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Will Guillory: Alperen Şengün will be active for tonight's game vs Miami, per Ime Udoka
NBA Communications: Houston forward Kevin Durant enters tonight’s game against Miami needing 26 points to pass Michael Jordan for fifth place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. The Rockets host the Heat at 8 PM ET on NBA League Pass.
The Rockets were having fun. Durant was hyping up the crowd, and players were celebrating with each other. Team chemistry seemed to be restored, if it ever did fade away. And KD, obviously, kept his receipts. As soon as he walked into the press conference, Durant took a slight dig at Perkins and the media. “How was the body language tonight? Was it good? How were the vibes? Good vibes?” Kevin Durant asked reporters before they could get any questions off. The room erupted in laughter once the Slim Reaper smirked. They knew what the underlying intention was behind the statement.
NBA Stat: Alperen Sengun ties Kareem for the 10th most 10-AST games by a center in NBA history. He’s only 23 years old… (vi RealSports) #NBA
Fred VanVleet: “But I ain’t gonna lie, though—that’s the other thing too. I didn’t always play, and when you don’t play, you’re in the locker room all day, right? My first preseason game, I was in the locker room for four and a half hours. We had 20 guys trying to make the team—20 guys total. So, the game was at 7:30, and I was at the gym at 3:00, 3:30, getting my shooting time in. So when the media come in and I don’t exist, okay, cool. Because I’m a human—I’ma speak to somebody. If it’s, ‘Hey, what’s up? What’s going on?’ even if I don’t know you, whatever—‘Hey, how you doing?’ I’m going to speak to you. So if you’re going to treat me like I don’t exist, and then you want to spin back around when you need something, I’m going to remember that.”
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Vanessa Richardson: Ime Udoka tells me Reed Sheppard will start tonight vs Hawks. Starting lineup: Reed Sheppard Amen Thompson Kevin Durant Jabari Smith Jr Alperen Şengün
The Rockets host the Atlanta Hawks on Friday, then the Miami Heat on Saturday. Houston then travels to Chicago for a game Monday against the Bulls. The 16-time All-Star and 2014 NBA MVP accomplishing a milestone so revered at the United Center — “The House That Jordan Built” — would make for a new core memory. “Michael Jordan has always been my inspiration. There’s a reason why I wanted to be able to knock down those shots,” Durant said in a one-on-one interview with The Athletic. “He was always unstoppable, but when he became a midrange maestro, you never knew how he would attack you. You never knew what MJ was going to do. “He scared defenders every night, and I wanted to put that same kind of fear in the defender who’s guarding me.”
Durant credits the long hours he’s spent in the gym and the attention to detail put into his craft for the confidence he’s developed in the most crucial part of his game. “It’s a tedious process to master your touch. I’m not saying I’ve mastered shooting in general, but (the shots) that work for me, I feel like I’ve mastered,” Durant said. “I learned how to be more patient, to be more decisive with my movements and with my decisions. Just having confidence that, if I don’t have anything, I can rise up and shoot the middy. I can shoot over my guy. I can shoot over two or three guys. When you’re confident in getting to those shots, you can try different things.”
An understanding of Redick’s scheme means contextualizing Dončić’s defensive skill set, highlighting what he is good at and attempting to mask what he’s deficient in. Contesting shots, arguably the second-most important aspect of defense outside of positioning, is a strength of his, with Dončić in the 95th percentile in shots contested per 100 possessions and 87th percentile in rim contests. This particularly manifests itself as an isolation defender, when teams try to pick at him; Dončić is allowing just 0.844 points per possession in 109 isolations this year, a hairline below Amen Thompson, and a better mark than Jaden McDaniels and OG Anunoby.
NBA Stat: Tari Eason has missed 21 straight threes over the last 7 games. Over the last 11 games, he has gone 3-for-38 (0.079). #NBA
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Law Murray 📘: Kevin Durant tells reporters in Houston (I am NOT one of them) that he believes that LeBron James could play until he's 45 "I don't know if he wants to be around that long. But I think he could play for another 4-5 more years, to be honest… it's not a surprise anymore"
Law Murray 📘: Kevin Durant on Lakers defense: "This is the best version of their defense that they're gonna bring out against us… if we do play them again, we got film to watch and learn from. But this pretty much the only option they can present to us to slow us down."
Will Guillory: Kevin Durant on being held to two field goal attempts in the 4th quarter: "It's a team game. Me getting two shots, it shouldn't matter. We've got six guys with double-digit shot attempts. And guys were pretty efficient tonight too. I don't think that's a talking point."
Houston Rockets are 8-7 since the KD files leaked, 4-6 in their last 10, and 2-7 against teams above .500 KD’s burner account “getoffmydickerson” was exposed February 15th (same day as the ASG). Since then they are 8-7 including 4-6 in their last 10. In fact they’d be 7-8 if Pelicans didn’t choke that 4pt lead with 30 seconds left. Against teams above .500 (at the time of the game), they are 2-7. Against teams below .500, they are 6-0 which makes them look better than they really are. Next they will face a Hawks team coming off 11 straight wins.