Novak - JFB - Jae

[MU82]

Sunday was a newsy day for three of our ex-Warriors.

Steve Novak had been buried on the Raptors' bench, playing less than 13 minutes total over the previous month. An injury to fellow reserve Patrick Patterson forced Raptors coach Dwane Casey to give Novak a little PT, and Steve responded by going 5-for-6 from 3-point range in a win at Minnesota. Novak is right at his career figure for 3-point shooting -- 43.3% -- and the Raptors are paying him a ton of money, yet they don't play him. I know he has serious defensive limitations, but it still seems weird that you can't find a few minutes a game for one of the best shooters in the world.

As brought up in another post, Jimmy Butler had a huge play to stop LeBron at the end of regulation and then hit a big jumper in OT as the Bulls beat the Heat. Jimmy played nearly 48 minutes and was only outscored 17-16 by the best player on the planet. Now THAT is a game-changing, elite defender. One thing that has been strange about Jimmy this season, though, is that he keeps chucking up 3-pointers even though that clearly isn't his shot. It seems every time I look at a Bulls boxscore, he is 1-for-7 or 0-for-4. He was 2-for-6 Sunday, and that was one of his better recent performances. He is shooting only 26% from downtown and has a 30% career mark. Thibs must tell him to keep firing and maybe they'll start to go, but it still seems odd to me.

After being a big part of the Mavs' rotation and even starting some games, Jae Crowder has been playing very little lately and on Sunday suffered a strained abdomen. Here's hoping he's 100% healthy for the playoffs and can help the team.