- Chris McCosky of The Detroit News: "The Pistons lost a game, and as per usual, my email box is jammed with Fire Flip rants. My Lord, it's so tiresome. OK, let me get this straight. Flip Saunders has coached like garbage 19 times this year. Thank goodness his players bailed him out on those 49 other games that the Pistons managed to win. That's just so wrong-minded. It's hard to believe Flip would coach his guys to miss nine layups like that. I am sure he got them in the huddle and said, 'Look, they aren't guarding Antonio McDyess, so I don't want you guys looking for him. We don't want to get him too many open shots.'"
- Robyn Norwood of the Los Angeles Times: "The much-ballyhooed battle of the freshman stars, Mayo and Kansas State's Michael Beasley, became a battle of teams, and Kansas State won it with contributions from some of its less-heralded freshmen. Afterward, Mayo slapped hands with the Kansas State players, then found Beasley and his high school teammate Bill Walker and hugged them. They rubbed his head, and Mayo walked off the court, giving a ball boy a high five. Somebody asked him in the locker room if he had played his last game in a USC uniform. 'I don't know. I'm not thinking about that right now,' Mayo said. He handled himself perfectly well, the way he has all season, with yes-sirs and yes-ma'ams and spot-on analysis of the game. He handled himself, you have to say, like a pro."
- Tim Buckley of the Deseret Morning News: Booed loudly the first time he played in Utah this season, ex-Jazz guard Derek Fisher of the Lakers -- who asked out of his contract with the Jazz last summer, citing his young daughter's battle with cancer -- received a few more cheers than jeers during pre-game introductions Thursday. Fisher was, however, mildly booed each time he touched the ball in the opening quarter. Afterward, Bryant -- who slammed the ball to the floor at the final whistle -- suggested that reception from late November was not forgotten. 'I'm very upset,' he said in a TNT interview. 'You know, the last time we came out here they booed Derek -- for no reason. I (said) this morning it was very personal.'"
- Brian Hendrickson of The Columbian: "Before us was an eerie metaphor for the sad turn Darius Miles’ career had taken this week, when the Blazers requested that an independent doctor review his injured right knee to determine whether it would end his career. The light seemed to go out on Miles’ life in basketball. The home for a career had been emptied. And a man who once elicited a full range of emotions -- from cheers to jeers -- took the first steps away from his Blazers career in quiet anonymity. No appearances. No statements to address the situation. Just an empty locker. And so it is left to us to ponder, if this is truly the beginning of the end, the legacy Miles will ultimately leave."
- George M. Thomas of The Akron Beacon-Journal: "LeBron James needs five points tonight against the Toronto Raptors to move past Brad Daugherty to become the Cavs' all-time leading scorer. He moved past Austin Carr, who was in second place, last week. It took Daugherty 548 games to reach his 10,389 points, averaging 19 points. James will do it in just 379 games, averaging 27.4 points. 'That's something very special. You look at the likes of Brad Daugherty and Austin Carr being part of this franchise and scoring many, many points and then being the No. 1 guy in franchise history is special,' James said Thursday."
- Gary DeLaune of the San Antonio Express-News: "I can tell you right now what's wrong with the Spurs ... they just don't have the colorful guys on the court. No sportswriter nor broadcaster has been able to put a label on any Spur except for Matt Bonner who has been tabbed the 'Red Rocket' because of his flaming locks but those colorful pseudonyms of years past are missing from the current roster. No 'gallopin' Gaucho" for Manu Ganobli, 'Frenchie' for Tony Parker, 'D' (Deefense) for Bruce Bowen nor even 'T.D' for Tim Duncan. ... The current Spurs are just too normal without the colorful nicknames we microphonic manipulators tag them with, all too often not to the liking of the superstar."
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