CelticsHub: “In three games against Boston this year, LeBron is 10-of-35 from 11 feet and out, and he’s only taken a single shot from between six and 10 feet away from the basket. He’s 17-of-25 one he gets within that range). The strategy worked well in the teams’ last meeting, a 105-94 win–the C’s most impressive of the season–in which LBJ shot just 5-of-15. There’s not much to write that hasn’t already been written. I’d like to see the C’s do a better job on Cleveland’s big men (either Ilgauskas or Varejao–or both–has scored in double figures in all three meetings this season), but that’s an ancillary issue. So I scoured 82games and Basketball Reference looking for some chink in Cleveland’s armor, some undiscovered weakness. And I thought I’d found one: the Cavs are near the bottom of the league (26th) in terms of the percentage of their shots that come from in close. They are a team of mere jump-shooters! They are nothing but a souped-up version of the Bulls! But then you see that they make 63.4 percent of those in-close shots–best in the league.”
Sekou Smith of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “There’s no downplaying the Hawks’ performance this season. Their 46-34 record, with two games to play. Their first home-court advantage since the 1997 playoffs. Their trying five-year turnaround nearing completion. Josh Smith is the only player still on the roster from the 2004-05 season that was marked by a gruesome, NBA-worst 13-69 season. He can’t help but think about the players who have come and gone since that inauspicious beginning. ‘You live to cherish these moments and appreciate these moments when you start the way we did,’ Smith said. ‘The thing is, I’ve truly had fun this whole season. Playing with this team and accomplishing what we have, it’s been as much fun as I’ve had since I’ve been in the league. ‘The only regret is that some of the guys that shed blood, sweat and tears with us along the way aren’t around to enjoy this part of it. Josh Childress is in Greece. And [former Hawks general manager Billy Knight] isn’t around to see what his team has become. And I don’t care how you slice it, this is his team. He put these pieces together and here we are.’”
Janny Hu of the San Francisco Chronicle: “When Anthony Morrow’s black Dodge Challenger finally arrived a few months into the Warriors’ season, the rookie with the sweet shooting stroke saw his days of being chauffeured by C.J. Watson at last come to an end. ‘Now I ride with him,’ Watson said with a smile. It’s a fitting way for Morrow to close out his rookie season, having given the Warriors a lift through much of their downtrodden year. From the time he scorched the nets in summer league, to his historic 37-point starting debut in November and his continuing to lead the NBA in three-point percentage, the undrafted guard has quietly shot down the odds. His stroke is a gift from God, Morrow says. His drive? ‘My mom,’ Morrow answers. ‘She’s my No. 1. We’ve just been through a lot together.’ Angela Morrow worked three jobs to send her son to Charlotte Latin, a prestigious private prep school in North Carolina, and cover all his basketball expenses. She was a driver’s license examiner, a licensed cosmetologist and owned her own cleaning service.”
Dave Hyde of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “Can Riley’s culture help Beasley to greatness in the coming years? Or will Beasley’s simple manner be crushed in this heavy atmosphere? Beasley is such an offensive force the Heat would have been crazy not to draft him. The Heat’s scouting staff told Riley that. He seemed to hesitate, maybe to test their conviction, maybe because his core belief is that talent alone doesn’t equate to greatness. Character is needed. Dwyane Wade working all summer before his rookie year only on dribbling hard with his left hand between midcourt and the foul line. That’s character as Riley sees it. Alonzo Mourning working his way back from kidney disease to the 2006 title. That’s character. But Beasley wearing a Batman mouthpiece in his first pro game? Or singing so loudly in a pre-game locker room teammates tell him to quiet down? Or interrupting a post-game TV interview saying he knows something the show’s host can’t do? ‘You can’t lick your elbow,’ he says. Comedy has its place. But silliness in a rookie makes veterans like Wade sometimes roll their eyes and wonder if they can count on him.”
Eddie Sefko for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “Terry knows his game — coming off screens and moving around the court to free himself from his defender — wouldn’t work without some help. ‘If I win sixth man, it’s been an all-out team award,’ he said. ‘Guys helped me to be comfortable. And the motivation factor comes from [assistant coach] Mario Elie every day. He tells me not to settle, not to relax. He says: ‘You’re the best sixth man in the business, but you got to prove it every night.’ He’s been on my shoulder as a constant reminder.’ Elie, of course, was a pretty fair sixth man in his day. But Terry rips off the list of people responsible for his season like he’s accepting an Academy Award. And this season will produce his highest scoring average other than his second season in the league, when he averaged 19.7 points for an Atlanta team that missed the playoffs. ‘Coach Carlisle, what he’s set up and how he caters to me when I come off the bench in terms of getting me involved right away, that’s big,’ Terry says. ‘And Jason Kidd’s alertness, obviously, being able to find me.’”
Frank Isola of the Daily News: “Chris Duhon was an unexcused no-show in February when the Knicks’ charter flight returned home from Miami the morning after their loss to Dwyane Wade and the Heat. When Stephon Marbury went AWOL in November of 2007, his disappearance became national news. Duhon’s error in judgment, however, barely caused a ripple outside of the Knicks organization. The official word was that Duhon overslept, which is entirely plausible. But the incident did raise additional concerns about Duhon’s lifestyle – which were first broached last summer before Duhon joined the Knicks on a two-year, $12 million contract – and whether his affinity for the nightlife is directly linked to the point guard’s rapidly declining play during the second half of the season. As Donnie Walsh and Mike D’Antoni evaluate 2008-09 and begin building next season’s team, Duhon’s future will be one of the main topics. According to a source, the Knicks will try to upgrade at the position with the idea of making Duhon the backup, which appears to be a more suitable role for him.”
Steve Luhm of The Salt Lake Tribune: “When Karl Malone retired from the NBA and took his family into the rolling hills and towering pine trees of northern Louisiana, he had one fear. ‘Boredom,’ Malone said not long ago, ‘… but that hasn’t been a problem.’ It’s been four years since Malone left the spotlight and celebrity of professional basketball for the peace and tranquility of Ruston, La. Sitting next to Interstate 20 about halfway between Dallas and Jackson, Miss., Ruston is Malone’s hometown in every sense of the word. He grew up there. He learned to hunt and fish there. He won high school state championships there. He went to college there. He buried his mother there. Today, Ruston is where Malone and his wife, Kay, decided to raise their four children, ages 10 to 17. ‘It’s just home, you know?’ Malone said once, when asked about the decision to live in rural Louisiana. ‘We all kind of knew we were going to end up back here. There just comes a time when you say, ‘You know what? I don’t mind sitting back and not having it all be about me.’ It’s about family and what we want to do as people. That was our conclusion.’”
Steve Luhm of The Salt Lake Tribune: “Even though Mother Nature tells a different story — it’s 28 degrees and spitting snow on this particular day — spring break is under way here. School is out. Schedules are less rigid. John Stockton even has a little spare time on his hands, although a last-minute cancellation at a drivers’ education class unexpectedly opens a spot for his daughter, which means a hurried trip across town. No matter. Stockton is used to it. Nearly six years into retirement from the NBA’s Utah Jazz, where he played for 19 memorable seasons, Stockton is a full-time parent and part-time coach who transports more kids more places than a school bus driver. ‘Somebody has to get them to and from,’ Stockton says. ‘You can skip that, I suppose. You can make that choice. But in the best interests of your kids, you juggle it.’”
Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee: “In these final weeks of the season, Hawes’ comfort level on the court has been particularly noticeable. There is both an ease and a heightened intensity in his demeanor. He no longer panics and forces shots, less often tries to thread bounce passes through a crowd of defenders. He contests shots and rebounds more aggressively. Against the 76ers on March 22, he missed a triple double by one assist. Perhaps most importantly, as he demonstrated Thursday against the Rockets by leaning, pushing and working the angles during his standoff with the 7-6, 310-pound Yao, he seems aware of his need to play with more force, offensively and defensively. The next growth spurt, if and when it occurs, will include a critical mental component – a simple willingness to accept and absorb the nightly NBA pounding. ‘Spencer has improved in every area,’ Kings player personnel director Jerry Reynolds said, ‘but the one weakness I see is that he does not draw fouls. He goes away from contact, and at the end of the day, as a center, you have to go in there where the contact is. Get guys up, go into them.’”
Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: “It’s been just over four months since Jay Triano got a life-changing phone call from GM Bryan Colangelo with an offer too good to refuse. And it has been a trying few months since he was elevated from assistant to interim head coach of the Raptors, with more losses than wins, much more disappointment than elation, but ask Triano today if he’s a better man for the experience and the answer comes quickly and unequivocally. ‘Absolutely,’ Triano said yesterday after putting the Raptors through their final practice of the season at the Air Canada Centre. ‘(I’ve got) a better understanding of things. At first I was overwhelmed by the Xs and Os and the preparation for a game that an assistant coach does, and I still do that, but I think as time went on, I got to understand it’s a lot more about the personal dealings with the players and the different ways to motivate different guys and different buttons to push.’”
Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: “Last season, the Nuggets were plagued — big payroll, little defense, faux cockiness, occasional leadership, locusts — but this season, Denver has rid itself of all the plagues but one. And it keeps popping up at inopportune times, like an ex on a first date. Turnovers. Yes, the Nuggets are No. 2 in the West and playing a Naismith-approved brand of basketball. But still ‘the one stat in a playoff situation that I’m a little scared about is teams pressuring us into mistakes or bad shots,’ coach George Karl said. ‘The nemesis of last year.’ Last season, the Nuggets had the 10th-most turnovers in the NBA, the most of any Western Conference playoff team. Indeed, they could do better. This season, the Nuggets average the sixth-most turnovers per game (15.38). ‘Turnovers have been a little bit of an emphasis,’ Karl said. ‘Carmelo (Anthony), J.R. (Smith) and Chauncey (Billups) have got to play a little more cautious.’”
Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: “It’s no longer enough for most teams just to send along statistics that support a player’s candidacy for this award, or that. Now, some teams campaign with what amounts to graft. Some of the promotional material is innocent enough. The Timberwolves sent a spray bottle and their own version of a mini-ShamWow to promote Kevin Love for Rookie of the Year. The bottle, intending to stress Love’s rebounding, is labeled: Mr. Love Miracle Glass Cleaner. It’s sort of cute. The Heat sent an ‘MV3’ T-Shirt and a DVD of Dwyane Wade highlights to promote Wade for MVP. That’s relatively traditional. I applaud the Thunder. Rather than mail a cheesy, themed gift, they e-mailed a PDF file of Rookie of the Year candidate Russell Westbrook’s stats. Then there are the Trail Blazers. Last season they sent iPods to Western Conference coaches to promote Brandon Roy’s All-Star credentials, pre-loading it with his stats and highlights. This year, they sent media voters a sophisticated pen/recorder, called a Pulse Smartpen, to promote Nate McMillan for Coach of the Year. See, they call McMillan ‘the pulse of the Trail Blazers.’”
