Orlando Magic News & Notes: Bass Will Remain In The Rotation…For Now

It looks like Brandon Bass, who has played in six consecutive games, will remain in the rotation…for now.

"“A lot of times what I’ve been doing now with some of these teams is having Rashard start the second quarter so I can sort of see who the other team is going to play,” Van Gundy said Wednesday. “But we’ve won six in a row, and it’s been Brandon playing. So, when you’re going real well, I’m a little hesitant to sort of break up what’s going on. So, he’ll probably be the guy back in here again tomorrow [tonight against the Chicago Bulls]. That doesn’t mean that the other guy won’t get in there, but right now, I’m not going to break up what we’re doing.”"

You can read about that and see other Magic notes here.

The Orlando Magic host the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night and you can read more about that game here.

Matt Barnes had some choice words for Lamar Odom through his twitter because Lamar Odom just won’t stop talking about Barnes.

"Irked by Odom’s continued trash talk, Barnes posted a message on Twitter on Wednesday in which Barnes said he might need to take one of his twin sons’ dirty diapers and stick it into Odom’s mouth.“Morning yall up early w/ the babies watchn Dora,” Barnes tweeted. “Seems Lamar can’t keep my name out his mouth maby I need 2 put my sons [expletive] diaper n it.”The tweet continued the war of words between Odom and Barnes that originated Sunday after the Magic defeated the Lakers 96-94. Physical play dominated that game, which included some tense moments between Barnes and Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant."

Josh Robbins has that story here.

George Diaz is starting to change his tune on Dwight Howard because of the improvement he has seen.

"No question Howard needs to develop a stronger offensive game. Point taken. After practice on Tuesday, while everybody else had either left or was lathering up in the locker room at RDV Sportsplex, Howard was working with assistant coach Patrick Ewing on short jumpers, taking drop steps and banking shots in from the corner. He shot free throws. He even made three of four 3-pointers after taking on Ewing’s challenge.The guy is only 24. He enjoys what he’s doing. He’s not going to change his personality. His offensive game will get better. And yet, he’s still one of the most dominant players in the NBA. His report card, his legacy, whatever you want to call it, is a big “incomplete.”“It doesn’t bother me,” Howard said of the criticism. ” Magic Johnson wasn’t quote, unquote, a bad a-*-*, [carefully spelling out the words to avoid cussing], and he was one of the greatest players who ever played the game. He did it with a smile on his face. I don’t worry about it. I think it’s funny.”"

You can read his column here.

Luol Deng will miss Thursday’s game against the Magic and there’s a chance Taj Gibson will, too.

"“He has a little calf issue, a little strain,” coach Vinny Del Negro said of Deng. “We’ll see how he feels, but I think he’s gonna be out for a while. I don’t know how long.”Also, rookie Taj Gibson is questionable for Thursday’s game against the Orlando Magic with plantar fasciitis in both feet. Gibson has been playing with the injury since training camp, but was noticeably hampered in Tuesday’s loss against the Utah Jazz. He was scoreless with one rebound before fouling out in 12 minutes.“I don’t know yet,” Del Negro said when asked if Gibson would play against the Magic. “His plantar fasciitis was really acting up and he was sore and I sat him today.“We really have to find some bodies. Maybe we’ll just play small tomorrow. Real small. I don’t know yet. But it’s hard to do that when you have that guy in the middle down in Orlando.”"

John Jackson of the Chicago Sun-Times has the story here.

In a follow-up, Jackson writes that Chicago’s road isn’t getting any easier.

"”We just have to try and find a way to weather the storm and find a way to get better defensively,” Del Negro said. ”We have to get back to where we were defensively, holding teams to where we liked them. That’s how we won games early.”Obviously, we’re a different team than we were with our personnel and things, but we still have to continually get better and find ways in practice. No one’s gonna feel sorry for you. We’ve got a tough stretch right now, but we just have to find ways to keep ourselves in games and give ourselves an opportunity at the end and try to steal one or two.”"

You can find that story here.

Vinny Del Negro knows his team is in some trouble.

"“No, not right now,” Del Negro said. “So we’re going to have to junk the game up as best we can. Maybe we can get a couple of guys with a hot hand or change up some defensive coverages.“One of the reasons we became a better defensive team throughout the year when we were healthy is we had a nice foundation to what we were doing and there was accountability. Now with the lack of bodies, we’re not controlling the paint.“We’ve had to make adjustments. We have gotten slow on rotations. We have gotten away from what helped us win because of the injuries.”"

K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune has that story here.

(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor at NFL Mocks Subscribe to his RSS feed, add him on Twitter to follow him daily and you can get the HTD app here).