This week in the NBA

[Precious Roy 0]

Marion's having a great year, and he's a really good player, but he's not an MVP. If Nash doesn't play all season, that team doesn't make the playoffs.

 

I agree with that. Nash makes them a playoff team. Marion takes them from just a playoff team to a legit threat. But take Nash off the team and Marion will really struggle to carry them, that's not what he does. Marion is an amazing player, but he's an athlete/slasher, he doesn't make the players around him better like Nash does. I don't really think it's even a debate as to who's more valuable to that team.

[Kurt Angle Mark 0]

Clippers beat the Bulls 107-96

 

I love the line-up the Clippers are using

 

Starters:

Cassell

Mobley

Ross

Brand

Kaman

 

Bench:

Maggette

Radmanovic

Livingston

 

Add Rebraca to the bench and that should be the line-up for the rest of the season

[alfdogg 0]

McGrady out up to five weeks

 

Link

 

May as well say for the season, because they're not making the playoffs now.

[naiwf 0]

Is T-Mac related to Grant Hill in any way? He's 26 years old but has the back of a 62 year old.

[alfdogg 0]

Well, he IS Vince Carter's cousin.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

Well, I'd rather catch the GD Lakers for sentimental reasons, but I certainly won't turn my nose up at catching the Hornets...

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

McGrady out up to five weeks

 

Link

 

May as well say for the season, because they're not making the playoffs now.

Shitdamnmotherfucker!

 

I've got him on my first-place team in a public league; I think I *might* be able to make the finals without him: should I take a chance, or cut my losses?

 

FYI, the best-available non-injured player in this league is Abdur-Rahim.

[Guest]

Nobody mentioned the Lakers blowing apart the Spurs? For shame.

 

The game wasn't as close as the score would indicate.

[naiwf 0]

I'm tired of this thread turning into a report on the Lakers every week! J/K

 

I'm sure it's just a matter of it being hard for anyone who doesn't like the Lakers to praise Kobe. I didn't see any of the game, but it looks like he practically did in the Spurs all by himself, which means either Kobe's on a completely different level and/or the Spurs are ripe for an early upset this postseason. I hate San Antonio, so I'm hoping it's the latter.

[Guest]

Nah, Kobe sucked the whole game. Fuckin Luke Walton, Lamar Odom and KWAME BROWN won the game.

 

The Spurs are ripe for the pickings, no doubt. Those guys mentioned above should not be able to beat them.

[Just John 0]

The Spurs better get their shit together or they're going to be at risk of losing to Dallas or a Nash-led Phoenix team. The Lakers won't win a 7-game series against any West playoff team. The Clippers can ill-afford to fuck around while the Suns rest Nash. Now's the time to make a last-ditch effort at contending for the division and more importantly the 2 seed. Playing the Grizz or Lakers is a lot better than the Spurs or Mavs.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Nah, Kobe sucked the whole game. Fuckin Luke Walton, Lamar Odom and KWAME BROWN won the game.

 

The Spurs are ripe for the pickings, no doubt. Those guys mentioned above should not be able to beat them.

 

Not too sure about that. Kobe had a few times in the game where he was streaking like crazy, shot-wise. But, I am noticing from Kwame that he's doing a good job of just being the guy to crash the boards and leave the scoring to the rest of the starters, which is perfectly fine because that's all they really need from him, at the very least.

 

My "Lakers can't beat a good team without Odom having at least something close to a double-double" theory is proved right again: Odom played 43 minutes and had 13 points, 9 assists, and 8 rebounds. Kobe did have

"only" 29 points on 11-29 shooting, which is a bad night for him, at least. But Walton and Kwame had 18 rebounds and 23 points between them, so yeah that's pretty nuts.

 

The Lakers won't win a 7-game series against any West playoff team.

 

I sincerely doubt that. I believe they can upset the Mavs in a long series (they've had their number for a long time now), go toe to toe against the Clippers and Grizzlies, but I don't think they'd fare altogether too well against San Antonio and especially Phoenix in a 7-game series, either. Lakers are still working on gelling together and finding some defense, which is why I wouldn't put it past them to lose to high-powered offenses, especially the Suns. But they have a good enough offense of their own to play against teams traditionally not too good against a good offense like the Mavs, or inexperienced teams like the Clips and Grizzlies.

 

I'm tired of this thread turning into a report on the Lakers every week! J/K

I know you're just kidding, but I honestly do try to not sound like a fanboy and not talk about just my team like a lot of people here do, but this win, coupled with beating Detroit this past Sunday, deserve some talking up.

 

At this point though, I think it's pretty obvious I feel that Phoenix is going to run over the West like they should've finished doing last year. All they needed was some depth and defense, and they've got it.

[Precious Roy 0]

PLEASE don't write off San Antonio yet. Duncan, Horry and Ginobili are on cruise control until the playoffs, Parker is having his best year yet, and in any given big game you can count on one of the Barry, Finley, Van Exel three headed bench monster to go off. Phoenix is great and everything, but San Antonio did a great job defending Nash last year, Amare and KT are big question marks at this point, I'm still riding with the defending champs

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

So, should I drop McGrady or not? Does anybody think he could come back before the end of the regular season?

[Ripper 0]

San Antonio got a flight to go to LA at 3 AM. They were burnt out. Not saying that is a huge excuse because that is a huge part of being in the NBA, but the Lakers had WAY more energy...as shown by the rebounding beatdown they gave the spurs.

 

Don't get it twisted. The Spurs are still the team to beat.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

boy am i glad the spurs finally lost. a 3 (4 in a way since detroit owns the tie-breaker) game cushion for HCA. now if only Dallas would lose...

 

(back to backs which aren't home-home are tough though, we've lost a few of those too)

[Guest]

Not too sure about that. Kobe had a few times in the game where he was streaking like crazy, shot-wise. But, I am noticing from Kwame that he's doing a good job of just being the guy to crash the boards and leave the scoring to the rest of the starters, which is perfectly fine because that's all they really need from him, at the very least.

By Kobe standards, he didn't play well. Outside of the 4th and part of the 2nd, he was really off. All I want out of Kwame is rebounding and defense, since he's shown that he can matchup well with Duncan; the rest will come in time. He played well offensively too.

 

I'm not writing off the Spurs, but I think a team can come in and catch them off guard, as evidenced last night and in the 1st half of the Laker game on Monday.

 

Oh, and drop McGrady.

[Just John 0]

With the Rockets current record, T-Mac won't be playing again this season. Remember his last season with the Magic? I think it's time for the Rockets to phone it in and look to get a good draft pick and some solid FA guards who still have some years left in them. McGrady/Yao/Swift is a great front line for the future, but they desperately need at least one quality guard.

[Guest Vitamin X]

San Antonio got a flight to go to LA at 3 AM. They were burnt out. Not saying that is a huge excuse because that is a huge part of being in the NBA, but the Lakers had WAY more energy...as shown by the rebounding beatdown they gave the spurs.

 

Don't get it twisted. The Spurs are still the team to beat.

 

The game was in San Antonio, actually. The Spurs played them in LA, I think it was on Monday, where they won 103-96. And yeah, the Spurs just came home from playing Phoenix literally the night before, and L.A. had probably already been there a day from when they played the Hornets in New Orleans on Wednesday.

[Ripper 0]

And I think the Lakers could take the Nuggets in a playoff series...thats about it.

 

The Clippers have a mismatch at every position in the court offensively.

 

EVERY POSITION. Kobe can't cover shooters(mobley) they can't stop PF's, or scoring point guards(Cassell, Brand) they WISH Brown or Mihm could hit the boards like Kaman, and none of this even counts Cory Maggette.

 

They MIGHT be able to take the Griz, but no way the take anyone else.

[Guest Vitamin X]

No, what the Lakers have always had a problem against have been teams with scoring point guards. Brand's a PF and most likely covered by Odom and Brown, and while Kaman is averaging 9.2 rebounds a game, Odom is averaging 9.3. While Brown and Mihm's numbers on the boards don't look overall too good so far this season, it has been steadily improving, Kwame's been grabbing close to 10 a game the last couple weeks. Between them, that could help neutralize Brand's effectiveness, though I doubt they'd be able to stop him defensively. What I will say is that the Clips are a much more balanced team offensively, and consistent overall. To say they'd squash the Lakers is a bit of a stretch, though.

 

And why would they be able to take the Griz but not the Clippers? They're almost essentially the same team with a great PF in Gasol and a good scoring guard in Jones, and a decent inside man in Miller. They don't hit the boards as well as the Clippers, is that the deciding factor?

[Ripper 0]

Well, the Clippers have a inside defensive pressence while the Grizz have none. Gasol and Wright.

 

2nd, they don't have a playmaker on the team. For all of Damon Stoudimire's faults, the guy could play point when needed and he was very important in that role in the early season and its no coincidence that they have struggled since he went down. Chucky Atkins is a point guard in the sense that Tim Legler was a basketball player. He can hit the three but he can't make the offense go. Same for Bobby Jackson, except Jackson is more of a all around offensive threat.

 

And because of Gasol's style of play, you can't really double him so people don't. Thus the Lakers get to stay home defensively. They would have to send a double at Brand and Radmanovic, Maggette, Mobley, Cassell...they would make them pay from the outside. Plus Chris Kamen is actually very capable offensively and would present another low post threat to the Lakers. Defensively, with the exception of Sam Cassell and Radmanovic, EVERYONE on the Clippers team are damn good defenders. They have shot blockers inside to make Odem and Bryants shots tougher, and they have pesky defenders on the perimeter. The Grizz have Jones and Battier on the perimeter but that is the extent of their defensive strength. Maggette, Quintin Ross, even Livingston are all decent to supurb defenders( expecially Livingston on the ball).