- Mark Bradley of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "The difference is that the Hawks aren't yet skilled enough to make the elegantly simple plays Kevin Garnett makes as a matter of course. ('Anything to sell some tickets,' was Garnett's postgame appraisal of the program cover.) The Celtics are a finely finished product; the Hawks are still finding their feet. They're down 0-2 on the season series, but there are miles to go before either of these teams sleep. Many around the NBA regard Cleveland and LeBron James as Boston's biggest threat come the 2009 playoffs, but if I'm the Celtics I'm hoping the Hawks aren't seeded No. 4, 5 or 8 in the East. That would almost surely put them on the Celtics' side of the bracket, and the Hawks relish every chance they get at the Green. Given enough chances, they might just get it right."
- John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News: "Tony DiLeo spent the previous few days exhaling -- well, at least between adjusting to becoming a head coach again for the first time in nearly two decades and doing it at the highest level of basketball for a team that has been underachieving. 'It's a huge adjustment,' said DiLeo, the Sixers' senior vice president/assistant general manager, who took over as head coach when Maurice Cheeks was fired on Saturday. 'Right now, it's like 24 hours of thinking about the team, planning for the team, watching film. But that's what I missed when I wasn't coaching, that day-to-day excitement, just planning, either winning or losing, making adjustments and coming back the next day. It is a major adjustment time-wise. You're focused on one thing.' DiLeo, whose last head-coaching gig was from 1979-90 in West Germany, insists coaching is just like riding a bike. 'It comes back,' DiLeo said. 'A lot of the feelings, a lot of everything we've done in practice, setting up drills, doing drills, going over scouting reports, that's the same, so that's come back quickly.'"
- Frank Isola of the New York Daily News: "Tim Thomas seemed to be speaking for all of his teammates when the Knicks forward was asked about a certain exiled point guard making an appearance at Tuesday's game in Los Angeles. 'Who gives a ---,' Thomas said. 'We're trying to establish ourselves as a team and get better. If he wants to be here just to get some attention, that's on him.'"
- Chris McCosky of The Detroit News: "There's a method to Michael Curry's madness. The more tried and tested weapons the team has available, the better its chances of cracking some of the better defensive teams in the playoffs. The players understand and are slowly buying into the plan. Curry hopes fans and media come to grips with it, too. 'We said at the beginning that we looked at Rodney Stuckey and Antonio McDyess as starters,' Curry said. 'So if you look at it like we have seven starters, two guys are not going to be on the court down the stretch. That's just the way it's going to be. I don't want it to be a story every time one of those guys doesn't play down the stretch. We have a deep team in certain areas and because of that we will have a quality guy who's not on the court.'"
- Frank Zicarelli of the Toronto Sun: "Andrea Bargnani is more mystery than a mainstay on a Raptors team that continues to draw closer to either being tweaked or completely overhauled. Against last night's opponent, Bargnani wasn't the only one to exercise poor shot selection or take ill-advised three-point attempts with 20 seconds left on the shot clock. But his game has come under the microscope, the scrutiny being that much more intense given Dirk Nowitzki was paying his first and only visit to the Air Canada Centre. For reasons that defy all logic, people have tried to compare Bargnani to Nowitzki. Maybe it's the European connection, the colour of their skin, the fact each can put the ball on the floor and extend their offence as seven-footers. It's really an exercise in futility to even attempt to group the two because Bargnani is never going to earn league MVP honours."
- Kerry Eggers of The Portland Tribune: "A couple of decades ago, Trail Blazer fans were treated to the blossoming of one of basketball's great talents in Clyde Drexler. Look out, because the city appears to have a second coming in Brandon Roy. In his third NBA season, the 6-5 shooting guard is climbing into a hallowed stratosphere reached only by the game's greatest perimeter stars -- players such as Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade and Steve Nash. Roy, 24, isn't quite there yet. And he is the first to point out he doesn't deserve the acclaim reserved for the very best, if only because he hasn't yet experienced the postseason."
- Bob Finnan of The News-Herald: "It was almost over before it started for Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Before he was drafted by the Cavs in 1996, he was being 'stashed' by the Minnesota Timberwolves. T-Wolves doctors performed the first two surgeries on his feet. He was watching a T-Wolves' practice and a tri-pod crashed down to the floor. 'It grazed my hair, back when I had hair,' Ilgauskas said. 'It fell between my legs and it took a piece of the floor with it. It might not have killed me, but it would have hurt.' He joked that he probably would have sued. 'I would have been owner, GM and coach,' he said."
- Dan Bickley of The Arizona Republic: "Everywhere Shaquille O'Neal has traveled along his highly entertaining career, the big guy has become part of the community. He has always shown big heart, especially to children. And to this day, you should see the way he handles a room full of shrieking kids. 'They realize that I am them,' O'Neal said. 'I'm a former juvenile delinquent. I have six kids of my own. I speak their language. They can relate to me because they see themselves in me.'"
- Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: "Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin calls him 'Smiley.' This is an apt moniker, for Cheikh Samb smiles often and his grin is so gargantuan you wonder about the sturdiness of his cheekbones. Samb's widest teeth-flashing happens, sure enough, when he tells a story about his teeth. His road from Dakar to Denver went through Paris, where the teenager showed his raw talent to scouts; to Barcelona, where he and his younger brother, Mamadou, rose through the Spanish League ranks; to Detroit, where the second-round pick cut his teeth with the Pistons; and to Fort Wayne, where, in his second D-League game, 'They broke my teeth!' he exclaimed, followed by a toothy chuckle."
- Jeff Eisenberg of The Press-Enterprise: "At a time when families are being increasingly cautious with their entertainment dollar as a result of the recent economic downturn, demand for ti
ckets to the Lakers-Celtics Christmas Day showdown is still as strong as ever. The average resale price on StubHub, an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of tickets, for a ticket to the game is about $334 -- highest of any regular-season game this year and more than twice the $148 average last year's Lakers-Suns Christmas game fetched. While tickets to last year's NBA Finals were worth at least twice as much on the secondary market, Los Angeles-area ticket brokers said prices for this game are equivalent to those of a typical Western Conference finals. Nosebleed seats originally priced at $10 to $45 are going for more than $200 apiece, while the asking price for a courtside seat alongside Jack Nicholson and David Beckham is as much as $10,000."
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