NBA - Sports Rumors

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After watching New Orleans forward David West savage the Spurs for 38 points in Game 5, San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich apparently decided enough was enough. Popovich eschewed the overmatched tag team of Fabricio Oberto and Kurt Thomas and saddled All-NBA defender Tim Duncan with the responsibility of slowing West down. West had little trouble locating open shots during Game 5. But West was never able to establish any rhythm against the 7-foot Duncan, scoring just 10 points on 4-of-14 shooting before leaving with a back injury.

"Timmy did a good job defensively," Popovich said. "David didn't shoot it very well tonight. Sometimes that happens. It was a combination of that and Timmy playing well."

Despite his defensive pedigree, Duncan typically doesn't draw such assignments. Instead, Popovich prefers to deploy him as more of an anchor, free to cheat off lesser threats and dispense help to teammates. On Thursday night, however, Duncan spent virtually the entire game focused solely West.

Source: Times-Picayune

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San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich turned around the Spurs' fortunes in Game 3 of their Wesern Conference semifinals series against the New Orleans Hornets by reinserting an Argentine into his starting lineup.

He now is 2 for 2 with reinstated Argentine starters. Fabricio Oberto, a teammate of Manu Ginobili's on the defending Olympic champion Argentine national team, on Thursday replaced Kurt Thomas, who had started at center in the first five games. Oberto did his typical journeyman job on the boards, grabbing four rebounds in 18 minutes and 32 seconds, but he turned into a setup man in the first half, tallying four assists.

Popovich went with Oberto to start and made Robert Horry his first big man off the bench for Game 6 because of their experience in the Spurs' systems.

Source: Express-News

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The wait will be unendurable. So will four days of relentless, nails-on-the-chalkboard over-analysis. Then there will be an arena rocking harder than Bourbon Street, and memories of three recent third-quarter meltdowns, and a determined, well-rested David West greeting them inside. So how will the Spurs overcome all of this? The same way they made it through Thursday night.

"The only thing you can do," Bruce Bowen said, shrugging his shoulders, "is will your way through the madness."

That, more than even Tim Duncan's toughness, Manu Ginobili's magic and Tony Parker's quickness, has always been these Spurs' biggest strength. They weathered bad crème brûlée in Dallas in 2003 and near-disaster in Detroit in 2005 and the mayhem that was the Phoenix series in 2007, and every time they put their head down and forged on. The madness never stood a chance.

So it was no surprise that on Thursday, when things started getting chippy and the season hung in the balance, it was the Spurs who looked like they'd been there before. West would say later that he thought the New Orleans Hornets "lost our cool," and he was including himself in that summation. After he was charged with three fouls in the span of a minute, he reacted like Gregg Popovich getting a delay-of-game warning.
Popovich, for his part, was cooler on this night, and watching his team get a few calls probably helped. But even before the game, he appeared as relaxed as he had all series, and that was at least partly because he knew the pressure of an elimination game was something his team was almost certain to thrive on.

Source: Express-News

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Maybe this will be the year that Patrick Ewing finally returns to New York. Mike D'Antoni said Thursday that he would consider hiring the Knicks' Hall of Fame center as one of his assistant coaches according to the New York Daily News.

"I know what he did in New York and I know that he's done a good job since he left," D'Antoni said. "He will definitely be considered."

D'Antoni is in the early stages of putting together his staff, which is expected to include his brother, Dan. The status of two of D'Antoni's other assistants from Phoenix, Alvin Gentry and Phil Weber, is uncertain. Both are still under contract with the Suns, which could prevent one or both from joining the Knicks. Herb Williams, who shares an agent with D'Antoni, likely will remain on the Knicks' bench while Dave Hanners is expected to be reunited with Larry Brown in Charlotte. Mark Aguirre and George Glymph, who were both hired by Isiah Thomas, are not likely to return.

Source: New York Daily News

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Admittedly, Kobe Bryant doesn't throw up praise toward his opponents as frequently as he does jump shots.
But when the topic of the Utah Jazz's 23-year-old point guard, Deron Williams, comes up, the L-word starts to flow the Los Angeles Times reported.

"I love him," Bryant recently said of Williams. "He's one of my favorite players in the league. "I love his toughness. I love his competitiveness. I love his skill. I don't throw accolades around too frequently. I really love him as a basketball player."

Each is the cog that revs his team's engine: Bryant, 29, the Lakers' superstar and the league's most valuable player with a knack for big shots and stellar play, and Williams, a young point guard who seamlessly fit into Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan's pick-and-roll scheme with forward Carlos Boozer. And great players play even better in the playoffs.

In the Western Conference semifinal series that pits them against each other, Bryant is posting a team-high 33 points and 7.4 assists, up from his MVP regular-season averages of 28.3 and 5.4. Williams, who is seemingly improving from game to game in this series, is averaging team highs of 22.6 points and 11 assists, compared with 18.8 and 10.5 in the regular season.

Source: Los Angeles Times

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In Game 2, he could not hit the side of a barn, missing all six shots he took. In Game 3, he couldn't buy an assist, failing to record a single dish. In Game 4, he had a more even performance, tallying 15 points on 5-for-8 shooting to go along with 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 4 turnovers. But it all went for naught in an 11-point loss. Last night, however, Rondo was the "difference-maker" to his teammates and the "X-factor" to his opponents.

With the series tied at 2-2, Rondo responded in Game 5 by helping the Celtics hold serve at TD Banknorth Garden, 96-89. Was it the most important game of his two-year career?

"Yeah, I think so, but I hope it's not the last important game of my career," Rondo said, casting a hopeful eye toward Game 6 in Cleveland tomorrow night. "Definitely, Game 5 tonight was a big game for us."

It was even bigger for Rondo. He submitted a career playoff performance: 20 points on 9-for-15 shooting, including huge back-to-back 3-pointers in the second quarter, to go along with 13 assists, 2 rebounds, 2 blocked shots, 2 steals, and just 1 turnover in 42 minutes of yeoman work the Boston Globe reported.

Source: Boston.com

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LeBron James's best game of the series was soured by a third quarter that gave the Boston Celtics momentum and doomed the Cleveland Cavaliers. His numbers were impressive: 12 of 25 from the field, 11 of 13 from the stripe, 35 points. James chipped in three rebounds and five assists to go with the explosive production, but in the third quarter of last night's 96-89 loss, he suffered the single-digit blues the Boston Globe reported.

James converted just one of his five shots in the period, accounting for 2 points as the Cavaliers were throttled by the hot-shooting (12 for 16) Celtics, 29-17. The Cavaliers shot 38.9 percent (7 of 18) from the floor and now must win Game 6 tomorrow night in Cleveland to avoid elimination in the best-of-seven second-round series.

"We start off well, but we go through a lapse on offense," James said. "Tonight it was the third quarter. They made us turn the ball over. They came down and scored, they got us on our heels, and we were down 12. You can't go down 12 on the road, especially in a place of this magnitude."

Source: Boston.com

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Former New England video assistant Matt Walsh dismissed Patriots coach Bill Belichick's attempts to minimize the impact of the team's illegal taping of opponents' coaching signals according to the Boston Globe.

more stories like this" ... it was something that they continued to have me do throughout the two years I worked in video, under Coach Belichick," Walsh told HBO's Andrea Kremer in an interview scheduled to air Friday night on "Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. "If it was of little or no importance, I imagine they wouldn't have continued to do it, and probably not taken the chances of going down onto the field in Pittsburgh or shooting from other teams' stadiums the way we did."

The Spygate investigation began after the NFL confiscated tapes from a team employee who recorded the New York Jets' defensive signals during the 2007 opener. Belichick was fined $500,000, while the team was fined $250,000 and forced to forfeit its 2008 first-round draft choice. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell essentially declared an end to the case after a 3½-hour meeting Tuesday with Walsh, who supplied the league with tapes of coaches' signals made by the Patriots. After meeting with Walsh later Tuesday, Sen. Arlen Specter called Wednesday for an independent investigation. The senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Specter criticized Goodell, saying he has made "ridiculous" assertions that wouldn't fly "in kindergarten."

Source: Boston.com

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Here's how the Pistons celebrated their Game 5 win Tuesday night. They shook the hands and slapped the backs of their opponents, the Orlando Magic. Then they walked off the court. No skipping, hugging or high-fiving as they crossed into the tunnel. Red and blue confetti fell from the rafters, but not a single player looked up into the arena to take in the sight.

You'd think the Pistons had won a regular-season game in January rather than become the first team since the Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980s to advance to the conference finals six years in a row. But that demure reaction says a lot. It says that they've been there before. It says that they aren't surprised to be back. And it says that they know they still have a lot of work to do.

"It's not easy at all. We're just getting started," point guard Lindsey Hunter said. "This is where we were last year. Everybody here knows how it felt for us not to advance to the (NBA) Finals, and that's our focus now."

Source: Detroit Free Press

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