Maybe Marcus Morris stepping on the heel of Luka Doncic wasn’t an accident after all.
Morris has been in Doncic’s face all series, but in the first half of Game 6 Sunday Morris was ejected for a blow to the head of Doncic on a drive.
Marcus Morris delivers a HARD foul on Luka Doncic 🤬pic.twitter.com/DRvNpRpQa4
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) August 30, 2020
That was a clear Flagrant II and an easy call on ejection for Morris. Of course, Doc Rivers didn’t see it that way during the between-quarter interview on ESPN.
“I think he got ejected because he’s Marcus, to be honest. I thought he made a play on the ball and his arm followed through. It happens in every game.”
It does, and it was a hard foul — except for the blow to the head. That’s an automatic ejection all season long, the league has cracked down on this for a couple of seasons. The only argument for not ejecting Morris is the Paul Pierce “back in my day” crap about how the game used to be played. During the Jordan lovefest that was “The Last Dance,” did anyone notice the scores were 91-88 every game? It was ugly isolation basketball played in mud, and nobody wants to go back to those days except people who played/grew up then and repressed the memories of the bad stuff.
Doc Rivers’ big concern should be that Morris doesn’t get a suspension for the next game, whether that’s Game 7 of this series or Game 1 of the next one.
The other thing of note: Doncic wanted to go back at Morris and Boban Maranovich held him back. Doncic grew up playing the more physical European game, he can handle blows and has a streak that will stand up for himself. Dallas may want to get a veteran in the enforcer role for future years. You know, someone like Marcus Morris.
Donovan Mitchell vs. Jamal Murray.
One more time.
It’s been the best matchup of the first round, the Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz — six games with a level of shotmaking between their two best players that is flat-out ridiculous. When Murray or Mitchell shoot, you expect the shot to go in, regardless of how well guarded they are or where they are on the court.
Sunday night, Murray dropped 50 on Utah to lead Denver to a 119-107 win and force a Game 7 on Tuesday. Murray was unstoppable.
After the game, an emotional Murray talked about his shoes — with Breonna Taylor on one and George Floyd on the other — and how the players found a cause they wanted to play for.
“We found something we’re fighting for as the NBA, as a collective unit…and I use these shoes as a symbol to keep fighting all around the world.”
– Jamal Murray after Denver's Game 6 win. pic.twitter.com/rkwPn9QuHX
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) August 31, 2020
Mitchell had 44 points on 25 shots for the game.
📹| @spidamitchell with 44 points & a career/playoff-high and franchise playoff-high 9 threes made in a game ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/cdTrjUPEEb
— utahjazz (@utahjazz) August 31, 2020
Denver played better defense in this one, trapping picks and coming out high, and forcing other Utah players to beat them. Mike Conley had 21 but overall Mitchell did not get the help he needed.
Mitchell and Murray are going to put on a show in Game 7 on Tuesday. Whichever one gets more help from their supporting cast will move on to face the Clippers in the next round.
LOS ANGELES — Bronny James is going pro – in video games.
The son of NBA star LeBron James has joined professional esports organization FaZe Clan, where he’s expected to stream Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone under the handle “FaZe Bronny.”
The 15-year-old James is a promising basketball player who could follow his dad into the pros, but he’s already reached celebrity status online. He has 4.3 million followers on TikTok and over 300,000 followers on streaming platform Twitch.
Terms of James’ deal were not disclosed.
James has streamed Fortnite, Warzone and NBA 2K and could create content for FaZe Clan on those titles and others. FaZe Clan has seven competitive teams, including a Call of Duty team based in Atlanta that was set to play Sunday for the CoD League championship, but James is unlikely to serve as a competitive player.
FaZe Clan has longstanding ties to the traditional sports world, and its roster of influencers include the NFL’s JuJu Smith-Schuster and the NBA’s Ben Simmons and Meyers Leonard. Simmons was announced as a FaZe Clan investor Monday.
The question wasn’t if P.J. Tucker and Dennis Schroder would get fined for their run-in in Game 5, the question was how much?
The answer: $25,000. Each.
The league announced the fines on Sunday. Oklahoma City’s Schroder was fined for “making contact to the groin area” of Tucker, while Houston’s Tucker was fined for “approaching Schroder and making contact with him in escalation of the altercation.”
The play happened midway through the third quarter of Game 5. Schroder was guarding James Harden, who dribbled left around a Tucker screen that Schroder got hung up on. Watch the replay, however, and you can see Schroder gives Tucker and shot to the groin.
Schroder was slick with the crotch shot for sure https://t.co/JTtlkeD93g
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) August 30, 2020
Schroder gets called for the foul, and in a moment of hubris turns to the referee to complain about the call. That’s when Tucker comes up behind Schroder, can’t quickly get his attention, then headbutts Schroder.
Both men got ejected. Now both men will be writing a check to the league, but will be available for Game 6 on Monday.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — The Los Angeles Clippers knocked him around and shut his teammates down, and still Luka Doncic kept coming.
Kawhi Leonard wasn’t worried, because nothing rattles him in the postseason.
“This is playoff basketball and everything is not going to go your way,” Leonard said. “You’re going to have downs and ups. Just got to keep playing.”
Now his team will keep playing into the second round.
Leonard had 33 points and 14 rebounds and the Clippers eliminated Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks with a 111-97 victory Sunday in Game 6 of the first-round series.
Doncic capped a superb first postseason with 38 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, keeping it interesting into the fourth quarter even while playing without injured teammate Kristaps Porzingis.
But with Leonard reaching the 30-point mark for his career-best fifth straight playoff game and a strong defensive effort, the Clippers simply had too many answers.
“I’m proud of our team, how we fight,” Doncic said. “I think we fight until the end. The Clippers have an amazing team so it was hard, but I think we gave everything.”
The No. 2 seed in the Western Conference advanced to a second-round meeting with either Denver or Utah. The sixth-seeded Jazz were trying to close that series out in six games later Sunday.
Paul George and Ivica Zubac added 15 points apiece for the Clippers, who turned up their defense in this one after winning Game 5 with the best offensive performance in their postseason history, when they shot 63% and romped to a 154-111 victory.
Perhaps it was too much to ask to be that sharp again after a four-day layoff, but they didn’t need to be even while playing most of the game without starting forward Marcus Morris, who was ejected for a flagrant foul against Doncic in the first quarter.
Marcus Morris delivers a HARD foul on Luka Doncic 🤬pic.twitter.com/DRvNpRpQa4
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) August 30, 2020
Leonard also had seven assists and five steals. The Clippers said he was the first player in at least the last 20 postseasons with 30 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and five steals in a game.
“You can tell he was the one guy that shoots to close out a series,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “He was calm. He got us in place.”
The Mavericks had only two field goals in the first six minutes of the third quarter, both by Doncic, and by the time he made the second the Clippers had opened the half with a 20-3 run that turned a six-point lead into a 77-54 lead.
But Doncic wouldn’t quit, with a 3-pointer and two three-point plays in the final 1:28 to cut it to 85-74.
He made another 3 that trimmed it to 88-82 with 9:27 to play but Dallas couldn’t get any closer. Los Angeles began putting the ball in Leonard’s hands and he delivered with eight straight Clippers points before consecutive 3-pointers by Reggie Jackson pushed it to 105-89.
Dallas was in its first postseason since 2016 but quickly learned about the physicality, mixing it up with Morris on multiple occasions.
The Clippers led by two when Morris was ejected for swinging his arm down and striking a driving Doncic in the head or neck area. The Clippers picked up their defense in the second period, limiting the Mavs to 17 points and 33.3% shooting to open a 57-51 advantage at the break.
Patrick Beverley had a pregame workout before sitting out for the fifth straight game with a left calf strain. Rivers said the guard had a good practice Saturday and was getting closer to returning but just wasn’t ready yet.
August 31, 2020 at 04:35AM
https://nba.nbcsports.com/2020/08/30/clippers-marcus-morris-ejected-for-hard-foul-on-luka-doncic/
Clippers’ Marcus Morris ejected for hard foul on Luka Doncic - ProBasketballTalk
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