The boss, Chris Sheridan, has the latest on the Most Improved Player Award, which Paul George of the Indiana Pacers took home today: “George received 311 of a possible 1,080 points, including 52 first-place votes, from a panel of 120 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. George, who entered the 2012-13 campaign with career averages of 10.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.3 steals, established career highs in each of those statistics – a team-high 17.4 points, along with 7.6 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.8 steals. George was the only player in the league to record at least 140 steals (143) and 50 blocks (51). He had nineteen games with at least three steals, and 29 games with at least one steal and one block. According to NBA.com/Stats, in the 81 games in which George appeared, the Pacers had a +5.9 score differential when he was on the court compared with -2.0 score differential when he was on the bench.”
- While some are up in arms about Derrick Rose’s decision to remain on the bench, his teammates are anything but concerned. More from Nick Friedell of ESPN Chicago: “Rose, who sat on the end of the bench for just the third time this season during Game 2 of the Bulls’ first-round playoff series against the Brooklyn Nets, acknowledged to teammates just how much he misses being out on the floor.”
“Me and him were chatting it up the whole time at the end of the bench,” forward Taj Gibsonsaid after the Bulls’ 90-82 victory. “He was just eager. He was just saying like, he can’t wait to get back, he can’t wait to play. And just critiquing the game, talking about what we needed to do, what kind of plays. He knew a lot of the sets coming out so he would just scream out plays. He was just hyped talking about good stuff.”
Bulls head coach, Tom Thibodeau, who recently stated that it was likely that Rose would not return this season, did not disagree with Gibson:
“When I was in New York, Patrick (Ewing) missed a majority of the season,” Thibodeau said before the game. “I think he got hurt in the 16th game of the year, early December, and he was able to come back during the playoffs. That experience taught me that it’s the right thing to do. So if Derrick can come back we want him back.”
As Rose continues to be out of the lineup, the door has been opened for Nate Robinson to shine against the Nets, who he does not hide his disdain for: ““We’re just competitors,” Robinson said Monday after helping the Bulls even their Eastern Conference quarterfinals at a game apiece. “I don’t like him, he don’t like me. That’s how it’s going to be. There’s animosity between the two of us, and for us, that’s good.” … “When you don’t like somebody and you’re playing against somebody, you want to destroy the other person,” Robinson said. “You want to shut that person down. You want to do good, so for me, it’s just a lot of confidence.””
- Coming off of his game-winning shot against the Memphis Grizzlies in game 2, Chris Paul is urging his teammates to be greedy. More from Peter Yoon of ESPN Los Angeles: “It would be difficult to play better than Paul did down the stretch. He scored 19 of his 24 points in the second half and was the only Clippers’ player to score in the final 3:46 of the game. But the Clippers held a 12-point lead with just under 10 minutes to play and let the Grizzlies get back in to tie the game. They were able to get away with that at home, but trying that on the road would be playing with fire.”
“Each game is a game in itself,” Paul said. “You don’t carry over points, possessions, foul trouble or anything like that. We know that they’ll be at home in front of their fans with a lot of energy and they feel like they need to win two games at home now.”
In other news coming from outside of the playoffs, Wizards owner Ernie Grunfeld has declared his goal for next year is to make the playoffs: ““I think it always helps to have all your players, and that was what we were hoping for last summer,” Grunfeld said while discussing the season during a news conference on Tuesday at Verizon Center. “John was obviously a catalyst when he came back, but I think simultaneously the game before, we had Trevor Ariza come back and A.J. Price came back and [Trevor] Booker came back right around the same time. So the whole group was much healthier at that time, but obviously John was the catalyst. We tried to put a lot of pieces around him, to complement his game, in the offseason. Unfortunately, we didn’t have him in the beginning of the season.””
Great read, Chris! I will share…