Chris Tomasson of the Rocky Mountain News: “Cleveland coach Mike Brown calls Garnett a ‘guy who could get’ to the 20-year mark and wonders if perimeter players who turned pro very young could get there despite taking more ‘pounding on their knees.’ Of course, there’s only one guy Brown really wants to see play two decades. ‘I’m going to ride his coattails as long as I can,’ Brown said of James. If James does play into the 2020s, he could do a Jerry Rice on the NBA record book. James should finish the season with about 13,000 career points. Then, if he averages 2,120 the next 12 seasons (he’s averaged 2,259 his last four), he would shatter Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring mark of 38,387 in 2020-21, when he’s 36 and in his 18th season. After that, it could be hello 40,000. James said it’s not out of the question he could play 20 seasons.”
Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post: “Nene just can’t seem to feel 100 percent. He swears he has been fighting a cold for the past couple of weeks. ‘After the cancer, I don’t know,’ Nene said. ‘I’m hard to get sick, you know? But now I get sick all the time.’ That’s not all. Nene will play his 30th game tonight, which is nearly double last season’s workload. While he’s held up just fine, there is a wear-and tear factor that warrants keeping an eye on the 6-foot-10 Brazilian as the season progresses. Nene acknowledges the difficulty of his nightly tasks and says he is doing all he can to stay healthy and in game shape. One of those things is letting the coaches know when he needs a breather. He has signaled the bench more often of late to remove himself from games to grab rest. When he has been on the court, his level of exhaustion is obvious. On his way back down the defensive end of the court, he walks the first few steps, gradually trots and then runs.”
Chris McCosky of The Detroit News: “The truth is the Pistons are very unbalanced. There are too many scoring guards and not enough productive big men. Four of the starters play out of position, with Stuckey the only one playing his natural position. Hamilton must guard power forwards, small forwards, shooting guards and point guards. Prince must guard the likes of Mehmet Okur of the Jazz and Josh Smith (Hawks). Against the Celtics, Prince would’ve guarded Kevin Garnett or Kendrick Perkins. Rasheed Wallace is being asked to anchor the defense, a task he could do comfortably at age 24, but not as easily at age 34. And Curry, on most nights, must decide which two of his top seven players to leave on the bench down the stretch of close games. Nobody is going to complain after victories, but there will be grumbling after a loss. Unless the Pistons do what they haven’t done all year — sustain a win streak — their lineup and rotation could turn ugly quickly.”
Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: “Artest did not agree that his better range offers better spacing than with the Rockets’ traditional power forwards, both high-percentage shooters, though he sounded more as if he were being supportive of teammates than disputing the offensive theory. Coaches, however, will argue that the extra four feet of spacing does make it more difficult to send defensive help against Yao. Power forwards are typically hesitant to close out so far from the rim, and many who do lack the strength for a matchup with Artest. ‘As long as we can match up, that’s a hard team for the other team to match up with,’ Adelman said. ‘It really puts pressure on the other team. When Yao is on the floor, we’re going to him, (and) they have to make a decision about what they’re going to do. I like that.’”
John Hollinger of ESPN.com: “The real interesting part is the Lakers’ fortunes seem to hinge almost entirely on one player. No, not the one you’re thinking of. I’m talking about Andrew Bynum — you can watch him and pretty much tell what you’re getting from the Lakers that night. Bynum had three blocks and seven boards Tuesday and his activity saw him rewarded with 28 minutes — much as he dominated inside in the first win in New Orleans, when he had four swats. In fact, here’s a crazy stat to chew on — the Lakers are 19-1 when Bynum blocks a shot, but 1-4 when he doesn’t. Shifting from 95 percent odds of winning to 20 percent based on the fortunes of one player seems pretty huge, and obviously there’s an element of randomness here. But I think that stat also picks up on something — this is a vastly different team when Bynum is engaged and active than it is when he’s lollygagging on D or piling up soft fouls.”
Steve Dilbeck of the Los Angeles Daily News: “The Celtics came into Staples Center on a roll, having won a franchise- record 19straight games. Still looking focused and determined, and playing with a mature consistency that has eluded the Lakers. But the Lakers needed this one more, needed to brush aside the perception they were soft, too weak mentally, just too inferior to the mighty Celtics. Despite the great run the Celtics were on, despite the glare of a nationally-televised Christmas Day game, this game was more important to the Lakers, and ultimately they played like it. They may not have been dramatically better, but it was the Lakers who answered the challenge, who made plays down the stretch and came away with the 92-83 victory that reeked of playoff intensity. The Lakers had been winning, yet somehow languishing. Their impressive start giving way to victories that felt too difficult, or losses to inferior teams they should have handled with relative ease. It shouldn’t have been this way, but they clearly needed something to gain their attention, to challenge their imagined greatness.”
Ken Berger of CBSSports.com: “The best thing that could’ve happened to the Celtics on Christmas Day, in front of a raucous Staples Center crowd and curious national TV audience, was to lose to the Lakers. Trust me, this game meant a lot more to the Lakers than it did to the Celtics. Just as Boston received nothing of value for winning 19 consecutive games and embarking on the best 29-game start in NBA history, neither do the Lakers receive any trophies or other meaningful accolades for stopping it with a 92-83 victory Thursday. Sure, the Lakers can build off a game in which they (finally) defended for 48 minutes and got key contributions from Andrew Bynum (who missed last year’s Finals loss to Boston with an injury) and Pau Gasol (who was too often missing in key moments against the Celtics last June). But while they may not realize it now, the Lakers’ stirring performance against the defending champs Thursday — by far the most anticipated game of the NBA season to date — will refocus the Celtics and alleviate the unnecessary pressure of the streak.”
Sekou K Smith of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “The Hawks are 18-10 and in the hunt for a top four playoff seed. Gas prices are still hanging around $1.43 in my ‘hood. And as long as your loved ones are healthy and safe, there isn’t much more you could ask for this time of year. Hawks forward Marvin Williams had a particularly interesting take on the season the other night, one that’s worth sharing here: ‘With the life we all get to live, it goes without saying that we are blessed,’ he said. ‘So there’s much to be thankful for, not just now but all the time. The bonus for us [the Hawks] this year is that we’re finally in a position to chase our goals as a team. And this [eight-game] home stand has only added to that. We’re here in front of our fans and playing the way we have [5-1 so far], it couldn’t be any better … well, except if we had beaten Boston. But compare this to my first [three] years, when we were already out of it by now, for the most part. People don’t understand just how good this feels. I wish I could explain it, because it’s huge.’ I’d say that explains it all.”
John Schuhmann of NBA.com: “The process of developing team character started with Scott, who borrowed a chemistry-building idea from Pat Riley, his coach for seven seasons with the Lakers. During training camp and again during the course of the season, Scott has his players, along with their wives and kids, over to his house. It lets them get to know each other better off the court. Those aren’t the only times you’ll find the Hornets’ families together. When one of the players’ kids has a birthday, it’s more likely that an MVP candidate shows up than a clown or a princess. Of course, if a clown is needed, that’s where the rookies come in. ‘It reminds me so much of my family,’ Chandler says. ‘It starts off as a kid’s party, but it ends up with us playing cards and talking. It makes you feel that much more like you’re at home.’ The Hornets believe that their family dynamic translates to success on the court, and with the way they’ve played over the last two seasons — they lead the Southwest Division with a 16-7 record this season, entering Tuesday’s games — it’s hard to argue. Scott sees the benefits when his team is in a tough spot.”
At The Hive: “We’ve already taken on the 5 best defenses in the League. In 6 games, we’ve managed to crack one of them. And that was Cleveland, which struggled in its opening week. I’m willing to bet that if we played them today, they’d shut us down better than Orlando did. Take out the CLE game, and we’ve whiffed on all the other 5. We’ve been pulverized, in fact. What’s the reason behind this? Zero variation. Byron Scott throws the exact same offense at every team we play. Start with the CP-TC pick and roll. That’s not working, force it to David West. Eventually, he gets tired and starts throwing errant passes. Okay, back to the pick and roll. Still not working. Let’s try the Chandler post up. Fine, how about the Hilton post up? All right, Devin Brown isolation. Every one of those teams knew exactly what we were going to try. They game planned to stop two plays. That’s all it took. How great is our offense really if we get absolutely bullied by the top defensive teams?”
Scott Howard-Coope of the Sacramento Bee: “Nelson has the look and sound of someone trying to get fired. This comes as no surprise to those who know him well: thrive in the underdog role, scuttle the ship when people get excited for a genuine payoff. Except that, now, the timing is curious even by his standards. He signed a two-year, $12 million extension in October, set to begin after the current deal expires with $5 million due this season. One of Nellie’s closest friends, Larry Riley, was moved from the bench to the front office to handle personnel matters in place of titular head Chris Mullin. Nelson is entirely in position to be at the intersection of everything that goes on with the Warriors, without having to get bogged down in management minutiae. There is no such thing as shocking in the Nelson world, but quitting and walking away from $12 million would qualify. No one expects that to happen. Moving himself into the line of fire to become the seventh coach to get the ax, that’s another story. He would get a sizable payoff and the freedom to swing a new deal elsewhere, if he suddenly feels tough enough again.”
Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News: “This is total team-wide detonation. Stephen Jackson, Corey Maggette, Anthony Randolph… there will be more players brewing with broader dissent, and not just against Don Nelson, I guarantee it. It’s starting with Nelson, however. It always starts with Nelson. The winning started with him a few years ago. Now the destruction is starting with him. It’s who he is. So it’s time for Nelson to take a break–he looks like he could use one, he has already delegated defensive responsibilities to Keith Smart and Sidney Moncrief and guess what, the Warriors’ defense has been better in the last few games. It’s time for a Nellie Sabbatical. He can say he’s not feeling well. He can say he needs some time in Maui. He can say he’s mad at the media. He can say whatever he wants–he needs time off.”
Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: ‘The plan,’ Del Negro says, ‘was to get Derrick into camp and see how he was going to respond to things. And once I realized he could handle the things that I was going to have to throw at him, in terms of running the team, and all the different coverages that he was going to face … it just made sense to start him as we move forward as an organization.’ To Spoelstra, it makes just as much sense to bring Beasley along with a more measured approach. ‘Mike will have his contributions as the season goes on, and already, right now, we depend on him,’ Spoelstra says. ‘It’s not just about getting your minutes and learning the league and learning our system, but making the most of your minutes and being productive.’ Longtime coach and current television analyst Mike Fratello says the talent level of the two rookies is not nearly as disparate as the statistics indicate.”
Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal: “Scouts and league executives believe Mayo is playing a much better all-around game than he did at USC. ‘You’ve got bigger guys setting great screens,’ Mayo said. ‘It’s a longer game and you have good players around you. Opposing teams have to respect pretty much everyone on the court. It makes it a little easier. I’m playing with guys who can easily have a 20-point night and hurt you.’ Perhaps the only surprises so far for Mayo are the amount of minutes he’s been afforded, and the number of times he’s ended up in take-over-game situations. But Mayo doesn’t buy into early comparisons to Ray Allen, Chauncey Billups or Dwyane Wade.”
Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: “Kevin Durant’s minutes are piling up faster than the Thunder’s losses. The second-year forward averages 40.7 minutes in 11 December games and played at least 43 minutes three of the past five games. Durant, who averaged 36.5 minutes in November, said the heavy playing time isn’t affecting him, a claim supported by his averages of 25.5 points, 7.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.2 blocks in December. ‘I’m still young. I can play all game,’ said Durant, who is also shooting 47.4 percent and 51.1 percent from 3-point range. ‘I tell him (coach Scott Brooks) when I’m tired and I tell him when I want to stay in the game. And he kind of pulls me out when I tell him. I’m glad I’m playing 38, 39 minutes a night. I like being on the floor helping my teammates out.’”
Joshua Robinson of The New York Times: “The Knicks’ schedule, which had been so unkind in the last 10 days with road games against the Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers, may be extending them a hand. On Friday night, they will return to Madison Square Garden to play the Minnesota Timberwolves (4-23), who have lost their last 13 games. ‘We don’t want to be that team to get them going again, to get them back on track,’ Robinson said. And after hosting the slumping Denver Nuggets on Sunday, the Knicks will have opportunities to pick up victories against the Charlotte Bobcats and the Indiana Pacers, two of the worst teams in the Eastern Conference. Those are the games, D’Antoni said, that will make or break the Knicks’ chances of moving into playoff contention.”
Johnny Ludden of Yahoo! Sports: “As frustrated as the Cavs were after their loss to the Celtics, there was a belief among the front-office and coaching staffs that, with a few tweaks to the roster, better days lay ahead. Brown began to notice the team’s camaraderie during training camp when players started gathering together to watch football. On the road, the Cavs went to dinner in large groups. When West left to seek treatment for depression, his teammates frequently checked in to see how he was doing. The Cavs’ closeness also can both be seen and felt on their charter flights. The plane they use during the season is configured like that of most teams: the front has spacious, fully reclining seats in the front for the players; the middle section with normal first-class seats belongs to coaches; the team’s support staff sits in the back. James, however, has the players sit in the area normally reserved for the coaches because it has two tables that allows them to play cards, even if they have to surrender considerable legroom.”
Michael Lee of the Washington Post: “Brown talks about how players started to jell in training camp, watching ‘Monday Night Football’ together, hanging out after practice and at games. James likes to refer to the Cavaliers as family because ‘no one is isolated from the other.’ That chemistry didn’t immediately translate when Cleveland started the season 1-2, with losses to Boston and New Orleans. Since then, the Cavaliers have won 23 of 25, with 18 of those wins decided by at least 10 points. They have allowed the fewest points per game (89.3) and have the second-lowest defensive field goal percentage (42.1). For the first time since Brown became coach after the 2004-05 season, they have managed to blend relentless defense with efficient, high-powered offense. Cleveland is sixth in the league in scoring (102.3 points per game) and third in team shooting percentage (48.1 percent).”
Cliff Brunt of the Associated Press: “The Western Conference has ruled the NBA the past decade. Not anymore. West teams won seven of the past 10 championships and had a winning record against the East every season since 1998-99. Through Thursday’s games, the East was 87-65 against the West this season. ‘I think the balance is shifting,’ Indiana Pacers forward Danny Granger said. The last time the East had a winning record against the West in a full season was in 1997-98. The East also had a winning mark in the strike-shortened 1998-99 season. If the East maintains its .573 winning percentage, it would be its second-best showing since 1990.”
The AP: “Kobe Bryant is still fueled by the memory. He was on a bus in China six months ago after the U.S. Olympics basketball team defeated Spain to win the gold medal at the Beijing Games. Even now, Bryant says he can close his eyes and see LeBron James, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, Jason Kidd, whooping and hollering with hardly a care in the world. ‘You see these guys, these quote-unquote superstars, hanging loose like a bunch of high-school kids, just going crazy. It was great,’ Bryant said. ‘There was so much energy in the locker room after the gold medal, the champagne and the guys just having a good time. That energy has carried over to now.’”
Phil Jasner of the Philadelphia Daily News: “These were the late 1970s, and Paul Westhead, the La Salle University coach, was teaching his players the art and value of psycho-cybernetics, which essentially meant visualizing things before you did them. Westhead saw it as valuable for shooters, from the floor and the foul line. See the rim, see the rotation of the ball, feel the rhythm of the shot before you start the process. Tony DiLeo, a transfer from Tennessee Tech, was one of Westhead’s players. ‘In college, I was really into sports psychology,’ said DiLeo, who will coach the 76ers tonight against the Nuggets, his sixth game since succeeding the fired Maurice Cheeks. ‘I read a lot of books. I gave coach Westhead the book on psycho-cybernetics. He has never returned it. I asked him for it one time, and he said he had made notes all over it and that he couldn’t give it back.’”
Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: “And now the circle is complete. Ed Tapscott got into coaching to help pay for law school. His law degree helped him become an agent. Being an agent helped him join an NBA front office, which led to him becoming CEO of the Charlotte Bobcats. And when he left the Bobcats, he rejoined close friend and mentor Ernie Grunfeld. So when Grunfeld fired Eddie Jordan on Nov. 24, Tapscott became interim coach of the Washington Wizards. ‘I think the coaching is more difficult,’ Tapscott said of the contrast between what he does now and what he did with the Bobcats. ‘It’s more visceral, it’s more emotional. It’s more in real time. You work harder to moderate your responses because this is a marathon. That’s something I had to get used to right away – that you can’t get angry every time it doesn’t go your way.’”
Mark Cuban: “Teams in every league need as much local coverage as we can get. The more stories that are written by sportswriters and columnists, the more opportunities for fans to connect and stay connected to our teams. The natural response of course is to write more on the team website and to create and support local bloggers who write about your team. Which is exactly what most teams do. The mavs have mavs.com, mavswiki.com, friends.mavs.com and we support a variety of different blogs. We have internet and mobile editions and are expanding all the above. The reality however, is that if you count the entire universe of LOCAL Mavs fans that go to these sites, they are a fraction of people who read about the Mavs in the Dallas Morning News and the Ft Worth Star Telegram print editions. More importantly, those fans that go to the national sports sites, the local team website and blogs are our customers and hard core fans. While we will do everything possible to keep them happy, they are easy to reach. The newspapers reach our hardest to connect to customers, the casual fan.”
