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.
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.
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, #### Vitale and Bill Davidson now con####uously 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?
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 #### 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 o####ame 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.
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.
In the daily drama As the Western Conference turns, the Dallas Mavericks are the latest team to be in trouble and it isn’t likely to get better any time soon.
Not only did the Mavs blow a 12-point second half lead and lose 88-81 to the San Antonio Spurs Sunday afternoon, but they lost All-Star forward Dirk Nowitzki for what owner Mark Cuban predicted to be two weeks after the game.
With 3:18 left in the third period and the Mavs leading, Nowitzki raced back on a fast break for a brilliant block of Ime Udoka’s drive to the glass. But Nowitzki landed awkwardly on his left leg that crumbled as he hit the floor writhing in pain – suffering a lower leg injury that won’t be detailed until later Monday. He was helped off the floor and attempts to put weight on it heading to the locker room were fruitless.
“I fell awkwardly and my left leg got caught underneath me,” Nowitzki said in a statement released by the team Sunday after the game. “I am going to get re-evaluated in the morning (Monday) and I hope to have more information then.”
Right now, not much information coming from the Mavericks camp is good. Not only did Nowitzki go down after the block, but Tim Duncan got the rebound for the Spurs and converted it into a 3-point play to give the Spurs their first lead of the second half. They never trailed again.
It was the third loss in a row for the Mavericks – all at home - and they have fallen to just a half game ahead of the eighth place Warriors and two games ahead of the ninth place Nuggets. Granted, the losses were to the Lakers, Celtics and Spurs, but this is the first time they’ve lost three consecutive games in Dallas since December of 2004.
More disconcerting is how they have struggled to adjust to the much ballyhooed trade that brought Jason Kidd (plus Malik Allen and Antoine Wright) to Dallas in exchange for Devin Harris, DeSagana Diop, Trenton Hassell, Maurice Ager and retired Keith Van Horn. The primary reason that some didn’t like the deal for the Mavs was steeped in Kidd’s limited window as a star at 35, and the loss of Diop as a defensive presence inside.
That was supposed to be a big picture issue.
Instead, the snapshot has been far more disconcerting than anyone anticipated.
Seventeen games into it, the Mavericks still aren’t comfortable with Kidd running the point. They are 9-8 overall, but 0-8 against teams with winning records and 3-7 against the West. Instead of being the leader on the floor at crunch time, coach Avery Johnson clearly is prickly about leaving Kidd in the game because of his poor shooting. While he’s always been an erratic shooter, other coaches have always let him play through it because of what he does for everybody else, not to mention his rebounding and defense.
Still, Johnson’s point is reflected by Kidd shooting 3-of-10 Sunday and 4-of-21 with 10 total points the past three games – his 21 assists in the three games notwithstanding.
His uneven playing time has ostensibly become a particularly sore subject between Johnson and owner Mark Cuban, who spent a fortune for the deal – coaxing Van Horn out of retirement for a ludicrous $4 million just so the salary cap figures could work - and then there is the forthcoming luxury tax. Money isn’t the issue here, though … winning is.
During one stretch Sunday as the game was slipping away, Johnson didn’t even have a point guard in the game, and after a timeout, brought in recently signed free agent Tyronn Lue instead of Kidd. It didn’t help matters any, and just brought more attention to Kidd’s ineffectiveness thus far.
On the other hand, without Nowitzki, it may very well force Johnson to play smaller and faster which should play into the strength of Kidd. Can he afford to play 6-7 Josh Howard and 6-5 Jerry Stackhouse up front together for the bulk of games against the big front lines in the West – becoming dependent on zone defenses and center Erick Dampier? Certainly the three inches Devean George has on Stackhouse for defense and rebounding doesn’t give them much more comparing the overall impact of the two players. And that also translates into Jason Terry, all 6-1 of him, playing most of the game with Kidd in the backcourt if Stackhouse moves up front more often.
Or perhaps he’ll just remain conventional with young power forward Brandon Bass or the aforementioned Malik Allen starting in place of Nowitzki. They’ll have to play both forward and center at least some of the time anyway.
Seven of the final 12 games are on the road for the Mavericks, including three of the next four. At 44-26, they are on the brink either way you look at it. With the precarious advantage over the streaky Warriors and Nuggets, both of whom won close games against playoff-bound teams on the road Sunday, the good news is two of the next four games for the Mavs are against the battered and lowly Clippers. On the flip side, the other two are huge games at Denver and Golden State that will have enormous playoff ramifications. Add to that, the Lakers, Suns and another game with the Warriors during this two-week stretch, their fate may be decided before Nowitzki returns.
On the heels of blowing the 2-0 lead in the Finals of 2006 and the incredible first-round loss to the eighth-seeded Warriors last season as a top seed, the hangover has been palpable all season. The Mavs won 67 games last season, including 31-10 on the road. They are 15-19 going into this week away from home and light years behind last year’s team-record pace with essentially the same core team as a year ago.
It may be just a touch too early to refer to the Kidd deal as a panicky move that will necessitate other moves in the offseason … but not by much.
Now they’ve lost three in a row in Dallas and Nowitzki, presumably for an extended period of time. It’s time for Johnson to let Kidd prove his leadership and in many ways justify the trade. The possibility of them slipping out of the playoffs isn’t likely, but it certainly is very real.
Should that occur, the wrath of Cuban won’t be far behind and the Mavericks as we have known them the past 5-6 years may very well be history.
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.
The Southwest Division standings look so odd -- New Orleans, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Memphis. Of course, the Grizzlies would finish fifth in that division; and the Mavs are just 2.5 games behind the Hornets in this frenetic four-team war in the division.
It’s just hard to fathom the Spurs in third and just a half-game out of fourth. The defending champs have won the NBA title three of the past five seasons and the division five of the past seven. In fact, do you even remember the last time the Spurs finished lower than second in their division?
That would be the now infamous 1996-97 season.
You remember that, don’t you ... superstar center David Robinson broke his foot six games into the season, Gregg Popovich replaced Bob Hill as coach 13 games later, they finished 20-62, stunningly won the lottery, drafted Tim Duncan and the rest is history. They were rolling along so smoothly this season as well until losing six of the past seven games. They’ve even lost four in a row – the first time that has happened since the last four games of the 2004 conference semifinals to the Lakers. And they haven’t done that during the regular season since the 2000-01 season … before Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili came aboard.
So what gives?
They blew a 22-point lead to the Celtics at home on Monday night (though some would say “Join the crowd” when it comes to blowing a lead to that bunch). And perhaps they showed some signs of snapping out of their funk. Popovich went back to his starting lineup of Duncan, Fabricio Oberto, Bruce Bowen, Michael Finley and Parker – the one that was there for the 2007 title. Back to the bench go Ginobili and Kurt Thomas, joining rugged Ime Udoka,Jacque Vaughn and Robert Horry as the significant others.
The big move is Ginobili returning to the bench. He’s always been the guy who has made them special – and a good portion of the time it’s come with him as sixth man. In playoffs when he’s on, they win titles. When he’s not, they don’t. But this season has been different – he’s put up career numbers.
And when Parker really began to struggle with a serious bone spur problem in his heel, Popovich put Ginobili in the starting lineup and he turned it up another notch with extraordinary numbers that ignited an 11-game winning streak and the top seed in the West. But that’s been followed by the current tumble and Ginobili looked tired until his 32-point outburst against the Celtics in his return to sixth man. He had scored just 33 points combined in the previous three games.
So we’ll have to see how they respond. Chances are it will be up to Ginobili, unless Parker begins to show wear on that heel again. Duncan’s numbers have stayed virtually the same, although 35-year-old Finley has clearly dropped off with the worst field goal percentage of his career -- during the current seven-game spin he’s shooting just 25 percent from the field and averaging 4.5 points in 24 minutes. That won’t do.
Despite four titles in nine seasons, they’ve never won back-to-back. And it certainly doesn’t look like they’ll be able to pull it off this year either, unless Ginobili comes to the rescue again.
Shots from the perimeter
* The Cavs are 9-6 since their blockbuster deal at the trade deadline that brought Ben Wallace, Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West. Unfortunately, it was almost concurrent with a back injury that sidelined center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, so it’s been tough to get a real read just yet. But we do know is coach Mike Brown should never … EVER play Wallace and Andy Varejao together unless everybody else on the roster is hurt. That is a hideous combination in the offensive post. James, by the way, has had at least 20 points in 46 consecutive games on the heels of his 30-point effort in Wednesday’s win over the Pistons. James. Just three months after his 23rd birthday, he is just five points short of becoming the Cavs all-time scoring leader – passing Brad Daugherty.
* The Nets responded from their horrible loss Tuesday night at Chicago to regain the eighth seed with an 8-point win over the Hawks. They got 39 points from Vince Carter, 33 from Richard Jefferson, and young point guard Devin Harris had a career-best 26 points and 9 assists despite a sprained ankle. It may be time for the Hawks, but the Nets should be in the playoffs. With these three guys – all with plenty of playoff experience - and all the young talent up front, it would be inexcusable for coach Lawrence Frank not to get them there.
* Wizards star Gilbert Arenas has been pushing it this week, and says he could be back some time next week. Arenas had knee surgery in November – the second one in six months. Although he’s been physically inactive with the team until the past week or so, it hasn’t stopped the mouth of the self-proclaimed Agent Zero. Zero and the club are waiting on his latest MRI results to set a more definitive timetable.
* The Heat hit a new low this season when the squeezed out just 54 points in their 41-point loss at Toronto Wednesday night. Since the shot-clock was implemented in 1954, only two other teams have scored less – the 49 points by the Bulls in a 1999 loss to the Heat being the record. The Heat managed just 9 points in the fourth quarter and shot just .256 (20-of-78) from the field. They played without Dwyane Wade, Shawn Marion, Jason Williams, Udonis Haslem, Marcus Banks, Alexander Johnson and Dorell Wright.
* This sorry state of affairs with the Heat brings to mind the obvious question of how in the world they won at Milwaukee Monday night. The response by Bucks owner Sen. Herb Kohl was to fire general manager Larry Harris Wednesday, but somehow the other Larry - Krystkowiak – managed to keep his job as coach. At 23-44, they are one of the gross underachievers of the season, and you have to wonder how long Kohl is going to hang on to this team that is bleeding money. Doug Collins has surfaced as a possible president of basketball operations for the Bucks.
