Notes from TNT’s Coverage of the NBA – Thursday, March 10, 2011
TNT’s NBA coverage continues with a special Tuesday night doubleheader on March 22 at 8 p.m. ET featuring the Chicago Bulls @ Atlanta Hawks followed by the
Phoenix Suns @ Los Angeles Lakers
Coverage for the 2011 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship begins on Tuesday, March 15 and Wednesday, March 16 with the FIRST FOUR on truTV. For the first time in the tournament’s 73-year history, fans will be able to watch all of the games live in their entirety across four national television networks: CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV.
***VIDEO CLIP OF THE DAY***
Charles Barkley has a Message for the Miami Heat
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TNT NBA Tip-off presented by AutoTrader.com
Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith
Barkley has a message for the Miami Heat: “Listen, I like Dwyane (Wade) a lot and I like LeBron (James) a lot. They are really starting to get on my last damn nerve. I’ve heard Dwyane say it twice and I’ve heard LeBron say it twice, that America is happy now that the Miami Heat are losing. Dwyane, let me break it to you, you know I love you, but nobody cares about the Miami Heat. The only people who hate the Miami Heat are the Cleveland fans. No one else cares about you. We just want you to play better, stop whining, stop sitting at every press conference like someone killed the family pet. It’s annoying. You guys came out there jumping on stage like idiots, said, ‘we are going to win five championships.’ You brought all this stuff on yourself. So don’t get on TV and act like the world owes you anything. You guys had your parade, you guys said that. Nobody said, ‘come on stage and dance around.’ Nobody said, ‘you’re going to win five championships,’ you guys did. So quit whining and bitching like a little girl.”
Barkley on who should be the Heat’s closer: “I will make one basketball suggestion. I think the ball should be in Dwyane Wade’s hands when the game gets on the line. He’s a proven closer, it’s his city and it’s his team. I love LeBron and I respect LeBron, but Dwyane Wade has got to be the closer.”
Smith on why Heat forward LeBron James should be the team’s closer: “I don’t think that the ball should be in Dwyane Wade’s hands at the end of the game. I think that LeBron James has an advantage 100% of the time, Dwyane Wade has an advantage 90% of the time.”
Barkley on the Heat’s recent struggles: “(The Heat) have got basketball issues. They have played together long enough to have it together. They’ve got two great players in Dwyane (Wade) and LeBron (James) and (Chris) Bosh is a good player, but they are all jump shooters. They don’t get any easy baskets and their half-court offense stinks.”
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Game 1: Los Angeles Lakers (88) @ Miami Heat (94)
Announcers: Marv Albert and Mike Fratello with Craig Sager reporting
Fratello on his opinion that Miami Heat GM Pat Riley does not want to coach the Heat: “I don’t think Pat Riley wants to coach this team. I think he understands that it’s a very difficult job. He’s got a lot of faith and confidence in (current head coach) Erik Spoelstra. However, when an owner comes down and says, ‘I want you to coach this team,’ that’s a different story all together. If an owner tells you, ‘we need to do something differently,’ Pat Riley may have a very difficult decision. I honestly feel he does not want to take this team.”
Lakers guard Kobe Bryant on his opinion about Heat players crying after a loss: “I didn’t have (an opinion), one way or another.”
Sager: “Could you imagine crying after a regular season game?”
Bryant: “Personally, no, but everyone reacts to situations differently. I think that people kind of made a bigger deal out of it than what it was. But it is what it is.”
Fratello on Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra trying to express how much his players care when he said that some were crying after a loss: “If Erik Spoelstra could have taken the statement back he probably would have. He was trying to tell people that this team really cares; they do care about the fact that they lost five games in a row. At that point he may have said the wrong thing that he wishes he could take back. He’s not looking for sympathy. He’s all about his team. He was trying to defend his players and make people understand that this isn’t a group that is just shrugging off the loss of another game. They really do care and some guys teared up on this inside. That’s a good thing if you’re coaching if guys care that much.”
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Halftime
Johnson, Barkley and Smith
Barkley on Heat forward Chris Bosh needing to stop complaining: “Chris Bosh needs to quit whining. Come on, he is not a post-up player like that. Chris Bosh is really a small forward playing power forward. He just needs to get some bigger guys. Every time the Lakers’ big guys get the ball they score down there. It’s an easy one and move and get to the basket. I like Chris Bosh, good player, nice kid, but this notion that they can just get him the ball…how did that work out in Toronto?”
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Fratello on the skills of Lakers forward Pau Gasol: “Pau Gasol is such a skilled big man, we’ve seen him in the low post with his back to the basket, we’ve seen him shoot 18-foot jump shots, we’ve seen him face up and go by his defender.”
TNT’s Craig Sager interviewed Heat guard Dwyane Wade after the Heat defeated the Lakers.
Wade on the Heat breaking their five-game losing streak: “Like we said, what better game than this game to get back on track? We had to fight it out, and this time we did the plays at the end to help us win the game. It feels good, the way you lose, to come back and win the same way.”
Wade on his game plan against the Lakers: “Just to be aggressive. They put the ball in my hand, I didn’t want to settle for jump shots, I wanted to take it to the basket. I’m a pretty good finisher around the basket. I just wanted to win today, so I was going strong to the basket, and I got some things to go.”
Wade on guarding Lakers guard Kobe Bryant: “I was kind of down on myself early in the game, I felt like I let Kobe off the hook by going on the screens and him getting in his comfort zone early. I think he hit his first five shots, I tried to make it tough on him, he’s a great player. I tried to contest every shot, he hit two tough threes, but I’ll take those because they were tough.”
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Game 2: New York Knicks (109) @ Dallas Mavericks (127)
Announcers: Kevin Harlan and Kevin McHale with Cheryl Miller reporting
McHale on Mavericks center Tyson Chandler: “(Tyson Chandler) brings something to this team that they didn’t have before, a grittiness, a toughness, a competitiveness. You’ve already seen him barking at a few players, he’s not afraid to throw an elbow here and there. It’s all good for the Dallas Mavericks.”
McHale on the unselfishness of the Mavericks: “Nobody in Dallas is worried about their own numbers, they are only worried about one number and that’s having more points than the other team at the end of the game.”
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Halftime
Johnson, Barkley and Smith
Barkley on this being the final match-up of the season between the Lakers and Heat: “This is the last time that the Miami Heat are going to see Kobe Bryant. The Heat are not going to win the East.”
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McHale on players needing to complement each other in order for there to be chemistry: “If two guys don’t complement each other, they can play together for 10 years and there will be no chemistry. I think you will see nice chemistry between Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony. Stoudemire can catch and shoot, Anthony can catch and shoot, Carmelo can handle the ball, pick-and-roll. Their skill sets complement each other. I think that there will be good chemistry between Carmelo and Amar’e Stoudemire.”
McHale on the Knicks’ defense: “I think the Knicks are going to get better defensively as they go and you get Chauncey Billups back in the line-up. They are going to understand how important it is to play defense and give a little more toughness on the defensive end. Is their defense good enough to win a playoff series? I don’t know. If they win a playoff series it will be with their offense, they’ll outscore you. They will get better defensively. How much better? I don’t know, but it’s got to be better than tonight.”
McHale on a potential playoff match-up between the Heat and Knicks: “That would be a fun, fun series to watch. That would be an interesting series to watch. New York would give Miami all they wanted and maybe even a little more.”
TNT’s Cheryl Miller interviewed Mavericks guard Jason Terry after the Mavericks defeated the Knicks.
Terry on whether giving up leads to teams sends the wrong message: “No question, that has been our fight that we’ve been fighting all year long. Getting big leads and letting teams come back. That’s something we’re going to have to get over to go where we want to be and that’s in the championship.”
Terry on the depth of the Mavericks: “This is the deepest team that I’ve been on in seven years in Dallas. We pride ourselves in our bench. We say we’ve got the best bench in basketball and tonight we proved it.”
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Inside the NBA presented by Hyundai
Johnson, Barkley and Smith
Barkley on the Knicks: “(The Knicks) don’t play any defense. They’ve got two dynamic offensive players (Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire) but they gave up 127 points (to the Mavericks). They are not going to beat the Boston Celtics and they are not going to beat Miami (Heat), I guarantee you that.
Johnson: “Would (Knicks vs. Heat) be an interesting series?”
Barkley: “No it won’t be but it would be fun because you get to go to New York and Miami.”
Barkley on being annoyed by the Heat: “It’s annoying that they have to do all of their interviews unlike most NBA teams in the locker room like Kobe (Bryant) did. Getting up there and having a press conference after every game, every loss and they talk about how they have to figure this thing out. The season has less than 20 games (left). They’ve got basketball issues. I really like Dwyane (Wade) a lot and I really like LeBron (James) but this team is annoying. Phil Jackson said it; they have an ‘unlikeability’ about them.”
Smith on the Heat talking too much: “Sometimes when someone passes you something and you’re not that hungry, you say, ‘no thank you.’ Sometimes you have to look at a microphone and just say, ‘no thank you.’ Because you have it doesn’t mean that you have to use it. (The Heat) take advantage of the microphone. The poor microphone is being misused and it doesn’t have the ability to say no. So they overdo it. All you have to do is say, ‘we played great offense and defense.’ Most players aren’t (talking about) man-hugs and crying.”
Barkley: “(Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said), ‘We don’t want to hear the noise.’”
Smith: “They created that noise.”
Barkley on the Denver Nuggets being tough to beat: “(The Nuggets) have a nice squad. They are like the Mavericks. They don’t have a closer like Dirk (Nowitzki) or Jason Terry but they are two-deep at every position. They are going to be tough to beat.”
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