| 14 January 2009
Walking in Dangerous Territory?
By Zach Harper
One of my least favorite things about professional sports and fans in general is the constant complaining about officiating, reffing, and umpiring. Every officiating crew is always "out to get" the team that ends up losing. Every umpire has a thing against the pitcher or batter or whoever lost the game for his team and fan base. And this has never been more of a complaint/problem than in the NBA over the last 10 years. Rookies get the shaft. Stars get the favorable treatment. And everybody leaves either pissed off or dissatisfied.
And then you throw in the problem of the whole Tim Donaghy situation and it adds circumstantial validity to the whole situation without anything being proven. With such little consistency, it leaves complete confusion and subsequent anger when plays like the final possession for the Lakers on Wednesday night happen.
When Kobe was doubled, he swung the ball to Trevor Ariza who immediately had the Ollie at the line in Hoosiers, Roy Schneider wants a bigger boat kind of bewildered look on his face. He attempted an awkward drive to the basket, fumbled about, and was called for a travel. Now to me this seems like the correct call because it WAS a travel. But to Lakers fans, they have to wonder if Kobe Bryant made that move and made the same travel, would it have been called?
Probably not.
We saw the crab dribble get called because LeBron didn't dribble but would any star player getting star treatment be called for that violation? We need more consistency with these calls. I think that's the way that the NBA can get fans to accept officiating for what it is. Otherwise, you're always going to have your conspiracies that creep up from inconsistent whistle blows. 
Let's Recap All of the Games from Last Night
By Zach Harper
There
seems to be some happy sentiment towards the covering of every game in
a brief recap. So we'll stick with that for now. Here are the games
from last night:
Indiana Pacers 110, Detroit Pistons 106 OT in Indianapolis-
Danny Granger is a walking dagger. Danny Granger is the savior. Danny Granger can do no wrong. Whenever the Pacers need him to make a big shot, he does it. He was only 5-17 when he hoisted the game-tying attempt with 3.9 seconds remaining in regulation to send the game into overtime. In the extra period, Indiana got to the free throw line nine times, made seven of them and put the Pistons away. Granger finished with 24 points on 6-20 shooting and 10 rebounds.
Philadelphia 76ers 100, Portland Trailblazers 79 in Philadelphia-
By the time the Blazers decided to show up to play, they had just two quarters remaining and a 22-point deficit to erase. By the time they had just 12 minutes remaining and only 10 more points to make up for, they were back to being tired, spent, and lethargic on the court. The Sixers ran the Blazers up and down the floor and finished the game strong with a fourth quarter effort that mirrored their dominant first half. The Blazers shot just 39% from the field and only Brandon Roy (27 points) and LaMarcus Aldridge (15 points) scored in double figures for PDX.
Chicago Bulls 102, Toronto Raptors 98 in Toronto-
Will Solomon and Roko Ukic have done an admirable job with Jose Calderon out because of a hamstring injury. But asking them to stop or even slow down Derrick Rose was just too much. Rose had 25 points and 10 assists but scored 17 of those points in a fourth quarter run that gave the game to the visiting Bulls. Andrea Bargnani continued his stellar play as of late with 31 points and 10 rebounds. But on the final Toronto possession where they had a chance of tying or winning the game, Chris Bosh gave a demonstrative then tentative move in the post that ended up allowing a Joakim Noah block to seal the game.
Boston Celtics 118, New Jersey Nets 86 in Boston-
You know what cures a bad spell where the supposed best team in the league goes 2-7? That's right -- the Atlantic Division. After two straight tough wins against the Toronto Raptors, the Celtics were blessed with a Nets team that was completely over matched. The Celtics limited Vince Carter to one made basket and eight Boston players scored at least nine points. The Celtics had 28 assists on 44 made baskets as they showed how good they can be offensively when the ball is moving. And yes, Brian Scalabrine even had a dunk.
New York Knicks 128, Washington Wizards in 122 in New York-
David Lee outworked everybody, Quentin Richardson bombed away from outside and Al Harrington scored from everywhere on the floor as the Knicks beat a motivated Wizards team who refused to go away. Nick Young scored 33 off the bench to help Caron Butler's 25 but the Wiz couldn't stop the Knicks from making threes. The Knicks made 14-26 from downtown and topped that with 28-32 from the free throw line.
Miami Heat 102, Milwaukee Bucks 99 in Milwaukee-
The Milwaukee Bucks had a great offensive game that featured five guys in double figures and a 25-point effort from Luke Ridnour. And they even held Dwyane Wade to 17 points on 5-20 shooting. Unfortunately, they didn't bother to guard Michael Beasley or Daequan Cook as the two young guys combined for 45 points on 15-22 shooting and the Miami Heat pushed their record to four games over .500 for the first time since Shaq was the mayor of South Beach. Shawn Marion had a huge block on Richard Jefferson with 21 seconds to go that would have tied the game.
Oklahoma City Thunder 114, Utah Jazz 93 in Oklahoma City-
The Utah Jazz received a little scare in the first half when they found themselves losing to the pitiful Thunder by two at the half. Then in the second half, they received an ass-whooping as they were dominated by the OKC franchise and ended up being blown out by 21. The three young building blocks of Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, and Russell Westbrook all scored in the 20s as they dropped 21, 23, and 22 points, respectively. OKC also dominated on the boards with a 48 to 26 rebounding advantage. The Thunder are now three wins away to avoid tying the worst record in NBA history.
New Orleans Hornets 104, Dallas Mavericks 97 in Dallas-
Do you want to know what happened? Chris Paul happened. 'Nuff said (Scroll down for his line).
San Antonio Spurs 112, Los Angeles Lakers 111 in San Antonio-
I went into this game expecting to see a hard fought, grinding battle that previewed playoff basketball. Instead, we got an offensive display by both teams that made them look like they were trying to emulate the D'Antoni style of basketball. Pau Gasol was hot early and finished with 21 points and Kobe Bryant dropped clutch shot after clutch shot to finish with 29 points. But the Lakers couldn't defend the three-point line (Spurs were 10-20) and Roger Mason's three-point play won the game for the Spurs. Manu Ginobili was unstoppable with 27 off the bench.
Sacramento Kings 135, Golden State Warriors 133 3OT in Oakland-
For two teams that are so terrible, they sure put on a show for everybody who was lucky enough to catch this game. Both teams made big shot after big shot as the game kept pushing to extra periods. John Salmons hit a shot with 1.6 seconds remaining to put the Kings up two in the third overtime and Kelenna Azubuike's game-winning three-point attempt went in and out to give the Kings the victory. Jamal Crawford and C.J. Watson combined for 61 points but the Warriors couldn't stop Brad Miller who had 30 points and 22 rebounds.
Atlanta Hawks 97, Los Angeles Clippers 80 in Los Angeles-
As most Clippers' contests are, this was the worst and most boring game of the night. Josh Smith scored 25, Joe Johnson scored 21, and the Hawks only committed nine turnovers in the entire game. The Clippers? Well, Marcus Camby had 12 points, 18 rebounds, and four blocks to help Al Thornton's 25 but the other LA team could only must 80 points to leave the residents of the Staples Center empty-handed tonight in the wins department. 
Phoenix Suns (22-13) at Denver Nuggets (26-13) 7:30pm PST TNT
By Zach Harper
Since the Bulls played last night, will be going against LeBron tonight, and is in the always blown out first game of the TNT double-header, I simply couldn't preview that game as something you want to watch. So you're getting the Suns-Nuggets game with both teams coming into the contest fresh and ready to improve their standings in the West.
The Suns come into Denver riding a three-game win streak after downing the Mavericks, Clippers, and Hawks in consecutive games. They're getting great free throw shooting from Shaquille O'Neal (yes, you read that right; just look below) and stellar play from their top players. They've also benefited from a resurgence with the bench players. Matt Barnes has been stellar all season long for Planet Orange but Leandro Barbosa has averaged 16.4 points in the month of January.
For Denver, the Nuggets are still just trying to survive life without Carmelo Anthony. They're 2-1 since his injury and have only lost one half of a game from their lead over Portland in the standings
since he went down. They've received solid contributions from their role players with J.R. Smith, Linas Kleiza, Chris Anderson, and Dahntay Jones all shining at different times in Carmelo's absence.
This game will feature to of the best shooting teams in the league that have two of the highest scoring offenses in the NBA. The Suns are shooting a pyrotechnically hot 50% from the field for the season, which is first in the league, and the Nuggets reside at sixth in the Association in shooting with 47.2% from the field. The Suns are fourth in the NBA in points per game with 104.3 and the Nuggets are right behind them in fifth with 103.8.
Key Match-Up: Steve Nash versus Chauncey Billups
In their seven head to head match-ups since Steve Nash moved to Phoenix, the Billups' led teams have often won against the run'n'gun Suns. Chauncey Billups is 5-2 in head to head games with Nash during this time and is averaging 21 points and 7 assists per game. Nash has been equally as good in a different way with 16.7 points and 9 assists per game. But the reason that the Suns keep losing to a Chauncey Billups led team is that Nash simply can't guard Billups and the Suns often have to put a more athletic guard on him to slow him down. This creates mismatch problems and usually leads to some awkward defensive assignmens for the Suns.
Prediction: With Carmelo, the Nuggets won't be able to play 48 minutes against the Suns and win
How about you get caught up in some Shaq free throw greatness?
By Zach Harper
The other day when the Phoenix Suns completed a victory over the Los Angeles Clippers, Shaq finished the game shooting 5-5 from the free throw line. That followed up a 7-7 effort from the free points stripe against the Mavericks. It was the first time in Shaq's career that he went back to back games flawless from the free throw line. He hit 12 straight free throws for probably the first time in his life. How did he correct such a horrific problem that has plagued his career? Apparently, he reverted back to his old high school days.
From azstarnet.com:
"I'm trying to get my name in the top five in scoring by the time I'm
done, so I'm just trying to get as many easy points as I can," O'Neal
said. "I was always a pretty good free throw shooter in high school,
but I tried to make it better rather than just staying with what I
know. Whenever you switch up on something, bad luck will happen to you.
Now I'm just shooting it the way I was taught to a long, long time ago."
Shaq seems to finally be getting it from the free-throw line after 15 years of shooting around 52% for his career. In fact, in his last 10 games since sitting out back to back contests, Shaq is hitting 68.3% from the line. 68.3%!!! That's an astronomical figure for someone who has been so dreadful in that department for the better part of a decade and a half.
It got me to thinking about where this has been the last 15 years. If he was so good at it in high school like he claims, then why did he revert to bad form like Charles Barkley and his golf swing? What if he had been a 68% free throw shooter for much of his career?
Assuming that he takes the same number of free throw attempts because that's the only conceivable way for NBA coaches to try and stop him, he would have made roughly 1,658 more free throws. For the NBA stat geeks that means 1,658 more points. That would take him from eighth on the all-time scoring list to fifth with 28,456 points. That would mean that he's just 2,963 points away from passing Wilt Chamberlain for fourth on that esteemed list.
At his current pace, he's going to score 1,858 points during the duration of his contract, which would leave him just 1,105 points away from passing the Stilt. So he would have to play one final season and average just over 16 points per game to accomplish that, assuming that he plays his current pace of 68 games in a season.
That's some crazy what-if history. If only he had kept his free throw stroke the same as when he was rocking Public Enemy on the Walkman...
By Zach Harper
"'When you're going one-on-one like that, they know I like to go to my right a lot. My counter to that is to my left, and create space for my shot. I'm 6-8, 6-9, so I can get up and get it off and I got a good look at it." -- Danny Granger after the win over Detroit in overtime.
Now there are a lot of things that a person can find out about themselves that they never knew for years. People can discover that they have a hidden talent. People can discover that they are strong enough to stand up to people that they would normally be frightened of. And people can even discover that they're more apt to be successful at a venture in life that they've never even thought about. But it's not often that a 25-year old athlete who has been measured and studied like an artifact wouldn't know how tall he is. I mean, what is it? 6 feet, 8 inches or 6 feet, 9 inches? It can only be one, Danny. If you are in between those two numbers then you're officially 6 feet, 8 inches. Either way, he should really know his own height.
Top 3 of the Night
1. Chris Paul - 33 pts, 11 asts, 10 rebs, 7 stls
Chris Paul was three steals away from the first quadruple double since David Robinson did it nearly 14 years ago against the Pistons. Chris Paul kept his tradition of abusing Jason Kidd going that dates back to his entrance into the NBA.
2. David Lee - 30 pts, 10 rebs, 6 asts, 12-21 fg
Lee was all over the place for the Knicks as he completely dominated the Wizards frontcourt and utilized his agility and hustle on the court to put up his 26th double-double of the season. And in proving that the +/- stat is completely undistinguishable (Is that a word?), he was at a zero for the night in that category.
3. Roger Mason, Jr. - 18 pts, 7-11 fg, 3-4 3fg
Kobe may have done the Sam Cassell Juevos dance after nailing his big three to put the Lakers up two in the final minute but Roger Mason hit yet another game-winning shot to give the Spurs the victory. Who has the juevos now?
Bottom 3 of the Night
1. Vince Carter - 4 pts, 1-10 fg, 4 tos, 26 mins
He made one basket. The only guy who can make that much money and get away with one basket in the league is Ben Wallace and he isn't someone's star shooting guard. Great effort, Vince.
2. Richard Hamilton - 9 pts, 1 ast, 4-13 fg
He's struggled mightily all season and a lot of it appears to be his inability to play with Allen Iverson and is longing for the return of Chauncey Billups. Hamilton couldn't get into a rhythm and has all but relinquished his title of "Best Mid-Range Game in the League."
3. Mehmet Okur - 9 pts, 9 rebs, 3-12 fg
You can't follow up a 43-point effort with a nine-point effort against the Thunder. There just isn't an acceptable excuse for that.
Here are the Top Blog Posts from yesterday.
1. From The Hoops Doctors-
Some call it a juvenile blogger story that ruins the integrity of online writing. I call it hilarious.
2. From True Hoop-
Mark Cuban and J.R. Smith nearly get all Jerry Springer on us.
3. From Dead Spin-
Chris Paul's brother only not so much. Now, let me introduce you to my brother, Derek Harper
In today's Ask a Blogger, we're talking Bobcats basketball with David Arnott of Rufus on Fire, the best Bobcats blog on the net and probably one of the best blogs period. David is a brilliant new media-socialite (does that make sense?) who knows more about basketball than most of the pundits out there. Want to know more about David? Click here. Want to know more about the Bobcats? Read on:
1. It seemed peculiar at the time to trade the best scorer away from the worst offensive team and receive an aging defender and a French guy in return but the Bobcats seem much more balanced since the trade and are playing much better. How has the team changed in terms of the way they play since the deal?
Trading Jason Richardson in and of itself was not a bad move. As good as he is and likely will be until 2011, when his contract expires, he was still overpaid, resulting in a lack of contract equity. In other words, he was worth negative dollars to the Bobcats. The first problem is they traded Jared Dudley with him. Dudley is a below average 3-4 tweener, but he's the kind of guy who should stick in the league for about 8 years, and he was still producing above and beyond what his contract paid him. He was a source of positive contract equity, and they just threw him into the deal. Bell and Diaw seem to be playing over their heads. Bell has been up and down on both offense and defense, and Diaw has cooled considerably, to the point that his season line with the Bobcats is now at the level it was in his one pretty good year in Phoenix. I suspect both players' true talent levels aren't this high, but there's plenty of reason to be optimistic that they are this good and just needed a change of scenery. Since the trade, and signing Juwan Howard, the Cats have been able to run an eight man rotation completely consisting of honest to goodness NBA players--Sean May is extraneous--but more impressively, perhaps, the starting five of Felton, Bell, Wallace, Diaw, and Okafor have been a monster unit. According to basketballvalue.com's stats, they've outplayed the Celtics' starting five, and they're essentially the same as the Cavs with Varejao in instead of Ilgauskas. I think part of that is teams still respecting Raja Bell too much, but Emeka Okafor is quietly having an All Star caliber season, now that Chris Bosh is a forward. Gerald Wallace is still an underground hero. Diaw and Bell are both playing better than they have in years. And Raymond Felton is still the 19th best starting point guard in the league.
2. A lot of people felt that the Bobcats really missed with their first round selections of D.J. Augustin and Alexis Ajinca. So far, the picks look to be 50-50 with Augustin playing great and Ajinca looking busted. What have the players shown you and where do you see them fitting into the long term plans for the Bobs?
Alexis Ajinca is not as bad as Tskita, nor is he as bad as Saer Sene. I'll give him that. However, despite appearances, he's a swingman at heart. He wants to be Boris Diaw, but he has absolutely no court sense, and he doesn't rebound. If he were in Division I, he'd be on a reserve sophomore for most top tier schools and a reasonable starter for just about any mid-major. That said, he should be in the D-League, but sending him there would mean Larry Brown admitting he picked a guy who can't hang in the NBA, which he did. Augustin is a weird case. I understand why so many people love him, but I'm not sold on his ability to play point every day for the next ten years. His absolute ceiling is Toronto-era Damon Stoudamire, which would be a good return on the number nine pick overall, but which would also require lots of defensive help to keep bigger guards from backing him down, and acceptance that almost every guard this side of Nate Robinson will be able to shoot over him with no issue. Obviously, I hope he develops enough muscle to be another CP3, but more likely, he'll settle in as one of the top twenty point guards in the league, with above average offense and below average defense.
3. I feel like the Bobcats Song is maybe the finest piece of music that has ever graced the internet. How did that come about and how have you dealt with the stardom that has come with it? Is it tough to walk the streets of Charlotte?
Thank you, thank you. The Bobcats had what they called the Ultimate Fan Contest last season, and the challenge was to make a 30-second video showing how you were the Ultimate Fan. Since I also dabble in writing and recording poppy-countryish-rockish songs, it seemed natural that I'd make a music video. I convinced the Official Girlfriend of Rufus on Fire to be cinematographer, we conceived of the video as showing a game day in Charlotte, we shot it over the course of two games, Deadspin picked it up, and the rest is history. In the weeks following the Deadspin post and after they showed it on the Jumbotron at a game, I got stopped in the arena five or six times, mostly by Bobcats employees who wanted to talk to me about the video. However, the weirdest moment was one morning as I walked into the building where I work and the security guard stopped me at the front desk, called over another security guard, whispered something to him, and then asked me, in total deadpan seriousness, to confirm if I was, indeed, the dude who'd made the Bobcats video.
Thanks for reading today's Eight-Second Violation. Any comments, criticisms, or words of praise can be emailed to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Support the Habit
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
