FOULING UP THREE…

Last night the Los Angeles Lakers were up three and decided to defend against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Ricky Rubio pushed the ball up the floor with 3.4 to play and got off a three. Kobe Bryant was close by, reaching out to try to block the shot. Some people thought Rubio got fouled.

Off shot.

No whistle.

Game over.

Arrive home safely.

“That’s not a foul. They ain’t calling that s—,” Bryant said after the game. “I don’t think I got him. That’s a tough call to make. I just put my hand in. It’s not like I went out and smacked him across the arm or anything like that. It is what it is.”

Would Bryant have been “surprised” if a foul was called?

“No. We would have gone into overtime and won the game. It’s as simple as that.”

BTW, the Lakers win was their 22nd straight over the T-Wolves.

Updated NBA numbers 2012-13:

101 cases

88 defended

21 gave up three

13 fouled – strategy worked for all 13.

Hoops135@hotmail.com

Twitter: @CoachFinamore

THE COACH AND HIS TEAM

ESPN.com on some comments from LA Lakers head coach Mike D’Antoni on the Purple and Gold.

“There’s no explanation for it,” D’Antoni said. “I can’t explain it, but every time we get up 16 [points], it’s like, ‘Well, we’re really good and we don’t have to play hard,’ and we start messing with the game. You start messing with not moving the ball. You start messing with, ‘I’m just going to go one-on-one every time.’ You start messing with the basketball gods, and they get you.

HOOPS135@HOTMAIL.COM

TWITTER: @CoachFinamore

MORRIS DAY AND THE TIME

The Lakers fired Mike Brown; this after a 1-4 start.

Was it enough time?

And stop with that “0-8 in the pre-season” nonsense.

Bill Plaschke of the LA Times has a decent piece worth reading.

Giving Brown until the All-Star break to mesh this new lineup together would have been a fair chance. Heck, just giving him another month or so until Christmas would be a fair chance. But to fire him now, even after the Lakers have gone 1-4? While the legions of angry Lakers fans will love this snapshot of an ownership group trying to win now, the Lakers’ front office is paid to see the bigger picture, and they’re missing it here.

HOOPS135@HOTMAIL.COM

TWITTER: @CoachFinamore

MONDAY’S MIND-SET

Knicks win their first playoff game in 11 years. Season still alive as series moves south Wednesday night; New York is down 3-1.

Marc Berman of the New York Post has the details from Madison Square Garden.

Amar’e Stoudemire’s dramatic return and Carmelo Anthony’s dramatic shots allowed the Knicks to avoid a playoff sweep, post a thrilling 89-87 Garden upset over the Miami Dream Team and end their ignominious NBA-record postseason losing streak.

In redemption games for both, a bandaged Stoudemire and Anthony combined for 61 points to extend the series to Game 5 in Miami on Wednesday. The Knicks won’t have starting point guard Baron Davis, who suffered a gruesome dislocated kneecap in the third quarter.

But they have life — and they may have Jeremy Lin — after the Knicks were sparked by Stoudemire and Anthony, who exploded for 41 points after struggling mightily in the first three games against the Heat. Mike Bibby, replacing Davis, stepped in as point guard and steadied them to victory.

Celtics go up 3-1 on the Hawks.

Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald on the C’s win over the Hawks.

“We were all locked in. Sometimes individually we get a little dysfunctional at times, but (last night) everybody was very communicative,” Garnett said. “Guys were giving tips. I don’t like to bring up the past, but these were some of the things we’ve done in the past. There was a lot of dialogue (yesterday). You could tell in the layup lines how guys were focused in. We could feel it. And we carried that onto the court. That was big.”

Sixers go up 3-1 on the Bulls.

Neil Hayes of the Chicago Sun-Times on the Hawks beating the Bulls for the third straight time.

“It’s not the way we thought the series would go a week and a half ago,” Kyle Korver said. “It’s a different situation for us, but this is the way it goes. This is why you play the playoff games.”

Lakers go up 3-1 on the Nuggets.

Mark Haubner of Sports Illustrated.com on LA’s 92-88 win.

“Sessions has hit big 3s. Even when I was out he hit some big 3s to win games. He did it again tonight. I have confidence in him,” Bryant said. “If you’re observing the game in the third quarter, I hit Sessions for an open shot, Blake for an open shot and (Matt) Barnes for an open shot and they missed all three of them. George, being observant as he is, saw I was (ticked). I was and (he) didn’t think I would trust them at the end of the game to knock down those shots, but they stepped up and knocked them down.”

HOOPS135@HOTMAIL.COM

TWITTER: @CoachFinamore

THURSDAY’S PICK-N-POP’S

I watched the Lakers and Clippers last night in an exhibition game from Staples.

No Kobe Bryant but there was a World Peace.

The Clippers pulled out the meaningless win 108-103.

But I will say it was very competitive. I liked it. Wish more players would take this approach.

Blake Griffin scored 30 points  for the Clippers and Andrew Bynum was impressive with 26 points and 11 rebounds. Bynum will miss the first 5 games of the season, he was suspended without pay because of a flagrant foul against Dallas’ J.J. Barea in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals.

Exhibition games in any sports has never done anything for me; But both teams got after it.  I’m looking forward to these two clubs meeting each other 3 times in the regular season.

This should turn into a very interesting rivalry.

The Clippers look like they can make some noise this season.

Chris Paul, Chauncey Billups, Griffin, Caron Butler and DeAndre Jordan give the Clips a solid starting 5.

Jeff Eisneberg of Yahoo Sports on Phil Martelli, a college student-athlete and the NCAA. I posted this situation yesterday and even tweeted about it. This is an interesting story.

Here’s the athlete, Todd O’Brien and his view via SI.com of what is happening.

I met with Coach Martelli to inform him that I would not be returning. I had hoped he would be understanding; just a few weeks before, we had stood next to each other at graduation as my parents snapped photo. Unfortunately, he did not take it well. After calling me a few choice words, he informed me that he would make some calls so that I would be dropped from my summer class and would no longer graduate. He also said that he was going to sue me. When he asked if I still planned on leaving, I was at a loss for words. He calmed down a bit and said we should think this over then meet again in a few days. I left his office angry and worried he would make me drop the classes.

Lynn Zinser of the NY Times on NAIA Paul Quinn College basketball looking for an identity and their recent game vs Baylor.

But Paul Quinn lives on a much different level of the basketball universe than Baylor. Keeley, who has degrees in electrical engineering and sports science, teaches math and physical education classes and can talk of leaving a promising career at Lockheed Martin to pursue coaching. The athletic director, James Summers, known as Zip, is a part-time employee.

The college, however, is thinking big. Its new president, Michael Sorrell, said last month that the goal was to increase its student population to 2,000 by 2020. Keeley said he hoped the basketball team could move up from N.A.I.A. someday, perhaps as high as N.C.A.A. Division II. Playing teams like Baylor and Sam Houston State, which beat Paul Quinn by the respectable score of 66-54 in early December, is all part of that mission.

“We’ll play anybody,” Keeley said. “I don’t care so much about losing a game, but I want people to know who we are, so instead of asking, ‘Who is Paul Quinn,’ saying, ‘We know all about Paul Quinn.’

“We want to be relevant.”

Next time, the score line might not look like a misprint.

Jerry Brewer of the Seattle Times on Cameron Dollar’s Seattle University basketball team.

“You planted the seeds, you scheduled the party, and here it is, and you want to see the garden fully grown,” the Seattle University men’s basketball coach said. “But no matter what you do — water it over and over and over, give it more sun, threaten to dig it up and throw the plants out in frustration — they’re only going to grow at their current rate. You have to realize that, and respect the process.”

Tom Van Riper of Forbesmagazine.com on the Top 10 Most Hated NBA Players.

1. Kris Humphries (50 percent dislike)
2. LeBron James (48 percent)
3. Kobe Bryant (45 percent)
4. Tony Parker (37 percent)
5. Metta World Peace (36 percent)
6. Chris Bosh (34 percent)
7. Carmelo Anthony (27 percent)
8. Paul Pierce (25 percent)
9. Dwyane Wade (23 percent)
10. Lamar Odom (21 percent)

North Carolina smacked Texas last night 82-63.

Hartford is now 0-11 after losing in double OT to Marist last night.

During a sports talk radio show from Boston on Thursday morning on WEEI, Bob Ryan, a great sportswriter said Bill Russell is the greatest living basketball player of all-time. When did Michael Jordan pass away?

Hoops135@hotmail.com

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