- Last year, of course, Derek Fisher was on the Utah team that knocked Houston out of the playoffs. Jason Friedman of the Houston Press talks to Derek Fisher about Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming's inability to get out of the first round: Fair or not, there's been a lot of talk about Tracy and Yao's inability to get out of the first round. When you were playing them in the postseason last year, did you guys feel like you had a mental edge on them because that seed of doubt had to be lurking somewhere in the back of their minds? I think for me at least in my experience, when you're playing in the playoffs you don't really have the time or the opportunity to worry about what could possibly be going on in your opponent's mind. You're sole focus is doing what you need to do against that team. So I don't think at any point last year we felt like we had a mental edge. We had a lot of guys who had never even been in the first round, period. So, if anything, they had the edge in terms of at least having been in the playoffs.
- Andrei Kirilenko is passing the ball, as Ross Siler describes on his Salt Lake Tribune blog: "Andrei Kirilenko's passing has been truly remarkable (9.8 assists the last four games) and the third quarter might have been his most impressive display yet. Kirilenko started the quarter by lobbing the perfect alley-oop to Okur for a layup. He later found Okur for a three-pointer with a pass that sailed from one side of the court to the opposite corner. And Kirilenko hit Gordan Giricek cutting off an inbounds play as part of the Jazz's 10-2 run to end the quarter. In the third quarter alone, Kirilenko had six assists."
- Phil Jackson apologizes, but can't turn off the hokey humor, as the Associated Press reports: "'... in retrospect, it wasn't really funny,' Jackson said before the Lakers played Houston last night. 'When you take it out of context, it wasn't funny. It was a poor attempt at humor and I deserved to be reprimanded by the NBA.' Still, Jackson couldn't resist making another joke as he apologized. 'If I've offended any horses, Texans, cowboys or gays, I apologize,' Jackson said."
- When Stephon Marbury was away from the Knicks, he was mourning a mentor.
- Dwyane Wade is back, but the crummy Heat still can't beat the Sonics. Pat Riley is talking about benching some people.
- The real Andre Iguodala does not miss wide open dunks.
- Greg Oden, if you want to see a post-microfracture surgery player with explosive power, watch highlights of Rashad McCants last night. (One little sample.)
- Great overtime game last night, in which Dwight Howard and his Magic nudged out LeBron James and the Cavaliers.
- You can read about Grant and Tamia Hill's appearance on Oprah. Also, Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic has a funny note from the other night: "One of the most memorable parts about Tuesday's otherwise forgetful Suns victory was when the Suns announced to the crowd to welcome Grant Hill's wife, singer Tamia, on the video board. Tamia was on there but almost off camera to the left as Tamia's friend was centered and the focus of attention. 'That wasn't my wife,' Hill said after the game."
- David Berri's assessment of the statistics reveals that Stephon Marbury has only ever been an average NBA player, although he was slightly better the one year he decided not to shoot so much.
- Kevin Arnovitz of ClipperBlog, fresh home after watching the Clippers nip the Knicks: "You can't overstate just how horrible Zach Randolph is defensively, and how little he seems to care."
- Tom Ziller of Sactown Royalty, not feeling Reggie Theus: "John Salmons apparently stormed out of the locker room after the game. I don't blame him. Yes, I've been hard on him with respects to ignoring the other folks on the floor. But Jesus, he's been playing his ass off. He plays hard. He deserves more than 26 minutes. I know Ron Artest has to be in there, I know Kevin Martin needs 38 minutes or so. Of course. But Mikki Moore with 28 minutes? Beno F. Udrih with 39 minutes? Seriously, Beno Udrih? He played absolutely unequivocably terrible in Monday's game ... This has been, for all purposes, Salmons first real shot as a starter. And he excelled. And now, through no fault of his own, it's gone. Back to the Philadelphia days, right? Of course, the game was lost when Reggie Theus went all Zeus on us and pulled Kevin [Martin] for a "missed defensive assignment" three minutes into the third quarter. What was the "missed defensive assignment," praytell? He didn't leave Rashad McCants (a 52% three-point shooter) to rotate on to Theo Ratliff (a 48% field goal shooter with almost no touch from beyond 10 feet) from 17 feet. He got yanked because he defended the three from the guy who was on fire instead of challenging the long jumper for a 42-year-old center! Sacramento was up 53-51 when Theus yanked Martin out. Minnesota led 61-58 when Martin returned four minutes later. (It took four minutes to make the point you leave hot streak shooters open to challenge long jumpers by 42-year-old centers.) And guess what? BALL GAME."
- John Calipari is a little concerned that his players not named Derrick Rose aren't getting the credit they deserve, as reported by Lacy Banks in the Chicago Sun-Times: "'We have five guys who won 66 games the last two years,' Calipari said Wednesday on ESPN. 'I called a meeting at my house, and I shortened practice because I thought it was so important to talk about how this is going down. 'We're on our way to New York, and the whole thing is going to be Derrick Rose, Derrick Rose -- and it's not him. He doesn't even want the attention.'"
- Little white dude who can both dunk and blog. And insight into his game from his trainer.
- It was weird when the Spurs gave up Luis
Scola to a division rival. Especially as San Antonio features Scola's national team colleague Manu Ginobili, who must know Scola's game as well as anyone. That's a shrewd front office. Did they know something about Scola that everyone else didn't? I have no idea. I loved what I saw of Scola on the national team this summer. But, while he has had great moments, and it's way too soon to tell, Scola has not been playing like a sure thing in the first few weeks of his NBA career. - Golden State of Mind: "We are now the proud fans of the worst team in the NBA (record wise). Seattle and Minnesota won today, making the Warriors the only winless team in the league. The clock has struck 12 and Cinderella is officially back to wearing rags, cleaning the floors, and practicing some free throws! Frustrating doesn't begin to describe this game."
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