The Fundamentals

Mike Finger of the San Antonio Express-News:  “Popovich said Duncan is ‘the biggest reason we’ve got a comfort level out there,’ and the fact that the Spurs have any kind of a comfort level at all without Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili is a story in itself. But the other news is that as the Spurs have limped to their worst start in the Duncan era — a 1-4 skid they finally ended with a 92-80 victory at the AT&T Center on Tuesday — Duncan has reeled off one of his best stretches as an on-court member of Popovich’s staff. He’s taken George Hill aside and reminded him about the importance of moving without the ball. He’s been in the ear of Anthony Tolliver and barking orders on defense. He’s pointed at Roger Mason Jr. and waved him in the right direction. He’s taken control of timeouts, and, on at least one occasion against the Knicks, gathered his teammates around him for extra instruction after Popovich was finished with them. This is no longer the lead-by-example MVP. This is now the lead-by-telling-you-you’d-better-dang-well-hedge-on-that-next-screen-or-you’re-going-to-be-running-extra-wind-sprints Popovich-in-training.”

Brian Windhorst of The Plain Dealer:  “James has been phenomenal and from a pure offensive perspective, this might have been his best night yet. He got his 41 points on just 24 shots, making 16 of them. He had a couple layups and dunks — including one with just under five minutes left on a fast break in which he took flight just a step inside the foul line — but mostly he burned the Bucks (3-5) by hitting 20- to 22-foot jumpers. ‘I’ve been kind of feeling it and I’ll take the ball in the backcourt if that’s the case,’ James said. ‘It was just one of the those nights where I felt wherever I got the ball it’s going to go in.’ James has nights like these during the course of a season; in fact most of his high-scoring games during his career have come when his jumper is so crisp. But everyone, including No. 23 himself, knows there is a fool’s gold element to relying on such tactics. Which is where the trepidation comes in. The Cavs have leaned on James a great deal over the last week and his stats show it. Not only is his scoring and number of shots up, but also his assists are down. He had five Tuesday and has averaged just five in his 40-point games, four less than the rest of the games. Also he’s spent a lot of time both on the court and with the ball dribbling on the outside, two areas the Cavs have been trying to reduce.”

Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal:  “Mayo scored 33 points Monday night when Memphis lost at Phoenix and he racked up 31 points Sunday in a loss at Denver. According to Elias Sports Bureau, only four other rookies in NBA history scored 30-or-more points on consecutive dates by Nov. 10 or earlier in a season. The company Mayo is keeping? Wilt Chamberlain (in 1959), Sidney Wicks (1971), Bernard King (1977) and Darrell Griffith (1980). Denver coach George Karl sized up Mayo’s game by saying the Grizzlies’ big catch on draft night ‘is ahead of his time.’ Mayo’s certainly making a believer out of Griz head coach Marc Iavaroni, who originally fought to keep the draft rights to forward Kevin Love rather than use it in a deal to acquire Mayo from Minnesota. ‘He’s certainly coming a long way,’ Iavaroni said, ‘in what appears to be every game.’”

Sekou K Smith of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:  “With their star player struggling (Joe Johnson was 4-for-16 for the second straight game), his partner in crime back home (Josh Smith’s high ankle sprain kept him from making this road trip) and playing in a building the Hawks hadn’t won in since Horford was walking the hall of Grand Ledge High School, a young star was reborn (those Rookie of the Year votes people handed to Kevin Durant last year need to be recounted). ‘He had a monster game,’ Hawks coach Mike Woodson said in the understatement of the century after the Hawks’ 113-108 win over the Chicago Bulls at United Center. How about one of the most ‘monster’ games these eyes have ever seen. The career-high 27 points, 17 rebounds, six blocks, three assists and steal don’t do justice to the effort Horford gave on this night. He was quite simply a man among boys, like a young Karl Malone having his way around the basket.”

Jake Curtis of the San Francisco Chronicle:  “Jackson made a lot of plays, including scoring the tying basket with 22.2 seconds left in regulation and the first six points of overtime. He finished with a season-high 30 points and did not seem particularly tired despite playing 48 minutes, 17 seconds. Nelson said he’s not sure how often the Jackson, 30, can play 48 minutes, but the coach soon might learn the answer. ‘We’re going to keep playing him until he cries,’ Nelson said. To which a tearless Jackson responded, ‘So be it. I get paid a lot of money for what I do.’”

Peter Finney of The Times-Picayune: “‘Showboat. That’s what I called him, still do, ‘ said Byron Scott, chuckling, going back to the days he was in his last season with the Los Angeles Lakers, sharing a spot on the roster with newly arrived 18-year-old Kobe Bryant. ‘I’ll never forget the fire in that young man’s eyes. Burned right through you. Never went out. Showboat was the first guy to show up every day, the last to leave. Sure, the talent was there, it was so obvious. But more than the talent was the passion. A dozen years later, it’s still there, the talent and the passion.’ It will be ‘there’ tonight, in the New Orleans Arena, when Byron Scott’s Hornets take on Kobe and his band of brothers, the hottest team in the NBA, who went into Tuesday night’s game at Dallas after winning their first five games by an average of 22.4 points. No surprise out Los Angeles way, it’s giddy time.”

Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register:  “What Jackson does goes unappreciated by people who are used to great things being done – as opposed to not being done – but Bryant has grown into one person who gets it. Bryant said after the game that one of the keys he sees regarding this team is him not doing too much. ‘Allow my teammates to play, and not make every decision for them,’ Bryant said. It’s the sort of patience in developing players’ roles that Jackson has committed to every year, even though he is often pigeon-holed as a four-star coach only because of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Shaquille O’Neal and Bryant. Jackson wants to stay out of the way and let all his players think on their feet. He wants to give guys a chance instead of push against the predictable. That’s why Jackson has called last-second plays for Derek Fisher or Robert Horry instead of Bryant – or even for Isaiah Rider and Kwame Brown instead of Bryant. If you want to win championships, you had better realize every league is a developmental league.”

Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times:  “Jackson is in the first year of a two-year, $23-million contract extension, although next season is optional. After this season ends, he’ll evaluate how he feels and decide if he wants to log a 19th season as an NBA coach. Jackson, 63, has had both hips replaced and had an angioplasty procedure in 2003 to clear a blocked artery. His back and legs often feel the stress of 12 seasons as a power forward in the NBA, in case the long airplane flights and unfamiliar hotel beds aren’t enough of a reminder these days. ‘Traveling is part of our job in this business,’ Jackson said. ‘You go out on the road . . . and that takes some effort and takes some energy. This conference is especially difficult for teams. When you’re on the West Coast and you have to travel to New Orleans, Memphis, across the Mississippi and across two-thirds of the country and two time zones, it makes a big difference.’”

Mike Moreau of HOOPSWORLD:  “They have little to no ball pressure, slow rotations, and token contesting of shooters. They are soft on screens, have no denial of passes, and commit lazy reaching fouls. They show up with late defense at the rim, don’t compete for rebounds, and demonstrate late or virtually no pickups in transition. Individually, you see ‘defenders’ standing up, displaying no defensive stance or posture, with their hands down and no intensity. That’s the Wizard defense, and that’s on nearly every possession in every game so far this year. Any one of these areas is cause for concern for a coach, but Washington has put them all together in one big, ugly package. Keep in mind this was a team that last year in the regular season beat the Boston Celtics in back-to-back, home-and-home games, holding the NBA champions to 83 and 78 points and 41% shooting in both games. Those games were halfcourt street fights. Now, the Wizards are barely playing two-hand touch.”

Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post:  “Quite the opposite of firing Jordan, Grunfeld needs to help him, perhaps by making a deal before the Wizards have fallen out of sight, before Arenas can even return to the lineup. The Wizards need on-the-court help now. Jamaal Tinsley, a veteran point guard, is just sitting around, not playing for the Pacers. Memphis has four point guards on its roster. Too bad Kirk Hinrich just left the Bulls’ lineup for 12 weeks with a hand injury because he or Larry Hughes would probably be available. The Wizards will have to do something other than ask Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler to each have another career season and hold the fort until Arenas comes back. That approach, for the third straight season, just doesn’t cut it. The Eastern Conference, which has been dreadful the last five-plus years, has a bunch of teams that figure to be noticeably improved, including the Knicks, Raptors, Sixers, Heat, Hawks and even Bobcats.”

Julian Benbow of the Boston Globe:  “The only teams that are scoring fewer points than the Celtics - the Clippers, Bobcats, Grizzlies, Nets, and Thunder - have the records to match their output. Almost everyone in green will acknowledge that the Celtics, who are averaging 93.4 points per game, haven’t been able to find any consistency so far, and their offense is being overshadowed by their third-ranked defense. But for the time being, the Celtics (7-1) are willing to live with it. The consensus is that the offense will come around, and until it does, the defense is good enough to make up for it.”

Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post:  “It seemed as though George Karl had gone George Carlin. This had to be a joke — ‘We’ve transformed from an offensive team to a defensive team. I wish we would be a little better offensively.’ Nope, the Nuggets’ coach was serious. The offensively ravenous Nuggets won Tuesday at Charlotte, 88-80, thanks to their defense — and without their best defensive player. Forward Kenyon Martin (left wrist sprain) is questionable for Thursday’s game, but Tuesday, his teammates emulated his attitude, communicating early and often, making smart decisions with help on defense and never letting the home team take over the game.”

Jerry Brown of the East Valley Tribune:  “When defenders front the Suns players in the post, the pass from the perimeter has often been a lazy lob or telegraphed bounce pass that is getting picked off. And in transition, some players are thinking up-tempo while others are content to walk. Both point guard Steve Nash, who struggled through a six-assist, six-turnover night against Memphis, and guard Raja Bell were expecting the philosophy pendulum to swing back toward the familiar on offense. So far, it hasn’t. ‘Honestly, we are a running team. That’s what we’re built to do,’ Bell said. ‘You can see we are confused about what we’re doing offensively, whether we want to run it or try to slow it down. And when there is uncertainty, there are turnovers.’ Porter agrees. He wanted the Suns to shift down from the frantic days of Mike D’Antoni, something that had already happened after the Shaquille O’Neal trade in February. But he didn’t want a dead stop either, and the Suns are slow getting into their offense, moving through the options and finding open teammates.”

Eric Musselman’s Basketball Notebook:  In his mind, he still doesn’t think he’s quite good enough

Rashad Mobley of Hoops Addict:  Nate Robinson: Energy Personified

A Stern Warning:  Brandon Jennings video Interview with Virtus Roma

Marc Berman of the New York Post:  “Marbury would love to be on the opposite bench nowadays, realizing there is no future on his hometown New York. ‘Who wouldn’t want to play for San Antonio?’ Marbury told The Post last night. ‘To play with Tim Duncan, who would complain about that? That’s a great organization, they win championships. They have a nice system and I like (Gregg) Popovich as coach. I can play 1 or the 2. If I was a free agent, yeah.’ Spurs general manager R.C. Buford has said he may look for a point guard after losing Tony Parker for a month. The only point guards on the roster are rookie George Hill, who started last night, and Jacque Vaughn. Donnie Walsh is not ready to waive Marbury. Marbury has not played in the first seven games and has been inactive the last six. Marbury’s associates believe D’Antoni’s treatment of him borders on malicious.”

Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times:  “Davis already has winced at parts of Dunleavy’s rigid system, and is openly worrying that the thick playbook weighs heavily on the freelance ability that has made him one of the league’s best guards. Dunleavy has sighed at Davis’ wince, and is quietly hoping that his best player will eventually buy into a script he believes will only make Davis better. Seven games into the season, the Clippers’ biggest issue is not with other teams, but between their two most high-profile employees, Davis and Dunleavy trying desperately to figure each other out. At stake is everything. ‘This is either going to be the greatest thing ever, or it’s going to be a disaster,’ said Clippers center Chris Kaman.”

Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star:  “There were plenty of positives in the wake. Bosh, 24, said he’ll be more aggressive next time, both in demanding the ball and suggesting tactics. And fans can hope so. As for Mitchell, he’s a fine coach with a lot of great strengths, but the next time he admits to making a mistake will be the first. Instead, yesterday he lambasted Bosh’s supporting cast for their ineptitude down the stretch. And while no one’s saying he should mimic those phony coaches who take all the blame all the time, Mitchell might want to occasionally vary his approach, both on offence and in the post-game press conference. ‘None of y’all had anything to say when we were up 16 in the second quarter,’ said Mitchell. ‘I’m not going to talk about why I do what I do, because I have my reasons for doing it. … Other guys gotta make plays. … Last time I checked, is Chris the only guy on the team that gets a cheque? Does nobody else get paid?’”

Sam Donnellon of the Philadelphia Daily News:  “This, I am pretty sure, is not what general manager Ed Stefanski had in mind when he smiled his way through that press conference last July. Brand finished with 13 points. Iguodala, due largely to a helter-skelter third quarter that Jazz coach Jerry Sloan described by saying, ‘We just threw the ball around the court,’ had 15. The two also combined for nine of the Sixers’ 17 turnovers. ‘It’s a little different than what I’m used to,’ Iguodala said.  ‘We’re slowing it down a little bit more than I would like. But we’re also not playing good team defense. So we’re not getting the breaks we were getting when we had success.’ Even after 3 straight days of practice, they seem no closer, either. The Sixers are not confident right now, and largely uncommunicative, too. To watch the Jazz run their half-court offense, then to watch the Sixers - well, the contrast doesn’t get clearer. A look, a head bob, a single word, and Utah had a backdoor basket. Until they got their fastbreak uncorked for a stint in the third, the Sixers again looked like a bunch who had just met for a lunchtime game.”

Jason Friedman of Rockets.com:  “The Rockets seemingly have nowhere to go but up right now – especially on offense. Shooting – Houston ranks 28 th in the league in field goal percentage (41.2%) - has been a problem from day one, and the team is still searching for its first game when all three of its top players simultaneously display their considerable talents. The key, however, is patience. The ‘P’ word is particularly distasteful to fans, but it’s essential to what the Rockets are trying to do and hoping to become. Given the myriad injury issues with which the team has had to deal since the beginning of camp, it’s not surprising that on-court chemistry has been slow to develop. The players are still playing catch-up in their attempt to establish an identity, while the coaching staff tinkers with various line-ups and combinations in an effort to figure out what works and what doesn’t. It’s almost as if the Rockets are in an extended preseason of sorts.”

Chris McCosky of The Detroit News:  “If you take Rasheed Wallace out of the mix, they have arguably the thinnest starting unit in the league with Iverson, Richard Hamilton, Amir Johnson and Tayshaun Prince. They have to use their length and quickness more than size or brute strength. They will have to push their defensive pressure farther up the court, trap more and create as much mayhem on the perimeter as possible.  Early on with Iverson, stopping dribble penetration and defending pick-and-roll plays have been a problem. To be fair, allowing dribble penetration was a chink in the Pistons’ defensive armor long before Iverson got here.  Chauncey Billups got beat off the dribble a lot, but he still could dissuade his man from driving with his superior physical strength. He could arm-bar a quicker guard and prevent him from gaining speed or leverage toward the basket. He also was adept at fighting pick-and-rolls, delaying the screener or the guard long enough for his teammates to react. That hasn’t been happening yet.”