- Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star: "Bryan Colangelo, the Raptors GM, and Sam Mitchell, the deposed coach, saw almost everything differently. But perhaps the chief team-hurting contradiction of their nearly three years together in Toronto was philosophical. Colangelo is a Western-bred enthusiast of the run-and-gun game; Mitchell kneels at the altar of lockdowns and rebounds. So maybe it made sense, given the lack of unity in their union, that their team played a disconnected hybrid of both styles. The Colangelo-Mitchell Raptors, in the end, neither ran much nor played more than the occasional lick of defence. So Mitchell finally got fired yesterday, outlasting most projections of his longevity by a few years and several millions in salary. And today, with Jay Triano at the helm, the Raptors will begin again, trying their luck at the track meet."
- Brian Windhorst of The Plain Dealer: "After the game nearly the entire Cavs team stayed in the shower area for an hour. They were leaning against walls, sitting on counters and enjoying adult beverages all in towels. They were talking, making fun of each other, hanging out. It may seem like normal locker room behavior, but it isn't. Maybe these guys go hang out with each other in groups after the games at restaurants or their houses. But in my six years covering the Cavs I'd never seen that after a game. You have to preface everything you say about these Cavs with 'it's still early,' but I have not seen chemistry like this before. The season is long, trying times are certainly ahead, but the team is more than just winning, they are enjoying doing it with each other."
- Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle: "If you're wondering why Tracy McGrady is not playing through the pain, you're not alone. Doctors have told the Rockets he can't make the knee worse by playing. It simply comes down to how much pain he can tolerate. Daryl Morey met with both McGrady and Ron Artest about playing with their injuries. Artest is playing despite a high ankle sprain that had him limping through portions of Wednesday's game. McGrady said the pain had become more than he could deal with. ... Yes, McGrady and Artest are different. I know what you're thinking. McGrady's making $21 million. He should play through the pain. That's an easy theory, except that none of us knows exactly how he's feeling. We just don't. Let's be clear about this. The Rockets have absolutely no doubt that McGrady wants to play. 'No doubt,' Morey said. 'He's not happy about the way he was playing. He's frustrated.'"
- Dan Shaughnessy of The Boston Globe: "They pushed past the Pacers last night. Tomorrow night, it'll be Portland with Greg Oden. One tomato can after another. Sure, the Cavaliers are better than they were last season. Sure, the Lakers have Andrew Bynum this time around. But the Celtics are putting the league on notice: You had your chance last spring. No stopping us now."
- Jason Quick of The Oregonian: "Now, Brandon Roy can finally say it. He and the Trail Blazers want Boston. There are no more games to potentially overlook, no more film sessions to grind through, because after Wednesday's 98-92 win at Washington -- the Blazers' sixth in a row -- Friday's matchup in Boston against the World Champion Celtics has arrived. 'This is what we want,' Roy said. 'This is where we want to be. I want it not only for this team, but for me personally. To see where I'm at, you know? To see where this team is at, to see where I can get this team to.' What you are hearing, Portland, and what the rest of the NBA is seeing, is an All-Star morphing into a great player. Or at least a great leader."
- Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times: "Sorry, Lakers fans. The Chicago Bulls' record-setting 72-10 campaign won't be topped this season. At least that's what Phil Jackson said Wednesday, and he'd probably know a thing or two about such success. He was the Bulls' coach when they set the NBA standard for victories in 1995-96. ... 'I don't think there's any chance that we're going to get anywhere close to 70 wins,' he said. 'I'm not going to say that we can't win 60, but I don't think that there's a chance [at 70] -- and that's if everything goes well health-wise. Traveling in the West is just too difficult. Changing time zones, it just makes it very difficult to be consistent night in and night out on the road.'"
- Sarah Rothschild of The Miami Herald: "TNT analyst Charles Barkley might be in Dwyane Wade's 'Fave Five,' but he apparently isn't such a fan of Wade's supporting cast with the Heat. 'He's Michael Jackson playing with a bunch of Tito Jacksons, but he's balling anyway,' Charles Barkely said Wednesday on 790 The Ticket. Wade said he was unsure how to interpret Barkley's comments. Forward Udonis Haslem at first said he did not want to say what he truly thought because he had a lot of respect for Barkely. Then Haslem said: 'My name isn't Tito, my name is Udonis Haslem. We've got Shawn Marion, Joel Anthony, Mario Chalmers, Michael Beasley, Mark Blount; the list goes on and on. Nobody on this team is named Tito.' Wade's reaction? 'I have a good relationship with Charles,' said Wade, who is in T-Mobile commercials with Barkley. 'That's his job to come out and say things like that. Whatever he wants to say is fine with us.'"
- Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News: "Tim Duncan has endured some sprained ankles and plantar fasciitis along the way. But this season, he's playing more and scoring more, appearing as fit as he has since his MVP years, and he also looks freer. Give some credit to Popovich for this. He's preached to Duncan for years to not hesitate when he has an open outside shot. This season, Duncan is doing just that. There was something else going on early, too, when Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker were out. Instead of being bored by the early season, as he sometimes was in the past, Duncan had a spark. Why? He probably enjoyed being The Option again. And he probably liked the challenge of trying to scratch out wins with a makeshift group."
- Paul Willis of the Rocky Mountain News: "This is how Nene likes it. While the Nuggets' monthlong hot streak has been credited almost solely to the arrival of Chauncey Billups and the improved all-around game of Carmelo Anthony, the Nuggets center quietly is becoming the player they always said he could be. While Billups and Anthony continue to eat up the headlines, Nene has averaged 15.2 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.68 blocked shots, all of which would shatter his single-season bests. But perhaps most telling about the 6-foot-11 Brazilian's emergence is his 64.2 percent field-goal percentage, which leads the NBA but is on pace to be the best since Artis Gilmore shot 65.2 percent for Chicago in 1981-82. 'Now is my time,' Nene said. 'I've been through a lot of things to get to this position I am now.'"
- Jerry Brown of the East Valley Tribune: "After getting his technical fouls under control last season, Amaré Stoudemire is on another roll. After being ejected in Sunday's loss to the Nets, Stoudemire got his second in two games against the Hornets this season while disputing a second-quarter call with referee Scott Foster. Stoudemire now has six technical fouls this season, second only to Boston's Kendrick Perkins (nine). 'I still have things under control, just a few words here and there, nothing major,' Stoudemire said. 'This year, it seems like I can't say anything. I'm in the hot spot as far as the bulletin board goes. 'Watch out for Stoudemire.' I guess I have to take it slow until I get off the board.'"
- Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle: "The Warriors are a strange basketball team. The last two seasons, they were strange and wonderful. This season, they're just strange."
- Barker Davis of The Washington Times: "When last season's consensus No. 1 prep player, Brandon Jennings, headed to Italy instead of college, becoming the first high school player to choose that path since the NBA instituted its minimum-age requirement after the 2005 draft, some observers dubbed Jennings the pioneer of a new era. 'I think we're going to have a revolution,' said former shoe executive Sonny Vaccaro, who advised Jennings during his decision-making process. 'And Brandon Jennings, a kid from Compton [Calif.], is going to start it.' A month into Jennings' European experiment, the reverberations of said "revolution" have given way to deafening silence. The 6-foot-1, 170-pound guard has all but vanished from basketball's collective conscious. Jennings is the fourth member of Lottomatica Roma's backcourt rotation. Buried in the depth chart behind guards like former All-Big East performer Allan Ray (Villanova) and former Ivy League player of the year Ibrahim Jaaber (Penn), Jennings exited the team's first eight games averaging 4.9 points and 3.0 assists in 17.3 minutes. ... Instead of enjoying a high-profile role at Arizona, where he would have served as the Wildcats' primary perimeter complement to versatile forward Chase Budinger, he's struggling to earn minutes for a 4-4 squad in the Italian League. As a result, his draft stock is falling."
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