Does Jrue Holiday want to be an All-Star? Who doesn’t? Bob Cooney of Daily News has the story: “People ask me if I would like to make the All-Star team,” he said. “I mean, seriously, who wouldn’t? I guess I really don’t think about it. Going into games, it’s not like I’m thinking about scoring or doing other things for me individually. I really just try to go out and win every game, and if that means me scoring two points and Nick [Young] scoring 30 or Dorell [Wright] scoring 15, as long as we get the win I’m happy.” While the voting is updated every week, Holiday says he doesn’t really keep an eye on the tallies. As of the latest release on Thursday, he is eighth in backcourt voting. “I don’t keep an eye on the voting,” he said. “I can’t, because I’d be mad, because I’m a competitor and there’s probably people ahead of me I feel I’m better than, but I know they have more votes than I do. It could be popularity, whatever it is. I can’t look at it.”
Steve Nash certainly thinks Holiday is worthy, according to Eric Pincus of Los Angeles Times: “Obviously they’re a different team with him. We beat them at their place by 20 without him,” Nash said (the margin was actually 13 points in the December meeting, 111-98). “I think he gives them obviously a very talented players but he also makes guys around him better. He makes it more difficult for you to guard [Evan] Turner, [Jason] Richardson and the other guys on the perimeter.” The Lakers were within four points with about 32 seconds left when Metta World Peace missed a three-point shot. Holiday took it right to the rack with a thunderous dunk to put the Sixers up 103-97, all but extinguishing the Lakers’ chances. “He’s a terrific player,” Nash said. “He’s an All-Star this year.”
Isaiah Thomas blasted Charlie Villanueva for his flagrant foul, from Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee: “The Kings said it wasn’t the first hard foul by Villanueva. Thomas said the fact he was airborne on the play wasn’t the worst part for him. “No, it was just the fact that it was a dirty play and he’s a dirty player,” Thomas said. “It is what it is. He got kicked out of the game, so it wasn’t nothing big. A lot of guys do stuff like that knowing you can’t really fight in this league, so it’s all right.” The first player to react to the foul was center DeMarcus Cousins, who sprinted from the three-point line to protect his teammate. “I’m always going to be the first one to react,” said Cousins, who pulled Thomas away from Villanueva. “I can’t really say what was going though my mind,” Cousins said of the foul. “I’m just glad the situation was handled.”
Ty Lawson will get an MRI on his Achilles tendon, according to Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: “Every injury stinks for a team, but the point guard’s Achilles tendon injury is especially frustrating for the powder blue. Lawson didn’t play Tuesday night against Chris Paul and the Los Angeles Clippers because of a strain in his left Achilles tendon, and the point guard explained that “it’s a day-to-day thing. Now we’re doing treatment on it. At first, we were just heating it up before games and getting out there and playing. But now we have a couple games at home, so I’m going to get an MRI (on Wednesday) and see what’s wrong with it.”
Was Amare Stoudemire taking a shot at Mike D’Antoni? Judge for yourself in the following comments he made about defense, from Marc Berman of the New York Post: “Just having a defensive coach for the first time in my career is going to help,’’ Stoudemire said. “I’ve never been taught defense my whole career. To now have a coach who actually teaches defense and strategies and knows positioning and posture and how to guard different plays is going to be helpful and I’m taking it as a challenge and try to improve as a player.’’ During practice Wednesday, Woodson had to go over to Stoudemire to instruct him about a bad angle and posture he was taking when trying to stop his man from going baseline. It truly seemed to be the basic fundamentals.”
- Ken Berger of CBSSports has sad news about the son of Donald Sterling:
Intangibles make Damian Lillard unique