| Tuesday, January 18
By Mitch Lawrence
Special to ESPN.com |
|
HOUSTON -- Sure, Shaquille O'Neal cuts an imposing figure. The Spurs
still do, inconsistent as they've been, because of Tim Duncan and David
Robinson. Utah is not going away, thanks to the ageless Karl Malone.
But you want to know the one player the Portland Trail Blazers truly
fear more than anyone else in the West?
|  | | The Blazers need Wallace -- but they need him on the court. |
Rasheed Wallace.
Right, the very same Rasheed Wallace who plays for the Blazers.
Wallace continues to run afoul of officials, earning ejections and
hurting his team. Unless he changes his act, the Blazers won't realize
their goal of getting out of the West and winning an NBA title.
Over this past weekend, Wallace completed a rare double, getting tossed from both of the Blazers' games, at Phoenix and in Dallas, on back-to-back nights. The Blazers managed to win against a hurting Phoenix team. But they lost a winnable game in Dallas the next night -- falling another critical game behind the Lakers in the loss column. If Wallace hadn't been ejected for arguing a foul call, the Blazers surely would have defeated the lowly Mavs.
Mike Dunleavy is at his wit's end trying to get through to his
immensely talented powderkeg, who continues to blow up at the wrong time. At this late stage -- Wallace is in his fifth season and knows what he can and can't get away with when he addresses officials -- you'd think he would know better.
"He's obviously hurting the team," Dunleavy said. "He's an important
piece to do what we do. He's got to be careful. He's got to be mindful
of what's going on. Now, other teams are now going to try to bait him
because they know they can get to him."
The trouble is, Wallace listens more to opponents than his own
teammates.
"We try to talk to him on the court, but it goes as far as he wants it
to," Scottie Pippen said. "He feels that he's not getting the calls, but he can't keep letting us down by getting eliminated from the game. It's a no-win situation. We lose our best scorer and best rebounder. Have I been able to get through to him? It doesn't look that way, does it? He's got to do it on his own."
Or else the Blazers will really be in trouble when they have to tangle
with Shaq and all the other big powers out West.
Rim Shots I
Phil Jackson is off his kick to get a power forward, but he's
got his eyes on his old Bull, Toni Kukoc, who is readily available.
Trouble is, the Bulls, looking to clear Kukoc's money off their cap for
future, want an attractive pick to aid their rebuilding. That means the
Lakers would have to ship Glen Rice to a third team, with that team having the necessary future No.1 to help the Bulls. Besides Kukoc, the Bulls also are shopping Hersey Hawkins. But nobody is interested in "The Hawk" at this point.
Since the Nets started their winning ways, they've backed off
shipping Kendall Gill to the Rockets, or anywhere else.
Did Tim
Duncan turn down an $86 million deal from the Spurs to keep his options open? Two teammates are whispering as much. Knowing that Duncan's best friend on the team -- maybe anywhere -- is Antonio Daniels, the Spurs are holding onto the backup guard, although they have no plans for him in the future. Knowing the Daniels-Duncan link, the Magic tried to trade for Daniels over the summer. But as untouchable as Duncan is, so is his buddy.
Who'd have thunk that the best rivalry going on now, with
genuine bad blood on both sides, features the Bucks and Raptors. A
better first-round playoff series you won't find.
Charles Barkley
isn't alone. Michael Finley thinks very little of Scottie Pippen, too. Pippen took some shots at Finley, whom the Mavs are pushing for an All-Star berth. "He's an All-Star caliber player, but who can't put up numbers for a team that is playing to outscore you, not playing to win?" Scottie said. "I wouldn't consider him an All-Star just because he's putting up numbers."
If Michael Jordan gets part ownership of the Wizards and GM
job, he's in for a tough road at the outset. Wizards are capped out the
next two seasons after this one.
"My advice to Michael is, have fun scouring the CBA for players," said
one Eastern Conference GM. "I hope he knows their cap situation."
God couldn't help that team.
Mitch Lawrence, who covers the NBA for the New York Daily News, writes a regular NBA column for ESPN.com. |  |
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