Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports: “Bryant’s bid for a fourth NBA title had been delivered a difficult, if not devastating, blow. Bynum will likely be gone for the start of the playoffs, and upon his return, could struggle to regain his rapidly rising dominance. All that turned Kobe’s disposition dark and brooding. If the Lakers knew anything about Bryant, they knew there would be hell to pay for the Knicks. Across this brilliant night – long jumpers and twisting turnarounds and breathless drives – there was still such a somberness to him. Maybe it was a message to his teammates, to the rest of the league, that the Lakers were still chasing a championship. Maybe he just wanted to change the story line overnight from Bynum’s knee to his own greatness. Without Bynum, Bryant’s burden grows immensely, and so, there was no joy in him. No frivolity, no jabbering with Spike Lee. There was no acknowledgement of the Knicks fans chanting ‘MVP … MVP’ until he left the 126-117 victory with 2½ minutes left in the game. ‘He wouldn’t speak to anyone on the court tonight,’ the Knicks’ David Lee said. ‘He was very quiet.’”
Paul Forrester of CNNSI.com: “Superstars as headstrong as Bryant don’t do subtle, however. Not when a 20-foot jumpers are falling like water from a faucet, and you can win games with three-fifths of the starting lineup attempting a mere 13 shots combined. Not when you can beat a team without grabbing a single rebound or making a single steal. And not when you’ve shown time and again that the only teammate you’ve ever trusted is yourself. That won’t work against the type of teams by which the Lakers are measured. And though the loss of Bynum dilutes the personnel advantage over the likes of the Spurs and Hornets, it doesn’t leave the Lakers’ cupboard bare. Gasol. Lamar Odom. Trevor Ariza. Sasha Vujacic. Superstars they aren’t, but all are capable of providing Bryant the victories he thirsts for, provided he trusts them the way he did before Bynum’s injury. There’s a lesson to be found in the fact Bryant has scored almost seven points fewer in Lakers wins than in losses this season. After 12-plus seasons, we wonder if Bryant will learn it.”
Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register: “When Bryant hit his third shot in three tries at the start, Bynum flashed that toothy smile of youth and hope that he refused to lose and said on the Lakers’ bench: ‘He’s hot. He’s hot!’ Bynum sat not far from the courtside scouts of the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers whose curious eyes watched to see if the Lakers could deal with the misfortune of another serious Bynum knee injury. What we already know: Bynum will deal just fine. The 21-year-old is coping amazingly well despite two jarring setbacks in between a recovery and rebirth so dedicated and complete that it was inspiring to even the workmanlike Bryant. Bynum is a mature young man who has rare control of his emotions and his future – and his spirit refreshed most of his teammates who returned from their morning shootaround to find Bynum in the hotel lobby, unwilling to pair doom and gloom. ‘That’s his nature,’ Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. ‘He’s a very optimistic young man. I think he’ll come through this OK.’”
Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times: “Andrew Bynum’s right knee may have just cost the Lakers a championship. It’s a nutty thought, but then so was the notion that, when he injured his knee at this same time last year, Bynum might miss the rest of the season. He did. It’s a panicky thought, but then so was the theory that without Bynum’s inside toughness, the Lakers couldn’t survive last year’s ultimate battle with the Boston Celtics. They didn’t. Based on an appreciation for the emergence of Pau Gasol, the spark of Trevor Ariza and the leadership of Kobe Bryant, it is reasonable to expect that the Lakers will somehow survive this injury. Based on recent history, they will not.”
John DeShazier of the The Times-Picayune: “Antonio Daniels wasn’t brought in to be another Paul, just to spell him. Devin Brown wasn’t signed as a free agent last summer to mimic Paul, only to periodically play point guard. And now they, and others, are going to have to pick up and play a few hundred times better than they did in the fourth quarter against Portland. The Hornets (28-17) will lug a three-game losing streak into Wednesday’s home game against Chicago, their longest of the season. Before Monday, a state of emergency wouldn’t have to be declared. Losses to Golden State and San Antonio weren’t anything to brag about, of course. But now, as suddenly as a groin can be strained and a league Most Valuable Player-caliber talent can crumple to the court, everything changes. The Hornets without Paul are a team without its leader, its take-charge player, its heart and soul. And somehow, New Orleans has to figure out how to replace the irreplaceable.”
By The Horns: “Don’t get me wrong, Rose is really, really good. But ‘worlds above every player on that team’ is, at this point, a fairly serious overstatement. Ben Gordon is a better and (believe it or not) more efficient scorer (Gordon has a True Shooting Percentage of 57.1 compaired to 51.0 for Rose). Kirk Hinrich is a better playmaker. Luol Deng, now that he’s finally healthy, provides more of an all-around contribution (not to mention more consistent mid-range marksmanship). And if you want some advanced stats, here they are: Rose trails teammates Gordon, Joakim Noah and Deng in both Player Efficiency Rating and Win Shares. (According to John Hollinger’s rankings, he’s 11th among rookies in PER.) Rose ranks eighth on the team in Offensive Rating (105 points per 100 possessions), trailing guys like Joakim Noah (117), Aaron Gray (111) and even Larry Hughes (106).”
Curtis Pashelka of the Contra Costa Times: “‘(Randolph’s) in charge of how many minutes he plays, not his agent. It doesn’t matter what agent he has,’ Nelson said after Monday’s shootaround at Oracle Arena. ‘I thought he had a pretty good one, but it’s up to him. ‘(Armstrong) had nothing to do with his playing time. (Randolph’s) responsible for that. Do the things that we need him to do to stay on the court. He knows what they are and he just needs to do them.’ According to reports, Armstrong was telling Randolph to be patient in terms of getting to play regular minutes. Will Marsaw, Randolph’s uncle, told the San Francisco Chronicle over the weekend that they ‘wanted somebody who could be very, very aggressive.’ Randolph’s playing time has been varied, to say the least, over the course of the season. Just in the last month, he started five games but also sat on the bench for 48 minutes twice.”
Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: “Stephen A. Smith, citing no sources, said Bosh had already informed Colangelo he wouldn’t re-sign when he’s a free agent in 16 months. ‘It obviously didn’t happen,’ said Colangelo. ‘It’s one of those things that unfortunately I guess there’s an obligation to answer the question. … There just doesn’t seem to a lot of accountability with respect to the topic sometimes.’ Making matters worse for Toronto is the team’s recent woes and its 14th-place standing in the 15-team Eastern Conference. Although they began last night only 3 1/2 games out of the final playoff spot, recent bad outings and an overall inconsistency have created calls for massive roster changes. Colangelo said he won’t make a trade simply to do something but admitted his pre-season assessment that this was the best Raptor team ‘on paper’ in his three seasons here hasn’t become reality. ‘As Chris so wisely put it (Sunday) the paper isn’t worth much,’ he said.”
Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: “Bird retired in 1992 and returned home to Indiana. Five years later, he became the Pacers’ head coach. Three seasons later, he quit after leading his team to two Eastern Conference finals and after being named the NBA’s Coach of the Year in 1998. And three years after that, he agreed to run the team. ‘I was 35 when I retired, and I wanted to get away for a while,’ Bird said. ‘I never thought about it much, and the next thing you know, I’m coaching. After that, I took some more time off and decided I was too young to be doing what I was doing, which was nothing, whatever I wanted to do. You have children, and they have to tell their friends their dad doesn’t work. It’s kind of sad, really. So I came back and I’m involved in this now.’”
Sam Amick of the Saramento Bee: “The disgraceful part for this team is that the only two 19-win Kings teams (during the organization’s Cincinnati days) came in seasons of 72 games (1958-59) and 75 games (1959-60) as opposed to the standard 82-game lineup of the modern day. If these Kings are to merely be known as the worst of the Sacramento era, they must best the 1989-90 Kings that finished 23-59. While the remainder of the Kings’ schedule is balanced in terms of locale (17 home, 15 away), they will have quite a few chances to increase the win total against the dregs of the NBA. Ten of their final 32 games come against teams that entered Monday with winning percentages below 35 percent, with two more matchups against the 10-37 Clippers. Yet the Kings have almost as many likely losses ahead against some of the league’s best, as they have nine games against teams with winning percentages of 60 percent or more.”
Daily Thunder: “January will go down as the winningest month in Thunder history (so far). Prior to last month, OKC was 4-29. Now it’s 11-37. While the overall record is still crappy, it’s pretty darn good considering. So what happened? What changed? Simply put: the Thunder quit sucking. They worked hard, played better defense and hit the glass hard. They hit free throws, made winning plays and learned how to close. Consider: October/November record: 2-16. December record: 2-12. January: 7-7. That’s pretty heavy improvement. Kevin Durant averaged 27.8 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 3.7 apg and shot almost 50 percent from the field. Russell Westbrook built on his strong December, raising his numbers almost across the board. He averaged 16.5 ppg, 5.5 apg, 4.9 rpg, brought his turnovers down 1.3 per game and shot 44 percent from the field. But the role guys finally did some work. Nick Collison averaged 10.5 ppg and 8.5 rpg, points up three per game and rebounds up two per game from the previous months. A strong core is there and we’re finally starting to see it.”
Sekou K Smith of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “‘Not being out on the floor you se the game a whole lot different,’ said Horford, who will make his return to the floor for Wednesday’s game in Minnesota. ‘I think we definitely have to become a more consistent team if we want to have a shot at becoming anything this year. And that’s definitely something that has to be addressed with the team.’ No doubt you see what Al sees, right? I know it’s the one that’s struck me about this team, perhaps more this year than any other. After starting off the season like they could not be stopped, the Hawks promptly dropped four straight games, forcing all of us to wonder if the 6-0 start was a mirage. Look at the Hawks’ season since those first 10, though, and it’s clear that they’re a wave-riding team that can’t seem to kick the habit. Since those first 10 games the Hawks have had eight different multiple game streaks (four winning streaks and four losing streaks). That’s consistency for you Al. The Hawks are consistently inconsistent.”
Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: “Last season, Denver went 14-11 in games determined by six or fewer points. So far this season, Denver is 8-3. The reasons? Chauncey Billups is a good starting point (no pun intended). ‘With Chauncey, we noticed it right from the get-go — execution,’ said Nuggets assistant coach Chad Iske, who also is an advance scout. ‘It’s always something George (Karl) has talked about — and it’s something we think we needed to get better at.’ But there are numerous reasons beyond Billups’ contributions why Denver is winning the games-within- the-game. In those airtight eight victories, the Nuggets showed a variety of ways to win, from big steals to key stops, a last-second 3 or even, ahem, a kick of the leg. The one common thread, though, seems to be Billups, who arrived with a legacy of last- minute heroics and has continued to make big shots, like it’s his nickname or something.”
Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: “Robert Sarver is not just the Suns’ managing partner. He’s a fan, too. He looks at the Western Conference standings and sees how quickly a string of wins can vault the Suns. He thinks about all the talent on his roster and is “disappointed that we’re not winning more.’ And he continues to believe that the current staff and players will make February, March and April better than January, during which they were 7-8. ‘We have a high-character coaching staff and high-character players, and I believe they’ll get tired of losing and make the necessary changes to get us back on the winning track,’ Sarver said before Monday’s game. ‘It’s going to take the players to embrace each other and support each other and decide as a team they want to be winners.’”
Ken Berger of CBSSports.com: “Richard Hamilton sat in the media room at the Pistons’ practice facility Saturday, a day sandwiched between two more humbling, frustrating losses. When a veteran NBA guru wrapped up a radio interview by calling him ‘The Coatesville Comet,’ Hamilton managed to smile. Those were the days, when a smile didn’t have to be forced. The question I posed seemed simple enough: How have the dynamics of the Pistons’ offense changed in the three months since Chauncey Billups was traded for Allen Iverson? Hamilton started to answer, stammered for a minute, then finally gave up. ‘Never been stuck on a question before,’ he said. ‘I don’t even know how to answer it.’ Little did Hamilton know that was the correct answer, or at least the most telling one he could give. If you don’t know what’s wrong, how are you supposed to fix it?”
Chris McCosky of The Detroit News: “There’s a lot of resignation in the voices of the veterans. You heard it from Prince on Sunday. You heard it from Hamilton on Saturday: ‘This is tough for us because we’re used to being the bully. We’re not used to going through losing streaks and the stuff that’s going on right now. This is a tough time for us because of all that we’ve done the last five or six years and knowing how good we really are.’ What I am hearing is some latent bitterness, rising closer to the surface with every loss. Prince, Hamilton and McDyess especially were stung when Chauncey Billups was traded. It has little to do with Iverson. It didn’t matter who came back in the trade. What mattered was that Billups was gone. He was their leader. He was the guy who made them better. When Joe Dumars traded Billups, somewhere deep inside, the veterans had to feel like Dumars was giving up on them, giving up on this season, giving up on a special era of basketball. Right or wrong — it was not Dumars’ intent to bag this season — those feelings were there.”
