He has been on the butt end of any number of basketball epithets — ballhog, chucker, black hole — but perhaps that has not been his fault. Perhaps he has been a dime-dropping playmaker all this time, merely trapped in the body of a guy plenty capable of a 5-for-17 shooting night.

“I feel that I’m a point guard,” Crawford said Monday night. “That’s other people that listed me at shooting guard.”

Indeed, Crawford was a catalyst in Boston’s fourth straight win, logging 16 points and reaching the 10-assist mark for just the fourth time in his four-year career. Crawford had an 11-assist game as part of a triple-double with Washington last December, played all of the 2011-’12 season without a 10-assist game, and did it twice as a rookie — including one game in which he also shot 10-for-28 from the field.

Maybe Crawford is right, maybe he has been a point guard in hiding here in the NBA. More likely, he is just gaining some experience and getting better at doing more than just flinging shots. Remember, last year’s Celtics coach, Doc Rivers, described Crawford as a player, “who scares both coaches,” because of his ability to score in bunches and ability to shoot his team out of a game.

But Crawford’s game has evolved since Boston brought him in from Washington last season.

“I think it is more mature,” forward Jeff Green said. “I know he had a bad rep coming from the Wizards, as a one-way player. But now, he is learning the game, he is playing both ends and as a guard, he is bigger (6-4) than a lot of guards, so he can shoot right over them. He has the mentality to turn it on when need be, but he’s learning and picking his spots.”   

It is only a four-game stretch, but the Celtics offense has hit its stride since coach Brad Stevens moved Crawford into the starting point-guard role. That has helped Avery Bradley, who has slid back to his more natural shooting-guard role, and boosted the bench, where Gerald Wallace can now be a sixth man. Boston scored 120 points in beating the Magic Monday, following the weekend’s 111-point effort in Miami.

“I think he’s really doing a great job,” Stevens said. “He’s got a lot of confidence out there. He’s always been a guy that had good confidence about him, but I think the thing that I’ve been most pleased with through really the entire time I’ve been around him is his consistency.  Because that’s an area in which you have to really embrace if you’re going to be a good point guard because everybody’s depending on you to be reliable on a day-to-day basis.”

Crawford hasn’t traditionally come across as the most reliable primary ballhandler, that is for sure. Heck, for so long, it seemed that passing was a foul word in the Crawford lexicon. But watching him lately, it seems Crawford is actually seeing the court quite well.

“You all just now noticing that, huh?” he said. “I was blessed with court vision. When a teammate’s open, you find him.”


KNICKS CHASE LOVE


We aren't even done talking about the summer of 2014 NBA free agency, but the New York Knicks are already thinking 2015.

The Knicks' salary cap has a lot to do with that mind state, because their hands are tied until the summer of 2015, when, as things currently stand, the contracts expire for Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire, Tyson Chandler and Andrea Bargnani. Until then, though, the Knicks will pay out $86.8 million in 2013-14 and $91.2 million in 2014-15. The Knicks are expected to re-sign Anthony, though, who can opt out of his contract this summer.

When the Knicks do have salary cap space to maneuver, they could use that newfound freedom to chase Minnesota Timberwolves power forward Kevin Love, who becomes a free agent in 2015, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.

The team has already started to devise a plan to lure Love from Minnesota to New York, Wojnarowski reported. 

As Wojnarowski points out, LeBron James (2014), comes up before the Knicks can make a move and Kevin Durant (2016) is a year too late. Funny thing is, Love, who signed a four-year, $62 million extension, could fall in that 2016 category, if the Wolves had made the proper move at the time of his signing. Love wanted a fifth-year on his contract, but the Wolves decided to wait with the intentions of making point guard Ricky Rubio their designated player.

Now, if Love has interest in leaving, he has a suitor in the Knicks. And there will be no shortage of attention from other teams if Love continues to play the way he has thus far this season. Since returning from hand surgery, Love is averaging 26.4 points and 15.0 rebounds through eight games for the 5-3 Wolves.

While they made a misstep in not signing Love for five years, the Wolves are doing all they can to retain him and create a winner. They signed Nikola Pekovic to a five-year, $60 million deal and added Corey Brewer and Kevin Martin on the wings. Now, the team is willing to trade young players Derrick Williams and Alexey Shved to add veterans to help their playoff push, one that appears like a real possibility at the moment.

The 2015 summer is a still ways away and the Wolves appear headed in the right direction, but the Knicks are lurking and there's nothing surprising about that.


BIG BABY FIT


A rough year for Glen “Big Baby” Davis got a little rougher last Friday. At a Travelodge Motel.

According to TMZ Sports, Davis attempted to check into an Orlando Travelodge after the Magic lost to his former team, the Celtics, a game from which Davis sat out as he recovers from foot surgery. When told the motel was sold out, security video showed that Davis grabbed a computer keyboard and threw it across the hotel lobby.

Davis angrily left the hotel. Police responded to the scene, and while a report was taken, according to TMZ, no charges were filed.

Davis originally injured his left foot in January, ending a season in which he had averaged a career-high 15.1 points and 7.9 rebounds. He had another surgery this summer after suffering a setback, and has yet to play, or even return to full-contact drills, this year.

He has been with the Magic since 2011, and will earn $6.4 million this year, with his contract calling for $6.6 million next year. Why, exactly, he was looking for a room at the Travelodge is a mystery.

Davis did take to Twitter on Tuesday to apologize.

Contributors: Sean Deveney, DeAntae Prince