The Dribble

In the fourth game of a six game road trip the Phoenix Suns dominated the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first half by shooting 66% only to see Lebron James turn it up a notch as the Cavs rallied to win at home. The Suns faced a different team in the second half as Cleveland inserted Varejao into the mix in place of Ilgauskas who proved to be ineffective against a smaller Phoenix lineup. Sending the energetic Varejao to the top of the key to guard the charging Steve Nash, Cleveland forced Phoenix to miss 15-18 shots. With both Kurt Thomas and Boris Diaw in foul trouble Lebron James, who was guarded for most of the game by Shawn Marion, scored 32 points in the second half and finished with 44pts 11rebs 7ast and one game changing block on Barbosa that led to yet another viciously thunderous highlight dunk by the King with 6:26 remaining. But the difference of the game was the 15 offensive boards that Cleveland had as they exploited the rebounding weakness of the Suns.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have undergone a transformation rarely seen. Back in 2004 the starting five looked like this:

C. Olowokandi
PF. Garnett
SF. Sczerbiak
SG. Sprewell
PG. Cassell


This year's version is now completely retooled with only one member remaining.

C. Blount
PF. Garnett
SF. Hassell
SG. Davis
PG. Jaric

So far this season, the soon to be 30 year old, Kevin Garnett has continued to put up All-Star numbers and is averaging a double double in ppg and rpg, his averages are down from last year but they are still over his career averages in almost every category:

"The NBA scouts used to line up at Mike D'Antoni's

and take off from the free-throw line for dunks"

"a 7-0, 225-pound forward,

in 160 career games over four NBA seasons "

Don't get too excited now this trade, because apparently it was only a precursor to the bigger seven player trade that occured later the same day while the Suns on the other hand:

"Phoenix needed to make a move because

it can't go two weeks without 12 active players"

"clear(ed) playing time for young big men Al Jefferson and Kendrick Perkins"

"The Celtics were comfortable adding Banks
and Reed to the deal because Ainge and Rivers
see more potential in rookies Orien Greene and Ryan Gomes"

Rob Babcock, the former VP of player personel in Minnesota and now former GM of the Toronto Raptors was thanked for his services after a brief yet tumultuous run atop the organization. He will be replaced on an interim basis by Wayne Embry who served the Raptors as "senior basketball advisor". It seems the Raptors have found someone to blame for their poor play and bad luck of late perhaps even blaming Babcock for the embarassment of falling victim to the Kobe Bryant show last Sunday night.

The man with a 3 year plan was cut short almost half way in, the moves made this year were decent ones; his draft picks have blossomed when at one point because of the other picks available they were viewed as blunders, and his trade of Rafer Alston for Mike James is now viewed as a (lucky?) stroke of genius. Yet the Vince Carter trade is the move that did him in, mid-season last year Babcock traded an undervalued/underperforming Vince to the New Jersey Nets for Eric Wiliams, Aaron Williams, Alonzo Mourning (who never reported to the team) and a pick. Ever since that time the writing has been on the wall and Bobcock's future has been in jeopardy.

Richard Peddie, the head of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment goes on to justify the timing of the dismissal by stating:

" In fairness to Rob, once we knew a change was necessary,

toward being a very good NBA coach during the second half of the season"

"while some progress has been made recently,

to compete for an NBA championship "

"We sure have had enough bad luck for a year.
I'm really, really concerned. I heard it pop.
Hopefully, I won't need surgery." -- Indiana forward Jermaine O'Neal,
who may have torn a groin muscle in the fourth quarter
of the Pacers' fourth straight loss, 96-66 at Cleveland on Tuesday night."


"I heard it pop; obviously that's not a good thing,
" O'Neal said. "Right now I'm concerned about that.
If it's a tear, we want it to be a low-grade tear"

"We're glad this is over with," Pacers president Larry Bird said. "We wanted to be patient with this one because Ronnie is a heck of a player and someone's always going to take a chance on someone like that."

"We're gamblers. So we're going to take a chance on him," said Kings co-owner Gavin Maloff, who also owns a casino with his brother, Joe. "We want to look forward, otherwise we wouldn't have made this happen"

"It's a new chapter in Sacramento's basketball history and hopefully it'll be a successful one," co-owner Joe Maloof said. "He's a terrific athlete, we all know that. He's one of the top 15 or 20 players in the league, in our opinion anyway, and he brings it every night."

"Obviously, we’re very happy about getting a player of Stojakovic’s caliber,” Bird said. “He gives us another dimension on the outside and hopefully that opens things up in the middle"

But wait today is another day and now:

Pending league approval, yesterday it looked like it was gonna be Peja to the Kings for the Pacers' Ron Artest an interesting choice to say the least for Larry Bird. I imagine the reason it took so long is because they wanted to make sure that Peja would commit to the Pacers (long term contract) or else I can see no reason why a deal like this would not have been concluded long ago.

It was six weeks ago on Dec. 11 that Ron "Ronnie" Artest came out of the closet and floored the Pacers franchise with a trade demand under the pretext that he needed a change of scenery in order for him to get over the "incident" that has been haunting him and his image:

"Artest told the Indianapolis Star on Dec. 11
that he wanted to be traded and that
he didn't like playing for Pacers coach Rick Carlisle.
He also said he wanted to join an NBA team
that would allow him to shoot more often"

Not sure he would have been shooting more often in Sactown with others who have proven to have more offensive game than Artest (who has two years remaining on his contract) but he would have run the floor much better than Stojakovic, who,


I guess we'll see how good RonRon is, unless they decide not to put him in the starting rotation (which would be like a slap in the face).

Indiana, who is just not playing the same since Artest made his trade demand:

Stojakovic, (who has a contract option to opt out of his contract at the end of this season), goes to a team with an even slower pace than the Kings...the Pacers, where he should fit in perfectly in the half-court offence. Defensively though Indiana, is gonna find it tough against the speedier forwards.

The Pacers are too close to contention in the Eastern Conference to let the door of opportunity shut on the team that has undergone so much turmoil.

"Once Kobe got in that zone, the Raptors
lost their composure and confidence on both ends of the court"

and they became spectators

"that's because the final score was merely an incidental back story"

"The Lakers started the third quarter with
the same lethargic effort defensively from
the first half and the game had the makings
of a 20 point Laker loss.
This is where Kobe took over.
At first, Kobe was in "screw you,
I'll just score myself" mode.
He took Toronto one-on-five and got hot"

In a game that looked like a blowout from the onset, the T-Wolves allowed the 76ers to climb back into the game with 31 fourth quarter points getting close enough to win it on the final posession as Webber missed a layup in Eddie Griffin's face and swatting left hand. A deflected rebound sends the ball to Iguodala, who in mid air fired a right handed floating shot that found the net as time expired.

The Philadelphia 76ers who trailed the entire game and at one point were behind by 19pts should never have been allowed to get this close. Double team after team double team smothered Kevin Garnett who could muster only 13pts on 5-15 shooting and never got the ball in his hands when it counted.

The Timberwolves played like they never felt threatened by the Sixers who sneaked up on them at the end and lacked that killer intinct thereby deserving the loss as they watched Iguodala rush to the locker room with Iverson on his back to watch the AFC conference title game.

"Cavs guard Damon Jones went 1-for-5 on 3-pointers,
and is just 6-for-37 on 3s in his last seven games.
"I'm officially in a slump," Jones said"

• Charlotte had a hard team beating the Rockets who were without 5 of their players (T-Mac, Yao Ming, Derek Anderson, Jon Barry, Stromile Swift) and when they took them to double overtime Juwan Howard and Rafer Alston fouled out as well:

" We have an All-Star team on our bench,
but the more we dwell on that,
we lose focus on what the healthy
guys have to do," Houston's David Wesley said. "

"Hill scored 14 points in the first half,
but reaggravated the strained groin that
forced him to have sports hernia
surgery before the season and has kept him
on the sidelines for all but 10 games this season.
He tried to play in the second half, but pulled himself out after just 2 minutes"