Would someone from Toyota please tell the Cavaliers and Lakers to take their feet off the accelerator?
As the irregular season winding down, we hold these truths to be self-evident:
1–Ain’t nobody gonna catch Cleveland in the East.
2–Ain’t nobody gonna catch the Lakers in the West.
3–Ain’t no way the Purple People Eaters are gonna catch LeBron James and the Ohio Players for the NBA’s best record — maybe.
That written, Cleveland and Los Angeles continue to gun it on yellow. The 57-15 Cavaliers have reeled off eight consecutive victories, while the 53-18 Lakers have copped their last seven.
To insinuate the Cavaliers have clamped down is an understatement. They’ve held 11 of their last dozen opponents under triple figures despite being devoid of a standard engine block center.
There’s a lot to indicate the team is better off–more supple, slippery and spread out–without freshly re-signed Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Shaquille O’Neal.
Alternatively, as audacious as 6-foot-10, 230-pound Anderson Varejao is when confronting players his own size (“He’s the league’s best defensive power forward,” insists many a talent scout), Dwight Howard manhandles him. Ilgauskas, too.
Thus, the trade for The Big Equalizer, someone a bit more bulky and belligerent for Howard to Shaq up with should we get treated to a Cavaliers-Magic playoff rematch.
Then there are the Hollywood Hotties, who dismembered the Spurs 92-83 when it counted Wednesday night. When’s the last time Lamar Odom, or any Laker, for that matter, hoisted more field-goal attempts (8-18, 19 points vs. 11-16, 24) than the jump-shooting Kobe Bryant?
You’re on your own on that one.
Kobe, by the way, did not visit the free-throw line a single time against the Spurs. When’s the last time that happened?
Got you covered here.
Oddly enough, in the Lakers’ previous game against the Wizards, Bryant was 10-17 from the field in 40 minutes, yet never sniffed the welfare line.
Just one other time this season has that occurred, Jan. 13 (5-11; 35) against the Mavericks.
For whatever it’s worth-less, in this case, the Lakers won all three of those games.
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A few Sundays ago, as the now 8-63 Nets inexorably pushed toward surpassing the 1972-73 Sixers as the league’s all-time losers, colleague Fred Kerber reached out to Kevin Loughery in Atlanta and got his thoughts about coaching that ill-equipped outfit and its modern, New Jersey version.
Loughery finished that season 5-26. Roy Rubin, who coached Columbus High School and LIU, before a remarkably brief pro fling, began it 4-47. Yesterday, I spoke by phone to Marsha Rubin, his wife of 31 years, at the couple’s Miami Beach home, and got her husband’s thoughts on that year and the record.
Three years ago, Roy underwent heart surgery. He didn’t leave ICU for a month and spent another four weeks in the hospital after that. Something had gone terribly wrong on that table — lack of oxygen to the brain, anesthetized too long or he suffered a stroke — and his brain was damaged.
Though Roy understands everything going on around him, and can walk (with a cane; bad knee), shower and shave by himself, he’s unable to express himself verbally or on paper.
“He gets angry and agitated,” Marsha said. “The doctor says it’s worse than having Alzheimer’s because Roy knows the frustration he’s experiencing.
“But he looks awfully good for someone 84,” she added. “You should see him. He’ll know who you are, but it’s a slow process to figure it out. Hopefully his condition doesn’t get worse”
I had been trying to track down Rubin in Florida for months. A friend of theirs finally got me their unlisted number, and I was told Marsha would be expecting my call. When I heard the story, I tried to apologize for invading their privacy. Marsha cut me off.
“I know you want to talk about the record,” she said. “We’ve been following their season like everyone else. And we don’t want them to break it.”
That somewhat surprised me. On the other hand, it seems everyone –especially team MVP Fred Carter — who’s associated with the ’38s’, as they were branded, feels the same way.
“The record keeps Roy’s name afloat,” Marsha said. “People who don’t know better think the bad record was his fault, but it had nothing to do with him a coach. That’s all b.s. We all know you’ve got to have decent players to win, and the owner (Irv Kosloff) refused to spend any on talent. It was as simple as that.”