Hooped Up

All five Miami Heat players were watching Vince Carter, and as he dribbled toward the lane no one was within 15 feet of Rashard Lewis. Big mistake. And the Orlando Magic’s postseason push kept rolling along.

Lewis took the pass in his favorite spot near the left corner, then made the clinching three-pointer with 28.4 seconds left as the Magic recovered from wasting a 12-point lead in the final 4:45 of regulation and beat the Heat 108-102 in overtime Thursday night. The Magic won for the 10th time in 11 games, improved to 9-8 on the second night of back-to-backs and stretched their lead atop the Southeast Division to 4½ games over Atlanta.
USA Today

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Knicks could have notched three straight road victories for the first time this season on Wednesday. Or not.

The Knicks reverted back to form against the Boston Celtics, receiving a 109-97 pasting at TD Garden.

Paul Pierce scored 29 points, his best performance since January. The output delighted Celtics Coach Doc Rivers, who said one of the team’s main goals would be to again incorporate Pierce as the offense’s go-to scorer.

The beneficiaries of blown defensive assignments, the Celtics (43-24) made several open layups on easy drives into the lane. Boston never trailed and outscored the Knicks in the paint, 54-36. The former Knick Nate Robinson had 8 points in 21 minutes. Read More »

Manu Ginobili scored 22 points and Tim Duncan added 12 points and 11 rebounds as the San Antonio Spurs withstood a late Miami run to beat the Heat 88-76 on Tuesday for their eighth NBA win in nine games.

George Hill scored 16 points and Richard Jefferson added 15 as the Spurs improved to 40-25, seventh in the Western Conference, while the Heat slid to 35-33, seventh in the Eastern Conference. Dwyane Wade scored a game-high 28 points for the Heat, which saw a six-game home win streak snapped.

The Spurs led 69-44 with 2:24 remaining in the third quarter but Miami closed the period with a 10-2 run, Wade sinking two layups and a 3-pointer.

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The Celtics bench combined for 61 points tonight against the Pistons, with five players (Glen Davis, Rasheed Wallace, Nate Robinson, Michael Finley, and Marquis Daniels) combining for 55 of those points.

“Just playing basic basketball,” said Wallace. “Nothing too hard…[We're ] just moving the ball. As Doc likes to say, ‘the hockey pass’. Setting it up for that next man to pass it to that next man for the bucket.”

The Celtics had 34 assists on 46 made baskets tonight, a sign that the ball was indeed moving well. The C’s tied their season-high for assists. Read More »

Tracy McGrady has waved the red flag. He has come to the realization his left-knee pain probably won’t ease this season and that fans won’t get to see the old T-Mac until next season.

But McGrady said he believes if he stays healthy enough to play and help the team in small ways, such as a playmaker and rebounder, then he will get a contact somewhere next season. But as far as the acrobatic artist and dominant go-to guy, forget about it.

“I know I’m not healthy,” McGrady said at FedEx Forum after a four-point outing vs. Memphis Friday. “I’m not healthy to go out there and be as effective as I wanted to be every night. It’s not happening and I have to have patience with it. I’m not going to allow myself to get discouraged and not believe it’s going to get better when I truly believe it is. ”
NY Post

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Governor David Paterson, Mayor Michael Bloomberg,and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz today joined Forest City Ratner Companies Chairman and CEO Bruce Ratner, Barclays PLC President Robert E. Diamond, Jr., and NETS investor and cultural icon Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter at the ceremonial groundbreaking of the Barclays Center at Atlantic Yards.

The 18,000-seat world-class sports and entertainment arena is being developed by Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC), which will operate the arena in partnership with Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim Sports & Entertainment. The Barclays Center will host more than 200 events annually, including professional and collegiate sports, concerts, family shows, and NETS Basketball.
Press Release

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The Toronto Raptors head into the historically unfriendly confines of Arco Arena in Sacramento on Wednesday losers of six of their last seven after a tough setback the previous night.

Toronto couldn’t hold on to a 58-50 lead at halftime against the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday, with Kobe Bryant netting the winning basket with just 1.7 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Toronto managed just four field goals in the final eight minutes in the 109-107 result, starting their road trip with two straight losses.

As a result, the Raptors begin Wednesday just 1½ games clear of the playoff dividing line in the Eastern Conference, although they are in sixth place.
CBC

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Eddie Joardn may be fast departing the Sixers bench. Sources indicated that Jordan could be fired before this season ends — if it becomes obvious he has lost the team — but more likely after the final game of this dismal season. One of these sources also characterized Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider as “up in arms” about Jordan’s coaching effort, with another source with intimate knowledge of the management’s thinking calling Jordan’s coaching “baffling.” An NBA source said Jordan’s philosophy, which is overloaded on the offensive side with his high-IQ “Princeton” offense, was a mistake at its inception.
Philadelphia Inquirer

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The Grizzlies recalled center Hasheem Thabeet from the Dakota Wizards, the team’s NBA Development League affiliate, general manager Chris Wallace announced today.

The No. 2 overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, Thabeet averaged a double-double with 13.8 points and 11.2 rebounds along with 3.2 blocks in six games (four starts) with Dakota.

Thabeet, 23, was assigned to the D-League on Feb. 25.
Memphis Commercial Appeal

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Trail Blazers center Joel Przybilla on Saturday reinjured his surgically-repaired right knee and will require another surgery, the team said Sunday. Przybilla reinjured the knee Saturday morning when he slipped while entering the shower at his home in Milwaukee, Wisc.

He flew to Portland on Saturday and had a magnetic resonance imaging test Sunday morning at the office of team doctor Don Roberts. The MRI showed a tear of the patella tendon that was repaired.

Przybilla, 30, ruptured his right patella tendon in a Dec. 22 game at Dallas. He was 10 weeks post-operation and had just started to walk without a brace. After his original injury and surgery, the team estimated a return at 6-to-8 months.
The Oregonian

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