James Edwards III: #Pistons announce that point guard Reggie Jackson (Stress reaction in lower back) has made progress but will continue rehab for another two weeks and then be re-evaluated.
Storyline: Reggie Jackson Injury
119 rumors in this storyline
More Rumors in this Storyline
Rod Beard: For those wondering, the #Pistons announced Reggie Jackson’s stress injury in his back on Nov. 2 and said he would be re-evaluated in four weeks. That means we should be hearing something at least in the next few days. I wouldn’t expect a return soon, though.
Rod Beard: In early injury report, #Pistons Blake Griffin, Derrick Rose, Reggie Jackson and Sekou Doumbouya are listed as OUT for tomorrow at #Pacers. Tim Frazier is doubtful. Could change tomorrow, possibly.
Reggie Jackson out four weeks
Shams Charania: Detroit Pistons guard Reggie Jackson has a stress reaction in his lower back and will be out for at least four weeks.
Rod Beard: Word on #Pistons Reggie Jackson: He has lower-back tightness that is exacerbated with the activity. He can go a certain amount of distance and then it starts to flare up. Once it starts to spasm up, he’s not moving right.
James Edwards III: #Pistons’ Dwane Casey said Reggie Jackson (back) is out. He wouldn’t say who is going to start.
Vincent Ellis: The expectation is Reggie Jackson (back) will be available Monday night when the #Pistons face the #Pacers. He missed Saturday’s loss to the #76ers.
Vincent Ellis: Reggie Jackson (back) our tonight vs. #76ers.
Rod Beard: #Pistons Dwane Casey on Reggie Jackson’s recovery from an ankle sprain: “If he’s in uniform, he’s going to play. We’re going to war and he says he’s okay and can go, so we have to be ready to roll from that standpoint.” Jackson is slated to start tonight vs. #Lakers.
James Edwards III: Dwane Casey: Reggie Jackson will start tonight. X-rays were negative.
James Edwards III: Reggie Jackson (ankle) is questionable against the Lakers. Again, would be surprised if he wasn’t back by, at least, next week’s West Coast trip. LeBron James is out because, of course, load management.
Rod Beard: FINAL: #Pistons 120, #Knicks 103 Drummond: 29 pts (season high), 20 rebs, 3 blks Griffin: 26 pts, 6 rebs, 4 assts Jackson: 20 pts, 6 assts It’s DET’s first 3-game win streak since Dec. 1.
Vincent Ellis: #Pistons coach Dwane Casey says PG Reggie Jackson (ankle) will be on a minutes restriction. He said he will force himself to limit Blake Griffin’s minutes.
Erik Horne: No Reggie Jackson (right ankle) for the Pistons tonight. Blake Griffin not starting, but not on injury list.
Jackson was back at full speed Thursday during training camp at Crisler Center, after a summer of rehabbing his surgically repaired right ankle prevented him from participating in off-season basketball activities. “Another step in the process of being on the court,” Jackson said. “Happy to get some five-on-five and contact with my teammates. I feel good. Wind feels good, my body feels great.”
Casey isn’t certain if or how much Jackson will play in the preseason, which starts Wednesday at Oklahoma City. “I’m going to play it by ear,” Casey said. “I’m going to talk with the medical people and find out, make sure he checks with his body. As well as he’s playing, we’ll see where we can get him in and get him some run and get the rust off.”
James Edwards III: News from #Pistons camp: Reggie Jackson is continuing to progress, participated again. Leuer is still up in the air for preseason. Also, Casey said he didn’t know how good Blake was until he got his hands on him.
Vincent Ellis: #Pistons point guard Reggie Jackson (right ankle) was a full-participant in 5-on-5 stuff today, according to Dwane Casey. Said he looked rusty and throwing the ball all over the place, but was good to see him out there.
The Pistons are hopeful Reggie Jackson will be ready to play by the start of the season, although he’s still working his way back into shape following an ankle injury. Jackson went down in late December, derailing what had been a promising start for Detroit in 2017-18.
Ed Stefanski, a new senior executive for the Pistons, sounds optimistic about Jackson’s health, but the point guard’s recovery isn’t complete yet. “Reggie is fully healed. We did an MRI I think a couple weeks ago, and it’s perfect,” Stefanski said at media day Monday. “It’s just now basketball shape, and he hasn’t played all summer long.”
“I’m excited to be getting on the court,” Jackson said. “I didn’t touch a court much in the summer, so I’m excited to just go ahead and love on Spalding some — get out there with my teammates and try to get back to playing basketball.”
Rod Beard: #Pistons Ed Stefanski: “Reggie is fully healed. We did an MRI a couple weeks ago. It was perfect. Now, it’s just basketball shape…hoping to get him ready to go opening night.”
Detroit Pistons fans have been eager to see what a healthy dose of Reggie Jackson, Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond means for the franchise’s postseason aspirations. And with opening night less than a month away, they may have to wait a little bit longer than anticipated. “I’m day-to-day,” said Jackson, who missed 37 games last season after suffering a grade-3 right ankle sprain on Dec. 26, “and I’m doing everything to get ready.”
And while the rest of his teammates gathered in California for offseason work with the new coaching staff, he kept his distance in order to get his body back to full health. “(Rehab) has been about getting mobility back and making sure the body is good,” he told reporters. “Rehab hasn’t just been about the ankle, but it’s making sure everything else is correct and ready to go. “I’ve been nursing injuries, and they’re nagging, but it’s part of the career, part of life.”
The Pistons finished 39-43 and parted ways with coach Stan Van Gundy on Monday, and Jackson realizes that things could have been different if he had been able to play more. “Being injured the past few years, I wish I could have done more and been healthy more to help us win games and to secure our future as a whole and (Van Gundy’s) future,” Jackson told The Detroit News. “I wish we could have been better the past few years and not have to get to this point.”
Rod Beard: #Pistons Reggie Jackson (pregame) on his return tonight (about 16 minutes): “I’m not going to try to force anything and just go out here and play basketball with the time that I’m allotted to play.”
Rod Beard: Jackson will start and play 15-16 minutes
James Edwards III: #Pistons’ Reggie Jackson will not suit up tonight, per SVG.
Rod Beard: #Pistons Reggie Jackson on ankle rehab: “It’s feeling better and not as much pain at all now. It’s just strengthening and doing everything functionally so that I can go out there and be myself but I’m getting more confident each and every day.”
Rod Beard: Full #Pistons SVG quote on Reggie Jackson’s progress: “He’s okay, but there’s nothing imminent with him. He’s doing his rehab and he did a little bit of 1-on-1 against one of the video guys today, but that’s as far along as he is.”
Rod Beard: #Pistons Stan Van Gundy on Reggie Jackson’s ankle rehab progress: “The plan right now is hopefully he’ll be able to run over the All-Star break … I don’t think he’ll be cutting by then. It’s all a buildup. That’s the hope: (Feb. 15th-21st), he’ll be running.”
Coach Stan Van Gundy didn’t have a detailed diagnosis but from replays, it looks to be more serious than a simple sprain. “Right now, the X-rays were negative; he’s got an ankle sprain,” Van Gundy said. “We’ll get an MRI and see (Wednesday) where we are.”
Rod Beard: #Pistons Andre Drummond on Reggie Jackson’s ankle injury: “That was tough to see my guy go down like that. It’ll be okay; it’s not as bad as we thought it was. He just needs time to rest and get himself together and he’ll be right back.”
From the loud yell he let out while writhing in pain on the court, it was clear almost immediately that Reggie Jackson was hurt. In the third quarter of Tuesday’s win over the Indiana Pacers, Jackson was driving to the basket threw a pass but landed on Pacers center Myles Turner’s foot. Jackson severely twisted his right ankle and stayed down on the court, unable to get up. He was helped to the locker room but couldn’t put any weight on the foot.
Michael Gallagher: Reggie Jackson is down. Grabbing his ankle.
Rod Beard: #Pistons SVG on Reggie Jackson’s confidence in his knee after return: “That’ll be dependent on him.” Right now, he feels ready to go. He feels different than at any point he did last year. I don’t think at any point last year he felt as good or had as much confidence in his legs as he has right now.”
“I just want to see him and make sure he’s ready to go,” Van Gundy said. “We’ll see how he is tomorrow, whether or not he’s going to go tomorrow night. Our original plan going into today was to play him about 12 minutes in the first half and then make an evaluation at halftime going into the second half. “But now I don’t know if the (adductor) is going to complicate that.”
Jackson was a full participant for the first time this training camp in a full-contact scrimmage. Coach Stan Van Gundy decided to switch things up and scrimmage during the morning session and leave the instruction to the evening session. The sessions were reversed earlier this week. The 4-on-4, full-court action left Jackson in a playful mood with reporters afterward. “The pain I could tolerate,” Jackson said. “It was just the lack of explosion and the feeling you’re letting your teammates down out here — especially with the goals we had set last year.”
Vincent Ellis: #Pistons Reggie Jackson (knee) was full participant in 4-on-4, full-court scrimmage today. Downright jovial mood with reporters.
Reggie Jackson has to wait a little longer. With Detroit Pistons training camp beginning Tuesday, the team will conduct its first scrimmage later in the evening. The team is going to keep playing it cautious until Saturday when the plan is to allow Jackson and his left knee to fully participate in 5-on-5 action.
But after the trials of last season, Jackson is confident that after an off-season geared toward doing a better job of managing the chronic case of tendinitis, he is back to normal. “One hundred percent would always be great to feel, but this year I just want to be better than I was the day before,” Jackson said Wednesday at the practice facility in Auburn Hills.
Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy told the Free Press on Monday morning that after an examination last week, Jackson has increased basketball activity and will arrive at the practice facility later this week to join teammates. “All good with the doctors and ramping up his basketball work,” Van Gundy wrote in a text. “He’ll be ready.”
The Detroit Pistons start training camp in two weeks. And Reggie Jackson, seeking a bounce-back season after struggling with left knee tendinitis, is on track to be on the floor when the team begins the earnest work of preparing to make the inaugural season at Little Caesars Arena a successful one. Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy told the Free Press on Monday morning that after an examination last week, Jackson has increased basketball activity and will arrive at the practice facility later this week to join teammates.
“All good with the doctors and ramping up his basketball work,” Van Gundy wrote in a text. “He’ll be ready.” Jackson appears to be right on schedule.
Stan Van Gundy likes practice. But he also wants a completely healthy Reggie Jackson. So don’t expect him to be a full participant in two-a-day practices when the Detroit Pistons being training camp Sept. 26.
“He should be good to go for the start of camp,” Van Gundy said after the Little Caesars Arena ribbon-cutting ceremony today. “I don’t think on the days we do two-a-days that we’ll have him do two (practices), but other than that, the hope is he’ll be ready to go. “You never know, but he should be.” Van Gundy – and the whole organization – has fingers crossed when it comes Jackson.
Vincent Ellis: SVG: Reggie Jackson has yet to return to basketball activity, but set to enter ramp-up soon with camp starting Sept. 26. #Pistons
Vincent Ellis: SVG: “I don’t think on the days we do 2-a-days that we’ll have him do 2 (practices), but other than that, the hope is he’ll be ready to go.”
But don’t expect Reggie Jackson, inactive for the last seven games, to return. “We just talked about that, and I don’t think so,” Van Gundy said. “It’s hard, because we’ve had that planned with him but to now say, ‘Oh, get ready’ – his mind has been in a different place here for a few days. “So no, I don’t think we’ll go back to that.”
Rod Beard: #Pistons SVG says he doesn’t plan to play Reggie Jackson in the last 4 games. Injuries could change that.
“He’ll tell you he doesn’t have pain. He’s fine,” Van Gundy said. “But you’ve seen a lot of guys go through injuries. It takes time to really get back. He was trying to get back and as the games grew in importance and he had some bad ones, it started weighing him down and he wanted to do all the things he thought he should be able to do. He put a lot of pressure on himself, forced the issue a little bit. He’s a competitor and he just wasn’t fight and it started to spiral a little bit.”
“I blame myself for that, a little bit, that we didn’t take care of this a little bit earlier. But it’s nothing he would’ve asked to do. He had some very good games, some very good fourth quarters. But I don’t think he ever got to a point where he felt like him himself. This is just the start of a long off-season of getting himself to not only get physically right but to mentally recharge, take the learning experiences from this season and come back better than ever. He’ll be 27 years old next year, so he’s coming into his prime, not going out of it.”
“This season at times, it felt good, and I could get (to my spot), but at other times, I felt like I was a shell of myself,” Jackson said. “I could see the gap, but I felt like I couldn’t get there, I couldn’t explode there seemingly as quick. “It was like guys were popping out of nowhere. They’d get back in front of the ball in front of me so I didn’t feel like I was the same.”
Pistons shutting down Reggie Jackson?
A. Sherrod Blakely: Reggie Jackson (neck spasms) will play tonight according to #Pistons HC Stan Van Gundy
Reggie Jackson to make season debut tonight
Rod Beard: #Pistons Stan Van Gundy says Reggie Jackson will play tonight vs. #Magic.
Rod Beard: #Pistons Stan Van Gundy on Reggie Jackson’s return: “It’s up to him now.”
Rod Beard: #Pistons Reggie Jackson on possibility of playing Sunday vs. #Magic: “We’ll see.”
Tyzzar (@WorldWideTy2332): Any further update on Reggie Jackson’s return date? Langlois: He indicated Monday that he’d probably need at least one more practice session with the team and that might force Van Gundy to do something he – and pretty much every coach – rarely does: practice on Thursday after a back-to-back set at Charlotte and Boston. It wouldn’t be a typical practice, but it has to be something that comes close to approximating an NBA game – some semblance of full-court, five-on-five basketball. He’s been fully cleared medically to participate in everything the Pistons are doing in practice, so it’s no longer a case of physical limitations from his Oct. 10 platelet-rich plasma injection in his left knee. It’s a case now of Jackson feeling confident in the stability of the knee, feeling he’s knocked off sufficient rust and feeling like his conditioning is at an acceptable level if less than optimal.
Stan Van Gundy confirmed pregame Monday starting point guard Reggie Jackson has been cleared for contact drills in practice and could begin those as soon as Tuesday. “How much, I don’t know,” Van Gundy said. “But that he’ll be able to do some. And quite honestly, (it) will be a lot like last year when Brandon (Jennings) was coming back. You sort of structure your practice around those guys when they’re coming back.” Jackson has been rehabbing his left knee since Oct. 10, when he had plasma injection therapy to treat tendinitis.
Monday marked three weeks to the day Reggie Jackson was sidelined with knee tendinitis. Wondering about his return? Get in line. “He’s not back to activity yet,” Detroit Pistons president-coach Stan Van Gundy said Monday. “I mean, the line Jon (Ishop, the team’s head athletic trainer) gives me is ‘progressing as expected.’ Which means he’s not doing anything.”
December 12, 2019 | 9:50 am UTC Update
Love has been mentioned frequently, but is a question mark. There was a report that Portland is his favored destination, but I have not been able to substantiate that and, in fact, have been told by people close to him that the report is not necessarily true. And the other concern with Love – who is obviously a terrific player with championship pedigree – are his injuries. Over his last three seasons, he has played 60, 59, and 22 games. At an average salary of $30.1 million over the next three seasons, his availability is a concern.
As Woj noted, the Wolves made a heavy play for D’Angelo Russell in the offseason before he wound up in Golden State in a sign-and-trade. While Woj didn’t draw a straight line between the Wolves’ ongoing point guard pursuit and Russell, it remains a logical fit given Golden State’s struggles and that Russell is one of those players suddenly able to be dealt Sunday. “I think Minnesota out there, they wanted a point guard this summer, they went after D’Angelo Russell in free agency, he goes to Golden State in the sign-and-trade,” Woj said. “I think they’re in the market for a point guard or something that sets them up to get one in July.”
CJ talked about what Melo has brought to the team and how him passing up the Blazers in the past was “a blessing in disguise” for him. I told him ‘you going to [Oklahoma City and Houston] was a blessing in disguise for you.’ Because your understanding and appreciation for the game changed. He had time to be with his family, he got invaluable time with his son….He had a full year to workout and spend time with his kid and kind of like reflect on life, and I think his appreciation of the game shifted, it changed, the way he plays now you can see he’s excited about the game.
“His presence has been huge in the locker room, having another voice, another guy to speak up that people respect. When we on the floor, other teams respect him being out there. The balance that he’s giving us on the floor and off the floor has been great. It’s been a joy to have him on our team.” Lillard also noted that the Blazers are now a part of Anthony’s career story as the team to give him his comeback opportunity.
“I have a logo in there,” Leonard said when asked at the end of his news conference about the special message engraved inside his ring. “And [the ring is sized for] my middle finger, so it reminds me ‘put it on my middle finger.’ So I have like a ‘FU’ symbol in there.”
Leonard said it very matter-of-fact as reporters got a good chuckle. A Raptors source confirmed to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps that there is a logo engraved inside the ring, but wouldn’t specify what it was.
The Los Angeles Lakers were perplexed as to why Jared Dudley’s role in a fourth-quarter shoving match in the team’s 96-87 win over the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night warranted an ejection. However, they were impressed he stuck up for teammate Dwight Howard nonetheless. “I mean, that’s all it takes to get ejected? These days? Little shove?” LeBron James said after the game. “I’ve seen a lot more than that. But ‘Duds’ will do whatever. He told you guys at media day his job is to come in here if somebody goes crazy, do something crazy to me or AD [Anthony Davis] or whoever on the team, he’s going to be the muscle.”
After an official’s review, Howard and Magic guard Michael Carter-Williams were called for technical fouls, while Dudley and Magic forward Wes Iwundu — who pushed Howard — were ejected. “I thought that was kind of bogus that we both got techs for showing some emotion,” Howard said. “This is the game we love, we should be allowed to show some emotions. [It’s] not like we’re out here trying to fight or do anything crazy.”
Jim Eichenhofer: JJ Redick on #Pelicans as a group: “Energy, talk and effort are contagious, in the same way the negatives of those things are – apathy, being lethargic. There is an energy you have to bring to a group, and the group feeds on either one, whether it’s negative or positive.”
In a great interview for Spartando, the most successful European coach of all-time, Zeljko Obradovic talked about several things from his career and basketball in general but also mentioned the reason why he never joined an NBA team as a head coach. Obradovic made a pretty provocative statement saying the NBA behaves like “mafia” because it doesn’t allow European coaches to be the head coach of an NBA team. Obradovic is convinced many European coaches have enough quality and the know-how for that job.
Wayland Baptist guard J.J. Culver had a performance for the ages Tuesday night, becoming just the second player in NAIA history to score at least 100 points in a game. Culver, a 6-foot-5 senior from Lubbock, Texas, and the older brother of Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Jarrett Culver, reached the magical mark to lead his Pioneers to a 124-60 rout over Southwestern Adventist in Plainview, Texas. He was 34-for-62 from the field, including 12-for-33 from 3-point range, and 20-for-27 from the free throw line. The rest of Culver’s teammates combined to go 8-for-15 from the field and 5-for-6 from the line, while the next-highest scorer on the team was Jonathan Robinson, who finished with eight points.
Larry Tanenbaum told Postmedia he is not worried that another NBA team is once again trying to poach Masai Ujiri from the Toronto Raptors, adding that there’s no reason to believe the successful executive won’t remain in the city once his contract expires following the 2020-21 season. “We hope so,” Tanenbaum, who is MLSE part-owner and long-time chairman, said earlier this week at the Board of Governors’ meeting in Pebble Beach, Calif. “We haven’t talked (about an extension) at this point in time, but if you ask him, his intentions are pretty clear.”
Ask anyone who knows Stephen A. if he’s like that in real life—and they get that question endlessly—and they’ll tell you it’s not an act. That’s really him. He is not coached to have opinions he doesn’t believe in. He is not gesticulating like a Vegas magician on camera just because he’s a creature of television. Camera or no camera, he is on. A natural ham. “My mother,” says Stephen A., “said I came out of the womb talking.”
To stay sharp, he remains disciplined in both mental and physical fitness. He works out constantly, including sit-ups and push-ups and “a little boxing” (MMA is next on his radar). He limits himself to two drinks a week and never more than that. It’s not hard to verify his moderation with his co-workers; many of them are unaware that he drinks at all.
Co-workers praise Stephen A. as compassionate and caring (when coordinating producer Antoine Lewis experienced sudden heart failure last year, one of the first people he saw when he opened his eyes in the hospital was Stephen A.). But it will not shock you to learn that Stephen A. Smith is not an easygoing fella. His armor stays on at all times, particularly when he’s got a reporter like myself throwing a hodgepodge of intrusive questions at him. He knows how this works, so he is very forthright about what he will and will not be forthright about. And he is far too shrewd to be caught off guard. He is wickedly evasive.
You might think traffic is of little concern to Stephen A., that maybe he has a personal driver. You would be wrong. Stephen A. Smith drives. Always. Twenty-seven years ago, Stephen A.’s older brother died in a car accident. Basil Smith was 33 years old at the time. “He was a traveling salesman and fifteen people were in the passenger van with him. He was the only one that died, because he was asleep.” He continues: “Everyone else was awake. They were able to brace themselves. He got thrown from the van and he was killed. And so I prefer to drive myself. Period.”
One of those people who didn’t see the truck coming was one of his own co-workers. Back in May, ESPN writer Baxter Holmes (who respectfully passed on commenting for this story) published a deep dive on Magic Johnson’s time as then president of basketball operations for the Los Angeles Lakers. He found that Johnson was a ruthless dilettante who went out of his way to constantly remind subordinates that they were expendable. That story dropped the same day Magic was due to appear with Stephen A. on a SportsCenter NBA Finals special. Stephen A. was not at all happy about the timing of Holmes’s story, and said so publicly. He wanted a heads-up that the story was firing, and when that heads-up never came, he “was ticked off,” says Stephen A. “I’m not going to sit around and feel disrespected.” In fact, Stephen A. tells me that Magic was, by all accounts, right to be a cruel overlord, and that anyone complaining about it is too soft to handle living in an unfair world.
During the Magic affair, Stephen A. was letting his Crunch Berries hang out for all to see. Henry Abbott witnessed it. Abbott, whose TrueHoop blog was purchased by ESPN in 2007, and then more recently relaunched as an independent newsletter, told me, “I feel like Stephen has moved to this other place where he’s like, I’m friends with Magic Johnson. It’s personally inconvenient for me for Baxter’s story to come out. So let’s just pretend it doesn’t exist. I’m like, Where’s the guy who was working the back hallways trying to reach Aaron McKie in 2000? That guy worked his ass off.” He adds, “The enemy of truth is power, right? He has a lot of power.” Abbott has felt the sting of that power himself. “He was always mad at me, like when I wrote shit about Kobe.” When I ask Abbott if he felt like Stephen A. was bullying him by openly expressing displeasure with his work, he replies, “I felt he did, yeah.”
That whole statement got Stephen A. suspended by Skipper for a week, a suspension Stephen A. still feels was unjust. “Let me be very, very clear,” he says to me—a warning sign that he might not necessarily be clear. “I apologized because of how things were interpreted. I have never felt that I deserved to be suspended; that was the wrong damn decision. My words were very, very simple, and people tried to interpret it being different than what it is, because that’s the world we’re living in. I have never hit a woman in my life. I never would.”
As with many other powerful men, Stephen A. can point to his own career successes to validate his own worldview. He is baffled that others lack his work ethic and believes they shouldn’t be surprised when they find themselves in a rut because they failed to work eighteen hours a day. If he takes a day off, he tells me, “it’s almost like a catastrophe.” He has said many times that he feels as if he’s never arrived. I ask him why he feels that way. “If I’m asleep, somebody else is awake. If I’m off, somebody else is working,” he says. “And if those things are happening, they think they can take me, which means that at some point in time they’re going to confront me to test and see if I’m ready. And at that point I will annihilate them to show them that they were never ready at all.”
Vincent Ellis: Definitely not exceptional, but yes, I’m leaving the Free Press. #PistonsTwitter will never be the same. 🙂
Glen “Big Baby” Davis just pled no contest to felony battery stemming from an April 2018 incident at a West Hollywood nightclub — but he ain’t going to jail, TMZ Sports has learned. We broke the story … the former Boston Celtics player was accused of beating the hell out of a man outside Factory nightclub — causing major injuries.
December 12, 2019 | 3:04 am UTC Update
Having already made amends with one former fan base, as Dwight Howard and the Los Angeles Lakers faithful are embracing each other again, Howard looked to patch up another old relationship Tuesday in Orlando. “I think it takes everybody a while to get over things, but time should heal wounds, and if not, got to let that s— go,” Howard said before the Lakers played the Magic.
Dwight Howard: “That’s how — I’m sorry — That’s how I look at it. I’ve let a lot of things go in my heart, things that have kind of held me down. Things that I had towards the Magic and just how the situation ended. How I was treated by the fans and stuff like that. But I had to let that bitterness go. There’s no need to hold onto it. When I let it go, it just made my life a lot better. Just more free.”
“I got blessed to come back and play with the Lakers, and I’m in a really good situation,” Howard said. “I’m pretty sure there were a lot of people here who were super hurt and disappointed that I left. And I’m sorry for that. You know, I apologize if they felt that way. But I never would have been the person I am today if I would have stayed here. So I’m very thankful that everything that has transpired has transpired and it’s made me the best version of Dwight Howard.”
Jovan Buha: Doc says Derrick Walton Jr. hurt his hamstring and was unable to re-enter the game.
December 12, 2019 | 2:47 am UTC Update
Jovan Buha: Clippers defeat the Raptors 112-92 in Kawhi Leonard’s return to improve to 19-7 and 6-6 on the road. Clips are now 3-1 on their six-game road trip. One of their most impressive Ws. Kawhi: 23 pts, 5 reb, 6 ast Lou: 18 pts, 6 reb, 8 ast PG: 13 pts Up next: at Minnesota on Friday.
Kyle Goon: FINAL: Lakers 96, Magic 87. LeBron with 25p, 11r and 10a. Anthony Davis with 16 and KCP with 15. But this is the kind of win that highlights flaws rather than gloss over them. A gut-check start to one of the longest road trips of the season.
Scott Agness: There it is… the best win of the season for the Pacers, 122-117 over the Celtics. Kemba scored a SH 44pts. On his 27th birthday, Brogdon led the Pacers with 29pts, 8asts; 15/15 at the foul line. Holiday brothers were huge & finished the game. Up next: at Atlanta on Friday.
Adam Himmelsbach: Just saw Smart walking out of the locker room. “I’m getting better.” Asked him about tomorrow. “Don’t know yet.”
Chris Iseman: Knicks say Dennis Smith Jr is out tonight because of illness
December 12, 2019 | 2:28 am UTC Update
David Hardisty: FINAL: Rockets 116, Cavs 110. Facing an epic collapse against a bottom-feeder after giving up a 24-0 run late, Harden (55p-8a, 10-18 threes) straps the team to his back and carries Houston to the win.
Justin Kubatko: The @Houston Rockets James Harden has recorded the 22nd 50-point game of his career. The only players in NBA history with more such games are Wilt Chamberlain (118), Michael Jordan (31), and Kobe Bryant (25).
Kerith Burke: Steve Kerr said, “Most people want the Knicks to be good. I know I do.” He continued, New York is a marquee franchise and he wants to see things turn around for the fans and for the benefit of the league.
Kyle Goon: Jared Dudley got ejected, as did Wes Iwundu. Dwight Howard and Michael Carter-Williams got techs.
Chris Forsberg: Celtics say Gordon Hayward — blow to nose — will not return. Between “direct shot to abdomen” and “blow to nose,” Celtics have had some really unique injury reports.
Andrew Greif: Patrick Beverley will miss the rest of the game after suffering a concussion, per the Clippers.
December 12, 2019 | 1:57 am UTC Update
Kane Pitman: Bud says Giannis has “a little bit of soreness or significant soreness” in that quad. Just based on Bud’s words, it would seem that the weekend back-to-back would be in question also.
The Los Angeles Lakers have signed forward Devontae Cacok to a two-way contract, it was announced today. In a related move, the team has waived guard Zach Norvell Jr.
Roy Parry: Lakers C Dwight Howard checks in and is greeted by a chorus of boos from the Amway Center crowd with 5.5 seconds left. One fan yelled, “You broke our hearts, Dwight.”
James Ham: Spoke to De’Aaron Fox in the locker room. He’s feeling really good and thinks he’s about a week and a half away from a return. Starting 3v3. Still needs a big brace on his ankle.
Dave Mason: Luke Walton says Marvin Bagley will play tonight.
Logan Murdock: Eric Paschall (hip) will play tonight
Scott Agness: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver just arrived here @TheFieldhouse for Pacers-Celtics.
December 11, 2019 | 11:58 pm UTC Update
Steve Mills on the hot seat?
Several members of the organization said this week that they fully expect Steve Mills will be replaced as team president at the end of the season — if not sooner — unless the club somehow turns things around.
