Elliott Teaford of the Los Angeles Daily News: “Phil Jackson moved within one game of matching Pat Riley for the most games coached in Lakers history. The Lakers’ victory Tuesday over the Oklahoma City Thunder marked his 726th game over two stints. He is set to catch Riley in Thursday’s game against the Detroit Pistons. It’s quite a feat, considering the way coaches are hired and fired again and again in today’s NBA. Jackson’s league-record tying nine championships have kept him rooted, first in Chicago with Michael Jordan and the Bulls and then with the Lakers. Still, it’s no easy task to stay connected with players season after season. ‘I think one of our coaches, it must have been 10 years ago, maybe longer, put together how many meetings we have with these players, counting the fact that there are seven timeouts that you have, there’s a halftime, a pregame, a shootaround – all these kinds of meetings that you have with players,’ Jackson said. ‘He had some outrageous figure, like, 3,500 meetings with players over a year. You’re telling them what to do and how … boring you can be. They continue on. They can be trivial. Those are the things that spell doom with the players.’”
Israel Gutierrez of the Miami Herald: “Despite only coaching three full seasons before this one, Van Gundy has become one of the few compelling voices in sports. There is often as much emotion in his responses as there is in his sideline demeanor during a game. There’s a passion in his words that only can come from brutal honesty, which he shares regardless of how much controversy he might stir up. It’s refreshing to watch, listen to or read. It’s so much more interesting than listening to canned, predictable, cliché nonsense that usually comes out the mouths of coaches or athletes, and there’s not enough of it. It also makes you thankful that Van Gundy worked his way out of Miami and up to Orlando because it’s a part of him he would never have been able to share here. Not with Pat Riley monitoring the words and actions of anyone coaching in his organization. When Van Gundy was here, he did his best to say the right things. He would have been silly not to, given the golden opportunity he had coaching his first NBA team. He earned it, yes, but he also was well aware of who he was working for, so the outbursts of honesty were reserved for private moments, not public interviews.”
Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: “Asked Monday what he thinks of closing the regular season with four road games, Charlotte Bobcats coach Larry Brown was frank: ‘It’s ridiculous to end like that,’ Brown said. Team President Fred Whitfield understands Brown’s concern, and hopes to improve the situation in future seasons. But Whitfield has to balance his responsibilities to the team with his obligation to manage Time Warner Cable Arena. For the second consecutive season, the Bobcats’ schedule is heavily backloaded with road games. Last season they played 19 of their final 29 away from Charlotte. This season 24 of the final 39 are on the road. That didn’t matter so much before, with the Bobcats slipping out of playoff contention by the All-Star break. But now they’re two games out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the East. Their game tonight in Washington is one of eight on the road in the final 12. Brown calls the schedule imbalance ‘terrible.’ He anticipated his team being better late-season than early, so he figured they’d squander home-game opportunities in November and December.”
Roundball Mining Company: “George Karl has been up to his old tricks downplaying the importance of any single game or series of games. The Nuggets “stated goal” for the three game road trip is to win two of the three games. What on earth is wrong with saying our goal is to win all three games, take advantage of the way the Spurs have opened the door for us to challenge them for the second seed and take the second seed for ourselves? I would love to hear my team talk like that. It would fire me up. This may sound a bit wacky and forgive me for thinking such ridiculous thoughts, but maybe that type of attitude might even spill over into their play on the floor. Instead of coming out flatter than the back tire of Charles Barkley’s scooter maybe, just maybe, they would be fired up to meet a challenge instead of lulled into a false sense of security. I strongly believe organizations win championships and as long as the Nuggets are managing risk by aiming for ten win months or hoping to split these games or those games the players will never be pushed to excel and mediocrity will rule the day.”
Michael Wallace of the Miami Herald: “The message — marked urgent — was sent from battle-tested vet to hotshot rookie and second overall draft pick. And Heat enforcer Udonis Haslem delivered it, nearly sealed with a huge left hook. ‘I thought he was going to punch me,’ rookie forward Michael Beasley said, half-jokingly, of Haslem’s recent demand for the Heat’s young players to grow up quickly. `He was — he was mean.’ The meaning behind the recent meanness aimed at rookies Beasley and Mario Chalmers, among others, is simple: Step up and produce or step out of the way. With the Heat (38-32) locked in the middle of the Eastern Conference playoff race and trying to maintain — or improve on — fifth place in the overall standings, there’s no time for rookie mistakes. Beasley and Chalmers — the second overall draft pick and the rookie starting point guard, respectively — have spent the first 70 games developing. Now, the expectation is for them to deliver.”
John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News: “With 13 games remaining in the regular season, the Sixers (36-33) have positioned themselves for their first winning season since 2004-05, when they finished 43-39. This is a major test for the Sixers, not because they can finish with a winning record, but because they should. Starting with tonight’s game at the Wachovia Center against the Minnesota Timberwolves (20-51), the Sixers have nine games with teams that do not have winning records. Except for games with Atlanta, Boston and two each with Detroit and Cleveland, the Sixers are basically facing the bottom feeders of the Eastern Conference. The Sixers must finish only 6-7 to post their first winning season since April 2005. A mature team, a good team, would take care of business. A year ago, almost to the day, the Sixers were 37-35 with a similar situation. They went 3-7 down the stretch and lost their final four games to finish 40-42. That can’t happen this time, not if this franchise is on the path to righting itself and becoming a legitimate contender in the Eastern Conference.”
Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times: “The Lakers are chasing the Cleveland Cavaliers for the league’s best record, but they haven’t forgotten about their old friends, the Boston Celtics, who have fallen off the pace after experiencing a slew of injuries. The Celtics (54-18) trail Cleveland by four games and the Lakers by three in the race for home-court advantage. Still, Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said the Celtics were championship contenders ‘without a doubt.’ Kobe Bryant basically said the same thing. ‘On our second championship run, we had a lot of injuries,’ he said, referring to the Lakers’ 2000-01 season. ‘We wound up not having the best record, but we believed in ourselves and went in and got it done. We’re not sleeping on [Boston] at all.’ Kevin Garnett recently returned to the lineup after missing 13 games because of a strained right knee. Starting guards Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo have also missed some time this month because of injuries. The Lakers aren’t thinking the Celtics are done, however.”
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: “Stern will go to the wall with the players union and demand sweeping fiscal concessions, including a firm salary cap, shorter guaranteed contracts, a higher age limit for rookie players and owners keeping a higher percentage of the league’s total earnings. Not only will owners demand these drastic reductions in player revenue when the current collective bargaining agreement expires in 2011, but they better get them, Falk says. Or else. The owners, he says, are much more financially able to withstand an extended work stoppage than are the players. Stern, Falk predicts, will crush the union if it doesn’t agree to concessions. ‘You don’t tug on Superman’s cape,’ Falk said of Stern. ‘He’s relentless and will not give in. He’s like Evander Holyfield. His ribs can be broken, his jaw fractured and blood coming from every orifice of his body. And you know what he’s going to say, ‘Let’s go nine more rounds!’ The owners are committed to making sweeping changes in the system.’”
The Star-Ledger: “The Nets might not be building their new arena in Brooklyn after all. At least that’s what the famed architect who had been designing the project said. In a story posted on the New York Daily News’ website Tuesday night, Frank Gehry told the Architect’s Newspaper trade publication, ‘I don’t think it’s going to happen.’ Bruce Ratner, the Nets’ majority owner and CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies, dispelled the sentiment of Gehry’s remark, and was placed in the awkward position of having to contradict the star of the project. ‘Frank Gehry is a friend, a great architect and someone I have huge respect for,’ Ratner said in a prepared statement Tuesday night. ‘It is understandable how he and others have concerns about this project happening in the worst economic environment since the Great Depression. But that said, we’ve prevailed in 22 judicial decisions and are ready to proceed even at a time when other projects and industries have faltered. Atlantic Yards will get built and there has never been a time when this project is more important to the people of the state and city of New York and the borough of Brooklyn.’”
Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald: “Doc Rivers envisions a day, probably in the playoffs, when Stephon Marbury empties the slot machine – when all of the misses the Celtics guard has hoisted finally will find net. ‘There are going to be a lot of big shots for him,’ the Celtics coach said following Monday’s win against the Los Angeles Clippers – a game in which Marbury nearly jumped out of his sneakers after hitting a big fourth-quarter 3-pointer. ‘He’ll get it. He’s going to win a big game in the playoffs for us – you just know that.’ Marbury’s response was to project himself into that game-breaking role perhaps a little too ambitiously. ‘I know I’m capable of having games where I can score 30 or 40 points,’ he said. ‘It’s just tough to get a lot of time on a team like this. But it will be a different rotation in the playoffs, and I’m just continuing to build on what I’m learning.’ No one, of course, is asking Marbury to score that much – only to hit the open shots that come his way. A playoff rotation, with Rajon Rondo’s performance dictating how much his backup plays, won’t allow for that kind of volume anyway. But Marbury’s response shows how much he is striving to produce more. Rivers has said shots are the last elements to click in for a player who has been away from the game for as long as Marbury was inactive.”
Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “It was early in the season, when Dwyane Wade was sizing up the Heat’s size and realized, quite frankly, that there wasn’t much there. Udonis Haslem was masquerading as the starting center. Shaquille O’Neal was gone. And Alonzo Mourning was still rehabilitating last season’s knee injury, headed toward retirement. That’s when Wade, all 6 feet 4 of him, decided it might be time to take his game to new heights, to block out the doubts about his team’s size, as well as anything else he could get his hands on. ‘I understood our team wasn’t big,’ he said. ‘But I knew I always had pretty good timing and athletic ability. So I said, ‘Why not try?’‘ The next time he blocks a shot, Wade will establish himself as the NBA’s ultimate little big man. With one more blocked shot, he will become the first NBA player listed at 6-4 or shorter to block at least 100 shots in a season, since the league began tracking blocks in 1973-74. He enters tonight’s game at Indiana tied with former jumping-jack dunker David Thompson, who also stood 6-4, for the current record of 99.”
Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: “McHale, the old-school Celtic, likes to complain about how the modern game has gone soft with recent rule changes that allow the little guy to drive the lane with impunity. Foye admits that might be true when little guards have the ball in their hands, but … ‘They can touch you when you don’t have the ball,’ Foye said. ‘Trust me.’ Every night now, he faced the other team’s best perimeter defender. Last week, for example, it was the Spurs’ Bruce Bowen. ‘Even before I got the ball, he was just chucking me, hitting and hitting me, basically trying to get me off my game,’ Foye said of a 4-for-13 shooting night when he scored 10 points. ‘Every team we face now is playing me so differently, and I’m not used to it. You’ve got to respect guys like Kevin McHale, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant who go out there every night when teams are game-planning to stop them and they’re getting 20, 25, 35 points a night. That’s amazing to me. This is my first time going through it, and it’s tough.’”
Ashley Fox of the Philadelphia Inquirer: “While so many other kids in North Philadelphia have failed, Lowry made it. To college. To the NBA. To the bank. And he never would have gotten there, Lowry said before the Grizzlies traded him to Houston last month, without growing up at 20th and Lehigh. ‘Everybody was rough and ragged,’ Lowry, who turned 23 years old today, said of his old neighborhood. ‘It’s tough, but somehow, some way, you find a way.’ As a kid, Lowry saw everything, he said. Drugs. Violence. Homelessness. Abandoned houses. Robberies. But on the playgrounds and in the gyms, Lowry became the embodiment of the North Philly basketball player. Fearless. Stubborn. Tenacious. Resilient. He said his mother, Marie Holloway, insisted he stay off the streets and on the basketball court, and inside the Gathers Center there is a picture of a 7-year-old Lowry standing stone-faced in a layup line.”
Marcus Thompson of the Contra Costa Times: “Ever wonder why Jackson, who is right-handed, almost always jumps off his right foot (which is what a left-handed shooter does)? It’s because his left big toe has been killing for more than two years now. And he’s fed up with it. His toe has been giving him pain all season. It actually started in March 2007. He first injured the toe, then in late April had an MRI that said it was fractured. A few days later, the Warriors changed their statement, saying there was no fracture and Jackson had turf toe. (I’m not sure Jackson ever stopped believing it was fractured.) He’s been playing on it ever since. Rest hasn’t worked, but he hasn’t looked deeper into what was wrong with it. He just kept playing. But now he has an appointment in Houston on Friday to get his toe checked out. He’ll play Wednesday night in Dallas (you know he’s not missing a showdown with Dirk) and then he’s going get his toe examined by the Houston Rockets doctor. Why now? Because it’s getting worse and the Warriors aren’t playing for anything.”
Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post: “In March 2007, Karl told The Denver Post that Anthony was too concerned about scoring and that if his play didn’t improve ‘the next move’ would be to bench him. Anthony admitted to being shaken by Karl’s comments. Today, Anthony is a happy camper. Karl stood firmly behind his star in a five minute postgame news conference rant after the Nuggets’ victory over Washington on Friday. In it, he insisted, ‘Melo gets beat up more than any other player in the NBA without getting a whistle.’ Anthony said Karl’s words were important. ‘It means a lot for him to step out there and say that, take that stance,’ Anthony said. ‘I always felt like that. But there ain’t no need for me to go out there complaining.’ Karl said protecting Anthony was necessary because ‘we sacrifice a lot of our possessions to attack the rim. And when attacking the rim, someone once said referees get tired of blowing the whistle. Well, I think that’s what happens with us.’ Anthony said with Karl’s help he now views himself more in the team concept.”
3 Shades of Blue: “What happens to a player as the rest of the league becomes familiar with him and learns what his strengths are? That’s right, they take that strength away and force the player to his weaker areas. What are O.J. Mayo’s strengths? In my opinion, they are his deft mid-range game and his catch-and-shoot abilities on the perimeter. He’s not a great slasher or much of a post-up threat at this stage in his career. So what are teams doing to limit his effectiveness? They are making it so that when he gets the ball, it is typically 25 feet from the basket. Even when Conley drives to the basket, typically drawing a big man towards him, the wing player assigned to Mayo doesn’t leave his responsibility, meaning that Conley can either dump it off to the now-uncovered big man or take it to the rim himself. He cannot kick it out to an open Mayo though, because he is still being guarded. The defense has made him Priority #1…and now they actually know how to defend him based on the previous games they have reviewed. There is another issue though and that is Mayo himself. All too often, he is seen standing on the wing or in the corner when a possession starts….and he never moves from that spot. Some people would point to that as a problem with the offensive philosophy. But if you watch Mayo on defense, he is being beaten over and over again there, as well.”
Steve Kyler of HOOPSWORLD: “The Sacramento Kings identified Andres Nocioni as a player they wanted at the trade deadline. The Kings had other offers for Brad Miller and John Salmons, some that would have offered interesting pieces, but management wanted Nocioni. They liked his toughness, his style of play and viewed his addition as a means to change the culture and style of play in Sacramento. Nocioni does not seem to feel the same way. ‘If I can get something better, I will make the decision.’ Nocioni said to Spanish language publication Olé as translated by our friends at HoopsHype. ‘If Sacramento can improve, staying is no big deal. The thing is, here they are more focused on not losing money than on the team that’s coming. (Sacramento) is the worst team and being here you find out why… There are many young guys that want to find their niche, but they are so far away… There’s no chemistry or teamwork. I can’t see how this team could be competitive in the near future in the West… The draft is going to save no one. I don’t know, I’ll see what happens this summer. Last year I lost all hope they would pass the ball to me (laughs). I just waited on the corner watching what happened. If the ball came, it came… It rarely did (laughs). It’s the same thing in Sacramento. There’s a lot of young people and a lot of individualistic play.’”
Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star: “Colangelo later offered a defence of his best player – ‘I’ve always known Chris to be of high character,’ he said, ‘and I have every confidence that he’ll take care of responsibility as he has said he will’ – you couldn’t help but be reminded that Colangelo spends considerable time and energy concerning himself with appearances, specifically his and his team’s. And no matter how the ongoing child-support case turns out – and Bosh’s legal representative is expected to respond to the complaint against him in the coming week or so to give the grim picture some balance – it appears Bosh’s days as being known as one of the NBA’s good guys are over, at least for a good while. Don’t think that doesn’t matter to Colangelo. And don’t think it won’t be another key factor in Colangelo’s decision-making process in a coming off-season when the struggling franchise will face difficult questions about its direction. If the allegations in the court filings prove to be true – and that’s a massive if because nothing has been proven in court – it’s difficult to imagine Colangelo proceeding with Bosh on the roster past this season. And even if Bosh’s side of the story is compelling and believable, which anyone who cares about this team can only hope it will be, maybe the damage is done. There’ve been rumblings all season that Bosh wants out. It’s not hard to fathom that, come the off-season, the Raptors will want Bosh out.”
