His matchup, of course, was Paul, a future Hall of Famer. His absence gave way to Hyland, who stepped in to handle starting point guard duties. But his pregame work was promising nonetheless. After tweaking his hamstring in Chicago, there was no need for him to play against Phoenix. He eventually shed those and went through an encouraging pre-game workout. Hyland’s chance: Murray emerged from the bowels of Ball Arena roughly an hour before tip-off with giant bags of ice on both knees. Even though most of Denver’s firepower - Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope - remained on the bench for injury maintenance or rest, there were still a few non-negotiables Malone demanded from his guys. The only constant from their two earlier losses had been an underwhelming effort and a punctured transition defense. Smith finished with a team-high 17 points. … I know analytically it’s not the prettiest shot, but, I mean, I don’t care. “Chris does it all the time,” Smith said of his fellow Demon Deacon, Suns guard Chris Paul. No one embodied that more than Ish Smith, whose late jumper broke a 105-105 tie with 8.9 seconds left. Malone couldn’t say the same about his team’s effort on Monday. Malone deduced that entering the exhibition against Phoenix - a 107-105 win - their two worst days of camp thus far were the two exhibition losses his team had suffered. “But when pretty much I started playing with PG, Kawhi, all them guys, they’re the best players in the world and I do a pretty decent job for me, myself as a rookie.Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu “Obviously when I came in I was really nervous if I was able to hold my weight, hold my own against other grown men,” he said. The 6-foot-9 French native said the mental side of the game was where he would progress most, regardless of whether he spends time in the NBA or G League. Diabate said he hadn’t been told by the team how much time he would spend in the G League. He is a project and has been labeled as such by the team since the day he was drafted, but the flashes he showed during the preseason showed why the Clippers were so glad to draft him. There was also the flip side during the fourth quarter as Diabate struggled to create his own shot when he didn’t have as much room to engage his athleticism as he did on the transition dunk. □ MOUSSA DIABATE PUTS DOWN AN ABSOLUTE POSTER! /TLRw8ZRqpC- NBA October 13, 2022 Weeks after Nicolas Batum re-signed as a free agent this summer, Lue visited him in Paris and the two talked “for a very long time” about how his role as a backup power forward would not be the same as last season. But it is going to be everybody’s approach day in and day out that is going to put us over the hump.” “On the court, everybody is coachable and talking to one another when they see things unfolding as the game goes along. “The chemistry is going to work itself out because we get along together off the court,” Powell said. Such a statement from a player of George’s All-Star caliber can have a trickle-down effect on teammates’ willingness to accept a narrower role on any given night, Lue said. It’s the so-called “good problem” for Lue - yet he’ll have to manage players’ expectations and buy-in all season to ensure those most affected by the inevitable squeeze on minutes don’t bristle and create a persistent problem.ĭuring the preseason, at least, the Clippers were adamant about saying the right thing, starting most notably at the top of the rotation, when George declared Sunday, unprompted, that Leonard was the team’s first option and he the second. Almost to a man, the Clippers have acknowledged that sacrifice will be necessary on a team with more credible contributors than opportunities for consistent rotation minutes.
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