Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: “Six losses in eight games with teams hitting 49.5 percent of their shots. We know, of course, that the Rockets are missing more than one guy, unless that one guy is Michael Jordan in his prime. And for the record, on Saturday and Tuesday, they were missing two, Battier and Ron Artest. So instead, look at it this way. They miss what Battier does and they are missing it from everybody. They miss the days playing hard all night, every night. They miss getting back on defense every game and challenging every shot and helping defensively and calling out defensive orders. Yes, that describes a guy that has missed more than half the season and was hobbling in many of the games he played, but it also describes the way the Rockets as a whole once played. Now, they are caught up in so many issues, they don’t have that focus, that intense, unwavering drive that is the only way to defend as they once did.”
Ethan J. Skolnick of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “Despite a size and experience disadvantage, the Heat ranks fourth in the most critical defensive statistic, field-goal percentage against. It trails only the Cavaliers, Celtics and Magic, teams that entered Tuesday’s play with a combined 82-20 record. Spoelstra, while noting that ‘our defense has gotten much, much better,’ expressed the need to take that show(stopping) on the road. The goal? ‘Try to come back with a winning record,’ Dwyane Wade said. That’s what the Heat did on its first lengthy trip, taking 3 of 5. Is the Heat better five weeks later? ‘A lot, a lot,’ Beasley said. ‘I mean, we play so much better together. We click now as a whole. We are a fist instead of a hand.’ For the moment, you need only six fingers to signify the Heat’s East playoff seed. If the defense doesn’t slip, the Heat won’t slip in the standings. But to rise to fifth or even fourth, and to scare Orlando or Cleveland in the first round, the Heat needs to start clicking better offensively.”
Art Thompson III of the Orange County Register: “A mere three seasons ago, the Clippers just missed reaching the Western Conference playoff finals and had attracted a throng of new enthusiastic followers to join the long-suffering legion of fans. But fast forward to today and just one player – center Chris Kaman – remains from that team. And he isn’t even playing now, because of a foot injury. This was not simple tinkering with a roster. It was total distruction and a complete reconstruction that so far has not yielded any positive results. Likely no team in NBA history has undergone such a radical makeover from one season to another as the Clippers have done from last year to this year. Twenty players wore Clipper uniforms last season. When the Clippers play the Dallas Mavericks tonight at American Airlines Center, second-year forward Al Thornton will be the only player in uniform that played on the team in 2007-2008.”
Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post: “The Nuggets are 3-2 this season without Anthony, 16-20 all time. He also missed the first two games of the season to suspension. ‘We have many good players that are going to have to fill in and take that responsibility and embrace the roles,’ Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups said. ‘I’m looking forward to that part of it, other people being able to step up and play and play well.’ The Nuggets have won four in a row and are in the midst of a seven-game homestand. Anthony expects the team to continue to play well. ‘The good thing is we’re at home, we’re in our home court, we got our fans,’ Anthony said. ‘And a lot of our guys will step up and win basketball games for us.’ In the next four weeks the Nuggets have 12 games, including nine against teams with a .500 record or better.”
Jason Quick of The Oregonian: “‘Our bench has done some good things for us this year, but right now they haven’t been able to score and be consistent with scoring or just being productive,’ McMillan said. ‘With Rudy being in that (starting) lineup, it takes a key option out of that group. So you look at everything and you try to make some adjustments or do something to give you that balance so you can get production from both groups.’ The bench, which averaged 35.4 points a game with Fernandez, has seen its production dip to 24.3 points a game without Fernandez, although those numbers were skewed by a season-low 10 bench points against the Lakers. Still, a team that has worried all season about its defense has suddenly shifted its focus to offense now that Roy — and his 23.0 points per game — is out. With Roy in the season’s first 31 games, the team was averaging 99.2 points. In the three games Roy has missed, the Blazers are averaging 84.7 points.”
Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: “‘In the West, you talk about Houston, Dallas, Phoenix and us, and New Orleans and Portland and Denver — it’s crazy,’ Popovich said. ‘There are six or seven of us who are a notch below the Lakers. Any of us could come out of that.’ It is perhaps with the Lakers in mind that guard Manu Ginobili offers this progress report: ‘We’re not where we want to be yet.’ At least for now, the consolation prize is the Spurs are able to lay claim to being the best team in that ‘notch below’ group. With Ginobili back in the fold after offseason ankle surgery, and Tony Parker playing like an All-Star after recovering from a November sprained ankle of his own, the Spurs are at full strength and surging. They are winning with 3-point shooting (making a league-best 40.7 percent), with ball control (they are committing a league-low 12.2 turnovers per game) and, of course, with defense. The Spurs are giving up 93.5 points per game, the fifth-stingiest mark in the NBA and a far cry from the 105 points they surrendered during their 1-4 start to the season.”
Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times: “‘The first year that we had success, most of the guys had never gone that far, so it wasn’t that difficult to not be bored,’ Shaw said. ‘This team’s a little bit different because they went to the Finals last year, so they have this tendency to be like, ‘OK, we’re in the regular season, when are we going to get to the good part and get to the playoffs?’ Lakers Coach Phil Jackson would keep the 2000, 2001 and 2002 teams occupied with non-basketball activities, Shaw said. ‘We were doing tai chi, yoga, we were meditating all the time,’ he said. ‘First, everybody was like, ‘What’s this that he has us doing?’ We won 19 in a row, then we lost, then we won 16 in a row right after that. So it was like, maybe this stuff is working. Everybody bought into it.’ Jackson hasn’t resorted to such activities this season, though there is an overriding reason not to become blase.”
Johnny Ludden of Yahoo! Sports: “As the Lakers rushed to the top of the NBA standings to await their coronation, the Hornets had an easy way to deal with the breathless reviews Kobe Bryant and his teammates were receiving. ‘We ignored it,’ Paul said. For all the concerns about their inability to recapture last season’s magic – some of which was justified given their 10-8 record against winning teams – the Hornets now stand 21-10, a one-game improvement from where they stood a year ago. This much certainly hasn’t changed: Paul and West continue to play with a fearlessness that carries these Hornets. Sometimes, their competitive fire burns too hot, and they’ll carp too long about an official’s whistle or an opponent’s elbow. But, always, they play hard. The addition of James Posey, whose toughness and edge helped push the Boston Celtics to last season’s championship, has further sharpened the Hornets.”
Ramona Shelburne and Elliott Teaford of the Los Angeles Daily News: “‘They’re not close,’ he said quickly, before the reporter could even finish asking his question. ‘They’re not close. They’ve got a swagger, but their swagger is nowhere close to ours. We just followed right behind Earvin (Magic Johnson), so everybody had to swagger … I just remember from the day I got here in Los Angeles, playing with Magic and (Michael) Cooper, they had that swagger. They expected to win championships, that was the bottom line. My wife used to tell me that she would stand right by the tunnel and watch us come out. I never saw her. … It’s just like the Raiders back in the day. They used to get off the bus with the all-black on, they just tried to intimidate people. We just wanted to let you know that we were coming and we meant business all night long.’ And these Lakers? ‘I see it from a couple of guys,’ Scott said. ‘Kobe and Derek Fisher. They’ve won championships, they have that swagger.’ Then he stopped, letting the silence complete his thought.”
Red’s Army: The Secret To Rondo’s High FG%
Alan Hahn of Newsday: “The Knicks really felt the absnece of energy from Robinson, usually the Energizer Bunny off the bench. His shooting has been way off since Christmas and it is starting to have an impact on the other parts of his game. ‘Everybody knows I work too hard on my jump shot to be missing like I am,’ N8 said after a 4 for 18 performance from the floor against OKC. ‘Things happen, you’ve got to bounce back.’ Bounce is the operative word. Robinson did pick it up late in the game when the Knicks mounted their furious, though fruitless rally, but he missed several open looks that he usually knocks down. And you know Nate, when he gets into a rhythm with his jumper the rest of his game goes into overdrive. The Knicks desperately needed that kind of night out of him. He missed his first seven field goal attempts in the game. In six games since Christmas, Nate is shooting 29 percent (25 for 86) from the floor.”
Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News: “It wouldn’t be shocking if Ellis’ stance has been sharpened after watching Nelson’s rough treatment of Anthony Randolph. I’ve been told that Ellis looks at Randolph and sees a version of himself from a few years ago: Bustling with talent, tough, young, and frequently mishandled by Nelson. Ellis knows that Nelson wanted to trade him before the 2007 draft, straight up, for the rights to Acie Law. Ellis sees a backcourt already stuffed with Jamal Crawford, Marco Belinelli, C.J. Watson, Kelenna Azubuike, Corey Maggette and Stephen Jackson. I believe that Ellis, like Al Harrington before him, is realizing that he doesn’t want to play for Nelson any more–he doesn’t want Belinelli and Crawford used as pawns against him, he doesn’t want to get caught up in this spiraling season as Nelson plays his mind games. That is not a recipe for a wonderful comeback story, at least not for the Warriors.”
Neil Paine of Basketball-Reference.com: “Durant has improved in virtually every offensive phase of the game… He’s shooting better, passing better, taking better care of the ball, rebounding better, and getting to the line more often (even as he’s more than doubled the % of his shots that come from beyond the arc). Defensively, the Thunder have been worse under Brooks than P.J., but Durant’s still very young, meaning he has time to get stronger and smarter at that end. In other words, in light of the evidence Durant has presented since the first post, I think it’s time to reassess his potential. In terms of young players with similar production, now he’s looking at a better career path than Michael Finley and Mitch Richmond — which I know doesn’t exactly sound megastar-ish, but it’s certainly better than what he was looking at back in November.”
Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star: “The jury is still out, of course, on whether a slim-bodied Croatian with a below-average jump shot and questionable defensive acumen can be a viable NBA concern. And sitting among a troupe of opposing-team scouts in Milwaukee on Monday, assessments of Ukic were not kind. ‘This kid,’ one birddog said, ‘is terrible.’ Ukic is, those close to the team will tell you, diligently working to upgrade that scouting report, not that that’s a guarantee of much. Ukic, after all, has been a faithful gym rat all his life, yet there are high-school kids all over the world with smoother-looking jump shots. Ukic is possessed, at the very least, of the correct approach. ‘I don’t think too much, `Will I play? How much will I play?’ … I just need to be ready,’ he said. ‘Every time I don’t play, or if I play less, I can save that time and energy for practice. It can also be good, like you put money in the bank for the future.’ Speaking of which, some web-surfing money would come in handy on road trips. As pricey as it is to indulge it, Ukic has a passionate fan’s yearning to follow the exploits of athletes not regularly covered by USA Today.”
John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle: “Davidson was a Warrior for part of one day, on draft day 2007. The Warriors took him in the second round with the 36th pick and that night dealt his rights to Charlotte in the Jason Richardson-for-Brandan Wright deal. Hardly enough time to have his story told. ‘I didn’t think I’d be back here,’ said Davidson, who called basketball ‘a way to get away from the reality of things. I enjoy it every time I get a chance to play.’ Davidson’s ‘reality’ lies in two personal tragedies near the beginning of his senior season at Alabama. He and his girlfriend and schoolmate, Nicole Murphy, were in a car accident in November 2006, as they drove from Atlanta, where they visited his older brother, Dewayne Watkins, who had been shot and hospitalized with critical injuries. Murphy, who was driving the vehicle, lost control. It flipped and she was ejected. She died in the same hospital where Davidson’s brother was. Days later, his brother died.”
Joey Whelan of DraftExpress: “Kurz, a solid four-year player who was largely overlooked by scouts, had landed on the Warriors roster as an undrafted free agent. In doing so, Kurz had taken a spot many thought would go to Richard Hendrix, an All-SEC big man the player the Warriors had taken in the June draft, and signed to a 3-year contract (with over half a million dollars in guaranteed money that they had to swallow). So what does Kurz think about the system whose odds he was able to beat in making a pro roster? ‘Obviously the system is in place, and there are a lot of guys that deserve to be at the top of the mock drafts and that stuff,’ says Kurz. ‘I think for the Warriors, they felt like I was a better fit for this time; it all depends on the situation and what the individual team wants.’ Which begs the question–how many more players like Rob Kurz are there out there? And would anyone have ever known if not for Monta Ellis injuring himself in a moped accident?”
Rick Bonnell of The Chrarlotte Observer: “All great teams are arrogant in one manner or another. When I was around the New England Patriots the year they beat the Panthers in the Super Bowl, they were subtle in their smugness. They seemed to be laughing at some joke no one else got. The Celtics aren’t subtle. Garnett sure isn’t subtle. He talks trash constantly and he’ll rattle you any way the refs allow (or simply miss). He elbowed Adam Morrison as Morrison walked from a team huddle to in-bound the ball. I don’t mean one of those playful, little elbows, I mean a message that said, “I will rock your jaw when I really throw an elbow.’’ He gets away with it because, well, he’s Kevin Garnett.”
48 Minutes of Hell: “Tim Duncan is shooting much more often, and more effectively, from mid-range this season. Why does this matter to this discussion? These are not shot attempts that will win many foul calls or afford Duncan great position to corral rebounds. During his Spurs game calls, Sean Elliott has mentioned this as a deliberate strategy of Gregg Popovich. Before the season began, it was decided that the coaching staff would do more to preserve Duncan’s body for the postseason, more than the careful management of his minutes as in the past. Duncan was asked to pitch a tent at his favorite mid-range spots, and he’s so far he’s obliged, even with injuries to the frontline.”
Jody Genessy of the Deseret News: “Williams is clearly more bothered by questions about whether or not he gets more pumped to play his friend and rival. ‘You ask me that every time,’ he said, ‘and every time I tell you ‘No, it’s just another game.’ Usually just another win for the Jazz, too. While their stats don’t bode as well for the Williams camp, one that does is the fact that the Jazz point guard is 8-2 in NBA matchups with his eternally linked rival. Keeping that trend up will be a tough task, though. The Hornets took a 20-10 record into their game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night, thanks in large part to Paul, who was averaging 20.1 points on 50-percent shooting with 11.5 assists, 5.4 rebounds and 2.9 steals. Williams, who was taken by the Jazz a spot before Paul was snatched by New Orleans in the 2005 NBA Draft, is averaging 15.4 points on 43-percent shooting with 10.0 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 1.1 steals for Utah (20-15).”
Jim Reeves of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “It wasn’t so long ago that Josh was my favorite Mav to talk to when I showed up at the AAC. I loved his talent and his potential. Now, he sees a guy coming with a notebook or a tape recorder, he scuttles out of the room like a bashful cockroach. Then again, guess I shouldn’t use any form of the word ‘roach’ when talking about Josh. In any case, that’s not why I think the Mavs have to start thinking about looking to trade Howard in the best deal they can find. He doesn’t have to make nice to the media. If Josh wants to blame us for his troubles, no biggie. That’s been done by much bigger stars than him. What he does need to do is be what coach Rick Carlisle has been insisting he is since before the season began. He has to be the Mavs’ most important player.”
