Maurice Brooks = Putz

If you don't believe he is a putz, look at his picture.
http://www.nba.com/features/player_rankings.html

I know i shouldn't worry about retard sports journalists. But, not having Chauncey Billups in the top 20 for MVP is sickening. I even wrote that dumbass an email. I have never sent in an email to any website (or website guy) before.

Also, i was watching this ESPN recap of the season thus far. The words "Detroit" and "Pistons" were not mentioned once on the whole program. 2nd best record in the NBA, not one breath wasted on them. For rizzle! It reminds me of when Detroit won the championship in '03 and all espn talked about was what LA would do now, immediately following the final game.

Why does everyone hate Detroit so much? Except TNT, those are the only guys I hear give them respect.

i gotta hand it to tom

before i'd even heard the name Dwight Howard, Tom told me this guy was good for 30 and 20. at the time i was like, "jesus tom are you kidding me nobody can give you that every night!"
but now, tom's prophecy is coming dangerously close to true this year,which may end up being the reason he has to take a huge bite out of a living fish at boy's club.

it's a thing of beauty, tom. you were so right about Dwight. i'm so sorry.

Power Rankings-Utah, etc.

http://www.nba.com/powerrankings/

I had been trying to make quality posts. But since no one ever posts, i was thinking, i should jsut post whatever, anything i feel like yakking about. And so shoudl y'all.

I been digging the Jazz last couple years. They are kinda my team in the west atm. Anyway, what is up with them lately. They are suddenly losing to everyone. I'm pretty sure a couple weeks ago they were ranked like 3 or 5 in the rankings. Now they are 13th. I haven't seen many of their games, so i don't know what their deal is. Anyone else kinda a Jazz fan? Anyone know why they are on a two week suck streak?

Portland in the mean time, is crushing everyone. They went from like 28th a couple weeks ago (i think, i can't find old power rankings, though. i'm sure i found them last year) to 14th. If i have more time, i'd post a tight picture of Drexler and C. Robinson here:)

Miami has to go 35-24 rest of the way to have a .500 average. Which would probably enough for 7 seed really. But nothing seems to be improving there. I know Wade is prob not 100% after his injury, but i am jsut not seeing the D Wade from a couple of years ago. I don't know if yous watched the Eastern semis couple years ago. But when Heat beat Detroit, Wade's performace was the most dominating i have seen since then. He was like Jordan that series. He could get anything he wanted. I got to the point where you i would yell "No!" if Wade was shooting a contested fadeaway 25-footer, cause i knew even those were gonna go in. So Wade needs to be Wade; i think that would help grandpa Shaq be Shaq.

so, anyother power ranking thoughts?


ps. Pistons are 3 now! Been a nice steady climb. We were like 12th a month ago.

Is Boston for real?

I know they've had one of the easiest schedules in the history of the NBA, but 19-2? Come on!

...

Nevermind, I just looked at their schedule. Who makes these? They've played almost nobody good yet.

Here are the 10 teams with the next best records and how many times Boston has played them this season:

SA (17-5): 0
Phoenix (17-6): 0
Orlando (17-7): 1 (lost this game)
Detroit (16-7): 0
Dallas (15-9): 0
New Orleans (14-9): 0
Toronto(14-10): 2
Lakers (13-9): 1
Golden State (13-10): 1
Utah (13-11): 0

So against the other top 5 teams in the league they are 0-1.

Well, a good test is coming up. Here are their next 11 games:

Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Orlando, Sacramento, Seattle, Utah, LAL, Houston, Memphis, Detroit

Six games against top 10 teams (and Houston should be a top 10 team if they'd ever get their heads out of their asses). Still, after all those games they have yet to play SA, Phoenix or Dallas. They must have paid top dollar for this schedule. Maybe they traded being picked first in the lottery for an easier schedule.

Mini-rant

After watching the NBA TV Top 10: Dec 11 at NBA.com, though i'd post.

My fuss is blocks. As I percieve it, nearly all NBA players (not Alonzo Mourning) would rather have a block where they send the ball flying 20 meters, as opposed to a block where they retain possession afterwards.

Normally, I just give players the benefit of the doubt. I'll just say, "Oh, that was probably the only block that would work that time," or, "that particular block probably did not really allow for a chance to retain the ball."

But sometimes, they could have definately kept possession. Like a block Lebron has in the top 10 today, the ball is practically hovering right in front of him in midair (exageration included), looks like he could just grab the ball and run away.

Maybe, distanced of blocked ball traveled is inversely proportional to penis size and sending the ball flying makes them feel like manly men, i don't know.

ahhhh, now i feel better.

he makes it look so easy

i've said it before, and i still think it's true:
it looks like it's easier for lebron to play this game than anyone i've ever seen.

anyone.

for a while i thought i was crazy, but then my friend jeremy the professional analyst said pretty much the same thing and i knew it had to be true.

anyone wanna throw rocks at me now?

anyone wanna bring up the M word?

personally, i think this picture says it all.

There is something fishy about Detroit...

Direct quote from Tom:





"Hollinger had Orlando with a better regular season record than detroit. If that happens, i'll take a giant bite out of a living fish at boysclub. Espn writers are renobs."



Detroit: 9-5
Orlando: 14-3

I can't wait.

Who planned this?

The NBA schedule has never made sense to me. It's only the first month of the season and already there are some teams that have played four more games than other teams.

Chicago and Minnesota have only played 10 games whereas Orlando and New Orleans have already played 14. What the hell? I know they all end up playing 82 games by the end but shouldn't the schedules be a little more aligned? Obviously teams take "turns" playing several games in a short period of time and then have a big break but why not just even the whole thing out.

Or is there not a supercomputer created yet that can master this scheduling predicament task?

Conspiracy Theory

Alright, while it is true that I'm still stinging because of the Rockets' early season INSANELY difficult schedule, I still think that the following is plausible. However, let me know if I'm just being a nut.

The league purposefully gave Boston an easy schedule at the beginning of the season to build up their 3 man team.

This is their schedule:

Washington(4-5) W 103-83
@ Toronto(5-5) W 98-95
Denver(7-3) W 119-93
Atlanta(3-6) W 106-83
@ New Jersey(4-6) W 112-101
@ Indiana(4-6) W 101-86
New Jersey(4-6) W 91-69
Miami(2-8) W 92-91
That...if you're counting...is a combined 33-45. One team with a winning record.

GM for a Day

Fix your team!

Some might say that that it's a little early to make cemented judgements on one's team but I'm not so sure. I'm not saying everyone needs big changes but I think every team has some sort of need (some teams less than others) and likely have a player or two that could be utilized to help fill those holes via trade.

Need 3 point shooting & have a plethora of quality forwards? I'm sure someone out there has too many guards & could use another quality big. Have a player that's getting paid way more than they're worth? Call Isiah & see if he'll give you some relief. I'm sure Marbury's available as a quick fix for those teams with chemistry issues ;).

Though it's a given that the trade should be good for your team - I'd love to see a few that would benefit all teams involved (therefore plausible that they'd be agreed to).

Inspiration came to me from the Lake Show. I've probably got more work to do than most others (as Kupchak seems particularly inept to me) so I'll break them down in a followup entry.

Finally, feel free to venture into trades that would be good for other teams too (don't necessarily have to stick with ones including your own homer)... which brings me to an ulterior motive for this post. I'm actually hoping that someone here holds the key to the 'most pivotal trade in Lakers history' [enabling them to win 24 straight championships!!!].

ESPN's Trade Machine: http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/trademachine

Sixth Man of the Year Award

Does this Award even mean anything anymore?

Case in point: Jason Terry and Manu Ginobili

Clearly these guys are "starters" coming off the bench. Jeremy said it best. You gotta have someone in there who can lead your bench players. Whether it is truely a winning strategy is up for debate. However, my arguement here is that 6th man, much like the MVP has no meaning. I mean, what are we to judge it upon? Is a 6th man really a 6th man if they are always in the game at the end when it really matters? I've always thought of 6th man going to the player who wasn't starter material but played above and beyond. Maybe I'm wrong.

According to NBA.com the NBA Sixth Man Award honors the league’s top player in a reserve role.

Is Ginobili or Terry really a reserve player? Hell no!

Who else out there is a starter in reserve's clothing?

Someone needs to clean these award criteria up dammit.

New stats

Well, +/- isn't new, but now they are putting it in box scores.

Who had the best +/- last year you ask? Well, here's a fun fact for you:

1. Tim Duncan (+760)
2. Dirk Nowitzki (+626)
3. Steve Nash (+609)
http://www.nba.com/statistics/lenovo...&split=9&team=

And what is that BA?

Well, here's another fun fact:

Blocks against. For every blocked shot on defence, there is a BA on the person who got blocked. You'll notice, ever BS and BA are transposed for each team.

For example:

http://www.nba.com/games/20071101/HOUUTA/boxscore.html
Note: Rockets kick ass. Look at that bench scoring. Look at Yao's 5 blocks. Look at Tracy's 17-27 and 47 points. That shit is hot!

But...this post is really about stats =)

New Season!!!

WOOT!!!

The NBA starts up tonight with our favorite teams, the Spurs and the Rockets.

Is there any interest out there in predicting the season? Lets hear what you think will happen with the following:

Western Champs
Eastern Chumps...ahem...Champs
NBA Champs
MVP

Ubuntu?

I don't really like it when a new post is for responses to an article without much commentary to start out the discussion but uh... I guess I'm just lazy:

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view.bg?articleid=1035964

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_%28philosophy%29

Doc Rivers = Pat Riley + Phil Jackson ?

I sincerely doubt it but am really jazzed to see what he can (or can't) do with this team.

marion wants out

am i the only one that even cares?

you can't argue with numbers.

simmons says houston could do it for battier and expiring contracts. i love me some battier, but i'm just saying...

http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/blog/index?name=simmons


i figure the best chance of getting a response from this crowd is to pull the rockets card...

Speaking of America's Team...

I know this is no Dream Team '92 but this roster is pretty impressive. Has anyone taken a good look at the 2008 Olympic Team?

Here are the main dudes (I'm only listing the big names):

C - Amare Stoudemire, Dwight Howard
F - Melo, LeBron, Tayshaun Prince
SG - Kobe, Michael Redd
PG - Jason Kidd, Deron Williams, Chauncey Billups

Reserve players: Carlos Boozer, Shawn Marion, Bruce Bowen, Shane Battier

Injured Players: Gilbert Arenas, Chris Bosh, Elton Brand, Lamar Odom, Chris Paul, Paul Pierce, Dwayne Wade

That team is sick. When your option at Point Guard is between Jason Kidd, Deron Williams, Chauncey Billups and Chris Paul you really can't lose.

It's strange that Allen Iverson didn't get asked to play since he was the captain of the last Olympic Team. And I guess you could add KG in there. But other than that it's a really phenominal team.

America's Team

I've made this comment to a few of you, but I thought it worthy of a post. Why is Melo the leading scorer on this team? Is he really that good? Mark says its cause he's efficient. But the guy is getting more touches than anyone else.

Will the American team lose a game?

Are they gauranteed the gold?

This is also a shameless test of the new emailing scheme. =)

Can you save the NBA?

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrookpreview/070821&sportCat=nfl

Ran across this article and about half way through his main topic, I wanted to grab the guy by the ears and yell in his face that Nike, Reebok, & now Adidas (& indirectly, MJ... yeah, you heard me.) started the NBA's decline. I like football but I cannot believe that it's a superior game.

About the time I almost couldn't take it anymore, he actually started learnin' me sump'un' ... 'the Sonny Vaccaro factor.' I think he made plenty of other decent points too but none of them so pertinent as, what seems like, the origin of the NBA's celebration of the ego.

(Warning: he hits on many other topics, some entertaining, some not)

First off, anyone believe the NFL is the better sport? Anyone have any other ideas about how the NFL gained such strength (or why the NBA lost so much steam after MJ)?

Secondly, anyone want to make a "capitalism itself trumps all possible unforeseen, and especially unintended, effects" arguement?


Finally, Most Importantly... Can anyone help David Stern with some grass roots, die-hard, off-Mad (Ave.) marketing genius? What changes should be wrought immediately? What approaches can be made that will take patience to see payoff (think long-term, i.e. effects of which might take 5+ years)?

A big ol Juicy topic for Jer.

What the heck are the Lakers going to do? All this talk of Jermaine O'neal really is perplexing. Especially since they are talking about giving up Odom for him. I mean, I don't know if that really is a significant upgrade. I mean, if I remember correctly, everytime the Black Mamba didn't play, Odom put up all-star numbers. I will say that Odom does not appear to be as passionate as O'neal is, but that is just appearances.

Then there's the talk about JKidd. Another one that I don't think will help much. Kidd's a great point guard, but wouldn't his talents be wasted in LA? Who's he going to pass to besides Kobe?

This is more like it......

Clearly, PHX is going to win it all

i would know. i am Nostradamus

Big Tickey to Bean Town?

This is supposed to happen today or tomorrow. So, the Celtics will have Allen, Pierce, and Garnett! Does this immediately make them the favorites in the pansy East?

I would assume so.

I mean, who is there? Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Miami...Toronto?

Does Orlando crack in there with Lewis?

Seems like this spells big trouble if you aren't a Celtics fan and your team lives in the east.

On another note, what is this craziness about Arenas making 100,000 shots in 73 days?

More Rockets Talk. To the Extreme like Maximus James!

Well, since I don't know if anybody besides Patrick and myself are checking this, I'll keep focusing my posts about the Rockets. Mainly because the Rockets' Off-seasons tend to be more fullfilling than the Rockets' post-seasons. zing.....

So, the Franchise returns! I don't know what to make of this. I was a Francis fan when he played for the team, but when he got traded, I turned against him. Or maybe I didn't really turn against him, I just stopped caring about him. He turned out to not be very good. While he was with the Rockets he was considered a Franchise player. He was mentioned in the same sentences as AI and Kobe and VC. Then he lost all that and became another so-so player making max money.

Nevertheless, the Rockets are friggin loaded at PG. They have Alston, MJames, Francis, The Third, and the rookie Brooks.

The Third is definitely out. They are trading him somewhere for something. He said before the Summer league that he wanted out. Now it's obvious that the Rockets have no need for him

Alston in probably being traded as well. Which I'm not shedding any tears for. Nothing against the guy. I just didn't think he was that quality of a PG.

So does that mean that the promising rookie gets third string duties? kind of crappy for him.

The other thing is that MJames and Francis play like SG's not like PG's. we need a PG in the mold of Chris Paul or Steve Nash. We have plenty of guys who can score, we don't need our PG's scoring. So can those guys make the switch?

There's no doubting that we have the talent, now the question is, do we have the right talent.

Hello, anybody out there???

So yeah, who actually checks this thing anymore?

Anyways......pulled from the chron

POSSIBLE STARTING FIVE
Here's what the Rockets' starting lineup could look like this season with the addition of Luis Scola:
• F: Luis Scola — Brings toughness and offensive versatility to the position.
• F: Shane Battier — Team's best defender with shooting range now even more important.
• C: Yao Ming — Needs only to stay healthy; should love having Scola alongside.
• G: Tracy McGrady — High-scoring days could return with more up-tempo style.
• G: Rafer Alston — Could be early offensive trigger with Mike James bringing instant offense off bench.

I'm digging it. all except for Alston. but if Mike James can bring it off the bench, then that makes up for it. I am a little sad about "The Third" moving on though.

Plus, I forgot all about Bonzi. I'm not going to hold my breath that he'll not be a punk, but maybe just maybe he'll step up.

drunk

Bronnie's new boy's name!?!?!

So I was going to comment on the whole dynasty question. But then I clicked on the link Jake included. That's when all attempts at formulating my opinion flew out the window.



So, Bronbron's new kid is named "Bryce Maximus James"! Seriously! I think Jake must have given him the idea for that name.



What was the character that Homer hung out with during the episode when he changed his name to Max Power?



Maybe it's just the Maximus part that does it. Bryce James is kind of a cool name. I guess whenever you add a Maximus you immediately kick it into maximum overdrive!!!!


You crank it to 11!!!!
You put it OVER-THE-TOP!!!!
You are the MAXIMUS!!!!!!

AWESOME....

Dynasty(s)?

Watching maybe the ugliest shooting game I've witnessed in the playoffs (granted both teams are superb defensively buuut both teams also missed a lot of open shots), my mind naturally wandered at times.

The initial question: Is this Spurs team officially a 'Dynasty'? (my heart said no for some reason but my mind couldn't justify that, it was telling me it HAD to be)

which led to... What IS a dynasty really? What ingredients go into that definition?

I've got a few ideas and I'll get them up here later (I just want my picture to start movin' on down).

basketblogger of the month

i nominate jeremy winter for his informed and intelligent basketbloggs.

in my 'who would you choose' post, i think jer brought up a good point about coaching and supporting cast. you have to wonder - what if PJ wasnt there?

also, i have to agree that timmy is not the best choice and for exactly the reasons jeremy cited. he's a PF playing at center. and in my opinion what you need to build a team around is a center. which is exactly why i didnt pick mj. i dont care how good a guard is, i think you have to go big in this situation. (although i can't get behind your inclusion of shaq here jer. i just can't.) if i knew more about wilt and kareem i may follow suit there, but shaq over olajuwon? i dunno...

anyone wanna rip me to shreds now that i dissed jordan?
bring it!
olajuwon!

ps sorry jer- i stole your badge picture from work. i bet you hate that picture

Does this guy even know how to coach?

Simmons was ripping on Mike Brown the other day for how bad he blew the first game of the Finals. I don't think he was implying that Cleveland had a chance to beat the Spurs but his point was that Brown isn't helping matters any.

His main point was, "Why is Larry Hughes playing at all?" He's clearly injured and can't guard Tony Parker to save his life. Every minute that he's on the court he's a liability. Why don't they let Daniel Gibson start and play 40 minutes. Check out the line from last night's game:

Hughes: 20 minutes, 0-5 shooting, 0 points, 2 turnovers, 2 rebounds, 2 assists
Gibson: 31 minutes, 6-12 shooting, 15 points, 0 turnovers, 1 rebound, 0 assists

Now let's review game 1:

Hughes: 23 minutes, 1-5 shooting, 2 points, 0 assists, 3 rebounds, 0 steals
Gibson: 27 minutes, 7-9 shooting, 16 points, 4 assists, 1 rebound, 4 steals

This isn't rocket science. Gibson was 7 for 9 in game 1! And I realize that Gibson is playing more minutes than Hughes already and he's a rookie but I think Simmons point was questioning why Hughes is playing at all.

Hopefully games 3 and 4 will be less of a slaughtering. At this point the only way this series would go five games is if it was a best of nine. Burn.

who would you choose?

if you got one guy from any era to start a team with today, who is it?
my knee jerk is Duncan(don't give me that crap. timmy is freaking good and you know it), but that post that jimi just put up about quad doubles got me thinking...
and i gotta go with Olajuwon.

what about you?

Quadruple Double?!

I was reading a Simmons article where he mentioned that Timmy once dropped a 21-20-10-8 performance in a Finals game 6. That got me wondering if anyone has ever got a quadruple-double.

After looking on Wikipedia, four people have accomplished such a feat. Hakeem Olajuwon did it twice! His best was:

29 points, 18 rebounds, 10 assists, 11 blocks

Which is sick. But then they listed "near" quad-doubles and this one that Jordan crafted was almost more impressive yet:

42 points, 9 rebounds, 11 assists, 8 steals

I know Olajuwan had twice as many rebounds but scoring 42 points and getting 11 assists is just silly. Not to mention that steals are usually harder to come by than blocks (especially if the guy getting the blocks is a 7-footer).

What would you guys say is the likelihood of Bronkey-Kong getting a triple-double or dare I even say it, a quad-double, in the Finals this year?

NBA Draft

Does anyone know when this crap is? I wouldn't mind trying to watch this year as it looks like there are going to be some good players in the draft.

We could have a draft party and use it as an excuse to drink beer (for those that drink beer.)

We could also get Richard and Tom on speakerphone to get their comments on the draft live.

Anyone? Draft Party?

mike brown

I'm sure you all know:
He was an assistant coach in SA for 3 years.

does this mean that he has an advantage because he knows how the spurs work?

or does this mean that he will certainly lose because pop taught him everything he knows?

i don't think the 'who is the better coach' question even warrants a discussion, but the 'who has the advantage due to their history together' question might...

no?
anyone?

POLL TIME!!!!!

So, let's say you're Portland. Although it would be tough to be an entire city, let's just say you are. Anyways, you have the first pick in a really exciting draft. Do you trade it. I'm reading some people who say they wouldn't trade the pick for anybody, which I think is reTARDed. (That's with a capital TARD folks).

Now, as the days go by, I become less and less of a LBJ fan. But I would hand over the first pick for him like it was covered in ebola infested monkey crap, if I get Bronbron in return. But it got me thinking as to where the cut off is. Timmy's getting old, but I would still trade it for him. Same for Kobe. It starts to get iffy around the KG and TMac area.

Then that got me thinking. ol' Mark "frankenstein" Cuban is pretty crazy. He's obviously a little peeved at the moment and might want to do something drastic. So your Portland. the Cubester calls you up and offers you the Dirkster for that pick. Do you bite? Dirk's a pretty proven player. He might have some issues being clutch, but you are getting a guaranteed all-star. first picks are busts half the time, no matter the hype. whatcha going to do?

bronkey kong revisited

jer calls it one of the greatest performances ever.
patrick says i dunno.
i thought it was more of a case of AWFUL defense than anything else.

pretty much every analyst i've read says it ranks with the best ever, but i'm still not convinced.
i watched the entire game, and i thought the beginning was UGLY. both teams had tons of bad passes and tons of missed defensive assignments. then at the end, cleveland (bron) blew up and Det (what was left of em after mentally caving in completely) disappeared.

don't get me wrong- i love bron and have even gone on record saying that barring injury, he will one day be commonly accepted as the best player alive. (i said it a long time ago and i don't agree with it as much these days, but i still said it)

i just don't know if that game was all that spectacular. clev pretty much just sat around and waited to see what he would do. i mean, kobe got 81 in a similar situation (by similar, i mean there's one guy on one team with tons of talent, and 9 other guys watching him score. not playoffs, granted, but come on... 81!?)

so after a little time to ponder, what do you guys think? jer- are you still convinced that this was one of the best ind. performances ever? patrick- you still dunno? where do you other guys weigh in on this one?
i wish i hadn't erased it from the DVR so i could re watch...

more like OLDen

pretty easy to believe that these two guys on the right are in college (or at least college age)
but oden?
there is nothing anyone can do to convince me that this guy is younger than 37 years old.
nothing.
gimme a break. dude is NOT in his 20s

King James is here to Reign!

I guess I can't really say "I told you so" since I still thought Detroit would win after the series was 2-2. But I did say that Cleveland had a shot. I thought it was strange that almost everyone just expected Detroit to move on. Did they forget that Miami beat them last year. And Cleveland took them 7 games last year.

To be honest Detroit is lucky that they didn't get swept. If Marshall had made that three in game 1 and if LeBron would have gotten a call at the end of game two Cleveland probably would have swept.

Anyways...on to the future. Does Cleveland even have a chance at beating SA? Or should we not be so quick to dismiss the Cavs as we did in the last round? I still say SA in six games. Mostly because LeBron will probably go off in at least one game and score like 40+. And then very often SA loses the first game of a series and then gets all serious.

One weird thing that someone pointed out. The Spurs seem to only be able to win a championship in an odd year. 99, 03, 05, 07? How many more do you think they can win? I believe Timmy, Manu and Tony are all tied up in contracts with SA until 2011.

P.S. - Etroit is hilarious. We play at work with a guy named Derek. But his defense is so non-existent that my old boss said we should start calling him Erek. I think that one works better as both Derek and Erek are real names. But still, Etroit is pretty damn funny.

Battier for Lewis?

Battier and a first round pick for Lewis?

What do you all think of this deal? I love Battier, but I dunno.

don't know who came up with it but 'LeBronkey Kong' is still my favorite

** SPOILER ALERT ** if you haven't seen ECFinals game 5, and planned on it, don't read any further ***


I've got to start by saying that was probably the greatest individual performance I've seen live (I missed a lot of the biggest MJ games though I've seen most since). LeBron was fantastic.

I don't even know what else to say about his performance. He took upmost advantage of every opporunity they handed to him. Nothing said should ever be taken as intended to take away anything from his performance tonight. King James, LeBronkey Kong.

That said, let me reiterate... He took upmost advantage of every opportunity they HANDED TO HIM . Without researching, I'll go out on a limb and say that Flip Saunders is the worst defensive coach to ever reach a conference finals series. It's no wonder he could never help KG out of the first round. It's no wonder Miami handed them their a$$es last year after they put up a crazy reg. season. The only defense they play must be legacy from Larry Brown's days.

They played ZONE-D for the entire 4th quarter and both OTs. Never doubled LeBron unless it was to 'press' which is meant to cause pressure & turnovers as the ball is advanced(rather than defend the basket). This was one of the absolute best one-on-one defensive teams I've ever witnessed over the past few years (granted, minus their anchor BWallace this year) and they played zone in all crunch times when LeBron was putting on a clinic on how to break the zone down... ridiculous.

I'd still love to see CLE in the finals but it's far from over. It's not going to be easy. So far it a Deja Vu of last year and all of their games (with the exception of game 7 last year) were won by 2-4 points. I hope CLE can pull it out though.


Wow... LeBron was insane.

who has what it takes?

who could even offer LA enough for him?

and who would have enough left afterwards to be a contender?

is there any real place he can go?

any thoughts? i was talking to patrick and HOU DAL CHI came up...

whaddya think?

ps - i thought that picture would be a lot bigger. if you can't tell by the halfro, its kobe

NBA is hard to watch

I don't know if anyone besides Tom watched the game last night and I'm sure he'll disagree with me but I really think the Cavs got worked over by the refs. There's no doubt in my mind that LeBron got fouled on the last shot of the game. And what's worse is the game before he got lambasted for not taking the last shot when he passed to a WIDE OPEN 3 point shooter for the win (which by the way every analyst says if you're on the road you should play to win, don't play for overtime.) The added that if he takes the last shot he would have at least been shooting two free throws. So what does LeBron do last night? He takes the last shot and doesn't get fouled. The guy can't win. He'll probably get asked why he didn't dish.

I'm tired of refs just not calling fouls on the last play of the game because they don't want to decide a game. What the hell?! They decide every other play in the game. If there's a foul, call it! That's what you're there for. Does a guy have to get flagrant fouled for a call at the end of a game?

Anyways, two things:
1. The terrible, horrible, atrocious officiating makes it really hard to watch the NBA. There's no doubt in my mind that the NBA has the worst officiating system of any sport. You can tell because there is no other sport that people talk about the refs THIS MUCH. I'm not sure what the solution should be, but I guarantee that if you watched replays of every sport, the NBA games would have by far the most missed calls. I suggested having 5 refs. One to watch each matchup. Perhaps that would improve things. I just don't want to see games that are decided by the refs. To me that is not entertaining.

2. If I was Detroit I would be a little worried. The Cavs could be up (and maybe should be up) 2-0. Those games were a little too close for home games. I keep saying how this series went 7 games last year and no one seems to care. The Cavs COULD win this series still. I don't know why everyone is dismissing them like it's obvious that Detroit is moving on. I'm not saying that I think Cleveland will win the series but I wouldn't be that surprised if it happened. Hell, GSW beat the team with the best record in the NBA and the MVP in the first round. :)

Stupid Dirk. He'll probably become a ref after he retires.

Playoffs, Lotto and Blazers

So the wounds are finally starting to heal for me. I'm begining to get over the Rockets loss. now don't get me wrong, it still stings. But at least I can look at the sports web-sites now. I was avoiding them because I didn't want to accidentally read anything about the Rockets and just get depressed.

Well, anyways, the playoffs are chugging along and it pretty much goes without saying that it's SA v DET for the title. Unfortunately, I'm just not really feeling that series again. From the beginning of the playoffs it was the most likely result, and now that we are on the cusp of it happening, I kind of feel bored with the idea. I'm probably just bitter.

Yet, all is not lost for my love of the NBA. I'm kind of getting excited about another potential team to root for. Years ago I used to love the Kings. It had a lot to do with living in the bay-area, since it was the closest NBA franchise. (I think most people in the bay area tried to ignore the existance of GSW). Plus, the great rivalry that Sactown had with those bastard lakers. Then the Kings started to suck. made bad trades. made even worse contract extensions. So I was back to just rooting for the Rockets. It's funny how Addelman ties into all this too.

But man that will all change if Portland drafts Durant. having 2 UT alums is kind of big for me. I don't know why. I didn't even go to school in Austin. Plus, that Brandon Roy kid is pretty cool. I might not agree with his politics, but at least he has opinions that have some thought behind them. So, suffice to say, if Portland takes Durant, I'm going to be intrigued, and really go out of my to try and watch as many games of theirs as possible.

upon further examination...

am i the only one (besides patrick) that thinks dirk didn't deserve the MVP?

i'm looking at the stats and it just doesn't add up. they just picked the guy with the most ppg on the team with the best record, right?

is that what MVP means? i think it is clear he had a good/great year on a good/great team, but come on... there's unarguably(sp?) guys with better stats and judging from the first round, there's better teams. so...

did he deserve it? if so, why do you think so?

if not, who did? why?

The Business of Basketball

Ranks all clubs by there monetary value. Pretty interesting.

I always hear SA has a "pea-sized" market. But there value is not far behind the rest of the pack (not counting NY and LA, cause thier markets are leet. Forbes says this club is "one of the leagues most valuable teams"

Houston has gone up the most this season.

Only Portland made less this year than last year. Only one team (Wizards) stayed the same. Guess that means nba is very healthy.

pop quiz

how is this SA PHX series going to end up?

is DET going to beat NJ/CLE (or CHI)?

who is the playoff MVP so far?

who is going to be finals MVP?

what team will get rings?



let's hear it

Horry, Amare, Diaw Suspended

...suspended

Suspending players for leaving the bench is a craptastic rule if you ask me. They couldn't not suspend amare, diaw. The rule is there so you gotta follow it no matter how lame it is. They can't jsut let it slide or change the rule.

That being said, I hope they look at this rule in the off season and change it to a fine. Afterwards, the NBA can make it a suspension if they think that is fitting. I think if amare and diaw weren't stopped by the Suns ass. coaches, etc., they should have been suspended. But, as it was, the punishment don't fit the crime.

Chuck said same thing happend to him and he just took two steps. They should have fixed this rule back then.

Agree? disagree? Keep rule or change it? Change it to what?

Carter Dunks (old)

olympic dunk

I never seen this dunk b4, it is pretty rad. Carter over 7+ footer.
I know the defender is french, but it's still impressive (just play'n).

Sorry for the whatever the hell that is during first few seconds of clip.

goooooooo playoffs!

Racist Refs

I'm sure you've heard about the study that some dumbass did that showed that the refs in the NBA are racist. I think this guy summed it up pretty well.

"You can, if you choose to believe the study's statistics, notice a difference. But to see it, you need to look at and accept small fractions and bring absolutely no understanding of how those numbers apply to basketball. "

Lies, damn lies, and statistics.

Wow did Chicago get handled

95-69. That is a whoopin! And Chicago had 21 turnovers. Maybe Detroit will be someone to contend with this year.

*SPOILERS BELOW FROM ROCKETS GAME 7*

************************************

************************************

************************************

Poor Rockets. Boozer was just too much for them. I really thought they would pull it out in the 4th quarter when they were up by four.

Can anyone else believe the shots that Utah was making in the first half? Everything was falling. They'd put up shots that bounced on the rim four or five times before falling in. And it seemed like everything Yao and Tracy shot would rim out. I almost thought something was wrong with the Rockets goal.

Utah shot 51% for the game but I remember them showing that they shot 68% for the first quarter. Sixty-Eight percent! Are you kidding me? I really do believe that Tracy might be cursed. What else would explain his inability to win a playoff series? His line for the series was basically identical to his regular season stats:

25 Pts, 5.8 Rbs, 7 Asts

The only things that were worse were his shooting percentages:

39% FG, 25% 3Pt, 74% FT

What Houston really lacks is a true point guard, like what most other borderline teams need. Maybe they could trade Alston and some draft picks for Jason Kidd or something. :)

Oh well, now I can root for the Warriors to win it all. I certainly hope they beat the crap out of Utah. I was never much for the philosophy that you should root for the team that beat your team because they deserve it for some reason. That sounds like a load of bull. I want the team that beat my team to be humilated by some other team that up until a few weeks ago I could have cared less about. That's the American way, dammit!

Here are my picks for round two:
Detroit in 5
Cleveland in 6
Spurs in 7
Warriors in 6

NBA Playoffs - long post

There has only been one post since the playoffs started. What's the deal with that? This is when we should be posting the most.

I'd like to start off with the Warriors-Mavs. What a glorious game on Thursday. I enjoyed every last minute of Dallas losing. Boo-hoo.

What's funny is that all five ESPN analysts picked Dallas to win and 4/5 of them picked the Heat to win. Idiots. What's scary about that is that all of them picked the Rockets to win. Can you say "jinx"? At least these guys were smart enough to all pick SA and PHX to win their series.

I'd just like to go on record by saying that here were my picks before the playoffs started (I know I never posted them but I promise this is what I had before the playoffs started):

Detroit in 5
Cleveland in 4
New Jersey in 7
Chicago in 5 (this one was obvious to me, I still can't believe 4/5 of the ESPN analysts that get paid to talk about basketball picked this wrong)
Golden State in 7 (I kind of thought Dallas would still win but I just can't pick Dallas)
Phoenix in 5
San Antonio in 6
Houston in 6

So if Houston can win tonight I will have picked all of the first round winners which none of the fancy pants ESPN analysts can say.

As for the game tonight. I was looking at the Box Scores for the first six games trying to figure out what the differences were between the Rockets wins and losses.

I thought maybe it was three point shooting. But the Rockets shot 16.7% threes in game two and won by eight. Then I thought it was maybe how well Yao does. But he was only 6-18 with 21 pts in one win and 6-14 with 26 points in one loss. So then I decided it must be how well the rest of the team (not Yao and Tracy) does. But the rest of the team had 47 pts in one loss.

Then I noticed that of the eight first round matchups the Rockets and Jazz had the closest regular season records. They were only one game apart. I think what makes these games so hard to analyze is that these teams are so closely matched.

The only thing that makes me want to pick Houston is that like Patrick pointed out, Utah was 31-10 at home and 20-21 on the road. The Jazz had the same home record as the Spurs (good company) and the same road record as the Cavs (no chumps but certainly not the Spurs).

Speaking of the Spurs, here's what Simmons had to say yesterday:

There isn't a happier team than the Spurs right now. Not only are they peaking at the perfect time, but Dallas was the one contender that matched up perfectly against them. Now they get the Suns (as much as I love watching the Suns, the Spurs are a terrible matchup for them), then the winner of Houston/Utah-Golden State, then whatever flawed team comes out of the East. Are you kidding me? During Thursday night's game, TNT should have had cameras at Tim Duncan's house, like how CBS has cameras at various colleges during the NCAA Tournament selection show. We needed to see the Spurs celebrating and pouring champagne on one another. Might as well start early. For all intents and purposes, you can put a fork in the 2007 NBA playoffs.

The whole story was pretty good:

Simmons Story

Are you serious Jason Kidd?

I might have to finally agree with James that Jason Kidd is one of the best point guards ever.

Here is his stat line from tonight:
Points: 16
Rebounds: 16
Assists: 19
Steals: 3
Blocks: 1

Nineteen assists? Are you kidding me? This was his tenth career PLAYOFF triple double. And some of his passes are just insane. He might be the best passer in NBA history. He certainly does the most circus passes.

Here is a good Kidd clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_IoyBdfpEc

Hi, my name is Richard

and

I

LOVE

MARK

CUBAN!

He's the best!

--posted by Richard Kilian

Go Celtics

I went to the Boston Garden last night! It was Pistons and Celtics last game of season. True, the game was meaningless for both teams at this point of season; but, it was still a great time. It has long been a goal of mine to see the Boston Garden. It was cool seeing the tons of banners hanging from the rafters. Between retired Jerseys and Celtic and Bruins' championships, the rafters are pretty crowded.

And props to Boston fans. They got one of worst teams, few starters played at all. Yet, the arena was still filled with fans--from start to finish.

Next season, i'll go to the Madison Square Garden.

Oh yeah, and Paul Pierce addessed the crowd and told them they would be making noise in the playoffs next year. heh. good luck.

Asian or Jew

Race being a touchy subject lately, but man I thought this was funny. It's two guys, one claims to be asian, the other jewish. They both try to use blatant stereotypes to describe the character of the playoff teams. Here's one portion of the Rockets..

"And please, Juwan Howard is Asian, because of the name and because he spent his rookie year in the NBA writing term papers on the team plane so he could graduate with his class. That's the most Asian shit I've ever heard."

http://freedarko.blogspot.com/2007/04/nba-playoff-race-war-semiotics-part-2.html

see that guy behind crawford?

thats the face i had on when he did that crap.

what the f?

i've never seen a more clear cut case of the refs being full of shit.
for those of you that missed the DAL SAS game yesterday, here's my recap:
spurs have a comfortable lead at the end of 3 quarters, and then timmy gets ejected from the game (while he's sitting on the bench) for laughing.
after timmy's ejection, the spurs lose their lead and the game.
the end.
first of all, how can you eject someone while they're sitting on the bench? (keep in mind, he didn't say anything or get up from his chair. he just laughed)
not to mention, on the very next play a dallas player ran and jump kicked fabricio oberto in the chest (while he was standing perfectly still with his feet planted) and a foul was called on oberto.
i thought it was blatantly obvious that the refs were trying to make sure the spurs didnt win this game.
to my knowledge, this isn't even an important game. it's not playoffs, and i don't think it even had any effect on seeding.

who cares why it happened; it is a perfect example of how the officiating structure is broken.
why do we continue to use an obviously broken process?
what if this was a playoff game? finals? championship?
is it going to take a botched championship game to force a change here?
what do you guys think?

Dallas will LOSE in the FIRST ROUND

Thats right, I said it. They are going to lose, and you know why? Cause they are playing the Warriors who, if you care to know have beaten Dallas 2 times this season, and recently blew out Houston, Utah, and Pheonix. They beat Utah by 30!

Spurs to Win.

I meant to board this about a month ago. Now, my prediciton won't be as impressive win it comes true.

You know I pick Detroit Pistons to win it all. I have every year since i was sentient. But really, i think Spurs will be the champs. I know it isn't really that bold of a prediction, especially to a bunch of spurs fans/people from texas. Most of the season, i would have said they have as good of a chance as the other top teams. But lately, i have felt they are clear favorites. Now, i'm not gonna talk bad about Detroit; so i'll just say--in the west: Dallas seems to have the best chance on SA. But i jsut can't see it happening over 7 games.

I would say more on why SA has best chance. But I'm tired as heck.

Suns Warriors

Did anyone watch that game last night? Man, Steve Nash can't play defense for shit and Nelly knew it. I'm hoping the Nuggets fall out of the playoff race and Golden State comes in at 8th. Do you know that they've beaten Dallas 4 times in a row? That team is a pretty good match up against Dallas and Pheonix.

Sorry, but Pheonix is not going to win the championship. They simply suck at defense. If the other team manages to take them out of their offence, its over for them.

chauncey billups walks into a bar...

the bartender says
"why the long face?"

Destroy

MUST DESTROY!!!!!!!!!!
TIMMY MUST DESTROY!!!!!!
RARARARARORROORRRARR

So, Tony Parker has a Rap
Album?? Anybody heard it yet?
I'm sure it's great stuff. Probably
deserves a grammy.

is it safe to say "he's back"?

33 pts , 21 rebs , 3 blks , 2 stls , 12-17 shooting last night against the grizz.
who else in the league can post those numbers on ANY given night?
yao is the only one i can think of although i haven't seen him do it lately. (has he ever?)

Yaoch!!!

I know the 76ers suck, but man did they get beat bad. 124-74. That's gotta sting. Good thing they got rid of that Iverson guy. He was nothing but dead weight.

There are only 15 or so games left in the season. Right now Houston and Utah would play in the first round. But there's a good chance that SA and Houston will play in the first round if the Rockets can gain a game and a half on the Jazz.

Some other potential good first round matchups if the season ended right now:

Phoenix-Denver

SA-LA Lakers

Cleveland-NJ

Washington-Miami

P.S. - Is there any team in the East that can stop Detroit? Jake and I were discussing that Detroit might win it all just because the teams in the West will be tired from playing such tough series. Right now if Dallas wanted to return to the finals they would have to go through both SA and Phoenix.

Rodney Dangerfield Celebrates Another Birthday!

names...revisited

jacked this from Simmons but if you haven't seen it check it out...

I mean you can't have too many 'Doby Chrotchtangle's in the world

http://nameoftheyear.blogspot.com/

Completely Off topic

So I saw this movie last night called "The Machinist". I don't know if anybody else has seen it, but I had never heard of it. It was pretty good, and I would recommend checking it out. Yet that is not why I'm making this entry.

So I'm watching this movie, and about 10 minutes into it friggin hits me. That's fucking Batman! That's Christian Bale! I couldn't believe it.

Anyways, I always thought that Eddy Nortons physical transformation for "American History X" took the cake, but not so anymore. Christian Bale did it reverse style. The dude got down to 120lbs for this role. And then get this. The next movie he did was Batman. According to Wikipedia, he was a buck 80, then dropped 60lbs for "The Machinist". Then went up to 220lbs for Batman. I'm flabbergasted.

Anyways, who's got votes for most dedicated physical transformation for a movie role? My nominations would be..

Christian Bale (The Machinist)
Ed Norton (American History X)
Deniro (Raging Bull)

Stupid Eastern Conference

Ok Ok. I know we all know how bad the east is, but man, the heat's situation epitomizes it all. Wade goes down and everybody starts saying they will not even make the playoffs. They win 5 of their next 7 games after the Wade injury and now they are the 6th seed. Plus, get this, they are now only 3 games back of Washington who's leading the Southeast division. So if the Wiz lose the next three and the Heat win the next 3, then heat jump up to the 4th, possibly 3rd seed. Which is conceivable since one of those next three games the wiz face the heat.

So basically, in the East if you can win 8 out of your next ten games you can go from out of the playoffs to a top 3 team with home court advantage. Yet, in the West the Spurs can win 10 in-a-row, not move up a seed, and still can't even dream of winning their own division.

D: "come on, i don't even want to play "

Y: "no, no.. if you think you can do better, then fine! i'll be in my room"

Greatest Centers

Espns got a a new list of the top 10 greatest centers. It all looks pretty good to me. I don't know if I would have had Kareem number one. And I definitely would have put Hakeem before Shaq. But I can't say the list is a joke. I also found it interesting that the total votes after Hakeem at number 5 really is where the drop off is. I guess it's easy to say that there have been 5 truly great centers, then all the rest.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-GreatestCenters

poor guy

i used to hate on the guy, but i guess he really can't help it. his brain stopped developing at a young age and now he just can't seem to do anything right. now everytime i see him i get sad.









http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-kings-artestarrested&prov=ap&type=lgns

OUCH!!!

Shaun Livingston took one for "The Cripples" yesterday! He saw Patrick's ACL tear, and raised with a PCL, MCL, and tearing his meniscus! Then he finished off with a drink of patella dislocation! Wonder if he would have gone through these issues if he had gone to Duke after all...

Dallas is scary.........................looking.

Dallas is scary. They held Minnesota to 65 points tonight! The T-Wolves only scored 8 points in the second quarter and only 12 points in the fourth quarter. I know Minnesota is crappy and all but they do still have KG.

This reminded me of the Spurs game we went to where they displayed on the Jumbotron that SA once held Denver to 3 points in the first quarter. This stat seemed impossible, but then I did some research on Wikipedia. Check these ridiculous facts out:

Fewest Points in a NBA Quarter
2 by the Dallas Mavericks at L.A. Lakers on April 6, 1997 (3rd Quarter)
2 by the Golden State Warriors vs. Toronto Raptors on February 8, 2004 (4th Quarter)

Since 1983, eight teams have scored ZERO points in overtime.

Fewest Combined Score in Overtime
2- Denver Nuggets (0) vs. Charlotte Hornets (2) on January 13, 1997

Largest Margin of Victory in a NBA Game
68-Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Miami Heat, December 17, 1991 the final score was Cleveland, 148. Miami, 80. - Holy crap that was a beat down!

Check out all the silly stats here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_records

Simmons grades the Trade Deadline.

HOUSTON: A-minus
Carry-over grade from the superb Shane Battier deal. The Rockets couldn't swing a deadline trade because they didn't have anything to trade; even their plan to land Chucky Atkins by sending old footage of Juwan Howard from the '96 season to Jerry West and pretend it was a 2007 tape didn't work. Too bad. They were one more quality guard away from being legitimately interesting in May and June. And while we're here, nobody is allowed to mention another "Coach of the Year" candidate in 2007. The award goes to Jeff Van Gundy. Done and done. Let's agree not to bring this up again.


SAN ANTONIO: (INC)
If the Spurs honestly believe this particular roster of guys can beat Phoenix or Dallas this spring, they're crazy. On the other hand, I'm not sure what they could have done. They need another big man to help out Tim Duncan defensively (he's slipping noticeably on that end), as well as a big-time perimeter stopper (Manu Ginobili's slipping and Bruce Bowen already slipped) ... but they had no trading chips other than their No. 1 pick, Luis Scola's rights and a couple of smaller expiring contracts. (Note: I spent 25 solid minutes trying to figure out a way they could have landed Joel Przybilla or Gerald Wallace for a reasonable price and couldn't make it work.) So what can you do? They're getting old and there's no real way to stop it.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/070223

Couple of stand out performances today

Check out Amare's line today:

43 pts, 16 reb, 6 ast. Yowza!

Vince Carter:

40 pts, 9 reb, 8 ast. Jeez.

And has anyone noticed how close Jason Kidd is to averaging a triple-double this season? Currently he's at:

14.3 pts, 8.1 reb, 8.9 ast

And Nash is at:

18.8 pts, 3.3 reb, 11.9 ast

Steve's assists are unbelieveable but I almost think Kidd's line is more impressive. Although his high rebounds might be because of his team's inability to rebound. He does lead the Nets in rebounds and he's the point guard.

oh yea...

i forgot about the wheelchair dunk one

hack a shaq

jeffrey sent me a couple of links to 'the onion' with some funny nba pics... thats all i got

On his Denver Nuggets...

Nuggets coach George Karl said. "And some nights I think we're going to do it and other nights I think we're too individualistic in our thoughts, too worried about our shots, our minutes."

exactly, George.

East Coast Dance

Dance contest

Looks like the East are the favorites in this years allstar game. That is, this years allstar pre-game dance-off:) This video had me laughing pretty good. Shaq, Lebron, Howard all get'n down. That has to be the BEST 400-pound, 8-feet tall dancer i ever seen.

Click link, and click on the video named, Dance Contest (thumbnail is Shaq and Howard)

Pippen Returns

Here's Artical

The 41 yr old says he's still got a year and a half of good basketball in him.

I think he could probably be effective in limited minutes, like all the other old greats. Hell, Mutumbo is probably older.

What team would he fit best with for a playoff run this year? Assuming he can still contribute effectively.

At first, I was thinking, naturally, with Phil Jackson, back to the triangle. But honestly, maybe Detroit. They been looking for a savvy perimeter shooter/playmaker to come off the bench. His high bball IQ, passing skills, and defensive skills would be a good fit there. Miami, Cleveland, would also be good places, i think. (though Clevland could use anyone, especially a guard. I am so tired of Lebron not having a badass pg to pass him the ball. They make that man do everything) I'm not naming many west teams, because i feel like the west contenders have pretty complete rosters, and they would have trouble making room for him. I really know nothing about utah, so i don't know about them.

I was just browsing Pippen artical from wiki, he made the playoffs 16 straight years. only Kareem and Horry have more playoff games than him.

New Seed Predictions

Alright gentlemen, its time to provide your new seed predictions. Just add your predictions to this thread so that its nice and tidy.

van gundy

Don Nelson Taking a Dump

AP Photo/David Zalubowski