Christmas Day Game - Cavs at Lakers

So this was the big hyped game that a lot of people were talking about. It didn't turn out as I expected or probably as a lot of other people expected. The Cavs pretty much blew out the Lakers in LA. The Lakers had a nice winning streak at home. However, there were a lot of factors. First, a lot of credit to the Cavs. They came out with a good attacking plan, and they did well. Mo Williams was playing great and he was killing the Lakers. Shaq actually played very well, but I think the Lakers didn't D up like they normally do. I think they gave the Cavs too many easy looks. Kobe played decent, I think he almost got a triple double actually. However, the Lakers in general played horrible, missed a lot of shots. There were a lot of calls that seemed like the Lakers got hit and fouled a lot that didn't get called. Obviously, you don't want to blame the refs, but Kobe should have had a lot more free throws in my monitoring. The game didn't turn out to be one of the game of the years as it could have been. Last year, the Lakers beat the Cavs both times, so its too bad they already lost to them at home this year.

Injuries - hard to watch

Last night in the Lakers game vs the Thunder, there was a play Kobe jumped into the air and he landed awkwardly and his knee sorted of twisted. He was clutching his knee and I'm sure it was painful. Watching the play makes me cringe and start rubbing my knee because if it buckled or went a further inches one way something would have broke or been very bad. That is how close things are to being the end of a season or career. The crowd got very quiet because Kobe didn't get up right away, but then he seemed to be fine and started wiping his brow saying "Phew, that was close!" But anyway, watching injuries or near injuries are really hard to watch for me. They look painful, so you can only imagine how it feels. When former players are discussing an injury that took place in the court, they recount how painful it is for them to watch it because they experienced a similar injury. I can relate at least to sprain/severe sprained ankle. I've done it twice and it is painful. The first time was the worst. My feet twisted the wrong way and it was the most painful thing I experienced. So whenever I seem a similar twist that an NBA player experiences, I understand. One of the worst injuries I can remember seeing is Shaun Livingston. You can probably find the video of it online where he injuries his knee very badly. In fact, I don't want to even look or find that video, it was that painful for me to watch.

Tyreke Evans is ballin!!

In an earlier post I proclaimed Brandon Jennings my early favorite to win ROY. I must amend it and say that he has some big competition with Tyreke. Soon after I vocalized my support for Brandon, it seemed he started to be more up and down. Brandon has kind of been inconsistent throughout the season, however, he is still pretty solid. However, Tyreke, especially after Kevin Martin went down for the Kings, has stepped up his game for the Kings. Tyreke is in the 20, 5, 5 club! (20 points, 5 rebs, 5 assist per game) That is very, very, impressive. Not many players are doing it this season among all the players. Another nice thing with Tyreke is he seems to be more consistent than Brandon at this point. In last night's game vs the Bulls, Tyreke helped to lead the Kings back to victory from 35 points down! Yes, 35 points down! Tyreke is ballin!

Kobe...Lebron...Christmas Day!

Great NBA game scheduled on Christmas day, Lakers vs Cavs on ABC at 5:00 pm EST. I'll be watching!!

Will you wait on the replay!!??

 I was just watching a game and was reminded of one of my biggest annoyances that happens sometimes during the broadcast of an NBA game.  A spectacular play happens (like a nice dunk) and they start replaying the dunk immediately afterward while the game is still going on! I hate this cause I'm missing the live action!! I'm not so bothered if nothing major happened while it was showing the replay, but I hate it if I miss a steal or the other team comes back and makes a quick great play. So please, hold the replay until there is a stoppage of play.

Announcers Bias

If you watch an NBA game on one of the big networks - ESPN, TNT or ABC, they have to be neutral for the most part (I believe). They can't appear to be rooting for one particular team or player. They have to give their thoughts and opinions which shouldn't be biased (for the most part). However, if your watching a feed that is from that team's place, it will of course be totally for the home team. This is fair and understandable. I get a little kick in listening to these various home town feeds because you get an understanding of how biased thoughts affect fact or common sense. In fact, its so funny to see how outlandish some of these opinions are. For example, the Lakers game I was watching was a Milwaukee feed. Therefore, the guys were of course rooting for everything Bucks. In one part of the game I thought the analyst was going to have a seizure yelling at what he stated was a CLEAR lane violation by Ron Artest. Looking at the replay it was clearly NOT the case, and the correct call was made against the Bucks. They showed the replay only once (LOL, i wonder why, maybe it was obvious he was wrong). The fact that they are rooting for the Bucks also have them more animated and yelling at everything. I heard a "Woo!" what seemed like almost every played toward the end of the game for every way they scored a point. However, it was not a "Woo!" in the sense of "yes we scored", which would make sense to me. It was a "Woo" as if it was the most amazing play ever, even if it was a basic pass/shot. Being a pro Kobe fan its funny to listen to how they bash him since they are pro-Bucks. By the way, I am not trying to bash the announcers for their bias in the game. In fact, for Bucks fans watching, I'm sure they appreciate it. Hey, I know I love watching pro-Laker feeds of games. The same thing happens. They get excited about Laker plays and talk about terrible calls against them. My main point is that support/rooting for a team takes fair judgement out. I try to be fair when I watch the games and say "Yea, that was a travel on Kobe" or "that was a foul by Pau". But admittedly, most of the time I think I deny because that is what happens in the moment. "Its impossible!"

All-Star Voting - T-Mac???

First of all, I wanted to mention a while ago how silly I thought it was that they started All-Star voting quite early in the season. It seemed like it was the second or third week of the season and they started talking about All-Star voting. Are you serious? How can you vote this early? I understand fans want to vote for who they want to see. This probably explains why Tracy McGrady has enough votes to be a starter for the All-Star game. I guess I'm more of a purist/realist because I feel it should be based solely on performance and not name factor. This is truly a name thing because Tracy has played 0 games this year (well as of now 1 game - which he played 7 mins). However, the recent vote totals was before he played his first game. I kind of get annoyed with these things because I think people who have earned and played at an All-Star level should be starting. For instance, Steve Nash is behind Tracy in votes, and he should be ahead. This has always been true throughout the years where people seem to vote more on name than what they are currently doing in the NBA season.

Here are my starting five picks:

West: Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Carmelo Anthony, Dirk Nowitzki, Andrew Bynum
(I was torn between Dirk and Pau Gasol, but Dirk has been killing it too and played longer

East: Dwayne Wade, Lebron James, Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard, Rajan Rondo (he has been playing that well!)

The Celtics looking very good

The Celtics and Lakers are both 20-4 and tied for the best record. I have another record for you though. 12-1. Twelve and one is the Celtics current road record! That is pretty incredible. To me, that is more impressive. I give the Celtics the edge on the record because winning on the road I think is key to being a dominant team. They are maintaining their high differential and winning on the road. The Lakers are starting to play more of their road games and we'll see if they continue to pull out these miracle wins. However, more dominating performances need to be displayed. At this point though, a Lakers vs Celtics matchup in the Finals looks very probable.

Kobe Does it Again!

Last night the Lakers played the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks held their own against the Lakers and had every chance to win the game. In fact, the Lakers had no business winning that game, because the Bucks had every opportunity to lock the game up. However, missed free-throws, fouls, and just aggressive play from the Lakers gave them a loss. Kobe of course hit a game winning shot in OT to win the game, which swished in nicely. He actually had the same chance in regulation but missed. He mentioned that during the post game interview and said he had a good look and he missed. He said if he had another chance, he was going to go right back to it. Kobe is playing phenomenal considering he has a broken index finger since about 2 or 3 games ago. He had 42 against the Bulls, and 39 against the Bucks last night. By the way, Pau Gasol is playing unbelievable. He has 78 rebounds in 4 games for an average of 19.5 rebounds. He has had three 20 or more rebound performances in 3 of the games. Ron Artest has recently been more down on his shot recently and not shooting very well. He was shooting the ball a lot better from 3 earlier.  I'd like to apologize for my Laker dominating posts. I understand I don't talk much about the other teams, but as I mentioned in my first post, the Lakers are the team I really follow the most.

Chris Webber - The Analyst

Just want to give a shout out to Chris Webber. I like hearing his opinions and thoughts of the goings on of the NBA. He can be funny and he gives some good former player views. He can be seen on NBA TV and TNT.

Surprising Teams & Other News

The New York Knicks are on a 4 game winning streak?!? Where did this come from, they are playing really well. Unfortunately, Nate Robinson is logging 0 minutes during this streak and I wonder when he will be traded. The Oklahoma City Thunder are really surprising me as well as they have +.500 record. Kevin Durant is really leading that team and he has some great players around him. I'm also surprised with the Memphis Grizzlies record at this point. I think they are doing better than I thought as well. The Lakers win streak ended at 11 after they lost in Utah. It was their first road game in a long while, and of course they lose it. I figured they may lose especially the way they killed the Jazz in the 4th quarter of their last game. The Lakers are going to be tested more now since they will be playing more road games. The Boston Celtics have the current longest winning streak now. They have 10 game winning streak and playing extremely well. Rondo is playing very well and KG looks like he's coming back to form. Scary news for the rest of the teams.

Allen Iverson Tonight!

Allen Iverson has signed with the 76ers and his debut is tonight. A lot of the talk was about how emotional he was in his press conference. In the past couple years, I'm not sure if Allen has conducted himself in the best way, but it looks like it could be a good fit. He is coming back to the city he had so much success and I think the people love him. They know he plays hard and gives it his all. Allen will definitely have a chance to get his minutes and shots. I heard that the attendance for 76ers games was worse than the Timberwolves. That is sad. Especially since they have that other AI who is a high flyer amazing athlete. However, I'm definitely going to be tuned in tonight to watch the game. I'm sure its going to be exciting for the fans to have something else to cheer for. I think its going to be a fun game to watch. Its going to be interesting to see how he will perform. He has admitted he is not in game shape since he hasn't really played at all since early part of the season with Memphis. Watch the game on NBA TV if you can.

Kobe Bryant shot!

On Friday night, the Heat and Lakers were playing a game in LA. The Heat were playing well and made a nice comeback to take the lead at the end of the game. It was a good showing from them after getting blown out in Denver in their last game. Miami would have won the game if they had some better execution toward the end of game which include making free throws. Dwayne missed a free throw which gave the Lakers a chance at the end. Honestly, I was saying to myself, "This game is over, the Heat have won." I was hoping for the Lakers to pull it out. Miraculously, they were able to pull out the win on a amazing game winning shot by Kobe at the end of the game. Dwayne played as best defense as you can, but Kobe was just better. I suggest you find the video and look at the shot by Kobe. One of the best of the year.

Let Shannon Brown Dunk!!!

I was watching the Lakers game last night and the broadcasters were talking about Shannon Brown and him (or somebody) having a website called, "Let Shannon Dunk", all in one word probably with respect to the dunk contest. I got excited after hearing about this. I started to go on Youtube and other video sites looking at Shannon Brown dunks and reading articles about him. So many people have talked about what a freak of an athlete he is and his ability to jump is amazing. I was reading about him losing in a contest in previous years to Lebron, but he had missed a windmill dunk that didn't give him a chance to win. If Lebron enters as he said he would last year, then it would be a fun rematch to watch. Besides, I'm sure it would be fun to watch him do some dunks. Go ahead and find his videos and if your an NBA or dunk fan, you will understand. I read Lakers players mention his dunks in practice are very spectacular as well. I can imagine. So my plead and main point is, NBA->PLEASE INVITE SHANNON BROWN TO BE A PARTICIPANT IN THE DUNK CONTEST!!!! This guy is a beast when it comes to dunking and I would like to see what he can come up with. Even if your not a Lakers fan, you can appreciate his athletic ability and you know you would definitely love to watch. During the All-Star break, it gives you a chance to root for those players you don't normally root for if you go for a particular team.

Update: http://letshannondunk.com/