Real Deal

Didn't look like he hit him THAT hard, but I guess he had to go through concussion testing. Did he actually have a concussion?

Anyone notice that Chicago shot 63.8% from the floor? No team has done that since April 2011, and that's significant when you consider the fact that their primary option is out. I read on Twitter (might have been from Alex Kennedy) that a Cleveland fan was heckling Rip Hamilton, and he called Rip "Old Man River."

KG was pretty disappointing on both ends of the floor, I thought. He wasn't boxing out, didn't help much on the P&R, and didn't look to create for anyone back on offense. Rivers also decided not to play Barbosa as much tonight, which was kind of odd because he's the one that racked up 16 points in a quarter against the Heat, who are a very solid defensive team.

This Charlotte team feels MUCH different from the one last year. I won't say they'll do significantly better, but you won't see a repeat of last season, that's for sure. George and Green had some trouble with MKG and Henderson guarding them. I'm not really surprised with Kemba's performance, either, especially when you consider the two players trying to hold him were Hill and Augustin. By the way, BJ Mullens is just depressing. I truly think he believes he's Dirk Nowitzki.

Haha, you're fine, dude...nobody is going to remove the link. It's all good. I watched a little bit of the game. I'll be honest...I think it's that teams are going to look at Orlando and not know what to expect, not understanding who to defend, things like that. It was similar to Cleveland, the first season after LeBron left, when they walked into their home opener against the Celtics (who just came out of the NBA Finals) and beat them 95-87. Those Cavaliers were actually 7-9 at one point...and then, BAM...8-45. The Varejao injury was huge, but another issue was the fact that teams found out who was going to be their primary scorer, how they were going to run their offense, who would be their defensive anchor (even though most of us already knew that), etc. So, with Orlando, I'll expect teams to watch film and start to figure them out, also. I won't say the Magic will end up with just 19 wins (like Cleveland did), because they have a bit more talent to escape a season similar to that one, pending injuries (and you just lost Hedo for a while), but tonight did show me how they are going to play...yet, it also showed the other 29 coaches. I really didn't think they'd beat Denver, though. Afflalo and Nelson shot poorly, but damn, the entire Nuggets roster (anyone that was important) shot as bad as those two did for Orlando, and Iguodala is struggling to fit in. Credit the Magic's defense, too...and just the team stepping up in general, without Harkless, Ayon, and Harrington.

Why did Mike Brown play Darius Morris tonight (who was awful, especially on defense) and completely forgot that we had Jodie Meeks? I didn't see Meeks step foot on the court at all. Thanks for the 40, Kobester. It's definitely still your team, never in question.

Crawford just tore up Ron's kneecaps.

CP3, Odom, Butler, Barnes, Turiaf...all former Lakers. Put them on the floor at the same time, PLEASE.

I'm rarely wrong, so Harden better stop playing so [expletive]ing good. Damn Harden, you scary.

I'm going to keep the OTRBasketball domain, but you guys may want to go ahead and re-bookmark the forums, just in case something changes.

Campaign is over.

Don't jump up and down for this one. It's Troy Murphy.

I'll have to find a way to bump this game down into the pool of topics...maybe change the post date through the database. Hmm. EDIT: Worked!

I would've traded Russ if it meant we keep Harden, if I was Presti. The trade was going to happen, since the Thunder couldn't afford four players with big money...but if that option was on the table, to deal Westbrook...it would have been done. I really can't stand him. My girl was going OFF last night, and she went to bed pissed. Westbrook ruins my life.

I never did anything to modify the View New Content section. There's an option to leave out individual forums, but all forums were added when I checked just now. I did reset everything having to do with that to default, but no values changed. Hopefully, it was just a small bug, and needed the reset. Let me know if it does it again, and also, if you're getting this in ANY other topics (from other forums).

It seems like it's a horrible situation over there right now. Is there a lot of looting?

Definitely watching this one. I'm interested to see K-Mart and Lamb out there, and hoping that PJ3 gets some time out on the court.

That will update itself. The team icons will all go to default (for everyone) once I add or subtract teams to the list...and I'm not sure why it does that, but it's basically me editing the drop-down list, not just an image. That's the difference.

I don't know. I like it because I have faith that DeRozan can develop a little more. It hasn't been the best environment, and I realize that's not a great excuse, but it's still legitimate. Sometimes, when I watched Toronto, I got the sense that he was out there needing to be their primary option...and it just reminds me of what Danny Granger has been doing for Indiana (and DD is no Granger yet). Both can be good second options, as long as they have that player to feed them, and if DeRozan can develop a jumper, to me, that makes this deal great. Sometimes, you have to write the check and cross your fingers...and to me, this is FAR different from the Landry Fields mistake. I guess, maybe last year, I would have questioned this...but now, I see OJ Mayo in Dallas, looking a little better, and having a better opportunity, possibly being that second guy behind an all-star and franchise player in Dirk. Mayo has the skillset, but DeRozan isn't at his ceiling yet...and when I go back and look at his second year in the NBA (when he averaged like 18 PPG and shot 47-48%), even though it's the numbers I'm looking at, he had flashes of brilliance when defending certain players (like when he was checking Kobe a few times), and it was just there. I have more of a problem giving that kind of money to Stephen Curry, honestly. Has DeMar missed double-digit games in his entire career? It feels like Curry has been having ankle problems since Davidson, as much as we hear about them now.

David West has been getting away with fouls for years. I have no idea how. It's kind of weird.

Nash has a shin contusion, colliding with another player. Never hurt his hand, and it wasn't because of his age. Howard isn't jumping as high. He'll get up there every now and then, but there are times where you sense that he's kinda hurting, and he'll barely get off the ground for a board, or he'll go to contest a shot and simply bail out of it. His first shot attempt (in the Mavs game) was a missed dunk, right under the rim...but, later on, he caught a nasty oop that he finished easily. --------- The "fire Mike Brown" comments aren't exactly because of the offense, but our defense. We haven't done anything on the defensive end for 10 games (including preseason), and people are fed up with him because he's a defensive-minded coach that has done three things: 1) has applied no visible defensive strategy to these games (or else we'd be seeing Kobe and Co. funnel to Dwight) 2) has relied on Eddie Jordan for all of our offensive needs...ALL OF IT 3) is putting rotations out there that are mind-blowing (Sacre, Jamison, Ebanks, Meeks and Blake...with a TON of clock left and a deficit not that big to overcome) Right now, quite frankly, the team's offense is decent. We land a different facilitator every game, it seems...which is expected in the Princeton. Problem is, on that end of the court, we aren't running the offense correctly just yet. We aren't getting to certain spots, relying on dribble hand-offs FAR too much to put the ball in the basket, cuts aren't being made, players are hesitating BIG TIME (even Kobe and Nash) when needing to pass the ball to a particular area or player, and it's causing a lot of turnovers. Those turnovers are the biggest (maybe even the only glaring) problem we have on offense. But defensively is where we are losing games, and it's not even in question. Nash is still as bad as he has ever been on the defensive end, and with Howard playing like he's hurt, that kills us right off the bat. Kobe has to roam, and then he leaves his man open for a three. Artest is doing the same as Kobe, and leaves guys like Batum open to launch. Gasol is being Gasoft. Jamison couldn't defend a sandwich from a single hungry ant...and that's Lakers basketball. We all saw it with the Heat. The only thing was, Miami wasn't even running an offense back then (in the fall of 2010). They were going ISO to win games. We continue to pound the ball into this halfcourt offense, and hoping that everyone will adjust and learn quickly. I know a lot of people want Nash to run, but again, I would rather see Nash adjust...the guy that has never seen the NBA Finals AND that has a high basketball IQ...than to see Kobe, Dwight, and Gasol adjusting to him. There was a play where Nash wanted to push last night, in the first quarter, and he had to slow it down because our guys aren't 23 years old...and Nash is nearly 39, but a small PG that plays 25 minutes a night, max. We'll be fine. Just not for a while. Kobe will be the first to break, every game (he was last night, was vs. Dallas), and Dwight follows immediately after...expected from those two, simply because they aren't patient and are superstars. Nash and Gasol would rather drain the clock to learn the offense when we are down 10 points, and that's good sometimes, but we also can't lose games spending 48 minutes a game running the Princeton.

This quote, from a Lakers fan, had me cracking up.

Painful, seeing Dallas rocked by so much, against a team that may not make the playoffs...right after they get an easy win against us.

Gasol and Gay were in LA for this game. Everyone else decided to stay in Memphis. Who would win in a brawl between Griffin and Z-Bo, though? I thought they were going to throw down, especially after Blake's suplex.

Welcome back, bro! I saw some of this game, but not enough to make many points. Did see the stats, though, and noticed that Lee and Curry were a combined 4-30 FG. Wow. Thank the basketball gods for Landry's big fourth, and other role players stepping up (my boy B-RUSH). Curry missed maybe six shots in a row when I was watching, and at first, I just played it off as him struggling through that ankle injury...but then, he was grabbing an abnormal amount of boards, so it was easy for me to assume that he just couldn't hit anything tonight.