Trey Burke is vaulting himself back into the Rookie of the Year race after missing time: “Before the Utah Jazz left for their annual pre-Christmas road trip, their 21-year-old point guard admitted he has briefly entertained the idea of the ROY award — it’s in the back of his mind somewhere — but it hasn’t made its way to the front. “I mean, it’s a goal that I think about at times but it’s not something that I’m really stressing over,” he said. “I’m just trying to play my game. (With) those type of goals you usually put pressure on yourself to go out there and perform at a level you may mess up. That’s just putting extra, unnecessary pressure on yourself.” If Burke was feeling any added pressure during Wednesday night’s 86-82 victory at Orlando, he handled it nicely. Coming off a 1-for-8 performance in Monday’s blowout loss to Miami, Burke shot 12-for-20 from the field, hit four 3-pointers and recorded eight assists and seven rebounds to help Utah earn its seventh win of the season. His 30 points are the most scored by a rookie this season. He is also the first rookie to post 30 points, seven boards and eight helpers in a game since since the Clippers’ Blake Griffin went 31-10-10 in April of 2011.”
Bucks’ Larry Sanders could return by Christmas: “Sanders worked out with strength and conditioning coach Robert Hackett on Thursday morning before the team’s practice session. The 6-foot-11 Sanders underwent surgery on Nov. 11 to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb, the result of a fight at a downtown Milwaukee night club in the early morning hours Nov. 3. Monday will be the six-week mark from the date of the surgery, and a return around Christmas would not be surprising. The Bucks play the Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center on Dec. 27 and are at home to face Minnesota on Dec. 28. Then the Bucks head on a four-game western trip, starting with a New Year’s Eve game against the Los Angeles Lakers. “He has been working out twice a day,” Bucks coach Larry Drew said of Sanders. “He gets in here before we get started and then he comes back in the evenings. “He was here this morning when I got here. He’s been working hard.””
Rockets GM Morey says the Asik deal fell apart at a high level: “Wednesday night at the Toyota Center, the question wasn’t “if” the Rockets would trade Omer Asik or what day they would do it, but rather what time of the day on Thursday the trade would go down. The Rockets had a fallback deal in place to trade Asik, waiting until Thursday to see if better offers came in, but news came out in the early afternoon that the Rockets had abruptly taken the seven-footer off the block. Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, speaking on radio station SportsTalk 790 Friday morning with hosts Adam Clanton and Lance Zierlein, said the deal they had in place fell apart. “We were definitely trying to move (Asik),” said Morey. “It was trending towards something happening, but sometimes when you get to those last approvals and the owner, I think as Houston fans know from past deals that didn’t come off that looked like they were done, they don’t happen.””
Nene points to a higher power for reasons behind his chronic injuries: “Do you believe someone can be injury-prone? Meaning, in dealing with all these injuries, have you learned something about your body that might explain why you’ve had trouble staying healthy? Yeah, yeah. I’ve had a lot of injuries all of my career. I’ve learned about my body. I know when something is gonna happen. But sometimes you can’t control it. Sometimes you need to just do it, to just play. I try of think of ways to avoid injuries, but I’m getting paid a high price. But when you get some experience, you learn a little bit, and you learn how to take care. Andrew Bogut is another guy who has been hurt a lot, and he gets angry when people call him injury-prone. Does that label make you angry? No, the good thing is, all my injuries, I’ve learned something. I saw something about myself. And life is not in my control. It’s in God’s control. It is all for a reason. So it’s just bad luck? No, it’s not bad luck. That’s what I mean. It’s for a reason. Everything in my life is for a reason.”
Ben Baroff is a basketball journalist who blogs for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter here.