Friday, March 28, 2008

    It's Jerry Sloan's 66th birthday today and the Jazz are hoping to get him a victory in his 1,797th career game as an NBA coach. Sloan's longevity is as incredible as his willingness to put up with the seven-plus-month grind of the season at his age.

    From the game notes: The Clippers are 1-31 all-time at EnergySolutions Arena . . . .Chris Kaman has returned after missing nine games with a back injury. The Clippers are 2-16 in the games Kaman has missed this season . . . .Rookie Al Thornton is averaging 13.9 points and 5.9 rebounds in 22 starts. . . . The Clippers have lost a league-most 275 games to injury this season, forcing coach Mike Dunleavy to use a league-high 33 different starting lineups. . . .Andre Barrett, Sam Cassell, Guillermo Diaz, Dan Dickau, Brevin Knight, Cuttino Mobley and Smush Parker all have played at point guard for the Clippers this season.

    From the papers: Both the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register stopped traveling on the Clippers beat awhile ago. The game's also not being televised in Los Angeles, which makes radio the only option for hometown Clippers fans. If a tree falls in the forest and nobody's around to hear it, does it make a sound? . . . .Before the Clippers left on their three-game trip, Elton Brand was hoping to return from a ruptured Achilles tendon to play the final five or six games of the season.

    From the Web: Still recovering from microfracture knee surgery, Greg Oden couldn't help himself from jumping into a pickup game at a 24 Hour Fitness in Portland. Nate McMillan says: "These young guys don't know their value." Back when I covered the Lakers, Brian Cook dislocated his thumb in a game at The Sports Club/LA . . .Kobe Bryant is just one technical foul away from violating the "Rasheed Wallace rule" and drawing a one-game suspension. . . .Pau Gasol tells the Memphis Commercial-Appeal that if the Grizzlies couldn't win with Jerry West as general manager, they never will. . . .Mark Cuban loses his blog battle and then says the Mavericks are going to start credentialing middle-schoolers with blogs. I hope their first question to Avery Johnson is about the possibility of missing the playoffs.

    Next up: The Jazz will play a Sunday afternoon game (1:30 MDT) against Minnesota, the first of two games in four days with the Timberwolves. Minnesota is at San Antonio tonight. The Timberwolves have won six of their last 10 games, although they fell 97-86 to Houston on Wednesday. Al Jefferson has 50 double-doubles this season.

    Key games: New Orleans at Boston, Memphis at L.A. Lakers, Minnesota at San Antonio

    --Ross Siler