Sekou Smith of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "What else can you say? Take your bow Al Horford. You've only got about six or seven hours to bask in the glow of one of the most fantastic basketball showcases I've seen in the past 14 years of being in this profession (tonight's game at Boston couldn't have a better build up if Aaron Sorkin had scripted it). If you missed the second-year Hawks center's virtuoso performance in Tuesday night's win here over Chicago, then I feel for you. Because it was a one-of-a-kind performance. With their star player struggling (Joe Johnson was 4-for-16 for the second straight game), his partner in crime back home (Josh Smith's high ankle sprain kept him from making this road trip) and playing in a building the Hawks hadn't won in since Horford was walking the hall of Grand Ledge High School, a young star was reborn (those Rookie of the Year votes people handed to Kevin Durant last year need to be recounted)."
Brian Windhorst of The Plain Dealer: "When I was at the 2006 FIBA World Championships in Japan, I overheard a NBA player tell a foreign reporter how the American media always looks for the negative no matter what. I wanted to say: 'Well, only the good ones!' But the guy was not wrong, often there is an effort by us beat writer-types to point out shortcomings. My round-about point here is that as I was watching the Cavs finish off the Bucks and was thinking I was not impressed at all with the way they've played over the last three games even though they've won them. Especially how they have played offense in the fourth quarters, which sure looks like the old days even though LeBron James has been bailing them out. I was sure I was going to write how they played bad and won and was thinking I'd be labeled a 'hater.' Then I get to the Cavs locker room and they all felt the same way. Which, I believe, is a sign of a good team."
Chris McCosky of The Detroit News: "Admittedly, I never have understood Michael Jordan the front-office guy. Michael Jordan the player, yeah, best ever. But between taking Kwame Brown with the No. 1 pick and inserting himself into the rotation in Washington, drafting Sean May and Adam Morrison as high as he did in Charlotte, and never really making any team he's been in charge of better -- front-office M.J. is a bit of a disaster. Now he's talking about trading Gerald Wallace . Tell me that's a joke. What other reason would anybody have to watch that Bobcats team besides seeing Wallace sky-walk? OK, Jason Richardson can light it up on the odd night and Larry Brown is a Hall of Fame coach. If they trade Wallace, that's an indication they're hemorrhaging money and looking to sell assets in preparation of a sale. If they want to move somebody and get a decent return on investment, move Emeka Okafor , not Wallace."
Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: "Jamaal who? T.J. Ford has made Jamaal Tinsley an afterthought in less time than it took the Indiana Pacers to box up and ship Tinsley's belongings to him this summer. Ford's early play has given fans a reason to believe the team has solved its recent instability at point guard. The Pacers are 3-3 heading into tonight's game at New Jersey. Win, and they climb above .500 for the first time since late last December. 'I don't want to jump the gun, but this guy has to be one of the top point guards in the East right now at this point,' said Jarrett Jack, Ford's backup. 'I don't see too many people playing better than him right now. The All-Star thing crept in my mind with him and how nice it would be for him because it's his third go-around. People kind of write you off after your third go-around. He's been persistent with it and he's playing good basketball.'"
Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star: "Sam Mitchell's love is unequivocal and real. But Mitchell's reverence for Kevin Garnett reached ridiculous proportions in Monday night's 94-87 loss in Boston. Apparently convinced that Garnett, the league's reigning defensive player of the year, was unassailable even by Toronto's best player, Mitchell sketched out a scheme that saw Chris Bosh, who came into the game averaging a team-high 26.6 points, take zero shots in the fourth quarter and one shot in an entire second half in which the Celtics, in a comeback onslaught, outscored the Raptors 58-39. You don't need to be an NBA guru to know that if you allow your opponent to take away your top weapon without even attempting to counter the strategy, you're tying your best shooting hand behind your back."
Jerry Brown of the East Valley Tribune: "Confused. Frustrated. Uncertain. All are words which can be used to describe the Phoenix Suns after eight games as they adjust to new players and a new system on both ends of the floor. But there are also two numbers which can be used to describe them: Six and two. And Phoenix's record has general manager Steve Kerr, who all but warned Planet Orange fans that a bumpy start was coming, optimistic as coach Terry Porter and his players seek to work out the bugs that have so far proven annoying, but not costly. 'I like what we've shown on defense (allowing just over 98 points a game) and the offense has lots of room from improvement,' Kerr said. 'Change isn't easy.'"
Mike Finger of the San Antonio Express-News: "Tim Duncan has as much influence on his organization as any player in the league, and while that's not a recent development, the way he's exerted it has evolved. In the preseason, Duncan was a regular fixture in the coaches' huddles at the start of timeouts, and an hour before Tuesday's tipoff, he was conducting an impromptu film session with Roger Mason and George Hill in the locker room. Gregg Popovich said it's Duncan's empathy, more than anything else that makes him an effective leader. 'He allows people to feel comfortable,' Popovich said. 'He doesn't make them feel foolish.'"
Jeff Caplan of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "A Houston reporter asked Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle on Tuesday about Gerald Green's progress. The Rockets, of course, released Green in March weeks after acquiring him in a trade from Minnesota. The reporter wondered if the gravity-defying Green's 2007 slam dunk championship actually stymied the then-21-year-old. 'It doesn't help the perception when you're perceived to be more of a sideshow and a high-wire act than a true basketball player,' Carlisle said. 'I think that's something else that he's realized.' Then Carlisle seemed to visualize Green's ludicrously impossible dunks, like his 2008 second-place effort when he blew out a candle in a cupcake perched on the back of the rim. 'That's another sign that dunk contests aren't the be-all and end-all,' Carlisle said. 'If you really think about it, the guy's head was over the rim, he blew out a candle and he didn't win.'"
Michael Wilbon of The Washington Post: "The dumbest thing the Washington Wizards could do right now is fire Eddie Jordan. Abe Pollin's history of patience with employees he likes -- and he loves this Jordan -- and Ernie Grunfeld's track record of making smart basketball decisions both suggest the Wizards will be too smart to finger Jordan as the primary culprit for the team's wretched start. But being the only winless team in the NBA at 0-5 makes these conversations inevitable. ... The last thing the Wizards need is a flashback to the years of upheaval and uncertainty, which is exactly what would happen if they brought in a new coach now, even a guy like Jeff Van Gundy or Avery Johnson who has a track record of winning. On the list of issues the Wizards are dealing with right now, coaching is too far down to target."
Sam Donnellon of the Philadelphia Daily News: "Until they got their fastbreak uncorked for a stint in the third, the Sixers again looked like a bunch who had just met for a lunchtime game. They got a defensive rebound and lost the ball in their haste to go down court. Or they charged so recklessly that the ball was stripped before they cleared their own foul line. Right now, they are ugly to watch. Right now, the coach doesn't seem to have a clue how to unravel the mystery. 'We're just going to keep working on it,' Cheeks said. 'We had worked on our spacing. But really it puts a lot of pressure on our offense when we turn the ball over and then we have to score, score, score just to keep ourselves in the game.'"
Michael Cunningham of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "There were times last season when Heat guard Daequan Cook went on scoring streaks only to find himself stuck on the bench for games at a time by coach Pat Riley. It's got to be about more than scoring, Riley said of the rookie, and coach Erik Spoelstra told Cook much of the same coming into this season. It seems Cook finally has gotten the message and, as a result, has earned a spot in Spoelstra's rotation. 'It was his defensive energy and activity,' Spoelstra said. 'For a second-year player he's come a long way. ... Now I consider him a guy who knows [the defensive system] as well as anybody.'"
Martin McNeal of the Sacramento Bee: "From first to worst. The Kings had the NBA's lowest average home attendance (12,122) entering Tuesday night's game at Arco Arena against the Detroit Pistons. Surely, three games do not make an ample sampling for what this season holds. However, it speaks to the realities the Maloofs face: a recession that appears to be a depression without prohibition."
Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times: "A few hours after the Clippers defeated the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday for their first win, Al Thornton talked to his girlfriend for the first time since the season started. Thornton said he didn't want to talk to her until the Clippers ended their losing streak, partly out of superstition and not wanting to talk when he's in a bad mood. 'It wasn't anything personal,' Thornton said. 'She knows how I am about basketball.' During the team's six-game losing streak, Thornton refused to get a haircut. He sat in a chair at a barbershop Monday ready for a haircut, before suddenly changing his mind and deciding to let the hair grow after the Clippers' win. 'I might have a huge Afro,' Thornton said."
Mike Jones of The Washington Times: "A strip on the size-18 Nikes of Washington Wizards rookie JaVale McGee bears a peculiar phrase, written neatly in black Sharpie. 'Kill + Mode = Cheese.' Uh, come again? Ask the 7-foot center the origin and he shrugs it off. "Oh, it's just a saying," he says dryly. But what does it mean? 'Well, if you're in kill mode, like a mode where you feel like no one can stop you, and you just work hard and no one can stop you, then you get cheese - success,' McGee says. 'It's just something my cousin and I thought up in high school.' Dig a little deeper into that 20-year-old mind. Watch him closely on the practice court or in the first five games of his career. He has taken advantage of every minute given him, producing impressive flashes, regardless of how limited or extensive the playing time. It becomes evident that 'Kill + Mode = Cheese' is more than a saying. For McGee, selected by the Wizards 18th overall out of Nevada in June's draft, 'Kill + Mode = Cheese' is a mantra. It echoed in his head Dec. 27, 2007, when he faced North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough, swatted the eventual NCAA player of the year's first two shots into the stands and finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and four blocks."
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