'06 houston all star saturday night

yesterday i parked myself in front of the tv for the whole day and took in everything and a kitchen sink that TNT threw at me. everything from NBA planet to greatest dunk of all time, and of course the real shows of dunk and 3point contests. it was a well produced show but man were there full of odd things happening.

the first competition was the 3 players shooting from 6 designated spots on the floor, including a half court-er. right off the gate, before most people realized it, the san antonio team (kerr, tony parker and a wnba girl) were half way thru their spots already. it was capped by a tony parker half court bomb on his first try. even the announcers were caught off guard. reggie didn't even get to say he thought the SA team was his dark horse before the buzzer sounded. the rest of them was sad. lisa leslie missed 4-5 6' bank shots right off the bat. it was embarrassing. the LA team got back though, and kobe predictably nailed a half court JUMPER on his first take. i actually think that's about how far his range really is. the houston team and phoenix team were yet 7 seconds slower than the lakers, as houston screw up early on but t-mac nailed the half courter, while phoenix launching about 20000 half-couters before the wnba players made it.

the next up was skills competition. wade was gangsta, but who woulda thought steve nash would miss ALL of the freethrow line jumpers? simply unbelievable. and because of that (he missed a few passes too), he got knocked off the first round. the final round was between wade and lebron. lebron was pretty impressive (though he carries the ball everytime he dribbled), but wade was flawless. and he truly is Flash. just zoomed by everything, and nailed that jumper. nice.

the 3point competition was kinda wack again. dirk was cold in the first round but ray was on fire. everyone else are really just volume shooters (they just shoot a lot) or situational shooters (they shoot well only in the game flow) allen hit 9 straight at one point, and getting the first round high of 19 points. dirk on the other hand, had an after-buzzer money ball counted, which pushed him to the final round. wow the ref must been under the influence of mark cuban. speaking of which, dirk's teammate jason terry didn't even finish his last rack. anyway in the final round, dirk got hot and ray got cold. end of story.

this year's slam dunk was actually really exciting, there were so many "wtf" moments. i remember while a dunker was prepping his dunk, there was a shot of kobe mouthing "what the fuck" as a reaction. the first wtf came when josh smith asked someone to put a masking tape about 5 feet left of the top of the circle, and he backed the hell away to the other side of the court. everyone stood up and wondered if that's where he's jumping from. he lost his dribble on his first one, then on his second try he took off from free throw line and got a 2-hand slight double-pumped dunk. it was actually a really great dunk, but everyone was so confused about the tape that he only got 41 points for that. that pretty much set up a final of nate robinson and andre iguodala. but team AI had allen iverson bouncing the ball off the back side of the board, and the other AI jumping from behind the board and pulling off a reverse slam. then he ran to the tunnel. yup. the show should be over already. he shoulda won the dunk contest there.

with little help from the judge's confusion, there was a first ever dunk off, even though nate robinson, with all his amazing dunks, needed about 14 tries on each one to complete. his homage dunk over spud webb was nice, but AI shoulda one. nate tried a freaking impossible half court between the leg toss and almost got it twice. he made it when he moved to the 3 point line, but it still took about 10000 tries. wasn't as embarrassing as last year's birdman dunks, probably coz he's got the sympathy call of being 5'9". well for whatever reason the scoring was off and AI actually got one less point than nate and lost the title. that was wrong.

well maybe the league wants knicks to get some good news this year eh?

game thoughts - pistons/heat

wow. that was a ridiculous game. wade was jordan like. that last shot right? you just know he was gonna make it. this is how heat needs to play their game. every one plays tough D, and let shaq do his damage in his first half, wearing the opposing teams down and fouling everyone out; then let wade slice and dice to finish the game. both players had season high today, which is what we thought they are capable of. two superstars making all the big plays.

side note though, is that pistons lost a few games now. running outta steam? a little i bet. there's a fear that they won't be able to sustains this for 100 games. but the thing is, i don't see any team in the east who can consistently beat them in a 7 game series. heat is obviously their biggest rival in the east, but i highly doubt shaq has that much left in his tank. wade, as good as he is, is still not good enough to single handedly beat the pistons. though he's scarily good. like the perfect player in Slam Dunk. he has the same high arching layup over sheed today. it looked just like in the manga. he's amazing.

all stars selection

just a thought on the all stars this year:

michael redd didn't make the east team but ray allen made the west team. both have similar numbers across the board (with allen making more 3s). and while redd's bucks are 2 games above .500, the sonics are 10 below.

so how is jesus shuttlesworth going to houston and redd not? west are packed with forwards and east is jammed with guards. do you think carmelo would have made it if he plays in the east? i'm guessing yes.

i think making mcgrady a forward in the fan ballot screwed up a lot of things for everyone.

bulls/kings game notes 2/9/06

picking up at 7:33 at 2nd quarter...

kevin martin has the craziest looking shot. it's like shawn marion's chest shot, but he shoots it with his body crooked to the left, and it's more like a fling. but he's shooting lights out right now. a side view replay of him shooting actually showed that his form was perfectly fine when he released it. kenny smith later said pretty much the same thing.

francisco garcia is a pretty damn good athletic player. good defensive plays and a nice dunk.

marv just said "gang rebounding".

bulls is just completely outta rhthym right now. they can't get anything going. no one's driving in, and everyone just seems to be going through motions and not really attacking. it's not kings' defense was all that, it's just bulls are not playing.

martin: 20 points in first half. 3/4 from 3point.

wow. marv just said "miller for 3!". never thought i'd hear that again. but "clank." this (brad) miller doesn't have that kinda range.

oh shit. the REAL miller just got talked into doing the 3point shoot out with kenny smith.


side note: if i'm cavs, i'd have the 2 wings (hughes and lebron) slash in with passes from the point guard on top, then they either make a layup or drop off to the big men. shouldn't that be their identity? hmm....


2nd half: artest split a double team, looked like he lost it, but found brad miller on the right side for a open jumper. swish.

kenny thomas and miller kept on driving in and passing to each other. then miller threw it out to artest for a 3. why take another 3 when ur missing? bring it in a little for a closer shot. clank.

nice. miller just blocked another shot point blank close. 2nd in 3 minutes.

bibby for 3. wet. 11-0 run.

kings are up 25 with half of 3rd quarter gone. bulls are terrible again. it's kinda sad actually. the two biggest surprise of last season - bulls and sonics, which played in the 96 finals - are both sucking majorly right now. well bulls are in better shape coz eastern conference is still a mess. what happened to all that stupid "east gets better" preseason chant? heat is still playing at maybe 60% efficient. they better get their ass going soon. cavs has a decent record but they are just so inconsistent. big streaks, both wins and losts.

man. shareef has played 710 games without making the playoff. i feel for this guy man. i've always liked him, even before i found out he went to Cal. he may fall short again this season. imagine if only nets coulda clear him. kidd and 'reef, the cal alums, getting to the playoff. the nets essentially didn't get any help for the team.

garcia strong drive thru the lane, fouling out sweetney and got the layup to roll in. impressive stuff.