It isn’t as if we didn’t see this coming considering the past month or so, especially after Sunday’s knee and high ankle sprain to All-Star forward Dirk Nowitzki. But the way they came apart Thursday night at Denver to the Nuggets, coupled with the Golden State Warriors coming from behind to handle the Portland Trail Blazers, the fight for the final two spots of the Western Conference is tighter than the Mavericks at the free throw line these days.
The Mavs (45-27) now lead the Warriors (44-27) by a half game and the Nuggets (44-28) by one game as we head into the final 2½ weeks of the season. Should the Mavericks slip out of the top eight, it would be the first time since 2000 they will have failed to make the playoffs, and the first full season since Mark Cuban became the team’s owner in January of 2000 that they will have fallen into the lottery.
And with Nowitzki’s status still very iffy going down the stretch, all eyes continue to focus on point guard Jason Kidd, acquired in late February. Kidd and the Mavs were outstanding in the first half against the Nuggets' porous defense, racing to a 70-60 lead and plenty of second-chance points. More to the point, Kidd had 13 points, 11 assists and 4 steals by halftime.
They were beating the Nuggets up and down the floor, beat them badly on the boards (23-16), and had them on the ropes if only they continued at that pace.
But the second half was a different story, and the Nuggets blew it open in the third quarter. No doubt coach George Karl jumped all over the frontcourt for lack of rebounding, and they turned it around with a 25-16 advantage, forced the Mavericks into bad shots (2-of-13 from 3-point range), and let their high-powered duo of Allen Iverson (31) and Carmelo Anthony (32) take control of the game. The Nuggets even got the huge emotional boost of Nene coming into the game with a little more than a minute left – his first appearance since undergoing surgery for malignant testicular cancer on Jan. 11.
The 118-105 loss makes them 0-9 against winning teams since Kidd has come aboard (10-9 overall). He finished the game with 19 points, 15 assists and 5 steals, so it had nothing to do with his numbers, nor Josh Howard scoring 30 points just two nights after pouring in 32 in a win over the Clippers. They’re just dying for Dirk, the 2007 MVP and cornerstone of their franchise.
Making matters worse, seven of Dallas’ final 10 games are against plus-.500 teams, with six of those 10 games on the road – where they are 15-20 this season. And two of their next three games are against the Warriors, at Oakland on Saturday and in Dallas on Tuesday, with a road game at the Clippers in between on Sunday. As if those games won’t be vital enough, they hit the road next weekend with games at the Lakers and at the Suns. To put it mildly, that five-game stretch will go a long way toward deciding their fate.
Meanwhile, the Nuggets, with a 15-21 road record, split their final 10 home and away, but only three of their five road games are against winning teams. A four-game road trip from Feb. 6-11 begins at the Sonics and Clippers, but finishes with the Warriors and Jazz before they end the regular season at home against the Rockets and Grizzlies.
After a sluggish start Thursday night against the Blazers, the Warriors gradually picked up a head of steam behind their explosive trio of Stephen Jackson, Baron Davis and Monta Ellis to put away the battered young team with a 111-95 victory. But it doesn’t get any easier with six of their final 11 games on the road - although they are an impressive 20-15 on foreign hardwood. Nonetheless, five of their next six games are away from Oracle Arena, beginning at Denver Saturday night. The Mavs come in on Sunday, and then they head out for games at San Antonio, Dallas, Memphis and New Orleans in six days.
The good news for the Warriors is four of their final five games are home, where the Oracle has become the place to be after a generation of lost fans. There will be no empty seats.
So how does it break down? Well, short of something traumatic happening, it would be wise to bet the ranch on the Warriors moving into seventh by some time next week and staying there. The real battle will be for the eighth spot between the wobbling Mavs and the defensively-challenged Nuggets.
Nobody seems to know the status of Nowitzki at this point because it’s so early in the healing process. And even if he does come back for the final week, he’ll be really vulnerable to re-injuring the high ankle sprain – let alone the knee. Can Kidd, Howard and Jerry Stackhouse provide enough leadership and firepower for the Mavericks to hang on in his absence under the most trying of circumstances?
That’s highly debatable, particularly the way they managed just 35 points in the second half against the Nuggets Thursday night.
We’ll also find out the real fit under the most trying circumstances of Iverson and Anthony in this race to the finish for the Nuggets. It’s the total commitment to team and not the individual that will tell the tale. Iverson has proven himself. Anthony has not. We still have to find out if Karl can get this often wild-eyed bunch to defend at crunch time of these games.
Ultimately the Nuggets have just been way too inconsistent all season to say they will beat out the Mavs for eighth … so indeed it’s a tossup between Denver and Dallas for the final playoff spot as they’re coming down the back stretch.
It also leaves us with a situation that was previously unfathomable and now seems likely - somebody winning 50 games will not make the playoffs for the first time in NBA history.
Chris Webber will finally hobble off into the NBA sunset today, and fittingly it leaves us with mixed feelings about a superstar talent with a star-crossed career before his 15th season ever really began.
He leaves the NBA having averaged 20.7 points, 9.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists – joining Elgin Baylor, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, Kevin Garnett and Billy Cunningham as the only players in history to average at least 20, 9.0 and 4.0 for a career.
He was the most famous member of the illustrious Fab Five at Michigan, leading the group that made it to the NCAA championship game in both of his seasons. But the Detroit native won’t be remembered for that as much as for the timeout he called in the final minute that virtually cost them the title to North Carolina in 1993.
He was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1993 NBA draft but was dealt by Orlando to Golden State for Penny Hardaway and three No. 1 draft choices. He soon found it impossible to get along with Warriors coach Don Nelson, and was dealt to Washington the first month of his second season.
That Nellie was the guy who wanted him back for this season – only to watch him struggle miserably with that bum left knee limiting him to just 3.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 9 games – was a fittingly ironic end to Webber’s career. Undoubtedly at his retirement press conference you will see Webber impeccably dressed with that million-dollar smile glowing from baseline to baseline. Maybe even a tear will roll down his cheek during his well-articulated diatribe. But this bizarre exit also will be filled with the same double-talk Webber has always provided – the last boast being how much he would help either the Pistons, Lakers or Warriors win a championship this season.
The only thing we’ve ever known for sure about Webber is that he is an assorted bag of tricks. Indeed, his commitment at Michigan helped gain the Wolverines Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson as the most publicized group to ever join one college team. Years later, Webber ended up being the heart of the NCAA investigation regarding illegal money-laundering scandal involving booster Ed Martin. Webber lied to the grand jury and nearly went to prison for perjury – apology accepted.
After being dealt to Washington by Golden State, he played with Howard to form an amazingly talented frontcourt, although it ended with just one 3-game trip to the playoffs in his four years. Predictably, when he was sent to Sacramento in 1998 for washed up Mitch Richmond and Otis Thorpe, he whined and stomped his feet as if he were sentenced to Siberia.
But it was there that he resurrected his standing among superstar talents, and led the renaissance of a nomadic franchise that had been a bottom-feeder since moving there from Kansas City in 1985. They made it to the playoffs all six of his seasons there, including a heartbreaking Game 7 defeat to the Lakers in the 2002 conference finals in a mass of missed free throws by the Kings in Arco Arena. It was crushing physically and mentally.
Predictably, Webber and the Kings began to erode from there, with Webber beginning to call out his teammates. Meanwhile, his left knee was getting worse and he had microfracture surgery the next season. And when Webber returned he could no longer run or jump. He still had those great hands and timing to rebound. His soft touch from around the key, the elbow and hooks in the lane still worked from experience. Arguably the best passing power forward in the history of the game, he could still find his teammates at will.
But he no longer could perform at the level that his psyche or mouth believed, and Kings president Geoff Petrie finally shipped Webber and his monstrous contract to Philadelphia. That he went with Michael Bradley and Matt Barnes for Kenny Thomas, Corliss Williamson and Brian Skinner in a 2005 deal better characterized Webber’s fall from grace than anything else.
Sure, it was fun for about 15 minutes to hypothesize how Webber and Allen Iverson would get along and drive the Sixers to great heights. But it was destined to fail. They reached the playoffs the first season and lasted five games, and didn’t even get out of the lottery in 2006. At that point, Webber had the look of somebody playing on eggshells the way he often staggered around the court.
Before the next season even hit the All-Star break, Iverson was dealt to Denver and Webber’s contract was bought out by the Sixers. Four days after his release, his hometown Pistons signed him. Sure, he added a passing dimension from the post, some rebounds and was a perimeter threat. But his limitations reflected theirs as the playoffs unfolded in their upset loss to Cleveland in the conference finals … and Webber’s minutes fell accordingly.
That brings us to this marvelously competitive NBA season, with him making noise about how he wanted to help somebody win a championship. There's no telling why Nellie bought his bill of goods and actually thought he could fit in with a lightning-fast team when he could barely jog. Even while cobbling out 61 games last season, he was limited at best. After not playing until signed on Jan. 29, the Warriors squeezed 9 games out of him – starting 8 in a failed attempt to jump-start what was left in five weeks.
And he was finished.
Somehow it figured to end this way for Webber – nothing but empty promises, just at varying levels. Even so, he played in four All-Star games and his career numbers are special. But he was never destined to win the biggest prize, not on the collegiate level, nor in the NBA.
It’s never appropriate to pin the failings of a team on an individual as so many have done with Webber, whether it was his mouth, passing up big shots or missing big shots. He was a superstar, one of the best power forwards the game has ever seen. But what you saw or heard from him wasn’t always what you got. Insteadin a “C-Webb” of empty assurances - it always caused issues.
In the end, that may very well prove to be his legacy, and that is sad for such a talented athlete to be remembered that way.
They’ve grown up to be a real threat, and that’s been no easy task for the Golden State Warriors after more than a decade of failure.
Until they slipped into the playoffs last year and crushed the Dallas Mavericks in the first round to pull off one of the great upsets in NBA history, they had been a failing franchise in a great sports market.
Even then, they were a novelty item when they fell to the Utah Jazz in the conference semifinals.
Not anymore. The quartet of coach Don Nelson and stars Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson and Monta Ellis is proving to be as lethal as any combination in the NBA today. They are 40-18 in the 58 games they’ve played together this season, averaging 61.0 points, 13.8 rebounds, 15.1 assists and 5.03 steals. It has everything to do with why the Warriors lead the NBA in scoring at 110.9 per game, including 31 in a row in triple digits, and have remained just 4.5 games out of the top seed in the Western Conference.
The start of the transformation was when general manager Chris Mullin was hired to restore the franchise to what it was like when he was an All-Star player. But even he had growing pains on the job. He turned the roster over and made a horrible hire in Stanford coach Mike Montgomery before he coaxed his old coach Nelson out of retirement in Hawaii.
It was the return of Nellieball -- with the promise, “We’re going to play small and fast, so try and catch us if you can.” That’s the way it was when Mullin teamed with Tim Hardaway and Mitch Richmond in the “Run TMC” era of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Before last season, the Warriors hadn’t even been to the playoffs in 13 years and hadn't won a series in 16 years. Obviously, it was worth a shot and it worked.
This time around, though, it works even better. The change of rules prohibiting hand checking and blocking the path to the basket in the lane has made small and fast more of a style than something charming. If you don’t have special power players, then this is the vogue way to play. So a lot of teams have adopted this brand of ball, and the Warriors, along with the Suns, are the best at it.
Still, the Warriors began the season 0-6 -- some of that having to do with Jackson serving out a suspension for an off-court indiscretion. But they have lost two in a row only once since then and amassed a 42-19 record since the dismal start. That's fourth best in the NBA over that span, trailing only the Celtics, Pistons and Lakers.
The big difference between this season and last is consistency, and that has come as a result of playing well on the road too. Not only are the Warriors a tough 23-10 in the now packed Oracle Arena, where they increased their season ticket sales a whopping 50 percent, but they’re 19-15 on the road compared to 12-29 a year ago.
All of this explains why they guaranteed the final $2 million of Nelson’s to the fashionable $5 million range and already picked up the option for next season despite his 68th birthday coming. After all, he is only 58 wins behind Lenny Wilkens (1,332) for the most in NBA history. Perhaps more importantly, the players love this style.
He has built the team around Davis and Jackson, a couple of unorthodox players with fearless personalities. Davis is a powerful point guard, prone to spectacular streaks and injuries throughout his career -- and not afraid to voice his displeasure with his coach and teammates. Jackson is a long and skinny swingman with a history of emotional explosions on and off the court. Together, they have been nitroglycerin for this dormant franchise. Their potential, though, has always been obvious.
The unexpected piece of this perilous puzzle proved to be Ellis, the 6-3 guard snatched right out of Lanier High School in Jackson, Miss.
Everybody knew Davis and Jackson could be dangerous. But Ellis … well, not exactly. OK, he did lead his team to two state championships, and averaged 38.4 points, 7.9 assists, 6.9 rebounds and 4.5 steals his senior year. But that was high school. He was projected as a point guard, and the history of point guards skipping college for the NBA is littered with disappointment. It’s why he didn’t go until the second round.
Playing him with Davis really changed everything, however. After a predictably erratic rookie year, he exploded late last season – raising his average to 16.5 points while shooting .475 from the field to win the league’s Most Improved Player Award. But even more impressive has been the continual growth, with the latest buzz wondering if he should become the first player ever to win the award two years in a row – and before his 23rd birthday no less.
Not only is he averaging 19.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists, but he’s shooting a blistering .535 from the field. Granted, he hasn’t grown into 3-point range yet … but there seems little doubt he will as he adds to his sub-180 pounds. He became only the ninth guard in history to shoot 60 percent from the field for a month -- averaging 26.0 points while making .602 percent of his shots in February. Even more impressive is the 33 games in a row he has reached double-figures -- averaging 22.7 points while making .566 of his field goal attempts -- dating back to Jan. 7. All of this is why they dealt high-scoring Jason Richardson to Charlotte for the rights to draft 20-year-old Brandon Wright, the immensely gifted 6-10 forward from North Carolina who will be a factor next season.
What we don’t know is what Nelson can get out of the rest of the team. Al Harrington continues to be erratic, with flashes of exceptional play on offense and rebounding – but they come too sparingly. Latvian post player Andris Biedrins, who won’t be 22 for another couple of weeks, is plenty tough and is close to averaging a double-double with 10.0 points and 9.2 rebounds – but he’s still very raw offensively.
The bench is long and effective, with swingman Kelenna Azubuike, Mickael Pietrus and Matt Barnes all 20-minute guys who contribute on both ends of the floor. Veteran streak shooter Austin Croshere has had his moments as well. The shame of it all was the wasted time and effort to recruiting the aging and damaged Chris Webber to help up front. He has contributed virtually nothing while Wright is still trying to gain strength and adapt to the NBA. They could have used a legit big body to support Biedrins for the playoffs.
Nonetheless, they are right in the mix. They are within 4.5 games of the No. 1 seed, and 3.0 games from home-court advantage in the first round (or 3.5 games away from falling out of the playoffs to ninth-seeded Denver). Granted, they still don’t play good enough defense to be a serious threat to win the West – or even return to the second round of the playoffs – but depending on the matchup, that certainly isn’t out of the question either.
So in this topsy-turvy race in the West, the Warriors are one intrepid group daring anyone to stop them from running full blast and cranking up 3-pointers. They’re winning and their fun to watch, and that’s a far cry from where they were for more than a decade – just ask the nearly 20,000 delirious fans that show up each game at the Oracle.
You’ve got to hand it to Chris Mullin … he’s ready and willing to try anything to keep the Warriors competitive in the Western Conference after more than a decade of near obsolescence.
So far, it’s worked.
That’s why before everybody goes bonkers ripping him as general manager and Warriors coach Don Nelson as crazy for signing aging, gimpy-legged forward Chris Webber Monday, consider how this unorthodox duo has managed to pull the W’s out of the rubble and into the hottest ticket in the Bay Area.
To be sure, the Warriors play so fast that it will often seem as if the 34-year-old Webber is just playing Iowa girls basketball on one end of the floor. And just the memory of how he and Nellie couldn’t handle each other’s big personalities to the point that he lasted only one year as a rookie in 1993-94 before the Warriors got rid of Webber is still vivid.
Don’t forget that the wily Mullin was an All-Star forward on the Warriors back then. And while everyone told Mullin he was nuts for hiring Mike Montgomery away from Stanford to coach Baron Davis and the crew a few years back, it was a mistake he learned from to the point he had to go with what he knew.
So against conventional wisdom, he lured the re-retired Nellie out of the Tiki bars on Maui to coach the Warriors last season. As if that wasn’t outrageous enough, he made a blockbuster trade in dealing hard-working Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Troy Murphy to Indiana to bring the mercurial Stephen Jackson and the erratic Al Harrington to play with the unpredictable Davis and talented youngsters Monta Ellis and Andris Biedrins. That set up Nellie to play his vintage “smallball,” with Biedrins the only real interior player.
Nonetheless, they made the playoffs for the first time since 1994 and even shocked the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in what many believed was the biggest upset in NBA playoff history. They lost in the second round to Utah, but not without a fight, leading to all sorts of possibilities before Nellie finally got his contract guaranteed for this year and next at the kind of money he wanted.
Still, with Jackson suspended for the first seven games for some off-court shenanigans, they began the season 0-6 and were in trouble. Undaunted, they are 27-12 since then, but that woeful start could get them in the end in the impossibly competitive Western Conference. They are tied for seventh, a half game ahead of Denver and Portland, with Houston lingering just a couple games further back in this furious race among the top 10.
And that’s why Mullie and Nellie huddled, and settled on Webber. While Biedrins will block shots, rebound and knock people around inside, he’s virtually it inside for the W’s in a conference laden with big bodies. Not that Webber will ever be accused of being a ####er inside and he faded badly enough down the stretch in Detroit last season that the Pistons really had no desire to bring him back – even though he was living right there.
And yet, he is one of the most naturally gifted power forwards in the history of the game when it comes to the nuances of the position. His passing from the high and low post from a power position is without peer in the game today. He’ll still hit that shot from the elbow and the circle, and that flat hook in the post will gain some traction as well. He may not be able to move defensively, but his hands and instincts will compensate in the limited minutes he will be needed as the rest of this whirling dervish of a team will be running and trapping all over the place.
Inevitably, his ego won’t allow him to be happy in the limited time and space he’ll get on the Warriors. That isn’t the point. In the broad scope, there is humor in this move, as there has been in this entire reconstruction by Mullin.
Nothing has been particularly sensible since he was handed the keys to the car by Warriors owner Chris Cohan in 2004. He gambled maximum money on the creaky body and personality of Davis to be the leader. He went with his gut that Nellie still had enough in the tank for one more run with a team, and he figured Jackson and Harrington could be special if they bought into Davis as their leader. All the while he just sits back quietly and doesn’t say much about anything.
But he’s always thinking, and this time he’s thinking Webber and Nelson want to make peace in the manner of a playoff run. Maybe it will happen. Maybe it won’t. But it’s guaranteed great entertainment the entire second half of the season for growing Warriors nation.
And before Mullin was hired, they weren’t even entertaining.
Last season they became the first team in 14 years to reach the conference finals for the fifth consecutive season. This time around, and after an early stumble, they are on track to be the first NBA team in 35 years to make it six in a row.
If you guessed the San Antonio Spurs, you’d be wrong.
We’re talking about the Detroit Pistons, who after losing three of four to close out a Western Conference swing in November, have won six in a row and 15 of 18 to solidify themselves at 21-7 and remain in close pursuit of the Boston Celtics for the top seed in the East.
It doesn’t get much more consistent than that, regardless of what you think of the rest of the conference. The last team to make the East finals five years in succession was the Bulls (1989-93) – although the Pistons (1987-91) also did it in that era as well. But to do it six years in a row, you have to go back to the Los Angeles Lakers (1968-73), when there were just nine teams in the Western Conference as opposed to the 15 in each conference today.
The strange part is, three of the first four seasons the Pistons got to the conference finals it was with three different coaches – Rick Carlisle, Larry Brown and incumbent Flip Saunders. Generally speaking, that sort of revolving door is relegated to the league’s bottom-feeders, but in this case there were extenuating circumstances for president of basketball operations Joe Dumars, the rock of the franchise.
Only Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince (then a rookie who played sparingly), are still on the roster from Carlisle’s 2002-03 team that ascended so quickly. And were it not for a personality conflict with owner Bill Davidson’s president of business operations, Tom Wilson, Carlisle may been around a lot longer. Otherwise, they may have avoided Brown’s bizarre but predictable cameo appearance that did happen to include the NBA title in 2004.
Nonetheless, Saunders is in his third season as coach since coming over from Minnesota, and to say the Pistons have lost their focus as a great defensive-oriented team would be woefully misleading. They’ve held their last seven opponents to less than 87 or fewer points, and with the trio of Billups, Hamilton and Prince still the core, Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess complete one of the most consistently effective starting lineups in the game today.
Even more impressive is how they’ve blown open the last three games against the Nets, Rockets and Grizzlies by coming out of halftime with an offensive eruption while holding their opponents to under 20 points in the third quarter.
"Our defense is getting to be extremely solid,” Saunders said. “We’ve turned it up in the third quarter and we’ve been doing that a lot lately.”
What’s different about this team is the bench, with Dumars pushing Saunders to cut down on the minutes that the starting five have logged – more than any other group in the league the past three-plus seasons. It isn’t easy as they have gradually brought some youth into the mix, but starters’ minutes are down. Forward Jason Maxiell, while raw offensively, is a classic rugged rebounder with exceedingly long arms and blocks nearly 1.5 shots a game, while shooters Jarvis Hayes and Flip Murray have combined for nearly 15.0 points a game from the wings, and rookie guard Aaron Afflalo figures to make more of an impact scoring as the season progresses.
What’s even better news is they just got heralded No. 1 draft choice Rodney Stuckey back, who fractured his non-shooting left hand in the last preseason game. After missing the first 25 games, he also figures to gradually make an impact the second half of the season in the backcourt.
And while athletic young forward Amir Johnson continues to disappoint by his uneven play, Dumars just recently unloaded the big contract of Nazr Mohammed to Charlotte and added the big body of Primoz Brezec. If nothing else, he’ll relieve some minutes from Wallace and McDyess in the post and provide salary cap relief for the coming offseason.
Already they have dominated the improved Eastern Conference, beating the Celtics in Boston and winning 13 of 15 so far. The irony is both losses have come at the hands of the Bulls and their former Pistons teammate Ben Wallace, but that may just have been a coincidence as the Bulls are obviously mired in their own mess.
More to the point about the Pistons is the focus on their late playoff fades the last two seasons. They have certainly appeared to be a result of exhaustion – Billups and Prince in particular. Then again, we won’t know until we get to the spring and see what gives. Nonetheless, ‘Sheed came to camp in the best shape in years, and there is no more solid guy in the league than McDyess, who missed the 2004 title – coming a year later – and was so emotionally shattered by their seven-game loss to the Spurs in 2005.
But as much as the NBA world is enthralled by the new Celtics and their return to grace, and the love so many seem to have with all the runners out West, chances are these Pistons have the experience and versatility to unsettle the Celtics in a best-of-seven series, with the Spurs inevitably waiting again.
And considering the past five years, who in their right mind would underestimate De-troit basketball?
Shots from the perimeter
Meanwhile out West, the Warriors continue to make noise behind their superior point guard Baron Davis, and the obvious infusion that Stephen Jackson – Captain Jack as it were – has brought since his suspension at the beginning of the season. Since their 0-6 start, they are 17-6, but it is the consistent production and leadership of Davis that has been rock solid. Averaging 21.9 points, 8.0 assists, 2.52 steals and 4.9 rebounds, if he can stay healthy, they will be a factor this season without the unflattering Cinderella moniker.
Just consider:
They’ve already had two five-game road trips, and they were 4-1 in the first one and 3-2 on the second. That’s the first time since the 1973-74 season they’ve had winning records in back-to-back five-game trips.
They are 9-7 on the road, that’s the first time they’ve begun a season better than .500 since they were 10-6 during the 1975-76 season.
And their 17-12 start is the best they’ve had since they were 21-8, some 16 years ago with the “Run TMC” crew of general manger Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway and Mitch Richmond.
That’s not to say Davis, Jackson and young Monta Ellis are or will be as effective as those guys were by the end of this season, but they may. And perhaps more importantly is Mullin has put together a better group around this explosive trio than he had with his partners a generation ago. Not surprisingly, the most obvious thing they have in common is coach Don Nelson’s presence and his love for the unorthodox.
Just as it was then and holds true now, it also makes their greatest strength their most obvious failing – speed and recklessness.
For the first time since LeBron James was a freshman in high school – in March of 2000 – the Cavaliers won in Dallas. James had 24 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists to lead the Cavs to their 88-81 win Thursday over the Mavs despite getting battered and bruised along the way. The win was the Cavs second in a row (after beating the Heat on Christmas Day) and it’s the first time they’ve won two in a row since November. But more important to them is the win moved them into the eighth seed in the East and climbing. Once Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao get into sync following their contract delays, they should gain some momentum and play more consistently as a team … until general manager Danny Ferry opens the door to make a deal for a point guard.
While we’re mentioning the Mavericks, they have lost two in a row after seemingly getting back on course with a five-game winning streak. In the loss to the Cavs, Dirk Nowitzki had 20 rebounds for the first time in nearly five years, but he’s got problems with his heavily taped shooting hand. But at least he’s got an excuse. The always streaky Jason Terry has been on a down cycle again – making just 3-of-22 shots from the field the past two games. That, along with the inability to defend big guards is the reason why the rumors about Jason Kidd returning to the Mavs won’t stop.
The Celtics have taken their road show West for the first time, ripped the Kings by 20 on Wednesday, then Ray Allen struggled in his return to Seattle with just 10 points, but it didn’t prevent a 104-96 win over the Sonics. Paul Pierce responded to Allen’s woes with his first breakout game of the season and 37 points, while the unwaveringly consistent KG kept things together with 23 points and 14 rebounds. To put things in perspective for the improvement of the Celtics and the reason Danny Ainge is a lock for executive of the year … they are now 24-3. Remember, they finished last season with 24 wins – the second worst record in franchise history.
And finally, it now appears official that Bulls general manager John Paxson will stick with career assistant Jim Boylan as coach for the rest of the season after firing Scott Skiles on Christmas Eve. Whether or not the Bulls quit on Skiles, he quit on them, or both isn’t as relevant as the obvious factor that this team is a mismatched set and Paxson has plenty of work ahead of him. Both Luol Deng and Ben Gordon are having sub-par seasons after turning down contract offers, Kirk Hinrich is having his worst season, they’re stuck with Ben Wallace’s bloated contract, and they still don’t have a dependable go-to guy or a low-post threat.
In other words, he still has a ton of work to do and the Bulls are a classic of example of a how much easier it is to take a horrible team and make them competitive, then take a competitive team to the next level and make them elite. They’re stuck in neutral and there is no track record that says Paxson has the wherewithal to straight things out.
