Category: NBA Playoffs

Report: Lakers will wear Kobe tribute jersey if they advance

Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times reported that the Lakers will honor Kobe with special uniforms if they win their 1st round series.

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The Los Angeles Lakers have made it clear that Kobe Bryant still ways heavily on their minds and hearts after arriving in the bubble, as they continued a season in which Bryant and his daughter Gianna’s tragic death has hung over everything. And the Lakers are planning on doing even more to honor Bryant, but they won’t do so until they get to the second round and beat the Portland Trail Blazers, according to Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times.

LeBron James discussed how Bryant is on his mind every day and Anthony Davis said after one of their seeding games that the Lakers want to win the championship to honor Bryant’s memory. According to Turner’s reporting, the jersey will feature a snakeskin print to honor his persona ‘The Black Mamba.’ He also referred to his daughter Gianna, who was with him in the helicopter crash, ‘The Mambacita,’ because of how she played like him.

The Lakers start a journey they hope will end in a championship starting on Tuesday with Game 1 of the first round against the Portland Trail Blazers.

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Damian Lillard: Blazers didn’t go to playoffs ‘just to get beat up on’

The Portland Trail Blazers leader believes in their chances against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.

While there are plenty of folks on television and elsewhere who are talking up the chances the Portland Trail Blazers have to pull off an upset against the Los Angeles Lakers, they have maintained a belief throughout the season that if they got a chance to be in the playoffs, that they can beat anybody. That confidence comes from their leader Damian Lillard, who reiterated again after officially making the playoffs that the Blazers aren’t there to be a punching bag for the big bad Lakers.

“They’re the No. 1 seed in the West for a reason,” Damian Lillard said. “They got the best player in the world. But at the same time, we didn’t fight as hard as we fought in the bubble to just get beat up on. We feel like we got a chance.”

Lillard has been phenomenal in the NBA Bubble so far, taking home the MVP award for the seeding games. Portland’s offense has been the best in the bubble in large part due to Lillard. The Blazers are +340 underdogs to win the series, according to BetMGM.

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Scout says Blazers are ‘4-5 seed masquerading as an 8-seed’

A scout told ESPN’s Brian Windhorst that the Blazers’ talent level is not typical of an 8th seed.

The Los Angeles Lakers were great all season long on both sides of the ball and ended with the best record in the Western Conference. But as you’ll hear about a thousand times between now and Tuesday’s Game 1, the Portland Trail Blazers are not your typical 8th seed. In a story by ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, an NBA scout likened the Blazers talent level to that of a 4 or 5 seed rather than the 8th seed they are, largely because they played the majority of their season without their starting frontcourt.

“[The Blazers] have defensive issues, which is a reason they are the 8-[seed] at the end of the day,” one league scout said. “From an overall talent and experience standpoint, they are probably a 4- or 5-seed masquerading as an 8.”

The Blazers went 6-2 in the seeding games and have posted the highest-scoring offense so far in the bubble. But their defense on the wing is a little lighter, as they are without Trevor Ariza and are relying heavily on Carmelo Anthony at small forward. But they have real size on the interior now, that coupled with their guard play, will likely make this series a little bit more competitive than a 1-8 typically is.

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It’s official: Lakers to face Blazers in Western Conference 1st round

With the win, the Portland Trail Blazers punched their tickets for a date with the Los Angeles Lakers in the playoffs.

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The Los Angeles Lakers no longer have to wonder who their first-round opponent will be in the 1-8 series of the Western Conference playoffs. Behind major performances from Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Jusuf Nurkic, and Carmelo Anthony, the Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Memphis Grizzlies in the Western Conference play-in game to earn a spot in the first round of the playoffs against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Damian Lillard had 31 points and 10 assists in the game, while McCollum hit a bevy of crucial shots in the 4th quarter to win them the game. Game 1 of the first round between the Lakers and Blazers is set for Tuesday night at 6 p.m. pacific/9 p.m. eastern time.

LeBron James has spoken multiple times that the Lakers and he can’t truly go into playoff mode until they know their opponent. Now they know it’s the Blazers and can dive deep into a scouting process. Also, the Lakers have a player who has plenty of experience beating the Blazers in the playoffs in Anthony Davis, who was part of a Pelicans squad that swept the Blazers in the 2018 playoffs.

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Lakers send Jason Kidd to scout West play-in game on Saturday

The Lakers assistant coach was the only member of their team in attendance, meaning he was their advance scout for their 1st round opponent.

The Los Angeles Lakers are watching today’s Western Conference play-in between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Memphis Grizzlies in an undisclosed location in the bubble, but their coaching staff is taking the game as serious as possible.

While he’s been reported as a candidate for several head coaching jobs, Lakers assistant Jason Kidd has been tasked by head coach Frank Vogel to handle the scouting of Saturday’s game for the right to play the Lakers, according to reports from inside the bubble. Normally, in a non-pandemic bubble situation, this would be handled by an advance scout. But since teams are limited with the personnel they can bring, Kidd is doing the work typically reserved for a scout.

Early on, the Blazers have jumped out to a 13-point lead in the first quarter. If they hold on, they will play the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the NBA playoffs

Lakers vs. Play-In Winner to play Game 1 on Tuesday: Full Schedule

The Los Angeles Lakers know their schedule for the next few days, even if they still don’t know their opponent yet.

The Los Angeles Lakers still don’t know their opponent for the first round of the NBA playoffs but they do at least know their schedule for the next few weeks. The NBA announced the full schedule for the first round of the NBA playoffs yesterday evening as the participants for this weekend’s play-in series were being decided.

Whoever wins this weekend between the 8th seed Portland Trail Blazers and 9th seed Memphis Grizzlies will play the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of the first round on Tuesday night. Below is the full schedule for the Lakers’ first round series. Much like the seeding games, the team’s will play every other day.

#1 L.A. Lakers vs. Play-In Winner  
DAY DATE ET GM AWAY HOME ARENA TV/R      
Tue 8/18 9:00PM 1 Play-In Winner L.A. Lakers AHA TNT      
Thu 8/20 9:00PM 2 Play-In Winner L.A. Lakers AHA ESPN/R      
Sat 8/22 8:30PM 3 L.A. Lakers Play-In Winner AHA ABC      
Mon 8/24 9:00PM 4 L.A. Lakers Play-In Winner AHA TNT      
Wed 8/26 TBD 5* Play-In Winner L.A. Lakers TBD TBD      
Fri 8/28 TBD 6* L.A. Lakers Play-In Winner TBD TBD      
Sun 8/30 TBD 7* Play-In Winner L.A. Lakers TBD TBD    

 

LeBron James and co. win Sports Emmy for Ali documentary on HBO

A LeBron James-produced documentary about Muhammad Ali won a Sports Emmy on Tuesday.

While LeBron James and his Los Angeles Lakers are down in the bubble preparing for their final seeding games and the NBA Playoffs starting next week, his SpringHill Company took home a major honor for one of their many productions.

Late on Tuesday night, the SpringHill Company won the Sports Emmy for Outstanding Long Documentary for their HBO documentary “What’s My Name: Muhammad Ali” about the iconic sports figure who transcended the sport of boxing.

James rejoiced in the honor and shouted SpringHill Co-Founder Maverick Carter, as well as the entire team that worked on the documentary. LeBron James was listed as an executive producer and the film was directed by Antoine Fuqua. The film was critically acclaimed for its use of archival footage that had rarely been seen before to tell the story of Ali from his own time.

LeBron James has long listed Ali as one of his greatest inspirations, so it’s only right that he would make a movie about him that turned out to win its own awards.

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Kyle Kuzma among young players pushing for insurance protections

Los Angeles Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma is one of the many young players who brought up concerns about insurance protections.

In addition to concerns about racial injustice and social unrest in the United States, as well as the safety of going to the Disney World in Florida amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has claimed at least 117,000 American lives, Los Angeles Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma was one of several young players who voiced their concerns about the quick return to high-stakes basketball and an injury that could damage their future earning potential, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Kuzma, along with young All-Stars such as Bam Adebayo, Donovan Mitchell, and Jayson Tatum, were among the young players with name-recognition to push the NBPA leadership for insurance protections in the event of a serious injury that would impact their career earnings. Mitchell, Adebayo and Tatum are all expected to get maximum extensions, while Kuzma is in line to sign a much more lucrative deal than his current one as well. The concerns about a shortened training camp and the fact the NBA has been pretty restrictive in the types of workouts allowed at team facilities have been heard for a while but are becoming even more important now.

Players have gone public in their desires for the league to allow more contact, as NBA players still aren’t allowed to work out against each other and were just this weekend allowed to work out with more than one coach, as reported by USA TODAY’s Mark Medina. Head coaches will be allowed to oversee workouts starting June 23.

As it stands right now, the league is targeting a training camp start date of July 9. Players for most teams in the league have been allowed to workout at the team facility, but they’ve all been on an individual basis and will continue to be for a while.

Details are still being discussed by the Player’s Union and the NBA, which will determine how the NBA’s “bubble” will look, and ultimately, whether it ultimately happens at all.

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NBA to test for performance-enhancing drugs, not recreational in Orlando

The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported on Monday that the league will indeed test for performance-enhancing drugs.

For at least a weekend, it looked like the NBA’s focus for testing at the Orlando campus would focus only on COVID-19. That led many to ask the question, will performance-enhancing drugs now be allowed? Well, it was clarified on Monday that no, in fact, they will not be.

The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported on Monday that the NBA will indeed test for PEDs during the restart of the season at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, but that the league will still not test players for recreational drugs. Also on Monday, Charlotte Hornets guard Malik Monk was reinstated after a violating the league’s anti-drug policy.

The Lakers have had several players get notable surprise drug tests over the past year, including Danny Green doing so after a rare dunk and Alex Caruso getting tested following a photoshopped photo of him looking very inflated. However, that means that those two, as well as the rest of the players in the bubble, should expect to be tested for performance-enhancing drugs. But while the league won’t be testing for recreational drugs such as cannabis, Florida is a medical-only state, meaning that only people with medical cards can have cannabis, while recreational possession remains criminalized.

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NBA to use winning-percentage as playoff tiebreaker with uneven games

The NBA is opting to use percentage to determine tiebreakers since certain teams will play more games than others.

There have been plenty of questions asked about how the NBA will handle tiebreaker scenarios for the 2020 NBA Playoff restart in Orlando, Florida, not only for the final playoff seed in each conference but also the potentially hotly contested seeding races in the upper tier of the league as well. But finally, over the weekend, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps confirmed the main way they will determine tiebreakers, as many teams will finish the regular season playing more games than others.

What does this mean? It could give an advantage to teams who have played more games than others. In the Western Conference, Portland has played 66 games while Memphis has played 65, while other playoff contenders New Orleans and Sacramento have played 64 games. If Portland, New Orleans, and Sacramento all have the same records in the eight games prior to the playoffs, Portland will be the 9th seed, as they currently are now, despite going 0-4 against New Orleans this season and splitting the season series with Sacramento.

As for the current 8th place Grizzlies, it’s almost impossible for them to lose out on the 8th position in the play-in scenario, which would give them two chances to win one game while the 9th seed would have to win two in a row. For example, Memphis would have to go at least 2-6 in the final eight games, while Portland needs to go 6-2 or better to leapfrog them into the more advantageous 8th place, even though Portland will end up playing one more game than the Grizzlies.

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