Western Conference

Sporting News, The, Feb 22, 1999

Dallas

Pack might ease pressure on Nash

If point guard Steve Hash continues to straggle, look for Robert Pack to move into the starting lineup. Pack played better than Nash in the first five games, and while it's early, coach/GM. Don Nelson might be wise to take some of the pressure off Nash by bringing him off the bench. A backup in his first two NBA seasons in Phoenix, Nash faces heightened expectations after signing a six-year, $33 million contract extension. Last season, Nash was 13th in the league with a 3-point shooting percentage of 41.5. Those numbers came primarily against backups, however, and Nash is now wrestling with the challenge of going against the league's elite point guards.

SEE A DIFFERENT GAME: Nelson has assembled a deep roster after digging through the bargain bin at the end of the free-agent signing frenzy to acquire useful veterans Cedric Ceballos, Gary Trent and Hot Rod Williams. Now Nelson finds he has too many veterans he must try to keep happy. He has no end-of-the-bench kids who'll watch and learn. His only rookie, Dirk Nowitzki, is a starter, and the rest of the roster is populated by veterans who need to play. Nelson must settle on an eight- or nine-man rotation, and that might mean shutting down players like Erick Strickland and Chris Anstey, two youngsters who seemed to have futures with the club. --Ken Sins

Denver

Williams is demoted after slow start

Eric Williams' slow start forced coach Mike D'Antoni to change the starting lineup. D'Antoni moved Bryant Stith to small forward to fill Williams' starting spot and started Chauncey Billups at shooting guard. The move was necessary not just because Williams was straggling to score but also because he was hurting the team on defense and on the boards. Billups has been one of the team's best defensive players in the early games. Billups also was the natural choice because he gives the team the penetration skills it was hoping Williams could provide. Williams took the demotion without complaint, admitting his competitive intensity is low after his yearlong injury layoff. D'Antoni, though, hasn't given up on Williams. He was giving Williams substantial minutes off the bench.

SEE A DIFFERENT GAME: Against the Lakers, Raef LaFrentz backed up the club's belief in him as a center. Granted, Shaquille O'Neal was slowed by a strained abdominal muscle, but no one expected the rookie LaFrentz to score 24 points and finish with 12 rebounds against a veteran center. The scoring came from the kinds of shots the team expects to see from LaFrentz. He took O'Neal outside, where O'Neal is much less comfortable and much less effective as a defender. That also allowed the Nuggets to get 25 offensive rebounds even though they played a smaller lineup than the Lakers. --Vicki Michaelis

Golden State

Dampier and Caffey have looked awful

Center Erick Dampier is off to a dreadful start. But after the Sonics routed the Warriors in Seattle last week, he complained about not getting the ball and being yanked too often. Coach P.J. Carlesimo made sure Dampier got the ball early in the rematch against Sonics the next day. What happened? Dampier had four turnovers and three fouls in the first 4 1/2 minutes as the Warriors fell behind, 13-4. Later in the game, after the team had overcome the deficit and was in position to steal a win, Dampier missed two crucial free throws.... Power forward Jason Caffey hasn't looked like a bedrock of the future. His timing has been slow. Entering this week, he was averaging 8.2 points and 3.6 rebounds per game, nowhere near the numbers the team expected.

SEE A DIFFERENT GAME: The Warriors might run less than any team in the NBA. Carlesimo is offensively conservative and would prefer that the point guard bring the ball upcourt and set up halfcourt plays as often as possible. It's somewhat understandable with the number of quality big men they have, but the sight of a player getting a rebound and immediately looking for a point guard to hand off to is painful at times. No one seems to look upcourt, and no one heads that way for any other reason than to set up a play that's being called from the sideline. --David Steele

Houston

After fast start, Barkley is sidelined

Charles Barkley led the league in rebounding at 17 per game heading into the week, but he was playing hurt Barkley had an incomplete tear of the medial meniscus in his left knee and had been hoping to treat the problem with ice and anti-inflammatory drugs, but his condition worsened. So he had surgery to repair the knee last Sunday, and he is expected to miss three to four weeks. This is bad timing for the club, because with Hakim Olajuwon straggling to regain his footwork and Scottie Pippen trying to integrate himself into Rudy Tomjanovich's system, Barkley took it upon himself to be the go-to guy until his Dream Teammates come around. Othella Harrington was expected to take Barkley's place in the lineup.

SEE A DIFFERENT GAME: While their transition defense has been enormously effective, the Rockets' running game has been stagnant. The team had been focusing more on getting Olajuwon back into his offensive groove, which meant concentrating on the halfcourt game. But Olajuwon put in the extra time and has his footwork back, so it's time to pump up the offense with some easy baskets. With rookies Michael Dickerson and Cuttino Mobley on the wings and Pippen in the middle, the Rockets should have one of the most effective running games in the league--especially with Olajuwon and Barkley (when he returns) fueling the break with their rebounding. --Michael Murphy