John Schuhmann of NBA.com: “Cheeks got his team to play hard, but he wasn’t a stickler for principles on either end of the floor. DiLeo will likely develop steadfast on-court rules for his players to follow and roles for them to take on, and he’ll hold them accountable for doing so. ‘We want to build a foundation,’ DiLeo said before his first game as an NBA head coach, ‘and then we want to go from there.’ On the defensive end, DiLeo wants his players to take more responsibility for the guy they’re guarding, but he also wants them to know that they have help behind them, so communication is one of his points of emphasis. In addition, he wants them to commit even more to the running game, ready to push the ball even when the other team scores. Of course, even if they tighten things up defensively and run more, in order to get them playing their best, DiLeo will need them to be sharper in a half-court offense. He can start by showing them tapes of the San Antonio Spurs and how they run their offense through the low post.”
Ivan Carter of the Washington Post: “The 76ers became the fifth team to fire its head coach this season when they replaced Maurice Cheeks with assistant general manager Tony DiLeo early Saturday, but fans of Philadelphia (10-14) might not want to raise their expectations too much. None of the previous four teams that fired a coach has seen a major improvement. Following their loss to Philadelphia on Saturday, the Wizards are now 3-7 since Eddie Jordan was replaced by Ed Tapscott on Nov. 24, after a 1-10 start. Oklahoma City is 1-10 since replacing P.J. Carlesimo with Scott Brooks after a 1-12 start, Minnesota is 0-3 since vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale replaced Randy Wittman after a 4-15 start. Toronto is 2-3 since Jay Triano stepped in for Sam Mitchell after an 8-9 start.”
Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star: “The sample size is too small to be credible, but in five games under Triano, both Graham and Kapono are finding opportunities in the up-tempo offence and enjoying happy spikes in both their playing time and their production. (Ditto Moon in the past couple of games, when he has led the team in creating the turnovers that have fed fast breaks that weren’t seen in the Mitchell era.) And if Bargnani’s stats haven’t skyrocketed, perhaps Bosh’s assessment of his performance is generous because the Italian, like most everyone on the squad, seems smitten by the philosophy Triano’s peddling. Said Kapono: ‘Guys are playing more freely.’ Moon nodded his head at the sentiment. ‘Jay lets us play through mistakes,’ said Moon. ‘Before, if we made a mistake we would get pulled. He came in the first day and told us, `Mistakes are made in basketball games … so I’m not going to be pulling you for missing shots or making mistakes.’ When he said that, I think everybody said, `Okay. Now we can play basketball.’”
Don Seeholzer of the Pioneer Press: “Five days after accepting the position of full-time coach, Kevin McHale held just his second full practice with the Timberwolves on Saturday. Double teaming, offensive spacing and defensive concepts were among the items on the agenda, but coming off a 98-86 loss to San Antonio, McHale said there was a larger, general lesson. ‘It’s a process, but the biggest thing was we had to get the effort level back up to where you compete,’ McHale said. ‘Last night, we were down four with I think 1:25 to go in the (third) with the ball, and then we unraveled in three minutes, and all of a sudden we were down 14. … You can’t do that.’ McHale said after the game that he was disappointed in his team’s mental breakdowns and some players’ tendencies to let missed shots affect their play on the defensive end. ‘We’ve got guys that a couple bad things happen and it causes them to be like in a funk for two or three minutes,’ he said. ‘They’ve got to learn to play themselves through that.’ Looking at the schedule, McHale said his first goal on taking over the team was to get the players to play with energy and effort and worry about execution later.”
Krista Jahnke of the Detroit Free Press: “The Pistons’ NBA-longest-sellout streak, dating back to 2004, is still alive, although many nights the Palace looks one-third empty. Wilson said the tickets are sold — but more and more, fans are staying home anyway. In the past, when a big name like LeBron James came to town, it usually meant a legitimately full house. But when the Cleveland Cavaliers came to the Palace on Nov. 19, about 20,000 went through the Palace turnstiles; 10% of the 22,076 ticket-holders decided to stay home. ‘Now people are thinking, ‘Ok, I’ve got go pay for gas, parking, a couple of beers, a couple slices of pizza,’ ‘ Wilson said. ‘So they look at those tickets and realize they’ll have to throw 30 extra dollars at it. They decide they’d rather just eat the tickets. … People are making that kind of a decision, and we aren’t used to seeing that before.’”
Howard Beck of The New York Times: “Harrington needed just nine games to become the Knicks’ best scoring weapon and one of D’Antoni’s most trusted disciples. D’Antoni has given Harrington the freedom to flex every offensive muscle; in return, Harrington has given the Knicks a fantastic jolt. Through Friday, he was averaging a team-high 24.7 points and 8 rebounds since coming to the Knicks on Nov. 21 in a trade for Jamal Crawford. He led the team in scoring five times, including a 39-point outburst last week against the Nets. And he has not been shy. Harrington had taken 179 shots in nine games — 60 more than the next closest Knick (Quentin Richardson). D’Antoni is not complaining.”
Dave D’Alessandro of The Star-Ledger: “Over the past six quarters, Devin Harris has been made to feel like a Manhattan pedestrian during the Christmas rush. They crowd him, they jostle him. They get in his way every time he turns a corner. They knock him around and force him in directions he’d rather not take. The only thing they haven’t done is throw him in front of a speeding taxi. Over their past six quarters, the Nets have averaged 20.8 points. Over the past six quarters, the Nets point guard has managed eight field goals, seven assists and seven turnovers in 52 minutes. Not exactly the kind of numbers you expect from the No. 6 offense in the NBA, or from its catalyst. Obviously, opponents are starting to figure it out, and those opponents — the Knicks and Raptors — weren’t exactly defensive-minded teams.”
Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: “With Tracy McGrady back after missing seven games, he started for the first time with Shane Battier, who missed the first 15 games. Adelman likely will soon have his first lineup decision of the season. If Ron Artest, who missed the two-game trip because of his sprained ankle, is ready to return Tuesday against the Denver Nuggets, Adelman would have to choose between starting Battier and Artest, likely going with the lineup he had thought would begin the season, which has Battier starting. ‘That was probably who I would have started to start the whole thing,’ Adelman said. ‘If we get Ron back when we get back from this trip, we’ll see how that goes. I think that’s the best combination. Those three guys can really alternate minutes pretty easily.’ Artest has repeatedly endorsed that plan. The tougher decision will be about who will finish, rather than start games.”
Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: “After languishing on the bench for much of his two seasons in San Antonio, causing some in the organization to privately wonder if he would amount to anything approaching a useful player, the 28-year-old Bonner at last seems to have discovered his NBA niche. In six games since joining the starting five, Bonner is averaging 11.2 points and shooting 28 of 45 from the field — a simmering 62 percent. Bonner is making 51.9 percent of his shots from 3-point range, which means the Spurs’ starting center also is the league’s leading long-range marksman. ‘It’s a pretty easy gig, because you’ve got Tim (Duncan), Tony (Parker) and Manu (Ginobili),’ Bonner said, failing to note that he occasionally also has the likes of Smith flying at him. ‘They attract a lot of attention.’ At 6-foot-10, Bonner isn’t a conventional NBA center. He isn’t an intimidating defender, and the next post-up basket he scores will be his first. But Spurs coach Gregg Popovich loves the way Bonner’s jump shot can stretch the floor, clearing space for a player who can score from the post, namely Duncan.”
NBA.com: Greg Oden responds to Charles Barkley [Video]
Ramona Shelburne of the Los Angeles Daily News: “His beard has grown long and shaggy. The clean-cut look Baron Davis brought into the season long since overgrown by a more grizzled look.These first few months back in his hometown have been tough. A lot tougher than he expected, if we and he are being honest. ‘I’m always optimistic, but I think I was too optimistic in the beginning of the season,’ Davis said after the Clippers beat Houston 95-82 on Saturday night, marking their first two-game winning streak of the season. ‘I just thought things were going to start clicking from the beginning. But missing training camp, with all these new faces, it was tough. For me, it was a humbling experience.’ Keeping the beard trimmed, in other words, was the least of his worries. After 23 games, two games past a fourth of the NBA season already gone by, the Clippers have just six wins to show for their efforts. But for the first time, since maybe the beginning of training camp, they have reason for optimism again. Saturday’s win over Houston was their second in as many nights against one of the NBA’s elite teams.”
Sekou K Smith of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Ride the roller coaster with your team during the NBA season and there’s a good bet that the course changes every 48 hours. One minute you’re up and the next you’re down. One night the Hawks can’t win for losing. And two days later they’re on a two-game win-streak with wins in Miami and at home over Cleveland to prove that, as far as the funky times, nothing lasts forever. Before Friday’s win over the Heat, the Hawks were in danger of going on their second four-game losing streak of the season, prompting all sorts of questions about whether or not they were sliding down that slippery slope back to mediocrity. By early Sunday morning, after a win over one of the hottest teams in the league in Cleveland, the better question is can the Hawks really challenge for a home court slot in the playoffs?”
DraftExpress: “In practice, he quietly demonstrates to players close to twice his age where they should be on the floor in a certain set or drill. During shoot-around, he jokes around in English with the foreigners, and in Spanish with the local players. As they are going through a certain drill—the team runs until Coach Alonso claps, at which point the players must begin to sprint—Rubio shows his playful side by clapping himself mid-stride, which the players must have seen before, as no one fell for it. He has a special quality about him, there is no doubt about it, and it’s pretty obvious that he’s extremely well-liked by his teammates. The fact that he’s even playing right now is a testament to how much he wants to help his team win. Even prior to his injury, it would have taken some pretty special circumstances to get Rubio out of his contract, which currently sports a seven million Euro buyout. With that in mind, and considering everything we’ve heard during our time in Spain, we now expect Rubio to stay at Joventut for at least another season, if not two, which is when his contract expires.”
Mark Heisler of the Los Angeles Times: “Huge leads vanish. The young reserves are zinged for being wild. As if to show the problem is bigger than that, the starters no-show in Sacramento. Not that the Lakers, themselves, are alarmed. That’s the problem. Even while acknowledging that they’ve been “inconsistent” — nightly, it seems — they’re sublimely confident in their superior talent, size and depth. Here’s the bad news for the Lakers: They’re not inconsistent at all. Compared with the all-heart Boston Celtics and the hard-nosed Cleveland Cavaliers — who both have better records — the Lakers don’t play very hard. Compared with Boston, which is No. 2 in defense, and Cleveland, which is No. 1, the Lakers have turned into a target since their 7-0 start in which they gave up 87 points a game. In the next 14 games, they gave up an average of 103, a pace that would make them No. 26.”
Aaron J. Lopez of the Rocky Mountain News: “As Martin approached his ninth NBA season, he felt the need for some self-reflection. In the four years since Martin signed a seven-year, $92.5 million contract, the Nuggets have won three of 19 playoff games. He was better known for two major knee operations and a halftime tirade that got him suspended from the postseason in 2006. At the first team meeting of training camp, Martin stood in front of his coaches and teammates and promised to be a better leader, in the locker room and on the court. He admitted to being part of the problem and vowed to shed the cloak of negativity that he had been wearing for so long. ‘Kenyon’s been one of the keys to the attitude change that we’ve brought,’ coach George Karl said. ‘That (first meeting) was a hell of a way to start the season for a coach.’”
Scott Bordow of the East Valley Tribune: “It amazes me that Bell, Marion and so many other professional athletes – yeah, we’re talking about you, Terrell Owens – become so wrapped up in their selfish pursuits that they lose sight of the big picture. Marion had it all here in Phoenix. Money, fame, adoration, respect. And, let’s not forget, an opportunity to win an NBA title. Now he’s stuck in Miami, playing for a mediocre Heat team and a coach whose system doesn’t suit his skills like D’Antoni’s did. But at least he’s got it better than Bell, who will quickly learn what it’s like to play for a putrid team and a poorly run organization. Stoudemire should be paying close attention to what his former teammates brought on themselves. He might discover that being ‘the guy’ isn’t as attractive as it sounds when you’re losing 50 games a season. But I don’t expect Stoudemire to have some sort of revelation. He wants to be the king, even if it has to be of Clipper-Land.”
