Not quite three minutes into Lithuania's game against Team USA last Saturday, center Jonas Valanciunas set up on the low right block and prepared to go to work on American center Tyson Chandler, the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year. Valanciunas took two dribbles and turned into the lane, scurrying across to set up a hook shot. But he had been moving so quickly and was so eager to get his shot off that he misjudged where he was in the lane. He was too far past the basket, and threw the ball off the front of the rim.
The play sums up where Valanciunas is as a player — eager and talented, but operating without know-how. I brought the play up to coach Kestutis Kemzura, and he nodded.
Toronto Raptors
Record: 34-48
5th in Atlantic
Home: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Capacity: 19,800
5th in Atlantic
Home: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Capacity: 19,800
Lithuania coach breaks down Jonas Valanciunas' struggles
SportingNews.com 8/06/2012
The Pacers-Heat starts in Miami on Wednesday and there already is plenty of chatter going on with LeBron James reacting to Pacers coach Frank Vogel saying the Heat are another team in our way. Vogel actually said “next team in our way.”
LeBron James says he knows Pacers will try to put him on
Anyone need a 6’9” floor-stretching forward who hit 44.2 percent of his threes last year?
A lot of teams could, which is why Mike Dunleavy Jr. is starting to draw some interest around the league, reports the Journal-Times.
Apparently, Dunleavy’s fine playoff showing after a quality regul
Carmelo Anthony sat shirtless and wore ice packs on both knees late Saturday night as he surveyed the losing locker room inside Bankers Life Fieldhouse. From his demeanor and posture right down to the accessories needed to heal his aching body, Anthony resembled Patrick Ewing more than ever after th
Carmelo Anthony will have his ailing left shoulder re-examined by team doctors to determine the extent of the injury and how to treat it, according to a Knicks official.
The club is hopeful that Anthony's injury is not serious and that it will improve with rest and therapy and won't require surge
Whether it was simply the advice of cautious agents or unfortunate injuries, there weren't many potential lottery picks who were willing to put themselves on display at the 2013 NBA Draft Combine. UCLA guard Shabazz Muhammad was one.
Muhammad was probably the highest-rated player in this year's d
It is unorthodox, no question. Hawks general manager Danny Ferry is conducting a head coach search while Larry Drew still holds the position. Drew, under contract until June 30, is interviewing for other head coaching jobs in the NBA.
Not how it’s usually done. What makes the situation unique i
The Indiana Pacers had the No. 1 defense in the NBA this season and just shut down Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks over six games. The Miami Heat had the league's No. 1 offense and just dispatched Tom Thibodeau's D in five. The trump card in the Eastern Conference finals, tipping off Wednesd
The Memphis Grizzlies' goal for Game 2 of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday night? No more postgame apologies for Zach Randolph.
Admirable though it may have been for their leading scorer to fall on the sword after his two-point, seven-rebound outing in a 105-83 loss in Game 1 to the San A
With the Lakers hoping for a swift decision from Dwight Howard on his free agency this summer, the All-Star center has given no indication he will rush the process and has privately indicated that he plans to give strong consideration to multiple teams, league sources told CBSSports.com.
Though H
The Grizzlies had arguably the best 3-point defense in the NBA this season, giving up the third-fewest makes on the second-worst percentage.
It made no difference to the Spurs, who shredded them for 14 makes from beyond the arc — more than the Grizzlies had given up in more than two years — t
Amar’e Stoudemire knows his contract won’t allow him to go anywhere and he wants Mike Woodson to make a commitment to make a frontcourt of Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler work.
“We never gave it a chance,” Stoudemire said after Indiana’s 106-99 victory eliminated the Knic
The Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers don't start the Eastern Conference finals until Wednesday, but that hasn't stopped the teams from engaging one another early.
Heat star LeBron James took exception Sunday to Pacers coach Frank Vogel referring to Miami as "just the next team" standing between Indi
So much for riding off into the sunset.
Jerry Sloan’s name continues to be connected with virtually every NBA job that opens more than two years after abruptly resigning as coach of the Utah Jazz.
The list of teams reaching out to Sloan last summer included Portland, Charlotte and Orlando.
Two young employees at Tibco Software Inc. recently challenged the head of the company to a pull-up contest, and Vivek Ranadive didn't hesitate to accept.
The employees, men in their 30s, combined to gut out 12 pull-ups. Ranadive, who is 55, pumped out nearly twice as many.
"When he was done,
Kendrick Perkins sat down for his season-ending interview with reporters Thursday and was told, to his surprise, that he was sweating.
“Well I just left out of Sam's office so I might be sweating,” Perkins said of his exit interview with Thunder general manager Sam Presti.
“That was a joke,
It appears Bryan Colangelo’s time in Toronto is running out.
Sources confirmed a deadline has been set for Monday for Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment to determine whether Colangelo will get his third-year option picked up.
That seems a highly unlikely outcome.
New MLSE president/chief
The rivalry has simmered for a year.
Now the stakes are even higher.
After defeating the Indiana Pacers in a bitterly contested six-game series in last season's Eastern Conference semifinals, the Miami Heat now will face the Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals, a series that opens Wednesda
Carmelo Anthony made the same slow, sad walk off the court that Patrick Ewing used to make all too often at the Garden, the walk into another season without a championship.
Ewing always had Michael Jordan in his way, and Melo would have had LeBron James in his way again, but he couldn’t even ge
The shots just kept coming from Iman Shumpert. They kept going in. But it wasn’t enough.
In the Knicks’ 106-99 season-ending Game 6 loss to the Pacers last night, it was Shumpert who delivered a surge that nearly saved the Knicks’ season.
Midway through the third quarter, Shumpert almost
Following the Knicks’ 106-99 ouster by the Pacers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals last night, center Tyson Chandler was asked why the Knicks never seemed to get back to their early-season form, when they were one of the NBA’s brightest stories.
“I don’t know, I can’t answ
After it ended, J.R. Smith said he looked at his Knicks jersey and thought about how he doesn’t want to leave New York.
“I want to retire a Knick,” said Smith, who can opt out of his contract this offseason, in the aftermath of the Knicks’ season-ending 106-99 Game 6 defeat. “I don’t
The Pacers prepared for the worst. But it worked out for the best — in every way.
Indiana was preparing to go without George Hill, who had missed Thursday’s game with a concussion, but the starting point guard was cleared in the afternoon by team doctors and the league. He started and played
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The victory sends the Pacers
Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment is pursuing Denver Nuggets general manager Masai Ujiri to take over as the top basketball executive of the Toronto Raptors, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
Masai, the 2013 NBA Executive of the Year, has emerged as the top choice of the search firm – Korn/F
Atlanta Hawks coach Larry Drew will interview for the Milwaukee Bucks vacant coaching position Monday, a league source confirmed Friday.
And it's a very strange twist to have a currently employed NBA coach interviewing with another team.
But that's the agreement reached by Hawks management wit
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