The fingerprints of rookie general manager Steve Kerr are all over the Phoenix Suns now, in fact, bubbling over with hot grease that has strangely taken on the shape of 330 pounds worth of Shaquille O’Neal.
Ah yes, the deconstruction of the Suns.
In the wake of their five-game playoff loss to the San Antonio Spurs, the Suns as we knew them are finished … virtually all the undoing of Kerr as the henchman for owner Robert Sarver. Coach Mike D’Antoni (232-96) is likely through, clashing philosophy with Kerr from Day 1 of this season, the effect of unloading Kurt Thomas in a preposterous trade to start the season, the dealing of Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks to Miami for O’Neal, and it all came to a head in a first-round knockout – the only time that has happened in his four-plus seasons as the Suns head coach.
It’s easy to point to O’Neal, the Big Cactus, as an even bigger target. He was presumably brought in just for a series like this with the Spurs – to clog the middle defensively and be a problem for Tim Duncan. Well, Duncan averaged 24.8 points, 13.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in the series. And point guard Tony Parker treated the lane that O’Neal was supposed to own as his own personal crash pad, averaging 29.6 points and 7.0 assists.
And on the offensive end, The Big Cactus was the Big Target, as Spurs coach Gregg Popovich took advantage of O’Neal’s legendary free throw bricks by fouling him continuously to disrupt the Suns whenever they did get on a run. O’Neal may contend he makes them when they count, but are we being presumptuous by saying the 32 he missed in this series meant even more than the 32 he made?
And while Kerr is being portrayed as the villain (how can the incredibly affable and bright Steve Kerr be a villain?), it all really started nearly four years ago.
You see, this whole thing was inevitable as soon as Sarver bought the team from Jerry Colangelo in the summer of 2004 and president/general manager Bryan Colangelo fled to Toronto in March of 2006. They were the guys that brought in D’Antoni, allowed him to build a new model of NBA basketball around the group of Marion, Steve Nash, Joe Johnson and Amare Stoudemire. They tweaked it with defensive additions Thomas and Raja Bell.
They created a new era of “fun-and-gun” basketball, with three consecutive Pacific Division titles, and other teams emulated what they accomplished. It took the NBA back to the 1980’s with a new version of Showtime, and rejuvenated flat television ratings for the league.
But Sarver began to break it down with a controversial sign-and-trade of the magnificently talented Johnson to Atlanta that brought Boris Diaw and draft choices. Sure, Johnson claimed he wanted to be the guy, but so did Marion and Stoudemire always complained about shots. That’s what coaching and being a general manager are all about. You deal with the egos, but at the end of the day, it’s all about performance and they performed at a high level for D’Antoni, the irrefutable NBA Coach of the Year in 2005.
They lost to the Spurs in the conference finals in 2005 and the Mavericks in 2006 … clearly knocking on the door. And then last season in the semifinals against the Spurs and the series tied 2-2, there was the controversial issue of Stoudemire and Diaw getting suspended from Game 5 for leaving the bench in the Game 4 Suns’ win when Robert Horry took a cheap shot at Nash that sent him flying into the scorer’s table. It killed the Suns’ momentum. They lost Game 5 and Game 6, setting up Kerr to take over the personnel department from D’Antoni and David Griffin.
The handwriting was on the wall at the start of the season when they dumped Thomas – a key figure for interior defense last season – and two first-round draft choices for a conditional second-round pick. It was about the last year of his $8 million contract, so wouldn’t that have been invaluable this summer? He was replaced by the much cheaper and less talented Brian Skinner.
The bigger deal came in February, of course, for O’Neal. D’Antoni put on a happy face for the trade, contending he pushed for the deal. And in some ways it helped them run because he added some rebounding. But Shaq didn’t help defensively because the big man never steps out on the screen-and-roll, which Parker and Manu Ginobili jumped all over in the series. He didn’t help the screen and roll with Nash on the offensive end either. It opened up the game for Stoudemire in a lot of ways, but O’Neal’s presence also inhibits others. It always has and always will.
So it pushed D’Antoni into a corner, often confused the brilliance of Nash, and now they’re done. We know this love affair between Sarver, a Tucson native, is tied with Kerr, illustrious alum of the Wildcats. And he owns the team. Well, so be it.
With coaches about to play musical benches – beginning with jobs in New York and Chicago as starters – it won’t take long for D’Antoni to start anew. It’s all a matter of how this is finessed. But with O’Neal 36, Nash 34 and Grant Hill 36 in October, this team has Stoudemire, Diaw and Leandro Barbosa to build around.
The bad news for the fans is the most fun team in the league to watch is history.
The good news for the Suns is Sarver and Kerr have a much longer offseason to figure out what to do next.
On the surface, this was sheer torture for Tracy McGrady and the Houston Rockets.
McGrady was brilliant for three quarters Monday night. Despite lacking All-Star center Yao Ming and resurgent point guard Rafer Alston, they were right there with the Utah Jazz – seeking a split of the first two games on their home floor.
But as is always the case, the Jazz pounded the boards, stayed in their face on defense and tormented them with offensive execution. The result was a 90-84 victory to take a commanding 2-0 series lead back to Salt Lake City for the next two games.
McGrady finished with 23 points, 13 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks, but had just 1 point in the fourth quarter and was clearly dead on his feet down the stretch. He got help in spurts from backup point guard Bobby Jackson and rookie Aaron Brooks. Actually, Jackson’s 3-pointer apparently tied the game in the final minute only to have it waved off on a contentious off-the-ball foul called on Luis Scola, with Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko accused of flopping.
And that was the end of that for the Rockets, who now have lost four consecutive playoff games to the Jazz dating to last spring.
Point guard Deron Williams led the Jazz with 22 points, while center Mehmet Okur added 16 points and 16 rebounds. Okur, Kirilenko and Carlos Boozer combined for 31 rebounds to lead the cause in a game so close there were 10 lead changes and 16 ties.
Despite McGrady’s efforts (16 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists in the first half), the Rockets couldn’t establish enough offensive punch to hang on to the lead even when they got it. Jackson finished with 18, Scola had 14 and Brooks added 11, but it was never enough. Even a pair of Shane Battier 3-pointers in the final minute of the third quarter merely served as a temporary tease for the Rockets.
In the end, there was little the Rockets could do and it’s only going to get worse now. The Jazz have been vulnerable on the road all year, finishing 17-24. But now the teams head back to Salt Lake, where Utah was an NBA-best 37-4 during the regular season. And with an exhausted and depleted Rockets team, this series looks over.
Sure, Williams has a badly bruised tailbone that took another serious jolt when Brooks flattened him on a screen, forcing him to hobble back to the locker room. Nonetheless, young backup Ronnie Price made big plays – including a clutch 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter – to keep the Jazz in order. And Williams was running the show down the stretch, doing whatever it took to keep the Rockets at bay.
The question now is whether the Rockets have anything left to extend this series beyond the next two games. They were losers in the conference finals to the eventual champion Spurs last spring, and the next two games will show how much the Jazz have matured.
If they complete the sweep, it will speak more of their execution – not of the battered Rockets – and they’ll meet the winner of the Lakers-Nuggets series. Meanwhile, the Rockets will just have to take it - drip, drip, drip …
Quotebook
Jazz guard Deron Williams on winning both games in Houston:
“It's great for us to come out the way we did and not settle for the one victory. We wanted to get both of them, get greedy. We've just got to go back now and take care of business.”
The stud
Cavs All-Star forward LeBron James just missed a triple-double in their 116-86 win over the Wizards to take a 2-0 lead in the series. James had 30 points, 12 assists, 9 rebounds, 2 blocks and a steal. In the two games he’s averaging 31.0 points, 8.0 assists and 7.5 rebounds.
The dud
Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas, also known as Agent Zero or Mighty Mouth depending on your preference, had more turnovers than field goals. Making just 2-of-10 shots, Arenas had just 7 points, 3 assists, 4 fouls and 3 turnovers in just less than 24 minutes. In the first game he had 24 points.
Statbook
The Cavs now have beaten the Wizards in eight consecutive playoff games. … Cleveland center Zydrunas Ilgauskas has averaged 19 points and 10 rebounds in the two games. … Wizards All-Star Antawn Jamison went from 23 points and 19 rebounds in Game 1 to 9 points and 9 rebounds in Game 2. As a team they are 60-of-154 (.390) from the field and 9-of-40 (.225) from 3-point range. … McGrady is 16-of-43 from the field and 1-of-9 from 3-point range in the first two games. … Battier took seven shots in each of the first two games, making all seven in the first game to finish with 22 points, but hitting just three in Game 2 and totaling 7 points. … The Rockets are 10-of-41 (.244) from beyond the arc in the series and 34-of-55 (.618) from the free-throw line, while the Jazz are 12-of-27 (.444) from 3-point range and 27-of-40 (.675) from the stripe. Not coincidentally, Yao is their best free-throw shooter and Alston led the team in 3-pointers. Yao is out with a fractured foot, but Alston is a possibility for Game 3, battling a strained groin.
Tuesday
Now we’ll find out just how serious the Dallas Mavericks are about regaining their mojo and competing to win the Western Conference. After having fallen apart in the 2006 Finals, and getting upset by eighth-seeded Golden State in 2007, the Mavericks blew a 12-point lead at New Orleans Saturday and seem ill-equipped to come back from a 2-0 deficit.
Tonight in New Orleans, the Mavs must deal with their demons and gain a split.
Also, the Phoenix Suns will try to bounce back from their crushing double-overtime defeat at San Antonio, and the Toronto Raptors must figure out how to deal with the Orlando Magic’s monster in the middle, Dwight Howard.
Mavericks (0-1) at Hornets (1-0)
Chris Paul was brilliant in the 104-92 victory, with 35 points, 10 assists and 4 steals to lead the Hornets, who also dominated the interior thanks to the 10 points and 15 rebounds from Tyson Chandler. And after a sluggish start, forward David West had 23 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks for the Hornets. Dirk Nowitzki scored 31 for the Mavs, but Josh Howard (4-of-16) and Jerry Stackhouse (2-of-9) were a combined 6-of-25 from the field and Jason Terry produced just 6 points.
Suns (0-1) at Spurs (1-0)
Clutch 3-pointers from Michael Finley and Tim Duncan forced the two overtime periods in the remarkable 117-115 victory in Game 1. Duncan had a game for the ages with 40 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 blocks. Manu Ginobili added 24 points for the Spurs, including the game-winning basket on a drive to the glass, and Tony Parker added 26 points and 5 assists. Amare Stoudemire had 33 and 7 rebounds before fouling out for the Suns, with Steve Nash adding 25 points and 13 assists.
Raptors (0-1) at Magic (1-0)
The Magic hit 16-of-20 shots, including 9-of-11 from 3-point range to take a 43-23 lead in the first quarter and never were really challenged on the way to a 114-100 win. Most of the reason was Dwight Howard’s intimidating 25 points, 22 rebounds and 5 blocks. Jameer Nelson had 24 points and 7 assists for the Magic, with Hedo Turkoglu adding 21 points and 6 assists. Anthony Parker scored 24 for Toronto and Chris Bosh added 21.
Lost in the wonderment of the spectacular individual performances from veterans Tim Duncan and Pau Gasol and the stunning upset of the Detroit Pistons by the Philadelphia 76ers in the opening weekend of the 2008 NBA playoffs, the other prevailing characteristic was the impact of the 25-and-under stars.
It’s tough to get past Duncan’s 40 points, 15 rebounds, 5 steals, 3 blocks and shocking 3-pointer in the Spurs' 117-115 double-overtime victory over the Suns. And then there was Gasol’s 36 points, 16 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 blocks in the Lakers' 128-114 win over the defenseless Nuggets. Then again, we’ve seen how special the 32-year-old Duncan can be in the playoffs. Not so for Gasol, basking in the glow of his first playoff win at the age of 26 after an NBA-record 0-12 mark in the postseason for the Grizzlies, who have never won a playoff game.
But another big story of the weekend was Chris Paul’s spectacular second half to lead the inexperienced Hornets back from a 12-point deficit at halftime to roll by Dallas 104-92. Paul, just 22 years old, had 35 points, 10 assists and 4 steals – emphatically proving that all the hype about his MVP consideration is well-founded. And his 25-year-old teammate, 7-1 center Tyson Chandler, also continued to lay claim as the top offensive rebounder in the game today, with seven of his game-high 15 boards coming off the offensive glass.
It went to an entirely different level, though, when the Sixers came from 15 down to upset the second-seeded Pistons to pull out a 90-86 win in Detroit. Front and center was 24-year-old swingman Andre Iguodala sinking three of four free throws in the final 11 seconds to clinch the game. But there was also the huge jumper from 21-year-old Louis Williams in the closing minutes and the early impact of starting forward Thaddeus Young, who is the second youngest player in the NBA at 19 years old.
Again, this is just a reminder to the older stars like Duncan, Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant that the youngsters are fearlessly taking a stand.
Sure, Bryant, Paul and Garnett are the top choices for the MVP balloting. But it’s ridiculous to ignore LeBron James, who had 32 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in the Cavs' 93-86 win over the Wizards to commence the playoff weekend. People forget that LBJ is still only 23. And then there is Dwight Howard, the 22-year-old center of the Magic. We can’t ignore the spectacular perimeter shooting of the Magic to start the game (16-of-20 field goals – including 9-of-11 from 3-point range – to score 43 points in the first quarter). However, consider Howard’s 25 points, 22 rebounds and 5 blocks – completely dominating the paint. He must be fifth among the MVP ballots.
And they’re not the only young’uns to play dominant roles. Deron Williams, 23, had 20 points and 10 assists to lead the Jazz to an 11-point win over the Rockets on Saturday, and Duncan also had point guard Tony Parker pouring in 26 points and doling out 5 assists. As hard as it is to believe considering he has three championship rings, Parker is still only 25.
So is Amare Stoudemire, who had 33 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks before fouling out against the Spurs. Also putting up big numbers in defeat were Carmelo Anthony, with 30 points, and 12 rebounds for the Nuggets; and Chris Bosh with 21 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals in the Raptors loss to the Magic. Bosh is but 24, ‘Melo, 22.
And even though the Celtics trounced the Hawks by 23 Sunday and this is the Hawks first playoff appearance this century, keep in mind that Joe Johnson is only 26, Josh Childress 24 and Josh Smith 22, with Marvin Williams and Al Horford just 21.
Granted, we’re only eight games into the playoffs, but already youth is being served as we approach May. The big games have only just begun, and you never know how well anyone will react as the noose tightens each game, but before we get to the Finals in June, at least some of the veteran stars will be worn down by the youngsters … and maybe even knocked out.
SEATTLE – The vote was 28-2, the pain runs deep, and is getting deeper by the second. Now that the NBA Board of Governors approved the apparently inevitable move of the Sonics to Oklahoma City, the reality is sinking in at a fast and furious rate.
This takes me back to that empty feeling my senior year in high school when it became official that my Cincinnati Royals of 15 years were moving to Kansas City.
There were villains then – Bob Cousy, for destroying the franchise by dealing Oscar Robertson and Jerry Lucas for virtually nothing. Do the names Flynn Robinson, Charlie Paulk, Jim King or Bill Turner ring a bell? I didn’t think so. Neither did the fans in Cincinnati. That’s why Cousy still resonates 36 years later.
Maybe it will change now that there are new villains. Foremost is former owner and Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz, who betrayed the city and its fans when he sold the team to a group of Oklahoma City led by Clay Bennett – refusing to allow any local owners in the group. Now Schultz is claiming the sale was breached by bad faith. Yeah, he should know about bad faith. The only reason he’s threatening a lawsuit is a publicity stunt to help his flagging persona and Starbucks stock.
Sure, Bennett is part of the bad stuff as well, but at least he did say in the opening press conference there was a year to get a new building in motion and nobody helped. There is also commissioner David Stern, who brokered the whole thing and had to know this was inevitable. And perhaps more than anybody, Washington governor Christine Gregoire and her flock with their elitist noses in the air are the reason the Sonics will be gone in just a matter of time. They’ve done nothing but suppress the process to improve KeyArena, let alone a new building.
Never mind the lawsuits filed by the city to have them finish the final two years of the lease, or Schultz’s pathetic attempt to stir things by his attorney. We can only say thank you to Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Blazers owner Paul Allen for having the dignity to respect the local Sonics fans by voting against the move.
Having moved out here in 1986 to become a newspaper beat writer covering the Sonics, I knew all Sonics history and the championship run of 1979 as an NBA fan from afar. So when I landed, it was important to engage with Lenny Wilkens, Jack Sikma, Slick Watts and the late Dennis Johnson from the era gone by. The Sonics were the first professional franchise in the Pacific Northwest and still own the only major professional sports championship in the Seattle market.
My first year, with coach Bernie Bickerstaff, the Sonics won 39 games and came out of nowhere to march into the Western Conference finals before getting swept by the Lakers on the way to their 1987 NBA title. It was Bickerstaff, along with president Bob Whitsitt, who latched on to the leadership of Nate McMillan, and the talent of Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp to start an explosive era that transitioned into an elite time when George Karl became coach and averaged almost 60 wins a season.
To this day, every time I hear the Nirvana song, “Smells like teen spirit,” I think of the Sonics coming out of a timeout … Payton and Kemp talking, with Payton’s jaw jutted out daring anyone on the other team to encroach. The characters that were Dale Ellis, Ricky Pierce, Eddie Johnson, Olden Polynice and Derrick McKey, linger. The workmanlike approach of Detlef Schrempf and the unflappable cool of the Big Smooth – Sam Perkins – was vital in their success. It was a special time in Seattle, one that culminated with a six-game loss in the 1996 Finals in the raucous and renovated KeyArena. They remained highly competitive for two more years, but ultimately, relationships deteriorated, Schultz bought the team and everything went downhill from that point on.
Now it has come to this. Sure, Seattle mayor Greg Nickels is clinging to the city’s lawsuit to enforce the final two years of the lease. Both Schultz and a class-action suit by fans based on being misled by bad faith could stand in the way. But with the belligerence exhibited by the local politicians for so long, do you really think they’ll turn down a financial settlement of, say, $80 million from Bennett to let the team go?
No way. And that’s why the anger and frustration has overwhelmed me. In other words, it’s time for Bob Cousy to wake up in the doghouse and make room for Schultz, Stern, Bennett, Gregoire and every member of the Washington legislature whose indifference has allowed this sad day to happen.
Sadly, the fans suffer the consequences. It just didn’t have to be this way.
While NBA big-wigs and their corporate partners froth at the mouth over a possible Lakers-Celtics meeting in the Finals for the first time 21 years, there's that other possibility they don’t want to see.
You know what I’m talking about … Spurs-Pistons.
Of course, everyone has their eyes on the top-seeded Celtics. It has been an amazing transformation after falling off the map for so long. This had to be their year. President Danny Ainge took his young roster and high draft choices, turned it upside down, shook it out and presented All-Star Paul Pierce with brand new teammates Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Girded by Garnett, coach Doc Rivers turned them into a defensive-oriented unit (2nd in points allowed, 1st in defensive FG%) and they’ve rolled to the best record in the NBA with ease.
And the Lakers have come together in stunning fashion for coach Phil Jackson. Obviously built around MVP-favorite Kobe Bryant, the return of Derek Fisher at point guard, the theft of Pau Gasol from Memphis in February, and Lamar Odom becoming the versatile force up front everyone expected him to be, they have weathered the knee injury to young center Andrew Bynum. With the Pacific Division in their hip pocket, they are on the verge of the No. 1 seed in the West.
Always lingering, though, is the potential rematch of the 2005 Finals, a defensive struggle between the Pistons and the Spurs. In this era of rejuvenated offenses, that is not high on the NBA agenda for postseason drama – particularly on the heels of the Spurs sweeping the helpless Cavs last spring. Granted, the Celtics have really been the best defensive team, but they are a fresh look -- especially with a popular superstar like Garnett finally on course for a legitimate shot at his first title.
In the West, all anybody has been talking about is, well, everybody. For virtually the entire season, nine teams have been on track for 50 wins and none will reach 60 -- that's how close it has been. Heck, the Warriors are going to be in the lottery with 48 or 49 wins. For varied periods of time, the Spurs, Hornets, Rockets and Lakers have held the conference lead and even today, only two games separate the top six seeds.
And yet the Spurs are the defending NBA champs, with three titles in five years and four in the past nine. Their terrific trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are still arguably as effective as anybody when healthy. Health has indeed been an issue because their depth has aged rapidly, and at the moment, their major concern is the groin strain that Ginobili is dealing with on a daily basis. On the other hand, young Ime Udoka has come on as a young version of Mario Elie with great toughness on the defensive end and clutch shots. Plus they received the gift of veteran Kurt Thomas from Seattle at mid-season for depth up front defensively, rebounding and a deadly mid-range game. Clearly, their consistency and ability to turn up the heat defensively down the stretch will be a factor come playoff time.
The same goes in the East. Despite the omnipotence of the Celtics over the past six months, the Pistons still loom. They've made six straight Eastern Conference finals, twice winning the conference. They won the 2004 NBA title. Although they have not seriously threatened the Celtics for the top seed for months, they still enter these final days with the second-best record in the league for coach Flip Saunders. They still have Mr. Big Shot - Chauncey Billups – running the point, with Rip Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, Tayshaun Prince and Antonio McDyess forming the most experienced and consistent starting lineup in either conference.
The question is whether or not reduced minutes across the board and more production from the bench this season will prevent the postseason burnout the Pistons have suffered the past few seasons. Billups, in particular, hasn’t been as sharp, and were it not for the broken hand suffered by top draft choice Rodney Stuckey during the exhibition season that set him back significantly, Billups would have been even fresher. Still, Stuckey has come on strong late as both a backup point and shooting guard, while Jason Maxiell and Jarvis Hayes have also been solid contributors all season. Youngsters Aaron Afflalo and Amir Johnson also play, although not as consistently, and can help in the long run.
What we won’t know until it happens is how deep Saunders will go into his bench for the long playoff haul because if we’ve learned anything about these guys the past couple of years it’s been that they did get tired and became vulnerable late in the second round. That has been the issue since he became coach in 2005, but there are plenty of people who believe they’ve still got the goods to halt the Celtics' march.
And even if the Spurs look old and slow so often, particularly against the Lakers and Suns, they are still in the foreground as that mountain that must be climbed before reaching the next level.
So while the NBA front office, the networks and a large portion of the sentimental NBA fans would love to see the Celtics and Lakers back at it again to rekindle history, the Spurs and Pistons haven’t left the building … yet.
In a strange convergence of sorts, perhaps the NBA schedule had history and poetic justice in mind for what might be the death march for the Seattle SuperSonics franchise.
As the final three weeks ticked down of the worst season in the 41-year history of the franchise (19-62 going into Wednesday’s merciful regular season finale at Golden State), there was plenty of sentiment and tradition on display. All that Sunday night’s 99-95 win over the Dallas Mavericks lacked was Elton John stopping by KeyArena on the way back from his concert at Washington State University to play “Funeral For a Friend” after the final buzzer.
A near sellout crowd watched what could have been the final NBA game ever in KeyArena, with plenty of people involved in the storied Sonics past on hand, although the key proponents of moving the team to Oklahoma City – owner Clay Bennett, NBA commissioner David Stern and the man who sold them down the river to Bennett, Howard Schultz – were nowhere to be found.
Even at 19, the Sonics one bright spot for the season, Kevin Durant, bemoaned the prospects, hopeful that perhaps winning the rookie of the year would be more than just the final honor for this franchise in Seattle. It would leave something for the history of the franchise and the city, something that has meant a lot to him as a rookie and a fan of the NBA growing up.
“I’d be upset about leaving Seattle, but we can’t doanything about it,” Durant said. “We’ve got to play regardless, so today, if they say we’re going to Oklahoma, I guess we’ve got to pack up and go. I always knew what the Sonics were about. Every team I’ve played for I know what happened before – that kind of paved the way for guys like me to come through. Seattle is a legendary city (in the NBA) and a great city to play in, and it would be tough to leave here. If I bring back rookie of the year, that would mean a lot for our team more than myself. To bring that back would be a ray of light for the Seattle SuperSonics."
A quartet of fans decked out in striped prison garb bearing the letter, “OKC, Bennett, Stern and $chultz” was making a lot of noise in one section. The biggest cheer until the Sonics closed out the game with a 10-0 run came when future Hall-of-Famer Gary Payton was recognized midway through the second quarter with a standing ovation.
And when the clock ticked down the final seconds of the game, the scoreboard flashed the face of legendary gunner Fred Brown seated courtside – he of the recent press conference recently presenting a pie-in-the-sky $1 billion complex around a basketball/hockey arena on Puget Sound without a site or money – which is the glaring problem from Stern’s perspective.
Over the last three weeks, the Sonics' wins over the Trail Blazers, Nuggets and the Mavericks have come loaded with incredulous Seattle supporters on the other side.
The Blazers are coached by the man dubbed “Mr. Sonic,” Nate McMillan, who spent the first 19 years of his 22-year NBA career as a player and coach of the Sonics. The success of the Sonics averaging nearly 60 wins during a six-year span in the 1990s was built around Payton, Shawn Kemp and coached by Nuggets coach George Karl. And on this particular Sunday, there stood coach Avery Johnson, who entered the NBA in 1988 as an undrafted free agent rookie signed by the Sonics. He hasn’t left the NBA since, playing 16 years and spending the past three-plus as a coach, becoming the fastest head coach in league history to win 150 games.
“This is really pretty emotional for me knowing that maybe if it had not been for Seattle maybe I wouldn’t be here doing this interview because I had a chance to enter the NBA here 20 years ago,” Johnson said. “And to see and hear all the things going on with the team about possibly moving doesn’t really sit well with me. They have been here for (41) years, obviously had a championship here. I would sure hope that one way or another, that an NBA team one way or another would always have a home here.”
Ironically, because Bennett has so stripped the team of Sonics lore, it has been the opponents better suited to be involved in the history. Karl wore his beloved hand-painted “Space Needle” tie while his Nuggets lost last week in overtime. McMillan went off on a tangent discussing all the reasons why the Sonics shouldn’t leave, while lamenting the business aspect of the game.
“It's just hard to believe that you just drop a franchise and move it,” McMillan said. “And (especially) one that's had as much success as Seattle has had. Since I've been involved in the NBA, and even when I started watching basketball as a young person, the SuperSonics were part of the NBA. So all my life they've been a part of the league. And now, all of a sudden, talking about this organization moving? It's still hard for me to believe that it's going to happen, even though it really sounds like it.”
He knows this is all about money and power. So does Payton, who unofficially retired after last season with the Miami Heat. He came to the game Sunday to show support, and said he was willing to share his financial resources and contacts should somebody ask.
“I can’t even imagine myself if they wanted to retire my jersey for me to even try to go to Oklahoma City,” said Payton, franchise’s all-time leader in points, assists and steals in his 12-plus seasons in Seattle. “That ain’t where I played basketball at. That ain’t where I made my name at. I made my name here. I had great fan support to become the kind of basketball player I was. I can’t imagine that and I’m not really thinking about that. After 41 years, it’s told me a lot. We’ve got to think about coming up with a solution to keep the team here and I’m down for whatever to help make that happen.”
On and on they went Sunday night. Former Sonics player and coach Paul Westphal, shaking his head in disbelief before the game … “What a great city Seattle is. I can’t imagine the NBA without Seattle … it is ridiculous. I can understand any owner has to maximize his profit potential in order to compete I’m sure there is a legitimate argument. But as far as the aesthetics of KeyArena for a basketball game, it’s a great place and the basketball fans here are unbelievable. It just seems that a city of this caliber with the financial possibilities there are that something should be worked out.”
Mavs assistant coaches Brad Davis and Mario Elie remember playing basketball here for other teams, so much of it because the fans and the building were always so raucous. “I vividly remember the wars coming in here in the playoffs with both the Rockets and Warriors. All I can remember is when Shawn Kemp dunked – you heard thunder for the “Reign Man” in KeyArena. It isn’t like there hasn’t been great support for this team all the years I’ve been in the NBA. It’s just sad.”
But the man who may have some say in the matter before it’s all over is Mark Cuban, the always vocal owner of the Mavericks who went on record Sunday saying he will vote against the move when the NBA Board of Governors convene at the end of this coming week. He talked about how the NBA often does things just to be doing them, chastising the obviously mistaken move of the Grizzlies from Vancouver to Memphis as a perfect example while allowing for the simple fact that since it is Bennett’s team, he has the right to try. He also knows the impact having a man like Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who made a pitch to help renovate KeyArena and buy the team from Bennett, would have on the NBA Board of Governors
“I’ll do what I can to help keep it here… it’s not over until it’s over, so we’ll see,” Cuban said. “I just finally saw some numbers and I’ll vote against it for sure. I just think it’s about Seattle vs. Oklahoma for the NBA, and I don’t think there’s any question after seeing the numbers that it’s Seattle. The only certainty that I have is (the team should be) in Seattle. Would I like to see Steve Ballmer involved in the NBA? Absolutely, positively … he’s crazier than I am, and smarter than I am and he’s got more money than I do and those are all great things for the NBA.
“There’s an equity value of (41) years from a team that you can’t quantify when you discuss a move that has real economic value. When we look at relocation - as best as I can tell - we ask, ‘Is (Oklahoma City) capable as opposed to the best choice?’ I’m standing up and saying I don’t think it’s the best choice. I’m saddened. I’m not perplexed because I’ve been in the NBA eight years now and … welcome to the NBA. That’s why I get in so much trouble because we just do things just to do them sometimes. To me my job as an NBA partner and a member of the Board of Governors is to give feedback on what I think is the best for the NBA. To me what’s best for the NBA looking from every variable is to keep the team in Seattle.”
We’re heading into the final six days of the NBA regular season and the fog is beginning to clear.
What we know for sure is the top three seeds in the East are set, with the Celtics guaranteed the top seed through the Finals if they get there, with the Pistons locked into the second seed and the Magic at No. 3. It’s the 4-5 matchup – always the best one anyway – that starts getting a bit dicey.
The Cavs have lost five of their last eight games, LeBron James is playing with a strained back, and their lead has dwindled to two games over the rapidly getting healthy and hot Wizards, who have won three of four upon the return of Gilbert Arenas – although he sat out the middle game since it was a back-to-back. The defending Eastern Conference champion Cavs have eliminated the Wizards in the first round of the past two seasons, a sweep last year and a seven-game thriller in 2006.
It won’t be easy for the Wizards to gain home-court, however, considering the Cavs have a two-game lead, but Washington does have the tie-breaker by virtue of a better conference record. The Wiz play at Detroit, followed by the Sixers and Pacers coming in to town, and they finish the season at Orlando. The Cavs are at Chicago, play host to the Heat, travel to Philly, and end the season at home with the Pistons.
The other tough one is the Pacers trying to catch the Hawks for the final playoff spot with a two-game deficit as well. The Pacers did win the season series for the tie-breaker, but they play at Philadelphia, play host to Charlotte and travel to Washington before ending the season at home with the woeful Knicks.
But the West has been more interesting all along with the top and bottom of the playoff chart still not settled. Just 2.5 games separate the top six teams, and it’s impossible to really dissect how much seeds matter because they all have winning records on the road except Utah. Despite having clinched the Northwest Division, the Jazz has a worse record than both the Rockets and Suns, which would cost them the home-court advantage in any meeting. And that’s particularly significant in their case when you consider they have the best home record of any team at 35-4, but are 17-23 on the road, and no team with a losing road record during the regular season has ever won an NBA title.
It didn’t help that they lost at Dallas Thursday night on Dirk Nowitzki’s 3-pointer with less than a second left. That game clinched a playoff spot for the Mavs, who have rebounded from a horrid slump to win three in a row and four of five – three of those wins against the top tier of the West – since Nowitzki returned from a sprained ankle and strained knee. So that’s seven teams, with the eighth team slowly coming into view.
It was just two weeks ago the Warriors battered the Mavs, Nowitzki was down for an undetermined period of time and they appeared to have the seventh spot sewn up. Since then, it’s been straight downhill – losing four of six to and falling to ninth - the capper coming last night in Oakland. The Nuggets came from 17 down in the first quarter and pulled away late for a nine-point win behind their All-Stars Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony, with explosive bench-gunner J.R. Smith the X-factor once again. The win gave the Nuggets a one-game lead for the eighth seed and the series tie-breaker over the Warriors with three to play.
The Nuggets (17-22 on the road) travel to Utah Saturday, then finish up at home with the Rockets and toothless Grizzlies.
As for the Warriors, coming just a year after making the playoffs for the first time in 13 years and pulling off one of the biggest upsets in NBA history when they knocked off the top-seeded Mavs, they are in trouble. Captain Stephen Jackson, so vital all season averaging better than 20 points, has fallen off the map during the past six games. Jackson has averaged just 11.0 points in the tailspin, shooting just .289 (22-of-76) from the field and .206 (7-of-34) from 3-point range. Besides, to go along with 4.1 assists, he’s averaging 3.0 turnovers. Fortunately for the Warriors, two of the last three are at home against the Clippers and Sonics, but in between they play Phoenix.
Are they about to be the best team record in history to not qualify for the playoffs?
It may look that way, but rarely has there been an NBA season where appearances have been more deceiving – remember, it was just last week the Nuggets scored 147 points and lost to the 18-win Sonics. All we know for sure is by Wednesday night, this will all be settled.
Logic says the Celtics and the Pistons are on a collision course for the East finals, but there is no logic when it comes to the West, where all the teams – including the defending champion Spurs – are flawed to a certain extent.
And that’s why just the concept of the playoffs beginning a week from Saturday is stirring … particularly in the West, any of the five or six have a shot at winning it. As everybody knows, it’s all about the matchups.
Nobody would be so bold as to say the Mavericks are back in the hunt in the Western Conference. That might even be borderline delusional considering their season. But 2½ weeks after Dirk Nowitzki went crashing to the American Airlines Center floor writhing in the pain of a high ankle sprain and strained knee, they’re far from the anticipated fall from grace into the lottery as so many anticipated.
You might even say the injury galvanized the team.
Taking it to another level, Nowitzki coming back after missing just four games and leading them to a 3-1 burst has shut everyone up about his lacking toughness and leadership. Playing on one leg, he’s averaged 22 points and 8.3 rebounds, and that includes an 11-point performance against Seattle in a game he was needed for only 26 minutes.
OK, they’ve slid out of the home-court race and are essentially locked into the seventh seed. Nonetheless, a lot of things have happened during these past eight games that have changed the Mavericks from a team that allegedly panicked by trading depth and youth for aging Hall of Fame point guard Jason Kidd.
Most important, they started beating good teams. Nowitzki surprised everyone by coming back on April 2 against the arch-nemesis Warriors and sparking a 25-point blowout. Two days later, they had the Lakers on the ropes in the Staples Center – primarily due to Nowitzki’s brilliant 27 points on 13-of-19 shooting – only to suffer a defensive collapse down the stretch in a tough four-point loss. Then they pulled an about face on Sunday at Phoenix, with Nowitzki scoring 32 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in a 105-98 win.
It’s been more than just him, though. During this 3-1 run (5-3 since the injury overall), coach Avery Johnson has been more inclined to let the team play – with Kidd at the helm – than micromanage as he so often does down the stretch of games. Johnson is so intense and strong-willed that it has often unsettled the team. Plus he hadn’t allowed Kidd to use his instincts to run the team – which is why they got him in the first place.
Over these past eight games, Kidd has averaged 12.3 points, 10.4 assists, 6.6 rebounds and 2.9 steals. An even better example of his growing confidence is his always erratic shooting, which has stabilized to 43 percent from the field and 83 percent from the free throw line (plus a stunning 50 percent (12-of-24) from 3-point range).
Also coming to life have been Josh Howard and Jason Terry. Howard averaged 30.8 points during the four games without Nowitzki and 26.9 during the eight-game stretch, while Terry has 22.5 points and 4.8 assists since Nowitzki’s return, shooting 57 percent from the field in the process. They’ve learned that third-year forward Brandon Bass is more than just a body to throw into the game, scoring in double-figures three times in the eight games and in the last two averaging 16 points on 67 percent shooting.
Now that they’ve gotten over the hump, it will get serious Thursday night with the Jazz coming in. It means a lot for both teams, considering the Jazz have lost 10 of their last 12 in the American Airlines Center and still have to prove they are a worthy road team going into the playoffs. This is another test for Kidd with only two wins against plus-.500 teams since he joined the Mavericks in February in what should be a super matchup against young point guard Deron Williams … who often looks remarkably like a young Kidd.
After that, the Mavs head to the Pacific Northwest against a battered Portland club and the pathetic Sonics again before finishing the regular season at home against the Hornets.
There are no guarantees at this point, although short of a complete collapse their two-game lead over the Nuggets and Warriors certainly appears secure considering the uneven play of those two teams. And it really doesn’t matter who they play in the first round. They’ll be just happy to be there and flying under the radar for a change.
It might even set the stage for a first-round upset, and wouldn’t that be a strange turn of events for this crew?
The complaints are already pouring in now that the 2008 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class of seven has been named.
And because the inductions are based on the vote from a bizarre honors committee, politics and inconsistencies always abound. Nonetheless, the group that is led by Pat Riley, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Adrian Dantley, Cathy Rush, BLEEP Vitale and Bill Davidson now conBLEEPuously takes its place in Springfield amid the rest of basketball greats.
Of course, I’ve got my issues, if only because Chris Mullin, Don Nelson and Dennis Johnson are blatant omissions from this list. We’ll get to that later.
It is fitting that Olajuwon and Ewing received the honor in the same year considering how they waged battle as two of the three top centers of the era (along with David Robinson) -- the highlight coming in the 1994 NBA Finals when the Olajuwon’s Rockets ousted Ewing’s Knicks in seven games.
Olajuwon was clearly the more pure athlete, with uncommon quickness and agility from the day he walked onto the University of Houston campus as a 17-year-old freshman from Lagos, Nigeria. He and Clyde Drexler were the cornerstones of the Phi Slama Jama team coached by Guy Lewis. They went to the Final Four three times, with Olajuwon winning the NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award in 1983 when they lost in the thrilling championship game to Jim Valvano’s North Carolina State Wolfpack and then again in 1984 to Ewing's Georgetown squad. From there Olajuwon became an unstoppable force with the Houston Rockets. With his “Dream Shake” spins on the baseline on the offensive end and his prowess on defense (he's the all-time NBA shot-blocking leader and steals leader among centers), the Rockets won two NBA titles. He was All-NBA nine times, six on first team. Topping it off, this former soccer goalie growing up earned his U.S. citizenship and was a member of the 1996 gold-medal winning U.S. basketball team.
Ewing was the more storied college player on a much higher-profile Georgetown program for coach John Thompson. They won the NCAA title in 1984 when he was named the MOP of the tournament. He became the first pick of the first NBA Draft in 1985 and was named rookie of the year for the 1985-86 season. He made first team All-NBA just once -- in 1990 -- primarily because Olajuwon cast his large shadow over him year after year.
Ironically, the coach of that Knicks team that lost to the Rockets was Riley, the former All-American from Kentucky on that infamous team that lost to Texas Western in the 1966 NCAA Championship game. A first-round draft choice, his NBA career changed due to back problems. He lost the quickness and leaping ability and became a workhorse, hustle player. He did get a championship ring with the Lakers in 1972, but make no mistake about it, he’s in the Hall of Fame as an NBA coach. Named coach of the year with the Lakers, Knicks and Heat, no other coach can claim that feat, nor making it to the NBA Finals with three NBA teams – winning four titles with the Lakers and one with the Heat along the way. The most extraordinary statistic is 16 first-place finishes in his first 18 years (including the first 12) as a coach and 18 out of 23 overall.
In many ways, he also was a ground-breaker as a coach with his interesting diatribes to the media and introduced “pop psychology” as a general term for what coaches use to motivate players. Still coach and president of the struggling Heat, the 63-year-old Riley made it clear over the past week this may very well be his final year as a coach.
Dantley deserves extra mention for the resilience of his backers considering he was a finalist six times before finally garnering enough votes to get in. A superior, though undersized, forward at a shade under 6-5, he was exceptional at backing defenders down with post-up moves and was a great baseline scorer. An assistant coach with the Denver Nuggets, he was tireless in his work with another Baltimore high school great, young Carmelo Anthony. His prickly personality could be why it took him so long to get in considering his 23,177 career points, an All-American career at Notre Dame and his legacy as one of the great high school All-Americas from storied DeMatha High School in Baltimore with coach Morgan Wootten.
Vitale, Davidson and Rush are in for their contributions to the sport – all being nominated multiple times. Vitale, of course, has been the voice and advocate of college basketball for a generation. He coached high school ball in New Jersey before becoming the head coach at the University of Detroit and then the Pistons, before exploding on the public as a broadcaster in 1979. Davidson is the owner of the Pistons and Detroit Shock of the WNBA and is considered an exceptional contributor to the sport as a former chairman of the NBA Board of Governors and a leader in the industry. Rush was a pioneer for women’s college basketball at Immaculata University in the 1970s, with championships from 1972-74 and appearing on television in 1975, a first for women’s hoops.
The final trio represents the inductees that draw the biggest questions. The contributors to the sport always do because of the ambiguity. It's why there's always talk of an “NBA” Hall of Fame. Consider the absence of Chris Mullin – a two-time All-American at St. John’s, a two-time gold medal-winning Olympian, five-time NBA All-Star and the man who rebuilt the Warriors of today as general manager. His absence is blatant. The same case could be made for his coach, Don Nelson, the second leading winner as a coach in NBA history, a two-time All-American at Iowa, and winner of five NBA championship rings as a player with the Celtics.
And there has been quite the firestorm for the late Dennis Johnson, who died suddenly a year ago from a massive heart attack while coaching the Austin Toros of the NBA Developmental League at the age of 52. D.J. was one of the great defensive guards in NBA history and was a member of three championship teams – 1979 in Seattle and 1984 and 1986 in Boston - winning the Finals MVP in 1979 with the Sonics.
That’s not to diminish the contributions from Vitale, Davidson and Rush … but compared to this trio, c’mon. Politics should be about running our government, not the basketball Hall of Fame. But what other reason can there be?
There was a meeting of the minds in San Antonio that caused plenty of stirring Monday hours before Kansas hung on in overtime to beat Memphis for the NCAA title. When NBA commissioner David Stern and NCAA president Myles Brand convened to announce a joint attempt at sand-blasting the corruption from youth basketball, the obvious buzz took on legs afterward.
Can the NBA change the rule that just went into effect with the last Collective Bargaining Agreement – that players cannot enter the draft until their class has been in college two years instead of one?
Not without the consent of players association it can’t … and considering what happened during the last CBA negotiations, it isn’t likely to happen without a fight come the summer of 2011 when the present agreement ends.
Of course Brand would love to guarantee that the top drawer players would compete another year in the NCAA. But he has no say in the matter. It’s all up to Stern and the NBPA.
That’s not to say it doesn’t make sense to do and that Stern wouldn’t prefer that. Going into the last bargaining session, he did want to raise the age limit from 18 to 20 initially, but had to settle for 19 when the NBPA wouldn’t bite on it. They weren’t particularly thrilled with 19 either, but took it as a concession for an expanded salary cap. And why the NBPA won’t agree to it isn’t quite clear in the big picture if you look at what is best for the entire constituency.
Granted, giving a 19-year-old, or even an 18-year-old, the opportunity to earn a lucrative living in the NBA if he has the talent and is wanted is logical, legal and fits in with what goes on in every other professional sport except for the NFL. And because of the necessary physical development and the violence of the game, the NFL gets a free pass on this one. So the NBA players believe everyone should have the opportunity.
OK, we’ll buy that angle.
Being into geometry, let’s take another slant. Just consider the possibility of the six to 10 players a year who come out early and make a team are forced to play another year on the collegiate level. Not only would it give the players another year of physical and emotional development, it would create another six to 10 jobs for NBA veterans who otherwise are forced to play ball overseas, try one of the struggling U.S. minor leagues or find another means to make a living other than ballin’.
The latter seems far more logical in the big picture of the NBPA despite the overwhelming majority favoring no more than a 19-year-old limit.
Meanwhile, there are a lot reasons why so many young players entering the league had a negative impact, even dating to Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady, all of whom could have used a year or two in college. Obviously, that trio became superstars … but what about the early birds that didn’t?
It frustrated so many of the top basketball minds in the NBA. Men like Jerry West and Larry Brown continued to be distressed over how the NBA had become too much of a developmental league as opposed to getting young players who were finished products – at least with regard to the fundamentals of the game. There were too many young, super athletes coming into the league believing basketball was just about reverse dunks and chucking up 3-pointers instead of moving with the ball, moving without the ball, passing and defending.
As far-fetched as it may be, this is an admirable attempt by Stern and Brand to clean up the mess that now starts when kids are identified in middle school as special talents and showered with shoes and warmups and anything else that will help a particular ilk of salesman and booster get into the hearts of minds of kids and their parents.
It seems an impossible task for the NBA and NCAA, but nobody can fault them for trying. The problem is the same reason why the NBPA won’t agree to raising the age limit, and it has nothing to do with basketball.
Money.
It’s all about as many people making as much money from the game as possible. The odds of the age limit going up in the NBA are very slim at best. The probability of the NBA and NCAA eliminating the sleaze from youth basketball isn’t great either. But this is a great first step toward allowing the kids to focus on the game and not the ancilliary financial gains at least until they’re old enough to vote.
With 10 days left in the NBA regular season, it’s time we recognized the Hornets for what they’ve been all season – the most consistently effective team in the Western Conference.
Their 12-point win over the Warriors Sunday afternoon told us everything we need to know. MVP candidate Chris Paul had the fourth triple-double of his career -- 16 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds, plus 5 steals -- and hit a 3-pointer with just less than eight minutes left that broke a tie and allowed the Hornets to end the game with an 18-6 run.
To better reflect what Paul was about Sunday (and the entire season for that matter), consider that he fired an airball that turned into an assist and a lob pass that actually went through the hoop. Consequently, the 54-22 Hornets have equaled the most wins in franchise history, have a two-game lead in the loss column over the Spurs and the Lakers for the top seed in the conference, and their 17-10 mark against the other eight playoff contenders in the West is also the high-water mark in the West. The 54 wins also mark the most ever for coach Byron Scott, now in his eighth season overall as a head coach and fourth with the Hornets. He never won that many coaching the Nets to the NBA Finals twice.
Most impressively is they’ve been hanging with the big boys all season. Aside from a 2-4 stretch in late February, they haven’t wavered. Even that was predictable, considering the toll Paul and forward David West tookfrom their first NBA All-Star appearances (not to mention their added responsibilities with New Orleans as the host city). Besides, they’ve bounced back even stronger since then, with a 15-3 burst, including the last four in a row and 11 consecutive wins at home. And speaking of at home, they’ve sold out 10 of their last 15 games (11 for the season), so the energy from the team has managed to ignite the hurricane ravaged Big Easy.
So why is there so much reticence to buy into the Hornets as legit contenders to win the West?
It begins with inexperience. Paul is a virtual lock to be first team All-NBA, a byproduct of leading the league in assists and steals, and has led the Hornets all season. But he’s in just his third season and has no playoff experience. Neither does West, the 6-9, 240-pound power forward in his fifth season. Nonetheless, he too put on a typical show Sunday with 25 points and nine rebounds, making his last nine shots from the field. He’s equally effective inside and outside. They are outstanding players individually and together, with a limitless potential together. Center Tyson Chandler, averaging 11.8 points and 11.9 rebounds while leading the NBA in offensive rebounds per game, has come a long way the past two years but has no starts among his 12 playoff appearances.
The other two starters – Peja Stojakovic and Morris Peterson – have experience. Stojakovic had 59 postseason games from 1999-2006, 57 of which were in Sacramento when he was an All-Star. Peterson played in 19 playoff games in three different years for Toronto. Peterson, though, remains an average starter at best, capable of running the floor and decent streaks of outside shooting. More intriguing is Stojakovic, who seems to have revived his game at the age of 30 despite four consecutive years of a declining scoring average.
His role with the Hornets is a perfect fit. He averages 16.2 points, leads the league by making 93 percent of his free throws and is second in 3-point accuracy at .455. Sunday he had what appeared to be an easy 25 points – spotting up around the perimeter with Paul or West finding him wide open.
The biggest question is their depth, or at least it was until Sunday, when they outscored the Warriors reserves 26-5. Guard Jannero Pargo scored 15 points during a six-minute span in the second quarter for the Hornets and has experienced 18 playoff games in his career. Bonzi Wells provides them a strong post-up scorer from the wing and is also very effective anywhere on the baseline. The mercurial Wells has also had some big postseason numbers in 36 career games. But they really haven’t gotten any serious contributions in the power positions to help Chandler and overall, they are tied for last with the Charlotte Bobcats in offensive bench productivity.
They sorely need recently resigned Chris Andersen to support Chandler where Hilton Armstrong and Melvin Ely have not. But Andersen has been back for only five games following a two-year hiatus for failing to adhere to the NBA substance abuse policy, and is a far cry from being prepared for the physical and mental intensity for this point of the season and the playoffs.
So where does that leave the Hornets? They still sit atop the West, and despite four of the final six games on the road, they’ve got the best shot of anybody to retain the top seed when the playoffs begin.
But with so little playoff experience and really being only seven deep is a problem whether they play the Nuggets or Warriors as it appears it would be in the first round. Ultimately, if Paul fails to win the MVP award, which is far more likely to go to Kobe Bryant or Kevin Garnett, he’ll have to be the de facto postseason MVP for the Hornets to be just as competitive in the playoffs.
The game becomes much more physical and with the brute force of the West, it is doubtful Chandler will be capable of keeping up his stats and staying out of foul trouble. And yet, with so many run-and-gun teams, it may not be as much of a factor for the Hornets as some would lead you to believe.
Actually, it may just be another excuse not to make them one of the favorites. Then again, the only group that has to believe is the Hornets themselves. And considering the first 76 games … that may very well be enough.
When the defending Eastern Conference champs pulled the trigger just moments before the NBA trade deadline six weeks ago, it was hard to figure which way they were headed.
Watching the Cleveland Cavaliers always is, if only because LeBron James has so much impact on the team and every game, it’s hard to tell whether they’re coming or going. But after blowing a 17-point lead at home to the Bulls with 15 minutes left Thursday night (losing by three), suffice to say they’re going.
Sure, they’ll hold on to the fourth spot in the East, but most of that is because the Sixers didn’t find out they were pretty good until too late in the season, and the Wizards and Raptors have been too beaten up to establish any continuity.
The Cavs have been a mess all season for myriad reasons, but at least they have James to haul the garbage.
It began before the season started with Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao holding out and dropping just enough doses of cyanide into the team chemistry to prevent any sort of flow. And when they finally woke up and signed their contracts, predictably, they both got hurt.
Then after Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden and Ira Newble were dealt, with newbies Ben Wallace, Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West dressed in their finest duds and watching because all the physicals hadn’t been passed in the three-team deal, they somehow managed to beat the Washington Wizards with only eight players. Two of those players were late call-ups from the D-League never to be heard from again.
That was Feb. 22, and until Thursday night they hadn’t had their full compliment of players. Whether it was Daniel Gibson’s ankle, the aching back of Zydrunas Ilgauskas or, more recently, similar back problems for Wallace, something had always been awry.
After watching Gibson’s wide open 3-point attempt at the buzzer miss badly, obviously something still is. By the end of the game, James’ back had become an issue too – his 0-for-5 shooting in the fourth quarter and 1-for-2 free throws after 32 points in the first three quarters telling that tale.
But the most reflective moment of the game came in the final three minutes when Wallace went up for an uncontested dunk and the rim became an insurmountable obstacle. It was embarrassing. It had everything to do with why the Cavs had just one field goal the final seven minutes of the game and converted just 6-of-23 in the fourth quarter after shooting better than 53 percent left in the first three quarters.
You know that little BLEEP light on your car that tells you the gas tank is almost empty?
It looks like it might be on for the once fierce Ben Wallace ... and maybe the Cavs.
Coach Mike Brown desperately clung to what he believes will be his rotation come playoff time, eschewing the more effective Damon Jones and Devin Brown for the obviously struggling Gibson and still uncomfortable Szczerbiak.
And for the umpteenth time, please, puhleez don’t play Wallace and Varejao together for more than a flashing minute. Just go small instead. One of them with Ilgauskas is fine. As a duo they look as unpolished as a couple of overgrown high school football players on the basketball court just for the sake of knocking people around. Besides, they certainly didn’t keep the Bulls from shooting 63 percent in the second half.
With two weeks left until the playoffs begin, the Cavs will draw the Wizards, Sixers or Raptors, have homecourt advantage and be eminently capable of beating any of them provided James is healthy. He proved that last year. But that was a team that had already established its own chemistry and pecking order – they were predicated on defense, staying close and allowing James to win games.
This year’s version has no idea. Sure, they won at Charlotte on Wednesday night despite James fouling out with just less than four minutes left in the game. It did end their six-game road losing streak, and to be fair, the game and the travel certainly took its toll down the stretch Thursday. Even the most ardent of Cavs fans – if they’re honest – know that it really wasn’t any different than many other losses this season.
They are 10-10 since that first game with Wallace, Szczerbiak and West, and showing no signs of gaining any consistency on either end of the floor. They still haven’t shown any ability to run an offense down the stretch oBLEEPame other than the proverbial “Get out of the way and let LeBron do it.”
On one hand, they have lost five games on a last-second shot. On the other, they have won more games coming from behind in the fourth quarter than anyone in the league. James is just such an amazing talent, maybe Brown figures he’s better off just staying out of his way as a coach down the stretch of games. Nonetheless, the Celtics, Magic and even the aging Pistons, whom the Cavs upset last year to win the East, are all better than they were at this time last year.
The Cavs are not. Right now, they are James and 11 guys who look like they are concerned about crossing a busy intersection. And with just six games left, they’d better figure it out fast. The light is about to change again.
In what was evidently a strange convergence of energy from the sports gods, four injured All-Stars returned to their respective teams Wednesday with just two weeks left before the the NBA playoffs begin.
Isn’t this why we love professional sports?
• A funny thing happened just hours after Mavericks coach Avery Johnson said it looked like it would require more time before Dirk Nowitzki would return from the left ankle and knee injury he suffered on March 23 in a loss to the Spurs … he started. Nowitzki scored 18 points in 27 minutes during the huge 111-86 win over the Warriors, moving the Mavs alone into seventh place in the West. The Mavs were 2-3 since the injury, but now have a two-game lead and the tie-breaker over the ninth-place Warriors and a one-game lead over the eighth-place Nuggets, who also have the tie-breaker with the sliding W’s.
• Nobody has known what to think about Gilbert Arenas, who has been talking for six weeks that he would return from November surgery on his left knee, but Wednesday night was it for Agent Zero. He came off the bench to score 17 points in 19 minutes for the Wizards in a bizarre, 110-109 loss to the Bucks during which teammates Antawn Jamison (sprained right shoulder) and DeShaun Stevenson (sprained right ankle) were helped off the floor after a scramble for the ball with 6.3 seconds left. The result dripped with irony, not only because it was Arenas’ return, but both Caron Butler (strained hamstring) and Antonio Daniels (sprained wrist) returned after missing a game with injuries as well … so much for the full compliment of players that coach Eddie Jordan was expecting.
