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Good morning. Gotta go somewhere in a jiffy but still need to catch up on last night’s NBA action? Gotcha covered.
A 12-game slate Friday night did not see a lot of substance. In fact, only one of 12 games was decided by less than nine points as Brooklyn beat a depleted Chicago team 93-89. This isn’t to say there weren’t a few interesting tidbits worth mentioning.
To the facts!
In the face of adversity, particularly as it relates to severe injuries, the best teams tend to take the “next man up” approach, choosing to focus on the personnel they still have, rather than that which was lost.
That is the attitude that can be found in Boston, Massachusetts.
The Boston Celtics, less than a week after finding out that All-Star point guard Rajon Rondo will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL that will require surgery, will now be without their promising rookie forward Jared Sullinger.
The Memphis Grizzlies have agreed in principle to trade Rudy Gay to the Toronto Raptors, and details are still being worked out according to ESPN’s Marc Stein: “The Memphis Grizzlies and Toronto Raptors have agreed in principle on a trade that will send leading scorer Rudy Gay to the Raptors, according to sources with knowledge of the deal. Sources told ESPN.com that the Grizzlies will acquire forward Ed Davis and veteran guard Jose Calderon from the Raptors and then move Calderon on to a third team to ultimately make this a three-team deal.”
NEW YORK — The best center in the NBA, statistically at least, is going to the All-Star Game after all.
Brook Lopez was chosen Wednesday by commissioner David Stern to replace the injured Rajon Rondo in the league’s showcase event on Feb. 17. The news came just hours before Lopez and the Nets were set to play the Eastern Conference-leading Miami Heat at the Barclays Center.
Lopez is averaging 18.6 points and shooting 52.3 percent from the field for Brooklyn, which currently sits in fourth place in the Eastern Conference and is ranked ninth in the latest edition of Mark Heisler’s NBA Power Rankings, which ran on this site earlier today.
He also is averaging a career-high 2.18 blocks per game, ranking him fourth in the NBA behind Larry Sanders of Milwaukee, Roy Hibbert of Indiana and Dwight Howard of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Kobe Bryant, or Magic Bryant?
Whatever you want to call him, the Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard has drastically changed his style of play over the past two games for the greater good of his reeling team.
And it’s working out quite swimmingly, too.
After suffering 10 losses out of 12 contests, Bryant dropped his quest to lead the league in scoring and decided to put his focus on more important things – at least for the current make of this team – like passing, rebounding and defending. In the last couple of victories against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz – two of the hottest teams in the league over the month of January – he has averaged an incredible 17.5 points on 11 shot attempts, nine rebounds, 14 assists, two steals and a block.
Clearly, a passing Bryant is a winning Bryant, and the numbers back up that notion. When he takes less than 20 shot attempts, the Lakers are an impressive 13-3. The team’s current record is 19-25. You do the math on what happens when Kobe goes into full-on scoring mode.
The only question left to ponder is whether he can sustain the new-found willingness to consistently move the ball. J.A. Adande of ESPN believes it is entirely possible:
Passing isn’t Kobe’s thing. Scoring is. You know how LeBron James scored his 20,000th point a year younger than Kobe did? Well, LeBron was four years younger than Bryant when he reached his 5,000th assist. If we can borrow the promotional hashtag Bryant uses on Twitter, you can #countonkobe to shoot. But I believe Kobe will stay in this pass-oriented mode the rest of the way because traditionally he has pushed the scoring envelope in the regular season, then played more team-oriented ball in the playoffs…and with the Lakers margin for error eliminated by losing 25 of their first 42 games, every game is like a playoff game from here on out. That’s why he’ll stick with what’s working.
As a matter of fact, Bryant’s decision to suddenly pass more was a premeditated decision on his part, from Sam Amick of USA Today:
“It’s trying to evolve and figured out what we need as a ballclub,” Bryant said of his new style. “Instead of me being a finisher, I’m just really facilitating and drawing the defense in and making plays. I game-planned for it, and it seems to be working.” D’Antoni, who has struggled to get his all-for-one-one-for-all message across since being hired in mid-November, is hoping this isn’t an aberration for Bryant. “I think he likes (playing this way),” D’Antoni said. “I think he’s happy as hell.”
It’s one thing for Kobe to feel the need to play this way. It’s another thing for him to want to play this way. We don’t know if he has it in him to continue with this style of play for the remainder of the season, but whichever decision he makes could end up being the difference between squeezing into the playoffs to salvage a wild season and becoming an unfathomable lottery team.
Onto other relevant news from around the league, including plenty more about the Lakers:
