- Monique Walker of The Boston Globe: "Looking for a little perspective on this season's Celtics? They are owners of the longest winning streak in franchise history at 19 games and own the NBA record for the best start at 27-2. No other Celtics teams can say that. But leave it to Paul Pierce to throw in a dose of reality. 'Has any other Boston Celtic team lost 18 in a row? We've done that,' said Pierce, referring to the losing streak in 2006-07 of which he was a part."
- Steve Buckley of the Boston Herald: "Now it is this: Christmas Day. The Staples Center. The Lakers. The Rematch. Bliss. And don't think the Garden masses weren't clued into the big matchup. With a little more than five minutes remaining in this game, they started to chant for that game. 'Beat LA ... Beat LA ... Beat LA ...' But here's the problem: Even as they acknowledge the hype, the Celtics refuse to get caught up in the stuff. Speaking with the media after the game, and with an approving Kevin Garnett sitting next to him, nodding, Paul Pierce spoke what he believes is The Truth about Celtics-Lakers. 'This is for the fans,' Pierce said. 'That's why they put it on the commercials and that's why they put it in the newspapers and that's why they make it on Christmas Day. This is for the fans and the media. For us, it's just another opportunity to get better. If we beat the Lakers, do we get anything for it? Do we get another championship?'"
- Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register: "Phil Jackson is in full-fledged hype- building mode for the Lakers and Celtics on Christmas. 'It's one of 82, but we only see the Celtics twice,' Jackson said. This was even better: 'If we can stop their streak, that's a significant thing.' Jackson revealed the gist of his pregame speech when he brought up the Lakers' collapse in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, saying that the Lakers must be out to avenge that disastrous second half played on their home court. Jackson also dropped some carrots out there about this being 'a growing point' for Andrew Bynum, who missed the NBA Finals with his knee injury and will be ordered to flex the muscle the Lakers lacked last spring."
- Mike Jones of The Washington Times: "Remember the old Looney Tunes cartoon in which Bugs Bunny crawls out of a hole on a baseball diamond, summons spectacular powers as only Bugs can, plays every position on the field and single-handedly defeats a team of gorilla-looking opponents? It almost seemed like the Washington Wizards got a similar performance out of Caron Butler Tuesday night at Time Warner Cable Arena. Only in this episode, the Wizards came up short and sank to an all-time low with an 80-72 loss to the host Charlotte Bobcats. Butler spent portions of the game playing his original position of small forward, his new position of shooting guard and even a little power forward. He scored 31 points, grabbed six rebounds and notched two steals and four assists in 40 minutes. ... But not even Basketball Bugs -- er, uh, Butler -- could solve all of Washington's woes, which came in the form of a season-low 32.2 percent shooting performance, a season-low scoring output, a 52-41 rebounding disadvantage and only one other double-digit scorer."
- Don Seeholzer of The Pioneer Press: "Al Jefferson had 28 points, and Randy Foye added 26 and a career-high 16 rebounds to lead the Wolves, who fell to 0-8 under McHale and are just three losses short of the team record of 16 set in 1992 and equaled in '94. For the record, the Wolves' next three games are at New York (11-16) on Friday, followed by home contests against Orlando (22-6) on Saturday and Memphis (9- 19) on Monday before a Tuesday date against Dallas (16-11) to ring out the year. Suffice to say there are no sure things in there for the Wolves, who haven't won since a 105-103 victory at Oklahoma City on Nov. 28 and admitted that the streak is on their minds. 'I don't want to set no record, especially a record like that,' Foye said. 'I like setting records for rebounds.'"
- Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times: "Desperate times require desperate measures and Mike Dunleavy was asked whether the Clippers planned on pulling a page out of Phoenix's playbook and hold an open tryout for a point guard. The Suns held a session Monday. 'Umm, I'm waiting for my spy to get film of that tryout,' Dunleavy said, joking. 'There's guys you have come in for individual workouts. You look in Europe. You look all over the place.' This all means continued big minutes for point guard Baron Davis, and more playing time for reserve Jason Hart, who has struggled. 'We've just got to use this break to recuperate,' Davis said. 'This gives us a chance to refocus. We were establishing something. We're close. We're close to turning it around.'"
- Fran Blinebury of the Houston Chronicle: "Yes, it is fine for Tracy McGrady to play his role as The Facilitator on most nights along the meandering marathon that is the NBA schedule. But there are times when the Rockets still need T-Mac. This was one of them and he did not score at all in the second half. For whatever his reason, the silent night was deafening."
- Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: "The whole LeBron pregame spectacle has gotten to be a bit much. Now, not only does he do that toss chalk thing, as if performing in a Nike commercial, he walks to midcourt, points to the crowd and then raises his arms triumphantly to accept the roars of adoration. It's good to be The King."
- Janny Hu of the San Francisco Chronicle: "Jamal Crawford sat out Tuesday's road-trip finale after straining his left groin while doing pregame stretches in Orlando. The Warriors' guard said he was swinging his leg back-and-forth during warm -ups when he apparently kicked too far back. 'When I got out to the layup line, I hopped around and felt it, but I was like, 'No way I'm not playing because I hurt myself (stretching),' ' said Crawford, who toughed out 32 minutes in the 113-81 loss. 'I didn't want to be the guy who 'Oh, he had 50, and now he's not playing.' I don't want my teammates to look at me like that.' Still, the effort might have been costly. Crawford was limping around the locker room in Miami and is hoping to be ready for Friday's home game against Boston."
- Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: "A scout came up to me before the game and said he planned to encourage his team's coach to vote for Danny Granger when it comes to picking the reserves. That's likely going to be the only way Granger makes it because he was 10th among Eastern Conference forwards in the first ballot returns earlier this month. It's going to be interesting to see how this shakes out because LeBron James and Kevin Garnett will likely
be the starters. That means Granger will be competing against players like Chris Bosh, Paul Pierce and Hedo Turkoglu for a reserve forward spot. Two of those players - Pierce and Turkoglu - play on teams with a winning record." - Kerry Eggers of The Portland Tribune: "Don't get me wrong. I applaud Brian Wheeler's attempt at some ingenuity. Anything but B-Roy, D-Wade, T-Law, T-Mac, J -Kidd and C-Webb. Near as I can tell, this first-initial, last-name thing got started with A-Rod in the late '90s. We need to eradicate it like smallpox. I'm not totally opposed to using initials, parts of names or uniform numbers. Shaq makes sense. Z-Bo is OK. K-Mart (Kenyon or Kevin Martin) is marginally clever. Ditto for CP3 (Chris Paul, who wears No. 3) and AK 47 (Andrei Kirilenko, No. 47). I rue the day, though, when pro sports actually had sobriquets that took some thought and showed originality. ... Today's NBA? 'Half Man, Half Amazing' for a younger Vince Carter was inventive. And 'The Chosen One' for LeBron James, whom some people are now calling 'LBJ' -- not bad. But K.G.? G.O.? L.A.? Please. Can't we do better than that?"
- Ross Siler of The Salt Lake Tribune: "Koufos and Fesenko appear alternately overmatched and confused. There's no counting on Jarron Collins as long as he's out with an injured right elbow. It's not as easy as just signing a big man, since the Jazz already have 15 players under contract. Seeing that Jordan Farmar is going to miss four to eight weeks to undergo knee surgery and the Lakers are in the market for a small but quick point guard, maybe the Jazz could swing a deal with their Western Conference rival. The Jazz have two point guards who fit the bill in Knight and Price while the Lakers have three big men in Chris Mihm, D.J. Mbenga and Josh Powell who might be able to benefit the Jazz. This is just speculation on my part, I haven't talked to anybody from the Jazz about it. The Jazz also would have to sign a third point guard, which would require them to release a player with a guaranteed contract if they made a 1-for-1 trade."
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