Shootaround (Oct. 28) — Dwyane Wade basks in glow of season-opening win
Wade: ‘I closed the Miami chapter’ | Critics’ words fuel Durant’s workout | Thompson’s challenge to Canadian national team | Wall miffed over foul in opener
No. 1: Wade savors first game with Bulls — Time and again in the offseason, Chicago native Dwyane Wade often made it a point to say that he signed with the Bulls this summer not for the payday, but for the privilege of playing for his hometown squad. That was apparent as he made his regular-season debut last night, scoring 22 points to power the Bulls to a 105-99 win against the Boston Celtics. Afterward, Wade opened up about the experience and what that first game meant to The Vertical’s Shams Charania:
He had attempted everything, the art of self-deception and public declarations, and yet nothing prepared Dwyane Wade for the moment. Game on the line, ball in Wade’s hands, inside the United Center. It was like he was back on those old courts on the South Side here, and he delivered a playground follow-through pose, unhinged glare to onlookers and his most clutch shot with the Bulls.
The sweltering aftermath of his Miami Heat career loomed with Wade’s fourth 3-pointer in the Bulls’ 105-99 win over Boston, and he toured the court with family and friends, fans and cameramen. “Homecoming,” he told them. An improbable scenario – his parents and family members at the Bulls’ season-opener – turned into a forever night, sealing the memory bank.
“I closed the Miami chapter right there,” Wade told The Vertical inside an empty locker room late Thursday.
“I can’t focus over there anymore. I want those guys in Miami to be successful, but I’m motivated by greatness here. I’m motivated by doing what people think I can’t do, for sure. I had to make a decision, and I feel good about the decision I made.
“A lot of emotions hit me when I made that shot. I’m not here because I’m angry at [Pat Riley] or the Heat. There’s no anger. I’m happy because I got the freedom to look elsewhere. I got to look at home.”
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Wade has family everywhere at home now, arena promotions geared around him. And the perfect storm played out on Thursday: Lost ball, found in Wade’s hands, step back and a late 3-pointer to close a win against an Eastern Conference rival. Wade was set loose here, running the court end-to-end postgame, palpable exuberance all over.
“Like seeing a kid out there,” said Taj Gibson, who had 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Wade had left Miami dissected as a poor 3-point shooter, mocked for his range. Now? “I’m the No. 1 3-point shooter in the league if I can shoot [4 of 6] every game,” he joked. “I’m just going to let it fly.”
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“Cleveland knows their game and knows how to turn it on, turn it off,” Wade told The Vertical, “but we don’t know each other. This is the first time we’ve played together to close out a tight game. It’s fool’s gold to think about a championship right now.
“It’s about building off games like these in the regular season. It was a little something out there with the physicality. Two teams really fighting for their way in the Eastern Conference.”
It was running late Thursday inside the Bulls’ locker room, and Wade had been laughing about his 3-point shooting. Butler appeared in front of him to embrace and leave the arena, and suddenly Wade turned serious and hugged Butler. One day, the serious meeting between Wade and Riley will become necessary, too, for the harmony of champions together. Even now, the email that Riley claimed to draft for Wade has yet to land.
“I think something is wrong with my email,” Wade said, smiling. “It ain’t come through yet.”
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No. 2: Durant voices critics words as he practices — Move from a contending team to the favorite in team in the conference and expectations will rise. Do that and you’re a former MVP and the expectations can reach sky-high levels. Such is the world Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant finds himself in — and perhaps even more so now after the Warriors fell flat in their season opener. As the Warriors prepare to face the New Orleans Pelicans tonight (9:30 ET, ESPN), Durant put in extra work after practice … with some added motivation. Ethan Sherwood Strauss of ESPN.com has more:
Soaked in sweat, Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant’s yells echoed throughout an empty Smoothie King Center, home of the New Orleans Pelicans.
“They say I ain’t hungry!”
“I’m out here!”
Durant was working to bounce back from his team’s 29-point loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night. The former MVP stayed late after practice Thursday in preparation for Friday night’s game against the Pelicans, shooting between one-on-one drills with Warriors assistant coach Chris DeMarco.
Shooting his last shots, Durant said, “They told me I ain’t have no drive! I’m out here. They called me a coward! Putting in work.”
When asked after his session about shouting criticisms, Durant explained, “That’s what I say to myself when I’m working. I hear it all the time. You hear the noise. You hear what they say about you. Everybody hears it. So it’s a little extra motivation when you hear it.”
Of the scene, Durant said, “Nobody in this arena right now, and that’s when you get better. Nobody sees you when you’re doing this stuff right here, but luckily y’all was in here watching.”
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“It’s not that I read it — it’s just in the air,” he said. “You know it’s just in the atmosphere and people tell you and you hear about it. You guys ask me questions about it all the time, so obviously I know, but I’m not losing sleep on it. It’s just wood on that fire.”
On the media response to Golden State’s big debut loss, Durant said, “Obviously you hear everything. Season’s over, the team is worst team in the league, you thought it was going to be easy. It’s one game. I thought, after losing in the playoffs by 30 or beating someone by 30 in Game 1 of the playoffs and you say it’s only one game.”
Durant’s closing statement, said with laughter as he left: “It’s one game of 82 and you f—ing guys make me feel like the world’s going to end.”
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No. 3: Thompson issues challenge to Canadian national team — An NBA-record 113 international players dot team rosters as the 2016-17 season begins, with Canada providing more than its fare share of players. In all, 11 players hail from that country, including Tristan Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Trey Lyles and more. Canada failed to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in part because many of the big names from the country opted against playing for the team in qualifying play. Thompson, for his part, wants that to change and issued a challenge to his fellow countrymen, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com:
Tristan Thompson’s summer started off with an NBA championship in June, but he missed out on a chance to add an Olympic medal when Canada failed to beat France in the FIBA Qualifying Tournament in the Philippines in July.
Looking back on the international competition as Thompson and the Cavs return to Canada on Thursday for the first time since they clinched a berth in the NBA Finals with a Game 6 win over the Toronto Raptors in May, the Cleveland big man called out his fellow countrymen who chose not to play for the national team.
“[It should] challenge the guys who didn’t play to next time when the country calls,” Thompson said. “Step up and play.”
The most notable absence for Canada was Minnesota Timberwolves budding star Andrew Wiggins. Several other of Canada’s most talented players — including Jamal Murray, Andrew Nicholson and Dwight Powell — abstained because of their contract situations, as Thompson did in the summer of 2015. Philadelphia 76ers shooting guard Nik Stauskas also did not play, with no injury or contract situation as the cause.
Despite not having all of their best players available, Canada was one win away from qualifying for Rio, but lost to France 83-74 with a spot in the Olympics on the line.
“Man, this guy named Tony Parker, he’s pretty effing good,” Thompson said. “France is a very good team. They’ve got a lot of veteran players, a couple NBA guys. But if you look at Tony’s numbers going into the finals, I guess he was just coasting and waiting for the right time. Then he had [26 points] and when he gets going, he’s pretty tough to guard. I’m glad I was able to go down there, especially coming off a Finals Game 7. I’ve got to do it for my country and we’ve got another crack at it the next time around.”
Thompson had 8 points and 7 rebounds in the loss to France. Canada was led by the Toronto Raptors’ Cory Joseph — a former high school teammate of Thompson’s — who had 20 points, 6 assists and 3 steals.
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Now Canada will try to first qualify for the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China starting next summer and then the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
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Will he use that time to start recruiting Canada’s best players?
“Next time when it comes around, we’ll give them a call and hopefully they’ll show up,” said Thompson, adding that he was preoccupied with the Cavs’ playoff run last spring when he could have been trying to shape the team.
“Shoot, if I say I’m playing that’s enough recruiting right there,” Thompson said. “If me and Cory say we both going to play, that’s enough. Join something special.”
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No. 4: Wall upset over hard foul in opener — Washington Wizards point guard John Wall is back in action and ready to atone for a 2015-16 season that was a letdown for both he and the team. Wall had offseason surgery on his knee and, back in the 2015 playoffs, suffered a left hand injury that left him hobbled against the Atlanta Hawks. Wall and Co. were back in Atlanta last night and ultimately lost to the Hawks again, but a Flagrant 1 foul Wall took from Kent Bazemore had him upset afterward. J. Michael of CSNmidatlantic.com has more:
The last time John Wall took a tumble like he had Thursday night in the regular-season opener vs. the Atlanta Hawks, he had five non-displaced fractures in his left hand and wrist. This time, the culprit wasn’t Jeff Teague. It was Kent Bazemore who undercut him on a breakaway to the basket and the Wizards’ point guard left the locker room with two sore fingers on the same hand.
“I went through that same problem when we were in the playoffs, got undercut and broke my hand,” Wall said of the play on May 3, 20015, in the East semifinals when the Wizards took a 1-0 lead but lost their All-Star for three games. “That’s the reason why I reacted the way I did. Because for some reason every time in this building, I get undercut.
“I’d rather you challenge and try to block the shot than just run and stop. I have nowhere to land. I have nowhere to go. It’s the same way I feel if he was shooting a jump shot and I run underneath him, you can break somebody’s ankle. … I feel like if you’re not going the challenge, what’s the point of going down there?”
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When Teague took out Wall, no foul was called as he stayed sprawled on the floor while the game continued.
“Those plays shouldn’t be in the game. You learn that from the first time you step on the court. When the guy goes up, you never undercut him,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks said. “It wasn’t on purpose. His momentum carried it. But we all as a league have to be better in those situations. Those situations are career-ending when a guy is in mid-air, if you (don’t) get there quick enough you have to let it go.”
Bazemore tried to explain, not realizing that even though Wall is a right-handed shooter, he mostly finishes at the rim left-handed.
“He is a right-handed player and I thought he was going up with the right. He came in with the left,” Bazemore said. “I don’t play the game like that. We are both North Carolina guys. We have a bond even before all of this. Just an unfortuante play. We hugged and made up after that.”
As Wall walked out of the locker room he told CSNmidatlantic.com that two fingers on his left hand took the brunt of the fall but he wasn’t overly concerned about it. After getting medical opinions, Wall returned in that playoff series with the Hawks despite the breaks in his hand and almost got the Wizards to upset them.
There are no indications that Wall is in jeopardy of not playing in Sunday’s road game vs. the Memphis Grizzlies.
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SOME RANDOM HEADLINES: Andre Iguodala thinks the block LeBron James got in him in Game 7 of The 2016 Finals was “amazing” … Kobe Bryant says he was almost late to his final game last season because he was editing stories … The Philadelphia 76ers fan who flipped off Oklahoma City Thunder star Russell Westbrook in the season-opener has apologized to him and the Sixers for his actions … The LA Clippers are liking the makeup of their bench unit this season … Former first-round pick R.J. Hunter, who was recently waived by the Boston Celtics, signed with the Chicago Bulls yesterday …
