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Breaking down Week 2

by Chad Ford

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Also Below: Welcome back Shaq? | Grizzly losses | Shopping Spree? | Random Game Notes

Seven games does not a season make, but it sure didn't take long for teams like the Grizzlies, Warriors, Cavs, Knicks, Heat and Nuggets to take their place at the back of the bus. Of course, the company isn't, THAT bad.

The Lakers have been sounding the retreat all year, but alas, Shaq is back and an emboldened Laker team is itching to strike back. Jerry West is on the hot seat in Memphis. The Latrell Sprewell rumors are getting more bizarre by the minute. Jay Williams puts an end to the Bulls' point guard controversy. And the Blazers are abiding by this age old precept — if you can't beat 'em, spit on 'em.

Welcome back Shaq?

You're the defending NBA World Champions, you're off to a 2-5 start, your best player, Kobe Bryant, is chucking up 47 shots a game, and when he isn't trying to catch Wilt Chamberlain, he's seething menacingly at his teammates. What's Phil Jackson supposed to do?

A quick prayer after practice and a round of Prozac will help with the symptoms. But the cure has to come in the form of Shaq "the Big Medicine" O'Neal.

Shaq practiced again on Sunday and got the thumbs up from his teammates. O'Neal's surgically repaired big toe is technically sound — he can't do any further damage — but he's hesitant to return at anything less than 100 percent. Coach Phil Jackson is still a little wary about playing him Tuesday.

"Right now, I don't think that he's in a position where he feels comfortable enough to play," Jackson told the L.A. Daily News. "I think he's still got some questions about dealing with that sesamoiditis [inflammation beneath the toe]. I think it's dealing with what he can do and can't do and feeling comfortable on the floor. He's still not fluid, running and moving in basketball terms."

Fluid? Running the floor? Won't his muscle in the middle do for now?

"My message to Shaquille has been, 'Don't come back because we're 2-5. That's not a reason enough to come back. We want you entirely healthy.' It's not going to do us any good to have him for two games or something and then he's got to go back and regroup again. When he's ready to come back, that's the right time."

If O'Neal does not play Tuesday, his comeback could come either Friday (vs. Golden State) or next Sunday (vs. Houston).

The question on everyone's mind is, will he be enough to right the Lakers' wayward ship?

Kobe ripped into Devean George Saturday after he gave up a game-ending dunk to Jerry Stackhouse.

"You've got to stay between your man and the basket at that crucial point in time in the game," Bryant seethed to the L.A. Times. "You can't let your man back-cut you to the basket and get a layup to win the game. That's just basic basketball. That shouldn't happen."

Asked why none of George's teammates reacted to meet Stackhouse at the rim, Bryant's eyes narrowed.

"He's got to stay between his man and the ball. Period."

Jackson defended George after the game. George was playing on two shaky ankles and forward Robert Horry didn't rotate over to pick up Stack.

"What they ran there is too difficult to guard for one person," he said. "Everybody's to blame. That's what I figure."

That Lakers are snipping at each other, but Kobe claims it's all for the good.

"We're virtually unscathed," Bryant told the Daily News. "And actually, the character of the team has improved, because guys have really dug deep inside themselves. I think it's going to help us out."

Undefended dunk hangs over team

Howard Beck / Los Angeles Daily News

Shaq can add dose of reality

Howard Beck / Los Angeles Daily News

Lakers Lose 'House Keys

Tim Brown / Los Angeles Times

Grizzly losses

Grizzlies head coach Sidney Lowe may not be on the hot seat, but what about Jerry West? Remember it was West who told reporters before the season that the team he had assembled had more talent than "a good number" of their opponents. Asked what he meant by "a good number," West said, "more than a few."

But after a blowout loss to the lowly Nuggets, the Grizz have to be looking around and wondering where those teams are.

"It's not good," said Lowe, whose squad is the only one in the NBA without a win. "It's not good. We're not playing good basketball."

"I thought they played harder than we did. I thought they played smarter than we did," Lowe said. "We played very lethargic at times and very selfish. We play selfish basketball. We don't run a lot of isolations, but we had 15 or so isolations for our big men. We don't play that way."

The Nuggets led by 15 points going into the fourth quarter and got a career-high 22 points from Rodney White of all people.

Although West clearly isn't going anywhere, he's stuck his neck out for this team and it isn't responding. Lowe may not be out of a job anytime soon, but no one else is safe.

The Grizzlies' international stars, Pau Gasol and Gordan Giricek, both had extended stays on the bench for poor defense. Jason Williams is already back in Lowe's doghouse and Stromile Swift, who looked promising early on, is out again — this time on leave for personal reasons.

"He's got some personal issues he's got to go home and take care of," Lowe told the Memphis Commercial. "Mentally, he had this thing on his mind [at Denver]."

The team is giving up a whopping 103.4 ppg, ranks 27th in the league in rebounds and is third in turnovers, averaging 19.6 per game.

Lowe has also decided to send Drew Gooden back to the bench and bring Shane Battier and Giricek back into the starting rotation.

"We have to change something," Gasol said. "We can't keep going this way and losing. We've got to change our mindset and play harder than we've been playing. We have good players here and we're talented. But we've got to play better and that's the bottom line."

Slumping Griz facing changes

Ronald Tillery / Memphis Commercial Appeal

Grizzlies losing streak at 7

Ronald Tillery / Memphis Commercial Appeal

Shopping Spree?

The Knicks may be on a frenzied shopping Spree at the moment, but don't count on general manager Scott Layden landing an All-Star-caliber player in return.

Latrell Sprewell may very well be the most shopped player in the NBA over the last year. Rumors of Spree for Wally Szczerbiak, Glenn Robinson, Jason Terry and Bonzi Wells have all been shot down over the past few months. What did they all have in common?

The Knicks were interested in doing all of those deals, but it takes two teams to make a trade.

So take the Newark Star Ledger's report on Sunday about a potential Jalen Rose-for-Spree swap for what it was. Yes, the Knicks have attempted to pry Rose away from the Bulls. No, Jerry Krasue doesn't have the slightest interest in adding Spree to his dysfunctional family.

A Bulls source told Insider over the weekend that while the Bulls would certainly entertain trading Rose (and Marcus Fizer and Jamal Crawford for that matter) it wouldn't be to add a bigger headache in return. Rose may not be easy to get along with, but he's younger, more versatile and has yet to have any major off-the-court issues.

The Chicago Sun Times, in today's editions, also reported that there was no way that trade will happen because Krause doesn't want Sprewell, and any conversation was just Krause listening to an offer.

The message out of New York is pretty clear. Layden and company are doing their damndest to get a deal in place before Spree returns and creates more problems for the Knicks. With newcomer Lee Nailon playing well, the Knicks can finally afford to cut their losses with Spree. According to one league source, the Blazers and Suns are the two teams most likely to get something worked out, but nothing is imminent.

If a trade does ever materialize, Knicks fans will be in for a rude awakening. Spree's trade value is at an all-time low. Given his big salary, age and attitude issues, the best the Knicks can hope for are a couple of overpaid role players who fit the team's needs better.

Source: Sprewell not in Bulls' plans

Roman Modrowski / Chicago Sun-Times

Knicks seeking Rose for Spree

Dave D'Alessandro / Newark Star Ledger

Random Game Notes

Speaking of the Bulls, it was nice to see rookie Jay Williams come out and temporarily slam the door on the ongoing Williams-Jamal Crawford point guard controversy. After a rocky first six games, Williams busted out of his funk against the Eastern Conference Champion Nets. How many guys can claim they outplayed Jason Kidd on a night when Kidd went for a triple double? Williams did Saturday night. He had 26 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists and shot 10-for-22 from the field. "He's going to be a good one in this league," Kidd said. "And he proved that tonight."

Williams sank the game-clinching shots — a three-pointer from the top of the arc with 34.4 seconds left and two clutch free throws at the end of the game — to push the Bulls over the top. "This takes a burden off my chest," Williams said after the game. "I still got a lot of proving left to do."

True, but the circumstances around Williams' breakout performance might convince Jerry Krause to change his mind about the future of Crawford. For the first time this season, Williams played without Crawford looking over his shoulder. Crawford missed the game to visit his ailing grandmother, and Williams was able to log a whopping 45 minutes.

"Sometimes it's difficult for Jamal and [me] because we're in-the-mood players," Williams said. "We get into that groove, and it's difficult because sometimes he'd get into a groove and then he would get subbed out. It's hard to come back and turn it back on again. We're working toward it."

As tantalizing as Crawford is, he hasn't shown in three years that he's capable of putting on the type of performance that Williams did in the seventh game of his career. Williams has finally found his confidence and coach Bill Cartwright will be loathe to strip it from him by resorting back to a two-guard rotation once Crawford returns.

Chicago Tribune writer Sam Smith is proposing that Crawford, Fizer and the protected Bulls No. 1 pick go to the Warriors for rookie Mike Dunleavy and Danny Fortson. A trade with the Nuggets for Nikoloz Tskitishvili or with the Magic for Mike Miller may also make some sense for the Bulls.

What was up with the coach Maurice Cheeks' decision to bench point guard Jeff McInnis for the entire game Saturday versus the Spurs? "It was nothing about not playing Jeff," he told the Oregonian. "I tried to cut the rotation down, I tried to let Damon pretty much have the floor and cut the rotation down. It was nothing against him, or anything he said or did, or anything like that. I didn't know I was going to do it, but I will say something to him."

The Blazers won the game, but it wasn't thanks to Stoudamire who had yet another subpar performance against the Spurs. After the game, McInnis bee-lined to the locker room and was the first to leave. "Yeah, I'm mad," McInnis said. "I want to play."

It's tough to imagine a week going by in Portland without something like this going wrong. Tune in next week when Rasheed Wallace complains that he's playing too many minutes.

If McInnis' complaints weren't enough to dampen the Blazers' surprising win, Danny Ferry accused Bonzi Wells of spitting on him during the game.

"It's really a shame when you have somebody that decides the best way to compete is to spit on somebody else," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "In that sense, I think Bonzi Wells showed a lack of class spitting on another player. I can't imagine why there is any room for that in any place in the game."

Wells denied that he let the loogie fly.

"I don't know what's up with Danny Ferry," Wells said. "I think he's just got a problem with me. I don't have a problem with Danny Ferry."

That's right Bonzi. Ferry has the problem.

Add Clippers Corey Maggette to Insider's list of players who appear to be on the verge of breaking out. Despite playing with a slight tear of the meniscus cartilage in his right knee, Maggette has been phenomenal for the Clippers in the absence of Lamar Odom. He had a 19-point, 6-rebound performance versus the Magic on Sunday. Maggette has always been known as a superior athlete and defender, but his scoring and rebounding have been pleasant surprises for the Clippers this season.

While the Clippers are struggling with a 2-4 record, they have to be pleased with the play they are getting from their starters. Michael Olowokandi is averaging 17 ppg, 12 rpg and 2.8 bpg on 54 percent shooting. Andre Miller is averaging 18.2 ppg and 9.3 apg. And Elton Brand is averaging 15.5 ppg, 11.7 rpg and 2.7 bpg. Add the tough defense by rookie Marko Jaric and some contributions from Keyon Dooling and Eric Piatkowski and the Clippers appear to be improving. The win over Orlando Sunday was a huge confidence boost.

"I was talking to a couple of guys and they were saying [before the game], 'Why can't we win any games?' " Piatkowski told the L.A. Times. "We needed this game mentally. It's good for us. It's going to give us a lot of confidence. We hadn't played up to our potential."

Grant Hill is shooting 63 percent from the field. Sixty-three percent.

This Time, It's the Bulls Who Make the Big Shots

Liz Robbins / New York Times

Big game with Crawford absent boosts Williams

K.C. Johnson / Chicago Tribune

A Crawford solution

Sam Smith / Chicago Tribune

A high mark for Blazers

Jason Quick / The Oregonian

Wells, Trail Blazers spit out Spurs

Johnny Ludden / San Antonio Express-News

Sterling Doomed to Repeat Himself

Mark Heisler / Los Angeles Times