Basketball from a fans perspective

Trivia
An acquaintance posed the question to me; “I wonder if the Warriors can break the all-time playoff win streak too.”  I informed him I had no idea who held the streak but would search for an answer. The Lakers and Pistons had consecutive winning streaks over two seasons.

Lakers won 13 in a row June 1988-June 1989
Pistons won 12 in a row May 1989-May 1990
Spurs 12 in a row May 1999-June 1999
Lakers 12 in a row June 2000-June 2001
The Nets and Spurs each won 10 consecutive games

Pearl
Dwayne ‘Pearl’ Washington was given the nickname because his game was similar to Earl Monroe. He may have been as much to credit for the rise of Big East basketball as many of the Hall of Fame coaches.  This Pearl left the Brownsville section of Brooklyn and headed north to play at Syracuse for Jim Boeheim.

Pearl would become an All-American at Syracuse and place his imprint on the school and the conference in the 1980’s.  Pearl wasn’t able to transfer his Syracuse skill to the NBA so his career was brief.  Last summer he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had surgery in the fall.  Pearl died this week at the young age of 52, R.I.P. Dwayne ‘Pearl’ Washington.

Would you take this job?
The Kings will conduct an interview with Mike Woodson to fill the head coaching position.  The former NBA player’s bio includes several stops as an assistant; he’s with the Clippers serving in the same role.  Woodson’s served as a head coach with the Hawks and the Knicks.  From the outside there are three or four NBA franchises that appear to be run in a chaotic manner.  The Kings have got to fit someplace in that grouping of teams.

Wolves are howling
The Wolves got their man, former Bulls Coach Tom Thibodeau finalized a 5-year deal.  Thibodeau will wear “two hats’ serving as president of basketball operations and coach of the Wolves.  He will teach this young team how to play tough hard-nosed defense.  The only lesson for this coach is to reflect on his Bulls experience and limit starter minutes and effectively use the bench one of the complaints voiced by a number of Bulls fans.

Funny
In connection with the above story the NBA pages on ESPN.com and CBSSports.com had similar headlines.  After both wrote the Wolves hired Thibs they finished the sentence by saying; “Lakers missed out.”  Exactly what did the Lakers miss we might ask?  We have no idea if the Lakers reached out to the coach they claim to be evaluating Byron Scott.  The Laker brain-trust (I use the term very loosely) is operating in stealth mode at the present.

"Winning is more related to good defense than good offense"-Dr. Jack Ramsey