alfdogg

Thanks, Utah! Now I just need Kobe & Co. to hold up to their end.

Looks like the Celtics may finally end the streak tonight, as they lead the Bucks by 14 midway through the fourth. Pacers win, Bulls lose, putting the Pacers percentage points ahead for 5th in the East. We could possibly go into the break just a game and a half behind the Cavs, with them playing in Utah tonight and LA tommorrow. Rick Carlisle in the postgame press conference: "65 points off the bench...that's a shitload of points!"

I would have taken Ben Gordon, personally, but it would be really tough to dispute JJ's spot. The Hawks aren't a very good team, but it's not like he couldn't put up these numbers on other teams.

As of right now, the rosters are East C: Shaquille O'Neal F: Chris Bosh F: LeBron James G: Dwyane Wade G: Gilbert Arenas Chauncey Billups Rip Hamilton Caron Butler Jermaine O'Neal Dwight Howard Vince Carter probably Gordon/Johnson/Redd/Curry in Kidd's spot West F: Tim Duncan F: Kevin Garnett G: Tracy McGrady G: Kobe Bryant Dirk Nowitzki (rumored to be starting in Yao's place) Tony Parker Ray Allen Shawn Marion Amare Stoudemire Mehmet Okur Carmelo Anthony Josh Howard

Kidd's out Sunday.

To be serious for a second, though, that's not the worst trade Houston could have made. Another guy to stick in the middle until Yao gets back.

Yet another blockbuster today, with Memphis trading Jake Tsakalidis to Houston for Scott Padgett.

I still plan on doing this, just for the record.

Ray Allen and Mehmet Okur are in the All-Star game, and Chris Paul will take Nash's spot in the Skills challenge.

According to the Charlotte Observer, the Bobcats have traded Melvin Ely to the Spurs for Eric Williams, a 2009 second-rounder and cash.

AI pulled out of the All-Star game today, and now there's rumor that Jason Kidd may miss as well due to a sore back.

Wow, you must really like Farmar!

To address what Porter said, though, the gap between the East and West is considerably larger than it was last year, and is probably as wide as it's been since the Nets were making the Finals. And even still, last year a large majority of people had an East team (Detroit) winning the thing up until their bitter end.

And he kicks puppies.

Allen Iverson's also been making noise about not playing in the All-Star game, btw.

"You gonna suck my dick or what?" "No!" "Then what the hell you in here for?"

RE: Bulls/Suns I may be mistaken about this, but I think Nash was a late scratch for that game. I think the "Suns will kill the Bulls" talk was probably said when it was thought that Nash was a go. You guys (Ripper/JSYK) can correct me if I'm wrong, though. So the replacement discussion starts again...off the top of my head, the top candidates look to be Ray Allen & Deron Williams, for positional purposes, with Okur, Randolph and Brand also having solid arguments. So who goes?

And Drew Brees dislocated his elbow.

The record is 23 within one season, and 24 altogether. But yeah, I say they break it on Wednesday, even if Redd does come back. Pacers win today against the Clippers, but it looks like we'll still fail to gain ground in the East standings, with Cleveland winning and Chicago looking to be headed that way against the Nash-less Suns. EDIT: Also, Jermaine O'Neal became the Pacers' all-time leader in blocked shots today, passing Rik Smits' record by two.

Pierce actually came back last night.

Sun, Feb. 11 Portland @ Washington, 1:00 San Antonio @ Miami, 1:00 ABC LA Clippers @ Indiana, 2:30 LA Lakers @ Cleveland, 3:30 ABC Boston @ Minnesota, 6:00 Dallas @ Philadelphia, 6:00 Chicago @ Phoenix, 8:00 ESPN Atlanta @ Golden State, 9:00 Seattle @ Sacramento, 9:00 Mon, Feb. 12 LA Clippers @ Detroit, 7:30 Golden State @ Denver, 9:00 Atlanta @ Utah, 9:00 Tue, Feb. 13 San Antonio @ New Jersey, 7:30 Portland @ Miami, 7:30 Dallas @ Milwaukee, 8:00 NO/OK @ Memphis, 8:00 Toronto @ Chicago, 8:30 Sacramento @ Houston, 8:30 New York @ LA Lakers, 10:30 Wed, Feb. 14 New Jersey @ Toronto, 7:00 Washington @ Philadelphia, 7:00 Chicago @ Charlotte, 7:00 Portland @ Orlando, 7:00 Memphis @ Indiana, 7:00 Milwaukee @ Boston, 7:30 San Antonio @ Detroit, 7:30 Sacramento @ NO/OK, 8:00 Denver @ Minnesota, 8:00 Cleveland @ Utah, 9:00 Phoenix @ Seattle, 10:00 Atlanta @ LA Clippers, 10:30 New York @ Golden State, 10:30 Thu, Feb. 15 Dallas @ Houston, 8:00 TNT Cleveland @ LA Lakers, 10:30 TNT All-Star Weekend Fri, Feb. 16 All-Star Celebrity Game, 7:00 ESPN Rookie Challenge, 9:00 TNT Sat, Feb. 17 D-League All-Star Game, 5:00 NBA TV All-Star Saturday, 5:00 TNT (actual events start at 8:00, but they'll have a pre-show, as well as a special at 7:00 called "NBA Posterized" which I'm looking forward to.) Sun, Feb. 18 NBA All-Star Game, 8:00 TNT

From Mark Cuban's blog Fuckin' awesome.

Well, you and I realize there's more to that story, of course. My point was when this happens on more than one occasion, people are less likely to buy the players' side of things and just assume these guys are a bunch of thugs. It's a double standard with the media darlings like Carmelo. "Sure, he's a young guy, he's made some mistakes, like refusing to go into a game, and twice getting caught with 'his friend's' weed, and the brawl in New York, but he's a good kid, we swear!"

I guess if the Pacers would start punching people on the court instead of in bars and strip clubs, our image wouldn't be so bad, and there wouldn't be instances like tonight where we shoot 30 less free throws than the Nuggets, as well as getting five technical fouls and two ejections.

Well, Nash is already in the skills challenge, so I'm guessing he probably didn't want to do both. I don't know who actually got invites.