- Howard Beck of The New York Times: J.R. Smith was born in Freehold, N.J., and played at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, so he knows a little about the intensity of New York basketball. It took him little time to get acclimated Sunday, as he scored 15 points off the bench in a 104-97 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. Smith signed with the Knicks on Friday, after playing a full season with the Zhejiang Golden Bulls in China. He arrived in great shape but had no time to practice with the Knicks or even familiarize himself with the playbook before pulling on his No. 8 jersey. Coach Mike D’Antoni had hedged about even playing Smith on Sunday, but he used him for 30 minutes, including the final 17, in part because of Iman Shumpert’s foul trouble and ineffectiveness. ... “The first five minutes was really mind-blowing,” Smith said. “The whole time in warm-ups, I’m just sitting here thinking to myself: ‘This is crazy. I’m at the Garden. I’m wearing a Knick uniform. This is crazy. I never imagined this in a million years.’ ” Smith was also pursued by the Los Angeles Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers, but he chose the Knicks because of the chance to play in front of friends and family and the chance to rejoin Carmelo Anthony, his former Denver Nuggets teammate. Anthony and the Clippers’ Chris Paul are the godfathers to Smith’s two daughters, and both lobbied him. But Smith said that playing in New York, in D’Antoni’s high-powered offense, “was really a no-brainer.”
- Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Jason Terry was assessed a flagrant foul after intentionally running into New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin with 4:45 left in the first quarter and the Dallas Mavericks clinging to an 18-15 lead. From there, the Knicks scored the next 15 points to complete a 17-0 run on the way to a 104-97 victory over the Mavericks. Terry, though, is hoping the NBA will rescind the flagrant foul when they review it today. "I don't think it was a flagrant foul," Terry said. "The league will look at it and rescind it if they want to, and if not, I'll just take the hit. Even Lin said it wasn't a flagrant foul." Terry was asked if Lin was receiving special treatment from referees. "I don't necessarily think it was a special treatment," Terry said. "I just think they called it on emotions. Once they heard the reaction of the crowd, then they made the call. That call didn't necessarily win or lose the game for either team, and that's just part of the game." Coach Rick Carlisle, however, said the call played a significant role in the outcome. "I thought the two things that did us in were the 17-0 run in the first quarter after the flagrant foul," he said. "We went from up five to down 12."
- Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register: Kobe Bryant said the limbo of the Lakers possibly trading Pau Gasol has gone on enough and requested a decision be made. “I wish management would come out and either trade him or not trade him,” Bryant said after the Lakers’ loss in Phoenix on Sunday night. Bryant said his preference is the Lakers do not trade Gasol, citing the team’s “foundation” is in place with Bryant, Gasol and “the emergence of Andrew (Bynum).”
Can’t have one of our pillars not knowing if he’s going to be here,” Bryant said. Although Bryant said Gasol has “been the consummate professional” in maintaining loyalty to the Lakers and desire to stay, Bryant said: “It’s just tough for a player to give his all when you don’t know if you’re going to be here tomorrow.” Upon being told of Bryant’s comments, Gasol said: “Obviously it’s not the best-case scenario for anybody, as a team. It’s always nice to have security and reassurance, but again, I understand. … Obviously it would be nice to know one way or the other for my mind’s sake, but I don’t know if I’m in a position to really demand that at all. I understand that things are not as easy as they appear at times.” ... Gasol said he believes the Lakers are “listening” to offers as opposed to taking him off the trading block. “It seems it’s not that way,” Gasol said. “That’s the feeling that I get, and I haven’t really confirmed it, but from the situation and all the talks, that’s what I perceive.” Bryant was not outwardly angry about the situation despite a couple of profanities he dropped in while saying the Lakers should trade Gasol or say they’re not trading him. He was aware of the newsworthiness of his opinion, however, half-smiling to reporters as he said: “You got some bulletin news for your story?” - Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: Suns guard Steve Nash entered Sunday night's game shooting 55.1 percent from the field and 41.8 percent from 3-point range. The only player in NBA history to shoot 55 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range for a season was Chris Mullin, who did so for Golden State in 1996-97.
- Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: Serge Ibaka swatted Afflalo's driving layup attempt and rebounded it in one motion to prevent the basket, secure the ball and help the Thunder pull out a 124-118 overtime victory on Sunday night inside Chesapeake Energy Arena. It was the last of Ibaka's career-high and franchise-record 11 blocked shots. On a night in which Durant and Russell Westbrook stuffed the stat sheet with mind-numbing numbers not seen since the early '80s, they nearly had the show stolen from them by Ibaka, who added 14 points and 15 rebounds to register the franchise's first triple double with blocked shots. It was Ibaka's third game this season with at least 10 blocked shots — the third time in 11 games that Ibaka's had double-digit rejections. The last player to record three games of at least 10 blocked shots was Shawn Bradley, who had five during the 1996-97 season. “He's been phenomenal, man,” said Durant, who scored a career-high 51 points. “It's just fun to watch.” Ibaka recorded eight of his 11 blocked shots in the second half and overtime. But he earned his triple double in regulation, rejecting his 10th shot, a layup by Ty Lawson, with 2:32 to play in the fourth quarter.
- Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post: Somewhere in jam-packed Chesapeake Energy Arena, Nuggets executive Masai Ujiri sat, his heart ripped out in every bit the same fashion as the players and coaches he watched in person Sunday night. Oklahoma City star Kevin Durant was inflicting the kind of pain only a career-high 51 points could provide, making play after play after gut-wrenching play down the stretch. Russell Westbrook tacked on 40 points for good measure, and the Nuggets were left wondering when all of this will turn around, losing another nail-biter, 124-118 in overtime. "We were kind of laughing, saying,, 'When's the last time he missed a shot in the fourth quarter against us?' " Nuggets coach George Karl said of Durant. "He makes everything. An offensive rebound, OK, why does he come wide open? Why doesn't somebody else come wide open?" It was the second consecutive game the Nuggets thought they had a victory in hand ... and then didn't. ... The Kevin Durant-Russell Westbrook 51-40 game was the first set of teammates to score 50-plus and 40-plus points since Nuggets Kiki Vandeweghe (51) and Alex English (47) did it against Detroit on Dec. 13, 1983, a triple-overtime game.
- Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: So who's better? Who's the Heat's best player? "I'm not a huge fan of co-MVPs, but in this case it's perfect," reserve forward Shane Battier said, running away from the question as fast as he was in closing out Sunday on Orlando's 3-point shooters. "But the way they're doing it, Dwyane first every game and then LeBron, no, that's not be design. "They're good and playing well. But I don't know if they're good enough to call which quarters they're going to be doing it." It just seems that way. "I've got to keep the scoring going," James said of his consistent emergence after halftime, after Wade sets the scoring tone. "It's just a comfort level for both of us." For the Magic, Sunday's comfort level was minimal, with the Heat playing with a sizable lead the entire second half. To Wade, the game and the ongoing success has been a product of the Heat's defense, a defense that Sunday limited the Magic to 36.5-percent shooting. "I think right now we're playing the defense we wanted to come into the season playing," Wade said.
- David J. Nealby of The Miami Herald: Oh, you thought the above concerned the Heat’s point guard-shooting guard-small forward-power forward, who rolled up 25 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists as the Heat whipped Orlando 90-78? Nah, I meant FC Barcelona marvel Lionel Messi, scorer of four goals against Valencia around the time Sunday that Dwyane Wade started pouring in points and James started tossing around assists. The twin masterful performances made me wonder: Who is the best team sport athlete in the world right now? The best player in the world’s most popular team sport, Messi, or the acknowledged best player in the world’s second most popular team sport, LeBron? “Messi’s … Messi’s something special,” Heat forward Shane Battier said when I posed the question to him after Sunday’s game. “Man, both of them are doing it on the main spotlight. It’s hard to compare. Soccer’s a little different. You get someone threading you with some pretty deft passes. LeBron has the ball in his hand a little more, so he controls his destiny a little more. So in some regards, that’s more amazing, but in some regards, it’s more amazing what Messi does. It depends how you look at it.”
- Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: Glen "Big Baby" Davis returned to the team after missing a game to attend his father's funeral in Louisiana. "I'm at rock bottom," Davis said. "My grandmother's death, my father's death. I use basketball as a coping mechanism so I just tried to focus on playing…I just got to be mentally strong right now. I have to leave that stuff out there." Davis said this season has been a struggle. "I'm at the bottom of my game and I'm really struggling tremendously," he said. "I know what I can do and I have the potential. It can only go up from here." Davis' father, John Greer, died last Sunday and was interred in Baton Rouge, La. He lost his grandmother, who practically raised him, earlier this season. Davis missed Friday night's game against the Milwaukee Bucks at Amway Center.
- Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: It's Linsanity in New York, no doubt. But across the river in New Jersey on Sunday night the Milwaukee Bucks served up a dose of "Ersanity" while halting a four-game losing skid. Forward Ersan Ilyasova pulled down a career-high 25 rebounds and scored a career-best 29 points in leading the Bucks to a 92-85 victory over the New Jersey Nets at the Prudential Center. When he fouled out with 2:01 remaining the entire Bucks bench stood up and applauded Ilyasova's effort. The 6-foot-10 Ilyasova grabbed 13 offensive rebounds on the way to tying the NBA season-high rebound mark of 25, set by Orlando's Dwight Howard in an overtime game against San Antonio on Jan. 18. And Ilyasova became the first Bucks player since Swen Nater in 1976 to have a 25-25 game (Nater had 30 points and 33 rebounds against Atlanta that year). "It's Ersanity, man," said Bucks center Jon Brockman. "That's a special game. He needs to take this (the box score) home and frame it. "He's been bringing effort like that every night. It's great to see that from a guy who has been working his tail off."
- Mike Vorkunov of The Star-Ledger: Anthony Morrow will use the All-Star break as an opportunity to honor a pivotal figure in Nets history and a superstar lost too early. Morrow will participate in the three-point shooting contest this weekend wearing a Drazen Petrovic jersey. Petrovic was a Net for two-plus years, from midway through the 1990-91 season until 1993, and left a large impression on the franchise. He died in a car crash at 28 years old that summer. His No. 3 jersey is one of five retired by the organization after he spent his only two full seasons with the team averaging more than 20 points-per-game in each. He was posthumously enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002, not only for his play but also for being a pioneer in the sport for Eastern Europeans. Morrow has had the idea since he saw Petrovic's jersey hanging in the Nets' practice facility. After seeing the documentary, "Once Brothers" -- about the broken friendship between Petrovic and Vlade Divac -- he thought that if he had the chance to participate in All-Star weekend, he would honor the fallen hero. "I just remember -- I don't remember a whole lot -- but I remember he could shoot real, real good," Morrow said.
- Tom Reed of The Plain Dealer: LeBron James said last week he might consider returning to Cleveland in two years. J.J. Hickson made it clear Sunday night he never wanted to leave. The former Cavalier forward was at The Q with his new team and sounded like a player who would rather be almost anywhere except Sacramento. Even Anaheim. Hickson is struggling to adjust to a new team and a return to his natural position of power forward. He is averaging 5.2 points and less than 20 minutes a game all the while costing himself significant money in a contract year. "I'm not having the year I wanted to have, not just personally but we're not winning," said Hickson, an unrestricted free agent as season's end. "But after going through the season [the Cavs] went through last year, I didn't want to come to a situation like this. I wanted to rebuild here, but I got traded and things happen." The Cavaliers shipped Hickson to the Kings for Omri Casspi and a much-protected, first-round draft choice on June 30, 2011. They no longer needed to worry about whether to commit long-term to Hickson, who averaged 13.8 points and 8.7 rebounds last season, but irritated coaches with his mental lapses and inconsistency.
- Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune: Rookie Derrick Williams continues to prepare for the All-Star weekend dunk competition, but he's not talking much about his preparation. Williams said he's getting a lot of input for dunk possibilities from friends, family and teammates. "Every day," he said. "We have three dunks. I have two down that I want to do, I'm waiting on one more." But Williams isn't about to let on what those two dunks are, wanting to keep the element of surprise. He practiced -- and pulled off -- an off-the-backboard, between-the-legs dunk after practice last week. But even then he didn't say that would necessarily be a part of his repertoire. His strategy for getting out of the first round? "You have to start strong, but you don't want to do your best," Williams said. "But you want one that will get you through to the next round. So I'll probably do one of my best ones first." Williams has been lobbying Ricky Rubio to help him in the contest. Rubio said he will.
- John N. Mitchell of The Philadelphia Inquirer: When they tally up the wins and losses at the end of the season, the joy or disappointment that factors into each game in the NBA season is meaningless. But if it did mean something, the 92-91 setback the 76ers suffered Sunday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Target Center would rank way up there. The lead changed hands 11 times in the fourth quarter, the last time coming with one-tenth of a second to play. Fouled by the 76ers' Andre Iguodala, who had gone over to help defensively, Minnesota all-star Kevin Love sank a pair of free throws - tying the game and securing the victory - to extend the Sixers' losing streak to a season-high three games.
- Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press: Last week, Pistons coach Lawrence Frank talked about the importance of maintaining focus as the All-Star break approaches. He said to look for eye-opening results as you peruse the nightly results from around the NBA. Call Frank a prophet. On Friday night, the 7-23 Hornets temporarily halted the Linsanity when they won against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden; Saturday, the 9-23 Nets beat Eastern Conference power Chicago at the United Center. You have no way of knowing if the Knicks and Bulls were caught looking ahead to a three-day break that begins Friday -- especially since the Knicks rebounded to beat Dallas on Sunday. But the results emphasize the importance of staying in the present. "Once you lose sight of the task at hand, that's what happens," Frank said before the Pistons stayed on point by beating the Celtics on Sunday. "It has nothing to do about talent or anything. It's really about being locked in and staying in the moment."
- Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe: Jermaine O’Neal believes it’s time for a meeting. Captain Paul Pierce doesn’t believe it’s that time quite yet. They both agree that something has to change if the Celtics are going to make any impact on the playoffs in eight weeks. ... O’Neal said that with 36 games left and a demoralizing .500 record, the Celtics should discuss matters. “I think at some point over the next 48 hours, I’m sure we’ll have a conversation just amongst our team in terms of where we’re at mentally,’’ he said. “Because that’s the key, mentally for us right now. I don’t care what’s going on, we shouldn’t lose to Detroit twice in a five-day span. They’re playing good basketball but they shouldn’t beat us twice.’’ When asked if he will organize the players to meet, Pierce said: “I don’t see me calling a meeting right now. I’m not going to use the excuse that we didn’t have [Rajon] Rondo for the second half or missing out on [Kevin Garnett] or Brandon Bass. We just have to be more competitive. It doesn’t take calling the guys in for that.’’
- Neil Hayes of the Chicago Sun-Times: Derrick Rose took a big step forward in his rehabilitation from a back injury during practice Sunday at the Berto Center. He participated in the kind of physical workout coach Tom Thibodeau wants to see if he can endure before letting him return. If Rose feels no ill effects Monday morning, he could play against the Hawks in the afternoon. ... Even if Rose returns against Atlanta, or if he waits until the Bucks come to town Wednesday, is it in his or the organization’s best interest to risk a setback in the All-Star Game on Sunday? That’s the conundrum the Bulls and Rose are facing. “When he’s ready to play, he’s ready to play,” Thibodeau said when asked if he preferred Rose play in a game before the All-Star Game in Orlando, Fla. “Whether it’s [Monday] or later, I’m not going to base it on anything other than him being ready to play, not the opponent, not the All-Star Game, not anything. If he’s cleared medically and is ready to play, he’ll play.”
- Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: Rookie center Greg Smith, who signed with the Rockets on Feb. 8, went from the development league to the Rockets’ rotation Sunday, joining the roster with Jordan Hill out. Smith played 12 minutes, blocking four shots all in the first half. “He remembered what we did,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. “I was shocked. I barely remembered what we did in training camp. He asked, ‘are we still running this.’ He’s sharp. That helps a great deal. “He did a nice job. He’s smart. He knows what he’s doing. A practice, probably would not hurt him, but he’s just another big body. He set some really nice screens, which is good.” Smith’s return to the Rockets was not unexpected. “When I got cut, we talked about me re-signing,” Smith said. “They wanted to see me play in the D-League. When I played in the D-League, I showed what I could do. I showed I’m a player who could be with their franchise for a couple of years."
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