it's halloween! are you out partying? or are you more excited about the start of the NBA season like i am?
2 games on tonight and well, Heat got their championship rings served to them before the game in Miami. then they got their ass served to them by the Bulls, whom simply just annihilated
the defending champ. i was keeping an eye on the score at work, and by half time, they were down by 29 points already. found out the final score was 108-66. i didn't watch the game so i can't really comment on it, but losing by 40 something points at home as the league's season opener on national tv is simply unacceptable.
i do have to say that bulls were the team that gave miami the most trouble last year in playoff. Bulls guards are simply too fast for the aging heat backcourt. and now the bulls have shot blockers and post defenders to cover for their already superior perimeter D, it's gonna be tough for anyone to score on them. tyrus thomas is awesome. he can learn to from big ben, then no one's gonna be able to score against them anywhere near the paint. those 2 are gonna cover so much ground and mistakes. definitely a tyrus fan, watched him play in the NCAA tourney made me one.
2nd game was the suns and lakers. both teams started off really hot, suns made their first 9 shots and about half a quarter later, they had already scored 26 points. i was wondering where kobe was and turned out he didn't suit up, and neither was chris mihm and kwame brown. the way things were going, i thought suns were gonna blow them out. it's like a grade A team playing near full strength against a B team's 2nd unit. by the end of first quarter, lakers were down by 25.
lakers slowly started coming back when the energy guys came in and gave lakers a lot of hustle points. lakers just pounded it inside with the length. andrew bynum, who apparently is the youngest player in the league now (19), was kicking ass. his mentor is kareem and he learned a good deal and demonstrated his post moves. coupled with aggressiveness, he played really well (16 pt 9 board) with some impressive shots and moves. even a few nice assist. jordan farmar also played really well, decent quickness but great basketball IQ. everyone's learning the triangle pretty well. i'm impressed. maurice evans was all over the place. active and getting loose ball was great.
to make a long story short, Lamar Odom took over, and they beat suns 114-108. Odom was killing everyone with his drives, then when he got real comfortable, his 3 pointers dropped, even nice behind the back past. Odom finished the game with a dagger 3 and 34 points 13 boards in his pocket. that's bad ass.
the only suns who played really well was leandro barbosa. brazilian blurr is right, this man is super fast. and then he hits his 3s too. just really hard to stop. nash was brilliant in the first quarter, dropping 7 dimes. but then he couldn't pull the team out in the end. he didn't get his touches and suns started being sloppy in the 2nd quarter, thus losing their momentum. the lakers bench just diligently worked and hustled, then carried the momentum with them.
one last thing, amare isn't looking that great. he's still super quick, but he plays really small. it's almost like he's just another lanky 6'10" guy.
well a good night of basketball indeed. i'm ready for more.
