Oh yeah, LeBron scored 38, too.
Good Morning SLAMmers,
After rambling my little heart out yesterday, my wrists are B-U-R-N-I-N-G, tonight. I just finished a liveblog, I’ve transcribed almost 5k words today, written a practice report and of course, tweeted it up all evening. In other words, there have been too many words, today. Gonna take some time for my hands to get used to this much typing every day and night. Don’t worry, though. I’ll get there.
Opening day absolutely destroyed me. It’s only 1:35 a.m. and I’m entirely exhausted. Got a little overwhelmed tonight. Especially when Tex Winter receeived his ring. Could he have looked any more precious sitting in the stands, smiling as he watched basketball? That man’s love, undestanding and respect of the game inspires me. When Kobe Bryant said “He basically raised me when I first got here,” my night was complete.
I thought the Cavs were going to come out firing on all cylinders at home, but those damn Celtics took the 95-89 victory. I’m sure our boy Tzvi was loving it, watching his boys take down the Cavaliers, watching Ray streaking to the hoop and seeing KG back on the floor. Celtics are going to be tough, man. They look like they haven’t lost a step and new additions Marquis Daniels and Rasheed Wallace look like they’ve been there all along.
Now, this Big Baby madness: Breaking your hand a day before the regular season starts is a big dummy move. I can’t even imagine the wrath of Rivers and the big four (Yes, I’m including Rondo in there as the big four, cool?), as they have to deal with someone potentially messing up their fast start. Yikes.
Speaking of KG, check this tweet from Marcus Wiliams: KG cussed me out my rookie yr, i kinda laughed and he said “bejbvhjebvjdsbcajbce” and i said “huh??” and looked at me with REDEYES! #scared
Love it. I also tweeted him to ask if KG was the most intimidating player he’s gone up against. This was his response: No, Robert Swift is! Go google em RT @stackmack: @mw1ll is KG the most intimidating to go up against?
Clearly, he doesn’t know who he’s tweeting with. As if I need to google Mr. Swift! For real though, I had a great chat with MW in Las Vegas this summer and I’m happy he’s got a home in Memphis this season.
Now, my favorite part of the night that didn’t involve Tex: Gil. Gil Arenas is back, baby. He had 29 points (!) on 10-21 field goals and shot 8-9 from the line as he led the Wizards to a 102-91 victory over the Mavs in Dallas. Last season, the Wizards had one road win at Christmas. Here’s to hoping this was only the first of many, many more.
And, um, hi, LeBron. Thanks for scoring 38 and having people not rave about it because you’re just that good. Also, the block show? Beautiful. Especially that block on Rondo. My goodness.
As for the Lakers, they didn’t look very good and led by only one at the end of three to the Blake G-less Clips. Still, they turned it on when they needed to and Kobe finished with 33 points. On 26 field goal attempts. No easing into it for that guy, hey?
Everyone making jokes about the LA crowd cheering “MVP” for Kobe, saying it shouldn’t be allowed when he wasn’t the regular season MVP last year. Two words for you: Finals MVP. That’s the one that matters the most, anyway. Just saying.
Notice Greg Oden pull down 12 rebounds, but score just two points? He only attempted three field goals in his 26 minutes of action as Travis Outlaw had 23 points off of the bench and the Blazers took down the Rockets, 96-87.
Ugly stat of the night: Baron Davis and his 1-10 night from the floor. Blame the injured foot, but yuck. Eric Gordon, however, he got to the rim with ease. Every single time.
Okay for real, I’ve gotta get moving. It’s somehow suddenly 3 a.m. (shoutout to late night phone calls to discuss opening night!) and I’ve got two shootarounds starting at 10 a.m. and then the home opener against Cleveland here in Toronto. Wish me luck.
Tell me your thoughts. I want the Post Up convos back. K thanks!
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B. Long, Phil going 10-deep into his roster by the second quarter was crazy. It DID feel like a preseason game.
rickson: Check the Post Up from yesterday. Things are changing this season and there will not be game by game recaps in here. There will be game notes from our writers who’ve been attending games, though.
1. Is it about time to give up on Mike Brown? I’ve defended the brother for his defense and his team’s success, but man his inability to ever, EVER develop an offense that allows Bron to be the beast he should be is unacceptable. I feel cheated as a basketball fan. The only reason I won’t kill him competely is because I wonder if Lebron prefers playing the way they play. Kind of like Penny in Blue Chips when he told the coach that he wasn’t used to no damn motion offense, he needed the 1-4 so he could have the ball in his hands and make things happen…Yeah, I referenced Blue Chips.
2. It’s hard not to hate Sheed for what he did last year. Very, very hard.
3. That off the glass jumper KG hit over Shaq that was on the highlight reel was really, really nasty.
4. Portland should be better than they are.
5. Gilbert Arenas looks very dangerous. Maybe SLAM was right about his ranking.
6. Ron Artest looks like he got fatter. Kobe looks bigger too.
7. I was right about the Detroit/AI fiasco. Just wanted to say “I told you so” one more time.
1. Called my father after the Cavs game. He said, “I know it’s only one game, but the Cavaliers are really worse than I thought”
2. Defensively, the Cavaliers are deeeeep. Offensively, there’s really not so deep. Parker is not the answer: when Lebron throws a bullet pass to you at the three, you take the three, don’t hesitate, wait two seconds, then dodge the defender and take a shot off the dribble! That’s not what the Cavaliers need! Also, get Lebron assists, he’s on my fantasy team.
3. I wasn’t terribly impressed with Shaq as Z was. Yeah, he wasn’t clogging the lane, lebron looked fine… but Shaq has one of the best play makers in the L with the ball: he can’t get anything better than a one-on-one post match? Get behind Perks, you will get the ball for chrissakes!
4. Marquis Daniels may be the most underrated pick of the year. Dude is picking up where he left off, and he can defend!!!
5. I didn’t watch any other game outside of the Cavalier v Celts game, but when I did watch the Lakers game, it was Eric Gordon scoring. What did I tell ya. That kid is going to be better than OJ Mayo, put that on paper.
I’d also love to argue with Allen about the “I told you so” comment but I gotta drive to Red Hook soon, so really wont be here for that.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Former-Celtics-star-Antoine-Walker-is-broke-and-?urn=nba,198509
I used to hear older black folks wonder how we could have so many wealthy athletes and still have so many enduring problems, and I think this story gets to the root of the problem. Athlete wealth appears to be transient. It obviously evaporates quickly once the checks stop coming in, and then what do they have? Nothing but the memories.
A few things I learned last night:
1) Bron is great but his team has zero movement when he touches the ball.
2)PP is NOT in shape like the announcers said.
3) Baron does look like Kimbo Slice.
4) Anderson verasisizio(?) i really annoying.
5) Gil looks really small on the court but it’s amazing to have him back.
And last but not least.
6) Kobe is really slowing down : D.
Whats the point then?! Just open a post and let the user comment on the games, because thats whats happens here right now!
Chris Kaman, Al Jefferson, Nene, Okafor,
Kaman is a better scorer. He’s also a better defender and rebounder.
Jefferson is a better scorer and rebounder.
Okafor is a better defender and rebounder.
Nene is just better period.
I would rather have Okafor and Kaman than Bynum if I were the Lakers.
Okafor is a stud defensively. Just nasty. Bynum is foul prone and lazy.
Kaman hits the glass and really is nifty around the rim. He’s not great, but in the triangle I think he would be WAY more effective than Bynum.
High five sis…
Dude has talent, but nothing he has shown me makes me think he’s going to max out on that talent. Maybe this year will be different, but so far I question his effort, I question his maturity, and dammit, I question his basketball intelligence.
But, he’s still pretty young.
Myles
Kaman and Okafor aren’t getting much better, but do the lakers really need them too? I guess if you’re planning for the future, Bynum is a better bet, but for right now, I would prefer either of those other two.
Great to have the Post Up back, and I’ll pop by when I can.
Also, if you guys are looking at potential centres for the All Star Game, why not Luis Scola?
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