Garnett Suspended, Okur To Miss the Rest of the Playoffs

Stephen Jackson will have an MRI on Monday, but he’s sure he will play on Wednesday in the second game of the series. Asked if there was any chance he wouldn’t he replied forcefully. “Not a chance in hell — no way,” Jackson said. - Orlando Sentinel Blog

Howard shot six free throws and made only one. Even when they weren’t fouling Howard, they used small jabs to annoy him. While his offense struggled, when he played, his defense reigned. Howard blocked a franchise record eight shots by halftime and finished the game with nine blocks, which tied his career playoff high. But Howard’s foul trouble limited him to only 27:49 of playing time. - Orlando Sentinel Blog

If the Cavaliers win the NBA title, expect them to try to re-sign almost the entire team. If they don't win a title and LeBron James leaves, there will be wholesale changes. In that scenario, they probably wouldn't re-sign Shaquille O'Neal or Zydrunas Ilgauskas. - News Herald

Michael Redd suffered an awful break, too. But Redd isn't here, and hasn't been around much since blowing out his knee for a second time very early in the season. Redd also won't be in Milwaukee for the playoffs, general manager John Hammond said. That makes Redd, one of the franchise's longest-tenured players who is being paid $17 million this season and a player-option $18.3 million the next, quite conspicuous by his continued absence now that postseason has begun. - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Not at all," Kevin Garnett said calmly when asked yesterday if he regretted his actions. "I would hope if I was hurt or if I was down in that position someone would at least give me some space to sort of recover or to gather myself. That's the only thing I was asking for." Richardson, one of Miami's more emotional players, also shrugged off the idea of regrets. "Me?" he said. "I didn't do anything regretful. I didn't throw any punches or swing on anybody." - Philadelphia Daily News

The NBA announced last night that Kevin Garnett, whose minutes the Celtics limited all season, preserving him for the playoffs, would be suspended for tomorrow’s Game 2 of the first-round series against the Heat. Garnett escalated an incident late in Game 1 Saturday after teammate Paul Pierce collapsed near Miami’s bench holding his right shoulder, with Heat forward Quentin Richardson later hovering over him. - Boston Globe

Chicago’s Joakim Noah, who said Garnett was once his favorite player, yesterday called him a “dirty player.’’ “He’s always swinging elbows,’’ said Noah. “I’m hurting right now because of an elbow he threw. It’s unbelievable. He’s a dirty player. It’s one thing to be competitive and compete. But don’t be a dirty player. “He knows what he’s doing. It’s messed up. It’s wrong. It’s not right. And then after that to say . . . whatever, I shouldn’t even be talking about this stuff. It’s crazy.’’ - Boston Globe

Quentin Richardson had some choice words for Pierce and Garnett after the game, calling them “actresses’’ and implying that Pierce was faking his injury to get some rest. He also added that the duo’s persona and attitude off the court is dramatically different than during a game, with officials on hand to prevent actual fisticuffs. He added yesterday, “I just get surprised by people’s actions when I know them better than that, they’re not those characters they portray, they’re not who they say they are, Garnett and Pierce, they’re good basketball players and that’s about it.’’ - Boston Globe



NBA commissioner David Stern says the league is projecting the salary cap to be higher than expected at $56.1 million, though the actual number won't be determined until early July. That doesn't mean the Pistons can go on a shopping spree as they are projected to be a little over that figure in salary commitments at $58 million-$60 million when including draft picks and the salary-cap hold of restricted free agent Will Bynum at just under $1 million. - Detroit Free Press

The Spurs unveiled their "foul Erick Dampier" strategy late in the third quarter, with Roger Mason Jr. putting a couple of intentional fouls on the Mavericks' center. With 3:16 to go, 2:45 left and finally 2:17 showing in the third, Dampier was intentionally put on the line. He made four of the six shots. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich Popovich schooled under Don Nelson, who is a pioneer of the intentional foul and a strong believer in the benefits of such strategies as Hack-a-Shaq. - Dallas Morning News

"I've been guarding the best players through my career," Ron Artest said. "It's not like something new. When I first got into the league, it was Allan Houston, [Latrell] Sprewell. Then it was J.R. Rider. Of course the Great Black Mamba [Bryant], it was LeBron [James], it was [Paul] Pierce. There's more coming. There's Durant and there's going to be some more coming because I got a good five years left in these defensive legs." - NY Daily News

Bynum: "I was a little bit surprised at how well I played," he said. "I was definitely struggling in the first half. I had my hands on my knees a little bit out there. The conditioning....I think it's gonna get better. The coaches challenged me to alter as many shots, stop them from getting so many layups, get it off the boards and outlet it." Bynum had shown his form during the last couple of days of practice. "He wasn't compensating today," Bryant said. "He wasn't favoring one side or the other. He was sprinting, jumping. He wasn't thinking about it or second-guessing. He was just exploding to the basket and not worrying about what might happen." - Orange County Register

It took a pair of wily old vets and two second-year players for the Trail Blazers to steal Game 1 from the Phoenix Suns, 105-100 Sunday. Phoenix was red hot since the All-Star break, going 23-6 after a 108-101 loss to Portland prior to the break. Andre Miller led the way for Portland with 31 points, coming off a combination of drives, free throws (10-10), and even a timely three-pointer in which Miller never even left his feet. Marcus Camby added 17 rebounds and three blocks, including a 12 boards in the first half alone. - Oregonian Blog

Steve Nash called the Suns offense "predictable." Maybe this outcome should have been predictable. That was Stoudemire's lowest scoring game in ones that he played 30 minutes or more since they played, guess who, Portland. That was the Suns' worst field goal shooting as a team (41.8 percent) since they played, guess who, Portland (38.8 percent on March 21). The Blazers are 7-9 against the rest of the league this season without Brandon Roy but 2-0 against, guess who, Phoenix. - Arizona Republic Blog