General NBA insight – Page 141 – NBA Blog

Mavericks in first round trouble

Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News reports:

The Mavericks now are down 3-1 in the best-of-7 series that returns to American Airlines Center on Tuesday.

Only eight times in NBA history have teams rallied from a 3-1 deficit. Rick Carlisle coached one of those teams when he was with Detroit, which came back to beat Orlando.

For the second time in a row in San Antonio, the Mavericks blew a game that was well within reach. They owned a 15-point lead in the second quarter and were still up by double figures four minutes into the third quarter.

But the Spurs scored 15 points in a row to go up 62-57. The Mavericks scored just 11 points in the quarter, with just two in the final seven minutes.

Ron Artest still learning triangle offense

Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times reports:

Ron Artest is still trying to pick up an offense that took Scottie Pippen a year and a half to learn in Chicago. How intricate is the triangle? Tex Winter once wrote a 320-page book about it.

Artest has been a problem spot in the Lakers’ offense, making only three of 19 from three-point range heading into Game 4.

On Saturday, he had five points and made two of nine shots in the Lakers’ 110-89 loss. He was 0 for 4 from three-point range.

Phil Jackson told Artest beforehand to pass more often, but the Lakers’ coach isn’t frustrated with himyet.

“He’s a naïve, innocent lamb,” Jackson said. “I think he’s mistaken in a lot of ways, put in the same category as Dennis Rodman. There couldn’t be a bigger disparity between people.”

Early Brandon Roy return an inspiration for Blazers

Brian T. Smith of The Columbian reports:

Brandon Roy returned. And the Trail Blazers were back.

Lifted by the late addition of Roy to the active roster, Portland regained the form that had eluded the team during two consecutive blowout defeats.

Scrappy, energetic, resilient play — traits that carried the Blazers through an injury-plagued regular season — was evident from the opening tip.

Portland rode a wave of resurgence to down the Phoenix Suns 96-87 Saturday afternoon. With the victory, the Blazers evened the best-of-seven playoff series at 2-2.

Roy played more than 26 minutes as he took the court for the first time in the series, after recovering faster than expected from right knee surgery that was supposed to keep him sidelined through the first round.

Despite quiet Howard, Carter production, Magic controlling Bobcats

Richard Walker of the Gaston Gazette reports:

You hear the Charlotte Bobcats trail the Orlando Magic three games to none in their Eastern Conference best-of-seven first-round playoff series and you figure perennial All-Stars Dwight Howard and Vince Carter have been unstoppable.

Well, not at all.

Despite quiet Howard, Carter production, Magic controlling Bobcats

While Howard and Carter have struggled mightily, particularly on offense, but a solid Orlando defensive effort and sharpshooting from point guard Jameer Nelson and forward Rashard Lewis are the biggest reasons the Magic is one win away from eliminating Charlotte.

Certainly, Bobcats point guard Raymond Felton is surprised by the turn of events. When asked after Saturday’s 90-86 home loss if he thought the Bobcats would be down three games to none with Howard and Carter doing so poorly, Felton offered:

“I’d say no way. But they’ve had other guys step up.”

Lakers not in panic despite surge by Thunder

Battling the Thunder in the first round of the Playoffs, Kobe Bryant and the Lakers were fine early on, but the Thunder are looking more convincing by the game, and pounded Los Angeles in Game 4 to tie the series at 2-2.

The AP reports:

Bryant, Lakers not in panic despite surge by Thunder

Kobe Bryant and his veteran teammates see no reason to panic after a surprising surge by the youngest team in the NBA, with most of Oklahoma City’s players making their first postseason appearance. ”It’s not rocket science,” said Bryant, limited to 12 points in the 110-89 loss in Game 4. ”We had a tough battle, we’ve got adjustments to make and we have a team that’s playing extremely well right now that we have to deal with. ”It’s not something where we lose swagger. They defended their home court. Now, it’s our turn. Simple as that.” …

”We didn’t envision ourselves in this situation but it’s where we are, and that doesn’t change anything about the way that you should approach the next game,” Derek Fisher said. ”If we were up 3-1, we would still want to go back and win Tuesday night’s game. ”That’s what our focus is right now, is making the necessary adjustments to put ourselves in position to win Tuesday night’s game and kind of get the series back in our favor.” …

”It happens. The playoffs, it’s tough,” Bryant said. ”You go through games where you play extremely well and then you get busted up pretty well, and then you’re on to the next one. It’s such an up and down thing, especially when you’re playing against great competition. It’s just part of the playoffs.”

Judging Flip Saunders as Wizards coach

Mike Jones of CSN Washington reports:

A winner everywhere he’s been, Saunders was supposed to come in and take the Wizards from the middle of the playoff pack to the ranks of the league’s elite. But, like his talented roster, he came up short. It’s difficult to give Saunders’ coaching this season a precise grade because there were so many derisive elements involved this season. He – like his players – talked about the need to set egos aside and sacrifice for the greater good, but when things got going, Saunders couldn’t get the Wizards to play together.

Saunders was heralded as an offensive genius, but we never really saw him work his magic on the Wizards. Because he wanted to give Arenas, Butler, Jamison and Haywood time to get used to play together again, Saunders didn’t make them run much of his system. Over-estimating his players, he admittedly let them freestyle while they got back into the groove. But they never got there. The player that suffered the most was Butler, who often looked lost in the system. Was that because Saunders didn’t use him effectively, or was it a result of a lack of focus on Butler’s part, or his bad chemistry with Arenas? It turned out not making Arenas play within a system was a terrible decision because he wasn’t capable of running the show and balancing scoring with distributing. And so, the Wizards’ never clicked.

How much of it was Saunders’ fault, though? With the agendas that the Wizards had, would the coach have had any success if he did direct them to play within his system? By December, Saunders was publically criticizing his players for terrible shot selection and not playing together, “In all my years of coaching…I have never had to yell at a player for taking bad shots…until this year,” said Saunders, who also stressed improved ball movement.

Lakers must keep feeding Gasol

Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times reports:

It probably could be argued that Pau Gasol has been the best Laker in the postseason.

He had been averaging a double-double in the first two games, 22 points and 12.5 rebounds. He had been making 53.6% of his shots.

And yet, the Lakers went away from Gasol in the fourth quarter of their 101-96 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder Thursday night in Game 3 of the Western Conference first-round opener at the Ford Center.

“We tend to settle sometimes a little too much,” Gasol said. “We have to create penetration. We have to take advantage of our size.

Deron Williams not afraid of being trapped

Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post reports:

The new-look, super-trapping Nuggets were in EnergySolutions Arena this morning, going over last-minute preparations on their game plan for tonight’s Game 3.

The plan is simple: Don’t let Deron Williams go berserk.

To keep that from happening, the Nuggets are expected to press and trap Williams to get the ball out of his hands, forcing someone else to beat them.

Williams, however, shrugs off the Nuggets’ much-hyped new strategy, saying he and the Jazz can handle it.

“Just find the open guy,” Williams said. “If they want to trap me and take me out of the game, we have plenty of guys on this team that can score the basketball. Especially when it’ll be four-on-three, because two people are going to be on me.”

Kyle Korver steers Kyrylo Fesenko away from techno music

Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune reports:

Kyle Korver confirmed he encouraged Kyrylo Fesenko to switch from listening to thumping European techno to something softer in the hopes it would help Fesenko better focus now that he’s starting at center in Mehmet Okur’s absence.

“I told him to chill out and find some new music,” Korver said. “Before the game, he’s like, ‘Kyle, I think I am too mellow right now. I need to get more excited.’ I was like, ‘Once the game starts, you’ll be fine, believe me.’ ”

Not only does Fesenko regularly play his techno at louder than loud volumes, he often sings along too, Korver said.

Playoff scheduling may affect performance

Tom Enlund of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports (via blog):

NBA teams are used to playing games at a much more brisk pace and Skiles thinks whichever team does a better job of adapting to the long break between the second and third games may have a bit of an edge on Saturday.

“I think it’s a factor,” said Skiles when asked about the first round schedule at the team’s practice facility Thursday. “Probably one team will adjust to that better than the other and I would say that team probably deserves the game if they get it because they can adjust to kind of getting out of their rhythm a little bit.”

The Bucks spent four nights and five days in Atlanta for the first two games and while Skiles said that the Bucks considered coming home between games, they decided against it. The Hawks will have a slight travel advantage since they will spend one less night here for the third and fourth games.