Points in the Paint

» May 28, 2009 9:31 PM | By Brandon Hoffman

Steve Aschburner of SI.com: “Everything the Magic have accomplished since mid-April argues persuasively against any claims or concerns they are not fit for postseason success. Even the stats that don’t go their way say something profound, that maybe Orlando’s crew is tougher internally than they’ve been given credit for. They are, for instance, 5-0 when shooting better than 50 percent, but 6-6 when they don’t; their opponents are 4-0 but 2-11 by the same standards. Orlando is 5-2 when it gets fewer free throws than the other guys, 7-3 when it gets fewer assists, 6-5 when it is outrebounded and 5-3 on nights it turns over the ball more often. That suggests a resourcefulness that most playoff teams would kill for.”

Rob Petersen of NBA.com: “While the Orlando Magic went through their practice this morning at Quicken Loans Arena today, the game clock above each hoop read: 1.0. Hmmm, 1.0, 1.0. Why does that look familiar? What happened at the Q with one second remaining the last time the two teams met here in Game 2? Oh, wait. That’s where amazing happened. Credit the Magic, who have kept their focus on the court instead of playing mind games, for barely even noticing until someone brought it up. ‘We don’t control the clock, they do,’ Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said referring to the Q arena operations. ‘I guess they’re trying to intimidate us.’”

John Hollinger: “It wasn’t that the zebras were part of some grand pro-Lakers conspiracy. (Seriously, people, you need to stop with this.) And I doubt that the refs were reacting to Jackson’s comments to the media — somehow I don’t think Tom Washington picked up a USA Today at his hotel Thursday morning and thought, ‘Man, I better give Phil some calls tonight.’ No, the problem is a more basic one: consistency. If players don’t know what a foul is from night to night or quarter to quarter, it’s inevitable that they’re going to be upset, and equally inevitable that fans are going to start flinging conspiracy theories at the wall to explain what they’re seeing. In a perfect world, the words “adjusting to the officiating” would never have to be mentioned. Whether I’ve been watching in person or on TV, it’s hard not to notice that the overall quality of the officiating is worse than it was, say, four or five years ago, and that the night-to-night consistency has been erratic as well.”

Frank Isola of the Daily News reports that Stephen Curry has his eye on the Knicks: “Stephen Curry reiterated on Thursday that his first preference is to be taken by the Knicks in next month’s NBA Draft. ‘The system and the fact that they need a point guard that can shoot lines up just for me, I think,’ Curry, the Davidson guard, said in an interview with SNY at the NBA combine in Chicago. ‘(Mike) D’Antoni likes to get up and down and that’s how I’ve played all my life. And I can make an open shot. So right now that looks fun for me.’ Curry added: ‘I can come in and be a point guard that could spread the defense with my scoring ability.’ I wonder how Chris Duhon feels about Curry saying the Knicks ‘need a point guard.’”

ESPN’s Bill Simmons has plenty of ideas on how to improve officiating. Here’s one of his many criticisms: “The NBA’s failure to develop a new generation of decent referees might be its single biggest misfire of the past 20 years. You can’t tell me that someone in their mid-50s or older has the same eyesight and reaction time as people 20-30 years younger. I can’t think of another profession that works quite this way: No accountability, no repercussions, nothing.”

Ramona Shelburne of the Los Angeles Daily News: “When Lamar Odom is gone, you only sense the loss. He’s still there, floating around the court, winking into the crowd, making plays here and there. But there’s a sense that he’s not quite present. Something about the entire team feels lacking, even though it’s hard to put your finger on just what it is. A spark? A scream? A soul? But when Lamar Odom is here, as he was in the Lakers’ 103-94 win over the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night, playing with the energy he had as a 16-year-old on the courts of New York’s Rucker Park and not the hobbled gait of an elderly man as he has been since bruising his back two weeks ago, what has been missing immediately comes into focus: Joy. ‘I really can’t tell you what it is, because I’m not L.O.,’ guard Shannon Brown said. ‘But whatever it is, it brings good things to us. We feed off it.’ The entire game feels more full of life. More electric. More exciting. Odom screams, flexes his biceps after a thunderous dunk over Denver’s winged ‘Birdman,’ Chris Andersen, and the 18,997 souls inside Staples Center on Wednesday night scream so loud the place seems like it lifts off its foundation for a split second.”