- Denver Nuggets coach George Karl wants former University of Missouri player Linas Kleiza to get more minutes on the court. Karl wants the 2007 European Championship Bronze medalist to “get back into a groove” like he was during last year’s NBA Play-Offs, when Kleiza averaged 14 points per game on 53% shooting.
- San Antonio Spurs coach Greg Popovich said that Argentine Manu Ginóbili will return to the court “when he’s able to play without fear of making it [his ankle] worse.” The Spurs have lost six games since mid February without the 2004 Gold Medalist.
- Leandro Barbosa of the Phoenix Suns suffered a harsh bone contusion. Tests showed little damage, so a week or more of rest will be required the “Brazilian Blur” who started his career in São Paulo before playing with Bauru Tilibra and the Phoenix Suns. Barbosa was the 2006-07 NBA Sixth Man of the Year and is playing better since being given the green light to run with the ball after coach Terry Porter left the team.
- 2006 World Champion Pau Gasol scored 21 points, 14 rebounds against the hapless Golden State Warriors. Gasol’s Lakers won and Don Nelson lost a little of his heart watching a passing big man on the other team.
- Former Memphis Grizzlies coach Marc Iavaroni has been dropping in to watch coach Jay Triano’s Toronto Raptors. Triano, who replaced Leo Rautins (the Syracuse University legend whose son is playing for the Orangemen in the NCAA Tourney) as the Canadian National Team coach, said he was not worried that Iavaroni might replace him. He said that if he was worried about his job, “we’d close our practice.”
- Dallas Mavericks Coach Rick Carlisle was ejected from Thursday’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks for trying to plead to the referees, saying that his German forward was getting hacked. “I thought Dirk was being held and pushed and got fouled repeatedly. I kept asking for a foul to be called, but it wasn’t. I turned to the official and just got thrown out.” Dirk Nowitzki, the German 2007 NBA MVP, finished the game with 23 points and 12 rebounds.
- Last Wednesday, China’s Yao Ming rocked the Detroit Pistons in a double-overtime game, scoring 31 points and 15 rebounds. The ex-Shanghai Shark was nevertheless criticized by coach Rick Adelman, who said “he’s just got to demand the ball.” Apparently Adelman doesn’t know how hard it is to “demand the ball” while being triple-teamed by Antonio McDyess, Rasheed Wallace, and Tayshaun Prince…
Related Posts:
Entry Posted on Friday, March 20th, 2009 at 9:45 am
and is filed under Uncategorized.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
