Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports: “The Memphis Grizzlies started their game against the Golden State Warriors with Allen Iverson still on the bench. And after the Grizzlies lost again, Iverson’s feelings about not starting also remained unchanged. Iverson totaled 18 points, seven assists and four turnovers in a respectable 27-minute performance during the Grizzlies’ 113-105 loss on Wednesday. But while his playing time increased by 10 minutes from his debut two nights earlier in Sacramento, Iverson still wasn’t happy about two things: He came off the bench. And the Grizzlies lost. No one, Iverson said, should be surprised by his frustration, even Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins. ‘The focus is on it because everybody in this whole world knows that I have a problem with it,’ Iverson said. ‘That’s why it’s an issue. It’s easy to say I’m selfish. My response to that is it’s something I’ve never done. And if we had success with us doing it than obviously I’d want to do it because we are winning basketball games. But if we had no success when we do it, than obviously I would have a bigger problem from the beginning. This media thing is so big. Coach played the game before. He’s seen the things that I’ve done. He knows that I’ve never come off the bench ever in my whole career. So he knows that’s something I’m not accustomed to or something I would want to do. He listens to talk radio and TV, what people say, family members, friends – everybody knows that it’s not something I want to do.’”
Kerry Eggers of The Portland Tribune: “One of the biggest questions coming into the season – how free-agent point guard Andre Miller would fit in – is only beginning to be answered. Miller, coming off the bench in place of starter Steve Blake, showed off his ballhandling and passing talents in Tuesday’s 97-91 loss to Atlanta, dishing out 11 assists with no turnovers in 28 minutes. The 6-3 Miller set up Greg Oden for a sweet second-quarter dunk after a turnover and later threw a thread-the-needle dart to LaMarcus Aldridge for another slam in transition. But Miller isn’t a shooter. Going into Friday’s matchup with San Antonio at the Rose Garden, he is averaging 8.8 points and shooting .316 from the field, including 1 for 5 from 3-point range. The problem is, Blake hasn’t been a shooter yet this season, either. A year ago, Blake was fifth in the league in assists/turnover ratio (3.22) and 13th in 3-point percentage (.427). He hasn’t gotten going yet this fall, shooting .344 from the field though a decent .389 from 3-point range. Take away a 6-for-9 performance Sunday at Oklahoma City and Blake has made only 5 of 23 attempts from the field, including 2 of 10 against the Hawks.”
Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle: “Warriors coach Don Nelson said Wednesday that Anthony Randolph’s future might be as a center. Randolph is listed at 6-foot-11 but says he’s closer to 7- foot. He once was considered the team’s long-term solution at power forward, and many believed that he could develop into a ‘3’ with his assortment of skills. No one seems to know what to make of the second-year player anymore. ‘He’s probably taller than anybody I’ve got on the team right now, and he’s still growing, they tell me,’ Nelson said. ‘Maybe, eventually, center will be his position. I don’t know.’ One thing is certain: The future is not now. Starting center Andris Biedrins picked up his third foul in the opening six minutes against Memphis on Wednesday night, but Nelson didn’t turn to Randolph. Instead, the coach opted for 11th-year reserve Mikki Moore. Randolph is averaging 10 points and 5.5 rebounds in 17.5 minutes a game after a dominating summer-league stretch that earned an invite to the USA Men’s Basketball camp.”
Tim Povtak of FanHouse: “Coming to the defense of his All-Star center, Magic coach Stan Van Gundy didn’t criticize the officials Wednesday night — he didn’t want another fine — but he was clearly critical of the way Dwight Howard is being officiated this season. Howard, the biggest, strongest, best center in the NBA, is being unfairly penalized, according to Van Gundy. ‘He gets penalized for being so strong. We give guys an advantage in this league for being quick, but we penalize them for being strong like Dwight,” Van Gundy said after Howard finished with 11 fouls in the last two games combined. ‘If you hit a perimeter guy on a drive the way they are allowed to hit Dwight all the time around the basket, it would be a flagrant foul.” The Magic pounded the Phoenix Suns, 122-100, Wednesday night and Howard had 25 points, but he played only 23 minutes because of early foul trouble. On Tuesday night, he fouled out after just 17 minutes in a loss against Detroit. In both games, Howard was clearly frustrated by the way the game was being officiated. He received a technical foul in each game, giving him three for the season.”
Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register: “Andrew Bynum showed more stamina than ever before in logging 49 and 45 minutes on consecutive road nights. And he was able to keep his head in the game despite a heated exchange with Phil Jackson after being pulled in the second quarter. It was actually Artest who moved Adam Morrison out of the way to sit down next to Bynum and calm the 21-year-old down. Artest also threw an arm over Bynum’s shoulders in the next timeout huddle to make sure Bynum was staying involved with the team. But Artest nearly wasn’t around to calm Bynum down. Artest said his former Rockets teammates were ‘definitely trying to get me ejected’ by throwing elbows at him, and he acknowledged he might’ve indulged the notion if not for a little NBA commissioner/angel appearing on his shoulder. A jolt from Ariza just minutes into the game – after Artest said Luis Scola already threw one – nearly sent Artest, suspended 72 games by Stern in 2004, back into arrest. ‘I wanted to (choke Ariza) because he hit me with the elbow,’ Artest said. ‘But then I thought about David Stern, and I thought I wasn’t going to do this. I got hit with three or four elbows. It’s just not fair. I don’t want to fight.’”
Jerome Soloman of the Houston Chronicle: “Trevor Ariza claimed he wouldn’t be flustered playing against his former team, but for much of the game, he floundered around Toyota Center as if he had open nerve endings showing. He finished with 15 points and had nine rebounds and five assists, but he never looked comfortable on the court. Rockets coach Rick Adelman wanted Ariza to try to do too much against his former team. He wanted him to try to show the Lakers what they were missing. He wanted Ariza to stick jumpers on one end, block shots on the other and run past the Lakers’ bench making faces at his former teammates. OK, maybe not the face-making, but Adelman wanted some attitude. Ariza kind of brought it, but kind of didn’t. He is just not that guy. Never will be. Ariza just doesn’t have the assassin’s mentality that makes stars super.”
Jim Peltz of the Los Angeles Times: “What has gotten into Chris Kaman — and will it stay there? The Clippers’ center has bolted from the gate to a level that has surprised many.After six seasons in which he averaged 10.4 points a game — including the last two when he was hampered with injuries – Chris Kaman is averaging 22.6 points a game through the first five games of this season. That included 25 points in the win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday, the Clippers’ first victory of the season after opening with four losses. The 7-foot Kaman, 27, also appears to be doing a better job of mixing his repertoire of shots, including left- and right-handed hook shots and fall-away jump shots. So what accounts for the improvement? His willingness to take more outside shots as opposed to driving to the basket, according to his coach. ‘He’s got this great touch, but he was always very reluctant to shoot it,’ Mike Dunleavy said Wednesday after the team’s practice.”
Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia News: “Help and recover. It is one of the most common defensive laws in basketball. Through four games this season, in which they’ve won two, the 76ers appear to have the help part down. It’s the recover part that is giving them the trouble. And that has led to an alarming number of made three-pointers by their opponents. Of the 438 points scored against the Sixers this season, 153 of them, or 35 percent, have come from shots beyond the arc. Opponents have made 51-of-113 treys, or 45 percent. In the season-opener at Orlando, the Magic drained 16 of 29. In the home opener in Milwaukee, the Bucks shot a pedestrian 7-for-23, then Halloween night in New York, the Knicks launched 41 threes, converting 14. Then in Tuesday’s disastrous 105-74 loss to the Celtics, Boston canned 14 of 20. The help and recover principle goes like this: The farther your man is from the basketball, the more the defender slides to the lane for help against penetration and to cut off passing lanes. As the ball moves closer to his man, the defender also gets closer. Once the ball comes to the defender’s assigned player, he should be there as the ball gets there. That’s the recover.”
Mitch Lawrence of the Daily News: “Donnie Walsh didn’t take it personally when his former subordinate, Pacers president Larry Bird, lobbied against Le-Bron James coming to New York next July as a free agent. ‘I have no problem with what Larry said,’ the Knicks president said Wednesday night before New York took on his old team at the Garden. ‘I love Larry. I’m not surprised he’d say that, either.’ Bird’s contention is that James, an Akron native, means too much to Ohio and would be a catastrophic loss to the franchise. It’s hard to argue with either of those points. ‘I like to see the great players stay in the cities and with the teams that drafted them,’ said Bird, who played his entire Hall of Fame career in Boston. ‘So I would rather see him stay.’ Walsh laughed when he heard Bird’s comments. ‘He talks about guys staying in their state, right?’ Walsh said. ‘Well, I wish he had stayed in Indiana. You know, it might have made my life a little easier with the Pacers if he came out of Indiana State and went right to us.’”
Mark Schlueb of the Orlando Sentinel: “When a crane operator at the new Amway Center construction site hoists the final roof beam into place at a ‘topping-off’ ceremony today, it will go on what will be one of the ‘greenest’ arenas in the country. Engineers and architects have designed the Orlando Magic’s new home court to include environmentally friendly features they say will make the arena cheaper to operate. It’s an important point, because the $480 million building is city-owned and its operations will be subsidized by taxpayers. ‘There’s less of an impact on the local environment, and there’s less of an impact on local utilities,’ said Tim Ackert, the city’s venues project director. ‘In the long term, we’ll pay less for power.’ Basketball fans may notice some of the green amenities, such as preferred parking for hybrids and other energy-efficient vehicles that feature outlets so electric cars can plug in. But they’ll be oblivious to most things, such as a high-efficiency heating and cooling system, and probably won’t pay much attention to the ultra-low-flow toilets they flush. The Amway Center was designed to use 20 percent less energy and 40 percent less water than arenas of similar size.”
Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports: “Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling agreed to pay $2.73 million this week to settle a federal case alleging he discriminated in the rental of apartments he owns with his wife in Southern California. The settlement is ‘the largest monetary payment ever obtained’ by the U.S. Justice Department, according to a news release from the organization. It stems from allegations Sterling’s company targeted and discriminated against blacks, Hispanics and families with children in renting apartments in greater Los Angeles. The settlement must still be approved by a federal judge but should also resolve two additional tenant-filed suits alleging racial discrimination. ‘The magnitude of this settlement should send a message to all landlords that we will vigorously pursue violations of the Fair Housing Act,’ said Thomas E. Perez, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. What the magnitude of this settlement should have done is create a wave of questions and condemnations of Donald Sterling from across the NBA. Instead, most incredibly, there hasn’t been a lick of public discussion.”
(Photo by Rocky Widner NBAE/Getty Images)
