Sports 4 Dorks

Biggest rise: Dolphins - 25 to 19 Biggest fall: Broncos - 22 to 12 Keep an eye on: Chicago…

Texans passing game vs. Ravens pass defense Sage Rosenfels starts in place of the injured Matt Schaub. The Texans…

James Nielsen: Chronicle N.D. Kalu says he’s ready to take the call if an NFL team wants to make…

The Texans tried to put together a rally late in the fourth quarter, but turnovers early in the game came…

Brett Coomer : ChronicleCheck out the rest of the Texans grades in the report card gallery….

Each weekday morning, BDL serves up a handful of NBA-related
stories to digest with your post-election eggs. At least for now. We’ll
see how long this lasts.

Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News: "Chauncey Billups will wear No. 7 when he makes his debut Nov. 7. That’s the plan for the Denver native, acquired Monday from Detroit in the blockbuster deal in which the Nuggets gave up Allen Iverson, after Nuggets executive Rex Chapman said Tuesday it’s unlikely Billups will play tonight at Golden State. ‘He was in Charlotte, and he needed to go to Detroit,’ Chapman said. ‘He’s got family and kids. There’s a lot of other issues. He’ll get here just as soon as he can.’ […] Billups will don No. 7 for Denver. He wore No. 1 in Detroit, but J.R. Smith, who has that number for the Nuggets, said Billups didn’t want it. Smith had been planning to switch next season to No. 23 but now says he’ll keep No. 1 because ‘it looks good on me.’"

Brian Stensaas, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "Sebastian Telfair, suspended by the NBA for the first three games of the season, lost salary and almost a little piece of his home-entertainment system watching his Timberwolves teammates struggle to a 1-2 start. Telfair is eligible to return to action tonight against San Antonio, but for those first three games he was banished from the team on game nights. So the backup point guard watched at home, on his wall-mounted television. The first, a victory over Sacramento, wasn’t too bad. The other two, especially Sunday’s loss, well … ‘If my TV wasn’t on the wall, I probably would have kicked it in,’ he chuckled."

Rick Bonnell, Charlotte Observer: "Larry Brown hates the New York Knicks so much, he urged one of his best friends to accept the job leading that franchise out of the fog. Yes, it was Brown who pushed Donnie Walsh to become Knicks’ general manager, after those same Knicks tossed Brown to the curb after one season as coach 21/2 years ago. So if you’re expecting bile and venom when Brown’s Charlotte Bobcats face the Knicks tonight in Madison Square Garden, you’ll be disappointed. Brown just wants this game to pass quietly. ‘To be honest, I’d like to get it over. They’re going to ask me a thousand questions, and I have a job here that’s pretty challenging,’ Brown said Tuesday. ‘They’ are the New York media — a rare species of journalist that made Brown’s one season with his hometown team even more complicated. Tabloids have a knack for turning disagreement into argument, argument into rift, rift into feud."

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald: "The Celtics, like every other contender, were intrigued by Monday’s trade that sent Allen Iverson from Denver to Detroit for Chauncey Billups, Antonio McDyess and Cheikh Samb. But the C’s attention is focused particularly on the Denver side of the deal, with McDyess reportedly set to be bought out of his contract. According to a league source, the Celtics would be especially interested in bringing in the veteran power forward. The C’s initially attempted to sign McDyess in 2004. He instead chose to sign with the Pistons, who at the time were opening defense of a world championship."

Dave Feschuk, Toronto Star: "Give Chris Bosh a gold medal for restraint, because it must be a little bit tempting to mess with the collective head of a fan base on a day like yesterday. That’s when it was pointed out in town that the Detroit Pistons, in making their blockbuster trade for Allen Iverson, had suddenly become big players in NBA free agency in the summer of 2010, when Bosh could opt to become a big catch. […] ‘That’s what we need in the world — more stupidity,’ said Sam Mitchell, speaking of the sudden buzz around Bosh 2010. ‘Like, we don’t have enough, so we need to just create some stupidity.’ No.4, too, refused to approach the issue with Vince-ish aloofness or Butch-esque zaniness. […] ‘I’m just, like, trying to get to my nap at two o’clock.’ He laughed a little."

Brian Schmitz, Orlando Sentinel: "Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy singled out PG Jameer Nelson and Turkoglu for being careless with the ball against the Bulls. Each had four turnovers — or eight of the 19. ‘The 19 turnovers … That’s 19 times we didn’t get a chance to get a basket,’ Nelson said. ‘I’ll take the blame for some of that. As a point guard, I’ve got to get us better shots and get the ball to the guys in better situations.’ Turkoglu took exception to Van Gundy’s belief that he’s a little out of shape and ‘when he gets a little tired, he doesn’t want to do anything except jack up jump-shots.’"

Roderick Boone, Newsday:
"So just to make sure everyone knows he and team president Donnie Walsh
aren’t at odds on what to do with unwanted Stephon Marbury — which is
to keep him on the inactive list indefinitely — D’Antoni announced it
loud and clear. ‘There will never be a rift between Donnie and I,’
D’Antoni said. ‘We’ll talk every day. Now, I’m sure he’s not going to
agree on everything I’m doing. We’ll talk everything out. I’ll convince
him some, he’ll convince me some. But that other thing will never
happen. We’re on the same page, we’ll always be on the same page and
I’m not going to look for any excuse.’ […] Walsh also let it be known
that he’s on board with D’Antoni’s handling of the situation regarding
Marbury."

Michael Cunningham, South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "[Shawn] Marion was to get his custom mask after practice Tuesday. He suffered a broken nose during Saturday’s 100-87 loss at Charlotte. ‘I wanted to practice today,’ Marion said. ‘I can’t do anything without [the mask], though. If I get any kind of bump on it or anything it can go any way.’ Marion said he took a hit from Charlotte forward Gerald Wallace but didn’t realize he’d broken his nose at the time. He said he’s suffered a broken nose before. But that was during a summer pickup game so he didn’t have to play with a mask. He expects the new mask will work better than the non-custom version he didn’t like. ‘I know they are going to try to get it perfect,’ he said."

Kate Fagan, Philadelphia Inquirer: "Are these pockets of inefficient play the result of developing team chemistry after so many off-season additions? Backup guard Lou Williams shook his head when asked if the team still needed time to build cohesion because of newcomers Elton Brand, Royal Ivey, Kareem Rush, Theo Ratliff and Donyell Marshall. He said that most of the team has played together since the summer. ‘The majority of that process is over, and now we just need to go out there and put it on the floor,’ said Williams, who is averaging 12.5 points off the bench. Added Williams, ‘I think we should be 4-0 at this point. Both those losses we should have won. We had chances to win.’"

Vince Ellis, Detroit Free Press: "If Antonio McDyess, 34, negotiates a buyout with Denver of the last two years of his contract, he would have to sit for 30 days before he could rejoin the Pistons because of the so-called Gary Payton Rule. It was named after the former NBA All-Star who he was traded from Boston to Atlanta at the 2005 trade deadline. He rejoined the Celtics a few days later after the Hawks agreed to release him. Now, players who get traded and are then waived are forced to wait 30 days before re-signing with their former team. They can sign with other teams right away. Pistons president Joe Dumars said at the news conference Tuesday to introduce Iverson that he would welcome McDyess back but didn’t know what would happen in Denver. ‘We’ll let you know something when we know something,’ Nuggets vice president of player personnel Rex Chapman told the Associated Press after practice Tuesday. Nuggets coach George Karl wouldn’t mind having McDyess around."

Charley Walters, St. Paul Pioneer Press: "Flip Saunders will collect $5.5 million that Detroit owes him this year as the last year of his four-year contract. He has had time to reflect. ‘You sit back and kind of evaluate what people are doing, both from a college and pro standpoint, and maybe that helps solidify the things you were doing and maybe believing even more in what you were doing,’ he said. ‘You always miss (coaching) as far as not having a team, but probably not as much because of my mind-set going into this year that when this thing happened in Detroit, I wasn’t going to do anything or pursue anything going into this year. My mind-set was maybe to take a step back a little bit.’ Saunders said he will coach again. ‘Probably more so the NBA; college would have to be the right situation,’ he said."

George M. Thomas, Akron Beacon Journal: "Other early season problems can be contributed to those two surgeries — one for a sports hernia that required Williams to take it easy during the offseason. ‘I expected to struggle a bit — not struggle — but be slow to get it going,’ he said. ‘But it’s still frustrating at the same time when you’re used to making plays and used to making shots.’ Williams threw frustration to the wind Monday night and led the Cavs down the stretch. After three quarters, he had five points. He scored nine in the fourth. More impressive is that he got his shots, involved his teammates and helped the team to pull away. Most of the production occurred with LeBron James getting rest. ‘Mo is a guy we feel can go out and create shots for himself and create shots for others. That’s what we did,’ coach Mike Brown said."

Al Iannazzone, Bergen Record: "Power forward Stromile Swift thought the worst when he came crashing down on his back at the end of the Oct. 17 practice. He was relieved that the nasty fall resulted only in a bone bruise and muscle spasms. ‘I thought something was maybe fractured or something,’ Swift said. ‘But the X-rays came back negative, so that was good. Let’s hope I can get back as soon as possible. It was a scary fall and all.’ Swift shot Tuesday for the first time since the fall. ‘Over the last week, I made some big improvements,’ Swift said. His return will give the Nets seven big men. He seems a likely candidate to be moved since he’s in the last year of his deal, thus making his contract appealing."

Jonathan Feigen, Houston Chronicle: "Sam Cassell has not been on the active list this season, but he does not object. His emphasis this season is to be ready if called upon while preparing for a coaching career he has planned since playing for Rudy Tomjanovich with the Rockets. ‘When I first got here with Rudy, (he) and I used to have a lot of one-on-one conversations on the team planes about preparation, communication and dealing with egos,’ Cassell said."

Boston at Houston

Fans got it right with this one, choosing to see the Rockets
and C’s on NBA TV over the possible Spurs/Mavericks or Suns/Nets contests in an NBA.com poll.

The runner-ups should be a pair of entertaining duels, but
we could have a Finals preview in this Rockets/Celtics matchup, and it’s good
that the pairing will take to the national stage.

It should be a low-scoring affair, even as the Celtics
(third in pace) and Rockets (14^th) are running a bit more than expected
this far into the season. Boston
is having terrible issues with turnovers, throwing away 20 miscues a game, far
and away the worst mark in the league.

Meanwhile, Houston
is doing its damage by not damaging the opponent. The Rockets are averaging a league-best
16 fouls a night, which no doubt is leading to their third-ranked defense thus
far.

On top of that, we have two gimpies (Ray Allen and Tracy
McGrady) chasing each other around, with two burly wing beasts in Paul Pierce
and Ron Artest set to do battle. Actual battle. With swords and shields and
honor.

Yao Ming is averaging 22 and 11. Kevin Garnett is
contributing 16 and 10 in only 32 minutes, and both outfits can boast
scary-good benches.

No BtB tomorrow, I’m going to take in a night on the tube
with my sights set elsewhere, but you can be sure I’ll be recording this one on
the other tuner and referring to it quite a bit. This isn’t hyperbole, this
could be a Finals matchup; and an especially intriguing one as neither
franchise is likely to make much of an overhaul between now and the playoffs.

Enjoy the game, and enjoy the night. Feel free to comment
away down below.

A look around the league and the web that covers it. It’s also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren’t always listed in order of importance. That’s for you, dear reader, to figure out.

C: The Blowtorch. An in-depth conversation betwixt Don Draper and Tim Duncan.
PF: ESPN The Mag, via Deadspin. Even Lil’ Wayne thinks Greg Oden is not living up to his potential.
SF: TWolves Blog. Why the Wolves need to be hated in order to be loved.
SG: SportsTsar.com. Kobe’s career set to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. "In West Philadelphia …"
PG: Hardwood Paroxysm. Boom Got Them Doths. A poem from Rod Benson to Holly MacKenzie.
6th: YouTube. A (quiet) glimpse into the world in which Gerald Wallace grew up and became a star.
7th: K Cartel. LAC is struggling, the backups are terrible, and Eric Gordon still isn’t getting any PT!
8th: Dallas Basketball. Jason Terry says, "Jerry Stackhouse for President!" I love it.
9th: We’re Off To See The Wizards …. Are they pumping in fake crowd noise in Detroit? Blasphemous!
10th: Hugging Harold Reynolds. "A stunning revelation today out of the NBA that 2007 number one overall pick Greg Oden, a center for the Portland Trailblazers, is actually constructed internally of building blocks from the Hasbro game Jenga."

A look around the league and the web that covers it. It’s also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren’t always listed in order of importance. That’s for you, dear reader, to figure out.

C: The Blowtorch. An in-depth conversation betwixt Don Draper and Tim Duncan.
PF: ESPN The Mag, via Deadspin. Even Lil’ Wayne thinks Greg Oden is not living up to his potential.
SF: TWolves Blog. Why the Wolves need to be hated in order to be loved.
SG: SportsTsar.com. Kobe’s career set to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. "In West Philadelphia …"
PG: Hardwood Paroxysm. Boom Got Them Doths. A poem from Rod Benson to Holly MacKenzie.
6th: YouTube. A (quiet) glimpse into the world in which Gerald Wallace grew up and became a star.
7th: K Cartel. LAC is struggling, the backups are terrible, and Eric Gordon still isn’t getting any PT!
8th: Dallas Basketball. Jason Terry says, "Jerry Stackhouse for President!" I love it.
9th: We’re Off To See The Wizards …. Are they pumping in fake crowd noise in Detroit? Blasphemous!
10th: Hugging Harold Reynolds. "A stunning revelation today out of the NBA that 2007 number one overall pick Greg Oden, a center for the Portland Trailblazers, is actually constructed internally of building blocks from the Hasbro game Jenga."