Marcus Thompson II of the San Jose Mercury News: “Baron Davis said he hasn’t had much time to reflect on his sudden and controversial departure from the Warriors. Everything happened so fast. But Friday, with his first game against his former team looming, Davis took a minute to reflect. He let himself think about no longer being an iconic player in a star-hungry region. He took a moment to contemplate the fact his No. 5 jersey won’t eventually be hanging from the rafters next to Rick Barry’s No. 24. ‘I’ve never been hurt like that,’ Davis, now with the Los Angeles Clippers, said. ‘I was hurt. It kind of gave me like a bad feeling. It is a business. That’s the sad thing about it, that at any point and time you can be separated from your family. And it’s not that your family wants you to go. It’s not that your neighbors want you to go. It’s just people who don’t really have an effect on the game are, I guess, the people who own the block.’”
Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times: “Call it the Peace Treaty at Playa Vista. Baron Davis, having finished an interview with a Bay Area reporter, walked by Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy and another reporter and passed along some information at the team’s training facility at Playa Vista on Friday afternoon. Coach, I threw you under the bus,’ Davis said. Davis was smiling. He laughed and so did Dunleavy. Bill Plaschke’s column on Wednesday talked about the growing pains of the Dunleavy-Davis relationship, and it had enough of a shelf life for Dunleavy to take action Friday morning. ‘I called Baron in, ‘Let’s talk about this thing. I want to understand what you mean. And I want you to understand what I’m saying,’ ‘ Dunleavy said.”
Sam Amick of the Sacramento Bee: “Despite the fact the Kings won four of five games before facing Phoenix on Friday, co-owner Joe Maloof began Friday by sharing his candid views on the local sports talk radio airwaves. He saved his most pointed comment for last on KHTK’s ‘The Rise Guys’ show, expressing a desire for Theus to develop a more defined system. ‘He’s got to get a system,’ Maloof said. ‘And if he gets that system and we have confidence in him, (then) he’s got a bright future with us. If he doesn’t get that system, then you know, you know he better, he better try to get one quickly.’ In a later interview with The Bee, Maloof was asked how short a leash Theus is on. While he signed a three-year deal worth $6 million before last season, the third season is the team’s option and Theus is on the hot seat.”
CelticsBlog: “On several occasions since the summer, I have expressed the belief that this Denver defense was going to have a rough go of it this year, that the loss of Marcus Camby (overrated or otherwise) was going to hurt this team and that the poor perimeter defenders were going to be in a lot of trouble without Camby helping in the middle behind them. It has been easy to be skeptical of the talks of renewed commitment on the defensive end (and the defensive upgrade at the point in the form of trading Allen Iverson for Chauncey Billups was unexpected). But last night, the Denver Nuggets didn’t look like a team solely interested in running and gunning. In fact, they looked more Celtic-like than anything else at the defensive end.”
X’s and O’s of Basketball: Pistons Adapt Their Offense to Iverson
Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register: “There were a lot of big-headed Lakers trying to play one-on-one basketball Friday night, so the Lakers got what they deserved: their perfect season ruined. Here’s what could be far worse for them as this all plays out: Lamar Odom, the guy who started training camp griping about his individual place on the team, left Staples Center with renewed strain in his relationship with Lakers coach Phil Jackson. Upon being yanked from the game by Jackson with 4:30 to play after committing consecutive frustration fouls, Odom reached the bench and gave a quick, dismissive wave with his left hand in Jackson’s direction. Odom immediately began unwinding the tape from his wrist and spent the rest of the game sulking, slumped back in his chair even when every other teammate on the bench leaned forward with hope during a brief Kobe Bryant-led Lakers surge.”
Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times: “‘We could play their ‘bigs’ straight up, which allowed us to focus everyone else on the perimeter guys,’ said Prince. ‘We knew if we could control their ‘bigs,’ we would win the game, and we did.’ Wait a minute. Isn’t this the same tired song we heard last June in Boston? The Celtics controlled the Lakers’ inside presence and easily won the game? Actually, Friday’s loss was the same kind of knock-kneed performance that cost them the NBA championship a few months ago against the Celtics. Beating up on the likes of New Orleans and Utah will be fun, but the Lakers will eventually have to figure out how to match the East, beast for beast.”
Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: “Battier and Alston are basically NBA ‘glue guys.’ Without them, the Rockets tend to fall apart. Sure, it’s tough when one of the presumed ‘Big Three’ shoots as if blindfolded every night, and the other, Yao Ming, sometimes barely shoots at all. In Los Angeles, it was Tracy McGrady, who went 1-of-16 in two games. Against the Lakers and Suns, it was Ron Artest, who went a combined 3-of-23 in those games. On Friday against the Spurs, it was back to McGrady, who unlike his lost L.A. weekend, got good looks but still made just 2 of 12 shots. Yao, meanwhile, could barely get his hands on the ball at all, taking just nine shots (making five, with two of those on offensive rebounds). Some of that is because Tim Duncan spent the night on Yao, doing what Tim Duncan does. But Yao is averaging just 13 attempts per game, so it was not as if Yao usually gets tons of shots. Between them, Yao and McGrady had 20 points and six assists. And that’s the heart of the offense.”
Steve Luhm of The Salt Lake Tribune: “Charlotte coach Larry Brown, who has become famous for moving from team to team, told an amusing story prior to the Bobcats’ 104-96 victory about Jerry Sloan, the longest tenured coach on pro sports. In 1992, Sloan and the Jazz played Brown and the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the playoffs. Utah, which had lost in the first round in 1989 and 1990 and the second round in 1991, won the first two games. But the Clippers won Games 3 and 4 in a series that was delayed for four days because of the riots in L.A. that followed the Rodney King verdict. The Jazz faced another early exit from the playoffs if they could not win Game 5 back in Utah and, according to Brown, Sloan told him before tipoff that he expected to be fired if Utah lost. The Jazz scored a 98-89 victory, however, and eventually advanced all the way to the conference finals. Sloan’s job status was never an issue again.”
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: “Seriously, don’t you find it a bit insulting that Shaq and Grant want to own the Magic? Hey, why not include T-Mac, Penny and Doug Christie and Jackie Christie in the ownership group, too? The fact is Grant, and especially Shaq, abandoned the Magic. These are two guys who nearly wrecked the franchise, and now they suddenly want to buy it? No thanks.”
Empty the Bench: Nothing Catches the Eye of Michael Jordan More Than Sexy, Well-Shampooed Hair [Video]
Frank Isola of the New York Daily News: “The last time the Knicks were three games over .500, Stephon Marbury took the opportunity to declare himself the best point guard in the NBA. You may have noticed that neither Marbury nor the Knicks has been the same since. ‘Wow, that is a long time,’ Chris Duhon said. It is a historical reference point worth remembering as the Knicks reached that modest milestone Friday night with a 116-106 victory at the Garden over the Oklahoma City Thunder, formerly the Seattle SuperSonics.”
Brian Hanley of the Chicago Sun-Times: “It has been quite the trend for Ben Gordon. He’s averaging 27.4 points over the Bulls’ last five games — almost 10 points higher than his career average of 18 per game. Within that span, Gordon has scored more than 30 points twice, including a season-high 35 on Thursday in the Bulls’ win over the Dallas Mavericks. He had eight games of more than 30 all last season.”
Jim Reeves of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “This wasn’t about fight, or will, or effort, all those things we’ve been talking about, believe it or not. This was simply about choking. This was about stupid mistakes in crunch time. This was about Josh Howard obviously having spent too much time watching Brad Johnson quarterbacking the Cowboys and throwing to guys in the wrong jersey. Most of all, this is about a team that’s forgotten how to close. But, hey, there’s good news even at the worst of times. Dirk remembered how to score again in the fourth quarter.”
Blog Maverick: Mark Cuban with an open letter to Mavs fans
Dave D’Alessandro of The Star-Ledger: “Nobody told him this would be easy, or one of those tranquil baby-sitting gigs in which the kids behave and play nicely together. Vince Carter wasn’t exactly prepared for this kind of adventure, either — one in which guys can’t get through a week without spraining something or get through a single game without playing like a bunch of strangers. So he goes home every night and tells himself that things will get better, and soon. And until then: ‘This is frustrating as hell,’ Carter said. ‘But it’s only because I hate to lose, not because of our guys. I want to see this team excel, for a lot of reasons. So you’re constantly thinking about how you build confidence, and everything that comes with it. You try to figure out what you can do — do something, say something, push for something. And I just don’t have an answer. It’s something I know I have to figure out.’”
The Knicks Blog: Donnie Walsh talks about OJ Mayo
Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “The Catalyst was back. And so was the home dominance. No, Shawn Marion did not lead the Heat in scoring or rebounding in Friday night’s 97-77 victory over the Wizards. No, he did not shoot the highest percentage. But he ran. He scrambled. He attacked. He defended. ‘He provided the spark,’ reserve guard Chris Quinn said. What was missing in Wednesday’s loss to visiting Portland and Monday’s escape against New Jersey was back Friday, masked aggression that helped fuel the Heat to its third home rout of the season.”
Mary Schmitt Boyer of The Plain Dealer: “This season, the contributions from the bench are emotional as well as physical. It’s not just a 3-pointer from Daniel Gibson, a dunk by Szczerbiak or a charge taken by Anderson Varejao. It’s not just that the reserves can hold (or build on) a lead so James can rest longer and not face an uphill battle when he returns. It’s as if Varejao’s indomitable spirit has infected the whole squad, or the ‘Bench Mob’ as Szczerbiak calls it. Not since the crazy days of Chris Gatling’s ‘Zoo Crew’ has the bench been having this much fun. Coach Mike Brown likens them to a high school team. James has thanked them during games for their enthusiasm.”
Gibert Arenas for NBA.com: “What I liked about the whole thing was watching that proved that our country is not as racist as people around the rest of the world actually thinks we are. America as a whole spoke and chose the president they wanted. It wasn’t just the African-American community that elected Obama, it was America. If you looked at the TV, every color and creed was out there supporting Obama. It should have woke America up to say, ‘Hey, we’re not as racist as people think.’ That was the most beautiful thing about it to me. Look how this one man united the world. You see clips on the TV and they’re showing people in Kenya celebrating, people in London … you’re just like, ‘Wow!’ That’s why I call him a uniter. If I have to describe Obama in one word, I’m going to say: uniter. He unites. Hopefully in my lifetime we’ll see a woman break the mold, we’ll see a Hispanic person break the mold … it gives everybody hope. America has spoken and Obama is the president. The next time America has to speak is hopefully in eight years when there are two women going for the presidency in Clinton and Palin.”
