Rock the vote

Carter's All-Star dominance comes as a surprise

Vince Carter's domination of the All-Star voting is a little surprising. Michael Jordan would have been my odds-on favorite to lead the balloting, and Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson would have been next in line.

Carter is one of the most exciting players in the game right now -- he's a great player and he's very charismatic -- but the Raptors haven't had tremendous success as a team. And the tricky part is that you don't know what the teams are doing and how supportive they are of the All-Star voting, how much they're pushing for their players.

I was once with an organization that had All-Star parties, where people just stuffed ballots all day. Now with Internet voting in place, you can vote as many times as you want. So it's a little tough to gauge true fan preference.

Cuban not doing Mavs any favors with criticism

Mark Cuban, who was fined $500,000 last week for his repeated criticism of NBA officials, obviously isn't too concerned about the money. But the Mavs would be much better off if Cuban just let his "statistics expert" track the refs and he kept to himself. Every team does some kind of study of the officials or keeps a record of how it's doing against certain officials, but no one else talks about it.

It's a mistake to publicly say he's monitoring the officials, because he's not doing his team any favors by knocking the officials. The Mavs may not necessarily be targeted in retaliation, but the refs are human and there are so many judgment calls.

And while commissioner David Stern says they get along well, he can't be happy with Cuban continually coming out like this -- and some of the other owners might not be, either. But Cuban has done a sensational job of turning that organization around, and you've got to admire his enthusiasm. He may like the limelight a little too much, but he's done a great job in Dallas.

Next few weeks will make or break Clips' season

The Los Angeles Clippers are saved from having the worst road record in the league by the Chicago Bulls. With only two wins away from Staples Center, Alvin Gentry's charges are behind even the Memphis Grizzlies, who have three road victories. Yet they're still contending for a playoff spot in the rough-and-ready Western Conference.

The reason for that is a very favorable early schedule -- the Clippers have played the fewest number of road games of any team in the league (12). And while they've enjoyed a tremendous home-court advantage, the Clippers are about to pay for it. They play 21 of their next 31 games on the road.

Young, talented teams tend to struggle on the road, and the Clippers are in the midst of a six-game trip (which they've started 0-2), and that will be followed by a seven-game trip leading up to the All-Star break. That means we'll find out in the next few weeks if they have what it takes to make the playoffs.

Kevin Loughery is a former NBA player and head coach. He appears each Sunday on CNN/SI's This Week in the NBA.

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