Lopez Stopped; Hawes Pissed

Texas figured out how to stop Brook Lopez--put an o-lineman on him. Freshman Dexter Pittman, listed at 299 pounds but surely above three bills, used simple mechanics to bully Lopez away from the basket.

I remember a similar strategy from local high school basketball. Spencer Hawes' senior year at Seattle Prep (only two years ago!), he played in the Metro League championship against Rainier Beach. Beach at the time had a center named Emeka Iweka, who also ran about 300 pounds, and was signed as an o-lineman by the Huskies (though he didn't qualify academically). Iweka gave up about six inches to Hawes, but he had about 50 pounds on him, much of in the ass department. Iweka bumped against Hawes all game, and finally Hawes got tired of the constant abuse, ceded the paint, and started taking 15-foot fallaway jumpers instead.

On the topic of Hawes, he vented this week to the Sacramento Bee about the Sonics situation:

It's a sad situation they've got going up there," he begins. "It's sad the way … everyone's handling it, from the league to the city, especially. It's being poorly mismanaged. As a Sonics fan, you sit hoping someone is going to come in and intervene, that the people with the power will come in and put an end to it, and it doesn't look like that's happening.

"You get a rich owner from Oklahoma City who is dead set on moving the team, and that's it. At first, he tried to hide (his intentions), and everyone saw right through that. Everyone from Seattle knew his intentions from the beginning. It was obvious."

The Sonics play Hawes' Sacramento Kings tonight at 6pm, but Hawes won't play, he's got a sprained ankle.