Nitro

You can argue Wade's been better the last 4 years, but whatever...

Umm...what? The foul that broke Kobe's nose happened well before the 4th quarter.

Pierce, Spurs

I said he wasn't intentionally going after his head. He definitely meant to foul him hard, but I don't think he meant to hit him in the face and break his nose.

Looking at the replay, I don't think he was intentionally going after his head. Definitely was a hard foul, but it looked like he grazed his head while going for Kobe's arms. Of course people will go to one extreme or another on this. Personally, it was a cheap shot, and it clearly looked like Wade sized him up by letting Kobe spin on him with little defensive resistance. As I said in the game thread, though, I loved the matchup between those two, especially in the last quarter. Can't wait for Sunday.

Skills competition has nothing to do with actual NBA games. And no, when you are a PG who has the ball in his hands nearly all the time, turnovers (and turnover to assist ratio) are extremely important. Paul has a pretty big edge when talking about who the more reliable ballhandler/playmaker is...and that is the case when comparing Paul to almost any other PG in the league, which is one of the reasons he is such a special player.

To be fair, that turnover thing is pretty signficant since Paul averages over 3 more assists per game for his career than Rose while averaging less turnovers. Just sayin'.

Yeah, I didn't understand that last play. They should have had Wade inbound the ball and give either Williams, Melo or LeBron the last shot. Instead they gave it to the guy who's made like 1 3 the entire season lol. I really, really enjoyed the little duel between Wade and Kobe, though, specifically the plays they made against each other defensively.

Game's starting to get very entertaining these last 5min. LeBron is hitting crazy 3 after crazy 3 to get the East back in the game. Got a feeling it's gonna be the Kobe vs. LeBron show the last 2-3min.

Average team? Dwight's average team has a better record than the Lakers so far. And Dwight has been the #1 option on a Finals team before. There is no way Bynum is better than Dwight yet. Yes, Bynum has more post moves and a softer touch around the rim, but Dwight is no "inept" offensively anymore. He's got a nice running hook with both hands, awesome spin move, has developed a nice 12-15ft bank shot from the wing, and of course he's the best finisher around the rim in the league. He's better on the PnR than Bynum, setting far more effective picks and is more athletic on the roll. What also shouldn't be ignored is the amount of fouls Dwight draws (gets to the line 12x a night compared to only 5 for Bynum), which puts the defense into the penalty very quickly. Dwight is a MUCH better and more willing passer than Bynum, which makes the offense run a lot smoother through Dwight than it does Bynum. Howard for 4 of the last 5 seasons has been the top rebounder in the game. Defensively, Howard is much better defending the PnR, a better rim protector, communicates and directs his teammates better than Bynum, has quicker hands and grabs over one steal more per game than Bynum does, and is more versatile in terms of who he can defend and switch off onto. Besides all that, Dwight is arguably the most durable big man in the league, always playing 78-82 games in a season and playing nearly 40MPG. Bynum has played over 54 games only once in the least 5 seasons, and this year is only the 2nd time in his career that he's played over 30MPG. Until Bynum can prove he can be relied on to play big minutes with a major role for 70+ games a season, he'll never have the chance to be in the same convo as Dwight.

Worst contest ever. The only dunk that impressed me was Paul George's glow in the dark, reverse 360 windmill dunk. Even though VC did it before, that is still a very aesthetically pleasing, difficult dunk. The other dunks were plain awful and unimpressive.

It depends on what your team needs... Overall, Chris Paul is the better player. He doesn't score quite as much as Rose does, but he does it a lot more efficiently across the board. On top of efficiency, he has a wider arsenal to his game as a scorer because of his elite jumper from mid and long range, as well as craftier ways to get his shot off in one-on-one situations. Paul has a tighter handle, and turns the ball over at one of the lowest rates in NBA history (every year has near a 4:1 AST:TO which is ridiculous). Paul is a much better playmaker, with better court vision, passing ability, better clock management and knows how to control the flow of an offense better than Rose does. Both are very good rebounding PG's. Defensively, Paul has the quickest hands in the league and constantly disrupts passing lanes. His size is an issue against post-up PG's, which is an issue Rose doesn't have, but overall I feel Paul makes a bigger impact on defense. Paul simply impacts the game in more ways than Rose does. Rose is possibly a better go-to scorer, and on a nightly basis definitely takes on that burden more often than Paul, but Paul has been a 22-23PPG scorer in the past when his team needed him to do so. I believe Paul is more capable of doing what Rose does best, which is volume scoring, than Rose doing what Paul does best, which is running an offense better than just about any player in the league (besides maybe Steve Nash).

Eh [expletive] it, here's a few more gems... http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7187/6777468790_a6ca688ac5_o.gif http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27-jM2NvBIc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKvLVSirXjM ^Skip to 2:25 on the last one.

We've all seen the retarded plays by him this season...the off the backboard dunk, the running back on defense when his team was still on offense...so to keep all the videos in one spot, I've created this thread. To open things up is his most recent mind[expletive] of a basketball play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neBcgAnkpsE I'll update this thread as the season progresses. Feel free to post whatever other fails by him you've seen that deserve mention.

I wanna chance to see Elijah Millsap....it's Paul's brother, heard dude's got talent.

Obviously I probably haven't seen a third of the games he has played that CF has, but a few things... -Stylistically, he is basically a shorter hybrid of Wade and Westbrook. His explosiveness with his first step is quick like Westbrook, but smooth like Wade. He doesn't have that jerkiness to his movements like Westbrook does. Much like those two, he does by far his most work in and around the paint. He isn't nearly as vertically as explosive as those two, 'nor as strong in the upper body, so he mostly uses his body to create space, as well as little floaters. -What makes him special compared to similar players who have came out the last few seasons is his jumpshooting ability. He doesn't use it a ton, but he has a very effective midrange and 3pt shot. He's shooting a 51.2% eFG on jumpers this season, with only 30% of them being assisted (which is fantastic). Taking nearly 3 3's a game and is shooting 42% on those. 86% from the FT line. His efficiency as a volume scoring rookie guard is better than anyone I can remember in recent memory. Extremely impressive. -The rest of his game is similar to Rose's his first 2 seasons. He's a pretty good passer, but hasn't shown elite court vision or passing ability. He's an above average rebounder for his position, taking down nearly 4 per game. His defense is his biggest weakness right now, and caused Byron Scott to bench him often early in the season. That's ok, though...what should anyone expect from a guy who played only 11 games in college then came straight to the NBA playing major minutes? -His ceiling is probably similar to what Rose is doing right now, which is pretty damn good.

Miami suffocated them in that 3rd, and Wade carried them early, Bosh in the middle and LeBron closed it out. Melo got it going at one point, but without Lin being able to create much off the PnR, the offensive flow just isn't there for the Knicks. BTW, the parades to the FT line that quarter for both teams really killed this game's flow.

Both Camby and Smith have been sensational defensively this season. And maybe. Probably not, though. I mean, in my last post I lifted 12 guys ahead of Jordan, and that's not including guards.

A few quick notes from the 1st half... -Lin is going to gift-wrap Miami this game if he keeps turning it over at this rate. Miami left about 8-10pts on the board off finishes they usually make in their sleep, but that will not continue if they keep getting those opportunities. Lin has been frustrated all game with Chalmer's ball pressure and Miami's ultra-quick rotations off the PnR. He needs to be less sloppy with his ballhandling, and make quicker, safer decisions when he's coming off the pick. -Amare finally impressed me for once this season. He looked confident and aggressive, and was their best offensive player in the first half. Hopefully this game will be a turning point for him, he works hard during the All-Star break and comes out the 2nd half of the year the player we all know he's capable of being. -Miami needs to start feeding the ball into Wade in the post rather than LeBron. It's one of those few matchups where LeBron doesn't have a huge physical advantage against his opponent, while Wade will be able to get pretty much anything he wants against Fields. -Joel Anthony was getting killed on the offensive boards. He was terrific defensively, but that is negated when you give your opponent easy putbacks at the rim off offensive rebounds. The Big 3 need to do a better job of crashing the boards and masking Joel's deficiencies, or else this trend will continue all night.

His man defense against good post players still needs to improve, and someimes he can get too block-happy and miss making the correct defensive play coming from the weakside. As far as forwards/centers go, Dwight, Noah, Iguodala, Deng, LeBron, KG, Marion, Chandler, Camby, Ibaka, Gasol (Marc), Smith, and maybe a few others I'm forgetting all deserve it over Jordan.

He's only been averaging 27PPG on over 55% shooting the last 15 games. Yep. One of the best finishers in NBA history just has no finish at all...lol.

I hate Pitbull so much lol.

Seriously lol...how do you go from thinking Reggie [expletive]in Evans is a better defender to putting Jordan on the All-Defensive 2nd team?

Did you not read my post? It's not a 1 game thing...the entire season DJ has played much better defense than Evans.

At the center position, Evans lets his opponents shoot an eFG% of 67%...Jordan is at 54%. While Evans is on the court, the Clippers give up 11 MORE points (per 100 possessions) than when he is off the court. When Jordan is on the court, the Clippers give up 12 LESS points (per 100 possessions) than when he is off court. If defense is what you want, then what the hell are you doing starting Evans over Jordan? Wowwwwww....really?!? Sweet jesus.