That Didn't Take Long: The Memphis Grizzlies took the Sacramento Kings into overtime last night, a night in which everything Kings' guard Kevin Martin threw at the rim seemed to go in. While Martin put up a monster 48-points on 14-of-27 from the field, including 7-of-10 from three-point range, to seal the Kings' first win in overtime, the game also marked the return and regular season debut of Grizzlies' guard Allen Iverson.
Iverson played an unremarkable 18 minutes last night and didn't look terrible despite sitting out most of the pre-season; in fact he really looked motivated to be a pass-first player in his limited time on the floor.
After the game Iverson, who had taken criticism all summer for his stance on playing from the bench said his injured hamstring was not bothering him at all, but the limited minutes he got last night did.
"I had no problems (with the hamstring)," Iverson said to Matt Steinmetz of AOL Fanhouse. "I had a problem with my butt from sitting on that bench so long. That's the only thing I got a problem with."
"I'm not a reserve basketball player," Iverson said to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo!. "I've never been a reserve all my life and I'm not going to start looking at myself as a reserve. That's something for the media to talk about. It's only a big issue when the media talks about it. The subject never came up in my career until everything happened in Detroit. No one talked about me being a sub or anything like that until last year.
"In all the other years of my career, it's never come up. I've been a starter on All-Star teams, Olympic teams and NBA Finals teams. It's just a big deal now. I think it is something people should let go. To answer your question, no, I'm not a bench player or the sixth man. Go look at my resume, it will show you that I'm not a sixth man."
"If we're winning, I can play 10 minutes and I'm happy," he said. "When we're losing, that's when I trip out."
"If we're winning games with me in that (reserve) role, I would be a (jerk) for fighting that," Iverson said soon after pointing out: "I came off the bench and we still lost."
Grizzlies' head coach Lionel Hollins pointed out that Iverson has missed a lot of time with this team and for now, like it or not, Iverson is going to play with the second unit.
"He hasn't even been with the team until just a couple of days ago," Hollins said. "He's going to come off the bench. He hasn't played all preseason, hasn't played the three regular-season games (leading up to Sacramento). He only practiced three days in training camp before he got hurt so there's no way I would trot him out there in a starting role."
"As the season develops, roles develop," Hollins said. "Sometimes roles get defined that you have to be willing to accept. We didn't expect A..I. to miss eight preseason games and three regular-season games, either. So we'll play it by ear and see what happens. Allen can score and his instincts will take over. Right now, he'll be great with the second unit."
The 1-3 Grizzlies head to Golden State for a matchup with the Warriors on Wednesday then travel to LA for a weekend matchup with the Lakers on Friday and Clippers on Saturday.
Byron On The Clock? The New Orleans Hornets (1-3 on the season so far) had big dreams this season – a home court playoff berth and a return to the national stage as a power team in the Western Conference - and after a week of play the Hornets are nowhere close to where they want to be.
After dropping last night's game to the Knicks, the Hornets have some soul searching to do in trying to find a way to play some defense, and if things don't improve soon lame duck head coach Byron Scott - who is in the final year of his contract - could take the fall.
"We had a lot of momentum in the fourth, and then we couldn't get stops, " All-Star Chris Paul said to John Reid of The Times Picayune. "We played a pretty good game, but our biggest issue right now is that we can't stop anybody. I don't know what it is. We go over defense day in and day out at practice. We have to find a way to put it in during games."
"We just have to find a way to get better defensively. Every time the Knicks worked for a basket, they got it. We knew coming into the game that these guys play five guys around the 3-point line and they have a lot of great shooters. So we were prepared, but at the end of the day, we have to stop the guys who are in front of us."
For his part Coach Scott believes that his team is struggling to find their groove on the road and the situation could turn around.
"We got to get used to winning on the road," Hornets Coach Byron Scott said. "I don't know if we have the confidence now. We had a nice lead going into the fourth, and we gave up the points. Instead of tightening up on the defensive end, it seemed like we loosened up and they pretty much got everything they wanted."
The big knock on Byron Scott is his reluctance to play younger players; so far on the season Scott has barely used his prized rookies Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton. Collison has logged exactly 3 minutes on the season for one point, while Thornton has yet to log a single minute.
Both were monster contributors in the pre-season; however Coach Scott says he is not pleased with either player's grasp of the defense, but based on last night's fourth quarter collapse it does not seem the veterans have much of a handle on it themselves.
The Hornets head home to host the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday and the Toronto Raptors on Friday.
The Hornets desperately need a win or things in the Big Easy could sour quickly, especially for Byron Scott.
Manu's Public Service Announcement: Spurs' guard Manu Ginobili, who has been dubbed Batman after his Halloween night heroics of smacking a bat out of the air after it delayed last Saturdays' game in San Antonio, has taken some heat from animal rights activists, but also had to get a round of rabies shots to boot.
"Just wanted to give you guys an update on the bat situation," Ginobili explained on his facebook page. "As many of you already know, it wasn't a great idea. Not only for the fact that bats are great part of the ecosystem, but also, because some carry rabies, which is an incurable disease. That's why I had to get vaccinated today [and it wasn't just one shot!].
"Only 0.5 percent to 3 percent of the bat populations carry the disease, but If you can't find the animal, it's not recommended to take any risks, it can kill you!" Ginobili wrote. "Since after the incident, the usher took it outside and the bat flew away [not lying!], there was no way of knowing if he was infected or not, so I had to do the safe thing.
"Finally, please, don't do it at home or anywhere, avoid contact with bats, skunks, raccoons, rats and animals like that."
A Fluid Situation: The Minnesota Timberwolves waited until the 11th hour before announcing their decision to pick up contract options on second year stud Kevin Love and third year player Corey Brewer. The Wolves opted to not pick up the option on Oleksiy Pecherov, but made it clear they would entertain retaining him in July.
Timberwolves' president David Kahn said he wanted to give all three situations a long look before deciding to act, and said while the options do give the players in question some security for next season it would not stop him from making deals, something Kahn and the Wolves have been extremely active in doing this off-season.
"I don't want this to be some sort of signal that we will trade Corey, because I don't believe that, but I do believe this is a trader's league right now," Kahn said to Ray Richardson and John Shipley of the Pioneer Press. "And I believe as we demonstrated this summer, you can move players if need be. So I don't look at this decision today on Nov. 3 as saying, 'This is the cap number we'll have next summer.'"
The Timberwolves are currently sitting on $35.07 million in salary commitments for next season, giving them anywhere between $15 and $20 million under the salary cap next July depending on where the salary cap gets set for next season.
"I believe there are all kinds of possibilities that can occur with this team, particularly when you frame it from the standpoint that Kurt and I are still ... have a lot of evaluation and learning to do about this team."
NBA Chats : There is a full slate of chats today starting with Alex Raskin at 10am. Alex covers the Knicks and the Nets for HOOPSWORLD. Luke Byrnes brings up the afternoon chat at 1pm EST. Luke covers the Western Conference of the NBA and college basketball. Senior NBA Writer Eric Pincus will host his weekly NBA chat at 4pm EST. Eric covers the Clippers and the Lakers for HOOPSWORLD. All three chats fill up fast so get your questions in early. You can always find the next upcoming chat here: Upcoming HOOPSWORLD Chats.
