lethalweapon3

Hail, hail, the gang's all here What the heck do we care What the heck do we care Hail, hail, the gang's all here What the heck do we care now?!? Plus, we gots ca$h, baby! Who could ask for anything more? ~wloc

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Ah03xN3AoenseB3ErPHjuJ28vLYF?slug=aw-wojnarowski_clippers_nick_young_031512 ~lw3

From Marc Spears @ Yahoo via twitter: ~lw3

Still doesn't explain the Clips, but... (Woj) ~lw3

How about this one (via Woj @ Yahoo): ~lw3

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AkNdtqB97GqGHe5xQqrk9SS8vLYF?slug=mc-spears_richard_jefferson_stephen_jackson_trade_031512 ~lw3

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Ag.x3iJpxI9jpzwCrVJPUIW8vLYF?slug=ys-marcus_camby_rockets_blazers_trade_031512 ~lw3

Just in from Woj at Yahoo on Twitter: ~wloc

Sam Amick reports Crim HS's Anthony Carter is in the deal to Indy as well, reporting the Raps planned to cut him if they couldn't ship him.

http://hangtime.blog...rs-get-barbosa/ Pacers add scoring punch, although I don't think it's quite what they need. ~lw3

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/mar/15/grizzlies-trade-sam-young-philadelphia-get-under-n/?CID=happeningnow Sixers get even deeper... ~lw3

Second Round Games, March 15-16 in various sites Thursday, March 15 Site: Louisville Network: CBS (afternoon); TBS (evening) 12:15 PM ET: No. 6 Murray State vs. No. 11 Colorado State 2:45 PM ET: No. 3 Marquette vs. No. 14 BYU/Iona 6:50 PM ET: No. 1 Kentucky vs. No. 16 Mississippi Valley State/Western Kentucky 9:20 PM ET: No. 8 Iowa State vs. No. 9 Connecticut Broadcast Team: Verne Lundquist, Bill Raftery, Lesley Visser Site: Pittsburgh Network: truTV (afternoon), TNT (evening) 12:40 PM ET: No. 8 Kansas State vs. No. 9 Southern Miss 3: 10 PM ET: No. 1 Syracuse vs. No. 16 UNC Asheville 7:20 PM ET: No. 7 Gonzaga vs. No. 10 West Virginia 9:50 PM ET: No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 15 Loyola Maryland Broadcast Team: Kevin Harlan, Len Elmore, Reggie Miller, Marty Snider Site: Portland Network: TBS (afternoon), CBS (evening) 1:40 PM ET: No. 4 Louisville vs. No. 13 Davidson 4:10 PM ET: No. 5 New Mexico vs. No. 12 Long Beach St. 7:15 PM ET: No. 5 Wichita State vs. No. 12 VCU 9:45 PM ET: No. 4 Indiana vs. No. 13 New Mexico State Broadcast Team: Brian Anderson, Dan Bonner, Jenn Hildreth Site: Albuquerque Network: TNT (afternoon), truTV (evening) 2:10 PM ET: No. 4 Wisconsin vs. No. 13 Montana 4:40 PM ET: No. 5 Vanderbilt vs. No. 12 Harvard 7:27 PM ET: No. 3 Baylor vs. No. 14 South Dakota State 9:57 PM ET: No. 6 UNLV vs. No. 11 Colorado Broadcast Team: Spero Dedes, Bob Wenzel, Jamie Maggio Friday, March 16 Site: Nashville Network: CBS (afternoon), TNT (evening) 12:15 PM ET: No. 6 Cincinnati vs. No. 11 Texas 2:45 PM ET: No. 3 Florida State vs. No. 14 St. Bonaventure 7:20 PM ET: No. 4 Michigan vs. No. 13 Ohio 9:50 PM ET: No. 5 Temple vs. No. 12 California/South Florida winner Broadcast Team: Ian Eagle, Jim Spanarkel, Lewis Johnson Site: Columbus Network: truTV (afternoon), TBS (evening) 12:40 PM ET: No. 6 San Diego St. vs. No. 11 NC State 3:10 PM ET: No. 3 Georgetown vs. No. 14 Belmont 6:50 PM ET: No. 8 Memphis vs. No. 9 Saint Louis 9:20 PM ET: No. 1 Michigan State vs. No. 16 LIU Brooklyn Broadcast Team: Tim Brando, Mike Gminski, Otis Livingston Site: Greensboro Network: TBS (afternoon); CBS (evening) 1:40 PM ET: No. 8 Creighton vs. No. 9 Alabama 4:10 PM ET: No. 1 North Carolina vs. No. 16 Lamar/Vermont 7:15 PM ET: No. 2 Duke vs. 15 Lehigh 9:45 PM ET: No. 7 Notre Dame vs. No. 10 Xavier Broadcast Team: Jim Nantz, Clark Kellogg, Tracy Wolfson SITE: Omaha Network: TNT (afternoon), truTV (evening) 2:10 PM ET: No. 7 Florida vs. No. 10 Virginia 4:40 PM ET: No. 2 Missouri vs. No. 15 Norfolk St. 7:27 PM ET: No. 7 St. Mary’s (CA) vs. No. 10 Purdue 9:57 PM ET: No. 2 Kansas vs. No. 15 Detroit Broadcast Team: Marv Albert, Steve Kerr, Craig Sager ~lw3

More As The Dwight Turns, as of 1:30 in the morning: http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/219756/Dwight_Howard_Confirms_Hell_Sign_Opt_In_Thursday_Morning#ixzz1pA7BPGgY so he'll sign the ETO in the morning. Or not. Wake me when somebody finds him a pen. ~lw3

http://www.foxsportsflorida.com/03/14/12/Stackhouse-aspires-to-become-a-head-coac/landing.html ~lw3

A return to an NYC address, a state-of-the-art "House That (Insert HOF Player Here) Built" arena, and the 58th 32nd richest man in the world makes quite a difference, apparently. ~lw3

Not only that (Barclays scheduled opening is September 2012), but the Garden State can be pleasant in the springtime... when the wind blows a certain way. ~lw3

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7688201/sources-dwight-howard-not-give-option-season-end Dwight's still in play, at least for other NBA teams like the Brooklynets, as per Marc Stein at ESPN. He won't sign the ETO and was apparently confused earlier today by what he and his agent had to do to commit himself to the Magic through next season. ~lw3

Hey, if he does just well enough to keep his job, he'll need some assistants this summer. Ohhhh, Larry?!? ~lw3

I'd take MC at his word, but I wonder if he was duped (like myself and others here) based on the early Hoopsworld tweet errantly insinuating that Smoove would go to Orlando as part of a deal. What MC responded "false" to was, "What about this rumor that just came out about ATL and Orlando in 3 way deal involving Josh Smith?" Hoopsworld's latest jumble of a report suggests ATL remains unmoved by a deal that have gotten Michael Beasley and Ryan Anderson (yawn.) While that contradicts somewhat the Yahoo reporting (Beaz to Lakers), Yahoo did note Minny is looking at several deals at once. ~lw3

http://magazine.csusb.edu/2012/03/pack-tracks/hard-work-on-the-hardwood/ ~lw3

Copying from the other thread, Hoopsworld's Kyler clarifies that the 3-team deal would indeed send Smoove to Minny... and NOT to Orlando. The WFTV report he cited, backed up recently by (Wojnarowski @ Yahoo) indicated Dwight has agreed to "opt-in" on his contract through 2012-13, keeping him in O-town one more season. http://www.wftv.com/...12-13-se/nLSmb/ Woj's recent tweets suggested D12's met with the team this afternoon to let them know he's "all-in" for this year, and discussed what each player must do for them to make noise in the postseason. Also, if Woj's notes about the Portland-LAL-Minny deal (w/ Crawford) are legit, Beasley would not be part of any ATL-Minny-ORL deal. ~lw3

And just from re-reading the earlier tweet from Kyler and his later clarifications, the three-way trade would send Smoove to Minny, not to Orlando. ~lw3

And awayyyyyyyy we go: @stevekylerNBA Now this alleged deal is not to bring Dwight to ATL, but either to bring Smoove to the Magic Kingdom, or bring pieces of equivalent value while shipping Smoove to Minnesota. The "WFTV report" Kyler references suggests Dwight has agreed to stay in Orlando for at least another season. http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/source-dwight-howard-stay-magic-through-2012-13-se/nLSmb/ Stan Van would probably double up on the antacids if he tried to make it through a season of Smoove and Dwight potentially leaving next year. ~lw3

@zaza27 on Twitter: I know the Hawks are still pretty shallow roster-wise, particularly with Marvin (duck ischium) added to the mix of incapacitated players. But a little foul trouble may be worth the risks tonight. Because when it comes to LA’s frontline, Hack-a-Clip seems to be the order of the day. Free throw shooting late in games has been a culprit in their recent 4-8 slide from the top of the Pacific Division. Their top frontcourt players at the free throw line are shooting 55.5% (Blake Griffin), 47.8% (DeAndre Jordan), 44.4% (Kenyon Martin), and 52.1% (Reggie Evans). Collectively, only the Clippers and Magic are shooting free throws below 70%. Atlanta will want to play the Clipper bigs aggressively whenever they’re given the ball and they bring the ball down toward the floor. We may need a heavy dose of Dampier to keep guys like Blake and DeAndre out of fingertips’ reach of the rim. Zaza and Reggie Evans will be tons of fun! With Marvin out and L.A. probably reliant on a small-ish backcourt, I think Joe Johnson could best be deployed defensively against the small forwards. Doing so shouldn’t pose much of a challenge. Caron Butler’s shooting has been all kinds of awful since the break (27% FG and 6.9 PPG), so the Clips may turn more toward Bobby Simmons. The former NBA Most Improved Player, who became the NBA’s Most Regressed Player one big contract later after leaving the Clippers for Milwaukee, Simmons was recently re-signed after a two-season stint with our Reno Bighorns, now on the second of two 10-day contracts. He’s getting nearly as many minutes as Butler as a swingman, and while his shooting isn’t leaps-and-bounds better (35% FG and 4.6 PPG), he has been a better threat thus far from the outside (46% on 3-Pointers). Calling all three-point shooters! The arc is open. The Hawks exploited the Nuggets from this range last night with 14 treys, and they go from the team who gives up the most threes per game in Denver, to the team behind only the Nets in opponents’ three-point field goal percentage (37.9%). Only Denver and Miami’s opponents make more 3-point baskets than the Clippers’. Assists have been harder to come by for Chris Paul and the Clippers as of late, particularly without Chauncey Billups in the fold. Since the All-Star break, LAC’s 18.8 assists per game rank fourth lowest in the league (21.4 per game pre-All-Star). A slight boost in floor time for Randy Foye and Eric Bledsoe hasn’t picked up the slack in this area. And don't necessarily freak out over the prospects of LOB CITY all night long, either. CP3 ranks behind Steve Nash, Andre Miller, Jose Calderon, Rajon Rondo, Ricky Rubio, John Wall, and Jeremy Lin (and tied with Ty Lawson) among players' assisted-baskets-per-game at the rim (3.2 per game). If the game gets out of hand in either direction, it will be intriguing to see whether Del Negro dusts off Atlanta metro products Travis Leslie or Trey Thompkins to get some burn. Leslie was just recalled up two days ago from the D-League’s Bakersfield Jam after a weeklong stint. Aside: “Trey” is nicknamed as such because he is Howard Thompkins III. His pops, Howard Thompkins, Jr., was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in the 9th round of the 1981 NBA draft. Go Hawks! ~lw3

Tomorrow's NY Post headline: "SWITCH!" ~lw3