Golden State rookie big man James Wiseman went down with an injury in Saturday night’s game and may be done for the season, putting off the development of one of the league’s most exciting young centers until 2021-22. The Warriors picked him second overall out of Memphis in the 2020 NBA draft, and his playing time had seen a recent decline thanks to what coach Steve Kerr termed a slow learning curve, particularly on the defensive end of the floor. In Saturday’s game against Houston, he went up for a dunk, only for Kenyon Martin Jr to block his shot. He landed awkwardly and appears to have a torn right meniscus.
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Nets’ Irving expected to miss Monday’s game against Minnesota
Brooklyn will take on the Minnesota Timberwolves without Kyrie Irving, who will miss the game for personal reasons, according to the Nets. The team will also miss James Harden (right hamstring strain), LaMarcus Aldridge (non-COVID illness), and possibly Kevin Durant, who is back from a hamstring strain that left him on the shelf for two months. Durant has returned but will likely either have a minutes restriction or may rest for the entire game. Irving has missed 15 of the Nets’ 53 games so far this season, four for injury maintenance as well as two weeks in January, also for personal reasons. He broke the NBA’s COVID-19 protocols during that break and ended up having to miss more times. He also missed three contests in March due to a family matter. In Saturday’s 25-point loss to the Lakers (who did not have AD or LeBron in the lineup), Irving was ejected from a game for the first time in his career. Could this influence the Nets’ chemistry going forward? Stay tuned.
Trail Blazers’ Kanter sets a team record with 30 rebounds
Enes Kanter had an historic night on Saturday, putting up 24 points and 30 rebounds, a Portalnt record, as the Trail Blazers beat the Detroit Pistons, 118-103. The team rebounding record had sat at 27 since 1975, when Sidney Wicks pulled off the feat. In the last 20 seasons, Kanter is just one of four players who have grabbed at least 30 boars in a game. The others are Dwight Howard (2018), Andrew Bynum (2012) and Kevin Love (2011). Kanter beat his own career best (26), which came while he was with the Knicks in 2018. Kanter was starting in relief of Jusuf Nurkic, who was resting his knee on the first night of a back-to-back. Nurkic remains at about a 20-minute limit in games when he appears, so Kanter gives the Trail Blazers a more than reliable backup option.
Denver’s offense disappears against the Celtics
The Denver Nuggets traded for Aaron Gordon right at the trade deadline and then went on an eight-game winning streak. That streak looked headed to nine games when they were up 10 points on Boston with 1:13 remaining in the third period on Sunday. Nikola Jokic came out of the game, and from that point on, the bizarre happened. In the last 13:13 of the game, Boston outscored Denver, 36-8, including a 31-8 tally in the fourth quarter. The defense collapsed, the offense couldn’t find the basket, and the team also kept arguing with the officials. Jokic’s barking got so loud that Denver coach Mike Malone pulled him from the game with just over four minutes left in the fourth period. It was Denver’s sixth game in nine nights, and Jamal Murray was out with a knee ailment. However, the team’s composure showed some holes on Sunday, and that is an area in which the team needs to improve. During the eight-game winning streak, Denver had outscored their opponents by over 10 points per 100 possessions and had an offensive rating of 120.6, tops in the league. Along with Murray, Gordon and Jokic, Michael Porter Jr and Will Barton have outscored their starting counterparts by 61 points in 90 minutes of floor time over the last four games. Denver looks headed back to the top four in the West standings, and Jokic’s name is climbing back up the MVP odds list. So hopefully what happened Sunday was an aberration — not to be repeated.
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