According to Chris Tomasson of the Rocky Mountain News [which published its last edition today], Hart will become a member of the Denver Nuggets next week.  Chris posted this at TrueHoop Network affiliate, Roundball Mining Company:

The Nuggets next week will sign point guard Jason Hart, multiple sources told the Rocky Mountain News on Friday.

Hart has been bought by the Los Angeles Clippers for about $300,000.  After he clears waivers, expected to be on Tuesday, he will sign a prorated minimum deal with the Nuggets.  More...

When Jason Hart leaves the game in the first half with elbow tendinitis, Fred Jones – a player who wasn’t in the league a week ago – becomes the Clippers’ first-string point guard.   Jones doesn’t play poorly, finishing with a +9 on the night, as the Clippers hang around against a healthy, talented Phoenix team.

Where is Baron Davis?  A report that Baron would sit out the game with a bruised tailbone trickles out of Phoenix about ten minutes before tip-off.  The way Baron has been shooting the ball during his first ten weeks as a Clipper, I’m willing to accept that he’s hurt.   The unanswerable question, of course, is how many of the other 29 starting point guards in the league would be playing in Baron’s condition?

In no basketball universe is Fred Jones a natural point guard.  You can observe his limitations at [3rd, 3:38], and [4th, 10:12] when he telegraphs a couple of bad passes in halfcourt sets that Matt Barnes and Leandro Barbosa poke away in the lanes for Phoenix fast breaks.  But Jones has a good dribble game and isn’t afraid to draw contact on a drive for a trip to the line [3rd, 3:05; 3rd, 1:56].  Jones isn’t the defender Hart is, but Jason Richardson doesn’t kill him and he doesn’t make any brutal mistakes.

The game isn’t shown over-the-air or on cable in Los Angeles, so I pick up the Phoenix broadcast with Tom Leander and Scott Williams.  It’s always interesting to hear the opposing crew.  Early on, Leander speaks glowingly of Eric Gordon’s skill set.  He cites a pregame conversation with Mike Smith, during which the Clippers’ color commentator tells Leander there isn’t anything on the floor that Gordon doesn’t do well.  Leander and Williams also spend time on the Clippers’ train wreck narrative — the unending injuries, the Davis-Dunleavy flap, Ricky Davis, etc.  Leander does a good job breaking down a set at [1st, 6:15] when Marcus Camby calls for a lob after he gets baseline position in a mismatch against Grant Hill.  Instead of finding Camby, Hart swings it weak side along the perimeter to Eric Gordon.  A frustrated Marcus Camby, who was wide open having spun off Hill, throws his arms in the air in disgust — and Marcus has every right to be pissed.  Leander notes it as a talisman for the Clippers’ season.

Whatever annoyance Marcus might convey at Hart, the Clippers’ center is an absolute professional tonight.  Marcus racks up 23 rebounds — 11 of them on the offensive glass — to go along with 19 points.  Four of his seven FGMs come on tips or offensive boards.  He repeatedly finds himself on his ass diving and scraping for what little is offered to his impoverished team.  When this one is over, there are only seven bodies left standing for the Clippers in addition to Marcus.  Each of them — Thornton, EJ, Novak, Collins, Jones, Skinner, and Paul Davis — could’ve phoned it in.  None of them do.

Eric Gordon looks more like a pro with each outing. Tonight he scores 21 points on 65% TS, has three shots blocked [two of which will be called as fouls once he logs 200 games], and turns the ball over three times.  EJ gets a great deuce at [4th, 3:53...garbage time, I know] when he starts in the right corner, runs the baseline, then flashes up to the left elbow, rubbing Jason Richardson by a Brian Skinner back screen.  As he turns the corner around Skinner, EJ collects the ball from Jones, stop, and pops a high-arching jumper over Shaquille O’Neal.  It’s vintage Rip Hamilton.  And Rip Hamilton in the body of Eric Gordon sounds pretty good in the morass of an 8-24 season.  We’ll worry about his Crawfordian rebounding rate later.

How bad are the Clippers down the stretch?

Al Thornton ties the game at 86-86 with a couple of free throws at the 3:31 mark of the fourth quarter.  On the next Sixers possession, they go into Thaddeus Young on the right block against Al Thornton.  Both Thornton and Young are natural 3s, but both play out of position tonight at the 4 — which makes sense since each team is missing its starting power forward.  What’s interesting is that rather than function as “3-plusses,” both guys morph themselves into power forwards by playing down in the post much of the night, and do so effectively.  Young finishes the night a torrid 10-14 from the field, but here he misses the left-handed hook.  More...

• Tim Thomas has always been regarded as a good fit for Mike D’Antoni’s offensive system.  Unfortunately, that good fit looks like a tight fit right now:
  

  “[Thomas] might be a few pounds overweight,” D’Antoni said.

  Thomas, who came with Mobley from the Clippers, did not argue with D’Antoni’s assessment. He said it has been three years since he played D’Antoni’s speedball system.

  “It’s going to be difficult for Cuttino also,” Thomas said. “I have to continue to get in shape for this system. It’s up and down, and in L.A., it was run when you have the opportunity. The last couple of years, it’s been that way. I know how to get myself right. I’ve played it before. It will take me a week and I’ll be ready.”

• Injuries sustained by Marcus Camby and Eric Gordon on Saturday night appear to be minor, and shouldn’t result in any time on the shelf for either player.
• Despite being banished to the end of the Bench, Jason Hart has been nothing but professional, according to Ramona Shelburne.
• Smart breakdown from Clips Nation of that nutty play Saturday night with :07.6 remaining.  With Tom Ziller, Steve gets to the heart of the matter: “If Wade has the ball and comes into contact with Kirkland out of bounds, then he is out of bounds – LA ball.  And it’s not open to interpretation.”  Oddly, the Miami Herald did no such examination in crafting its recap or its headline.
• Interesting piece from Caryl Kauffman on Elton Brand and the Sixers’ struggles.  She notes that Brand “has a tendency to get a bit defensive when the topic turns to the lack of offensive flow and how difficult the team’s adaptation to his style has been…”