David Friedman of Pro Basketball News: “Through the first quarter of the 2008-09 season, the NBA has been a three horse race: the Boston Celtics, L.A. Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers are way ahead of the rest of the pack by almost any statistical measure. How unusual is it for three teams to lap the field to this extent? There are a number of ways to evaluate dominance but one of the most reliable is point differential; since 1990, nine of the 19 NBA champions ranked first in the league in this category and 16 of them ranked in the top five. A point differential greater than five ppg generally signifies that a team is a legitimate championship contender, few teams have point differentials better than eight ppg and any team that wins by an average of 10-plus ppg is playing at a historically significant level of greatness. As of Dec. 19, the Cavaliers (13.1 ppg), Lakers (10.4 ppg) and Celtics (10.0 ppg) had point differentials that would rank among the best of all-time if they maintain those numbers over 82 games. There has never been a season in NBA history in which three teams had point differentials of at least 10 ppg. In fact, only twice in NBA history have three teams achieved point differentials of eight ppg or more in the same season: in 1971-72, the Lakers (12.2 ppg), Bucks (11.1 ppg) and Bulls (8.3 ppg) led the way and then the next season the Lakers (8.5 ppg), Celtics (8.2 ppg) and Bucks (8.2 ppg) dominated regular season play.”
Brian Windhorst of The Plain Dealer: “Had I asked LeBron about his future the day after last season ended he probably would have given a negative answer as far as Cleveland is concerned. I asked him when the Cavs were 22-4 and coming off a big win in Denver. He was in a good mood and feeling great about the franchise. That can change over the next six months and 16 months; it was just a chance to demostrate his positive feeling right now. This morning at shootaround here in Oklahoma City, LeBron was laughing when he saw me come on the floor at the Ford Center. He was like: ‘Wow, it’s on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN4, ESPN Deportes.’ He loves this stuff. He also knows anything and everything he says about his future will be big news. As a joke, I asked him if he would ‘consider’ having a steak for dinner tonight. There are many, many more twists and turns to come.”
Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus: “If Roy had an offensive weakness during his first two seasons, it was that he tended to rely too much on scoring via the two-point basket, in general the least efficient method. Because of his unique ability to finish in the paint and his highly accurate midrange jumper, Roy made it work. Nonetheless, scoring more points via the free-throw line and from beyond the arc was an easy way for Roy to improve his True Shooting Percentage, only average so far during his career. Three-point range remains a work in progress, but when Roy is hitting from downtown, as he was against the Suns (5-of-7 on threes), he is virtually unstoppable. The second clear sign of Roy’s budding superstardom is his increasing usage rate. He’s gone from using 23.1 percent of the Blazers’ possessions as a rookie to 25.1 percent a year ago and 29.9 percent so far this season, putting him eighth in the league. Somewhat surprisingly, this is one trend that isn’t evident over the last five games, as Roy has continued to post a usage rate around 30 percent. He’s merely being more efficient with his possessions. The last indicator is that teams are beginning to back up Scott’s words with their actions and treating Roy as one of the league’s elite players by trapping him to take the ball out of his hands down the stretch.”
Johnny Ludden of Yahoo! Sports: “The Nuggets needed someone to lead. Above all else, Billups does that. Billups isn’t a screamer like Kevin Garnett. He guides and counsels, pointing his teammates in the right direction, talking to them between free throws. Already, he has done the unthinkable, giving Anthony a conscience. Two days after the Nuggets’ recent loss to the Houston Rockets, Billups stayed long after practice, forever chatting with Karl on how they can work together to move the team forward. Said Anthony: ‘Maybe we needed that guy on the court to say, ‘I know George is the coach, but, no disrespect, I’m running the show now. I’m the general on the court.’ The Pistons, meanwhile, have only recently begun to gain some traction since Billups left, splitting their past 12 games. Iverson has been fined twice: first by the team for skipping practice; then by the league, which docked him $25,000 for comments he made to a fan in Charlotte. Billups still frequently talks with Tayshaun Prince, Rip Hamilton and Antonio McDyess. Asked if his former teammates say they miss him, a big grin starts to stretch across his face. ‘Definitely,’ he said.”
Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: “Yao averaged 16.8 points on 49.5 percent shooting in November. He has made 71 of 113 shots (62.8 percent) in December, averaging 25.2 points per game. By Friday, he was so automatic that when he missed (he hit 11 of 13 shots) the crowd groaned as if it could not believe such a thing possible. He has always been a shot-maker. The difference is the way he is moving to get himself those better shots. The Rockets have become much better at moving the ball (they have had their season-high 26 assists three times in the past four games) and he has improved at moving with it. ‘If he just has some patience and they are going to let him catch the ball, he’s going to have good things happen for him,’ Rick Adelman said. ‘I think he’s more patient. Sometimes he rushes and tries to put the ball down before he sees what they are really doing and that’s where he gets in trouble. We have to really try to emphasize if he kicks it out, he’s following it all the time and we’ve got to keep looking for him inside.’ When they find him there, he is usually too big and too skilled to handle.”
Dave D’Alessandro of The Star-Ledger: “Ask Carter who is the best player he ever played with, and he doesn’t hesitate. He could have said his cousin, Tracy McGrady, who has as much talent as anyone who has ever played the game. He could have even said Hakeem Olajuwon (in terms of reputation, anyway), because any list of the all-time, top-10 centers includes his name. But Carter says this: ‘J-Kidd was definitely (number) one. For as hard as it is to get one triple-double in your career, he did it with ease. He got triple-doubles like other guys got double-doubles. So I definitely give him that. He’s a guaranteed Hall of Famer if he didn’t want to play any more today.’ It’s not about Kidd the player, however. He thinks of their friendship first, even though he admits it’s nearly impossible to penetrate that famous wall of stoicism. Carter can be that way himself, he admits. That’s probably why they appreciated each other’s company: There were no emotional demands — just bowling, golf, kids and work. If that was all they had in common, it was enough.”
Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register: “Lamar Odom keeps disappointing this season, but I also understand the logic of Phil Jackson continuing to play Odom instead of Andrew Bynum down the stretch of games. Odom’s agility is useful in defending certain sequences where the Lakers want to switch or help. For example, Odom did fairly well in bothering Dwyane Wade’s last field-goal attempt of the game Friday night (a miss) when Wade chose to accelerate even before Trevor Ariza got hit with a pick. (Odom, however, immediately offset that defensive stop with his two lame from-the-lane shots that were blocked.) Early this season, Odom was much more active as a double-team defender and making more happen at that end of the court. Odom also gives the Lakers a reasonably dependable inbounder for late-game situations after Ariza made Jackson nervous with two inbound passes late in the victory over the Knicks last game. But you can make an argument that Odom isn’t actually doing much to earn his playing time, late or early.”
Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News: “The Warriors apparently said that Stephen Jackson missed Monday’s shoot-around before the home game against Orlando because he had a bout with the flu. That may not not exactly be the 100% truth. I heard today that Jackson did come to the shoot-around, might have been a bit late, and when he arrived, Don Nelson pulled Jackson outside to have a discussion in Nelson’s car before the official start of the workout. The gist of the talk, according to a knowledgeable source: Nelson told Jackson that he had recently been the worst Warriors player on the floor, which is not what SJax expected or wanted to hear. If that was a prime moment of tough-love that Nelson thought would get SJax to admit his culpability and seek forgiveness, Nelson was wrong: My source says that Jackson disagreed vociferously with his coach, then got out of the car, into his own, and immediately drove away from the shoot-around, which is why he was not there when the media was allowed in.”
John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle: “Don Nelson is relinquishing some of his authority. The 68-year-old coach, saying he’s getting ‘soft as I get older,’ gave additional power to two of his assistants but vowed to stick around as the head coach. After the Warriors’ 115-99 loss to the Hawks, Nelson announced Keith Smart as his ‘defensive coordinator’ and Sidney Moncrief an ‘assistant defensive coordinator.’ Starting with Friday’s game, Smart was in charge of defensive game plans and could alter defensive alignments on the spot without running it past Nelson. ‘I’m still the head coach, but we’ll make decisions together,’ said Nelson, who has two more full seasons on his contract. ‘I’ve decided to identify one of my weaknesses at this point in my life. I’m not tough enough anymore. I’m soft as I get older. I feel like I haven’t done a very good job defensively this year.’”
Greg Stoda of the Palm Beach Post: “OK, it’s a stretch to suggest that Jackson almost chose a preacher’s pulpit instead of coach’s bench as a career path, but he did at least consider doing so. ‘I actually visited a Unitarian seminary in Kansas City late in my playing career,’ Jackson said Friday afternoon on the AmericanAirlines Arena court several hours before his Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Heat. ‘The timing wasn’t right. I was the father of four young children at the time.’ There was more to his decision than that, though, because Jackson admitted the up-close inspection of a submersion in a religious lifestyle imparted its own dissuasive influence. But it was an interest that came naturally to Jackson considering both his father, Charles, and mother, Elisabeth, were ministers. He was interested enough in the possibilities of a life in ministry, in fact, to undertake a ‘composite’ study of psychology, philosophy and religion at the University of North Dakota. ‘I can’t imagine not having explored those subjects to some extent,’ Jackson said. ‘I believe I’ve turned out to be more like my father.’”
Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: “Larry Brown and Mike Krzyzewski are the two best coaches I’ve covered, and here’s what those two have in common: In a business that so obliges you to be results-oriented, Brown and Krzyzewski are process-oriented. Here’s what I mean: By and large, coaches are happy when their teams win and grumpy when they lose. That’s not to suggest they never correct off wins or praise off losses, but generally they equate any win to success and any loss to another step toward failure. Brown and Krzyzewski view it a bit differently: That if they assemble a team with enough talent, and convince that team to play as instructed, success will follow almost organically. And that’s what must have made Friday’s victory over the Memphis Grizzlies so gratifying for Brown: It wasn’t just that the won so decisively (by 29 points), it was how this team functioned. Brown wants his team to play the perfect game the way an Olympic skier wants to make the perfect run. To Brown, that means give up a good shot to create a great shot. It means probing for a layup, even if you have an 18-footer. It means a precise screen or a pinpoint pass is just as pretty as a 360 dunk.”
Julian Benbow of The Boston Herald: “And for the fiery side of the Celtics’ three-headed monster, Garnett himself, what he loved seeing most was Perkins’s poise. Perkins has taken more than enough knocks for leading the team in technical fouls. ‘I thought from last year to this year he’s a lot more patient,’ Garnett said. ‘He’s a very emotional player. I love that about him. He plays with a lot of fire. At the same time, he’s put a lot of poise in his game. He’s actually under control in a lot of situations.’ Those are the situations, the ones that allow him to thrive, something he’s understanding more every day. ‘The biggest thing,’ Perkins said, ‘is you’ve got to look at yourself in the mirror and be honest with yourself and figure out what you’ve got to work on, and I just try to build on that and try to keep improving.’ To this day, Garnett said, he still sees Perkins coming in the gym at 10 at night.”
Mark Heisler of the Los Angeles Times: “There are more differences between these Lakers and Celtics than uniform colors, motifs (Irish vs. Hollywood) and climate. At this point, the dream team would be either starting five, the Lakers’ bench and the Celtics’ attitude. The Celtics have been no less aware of their Christmas game. Unlike the Lakers, that didn’t keep them from getting excited about everyone else they ran into. The Lakers insist they’re on a mission to avenge last spring’s Finals humiliation, although the mission seems to have taken a wrong turn back around Nov. 14. The Celtics don’t say anything but look like they’re trying to get even for every game they lost last season. Before they routed Orlando, 117-88, on Dec. 1, Magic officials were surprised to find the Celtics awaiting their arrival as if they were Attila and the Huns, burning to get even for beating them in the 2007-2008 season series.”
Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: “Van Gundy says ‘latching onto a real high-profile guy like LeBron might trump’ market size and franchise histories. It’s no coincidence the Magic’s rise is related to Howard’s ascent as a superstar. He is slowly pushing them into the bright lights, too. Orlando is on national television 11times this season, including a Christmas Day game against New Orleans. But this is the first season that Howard has truly let his personality show. The rest of the G-rated Magic reveals players who’ve struggled for acceptance and adulation. Rashard Lewis played nine years in Ray Allen’s shadow. Jameer Nelson always has been judged as too small. And last season Hedo Turkoglu won the most-improved-player award — after eight seasons. The Magic say they can feel the neglect nationally — and it spurs them. ‘We keep feeding off of flying under the radar just so we can prove a point,’ Lewis said. ‘It feeds our fire. Keep pouring gasoline on the fire, it’s going to keep flaming up.’”
Tom Ziller of FanHouse: “The Pistons have been awful on Sundays this season, 0-5 before this week’s match at Atlanta with losses to such omnipotent foes as the 4-22 Minnesota Timberwolves and the 11-15 New York Knicks. And as nobly as Detroit competed this time around, the team still fell to the Hawks 85-78. Perhaps worse news is that Michael Curry benched Allen Iverson with four minutes left and the Pistons down six. Sitting A.I. made a bit of sense: The Answer had an awful shooting game (4-for-11) and fellow starter Rodney Stuckey had played well on the offensive end (20 points on 12 shots). Curry needed to keep sixth man Antonio McDyess in the game for rebounding help, and wanted Stuckey in there. Out came A.I. with the second-year guard heading back in. Iverson didn’t seem to take it well.”
Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star: “Speaking in grave tones in another post-loss locker room, Jermaine O’Neal shook his head as he spoke to Chris Bosh. ‘It ain’t looking good for the boys,’ said O’Neal. He was speaking of the Dallas Cowboys, the NFL team both he and Bosh adore. But he might as well have been referring to Toronto’s road-tripping hoopsters, who – while the Cowboys were losing a crucial game on video monitors around a basketball arena deep in the heart of a football-crazed state – dropped their fifth consecutive loss last night, 107-97, to the San Antonio Spurs. Ten games into the Jay Triano era, the Raptors are 2-8. Ten games since the club fired Sam Mitchell with their win-loss record at 8-9, they’re 10-17. Two games into a six-game Western road swing that bookends a Christmas break and continues tomorrow against the L.A. Clippers, the Raptors have racked up two losses. It’s grim going, to be sure.”
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Mike Baldwin of The Oklahoman: “A few years ago, Dwyane Wade was asked how it felt playing his first Christmas Day game. ‘Growing up you always watched those games,’ Wade said. ‘If you’re playing, you’re a good team and people think highly of you. If you’re not playing on Christmas, you want to be.’ It’s not as special as it once was. This year, five Christmas Day games will be nationally televised. Days of matching only the elite teams on Dec. 25 are long gone. It’s not shocking. In an era when most cities have three or more sports-talk radio stations, and games air on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNXYZ, saturation isn’t an issue. Put it on TV and fans will watch.”
Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: “League-wide, attendance is actually up this season, ever so slightly. In a recession so deep that a headline on the front page of Saturday’s Express-News declared that Christmas spending is expected to be down by about 23 percent this year, that is pretty astounding. It is explainable, in large part, by the resurgence of interest in Portland, the Thunder’s move from Seattle to Oklahoma City and the big increase in season ticket sales in New Orleans. Attendance in Memphis has been so low that one rowdy group of fans with tickets in the cheap seats routinely are moved down near the court to pump up the volume. Richard ‘Grits’ Walker, who covers the Bobcats for the Gaston (N.C.) Gazette, reported that a recent Wolves-Bobcats game with a crowd count of 9,285 had an actual turnstile count of 4,003. In a nearly new arena that seats 19,077, that makes for an embarrassing abundance of empty space. Even the Spurs are having more difficulty selling tickets than in recent seasons. Before Saturday night’s game against the Raptors, there had been only two sellouts in 13 home games.”
Sam Amick of the Sacramento Bee: “While the Kings are 29th in the league in home attendance (12,185 average), the Rockets coach and former Kings and Portland coach is the first to predict that it won’t last. ‘There are some places where you can have that unrest or people not interested or whatever, and you may never get back,’ said Adelman, who was not re-signed in the summer of 2006. ‘But I think Sacramento is just like Portland. If you start losing games and have some real negative years, especially with the economy, you’re going to lose your people like Portland did. But now (the Blazers have) kind of turned it (around). ‘They’ve got a young group. They’re a good team to watch, and now people are coming back. ‘In Sacramento, it would take one year or maybe a half a year of success, and those people would be there again. It’s too good of a town, with too good of fan support. You’ve got to win. You’ve got to give them something to cheer about.’”
Jonathan Abrams of The New York Post: “In the fledgling N.B.A., teams used to devise schemes, unsuccessfully, to neutralize players like Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain. But the design of specialized defenses at the end of games began in earnest with the emergence of players like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. ‘N.B.A. basketball over the last 25 years has gotten very defensive orientated,’ Denver Nuggets Coach George Karl said. ‘A lot more so than in early N.B.A. basketball.’ Today’s defenses are tailored toward players who, Carter said, are ‘programmed and put into situations where they’re going to take the last shot.’ Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, Houston Rockets guard Tracy McGrady and Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade all fall into that category. The effectiveness of these defenses, however, is debatable.”
Steve Luhm of The Salt Lake Tribune: “In 25 years of working for the NBA Coaches Association, executive director Michael Goldberg says he ‘doesn’t recall anything like’ the outbreak of pre-Christmas firings that has rocked the organization’s membership. Goldberg’s memory is fine, of course. The fact is, there have never been six head coaches fired as early as mid-December in the history of the 62-year-old league. So what gives? Goldberg has a theory: ‘It’s a very strange occurrence, but we’re also living in very strange times as a nation and I’m not 100 percent sure these occurrences are not reflective of the mood of the country, which unfortunately is fear. People don’t know what to do.’ NBA owners, at least, don’t seem to have the same patience as they do in a stronger economy. ‘In trying to analyze this,’ Goldberg said, ‘I think there is a tendency — today more than ever — to put a premium on winning. And I can’t argue with that. … These franchises are such big businesses and they are so expensive to operate, you have to win to reap all the rewards — selling tickets, selling suites, selling sponsorships.’”
