The Post Up: KD’s Ballin’

And Bron’s blocks are best.

by Holly MacKenzie / @stackmack

Last night was a rare early night in the NBA! There were not any West Coast games and the latest start was 8:30 p.m. This is kind of amazing for someone who has to wait until the final game is over before they can start writing. One thing I “resolved” for 2010 –besides reading a book a week– was to start taking better care of myself. This means more sleep and having more than coffee in my days!

I’m determined to get more sleep. If I am writing about how tired I am next week, remind me of that in the comments please! Thanks. Now, onto the other resolution: Give me your favorite reads, books that have changed you, stayed with you and made you think. Nonfiction, fiction, sports, life, music, etc, let me hear em, thanks.

And onto the bball. The prettiest thing I saw all night was LeBron’s chase down block on O.J. Mayo. We’ve seen so many of these, but they never get old to me. LeBron chase down blocks are the equivalent of guys finishing up practice with halfcourt shots. You see one, you see 100, it doesn’t matter. They all amaze.

The Cavs took down the Grizz, 105-89. On the night after they took down the Lakers, Memphis just didn’t have enough to compete with Cleveland. LeBron was a distributor, and for some points of the game, played the PG spot, with a lineup of guys all over 6’8″. Kinda nuts. Bron finished with 22 points, seven boards, 15 assists and that beautiful block. Shaquille O’Neal added 13 points and 13 rebounds (and four blocks of his own!) and Daniel Gibson scored 16. The 15 assists for Bron tied a career-high. He’s pretty awesome, yeah?

After winning five straight, the Raptors went into Indy and gave up 130 points. It wasn’t pretty for us Canadians. 130-115 was the final score and the Raps were without DeMar DeRozan and Hedo Turkoglu from the tip and lost Jose Calderon to an awful ankle sprain before it was over. He came down on Jarrett Jack’s foot and it was one of this sickening sprains, where you roll your ankle so much the ankle actually touches the floor. Blech.

While Danny Granger was just 3-for-13 in the Pacers loss against the Raptors on Sunday, he came alive on his home floor, finishing with 23 points and seven boards. The Raps lost despite big nights from Bosh and Bargnani as Bosh finished with 35 and 15 and Bargnani added a career-high 34. Allowing the Pacers to score 72 in the second half is usually going to result in a loss.

In Orlando, apparently having Lawrence Frank around has given Vince Carter a spring to his step. Against the Bucks, he was pretty solid, finishing with 17 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists a steal and a block. Dwight had 22 points and 11 rebounds (but six silly turnovers) and the Magic won 99-82 as Milwaukee was held to just 36 percent shooting for the game. Orlando won despite playing without Mickael Pietrus and Jameer Nelson. Maybe they need to keep LF around? I’m just happy the man isn’t in Jersey.

Speaking of Jersey, the Nets fell to 4-43 last night, losing another close one, this time to the Pistons. With the return of Will Bynum, Detroit made free throws –and benefited from awful shot selection/clock management by Devin Harris at the end of the game– to get the 97-93 victory. Harris had 24 points and 14 assists in the loss while Rip finished with 22 points and seven assists for the Pistons. I was just happy to see Bynum back on the floor.

Hear that Del Harris may be leaving the Nets? What a mess. They are in town tonight here in Toronto and guess what our halftime entertainment is? Vanilla Ice. I kid you not. Could I make that up? Crazy.

The Bulls were unable to pull off their sixth straight victory, falling at home to the Clippers. 24 points from Eric Gordon, 21 points and 11 rebounds from Chris Kaman and 16 from Rasual Butler helped the Clippers overcome just an eight-point performance from Baron Davis. Luol Deng had 18 points and Derrick Rose scored 16. You know it’s an ugly game when the Clippers manage just 12 points in the fourth and still win by eight.

In Houston, the Rockets killed the Warriors, 119-97. That’s about all I have to say about that one, besides mentioning that the Warriors roster is a mismash of players that I’d bet the average Warriors fan doesn’t even know. Aaron Brooks had 24 points, eight rebounds and six assists. How that guy gets eight rebounds, I don’t know. Love little guards. The Rockets outrebounded GS 57-35. Yeah.

Agh. So my paragraph about the game of the night, the Hawks and Thunder just randomly got cut and it won’t let me re-paste it. Kevin Durant scored 33 on 18 shots and the Thunder got the season sweep of the Hawks, taking them down 106-99. KD added 11 boards, too. Russ Westbrook was awesome with 12 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. He also had a dunk that shows why he should be in the dunk contest. For the Hawks, Joe Johnson was solid with 37 points, but it wasn’t enough. The game was close down the stretch with Durant hitting two buckets and Jeff Green hitting a huge 3-pointer to give the Thunder some breathing room.

Josh Smith become the youngest player in NBA history to record 1000 career blocks. Kevin Durant became the first player since Allen Iverson to score 25 points or more in 22 consecutive games.

I was a happy girl because the Thunder are awesome.

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Tags: Andrea Bargnani, Chris Bosh, Danny Granger, Jeff Green, Josh Smith, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Oklahoma City Thunder, Vince Carter

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Juice

haha its velvet hoop
ClydeSays

Remember the Oden V KD debate? I wish Oden only health & good luck, but that pick will forever be debated if KD keeps improving year after year.

Holly read: “The Looming Tower” by Lawrence Wright. An incredible dissection of the events leading up to 9/11.
http://slamonline.com Allenp

T-Money
The debate about whether Durant is a better scorer than Lebron is an ongoing one on here. I’ve always felt that Lebron was more effective, Durant was more versatile. Plus, I think Durant is going to put up some insane scoring numbers in a few years that will move him ahead of Lebron in that department, maybe on Kobe’s level. Mainly because Durant is fundamentally sound on offense, and Lebron is not quite there. Durant just needs to understand a little better how to attack defenses and how to use his passing as a weapon to get more shots and he’ll be there. But he already understands footwork and using screens better than Lebron and his jumper is wetter. Lebron is just so physically dominating, he doesn’t need all those fundamentals.
And Bryan, how often are you going to pat yourself on the back about that Durant prediction?
http://slamonline.com nbk

Kevin Durant averaging more rebounds then LeBron will not make him a better rebounder. A point forward averaging 8 rebounds is very high. Durant has a lot less responsibility distributing and helping on defense. And it will likely be that way their entire careers
http://dsjfhklf.com Jukai

T-Money: I do watch a lot of Cavaliers games. That’s why yer gonna have to sit down when I tell you this bro: Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant are better offensive players than Lebron James.
Yeah, it’s true.
So how in the world does Lebron average more points?
By being a better passer.
You see, people just can’t double team Lebron, his court vision is just too ridiculous. This lets Lebron have far more room to drive, since people are afraid to help off their man on the wing.
Anthony and Durant are far less likely to pass out when the help defender comes, and hence they see help a lot more often. They need a greater amount of offense to counteract this.
Not to mention Anthony and Durant have a far more ‘varied’ offense than Lebron does.. when Lebron can’t drive, you better pray his jumper is on. I feel Durant and Melo can get around this obstacle.
The thing with Lebron is, he’s so ridiculously complete, he doesn’t need to score to be able to totally dominate the game. But c’mon now…
http://dsjfhklf.com Jukai

C’mon, T-Money, you seem wise enough to not just look at stats and blindly ignore all other factors. There was a year when Rick Barry beat Wilt Chamberlain for the scoring title… do you think Barry was a better scorer than Chamberlain?
T-Money

Allenp: I get that this is what ppl are saying but there are no facts to back up those claims. (1) You say Durant is more versatile on offense. Please explain, what does he do that Bron doesn’t? He’s already an inferior dribbler… (2) Based on his scoring output so far, how could you predict those insane scoring numbers? Just a feel? As I’ve said, Bron was doing 31,5 ppg in his third year. Scoring doesn’t go up exponentially once you hit 30 ppg. (3) you say that KD’s jumper is wetter. do you have anything to back that up? he’s a far superior free throw shooter but that’s where it stops. go on hoopdata dot com… (4) i didn’t know that bron was nto good at using ball screens, isn’t the bron/andy high screen the cavs’ go-to move in the clutch (5) don’t hold your breath on KD’s passing, he suffers from tunnel vision syndrome. I’ll stop there. It’s speculation at this point and a lot of ppl ”feel” KD could be better than Bron in a couple of years. Fine. Holla at me when that actually happens. Right now, I have (at least) Bron, Kobe, Wade, Dirk, TD, Dwight, Melo and CP3. He’s barely top 10.
http://slamonline.com nbk

Kevin Durant is a better pure scorer then everyone in the NBA not named Kobe Bryant. Carmelo is right there, but *IMO* Durant is more natural. But that does not make him a better offensive player. I would take LeBron on offense over Kevin Durant 10 out of 10 times. for the rest of their careers. LeBron makes all 5 players so much better with his skill set, that it does not matter how much more “talented” anyone else is individually.
http://www.need4sheed.com Tarzan Cooper

holly, the quantum brain, by jeffrey satinover. parallel worlds, by michio kaku?. great stuff
http://www.need4sheed.com Tarzan Cooper

its obvious to anyone not wearing brongoggles than durant is a more versatile scorer, has better range. bron just overpowers towards the rim.
http://www.need4sheed.com Tarzan Cooper

holly, cant go wrong with the tao te ching.
http://slamonline.com Allenp

T-Money
i haven’t bothered to pull the stats on Durant or Lebron as far as their shooting percentages from different spots on the floor, but I’ve watched enough games to say comfortably that Durant is a better shooter. Not like Lebron can’t shoot, he’s greatly improved there, but Durant is a better shooter in my opinion. In fact, he’s such a good shooter that his biggest problem is settling for that jumper on offense.
Durant’t teardrop, the way he uses down screens, his ability to go to a variety of moves in the post, and use different angles on his shots is better than Lebron’s. I should have made it clear I was talking about down screens, not pick and rolls.
Durant’s biggest problem is knowing how to use all of his natural gifts to his advantage in the NBA. He’s already putting up 30 a game without having developed that yet. I can see him averaging 35 easily, although I don’t know what that will do to the team’s play since Green, Westbrook and Harden need shots. Bottom line, I can see Durant having a more aesthically pleasing scoring game that also produces more points. I don’t know if he’ll ever be Lebron’s equal as a complete player, but as a scorer I think he can surpass Lebron if he continues to develop as expected. Learning a feel for the game, how to attack every defense and get to the line at will, does wonders for scoring average and efficiency. I don’t think you can say Durant is barely top ten with his current 25ppg scoring streak and his team’s record. That streak is impessive, as is his penchant fo putting up huge numbers a paucity of shots.
T-Money

all valid points, allenp. but i don’t think that durant is better than any of the players i mentioned, which makes him barely top 10. i’ll trust you on KD’s post moves, i havent seen enough games to pass judgment on that. on the jumper thing, i guess you like kd’s jumper better but they don’t go in more frequently than bron’s so… going from 30 to 35 is a HUGE step. you could have argued that Bron was putting up 31,5 ppg without a jumper or a post move 3 or 4 years ago. kobe did it once in his career and he was gunning everything. besides that, his best output was 31 or 32. same as bron or t-mac or AI. i don’t know of anyone that went over 35 besides MJ and Kobe in the last 30 years. there is nothing ”special” about KD’s scoring that suggests that he will do so. What he’s doing has been done befor y’know, KD is an excellent player but is not a once-in-a-generation type talent. / you could say that kd’s scoring is more pleasing to the eyes, that’s cool. as far as being a better player than bron down the road, how about ”no”?
E-Man

I think people are not trying to understand both sides. Bron supporters are like Kobe supporters…they don’t usually open their eyes to anybody other than their favorite player to be better. Lebron is an amazing passer but his offense also allows for him to find easy passes and use his athleticism…anyone in the cava organization will tell u they designed it that way specifically. On the other side…kds offense is dominated by a point guard so he has to find his offense in other ways. We all know lebron is a transcendent player, but if u deem him the beat because of his assists then that makes him better than Kobe and Jordan ever were. And, like Kobe Jordan and lebron, kd has begun to dominate the ball in clutch time…shown by his top numbers in the category
http://slamonline.com Allenp

T-Money
I respect your opinion, but you included Dwight, TD and CP3 on your list. You’ll have to defend those picks.
I could ask you defend every pick of someone who has never averaged 29 points in their career, but that would invalidate damn near the whole list, so i’ll settle on those three.
T-Money

Dwight: less skills but a much rarer commodity and really makes you instantly a good defensive team. Dwight + good players is a contending team. KD + good players is an okay team. It’s much easier to fill in a team starting with a guy like Dwight and ORL NEVER makes that trade. OKC has to at least think about it. / TD: I’ll admit my bias but I consider him to still be the best big in the game when he’s not pacing himself. He produces more wins than KD can. / CP3 is the best pg since Zeke/Magic and he’s far better than D-Will or Nash. / I could take TD off of the list because he doesn’t bring it every night. But if OKC calls for a straight swap of any other player on that list they get hung up on.
Jon

it is now official. this decade will belng to the SFs! 3 of the top 7 players are SF (melo KD lebron / kobe wade howard cp3)
Dfrance

Lebrons scoring is really based off him overpowering and outleaping people. What will he have to fall back on when(if) his athleticism starts to fade. Is he going to develop a reliable jumper to offset that? Is he going to learn how to use screens to score? is he going to develop a go to move? Only time will tell, but I say Durants skillset on offense, gives him a better chance to be a more potent scorer for a longer amount of time.
T-Money

dfrance, i have a hunch that he’ll be just fine (once-in-a-generation players tend to adapt quite well) but that’s just me. considering that those athletic abilities won’t start declining for at least the next 7 years, is it really worth discussing?
http://dsjfhklf.com Jukai

E-Man: You must be a Kobe supporter. I’m not blind: I’m a huge Lebron fan, and I’ll argue night in and night out that Lebron can’t score like Durant can score.
Mark my words though, Lebron is a top-10, maybe top-5 passer in the league. This has nothing to do with his scoring and athleticism. He’s averaging eight assists a game. That’s Gary Payton numbers, bro. That’s Andre Miller numbers. You CANNOT get eight assists a game with just athleticism and scoring. Don’t even bring that flimsy sh*t in here.
http://dsjfhklf.com Jukai

Also, while I’ll disagree with T-Money on his assessment that Lebron is a better scorer than Durant (he’s not), he’s right about all those players who are better than Durant right now.
And Durant could not average 35 points.
therighttoremainsalient

HOLLY! SOME GOOD SHORT FICTION!
-
_’The Good Earth’ by Pearl S. Buck
-’The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond Of Matches’ – Gaetan Soucy
___
Alain De Botton – The Consolations of Philosophy
___
“Syrup” – Max Barry [graduate named Scat comes up with an idea for a new product for Coca-Cola called Fukk]
_
All very great and entertaining reading material!! ENJOY! Hope you get time to read!?!?
E-Man

Jukai: I am actually a Kobe hater to tell the truth. I cant stand him or his unrealistic laker fairweather fans. I truly respect his game tho. And if u wouldve actually read my comment closely instead of just reacting to the parts u didnt like, u wouldve realized that i wasnt saying his passing stats was all about his athleticism. I was saying he is a great passer but that he also has the system and the players to get those numbers. Delonte West Mo Williams Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon all proved to be great shooters before coming to the cavs and daniel gibson and jawad williams were both great shooters for texas and north carolina respecively, when they were in college. Not to mention they used to have wally z. and they biggest piece over brons career has probably been big Z because he stretches the floor for bron more that anyone else. All im sayin is that the cavs realized a long time ago that with a once a lifetime player like lebron u have to mold the system around him and thats what theyve done. Now, just because other franchises did not choose this path does not make the players any less great. For instance, the celtics were not MOLDED for larry bird and the lakers were not MOLDED specifically for Magic or Kareem and the bulls were not MOLDED just for Michael Jordan. Those players changed the atmosphere of the teams by their play. no matter who his players were, phil jackson wouldve still ran the triangle offense. period.
http://dsjfhklf.com Jukai

….. E-Man, I’m not going to delve too deep into this discussion, but all three of those systems were -contoured- for their superstars. ESPECIALLY the 80s Lakers and 90s Bulls. Jordan and Magic got people fired, then requested specific players to fulfill their needs. -Requested.- I mean, christ, when Magic got to the team, they scooped up every fast moving wing player in the game to run his showtime offense, they fired the coach who didn’t want to speed things up and traded away Norm Nixon for a larger two who could play off the ball… they drastically altered the team. With Jordan, they rid the team of any type of point guard who would control the ball, and showered him with shooters and face-up centers who could spread the floor.
One could even argue that the Celtics traded away for very strong low-post threats once they got Larry Bird, so that defenses would be forced to clog the inside giving Larry Bird more room to shoot, although I’m sure you’ll say that this would have happened anyway (since Parish and McHale were steals).
Really, even if you rebuttal this argument, I’m not responding. That was a ridiculous argument to make. I know you’re not knocking Lebron, merely saying he’s using what is given to him and that he should feel ‘lucky’ but if you deny that these other dynasty teams weren’t built around their stars from the ground up, I don’t know how I can have a conversation with you on this topic.
And you’re wrong on the Phil Jackson argument. Jackson actually stopped the triangle offense with Kobe for two and a half years because he didn’t have the right pieces to run it.
And Jamario Moon was a terrible shooter before coming to the Cavaliers…
http://slamonline.com Allenp

T-Money
Excuse me. I thought you were listing those 10 players as better scorers, not as better players. I can see the argument as far as them being better players. Excuse my lack of reading comprehension.
http://slamonline.com Allenp

E-man
Jamario Moon is a great shooter now? And didn’t they just get Anthony Parker? Bron’s been putting up seven assists for a while now, you know.
Also, the triangle, Showtime, and the Celtics attack were all geared towards making their superstars better. The Celtics actually wasted a draft pick for an entire year to get Bird and you think they didn’t build their attack around him? You think the decision to go uptempo in LA wasn’t a result of drafting Magic? You think Phil Jackson didn’t install the triangle to take full advantage of all of MJ’s talents and get his teammates looks? How can you tell that Jackson would have run the triangle no matter what? Are you psychic?
Come on now.

The Post Up: KD’s Ballin’

And Bron’s blocks are best.

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