Matt Moore

Posted by Ben Golliver  

It was all lollipops and gumdrops for the Knicks on Wednesday night. (Getty Images)

Each night, Eye on Basketball brings you what you need to know about the games of the NBA. From great performances to terrible clock management the report card evaluates and eviscerates the good, the bad, and the ugly from the night that was.

	New York Knicks	Wednesday was a highlight factory for the Knicks, who dominated a reeling Hawks club from the jump to take an easy 99-82 victory. Jeremy Lin continued to show he can play the role of distributor, finishing with 17 points and 9 assists, as Carmelo Anthony was able to score 15 points on 16 shots. Sharpshooting Steve Novak was big off the bench again and new rotation additions Baron Davis and J.R. Smith connected on multiple alley-oops. The best part: New York enters Thursday night's showdown with the Miami Heat with none of its players having played more than 34 minutes on Wednesday.
	Blake Griffin	This dunk. Ridiculous. Timofey Mozgov makes a cameo, too.
	New Orleans Hornets	Don't look now but the hard-luck Hornets have won four out of their last six games. Impressive, considering they began the season 4-21. On Wednesday, the Hornets defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers by getting a whopping 21 points and 13 rebounds from trade piece Chris Kaman plus an astoning 17 rebounds from rookie Gustavo Ayon. This would be an A+ for the Hornets but they are supposed to be tanking.
	DeMarcus Cousins	The 16 points and 16 rebounds will jump out at you, especially because he notched nine boards on the offensive glass. But the 6-for-20 shooting (!) in 27 minutes brings his night back to Earth. Kings won't complain, as they got a nice come-from-behind road win in Washington to close out the first half of their season.
	Boston Celtics	The hard-luck Celtics got pounded again, as Oklahoma City's All-Star duo of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined for 59 points, 14 rebounds, 12 assists and five steals. The poor Celtics basically went seven players deep without starting point guard Rajon Rondo, who was serving a suspension. They were down 20+ in the first half after allowing 72 points at halftime. Oh boy.
	JaVale McGee	At this point, most normal people would be embarrassed. JaVale McGee simply doesn't seem to have that self-awareness gene, so he continues to force his coach to bench him for mindless acts. This time: a volleyball goaltend deep into the stands.

E FOR EFFORT
	Luke Ridnour (17 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds and one amazing game-winner)
	Blake Griffin (27 points,12 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal and too many ridiculous feats of athleticism to count. An All-Star effort all-around.)
	Chris Paul (36 points, 9 assists, 2 steals, 1 rebound on 11-for-16 shooting. He guided the Clippers into the break with a 20-11 record. MVP talk is in the air.)

Posted by Ben Golliver

Los Angeles Clippers All-Star forward Blake Griffin took off from real deep to dunk in traffic over multiple defenders during the third quarter of a Wednesday night game against the Denver Nuggets. One of those defenders happened to be a familiar face: Timofey Mozgov.

Griffin received a pass at the top of the key from All-Star guard Chris Paul and attacked the middle of the paint, with Mozgov flying by behind him helplessly. He then elevated straight to the rim, launchpad style, and Nuggets big Kenneth Faried got trapped below him after take off. Griffin finished the thunderous dunk with one hand, and the force of the impact caused him to stumble to the ground after he landed.

Here's the video of Blake Griffin taking off in traffic for a dunk against the Denver Nuggets.

Kobe Bryant says he and Jim Buss should meet; Magic Johnson agrees (Getty Images)

By Matt Moore 

Just days after Kobe Bryant challenged the Lakers' front office to make a desision regarding Pau Gasol and Ken Berger of CBSports.com filed a scathing and revealing report on the inner dysfunction of the team's front office, Bryant told reporters that he and Jim Buss should meet for a conversation. And he wasn't the only Laker great to suggest the idea.

On a conference call Wednesday, Magic Johnson told reporters that Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak is "not running the team" anymore and that Jim Buss is making all the decisions. Johnson, who is as close to the Lakers organization as anyone, considering he has a statue outside their building, said that the answer was for Bryant and Buss to sit down and have a conversation. From the L.A. Daily News:

"(Bryant) just wants to be informed as a team leader and a future Hall of Famer and a guy who has brought five chapmionships to the Lakers," Johnson said. "He wants more communication, probably like he did when Phil Jackson was here and he worked well with Mitch. I don't think Kobe feels he has that type of relationship with Jim.

"What probably has to happen is they need to sit Kobe down and sit Jim down. Dr. Buss was the master at taking you to lunch or taking you to dinner and going over what he was thinking and what he wanted to do with the team.

"Jerry West was good at that as well. Kobe, Mitch and Jim just have to get on the same page and things will be OK."

via Magic: Bryant, Jim Buss need to have face-to-face chat - LA Daily News.

After the Lakers shootaround, Bryant told reporters when asked if it was time for he and the younger Buss to sit down and have a conversation, "Um, perhaps." That was all, but that one word speaks volumes. If it was no, he could have said "I don't know" or "I'm just a player" or even "I'd be open to it." But that's not it. It's Bryant trying to push for change in the organization, to right the ship. This team isn't over, it's not done, it's not through trying to win championships and still features three great players and one or two good players. Bryant's not willing to sit by and let this situation get out of control.

Meanwhile, Magic Johnson is sticking up for the franchise player, going with the star trying to make the most of the end of his career instead of the son of his long-time friend and employer Jerry Buss. (Read the excellent "When the Game Was Ours" by Jakcie McMullen for more on Magic and Buss' friendship.) It's incredible that not only is Bryant openly questioning management, but that the greatest player in franchise history has openly said the GM is not in charge and that the managing owner needs to communicate better with his team. This kind of thing simply doesn't happen. And yet here we are.

The Lakers held a players-oly meeting this week to try and focus past all the distractions and it worked in a blowout win over Portland. As of this writing, they lead the Mavericks by 12 in the second quarter Wednesday night. So the players are doing their part to work past the issues. Will the front office?

Strange days for the most successful franchise in the NBA.

Posted by Ben Golliver

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Luke Ridnour hit a game-winning, buzzer-beating floater to defeat the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night at the Target Center.

With the score tied at 98 with seven seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Ridnour inbounded the ball to guard J.J. Barea, who eventually worked it back to Ridnour. Receiving the pass with only a few seconds left on the clock, Ridnour attacked the paint and lofted a right-handed floater over Jazz big man Al Jefferson.

The shot provided the winning margin, 100-98, and sent the Timberwolves bench into hysterics. Ridnour was mobbed by his teammates, including forward Anthony Tolliver, who lifted him into the air. Ridnour finished with 17 points, 6 assists and 3 rebounds on the night. The win improved Minnesota's record to 17-17 entering the All-Star break.

Here's the video of Minnesota Timberwolves guard Luke Ridnour hitting a game-winning floater at the buzzer to defeat the Utah Jazz. 

Javaris Crittenton was reportedly arrested again.(Getty Images)

Posted by Ben Golliver

Former NBA player Javaris Crittenton has mostly stayed out of the news since last August, when he was charged with murder in the shooting death of a 22-year-old mother of four in Georgia.

That changed on Wednesday morning, when Crittenton was reportedly arrested again by authorities in Georgia.

TMZ.com reports that Crittenton was arrested for "speeding and obstruction of an officer" after getting pulled over for driving 60 miles per hour in a 45 miles per hour zone in a "black Porsche." 

When the cop wrote up the ticket, Javaris refused to sign it, something you have to do to acknowledge receipt of the citation. As a result, we're told the officer asked Javaris to step out of the vehicle -- and Javaris refused again.

We're told words were exchanged -- and after the officer reasoned with Javaris, the former NBA player agreed to step out of the car ... at which point he was placed under arrest for speeding and obstruction of an officer. He was subsequently transported to Clayton County jail, where he is currently being processed.

Police charged Crittenton with murder last year, alleging that he shot into a crowd of people after being robbed of more than $50,000 worth of jewelry. The FBI had to track down and arrest Crittenton in California after he apparently fled across the country after the incident.

Prior to the murder rap, Crittenton was best known for his involvement in a 2009 dispute over gambling debts with then-Washington Wizards teammate Gilbert Arenas. The dispute ended with Arenas getting suspended for bringing guns into the Wizards locker room. Crittenton was released by the team shortly thereafter.

Crittenton, now 23, played just two seasons in the NBA, including stints with the Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies and Wizards. He was cut by the Charlotte Bobcats during training camp in 2010 and had been playing in the D-League. He averaged 5.3 points and 1.8 assists in 16.4 minutes per game during his NBA career.

Posted by Ben Golliver 

David Stern admits that the play this year has been "uneven." (Getty Images)

Critics, including Naismith Hall of Famer Charles Barkley here, have decried the quality of basketball during this lockout-shortened season. Scoring is down, shooting percentages are down, injuries are causing players to lose a greater percentage of a team's games with the compressed schedule, back-to-back-to-backs have drawn Heat from basically everyone and there have been plenty of blowouts already.

In an interview with USA Today, NBA commissioner David Stern acknowledged that he is aware of the criticism and that the compressed season, which attempted to fit 66 games into roughly four months, was not an ideal situation.

I don't think the media will let go of it for a while because it's all too delicious every time there's a blowout or every time there's a loss, you're saying this horrendous lockout-shortened season. … It's not the perfect season. It has its unevenness to it. It has coaches making decisions that they think are best for them and teams — like how to space minutes, how to deal with practice or not, scrimmage or not, how to deal with training. Some trainers are changing, actually, the nutritional direction of their team — emphasizing, perhaps, more massage for recovery than previously.

So this is enabling teams to see whether these very significant sums of money they're spending on lots of talent are going to be making a difference in the competitive landscape. And several teams believe it has. But they're treating it as trade secrets, which they don't want to share.

However, Stern defended the schedule, as he has done before, stating that sacrificing 16 games and compressing the season was a worthwhile sacrifice to better the game with a new collective bargaining agreement.

I think the 20% of the games of one season is going to turn out to have been a modest price to pay for the fundamental change in the league's operation going forward. And by that I mean its competitiveness and the value of its franchises.

To boil this down, Stern is basically saying, "Charge it to the game." NBA television ratings and online interest are way up, the Jeremy Lin phenomenon has essentially erased any of the ill will still left over from the ugly labor negotiations and attendance numbers league-wide are strong. The league can expect a number of big-market teams to be a factor come playoff time, thanks to the Knicks, Lakers, Clippers, Bulls and Mavericks. The Miami Heat, a major star-studded breadwinner, show no signs of slowing down.  

The complaints are sure to fade by the time the playoffs roll around and once it's time for the NBA Draft, now just four months away, the league's calendar will officially be back on track. Stern can make a public admission like this now, because the storm has essentially been weathered.

Posted by Ben Golliver  

Washington Wizards center JaVale McGee is the gift that keeps on giving.

In the last 18 months, McGee has gotten into a bar fight with a teammate on Christmas Eve, planked on an airport's moving walkway, sold out his side during a billion dollar labor negotiation, gotten benched for throwing an alley-oop to himself, had his mother refer to him as "the future of the NBA" while she slammed former Wizards coach Flip Saunders, and ran completely the wrong way to play defense while his team still had the ball.

Here's the latest entry in the "Crazy Stuff That Only JaVale McGee Would Do" collection. Box sets available on DVD or VHS.

During the second half of a close Wednesday night game against Sacramento, McGee decided to goaltend a shot by Kings guard Francisco Garcia deep into the stands well after the attempt had reached its pinnacle. The result was akin to a volleyball serve as the ball went flying way, way over and above the Wizards bench. A free souvenir for a lucky fan. Wizards coach Randy Wittman immediately pulled McGee from the game for the action. 

Here's the video of Washington Wizards center JaVale McGee's volleyball goaltending and benching via YouTube user johnctownsend.



Hat tip: Washington Post

Posted by Royce Young

Stop me if you've heard this one before: The New Orleans Hornets will have a new owner soon. It's been a running theme for a while with the league saying buyers were lined up way back in September.

But according to David Stern via an interview with NBA.com, for real this time, the Hornets could be sold soon. Maybe within a couple weeks.

“We’re moving on dual tracks on a buyer, and with the state’s contribution under a new lease that will likely be complete, both of those, by March 1 or on or about March 1. The deal itself can’t close until the legislature confirms the role of the state, and the legislature convenes in March.”

Stern also told USA Today, "I'm optimistic and hopeful that we will complete the sale by the end of the month ... We're talking with multiple perspective buyers, but we're anticipating the ability to close by the end of the month ... We've had offers from seven but winnowed it down to two or three, and we're working on it."

The league has owned the Hornets since George Shinn decided to sell the team but couldn't find a proper buyer. By proper, I mean a buyer that would plan to keep the team in New Orleans. That's been Stern and the league's mission since purchasing the Hornets for an estimated $300 million.

Stern obviously can't wait to wash his hands of the situation as it came to a head with Chris Paul and the rescinding of the trade that sent him to the Lakers. Moving the team to an actual owner is definitely something the NBA wants to do before the end of the season.

But as this thing's gone, it's kind of a believe-it-when-we-see-it thing. Hopefully it's done sooner than later. For everyone's sake, but most of all, for general manager Dell Demps. I'm sure he'd like to go back to a normal working environment.