Andre Iguodala explained what the Clippers are doing to Curry and how the Warriors can counter. He also touched on how he feels about guarding Chris Paul, from Tim Kawakami of Mercury News: “-Q: What are they doing against Curry? -IGUODALA: They’re staying with him, trying to get the ball out of his hands. They do a good job of keeping high hands, trying to get deflections on his little slip passes. So we’ll see a few things we can do to try to adjust and be able to have a 4 on 3 offensive advantage when they’re trapping him. -Q: Where are the openings–at the foul line? -IGUODALA: We see a few ways you can get the ball to the foul line without there being a direct pass from Steph. So we’ve just got to be smart about it, make the simple basketball plays, not try to make the home run plays on the initial pass… -Q: You guarded Paul a little more in the second half of Game 2. Do you expect more of that? Did you like that? -IGUODALA: I like guarding anybody. I might guard Blake, you never know. Just having that competitive attitude. Just try to go out there for whatever.”
- Courtney Lee prefers to see Russell Westbrook shoot more than Kevin Durant, from Peter Edmiston of The Commercial Appeal: “Courtney Lee: “We’re fine with Westbrook taking shots, I mean, that’s kinda what you want – the more shots he takes, the less Durant takes.”
James Dolan is already trying to get in the way of Phil Jackson, according to Frank Isola of The Daily News: “Phil Jackson’s formidable task of rebuilding the Knicks and establishing a professional, winning culture at Madison Square Garden has already hit a familiar roadblock: James Dolan. Just one month into his role as Knicks president, Jackson has already clashed with Dolan, the chairman of Madison Square Garden, over personnel decisions, the Daily News has learned. According to a team source, Jackson is looking to remove several staff members, which is commonplace when a new administration takes over, but Dolan opposes removing certain employees. According to the source, Dolan’s reaction to Jackson’s request was to tell the 11-time NBA championship coach to simply focus his attention on building a winning team. To say that “minor friction,” as one Garden source called it, can be classified as Jackson’s honeymoon with Dolan being over may be stretching it a bit.”
- Phil Jackson wants Carmelo Anthony to stay true to his word. If not, he seems to be just fine with that, too, from Ian Begley of ESPN NY: “The new Knicks president made two things clear about Carmelo in his end-of-season chat with reporters Wednesday: 1. He’d like to see Anthony take less than maximum money to re-sign with the Knicks. 2. He’s not losing any sleep over the idea that the Knicks may lose Anthony to another suitor this summer. “I’m all about moving forward,” Jackson said. “Just deal with what is and move forward. If it’s in the cards, man, are we fortunate. If it’s not in the cards, man, are we fortunate. We’re going forward anyway.”… “I think [there is] a precedent that’s been set,” Jackson said. “Because the way things have been structured now financially for teams is that it’s really hard to have one or two top stars or max players, and to put together a team with enough talent, you’ve got to have people making sacrifices financially.”… “We hope that Carmelo is true to his word,” Jackson added. “We understand what it’s going to take, and we will present that to him at that time.”
Chandler Parsons made things personal and said he is a better player than Nicolas Batum, from Chris Haynes of CSNNW: “He’s not short of any confidence when it comes to his small forward matchup with Nicolas Batum, who is a more established player. Batum may have the experience, but according to Parsons, he’s the best small forward in this series. “100 percent, I’m the best,” Parsons told CSNNW.com without hesitation… “Batum is a good player,” Parsons said. “I think for what I do for the Rockets, he does for them, which is a little bit of everything. He can guard one through four, he can shoot the ball, rebound and pass. It’s a good matchup for me.”
- Here’s what Batum had to say about that: “He said that?” Batum asked CSNNW.com. “He’s not going to say, ‘Nic is the best.’ I understand that, but we’ll see. We’ll see at the end. I don’t care about that.”
- Phil Jackson responded to the notion that there is friction between him and James Dolan with this statement, from Ian Begley of ESPN NY: “Responding to a question about the Daily News report, Jackson said that Dolan has “been very true to his word” thus far in his promise to give Jackson autonomy over basketball decisions. “As far as Jim Dolan’s promise or his premise when I took this job that’s he’s going to leave basketball decisions up to me, really, he’s been loyal to that promise,” Jackson said. “And going forward from last week through this week, just wanting to talk to [ex-Knicks coach] Mike [Woodson] when we were through talking to him, the staff — it’s all our decision. He’s been very true to his word to this point.”
After the meltdown the Indiana Pacers have had since the All Star break, Frank Vogel is on the hot seat, according to Marc Stein of ESPN: “One playoff win has not eased the mounting pressure on Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel. Sources close to the situation told ESPN.com that Vogel, despite a 56-win season that secured the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, is “coaching for his job” in the wake of a prolonged slide that has stretched into its third month. After Indiana’s 101-85 triumph over Atlanta in Game 2 of the teams’ first-round playoff series, sources told ESPN.com that coming back to win the series against the Hawks would not automatically ensure Vogel’s safety. After a 40-11 start, the Pacers went just 16-15 the rest of the way before a humbling loss in the series opener to the eighth-seeded Hawks. The decision on whether to retain Vogel at season’s end ultimately rests with Pacers president Larry Bird, sources said, but frustration throughout the organization has been mounting thanks to a nose dive that began in February with a loss in Orlando just before the All-Star break and has shown few signs of abating.”
Meanwhile, Lance Stephenson is causing all kinds of problems in the locker room, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports: “On the eve of this Eastern Conference series, the wobbling No. 1 seed punctuated its final playoff preparations in a most self-destructive way: Two Indiana Pacers dragged a cursing, cut Evan Turnerout of the Bankers Life Fieldhouse court, untangling him from a practice-floor fistfight with teammate Lance Stephenson. Turner hadn’t been the first Pacer to lose his temper with Stephenson these tumultuous several weeks, and Stephenson’s relentlessly irritable nature suggests Turner won’t be the last. These scrapes aren’t uncommon in the NBA, but this confrontation had been weeks in the making and that reflected in the ferocity of the encounter, sources told Yahoo Sports. “This stuff happens, but the timing wasn’t ideal,” one witness told Yahoo Sports.”
- Paul Pierce was very critical of his team’s defense after losing Game 2 to the Toronto Raptors, from Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN NY: “A frustrated Paul Pierce felt the Brooklyn Nets were “a soft team” on defense and in the paint during a 100-95 Game 2 loss Tuesday at Toronto… “I thought guys stuck to their man individually for the most part and didn’t help one another, and that is the big part of our defense,” Pierce said. “Sink and shrinking the floor, locking down the paint … too many touches for them in the paint, too many paint points, and we didn’t rebound. “We gave them everything they wanted — 50 points in the paint, [19] offensive rebounds,” Pierce added. “We were a soft team tonight.”
James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on twitter @SheridanBlog.
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