Steven Adams – Page 4 – Syndication Server

Lonzo Ball shines vs. Bucks as trade rumors swirl: ‘I just stay away from the noise’

With his name being circulated once again in trade rumors, Lonzo Ball shined bright in a statement win for New Orleans on Friday.

The rumors certainly were apparent to Lonzo Ball, even if he didn’t admit it. On Tuesday, Ball was the subject of a report from The Athletic’s Shams Charania noting the Pelicans had received calls about his availability via trade.

On Wednesday, he did his best to stymy those rumors with a standout first half before leaving at halftime with an ankle injury. On Thursday, David Griffin himself, the Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations, all but confirmed he had spoken to Ball about the rumors.

On Friday, Ball’s response was loud and clear.

The Pelicans picked up their defining win of the season to-date and one that will likely carry to the end of the season, dominating the Milwaukee Bucks for the vast majority of the contest before holding off a fourth-quarter rally. Leading the charge? None other than Ball.

Ball tied his career-high in 3-pointers and his Pelicans single-game points high, burying seven long-range efforts on his way to 27 points and a 131-126 New Orleans win.

His performance wasn’t the product of a revenge tour, nor did he admit any extra motivation. It was him simply staying the course.

“I’ve been playing basketball for a long time,” Ball said. “I put a lot of work in and I just go out there and try to play my game and that’s how I play. For me, I just try to stay away from all the noise and go out there and help my team win games.”

Help he did on Friday. Ball hardly missed in the second half, going 5-of-7 from range and 6-of-9 overall for 17 points across the final two frames. It was Ball that opened the half with a corner 3-pointer, then hit a shot from the exact same spot 30 seconds later. One quarter and a Bucks rally later, it was Ball that stymied the comeback with a 3-pointer from virtually the same spot.

The confidence was evident as he finished 7-for-13 on 3-pointers on the night. Over his last three halves, Ball is shooting 10-for-20 from three and has brought his 3-point percentage up four points to his career average of 33%.

“When he’s just playing the game, going off instincts, not predetermining anything, then he looks really, really good out there,” Brandon Ingram said of his teammate, the second time in as many games he’s offered a glowing review of Ball. “It looks like he’s in rhythm coming off screens and getting into his mid-range, coming off screens and taking open threes, getting downhill and maybe finishing or finding the open guy. It just looks like he’s just letting the game come to him and he’s just playing free.”

Ball’s freedom was not limited to his 3-point shot. He knocked down a number of mid-range efforts, tacked on eight assists and helped the Pelican starters score 105 points on the night.

Backcourt mate Eric Bledsoe, who has similarly struggled to adjust to his new team and teammates, matched Ball nearly shot for shot, finishing 7-of-14 from the field for 25 points.

“Whenever me and Bledsoe shoot like we did tonight,” Ball said, “I definitely like our chances moving forward. But I think it’s just about generating good shots and keeping the floor spaced and that’s what we did tonight.”

His confidence and aggressiveness may have been evident in the box score, but it wasn’t the only way his teammates took notice.

“With any player, as a defensive player, if you see someone with that body language in terms of coming straight at you and taking those angles, it forces you to make drastic decisions,” Steven Adams said. “It puts you in a tough area as opposed to being passive. Then the defense is like ‘Ok, sweet. We can be passive also.’

“The difference is the start of the play matters and how he entered the play at that pace sets the tone for that play,” he continued. “That shouldn’t be overlooked either. It isn’t so much he was just talking his stuff, the way he was playing was really good. That kind of fit us, I thought. It kind of started the spark.”

One game or three halves won’t silence the trade rumors, which are bound to only continue to the trade deadline and resurface once more in the off-season with Ball set for restricted free agency. But the statistics have never been what Ball is chasing and it’s not something he anticipates changing now.

“I’m just happy to get the win,” Ball said. “You all know how I play, I just try to win and I’m glad it happened tonight.”

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Mike Muscala, Steven Adams have been playing online chess during road trip

Oklahoma City Thunder big Mike Muscala has been playing New Orleans center Steven Adams in online chess during the OKC road trip.

Queen’s Gambit fever has hit the Oklahoma City Thunder locker room.

In the middle of OKC’s road trip, big Mike Muscala told media during a Zoom press conference that he joined Chess.com and is starting to play with former Thunder center Steven Adams.

“I created a Chess.com account and just added Steven Adams as a friend,” Muscala said. “He has like twice the rating that I do, so he’s definitely gonna be teaching me some lessons on there.”

Muscala said he remembered Adams talking about chess while in the NBA bubble.

“I hadn’t created an account yet, so I was just playing on the board, but then I remembered him talking so I just texted him,” he said. “So we just started.”

It’s certainly hard to forget about Adams playing chess in the bubble. He excitedly tweeted a screenshot of him winning a game in July.

First Légal mate for the lads! #EZGEGE pic.twitter.com/JaiirQcYSo

— Steven Adams (@RealStevenAdams) July 17, 2020

And then he started to tweet that same screenshot under random NBA tweets.

pic.twitter.com/YerestYVF0

— Steven Adams (@RealStevenAdams) July 17, 2020

pic.twitter.com/1KIsqvKsNy

— Steven Adams (@RealStevenAdams) July 17, 2020

pic.twitter.com/K3P9gc029n

— Steven Adams (@RealStevenAdams) July 17, 2020

pic.twitter.com/u0PTsDPhBa

— Steven Adams (@RealStevenAdams) July 17, 2020

So, good luck to Muscala.

We can’t wait to see what he tweets after beating you.

The Thunder are 1-3 on the road trip entering their final game of the set, a matchup with the Phoenix Suns. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m.

This post originally appeared on OKCThunderWire. Follow us on Facebook!

Former Thunder C Steven Adams on his new life in New Orleans under Stan Van Gundy

Former OKC Thunder center Steven Adams talked about Pelicans’ Stan Van Gundy’s coaching style and joked about him being old-school.

New Orleans Pelicans center Steven Adams wanted to clarify something when asked about his new head coach Stan Van Gundy in an interview with ESPN Australia & New Zealand.

“When I said Stan Van Gundy’s old school, I just meant that he’s old,” he said, then laughed.

Adams, the former Oklahoma City Thunder center, has now had almost two months with the Pelicans and played 13 games under the new coach.

“It’s been awesome,” he said. “He’s been very honest, upfront, very hard, puts a lot of pressure, high standards, but it’s realistic, if that makes sense. A lot of the standards. So that’s all we can really ask for…

“I like to operate like that anyway”

Despite the “old school” tag often taken to mean that a coach is out-of-touch with the modern NBA, Adams said that Van Gundy is still a good coach for the league.

“He’s capable of coaching today’s era,” Adams said. “It’s not like he doesn’t want to change his way of thinking.”

Steven Adams shares his early impressions of playing for 'old school' Pelicans coach Stan Van Gundy since arriving in New Orleans. pic.twitter.com/2wntAqrY4h

— ESPN Australia & NZ (@ESPNAusNZ) January 20, 2021

Yet there is a difference of style between Van Gundy and Billy Donovan, who coached Adams for five years with the Thunder. While Van Gundy drills players and calls for discipline, Donovan showed willingness to adapt to his stars, changing the style to center around point guard Russell Westbrook and then allowing point guard Chris Paul to take a slower, more meticulous approach.

Funnily enough, the NBA paths of Donovan and Van Gundy are intertwined going back to the Orlando Magic.

In 2007, Donovan actually accepted the head coaching job of the Magic. After signing a five-year, $27.5 million deal, he decided the timing wasn’t right and asked out of his contract so he could return to Florida, where he had just won back-to-back National Championships.

The Magic let him out of his contract and he resumed his job coaching the Gators. Donovan coached there for nine more seasons and reached five more NCAA Tournaments, getting as far as the Final Four in 2014.

Meanwhile, Orlando hired Van Gundy, who coached the team to an NBA Finals appearance in 2009.

It worked out for both sides, and now Adams gets to see the other side of that 2007 Magic coaching puzzle.

Steven Adams records 1st career triple-double in loss against Thunder

Steven Adams’ passing skills were on full display against his former club on Wednesday night.

Steven Adams and his New Orleans Pelicans ended up on the wrong end of a 111-110 decision when they locked horns with the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night, but it certainly wasn’t due to any shortcoming on the part of everyone’s favorite New Zealander.

For the first time in his career, against his former team, Adams recorded a triple-double. Having long been an excellent passer, Adams’ skills were on full display, as he ended the night with 10 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.

If you had any doubts as to whether there was any extra motivation on his part due to the fact that he was squaring off against his former team, just consider that his previous career-high for assists in a game was six.

After the contest, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault joked about the Thunder failing to take advantage of Adams’ skills as a potential point guard while he was with the club.

“We know he can quarterback,” Daigneault said of Adams.

“I thought that was one thing, in all seriousness, that he showed last year, is that when you play through him, he can glue your offense together. I thought that was on display tonight.”

Adams found his teammates on cuts time and time again, but fortunately for the Thunder, a few critical fouls committed by New Orleans helped them pull out a one-point win on Wednesday.

For that reason, it was probably easier for the head coach to be complimentary of one of the franchise’s former players.

“We made a couple of mistakes on cuts and he really made us pay for it. That’s what makes him a really good player, he not only does the dirty work, but he can quarterback a little bit, too… He’s really rounded his game out well, all the time.”

Through eight games with the Pelicans — surprise, surprise — Adams is averaging 10 points and nine rebounds per contest. Those numbers are identical to what he gave the Thunder last season.

For the first time in his career, though, he managed to record as many as 10 assists and recorded a triple-double.

Considering the fact that he was playing against his former ‘mates, it was impossible for the Thunder to not take notice.

[jwplayer 3cUKPx9U-z6KDnl0B]

Pelicans’ tough Monday loss put Steven Adams in unfortunate history

The New Orleans Pelicans’ loss Monday had an oddity that has only happened three times. Steven Adams has been on the floor for two of them, once with OKC.

The New Orleans Pelicans were in control of the Monday night game against the Indiana Pacers until the minute. Then, they fell apart.

The Pacers scored six unanswered points in the final 21 seconds to send the game to overtime, where they got the 118-116 victory. According to ESPN’s Andrew Lopez, teams were 8,104-2 when leading by at least six points in the final 25 seconds entering that night.

Now, three teams have lost such a game.

Steven Adams has been on the losing end twice.

The last time this happened was on March 20, 2018, when the Oklahoma City Thunder were beating the Boston Celtics by six with 25 seconds to go but ended up losing 100-99.

After a pair of Russell Westbrook free throws put the Thunder up 98-92, Jayson Tatum drained a 2. Westbrook was intentionally fouled to go back to the line with 16.8 seconds remaining. He made one of the free throws and the Thunder led by 4.

At the 12.7-second mark, Terry Rozier drained a 3 to make it a two-point game.

Carmelo Anthony missed both free throws and the Celtics called a timeout. Marcus Morris hit the game-winning 3-pointer.

Of course Adams wasn’t the reason for either loss. It’s just a peculiarity that such occurrence has only happened three times in NBA history, according to ESPN, and two of which happened in the last four seasons and both involved Adams.

The Pelicans’ next game is actually against the Thunder, where they will try to defeat Oklahoma City for the second time early in this season.

Steven Adams: Return to OKC ‘kind of messed me up’ during tipoff

Steven Adams experienced a brief moment of confusion about the Oklahoma City Thunder and New Orleans Pelicans colors during tipoff.

When New Orleans Pelicans center Steven Adams was taking part in opening tipoff against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena on Thursday, he experienced a brief moment of shock.

Why was he staring at the team in blue in front of him? Why was tipping it to the guys in red? Is that right?

“It kind of messed me up a little bit when I tipped the ball because I’m so used to seeing the OKC colors, and just like, I don’t know, something in brain switched and I was like “Ah (expletive), that’s right, I’m playing for New Orleans,” he said in the postgame on-court interview with FOX Sports.

Never change Steven Adams 😂 #Thunder pic.twitter.com/FPqm08haGl

— Nate Feken (@TheGreat_Nate) January 1, 2021

That confusion didn’t seem to arise during any other point in the game. Adams finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds in his first game back against his old team, helping the Pelicans win 113-80.

He was in a different uniform, but his performance in both the game and the interview afterward was completely on-par with the Adams who Oklahoma city came to know and love over his seven years with the organization.

When asked what was going through his head and heart, he struggled to keep a straight face during his answer.

“Looking at all the fans that showed up.”

Fingers crossed that next time he comes to Chesapeake Energy Arena, fans can come as well. That piped crowd noise wasn’t quite the same for anyone.

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2020 rewind: 5 best Oklahoma City Thunder transactions of the year

The Oklahoma City Thunder made quite a few transactions in 2020. Let’s review the best, including Chris Paul, Danny Green and Steven Adams.

The Oklahoma City Thunder were one of the most active teams this past year.

After choosing to keep players Chris Paul, Dennis Schroder and Danilo Gallinari, even when teams were publicly chasing Schroder and Gallinari at the trade deadline, the Thunder made the playoffs.

Then they traded everyone.

General manager Sam Presti was impressive as he flipped and flopped players around the league, making trades with seemingly half the teams in the NBA.

Let’s take a look back over this past year, at both offseason acquisitions and transactions that happened during the season, and review the most impactful ones for Oklahoma City.

2020 rewind: 10 top Oklahoma City Thunder headlines of the year

The Oklahoma City Thunder were part of NBA headlines over the past year. Take a look at the most-read articles of 2020 on this site.

A playoff appearance that shocked the doubters. A season halted at Chesapeake Energy Arena. An offseason that resulted in trading the foundation of the team away.

The Oklahoma City Thunder had plenty of headlines throughout the season.

This review isn’t focused solely on those, though. This is a look at the articles that the readers liked the most. The most-clicked stories of 2020.

See the outcomes of trades, a Lu Dort highlight that snatched the attention of social media, a recall to the Seattle SuperSonics days when the NBA world was fascinated with the Last Dance, and other top Thunder news of the year.

The ’embodiment of our organization’: Steven Adams returns to face OKC

The Oklahoma City Thunder will face former fan-favorite Steven Adams, who returns to OKC as a member of the New Orleans Pelicans.

In a year without much to look back fondly on, Oklahoma City will be able to send out 2020 on a nostalgic note.

New Orleans Pelicans center Steven Adams will be making his return to Chesapeake Arena to play against the Thunder for the first time in his career.

While few members of the team remain from Adams’ time, there will be meaning for an organization that head coach Mark Daigneault said still feels his impact.

“People associate really positive things on and off the court with our logo, and there’s no bigger reason for that than the players that have played here,” Daigneault said Tuesday. “Steven is an embodiment of our organization in a lot of different ways — his personality, his competitiveness.”

The Big Kiwi spent seven seasons with the Thunder, becoming a fixture of the team and a fan-favorite with his tough play on the court and laid-back attitude off.

True to tune, he was casual when asked about it Wednesday.

“Should be fine, mate,” Adams said, according to The Oklahoman. “Just another basketball game, really. Should be good to see some familiar faces and whatnot.”

That’s the same guy who, when asked about his emotions after he was traded, said “It’s not like I died or anything” and that he’d see his former teammates again.

He said that on the first day of this month. The reunion came quickly. But some people have some reservations about seeing him again — guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander joked that he wouldn’t be going after rebounds quite as hard as normal with Adams down low.

They were teammates last year, but Gilgeous-Alexander faced off against Adams and the Thunder four times as a rookie on the Los Angeles Clippers.

In the nearly two years since the last matchup, Gilgeous-Alexander has evolved as a player.

“Not too many times I’ve seen Stevo on the defensive end guarding me. In practice last year we were usually on the same team,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “It’ll be different. It’ll be weird.”

There will be one missing ingredient to the homecoming: the fans.

Chesapeake Energy Arena will be empty when Adams returns.

“I think it would’ve been better if we had the fans,” guard Hamidou Diallo said. “I wanted to see how the fans would have reacted to him.”

The Thunder tweeted a tribute of him before the game, and until fans are able to return to the arena and see him in person, it’ll have to do.

For the players and team, it will remain meaningful.

“As new guys put the uniform on, the uniform has meaning to them, and a large part of that is players like Steven,” Daigneault said. “We’ll welcome him back with open arms and then hopefully give him nothing easy.”

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