http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/The_Baseline/entry/view/52961/court_lessons_nuggets_are_glad_billups_is_back
Sporting News’ Sean Deveney assesses five truths from the past week and how they could affect the rest of the season.
1. Chauncey Billups is back, in a big way. After missing eight games with a groin injury that just would not go away—Billups attempted to come back on Christmas but was still in pain—the Nuggets’ point guard and chief security blanket has been brilliant in his return.
In his sixth game back, he tied a career high with 37 points, including 10 in overtime, leading Denver to what had become a rare road win. Billups is averaging 26.3 points since coming back, and he said that his plan all along was to ensure he was at his best when he returned. This team has higher
aspirations than racking up January wins.
“I knew I did not want to come back and be at 70 or 80 percent,” Billups said. “I wanted to be all the way back. I am not going to jeopardize the playoffs to win a few games now.”
Since Billups’ return, the Nuggets have gone 5-1. They were 3-5 without him. “Most of the credit has to go to Chauncey’s whatever, his excellence, leadership, composure,” coach George Karl said. “He’s just a bigtime player.”
2. Monta Ellis is an iron man. Here’s a pretty amazing number that comes courtesy of the Warriors’ P.R. folks: In an overtime loss last night, Ellis played all 53 minutes, his 10th complete game of the season.
Yes, 10 times this season (three times in a row), Ellis has been on the floor for tipoff and has not come off until the final buzzer. Heading into Thursday night’s action, the rest of the players in the NBA had combined for 12 complete games.
Ellis leads the league in minutes (42.4), and though it’s not an ideal situation for coach Don Nelson — the heavy minutes have come because the team has virtually no healthy backup guards — the load doesn’t seem to bother Ellis.
“It’s all right with me,” Ellis said. “I don’t like coming out anyway. If I can stay on the floor and help the team, that is what I want to do.”
One offshoot of Ellis’ increased time, though, has been a corresponding increase in his 3-point attempts. He is most effective attacking the rim, and the deep perimeter is not his comfort zone (shooting just 31.3 percent on 3-pointers). But if he’s going to be asked to play wire-towire, he’ll have to be forgiven for jacking up a few 3s, which are obviously easier on his body.
Over his last three games, Ellis has averaged 8.0 3-point attempts, though he averages just 2.5 for the season.
3. It’s not easy being a GM. The Hawks were able to bounce back from a tough loss Monday with a win over the Kings at home Wednesday, putting Atlanta at 6-2 in its last eight games, a string that followed a four-game losing streak.
Thus it has gone for the Hawks all year — very promising stretches with wins over big-time teams, interspersed with bizarre losing spurts. That’s got to drive a general manager nuts, doesn’t it?
“Well, everything is ebbs and flows,” Hawks G.M. Rick Sund said. “We have a stretch where we played well early, and I was able to keep pretty even-keeled — you don’t want to get too high during the highs or too low during the lows. But then we lost four in a row, and it is harder to stay even-keeled in the bad times than in the good. The lows are tougher. But we have goals. We wanted to keep the teams that finished behind us last year behind us this year. That guarantees us home court in the first round. That’s the plan, at least.”
4. What about Boris? Since acquiring Stephen Jackson in mid- November, the Bobcats have turned their season around — they were 3-6 when they made the deal and have gone 18-13 since. They’ve won six in a row, including a 39-point shredding of the Heat Wednesday night, and are now two games over .500.
One key has been power forward Boris Diaw, who was struggling so badly in the wake of the Jackson trade that the Bobcats seemed certain to trade him. But Diaw has played much better, averaging 13.8 points, 4.0 assists and 6.3 rebounds during the streak, and the team’s need for a new power forward seems to have diminished.
5. Nate could be great. This week, a rumor surfaced on Yahoo! Sports that the Celtics might be interested in trading for Knicks reserve guard Nate Robinson. In New York, of course, Robinson has been in and out of the Mike D’Antoni doghouse, so there is some question as to what sort of value he might bring to a team, especially a contender.
Said one East scout: “He has the potential to do what Jamal Crawford has done for Atlanta as a sixth man. He’s a great scorer, and if you can get him to accept his role and work with it, he can really be a valuable player. But getting him to fit into the right role, that’s the question. He tends to break plays, and he seems to be stubborn in a way.”