Kyrie Irving has taken an elevated defensive responsibility, admitting that he is taking the most burden on that end in his four-year career.

"My first three years, it was just making excuses of offensive burdens and all this other stuff and at the end of the day, I just have to do it for the greater good of our team," Irving said. "In order for our team to win, I have to be that kind of guy on the defensive end. You can only talk about it for so long and at one point it just has to be done.

"Going into my fourth year, it was just a conscious effort just to have a better focus level on that end," he said. "It starts with that. No matter whom we are playing against, guys are trying to stop me and I got to try to stop other guys. It's the attitude I have every single night. Of the teams, it's their objective to stop me. So in the back of my mind it's like, 'Why can't I be a great defender? I don't understand.' It's just all about effort."

Irving has tried to be a better individual and team defender.

"So it's not as much pressure for other guys to help me," Irving said. "I'd rather help other guys and be in position to help and stop my guy instead of the other way around and always being that guy on film. I was on film a lot for the last three years. You get tired of it after a while. You want to be that guy that your teammates trust on a day in, day out basis."

Derrick Rose had 21 points and four rebounds in the Chicago Bulls' 109-102 win over the Boston Celtics on Friday.

"My confidence is through the roof, man," Rose said. "I don't need no more confidence, I just need to play. I know how good I am and I know how good I'm going to be. It's just that I just need to be out there playing."

Rose only played 10 minutes in the Bulls' loss on Tuesday to the Denver Nuggets.

The difference for Rose between Tuesday's game and Friday's was simple in Tom Thibodeau's eyes.

"He played," Thibodeau said.

"The thing for Derrick is he's got to keep building," Thibodeau said. "Honestly, I looked at the 10 minutes [in Denver] as a positive. Back-to-back [games], he's out there. I looked at the last two days, practicing and practicing hard, so he plays better. That's how he's going to shake the rust off. So I just want him to keep building. That's what I want him to do. He's got to be out there in order to do that."

Larry Sanders has found his game again to start this season with Jason Kidd as head coach.

"It was being patient with myself," Sanders said. "I think some guys get down. You can't get too high or get too low.

"It's just finding your pace again. But Coach (Kidd) has been great, my teammates have been great with me and I'm just trying to play off of them."

Kidd and his staff made Sanders a centerpiece of their efforts from the beginning, working with him in Las Vegas during the summer and continuing during training camp.

"They came in and changed the culture; the (new) owners came in and changed the culture," Sanders said. "It's a whole different mind-set than I've ever had.

"We're really trying to build something new here and you could feel it. I'm just happy to be a part of it."

Steve Clifford believes Lance Stepenson's slow start and adjustment in his first season with the Charlotte Hornets are partly due to his struggles to live up to external expectations.

"To be fair, one of the things that's made it more difficult for him is that he came here and people proclaimed him as the next superstar," Clifford said Wednesday. "He's not a star. He's a guy that has talent to become a star. To be a star in this league, you have to do it over years."

"It's different. It's not easy. He started two years before he got here. He played on a really good team, so everybody saw him play when no one else was playing. When Al Jefferson came here, he'd [averaged] 19 [points] and eight [rebounds] for like 10 years. You knew what you were going to get. And that's what Lance needs to become. In many ways it's not fair."

"I've told [Stephenson] this. I've been fortunate. I've been around Kobe [Bryant] and [Tracy] McGrady. They were superstars. I was also around Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell. They were two-, three-year All-Stars. [Stephenson has] got a lot of work to get to that level. Everybody proclaimed him as this guy, and if you remember the first time we got him, I said he's got to develop into that."

Stephenson was benched again in the Hornets' loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday. He is averaging 9.7 points and 8.1 rebounds this season.

The Philadelphia 76ers are not currently scheduled to be favored in any of their remaining 69 games.

Their best odds to win are at 44.6 percent on March 30th when they host the Los Angeles Lakers.

The 76ers have yet to win a game this season.

LeBron James framed the Cleveland Cavaliers' state as "fragile" after the team dropped to 5-7 with a 110-93 home loss to Toronto Raptors on Saturday.

"We're a very fragile team right now," James said. "Well, we were a fragile team from the beginning. Any little adversity hits us, we just shell up. That's something that will come with experience.

"This is not even the lowest it's going to get for us. You guys know, the lowest it can get is up 17 in the fourth quarter of Game 2 of the Finals and losing. It can get that low. Or being up 2-1 and going to Game 4 and lose three straight in the Finals. That's very low. So, I'm very optimistic. I'm very positive. More positive than I thought I would be right now, so, we look at what we did wrong, things that we did well and get ready for Orlando coming in on Monday."

Serge Ibaka has already tied a career-high for three-point makes and attempts in a season with 23 and 60 respectively.

Ibaka's three-point shooting is expected to continue for the Oklahoma City Thunder after Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant.

“I think it continues,” Scott Brooks said. “He doesn’t necessarily have to live out there and shoot 10 a game. But three or four a game is a good number for him.”

Ibaka is shooting a team-best 38.3 percent from 3-point range — the equivalent of an efficient 1.15 points per shot attempt (or a 57.5 percent 2-point shooter).

“He’s a great shooter,” Brooks said. “He’s not just a great big-man shooter.”

James Harden discussed the difference that Trevor Ariza has made in the Houston Rockets' lineup this season.

“His leadership, his defensive abilities, his shot-making -- all three of those things are something that we were lacking last year,” Harden said. “[Ariza] brings that ability to the table this year.”

Harden downplayed the impact of Parsons' departure over the summer, describing himself and Howard as Houston’s cornerstones and the rest of the roster as role players.

Parsons has said he does not pay attention to Ariza's play.

"I don't pay any attention to him," Parsons said recently. "Listen, many people replace many people every year in this league. He's a good, proven player in this league. He's supposed to play good for them."

The Philadelphia 76ers have lost their first 11 games and are eight losses away from the longest-season opening losing streak.

"That's where we're at, everybody," he said. "And we're not crying about it. We don't want sympathy. We come to work. I get it."

The 14 players who have played so far this season for the 76ers have an average age of 23.3 years.

"When I first took this job, when [general manager] Sam [Hinkie] took his job, nobody knew that year two was going to play out like this," Brown said after practice Thursday.

The 76ers were expecting a big improvement with two first round picks, but they instead selected an injured player (Joel Embiid) and one that would remain in Europe (Dario Saric).

"We put our big-boy pants on and made a decision that is best for the club long-term," Brown said. "Time will tell. But the year that we are all now living in is a result of those types of decisions. That's why you look on the floor and see a roster like you do and resumés like you do."

LeBron James is averaging the third-most minutes per game in the NBA at 39.1. Fourth and fifth on that list are Kyrie Irving (38.4 mpg) and Kevin Love (37.0 mpg).

"That has to come down," James said Tuesday, referring to the playing time for the Cleveland Cavaliers' Big 3.

"For me, I don't want to do that all year," James added. "Obviously right now it's difficult because we're trying to find a groove and we're trying to find a rhythm and we're trying to find something that you can't really, you don't want to shortcut it but at the same time you gotta be smart about it."

James played 41 minutes in the Cavaliers' 106-97 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Monday.