SH Blog: Jeff Van Gundy, Wojnarowski and more react to David Stern’s fine

• Mike D’Antoni compared Antawn Jamison to Shawn Marion, according to Kevin Ding of The OC Register: “If not already possible to envision Jamison having major role, he said D’Antoni compared him to Shawn Marion when they talked after D’Antoni’s hiring as Lakers coach. Jamison said D’Antoni saw the slashing, scoring and shooting ability of Jamison as similar to “the Shawn Marion role that he had in Phoenix.” That’s not to say Jamison can do all the things Marion did athletically and defensively in his prime with the Suns, but Jamison could be likened to a non-jumping Matrix, for sure.”

• Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller believe Dwyane Wade’s game is on the decline, from Ira Winderman of Sun Sentinel: Barkley, on Dwyane Wade adjusting his game as he gets older: “The toughest thing for Dwyane Wade  is understanding that he’s starting to lose his talent and now he has to learn how to play below the basket. That’s the toughest thing when you’re a great player or very athletic, when you can’t jump over a building anymore, you have to learn how to play.”… Reggie Miller, on Wade: “He’s taken a step back. He’s the third most important player on both ends of the court. “Chris Bosh has stepped up his game this year for the Heat.”

• Barkley also seems to believe that LeBron James is on a different level than Kevin Durant, from Winderman: “Barkley, on LeBron James being the best player in the NBA: “I love Kevin Durant . . . but he is on another planet.”

• Amare Stoudemire looks to return on Christmas Day, according to Marc Berman of New York Post: “Amar’e Stoudemire’s goal is to return around Christmas, with mid-December no longer a legitimate possibility, according to person familiar with the Knicks power forward’s thinking. The person said Stoudemire hasn’t begun running on the court following his surgery on Nov. 1. The Knicks’ timetable of six-to-eight weeks from the left-knee-debridement surgery hasn’t changed. Under that time frame, the earliest he could be back is mid-December. The Knicks play the Lakers on Christmas Day.”

• Tyson Chandler has been quite good around the basket as of late, but just how good has he been? Nate Taylor of The New York Times has the answer: “In the Knicks’ last six games, three victories and three defeats, the 7-foot-1-inch Chandler took 36 shots from the floor and, remarkably, converted 32 of them, for an .888 shooting percentage. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, no N.B.A. player over a similar six-game stretch, taking at least 30 shots over all, has come up with a percentage to match Chandler’s since the league introduced the shot clock for the 1954-55 season.”

• D’Antoni is counting heavily on the return of Steve Nash, from Janis Carr of The OC Register: “Like everyone else, D’Antoni is counting on point guard Steve Nash to save the Lakers. The Lakers have been without Nash since he suffered a fractured left leg in the second game of the season and there is no set date for his return. He has not been able to jog on the leg yet. “Winning  games won’t be more difficult without Steve, our record just won’t be as good,” D’Antoni said. “We have to get him back. In Phoenix, when he went out, we had trouble hitting 100 points. I hope he has the same effect here. “His effect will be big. If we have these problems when he is there, then we have to sit down and examine some stuff. But I expect a lot of this stuff will go away (when Nash returns.)”

• Rivers defended Rajon Rondo for his suspension, but also admitted the need for Rajon Rondo to better control himself, from Mark Murphy of Boston Herald: “Doc Rivers, who said yesterday that he didn’t believe the infraction was worthy of a suspension, admitted Rondo has to work on his self-control. “I hope so, and he will,” the coach said. “The thing Rondo understands is that he can’t allow himself to be taken out of the game. And he did last night. I don’t think he had any intentions when it started. He thought, ‘I’m going to stand up for my guy who just got his legs cut out from under him.’ It’s snap, it’s quick, and it can happen to any of us. And it has happened to me.”

• Warriors general manager Bob Myers explained the mishandling of the news about Andrew Bogut’s ankle surgery, from Marcus Thompson of The Oakland Tribune: “I know it’s being perceived that it was mishandled and not handled appropriately,” Myers said during the pregame show on “Chronicle Live.” “Ultimately, that rests on my shoulders. … Ultimately, the last thing I want to do, or anybody in the organization wants to do, is deceive the fans. So the fact that some people feel that way, I feel really bad about that.””It’s a group of people. It’s not one person in a room writing a script,” Myers said. “In this specific situation, I feel like I could’ve done a better job, personally, as to how it was conveyed. … There is no use really offering anything beyond that. “

• Shaquille O’Neal’s new nickname for David Lee is “WCW”. Find out what it means and why it’s so funny in this clip:

• Check out the crazy finish of the game between the Warriors and Nuggets:

Ray Allen in shooter’s paradise 

Gregg Popovich makes costly choice

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