Hawks Hacks: “Smith has dazzled teammates and opponents alike with his supreme athletic ability, and it’s always been something he could fall back on. One seriously bad play has usually been followed up shortly thereafter with an equally brilliant play, often times a display of sheer athleticism and effort. Unfortunately, games are both won and lost on such plays, and while turnovers-per-game is a statistic, unbelievable plays-per-game is not. And when Smith returned to action from that high ankle sprain that held him out for 12 games, he was not the same explosive player we’ve come to know. At first, this was a serious struggle for Smith, not being able to block shots from seemingly impossible angles, unable to take that long first step to get past his defender, and unable to outhustle opponents in general. But it seems that he has learned some lessons on how to score without those physical advantages. He’s been getting to the free throw line more in some games. He’s looking to score more inside than he is outside (though he still goes for a couple of threes every game, it seems). And this has produced nice results for the span of the last 6 games, in which Josh has averaged 21 points, hitting 20 points or better in 4 of those games, all while shooting 57% from the field.”
Bill Ingram of HOOPSWORLD: “Howard has already committed to defend his dunk championship at the All-Star game in Phoenix next month, but he’s going to find himself a hard act to follow. ‘Hmmm. Stay tuned. . .’ said Howard. ‘I might come like Bam Bam Bigalow with flames flying out and everything (laughing).’ Last year Dwight told us before the competition that he was going to come out like Clark Kent, then rip off his warm-ups to reveal an ‘S’ and fly around the arena. We laughed at the idea, assuming he was joking, only to see him do exactly that. All I can say is someone better have an extinguisher handy just in case. One of his teammates suggested he come out and dunk the ball so hard it breaks the backboard. ‘It’s too hard to break the backboard . . .I’ve tried,’ responded Dwight, grinning broadly.’ The playoffs didn’t go as well as the Magic would have liked, of course, but the summer found Howard in China winning a Gold Medal with Team USA. That experience, more than anything else may be the reason Howard’s Magic are having such a good season. ‘I think the biggest thing I got from the whole experience was the team concept. I really appreciate my teammates more this year than I ever have before, and that’s because of my Olympic experience.’”
Third Quarter Collapse: Dwight Howard Misses A Lot of Free Throws, Which Does Not Bother Dwight Howard Very Much
Johnny Ludden of Yahoo! Sports: “That’s the thing with young big men these days: Nine times out of 10 you’re paying for potential. The best prescription for Oden is the same as it was for Bynum in his first season: patience. ‘It’s tough,’ Oden said. ‘You want to come in and dominate right away.’ Oden isn’t close to dominating. He still looks mechanical and he’s slow to the ball. But he’s also a little more than two weeks shy of his 21st birthday and his NBA career has spanned all of 28 games. He spent one year in college then sat out all of his first season with the Blazers after undergoing microfracture surgery on his right knee. Even healthy, few big men have dominated with so little experience. The same Dwight Howard who now terrorizes the league is the same Dwight Howard who averaged 12 points, 10 rebounds and 1.7 blocks in nearly 33 minutes per game as a rookie. Oden’s averages this season: 8.0 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 23 minutes per game.”
Blog-a-Bull: “I always figured there’d be some early strains, then a midseason trade to clear out the obvious roster imbalance, and that, coupled by a fairly soft end-of-season schedule, would provide plenty of wins and a playoff spot. But that theory started with a trade…I almost figured it as entropy. It’s going to happen because it has to. Hughes, Gooden, and Thabo would be the first to go, Nocioni and Kirk if possible, and Tyrus and Noah if necessary. But injuries to some of those players haven’t helped, and this Vinny Del Negro thing…quickly bordering on disaster. He was supposed to ‘rebuild the Bulls spirit’ (or something similar Pax said), not play the role of Skiles without the coaching talent. I underestimated the importance of coaching experience, not in X/Os (figured that’d be rough), but in handling an NBA locker room. It’s tough, especially with guys playing for contracts, or playing for themselves (or both).”
Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post: “As the Nuggets close in on the halfway point of the regular season, they have started to get the reputation of a team that is susceptible to giving up leads and doesn’t close out its opponents. ‘I told (the players) at halftime that this team (Denver) will let you back in,’ said Hornets coach Byron Scott, whose team trailed 58-40. Asked what the Nuggets need to improve on, guard J.R. Smith didn’t hesitate. ‘Close out games,’ Smith said. ‘We were up 26 (on Saturday), and they came back and were even up one. No matter who we’re playing, Oklahoma or New Orleans, we’ve just got to close out games.’ The Nuggets’ second-half collapse at Atlanta on Dec. 29 prompted a team-only meeting to hammer home the details of winning basketball games and to make sure the players were on the same page.”
Jason Quick of The Oregonian: “Sunday was the 36th game Roy has missed in two-plus seasons. The Blazers are 11-25 in those games (.306 winning percentage). When Roy plays, the Blazers are 82-80 (.506). So what’s happening here, right before the Blazers’ wide-eyed faces, is the separation of playoff contenders and playoff pretenders. San Antonio is rising. Denver is marching. Even Dallas, which was surprised Sunday in Memphis, is looking like the Mavericks of old. The Blazers? ‘We are sliding,’ Aldridge said. I mentioned that separation process to McMillan, who smiled widely. ‘I think YOU guys are finding that out,’ McMillan said. ‘The thing is, experience counts. It definitely counts. But our guys are working hard, I think they are really working hard. They just quite possibly are overwhelmed by things right now.’ Nobody looks more overwhelmed than Bayless, the determined and hard-working rookie.”
Ross Siler of The Salt Lake Tribune: “The Jazz already have lost 100 games to injuries and absences this season. Boozer and Williams have played together only twice, with Williams spraining his ankle in the preseason and Boozer injuring his left knee six weeks ago. By comparison, Boston has suffered no injury more significant than Tony Allen’s sprained ankle, which cost him two games. Backup point guard Jordan Farmar is recovering from knee surgery, but the L.A. Lakers largely have been spared a serious injury as well. Not surprisingly, both teams are leading their respective conferences. O’Connor, meanwhile, was encouraged by the prospect of Boozer being on ‘somewhat of a timeline’ to return in a month after he undergoes surgery to remove a loose particle Friday. ‘Everybody else appears to be getting healthier,’ O’Connor said. The Jazz currently are 1 game out of playoff position, but also only three games out of having the West’s second-best record.”
Phil Miller of the Pioneer Press: “Their 8-25 record is nothing to be proud of. But Minnesota has discovered a few necessary ingredients toward winning these past few games. Ryan Gomes’ aggressiveness on offense, and his discretion about not taking low-percentage shots, for instance, has helped. The starting forward has made 20 of 41 shots in the Wolves’ past three victories, averaged 16.3 points in those games, and calmly nailed a critical three-pointer Saturday with two minutes to play. Rookie Kevin Love has made similar improvement lately, averaging 18 points and 8.7 rebounds in Minnesota’s past three wins. ‘Kevin was tremendous,’ McHale said. ‘He’s such a phenomenal rebounder.’ And Al Jefferson continues to carry the biggest load offensively, stepping up with 88 points and 40 rebounds in that trio of victories. ‘There’s a different feeling now,’ point guard Kevin Ollie said. ‘Coach Mac has been doing some teaching. He knows what it takes to win, and hearing him the past few weeks is definitely having an effect.’”
Britt Robson of Secrets of the City: “There are subtle but crucial differences between being a freelance playmaker (which fits Foye’s m.o.) and a point guard. To command the point guard slot, you need expansive, strategic court vision and an utterly reliable handle; otherwise, you aren’t going to be able to effectively execute your half-court sets against opponents who have scouted the plays and worked up defensive wrinkles to stop them. The point guard’s anticipatory vision and second-nature dribbling according to the split-second dictates of his brain and his instincts are key tools in his ability to counter the defensive gambits while keeping the set play reasonably in sync. Foye has never done this well and never will. He’s got relatively generous impulses but lacks the specific skills to fully exploit them until opponents are fixated on stopping his scoring. Flipping him over to the off-guard spot has literally freed him scamper and hurl up jumpers, his body language unfettered from the rigid brace the point duties had imposed on his thoughts and actions.”
Hardwood Paroxysm: What Doesn’t Kill You Only Makes You Less Likely To Rebound: Seven Seconds Or Less And The Dark Knight
Nikola Olic of HOOPSWORLD: “‘The Russian league in general has good players and good teams, but the league as a whole is not as competitive as the NBA. My team was supposed to be one of the favorites but it didn’t work out that way. That escalated my unhappiness with the situation there and I started thinking more and more about coming back to the NBA. I thought I would fit better in the NBA and I wanted to come back as soon as I could.’ The process of getting Krstic to fit in properly is of course one of Thunder’s main priorities. He was assigned a special Thunder assistant whose sole job is to make sure that anything Krstic needs is taken care of. His work papers are already almost done, and once he signs them some time this week, Krstic will once again be an NBA player. ‘Last summer, I left with the idea that I will get back to the NBA one day. I am glad I am back and I am really glad I can be with a new organization from the very start. I missed the quality of the game. I spent four years in the NBA and I got used to the NBA system and to the NBA lifestyle. Just playing against the best players in the world was something I missed.’”
Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: “For the second straight season, the Bobcats’ slate was heavily front-loaded with home games. It’s not quite as dramatic as last season, when what is now Time Warner Cable Arena hosted the ACC and NCAA men’s basketball tournaments. But to some degree, this is how it will always be. That’s inevitable when the CIAA tournament, plus the circus and the horse-jumping event, take up key dates on the arena schedule between late January and April. CIAA and circus dates can’t be moved, and if the Bobcats weren’t booking those events, they wouldn’t be doing their part in the public-private partnership that built the arena. In fact, if the Bobcats weren’t pursuing additional events – more NCAA regionals, more concerts – they’d be dropping the ball as the manager of the building. The Bobcats aren’t unique among NBA teams with scheduling issues. The Chicago Bulls annually take a 10-day trip when the circus comes to Chicago and the Spurs know before the schedule comes out that they’ll have a long trip to vacate San Antonio to make way for the rodeo. Still, there’s a real issue there for the Bobcats to try to finesse. If the Bobcats have a bad start, it all but dooms their season, considering how tough it is to win consistently on the road in March and April.”
Chris Perkins of the Palm Beach Post: “After 32 games the Heat (18-14) pretty much knows what it has on its roster. And as the Feb. 19 trade deadline approaches it has to decide what it needs. I say let things ride as they as stand now. The thing to remember is you’ve got to give up something to get something. And considering the Heat doesn’t seem interested in a quick fix or extending new contracts beyond 2010, the parameters are extremely tight. At the start of the season I thought this team would surely need a move by the trade deadline to make the playoffs. I was wrong. This roster should stay in playoff contention. Now the move would likely be to avoid Boston, Cleveland or Orlando in the first round. That doesn’t seem much of a reason to make a move.”
Sam Smith for Bulls.com: “The Bulls seem better positioned now that it appears they do have a future star in No. 1 overall draft pick Derrick Rose. But having someone like Rose, do you build with him now with some well placed trades and not risk waiting until 2010 and maybe being shut out? Or give up one season with the chance to get a true star like Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire, and suddenly be a serious championship contender with enough decent pieces that will have been cultivated by then? Of course, you could do all the right things and it still may not work. It’s why the sports business is easier to second guess than manage.”
Jeff Caplan of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “Josh Howard’s production is bouncing from one end to the other. After two sizzling outings in which Howard scored 52 points on 20-of-42 shooting in wins against the Los Angeles Clippers and Minnesota, he’s managed just 22 points on 8-of-24 shooting in the last two games. Howard followed up Friday’s 10-point game with 12 points on 5-of-12 shooting, two rebounds and one assist Sunday in the Mavericks’ 102-82 loss to Memphis. The Mavs (20-13) are 4-4 this season when Howard scores fewer than 15 points.”
Janny Hu of the San Francisco Chronicle: “Maggette said Sunday that Nelson hadn’t broached the topic of becoming a reserve with him yet, but accepted the possibility. ‘As a player, I don’t consider myself that,’ Maggette said. ‘But I want to win. Whenever the coach tells me he wants me to do that, that it’s better for the team, I’m with it.’ ‘He had one of his best years when he was a sixth man,’ Nelson said. ‘He’ll do whatever we need him to do, so it’s no problem with him personally.’ Maggette’s possible move to the bench could ease his transition into the Warriors’ drive-and-kick offense, which was installed after their Dec. 6 loss to the Spurs.”
Fred Kerber of the New York Post: “Brook Lopez looked like his puppy had just run away. He looked like someone had smashed his prized collection of Disney memorabilia. He had twice been blocked by Miami’s Dwyane Wade in the endgame and seemed to be beating himself up over it. Coach Lawrence Frank really liked that. Not the blocked shots. The melancholy stuff. ‘I walked back in there and said, ‘Hey, pick your head up,’ ‘ Frank said of the aftermath of the Nets ‘ 101-96 overtime loss (their first overtime defeat in five tries) Saturday in Miami, where Wade continued his season of torturing the Nets. The Nets play host to the Kings tonight. ‘To me, it’s all positive. It shows how much he cares,’ said Frank, whose Nets try for back-to-back home wins for the first time this season against Sacramento tonight. ‘Some guys just move on. He takes it personal. That’s why I think he has such a great future. He really cares a great deal and he’ll learn.’”
Jay Greenburg of the New York Post: “‘Always one of the last guys to leave the gym,’ said Al Harrington. ‘Anybody who works that hard with that kind of talent is scary. ‘Time will tell how good he is going to be.’ Time won’t forgive Isiah Thomas too easily, but he got something right taking Chandler out of DePaul with the 23rd overall pick in 2007. And D’Antoni knew it quickly from his first extended look in summer league. ‘His upside is huge,’ said the coach, who of course, could use a little upside during a 13-19 start. With Gallinari still in street clothes, with the Knicks having to show LeBron James or Dwyane Wade or whoever might eventually want to take their money that there are more reasons to come here than greater fame and increased fortune, a kid with these tools and willingness to polish them is an even a more glorious sight at a sore-eyed Garden than a bashing of the Celtics.”
Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: “In 21 games since making his injury-belated season debut, Ginobili is averaging 14.6 points. Most teams would love to get that kind of production out of a sixth man, but that number represents a drop of more than five points from Ginobili’s career high average of 19.9 last season. He has been tentative at times, hurried at others, and has lacked his trademark explosion to the rim. His conditioning still isn’t quite there, as evidenced by the burn in his legs in the fourth quarter. His timing is a bit off, a fact of which he is reminded each time he rifles a pass into the third row. ‘I’m not playing like last year,’ Ginobili said. ‘I’m not shooting as well. I’m not going to the rim as hard. I don’t know if it is mental or physical or what, but there are some things in my game I am just not feeling yet.’”
Dana Gauruder of the Oakland Press: “Richard Hamilton isn’t close to returning from the groin strain that has forced him to miss five consecutive games. He has yet to sprint or make a hard cut since he was sidelined. When he’s ready to return, Rip needs to make a sacrifice. For the better of the team, he needs to be the first guard off the bench. That’s a lot to ask of a player who has been an All-Star the last three years. But with the current state of the roster, Hamilton would be doing Michael Curry and his teammates a big favor and bring some cohesion to the rotation. After winning seven straight, the Pistons obviously are better when they play a conventional lineup. Rodney Stuckey needs to remain the starting point and Amir Johnson has to stay in the starting frontcourt to solidify the team’s interior defense and rebounding. The Pistons have zoomed up the NBA’s defensive charts since they virtually scrapped their small ball tactics.”
Janis Carr of the Orange County Register: “Andrew Bynum didn’t need Phil Jackson nor the media to tell him his game has been off lately. He could feel it. He sensed it. He is not the same explosive player he was last season before an knee injury ended his season. And if he needed any more reminding, he could watch game film. Yet, that’s exactly what Bynum did. He gathered a compilation of 8-10 games from last season — before he suffered his knee injury — and noticed he hasn’t been playing with the same energy and effort that he produced last season. ‘There is a difference,’ Bynum said. ‘You can see it pretty good.’ In 35 games last season, he averaged 13.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and 2.06 blocked shots in 28.8 minutes a game. This season, Bynum is struggling to post up, outmuscle opponents and get the ball deep inside. His numbers reflect his hesitation as well, dipping to 12.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.87 blocks from last season.”
Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register: “It’s interesting what has happened since Christmas. The Lakers spent most of this season beating nearly all comers with one eye on Boston, to some extent believing the Celtics were the only other tribe on the island. The pain from losing the NBA Finals ran that deep. Then the Lakers beat Boston, and the subsequent body language has been nodding with satisfaction instead of relaxing their shoulders with relief. The Lakers have validated their own belief that they have the best team, and they have flowed in a natural way with the basketball ever since Christmas, even without important orchestrator Jordan Farmar. The Celtics look shaken, their only victories since Christmas coming against Sacramento and Washington, who are a combined 15-51. There is certainly legitimate reason for concern in Boston – the primary one being that the Celtics last season became the first title team with its top three scorers all age 30-something.”
Mitch Lawrence of the Daily News: “After getting totally outplayed in the second half Sunday night by a Knicks team that successfully copied a blueprint for how to beat the Celtics, the defending champs have no chance to reach that lofty plateau. ‘They had a game plan and they stuck with it,’ Ray Allen said after the Knicks held Boston to 35 points after halftime in a 100-88 victory. ‘There’s a blueprint for how to beat us and we’ve got to counter that.’ In case you might have forgotten, there was never a blueprint for how to beat the ‘95-96 Bulls. That season, when the Bulls set the NBA record by winning 72, Donnie Walsh’s Pacers were the only team to beat the Bulls twice. ‘I remember how Jordan looked after the games we beat them,’ said the Knicks’ president. ‘He was frothing at the mouth.’ Any frothing by the Celtics came afterward in a meeting when the players tried to hash out what’s gone wrong after their Bulls-like 27-2 start. Four losses in six games – something Jordan never experienced in his greatest season – have exposed the Celtics’ primary weaknesses, Rajon Rondo’s inability to knock down open shots.”
Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune: “The Hornets’ Sean Marks was drawn in by 1980s superstars such as Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, which caused him to eschew the scrums of his country’s national sport for one with more grace and less grit. ‘Basketball is not a huge sport there,’ said the 6-foot-10 forward. ‘Kids are definitely excited about it, but it’s a small country where rugby is definitely the main sport, and you’ve only got 4 million people in the country, and they really get behind rugby. It’s the national pastime, so to speak. But we’ve had great followings for basketball, too. When we were in the Olympics and world championships, we had great support for that. ‘I fell in love with it because of the athleticism and showmanship. We used to have highlights of the NBA on TV back in New Zealand when I was growing up. It was only about half an hour once a week, so it was just the highlights. I just fell in love with the game that way. My parents put up a hoop in the backyard, and that was all she wrote.’”
Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times: “Agents often have the ear of their clients, giving the player advice on when to push through an injury and when to shut it down. With the rash of injuries the Clippers have, Coach Mike Dunleavy wondered what role, if any, the agents for the team’s injured players have had in the players returning later rather than sooner. ‘When guys get injured, typically you have agents that are going to tell them, ‘There’s no reason to hurry back. Make sure you’re 110% healthy before you come back,’ ‘ said Dunleavy, also the team’s general manager. ‘I think that’s one of the things you have to try and guard against. We don’t ever want anybody coming back that has a chance of injuring themselves.’”
Steve Kelley of the Seattle Times: “Clay Bennett, owner of the Oklahoma City team once known as the Sonics, still owes $30 million, but where is the arena plan that will force him to write that check? It’s wake-up time in Seattle. It’s time to save KeyArena. The clock is ticking. It’s crunch time for KeyArena. Crunch time for NBA basketball in Seattle. Crunch time for Seattle Center and surrounding businesses. But why isn’t the business community rallying to save the site? Why aren’t the business leaders openly lobbying legislators? Where’s the buzz? Where’s the energy? Where is the sense of desperation? Why does everybody seem to be sitting this one out? Seattle is developing a national reputation for what it can’t do. It can’t keep a basketball team, can’t fix its arena, can’t build a light rail system, can’t remove its snow. Sometimes, it seems the only thing the city has going for it is its geography. And these days, KeyArena looks more like a billboard advertising the city’s failures.”
