Built Ford Tough

Damn, I switched to the Bulls/Pacers game when the lead was 12 or 14 and switch back to see the final score and see it is 99-98. Looks like I jumped the gun on that one, even though the Bulls game is entertaining.

So 16 games is more meaningful than the past 3 seasons in which Noah easily outproduced Varejao offensively, on the glass, passing, blocking shots and being a superior defender? I'm sorry, but that's pretty pathetic. Varejao is a good player, the type of guy that pretty much every team would want on their team, but he is not better than Noah. This is the best season Varejao has ever had (and it is still only 16 games) and yet it isn't better than anything Noah has done since his 2nd season in the league. The only reason to take Varejao over Noah is because he is cheaper.

Of course you have.

Detroit managed to cut the Miami lead down to 3 about 4 times in that quarter, but each time the Heat extended it back up to 8 or 9. 6 point game game heading into the 4th after LeBron hits a 3 to end the 3rd.

Kemba - 4/19 shooting with 8 points and 4 assists. It seems like he thinks with Henderson and Augustin out of the lineup he thinks the team needs him to jack it up on every occasion, but what they really need is for him to get his teammates involved and play like a true point. His NBA career has gotten off to a real shaky start.

Lol, and now Anderson Varejao is better than Joakim Noah.

Cav commentators are such homers. According to them, Alonzo Gee is already as good of a defender as Bruce Bowen was and is only going to get better.

A 3 on 1 break for the Knicks and they commit an offensive foul because they all ran way too close to each other. Terrible execution on the break. You have to spread out more so that the lone defender doesn't have time to react like that.

Beautiful ball movement from the Pistons on that last possession. It swing from one corner to the top of the circle to the other corner and then back to the corner where it started and Daye knocked down the open 3. I have not seen that kind of unselfish offensive possession from this team all season long. That is the kind of ball they need to play, not the selfish, iso ball that guys like Stuckey, Gordon and Villanueva get caught up in. Knight with an equally impressive drive there. Splits the double, ball fakes to freeze Anthony and then finishes through the contract for the And 1 opportunity (but he missed the free throw). Nice move from a guy who has struggled to really create off of the bounce in his short NBA career.

Much better play by Irving there. Took the attempted trap off of the pick and feed Varejao with a nice bounce pass for the dunk. Good job of being patient and sucking in the defense. Earlier in the game he was trying to force that pass to Varejao too early and it was resulting in turnovers or difficult shots. He let the play develop more this time and it led to an easy two points.

Irving making terrible decisions out there. His last three possessions he put Varejao in a terrible position which led to a charge, he took a pull up three from 30 feet with 20 seconds on the clock still and then got himself out of control which resulted in him trying to force a pass between three Knick defenders and ended up in a turnover.

They officially declined Hill's option as well. http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/sports/nba/120125-rockets-decline-option-on-jordan-hill#ixzz1kWNGIBeG

Amar'e really needs to be more selective with his drvies. You can't just lower your head and try to bulldoze your way through 3 Cav defenders. Very poor decision on his part and it led to an unecessary offensive foul. He should continue to look to attack the offensive glass as he has been very effective doing that so far. When he looks to create his own offense, he has struggled. Nice 6-0 run out of the timeout for the Knicks to take the lead, 31-29.

Does anybody else want to see Larry Brown take over as the next head coach? How awesome would it be seeing him coach knuckleheads like Young, Blatche, McGee and Crawford?

Douglas has played about a minute and already jacked up three 3's. Cavs need to do a better job inside defensively. The Knicks already have 12 points in the paint and have grabbed 4 offensive rebounds.

Varejao with 2 blocks on Stoudemire already. Melo has gotten off to a decent start after the 1 point game yesterday. 5 points for him already. I think he has 2 or 3 assists to go along with those points as well.

Not really a surprise. He kinda sucks. Another prospect I was dead wrong about (thought the Magic getting him late in the 1st was a great pickup).

No Hawes or Vucevic for the Sixers again tonight. Luckily for the Sixers they are entering into a very, very soft part of their schedule so they likely can still pick up wins without either one of their two best centers.

I think he will be back. I remember reading something about him wanting to play for another year or two. However, I could see him retiring if the Spurs were to win a championship this year or if Pop decided to call it quits. I just can't see Duncan playing for another coach with how close those two are.

Your best bet is to write an article and submit it to Real Deal or Legacy (the head writer) and if they like it enough, I'm sure that you will get a chance. Just make sure that if you intend on becoming a writer that you are fairly active. Too many times somebody will express interest, write one thing and then end up either disappearing from the site or never writing anything again. Even though the team is pretty much filled up, I would assume that if they (RD and Legacy) like your work you will be added to the team for the reasons I just mentioned. EDIT: Just saw your post and don't worry about it. Write something and submit it to those two people to see if you can get added to the team. Worst case scenario is that you get put on a waiting list or something for when somebody drops out.

Leafs extend John-Michael Liles. I really like this signing. He was on pace for 50 points in an 82 game season prior to getting that concussion (which could be a bit of a worry, but I doubt it). He is absolutely key in the Leafs PP which was ranked in the top 3 prior to him getting injured and since then has fallen to about 5th. He isn't just an offensive defenseman like many people think as he is reliable in his own zone and a solid shot blocker. They also got him at what is probably a discount in terms of what he would get in FA (just look at what Ehrhoff got last year and he isn't that much better than Liles). Looks like the Leafs have their two PMD in him and Gardiner locked up for the foreseeable future and I have to say that I am very happy about that. Love both of these guys. However, I think this means a trade is forthcoming. The Leafs can't go into the season with all of Phanuef, Gunnarsson, Schenn, Gardiner, Liles, Aulie, Franson and Komisarek. That is 8 defenseman who can play at the NHL level. Throw in Korbinian Holzer, who many believe is ready to make the jump from the AHL to the NHL, and that is 9. I think it is relatively safe to say that Phanuef, Liles, Franson and Gardiner are safe, so I would expect to see one or two of Schenn, Aulie, Komi and Holzer moved before next season. Whether it is around the deadline, the draft or the start of FA, I can't say.

Which will prevail? http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc519/yogistewart/Tank_owned.gif or http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx144/lillehammer/RasualSmall.jpg Bargnani got the win last night, despite Butler doing his best to get the Suns back into the game by inbounding the ball right to Jared Dudley which cut the Raptors lead to 2 points. On a more serious note, the Raps are on the 2nd game of a back-to-back while the Jazz haven't played since Saturday. The Raptors always get blown out in Utah and I am fully expecting that trend to continue tonight.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7502324/kevin-love-minnesota-timberwolves-reach-four-year-deal-opt-sources-say So he can opt out after the 3rd season and become an unrestricted free agent and it is all because the Wolves didn't want to designate him as the player who gets the 5 year deal? I'm guessing they want to save that for Rubio or something, but I don't see why they wouldn't have given him the 5 year deal considering how important he is to that team. It doesn't sound like Love it all that thrilled about not getting that 5 year contract, either. Of course, who knows if Bucher is actually accurate.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7502471/danilo-gallinari-denver-nuggets-agree-extension-sources-say Solid deal. Perhaps a bit on the pricey side, but even if it is a little bit much, it is just a little bit. Gallo also has shown flashes of becoming a borderline All-Star, which is about what you would expect from a $10M+ player.

Andrea Bargnani in his first game after missing 6: 36 points, 6 rebounds on 10-21 shooting including 4-6 from three and 12-12 from the free throw line in 42 minutes. In the 2nd half he had 27 points on 8-12 shooting to bring the Raptors back from a 4 point defecit to end up winning the game by 3. With that said, I was desperately hoping to see Nash pull something out of his ass and tie the game late. If only he could've drained those two open threes he had. What will likely best lost in light of Bargnani's great game is how well James Johnson played in the first half to keep the Raptors close. He had 12 points and like 5 rrebounds on 5-7 shooting in the first half and ended up finishing with 18 and 9 on 7/12 shooting. He has played really well as of late. Too bad DeRozan and Davis both continue to suck. Maybe it is my avatar? Ever since I changed it to this both have played like crap.