Steve Adamek of The Record: “If last Friday’s barely-show against Milwaukee was bad, this Friday’s 120-107 debacle against a Minnesota team that hadn’t won since the day before Thanksgiving was worse. And it demonstrates that, much as Mike D’Antoni is willing to spend just seven players a night, these aren’t close to the same seven players he had in Phoenix (to state the obvious). He needs more bodies. Until he gets them, he needs to use more of the bodies that he has. Or if they’re not useable (Anthony Roberson, nice kid, can’t defend, and shooting just 37.6 percent when he was kept to make shots), he needs new ones. Bodies, in whatever form, to keep a season in which you and your coach insist your team can make a run at the playoffs. Bodies that have more than a passing relationship with defense. And we’re not talking about the eventual return of Eddy Curry. Anyone who’s watched how the previous regime attempted to rebuild this team knows panic isn’t the way to go here. But this is a team, as it was during the Isiah Error, full of career-long losers, guys (other than Malik Rose, who might’ve been worth a few minutes Friday to try to prevent Al Jefferson’s 21 points plus 15 rebounds) who easily succumb to what D’Antoni calls the ‘woe is me’ mentality when things go wrong. And capitulate.”
Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: “The Orlando Magic are way ahead of last season’s curve when they finished 52-30. They have tied the best 29-game starts in franchise history, recorded by Shaq’s teams in the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons. Only three teams in the league have better records: the Boston Celtics, L.A. Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers — all recent NBA finalists. And now, after leaping to a 23-6 record — the Magic were 18-11 at this time last season — a 60-win season is possible. Are we getting ahead of ourselves? The bigger question: Are the Magic? The playoffs are a good four months away. ‘I don’t know if we are peaking,’ Coach Stan Van Gundy said. ‘I still see a lot of areas where we can get better.’ Van Gundy knows his team can polish its offensive execution, make more free throws and rebound better so it doesn’t give up second-chance points.”
Sactown Royalty: “Let’s look at, say, San Antonio’s three stars in, say, 2006-07. The three stars each had PERs over 20. (Duncan was at 26, Ginobili at 24, Parker at 21.) No other Spurs did. What about the 2007-08 Celtics? Pierce fell just shy of 20, Ray Allen marked just above average … and Leon Powe marked at 20 in relatively limited minutes. Garnett came in at 25. Boston’s role players on the whole came in statistically better than S.A.’s non-star cadre. Kevin Martin’s peak PER is 21, and I think a responsible expectation would be 22-23 in the near future. That’d make him an able #2 in this scenario. The latest struggles of Spencer Hawes and Jason Thompson have sent to duo below 15 … though I think it is reasonable to believe one will find himself at 19 or better within the next three seasons. (I actually wouldn’t be shocked if both made it, so long as the development isn’t butchered by injury or worse.) So under the Pareto principle and assuming a healthy Alpha-dog Martin doesn’t make a huge leap, the team needs a #1.”
Steve Luhm of The Salt Lake Tribune: “As the New Year approaches, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan hopes one of his team’s resolutions is playing better at crunch time. Describing Utah’s 2-3 record on its just-completed five-game swing through the Eastern Conference as ‘disappointing,’ Sloan said, ‘We were in every game. We just couldn’t finish. We finished a couple of them OK. But we couldn’t finish all of them.’ Why? Sloan cites a lack of execution, turnovers and missed shots — easy shots — as the primary reasons. ‘It takes a great deal of concentration to finish close games,’ he said. In their three losses on the trip, the Jazz were outscored by Boston (31-26), Chicago (28-19) and Milwaukee (25-22) in the fourth quarter. Against the Bucks, the Jazz made only two of their final 13 shots and two of their last six free throws. In the final seven minutes, Milwaukee outscored Utah, 17-9.”
John Schuhmann of NBA.com: “The Charlotte Bobcats have played 358 games as an NBA franchise, and only eight times have they walked into an arena as a team with a winning record. At the beginning of their fifth season, the Bobcats’ roster was light on experience, postseason or otherwise. They had made incremental progress since coming into the league, and brought in Larry Brown this summer to help take the squad to the next level. Brown’s methods take time to bear fruit, but the Bobcats’ improvement was accelerated when they traded Jason Richardson, Jared Dudley and a second-round pick to Phoenix for Raja Bell, Boris Diaw and Sean Singletary on Dec. 10. Richardson was the most talented player in the deal, but sometimes quantity is more important than quality. ‘We got two starters for one,’ Brown said of Bell and Diaw before Friday’s 95-87 win in New Jersey. ‘That’s the way I look at it. We’ll never replace J-Rich, but we got two really quality guys.’ Bell and Diaw have started all seven games since arriving in Charlotte. The Bobcats lost the first two games with the new additions, but have gone 4-1 since, showing improvement on both sides of the ball.”
Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: “Spurs coach Gregg Popovich understands the offensive dynamic that his long-distance shooters can create. His 3-point shooters are so dangerous that defenses dare not leave them unguarded, as the Suns learned when Jason Richardson left Mason to help defend a Tony Parker drive. His shooters understand their looks from long range are optimized by Parker’s penetrations and Duncan’s post presence. For Mason, learning how to position himself to optimize his 3-pointers has been a process. ‘Early in the season,’ he said, ‘I didn’t know how to play with Tim, so I wasn’t getting any 3-point shots from him. Really, when (Parker and Ginobili) were out, I was getting a lot of my shots on my own, using pick and rolls and creating my jump shot. ‘Now, I’m starting to figure out Tim and his spots, so I’m getting them from Tim and also from Tony now.’”
ReclinerGM: “I personally think the Sixers were a fluke playoff team last season. This is something I’ve been wanting to get out for a while now. I thought the Sixers benefited from an extremely weak conference. The infusion of a new GM and new style of play. And frankly ONE hot streak. I never thought that team from a pure talent standpoint and overall makeup was a legit playoff team. At best they were a team that would need to claw and scratch there way to an 8th spot in a slightly tougher conference and lose in the first round. What was the real tell-tell sign for me was the end of the season and playoffs. Everyone, including myself got so caught up in the playoff run, the sheer astonishment they actually got in and the two games they played Detroit tough we missed something. We overlooked the fact that the Sixers flat out stunk down the stretch.”
Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “So much for the easy part. While the Heat’s four-game winning streak was triggered by a victory over the Lakers, it also includes victories over the Nets, Warriors and Bulls. None of the latter three teams appear playoff bound. But now it gets tougher, considerably tougher. First there are consecutive games against the Cavaliers, Sunday in Cleveland and then Tuesday at AmericanAirlines Arena. Those are followed by games against the Magic, Nets and Spurs. Then comes a seven-game trip that includes tests against the Nuggets, Lakers and Rockets. While there is no need to apologize for how it has gotten to 16-12, these next three weeks well could determine how proactive the Heat becomes by the Feb. 19 trading deadline and whether chasing a No. 4 or No. 5 seed (to avoid Boston, Cleveland and Orlando in the first round) is realistic.”
Fred Kerber of the New York Post: “Ryan Anderson already has a problem with that whole ‘sense of where you are’ proposition. And not on the court. More in terms of zip codes. Brook Lopez feels fine. For now. But he is waiting for the other shoe to fall – like a bag of bricks on his noggin. Chris Douglas-Roberts, for the moment, sees the silver lining in a sprained right knee that sidelined him for three weeks. Welcome to an NBA rookie season that somewhere, somehow introduces first year players to ‘The Wall.’ It’s a fabled, invisible obstacle that gives every young player a chance to know fatigue up close and personal amid coast-to-coast travel and previously unheard of back-to-back games.”
Marcus Thompson II of the San Jose Mercury News: “Something is keeping him from being a household name. Something has prevented him from getting a sniff at an All-Star Game or All-NBA recognition, from racking up huge endorsement dollars. It certainly has something to do with his mild-mannered disposition. Crawford can be more shy than a math geek in a sorority house. He is considered one of the more charitable players in the league, but he doesn’t like to talk about it because he gets embarrassed. Someone acutely aware of Crawford’s generous spirit is Portland guard Brandon Roy, whom Crawford befriended and mentored. Roy, also a Seattle native, said he was surprised at how down-to-earth Crawford was despite his NBA status and legend in the area. ‘He saw that we had a lot in common,’ Roy said. ‘He saw me as a good dude and he didn’t want me to be corrupted. A lot of things that guys had to go through, I didn’t have to go through because he took me under his wing.’”
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Jeff Rabjohns of the Indianapolis Star: “Now, I enjoy cabbies, at least the ones who’ve lived in their city for a long time. That’s why I’d rather take a cab than rent a car. Car rental places give you forms to fill out in triplicate. Cabbies will give you the pulse of their city and usually can tell you their city’s prevailing opinion on a topic, whether it’s sports or politics or latest restaurant to open. ‘We live and die with the University of Memphis,’ he started out. ‘With the Grizzlies, when Kobe comes to town, everyone comes to see Kobe. When Boston comes to town, everyone will come out for KG and Paul Pierce. ‘You’d think you have a home-court advantage when you’re at home, but it’s not really that way when everyone dresses up to see the other team.’ The Grizzlies listed the attendance for Friday’s 108-105 victory over the Pacers at 12,346, which if that’s true, I have $12.346 million in my mutual fund account and I’m buying a place in the Maldives. I mean, it was so empty, the Grizzlies staged a pseudo-beach volleyball game in the stands in the lower bowl and one of the inflatable balls bounced so far from the group it came to rest on an empty seat — in the lower bowl.”
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Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald: “Think about it: Had the Celts slapped them silly at Staples Center, would the rivalry be as much fun? Sure, Sox followers would take perverse pleasure in watching the Yankees go 0-162, but aren’t you even more excited about the Celtics-Lakers rematch Feb. 5 at the Garden now that you know the battle has truly been engaged? The only Celtics solace for the moment is that they played poorly and were still ahead with less than four minutes left. But this is about two things: the C’s understanding what they need to be better and the people who follow them getting to revel in the competitive drama as the episodes appear. Rivers was on the mark afterward. ‘Before the game it was a big game,’ he said. ‘During the game it was a big game. Now it’s one of 82.’”
Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times: “‘We’ve really put some emphasis back on it,’ Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said. ‘Offense is easy, defense is work. Guys have to work twice as hard defensively to stop the other team from scoring because that’s their pleasure. We have to always know that we have to outwork guys and we’d forgotten that.’ Jackson also liked that the two Lakers who were non-factors in last season’s NBA Finals made an impact Thursday despite ordinary individual stats. Andrew Bynum, who missed the Finals because of a knee injury, had nine points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots Thursday, numbers that aren’t phenomenal on their own, though Jackson noticed the Celtics’ needing to adjust to Bynum’s presence on numerous occasions. Jackson highlighted Bynum’s ability to clog the lane on defense and thought he distracted the Celtics on pick-and-roll sequences when the Lakers were on offense, freeing up other teammates.”
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Phil Jasner of the Philadelphia Daily News: “When ownership decreed that it was critical to bring the payroll below the league’s luxury tax trigger point, they jumped at the chance to give up Iverson’s $21 million expiring contract. ‘I’ll be honest, you didn’t like the edict,’ Karl said, ‘but I thought it was the first time our organization kind of knew what the purpose was, and that’s what we were going to live with, and it’s kind of kept us together. With Chauncey . . . we go back to better balance, better shot selection, better commitment to defense.’ Karl said another point of the move was to have that quarterbacking mentality on the court for more minutes. ‘It’s not that A.I. didn’t give us good minutes, or that Anthony Carter hasn’t had maybe the 2 best years of his career, we just had too many moments where the offense was, whatever you want to label it, disorganized, chaotic, the shot selection a little wild and crazy,’ Karl said. ‘I believe in wild and crazy, but it pushed the line a lot.’ Having offered up a thorough explanation, Karl knows his 2-year search for a point guard began after trading Miller, who had provided everything Karl wanted since joining the Nuggets as a free agent in 2003-04. Karl, to this day, says he reluctantly agreed to the deal with the Sixers.”
Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press: “Inflated expectations? The recession? A revolt against the coaching profession? Not even halfway through the season, NBA coaches have as weak hold as ever on their jobs. ‘I said to somebody, I think there’s a coup out there,’ Houston coach Rick Adelman said. Adelman was smiling, but this is no laughing matter for his profession. Six coaches were fired before Christmas, 20 percent of the league’s total and the most at this point in a season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Nine teams changed coaches in the 2004-05 season, a record that could be in jeopardy. ‘I just wish I could be in the meeting with the owner when that GM who is firing them is guaranteeing, ‘We’re going to be better by making this change,’ because I don’t see it ever getting that much better,’ Denver coach George Karl said.”
Marc Berman of the New York Post: “The Knicks New York Knicks can thank agent David Falk for the golden Patrick Ewing Era. If it had been up to former Georgetown coach John Thompson, the behemoth Hoyas center would’ve left school one year early in 1984 – the year before the advent of the draft lottery. Had Ewing come out in 1984 after his junior year, as Thompson lobbied for, the Knicks would not have been in position to draft the newly minted Hall of Fame legend. All those details and the negotiations leading to Ewing’s landmark Knicks rookie contract is revealed in an advance copy of Falk’s new memoir, to be published next month, ‘The Bald Truth: Secrets of Success from the Locker Room to the Boardroom.’”
