One man started the rumor of a Pau Gasol trade on Twitter in the afternoon and it had swept the globe by tipoff. Possibly distracted, Gasol had 12 points and 11 boards in the Lakers win, though Andrew Bynum (26 & 10) did the heavy lifting and Kobe Bryant scored 34. Kevin Love was a very late scratch with a sore back, but the return of Nikola Pekovic (25 & 13) and a great effort by rookie Derrick Williams (22
It was mostly Dwight Howard, with 29 points and 18 rebounds, as the Magic won in Chicago. Jason Richardson added 18 (including four 3-pointers) before leaving with a sprained ankle. Orlando doesn’t play again until Sunday, giving him some time to recover. J.J. Redick would fill in if J-Rich can’t go. For the Bulls, Carlos Boozer had 26 but Derrick Rose shot 6-22 and Luol Deng was 1-9, then admitted the torn ligament in his left wrist might need some
Counting down to… zip? If some players may go every which way by the trade deadline, they’re not likely to include any Dwight Howards, Deron Williams or even Pau Gasols. All three are, indeed, in play, but their destinations are a lot likelier to be revealed in June, no matter how much pure unadulterated BS you hear between now and March 15. Hey, it’s better than waiting to see if Ric Bucher thinks the Lakers should trade Kobe Bryant, the Bulls should trade
Eight days until the trading deadline. Eight days for the Indiana Pacers to find the missing piece for a legitimate run at the conference finals, or for the Minnesota Timberwolves to acquire the player that makes them a playoff team. Eight days for the Orlando Magic to go all in on Dwight Howard or blow it up and start over. Eight days for the Atlanta Hawks to avoid the luxury tax or the Los Angeles Lakers to add to it. Eight days to
Brook Lopez is expected to miss 3 weeks with a sprained ankle. Rip Hamilton is day-t0-day with a shoulder injury. The fresh-faced CEO of the Orlando Magic tries to speak to Dwight Howard daily, pushing hard to accelerate a relationship with the franchise’s most important asset. He’s late to the job, to the recruitment and understands 7½ years are difficult to replicate in his personal window of 90 days. Outside, everyone else tells Alex Martins: Give in to the inevitable, find an acceptable
A closer look at the top 3 leading scorers in the NBA: Lebron James, Kevin Durant, and Kobe Bryant. James is the more efficient scorer. He attempts fewer shots per game (18.6 compared to Bryant’s league-leading 23.7 and Durant’s 19.7, which rank second), yet shoots a higher percentage from the field (.549) and from beyond the arc (.397). James also boasts a superior Plus-Minus Score Differential. The Heat enjoys +9.0 ppg advantage with James on the court; the Thunder is +5.4
The runaway NBA leader in 20-20 games is Dwight Howard. The runaway leader in triple-doubles is Rajon Rondo. And since the All-Star Game, they have been the runaway leaders in trade rumors. But while Howard’s name will remain at the head of the list, Rondo took a huge step Sunday toward taking his name out of sourced stories. Last week, Rondo reportedly was headed to Golden State for Stephen Curry before Celtics president Danny Ainge said it was highly unlikely his All-Star
As expected, Rajon Rondo was on a mission against Jeremy Lin, with a triple double (18 PTS, 20 AST and an amazing 17 REB) and Paul Pierce was superb with 34, as the Celtics needed overtime to beat the Knicks. Lin had 14 & 5, Carmelo Anthony (25) and Amare Stoudemire (16 & 13) were solid and the New York bench outscored Boston’s 45-15, only to fall short. It was a great tipoff to a Sunday of hoops on TV. Elsewhere NJN