Poe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkMV2MnxQaM Obviously a really bad call, or noncall. I doubt the refs are deliberately helping anyone. LeBron gets to the FT line a lot because he's a beast, and he's so hard to stop going to the basket. Just because he happened to get to the FT line more than the other team doesn't mean anything.

The Heat had a good stretch towards the end... They hustled and got nearly all of the 50-50 balls. Really exciting game. Too bad they couldn't capitalize. Two things hurt the Heat towards the end, though. Cook's poor shooting, and the defensive Q-Rich - Chris Paul match up. Spoelstra should have replaced Cook in the game for Dorell, who should have beeen assigned to guard Paul, NOT Quentin. I'm having a hard time understanding why Dorell didn't get a chance in the second half, only for his minutes to be replaced by Cook's mediocre defense and poor shot selections. The Heat also struggled to make baskets that game, yet Beasley only gets 8 attempts and 24 minutes of playing time. With the Hornets doing everything they can to keep the ball out of Wade's hands, Beasley needs to be in there and stepping up.

If the Heat defend them the right way, they should no problems winning this one. Wade and Wright should be taking turns on CP3, Arroyo and Chalmers should take no part in defending him. Beasley and Haslem need to make a point to defend West, and the wings need to stay home on shooters.

Meh.. I knew they weren't going to be very good. I lot of people said they liked the direction last off season, but I could never see it. Their collapse started when they got rid of Billups. They shouldn't have tried to fix their core when it was never broken. Anyway, good review.... as always

I'd love to see him come over to Miami, though I'd prefer if he came over the off season so he doesn't ruin the chemistry.

This may sound crazy right now, but I think by somewhere between the middle to the end of January, the Heat will have a better record than the Hawks. The Raptors' best shot is to actually overtake the Hawks' record, not the Heat's. Anyway, I know it's a bold prediction and it sounds like I'm being a total homer. Maybe I am, but I don't think it will be too long before the Heat grab the 4th seed. I'll at least stay realistic, though. They aren't touching the top 3 teams unless some crazy injury happens to one of the top 3 and their record takes a huge slide.

Those can be found on this youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/clutchfansDOTnet We can't expect a guy to play perfectly night in and night out after just coming back from a long injury. It's a process, and the coaches didn't give him a chance to build his way back onto the team. Anyway, point is T-Mac isn't as soft as he is made out to be. He can attack just like he can pull up. He is STILL a great all around scorer and playmaker, and would be a very valuable asset to most teams in this league. I would welcome him to be part of the Heat any day, though they don't exactly have expendable value to give up for him, or else Pat would have probably made a move for him by now. Also, about the defense, players will give what teams ask out of their players. Just look at how much Q-Rich changed since leaving offensive minded teams like the Clippers, Suns, Knicks, then joining a defensive team like the Heat. What I'm saying is, T-Mac has always been asked to be a prolific scorer and to just make things happen offensively. If a guy like T-Mac were to join the Heat, there's a good chance he would also buy into the system and put more value into his defense.

Centers of Al J's caliber are rare. The T'Wolves need to do what they can to keep him and add talent that works better for him.

No way will Minny give up either of those two for Martin. Terrible idea.

Good stuff, as usual. I agree about Ariza not being a true go-to scorer. He's best working off of good playmakers... like T-Mac.

You are exactly right. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC4GHt0HXwg This guy will only bring good things to the table. What he should have done was continue his solid play with a "prove myself" mindset to the point where Rick has no choice but to increase his role. Instead he felt betrayed and decided to leave the team all together. Hopefully he finds a home.

Aww... cheer up Lakers fans. You weren't the only ones upsetted tonight Seriously, though. What is up with all the upsets tonight? Portland, Denver, Boston... beatin by Philly, Sacramento, Golden State...

I don't want to spend too much extra time discussing this. Really, it's not that big of a deal, and as I said originally, there isn't enough clear evidence to call it intentional or not. Kobe could have seen him with his peripheral vision, or may have been completely unaware that Mo was there. Still a dick move not to pick him up or even tell him "my bad", but lack of sincerity shouldn't be worthy of a fine, anyway. For my last post in this thread, I still believe Kobe was at near full speed heading to half court. From the time it took for Kobe to get up off the floor (35 second mark of video) from the opposite baseline to where he crossed half court was 2 full seconds. Right at the 37 second mark he crossed half court heading to where Mo was standing at the 3 point line, and at about 38 and a half he bumped into Mo. He was going pretty fast past half court, and clearly was slowing down before hitting Mo. He was still at enough speed to put a guy smaller than him, who's not completely balanced and has no awareness of Kobe's presence, to make him fall. Again, easily not a flop, and it doesn't matter if Mo needs to put on weight or not. The fact is that he's 15 pounds under Kobe, and Kobe gave him enough direct contact to fall over. Maybe if Mo was prepared and had a good stance, he probably wouldn't have fallen.

Yes. From what I can make out from the video in this thread, Mo threw a hard one-handed pass and wasn't in complete balance. He was sort of taking a side step as Kobe ran into him. So he only had one leg entirely on the floor in mid step. And Kobe was in near full speed heading past half court - maybe 75% or something, the camera angle doesn't show - then slowed down just before heading into Mo. Either way, Mo was in an awkward position plus being blindsided, and Kobe ran directly into him at a descend speed and force enough to make Mo fall to the ground the way he did. Clearly not a flop.

Neither flop nor worthy of a fine. It's very clear that Mo didn't flop. Mo was blind-sided and off balanced. Hop on one leg and let someone run at you full speed from the opposite free throw line, perhaps barely slowing down as they run into you. 15 pound advantage or not, you are bound to hit the ground pretty hard. I'm not sure whether what Kobe did was intentional, but it was a dick move to not at least take some sort of recognition or blame for what just happened. It was clearly out of frustration. Not worthy of a fine, though, it's too questionable whether or not it was intentional, or if he was even attempting to actually hurt Mo.

Even though I never watched Magic or Kareem play, I'll just assume it's Kobe.

Well, it's simple. Turkoglu needs the ball in his hands to be affective. Either Calderon learns to be less ball dominant, or Jack remains as the starter.

You can change your controller settings in 2K to having ball handling with the right stick. BTW, the alleys were fixed with the patch, and so was the inside scoring (well, mostly... still needs more fixing, IMO). I guess this problem will just exist for those who don't have xbox live.

The sixth man role sounds more reasonable. If that were to happen, then Belinelli should be included in the trade and the Raptors should go for a little extra value. I still think the Raptors should try and push for other options, but adding Martin off the bench wouldn't be a bad idea, either.

Defensively, a starting backcourt of Jack and DeRozan sounds better than Jack and Martin. Plus, if Martin was to be acquired, chances are DeRozan would blend in with all the other wing options and wind up becoming forgotten on the bench. Personally, I'd rather see the Raptors deal Calderon and Bargnani for a good big than a good wing shooter/scorer. DeRozan needs to be developed, and this team has enough perimeter scorers, anyway. The wings aren't the problem, IMO. They need a defensive minded point guard that can shoot treys and doesn't dominate the ball too much to allow guys like Turk and Belinelli to do their thing - a guy like Steve Blake would be perfect (an expiring, btw) - and they need a long and strong center that specializes in bringing energy, shot blocking, and all around hustle that would rub off on the other players - Birdman, Joel Anthony, Joakim Noah, Tyson Chandler, etc, etc.

Man, the Pacers' defense has been terrible today. When you let James Jones drive and score a 2 point field goal... you KNOW your defense is bad

Well, maybe Beasley didn't individually score 40, but the Heat TEAM is up nearly 40 points Also... BEASLEY DREW HIS FIRST CHARGE OF THE SEASON!!!

lmao, Beasley almost blocked Wright's dunk on the alley.

Wow... that was the best first 5 minutes of a game I've seen the Heat play all year.