Tuesday And-1 links: Plans to lure Kings to Virginia Beach appear dead

Here is our regular look around the NBA — links to stories worth reading and notes to check out (stuff that did not get its own post here at PBT) — done in bullet point form. Because bloggers love bullet points like Alabamans love Nick Saban….

• Plans for an arena deal in Virginia Beach — to in theory bring in the Sacramento Kings — are dead. Basically, Comcast-Spectacor, which is reportedly going to be key in paying for the arena, could not work out an agreement with the Kings owners the Maloof family. With no deal in place the mayor of Virginia Beach said they are not going to go to the state and ask for $150 million to help build the arena. The mayor also said the city is pulling out of working on the deal for now.

• The Lakers are starting center Robert Sacre and Darius Morris in place of Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol on Tuesday against Houston as the Lakers go small for Mike D’Antoni with their seven footers injured (Howard is out for the week with a shoulder injury, Gasol has a concussion and his timetable is not known). Going this way against Houston could backfire — Houston plays at the fastest pace in the league and are more comfortable up tempo than the Lakers.

• Along those lines, Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak talks about how his team is not playing well. Stunning. The question is what is he going to do about it? Trade Pau Gasol? And if so do you push to do that at the deadline, or can he wait until the summer when there may be more options.

• Raymond Felton hopes to return to the Knicks lineup from a broken finger by the end of the month. Which is good, they miss him.

• In case you missed it by the way, the Lakers waived Darius Johnson-Odom.

• The Wizards cut Shelvin Mack but are keeping Garrett Temple for the season.

• What player is the biggest NBA defensive difference maker, which team has the biggest drop off on defense when one player leaves the court? The Celtics with Kevin Garnett. Which was probably your first guess.

• The Sixers waived Maalik Wayns, then turned around and signed him to a 10-day contract.

• Should Chris Paul be the MVP? It’s up for debate, but if you are not including him in the discussion you are doing it wrong.

• Here is an interesting bit of basketball reasearch — adjusting assist totals for the bias of arena scorekeepers.

• Ben Gordon calls his three years in Detroit a “failure.”

• Some NBA players — Andre Iguodala, Jared Dudley, Nick Young — talk about the first time they dunked, and more.

• Udonis Haslem has decided to nickname himself Django.

• Here is another interview where Royce White tells his side of the story.