And the best team in the Western Conference is …
Ah, you don’t want to read about the Portland Trail Blazers, do you?
You’d rather fawn over the Miami Heat for their 3 1/2-hour, triple-overtime victory in Atlanta, or dump on the Dallas Mavericks and those who said two weeks ago that they were the best team in the NBA.
Perhaps you’d prefer to postulate over where Dwight Howard will end up (just a thought, but if I’m Rich DeVos, and I’m 85 years old, I keep the big fella and roll the dice on winning it all this year). Maybe you’d like a prediction on whether this will be Mike D’Antoni’s final day prowling the sideline for the New York Knicks.
Or perhaps you’d prefer to debate whether getting paid to lose weight, or getting paid to sit courtside and make funny remarks, is the biggest scam in the world (Charles Barkley certainly has an opinion).
Well, dammit, you are going to read about the Portland Trail Blazers … but not yet.
Because the story of the night in the NBA happened in Sacramento just hours after Paul Westphal was fired as coach, the lowly Kings coming back from a 21-point halftime deficit to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks 103-100 — a comeback that spawned an embrace between DeMarcus Cousins and new coach Keith Smart at the old barn in northern California that used to be called Arco Arena.
“You just felt free out there,” Cousins said. “You didn’t feel like you had like 30-pound bags on your back. You just felt free. It felt good to be out there.”
From Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee: “The Kings don’t know all that Smart plans to implement, but that shouldn’t stop them from hustling. And that hard work was enough for a win Thursday. “That’s the trademark of how we want to play,” Smart said. “No matter what the score is. If you’re down by 20 in the fourth quarter, it’s probably going to be hard. But if you’re down by 20 in the first, you’ve got a lot of game.” Having coached under Hall of Fame coach Don Nelson with the Warriors, Smart is not averse to trying unconventional lineups to produce positive results. That was the case Thursday when Smart used four perimeter players – Jimmer Fredette,Tyreke Evans, Marcus Thornton and John Salmons – and either DeMarcus Cousins or Jason Thompson at center most of the fourth quarter. The lineup allowed Fredette to set up teammates and freed the rest of the team to attack. It worked, as the Kings shot 13 of 21 in the fourth and still outrebounded the Bucks 14-5. The Kings also had five steals in the fourth. And for the first time this season, the Kings didn’t cave in when a team jumped on them.”
From columnist Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee: “Inside the organization, the thought goes something like this: Rather than rushing out, grabbing the first high-profile available coach and tossing him into the midst of a bang-bang season, see if Smart can transform a moribund roster of highly compensated professionals into an entertaining and interesting bunch. You know? Make some progress? Turn them into something at least imitating a team? Otherwise, according to sources, the offseason plan is to put the fullcourt press on a veteran coach from a group of available candidates that includes Jerry Sloan, Jeff Van Gundy and Larry Brown, among others. “You’re in a situation here where you can’t take a philosophical vacation, because things are happening in real time,” (general manager Geoff) Petrie said before the Kings eked out a victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. “We looked at where we were (2-5). It’s about the … performance of the team as a whole, not any one particular player. But we do feel that this team – and I think most people would agree – is a more talented team than was here two years ago.” He’s right. Most people would agree. But assembling better talent doesn’t necessarily result in a better team. Most NBA people also would agree that adding John Salmons last summer to a starting lineup that already included the dribble-heavy and ball-dominant Tyreke Evans and Marcus Thornton was a combination that was unlikely to work, even in the short term. The Kings’ biggest issue concerns the situation that Westphal began spinning almost the day he took the job: trying to squeeze the uniquely talented Evans into the role of primary ballhandler and facilitator. Please, no more pretending. Please, listen to Evans. He is a pleaser by nature, but he has eyes for the basket, not for directing an offense. And when players don’t think they’re going to get the ball, they stop running, they stop rebounding, they stop defending, they stop setting screens. They stop trying. Departed Kings Kevin Martin, Spencer Hawes, Omri Casspi, Carl Landry and Samuel Dalembert all complained during the Westphal regime – publicly and privately – about a system that leaves one player with the ball and four other players standing. Statues move more than the Kings.”
They should put a statue outside the Rose Garden in Portland showing Kobe Bryant slumped over in disgust.
The guy just can’t win there, and Thursday night’s 30-point effort from Bryant wasn’t enough to prevent the Lakers from losing to the Trail Blazers for the 11th time in their last 13 visits to Portland. Los Angeles shot 0-for-11 from 3-point range. It was the first time the Lakers had a game without a 3-pointer since November, 2003.
Bryant’s career record at the Rose Garden? Try 6-24!
From Joe Freeman of the Oregonian: The latest Blazers victory came thanks to a rugged, all-around performance from Gerald Wallace (31 points, five rebounds, two steals), another solid night from LaMarcus Aldridge (28 points, 10 rebounds) and a host of contributions from everyone who played. Wallace, in particular, was a beast. From the opening quarter to the final horn, he harassed Bryant on defense, scored in a variety of ways on offense and electrified the sellout Rose Garden crowd. In the highlight of the night, Wallace gathered a long outlet pass from Marcus Camby on a wide open fast-break attempt and hammered down a windmill dunk. Wallace scored 10 important points in the first quarter, when the game resembled a track meet more than a basketball game, and he added 10 more in the third quarter, when the Blazers seized control of the game. Wallace hit three pointers, bulldozed defenders into the key for layups and ran the break with equal success. “That’s his game,” (Nate) McMillan said. “I think you’ve got to let Gerald go and allow him to just the freedom to play. His hustle, his energy, we feed off of that.” Perhaps most important was Wallace’s aggressive, in-your-face defense on Bryant in the second half. Bryant made 8 of 11 shots in the first half, but made just 5 of 13 in the second, when Wallace most often guarded him. In back-to-back victories, Wallace has flashed his defensive mojo, frustrating two of the NBA’s best and dynamic scorers (Bryant and Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant). “I love Gerald,” Bryant said. “Gerald’s been working on his game, worked on his outside shooting, his ball-handling, his defense. He’s been a tremendous player. He’s just been below the radar.”
If you watched every single minute of the Heat-Hawks triple-overtime game, I commend you. Time of game: Three hours and thirty-five minutes. That’s like watching an NFL game, or a Red Sox-Yankees game, which I don’t do anymore because it takes like three hours and 35 minutes.
The Hawks put up a goose egg in the third OT, and Chris Bosh was the hero of the night for Miami (which was without Dwyane Wade and LeBron James) after his 3-pointer with 0.6 seconds remaining tied it. Mario Chalmers scored 29 points, including five of the Heat’s seven in the third OT.
I was going to link to Brian Windhorst’s story from ESPN.com, but he apparently didn’t cover the game. Times must be tough over at the old mothership, what with having to pay Rick Reilly’s salary and provide earplugs to everyone at the home office in Bristol for those days when Skip Bayless comes into the studio. (Does he get paid by the decibel?)
So instead we turn to Michael Cunningham of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “This by far has to be my worst defeat here as a Hawk,” Horford said. “I didn’t feel like we wanted to win this game.” With James and Wade on the bench in street clothes, the Heat got 33 points from Chris Bosh and 29 from Mario Chalmers. Both players made key plays at crucial moments as James and Wade cheered them on. “I wish they would have played, to be perfectly honest,” (coach Larry) Drew said of Miami’s two best players. “I think if they would have played we would have taken a whole different approach.” The Hawks played until almost midnight in the first game of a back-to-back-to-back set. They are at Charlotte on Friday before playing host to Chicago on Saturday. The Hawks missed two free throws and gave up two layups in the final minute of regulation. That led to a game-tying 3-pointer from Bosh with 0.6 seconds to go. Drew said he didn’t want the Hawks to foul to prevent a 3-point try. “I trust my defense in that situation,” he said. “We did everything right except we had a breakdown on our switch. We didn’t switch it. It just took a moment for Bosh to step back and get open. I thought we did everything perfect up that point.”
Lastly, we have the Dallas Mavericks, who only reached 71 points in their 22-point loss to the San Antonio Spurs because they put up 29 points in the fourth quarter. Coincidentally, and embarrassingly, they had 29 points at halftime.
They are now tied with Keith Smart’s Kings for ninth place in the conference, and Mark Cuban is now even more angry that they won’t get a chance to travel to Washington to play the Wizards (the NBA’s only remaining winless team).
From Dwain Price of the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram: “We got our butts kicked,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “That’s all right, we’ll take it like men and get ready for the next one. It’s a tough loss, it’s disappointing and I don’t know if there is a lot of analysis beyond that.” The Mavs team that looked so impressive this week in victories over Oklahoma City and Phoenix must have stayed on the airport’s runway. Dallas (3-5) shot 35.1 percent from the field, produced only 11 assists and made only 27 field goals. Things were so bad that if Delonte West had not made a pair of free throws with 4.4 seconds left to give him 10 points, then Jason Terry would have been the lone Maverick in double figure with 12 points. “You’ve got to give [the Spurs] credit,” said Dirk Nowitzki, who was only 3-of-11 from the field with six points. “They came out really on fire; they didn’t miss. … Two 3-point field goals by Gary Neal fueled a 16-2 run and blasted the Spurs to a 19-4 lead less than six minutes into the game. The Spurs were 11-of-18 from 3-point land in the first half to 0-of-11 from that same distance for the Mavericks.”
Oh man Oh man! It is such a good year to be a Portland fan!