I Dunk On 'Em

why do so many people hate Kobe Bryant?

2010-09-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

because he's sucessful.

Kobe, while he's been one of the best players in the world for at least the past decade on the court, does not have the public savvy to have most people on his side. but face it, the most successful one is, the more people will envy and hate, especially in the internet age with everything under magnifying glasses & media scrutiny.

especially for a lot of die-hard Jordan fans, it's difficult to accept another player nearing the all-time greatness of His Airness, so they take every chance to dissect and denounce Kobe's achievement, his play, and his persona. Kobe doesn't have the most lovable personality, and his on court demeanor does show that. but he's in the camp of "damn if he does, damn if he doesn't". there's always gonna be irrational hate towards him, and people can't stand him no matter what he does, on and off the court.

i know because i'm one of them.

everybody has "come fly with me"

2009-09-17T21:39:00.000-07:00

Everybody has “come fly with me”. Everybody. Who don’t get a chill when they hear the music comes on, knowing they are about to go on a journey with Captain Air Jordan?
Personally though, whenever I watch him, it’s always the actual game footages.
They show what makes him the G.O.A.T.
It’s not the fancy stuff; it’s the way he dedicates himself to play every single nuance of the game to perfection, every single time. He embodies the qualities to be the best of the best.
Jordan represents the path to greatness, and he inspires us to get there.

2009-09-17T21:36:00.000-07:00

Game 4 of the 2008 Finals

2008-06-13T01:29:00.000-07:00

a few thoughts from Game 4 of the Finals, and unbelievably, the celtics are up 3-1 in the series.

- james posey was instrumental in this win. down the stretch, he played odom perfectly. even though it was a mismatch, posey caused him to miss shots and turn the ball over. on the other end he made two HUGE 3s in the left corner, one that pulled the deficit within one (two plays later, eddie house drained a jumper that put the celts up for good), and one that pushed the celtics lead up to 5 points with about a minute left. shaq was right, he knew posey was gonna help them win a championship.

- ray allen was the most consistent celtics this whole series. he kept them in the game with his 3s, and he chipped in 9 boards this game, and most importantly he help kept kobe in check most of this series. i mean if you told me this was gonna happen before the Finals, i'd laugh at you.

- garnett and pierce finally attacked the rim much more frequently. rajon rondo's injury was probably a blessing in disguise, it was because of his injury that doc rivers finally let eddie house off the bench. his shot making ability help stretch the defense, and it finally gave KG enough room to deal some damage down low. in the playoff, it's all about player matchup and adjustment, it's amazing doc rivers got this lucky.

- speaking of doc rivers, i can't believe he's outcoaching phil. i haven't see any imprint of the 9 time champion coach this whole series. i predict lakers will win this series rather easily because phil is supposed to be THAT MUCH better than doc rivers. the biggest mismatch of the Finals turned out to be pretty even, which is ridiculous.

- the 2nd point why i thought the lakers will win the championship was because the lakers have the best closer in the game in kobe, while the celtics are just shaky down the stretch because no one seems to step up. in this game, EVERY celtics stepped up. whether it's an offensive rebound, a defensive stop, an assist, a spot up 3, everyone made the correct decision AND executed them perfectly.

- with all that said, it's still possible for the lakers to come back and win the whole thing, but that's highly unlikely. not when the momentum is completely swung in celtics' favor, but 2 of the next 3 games will be in boston, if this series even last that long.

side notes:
- after a time out with 2 minutes left in the game with celtics up by 5, the camera was on the announcing crew when the action resumed on the court. Mike Breen was asking Mark Jackson about the key to celtics' run, and JVG was pointing to the court and making a disgusted/annoyed face that basically says "why the fuck are you showing us? the game is back on!" Absolutely hilarious. ABC quickly switch back to the court where we saw Kobe drove in and draw a foul. JVG is brilliant.

- after ray allen drove by vujacic for pretty much the clincher, pau inbounded the ball to vujacic when the whistle signaled a time out, and you can clearly hear vujacic clutching the ball and yell "FUCK!!!" really loudly. then of course there was the replay of him hitting a chair and saying "FUCK MAN!!" on the bench. nice.

nuggets @ warriors: the 8th seed winner

2008-04-11T01:05:00.000-07:00

didn't realize how loud the oakland arena is until i hear it on tv, compare to other arenas.

stephen jackson is just way off today, he played terrible. he's not just missing shots. he's blowing easy layups.

matt barnes is back to himself. super utility extraordinaire. a bit extreme sometimes on his plays, high gamble high payoff i guess?

every time i see jr smith now, i think of how spurs almost got him for brent barry. JR is ridiculously good. he can catch fire any time and don't forget he started in the league as a dunker, so he has athletic ability to match. if only the spurs could grow him into the standard spurs mode, they'd be unstoppable, and he'll carry on the torch with parker after duncan retires. ahhh, what could have.

half a quarter and down 17 points? that's not recipe for success. we need some miracle.

speaking of which, warriors just pulled off a 9-0 run. baron's forcing things to happen.

azubuike excels in executing the plays, and he usually is great at playing within him role and ability, but that was lost somehow tonight. and not make the game deciding plays. baron needed to touch the ball every trip down the stretch, there's absolutely no reason why azubuike should be making game deciding plays. especially since davis was the one who sparked the 9-0 run.

iverson broke the run
and back with a 3
swish both

iverson's a killer.

the game was lost back when the nuggets busted out the zone. warriors were completely befuddled. bad shots after bad shots.

can warriors beat the suns? they should be able to take the clips and sonics. man... this may end bad for the warriors.

kobe vs lebron SLAMDUNK!

2008-03-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

lebron james is straight up crazy. kobe is this year's MVP no doubt? is there? definitely some. but this man is clearly the best player in the league for 2-3 years now. last year he should have won. the two years before he carried the lakers solely on himself. it's pretty amazing to be play all out in every game for 3 straight years.

kobe is like a samurai sword, he got to where he is right now through trial and fire. he wills himself to be the best in EVERY facet of the game. he's a health maniac i'm sure, making sure his body is in PERFECT condition. he has a complete set of skills. his shooting range is up to 25 feet from basket, his post moves are infinite, his ballhandling is mesmerizing, his defense is impeccable, he understands every nuance of the game to aid all his on court decisions, and his athletic ability to made sure all those skills and knowledge to be utilize to the max. all that with a mind of steel. i mean, he's playing with a half broken finger. really, what else do you want from an ideal basketball player?

the biggest difference between mr james and mr bryant is that lebron makes it look waaaaaay easier. it's so effortless to him. he's the realization of a great line in ice cube's "today was a good day": Get me on the court and I'm trouble/ Last week fucked around and got a triple double. this man IS made for basketball. he's only been in the league for 5 years, and he's already up to arguable kobe's level. and kobe's been honing his craft for 12 years in the league, that's more than TWICE the amount of time lebron has put in. lebron still doesn't understand the game as well as kobe, nor has acquired as many skill sets as kobe. he's simply PLAYING ON INSTINCT AND RAW ABILITY. that's not even scary. that's TERRIFYING! at his peak, dude can easily average 40/12/12 for a year, maybe even reaching 50/15/15! if that will be in the future, our jaws will be permanently detached.

so seriously, kobe deserves this long over due MVP. because there's a chance that from next year on, lebron's going to win it every year.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

anyone read the manga named SLAMDUNK? i love that manga (read: japanese comic). it was written/drawn in the 90's. wiki: "It was so popular that many Japanese teenagers began playing basketball after it was published." it was about some japanese high schoolers playing like nba players. the writer knew basketball really well and created very believable characters and play situations.

i'm reading it again and it's amazing how the author created characters that either modeled after yesteryear's NBA players or predicted some of today's players:

sakuragi - the main character that's basically a carbon copy of rodman. a basketball novice who's a monster on the board because of his athletic ability.

rukawa - the best player on the basketball team, akin to kobe now. an antagonizing basketball genius whose 1 on 1 skills is unmatched.

akagi - the intimidating no non sense captain who is the center has a shadow of david robinson or alonzo on him, especially the high top fade. a great defensive center who's also a main weapon on the offensive end.

sawakita - the best high school player in japan, whose style is wade's signature quickness and agility, even his mannerism. like wade in his eariler years, he only starts concentrating in the 2nd half/4th quarter, and then becomes unguardable/unbeatable.

maki - a star player who's simply stronger and faster than everyone else, and his nick name is King. yup, just like lebron james.

the hottest team in the west & the east battles

2007-12-03T21:22:00.000-08:00

magic visiting the warriors...

the warriors are most effective when they have penetrations with quick passes. but they also need to create movement at the right time to receive the passes too.

nellie genius. attack reddick every time down. dude is just too small and slow for nba.

barnes is filling in whatever role the team needs. tonight it's knocking down shots, and he's doing it.

....

it's coming down to the wire for this game.

baron's fouling out was the undoing of the warriors. he had to foul dwight to try to prevent that rebound dunk. but everything felt apart after that. the last posession was atrocious.

with more than 10 secs left and the score tied, monta had the ball with all stephen jackson, al harrington, azubuike, and matt barnes on the perimeter. it came down to a bad 3 pointer by monta that just racachet off the board. you just kinda knew the warriors lost the game there.

in the overtime, the warriors committed 4 turnovers after the first bucket and just couldn't recover from it. baron plays wreckless sometimes, but without him the decisions making just got worse. warriors let this win slipped away.

kobe in boston

2007-11-23T17:08:00.000-08:00

tuning in on a thanksgiving friday, lakers visiting boston. kobe vs kg/pierce/rayray. 1st quarter is over. kobe plays like a man posessed. all the shots he took were amazing. 25-16. the double pump fake and spin moves. it's ridiculous. last shot of quarter, he was trying to take it, doubled, behind the back pass to wide open jfarmar, who missed it with no time left on the clock. the pass was just a little late for farmar to get a good shot.

kobe's actions are all so quick and so precise. he can make instanteous change in whatever position his body is in. if he has ONE big time super star, the team would immediately be in championship position. i mean, this is one DRIVEN mofo and he will win games with his sheer determination. KG is also famous for his intensity. those two would be so on fire it'd be ridiculous to watch.

well now the celtics got 3 superstar and lakers got 1. kobe scared KG away. good job man.

the big 3 is just too much to handle. they all know how to play and their chem is really there.

lakers bench is playing pretty good, actually cutting the lead a bit. everyone's contributing. apparently lakers are 2nd in the L in most bench points per game.

team analysis: Southwest Division

2007-11-08T11:53:00.000-08:00

easily the best division in the L, it boosts 3 champion hopefuls and two teams that are ready for playoffs.

rockets:

jeff van gundy is a great defensive coach, however, this team has slowly become a very offense oriented team, and JVG basically dragged the team down with his uninspiring offense. so gone is JVG, in is rick adelman, who previously coached two high power offenses (late 90's kings who never got past the lakers and early 90's blazers who never got past the bulls) and is looking to do the same with this squad.

mcgrady and yao are two of the most unstoppable offensive force in the game, so everything needs to start with them. adelman will occasionally put yao in the high post, where he can effective shoot and pass, while drawing the opposite center out of the paint. mcgrady should remain as the team's offense decision maker, whether it's scoring or playmaking, the ball needs to go through his hands because he draws so much attention. chuck hayes will continue to provide energy and grab boards, rafer alston will continue running the offense and spreading the floor with his 3s, mutombo will continue backing yao up, and shane battier will be mr intangible again.

big addition this off season is luis scola, a seasoned argentine veteran who's been in the game for 10 years. he should be able to get the starting 4 spot half way through the season. he will do whatever it takes to win, and will help out yao in the post. back on the team is mike james, who was traded for juwan howard this off season. he will provide instant offense off the bench, and will probably be splitting time with alston for crunch time minutes, depend on whos' having a good game. bonzi wells was on the team last year, but played so few and in between that he's basically a new comer this year. his size, athleticism, and scoring ability will make him 3rd option of the team (still off the bench though, the team needs battier's defense and hustle for the starting squad). last and the least, steve francis is also back on the team. the signing doesn't make much sense as the point guard spot has rafer alston, luther head, mike james, and draftee aaron brooks already. maybe they are just stockpiling talents/names for trades later, but who's gonna take steve francis, who's fallen off so much the past 3 years?

rockets is going to take a while to switch from a tightly structured defense-first strategy to a free flowing offense set, but once everyone's on board, this team should make a lot of noise and probably grab a top 4 seed in the west. biggest question mark, as usual, is the fragile health of Yao Mac. if they can play together for about 70 games, they should get favorable seeding and advance to second round, for the first time in yao mac's respective careers.

spurs:

tim duncan, ginobili, tony parker, and popovich. as long as those 4 are with the team, the spurs are a championship caliber team. practically the whole team return so they will be right back to the thick of things. their weakest link last year was at backup point, but rookie darius washington has come in and provided hustle, great defense, and some outside shooting to boot. they will consistently pound away wins in the regular season, so they can possibly have the best record by the end of season. though it won't matter to them as they are built for the playoffs, and i like them to (finally) repeat as champion.

mavs:

the mavs' psyche has been seriously shaken the last two playoff series, but they are still an elite team in the NBA. more than ever, dirk needs to prove himself as a capable leader and late game performer. this team is even more of a machine than san antonio, in terms of lack of persoanlities, and they are no good. they are efficient and faceless, which i suppose is why a lot people don't like them. i, on the other hand, just don't really have much to say about them. they will have a win total around 55-60 and advance to 2nd round, then lose to either suns and spurs. i don't think they'll advance past either of them.

hornets:

a team that was ravaged by injuries last year but was still able to make a playoff push towards the end of the season. with a healthy squad this year, they are poised to be in the playoff. peja is back and should provide the team with a lethal long range threat to loosen up the paint, tyson chandler will clean up the glass and provide the team with a huge defensive presence, and david west will do his work near the baskets and drain short jumpers. mo pete & bobby jackson are going to provide points when the previously mentioned are off their games.

the hornets is led by floor general chris paul, and he will make sure the weapons on the team are as effective as possible, with his passing and decision making. byron scott is an okay coach, so he won't exactly hold the team back nor lead the team to overachieve (though he did take the nets to two east finals, but it's probably more coz of assistant coach eddie jordan). my prediction for them is 7th seed in the west.

grizzlies:

a veteran point guard (stoudamire), 2 up and coming PG of the future (lowry, conley), a long range bomber (mike miller), a defensive big man (milicic), a rising all-star (gay), 2 athletic power forwards (warrick, swift), and a low post scoring threat (gasol). there's a lot to like for this team, and new coach marc iavaroni was an assistant coach in Phoenix, so this team will probably be an uptempo team. in the east, this team is good enough to be playoff bound; but this is the west, in the toughest division, so it's highly unlikely they will make it this year. 2-3 years down the line, if the team keeps developing this core, they can be a powerhouse.

team analysis: Pacific Division

2007-11-06T12:40:00.000-08:00

lakers:

kobe kobe kobe. the best player on the planet, the most polarizing player in the NBA. the biggest story for this team is obviously the future of kobe as a laker, after he publicly demanded a trade and recinded it and demanded it and recinded it. good times all around. i won't believe kobe will be traded until he wears a uniform without the words "Lakers" in the front. he's more than just a basketball player for the Lakers organization. he's the star power that make the Lakers relevant in fickle LA, and there's no other players who can fill in his shoes outside the basketball court (unless they can get 2-3 all stars back in return).

as for the rest of the team, there really isn't much. lamar odom is another do-it-all talent who just can't get a break from terrible string of bad luck in his life. his game actually compliment kobe's, and he is probably more instrumental to the team sucess than kobe because he sets up the offense, and he is a big body who can take it inside but is just as comfortable outside. bynum is another year older and he is getting better with his kareem-taught post moves. derek fisher's return provided the team with much needed veteran leadership (especially important at the point) and outside shooting. his addition cannot be underestimated.

the sucess of the team hinges greatly on the development of the youngsters on the team. that would mean kobe dialing back a little and encouraging his teammate to play within phil's triangle (which is the same song we all sang for 2+ years). i don't think i've ever seen phil with so little control of his team, so unless there's some sort of break through in team meetings, expecting them to struggle the rest of the way, and maybe barely sneaking into the playoff.

warriors:

after last year's unbelievable and improbable surge near the end of the season that had the warriors sneaking into the playoff for the great upset of the mavs in the first round, it seems like it's going to be a letdown year this season. GSW favorite son jason richardson was shipped to charlotte for mr brandan wright, who may become the future big man of the franchise. i assume the warriors are thinking they need to create room for monta ellis to shine, which i don't really object to. al harrington, stephen jackson, matt barnes, and pietrus are all going to continue their do-everything style of play. (last year this time jax was being torched for shooting a gun in the air after some nightclub incident, and this year he's one of the tri-captains of the warriors. amazing difference a year made.) i have high hopes for italian import belinelli, who should fit right in with warriors' run-and-gun style of play. andris biedrins should build on last year's sucess, and learn to stay out of foul trouble, as warriors have close to zero big man and they need him for easy buckets and defense/rebounding.

however, as we all know, warriors go as baron goes. he was magnificent in last year's playoff, and will need to bring the same intensity and leadership (not to mention the scoring and directing traffic) for the warriors to have same type of sucess as last year. they have a good chance of making the playoff, but is not a team that's built for the postseason. in fact, there's a very good chance that they won't make it this year. the top 6 teams in the west are set, and i think hornets are going to make it as the 7th seed this year, which leaves one spot for lakers and warriors to fight for. i have more faith in kobe and phil than baron's shaky health and nelson's system. good luck to them though.

clippers:

elton brand is a certified low-post/rebounding all star and shaun livingston is an exciting up-and-coming point guard. too bad they are in street clothes now and can't exactly help out the clips. they still have a decent lineup with kaman in the middle, maggette at the 3, cat mobley at the 2, and sam cassell running the show. however, kaman has been inconsistent at best since he got the contract last year, maggette is still being shopped around, and cassell is starting to be too old to play significant minutes. good thing they signed brevin knight, right? they have the talent to get into the postseason, just not exactly the right mix. elton brand is the engine and the glue for this squad, so if he comes back and get himself back to 100%, they can still fight for the last playoff spot. but so far there's still no update when exactly he'll be back, so that chance is slim.

kings:

mike bibby, kevin martin, ron artest, shareef abdur-rahim, brad miller. that's a pretty good starting 5, right? however this team became completely irrelevant the past year after their stella playoff series with the spurs, and seems to continue this depressing trend this year. new coach reggie theus won't be able to make anything out of this team. wtf happened with the kings?

suns:

off the top of my head, i can't think of a better starting line up in the L. Phoenix boosts 3 current all-stars (one of which is a 2 time MVP, and one that can become an MVP in about 2-3 years) and a former all-star. everyone knows about their exciting high octane offense and their regular season sucess. with this team it's about getting a championship, though it doesn't seem like their off season moves had increase the chance. in fact i think it has gone backward.

granted mr grant hill will be a very valuable addition to this team with his all around game, but trading away kurt thomas for money reason is terrible, as he was the only post defender the suns had. aside from Amare, the only big men they have are sean marks and brian skinner. basically amare is the sole big man on the suns squad, and with his tender knees, how can you bank on him guarding duncan for a full 7 game series after the 82 game season (and at least a series or two before the suns meet the spurs)? if somehow they advance past the spurs, the championship is theirs. simple as that.

team analysis: Atlantic Division

2007-11-03T13:07:00.000-07:00

(this was written as part of a giant size season preview, but season's already started so it's not exactly preview anymore. i'm breaking this down by division so it's a little easier to read.)

Atlantic division, the butt joke of the NBA last year, is significantly better this year. nets is getting kristic back, raptors matured a lot last year with their first division title, knicks added the talent but troubled zach randolph, but the biggest improvement is the celtics.

celtics:

garnett is alone no more. the superstar who can do everything well except being an dominant scorer now has not only one but TWO bonafide superstar scorer to compliment his game. kg is the ultimate complimentry player in that whoever he plays with will benefit from his game tremendously. ray allen will have a field day camping in the 3 point territory with garnett drawing defense in, and paul pierce will have plenty of layups and dunks from garnett's high post passes.

just imagine having KG and pierce on pick and roll with allen sitting on the corner pocket. i mean, who do you play on this? unless they have wooden dolls as teammates, they are gonna be hard to stop. their bench is a concern, everyone's really green (ha! no pun intended. seriously), but i believe they have a decent core. worth noting is Cal alumni, pac10 player of the year Leon Powe is now backing up KG. should be fun.

this team is going to be monstrous in the regular season. kg is going at 100% in mid season form from the start for sure, he won't let the team take any plays off. pierce won't be as injury prone but we'll see about allen. i still think seattle just shelved him to tank game last year to get oden. well, durant may turn out to be the better choice for now huh? back to the Cs, i believe they are going to win at least the division and probably getting the number 1 seed. sure fire for 2nd round, in fact the only teams that can beat them are heat and pistons in a 7 game series. if they don't make it to the finals, it's because of the coaching. yeah wusup Doc?

knicks:

i can talk shit about the whole sexual harrassment fiasco with the knicks, but let's just focus on basketball here. the knicks have a great collection of individual talents. talents to create drama, especially. "knicks have a great collection of characters" is probably a more appropriate statement. there's the self proclaimed best point guard who heroically brought his family out of the hood but finally has gone crazy, the 7 foot center who cannot rebound if his life depends on it, another productive center who enjoys eating on his courtside seat, the 5'3" knucklehead who is a gangsta wannabe with no real basketball skills besides being obnoxious, a power forward who only knows how to score in the low post and does not know how to pass out of a double team just like center #1, a previously-retired sharp shooter who robbed the knicks with a monstrous contract last time in time (but finally wised up and stay retired). all these under a head coach who order his scrub to start fight with other team, the same GM who doesn't care about team chemistry and has a track record of running things into the ground, and an owner who doesn't care what he's paying for.

any way you see this, it's a reality show worthy drama going on all year round. one of them may just lose it during one of the games. good times. recrod wise... who cares? if by some miracle they decided to play as a team, they can sneak into the playoff, but seriously? to quote dr evil, riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

nets:

this is the team that i root for in the east, with the simple reason of them being my old home team and kidd being my favorite player (well him and KG are 1 and 1a for me). him being a Cal alum obviously doesn't hurt either. anyway, dude is now 34 but is probably still the best point in the east. that alone should count for something. however, his body is starting to break down and his production is going to start to drop, though the biggest factor of nets making the playoff is the owner of a brand new contract named vince carter.

once the most electrifying player in the L, vince has now turn into derrick coleman of this generation: still better than 90% of the league but nowhere near his potential. if he brings it at least twice a week, the nets should have no problem making the playoffs. kristic is back and if he can play effectively, giving nets some low post presence, then they'll be in for sure. unlike last year in the weakest division of all time, they are just not going to win the division this time around, so they are gonna have to work hard for a spot.

raptors:

quietly made a lot of noise last year with the newly resembled heavily euro team and bosh as a bonafide franchise player, which also boost the coach of the year and executive of the year. this team definitely has the right mix of players to make even more noise this season. i really haven't watched them enough to comment on how well they will play. the players are all veterans players from overseas so i trust in them. it's the coaching that i will need to watch this season. sounds like fun. raptors/celtics anyone?

i anticipate raptors and celtics are going to battle for division champ. as for playoff, the raptors should have a very good chance of advancing to 2nd round. they are going to be a tough out for whoever they play against, but i reserve the right to say that if everything clicked and there's no injury, this team CAN get to eastern finals. like i said, it's the coaching that i don't believe in, yeah, even with that coach of the year on your bench.

76ers:

andre iguodala is gonna be really entertaining to watch. otherwise this team is shooting for the #1 draft pick. 20 wins would be an accomplishment for them. who's coaching this team again? maurice cheeks? he needs to run a super fast offense to try to get as many alley oops from andre miller to igudrodala. this is the only team in the east that has absolutely NO CHANCE of making the playoff.

home openers for all!

2007-11-02T20:04:00.000-07:00

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...

---------------------------------------

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.

kobe trade rumor

2007-11-01T00:47:00.000-07:00

espn reported a rumor 3 team trade involving kobe going to chicago and big ben and artest going to LA and kings get someone. i thought having big ben and artest may make this trade worthy for the lakers. then i realize that it's more than just basketball with kobe.

keeping kobe in a lakers uniform is a simple business decision: he's a celebrity playing sport. with the fickle LA crowd, the lakers need star power that transcend sports to keep the team relevant in the city. good or bad, as long as there's drama, there's publicity, and that's what the organization wants.

plus whatever team kobe gets traded to will have a depleted roster, which means pretty much same situation he's in with lakers right now, and he'll veto the trade.

so you see, kobe ain't going nowhere.

2nd night games notes - bulls @ nets, sonics @ nuggets

2007-11-01T00:34:00.000-07:00

picking up half way through 4th quarter at bulls against nets...

Deng: monstrous offensive rebound. Missed the tough layup. Drew a perfect charge on carter on the way back down. Next trip down, picked carter dribbling down the court and returned for a dunk.

Collins has big ben’s blown out fro. I’m not sure what original big ben, who has his hair in braids tonight, thinks of all this mess.

Carter lost the handle but scooped it up with one hand on a kidd fastbreak bounce pass

Jersey up 7 with 2 minutes to go

Carter shot a fadeaway 3. why?

Deng tipped a rebound from his right hand to his left, then made the layup. He’s gonna be an all star this year.

Out of a time out they draw a play out of time out, Jefferson drive in then kick it to kidd, who air balls the 3

Hinrich drove baseline then kick it top to nocioni who, of course, made the 3.

Just like that. It’s tie 96.

Back the other end, the nets, guess what, got a broken play with carter shooting the fadeaway airball.

Ben Gordon shorts a 3 after a time out. And the original big ben caught it and threw up the ball and missed the rim.

Overtime.

Wright is bailing the nets out more than once. Made a long jumper, then drove in what an impressive layup. Shouldn’t that be what vince carter be doing?

Luoul deng (and the Bulls in general) is causing a lot of deflections.

Kidd just threw it up to the hoop for carter to lay it in. up 3 now.

Impressive play out of a time out by bulls. Hinrich drove baseline, all shooters around the arc on weakside. Simple bounce pass to big ben who was wide open in the middle of the lane for a 2 hand dunk. Nice play skiles.

Jefferson drive right lane for a floater. Kidd steal, vince drove in, Jefferson kick out 3. up 6. then he celebrated by pounding himself in the chest and hurt himself. Pulled a muscle or something. No seriously.

Ben Wallace bricks a freethrow. Made 2nd.

Kristic is back! Anyway, after a bunch of freethrows, nets squeezed out a win. They were lucky they didn’t lose.

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Espn studio is fucking eerie. It’s creepy as hellllll. it's like espn is trying to find a studio combination that rivals the TNT crew, so they put together 3 most ridiculous personalities on their roster for this horror show. aptly debut on halloween night. nightmare lineup.

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the nuggets are just running everyone over this season. once they quicken up the pace of the game, they will just beat you down with their size and athleticism, and all of them can finish. (in fact having too many finishers and not enough facilitators on the team is probably a problem for them.) tonight they are going to ruin the sonics.

transition is the name of the game for them. yet another iverson face up steal and a layup and1. sick.

carmelo shake twice and shot a fadeaway. never moving his pivot the whole time. butter.

durant drove left side down and made a layup over two guys. first field goal of his career. many more to come. he's 6'9" and 215. a stick.

once it's slow down, the lead is cut to 3. well. it's 1 now. and it's not durant doing the damage. it's the team running the offense. which apparently the nuggets can't do.

hubie called out carmelo being the only player in the league to be double team every time down the court. nice.

johan petro travelled, but he was quick enough to do a juke move and made a bank shot from the foul line. pretty impressive for a 7 foot project. delonte west is pretty impressive too. scored some sharp buckets, made good plays with the ball. good thing sonics got him before the wolves did huh?

end of 1st. 32-31 nuggets. the slaughter is overstated? well, let's see how the rest of the quarters go.

nene just made missed another pick and roll layup. shit that he should have dunked in. and a 3rd. he looks like he has as much hang time as me.

west made a 3! he's playing really well tonight.

durant hits his first 3!. he's so lanky that when he fills up he's gonna be massive. missed a few freethrows early on though.

green a turnaround jumper from the post. now sonics are up 4 points. nuggets seem more lost on the court than the sonics do. is that even possible?

durant ran a 4-1 on fast break and dropped it off for a booming one head dunk. 17 point turn around. wtf.

the nuggets are all playing pick up ball and sonics are playing sets.

after a turnover, allen out on a run and finally made a layup. if they can't play sets, they need to feed on steals and blocks, which means they need to play MUCH BETTER DEFENSE. they don't play like a team though. it's usually one pass, stare down, they try to score. everyone just stand around watching. they play like complete strangers. i mean most passes are off target and the receivers are usually not in position to catch them. i know it's the first game of the season but the other team is playing with more cohesiveness and poise, and that team basically just got together this summer.

finally some signs of life by the nuggets, AI drove in a continuation floater. then passed ahead to kenyon for a dunk. can't finish the half correctly though. somehow with the starting lineup on the court, diawara was the one who took the last shot of the half. who's diawara? exactly my point. 63-62 nuggs.

back from the half. denver going on a nice run. carmelo 2 3s. already 26 points. nuggs up 10 now.

wilcox post up. west cut in for a layup. where's the nuggets' D?

west lopped up to durant for an alley oop layup. 8-0 run just like that.

west another double clutch twisting layup past the defense. super quick dude. came back and picked pocket for a easy dunk to take the lead. time out nuggets.

carmelo a release layup to iverson. he's super duper quick.

last play of the quarter, sonics had the ball with shot clock off, someone took a shot, najera grabbed the board and flipped it upcourt for melo to catch. with time running out, melo caught it and shot it in the air around the 3 point line and almost made it. that would have been a play of the year. possibly one of those career highlight clips.

najera 3 pointer, then drew a charge on the other end. two defensive stops later, he ran out on a break and finished a dunk that bounced out and bounced in.

iverson just had his 6th steal and feed to kleiza for this 14th assist of the game. you can still neatpick on his shot selection sometimes, but he's putting his footprint all over this game. he drove left baseline, ducked under for an and-1 layup, came back and picked west right in front of him again! 7th steal of the game. his fantasy owners are so happy they are crying right now. some guards don't get 7 steals a month. they just show a graphic showing AI's first career game was 30 points. THIRTY FUCKING POINTS!!! he musta pissed a lot of people off.

robert swift looks AWESOME. long orange samurai hair. good stuff. luke ridnour grew more of his hair out. looks like a golden mop on top of his head.

final score 120-101. not exactly a 20 point blow out. wait. the sonics just let the inbounded ball rolled to midcourt before taking it up real quick for a last second bucket. wtf was that? alright final final score 120-103.

welcome back to your regular season programing

2007-10-30T18:10:00.000-07:00

checking in with 4:30 to go in the first half of season opener, oden-less blazers at san antonio with a new championship banner up.

spurs up 55 -39.

blazers have some great young talent. lamarcus aldridge is a certified low post threat and a great touch from 18 feet. brandon roy is simply an athletic do-everything cerebral player. martel webster has a good touch.

lead is cut to 55 - 47.

spurs fast break ginobili steal that led to a elson dunk. their 3rd time connecting this half. manu is playing fantastic tonight. well he just charged into brandon roy.

parker's been killing early. 10 of spurs first 16 points. basically all layups. and a long jump shot. duncan ended the half with 13 points a piece with tony.

tnt studio is back! with magic on the set too. this is what i miss the most about basketball season. they are tackling the kobe trade speculation, and basically, he's not going anywhere.

this young blazers are just as feisty as their coach. 74-71. good thing barry saved them with a 3 to stretch it back out to 6. brandon roy comes back with a 3 after a failed steal attempt by spurs.
roy another smart play to stop the pass. on the other end of the floor he drove to the hoop to drew in defense and kicked it to a wide open pocket 3 by webster.

darius washington is all hustle and defense. shots arent bad too. first field goal of his nba career is a 3 pointer. already an upgrade over the disappointing beno udrih.

ginobili driving left hand dunk, next trip down he grab an offensive rebound with one arm and back up for 2 more points. back to an 8 point lead. blazers time out.

steve blake is playing well for the blazers, controlling the tempo, passing and making shots. martell webster is playing great. 8 for 13 with 19 points. high point man for blazers is lamarcus with 23 points, who surprisingly only has 3 boards.

ginobili with another quick pass to a streaking matt bonner, who adjusted his short layup for 2 points. next trip down, ginobili another 3. webster came back with a jumper on top right inside 3 point line.

2:30 to go and blazers are only down 5 points. the kids are hanging tough with the champ. if webster can shoot like how he's shooting tonight, and alridge doing his damage from everywhere. speaking of which, another jumper by him to bring it to 3. parker stretch it back to 5 with a jumper of his own. after the defensive sequence, parker exploded to the basket and forced a goaltending on aldridge who was too late. back to 7 points deficit, with a minute to go. tony parker, Finals MVP.

warriors are starting their season at home against utah, and monta got the first bucket of the season for warriors. after a foul by baron and one by biedris, monta got a steal and a speeding layup. almost a third layup but rimmed out. warriors continued to play a speed game but utah is just as athletic but much stronger. GSW is down 11 points going into the half.

2nd part of the TNT double header is the rockets lakers game. the first score of the game came with 9 minutes to go, appropriately with a kobe layup. first quarter ended with kobe dominating for 13 points, and lakers up 25-16. but with kobe not on the floor, rockets came right back. there simply is no second option for the lakers when odom isn't playing.

mutombo is back on the rockets. perfect. mike james is back too. a 3 pointer to tie up the score at 29. the rockets were down 11 early on (16-5). houston's depth is showing, and i still haven't seen luis scola and steve francis on the floor yet.

about 2 minutes left. mike james a drop off the ball for a yao streaking dunk. next time down another 3. if he can keep playing like this, steve francis is not gonna get off the bench.

kawme brown looks much thicker, i thought he was bynum at first. lakers had a few drop off dunk for him and he's at least some sort of post presence for the lakers. in any case it's 43-43 going into the half.

on the other game, AK47 has 7 points, 6 boards, 5 assists, and 4 steals half way through 3rd quarter. safe to say he's not bitchy about his role on the team now?

yao posted up, spin baseline and then a dunk. next time a fast break down, alston led the break, then dropped off the pass for a lefty dunk by mcgrady. then the ball some how miraculously flew up and dropped in to the net when kwame and luke went after a defensive board. then 2-3 offensive board with yao finally sticking a hookshot. rockets now up 10.

luis scola check in for yao, bynum overpowered chuck hayes, rebound his own miss and got a layup. mutombo is subbed in. bynum and mihm, 2 seven footers are in for the lakers. battle of big men? in any case the rockets' offense is clicking (with mostly mcgrady being on fire), they take an 8 point lead into 4th quarter.

in the other game. jazz is up 22 points, and bellineli came in with 2 huge 3 pointers. couple more baskets and warriors are down "only" 15 points. and bellinelli forced a turnover. too bad baron couldn't draw a foul. well it's back to 20 points. only few fans are still around at the 2 minute mark. warriors may just be too small to really compete this year. boozer abused them for 32 and 15 boards and deron had 24 and 8 assists. utah is a force to be reckon with.

back to the rockets/lakers game, rockets are now up 12 points, and kobe is playing 1 on 5. he's just trying to force it in every single trip down. he's killing the lakers. team chemistry is off the chart bad right now for lakers. he's unbelievably sloppy too.

with a minute to go, 2 forced turnovers turned into a kobe 3 and a farmar layup. 4 points game with 35 seconds to go. mike james then missed 2 free throws, and kobe took advantage and hit a layup to cut it to 2. 10-0 run lakers. time out houston.

fisher made a long 2 on the right after they forced yet another turnover. shane battier drilled a 3 with 2 seconds to go. WOW! he then immediately fouled kobe after the half court inbound pass, which negated kobe's chance at taking a 3. rockets escaped with a 95-93 win.

what a night later all!

mid season recap.

2007-01-28T10:36:00.000-08:00

been a long ass time since i have time to watch games, i'm in the middle of the best of west meets east - suns versus cavs. suns is no joke. the ball movement is ridiculous. the system alone is impressive, but with nash it's unstoppable.

cavs on the other hand is crap. barkley is right. lebron rebounds, dribbles up, then pass it to himself for a finish. what kinda fucking game play is that? get a new coach. okay let's get to the game.

2nd qtr 8:50 to go in the game...

damon jones shot an airball a few minutes ago. then on the defensive end he caught a Bell's airball. makes you look better huh? mr flashy is wired for national tv today.

varaejo just had a pumpfake baseline over-the-head dunk. pretty impressive.

time out back. barbosa weak side 3 pointer right out of a time out. next trip back raja bell missed a 4 point play. just like that phoenix is back up. diaw spin baseline, pass right back out on top for a nash 3. suns is really no joke. speaking of which, another nash 3. then stoudamire blocked a hughes lead passed layup, nash pushed it up and barbosa finished the break. time out cleveland. that's every single suns contributing. if you are doing the math, that's 14 points right there. simply dismantled the cavs.

well at least bron came back with a 3. then a good bounce pass to a pick-n-roll varaejo for 2 free throws. marrion runner. lebron missed a 3. got the ball back, and had a monster slam. rookie gibson got a 3. then lebron had another 3. all this while suns still made shots on the other end and is leading 48-47.

gibson blocked a nash pass, nash then drove baseline, gibson fell, nash passed to another layup. nash crossed over, varajeo helped, nash shovel pass to an easy stoudamire dunk. everything for them is a swish.

sink or swim: the Nuggets story

2006-12-22T14:43:00.000-08:00

by now anyone who has accidentally come to this site knows that denver had 2 big news that happened a day apart: melo (& JR smith) getting suspended for getting into a fight and - the bigger news - AI being traded to denver. the first item seemed to trigger the second one even quicker.

for those who still not on the know, nuggets were blowing out the knicks in NY and there was a late game hard foul that got JR heated. lil' 50 cents (nate robinson) threw extra fuel in the fire and escalated the whole situation. melo got involved and slapped mardy collins (the rookie who fouled JR) hard. from far away it looked like melo landed a right hook to his face, then he proceeded to backpedal away while other knicks went after him (jared jefferies and nate). finally things came under control.

melo should never had put himself in that situation, no matter how heated he was. he was having his best season, leading the league in scoring and was basically branded as the best player on Team USA this summer. this act tarnished his hard-earned rep, again. in the post detroit-brawl era (this NY/nuggets thing wasn't a fight. it was simply a lot of motion, and melo was the only one who connected anything), there's zero tolerance for any sort of commotion. there were plenty of fights before in NBA (larry bird and dr. J choked each other! barkley took on shaq) and none of them receive a 15 game suspension for one single hit. it's ridiculous. it's true there's an "image problem" with the nba, but that's all perception. fights break out in hockey (yes it's part of the game), baseball, and football. so i'm pretty sick of this double standard.

anyway i hope melo still makes the all star team in vegas. this should be his time, instead he got derailed by this crap.

and since nuggets just lost the leading scorer of the NBA, they decided it's in the best interest for them to replace him with the second leading scorer in iverson. i really don't quite know how melo and AI can coexist together, since both are scorers and need the ball in their hands to be effective. their games don't compliment each other. but i guess it's all done now and we'll see what happens with them.

well AI should be debuting in the powder blue uni tonight in denver. a new era of basketball begins.

....and finally they meet...

2006-12-08T23:02:00.000-08:00

few thought on the trade possibilities:

anything goes. except craig smith. kg still need a banger on his side.

randy foye is nice. sixers should deamnd him.

take ricky davis for salary reason. maybe he'll kick the other AI's in shape. let him shine.

let mike james go. you can't keep two ball dominating guards on the same team. not enough basketballs to go around.

i heard troy hudson wants out.

take steven hunter. he's not doing much but i think he'll play well boarding and blocking behind KG. defensive presence is important.

take alan henderson for salary reason. (yeah i'm amazed he's still around)

and finally, the reason why this previous transactions need to happen...

iverson, arriving in minnesota.

two lone wolves...

2006-12-08T21:12:00.000-08:00

wow. today is a little surreal. wolves played a great game whooping utha jazz's ass (that's a lot of s). but no. it's something crazier.

iverson demands a trade and 6ers told him don't show up at the game.

i'm thinking...

make it happen.

KG and AI.

two lone stars.

one more shot.

it's either riding to the sunset or crashing down in flame.

holy shit.

and the wolves played a big game.

they prevented jerry sloan from getting his 1000th win on them.

garnett passed magic johnson on all time scoring list (57th. thought magic woulda been higher than that).

31 points 14 rebounds 1 assist 3 steals 2 blocks. one nasty block on boozer on a drive. man to man.

and they prevented the ones who are supposed to play well played up to their potential. garnett kicked ass. probably thinking about how awesome it'd be to finally play with a legit player. completely dominated boozer. blocks and steals. step back 3s. ridiculous. mike james woke up. coming up with 28 points. probably showcasing his trade value. so did ricky davis. good job guys. go get traded. we don't need those two scorers anymore. just keep the hustle and defensive players (shooters a plus).

"bring it on. i love the answer."

there he said it. make it happen.

but it's weird to see AI not a sixer. that's just too weird. he was philadelphia to me. a true warrior. i just saw a fan's sign of "allen please stay here". damn. it must be tough being a sixers fan. that's rough dude. that's like kobe playing somewhere else.

think about that.

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on another statement game. pistons beat dwight howard on his birthday. he played well but lost by 4. it's his 21st birthday. i think he's gonna be even more motivated now. pistons ruins a big date in his life. they just fucked his couch.

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ruben patterson out scored michael redd 30-25 as they kicked grizz's ass (why that many s again? not a good day for s i guess).

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houston held bobcats to the lowest points total against in franchise at 62. outscoring them 30 or so. impressive.

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still i don't know how to brace myself for the possibility of AI not being in an 6ers uni. nor in a wolves uni. but man.... it's rough.

what a crazy night.

live at direct...for the first time!

2006-11-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

yup! i'm finally on league pass! but without further ado, we go right into action with magic at the hawks half way through the 3rd quarter...

the magic just made a run 11-2 to tie it at 64. jameer still doesn't quite know how to pass. should wait til dwight has position before dropping him the ball. tyronne rue just somehow fouled him hard enough to make him missed a dunk. then he missed freethrow. just not really in the game today. joe johnson knows how to play. smart guy, and is a good enough shooter and athletic enough to draw kick some dishes. efficiency is key.

also on right now is heat at sixers, and dwayne is not wearing his black leggings like last year. it's like a superhero losing his costume. he just looks like anyone now. either that or like michael jackson with his white socks. i can't decide.

A.I. has 26 and 13 assists. that means he contributed to at least 52 points himself (he could have passed to a 3 point made or and-1). he just on the ball so much. crazy.

back to the magic game... arroyo played well. 9/9 field goal, 26 points. but dwight was off today, so hawks are about to win by 13 points. better luck tomorrow.

just gonna watch the heat/sixers game now. 11 points leaad with 3 minutes to go. iguodala is on fire. popping 3s and shooting jumpers all over the place. haslem played a double double. shaq's DNP. goddamn. and sixers won.

til next time!

welcome to the 06-07 season

2006-11-01T01:01:00.000-08:00

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.

'06 houston all star saturday night

2006-02-19T10:21:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-12T15:08:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-11T14:01:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-11T13:07:00.000-08:00

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.

nba news

2006-01-28T09:50:00.000-08:00

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?

2006-01-20T15:15:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-19T14:52:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-19T13:19:00.000-08:00

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.

if i'm dwane casey...

2005-11-17T19:53:00.000-08:00

after watching wolves, i wonder what a coach can do to maximize the team's ability. some sort of motion's needed. simple pick and roll is cool. run screens for each other. rotate to either strong side or weak side when someone's making a move towards the basket. that's it. plenty of jumpers around. if they all crash the board and close the lane, with kg patrolling the lane at all times. it'll be good enough to keep them in games. they lack general speed, so they just gotta play defense together.

2005-11-17T18:50:00.000-08:00

game note from spurs/rockets.

- parker just did a olajuwon dreamshake. the one that fakes the pants off david robinson about 10 years ago.

- rockets are getting good looks, but they just keep missing. yao from close, everyone from far.

- speaking of which, yao's a terrible 1-on-1 player. they need to do more pick and roll with Tmac and him for easy points. coz if someone cuts in, he can throw and outlet to someone behind the 3 point line as he rolls.

- i think on paper, rockets are pretty damn good. maybe it's the coaching then? if i'm JVG, i'd have t-mac dominant the ball, and with so much attention on t-mac, yao will get lots of easy baskets and put backs.

- 2:15 in the 2nd quarter. parker amazing up and around layup while jumping past the basket. crazy ish.

- rockets is way too slow. parker and ginobili just go straight in. yao needs to stay under basket. period.

- what a nice play to end the half. 3 point play that sticks a knife down your throat. manu initiated the contact before putting it up. when he's on, he's on. poor mutombo. got posterized.

- 2nd half started with duncan and mcgrady basket.

- ginobili just find his way to the basket. he just stretch forever.

- wow. derek anderson just had a pass thrown to his face. wtf.

- if i'm jvg, i'd have rafer drive in as much as possible. then they need another cutter to create motion. thus freeing up yao for easy buckets. just dump the ball down. simple.

- what a sequence. rockets had good position. but they couldn't get the ball in until mcgrady trying to bail them up by picking the ball so far away from the basket. ended with a fadeaway 20 feet away from basket. spurs then came down and horry launched a wide open 3. swish. see? jvg can't coach offense.

- the difference between spurs and rockets is the fact that spurs finish their plays. rockets' play always get broken down. well, not much of a plan to begin with... no one knows what they are doing on defense.

- yup. another lost posession. 24 sec violation. nothing happened. i thought that was right after a time out? did jvg not draw a play up? or the players are retarded?

got it. think t-mac as michael vick. so he'll either pass it or score himself. with him drawing attention, make yao be the huge ass wide receiver and throw him the ball when you can. get him the ball where he can succeed.

two teams that won't make the playoffs

2005-11-17T13:54:00.000-08:00

it's way more interesting to write when i actually watched a game instead of just looking up box scores and recaps. it's way more insightful. coz they just give you the results, but not much how or why.

"marquee" match up last nite was knicks and lakers. it's really completely irrelevant, but i do wanna see who's doing what for each team so i gotta check it out. right off the bat, i must say that knick's starters are terrible. maybe besides a few impressive passes from marbury, i think the rest of them are garbage. the bench players, on the other hand, are all young and are good students. simply put, larry type of guys. hustle and defend. rookie david lee, this 6'9" white kid, plays awesome basketball. he hustled his way to a team high 11 rebounds and played plenty well in the system. channing frye was equally impressive with a team high 21 points. they aren't starters, but they should play a lot of minutes. since the starters are just incompetent.

just finished the wolves/wizards game. KG is 1 assist away from a triple double. and the wolves beat wiz by 12 points. that's only after wolves shooting above 50% and had a ton of rebounds. barkley says KG needs to be traded because wolves ain't going anywhere. but like i said, KG won't ever demand a trade. wolves won't make the playoff this year. sadness. in terms of nba 2k6, no one on the team has a player rating higher than 80 other than garnett. maybe wally's 80 (offensively, since his defense is crap). i wonder where he can win a championship.

teams in trenches and the east title contenders

2005-11-15T12:46:00.000-08:00

things are finally settling down a little in NBA. lakers doesn't seem as spectacular anymore now that everyone's keying in on kobe and no one else is stepping up. it's still early but it's suffice to say that kwame brown is still a bust, and most likely will remain one for a long while, if not forever. denver still haven't really regain their form from last season when they just steamrolled over everyone. well, more like outrunned everyone. i still wonder what the hell they are gonna do with earl watson sitting on the bench. camby's playing out of his mind right now, grabbing mad boards and blocking everything that he can get to.

knicks finally won a game. at the expense of the freefalling kings, who unexpected couldn't find ways to score. maybe it's taking them a while to get comfortable at playing with each other, but they are all good offensive players, maybe it's the inability to play defense that kills them.

rockets are at the bottom of their division at this moment, with t-mac out for a few games. yao's still not playing up to his potential. it's a matter of skill around the basket, as he always needs to gather himself before doing anything, missing his first shots as a result. rebound dunks are great, but maybe they just need to get him the ball where he can just dunk every time. his basketball IQ is getting better, so i think it's more of his conditioning than anything that's keeping him from dominating at the end of games. and undoubtly he's slower than many nba players, where he's being killed on reaction time (read: rebounding). i guess it's tough work to drag around a 7'6" 300 lb frame. hopefully stromile swift will come along sooner so that he can have yao's back.

while san antonio is pretty guaranteed to get back to the finals (unless tim duncan goes down), the east seems a little less clear cut, with pistons, pacers, and heat being the 3 headed monsters. heat is still quite unorganized, but they will at least reach 2nd round on talent alone. pistons and pacers have much less adjusting to do, with pistons running at full speed already. they currently have 6 wins and no losts yet, and no matter what happens in the first 3 quarters of the game, they seem to have that confidence and killer instinct that gets them the W in the 4th quarter. they are a clutch team, collectively. they'll get whatever it takes to win the game, whether it's a block, a rebound, a bucket, or a steal. you can't say the same about another team, maybe except spurs.

pacers are actually looking quite good too, and i think the pacers rookie Sarunas Jasikevicius (pronounced as ya-sa-keh-ve-gious) will be the closer at the end of close games. this guy is no rook as he was MVP of some sort in euro leagues. i mean he's a season veteran. maybe defensively he's not superb, but you have the rest of the team to protect his back. on the other end of the court though, he is terrific, as he makes intelligent decision, finding the open man at the right places, or creating his own shots since he's probably the best shooter on the team. i guarantee he will make a series-defining play this coming playoff. just watch for it.

heat and knicks

2005-11-07T15:04:00.000-08:00

time to look in the east. well. look what happened to the newly revamped heat. there is no reason to believe they won't win the division and at least get to the second round in the playoff, but one do have to wonder how far they will get after that. remember the 2004 lakers? 4 future hall of famers and they got swept in the final. or maybe the recent nba-star-studded olympic squad that won the bronze. it's not always the best players available that makes a great team, you actually need complementary role-players to win. i actually think last year's heat is better than this year's because everyone knew his role and did them well. wade will still make this year's team work, but it'll take until probably feburary for heat to run at full speed, with shaq's injured ankle being a problem right now. funny how reggie called it "a month-er" as shaq was being carried off the court. speaking of the devil, shaq is on tv doing a 24 hour fitness commercial. how ironic, he's gonna need that to get back into shape.

and then there are the knicks. i've already mentioned that they won't get into the playoff. but i'm sure most people can tell that. just look at the roster, they just bought themselves two centers (eddy curry and jerome james) who basically have proven they are incapable of being good players. see what separates good players and great players is the mental games coz everyone's physically gifted in the NBA. jerome james played one good series in last year playoff and he got a monster deal. that's all he ever done. along side these two bird brains (NBA IQ-wise anyway) with big bodies are a bunch of shoot-first guards who excel in playground basketball but can't run any plays (marbury, crawford). i don't even understand the roster moves. it's like isiah wanted to assemble a team of underachievers.

clutchness and the pacific division

2005-11-06T12:42:00.000-08:00

if you check yesteday nite's score board, there were at least a few upsets, so to speak. i thought spurs was invincible but maybe they took the nite off at dallas? it's still early in the season and spurs generally take a while to warm up. i'd say by january they'll be racking up wins like me at a buffet.

then there's the 6ers/pacers sighting. somehow 6ers got their first win in the season against a Final hopeful. that's nba for ya. pacers looked great against the heat a few nights ago. they basically have all the pieces in place now. defense is already there, and the players are gelling together as a cohesive offensive unit. i'm not convinced they will come out the east though. i mean, who is their clutch shooter? artest? stephen jackson? c'mon. right. can you count on nutcases (so much entertainment value though) on last second shots? with the season on the line? maybe tinsley but he's still too erratic. JO is great, but it's hard for a post player to be a clutch shooter. it's far too easy to collapse the defense on them. much like i don't think KG is a good clutch scorer, even though he's my favorite player and can do about a million things on the court. speaking of which, wolves lost to clips last nite by a point in OT, and KG missed a good looking 8 footer. cassell must have been ecstatic.

i honestly dunno if wolves will make the playoff. a lot depends on their learning curves, if they can find an identity to play with. relying completely on KG is not a strategy nor is it a team identity. another factor is how the pacific division plays out, simply because everything is a mess there.

suns are... well. not bad because they still have last year's MVP steve nash. but the whole team is basically blown up, though they still have the run-n-gun mentality, without amare they are only a slightly better than average team, not much better than lakers or kings. kings are in a transition state and no one knows what their roles are. they have enough talents to finish on top of the division or miss the playoff entirely coz everyone's lost. poor shareef. if only he went to the nets, he'd be in playoff for sure.

clippers are capable of going to playoff also because they finally have a clutch scorer in cassell. their starting 5 is pretty impressive, if that alone can get you to the playoff. last but not least in the division is the warriors. as evidence by last year's end of the season run, warriors are nothing to mess with when they are on their game. it is highly possible for them to win the division IF baron davis play all the games, but he won't so the warriors won't. realistically, i see them finishing second in the division and making the playoff as the 7th seed. but the pacific division is so unclear that almost anyone can be on top or bottom. suns will make the playoff for sure, everyone else is a scratch on the head.

coaching makes a difference

2005-11-04T23:12:00.000-08:00

ESPN2's replaying the spurs/cavs game tonite. it was built as lebron versus the spurs. and spurs won. handily. the 3rd quarter was like video games. massive runs with relentless defense and good execution/fast breaks. they completely stopped lebron and no one else did anything. how can this team not win the championship? maybe detroit has the type of defense to beat them, but i dunno if they can stop the added firepower. then again, i guess detroit are playing flip sanders style basketball, making hamilton a ridiculous awesome scorer. it maybe a slightly higher scoring final this year. just telling you how much coach make a difference.

speaking of coach, lakers are gonna do better than most people expected. simply because phil will keep the game close (if the players actually do what he says), kobe will then have a chance to take over at the end and win for them. phil has indeed implemented some sort of system (and at least some defensive mentality), so if the lakers actually carry them out, they'll be good. maybe even decent enough to make the playoff.

knicks on the other hand, are dunzo for larry's first season. they won't make the playoff for sure.

nuggets has a tough start of a season already. 0 for 2 and lost nene for the rest of the season. can't believe this is the 2nd year in a row that they lost a player to injury on season opener. (voshod lenard's busted ACL) they opened up the season with spurs, the world champ who just whooped them in 4th quarter even though nuggets kept up with the the whole game. they were outdueled by lakers the second, completely lost their momentum in the 4th quarter and OT. here are a few things i can say:
- melo is best near the basket, which we all know already. so why give him the ball so far out when he has to create for himself off the dribble? that's call setting him up for failure. the results are usually a bad shot or a turnover or a charge. flash him to the post and get him the ball there.
- they have superb point guard who knows how to penetrate and eager to dish, so the simplest thing nuggets can do is have their big mens (kenyon, camby, whoever) slash to the basket. they could have done this a dozen times with lakers coz no lakers can stop their dunks/layups.
- at least george karl weren't coaching those 2 games as he was suspended for something before the season even started. nuggets looked completely lost in half court offense, everyone just stands there looking at whoever that has the ball. slash to the basket when someone else get double teamed! dumbasses. until kenyon and camby learns how to play offense, nuggets are not title contenders.

no worries about nuggets making the playoff though. northwest conference is ridiculously weak. nuggets shouldn't have any trouble being first in their division. they just stepped all over portland tonite, beating them by 40 points. that's freaking awesome. utah is 2-0 but i don't think they'll win more games than nuggets. you can never count out jerry sloan, and they do have an impressive front line (okur, boozer, AK47) . so we'll see.

wolves though... man. okay they are my team coz KG's my favorite player from back in the days. but i just watched wolves and sonics tonite and it's really not encouraging. jaric is decent, especially coz he's big for a point guard, but he's still not a grade-A point guard who can utilize KG to his max. kandi man actually crashed the board a lot tonite, but he is atrocious with the basketball. 6 turnovers and that last missed shot. i can't believe they setup a play for him. and dude. it's a layup. i guess he tried to dunk it but it was too far. dumbass. wally's playing decent, hustling and actually playing some D. but he's still not that second star who can take it to the next level. eddie griffin is awesome. he's a block machine. and i didn't know ronald dupree (yeah i know you don't know him) is on the team now.

i hope the new coach knows what he's doing, coz apparently the team doesn't. it's always the point G up top, a big man setting a screen around 3point line, and then everyone stands around for the play to develop. the 2-man game is really not convincing at all, nothing really comes out of that. someone should have rotate to the strong side to shoot. there's still a chance (since it's REALLY early in the season) that there may be a system implemented in the future that utilize all the jump shooters on the team. coz if they do, then they are back to the playoff; if not, damn KG, i feel for you coz i know you will never ask for a trade. (no one can trade for your salary anyway)

speaking of which, how is sprewell feeding his family now that he's unemployed?

and it was borned...

2005-11-03T18:45:00.000-08:00

About 7-8 years ago, there was an NBA Live commercial that featured Mutombo being interviewed on the radio, and when the DJ asked him what is he gonna do when he is guarded, he said (in his cookie monster voice):

"I dunk on 'em!"

it's an absolutely hilarious commercial. and i'm inspired to title my nba blog with that. with the beginning of the NBA 05-06 season. i'm just super excited and want to get in on this madness. i'm watching the heat/pacers game now. it's quite fun.