SH Blog: Lakers now 9th in West; KJ confident Kings will stay in Sac; Trouble in Memphis?

As the NBA season winds down, several teams are gearing up for the playoffs. Unfortunately for some, they are gearing up without some of their key players. The Lakers, Pacers, Knicks and others are loading up for the final push, whether it be for playoff or draft position. Maybe even a championship chase. 

Let’s take a look at the latest news around the NBA:

• The Los Angeles Lakers continue to hobble towards the postseason. After a tough 113-103 loss Thursday night in Milwaukee, combined with Utah’s victory Friday night, have knocked the Lakers into 9th (Utah holds the tie-breaker, having won the season series 2-1) in the West. The news continues to get worse for LA. too. Just two days after Metta World Peace was ruled out for six weeks, an already ailing Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash were hobbled against the Bucks. More from the Los Angeles Times: “What were not expected were dual injuries to their aging backcourt, Steve Nash unable to finish the game and Kobe Bryant limping through the locker room after a 113-103 loss Thursday to the Milwaukee Bucks. Bryant was bothered by a bone spur in his left foot, Nash sidelined by what he called a hip spasm.”

• Three weeks after surgery, Amar’e Stoudemire said the procedure, called a debridement, which he also had on his left knee before the start of the season, was successful on his right knee. Unfortunately for New York, he did not say when he would be able to return. More from Nate Taylor of the New York Times: “What he did not say was when he planned to return to the Knicks. He gave no timetable for beginning to run or getting back on the court. The playoffs, which begin on April 20, remain uncertain for Stoudemire. “What he did not say was when he planned to return to the Knicks. He gave no timetable for beginning to run or getting back on the court. The playoffs, which begin on April 20, remain uncertain for Stoudemire.“Hopefully, I’ll be a 100 percent by the postseason,” said Stoudemire.
• The Knicks won their seventh in a row last night, beating the Bobcats, and J.R. Smith is making a late push for Sixth Man Award. Our Moke Hamilton was pushing that well before Smith became the first player since Ricky Pierce in 1990 to go 30-30-30 off the bench in three consecutive games. But Smith currently ranks 3rd in our latest Sixth Man rankings. (Yes, we speak with many voices at SheridanHoops).

• Despite owning Sacramento’s lone sports franchise, it’s no secret that the Maloof family does not have the best reputation in town. For most of this season, the Kings have been on the edge of falling into the Hansen ownership group which is trying to move the team to Seattle. While the Maloofs worked to finalize a deal earlier this season to make it official, the city of Sacramento, behind Mayor Kevin Johnson, has turned the tables. According to Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com: “Johnson has recently gone out of his way to be complementary toward the Maloofs, notably at his State of the City address and most recently at Tuesday’s city council meeting that included approving the non-binding agreement with private investors to build a downtown arena. It was impossible to miss because Johnson could have easily avoided mentioning the Kings’ owners both times without coming off as unusual. It was especially impossible to miss because the Maloofs’ disgust for Johnson is a major reason, and perhaps the No. 1 reason, they never told Sacramento officials the team was for sale.”

On Thursday, Johnson told the Dan Patrick Show that there is a “90 percent chance” the Kings will remain in Sacramento.

• Could there be trouble in Memphis between Zach Randolph and head coach Lionel Hollins? More from NBA.com’s morning shootaround: “There is a growing belief that the Grizzlies’ veteran power forward and head coach aren’t on the same page as they prepare for a postseason run. However, both men dismissed that notion Thursday, saying there is no friction between them.“Our relationship is fine,” Randolph said. “I respect my coach.”

…

“The only beef I had with Zach is he was excessively late for a shootaround that started at 4:30 p.m. (last Saturday),” Hollins said. “I told him I can’t start you and he understood. Everybody’s got their opinion about what goes on in our locker room. But only the people in there know. I haven’t had a beef with Zach and he hasn’t had one with me.”

• Although the Miami Heat’s 27-game winning streak came to an end on Wednesday, the streak was so impressive that it’s still fun to speculate whether they could’ve beat the 1971-’72 Lakers team that won an NBA record 33 games in a row. Speculate no further, SheridanHoops’ Charley Rosen has more.
• What brought that winning streak to an end? A hard-fought battle between the Heat and Chicago Bulls. The Bulls, 2-1 against Miami this season (without Derrick Rose), laid a series of hard fouls on LeBron James and his teammates during their 101-97 win. James was very passionate in his post-game remarks, which has led to a back-and-forth between he and Celtics’ GM, Danny Ainge: “”I don’t think either one of those were flagrants, and I think the one — LeBron against Boozer — was flagrant, yes. I think the officials had it right…,” Ainge said during a weekly radio-show appearance in Boston. “I think that it’s almost embarrassing that LeBron would complain about officiating.”
• James said: “”Nothing that comes out of Boston surprises me,” James said on Friday morning after the Heat’s shootaround at New Orleans Arena.”

• In an excellent feature by BusinessWeek.com, Keenan Mayo take a look at the NBA post-David Stern and how the league looks to move into China: “Three decades later, Stern’s achievements as the NBA’s chief executive are undeniable: He oversaw expansion (seven new franchises), an explosion in revenue growth, larger television contracts, and the founding of the WNBA. He spearheaded the NBA’s global outreach and served as its most tireless salesman, which is a particular point of pride. “We were hell-bent on being all over,” he says. “I would go anyplace. If it was a television show, they would say, ‘What are you doing here?’ I would say, ‘We’re the largest producers of programming in the world.’ I changed my tune at Davos. I would say, ‘We’re the largest producer of reality programming in the world. We produce 1,300 episodes a year.’ We were always pushing it. By now we’ve played something like 125 games outside of the U.S.”
  
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