By the time we did get in, all the players were over on the side of the court, either drinking some water or relaxing on one of the bench seats. Looked like practice was over.

Not so. Rudy blew the whistle and just like that the teams were back on the floor.

Right away you noticed that both Glen Rice and Maurice Taylor sat this one out. Rudy Tomjanovich said after practice that it was a precautionary thing with Taylor, and for Glen it was the "same thing".

Again they went with three Teams.

Gold:
Jason Collier, Eddie Griffin, Pete Mickeal, Cuttino Mobley, Tito Maddox and a big white center, who I think is Brandon Kurtz.

Blue:
Kelvin Cato, Terence Morris, Steve Francis, Tierre Brown and another player who I did not recognize right away. Looked like Cadilac Anderson minus a few hundred pounds.

White:
Steve Goodrich, Oscar Torres, Bostjan Nachbar, Moochie Norris and Sonny Watson, a big center who is similar in build to Kelvin Cato, only leaner.

Swish.

As Team Blue headed up the court to face Team White, something wasn't good enough for Mobley. He unleashed a mini verbal tirade on teammate Pete Mickeal about something that went wrong with the previous play.

A little later, Nachbar got the ball on the wing, fired a pass to Mooch, who put it back to Nachbar and he put up a three... just short. The first shot I've seen him put up at all either day.

The next go-around for Team White though, Nachbar got the pass on the wing, was D'ed up immediately, but he fired a gorgeous back-door bullet pass underneath to a cutting Oscar Torres, who got a layin through the defense. Sweet play. One thing you will notice about Nachbar is he moves extremely well without the ball. From baseline to baseline, he's working to get free for the ball.

After practice, Nachbar stayed late again to do exercises to help his hernia. He would lay parallel to the ground on top of a beach-ball sized exercise ball, and roll across it from his ankles to his mid-thigh area.

From the look on his face, you can tell the injury is still bothering him.

I spoke to Rudy T specifically about the rookie after practice.

"Well, he's just getting over an injury and we're throwing so much stuff at him," said Rudy. "I think it's got to be a tough deal for him. I thought he looked a little bit more relaxed today. It's not the easiest thing in the world, coming in to this new [situation]. That injury set him back a little bit, but I think he's going to be fine."

Steve Francis had a gorgeous, highlight-reel style play a little later in the scrimmage. He blew past his man towards the hoop on the right side of the free throw line. By the time he got 5-8 feet from the hoop, two defenders went hard for the block. But Steve just hung for what seemed like forever, and just before landing, he arched up a beauty ... which banked in for two.

I haven't seen much designed for him, but he certainly looks as he usually does: terrific.

After practice, Rudy spoke specifically about the new offense, which will be much more motion-oriented. Today did seem different. I saw more players without the ball moving around, such as Nachbar mentioned before and I noticed the same from Eddie. Still though, it seemed far too often that Eddie was out on the wing more than in the post, but again hard to make those conclusions from watching 15 minutes of practice.

You can read more about what Rudy said regarding the offense and Yao Ming here.

Things Noticed

• Carroll Dawson was in attendance. A former Baylor star himself, Dawson had Baylor men's basketball coach Dave Bliss as a guest at the practice. CD was on a cell phone part of the time but I never heard him say much ... except at the end when he blurted out, "So are we going to Quizno's or what?"
• Terence Morris continues to shoot jumpers with the coaches after practice. It's clear they have made knocking down the jay his number one priority. Ironically, so was Collier on the other end of the floor with coach Jim Boylen. Rumor Tuesday night was both Morris and Collier are on the bubble this season.