- Chris McCosky of The Detroit News: "It took two games and already Allen Iverson is fuming about coming off the bench. ... 'How many minutes did I play,' Iverson said after he scored 11 with three turnovers in 18 minutes. 'It seemed way, way, way less than that. Eighteen minutes? Come on, man. I can play 18 minutes with my eyes closed. It's a bad feeling, man. I'm wondering what they rushed me to get back for? For that? It's a bad time for me mentally.' The Pistons hardly rushed Iverson back. They let him sit out a month with back pain. And as far as his minutes, other than a six-point flurry in the fourth quarter, he hardly played well enough to displace any other player. He was on the floor during a key part of the Pistons' collapse in the final five minutes. 'I am just trying to get through it without starting a whole bunch of nonsense,' Iverson said, after initiating the conversation about his playing time. 'I'm looking at the big picture. If I vent my frustration then it's like, given who I am, I'll be the one everybody points the finger at. I am just going to try to laugh to stop from crying.'"
- Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press: "Rasheed Wallace, who returned to the lineup after missing 11 games with a sore left calf, will likely miss tonight's game at New Jersey because he picked up his 16th technical of the season, which -- barring a reprieve from the league -- means an automatic one-game suspension. What drew his ire was when Tayshaun Prince was called for a foul on LeBron James with 13.9 seconds left in the third quarter. It was a close play, and James could have been called for a charge. Wallace started complaining and was quickly given a technical. When asked why he was given the technical, Wallace said: ' 'Cause I said it was a stupid-star call. The one where he ran Tayshaun over and Tay' was already there. He charged him, and they called blocking on Tay'.' Wallace then asked how many fouls James had. James had none in 40 minutes of play.He said: 'Yeah, in a game like that, huh?' As for the possibility of missing tonight's game, Wallace said: 'That's what happens when you speak the truth.'"
- Howard Beck of The New York Times: "Last July, the cost-cutting Nuggets gave away Marcus Camby, their savvy, shot-blocking center, in a trade that brought back only a second-round draft pick from the Los Angeles Clippers. Instantly, the Nuggets were downgraded by oddsmakers, from a second-tier playoff team to a lottery team. 'We were so mad,' Carmelo Anthony recalled, 'everybody saying what we're not going to be and what we can't do.' The anger led to resentment and then, oddly, excitement. The Nuggets became unified by outrage, and focused on a simple goal. 'Wanting to prove to everybody,' Anthony said, 'that what they're saying is wrong.' Righteous indignation is perhaps the simplest of all motivational tools, but it has driven the Nuggets to their best season in 20 years, and it just may drive them deep into the spring."
- John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News: "This is why the 76ers need to take care of business over the final nine games of the season. This is why the Sixers absolutely have to overtake the Miami Heat and gain the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Atlanta Hawks are the reason. Get to No. 5 in the East and it means a first-round series with the Hawks - the same Hawks who the Sixers beat, 98-85, last night at the Wachovia Center; the same Hawks whom the Sixers beat in two of their three meetings this season. Obviously, the Sixers' coaches and players have to play this thing tight to the belt. It's bad form to admit that you would rather face one team over another. But I don't have to adhere to that rule. Of course the Sixers want to play the Hawks. Given a choice between the Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers (61-13), who have the best overall record in the NBA and have only lost once at home, the Orlando Magic (55-18) and the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics (56-19), it's a no-brainer to want to take the trip to Atlanta."
- Marc Berman of the New York Post: "Al Harrington sat in the locker room last night before the game, soaking his feet in a mysterious bucket of green ice water. On a night the Knicks faced mathematical playoff elimination, Harrington sat carefree, laughing and wondering why the water was green. It's like his first season with the Knicks -- a mystery. Harrington put up lofty numbers, but didn't make them better. He made them worse after being obtained for Jamal Crawford in November. In 'The World According to Al,' he is here for the long term, the referees are 'picking on' him and his former Warriors coach Don Nelson is 'a gangster.'"
- Jodie Valade of The Plain Dealer: "After The Plain Dealer reported Monday that the ball Zydrunas Ilgauskas used to score his 10,000th career point March 21 was MIA because of a greedy fan, media and Cavaliers supporters unleashed full-court pressure to force the culprit to cough up the ball. A young boy's mother called the Cavaliers on Tuesday and explained that her son had taken the ball simply because he was excited when it somehow landed in his lap after the game. Ilgauskas merely told the boy, whom he said was 7 or 8 years old, to keep the ball. 'Knowing all the circumstances, I felt bad for him,' the 7-3 center said. 'He took some uncalled beating for it in the last couple days. For me, it was always about the journey, not the ball. So now I want him to have a piece of it. I don't really need the ball anyway.'"
- Eric Koreen of the National Post: "Around the Toronto Raptors, the summer of 2006 has reached mythical proportions. That was the summer in between Jose Calderon's first and second seasons. In his first year, he was a borderline NBA player; the next, he was a top-flight backup point guard. The explanation for that has been Calderon's work ethic. The popular theory is that Calderon just worked and worked until he got better. But Roko Ukic, who three years later is essentially in the shoes that Calderon was in then, has another theory. 'Basketball is not like working in a factory: so I will work 10 hours and I will produce 10,000 pairs of shoes,' Ukic said. 'OK, I'm sure Jose worked [that summer]. But I think that gold medal in '06 [at the world championships] in Japan helped him more than all the work that he did. Confidence is something that you can't buy. You can practise your pull-up for 10 years, but if you don't have the confidence to make it.' Ukic then trailed off, before pointing to his head. 'It's in here.'"
- Mark Murphy of the Boston He
rald: "Eddie House has been hotter than this. He shot just over 45 percent during the 2004-05 season, which the Celtics guard split between Charlotte, Milwaukee and Sacramento. But at just under 44 percent from downtown this season with seven games left, House draws a distinction between now and four seasons ago. He only attempted 97 3-pointers that season. He has 308 attempts now. 'This year is probably the best I've shot it,' he said. 'Guys give me the ball and I've knocked it down. There was the year I shot 45 percent from 3, but I've taken a lot more (shots) this year, so it's probably the best.' Though he'll undoubtedly appreciate the honor if he breaks president of basketball operations Danny Ainge's franchise record for 3-point percentage in a single season (44.3, 1986-87), House would rather not consider the number now. 'I just have to shoot,' he said. 'If I start thinking about that, I'm going to miss.'" - Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle: "Every NBA team thoroughly scouts every opponent, so it's not unusual for an opposing defender to know the plays he'll be working against. Battier simply is better at it than almost anyone. He digests the 48-page scouting report when many players stop at the summary. Once during the playoffs last season, he said, 'I could go down the hall and play for the Jazz tonight.' He didn't sound arrogant. He simply was stating a fact. Sometimes it's hard to understand Battier's value to the Rockets. He doesn't score much (6.8 points per game) and isn't a monster rebounder or great passer. He's just a really smart player, a great defender, one of the people good teams must have."
- Scott Fowler of The Charlotte Observer: "I still don't understand this. Why do the Bobcats look like a team that could play in the NBA Finals against the L.A. Lakers in a 7-game series and not be embarrassed -- indeed, probably win -- and yet they still are only the ninth-best team in the Eastern Conference at the moment? It's one of sports' strangest streaks, and it continued Tuesday night. Charlotte's 94-84 win over the Lakers was the Bobcats' sixth over L.A. in their last seven attempts. That's amazing -- 6-1 against the Lakers?!! -- given the Bobcats have never made the playoffs and L.A. is a championship contender every year."
- Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times: "The Lakers will not discipline Andrew Bynum for being photographed with a Playboy bunny on his shoulders during a visit to the Playboy mansion over the weekend. The photo, taken by a photographer for Playboy, was shown on cable-TV shows Tuesday, often accompanied by a critical slant. The Lakers didn't seem concerned by it. 'I think there's a lot being made out of that that's unnecessary,' Phil Jackson said. 'This is a young guy. I don't know if Andrew's 22 yet, is he? He's a 21-year-old guy. He's been out of basketball for six weeks. ... He's got to have some energy and have some fun. I don't know [about] putting a girl on your shoulders or not ... but the fact that people are beating him up over that, I think that's crazy. Andrew's doing fine. He's going to be fine.'"
- Greg Cote of The Miami Herald: "The McDonald's All-American Game has one of those wholesome, flag-wrapped names that smell like apple pie right out the oven. So why does what is happening Wednesday night at the University of Miami's campus basketball arena feel not quite right? Why does the event being televised nationally by ESPN feel instead like something better ignored in the hope it might go away? These are 48 of the best boys' and girls' high school basketball players in the nation gathered to compete in the annual showcase game, but what they are, too, are pawns being manipulated by an unregulated, corruptible outfit called AAU basketball. The McDonald's game is the overglorified culmination of a dubious, sleaze-tinged underbelly of All-American excess and greed, in which certainly not all but far too many AAU ''coaches'' often are closer to self-promoters brokering deals for themselves to steer their star players to certain agents or colleges. You wonder why so many athletes have inflated egos and a sense of entitlement by the time they reach college? Look no further than the McDonald's game, whose AAU teams are bankrolled by sneaker companies and flown all over the country to audition at exclusive tournaments."
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