James Edwards III: Markieff Morris is OUT tonight, Reggie Jackson is a game-time decision.
Storyline: Reggie Jackson Injury
126 rumors in this storyline
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Reggie Jackson returns from injury
Keith Langlois: Reggie Jackson back tonight, Derrick Rose starts
Rod Beard: It seems the #Pistons are more optimistic that Reggie Jackson will return to the lineup in a couple weeks and be able to contribute this season. That will help with managing Derrick Rose’s minutes and add another scorer to the starting lineup.
Rod Beard: #Pistons Reggie Jackson saw a specialist in L.A. and is making progress but there is no timeframe on a return as he is continuing toward full basketball activities.
Vincent Ellis: #Pistons coach Dwane Casey says Reggie Jackson (back) will likely be re-evaluated for a potential return after Christmas. Has been out since the the first two games of the season. He’s been doing non-contract stuff for several weeks.
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.
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.”
August 3, 2020 | 3:32 pm EDT Update
“Zion is not on their injury report,” said Brian Windhorst on his podcast. “They are treating him as though he’s coming back from an injury, but he’s not on their injury report. I cannot make an assumption as to what’s going on there. When you watch him play, he clearly is not in condition to compete at the highest level. As I’ve watched him play two games, I don’t actually think they should have played him at all with the way he’s playing. I talked to a scout who said to me he shouldn’t be out there right now with the condition he is in. He said to me, ‘He’s moving worse than he did in Summer League last summer when he got hurt in his first or second game.’ “I don’t know if that’s because he’s out of condition, or that’s because he’s got something that they’re not discussing. This is one of the things that the Pelicans have to deal with… this is a guy who has a history of knee injuries and is not right either because of conditioning or because of something else.”
Williamson was gone from the Pelicans for over a week and then was under quarantine for a few days when he returned to Orlando. “He does not look right,” said Kirk Goldsberry. “It does not look good. I don’t know if I would go so far as to say he shouldn’t be out there because I don’t know… Something smells fishy here. I don’t know what’s going on. He does not look like the kid that was dominating the league in March.”
Now that the Wizards have lost their first two games at Disney World, that rule is coming back into the forefront. The Wizards are currently tied in the loss column with the Hornets, who aren’t in Orlando but are locked in with the eighth-best lottery odds. What that means is if the Wizards continue to lose, they can’t gain more ping-pong balls for lottery night, which is set for Aug. 25. And now there is a distinct possibility they could have worse odds than a team with a better win percentage than them.
It would be a cruel twist for the Wizards, who need as much help as they can get in this year’s draft as they hope to find another blue chip prospect to add to their burgeoning young core. Making that pick count is especially important given their salary cap situation with John Wall and Bradley Beal on the books, which has left them with fewer resources to work with. They could get another key rotation player on a rookie contract. The good news is that the lottery rules were changed more permanently before last year’s drawing in order to create more parity in the annual event. It smoothed out the odds to discourage tanking and the results in its first year were as-intended.
August 3, 2020 | 2:49 pm EDT Update
Dennis Schroeder leaves bubble
Brandon Rahbar: Dennis Schroder is officially out of the Bubble with his wife for the birth of his new baby. Terrance Ferguson is also out with a leg contusion. Good news: Schroder, assuming he comes back, will definitely be back for the playoffs.
Brandon Rahbar: Donovan on Schroder’s time being out: “It happened this morning. He’s with his family. I’ll talk to him later today or tomorrow. He’s out this game and we’ll gather more info from him when we talk to him on the phone.”
Eric Woodyard: Victor Oladipo won’t play today vs. Washington.
Zalgiris big man Jock Landale will be playing in a different team next season. With the request of the player, Jock Landale and Zalgiris have mutually agreed to part ways, as the Aussie continues to seek out his dream of playing in the NBA. A member of the Australian men’s national team signed a deal with Zalgiris last summer and had a running contract for next season. After the two sides reached an agreement, the 24-year-old addressed the fans and the Zalgiris organization. “I just wanted to reach out and say thank you for everything you’ve done for the past year. It was such an incredible experience coming to Lithuania and playing for such a historic club and a legendary coach. To the organization, I appreciate what you guys have done. Everyone’s got goals and ambitions, and you really helped me reach mine. You’ve got a fan in me for life.”
Michael Singer: Michael Malone said he voted for OKC’s Billy Donovan in the Coach of the Year vote.
Brandon Rahbar: Abdel Nader on Billy Donovan winning NBCA Coach of the Year: “He’s been huge. He’s been our main leader. He’s kept us on the right path and the right mindset. He’s built an identity for us. It’s good to see him recognized for it.”
August 3, 2020 | 2:11 pm EDT Update
Shams Charania: 76ers’ Kyle O’Quinn missed his coronavirus test on Sunday and is not eligible to play today vs. San Antonio, team official confirms to @The Athletic @Stadium. O’Quinn was tested today and will rejoin the team upon negative result.
Jim Eichenhofer: JJ Redick on #Pelicans: “This is a drama-free group. At no point during the season did we point fingers or place blame on anybody. This is a group that’s had each other’s back all year. That’s my expectation going forward. We’re going to make the most out of these six games.”
Harrison Wind: According to a source, the Nuggets had hoped to wear the “Justice For Elijah McClain” shirts during the National Anthem, but the league’s rules on what players can and can’t wear wouldn’t allow for it. How Michael Malone brought those shirts to life: thednvr.com/how-the-nugget…
Jeff Goodman: Alabama’s John Petty is coming back to school, source told @Stadium.
Adam Zagoria: Gonzaga’s Corey Kispert will return for his senior season, the school announced. They also have Joel Ayayi coming back and Jalen Suggs coming in.
Duane Rankin: Milwaukee Bucks Head Coach Mike Budenholzer and Oklahoma City Thunder Head Coach Billy Donovan are the 2020 recipients of the Michael H. Goldberg NBCA Coach of the Year Award, the National Basketball Coaches Association announced today. pic.twitter.com/pkmUQiazWj
Josh Lewenberg: There’s only one official NBA end-of-season award that isn’t determined by media voting: Executive of the Year, which is voted on by the league’s execs. Masai Ujiri finished FOURTH last season despite acquiring Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green and Marc Gasol.
August 3, 2020 | 12:55 pm EDT Update
Adrian Wojnarowski: The NBA’s 30 head coaches vote on the award. Toronto’s Nick Nurse was one vote away from making it a three-way tie, per sources.
The award, named in honor of longtime NBCA executive director Michael Goldberg, is voted on by the league’s 30 head coaches, with each coach voting for a single winner. Among those who also received votes, sources said: Memphis’ Taylor Jenkins, Indiana’s Nate McMillan, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra, Boston’s Brad Stevens and the Lakers’ Frank Vogel.
While watching Sunday night’s box-office affair between the Houston Rockets and Milwaukee Bucks, perhaps the saying speaks more to the mental exercise of what it takes to play defense and get stops. “Heart and will,” James Harden said. “Everybody says we’re undersized — and they got a couple of offensive rebounds on us just cause they have 7-footers and whatnot — but you gotta just keep fighting, keep fighting. Once we get that ball, we’re out, so it just takes good spirit, fighting and making sure we’re communicating defensively and in our right positions.”
Westbrook finished with 31 points, eight assists and six rebounds, but it’s more important to note how he kept Houston afloat while Harden sat with foul trouble. He constantly put pressure on the Bucks’ defense, forcing them to concede open shots to Green, Tucker, Ben McLemore, and others. In addition, it seemed like him and Harden struck a good balance of when to attack versus when to move the ball and look for others. When Harden struggles offensively, Westbrook is more than capable of picking up the slack. “Yeah, I think we’re comfortable now,” Harden said of the pair’s chemistry. “I think with that training camp, we’re in a good place. We found ourselves.”
“We loaded up,” House explained. “We talked. The most important thing was to stop him before he got downhill, of course. We did a good job about locating him before he could get the ball or even after he got the ball to make sure that we were on the help side and that guys were already communicating with one another. That’s been a big help and a big factor for us — communication on defense. So we don’t have those “my bad” moments.” “Very important,” Harden added on their late-game defense. “I think throughout the course of the game we played some really good defense. Obviously, they’re a really good offensive team, but throughout the course of the game we got stops when we needed to.”
Scott Agness: Malcolm Brogdon (sore neck) is questionable for today’s game against the Wizards at 4pm. Victor Oladipo (rehab) is doubtful. This is their only back-to-back in the bubble and he won’t play in both games. They face his first team, the Magic, on Tuesday.
Nate Darling: After discussing with my family, I have decided to keep my name in the 2020 NBA draft and pursue my life long dream of being a professional.
Mike Trudell: Frank Vogel said “everything” still needs to improve for the Lakers as they build towards the postseason, but he pointed out the spacing and screening as two things that need to improve offensively.
Jonathan Isaac suffered a torn ACL on Sunday night and will be out for the remainder of the season, and the injury came at a time when the Orlando Magic star was gaining tremendous popularity. Isaac’s jersey sales have skyrocketed recently, with only LeBron James having a hotter-selling jersey. The increase in sales was likely a response to Isaac refusing to kneel during the national anthem recently.
August 3, 2020 | 11:16 am EDT Update
NBA makes changes to COVID-19 testing protocols
Adrian Wojnarowski: The NBA has adjusted its protocol for players who return inconclusive tests for the coronavirus, allowing for a quicker possible return to game action, according to a league memo shared with teams.
Adrian Wojnarowski: NBA teams have been concerned that player availability could become jeopardized should an inconclusive test result fall in the middle of a playoff series and force someone to miss a game. In certain cases, this protocol change could shorten that quarantine window for players.
Marc Stein: Home-court advantage is allegedly dead at the NBA Bubble in arenas with no fans … but “home” teams have gone 9-2 the last two days and are 14-7 overall
Bleacher Report: James Harden (20,796 points) passed David Robinson to become the all-time scoring leader for a lefty.
Jonathan Isaac: IT IS WELL!!! 2 Kings 4! Thank you for all of your prayers and concerns I’m encouraged. Remember our God is not just a God of the hills but a God of the valleys! (2 Corinthians ch 4 vs 9!) MY COMEBACK WILL BE GREATER THAN MY SETBACK!!!! I STILL STAND IN JESUS NAME!!!!
Former NBA player Robert Swift will re-sign with Circulo Gijon Baloncesto (Spain).
Alex Kennedy: LeBron James wrote a children’s book titled “I PROMISE” that will be available on August 11, 2020. LeBron has a two-book deal with HarperCollins and he’s also writing a “middle grade novel” that will come out in 2021. Here’s the cover of “I PROMISE,” which can be pre-ordered now: pic.twitter.com/9N91HNV9RP
August 3, 2020 | 9:07 am EDT Update
Makur Maker withdrawing from draft
Adam Zagoria: Makur Maker is withdrawing from the NBA Draft, per his guardian Ed Smith. He committed to Howard earlier this summer.
Disney World is no longer the happiest place on Earth, not for these Pelicans. Their budding-superstar of a rookie can’t stay on the floor, certainly can’t make a dent in the outcome, while the sands of time on their playoff hopes are quickly running out. “We knew these two games were our toughest two games,” a team source said. “Bad showing. Move on.”
T.J. Warren? Really nice player, an amazing acquisition from the clueless Phoenix Suns, who gave him away for “cash considerations,” but you could have gotten a trillion-to-1 odds on Warren going for 50-plus on the very first regular-season game in the bubble. Or in any game. Anywhere. “We fed the dragon,” Oladipo said, smiling. “A guy that hot, you try to get him the ball, and I thought all our guys were trying to do that,” Pacers coach Nate McMillan said. “T.J. was as hot as I’ve ever seen him. And I thought his teammates did a good job of sacrificing, of screening and getting him the ball and giving him proper spacing. You’ve got to milk him. I thought our point guards (Aaron Holiday and T.J. McConnell), they combined for 18 assists, we had 44 assists in the game, so our ball movement was good, and a lot of that was ending up in T.J.’s hands.”
Even if he remained almost 1,500 miles away, Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum sensed he was not too far from family. His son, Deuce, joined the virtual fan section and became giddy after seeing his dad on the screen in uniform for Sunday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers. “He’s a fan favorite,” Tatum said. “I was happy he was able to watch the game.” Deuce saw his old man help the Celtics to a 128-124 win over the Trail Blazers by scoring 34 points on 11-of-22 shooting. He also saw Tatum have a bounce-back game coincidentally after getting a haircut here on the NBA Disney campus.
JJ Redick starting podcast company
Now, Redick hopes to expand his platform. In a telephone interview, he said he was set to start his podcast company, ThreeFourTwo Productions, this week with his co-host and business partner, Tommy Alter, along with a new weekly podcast, “The Old Man and the Three,” which ticks the obligatory podcast box of having a pun in its title. “It’s a little play on Hemingway,” Redick said. “I’m the old man in this scenario.”
Redick’s final podcast for The Ringer website, which had produced his namesake show since 2017, was released on July 24. But he said the idea of starting his own company had been percolating for months when he brought the idea to Alter, 29, a producer for shows like “The Shop” on HBO and “Desus & Mero” on Showtime.
August 3, 2020 | 2:32 am EDT Update
Jonathan Isaac out for much of the 2020-21 season?
Isaac now faces an extended rehabilitation period. Magic officials did not provide an expected timeline for his recovery, but it seems likely that he’ll miss at least a significant portion of the 2020-21 season. Before Sunday’s injury, Isaac slotted as the team’s long-term answer at the power forward position — a spot Gordon currently occupies.
After Isaac’s injury in early January, Magic officials expected Isaac to miss the remainder of the season and the playoffs, but the pandemic gave him extra time to rehabilitate and strengthen his leg. When players were allowed to return to the Magic practice facility in mid-May for optional individual workouts, Isaac often worked twice a day with team performance staff and medical staff. The current Magic front office has a reputation for being ultra-cautious with the health of its players, especially its younger players. But questions now will be raised whether Isaac was allowed to return too quickly.
Isaac, a 22-year-old forward and potential franchise cornerstone, crumpled to the court and clutched his knee as Magic head athletic trainer Ernest Eugene and athletic trainer and manual therapist Aki Tajima attended to him. A pained expression crossed Evan Fournier’s face. Wes Iwundu looked to the ground, his hands cupped to his face. Fultz prayed. “That was tough, man,” said Aaron Gordon, another of Isaac’s teammates. “That one brought me to tears instantly just because I know how good of a guy J.I. is and I know how hard he works and how hard he has worked to get back.”
“It was very difficult to see him go down like that again, especially the same knee,” said Nikola Vucevic, who saw the injury occur from the Magic bench area. “He was looking great, actually. We were all very happy for him mainly just because he’s a great guy and great teammate. We all have a lot of respect for him, and so for him to go down like that was very difficult to see, especially when you know that he had just came back.”
Luka Doncic: prayers up!
Kristaps Porzingis: Speedy recovery to @JJudahIsaac ????????
Mavs make playoffs despite loss
The Dallas Mavericks weren’t in the mood to celebrate the end of the franchise’s three-year playoff drought. The Mavs officially clinched a playoff berth due to the Memphis Grizzlies’ 108-106 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday afternoon. Hours later, Dallas dropped to 0-2 in the NBA bubble with a 117-115 loss to the Phoenix Suns in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. “Our goal was to make the playoffs, and we achieved that, but for me and for us, we’re going to try to win every game now that we have left in the regular season,” said Mavs center Kristaps Porzingis, who scored 30 points in the loss. “Then, we’ll see where we end up in the playoffs and go from there. This is not a sprint. This is a marathon, and with each day, with each game, with each practice, we want to be a better team and better individually.”
