By Henry Abbott
- LeBron James won't rule out playing for the Clippers or any other team.
- Kevin Durant missed some big shots that could have sealed a win against the Lakers, and an emerging commitment to defense played a role. Darnell Mayberry of the Oklahoman: "Although Durant wouldn’t use it as an excuse Thursday, his fourth-quarter blunders can partly be attributed to fatigue, which he did admit set in. Lakers forward Ron Artest pestered Durant defensively all night, and, unlike years past, Durant was trying to be equally disruptive on defense. It led to near exhaustion by the final buzzer. 'It’s new to me,' Durant said. 'The last two years I wasn’t playing as hard on the defensive end and was getting used to the concepts. But I’m trying. It takes a little time.'"
- Someone who e-mailed Deadspin: "Manu gave the bat to an usher. The usher took it outside and it flew away. I'm a officer at the ATT center and I saw it my damn self. ... PETA: grow up. Go bother the circus and leave Manu alone."
- A reason to master the free throw: Because if one day, like Chris Dudley, you think you might want to run for governor, you probably don't want the feature article to open with the point that you were one of the league's worst free throw shooters. Dudley has an ivy league education, a record of charitable work, and a commitment to trying to do good. But he'll be known for bricks? That's no way to kick off a political career.
- Chris Avis of Grizzlies.com: "Just because you think Mike Conley should start over Allen Iverson does not mean that you think Conley is better than A.I. I think that’s the biggest misnomer about coming off the bench. Everyone assumes that the 5 best players on a team start and that the bench is comprised of lesser talent. To a degree, this is correct. The best players usually start, but there are exceptions. One of the reasons that players like Jason Terry and Manu Ginobili come off the bench is very clear; the 2nd unit needs scoring."
- The Orlando Sentinel, far from fearing independent blogs, has nominated several for awards, including the outstanding Magic blog Third Quarter Collapse.
- Sacramento Mayor, and NBA legend, Kevin Johnson is reportedly engaged.
- A look at how many minutes rookies are getting.
- Who's better, the Lakers with no Andrew Bynum or Pau Gasol, or the Memphis Grizzlies? Tonight we find out.
- Matt McHale of By the Horns on the key non-call that sealed the Bulls' win in Cleveland last night. (Looked to me like LeBron James lost control of the ball when he planted his elbow in Joakim Noah's chest. Noah, for his part, said there was no contact at all.) "I have to call shenanigans on that, Joakim. There was plenty of contact, much of it initiated by LeBron in the hopes of drawing the foul. But, after allowing James to partially knock Deng out of his way with a shoulder block, the officials overlooked a little body-to-body contact between the MVP and Chicago’s wild-haired center. Game over."
- John Krolik of Cavs the Blog on something new in Cleveland this year: "Last year, the Cavs’ opening unit absolutely destroyed people and set the tone, whether it was Wallace or Varejao in the starting lineup. The Cavaliers were the best 1st-quarter team in the league by a huge margin, and it was a huge reason they were able to cruise to so many victories. And it wasn’t just that they got results -- that first unit played some of the prettiest basketball I’ve ever seen the Cavs play. They worked from the high post, cut from the weak side, utilized LeBron off the ball, moved the ball from side to side, freed up shooters on the weak-side with screens, worked cutters from the top of the floor, and played egalitarian basketball wonderfully as LeBron set up teammates and worked on the weak side. This season, the starting lineup has gotten off to one sluggish start after another, with the exception of the Boston game, which was more about the Cavs hitting shots than good offensive sets. The energy isn’t there, and with the poor Shaq/Andy spacing, the starters are trying to force-feed the ball into the post and watch Shaq or LeBron go to work rather than playing 5-man basketball and working the entire floor. Shaq can still punish teams when they single-cover him, but the team has looked incoherent and confused during the opening stretch instead of controlling the flow of the game." Some of that is undoubtedly the Shaquille O'Neal effect, but don't forget that the architect of Cleveland's offense last year was John Kuester, who is now calling the shots in Detroit (where the offense has looked pretty lively).
- The Two Man Game's Rob Mahoney: "In life, in love, in highly competitive games of Scattergories, and of course, in basketball, there exists a delicate balance between convention and innovation." Hats off to Mark Cuban for hiring Nancy Lieberman to coach the men of the upcoming Frisco-based D-League team.
- If you go to Cha Cha days at the University of Central Florida, don't be surprised if you find a "zero altered poisson regression" of Marcin Gortat vs. Dwight Howard." Honestly, I don't really understand it, (beyond knowing that "poisson" means fish in French) but I'm quite certain Ryan Parker is doing important work.
- What do you think about the owner of the Cavaliers putting a lot of effort into opening a Cleveland casino? The NBA's message to basketball fans on gambling is getting very complicated.
- When the Kings signed Desmond Mason, the blogosphere was adamant that he couldn't help a team. A few weeks later, the Kings apparently agree, having waived him.
- A long time ago there was a very funny NBA blog called YAYSports! Then it kind of crawled off and died. Only it didn't really die. It -- or the blogger behind it -- actually crawled off to make a movie. This movie, which will be released next week.
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TRUEHOOP CONTRIBUTORS
Henry AbbottTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
J.A. AdandeTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Kevin ArnovitzTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Chris BroussardTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Chad FordTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
John HollingerTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Chris SheridanTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Marc SteinTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
