Coyne's Clippings

Jackie Mac talks with 'Twoine about his return to Beantown and his role. He seems to be relishing it and realizing how he doesn't want to be one of those players who bounces around the league... At any rate, the C's with a rousing 104-101 win over the Lakers!

And here's the deal on No. 88 who switched to 8 before the game...

In the big surprise of the night, Walker took the court in his customary No. 8 jersey with rookie Al Jefferson moving down to No. 7.

"I saw Chris [Webber] in the Philly game [with his old number] and I just called up [league offices] and made a big deal [about it]," said Walker. "I said, `Well how did [Webber] get his number back and I didn't? Then, I conned Al Jefferson. I called him to my room and I tried to con that [No. 8] out of him. He said, `Fine.' "

Asked how costly it was to re-acquire No. 8, Walker replied, "That's undisclosed information."

The only player mildly disappointed in the switch was Rivers, who had some choice one-liners ready for No. 88, which Walker wore in his first two games back.

"I could care less about a number," said Rivers. "I thought 88 was better. Twice as nice. Second time around. I had all kinds of crap for that. Now, I don't have anything."

And there's only one question I have left with Gary Payton (G.P.) set to rejoin the team off of waivers... how / why? If your Atlanta, why would you want to cut him loose? You need players! If you don't want him fine, but trade him to someone else! Who's their GM? He sucks!