CHICAGO -- Coast to coast around the NBA.

Passing the torch: One of these days, Boston's Ray Allen is going to break Reggie Miller's career record for 3-pointers. Heading into Saturday, Allen was 25 shy of Miller's 2,560.

Miller doesn't mind, figuring Allen's final mark will never be broken.

"We're in the flash of the ESPN Top 10 highlights of everyone wanting to dunk and cross-over and be spectacular," Miller said during a recent TNT broadcast. "Shooting is boring, it takes time and you have to spend hours working on your craft. Players don't want to put up the sacrifice to do it.

"That's why I applaud Ray Allen, at 35 years old, getting ready to break my record in the next month and a half. He is the best shooter in this league and that's sad because there should be some young gun-slinger coming up saying, "I'm going to shatter Ray Allen's record." There's no one alive that's going to break his record."

Trying to fit in: Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy blames himself for Gilbert Arenas' slow start since arriving from Washington last month.

"Gil is struggling right now, and the biggest thing he is struggling with now is me," Van Gundy told AOL Fanhouse reporter Tim Povtak. "I'm harder on point guards than anyone else. He's not playing with a great deal of enthusiasm. He's not enjoying playing. And I'm a big reason. There is an adjustment he's going to have to make."

Rookie report

Minnesota’s

Johnson, a 6-7, 215-pound forward who was the fourth pick in the draft after being named the Big East Player of the Year last year at Syracuse, was recently moved to the bench after starting 35 of the team’s first 42 games. He’s averaging 8.7 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists.

Against New Orleans on Dec. 27, he had a career-high 24 points, including a club-record six 3-pointers. But he’s also third on the team with 18 dunks, behind

Still, he’s going to have to crank it up if he’s going to compete for his stated goal of winning the league’s Rookie of the Year award.

The last word

From Byron Scott, on not all of his players knowing the offense yet: “If I had hair, I'd pull it out.”

For the first time in his career, Arenas is strictly a backup. "I don't always know what's expected," he told Povtak. "Offensively, I'm not real comfortable, but I'm making the passes to Ryan [Anderson] and J.J. [Redick] to get them going. That's what I do.

"I'm used to playing 40 minutes, where you don't have to be aggressive all the time. That's one of the problems. Used to be, I'd pass it, pass it, get everyone going, then usually have time to find my groove. But by the time that happens here, I'm usually out of the game.

"I'm out there now, just trying not to make mistakes. Everyone has different [coaching] styles. And once you learn them, it's easy. Once they learn you, they trust you. When I was first with Eddie Jordan [in Washington], I used to get subbed every 15 seconds."

Van Gundy says Arenas and the Magic will work things out.

"This isn't an easy adjustment for anyone," Van Gundy said. "When Rafer [Alston] came in [two seasons ago], he knew I was an [expletive]. He was used to it. When Gil first came, he was playing well, and we weren't putting a lot on him. He was playing free. But the more we put on him, the harder it's been. I'm not saying it's my fault, but it's my responsibility to help make it work."

Grading period: NBA TV issued mid-season progress reports last week, and analyst Brent Barry is surprised by the Chicago Bulls (in a good way) and the Cavaliers (not in a good way).

"I'm very impressed with Derrick Rose," Barry said. "I didn't think that we would see this type of accelerated improvement out of him. Carlos Boozer has been doing this same thing for years in the league, just a tremendous offense threat. He does have some liabilities on the defensive end.

"The issue with these two guys together, I don't know what they did during the time Boozer was out, I don't know if they got on eHarmony.com and hooked up, but the symbiotic play that they have had this quickly is what surprised me the most. They found some sort of chemistry a lot quicker than I thought it would happen. [Coach] Tom Thibodeau has done a great job of getting these guys together and that has been the most impressive thing to me so far."

Of the Cavs, "I'm surprised at how disappointed I am. I thought Byron Scott would be able to get something out of these guys with Antawn Jamison being the professional that he is, trying to get Daniel Gibson and J.J. Hickson on board with coming out every night and competing. Then you see [Anderson] Varejao go down and that is basically ripping the heart out of that Cleveland team with the energy and they way he brings it every night. ... Very disappointing season."