Built Ford Tough

Bargnani and Calderon - 29 points, 7 rebounds, 9 assists on 11-16 shooting Rest of the Raptors - 23 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists on 10-25 shooting For the Magic, Howard's demeanour on the court continues to be pathetic. Even though he has put up great rebounding numbers and respectable scoring numbers, he looks completely disinterested out there and just going through the motions. He gets the ball in the post, throws up a lazy hook shot without even trying to get a better look. He watches players go by him defensively and then tries to get a block despite him being more than capable of stopping the shot attempt in the first place by just playing man-to-man defense. Howard looks the same as Vince Carter's half assed effort prior to being traded to the Nets. Maybe I am wrong in thinking this and the lockout has made him get off to a slow start or something, but his body language out there looks like one of a guy who has quit on his team. It really is a shame because the rest of the Magic seem to have worked really hard in the offseason after their disappointing year last season. Turkoglu is in the best shape I've seen him in for a while, Anderson has played really well to start the season and guys like Redick and Richardson both look motivated to bounce back.

Calderon with his 3,000th assist on a Magloire And-1.

As bad as DeRozan has played offensively this season, he has been even worse defensively. After playing great defense in the 1st, the Raptors have come completely unraveled in the 2nd to allow the Magic to cut the lead from 14 to 4.

Agent denies, obviously. Considering his long history of attitude problems, it wouldn't surprise me at all if he demanded a trade, especially since he never seemed to want to be in Sacramento to begin with.

I love Jack Armstrong. Matt Devlin: "Glenn Davis is listed at 6'9..." Armstrong: "No way." Devlin: "and 289 pounds." Armstrong: "Yes sir!"

Ne job of Bargnani to go right at Anderson and get the Magic's leading scorer in foul trouble early. Richardson just got absolutely stuffed by the rim on that dunk attempt; so bad that he landed on his ass after it. DeRozan with a nice job of going right at Howard in transition for the And 1. After throwing up that ugly airball from 18 or so feet early in the game, he has done a decent job of looking to get into the paint, although that was his first basket.

I've been shocked at how good he looks out there in comparision to what he looked like last season. He seems like a completely different player. I don't ever remember seeing him fighting so hard for rebounds or banging down low like he has. He has always had a solid jumper, but he has never stuck them with such regularity and had so much confidence in it. His passing has surprised me the most, though. I did not realize that he was such a capable passer from the high post. He has done a fantastic job of hitting cutters and spot up shooters for easy baskets. If he plays like he has through the first 4 games all season long, he will be a leading candidate for the MIP. His improvement is that substantial.

Bayless is out for this one (and the Knick game tomorrow) so we will be in for a treat in watching Anthony Carter and/or Leandro Barbosa run the point. If you thought Bayless was terrible at running an offense, just wait and see how dysfunctional the Raptors offense will be with these two running it.

http://espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=311231025

Congratulations to Poppovich for his 800th career win. The Jazz really need to find a way to move Jefferson because they really need to open up minutes for the young bigs in Favors and Kanter. He is simply taking minutes away from quite possibly the future frontcourt and it would be one thing if they were winning games, but it is clear that they are going to lose just as many games with Jefferson in the lineup than without him.

Philly is absolutely lethal when they are knocking down their perimeter shots, like they were in this game. Iggy was 3-5 from three. Williams was 4-4. Holiday was 2-5. Vuceivic was 1-1. Brackins was 1-1 (although both V and Brackins were in garbage time). Hawes, although he didn't hit any 3's, was sticking jumpers all night long as well which opened up the inside just as effectively as the Sixers hitting their 3's did. Golden State really missed Ellis (at his grandmother's funeral) in this one, though. I don't believe if he had been there the Warriors would've won, but it definitely would've been much closer than this one was. As good as Rush has played for them in this early season, they simply don't have the depth to be able to withstand such a loss, and it showed in Lee's poor shooting numbers and Curry's high turnover numbers.

Hawks with some really poor defense on these last few Houston possessions. At this point in the game, when you desperately need stops, you can't leave a guy like Luis Scola so wide open and give him so much time.

Rockets really struggling to get good shots against the Hawks zone. It has allowed the Hawks to get right back in this game and really cut into the Rockets lead towards the end of the half. And just as I post that, the Rockets get into the heart of the zone on the next two possessions which resulted in two great looks from three for Martin and Budinger, which they both hit.

Pacers look awful in this game. Defensively, offensively, on the glass, energy, you name it, they have been outplayed by a vastly inferior Pistons team. Jerebko looks great out there, Monroe is taking it to Hibbert despite the size differential and they are doing a terrible job giving Gordon all of these open jumpers. If there is one player on the Pistons who you want to make sure doesn't get open looks, it would be Gordon. I don't know if they are tired from the overtime game against the Cavs last night or what, but they have played completely flat in this game.

Daye really goes up weak when you consider how much of a seize and length advantage he has out there. He has already had 3 of his shots blocked because he avoided contact and threw up a weak layup rather than embracing the contact.

The camera zoomed in on Hansbrough at the free throw line and it was nuts how empty the seats were. The entire upper/mid deck was emtpy.

Good defense from the Lakers. They really took away the three point line and forced a nearly impossible shot from Harrington. I still can't believe that Gallo blew that layup, though. Just terrible.

How on earth do you miss that, Gallinari? Brutal. Luckily for the Nuggets Kobe left them a glimmer of hope by going 1-2 from the stripe.

Lakers interior defense coming up huge with big blocks from both Bynum and Gasol. Too bad for the Lakers they weren't able to really take advantage of it as Kobe missed that jumper. Nice job of Lawson going right at Fisher in transition to draw the foul. Too bad for him he missed both free throws.

Beautiful play by Kobe to split the double and find Bynum for the lob. There was not a lot of room for Kobe to get through that double and that pass to Bynum was on the money.

Gasol is really struggling to guard Harrington. I realize that he is scared to get too close to him or else he will drive by him, but you have to do a better job of contesting these jumpers. Harrington is going to knock those down, despite his streaky nature.

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist absolutely dominated Louisville today. 24 points and 19 rebounds on 7-16 shooting including 2-4 from three. He had 15 points and 9 boards in the first half and was just all over the court today. A very, very impressive game from MKG as he continues to play his best against top competition. Just look at his play against the best teams Kentucky has faced: vs. Kansas - 12 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks on 4-9 shooting vs. UNC - 17 points, 11 rebounds on 6-10 shooting vs. Indiana - 18 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals on 9-12 shooting vs. Louisville - 24 points, 19 rebounds on 7-16 shooting Very impressive how he plays his best against some of the best teams in the country. Anthony Davis had a great game as well. 18 points, 10 rebounds, 6 blocks and 3 steals on 3-4 shooting and 12-13 from the line. I think about 16 of his points came in the 2nd half and 5 of his 6 blocks came in the 2nd half as well. In non-Kentucky prospect news, Andre Drummond had 16 points and 11 rebounds on 7-11 shooting and Jeremy Lamb had 15 points, 3 rebounds and 3 blocks on 5-9 shooting including 4-7 from three. UCONN played St. Johns.

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20111230_PHO@NO

Knight's NBA career is starting out exactly how his college career went. One game he will look outstanding, the next game he will be invisible and miss everything he puts up. His assist to turnover ratio is looking nearly identical as well. Of course, this was only his 3rd game so he has plenty of time to become more consistent. Greg Monroe is going to be a stud, though. He is going to become one of the best centers in the East for a long, long time. I absolutely love his game. A much needed win for the C's, though. After a disappointing loss tot he Hornets they needed this one. Now they have a home-and-home with the Wizards that they need to take care of and they will be back to .500. With Pierce back in the lineup, they really have no excuse to lose this game or either of their next two.

Turkoglu is looking much better to start this season. He isn't back to his near All-Star form that he was in when the Magic when to the Finals, but he isn't looking like a scrub out there either, like he was last season. He seems to have regained a bit of the quickness that he had lost and his jumper is starting to come back to him as well. If he can keep up this solid play it will be huge for the Magic. Anderson is proving to be an outstanding addition to the starting lineup. He is doing what they wanted from Shard, and he is doing it much better. Howard is doing a much better job on the glass over the past few games, even if it is against two smaller team, but I'm still not impressed with how he is playing offensively. He still looks like he is just going through the motions and waiting for a trade at times. After big games from Augustin and Henderson against the Magic, they really struggled in this one. Their struggles isn't all that surprising when you consider what is expected of these two. While both are going to have nice careers and develop into solid players, expecting them (along with Maggette) to carry the load for you offensively night in and night out is just expecting too much out of these two at this point in their careers.