Points in the Paint

» April 28, 2009 7:27 PM | By Brandon Hoffman

Dave McMenamin of NBA.com: “Steve Kerr and John Paxson were Winter’s favorite players, according to Jackson, because they appreciated the subtleties of the triangle. ‘One of my favorite stories is Tex turning to Phil after Michael [Jordan] took several shots in a row and Tex turns to him and goes, ‘Ah, Phil, get him out of there! Get Kerr in there for him,’ Kerr recalled in a phone interview with NBA.com. ‘I thought that was the greatest thing ever. I was lucky to be in the league and here’s Tex, the offense isn’t being run correctly, so he wants Phil to take the greatest player ever out of the game and put me in. But that’s Tex. It didn’t matter who was involved, he wanted things executed correctly. He believed there was a right way and a wrong way and it didn’t matter who you were.’”

Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “Beasley went into Monday’s Game 4 shooting 11 of 36, at times trying to force the action with his jump shot. ‘He’s such a gifted offensive player, when he gets a couple of open looks like that, he expects to make it,’ Spoelstra said. ‘It’s a great personality trait of his, and that’s a part of his competitiveness. ‘He’s learning. He’s learning that every single possession, you’ve got to be into it.’ Beasley acknowledged playoff basketball has been an eye-opener. ‘Every little play, every dribble, every shot, it’s crazy. Everything is like 100 times faster,’ he said.”

From Dwight Howard’s blog: “Ever since the playoffs started, I’ve been going back to the gym at night to work on my free throws and get up some extra shots. And so far, I’ve been able to see the benefits of putting in all the extra work. My percentage on my free throws is pretty good through the first four games of this series against Philly. In the playoffs, one or two points can make all the difference in winning or losing and that’s why I’m so locked in on trying to hit all of my free throws. Hitting those two free throws at the end of Game 3 to tie it up was like a dream come true for me. Every athlete, especially big men like me, dream of going up there and winning a game at the line and quieting the crowd. To me, it’s actually easier to shoot free throws on the road than at home where it’s quiet. On the nights that we have off I’ve been going to the gym, working on shooting 300 free throws and trying to build my confidence.”

Scott Bordow of the East Valley Tribune: “Sarver can’t stand the notion of starting over from scratch, even though he agrees with Kerr’s assertion that the Suns aren’t a championship team. ‘I didn’t get into this business to make money or sit and watch my team lose,’ Sarver said. ‘I’m not prepared to do a three- or four-year rebuilding period and win 25 or 30 games a year. I feel I’d be letting the community down. Plus, I like to win. Losing would be too difficult for me.’”

Maury Brown of the Biz of Basketball: “Billy Hunter, the union head of the NBA Players Association, is asking that all the owners in the NBA open their books as part of the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations. ‘We would like as much information as we can get,’ Hunter said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg News. ‘I would welcome them completely opening up their books.’ In response, NBA league spokesman Tim Frank said in an email, ‘We will open the books of all teams as part of collective bargaining, just as we have done in our prior negotiations with the players.’ But, there’s more to this little Hunter’s excursion than what is on the face of it. For one, the owners’ books are audited each year, with full disclosure to the NBPA, as part of the NBA salary cap process. What Hunter is most likely looking for is a bit of book juggling, hence the ‘completely opening the books’ comments.This would be directed at the likes of James Dolan who owns the Knicks and Madison Square Garden, the NHL Rangers, and MSG Network. With Dolan having multiple holdings outside of the Knicks, apparently Hunter feels there’s the possibility that information that is revealed within the auditing process for the cap isn’t enough to tell whether the players might be getting bamboozled.”

Carly Zander of Send2Press.com: “There are times when a team transcends the game and steps over the boundaries of the sports pages and into the consciousness of a nation. It could be argued that the Chicago Bulls during the mid 1990’s was such a team – so well known that even people who never opened an issue of Sports Illustrated could name the starting lineup. The ‘repeat the three-peat’ wins of the NBA finals of ‘96, ‘97, and ‘98 created a cadre of basketball superstars and characters and set the bar at a new high for the next generation of players. Now a little piece of that victory is up on the auction block. In a testament to the far reach of the recession, former Bulls guard and assistant coach to the Sacramento Kings, Randy Brown, has declared bankruptcy, and his three championship rings will be for sale to the highest bidder via online auction at WestAuction.com.”

Charley Rosen scouts Rajon Rondo and concludes: “In three years, Rajon Rondo will be the standard of excellence for NBA point guards.” High praise from an analyst who goes to great lengths to rip most players to shreds.

Kelly Dwyer of Yahoo! Sports: “Let’s talk about LeBron James for a second, if you wouldn’t mind. 32 points per game on 51 percent shooting, 11.3 rebounds, 7.5 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.5 turnovers. Three blocks overall in the series. Now, those are astonishing numbers. Let me toss something else at you. The average amount of possessions per game in this series was 84. 84 possessions per game. The Blazers and Pistons averaged about 87 possessions per game during the regular season, and they were by far the slowest teams in the league. Those stats are a-ma-zing.”

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