OK, things got off to a bit of a slow start. I have roughly 79 million channels, and I have spent much of the last hour checking each and every one of them to confirm that indeed I will not be able to watch the recently invigorated Knicks try to prove something against the Celtics. So far, I know from the internet, the Knicks are hanging tough. So instead I'm watching the Spurs do the world's slowest fast-break against the Bobcats (it works!) and the Wizards who are handling their homecourt against the Mavericks. UPDATE: Let me clarify ... I have NBA TV, but this game is blacked out for me, presumably as I'm vaguely close to New York City. And as it's on NBA TV, it's not on the Online League Pass roster either.
That last game is tied at 29-29 and looks like the contest du moment.
Nick Young is just about to attempt a free-throw that would make for a four-point play. He missed. For the record, on draft day David Thorpe picked out a couple of picks that he didn't love (he raved about almost every one in some way or another), and Young was one of them. That's not really relevant to this free throw per se. Just something to keep in mind.
Both of my games are in commercial breaks at the same time. How many games do I have to watch simultaneously to have non-stop basketball? Thankfully, in a few minutes, a bunch more games will be starting.
Jason Richardon just hit his 117th 3-pointer of the season. Not that big a deal, I guess, until you consider that's the most threes any Bobcat has ever hit in a season. It's January, for crying out loud. He's going to double their team record. Guess that's a team that has not shot a lot of threes, in its short history. Maybe that's part of the reason they drafted gunner Adam Morrison a year and a half ago, when guys like Brandon Roy were available. UPDATE: Whoa, just learned from a TV graphic that the all-time career record for the team is 244. That record belongs to Matt Carroll. Richardson could beat the all-time team record in one season.
Looking in at the box score of the New York vs. Boston game, Kendrick Perkins is shooting 8-10 and has 22 points in the first half. Two Knicks shot as much as he did, or more, and have only 13 and 16 points, and the Celtics look to be dominating. Perkins' previous career-high: 21.
Anthony Johnson of Atlanta is suspended today, meaning Acie Law gets to run the show. I'm looking for video of what got him suspended by the NBA -- it was a flagrant foul over the weekend. Also, Taurean Green has cut off 99% of his hair.
Portland and Atlanta are both playing zone defense right now. Like a college game. This is today's NBA.
Washington just muffed a fast break with a bad pass. As they saved it back in bounds to Dallas, the Mavericks kicked off their own fast break, which also ended in a bad pass.
Oh boy. Here's video of why Anthony Johnson is not playing today. The ol' swinging elbow to the back of Jose Calderon's head. Doesn't seem to matter much so fast. In the first quarter, the Blazers look miserably tired. This is one of those games that proves there are plenty of professional athletes who are not using performance enhancing drugs.
Wouldn't it be cool if basketball, like European soccer, had a zillion minor trophies to be won mid-season? Today's Indiana vs. Philadelphia contest could be "the Jim O'Brien Cup."
Three, three, three, three ... Tyronn Lue and Sergio Rodriguez went back-and-forth, both hitting consecutive three-pointers against each other.
I used to work in real news, and have been involved in some election coverage. When you're covering a zillion races, it's nice to have some landslides so that you can call some early, and focus on a few stories of the evening. Trying to cover a zillion games today, I'm hoping for some blowouts. But no one is really obliging. San Antonio is only up seven in Charlotte. The Wizards are trying to close the door on Dallas but it isn't happening easily. The Celtics are going to beat the Knicks, but who wants to call that in the third quarter? It's the NBA ... anything can happen.
Etan Thomas made his first appearance on Washington's bench after his heart surgery, and got a massive ovation. The DC Sports Bog has a big update on Thomas.
Tony Parker just hit a big jumpshot after a Charlotte turnover, and TrueHoop is now projecting this race to go the San Antonio Spurs.
Atlanta's Mario West just checked into the game to guard Brandon Roy for the last few seconds of the half. He was whistled for a foul before the ball was even inbounded. Then he was taken out of the game. That's zero playing time, and one foul. Has to be some kind of historical footnote.
San Antonio's Matt Bonner just missed a free throw, which is a first all-season. He had been 24-24.
TrueHoop is now calling the game in Washington for the Wizards, over the Mavericks. One of these days we're going to have to talk more about Andray Blatche, who had an eventful off-season but seems to have massive potential.
I heard from an advance scout once that Jose Juan Barea, backup Dallas guard, has learned the trick of calling his own number -- as in calling the play that has the best chance of him shooting. He loves to shoot. He comes into garbage time, has three possessions, and two of them end with him shooting before anyone else touches the ball.
Mike Dunleavy just ended the first half with a buzzer-beating three in Philadelphia, giving his team a 14-point halftime lead in the Jim O'Brien Cup. Dunleavy also, the TV camera makes clear, joins Manu Ginobili in the expanding bald spot club. Ginobili is probably the president. Dunleavy is running for VP. It's cool. Balding is cool. But sometimes people don't think they are balding. And that is not so fun. On a little sidenote, a friend once got carded buying beer. He was wearing a hat, which covered a pretty killer bald spot. As he fumbled for his ID, I nudged him and said "show her your bald spot!" He never acknowledged that I said that, and we never spoke of that again. Oops. Like I said, some guys are in denial.
I'm a little late with this -- I was hypnotized watching Kevin Ollie on the halftime show talking about Dr. King -- but TrueHoop is now calling the Boston Celtics winners in New York.
Let's use Brandon Roy as shorthand for Portland's starters. The Hawks are up three, and with Roy on the floor, Portland is -14. All Portland starters have similar numbers. Portland's bench, however, looks awesome today. For instance James Jones is +13. For most of the season, Portland's best players in terms of plus/minus have been from the second unit.
Somewhat similarly, look at Houston's box score. Yao Ming is the big plus for Houston at +5. Tracy McGrady is the big minus at -4.
The Chris Paul show just kicked off in New Orleans. They're playing the Bucks, who are leaving David West open to shoot jumpers. My advice: don't leave David West open to shoot jumpers. Ooh, and Yi just dunked.
Scanning the stands in New Orleans and seeing -- almost no one. Right behind the Milwaukee bench there are about four straight empty rows. Right behind the bench. It's not much better behind the home bench.
The Atlanta Hawks, I just learned from the local Portland broadcast, are the worst three-point shooting team in the NBA. But they are 8-12 right now. Personally, I hate it when my team has a slim lead based on unusually hot shooting. You figure the team will cool off at some point and then it's going to get ugly.
The Rockets broadcaster Bill Worrell just walked the Sonics get into the lane easily and declared "The Rockets' defense stinks." That's frank talk from a guy with every reason to be a homer. Jason Friedman of the Houston Press is liveblogging this game -- which could be a lowpoint of the Rockets' season (they can't beat the Sonics at home?) -- and writes: From reader Jose: "'Why is Tracy just standing there in the offense?' Dude, I wish I had an answer for you. T-Mac played (if you can call it that) nearly 14 first half minutes and I still can't figure out why. His top speed right now seems to be a light jog. Offensively, he's relegated to spot-up shooter and half-involved facilitator. On defense, he's completely useless. Why Seattle doesn't just feed the ball to his man and just repeatedly abuse him I'm not sure. Here's the real killer, though: When T-Mac was out, Rafer Alston looked like a bona fide NBA point guard most of the time. Now, it seems like we're getting glimpses of the old Rafer more often. Perhaps it's just me. The mind sees what it wants to see more often than not. But I do know this: If this is the Tracy we're going to get, he might as well take a seat. Because this T-Mac is not a difference maker and won't help the club make its much-needed playoff push."
That said, Rafer Alston just did a very crafty thing. He probably had a one-on-none bucket. But he slowed, shielded the ball from Jeff Green, and waited for him. Green arrived, and dutifully provided the foul to give Alston the and-one he clearly craved.
Something you don't often see is happening for the Blazers: Sergio Rodriguez is playing meaningful minutes (now with about four minutes left). Sergio is +14 and 6/7 from the floor. The broadcasting team is talking about how much Steve Smith -- who now calls games for the Hawks -- always raves about Rodriguez. More fodder for him. Rodriguez, by the way, now has a little "faux-hawk" hairdo. Broadcaster Mike Rice, an ex-coach, says that if Portland makes the playoffs, he'll get that same 'do.
First real crunch time of the day: Portland and Atlanta are down to two minutes and Portland is nursing a slim lead. If you have access to this game, watch now. Atlanta is playing a gimmicky massive lineup, which is kind of fun to see. Rodriguez is riding pine in favor of Steve Blake -- who airballed his one shot since the substitution.
Travis Outlaw just dropped a dunkable ball out of bounds. Joe Johnson got free throws to make it a two-point game. Then Roy hit a mad runner, and then the Hawks are back on to the line. One minute left, Blazers by two. UPDATE: Tied at 100 with :32 left.
Atlanta ball, tie game, 11.2 left, after a Roy miss. Johnson miss at the buzzer. Overtime.
Portland's offense so far in overtime is 100% isolate Travis Outlaw. 2/2.
Houston is finally getting a little seperation from Seattle, up eight about a third of the way through the fourth quarter. A couple more minutes like this and I might call it. Such is my confidence in the Sonics.
You might have heard that the Blazers are sending coaches and media people little iPod nanos rebranded as iRoys. It's a cute little joke to promote Roy as an All-Star. I got one today, and it's loaded up with highlights -- mostly him scoring. I feel they missed a key thing: he gets key rebounds in crunch time. I can remember several. That's what makes him different. All the coaches getting these ipod's know he can score. Roy just did that again. In a crowd of Hawks, tied late in overtime, he managed to get the ball out of bounds off a Hawk.
Wow. Apparently the Atlanta stat crew -- famous for causing an upcoming replay between the Heat and the Hawks thanks to miscounting Shaquille O'Neal's fouls -- might have made another error. Channing Frye has had five fouls for a while. After some haggling on the sidelines, Frye now has four. At some point, I'm not kidding, the league will take over this stat crew.
The Sonics are not making it easy to call this game. Durant's at the line with the chance to make it a four-point game.
By the way, did you notice that Minnesota has a nice early lead on Golden State? And there's a Utah-Clippers game to get to. Once this Portland game finally ends, my heartbeat will return to normal.
Portland wins this game. On the key possession, Portland tried to inbound to Roy and couldn't do it, having to use their final timeout. In that final timeout, Nate McMillan asked Travis Outlaw if he wanted the final shot, and Outlaw says he said "yeaaaahhh." They ignore clutch hero Roy, inbound to Outlaw, who runs out the clock then sticks a long two with less than a second left in the game. Joe Johnson misses a three at buzzer, and Portland sneaks away with one.
Meanwhile, I'm calling Houston as winners. I know, I get no credit for that. There are less than ten seconds left, and they're up five.
Antoine Walker is a pretty good shooter, right? Confident guy? Check out his career free-throw shooting percentages. 63, 65, 56, 70, 72, 74, 62, 55, 53, 56, 63, 44, and now 54%. That's what you call bad and getting worse. From a guy who once shot 74%! Something funny is going on in this guy's head.
Chris Kaman! He just led his own solo fast-break. And it ended with Carlos Boozer trying to foul from behind, resulting in a clear-path foul, which means two free throws and the ball. This from the big center who might have been on the bench this time a year ago. The Jazz are leading, but the Clippers aren't making it comfortable.
Let me just make a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day observation. So many NBA teams are led by black coaches now that it is hardly ever even discussed. And unlike the early days of integration, many black coaches lead premium, big-budget teams in their primes, too: Doc Rivers, Sam Mitchell, Nate McMillan, Byron Scott, Maurice Cheeks, Isiah Thomas, Mike Brown, Eddie Jordan, Mike Woodson, Sam Vincent, Reggie Theus, Avery Johnson ... it's a credit to the state of race relations in the league that you just about never hear anyone talking about how many or how few black coaches there are in the NBA. The next step will be when there are more life-long blackcoaches at the helm (as opposed to former NBA players). There must be some black Lawrence Franks out there who need a pipeline to the NBA.
Chris Paul throws up a lot of nutty runners. When the ball leaves his hands, and heads for the rim, I never know what to expect. He just let one loose -- I thought it was a shot, in the two-dimensionality of television. Turns out it was a freaking unbelievable alley-oop that Tyson Chandler was only too happy to throw down. The Hornets are staring to pull away from the Bucks.
The broadcast crews of the Blazer, Hornets, and Warriors continue to lobby for their guards as All-Stars. Public voting is over (starters will be announced soon), so I guess they're talking to coaches. But a lot of coaches are coaching right now. If they don't watch that DVD with sound, the whole campaign is for naught.
Ryan Gomes (I know, Minnesota doesn't get a lot of publicity -- in case you forgot, he's a Timberwolf now) has 28 points on 12 shots. Rashad McCants is +13. The best Warrior, in terms of plus/minus, is our guy C.J. Watson.
Ooh, back in New Orleans, now even Jannero Pargo is throwing alley-oops. I'm calling this one for the Hornets.
Minnesota is hanging tough with Golden State, a team that has looked amatuerish for much of this game. Sometimes the Warriors are so loosey-goosey. And the Timberwolves have something the Warriors hate to play against: a real post player. There's still a quarter and a half to play, and I expect the Warriors will heat up at some point, but this level of play will not cut it against most teams.
The Jazz have shaken the Clippers loose, it appears -- they're up 20. TrueHoop is calling that race. The Clippers are -21 when Tim Thomas is on the floor, which means little as they are down with just about anybody on the floor. Utah's team shooting percentage is flirting with 60%, which makes nearly every Utah player's stat line look good.
Timberwolves, up five, get a big board. Sebastian Telfair turns and makes his way up the court. But he's a little lazy with it, and Stephen Jackson easily picks it from behind. This is the kind of mistake underdog teams can't make. You can get beat. But you can't get beat on effort and focus stuff. But that said, the 'Wolves are in this thing for real. Pressure's on the Warriors to play better and harder than they have.
Total Minnesota bench points through three quarters: 0. Donut.
The Timberwolves just handed back seven of the eleven points they had been holding. At least Minnesota finally got a bench bucket, from The Rhino, Craig Smith.
The Warriors are not capable of stopping Al Jefferson no matter what happens. So why did poor shooter Sebastian Telfair launch a long two a few minutes ago? I don't know. Randy Wittman doesn't know. Nobody knows.
Time for Don Nelson to try someone else on Al Jefferson, because Andris Biedrins just fouled out.
Stephen Jackson has been on the bench having a miserable shooting night. Then he walks on the floor and hits two straight threes to bring the Warriors close. Cold-blooded, that guy.
This game is close. One point Minnesota lead with less than ten seconds left. Golden State ball.
The Warriors had to go the length of the court, and Baron Davis missed a layup at the buzzer. Wolves win on the road. Wow. I have seen it all! This is a great moment to hang up my blogger hat for the day. Thanks a lot for joining me.
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