Around the league: Caboclo keeping NBA dream alive
There is still some widespread interest among Raptors fans about the future of Bruno Caboclo, the former first-round draft pick who never panned out in three seasons with Toronto.
It was a complicated situation, oftdiscussed, but Caboclo’s NBA dream is not dead.
Currently late in a first 10-day contract with the Memphis Grizzlies, Caboclo isn’t setting the league on fire but he is at least making his presence felt.
In his last three games, he has averaged about 28 minutes per games, made five three-pointers in 18 attempts and shot 7-for-22 from the field. He had a careerhigh four blocked shots against Minnesota on Wednesday.
Those are passable numbers and likely more than enough to get him a second 10-day deal.
Not such a sweet home: An easy win in Miami on Wednesday night notwithstanding, the Chicago Bulls certainly aren’t covering themselves with glory by any stretch.
Having dropped to 13th place in the Eastern Conference and barely out of dead last, the Bulls suffered consecutive home losses to the 15th-place Atlanta Hawks and 14th-place Cleveland Cavaliers last week.
It shouldn’t be too big a surprise, though. Once one of the top home teams in the league, the Bulls are 5-20 at the United Center this season, the secondworse home mark in the NBA.
Spinning the lineup wheel: With all that’s going on with the New Orleans Pelicans these days — a potential trade of Anthony Davis and what they ultimately decide to do with other key pieces like Jrue Holiday or Nikola Mirotic — here’s another item to consider.
With all the injuries and roster upheaval they have gone through this season, the Pelicans trotted out their 20th different starting lineup for a game this week. Holiday, Frank Jackson, Solomon Hill, Darius Miller and Jahlil Okafor started a game Tuesday.
Those are the most different starting units used by a team in the league this season. Working his magic: Lou Williams, now with the Los Angeles Clippers, is still doing the same stuff that endeared him to Raptors fans during his Sixth Man of the Year season in 2014-15.
The 32-year-old guard, who’ll be in Toronto with the Clippers on Sunday afternoon, posted a triple double of 31 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists against the Bulls.
It was the first triple-double of his career and the first by a backup that included at least 30 points since Detlef Schrempf had one for Indiana in 1992.
This week in Pop-land: San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich, love him or hate him, does not suffer fools gladly. Anywhere.
In a game in Washington on Sunday, Popovich called a timeout to rip into his team. That in itself is hardly newsworthy, but Popovich did it 16 seconds into the game, after the Wizards scored the first basket.
Then, after Rudy Gay hit a buzzerbeating shot to lead the Spurs over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, the sum total of Popovich’s post-game “news conference” was this statement.
“We were really fortunate to win the game. I thought that they outplayed us, outcoached us, out-physicaled us, outexecuted us. We had no respect for them or for the game. We didn’t play with each other.
“It was a pathetic performance, and Phoenix got robbed.”
And with that, he was gone into the night.
Information for other publications, wire services and websites was used in the compilation of this report.