Points in the Paint

» March 6, 2009 6:51 PM | By Brandon Hoffman

Neil Hayes of the Chicago Sun-Times: “We watch sports to escape news of jobless rates and tumbling markets. We turn on the Bulls’ game — or worse yet, plop down hard-earned cash for tickets — to watch athletes making the type of money we would let people throw knives at our heads for a chance to make and they’re … going … through … the … motions? They’re floating up and down the court as if in a daze like they did in a miserable loss to Charlotte on Tuesday night, like they have done countless times this season? The Bulls bounced back and played harder in a win over the Warriors on Wednesday. Pardon me while I wipe warm tears of gratitude from my eyes. Shouldn’t we expect them — more importantly, as professionals shouldn’t they expect themselves — to play like that every night? Look, the NBA is an 82-game grind. There are going to be games when a team doesn’t show up, doesn’t have energy, blah, blah, blah. But this is happening so frequently to the Bulls that it’s alarming. It’s undermining everything they are attempting to do this season. And if I hear one more person say this season is all about Rose’s maturation I’m going to spontaneously combust.”

Cavs.com: “As the Cavaliers have enjoyed a record breaking season on the court, their official team website has generated record breaking traffic online as well. In February, there were more than 2 million visits to cavs.com, marking the most ever in a single month. The 2,024,059 visits represented a 13 percent increase over February of 2008 (1,792,024 visits). In addition to the visits record, cavs.com also set a new unique visitors mark with 1,012,649 unique visitors, up 12 percent over February of 2008 (927,510). With 8,407,221 page views, the site also generated a 12 percent increase over February of 2008 (7,516,060) making it the second highest all-time month for page views, trailing only June of 2007 when the Cavs went to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history.”

Ian Thomsen of SI.com: “Guess who doesn’t love the three-point shot. While sitting through the three-point contest year after year at All-Star weekend, it’s natural to refer back to Bird. In that regard he was the NBA’s Babe Ruth, the player who made the home run popular while winning the three-point shootout in its inaugural three years (1986-88). ‘Yeah, it’s all they talk about,” he said of his ability from the three-point line. ‘Everybody looks at me as a three-point shooter, but I didn’t shoot a lot of them.’ Bird attempted a scant 1.9 threes per game in 13 seasons. In 2000-01, the year before he retired, his long-range attempts peaked at 3.3. But that’s still a low rate by today’s standards: There are 72 players attempting more than 3.3 threes this season alone. ‘I felt like the game is won down in the paint,” Bird said. ‘I didn’t shoot them until the end of the game. If I shot one early, it was probably on the road.” When he wanted to make a dramatic impact in an opponent’s gym, he means to say.”

Gary Dzen of The Boston Globe: “There are no hitches. Not a single wasted motion from hip to fingertip. Ray Allen shoots jump shots how they’re supposed to be shot. One of the guilty pleasures of getting to the Garden early is watching Allen, alone on the parquet, go through his extended pregame shooting routine. Allen’s warmup takes at least 30 minutes, and it rarely changes. He starts with stationary threes from every angle, then follows that up with catch-and-shoot threes after running in from halfcourt. Free throws are next. Allen ends the routine with a poweful drive down the lane, a two-handed dunk, and a handshake for each of his two ball boys. And then Allen, ball in hand, runs full tilt to the locker room, as if walking was going to make him late for some terribly important event.”