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Los Angeles Lakers: Let's hope no one in the Sonic or Buck front office is holding their breath for a Christmas card from Gary Payton. "I was only there for two months," he said of Milwaukee in the Los Angeles Daily News. "It ain't like I'm looking forward to going to Seattle, neither. That's over with. I'm here playing with the Lakers now and I'm just looking forward to winning basketball games. All that stuff is over with." And about that triangle thing? "When the fast break ain't working, we got to set up and try to play the triangle," Payton said. "I'm comfortable now, it's just that we ain't running it because I'm running up and down the court so much."

Washington Wizards: Do I hear 18? "It's not worth [rushing back]," Jerry Stackhouse said in the Washington Times of his injured right knee. "I'm going to come back in the time my knee allows me to come back in, whether that's six weeks from now or 12 weeks from now." Stackhouse had surgery in October to remove scar tissue and will now miss at least the first 15 games of the season. "It's all dependent on how Jerry's knee responds to surgery," general manager Ernie Grunfeld said. "The doctors did what they needed to do to ensure that Jerry makes a 100 percent recovery, and that's what we want. We want Jerry Stackhouse to come back when he is 100 percent ready."

New York Knicks: Don't look for any I-heart-NY pins on Tracy McGrady. "We definitely have been in that situation with the Knicks before," McGrady said in the N.Y. Post. "I realize that. When you have a team you feel, if you close in on them, they're going to fold. That's what I felt the night we played the Knicks. If we can somehow get this close, they're going to fold. And the momentum switched on our side and we got the win." Then he singled out Keith Van Horn. "The label on Keith Van Horn is he's been soft in this league," McGrady said. "He's going to have to break out of that playing in New York. He has the ability. He just has to be consistent with his play. But the talent is definitely there. New Yorkers are definitely going to break him or they're going to make him. So he's got to open up." Of course, that was before the Knicks beat the Magic Monday night.

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