| 16 January 2009
I mean, I went to Chili's at one point and caught a couple of glimpses at the Bulls-Cavs game but it was at an awkward angle so I had no clue who won until this morning. I did eventually get home, settle in, and play Rock Band 2 for quite some time with my girlfriend and some friends. I hate to say this because it might sound pompous, but I'm a hell of a performer. No, the singing voice isn't necessarily great but nobody has that anymore (However, I did have honey in my voice last night). Everything is just synthesized. But I put on a show and it's a damn good show. Will I go professional? Haven't decided. All I know is that if you pop on the 360, give me a USB mic and start up Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi, you're going to have the best three to four minutes of your life (and yes, that's how I've sold myself in the past with many things).
So I'm going to let Brandon Gallawa throw in his Game Preview for tonight (there's a lot of action) and his Good Knowledge blog. I'm headed off to Vegas tonight to kick back and relax for a couple of days. We'll be back with a full Eight-Second Violation on Monday. If you're in LV this weekend, send me an This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and swing by the MGM Grand. I'll be the drunk one that's losing all of his money and sitting in front of the Sports Betting screen trying to figure out what "laying the points" means.
Have a great weekend, everybody. We'll have one more post today from an old time friend.
Orlando Magic (31-8) at Los Angeles Lakers (31-7) 7:30pm PST ESPN
By Brandon Gallawa
Both of the games on ESPN tonight should be pretty fun to watch, but LeBron James vs. Chris Paul is only the appetizer for tonight's main course. And if there is anything I've learned from Eric Cartman it is this: An appetizer is what you eat before you eat to make you more hungry. Truer words were never spoken because I've been starving for this game all week.
The Magic are fresh off of their record-setting three-point barrage that they laid on the Kings Tuesday night. I watched the game and have looked at the box score multiple times, but I still can't believe that they hit 23-37 from deep. I've only seen three-point performances like that in arcade games. The Magic have no way of repeating that performance let alone coming close to it against the Lakers. They will be able to put up points against an average defensive club. No matter what anyone says about how legit the Magic are or aren't, this team has beaten some pretty good teams and won both at home and on the road. We'll see if this translates to a win in LA.
The Lakers are coming off a tough loss to the Spurs on Wednesday night. They allowed the Spurs to do just about whatever they pleased throughout the entire game and were down 8 heading into the fourth quarter. They did come back and eventually went up by two after Kobe Bryant hit a three with 12 seconds left. Unfortunately they surrendered a three-point play to Roger Mason Jr. on the next play and the game was effectively over. This was only the Lakers' second loss in the month of January and their first loss on the road since December 20 when they lost in Orlando.
The Lakers have been nearly unbeatable at home. They hold a 20-2 record at Staples Center, but the Magic have been no slouch on the road. They have the best road record in the league at 15-5 and have averaged 3 more points per contest in their road games. I'm sure dropping 139 points at Arco boosted that number a bit, but it is still impressive nonetheless. We'll see if road tested or home cookin' pays off tonight.
Key Match-Up: The Three-Point Shooting
As we saw against the Kings, the Magic can make a lot of threes at a high percentage, but that game was no aberration. They Magic are shooting 40% from beyond the arc this season which is second behind only the Spurs. They also lead the league in three-pointers made at 10.4 per game. Even if you throw out the ridiculousness we witnessed in Sacramento, the Magic were averaging 10.1 three-pointers made per game which is good enough for second in the league. The Lakers are also quite proficient at hitting threes. They are shooting 38% from behind the arc and have made 7 per game. While both teams hit threes at a high clip, they both defend the three very well. Teams are only shooting 34% from behind the arc against the Magic and 35% against the Lakers. Whichever team can slow down their opponent's three-point shooting should be in a position to win.
Prediction: The Lakers have something to prove after a tough loss, and they'll prove it.
How about you get caught up in some Good Knowledge Blog?
By Brandon Gallawa
Let me be the first to say "You're welcome" for recommending everyone watch the Kings-Warriors game from Wednesday night. It was without question one of the most fun and entertaining games to watch all season.
I think I say this once per week about Warriors games. Apparently scoring at will and allowing your opponent to do the same just makes for one hell of an entertaining game. With that being said, I have an idea for something we can all watch this summer along with the playoffs: A tournament between Sacramento, Golden State, Indiana and New York. These four teams are allowing the most points per game in the league this season plus they can fill it up at the other end. We set up a bracket for these four teams. They would each play one another 3 times, and whichever team had the best record would win the tournament.
Tell me you wouldn't want to watch this. It would be a guarantee of high scoring match-ups that would be incredibly fun to watch. People who hate defensive struggles would be enrapt. We'd call it the SSOL (Seven Seconds or Less) Cup. We could even hold it every season with the teams that best emulate the SSOL philosophy. Plus it would be a cash cow. You'd have four more teams selling tickets and four more cities (along with a lot of other fans) interested with the league through June.
The NBA could reward the winning team of the tourney with a guaranteed top 3 pick. This would improve the overall product significantly and undermine some of the tanking we've seen. Would a team rather tank and take their chances in the lottery, or would they rather try and score a bunch of points and prove they deserve a top pick? Best case is they score a ton of points and still lose games during the regular season. That way they have a shot in the lottery and the SSOL Cup.
I love this idea. Does anyone have David Stern's email address?
Speaking of ridiculous offense, I'm pretty sure I was watching a video game on Tuesday night when the Orlando Magic blew through Sacramento. To think that they were able to hit 23-37 from three astounds me. Those are NBA Jam numbers only some knew the codes to have their players on fire all the time. Even the Scott Skiles/Nick Anderson combo on the SNES and Genesis version of the game weren't that proficient.
It was the perfect storm of events when you take a step back. The Magic were already making 10+ threes per game coming into the contest, and they were doing it at a 40% clip. The Kings have allowed opponents to shoot 41% from three. They also have no interior defense and must collapse on Dwight Howard every single time he touches the ball. In addition to that, they are awful at stopping dribble-penetration, so defenders are constantly leaving their man to help. I'm actually surprised it took this long for a team to hit 20+ threes against the Kings. I have 3/20 circled on my calendar for the new record for three-pointers made to be set when the Kings play the Knicks at MSG.
I was so disgusted by the Kings' effort against the Magic that I had to drown my sorrows in the Virtual Console for the Nintendo Wii. For those of you who don't have a Wii, the Virtual Console gives you the ability to download old NES, Super NES, Genesis, Neo Geo and N64 games. You buy points that you can use to purchase the games for $20 and games range from $5-$12 each. It has the potential to be the greatest and worst thing that has ever happened to me or my social life.
I purchased Super Mario Bros 3, Kid Icarus, Super Mario 64 and Double Dribble. Yes you read that right. I downloaded Double Dribble and can play it whenever I want without having to blow the dust out of the old cartridge. The thing is I can't get enough because there are still games out there like Punch Out!!, Tecmo Bowl, Baseball Stars, Blades of Steel, Exitebike, Street Fighter 2, and many other games that I must have. I could easily spend hundreds of dollars getting these games for my Wii. Hopefully the wife doesn't notice when our bank account starts to dwindle.
We're only a few months away from the tenth anniversary of the movie He Got Game, and I've been wondering whatever happened to all the great basketball movies? Since 1998 we've only had a handful of good basketball movies. The 80s gave us Teen Wolf and Hoosiers. The 90s gave us Above the Rim, Blue Chips, Space Jam, Heaven is a Playground, The Air Up There, White Men Can't Jump, Hoop Dreams, Basketball Diaries and He Got Game. In the past ten years we've had quite a drought. Finding Forrester and Love & Basketball were both released in 2000; Coach Carter and Glory Road were released in 2005 and 2006 respectively. Semi-Pro came out last year. Overall the days of great basketball movies seem to be coming to a close. I guess all the stories that can be told involving basketball have been told.
When does Hot as a Pistol: The J-Mac Story come out?
A little good knowledge can go a long way.
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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