NBA Columns

"If the Knicks wanted to Bogart the pot (Mike D'Antoni) by raising the coaching ante to an unmatchable peak, as alleged by ESPN, what's taking 'em so long? It's not like Camp Cablevision can be outbid for anything or anyone it covets? "

" Sometimes he goes the other direction, toward the bench. Sometimes he sits to get someone else going. Sometimes it seems like the kind of adjustment that Gregg Popovich would mock. Whether a player starts shouldn't make a difference, should it? But usually it does, and it did again Thursday. Then, on the same day Manu Ginobili was named to the all-NBA third team, he joined the Spurs first team. "

"The Spurs can’t stop Chris Paul, and they know it. But the moment they gave up trying was also the moment they gave themselves a chance to win this series. Four NBA championship banners hang in the AT&T Center, raised to the rafters mainly with blocked shots, rebounds and defensive stops. If there is to be a fifth, it will be lifted on layups and jumpers and a willingness to run when others expected the Spurs to walk. "

"Safe to say that every NBA team starts its defensive game plan against the Cavaliers by saying it will try to stop LeBron James. Few do. Boston has. And the Cavs simply are not good enough to overcome a team as good as the Celtics when James is not his usual productive self."

"Along the lines of the emperor having no clothes, the King currently has no clue. LeBron James retains the potential to convince us of otherwise, but what the Celtics are doing to the top scorer in the NBA at the moment is nothing short of a beat down. James is missing layups and airmailing jumpers, and most every shot he takes seems to hit the rim with the weight of a tenpin bowling ball. By late last night, James was talking to himself so much that you couldn’t help but wonder if he should have been pushing an empty shopping cart."

"It has been two days now since his coronation, and we remain a city in a twitter. Kobe Bryant is the MVP. One more time, let's chant: MVP. MVP. MVP. Ours is a city that has had Van Brocklin and Koufax, Drysdale and Wilt, Fernando and Shaq. The Great One skated his way into our hearts... Still, none of them got our wings fluttering in the City of Angels like Kobe. If we didn't know better, we'd think he cured cancer. He is everywhere. A radio talk show isn't a radio talk show unless the topic is Kobe. "

"Lakers flags are flying again from Southland cars. . . . Can MVP flags be far behind? . . . The MVP is one of a handful of NBA awards sponsored for the first time this year by Kia Motors, which is probably why it was presented to Kobe Bryant in a hotel ballroom Tuesday instead of at the Toyota Center in El Segundo."

"They don't believe. Oh, they want to. They're trying hard to. You can almost hear the Jazz straining to talk themselves into believing they can beat the Lakers. "A lot of people don't think we can play with this team," said Jazz guard Deron Williams. "We feel like we can. "We feel like we haven't played a good game against them yet. Hopefully we're due for one." This isn't the time of year to hang ambitions on hope. Not that two games make a series, but the Jazz just don't look like a team that deep down in its little heart of hearts, believes it's the better team."

"Where do you go when you're sick and tired and all long-faced and droopy-eyed and feeling sorry for yourself and getting into foul trouble and in bad need of a big, big hug? Home, baby. You go home. On the other hand, that's where you go to die, too. The application that best suits the Jazz - or is it all of the above? - will come to light soon enough. They need their comfort. They need their rest in peace. After what the Jazz have been through against the Lakers in L.A., there's no place like home. "

"Now that the Jazz-Lakers playoff series has moved to Utah — where the deer, antelope and D-Will play — it promises a different tenor. That's not to say the Jazz will necessarily win tonight's or Sunday's game. Rather, it merely guarantees a change. That's what happens when you move from the Staples Center to EnergySolutions Arena. You go from a place where removing your sunglasses is demonstrative, to one where painting your face and waving an inflatable woman seems OK. So yes, it's going to be rowdy."

"As renowned point guard Mick Jagger once said, you can't always get what you want, but you just might get what you need. As of Wednesday night, the Magic have gotten what they needed out of the season. Whatever happens now is gravy, an early Christmas bonus, house money. Pick a phrase, any phrase. Just don't expect the players to buy it. "We haven't accomplished anything yet," Jameer Nelson said."

"I don't pretend to be an expert on many things; you don't want me looking under the hood of your car or fixing your pipes. But after covering the Charlotte Hornets and Charlotte Bobcats, each from Day One, and helping to cover the Carolina Panthers, I know expansion. So I know Bernie Bickerstaff got it... Bickerstaff, departing the Bobcats after initially serving as coach and general manager, shunned shortcuts. He left the franchise stronger. The public didn't appreciate that."

"Back in the real world, Ernie Grunfeld understands that sometimes the best moves are the ones not made. Grunfeld, in his annual state-of-the-team address, raised anew the benefits of continuity and preserving the team's core. He and Arenas are in agreement on the importance of re-signing Jamison, if not Roger Mason Jr. And Grunfeld knows that Arenas has said he will tweak his contract numbers if it aids in the re-signing of Jamison."

"You can't get through a week without someone joking about the length of the playoffs in the National Basketball Association. There is a good reason for the jokes. The NBA playoffs seem to go on forever. This season the playoffs started on April 19 and the latest possible end date is June 19, two months after they started. But for whatever reasons, television viewers are watching the NBA playoffs with increased interest, compared to last season."

"Kobe Bryant stared down the crowd as if he were staring down his teammates. He shouted into the cavernous arena as if he were shouting into a huddle. "I love you," he screamed. "Now let's get this party started!" And so they did, the Lakers, the fans, everybody following their leader these days into this growing notion of greatness. Wednesday was supposed to be Bryant's MVP celebration but, typical of his MVP season, he shared it with everyone else."

"When do the playoffs start? Oh, this is them? Utah's bus hasn't caught on fire yet and none of the Jazz players has said the players and coaches have quit. Aside from that, their first two games against the Lakers haven't gone much better than those of the Denver Nuggets. Once again, the Jazz got behind early -- 15 points after trailing by 17 in Game 1 -- and once again, it was too much to make up in a 120-110 loss to the Lakers, who are now 6-0 this postseason and 2-0 in this second-round series."

"NBA Commissioner David Stern stopped by the press room before the game and said he had just met with the referees, I presume to remind them how excited he is about the upcoming Boston-L.A. Finals. For some reason when this game started, the refs called four fouls on Utah, none on the Lakers, and then tagged Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan with a technical foul. No need to make it so obvious, guys. If Stern is worried about a Lakers-Celtics matchup, he ought to be spending most of his time with Boston."

"One cursory look, one quick scan of Staples Center on Wednesday and you knew. L.A.'s sports fans always arrive late. It's in their too-cool DNA. Just not this night. The arena was packed well before tipoff. People standing, chanting, holding signs, wearing giveaway gold T-shirts that read: "Our team. Our time. Our MVP."... Stern presented the MVP trophy and Kobe held it overhead, the crowd - light years removed from when it booed him on opening night - roared. They were all in love again. His teammates approached for a round of high-fives."

"All right, so it's too little too late, but here goes anyway: CP3 for MVP! Chris Paul didn't win the NBA's MVP award, but, as these playoffs have proven, he should have. Nothing against Kobe Bryant, your basic player for the ages, but he hasn't had the kind of season Paul has. Bryant, thanks in part to the acquisition of Pao Gasol, has put the Lakers in position to win the West and perhaps the NBA championship. Paul? He has changed the culture in New Orleans, transforming a have-not franchise into a legitimate contender. Along the way, he has revitalized a city and impacted careers across the league. "

"No matter what happens in the remainder of these playoffs, at least the Orlando Magic can say they contributed to the betterment of the NBA. They can say they sacrificed themselves for the sake of those who came after them... Clock-gate had Magic fans ticked off and NBA officials counting down the days until the end of the month when the league's Competition Committee meets. That's when the league will no doubt change it moronic policy so that instant replay can be used to avoid the shafting the Magic endured in Detroit during Game 2."

"Maybe that blinking oil light was just what the Magic needed. It started flashing on the flight home Monday night. The plane began to shake, smoke was spewing out of an engine and Stan Van Gundy jumped into Jameer Nelson's lap and just wanted to be held. OK, that's not quite how it happened. But if Hollywood was producing this series, the story line would be the Magic faced death. After that, what's so big about facing Detroit?"

"Caesar fiddled while Rome burned. They danced on the deck of the Titanic. And for all I know, Custer painted his face and made balloon animals that morning at Little Bighorn. A feeling of fierce, nervous celebration could be felt early Wednesday evening by the thousands milling around the north end of Amway Arena. They knew it could be the penultimate Orlando Magic home game of the season -- and the penultimate Fan Fest."

"It wasn’t a question of “if” Billy Knight would go as general manager of the Hawks after six uneven (OK, mostly strange) seasons. It was a question of “how,” followed by “when.” As for the “how” and the “when,” Knight announced today that he will resign after his contract runs out at the end of June. Good. That was opposed to his bosses at Atlanta Spirit doing what they would have done without Knight’s voluntary departure notice, and that is force Knight to leave. This was a necessary split. In fact, it should have happened about two or three strange moves ago by somebody who was obsessed with obtaining a bunch of players who looked and played alike."

"Yes, Yao and T-Mac have taken the Rockets as far into the playoffs as a sportswriter gets into the Playboy mansion. Yes, Yao and T-Mac have turned the Rockets' locker room into a triage center. Yes, yet another tidal wave of injuries to Yao and T-Mac washed away the Rockets' latest quest for an NBA championship. Especially in their current, coming-off-surgery condition, Yao (stress fracture in the left foot) and T-Mac (left shoulder and knee) are worth far more to the Rockets than anybody else. General manager Daryl Morey didn't get a degree from MIT because he wrote a term paper on the wisdom of trading a dollar for 50 cents in return."

"The millions of dollars doled out to professional athletes, including some native Chicagoans, doesn't shield them from the perils ofstreet violence and brazen home invasions. When it comes to targeted armed attacks or random assaults, the list of victims in the last 10 months with local ties includes Antoine Walker, Eddy Curry and, most recently, Rashard Mendenhall. "As an athlete, I think it is a concern because you are dealing with people being robbed in general," said Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, who graduated from Mt. Carmel High School and was a teammate of Walker's on the Caravan basketball team."

" Don't be surprised if Manu Ginobili starts tonight, assuming the Spurs want to get him going. Don't be surprised if Brent Barry gets extra minutes, assuming the Spurs want to take advantage of the double teams on Tim Duncan. But don't be surprised if the Spurs change little else. They are the anti-Mavs, after all. "

"LeBron James shook his head when asked if on Tuesday night he played as poorly as he possibly could in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ sloppy, 76-72, loss to the Celtics at the TD Banknorth Garden. The 23-year-old superstar said, however, that he has no intentions of letting Celtics fans catch a glimpse of the rarely-seen nadir of his game when the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals resume tonight. “Oh, no, it’s not the worst, but at the end of the day, we still had a chance to win the ballgame,” he said. “I wasn’t satisfied with the way I played but to say it was my worst game? No.”"

" Every NBA playoff game takes on its own character. Cavs-Celtics I was that of two dancers and four left feet. I can't remember an uglier playoff game between two good teams. Only some of the offensive malaise was born of championship defense. With Game 2 tonight, here's five reasons for each team to be concerned:"

"FROM THE MOMENT he took the job, Sixers president/general manager Ed Stefanski envisioned the type of team he wanted. Sticking to the building plan was one of the primary reasons he traded veteran shooter and popular teammate Kyle Korver to the Utah Jazz. It was why he went to Maurice Cheeks and suggested the coach quicken the manner in which the Sixers play and find more minutes for the younger players. Now, reflecting on a surprising season in which the Sixers won 40 games and pushed the heavily favored Detroit Pistons to six games in the Eastern Conference playoffs, Stefanski is pleased to know that his young nucleus can not only play the style that he wants but can also have success doing it."

"The 76ers, as they drift into their most important off-season in a decade, have accomplished the easy part now. They have become interesting again, and, in a departure from recent history, not interesting in a dysfunctional, we-talking-'bout-practice kind of way. They are interesting again for the right reasons, because they play hard, have some talent, and are easy to root for. It is a likable bunch. Everyone appears to get along. They listen to what coach Maurice Cheeks has to say - another departure from the past - and there is promise for the future. You can put all that together, however, stir lightly, bake at 350 degrees, frost it elegantly, and the team was still 40-42 this season. Interesting, yes. Contending, no."

"I had to ask him. Kobe Bryant had just accepted the most meaningful, coveted most-valuable-player award of any sport, gripping it tight amid a hotel ballroom teeming with legends and love. But I had to ask him. Now that he is basketball's official king of unselfishness, does he regret those times last spring when he was so selfish? Now that he is basketball's official portrait of teamwork, does he regret those summer days when he was the Lakers' worst teammate? "No," he said, staring coldly. "I was right the whole time." He paused. The room fell silent. "I'm joking!" he said suddenly with a laugh, and, filled with great and obvious relief, everyone laughed with him. "

"The wait is finally over for Kobe Bryant, officially the NBA's most valuable player as of Tuesday's announcement, but it never ended for Jerry West. . . . Four times West finished second in the MVP balloting -- to WiltChamberlain in 1966, Willis Reed in 1970, Lew Alcindor in 1971 and, after the former UCLA center changed his name, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1972. . . . "

"We have the stars, baby. The glitz, the glamour, the Hollywood sign, the premiers, Jack sitting courtside, and one other little thing - most sports MVPs in the country. No city has captured more of the top professional awards in the four major sports than Los Angeles. We are just so cool. Compared to L.A., New York is the city that sleeps. Chicago is a second city. Boston the cradle of almost. Philadelphia the city of brotherly runner-ups. That's right, Kobe Bryant's MVP award today only will increase Los Angeles' lead as the sporting MVP capital of all America. This comes with a semi-convenient qualifier, heavy on the semi. "

"Now he's a good teammate. Now he's happy. Now he talks nice about his teammates and shares the ball with them. Now he wants to be a Laker for life. Now he's an MVP. With his official coronation as the Most Valuable Player of the NBA Tuesday, Kobe Bryant finally has everything he wanted, except a world championship when he was Da Man and not somebody's sidekick. Bryant has transformed himself into the perfect basketball player. Just brace yourself if things ever go awry again. We've seen Bryant at such times, and it's not a pretty sight."

"It was only a couple of hours before they handed out the NBA's Most Valuable Player Award on Tuesday, but there he was, all by his lonesome at the Lakers' practice gym. Not another reporter even close. So naturally I seized the opportunity. I had Coby all to myself. That would be Coby Karl, last man in the Los Angeles Lakers' roster, not MVP Kobe Bryant. Hey, you take your Kobes, er, Cobys where you can get 'em. When the Jazz and Lakers meet tonight in Game 2 of the playoffs, you probably won't notice Coby Karl. He'll be the guy who doesn't dress. The guy who is is behind Jordan Farmar, behind Didier Ilunga-Mbenga, behind Ira Newbie and behind Chris Mihm. Behind everyone who is anyone with the Lakers except maybe the guy selling peanuts."

"Whatever it is that Celtics coach Doc Rivers told Garnett after Game 6 of the Atlanta series, it’s working. In the last two games, Garnett has been a huge factor precisely where the Celtics need him to be: in the low post. All of this comes after a Game 6 vs. the Hawks in which Garnett seemed far too unselfish for his own good - and more importantly, for the good of the Celtics - particularly at a time of a year when the big shots inevitably end up in the hands of the best players."

"Anyone have the name of a good fumigator? They're going to need one before they allow anyone back inside the Garden for another basketball game. Whew. Eeeeeewww. Yuck. If that's what the Celtics and Cavaliers have in store for us, maybe it's time to resume work on that stamp collection. Missed shots. Turnovers. Just plain bad plays. Have I mentioned the turnovers? No one actually won this game. Someone had to not lose it. To the immense relief of the nightly sellout crowd of 18,624, the Celtics were the fortunate non-losers and thus lead this series, one game to none. "

"LeBron James sat in front of his locker, both feet settled into a rectangular gray tub of ice water. He read from the final box score. "A lot of shots I didn't make," James said. "Layups, pull-ups. The last one. The ball was all the way in, it just jumped out. It was a symbol of the type of night I had." What a night. LeBron made only 2 of 18 shots in a 4-point playoff loss to the Celtics. He committed 10 turnovers. He had 9 rebounds and 9 assists to go with his measly 12 points. Almost a dubious quadruple-dou ble."

"The Eastern Conference semifinals started Tuesday night. Unfortunately LeBron James didn't. Of the many unexpected things that happened in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals between the Cavaliers and Boston Celtics, James having a downright dismal offensive night had to be the most unexpected. On a night when Ben Wallace was making a fadeaway jumper and Sasha Pavlovic was brought off the shelf, James struggled. No other way to put it. ''I missed a lot of shots that I can usually make,'' James said. And even with that, the Cavs almost won, almost stole the first game. They led by two with 1:30 to go, had the score tied with 37 seconds left. They had chances. Problem is they didn't, and now they trail 1-0."

"Tayshaun Prince is finding his upside. He's shooting more. He's asserting himself more on the floor and in the locker room. He's providing more offense without compromising his greatest strength -- perimeter defense. Prince can become a star -- not an easy task when you're remembered as the only Pistons starter who didn't make the All-Star Game two years ago."

"We conspiracy theorists are already concocting scenarios as to why the Magic's team plane didn't make it home directly from Detroit after the controversial Game 2 playoff loss to the Pistons Monday night. According to Magic spokesman Joel Glass, it was as simple as an engine oil indicator light coming on shortly after takeoff, forcing the team to land and spend the night in Cincinnati. However, some of us aren't buying it. You know and I know what really happened, right? The flight home was actually hijacked by that Game 2 clock operator. "

"Take this mask, paste it on some cardboard to turn it into a sign and help the Orlando Magic beat the Detroit Pistons tonight by disrupting the focus of Rasheed Wallace, known as the "Walking Technical Foul." We all know the Magic are down 2-0. They cannot lose a home game if they hope to have any chance of getting out of the second round of the NBA playoffs. They need your help. And Wallace is their emotional weak link. You can rattle him. The mask is Step One and some appropriate snarky comment is Step Two. "

"His face said it all. Gregg Popovich didn't have to speak. After losing Game 2 to the Hornets on Monday by 18 points, the coach of the San Antonio Spurs didn't have to say, "They found a way to sustain the energy and the physical toughness in the second half, something we have been unable to do." He said it wearing the hangdog expression of a guy asking himself, "I don't know if we have an answer for those people.""

"OUR YEARS must seem like a lifetime ago for Kobe Bryant. In some sense, it was. Not every athlete gets a second chance to climb back onto the pedestal from which they had been knocked. At this time in 2004, allegations of a sexual assault and admitted infidelity in his marriage back in 2003 had destroyed the "pristine" off-the-court image Bryant and his handlers so carefully had crafted. Later that summer, Bryant bore the criticism for the Los Angeles Lakers not winning a fourth NBA championship in 5 years. His selfish play was sighted as a key component to the Lakers being upset by the Detroit Pistons in the Finals. Then Bryant was slammed again, fairly or unfairly, for allegedly running coach Phil Jackson and center Shaquille O'Neal out of town by giving the Lakers a them-or-me ultimatum in contract negotiations. When Jackson and O'Neal left, many believed Bryant had gotten just what he deserved."

"THIS is what you would call the collateral damage of the last four years of mismanagement at Madison Square Garden, the true measure of just how woefully Isiah Thomas ran the basketball operation, just how completely he ran it into the ground and into complete disrepair. These are all the bills coming due, in a big balloon payment. There was a time, not so long ago, when the job of head coach of the New York Knicks was the most coveted coaching trophy in the entire sport. You had everything you could possibly want in a job description: the greatest stage in basketball, working the most passionate room in basketball, commanding the most lucrative salary in basketball. "

" My first inclination is to say that Rick Carlisle bores me, and I hope the Mavericks go another direction in their search for a head coach. But I hesitate to give in to that sentiment for two reasons. One, our David Moore, NBA expert and man of many sweaters, was nearly breathless in his Monday column, imploring the Mavericks to latch onto Carlisle before some other franchise lures him away. I haven't seen that kind of excitement from Moore since we stumbled onto a Scottsdale, Ariz., wine bar with leather sofas. Two, there is a chance that Carlisle will remember the 15-second conversation we had in the hallways of ESPN's massive Bristol, Conn., compound last summer. This could create a certain bond that other local media types won't be able to share. Anything that works in my favor, I consider a good thing. "

"Erik Spoelstra doesn't have the kind of basketball credentials that can mean instant credibility with NBA players who might view him skeptically as a first-time head coach. Spoelstra, the Heat's new coach, never played in the NBA. Of the league's 27 head coaches (three positions are open), 19 have played in the NBA. He was a pretty good player at the University of Portland, spent two seasons with a pro team in Germany, and then caught on with the Heat as video coordinator and self-described "computer geek." Thirteen years and a few job titles later, Pat Riley promoted him as his successor."

"From where Kobe Bryant was to where he is now must be an object lesson to Carmelo Anthony. None of Anthony's mishaps with the law or with society, nor any of Allen Iverson's come to that, can compare to Bryant, now the Most Valuable Player in basketball. From accused rapist and selfish pinhead to model citizen and all-around team inspiration, that is Bryant. And that could be Anthony, needing only to step over hurdles that Bryant needed to leap."

"Even though his Timberwolves finished with just 22 victories, owner Glen Taylor said Wednesday that, overall, the season was enjoyable for him. "In most parts, it probably was as I had anticipated," Taylor said. "It very much was interesting. We started out finding wins very, very difficult. ... I was hoping that we would do a little bit better. "But it has been an enjoyable experience. I've been very close to the team, very involved. I can see a lot of good things in this team. Now, it's up to us, like last year, to work really hard and look at how we can make it better next year." Taylor, obviously, didn't measure the season in victories and losses. "

" Know what? The Hornets actually are behaving like the playoff kids they are, no matter how much they'd rather not see or hear something like that written or said about them. They're refusing to share their shiny, new toy -- the national spotlight. They've been terrible about deferring to the older kids on the playground. They're filled with so much adrenaline it looks like a sugar rush. They keep sticking their hands near the flames, even though everyone warns them the postseason is hot and the careless will get burned. And given the results, we hope they never grow up."

"Snarling and outraged, Tim Duncan stood up for Fabricio Oberto. Now someone needs to stand up for Duncan. If the Spurs are going to do what they've never done before — if they're going to win a playoff series they trail two games to none, and stem this tide of alley-oops and layups and shockingly thorough blowouts — then a few guys have to do for Duncan what he's so often done for them. This time they have to be the difference-makers."

"David West was always a Spurs fan. He loved David Robinson, and how Robinson handled himself, and West talked about that Sunday. This should make the Spurs feel even older. Those who grew up liking them are now beating them. This should also worry the Spurs. West is averaging 30 points this season in Hornets' wins over the Spurs, and he isn't some airhead who will get caught up in the glory. "

"Manu Ginobili doesn’t have to be good now. He has to be better than that. He has to become what he was earlier in the season. He has to be what he was the last time the Spurs beat the Hornets, and before he landed badly in the Phoenix series. Against these Hornets, good isn’t good enough. Being down 0-2 doesn’t mean this series is over, and the historical data doesn’t mean much, either. But losing by 19 and 18 points here qualifies as failure by any measure. The details should be as sobering for the Spurs. The Hornets have an answer for every San Antonio staple. "

"Chauncey Billups knows all about time. When it's time to drive, when it's time for business and even when there's time for a little free time. Time was on the Pistons' side in this one, and yes, so was a bit of good fortune. The Pistons should take this victory and clutch it to their jerseys and be giddy they lead the Magic 2-0 because this was a grimy, grinding effort. When it was over, Billups looked half-relieved and half-pained, with a giant ice pack on one leg and a sore spot on his head. "

"OK, OK, what do you want him to do? Give it back? Chauncey Billups was handed a three-point basket by a clock screwup. Fine. He got three free ones. Detroit won by seven. No whining. "It sucks to be on the other end of that," Billups admitted of the play that ended the third quarter, a play that started under one basket and involved dribbling, passes, a dump-off and a Chauncey three-point bomb, yet on the clock only took less than a second. I know basketball is a fast game. It's not that fast."

"Sometimes, you'd rather be lucky than good. That's what the Pistons were in Game 2 against the Magic in the Eastern Conference semifinals on Monday night at The Palace. And when it comes to the postseason, many believe you have to get a break along the way to help out, especially if you want to make a championship run into June. In other postseasons, there's always some play, some moment you can look back at and say it was a turning point. For sure, the other team feels cheated. But when you're the beneficiary of it, you don't look back. You simply take it, thank the heavens and keep it moving. That's what the Pistons will do with their 100-93 nail-biting victory before 22,076. They have a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series."

"Say what you will about the clock guy Monday night. Call him the second coming of the French skating judge. Call him the third coming of the Soviet clock operator in the '72 Olympics. Call him the biggest cheater since Roger Clemens. And if you're a conspiracy theorist you can even point out that Tom Mauer, the clock operator Monday night, was from the Minnesota Timberwolves, where Detroit Pistons Coach Flip Saunders once coached. But whatever you do, do not -- I repeat, DO NOT -- try to blame the clock operator for the Orlando Magic's Game 2 playoff loss to the Detroit Pistons."

"The best shot clock operator might make a couple hundred bucks a game. The best players make a couple hundred thousand. Neither earned their money Monday night. If you're seething over Clock-gate this morning, channel some of that emotion into what followed. All Chauncey Billups' shot did was give the Pistons a two-point lead at the end of the third quarter. What gave them the game were all the shots Orlando missed in the fourth. It wasn't just the missing. It was how they missed that left you scratching your head. At least if your head was attached to Stan Van Gundy's body."

" It's not like it used to be, I tell myself. You went through an unmarked door on Causeway Street, climbed some steps, and turned left into the dark at the top of the stairs. But Boston Garden, a ramshackle tenement that squatted atop North Station in downtown Boston, is no more. Its vile aroma -- one part stale urine, one part sweat, one part smoke from Red Auerbach's infernal victory cigar, with a drop of leprechaun bile thrown in -- is gone. "

"A key component of the Cleveland Cavaliers' approach sprang from one of the ugliest moments in NBA history. It took a winding path, but that moment helped the Cavs to adopt a mantra that has carried them through the first round of the NBA playoffs this year and to the Finals a year ago. ''No excuses'' became public last year, but it has been a major team tenet from the day Mike Brown was hired as coach. ''No excuses'' carried the team through bad no-calls a year ago and trash-talking and bad fouls of Round 1 this year."

" The Dallas Mavericks are in no rush to find their next head coach. I know this, because three days ago, Donnie Nelson said the club would "like to show some patience." So sit back, take a deep breath and ... What? The Mavericks have already met with Rick Carlisle, flown him to Dallas and entered negotiations? My suspicions are confirmed. Mark Cuban's definition of patience is different from any other sentient being on the planet. It could be that Carlisle is such a strong candidate that the Mavericks don't feel the need to search any longer."

" If the notion of Rick Carlisle as the next Mavs coach doesn't inspire, and you hoped for someone with a title in his résumé, consider the following trivia. Question: How many coaches have won NBA championships in the last 20 years? Answer: Only six, and one of them already could have been coach of the Mavs. No, it wasn't Phil Jackson, who owns nine titles, or Gregg Popovich with four. Pat Riley has won three of the last 21 and two more besides, and Mark Cuban once considered it. But it wasn't him, either. Chuck Daly or Rudy Tomjanovich, each of whom checks in with two? No and Lord no. And that leaves us with the peripatetic Larry Brown, who just packed again, this time for Charlotte. "

"Mike D'Antoni is a man Kobe Bryant considered his American idol when they both lived overseas. He was the 2004-05 NBA Coach of the Year. Avery Johnson is a man David "the Admiral" Robinson considered his little buddy in much the same way the Skipper did with Gilligan. He was the 2005-06 NBA Coach of the Year. They are available. Either one could be Chicago's next pro basketball coach. D'Antoni's team last season had a record of 55-27 and Johnson's went 51-31 ... yet John Paxson has been given a pass by Phoenix and Dallas to take a shot at the open man of his choice. These are not has-beens. They aren't damaged cans from the recycling bin, nor are they nobodies. These are bona fide NBA head coaches"

"Bringing it all back home . . . home? It's almost 12 years since Kobe Bryant became a Laker and he's been ours all that time. Ours to dazzle, ours to try with his youthful exuberance, ours to horrify as we watched his fall, ours to shock as he threw the Lakers' organization under the bus. Mostly he was ours to amaze as he lurched from crises of his own invention to triumphs no one could have imagined months before."

"We have the stars, baby. The glitz, the glamour, the Hollywood sign, the premieres, Jack sitting courtside, and one other little thing - most sports MVPs in the country. No city has captured more of the top professional awards in the four major sports than Los Angeles. We are just so cool. Compared to L.A., New York is the city that sleeps. Chicago is a second city. Boston the cradle of almost. Philadelphia the city of brotherly runners-up. That's right, Kobe's MVP award today will only increase Los Angeles' lead as the sporting MVP capital of all America."

"Whenever a three-point basket brings a crowd to its feet or swings the momentum in a basketball game, Bill Sharman remembers an old friend. Abe Saperstein, an energetic promoter best remembered as the founder of the Harlem Globetrotters, introduced the three-point shot to professional basketball as founder of the short-lived American Basketball League, which launched in 1961, crowned only one champion and lasted barely 1 1/2 seasons."

"Any day now, news will break that Mike D'Antoni has been named coach of the Chicago Bulls or the New York Knicks or some other NBA club, and general manager Steve Kerr will be left with a perplexing and disturbing question: Now what? Before we try to answer that, let's be clear on one point: Neither Kerr nor D'Antoni are to blame for the dissolution of their marriage. As GM, Kerr has every right to ask D'Antoni to make changes in the way he coaches. At the same time, D'Antoni has every right to reject those changes and seek employment elsewhere. Neither man is at fault. They simply have philosophical differences they can't bridge."

"THE BAY AREA basketball and hockey seasons are over. The NFL draft and Kentucky Derby are history. And there'll be plenty of opportunities to watch the Giants and A's this summer. It's time to dial in the NBA playoffs, sports fans, and enjoy. Few things figure to be as compelling this sports year as the ongoing NBA conference semifinals. If you're waiting for the Finals to tune in, you're making a big mistake. "

"Loooook into my eyes. You are getting sleepy. Verrrrrrry sleepy. OK, maybe that's a little heavy on the hypnotic hocus-pocus. Still, that's kind of how it is in a series involving Lakers' coach Phil Jackson. It's all in the mind. It has been 10 years since the Jazz were in a playoff series involving Jackson, but they probably haven't missed it. The positioning. The lobbying. The Vulcan mind-melding. The psychology of it all."

"From the very beginning, with each successive possession, this was about far more than the Celtics defending the Atlanta Hawks. Rather, it was about the Celtics defending themselves and everything they stand for. So now it is on to the next round, to the Cleveland Cavaliers and the great LeBron James, all after the Celtics utterly annihilated the Hawks yesterday, 99-65, in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. And for all that went wrong for the Celtics during a series which should have been over days ago, the Celts came out yesterday and played as if they took it all personally. All together now: Whew."

"No signs from Paul Pierce. No crop circles sheared into his hair. No "V" for victory, no foam-finger hoisting, and no ambiguous hand signal that could be mimed by the mayor or sanctioned by the commissioner. No controversy for the captain. And, best of all, no Game 7 loss, which would have put the 2007-08 Celtics in the local gulag of all-time chokers."

"Doc Rivers is not the kind to gloss over anything, so rest assured that he knew the knock against him. In boxing terms, he was like a prize fighter with a glass jaw. He couldn’t get out of the first round. So while the Celtics advanced to the next round of the Eastern Conference playoffs with a resounding, 99-65 victory over the Atlanta Hawks yesterday at the Garden, maybe it was only fitting that Rivers’ players presented him with the game ball after the victory."

"What was the best moment yesterday in an afternoon full of them? What was the best moment in a Garden lovefest? What was the signature moment in an afternoon full of them? Maybe that came with 3:22 left in the third quarter, the Celtics already up 34, the game long since decided, when Kevin Garnett dived for a loose ball near midcourt, his body sprawling across the parquet. The ball squirted away from him and was rolling toward the baseline at the Celtics’ end of the court when Ray Allen dived on the floor for it, followed by Paul Pierce also diving on the floor for it as it rolled out of bounds. If you needed any more obvious example that this was a game the Celtics were simply not going to lose, maybe that was it. "

"Sometimes a game is just too big. Sometimes the opponent is just too good. Sure, it would have been nice if the Hawks could have pushed the Celtics in Game 7, but they’d already pushed the No. 1 seed to the wall. This series ended with a crashing loss, but in the long run it will be seen as a shining victory. We Atlantans have spent years inventing ways to ignore the Hawks. After the three games in Philips Arena, we can ignore them no longer. They’re a real team again, a real team with a real future."

""Bring on Cleve-land!" they began, polishing off the afternoon with something I'm not sure I agree with: "We want Cleve-land!" Do they? Well, that's who the Celtics get. And you can bet LeBron James will make Celtics fans sweat even more than the Hawks did. "I don't know what message the rest of the league got," Garnett said. "But this is our home court, we're comfortable here, and this is how we play here. We don't play for anyone else but ourselves." I wasn't as impressed with the Celtics' Game 7 performance as, say, Garnett or Doc Rivers were. I'm still wondering what the heck they were doing in that predicament to begin with."

"You want works of art, go to the Louvre. Like things of beauty, spend a week on the Na Pali Coast. There are no bonus points awarded in the playoffs for how a team earns its victories, just victories. The Lakers earned one Sunday afternoon, inspiring precious glowing prose, but netting a very necessary Game 1 triumph over the Utah Jazz. Hey, give 'em a hand. OK, that's enough. "

"Twenty-three times Sunday, the Utah Jazz left Kobe Bryant wide open. Twenty-three times, the bumping, bruising Utah Jazz stood still and just let him shoot. Twenty-one times, Kobe Bryant scored. Twenty-one times, he jabbed a 10-foot sword into a puffed-out chest. And basketball folks still have the nerve to call it a free throw? Not here. Not Sunday. Not Kobe."

"I wish I could have seen the look on Jerry Sloan's face Sunday morning after he took a glance at the sports page, the first thing he sees -- Pau Gasol, one of our Lakers minigods, standing barefoot on the beach seemingly without a care in the world. Practice? Who needs practice to take on the Jazz, tired and emotionally stretched after Friday night's first-round clincher and then traveling Saturday? "

"Another team, another game, another double-digit win and the Lakers are on their way. That might be how it looks through a pretty purple-and-gold prism, but not so fast there, Skippy. The Utah Jazz is not the Denver Nuggets. The rested Lakers took advantage of the television-driven schedule Sunday, running early and getting a nice lead on Utah, which just finished its draining series with Houston on Friday night. But the Jazz already has proven it's a team with much more fight than Denver, clawing back from a 19-point, third-quarter deficit to get within four of the Lakers in the final five minutes. "

"They won the game with a series of 15-footers, with free throws, with set shots. Set shots, for crying out loud. The last time a package of highlights included set shots those doing the shooting were wearing canvas high-tops and crew cuts. The Lakers were burned on the boards Sunday and then got their ashes kicked in, allowing Utah 26 second-chance points. They permitted 25 offensive rebounds and watched the Jazz attempt 22 more field goals than they did. And yet, 38 successful free throws later — 21 of them supplied by Kobe Bryant — the Lakers won Game 1 of round two with little doubt and even less theater, 109-98."

"He was just a kid back then. Proud, eager, nearly invulnerable — or so it seemed to him. Even in 1997, when yet a teen, Kobe Bryant had the world by the tail. Until that moment in Game 5 of the playoffs in Salt Lake. Waning seconds of regulation, neck-and-neck, frenzied crowd. And he missed an 18-footer. The overtime was even worse: He air-balled two more shots down the stretch as the Jazz went on to win the series, four games to one. But even then, Bryant had composure beyond his years. In the locker room, he gamely faced the microphones and cameras, saying he hoped he would learn from the experience, and that the next time he was in that situation, he would come through. Eleven years later, and look where he is now. Team leader, scoring titles, championship rings, MVP. And he's not missing many free throws, either."

"The basketball was stuck impossibly atop the rim like some kind of Hollywood visual effect, before finally falling off. Deron Williams just smiled and shook his head. What else could he do? His driving layup attempt Sunday afternoon came too late for the Jazz to catch the Los Angeles Lakers anyway, and just gave them one more miss to make up in this series, one more shot to fall their way at some point. "It summed up the day for us offensively," Williams said. "That's how it goes sometimes." "

"Something seemed unnatural and out of whack at Staples Center on Sunday afternoon. And it wasn't just Kobe Bryant shooting . . . what was it, 50 . . . 60 . . . 100 . . . 100,000 free throws? It actually was only 23, and he made 21 of them, high-jacking the course of Game 1 in the Jazz-Lakers second-round playoff series, boosting L.A. to a 109-98 win. Phil Jackson called Kobe's continual trips to the line "incredible." And it also wasn't just the Jazz's awful shooting, one of their worst shooting performances of the season, a showing that blew a hole in their offensive strategy at 37 percent. That subterranean number kicked them in the shorts, despite getting 56 points in the paint, which means the Jazz shot jumpers as though they were heaving girders onto the back of a flatbed. They hit 4 of 19 shots from behind the arc. "

"The Utah Jazz does not do harmony. Its musical genre is dissonance. Grinding and grating. Noisy and noxious. Imagine a soaring clarinet riff trying to compete with a clanging cowbell and you start to get a sense for Jerry Sloan's brand of basketball. “It's a chance to bang,” Kobe Bryant said yesterday afternoon. “If you're an '80s fan or a basketball aficionado, you kind of like that stuff.” If you prefer basketball as ballet, you're likely out of luck. The Los Angeles Lakers were basically bludgeoned yesterday at the Staples Center, manhandled on the backboards and mauled in the act of shooting. They were outrebounded 58-41 in a playoff game that was stopped 60 times for personal fouls. "

" The Dallas Mavericks are in no rush to find their next head coach. I know this, because three days ago, Donnie Nelson said the club would "like to show some patience." So sit back, take a deep breath and ... What? The Mavericks have already met with Rick Carlisle, flown him to Dallas and entered negotiations? My suspicions are confirmed. Mark Cuban's definition of patience is different from any other sentient being on the planet. "

"Yes, as 95 percent of the pundits are predicting, the Hornets will lose this best-of-seven-game series to the defending NBA champions, despite winning the opener by 19 points. But the impression coming out of Game 1, even if it makes sense to go with experience over youth, even if the Spurs prevail, as they've done four times in championship rounds since 1999, is that there is no way Byron Scott's basketball team will be intimidated by anything in front of them. As for Game 2, you tell yourself it's impossible for Tim Duncan, the All-Planet power forward, to have another nightmare evening, one field goal, five points and three rebounds during his 37 minutes on the court. "

"The urge to bury Eddie Jordan and the Wizards is understandable after they were eliminated from the playoffs by the Cavaliers a third consecutive spring. Yet this visceral reaction overlooks two fundamental truths: The Wizards have not been healthy since late January 2007. And it is incredibly difficult to defeat a team whose leading player is allowed to hop, skip and jump to the basket, bowl over defenders, rake the arms of an opponent who has the ball and be granted the kind of latitude not seen since Michael Jordan was in his glory seasons with the Bulls. And that underlines the principal difference between LeBron James and Jordan."

"I used to be a back-up-the-truck guy who believed blowing up a roster was the best way to improve an NBA franchise. Not only did the Mavericks and Suns prove me wrong, taken out in one round after making blockbuster midseason trades this past season, but the Wizards have made me reconsider that thinking altogether. Two days after LeBron James dispatched them to Mexico and all points Caribbean, I'm convinced they're not far from going deep into the playoffs with the roster much as it is."

"Somewhere, Grant Hill must be wondering where it all went wrong. He just made yet another exit in the first round of the playoffs, he may need surgery yet again and now he sits at home and watches his two former teams -- the Magic and the Pistons -- play for the right to go to the Eastern Conference finals. What's the old song from Hee Haw? Gloom, despair and agony on me, Deep dark depression, excessive misery, If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all, Gloom, despair and agony on me-e-e!"

"Sometimes you find wisdom in the strangest places. Like from a guy who punched out a horse. "Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not the muscles," said noted Detroit philosopher Alex Karras. Most Magic players wouldn't know Karras if he punched them in the nose. But if they don't take his words to heart, they're going to get bopped right out of the playoffs. Detroit wants to turn it into a Tough Man Competition. All that would lead to for Orlando is more frustration, not more points. The Magic got only 72 of them in Game 1. The predictable storyline has quickly developed: Are the Magic tough enough against the latest version of Detroit Bad Boys?"

"Little brothers grow taller. They get stronger. They get tired of their elders beating them. Everywhere except in professional basketball's most dysfunctional family -- the NBA's Eastern Conference. Maturation there often falls shy of expectations, leaving a vacuum of competitive quality and creating a casual confidence among those sitting and smirking at the top. It's not just a Pistons' malaise."

"So, apparently you can tug on Superman's cape. In fact, for the Pistons, it's fully advised. Tug, shove, poke, prod. Every time Dwight Howard turns, cape or no cape, there should be a big ol' body in his way. The Pistons are at their best when they're agitated and agitating. And in their rollicking 91-72 victory over Orlando on Saturday night, they agitated Howard and the Magic into utter confusion. Will it continue tonight in Game 2? On advice of counsel, I refuse to speculate on the next move by the Pistons, who can flip when you least expect it. But I can tell you this: More than anything in the whole world, they love a challenge, especially a challenge to their manhood. "

"Will Robinson always loved walking to the team hotel from dinner with good buddy and Pistons fellow scout Stan Novak. One time in Seattle, I joined them for their walk, when a woman claiming to be homeless approached, asking for a handout. She was an attractive woman pushing a baby carriage and said she needed money to feed her child. She pulled back a blanket to show us a sleeping child huddled underneath, protected from the northwest chill. I began reaching into my pocket when Robinson grabbed me and said: "Champ, let's get out of here." When we got out of earshot, he explained to me the woman was running a scam. He said he found it curious she wore makeup, had on a pair of nice shoes and pushed an expensive baby carriage. "

"On the kind of Sunday when no one should have been indoors voluntarily, the memory of our primary indoor game's good times was hazy at best. But trust us, it was seven years ago this month when the Bucks were locked into one of their best playoff series ever, which is actually saying something. You haven't heard this since, but the Bucks beat the Charlotte Hornets in the 2000-'01 Eastern Conference semifinals with defense and rebounding. That's right, with defense and rebounding. Scott Williams and Ervin Johnson had the series of their lives for a jump-shooting team, and things haven't been quite the same around here, with the exception of the jump-shooting."

"The Bulls will be watching Phoenix in the coming days to see if coach Mike D'Antoni joins the list of available candidates. Depending on how things work out, Bulls general manager John Paxson could be faced with a tantalizing choice between Johnson's discipline and D'Antoni's up-tempo offense. Both have taken home NBA coach of the year awards and produced multiple 60-win seasons."