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Friday, Dec 19
Bryant Misses at the Buzzer, Heat Upset Lakers as Wade Scores 35
As Phil Jackson has done throughout his coaching career, he placed great trust in his bench players to chip away at the lead. The early portion of the fourth quarter was an ugly mess as neither team scored for nearly three minutes. Jackson stuck with his reserves for 6:45 and they rewarded his faith by trimming the margin to 80-74 before Bryant returned to action. Bryant scored on a fast break dunk to make the score 80-76 but Wade answered with a jumper. Bryant made an excellent defensive play during an inbounds play, denying Wade easy access to the pass and then pressuring Wade into an over and back violation. However, the Lakers failed to capitalize on this opportunity because their next possession ended with Derek Fisher splitting a pair of fr...
Thursday, Dec 18
NBA Leaderboard, Part III
1) Boston Celtics, 24-2 2) L.A. Lakers, 21-3 3) Cleveland Cavaliers, 21-4 4) Orlando Magic, 20-6 5) New Orleans Hornets, 15-7 1) Dwyane Wade, MIA 28.0 ppg 2) LeBron James, CLE 27.3 ppg 3) Dirk Nowitzki, DAL 26.4 ppg 4) Kobe Bryant, LAL 25.0 ppg 5) Danny Granger, IND 24.4 ppg 6) Devin Harris, NJN 23.8 ppg 7) Chris Bosh, TOR 23.6 ppg 8) Kevin Durant, OKC 23.2 ppg 9) Joe Johnson, ATL 23.0 ppg 10) Vince Carter, NJN 22.5 ppg 25) Chris Paul, NOR 19.7 ppg 31) Paul Pierce, BOS 18.6 ppg 32) Ray Allen, BOS 18.5 ppg 45) LeBron James, CLE 6.7 rpg 50) Jason Kidd, DAL 6.4 rpg There is a .6 apg drop off to 11th place, where rookie Derrick Rose resides, just .1 apg ahead of Devin Harris and LeBron James.
Charting Assists for Chris Paul and Tony Parker in New Orleans' 90-83 Victory Over San Antonio
Fortunately, things picked up quite a bit in the second half, as Paul was credited with seven assists in the third quarter alone, while Parker was credited with three third quarter assists. Paul had three fourth quarter assists as the Hornets rallied from a nine point deficit to defeat the team that eliminated them in last year's playoffs. Parker had one fourth quarter assist. Chris Paul's 12 Assists Manu is the Man as Spurs Eliminate Hornets (Paul is credited with 14 assists but should only have been credited with nine). Smooth All-Around Performance by Paul Lifts Hornets Over Heat (Paul is credited with 13 assists but should only have been credited with 11).
Sunday, Dec 7
Kevin Loughery Talks About Coaching Dr. J
I wish Steve Smith a speedy recovery from his stomach flu but the good news about Smith's illness is that it led to Kevin Loughery being a guest studio analyst on NBA TV on Saturday night. Loughery, a 15.3 ppg career scorer who twice averaged more than 20 ppg during his 11 season NBA career, coached the New York Nets to two championships (1974, 1976) in the ABA. Of course, the star player for the Nets was the incomparable Julius "Dr. J" Erving, whose all-around game blossomed most fully during the three years that he played for Loughery, who had only recently retired from his playing career at that time.
Friday, Dec 5
Wherever Shaq Goes, Controversy Follows
Isn't it interesting that every single one of Shaquille O'Neal's teams has had chemistry issues relating specifically to the Big Diesel? First it was Shaq and Penny in Orlando. Then it was--stop me if you've heard about this one--Shaq and Kobe in L.A. O'Neal did fulfill his promise to bring a championship parade to Miami--with more than a little help from Dwyane Wade--but when the Heat's ship began sinking O'Neal suddenly had health issues that magically disappeared soon after the Phoenix Suns traded for him, giving him a get out of jail card from the worst team in the league last season. Steve Nash has openly questioned whether new Coach Terry Porter's slow down game plan will work; as an aside, with the Suns currently 11-9 and Mike D'Antoni...
Friday, Nov 28
Hornets Edge Nuggets, 105-101
In Iverson's first game with the Pistons, Detroit lost at New Jersey. Then the Pistons fell to the Celtics in Boston. Detroit next played four road games in six days, winning three of them, including one over the Lakers, the only defeat that the Western Conference Champions have suffered this year. In their last four games, the Pistons beat Cleveland, lost again to Boston, got blown out by Minnesota and then bounced back to rout the Knicks. The Minnesota loss at home is bad, no doubt about it, but over the course of an NBA season every team has some bad losses. Iverson's Pistons have played six of their 10 games on the road.
Monday, Nov 24
Knicks Buy Ticket for "LeBron Lottery"
2) Now that the Knicks will theoretically be able to sign two max contract players in 2010 there is speculation that they will try to pair LeBron James with Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh. Either of those combos certainly looks like a great dynamic duo--but history shows that NBA championships are not won merely by putting together two great players. In fact, sometimes even having three great players is not enough: Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor never won a championship together, though Chamberlain and West teamed up with Gail Goodrich to capture the 1972 crown right after Baylor retired. Oscar Robertson/Jerry Lucas, Wes Unseld/Earl Monroe and Karl Malone/John Stockton are three examples of pairings of members of the NBA's 5...
Sunday, Nov 9
Opinion: Smooth All-Around Performance by Paul Lifts Hornets Over Heat
As for Miami, the Heat are obviously immensely better than they were last year. Wade has regained his explosiveness and he once again drives relentlessly to the basket. Miami's primary offensive option is Wade dribbling around until he decides to either shoot or pass; in one late game sequence, Wade was the last Heat player to cross midcourt on offense and the other four Heat players simply stood around like little kids waiting for permission to cross the street: they did not even consider the possibility of trying to run an offensive set or create an open shot by dribble penetration. Rookie point guard Mario Chalmers has played actively on defense and he is averaging more than five apg but Wade is clearly running the show.
Saturday, Nov 8
Excerpt from New Edition of Mark Heisler's Madmen's Ball
The first edition of Mark Heisler's book Madmen's Ball: The Inside Story of the Lakers' Dysfunctional Dynasties was published in October 2004, not long after the most recent Lakers' dynasty imploded in the wake of a 4-1 loss in the NBA Finals followed by the trading of Shaquille O'Neal to Miami and the resignation of Phil Jackson. Of course, O'Neal went on to win a championship with the Heat before presiding over perhaps the quickest and most complete collapse by a champion in NBA history: within two years O'Neal's Heat were the worst team in the NBA and he had found an escape hatch to Phoenix. Meanwhile, Jackson sat out one year before returning to the Lakers and Bryant won two scoring titles as the undermanned Lakers struggled to make the pl...
Wednesday, Oct 15
2008-09 Eastern Conference Preview
Several Eastern Conference teams clearly improved in the offseason--most notably the Philadelphia 76ers, who acquired Elton Brand. The Cleveland Cavaliers hope that Mo Williams will not only solidify the point guard position but that he will also be the best second scoring option that they have had in the LeBron James era; no James sidekick has averaged 17 ppg, a mark that Williams has exceeded each of the past two seasons. The Miami Heat not only added second overall pick Michael Beasley but they look forward to having a healthy and explosive Dwyane Wade for a full season. The New York Knicks will almost certainly improve now that Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni are running the show but there is no reason to believe that even in the Eastern C...
Friday, Jun 27
First Impressions of the 2008 NBA Draft
Between the draft and some recent trades, the Nets added Lopez, Chris Douglas-Roberts (who claims to have never lost a one on one game in his life, a more useful--if harder to verify--trait than Ajinca's one on zero prowess), Ryan Anderson, Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons. Mark Jackson said that New Jersey has made a "tremendous upgrade." Van Gundy liked Milwaukee's moves, which include acquiring Richard Jefferson from New Jersey plus drafting Joe Alexander and Luc Mbah a Moute. Bilas praised the Heat, who added Beasley, Mario Chalmers and Darnell Jackson. Of course, the reality is that it is far too early to know who the real winners and losers are but I think that Jackson, Van Gundy and Bilas' choices are reasonable based on what we currentl...
Thursday, Jun 19
The 2008 Playoffs: Where the Revival of the NBA's Two Flagship Franchises Happened
5) The Utah Jazz have a dynamic young duo in Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer, plus a talented supporting cast that includes two former All-Stars, Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko. They certainly have to be considered a Western Conference contender. If not for Kobe Bryant's heroics against them in the Western Conference semifinals (33.2 ppg, 7.2 apg, 7.0 rpg, .491 field goal shooting) they could very well have made it to the Finals for the first time since the Stockton-Malone era. 7) Chris Paul emerged as the best point guard in the NBA, David West is probably still underrated even though he made the All-Star team and New Orleans looks like a legit Western Conference contender. The playoff experience that the Hornets gained this year should ser...
Friday, Apr 18
2007-08 Playoff Preview
Eastern Conference First Round 1 Boston (66-16) vs. #8 Atlanta (37-45) Season series: Boston, 3-0 2 Detroit (59-23) vs. #7 Philadelphia (40-42) Season series: Tied, 2-2 Detroit will win because...the Pistons will not let the Sixers do those things four times in seven games. 3 Orlando (52-30) vs. #6 Toronto (41-41) Season series: Orlando, 2-1 4 Cleveland (45-37) vs. #5 Washington (43-39) Season series: Tied, 2-2 Season series: L.A., 3-0 2 New Orleans (56-26) vs. #7 Dallas Mavericks (51-31) Season series: Tied, 2-2 Dallas will win because...the Mavericks are loaded with playoff veterans who keenly understand the difference between the regular season and the playoffs. Season series: Phoenix, 3-1 Season series: Utah, 2-1
Friday, Feb 29
Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat's Hard Knock Life
The Lakers beat the Heat 106-88 on Thursday but the game was such a mismatch that it almost is not even worth analyzing; the Lakers jumped out to an 18-4 lead in the first 6:16 and basically toyed with the Heat the rest of the way. You hear a lot of talk about executives and coaches who are doing bad jobs and players who are overrated but what is the deal with Miami? There is no way that this team should be this bad with a Hall of Fame caliber coach in Pat Riley plus Dwyane Wade playing alongside first Shaquille O'Neal and now Shawn Marion. Udonis Haslem and Jason Williams were starters on the 2006 championship team. Ricky Davis is a space cadet but he is also a bona fide scorer. There is some decent talent on the bench. Something very strange is going on with t...
Friday, Feb 8
The Real Deal About Shaq and the Suns
In order to objectively evaluate the deal in which the Phoenix Suns sent Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks to the Miami Heat in exchange for Shaquille O'Neal, it is first essential to understand one thing: the Suns were not going to win an NBA title the way that their roster was constructed prior to this trade. Over the past few years, a lot of myths have developed around this team; one of the most popular ones is that were it not for the one game suspensions of Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw during last year's playoffs the Suns would have rolled to the championship. To use legal terminology, that assumes several facts that are not in evidence, namely that the Suns would not only have won game five versus the Spurs if those players had played but that t...
Thursday, Feb 7
Dayton Daily News Flunks NBA 101
The other DDN article about the NBA had this headline: "Teamwork rarely on display in selfish NBA." It's not a good sign when the headline simply regurgitates a tired stereotype. The author of this piece, Hal McCoy, is a Hall of Fame baseball writer. He is truly one of the best baseball writers around. However, he drew his conclusion about the NBA on the basis of watching one game between Denver and Portland; McCoy admits in his first sentence, "Ordinarily, I wouldn't watch an NBA game unless somebody offered me a free $20 cigar, that is, unless LeBron James is playing."At least he is upfront about his bias; the bias in other sections of many newspapers is generally shrouded beneath a veneer of objectivity. McCoy's beef is that Kenyon Martin--wh...
Wednesday, Feb 6
Dawn of the Shaq Era in the Valley of the Sun
Wednesday was quite a day in Phoenix. The Suns lost a double overtime thriller to the New Orleans Hornets but that game--perhaps the game of the year so far in the NBA--was just an afterthought to the news that the Suns traded Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks to the Miami Heat for Shaquille O'Neal. If you understand basketball then you realize that the two stories are actually connected, so let's look how some of the things that occurred in the game shed light on why the trade happened and what we can expect to see from the revamped Suns. The Suns are getting outrebounded by 5.9 rpg this season and they were without the services of both the traded Marion and the just arrived O'Neal but they caught a break versus New Orleans because Tyson Chandler was not...
Gasol Pau-ers Lakers to Victory Over New Jersey
One victory against a mediocre Nets team is not enough to convince me that the Lakers are the favorites to win the Western Conference--but considering how dangerous the Lakers could be at times even when they consisted of little more than Bryant and four bystanders, it is obvious that this upgraded squad has the potential to do a lot of damage once the key players have an opportunity to jell as a unit. Maybe that will happen this season, maybe it will take an offseason and a full training camp to enable this team to reach its full potential but the days of Bryant trying to go big game hunting with butter knives are over--and that is not a pleasant thought for the other teams in the Western Conference.
Tuesday, Jan 29
NBA Coast to Coast Crew Hands Out First Half Awards
Anthony, Legler, Rose and the rest of the basketball fans in America could all agree on one thing: the Miami Heat have authored the worst performance. Anthony minced no words on this subject, calling the Heat "the most embarrassing team in professional sports in America." That about sums it up. The only thing that I can add is that we need about a five year moratorium on anyone trying to even suggest that Dwyane Wade is as good as Kobe Bryant. I understand that Wade is battling some injuries but so is Bryant and every other top player in the league; Wade is healthy enough to play over 38 mpg and score 25 ppg, so his physical condition is not the primary problem in Miami. Last year, some people questioned the significance of Kobe Bryant's string of 40 an...
Saturday, Dec 1
The Score, the Key Stat, the Bottom Line: The Heat is Off, Durant Sizzles and the Knicks Play Better Without "Starbury"
The Bottom Line: The return of Dwyane Wade has hardly solved all of the Miami Heat's problems. For one thing, Wade is not yet playing at the level that he was before he got hurt last season. Another issue is Pat Riley's "subtraction by addition" offseason acquisitions of Ricky Davis and Smush Parker; Davis has no interest in playing any defense and did not contribute much offensively versus the Celtics (six points on 1-6 field goal shooting), while Parker has been playing terribly (.315 field goal percentage) and, to top it off, is dealing with some legal problems as well. Riley's latest move is to bench Davis and point guard Jason Williams in favor of Penny Hardaway and Chris Quinn. ESPN's Stephen A. Smith reported that Shaquille O'Neal had cro...
Monday, Aug 13
The Life of Riley
Riley led the Lakers to three more titles in the 1980s, including back to back triumphs in 1987 and 1988, the first time that feat had been accomplished since Bill Russell's Boston Celtics did it to close out the 1960s. Ironically, Riley did not win his first Coach of the Year award until 1990, a season when the Lakers did not win the title. That was also his last year with the team. Riley became an NBA commentator for NBC for one season before becoming the coach of the New York Knicks. Riley's Lakers teams were known for playing a "Showtime" brand of basketball that was masterfully choreographed by point guard Magic Johnson. The Knicks did not have the right kind of personnel to play that way, so Riley preached a slow down, physical brand of basketba...
