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| Lakers draw first blood, take Game 1 of the NBA Finals
June 4, 2010 at 12:15 AM
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Showcasing an active attack that relied on brute strength as often as the team's typical finesse game, the Los Angeles Lakers struck first in the NBA Finals, winning Game 1 102-89.
It was a contest marked by whistle after whistle, with a Joey Crawford-led crew calling 54 personal fouls and three technical fouls, infractions that led to some rather stilted play. But no group of zebras were taking this game away from the defending champs. Phil Jackson's crew came through with their typically stout third quarter, outscoring the Celtics 34-23. Kobe Bryant(notes) led the Lakers with 30 points (with seven rebounds and six assists), but he had help from all angles. Pau Gasol(notes) absolutely dominated Kevin Garnett(notes) on both ends, finishing with 23 points while sitting out only 86 seconds all night. Gasol's 14 rebounds (eight on the offensive end) highlighted a clear Laker advantage on the glass, as the Lakers were getting offensive boards on over 40 percent of their misses well into the third quarter. "The Lakers were clearly the more physical team today," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "They were more aggressive. And the team's that's more aggressive gets more calls." The Celtics actually attempted (36 to 31) and made (30 to 24) more free throws than the Lakers in the loss, but Rivers was right in his take on the level of activity his team showcased. "The 50/50 game was 17-4, [Lakers]," Rivers said, referring to the loose balls that can go either way, loose balls that Los Angeles came up with 17 times out of 21 chances. "Before the game we told them the key to the game was rebounding, and [stopping] dribble penetration. We didn't do either one. They killed us on the glass."  Rebounding was the recurring theme. Boston big men Kendrick Perkins(notes) and Kevin Garnett combined to play more than 59 minutes in Game 1, and yet they still managed to team for seven rebounds, with three of those coming in the final nine minutes of Garnett's fourth quarter. The Lakers had a 16-0 advantage in second-chance points, which is a startling mark at this level. The Celtics missed 38 2-point shots and nine 3-pointers, and yet they couldn't score a single point off of an offensive rebound.
Some of that credit had to go to the Lakers' start. In a postseason that had seen the Celtics striking first against previous opponents, startling them with physical first-quarter play, it was the defending champs who drew first blood on Thursday, leading by nine points by halftime. "I knew it was going to be physical," Gasol said. "That's a given. We did a good job getting into the paint and finishing, and controlling the rebounding on the defensive end." During the regular season, the Celtics were actually the third-worst team in the NBA in pulling in offensive fouls per-possession, but that was mainly a function of the importance the team places on sending players back on defense than it is activity levels or rebounding acumen. But in Game 1, Doc Rivers' team had no excuses. The Celtics were simply not ready to compete on Los Angeles' level. Boston did make a comeback of sorts, pulling within 11 points in the fourth quarter, but most of that run took place with Kobe Bryant off the floor. Following Bryant's return, Phil Jackson was displeased with the way Los Angeles "fell into the habit of dropping the ball into Kobe's hands" and letting him work one-on-one. Bryant made a 3-pointer in the game's final seconds, but it was his first make of the fourth quarter in six tries from the field. Bryant's relative troubles and Boston's improved defensive play wasn't nearly enough, though. The Celtics simply could not string together enough scores in the fourth, as even their big comeback quarter -- the chance to make a game of it -- saw the team miss 10 of 17 shots from the floor. Following the contest, Paul Pierce(notes) was equally shocked and confident moving forward. "I looked up, and we had given up 100 points," he said. "I haven't seen that in a while. "I know my team. I'll know we'll bounce back." If that's going to be the case, his team will have to play completely different than the one we'd come to know on Thursday night. An extended Behind the Box Score covering Game 1 will follow on Friday morning.
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| Video: Even Chris Rock can't distract Kobe Bryant
June 3, 2010 at 11:15 PM
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| Saying Kobe Bryant(notes) is focused is like saying tacos are delicious — it's a major understatement. To throw Kobe Bryant off his game you're going to need more than trash talk, flying elbows or crowd noise. You're going to need one of the funniest stand-up comedians of the past 20 years, someone who knows just what to say to get under a person's skin. You need someone like Chris Rock, and even then, results aren't guaranteed. I've been laughing at that reveal since the moment it popped up on ABC's broadcast. Kobe Bryant could sit through a hurricane i! f it happened during a Finals game. Kobe summed up his mentality best in his postgame news conference, telling ABC's Doris Burke that when he's playing basketball "nothing else matters." Either he's a big Metallica fan, or he's intent on getting his fifth ring. Probably both. | | |
| Game 1's pre-game recap
June 3, 2010 at 8:35 PM
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Before Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Boston coach Doc Rivers, Lakers counterpart Phil Jackson, and NBA Commissioner David Stern met the league's media. Here's a recap.
Stern's press conference included the usual deflections, and everything-is-swell ethos. "It's as good as any time to be a fan," he started, which isn't that far off, before deftly touching on the impending labor negotiations, LeBron James'(notes) free agency, the possibility for regular season games in London, and the idea that there could be some sort of official summit between free agents like LeBron, Dwyane Wade(notes), Chris Bosh(notes), Amar'e Stoudemire(notes), and Joe Johnson(notes). "There is no free agent summit." Stern informed the room. When asked to elaborate, he told the assembled media that "these players talk to each other all the time. I've been assured, at the highest level, that there is no summit. If some sort of tampering is indicated, I will have a different view." Asked about President Barack Obama's hope that the NBA could somehow lower ticket prices to games in order to make it so the average family could afford more (or any, really) nights out at an NBA arena, Stern pointed out that the league's teams "have a minimum of 500 very low prices at NBA arenas," adding that teams try to go out of their way to offer all manner of lower-priced packages including food and seats for entire families. Then again, how good could those seats be, after hearing this quote: "The President has a standing invitation, though I don't know if he would sit in those seats." When asked if the Finals had become too top-heavy, with a concentration of Laker and Celtic Finals appearances, Stern wondered aloud if he should have taken "Bill Russell and Red Auerbach" off the Celtics, but curiously (or, incuriously, if you ponder for a moment) sarcastically pointing to Laker ownership, instead of the team's litany of Hall of Fame on-court contributors. Mentioning longtime Laker owner Dr. Jerry Buss in Russell and Auerbach's place, instead of throwing a bone to Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, or Jerry West. Stern told the media that he didn't really have a problem with LeBron James meeting with Larry King in the same week that the NBA's showcase series started. The commissioner "I'm the demographic, I don't think anyone watched it," before pointing out that it was to LeBron's credit that he was included in a week long lineup on King's show featuring "the President, Bill Gates, and Lady Gaga." In terms of NBA Players Association chief Billy Hunter's declaration that the league had not, in fact, lost $400 million last season, Stern (who spent his youth working in his father's deli) proposed that Hunter's "meat is low," a phrase that even Wikipedia couldn't help with. Stern went on to say that, while the NBA has seen a few new owners take to teams over the last year (with a potential new buyer in Golden State), that the impetus behind those deals had more to do with owners wanting to get in on a financial landscape that would change after a new collective bargaining agreement. *** Rivers was quick, businesslike, and it's worth guessing as to whether or not the controversy surrounding one of his assistant coaches might be getting to him. Adrian Wojnarowski reported, just as Rivers was taking to the podium, that the Boston head coach had confirmed a meeting between Celtic assistant Tom Thibodeau, and Bulls kinda-GMs Gar Forman and John Paxson. Forman and Paxson had flown into Los Angeles the day before the first game of the Finals to interview the highly-regarded Boston assistant as unconfirmed rumors of a deadline imposed by the New Orleans Hornets to for Thibodeau to take the open Hornets job swirled. Beyond Rivers, though, "everybody is good." The coach continued. "Everybody is healthy, feels good, rested and ready to play." Save for, oh yeah, Marquis Daniels(notes). The Celtics wing had been easy to forget after a disappointing 2009-10, and took a particularly nasty stinger after bumping into Marcin Gortat(notes) in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals. Daniels "is out" for Game 1, though "he actually did drills yesterday." "Before the series is over," Rivers guessed, "I think Marquis will be playing." *** Jackson was clearly a bit startled, as were some in the newsroom, to hear of John Wooden's ill health. Wooden's work as UCLA coach had been "an inspiration to all of us coaches." A 10-time champion as coach, Wooden "established a goal that is unreachable in college sports." Asked about a comparison to the 2008 Celtics, the team that beat that year's Laker squad in six games, and this year's outfit, Jackson thought defense-first. Boston was able to pull away two years ago because of the team's "defensive capabilities, their tenacity, their interior presence on the floor, their momentum swing at Game 4 in the middle of that first half that changed the course of the game." Jackson thought Rasheed Wallace(notes), the latest veteran center/forward to provide a defensive impact off the Celtic bench, as just as good a defender as the since-retired P.J. Brown(notes) (late-season mainstay of the 2008 team), though he pointed out that Wallace is "not quite as mobile perhaps as P.J. was," which seems a bit odd on first listen, but probably correct overall. As has become a Finals tradition, Jackson was pressed in an oddly passive/aggressive and yet not all that entertaining way by L.A. Times columnist T.J. Simers. Today's back and forth included a reference to a guest column in the Times written by former Celtic Kevin McHale, who "gives the edge in coaching to Doc Rivers," although McHale hardly shot down Jackson to build Rivers up. "Kevin McHale gave them Kevin Garnett(notes)." Jackson shot back. "That's somebody calling the kettle black." The metaphor may have been mixed, but the point sustained. Jackson ended the presser by, once again, refusing to commit to either staying with the Los Angeles Lakers, heading elsewhere to coach, or retiring. Silly him, pretending to know about his future, when he hasn't made a decision yet.
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| BDL's Game 1 Live Blog!
June 3, 2010 at 7:30 PM
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|  This is a pleasant little treat, isn't it?
After a postseason that droned on for too long, gave us some of the more one-sided series' we've seen in decades, wasted our time, wasted our effort, wasted our eyes - Reggie Miller - we've got the Celtics and the Lakers in the Finals. Two legendary franchises, two legendary teams. These teams, full of Kobe and Pau and the Truth and KG and Scalabrine. So join myself, and Ball Don't Lie Editor Trey Kerby - jokes! - as we live blog Game 1. I'll be live from Los Angeles, Trey will be live from the living room of an unnamed former member of the Marshall Tucker Band, and you will be lively with your comments and questions. Just click the jump around game time - around 8:45 p.m., Eastern - and we'll have the goods. You'll have the goods. We'll all have the goods. And we'll have a series worth watching. Go, NBA. | | |
| Game to pay attention to: Game 1 of the Finals
June 3, 2010 at 5:45 PM
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|  Boston at Los Angeles Lakers, Game 1 of the NBA Finals
This has to be Boston's game. They have to take this if they want a legitimate chance at winning the championship this season. Are they championship-caliber? Sure. I wouldn't exactly call this a coin flip series, but these two teams are terribly close, and the C's have a great deal of matchup advantages in several areas. But Boston also has the 2-3-2 format working against it, and I'm sorry, Boston isn't winning three home games in a row unless something out of the blue changes things. So tonight has to be it for Boston. A chance to, essentially, get back to Los Angeles for Games 6 and 7 up 3-2. That's not thinking too far ahead. That's thinking about what Boston has done in the past. Likely, namely, the way it destroyed Orlando in the first game of the Eastern Conference finals. Now, the Lakers are better than the Magic at their best, but the Magic were a fantastic team this season, one that won more games than the defending champs did in 2009-10. But a week-long layoff for Orlando, and the outright shock of having to match up with that furious Boston defense straightaway allowed the Celtics to take an early advantage that they were able to hang onto, despite Orlando making adjustments and coming back to make a game of it. Toss in a pivotal coin flip game in Game 2, and you had the Magic on the ropes. The Celtics won't take two from Los Angeles here in California, but they can get a split, and prepare themselves for the Lakers possibly re-taking homecourt advantage back sometime next week. How to work it? Well, I'd go at Andrew Bynum(notes). Attempt to work on his side of the court, and get him in foul trouble. Bad knee or not, Bynum can be a factor, and you want him off the court. I'd go right at Ron Artest(notes), and I'd see how the referees are calling it. If Paul Pierce(notes) has a 12-free throw game, then the Celtics are in the driver's seat. You then have to come out with some fever-pitch work, defensively. No way around it. Have to force the Lakers into shortening their ball movement, limiting its own options, and going away from a five-man attack. Because when the Lakers go penny-wise, that's when they go pound-foolish. And as many game winners as Kobe hit this season, there were still just as many (more than just as many, probably) games where an out of sync Laker offense paid the price down the stretch for not establishing other options earlier on with ball movement and penetration. The way to make that penny-wisdom a possibility is to come out with fourth quarter defense in the first quarter, just as the Celtics did in their wins over the Magic and Cavaliers. Have to establish that buffer, early, because the Boston offense has been falling apart all season in the fourth quarter. And with Kobe and Artest milling around, ready to lock down, you do not want to be in a situation where you have to answer with a bucket too often in the fourth quarter. This isn't a series to be eased into. This is a series to take, now. Either team. Get at it, men. | | |
| If LeBron James stays in Cleveland, he'll be eating well
June 3, 2010 at 3:45 PM
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As the editor of a well-read basketball blog, I feel it is my duty to keep you up-to-date on all happenings regarding LeBron James'(notes) free agency. It's a big story and a burden that I am willing to bear. As such, I must present to you today's hilarious recruiting tool for LeBron James. This one, my friends, is a good one. Michael Symon of "Iron Chef" fame — he made his name in Cleveland — has offered to come to James' house and cook dinner for him and his friends if he stays with the Cavaliers. He posted ! the offer in a letter on his Facebook page, so you know he's serious. Dear LeBron, I first off would like to thank you for what you have done for the fine city of Cleveland. You have created a energy downtown that has not been seen in years and have allowed businesses to thrive beyond their wildest dreams. I know the decisions you have to make in the upcoming weeks will be difficult and I hope you follow your heart. I truly believe regardless of where you go championships will follow because you are just that damn good and that each city will embrace you (although not as much as Ctown..lol). As a fan of all sports I truly believe the greatest legends have built their status with one team (Emmit, Troy, Jeter, Magic, Bird, Brown, Russell..etc)...hell even MJ will only be remembered as a Bull. Regardless of what you decide I will always be a fan mainly because I know firsthand what a class ac! t you are and would never fault someone who feels they are doi! ng the b est thing for their career and family. That being said I hope you choose to stay in Ctown with the Cavs so I can watch you finish what you started which is something not many people get to do. Best of luck, MS PS...I've never really been one to beg or bribe but if you do choose to stay I'll come over once a month to cook up a Iron Chef style dinner for your family and friends!!
Seems like a chill offer. Any time you can get a world-renowned chef in your house to make a meal, you should do whatever it takes to make it happen — even if that means signing a multi-million dollar contract to play basketball. We all have to sacrifice sometimes, and I think LeBron would be silly to hold on to his free agency power instead of enjoying a delicious home-cooked meal. I'm not kidding when I say it'd be worth it. To paraphrase an old saying, the w! ay to a man's contract is through his stomach. Truer words have never been uttered. (h/t ProBasketballTalk) | | |
| Under pressure: What big games do to players and how they cope
June 3, 2010 at 2:50 PM
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Nothing feels normal when the whole world's watching. You're in the NBA Finals, playing the most important game of your life, and things don't feel right. You don't know why, but you damn sure know they don't. "Everything is magnified," explained Dr. Leonard D. Zaichkowsky. But it's not just the fact that there's a title on the line: "There's going to be different lighting, the music will be even louder, and [there's] just more attention." And yet, you've got to perform. It's Zaichkowsky's job to help you do that. Zaichkowsky is a world-renowned expert in sports psychology who just wrapped up a 27-year career as a professor at Boston University, during which he served as the consulting sport psychologist for BU's athletics department. All of the external trappings that make big games like tonight's Game 1 between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics seem different are, in Zaichkowsky's view, "nothing more than distractions." And the players on the floor need to remember that. "Making them aware" is the key, he told Ball Don't Lie during a recent interview. "Their focus is so important, their concentration, and these little distractions ... they're subtle, but they add up." Zaichkowsky ought to know; he's been teaching players how to dispense with distraction and focus on their function for decades. In fact, he said, he "started a lot of this stuff in about 1985, before it was very common to do this stuff." "This stuff" is the application of principles of psychophysiology — a branch of psychology that studies the interaction between functions of the mind and body and how something that impacts one can impact the other — to the world of sports. Zaichkowsky's colleague, Bruno Demichelis, has made headway into the use of psychophysiology, biofeedback and neurofeedback in professional sports. Through his company MindRoom Sports Science Inc., Demichelis has had major success in Europe, working first with Italian soccer powerhouse A.C. Milan before bringing his methods to the English Premier League as the director of sport science for Chelsea F.C.  Thus far, no North American sports franchise has taken the leap, but Zaichkowsky said he's confident that day's coming soon.
"Yeah, absolutely, it's going to catch on," he said. "It just makes too much sense — if you give people the right kind of feedback, they're just going to perform, learn to control and self-regulate their stress responses a lot better." As Zaichkowsky described it, his expertise lies in "really preparing athletes to better control their emotions and control their thinking, basically under pressure." That preparation begins long before the refs roll the ball out. "Now, you take a game like basketball, where [players are] running up and down the court, oftentimes heart rate is driven by the demands on the court," Zaichkowsky said. "But it's also driven by the emotional intensity ... Even before they hit the court, their heart rate is elevated unusually high. So their job is to bring that down, because they're going to under-perform with that elevated heart rate." High-pressure moments also often lead to elevated muscle tension, according to Zaichkowsky, which offers an explanation for every fan's late-game nightmare. "So why are they missing those foul shots, for example?" he said. "It's because of the muscle tension — something they're not perceiving, but it just doesn't seem right. But what's happening is, their muscles tense up, and that fluidity, that easiness that they normally [have] in practice or non-pressure-packed games, that's gone." Few settings are as pressure-packed as championship rounds like the NBA Finals, where the eyes of a nation follow the ball's every bounce. And with most players just as susceptible to anxiety as the rest of us — with some exceptions, which we'll get to in a minute — how does Zaichkowsky get athletes ready to perform in those high-tension moments? The first step: Letting them know what's happening to them. "They're typically not made aware of what happens to their heart rate, for example, under pressure — what happens to their skin conductance responses [in layman's terms, how their sweat glands react], what happens to muscle tension," Zaichkowsky explained. "Usually, these are all elevated stress responses, and they're not really very much aware of that." By conducting medical tests to measure elements like heart rate, skin conductance, muscle tension, respiration, body temperature and electrical activity in the brain, Zaichkowsky collects biological and neurological feedback that he uses not only to give athletes a behind-the-scenes look at how playing affects them, but also to show them that they can control their reactions "so they can perform better on the court," he said. Which begs the question: How do you teach them that self-control? Zaichkowsky acknowledged that getting players to buy in and developing their regulatory skills can be a slow process, but it tends to go more smoothly with young players. "Today's young athletes, you know, they're more into high-tech-ish kinds of things. You can make [the tests] into games, and through the games they can learn to self-regulate," Zaichkowsky said. "They say, 'My God, this is what happens?'" One tried-and-true tactic with which fans might be familiar involves the use of DVDs. Coaches frequently have video assistants cut together clip packages for player instruction — several minutes of a jump-shooter hitting threes to help him regain confidence in his shot, for example, or numerous instances of missed defensive rotations to illustrate assignment responsibilities. Well, the doctor uses 'em, too. "... You can just show them, 'Look, let's just look at a video clip of yourself playing.' They're sitting there, looking at their heart rate go from 75 [beats per minute] to about 120, and all they're doing is watching themselves play," he said. "Then you say, 'Now, can you bring that down? What do you have to do?' That's when you get into teaching them how to breathe properly; you can take slow, deep breaths to kind of calm the whole physiology. And all of a sudden, they see that this works almost instantaneously, and it's a skill they didn't have. So you say, 'Now, let's go practice it.'" Sounds simple enough, right? Just take some deep breaths and you're good to go. But with 19,000 fans screaming their lungs out in the arena, millions more watching at home and the knowledge that every moment in your life has led up to this one, players can feel like the weight of the world rests on their chest every time they inhale. And that's without considering any external factors — stuff like family matters or personal-life concerns, which Zaichkowsky calls "clinical issues," that can break a player's concentration. The key is to simulate big-game pressure in no-consequence situations so that players can have a ready-for-prime-time skill set when the spotlight starts shining. Unfortunately, the doctor wasn't quite so forthcoming with his secrets for raising the stakes in advance of the big game. Zaichkowsky did tell BDL, though, that he often tries to get players' minds right by invoking examples of highly successful people who deal with enormous pressure all the time, like Fortune 500 CEOs or world-renowned surgeons. "It's not winning or losing a game; you're losing a life if you screw up with the scalpel," he said. "... I'll give them stories like, 'Here's how they prepare for surgery, and it's because they don't want to screw up. This is a pressure-packed thing. There's lots of blood flowing, and they've got to work quickly and accurately, so it's about decision-making, all the time. And isn't that the same as what you guys are doing? It's decision-making. Quick, accurate decisions. But it's not life-and-death. It's winning and losing games here.' "I'll tell them how they cope with pressure, how they prepare for major surgery," he continued. "I'll say, 'They pay attention to all the details. How many of you guys do that?'" That kind of attention to detail and preparation can make all the difference when you're playing for a ring. "As you can tell, basketball in the NBA is going to be different now than it is during the regular season," Zaichkowsky said. "... It's just ratcheted up to another level. And what happens is, some individuals just thrive under pressure. They don't perceive it as pressure, is what they tell me. Like, you know, 'What's the big deal? It's just another game for me. I've just got to ratchet it up.'" In several decades as a sports psychologist consulting for Boston University, the Calgary Flames, the Spanish men's national soccer team and Olympic competitors, Zaichkowsky has met a number of those cold-blooded individuals. Including one who'll suit up tonight.  Zaichkowsky served as a consulting psychologist for the Boston Celtics during Rick Pitino's ill-fated late 1990s/early 2000s reign. And while Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish never did walk through the FleetCenter's doors, one future Garden great did, after being selected with the 10th pick in the 1998 NBA Draft.
Of the C's with whom Zaichkowsky worked, "there's only one left in captivity there — it's Paul Pierce(notes)," the doctor said with a laugh. "And for sure, he was [cool under pressure], right from the get-go. He just loved the pressure-packed games; you know, the bigger the game, the better he performed. There's not a lot of those people, but there's a sufficient number. They're just wired differently. They just love that moment, and perform well under pressure." Just one problem for the Beantown faithful: While Zaichkowsky said he's never had the chance to work with Kobe Bryant(notes), his description also sounds an awful lot like what we've seen from No. 24 in purple and gold for the past 14 years. | | |
| Everything you could possibly want to know about the NBA Finals
June 3, 2010 at 2:00 PM
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| Hey, the Finals finally start tonight. And since Ball Don't Lie is such a nice set of guys, here's a list of mostly true facts that you'll want to memorize so you sound like the smartest guy at the party. Why 28 facts? Because that's what number Sam Cassell(notes) for the Celtics, duh. Oh, and come join us for our world-renowned liveblog around 9:00 ET. It'll be fun. I promise.
1. Prior to this Finals, the two teams have met for the championship 11 times. The Celtics have won all but two. 2. The Celtics lead the all-time series between the two 152-120. 3. The Celtics-Lakers rivalry is kind of why the weird 2-3-2 schedule was invented. From Basketbawful: "The NBA, in collusion with CBS, had opted on a new 2-3-2 format for the NBA Finals. The company line was that the change was made to cut down on travel. This, of course, was complete and utter shenanigans. It was done for money, not to save the teams and media a few bucks on travel expenses. As Peter May explained: "CBS needed a series of at least six games to make a profit, and the chances of a six-game series were better with a 2-3-2 format." Proof positive that this decision was not made for basketball purposes: The format has remained 2-2-1-1-1 for every other playoff round. Anyway, the biggest problem with the revised format is that it forces the team with homecourt advantage to play Game 5 on the road. And most NBA experts and players -- and Larry Bird is prime among them -- feel strongly that Game 5 is the most pivotal game of any playoff series."
4. Ron Artest(notes) seriously wears No. 37 because that's how many weeks Michael Jackson's "Thriller" was on top of the music charts. I guess that makes as much sense as P.J. Brown(notes) wearing No. 93 in 2008. 5. One time, Kobe Bryant(notes) dressed up as a futuristic! pilgrim. Never forget. 
6. This happened in a Lakers-Celtics Finals game: 7. Lamar Odom(notes) is now denying that his wife, Khloe Kardashian, is pregnant. However, in this totally bizarre scene, Khloe pats her belly and says "it's OK little baby" in a little kid voice. Who ar! e you going to believe? 8. Another thing spawned by the rivalry: James Worthy's signature goggles. Once again, Basketbawful: "James Worthy was poked in the eye in Game 5, and the injury forced him to wear goggles in Game 6. He would go on to wear them for the rest of his career. Just in case you were wondering about that."
9. Jerry West won MVP in 1969, the only player ever on a losing team to do so. His reward was a green Volkswagen Beetle. ZING! 10. Did you know that Glen Davis'(notes) nickname — Big Baby — was coined because he had all of his teeth removed and has to eat strictly baby food now? Totally true. Here's the evidence. 
11. The Celtics and Lakers made a combined 13 of the 20 possible Finals appearances in the 1980s. Math says that's 65 percent, which is a lot of percent. 12. Bird vs. Magic: Regular season, Magic won 11 of 19 head-to-head meetings. Finals, Magic won 10 of 17. Magic also won the in-game smiles competition. 13. Former Celtic Rick Fox wore #17 for the Lakers because he was going to help the Lakers get a championship before the Celtics franchise got their seventeenth or something like that. Andrew Bynum(notes) wears it because he was 17 when he was drafted. Different strokes for different folks. 14. That "Beat L.A." chant you always hear? Yeah, that's Boston's. From the Boston Globe: For most fans, the chant is reminiscent of the playoff games in the old Boston Garden in the 1980s, when Magic Johnson squared off against Larry Bird and the Celtics and Lakers dominated the NBA. But that's not when the chant took off in Boston. It actually started as a chant supporting the Philadelphia 76ers. With 26 seconds to go in Game 7 of the 1982 Eastern Conference finals at the old Garden and the Sixers pulling away from the soon-to-be ex-champs, the crowd began to chant the now-famous phrase. Philadelphia, after all, would be facing the hated Lakers in the NBA Finals. "You hear what the crowd is chanting to the S! ixers? 'Beat LA'" said CBS color commentator and Celtics legend Bill Russell as the Sixers were beating Boston 117-105 as the seconds ticked down.
15. Late in the 2008-09 season, a shrinking ray shrank Kobe Bryant. He seems to be doing OK now. 16. Pau Gasol(notes) was on the cover of Spanish Rolling Stone and it has yet to be knocked from its perch as the greatest magazine cover of all-time. 17. Doc Rivers, Michael Finley(notes) and Shannon Brown(notes) all played at Proviso East High School in Maywood, Illinois. Finley's sister was a cheerleader when Rivers was the star player for the Pirates and Rivers claims that he remembers the day Finley was born. Since that story was chiseled in to stone tablets during ancient times, it's likely that Rivers is telling the truth. 18. Phil Jackson looks exactly like Jemaine Clement from "Flight of the Conchords," except 40 years older. 
19. Occasionally Nate Robinson(notes) takes his shirt off in low-budget rap videos. 20. Sometimes, when Paul Pierce(notes) suffers shoulder injuries he has to be taken off the court in a wheelchair, only to return later as if there were no injuries. This happens most often against the Lakers for reasons unknown. 21. Rasheed Wallace(notes) doesn't have a bald spot. It's a spot of white hair, and he's had it since birth. So it's a hair spot, which doesn't quite have the same ring. 22. Celtics backup guard Tony Allen(notes) is, along with bandmate Fela Kuti, one of the founders of Afrobeat music. Allen was the drummer and musical director for Kuti's Africa 70 band from 1968 to 1979. Wait. Wrong guy. Tony Allen is just a guard who looks angry a lot. 23. Kobe Bryant's favorite television show ever is "Moesha!" 24. Chevy Chase once played for the Lakers. Ed Lover once played for the Celtics. Advantage: Lakers. 
25. It is physically impossible for Kevin Garnett(notes) to speak at any volume less than a full scream as he suffers from a severe form of voice immodulation syndrome. 26. Nate Robinson has been known to wear Kobe Bryant's shoes. Here's guessing he won't during the Finals because Kobe would clown him so hard. 27. Both Rajon Rondo(notes) and Paul Pierce carry Louis Vuitton luggage to practice. Fancy! 
28. The two teams split their season series this year, with each team losing on their home court. Homecourt advantage is overrated. | | |
| BDL Finals chat!
June 3, 2010 at 1:30 PM
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|  So this is what we're down to. Doing it all for a trophy named after this guy.
Lawrence O'Brien. He was so important, G. Gordon Liddy once bugged his office. Some third-rate burglars were even caught inside his office, and one of our Presidents had to resign as a result. Ford or Taylor or one of the Adams twins, I think it was. Then he became the NBA's Commish, hired to get past the anti-trust issues inherent in the blocked ABA/NBA merger of 1970. It worked. It wasn't a merger, and it more or less destroyed the ABA teams that entered the NBA in 1976, but he did get a TV deal and quash the ABA. He also helped put together the NBA's stringent drug laws, and started work on the NBA's first revenue-sharing salary cap. Some have made hay dismissing his contributions. Some have argued that it was David Stern, in fact, that was banking on the progress made by the O'Brien era. The answer is somewhere closer to the middle. I think he's rated just about right. They named the trophy after him, in fact. The team that wins it all gets a trophy named after him. So, let's chat about that championship round. The one that starts tonight. Click the jump at 3 p.m., Eastern, and file your comments and questions. Respectfully, or otherwise. (Note: If your comment doesn't appear right away, rest assured, it shouldn't. Comments are moderated, but because we like you and don't want to limit contributions to a level that other large sites do, we'll try to get to it. It might be a few minutes. It might be 20 minutes. Chill out. Eat some papaya.) | | |
| Video: Kobe and the Beatles and Andre 3000 make for a good ad
June 3, 2010 at 12:45 PM
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| Nike ads are the best ads. You guys know this. Everyone knows this. I mean, have you seen their World Cup ad? Because you should have. Sure, there have been some stinkers, but they're few and far between. Nike is generally on-point. For instance, their new Kobe Bryant(notes) ad that will debut tonight is pretty good. Pretty, pretty, pretty good. Ch-check it out. Incredible basketball highlights backed by a Beatles song done by! Outkast's Andre 3000? That's like putting three of my favorite things in to a giant blender, hitting "advertisement" and having a YouTube video come out. Plus, Lil' Penny makes a tiny cameo, that is just great news for everyone. I'll admit it — I got a few leg chills on that last shot. Let's get these Finals started already. (via Darren Rovell)
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| Create-a-caption: Chill out, Tom Thibodeau
June 3, 2010 at 12:00 PM
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| I'm serious here — Tom Thibodeau needs to cool down a little bit. Check out those pit stains. He's a regular Ron Donald. Then again, if you were face to face with the guy who's been keeping you up at nights, you might get sweaty too. Best explanation for why Mr. Thibs is so wet gets Maxim deodorant. Good luck. 
Previously, Paul Pierce's foot is definitely a foot.  Winner, AndrewH: "Hello ladies.
Look at your man.
Now back to me.
Now back to your man.
Now back to ME.
Sadly, He is not me. Size 11 shoes!
Look down. Now up.
The Louis Vuitton Bag you like.
I've just won a game of HORSE."
Runner-up, Moris: "Trainer: Is that a Louis Vuitton purse?
Pierce: It's a carry-all!
Trainer: Yeah, sure it is." Second runner-up, Ol Leather Pumpkin: "I can't hear a heartbeat." | | |
| Is Kobe Bryant the best Laker ever? Jerry West thinks so
June 3, 2010 at 10:45 AM
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As we all know, the Lakers are a storied franchise. Literally, there are stories about them, several in book form. And in their storied history, they've had many storied players who also have had books written about them. George Mikan, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Elden Campbell, Shaquille O'Neal(notes) — the list goes on and on. And then it goes some more because the Lakers have been around since before the NBA. But among all those legendary greats, no Laker is more important than Jerry West. He spent his entire career in Los Angeles, then coached the team for three seasons and followed that up with a short stint as a Lakers scout be! fore building the 1980s Lakers that won three titles. Jerry West is a Laker through and through, and when it comes to all-time Laker greats, if you said Jerry West was the greatest, a lot of people would agree with you. Except Jerry West. He'd totally disagree with you, like he did on the "Hartman and Friends" radio show earlier this week when he got to rhapsodizing about Kobe Bryant. "[Kobe's] playing the best basketball I have ever seen him play to be honest with you. [...] There's no better player that I've ever seen than him... He's the greatest Laker player that we have ever seen."
Bold declaration, Mr. West, but pretty hard to argue with. Kobe's in his 14th season with the team. He's already got four titles and is gunning for a fifth. After a few rocky seasons, it appears Brya! nt is going to be a Laker lifer, and since he's been playing i! n the NB A since he was 18, he'll hold a ton of records for the franchise. Heck, he's only 31 now and he's already got the all-time scoring lead for the Lakers. It's not unreasonable to think he could play another eight years and have a chance at Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time NBA scoring title. So basically, the Logo makes a very strong case. It seems to me that the "Best Laker Ever" competition ultimately comes down to Kobe and Magic Johnson. Magic won five titles and three MVPs in his 13 seasons with the team — not to mention helped save the NBA — so I'd probably give him a slight edge. But if the Lakers win this season, and Kobe plays a few more high-quality years, this won't even be an argument. The only tough choice will be what jersey number he wears in the Hall of Fame. I'm hoping he goes with 8. | | |
| Why Lakers-Celtics should be a great NBA Finals
June 3, 2010 at 10:00 AM
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|  Let's dispel with the crafty ways of getting you to read this entire column. I think the Lakers are taking this series.
It's not a lock, nothing really should be a lock at this level, especially in June. It just appears that the Lakers are too good and too versatile to lose to Boston, and I don't think I'm continuing to underrate the Celtics. I'm well aware that Boston has played the Lakers evenly this season, even if one game was played with Kobe Bryant(notes) in the trainer's room, pretending to tolerate Rick Fox. And I'm well aware of just how astonishing Boston's demolition of Cleveland and Orlando was. Boston's run to these Finals is for the ages. To take down the team with the best record in the NBA in the second round, and the second-best record in the NBA in the third round? You cannot dismiss that; and believe me, I haven't. But I've also watched the rebirth of a Laker team that can transcend all that. A team that would have enough answers for Boston's brilliance. A team that should take this in six games. Yes, the regular season. I know. Boston barely lost at home to Los Angeles, needing a tough offensive foul call on Paul Pierce(notes) (it may not have been a push-off worthy of a call, but Ron Artest(notes) did beat Paul to the spot on that play) and a tough, tough game-winner from Kobe to win by one. Then they went into Los Angeles, veteran legs dragging all over the place, and won by one. Trust me, that stuff counts. It's why I think we'll get a fantastic series. Not to say that we won't have some one-sided affairs; both teams are bound to lose the spirit at some point. But this two-team lot is wildly talented, quite motivated, and they're about to play each other for the 13th-through-possibly-20th time over the last three years. That sort of familiarity breeds contempt, respect, and close, chippy games. Both regular season games were tough defensive battles, but the Laker offense has improved quite a bit since then. So has Boston's health, and its ability to hang onto the ball. The biggest concerns for either side are the usual concerns -- will the Lakers stay patient and work through their offense? And will the Celtics keep distancing itself from that one-turnover-for-every-five-possessions play? Beyond the usual, though I have some smaller (big) concerns. Andrew Bynum(notes), as is usually the case, worries me. He should worry both teams. He played quite well against Boston during the regular season, averaging 16.5 points, and 10 rebounds, while shooting 50 percent in a season series that saw absolutely no one else come through with efficient offensive numbers. He was a broken play finisher, which you need against the Celtics. A play breaks down, that fabulous C's defense does what it does, and the ball ends up on in someone's hands with a few ticks left. Kobe is Kobe, but I far prefer it in the hands of someone who has touch on both blocks when he's just four or five feet from the hoop, as opposed to someone who is 24 feet from the hoop, and only has time to drive four or five more feet inward. But Bynum is injured, and he says the recent draining of his knee hasn't done much to stop the pain of his torn meniscus, which makes sense. Kobe's draining relived some of the issues that came with years of wear on his knee. Bynum's injury stems from a tear that no amount of fluid drainage can heal without surgery. They needed this guy to play great basketball just to win by one, and lose by one. And if he's a non-factor, as was the case in 2008, then the Lakers will have to dig deep. They'll have to rely more on that offense, and not Kobe. Though they probably think they'll have to rely on Kobe.  Boston's nagging issue? I think it comes in the form of Rajon Rondo(notes). I think he'll be great, but there's something in him that makes it so he doesn't want to be great late in ballgames: His free throw shooting.
Rondo's a liability at the line. And while I'd still trust him at the line late, he often doesn't trust himself, and goes for longer floaters and half-drives with the clock running down. Against the Lakers, the clock will always be running down, and he's going to have to overcome that fear. And, if he wouldn't mind, make a better percentage at the line. The line will be huge in this series. If Paul Pierce can get to a 19 or 20 point average while hitting more than a half-dozen free throws a game, I really think this is Boston's series. Because his time at the line will help others gain freebies in the penalty. Kevin Garnett's(notes) solid stroke going up and getting hacked on an offensive rebound, things that give your team a cheap and cheerful two points. The Lakers have to get to the line by being a step ahead of Celtics on offense. One or two passes ahead of that collapsing cruelty, which means they can't run that same damned two-man game. The same thing, along with the collapsed 1-4 attack, that allowed Boston to play such fantastic defense on Los Angeles during the regular season. If the Lakers go to the screen-and-roll attack, or if they work a lot of Kobe one-on-one, the Celtics have to take advantage. Pierce, and to a lesser extent Rondo, have to help. They have to leave Ron Artest, and they have to leave Derek Fisher(notes). That's Boston's chance right there. That's what allowed the Lakers to lose games they shouldn't, and win close games that should have been blowouts, during the regular season. Orthodox offense. And if the Lakers play normal offense, an offense that would allow Boston to double Kobe, then this series is Boston's. Because you can't double the triangle offense. The spacing is too good. Kobe's too far away. But you sure can send a second guy from the corner when Kobe gets a screen from Pau Gasol(notes). You can help when he's just seven feet away from you. You have to, Boston. Because Kobe is too good right now not to. Clearly, there are dozens of other factors that will influence the outcome of this series, but if things continue apace, I have a hard time finding a way toward a Boston win. They'd have to strike early in Game 1, because no team is taking all three at home unless something major (injury, crazy referee, bad coaching) happens. The Lakers are likely taking this, unless they take themselves out of it. And while we all want seven great ones, I'm afraid we're just to have to settle for six. Seems just fine to me. It's June, and the Celtics and Lakers are playing. Something's gone right. | | |
| Video: The Basketball Jones' 2010 NBA playoffs recap
June 3, 2010 at 9:00 AM
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| 200 million blog years ago, the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers kicked off the 2010 NBA playoffs and dinosaurs roamed the Earth. That's how long these playoffs have been happening, so if you have forgotten any of the many almost great things that have happened this postseason, that's understandable. Thankfully, the guys from The Basketball Jones recapped everything that happened in 222 action packed seconds. Enjoy. Perfect. Now you'! re all caught up without having to have watched all of those underwhelming early playoff games with way too long breaks in between them. Just like watching television on DVD, quicker can sometimes be better. Of course, when you watch them in hyperspeed, this year's playoffs seem exciting. In real-time, they haven't been quite as thrilling. But still, with so few games left, it's nice to remember the good times. I'm really going to miss you, 2009-10 NBA season. | | |
| Suicide lines: All about the Finals
June 3, 2010 at 8:15 AM
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Each weekday morning, BDL serves up a handful of NBA-related stories to digest with your boiled goose. Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe: "It's all about Kobe. We've had a lot of fun reliving the glory days of Wilt and Russell, Elgin and Hondo, Larry and Magic, and even KG and Pau Gasol(notes) from two years ago. We've hammered the themes of the uber-rivalry, LA's redemption, and Ubuntu Redux. In succession, we've seen the Celtics expose and demolish Dwyane Wade(notes), LeBron James(notes), and Dwight Howard(notes) in the first three rounds of the playoffs. Now it's all about Kobe Bryant(notes). Do not forget this. The Celtics and Lakers tap off in Game 1 tonight, and it's impossible to understate the Kobe factor. Bryant won't admit it, but he is on a mission to solidify his legacy by winning a championship against the hated Celtics. He has won with Shaq and without Shaq. He has beaten the Indiana Pacers, the Philadelphia 76ers, the New Jersey Nets, and the Orlando Magic in the Finals. Bu! t he's never beaten Boston. You can't be the best player in th! e world if you lose two championship series to the Celtics. You can't be the greatest Laker of all time if Magic can say he beat the Celtics twice in the Finals and you never beat them. Kobe has had one shot at beating Boston, and he remains haunted by 2008, when he shot only 40 percent in the six-game loss to the Green. He made only 7 of 22 shots in the humiliating clincher and walked off the court in silent fury after the 39-point drubbing. Now he is back and he is a man on a mission. Bryant scored 37 points when Los Angeles won the Western Conference finals at Phoenix in Game 6 Saturday night. In the fourth quarter, he made several shots while wearing a couple of defenders. 'I don't think there's any doubt that this is one of the great playoff performances,' said Zen Master Phil Jackson, who witnessed a few great individual playoff performances when he coached Michael Jordan. Bryant is playing with the eyes of Dexter." Brian Kamenetzky, ESPN: "Phil Jackson loves the game within the game. Heading into Thursday's Game 1 of the NBA Finals with the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics, one piques his curiosity more than the rest. 'I'm intrigued by the [Kevin] Garnett-Pau Gasol matchup. I think that's a really good one,' he said Wednesday after the Lakers completed practice. 'Kevin is like the force of [Boston's] defense, he's really the glue that kind of holds their defense together with his activity level, his ability to help and recover on guys,' Jackson continued. 'Pau is the guy we have to have be a part of the scoring combo with Kobe. So he has to provide some of that for us in this series against probably one of the top defenders in the game.'" Benjamin Hochman, Denver Post: "About 50 feet away, Kobe Bryant held court at courtside. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar sat on the edge of the scorer's table, surrounded by so many reporters, one fellow fell off while trying to step down. 'Kobe's just like Michael Jordan,' Ron Artest(notes) said of his luminous teammate while sitting alone far from the media horde during an off day in the Western Conference finals. Everyone knows the story lines with Bryant - chasing Jordan and his six championship rings, seeking redemption from the Lakers' loss to the Boston Celtics in the 2008 NBA Finals. But for Bryant to get 'one for the thumb,' the Lakers will need their X factor, Artest, to deliver on defense. The testy Ar! test will be assigned to defend Boston's Paul Pierce(notes) beginning with tonight's Game 1 of the Finals, as much of a heavyweight fight as the NBA postseason can provide. In one corner, there's arguably the best defender of this NBA generation, the 6-foot-7, 260-pound Artest. In the other corner, there's the 6-7, 235-pound Pierce, the 2008 Finals MVP and his team's leading scorer. 'It's such a game of momentum, confidence and mojo,' NBA TV analyst Chris Webber(notes) said when talking about Artest, who hit the winning shot in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals against Phoenix moments after a knucklehead decision to fire up a 3-pointer. 'He found it - but can he bring that and can he stop Paul Pierce?'" Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald: "He enters the NBA Finals at the edge of the Pacific Palisades in a figurative and nearly literal sense. With six technical fouls on his ledger, Kendrick Perkins(notes) is just one away from a one-game suspension that would be most damaging to the Celtics. He is well aware, but he is most definitely not looking down. 'I think I've just got to go out there and play basketball,' Perkins said as he stood in the right corner of the Staples Center court yesterday. 'I can't worry about if something happens. I've just got to go out there and do what I need to do for us to win.' In that, what h! e needs to do is beat on people and make them bruised and angry, the risk of confrontation is great. But that doesn't mean the Lakers will get to go against a kinder, gentler Perk. After acknowledging the rivalry between the storied franchises, he was asked if he'd say he dislikes the Lakers. 'I don't like nobody but the Celtics,' he said. 'You know, unless you've got on green or something like that, I don't really fool with nobody unless you're with the Celtics.'" Chris Forsberg, ESPN: "Boston Celtics Rasheed Wallace(notes) and Rajon Rondo(notes), both of whom are nursing back injuries, participated fully in Wednes! day's practice session, including contact drills, a positive s! ign as b oth ramp up for Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday. Wallace, who originally tweaked his back during Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals against Orlando then left in the fourth quarter of Game 6, had been held out of contact drills earlier in the week, but moved fluidly in the portion of practice open to the media, which included stretching and shooting drills. Rondo said he'll be near full health by Thursday. 'My body is fine,' said Rondo. 'These five days have definitely been great for me personally. I know it's great for the team, but for me I've been getting a lot of massages, a lot of treatment. I'm feeling better and better each day. The more time I get, the better I am. [Thursday], I'm sure I'll be back almost at 100 percent.' Elsewhere on the Celtics' injury front, Marquis Daniels(notes) (concussion) said he is feeling better, but is s! till waiting full clearance from trainer Ed Lacerte. 'I'm feeling better, it's progressively getting better each day,' said Daniels. 'The break helped. I'm just waiting for Ed to give me the sign now. I'm antsy.' Daniels has seen his role decrease throughout the season, but threw his name in the hat to help defend the Lakers' Kobe Bryant. 'Like anyone that likes to compete, you want to go out there and play against one of the best of the game,' said Daniels. 'I'd like that opportunity.'" 
Jeff Zilgitt, USA Today: "Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers says it's the 'country con.' When Celtics backup forward Glen Davis(notes) makes a mistake - a foul, a turnover - he turns and looks at the Boston bench with this 'It wasn't me!' look. 'He gives you that act,' Rivers said. 'It works the first five times. After that, it doesn't work anymore. But he still does it, and he actually means it. He does. ... That's why you stick with him when he makes mistakes because he wants to please you.' In at least one game each round of the playoffs, Davis, 24, has pleased. He had 23 points and eight rebounds against the Miami! Heat in the first round, 15 points against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference semifinals and 17 points and six rebounds against the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference finals. 'He's comfortable in big games for whatever reason,' Rivers said. 'Who knows why. But we know that, and we like it. He's not in awe of the moment at all. And he's been great off the bench for us. ... We're asking him to guard all kinds of positions.'" Andrew Kamenetzky, ESPN: "A day after reporting no progress in his injured right knee, Lakers center Andrew Bynum(notes) said Wednesday the fluid he had drained two days earlier had returned soon after the procedure. 'It didn't really help,' Bynum sa! id of the action, which is designed to alleviate the pain of a! torn me niscus. 'As soon as I drained it, about 12 hours later, all the fluid came back. ... It wasn't really a good procedure.' Coach Phil Jackson didn't sound particularly surprised by the outcome. 'Whether that worked or not, it was a procedure that was, you know, tried, attempted,' Jackson said. 'Whether it was successful in keeping his knee not swollen over this period of time, you know, that may not happen.' Bynum took part in a few drills during Wednesday's practice but missed a scrimmage in lieu of getting treatment. He reported no additional pain as a result of the latest swelling. 'It's about the same,' Bynum said. 'It's going to be there, when I come down from jumping, and push off laterally, but I'll be all right. Muscles kind of shutting down due to the swelling. It's tough to jump and tough to do everything up to your maximum level.'" Jimmy Smith, New Orleans! Times-Picayune: "Staggered by the flying elbow of Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, LSU's Glen 'Big Baby' Davis, now a forward with the Boston Celtics, said he's fully recovered from the blow and resulting concussion. Davis and the Celtics play Game 1 of the NBA Finals here Thursday night against the Los Angeles Lakers. 'I feel better,' Davis said. 'I don't expect a lot of elbows from these guys, especially like Dwight Howard's elbows. Hopefully I can stay away from getting knocked out. It'll be a physical series. BUt I think the most aggressive team is going to get the calls. Dictate the tempo, that's my thought-process. Hopefully the refs will let us play. We love to play physical.'" Mitch Lawrence, New York Daily News: "Ron Artest has given Knicks fans another reason to boo him when he comes into the Garden with the Lakers next season. On the eve of his first Finals game, Artest said that LeBron James should not sign with the Knicks. 'He should stay where he is, he should stay in Cleveland,' Artest told the Daily News Wednesday after practice at Staples Center. 'He's done great things in Cleveland. Why leave?' Artest, 30, was careful to say that he did not tell James to stay away from New York. And he did not repeat his theory from last November, that the Knicks could be hurt in recruiting free agents because marquee players are 'so scared of the pressure and the media' in New York. 'I don't know what he's going to do,' Artest said. 'But he should stay.' Jim O'Donnell, Chicago Sun-Times: "Boston Celtics! executives rushed to deny a Chicago Tribune report late Wednesday night that Bulls basketball chiefs John Paxson and Gar Forman were in Los Angeles to formally interview Celtics associate head coach Tom Thibodeau for the Bulls' head-coaching job. 'I don't know a thing about it,' Danny Ainge, the Celtics' executive director for basketball operations, told the Sun-Times in an e-mail sent shortly before 11 p.m. Chicago time. With the Celtics scheduled to play Game 1 of the NBA Finals tonight against the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center, Paxson and Forman would be guilty of an enormous breach of NBA protocol and ethics if they attempted to interview Thibodeau without Ainge's explicit consent while the Boston postseason continues. Said Jeff Twiss, Boston's veteran vice president of media relations: 'Unless I'm missing something here, everything on the court involving the Boston Celtics -- personnel, coaches, support staff -- is under Danny's watch. Everything goes through h! im. That's just the way it is in our organization.' 'If Danny ! doesn't know anything about it, quite simply, we're denying it,' Twiss said. 'I am very surprised. Times have changed, but there still are normal policies and procedures.'" Vince Ellis, Detroit Free Press: "The Pistons announced this morning that a Citigroup subsidiary has been hired to broker the sale of the Pistons and Palace Sports & Entertainment. The subsidiary, called Citi Private Bank Sports Authority, has been in contact 'with a number of interested parties,' the Pistons said in a news release, adding that the NBA 'has been informed of the engagement.' Pistons owner Karen Davidson said last month that the team is for sale. 'We're looking for a buyer,' she told the Free Press at a Pistons charity event in Detroit. Davidson revealed in late January that she was exploring a possible sale. She assumed control of the franch! ise after the March 13, 2009, death of her husband, Bill. In April, the Free Press reported that Citigroup had been retained to assess the value of the Pistons and to broker a potential sale. Forbes recently placed the value at $479 million, fourth-highest in the NBA. NBA owners must approve any sale in the 30-team league." Programming Note: The BDL liveblog makes its triumphant return tonight. Come back around 9:00 ET to join in the fun. | | |
| The Phoenix Suns? Gone Till November
June 2, 2010 at 5:45 PM
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First, let's start with the guess that isn't. You guys aren't getting Dirk Nowitzki(notes).
It makes sense for just about everyone who isn't a Mavericks fan. Dallas and Phoenix are usually everyone's answer to "who's your favorite team, besides your favorite team?," mostly because Steve Nash(notes) and Dirk Nowitzki are such chill bros. But Dirk won't be playing for the Phoenix Suns next year. Yes, he's a free agent. Yes, he and Steve love working the Golden Tee together. And, yes, Amar'e Stoudemire(notes) might very well leave the Suns this summer for another team. But the resulting cap space Phoenix would earn by letting Stoudemire walk for no compensation would not be enough to secure Nowitzki's rights, unless Dirk took a major, major pay cut. Before draft picks, and after picking up the options of both Grant Hill(notes) and Channing Frye(notes) (rather solid pay-for-play options, I might add, for Phoenix) the Suns are looking at around eight or nine million in cap space for this summer should Stoudemire split. That's nothing to sneeze at, especially when you factor in that the Suns could trade for some other team's disgruntled superstar, and not have to send a whole lot back as the cap space absorbs the big deal. But it's not enough to get Dirk. See if you can get some desperate team to take on Leandro Barbosa's(notes) two-year deal (second year is a player option that, if this season is any indication, he won't deserve). Go ahead. Dirk's just not happening. Am I playing psychologist, again, assuming I know what's going on in Dirk's head? Sure. But just think of all the stuff that would have to fall into place. Amar'e Stoudemire leaves. It's not a gimmie. He says he's hurt, that Phoenix hasn't treated him right. We say he can make more money in Arizona than anywhere else. Stoudemire leaves, and the team he wants to leave for doesn't have any sign-and-trade options worth considering. Not that the Suns want to do Amar'e a favor by giving him a bigger contract than he'd earn just signing outright with another team, but they might want to grab something back. The "something back" would stick to the cap, and take away from of that space. Mark Cuban doesn't go full boat with Nowitzki's extension. That's not happening. Mark knows that no bit of wrangling is going to help his situation. The Mavs are paying through the teeth for that team, so you might as well go big with the best thing this franchise has seen in its 30 years. Someone would take Barbosa's contract. That's going to be tough, and it has to be Barbosa. Jason Richardson(notes) is too important, and there's no real trading for a Richardson-type at 60 percent of the price. And nobody beyond that makes enough money to make a big enough dent to try and sign Dirk outright. Louis Amundson(notes) would need to go away. Whether the potential for Dirk is there or not, don't laugh. The Suns can't afford to lose Amundson. They need him to sop up minutes the way he did in 2009-10. He's an unrestricted free agent, and assuming he returns, he'll cut into that cap space. Really, getting him for half the money Barbosa will cost Phoenix next season will be a bargain, because he's tall, and other teams will drive up the price. Armchair psychologist. It's not the, "can you imagine Dirk in another uniform?" It's, "does Dirk want to leave the only team he's known." I can't suitably answer that, but I think we all have an idea. That's a tough sell, even given the money, and Nash's presence. So, now that we've spent over 600 words telling you something you already know, what's next for the Suns? Well, something you already know. They're going to run, make quick decisions off of screen and roll play no matter who is setting the screen for Nash, and they're going to attempt to compete defensively. Attempt to get back to that middle-of-the-pack standing on D that Mike D'Antoni had them at for years, something people who take their paychecks from TV stations still seem incapable of understanding. It's just another go at the ring, with the same setup, hoping Robin Lopez's(notes) ascension (and it was quite the ascension) continues, hoping that Grant Hill manages to hang on, and hoping that Nash keeps it up. No gimmies, those three, but that's the reality of the team's situation. July will probably prove me wrong, but I see Stoudemire as a slight favorite to stick in Phoenix as opposed to the other options, but even if he splits, there's just not a whole lot there. The team will have to try the sign-and-trade route, because with Barbosa's contract and Amundson's free agency, this team will be hurting for depth with Stoudemire gone that eight or nine million (again, before Amundson's possible extension) just won't help with. There has to be another star there. The team isn't completely bereft of trading options. Richardson stands to make over $14 million in the final year of his contract this summer, and though expiring deals don't hold as much sway in the year before a new union/ownership agreement is hammered out, it could be worth exploring. Maybe even to a team already featuring cap space, a squad that struck out in dealing with free agents. Swing something with him, and perhaps you could grab a David Lee(notes) or Carlos Boozer(notes), along with some guard depth from somewhere else. But by and large, as it is with most teams that end up two games away from making the NBA Finals, don't expect forced change. Don't fear it, or act shocked if it happens, but don't expect things to get too nutty. Just roll with it, while Amar'e preens, talks, and Steve Kerr waits, reacts, and moves. | | |
| Carmelo Anthony is the king of NBA cakes
June 2, 2010 at 4:30 PM
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| Have you ever accidentally spent an entire day watching a marathon of TLC's "Cake Boss?" Yeah, me neither. Total hypothetical situation we're talking about here, duh. But if by chance you've ever happened to stumble across the show, you know that the world of cake design is growing by leaps and bounds. You need that vital information to comprehend how amazing both of Carmelo Anthony's(notes) birthday cakes are, because they are very amazing. 
Told ya. How often do you see totally edible shoes? Not very often, probably. On the left is Melo's cake from his son, Kiyan. It's based on the Jordan Future Sole M6, which was designed by a high-schooler who entered a Nike contest and now has a resumé that includes "Carmelo Anthony shoe designer" and "Carmelo Anthony cake inspiration." I'm not sure how his 3-year-old son was able to construct such an intricate and delectable treat, but I am very impressed with both his craftsmanship and icingmanship. Nice cake. The other cake Melo's from his 26th birthday party that took place over the weekend. It features an enormous version of Anthony's logo, some roses and some spa! rklers, which is a weird combination. I'm not saying this isn't a nice cake, but it's definitely not two pairs of shoes, which I'm pretty sure is one of the best cakes ever. That being said, if someone were to offer you either of these cakes, you would gladly accept them because any and all cake is delicious. Except German chocolate cake which feels way too weird in your mouth. {h/t Kix and the City) | | |
| Even Michael Jordan's statue is a company man
June 2, 2010 at 2:50 PM
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| If you know anything about Michael Jordan's feet — and I'm sure you do, creep — it's that he wears Nikes at all times. Obviously he's got his signature basketball shoes, but he also has golf shoes, sandals and probably even slippers or aqua socks. Michael Jordan wears Nikes, no ifs, ands or buts about it. That counts double for his recently Blackhawked United Center statue that now has a pair of Nike skates to go with its Air Jordan IX sneakers. 
As noted by the superb footwear blog Nice Kicks, the change was pretty quick: Recently, the famous Michael Jordan statue in front of Chicago's United Center had been dressed in hockey attire to celebrate the Chicago Blackhawk's run in the Stanley Cup Finals. As many of you know, the famous statue depicts MJ wearing the Air Jordan 9. However, a skate blade was attached to the soles. The problem? A Reebok skate was attached. Within 48 hours, a Nike sticker was placed over the Reebok logo.
Furthermore, as Yahoo!'s own Puck Daddy found out, the Nike change wasn't made by anyone associated with the Bulls or the Blackhawks, but rather "fan-dalism" that made the switch. Nice work, mystery fan. I like to imagine that MJ himself was taking his daily walk by the statue, saw the Reebok skates an! d quickly slapped a sticker over them since he carries several! thousan d with him at a time. If you think about it, it's not that far-fetched of a scenario. | | |
| NBA Finals Anthem Watch: Boston takes a 1-0 lead
June 2, 2010 at 2:00 PM
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With the possible exception of Ayn Rand's Rush-inspiring 1938 novella, it's universally accepted that anthems are great fun, both to create and to hear. In "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)," Jay-Z opined that anthems can spur us to throw our damn hands up; several years later, Maryland-based bummers Good Charlotte did the same, except with guitars, guyliner and pretending to be friends with guys like Jay-Z. When you add sports into the equation, though, the anthem thing can get tricky (I think we're all still struggling with how we relate to Gary Glitter), especially when the anthem is intended to promote or rally the fanbase of a specific team. From "official" creations like the Chicago Bears' "Super Bowl Shuffle" and the Atlanta Hawks' "Nothing Can Stop Us" to the independent Indianapolis Colts rhapsodizin' of Lil' Ronnie and Syracuse Orange fans' cringe-inducing '03 effort "Cuse Yourself," there are way, way more anthem failures than success stories. (Want to hear some more negative examples? Uproxx gotcha.) Which is why it was so refreshing to hear, via Boston hip-hop blog Jump the Turnstyle, that Cambridge, Mass.-based crew N.B.S. (Natural Born Spitters) had dropped a Boston Celtics-themed NBA Finals anthem that didn't, y'know, stink. On the track called &qu! ot;Who Are We?," N.B.S. MCs Flash and Knuckles keep things original, fresh, short and — for all those concerned about PG-13 language — 100 percent clean, tracing the C's path through the east, praising the team's key contributors and rotation players, and flipping a strong "Beat L.A." sample a couple of times for good measure. Plus, they threw in a "Scalabrine, we see you, man" at around the 2:35 mark, shouting out one of the Celtics' ablest breakers and, as The Basketball Jones famously showed us, its fiercest rhymer (now there's the PG-13 language). Not to be outdone, the new Los Angeles Lakers' 2010 finals anthem put together by L.A. hip-hop DJ Felli Fel (via The Lakers Nation) includes higher-profile artists like Chino XL, Ray J, the New Boyz and headliner Ice Cube (little bit of PG-13 language here too). Unfortunately for those big-timers the song is pretty outdone, because it'! s six mostly underwhelming minutes of lackadaisical verses laid over the completely overused "Beamer, Benz or Bentley" beat, closed out by a verse from a dude named Lil Rob who seriously sounds kind of like if Konnan from the nWo was a rapper. There are a couple of decent lines, I guess — Chino comparing Rajon Rondo(notes) to Smeagol from "Lord of the Rings," Ice Cube making fun of Paul Pierce(notes) needing his wheelchair and calling Larry Bird an &quo! t;overra ted nerd" (c'mon, son) — but mostly, it's just three times as long as "Who Are We?" and half as interesting. Obviously, L.A.'s got a super proud and rich hip-hop tradition. But in this case, heading into Game 1, they took an L from a couple of the Boston underground's best. There's still time to redeem yourself, Westsiders. Maybe get Snoop and Crooked I on a shelved "Detox" beat, and then we can get the finals started properly. | | |
| Heads-up: BDL Hump Day Chat!, later this ... week
June 2, 2010 at 1:30 PM
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|  You're reading it correctly. No BDL Hump Day Chat! on Wednesday. Wednesday's a bit of a travel day as we gear up for the finals, and we're going to move it back to Thursday.
I know you have questions. I know you want to know what Detlef Schrempf is up to. Why he's taking pictures with Taylor Hicks. Why he's looking so cross. Why Taylor Hicks looks like some quite holy amalgam of Michael McDonald and Mark Cuban. Or even questions, possibly comments, about the NBA Finals. Well, you're going to have to wait a day. Thursday, we'll chat it up, possibly for longer than the usual one hour allotment. So have your pencils and scorecards ready. Until then, focus. Detlef would. | | |
| Why the Los Angeles Lakers can beat the Celtics
June 2, 2010 at 12:46 PM
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The NBA Finals start on Thursday, and you don't get to the NBA Finals without having a chance at a championship. Unless you're the 2007 Cleveland Cavaliers, and/or you start Eric Snow(notes). So let's go over a few reasons - three, you'll find out - why the Lakers can beat the Celtics four times over the next two weeks.
We worked the Celtics earlier this morning. Right now? The Lakers. Keep the offense flowing Either said than done, I know. Moving from Phoenix's squishy zone to confront those karate-choppin' mamajamas from Boston is no easy task, but the Lakers were built to make tricky come to life. No defense, no matter how stout, can top a triangle offense flowing the right way. Because it's a read-and-react offense at its core, the triangle can overcome any amount of longish arms, if it's run properly. The problem with this Laker team, up until about six weeks ago, is that it wasn't being run properly. Too many screen and rolls. Too much orthodoxy. But then the Lakers started making quicker, more effective decisions with the ball in its first round series with Oklahoma City, and the team has been rolling ever since. If the spacing is there, and the decisions are pointed and not drawn out, the Lakers will win this series. Simple as that. If they revert, and run back to that screen and roll, the Celtics can load up. You don't want a team with Kevin Garnett(notes) on it loading up on your two-man game. Move the ball. Kobe's hot shooting Not only is Kobe Bryant(notes) possibly playing the best basketball of his storied career, he's hitting a ridiculous amount of long two-pointers. Taking what the defense is giving him, killing what the defense is giving me. A great deal of smart analysis in the days leading up to the Finals has focused on Bryant perhaps coming down to earth a bit. Falling back to his usual averages on those 19-foot jumpers. And that's fine. That would be the smart thing to expect. But this is Kobe Bryant. And those jumpers look different than the ones that have gone wrong through the years. There's a kinder arc, I'm being serious, more touch and better rotation. They're not line-drive shots. And even if the stroke hasn't changed, and we should expect a regression to the mean, well, why? Most analysts have this series going six or seven games, so why can't Kobe Bryant keep it up for six or seven more games? Like it has to happen now, just because Ray Allen(notes) is in his face? Just don't be surprised with either side of the coin. That's all I'm saying. Motivation The Lakers look like defending champs, and they also look like soon-to-be back-to-back champs. Since that Oklahoma City series the Lakers have had a purpose to its offense, and despite a few hiccups against the Phoenix zone, and a defense that is getting weaker and weaker with each series, I suspect the motivation is there. It doesn't even have to come from the loss in 2008. I think these Lakers are finally starting to realize just how great they are - I'm being serious, again - and they're trying to flex that muscle a little bit. Letting us know that this isn't the same team that flips switches on and off, and that it has the legendary-enough stuff to become the NBA's first repeat winner since 2002. That's dangerous, for Boston. That's not a team that's full of itself. That's a team that knows where it should stand, while knowing that it has to climb a bit before it can stand and preen. Predictions come later. For now, just know that this isn't just another made-for-TV bit of history, these two famous teams lining up again. This isn't because LeBron choked, the Magic went soft, and the Suns don't defend. This series is taking place because these two teams are the best this league has to offer right now. This matchup is no accident, and it's been forged because these two teams have the talent and drive needed to pull out 12 or more postseason victories. There's a lot of great, here. | | |
| Create-a-caption: 'Yep, that's a foot'
June 2, 2010 at 12:15 PM
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| Differential diagnosis, people. What sticks out of a leg, has five digits and is covered in callouses? No, not a hand, Foreman. And it's not lupus, Cameron. Anything, Chase? No? Typical. C'mon, guys — this one's easy. Follow me while I walk with my cane. Best caption wins House's red and grey ball. Good luck. 
Previously, Darryl Dawkins is big.  Winner, ! JM: "DD: I call this one the Earth-shaker, little boy arm-breaker, the I-ain't-losin' though I may be child abusin', young man went and dissed my rhyme, so I perpetrated some black-on-black crime, and since someone caught it on camera, I may be spending some time in the slammer-a, and though it will cramp my style, Chocolate Thunder may have to lay low for a while, slam."
Runner-up, indeedproceed: "Kid: But mister Dawkins, I'm only six!
Darryl Dawkins: Hey kid, if you can't stand the chocolate thunder then get out of the storm kitchen." Second runner-up, AndrewH: "Soulja Boy has mistaken Chocolate Thunder for Chocolate Rain. Back to the "re-jumpstart my career with a youtube star collaboration" drawing board." | | |
| 'Thin-chested' Lakers get $50 a charge
June 2, 2010 at 11:45 AM
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A few months ago, Nick Collison's(notes) proficiency at taking charges made a little bit of noise around the NBA. As The Baseline's Eric Freeman noted, the Thunder were super happy with Collison choosing to take charges rather than block shots, since it meant they always got the ball back. The charge was a strategy, and one that seemed to work pretty well. But the Lakers aren't the Thunder, obviously. Whether it be that they'd prefer to block a shot, refuse to let another player hit them or they're just too stubborn, the! Lakers don't take charges. But if Phil Jackson's genius plan works as he's hoping, the Lakers will go from "thin-chested" to flop-a-loppin' all over the court in the finals. From ESPN's Shelley Smith: The Los Angeles Lakers have never been known as a team that takes offensive charges. They are trying to change that. Last series, Phil Jackson called his big men "thin-chested" as a way of goading them into standing strong and taking a hit, and the team has been offering financial incentive — $50 per charge. "To motivate us in a way to take charges and getting away with it," explained Sasha Vujacic(notes). And Vujacic says that the way the Celtics players ! play, the Lakers believe they could be in line to make some ex! tra cash . "Their whole team is kind of a charging possibility taking team. We just got to be smart," Vujacic said. "They are a very smart team that can go from block to a charge, so we've been working a lot on charges and how to take them and stuff, so we'll see."
Excellent plan, Phil. Fifty dollars might not seem like a lot to a bunch of millionaires, but when it's a whole team full of hyper-competitive guys, they'll be trying to take charges just so their teammates don't get the money. Like I said, excellent plan. According to Smith's report, the Lakers have been paying out for charges since last season. The money comes from a pool of money generated by various players' fines. So when Ron Artest(notes) is late to practice ! the day after tipping in a game-winner, he pays a fine that eventually turns into charge money. Considering he paid the fine, you'd think Ron-Ron would want to get his money back. But that'd mean taking a charge which is something Artest won't do. The man has principles. "I don't even know how to take a charge," he said. "To get the charge you have to fall. I'd rather not fall. You call an offensive foul, possibly be a fight. That's just how we grew up playing basketball."
That's Queensbridge for ya. Say it, Craig. | | |
| Lamar Odom might keep his wife away from Boston
June 2, 2010 at 10:50 AM
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|  Being a professional athlete is tough sometimes. Trust me — as a blogger, I would totally know. Basically the only thing harder than being in the limelight 24-7 is the life of a reality television star. You think you want that attention, but once you get it, things change. I'm just guessing on this, since I've yet to be cast on "Survivor," but it must be true.
So if you were to combine the stresses of being an athlete with the constant scrutiny of being a reality TV veteran, then mix it with sickening amounts of candy, you'd almost approximate what Lamar Odom(notes) and Khloe Kardashian have going on. Heck, throw a baby in! there — yep, they're expecting — and everything gets a little more complicated. Then on top of all that stress, throw in the fact that the Lakers are playing the Celtics for the NBA title and you can understand why Lamar Odom wouldn't want to bring his wife to Boston. With those fans, it's just too much. From Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports: “It’s a little more hostile in Boston,” Odom said. “I don’t know how my wife [reality star Khloe Kardashian] is going to be able to sit in the crowd. “They gave it to my kids last time in Boston. I can’t repeat (what was said). It will be fun. The peopl! e were rude to my kids, but it was fun.” Lea ving Khloe home is probably a wise choice. During a recent visit from my sister, I caught a few episodes of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," and there is more than a little that Boston fans could use for ammunition. Like, for instance, when Khloe made Lamar a "sweet treat" video that was by far the strangest two minutes on television this year. Boston fans might just twist that a little. Then again, there's nothing more important than having your loved ones near you when you really need them. Sure, the emotional support during an NBA Finals would be excellent, but I really meant at night. I mean, who is going to be able to get Lamar all the chocolate he needs before he can sleep if Khloe isn't around?
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| Cleveland takes the lead in the LeBron James race
June 2, 2010 at 9:50 AM
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To recap: LeBron James(notes) will be a free agent July 1, a lot of teams are trying to sign him, fans are doing some wacky things to encourage him to sign with their favorite team. Now you're up to speed. It's been a crazy ride, and we're just getting started. And while we've been talking a lot about LeBron's free agency, where he'll sign and things like that, LeBron has been pretty mum on the subject. Well, totally mum, to be honest. The two-time reigning MVP hasn't said a word since promising he'd &! quot;talk to his team" following the Cavaliers' elimination by the Boston Celtics a million blog years ago. But maybe LeBron was just waiting for the right time to start talking about free agency. Maybe he wanted to speak up when the lights were the brightest on the NBA — during finals week. Now that we're nearing the end of the season, and even the most casusal basketball fans are getting excited about the league, LeBron is talking. In an interview with Larry King that will air Friday, James gave his first hint about his intentions. King, who interviewed James at the two-time MVP's home near Akron on Tuesday, asked the superstar if Cleveland has "an edge going in?" "Absolutely," James said in a portion of the interview released by the network. &quo! t;Because, you know, this city, these fans, I mean, have given! me a lo t in these seven years. And, you know, for me, it's comfortable. So I've got a lot of memories here. And so it does have an edge. "It's going to be a very interesting summer and I'm looking forward to it."
Hey-o! How about that Cleveland? You've got an edge. Just don't screw it up. The beards will help, I'm sure, but you'll definitely want to step your game up because, as LeBron says, he's "far from close" to making his decision. And when he does make his decision? Whoa boy. It's going to be big-time. One economist estimates that James signing in Chicago could net the city an extra $2.7 billion over six years, which is a lot of Salma Hayeks ! from Hot Doug's. According to another study, if LeBron became a Knick and led the team to a championship win in seven games, he'd make New York City $58 million, just for that season. He's a stimulus package wrapped in a super-sized basketball body that is shaped curiously similar to that of Will Smith's in "Ali." That's probably why everyone from "The Real Housewives of New York City" to President Barack Obama are chiming in on where LeBron sh! ould go. And while Clevelanders are preparing for the worst and already claiming that if LeBron were to leave he "could replace Art Modell as the most hated person in Cleveland," they have to be pretty happy he said the Cavs have an edge, even if it's minute. Then again, are Clevelanders ever happy? They are in Cleveland, after all. I've heard there's nothing to do there. | | |
| Why the Boston Celtics can beat the Lakers
June 2, 2010 at 9:00 AM
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The NBA Finals start on Thursday, and you don't get to the NBA Finals without having a chance at a championship. Unless you're the 2007 Cleveland Cavaliers, and/or you start Eric Snow(notes). So let's go over a few reasons — three, you'll find out — why the Boston Celtics can beat the Lakers four times over the next two weeks.
Don't you worry your pretty little face, Orange County. Later Wednesday, we'll do the same for the Lakers. The team can run Boston gets stops. The La! kers might be pretty potent offensively, but the C's will still earn their fair share of stops, grab their fair share of rebounds, and find themselves with their fair share of chances to make the Lakers look old and confused in the open court. The key will be the only Celtic that isn't old and confused, Dr. Rajon Rondo(notes). With Kobe Bryant(notes) likely checking him, Rondo will have ample time to scope out cross-match advantages after a long rebound or Laker turnover. Bryant can use his length and smarts to lock Rondo down when the game slows to a crawl, but in the haze of moving screens and switched assignments, Rondo should have an advantage in transition. And if Ray Allen(notes) should deign to join him, say run to a corner or elbow extended, then the Celtics could really find an advantage, here. Phil Jackson has long liked to send a small forward back when a Laker shot goes up so as to take away quick strike opportunities — think of Rick Fox or Trevor Ariza(notes) last year — but Ron Artest(notes) often thinks individual defense before he thinks team first. Artest can be keyed on his guy sometimes too much, and if he doesn't get back, and Kobe's left to chase down Rondo? The older team could win with a younger man's game. Ron Ron's singular focus could create an advantage for the Celtics in another way, too. Another couple of ways, ! actually. Engage Ron It doesn't take much to get Artest locked-in, but when it gets personal for him, it really gets personal. And a chance to take down the hometown hero, Boston forward Paul Pierce(notes), might be too much for Ron to pass on. Which you think would be great for the Lakers, and it could be, but not if Ron takes it too far. If he ignores team defense to stick with the Truth, and only the Truth; so help him, Doc. If he tries to get back at Pierce offensively, and takes the Lakers out of their offense. If he goes a little batty, gets a little foul-happy, as was the case with Ron and Kobe Bryant in last season's playoffs, then it could take the Lakers right out of their game. Everyone's bringing up the Pierce/Artest matchup, reminding you of how PP took it to Vladimir Radmanovic(notes) in the 2008 finals, as if it's a fait accompli that Artest is going to be able to lock down Pierce. He might shut him down. He might make him a non-entity. It could happen. But it doesn't have to, and it's certainly nothing you run away from. Topping that, great offense will always beat great defense in this game, so I can't see Artest dominating too much. And if you want to bring up how LeBron James(notes) shuts down Pierce every time the Cavaliers and Celtics meet, fine. Just be open to the idea that it was James' offense, and not his defense on Pierce, that may have made the biggest impact in limiting Pierce's contributions. I don't think it's time to say goodbye to Pierce just yet. Especially if... The Celtics limit the turnovers This team, through ! the years, has just been terrible with the TOs. And yet, throughout these playoffs, the Celtics have really kept control of the rock. As a result, they've played some pretty stellar offensive basketball — certainly not Phoenix-worthy, but pretty sound overall. All while not doing much differently than what we saw in the regular season. The difference has to be the turnovers. Boston has to take advantage of a Laker defense that, quite frankly, has disappointed a bit after a stellar regular season. If it can stay away from unforced miscues — moving screens, charges from the bench, letting Tony Allen(notes) touch the basketball — the C's have a chance. A great chance. | | |
| SL: McHale smells blood; Rondo and Bynum getting better
June 2, 2010 at 8:15 AM
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|  Each weekday morning, BDL serves up a handful of NBA-related stories to digest with your chili.
Mark Daniels, Boston Herald: Celtics legend Kevin McHale, a veteran of three NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers, expects the bad blood from championship series past to be flowing when the teams renew their postseason rivalry starting with tomorrow night's Game 1 at Staples Center. Not only does this year's ! Finals mark the second time in three years that the two storied franchises have squared off with the title on the line, but it is the 12th championship series overall between the teams. Though the rivalry might not have the same feel as it did in the 1980s, McHale pointed out that the Lakers will want to make a statement after losing in six games in 2008. "I think there's some bad blood with the way the '08 series ended," McHale said. "People were saying (the Celtics [team stats]) beat up on them and basically punked the Lakers. That really bothers you if you're a player. I think they want another shot, I think Kobe (Bryant) does, (Pau) Gasol does. I think all the Lakers do. I think there's some bad blood and I think it's great for the game. I think that's the way it should be." Mitch Lawrence, New York Daily News: When the Lakers take the court Thursday night to open their title defense against the Celtics, all eyes won't be on Kobe Bryant(notes). Undoubtedly, a few people, including Phil Jackson, will take a long look to see how Andrew Bynum(notes) moves during the opening minutes of Game 1 of the NBA Finals. The Lakers' center probably won't be anywhere close to 100% as he continues to play with torn cartilage in his right knee. During L.A.'s run to the Finals, Bynum's minutes have dropped and he has been ineffective at times. A continuation of those trends could prevent the Lakers from becoming the first team to re! peat since the Bryant-Shaquille O'Neal(notes) three-peat teams of 2000-02. "Our bigs have to play and they have to play well," Jackson said. The Lakers saw what happened against Boston's big, physical front when Bynum had to sit out the 2008 Finals with a partially dislocated left kneecap. Without their 7-foot, 285-pounder to go toe-to-toe with Boston's Kendrick Perkins(notes) and Kevin Garnett(notes), the Lakers were outmuscled and lost in six. This time around, the Celtics also have Rasheed Wallace(notes) to work over ! Bynum an d Pau Gasol(notes). Saying he had a "big, massive amount of swelling" after the Western Conference finals against Phoenix, Bynum had 2-1/2 ounces of fluid removed from his knee on Monday. "Since the swelling is not in there, it allows my muscles to fire," said Bynum, who is expected to return to the practice court Wednesday after missing Tuesday's workout. "When the swelling is in there, it takes away from that. That's the biggest difference." Ramona Shelburne, ESPN: Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo(notes) s! aid he won't be 100 percent healthy by Thursday's Game 1 of the NBA Finals, but he'll be close enough. "I'm about 67 percent today," Rondo joked, before the Celtics practiced at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion. "I won't be 100 percent by Thursday, but I'll be like 94.7. Right now, nobody in the Finals is 100 percent. If you find someone let me know who is, let me know," he said. "You can ask the Lakers too. One of our rookies might be 100 percent." Rondo suffered muscle spasms in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, then fell hard on his back in Game 6. He was limited in practice Monday, but participated fully in Tuesday's practice despite being a little stiff and sore from the long, cross-country flight Monday evening. "It was a long flight so I'm sore and stiff, but it's nothing to worry about," Rondo said. Kevin Ding, Orange County Register: Pau Gasol had already become an NBA champion the previ! ous year . Just days earlier, he'd been named an All-Star for the second consecutive season. Mere seconds before, Gasol had showcased his skills with a running hook shot off a Kobe Bryant setup, giving the Lakers a 24-12 lead late in the first quarter on Jan. 31 in Boston. But because this was Boston ... because losing the 2008 NBA Finals to the Celtics prompted Gasol finally to get in the weight room ... because this was the very same TD Garden court on which Gasol and the Lakers had been pushed around and insulted with the worst sort of four-letter word in male athletic competition: S-O-F-T. Gasol had something else to prove. Gasol stood there with Rasheed Wallace running toward him and didn't back up. When Wallace kept coming with a shoulder to Gasol's chest, it prompted Gasol to step up instead of move back: He banged Wallace back even harder, triggering a double-techincal skirmish and making a statement to all - including the new enforcer in Lakerland, Ron Artest(notes). "As you can see, they were kind of testing Pau," Artest said after the Lakers' victory without even being asked a question about Gasol. "He handled his self." Now the Lakers are back in the final round with the Celtics. If the NBA title is the equivalent of basketball's heavyweight championship of the world, the Lakers believe they have learned they need to fight to win the belt. If they haven't learned, Boston will use its physical aggressiveness to gain those pivotal inches on the floor again - and a clear upper hand. "Our big guys are going to have to stand up," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said, "because that's basically what got the Celtics through Orlando (in the Eastern Conference finals)." Julian Benbow, B! oston Gl obe: There's the part of Rasheed Wallace that's unapologetically transparent. The frosty postgame beers sitting in his locker. The Flyers cap in the Bruins city. The unstrapped, unorthodox Air Force 1 sneakers he has worn for 11 straight years, unless you count those six minutes in the first half of Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals when he went without them. (Why? "No story," Wallace said. "I just left them at home.") He is who he is. "There's no hidden meaning or underlying philosophies with him," Celtics teammate Ray Allen(notes) said. "He's just straightforward. Always." The question as Wallace's frustrating regular season played out was whether he was the player the Celtics thought he was when they signed him to a three-year deal last summer. Was he the team-first player that became a ! championship-belt-carrying fan favorite in Detroit? Was he the referees' worst nightmare whose follow-up to a 40-technical foul season in 2000 was 41 the next year? Was he the whip-smart basketball savant or the surly aging veteran? In truth, he was all of the above. But he was brought to Boston to help the Celtics return to the Finals. The Celtics were able to get there because the Wallace they've gotten in the playoffs has been the Wallace they expected. "Regardless of what Rasheed did for us numbers-wise, we felt like we needed his ability," said Paul Pierce(notes). "His size, his defense, his experience, those are things we wanted from Rasheed. We didn't ask Rasheed to come in here and start, to average a certain number of points. We needed his presence." 
Ira Winderman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Moving away from one court after a series of civil suits were settled Tuesday, Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade(notes) said he will not immediately turn his attention to the court where he earns a significant portion of his livelihood. Eligible to become a free agent on July 1, Wade said he would deal with that matter after first spending time with his family in Chicago. "That's a big part of the summer,"! he said. "We'll see where it goes. That's still a little ways away." Technically, Wade has yet to reach free agency, still holding an option for $17.1 million for next season, with a decision on that 2010-11 portion of his contract due by June 30. "We haven't really thought about it," agent Henry Thomas told the Sun Sentinel, when asked when Wade would deal with that formality. Asked if Wade's re-signing with the Heat was included as a requirement of Tuesday's civil-suit settlement agreement, Wade's attorney Michael Kreitzer laughed and said, "Well, I tried to sneak that in, but he caught me at the last minute." Vincent Goodwill, Detroit News: It's noon on Memorial Day, and while many NBA players are relaxing, the only light Pistons forward Austin Daye(notes) can see is from t! he windo ws of a Las Vegas gym. Since the season ended in late April, the 21-year-old has been putting up shots every day, going through drills and, of course, lifting weights, readying himself for 2010-11. "I want to become a better all-around player," Daye said. "I really do think a year will make a difference. This summer is really important for my improvement." Daye, unlike most rookies drafted early (15th in 2009), didn't get the opportunity he hoped for last season. Even on a team riddled with injuries that won only 27 games, Daye often found himself glued to the pine. He appeared in 69 games, averaging 13.3 minutes, five points and 2.5 rebounds. To make matters worse, he saw fellow rookie Jonas Jerebko(notes) earn the trust of coach John Kuester, making the most of his opportunities. While he was undoubtedly happy for his teammate! , Daye left The Palace many nights wondering when -- and if -- his number would be called for something other than spot duty. "I came in this past year knowing I wouldn't get a great deal of playing time," he said. "I wanted to learn and get better through the 82 games and I think I did that." Ryan Wolstat, Toronto Sun: For just the second time in 16 NBA drafts, the Raptors might be making a pair of first-round selections. That is certainly the impression the team is creating after two days of draft workouts. Instead of sticking to some of the more widely known names eligible for the June 24 draft, the Raptors are bringing in just about anybody they can get to agree to come. Tuesday it was potential late first- early second-rounders' Devin Ebanks of West Virginia, Gani Lawal of Georgia Tech, Samardo Samuels of Louisville, Latavious Williams of the N! BA Developmental League and two players completely off the rad! ar in Tu lsa guard Ben Uzoh and UCLA guard Michael Roll. Though Raptors senior director of player personnel Jim Kelly was coy: "We consider everybody." It would be a massive shock if any of the six were seriously in the mix for the club's 13th overall selection. But later on in the night, they just might be. "That's part of the strategy as well," Kelly confirmed when queried if the presence of so many lower-ranked prospects could be taken as a sign that the team is serious about adding another pick. "A lot of times we're out there, we think this can happen or that can happen so you bring some different kinds of people in there because the last couple of days before the draft you can't get (anybody in for a workout)." Dave D'Alessandro, New Jersey Star-Ledger: The man widely assumed to be the top candidate for the Nets' coaching vacancy has t! aken himself out of the running. Jeff Van Gundy, who had the teaching background and defensive know-how that Nets president Rod Thorn has been looking for since the search began, has told coach-seeking executives that he has officially decided to stay in the TV analyst business next season, the Nets reluctantly confirmed. "I don't want to say anything about it ... but I think from everything I gather, that it's probably true," Thorn said today. Asked whether it was accurate to state it from another perspective, and confirm that Van Gundy is no longer one of the "four to six" candidates on his short list, Thorn replied, "That would be correct." He added that anything more concrete should come from Van Gundy, the popular ABC/ESPN analyst who hasn't coached since leaving the Houston Rockets 37 months ago. Reached this evening, Van Gundy stuck to his own script, stating that he was happy with his! present job and that any information about coaching positions! should come from the teams. Jason Jones, Sacramento Bee: Tyreke Evans'(notes) citation for reckless driving Monday was only the beginning of his lesson. By Tuesday afternoon, family, the Kings and fans had weighed in and expressed their disappointment in Evans for speeding on Interstate 80. Evans was clocked driving 130 mph in his black Mercedes S550 by a California Highway Patrol helicopter Monday evening, according to the CHP. The CHP will investigate whether Evans was racing another car. Not only was Evans reminded of the dangers of speeding, he was reminded of his place in the community, the Kings and the NBA. "I've learned my lesson to drive safely," Evans told The Bee. "I've got a bright future ahead ! of me, and I don't want to mess it up with a car accident." | | |
| Doc Rivers thinks Phil Jackson will be the best coach in the Finals
June 1, 2010 at 3:25 PM
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To say that Phil Jackson and Doc Rivers go about coaching in different ways would be like saying something that is totally and completely obvious. Jackson is often aloof, preferring to reign from his coaching throne and manipulate games with mind control. Rivers is more immediate, getting all up in his players' faces and yelling about the various injustices his team has suffered, while somehow remaining cool. Both styles are effective as both have won NBA Coach of the Year awards and have seen their respective teams be crowned champion of the NBA. Furthermore, in the last three seasons, the teams they coach have won almost an identical number of games — 179 for the Lakers, 178 for the Celtics. You could say that each of these guys can coast on the talent of their teams, but th! at's not really true in either case. At this point in their careers, the difference between the two is pretty small. Unless you're Doc Rivers. He's sure he knows the answer, and he let the Boston Globe's Frank Dell'Apa in on his dirty little secret. "You compare me to Phil, we're in trouble,'' Rivers said. "He's got 10 rings, I've got one. I think, obviously, you go by his record, he's the best coach ever in the game. I told our players you've got to be better than me with Phil, for sure.''
Doc Rivers shouldn't be so hard on himself. Just because Jackson has 10 times as many rings as he does doesn't mean Phil's 10 times better. After all, Rivers won the coaching battle during the 2008 finals. Sure, Phil Jackson handing out books to his players is a cool tradition, but Doc's got! "ubuntu," which is equally nerdy and effective. But what's really important is that Rivers' team has his back. It thinks he's a super terrific coach. Especially Paul Pierce(notes). "I'm going to put him right up there. He's definitely taken my career to the next level. You've got to put him in there with the top-five coaches. I'll put Doc right up there with them.''
That's nice. Aside from a couple of terrible rebuilding years — if you can call what the Celtics did to get better rebuilding — Rivers has been a solid coach. He's not going to challenge Phil Jackson's record for career titles any time soon, but he's more than adequate. And obviously, his players love him, which is the most important thing. All we need now is for the finals to actually start so we can truly determine who's the better coach. Hurry up, Thursday! | | |
| When it comes to NBA rivalries, Ron Artest couldn't care less
June 1, 2010 at 2:20 PM
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Some days it feels like Ron Artest(notes) was put on Earth just for bloggers to have something to write about. Whether it be impromptu and unneccessary photo shoots with models, intricate dye-jobs or, you know, actual bask! etball stuff, with Ron Artest it's always something. Today's something is a good one. Despite an 11-year NBA career, and showing up uninvited in the Lakers' locker room following their 2008 Finals defeat, Ron Artest is now claiming that he has no knowledge of the rivalry between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics. From the AP: "I'm not a student," Artest said. "I just love the game. I'm not really familiar with the rivalry. I'm sure there's a lot of history, but I can't really tell you any details about it."
Well, he's right. There is a lot of history. You know, like, 50 years worth, including 11 Finals meetings and, o! h yeah, being the two most storied franchises in the history o! f the NB A, stretching back to before the Lakers were even in Los Angeles. It's even got its own Wikipedia page, for goodness' sake. Ringing any bells? No? Could someone tweet Ron Artest that link, please? Thanks, guys. OK, even if Ron Artest isn't a student of the game, you would think that he might have picked up a few little tidbits here and there. I mean, he's had to have heard of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, right? They had a movie and a book made about them. Plus there's the fact that if he's turned on ESPN once in the past two weeks, there was bound to be a little piece of Celtics/Lakers ephemera that he'd! catch wind of, one would think. Then again, this is Ron Artest we're talking about here. In his world, Lakers and Celtics are just words to rhyme with "fakers" and "smelt kicks" for his next rap song. That's why he's Ron Artest and we aren't. Never change. | | |
| The Orlando Magic? Gone Till November
June 1, 2010 at 1:00 PM
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|  With every season that ends, for the playoff teams at least, we felt it right to take a look ahead. TNT already has the rights to"Gone Fishin'," and because we're sure that someone, somewhere, still likes that Wyclef song, we're going with "Gone Till November." And, yes, we know the season starts in October. Today? The Orlando Magic.
You just do it all over again. That's what you do. You're the Orlando Magic. You just won 59 games, you probably should have beaten the Boston Celtics, you were designed to win a championship, and your best feature involves a 24-year-old, 6-11 center who can slap the top of the backboard while lead! ing the NBA in blocks and rebounds at the same time. Could you start things over, if you wanted to, Mr. Orlando Magic? No, you couldn't. Because you've already spent the money. You bought the tickets, and you're on the cruise. It doesn't matter if you don't like the buffet, if you can't stand the MC, or if you forget to pack your good slacks. You're on the boat. You're going to be there, with this crew, until at least 2012. The Orlando Magic are stuck, but the Orlando Magic are stacked. I had them coming out of the East, all season. I had them offering all the answers, too quick for the Celtics, too sturdy for the Cavaliers, too good for Atlanta. I thought they were going to defend their crown, and I told anyone that would listen that the finals were to start in Florida two days from now. I was wrong, obviously. The Magic leaned too hard on people, not players, who shouldn't be leaned upon. People who cannot be trusted. Re! spect the hell out of Jameer Nelson(notes) as a person, I implore you, but at times he's too unaware of his own talent. His own gifts. The same can be said for Vince Carter(notes), who could be an absolute demon in the triple-threat position in a playoff game. The exact same for Rashard Lewis(notes). All three failed Orlando, in May. Carter and Lewis, badly, need to pull up some tapes of Reggie Miller's play in the 2000 postseason. How he used those old bones to drive the Eastern Conference mad. You receive the ball in the pinch post, 19 feet from the hoop. Either side of the court. You fake a drive, you fake a pass, you fake a shot. You fake every option &m! dash; all three of them, that's why they call it a "triple-threat" — and you see what the defender lunges at. You respond accordingly. You'd prefer to shoot, it's the easiest move, but you could also drive. Even for just one or two hard dribbles before the pull-up. You use all those skills, that size, that touch. You make yourself dangerous. You help your team win. Lewis and Carter didn't bother with any of that against the Celtics, and I've a hard time believing they'll do it again when times starts to get crunchy next May. Carter's done it before. People are so used to being let down by him that they often forget that VC used to run quite well with those New Jersey Nets teams. He used to keep those teams, those limited teams, in games. Playoff games, even. Which is why last month was such a disappointment. Rashard? Hardly the same makeup. He's never fully taken advantage of his own gifts, an! d Orlando general manager Otis Smith has traded and signed for! the rig hts to those gifts until 2012. He can become the most sought-after trading pawn in the NBA during 2011-12; a massive unguaranteed (for 2012-13) cap-clearing contract to deal for after the league's latest Collective Bargaining Agreement lays waste to the current payroll structure, but until then the Magic are just going to have to keep finding him in the corner. Carter's an expiring deal as well, as he has a year left. But even with Orlando's sound wing depth — J.J. Redick(notes) and Mickael Pietrus(notes) filling the holes in one's head with the bumps in another's — Otis Smith really has to make sure he has a sweetheart deal before he pulls the trigger on dealing VC. He's like your second car. Not the go! od car, but your second car. It might only be worth 500 bucks in a trade-in, but it's value to you — the convenience, the role it plays — is worth far, far more to you. Yes, I just compared Vince Carter to my 1996 Dodge Stratus. Those are your problem points: Lewis and Carter. Jameer Nelson, as well, to a lesser extent. And those are the problem points on a team that nearly won 60 games, a team that's probably going to return just about everyone next season, and a team that should probably have the best chance (with Boston possibly fading, and LeBron James(notes) going or staying or who the heck knows?) at taking the Eastern crown in 2010-11. Yes, it's another on-paper call, but Stan Van Gundy makes paper come to life. I have unending respect for him as a coach, and despite his rotation's character flaws, this is still a t! eam that others should worry about. Matt Barnes(notes) will opt out of his contract, but he'll probably be back. J.J. Redick will probably be back. Jason Williams(notes) was clearly a concern for SVG, his brother Jeff let that out of the bag on air, and he won't be back. But the Magic, the team that wins, will be back. Because you don't mess with this. You tinker and see what you can get — Brandon Bass(notes), the flighty Marcin Gortat(notes), Carter's expiring contract should all be on the block — but you sustain with ! what worked enough to score 69 wins in 96 tries. You rely on what has worked, time and time again in this league. A fabulous coach, a defensive anchor in the middle, and screen-and-roll options. It's a winning formula, and you don't abandon it just because Jameer Nelson's decision-making took a week off in May. You bring everyone back, and you try again. The Magic are a championship-level team. If only they knew. | | |
| Tyreke Evans wants to go fast
June 1, 2010 at 12:15 PM
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NBA players like fast cars. Heck, most people like fast cars. Just ask Vin Diesel, who has made an entire career out of people liking fast cars. So it shouldn't be terribly surprising that any NBA player would spent any of their millions of dollars on a very fast car, and reigning Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans(notes) did just that. And then, because it's pointless to have a fast car if you can't use it, Evans decided ! to test just how fast his Mercedes really was. He got it above 100 mph, and with that, a complimentary traffic stop courtesy of the California Highway Patrol. He really got all the bells and whistles. From the Sacramento Bee's Melody Gutierrez: A CHP air unit spotted Evans at 6:51 p.m. in a 2010 black Mercedes S550 speeding at more than 100 mph westbound on Interstate 80 at Antelope Road. The air unit followed the Mercedes until officers could respond at 6:58 p.m. outside a park, where Evans planned to play basketball. Officers drew guns and ordered Evans and his passenger out of the car. Dutton said Evans' windows were tinted black and officers could not see inside the vehicle so they performed a felony stop with guns drawn. Dutton said Evans was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
OK, yes it is very dangerous th! at Tyreke Evans would drive his very expensive and very fast c! ar at su ch high speeds that police would approach him with guns, but is it not kind of adorable that he was speeding to go play basketball? If a team had to have the face of its franchise get in even the teensiest amount of trouble with the law, hurrying to play basketball in the offseason is probably the No. 1 choice of all franchises. That being said — slow down, Tyreke! I know that all of America was entranced by the "Fast and Furious" quadrilogy, but that doesn't mean we should all drive our cars at high speeds on something called Antelope Road. Can you even imagine what would have happened if an antelope would have jumped out? Nothing good, that's for sure. | | |
| Create-a-caption: Darryl Dawkins has a slight advantage here
June 1, 2010 at 11:15 AM
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| Hey guys, here's a picture of Darryl Dawkins arm-wrestling with some little kid. Seems pretty unfair considering Chocolate Thunder's head is roughly the same size as this kid's upper body. I'd have Dawkins as a 1,000,000-1 favorite in this match. Place your bets, make your captions and win an arm-wrestling arcade game. Good luck. 
Previously, Derek Fisher teaches Ron Artest the fist bump.  Winner, indeedproceed: "Derek Fisher: I know you'd be cool, Ron! Eskimo brothers for life.
Ron Artest(notes): Word. Ain't no piece of pie gonna ruin my football sunday, knowwhatimsayin?
Derek: Umm....
Ron: I'm saying if Toyota wants to come at me with that recall they can do like the one legged man and bump it on down the road, son.
Derek: You want PF Chang's or Cheesecake Factory?
Ron: Man, it's like if a dog wanna hunt, first you gotta teach that Jedi how to write cursive, boyyyyyy.
Derek: PF Chang's then.
Ron: Kapa-Chow."
Runner-up, Zach F: "It was a somber pound as both realized they were not wearing their triangle offense decoder rings." Second runner-up, joshj: "Man! We both threw! rock again." | | |
| 'Beards for 'Bron' is an astute and hirsute free agency ploy
June 1, 2010 at 10:15 AM
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|  As you may have heard, LeBron James(notes) has options this offseason. And if you haven't heard, this guy will help you out. And if you don't care about all the particulars, you certainly know that King James will be a free agent this summer. We've only been talking about it for three years.
Furthermore, you know that fans are doing anything they can think of entice James to play for their team. Songs and websites and customized cars are just the start. Now, WKNR, an ESPN radio station in Cleveland, has launched "Beards for 'Bron," the latest and greatest in hilarious recruiting tools. You can probably figure out what's going on by the name, but if not, here's the description offered on their throwback website: Start growing your beard & participate in Beards for 'Bron! On June 1, 2010 you can show your support along with the ESPN Cleveland staff in growing out your beard as a message of solidarity to show our support for Cleveland in general, and our sports teams in particular!
There ya go. Cleveland is growing beards for LeBron James because he li! kes beards, I guess. He's sported some a full playoff beard in! the pas t, not to mention his ever-changing assortment of mustaches, line-beards and chin-straps, so it's easy to see why he'd want to stay in Cleveland if everyone had a beard. You too, ladies. Of course, if LeBron does end up staying in Cleveland, let's hope that WKNR adds LeBron's beard to their illustrious gallery of famous beards in history. Surely LeBron would love to see himself alongside the likes of Jesus Christ, Santa Claus and David Spade. | | |
| I'm a Raptor, get me out of here — Hedo wants to leave Toronto
June 1, 2010 at 9:15 AM
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No matter how great of a city Toronto is, some people are just predisposed to disliking it. Maybe they don't like their Taco Bells to serve french fries or perhaps they're not on board with the concept of a video podcast, but whatever the reason, these people don't understand the delights that Toronto has to offer. And then there is Hedo Turkoglu(notes), who went from Toronto's missing piece to public enemy number 1 in the span of nine months. He's recently joined that group of people who aren't so happy with Ontario's capital city, and he's so ! disenchanted by the entire situation with the Raptors that he went on Turkish television to talk about his next move. The interview was lovingly translated and transcribed by The Basketball Jones, and there's one part that definitely won't sit well with Raptor fans. When the circumstances turned against me, I lost my enthusiasm for this city. My lawyers have talked to the front office recently. Honestly, I do not want to go back to Toronto. My lawyers talked to Mr. Colangelo and I hope that they will come up with a solution soon. During this process I talked to [Raptors head coach] Jay Triano several times. I promised him that whether he starts me or not, I will do my best on the court. However, if I had a more temperamental personality, I would have left the team. Yet, I did exactly the opposite. I did my best. I told him that I have no problems! with him. I am not a young player, so it's not a big deal for! me to c ome off the bench.
That's pretty cut-and-dry. "I do not want to go back to Toronto," doesn't leave a ton of room for misinterpretation. So if any teams out there are interested in a 31-year-old guard/forward coming off his worst season in seven years, it seems like there might be one available soon. Reading the interview, it's clear that getting booed really took its toll on Hedo. As he says multiple times, he'd never been booed before. After Raptors fans let him know they weren't happy with his play they "lost [his] love." It's possible that a weekend at a resort hotel could help rekindle that flame, but sometimes when it's gone, it's gone. So now the Raptors are kind of stuck. It'd be hard enough to trade an aging player that was owed nearly $32 million over the next three years (plus an early termination option for another year at $12 million), but when you factor in that he played poorly this season and has been talking! to the media about wanting out, Turkoglu's trade value is miniscule. That's not a fun position to be in when the team is already in danger of losing its best player to free agency. On the bright side, "Jurassic Park IV" is said to be in pre-production, meaning the Raptors mascot will make a bit more sense. It's the little things, people. | | |
| SL: Jackson talks smack; Bynum's knee drained; Boozer's bros
June 1, 2010 at 8:15 AM
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|  Each weekday morning, BDL serves up a handful of NBA-related stories to digest with your sausage McGriddle.
Shira Springer, Boston Globe: Did you expect a pre-Finals news conference to pass without Lakers coach Phil Jackson taking a jab at the Celtics? When questioned about potential physical play in the series, Jackson took his first swing. "We don't have a smackdown mentality," he said. "You might have seen that with [Kevin] Garnett on [Orlando's Dwight] Howard in Game 6 in Boston, where he was smacking Howard's arm and was finally called for! an offensive foul. That's not our kind of team. We don't go out there to smack people around. I call it more resiliency. We're a more resilient ball club. We try to stay strong and play hard. But we're going to have to withstand some of that. We're going to have to play through it. We have some guys who are capable of playing to that style in [Derek] Fisher and Ron [Artest] and obviously Kobe [Bryant]. But our big guys are going to have to stand up because that's basically what got the Celtics through Orlando." Lamar Odom(notes) took a more diplomatic approach. "[All the series] have been physically demanding, even this last one, all the running we had to do," said Odom. "This one will be physical, if they let us play a little bit." Jackson did show sympathy for Ke! ndrick Perkins(notes), one of the Celtics' most physical players. The Lakers coach said his team had no desire to frustrate Perkins in an effort to force the center into a technical foul. One more technical and Perkins will earn an automatic one-game suspension. "I don't even like to think about those kind of things," said Jackson. "Those things I think should be wiped out. Flagrant fouls. Technical fouls. It just means the longer you've been in the playoffs the more penalized you are. It seems like that's not a really good code right now." Kevin Ding, Orange County Register: Andrew Bynum(notes) had 70 milliliters — nearly 2 1/2 fluid ounces — drained from his right knee early Monday m! orning in a procedure done by Lakers doctor Steve Lombardo. Bynum said his knee, which has torn cartilage in it, was still medicated from the procedure, so he wasn't sure how it was feeling. But he said: "It supposedly makes you feel more healthy." Bynum's understanding is that there are no major ramifications to the drainage, and he intends to practice Wednesday to test how much his knee has improved. Game 1 of the NBA Finals is Thursday night. Bynum is aware Kobe Bryant(notes) had his swollen right knee drained after Game 4 of the playoffs' opening round and has played well ever since. "He's obviously feeling much better," Bynum said. "You could tell he was a step slow before." Chris Forsberg, ESPNBost! on.com: Rajon Rondo(notes) and Rasheed Wallace(notes) were limited during the Boston Celtics' practice session Monday. Rondo, who suffered muscle spasms during the Eastern Conference finals against the Orlando Magic, then landed hard on his back during a first-quarter drive in Friday's clinching Game 6, participated in what Celtics coach Doc Rivers estimated was 3/4 of the practice, but was held back with eyes towards Thursday's Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers. Wallace developed back spasms during Game 5 against Orlando, then departed in the fourth quarter of Game 6 when the symptoms worsened. Rive! rs held the reserve big man out of contact drills Monday and remains concerned about his availability moving forward. Rondo was on the court and active during 5-on-5 drills to close out the session; Wallace watched from the sidelines. "Rondo felt pretty good, he went 75-80 percent of practice," said Rivers. "Rasheed is not right yet, he did the skeleton offense stuff, but other than that, we didn't allow any contact. So if we have a concern right now with anybody, [Wallace] would be the only one." Greg Beacham, AP: Although Andrew Bynum didn't play in the 2008 NBA finals, he remembers how it all ended. Boston Celtics fans celebrated their clinching victory by throwing rocks and other projectiles at the Los Angeles Lakers' departing bus, also rocking it back and forth. "I only saw a couple of games, and it was crazy-the energy, the fans," said Bynum, who! was out for the season with an injured kneecap. "That bu! s ride b ack to the hotel, it wasn't the greatest." Bynum kept that memory close for the past two years, and so did most of his teammates. Although the Lakers' roster is remarkably similar to the group that lost to Boston two years ago, Bynum sees two big reasons Los Angeles might have a better shot to do the rocking this time. Ron Artest(notes) and Bynum said Monday they hope to play major defensive roles in the Lakers' NBA finals rematch with the Celtics, starting Thursday night at Staples Center. Artest is the Lakers' only newcomer this season, while Bynum has postponed surgery on his right knee to participate in the Lakers' playoff run. Unlike Kobe Bryant, who professes no special interest in a Celtics rematch, Bynum is thrilled this run is ending with Boston. "It's a great opportunity for us to get one back," Bynum said. "You never ! want to let something like that sit. I know it means a great deal (historically), but I'm more concerned about my own history." Mark Murphy, Boston Herald: Last week's reprieve aside, Kendrick Perkins remains on thin ice with six postseason technical fouls, just one short of a one-game suspension. Doc Rivers admittedly is worried that his center is one bad move or word away from leaving the Celtics undermanned against the Lakers' big front line in the NBA Finals. "Clearly what I've talked about hasn't worked," the Celts coach said after yesterday's practice. "Maybe I should have another one. I'm concerned by it, honestly. It's going to be a physical se! ries, and there's going to be guys that get tangled up under t! he baske t, and there's going to be officials who want to clean the game up. Perk may be in that." It all goes back to Rivers' beef with a perceived escalation in double technical fouls, a measure taken to clear up potential clashes between teams. Four of Perkins' six postseason techs have come from double-technical situations. "And that's why I've been on this double-technical thing for a month now," Rivers said. "It's part of the seven techs (that lead to a suspension) and it really shouldn't be, and it's a factor. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a factor in this series." 
Ira Winderman, South Florida Sun Sentinel: When it comes to this summer's free agency, NBA executives are expected to be knocking on doors at 12:01 a.m. July 1, the earliest such contact can be made. When it comes to Carlos Boozer(notes), the Utah Jazz free agent might be the one knocking on a few South Florida doors. Like Nick Arison's. Or Dwyane Wade's.(notes) Or Erik Spoelstra's. No prime outside free agent has shown more of an ongoing commitment to South Florida. No prime outside free agent might make the process as easy for the Miami Heat. &quo! t;Me and my wife made this our home six years ago and we'll be here forever to live," the German-born, Alaska-raised power forward said Monday, now in the process of moving from Coconut Grove to Coral Gables. In promoting his series of youth basketball camps that will run throughout the summer at various Miami-Dade venues, starting next Monday at Gulliver Prep in Kendall, Boozer cast himself as someone who doesn't need to be sold on the virtues of year-round South Florida living. And when it comes to the Heat, he might have more insight into the team's direction than any free agent. Boozer speaks regularly with Arison, the Heat's vice president of basketball operations Nick and son of Heat owner Micky Arison, not to get an edge on free agency, but because of a shared basketball background that dates to Nick's time as the Duke team manager and Olympic team liaison. "That's my friend. We're going to be friends for life," Boozer said. "We've been friends for years s! ince our Duke days. Our friendship precedes whatever happens in business." Then there is the relationship with Wade. The two have grown especially close since playing on the 2004 Athens Olympic team. "Me and D-Wade are really close," he said, with the two having consoled each other through marriage difficulties and other deeply personal issues. Joe Freeman, The Oregonian: Officially, the Trail Blazers are 23 days away from the NBA draft, which leaves ample time for last-moment scouting and maneuvering in preparation for the annual event that has helped transform the franchise into a winner in recent seasons. But in football terms, the front office says, the team is facing a first-and-goal and time is ticking off the clock. "We can see the goal line from where we're at now," said Chad Buchanan, the Blazers' director of colleg! e scouting. "We started with the kickoff and we've driven! down to the 10 yard-line." Staring at that end zone, the Blazers will hold their second round of predraft workouts this morning, when six draft prospects — three guards and three forwards — visit the team's practice facility in Tualatin. It will be the first of seven tentatively scheduled workouts this month for the Blazers, who hold the No. 22 and 44 picks of the draft. This year's draft class is widely regarded as being a deep one, even after headliners John Wall and Evan Turner, and multiple published reports suggest that the Blazers are diligently working behind the scenes to move up in the first round to try to land a potential difference-maker. General manager Kevin Pritchard refused to reveal specifics about possible trade scenarios or speculation, but did acknowledge that he has engaged in talks with other GMs and that the "buildup" to legitimate trade discussion is "starting right now." Josh Robbins, Orlando Sentinel: Matt Barnes(notes) will test the free-agent market this summer. Barnes said minutes ago that he will not exercise his player option for the 2010-11 season, but he added that he hopes to return to the Orlando Magic. "As for me and my contract situation, I'm going to opt out," Barnes told reporters gathered at RDV Sportsplex this morning. "Always worrying about the team and stuff like that is something you have to do during the season, and I'm 100 percent with that. But now it's about me and my family and what's best for us. I've expressed throughout the season that I've loved my time here and would love to return. But I think I know more than anybody that this is a business. The organization has t! o do what's best for the team. Hopefully, I impressed them eno! ugh to b ring me back and give me something decent, but we'll have to wait and see about that." Antonio Gonzalez, AP: Magic general manager Otis Smith wanted to be clear: He's not looking to overhaul the roster again. Unless he does. One eye on the past and another on the future, the never-afraid-to-take-a-chance general manager doesn't expect any major moves this offseason. Even after failing to return to the NBA finals, Smith believes Orlando already has the roster to win its first championship. "We're not a team that's that far away, so I can't sit here and say, `Yeah, we're going to make all these drastic changes because we're miles away,'" Smith said Monday. "We're not miles away. We're not at the bottom third of our league. We're at the top of our league. And with that said, we have to do things diligently and with the understanding of the aspect that we're putting th! e team-slash-puzzle together and that everything is going to have to fit." Perry Farrell, Detroit Free-Press: For Pistons president Joe Dumars, drafting a potential NBA player means more than just watching film and conferring with scouts, especially when dealing with a youngster who has to exhibit patience and talent to keep team chemistry in order. Dumars said if you asked Austin Daye(notes), DaJuan Summers(notes) or Jonas Jerebko(notes) what his conversations with Dumars were like before being ! drafted, "They would tell you that during the pre-draft meetings we had with them before the draft we talked to them about what's going to happen when you're not playing for two months. Guys are like, `I'll be able to handle it.' And what I say to guys is, 'It's easy to say that today because the draft is in two weeks and you really want your name called out. I'm sure you're willing to say whatever to me right now, but that's going to be real and that's going to be a reality for you. Don't tell me today you're going to be OK with it and think that once it starts you're going to be able to sulk and pout and get sympathy from me. It's not going to happen.'" Ric Bucher, ESPN: P.J. Carlesimo has an agreement in principle to join the Toronto Raptors as an assistant coach under Jay Triano, according to league sources. [...] An official an! nouncement is expected later this week. | | |
| The Great Slovenian Feud has escalated
May 31, 2010 at 1:30 PM
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| Less than a fortnight has passed since we learned of the Great Slovenian Feud taking place in the NBA. During Saturday night's Game 6 in Phoenix, the first shots were fired in what promises to be an enduring and hilarious rivalry betwixt Goran Dragic(notes) and Sasha Vujacic(notes). Behold the carnage that is tearing Slovenia apart. Truly stunning footage that I hope is incorporated into a multi-part documentary on the History Channel. And while the origins of this feud are largely unknown, Vujacic offered some background information on why this particular incident may have taken place. From FanHouse's Chris Tomasson: "I heard somebody talking in my language and talking something about mothers and family,'' Vujacic said of Dragic after his team had wrapped up the series 4-2 to earn a berth against Boston in the NBA Finals. "That's only to be expected from a low human being to do something like that. So I just went like that (putting his arms up). I didn't do nothing like that on purpose. Low human beings can only involve the family and say something stupid like that. But I didn't intentionally want to do anything. If I want to intentional! ly hurt somebody, I would have done something very differently! . "(What Dragic said) involved me and my family. When that comes in play, it's very, very stupid. You can't expect that from a pro basketball player ... I just went up with my hands. And he was great acting.''
I'd buy it. Dragic was destroying the Lakers and it's only natural to say a little something to your mortal enemy. Hey, stranger things have happened in more important situations following trash talk about one's family. Of course, Dragic denied any wrongdoing. Approached by FanHouse and told Vujacic called him a "low human being'' and later embellished it to a "very low human being,'' Dragic didn't want to get into a war of words. "I don't know why he's lying,'' Dragic said of the Vujacic's claims of insulting his family. "But you can ask everybody in my club that I'm not such a person. I don't have a comment on that, really. If he wants to ! have words with me, he can have it. But I'm not going to battle. I didn't say nothing to him ... He can stay whatever he wants about me, but I'm just going to be quiet.''
Seems dubious as Dragic was pretty obviously stirring up some deep-seated emotion within his countryman. Yes, I was also unaware that machines had feelings, but technology is growing by leaps and bounds every day. I've seen "I, Robot" — these things can get out of hand. Unfortunately we'll have to wait until next season to see how Act III of this international drama plays out, and also for comment from notable Slovenians Rasho Nesterovic(notes), Beno Udrih(notes) and Primoz Brezec(notes). Stay tuned for any and all updates. | | |
| Kendrick Perkins is ugly, according to Kendrick Perkins
May 31, 2010 at 12:00 PM
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|  Ugly players in the NBA is a tired, tired subject. A simple search turns up thousands upon thousands of results for the 10 ugliest players ever, the all-ugly team and the Popeye Jones All-Stars. It's been done to death, just like it's step-cousin "NBA Players Who Look Like Characters from 'The Wire'." But if it gets flipped, even just a little bit, it can be pretty fun.
Say, for instance, NBA players talking about how ugly other players are, which is what some Boston Celtics did with regards to Kendrick Perkins(notes). John Powers of the Boston Globe got the in-depth scoop from pretty boy Ray Allen(notes). "People always ask me why he's so mad. Is he that mean? He always has a scowl on his face. I say, no. Perkins, he's a teddy bear. He's just out there intimidating, blocking shots, that's all."
He's just misunderstood, you see. Yeah, he might always be mad and giving dirty looks and wearing one of the most unusual goatees since former Toronto Blue Jays closer Billy Koch, but inside he's a total nice guy that wants to give ! you a hug with his enormous arms. But is that really tru! e, Doc R ivers? Is Kendrick Perkins really just acting? Apparently, yes. "Perk is a great guy,'' Celtics coach Doc Rivers says of his center with the big shoulders and the bigger frown. "I think everybody sees his body language and his scowl and they think differently of him. To those who know him, he's absolutely a terrific guy, funny. But he's not trying to have fun when the game starts.''
Wait. So what you guys are saying is Kendrick Perkins makes himself look uglier than he really is by scowling all over the place? Interesting strategy. Better go to the source to clarify things. "I'm already ugly,'' Perkins shrugged. "I can't add no more to it.''
Oh. Right. It's not a put-on. Kendrick Perkins really just looks like that. Fair enough. Seems to be working out OK for him, considering he's ugly-ed his way to another NBA Finals and a reputation as one of the league's premier one-on-one post! defenders. But remember that one time he smiled? Yeah, that was awesome. And so handsome! | | |
| Mickael Pietrus' hair made him $17,000
May 31, 2010 at 10:30 AM
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Surely one of the best things about being phenomenally rich is the ability to make significant wagers on insignificant events without thinking twice. Sure, sometimes things get out of hand like the entire Gilbert Arenas(notes) fiasco or when Charles Oakley slapped 90 percent of NBA players for owing him money in the mid-1990s, but it's usually all in good fun. Heck, even Arenas knows how to enjoy it, as his one-handed 3-point contest for $20,000 with DeShawn Stevenson(notes) was one of the things that made the Internet love him way back in 2007. So when TrueHoop's Chris Sheridan reports that Mickael Pietrus(notes) won some money after a season-long bet with Dwight Howard(notes), Rashard Lewis(notes) and Jameer Nelson(no! tes), it's not a huge surprise. However, the bet he! won is both surprising and awesome — he didn't cut his hair all year. You may have noticed that Orlando forward Mickael Pietrus was wearing his hair long, and he had good reason to. Back in training camp, a $17,000 wager was placed on whether Pietrus could last an entire season without a haircut. (The losing bettors were Rashard Lewis, Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson, and let's just say that they were in for widely differing sums). "Easy money," Pietrus told me back in February when I first inquired about his unkempt coif.
Getting $17,000 for a nine-month span of no haircuts? Sign me up. I grew a beard for three months just so you guys could have some laughs at my headshot — that should have been worth at least a couple thousand bucks. [Photos: View a slideshow of Mickael Pietrus in action.] And the deal was even sweeter for Pietrus. Yep, sweeter than $17,000 for growing his hair out, if you can even imagine it. After not having long hair for 20 years, Pietrus realized how much he likes having a 'fro. As anyone with curly hair can tell you, finding a second haircut that you like is one of the best feelings in the world. Lucky guy. Other popular links on Yahoo!:
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| SL: Bryant says Celtics are 'sexy matchup'; LeBron leaves hiding
May 31, 2010 at 9:00 AM
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Each weekday morning, BDL serves up a handful of NBA-related stories to digest with your bag of lettuce. Howard Beck, New York Times: In the mystical, everything-Zen universe of Phil Jackson, happenstance and happy endings are a way of life. After closing out the Suns on Saturday, Kobe Bryant(notes) and the Lakers will face Paul Pierce(notes) and the Celtics. It is the 11th N.B.A. finals betw! een the teams since the Lakers moved West in 1960. Not long after winning the championship last summer, Jackson, the Los Angeles Lakers coach, visited his daughter's apartment complex. There, improbably, he bumped into Paul Pierce, the Boston Celtics star. The Celtics beat the Lakers in the 2008 finals but had failed to make it back for the rematch. Jackson had a request. "I said, `Get it back. We want to meet you in the finals,"' Jackson said, recalling his moment with Pierce. Wishes were fulfilled this past weekend, when the Celtics finished off the Orlando Magic and the Lakers closed out the Phoenix Suns. The N.B.A's most storied rivalry will resume once more, for the 11th time since the Lakers moved West. The finals will be colored in green and white, ! purple and gold, and several shades of redemption. The Lakers ! want pay back, after getting pummeled by the Celtics two years ago. The Celtics are seeking validation, after having their title defense short-circuited by injuries last year. The finals begin Thursday in Los Angeles. "It's a great challenge for us, to see how much we've improved, how much we've gotten better, to be able to go up against this team in a playoff series," Kobe Bryant said Saturday night, after the Lakers closed out a six-game victory over the Suns. The Celtics are seeking an 18th championship to add to their record total. The Lakers are seeking their 15th title, their 11th in Los Angeles, and their fifth since 2000. If the Lakers win the championship, it will also be Jackson's 11th, further separating him from the Celtics patriarch Red Auerbach (nine). Bryant would earn his fifth ring — breaking a tie with Tim Duncan(notes) and! Shaquille O'Neal(notes), among the biggest stars of the post-Michael Jordan era. He would be one shy of tying Jordan, the league's modern standard-bearer. And he would further separate himself from LeBron James(notes), who has won the last two Most Valuable Player awards but has yet to distinguish himself in the postseason. But mostly this will be about a rivalry renewed, about legends forged over four decades. "Obviously, this is a matchup that's very easy to talk about," Bryant said. "There's a lot of things that people can write about and talk about. It's a sexy matchup." Mitch Lawrence, New York Daily News: Given the injuries and advanced age of some of his key players, it was by necessity that Doc Rivers decided over the last 10 games of the regular season that he would surrender wins in April for victories when it mattered the most. So here the Celtics are, ready to compete in their 21st Finals and looking to hang banner No. 18, after going 4-6 down the stretch. Since then, with Kevin Garnett(notes) and Paul Pierce healthy and playing like All-Stars, the Celtics have won 12 of 17 playoff games and have been even more dominant than they were in winning the title in 2008. In that run, they were forced to play two Game 7s and finished the postseason with a 16-10 mark. But over the last seven weeks the! y eliminated Dwyane Wade's(notes) Miami Heat in five games, and took out LeBron James' top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers and Dwight Howard's(notes) defending Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic without needing to play a Game 7. Next up are Kobe Bryant's Lakers in a renewal of pro basketball's greatest rivalry and a rematch from 2008, when the Celtics overpowered the Lakers in six games. But if you had told die-hard Celtics fans back when the playoffs started that they would be getting a chance to chant "Beat L.A." in June, they would have questioned your sanity. "That stretch the last month, we form! ed a game plan, and I thought it was the right plan," Riv! ers said late Friday night after the Celtics had finished off Orlando in Game 6 in Boston. "Obviously it didn't look right because we were losing games, but guys were resting and conditioning, and I thought that was the only chance we had. Because the one thing I did learn through the injuries was, we were not good enough injured. But we had a chance if we were healthy. There were no guarantees, but we had a chance healthy. So, my gamble was let's take health. So we lost some games, but we got healthy.'" Julian Benbow, Boston Globe: The numbers made it easy for the Celtics to stand pat. Over the past three seasons, the starting unit of Rajon Rondo(notes), Ray Allen(notes), Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Kendrick Perkins(notes) has won 124 games, seven playoff series, and one NBA title. The only team in the NBA that went into this season with the same lineup it had in 2008 was the Celtics. While everyone from championship contenders to upstart franchises reworked their rosters, the Celtics held steady. The core, they figured, was their key. "The core players here have won a championship," said Pierce. "So once you get that under your belt, that's experience you can't take away." The Celtics will head to their second NBA Finals in three years with eight players who were there for the first run. Players such as Glen D! avis (notes) and Tony Allen(notes) have seen their roles increase from one title run to the next. The dynamic among the starters has morphed as well, with Rondo emerging as an All-Star peer of Allen, Garnett, and Pierce. The Celtics have added pieces, but by and large the players that were there to bring Boston its first NBA title in 22 years are the ones who have led the charge toward banner No. 18. "Regardless of who you bring in here, the number of players that come in from free agency and who we pick up, the one constant that we've had was the great leadership on this ball club because of the starting five that's been together for a few years now," Pierce said. Howard Ulman, AP: When! Paul Pierce and Boston's other starters need a rest in the NBA finals, they can watch their replacements with confidence. Just as they did two years ago against the same opponent. Two years ago, when the Celtics won their 17th title by beating the Los Angeles Lakers. Boston's key backups have changed since then. The importance of their contributions hasn't. "Somewhere along the line these guys that are role players that people don't really talk about come along and help us win games," Pierce said. "They really get overlooked." The Celtics, who return to practice Monday after a two-day break, have the same starting playoff five for Thursday night's opener at Los Angeles that they had the past two years, a source of comfort for coach Doc Rivers. That group has led them to playoff victories in five games over Miami and six each over Cleveland and Orlando this year. But through that run, substitutes ! Rasheed Wallace(notes), Glen "Big Baby" Davis, Tony Allen and Nate Robinson(notes) have had their moments-and more. The latest and most surprising? Robinson's 13 second-quarter points in Friday night's 96-84 win over the Magic in Game 6 that sent the Celtics to the final round. In Boston's other 16 playoff games, Rivers didn't use the 5-foot-9 leaper and long-range shooter in seven of them and played him for more than nine minutes just once even though he was healthy. In the 26 games Robinson played after being traded by New York on Feb. 18, he averaged only 14.7 minutes. "I told him at some point it was going to happen for him and it was all up to him to stay engaged," Rivers said. "And he did. I get no credit out of this." ! Mike Bianchi, Orlando Magic: Was the season a failure? A sad Stan Van Gundy stood in a mostly empty hallway in the bowels of Boston's arena late Friday night after his Orlando Magic had been dumped from the playoffs and he contemplated this basic, blunt question. Failure. Such an ugly word. "I don't know what you call this year," Van Gundy said in the aftermath of the Magic's 96-84 season-ending loss to the Celtics "It's certainly not a success because we didn't reach our goal of winning a championship, but it seems a bit harsh to tell those guys in the locker room that they are failures after winning 59 games and going to the Conference Finals. Call it a failure for me if you want, but not for our players. That's just not fair." 
Tom Withers, AP: Fresh from a postseason vacation, LeBron James was back among Cleveland fans for the first time since the Cavaliers' playoff flop. The reunion was somewhat awkward. James, whose impending free agency could change the course of several NBA franchises, was a guest judge at an amateur dunk contest that drew a large crowd because of the two-time MVP's appearance, his first public outing since the Cavs lost in the second round to the Boston Celtics. Wearing a blue "Witness" T-shirt and designer sunglasses, James had little interaction with fans after arriving in a four-car motorcade and being escorted by police and security personnel through the crowd to a basketball court set up on the banks of the Cuyahoga River. Some in the crowd seemed uncertain how to act around James, perhaps fearing the wrong comment could drive him away for good. James ducked under a tent and slid into a folding chair next t! o former NBA player Darryl Dawkins to judge the final round of dunks as fans and several star-stuck competitors snapped photos with their cell phones of one of the world's best players and Cleveland's most revered pro athlete in generations. As he sat at a table and held up scores, some Cleveland fans pleaded with him to re-sign with the Cavs. "Don't leave, LeBron!" one yelled. "Please, please don't go!" offered another. James, who is eligible for free agency on July 1, smiled nervously as one of the dunkers missed several attempts and he politely applauded when the runner-up finally got a two-handed reverse down. After the event sponsored by Sprite, one of James' corporate business partners, he posed for a group photo with all the dunkers and signed a giant check for the winner. James did not speak with reporters as he excited and offered no hints about his future, adding more suspense to a story already spinning off rumors and guesses about his plans. ! Maverick Carter, James' manager and business partner, said &qu! ot;there 's nothing to say right now" when asked for details about James' next move. Brian Windhorst, Cleveland Plain Dealer: Andy Miller, the agent for several Cavs, including guard Sebastian Telfair(notes), said Saturday that Telfair has elected to pick up his $2.7 million option for next season. The Cavs have not yet received the paperwork, but it is expected to become official next week. Telfair was limited to just four games with the Cavs after being part of the Jamison trade in February as he recovered from a ruptured muscle in his leg. The quick point guard averaged 9.8 points in games at the end of the season. Telfair's future with the team is uncertain. He is a trading chip because of his expiring contract, but the Cavs are e! xpected to attempt to trade backup guard Delonte West(notes) and that could make Telfair more valuable. West has a partially guaranteed contract of $4.6 million that is worth just $500,000 if he's waived by August 5. That type of deal that could provide more than $5 million in savings for another team depending on how a trade is structured. Ronald Tillery, Memphis Commercial-Appeal: They still plan to take the best player available regardless of position during the June 24 draft. They still plan to re-sign Rudy Gay(notes) and Ronnie Brewer! (notes! ) during the free-agent period. They still plan to negotiate with Zach Randolph(notes) regarding a contract extension. They still are lecturing Randolph on being more careful about the company he keeps. The Grizzlies are in the same mode of operation they employed a week ago before Randolph produced his latest double-double: mentions in two separate police reports in less than 24 hours. Randolph was implicated in an Indianapolis drug investigation and Los Angeles-area strip club fight but the All-Star forward has avoided charges and arrest in both cases. Yes, the Grizzlies are frustrated in the wake of this public relations hit. But to the question of whether Randolph's latest controversy will re-shape the Grizzlies' draft and/or free-agent strategy, the answer is no. The organization finds Randolph's predicament disappointing but not at all det! rimental to their offseason plans. The issue of whether Randolph will receive a contract extension that will keep him in a Grizzlies uniform beyond this season remains centered on finances. Randolph's future hinges squarely on how much of a pay cut he's willing to accept. In the meantime, the Griz will continue to look for shooting, backcourt help and ways to bolster their bench with Randolph wholeheartedly in their plans. John Jackson, Chicago Sun-Times: Bulls management and former players were quick to dismiss Dwyane Wade's comments questioning the organization's "loyalty," and even Wade backed off the comments shortly after they became public a few days ago. But regardless of whether those comments are accurate, an NBA source said the Bulls better be prepared to address the issue when the free-agent recruitment period begins July 1. "It does! n't matter if it's true or not," the source said. "T! here is a perception by some around the league that the Bulls didn't reward Michael Jordan or Scottie Pippen — or even coach Phil Jackson — enough for the six championships they brought to the organization. The Bulls can easily refute that allegation and point out how they have former players working in the organization. But they shouldn't ignore it and assume it won't be a problem." The source believes the Bulls can do that during the sales pitch they make to free agents. Dave D'Alessandro, New Jersey Star-Ledger: Rod Thorn will officially begin his coaching search with the first interview this weekend, but the real question is how flexible the Nets president might be about his candidates' timetables, and how competitive he might have to get when these coaches already have concrete offers. Tom Thibodeau is the one Thorn will watch most closely: The Bos! ton assistant coach — who is everybody's flavor of the month since the Celtics' postseason resurgence — is on the verge of being offered a job from the New Orleans Hornets. But two of Thibodeau's peers — both of them friends, who request anonymity because they are not authorized to speak for him — say that while he is understandably eager to jump head-first into his first head coaching opportunity, he also wants to sit down with Thorn before he commits to Hornets GM Jeff Bower. The other guy pacing the floor is Avery Johnson, who will meet with Thorn Saturday, but that doesn't necessarily make him a favorite for the Nets' job. Indeed, despite his brilliant record in his three-plus seasons in Dallas (a .735 winning percentage), Johnson hasn't exactly been regarded as a hot commodity, and it is clear that he has asked for a high salary and personnel power from other teams. But he is no longer the top! candidate in New Orleans — which is his hometown team &! mdash; b ecause the ownership transfer to Gary Chouest, his primary advocate, has been delayed. And Johnson now has serious competition for the job in Atlanta, where GM Rick Sund has a relationship with the other frontrunner Dwane Casey. PROGRAMMING NOTE: BDL posting will be a little slower Monday, but we'll be here. Have some fun outside, then come check us out and we can all be friends again. | | |
| Steve Nash had an emotional few days
May 30, 2010 at 2:20 PM
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On Thursday night, following the Suns' Game 5 loss at the hands of Ron Artest's(notes) last second tip-in, Steve Nash(notes) — emotional leader and cap! tain of the Phoenix team — said this: "They held home court," Nash said after Game 5's agonizing loss Thursday. "We'll go back and do the same, and we'll come back here (Staples Center) for Game 7."
On Friday, Nash clarified that what he said wasn't quite a guarantee, but he did stand behind his words. The Suns would defend their home court in Game 6, then return to Los Angeles for the deciding game of the series. On Saturday, the Los Angeles Lakers proved that Steve Nash's soothsaying abilities aren't quite on par with his basketball abilities as the Suns were eliminated, two wins away from Nash's f! irst finals appearance. Then he did this: Kind of an emotional weekend for everyone's favorite Canadian (sorry, Jim Carrey). And now, just like that, the Suns' season is over and everyone is already talking about whether or not this team can be kept together to make another run. It's been a bit of a roller coaster for Suns fans, I'm sure. On the plus side, at least Nash didn't suffer any random facial injuries lately. He'll probably enjoy being able to see and breath going into the offseason.! Plus he's got twin daughters that call the Lakers the "Poopy Lakers," which is a whole different kind of winning. KD will eulogize the Suns soon enough, but I'm really going to miss watching Phoenix in general, and Nash in particular. They made a pretty uneventful playoffs a lot more fun. I'll miss you guys. K.I.T. H.A.G.S. T.T.Y.L. | | |
| Behind the Box Score, where the Lakers are going to the Finals
May 29, 2010 at 11:55 PM
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|  Los Angeles Lakers 111, Phoenix 103; Los Angeles Lakers win series, 4-2
Unbelievable. There's no other way to describe the sorts of shots that Kobe Bryant(notes) hit down the stretch in this ballgame. There just wasn't any stopping him. There was nothing the Phoenix Suns could do. Even though you know that greatness is coming, Kobe's just amazing. He truly is. We've seen him take, and make, bad shots all year; mostly during the regular season. But the overwhelming bulk of those bad makes were looks that didn't really have to happen. Shots that a proper running of the Laker offense could render anachronistic. Just a few extra passes, and the right mindset to start the possession, and Kobe wouldn't have needed to fire up a 20-foot line-driver with a hand in his face. Against the Suns, in Game 6, he kind of had to. He definitely had to, because the Suns continued to get better and better defensively as the game went on. Abandoning their 2-3 zone for most of the second half, the Suns went to a potent man-to-man attack that forced Bryant into playing the hero, again, and he delivered. Impossible shots, incredible makes. And as a result, the Lakers are going back to the Finals for the third straight season. To be accurate, and a bit snarky, there was no way the Phoenix defense couldn't improve after a miserable first quarter that saw the team give up 37 points. The Lakers neared 130 points per 100 possessions on the game, but man, the Suns got better. They got after it, they cut off angles, and they worked. They nearly pulled it off. And the only reason the Lakers toss up nearly 130 points per 100 possessions - which is a monstrous number, by the way - is because of that bad first quarter, and Kobe Bryant just teeing off down the stretch. Just hitting shot after shot over a dead tired Jared Dudley(notes) (and why was Dudley so tired? You tell your old man to drag Kobe Bryant up and down the court) and a well-rested but completely beleaguered Grant Hill(notes). Hill and Dudley played him perfectly. Bryant, somehow, overcomes that. You figure it out. The Suns bench, as the game went along, figured out just what it took to compete at this level. It was a little too late, but after a second quarter run that saw their contributions go to pot, the second unit (and some Suns starters, as well) figured out that every possession counted, taking its cue from a Laker team that had been there before. And that's often the difference, in games like this. Difference enough to provide a cushion that then takes the legs out of a team even if it comes all the way back to make it a two possession game. Top it off with Kobe blowing everyone's minds, and you have a ballgame. Quite a good one, I might add. Because both outfits had figured out exactly where to go, what pockets to penetrate, in these teams' tenth meeting of the season. Despite the noted issues with Phoenix's focus in the first half and a tough night for Amar'e Stoudemire(notes) around the rim (though he did make a few jaw-dropping lay-ins alongside a couple of startling dunks), both teams executed quite well offensively, something that wasn't always (or often, really) the result of turned heads or missed assignments. The Lakers had just enough. Ron Artest(notes) was hitting from the outside, Leandro Barbosa(notes) was not. Jordan Farmar(notes) scored off of broken plays, Grant Hill did not. Jared Dudley could not get the stops he needed, but Pau Gasol(notes) could. The Lakers were eight points better, spread out over 48 minutes. Just enough in every area, with a distinct advantage on the offensive glass. Toss in the championship know-how (that's not sportswriter twaddle, these men know what to do) and Kobe's astonishing play, and you have a tough road win. You have another Finals appearance. 37 points and just two turnovers for Kobe. Averaged about 34, eight assists, and seven rebounds in the Conference finals. Talk up the crummy Suns D all you want, it wasn't what pushed Los Angeles. The Lakers scored because of effort, execution, and talent. They didn't score because the Suns weren't running the floor, or closing out properly. The Lakers took this. Absolutely took it. The champs are still on their feet, cats and kittens. Looking about as strong as we've ever seen them. | | |
| Phoenix's strange pre-game motivational technique
May 29, 2010 at 7:50 PM
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| You're down 3-2, against the defending champs. Your backs are against the wall. It's do or die time, the perfect spot for a litany of clichés. In order to motivate your team, you need all the right moves. A Knute Rockne speech. A bit of Rudy thrown in. Do it Pacino-style. Wake up the echoes, shake down the thunder, do whatever you can to try and stop Kobe Bryant(notes). And Phoenix Suns assistant coach Dan Majerle, knowing that this might be the last chance he has to motivate his players this season, saved a great one for what could be the final pre-game speech of his team's season. That's right. He quoted "Hitch." 
"Hitch," people. That "modestly amusing" and at times "hard to stomach" 2005 comedy starring Will Smith and the guy from King of Queens.
Now, far be it for me to criticize what gets people's motors running, Thunder Dan was a dogged competitor as a player and a recent head coaching candidate for the since-taken Philadelphia 76ers job, but it's safe to say Grant Hill(notes) found the quote more than a little amusing. Offered without attribution by Majerle, Hill decided to let his teammates know just where, exactly, the assistant coach found that particular gem. (Hat tip to Jeramie McPeek -- @SunsWebmaster -- who runs the Phoenix Suns website, and was the first to Tweet about the quote.) | | |
| Game to pay attention to: Lakers looking to clinch
May 29, 2010 at 6:40 PM
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Los Angeles Lakers at Phoenix; Los Angeles Lakers lead series, 3-2
There are quite a few ways to go with this game, all of which tend to intrigue. For one, think back to Phoenix's time toppling the Lakers in Games 3 and 4. The Suns were playing pretty flawless basketball on both ends, forcing the defending champs into truly tough decisions just about every time down court on offense, while taking it to Los Angeles with penetration, delayed transition play, and white hot three-point shooting. It was the Suns at their best, and even with the Lakers clearly off, both wins were hardly blowouts. Game 5 was close, no doubt, but it took a banked-in Jason Richardson(notes) three-pointer just to tie this up late, along with some pretty curious shots from Ron Artest(notes). Moving deeper into that fourth quarter, the Suns were able to make a game of it when Luke Walton(notes) badly missed some shots in crunch time, and Lamar Odom(notes) missed some chippies that could have easily sent him to the line. A lot had to go right for Phoenix. And then again, after the game, the Suns hardly seemed bothered. Not to say that they were indifferent or aloof, but they hardly seemed bothered in a good way. A confident group, despite the stomach punch that was that close Game 5 loss. That's a good sign, if you wanted the team that got punched to roll with the, er, punches. Then you have Steve Nash's(notes) out and out prediction, telling anyone who would listen that the Suns are guaranteed to win. You also have Kobe Bryant's(notes) ungodly Conference finals statline - 33 points per game, 9.6 assists, 7.4 rebounds. You have a Laker team that can clinch, heading toward that Celtics/Lakers rematch that everyone seemed to pen in last week, or you have a Suns team that can give us what we all want: a Game 7 classic for all the Western marbles, in the heat of late May. Whatever the outcome, enjoy the journey. Comment away. | | |
| Behind the Box Score, where the Celtics are going to the Finals
May 28, 2010 at 10:40 PM
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Boston 96, Orlando 84; Boston wins series, 4-2
Inspired, near-perfect, basketball. You're going to need it, tossed in with a whole lot of talent, to take down a team as great as the Orlando Magic four games outta six. And inspired, near-perfect, basketball is exactly what the Boston Celtics gave their fans in moving on to the team's 21st NBA Finals, capping off a remarkable turnaround that took the team from also-rans to championship contenders within the course of six weeks. This was Boston's 12th playoff win in 17 tries, with eight of the victories coming against the two expected to battle most royally for the Eastern Conference crown. Turning the tide on a second half of the regular season that saw the team barely muster a .500 record from January to April, the C's have reworked things with an exacting, attentive offense, and brain damaging defense. They had the Magic scared in this deciding Game 6. Scared to be themselves. The C's will do that to you. Well, they used to do that to you, but stopped for a spell both in the second half of the 2008-09 and 2009-10 regular seasons. By the time this postseason started up, some analysts (good ones, not just TV talking dopes) were flipping a coin to decide the Boston pairing with the Miami Heat, based on Miami's distinct go-to guy in Dwyane Wade(notes), and the Heat's hot end to the regular season. Something happened with the C's in the first game of that opening round series, however. Almost anonymously, on a Friday night road game amongst several others on tap that night, Boston remembered that great teams tend to take the third game of a series after winning the first two at home. And they seemed, with Paul Pierce(notes) leading the way, to find a way to become great again, even with the eyes of the league focused elsewhere. By the first game of the Cleveland series, it was obvious that Boston was convinced that it could beat the Cavaliers, no worries, and make themselves a contender again. Even in initial defeat, that confidence was back. Five games later, they had the series; tossing the Cavalier franchise into a chaotic state, and surprising the settled Orlando Magic, who had planned since last July on a third round rematch with LeBron James(notes) and his set of well-compensated minions. Then the Magic. Boston knew they had an opponent that would take a good half and a half to overcome the cobwebs, and the C's took advantage. Knew that, in spite of what the script usually says ("the Magic are to right the ship, here"), that they could still win that coin flip contest in Game 2 if the energy and trust was there. Knew that the Magic were feeling a bit sassy, proud of their previous work up in Massachusetts both in last year's playoffs and this year's regular season, and took advantage in Game 3. Then relented a bit, as the Magic went all Magic on them. Acted as they should, for two games. Then, Friday night. The deciding Game 6, Boston decided, was to be more or less decided early on. Orlando had its chances to get it down to single digits midway through the second and third quarters, but the Celtics never let up. The ball movement was too good, and that defense was so strong. Paul Pierce was brilliant, without making the ball his own. 31 points and 13 rebounds, five assists, with 60 percent shooting to his credit. Nate Robinson(notes) was the all-over hero in the second quarter, scoring 12 points, doing what Nate Robinson can do. Kendrick Perkins(notes) showed expertly on screen and rolls, Glen Davis(notes) hedged well as, um, well; and the Magic just picked the wrong side of the 50/50 choice all night. Zigged when they should have zagged, and vice versa. Mainly Jameer Nelson(notes). The guy didn't shoot, and the guy didn't drive. He's had Orlando's fortunes in his hands, all year, and when it counted the most he seemed unaware. Three first half fouls helped, but Nelson had his chances in the third quarter to help his team make a game of it, and he just wasn't feeling it, for whatever reason. Orlando, also for whatever reason (probably because they were shooting from 25 feet away) missed a goodly amount of open looks from long range. It could have been different. "Could have." Because it's hard to see any amount of sound choices and successful slings from the outside taking these Celtics out. The team was just too focused. Too focused. This is a team that really feels comfortable playing within its own confines. Really feels comfortable playing with the rotation in place, working with each other, sharing the ball, sharing the credit, working the right roles and doing its best to create an atmosphere the allows for the possibility for others to create. It's a joy to watch. And it's not over. | | |
| Game to pay attention to: Boston finally closing it out?
May 28, 2010 at 6:30 PM
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Orlando at Boston; Boston leads series, 3-2
It's how momentum tends to work when you finally start to spin out these every-other-day series', but the way the following press and impressive fandom have recently gotten behind the idea of the Orlando Magic really having a chance in the Eastern Conference finals is still slightly astonishing. It's hard to beat a great team four times in a row, and the Celtics are a great team. It's hard to pull wins and steady execution off with your back against the wall, and the Magic will have to win three straight elimination games (including tonight) just to make it a best-of one series with one to play in Florida. And yet, the Magic have backers. Maybe it's the way we've seen Rajon Rondo(notes), looking slightly askew. Ray Allen(notes) missing shots he normally makes. A seemingly-healthy Kevin Garnett(notes) being played to a T by Rashard Lewis(notes), who really isn't all that much younger than KG. Maybe it's the idea that the Magic, still full of new faces in new places as opposed to their 2009 run toward the Finals, are still figuring things out. Either still finding their way after all that roster turnover, or finding their way after that excessive lay-off between the second and third round. What does seem certain is that tonight should be a hellacious game. The Celtics are at home, and I don't even think they know what kind of massive boost the home crowd will provide. You can't really anticipate it until you hear it, feel it, and the Magic are going to have to play through that. Either side is going to have to cherish possessions, find themselves in the right place behind the arc (on offense or defense), and really avoid as few swoons as possible. If that seems obvious, it's because it is. You just can't let up against two teams that are this good. Enjoy what could be the clincher. Comment away. | | |
| Of course Ron Artest lifted weights after Game 5
May 28, 2010 at 3:40 PM
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Ron Artest(notes) had a better night than you. Tip-in to win a game, cramazing (crazy + amazing) interview shouting-out his old neighborhood, and then a nice nightcap of weightlifting to stay in peak physical condition. Yes, really. Thirty-one minutes of playoff basketball, then a late-night weights session. Typical Ron Artest. From TMZ: Right after he hit the winning shot in last night's Game 5 NBA Playoff Game -- Los Angeles Lakers hero Ron Artest didn't head straight for the party scene .... instead, dude went straight to the gym!!! After finishing up some post-game interviews, Ron rolled over to a gym right near the Staples Center around 10:30 PM PST -- and banged out a couple of sets of legs and abs.
Even better, as you can see, Artest didn't even switch shirts after his postgame interview, because he is both hilarious and a big fan of versatile clothing. Keep doin' it, Ron. Forever and ever. | | |
| Shelden Williams as goon? Really?
May 28, 2010 at 2:50 PM
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Back in his days at Duke University, Shelden Williams(notes) was apparently called "The Landlord." Frankly, I mostly remember calling him "Shelden Williams" or, if I was talking too quickly, "Sherwin Williams," like the paint people. But enough folks referred to him as "The Landlord," it seems, to "justify" a mind-bending tribute video soundtracked by a nearly unbelievable composition ! called "Landlord" that includes lyrics like "He can jump h-higher / h-higher than God / and crash down like a Russian space station." (I will insert a paragraph break here. Please view this as your opportunity to view — and, more importantly, listen to — the video linked above.) As I was saying, Williams was called "The Landlord" because he lorded quite mightily over the lane, making opponents pay a price if they tried to live there, and rejecting shots like they were frivolous requests to fix a door that wouldn't stick if you didn't slam it so hard, Hercules. Viewed in the pros as a last-ditch option at the end of the bench, Williams was once considered something of an intimidator. And after an Orlando Magic victory in a very physical Game 5 that sent the Eastern Conference finals back to Beantown and numerous Bos! ton Celtics to the infirmary, he needs to be one again, ac! cording to Boston Herald columnist Ron Borges: There is a time and place for everything. Tonight is the time, and the Garden is the place. It is time for Dwight Howard(notes) to be Rambis-ed. Boston may be on the East Coast, but the time has come for the Celtics to employ some frontier justice on the Orlando center after two straight games in which he has felt free to decapitate one guy after another. [...] Shelden Williams, your time has come. Instead of taking one for the team, Rivers needs to tell his backup big man to deliver one for the team. Enough is enough. Friday night, at some point, Dwight Howard needs to be given ! a reason to be glad he has full dental insurance because, hey, basketball is a very physical sport.
Borges' call for a disposable player to commit an unabashed act of payback hooliganism is sure to rankle some folks. And that's totally understandable, though those familiar with the columnist's history of overboard, arch-stance-taking might be inclined to take his words with a salt mountain, accept it as standard caffeinated tabloid practice, dismiss it and move along to other pursuits. Especially since there's a snowball's chance in hell that Celtics coach Doc Rivers would ever call that kind of focus-shifting audible with his team up 3-2 and a trip to the NBA Finals at stake. (NOTE: Having said all that, I often find Borges interesting and fun to read. He writes the kind of stuff that makes BlogBros tear their hair out, but don't get it twisted — that's what he's being paid ! for and he does it well. I feel about him the same way I feel about Swedish songwriter-to-the-stars Max Martin; you don't have to like what he's producing to acknowledge that he's quite good at producing it.) Setting aside for a moment whether or not it would be ethical, justified, appropriate or prudent to put a hit out on Howard, upon reading Borges' take, I immediately wondered: "Is Shelden Williams really the guy you're going to tap for this?" Like, for real? He's your best goon option? Looking at the roster, the answer is, "Yeah, I guess, kind of." You'd obviously want the violator to be someone outside of the regular rotation, which knocks out Paul Pierce(notes), Kevin Garnett(notes), Ray Allen(notes), Rajon Rondo(notes), the oft-teched Kendrick Perkins(notes), Tony Allen(notes), and the team's most obvious pick and most decorated wrestler, good ol' Rasheed Wallace(notes). (I will eliminate Big Baby as an option separately, since I'm still a little uncomfortable using "Glen Davis" and "knocks out" in such close proximity.) Marquis Daniels(notes) isn't recovering so well from his Game 5 concussion, according to ESPNBoston.com's Chris Forsberg, so he's out. Michael Finley(notes) hasn't engaged in fisticuffs since someone spilled a phosphate on his waistcoat during the Hoover administration. With Wallace fighting back spasms and Davis still clearing the cobwebs, Brian Scalabrine(notes) might actually need to see some minutes backing up the C's starting bigs. That leaves Williams, pint-sized spark plug Nate Robinson(notes) and two late-season additions: Tony Gaffney(notes), a 6-foot-8, 205-pound forward out of the University of Massachusetts, and Oliver Lafayette(notes), a 6-foot-2, 190-pound guard from the University of Houston. Listed at 6-foot-9 and 250 pounds, Williams does seem to be the option most likely to physically affect Howard. But still, something feels off about this. We're sending a Duke guy — one of Mike Krzyzewski's four-year players, a dude who graduated with a degree in sociology and a certificate in markets and management studies — out there as a button-man? A guy who's logged four technical fouls in a four-year NBA career? A former member ! of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes? A guy whose Twitter feed is so vanilla, genial and placid it makes J.K. Rowling's seem like Fake Gary Busey's? A guy who's now a happily married father and who seems to have made peace with the fact that his wife is always going to get more shine than he is? This is our hitman? Ultimately, I find myself agreeing with those who think the premise of Borges' column is ridiculous — not because it'd be wrong, mean or against the spirit of the game, but rather because it'd be against the spirit of Shelden Williams. If anything, he should grab Howard before the game and make Superman watch his ! seven-part vlog of an all-star weekend trip to Russia, which is every ounce as exciting as watching someone else's vacation movies normally are. That's the kind of punishment Williams seems best suited to dish out. | | |
| Are the Chicago Bulls loyal?
May 28, 2010 at 2:00 PM
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|  Loyalty, and the Chicago Bulls.
It's been an odd relationship for the duration of Jerry Reindorf's tenure as owner of the Bulls, clouded by the uneasy end to the dynastic run of the second three-peat Bulls team in 1998. A dozen years later, with some of this league's movers and shakers barely a beat into high school at the time of that team's dissolution, the stigma still carries. And as Chicago enters perhaps its best chance to move beyond the "up and coming" tag that has seemed to stick with them for the better part of this decade (with only one trip the second round to show for it), the question is popping up again. Are the Bulls loyal? Do they treat their employees the way their employees deserve to be treated? Well, it depends on the employee. And even that's too simple, in a way. Because Reinsdorf is an odd cat. He'll spend money, but mostly on his other team, the Chicago White Sox. He'll bring his Bulls players and coaches' back, but at as cheap a rate as he can muster. If you do happen to "win" the negotiation in his eyes, he'll say something catty post-negotiations to leave you resentful, even if you end up leaving the negotiations with more money in hand than Reinsdorf was willing to spend. He's incredibly loyal, but you have to earn it with him. And the rules aren't always the same. Take Sheri Berto. She was Reinsdorf's personal assistant for years before passing due to complications of cancer back in 1991. Reinsdorf made a point to name his team's new practice facility The Berto Center around the same time; making sure that any reference to anything Bulls-related outside of the United Center would come wrapped with a ready-made tribute to his friend and confidant. Any midday practice news? The Berto Center gets a mention. Any press conference? The Berto Center. Playoff rosters are picked? The Berto Center. Draft day machinations? The Berto Center. Media day? The Berto Center. For years. He spends money. He flew dozens of families to Portland, Phoenix, Seattle and Salt Lake City when the Bulls were in the Finals, something teams to this day don't often do. He offered to set Eddy Curry(notes) up - for life, by most people's standards if not Eddy's - when it became apparent that Curry's heart condition might lead to a "do not play basketball" diagnosis back in 2005. The kid wasn't even a Bull, just a free agent that the team retained the Bird Rights to, and Reindorf offered to sign him just before he immediately retired, with all sorts of deferred payments and escrow money coming down the pike for years. Pay, not to play, just to be safe. Same goes for Jay Williams(notes), who could have seen his contract voided in a Lincoln Park minute after he destroyed his leg goofing around on a motorcycle back in 2003. The Bulls didn't have to pay the most-hyped thing that had happened to their organization since Michael Jordan retired, but they went ahead anyway. Berto staff, United Center staff, assistant coach Pete Myers, longtime scouts? They stick around as long as they want to. The Bulls even re-hired public address announcer Tommy Edwards back after a 16 year lay-off to work on the sidelines again, and I got news for ya; Bulls fans don't really like Tommy Edwards all that much. Reinsdorf does, though, and there's where his loyalty comes in. Why did the Bulls have an opening at PA announcer, though? Well, Steve Scott (who worked the position from 2002 to 2006) left the team. Who was there before him? The legendary Ray Clay, who you might remember from all those NBA ads or magazine articles or TV appearances as the voice of the Bulls. Not the guy that first turned the lights out in Chicago Stadium, but the man who gave you goosebumps with his intros. And why was he let go? Because he didn't get on well with Jerry Krause. Ah, that. It's Krause that complicates things, and Reinsdorf's loyalty to Krause plays a big part in making it so Reinsdorf's loyalty to his employees can come into question. Because it was Krause that sent Phil Jackson home on the Draft day eve back in 1997, as the Bulls were preparing to trade Scottie Pippen to the Boston Celtics. Jackson wasn't under contract for next season, Krause mused, so what purpose did his presence serve? Never mind that this could have been Jackson's last visit to the Berto Center, his last contact with the Bulls, and that the Bulls were trading Scottie Pippen. It was Krause that had a falling out with Clarence Gaines Jr., who some of you Twitter-savvy readers might know as "cgrock24," Chicago's top scout and the key cog in what was to be the post-Jordan rebuilding process. It was Krause who instituted the tradition of refusing to interview coaches who retain the services of a negotiating counsel. You know, "agents." Never mind of course that Reinsdorf is a lawyer himself, his entire job is based around negotiations, and a coach's job is to, you know, coach a basketball team. The standard exists to this day, and it might be a reason why the Bulls lose out on well-regarded Boston assistant Tom Thibodeau. It was Krause that made life borderline untenable for Jordan, Pippen, and Jackson over the last few years of their time in Chicago. With Reinsdorf mainly in Arizona and hardly interested in anything but his beloved White Sox, Krause's public declaration (however misquoted), ham-fisted HR ways, and growing paranoia led to a situation that nobody wanted to be a part of, were it not for the consistent trips to the NBA Finals. Did Jordan, Pippen, and Jackson ("and even Dennis," to quote Reinsdorf) have every chance to come back to the Bulls for the 1998-99, partially locked-out, season? Of course. Only after Krause, who had made it clear that none of the four would be returning after the team won it all again in June of 1998, finally (with Reinsdorf's pushing), made a pitiable plea for the group to return in July of 1998. At the press conference introducing Tim Floyd, mind you. 
Classy. Not at all duplicitous. Not at all skeevy. And Reinsdorf, for his loyalty, is skeevy. He's the guy who told John Paxson that he "can't believe [he was] paying you all this money" after Paxson played through injury to earn a free agent deal with the Bulls back in the early 1990s. Paxson had "won" that negotiation, and Reinsdorf's last sentiment sent toward him as he walked away from the negotiating table hit hard. Money be damned, Pax went away spitting mad, and that was enough for Jerry. It was Reinsdorf that told Michael Jordan that he was "going to live to regret this" upon signing Michael Jordan - Michael Jordan, ladies and gentleman - to a one-year, $30.4 million deal before the 1996-97 season. Could a deal like that upset the league's salary structure? Sure. Could a deal like that make Reinsdorf a pariah in his fellow owners' eyes, as was the case when he broke the bank to sign Albert Belle for his White Sox a few years earlier? Totally. But do you say that? Do you say that to Michael Jordan, the guy that was making $4 million a year before that? Hell no. Almost 14 years later, Jerry, do you regret signing him to that deal? The United Center has been full every season since MJ retired, with only five playoff teams to show for it and one second round appearance. Do you regret it? Players play, and agents negotiate contracts for these players, because it's not a players' job to negotiate a deal. That doesn't really matter to Reinsdorf, who went behind Horace Grant's agent's back to try and re-sign Grant late in the 1993-94 season, months after Grant's agent and Krause made a pact to lay off negotiations until the offseason. Reindorf claimed that it was Grant that initiated the talks, but that's a hard sell when Reinsdorf had to drive nearly an hour from his downtown office to the Berto Center, and then co-incidentally went directly to the Chicago weight room in order to seek out his soon-to-be free agent forward. There are other instances. It's not just on Krause. And it's not just because Reinsdorf sat back and let Krause run things the way he saw fit. The two, with only Reinsdorf surviving, have earned a reputation. How far that reputation should go? That's a matter of some debate. No team makes more money than the Chicago Bulls, but they don't spend it in orthodox ways (like, say, coaching hires) that would seem proper for the most profitable team in the NBA. Yet they look after some of their own. And players have been re-signed. Tyson Chandler(notes), Luol Deng(notes), Andres Nocioni(notes), Kirk Hinrich(notes). Anyone who would fit on Reinsdorf's beloved New York Knick teams from the early 1970s gets to stick around. It's a complicated set-up, and it depends on the individual. Dwyane Wade(notes) brought up the loyalty standard, but that was his own save-my-butt way of saying "thanks but no thanks" to choosing Chicago in the winter over Miami as a free agent. You're really not going to get a good answer to the loyalty question as long as Reinsdorf runs the team, and that's not even getting into the whole "it's a business, and you're supposed to win. Do you want to be loyal?" aspect of it all. As it's been for decades with these Bulls, there are no easy answers. Just lots of easy money to spend, so as long as those fans keep flying through the turnstiles. | | |
| 'Net reaction: Lakers vs. Suns - Game 5
May 28, 2010 at 1:15 PM
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Did you hear? The Lakers took a 3-2 lead over the Suns on Thursday night on a Ron Artest(notes) tip-in. I bet you heard. You totally did. Kelly told you a lot more about the game, now here's even more from the Internet... C.A. Clark, Silver Screen and Roll: That reaction speaks volumes, by the way. Not to be smug or anything, but the Lakers know a thing or two about game winning shots. That Kobe Bryant(notes) guy (you know, the one with the airball) happens to be pretty good at them. He's hit them throughout the regular season, and throughout his postseason career as well. The Lakers have the most memorable collection of postseason game winners this (well, last) decade. Kobe's game 4 winner against these very Suns 3 years ago; Robert Horry's(notes) 3 vs. Sacramento; Derek Fisher's(notes) .4. After each one, the Lakers were jubilant, but they'! ve never celebrated like this. Artest was mobbed along the sam! e sideli ne Kobe Bryant came so perilously close to stepping on during that final play. These guys are champions, and yet there was almost as much passion celebrating this winner as there was in celebrating last year's championship. The pundits can talk all they want about how Kobe treats his teammates, and how the Lakers lack team chemistry, but Kobe was the first person to get to Artest and embrace him like Ron Ron had just cured cancer, and the rest of the team followed suit. They didn't celebrate Pau Gasol's(notes) mirror image play nearly as much, and it's not because Pau isn't well liked. The Lakers knew how much that shot meant to Artest, and they let him know how much he means to them. It's clear that the Lakers couldn't be happier for Artest, and he clearly couldn't be happier himself. Eric Freeman, The Baseline: For much of the game, the Lakers responded to the zone that frustrated them during Games 3 and 4 with solid offensive decisions. Pau Gasol responded to a disappointing Game 4 with 21 points (7-of-14 FG), nine rebounds, and five assists, and Kobe Bryant put in his usual 30 points against the Suns despite shooting only 12-of-27 from the field (although he did get near a triple-double with 11 rebounds and nine assists). Lamar Odom(notes) (17 points and 13 rebounds) and Derek Fisher (22 points on 7-of-12 FG) also returned to form. The Lakers shot only 41.8 from the field, but this was a relatively quality game from their most important offensive players. Seth Pollack, Bright Side of the Sun: The bench had a horrible first half, but came back with a vengeance and shaved 3 points off the Lakers starters in 6 minutes and 38 seconds of the fourth quarter. That rest allowed the Suns to go on a 16 to 11 run before Ron's put back on the Kobe airball. There's certainly a lot to be disappointed about for the Suns. They started the game great, with incredible effort and focus on the defensive end, but the ball started sticking and the Suns got away from attacking and as a result the Lakers went from 6 points down at the 3:10 mark of the 1st to up 17 at the 5:25 mark of the 2nd. A 23 point swing resulting mostly from a stagnant offense, as the Lakers energetically denied Nash his primary options off the switching defense. After a timeout, the Suns started attacking quickly and being more aggressive and were able to cut the lead to 8 at the half. Out of the break, the same pattern emerged. Tentative play and good Lakers! defense gave the home team an 18 point edge only to see the Suns, out of a timeout, refocus and start to turn the tide. The Lakers simply played harder for a large portion of the game, but down the stretch the minutes caught up with them and I have no doubt the fresher Suns would have prevailed in overtime ... if the Lakers weren't so darn lucky. Henry Abbott, TrueHoop: I could have told you when the Lakers signed Artest last summer that he'd take that shot. About every ten minutes Ron Artest is in an NBA game, he hoists a 3-pointer, and it's seldom a good idea. This has been going on for a decade. If you were a high school coach, wanting to teach your players about shot selection, these 2,690 attempts would be riddled with examples of what not to do. It's not that he's a terrible shooter. It's that he often chooses to take terrible shots. A 3 is! a difficult enough shot that, unless you're truly special, yo! u should only shoot them when the conditions are just right — when you're open, for instance, and when you're catching a good pass with balance and rhythm. Ideally, you'd also be in the corner, where the 3-point line is closer to the rim. Artest doesn't really seem to believe any of that, and as a result his career average is 34%. (He points out that he was, at one time, a 40% 3-point shooter, which is technically true. He was a percentage point shy of that last season in Houston. The only time he beat that mark was the season he was suspended after seven games and took only 17 3s, making seven.) When Artest played for the Rockets, G.M. Daryl Morey asked Shane Battier(notes) for advice in controlling Artest's shot selection, and Battier essentially advised that Morey that it was impossible, saying "you can't cage a pit bull." The thing that! bugs basketball people is that Artest could make a much higher percentage. So many of his attempts are compromised. Maybe he has a hand in his face. Or perhaps he's coming off the dribble, leaning to one side or doesn't have his feet set correctly. There are just a hundred reasons to criticize the guy's shot selection throughout his career. There have been some dreadful leaners, on the run, with a hand in his face. There have been 36-footers with open teammates wholly unnoticed. He has ignored his own coach's plays, and befuddled teammates, to shoot wild 3s. But that one? Last night? Artest could not have been more open. His feet were set. It was in rhythm." Michael Schwartz, Valley of the Suns: The tough part for the! Suns to swallow is that they forced Kobe into a ridiculously ! tough sh ot that not even he had a prayer at knocking down — and then when the ‘D' forced an air ball it ended up benefiting the Lakers in the end. After Dudley started off on Kobe, Hill switched onto him and Nash was in his zone as he immediately hurled up a prayer to allow for time for a rebound. If it hadn't been an air ball — or of course if J-Rich had done a better job keeping track of Artest — they could still be playing right now. For the conspiracy theorists out there, Kobe's foot appeared to be out of bounds on his shot attempt, a call that went against Grant Hill(notes) earlier in the game, and the hometown scoreboard operator may or may not have started the clock a touch late. 
Chris Tomasson, FanHouse: Adding to the craziness was that Bryant is the one who usually makes the Lakers' dramatic last-second shots. Now, he's missed two this postseason, the first when teammate Pau Gasol rescued Bryant with a last-second tip that won Game 6 in the first round against Okahoma City to secure a 4-2 series win. What was really a surprise Thursday was Artest actually still being in at the end of the game. With 1:01 remaining and the Lakers up 101-98, Artest missed a jumper from the foul line. Gasol grabbed the rebound and threw it back to Artest, who immediately misfired on a three-pointer from the left side with 56 seconds and nearly a full 24 on the shot clock. "I don't know why I left him in the game," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson, refe! rring to the quick launch by a guy who is a 34.4 percent caree! r three- point shooter. "I actually questioned it myself when I put him out there on the floor, and there he was. Made the key play. ... We had a little session with Ron after the ballgame. A lot of hugs, and then a lot of discussion." Artest was mobbed by his teammates after the shot, which enabled him to finish 2-of-9 shooting for the game. He scored just four points in 31 minutes, eight seconds of playing time. "The last second was good," he said. "The last second was fun." Darius, Forum Blue and Gold: Phil extended his rotation tonight and it paid dividends. On a night where Farmar (13 minutes, 0-2 FG, 0 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds) and Shannon Brown(notes) (6 minutes, 1-4 FG, 2 points, 1 rebound) didn'! t play that well, Phil called Luke and Sasha's numbers and got some quality minutes out of those two players — especially Sasha. In 9 minutes of game action, Sasha played inspired defense on his countrymen Goran Dragic(notes) (getting under his skin with his trademarked pestering style), made 2 of his 4 shots, scored 5 points, and had a few other hustle plays (including a chase down tip from behind on Leandro Barbosa on a Suns' fast break). I know there have been many that have wanted to see what Sasha could do with some burn and tonight he rewarded the coaches with some solid play. Whether or not Sasha can play well in his next stint is an unknown, but tonight should give the coaches some confidence to give him the chance. And while Luke didn't have a good game statistically and missed a bunny underneath, he did pick up a key charge on Amar! 'e and moved the ball well on offense. You know, he did Luke W! alton th ings and overall I was okay with his brief stint. Rob Mahoney, ProBasketballTalk: There are a lot of distributors in this league that opposing coaches should seek to "make into a scorer," as a means of halting ball and player movement. Nash doesn't seem like he'd be such a player; Steve is one of the best shooters in the league (if not the very best), and he scores so efficiently that he can carry an offense if need be. The only trouble is that history is Phil Jackson's ally in this case. Nash's game seems like it would be triumph over such a strategy (and in Game 5 it was, as Nash finished with 29 points on 60% shooting while still getting his 11 assists), but in playoff games where Steve has taken 20 or more attempts (including this one), the Suns are 3-8. Take away overtime games, and! the Suns are 2-6 in such games. Stats like that aren't necessarily fair after a game like this one, but it's an interesting trend if nothing else. Don't misunderstand my meaning; this game's result is not justification for the method. Nash very nearly won the game for the Suns, and with a few more free throw makes (Phoenix shot an unseemly 20-of-29 from the line), defensive stops, or rebounds, he probably would have. This one just went the other way, despite an awfully strong performance from one of the best point guards in the game. | | |
| Finally, Michael Jordan will be on the cover of a video game
May 28, 2010 at 12:25 PM
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Back when PlayStation One existed in its bulky grey form many moons ago, the NBA Live series of basketball games were consistently amazing. You got to use the rookies before they even took the court, you could create your own teams and logos; you could do pretty much anything in those games. Except play as Michael Jordan on the Chicago Bulls. For whatever reason (read: financial concerns), Jordan was never a playable character back then. And since he wasn't in the game, he wasn't on the cover despite multiple titles and MVPs. As a tiny Bulls fan, this was disconcerting. But now, 12 years since Mic! hael Jordan wore a Chicago Bulls uniform for the last time, he's going to be on the cover of — and in — a full-featured basketball video game. From ESPN's Jon Robinson: While rumors pegged LeBron James(notes), Derrick Rose(notes) and even Tyreke Evans(notes) as favorites to appear on the cover of "NBA 2K11," multiple sources have told ESPN that the company has gone in a completely different direction, signing basketb! all legend Michael Jordan as its new spokesman. This wil! l be the first time that a former player will appear on the front of the box for 2K, and with Jordan taking over majority ownership of the Charlotte Bobcats, it will also be the first time that a team owner will endorse the popular franchise. [...] In addition to acting as cover model for "NBA 2K11," the speculation is that Jordan will also be digitized into a playable character.
This is great news. The 11-year-old Trey Kerby is very happy and probably wants some Taco Bell. Grown-up Trey is more delighted than anything, and just had a glass of ginger ale, so he's OK. As Robinson reports, the rumors are that some of Jordan's contemporaries are going to be joining him in the game. So if you were a fan of playing with the "NBA Legends" teams back in the day, they'll be even better now. Dibs on Sam Perkins. The game won't be officially unveiled until the E3 gaming expo in June, but Ball Don't Lie got our hands on an exclusive "first look" at the probable cover. It's after the jump. Perfect. It's just how I imagined it as a wee lad. | | |
| Carmelo Anthony is getting married on TV later this year
May 28, 2010 at 10:35 AM
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|  I'm not ashamed to admit that I like reality television. Sure, it's stupid and silly and totally not real at all, but it's so much fun to watch people act stupid and silly. I'm down with competition shows, putting-a-bunch-of-people-in-a-house-together shows, and even making-fancy-lady-clothes shows. Basically anything but wedding shows. Those shows are the worst shows.
But I guess I've got to get over my anti-wedding television bias by September, because that's when a series based around Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony's(notes) July nuptials will be broadcast on VH1. That's must-! see TV, you guys. From a press release, via Gossip on This: The series begins with the betrothed couple, Lala and Carmelo, meeting with A-list wedding planner to the stars Mindy Weiss and follows them through all the wedding planning festivities. Viewers will ride along as Lala shops for the perfect designer wedding dress, chooses the wedding venue, picks out the ultimate wedding cake and menu, plans their honeymoon, and contemplates the guest list, all while maintaining her and Carmelo's hectic schedules. Along the way viewers will also get a glimpse at Lala's celeb-hosted bachelorette party in Las Vegas, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the couple as they gather with their family and friends to prepare for the big day. The series will culminate in a 90-minute lavish celebrity-filled wedding finale in New York that o! nly this superstar couple could host.
Fabul! ous! And totally worth watching for at least one episode, right? It's going to be hilarious to watch Mr. Stop Snitchin' get dragged along to food tastings, to pick out a tux and all that silliness that goes into planning a wedding. Furthermore, there's the very real chance that some of Carmelo's Denver teammates will be involved with the wedding, and frankly, I can't think of much funnier than Kenyon Martin(notes) and J.R. Smith(notes) acting like grown-ups. This has great potential. | | |
| Alvin Gentry lost his lunch but not his sense of humor
May 28, 2010 at 9:50 AM
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| Prior to Thursday night, if you'd have offered me a deep-fried artichoke I would have said, "Hey man, thanks for this deep-fried artichoke. I bet it's delicious since fried food and artichokes are both pretty good by themselves." However, after seeing the trouble Phoenix Suns coach Alvin Gentry had with one of the tastiest vegetables on Earth, I might politely decline. Vomitron is engaged and fully operational, captain. Permission to gross everyone out has been granted. Though I will say this is the most ingenious use of a courtside towel since Bill Walker's(notes) terrycloth tinkle from a few years back. To his credit, Gentry did his best to conceal his illness, telling reporters that he wanted a trash can nearby so that no one would see him vomit. When that didn't work, he was quick with the zings. When told that cameras had actually captured him throwing up into the trash can along the sideline, Gentry was surprised. "They did?" he asked. "Oh, well, just tell everyone that it was Kobe Bryant(notes) making me sick." Gentry said he received an IV at halftime of Game 5 and felt better almost immediately. "! ;It's very similar to college,'' he joked. "Once you get ! it out o f your system, everything's OK. It's like a Friday night, you know, frat party."
There ya go, recent high school graduates — if you get sick at a college frat party from too much fried artichoke, just get an IV and you should be OK. Excellent advice, if not a little pricey. (via Jose3030) | | |
| Behind the Box Score, where Ron Artest's shot left 'em laughing
May 28, 2010 at 9:00 AM
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|  Los Angeles Lakers 103, Phoenix 101; Los Angeles Lakers lead series, 3-2
First off, it wasn't a "miracle shot." It wasn't even a lucky shot. Jason Richardson's(notes) banked-in three-pointer? The shot that tied the game for Phoenix just a possession before? That was a miracle shot. A lucky shot. You miss the shot by three feet and yet it still goes in? Lucky shot. Ron Artest's(notes) game-winning put-back was just a sound offensive maneuver. Given to the Lakers just a few real time minutes after Ron had tossed up a terrible three-point attempt that had just about everyone watching in person and on the tube aghast. As has been mentioned, I'm sure, by somebody else at this point, the whole turn of events was Ron-Ron to a T. Doing just enough to keep you bringing him back for more. Trading for him. Signing him. Starting him. Appreciating him. He has you giving him the benefit of the doubt, even before he hits that shot, because despite all the reasons we have to walk away, none of us can quit Ron Artest. Phil Jackson couldn't. I actually said out loud, as the final play of Game 5 started, "why is Ron out there? To set a good screen, I guess." And then he whiffed on a screen. And yet, he pulls this out. Can't blame the Suns; they had Kobe Bryant(notes) to consider, and you better send as many defenders as you can at this late-game giant. Ron just took what was there for the taking, and redeemed himself. He's got a knack for that. The game was fantastic. There were holes - Phoenix allowed too many offensive rebounds, Los Angeles' offense fell flat for a stretch occupying the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth - but by and large this was an offense-heavy back-and-forth that was somehow decided on a terribly-missed-yet-made three-pointer, and a game-winner from the worst offensive player on the court on Thursday night. You couldn't help but love Game 5. It wasn't just Bryant's 98 game-winning shots from 2009-10 that had the Suns scrambling to get a hand in his face on what they hoped would be the final possession (technically, once that ball hits the rim and Artest grabs the rebound, it's a new possession), Kobe's 30 points and 4-9 mark from long range entering the final play helped really tilt the court in his direction. He also dished nine assists and had 11 rebounds, and the Lakers needed every bit that they got from KB, who sat out just 75 seconds over the last three quarters of the game. 75 seconds. His counterpart on the other end, Steve Nash(notes), had 29 points but could have registered a few more. I'm not putting him down by telling you that he probably could have dropped 40, because (especially in the first half) Nash missed some open'ish looks he usually makes, alongside two free throws. This means he was getting open, or open enough to hit Nash-styled shots, and I'm not discrediting the Lakers nor pointing to a change in defensive philosophy for that one. This was just all on Steve, running it. Jason Richardson and Goran Dragic(notes) combined to shoot 6-17, which hurt, as every little bit of falling short kills in these close games. But the Suns played well. Very well. You might remember Channing Frye(notes) clanging three-pointer after three-pointer, but he actually made three of eight, which is a fine percentage, and had 14 points on 10 shots. 10 rebounds, too, which is usually a fortnight for him. Everything - defense, rebounding, long range shooting, free throw work, bench play - could have been a little better for Phoenix. But on the road, this is usually how things flow. And they were 3.5 seconds away from overtime and potentially a 3-2 series lead heading home to Phoenix for a game. The problem is that every possession counts, and sometimes the Suns just weren't as together as they were in Arizona. That's the "perfect game" that we talk about, the thing needed to take down the defending champs. You have to be on the same page, all the time, in things like calling out the defensive structure in transition after a turnover (zone, or man-to-man?), and not overpassing offensively. This isn't to say that the Lakers don't take possessions off, they do. But they're good enough to get away with it, and you - whoever "you" are - are not. Not against them. Derek Fisher(notes) (22 points) shot quite well. Andrew Bynum(notes) missed all five of his shots, but he rotated much better defensively in ways that showed up in the box score (four blocks), and did not (he, uh, rotated much better defensively). Five offensive rebounds and 13 overall for Lamar Odom(notes), who is just a terror in the glass with his quickness and length, and Sasha Vujacic(notes) gave great bench minutes while trying to tick off Goran Dragic (or "Doran Gragic," as Craig Sager called him at one point) in an extension of the feud that honestly had me laughing so hard tears were coming out of my eyes once they started tangling.  It was Kobe, though. Always on the court, compiling stats without having to dominate the ball. Four blocks, too. Just an all-around brilliant performance, and some of the best basketball I've ever seen him play, considering the circumstances. He's older, now, and those reverse shots aren't going in. They're not tossing him lobs, like they could have a few times in transition. But when he's focused and not trying to win the game with line drive 20-footers, he just as dominant as basketball players get.
And you know, hitting a couple of those mid-range shots with Suns running at him from all angles, that this comes from doing work. There was one look in the fourth with Dragic running up underneath him, where you knew it didn't matter if 1962-era Bill Russell was out there with a broom and a cap gun; because this was one of the shots Kobe takes 400 times a day in the summer, and he was just locked in. He was born with gifts, no doubt, but he's done so, so much with them. We're lucky to get to watch. And lucky that we have a series. As close as Game 5 was, a subsequent Suns win in Phoenix is no gimmie, and they're going to have to play just as good if not better basketball in Game 6 just to keep their season alive. For now? Great game. Thanks for it, two sides. | | |
| Suicide lines: Artest bonds with Lakers; Every Celtic is hurt
May 28, 2010 at 8:15 AM
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Each weekday morning, BDL serves up a handful of NBA-related stories to digest with your crumpets. Kevin Ding, Orange County Register: "The moment was utter togetherness for a team that had been out-togethered by the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference finals ... and by a lot of teams this season, frankly. But the on-court celebration Thursday night was finally the gathering of a championship team, not just a pile of championship talent.
Danger faced together and overcome is a remarkably unifying experience. 'It's part of the road to glory,' Lamar Odom(notes) said. At first, it was only the players to touch the ball on that last play: Odom, who'd inbounded the ball to Kobe Bryant(notes), headlocked Ron Artest(notes) and Bryant while those two first embraced in the aftermath of Artest's winning put-back. Bryant had air-balled that shot over two Suns from nearly out of bounds. Odom hadn't boxed out Steve Nash(notes) for the egregious error that set up Phoenix's tying 3-pointer. Artest had missed his previous wide-open but ill-advised shots with a minute to play in a manner that left him the loneliest Laker there ever was. There is a magic wand for individual miscues, however, and it is team success. Odom, Bryant and Artest were mobbed by all their smiling teammates soon enough in a fitting manifestation of how this tie-breaking Game 5! was a team victory. There was teamwork in the first half, whe! n Phoeni x shot just 42.5 percent from the field. There was teamwork in the second half, when the Lakers had 19 assists and two turnovers compared to the Suns' 12 and six. And it was perfectly fitting for Artest, the lone newcomer, to be at the heart of this beat. 'He sacrificed a lot to help us get to where we're trying to go,' Derek Fisher(notes) said. 'That's why we were so happy for him.'" Beth Harris, Associated Press: "Steve Nash kept Phoenix hanging around in the fourth quarter until Jason Richardson(notes) tied it up in the waning seconds only to see the Suns get eclipsed by a buzzer-beating offensive rebound Thursday nigh! t. Phoenix tangled up Kobe Bryant on a last-ditch 3-point attempt, but Ron Artest sneaked in, grabbed the rebound and scored to give the Los Angeles Lakers a 103-101 victory. 'We just got to be really fortunate it didn't happen in a deciding game,' Nash said. 'We have to go home with a lot of strength from this game.' The loss left Phoenix trailing the best-of-seven series 3-2 heading back to the desert for Game 6 on Saturday. Bryant doesn't expect the defeat to demoralize the Suns. 'Not that team,' he said. 'They'll bounce right back and play loosey-goosey.'" Julian Benbow, Boston Globe: "From Kendrick Perkins's(notes) first-half ejection! and Glen Davis's(notes) and Marquis Daniels's(notes) late-game concussions to the fact that the team they had dominated for three games had suddenly become the bully, Doc Rivers summed up the Celtics' Game 5 loss to the Magic Wednesday night as 'surreal.' As he looked around the locker room, at the wreckage the Magic had left behind after clawing back into the series they seemed all but out of to trail just three games to two, Rivers didn't have to gauge the mood. At the time, there was a possibility that Perkins would be suspended for Game 6 tonight at TD Garden, that reinforcements Davis and Rasheed Wallace(not! es) would be too battered to play, and that the Celtics would be going into their last home game of the Eastern Conference finals handicapped. 'It was a very emotional locker room,' Rivers said. 'Guys were upset at a lot of stuff. Guys are worried about each other. Guys are injured and sitting in there looking like a M*A*S*H unit at one point. You saw all the trainers and the doctors, and I'm trying to talk, and everybody's got ice.' The Celtics were able to re cover yesterday. They caught a break, learning that they will have Perkins available tonight, as one of his two Game 5 technical fouls was rescinded by the league. Still, the technicals were a disappointment to Rivers, who thought neither justified and who knows that with Perkins sitting on six postseason technicals (one shy of a suspension), he'll be walking on eggshells. 'Obviously, I'm happy about it,' Rivers said. 'I'm a little disappointed that both technicals weren't rescinded. I thought they both sh! ould have been and I'm very surprised that they were not. But ! I'll tak e the one and hopefully we can keep working on it. Unfortunately, we can't get those calls back. It clearly affected us in Game 5 not having Perk out on the floor.'" Mark Murphy, Boston Herald: "In a situation rivaling the most damaged stretch of the 2009-10 season, Doc Rivers gave a medical roll call yesterday: Glen Davis, who suffered a concussion after taking a Dwight Howard(notes) elbow to the face in the third quarter of Wednesday night's Game 5 loss in Orlando, Fla., had shown significant signs of improvement yesterday. He is expe! cted to play in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals tonight at the Garden, though he will be re-evaluated just before gametime. Marquis Daniels, who suffered a concussion in the fourth quarter, appears to be in worse shape. He will be a gametime decision. Rasheed Wallace, who reaggravated a back problem in Game 5, was unable to sit during a film session yesterday morning at the team hotel. But he is improving, according to Rivers. Tony Allen(notes) continues to have trouble with a sore ankle that has affected his play. Rajon Rondo(notes) appears to have recovered from the muscle spasms that slowed him down in Game 4, though the Celtics point guard has denied he had such a problem. In other words, just another day in ! the infirmary for a team accustomed to treatment. '(Wednesday)! night w e had a very emotional locker room,' Rivers said. 'Guys were upset with a lot of stuff, with all of the people we had leaving the game. But there is also no other stuff as far as we're concerned. We just have to move on. But it looked like a M.A.S.H. unit in there at one point. I said to everyone, "It's great, isn't it? This is the playoffs, so embrace this moment."'" 
Jonathan Feigen, Houston Chronicle: "Rockets center Yao Ming(notes) might not be back on the track quite yet, but he clear! ed a key hurdle Thursday to get there. An extensive physical on Yao's repaired and restructured left foot, long considered an important milestone in his comeback, showed the rehabilitation progressing well, clearing Yao to move to more extensive running and on-court workouts. 'We reviewed his most recent bone scans, and they indicate the healing is continuing at the expected rate,' Rockets athletic trainer Keith Jones said. 'He's right where he should be with regard to his rehab. He's been able to increase his rehab conditioning to the point he is running at his full body weight. He's been doing some limited on-court work, and he's been able to go through those workouts with no discomfort. We feel good about his progress at this point, and we're going to keep gradually elevating the intensity of his workouts within the parameters that our doctors have established.' Yao has been running on a gravity control treadmill, increasing the percentage of body weight on the foot to a! llow Thursday's exam to indicate how he responds to the worklo! ad. He a lso has been doing light shooting drills." Benjamin Hochman, Denver Post: "Chris Andersen's season was marred by injuries, and he received his worst injury at the worst timein the playoffs, when he injured his right knee. 'The Birdman' played through pain, and he underwent surgery Tuesday to repair a partial tear of the patellar tendon. He is expected to be fully recovered for next season. The surgery was performed by Dr. Steven Traina, the Nuggets' team physician. Andersen's knee injury happened during Game 2 of the series against the Jazz, which Utah won in six games." Jim O'Donnell and John Jackson, Chicago ! Sun-Times: "Who says Dwyane Wade(notes) can't get back on defense? Hours after a Chicago newspaper published quotes in which Wade appeared to question the 'loyalty' of the Bulls' hierarchy to Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, Wade and agent Henry Thomas deflated critical underpinnings of the rush to headline. 'I don't know about their loyalty because I haven't been in [the Bulls'] organization,' Wade told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel shortly after the Chicago broadside. 'The only organization I have been in is Miami, so I know the loyalty of [the Heat]. That's what's big to me. I'm not taking shots at the Bulls and the organization. I respect the organization. ... It's just my opinion when the question was asked about what's most important to you, I said one of the most important things is loyalty.' 'No. 1, there were some sta! tements that Dwyane made that were taken out of context,' said! Thomas, the Chicago-based attorney who represents both Wade and Chris Bosh(notes) in partnership with CAA Sports. 'That was why it was very important that clarification was posted as quickly as possible. He made a point to say that he does not know, other than as an outside observer, much about the Bulls' organization. Growing up here, he, of course, heard some things that were said with regard to how matters were handled with Michael and Scottie and even Phil [Jackson]. But for him at this point to make an educated judgment about the loyalty that exists between the Bulls and former players,' Thomas said, 'he's really not positioned to do that.'" Brian Windhorst, Cleveland Plain Dealer: "Let the games begin. The Cavaliers' co! aching search will likely be long and have plenty of twists and turns especially with much nationwide scrutiny as it relates to the future of LeBron James(notes). There will likely be plenty of information and even some misinformation, and retaining perspective on the process will have value for fans. With that disclaimer out of the way, the first bit of the team's succession plan came to light Thursday. The Cavs have been doing some background research about Milwaukee Bucks assistant coach Kelvin Sampson, according to a source. Cavs General Manager Danny Ferry, the source said, has described Sampson to people as at the top of the team's candidate list when it comes to current league assistant coaches." Julian Garcia, New York Daily News: "Avery Johnson is meeting with Nets president/GM Rod Thorn Saturday about the team's vacant head coaching job, and if all goes well the former Mavericks coach could be hired as soon as next week. Johnson's attorney, Curry Cooksey, confirmed Thursday that his client will be interviewing for the Nets' job in New York or New Jersey and said that Johnson is 'optimistic' about his chances and also hoping to have the position locked up soon. 'He's hoping to have something finalized by next week,' Cooksey said. Thorn would not confirm that the meeting will take place but did admit that Johnson is 'a guy we're interested in talking to.'"
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| Video: Ron Artest convinces Craig Sager the 'Bridge isn't over
May 28, 2010 at 12:10 AM
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| Moments after hitting a buzzer-beating layup off of a Kobe Bryant(notes) airball to put an exclamation point on the beyond-belief 30 seconds that closed Game 5 of the Western Conference finals, Ron Artest(notes) sidled up to the salmon-suited Craig Sager to share some post-game comments. Those comments were nearly as amazing and ridiculous as the game's conclusion, and ended with arguably as exciting a moment — at least, for those of us who enjoy Ron-Ron's particular brand of absurdity. After asking Artest about the game-clincher, as well as why he took a logic-defying 3-pointer with 22 seconds left on the shot clock, 56 seconds remaining on the game clock and his Los Angeles Lakers clinging to a three-point lead over the hard-charging Phoenix Suns — great phrases in Ron-Ron's meandering response included "I tried to break their back a little bit," "That's why you play defense" and the repeated mantra of "You have to play basketball" — Sager begins wrapping up the interview (about the 1:12 mark in the clip). At that point, Artest drapes his arm around the reporter's neck and says, "Quee! nsbridge in the building. Queensbridge in the building. You al! ready kn ow," flashing a broad smile as he reps the Queens, N.Y., neighborhood in which he was born and raised. Artest then looks at Sager, points to the mic and says, "Yo, say Queensbridge, say Queensbridge." Sager obliges, Artest adds a quick and forceful "Yeah," and breaks for the showers. [Video: NBA's best buzzer beaters] Just like that, poof, he's gone. Ron Artest is the postgame-winning-shot-interview equivalent of Keyser Soze. He's also the dude who may have just given Queensbridge "the biggest look it's ever gotten," as The Sporting Blog's Andy Hutchins Tweeted, which would be saying something, considering how proudly and vociferously native sons Nas and Mobb Deep have held down QB. It was weird, awkward, hilarious and disarming. "'Queensbridge is the new 'Ball,'" twote the geniuses behind the NBA Off-Season blog, and for one night at least, I'd be hard pressed to disagree. The perfectly insane end to a perfectly insane night. Game 6 can't come quickly enough. (via Jose3030) Other popular Yahoo! Sports stories:
• Raiders want refund for draft bust
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| Video: Crazy Ron Artest ends a crazy game with a crazy tip-in
May 27, 2010 at 11:20 PM
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| Ron Artest(notes) is an enigma wrapped in a riddle bundled inside of a mystery that's been dyed blond and purple then given a middling rap career. He's the kind of guy that'll take a wide-open three-pointer with 22 seconds left on the shot clock in a game his team is winning by three points with 56 seconds remaining, just because he was raised to "keep playing basketball." And he did just that during Thursday night's Game 5 against the Phoenix Suns, who proceeded to tie the game on a banked-in Jason Richardson(notes) desperation three after Ron botched the clock. Then he did this. Basically, that's Ron Artest's entire career in a gigantic basketball-shaped nutshell — awful three-pointer followed immediately by a great play predicated entirely on hustle. In fact, that's Artest's Third Law of Hoops: for every bad basketball play, there is an equal and opposite good basketball play. You can't argue with science, and you shouldn't with Ron Artest. Best game of the playoffs? Or just best 30 second stretch of the playoffs? The choice is yours, my friends. (video via Jose3030) | | |
| Game to pay attention to: Who wants to go to the Finals?
May 27, 2010 at 7:00 PM
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Phoenix at Los Angeles Lakers; series tied 2-2
The Los Angeles Lakers are supposed to break out, in a big way. That's what's supposed to happen. A game that's over by the nine minute mark of the third quarter, a blowout leaving you wondering how, exactly, the Lakers ever lost in Phoenix. To deny this, the Suns have to play perfect basketball, again. They have to cherish every possession, force the Lakers into tough decisions every time down court (both in terms of dealing with the screen and roll defensively, and what to do against the zone on offense), and put real pressure on. Because taking two at home? That's not applying real pressure. That's what you're supposed to do. There that is, again. Supposed to. The Lakers are supposed to win, probably by a sound margin. Patience and quick-yet-unhurried action is the way around a zone defense, and the Lakers have shown us consistently through the seasons that they are capable of such an approach. Phil Jackson's team has also shown that it can defend, quite well in fact, throughout most of 2009-10. Why they haven't been able to stay in front of the Suns over the last two games is mostly due to Phoenix, and the iffy knee and subsequent reaction time of Andrew Bynum(notes). So while all signs point to the defending champs getting back on track, we could have another cracker on our hands, full of big plays and close margins. One can hope. Comment away. | | |
| Look at the birdie! Leandro Barbosa explains his new hand-signal
May 27, 2010 at 5:45 PM
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Throughout the history of the NBA we've been treated to a lot of on-court gestures. There was Jeff Hornacek and his free-throw face rub, which was a way of saying "sup dawgs" to his kids watching at home. Jason Kidd(notes) blows kisses to the rim for good luck because he really needs it. Doug Christie(notes) would point to his wife after every basket. And, best of all, Quentin Richardson(notes) and Darius Miles(notes) would double-pound their foreheads back when they were promising young players on the Clippers and not guys who were overweight Grizzlies property for about six seconds. But lately, we've kind of been lacking in the hand signals department. Sure, Jose Calderon(notes) throws up three fingers when he hits from long range, and Jason Terr! y(! notes) will run around as if he were an airplane, but those are dated. We need some fresh hand signals to replicate during pick-up games. And no, Cavaliers, the goose eye doesn't count. So big ups to Leandro Barbosa(notes) for introducing his bird-hands thing during the playoffs. As Mike Schmitz of the Suns blog Valley of the Suns found out, not only does it look pretty rad, it's also a nice tribute. "It's a bird, a bird, a white bird," Barbosa explained after Wednesday's practice. &q! uot;That means my mom is still around. So I was doing it for her." Barbosa's mother Ivete passed away in his hometown of Sao Paolo, Brazil, in November 13, 2008, after a six-week bout with pneumonia. [...] He said Wednesday that he'd been thinking about her and the idea for the white bird came to him in his sleep. "It came up on my mind," he said. "I had a dream about that and for some reason I started to do it (Tuesday night)."
Very cool; 10 out of 10 points awarded for style and effect, and another 10 out of 10 for meaning. A perfect score for a perfect little celebration, and one that Suns fans should hope they see a few times during Thursday night's Game 5 in Los Angeles. It's also good that Barbosa clarified what he was doing with his hands. I mean, no one is going to be scared of a bird unless it's a 100-foot tall terror bird, so that means he definitely won't be fined for any "menacing gestures." That Leandro Barbosa is a real thinker. Other popular stories on Yahoo! Sports:
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| Guest post: What if the Suns, you know, win this thing?
May 27, 2010 at 4:15 PM
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Shane Bacon is a contributing writer to Yahoo! Sports' Devil Ball Golf. He's a Scottsdale, AZ resident and he dares to dream upon a Finals berth for the Phoenix Suns. It's fun to see juggernauts get nervous. The big boys that always run the schoolyard finally have to think that, gulp, this team that wasn't worthy of stepping on the same court as us is tied, and with another "lucky" performance on Thursday, might actually win. I live in Phoenix, and the last five days have been exciting, very similar to the weeks leading up to Super Bowl XLIII. It isn't because this town is the biggest sports city — that isn'! t the case at all. Most of my friends are from the east coast, or up north; folks that were so sick of being cold they'd move to the desert to get a little sun and sweat. It's just because, well, this team shouldn't be doing this. Just like that Cardinals team, the Suns are a group that will make a lot of Top-10s, but isn't always the toughest. They struggle on the interior, they don't match up well against their opponents, and they aren't supposed to be in this series against the mighty Lakers. But after game four, this town's mentality changed. People starting thinking, "what if we pulled this out? What if this was actually the team to finally break through?" It's interesting that it comes against a fan base like Los Angeles, mostly because the group of friends I have that do support the gold and purple are fairly predictable. You get a lot of pokes about the past, with people continually asking me, "well how many championships have the! Suns won?" That, of course, means nothing in this series! . The Su ns are an experienced group of guys that probably have one final shot to do what they're doing, with a group that has two All-Stars, a veteran that is finally free from injury, and a bunch of role players that make basketball look as fun as winning the lotto. While most people in the valley know better than to think that Phoenix will actually pull this out (look at the Suns' playoff history if you are interested in how well they do closing out the big one), the question has become something legit: "Can this happen?" During Game 4, I got texts from just about everyone I'd ever met in Arizona whooping about this team. Call them the All-Star Reserves if you want, but they are everything the Lakers are not, and it has shown in the last two games. While Kobe hangs his head when teammates do dumb things (and don't try to say he doesn't do this anymore, because he did it continually in Game 4), Steve Nash(notes) is high-fiving his guys even after stupid turnovers. While Phil Jackson is screaming at a blown defensive assignment by Andrew Bynum(notes), Alvin Gentry is sending an ice-cold Channing Frye(notes) to the free-throw line to shoot a technical foul in hopes it would get him going. You can't say it's the good guys versus the bad guys, but you can say that the chemistry has to be different in the locker rooms. It sure is different for the fans. The difference in powerhouses and teams that just miss out is that the great teams aren't used to being pushed against the wall, and their fans freak ! out like someone robbed their house. It's interesting to see t! he backp edaling first hand with the Lakers. And while the stats have never added up for Phoenix (the Lakers have the best player, the best coach, the best record in game 5s, the home court advantage), this Suns teams just doesn't seem to care. A lot of things have to go right for the Suns to take a game in Los Angeles. The bench has to show chutzpah that hasn't seeped out on the road in this series. Nash has to control the turnovers and Amar'e Stoudemire(notes) needs to be uber-aggressive both on offense and defensive rebounding, among other things. Do the Suns have to play a perfect game on Thursday to win? Yep. Is it likely for them to take this series against the best team in basketball? Of course not — the series is tied and it's best out of three. Would it be a lot of fun to see what happened if they did? Absolutely. Any non-Laker ! fan has to be pulling for this collection of, to steal a line from those Red Sox teams a few years back, idiots. This town sees it fast approaching. We sure hope the 15 guys in the Suns jerseys see it as well. Even if they don't win it, they'll sure make losing entertaining. | | |
| Three big-time free agents walk in to a contract negotiation...
May 27, 2010 at 3:25 PM
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As anyone who has ever heard of basketball is able to tell you, there are going to be some free agents who are free agenting all over the NBA this season. Furthermore, rumors persist that these big-ticket guys — LeBron James(notes), Dwyane Wade(notes), Chris Bosh(notes), Brad Miller(notes! ), etc. — want to play with each other and that, somehow, a couple of them will end up on the same team. Well, as the Chicago Tribune's Fred Mitchell is reporting, the rumors might be super true. So true, in fact, that these bros are going to be hashing things out to determine where they end up. "(Free agency) has been three years coming," Wade said. "We've discussed it prematurely, at different times. (But) you don't know what guys are thinking and where they're going. I think we'll all sit down, and before one of us makes a decision, all of us will have spoken to each other and (listened to the) thinking. "A lot of decisions (will be based on) what other players are willing to do and what other guys want to do. So it's not just a 'me' situation here. We all have to look and see! what each other is thinking."
Accordi! ng to Mi tchell's report, the guys who will be talking are Wade, James and Joe Johnson(notes). Weird, considering Joe Johnson isn't Chris Bosh, who seems to be a more desirable free agent around the league. But ESPN alleges that Bosh will "definitely be there," so I guess it makes more sense. Not to disparage Joe Johnson, but he's streets behind those three. Since these guys are all good friends from their time spent on Team USA in 2008 — except Johnson, who must be the funny friend who keeps everyone laughing — it's understandable that they'd want to talk to each other before making the biggest basketball decision of their lives. It's no different than talking to your best buddies before getting married. Then again, maybe they're just getting together t! o figure out summer plans. Bosh wants to go to camp, but those other three are so over Lake Wapogasset. | | |
| Endorsing J.J. Redick
May 27, 2010 at 2:40 PM
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"J.J. Redick could use some action," Trey tells me.
Whoa-oh-oh! I feel like Orson Welles at the beginning of this commercial. Springing to life but with no words to match. J.J. Redick(notes)! He's a champagne from California. He's a mid-engine sports car made in Korea. He's a pop group from Sweden. He's inauthentic, but he works. And he's been misunderstood, for too long. It helps if you don't follow college basketball, which I don't. I underst! and that, to some, this is the entirety of his being, but I never had to see Redick take a charge in the ACC Tournament. I never had to watch him complain about a call against Chaminade (that's a real school, right?) on the first Thursday of the sweet 64 (or whatever they call it). By the time I got to Redick, his climb had been taken down a notch. Not all the way, but enough to employ. And enough to accurately gauge his game. He's got plenty of it, you know. And he's just about un-peg-o-ble, which is fine for the unencumbered. Not so great for those who had their minds made up during a senior season game against Maryland. (Did he stay for his senior season? Does Duke play Maryland, regularly? Are they friendly? Do they slap fives?) To me, the NBA guy, Orlando guard Redick showed up in 2006 as, well, some kind of guy that could shoot. And when you watch incessant amounts of NBA "action" night in and night out, you tend to gravitate toward ! the types that stick out. And the types that can shoot, stick ! out. Thirty-nine percent from long range, after four years? And 42 percent overall? That's shooting? It's good, yes, but it's not Steve Kerr-level. I grok. But have you seen this cat's stroke? And, for those that are watching as much as I am, have you seen the sheer amount of properly stroked 24-foot kittens that spin in and out of the rim he's aiming at? Believe me, I want nothing to do with asking for extended minutes from an extended Duke-y with an extended scruff on his chin. But to watch Redick, from 2006 onward, is to wonder what could have been. It's not that every one of Redick's bombs looks pure from the fingertips to the rim, it's that I can't remember the last time I saw as many spin-outs happen to one shooter. How many bad breaks, affixed to one bench-rider. Honestly, I can't believe I'm going down this path, but Redick must have played puppy soccer in a former life, because in terms of pure stats, I can't recall another NBA player who just misses out as much as Redick. Nearly misses assists (the teammate misses the shot), and nearly misses buckets (good form, good stroke, good look ... in and out). Redick hasn't been a world-beater in these playoffs. If anything, this has been the worst I've seen him play since last season, and I'm sure the per-minute noticin' Magic fans would agree with that sentiment. He's produced more turnovers than assists, he's missed quite a few good looks from both beyond the arc and within it, and he's broken his fair share of plays. But he can play. He's not some per-minute wonder, built up on offensive rebounds and tip-dunks over bench types while averaging 6.7 fouls per 36 minutes. He's a legitimate contributor that plays more efficiently the more he's allowed to run the floor and lose the fear of falling short. Because Stan Van Gundy is in this guy's head, and J.J.'s the only player on this team that works this into a bad thing. SVG helps, for everyone but! Redick. So there I go, extolling his virtues. The most ! likely s cenario? He signs for a bit too much this summer, and I look like a moron for pushing it. More shots go in and out. More contributions get lost, on a Tuesday night, when nobody's watching. Maybe there is some sort of karmic, Duke-derived element working. Maybe he does deserve all these spin-outs. Maybe I'm just a bit off, just like the rotation on Redick's shots. Well, I'm going down with you, J.J., even if the shots don't go down. We're four years apart, but I can't think of a single NBA player that my interests likely line up further away from, but I'm hanging in there with you, despite the history. Despite those Photoshopped red beer pong cups. Despite that thing on your chin. J.J. Redick can play. He deserves my action, and yours, and Orlando's. I'm done now. A shower awaits. | | |
| 'Net reaction: Magic vs. Celtics - Game 5
May 27, 2010 at 1:45 PM
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The Magic aren't dead yet. No, they're still breathing and winning basketball games in the Eastern Conference finals. KD had his turn, now the Internet has theirs... Eric Freeman, The Baseline: Orlando had its most complete offensive effort of the series, with 52.2 percent shooting from the field, including 13-of-25 from deep, and four players with at least 14 points. Dwight Howard(notes) was terrific at both ends with 21 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks and two steals. Jameer Nelson(notes) had his second consecutive quality game with 24 points, including 4-of-5 on 3s. Add in 14 points apiece for J.J. Redick(notes) and Rashard Lewis(notes), and you have the kind of balanced scoring that typified Orlando's first two series of the postseason. If Vince Carter(notes) (eight points on 3-of-10 FG) can get ! going, this team will be even scarier. The Celtics, on t! he other hand, looked out of sorts for the second consecutive game, shooting 43.1 percent from the field. Several players had solid lines — Rondo (19 points, six assists) and Rasheed Wallace(notes) (21 points on 7-of-9 shooting) chief among them — but the offense failed to get into any rhythm. It didn't help that Perkins had to go to the locker room and Glen Davis(notes) later joined him with a concussion courtesy of a Howard elbow. But those are simple excuses for why Boston has very real problems at this point. The Magic have awakened after three awful games to start the series, and there's a distinct possibility they can become the first NBA team to come back from an 0-3 playoff deficit. The Celtics better ge! t things right, because they're in danger of making history for all the wrong reasons. Matt McHale, Basketbawful: The Celtics made lot of mistakes both early and late, like giving up an offensive rebound in the third quarter that eventually found it's way to Matt Barnes(notes) for an uncontested three. Before that shot got drilled, Boston had cut the lead to 5 points. But that field goal — which Doc Rivers called the biggest shot of the game — swung momentum Orlando's way. Of course, it might never have gotten to that if the Celtics had been able to contain J.J. Redick in the first half. Think I'm kidding? I'm not. As ESPN's Chris Sheridan pointed out: "It was Redick who keyed the early surge that put Orlando ahead! for good, scoring 11 of his 14 points from the moment when he! first c hecked in with the score 16-16 until he was subbed out with the Magic ahead 49-37. I don't know if the Celtics don't respect Redick or what, but they don't smother him the way they try to smother other Magic players. And they could end up regretting it when they're watching the NBA Finals on their big-screen TVs. Kurt Helin, ProBasketballTalk: Give credit to the Magic — a lot of teams would have just rolled over after losing three straight games and meekly surrendered their season. I'm looking at you, Atlanta. The Magic showed some fight, caught a couple breaks and won Game 4 in overtime. Then they came out and threw a knockout punch. A haymaker. It connected right on Celtics jaw in Game 5. It seemed to give the Celtics a concussion, and I'm pretty sure Kendrick Perkins(notes) dropped an F-bomb when it landed and got ejected for it. For Celtics fans, that one hurt. Except you can't knock someone out with a second loss. By rule, Boston lives to fight another day. It is Game 6 or bust for Boston, it wants no part of a Game 7 back in Orlando. Friday night is the showdown. Brian Robb, Celtics Hub: You know how you know things are going badly for your team? It's when your coach wants to throw up the white flag in the 4th quarter of a blowout, but still has to leave one of his starters in the game. Not because he's sending some kind of message to the starter or his team by leaving him out there, but literally due to the reality that there aren't enough healthy bodies left out of the reserves to put together a garb! age time crew. Hence we had Paul Pierce(notes) roaming the floor for the final four minutes of a 41 minute night, facing a 20 point deficit with Tony Allen(notes) (also banged up), Nate Robinson(notes), Shelden Williams(notes) and Michael Finley(notes). Yep, it was one of those nights for the Green team. It's hard not too panic if you're a Celtics fan right now. New Englanders are on edge already af! ter seeing their hometown hockey team blow a 3-0 series lead just two weeks over. So tonight's result is one of those games that will get the worry warts out in full effect. Ben Q Rock, Orlando Pinstriped Post: The way the Magic played tonight and in Game 4 certainly makes one wonder where the heck they were in the first three games. Nelson's the sparkplug, as he has to be. It's as though a lightbulb flashed on above his noggin, as he's clearly figured out how to attack Boston's defense. Though Nelson is traditionally a halfcourt-oriented, pick-and-roll point guard, he has shifted into a different mode in this series, and is instead pushing the tempo aggressively whenever possible. On two occasions tonight, for example, he grabbed a defensive rebound, dribbled the length of the court, and converted a layup attempt in heavy traffic as the ! Celtics' defense kept scrambling. He isn't content to walk the! ball up and run a halfcourt set. No, he's getting the ball and making things happen with it, usually by dribbling into the paint for either a kickout or a shot attempt. He's not turning the corner on the pick-and-roll and picking up his dribble, looking for the open man. No, his dribble is live, his improvisation skills high, and his swag phenomenal. He has Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo(notes) on his heels. If he keeps playing this way, Orlando will be in great shape come Friday night. Tim Povtak, FanHouse: As bad as the Magic looked in losing the first three, they have looked like a different team in the last two, going from down to dominant, riding the broad shoulders and physical play of Howard, the heralded Defensive Player of Year. He! had 21 points, 10 rebounds, five blocked shots and three Celtic kills, treating them like bowling pins as they scattered all around him. He was almost as good as he was in Game 4 when he had 32 points, 16 rebounds and four blocks in Boston. "I just thought his effort tonight was incredible,'' said Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. "That's leadership. There was great energy, and great toughness.'' Howard frustrated center Kendrick Perkins to the point of a second technical foul, an ejection and possible suspension for Game 6. He accidentally elbowed Glen Davis in the face, giving Davis a concussion that likely will prevent him from playing Friday. Howard wasn't close to reserve Marquis Daniels(notes) when Daniels also sustained a concussion, but he might have willed it. 
John Karalis, Red's Army: There's a misconception out there about momentum. And there's a lot of talk using that misconception out there today. Momentum, like Stan said, doesn't carry over from game to game. Momentum is an intangible. You can't see momentum. You can't look at game film and break down "momentum." Momentum is a feeling. In individual games, momentum can be huge. Momentum is a collective feeling that you can't be stopped, or your jumper is just wet, or your man simply won't score on you. But once that final horn sounds, momentum goes on the ball rack and is locked up in the utility closet. That's not to say that a couple of good games can't give the Magic confidence. They should get credit for making adjustments tha! t are working, and it's easier for them to pick up some momentum the next time around. But let's not cheapen what the Magic have done... or look past what the Celtics deficiencies have become, by simply saying "whoa... the Magic REALLY have the momentum now." Momentum dies when the lights go out, a players head hits the pillow, and he drifts off into whatever kind of sleep he gets after a game like Game 5. Today, the Celtics will look in the mirror and come to realizations. They will go to practice and work on problems. They will go to bed and visualize Friday night. All those things play into whatever "momentum" exists somewhere in the air between Amway and The Garden. Matt Moore, Hardwood Paroxysm: Offensively, against one of the league's best defenses, the Celtics have really just kind of mainta! ined. Outside of a few players (Sheed) they're not really gett! ing outl ier performances. Their offensive efficiencies are all within range of their season average. They're not overachieving. The Magic have underachieved until Game 4. Some of that is the Celtics letting the foot off the pedal. Some of it is the Magic just having a bad run of shots. But now we have the actual series, and if we throw out outliers, it's a 2-1 Celtics lead in a best of five. Throw out a night where the Magic had several things go their way, and the one where things like Rasheed Wallace hitting a fadeaway three with a defender standing literally shoulder to shoulder with him happened, and you've got a 2-1 series lead for Boston and every reason to suspect they can get this done. I have to wonder if this isn't everything Orlando can throw at them. It's a tentative balance, much more so than it was three days ago. The reason? The Big 3 are sputtering. When any combination of 2 of the Big 3 are hitting, you might as well go home. But last night Pierce struggled wi! th the Magic's physical play of him, Garnett's head has been AWOL since the start of Game 4, and Allen, well, Allen's got the best defender in this series on him like white on rice and is still hitting fairly regularly. The Magic have kickstarted the offense and as much as Celtics fans may not want to admit it, Rashard Lewis DOES look like he suddenly got healthier, playing with more energy and the focus on his release has been better. I still like Boston to close in 6, because I think the Magic will simply fatigue and Rondo will get healthy. He's a huge factor. When he's dominating, the Celtics are dominating. He opens those shots up for the Big 3. When he's hurt, the offense runs through Ray Allen(notes), instead of culminating wit him. Pierce in ISO is a liability against this defense. That's what it's going to come down to. I can't imagi! ne this thing going from 3-0 to 3-3. Nada Taha Moslehy, SLAM: Instead of Rajon Rondo diving for a loose ball, it was Jameer Nelson jumping over players in the paint to grab the rebound. Rather than Ray Allen knocking down threes with his look-alike mom cheering on the sidelines, it was JJ Redick bringing back to life his Duke reincarnation. The biggest turnaround? Usually composed players like Allen and Paul Pierce were visibly flustered. While they were busy being frustrated, Dwight Howard was able to post 21 points, 10 rebounds and 5x blocked shots. It certainly did help that the Celtics' bigs, who were once thought to be an endless stream of gutsy guys, were dropping like flies. First, it was Kendrick Perkins. Two technical fouls sent him out of the game at the end of the first half and could possibly keep him at home for Game 6 if the League doesn't decide to rescind at least one of those (which should be the case c! onsidering walking away from a ref doesn't really constitute a T). Then, it was Glen "Baby" Davis, who stumbled to his feet in an attempt to get back in to the game after a strong, inadvertent elbow to the face from Howard. Davis was knocked out cold, suffered a concussion and had to be taken off the court. Finally, it was Marquis Daniels, who was knocked out embarrassingly for running in to Marcin Gortat(notes) as if he was a brick wall. At that point, Brian Scalabrine(notes) looked mighty appeasing. | | |
| NBA Style Watch: Nate Robinson's new neck tattoo
May 27, 2010 at 1:00 PM
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NBA Style Watch occasionally checks in on the latest and greatest in on-court fashions. Whether it be new uniforms, new haircuts or new tattoos, we'll be there ... watching, judging, opining. See something particularly noteworthy? Let us know. Nate Robinson(notes) doesn't get to play in that many games now that it's playoff time. In fact, coming into Wednesday night's Game 5, Lil' Nate had seen time in only eight of the Boston Celtics' 15 postseason games. So when he checked in for the first time midway through ! the third quarter it was kind of a surprise. But Robinson playing in a hotly contested Eastern Conference finals game wasn't the only surprise Nate had in store. No, there on his neck was the other big surprise — an enormous tattoo that was mistaken for an intricately designed neck beard. Turns out Robinson got inked prior to Game 4, but since he saw just two minutes of time, no one really got a look at the Bentley-styled winged 8 on his throat. A huge oversight by photographers worldwide, for sure. Thankfully, Nate's nearly nine minutes of burn allowed more than enough time for some snaps of his new neck mural. With a little digging and a little logic, I've determined that the 8 on Nate's neck has to refer to "8 Block." ! And from there, I'm guessing — based on this pretty hilarious rap video that Robinson cameos in — that "8 Block" is a nickname for Seattle's Section 8 housing projects. I could be wrong, but it makes sense since Nate's from Rain City. Of course, now that there's another NBA player with a neck tattoo, we all have to reconsider what we would get if we had neck tattoos. I'm thinking a nice Coca-Cola shaped "Woodwind" — after my childhood subdivision — would be a nice look. | | |
| Video: Dwight Howard KOs Glen Davis with an elbow
May 27, 2010 at 12:15 PM
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| The Eastern Conference finals turned scary late in the third quarter of Game 5 between the Boston Celtics and the Orlando Magic, when Celtics forward Glen Davis(notes) caught a nasty errant elbow from Dwight Howard(notes) after the Orlando center's layup attempt was blocked by C's guard Nate Robinson(notes). From the Associated Press: Davis was struck in the face by [Howard's] elbow, tumbling to the court as play went the other way. Davis tried to get up, only to fall again, and then was clearly dazed when he got to his feet. He took a few more steps, then staggered toward [referee Joey] Crawford, who wrapped his arms around Davis to keep him upright as play stopped with 9.7 seconds left in the period. Davis was tended to on the court for a few minutes, then walked to the Celtics' bench and eventually toward the locker room for evaluation.
Celtics team physician Dr. Brian McKeon diagnosed Davis with a concussion, according to ESPNBo! ston.com 's Chris Forsberg, and the third-year player out of LSU did not return to the game. (WEEI.com's Paul Flannery wrote that he also thought he saw Davis lose at least one tooth, which was later confirmed by ESPN's Rachel Nichols.) In postgame comments, Howard stressed that the elbow wasn't intentional and he wished Davis well: "I hope he's all right. He's a friend of mine. I never want to see anybody go down." How long Davis will be down remains up in the air. After the game, according to the Boston Herald's Zach McCann, Baby said emphatically that he'd be o! n the court for Game 6 in Boston on Friday night: "Point blank, I ain't speaking. I'm all right. I'll be back next game," Davis said before puzzlingly letting an expletive fly. "That's all you need to print."
The fact that he was less than two hours removed from having his brain knocked into his skull by a flying elbow might explain the "puzzling" nature of Davis' vulgarity. It also explains why, as McCann writes, when "the media horde crowded around Davis' locker, a trainer stepped in and said Davis wasn't in good enough condition to talk to reporters. The bright lights and attention from different directions are generally not good for a recently concussed individual." Despite Baby's stated desire to play, as Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski Tweeted last night, he'll still need to be cleared by the Cel! tics' doctors to be allowed to play Friday. The play on ! which Da vis was injured looked similar to the one that saw Sacramento Kings guard Tyreke Evans(notes) get hurt in March, after being on the receiving end of an Ersan Ilyasova(notes) elbow while vying for a rebound late in a game against the Milwaukee Bucks (hit the 0:41 mark). Evans also sustained a concussion, plus a bruised jaw, lacerated gums and a chipped tooth, and was sidelined for a five-game, 11-day stretch before returning to the Kings' lineup.  While Evans' injury wound up being more significant than it first appeared, Davis' looked bad right from the start. He seemed! to go limp before he even hit the ground; when he got there, his limbs seemed oddly locked in place. After getting up and attempting to rejoin the play, his legs looked rubbery and he had great difficulty maintaining his balance.
It was a disconcerting sight on a basketball court, the shaky aftermath of a blunt-force injury seen much more commonly in combat sports, when boxers (like Zab Judah against Kostya Tszyu) or mixed martial artists (like Chuck Liddell against Rashad Evans) receive a blow directly to the point of the chin, on what's often referred to as "the button." There's plenty of debate over why exactly a hard, straight shot on the button can so quickly turn out your lights — one of the more popular theories holds that the contact forces compression of a cluster of nerves that run behind the jawbone, with the shock temporarily short-circuiting your neurological system; another suggests that it's the exterior carotid artery being squeezed, temporarily cutting off blood flow to the brain. Whatever the reason it happens, it can, and it certainly seems like that's what happened to Davis. Though he didn't appear to get clipped with quite the same impact as Davis, Celtics backup Marquis Daniels(notes) also left Game 5 with a concussion after running headfirst into Magic reserve center Marcin Gortat(notes) on a drive to the basket with Boston trailing by nine points early in the fourth quarter. Daniels said after the game that he didn't remember anything about the play, according to Gary Washbur! n of the Boston Globe. The little-used swingman's status f! or Game 6 is not yet clear. | | |
| Create-a-caption: Frowntown, population: 2
May 27, 2010 at 11:30 AM
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| Is it just me or would this be the worst mid-90s R&B group ever? You've got the soulful, yearning Brian Scalabrine(notes) on the high notes, and the bad boy Paul Pierce(notes) way down low. Their album "Chillin'" would probably only sell 344 copies, but that's still more than Ron Artest's(notes) debut record. Best caption wins "My World." Good luck.  Previously, the Suns aren't smiley.  Winner, Riley: "Coach, you promised ice cream if we won"
Runner-up, indeedproceed: "Everyone took the season finale of `Chuck' differently. Some people were sad, some were relieved, some were angry or frustrated. The Phoenix Suns though, were just happy that it happened, and they were there. They didn't talk a lot on th! at Monday night. They didn't need to." Seco! nd runne r-up, Hoopster1688: "A shot of the far less popular "Mt. Sunsmore" in Phoenix." | | |
| Holy smokes! Zach Randolph might be in quite a bit of trouble
May 27, 2010 at 10:45 AM
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After an NBA career that's seen him play on four teams in nine years, be arrested multiple times and hoist one of the most hilarious air balls in history, Zach Randolph(notes) really turned a corner for the Memphis Grizzlies this season. He played hard, he played well, and somehow was a model citizen despite sharing a city with Three 6 Mafia. It was a pretty chill year for Z-Bo. But like they say, you can't teach an old dog how to not get! in trouble with the law. According to Indianapolis 6News' Jack Rinehart, Randolph's latest misstep might be a big one. According to a probable cause affidavit, a trusted police informant identified Memphis Grizzlie player Zach Randolph as a major marijuana supplier in Indianapolis, 6News' Jack Rinehart reported. Narcotics officers were staking out a suspected drug house on Indianapolis' north side two weeks ago when they pulled over Arthur Boyd, 32, soon after he left the residence, near 75th Street and Binford Avenue, police said. According to the affidavit, the Cadillac Escalade that Boyd was driving was registered to Randolph, and police found marijuana and ammunition stowed inside.
Uh-oh. Even more uh-oh, police followed information in the Escalade to a storage facility where there are four units rented in the name of Zach Randolph. In two units, there! were controlled substances, as well as four cars with hidden ! compartm ents, which I would imagine are not used for storing various maps and atlases. Naturally, Randolph has, through a lawyer, denied a connection to any drug activity. His attorney, John Tompkins, also states that the secret compartments are used for hiding valuables and that the Grizzlies will be issuing a statement supporting Randolph on Thursday. As ProBasketballTalk's Kurt Helin notes, this could be one of those things where Randolph has a hand in the operation while remaining so far removed from it that he can't be implicated. It's a sticky situation, and really too early for anybody to know what's going on, but this is definitely not something Memphis fans wanted to hear following their most promising season in years. | | |
| Behind the Box Score, where the Magic aren't done yet
May 27, 2010 at 10:00 AM
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|  Orlando 113, Boston 92; Boston leads series, 3-2
Boston fans, understandably, will be angry with this game. Why wouldn't they be? Two concussions, zero fouls. A few orthodox calls that didn't go their way. The first two-technical (two T's given in separate instances) first-half ejection that I can remember this year, featuring two of the most ridiculous technical fouls I've seen this season. Game 5 was a terrible exhi! bition by what sometimes can be a good crew. A great crew, even. But great crews can get full of themselves, and that's what we saw in Game 5.
Switching gears, anyone on the ready with a conspiracy theory can go stuff it. For the trillionth time, the referees and their union absolutely hate the NBA's executive branch. There is no love lost. To suggest that either side of that aisle could work in cahoots, would want to work in cahoots in any way, is to be ignorant about this league. So, stop it. There's nothing there. And understand that, yes, it stinks that All-Stars like Kendrick Perkins(notes), Glen Davis(notes) and Marquis Daniels(notes) had to hit the locker room early. And that the Magic — the defending Eastern Conference champions who had a better record than the Boston Celtics this season — just beat the C's by 21 points. Give me your Perk, his pick-and-roll defense, his dogged determination, his beatnik facial hair, his alto saxophone and his funny cigarettes. Give it to me. Give it to the Magic. Doesn't matter. The C's just lost by 21. Why? Because the Magic are stacked. I'm not going to try and call the rest of the series, Orlando needs to win its second game in a row in Boston just to re-grab home-court advantage, but this sort of Game 5 outcome should be no surprise, and it shouldn't be some sign of either a Boston letdown, or the NBA gone revenue-mad. It's just a win by a very good basketball team. The Orlando M! agic can defend like the dickens (the dickens, I say!), and the team's you-know-it's-coming, pick-and-roll attack can cause enough consternation to keep even the best of defenses wondering what to do. This is a championship-level team, it's been that way all year, and a pathetic blowout in Game 3 paired with two close losses (by a total of seven points) in the first two games of this series should not have altered that thinking too much. The C's? Yes, also championship caliber. Listening to the podcasts, I was about the only guy saying that in the third week of April. And they could easily hit the finals on Friday night in a comfortable 21-point win of their own. But I don't want to hear any hand-wringing on either end. This is the game, talking. Not some sudden movement. Game 5, itself? Orlando hit shots. Lots of loose balls and/or offensive rebounds led to stray plays, plays that ended with the Celtics losing their men after a scramble, and the Magic spott! ing up in the corner. About 130 points per 100 possessions for! Orlando in the game, right at what the Suns gave you on Tuesday night, and that's a result of the Magic hitting 3-pointer after 3-pointer. Thirteen of them, in 25 attempts. Think about that — 156 points per 100 possessions from that area; and not the point-per-possession mark that you saw from this team for too many games to start this series. This wasn't some good-luck streak in dancing school, either. The Magic moved and set down screens and made quick passes and quick decisions. They weren't scared of the formidable Celtic defense that they, truly, should be scared of. They just played the sort of game that had won them so many games in the past. Some of them over the Celtics, even. And, yes, the fawning is correct. Dwight Howard(notes) was fantastic. Changed shots, denied shots that led to extra passes that resulted in bad shots, too! k away options off of penetration and/or the screen and roll, and he helped limit options in transition. For the first time in this series, the Celtics were actually wary of his presence. They were assuming that he was just a footstep away. Probably because he was. Five blocks, two steals and 10 rebounds; eight on the defensive end. Twenty-one points and 7-12 shooting (both from the floor, and from the line) for Howard, who just kept his head down and dominated. Everyone else hit shots. Because the Orlando offense moved quickly and didn't allow the C's a chance to bend knees and settle, the ball was moving, the execution was loose but exacting, and all those threes found a home. Vince Carter(notes) (10 shots to score eight points) was useless once again, but everyone else hit from long range. Name 'em, and they hit. While domin! ating the boards by 17, and limiting the turnovers down the st! retch. F ive minutes into the third quarter, the Magic had turned the rock over 10 times to Boston's four miscues, but it was a six-to-three disadvantage for the C's to end it in the clutch. Perkins' ejection? Terrible. "Reports" out of Orlando have neither of his technicals being rescinded because he dropped an f-bomb or 12 after an either-way post defense foul, but after the rightful on-air evisceration that Eddie F. Rush received following both T's, the league has no choice but to not suspend Perkins for Game 6. No choice. If they don't rescind the technical, then Stu Jackson (already a joke and a sham as league enforcer, encouraged into a third job by David J. Stern that he doesn't deserve) needs to have an entire day of blog posts dedicated to his incompetence. Kendrick's absence, though unfortunate, was not the difference. Rasheed Wallace(notes) only managed two rebounds in 18 minutes, but otherwise he was white hot on both ends. Boston may have been better with Sheed in Perkins' place, and only Rasheed made it so his minutes were limited. Orlando's just that good. They're good enough to ... well, I won't say it. But you can understand it. And while you shouldn't expect it, you should be ready for it. A bit of history, darlings. In the meantime, we should have a hellacious Game 6 on our hands in Boston. The team's arena might not sweat the way it used to, but the whistle will be hard to hear, and lay-ups will be hard to come by. It took six weeks, but the playoffs showed up. Dig. | | |
| Did Kendrick Perkins deserve his ejection?
May 27, 2010 at 9:20 AM
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| With 36 seconds remaining in the first half of the Boston Celtics' Game 5 loss to the Orlando Magic, Kendrick Perkins(notes) got called for a pretty bad foul. He then proceeded to act like Kendrick Perkins acts after every single one of his 1,440 career personal fouls. Then he got a technical, his second of the night — see ya, Perk. Peep it. Immediately following Perkins' ejection, a lot of people rushed to call it the worst technical ever, and some even said that the refs had swung the series. Come on, guys. You get technical fouls for untweetsmanlike conduct, because Perkins may have deserved the call. As the NBA's rule book states, players are allowed "heat of the moment" reactions, so that's fine. However, they aren't allowed to "air punch, wave off or direct any other similiar gesture directly at an official." You could argue that Perkins' air punch wasn't directly at an official, but neither are the rule book's video examples. It's kind of ambiguous, but it's easy to see how an official could ma! ke the call. Furthermore, according to Hoopworld reporter Alex Kennedy, the Celtics' bench had just been warned by officials right before Perkins swore at the officials. So basically, Perkins' tech was textbook officiating — warning, player swears after a call, technical. It happens all the time. Unfortunately for the Celtics, the two technicals were the sixth and seventh for Perkins in this year's playoffs. Seven technicals means an automatic one-game suspension, plus another game for each technical after that. However, the NBA has reviewed both technicals, and the second has been rescinded, meaning Perkins is available for Friday night's Game 6 in Boston. I'm more than a little surprised that the first technical was upheld — the one caused by a slip of the hand and inadvertent elbow to Marcin Gortat(notes) — but then again, I'm not in charge of the NBA. As it stands, Perkins' next technical will result in a suspension. On the bright side, Perkins' ejection cleared the way for Rasheed Wallace(notes) to have an excellent game. Twenty-one points in 18 minutes, with two blocks for the bald-spotted big man. And with Perkins ejected, more Wallace meant more smiling. Stan Van Gundy may hate the guy, but when he's playing hard, he's fun for the whole family. Popular Yahoo! Sports stories:
• Soccer star's childish World Cup concern
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| SL: Magic are back; Kobe being Kobe; Brown's classy exit
May 27, 2010 at 8:15 AM
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|  Each weekday morning, BDL serves up a handful of NBA-related stories to digest with your Big Gulp.
Jarrod N. Rudolph, Boston Globe: On the strength of their 113-92 victory, the Magic pulled within two games of completing what would be the greatest comeback in NBA history, coming back from a 3-0 deficit to advance to the Finals. They know they still have a lot of work to do, but they've proved, at the very least, that if they lose the series it's not going to be because of a lackluster effort. "We've broken a lot of records over the course of the past few years," Jameer Nelson(notes) said. "We've done a lot of great things over the years and this could be the greatest thing of all, other than winning the championship. You just go out there and do it again, it's simple. You just go out there and play basketball. The one thing we can control is how hard we play. We can't control anything else as far as the ball going in, whether we turn the ball over at times when we're trying to make a play. The only thing we can control is how hard we play." The Magic have been a different team since their disappointing performance in Game 3, seeming more confident with a clear understanding of what needs to be done to beat the Celtics. Perhaps the Celtics — and heavy criticism — woke a sleeping giant. Perhaps the Magic are a team that performs better facing difficult odds. One thing is certain: They're no! t the same team the Celtics beat three times last week. "! We just believe that we can win this series and if we want to win it we have to go take it," said Dwight Howard(notes), who scored 21 points and had 10 rebounds. "We have to go out there and play hard for 48 minutes, put out a lot of energy and work extremely hard. We know what we have to do to win. The biggest thing is how we start the game and the half. That's been the biggest thing in this series; we have to do a good job coming out." Zach McCann, Boston Herald: If there was a question whether Glen Davis(notes) would miss any additional time after suffering a concussion last night, the Celtics forward answered it with a brief self-diagnosis after the Game 5 loss to the Magic. "Point blank, I ain't speaking. I'm all right. I'll be back next game," Davis said before puzzlingly letting an expletive fly. "That's all you need to print." As the media horde crowded around Davis' locker, a trainer stepped in and said Davis wasn't in good enough condition to talk to reporters. The bright lights and attention from different directions are generally not good for a recently concussed individual. It's easy to understand the frustration from Davis, who left the 113-92 loss in the third quarter after taking a Dwight Howard elbow to the face. Davis briefly lay on the floor before attempting to run and stumbling toward halfcourt. He lost a tooth in the process and briefly blac! ked out before teammates, with the help of referee Joe Crawford(notes), corralled him and got him help from trainer Ed Lacerte. It was a confusing sequence of events before everyone realized what was going on. "I know he blacked out on the floor," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "I was just trying to get him to get back down on offense at the time." The severity of the concussion is unclear. He will likely have to pass a series of tests before being officially cleared to play. "I don't know what kind of test they're going to do with Baby because he's a little delirious half the time anyway, so I don't know how he's going to pass a test," Rivers said with a laugh. "I'm worried about that. But I guess he's going to have to do something for them to clear him." Janis Carr, Orange County Register: The Phoenix Suns have been on the receiving end of Kobe Bryant's(notes) big nights before and therefore his 38 points in Tuesday's Game 4 didn't rattled them in the least. After all, the Lakers guard scored 40 points in the Western Conference finals opener. So the Suns' use of the zone against the Lakers wasn't necessarily aimed at slowing down Bryant. It presumably wouldn't have stopped him anyway. "The shots that he made, we couldn't do anything about," Suns coach Alvin Gentry said Wednesday. "We went back and looked at tape again today. He made five out of the six jump shots he made in the second quarter. There is nobody in the NBA that could have defended him, so we kept telling our guys to jus! t hang in, you know. That's who he is. You've got to understan! d that. That's who he is." J. Michael Falgoust, USA Today: The answers from Kobe Bryant after Wednesday's practice were dogmatic, even curt. Insisting his Los Angeles Lakers are not edgy, Bryant played down their preparation for the Phoenix Suns' zone defense heading into Thursday's Game 5 of the Western Conference finals (9 p.m. ET, TNT). The series is tied 2-2. Bryant averaged 37 points in the last two games, losses on the road, but his focus remains on their defense. The Suns averaged 116.5 points in their home victories. "It was a lack of execution," said Bryant, whose team averaged 126 points in its home wins before dropping to 107.! 5 on the road. "We just missed too many assignments." As puzzling as the Suns' zone has been, the Lakers have yet to solve it off their triangle offense, a read-and-react system that puts a premium on passing, cutting and moving without the ball. The collective play from starting point guard Derek Fisher(notes) and reserve guards Shannon Brown(notes) and Jordan Farmar(notes) has been inefficient against what Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry jokingly says is his "girlie" zone. "You dribble-penetrate when the situation calls for it, but our offense isn't really about dribbling,! " said Fisher, who shot 10-for-18 in Games 3 and 4. Brown! and Far mar had a combined 13 points on 5-for-22 shooting. "The zone is actually designed to take away the dribble-penetration," Fisher said, "or penetration even by the pass." Marc Stein, ESPNDallas.com: Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Dwane Casey, like former Mavericks coach Avery Johnson before him, has completed two interviews for the Atlanta Hawks' coaching job. NBA coaching sources told ESPN.com that Casey met Wednesday in Atlanta with members of the Hawks' ownership group after an initial interview last weekend with Hawks general manager Rick Sund. Sources said Johnson, who has worked as an ESPN analyst for the past two seasons since leaving the Mavericks in 2008, had separate sitdowns with Sund and Hawks owners ear! lier last week. Atlanta has not ruled out interviewing additional candidates and has also considered current Hawks assistant coach Larry Drew and Portland Trail Blazers assistant coach Dean Demopoulos in its search to replace Mike Woodson. However, only Johnson and Casey have been interviewed twice by the team since it announced May 14 that Woodson would not be receiving a new contract. Yet it remains unclear how soon the Hawks plan to name Woodson's replacement and whether they prefer Johnson or Casey. 
Dave D'Alessandro, New Jersey Star-Ledger: Now it f! eels like he's in hurry-up-and-wait mode. We're not sure what ! to make of this, but Rod Thorn said this afternoon that he'll begin interviewing coaching candidates in the next few days ("within the next week, definitely," was how he put it), and he'll probably complete his first round of interviews by June 4 ("certainly in that area") because he probably doesn't want it to run into draft workouts. Yes, he's sticking with his four-to-six figure. But now he says there "could be" a surprise. "I would say maybe — just maybe," The Boss said. "I don't want to be coy. I don't want to mislead. Just ... maybe." Either way, that's not the strange part. The strange part is, while he wants to talk to everyone by the 4th, that doesn't mean there are only 10 shopping days left. Thorn admitted today that it's possible that he could wait until July for the coaching hire. That leads to two interpretations: He's waiting for someone still alive and well in the postseason, or he's waiting to see what a certai! n free agent has to say about his coaching candidate. "It's possible," he said of the July timetable. "I don't think it's probable, but it's possible." Brian Windhorst, Cleveland Plain Dealer: Mike Brown made his formal exit from Cleveland on Wednesday by issuing a classy, if less than revealing, statement. But Brown won't be gone for long. Expect him to be back as the head coach of another NBA team — perhaps as early as next season. Brown did not elaborate on the circumstances that led to his dismissal as Cavaliers coach last Sunday, as many fans probably wanted, or address his future. According to those close to Brown, however, he is interested in taking another job next season if he likes the fit. They said he has already been contacted by at least one team with an opening. At first, Brown told friends that he may want to take! a year off. With $2 million coming to him from the Cavs, he h! as the o pportunity. Over the last several days, however, Brown may have changed his mind. Rod Thorn, the president and general manager of the New Jersey Nets, has already publicly praised the job Brown did with the Cavs. Nets new owner Mikhail Prokhorov has said the team is looking for a coach with NBA coaching experience. The Nets are one of five teams with openings other than the Cavs. As for his parting words for Cleveland, they fit the profile established over the last five seasons. They were concise and non-controversial, underscored by the fact that Brown released the statement through the Cavs' communications office. "The past five years have been an exceptional experience," Brown said. "I have been very fortunate to lead a group of men who I respect and thoroughly enjoyed coaching on a daily basis. At the same time, I was able to work alongside a terrific coaching staff and with Danny Ferry and a basketball ! operations team, all of whom I have a profound respect for." Phil Miller, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Charlie Garcia didn't bring any résumés with him nor any 8x10 glossies to hand out. But he kind of wishes he had. "I see guys looking at me like, `Where'd this kid come from?'" Garcia said after auditioning for a who's-who of NBA talent evaluators Wednesday at Target Center. "I don't think anybody knows who I am." That he feels overlooked is understandable. How many times did Seattle University, where Garcia averaged 18.7 points and 8.3 rebounds, appear on national TV? How many games did the Redhawks win in the NCAA tournament? How big of a ripple did his 41-point eruption against Wofford create? Exactly. Zero. "I'm an unknown quantity," he said with evident pride. But here's a revelation for all the Garcias of the world, for any potent! ial NBA All-Stars lurking on the rosters of Minnesota State Ma! nkato an d IUPUI and Prairie View A&M: The NBA knows you're there. "I don't think it matters any longer, the way it once did. Ultimately, you see the small-school guys," said David Kahn, the Timberwolves president of basketball operations. "It's really hard [to miss a player] these days." Ailene Voisin, Sacramento Bee: Bill Walton is one of the most interesting men on earth, or on any planet, for that matter. Men would say Mars. Women would say Venus. And for his next act, the Hall of Fame center/broadcast provocateur is dusting off his microphone, easing into his car and heading toward Sacramento. For those who keep track of Walton comebacks, this is probably his zillionth, and quite possibly, his most important. Walton, who retired from broadcasting two years ago because of debilitating back pain, and who weeks ago revealed t! hat he contemplated suicide at one point because of unrelenting discomfort, says he is "climbing back into the game of life." Fifteen months after undergoing innovative spinal surgery, he can stand again. He can sit again. He can sleep again. He can travel again. He always talked a great game, and so the next step, this next giant stride, transports him into the Kings' broadcast booth on a limited basis. The plan is to start slowly, to stay on his feet. Initially, he will work Kings broadcasts in Los Angeles and provide commentary while watching other games at a television studio near his home in San Diego. | | |
| Game to pay attention to: Nelson has to bring the Magic back
May 26, 2010 at 6:20 PM
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Boston at Orlando; Boston leads series, 3-1
The best possible distillation I can give you in the best possible way for the fools Magic to survive is the easiest distillation, and most obvious one. The one we've been banging on about, for quite a while, now. Jameer Nelson(notes) has to be aggressive. Jameer Nelson has to be on his game, after becoming aggressive. So, you have the determined move to the paint, and the sound pass or sounder shot to follow. Nelson has to be the straw that stirs the drink, every drink, or else the Magic are toast. Game 4 can't be the template, either. Because as big a role as Nelson played in that season-extending win, a healthy chunk of his late game point total came off of three hurried three-pointers in the last few minutes of fourth quarter and overtime, and one was badly banked-in. Nelson was working a 14-point, 4-11 shooting without those treys. With six fouls and six turnovers to his nine assists. No, Nelson needs to return to the sort of point guard we saw in just-about alternating games this season, and for most of his pre-injury turn in 2008-09. The kind that put enormous pressure on any defense. The kind that knew in an instant that "I have less than a second to get this 17-footer off, it's the best shot we're going to get in this possession, I better square my shoulders and jump as high as I can in order to give myself the best possible chance to swish it." Seems simple enough, but Nelson hasn't thought nor executed that way much recently. When he does get that window, that half second that great point guards thrive on to do something terrible to the defense, he overthinks it. Keeps dribbling. Doesn't fully commit to the jumper. Screws up the jumper if he does take it, screws up the possession if he doesn't take it. It's not pretty. It could be the difference, though. Last year the Magic beat the Celtics because Kevin Garnett(notes) wasn't around to guard Rashard Lewis(notes). This year, Lewis is sick and KG is sicker, so bye-bye about 15 points per game as a result. Where are the rest of those digits going to come from? How are the Magic going to make up the difference? They need to trade Rafer Alston(notes) for Jameer Nelson, the All-Star. Not Jameer Nelson, the sometimes-there-kinda-guy. It truly does fall on him. Because these teams are too ancient, in spite of Dwight Howard's(notes) presence, and not a lot is going to change from game to game. I still think them evenly-matched, so you can read into that what you want. Something like, maybe the Magic are owed a blowout. Maybe they're also owed another close win, as Boston enjoyed in Games 1 and 2. But only if Nelson acts like he owes it to himself to contribute in a way he's capable of. | | |
| Video: Steve Nash 'sits down' with Space Ghost
May 26, 2010 at 5:00 PM
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| When you're looking for the hard-hitting investigative journalism that only a former superhero can give you, there's no point in going anywhere other than the finest talk show host in animation — Space Ghost. Steve Nash gets it. In this in-depth interview, Nash and Ghost chop it up about all the most important topics: nicknames, being a short Canadian and the hallucinogenic effects of VitaminWater. Just your typical one-on-one interview, really. And yes, "Steve Nash the Nasty Nasher" and "Nashcar Racer Steve Nashcar" will be used as nicknames from here on out. (via You Been Blinded) | | |
| The 10-man rotation, starring Kevin Garnett's shoe moves
May 26, 2010 at 4:15 PM
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A look around the league and the web that covers it. It's also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren't always listed in order of importance. That's for you, dear reader, to figure out. C: FirstCuts. Kevin Garnett(notes) may be leaving adidas for Acta. He loves shoes that start with A.
PF: Posting and Toasting. Danilo Gallinari(notes) danced with two NFL players because New York is weird.
SF: TrueHoop. Without a doubt, this is the finest poem ever written about Goran Dragic(notes).
SG: You Got Dunked On. An Amar'e Stoudemire(notes) dunk mix is a good dunk mix.
PG: At the Hive. Tom Thibodeau will prob! ably be the Hornets' new head coach, unless some things happen! .
< strong>6th: Deadspin. Ozzie Guillen, Chicago White Sox manager, weighs in on LeBron James(notes).
7th: SB Nation. You just keep being you, Robin Lopez(notes).
8th: Cleveland Frowns. Hey, the Black Keys. No one cares what you think about the Cavaliers.
9th: Complex. The Top 50 Basketball Shoes of All-Time. I've owned at least 17 of these.
10th: Kanye West. Yes, please. Got a link or tip for Ball Don't Lie? Holler at me at trey.kerby (at) yahoo.com, or follow me on Twitter. | | |
| Just like his shots, Rashard Lewis can't keep anything down
May 26, 2010 at 3:35 PM
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As we've talked about before, Rashard Lewis'(notes) play in the Eastern Conference finals has been abysmal. After scoring a total of 15 points in the first three games in the series, Lewis bounced back with a whopping 13 in the Magci's Game 4 win. It's almost like him playing like a real NBA basketball player is advantageous to his team. A lot of Orlando fans — and every one of the team's head coaches — have been pretty sick about Lewis' play, and truthfully, it's been quite nauseating. It's almost like his diseased pla! y has infected the Magic, as they've looked under the weather for most of the series. Turns out that's kind of been the case, as Lewis revealed today that he's been playing through a viral infection this entire series. From the Associated Press: Lewis says he's been sick the "whole series" against the Boston Celtics. "Overall it effects you," he said after Orlando's shootaround Wednesday. "I've been throwing up. I haven't been at full strength. I've been feeling weak, my legs been feeling weak. I find myself getting tired very fast in the first quarter. You know, when you can't hold food down you have no energy in your body to go out there and perform."
Yeah, puking all over the place isn't the best preparation for a playoff series against a p! eaking veteran team. I can see how that might affect one's per! formance in a basketball game. Furthermore, that goatee probably smells terrible after a week of sickness. Yucky. While Lewis says that he's not trying to make excuses, he also says that if this weren't the playoffs he "probably would have sat out." Technically not an excuse, but almost. In fact, it kind of puts the onus on Stan Van Gundy to sit Lewis on the bench, which deflects the blame away from Lewis. However, it's commendable that Lewis is playing through a sickness, even if he's hurting the team. Even better, depending on the infection, he could spread his illness to the Celtics. With their old immune systems, a simple bug could spread throughout the locker room like in the movie "Outbreak," and in the process knock out all the over-30 players on the Boston roster. Take those guys away and Nate Robinson(notes) and Shelden Williams(notes) are seeing big minutes, which is a definite Orlando advantage. Well played, Typhoid Rashard. Very sneaky. | | |
| Louis Amundson, 'mathematicsized'
May 26, 2010 at 2:45 PM
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| Mathematicsized breaks players down to their bare minimums, then builds them back up. Confused? See here or here. Suggestions? Do the email thing. 
While he's certainly not as diabolical as either V from "V for Vendetta" or Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance from "The Shining," Louis Amundson(notes) certainly has that look about him. Mix V's face shape — well, mask shape anyways — and long, stringy hair with the eyebrows, crazy eyes and terrifying mouth of Nicholson and you have yourself a Louis Amundson cocktail. With a face that terrifying it's easy to see how the Lakers could let him get six rebounds in the fourth quarter alone. You wouldn't want him bursting in to your home, trying to blow up your Parliament would you? Didn't think so. | | |
| Mike Brown's phone number no longer rings Mike Brown's phone
May 26, 2010 at 2:00 PM
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In the dark ages of the mid-1990s only criminals, the extravagantly wealthy and Zach Morris had cellular telephones. Now, everybody has them, including your grandma who surprises you by knowing how to send text messages. With more than 260 million cell phones spread amongst 310 million people, not having a mobile device is about as rare as Amar'e Stoudemire(notes) making a 3-pointer. However, despite the proliferation of cell phones, and the fact that there are ! more than 7 billion phone number combinations, sometimes numbers get reused. I don't know why or how that could happen, but it does. And sometimes, if you're really lucky, you might end up with an old phone number of an NBA coach. FanHouse's Chris Tomasson has the scoop: Pity the man who has Mike Brown's old cell phone number. He is Rajesh Kumar, 24, from Delhi, India, who recently completed his Master's degree in engineering at New York University, and has been in the U.S. for about two years. He lived for a month in Cleveland in August 2008, when he acquired the cell number with the 216 area code that used to belong to Brown, fired late Sunday night as Cavaliers coach. [...] "I have gotten over 150 phone calls since (Monday),'' Kumar said Tuesday afternoon in an interview with FanHouse from New York. "I took a nap and I woke up and I had 37 vo! ice mail messages. I thought Mike Brown must have lost a big m! atch.&qu ot;
Maybe that's why it took so long for the Cavaliers to fire Mike Brown. Danny Ferry probably just kept calling and calling, leaving messages like, "Hey Mikey Mike, it's Danno. Just wanted to see if you could stop by the office sometime. No biggie, just hoping to, um, talk about a few things. Oh, and we found that playbook you've been looking for — it was under some old Larry Nance jerseys. Holler back youngin', woop woop!" Then again, maybe not. Since he's not a basketball fan, Kumar had no clue who this mysterious "Mike Brown" was. Like any sensible person living today, he took to the Internet. "After about a week, I realized he must be a celebrity,'' Kumar said. "I wondered who this Mike Brown was. So I Googled him."
Talk about a major letdown. ! Hopping on the Internet, excited to find out what celebrity used to have your phone number, only to find out it's an oft-maligned basketball coach in Ohio would seem to be a mild disappointment. Then again, immediately after finding out who Brown was, Kumar realized he knew just as much as running an offense as the former Cleveland coach. That had to lift his spirits. | | |
| BDL Hump Day Chat!
May 26, 2010 at 1:30 PM
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Let's eschew the jokes.
If you want a question or comment to show up in these chats, you have to get in early. It's like boxing out Jason Richardson(notes), a fine rebounding guard who pulled in six caroms Tuesday. Take it from Ron-Ron: You have to get in early. We want to answer every question. Every one. From a little after three until I cut the chat off, I answer a good 95 percent of the questions or comments you toss my way, usually only passing on the repeated questions, and/or the ones rife with profanity. The problem is, as the playoffs intensify, the draft comes around, and with free agency on the tip of everyone's tongue, there are a to! n of questions and comments to work through. And unlike other sites, we don't pick one in 20 and give you a good 30-question post to be sated with. I want to, intelligently as I can, get to all of them. So get in early, because by 3:30 p.m. ET or so, it's pretty well backed up until the end. Click the jump, see you on the inside. (Note: If your comment doesn't appear right away, rest assured, it shouldn't. Comments are moderated, but because we like you and don't want to limit contributions to a level that other large sites do, we'll try to get to it. It might be a few minutes. It might be 20 minutes. Chill out. Eat some papaya.) | | |
| 'Net reaction: Lakers vs. Suns - Game 4
May 26, 2010 at 12:45 PM
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| Oh my gosh, we actually have a series on our hands. Another win by the Suns evened up the Western Conference finals at two games apiece. KD went in-depth earlier, and the Internet picks up the pieces... Kevin Arnovitz, TrueHoop: The Suns are unusual in that Alvin Gentry doesn't install a traditional rotation. At the 12:00 mark of the second and fourth quarters, these five guys take the floor as a single unit. On Tuesday night, they ! dazzled. Dragic probed the Lakers' defense. Barbosa was decisive with his trigger. Dudley was his usual bundle of energy and heady intuition on both ends of the floor. Amudnson did yeoman's work up top screening for his guards (and snuck behind the Lakers' bigs for a couple buckets of his own). And Channing Frye(notes)? After enduring one of the most brutal stretches we've seen in recent years from a sharpshooter, Frye broke out of his slump with a vengeance. Kurt Helin, ProBasketballTalk: The chance to get out and run made the Suns the aggressors. Again. Phoenix made 22 free throws on 32 attempts, the Lakers were 7 of 13. The reason was not the referees, it was that the ! Lakers were settling for jumpers while the Suns were attacking! . Furthe r evidence of that, the Suns had 18 offensive rebounds. Phoenix also exploited Andrew Bynum(notes), who is clearly hurting. The Suns had Bynum's man — Robin Lopez(notes) or Amare Stoudemire — come out and set the high screen for Steve Nash(notes) because Bynum was not mobile enough to slow Nash and recover to his man rolling toward the basket. Stoudemire finished with 21 points. Kobe tried to take control himself, and he put on an impressive display of shooting on his way to 38 points (he hit 15 of 22 shots and was 6 of 9 from three). But late in the game the Suns started! sending kamikaze double teams at him to get the ball out of his hands (same with Gasol) — let anyone else try to beat them, but not Kobe. It worked. The Lakers took threes and missed them. Seth Pollack, Bright Side of the Sun: The Lakers are still the bigger team. Their other guys have shot the ball very well at home and they still have Kobe Bryant(notes) and Pau Gasol(notes) to carry them. But the Suns have shown continued improvement as the series has progressed and their depth should become more of a factor as the schedule now moves to an every other day affair. M! ight Kobe actually start to tire and shoot his team out of a w! in? Can Gasol and Odom manage to play at a high-level, given the responsibility they carry? Or perhaps, just maybe, they will be just a tiny bit satisfied having already won their rings and give the Suns just enough of an edge to continue this impossible Phoenix Suns run. I can't wait to find out. Matt Moore, Hardwood Paroxysm: The only point that anyone outside of the Phoenix locker room will believe the Suns can win this series is when the clock hits zero of a fourth Suns win. It's not just the enormous disadvantages the Suns face that they've overcome in Games 3 & 4 or the remarkable number of things they need to go their way, but like SSR points out, we've seen it. The Suns need for something very unlikely to occur in orde! r to win this series. In a game in LA, they need for things to go their way. The shots to fall for them but not for LA. The calls to go for them (and boy did they go for them in Phoenix) in Staples. And the zone to keep working. Dwyer mentioned that this series had a familiar feel to it, like the predictable horror movie that still scares you. But even with the win, there's still that familiar feeling with it. The Lakers simply proved they still are who they always have been. The amazingly talented, brilliantly effective, world-class team that only chooses to execute when it absolutely has to, believes in its own hype, and lacks any sort of true killer instinct against good teams. And they can and will still win in spite of that. The Lakers were foiled, not by a spectacular effort, or some extremely brilliant coaching adjustment. No, they were done in by a Zone defense and simple adjustments to their own overload defense. It's the equivalent of seeing Will Hunting str! uggling with a brain teaser. I'm not dismissing Phoenix's exec! ution, i nstead, I'm here to tell you they can play better than they did in Game 4. The Suns only shot 37% from three. That can go up. Stoudemire can play better. Nash can take over. There is more they can do. They likely won't, because that's what homecourt advantage means. If it does, then we'll really be looking at a different scenario. 
Darius, Forum Blue and Gold: [This] wouldn't be a fair recap if I didn't bring up the elephant in the room — the refereeing. For the second straight game, the Lakers shot less than half the number of free throws that the Suns shot (32 FTA for Phoe! nix, compared to 13 for the Lakers). And as someone that never likes to complain about the referees, I am a bit conflicted. On the one hand, the Suns zone was very effective at swarming Kobe and Gasol and forcing other Lakers to take shots — shots that were mostly taken from the perimeter. It's hard to draw fouls when you're taking jumpers. Plus, Phoenix continued their attacking ways from game 3 and went to the basket frequently with the results being a lot of fouls at the rim — not to mention the fact that the Lakers were reaching a lot on ball handlers, committing fouls that got the Suns into the penalty early in the 2nd and 4th quarters. These factors did conspire to limit the Lakers FT attempts while boosting those of the Suns. That said, I also thought that the Lakers did not get some whistles that I thought they'd earned when they tried to attack the basket or went into to the post. The Suns did get away with some reaching and grabbing that seemed to be a! foul at the other end at different times throughout the game.! That sa id, I DO NOT THINK THE REFS COST THE LAKERS THE GAME (sorry, my caps lock broke). In all seriousness, I do see both sides of this, but in the end I think that the Lakers just need to play better and find ways to get more consistent, good looks against one of the most active zone defenses that this team has ever seen. Eric Freeman, The Baseline: The zone was a hot topic throughout the game, but the Lakers' failures on defense deserve equal attention. They struggled to get to shooters throughout the game, letting players like Channing Frye (14 points on 4-of-8 from deep and six rebounds), Leandro Barbosa(notes) (14 points on 6-of-8 FG), and Jared Dudley(notes) (11 points on 3-of-6 from three) get hot off the bench after being average or worse for most of the series. With Amare Stoudemire following up his electric Game 3 with a more human 21 points (7-of-14 FG) and eight boards, the Suns needed all 54 (!) of their bench points to win this game. At the other end, the Suns zone did in fact confound the Lakers once again, with Pau Gasol looking especially out of sorts (15 points 6-of-14 FG) after approximately 47 fantastic playoff games in a row (note: not a real stat). In fact, only Kobe Bryant (38 points on 15-of-22 FG, 10 assists, seven rebounds) and Lamar Odom(notes) (15 points on 6-of-13 FG and 10 rebounds) can be sad to have had successful games, with Kobe continually bailing his team out with diffi! cult baskets. C.A. Clark, Silver Screen and Roll: So, we're right back where we started. The Lakers can once again be defended by playing 2 on 5 and leaving the other 3 guys open as can be. The Suns once again have a bench that can end a game in the 16 minutes they see together on the court. Channing Frye is no longer a liability. It was nice to have the Lakers play well, and with extended effort, for a nice stretch there, but it was apparently foolhardy to expect that to last forever. Now, they've once again let a team feel good about themselves, get into a rhythm, and feel confident in their ability to pull off the upset. The Lakers have been here before, and they've struck the up-and-comers down every time before. Momentum means nothing to them, which may explain why they are willing to throw it away so casually. But all the Suns need is one game in which their outside shot falls at a high rate, one game in which their comp! rehensive offensive power goes full throttle, in order to take command of this series. If the Lakers do go on to lose this series, and I still don't think they will, it will go down as a monumental embarrassment. Not because the Suns are a poor opponent, and not because it's unfathomable for the Suns to beat the Lakers. No, it will be an embarrassment because it means the Lakers were defeated by a [expletive] gimmick. It will mean the defending champions failed to display a level of basketball acumen that can be found at any local high school. The Suns have won two straight games because the Lakers have failed to properly destroy a zone defense. At this level, that is utterly incomprehensible. Brett Pollakoff, FanHouse: The Suns were winning this game on the strength of their bench play, and with the team leading 103-94 with roughly three minute! s remaining, a timeout was called, presumably to let the start! ers fini sh the job. But Gentry let the bench ride it out for another minute or so with Nash and then Stoudemire playing with the second unit against the Lakers' starters, and they held their ground to seal the victory. Phillip Barnett, Talk Hoops: The Lakers were just out worked on the boards in Game 4. There is just no reason that the Lakers should be outrebounded 51-36. It just doesn't make any sense. It just wasn't one Sun that was killing the Lakers on the boards, but it was a total team effort. Stoudemire had eight; Amundson had seven; Lopez, Richardson, Frye and Dudley had six; Hill, Nash and Dragic all had four. Of those 56, 18 were from the offensive glass, which they used to score 14 second chance points. Rebounding is a matter of effort, and the Suns had much more. Not surprisingly, this is the first time that I had to me! ntion anything about the Lakers collective effort since the last time they dropped two straight. | | |
| C-a-C: Put a smile on your face, make the world a better place
May 26, 2010 at 12:00 PM
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| Hey Phoenix Suns bench bros, why the long faces? If you guys didn't know — and the streamers and gigantic sign behind you should have clued you in — you beat the Lakers again. Mostly because you guys did so good. So cheer up. And Goran, if you keep making that face, it'll stay like that. Best caption wins a cassingle of Vitamin C's "Smile." Good luck to you. 
Previously, the Celtics get personal.  Winner, Mysteryyyyyy: "KG: And your mom said it was cool?
RA: Ya, she just said to bring your own sleeping bag.
KG: What about Paul?
RA: She said only one friend tonight..."
Runner-up, JeremyO: "Ray: Sorry, Paul, but I gotta give it to KG.
KG: Thats right! You know I do the best Charlie Murphy around!" Second runner-up, Mario C: "Ray: Kev, lissen, youi can't be talkin' bout the man's patchy beard. You know he's sensitive...
KG: All I said was, I got this marker, and you know, I could help fill it in.
Ray: Aww, damn, now he's pouting. Go make this right, cuz I ain't gonna be lissening to him whining all night." | | |
| Heads-up: BDL Hump Day Chat! later Wednsday afternoon
May 26, 2010 at 11:30 AM
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Phil Jackson looks concerned.
He shouldn't be. It's a best-of-three series, the Lakers have two to play at home, and there will be a BDL Hump Day Chat! later Wednesday afternoon. We're thinking 3 p.m., ET. Actually, we know it's going to be 3 p.m., ET. See you then, Guy Who Doesn't Want To Coach the Bulls. | | |
| President Barrack Obama endorses the Los Angeles Lakers
May 26, 2010 at 10:45 AM
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As we all know, President Barack Obama is a big basketball fan. Not in the literal sense as he's a pretty slender guy, but in the way that he likes basketball a lot and should consider starting a blog about it in his free time. No matter what you think of his politics, basketball fans have to admit it's pretty cool to have one of their own in the White House. And since he's both president and a basketball fan, getting his opinion on all things hoops is becoming pretty standard. He'll fill out a NCAA tournament bracket or shoot around with some players, and he's certainly down to take part in a lengthy interview with TNT's Marv Albert about the issues. No, not health care reform, silly, we're talking the BIG issues: LeBron James(notes) as a free agent and who will win the NBA Finals. And after giving a brief pitch on his beloved C! hicago Bulls as the top destination for LeBron, Obama offe! red his prediction on the NBA Finals. I've got to go with the Lakers again. I think [Pau] Gasol may be the best big man in the league right now. He's different from Dwight Howard(notes), but he's [got] unbelievable footwork, speed, savvy. He's playing magnificently. Kobe [Bryant] is the fiercest competitor in the league, and they've got what I continue to believe is the best coach in the NBA right now in Phil Jackson, so they're going to be formidable, and I think it'll be a tough series. Boston's a veteran club, but the Lakers are looking pretty good.
Hey, he's been right on basketball picks before, and there's a good chance he'll be right again. The Lakers might have hit a rough patch, but the interview obviously! took place before its airing during Tuesday night's Game 4 in Phoenix, so there's no way he could know that Goran Dragic(notes) would put Derek Fisher(notes) on spin cycle. However, if the Lakers do win the championship, Obama might want to reconsider having the team visit in celebrat! ion of i ts victory. Ron Artest(notes) in the White House sounds like a really bad idea. That thing has already been set on fire once. | | |
| Doc Rivers 'wouldn't be surprised' to see a player-coach again
May 26, 2010 at 9:55 AM
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|  Back in the day, player-coaches were a legitimate coaching choice for an NBA team. Bill Russell, go-to motivational speaker for young centers and also 11-time NBA champion, won two titles in the 1960s as a player-coach for the Celtics. Lenny Wilkens, second all-time in coaching wins, started his coaching career while playing for the Seattle SuperSonics. Those are just two of the many player-coaches in history, but they're pretty good proof that having a player coach a team can work out just fine for everyone involved.
However, since the institution of the salary cap, player-coaches have been basically extinct. Since coach salaries don't count against the cap, a team co! uld theoretically pay a player peanuts as a player, but tons of money as a coach. That's against the rules, my friends, and it's the reason we haven't seen an official player-coach since Dave Cowens in the 1978-79 season. Circumventing the salary cap isn't exactly street legal. That being said, the unofficial player-coach is alive and well. It happened back when Avery Johnson was being groomed to take over the Dallas Mavericks, and again this season when Lindsay Hunter was inexplicably brought back to the Chicago Bulls, despite a complete lack of NBA-caliber basketball skills. Doc Rivers, Celtics coach-coach, thinks it could hap! pen again. Celtics coach Doc Rivers was ! asked on Monday night whether he thinks the NBA could see a player-coach in the near future. "I know where you're going," Rivers said in his pregame press conference, as the question clearly referred to LeBron James(notes), who has held significant weight in Cleveland's front office. While Rivers does think it's a possibility, he believes that the player would have to be a savvy veteran and not someone in the prime of their career. "I don't know, it would have to be a veteran player, you know, not a prominent guy," he said. "I wouldn't be surprised to see it again."
Clearly Rivers isn't a salary cap expert, but that's no problem since he is a licensed physician who isn't paid to keep up to date on cap implications. But he's also probably right. As Tim Povtak of FanHouse notes, the majority of NBA coaching is getting the right mix of guys to play hard. And also clapping. Lots and lots of clapping. Find a player who can motivate his teammates and you have the makings of an effective, theoretical player-coach. But who in the NBA actually fits this mold? Who can inspire their teammates, keep track of substitution patterns and know the ins and outs of coaching an NBA game? A few names come to mind. • Jason Kidd(notes): The prototypical "coach on the floor." It's pretty easy to see him taking a step back from playing to coach a team. He knows the game and how to run a team. Plus, it'd keep some other coach from having him try to guard point guards he can't guard. Win-win. • Grant Hill(notes): He went to Duke so he has to be pretty smart. He also spent a lot of time on the sidelines, so he'd be pretty comfortable in that role. Also, he's like 100 years old despite looking no different than the day he was drafted. Everyone loves anti-aging secrets. • Ricky Davis(notes): Just kidding. • Rasheed Wallace(notes): Every player from all of Rasheed's stops in the NBA praises his ability to know every play from every position and his ability to get along with his teammates. However, you'd have to hire a second coach to coach after Sheed got kicked out of every game for technicals. Oh, and an offense where everybody just drifts to the 3-point line probably mig! ht not be that effective. Someday, I imagine, a player-coach will happen again. Whether it be some kind of perk offered to a free agent that they can run a team how they see fit, or as a way of a franchise not having to pay a head coach salary, someone will surely take the player-coach plunge. Or maybe I just like the idea of a guy coaching a basketball team in a sweatsuit. Bob Huggins knows what I'm talking about. | | |
| Behind the Box Score, where the Suns went and tied it up
May 26, 2010 at 9:05 AM
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|  Phoenix 115, Los Angeles Lakers 106; series tied, 2-2
I've never seen anything like it. Have you? If it weren't for fatigue, the Phoenix Suns would have rolled the entire fourth quarter with five bench players on the floor: Goran Dragic(notes), Leandro Barbosa(notes), Jared Dudley(notes), Channing Frye(notes), and Louis Amundson(notes). That's significant in and of itself, as that crew essentially turned the game on its ear in the second, and then the fourth quarter. The Lakers had an eight-point advantage in the first and third quarters, mind you, with the Suns starters milling about. But what got me the most, beyond the bench dominance or the fact that only tired legs led to Steve Nash(notes) and! Ama! r'e Stou demire(notes) (those bums) coming back into the contest with around four minutes left in Phoenix's Game 4 win, was the way Gentry uses this bench. It's been growing all year, but we're now at a point where Gentry is just alternating teams. I've never seen anything like it at this level. Usually, when you lean heavily on your bench, you leave in a starter or two. Usually someone that can handle the ball or set up a play in a pinch, and Grant Hill(notes) fits that bill expertly. Or you leave in a big guy, just in case a play breaks down, that can score. Or the hot guy, like Jason Richardson(notes). Or a two-time MVP, whatever. Or any of the starter! s that helped wrest 18 offensive rebounds from the Lakers on Tuesday. The Suns? They clear everyone, and bring a whole new five out. I'm sure this takes place in college, I'm sure there was some trapping unit from 1983 that I'm forgetting in the NCAAs, but in the pros? In the conference finals, no less? I've never seen anything like it. Five in, five out. And not only that, but on some nights, that second five dominates. Dominates their bench counterparts, or dominates a Laker team rolling with Kobe Bryant(notes) playing the best basketball he's played all year. Assuming he's allowed to see the basketball. I will start with the quibbles behind Bryant's game. First, he didn't see the ball much in the final quarter, and that's his fault as much as it is the Lakers' fault. At some point, es! pecially after watching Derek Fisher(notes) destroy two possessions in a row for Los Angeles, Kobe's going to have to start bringing the ball up. It's understandable that this guy is tired, that the Lakers have to save his legs, and that bringing the ball up allows for a whole different offensive set for Los Angeles. But if you're going to bring Kobe out to start the fourth quarter, as the Lakers did, then fatigue clearly isn't your biggest concern. You want to win now. And if you want to win now, you have to involve this brilliant, scary-great player in every possession. Even if he doesn't shoot, even if he doesn't get the assist. You involve him, and scare the piss out of the opposition. 
The other quibble? Because Kobe was so hot from long range (6-9 sho! oting), he didn't drive much, and only picked up four free throws all game. Not his fault, but with Bryant not earning fouls and subsequently not putting Phoenix in the penalty, the Lakers struggled to earn freebies (just 13 tries, just seven makes), while the Suns lived at the line again (32 attempts, 22 tries; 16 misses for two teams that usually don't miss that many). Beyond that, Kobe was astonishing. Giving us a little all-around LeBron James(notes)-action along with the outside shooting that James can't touch. Thirty-eight points (only missed seven shots from the field in 22 attempts), seven boards, 10 assists, just two turnovers, a steal, a block. And he wasn't enough. Because the Lakers couldn't guard anyone. Over 133 points per 100 possessions for Phoenix, and for a conference finals game, that's a monstrous number. The! only mark that usually comes close to that is when you see on! e white- hot team going against one that doesn't care — Orlando against Atlanta — but certainly not in the third round. But Phoenix had it rolling. It doesn't stand out as much as the Lakers missing yet another 3-pointer while Bryant doesn't get a look, up against that "vaunted" Phoenix zone. And it doesn't stand out because, let's face it, we're used to the Suns putting up big numbers. But this is a bit of a shocker, and it's the reason why this series is tied. Los Angeles, which improved considerably on D this year, enough to be ranked in the top three in defensive efficiency for a good chunk of the season, is giving up way too much on that end. We suspect a bit more Ron Artest(notes) in Game 5; we don't know who he'll guard, but we know he'll be around. Understand though, for now, that the Lakers aren't playing defense a! t a level that we've grown accustomed to, based on their fantastic play on that end for the bulk of the regular season. Too much penetration, not enough accountability in transition. Still, I don't want to hear people killing analysts for telling you that the Lakers are having trouble with the Phoenix zone. Sure, the team put up over 123 points per 100 possessions (around 113 per 100 leads the NBA) and shot 49.5 percent from the floor, but the Lakers are having trouble with the zone. The team put up just 22 points in the fourth quarter, because they're having trouble with the zone. Understand that anything less than a little penetration, two or three passes, and a high-percentage finish (either off the initial shot, or an offensive rebound) and score is a letdown. Because, against a zone, the Los Angeles Lakers should be scoring way, way more than they are. So 22 points in the fourth quarter i! s "having trouble with the Phoenix zone." Because th! e Lakers should be dissecting Phoenix on its way toward 30 to 40 points, and not acting as if they'd never seen the style before. The Lakers are having trouble with the zone because they're playing bad offensive basketball in the face of the zone, and not scoring at a rate they should for as long (48 minutes) as Phoenix plays it. Not sure how much simpler I could make this. And though the Lakers put up a ton of points overall, and despite the fact that bad defense lost the Lakers this game, when you can't concentrate long enough to execute well in the face of a zone like that for the entire game, especially that 22-point fourth quarter? You are having trouble with the Phoenix zone. I am not having trouble with this series. Despite each team trading off playing below how it should, this has turned into a fun one. Continue apace. | | |
| Suicide lines: Suns bench strikes again; Redick is ready
May 26, 2010 at 8:15 AM
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|  Each weekday morning, BDL serves up a handful of NBA-related stories to digest with your chunk of cheese.
Howard Beck, New York Times: "His jaw rotated and his nostrils flared. He cocked his head one way, then the other. He put his hand to his cheek. His picked at his ear, as if he were trying to brush away gnat, or some other irritant. Kobe Bryant(notes) was asked about his emotions, just in case they were not readily apparent. 'Jovial,' Bryant said coldly. 'Jovial.' This was the portrait of a superstar in mild distress, a defending champion leveled by the peskiest of underdogs. It was indeed a jovial night at U.S. Airways Center, but the revelers were all wearing orange. Bryant wore four shades of snarl after his Los Angeles Lak! ers buckled against the hard-charging, rocket-fueled Phoenix Suns. With 3-pointers sailing, their bench surging and their zone defense in full effect, the Suns toppled the Lakers, 115-106, and tied the Western Conference finals, 2-2. There will be no easy path back to the league finals for Lakers, no matter how many noses they break or how many times they dismissively shrug off their opponent. It is now a best-of-three series, with Game 5 on Thursday in Los Angeles. 'It feels great,' said Amar'e Stoudemire(notes), who led the Suns with 21 points and 8 rebounds. 'Our confidence is high. We feel like we got a chance to win the series.' Credit the Suns' resurgence from 3-point range, and the boldness of their bench. Channing Frye(notes), Jared Dudley(notes) and Leandro Barbosa(notes) combined for nine 3-pointers and fueled an early fourth-quarter surge that put the game away. Frye and Barbosa had 14 points apiece, and the Suns' reserves outscored their Laker counterparts by 54-20. 'You know, we're not the most talented team,' Steve Nash(notes) said, happily playing up the Suns' underdog status, 'but we've got depth and we've got to make that a staple of our success.'" Kevin Ding, Orange County Register: "When it was ! over, one of the overwhelmed Phoenix Suns who'd tried to shadow Kobe Bryant said: 'I feel like he didn't even miss tonight.' But Bryant didn't care what Jared Dudley said about him and didn't want to rehash his second consecutive stat-stuffing performance, because it again came in a losing effort. 'We've got to do a better job defensively, period,' Bryant said after the Lakers lost, 115-106, to fall into a 2-2 Western Conference finals tie Tuesday night. Bryant was grim-faced and called for a return to the team's defensive roots from the regular season when Game 5 tips off Thursday night at Staples Center. He said all the attention paid to solving Phoenix's zone defense led to slippage in the Lakers' defense. 'Get back to the basics of playing defense the right way,' Bryant said." Marc Stein and Chris Broussard, ESPN: "Los Angeles Lakers coa! ch Phil Jackson, meeting with reporters in Phoenix before Game! 4 of th e Western Conference finals, announced Tuesday night that he has no interest in a second stint coaching the Chicago Bulls. But Jackson also repeatedly passed on the opportunity to commit to a Lakers-or-retirement stance for next season and quash rising speculation about his future plans. 'I have no, at all, desire to go back to Chicago and coach the Bulls,' Jackson said, responding to an ESPN.com report from Monday night that the Bulls had reached out to Jackson through back channels to gauge his interest in a return. Interest in Jackson from teams planning to chase LeBron James(notes) in free agency is the latest wrinkle in James' highly anticipated foray onto the open market July 1, which is already dominating discussion leaguewide after Cleveland's second-round elimination. Earlier Tuesday, ES! PN.com reported that the New Jersey Nets had made similar back-channel inquiries to assess the possibility of luring Jackson away from Los Angeles to enhance their appeal to James, with Lakers owner Jerry Buss determined to reduce Jackson's $12 million annual salary. 'Those channels have not reached me,' Jackson said, insisting that he has 'not entertained any conversations' about coaching elsewhere. Asked specifically about New Jersey, Jackson joked that he'd like to 'have a vodka' with new Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, saying Prokhorov seems 'like a very interesting young man.' But Jackson added that he is likewise not interested in coaching the Nets, pointing out that he has never lived in Brooklyn or Newark. Jackson, however, said he couldn't go any farther than insisting that 'the probabilities are great' that he'll be back on the Lakers' bench next season." Jeff Zilgitt, USA Today: "The timing of Orlando Magic guard J.J. Redick's(notes) baskets was exquisite, just as important as the shots made to help keep the team afloat in the Eastern Conference finals. Three times late in the third quarter and early in the fourth of Game 4 on Monday, Redick hit shots, all three-pointers, after the Boston Celtics either took the lead or drew within one or two points. The shots counted more than just on the scoreboard. 'They staved off some of their momentum,' Redick said. Boston 'is a really tough place to play and a tough place to win! . Any bucket you get in the fourth quarter is good.' Redick, the only Magic reserve in double figures in Game 4 (12 points), was a major factor in Orlando's 96-92 overtime victory Monday that forced Thursday night's Game 5 (8:30 ET, ESPN). 'Big threes and he just played so hard,' Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said. 'You have those guys that have been with you a while and that you really gain a trust ... in their competitiveness and what they will bring to the game. And J.J. is one of those guys.'" John Reid, New Orleans Times Picayune: "For a brief moment in front of the Boston Celtics' bench Monday night, in a nationally televised Eastern Conference finals game, Tom Thibodeau was the only coach standing as he called out defensive sets. Since joining Doc Rivers' staff in 2007, Thibodeau has been the Celtics' defensive guru. He helped them win th! eir first NBA championship in 22 years against the Los Angeles! Lakers in 2008. Thibodeau's defensive strategy helped hold Lakers star Kobe Bryant to 40 percent shooting in the rugged six-game series. With the Celtics on the verge of returning to the NBA Finals again under Thibodeau's defensive direction, the New Orleans Hornets plan to offer him their vacant head coaching job by the end of this week. It is not known if Thibodeau will accept the Hornets' offer. The Chicago Bulls and New Jersey Nets also want to interview him for their vacant head-coaching positions." 
Ira Winderman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "The early read on the June 24 NBA Draft? Strong on power forwards, moderate on small forwards, lacking at point guard, with many centers who aren't exactly measuring up. Considering point guard and center set up as two positions of need, it only makes sense that the Miami Heat is scouring every available option, including a presence at a four-day tryout camp in Minnesota that runs through Thursday. 'I would say this draft definitely doesn't have the point guard quality of last year,' Heat Vice President of Player Personnel Chet Kammerer said Tuesday. 'This year, I would say fours would be the strength of this draft, and maybe threes. Some of the centers, it was kind of disappointing when the measurements came out, of players we all thought were a little longer.'" Brian W indhorst, Cleveland Plain Dealer: "The Cavaliers made one coaching move this week in dismissing head coach Mike Brown. But it was only one move. According to sources, the team did not let go Brown's assistants. That fact is not a formality, especially with the assistants' strong reputations and relationships with key players, including LeBron James. The basic reason the Cavs did not let Mike Malone, Melvin Hunt and Chris Jent go was because the team is looking to retain some stability and continuity over what could be a long process in establishing a new staff. That is generally a quality basketball decision, though firing some or all assistants with the head coach often happens in the NBA. Brown had several other members on his staff -- including veteran assistant Hank Egan and developmental assistants Bryant Moore and Lloyd Pierce. But Malone, Hunt and Jent were the men on the bench during games and the men with the heavy responsibilities. They may also s! till have a legitimate future with the organization. Despite the intense focus on having an 'all in' season, the Cavs' assistants were given contract extensions last summer and are all signed through next season." Ted Kulfan, Detroit News: "As he recapped his feelings on the past season, and looked to the future, Dumars kept harping on one overriding theme: They got away from it. Dumars, general manager of the Pistons, felt his team got away from being mentally and physically tough, two characteristics that have defined the organization. That, he said, must change. 'We didn't play with the same grit and toughness that we played with over the past 10 years,' Dumars said during his annual postseason meeting with the media. 'That's the whole focus right now for us -- to get back to the grit and toughness that's identified us for the past decade. That was just as tou! gh for me watching as anything, as how we lost some games. Tea! ms beat us physically and were mentally tougher. That just doesn't work for the Detroit Pistons.' The emphasis for Dumars this summer is finding players who fit his vision. And Dumars is adamant he'll consider anything to improve. And quickly. 'We're more committed now than ever before to maintain our core values,' Dumars said. 'We drifted from who we were. We didn't play with the same grit and toughness. I've never sat here and spoke of a three-year or five-year plan. You start thinking about what changes need to be made.'" Indianapolis Star: "Indiana Pacers guard A.J. Price(notes) underwent surgery on his left knee and will go through the rehabilitation process in Indianapolis. The Pa! cers said Price had surgery Tuesday to repair a fractured patella. He is expected to be out four to six months." | | |
| Video: Robin Lopez enjoys Goran Dragic's approach to basketball
May 25, 2010 at 10:55 PM
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| Here's a fun math equation: (Five crossovers + one spin move + one reverse layup) = 7 feet of ecstatic Robin Lopez(notes). Confused? Well, this might help. There's not even a best part of this sequence because the whole thing is the best part. It's impossible to decide whether Derek Fisher's(notes) abuse at the hands of Goran Dragic(notes) is better than watching Robin Lopez act like a crazy person. It's like choosing between a delicious bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and watching someone freak out about how good Cinnamon Toast Crunch tastes. That's a perfect analogy, and this clip is the perfect distillation of how much fun the Suns are when they're rolling. Oh, and if you were wondering what any of us normal people would act like if they were on the bench during an NBA playoff game, it's exactly like Robin Lopez. Maybe less hairy, but you get the picture. (via Jose3030) | | |
| Game to pay attention to: Suns tying it up?
May 25, 2010 at 6:00 PM
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|  Los Angeles Lakers at Phoenix; Los Angeles Lakers lead series, 2-1
One of the things that tends to draw a chuckle, since the Suns grabbed Game 3 of this series with a zone-heavy defensive attack, was the supposed way the Lakers were going to be able to adjust to the zone "after a day of practice." Yes, this is the stuff that makes me chuckle. No, I don't go to many movies, why do you ask? Practice? People, the Lakers knew what to do on Sunday. There's absolutely nothing that the Los Angeles coaching staff could have tossed their way yesterday or today that spurred them toward a greater realization of how to deal with the Phoenix 2-3. There's no doubt that the team went over quirks and options, ready for that floating D; but Phil Jackson and co. weren't telling this team anything they hadn't already heard. Anything they hadn't already executed. This isn't a long way of telling you that the Lakers, flush with knowledge, are going to romp in Game 4. Even if they make all the right moves, the Suns are a formidable opponent. What worries me is NBA history, and how us chuckle-to-crying jag-types are going to handle it. Because all the signs point to a heartbreak game. You know the type of series that I'm talking about. Home team takes the first two, takes them strong, takes them in a dominant turn. The underdogs score a mini-triumph in Game 3, giving you all the signs in time to tell you that they can hang with the favorites. Then the favorites win, on the road, in Game 4. Breaking everyone's hearts. Someone like Derek Fisher(notes) hits a shot, late, and Doug Collins acts like you've never heard of this guy before. Did you know he has a propensity for hitting big shots? His third make in nine tries, sure, but did you hear that one? How he saves it for the final minute? Gonna miss ya, Doug. Then we get the "one day at a time speech" from the losers, even though you know they're dead behind the eyes, they manage to hang tough in Game 5 on the road (giving you just enough to believe), and the favorite ends up finishing the game on a 22-5 run that gives them a 12-point victory and the series. It's out there. It's happened. Hopefully it doesn't happen tonight. In a postseason full of nasty surprises, here's hoping for a pleasant one that makes my dour retellings look archaic and far too pessimistic. Comment away, have fun with it. | | | | 
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Winner, Joshj: "Michael Rapaport is about to ruin one more good thing."
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