Stephon Marbury Turning the Celtics Green & the Spurs Burn the Suns

It's only five games into the Stephon Marbury experiment in Boston, but the early returns are hardly eye-bulging.

14-points, 12-assists, one-steal and 10-turnovers and 7-for-21 shooting from the field doesn't exactly light up the stat sheet.

There was always going to be an adjustment period as Marbury and the Celtics acclimatised themselves to each other, but the year-long layoff has made Marbury look like he is out of touch with game.

Boston has gone 2-3 which included a huge home win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night, however, they were crushed by the Orlando Magic, also at home, on Sunday.

Marbury even got the start against the Magic with Rajon Rondo injured. It was his best opportunity to show that he was still able to compete at this level, but his four point, zero assist, three turnover effort suggests that he is a long way from the "Starbury" days.

Boston was still without Kevin Garnett but what Sunday's game showed us was that Kendrick Perkins and Glen Davis cannot hold down Dwight Howard. Between them, there is a lot of bark and noise, but Perkins isn't agile enough and Davis is just not good enough. No matter how much iron these guys lift, it can't compensate for skill.

Furthermore, it's worth remembering that the Magic were without their own all-star Jameer Nelson, so the ledger was almost even on quality of player missing for each team. While Nelson isn't in Garnett's class, the contribution he was making to the Magic this season was about equal to KG's at the C's.

It was also interesting to see how Paul Pierce doesn't strut around with the same obnoxious arrogance he has when KG isn't on the floor with him.

The Celtics will be a tough matchup for any team in the playoffs, but clearly if Garnett, Pierce or Allen go down, they become very vulnerable.

*****

You have to feel for fans of the Phoenix Suns.

If it wasn't for the San Antonio Spurs, the Suns could quite possibly have one or two championship rings from the last five years or so.

Instead, they have nothing more than a couple of Western Conference finals berths filled with harsh memories of near misses.

Once again on Sunday, the Spurs toyed with the Suns before nosing past them once again. Talk about having the wood over a team, the Spurs had better hope that they're not called before an environmental committee for excessive logging.

It's not that the Suns never beat the Spurs, it's just that they never do it when it counts.

Steve Nash and Shaquille O'Neal made fans think that the Suns might just snatch a victory from their long-time rival yesterday, but then Tony Parker just took control and steered the Spurs home.

Not that it needed confirming, but Tony Parker is an absolute stud. In the middle period of the last quarter, Spurs coach Greg Poppovich kept Tim Duncan on the bench, totally confident that Parker would be able to handle the load by himself.

Duncan eventually came in, but Parker had the Spurs in control prior to that point.

The Suns are five-games over .500 but incredibly are four games behind Dallas for eighth place in the Western Conference. Hopefully the Suns won't make the playoffs this year, because if they do, they'll likely face either the Lakers or the Spurs and be crushed once again...and like "Paris Hilton's BFF" nobody wants to watch that again.

*****

Finding an Answer in the Boozer, Wading through All This Mess !

To the regular readers of The Daily Hurt, apologies for the tardiness in writing, hopefully today marks the return of some more regular content.

Anyway, enough of that...let's get to it.

First off, Allen Iverson is known as "The Answer" but perhaps it's meant more as a question rather than a statement.

It is abundantly clear that the Detroit Pistons are much better off without him. It's a bit sad but for a while, many have suspected that for all of Iverson's offensive talents, he is a terrible team player and he's always more concerned about his own scoring, rather than his team winning.

Iverson will kick around the league for a few more years, but this season has exposed him as a problem, not an answer.

*****

Carlos Boozer has made his return to the Utah Jazz recently, but the strong play of Paul Millsap has made the Booze expandable. Boozer is a solid double-double guy, but he doesn't provide enough at the defensive end. In 18 games this season, Boozer has only four - FOUR - blocked shots, which is simply not good enough.

Millsap is an energy guy and look for the Jazz to let Boozer walk this summer. Boozer has a player option of a few bucks less than $13-million. He'll probably get a lengthy deal, but you can bet the market won't be as lucrative as it might have been at the end of last season.

Boozer is ok, but he isn't in the elite crop of power forwards in the league.

*****

Glen "Big Baby" Davis has no class. Riding the coat tails of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, Davis acts like he's someone in the NBA.

He's not. All he really is, is lucky. His cheap shot on Friday night on Anderson Varejao deserves a suspension.

The Celtics tried to dump him prior to the trade deadline but found little interest in him. No doubt because he doesn't really have much of a game. He can fill in a few minutes here and there, but his lofty frame means that he is slow on defensive and he is very limited offensively.

*****

Dwyane Wade is on a tear right now and has overtaken Kobe Bryant as the strongest challenger to LeBron James' MVP season. Wade is carrying the Miami Heat to the playoffs and, perhaps even home court advantage for the first round at least.

Chris Bosh should take notice because Wade's supporting cast in Miami is arguably worse than what CB4 has in Toronto, yet the Raptors season was effectively over around Christmas.

*****

Speaking of Bosh, he often gets referred to in the same class as draft mates Wade and James. However, after this season, the question has to be asked as to whether or not he deserves it. The Raptors have been awful and Bosh has to accept a large portion of the responsibility for that.

His season started out well enough, but he has been a huge disappointment. He's had his injury problems, but that's always been another problem for Bosh, he always seems to miss anywhere between 6-12 games every season, further lowering his value. He has one season left on his contract in Toronto, but don't be surprised if Raptors General Manager Bryan Colangelo deals him away this off season.

Loudmouth Stephen A. Smith Well Off the Mark

Loudmouth ESPN reporter Stephen A. Smith's job is to deliver news out of the NBA. Like any journalist, he needs to use reliable sources to find out information for him to be able to break stories. His latest piece of scuttlebutt is that Toronto Raptors forward Chris Bosh wants out of Toronto either now, or after next season and that would certainly qualify as a major scoop.

If it were true.

Smith reported on Sunday that Bosh has already told Raptors General Manager Bryan Colangelo that he won't be staying with the team beyond 2010 when his current contract expires.

Both Bosh and Colangelo spoke after the story broke on Monday and denied that they had had any such conversation.

"No. No. No, I haven't told him that," Bosh told reporters after practice.

"It[the conversation] obviously didn't happen" fumed Colangelo.

Even when he is clearly incensed by having to comment on statements like this, Colangelo remains calm in his delivery and his tone.

With the Raptors season dead in the water however, it was the last thing he needed on a Monday morning. The suave and slick boss has looked anything but lately and this controversy was the last thing he needed.

Now that both the player and GM have denied that Smith's alleged conversation ever took place, the onus is on Smith to come out and prove where he got his information from. Either he is a liar or both Bosh and Colangelo are. If Smith can't prove his information to be correct, then he should be forced to admit it.

It's one thing to have an opinion, it's another to completely fabricate an entire conversation.

This is what infuriated Colangelo further. "It's one of those things that unfortunately I guess there's an obligation to answer the question. ... There just doesn't seem to a lot of accountability with respect to the topic sometimes" he added, as if to challenge Smith to prove himself.

Bosh may well leave the Raptors in 2010 and with the way the team is playing at the moment, it wouldn't be a surprise. They have no discipline and no heart and are one of the softest teams in the league, yet Bosh also needs to shoulder much of the blame.

He has let himself and his team mates down lately and needs to pick up his game.

Colangelo too. Between them, they have failed the Raptors this season. Bosh by sulking and Colangelo for continuing to show blind faith in a roster that is flawed.

Perhaps it's Colangelo's ego that prevents him from admitting that his trade for Jermaine O'Neal has failed, but he won't. At the start of the season, he proudly boasted that he had assembled the strongest team "on paper" since his arrival in February 2006, but he has been proven beyond doubt that is not the case.

This Raptors team might have some good individual talent, but they lack desire and heart. Never knowing how to hold onto a lead or how to close out a game, they have no backbone. When the going gets tough, they feebly crumble and hide like little boys.

Colangelo has endured a dream run with the Raptors to this point into his tenure, but now the pressure is on for him to deliver. For a while there would have been no doubting that he would be able to turn things around, but times have changed and he is struggling as badly as the team he has built is.

Bullet Proof Federer Denies Fiesty Berdych

Tomas Berdych came ready for a fight.

Facing Roger Federer in a Grand Slam is never an easy proposition for any tennis player, but at least the 23-year-old Czech player should get credit for coming prepared.

Attack, attack, attack and if that fails, then attack some more.

For the first two sets, it worked. The 20th seeded Berdych maintained his aggression and pounded away at Federer, hoping the Swiss genius would break. Berdych's forehand supported his game plan. Everything he fired at Federer landed in and his confidence grew with each winner.

Surely, Berdych must have thought, that having just won the second set on a tie-breaker, combined with the scorching afternoon sun, Federer simply would wilt under the prospect of having to play three more sets of tennis.

Yet, despite being only one set away from recording the biggest win of his career, it was Berdych who floundered. All that energy and effort was taking its toll.

While Berdych was feeling the effects of the intense heat, Federer, as he so often does, barely looked like he'd even broken a sweat.

Then it happened. Slowly at first, but just as if Federer might adjust the climate control in his house, the momentum swung in his favour. As quickly as Berdych appeared to be on the brink of the upset of the tournament, he looked outclassed and hopelessly mis-matched. The confidence which he carried through the first two sets had vanished.

By the time the fourth set had arrived and despite still trailing in the match, Federer was looking in total control. Berdych on the other hand, started looking anywhere for help. Rattled by a hawk-eye system failure, the Czech soon began to resemble so many of Federer's beaten opponents.

The sweeping ground strokes that Berdych had used effectively earlier in the day had deserted him. He was now left to effort and energy, with the unrelenting sun draining the latter.

Distraught and desperate, the fifth set became a formality. Like a python suffocates its prey, Federer denied Berdych a look in and eased into the quarter-finals.

This is what makes Roger Federer so good. He never gives up, never quits. He might sometimes be beat, but he is rarely beaten.

Anybody looking for a role model should study Federer closely. He is a model of professionalism. He never doubts himself, nor does he distrust the strengths in his game. He doesn't resort to throwing tantrums when things don't go his way and has a respect for the game and its history.

Toronto Raptors Continue Stink-A-Thon

The Toronto Raptors dismal season slide has a boring repetitiveness to it, especially during the most recent six-game meltdown. Brainless plays and an inability to execute when it matters is happening with such consistency, that there is no suspense any more.

At least the Raptors aren't having to console any team mates for missing a game winning shot. The Raptors always blow it just before they need one and save themselves the trouble.

Against the Chicago Bulls, Chris Bosh put up a pathetic attempt against sophomore Joakim Noah and was promptly blocked. The Bulls won, Bosh sulked and shrugged his shoulders. Noah looked like a 15-year veteran with steady hands, not the second-year guy who sometimes barely makes it off the bench.

Whomever came up with the cliche about "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory", must have been a Toronto Raptors fan in a previous life.

Forward Jamario Moon is the Raptors worst offender. He should be banned from ever shooting a three-pointer again. Not because he mis-fires them at a horrid 33-percent clip, but because of the times he chooses to take them.

Just when Toronto needs a crucial basket, something clicks in Moon's mind that says "Now Jamario, now" and he launches away with free abandon. They always miss.

Raptors beat reporter Doug Smith from the Toronto Star makes mention of this in his latest article.

It's funny to keep hearing Toronto's broadcasters and commentators constantly referring to each loss as "heartbreaking". In basketball, it should only be referred to as a heartbreaking loss when a bad team is shorthanded and fights life and death over every possession and almost upsets a good team. Not when a mediocre team chokes time and time again.

There can't be much sympathy for a team that puts zero pressure on the defense and vacates their own lane when the other team attacks. If the Raptors only could learn from the their opponents how to close out possessions and games rather than just watch and get embarrassed.

While Monday's loss to the Atlanta Hawks had all these ingredients and more, it was Sunday's collective brain cramp which stands out more.

With the score tied at 102, Phoenix Suns coach Terry Porter called a time out. His choice of play on the reset was to dump the ball into Shaq in the low post and let him go to work against Andrea Bargnani. The result was one that any NBA fan of the last 15 years has seen about a million times. Shaq nudges his way a little closer to the hoop, raises up and drops in a baby hook shot.

A solid, high percentage play. Porter, in his first season as Suns coach after two with the Milwaukee Bucks had no interest in trying to do anything fancy. He just wanted to win the game and chose smart plays to help him do that.

He could have asked Steve Nash to break down his man, or dump the ball to Amare Stoudemire or even he could have designed a play for Jason Richardson, but he decided that his best option was Shaq. Smart move.

Shaq isn't the force he once was, but as we saw, he is still a handful for the best defenders in the league, let alone Bargnani.

For those last six minutes of the game, as the Suns eased their way out of Toronto's reach, Porter could have been San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich. Often regarded to be boring, Popovich's Spurs set the NBA standard in no-nonsense basketball.

It's what good teams do. And the Toronto Raptors are NOT a good team. They have no leadership and no "go-to" guy or even play. When the game is on the line, the Raptors put all their eggs in the "hope someone hits a miraculous game winner" basket.

Raptors General Manager Bryan Colangelo has his hands full. Once a mastermind who was building a mighty house from the ground up, he is starting to resemble a shonky tradesman who is trying to cover up his dodgy work.

Colangelo is praying that Jermaine O'Neal's wonky knees hold up long enough for Miami Heat General Manager Pat Riley to take him and his monster contract on board. If Riley bites, it would mean he would in effect have traded Shaq and his $40-million for Jermaine and his $40-million and he'd be back to where he was a year ago.

Rajon Rondo Being Exposed as the Weak Link on the Boston Celtics

After riding an impressive 19-game winning streak, the Boston Celtics had galloped out to an NBA best ever start of 27-2. Chests were being bumped and fists were being pumped and the smug looks on the Celtics players faces were clear for all the basketball world to see.

The arrogance and self congratulations were growing by the day.

However, five losses from the following seven games has dropped the Celtics record to 29-7 which has quickly doused any talk of them eclipsing the Chicago Bulls record 72-wins from the 1995-96 season. It is still possible that Boston could achieve a new mark, but the Celtics most recent meltdown to the lowly Charlotte Bobcats Tuesday night makes the task seem less likely.

The strutting, preening Celtics have tripped up and are finding that no opponent is intimidated by them.

As reported in Tuesday's edition of the Boston Globe by Frank Dell'Apa, it seems that teams are starting to work out that Boston has at least one critical vulnerability. Point guard Rajon Rondo is a poor shooter and his ball handling is suspect at times, as evidenced by his nine turnovers in the loss to Charlotte.

The Lakers found this out successfully back on Christmas Day. Actually, they found this out last season during the NBA finals, but inexplicably, didn't expose Rondo like they should have.

By keeping Rondo out of the lane and forcing him to shoot the ball, it does two things. It shows him up to be the bad shooter that he is and it also stops him from using his pace to blow past defenders which he has been doing all season.

It also helps to take out the cockiness which has crept into his game.

From his body language, it's easy to tell that Rondo isn't comfortable taking mid-range jumpshots and only looks totally confident when he can drive into the lane. His 1-for-7 shooting performance in Sunday night's loss against the New York Knicks all but confirmed it.

Celtics Head Coach Doc Rivers and General Manager Danny Ainge both noticed it too.

That's why, it comes as no coincidence that as the sudden run of losses have piled up, the Celtics are becoming increasingly concerned about their point guard situation and know that if they don't get a decent back up, it could hurt them down the stretch and in their bid to repeat.

So desperate are the Celtics in fact, that they appear to be holding out hope that Stephon Marbury can orchestrate his release from the Knicks and join Boston.

Rondo will say all the right things, but deep down, it won't be good for his confidence to know that the Celtics want the poisonous Marbury around to share the back court duties with him.

Rondo's form has perhaps come about from him believing some of the reports that were being written about him. He was being touted as an All-Star and the leagues Most Improved Player, however he has become sloppy with the ball and teams are either throwing double-teams at him or daring him to shoot the ball, both of which he's having trouble dealing with.

Rondo will find that other teams will have noticed his weakness and they will be coming at him harder than before now.

Now Stephon Marbury Wants to Play With Kevin Garnett

Sources have told ESPN.com that New York Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury is interested in joining the Boston Celtics if he is released from the Knicks.

If that happens, it would mean that Marbury would be reunited with Kevin Garnett. Garnett and Marbury played together in Minnesota and formed what looked to be a lethal tandem before the Timberwolves got the first taste of Marbury's "me-first" attitude and he forced them to trade him to the New Jersey Nets.

Marbury back then, wasn't happy sharing the spotlight with KG and wanted to run the T'Wolves. Minnesota wisely felt they were better off keeping Garnett, though he didn't reap them much success for a variety of reasons.

Now, as Marbury's career has gone from an All-Star player to an All-Star joke, he has begun to realise that time for winning a championship is running out and he wants to ride KG's coat tails to try to get his hands on an NBA title.

Marc Stein from ESPN has compiled a list of FAQ's which covers the likelihood of Marbury ending up in Boston, assuming he gets his buyout from Knicks General Manager Donnie Walsh.

Marbury refused to play for the Knicks this season even when they were down to seven healthy players and now he expects New York to immediately bow to his wishes and release him - with full pay - so he can join the red hot favourite to win the NBA crown.

Strange as it sounds, Marbury might actually be getting dumber and more selfish than ever.

Marbury's salary for this season is $21,937,500 which works out to $267,530.49 per game. The Knicks play game number 32 Sunday afternoon, ironically versus the Celtics. So, with 50 games remaining the Knicks still owe Steph $13,376,524.39 less the $400,000 that they fined him for refusing to play against the Detroit Pistons back on November 26.

The reason I'm bringing up these numbers is that Walsh might just have decided to pay Marbury out and let him sulk and miss the entire season. Let's hope so.

Marbury no longer deserves anything from New York, especially from Walsh and head coach Mike D'Antoni. Marbury was causing problems in the Big Apple long before those two turned up and in any case, he won't be there next season.

It isn't Walsh's money and even if he decides to release Marbury, any team that signs him will only pay him the absolute minimum, meaning that the Knicks are still on the hook for almost all of his salary still anyway.

No team is going to offer a decent trade for Marbury either. Earlier in the season, Walsh offered to release Marbury if he took $3 million less than his full $21 million. Marbury refused, saying that he'd only do it for $1 million.

Now, Marbury does have every right to expect to be paid the salary he signed up for. However, if he wants to be able to go and sign with whichever team he wants, then he should be prepared to give up a little something in return. 1/7th of his salary isn't too much to ask, but then again it seems that anything that is asked of Marbury is too much.

From a playing point of view, Marbury is still an NBA caliber point guard. He could easily start for several teams, although if he does join the Celtics, he would play back up to Rajon Rondo.

The whole situation has been a black eye for the Knicks, or maybe that should be a tattoo on the side of the Knicks head !