Kyle Hightower of the Orlando Sentinel: “Not many people are quick to give Howard – now in his fifth season – credit for his status as a veteran leader. Well, the book on Howard might need a small adjustment. During Friday morning’s shoot around Howard, the Magic team captain, talked about a team-only meeting that he called Thursday – a day after their 99-95 loss to Toronto. The message was simple, but something he felt needed to be said as the Magic head into this final playoff push. ‘I just wanted to talk to the players about how we approach games,’ Howard said. ‘What we do in a locker room before games, how we get ready. We’re usually a pretty loud bunch before a game – that’s who we are, so why stop what you’re doing? But thing I talked about is how we warm-up. Some teams don’t warm up hard and that’s why they come out slow. I want us to come out warm, breaking a good sweat and getting your body ready to go. That’s important for our team…We’ve got to be able to approach the first and third quarter like it’s the fourth quarter.’ While these kinds of speeches often fall on deaf ears, Howard’s teammates responded in a big way during Orlando’s 116-87 blowout win over league juggernaut Cleveland.”
Brian Windhorst of The Plain Dealer: “There’s another side to this that goes deeper than one bad night. The Cavs have lost the season series (1-2) to the Magic, a potential playoff opponent, for the second consecutive year. Against the Celtics, Lakers and Magic they are now 0-5 on the road and 2-6 overall, which somewhat takes the teeth out of their mighty record. A couple days ago, they had a three-game lead in the loss column on the Lakers for the NBA’s best record. Now it is just one. They still have a four-game cushion on the Magic and Celtics for the No. 1 seed in the East, but neither may be feeling very scared considering they are both 2-1 against the Cavs. Back to the massacre. Orlando (56-19) had seven players in double figures a night after the Wizards had seven. They ended up shooting 54 percent, a night after the Wizards shot 51 percent, but it was over 60 percent for part of the third quarter. The Magic only made four 3-pointers, their forte, in the first half. In the second half, when they started falling, it turned into a nightmare.”
Lynn Worthy of the Lowell Sun: “‘Orlando was a great example the other night,’ Rivers said, explaining Garnett’s absence on defense. ‘Before you had a four who could stand out and guard the Rashard Lewises of the world. You take Kevin off the floor, now we have Baby (Davis) guarding Rashard Lewis. That’s a tough cover for us. It just changes us defensively. ‘It does change. I would say over all of them it’s our pick and roll coverage and then our help-side defense. It’s a huge difference not having him.’ And if Garnett can’t do all the things he usually does, or he can’t do them at the same level? I’d say that is a huge difference. Depending on how the seeding falls, there are several athletic forwards capable of exploiting a physically limited Garnett, including Lewis (Orlando), Michael Beasley (Miami), Josh Smith (Atlanta) and Rasheed Wallace (Detroit). That’s not even factoring in his impact on players he’s not defending directly. His presence on defense would normally change their games as well.”
Dave D’Alessandro of the Star-Ledger: “The writers, indeed, vote for most NBA postseason awards. Coaches (All-Rookie and All-Defensive Teams) and Executives (Exec of the Year) also have some balloting responsibilities. And judging by exit polling, Rose will probably win Rookie honors — partly because his Bulls are in eighth place in the East, while Lopez’s Nets are sitting in 11th. But if the standings were flipped, ‘I’d still think he’s done more for his team,’ Lopez said. ‘He’s shouldered more of the load, I guess.’ Lawrence Frank wasn’t taking a side: ‘We strongly believe he’s one of the top rookies in the league, that he’s made great, great progress, and that he has huge upside,’ the Nets coach said of Lopez. ‘And obviously we know Rose is on a very high level. I think they play the two toughest positions — one’s a point guard, one’s a center. Both have had tremendous years. ‘It’s such a subjective criteria. I mean, how you view it is totally up to you.’ Just the same, Frank added, he’d rather leave it up to the quasi-objective writers than he would his peers, who butcher the All-Defensive ballot annually.”
Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “When another harrowing finish was over, when the Heat finally got it right, when injuries to the power rotation couldn’t suffocate his team’s spirit, Dwyane Wade stood in the middle of the locker room. ‘This,’ the Heat guard told his teammates, ‘is a big accomplishment.’ No, he wasn’t talking solely about the 97-92 victory over the Bobcats, one accomplished amid a significant injury to power forward Udonis Haslem. Instead, it was the journey that got the Heat to this point, to this playoff-clinching victory. ‘It’s very rewarding,’ Wade said. To put the climb from last season’s league-worst 15-67 record into perspective, consider this is only the second time in league history a team has made the playoffs a year after finishing with 15 or fewer victories.”
Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: “They started Friday’s game like a defensive juggernaut, but defensive efforts this season mostly have been for naught. Despite off-season maneuvering of the roster and an emphasis in training camp to improve the defense, the Suns have regressed in that department. Entering Wednesday, the Suns’ defensive field-goal percentage (46.5) was lower than in any of the previous four seasons, when the defense was consistently maligned. Basketball-reference.com has a defensive stat that also factors in the true value of 3-point shooting. Phoenix ranked 20th in the NBA in that one Wednesday after finishing eighth last season. ‘We were pretty good this year up to a point, and then we had a couple of games where we allow 55-56 shooting percentage, and those are hard to win,’ Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. Phoenix set statistical goals for each game before the season started, including a defensive field-goal percentage of 45.0. In their first 37 games, the Suns kept opponents under that 18 times. In the next 38 games, it happened nine times.”
Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: “Shaun Livingston showed Friday night he still has some of what made him such a special prospect. Showed he still can weave his way through traffic. Still sets up his teammates with precise passes. Still hits stop-and-pop jumpers with consistency. And still is the floor general he used to be before his left knee gave out and derailed his career. In only his first game since Dec. 6 — and his fifth since Feb. 26, 2007 — Livingston was the best player on the court for the Thunder in a 107-72 blowout loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. He finished with 10 points on 5-for-6 shooting to go with three rebounds, one assist and one blocked shot in 27 minutes. Livingston had only one turnover. ‘I thought he played well,’ said coach Scott Brooks. ‘I thought he played the way you have to play basketball. He’s going to continue to get better. He’s a young kid that loves the game and is going to compete. We’re going to work with him, and he’s going to grow right along with us.’”
Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: “Spurs coach Gregg Popovich did not use the term ‘perpetuity’ when discussing Manu Ginobili’s new role Friday night, but he might as well have. Ginobili made his second consecutive start against Indiana, and just his sixth of the season. This is the lineup Popovich plans to take into the playoffs, hoping to maximize the minutes Ginobili, Tony Parker and Tim Duncan spend on the court together. ‘I just think Manu coming off the bench has run its course,’ Popovich said before the Spurs held on for a 126-121 victory over the Pacers. ‘It’s time for the three of them to play together. They’re our best three players. They’re going to make each other better on the court.’ The NBA’s reigning Sixth Man of the Year, Ginobili has started just 44 of the 147 games he has played over the past two seasons.”
Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post: “Another sign that this Nuggets team might be something special: After losing eight of 11 games starting Feb. 20, they turned it around and started playing their best basketball of the season. ‘Definitely,’ forward Carmelo Anthony said. ‘As a team, as a whole, we are definitely playing our best basketball.’ The result is a division championship within reach. Utah buried itself even further in the division race with a head-scratching loss to Minnesota on Friday night, the third loss in a row for the Jazz. The loss dealt a blow to Utah’s hopes for home-court advantage in the playoffs. The Nuggets are four games up on the Jazz in the Northwest Division race with six games left for both teams. Portland is a more complicated situation. The Nuggets and Trail Blazers appear to be on a collision course for a division-deciding, regular-season finale between the two in Portland on April 15.”
Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register: “Give the Lakers a better than 50 percent chance now of achieving their season-long goal of home-court advantage over everyone. The Lakers should not lose again this season, and because of the tiebreaker from their head-to-head sweep of Cleveland, the Lakers would then need the Cavaliers to lose just one time. That’s the primary season the Spurs-Cavaliers game Sunday in Cleveland will be compelling, but that is going to be a game that pulls the veil back further on which of those teams really has a championship look. If San Antonio can win on the home court Cleveland has dominated when the Cavaliers will also bring full effort to avoid a third consecutive loss, it will show us something about the challenge the Spurs can give the Lakers in the playoffs. Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker will all be playing Sunday, by the way. Even if the Cavaliers win Sunday – and they should – they still have some iffy ones: at home against Boston and on the road against Philadelphia and Indiana.”
Johnny Ludden of Yahoo! Sports: “For the better part of the evening, Kobe Bryant had bided his time, surveying the Houston Rockets’ defense for cracks, holstering his own shot as the confidence within his teammates grew. Finally, the moment called for him. Shane Battier buried a 3-pointer to press the Rockets closer to the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant took the ball on the left wing, measured the distance between him and Battier, and let fly with his 25-foot answer. Twenty-eight seconds later, Bryant skirted off a pick and quickly fired another 3-pointer over the head of Battier. This time, Bryant paused to watch the shot slide through the net, holding his right hand aloft as he admired his work. The Rockets’ shoulders slumped, but Bryant’s daggers pierced far deeper than the opposing bench. Some two hours earlier, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers had jetted out of Orlando on the heels of a 29-point loss that James called ‘embarrassing.’ By the time the Cavs touched down in Cleveland, they knew this much: Kobe isn’t ready to concede the MVP race – or home-court advantage – to LeBron just yet.”
