"I'm encouraged every day I can get out there and play," Ewing said. "The more I play and the more I practice the better my basketball skills will come back."

That can only help the Knicks, who, assuming they can figure out why Allan Houston can't make a key free throw, might be the second-best team in the East right now.

Iverson took 16 shots in only 21 minutes Saturday. Hill was bad, Matt Geiger was worse, Larry Hughes shot 3-for-17. The result was arguably the team's worse loss in the Larry Brown era, by 22 to a Hornets team missing three key frontcourt members. Brad Miller and rookie Eddie Robinson combined for 33 points.

The Sixers should be able to figure it all out; In fairness, they still don't have Theo Ratliff and Geiger looks horrible. Iverson just needs to realize other teammates can play as well. He said he learned that while on the sidelines; now he has to prove it.

"I learned a lot about my teammates, and how much talent we have on this team even without me," Iverson said.

Meaningless note: The Sixers are 5-8 with Iverson, 6-4 without him.

Rudy T finally benched all his starters in Saturday's rout at the hands of lowly Jersey. Cato hasn't topped eight points or rebounds in his last five games, Anderson actually didn't hit a field goal in back-to-back games and Walt Williams has been brutal. Only Carlos Rogers and backup guards Cuttino Mobley and Bryce Drew are playing well.

"You play mentally and physically soft and you get your butt kicked, that's what happened," said Tomjanovich, who showed more fire than his players picking up a technical in the fourth quarter. "We have been in every game this year and our response should have been better."

We love you, P.J.!
It's probably fair to fire P.J. Carlesimo for the mess in Golden State right now, and coaches have certainly been let go before in situations like these. The Warriors have been missing most of their good players for stretches of the dreadful season, whether it's the frontline (Erick Dampier still hasn't played, Jason Caffey's been in and out and so had Chris Mills) to the guards (oh, you say John Starks has been playing?).

Over the weekend the Warriors, 2-16 at one point, won in Atlanta and Minnesota (by 28 over Garnett) and came close at the Knicks and Charlotte. What gives?

First of all, Mookie Blaylock has been a big-time distributor (30 assists in two games) and Antawn Jamison a big-time finisher. Jamison may not be Vince Carter, but his numbers look pretty good (17.4 and 7.9). Jamison had 25 and 17 against the Knicks and has raised his shooting percentage to a respectable .447. Ask Keith Van Horn how good that is.

Apparently, Chris Mills is really a key player here. His stats are way above career numbers and he can play a few positions. Adonal Foyle is in the league's top 10 in blocks and rebounds well, and when Starks is on, which isn't very much, the team wins.

And P.J. gets to stay. For now.

	SHAQ'S LINE FOLLIES
	Shaq continues to miss those free throws, but the team is winning so, who cares. The Lakers have only lost once with Kobe Bryant back, and that takes a lot of pressure off Shaq, and he hasn't been getting to the line as much (less than 10 attempts in four straight games). Anyway... Shaq on Sunday: 2-for-5 Shaq for year: 103-243 (.424)

No longer the King
Everyone loves the Sacramento Kings. And old teams like the Jazz are getting no love. Case in point: KSHP-AM in Las Vegas has dropped its Jazz broadcasts in favor of Chris Webber and the boys.

"We did the Utah Jazz games last season, but they were getting a little long in the tooth," said program director Brett Grant. "The Kings are an exciting young team and Las Vegas is a front-runner kind of city."

In addition to 65 of the 82 Kings' regular-season games, the station also broadcasts the University of Hawaii's football games. The reason: Considering the time difference, Hawaii's games are usually the last available bet in casinos.

"From what we hear, anything you can bet on is popular with our listeners," said Grant, whose station switched from a children's format three years ago. "For us, it's gone from 'who are you?' to 'you're the station that broadcasts the Kings' games."'

Doesn't get any better than this
Celtics-Lakers? Sixers-Celtics? Rockets-Spurs, Bulls-Pacers, Knicks-Nets, Spurs-Jazz and maybe even Heat-Magic. Yep, there are a lot of rivalries in the NBA.

Vancouver and the Clippers is not one of them.

David Stern and his NBA people are experts at marketing the game. In fact, it's possible that no league does it better. But can one explain that tonight there will be one lone game in the Association and it's this one?

Now you'd think the schedule makers would, knowing there was only one game in the league on a certain day, make it a pretty good one. SportsCenter will be watching, ready to play it up big.

But no, the NBA is putting on this lottery preview. One game, and it's this. Is today a holiday or something? Why am I working then? For the record, there's been only one other time this season to this point that there was one game on the schedule, and that was Thanksgiving. And Pistons-Pacers wasn't a bad game.

The next time this will happen is Jan. 2 (the NBA has no games on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day) and it's Orlando-Miami. At least Orlando doesn't have to fly. And there's that Florida angle.

On no other day this entire NBA season is there only one game. They give us Griz-Clips. These teams are a combined 8-32 (equally divided at 4-16, by the way) and are legitimately as bad as they seem. The Clippers have lost nine straight. The Grizzlies have lost 13 of 14.

Weak.

Quote of the Night
"You get a chance to be away from the distraction of family and friends in town and the shopping. Let your wives do that stuff ... and we can go out and concentrate on basketball."
-- The always-politically correct Karl Malone on being on the road this time of year.

Quote of the Night, Part II
"This reminds me that I'm not stealing money from the Lakers. It makes me feel good about my contribution to the team."
-- Lakers swingman Rick Fox on having a good game Sunday night.