Calm in the face of a storm

Teammates and coaches have raved recently about the composure and poise that Carson Palmer has shown while the Bengals have won 3 straight comeback games with Palmer leading the game winning drive on all three occasions. Palmer is showing his teammates the face they need to see in adverse situations.

Said coach Marvin Lewis two weeks ago after a big home win against Pittsburgh:

"We've got a quarterback who's comfortable at those points in the game. He's got a calm about him."

Here is what WR Chad Ocho Cinco had to say after a comeback last week against Cleveland:

"The whole thing keeping me going is No. 9. He's so confident in the huddle. The way he has been the last two weeks is unbelievable. Especially the situations we've been in.

After the comeback win today over Baltimore, Ocho Cinco said the same thing:

"That was Carson in the huddle, being very confident, being very sound, keeping everybody calm. When he talks the way he does in that huddle, with that confidence and that swagger like that, there's no doubt that we're going to go down and score."

Leadership Thoughts from NFL Quarterbacks

Really good article by Peter King of Sports Illustrated on NFL quarterbacks Ben Roethlisberger, Carson Palmer, Tony Romo, Aaron Rodgers, and Matt Ryan. King asked them various questions on what it takes to be the leader of the team. Here is a couple of quotes:

Question: What about toughness?

Ben Roethlisberger: I don't think toughness is when a quarterback says, "I'm going to run somebody over." Toughness is playing your worst game of your life but not backing down. You don't want to sit on the sideline. You want to stay in there and win. You down, down 21 points and the defense is getting through in every single way, and you throw three interceptions. Staying in that game, keeping your head up, trying to drive your team down the field when everything's going wrong- that's the kind of toughness I want in my quarterback.

Question: Think back to big moments or big games. How does your stomach feel?

Aaron Rodgers: When I was a point guard, I wanted the ball in the last two minutes. When I was a pitcher, I wanted the ball in the last inning. That's why in the big moments in games, I'm not tight. Those moments are why you play.

Roethlisberger: I love that. I want the ball. Our defense does some amazing things, but I want to have the ball, and that's the way I've always been playing sports.

Game 3: Orlando 108 Los Angeles 104

Good game last night as the Magic take Game 3 108-104. Orlando point guard Rafer Alston had a solid contribution, finishing with 20 points after struggling the first two games of the series. Here is a good story on how his coach and teammates lifted his spirits:

That was quite the story Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy told afterward about how he motivated Rafer Alston.

A short story, and a tall tale, too.

"I thought for two days about what to say to him, and I said, 'Play your game.' You can write that down. That's a quote. It took me two days to come up with that."

If you want to believe that was the only motivational thing Van Gundy said to his point guard, go ahead. But you'd be fooling yourself just as much as Van Gundy was trying to fool everyone who was watching and listening to his postgame news conference.

In reality, Van Gundy was all over Alston on the team bus after Game 2, and all over him again at practice Tuesday morning, repeatedly imploring Alston to be aggressive all over the court -- a litany of motivational talks that ESPN colleague Rachel Nichols first reported during her pregame "SportsCenter" report.

The microphone Van Gundy was wearing during Game 3 even picked him up telling Alston during the third quarter: "Solid and simple. Settle down, play your game."

That's exactly what Alston did, making his first five shots (including a 4-for-4 first quarter) and going 8-of-12 overall (1-of-1 from the 3-point line). Alston finished with 20 points to help lead the Magic past the Lakers 108-104, cutting Orlando's deficit in the NBA Finals to 2-1.

Van Gundy, who at Tuesday's shootaround had ruled out using Jameer Nelson as a starter during this series, wasn't the only one in Alston's ear.

Friends back home in New York were texting him the same thoughts: to play smart, to knock off the knack for knuckleheadedness he had displayed so consistently over the better part of all four rounds of the NBA playoffs.

Alston even told himself to stop jacking up 3-point shots as though he were Ray Allen, and his

Magic teammates -- even one guy who didn't play a minute Tuesday night and another who hasn't played in months -- got in on the motivational act.

"My teammates, everybody was telling me to be the guy that they brought in," Alston said. "I took that very seriously, and that's what I wanted to do.

"Rashard [Lewis], Dwight [Howard], Adonal [Foyle], and then tonight, it was surprising, even J.J. [Redick] pulled me aside and said, 'Come on now, play your game, get back to being Rafer.' And some of them wanted some Skip tonight," Alston added, referencing his New York playground nickname, Skip To My Lou. "I gave them a little of that. But these guys are the best. They encourage me, and they keep looking for me with the confidence that I can stick the shots."

What had been killing the Magic in this series was the play of their guards, both their inability to make shots and the difficulties they were having defending Kobe Bryant.

Alston's mojo had been thrown off-kilter in Game 1 when Van Gundy used Jameer Nelson for the entire second quarter in Nelson's first game in four months, and his confidence got beaten down further in Game 2 when Van Gundy went the final nine minutes of the fourth quarter with Hedo Turkoglu playing point forward and Redick and Courtney Lee getting the clutch-time minutes in the backcourt.

Alston was clearly frustrated and unhappy, and not only with himself.

"Stan and I have a great relationship," Alston said. "He's just trying to coach to win games, and I'm trying to play to help this team win games, help this team. Number one is don't take it personal. I think the first game, I just said it was a rhythm thing because I had never done that before, never played like that. Second game, I was able to find a flow but not hit shots. Tonight, I was able to make shots."

Instilling Confidence

From espn.com's Chris Sheridan:

Confidence is one of the things that define a champion.

And Rivers didn't just get his team to keep its poise when it needed some calming; he also provided the Celtics with some confidence afterward that they never saw coming.

Gathering the Celtics in the victorious locker room, he told them to take the day off and study their scouting books on Orlando.

The players were perplexed: "Scouting books? What scouting books?"

"The ones in your cars," Rivers replied.

Turns out Rivers had sent a team employee to each of the players' cars during the game to drop off a scouting book in each vehicle.

That is the bold kind of stuff that champions do, and the Celtics lived up to their pedigree in ending one of the most memorable playoff series we've seen in any round in NBA history.

A missed shot doesn't discourage a great shooter

Great game in Boston last night as the Celtics held off the Charlotte Bobcats 111-109 in double overtime. Ray Allen hit a couple of big shots for the Celtics; one to send the game into double overtime and another with 2.1 seconds left to win the game for Boston. It's not as though it was an easy night for Allen, who was struggling during the 3rd and 4th quarters with his shot.

Says Paul Pierce:

“That’s Ray,” Pierce said. “He’s a future Hall of Famer, and great players seem to find a way. When Ray misses a shot, it doesn’t discourage him. His confidence is through the roof regardless of if he’s missed two, three, four hundred shots in a row. He always feels like the next one’s going to go in.”

Here is what Allen said about his shooting in the 3rd and 4th quarters:

“For a second, everything was flat,” Allen said. “I just needed to back away from it and get my legs back under me. I just clean-slated it. Eddie (House) was like, ‘I don’t normally say nothing to you, but your shot . . . everything is flat.’ It was all in my legs, and I knew it once the ball left my fingertips. It’s a funky thing for me. If my shots are flat, it’s all in my legs.”

As Allen worked things out in his mind, House, the hero in the previous game, offered more encouragement.

“It just takes one,” House said. “And I told Ray. I told him. I said, ‘Don’t worry, man. You’re going to knock it down when we really need it.’ And he did exactly that. You know, shooters aren’t afraid to take the next shot. Even after he shot an airball, he came back and hit the shot. That’s just a Hall of Fame player right there.”

A coach on the floor

Four years ago, Jon Scheyer's mother called his high school coach one Saturday morning with some unusual news.

“Jon is going crazy,” coach Dave Weber said Laury Scheyer told him. “He's writing a letter to every kid on the team.”

Glenbrook North, Scheyer's high school, had completed its regular season the night before and was heading into the playoffs. Scheyer wanted to win a state title and was leaving nothing to chance.

He typed out individual letters to each teammate, instructing them on the roles they needed to play for the school to win a title.

He wanted Zach Kelley to rebound and score inside.
Scheyer's backcourt partner, Sean Wallis, needed to be a leader and hit shots. Scheyer told Malik Valliani he needed to become a good passer.

“His leadership is incredible,” Weber said. “You can talk about it, but it was so natural with him.”

That's why it seems so natural to Weber that Scheyer is thriving at Duke after being moved from shooting guard to the starting point guard spot Feb. 19. The point guard is supposed to be the leader and steadying force for a team, and Weber said that role fits Scheyer perfectly.

With Scheyer claiming most outstanding player honors at the ACC tournament, Duke seized the league title Sunday.

Before his move to the point, Scheyer was averaging 13.1 points a game. Since the move, he has averaged 20.2 points in nine games. Eight of those games have been wins for Duke (28-6), which will meet Binghamton (23-8) in a first-round NCAA tournament game at about 9:40 p.m. Thursday in Greensboro.

“I like having the ball in my hands,” Scheyer said Tuesday. “I feel like I'm not going to make bad decisions with the ball.”

Since Duke has moved Scheyer to point guard, Krzyzewski has seen that one of Scheyer's best assets is his ability to stay cool under defensive pressure.

Scheyer usually makes the smartest, most conservative play possible with the ball. That doesn't get him a ton of assists (he's averaged 1.9 the last nine games), but it helps Duke keep the ball.

“We really haven't done anything in the tournament, and many people don't expect us to (this year),” Scheyer said. “And for us, in high school it was the same thing. And the main thing I want to get across to my teammates is that we can win, and I believe we can.”

Getting out of a shooting slump

The Chicago Tribune has an article on the Illini basketball team going through a shooting slump. Here is a little from the article:

The Illini's three best perimeter shooters—McCamey, Trent Meacham and Alex Legion—are in shooting slumps of varying degrees the last five games, which includes road losses to two ranked Big Ten teams, Michigan State and Minnesota.

"There's a little hesitation, a little [lack of ] confidence," coach Bruce Weber said. "It's not cutting, getting to the ball, not being aggressive, that's important."If we can get Trent making some shots, get Alex on a roll here . . . we have to be tough to defend."

"Part of that is the offense, screening angles, cutting harder. The passer has to see open guys and attack more."

In the last five games, McCamey has made just 17 of 49 shots, 7 of 30 on threes. "Demetri really sets the tone," Weber said. "I'm not putting pressure on him, but the quick 'threes' [don't] help our team. If he gets in the paint, has seven assists and no turnovers and gets to the free-throw line, we're a much better team."

McCamey's solid 6 of 10 Jan. 24 in the victory over Wisconsin, in which he also made 11 of 12 free throws and scored 25 points, is part of the streak.

"Wisconsin was an effective game for him," Weber said. "He has a tendency to give in to the easier thing, and that's to put up a quick three."

Even though he starts, Meacham has taken only 24 shots in the last five games, and made only five, 3 of 30 on threes.

"I feel like I haven't hit a shot in a month," Meacham said. "Larry Bird said shooting is 80-90 percent mental. It's all about confidence. You have to forget about the last shot and think the next one is going in."

Steve Nash with Charlie Rose

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."

T-Wolves guard Randy Foye on Kevin Garnett

'One thing I miss about him is, he just let me go. That's why I was so successful my rookie year,' said Foye, who has sputtered in the season-plus since. 'No matter what happened, if I made a mistake, I'd look at him and he'd go [Foye balls up a fist and pumps it], like 'It's all right. Keep your head up.' It makes you feel better. It'd be like that for anyone in their work, if there was a legend who pumped you up. For a young player, that just boosted my confidence. Sometimes, in my rookie year, I felt like an All-Star out there because he let me do what I wanted and when I got it going, he let me go.' In games, Foye said, it was like having your big brother there to hold your coat in a schoolyard fight. 'There was a swagger,' he said. 'KG would come out and hit a shot, and it was like, 'Everybody, we're in this together. I'm patrolling it, but everybody who's got a white jersey on, we're in it together.''