Wednesday night’s NBA highlights

By now you’ve probably heard that Kobe Bryant sat out last night’s game against the hallway rivals, the Clippers, because of a torn ligament in his right wrist.

And surely y’all remember that cheap shot that Andrew Bynum delivered to J.J. Berea in last year’s playoff sweep, which resulted in a five-game suspension that Bynum will begin serving on Christmas Day.

So the big guy is out until the new year, the Mamba is out until nobody knows when, and as Mark Heisler noted here yesterday in his column on the seismic shift in El Lay, there are only two states of being in Lakerland: jubilation and panic.  The latter rules the day.

Part II of the Only Exhibition Games Worth Watching took place at the Staples Center last night, and the Clippers defeated the Lakers again, 108-103. The game-breaking sequence came in the third quarter after Matt Barnes of the Lakers was assessed a flagrant foul for shoving Blake Griffin in the back, the Clippers scoring the next 11 points to open a 13-point lead.

Nobody revels in the misfortune of others more than Los Angeles Times columnist T.J. Simers, who once spoke at an AP sportwriters convention and told the story of how someone he needed to speak to wasn’t returning his calls. So he waited until 3 a.m., called the guy again, woke him out of a sound sleep and explained that he had been sitting next to his phone all night waiting for a call-back, and by 3 a.m. decided to take matters into his own hands. (He never again had a problem getting that source to return his calls in a timely fashion.)

Simers is well-known in L.A. media circles for his provocative back-and-forths with the sports power brokers in Los Angeles, and his tug-of-wars with old coach Phil Jackson usually ended in a draw because of Jackson’s superior intellect. Well, there’s a new coach in town now, and Mike Brown got a sampling of Simers’ Q and A tactics prior to last night’s game.

From Simers’ column in this morning’s Times: “It’s a home game, but Clippers Nation doesn’t seem to know how to behave now that it has a team worthy of their support. The place is lifeless except when the Lakers score. Staples Center is loaded with Lakers fans, and they are louder than the red, white and blue. What’s up with that? They must think there’s some kick left in their old heroes. But there will be no Kobe for the Lakers, and no solid answers on when he might play. “OK, so you’re the Lakers coach, you’re making your debut on Christmas Day and you haven’t grilled [Bryant], haven’t grilled the doctors to see if when he might play, or tried to get a definitive answer?” I ask Coach Mike Brown. “Correct,” Brown said. “Why not?” I wonder. “There’s only one [player] that matters.” “To you guys, or to me?” Brown asks. It’s going to be a long season. For all we know Jason Kapono is the player who matters most to Brown. “The doctors say Kobe is day to day,” says Brown, and aren’t we all? “You tell me, what else to ask [the doctors]?” I’d want to know if he’s as excited about the Clippers as everyone else seems to be. But I played along with Brown. “Can Kobe hurt his wrist more if he keeps playing? What are we waiting for now — the swelling to go down? What’s your expectation as a doctor whether Kobe will be able to play on Sunday. Brown laughs. “Those are great questions. How much do you make? I’ve got a spot on my staff.…” I go to work for the Lakers and according to the NBA schedule we would be in Utah the same night the Clippers are here in Staples against Miami.  No thanks, I’ll stick with the dying newspaper business rather than the fading championship franchise and hope we’re still printing when the Heat comes to town.”

Myself, I went to the partially renovated Madison Square Garden last night to get a look at the Knicks-Nets, and I ran into Deron Williams in the hallway, exchanged pleasantries and spoke about the upcoming 2012 Olympics — and how Spain was trying to get FIBA to change its naturalized player rule to allow both Serge Ibaka and Nikola Mirotic to play together in the frontcourt.

Add those two guys to a lineup that already includes Pau and Marc Gasol, and the Spanish team will be more dangerous than the one that stuck with the Redeem Team through the first 38 minutes of the gold medal game in Beijing. Williams shook his head from side to side, unconvinced that anyone is going to stand a chance of competing with the team the United States will be sending to London.

The Garden is still the Garden, except the renovation has removed the center court tunnel that Willis Reed famously ran through when he made his heroic return in the 1970 championship series. The Knicks now enter the court from the Seventh Avenue side, the visitors enter from the Eighth Avenue side, and the media gets to watch from up close so long as they have remembered to bring their most powerful binoculars now that the Knicks have moved the fourth estate seats from courtside to the rafters.

The game itself was a dog, the Knicks winning 88-82 behind 12 rebounds from Tyson Chandler, and 21 points and eight rebounds from Carmelo Anthony. Beforehand, coach Mike D’Antoni indicated the Knicks may hold onto their $2.5 million room exception for a loooong time, which means Knicks fans may want to keep an eye on what happens in the Chinese Basketball Association playoffs in March.

Once Kenyon Martin’s now-former team,  the Xinjiang Flying Tigers, is eliminated, Martin will be able to get the FIBA letter of clearance that will allow him to sign in the NBA. Throw him onto a team that already signed veterans Baron Davis, Mike Bibby and Steve Novak to knock down 3-pointers, and there might be sightings of that missing tunnel well into June.

From Marc Berman of the New York Post: “Soon, the Garden will resound with chants of “De-Fense’’ instead of “We Want Humphries.’’ But it was still preseason and Knicks fans were so giddy last night, they seemed more obsessed with mocking Kim Kardashian’s ex-husband. … In their first game at the newly refurbished Garden in a feel-good night …fans booed the Nets’ Kris Humphries every time he touched the ball and chanted his name in the final quarter in the evening’s highlight. The Knicks’ defense has a chance to be worthy of their own chants during a 66-game season that begins Sunday against the Celtics. The defense is well ahead of the offense — a first in the Mike D’Antoni era. The Knicks shot just 33.7 percent and still prevailed. That’s primarily because of their beast in the middle, 7-foot-1 center Tyson Chandler, whose Knicks debut featured eight points, 12 rebounds, two blocks and his first wild gyration to the crowd after a monster, one-handed put-back dunk in the first quarter. “The moment I ran onto the floor, I couldn’t stop smiling, knowing I’m finally here and representing New York,’’ Chandler said.

There were five other games played Wednesday night, and Dwight Howard appeared in one of them and did not mail it in like he had done in Orlando’s previous exhibition game against the Miami Heat. This time, Howard had 15 points, nine rebounds and seven missed free throws (in 10 attempts) as the Magic came back from an early 23-point deficit and defeated the Miami Heat 104-100 in Orlando.

From Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: “It shows a lot of progress,” said Howard. “The first game when we got down, we stayed down.” Not this time. Quentin Richardson rumbled with LeBron James, delivering a shoulder to James’ chest after some contact from Miami’s superstar. Jameer Nelson, who missed his first 15 shots this preseason, finished with 14 points and 10 assists. And Glen Davis, who looked winded for much of the first half, scored a team-high 18 points and did his best Shamu impression. Davis brought the announced sellout crowd to life with 2:39 remaining in the third quarter. After he hit a running hook shot to put the Magic up 72-70, Davis fell to the ground, came to a rest on his belly and opened his mouth, like the orca. “It’s a reaction,” said Davis, who made seven of his eight shot attempts. “I always watch soccer, right? And, also, I pass by SeaWorld.”

In Utah, we had our first nomination for dunk of the year from Jeremy Evans in Utah’s 92-89 victory — except it was waved off by the fun-hating referees. (Hat tip to Ben Golliver of CBSSports.com for linking to this video of the dunk):    

In Milwaukee, Kevin Love, who scored 22 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, hit a 3-pointer to cut Milwaukee’s lead to 84-83.Luke Ridnour intercepted Larry Sanders’ poor inbound pass on the next possession, and Beasley make two free throws for the winning points in an 85-84 victory.

From The Associated Press: ” Love wrenched his left ankle during the third quarter when he went up to block a shot by Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. He thought his night was done until crunch time when head coach Rick Adelman inserted him and Beasley back into the lineup. “Mike and I went back in and it kind of changed the game for us,” said Love, who sat in the locker room after the game with his ankle heavily bandaged. “I didn’t roll my ankle, but it kind of got jammed really bad,” he said. Beasley finished with 12 points for the Timberwolves, who were without guards J.J. Barea (left quad contusion) and 2009 No. 1 pick Ricky Rubio (right ankle sprain).

In San Antonio, the Spurs defeated the Rockets 97-95 behind 19 points in 23 minutes from Tim Duncan.

From Tim Griffin of The San Antonio Express-News: “Keep your eye on second-year Houston swingman Terrence Williams, who blistered the Spurs for three rim-rattling dunks in transition. Yes, that’s the same Williams who ripped them for 14 points and nine rebounds in Saturday’s preseason opener. … It seems a little weird to see Kevin McHale on the Houston bench and Rick Adelman and Yao Ming not on the team after the last few seasons. McHale had an interesting rotation in Wednesday’s game. He allowed his five starters to play all of the first-quarter minutes. He then had four bench players play the entire second quarter along with another pair of players who shared the minutes. And the players who ended up providing most of the late lift in their last 10-0 charge — Jeremy Lin and Goran Dragic — barely played until the fourth quarter.

In Boston, the Celtics posted an 81-73 victory over the Toronto Raptors, who started Aaron Gray (no points, four fouls in 16 minutes) at center.

From Doug Smith of the Toronto Star (Canadian spellings left intact): “Job No. 1? Work on the offence. With disparate groups of player combinations struggling for any measure of cohesion or flow, the Raptors were at times dreadful on offence here Wednesday night, winding up 81-73 losers to the Boston Celtics in their final tuneup game. And while the defence was again solid at times — maybe not as consistently tenacious as it was Sunday but an improvement over last year nonetheless — the Raptors simply couldn’t find enough offence to make it a game. “We have to come out with more of a swagger, more confidence offensively,” (coach Duane) Casey said after the game. “I thought we were tentative and it carried over to our defence. “When we buckled down and played our principles, we were okay. But the key is you don’t give up layups, you don’t give up second shots.” With a new starting five and a willingness to put odd combinations on the floor — at one time the backcourt was Jose Calderon, Jerryd Bayless and Gary Forbes — Casey got a look at a bunch of things that didn’t work. Now he’s got between Friday and Monday’s season opener in Cleveland to work things out. While Andrea Bargnani (20 points) and DeMar DeRozan (16) were effective for stretches offensively, the Raptors got little or no production from anyone else, really.”

In New Orleans, the Hornets had the most lopsided victory of the evening — 95-80 over Memphis — despite starting two fellows named Lance Thomas and Quincy Pondexter.

From John Reid of the New Orleans Times-Picayune: “Once (Chris) Kaman entered early in the first quarter, he dominated the minutes. For this regular season, (coach Monty) Williams plans to use various lineups, some that could have Kaman and (Emeka) Okafor on the floor together. While Kaman controlled things inside against the Grizzlies, Gordon delivered from the perimeter, hitting three of five shots from behind the 3-point-line. In 29 minutes, Gordon also showed he can handle the ball under pressure on the perimeter and spot open shooters quickly. He had four assists and grabbed four rebounds. “I’m getting there,” Gordon said. “I wasn’t as aggressive like I probably should have been, but I’m still just trying to fit in.’ I think we’re going to be a team this year that cannot make too many mistakes, and we’re going have to play really good defense.” (Al-Farouq) Aminu did not provide much offensively, going 2-for-5 from the field, but he made an impact by forcing Grizzlies star Rudy Gay into taking difficult shots.”