And Hornets rookies make me smile.
Happy Friday! Honestly, where do these weeks go? How is it almost December? Yikes. Gotta keep this short tonight and by short I mean like 500 words or less. I’ve got the Raptors game against the Heat (Shout out to you Eboy and Cheryl!) tomorrow evening and shootarounds for both teams tomorrow morning. Game days are damn long as is and I usually only see the Raps for shootaround so it’s going to be even longer this time.
Can’t complain though. Love the Heat team and what they are doing in the early goings of this season. I’m looking forward to watching Chalmers, seeing the reaction Jermaine O’Neal gets from the fans here in Toronto who loved him so very much and also, of course, watching Dwyane from my courtside media seat for the first time.
Hornets rookies getting it done against Phoenix tonight, hey? That 110-103 victory was fun to watch. Okay, Peja’s seven threes (and 13 rebounds!) and the team’s 25 offensive rebounds certainly helped, but damn. Love seeing the rooks get some burn. Darren Collison’s huge three to nail the coffin shut on Phoenix was fantastic, especially when he all but floated to the bench, chest puffed with pride while Chris Paul was the first Hornet to bounce up off of the bench and show him some love, looking so very nice in his grey/purple suit combo.
Collison logged 32 minutes in the start, finishing with 15 points and five assists. Even more important than his numbers was the poise that he showed in understanding that he will never be able to fill the shoes Chris Paul entirely electing instead, to stand tall on his own and help lead his team to the victory.
Collinson’s fellow rook, Marcus Thornton was able to score at will, dropping in 19 points in his 20 minutes of playing time and the Hornets got the huge victory against Seve Nash’s Suns.
In the loss, Jared Dudley continued to impress for the Suns, scoring 17 points off of the bench, including five three-pointers. Nash finished with 13 points and 10 assists, Amare Stoudemire added 23 and Channing Frye had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
The Jazz took down the Spurs, 90-83 as Deron Williams had 21 points and 10 assists, Carlos Boozer scored 18 to go with 11 boards and five assists and Paul Millsap added 20 off of the bench. Duncan scored 21 for the Spurs as George Hill scored 18 in the loss while the Spurs were without Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.
The Lakers/Bulls game. Really, what is there to say? The Lakers are stupidly, insanely good with Pau Gasol. In his first game back this season, he didn’t need any time to adjust and the team didn’t have any hiccups trying to reacclimate him onto the court. Pau finished with 24 points and 13 boards while Kobe had a bad shooting night, finishing just 7-for-20 from the floor.
Yeah, pretty quiet night from Kobe. Just 19 points. To go along with nine rebounds and eight assists. 19 points, three more than the 16 he needed to pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for second all-time on the Lakers leading scorers list. J. West is the only guy to overtake, for Kobe to be at the top.
Loved that so much. Can’t believe it’s been 14 years. Can’t believe I’ve been watching for all of them. Pretty wild. The Lakers came out in the third and dominated, going up by 20 and owning the game the rest of the way through. My favorite part was in the fourth, when the camera panned to Kobe and Fisher sitting on the bench, telling jokes, laughing their faces off. After 14 years, coming in as rookies together, their journeys saw them reunited in LA for their fourth ring and the search for five.
I’m glad they’re still having fun.
Have a great weekend, everyone. Catch you here Monday morning.
ps, Noah makes me smile. Love the energy he’s playing with every single possession.
LATEST NEWS & RUMORS
View all »
- Danilo Gallinari to Miss 1 Month With Severe Ankle Sprain
- Music: Jeremy Lin Rap
- NBA Changes Rookie-Sophomore Game Format
- Video: Isaiah Thomas’ Documentary Trailer
- Kobe Bryant Denies Rift With Dwight Howard
- Carmelo Anthony Out of Action 1-2 Weeks With Strained Groin
- Video: Javale McGee Gets Confused
- Nets’ Owner Mikhail Prokhorov Says He’ll ‘Sell Everything’ if He Becomes Russia’s President
- Paul Pierce to Pass Larry Bird as 2nd Greatest Scorer in Celtics History
- View All »
KG is still struggling to get back from injury, Duncan is on his last legs. Bosh might be better than Gasol, but I’m not sure. Amare is close too.
I think Gasol is right behind Dirk and even with Bosh given the first 10 games.
But, that could change.
You are horribly wrong. I would suggest that you go over to NBA.com and peruse the career stats for Gasol and Bosh.
We all know that both of them have played for bad teams at different points. What you’ll find is that Bosh has been putting superior numbers FOREVER.
Matter of fact, after checking the numbers, Bosh is better than Gasol right now.
When he’s been “the man” on a team, he has failed to produce franchise player numbers. Kobe is making Gasol right now.
Compare his numbers to Dirk, KG, and Bosh. There is no comparision. The triangle and Kobe are the best things to ever happen to Gasol in his life.
Bosh put up less than 17 his first two years in the league. And in his second year he was putting up 16.8, so he just missed the magical cut off of 17 ppg.He came into the league after one year in college. You’re better than that Bryan,.
Six years into the league, Bosh has carried his team as the franchise player better than Gasol ever did. Gasol’s last two years in Memphis, the two years with Hubie Brown if I’m not mistaken, he plaed 39 minutes and 36 minutes respectively. He’s only averaged 20 ppg twice in his career in eight years in the league.
Come on, it’s obvious. Gasol is a better passer. That’s pretty much where it ends.
Exactly what does Iverson have to do this?
You brought up the fact that Bosh’s numbers are inflated because he’s on a crap team.
I pointed out that on a crap team, Gasol never duplicated Bosh’s numbers. I also noted that his best years statistically have come when he’s surrounded by talent, not when he’s asked to carry a team on his own.
And you bring up Iverson?
Cool, you keep doing you. Tell me this, your early season prediction that Bynum was clearly better than Chris Kaman, how’s that working for you?
I didn’t bring up the crap team argument. Initially, I said Bosh might not be better than, but it was close. Then, I looked at Bosh’s stats, thought about how he CARRIED those Raptors teams, and decided that given Gasol’s inability to handle being “the man” on a bad team, I thought Bosh was an overall better player.
You disagree, cool.
The question I have, is what do my comments here have to do with the stats on Iverson? Have you actually checked his stats?
I strongly disagree.
1) I still say Dirk falls into the ‘top ten’ category of power forwards all time… but I also think that’s more because of the lack of talent that the league has produced at that position. You got Timmy, Malone, Garnett, Barkley, and Hayes undeniably at the top. Then you have guys like McHale, Pettit, McAdoo and company… all respectable stars… Then it gets a bit grey. I mean, you can argue a few deserve to be above Dirk (DeBusschere? Jerry Lucas? Hawkins?) but at the end of the day, Dirk probably deserves to be there. Please, no one mention Rodman or Kemp, thanks.
2) There’s a lot Gasol brings that, once again, wont show up on the stat sheet. That’s energy, movement, a spaced offensive game, hustle plays and a vocal leadership quality. Has Gasol’s game been helped by playing with Kobe? Oh yeah. But as we’ve seen, the Lakers aren’t the GREATEST without Gasol.
3) People don’t understand how much Tim Duncan has regressed. I’ve watched Timmy a lot… he put up 20-10-5-2-4 something against the Maverick, but that STILL ISN’T OLD SCHOOL TIMMY. His legs are really shot… Duncan was the only four I’ve seen to CROSS PEOPLE OUT. Now he mostly posts and stays under the basket.
4) It’s Dirk > Pau > Duncan > Bosh > KG > Amare. Incase anyone cares.
Kaman is a better scorer with either hand. He has better footwork, and better sense of where he is on the floor. He’s more effective from further out on the floor. He’s a better passer our of the post. He’s a better total defender. Rebounding might be an edge for Bynum.
When I’ve watched the two players play, I’ve been much more impressed with what Kaman can do. However, I’ve been impressed with Kaman for years, but I’ve felt that the crappy Clippers situation and his fragile confidence often works to sabatoge his game.
Will KG every be healthy again?
Knee injuries have a way of piling up.
You guys are great.
Did you mean KG now, or KG when he was healthy?
Because Pau is pretty much capped out. Bosh still has a ways to go.
“Right now, it’s Gasol is pretty close to the best in the League. I still think Dirk is better than him because I remember how Dirk used to ABUSE him when Pau played for Memphis. I mean, it wasn’t even fair what Dirk did to him.” – does that mean he will be forever behind dirk? even if were talking about now? don’t get me wrong, i think dirk is still better than Pau, but your statement would be unfair judgement to what is being discussed.
Put Bosh on the Lakers and they own the league even more.
Plus you ignored defense completely. Pau is a superior defender, stat wise, and probably a better man-on-man defender. I mean, Dwight annihilates Bosh on an average basis, but he couldn’t do much against Pau. Think about that.
Also, give me evidence that Bosh is a better clutch player. Educate me. Just don’t point out that i’m wrong.
Bosh is very quiet, he’s not a vocal person. He is very energetic, he fires his teams up with crazy dunks and screams and such, but I rarely see him bring a player over and talk to him, or provide encouragement as much as Pau does. Pau also really runs the floor beautifully, gets out of the way for a slasher, provides picks about 30-40 times more than Bosh… I mean, he just has better intangibles. I think it’s quite hard for you to argue this one.
And which team did Gasol lead anyhere? Did you forget how his Memphis team used to get there butts kicked and how he used to get personally embarassed by Dirk?
chill out on the bashing front. For a start Holly quite simply loves the game, and its refreshing to see such genuine enthusiasm. Also, considering she’s generally just giving a quick refresh of the majority of the games played that night, it doesn’t really allow much for insightful, cutting journalism without considerably adding to the word count. Not saying it wouldn’t be nice to see more on the side of a critique, but consider the situation that she’s in
Comments