John Reid of The Times-Picayune: “Instead of easing Wright’s concerns, Scott bluntly told him he had regressed since last season, and that his role was to go out and play hard, understand where he is supposed to be on the court and to not repeat mistakes. When J.R. Smith and Brandon Bass experienced similar struggles in their second seasons with the Hornets under Scott, they requested meetings with the head coach to clarify their roles, too. The sessions didn’t help much. Smith and Bass never made enough progress to satisfy Scott, and eventually moved on to other teams. Smith, whom the Hornets drafted 18th in 2004, was traded to Chicago two seasons later and has since blossomed with the Denver Nuggets, where he’s averaging 13.8 points this season. Bass was selected by the Hornets in the second round in 2005, but they let him leave as a free agent in 2007, and he joined the Dallas Mavericks. He’s averaging 7.9 points and 4.4 rebounds this season. Both are primary options off the bench for their teams; Smith is a contender for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award.”
Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “The concern with Heat guard Dwyane Wade when he chose to play in the Olympics was non-stop basketball. Now that’s the goal. Saturday’s start against the Magic marked Wade’s 42nd consecutive appearance, matching the longest streak of his six-year career. He also played in 42 consecutive games from Jan. 19, 2005 to April 19, 2005. ‘For what I’ve gone through the last couple of years, it’s going to take a lot for me not to be on the court,’ he said, having missed 31 games in each of the previous two seasons. ‘The last couple of years, I’ve probably missed about 10 right now. So hopefully, just keep it up, hope nothing freaky happens on the court where I have to miss some time.’”
Jeff Eisenberg of The Press-Enterprise: “Bynum, 21, has averaged an eye-opening 32.5 points and 14 rebounds his past two games, by far the Lakers center’s best stretch since before he suffered a season-ending knee injury last January. To paraphrase Abdul-Jabbar, it’s about time the soft midrange jumper, deft low-post footwork and ability to move without the ball Bynum displays every day in practice started translating into easy buckets during games. ‘I’ve been waiting for like a year now for him to use the things we practice in a game,’ said Abdul-Jabbar, a special assistant with the Lakers whose sole job description is tutoring Bynum. ‘The whole problem when we first started working together was he didn’t have any tools, and once he got the tools, he was reluctant to use them. Now he’s starting to use them, and he’s starting to get some confidence in what he’s doing.’”
Frank Isola of the Daily News: “D’Antoni was upset with the backup guard for two reasons: not only had Robinson already picked up a technical foul but he was working on a second, which would have led to an automatic ejection. It reached the point where veteran NBA official Joey Crawford warned D’Antoni to calm Robinson down. ‘Obviously, Nate was emotional at the time,’ D’Antoni said yesterday. ‘I’m just always trying to reinforce with Nate that he’s a better player when he’s not distracted.’Robinson always seems to be walking a fine line between playing with emotion and allowing his emotions to get the best of him. John Starks was the same type of player, which is why he was often referred to as a hand grenade in high tops. Robinson is more like a stick of dynamite. In recent weeks, Robinson has slumped badly and had seen his playing time decrease.”
Ramona Shelburne of the Los Angeles Daily News: “While most of the more heralded rookies ahead of him have seen their averages stagnate or drop this month, Gordon’s game has soared. He’s averaging 22.6 points a game in 11 games in January, best among NBA rookies. Rookie scoring leader O.J. Mayo (19.1 ppg) has scored just 16.6 points a game in January. Derrick Rose is also under his season average (16.7 points a game) this month, scoring just 14.7 points a game in 12 January games. Only Russell Westbrook has shown similar improvement throughout the season, increasing his scoring average in each month this season. Perhaps more importantly, Gordon has earned the respect of his veteran teammates with his attitude, effort on defense and willingness to take big shots at the end of games.”
Matt Watson for FanHouse: “Despite their most recent performance, the Pistons rank fourth in points allowed (93.1 per game) and sixth in field-goal percentage allowed (44.6%). Points allowed can be a deceiving metric (just like they have the last several years, the Pistons play at one of the slowest paces in the league) but just a month ago the team ranked in the bottom third of the league in field-goal percentage allowed, so it’s clear the team as a whole has made a marked improvement — and perhaps none more so than Allen Iverson. ‘I think it’s night and day since he first got here,’ Michael Curry said before Friday’s game. ‘Defensively he’s taking the challenge. He knows that we expect him to give maximum effort on defense. We don’t want him worrying about his fouls. You go out there and play hard defensively.’ Iverson arrived with a reputation for slacking on defense, but in the half season since arriving from Denver, Detroit’s coaching staff has been able to break him out of some bad habits.”
Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: “Popovich doesn’t judge his team by its performance in any one game, though. Consistency counts, so he regards the past four games, during which the Spurs have held their opponents to 40.2 percent shooting, merely as a good start on the road back to defensive excellence. ‘The whole season is a process,’ Popovich said. ‘Whether you’re talking about execution on offense or defense, you can’t take a snapshot. It’s about consistency over time. ‘Whatever it may be — a rotation on a certain defense, individual defense, blocking out; transition defense, picking up the ball, weakside defense — you’re looking for consistency in those areas, both by individuals, and the team reaction when you’re in a team defense.’ Veterans of the Spurs’ title runs know better than to believe they have turned a defensive corner.”
Don Seeholzer of the Pioneer Press: “Forty-one games and one coaching change after they started, the Timberwolves have reached the midway point of the NBA regular season. It only feels like longer. Seriously, this team has packed three seasons worth of ups and downs into three months. There was the 4-15 start under Randy Wittman, ending with a 23-point home loss to the lowly Los Angeles Clippers that was quickly followed by Wittman’s dismissal and Kevin McHale’s shift from the front office to the coaching sideline. What came next was an 0-8 start under McHale, stretching a losing streak to 13 games and testing his faith and that of his players, though all continued to put on a brave face in public. Finally, there was a breakthrough post-Christmas win at New York, followed by a 5-0 start to the new year. The Wolves now stand at 8-2 in 2009 after Friday night’s 116-108 win over New Orleans.”
Mike McGraw of the Arlington Heights Daily Herald: “Coach Vinny Del Negro expressed concern following Saturday’s practice at the Berto Center about whether his players have the right attitude about winning being the most important goal. ‘I think that comes with leadership and with frustration. But, yeah, a lot of things bother me,’ Del Negro said. ‘You can’t think you’re going to be able to control everything. We have to find the guys who want to work and believe in what we’re doing and how we want to play. ‘We have a lot of different scenarios on this team we’re trying to deal with, and at the same time try to go in the right direction. There’s a lot on the plate right now. You’ve just got to figure things out as you go forward.’ With an 18-26 record, the Bulls have fallen past Charlotte and New York into 12th place in the East, although they’re still just 2 games behind Milwaukee for eighth place. So while a playoff spot remains within reach, signs that the Bulls are capable of turning things around are fading fast.”
Jan Hubbard of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “Cuban is amused by speculation that Nowitzki might be traded. Cuban has been adamant in saying that will not happen. Even when Kobe Bryant was available in 2007, Cuban said he would not include Nowitzki in any deal. The Lakers were smart to not trade Bryant because they were able to quickly put together a team that made it to the Finals last season. ‘What if they had traded Kobe?’ Cuban said. ‘Then when the Pau Gasol opportunity came along, they would not have been in position to take advantage of it.’ Cuban is very open about his plans with Nowitzki. He has already cleared cap space for the free agent class of 2010 that is led by LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson and Amare Stoudemire. But Cuban is not committed to keeping that cap space. If other teams want to trade established veterans in order to position themselves to make bids on the 2010 free agent class, Cuban will adjust. ‘I’m not even saying that we’re definitely going to have cap room that year,’ Cuban said. ‘If everybody else is looking in one direction, we’ll look in the other direction.’”
Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: “Denver’s bench is one of the NBA’s best and that’s not something you hear discussed too often. ‘I don’t think our bench gets enough credit,’ Karl said. ‘We have Anthony Carter and Chris Andersen coming off the bench for defensive assignments, and then Linas Kleiza and J.R. Smith coming in and being instant offense. In general, I think they’re one of the top five-to-seven benches in the league. They score well. But there have been times where they’ve come in and made a defensive change in the game and won us a basketball game, which I think very few NBA benches can do.’ Entering the weekend, the Nuggets’ bench averages 32.8 points per game. The fourth-highest scoring bench, Milwaukee’s, is barely ahead at 33.4.”
Chris McCosky of The Detroit News: “The motto of the first half of this season for the Pistons could be, ‘Be careful what you wish for.’ Fans and some in the media clearly got bored with the Pistons’ successful six-year run. The frustrations and failures in the conference finals the last three years seemed to dilute any and all regular-season accomplishments. Yet, the same people who howled for change, who wanted former coach Flip Saunders’ head on a stick, who clamored for the core group of Pistons to be broken up, are the same people who now are disgusted at how the team has scuffled this season. ‘You should never get bored with winning,’ Dumars said. ‘You should never take winning for granted. It’s so hard to do and it’s so hard to maintain like we did for so long.’”
Bob Ford of the Philadelphia Inquirer: “In the absence of Brand, and with Dalembert becoming increasingly marginalized, Speights has bloomed in tandem with Young, Iguodala has gotten to the basket regularly again, and Willie Green and Lou Williams have gotten more minutes and taken advantage of them. Andre Miller has remained the steady metronome keeping it all together. The bottom line is that this group has earned the right to play together and to see how far they can take this development. Rather than having to change what they do in order to accommodate Brand, the power forward has to prove himself worthy to be a part of what’s taking place. It’s all on Brand now and it will be interesting to see if he recognizes that and how he responds. He has to work himself into good enough shape to get up and down the court less ponderously. He has to be more willing to do the dirty work and not settle for the short jumpers that have cut his shooting percentage from his career mark of 50 percent to 45 percent this season. At times, he looks unwilling to sustain contact and that has to stop.”
Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: “‘When you get embarrassed, it’s got to be a pride thing that takes over and says, ‘You know what? Enough’s enough,’ ‘ Porter said. ‘And it’s got to be a collective deal. It can’t be on one or two guys. ‘There’s a lot of woe-is-me mentality out there. I told them we have to fight through those situations.’ Amaré Stoudemire and Leandro Barbosa didn’t want to talk after Friday night’s loss. Matt Barnes lobbied for more playing time. Grant Hill said the Suns acted like they felt sorry for themselves. Shaquille O’Neal, who likely will play Sunday and Monday, declined comment Saturday. ‘We’re disappointed in ourselves, but we’re not done,’ Richardson said. ‘We don’t feel like we’re in a slump. We just have to go compete. We were rolling (recently). There’s no ifs, ands or buts. We’ve got the team to do it. It’s pretty much up to us.’ That matches Barnes’ sentiment. He said a 23-18 record for this star-studded team is ‘ridiculous.’”
Jan Hubbard of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “The problem for Stern has been this: If he changed rules for All-Star voting — say, giving more weight to coaches, executives, players and the media while decreasing the strength of Internet voting, it would look anti-Chinese. Stern would rather refund all of Mark Cuban’s fine money than even take the slightest chance of irritating Chinese fans (i.e. pocketbooks). And that’s where Bowen comes to the rescue. He has been an extraordinary player, a blue-collar worker who has elevated himself to one of the greatest 6-7 defensive players in the history of the NBA. At points in his career, an All-Star berth would have been richly deserved. But not now, not at age 37 when he no longer even starts for the Spurs. And so Stern can look at the Bowen near-miss and have his translators tell the Chinese with straight faces that this was not about a fine player like Yi, it was about an elderly American whose near-selection almost made a mockery of the All-Star starting lineup.”
Mike Wise of the Washington Post: “The boy was 12 when he was summoned toward the television in the living room, to the crime watch alert on the screen. ‘You know how you always wondered what your father looks like?’ his mother, Genice Popps, recalled telling him. ‘Well, that’s him. Right there.’ DeShawn Stevenson moved closer, toward the image of Darryl C. Stevenson. He looked for a resemblance, but the mug shot disappeared too quickly. DeShawn didn’t know the police had apprehended Darryl that day for strangling his own mother — DeShawn’s grandmother. But DeShawn says he did sense, even as a sixth-grader, that a TV image might be the closest he would ever come to meeting his biological father.”
