NBA: National Basketball Association

By David Friedman(Doc319@yahoo.com) About a minute and a half after the Detroit Pistons acquired Allen Iverson from the Denver Nuggets in exchange for Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess (the Pistons later re-signed McDyess after the Nuggets released him), Dave Berri--of Wages of Wins/True Hoop fame--blamed every ill in the Detroit metro area on Iverson. When I posted some comments on Berri's site pointing out that it was not fair or logical to hold Iverson entirely responsible for the Pistons' record considering that the Pistons were without McDyess' services for a month, that they had a new coach and that they foolishly decided to bench either Iverson or Richard Hamilton so that Rodney Stuckey could start, Berri's dittohead idiot followers came out of the woodwork...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman(Doc319@yahoo.com) Carmelo Anthony led the Nuggets with 31 points but he shot just 9-23 from the field and did not score for a 12 minute stretch spanning the third and fourth quarters as the Lakers took control with a 23-5 run; during that crucial time, ESPN's Mark Jackson said, "The question for (Denver Coach) George Karl is, 'Where is Carmelo Anthony?' You need a guy offensively to stop the bleeding." Chauncey Billups had a quiet 12 points and five assists while Kenyon Martin added 12 points but shot just 6-15 from the field as the Lakers invited him to keep shooting his patented no-arc jump shots and awkward runners. J.R. Smith, apparently believing that his salary is linked to three point field goal attempts per minute, shot 1-10 from three point range; this is...   [read the full post]

By Doc319@yahoo.com (David Friedman) Kobe Bryant: LeBron James: James' erratic midrange jump shot still leaves him--and the Cavaliers--vulnerable against elite defensive teams that will sag off of James and force him to make that shot, something that James was not able to do versus the Spurs in the 2007 NBA Finals or the Celtics in the 2008 Eastern Conference semifinals, the last two playoff series that the Cavs have lost. Dwyane Wade: During the 2009 All-Star Weekend, four-time MVP (1974-76 ABA, 1981 NBA) Julius Erving said of Bryant and James, "Kobe's got the torch now and LeBron is next in line." This year's playoffs may reveal whether Bryant truly passed that torch to James for good in March or if Bryant merely needed to get his second wind in order to recapture the torch du...   [read the full post]

By Doc319@yahoo.com (David Friedman) Phoenix opened the game with an 11-0 run, led most of the way, perfectly executed an out of bounds play late in the game to score the go ahead layup--and still found a way to lose to their nemesis, the San Antonio Spurs. This time the dagger came in the form of a Roger Mason three pointer at the buzzer, delivering a 91-90 win for the Spurs. Tony Parker scored a game-high 27 points and tied Steve Nash for game-high honors with eight assists. Tim Duncan added 25 points and a game-high 17 rebounds. Amare Stoudemire led Phoenix with 25 points and 13 rebounds, while Shaquille O'Neal powered his way to 23 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots. O'Neal looked better than he has in quite some time; he opened the game with a spin move leading to a powerful dunk...   [read the full post]

By Doc319@yahoo.com (David Friedman) The "go figure" stat of the night is that two of the Pacers' seven wins have come against last year's NBA Finalists; the Pacers won their home opener 95-79 against the Boston Celtics. The Lakers swept the season series against the Pacers 2-0 last year and own a 51-19 advantage in the all-time series but they have not had much success at Conseco Fieldhouse, falling to 3-7 in that building. You may recall that two seasons ago the Lakers blew a nine point third quarter lead at Indiana in a 95-84 loss that Coach Jackson, tongue planted firmly in cheek, called "sad," saying, "They just got 'sad' tonight--'s-a-d,' you know what that is, right? It's sunlight deprivation--when you get out here, it's all gray and the California boys get depressed and t...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman(noreply@blogger.com) As for Miami, the Heat are obviously immensely better than they were last year. Wade has regained his explosiveness and he once again drives relentlessly to the basket. Miami's primary offensive option is Wade dribbling around until he decides to either shoot or pass; in one late game sequence, Wade was the last Heat player to cross midcourt on offense and the other four Heat players simply stood around like little kids waiting for permission to cross the street: they did not even consider the possibility of trying to run an offensive set or create an open shot by dribble penetration. Rookie point guard Mario Chalmers has played actively on defense and he is averaging more than five apg but Wade is clearly running the show.   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Of course, no Cleveland-Washington playoff game this year would be complete without the obligatory incident featuring extracurricular contact and jawing by Wizards' players, with both the contact and the jawing generally directed at James. This time, Darius Songaila made a backhand slap to James' face after Songaila had already fouled him on a driving move. James simply rubbed his jaw and moved away but players from both teams congregated around each other and started woofing and posturing. For no apparent reason, Stevenson slapped down Anderson Varejao's arm. After the officials sorted everything out, Songaila, Stevenson and Varejao received technical fouls.   [read the full post]