A few more notes...

I still can't believe how terrible the Lakers played against Dallas, but hopefully that was just one of the "bad" games for the Lakers and they start to pick up their play. Anytime you've won the championship, the other teams are going to try to give you their best game every night. On another note, it is not certain when Pau Gasol will return. That is a little worrisome to me since its not certain of his return. Hopefully he heals up soon and give the Lakers the great boost they need, just like when he joined the Lakers. Okay, I'm done talking about the Lakers for now. Boston is looking good as always, and I'm already declaring them favorites for the championship this year (barring injury). They are hungry and didn't like the way they went out last year. Even though its early, Phoenix looks good to me so far. They have their running game back and the coach change of last year was great for them. Shaq is not there for them to slow it down, and I think they play their best at this faster pace, especially Nash. Nash had 20 assists in last night's game. Not much else of note.

Ugh Lakers

So the Lakers just lost big time AT HOME to Dallas. I missed watching the game, but c'mon Lakers!! I'll have to look back at the recap or watch to understand what went wrong, but looking at the low scoring of the Lakers, they must have not shot well. I know Pau wasn't playing, but the Lakers are still good enough to win, AT HOME, at least. They have enough talent to win that game. Anyway, the Lakers "nice" schedule has already given them a loss in game 2 of the season. We'll see if they start playing better, but ugh!! Boston is continuing its dominance and the rest of the league should be worried. Haven't had a chance to look at the other scores/recaps, will talk about that later.

Carmelo Anthony

Carmelo is looking very strong at the beginning of the season. Kenny Smith was already saying Melo is his MVP pick for this year. I can understand the way he's playing now. Melo has been known to be able to score very easily, but now it looks like he is putting his whole game together now. Melo is definitely up there with Lebron and D-Wade.

Tim Duncan

I just want to state that Tim Duncan is such as a solid great player. If you look at the numbers over his career, they are always consistent and good. For his career, he is averaging 21 points, almost 12 rebounds,  almost 2.5 blocks, 3 assists, and 50% shooting from the field. It was reported that Tim lost weight and is in really good shape when he came into camp this year. He is usually in good shape, but I guess better this year. The main thing is I think he is healthier this year and should be back to his normal numbers (he was little down last year). He is definitely one of the best power forward/centers in the history of the NBA.

Not so good for the Cavs...

For a team projected to be one of the best, this is not a good start. After all, they were in the Eastern Conference Finals last year. However, they lost their game to Toronto and now have started the season 0-2. Its not a huge hole or something to get crazy about at this point, but Cleveland fans are probably a little stressed and worried of this start. This is not how to start a season if your hungry to win.  I'm sure the Cavs will pick it up as the season goes on. I don't want to fail to mention that Lebron had a triple double. He is definitely doing his thing, but it wasn't enough. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Boston is doing great, totally dominating the Bobcats beating them 92-59 in tonight's game. That's just sad, but Boston is just that good. Its been a while since I've seen the score of a team be below 60 for the whole game. The leading scorer for the Bobcats had 10 points! (which wouldn't be a problem if maybe 9 other guys had 10 points as well, but that wasn't the case)

Opening night impressions

Well the Cavs didn't look so good after a good start to the game. The Celtics looked really good after they settled down and played their game. Rasheed Wallace already is proving to be a great acquisition. Getting Rasheed looked good on the surface, but watching him play proved he meshed well with the team. They are definitely at least number 2 in my book if they stay healthy. I have to give number 1 to the Lakers (partial bias) because I feel they do have the talent and hey they are the reigning world champions, so that number 1 status has to be taken away from them. Lebron James looks good, but it looks like his team just isn't going to be enough. Thats how good Lebron is though. He makes this team a contender by himself even though I don't think they have the pieces to do it. Shaq was okay, but not spectacular. However, things may come together as the season progresses. Anyway, the Lakers were letting the Clippers hang in the game too long for my tastes. The Clippers weren't playing that spectacular and it just wasn't an A game from the Lakers. Its probably to be expected because a lot of times there is a let down on ring night. Bynum looked real solid, Kobe looked good, Odom played great. Artest did some solid work, missed some shots that I hope he starts making, but overall I think he stayed solid throughout and showed good defense. Kobe's defense was really good too, he looks like he is stepping up his defense more in what I have seen so far. Don't know if its because he is able to relax more knowing that Artest is there and he can roam, or he's more healthier to play stronger defense. Maybe a combination of both. Gilbert Arenes looked really good. He looks to be getting back to being Agent Zero, which is great for him and great for the Wizards. He is fun to watch and one of the best players when he plays the way he can. Good win for the Wizards at Dallas. Disappointing for Dallas which makes me wonder how good they really are. Portland was a great young team last year, and Brandon Roy is one of my favorites. I think he's still kind of under the radar and an underrated player. That guy is great, really, really good. Going to be one of the tops of the league soon. Those are the impressions I had off the top of my head.

World Champions

Just watched the Lakers unveil their championship banner. The banner (and I believe) other team championship banners have the term "World Champions." I could remember watching the Chicago Bulls of the Michael Jordan days and the PA announcer stating, "And now your world champion...Chicago Bulls". However, I remember watching/listening to something recently stating how arrogant we(as an NBA team) are to state we are world champions. I can understand the argument because you know what, the basketball game is a global game and how can you call yourself a world champion in a particular association/league. I believe a true world champion is the one who wins the Olympics. Therefore, the USA basketball team can be called world champions, but when NBA teams win championships, maybe they shouldn't be referred to as world champions. Just my opinion.  Still a champion.

Lebron James!!!

The Cavs vs Celtics game has already started and I must say that I love Lebron James! The man just had an amazing block and he already has 3 blocks. Lebron has really stepped up his defense since he came into the league, a first-team All Defense. He is really adding to his legacy every year.  I still put Kobe over Lebron, but Lebron is making that difference smaller and smaller.  By the way, Shaq looks good early in the game. I believe Shaq is in really good shape, as good shape as he can be at his age. Yet, I don't think thats anywhere close to the dominating Shaq of old, but he will give the Cavs a boost. How much he adds to the Cavs remains to be seen.

NBA refs

Good thing that the NBA was able to get an agreement in place with the refs in time for opening night. You need your best to officiate the best.

If your an NBA fan...

You gotta love today since its the start of the NBA season and if you have TNT, there are two great games on tonight. Cleveland vs Boston and Lakers vs Clippers. In these two games you have three of the top teams in the league playing. Cleveland and Boston - going to be great to watch them go at it. I can understand if some may not be that excited for the Lakers game, since they are playing the Clippers, but hey, its still the Lakers (Kobe, Pau, Artest, Odom..) and its ring night.

Blake Griffin

Just read about Blake Griffin being sidelined with a broken kneecap. It says he could be out for up to six weeks. This is terrible news for the Clippers, but I feel worse for Blake. In a few of the highlights I saw in the preseason he looked pretty good. He definitely looked to be a promising number 1 pick. I thought he had a good chance to be Rookie of the Year, and he still has a chance if he comes back strong. He had some nice dunks in the preseason for sure, we'll see how the knee affects him.

Chris Paul stats

I'm not one to just look at stats to evaluate a player, but I definitely think it represents the player in some concrete way. I believe you have to look at what a player does on the floor in various perspectives to judge him properly. I'll save my ratings of players for another post. But anyway, I love looking at stats to see the numbers that guys are putting up. I don't really play fantasy basketball, but I know thats all about stats. I think Chris Paul is the number one fantasy player. And its no wonder, look at last year's numbers: Field goal percentage at 50%!, shooting 36% from 3's,  5.5 rebounds, 11 assists!, 2.8 steals!,  and average 22.8 points. Those are some sick numbers! Just amazing.

Lakers start

So most of the talk during NBA camps among analysts and NBA people regarding the Lakers are their fairly nice schedule at the start of the NBA season. The "nice" being most of the games are at home. I believe out of the first 21 games, 18 are at home, and 3 are on the road. They were stating there is a good chance the Lakers could be 20-1. The one loss being at Denver seeing as how they are a good team. I can understand the theory of this and I believe its possible. Also the fact that it doesn't seem like they are playing any really top tier team in the other home games except for maybe Utah. However, I can see the Lakers screwing up this favorable schedule, just because I can, because of them just being stupid. However, I believe they are hungry and if they stay healthy, they should have a pretty good record. I'm interested to see how Artest works out. Ariza was a solid fit and you know what you can get with him. Artest is a wild card who can prove to be one of the best pickup for the Lakers or one of the worst. We'll see what happens. By the way, Kobe looked real good in some of the last preseason games. His defense looked pretty good and he looks to be in mid-season form already.

Less than 24 hours until the 1st game!

Who I'm watching

The main team I'll be following is the Lakers. I've been supporting and watching them since early 2000. Besides that I will be watching/follwing Lebron James and Dwayne Wade as they are 2 of my favorite players along with Kobe Bryant.

NBA starting

I plan to use this blog to express my thoughts about the NBA and its happenings. I've been following the NBA since around the early 90s and have loved watching it since then. I'm excited for the season to start tomorrow.