Tag: don nelson

Categories
LA Lakers

Around the Rim: Hollywood is jumping for joy


1. Little lead, big advantage
After winning 18 of their last 22 games, including Tuesday night’s 117-108 victory over Toronto, all the Lakers have to show for their effort is a ½ game lead over the defending champs. But ½ a game in this wild Western Conference race could make all the difference in the world when the second season comes along. Kobe Bryant finished with 34 points, seven rebounds and seven assists to lead the best team in the West. However, as we’ve seen so many times already this season, being at the top and staying at the top are two totally different matters. If the Lakers are to maintain their positioning they’ll have to do it on the road because their next four games are at New Orleans, Houston, Dallas and Utah.

2. Suns rise to the occasion, twice

On Tuesday, Shaquille O’Neal and the Suns did something for the first time since joining forces 11 games ago – they claimed consecutive victories. It wasn’t even close as Phoenix held leads of 32 points in the opening half and 39 down the back stretch as they pounded Memphis 132-111. Amare Stoudemire delivered a double-double with 29 points and 13 rebounds to lead a Suns squad that shot a sizzling 60 percent from the floor. Shaq only managed two points and eight rebounds in the game, but he dished out six assists and the led the team in hustle stats, grabbing a steal and blocking three shots. Phoenix is now 5-6 with the Diesel in the lineup which is showing improvement, but it still only has a sixth seed in the playoff race to show.

3. Bulls are charging
It isn’t the end of the world, but losing to the Bulls certainly didn’t help Utah legitimize themselves in a stacked Western Conference. Chicago took advantage of a 30-19 scoring run in the second quarter to run away with a 108-96 victory on its home court. Drew Gooden scored 24 points and Ben Gordon finished with 19 points, including a barrage of long bombs in the second half. The win brought the Bulls within ½ of Atlanta for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference – a race as highly contested as the top of the West. Utah is currently clinging to the fourth and final conference playoff spot. The good news for the Jazz is they welcomed back Andrei Kirilenko (12 pts) after he missed three games following a hard foul from Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki.

Tuesday’s Player of the Day: Kobe Bryant vs. Toronto 46 min, 34 pts (FG: 12-20, 3FG: 4-8, FT: 6-6), 7 reb, 7 ast, 4 stl, 1 blk

Wednesday’s Game to Watch: San Antonio (44-19) @ New Orleans (42-20)
At the beginning of the season, everyone knew the Hornets would be pesky, but nobody could have expected this. Though New Orleans has slipped a bit since the All-Star break, they are still in the battle with Dallas, Houston and San Antonio for Southwest Division supremacy. In fact, the Hornets are currently just 1 ½ games behind the Spurs for the division lead and now is a perfect time to go in for the big sting. San Antonio owns a mediocre 17-14 road record, including back-to-back losses in its last two away from home. However, the Spurs might as well get used to living out of a suitcase because they’ll be traveling to Detroit, Dallas and Orlando during its next seven contests.

Buzzer Beater: Golden State offered coach Don Nelson an extension on Tuesday, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Nellie will be back on the sideline next season.

It’s very nice of the organization,” Nelson told Bay Area reporters after Tuesday’s practice. “It’s always nice to be wanted, especially when you’re 67. It’s a very nice gesture on their part.

“[But] I’m going to have to think about that. I’m going to have time to reflect [after this season]. My wife and I will have to talk about it, we’ll talk to the team about it, see how they’re feeling. There is another part of life,” Nelson added, “that I’d like to explore.

Categories
San Antonio Spurs

Around the Rim: Better late than never


1. Spurs sharpening
The Spurs slipped a bit to start 2008, losing eight of their first 15 games following the calendar change. However, with an 81-70 defeat of New Jersey on Tuesday night, San Antonio won its tenth consecutive game, reclaimed the top spot in the Western Conference race and reminded a whole lotta contenders who the real team to beat is. The Spurs are currently on a 14-1 streak with quality wins over Phoenix, Cleveland, New Orleans and Dallas while compiling the best scoring defense in the conference (90.4 ppg). The Nets never had a chance after the opening quarter as the Spurs “Holy Trinity” of Tim Duncan (29 pts, 12 reb), Manu Ginobili (12 pts) and Tony Parker (11 pts) controlled the contest. With the recent additions of Kurt Thomas and Damon Stoudamire, this is possibly the most talented team the Spurs have ever suited up…and that is saying a lot. If Brent Barry decides to return to S.A. then back-to-back championships could be within the Spurs grasp.

2. Crunch time is Kobe time

Kobe Bryant shines brightest in down-the-stretch situations. Tuesday was no different. Bryant ripped off a 17-point fourth quarter performance in Sacramento last night, leading the Lakers to a 117-105 victory. In all, Bryant finished with 34 points as Los Angeles won its 12th game in 13 tries to keep pace with San Antonio in the West standings. The former solo flyer who has recently become the ultimate team captain reached a personal milestone in the win as well, becoming the second youngest player (29 years, 194 days) in league history to reach the 21,000-point plateau. Wilt Chamberlain remains the gold standard for the accomplishment, knocking out the feat in 10 fewer days than Bryant. While Pau Gasol is waaaay behind on the all-time scoring list, he certainly kept pace with Bryant on Tuesday, scoring 31 points to go with 10 rebounds.

3. Suns squeeze past Portland
The Suns were sitting on a two-game losing streak when they traveled to Portland and after letting a 23-point lead slip away, it appeared they were headed for consecutive loss number three. That didn’t happen. Phoenix survived the rally to take a 97-92 victory over the Blaze who got 25 points out of Brandon Roy. Unfortunately, Portland needed even more out of its All-Star because the rest of the team’s starters produced a mere 26 points. On the other side of the court, Phoenix basically played a seven man rotation led by Amare Stoudemire’s 22-point performance and Shaquille O’Neal’s 13 rebounds. Shaq still struggled on offense, going 1-of-5 from the field and 4-for-9 from the line for six points, but the big fella had three blocks on the defensive end. Things are about to get interesting for the Suns as they head to Denver tonight before hosting Utah and San Antonio in their following pair of games.

Tuesday’s Player of the Day: Pau Gasol @ Sacramento 42 min, 31 pts (FG: 10-15, FT: 11-13), 10 reb, 4 ast, 2 stl, 3 blk

Wednesday’s Game to Watch: Detroit (44-16) @ Boston (46-12)
After the Celtics rushed out to a 29-3 record, nobody expected they could be run down before season’s end. Wrong. Detroit can cut Boston’s Eastern Conference lead to just two games with a win tonight. But they will have to do it in an arena where the Celtics have lost only four games all year and they’ll have to do it against a healthy Kevin Garnett who is averaging 15.2 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game over his last five contests. Someone the Pistons won’t have to worry about is Sam Cassell; at least, not yet. Cassell won’t be in the lineup tonight as he attends a family funeral, instead he will be making his debut on Friday against the Bulls.

Buzzer Beater: Everything appeared to be pointing toward an Atlanta victory. Of course, appearances can be deceiving. The Hawks hosted Golden State last night and they played a terrific game in front of the home town crowd. Atlanta shot over 50 percent from the field, connected on 44 percent of its 3-pointers (7-16 3FG) and got 40 free chances from the charity stripe. Too bad they still lost by 17 points as the Warriors ran them out of their own gym, 135-118, hitting 55-of-101 shots, including 17-of-32 for three. Oh, and G.S. only took 10 free throws the entire game!

Getting outshot 40-10 from the free-throw line and winning by 18, that’s an amazing stat, really,” Golden State coach Don Nelson said. “We tried to play a very aggressive game, Not having any big guys we had to play a small lineup and it worked out pretty well.

Categories
Dallas Mavericks

Mark Cuban proves he’s a moron…again


We all knew that Mark Cuban was a big brat from the first day he bought the Mavericks. We learned that he was a big baby when he started all his courtside shenanigans shortly after. We found out that he had a huge man crush on his German superstar when Dirk Nowitzki won the MVP award. Now, we know that he’s a sore loser and poor sport as well.

Cuban is suing Golden State Warriors coach Don Nelson because he is claiming that Nellie had “confidential information and he (Cuban) wants to enjoin Don from coaching the Mavericks” when his No. 8 eight seed club knocked off the top team in the league during the first round of this year’s playoffs. This is according to John O’Connor who is Nelson’s attorney.

Apparently, Cuban has verified that he has filed “claims” against the former Mavs coach, but he also admitted that he is “not sure how we are handling them” and then offered the classic “no comment” line when asked in person about the matter.

There is no basis in our view,” O’Connor said. “I suppose he [Nelson] knows [Dirk] Nowitzki likes to go right instead of left, but normally that’s not a trade secret.

Basically, Cubes is saying that it’s just not fair for departed coaches to play against their former teams. Guess the Lakers can’t play the Bulls while Phil Jackson is still in La-La Land. And we might as well put aside any scheduled games between Rick Adelman’s Rockets and the Kings or Blazers. But what if Larry Brown ever decides to return to NBA? His new club will have to shorten their season by about 60 games to avoid matching up with all of his old teams!

We know that this is a little different because of the short time span between Nelson’s two tenures, but Cuban’s coach, Avery Johnson, spent a lot of years learning the tricks of the trade from the Spurs Gregg Popovich before heading to Big D. Does this mean that San Antonio can sue the Little General for knocking the Spurs out of the 2006 playoffs in a Game 7 thriller?

This B.S. move by Cuban is simply an attempt to continue to his “thorn in the side” mentality against Nelson. The two have had contractual arguments since Nellie split town a few years back and Dallas’ first round fiasco did little to help mend their tattered relationship. We know that Cuban is an incredible businessman, but this is basically the equivalent of an old lady suing McDonald’s because her coffee was hot. Hopefully, this case won’t have the same bogus results.

Links:

[Star-Telegram.com]: Is Mavs owner now crying foul?

Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: Another ESPN Instant Classic was just born



And this was the scene before the game.

1. Phoenix gets burned in the Valley of the Sun
Game 5 between the Spurs and the Suns was a tale of two halves. The first half saw Shawn Marion light up the jumbotron with 20 points and 11 rebounds en route to an 11 point lead at the break as San Antonio was a nonexistent 0-of-7 from behind the arc. Fast forward past the Frisbee catching dog or whatever ridiculous half time gimmick the Suns front office pulled out of the hat for this game and in the second half, the Spurs were a very existent 8-of-16 from three land as Marion could only score four points and grab six boards over the final 12 minutes. Algebra 101 taught us that if you add those two halves together you get an 88-85 San Antonio victory, which is equal to one whole win for the guys in black; giving the Spurs a grand total of a 3-2 lead in the series. And you thought we slept our way through high school. The Suns fought a heck of a fight without their All-NBA first teamer Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw but Manu Ginobili played terrific down the stretch, minus a few unforgivable turnovers, while Bruce Bowen and Michael Finley hit several ginormous shots. Throw in the usual 20 point, 10 rebound, 3 block (21, 12 and 5 to be exact) game from Tim Duncan and the incredibly unyielding NBA rulebook and it all simply added up to odds that Phoenix just couldn’t overcome.

2. Like nats, the Nets just won’t go away

There must be something in the water over in the Eastern Conference because the Nets, like the Bulls, keep finding a way to avoid elimination and keep their postseason hopes alive. Perhaps they’re using the Vitamin Water that failed to get Tracy McGrady out of the first round but allowed him to perform one of the sweetest sheep tosses ever caught on camera. Now, Game 5 between the Nets and Cavs was nowhere near being as interesting as the Highland Games, but how could it when the final score was 83-72 and the Nets won despite scoring just six points in the final quarter on 1-of-15 shooting. Still, what the game lacked in excitement, it certainly made up for in importance as the Nets are now within one game, 3-2, of Cleveland with the series headed back to Jersey for Game 6. Whatever the mystery substance might be that New Jersey is chuggin’, they certainly didn’t share any of it with LeBron James. His royal highness finished the game with just 20 points as he missed nine of his 14 field goal attempts. Thank goodness for free throws.

3. Whoa No Nellie!
He’s only been back behind the clipboard for a year now, but Don Nelson could be done with the Golden State franchise that he rapidly resurrected into the feel-good story of the year. Well, at least until they got eliminated by the Jazz they were. And forget about all their poor sportsmanship that resulted in tons o’ techs and flagrant fouls. But, other than that, totally a feel-good story. Still, Nellie might not be ready to write another chapter in this book because, as he says, he’s “not so sure it’s important that I stay on.” C’mon, Nelson, stop being modest. This team would be on the fast track to a Jailblazers-esque reputation without the Don around to keep this fast paced squad in check, both on and off the court. Talk about a fork in the road! Golden State could grow into a Western Conference contender with Nelson at the helm or they can take their old position alongside the Clippers, Hawks and Bobcats of the league with some other ham-fisted, poor excuse of a coach. Fans of The City better hope Nellie feels like his body can take another yearlong beatdown or they can forget about using those yellow “We Believe” shirts for anything other than wearing to the gym.

Wednesday’s Player of the Day: Shawn Marion vs. San Antonio 46 min, 24 pts (FG: 9-16, 3FG: 2-4, FT: 4-4), 17 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk

Buzzer Beater: Mark Cuban is one of the most annoying, childish and arrogant human beings to ever walk the face of the earth. Oh, and he cries like a baby too! Having said that, he also makes some pretty solid points from time to time. After all, he didn’t become a billionaire by being an idiot. So, as much as it pains us to agree with this jackass, here’s an excerpt of what Cubes had to say about the Spurs/Suns suspensions in his blog.

First, let me go on the record as saying that in the event that a vote comes up to change the rules about suspensions for players leaving the bench, I will vote against changing it.

Why ? Because its incredibly simple to educate players about the rule. Its a rule they fully understand and they understand the consequences of violating the rule. That makes the NBA stronger because it removes uncertainty. Can it result in a game(s) being impacted , yes. However, that impact results from an action a player knew violated the rules and was a mistake. There is no uncertainty about it. All they had to do was not leave the bench.

Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: Knucklehead Nelson’s Short Fuse Blows It


1. Geez, Thanks Coach
With under a second remaining in yesterday’s game between the Wizards and the Warriors, Don Nelson picked up a technical foul after a questionable call gave Gilbert Arenas a pair of free throws with Washington down by two. But thanks to Nellie’s tech, Agent 0 went to the line and drained three consecutive freebies with 0.1 seconds remaining on the clock. Arenas was 12 for 12 from the free throw line as he went off for 32 points, six assists and five rebounds in the home win. By sinking the clutch free throws, Arenas has joined a pretty elite club. In the last two seasons only three players have hit game-winning free throws in the final second of play (Channing Frye, Darrell Armstrong and Zach Randolph). However, Arenas became the first player since Karl Malone against the Suns in 1999 to give his team a one point victory on three free throws with under a second remaining in the game.

2. Garnett Seeing Green
As unbelievable as it may sound, the Boston Celtics are NOT the worst team in the NBA. The combination of a Boston four game winning streak and a Memphis four game losing streak has given the Celtics a three game cushion over the grisly Grizzlies. Yesterday, the C’s beat the Timberwolves in a double overtime marathon despite another big day from the Big Ticket. Kevin Garnett seems to like playing Boston as he picked up his second triple-double of the season against the men in green. But the last time these two hooked up, Boston fell to KG and crew for their 18th consecutive loss. Seems like Garnett could use a little help in Minny, but, yet again, the entire weight of a franchise is riding completely on his shoulders. You don’t think Allen Iverson, Ben Gordon or Ray Allen could have helped to distribute the burden; do you?

3. Altitude Agrees With The Answer
He hasn’t even been in Denver for a year yet but Allen Iverson has already said that he wants to remain a Nugget for the remainder of his career. Sounds familiar, didn’t he say the same thing in Philadelphia? But things change and you can’t blame AI for wanting to leave the Sixers, considering their current condition. And Iverson is probably truthful about staying in Denver. The Nuggets have a bright future with Iverson and Carmelo Anthony leading the way. When Iverson was traded to the Nuggets, the duo was ranked number one and two in scoring; now they are first and fifth with AI’s numbers dropping a bit. But that was expected; what wasn’t expected was that the Nuggets would be clinging to the eighth playoff spot with only 25 games left in the season.

Sunday’s Player of the Day: Kevin Garnett @ Boston 51 min, 33 pts (FG: 14-28, 3FG: 1-1, FT: 4-5), 13 reb, 10 ast, 2 stl, 3 blk

Monday’s Game to Watch: Houston (36-23) @ Cleveland (34-25) He’s back and he’s not hard to spot. The 7-6 Yao Ming is expected to hit the court for the first time in 32 games after breaking his right leg on December 23. Tracy McGrady is going to have to get use to sharing the load again after making a late MVP push as he carried the Rockets during Yao’s absence. But before Houston can celebrate the return of Yao, they will have to pick up a win in Cleveland where the Cavs are 22-8 this season. And if T-Mac has been hot of late, then LeBron James has been scorching. James has scored between 29 and 39 points in each of his last seven games. This could become a scoring duel between two of the game’s most explosive superstars.

Buzzer Beater: Hitting the century mark has typically been the benchmark of a good offensive game for NBA teams. But what makes a game great is when two players combine for a hundred. That’s what Ben Gordon (48 points) and Michael Redd (52 points) did during the Bulls’ 126-121 victory over the Bucks on Sunday. In the last 30 years, only eight games have seen a duo combine for 100 points and this is the first time since the 1989-90 season that the game didn’t involve Kobe Bryant or Tracy McGrady. For comparison sake, the feat is one of the rarest in all of sports. In the same 30 year span there have been eight perfect games thrown in the MLB, seven 500-yard passing games in the NFL, and five baseball games with four homeruns from a single player.