Matt Calkins of The Press-Enterprise: “‘We didn’t bring enough to the first game. We didn’t bring enough from an energy and competitive standpoint. And they did,’ said guard Rafer Alston, whose point was echoed by teammate Mickael Pietrus. ‘You can get into X’s and O’s after that, but that’s the first thing.’ The fact that Orlando was outrebounded, 55-41, lends proof to the lack-of-energy theory, although Coach Stan Van Gundy said that stat may prompt him to play a bigger lineup in Game 2. But there were two components of the Magic’s offense that seemed to disappear: The dominance of Dwight Howard in the post and the stellar three-point shooting. Howard was just 1 for 6 from the field and finished with 12 points. His explanation? ‘It wasn’t really anything that they did, I just wasn’t patient. I have to be more patient next game,’ he said. ‘I was rushing more than I had in any game of the playoffs.’ And considering the Magic shot less than 30 percent, and was 8 of 23 from beyond the arc, it’s not as though the team can blame him for trying to carry the load. Sharpshooter Rashard Lewis credited the Lakers for contesting threes, but said the poor percentage was more a result of failing to knock down open shots.”
Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: “Orlando Magic point guard Rafer Alston, irked that he sat while some of his playing time had gone to Jameer Nelson in Game 1, softened his stance Saturday. He said he has no problem with Coach Stan Van Gundy. Alston said after Thursday night’s 100-75 loss to the Lakers that he was affected by Nelson relieving him and playing the entire second quarter. Van Gundy said Alston was making an excuse for his subpar play, to which Alston responded, ‘I’ll give you a good excuse. I sat 12 minutes real game-time. I sat about 30 minutes real-life time. There’s your excuse. It’s different. I don’t care who it is.’ On Saturday, Alston laughed off the exchange with Van Gundy. ‘That’s Coach. But I’m not the one to make excuses. Everyone understands about playing. It’s just a rhythm thing. And he understands that I still go out and give him 100 percent effort every time and do what I have to do with the minutes that I’m given,’ said Alston, who played for Van Gundy in Miami. This is my second go-around with Coach and we never have any problems. He and I are on the same page.’”
Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times: “There once was a professional basketball team that was known for being arrogant, heartless and just plain dumb. They won a playoff game by 14 points against a team without its two best players — then lost the next game to this same team by a dozen. They won another playoff game against an outmanned, overmatched team by 40 points — then lost the next game to this same team by five. In those two losses, their starting center scored zero points, their starting point guard allowed a gazillion points, and their coach seemingly never lifted a finger to help any of them. One of their owners called them ‘embarrassing.’ A television announcer openly rooted against them. They were unapologetic, unashamed and completely unlikable. They were the Lakers. Three weeks ago. ‘Man, that seems like it was a different season,’ Pau Gasol said. Well, it wasn’t, and I’ve got the nasty e-mail to prove it, even the most die-hard Lakers lovers throwing up their hands over the team’s lack of conscience and killer instinct.”
Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register: “For a profoundly versatile player who has had 34 points, 22 rebounds, 12 assists, five steals and nine blocks in various NBA games, Odom is setting a more noteworthy career high: He never has been more focused. It’s not that he doesn’t understand what a big deal — or maybe even the last big deal, contract-wise, of his life — awaits him next month. He’s 29. He’s only a kid at heart these days. But that is the context for the present and past, too. He said more than five years ago when he was trying to turn his career around in Miami that he just didn’t want to be considered a ‘loser.’ If he can become a champion, no one can ever say that about Lamar Odom. ‘This is it,’ he said. ‘I’ve been playing basketball for a long time.’ Odom is such a wonderful people-person that he’s not just in this for himself, either. It was said to me recently that no matter how much more money Odom makes, he might well be broke the day after he retires. That’s how big-hearted and giving he is, and he’s much more forthcoming about what a title would mean to his beloved than to him.”
The AP: “There are no apparent signs that Bryant’s wondrous skills are receding. In fact, and this is a scary thought for every other team in the league, Bryant may be just hitting his prime. He has become a smarter, more efficient player. He takes care of his body. His work ethic is unsurpassed. He is driven like never before. Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy laughed when he was asked if he has seen any flaws or erosion in Bryant’s magnificence. ‘Yeah, I thought he dropped off quite a bit the other night,’ he quipped. Van Gundy, who has spent the past two days devising a better scheme to slow L.A.’s No. 24, expects Bryant’s game to evolve in the years ahead. Bryant won’t be able to slash to the basket as often, but he’ll figure out new ways of destroying defenses — just like Mike. ‘That’s what happened to Jordan,’ Van Gundy said. ‘So now even though at the end of his career he might have lost a half step or a quarter step, they get to the basket when they want to because you’ve got to take away that jump shot, and they just get smarter and smarter. Those guys get better and better.’”
Marc J. Spears of The Boston Globe: “Howard and Lakers guard Kobe Bryant expressed respect for Russell and his legacy yesterday. ‘Well, I think the world of him,’ said Bryant. ‘Obviously I’ve had plenty of opportunities to talk to him. He’s given me a lot of great advice. I think it’s well-deserved. He has 11 championships, eight in a row. You know, he’s just great, the ultimate winner.’ Howard, 23, sounded like an NBA historian when talking about Russell and the late Wilt Chamberlain. Howard read ‘Russell Rules’ and has watched old video from Russell’s days with the Celtics. As far as Bill Russell, he’s one of the few big men that I’ve always looked up to, him and Wilt,’ said Howard. ‘And they were the only two big men that I always wanted to meet besides Patrick, and I never had a chance to meet Wilt, but probably the closest person to Wilt was Bill Russell. ‘Russell Rules’ was one of the few books that I really enjoyed. It brought me a little bit closer to him just by reading that book and knowing who he was off the court and how he approached the game of basketball. He was always about team first – basically I’m the same way. My team, that’s the only thing that matters to me.’”
Larry Holder of The Times-Picayune: “‘In this league, you never know what’s going to happen,’ Paul said Saturday morning outside the New Orleans Arena where he and his family handed out hurricane preparedness kits as part of the CP3 Foundation. ‘It’s a business. Contracts are up and different things like that. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens. … We obviously didn’t win a championship this year, so there may be some changes made. We know we’ve just got to get better.’ Paul said he’s spent plenty of time already this offseason talking with Coach Byron Scott and teammate James Posey on what direction the Hornets should go in after bowing out in the first round of the playoffs in April. The goal for the team is to be playing this time next season, Paul said, but he couldn’t come up with specific on-court solutions. Eventually, he pointed the finger at himself. ‘I think (there’s a need to improve) just all around,’ Paul said. ‘It was such an up-and-down season for us. A lot of people would say that just our bench needs to get better. We all have to get better as a collective unit. Definitely our bench has to get stronger. Our first unit, we get down in a lot of games early, so I say it starts with me.’”
Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: “When Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin chose not to return Michael Jordan to the front office in 2003, here’s what Richard Hamilton said: ‘He’s still considered the greatest player to ever play the game of basketball. I don’t think anybody can take that away from him. As a team president, I’m not sure.’ Hamilton played for and with Jordan before being traded to the Detroit Pistons in 2002. Theirs was a difficult relationship, particularly when Jordan came out of retirement as a player, since they’re both best suited to the shooting-guard position. Still, Hamilton’s point to Detroit reporters that day holds true: We don’t know, three years into Jordan running the Charlotte Bobcats, what to make of him as a basketball executive. … Jordan’s role with the Bobcats sometimes seems murky; he isn’t an employee, yet he has final say over basketball decisions. He’s not always around – the Bobcats hold the 12th pick in the June 25 draft and Jordan missed a workout Thursday involving lottery candidates Stephen Curry of Davidson and Gerald Henderson of Duke. The gambler’s instinct and self-reliance that helped make him a great player could work against him in a business where you’re as defined by your misses as your coups.”
Stephen Curry for NBA.com: “I have one more workout scheduled, with New York next Wednesday. Then there are three other teams I’m trying to schedule with from the 15th to the 22nd. We’re still trying to figure out how that’s going to work. New York is big for me and when I’m done with that, we’ll schedule the last three: Washington and two other teams. So we’ll see how that all goes. I did my own workout yesterday and I’m actually taking a summer class right now, so when I come back to Charlotte, I go up to Davidson and meet with my professor. It’s kind of weird coming back to school and going back into the classroom for a little bit. I have seven classes to finish in order to graduate, so this is a step in the right direction. And I have a solid plan to get it done. I’m taking one summer class this year, I’ll try to transfer some credits from community college in whatever city I go to, and then come back to Davidson for one last class in the Sociology department. I have a plan, I’ve just got to get it done.”
Fred Kerber of the New York Post: “Count Devin Harris among the interested parties who wouldn’t mind seeing the Nets draft a third point guard. And if the Nets go in that direction, Harris likes the thought of Syracuse point Jonny Flynn. ‘I’ve watched him a lot. He’s tough, can do a lot of different things on the floor. He can score when you need him to. He handles the ball. He’s quick. He’s strong, can run a team,’ Harris said yesterday at a charity autograph signing appearance for his 34 Ways to Assist Foundation at a Hackensack Dunkin’ Donuts. ‘We need a third point guard,’ Harris said, noting the Nets’ other needs as well, ‘athleticism, somebody who brings toughness, grit. I read about the power forward from Wake Forest [James Johnson] as a possibility.’ But Flynn would enable the Nets to continue using one of their more successful lineups — Harris and Keyon Dooling in the backcourt and Vince Carter at small forward. That’s a lineup Harris said that players, coach Lawrence Frank and team president Rod Thorn all discussed at season’s end. And such a move makes sense with Dooling coming off arthroscopic hip surgery.”
Kelly Dwyer of Yahoo! Sports: “Griffin himself was just what you’d expect. Essentially working 1-on-0 around 6-11 Clippers assistant coach Kim Hughes, he was solid on either block with either hand, going over either shoulder. Plenty of hops to spare, his head was right at the rim on several dunks, while he looked right at 6-9 in shoes. He’ll have issues with his jump shot, which isn’t anywhere near Carlos Boozer’s at this point. He falls backwards on his release, and moves as he comes down, which means the ball is always fading away with a poor rotation. It also showed on his free throws, where he missed more than he made. Still, these are simple mechanics that will be taken care of within a year, probably. Jump straight up, land in the same place. Typical big man stuff. I’m not ready to declare him a borderline All-Star in his second year, a la Kevin Durant, but he’ll be right there eventually.”
Ken Berger of CBSSports.com: “Mike Dunleavy, the Clippers’ coach and GM who’s decided to stake his reputation on Griffin, raved about his character, athleticism, and ball-handling. Griffin’s jumper? Eh. ‘There’s some things with his shot that he has to work on, and he will,’ Dunleavy said. ‘But he shoots the ball well enough from mid-range that you have to guard him.’ On film and in live games, that may have been true. But in this workout, Griffin — by his own admission — shot the ball poorly with nobody guarding him. Dunleavy isn’t concerned, because he picked something up right away that a jump-shooting amateur like myself easily missed: If Griffin bobbles the ball on the catch, his first reaction is to lean his head back when he goes up with the shot. The result was what the 100 or so observers witnessed for most of the workout — short, flat jump shots. That, presumably, can be fixed. What Griffin alone won’t fix is the combustible chemistry that exists on the team he will join in less than a month. He met Baron Davis during his visit — ‘Let’s get this thing rolling,’ Baron told him — but seemed somewhat oblivious to the potential drama that awaits him.”
