--Tracy McGrady expected to miss no more than one game. Still, it was a relief when after sitting out Saturday against the Warriors, he was back at practice on Monday and back in the lineup on Tuesday.
"I just feel good that I'm back playing," he said. "I figured it was probably going to be one game, but I came in here, had a couple days off, got some treatment all weekend, practiced (Monday) and it felt good. "I can't really thing about that. I already have enough problems thinking about my knee. A minor little ankle sprain is nothing to compare to what I'm going through with my knee. I'm in the best shape I've been in this year. Now it is partially where it used to be, my normal weight of playing, I feel a little bit stronger than I did at the beginning of the season. My body is fine. Whether my knee holds up, that's going to be the major issue."
--Shane Battier had to be happy to see January end. He began the month skipping a road trip to rehabilitate his sore left foot. He ended it in a shooting slump.
Battier is making a career-low 39.7 percent of his shots this season and made just 35.3 percent in January.
"Every shooter comes out a slump; it's just a matter of sooner or later," Battier said. "You always got to remember, the shooting woes could end on the next shot. It just takes one to get you going. You just stay with your repetitions and keep firing.
"It's sort of like an oil change, you go in for a lube, make sure the brakes are working, the windshield wipers are working. I have a couple of those. I went under the hood."
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Yao (Ming) handled the quarter pretty well. We force fed Yao. I mean, we have a horse like that in the middle, he can make so many mismatch problems. We found him. He found us. That's how we got it done." -- Aaron Brooks.
