Howard Beck of the New York Times: “They had won 12 of 18 games before a 104-87 pratfall Monday night in Boston. O’Neal, the subject of daily epitaphs since President Bush’s first term, is leading the charge. Over the last 14 games, O’Neal has averaged 22 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.86 blocks, while making nearly 60 percent of his field-goal attempts. Those are All-Star numbers, albeit modest by O’Neal’s Hall of Fame standards. He has not been this dominant since his championship season in Miami three years ago. ‘He’s got his pop back, he looks good and the team is really going through him,’ said Knicks Coach Mike D’Antoni, the former Suns coach. ‘And they’re in a good position to be a force in the playoffs, without a doubt.’ At age 36, O’Neal was presumed to be entering his career twilight. He has not averaged 20 points in a season since 2005-6, or averaged a double-double since 2004-5.”
Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: “The frustrations with Stoudemire are not solely about offense, although Sunday’s 30-point game was only his third of the season. He had 21 30-point games last season under Mike D’Antoni, whose Knicks host the Suns today, and 13 of the 21 came after Shaquille O’Neal was acquired in February. There are ongoing issues with Stoudemire’s lapses on defense and rebounding. His mistakes on rotations and weak-side help can’t be numerated, except that they are part of how the Suns are giving up more points than any potential playoff team. Since Thanksgiving, the Suns have held three opponents in the 90s. ‘We didn’t come close to making them feel our presence at all on the floor,’ Suns coach Terry Porter said of Monday’s loss at Boston. In the past 11 games, Stoudemire has averaged 5.7 rebounds.”
Ian Thomsen of CNNSI.com: “They still don’t blend as a team, and a 104-87 collapse against Boston demonstrates that they aren’t committed to the fine details that separate contenders like the Celtics and Spurs from all of the pretenders who never can quite understand the difference between winning and losing. Let me say that I tend to be extremely conservative when it comes to slamming the door on contenders. My instinct is to not rule out the chances of any team as talented as these Suns with a half-season still to play. But we’ve all seen the commitment the Spurs and Celtics have made, and the team-first discipline the Lakers, Cavaliers and Magic are creating — and these Suns don’t look like they have that kind of commitment or discipline in them.”
Tom Enlund of the Journal Sentinel: “On defense, the Bucks have gone from a team that was getting burned from the three-point line only a week ago to one that was punished in the paint on the western trip. The Clippers had 13 offensive rebounds and outscored the Bucks in the paint, 48-22, and in second-chance points, 21-11. Portland had 19 offensive rebounds and outscored the Bucks in the paint, 40-34, and in second-chance points, 26-11. Milwaukee’s interior woes were pretty much summed up in one fourth-quarter play against Portland. The Bucks had cut a 16-point, third-quarter deficit to five with 8 minutes 37 seconds left when Portland’s Travis Outlaw grabbed an offensive rebound and turned it into a three-point play. Portland then pushed its lead back up to 12. ‘You really have to recognize the key moments in a game,’ Skiles said. ‘And seize that moment and take advantage of it. That was a key moment right there. We absolutely had to have that rebound. Even though there was still plenty of time left in the game, we could have gone down and cut it to two or three. We couldn’t get it.’ The Bucks have gone from a team that a week and a half ago ranked 10th in the league in defensive field-goal percentage to one that now ranks 18th (45.6%).”
Britt Robson of Secrets of the City: “The reputation of Randy Wittman probably couldn’t get any lower than it is now, in the wake of this McHale coached resurgence. But whether you liked him or not, Wittman emphasized defense far more than McHale, and that inverted priority revealed itself in the Wolves’ inept reactions the classic Sloan menu of quadruple screens and back-door cuts and taut pick and rolls and interior passes. There were a half-dozen defensive embarassments; plays where a member of the Jazz caught the ball two feet from the hoop without a Minnesota player within ten feet of him. Both the execution and the communication were shoddy. Jefferson was the most obvious culprit, but it was a team-wide breakdown and it started at the top, from the coach on the sidelines. I’ve been meaning to comment on this for a few games now: Has anyone else seen a player be able to drive forward and full speed and then while leaping, contort the top half of their body backwards, even as their entire body is moving forwards, with the backards bend creating just enough room to get off the shot? This is a Randy Foye specialty.”
Adam Lauridsen for the San Jose Mercury News: “The team usually shoots 36% from deep. Over the last three wins, they’re shooting over 53%. If you take the Warriors’ average threes made per game (6.6), the team gets roughly 20 points a night off three pointers. Over the last three wins, they’ve been averaging 11 makes a night, for 33 points, resulting in a 13 point difference. This corresponds exactly with the 120 vs. 107 point figures discussed above. If you wanted any more reasons to give Morrow more minutes, you just found one. So, if you’re looking for a sign that the Warriors’ recent scoring success will continue, at least until Ellis returns, you have to put your faith in a few things: (1) that Crawford will continue to shoot over 50% from the field; (2) that the team will continue to hit over 50% of its three pointers; and (3) when Crawford, Jackson and/or Maggette go cold, they work the ball around to each other so they can continue to get steady output from the big three. I have little faith that the first two factors are long term realities, but if the Warriors are going to become a winning team, the third factor must become a way of life.”
Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: “His first three years in the NBA, Raja Bell was labeled a defensive specialist. The past few years, he’s been called a 3-point specialist. His true specialty transcends basketball. At least that’s how Bell’s father sees it. ‘My dad always says my best attribute is understanding what someone wants and giving it to him,’ Bell said. That starts to explain how a guy who wasn’t drafted is now the Charlotte Bobcats’ starting shooting guard. He wasn’t even the best basketball player in his immediate family. That was his father, Roger Bell, a former college football player who’s now an administrator in the University of Miami’s athletic department. When the Philadelphia 76ers first contacted Bell, he was playing rec ball with his dad, and his dad was the featured scorer. Bell was so shocked when the Sixers called during the winter of 2001, he hung up on them, assuming it was a practical joke.”
Don Tomasino of the New York Post: “‘The next game is always your most important game,’ Frank said. ‘Especially coming off a loss, you want to bounce back as quickly as possible.’ Frank rebuffed the idea that the benchings were a motivational ploy entering the second half of the season. ‘What I did had nothing to do with setting it up for [the future],’ Frank said. ‘The decision I made was what I felt was right at the time. [I was] not trying to set it up for the next game.’ Whatever Frank’s intentions, the result is the possibility of losing the respect of his star player, which is what makes Harris’ performance tonight so anticipated. If he harbors any lingering bitterness, the sight of Paul and the Hornets (25-13) should be enough to stoke his competitive fire. If it doesn’t, the Nets will have a problem.”
Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: “The year may not be lost, but the urgency to turn things around is more glaring now than ever. ‘We have to do it now or we’re going to be watching the first round of the playoffs eating popcorn,’ said Bosh. ‘I want to play in the post-season. I want to have the chance to play for a championship. That’s all I’ve been thinking about since last year and we have to reward ourselves. We are not giving ourselves a chance. Simple fact of the matter is we have to do a better job.’ It is that simple. The Raptors have blown a series of double-digit leads in games this year. In two of their last seven losses (at Milwaukee and at Atlanta) they’ve failed to score a point in the final two minutes, a clear sign of a lack of mental toughness down the stretch in close games.”
Ivan Carter of the Washington Post: “According to co-captain Antawn Jamison, the Wizards were fully prepared for back-to-back games against the Knicks and Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day matinee against the Warriors. As they always do, Tapscott and lead assistant Randy Ayers outlined what the Warriors would do and stressed the defensive concepts to be executed. And then the Wizards went out and played with a lack of energy, often looked disjointed and disorganized, and never gave themselves a chance to build on Friday’s home win over the Knicks. ‘The coaches come in and preach it to us and we work on it every day,’ said Jamison, who contributed to the problem Monday by allowing Warriors guard Corey Maggette to drive by him for three first-half scores. ‘That’s the toughest thing: We know what we’re supposed to do. It’s drilled in to you. Randy says we have to have someone in the lane helping out and make sure that if someone does get into that gap, we’re there. And then, the lane is still open. We preach, we preach and we just don’t find a way to go out there and carry it over from what we’ve been learning.’”
Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal: “Consistently inconsistent. That best describes the Grizzlies after the second quarter of this regular season, which hits the official midway point of the schedule tonight at Charlotte. Their 11-29 record is identical to last season’s team before the Pau Gasol trade. But this young bunch wasn’t supposed to be judged so much by victories as by player development and team-building. In those and other key areas, there’s been an undeniable lack of progress. And that begs this question on the eve of their 41st game: What exactly is the Grizzlies’ brand of basketball? They aren’t an up-tempo squad offensively and don’t lock down opponents with dogged defense. They’re scrappy one quarter, but lethargic the next — an inconsistent consistency that’s led to their current six-game losing streak. It’s the team’s second-longest skid this season, and part of a slide that includes losses in 14 of the past 16 games.”
Brad Rock of the Deseret News: “Somehow, the Jazz have gone 8-5 with Williams missing and 17-13 in games with Boozer out. If the season ended after Tuesday’s games, they would have the seventh playoff spot in the West. This isn’t what Jazz fans are used to seeing. The 1991-92 team missed just 14 player-games. If Ike Austin hadn’t stepped on a loose ball and fractured his foot, missing the final five games, the Jazz would have set an all-time NBA mark. Jazz players missed 36 games in 1990-91; the previous year 27. Now look. Guys can’t floss their teeth without getting hurt. That’s why Sloan received the one-year contract extension, this week. He’s had to patch the cracks with duct tape and chewing gum, yet it’s worked fairly well. Things could have been a lot worse. Besides, his job has become a lot tougher. For 18 years, he knew who was playing. John Stockton and Karl Malone missed only eight games due to illness and injury in their years together. All of which shows that Sloan is coaching better than ever. He has jury-rigged (Jerry-rigged?) a team that by all rights should be out of the playoff picture.”
Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times: “Since arriving here from Orlando last winter in what has become one of Mitch Kupchak’s greatest deals, Ariza has been more than good enough for everyone, turning his energy into smart defense and his skill into improved shooting. Earlier this week, Ariza made two three-pointers in the last two minutes to help beat Cleveland. ‘There is all this talent he has hidden within,’ said Lakers guard Derek Fisher. That’s also where he keeps everything else. The only thing Ariza doesn’t do in old-fashioned Showtime fashion is boast about it, or jersey-pop about it, or strut about it. ‘I keep my excitement to myself,’ he said. ‘I don’t let everybody in on a lot of my things.’ After practice Tuesday he was swathed in black, head to toe, sweat suit to shoes, with the only distinguishing features being the two scrawls of ink on his neck. On the right side is the tattoo of an angel. On the left side is the tattooed name of his brother, Tajh, who was killed a dozen years ago at age 5 when he fell 36 stories out of an apartment window.”
Jason Quick of The Oregonian: “Aldridge said he was considered a defensive player in college at Texas, and that mindset is slowly coming back to him. But more than anything, Aldridge said he has entered the best comfort zone of his career. He said he feels ‘fluid’ and ‘in a rhythm.’ That rhythm and flow has coincided with McMillan admitting he has recently ‘backed off’ Aldridge. Usually, McMillan would constantly remind Aldridge to establish an inside presence instead of relying solely on his 18-foot jumper. ‘The last couple of games, I’ve just let him play as opposed to harping about pounding the ball inside,’ McMillan said. As a result, Aldridge has gone back to his bread-and-butter, shooting the mid-range jumper out of the pick-and-pop. He is shooting 57.4 percent (27 of 47) in his last three games, most of his baskets coming on his trademark high-release jumper. Now, McMillan would like to see that consistency on the defensive end. He said Aldridge has expanded his defensive repertoire this year to include guarding big centers like Shaquille O’Neal and Yao Ming.”
Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: “Defenders come in angry, physical swarms, as both teams know that the Rockets’ success getting Yao the ball or the defenders’ success keeping it from him will likely determine the winner. ‘No matter what we do, we still have Yao inside if we move the ball,’ coach Rick Adelman said when he began retooling the offense around Yao when Tracy McGrady and Ron Artest were sidelined with injuries. ‘He’s going to have an advantage sometime, somehow.’ By Monday, when the Rockets beat the Nuggets for their fifth victory in six games, everything became centered on the Rockets’ center as he scored 13 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter, including 10 in the final six minutes. More than ever, Yao carries more of the late-game offense than any Rockets player. And despite the tendency of opponents to change their defense to focus even more on him down the stretch, he has been every bit as effective statistically in the fourth quarter as the rest of the game.”
Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald: “If anything, the 104-87 decision against Phoenix helped dash the notion the league has found the blueprint to ground the Green. The theory was based on guarding Rajon Rondo with a bigger player and smothering his drives (and kick-outs to shooters). But Rondo and the Celts have found the best, and perhaps only, way to combat that is to fight fire with speed. And experience. ‘There is no blueprint,’ Rivers said. ‘Different guys will guard him, and they’re going to help different ways off of him. He’s got to figure that out and he will. He just went through a tough stretch, but he’s figured the quicker he is in games, the less they can help off of him. But when the game gets down to the last four minutes and they slow it down, that’s where he still is working on trying to be a threat.’ All agree, however, the threat begins at the other end of the floor.”
Jan Hubbard of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “Jason Terry has had a distinguished career, averaging 16.1 points for the Hawks and Mavericks in his first nine seasons. But this season, his 10th in the league, he’s taken it to a new level. Rick Carlisle has been consistent with Terry, preferring him to come off the bench rather than starting, even with the muddled situation at shooting guard. Terry has had to start seven games because of injuries, but his primary role has been as a reserve and he’s been nothing less than spectacular. Terry is the only non-starter in the league averaging more than 20 points a game, and considering that the majority of his points come from the perimeter, his 46.6 shooting percentage is solid. But even more significant is Terry’s willingness to accept his role. Most 20-point scorers in the league would pout if they did not start. But not Terry, who is averaging a career-high 20.6 points. ‘He’s always like, ‘OK, coach. That’s great. I’ll do what you ‘ Carlisle said. ‘When you have an important player like that on your want,’ team, it really makes a difference.’”
David Moore of the Dallas Morning News: “This team is frozen somewhere between championship caliber and mediocrity. It’s too good to dismantle but not good enough to break through with one bold move. Is there a trade this team can pursue that will make it better than the LA Lakers this season? The answer is no. Can you think of a deal that will put the Mavericks on equal footing with San Antonio or New Orleans over the next three months and makes sense moving into the future? Probably not. That is what makes the days leading up to next month’s trade deadline problematic for the Mavericks.”
John Canzano of The Oregonian: “The trade value of both players is at its highest. It’s become clear that the Blazers cannot play both players, and so the front office needs to make a decision and give the team its best chance to develop. On Tuesday, after Blazers practice, coach Nate McMillan met with both players. They watched film. They talked about what the players were doing well, and what each needs to improve on. But an hour before that, Bayless made the best possible case for why the Blazers need to pick him. Practice ended. Players scattered. And Bayless began shooting three-point baskets at one end of the facility. An assistant shagged balls, and fed him passes, and Bayless went around the arc, making 17 of 25 shots on his first pass. We know the guy has potential. He’s proven it since starter Steve Blake went down with a shoulder injury. But what we couldn’t be sure of is how willing Bayless is to work hard to improve his game, and it’s what I saw in 10 minutes of watching him shoot that made me a big believer.”
Jim Alexander of The Press-Enterprise: “This past year, renewals were due in August. According to Tim Harris, the team’s senior vice president of business operations and chief marketing officer, the renewal rate was 99.4 percent, which you might expect the summer after reaching the NBA Finals. But what about the franchise’s darker days? What about the immediate aftermath of Phil Jackson’s departure and the Shaquille O’Neal trade in 2004, when it was pretty evident the club was in rebuilding mode? Or the summer of 2007, when Kobe Bryant showed his personal distrust in General Manager Mitch Kupchak with his ‘I Want Out’ tour of the talk shows, demanding a trade because he didn’t think the club had the tools to win a title? ‘Ninety-two or 94 percent’ renewals, Harris said. ‘Even at our worst.’ That’s loyalty. And if you believe the old adage that the customer is always right, it’s a sign of an organization that has consistently done things correctly.”
Kurt Streeter of the Los Angeles Times: “When King was killed, only Boston Celtics great Bill Russell, named Boston’s player-coach in 1967, had reached that level. In that era, the notion of a black star such as Russell being used, LeBron-like, as a pitchman in a glitzy, national advertising campaign would have been laughable. Yes, King would have been well satisfied by the great progress of blacks in sport. But I’m guessing he would be just as pleased by the strong wave of globalism we’re witnessing on our fields and courts — among major sports in America, no more than in the NBA. I say this because globalism in pure form, the idea that everyone on the planet is part of one tribe, helped form the foundation of King’s philosophy. ‘We are challenged to develop a world perspective,’ King said in a sermon at Washington’s National Cathedral only days before his death. ‘No individual can live alone, no nation can live alone. . . . We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.’ Years before the Internet, King pounded at the point that as the world shrinks, we must pay stronger attention to how we treat our neighbors. The sports world gives us that chance.”
