| 13 January 2009
By Zach Harper
I really enjoyed this piece from Kelly Dwyer on Ball Don't Lie about his take on the Darius Miles. Kelly is a fantastic basketball mind as I'm sure most of you know and is one of the few pundits/bloggers who has the ability to see different aspects of a situation than most people can. I haven't seen this angle on that story yet and it was such a great piece of writing that I felt it would be better off leading this piece today than anything I could have written with such a slow news day.
I will now redirect you to the Yahoo! page where this post is. Save your Miles ire, please
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:
Charlotte Bobcats 80, Detroit Pistons 78 in Detroit-
Richard Hamilton made a free throw with four minutes left to give the Pistons a seven-point lead at 78-71. Unfortunately, the Pistons shot 0-5 with two turnovers in those final four minutes and Raymond Felton's jumper with 0.7 seconds left gave the Bobcats an 80-78 win. Felton finished with 23 points and nine assists to give my fantasy team his first good performance of the season. It was the Bobs fifth road win of the season in 17 tries.
Miami Heat 99, Minnesota Timberwolves 96 in Minneapolis-
On the final possession of the game, Randy Foye either jumped into Dwyane Wade to create contact or Dwyane Wade fouled Randy Foye on the potential game-tying three-pointer. Either way, there was no call and the shot didn't go so the Wolves snapped their five-game winning streak. Dwyane Wade's 31 points and eight assists neutralized Randy Foye's 29 points and eight assists as the Heat moved to three games over .500. The Heat shot 38 free throw attempts compared to the 13 Minnesota attempts.
Cleveland Cavaliers 102, Memphis Grizzlies 87 in Memphis-
LeBron James had a triple-double with 30 points 11 rebounds, and 10 assists as the Cavs won for their 29th time in 33 games. Cleveland played without Zyndrunas Ilgauskas and Ben Wallace and were even forced to play Lorenzen Wright for 15 minutes but were able to fight through it and pull away from the Grizz in the second half. Cleveland, who has the highest second half point differential in the league, used a +12 performance after halftime to secure the win away from a scrappy Memphis team.
Los Angeles Lakers 105, Houston Rockets 100 in Houston-
The twittering folks at Hardwood Paroxysm mentioned late in this game that the Rockets were missing Tracy McGrady's presence on the offensive end. And it couldn't have been more correct as Rafer Alston played like he was shaving points and Yao Ming went for a two-point basket despite being down three with under five seconds left. Von Wafer has 23 for Houston but Kobe's 33 points and late-game shooting was too much for the Rockets.
Denver Nuggets 99, Dallas Mavericks 97 in Denver-
Dirk Nowitzki's 44-point effort went to waste when Chauncey Billups was fouled with under two seconds to play and a tie ball game. Billups knocked down the two free throws like most 90% free throw shooters tend to do and the Mavericks fell to a Carmelo-less Nuggets team. Chris Anderson played a big roll in this game with no other moment being bigger than the halfcourt shot that he made as the third quarter expired.
Phoenix Suns 107, Atlanta Hawks 102 in Phoenix-
I wondered during this game whether or not the Phoenix Suns' offense tended to get bogged down this season when Leandro Barbosa was on the floor. Shortly after, Barbosa went off and finished with 22 points off the bench for Phoenix as they won their 22nd game of the season. Shaq had 26 and 10 for the Suns and didn't kill Phoenix by going 6-11 from the line when the Hawks implemented the hack-a-Shaq. Joe Johnson struggled immensely from the field with a 4-21 effort that gave him just 11 points on the night.
Orlando Magic 139, Sacramento Kings 107 in Sacramento-
Orlando made an NBA record 23 three-pointers in a game that was never really in doubt after about eight minutes of play. Five different Magic players made at least three long range shots and Orlando poured in 139 points on 60% shooting from the field to blow out the struggling Sacramento team. Every player on Orlando scored and Dennis Scott even was credited with a three, late in the fourth quarter. 
Los Angeles Lakers (30-9) at San Antonio Spurs (24-12) 6:00pm PST ESPN
By Brandon Gallawa
Some pretty good games tonight. It really came down to this game and the Kings at Warriors. Scoff all you want, but those two Pacific cellar dwellers are going to put up ridiculous points tonight. Bet the over in that one. Luckily you can catch the majority of that game once the Lakers/Spurs wraps up.
The Lakers have been the class of the West through the first half of the season. They've also had a pretty cupcake schedule. They've played seven more games at Staples than on the road, and only half of their road games so far have come against playoff contenders. The Lakers have managed to go 6-1 on the road against playoff teams. Kobe Bryant has been playing out of his mind of late and has really turned up the heat in his MVP push. He is averaging 30 points, 4.9 boards and 6.1 assists on 50% from the field, 48% from three and 85% from the line in the month of January. Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol have also been making major contributions, and the Lakers have looked near-unbeatable this month. This could all change this week with three games against top-tier teams, and it starts with a tough match-up tonight.
The Spurs have overcome injuries to key players in the early part of the season to keep pace in the West. Tim Duncan has almost single-handedly kept the Spurs in the hunt and competitive in every game they've played. Duncan is averaging a very Duncan-esque 20 and 10 with 1.8 blocks and 3.5 assists. He is also shooting 50% from the field and a respectable 69% from the line. If he doesn't finish in at least second in the MVP this season, it completely invalidates the award for me. The early season injuries did have a few positive repercussions. Roger Mason Jr. and George Hill were forced to step up and contribute during the absences of Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli. Mason is now a go-to-guy at the end of games hitting clutch shot after clutch shot. Hill can step in for Parker or play alongside him and give the Spurs very good minutes.
If the Lakers are for real and want to establish a psychological advantage for when these two teams will inevitably meet in the playoffs, they'll need to come out strong and step on the throat of the Spurs tonight. The Spurs could definitely make their way out from under the radar with a win tonight.
Key Match-Up: Pau Gasol versus Tim Duncan
This game is going to be filled with fantastic individual match-ups, but the match-up in the post should be the most fun to watch. Gasol has put up pretty good career numbers against Duncan and the Spurs. He has averaged 18.6 points and 7.8 rebounds in 25 career games against the Spurs. Duncan has been no slouch against Gasol in fact he has flat-out dominated him throughout his career. Expect a very good game from Spanish Fly and an excellent game from The Big Fundamental tonight.
Prediction: The Spurs and Duncan are too much for the Lakers at home.
How about you get caught up in some Superman talk from Boston?
By Zach Harper
After Monday night's performance by Paul Pierce against the Raptors, Kevin Garnett seemed to be star struck by the veteran Celtics
' small forward. Pierce dropped 39 and made big shot after big shot. Here's the postgame press conference via Ball Don't Lie and Reds Army:
By Zach Harper
"'We won't come out like that again. It's time to make people accountable because that was just embarrassing to me. We are a joke right now, that's how people look at us. They just keep launching 3s away. You should be pretty angry about that." -- Kevin Martin on the Magic's three-point assault that set an NBA record for threes in a game.
The Kings are a joke right now and even as bad as this team was 15 and 20 years ago, this may be the lowest point in franchise history. This is a team that foolishly gave their fans hope of a playoff run this year despite having very little talent to back it up. When they fired Reggie Theus and Chuck Person earlier this season, it seemed like they were finally ready to start over and take this team building task seriously. They have very little talent that can help them long term and will need to spend their money extremely wisely this summer and next. We may be looking at the same situation that was present in 1998 when the Kings had a losing season and then made significant moves in the off-season as they finally began their ascent to prominence.
Top 3 of the Night
1. LeBron James - 30 pts, 11 rebs, 10 asts
I'm actually surprised that this doesn't happen more often. I think that he can easily average a triple double for an entire season but the problem is that this Cleveland team has become so good that he probably won't play enough minutes throughout the season to accomplish this. Maybe it will be different in New York...
2. Dirk Nowitzki - 44 pts, 14 rebs, 15-26 fg, 15-15 ft
It was clear that nobody could guard Dirk as he consistently got by Nene, Kenyon Martin (who eventually fouled out), and Chris Anderson. 14 of his 44 points came in the fourth quarter but he couldn't get the ball with one second to go and Dallas out of timeouts.
3. Chris Anderson/Dahntay Jones - 31 pts, 13 rebs, 8 stls, 2 blks
The combination of these two role players wreaked havoc on the Mavericks and helped shut down all of the players around Dirk Nowitzki. Anderson was a terror throughout the game and constant threat to block someone's shot. Dahntay Jones forgot that he was Dahntay Jones and disrupted the perimeter players. Great effort by these two guys.
Bottom 3 of the Night
1. Sacramento Kings' Pride - 139 pts, 23 3fgm given up
It's hard to give that up in NBA 2K9, let alone in an actual professional basketball game.
2. Al Jefferson - 9 pts, 10 rebs, 4-14 fg
Having an off night isn't a terrible thing for someone like Jefferson but when it happens against the small frontcourt of the Heat, then it's a problem. He should have been able to dominate and triple his point total.
3. Joe Johnson - 11 pts, 3 asts, 4-21 fg
Coming back to Phoenix hasn't been so fun the last two times. In his last two January games against the Suns, Joe has only scored 20 total points. If he is shooting this poorly during a game, he needs to create more for his team, especially against a defensive unit like the Suns.
Here are the Top Blog Posts from yesterday.
1. From Free Darko-
Great Kobe vs LeBron talk
2. From Both Teams Played Hard-
Gary Payton. Kato Kaelin. Nuff said.
3. From True Hoop-
Do referees get down about blown calls?
In today's Ask a Blogger, we check in with Kyle from truthaboutit.net, a great Washington Wizards blog. Not only is Kyle a fantastic tweeter on Twitter, but he is part of a the massive and dominant blogosphere that has emerged from the D.C. area. Let's see what he has to say about the struggling Washington Wizards who have not been able to fight through injuries this year:
1. How have the Wizards responded since the firing of Eddie Jordan? Do the same problems exist with Ed Tapscott at the helm?
The Wizards have responded with the same inconsistency and inability to finish games that plagued them under Eddie Jordan at the beginning of this season. Ed Tapscott has tried to implement more pick and rolls, which may suit the team better in the long run, but still likes to use Jordan's pro-style Princeton in the early offense....and none of that hasn't really worked (and not to say that the Wizards should go away from this offense with their personnel, it's the implementation that's currently the problem). So now, "Tap" has turned gimmicks such as famous quotes to motivate the team (ok, that's not exactly fair, I'm sure that's his style in winning and in losing).
I don't mind Tapscott, although I would have rather Jordan not be fired, but it doesn't seem like Tap's getting much of a response out of his players....I'm not sure anyone could at this point. I'm under the impression that Tapscott is depending on inexperienced assistant, Wes Unseld Jr., for Xs and Os....not exactly ideal in my book. If this team were to ever have serious aspirations of making it to the next level, such as, say, conference championship, then they'll need an experienced offensive mind who's been there before and knows that defense wins championships.
2. The Wizards have been so great over the past few years in dealing with significant injuries. Why has this year been so bad in that respect? Are the Wizards simply too banged up now to keep persevering through being banged up?
At the onset of this season's futility (let's say the 0-5 start), my thought was that losing Brendan Haywood's defense almost hurt more than Arenas' absence. But now, I think the most glaring omission is the lack of a scoring threat who can take people off the dribble and create for others. But like you said, they persevered without Arenas last year, so what gives with the offense this year? You're guess is as good as mine. Earlier this season, many speculated that the Wizards simply played beyond their means last season......that is something I'm hesitant to buy into.
Lately, the Wizards are lacking the mentality to play winning basketball. Sure, they were able to get up against Cleveland the past two meetings, the former of which some may say the Wiz got robbed, but otherwise, the grind of dealing with perpetual injuries is clearly starting to wear down on team leaders. They'll never admit this to be the case, but I believe it's the biggest difference between previously seen potential and current reality.
3. What's your stance on DeShawn Stevenson? I personally think that he has no business being a starter for this team. Does it get frustrating that he takes away so many minutes from Nick Young?
When this team is at full strength, I can certainly understand starting DeShawn. He's had a horrible year to date and is now out with disk problems in his back, which was also causing nerve issues in his leg almost since the beginning of the year. Stevenson played hurt a lot last year, but it's finally caught up to him.
Last year, he hit 158 threes, just over 24% more than his previous seven year career total. That, in addition to him being the team's best wing defender (albeit not great in comparison to the best in the NBA, and actually, Dominc McGuire might usurp him in that category for the team) meant that DeShawn was able to spread the floor for the 'Big Three' while putting a bulk of his concentration into being a defensive stopper.
So, all things considered, and assuming health again, Nick Young might be better providing a scoring punch off the bench (as I wouldn't necessarily see him getting the opportunities he deserves while on the court with Arenas, Butler and Jamison). I think Young will eventually be a starter, but I'd like to see him improve his defense and use his very talented offensive skills to create more for others first.
P.S. - DeShawn's sideshow clown act has worn thin on me at times, but I'm willing to look past it when he's playing well.....and like I said, the guy is willing to play through injury, so I gotta respect his warrior mentality.
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
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