- All-time great Adonal Foyle quote on the NBA lifestyle, from a John Denton Florida Today article: "Guys talk about having to have this car and that car, but I tell them, 'One car is plenty for me. I grew up riding a donkey.'"
- Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle on the mood among the remarkable Houston Rockets, who last night (thanks in part to the suspension of Dirk Nowitzki) beat the Dallas Mavericks (highlights). A team that was once 24-20 is now 41-20. "No one celebrated. No one cheered. There was not loud, raucous laughter in the locker room. That, too, has changed about the Rockets as the winning streak has grown to 17 games, with the road winning streak moving into a tie with the home winning streak at 11-consecutive games each. A week ago in New Orleans, the locker room was boisterous. There were shouts and jokes. Thursday in Dallas -- in Dallas! -- there was none of that, at least not after a few minutes to watch Charles Barkley on the post-game show."
- Yao Ming says he'll play in the Olympics.
- An email from statistical expert Stephen Ilardi (who, for instance, co-wrote this): "I noticed when Yao Ming went down last week that he has actually had a negative adjusted +/- number this year (roughly -2.7), and that his minutes are now mostly going to guys like Hayes (+4.4), Scola (+4.7), and Landry (+5.8) that have much better numbers. So, even though it flies in the face of common sense and 'conventional wisdom,' I predicted that the Rockets would actually perform better down the stretch in Yao's absence. And, of course, they haven't yet lost since he went down. (A caveat: our estimates are still pretty 'noisy' right now for some players, but by the end of the season we'll have that problem fixed."
- Coaches love consistency, and Portland's Martell Webster is searching for it. Playing at least 20 minutes every time out, here are Webster's point totals over a recent stretch, as pointed out by BlazersEdge: 9, 17, 8, 7, 18, 11, 3, 18, 7, 3, 12, 12, 15, 9.
- Sid Hartman of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Team owner Glen Taylor says the franchise has a three-year plan to build the team. And Taylor said he thinks the fans will wait that long. 'I think so,'' Taylor said. 'I think the fans realize that we have a young team and we're going to grow with this team.' Taylor said coach Randy Wittman's job is not in danger. He said Wittman has a three-year contract, is doing a good job and there will not be any coaching changes regardless of the team's record."
- You have to salute the Pistons for being able to bring in lots of young talent even as they keep playing at a high level. We talked about some of that young talent with assistant Terry Porter yesterday. And today, Chris McCosky of The Detroit News discusses how some of those youngsters will be losing minutes: "The Pistons have 21 games to work in three veterans -- Lindsey Hunter, Juan Dixon and Theo Ratliff. To do that, three other players have to be phased out of the rotation, at least somewhat. Untested young players, for the most part, get exposed in the playoffs and in playoff-type games like Wednesday. That's why the Pistons have saved Hunter, and it's why president Joe Dumars went out and acquired the two veterans before the deadline."
- Joakim Noah gets 20 rebounds in 32 minutes against Ben Wallace.
- Pat Riley is really once again leaving his team when it is not doing well? Really?
- In Canadian youth basketball, the pass-first Steve Nash generation is on the rise.
- Very interesting email from agent Eric Goodwin to writer Marc Berman, which Berman reproduced in its entirety on his blog. Goodwin is saying, essentially, that it's no good blaming his clients Nate Robinson and Jamal Crawford for the poor performance of Eddy Curry. Goodwin then speculates that Berman may be intentionally diverting blame away from Curry as a favor to Curry's agent, Leon Rose. I have no reason to believe Berman was doing anything other than calling it like he sees it, but Goodwin's email is interesting, and indicative of ongoing competitive prickliness between the camp of Leon Rose, William Wesley, etc. and the Goodwins.
- TrueHoop reader Rick has been watching the Suns game against the Nuggets the other night obsessively, picking apart play by play, and writes: "The key problem with trading Marion is that the Suns poor guard defense is now exposed. I do not believe Nash, Barbosa, or even Bell made a single good defensive play in the game. Continuous penetration by Nuggets. Going under screens badly, leaving several feet of room. Loose on JR Smith despite the fact that he was unconscious." It's a problem, for sure. I watched a lot of that game, and was amazed to see that for long stretches Leandro Barbosa was tasked with stopping Allen Iverson, and Linton Johnson was sticking Carmelo Anthony. Doesn't feel like a title team, does it?
- Doesn't sound like the Washington State legislature is all that likely to approve stadium cash for Seattle before next year.
- Tyrus Thomas usually gets to practice early. When he was a no-show, it was so out of character that the team sent police to his house, fearing he may have been the victim of a crime.
- Dave D'Alessandro of The Star-Ledger talks to Rod Thorn about firing Byron Scott: "'It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, no doubt about it,' Thorn said of removing Scott as Nets coach in January of 2004. 'Most of it was because I liked him so much personally. But people tend to forget, Byron was terrific for that team we had.'"
- San Antonio got the win (highlights), but Manu Ginobili could not make the key play to keep his coach in the game. Jeff McDonald of the San Anto
nio Express-News: "Ginobili tried to intervene after Popovich picked up a technical for arguing a no-call in the second quarter, teaming with assistant Don Newman to try and keep his head coach away from referee Mark Wunderlich. The interference proved ineffective, and Popovich quickly drew a second technical and automatic ejection. 'I tried to block him out,' Ginobili joked after the game. 'I could have done better.'" - Status check: does London love basketball? Not yet.
- Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune: "There's been an increasing amount of chatter about the LeBron James/Kobe Bryant showdown for MVP this week in the Jazz locker room. Deron Williams marveled at James' line of 50 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds Wednesday against New York, but the consensus seems to be that Bryant deserves to be MVP by virtue of being older and having led the Lakers to the West's best record. As someone who voted for Bryant last season, I'm inclined to think the same way. The one thing that gives me pause would be voting for somebody who made as vocal a trade demand as Bryant did last summer, one that threatened to destroy his team. There's no disputing what Bryant has done this season, but as recently as training camp there were questions about whether he cleaned out his locker in protest. I'm leaning toward James right now, especially given the two games he had against the Jazz."
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