The more the ball moves, the harder it is for the defense to rotate

Article in the Charlotte Observer on how Boris Diaw's passing is rubbing off on his teammates. In a “me-first” league, Diaw is a “you-first” player. He will pass up a relatively open 15-footer to find a teammate with a no-look hook pass for a layup. “We had 32 assists out of 44 baskets made,” Diaw said. “That's really good.”

Said Coach Larry Brown of Diaw: “He can play every position. He thinks pass-first. He sees things you can't teach. … He hasn't seen a pass he doesn't like. And it's gotten contagious with all those guys.”

Said Diaw: “We had a couple of plays tonight where we had four passes – just swinging the ball. It was like ‘The (defensive) help is coming, the help is coming,' but at some point it just can't come anymore. And then somebody is wide open for a 3 or a layup. That would be it for me.”

For the Boston Celtics, they know that an inability to 'pop the ball around' cost them a game at Milwaukee recently:

“I talked about that at halftime (Sunday) because it was evident just watching Milwaukee,” Ray Allen said. “They moved the ball and didn’t care who got the shot, and it forced our defense to shift a lot. When we pass the ball, we get good shots and we make the defense work. At halftime, we had more turnovers than assists, and I sat in the locker room and said, ‘Fellas, this is our negative trait when we lose games. We have more turnovers than we have assists.’ When we have 25-30 assists, that’s when we win games.

Bell, Diaw bringing winning attitude to Bobcats

Saw a good article on nba.com about newly accquired Charlotte Bobcats Raja Bell and Boris Diaw. Both players came from the Phoenix Suns a couple of weeks ago. They have brought experience in big time situations to the young Bobcats.

Bell and Diaw have started all seven games since arriving in Charlotte. The Bobcats lost the first two games with the new additions, but have gone 4-1 since, showing improvement on both sides of the ball.

In the 23 games before Bell and Diaw arrived, the Bobcats scored 103.5 points per 100 possessions and allowed 108.2. In the seven games since, they've scored 107.4 points per 100 possessions and allowed 101.1.

"I don't know that any of us that came over can really take credit for that," Bell says modestly, even though he's clearly an upgrade over Richardson on the defensive end. "What we did realize when we got here was that this team plays hard every night. They're in a lot of ball games and they always give themselves the chance to win. If you're doing that, you're busting your butt every night and you don't have a defeated attitude, some good things can happen."

"Our next step is expecting to win," Bell concluded. "Good teams know the teams that they're supposed to beat. And against everyone else, they battle their butt off and try to get a win. We have to become a team like that, where we walk into a building and we know that we're going to take care of business."