This week in the NBA

[Darthtiki 0]

Kings take the 7th Seed

[Guest Vitamin X]

Fucking inconsistent, unbalanced, no good on defense Lakers.

[Just John 0]

Phoenix and Seattle need to play each other more. This is the second ridiculously high-scoring game they've had this year. Hopefully the Suns aren't too worn out, as I want a fun game between them and the good LA team tomorrow night.

 

And good job to the Kings turning their season around. That Artest pick up looks pretty damn good in retrospect.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

Denver's rated a LITTLE too high at 7.

Who are you to doubt the Nuggets and their 3-1 Atlantic road trip???

They're fastbreakers of the fastest magnitude!

 

 

Go Kings! Bring on the Pacers!

[SteakGrowsOnUecker 0]

I'll be at the Pacers/Kings game on Friday, it's going to be great.

[Dangerous A 0]

If Artest can get past this Indiana game without an incident and perhaps even lead the Kings to a road win, then I will be a little bit more at ease with his potential to blow his stack. So far he's been a good boy in Sactown.

 

I think part of it is the way Adelman has Artest playing sort of a Point Forward type of role. He's really into games and is genuinely enjoying calling out plays for offense and pointing guys where to be on defense. After yesterday's game, Bibby came out and said Ron gets them going and I think he enjoys his leadership role on the team. Rick Adelman also tweaked the offense to feature more iso and post ups with Artest and Bonzi Wells while getting Miller and Bibby out on the perimeter where they are most effective. Adelman should get a little cred in making that adjustment in the offense as opposed to making Artest conform to the motion offense that has been run in Sac for years now.

 

If the Kings make a decent run in the playoffs and Ron Ron likes how the play is, he may have single handedly saved Adelman's job.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

Of course, it helps when you don't have a backup point guard.

 

I mean, really: if *you* had to choose between playing Artest at "point forward" and giving minutes to Jason F. Hart...

[Dangerous A 0]

You can also trust that once Francisco Garcia is back up and running, Jason Hart's chances of PT are going to drop even further.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

Once Garcia is healthy, Hart becomes the ninth man in an eight-man rotation...

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

Anybody else watching the DEN/IND game? Harrison looks like he's ready to swing on somebody...

[jwpeer 0]

Tim Thomas is shredding the clippers defense...just dunked on f'in Kaman hardcore...and Kaman played pretty good defense on the play, Thomas just looks STRONG.

[jwpeer 0]

You know...I don't like ESPN's studio crew for nba at all, but I really love Tirico and Tolbert during a game.

 

They have a relaxed way of doing things, seem focused, unbiased and just allow me to enjoy a game with useful/effective commentary. They have chemistry imho too.

 

 

Just had to mention that.

[mike546 0]

KNICKS WIN! KNICKS WIN!

 

With Marbury, Rose, Richardson, Curry and Francis all the bench for the 4th, OT and Double OT. LET THE ROOKIES PLAY, ATLEAST THEY ACTUALLY CARE!

[alfdogg 0]

The Blazers have scored 131 points in two games since beating the Suns.

 

And what's with Zach Randolph becoming a 3-point bomber all of a sudden? He had one in his career coming into this season, and he's had 9 in his last 8 games.

[Ripper 0]

The Knicks Hawks game was one fun ass game. I feel that the hawks got jobbed on those foul calls, which was the real reason the Knicks won.

 

And not to take stephon Marbury's side or anything, but the young guys tonight for the Knicks, they didn't run any half court offense. it was all dribble and kick with Crawford and Robinson. The starters were calling plays from Brown all night. When the rooks got in, they ran Iso after iso after Iso. If you did that with Marbury or Francis, allowing them to use their ballhandling skills and ability to finish at the basket and find the open man, they would get the same thing from the starters.

 

One great thing about tonight for the Knicks too was that the starters didn't sulk about not playing for the rest of the game. They were the first ones off the bench to congradulate the guys coming back. Thats a good sign, unlike the Larry Brown/Stephon Marbury saga this morning.

 

Second thought...I am taking stephons side....fuck Larry Brown.

[alfdogg 0]

I'm not.

 

Larry Brown should have known what he was getting into when he left the Pistons for this job, I'll give you that, but all you have to do is watch the highlights of this game...ALL those guys late in the game were playing with enthusiasm and making big plays, without Marbury and Francis on the floor. Every team that has ditched Marbury has gotten better.

 

The Nets made the Finals two straight years.

 

The Suns made the conference finals, probably a second straight year.

 

The Wolves made the playoffs every year up until last year, including one conference final.

 

Stephen A. Smith, a Knick FAN, even acknowledged that none of Marbury's teammates like him, and from what I've heard in the past, nobody on the Nets liked him, either. Quentin Richardson had to be escorted from the practice facility to prevent him from hurting Marbury.

 

The man is the single biggest piece of shit in the NBA, and he deserves every negative comment and every bad situation that happens to him in his career.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

Marbury really is the epitome of the type of me-first iso streetball scorer only and nothing else player that i've grown to hate in the nba. I laughed at the "i tried to do an all around game but now i'm gonna be starbury again" nonsense. i dont even like LB that much but how many PGs have become better by playing for him? Billups for one, who was just a pure scorer before then. LB doesn't exactly help though by airing every little thing out in public, but its hard to feel sorry for "Starbury".

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

The man is the single biggest piece of shit in the NBA, and he deserves every negative comment and every bad situation that happens to him in his career.

 

I couldn't have said it better myself.

[Guest Vitamin X]

The man is the single biggest piece of shit in the NBA, and he deserves every negative comment and every bad situation that happens to him in his career.

I thought the title previously belonged to Chucky Atkins?

 

Marbury really is the epitome of the type of me-first iso streetball scorer only and nothing else player that i've grown to hate in the nba.

 

BALLAHZ

[mike546 0]

Remember when he was the supposed savior of the Knicks? That seems so long ago.

[Ripper 0]

Said it before and will say it again. Show me ONE Marbury team that SHOULD have been even slightly good when he was there and I will agree with you. The Timberwolves made the playoffs when he was there...then he left. He went to the Nets in a dumb "i am young" move and they, with no other way of saying it, sucked. The team was always injured, they reallly weren't a good team. After the kidd trade, Kenyon Martin was off his broke legged ass, Kerry Kittles knee didn't fall off, Lusious Harris remembered his jump shot, they drafted Richard Jefferson and change the style of play.

 

The Suns made the Playoffs with Marbury and went toe to toe with the Spurs with Marbury heading the way. A Marbury injury in game 5 is probably what sealed the deal on the suns taking the Spurs in that series honestly.

 

The next year, Amare missed most of the year, the team traded away everybody and they were still in the hunt for the 8th spot when they traded him to New York, where the Knicks promptly became better, only to get embarassed by the Nets in the first round.

 

Fact is, for Mr. "iso selfish player" he has averaged 8.3 assist for his career. In comparison, Steve Nash is averaging less than that for his career ONLY counting the years he was a starter. Not saying that he is a better distributor than Steve Nash, or a better player...at all, but a guy doesn't put up those kind of numbers isn't playing the me first and nothing else game that he gets attributed. I am saying he doesn't get the credit for what he does on the floor.

 

Larry Brown on the other hand gets too much credit due to people convienantly forgeting stuff. Larry Brown didn't make Chauncy Billups better. Flip Saunders made Chauncy Billups better. People forget that Chauncy was a journeyman until he got to Minnesota and Flip got him playing the point. His assist numbers doubled, his PPG jumped 5 points and he was a coveted free agent after that and signed with Detroit. Notice that now he is paired up with Flip again, he is a MVP candidate. Yet people will say Larry Brown turned him into a point guard.

 

Larry Brown made Eric Snow a good point? Yeeaaahhh. I am sure that playing and learning from Gary Payton for years had nothing to do with Erics tough defense playing style that Eric played. Larry gave him playing time. Eric Snow said that Gary Payton made him the player he is, so throw that out the window.

 

Hell, take a all-time great point guard like Mark Jackson and Larry Brown didn't like him because he didn't look to the sideline for a play every time down court.

 

Like Marbury, don't like him, but truth is, they are a team of undersized over atheletic guys and Larry Brown has them running half court sets. He complains that they don't play defense but sends in Jerome James instead of David Lee. They should be running. They should be using the fact that most times, every guy on the court can hit the perimeter jumper and just spread the floor and let the point guards work inside and hit the cutter or open man (Like they did last night).

 

Don't let clips fool you about enthusiasm and all that crap, the starters were regulated to slow it down basketball and Nate Robinson came out, never EVER looked over to Larry Brown and played "Starbury" basketball of making the defense commit and giving the open shooter the ball.

[naiwf 0]

Marbury is the NBA's version of T.O. in that the stats look nice but he's a fucking cancer. So just to break up the monotony about the absolute worst 20 & 8 player in NBA history, I just thought I'd say that Carmelo hit yet another game winner on the road no less, just a day after the Bron Bron's once again disappeared in the 2nd half.

[Brett Favre 0]

That game was fun, but I disagree Ripper. The times the Knicks ran iso plays during the 4th and overtimes, those were the times they didn't score (most of the time). When they did run plays in the half-court they scored, like the Crawford dunked, and the give and go to Nate, and the play that set up Jackie Butler's dunk. They also ran the break well. And David Lee had one of the better dunks i've seen, take the ball down in mid-air to avoid a block, and slamming that shit down.

 

I agree with you however on the Marbury stuff, but i'm too tired to argue. Marbury really doesn't play like a streetball player. Steve Nash plays more like a streetball player than Marbury. Don't believe everything you read.

 

Quick note, the Knicks got embarrassed by NJ (last two games were close though), because Tim Thomas got hurt in the first game, and Allan Houston was hurt during the whole series. You try winning with Penny as your second scorer.

 

Another note, Chauncey Billups is on the cover of the next Ballers game.

[Boon 0]

Celts hang tough w/ the Heat but lost by 3 after blowing a 25 point lead.

[alfdogg 0]

Said it before and will say it again. Show me ONE Marbury team that SHOULD have been even slightly good when he was there and I will agree with you.

"It's OK that he alienates all of his teammates, since they shouldn't be better than an 8 seed"? I'm not sure what you're trying to get across by continually harping on this.

 

A Marbury injury in game 5 is probably what sealed the deal on the suns taking the Spurs in that series honestly.

Take away the Derek Fisher-esque shot in game 1, and they possibly get swept. Though I was fearing a Laker four-peat when that shot went in, honestly.

 

The next year, Amare missed most of the year, the team traded away everybody and they were still in the hunt for the 8th spot when they traded him to New York, where the Knicks promptly became better, only to get embarassed by the Nets in the first round.

The Suns had the worst record in the conference and had already gone through a coaching change when they traded Marbury. They moved UP in the standings by the end of the season (albeit by only one game).

 

And notice how I said nothing positive whatsoever about Larry Brown in my post. I'm just as sick of his attention whoring as most of us are, he couldn't see Jalen Rose's potential in Indiana and won a championship with a team built by Rick Carlisle, with the exception of Rasheed Wallace. They can both take a long walk off a short pier as far as I'm concerned.

 

Also note that I've never once mentioned the term "street" in any of my negative analogies. I don't care that Nash or Marbury play street, hell, Bob Fucking Cousy would be considered a "streetballer" if he played today. Marbury's team is 18-45, and Nash's team is 45-19. I don't need to "believe what I read" in a column to tell me who the better leader is.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

the thing that strikes me is that this situation is Brown and Marbury acting exactly like you'd expect both of them to act like. No surprises. It just boggles the mind. If Isiah was any kind of leader he'd call em both in, lay down the law, and demand no more public feud statements of any kind at all. Frankly I think the Knicks need to lose all 3 of these yahoos.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

Shit.

[mike546 0]

We might get the NBA version if a 16 beating a 1 tonight as the Knicks lead the Pistons early in the 4th quarter.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

Is my TV fucked up, or are the Knicks wearing green unis?

[mike546 0]

It's for saint patricks day.