Real Deal

More than 200 artillery shells fired by North Korea...

Live feed: http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-al_jazeera_english

They just fired artillery into the sea, near the border, and now they are exchanging fire. http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-al_jazeera_english (live feed)

Kobe can still dunk, but you'll never, ever see him in the contest as a contestant anymore.

Yeah, the three was there. Griffin turned quickly to West, so even if West caught that ball, there's a chance it's going to get swatted or he'll get fouled. Wide open three, on the road, to win the game? I think I take that chance.

It was a little low. West expected it, but it came off his leg. That bounce had to come a bit closer to Griffin's leg, to have a bit more space to elevate. Just wasn't there.

CP3 with the bad pass. :o Game over!

Brian Cook, you choker. I knew it.

Gomes, WTF.

Ariza misses both! Griffin board!

What the hell? That foul was before he even turned to pass the ball to Gordon. He didn't even give a motion to pass the ball yet. How was it after the release?

Good screen by Blake, Gordon is selfish as hell and thinks he's a superstar, but Ryan Gomes bails him out with the o-board and put-back. Clippers lead by two, 37 seconds left.

Blake pulled down two consecutive o-boards and dropped in a put-back to tie the game, then he defended CP3 on the perimeter and forced him to pass the ball, causing a shot clock violation. Monster.

...and the Clippers go away from Griffin again, and they blow the lead. Stupid.

He would help, but he can't defend point guards and he can't defend bigs. I doubt Spo or Riley would want to move Wade to point so soon, and I doubt Wade would want that as well. To me, Haslem is the biggest loss they can have outside of LeBron, Wade and Bosh.

Copy and paste the code below, filling in the blanks. All correct answers get you five points. No late entries accepted. If you don't turn yours in by the tip-off of the first game, you miss out, no exceptions. Wednesday, November 24th Miami @ Orlando (ESPN) Winner: Leading scorer: Golden State @ Houston Winner: Leading rebounder: Thursday, November 25th Washington @ Atlanta (TNT) Winner: Player with the most threes made: Sacramento @ LA Clippers (TNT) Winner: Leading passer: Friday, November 26th Houston @ Charlotte (ESPN) Winner: Leading shot-blocker: Golden State @ Memphis Winner: Player with the most steals: Saturday, November 27th New Jersey @ Philadelphia Winner: Leading scorer:

Didn't see this game, but by the box, it looks like it was Donte Greene vs. CJ Miles, and everyone else just showed up to cheer.

Smith and Wright are in a competition to see who can have the worst game tonight.

The thing with Lopez is that he actually plays like a big. Channing Frye would rather stand 23 feet from the rim. Without Lopez, the Suns are one of the smallest teams in the NBA. It would work for Nash any other season, because the idea was to pick and roll teams to death with Amare, Marion, and all of their shooters...but with both of them gone, it's just Steve doing two times the work with Father Time creeping up on him. As Charles Barkley said, Father Time is undefeated.

Battier is still there because he's still an effective defensive player. The problem is, he's only effective when the Rockets have Yao in the paint, or another wing defender, because Battier is one of the best at leading his man into traps and help D. If Houston isn't going to play defense, as a team, Battier becomes useless. The less defense played by the team, the more Battier works on that side of the ball...and the less energy he has back on offense.

LeBron defended Granger well, from what I saw...but he got lazy here and there.

Why the hell do you have to motivate two superstars and an all-star? They sure looked motivated during their championship party.

The same exact thing was said about Doc Rivers, actually. Respect isn't earned by championships. Jerry Sloan is one of the most well-respected coaches in NBA history. It shouldn't take a Pat Riley or a Phil Jackson to bring these guys together, because their egos aren't creating the problem. The problem starts with lack of defense in two spots on the floor, and lack of offensive consistency and uncertainty (which is all on Wade, LeBron and Bosh at this time).

The Clippers will be good in the near future if they just start building around Griffin, rather than Gordon.

I'm starting to believe that teams are just letting off the gas, not intentionally, to let the Rockets back into these games. I have watched three of them go this way, where Houston seems to put themselves back into it, only to come up short...and all three, it's basically a cold streak by the other team, where it's really not Houston defending them well, just that team missing shots. Or, Houston gets a lot of open jumpers out of plays that really weren't working for them (and shouldn't work for them) most of the game. I'm not so sure this team is built for the playoffs. Even with Yao, I don't know. They would be able to score more, defend better, but I'm not sure if Yao would be enough to change the entire direction of this team, one that is heading south quicker than most expected.