Kelly Dwyer, formerly of SI.com, has filled in for me here many times. The guy was born to blog. But what has he been doing? I get emails all the time. Where's Kelly Dwyer? The answer, as of this morning, is blogging his brains out at Yahoo!
The Kings get a big win against the Jazz, but lose Kevin Martin to a pulled groin. Talk is he could be out for a month. ESPN's David Thorpe is Martin's trainer, and says he has not yet talked to Martin, but previewed what he plans to tell the Kings' leading scorer later today: "We're going to turn this negative into a positive," says Thorpe. "That's the only way you can look at it. If you start thinking that you have options, that's when you lose. There are always challenges in life, and people who answer those challenges end up so much better down the road. So we're going to make it into a positive, by using this time to watch a ton of tape, to hire a personal chef to get him eating healthier than ever, to work on some lifting to get his upper body stronger, and as soon as he is allowed to stand underneath the basket he'll work on left-hand finishes."
Britt Robson of The Rake on Gerald Green: "During a Wolves' timeout in the second quarter, Gerald Green spent the entire time well removed from the circular huddle, where, you know, he might glean some information that would improve on his reputation for not knowing where to go in the offensive and defensive sets. Instead Green was conversing with the injured Ratliff near the end of the bench. Twelve seconds after play resumed, Gomes picked up his third foul and with McCants also saddled with three, Sichting sent Green into the game. Thirty eight seconds after that, Green receives a pass just over center court from McCants for his first touch. Kobe and Lakers' rookie Jarvis Crittenton immediately sneak up behind Green and knock the ball from his grasp, resulting in a ruthlessly gorgeous, but rather embarrassing to Green, breakaway slam by Kobe. Two or three years from now, Gerald Green will be back in his old neighborhood, alternately bragging about his NBA career and complaining how he got screwed because nobody gave him a chance to play."
When I turned my TV and saw Jerry Sichting pacing the sidelines for Minnesota, I started composing a "Randy Wittman got fired" post in my head. Turns out Randy Wittman is having back surgery.
Dave Feschuk of The Toronto Star: "Bryan Colangelo, the Raptors general manager, got a phone call the other day. It was from an agent advertising the wares of a player possessed of qualities sorely missing from the Toronto roster this season, athleticism for one. And though the GM wasn't interested for a list of reasons, the deal sealer, in some ways, was a simple truth: the free agent in question cannot shoot. 'If a guy can't shoot, I generally say ... `I'm not sure he can play with us,'' Colangelo said. 'It's just the way the game has evolved. ... I told him, if he goes over to Europe, he can work on his skills,' Colangelo said, 'and he can come back more in tune with where the game is going.'"
Can Scott Skiles and Tyrus Thomas coexist? BlogaBull: "Paxson needs to fire Skiles or trade Thomas."
Dave from BlazersEdge explains why he almost never gets irate with his team, like most fans. His explanation involves an elephant sitting on a chihuahua. Really.
The production values of YouTube highlight reels are getting finer. Take this Monta Ellis number, for instance.
Darko Milicic is a good defender, who will try to play injured against Yao Ming and the Rockets. That's the main gist of this Memphis Commercial-Appeal article. But there's also an interesting sign of the times: at the moment, there's one comment on it, and it's clearly from a European fan of Pau Gasol. When Madrid and Barcelona provide key audiences for the Commercial-Appeal, as they surely do, that's a changing media landscape.
Krista Jahnke in the Detroit Free Press: "A rude awakening greeted the Pistons upon their arrival at the morning shoot-around at Philips Arena. The arena alarm blared -- first in siren mode, followed by a woman's voice saying repeatedly that she wanted everyone's attention to warn them of an 'emergency on this floor' -- for most of the hour-long workout. Lights flashed and the alarm shrieked as most of the Pistons ignored the warning and continued warming up. Forward Rasheed Wallace, though, strolled out of the court area, calling over his shoulder that his teammates should listen to the warning. And assistant coach Dave Cowens went with him, and on returning said, 'When I hear voices calling from above, it's time for me to leave.'"
We have talked about point shaving a few times on this here blog, and here's the suspicion it might have happened in a recent NFL game. I'm not a gambler, and the whole thing seems outlandish to me. But plenty of people do gamble, and there is real money to be made tinkering with games.
Anatomy of a Clipper loss to the Bucks, from Kevin Arnovitz of ClipperBlog, who discusses the merits of relying on Tim Thomas: "Thomas is one of the league's great enigmas of the past decade. He's got an All-Star skill set but his intrinsic ... I don't want to call it knuckleheadedness because I think that's probably 18% unfair ... let's just say that he doesn't always utilize his talents and dogs it on defensive end -- often enough -- on the glass."
That quintuple overtime game in Berlin last night? Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress was courtside, and wrote all about it. One highlight involved the referees: "They made some very questionable calls for both sides, but the highlight of the night had to be an incredible call with two minutes left in the fourth quarter. Bosna had just scored a basket, and Alba power forward Goran Nikolic was stepping onto the baseline from inside the paint to inbound the ball. Out of nowhere, the ref blows his whistle and says that he inbounded the ball himself and was now out of bounds -- a violation that would have given the ball to Bosna for a crucial possession (they were up by 5 points already). Nikolic very calmly demonstrates what he did again, and as Alba's bench erupts and the boos start raining down from the crowd, the ref whistles, points at himself, and then signals in the other direction to reverse the call ... Alba ball! It's great to see a ref correcting a bad call, but wow, that was a strange play."
UPDATE: Luke Jackson has a big game in the D-League, says that having to prove himself again and again has tested him as a person. An Cavaliers scout says Jackson needs to prove he can stay healthy.
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