Tired of watching the Lakers

I can’t believe that the lakers are back in the Finals for the second straight year after getting a task of how mighty( or not) they are after playing the rockets and Nuggets. I couldn’t believe that Lakers beat up on the nuggets after barely being able to beat them in almost every other game they played. It just didn’t make any sense, can the Lake show just turn it on or off with the flick a switch or what? It really didn’t make any sense, I am confused that the rockets were giving the Lakers a run for their money and then they looked like a high school team compared to the Lakers. I just don’t think you can fool around with a Cleveland or Orlando team in the Finals, especially Orlando since they have been able to prove all the critics wrong and have won some big games. I really don’t think anyone on the Lakers can give Dwight a challenge in post, Pau is too skinny and disinterested in defense and Bynum gambles too much on Defense. However there is nobody that can guard Kobe and the Magic have had troubles determined who should play the majority of the minutes at the shooting guard position. Seriously its too late to be making these decisions, you have to have someone who is going to be playing 30 plus minutes a game. Seriously Pietrus and Lee  have been splitting the minutes almost equally and they have to get into a rhythm or else they won’t be able to beat a more complete team like the Lakers.

What we spurs doing resting their stars against Denver

I was really dumbfounded to see coach Popovich rest his star against the Nuggets. The spurs are in second place and the nuggets are in third place even after their win last night but now they are only one game behind the Spurs.  So the season series is now 2-1 favoring the Nuggets and I forgot to mention that the season series is over. So if  San Antonio and Denver finish the season with identical records, Denver will get the top seed and have a better chance of keeping home court advantage through the first two rounds of the playoffs.

Everyone most be wondering what was Santa bearded Greg’s reason for resting his stars? He wanted to give them a 5 day rest instead of 4 day rest. Are the spurs realizing their fate is looking awfully grim come May or will this excessive rest pay off come playoff time?

Phoenix Suns erratic play as of late

I have been a fan of the Phoenix Suns since the Mike D’Antoni era started not so long ago. Unfortunately it has come to an end this season. Terry Porter filled in for Mike and has struggled to make a team who played no defense, into a team that plays defense in practice but not in games. Amare Stoudemire has been one of the worst defenders in the league or at least the one who plays the least defense. First of all, how can somebody who is always guarding one of the opposing team’s post player’s; not able to average at least 10 rebounds a game. Alright he has come close a few times but that number should be well over 10 with the athletic ability he has. Everybody has seen his highlight reel dunks and blocks, however we haven’t ever seen him shut players down like KG. Well Amare in my eyes is a lost cause as is Steve Nash who has gone his entire career playing lackluster defense. Alright he was never a quick athletic player like Amare, that however doesn’t make a good defense player. John Stockton played smart D and so does Chauncey Billups and they both weren’t/aren’t very athletic gifted players just like Nash. Alright I’ll give Nash some credit he can take a charge, but I’d rather see him in a defensive stance, playing smart D and putting a hand up in the face of every shooter he is guarding.

At the end of the game tonight against the Wizards Nash and Amare were both in an exaggerated defensive pose with their arms stretch way out. Was this it show that they know how to play defense or was this a show for Terry Porter who always tries to get the Suns to play defense. Either way it was uncalled for especially since they were up by 16 points with less then 10 seconds left in the game. There is a time to play defense and that is in a situation where the opposing player lets say Danny Granger is open at the three point line and Nash is there to put a hand in face way after the ball has left his hands.  Okay Granger might have hit the shot over Nash because of the height advantage but at least be near the shooter who has been known to hit late game shots.

I feel like supporting the Suns is like a being addicted to something that never gives you what you want. I want the Suns to achieve so badly, they made me love watching basketball again when they used to played uptempo run and gun team basketball. Unfortunately they never played defense as a team and the team could not get to the finals because of it. I think this is going to be the last year I’m going to root for the Suns because they are not the team they used to be and they can’t seem to win consistently anymore.

Bulls fans, you need some new announcers and a new coach

I was watching the Bulls play host to Thunder tonight and they lost to the thunder which was an embarrassment. However the real embarrassment had to be for the Bulls fans watching the telecast on WGN tonight and hearing the announcers cheer for the Thunder. They would be happy whenever Durant and Westbrook hit a shot and they actually got angry when those very same players took bad shots. The fans weren’t even into this game even though it was close throughout, they started to get a little into when the game was tied with less then a minute to go. I remember back in the Jordan years fans would be jumping in and out of their seats even when Jordan was a rookie. Derrick Rose is a special player and maybe he doesn’t do the things that Jordan did, but he has helped a young bulls team get back into the playoff hunt .

Back to the game, Chicago had some chances to get some easy fast break point but Larry Hughes and Ben Gordon just didn’t want to pass the ball on the break. So instead of passing the ball Hughes  took the ball up on the left side at least twice in the second half with his right hand and missed both times. Gordon had one instance where he and Rose were on a fast break and he decided to get called for a charge instead of passing to Rose. On all three of those attempts they both had teammates open for a layup. This happen at least two other times in the game tonight and that might have been the reason that the announcers were cheering for the thunder instead of the Bulls.

So who is the one to blame for the lack of chemistry on the Bulls, is it the players or is it their coach’s fault. I think it has a little from column A and a little from column B because first nobody on the team passes except for Rose. The second highest assist man is Hinrich who is out with an injury right now.  Then you have a rookie coach in Vinny Del Negro wasn’t that much of a team player, averaged 3 assists a game for his career and only made it to the Conference Finals once in this Career. Not only was he a so-so player but, he really doesn’t command the respect of his players, he to me seems like a high school basketball coach who is doing the job because he likes watching basketball. Maybe that works on skilled high school team, however that doesn’t work in the NBA and they need a real coach.

Hornets at Lakers

The two best teams in the West squared off tonight in a great game from start to finish. Chris Paul showed why he should be named MVP if his team continues to play as well as they did last night for the rest of this season. The stat line of 32 points and 15 assists is absolutely amazing considering the fact that he was playing against the best team in the West. On the subject of the West, how bout that David west putting up 40 points against a front line of Bynum and Gasol, what a player he is. West played amazing in the playoffs last year and despite his lack of height(6′9 which isn’t that short) he still is able to get his shots off over 7 footers because of his amazing footwork. Footwork goes under appreciated in the NBA but if you can move your feet you will be able to get your shots off with relatively ease(eg tonight’s game).

As well as hornets played they still had to deal with Kobe who had an amazing 3rd quarter where he we had 20 points on8 of 9 shooting. Then the fourth quarter came a long and Kobe went 1 for 5 and the Lakers were pretty much looking at each other wondering what went wrong.  Before the game started Gary Payton was saying that the Hornets needed to keep Kobe below 40 points to get a win and they did barely(Kobe had 39). I think Gary watched Sundays game where the Lakers played against the Jazz and Kobe got 40, but the Jazz are not the Hornets. Speaking of the Jazz, since New Orleans has a team again can the Jazz and Hornets switch team names because there is no Jazz in Salt Lake City. David Stern seriously look into this because I really doubt that the citizens of Salt Lake City would care and I know the people of Nawlins would love that name back.

On the subject of Kobe, I have never really liked Kobe as a person or as basketball player, mainly because his team knocked out the Blazers and Kings in early 2000’s to eventually win titles in both of those years. However he is one hell of a basketball player who can turn on his scoring with a flick of a switch. I still think that he has trouble being able to score big numbers and get wins. There have always been comparisons of Kobe to MJ and they are valid do to the fact that they both can score a lot of points in variety of ways, however there is one thing separating the two. MJ had his highest scoring averages before he won his 6 titles and Kobe had them after the won his 3 titles. Kobe is  starting to score less and pass more, but you can tell he wants to have another 81 point night. He is one if you remember who ran Shaq out of town and left himself on team where nobody is anywhere near his skill on his team. Pau is good but he has always been just a boderline All Star and Bynum is all hype. Tonight showed me why the Hornets are the team of the future and the Lakers will atleast have fun watching Kobe put up big numbers. Magic even said that the Lakers are not yet at the same level of the Celtics and Hornets definetely exposed that tonight.  The Celtics are starting to go on a slump recently as well and it looks like New Orleans and Cleveland are looking to get their number one spots come playoff time.

Raptors almost throw away another one

To be honest I haven’t really been watching the rsptors much this season, I didn’t really think Jermaine O’neal could bring the  Raptors to the second round for the second time in franchise history. A lot of Canadian analysts thought that JO would compliment Chris Bosh but I think it’s hard to compliment one another, when you play almost indentically.  Well JO and Calederon were out of the lineup tonight so it went back to being Chris Bosh’s team.  What was the result beating one of the top 3 teams in East in a close game down the stretch. Five of the Raptor players finished with double digits in scoring and only 9 turnovers without your starting point guard.

As great as it was to see the Raptors get out of the funk that has been keeping them in the outside looking in at the playoffs, it was just as hard to see what decisions the Magic players made. The Magic came back in the third quarter to take the lead after being down 12 in the first and 7 at the half, just so they can fall apart in the 4th. They didn’t hit big shots and the Raptors did and when there was 35 seconds left in regulation down 3, Orlando choose to shot an ill advised three pointers, instead of giving the ball down low to Dwight Howard who was an amazing 14 of 19 from the field. I understand that Howard isn’t the greatest free throw shooter but atleast he could have hit one of two free throws if he were to get fouled. Well the 3 point missed and they ended up foluling Bosh who calmly hit his free throws which iced the game.

So did the Raptors win this game or did the Magic give it away with bad decision making. I think it was a little of both but, the one thing that has frustrated me with this Magic team is the fact that they don’t recognize that Dwight Howard is their go to guy. How can you not get the ball to your go to guy when the game is on the line. Would Chamberlain or Shaq(well maybe not Shaq because he is an awful free throw shooter)  be denied the ball in clutch situations most likely not. I know Dwight is young but he has amazing potential to be one of the all time greats and having a mentor like Patrick Ewing will help him improve his range on his jump shot.  So Magic players if you read this post give him the ball more, he should be averaging 20 shots a game because nobody can guard him in the post.

The Knicks and the Lakers in Hollywood

I was a bit hesitant to even tune into this game tonight because the Lakers are the best team in the East and the Knicks even though much improved from last year are still the Knicks. Then to my surprise the Knicks came to play tonight and shot the 3 ball well enough to take  a 65- 50 at the half. Unfortunately the Lakers came back in the second half and took them nearly the entire 3rd and 4th quarters to capture the lead from the Knicks. In the fourth Lamar Odom showed up for the fourth quarter and hit some big shots down the stretch. Then of course there was Kobe who also hit some big shots and Fisher almost gave the Knicks a chance to win the game. However the Knicks didn’t have any timeouts left and therefore couldn’t advance the ball up the floor after Fisher hit one of two free throws.

The last play of the game is what confused me the most, because every team does this. In this case I think it was Chris Duhon or Nate Robinson that received an inbound pass and dribbled it up the court with a little less than three seconds left on the clock. He made it to about the half court line and then threw up a wild shoot that had little chance of going in. In my opinion in this situation the players should have a play where you get players on both sides of floor to set cross screens to free up the passing lines. The in bounder than passes the ball to a teamate at their own three point line and the next pass is to player past the have court line. This gives a player a better chance at getting a good shot and like every coach says, a pass gets the ball to where you want to go faster than dribbling the ball.

Indiana Pacers vs LA Lakers

What a game tonight between the Lakers and pacers which was looking like it was going to be a blowout for Lakers in the 4th. I almost turn of this game when the Lakers were up by 14 points but I’m sure glad that I continued to watch because the finish was great. Tory Murphy and Rasho Nesterovic were hitting big shots down the stretch, so you know this was just one of those games that the basketball gods were looking out for the Pacers. The last play of the game was a big mistake that went right. TJ Ford took the inbound pass with the Lakers up by one and about 18 seconds left on the game clock, he dribbled around for a bit and passed the ball to Rasho instead of Granger. Rasho mishandled the ball and almost had the ball stolen but recovered a the foul line. Marquis Daniels was cutting to the basket without any defenders anywhere near him, so Rasho passed the ball to Daniels. Daniels caught the pass and finally some help came to put pressure on Daniels and he put up a wild layup that had no chance of going in. Then out of nowhere Troy Murphy jumped in the air and tipped the ball up and the ball bounced on the rim for what was literally 2 to 3 seconds before it went through the cylinder at the buzzer.

You have to watch the highlights of the game just for that play because it looked bad from the very start and ended up with a ridiculous layup. I can imagine what Phil Jackson’s face looked like when that ball went through the basket at the buzzer. Having Rasho handling the ball in crunch time was denefitly what Phil wanted but Rasho didn’t turn over the ball like expected.

All this being said about the heroics of Rasho and Troy Murphy, the fact reamins that the ball should have been in Danny Granger’s hands. Gary Payton and Chris Webber stressed this in the post game show and TJ Ford should listen to what they have to say. TJ saw Granger at the top of the key just wanting for the ball and TJ just passed it Rasho hoping that he would pass it right back to him. TJ Ford had issues in Toronto with wanting more minutes and being a the second banana to Chris Bosh but Jose Calederon was and is much better then TJ. TJ needs to realize that he is a point guard and do his job (which is getting the ball to star player in crunch time) instead of trying to be the franchise player that he never will be.

NBA Thrusday Night Basketball on TNT

I was so excited to watch the two TNT games on tv tonight and that feeling quickly turned to disappointment in the third quarter of both games.  The Pistons and Suns have been struggling to win against good teams on a consistent basis since they have obtained their hall of fame players. Let’s start with Allen Iverson and the Pistons because Shaq in Phoenix is not as recent. Iverson left Denver without demanding a trade and actually it seemed like he and Chauncey Billups were both genuinely surprised that they were traded. Neither the Pistons nor the Nuggets really had struggled to do well in the regular season; however both teams have had their troubles in the playoffs in recent years. The Nuggets have yet to taste the second round of playoffs in Melo era and the Pistons after win the title in 2004 and trip to the finals in 2005 have not made it past the Eastern conference finals since then. Did this trade really make either team that much better? I would say the Nuggets are doing well but they have only beat one playoff team since Billups has been on their team.

The team the nuggets beat in Boston was the same team the Pistons lost to tonight. The Pistons showed their weaknesses tonight and Celtics showed why they are the best team in the league. AI just doesn’t fit into Detroit system, his teammates are trying to learn how to play with but only Rasheed can mesh with AI. I’m not going to say that Rip or Tayshaun Prince are not good basketball players but they don’t mix well with a scorer. They know how to work the shoot clock down to 8 seconds or less and pass the ball to the open man. A great scenario which works for college ball but it only worked for one season in 2004. I also have to put an asterisk on that 2004 championship win against the Lakers because Kobe and Shaq were too busy arguing to make it a competitive series. The Lakers hand wrapped that series in gold paper and gave it to the Pistons. Who knows maybe Detroit would have won it without Kobe and Shaq bickering but that finals was a disappoint to any NBA fan out there.

Back to action of the night, the Pistons tried to out execute a team that has its stuff together, a team that can play both offense and defense at a high level. The Celtics didn’t dominate one quarter they just increased the lead in the 2nd and 3rd to make the game unreachable for the Pistons in the fourth quarter. The Celtics have the one thing the Pistons have never had, that being 4 players that can hit three’s consistently. Any team that can shoot the 3 at a high percentage as a whole team will make it far in the playoffs. It stretches out the defense, opens the passing lines and it will create easy baskets by getting the defender to overplay you.

The second game of the night was equally dissatisfying because this was game I was looking forward to seeing. Two teams that can run and gun but can also play well in the post as well.  The Lakers had a bit of an advantage over the Suns at halftime and it made me think that they second half would be just as close. I was wrong, the Lakers hit their shots and the Suns didn’t. The Suns look confused like they have all season because they really don’t know what to do. Nash has struggled the most because he needs to run to be a effective and Terry has a tight leash on him. The part of this game that disappointed me the most was when Terry Porter put his bench in with 3 minutes left and the lead was only 12 points. Seriously is a 12 point deficit that hard to come back from when you have a team stacked with 3 point shooters. The old run and gun Suns would have made this a ball game or at least they would have went down shooting. Terry Porter has taken away a part of the Suns which made them effective and has made Shaq the focus point, even thought he is no longer a dominant player. Terry Porter let the Suns run for 3 quarters, and then they can play Spurs basketball in 4th. Watching a team loose games they could have won is painful.

Iverson in Detriot and the Spurs are struggling to beat the Timberwolves?

What is going on these days in the NBA, has everything just turned upside down and nothing is what it used to be. What was Joe Dumars thinking when he decided to trade Chancey Billups for Allen Iverson, did he think that a shoot first point guard would fit into the boring, over passing Pistons. The Pistons were being blown out in the fourth quarter last night by the Celtics(they ended up losing by 12, which is a bit better then losing by 20) which they normally have a competitive game when they play each other.  I also don’t understand how Chauncey Billups is a big upgrade for Denver from the point guard they had two years ago in Andre Miller?  Sure Billups can shot the three better than AM could but Billups cannot pass as well as miller and he isn’t a strong one on one player.

The Nuggets are a team like the Rockets who had all the right pieces to contend for a championship but for some reason not everything clicked together. The difference between Houston and Denver is that the Rockets choose to get a  wild card in Ron Artest that would either take the team to the next level or destroy the team and force themselves to rebuild around a still young Yao Ming. Instead of taking the Rockets route, the Nuggets decided to trade away Marcus Camby for what will essential be Cap size. Then they recently obtained Billups (2 years left on his contract) and Antonio McDyess (which they just today waived) instead of keeping Iverson’s whose contract will expire after this season. The would have left the nuggets with 21 million to either get one great player or two good players to make this team a legit contender. With the addition of Billups it assures the nuggets to have two more years of first round exists and then both Billups and Carmelo’s contracts will expire in 2010.  Both of them will definetely grow tired of being knocked out of the first round and they will leave to go play for a winning team even though it may not guarantee them as much money as if they were to stay in Denver.

I have to ask this question because it doesn’t make any sense to me. How can San Antonio struggle to beat the Timberwolves when they were in the Western Conference Finals just a year ago. Alright I’ll give it to you that they don’t have Manu Ginobili until after Christmas because of injury but they still have Micheal Finely who was an All Star and can still play at a high level at the age of 35. Also how can they lose to the Heat and Mavericks who are struggling to get a win againist the elite teams in the NBA. However the Spurs will play the most of the month againist non playoff teams and can maybe give themselves a decent record again. On the other hand, they lost Tony Parker to injury for atleast 2 weeks, so Duncan will have his work cut out for him.

Lastly What was up with all these reporters asking teams which player would make a good presidental canidate? Seriously is there anyone in the NBA who has any knowledge of politics? I bet there may be a few soft spoken players who have a genuine interest in politics but they would never discuss a serious political future with a goofball reporter. A reporter who is trying to get people interested in what he is writing by mentioning something about the presidental election. Seriously every paper around the world had atleast one page in there first section dedicated to Obama or the presidental election. I am extremely happy that Obama became president but I really think reporters can come up with a more interesting story.