NBA 2010-2011 Thread

[JohnBM01]

Earlier today on "Pardon the Interruption," Tony Kornheiser kind of pissed me off during the Over/Under game. The Over/Under was on if Chuck Hayes will have over or under one more triple-double. T-Korn responded early asking, "who is Chuck Hayes?" I'm sure if he played for the Knicks, he'd know ALL about Chuck Hayes.

No Rockets action until Sunday in Miami. Best wishes to all the other NBA teams playing between now and then.

 

[a6m5]

Raptors came so close to winning in Phoenix, they were up by 10 at one point and up by 6pts still with 4mins to go. They obviously died in the arse in the final minutes.

Don't get mad, I'll hold my tongue. I'll just say that six points is not much with four minutes to go. Especially against the Suns.

And that statement is we are a lower 5 seeded team in the foreseeable future.

Until D'Antoni employs defense, Knicks will be cannon fodder for the Celts, Heat, and the Bulls. Especially in the playoffs. The Knicks centers also suck compared to the top three teams in the East.

We'll see who's right.

Regarding the Knicks, I've been saying all along that they were overachieving. They are not Chicago, Miami, Boston, any of those teams. This isn't the first season of this NY Knicks put together either. They've been together just few weeks so far, and they haven't even gone through training camps together.

I think it's extremely premature to even attempt to judge the Knicks at this point. They are lacking many pieces for that team, which they'll be working on this off-season. I know that some of the media people are making big news out of Knicks struggling at this point after the trade. I personally find it foolish, and completely pointless. I guess unless you expected them to be a contender just about instantly.

 

[Villain]

I get your point about the Knicks, but what do you say about the Nuggets and their recent success? They've been a squad exactly as long as New York has and yet they've managed to beat San Antonio while having a stellar record since the trade.

 

[a6m5]

I get your point about the Knicks, but what do you say about the Nuggets and their recent success? They've been a squad exactly as long as New York has and yet they've managed to beat San Antonio while having a stellar record since the trade.

San Antonio isn't that great right now, are they? Don't get me wrong, they've been my second favorite team for years now, but this is after they lost Tim Duncan, right?

As far as the overall success of the Nuggets, their team is more complete, deeper. Also, if you fill a team up with bunch of good players, chemistry & gelling process obviously would be quite different than a team that just put together two franchise players. This is just one of the things I'd point to, but to be quite honest, I think most are surprised by the success of this Nuggets team so far. So many things from coaching, schedules, locker room, and million other things can come into play in something like this though, so I'm not gonna pretend to know the ingredient behind their success.

But just as I'm not worried about the Knicks in the long run, I'm not overly excited about the Nuggets either. Not just yet. First of all, it's just been few weeks. And I've never known any of the current Nuggets players to be a consistent winners. That usually is a familiar pattern in the NBA. Again, I think million different things can come into play, but when these two teams are done building, my money should be on the Knicks.

Edit: Yeah, I just read the box on the Spurs game, and no Tim Duncan. You take Timmy out of the San Antonio, and they become a much smaller team than the Nuggets. Nuggets frontline IMO is huge. Also, in this particular game, Harrington overachieved(28pts?), I think it said something like 8 of 12 shooting. Harrington will almost never win a game that has any meaning. Another regular season overachiever.

Edit 2: I forgot to mention the biggest advantage the Nuggets enjoy over the Knicks. Most sports writers are no more than just sports fans, so I bet you read this here, first.

In the NBA, scouting is half the battle. You watch tapes, go over schemes, plays, over & over. You don't have to be an NBA professional to know what you can expect from Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire. Denver? Who the hell do you guard? As unbelievable as it sounds, it is much harder to prepare your defense against Denver. While they have no superstar players, they have several capable players, and any of them can show up on a given night.

My own Blazers have experienced this. After losing Brandon Roy, it easily took over a month for the opponents to figure out our offense. Of course, this wouldn't work for teams without quality roster.

 

[Stavingo]

Watching the Jazz play Hornets. Okafor just made the buzzer beater to put the game into overtime. Come on Hornets!!!!

 

[a6m5]

LaMarcus Aldridge from the Blazers is contributing $1,000 towards the Japanese quake/tsunami victims for every points he scores tonight. Being Japanese, L-Train(his nickname) is officially now my favorite Blazer.

Rod Strickland being my all-time favorite player, I'm also fond of Derrick Rose(Strickland mentored him). I think I like him even more after this:

If Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose scores at his season average of 24.9 points Friday vs. Memphis, the Japan earthquake and tsunami relief effort will be about $25,000 richer.

Rose has joined other NBA notables Pau Gasol from the Los Angeles Lakers, LaMarcus Aldridge from the Portland Trail Blazers and Al Horford from the Atlanta Hawks in pledging to donate $1,000 for every point they score in designated games this weekend.

Direct Relief International announced the initiative, which will provide medical care for those affected by the disaster. Direct Relief created the Japan Relief and Recovery Fund in partnership with the Japanese American Citizens League.

“When disaster strikes we are all on the same team,” Rose said in a statement. “Right now we’re all pulling for the people of Japan. Through the good work of Direct Relief International and other organizations in this country, we need to step up and help however we can.”

Marc Gasol, JaVale McGee and Russell Westbrook are also doing the same.

Following players are making set donations: D.J. Augustin, Jarron Collins, Jason Collins, Mike Dunleavy Jr., Tyreke Evans, Danilo Gallinari, Xavier Henry, Antawn Jamison, Jason Kapono, Quincy Pondexter, Brian Scalabrine, Etan Thomas, and Ben Wallace.

I'm guessing they are all connected through their agency, but I appreciate their generous donation none the less. God bless these players, and who ever put this together. 👍

 

[Villain]

That's awesome. The Dodgers' Japanese pitcher Hiroki Kuroda gave $50k and the team raised another $6k just signing autographs before a Spring Training game. They all gave it to the Red Cross.

 

[a6m5]

That's awesome. The Dodgers' Japanese pitcher Hiroki Kuroda gave $50k and the team raised another $6k just signing autographs before a Spring Training game. They all gave it to the Red Cross.

Hate the Dodgers, but I must applaud them in this case. Like Derrick Rose said, we are all on the same team. 👍

Edit: Ouch! Tony Parker just got (accidentally)knee'd by Gerald Wallace.

 

[Paulie]

Don't get mad, I'll hold my tongue. I'll just say that six points is not much with four minutes to go. Especially against the Suns.

I know it's not much, especially in the NBA, but it just shows they were ahead with a small buffer, and apparently it was 10pts with 4mins, not 6, but still. Anyway, Toronto are currently wrecking their train in Golden State, they should hire a new defence coach.

 

[a6m5]

Damn Spurs..... Twice in a row, they show off the ball, only to get it stolen. With .09 left, now it's tied up at 96. Blazers are in position to force the O/T, but it's San Antonio ball, and they have shooters!

Edit: They threw it away, out of bounds. Now Blazers' ball with still .09 second on the clock. Play-by-play says Blazers have full time out(they can advance the ball).

Edit2: I don't frigging believe it. In the buzzer beating play, San Antonio allowed an alley-oop. Since Nick Batum tied the game with two made free throws, with .09 left on the clock, with his alley-oop, he score four points in .09. Frustrating from the San Antonio perspective though. Two critical turnover at the game that was theirs' to close. Last .09, you let them get to the basket when you know that Blazers are cold from the three. I'm happy we won, but this is rather bittersweet.

 

[Paulie]

Raptors lost to the Clippers late in the 4th today, disappointing yes but then again our 2 star players basically didn't show up to play. Bargnani was injured and DeRozan shot 3-15 from the field. Ed Davis has been a bit of a surprise package for me, he started the season very slowly due to an injury that prevented him from entering training camp or starting the season, but he's becoming a very solid player that will only get better. He had 21pts and 11 rebounds against the Clippers to lead the Raptors. With a training camp under his belt for next season he should be even better.

 

[sumbrownkid]

Don't get mad, I'll hold my tongue. I'll just say that six points is not much with four minutes to go. Especially against the Suns.

We'll see who's right.

Regarding the Knicks, I've been saying all along that they were overachieving. They are not Chicago, Miami, Boston, any of those teams. This isn't the first season of this NY Knicks put together either. They've been together just few weeks so far, and they haven't even gone through training camps together.

I think it's extremely premature to even attempt to judge the Knicks at this point. They are lacking many pieces for that team, which they'll be working on this off-season. I know that some of the media people are making big news out of Knicks struggling at this point after the trade. I personally find it foolish, and completely pointless. I guess unless you expected them to be a contender just about instantly.

Knicks beat the Bulls three times I think. Which made me worried about meeting them in the playoffs. I thought the Melo deal will make them an offensive nightmare for all other NBA teams. But instead, they became the laughing stock of the East. The East plays D. Dantoni doesn't. Until the Knicks actually get some D and a coach that can teach them that, they will be second fiddle at best to the top three teams in the East. Or they can move to the Western Conference where offense is the name of the game.

 

[JohnBM01]

Knicks lost 6 in a row now as they fell by about seven or eight in Charlotte.

Tonight, my Rockets will get back to work. Rockets need to keep winning while everyone ahead of us in the West will need to give us some help to better our 8th or better seed chances. Tall order- at Miami tonight, at Nets Tuesday night, and at 76ers on Wednesday. Impossible is nothing, but a LOT is going to have to go our way to better our chances with only a few weeks of regular season basketball left.

 

[a6m5]

Knicks beat the Bulls three times I think. Which made me worried about meeting them in the playoffs. I thought the Melo deal will make them an offensive nightmare for all other NBA teams. But instead, they became the laughing stock of the East. The East plays D. Dantoni doesn't. Until the Knicks actually get some D and a coach that can teach them that, they will be second fiddle at best to the top three teams in the East. Or they can move to the Western Conference where offense is the name of the game.

But tell that to the last Suns team he coached. While I also believed that D'Antoni's team didn't play defense, they did on that team.

I think you might be surprised by how coaches often make the right calls, but players does the opposite, or just aren't able to execute their directions. Having said that, I still say it's too early. For me, it's like we'll see once the Playoff's here. We can say this & that, but it's like speculations based on assumptions at this point. To be honest, I couldn't recall a team that gelled that fast, in mid-season.

On the Bulls/Knicks match ups, I wouldn't read too much into it. Regular season match ups sometimes hold true during the Playoffs, sometimes they won't. Bulls had lot of injuries, too, which could come into play should they be healthy by the Playoffs. I keep forgetting the Knicks has Chauncey Billups. Even at his age, I think he can be a dangerous role player in a Playoff situation.

 

[Omnis]

Wow, Chuck Hayes is Houston's center? Dude is 6'6". He must have some crazy ups to rebound with the bigs.

 

[JohnBM01]

Like I said- Rockets at Heat: guaranteed loss. Only thing I was pleased with is that we didn't lose by 10+ points. Exciting game, too! Defense was overrated with so many points on the board. Rockets lose 125-119. And.. the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Spurs 111-104. So that's just like drinking an ICEE while having a migraine headache. Lot of season left, but time is running out for the Rockets. Four-game winning streak over. We didn't give up, but the score still is in favor of the Heat. Part of me still thinks if we didn't blow so many games earlier this season, we would have been in a better place than where we are now.

Obviously can't win them all (who said we were going to beat the Heat anyways?), but this is just another hurting loss for Red Rising. And if they don't get back to winning, it will be sunset for Red Rising.

 

[a6m5]

OKC fans are almost as bad as the Jazz fans(except Brett ). Boo's, boo's and more boo's. They don't mind when our boys are getting hammered or hacked.

Our bright spot has been Gerald Wallace. Nearing his career high in points. 👍

 

[JohnBM01]

The 2010 Cleveland Cavaliers are Eastern Conference champions! At least... that's what it felt like when the Cavaliers beat the Heat. Worse than that is the fact the Cavaliers have led from start to finish. This was the Tuesday NBA Fan Night game for tonight. I'm sure one Mr. Omnis had to be pissed off to see his Heat fail at the Cavs, but even more so knowing the Cavaliers never trailed the Heat. It was a 102-90 victory for the LeBron-less Cavaliers.

And as for my Rockets, we beat the Nets in a rout- 112-87. I think this is the Nets' 50th loss of the season. How about your team(s)? How did they do tonight?

[UPDATE] I think this is the first time the Cavaliers led from start to finish since the played against or at the Detroit Pistons in March last year.

 

[Omnis]

Actually, I didn't even watch the game. I got the ESPN update thing on my phone when the game finished, and I had to check twice to make sure I was reading the score correctly. Good thing I was at a stop light.

I figured they just benched everyone and then the cavs won that way, but if they lead from start to finish then that's not very good. Hopefully our guys are just in "don't get injured" mode.

 

[a6m5]

Local news was reporting that LeBron didn't show up for the starter intro? His excuse was that he had to go wee-wee, or something like that. I have never, ever heard of NBA starter skipping intro. It might've happened before, but I've never heard of it.

LeBron James can win every NBA Championship until the day he retires, and he'd be no more than a Clown James at this point. Clown James... really? were you really that scared? You should have just called in sick!

Edit: No offense to Omnis or Giancarlo. I do despise James, so it tends to come out bit harsh.

 

[Omnis]

He was probably getting "serviced" by his old Cleveland mistresses.

 

[Paulie]

Toronto play Bogut's Bucks tomorrow, I'm looking forward to it.

 

[JohnBM01]

Today is a pretty funny anniversary. I was watching PTI's usual segment offering happy birthdays, anniversaries, and trails. On this day a few years ago, one of the Wizards tossed the ball into the air, was caught by a Toronto Raptor... who hit a three-point shot to force Overtime, in which Toronto won. EPIC FAIL by the Washington Wizards in that game! It was funny to me (unless you're a Wizards fan).

I just hope my Rockets don't fail tonight at the 76ers (which won't be easy). Knicks need to regain their swagger. Maybe them hosting the Nets will make things better for the Knickerbockers. Enjoy this night of NBA 'ball!

 

[JohnBM01]

Bulls:censored: motherf:censored:ing performance at the Sixers tonight. They can't get a freaking layup when it mattered most. I know we were in a back-to-back, but this s:censored: is f:censored:ing unacceptable. I hope the Rockets DON'T make the playoffs if they keep playing like they did tonight. Eight games to go with a lot of help needed if we are to make ANY playoff push. Red Rising fails... again. This time, 108-97.

Has your team croaked too tonight?

 

[Villain]

My Clippers were leading the Mavs by about 15 at the end of the first quarter. Now it's 48-46 in favor of Dallas at the half. We'll have to see where this one goes.

 

[Paulie]

The Heat and the Wizards were getting into fights, Wall, Ilgauskas and Howard all got ejected. Unfortunately the Raptors lost to the Bucks again, Bogut is too strong in the key for Toronto to match.

 

[JohnBM01]

The Rockets failed last night in Philadelphia, and the Grizzlies won their game to increase their playoff hopes. Texas' other two NBA teams are in action tonight for the NBA on TNT:

* Boston at San Antonio
* Dallas at L.A. Lakers

The other two Texas teams are going to the playoffs, and my Rockets may have to watch the playoffs rather than play in them. That's what is on tap tonight on TNT. Enjoy some NBA 'ball, folks!

 

[JohnBM01]

The good old Interstate-10 rivalry kicked off- Spurs at Rockets here in H-Town. This game required overtime as Red Rising rose over the black and silver to the tune of a 119-114 gut-wrenching. Surprising news is that the Spurs have never lost THIS many successive games since Tony Parker went down. That's now six straight games dropped by the Spurs. The Rockets get a much-needed win.

This was one heck of a game! We can't enjoy this victory too long, though, because we're hosting the Atlanta Hawks next. This all is part of a BIG hoops weekend here in Houston. We got NBA ball and NCAA basketball this weekend. Tonight, though, Red Rising stands tall.

 

[Paulie]

Raptors lost to the Bulls today in a close one where they had neither Calderon or Bargnani, two of our top players. It was another MVP performance from Rose that really sealed it, but Korver hitting some clutch baskets after being stone cold during previous games didn't help either. Both DeRozan and Bayless had big nights. Ed Davis also played well for his 11th (I think) double-double of the year (remember he missed the start of the season, plus it's his rookie season).

 

[JohnBM01]

Rockets just have to keep winning. I severely don't like our chances the rest of the way, but all the Rockets can do is win. We're going to need a LOT of help. The reason why we believe we can make the playoffs is because we've been playing well enough to remain competitive. My fear, of course, is that we caught fire too late to make so much significant noise. Our opponent tonight is the Atlanta Hawks.

Today's games on ABC: Suns at Spurs followed by Nuggets at Lakers. Should be two awesome games. Enjoy some NBA basketball!