Built Ford Tough

GREAT defense from Martin on Ginobili. Awesome job denying him the ball, and even better defense of sticking with Ginobili after the inbounds forcing him into a very difficult shot.

Costly miss on the 2nd free throw by Felton. Luckily for the Nuggets, San Antonio won't be able to advance the ball to half court on the timeout. 5 seconds left with a 3 point lead and the opposing team having to go 3/4's of the court? I say you foul here. Don't even let the Spurs get the opportunity to get a 3 off. EDIT: Nevermind, Spurs used a second timeout to advance to half. I wouldn't foul here, considering it could easily lead to a foul in the act. There is also more time left than I thought there was (6.5 instead of 5).

McDyess has been awesome for the Spurs down the stretch. Drew a foul on Martin, has gone 3-4 from the stripe in the last few minutes and grabbed 2 offensive boards that led to a Neal layup. His hustle and effort on the glass has kept the Spurs in this game. Nice recovery from the Spurs. Dyess looked a little late coming over, but he was still there quick enough to allow Parker (?) to get a hand on the ball as Lawson went up for the layup. If Dyess isn't there when he was, Lawson probably gets an easy two. EDIT: Nice move by Chandler to create seperation from Ginobili to get this 13 foot jumper off and give the Nuggets a two point lead. Might have gotten away with a bit of a push off, but smart play from him as it would've had to be a blatant push off for them to call a foul there.

These two teams always seem to have great games whenever they play each other. I watched the one earlier in the year that had the Melo charge at the end and it was one of my favourite games of the year, and from what I have seen of this game, it has been another awesome game. Too bad Timmy is injured as I always enjoy watching him play against the Nuggets. I'm not even sure why, but I just love watching him play against this team. I really like what I see from the Nuggets, though. I've watched 3 games of theirs since trading away Melo and, even though they aren't as talented as they once were, they play with so much more effort and intensity that I actually enjoy watching them more post-trade as I did pre-trade.

The Suns look like they can barely move and yet they are only 4 points back so far (with Nash playing only 6 minutes and Hill leaving the game early in the first). That just goes to show how bad the Raptors really are. I think this may legitimately be the worst team in the league, or at the very least, one of the 2 or 3 worst teams in the league. Could you imagine if this team was tanking like the Cavs? They would have like 8 wins.

The biggest concern I have about Knight, other than him ever being able to run an offense effectively, is that the Raptors already have a very similar player in Bayless. If Knight isn't able to play the point, he basically turns into better defensive version of Jerryd Bayless with an extra inch or two. That isn't a bad player as Bayless can be effective in the right situation, but I would be a bit concerned about using a potential top 5 pick on a player who has a high chance of being a bit better version of a player you already have. Add Barbosa into the mix (for some reason I think he will be extended after his contract is up, assuming he wants to stay) and that would make 3 players on the team who are, for all intensive purposes, the same player and would play the same role. Should Knight show legitimate point guard potential, my entire opinion on him changes, though. I would have him somewhere between 3 and 5) on my draft board (for the Raptors, at least) right behind Irving and Barnes, and a toss up with Valanciunas and Kanter (depending on how he measures out, though. I only like him if he has legitimate center size).

Some people probably saw a picture of this on Twitter a couple of days ago, but there is a video up on Raptors.com http://www.nba.com/raptors/video/raptors-rookie-prank-mar-22-2011 Not an original prank by any means, but hearing Ed Davis sounding like he was about to cry while constantly saying "I'm your ride home, I'm your ride home!" at the end was pretty funny.

Way too much time taken by the Suns. Lakers played good defense jumping all of the screens and passing lanes, but after the first 4 or 5 seconds was used up, Gortat needed to just attack Gasol. Good defense by the Lakers in the 3rd overtime, but Phoenix was just completely out of sorts offensively. Some very poor execution down the stretch by the Suns. Artest was the difference maker in that 3rd overtime. That steal and dunk was huge, and that off balance, one legged fade he hit to put the Lakers up by 5 was the biggest shot of the game (although Kobe's floater to put the Lakers up by 4 was huge, Artest's shot was bigger). Regardless, it looked like a great game. I'm kind of pissed that I turned it off thinking it was over when the Suns were down by around 20 in the 3rd. Looks like I missed out on what was an awesome 27 minutes of basketball.

Suns are falling apart here. That is 3 straight possessions that have ended up in a turnover. Huge shot from Artest there. Carter played very good defense (bit on the pump fake, but did a nice job of recovering) to force him into a tough, one legged fadeaway, but he got the bounce to put the Lakers up by 5. Suns need to get a good shot here. Their offense has been completely out of sync in the 3rd overtime and they definitely need a basket here. And they did just that. Nice play call from Gentry to get Frye the open look off of the little brush screen from Carter. Great execution.

Great strip of Nash from Fisher. Credit to Gasol for hedging hard on the pick which slowed Nash up just enough to allow Fisher to get recover and strip him of the rock. That was also a very impressive offensive rebound by Bryant. Too bad the tip didn't go in, but just getting to that rebound was impressive as he came flying out of nowhere for it. Lakers blow 3 point blank looks. That could be costly. You have to convert on those in a game like this, especially when you get 3 good looks within 7 feet.

Umm, what kind of a play was that? Terrible play call and a brutal trigger pass from Dudley. EDIT: Props to Kobe for the defense on Hill, though. He did a nice job of getting right up on Hill to prevent him from getting any sort of seperation.

What a find by Nash. I don't know how he didn't drag the pivot foot, let alone find Gortat with a behind the back pass while he was falling out of bounds. Gortat did a nice job of drawing the defense in and kicking it out to Frye for the open three. Kobe with a great pass of his own after the errant pass from Odom. Nice awareness to find Gasol for what would've been an and one if it wasn't for Frye recovering just in the knick of time. That block may have saved the game for the Suns.

Brutal job by Frye. Why would you try and sell a foul there? Just go up and get the damn rebound.

What the hell? I turned the game off with the Suns down by about 20 points mid way through the 3rd, turn my tv back on and the 2nd overtime is just starting? How the hell did that happen? Did Phoenix just get ridiculously hot from deep like they can, or did the Lakers just completely choke?

Updated the first post with a Youtube link to the short little piece.

Luke Walton is still in the NBA? I thought that guy died or something. I haven't heard his name in a solid 3 years.

I agree with you that Lowry is better, but what exactly is wrong with what Augustin has done this season? His numbers are up across the board and has proven the ability to at least be a competent starting point guard, which was a huge question mark before this season. I know that his per game averages are bound to be higher simply because he is playing 13 more minutes per game, but his per 36 minutes reflect the improvement in his game. Last season he averaged 12.4 ppg, 4.7 apg, 2.1 rpg, 38.6 FG%, 39.4 3PT% and 77.9 FT% This season he is averaging 15.4 ppg, 6.3 apg, 2.5 rog, 42.4 FG%, 34 3PT%, 90.6 FT% On top of that, his PER is up from 11.2 to 15.9 and its not like his USG% is significantly higher as it was 17.9% last season in comparision to 20.8% this season. Again, Lowry is defintiely the better player but to say that Augustin has done nothing this year is cutting him short considering how everybody was writing the Cats off after losing Felton and having to start Augustin, yet they are still in the mix for the final playoff spot despite dumping salary (and if they had kept Wallace and Mohammed I am sure they would get the 8th seed over the Pacers).

The picture of them standing together in Niagra Falls on those steps in the middle of Terry's run was probably my favourite part of the entire thing, after the stuff about Fox going to Simon Fraser after being diagnosed with lung cancer so that he could watch Triano play one last game. I couldn't imagine what would be going through Triano's mind seeing somebody like Terry Fox coming up to you asking for your autograph and saying that you are his hero. Credit to Triano for keeping it together there because that definitely would've been a very hard thing to do if you ask me.

Did anybody see the segment on SportsCentre about Triano's relationship with Terry Fox? I thought it was an awesome 5-10 minute story and had no idea that the two of them were so close. I knew that they were pretty good friends, but I had no idea that they were this close. Seeing Triano tear up at the end when they were talking about Terry Fox asking Triano for his autograph and saying that Triano was his hero was something else. I've been hard on the guy when it comes to his coaching, but seeing things like this little story makes me remember why I thought so highly of him as an assistaint and wanted him to succeed as an NBA coach so badly when he was first hired. I'll try and see if I can find the clip online anywhere and post it here, but I thought it was awesome. Here is a Youtube link:

Pretty much. On the topic of Brandon Knight, David Thorpe is extremely high on him. He tweeted this after the first or second game of the tournament: Obviously I don't agree with the thought of him going number one, but like I said earlier, I think he is probably back in the top 10 as of now and if he has great workouts, I can see him jumping into the top 5, depending on how the draft plays out. John Givony also has that extensive prospect profile on Harrison Barnes that I mentioned a little while back up on DX. It is a little bit older as it was posted on March 16th, so before the tournament began, but I haven't checked DX in a while so I just saw it last night. It is complete with videos and everything. Here is a bit of it, and the rest is at the link that follows: http://www.draftexpress.com/article/NBA-Draft-Prospect-of-the-Week-Harrison-Barnes-3648/ It is a great read and the video breaking down some game footage is a nice touch (but who needs those when you have Youtube highlights. ). If anybody has a few extra minutes, I definitely suggest taking a look at this. It gives nice insight to his game, as Givony always does.

My favourite comments from that article: and my favourite:

Now Evans isn't even the first big off of the bench, but is now starting instead of Amir. (I'm "watching" the game on mute, so if Amir got injured or something, I apologize, even though Davis should be the one playing instead of Evans).

Ed Davis comes into the game and immediately blocks a shot (granted it was off of his own turnover, but at least he recovered) and then alters the next drive which forces a miss. Watch him get benched after his first blown defensive assignment. Meanwhile, Evans has 3 turnovers, has missed two point blank layups and has had about 3 passes tipped out of bounds. Yet Evans has played about 6 minutes and Davis has played 2. Jay Triano: Where retarded coaching happens.

And here comes Reggie Evans. Gotta love how Davis is now relegated to the 4th big off the bench, because clearly playing Reggie Evans 30 minutes a night is more beneficial to the Raptors future than developing Davis. Oh, great, here comes Barbosa to chuck up his mandatory shot a minute as well. EDIT: And now they are trying to post Evans up. This is [expletive]ing ridiculous. No wonder I don't even both watching this team anymore. Who the hell thinks it is a good idea to post up Reggie freaking Evans? Oh yeah, Lawson has lit Calderon up for 13 points on 5-5 shooting, yet he doesn't get yanked for playing defense like a sieve, yet if that was Bayless his ass would be nailed to the bench for the rest of the half. I love this team. /rant (for now, I'm sure there will be more to come later).

They got nothing on Texas, though. PG: Kabongo SG: Joseph SF: Thomas PF: Thompson C: Who cares