Chemistry class is in session

Here are five teams with the potential to combust

Team chemistry is more important in basketball than in any other sport. I say that not only because I am about to write a column on that very subject but also because it happens to be true. There are only 12 men on an NBA team, only five men on the court and only two or three players per club who really matter, so bad vibes spread through a team like head lice through a first grade class.

Bad team chemistry can be overrated, but in my experience it's usually been underrated. The best recent example is, of course, the Los Angeles Lakers, who didn't win a championship until Kobe and Shaq learned how to play Alphonse and Gaston. But bad chemistry is not easy to detect. One might think, for example, that the Philadelphia 76ers have bad chemistry because Allen Iverson is such a mercurial, undependable superstar. To the best of my knowledge, that's not the case because Iverson's teammates like and respect him for his warrior mentality and clutch play.

Poor chemistry is not necessarily present on bad teams, either. The Memphis Grizzlies, for example, are a bad team, but they've been playing hard and have kept the grumbling to a minimum under new coach Hubie Brown. Of course, it's early.

Even on teams that are coming apart at the seams -- and I'm thinking Cleveland Cavaliers here -- it's not as if the players sit around after a game and tell you, "The problem is, we hate each others' guts." (Well, Charles Oakley says something like that once in a while, but he's the exception.) Bad chemistry is hard to sniff out because it usually doesn't manifest itself in dramatic locker room battles or even in on-the-court shouting matches. It's subtly insidious. Or insidiously subtle.

The following is offered merely as an early-season "chemistry guide," something like the periodic table that stared you down from the wall of your high school classroom. Keep your eye on the potential chemical reactions of these five teams. In order of potential combustibility:

1. Cleveland Cavaliers: Can you imagine that it's come to this in the NBA -- a franchise's focal point is hoping it will be able to draft a home state high school player? That's what the atmosphere is like these days in Cav Land, where fans are salivating over the prospect of getting Lebron James, and merely spitting at the current incarnation of the Cavs, who are 2-17 entering play Tuesday. Against this backdrop, Ricky Davis, who has been the team's best player through much of the early season, is probably its most unpopular. Davis has already had mini-feuds with coach John Lucas and teammate Tyrone Hill, and now Davis is going to have to adjust to the sudden emergence of Dajuan Wagner. This explosion could happen soon, and, man, that 125-93 loss to the Knicks on Monday night had to have helped light the fuse, huh?

2. Portland Trail Blazers: Do not mistake bad behavior for bad chemistry. Teams with players who get in trouble with the law do not necessarily have bad chemistry. Sometimes, in fact, a teammate gives a shoutout to a guy who gets in trouble because he's been there himself. To a certain extent, the Blazers are that kind of club. But the untenable and unresolved point guard dilemma, the who's-the-man-at-crunch-time question (is it Rasheed Wallace? Bonzi Wells? Scottie Pippen?) and the mediocre start (7-8) may have the Blazers up in blazes before too long.

3. Los Angeles Clippers: Even though they eventually collapsed into non-playoff mediocrity last season, the Clips had a certain buzz about them. They were young and hip, happening and promising. These days they seem tired and tedious. Andre Miller has been reliable, but has failed to provide the kind of spark fans hoped for when he came over from the Cavs. There are injuries and, of course, the perennial Clipper dilemma -- the looming specter of massive free-agent defections. But the real question will come when Lamar Odom soon returns from the injured list. Double-double savant Elton Brand notwithstanding, Odom is L.A.'s most talented player and an unselfish distributor of the ball. But can he stay out of trouble and provide the kind of leadership that chemically balanced winners require?

4. Minnesota Timberwolves: The NBA's longest running do-they-or-do-they-not-get-along? saga is in the North Country, and it features Kevin Garnett and Wally Szczerbiak. Management seems to think there is no problem (or, at least, not one that can't be worked out) since both players have long-term contracts. But G and S have a locker room set-to in their past and this season there have been more obvious reactions of distaste from Garnett over Wally Wonder's jump-shooting predilection. I don't think these guys really dislike each other, but they're both intense competitors and they're getting frustrated with Minnesota's good-but-not-good-enough status within the league. Szczerbiak is just now rounding into shape, and it will be interesting to see if the duo can get along and turn the T-Wolves into a true contender.

5. New Jersey Nets: Last year's success built so much expectation for this season that nothing less than an Eastern Conference title will satisfy. (There isn't that kind of pressure on any other team in the league except the Lakers and the Kings.) So far the Nets haven't played up to par, particularly new addition Dikembe Mutombo, who will now miss at least two months of action because of a wrist injury. Power forward Kenyon Martin, who made no secret of his occasional displeasure with the lack of aggressiveness by Keith Van Horn (whom the Nets traded, along with Todd MacCulloch, to get Mutombo) is not one to suffer mediocrity in silence. If the Nets don't get it together by the New Year (I still think they will), the Joisy swampland isn't going to be the only toxic thing around Continental Airlines Arena.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Jack McCallum covers the NBA beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send a question to his NBA mailbag.

 

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