Real Deal

Great offensive game by Melo, terrible defensive showing, which is why he's not MVP worthy in my books. And Billups doesn't even exist out there. From what I was watching, Baron was missing shots on his own...had nothing to do with Chauncey...and on offense, once again, Billups is a no-show. Didn't think I'd be saying this in the 2009-10 season, but the Suns are my biggest concern out West now, followed by the Mavericks.

Big numbers on a bad team...it's not converting to wins, so he's doing something wrong (and by the way, if you want a hint, there's more than just offense).

Fantastic win by the Thunder. Wish I would've gone to this game, actually (almost had tickets, but things didn't go as planned). Love how Gilbert Arenas has gone back into shot-chucker mode. List of games so far for Arenas: vs. DAL: 10-21 FG (47.6%) @ ATL: 9-22 FG (40.9%) vs. NJN: 9-13 FG (69.2%) @ CLE: 7-18 FG (38.9%) @ MIA: 9-27 FG (33.3%) @ IND: 5-10 FG (50%) @ PHX: 7-22 FG (31.8%) @ MIA: 7-20 FG (35%) @ DET: 7-18 FG (38.9%) vs. CLE: 6-22 FG (27.3%) @ OKC: 7-20 FG (35%) TOTALS 83-213 FG (39%), 19.4 FGA/G Hell of a shooter. Maybe if Mike Miller would get more than the four shots he took against the Thunder, they'd win games.

How do you not make sure you're boxing out for that last possession? Smith had that EASY. It shouldn't matter if you're one of the smaller teams in the NBA...so is Atlanta, and you can't box out to close regulation?

Easy to dominate on a bad team. The Sixers will never win this way.

Well, Ariza looks like he's really nervous out there, like he's looking for help from Scola or Brooks, or even Landry. It's probably going to hurt his game in the second half. He's 5/10 from the floor through the first two.

Wow, does anyone on the Rockets care that Marvin Williams is scoring the ball as easily as a prime Karl Malone would right now?

I think I know about three King Bosh's now, haha. Have you been here before? If so, make that two.

Sigs can't be linked to anything (non-clickable, even though that's not a word, haha). Sometimes, when someone gets ready to scroll, they click quickly in the window (open space or an image), and to prevent members from putting unwanted links inside of those signatures, we just put it in the guidelines. Some members don't care to look at the status bar when they click, either...so a sig can promote PSA, yet link somewhere else. But...you can have the link outside of the image.

Wow, how dare MJ to believe that LeBron had other intentions?! :o

San Antonio has to limit the minutes of Duncan and other players for the first part of the season. Usually, you won't see any of them playing over 35 minutes a game anyways. 06-07 Season (Champions) Duncan - 34.1 MPG Parker - 32.5 MPG Ginobili - 27.5 MPG Bowen - 30.0 MPG Finley - 22.2 MPG Barry - 21.7 MPG Without looking, I'm sure Jefferson is leading in minutes. Duncan and Parker are probably down from year's past, because of injuries and age, but they'll find their way back up that ladder in the second half of the year.

Kevin Harlan. He was sick.

Well, 18 points in the first half for Salmons. Zero points in the second half.

Bored.

Kobe is sitting on Salmons for the third, so let's see how that goes.

Odom needs to play some damn defense. Every time Kobe goes to defend Rose, Odom leaves Salmons wide open, and Bryant has to go help from the other side of the court, or from the paint (when he has to help Odom with Brad Miller, also).

Kobe is not playing well. He's gotta adjust to Gasol being in the lineup. It takes him right out of the post, and I just don't know if I like that. Hope his mid-range game gets better.

The Lakers always seem to be tied or close to a team in the first quarter...don't get it. If we blow someone out, it usually happens in the second or third, then we get complacent and let them come back a little in the fourth. Same story every time.

Second consecutive win by the Hornets without Paul. The team acts like they want to play basketball all of a sudden.

What else would you expect him to say? He's not going to sit and go, "The number should be retired because I want to be the last to truly make an impact with it on my back." Check his $tats, Mason. Many have enough to believe he has more than one reason to want this done.

Football and dinner at Jessica's parents' house on Thursday, then a dinner at my parents' house on Friday or Saturday (depending on when my mom's sister can make it in).

Jason Kidd. He's a far superior defensive player who can defend positions 1-3 on the floor, is an excellent rebounder, a much better passer, has much more experience, and is better in the clutch. Calderon can shoot free throws...and that's about it.

It took me 30 seconds to do this. Select all 14-15 games with the checkbox to the right, go down and choose "Move Selected" in the drop-down menu, and move them. That's it. I need a moderator to do this every Tuesday night. It's not difficult at all. Epidemik moves the NBA Gameday topics each morning, individually (home team gets the topic), and that's much, much more time-consuming. All this takes is less than a minute of someone's time, once a week.

Perfect fit if Iverson isn't looking to contend this year (sort of goes against what he was wanting, but no contender has the room or the offense for him). Simply put, the Knicks are the old Suns, minus the talent, leadership and chemistry. They are a troubled team defensively, but they run the ball up and down the floor and have many different ways of scoring. You add talent, and you add scoring and, most of the time, victories. Under D'Antoni, Phoenix ran the "seven second offense," where they would literally try and find a great position to score within seven seconds, most of the time off of long rebounds (due to defensive stops by Marion or Bell). While they did have those defenders, their team defense was horrible, and their defense at the point and at the center position (where Amare was) didn't leave anything to be desired for, either. So, in New York, you have David Lee playing center...and we know how he is defensively. Iverson isn't a good defensive player, probably better than Nash...but what does that really matter? One gambles, one just gets burned, so no difference there. New York has a shooter in Gallinari, has a versatile Harrington, a speed demon in Robinson, and a coach that runs. Thing is, the Knicks are ninth in points per game (at over 101 per)...but are second to last in points allowed (109.5 per), and they allow 50% shooting. The Suns, who are doing VERY well this season, allow 47.7% shooting and are 25th in that regard (which is very bad), 26th in allowed points per game (at 106 per) and first in points scored per game, at approx. 110. What does all of that mean? The Knicks are building a Suns clone for D'Antoni. They are modeling their team after Amare, Nash, Bell, Marion, Barbosa and that old D'Antoni. In their head, they are thinking that, if they do this AND lure in LeBron James next season, that automatically bumps them up to contender status...and it does. They won't play much defense aside from LeBron's ability to block shots on a break, but Phoenix didn't need defense to get to the WCF and eventually get robbed of the NBA Finals (and I'm almost certain they would've defeated the Cavaliers in 2007, also, for their first NBA championship). Good move by the Knicks, really. If they get LeBron, they would have put together a poor man's version of the Suns...but with a superstar that can take them all the way to the Finals.

Playing ball in college? Where at? Welcome to the best.