Lots of hats to tip today.
- Fox Sports' Charley Rosen watched the Magic/Raptors game last night and posted this analysis of Hedo Turkoglu's performance. He notes that Turkoglu got 59 touches in 40 minutes, and brought the ball up the court on 11 occasions. I'm interested to see if that latter trend continues; might Jameer Nelson play better off-the-ball? (HT: user Kwik10z at MagicMadness.)
- The New York Times' website has a cool feature with former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy breaking down ways to defend against the league's best players. Check out each animation, but pay special attention to the Ray Allen one. Although we don't play the Celtics at all for the rest of the regular season, we may face them in the playoffs. (HT: user "And One" from BallHype)
- Doug Smith of the Toronto Star reports that Toronto
centercentre Primoz Brezec didn't appreciate Stuff hanging around the Raptors' bench... so he punched him. Pretty pathetic on Primoz's part, but I'd rather him take his frustration out on Stuff than on, say, Dwight Howard. (HT: Ball Don't Lie, which just got a makeover) - Brian Schmitz apologizes to blog readers who got their hopes up for a J.J. Redick sighting last night. One emailer wrote the following:
Well I finally thought I was getting something for my $ 159 league pass upon seeing today's articles. So I sat down with a nice Merlot. Someone down there owes me a bottle of wine.. and cheese.
I'm sorry, too; it's sad that there are people out there who can't enjoy a basketball game unless their favorite player gets some burn. Don't get me wrong: I want to see J.J. play. He deserves a chance. But if he doesn't, my night isn't ruined. Then again, I didn't shell out $ 159 for a premium cable package.
- Speaking of players who inspire similar fair-weatheredness, Carlos Arroyo may be a free-agency target for the Knicks this summer, says Marc Berman of the New York Post. I doubt the Magic have much interest in re-signing Carlos -- if it came down to keeping him or Keyon Dooling, Otis Smith would choose Dooling 10 times out of 10 -- and the Knicks need a point guard. Makes sense to me, although I'd hate to lose Carlos' relatively consistent play and community presence. (HT: user "kcudah" from BallHype)
I'm off to the haberdashery, but should be back in time for tipoff. Don't forget to check out the game thread for tonight's Magic/Wizards game.