Give and Go

With four players moving down from NBA teams to play in the D-League, don't be surprised if Cleveland Cavaliers rookie forward Darnell Jackson doesn't make his way to Erie to suit up for the Erie BayHawks once he gets over his left wrist fracture injury.

This is another element of the D-League to look out for this year.
The San Antonio Spurs signed 2008 D-League rookie of the year Blake Ahearn, who is with the Dakota Wizards of the D-League.
See, an NBA team can call up anyone from any D-League team. They don't have to be affiliated with the D-League team to get a guy from a D-League team.

The D-League provided a short description of its head coaches. See what the league had to say about BayHawks coach John Treloar and others.

http://www.nba.com/dleague/news/coaches_081112.html

This is the first of many blog posting to cure your NBA fix and mine. Sometimes I'll just rant. Other times, just post some stories from around the league that interest me.
Today, just going to hit you with a little bit of both.

Let's get our NBA fix people.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have the league's longest winning streak going right now at seven victories in a row. Now five of those seven wins came against teams that don't have winning records right now, but the Cavaliers' last two victories against Denver and Utah were respectable ones.

The injury bug has taken a chunk out of the Erie BayHawks during training camp. Jackie Manuel and Brian Robinson didn’t practice Monday. Mike Cook couldn’t finish practice and Oliver Lafayette battled through foot pain in practice.

The injures are sure to factor into who gets cut when the BayHawks have to trim their roster from 17 to 12 on Thursday by 5 p.m. EST.

“It’s tough because you’re only allowed to carry 10 (players) and you don’t have an injured reserve list,” BayHawks coach John Treloar said. “You hate it for the guys, but for some of these guys, it could wind up being a factor in the process.”

Here's a look at a preview of the Erie BayHawks from the D-League web site. In their expansions season, the BayHawks will play in the Central Division.

www.nba.com/dleague/news/central_preview_081118.html

The BayHawks will play Central Division foe Fort Wayne in an exhibition game Friday at Grace College in Winona Lake, Ind. They also open the season against the Mad Ants in Fort Wayne on Nov. 28.

Had to take a minute to really think about this.

A day after the Erie BayHawks cut their training camp roster from 17 players to 11, let’s take a look at why coach John Treloar may have decided to cut the players he did.

Now after he made the cuts Thursday morning, I was beginning to ask him after practice why he cut each particular player. He didn’t really address it.

Treloar just chalked it up by saying they basically picked guys they thought could help them win and players that they had the best chance of developing for the NBA.

When Treloar gets his roster down to 10, we’ll take a look at each player and see how close they are to becoming NBA players. For now, let’s take a stab as to why the BayHawks released forward Wesley Fluellen, guards Vernon Hamilton, Xavier Whipple, Mike Cook, Quinton Day and power forward Brian Robinson.

The jury is still out on the Detroit Pistons trading away Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson. The Pistons will be up and down early on with Iverson.

They showed it in their loss to the defending world champions last night.

The Boston Celtics have put it on the Pistons twice since the trade with the latest coming in a 98-80 victory at Boston. In those games against the Celtics, Iverson has shot a combined 9-of-24 from the field, going 1-of-4 from 3-point range, in scoring 26 total points.

Losing to Boston doesn’t mean this is a failed experiment.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have sent down 7-foot center Steven Hill to their D-League affiliate, the Tulsa 66ers and the Boston Celtics have sent down forward Bill Walker to their D-League affiliate, the Utah Flash.

The question is when will the Cleveland Cavaliers send down power forward Darnell Jackson to their D-League affiliate, the Erie BayHawks.

See, when the Cavaliers put small forward Wally Szczerbiak on the inactive for a personal matter before they played at Detroit a couple of days ago, they activated Jackson, who was out with a wrist injury.

WPTA-TV out Fort Wayne, Ind., did a report on the BayHawks' preseason game against the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. The BayHawks lost, 94-75, Friday night in Winona Lake, Ind.

When looking at the highlights, notice the Mad Ants have two big men, Chris Hunter, who played at Michigan, and Coleman Collins, who played at Virginia Tech, doing work. They will be a handful once again when Erie faces them in the season opener Nov. 28 at Fort Wayne.

Here's the link to the report.

The News-Sentinel out of Fort Wayne covered the game as well. Here's the story.

Here's some other interesting stuff posted on the BayHawks earlier this month.

The first is from the Kentucky Sports Radio commenting on Erie's first-round pick, forward Erik Daniels.

Then there is this Web site called Ridiculous Upside. Here's their analysis of the D-League draft.

Since returning to Erie from their preseason loss against the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, the BayHawks have begun implementing their offense and defensive philosophies.

If it looks familiar to Cleveland Cavalier fans, it should.

It's been well publicized that BayHawks coach John Treloar was going to run similar offensive and defensive sets the Cavaliers use. So if they were to call up a player from the BayHawks to play for them, the Cavaliers know he would be familiar with their system.

I talked with Treloar last night after practice and he said they have put in some offensive sets the Cavaliers use.

As far as defense goes, we know Cleveland coach Mike Brown is one of the best at it. If the BayHawks can even come close to defending like Cleveland does, then that would be huge.

Rookie power forward Darnell Jackson saw his first action for the Cleveland Cavaliers during the regular season in their 119-101 win at New York against the Knicks tonight.

He had been out with a wrist injury, but was activated last week. Don't know how much he'll play in the immediate future for the Cavaliers, but he's healthy now, which is good news for the Erie BayHawks.

Cleveland has the option to send Jackson down to play for the BayHawks so he can get more playing time.

Here are few stories about the Austin Toros heading into their home game tonight against the Erie BayHawks. The game is scheduled to start at 8:30 EST.

Hairston's 33 pace Toros past past Tulsa

Toros fall to Flash on final shot in OT

Spurs assign Blake Ahearn to Austin

Also, I'm going to try to watch the BayHawks tonight through the D-League Web site.

Maybe I made a mistake last time. If anyone has success watching the games online, help us out would ya?

The live stream of the Erie BayHawks game is working. Check it out folks.

Don't know if ya'll caught this last night, but Kevin Love just threw one down in Vince Carter's mug. Now I know Carter has a higher vertical and is a better player, but the rookie of out UCLA just dropped the hammer on him on this one.

Now just for the record, Vince is one of the all-time greats at dunking on folks.

Just ask Alonzo Mourning.

Sweating. Teaching. Instructing.

Bryant Moore was doing his thing at the Erie BayHawks' practice on Monday.

An advance scout for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Moore stopped by Erie after being in Toronto to show the BayHawks how Cleveland plays defense.

We all know Cleveland has been one of the NBA's best defensive teams under head coach Mike Brown. The BayHawks are pretty sound defensively in their own right as they are only allowing 89.2 points a game in their first season in the D-League.

Teams are only shooting 43.8 percent from the field on them, but the BayHawks will improve on those defensive numbers if they take heed to Moore's instructions.

The Erie BayHawks haven't been fortunate enough to have either of their NBA affiliates - the Cleveland Cavaliers or Philadelphia 76ers - assign one of their players to suit up for them.

Other teams have, though.

The Austin Toros, Bakersfield Jam, Dakota Wizards, Tulsa 66ers and Utah Flash have each received players from their NBA affiliates.

Some have fared well. Others have not.

Take a look at the sweet seats Erie BayHawks majority owner Steve Demetriou has for the Cleveland Cavalier games. A season ticket holder, Demetriou is courtside right beside the Cavalier bench.

When this clip goes to the replay mode, the guy behind a dancing LeBron James with a blue tie and dark suit, that's Demetriou.

Sweeeeet.

Remember Vernon Hamilton? The name should ring a bell.

The Erie BayHawks drafted the point guard out of Clemson in the third round of the D-League draft and then proceeded to cut him last month before the season began.

When he got cut, the move was kind of surprising because Hamilton had just tried out for the Cleveland Cavaliers, an NBA affiliate of the BayHawks.

Well, yesterday, Fort Wayne announced that they had waived point guard Brian Morrison and acquired Hamilton.

Crazy right?

What's crazier is Hamilton's first game for Fort Wayne will be against the BayHawks on Saturday night in Erie.

See, D-League teams can make up to nine roster moves during the season. So you have to be pretty strategic when making a move.

So the Mad Ants obviously took some time to consider this. Fort Wayne is 2-3, but have lost three of its last four games after beating the BayHawks in the season opener.

We at least know Darnell Jackson knows how to get to Erie if the Cleveland Cavaliers ever decide to assign him to play for the Erie BayHawks.

Wearing a red Cincinnati Reds fitted cap, the rookie forward was at the BayHawks opener last night. He's really slimmed down from what I saw of him in the summer league. We talked for a minute before the game started.

He said the Cavaliers haven't talked to him about coming down to play for Erie anytime soon.

He likely won't at this point because Cleveland center Zydrunas Ilgauskas is expected to miss at least two games with an ankle injury he sustained against Philadelphia on Wednesday night. Jackson didn't play against the 76ers, who play at Cleveland tonight.

Jackson and I talked about other things too. Thank goodness the band stopped playing long enough so I could hear him.

Erie BayHawks guard Oliver Lafayette is back on the D-League's Prospect Watch.

Lafayette is not among the top 10 guards named, though. He's on what looks like the honorable mention list. I haven't seen the other guys play in person yet so I'll hold out judgment, but all I know is Lafayette can shoot with the best of them in any league including the NBA.

Here's a Q&A on Cleveland Cavaliers rookie Darnell Jackson. It's more like him talking about about a variety of subjects, but it's interesting stuff.

Wonder if he'll ever suit up for the BayHawks, though.

It's a long season, but with Cleveland center Zydrunas Ilgauskas being out with injury, who knows when Z will be back healthy.

He's an older guy who's had his share of injuries and even though the Cavaliers lost to the Atlanta Hawks without him last night, they may keep him out longer.

The Reno Bighorns are having a press conference Tuesday to discuss them signing Patrick Ewing Jr.

Yes, the same Patrick Ewing Jr. whose dad is a Hall of Famer with the same name who starred at Georgetown in college and with the New York Knicks in the NBA.

He played in Monday's game against the Utah. Ewing Jr. scored 15 points on 5-of-14 shooting, but the Bighorns lost to the Flash, 114-108.

Just for the record, Ewing Jr. was a freshman at Indiana when Erie BayHawks coach John Treloar was an associate head coach there. Treloar left there to become an assistant at LSU after the 2003-04 season and Ewing Jr. transferred to Georgetown after the 2004-05 season.

When the Dakota Wizards left Erie after beating the Erie BayHawks on Thursday night, they were scheduled to play at home Saturday against the Los Angeles D-Fenders.

Then mother nature took over.

The Wizards had trouble getting out of Cleveland and ended up not playing Saturday and had to have the game rescheduled.

Crazy huh? Here's the release.

LeBron James or Kobe Bryant?

Who's better?

Well, Kobe is older, wiser, plays more efficient and is more skilled but LeBron is bigger, stronger, faster and can do more with the ball than Bryant.

Kobe has three rings. LeBron has none, but Kobe played with Shaquille O'Neal when he won three straight NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers.

LeBron took a Cleveland Cavalier team that didn't nearly have the same talent that the Lakers did back then to the NBA Finals in 2007.

Those are just a few of the variables to consider, but what about Dwyane Wade?

He's leading the NBA in scoring this season and unlike LeBron, D-Wade has a ring with the Miami Heat that he won playing along side, uh, Shaq-a-licious.

Wonder how many rings LeBron could win with a dominant big man in the paint? No disrespect to Big Z in Cleveland, but Shaq changed how the game is played.

So considering what he's done under those circumstances, I'm going to say LeBron is the best right now, but I'd take Kobe or D-Wade over him.

Why?

The holiday season is over.

Basketball season isn't.

So it's time to get back to work. Oh by the way, I accomplished my five must-do things and even brought some lemon cake home.

I'll be working out tonight. Got to shed the extra pounds I put on.

Anyway, talked with Erie coach John Treloar today. I had to catch up on a few things.

The D-League Showcase is a chance for D-League players to display their talent and skills to a team representative from every NBA team this week. From Monday till Jan. 8, every D-League team will play two games in Orem, Utah, where the Utah Flash play, before NBA scouts, general managers and other team representatives.

So to preview it, the NBA did this article on the talent to look out for.

Good article, but it failed to mention one of the best players in the D-League - Erik Daniels of the Erie BayHawks.

He's fifth in the league in scoring (21 ppg.), eighth in rebounding (9.6) and tied for third in double doubles with eight on the season. The 6-foot, 8-inch Daniels is also shooting 38.3 percent from 3-point range.

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The Erie BayHawks (9-7) lost their first game ever in the D-League Showcase to a team that had only four wins entering the game.

The Tulsa 66ers (5-12) never trailed in beating the BayHawks, 94-85, on Tuesday evening at the McKay Events Center in Orem, Utah.

Erie forward Erik Daniels lead the BayHawks with 20 points, but he shot only 6-of-19 from the field. As a team, Erie only shot 34.4 percent from the field.

The BayHawks have now lost three of their last four games and they'll try to rebound against the Albuquerque Thunderbirds (4-10) on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the D-League Showcase.

The Thunderbirds have won their last two games, scoring a total of 231 points in those victories.

Before I even talk about the game, the crowd at this game was terrible. This was supposed to be part of the the D-League Showcase in Orem, Utah where the Utah Flash play.

How about having some faces show up at the game other than those NBA GMs, scouts and other representatives scouting D-League talent.

Anyway.

The BayHawks have now lost back-to-back games to teams that had only four wins entering the game. On Tuesday, they lost to Tulsa and tonight, Albuquerque (5-10) derailed the BayHawks, 96-95.

Oliver Lafayette lead the BayHawks (9-8) with 28 points on 8-of-16 shooting. He was 5-of-10 from 3-point range and the last one he hit got the BayHawks within one with a second left.

Ivan Harris added 16 while Erik Daniels and Jarvis Gunter had 12 and 11, respectively. Now they'll come home and have a chance to regroup when they take on Fort Wayne on Friday, but here is the concern the BayHawks must have.

They already are a small team to begin with. When they waived forward Taj McCullough and picked up guard Mike Cook, the BayHawks lost some size.

So now they're even smaller, which makes it imperative that they make shots because they're not a team that's going to pound the glass and get second shots.

That's why Coach John Treloar preaches defenses. Now can they turn it around? Sure, but when is the better question.

What ya'll think?

Ya'll know I'm part of the Stephen Curry fan club. Just watched Davidson's game against No. 2 Duke in Durham.

Of course Davidson lost, but Curry finished with 29 points. He got better as the game went on.

What was interesting about the game was ESPN switched commentators and had its pro crew of Mike Tirico, Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson do the college game while Dick Vitale is doing an NBA for the first time in over 20 years.

Van Gundy and Jackson were debating how well Curry will play in the NBA. Jackson thinks higher of Curry than Van Gundy, but this is what I think.

Here are a few stories on the Fort Wayne Mad Ants (5-10) heading into Friday's game at Tullio Arena against the BayHawks (9-8).

Sims helps Energy clip Mad Ants

Ants hoping to showcase NBA skills

Ants charge back

The Erie BayHawks have added some size to their roster by picking up Darian Townes, a 6-foot, 10-inch, 250-pound forward/center who finished his college career at Arkansas last season.

The BayHawks had to waive a player to get Townes so they parted ways with small forward Geary Claxton, who played at Penn State last season. Claxton was averaging 3.2 points and 3.3 rebounds for the BayHawks. He played in 15 games and was averaging 15 minutes a game.

The BayHawks now have seven roster moves left they can take.

Townes passed the physical this morning and was part of the team's morning shooting session. Since Townes hasn't practiced with the team yet, Erie coach John Treloar isn't sure he'll play him tonight against Fort Wayne.

How the BayHawks got Townes is a story in itself.

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With the recent roster moves the Erie BayHawks have made, I took a little time to discuss them with their coach, John Treloar, after they beat Fort Wayne, 103-94, Friday night.

Before the game, I talked with Treloar about acquiring 6-foot, 10-inch, 250-pound forward Darian Townes and did an earlier blog post - Adding size. The BayHawks announced the addition on Friday.

In order to add Townes, Treloar had to release a player. He chose to waive Geary Claxton, a 6-foot, 5-inch forward who finished his career at Penn State last season.

Claxton averaged 3.2 points and 3.3 rebounds per game in 15 games with the BayHawks. Here's what Treloar said about releasing Claxton.

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Claxton

Is this a case of the Boston Celtics just getting old all the sudden or are the Cleveland Cavaliers really that good?

Right now, I'm going to go with the latter.

On Friday night, the Cavaliers took it to the Celtics, 98-83, to improve to 19-0 and home and secure the top record in the NBA right now at 29-6.

You know LeBron James did his thing.

He dropped 38 on the Celtics, who have lost seven of their last nine games and their eighth straight game at Cleveland counting last season's playoffs.

The question I have is will Cleveland finish the year with the NBA's best record? Boston needed it last season to win it all and if Cleveland's going to do the same this season, having home court advantage in the playoffs would be huge for the Cavaliers.

So what ya'll think?

Has Boston, with having veterans Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce being the core of the team, applied for social security or is Cleveland just that much better than a team that started the season 27-2 and had people comparing them to the the Chicago Bulls team that won 72 games with Michael Jordan leading the way?

I, for one, was not one of those people just so ya'll know that.

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The Iowa Energy lost a second player to the NBA when the New Orleans Hornets called up forward Anthony Tolliver on Wednesday.

Now Tolliver only played three games with the Energy, but with Iowa coming to Erie for two games this weekend, not having him or center Courtney Sims will make them less formidable.

The Phoenix Suns called up Sims earlier this month.

The BayHawks have already beaten Iowa in their two games this season. They face each other Saturday and Sunday at Tullio Arena.

He's back.

Last year's D-League MVP, forward Kasib Powell, suited up for Sioux Falls on Thursday for the first time this season after going overseas to play in China.

Having played in the NBA with the Miami Heat last season, Powell took his game overseas, but has since returned the states looking to make another run at the NBA.

He's off to a good start.

With Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Danny Ferry watching, Powell scored 18 points on 8-of-16 shooting in Sioux Falls' 101-86 win against the Erie BayHawks at Tullio Arena in Erie.

Powell was 2-of-5 from 3-point range, had five rebounds, six assists, a blocked shot and zero turnovers in 30 minutes and 57 secconds.

Safe to say I had to talk to this guy after the game.

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The Iowa Energy will try to beat the Erie BayHawks for the first time this season in Saturday's 7 p.m. game at Tullio Arena. The Energy (12-6), who lead the Central Division, are 0-2 against the BayHawks (11-12).

The two teams also face each other Sunday at Tullio Arena.

Energy win after two overtimes

Ex-Drake star Leonard Houston on Iowa Energy team

Iowa's Courtney Sims called up to Phoenix Suns

New Orleans Hornets sign free-agent center Anthony Tolliver to 10-day contract

Stinson starring for Iowa Energy

This is what MVPs do.

LeBron James's game-winning jumper at the buzzer to beat Golden State, 106-105, Friday night is an example of why he's the leading MVP candidate.

I was just talking to a friend of mine the other day about why Michael Jordan was so special. Michael was a guy that would hit that jumper with the game on the line to win games at the horn for the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards.

People look at LeBron and see he's so big and figures he should go to the basket every time when the game is on the line.

I used to feel the same way and still do so to a great extent, but the young fella would grow old real quick if he just went to the rim every time because the defense is set to stop that.

I think a big thing when you look at this game winner, it was from the wing, not the top of the key. When he goes at the defense from the top of the key, the other four defenders can converge on him. When you go from the wing, at the most, two guys can help.

That helped the play, but LeBron still had to make the shot over 6-foot 10-inch center Ronny Turiaf and did so.

That's what MVPs do.

It was all in fun.

During Saturday's game between the Erie BayHawks and Iowa Energy at Tullio Arena, Durann Patterson and Kevin Jobczynski had courtside seats beside the Iowa bench.

So they were in position to talk a little bit to Iowa guard Curtis Stinson.

Boy, did they do some talking.

Patterson and Jobczynski were ragging on Stinson about everything from the way he was playing to the way his team was playing to the hairstyles his teammates were sporting.

The best part about it was Stinson was talking right back at them.

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Time waits for no man, but ya'll still got time to vote for you favorite D-League player to play in the Feb. 14 All-Star game in Phoenix.

Fans can vote through Jan. 31, which is Saturday and the All-Stars will be named Feb. 3. The game will be shown live on NBATV.

Now I'm not brain surgeon, but if Erik Daniels, who leads the D-League in double-doubles with 16, doesn't earn a spot in the All-Star game, something is wrong with the system.

The former Kentucky forward is averaging 20.6 points, 10 rebounds and shooting 36.9 percent from 3-point range, which is good for a guy that's 6 feet, 8 inches tall.

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What do James Worthy, Kirk Rambis, Buck Williams, Horace Grant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Ben Wallace all have in common?

They all wore goggles while playing in the NBA.

Erik Daniels may join the club on both fronts.

On Monday, the Erie BayHawks forward was planning to get an exam along with some of his teammates. After his individual workouts, Daniels told me straight up, "I can't see."

WHAT?

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With the Los Angeles Lakers coming to Cleveland to take on the Cavaliers on Sunday, we all know the MVP debate between LeBron James and Kobe Bryant will intensify.

Right now, to me, James is the leading candidate, but what do ya'll think?

Hard to say? Let me help.

Take a look at highlights from James, Bryant and Miami's Dwyane Wade from this season and let's talk about this. James and Bryant are clearly the front runners, but Wade is playing with a younger team and has the Heat breathing above water.

By the way, Kobe goes for a ridiculous 61 points against the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden so LeBron follows that monster performance up with triple double - 52 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds.

Can't tell me those two aren't competing against each other on this. Can't wait till Sunday.

LeBron

Kobe

D-Wade

The Cleveland Cavaliers are not ready to change history.

Ya'll remember LeBron James getting that epic triple-double in Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks last week.

52-10-11.

That's points, rebounds and assists.

Well, the NBA reviewed the tape and took away one of LeBron's rebounds, thus taking away the triple-double. Ben Wallace was credited for the rebound.

The Cleveland Cavaliers aren't ready to do that.

Before Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Lakers, I looked at the game notes and the Cavaliers still have James with 10 rebounds for that game on his bio.

Today, I'm at the Cavaliers practice facility to talk to the players and coaches and again, the stats haven't been changed for the Indiana game notes.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Is that David Stern calling the Cavaliers?

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Dunking.

Drop-step spin moves to the rim. Grown-man moves in the paint.

Knocking down the jump shot.

Darnell Jackson didn't disappoint.

The Erie BayHawks have been waiting all season for the Cleveland Cavaliers to send Jackson down to play for them. On Sunday, the Cavaliers decided to do so.

To be honest, I was excited, too.

I've seen this guy play and knew he would excite the Erie fans because he's big, can run, finish above the rim, plays with strength and power, yet has some finesse to his game.

The Cavaliers rookie forward displayed all those skills Monday in scoring 24 points to lead the BayHawks to a 101-89 win against the Utah Flash at Tullio Arena in Erie.

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Jackson in action for the BayHawks.

Here's a look at an interview Cleveland Cavaliers rookie forward Darnell Jackson did for www.cavs.com in regards to his one-game stint with the Erie BayHawks.

Jackson scored 24 points in leading Erie to an 102-89 win against the Utah Flash on Monday at Tullio Arena. He returned to the Cavaliers for Tuesday's game against Indiana.

By the way, check out LeBron James shooting jump shots in the background. Or better yet, check out those sweat pants. Somebody take a stab and describing those.

Wow.

That was crazy.

The way Cleveland lost Tuesday night's game at Indiana by a point, 96-95, is another reminder of why officials have one the toughest job in the world.

For those who didn't see the end of the game, Pacers guard T.J. Ford put Indiana up two with .08 seconds left in the game with a short jumper over Mo Williams.

We'll get back to that later.

The Phoenix Suns had no answer for Mo Williams.

The Cleveland Cavaliers point guard scored a career-high 44 points in Cleveland's 109-92 win against Phoenix on Wednesday night at Quicken Loans Arena.

The newly named All-Star had 29 in the first half.

Just ridiculous.

What makes it even more impressive is Williams had just come off a bad game in which he scored only 15 points on 7-of-18 shooting in Cleveland's 96-95 loss at Indiana on Tuesday.

Williams missed all five shots from 3-point range and T.J. Ford took him to school late in that game. He came back tonight and was 4-of-4 from 3-point range in the first half against the Suns.

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LeBron James will join the TNT crew as an analyst for tonight's Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam in which the NBA's best rookies take on the league's top second-year players.

James will join Kevin Harlan (play-by-play), Kenny Smith (analyst) and Craig Sager (reporter) in broadcasting the game. Somebody better make some elbow room at press row or James is going to crush poor Kenny and Kevin.

Anyway, after Cleveland beat up on Phoenix on Wednesday night, I asked James if he had done any prep work for the broadcast.

His response?

“I don’t ever prep man. I just wing it and I’ve been pretty successful doing that.”

OK. We'll see. Just remember this.

What looks easy never quite is.

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I'm sitting here watching the NBA All-Star Saturday night and LeBron James just said he's putting his name in next year's dunk contest.

Now he said it was a 'preliminary' entry, but TNT's Cheryl Miller put him on the spot and James said he's going to compete in the dunk contest.

A part of me is saying, well, it's for show, but another is saying the All-Star game is going to be in Dallas next year. His favorite NFL team is the Dallas Cowboys.

If it happens and he wins, he should give half his prize money to Kenny Smith, who basically has talked him into it.

Now we all know James has that commercial when he's with the LeBrons saying "I don't do that dunk contest stuff."

Next year, we hope he does it. By the way, Dwight Howard got robbed tonight.

Yo, D, what's up man? Haven't seen you in a while kid.

Been busy, man. Trying to make a living. What's good with you?

Oh you know me. I'm out here doing my thing, but yo, you recognize this dude?

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Uh? Not really. Is it Ludacris?

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Erie BayHawks forward Ivan Harris saw Greg Oden dominate the paint for Ohio State when the two helped the Buckeyes earn a spot in the 2007 NCAA national title game.

Nowadays, Harris often sees his former college teammate on the sidelines.

After missing all of last season after having microfracture surgery on his right knee for the Portland Trail Blazers, Oden will miss tonight's game against Memphis with a bone chip in his left knee.

"I didn't know he was injury prone like that," said Harris, who recalled Oden coming to the Buckeyes with a right wrist injury, but didn't remember Oden having any other injuries while playing at Ohio State. "It seems like every month, it's always something wrong."

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Harris and Oden at OSU

Erie BayHawks All-Star forward Erik Daniels returned to practice Thursday after missing Wednesday's practice with a stomach virus. He hadn't been in Erie since the D-League All-Star break.

During that time, Daniels competed in the H.O.R.S.E competition and played in the league's All-Star game in Phoenix. He later visited his family in Lexington, Ky.

With the BayHawks (16-16) returning to action Saturday at Sioux Falls (17-14), I sat down with Daniels after Thursday's practice to talk about his D-League All-Star weekend experience and more.

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Yo D, Shaq headed to Cleveland, boy. Shaq and LeBron James about to do the dang dang. Win that title baby.

Didn't happen dude.

WHAT! Why not. Could you imagine? The Diesel and LeBron playing together?

It would have been crazy, but it didn't go down. Now it appears Cleveland offered Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic for O'Neal.

That's not enough for the Diesel.

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I keep watching last week's NBA Slam Dunk contest and I keep asking myself, how does a player get three perfect scores and still lose the contest?

That's what happened to Orlando magic center Dwight Howard last week.

Now you've got to give 5-foot 9-inch Nate Robinson of the New York Knicks credit for the show he put on, but had Howard not dawned the Superman cap and Nate hadn't catapulted off his shoulders to dunk it when jumping over him, Nate would have had no chance of winning it.

Plus Howard didn't help himself by trying to take off from the free-throw line on his last dunk. He's a two-footed jumper. Couldn't figure that out, but back to my original point.

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Bad news for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

On Thursday night, starting power forward Ben Wallace went down with a fractured right fibula after taking a blow to the leg in the second quarter of Cleveland's loss at Houston.

He's projected to be out four to six weeks.

As I said. Bad news for the Cavaliers. They'll likely start Anderson Varejao in tonight's game at San Antonio. Now he's more active than Wallace, but doesn't hold up too well on the inside.

So Cleveland faces another injury. What this also does is force Cleveland to play its rookie big men, J.J. Hickson and Darnell Jackson.

Consequently, that means it will be less likely that Cleveland will send Jackson down to play for the Erie BayHawks unless the Cavaliers go out and get a big man

On top of that, Cleveland can't help but think about failing to get original NBA Superman, Shaquille O'Neal, last week.

It was reported the Cavaliers were looking to ship Wallace in that multi-player deal for O'Neal.

Hey D, saw you at the game last night. What's up with the Erie BayHawks losing, man. Hadn't they won like six games in a row.

Well, it was actually eight in a row, but can't win them all right?

True, but anyway, I tried to catch you before you left the arena. Hey, wasn't that Jawad Williams playing for the other team, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

Yeah.

The same Jawad Williams that played on that national title team at North Carolina in 2005. The same Jawad Williams that was with the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier this season before they cut him.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He played with BayHawks forward Jackie Manuel on that Carolina squad that was loaded with talent. Raymond Felton. Rashad McCants. Sean May. Marvin Williams. All those guys are in the NBA, but you know what, Jawad and Jackie were starters in that tite game when Carolina beat Illinois.

OK. OK. OK. Anyway, why isn't he playing for the BayHawks? I mean, Cleveland is one of Erie's NBA affiliates. Seems ideal that he'd play for Erie. Plus the guy is even from Cleveland.

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The NBA didn’t do the Cleveland Cavaliers any favors in regards to this.

Now we all know the schedules come out months before the season starts, but this is the time of year teams begin making their stretch run for playoff positioning.

With the Cavaliers (47-12) gunning to push past the Los Angeles Lakers (49-12) for the league’s best record, which would give them home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, they can’t afford many slip-ups.

In looking at this upcoming stretch of games, it’s going to hard for them not to do so.

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There are times he turns the ball over too much.

He struggles defending bigger opponents and at times, fails to score in the paint against smaller foes.

However, when Erik Daniels is on top of his game, the Erie BayHawks are a magical team.

Seeing the 6-foot 8-inch forward out of Kentucky put up his first career triple-double Thursday morning in Erie's 108-92 win against Tulsa is something a basketball fan can respect and appreciate.

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When they had lost eight games in a row, I didn't envision what has happened since.

The Erie BayHawks have made the come up.

Eight teams make the D-League playoffs and heading into Monday's games, the BayHawks (22-17) are seventh in the playoff chase. This is based on winning percentage.

1. Colorado 23-10 (.697)
2. Austin 25-12 (.676)
3. Idaho 22-14 (.611)
4. Utah 20-13 (.606)
5. Iowa 21-14 (.600)
6. Dakota 21-16 (.568)
7. Erie 22-17 (.564)
8. Bakersfield 20-17 (.541)
9. Albuquerque 19-17 (.528)
10. Sioux Falls 20-19 (.513)

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Erie coach John Treloar has the Erie BayHawks soaring.

"I'm a hard worker."

That was Quincy Douby's first response when I asked him what he wanted the people of Erie to know about him.

In his first day with the Erie BayHawks on Wednesday, Douby showed it.

After a two-hour practice, the former Sacramento King shooting guard did some conditioning. With Erie assistant Ben McDonald instructing him, Douby ran the steps inside the Hammermill Center gym. Then ran from baseline to baseline a few times.

Then he did a few reps of running sideline to sideline. After reach rep, he took some jumps shots, rested for a few seconds and then ran again.

After all that, he made 10 free throws - in a row.

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