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Morning Shootaround — Jan. 31

January 31, 2013  ·  7:54AM

Missed a game last night? Wondering what the latest news around the NBA is this morning? The Morning Shootaround is here to try to meet those needs and keep you up on what’s happened around the league since the day turned.

The one recap to watch: Two great games last night (Clippers-Wolves and Lakers-Suns) that we’d like to nominate as a must-see this morning, but if we have to pick just one, we’re going with Clippers-Wolves. Great back-and-forth action all game, slick passing from Ricky Rubio here and there, Blake Griffin doing his thing, a little bit of chippiness between two West teams that haven’t liked each other much the last few seasons. Going in, this looked like an easy one for the contending Clips against the banged-up Wolves, but it turned into an overall solid game.

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News of the morning

Howard has shoulder pain | Raptors wild night in Georgia | Pistons say farewell to Prince | Heat teach Nets a lesson | Popovich excited about something? | Nuggets finding their way

Dwight’s shoulder flares up again — Dwight Howard got his shot blocked by Phoenix’s Shannon Brown with 6:57 left in the game and that was the end of the night for the Lakers’ star big man. Check out the video, but Howard is clearly in pain and reaches for that bothersome right shoulder and the torn labrum that’s hobbled him at times all season. ESPNLosAngeles.com’s Dave McMenamin and the Orange County Register’s Kevin Ding both chime in on what’s next for Howard, who says he won’t shut himself down for the season:

From McMenamin:

Howard checked out of the game and did not return as the Suns finished on a 19-8 run without him in there. Howard’s shoulder will be re-evaluated Thursday after the team flies to Minneapolis and his availability for Friday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves will be determined.

“It’s real sore,” Howard told reporters after icing his shoulder and applying kinesiology tape to the joint following the game. “Everything on (the right) side (of my body) is hurting pretty bad right now.”

Howard originally injured his shoulder during a Jan. 4 game against the Los Angeles Clippers and sat out three games to try to strengthen the muscles surrounding his shoulder. He re-aggravated it in the second quarter of the Lakers’ 106-93 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies last week and sat out the second half, but did not miss any subsequent games.

The All-Star center said Wednesday’s aggravation was the worst pain he’s had since the original injury occurred against the Clippers and he will have to consider resting again to help it heal.

“I’m going to try as much as I can but I don’t want to cause more damage to my shoulder,” said Howard, who finished with nine points and 14 rebounds in 29 minutes against Phoenix. “I don’t want to (miss any games), but we’ll see.”

And from Ding:

Dwight Howard flatly ruled out shutting himself down or turning to surgery for the labrum injury in his right shoulder, even though he said the pain from this aggravation was the greatest since he first got hurt.

“Just got to deal with it as much as I can,” he said late Wednesday night after the Lakers’ loss to Phoenix.

Howard said that the shoulder pain on previous occasions has abated the day after, which he hopes will be the case again. Accordingly, the Lakers are expecting him play Friday in Minnesota, and Kobe Bryant said the labrum issue is one that will go on all season but with which Howard can learn to deal.

“I’m going to try as much as I can, but I don’t want to cause more damage to my shoulder,” Howard said.

…

Howard’s injury is not the common tear in the labrum itself that has sent many athletes into surgery and months of recovery. Howard has explained his injury as a tear only in the sense of the labrum tearing away from the bone in his shoulder.

Howard said: “I won’t lose my spirit, and I’ve just got to continue to do whatever I can to get my shoulder strong.”

Raptors’ wild night in Georgia – First, the Raptors trade guard Jose Calderon and forward Ed Davis in a multi-team team deal that sends Rudy Gay to Toronto. Then, the Raptors get in a nip-and-tuck game with the Hawks in Atlanta. And lastly, the Raptors have a shot to win in Atlanta, but a late-game scramble on the boards by DeMar DeRozan that ended with a no-call on a possible foul fires up coach Dwyane Casey. Oh, and the Raptors sound like they’re more or less ready to part with former No. 1 overall pick Andrea Bargnani, too. Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun has the details:

It has been obvious for some time that it is time for Bargnani to move on, for his sake and for the Raptors, and Colangelo indicated a move could happen soon, though it is not a certainty.

“Andrea is a player that has definitely garnered interest. Unfortunately when he gets hurt that takes him off the market,” Colangelo explained after breaking down the Gay trade to reporters.

“That’s not to say we’re going to trade Andrea … He’s a unique talent, but sometimes a change of address is not bad. I’m not saying he’s asked for a trade, but he would certainly not fight or resist a situation if it was the right situation.”

Bargnani has two years left on his contract, but is a tremendous offensive weapon, when in top form, a player opposing coaches gameplan around. He has many faults, and this corner has addressed them many times, but someone will come calling for him.

But likely only if he returns to the lineup soon, and well in advance of the February 21st deadline.

“Right now there’s no assurances we trade Andrea. Right now, the goal and the focus is to get him back healthy on the court and let him contribute to this team and we’ll see where things go,” Colangelo said.

Not long before Colangelo spoke, Casey let loose, after the officials declined to call a foul at the end of Toronto’s one-point loss when DeMar DeRozan clearly was mauled.

“I’m tired of losing games because of missed calls at the end of games. I know the league is going to come down on me, but I don’t care,” said a seething Casey, smoke practically billowing out of his ears.

“These guys have fought their hearts out, played their hearts out and at the end of the game, we get cracked, (league sends out an) apology, go back to Canada. I’ve been in this league 18 years and I’ve never seen so many missed calls at the end of the game to cost us the game. We’ve got great officials in this league, and too good to miss calls and short-change young men like this. It’s not right. I watched the replay three or four times, hoping that they (somehow made the right call) but they didn’t,” he said.

“This is fourth time this year that we’ve been in this situation … Clearly DeMar DeRozan was cracked on that last play. Make him go to the line and make two free throws.”

Pistons bid adeu to last title-team link — Tayshaun Prince will always be remembered in Pistons folklore for a play known as “The Block” — Prince rejecting Reggie Miller‘s breakaway layup in Game 2 of the 2004 Eastern Conference finals. The Pistons would win that series and the ’04 crown and Prince was an integral part of the Pistons’ lockdown defensive crew of the 2000s that featured Ben Wallace, Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton. Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press says parting with Prince in the Rudy Gay trade was what Detroit needed to do to official move on from that era:

There’s a graphic montage of the 2004 NBA champion Pistons in their practice facility, honoring all the contributions from that blue-collar, superstar-devoid anomaly. The image of Tayshaun Prince captures his lanky arm swooping up from behind an unsuspecting Reggie Miller, swiping away what should have been a game-clinching lay-up for Indiana in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals in Indianapolis.

“The Block” shifted momentum in the Pistons’ favor.

It was fitting that Prince’s long career as a Piston ended Wednesday at the site of his signature moment.

The Pistons parted with Prince and Austin Daye in deal with Memphis and Toronto that landed them point guard Jose Calderon — and more important, his expiring $10.5-million contract.

Prince represents the last link of the “Goin’ to Work” Pistons era highlighted by the 2004 championship as well as six consecutive trips to the conference finals. It’s always a difficult decision parting with someone so deeply intertwined with an identity that paid many dividends.

But it was a move that was long overdue.

The Pistons finally have closed the chapter on that period.

In the Pistons’ locker room following their loss to the Pacers, Prince expressed his surprise over the trade but acknowledged that he was ready to take “the next step” in his career.

…

This was a good trade, but it also places an unwritten ultimatum on Pistons president Joe Dumars. If the Pistons aren’t a playoff team capable of advancing beyond the first round next season with all the possibilities now available to them, Dumars should be shown the door. After this summer, there are no longer any excuses.

This season’s written off — as it should be. Throw the young guys out there into the deep waters and see how they respond. Not making the playoffs guarantees that they can keep the conditional first-round draft pick Dumars offered Charlotte to entice it into taking Ben Gordon‘s toxic contract off his hands.

It made no sense keeping Prince around as a reminder of what once was. The memories always will be there, but it’s time to move forward. This trade actually provides hope that finally the Pistons can return to local relevance and attract more people to the Palace in another season. They’re finally turning the page, finally saying farewell to a period of great pride and performance.

Heat deal crushing blow to Nets’ confidence? — Since parting with coach Avery Johnson on Dec. 27, the Nets have gone 13-5 under coach P.J. Carlesimo and made up ground in the East playoff chase. Wednesday night’s matchup with the Heat — Miami’s only visit to Brooklyn this season — was supposed to be a showdown of East powerhouses. What happened instead was a Heat romp led by LeBron James and Co. that left some doubts in Brooklyn, writes Howard Beck of the New York Times:

For the better part of five weeks, the Nets evolved. They focused a bit harder, reached a bit higher, listened more intently and became a better version of themselves. But evolution is a squiggly path, not a straight line, and that path was obliterated Wednesday by a team that needs no growth or introspection.

The Miami Heat dealt the Nets a blow so forceful, so profoundly humiliating, it might have knocked them right back into the doldrums of December. The final score was 105-85, but the gap seemed twice as wide, and the psychic damage perhaps even deeper.

Most of the Nets’ players left the locker room before reporters arrived. Those that remained wore dull expressions, except for Gerald Wallace, who was simply seething.

“Typical Nets basketball,” Wallace said. “We don’t play together. Careless turnovers. We don’t execute offensively. And defensively, we don’t do anything. We don’t defend. We don’t guard the ball. We don’t help each other out. It’s the same story as it’s been all season.”

It hadn’t looked that way for most of January, with the Nets winning 11 of 14 games before this one, steadily climbing the Eastern Conference standings. Wallace said it was an illusion, a product of a soft schedule, and he may be right. The Nets have lost three of four games, all by double digits.

“I honestly don’t know what’s going on,” Wallace fumed.

LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, two fully evolved N.B.A. superstars, led the charge for Miami, putting together a highlight reel of flying dunks, all before a national television audience and with the Nets’ owner, Mikhail Prokhorov, watching from a luxury suite.

James put up 24 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists. Wade added 21 points. And the Heat hardly broke a sweat after putting the game away with a 36-14 third quarter.

“When the bubble burst, it burst completely,” said P. J. Carlesimo, the Nets’ coach.

…

The Heat have beaten the Nets by an average of 21 points over three games, but Wallace and Joe Johnson both insisted they were not that far behind Miami, or at least shouldn’t be.

“It has nothing to do with the talent,” Wallace said, adding, “It just has to do with teamwork.”

The tension started hours before tip-off, with Reggie Evans’ deriding the Heat’s championship in an interview with The Daily News, and James accusing the Nets of quitting on Coach Avery Johnson, who was fired in December.

“They are playing with more passion, more together — they are playing like they want to play for their coach,” James told reporters after the Heat’s shootaround.

By that time, Evans had already slighted the Heat, saying their title “doesn’t prove nothing.” He added, “That was a lockout season.”

Taunting the N.B.A.’s best team is always inadvisable. The Nets should be clear on that much now.

Shocker! Popovich looking forward to All-Star Game — Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is known for his curt answers to reporters — especially those sideline types who bother him during a game. Still, even he’s not beyond appreciating the chance to coach the West All-Star team, which he will do in a few weeks, writes Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News:

It’s never a goal for Gregg Popovich or his players, but now that Popovich has been officially installed as coach for the Western Conference All-Star team, the veteran of 16-plus seasons on the Spurs’ bench admits he looks forward to a weekend with some of basketball’s best players.

Popovich earned his spot because the Spurs are guaranteed a better record than the Clippers on Sunday, the deadline for determining the coaches for the Feb. 17 showcase at Houston’s Toyota Center.

While it is still possible for Oklahoma City to have a better winning percentage than the Spurs, Thunder coach Scott Brooks isn’t allowed, by league rule, from coaching because he led the West at the 2012 All-Star Game in Orlando.

“It will be just like it has been in the past: a heck of an opportunity to enjoy amazing talent,” Popovich said after his team’s 102-78 victory over the Bobcats. “That’s not just a B.S. or trite statement. It’s true. When you’re around those guys, you look around the room and you can’t believe you’re in the same room with them. It’s a huge honor just to be a part of it.”

Popovich also coached the West All-Stars in 2005 and 2011.

Gallinari, Nuggets keep rounding into form — Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari had a rough November and December, shooting a combined 40.2 percent and averaging 15.9 ppg. But January has been a different story as he’s shooting 46.9 percent (and 43.2 percent from 3-point range) and averaging 19.3 ppg as Denver has picked up steam. Last night’s win over the Rockets only kept he and the Nuggets humming, writes Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post:

The Italian Danilo Gallinari hit three key 3-pointers, two of them back-to-back, in Wednesday’s crazy fourth quarter, and the Nuggets did it again. Make it a dozen. The Nuggets won their 12th game of January in the final game of the month, and fifth straight overall, 118-110 against Houston, a team Denver also beat one week ago.

The Nuggets made it interesting, indeed. Just as in the previous game against Indiana, a big fourth-quarter lead dwindled. On Wednesday, Denver led by 13 points with 6:54 remaining, but the home team made the necessary stops and sent the fans home happy (with tacos, too!).

Gallo was gallant. The Nuggets forward, the team’s top player in this 12-3 month, scored a team-high 27 points, doing so on a respectable 10-for-17 shooting. He also unleashed two monster slams, one a one-handed hammer over Greg Smith, the other after dribbling the length of the floor.

And his two consecutive treys gave Denver a 94-86 lead during an push in the early stages of the final quarter.

And so, the Nuggets (29-18) have won those five consecutive games heading into two winnable games, first against New Orleans on Friday and then against Milwaukee on Tuesday.

ICYMI of the night: Anyone wondering if John Wall is completely healed from his knee injury should go ask Sixers big man Spencer Hawes:

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Nets Look To Williams To Push The Pace

December 29, 2012  ·  2:48AM

BROOKLYN – It’s hard to take much out of 48 minutes against a team that has now lost 17 straight games, so no grand conclusions will be drawn from the Brooklyn Nets’ 97-81 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats on Friday, their first game after the dismissal of head coach Avery Johnson.

Interim coach P.J. Carlesimo did his job, the players did theirs, and the Nets avoided the embarrassment of losing to an awful, awful team on their home floor. If the Nets’ didn’t win by double figures, there would really be something to talk about.

Until the third string allowed a 27-point, fourth-quarter lead to whittle down to 12, the Nets’ offense looked sharper than it had all December. But such a performance should be expected against the worst defense in the league, no matter who the coach is.

There were no real changes to the system and only a minor change to the rotation. There was a subtle difference in the Nets’ approach, however. Instead of walking the ball up the floor, Deron Williams looked to get it across the mid-court line as quickly as possible, even off made baskets. And that led to a more fluid and free-flowing offense.

The Nets ranked 29th in pace before Friday’s game, averaging a hair over 90 possessions per 48 minutes. Their offense was slow and deliberate, and they were too often taking too long to get to any kind of offensive action that could generate an double-team or an open shot.

All the isolations that Williams had issues with were ran were more out of necessity – in situations where the shot clock was running out and there were no other options – than design.

Even when the Nets ran Jerry Sloan’s “flex” offense that Johnson implemented to placate Williams after his pro-Sloan comments last week, it sometimes took too long before Williams could get the ball in position to make a play.

The Nets do have the personnel that can succeed at a slower pace. Brook Lopez can do work in the post and Joe Johnson can flourish in isolations or in the post as well. And really, this team is never going to play anything like the Houston Rockets.

But they can certainly play faster than they have thus far. And that can only make things easier on their offense.

So, in taking over for Johnson, Carlesimo told his team to get the ball up the floor quickly and keep the ball moving. In the brief time he had to work with them in the wake of Johnson’s dismissal, it was about all he could do to change things up. But it was a needed change and it worked … against the Bobcats.

“We would prefer to push the ball, because Deron is so good pushing it and creating,” Carlesimo said before his Nets coaching debut. “We’d like to push it and get it to Brook [Lopez] down low. We’d like to push it and get it ahead to Joe [Johnson] or [Gerald Wallace] or our other players.”

If the Nets are to turn around their season and get back to a top-four standing in the Eastern Conference, improvement has to start with Williams. Friday’s win was just one game, but Williams was indeed the key to an encouraging performance.

With the point guard pushing the tempo and aggressively looking for his shot, the Nets scored 33 points in the first quarter, their second-highest mark of the season. By halftime, Williams had 17 points himself, the most he’s had by halftime since last March.

“I just think I need to be aggressive,” Williams said afterward, “because I’m not playing well right now and I’m being too passive. And I don’t think that’s good for my team.”

In terms of possession count, Friday’s game wasn’t played at a much faster pace than a typical Nets game. But that was somewhat a product of the 24 possession-extending offensive rebounds that the two teams combined to grab. And it was clear that the Nets were getting into their offense a lot quicker than usual.

“We got a lot of easy baskets today,” Williams said. “The ball was moving today. It wasn’t one of those games like in the past where it was somebody’s turn and then somebody else’s turn. It was kind of moving out there.”

It wasn’t exactly a breakthrough performance (have we mentioned the Nets were playing the Bobcats?), but it was a step forward, for both the team and its star.

“He made his shots, which is great,” Carlesimo said of Williams. “But I thought he pushed it for us. He got us up the floor. He got us into things.

“I thought he played an excellent game. He really did.”

“This was one game, and a game we figured we should win,” Williams added. “We have to come ready to play tomorrow. That will be the test.”

Well, not really. On Saturday, the Nets play the Cleveland Cavaliers, the only team in the league that ranks in the bottom five in both offensive and defensive efficiency. After that though, they visit San Antonio on Monday and Oklahoma City on Wednesday.

Though those teams will test the Nets’ regressing defense more than their regressing offense, it’s all tied together, because it’s easier to push the ball up the floor when you’re not taking it out of the basket.

***

John Schuhmann is a staff writer for NBA.com. Send him an e-mail or follow him on twitter.

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Nets Fire Avery Johnson

December 27, 2012  ·  1:19PM

HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – On Dec. 3, Avery Johnson was named Eastern Conference Coach of the Month. On Dec. 27, Johnson was fired as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets.

In 24 days, everything fell apart for Johnson and the Nets, who are now 3-10 in December after an ugly loss in Milwaukee on Tuesday. They’ve lost five of their last six games and stand at 14-14, just a half game from being a Lottery team.

Of late, they’ve been awful defensively and not nearly as good offensively as they should be with all of their high-priced talent.

Nets efficiency

Month W L OffRtg Rank DefRtg Rank NetRtg Rank
Oct.-November 11 4 104.6 7 100.0 11 +4.6 8
December 3 10 101.0 18 108.6 28 -7.6 26

OffRtg = Points scored per 100 possessions
DefRtg = Points allowed per 100 possessions
NetRtg = Point differential per 100 possessions

Deron Williams, of course, has played well below All-Star level. He is shooting career lows from both the field and from 3-point range, and the Nets’ defense has been at its worst with Williams on the floor. And now, Williams has his hand in two coaching departures in less than two years.

Ironically, Williams pined for the offense he ran under Jerry Sloan just last week. Johnson added some of Sloan’s offense in practice this past weekend, but the move obviously came too late.

Johnson doesn’t deserve all the blame, however. After Wednesday’s loss in Milwaukee, Gerald Wallace sounded off, as documented by Tim Bontemps of the New York Post…

“We’re a way better team than what our record is,” Gerald Wallace said. “I’m [bleeping ticked] off about us losing, and especially the way we’re losing.”

…

“It’s mind-boggling that we’re in the situation we’re in,” Wallace said. “As good of a team as we are, as good as started off … you saw the potential we had as a team, and the talent we have as a team. And yet, still, instead of team, it’s more of ‘I.’ “

…

“Confidence is our problem now,” he said. “I think that’s our main problem. Guys have got too much confidence in themselves and are not trusting in the team.

“Our main thing is we’ve got to get back to a team concept, all for one. Offensively and defensively, when we move the ball, we execute, we take care of the ball, we make the extra pass. … We’ve got to do everything as a team instead of relying on one guy to do this and one guy to do that.”

…

“Anybody can talk, but we’ve got to go out and execute that out on the court, and right now we’re really not doing that,” Wallace said. “We play a good half or we play a great quarter, and then we go back to playing selfish ball offensively and defensively, and that’s not getting us anywhere.”

P.J. Carlesimo (204-296 as a head coach), who was Johnson’s lead assistant, will take over on an interim basis. The Nets might reach out to Phil Jackson, but probably don’t have what it takes (the proper geography and championship-readiness) to coax Big Chief Triangle out of L.A. Either way, they should already be talking to Stan Van Gundy, who has proven that he can coach both ends of the floor at a high level.

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No Easy Answers For Brooklyn Malaise

December 19, 2012  ·  11:58PM

NEW YORK – December has not been kind to the Brooklyn Nets.

When the month started, the Nets were 11-4, they ranked 11th in defensive efficiency and Avery Johnson was named the Eastern Conference Coach of the Month. Less than three weeks later, the Nets are 13-12, they rank as one of the three worst defensive teams in the month, they just got thrashed by the New York Knicks, and Johnson’s seat might be getting a little warm.

Just two days ago, Johnson’s star point guard Deron Williams publicly pined for the “flex” offense he ran in Utah. The Nets actually rank in the top 10, offensively, but they’re clearly not getting the most of their high-priced talent.

Williams is shooting less than 40 percent from the field and less than 30 percent from 3-point range. Joe Johnson has recovered somewhat from a slow start, but he’s mostly doing his own work to get his shots. Gerald Wallace is too often a spot-up shooter instead of a cutter, and Brook Lopez isn’t seeing the paint as much as he did before he injured his foot.

“I don’t have something I can really put my finger on,” Williams said of the team’s offensive struggles on Wednesday. “I guess it’s still a learning curve. We’re still learning to play with each other, still trying to pick our spots.”

Even against the Knicks’ struggling defense on Wednesday, Brooklyn often took too long to get to any kind of action that would put New York at a disadvantage. On too many possessions, the ball wound up in Williams’ or Johnson’s hands with nothing to do but try to beat their man in isolation as the shot clock wound down. When they tried posting their big guards against their opponent’s smaller backcourt, the Knicks fronted the post and the Nets failed to do anything about it.

Two nights after the Houston Rockets scorched the Knicks by playing fast and aggressive, the Nets played slow and deliberate.

Still, the Nets managed to score more than a point per possession (86/83) on Wednesday. Yes, their offense could be better. Much better. But their defense couldn’t be much worse.

The Knicks tore that defense apart on Wednesday, scoring 100 points on 83 possessions. Carmelo Anthony was barely bothered by Wallace, scoring 31 points on 22 shots. Raymond Felton kept running high pick-and-rolls with Tyson Chandler because the Nets couldn’t stop it.

“We have a game plan that we tried to execute tonight on the defensive end, and it just wasn’t working,” Williams said afterward. “We weren’t doing the things that we needed to. We weren’t getting the help in the right spots, our rotations were slow, we let guys drive right to the basket without any help. And that’s not how we want to play.”

The Nets were so flustered, Johnson started doubling Anthony as soon as he crossed the mid-court line — the ultimate sign of defensive desperation.

“Defensively, tonight, is where we lost the game,” Williams admitted. “Our offense wasn’t clicking on all cylinders, but we didn’t get enough stops.”

Offense. Defense. The Nets’ lost their way when Lopez got hurt on Nov. 28, and they haven’t been able to get back to where they were when they were beating the Clippers, Knicks and Celtics on a five-game winning streak that had them playing for first place in the Eastern Conference just 18 days ago.

“It seemed like we were rolling pretty well and we just kind of hit a snag,” Williams said. “And we can’t figure out how to get it back — get our confidence back as a group. We’re looking to do that.”

Williams isn’t going to put the onus on Avery Johnson to right the ship though.

“It’s on us,” he said. “It’s not anybody’s fault. It’s us as players. We’ve got to come out with more energy and more focus. It’s like we lost a little bit of our toughness. So we’ve got to get that back.”

Yes, the coach needs to get more creative with his offense. But the Nets’ issues are about more than just Xs and Os. Defense especially is about effort and focus.

“Our fight, our energy, our intensity,” Williams said when asked what needs to improve. “Just how we come out and approach the game, I think, as a group. We have to come out a lot more focused mentally, just ready to compete for 48 minutes; not 24 minutes, not 36 minutes, [but] for a full 48 minutes.”

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Johnson: ‘Supreme Confidence’ In Deron Williams

December 18, 2012  ·  2:27AM

HANGTIME SOUTHWEST – Seems a wee bit early into a five-year, $98 million contract for Brooklyn Nets guard Deron Williams to clip current coach Avery Johnson and pine for the one he provoked into sudden retirement.

With the Utah Jazz marching into Brooklyn on Tuesday night, Williams used Monday to delve a little deeper into his shooting slump with the New York media and fired a rare shot this season that hit its intended target.

Williams said he hasn’t been the same point guard since he left Utah, left Jerry Sloan and the offensive system Sloan ran like clockwork for 25 seasons and 54 games, the last 22 seasons and 54 games with the Jazz.

With a field-goal percentage holding under 40, and a 3-point percentage chilling in the 20s, Williams said he misses the motion offense, the cutting, the screening, the passing, the type of schemes he’s run since high school. He said he’s still adjusting to Johnson’s more isolation-based approach.

Surely his good buddy and new cross-town rival, Jason Kidd, told him as much during those summer golf outings in The Hamptons. After all, Kidd, in his short time with Johnson in Dallas, never invited the Little General to his birthday dinner.

So Williams tossed newly revealed system struggles on the pile of multiple bodily pains and strains, and a mental block he now says he’s up against as probable culprits for his poor shooting percentages.

Johnson said Monday that he has “supreme confidence” in Williams’ ability to snap out of it during a telephone interview with NBA.com conducted prior to Williams’ comments.

“First of all, everything starts in the mind. I told him he’s got to get it out of his mind, he’s not struggling. You’ve got to get that out of your mind,” Johnson said. “His shots are not wide left and wide right or short. Most of them are just going in the basket and kind of popping out a little bit. The main thing is his shots are right on target. He’s just got to work on his arc a little bit of getting it up and over. But for the most part his shot looks really, really good. He’s just had a couple of shots that’s popped in and out. It’ll come.”

Although the Nets have struggled of late, slipping to 13-10 after a 10-4 start, it’s not like they’ve hit an iceberg. They missed center Brook Lopez for seven games, going 2-5, and Gerald Wallace was out early. Still, Brooklyn has notched wins against the Knicks, the Clippers and Boston twice.

Through it all, Williams has struggled to make shots, including a couple late that could have affected outcomes. He’s shooting 38.8 percent from the floor and 33.9 percent on 3s in December with the Nets losing six of eight.

For the season, Williams is averaging 17.0 points (38.8 percent shooting and 29.9 percent on 3s) and 8.3 assists.

Johnson said Williams is still getting used to new personnel, and that he’s not concerned because time is still on Williams’ side.

“It’ll come and I think he’s still getting used to playing with Joe [Johnson] and finding the right spots when Joe gets double-teamed, because he used to be the guy to get double-teamed all the time and now it’s Joe,” Avery Johnson said. “So I just think he’s fine. I told him don’t over-think it, that’s why I haven’t called you into my office to have a big meeting because I got supreme confidence in you, and it’s 23 games, it’s not 46 games.

“If we’re at this point after 46 games or 64 games, then we can have a talk. But it’s kind of cycle of the season. He’s a really good shooter, he’s a terrific point guard and I just told him I’m not worried so he shouldn’t be worried about anything, so just play.”

Williams could have been playing for his hometown Dallas Mavericks and joined Dirk Nowitzki and likely Kidd, too (he almost certainly would have stayed in Dallas had Williams signed), and run 2011 championship coach Rick Carlisle’s “flow” offense.

He instead chose the more lucrative option and to lead the Nets’ transformation in Brooklyn and under Johnson,  having played 77 games in his system over parts of two seasons. The Jazz traded Williams in late February 2011, not coincidentally, just two weeks after Sloan surprisingly re-signed having lost a war of wills with his All-Star point guard.

So it would seem a wee bit early into a five-year, $98 million contract, into this season of rebirth with excitable fans and a re-tooled roster shaped to Williams’ liking — or so he said when he re-signed — for Williams to decide to selectively reminisce.

“I was telling the guys just play free and have fun, and we don’t want anybody on our team to put the whole weight of the team on their shoulders,” Johnson said. “That’s why we’re a team. We’re not one individual, we’re a team. Joe started off slow and I predicted he would come around in the middle of December. So he’s coming around.

“Deron is going to be fine. So I just think guys need to relax, don’t press, just have fun. This is a fun time in their lives.”

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Nets Happy To Have Lopez Back

December 17, 2012  ·  6:33PM


HANGTIME SOUTHWEST – Did the Brooklyn Nets’ performances during Brook Lopez‘s seven-game injury absence classify him as their most irreplaceable player?

Perhaps. And not for the reason you’re probably thinking.

“It’s not even that (Lopez’s 18 points a game on 52.3 percent shooting),” coach Avery Johnson said during a telephone interview on Monday. “The kid was blocking almost three shots a game.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be an easy ride without their floor general, Deron Williams, even with him mired in a shooting slump and grinding through various aches and pains. Still, Lopez’s importance to Brooklyn becoming a contender in the East can’t be undersold after the Nets went 2-5 while he was sidelined with a mild strain to his left foot. It was the same foot he fractured prior to the start of last season, then injured again and ultimately reduced his fourth season to just five games.

“I just know when we had Brook Lopez in the lineup [this season before the injury] we were 10-4,” Johnson said, “and we could be a pretty good team.”

The foot injuries didn’t stop the Nets, now 13-10, from re-signing the 7-footer with the impressive set shot to a max deal during the summer once they finally had had enough of the Dwightmare and bowed out of the race for Dwight Howard‘s services.

The re-branded and re-cast Nets, having re-signed Gerald Wallace at a hefty price, traded for Joe Johnson and his enormous contract and maxed-out Williams, among other deals to bring in key role players, decided that the highly skilled and soft-spoken Lopez — the tame one compared to his wild-haired, less-talented twin brother Robin with the Hornets — would be their center for the future.

Without a doubt, Nets fans holding their breath for a Williams-Howard combo would closely watch Lopez’s progress — and especially his health — as Howard, a three-time defensive player of the year whose first choice was to play in Brooklyn, went to work with Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.

“Brook’s kind of got that Tim Duncan kind of personality,” Johnson said. “He’s not a rah-rah guy, he’s not a guy that’s going to talk a lot on the court, but he’s a great teammate, he’s talented and he’s improving defensively,” Johnson said. “And I think that’s what he wanted to prove more than anything, that he’s not going to be a defensive liability in the middle.

“He’s gotten stronger. He lifted more weights this summer than he ever has his whole career combined, so he’s maturing. When I first got the kid he was 21 going on 16. I’m really excited because he’s going to get so much better.”

The Nets are 1-1 in Lopez’s return with Johnson limiting his minutes to ease him back in. Brooklyn plays the Utah Jazz at home Tuesday and the Nets will be particularly giddy to have their big man up and running Wednesday night for their third meeting in three weeks against Tyson Chandler and the cross-town Knicks, and the first at Madison Square Garden.

Brooklyn won the opener, 96-89, with Lopez playing like a grown man — 22 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks. The Knicks won the second game a week ago, 100-97, with Lopez sidelined.

With Lopez out, the Nets allowed 9.2 points more a game than with him on the floor (90.7 compared to 99.9), and opponents shot markedly better when they didn’t have to deal with Lopez’s long arms defending the rim.

Lopez has 40 blocks, 11th in the league despite having missed seven games. He’s averaging a career-high 2.5 blocks a game, which ranks him sixth in the league, on par with Duncan (2.54) and Howard (2.56) and close to Roy Hibbert (2.96), NBA co-leaders Larry Sanders (3.00) and Serge Ibaka (3.00).

Last year when Lopez played in just five of 66 games, the Nets allowed 99.1 points a game. They’re allowing 93.8 this season. Credit much of that to Lopez’s presence in the paint. The Nets finished last season with 260 blocks, 70 fewer than their opponents and ranked last in the league averaging 3.9 a game.

They already have 118 blocks this season, 22 more than their opponents.

“He is blocking shots,” Johnson said of Lopez, whose previous career-best was 1.8 blocks a game as a rookie. “When people go down the middle they’re going to have to think twice because he’s going to go after it. And he’s having fun going after it.”

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Rondo Gets Two-Game Suspension

November 29, 2012  ·  6:20PM

There’s a reason why many NBA executives hesitate when they’re asked if Rajon Rondo is the point guard they’d trust holding their franchise in his hands.

It’s not about his ability to slash, drive and get to the rim to finish. It’s not about those quick hands that can disrupt plays. It’s not even about his streaky jump shot.

It’s all about Rondo’s personality, his composure.

Everybody wants their front line players to battle and scrap. But no one needs them crossing a line and picking fights that could be costly in the standings.

Rondo already missed the second half of Wednesday’s loss to the Nets and now with the struggling Celtics a game over .500 (8-7), he’ll miss the next two games after getting suspended by the league for fighting with Brooklyn’s Kris Humphries.

The Nets’ Gerald Wallace was fined $35,000 and Boston’s Kevin Garnett $25,000 for escalating the fight.

Rondo will sit out Friday night when the Trail Blazers visit Boston and Saturday’s game in Milwaukee.

According to ESPNBoston.com, Rondo did not seem to regret his action when he spoke to the media at Thursday’s practice, prior to the announcement of the suspension:

“I know I have to be out there for my teammates,” he said. “That’s the only thing about it. But I was sticking up for my teammates. I didn’t try to start a fight. I’m not trying to be a bully. I just didn’t think the play was fair that he made on Kevin, that’s all.”

Never mind the lame excuse that the snarling Garnett needs somebody to stand up for his honor. It’s not like this was the first time for Rondo. He was suspended for a game in the playoffs last season when he bumped a referee and was slapped with a two-game suspension for heaving the ball at an official in the 2010-11 season.

As long as he keeps piling up 10- and 20-assist games and triple-doubles, Rondo’s sheer talent will keep him in any conversation about the league’s best point guard.

But when it comes to being The Guy, temperament, composure, just plain cool in the heat of the battle matters.

It’s like the old saying about the lottery: You’ve got to play to win.

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Rondo Starts Fight, Ends Streak

November 28, 2012  ·  9:26PM

HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – Rajon Rondo‘s assist streak is over, not because his teammates couldn’t make shots, but because he couldn’t control his emotions.

Longest double-digit assist streaks, NBA history
Player Year(s) Games
Magic Johnson 1983-84 46
Rajon Rondo 2012 37
John Stockton 1989 37
John Stockton 1992 29

With the Brooklyn Nets leading the Boston Celtics 51-35 near the end of the first half in Boston on Wednesday night, the Nets’ Kris Humphries fouled Kevin Garnett and then hit Garnett in the face after the whistle.

Rondo took exception to the hit (and maybe to getting swatted by Humphries earlier in the game) and shoved Humphries under the basket. And he kept shoving Humphries into the crowd as other players tried to separate the two.

The result was ejections for both Rondo and Humphries, as well as technical fouls on both Garnett and the Nets’ Gerald Wallace. That was Wallace’ second T, so he was ejected also.

At the time, Rondo had just three assists, so his streak of 37 games with double-digit assists is over, nine games short of Magic Johnson‘s record.

And Rondo, who clearly was trying to pad his assist stats at times during the streak, can only blame himself for the streak’s demise.

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Early Run Of Injuries Taking Its Toll

November 16, 2012  ·  1:42PM


HANG TIME SOUTHWEST – The Dallas Mavericks signed journeyman big man Eddy Curry out of desperation at the center position with Chris Kaman injured. When he returned, Dallas cut Curry and signed out-of-work Troy Murphy because power forward took top billing on the depth chart with Dirk Nowitzki rehabbing from surgery.

The Minnesota Timberwolves, down four starters and six rotation players to injury, signed Josh Howard off the street Thursday. The Toronto Raptors are reportedly looking into unemployed 3-point shooter Mickael Pietrus to plug into their injury-depleted roster.

Entering just the third week of the 2012-13 season, injuries — many to some of the game’s biggest and brightest stars — are the overwhelming story line as overworked team medical staffs are on 24-hour notice.

Both conferences can field a veritable All-Star team, position-by-position, of players that have recently returned from injury, were injured prior to the season or are injured now.

The West: Steve Nash, Ricky Rubio, Eric Gordon, Shawn Marion, Chauncey Billups, Kevin Love, Nowitzki, Andrew Bogut.

The East: Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo, John Wall, Kyle Lowry, Dwyane Wade, Danny Granger, Amar’e Stoudemire, Andrew Bynum, Nene.

Yet that’s hardly all of the NBA’s wounded. Here’s more of those who have been, still are or just got injured: Gerald Wallace, Gerald Henderson, Mario Chalmers, Devin Harris, A.J. Price, Nikola Pekovic, Kirk Hinrich, Grant Hill, J.J. Barea, Brandon Roy, Chase Budinger, Anthony Davis, Steve Blake, Brandon Rush, Darrell Arthur, Channing Frye, Landry Fields, Iman Shumpert, Alan Anderson, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Avery Bradley.

When Minnesota came to Dallas earlier this week with five players out (and Pekovic’s sprained ankle in the third quarter would make it six), coach Rick Adelman engaged in something of a “Who’s on First” rapid-fire Q & A with beat writer Jerry Zgoda.

Jerry: Who’s your backup 3 and your backup 2?

Rick: We don’t have a backup 3. I’m going to start Malcolm (Lee) tonight at the 2 and bring Alexey (Shved) off the bench at both spots. And then at the 3, I don’t know, we’re going to slide somebody there.

Jerry: Have to play AK (Andrei Kirilenko) 48 minutes?

Rick: I don’t want to do to that. We don’t need to wear him out, too.

Jerry: Can you get five or six (minutes) out of (assistant coach Terry) Porter?

Rick: I don’t think so.

A year ago, the worry around the league was how an abbreviated training camp following the hasty resolution to the lockout and then a compacted, 66-game schedule would affect player health. With a full, month-long camp this time around and a complete slate of eight preseason games, this spate of injuries is as unexpected as unfortunate.

Entering this weekend’s games, only the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder among the league’s 30 teams boast clean injury reports, and 22 list more than one injured player.

When the Mavericks play the Indiana Pacers tonight, they expect to get Marion back after a five-game absence with a sprained left knee. Nowitzki will remain out as will Indiana’s Granger. For Dallas, it’s been a strange run of not only playing shorthanded, but facing teams with at least one starter sidelined. They played, in order: Toronto (Lowry), New York (Stoudemire), Charlotte (Henderson), Minnesota (Love, Rubio, Roy, Budinger) and Washington (Wall, Nene).

“The league’s not going to stop and wait for you,” Adelman said the other night about his team’s rash of injuries. “A lot teams are having the same issues with major injuries. As a coaching staff you can’t coach the people that aren’t there. You only can coach the people that are there.”

And so it goes in a very strange first month in the NBA.

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Nets Flying Beneath The Radar

November 16, 2012  ·  9:59AM

 

HANG TIME, Texas -- Call it the luck of the Nets.

Just when it looks like they could really be building something, all everyone wants to talk about is their building, the futuristic and upscale Barclays Center.

And here in the early weeks of the 2012-13 NBA season, when a 5-2 start is enough to get Jay-Z’s toes tapping, New York and the rest of the league is dancing in amazement at the 6-0 start by the Knicks.

Yet for all that, maybe it’s quite understandable for the Nets to be uncelebrated, because theirs is a lineup that in a celebrity-driven league can go as undetected on the radar.

Deron Williams is a big-time name that belongs up on any marquee. But the trio of Joe Johnson, Brook Lopez and Kris Humphries has the bland aura of a buttoned-down law firm.

What matters, of course, is winning and the appreciation will overtake the image if the Nets continue to do that. For now, what’s changed is that the relocation to Brooklyn and the new digs has given them a bit of swagger, as was noticed by even the always-swaggering Celtics in Thursday’s loss.

But as was noted by our old friend Filip Bondy in the New York Daily News, there is still plenty of work to be done, especially at the defensive end.

“They have a lot more confidence,” Kevin Garnett noticed, about these new Nets. “They also got a lot of calls tonight.”

It was good to hear an opponent gripe about officiating, rather than smirk at another feeble effort from the home team. And here’s another change from the Jersey era: most fans actually cheered for the Nets in Brooklyn, instead of for the Celtics.

“It was a fantastic environment to play in,” Lopez said. “It hasn’t been like that here in a long time.”

Not everything is perfect. Avery Johnson has yet to completely trust his team’s defense, understandably. He ordered his players to foul the Celtics in the final minute, sending them to the line, rather than let Paul Pierce launch a possible back-breaking three-pointer. Boston missed four foul shots in those waning seconds, rendering the Net coach an accurate soothsayer.

“It was one of the bigger games that we had,” Johnson said. “To win a close game like that without Gerald Wallace means a lot.”

The Nets are now 5-2, while reminding nobody of Dave DeBusschere, Willis Reed, Charles Oakley or even Kenyon Martin. New Yorkers have always worshipped the fine art of stubborn resistance, from shot-blocking to sacrificing the body in the lane. We may have to make some new allowances for these Nets, who are doing things differently.

There will always be areas to improve and nits to pick. What would that matchup with Boston have looked like with Rajon Rondo in the Celtics’ lineup? How far to close that 30-point gap from their first run-in with the defending champion Heat?

It’s enough for now that the Nets are still upright in the Eastern Conference standings, ahead of both Miami and Boston.

Now a three-game road trip to Sacramento, the Lakers and Golden State might provide a few answers about what the Nets can be.

And who they are as well.

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