Compiled by Chris Bernucca 

• NBA: "The NBA is partly to blame. Every season coaches and players talk openly about how rookies aren’t cut any slack when it comes to fouls. That’s bias. A former coach chatted me up about how a bad relationship with an official could mean a night of not getting the benefit of the doubt on some calls while on the flipside, a good relationship with an official could be beneficial. That’s bias, too. Why does Superstar Player A almost never foul out, yet Journeyman Player B picks up fouls by the bushels? How can Bad Reputation Player A and Squeaky Clean Reputation Player B say the same derogatory thing to a referee, but Player A is more likely to pick up the technical foul? Traveling is treated the way baseball treats the turn at second base on a double play, which is to say there’s, um, leeway. The palming rule had to be tightened down and become enforced more often. And should a player feel so comfortable with the gray-area nature of the rules that he can stand up and seriously justify a ‘crab dribble?’ What the heck is a crab dribble? It’s all a problem." Chris Dempsey in the Denver Post 

• D-LEAGUE: "An NBA Development League team will refund the ticket prices to the thousands of fans who went to a Utah Flash game Monday night expecting to see Michael Jordan play in a one-on-one charity exhibition at halftime. Instead, a Jordan look-alike was introduced to face former Utah Jazz guard Bryon Russell in a promotional fiasco that will prove costly to Flash owner Brandt Andersen." The Associated Press 

• BLAZERS: "The Blazers' astounding run of injuries continued on Tuesday when Rudy Fernandez, the team's top shooter, underwent back surgery that will sideline him from four-to-six weeks. It was the seventh surgery this season for the Blazers, who will plod through one of their most difficult months of the season with nine available players. The nearest relief will come at the end of December, when rookie power forward Jeff Pendergraph is targeted to return from left hip surgery. But even that is tenuous, as Pendergraph has reported soreness in the hip after limited action in practices recently." Jason Quick in the Oregonian  

• BOBCATS: "Tuesday you saw all the shades in Charlotte Bobcat Stephen Jackson's color wheel. He scored when they needed him to score. He passed when there was a chance to pass. He grabbed seven defensive rebounds. But best of all, he took a turn defensively against Denver superstar Carmelo Anthony that decided the Bobcats' 107-95 victory against the Nuggets." Rick Bonnell in the Charlotte Observer 

• BULLS: "That thud you heard was the Bulls hitting rock bottom. Forget about losing by 32 points Saturday to the Toronto Raptors, the low point of the Bulls' slide came Tuesday night with a 103-101 loss to the lowly New Jersey Nets at the United Center." John Jackson in the Chicago Sun-Times 

• CAVALIERS: "The Cavs had perhaps their truly first schizophrenic O'Neal experience. Things were so good that they turned bad. Sounds weird, right? Well it was. O'Neal was able to get good position and finish around the rim for much of the game, finishing with 16 points. The Grizzlies' complement of big men had their hands full, both in keeping him out of his sweet spots and preventing him from getting dunks. By early in the third quarter, two Memphis centers had four fouls and their third stringer, little-used Hamed Haddadi, was in the game. But that actually turned into a problem for the Cavs." Brian Windhorst in the Cleveland Plain Dealer 

• CELTICS: "By the way, it’s official. You know you have a very good team when you’re 17-4 and are sitting on an eight-game winning streak and all anyone can talk about is how good you’ll be when you really figure things out. 'In my mind,' said Celtics coach Doc Rivers, 'we’re nowhere near as good as we’re going to be. The road trip [the Celtics were 4-0] was sensational. We played solid basketball. But we’re not a 48-minute team. For us to achieve what we want to achieve, we have to become one.'" Bob Ryan in the Boston Globe 

• GRIZZLIES: "Cleveland joins Dallas and Portland on the list of teams with at least a .667 winning percentage that have lost to Memphis over the past 11 days. 'We are getting better every day,' Randolph said. 'This is a confidence builder for us. We played great.'" Ron Tillery in the Memphis Commercial Appeal 

• HEAT: "When it comes to age and experience on the Heat's roster, Dorell Wright is sort of a statistical anomaly. Eleven of 15 players on the team are older than Wright. Yet only two have been in Miami longer. If you have to be reminded that Wright was even a member of the Heat's championship team in 2006, you're not alone. That's part of the reason veteran power forward Udonis Haslem jokes that Wright, who celebrated a birthday two weeks ago, might be the oldest 24-year-old in the league." Michael Wallace in the Miami Herald 

• JAZZ: "'The Voice of the Jazz' will be back in Utah to call Saturday's game but will be doing so as part of the Los Angeles Lakers broadcast team. The Lakers announced Tuesday that Hot Rod Hundley will fill in for six games beginning Friday while regular TV commentator Stu Lantz is away while his wife recovers from surgery." Ross Siler in the Salt Lake Tribune 

• KINGS: "Nocioni was fouled with 1.1 seconds left while attempting a putback. He missed the first free throw. When he tried to miss the second on purpose and hope for a tip-in to win, Nocioni was called for a lane violation." Jason Jones in the Sacramento Bee 

• NETS: "Perhaps all those tests they had failed before were lessons; maybe what has passed is now prologue. Either way, the Nets won a close one Tuesday night — on the road, no less — and they did it with a mental toughness that wasn’t part of their arsenal as recently as a week ago." Dave D'Alessandro in the Newark Star-Ledger 

• NETS: "Dwindling playing time has Nets rookie Terrence Williams in a Twitter. And the result could be an even more diminished role. Williams, the Nets' top draft pick out of Louisville, used his Twitter account to voice his displeasure over his shrinking minutes and playing for the Nets in general, posting a message on Monday about what it would have been like had he been drafted by another team instead. 'How would it be if Mr. Stern called my name 10 min earlier,' tweeted Williams, who was chosen at No. 11 in June's draft. '#9 or 5 min later #12 hmmmmmmmmm to bad I can't live off what ifs.'" Julian Garcia in the New York Daily News 

• KNICKS: "in the season before the Summer of LeBron, the Knicks are focusing on fundamentals over flash: defense, passing, smart shots, winning. Robinson and his showmanship are being left behind. The Knicks have won three straight games, all with Robinson on the bench. They are 0-9 when he plays at least 19 minutes and 7-6 when he plays 12 or fewer. The team’s success without him, and Coach Mike D’Antoni’s comments, suggest that Robinson’s status will not change anytime soon." Howard Beck in the New York Times 

• NUGGETS: "It's pretty simple. Pass more, win more. That's what Karl has preached all season. Be it fatigue, lack of motivation, egos, what have you, the Nuggets, on occasion, just don't pass a lot. For the season, Denver entered Tuesday with 22.5 assists per game, sixth in the NBA behind the Mavericks, Suns, Lakers, Celtics and Jazz, an encouraging quintet. But in the Nuggets' six losses, they averaged just 16.3, which is New Jersey territory; moreover, four of the six losses came to teams with losing records." Benjamin Hochman in the Denver Post 

• MAGIC: "'I heard some of the fans say, 'Happy Birthday,"' Howard said, then laughed. 'The ref said 'Happy Birthday.' I asked him if I could get one call.' The Magic improved to 17-4, tying their best-ever start after 21 games. The win was a club-record eighth consecutive road win over one season for the Magic. The overall franchise record for consecutive road victories is nine, spread over two seasons.'" Brian Schmitz in the Orlando Sentinel 

• MAVERICKS: "The Mavericks' offense had been a complete dud for two games. So in walked fresh gunpowder in the form of Josh Howard. Howard's return from a month's absence to strengthen his surgically repaired left ankle was an unqualified success as his 20 points helped spring the Mavericks." Eddie Sefko in the Dallas Morning News 

• SUNS: "The Suns played harder and were competitive, as the teams were within a basket of each other until the final minute of the third quarter. That's when Nash left, and the Suns effectively lost the game in the next four minutes without him. Dallas went on an 11-2 run after Nash exited." Paul Coro in the Arizona Republic 

• TIMBERWOLVES: "For a young team, learning how to win often is an excruciatingly slow, night-by-night, moment-by-moment process. So porous defensively not so long ago, the Wolves held a Raptors team that averages nearly 106 points to a dozen fewer than that, on 32.1 percent shooting. They came within fewer than five minutes of becoming the first team since 1999 to hold the Raptors without a three-pointer on a night when Toronto missed its first 17 attempts and finished 2-for-21. They wiped away an 11-point, second-half deficit with a 13-1 run that bridged the third and fourth quarters. And, of course, they watched it all unravel in an instant with 90 seconds to play." Jerry Zgoda in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune 

• RAPTORS: "Antoine Wright had hoisted 41 three-pointers over the course of this NBA season and had made just 11 when he found himself open in the corner of the Air Canada Centre court Tuesday night, his Raptors clinging to a two-point lead with about 63 seconds left in the game. There was almost an audible gasp from the crowd as he let fly, and cheers a split second later. In one of those classic, 'No, no, no ... yes!' moments that pop up during the course of a season, Wright, a guy employed primarily for his defensive skills, had the game's biggest basket as the Raptors went on to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 94-88 in a game that was at times gruesomely ugly. Or not." Doug Smith in the Toronto Star