FIVEmag NBA basketball blog » NBA notes

Kings Moving to Anaheim?

admin — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:16:34 +0000

The Sacramento Kings and their owners, Joe and Gavin Maloof, may be moving south on Route 5 to Anaheim by as early as next season. The Maloof brothers have been unable to get Sacramento to help fund the building of a new arena to replace Arco Arena in Sacramento. The Maloof’s say that a new arena in Sacramento is the vital to the team’s long-term financial stability and health. The team had not experienced much success lately after being a Western Conference power in the early 2000’s. The team’s best years were while they have been located in Sacramento with their best year coming in the 2001-2002 season where they lost to the Lakers in 7 games in the Western Conference Finals. Soon after that historical year for the franchise, the Kings roster fell apart and the team has been rebuilding since then.

The latest hint that the team could be moving to Anaheim is that an attorney representing the Maloof brothers filed for federal trademark registrations this month. There were four filings and the names that were filed for are: Anaheim Royals, Anaheim Royals of Southern California, Orange County Royals, and Los Angeles Royals. The Royals name comes from the Rochester Royals, which is where the Sacramento Kings franchise was from originally. The franchise was originally the Rochester Royals, then the Cincinnati Royals, the Kansas City-Omaha Kings and then finally in 1985 the franchise became the Sacramento Kings. The desire for a new arena or relocation has come from the dwindling attendance records at games and the obsolescence of the Arco Arena compared to other arenas around the league. The city has been unwilling to help publicly fund a new arena and has caused the Maloof brothers to look more into relocation. The team and the owners have tried to their best to stay in Sacramento but have not been able to get a new arena. We will see in the next few months if they are able to relocate to possibly Anaheim by next year. Otherwise, there will be other cities that would love to get an NBA franchise and could accommodate the Maloof brothers.

Wade County

admin — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:11:59 +0000

Dwyane Wade showed Kendrick Perkins of the Oklahoma City Thunder that the Miami is still his city and that the American Airlines Arena still belongs to him. Wade gave the fans and Miami another reason why this is Wade County, which they renamed Miami-Dade County for 7 days over the summer in their attempt to keep Wade in Miami. Watch his dunk from their March 16th game against the Thunder:

Wade did this last year as well against LeBron James’s old team and former teammate Anderson Varejao:

Love’s Streak Comes to End

admin — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:38:52 +0000

Kevin Love recently had his streak of 53 consecutive double doubles snapped. This impressive streak ended on this past Sunday March 13th with a 6-point and 12-rebound effort. The streak started back on November 22nd 2010 against Oklahoma City. During the streak, Love recorded nine games in which he had 20+ points and 20+ rebounds while Dwight Howard has only had seven games with 20+ rebounds the entire season (5 of which he also had 20+ points). Love is also on pace to become the first player since Moses Malone in the 1982-1983 season to average 20+ points and 15+ rebounds for the season. Even with the double double streak and Love’s great play throughout the whole year, the wins have not been adding up. The Timberwolves are currently 17-51, giving them the fourth worst record in the league. During the streak, the Timberwolves record was only 13-40 so the streak is the one thing that kept fans coming back to the arena. Even though the Timberwolves seem to have a strong young core with Kevin Love, Michael Beasley, Wesley Johnson as well as owning the rights to Ricky Rubio, the young Spanish point guard.

The streak of 53 consecutive double doubles is a “modern” era record as he passed Moses Malone’s old record of 52 double doubles that was set 37 years ago. The “modern” era accounts for the time since the NBA/ABA merger in 1976. However, this new era takes away the accomplishments of many great players including Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, and many others. The real streak of double doubles is owned by Wilt Chamberlain and will seemingly never be beat considering how impressive Love’s streak of 53 games seemed to be. Chamberlain’s record of 227 consecutive games with a double double far exceeds Love’s 53 game streak. In order for Love to have tied Chamberlain’s streak, he would have had to have a double double in every game the rest of this season, all of the 2011-2012 season and 77 more games in the 2012-2013 season. That seems nearly impossible given the grueling 82 game schedule in the NBA, the chance of an off night (which Love had against the Warriors to end the streak) and injuries that can nag a player throughout the season. Chamberlain also holds streaks of 220 and 133 consecutive games with a double double. Chamberlain’s numbers are unbelievable all around and most of his records will seemingly never be touched. Love demonstrated his true love and respect for the game by acknowledging the greatness of Chamberlain by telling reporters, “Whether you put is as, like, a modern-day or as NBA/ABA merger, but when you look at the grand scheme of things, you have to look at that 227”, he said in reference to Chamberlain’s streak of 227 consecutive double doubles.

Kevin Love’s feat is still very impressive considering it is the longest such streak in 37 years. Love at times made things seem very easy as he averaged over 20 points and 16 rebounds a game during the streak. The scary part is that Kevin Love is only 22 years old and this is the first year where he has gotten significant playing time as he averages 36.3 minutes per game. Love however found it to be kind of a relief for the streak to end considering all the coverage he was receiving. Kevin Love was able to make his first All Star game this year and there should be many more in his future. The Timberwolves seem to have a star in the making with Love and should have him in Minnesota for a long time to come.

MVP Race

admin — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:43:55 +0000

The big question entering this year in terms of the MVP is would LeBron’s decision to team up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh hurt his chances at winning a third consecutive MVP award. It seemed obvious that it would definitely hurt his chances if he had the ball in his hands less and had to share the court with two other All Stars in their primes. Kevin Garnett’s numbers dropped when he teamed up with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen in Boston. But LeBron has only seen a very small drop off in his numbers and is very much in the race for the 2010-2011 MVP. James has been consistent throughout the whole year and the best player on the Miami Heat. Compared to last year, he is scoring 3.5 fewer points per game and has 1.5 less assists per game. He is currently averaging 26.1 points, 7.1 assists, and 7.5 rebounds per contest, which are very close to his career numbers. James has still shown his ability to carry a team by himself evident in a few games this season. James has three triple doubles this year and had a 51-point outburst against the Magic. James continues to show his all-around game by being 3rd in the league in scoring, 13th in the league in assists, and leading the league in PER (player efficiency rating). However, there is great competition for the award around the league. The other candidates are Derrick Rose, Dirk Nowitzki, Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Durant.

Derrick Rose is arguably the leading candidate for the MVP right now by leading the Bulls to the best record in the Eastern Conference as of last night’s win against the Wizards even with Carlos Boozer missing 21 games and Joakim Noah missing 31 games with injuries. Rose is having a career year averaging 24.7 points, 7.9 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game. He has improved his jump shot drastically since entering the league and that shows through his increased 3-point percentage even with 3.5 more attempts per game. Rose is the only player in the league to be top 10 in the league in both scoring and assists. He is the leader of the Bulls team in only his third year in the league and has put them in position to get the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference. Even the greatest basketball player of all time and the person who brought six championships to Chicago endorsed Derrick Rose as MVP. Michael Jordan was quoted as saying, “MVP of the season. He deserves it. He’s playing that well. Without a doubt. And if he doesn’t get it, now he’ll see how I felt a lot of years.”

Dirk Nowitzki is another player who is in the mix for the MVP. Nowitzki is having one of his best and most efficient seasons during his 13-year NBA career. He is also leading the Mavericks to one of the best records in the NBA and are currently 3rd place in the Western Conference with a record of 47-20. Nowitzki is shooting great percentages from the field (52.8%), three-point (42.6%), and free throw (88%) and is currently 9th in the league in player efficiency rating. The importance of Nowitzki to the second best team in the West was on display when he went down with an injury for 9 games. The team went 2-7 without their star in the lineup and has gone 45-13 with him in the lineup. Nowitzki will definitely be in the thick of the MVP race as the season winds down. The balance and depth that the Mavericks have as a team may end up hurting Nowitzki’s chances to win a second MVP.

Dwight Howard is the centerpiece for the Magic and is a force both offensively and defensively. Howard is having his best year offensively as a pro and is currently 10th in the league in scoring with 23 points per game. Howard just recently became the fifth youngest (25 years and 95 days) player to pass 10,000 career points and is in very good company. The only players to reach that milestone faster were LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and Tracy McGrady. He has continued to be his usual self on the defensive end, being 2nd in the league in both rebounding and blocked shots. Even though Orlando drastically changed their roster in mid-December, Howard has been the one constant while leading the Magic to fourth place in the East. He is having a career year offensively and it looks like his off-season work with Hakeem Olajuwon is really paying dividends.

Kobe Bryant seems to always be in the conversation for the MVP award. It is shocking for one of the best players to play the game with five championships to his name has only won one MVP award. Bryant has been in the top five in MVP voting for the past five seasons and it looks like that trend will continue for another year. He has led the Lakers to a 48-20 record and a more impressive 10-1 record since the All Star break after losing three straight heading into the break. Bryant leads the team in scoring (6th in the league at 24.8 ppg) and assists (4.8 apg). Bryant seems to have his team playing their best at the right time of the year and has put himself in the MVP race yet again.

Kevin Durant has improved every year he has been in the league and is now a superstar at the young age of 22. Durant became the youngest player in league history to win a scoring title and then led Team USA to the FIBA World Championship this past summer in Turkey. Now he is leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to their best year in their short history and are currently sitting at fourth in the Western Conference while leading the Northwest Division. Durant is again the leading scorer in the league at 28.0 points per game while also grabbing 7.2 rebounds per game. There are a number of strong candidates this year for the MVP and the last 15 games of the season could help sway the voters. Rose arguably has a slight lead because of the success of the Chicago Bulls and Rose’s impressive numbers. But can LeBron James become only the third player ever to win three MVP awards in a row?

Miami Heat Struggles

admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 13:46:38 +0000

The Heatles, a nickname created by Lebron James for the Miami Heat because of the team’s ability to attract sellout crowds while playing on the road, have now lost five games in a row and the schedule does not get easier from here. There have been tears and the inability to knock down big shots at the end of the games. The Heat have seen their struggles against the league’s elite and in close games continue. Miami is an abysmal 1-9 against the top 5 teams in the league (Spurs, Celtics, Lakers, Bulls, Mavericks) with a match-up against the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers on March 10th. The Heat are also 14-19 in games against teams that have a record above .500 while they are 5-13 in games decided by 5 or fewer points. The struggles the Heat have run into recently are getting to the point where players are supposedly in tears after the loss to the Chicago Bulls. This is the same team that won 21 of 22 games in November and December and we thought that they had figured it out after their 9-8 start.

Now the Heat are in the midst of a five game losing streak and have fallen to third place in the Eastern Conference and the schedule does not get any easier from here. The next six games the Heat will play teams that would all be in the playoffs if the season were to end today. Miami will play the Lakers, Grizzlies, Spurs, Thunder, Hawks, and Nuggets in the next six games. However, five of these six games will be played at home but this definitely seems to be the hardest part of their schedule seemingly coming at the worst time. The Heat have really struggled since the All Star break, especially at closing out games. In four of their six losses since the break, Miami has had double-digit and fourth quarter leads in four of them. The team has not been able to close out games and have looked very strong early on in games but confused later in games. There have also been inconsistent efforts from Wade and Bosh during this slide. For this team to be successful, the big three need to be consistent since the supporting cast is not very strong (James, Wade, and Bosh combine to score 69% of the team’s points). Wade and Bosh have been very inconsistent lately. Bosh had one of the worst games of his career against the Bulls by shooting 1-18 from the floor and scoring only 7 points. Wade has struggled a little with his shot recently and went 5-15 from the floor against the New York Knicks. The lack of depth outside the big three has hurt the Heat recently considering they have not gotten consistent play out of Wade and Bosh since the All Star break. The team has elite wing scorers and a very good power forward but lacks a strong post presence and a true point guard.

During this five game losing streak, Miami squandered a 24-point lead to the Orlando Magic and followed that up with an embarrassing 30-point defeat at the hands of the NBA best San Antonio Spurs. The game against the Spurs was pretty much over after the first quarter where the Spurs had built a 24-point lead and the Heat only managed to score 12 points. Two days later, the Heat hosted the Chicago Bulls and suffered a heartbreaking one-point loss with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade both missing potential game winning shots at the end of the game. Last night, Miami lost to the Portland Trail Blazers and became only the 12th team in NBA history to have a 12-game winning streak and a 5-game losing streak in the same season. The worst part about this losing streak is that four of the five losses have come at home and makes the team 2-6 since the All Star break. The Heat have been a central focal point around the league since James decided to bring his talents to South Beach. The Heat have embraced it and have enjoyed some of their many nicknames such as The Miami Thrice, The Superfriends, The Three Kings, The Heatles, and Bad Boys III. This adds to the focus that the media and every NBA fan puts on the Heat. The team will always be under the microscope of intense scrutiny and should be able to turn it around, especially when you have 2 of the 5 best basketball players in the world on the same team. There is still no doubt that the Heat is a very fun team to watch!

Second Half Preview

admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 10:07:16 +0000

February 25th: With All-Star weekend behind us now, we can look forward to the new look New York Knicks, the playoff push and of course the playoffs. There are a few very interesting storylines entering the second half of the season. One storyline will be the race for the Eastern Conference number 1 seed in the playoffs. The Heat and Celtics are tied percentage points wise and the Bulls are only 2 games back after their big win against the Heat on February 24th. The Bulls will be glad to see the return of Joakim Noah, who missed 31 games with a thumb injury, to the court and see their frontcourt at full strength again. The Bulls have the most games (28 games) left on their schedule of these three teams but also face the easiest schedule with their remaining opponents combining to have a 0.458 winning percentage. The Heat have the fewest games remaining but have the most difficult schedule of the three with their remaining opponents combining to have a 0.512 winning percentage. However, the Heat do have the most home games (15 games) left on their schedule where they are 21-5 so far this year. The Boston Celtics have the fewest home games (11 games) left of the three teams and their remaining opponents have a combined winning percentage of 0.475. The schedules do not seem to favor any of these three teams so this should make for a very interesting race all the way to the end of the season. For the remaining schedule, Miami will play Chicago twice and Boston once while Chicago will play Boston only once. There are very important matchups for each of these teams within the last two weeks of the season where Boston will take on both Chicago and Miami. These three teams are the class of the East and home court will be a huge factor in the playoffs considering each of their home records (Chicago: 26-4, Boston: 25-5, Miami: 21-5).

Another storyline that will be very interesting to follow in the second half will be the new look New York Knicks with their trio of Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire, and the seemingly forgotten Chauncey Billups as well as the affect of the other trades. The team gutted the roster to land a second superstar in Anthony to play alongside Stoudemire. How well will these two players play alongside each other and how will D’Antoni divvy up the minutes to a team with little depth, especially in the frontcourt? The team will definitely be able to score with the addition of one of the elite scorers in the league but the defense is sure to drop off a little with the lack of size and the trading of Chandler for Anthony on the defensive end. The Knicks have built a very strong core to their team and it will be interesting to see how much of an effect it will have on the team this year. The lack of depth and with only 28 games left in the season, can the Knicks find their offensive rhythm fast enough or will the team endure some growing pains like the Miami Heat early in the season? The other trades that will be followed the most are the Nets acquisition of Deron Williams and the Celtics flurry of trades. With the Nets, the main question will be if the Nets can prove to Williams that it is worth resigning with New Jersey as they move to Brooklyn in 2012. As for the Celtics, the alteration of a roster that got them to the NBA Finals a season earlier will be watched very closely especially for a team that has seen such great success in the past three years. Will the change in their frontcourt hurt their championship chances if they meet up with the Lakers or Magic in the playoffs? Perkins has missed 43 games so far this year and the Celtics have the second best record in the league at 41-15. We will see how these trades play out through the rest of the season.

The final storyline is, of course, if the Lakers will three-peat. Each conference has three or four very good teams who are considered very serious contenders for the Larry O’Brien Trophy. The Eastern Conference has already been discussed with the top three teams of Boston, Miami, and Chicago while Orlando is a little bit behind those teams looking in. On the other side in the Western Conference, the top three teams of the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, and Los Angeles Lakers are all legitimate title contenders and now the Oklahoma City Thunder have thrown themselves right in the mix with those three with their trade deadline acquisitions. The Spurs have been very consistent throughout the whole year and have their own big three with Manu Ginobli, Tony Parker, and Tim Duncan. Tim Duncan has been putting up career low numbers but also career low minutes so Gregg Popovich is trying to keep Duncan as fresh as possible for the playoffs. But a healthy Ginobli, Parker, a rejuvenated Richard Jefferson, and Sixth Man of the Year candidate in George Hill the Spurs have raced out to the best record in the league and a six game lead in the West. The Mavericks have been very good with Nowitzki healthy and really only had a bad stretch when Nowitzki was hurt and Caron Butler had a season ending injury in late December and into mid-January. The Lakers are the defending champions with two-time Finals MVP winner Kobe Bryant still performing at a very high level and running this team. The team is pretty much the same team that won the 2010 NBA Championship and are still the champions until someone knocks them off. Then there is the Oklahoma City Thunder who is a very young team with the leagues leading scorer Kevin Durant and fellow All Star Russell Westbrook leading the way. The new acquisitions of Kendrick Perkins and Nazr Mohammad should help the Thunder chase down the Western Conference Title and an NBA championship. A year ago in the playoffs, the Thunder gave the Lakers their biggest scare in the Western Conference as the 8 seed and was the most of the team’s first experience in the playoffs. The team has a year of playoff experience under its belt and may be ready to make a run in the playoffs. This should prove to be a great second half of the season and playoffs with a number of interesting storylines to follow.

Here are highlights from the first half of the season:

NBA Trade Deadline

admin — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:32:37 +0000

The NBA trade deadline is now behind us after a flurry of moves in the past 72 hours. This year’s trade deadline was very busy and everybody seemed to wait for the Carmelo Anthony deal to be completed before making moves of their own.

The main storyline of this trading deadline will undoubtedly be the Anthony trade but the Nets quickly responded to their neighbors in New York with a blockbuster trade of their own. The Nets didn’t quit their search for a face to the franchise after losing out on Carmelo Anthony. The Nets responded by trading for Deron Williams, who was called the best point guard in the league by Nets GM Billy King. This move is arguably better than the Knicks trade for Anthony because point guard is a more important position in today’s game and the Nets gave up less than they would have for Anthony. The Nets traded away Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, two 2011 first round draft picks and $3 million in cash for the point guard. Williams made his second All-Star appearance this year and is averaging 21.3 points (16th in the league) and 9.7 assists (3rd in the NBA) per game. The point guard had come under some heat after Jerry Sloan retired from the Jazz after 23 years. His retirement happened a day after Deron Williams had gotten in a heated argument with Sloan during the halftime of the February 9th game against the Bulls. Another reason for the trade could have been watching the Carmelo Anthony drama unfold this year. Williams could become a free in the summer of 2012 and could just walk away via free agency while the team receives nothing in return. The big question now for the Nets regarding this trade, is will they be able to re-sign Williams before the summer of 2012? The Nets need to build a better supporting cast around Williams to get him to stay and if they can’t then this trade will be seen as a failure.

There were still a number of other trades even though these two blockbuster trades will capture most of the headlines. The surprisingly active team at the deadline was the Boston Celtics, the top team in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics and GM Danny Ainge decided to shake up their roster after losing in Game 7 of the NBA Finals last season and being in first place of the Eastern Conference at the All Star break. The team dealt Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic. The Celtics also traded Luke Harangody, Semih Erden, and Marquis Daniels in two separate trades for two second-round picks. However, the trade of Perkins means that the Celtics will now depend on Kristic and the O’Neal’s (Jermaine and Shaq) as their centers. The frontline of the Celtics seemed to be the biggest advantage the team had over the Bulls and the Heat but Boston did need some depth at the wing position with the injury to Marquis Daniels and acquiring the 24-year old Green solves that problem. The deep frontline that the Celtics had before these trades would also help them against the strong frontlines of the Magic and Lakers if they met in the playoffs.

The Thunder on the other hand did a great job of bolstering their frontline with the addition of Perkins as well as their trade with the Charlotte Bobcats for Nazr Mohammad. The Thunder acquired Mohammad from Charlotte for Morris Peterson and DJ White, two players who are not an important part to the Thunder’s rotation. The Thunder are positioning themselves well in the West by adding to their frontcourt and have really come out of the trade deadline as the big winners. The Thunder, before the trades, was the youngest team in the league and has been gathering these assets through the years of their rebuilding. Now the team has traded some of these assets to help the team win now.

One of the other big moves at the deadline was the Trail Blazers acquiring Gerald Wallace from the Bobcats for Joel Przybilla, Dante Cunningham, Sean Marks, and two first round picks. The acquisition of Wallace helps the Blazers to bolster their wing rotation with the questionable health of Brandon Roy. The team needed more quality depth and accomplished that by getting Wallace. Some of the other trade deadline headlines are Shane Battier returning to Memphis with the Grizzlies giving up on the Hasheem Thabeet (No. 2 pick in the 2009 draft) project as well as Demare Carroll (also a first round pick in 2009) and a future first round pick. Another deal was for Kirk Hinrich that involved the Atlanta Hawks and the Washington Wizards. The Hawks acquired Kirk Hinrich from the Wizards for Mike Bibby, a first round pick and two other players. The Clippers also made a move that creates more financial flexibility for this summer’s free agent market by trading away Baron Davis to the Cavaliers for Mo Williams, Jamario Moon, and a first round pick. This was a move that was designed to get Baron Davis’ contract off of their books. Not sure if Baron Davis will be too excited to leave Los Angeles and Blake Griffin to play for the league’s worst 10-47 Cleveland Cavaliers. The deadline has now passed and only time will tell how all the different moves will work for their respective teams.

All Star weekend recap

admin — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 09:32:28 +0000

The 2011 All-Star Weekend at the Staples Center in Los Angeles started with John Wall dishing out a record 22 assists in the Rookie-Sophomore game and ended with Kobe Bryant showing that Los Angeles is still his city even with the emergence of Blake Griffin. The weekend also capped off a very busy three days for Blake Griffin who participated in the Rookie-Sophomore Game on Friday, the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest on Saturday, and then the 2011 All-Star Game on Sunday.

The weekend started off with two former college teammates at Kentucky, John Wall and Demarcus Cousins, propelling the Rookies to a 148-140 victory over the Sophomores in the Rookie Sophomore Game on Friday. John Wall brought home the MVP with his record setting 22 assists to go along with 12 points including an alley-oop dunk with 12 seconds left to put an exclamation point on the game. His former teammate also had a huge game with 33 points and 14 rebounds, which is the fourth highest scoring performance in the history of the game.

Saturday at the All-Star Weekend features the Skills Challenge, the 3-Point Shooting Contest, and the Slam Dunk Contest. The Skills Challenge requires each player to complete an obstacle course by maneuvering around stationary obstacles and passing balls in a variety of way. The contestants featured some of the leagues best point guards like Derrick Rose, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, John Wall, and the eventual 2011 champion Steph Curry. The next event of the evening was the 3-Point Shootout, which featured last year’s champion Paul Pierce of the Boston Celtics, the new all time leader in three pointers made in a career Ray Allen also of the Celtics, Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder, James Jones of the Miami Heat, Dorrell Wright of the Golden State Warriors, and Daniel Gibson of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The finals of the contest pitted James Jones of the Heat against both Ray Allen and Paul Pierce of the Celtics. The two best teams in the East were playing for a championship; the three point contest. In this championship the Heat were able to come out victorious without the help of James, Wade or Bosh with James Jones holding off both Allen and Pierce. Finally, the featured event of the night was the Slam Dunk Contest, which featured Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers, Javale McGee of the Washington Wizards, Demar Derozan of the Toronto Raptors, and Serge Ibaka of the Oklahoma City Thunder. The contest displayed a new sense of creativity with the participants. Some of the more creative dunks were McGee’s three ball dunk, Ibaka’s Teddy Bear dunk, and Blake Griffin Dunking over a car. The final round had Griffin matched up against McGee. In the finals, Griffin brought out a car onto the court, had a choir singing “I Believe I Can Fly” at half-court, and had Baron Davis pop out of the sunroof of the car to throw an alley-oop to Griffin. This dunk led to Blake Griffin taking home the trophy for the 2011 Sprite Slam Dunk Contest.

The main event of the weekend comes on Sunday with the All-Star Game. The game featured a combined 7 players from the Heat and Celtics on the East team, including a record tying 4 from the Boston Celtics alone. The Western team featured the 8th all time leading scorer in NBA history in Kobe Bryant, arguably the best power forward to play the game in Tim Duncan, arguably the two best international players to play the game in Dirk Nowitzki and Manu Ginobli as well as three first time All-Stars in Blake Griffin, Russell Westbrook, and Kevin Love. The game also featured the hometown Los Angeles Lakers fans booing the four Boston Celtics as Coach Doc Rivers put all four of them into the game at the same time. The game was controlled by the West for most of the game until LeBron James led a fierce East rally in the third quarter to cut the West lead down to two points. Down the stretch of the game, Kevin Durant hit two big free throws that helped the West win the game while giving Durant 34 points for the game. LeBron James had a huge game for the East by recording only the second triple double in All-Star Game history (the other belonging to the great Michael Jordan) with 29 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. But Kobe Bryant was the star of the show by putting up 37 points, 21 by halftime, and 14 rebounds while bringing home his record tying fourth NBA All-Star Game MVP, bringing him level with Bob Petitt. The tight game ended a great All-Star Weekend and is hopefully the preview of a great second half of the regular season and playoffs.

Greg Oden Injured Again

admin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:37:05 +0000

The Portland Trailblazers have made some of the worst draft choices in the history of the NBA. Many make the argument that it all started in 1974 with Bill Walton as the 1st overall pick by the Blazers, but anyone with an ounce of knowledge would never refer to this pick as a bust. Yes, Bill Walton’s career did not span as long as Portland hoped for, but in his 4 seasons with the Blazers, Walton brought a championship to the city in 1977, was named MVP in 1978, and was named to all defensive teams in 1977 and 1978. I wouldn’t call that a bust. How about you?

Sam Bowie, number 2 pick (1984)–no question, one of the biggest busts ever. Not choosing Michael Jordan with the second overall pick in the 1984 draft–knowing what we know about Michael Jordan, we have to call this a terrible decision, even though Portland had good reason to pass on Jordan since they already had a pretty good shooting guard on their roster in Clyde Drexler. And now Greg Oden?

Blazers’ center Greg Oden broke his left kneecap in Saturday’s game against the Houston Rockets and will miss the remainder of this season. Oden’s career began in a delay as he was forced to sit out his entire rookie season due to microfracture surgery on his right knee. A bone chip in his left knee sidelined Oden once again last year for 14 games. It doesn’t take a genius to see the pattern in these injuries. Not only are these knee injuries, but they are very severe ones that a lot of players never come back from.

It is difficult for anyone to stay positive and optimistic in such a case. Greg Oden himself is having doubts as well, I’m sure. Of course, he will have the best doctors available to him in his recovery, but it will be a hard task to make a comeback and be productive once again. Certainly not dominant, but a very solid season this year with averages of 11.7 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks as a starter helped the organization and fans forget the career Kevin Durant has had thus far. The regret of choosing Oden over Durant with the first overall pick in 2007 will surely return once again to the city of Portland.

In an attempt to be optimistic, one could say Oden was lucky it wasn’t his right knee again that he injured, on which he already had major surgery. Then again, maybe this would have been better. Maybe he would have been better off injuring his already weaker knee than suffering such a serious injury to his good leg. One learns to play with a weaker knee or leg by being more careful and favoring one leg over the other. This is a difficult task with two bad knees. One can only hope that Greg Oden is an exception, and that he will be able to make a full recovery and resume his NBA career.

Tracy McGrady Feels Unwanted

admin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:19:20 +0000

Almost 10 months have passed since Tracy McGrady has been on the court in a Rockets uniform. Once regarded as the franchise player and one of the best in the league, McGrady is today somewhat of the forgotten man in Houston. Trevor Ariza is now wearing T-Mac’s old number 1, and playing quite impressively while doing so. November 18th was his target date for his return to the court, so while in Minneapolis on Wednesday for a game against the T-Wolves, T-Mac put his new #3 uniform on and warmed up with his teammates. He later walked past head coach Rick Adelman, who was very surprised and shocked to see McGrady in uniform knowing that he had not been activated yet.

This led to Adelman requesting a meeting immediately with McGrady. According to sources, the exchange behind closed doors got quite loud at times, which could be heard even from the locker room. The motivation behind T-Mac’s stunt was to get his coach’s attention, as he had been feeling unwanted and unwelcome. In the meeting, McGrady demanded of Adelman to tell him exactly whether he wanted him back on the team and what his timetable for his return was. McGrady feels ready to return to the court and wishes to be activated, but Adelman disagrees and thinks McGrady needs more practice time.

Tensions have been building ever since McGrady decided to have season-ending surgery on his knee in February, without telling the team first, but announcing it to the media instead. Adelman was very upset, and understandably so. Ever since, communications between McGrady and Adelman have been almost non-existent.

Earning the league’s highest salary of $23.2 million this season in the final year of his contract, McGrady is rumored to be shopped around. Though it is a very high salary, there are always teams looking for expiring contracts. McGrady has always been thought to be an injury-prone player, and even one who has been unwilling to play through injuries, which is expected of the great ones especially. Such criticisms have been voiced repeatedly by Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson, who believe that McGrady has not lived up to his true potential.

At the age of 30 now, T-Mac is still a relatively young player. Many have written him off and believe his best days to be behind him. One can only hope they are wrong and that McGrady is able to get back to his old self, as he was truly one of the unique ones when he was healthy.

–am

FIVEmag NBA basketball blog » NBA notes

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