home openers for all!

welcome to NBA season openers extravangaza. 13 games tonight, which means 87% of the league's teams are playing.

there must be something in the water tonight. 6ers crushed bulls' home opener party, atlanta won their first home opener in years (against the now lowly regarded Mavs), and pacers defeated heat narrowly. even the wolves were leading the nuggets for most of the game, though denver was able to pull out for a win at the end on the road.

lebron bounce back strongly for 45, 7 boards and 7 assists against the knicks for a win. wearing the celtics green for the first time, KG had a monstrous line of 22 pts, 20 boards, 5 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks in an easy win over agent zero's wizard. i think this year's MVP is going to be either one of these two. sorry kobe.

speaking of kobe, let's pick up near the end of suns/lakers' first quarter...

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barbosa layup over kobe's fierce swat. as it turns out he's the only suns who came to play tonight.

lakers on fire. 33-20 end of first quarter. kobe was on a mission early.

bynum has a pretty nice hook. within 10 feet it's going in. he's using this go-to move all night.

marion 3 3s in the 2nd quarter to keep the suns in the game.

radmanovic canned his 2nd 3 right, in front of marion's face again.

lakers are going hard and building a good lead. kobe's getting a good long rest. 44-29.

steve nash is back. within 2 minutes kobe's gonna be back.

radman turnaround hook in the middle of the lane. 11 points!

luke walton a left hand layup! wtf is going on???

okay kwame 3 tries at a layup, blocked by skinner twice, and shot clock expired. at least something still makes sense.

skinner put back on the other end! okay so maybe this game is indeed weird.

pace is quickening up. lakers' gonna be sucked into the suns' tornado.

mo evans took a bad turnaround shot in the lane with all the suns around the area, but somehow dropped in. phil jackson must be pissed he didn't pass out to the laker waiting on top of the 3 point line. lakers up 17 points. my prediction is wrong.

the lakers bench is on fire. i can't say this enough.

walton burned a time out coz he can't inbound the ball. for the 2nd time in this game.

bell pocket 3, kobe made a 20 footer right in bell's face.

i think radman's hair is on vujavic's head.

walton back door cut behind everyone for a reverse lay in. the suns' sleeping.

vujacic a great steal on a pick and roll, but refused to pass it up to walton for a easy dunk. instead it's 2 freethrows. hubie grilled him for being selfish.

nash up top near half court hip checked by radmanovic, lost his balance and the ball. whistle for a foul and ball is dead. nash regained his balance and picked up the ball and launched a 3 towards the basket, which was outside the camera view. all you hear is a swish and the crowd cheering. it was after the whistle so of course the points don't count, but that whole sequence was amazing.

vujacic looked back to the court and hurried past all other lakers into the locker room, with phil and kobe still on the floor. he's about to get chewed out.

rich buchner: "is it fun playing this way?"
kobe actually laughed.

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mean while warriors are putting in a 25-8 run on clippers to end the 1st half for a tie score. baron, azabuke, biedrins, al harrington, monta. the best unit for the warriors right now. until jax is back.

troy hudson, super scatchy voice, warrior, platinum record rapper.

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better espn studio arrangement tonight. bill walton is not in the middle anymore. problem is steven a smith is right in the middle. well, it's either him or stuart scott, who are both wearing pink shirts. their banters are insane, and this tv doesn't have a remote. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

i suppose everyone's betting on a strong phoenix come back, including me, in the 2nd half, but lakers continued to dominate (!!!???) in the 3rd quarter, and just abused them in suns' home opener by scoring 32 to suns' 17 in the quarter. highlight of the quarter is a luke bounced pass through marion's leg for a wide open kobe reverse jam. that was silly.

when it was all set and done, the lakers added another upset special du jour with a 119-98 victory, behind 60+ bench points. great game for the lakers, who seem to be saying "fuck you to kobe, we don't need your selfish ass". all this with phil jackson calling a time out when they were up 26 or so with the 2nd unit in the 4th, and mike d'antoni was furious about that time out. this rivalry is getting better and better.