Popovich sets coaching wins record, as Spurs clip Jazz

Gregg Popovich became the NBA's all-time leader in regular-season coaching wins after his San Antonio Spurs rallied from 15 points down in the fourth quarter to beat the visiting Utah Jazz 104-102 on Friday.

The victory lifted Popovich to 1,336 wins, breaking a tie with Don Nelson. Popovich, in his 26th NBA season, all with the Spurs, tied the record on March 7 via a victory over the Los Angeles Lakers, but lost their next game.

The Spurs trailed by 10 entering the 4th quarter and by 15 with 10:02 left in the game, but they rallied and were up 98-95 after Jakob Poeltl made a floater with 31.3 seconds remaining. Utah's Donovan Mitchell canned a jumper with 17.6 seconds left to cut the lead to a point.

Josh Richardson then made 1 free throw with 14.2 seconds to play but missed the 2nd. The Spurs' Keldon Johnson swooped in for the offensive rebound, was fouled, and made both of the free throws with 12.5 seconds remaining to make it a 4-point game.Mitchell's bucket with 5.9 seconds to play cut the lead back to 2, before Dejounte Murray made a pair of free throws with 4.8 seconds left.

Utah's Rudy Gay hit a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left, but Murray added another free throw and the Jazz could not get off another shot.

San Antonio had been 0 for 33 in games it was trailing entering the fourth quarter.

Murray led the Spurs with 27 points, with Poeltl adding 15 points and 11 rebounds. Zach Collins also scored 15 points, Johnson finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Richardson and Lonnie Walker IV scored 11 points each.

Mitchell scored 24 points to lead the Jazz. Jordan Clarkson had 17, and Rudy Gobert (13 points, 16 rebounds) and Hassan Whiteside (13 points and 10 rebounds) recorded double-doubles for Utah.

Mitchell scored 10 points in a stretch of the second period when the Jazz turned a two-point deficit into a 57-45 lead with 2:22 to play in the half.

Utah took a 59-50 advantage into the break behind Mitchell's 18 points in the first half. The Jazz hit 9 of its 22 shots from beyond the arc in the half, with Mitchell making 4 of 8.

Collins paced the Spurs with 13 points in the half and Murray added 12. San Antonio shot only 39.5 percent in the half.

-reuters

Nets hit 24 3s, 1 shy of NBA record, in rout of Bulls

CHICAGO — Quincy Acy is often an emotional leader for the Brooklyn Nets.
On a record night against the Bulls, he led them on the scoresheet, too.

Acy helped the Nets set a franchise mark with 24 3-pointers in a 124-96 victory over the Chicago Bulls.

The Nets finished one 3-pointer shy of the NBA record set last season by Cleveland.

Acy had career highs with six 3-pointers and 21 points, and Allen Crabbe added five from behind the arc and 20 points.

“When we’re hot, I feel like we can run with anybody in the gym,” Acy said. “And tonight, we got hot.”

Acy’s season has been hot and cold following offseason ankle surgery, but he looked plenty comfortable letting it fly Saturday. He took 13 of his 14 shots from deep.

“He’s our bench leader, a great guy,” Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said. “I think he hasn’t been fully healthy and he’s played through a lot.”

Brooklyn got its fourth road win in its last five games. It was Brooklyn’s second straight victory over the Bulls, something the Nets haven’t done since February 2008. The win clinched the season series for the first time since 2009-10.

The Nets had a season-high 36 assists, led by nine from Spencer Dinwiddie and eight from Caris LeVert, both off the bench.

“(The shooting) comes from our thrust at the rim and how we get there, and how we set the defense after that, and made good passes,” Atkinson said.

Sean Kilpatrick led Chicago with 20 points, and Bobby Portis had 18 points and eight rebounds.

“Tonight was obviously a debacle,” Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said. “We were stuck in mud from the beginning of that game.”
Portis scored 13 points in the first quarter to help erase an early 16-7 Nets lead.

In the second quarter, baskets by Rondae Hollis-Jefferson bookended a 14-1 run for the Nets which opened a 61-47 lead with 1:11 left until halftime.

Crabbe knocked down four of the Nets’ nine 3-pointers in the third as Brooklyn pushed the lead past 20 points, cruising the rest of the way.

“It’s pretty tough, man,” Portis said of defending Brooklyn. “It’s like playing the Rockets. They shoot a lot of 3s. They shoot a lot of contested shots. That’s what their coach preaches.”

Brooklyn made 19 3-pointers Thursday in a win against Milwaukee. Its previous season high was 21 in a Feb. 10 loss to New Orleans.
Joe Harris made four 3-pointers and scored 16 points for the Nets, who were 24 for 55 from deep.

TIP-INS
Nets: F Dante Cunningham (back spasms) returned after missing Thursday’s win against Milwaukee. … F DeMarre Carroll (left hip) and C Jahlil Okafor (right ankle) were held out for the second straight game, although Atkinson said Okafor was available to play.
Bulls: Rookie F Lauri Markkanen was held out of the game as he has not been playing back-to-back games recently due to back and elbow injuries. Markkanen scored 20 points in 23 minutes in Friday’s loss to Boston, his third consecutive game with at least 20 points, all of which were achieved in 25 minutes or less. … F Noah Vonleh (calf strain) missed his second straight game and C Robin Lopez (rest) was held out of his third straight game.

DRAFT DRAMA
The teams are both 27-53 with two games remaining and will meet again Monday in Brooklyn in another crucial game for draft positioning.
The Nets’ first-round pick is owned by Cleveland after being moved via Boston in the Kyrie Irving trade last August.

DEEP THREATS
Brooklyn’s 24 3-pointers pushed them over 1,000 for the season, ending the game with a franchise record 1,012.
The previous season high was 877 last year.
The Nets trail only Houston for 3-pointers made league-wide. The Rockets entered Saturday with an NBA-record 1,213.
It was Brooklyn’s 15th straight game with double-digit 3-pointers made, setting a franchise record.

LOYOLA LAUDED
The Loyola men’s basketball team was honored at the game after their surprising recent Final Four run in the NCAA Tournament.
Former Ramblers star Milton Doyle, a Nets rookie from Chicago, proudly watch his team make the run as an 11-seed.
“It was just like watching my family, enjoying all the success,” Doyle said. “It was great seeing everything that was going on and them getting all the praises and all the shout-outs from the big stars.”

SEAN STREAKING
Kilpatrick had at least 20 points for the third straight game, matching the longest streak of his career. He has scored double digits in six of the seven games he has played for Chicago since signing on March 26.

UP NEXT
Nets: The teams will meet again Monday in Brooklyn, then the Nets will close the season Wednesday in Boston.
Bulls: After Monday’s rematch, the Bulls will close their season Wednesday against visiting Detroit.

source: sports.inquirer.net

NBA: Cavaliers’ three-point barrage helps cool off hot Hornets

LOS ANGELES, United States — Channing Frye scored five of Cleveland’s 14 three pointers as the Cavaliers broke an NBA three-point shooting record in a 100-93 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday.

Frye sparked the reigning champion Cavaliers by coming off the bench to score 20 points as Cleveland became the first team in league history to make at least 10 three pointers in their first nine games.

LeBron James helped put the game out of reach with a clutch three pointer in the final minute that extended the host Cavs’ lead to nine and sent the Hornets to their second consecutive defeat.

James finished with 19 points, seven rebounds and passed for eight assists in front of a crowd of 20,500.

Cleveland broke an NBA three-point shooting mark set by the Houston Rockets, who made at least 10 three-pointers in their first eight games to open the 2014-15 season.

Kyrie Irving tallied 19 points, while Kevin Love scored 17 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for Cleveland. Reserve Iman Shumpert scored 15 points.

Charlotte’s Kemba Walker stretched his streak of scoring at least 20 points in a game to eight as he finished with 21.

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist returned from a strained back to score 11 points and grab 10 rebounds.

After starting the year 6-1, the Hornets have lost their last two games to Toronto and Cleveland.

The Hornets led 72-71 entering the final quarter when Shumpert and Frye made three-pointers to give the Cavs the lead.

Frye’s second three-pointer of the fourth extended the lead to 89-80 with just under six minutes to play and followed it up with a mid-range jumper to push the lead to double figures.

Eleven of Frye’s 20 points came in the final quarter.

The Cavaliers began the day ranked second in the league in three-pointers made, averaging 13.1 per game. CBB

source: sports.inquirer.net

Spurs keep winning, Heat lose but clinch playoff spot

Kawhi Leonard had a career-high 33 points, while LaMarcus Aldrige had 31 points and 15 rebounds as the San Antonio Spurs beat the Toronto Raptors 102-95 Saturday (Sunday Manila time) for their franchise-record 64th victory.

San Antonio never trailed and topped its 63-win season in 2005-06. The Spurs also extended their NBA-record home winning streak to start a season to 39 games.

The Spurs closed it out at the free-throw line, capturing their 48th straight home victory dating to March 2015.

Norman Powell had 17 points, Jonas Valanciunas and Cory Joseph added 16 points and Patrick Patterson had 12 points for the Raptors.

In Portland, C.J. McCollum had 24 points and made all six of his 3-point attempts to help the Trail Blazers beat Miami 110-93 for their seventh straight home win.

Despite the loss, the Heat still clinched a playoff spot after the Chicago Bulls lost to Detroit earlier in the evening. However, having come into the game tied for the third seed in the East, Miami dropped to sixth with the loss.

The Blazers made 10 3-pointers to break a franchise record for 3-pointers in a season with 808. They are in sixth place in the Western Conference and have not clinched a playoff spot yet.

Damian Lillard did not play in the fourth quarter and finished with 18 points for the Blazers. Gerald Henderson came off the bench to score 17 points.

Hassan Whiteside led the Heat with 21 points and 13 assists.

In Chicago, Reggie Jackson scored 22 points and Tobias Harris added 21 as Detroit overcame Jimmy Butler’s first career triple-double to beat the Bulls 94-90.

Marcus Morris had 16 points and Andre Drummond had 11 points and 11 rebounds for the Pistons, who remain on track for a playoff spot.

Butler had 28 points and career highs of 17 rebounds and 12 assists. Pau Gasol had 16 points and 14 rebounds.

Detroit is a half-game ahead of Indiana for seventh in the Eastern Conference and 2 1/2 games up on ninth-place Chicago.

C.J. Miles scored 25 points, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with 3:39 left as Indiana rallied to beat short-handed Philadelphia, 115-102.

Paul George added 20 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for Indiana, the eighth seed in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. Rodney Stuckey scored 17 points.

Isaiah Canaan had 24 points for Philadelphia (9-68), which needs one victory in its remaining five games to avoid matching the 1972-73 Sixers for the worst full-season record in NBA history.

Rudy Gay had 25 points and nine rebounds and Seth Curry scored 17 points to help Sacramento beat Denver 115-106 to sweep the three-game season series.

Darren Collison had 14 points and eight assists and Willie Cauley-Stein and Ben McLemore scored 14 points each for Sacramento, which played without DeMarcus Cousins and Rajon Rondo.

Gary Harris led Denver with 19 points and Emmanuel Mudiay and Joffrey Lauvergne had 15 apiece.

source: sports.inquirer.net

Warriors’ winning formula

In sports there are many things I did not expect to see in my lifetime.
As a college basketball player and later as a coach, I was of the belief that, apart from talent, one needed to possess a certain physique and height to be able to excel in this game.
Steph Curry, who has the physique of an Asian, has totally debunked this belief and has opened my mind to new possibilities that I could never have imagined on my own.
Please allow me to share with you today my perspective from a coach’s point of view, of what I see as some of the reasons Curry has been able to play the way he does and lead the Warriors to break the NBA record of home wins.
Whenever I watch a basketball game live or on TV, I try to coach both teams in my mind and try to guess what the coaches are trying to do.
* * *
I believe that the development of every player on the team rests on the style of the coach and how he handles his players.
Most players who have become professional coaches come from the position of having played guard during their playing days. This is true not only in America but also in the Philippines.
Given the position the guard plays, he is the one expected to control the flow of the game. In other words, he plays the role of “coach” on the court.
Now this is where it gets interesting.
Curry’s coach, Steve Kerr, was NOT a point guard during his playing days but he was an exceptional shooter who played minimal minutes with some of the best players (Michael Jordan) and coaches (Phil Jackson and Greg Popovich).
Now that Kerr is the Warriors coach, he appears to be courageous enough to change the coaching platform.
Kerr gives his players the freedom to use their imaginations freely and maximize their athletic ability to the fullest.
* * *
It is very rare to see a center that rebounds and is also allowed to bring the ball down as a point guard. This formula goes contrary to all the recipes written in the coaching books, but Kerr allows this.
In my opinion, apart from Curry’s talent and hard work, his rising popularity and the success of his team could very well be attributed to the radical change in the coaching philosophy of Kerr and his assistant, Luke Walton.
Though it may be difficult to change the style of the coaches in the PBA because their beliefs in what they are already doing are so strong, our college coaches can get inspiration and new ideas from watching the Warriors play.
I feel that the formula Kerr is using is so enjoyable to watch. It is like a breath of fresh air. He has shown how a collaborative method between coach and player could very well be the new way to develop the player, the team and the game of basketball further.

source: sports.inquirer.net