Hooped Up

Tony Parker would miss Monday night’s visit by the Toronto Raptors with a sprained left ankle. By game time, the Spurs were also minus top forward Tim Duncan (swollen left ankle) but didn’t wilt as Ginobili came off the bench to score 36 points and eight assists in a 131-124 victory.

He posted 12 points over the final 12 minutes on four three-pointers as San Antonio overcame a two-point deficit entering the fourth quarter to improve its record to 3-0 at home.

“I think we’re going to score, we just got to play better defence,” Ginobili said. “We were talking before the season about trying to be the best team in the league defensively, and so far we’re not even close.”
CBC

Last season, when Tracy McGrady decided to have microfracture knee surgery, ending his season, the Rockets found out by watching television.

They thought they sort of deserved to play a part in the decision-making, particularly since they were paying him roughly $20 million and their doctors had said for months that he could play his way back into being a star player. But it was his body, and his decision. And they were not exactly surprised. At that point, they did not necessarily disagree.

He had said publicly the previous week that he was not even considering surgery, but they had set up the appointments. They knew he was not traveling the country looking for a good barber.

Rockets coach Rick Adelman was livid at the way the announcement was handled. McGrady described it as a misunderstanding, and really, going public with the decision before discussing it privately did no harm. It wasn’t the announcement that ended his season.

A season later, however, he clearly has not learned from the experience, or simply does not care if the Rockets object to his announcements. He said during the summer that he was 99 percent back and would be ready to practice with the team at the start of training camp. Things did not work out that way. According to the Rockets, he still has not gone through a full practice.
Houston Chronicle

Add the swine flu to the list of ailments the bruised, battered and frequently beaten Nets are suffering from already this season.

Second-year forward Chris Douglas-Roberts has been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, the team announced before Saturday night’s game against the Celtics at the Meadowlands.

Under a league mandate, Douglas-Roberts had been quarantined from his teammates since he started experiencing flu-like symptoms following Wednesday’s home game against Denver. In a statement announcing the diagnosis, the team said that Douglas-Roberts had been “treated accordingly” and that the Nets have “followed all precautionary measures as mandated by NBA guidelines.”
NY Daily News