The Houston Chronicle's Jonathan Feigen: "For the second time in as many days, the Rockets lacked the fortitude to handle a tough stretch. And for a second consecutive game, Yao Ming lamented what had become of the Rockets. 'When you are soft yourself, everything will feel tough,' Yao said. 'It's not because they are so tough. It's because of how soft we are. It's weird that we changed that quick. I never had that feeling. I feel like they traded me to another team, a new team I've never been on before.'"
TrueHoop reader, basketball enthusiast, and assistant professor of marketing Kenneth C. Wilbur has an assignment for you statistical whipper-snappers: "I'm writing with a quick thought you might pass on to your readers, or maybe the next undergraduate who emails you for a thesis idea. Now that NBA.com is putting game-by-game +/- on its box scores, there is a golden opportunity to correlate game-by-game WinScore, PER, or any other system with team point production. For example, imagine that WinScore says rebounds are very valuable but steals are worthless. Then it should be the case that games in which Allen Iverson gets more rebounds, his +/- is higher than in games that he gets fewer rebounds, but getting more steals should have no effect on +/-. Replicate this across a large number of teams and players, and you should have a powerful test of these statistical measures' validity."
There are campaignsgoing to get various players elected to the All-Star game. Fun. I guess the NBA is courting this kind of thing by allowing people to vote online every day -- it's really a test of how well you can organize people online. (And, I guess, a way to drive pageviews to NBA.com.) Me? I have this radical notion to vote for the players that you think are the best, which is not the same as the players who are from your hometown, or the players who you think are cool. Dave from BlazersEdge breaks the news to Blazer fans that their guys won't make it: "I love Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge, I am prepared to worship the ground they walk on, and I'm hard-pressed to think of two young players I'd rather have on this team. Neither one of them makes the All-Star team this year. And that's not a snub, it's just the numbers game. I consider the following players near mortal locks to make the Western squad: Yao Ming, Tim Duncan, Amare Stoudemire, Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, Tony Parker, Steve Nash, and Carlos Boozer. Just a shade under those are: Josh Howard and Deron Williams. That's 12 players right there that would shock me if they didn't make the squad. But wait, there's more! Consider the following names: Carmelo Anthony, Baron Davis, Manu Ginobili, and Chris Paul. If any of the Top 12 don't make it all of those would be likely candidates. The way LaMarcus or Brandon would get in would be to corral the "young, promising player with great stats" vote. But if that's what you're hoping for consider: Al Jefferson, Kevin Martin, and Kevin Durant (for publicity's sake if nothing else)."
Here's the thing about the All-Star game: unless you're somebody, you're unlikely to make it into the arena. That's why it's kind of a dubious gift to a city: we'll hold this big fancy thing here, but we're flying in our own audience, too. The big exception, though, is Jam Session, which is the affordable, come one/come all event. And hats off to Chris Paul for saying he'll be there a lot.
Kevin Arnovitz of ClipperBlog emails: "[Jeff] Van Gundy must feel a little like Marty Schottenheimer right now. With everyone's love affair with Seven-Seconds-or-Less ball, it's hard to remember that certain teams are meant to play in the halfcourt and, like....That's Okay! It's sort of like fashion: Some guys can get away with those tight rocker-style jeans. The rest of us are better off knowing we can't. In any case, with a few breaks in Game Five against Utah, the Rockets would have probably been playing the Spurs in the conference finals last June. But instead, they fire a fine coach for the sake of an 'uptempo style.' That's the thing with style ... it never really says anything substantive about the person who's fronting it."
Ernie Johnson tells the Timberwolves' website about his approach to television: "Nobody is trying to be anything different from what they are off the air. We approach the game from different angles, and actually, we just enjoy each other's company. We like hanging out. So that's what makes it work. It's unrehearsed, spontaneous, let 'er rip (TV). Nobody asks for permission to talk, and I think that's what really makes it fun. People at home don't know what's going to happen next, and half the time, I don't either."
Basketbawful: "Have you ever heard of Royal Ivey? He plays about 12 MPG for the Bucks, believe it or not. One of Royal's official Yahoo pictures is an image of him getting schooled by Austin Croshere. Anyway, he used to play for Atlanta, where he got the nickname "Cheese", in reference to the Royale with Cheese (PG-13) exchange in Pulp Fiction."
Mr. Black, a Knickerblogger commenter, reacting to news that the Knicks had settled their suit with Anucha Browne Sanders: "I want to sue Cablevision as well. I feel the Knicks and their ownership group are directly responsible for the damage to my television. I was watching the Knicks against the Mavericks last night when my television imploded. Yes, IMPLODED. The television collapsed on itself at about the 6 minute mark of the third quarter. I can only assume that this is a result of the Knicks sucking so hard that the sides of my TV collapsed into itself."
Ron Hitley of Hornets 247 is good at the whole "game experience" blog post: "Down outside the Arena and it was a pretty good atmosphere, lots of games for the kids and cheap beer for the bigger people. Mikey gets me into the season ticket holder area where the beer is even cheaper (i.e. free) and we get full on chips and dip. It comes time to leave outside for the cozy confines of the Arena but a massive security dude won't let me in with a backpack, because I guess backpacks are really dangerous these days. I take a moment to remember all the good times I had with that backpack, then dump it in the trash and walk inside. PregameJannero Pargo shoots threes from the corner. He starts with two balls, tosses one straight up in the air, shoots the other, then catches and shoots the first. It's an interesting drill but he's not hitting many of them."
Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel a few days ago: "Pat Riley actually complimented Dorell Wright before Sunday's game. Perhaps times are changing. Then Wright disappeared in the first half, with Ricky Davis opening the third quarter at small forward. Perhaps it was for a bad-hair violation. A Mohawk? Come on Dorell." Then the next day Winderman writes: "Can't explain it, but it's as if Dorell Wright has been given a confidence injection." Ira, meet Mohawk Power.
Slate's T.D. Thornton looks at how legalized online gambling in Europe helped to defeat those trying to profit from a questionable tennis match, when the organization Betfair alerted officials to strange betting patterns: "Betfair is no fly-by-night operation, and it continues to flourish in Europe. One major reason for its success is the company's willingness to share detailed records with professional sports organizations and the government if corruption is suspected. The exchange also operates an internal sleuthing squad to look for dubious patterns-when placing bets, customers are unidentified to one another, but their account information and IP addresses are known to Betfair. These practices exposed the tennis scandal, and Betfair also handed over evidence that led to the ongoing trial of a champion British jockey who allegedly held back horses at the behest of a betting syndicate. Here in America, where an estimated $200 billion in sports wagering takes place underground, such transparency is nonexistent. No black-market bookie, for instance, would ever alert the feds that he was seeing a suspect amount of action on games refereed by a particular NBA official." All that my be true, but you'd be hard pressed to make the case that European sports have less gambling influence than those in the USA.
Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic on Boris Diaw: "He makes $9 million now. And I drew a line on the box score tonight and told someone to stop me when I hit something other than a zero. He's about as disengaged as he can get."
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