nba news

the big news in the nba this week is of course kobe's 81 against raptors. after a whole week of being analyzed to death, i still can't really throw my 2 cents on this. for one, i didn't watch the game, so i can't really judge. even if i did, i still dunno what to say about it. heck i don't even know how i feel about it. indifference maybe the right world. to put it into perspective, AI and ray allen both had monster games the same day as they scored 39 and 42 respectively. but add them up and you get 81. that's pretty damn ridiculous. (side note: have you noticed that kobe looks different than he was before? his face seems thinner with his cheekbone as prominent as ever. i can't pinpoint it but it's different than when he was a 3 peat laker.)

the other news in the nba are the trades. peja is now a pacers and ron ron is playing for the kings. ron ron will bring some toughness to a decent starting 5. no they won't make the playoff, but it'll be interesting to see how the new kings are gonna play together. besides bibby, it's a different team than the one that couldn't beat lakers in the big games. this team is not much of an upgrade, but they will be alrite. on the flip side, peja may struggle as a pacers too because i'm not entirely sure he can play the type of defense that rick carlisle wants his team to play. but then again, as a columnist pointed out, they can use peja the same way they used reggie, with a lot of screens for catch-and-shoot.

another block buster trade was celtics/wolves 7 men swap. basically wally and kandi man are in the celtics green and ricky davis and mark blount are playing for wolves. it's really just spare parts exchange, though i do like the trade because it got rid of 2 guys whom i don't like on wolves. kandi man is as impotent as ever, so getting rid of him is addition by subtraction. though i'm not quite sure about mark blount. he may just be another dud. i like ricky davis though, i think his quickness and penetration can help out KG a little more. more than wally can anyway.

why aren't players more aware of the shot clock?

yesterday nite was a fantastic/horrible game between kings and lakers, depends on which side you are on. after a ridiculous shot by kobe (what's new?) and his assist to a lamar odom 3, kings looked dead in the water, down by 5 with 30 seconds to go.

odom then inexplicably drove the lane and promptly got charged with an offensive foul, with 12 seconds left on the shot clock. huh? why didn't he just hold on to the ball so that the kings wouldn't even have enuff time to make shots to catch up? right then and there i knew kings would pull thru, with bibby and brad miller popping in two 3s to tie the game. with 4 seconds left, odom shot a 3 and kobe didn't even get to touch the ball. no wonder he's pissed.

this reminds me of the colts/steelers game when the steelers coulda just knee three times and have the game over. instead jerome battis had that amazing fumble that coulda lost the game for them. i don't understand how these professional athletes can be so lacking the attention for the shot clock.

the what-if teams

once in a while, you wonder what would happen if certain trades/signing had actually happened or not happened. think about it.

what if stephon marbury didn't force the trade that sent him to jersey (then phoenix, then new york)? he would still be in minnesota with KG. the wolves would be a perennial playoff team at the very least. i remember when they played sonics in the first round and they almost made it to 2nd round. now neither of them are going anywhere fast. those two compliment each other well, with steph more of a scorer and KG having a lot of play making skills. a modern do-it-all version of stockton-to-malone. championship caliber team with a 3rd scorer and decent team defense. they were that close.

what if tim duncan signed with magic and grant hill was healthy? they would be the most dominant 2-3-4 combination of all time. a dynamic scorer with mcgrady, a do-it-all playmaker (possibly point forward) with hill, and one of the best low post player in duncan. how is this not automatically a championship caliber team? if they have one decent center and a servicable point guard who can bring the ball up and shoot the wide open 3s that the superstars would create, they'd have challenged and possibly beat the 3-peat lakers.

what if damon stoudamire, camby, carter, and mcgrady weren't traded and are all still in toronto? that's a frightening starting lineup capable of playing wreckneck speed basketball. a typical sequence would start with a camby block, with damon pushing the ball and two of the best finishers in the game running the wings. how do you stop that?

and don't even get me started on the warriors. carter, antawn jamison, webber, penny, gilbert arenas, larry hughes were all warriors (or at least drafted by the warriors) one time or another. simply ridiculous.

carmelo and lebron

last nite was another head to head with these surging superstars. lebron did his thing and just filled the stat sheet. carmelo is a good player, but he'll never be the superstars lebron is. he is way less athletic than lebron and does not have his skill set. with all that said, lebron is still terrible playing down the stretch. make or miss, he has to take the last shots. the last few plays by the cavs were terrible.

after melo blew by ira newble for a baseline dunk to put nuggs up by 2 (which was terrible team defense by cavs), cavs called a timeout. lebron was being guarded tightly and pavlovic (yeah i had to look up his name too) couldn't pass it back to him to make a play, so he then decided to drive in himself and got fouled. well that's not a bad thing i guess, but there was still roughly 19 seconds left to play, he still coulda got bron the ball with time for bron. worse yet he missed both free throws. somehow the cavs got the ball back, and instead of taking a wide open three (with an ilgauskas screen no less), he passed it back to pavolvic who promptly took a terrible shot and missed it.

nevermind the missed freethrow that coulda tie the game later on, this sequence alone tells that lebron is terrible at making crunch time decision. he needs to learn by taking those big shots.