Post Up: Gil, Tex & the Cs

by Holly MacKenzie/@stackmack

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!