In a conversation last week, a former Washington assistant coach put it best when he said McGee and some of his teammates “act like kids.” They know the game, but the approach cannot be the same as their college approach. They need to make quick decisions. They need to push themselves to get better. Most importantly, they need to rely on their team.

He approaches the game like he deserves the starting job, like it comes easy to him. That is an easy claim, he leads the team in every category on which he relies. He scores in the double-digits more often than not, and his 73 blocks and 218 rebounds lead the team in those categories. Statistically, he’s the best big man on the court for Washington.

But his new coach wants him to focus on the basics of his position, not necessarily the flair of the theatric.

“Sometimes, his shot-blocking takes him off the rebound,” said Randy Wittman, who took the head coaching job with Flip Saunders was fired less than 2 weeks ago. “That’s got to be something he’s a little bit careful of. You don’t want to take his aggression away, because he is a good shot-blocker.”

He shows flashes of brilliance, when it looks like his play is coming together, but not at the right time. His best games are nearly always in losing efforts. A Washington win is almost always in the context of others stepping up. McGee is somewhere low on the stat sheet when the Wizards win.

In last night’s game against Toronto, when the Wizards may have played their best three quarters of basketball this season, McGee shot 4-of-9 from the field for eight points while pulling in eight rebounds. It’s a solid, average performance, but not a great night for the big man on a winning team.

Even in wins, McGee throws unnecessary hooks from five or ten feet away, while his teammates distribute to find the best shot. Those mental issues seem to come through more and more often. After missing a shot with just over nine minutes to go in the third quarter, McGee headed down the court without realizing that John Wall was holding the ball at the top of the arc.

With these errors, it was no surprise that Wittman pulled the center for Jan Vesely – who had zero points and four personal fouls at the time – with 25 seconds left in regulation, the Wizards up by one.

“It gets to the point, late shot clocks, end-of-game, that you want to switch,” Wittman said. “I didn’t want to switch JaVale onto Jerryd Bayless [who finished with 30 points]. Jan can cover those type of players in switch situations.”

The game went down as a win after a quick overtime period, but it was remembered more for the 60-point performance by the two starting guards and Trevor Booker’s 19 points than for a forgettable performance by McGee. The blocked-shot lead even came from Booker with three; the team leader only had one on the night.

“Just try to make plays,” Wall said, recalling the late-game plan. “Don’t want to give them the easy basket.”

It was forgettable, shortsighted play that saw Blatche taken out of the starting lineup a few weeks ago, before he developed a strained left calf muscle. McGee’s style of play has him is heading down that road.

McGee was not available for postgame comment, personally saying his voice was horse.

“Welcome to Cleveland,” fans chanted to their new savior.

It was visible on the clutch point guard’s face – and it couldn’t be refuted at that moment – that he is currently in the process of revitalizing this franchise. Irving finished with 20 points and and seven assists.

“I told him to just run this one play that we have been running,” head coach Byron Scott said of Irving’s strong finish. “Be aggressive and look to score for himself, or see if he can get it to his teammates…he was able to get it all the way to the basket.”

Half of a second remained on the clock as the Mavericks had the final possession of the game, but could not get a shot off in time to tie it up. With the exhilarating 91-88 victory over the defending World Champions, the Cavs extended the Mavericks’ (14-11) losing streak to three games as well as improved their own record to 9-13.

“Anytime you beat the World Champions, it’s a great win,” Scott said.

After seeing one of the best second quarters they’ve had this season with 28 points, Cleveland went into halftime trailing Dallas 51-43. The Cavs could not contain 2011 Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki (24 points, eight rebounds) as they gave him the space to shoot 5-of-5 from the field in the first half alone.

A different story was told in the third quarter.

As the defensive pressure picking up on Cleveland’s end in the third period, the offense followed suit. The Cavaliers went on a 13-0 scoring run thanks to Anderson Varejao’s “all-over-the-place” style of play. The big man did not give up on one possession on either ends of the floor, and in turn, had a double double on the night with 17 points and 17 rebounds.

Varejao’s aggression, as well as better defense played by Antawn Jamison (19 points, nine rebounds) cooled off Nowitzki’s hot hand in the second half – he was scoreless in the third quarter and had nine points in the fourth.

“He’s an animal,” Nowitzki said of Varejao. “He’s relentless…he’s got a great nose for the ball and he just keeps coming.”

Cleveland, who seems to be plagued with turnover syndrome this year, can also credit the win to taking better care of the ball. Cleveland turn the ball over nine times instead of their usual 20 or more, which resulted in only six points for Dallas. On the other end, they forced the Mavericks to turn the ball over 21 times, which converted into 19 points for Cleveland.

In the midst of dishing the ball and creating plays for his teammates, Irving had just one turnover on Saturday.

“I just feel my teammate’s confidence down the stretch,” Irving said. “…they have the confidence in me to make the right play, whether if it’s for myself or them.”

He couldn’t deny that the win over the defending champs was sweeter than usual.

“This win means a lot more, but it’s still just a win in our column,” Irving said. “We beat the defending champs and we gave a valiant effort. I’m happy. It feels good.”

The Cavaliers will travel to Miami to take on the Heat Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m.

In between the match ups against Kansas and Baylor, Missouri goes on the road Monday to face an Oklahoma team with a losing league record (3-6). Kansas and Baylor duke it out on Wednesday while the Tigers rest up for the Bears.

Missouri and Kansas face each other today for the first time this season, but Missouri already holds a win over Baylor, just as the Jayhawks do.

No.1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament can be decided within these next three game days, so it comes as no surprise that ESPN’s “College Gameday” crew makes that trip to Columbia today.

“This hasn’t been a normal week,” first-year head coach Frank Haith told Mizzou’s student newspaper, The Maneater. “There’s been a lot of things going on. We’ve talked about not getting distracted in terms of us staying true to who we are and what we’ve done all year…”

“I don’t want to sound like (I’m saying) it’s just another game,” Haith continued. “I mean, I know it’s not just another game… It’s a big game for top teams in the country and you have a chance on the national spotlight to represent.”

They have a chance to do a lot of things, and the best chance to be on top of the Big 12 when the week is over. How special Missouri’s exit from the conference is sure to be fascinating, either way.

It’s exactly this kind of contradiction that is causing Raptors’ fans to yank out their hair this season while watching DeRozan play.

For his coach, Dwane Casey, it’s just a case of a young player falling in love with the outside shot and not attacking the rim and using his athleticism as often as he should.

“I was looking at his three-point shooting and I think he shot 52 games last year over 82 games and this year he has shot 44 already,” Casey told the media Friday evening. “My thing is he needs to continue to attack. He needs to continue to try to get to the rim and body hunt once he gets there so that he can get to the free throw line. Last year he averaged around four free throws a game and he’s right at that mark again this year. But he needs to get there more.”

The recent problem facing DeRozan is even though he has been attacking the rim with reckless abandon, refs have been slow to give him the benefit of the doubt and send him to the free throw line.

“He just needs to keep doing it,” Cased told me. “He’s eventually going to get the respect of the officials. He’s got to create contact and get in there and body hunt. He can’t avoid contact.”

The worst thing DeRozan can do right now is to sulk or fade into into the background on offense. Instead, he needs to barrel into the lane and dare defenders to get in his way and attempt to change his shot.

Sure, that is tougher with Andrea Bargnani out of action, but as Casey told the media before the game against Washington, when DeRozan’s outside shot is falling like it did in the recent win against Utah, it opens up enough space in the the lane for a “Mack truck to drive through.”

The key for DeRozan is to realize he will continue to get his touches even when his shot isn’t fall.

“I’m sure it’s human instinct if you’re not shooting the ball well to lose a little confidence,” Casey explained to the media. “But he’s got the most touches on the team besides Andrea (Bargnani). We run a lot of our plays – he’s second to Andrea – go to him. We’re going to keep feeding him and try to get his confidence back by putting the ball in his hands. This (slump) won’t be for a lack of touches or not having plays run for him.”

After his third straight “off” game, DeRozan was quick to admit to the media that he can’t dwell on the negatives.

“I just can’t think about it too much,” DeRozan reassured the media gathered around his locker. “I look at a lot of other players in the league who are great shooters and they’re struggling, too. I don’t know what has caused it. You can blame it on the lockout or whatever it is. It just is what it is right now. My shot is eventually going to fall and when it does a lot of things are going to change.”

For DeRozan, the key to getting out of the current shooting slump that he is mired in is staying positive and blocking out all the negative talk from fans and members of the media.

“You’ve just got to stay positive,” DeRozan told the media while chucking. “Everybody wants to criticize me and I don’t worry about it. You just can’t think about it too much and you have to go out there and play your game.”

For DeRozan, something that helps is having his head coach firmly in his corner whether he’s struggling or carrying the scoring load.

“It helps a lot,” DeRozan mentioned to me after the win against Washington. “He talks to me all of the time about how I shouldn’t feed into what people are saying or what the media may say. All of that hoopla. He reminds me that I just need to keep working and it’s going to come. Everybody has their ups and downs in this league. Everybody has had their struggles and it is just something you have to work hard to overcome. When I overcome it, it will be something I can look back on and laugh about.”

While his recent shooting struggles are no laughing matter, his approach to the situation is right on the mark. Why stress over a shooting slump that will eventually pass? It’s not like the past season and a half were mirages that can’t be duplicated and built upon. With a little more aggression attacking the rim it’s easy to see how this slump will end sooner rather than later.

Once DeRozan is able to escape from this mid-season shooting slump there’s no doubt this is something he will have learned from and be able to laugh about.

The problem is that Davis’ natural position, power forward, is being occupied by Toronto’s best player in Andrea Bargnani.

According to Casey, the creative solution to that problem is to play Bargnani some of his minutes at small forward.

“It’s going to be a challenge for him to get minutes when (Bargnani) comes back,” Casey admitted to me. “He’s going to have to play some five for us. There’s also a possibility that Andrea (Bargnani) can play some three. That is something we will have to look to as far as an unconventional offensive set. There are some three’s in the NBA he can guard. Not a lot, but there are some. That would be an out of the box kind of situation.”

Now, this isn’t set in stone, but the possibility raises an interesting situation where Toronto’s lack of rebounding could be offset by having three big men on the court at the same time.

Regardless if this actually happens or not once Bargnani is healthy, it was an interesting glimpse into Casey’s thought process as he tries to secure additional minutes for Davis this season.

No. 20-ranked Indiana has dropped five of its last seven games after beginning the season 15-1 with wins marquee wins over Kentucky, the nation’s best team, and Ohio State, possibly the second best team in the nation.

The Hoosiers are likely out of the race to top the Big Ten Conference and will bring two totally different resumes to the Big Dance in March, if they even get there.

Indiana has the lowest RPI ranking of any of the Big Ten teams in the Top 25.

So the question is: Which is the real Indiana squad – the one that boasted with the game’s elite, or the one that trailed Michigan 28-8 in the first half on Wednesday night?

At this point, it’s reasonable to wonder if Indiana is going to have the biggest collapse of the season or if they will live up to the early hype.

Indiana head coach Tom Crean said his team played like they had just seen a ghost on Wednesday night. The Wolverine defense is impressive but not ghostly by any means.

For a group that has seen so much success this season, it isn’t a good sign to lack confidence facing a peer like Michigan.

The freshmen battle between Indiana’s Cody Zeller and Michigan’s Trey Burke was advantage Burke, who scored 18 points in the win. Burke’s story is especially fascinating because he wasn’t even the top freshman recruited by Michigan last year, much less anticipated to be one of the best in the nation. His classmate Carlton Brundidge was a higher ranked prospect.

Indiana has a real game changer in Zeller, but that hasn’t been able to change the Hoosiers’ fortune as of late.

Crean called his starting lineup “a joke” after the loss to Michigan and the Indianapolis Star is reporting the unspoken weak link comes from the change to the lineup that swapped Victor Oladipo for Will Sheehey.

Oladipo only scored six points in 26 minutes, while Sheehey went scoreless and barely saw action in the second half (when the game became close).
Perhaps not having Oladipo in the starting lineup has toyed with the Hoosiers’ chemistry. Notice how the defensive intensity rose in the second half for Indiana. It wasn’t enough, but there was clearly a difference between the rallying second half Hoosiers and the ghost-fearing ones from earlier in the game.

Every Indiana game is interesting from this point on just to see if this collapse is really going to happen. Both games against Purdue could be losses, as well as the matchup against Illinois next week. The Indiana team we’ve seen lately probably won’t beat Michigan State later in the season either.
And we know the Hoosiers can lose to Minnesota, who they play on the road this time.

What a sad ending it would be to the resurgence of Indiana basketball if these youngsters finish with a 7-11 conference record.

It could happen, depending on which team shows up.

Against Oklahoma City, Dallas was already going to be without starting point guard Jason Kidd (calf), but found out near game time that Lamar Odom (illness) and Brendan Haywood (back) were going to be unavailable as well. It’s never comfortable to have to play the Thunder these days, but the Mavericks were going to have to do it without three key contributors.

The main story for Oklahoma City the last few days has revolved around answering questions about the massive dunk Blake Griffin laid down on Kendrick Perkins in Los Angeles two nights ago. That may have been the item of interest around the country, but the Thunder were eager to move on and were looking forward to getting that bad taste out of their mouth against their emerging rivals in North Texas.

After the first quarter, Dallas jumped out to an eight-point lead despite the absence of Kidd, Haywood, and Odom in addition to only two combined points from Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry. With Nowitzki still finding his form, it was clear that the points were going to have to come from a few different sources for most of the night.

For the rest of the way after the first quarter, it appeared to be Thunder Ball. Dallas’ cold shooting was a theme for the rest of the Mavs’ night as the Thunder built a 10 point lead early in the fourth quarter. That is a hole teams generally don’t want to be in, but history suggests the Mavericks had the Thunder right where they wanted them at that point.

As the game wound down, that’s exactly how the story played out. As Dallas always seem to do against their slightly northern counterparts, the Mavericks chipped away at the lead late in the game and even tied it up at 85 all at the 2:14 mark of the quarter after a bucket from Shawn Marion.

To the Thunder’s credit, they responded like they never have been able to against the Mavericks with a 7-0 run led by Russell Westbrook who had five of the points. After the burst, the game was out of reach for the Mavericks as Oklahoma City held on for a 95-86 victory and perhaps a win over the vaunted Mavericks Mojo that seemed to cause the Thunder some issues over the past few years.

Still, the Mavericks took many positives from the game considering the fight they gave the Western Conference’s best team according to record without many key pieces and a subpar night from Nowitzki. It resulted in a loss tonight, but the Mavericks continue to follow the plan of firing on all cylinders by the time May rolls around.

Now, if the Mavs can just find some health and keep Nowitzki from going 2 for 15 every other night, then Dallas can get to where they want to be.

When news got out a couple weeks back that the Atlanta Hawks would be without All-Star big man Al Horford for the remainder of the season due to an injury, countless members of the media and fans thought that would be the end of their season.

Somebody forgot to give the Hawks this message as they are 9-2 in their past 11 games and they find themselves half a game back of the Miami Heat in the Southeast Division.

One of the big reasons the team has been able to maintain their momentum is due to lots of different players stepping up.

Joe Johnson has scored 20 or more points in eight of his last ten games while chipping in 5.0 rebounds and 4.1 assists during that stretch.

One of the surprises of the season for the team, Jeff Teague, is second in the NBA in steals while doubling his scoring from last season. He is averaging 13.0 points per game (up from 5.2 last season) and 5.2 dimes (up from 2.0 last season).

“He’s been more aggressive in his approach to the game,” Larry Drew raved to HOOPSADDICT.com about Teague. “Now he’s attacking defenses. I’ve told him this 100 times, but when he’s not aggressive and he’s passive out there it affects the entire offense. But when he’s in the Jeff Teague mode where he’s really attacking and really getting into the paint and forcing opposing defenses to collapse and push the ball in transition, he just makes us more effective. It opens up shots for everybody else on the court with him because teams have to collapse on him.”

One of the players to benefit from teams collapsing on Teague or focusing on Johnson is Marvin Williams. He is currently third in the NBA in three-point field goal percentage and had made 12 of his last 17 three-pointers.

That dead-eye perimeter shooting has helped Williams average 10.6 points per game while opening up spacing for his teammates.

“It helps out a lot,” Johnson told me .”It keeps the defenses honest and it keeps the floor spaced out. With me and Jeff (Teague) getting into the teeth of the defense we’re able to kick it out to him for wide open jump shots. Those guys have all day to shoot and it’s been working out great for them.”

But, more than just those individual accomplishments, the team has gelled as a team.

“This is just a situation where when one of your soldiers goes down everybody has to pick it up and everybody has done,” Drew told me. “In particular, Joe (Johnson) and Josh (Smith) have really been playing at a high level for us. Jeff Teague has really stepped his game up as well and we’ve been given a lot of help from our bench.”

This sentiment was echoed by Josh Smith; a player who on nights has awed and inspired.

“I think guys are really stepping up and we’re not making any excuses about his absence,” Smith told HOOPSADDICT.com. “I think we’re playing great team basketball by sharing the basketball on the offensive end and we’re really helping each other out on the defensive end. It’s just been a great collective effort.”

Sure, the loss of Horford hurts this team, but for Drew, it’s just another chance for him to leave his imprint on this team and help to move the players closer to playing the kind of basketball he envisioned when he became the head coach.

“One of the things I wanted to do in taking over this team was take away some of the predictability,” Drew explained. “Everybody knew with the ball in Joe (Johnson) hands he was our main guy. It resulted in our offense getting a little stagnant at times. We still do, but for the most part what we do is try to get a bit more organization and motion out of what we do which allows us to distribute the ball.

“Right now I think we’re fourth in the league in assists. Guys are playing together. Guys are sharing the ball. Guys are feeling good about what we’re doing offensively. This just makes us a lot tougher to defend because you don’t know where the shots going to come from.”

Love actually was locked up, inking a four-year, $62 million deal (with a player option after three years). However, reports surfaced that Minnesota refused to offer their star forward, who actually wants to be there, a fifth year, thereby effectively identifying him as a non-franchise guy. Think that won’t be in the back of Love’s mind in 2015 when he’ll be just 27-years-old and, potentially, an unrestricted free agent?

Beyond Love and Minnesota, Gordon’s refusal of a contract extension from New Orleans could be damaging to both the player and franchise and Indiana is at risk of losing a viable, 7’2” center in what is a center-starved league. You don’t think someone might put forward an offer sheet on him for stupid money? Look at what Nene/Tyson Chandler/David West/Marc Gasol got this past summer.

It’s far too early to offer any kind of observation or analysis into any of those situations (although it’s hard to see the Gordon/Hornets dynamic ending smoothly barring a trade). However, it does offer some insight into how, even in what appears to be a relatively low-risk situation (even if these players don’t sign early extensions, they remain under team control for no less than three more years), can set the table for a rocky player-team relationship as egos and feelings get involved.

Which takes us to next year, where the 2009 draft class promises to be low on no-brainer long-term extendees and high on question marks.

 The no-brainer, of course, is Blake Griffin. Even with fellow max contract deserver Chris Paul in tow, Donald Sterling can’t screw this one up. Then, however, it gets awfully dicey for what is one shallow-looking talent pool.

The next tier below Griffin would likely feature Tyreke Evans, James Harden and Stephen Curry, with Evans being the closest to superstar-calibre but still an inconsistent player who hasn’t proven he can win on a financially-shaky team. Harden and Curry are in more stable – albeit, hardly big-market – situations, but Oklahoma City can’t afford to break the bank on a sixth man and I’m not sure new owners Joe Lacob and Peter Gruber can keep Curry and Monta Ellis (and David Lee) on payroll while still having the flexibility to improve their team elsewhere.

Beyond that is a group of players with an as-of-yet-undetermined ceiling (DeMar DeRozan, Brandon Jennings and Jrue Holliday), a few probable role players (Gerald Henderson, Tyler Hansbrough, Austin Daye and James Johnson) and an over-achieving guard who seems to be tapping into every inch of his potential talent (Ty Lawson). All told, none of these guys have shown that they can be anything more than a third- or fourth-best player on a good team.

The telling thing about the 2009 class is that none of these players (with the possible exception of the 76ers’ Holliday) come from ‘have’ teams. In most of these situations, the decision will come down to risking losing a young building block or over-paying for a guy who may never really pan out to any full extent.

Kentucky is ranked No. 1 and widely considered as the best team in the nation. That is something, I believe, shouldn’t change until the start of the NCAA tournament.

The Wildcats have the most talent in the country, and as CBSSports.com’s Gary Parrish noted a few days ago, are just a buzzer-beater away from being undefeated.

But Ohio State’s convincing victory over an above-average Michigan team Sunday and subsequent six-game winning streak gives the Buckeyes a strong case for supremacy. Ohio State didn’t play particularly well, and Jared Sullinger was a shell of himself, yet the Buckeyes were able to come away with a 64-49 win.

Sports Illustrated’s Andy Glockner says Ohio State is clearly the nation’s best team.

It’s not a ridiculous claim, but it is prisoner of the moment after watching Michigan go down. Kentucky just beat an irrelevant LSU team.

Kentucky and Ohio State’s signature wins this season are similar. The Wildcats beat North Carolina when the Tar Heels were ranked No. 5, now ranked No. 7, while the Buckeyes took down Duke when they were ranked No. 3, now ranked No. 8.

What’s going to be interesting about Ohio State is how it deals with the remaining eight conference games on the schedule, which sees five matchups with three different Top 25 teams.

Kentucky doesn’t have it so hard in the SEC, even though stranger things have happened than Kentucky losing to one of its SEC rivals.

And what about Syracuse, Missouri, Baylor and those other teams toward the top of the rankings that deserve to be a part of this conversation?

Syracuse was a convincing No. 1 for what seemed like forever. Did that loss to Notre Dame and the situation with Fab Melo deflate this team, or are we taking the most recent wins over Cincinnati and West Virginia for granted?

No question this was a more impressive two-game stretch for ‘Cuse than Kentucky or Ohio State.

The Big 12 can’t claim the nation’s best team just yet, because we don’t even know who the best team in the Big 12 is. Kansas and Missouri haven’t played each other yet.

Despite Baylor coming up short against both of those teams this season, the Bears’ talent can still matchup with any team in the nation.

It goes back to the point Parrish made earlier. Kentucky is not only the best team in the nation, but it’s the surest thing as well.

I can’t help but to think this is a season for the Wildcats to win or lose on their own terms, because their biggest obstacle is themselves.

Can any of the other elite teams in the country say they have it that good?