers this season. He holds the NBA single-season record for 3-pointers made (402 in 2015-16) and ranks second in career 3-pointers made (2,659).
LaVine and Mitchell are both former AT&T Slam Dunk champions. No player has ever won both the MTN DEW 3-Point Contest and AT&T Slam Dunk in a career. LaVine will compete in the 3-Point Contest for the second year in a row. This marks the event debut for Mitchell. Brown and Tatum are also first-time participants in the MTN DEW 3-Point Contest.
For the second consecutive year, the MTN DEW 3-Point Contest will feature the “MTN DEW Zone” – two deep shot locations positioned equidistant between the traditional racks at the top of the 3-point arc and the adjacent “wing” rack. Each of the two ball pedestals in the MTN DEW Zone is located 6 feet behind the 3-point line and holds one special green ball, the “3-Ball.” Shots made with the green ball are worth three points.
Team USA defeats Canada; FIBA World Cup begins on Saturday
Two days after suffering its first loss since 2006, the USA Men’s National Team (3-1) bounced back with an 84-68 win over Canada in the final exhibition game before the FIBA World Cup opens in China on Aug. 31.
Playing at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia, where 19 years earlier the USA men claimed Olympic gold, the United States started Kemba Walker, Myles Turner, Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell and 2016 Olympic gold medalist Harrison Barnes for Monday’s final tune-up.
They came out firing, while holding Canada scoreless for the first 2:52 of the game and to just 20.0% shooting from the field in the first quarter. Meanwhile, the USA made 41.2% percent of their shots from the field to help build a 20-9 lead in the first 10 minutes. The USA also was helped by a 18-9 first quarter rebounding advantage, including three-straight offensive boards on the first possession of the game.
In the second quarter, Canada cut the USA lead to just five points, 35-30 with 2:02 on the clock, but the USA closed with an 11-1 run to lead 46-31 at halftime.
Marcus Smart (Boston Celtics), Khris Middleton (Milwaukee Bucks) and Mitchell teamed up to send the USA into the halftime locker room with some extra energy after Smart collected a steal that ended with Mitchell slamming home an alley-oop from Middleton to just beat the halftime buzzer.
At the midway point, the USA’s Brown had 13 points, Mitchell had 12, and Turner had grabbed nine boards.
The USA outscored Canada 18-16 in the third quarter, while Canada had the offensive edge in the fourth quarter, 21-20, to bring the game to its 84-68 final.
“We are learning a lot,” said USA mentor Gregg Popovich. “This group has never been together before and had a lot to learn. We still have a lot to learn, but game by game, practice by practice trying to figure it out. And, tonight was another good lesson to realize what the mindset has to be going into these games – how physical they are, how you have to sustain the energy for forty minutes.
“It’s coming along, but as I said, there is a lot of improvement we can make, and that’s a good thing. I think we got good potential there to continue to execute better than we are now. So, we competed. That wasn’t a problem, but still execution takes time and guys have to get used to each other. You have to practice, which is kind of difficult as you move forward in this competition. So, the games in a way are practices also, in the sense that you have to try to be as good at what you are trying to get accomplished as possible.”
Jaylen Brown led the team in scoring with 19 points off the bench on 8-of-11 shooting from the field after heating up in the second half. Mitchell, who was captain for the game, and Walker each contributed 12 points and Turner chipped in 10 points and a team-leading 15 rebounds.
“We’ve got a lot of room for growth and it’s going to be good when it comes all together but we have to keep working,” Brown said in a post-game interview posted to Twitter. “The sky’s the limit, we just have to be able to lock in and believe in each other.”
The U.S. defeated Spain 90-81 on Aug. 16, and played a pair of games against Australia in Melbourne in the past week, beating them 102-86 and then having a 78-game winning streak snapped on Saturday, 98-94.
After a rest day on Aug. 27 and practice on Aug. 28, the USA will depart Sydney for Shanghai, China, where it will first play Czech Republic at 8:30 a.m. EDT on Sept. 1, followed by Turkey at 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 3 and Japan at 8:30 a.m. EDT on Sept. 5.
Following three preliminary round games for each team, the top two teams from each preliminary round group advance to second round groups and will play two more games. The top two teams from each of the four second round groups earn a berth into the quarterfinals on Sept. 10 or 11.
“There is a lot of room to improve I think for this team, especially offensively,” said Brown. “Defensively, we came out with the right mindset, and that’s half the battle, more than half the battle, having the right mindset. Now, we got to execute. Now, we got to take care of the ball. We got to rebound and play unselfishly, and we’ll be pretty good.
The final 12-man roster for the tournament includes Monday’s starting five plus Brown, Joe Harris, Brook Lopez, Khris Middleton, Mason Plumlee, Marcus Smart and Derrick White . The U.S. has won the last two World Cups and five overall. If Team USA finishes the tournament as one of the top two teams from the Americas, it will qualify directly to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Photo/courtesy: USA Basketball