Jason Terry can be a streaky shooter and he can sometimes be a frustrating player defensively and when he has to handle the basketball too much. But, him credit on this count: Whatever Avery Johnson's asked of him this season he's done it cooperatively and to the best of his ability.
After it looked like Terry had become a fixture in the starting lineup again with the Jason Kidd, Johnson decided he still didn't have enough height in the backcourt to start games. Basically, he couldn't count on Kidd to guard the bigger shooting guards in the West like Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady and Manu Ginobili. More often than not, those guys are going to be the property of new starter Jerry Stackhouse and small forward Josh Howard.
So Terry moves back to the sixth man role and he's happy to do it.
"Not a problem," he said. "I was in that role earlier this season and I was able to make the adjustment and get it done. As long as it correlates into wins, that's what we're looking for; the lineup that's going to correlate into wins and do it consistently."
After scoring just five points in 17 minutes in his first game back as a reserve against New Jersey, Terry hit for 18 against the Knicks on 7 of 9 shooting.
-- Jeff Caplan
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