Cub Scouts the daily hoops scene.
by Cub Buenning
-Around the Mile High City, in addition to the flood of Tim Tebow chatter, there was plenty of Carmelo Anthony speculation worth mentioning. New reports have surfaced regarding Melo’s potential in-season move to New Jersey and some conditions that the eighth-year forward might be mandating. It seems that Melo isn’t that disenfranchised with the talent of his current teammates (then stay!), as the word is he would want a buddy or two to come along (Al Harrington/Chauncey Billups/JR Smith are the likely candidates). This type of roster boost to the Nets franchise would supposedly allow Melo to feel comfortable to sign the contract extension that he had originally balked at.
In addition, there are new players who might not even care whether Melo signs the extension or not. Dudes like Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban might be willing to make Melo a rental player, in hopes of making a run this year at the Los Angeles Lakers. And this year’s Mavs team is built to win already (see their road win last night over the streaking Miami Heat) so by adding a piece like Melo would have to strike fear in the hearts of Laker fans worldwide.
And finally, might the Orlando Magic be still a part of the “MELO”-drama? With all of their recent activity of moving pieces, they might have just been putting the parts in place to make a move at Melo. Although, I am not sure that bringing in Gilbert Arenas or Earl Clark is going to help out much here. These last two options aren’t going to be as attractive to Denver (and therefore less likely), as they would not include the desired high-end draft picks, rather those of teams that are finishing near the top of the League.
-Do I have to be the one who isn’t impressed with the Miami Heat’s recent win streak? It bears repeating, but Detroit, Cleveland (twice), Atlanta, Utah (OK, there is one), Milwaukee, Golden State, Sacramento, New Orleans, New York and Washington. They finally draw a quality opponent (at home, no less) in Dallas and they come up short. Color me still 
unimpressed with this team.
-I talked about it yesterday and the League delivered! Last night we saw an instant match-up between yesterday’s topic of Kevin Love and Blake Griffin. Love’s Minnesota Timberwolves were no match for the high energy play of Blake, Eric Gordon and Baron Davis, as the L.A. Clippers raced out to a big lead and held on for their now third (!) win in a row. The match-up of the two young power forwards did not actually live up to expectations, as Love was largely ineffective offensively (12 points/10 rebounds) while Blake caught alley-oop after alley-oop from Davis. Seriously, I think there might have been a half-dozen of those two hooking up, with a gem that Davis launched at a weird angle from half-court that Blake calmly flushed with seeming ease. Blake’s passing was again on display in the 113-90 win as his line of 22/10/7 assists was impressive in its own right. These two guys remain at the top of the League in not only double-doubles but consecutive ones as they both earned their 16th straight.
In the college ranks, there was, again, still no real good games of substance (oh, but they’re coming) as Duke, UConn and Syracuse all rolled over inferior competition. Memphis had another battle on its hands (this time with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) and the freshman-heavy team held on for a five-point win. Memphis’ own, Joe Jackson (Head Coach Josh Pastner’s biggest signing to date) scored a career-high 23 points to lead the Tigers. Unfortunately, there was one casualty on the evening, as the Florida Gators lost to the Dolphins of Jacksonville U. for their second loss in-state to a lower level program (other was Central Florida).
This post was a segment of Cub’s blog at milehighsportsview.blogspot.com. The Mile High Five is a daily portion of his blog that covers several aspects in the world of Denver and national sports and pop culture.
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